Hour of the Dragon - Heather Killough-Walden Page 0,12
appreciation come from several in the room. If she didn’t fully have the audience in her clutches by this part of the pitch, the ad wouldn’t sell. But from the breathless expressions on their faces and the general lack of blinking all around, she was banking she’d pulled it off.
“Someone is talking to the now young woman, but she is clearly a little distracted, trying to digest what has just happened to her. This is more than a memory. This is tangible; she has been transported back in time. Beside her, a man is gathering his belongings; he is dressed in the uniform of a porter, and he looks just as young as she is, perhaps one or two years older.
He gives her a kiss on her cheek, reminds her that he’ll call as soon as they make first port, and then touches her cheek lovingly. ‘Open this when I’m gone,’ he then says with a smile. As he pulls away, tossing his bag over his shoulder, we see the young woman has a gift in her hand, the same one she opened in the attic only seconds earlier.
We see recognition dawn in her features. And we know that when she finally fully realizes where and when she is, she is also realizing that this moment in time was pivotal. The man she once loved is about to board the ill-fated Titanic. This is the last time she will ever see him alive.”
The body language in the conference room reflected the emotion of Annaleia’s pitch, and she hadn’t even come to the climax. The clincher had worked, and the room was hers.
“There is no time to stop the ship,” she continued. “There is no time to warn the crew. And they wouldn’t believe her anyway. There is just time enough to do one thing.” It was very important that Annaleia emphasize the wording, “just time enough,” and she managed the feat with expert, practiced body language and the exact right tone, effectively italicizing them for her audience.
“One thing that may change the course of her fate forever. And just like that – she decides to do it. Our young woman breaks into a run, pushing through the milling crowd to follow after the young man. She catches up to him just short of the bottom of the ship’s boarding plank. She grabs his arm to stop him, and when he turns around, she kisses him.”
On the screen, the colored pen drawings kissed, and the air around them filled with animation fireworks. The music in the room crescendo'd, but not so loud as to drown out Annaleia.
“She kisses him deep and long, with all of the love that she has felt inside for three-quarters of a century. She kisses him with all of the love that she’s missed for the better part of a hundred years. And what can he do, in the grips of such a kiss, but kiss her back?
The music soars, the sunlight shimmers and streams between them, the crowd goes wild as behind the kissing couple, the ship begins to pull away from the dock – and the kiss goes on.
Finally, our young man and woman slowly part and the young man blinks in both confusion and dawning, true love. But then he realizes what is happening behind him, and he gives the young woman the final squeeze of a desperate goodbye, backpedals, and makes a break for it toward the departing ship. He was supposed to be on it; the viewer can see that. He’s obviously got a job waiting for him on that ship.
But this is not the first time he has tried to board that ship, not to her it isn’t, and this time he doesn’t make it. This time, the young man falls just short of making the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic. He’s frustrated enough at the unexpected loss that he takes off his porter’s hat and throws it to the ground.”
On the screen, the young man flung his small white cap onto the platform in front of him before bowing his head in defeat.
“Then, with his hands on his hips and his head lowered, the young man slowly smiles. He begins laughing at his fortune. Still smiling and shaking his head in ambivalence, he turns to look over his shoulder at the place where his girl is still standing.
The camera pans to his blue eyes, time slows, and everything changes again.”
The room collectively held its breath, eyes wide, bodies utterly