Golden Age America

Mapleview, North Carolina.
April 12th, 1955.
7:51 A.M.

When Raven emerged from the lime green door, she stood stock still where she was, the door easing shut behind her, and she remained rooted to the spot for a long, tense moment.

She found herself standing behind a diner, having just emerged from a white utility door at the back of the building. She swallowed nervously, then broke into a brisk stride, trekking across the pavement in the uncomfortable girly shoes she now wore, shiny black ones that looked more suited for church than for exploring the town on foot.

“Okay… what part of… town is this…?” Raven murmured to herself, marching into the front parking lot and glancing from side to side.

Then, she eased to a stop, spotting a few cars cruising up and down the main road of Mapleview—cars that she hadn’t seen in many years, and newer and shinier than she’d ever recalled seeing them during her childhood. A baby blue 1951 Chrysler New Yorker rolled down the street past the front of the diner, and a brand new 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air coasted down the road the other direction, large, glistening, and classic vehicles that looked almost fresh from whatever factories they’d come from.

Raven stared at the cars going up and down the main road at a steady pace, breathing out a laugh and swiping her bangs to the side, feeling a touch of astonishment at the true, genuine sight of the 1950s before her.

“Wow,” she breathed.

Then, she turned and gathered a clearer look of the diner that she’d just emerged from behind—and her mouth drifted agape, feeling another touch of shock. Now, she knew precisely where she was; this was the very same diner that had always been in the heart of Mapleview, with the same design that it had in 1973, 1988, and 2025, the only difference being the name of the diner and the fresh, dark pavement that the parking lot was currently comprised of. The round, stylish sign posted at the corner of the property had curvy cursive letters that read Evelyn’s Eats , and on the corner, just across the small road that ran alongside the diner—where Raven usually knew a McDonald’s to be—was nothing but trees and shrubbery.

She took a moment longer to observe everything around her, staring at the empty spot where the McDonalds belonged and feeling again deeply vexed. This truly was another time…

“Okay… okay, where do I… start…” Raven murmured, looking down and massaging her temples.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and tried to focus, hoping to know or sense where she was meant to go somehow.

Then—for reasons unknown—Moonvale Mental Hospital appeared in her mind.

Raven opened her eyes and lowered her hands, making an odd expression and glancing at the diner again. She couldn’t know why the mental hospital came to mind—if it was just a loose passing thought, or if it was actually where she was supposed to go now—but, with virtually no other leads to go on, she decided to simply follow this small one.

But first—she wanted to peek into the diner.

Raven broke into a stride and strolled over to the diner’s entrance, pulling the glass doors open and stepping inside—and, to her surprise once more, the interior and its layout, down to the booths along the window and the long, curved bar that served as a counter, looked quite a lot like she remembered of the future time periods as well, only cleaner and visibly newer.

A few people—men in suits—were seated up and down the bar and eating breakfasts made of eggs, bacon, and pancakes. The man nearest the end of the bar—a stockier guy in a dark navy suit and a matching hat—sat on his stool with a briefcase placed on the floor beside him, and the older woman behind the counter had just placed a fresh plate of food in front of him.

“Thank you, Mother,” the man said graciously, gently placing his hat on the counter, revealing his wavy, sandy hairs.

The older woman behind the counter, who wore a white and salmon outfit complete with a red apron, adjusted the tiny glasses on her face, offering him a smile.

“You’re welcome, Sam,” the woman—Evelyn—said warmly.

The man, Sam, gave his mother a smile before he started eating his breakfast.

Raven glimpsed between the two of them, sheepishly moving toward the counter and feeling strangely embarrassed to approach anyone. She knew she looked relatively fitting for this time, but she didn’t feel like herself at all, and something about it made her feel rather out of place in her own skin.

“Um…” Raven murmured shyly, barely raising her hand to gather Evelyn’s attention.

“Well… howdy-do, newcomer,” Evelyn said kindly. “How can I serve you today?”

“Ah… howdy… do,” Raven mumbled slowly, giving her a meek little wave. “I… I’m sorry, I don’t need to order anything, I just… wanted to ask a question.”

“Sure, dear. Go ahead.”

“Okay. Um… do you happen to know if there’s a place called Moonvale Mental Hospital here in town?”

Evelyn paused and looked down to think, gently tapping her fingers to the countertop.

