The Time-Traveling Fashionista by Bianca Turetsky Page B

ship she had ever known! He closed
     the wrought-iron gate and manually started the lift. “Going up.”
    At this time of day, the ship’s decks were crowded with passengers taking leisurely walks and enjoying the sunlight. Children
     in woolen knickers and newsboy caps were running races up and down the deck and spinning tops on the wooden floorboards. Uniformed
     men were walking French poodles on long leashes. Women were strolling in small groups laughing and gossiping. She could get
     used to a life of leisure!
    Looking around, Louise noticed that everyone seemed to be wearing hats. Men wore bowler hats or fancier silk top hats. Women
     wore much more elaborate hats with wide brims and long narrow plumes sticking out of them. Louise thought they looked really
     cool and decided she was going to try and bring back the fashion when she returned to school.
    They passed a group of children laughing and playing a ring toss game.
    “It must be past noon,” Anna said as she squinted up at the direct angle the sun was shining down on them. Glancingdown at her bare wrist, Louise realized she never wore a watch because she always relied on her cell phone for the time. She
     was pretty clueless without it. Since her parents were so concerned about radiation, that was about all her phone was good
     for: a clock. She wondered where her cell was now—still in the pocket of her jean jacket on the hardwood floor of the vintage
     sale?
    “Miss Baxter, I don’t see any other maids on the A Deck. People may think it’s a little odd for us to be walking together
     like this.”
    “Really?” Louise asked, surprised that anyone would care. It seemed weird, since it felt like she was just hanging out with
     her friend.
    “Miss Baxter! How lovely to see you out and about on this fine day,” an unfamiliar female voice called to her.
    Louise slowly raised her head. She had forgotten that people who she had never seen in her life would recognize her and think
     she knew them. A young woman, wearing a sea foam green dress that flowed gracefully over her very pregnant belly and accessorized
     with a blinding amount of diamonds and sapphires, was waving at them. She was beautiful, with hazel eyes and a perfectly dainty
     nose and cherub pout. She couldn’t have been more than eighteen years old.
    “Who is that woman?” Louise asked Anna under her breath.
    “Madeleine Astor,” Anna whispered.
    “Mrs. Astor,” Louise said in her most grown-up voice. “How do you do?”
    “Just fine, thank you. This sea air does wonders for the spirit, don’t you find?” Mrs. Astor replied, without showing any
     inclination that she was having a conversation with a twelve-year-old girl. Her green-and-purple-feathered hat made her look
     like a proud peacock.
    “Yes, it’s simply mahvelous,” Louise sang in a saccharine-sweet tone, trying to remember Anna’s lesson. She felt as though
     they were both actors in a play for which she didn’t know the lines. She had a feeling that if she didn’t end this conversation
     soon, she would be discovered as a phony. Her heart started racing.
    “I’m sorry we can’t chat, but Anna and I must run,” Louise said. “We have an appointment with a mechanical horse, I believe.”
    Anna giggled, and Louise bit her bottom lip so she wouldn’t laugh.
    “Oh, I see. Do you have a session with that darling English chap, Mr. McCawley?” Mrs. Astor asked, eyeing Louise’s, or rather
     Miss Baxter’s, slim figure. “Although I don’t see why you need to be exercising at all. You’ll simply disappear. I see you
     are bringing your help with you?”
    “I find exercising to be such a bore.” Louise forced a dramatic yawn. “But
my friend
Anna and I do love a good horseback ride, don’t you, Mrs. Astor?”



“I suppose,” she replied, giving them both a strange look.
    “Ta-ta for now,” Louise called over her shoulder as she and Anna hastily continued down the deck, hardly able to suppress
     their