The Untimely Journey of Veronica T. Boone, Part 2 - The Jeremy Bentham

Chapter 12 - Montgomery Ward

Chicago - 1952

At 7:52am the Jeremy Bentham pulled into Grand Central Station in Chicago. Noise from a thousand people filled the air.

"We've arrived during rush hour," Veronica remarked. Five other trains packed under the great terminal shed. A sixth, a circus train, was just leaving. Travelers jostled on every platform, a noisy, chattering crowd.

"Look at all these people!" Molly exclaimed. "And this station – it's huge."

"Not really," Mr. Stewart said, leading them down to the platform. "Grand Central is actually the smallest station in Chicago."

"It seems big to me," Molly insisted.

"You should get out more. Now Miss Veronica, what are your intentions? The Navigator says we will have to depart by six o'clock tonight. You must be on the train then or you will be stuck here in 1952, so I hope your touring today will be brief."

"We are not here for tourism, Mr. Stewart," Veronica corrected the conductor. "Professor Cooke worked late last night and found important information about this very day in history. Information that will help us fix one of the problems in Laurentide. So we have work to do."

"Really?" Molly asked. "Does that mean we're not going to see my grandparents?"

"Considering that your grandparents have not yet given birth to your mother, I think that would be a bad idea," Veronica told her. "They won't know who you are. No, we have a mission."

"What mission is that?"

Veronica walked to the end of the platform where a vendor sold flowers from a stall. She reached into a bouquet and pulled out a single rose.

"It's a mission of love," she said sweetly. When Mr. Stewart and Molly looked confused she explained, "We are going on a date."

The girls hurried outside to Harrison Street and jumped onto a bus heading downtown.

"Well, this is odd," Molly whispered. "The last time I was in Chicago they had bigger buses than this."

"It's 1952," Veronica reminded her. "Buses are smaller."

"You keep saying that," Molly said. "It's not 1952."

"It is 1952," Veronica insisted. "Look around."

Molly glanced at the other passengers. The men wore suits, the women wore dresses, and even the children were dressed neatly. Molly didn't see a single pair of blue jeans and nobody, not even the children, wore t-shirts.

"Well, at least I don't stand out," Molly agreed. "I was worried when you wanted me to wear this dress."

"Don't you like it?"

"It's okay. I'm just not used to wearing a dress except on Sundays. I mean, it's pretty but the collar is too wide and nobody wears polka dots anymore. And what's it made of? It feels weird."

"It's called acrylic," Veronica explained. "A horrible material. Very plastic. But it was popular after the war."

"What war?"

"World War Two, of course. The war against Germany and Japan. It ended just a few years ago in 1945 and one of the things that scientists invented during the war was a fabric called acrylic. It's cheap and it almost looks like real cloth, so now everyone wears it."