Raven waited patiently for an answer. She knew very well where Moonvale resided, but she had no way of knowing if the mental hospital actually existed in this time, and this was the quickest way to try to find out.

“Mental hospital…?” Sam uttered, still chewing his food, and he quickly swallowed and wiped his face with his napkin. “Oh, beg my pardon… excuse me. Ah… well, there is a place by that name here, Miss, but it’s not a mental hospital.”

“Yeah?” Raven asked, turning to him.

“Yes… it’s the, uh… Moonvale Orphanage,” Sam informed her. “Down the small street just around the bend from here, and down Hamilton Avenue a short ways… you’ll come to an intersection, and Moonvale Orphanage is on the south side of town. You’ll turn right on that intersection coming from Hamilton, and the orphanage is there, through a few trees.”

Raven made a slow nod. “Hamilton Avenue… that’s Pinecrest… okay… I know where you’re talking about.”

“Pinecrest…?” Sam uttered, squinting oddly at her.

“Yeah, that’s what that road is called in…” Raven stopped and shook her head once. “Ahm… that… that’s just what my friends and I always called that road. Anyway… um… thank you. Thank you for your time. I thought it might be in that area, but I just wasn’t sure. I know exactly where to go now.”

“You have a blessed day, dear,” Evelyn said sweetly.

“You too,” Raven replied.

“Hold on,” Sam said, turning slightly atop his stool and giving her a curious look. “If you don’t mind my asking, Miss… why exactly are you going to the orphanage?”

Raven stared at him, somewhat taken back, as she hadn’t expected either of them to ask her any questions.

“Sam… that’s her own private business,” Evelyn told her son. “You know it’s not polite to pry.”

Sam faced forward again and sighed.

“Although… my son does have to drive down that very same road every morning on his way to work,” Evelyn added, looking to Raven and giving her a smile. “And he’ll be going that way just as soon as he finishes his breakfast. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind driving you there on his way to work.”

Raven hesitated for a moment, fidgeting with the strap of her backpack and only just realizing how she must have looked carrying it. It would be obvious to everyone that she was traveling on foot right now.

“Mother,” Sam said lowly and intently, staring fixedly at his mother and raising his brows at her. “It wouldn’t feel decent of me to actually take a person there.”

“Oh… Sam, don’t be such a kidder,” Evelyn said with a laugh, patting her son’s hand. “I know you don’t like the place, but there’s nothing wrong with doing a simple good deed for someone. She may be looking to adopt, for all you know. Be a dear and help the sweet girl. What’s the harm?”

Sam gave her a more serious look, sighing deeper.

Raven glanced at Sam for a second, sensing that the man surely did not want to give her a ride. So, she shook her head and dismissively swatted the air.

“That’s okay,” Raven said. “I’m fine walking there. It won’t take long. Thank you for your help.”

She quickly turned and marched out of the diner before Evelyn could argue with her.

Sam and his mother watched Raven leave, then quietly faced one another again, Evelyn releasing a heavy cloud of breath.

“The poor girl is wandering the town with a knapsack, Sam,” she said exasperatedly. “Why couldn’t you just help her?”

Sam took another bite of his eggs, staring down and making a mild little shrug.

“Your idea of helping in this situation is just a bit different than mine,” he mumbled. “That’s all.”

Evelyn gave him a troubled stare. “Do you really feel so strongly about the place that you’d deter people from going to adopt orphaned children who need a home?”

Sam sighed once more, glancing up at her and nodding. “Yes… I do. Believe me… it’s not about me disliking the place, Mother. It’s actually a matter of safety, believe it or not.”

Evelyn made a strange face. “How on earth could visiting an orphanage be a matter of safety?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Sam murmured down into his food, preparing to take another bite. “And it’s not the sort of thing that you should be burdened by, in any case. It’s… something you’d be better off not knowing a great deal about. Some things are just best left unsaid.”

He ate another mouthful of eggs and took a swig of his water.

Evelyn stared at him. “You did give her directions, dear.”

Sam set his glass down and met her eyes again.

“If you actually do believe that there is an issue of safety there… then I can understand why you didn’t want to take her there yourself,” Evelyn told him. “But you did tell her exactly how to get there… so, now… she’s going there on her own.”

Sam gave her a long, expressionless stare, his eyes then flickering down, and his knuckles gently beginning to thump against the countertop.

