Secret of the Shades

“Dr. West,” Jane said reluctantly as she answered her phone.

“Wha-cha doin’, Dr. West?” Tamsin drew out her name in a fun but mocking way.

“Grading papers, Tam. What are you up to?”

“Don’t you have spring break coming up?”

“I do. Why?”

“Do you remember that map you found in that store a few months back?”

“I do. Why?”

“Don’t you have a bunch of vacation to burn?”

“I do…. WHY?”

“Do you remember how, in college, we always talked about backpacking through Europe with Sam and Gwendolyn?”

“Tamsin…”

“Well, I figured, since Sam and Gwen have quit their firms to go into practice together, and you have spring break coming up, and I am my own boss, that we could finally do it.”

Jane paused briefly. She needed a vacation; these students were going to be her end if she didn’t take one soon. Glancing down at the paper she was grading, covered in red ink like the majority of them, she muttered to herself, “Why the heck not?”

“Okay,” she answered Tamsin.

“Okay?” Tamsin had expected a little kickback.

“Okay. Have you spoken to Sam and Gwendolyn?”

“Not yet. I wanted you in first.”

“Well, get on it and let me know.”

“Sweeeeeeeeeeeeet. Okay, okay, I’ll call ya back.”

Jane placed the phone back on her desk, paused, shook her head, smiled, and went back to grading her papers.

Tamsin set her phone down and turned to her laptop. She was excited and immediately started looking for flights. “Sam and Gwen will insist on first class,” she muttered to herself as she typed.

Tamsin had just purchased the tickets when her phone rang.

“Hey, what cha doin’?” she answered.

“Gwendolyn and I just left our fencing class! I kicked that butt!” Sam laughed.

“Ha! You wish it was that easy,” Gwendolyn called from the background.

“Y’all are crazy, but that’s why we love you!” Tamsin was laughing at their banter. “Y’all free tomorrow night? Want to meet us for dinner?”

“Hey, Gwen, tomorrow night good for dinner with Tam and J?” Sam turned to double-check. “She said yeah, so we’ll be there!”

“Awesome, see y’all there!” Tamsin was suddenly more excited, if that was possible.

“Gwendolyn, Sam, over here!” Tamsin waved from a table across the veranda.

“Hey guys!” Sam waved back as she and Gwendolyn made their way through the tables. “It’s about time we met up for dinner.”

“Yeah, it’s been, what? Two weeks?” Sam joked as she sat.

Gwendolyn slid into a seat and grabbed the menu. “I’m starving. Let’s get an appetizer.”

Tamsin jokingly rolled her eyes. “Your little blonde butt is always starving. If only I could figure out how you stay so skinny!”

“It’s all in the genes.”

“But you’re wearing slacks,” Sam said with a stone-cold, straight face. She got a friendly smack on the arm from Gwendolyn.

The four friends ordered and caught up on current events.

“So, when are y’all planning on officially opening your firm?” Jane was too excited to small-talk before finding out if the trip would be a go.

“Right now, we’re looking at a month, maybe a month and a half,” Sam answered.

“Yeah, we have everything ready. We’re just enjoying off time before we never vacation again,” Gwendolyn laughed.

“Well, speaking of vacation…” Tamsin leaned in. “What if we finally did that backpacking through Europe thing we always talked about in college?”

Sam and Gwendolyn looked at each other and smiled. “It’s funny you ask that. We were just discussing it the other night.”

“Seriously?” Jane asked.

“Seriously!” Sam answered. “I don’t know why, I just started thinking about it a week or so ago, and Gwen said we should ask y’all. I was planning on asking at dinner tonight. Why?”

“That is some Freaky Friday stuff right there!” Tamsin laughed. “I called Jane yesterday and asked her if she could swing it, and we were going to ask y’all at dinner tonight.”

About that time, a figure in Tamsin’s peripheral vision caught her attention. By the time she turned to look straight on, it was gone.

“What’s wrong?” Jane leaned in and whispered.

“Nothing. I just thought I saw something, but I guess I didn’t,” Tamsin replied, but Jane could tell something had bothered her.

“That solves it, then! To Europe we go!” Sam exclaimed.

“This is finally happening! Wow! We sure have talked about it long enough. So, where were you thinking of starting?” Their dinner had just arrived, and Gwendolyn was subtly doing her “happy dinner dance.”

“You and your love for food!” Tamsin joked. “I was thinking Poland? Maybe?”

“Cool. Why Poland?” Sam was curious.

“Tamsin’s grandfather always told us these awesome stories when we were at his house, about waterfalls and a beautiful green valley tucked away in the mountains. He never said exactly where they were supposed to be, but I always imagined Poland or Germany or Russia for some reason.”

“Me too!” Tamsin beamed. “And your map, the one you found in the antique store…”

“Oh yeah, we did decide it was somewhere in Poland!” Now Jane was getting super excited. “The mountain ranges depicted on it seem to line up with two ranges close to Krakow.”

“This is so cool! I can hardly wait!” Gwendolyn was trying to wave down the waitress for dessert. “I guess we need to start looking for plane tickets.”

“Um,” Tamsin sheepishly grinned.

“You’ve already done that, haven’t you?” Jane asked.

“Maybe… maybe we have first-class tickets leaving next Wednesday!” Tamsin admitted.

A short silence fell over the table; then Sam broke the tension. “Heck yeah! I gotta get to packing!”

“First class?” Gwendolyn looked up from the dessert menu. “You rock, Tamsin!”

“I knew you two would require first class, and I figured, ‘why not?’ We’ll only go to Poland once. Probably.”

They all laughed and continued planning their trip.

Sam and Gwendolyn were waving as they left in Sam’s 1967 Mustang Fastback.

“That was fun,” Tamsin said as she and Jane began walking to their cars.

“It was. I always enjoy our dinners,” Jane responded. “I can’t wait for Wednesday to get here. This trip has been a long time coming.”

“Remember that dream I told you about a month or so ago?” Tamsin stopped at her F-150.

“The one with the lady’s voice that you know, but don’t know?” Jane asked.

“Yeah. Well, I’ve had it twice more. Night before last, I wasn’t standing in the dark anymore. I was at this huge, gorgeous waterfall.” She paused for a second. “I was standing there with an older man and the three of you. All I could hear was the waterfall, even though y’all were all talking to each other. Then the voice came again, from behind the waterfall. ‘Tamsin, it’s time.’ That’s all she said, then I woke up. When I rolled over, my laptop was lit up, even though I ALWAYS turn it off before bed. I got up to turn it off, and the browser was open to a page talking about those mountains you mentioned the other day.”

“That’s weird. Had you been reading about them?” Jane asked.

“No. I hadn’t used the browser at all that day. I’d only gotten on to check some security stuff through the app. It was weird.”

“Maybe it’s just your subconscious screaming at you to take this trip.”

“Maybe so. Anywho, I just needed to tell someone so I didn’t go crazy alone,” Tamsin laughed.

“Love, you aren’t going crazy. You have been crazy for many, many years!” Jane joked and dodged a smack on the arm.