Three years later..... I know.... I am ashamed... if you missed Pt. 1 check it out here!
Jason was stunned when the waitress uttered those piercing words. He instantly felt light headed as the wave of confusion washed over him. It was physically impossible for her answer to be true! Jason had been driving for just over an hour when he came to the town. To get from South Carolina to Maine in under an hour, when he was driving south, is impossible! Isn't it?
He asked the waitress to repeat herself one more time. And she said, "For the third time, you are in Belfast, Maine, just off Hwy 1." She then followed up with, "Where are you supposed to be goin'?" Jason considered his answer for a much longer time than needed. He replied with "This morning I left Columbia, South Carolina, heading south, towards Hilton Head Island." The waitress then gave him the most perplexed look and said "You are more confused than a male ladybug" And she was right.
Jason then followed up with, "What time is it?" It was 12:30 pm.
Jason left the diner.
Upon exiting the diner, he saw a bustling town full of working men and women dressed in the prettiest dresses. He recognized the styles from movies about JFK and MLK. It felt like he had just stepped into a production of Hairspray. People began to notice him and he quickly became uncomfortable in his shorts, t-shirt, flip-flop combination. Jason decided he would walk around and figure out more about where he was. As he looked down main street he saw two very large silos, one labeled "MAPLEWOOD" and the other "PENOBSCOT". He noticed sea gulls flying above and that's when he noticed the familiar scent of sea air. As he rounded the corner of the block, he could see he was at the center of town. Looking to his right, he saw a quaint residential section just outside the edge of town, to his left he saw a small first baptist church, and further down main street he saw what seemed like an old sea port. He decided to walk towards the port, passing under a banner that read "BROILER FESTIVAL THIS WEEKEND!"
As Jason approached the water, he began to hear sounds of excitement and smell amazing aromatics of fried foods and farm animals all mixed into one. At the corner of Main St. and Front St., Jason saw nothing but festival from the right in a small waterfront park to the left in a pedestrian harbor walk area. There were kids running about with balloons and cotton candy, teens leaning up on the side of a building smoking cigarettes, and cheers from the announcement of this years "Broiler Queen" heard billowing from the park. Also on this corner was a newspaper box labeled REPUBLICAN JOURNAL. Inside, the first page of the paper was dated "Saturday, August 9, 1952".
1952!!!! Jason was again dizzy with confusion. He found a bench to sit down on and absorb what he had just read. He asked a man passing by if this newspaper showed the correct date. The man simply nodded and kept moving, quicker than before. Jason pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, and saw that it still was unable to find a tower. He thought to himself "Of course, cell towers haven't been invented yet!" Jason decided to enter the festival to see if someone there might be able to explain somethings to him.
As Jason entered the park, he saw the Broiler Queen being handed flowers and hugged and congratulated just off a small stage on the far end. As he surveyed the many tents in the garden, he saw one that seemed to be avoided by everyone in attendance. The banner above the tent read "FORTUNE TELLER" in large mystic looking letters. Jason thought, "Aww, what the hell!" and made a direct path to the tent. As he pulled back the curtain to walk in, this large old lady instantly looked up at him and said "Hello Jason".
Stay tuned for Pt. 3.....