Raven spent the next fifteen minutes traveling the town of Mapleview on foot—something she’d done countless times before—though now, she felt as if she was exploring a place for the very first time, despite that she knew every turn and corner of the roads and sidewalks she walked upon.

She found herself mesmerized by every sight; the shops were small and comfortable, the cars were bright and shiny, and on Hamilton Avenue—in the place where Greenacres Apartment Complex would someday be—there was instead a vast expanse of pavement complete with a gigantic screen on the other side, a 1950s drive-in theater that she suddenly wanted to go to, though she knew she simply couldn’t as of now.

The longer she explored her hometown in the Golden Age, the more comfortable she became, almost forgetting that she didn’t look or feel like her usual self, not seeming to mind how her sundress wafted in the breeze, or how she could feel the light gusts of wind on her shins; everything felt bright and delightful, and she felt like an entirely new person now.

By the time she reached the intersection and walked across the street, however, her smile began to fade, and she approached the opening in the trees on the south side of town—the very place that Moonvale Mental Hospital resided in her home time.

As of now, the gravel path was not here; instead, it was a flat and narrow stretch of pavement, though it looked older and smaller than any of the other roads in town. The small road stretched into the trees, branches and canopies of leaves shading the area greatly, and Raven felt a touch of deja-vu as she stepped toward it, grasping her backpack strap and peeking through the opening in the trees, trying to see precisely what this small road led to.

Her eyes landed on the most familiar thing in view; the old standing archway above the driveway was there, just as it was in 1988, but now, it appeared not to have any vines growing over it, or any large chunks missing from its concrete or brickwork. The name on the top of the archway was different, reading in dark blue letters, MOONVALE ORPHANAGE.

Raven eyed it, reading it intently from the edge of the empty intersection. Then, her gaze ventured past the archway and the trees all around it—now examining the building beyond it, which looked far older in design than Moonvale Mental Hospital ever had. It almost looked Victorian, like an old 18th century insane asylum, much older than anything else she’d seen in 1950s Mapleview thus far.

The longer she stared at the creepy orphanage in the woods, the more her stomach began to churn, a strange, unsettling sensation gnawing at her every sense with a subtle, peculiar dread, though she couldn’t place why at all.

She looked down, trying to focus, to analyze every subtle feeling inside her, just as Zyon had instructed. What could this sensation of dread mean? What was inside of the Moonvale Orphanage that set her so badly on edge?

Raven was so lost in her thoughts—she didn’t notice the sleek teal-blue car cruising across the intersection behind her, a shiny ’53 Corvette with a black soft-top roof. The car rolled slowly onto the narrow road that led to the orphanage, but then it moved off to the side, driving in a wide, slow circle before turning fully around and parking next to the sidewalk, stopping directly beside her.

Raven blinked and looked to her left.

The beautiful 50s Corvette was next to her—and Sam sat in the driver seat, his hat on, and his eyes trained on her through the driver window.

Raven narrowed her eyes at him in confusion.

Sam then parked his car, rolled his window down, propped his arm atop the window, and leaned partially outside.

“Miss… I know this is a bit forward, and possibly even nosey of me, but… I do feel the need to ask you this again,” Sam said, raising his brows at her from beneath the brim of his hat. “Why are you going to the orphanage?”

Raven stared, her mouth easing open, drawing a blank as her mind began to race. She couldn’t think why this guy had followed her here—especially since he seemed so unwilling to give her a ride—and it was strange of him to continue asking her such personal questions. And beyond all that—she had no clue how to answer them, because she certainly couldn’t just tell this guy the full truth of the matter.

“I’m just… looking for someone,” Raven mumbled.

Sam narrowed his eyes at her. “Looking for someone? Looking for whom, if I might ask?”

Raven swallowed, thoughts racing once more. In reality, she was searching for two boys—two of the children who had been sent back in time from Canterbury Lab in 1988, a couple of kids who were expected to be adults by 1955, according to Zyon—but, again, she couldn’t simply tell this man all these things.

“I’m looking for… two… old friends,” she told him vaguely. “And, I think… one of them… or both of them… might be in the orphanage.”

Sam paused, hooking a finger over his mouth and making a thoughtful expression for a moment.

“It’s mostly infants and children in there,” he remarked. “Scarcely few adults in that place.”

