Part XVIII
“It’s not as different as you’d imagine,” Mary Jean replied. “That’s partly why we came in 1947. It was a peace mission, no matter what all the hype says. Our societies are similar enough that we wanted to reach out. But disloyalty made a mess of things. And now Wesley and Natasha got the wrong idea and probably want to expose us to some paranoid government panel.” She sighed. “All we want is to create our little place and enjoy it. I wonder why it’s so hard for people to understand.”
“I don’t know,” Emily replied. “It makes sense to me.”
The other woman smiled. “I know it does. I’m so grateful for people like you. Thinking beyond the impossible. You’ll be seeing Julian shortly, as soon as Harry wraps up this nasty business with Wesley and Natasha. They’re definitely leaving with no memory of the situation. Then we’ll be free to continue building things and you won’t have to worry about them anymore. We only hid Julian in order to protect him because of what he saw.”
“Harry is taking care of it today?” Emily asked. “I’m sorry, I know it’s your business, but I’m so anxious to see Julian.”
“Of course you are,” Mary Jean smiled with sympathy. “It’s fine. It sounds like he’ll take care of it today, yes. Then I can get to work finishing things and that day should come for you very, very soon. In the meantime, relax. Harry and I haven’t gotten to do as much entertaining here as we had hoped since moving in, but we do have quite a music collection and a big screen TV with a lot of DVDs, not to mention a library of which I’m very proud. So please enjoy yourself. I’ll be in and out, going down to the club in a while to see how things are going with Harry. Just as it’s important for Leigh to keep up her work at the newspaper, I’d better put in an appearance downtown.”
“This sounds harsh,” Emily began, “but with Natasha leaving, are you going to sing with Harry’s band again? I’d love to hear you perform.”
Mary Jean stopped as if considering it. “I hadn’t thought of it with everything going on. But there will be a vacancy. Oh, it was fun. Perhaps I will give it another spin! Thanks, Emily. I’ll be in my home office down the hall if you need me.”
Emily smiled, happy that she’d inspired Mary Jean to think about her singing career. She stood up and wandered into the library. It was as impressive as Mary Jean had made it sound. Emily found a book about space travel, not really more than a vintage novel, and settled into one of the overstuffed chairs. Before beginning to read, she glanced around the room and smiled. It was decorated in a way that could easily make one feel as if they were in the 1950s.
Etcetera 
Enjoying these posts very much.
Thank you! They are fun for me to write.