A Year Spent Elsewhere

Although, I spent many moments in the here and now, in the year 2023, I cannot help but reflect on all the “other” places I went to this year: a secluded coastal hotel in Devon, a manor in Styles, a peculiar home for peculiar children, a 1930s toy booth in a bustling Paris train station, ancient Rome, on a hunt for Bonnie and Clyde, a circus that arrived in the middle of the night, the oil fields of Kansas, the forgotten island of Isla Sorna, or the fog-flooded and monster-infested city of San Francisco.

“It is romantic, yes. It is peaceful. The sun shines. The sea is blue. But you forget, Miss Brewster, there is evil everywhere under the sun.”

Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie

To start my year, the infamous detective Hercule Poirot, formed by the Queen of Mystery herself, Agatha Christie, was enjoying a peaceful holiday at a hotel in Devon, when evil rained down upon the quaint and tranquil coastal paradise. Set amongst the hues of blue, yellow, and summer greens, Poirot and I set out for justice and apprehended the culprit with unparalleled deduction and logic under the sun.

“When you find that people are not telling you the truth — look out!”

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

Once again, I followed behind Hercule Poirot on his very first case (I tend to read the Poirot Mysteries in whichever order I please); journeying to a manor in Styles St. Mary, to investigate the somewhat suspicious demise of a wealthy matriarch. Of course, Poirot and I got to the bottom of this somewhat obvious mystery quite quickly. It was no “Murder on the Orient Express” case, but a compelling case nonetheless, and I found Poirot to be quite in his element.

“I’d always known I was strange. I never dreamed I was peculiar.”

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

As if my murderous adventures with Hercule Poirot were not enough, I stumbled upon the carnage of death with Jacob Portman. Wanting answers and seeking desperately, we traveled to Cairnholm, Wales, tripping blindly through a deep, dark tunnel, and finding ourselves in a fantastical time-loop, where it was always September 3, 1940. Not a day after or a day before. There was a bit of a scuffle by the sea, among other various forms of law-breaking, but other than that we walked away relatively unscathed.

Unfolding the map, we sailed off to sea in search of something Jacob deemed important. I’ll have to reunite with him soon to see if he ever found it.

“Maybe that’s why a broken machine always makes me a little sad, because it isn’t able to do what it was meant to do…maybe it’s the same with people. If you lose your purpose … it’s like you’re broken.”

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

I quickly jumped ship, abandoning Jacob Portman and his peculiar entourage, and found myself exiting a train in a bustling 1930s train station, where I met Hugo Cabret, an orphan tinkering away at an abandoned automaton in a cob-webbed attic.

We were caught stealing toys from a toy booth and forced to return all the stolen goods, and our precious notebook, to the toy booth owner, George Méliès.

He was a bitter old man, but there was more to George Méliès than we knew at the time. But perhaps that is his story to tell to you.

Chasing a dream, I quickly caught the first outbound train, getting off at the same station, only two decades later: the 1950s.

“That’s what you are, you’re a dreamer.”

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022)

In 1950s Paris, I met a lovely widowed cleaning lady and we set off at once for the “House of Dior” to buy an authentic Dior evening gown. Our quest for the iconic Dior dress forced us to skimp, scruple, be heartbroken, and fragmented; all in the pursuit of lovely old Ada Harris’s dreams.

Though, I have to say, the saying, “Dreams really do come true,” has some merit of truth behind it.

“The outlaws made headlines. The lawmen made history.”

The Highwaymen (2019)

Alone an evening in Paris, crossed radio signals from another time declared that Bonnie and Clyde may have struck again.

America awaited the news that the infamous duo was captured or killed. Finally, word came that two Texas Rangers, Frank Hamer and Maney Gault, made headlines: Bonnie and Clyde had been killed in what the tabloids called a “death car.”

“Beware the autumn people.”

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

In the dead of night, a circus arrived without warning in Green Town, Illinois. It seemed Halloween had come early, and I quickly found that the circus was not all what it appeared to be. The calliope and dusted library and promise of eternal youth lured me and several other Green Town, Illinois natives into Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Show for something wicked had come, indeed.

I was one of the lucky few to have escaped.

“Of all the things I needed, hope was the biggest.”

All the Forgivenesses by Elizabeth Hardinger

Leaving Illinois, I found myself looking in the window of Albertina “Bertie” Winslow’s life in Kansas. Her life, though rather small in comparison to some of the others I had met over the months, warmed my heart with its ability to be relatable, raw, and authentic.

Confronting truths about herself and the others in her life, Bertie and I both learned the value and importance of forgiveness.

“There is a kind of love that strikes like a thunderbolt, it blinds you, yet opens your eyes to see the world anew.”

The Last Rose of Shanghai by Weina Dai Randel

In 1940, I met Aiyi Shao, a young heiress from Shanghai. Her Shanghai nightclub was state-of-the-art, but she needed something to put it on top, so she hired a piano player, well-versed in the up-and-coming genre of jazz, Ernest Reismann. It was no surprise that Aiyi quickly fell for Ernest. But war was brewing in Europe, and the bustling city of Shanghai was on the brink of collapse.

“There’s rumors something survived…”

The Lost World by Michael Crichton

After my ventures in Shanghai, rumors began to swirl that something had survived off the coast of Costa Rica.

The island, Isla Sorna, was brewing.

The park should have been closed, but suspicious minds suspected the worst, and suspected correctly.

Once again, I found myself outrunning velociraptors, observing the connections between T-Rexs and their young, and learning how some predators earned the word “apex.”

“This place …it’s one of those places where you feel like time doesn’t exist. Where it will always be summer…”

The Summer of Broken Rules by K.L. Walther

Heading for safer waters, I washed ashore on Martha’s Vineyard, an island in Dukes County, Massachusetts, hoisting my water gun to my shoulder and partaking in a family-wide game of “assassin.”

“People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time.”

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

After valiantly completing the game of assassin, I stumbled upon an attic wardrobe, finding myself in an ever-present, snowy wonderland, where it was always winter and never Christmas.

The White Witch had risen to the top of the food chain in the land of Narnia, but the arrival of Aslan and the prophesied coming of the Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve began to loosen the icy grip of the witch.

And Narnia began to return to its former glory.

Even now, I travel elsewhere; currently roaming the hills in a moving castle with a magician, a fire sprite, and a cursed eighteen-year-old.

Of course, there are many other places I went to this year, such as Stars Hollow, Connecticut; Lawrence, Kansas; Camp Half-Blood; Halloweentown; El Dorado; even journeying through the Matrix, and stopping by 1966 for “24 Hours at Le Mans;” and a million other places in between.

Long story short, it was quite the year, and I cannot wait for what 2024 has in store for me!