“Well… whoever they are, I need to meet them,” Raven decided, locking her eyes onto the creepy orphanage and breaking into a brisk stride toward it.

Sam peeked out the window after her, then sighed and popped his door open, stepping out of the car.

“Now… hold on, hold on,” he called out.

Raven stopped and wheeled back around to face him.

“You might meet the owner if you go in there demanding to speak to everyone who works in the place,” Sam told her. “And he’s… not the sort of person you want to meet.”

Raven squinted at him. “Why…?”

Sam sighed and shook his head once, looking down and making a loose gesture by his side.

“He’s not exactly… cordial,” Sam said. “In fact, I’d go as far as to say he’s… predatory. He’s not a person that anyone should purposefully seek out an audience with… especially not you.”

Raven shot him a look. “Why especially not me?”

Sam blinked and scoffed out a faint little noise. “Because you’re a woman, of course.”

Raven’s jaw twitched.

“Thanks… but I can handle myself,” she chided, turning and walking away. “ Believe me…”

Sam watched her walk a little farther, opening his mouth and tossing up a hand. He huffed out a frustrated breath, hesitating for a second—then he broke into a quick stride after her.

“Look, just—at least—let me go inside with you,” Sam suggested, catching up to her and stepping into her path.

Raven skidded to a stop and let out an aggravated breath, glaring at him impatiently.

“Will you please move?” she asked.

Sam remained in front of her on the sidewalk, standing in her way and giving her an insistent look.

“Listen to me. You’re being exceedingly impertinent and there’s no reason for it,” he stated. “I just want to help you.”

“I don’t need that,” Raven said, trying to walk past him—but he side-stepped and blocked her path again.

“Oh, you very well might—because you’ve no idea what you’re walking into,” Sam told her firmly. “At the very least—just allow me to escort you inside and back out again.”

Raven smacked her lips and shot him a baffled look. “Why? Why do you wanna do that? You don’t even know me.”

“That doesn’t matter ,” Sam told her flatly. “It’s the proper thing to do.”

They both fell silent, sharing a long, tense stare.

Then, as Raven read his face and took in a deep, calming breath, she slowly began to understand. This man wasn’t being a suspicious weirdo or a controlling misogynist; he just genuinely believed that accompanying a lone woman into a risky place as a precaution was the correct thing for him to do.

She inhaled another deep breath, forcing her agitation away before she responded.

“I appreciate the offer… I really do,” Raven told him. “But… I don’t really wanna involve anyone else in the things that I’m involved with.”

Sam took slightly back, his brow hardening, staring at her quizzically for a long, thoughtful moment.

“Are you in trouble…?” he asked, his tone softening.

Raven looked down, glimpsing past him at the orphanage.

“Do you…” Sam uttered, squinting at her backpack. “Do you need somewhere to go? Is that it? Is that why you’re… looking for old friends?”

Raven gulped, sighing and halfheartedly nodding. “Well… yes… and no…”

“Oh, well, then say no more,” Sam said with a laugh, swatting dismissively at the orphanage behind him. “You don’t need anyone in that old place. I’ve got a guest room in my home that you’re more than welcome to use.”

Raven recoiled a bit, suddenly staring at him as if she had never seen anything quite like him before.

“You’d really just… invite a stranger into your house?” she muttered. “Just like that…?”

“Why not?” Sam smirked. “I do it with the neighborhood salesmen all the time… besides, what kind of person would I be if I just left you out here with nowhere to go?”

Raven fell silent again, totally befuddled by this man. Perhaps this was just a touch of his 1950s chivalry—but it was still simply bizarre to her. She couldn’t imagine anyone in 1988 or 2025 inviting a perfect stranger into their homes on a whim, regardless of if they were a man or a woman.

She gave him a long, skeptical stare.

“I hope you’re not a pervert,” she muttered.

Sam breathed out a laugh and shook his head. “Oh… I assure you, I’m not. My mother would have my head if I ever treated women in any sort of a predatory manner… and that’s just not decent behavior at all, if you ask me. It’s reprehensible. That’s honestly why I…”

He paused, his smile fading, glancing briefly back at the orphanage from over his shoulder.

When he faced her again, his expression had taken on a look of heavy chagrin, making a single shake of the head.

“I don’t think you should go in there,” Sam sighed.

