Floe de Lir

Chapter 5

He did, and that was why Dylan thought believing in the power of an old coin was a waste of his time.

But he had, so he would at least need to look around.

"TV," said Dylan. "Look for a TV. If we don't see a TV, we'll know we're at least back in the twentieth century."

"We were raised in the twentieth century," said Kelly.

"And Farnsworth's demonstration wasn't until 1927," said Dylan. "TV wasn't introduced in France until 1931."

"How do you know all of this?"

"I read."

The absence of television from the shops confirmed they weren't in the twenty-first century, but it didn't answer what decade they had come to.

"Judging by the Barbie waists, I'd say most of those women over there are wearing corsets," said Kelly. "That should put us about what, the eighteen hundreds? And that one, there, she has a copy of Vogue, which didn't come out until 1892. So that's my guess: 1892. She could be an American tourist showing off her hip new magazine subscription to her French friends."

"Can't be," said Dylan. "I hear a radio. Marconi didn't transmit radio until 1895."

"Alright, then 1897."

Dylan stopped so abruptly, Kelly nearly ran into him.

"It's 1912," said Dylan.

"1912?" asked Kelly. "Are you sure?"

Dylan pointed to a poster.

"I can't read French," said Kelly. "Remember? I couldn't understand anything anyone said in that awful castle. And you were no help at all, the way you kept talking so fast I would've never caught up even if I could."

That awful castle had been the site Dylan had most wanted to see in France, aside from Balzac's house.

He had planned to visit the homes of various poets, as well, like Art Rimbaud and Charles Baudelaire, but had lost interest when his rejection had been emailed in from Berkeley.

"You don't need to know French to read it," said Dylan. "Just find something you recognize."

"Océan," said Kelly. "Océan Atlantique. I recognize that."

"The Atlantic Ocean," said Dylan. "Voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, in steerage 'the likes of which none have ever known,'" Dylan quoted from the poster.

"Like in that movie with that gorgeous Leo DiCaprio?" asked Kelly.

"Like the White Star Line offices we were just near," said Dylan. "Seriously, Kel, did you pay any attention while we were in Cobh?"

"Excuse me if I was a little distracted with looking for Brandon," said Kelly. "I majored in psych, not history."

"And when you think of Ms. Robinson's eighth grade history class, you think of..."

"How incredibly cute Joshua Keller was. Do you know how many times I dropped my eraser in that class so he could hand it back to me? I was convinced I would be Kelly Keller. How could I pay attention to anything Ms. Robinson said when Joshua smelled so good?"

Dylan resisted the urge to express his irritation.

"It's the Titanic, Kelly."

"So I was right," said Kelly. "It is like that movie with Leo and Kate."

"Or the one with Kenneth More and Ronald Allen," said Dylan. "Or how about the one with Barbara Stanwyck and Clifton Webb?"

Brenda had loved both of those. Dylan had borrowed every Titanic-related film he could and planned several movie nights during Brenda's phase of being fascinated with all things Titanic after their group had watched James Cameron's blockbuster movie release.