Raven stared at him once more, reading every inch of him and feeling no wariness or apprehension towards him at all. His expression and concern seemed genuine, and he didn’t come off as pushy as much as he came off concerned. He certainly didn’t have the vibe of a predator—and she’d met plenty of predators before, both in the bars of 1980s Mapleview and on the streets of New York City. Plus, even if she turned out to be wrong about him, she was still fully confident that she could handle herself in a physical altercation in ways that no ordinary person could ever hope to combat.

And even beyond all of that—this man seemed to know more about the orphanage than Raven herself could hope to know as of now, and that orphanage was her best lead on finding the children of time here. So, perhaps staying with Sam and making a friend out of him was the best way to gather more information about the place. It would be smarter to get as much info as possible beforehand rather than just blindly walking inside—especially since this man seemed so convinced that the person running the orphanage was somehow dangerous.

After a moment of thought, she nodded at him.

“Okay,” Raven agreed. “Okay… I’ll just… go with you. Are you sure you’re okay with just… taking me in?”

“Of course, of course,” Sam affirmed, gently placing a hand on her back and leading her over to his car. “We can work out all the semantics later. For now… you just need a place to go, so… let’s just take care of that.”

Raven eyed him from the side as he walked her over to the Corvette, feeling his hand on her back, ginger and soft, not forcing, simply guiding.

When they reached the car, Sam then stepped briskly around it and opened the passenger door, then simply stood there and waited for her to enter.

Raven stopped for a second, giving him an odd look before climbing into the car. He closed the door for her, then walked to the other side of the vehicle.

She peeled off her backpack, placed it on the floorboard, and leaned back into the large tan seat, feeling rather strange, but not in a particularly negative way. This man was treating her like something precious to be taken care of, and she’d never been regarded in such a way before now.

Sam opened his driver door, pausing and glancing back down the narrow road. He gave the orphanage a grave, stoic look before sinking into his car and pulling the door shut.

Raven glimpsed over at him while he started his car.

“There… we… go,” Sam muttered, the car revving to life, and he adjusted the radio before preparing to drive off.

Raven instinctively reached up to the corner behind the seat in search of a seatbelt, but she found nothing there. So, she merely folded her arms atop her lap and sighed as the car began to cruise steadily down the road.

“Don’t you have to… go to work?” Raven remembered, turning and squinting questioningly at him.

“Oh… I can be a little late,” Sam replied. “I hardly have a poor track record. In fact, I may not have ever gone in late before today, now that I think about it.”

Raven nodded, then gave him another curious look. “Where do you work?”

“Over at the high school,” Sam answered. “But I do like to dabble in the performing arts. That’s a passion of mine… on the side, of course.”

Raven nodded again, glancing down and looking away.

“That explains the vaguely transatlantic accent,” she mumbled under her breath.

“And what about you, Miss… ah… I’m sorry, I haven’t even asked your name,” Sam laughed.

“It’s Raven,” she told him.

“Ah… well, that’s a lovely name,” Sam replied with a smile. “So, how did you come to be out here all by yourself with nowhere to go? A woman out on the streets with no home to go to is a pretty uncommon sight.”

“Sh’yeah… for now,” Raven murmured.

“Hm?”

“Oh, nothing… I just, um…”

She paused for a moment to think, wondering what kind of cover story would even make reasonable sense, and she certainly couldn’t explain her real reason for being here with nowhere to live.

But then, she thought of Canterbury Lab, and a response suddenly came to her.

“Well,” Raven started. “I actually lived in a different kind of place than a regular home. It was a medical trials facility that was pretty… scary, and abusive, and oppressive. They tried to force me to stay there… so… I ran away.”

Sam blinked and shot her a look while driving, adjusting his hat and making a face.

“Well… that’s certainly not ideal,” he muttered. “I mean the, um… the scary and abusive aspects, not the, uh… the running away. Sounds like you running away definitely was ideal.”

Raven glimpsed at him and breathed out a laugh.

“I’m honestly surprised that the word ‘abuse’ is even in your vocabulary,” she remarked.

Sam gave her another vexed look. “Why?”

“Well, just…” Raven shrugged. “I kind of thought that all guys in this day and age were just… woman-beaters.”

“You… I’m sorry… what? ” Sam breathed with surprise. “You think that all modern men behave in that way? Well, I can assure you… that is absolutely not gentlemanly behavior, and real men are raised to never lay a hand on a woman. I don’t know who you’ve been associating with, but it sounds like you’ve only ever known beatniks , if you ask me…”

Raven suddenly giggled, turning toward her window and covering her mouth.

“Ohmigod,” she mumbled faintly into her hand. “Ohmigod, he’s adorable…”

“I… ah… I apologize… for that little outburst,” Sam sighed, making a slow turn at the next traffic light. “I don’t know why that riled me so much.”

Raven glanced at him, grinning and feeling simply tickled by the way this man was.

“You have so many… manners ,” she said, eyeing him with intrigue. “That’s so new to me. I definitely don’t have any.”

“Really?” Sam asked, perking his brow at her. “You don’t seem all that unmannerly to me. You do seem a bit hotheaded , but… well, that’s just my first impression of you. You also seem fairly delightful underneath that sharpness you have.”

“The sharp part of me is there to protect the delightful part,” Raven told him.

Sam glanced at her, then sighed and nodded sideways. “Well, I guess that can’t be helped… especially if you’ve never had any men in your life who actually act as protectors. I suppose you’ve had to protect yourself all on your own.”

“Oh… no… not entirely,” Raven muttered, leaning back in the seat again and gazing thoughtfully out the windshield. “I had other people protecting me a lot when I was younger… I just couldn’t deal with that anymore.”

Sam gave her another questioning look.

Raven spotted his curious glimpse, then explained.

“My older brother used to protect me all the time,” she informed. “But… because of that… he always got hurt. I just wanted to get to the point where I could protect us instead of him having to do it all the time.”

Sam made a slow, thoughtful nod, wearing a perplexed sort of expression as he drove.

“A woman wanting to be a protector,” he mumbled interestingly. “That’s rather unusual.”

Raven leaned back father in her seat, releasing a sigh.

“Not for me,” she replied.

The drive fell silent for a long, somber moment as Sam began to cruise through a neighborhood.

“Well… anyway,” Raven spoke up, straightening up in her seat and gently patting him on the arm. “Let’s talk about you now.”

Sam glimpsed at her and laughed. “Oh, I don’t know… you sound far more interesting than me.”

“Nooo… come on now,” Raven snickered. “Everybody’s interesting somehow. Like… just tell me something about yourself. Anything.”

Sam bit his bottom lip, tapping along the steering wheel.

“Well… my name is Sam Walker,” he began. “I was adopted by two fantastic parents… one of whom passed away in the war… the other of whom is always feeding me breakfast and several nickels’ worth of free advice every weekday morning. I fought in the second world war when I was barely old enough to enlist… I teach a shop class at Mapleview High School… and… I like to take up the occasional acting gig at the Rose Garden Theatre. And… that’s about it.”

Raven raised her eyebrows and nodded. “There, now… see? That’s all interesting.”

Sam let out a laugh.

“I really did have fantastic parents,” he pondered aloud as he drove around a curve in the road, approaching a large blue house on the corner. “I truly did have a stroke of good fortune in being adopted by them… even though my mother can be a bit pushy. She consistently pushed for me to marry my high school sweetheart. But I was off to war, and when I got back, I…”

He paused and sighed deeply.

“Well… it just didn’t seem right to marry,” Sam muttered. “It didn’t before the war… and it didn’t after.”

Raven stared at him curiously. “Can I ask… why?”

Sam hesitated for a second, rolling onto the driveway of the large blue house and parking the car. He tapped the steering wheel for a moment longer, then continued.

“Well… typically… when a person gets married… they want to marry someone who is… fairly… normal,” he tried to explain, turning to her and gesturing while he spoke. “But I’m just a bit too… ab normal. Abnormal isn’t something that’s very… sought-after. And I’m not abnormal because of the war… or my father passing… or anything else that people might guess. I’m just… a bit…”

He trailed off for a long, quiet moment, gazing into the distance at nothing in particular. Then, he blinked and shook his head once, seeming to snap out of his thoughts and laughing breathlessly as he did.

“Goodness… why am I telling you all this?” Sam chuckled. “I’ve only just met you, and here I am, prattling on with my whole life story like you’re someone I’ve known for years.”

Raven gazed into his eyes, only just noticing that they were cerulean, the same crystal blue as Crowe’s—and the longer she stared, the more she felt a deep, contented sense of security, as she, too, felt oddly disarmed and secure in Sam’s company, though she wasn’t quite sure why. He certainly didn’t remind her much of Crowe, or of anyone else that she knew—and she wasn’t related to anyone with Walker as a surname. He couldn’t have been a long lost relative or an old friend, and he had hardly anything in common with her existing friends in the future.

Still—as the two of them fell momentarily silent, and merely stared into one another—they both felt the very same thing, a subtle, calming, and peaceful connection, one that neither of them could have possibly explained if they tried.

Zyon flashed through her mind for a split second, and then, Raven finally tore her gaze from Sam, looking down with a confused expression strewn across her face.

Sam stared at her for a moment longer, then cleared his throat and broke the silence.

“Well… ehem… anyway,” he said, turning in his seat and motioning to the front door of the house. “This is my home, and you can feel free to make yourself comfortable however you like. Listen to the radio, watch some television, make yourself some lunch… anything you want. I’ll be home around five o’clock, unless I have dinner at the diner again. Hmm… well, actually, I probably shouldn’t just go off to the diner and leave you here with nothing to eat for dinner…”

“Well, I could just… make some dinner,” Raven suggested.

Sam paused, leaning back and resting his head to the car’s seat, gazing upward in thought.

“Ohhh… that’d be nice,” he mumbled. “Just to come straight home and have something to eat, right there, waiting for me… see, that’s something that’s always made me a bit jealous of all my theatre friends. They’re all married, and they all have a piping hot dinner waiting for them whenever they come home from work. Bunch of lucky sons of…”

He stopped, swallowing and clearing his throat again.

“Never mind,” he murmured.

Raven smiled and giggled at him, lifting her backpack to her lap. “I’ll make something for you. I definitely owe you that much. What do you like to eat? Like… what’s your favorite?”

Sam rolled his head to the side and squinted at her. “What, my favorite food?”

“Yeah.”

Sam opened his mouth, then sighed and made a thoughtful face at the ceiling of his car again.

“I like a nice meatloaf,” he said. “Or some cheesy scalloped potatoes… with some ham tossed in…”

“Ooo… that sounds good,” Raven grinned.

“I don’t think I have potatoes, though,” Sam realized. “Or beef… or ham. Gee, I don’t know what I do have…”

“Well, hey… I can just go out and get stuff,” Raven assured, planting a hand onto her backpack and feeling the lumps inside from where Amory had shoved several hundred dollar bills into her bag. “I got it covered. Trust me.”

“Oh, well…” Sam sat straighter upright in his seat, digging to reach his pocket. “In that case, let me give you some money for the groceries, and the taxi fare…”

“No… that’s okay. I have money,” Raven assured, reaching for the door handle.

Sam paused and stared at her. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” Raven nodded.

Sam was silent for a second, his eyes narrowing at her. “You’re so independent…”

“Not really… I just ran away prepared,” Raven sniggered.

Sam let out a laugh. Then, he turned again, motioning outside to his house. “Well… go ahead, and make yourself at home. I’ve really got to be going now…”

Raven glimpsed over at the house, then back. “Don’t you have to unlock it?”

Sam squinted at her. “Unlock what?”

“The front door.”

“Oh… no. It isn’t locked. You can just go right in.”

Raven’s mouth fell agape, and she almost retorted with surprise, but she managed to swallow the urge. She never imagined that there was a time when people didn’t even lock their front doors when they left home, but she quietly dismissed the issue and popped the passenger door open.

“Okay… I’ll seeya later,” she dismissed, stepping outside and sliding her backpack on. “And I think I’ll go with the cheesy potatoes, because that sounds delicious.”

“I’ll be looking forward to it,” Sam replied with a smile, giving her a wave. “Take care.”

“You too,” Raven said. “Have a good day.”

Sam nodded, then shifted gears and slowly began to back down his driveway, turning and driving down the neighborhood street.

Raven watched the car cruise away, then turned and followed the thin concrete path up to the front door, stopping on the porch and slowly turning back around.

“Did I jus…” she uttered, sputtering out a laugh. “Did I just turn into a 50s housewife…?”

Snickering at the ridiculousness of the mere idea—she decided she didn’t care how ridiculous it was, and she opened the large white door, stepping into the house and finding herself almost looking forward to her day of normal, mundane tasks here in America’s Golden Age.

She knew she would have to investigate the Moonvale Orphanage sooner or later—but for now, this would do.