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Caravanserai of the Autumnal Equinox
Caravanserai of the Autumnal Equinox

Caravanserai of the Autumnal Equinox

JPYoungJPYoung

It was the strangest ritual of the year at the strangest time of the year…

The Caravan of Memories appeared yearly around the autumn equinox. It was a strange neitherland, for the equinox was neither summer, that Ray regarded as ending on Labor Day when school began, and neither was it the falling coloured leaves of the forthcoming October. All except the returning schoolchildren agreed it was a pleasant time; the summer heat was gone, and the green leaves turning yellow didn’t have to be raked up.

September was a season of its own…

Operated by a group of older men and women determined to have everyone enjoy themselves, their event was held beginning at twilight for two evenings inside Douglas House, the gabled Victorian Gothic Mansion on the grounds of the pleasant greenery and ravine of Upton Park. No one knew when the Caravanserai began, where it had previously been, nor where it was going…it just was…then it wasn’t…

Joey called it the Festival of Yesterday.

It featured musical entertainment of tunes from long ago and a café of wonderful treats that brought back memories of how good things used to taste. The gang loved their cinnamon mulled hot apple cider and home-made caramel apples that they agreed were the very taste of autumn.

They also had a marketplace of second, third and beyond-hand goods. If the past was another country, the Caravanserai was foreign territory. Stash wondered whether one could defect there to live in the past…

Over the years Ray and some of the predecessors in his gang helped them set up their show; now only Ray was helping. He worked without payment because he genuinely enjoyed their company, particularly an older woman named Janice. Janice and Ray clicked together; they always looked forward to catching up. He accepted a free ticket under protest.

On the final evening, Janice, dressed as a gypsy, beckoned him into her fortune telling tent emblazoned,

MISTERIOSA THE ADEQUATE.

‘Ray, won’t you come in, please?’

After he entered, she placed a sign outside the entrance reading,

BACK IN A JIFFY!

She closed the tent flap door. Inside two chairs faced each other across a round table. The only light was a glowing and throbbing crystal ball.

‘I see you’re on the ball…I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but I believe a man makes his own destiny.’

‘He mostly does, but there are circumstances beyond a man’s control. As you say, it’s how the captain sails his ship in the unforeseen winds. Wise and prudent decision making and the lack of it are unknown factors. Please sit down, and share a drink with me?’

Ray sat in the chair as only he could, with his top-of-the-world self-confidence and rakish smile; his intense sparkling eyes showed she was the only thing on his mind…

From beneath her table, where it looked as if there wasn’t a place or space for anything, she produced a decanter of red wine, poured two goblets, and toasted.

‘You’ve had a busy night; I’ve seen quite a few happy people leave your tent.’

‘I did…though not everyone was happy.’

Ray laughed, as he’d seen Angie leaving the tent muttering,

‘Gyp gyp gyp!’

Janice laughed as well, as she sensed who Ray was thinking about,

‘We don’t provide financial advice, nor finances…only the joy of memories…’

‘To Angie, money has sentimental value.’

‘Stash was happy; he found a book he’d been looking for for some time…Joey was happy too. He found a toy he loved in his childhood…

‘A Syco-Seer Fortune Teller!’, Ray’s face lit up like Joey’s…’He always talked about it, and you made his dreams come true…Katrina and Peter looked very happy when they came out…’

‘They were, Ray…they were…but they found their happiness within each other…’

‘I hope I’m not keeping you from your customers.’

‘No, Ray…’, she toasted with her goblet as did Ray; both had another drink, ‘I have to talk with you…First of all, everyone here likes you; when they see you smiling as you’re setting things up, what seems like an impossible task becomes fun. You’re a can-do guy!’

She paused briefly, but ominously,

‘Secondly, I have to say how wonderful it’s been to have known you all these years…’

Ray’s smile vanished,

‘I don’t like the sound of your voice, Janice…’

‘This is my last year, I’m returning home to Australia…It’s time to go home, there’s so many old friends and family I have to see again…I shan’t be returning…’

Ray’s crushed expression said it all.

Their brief times together vividly came back to him as if he was watching them on the Caravanserai’s Magic Lantern shows. They were nothing, yet they were everything…He realised his treasured times with her were merely stolen moments, yet…Janice was more than fun…she was his wondrous annual Scheherazade who gave him 1001 tales, laughs and smiles in her cheery accent.

‘Ray, I don’t just want to say goodbye, I want to ask you one thing, and I wish you to tell me true. What can I do for you, if I could do anything in the world…or out of it…what could I do to make you happy?’

‘Stay!’

‘I can’t…Ray, you’ve never wanted anything. You relish your friend’s memories as much as your own.’

‘Maybe I have everything, everything I need…’

‘I’ve never heard anyone say that before!’

You’ve made me happy, Janice, I always looked forward to seeing you every year. I guess I wanted to spend more time with you, like we are now; just the two of us.’

‘We always were in a tizzy setting up the show, then the show itself, then packing up…but Ray, again…what do you want most of all, if you could have anything…’

‘That’s a big question…’

‘A romance?’

Both drank, she refilled his goblet…was it his imagination or did her decanter fill up again like the magic bottle in The Bishop’s Wife?

‘Once upon a time…I knew a woman who I didn’t think I could live without…then I found out I couldn’t live with her…I believe every woman would be the same…’

‘You never know, Ray, you never know…you just may get lucky…Stash and Joey did…good on ‘em!’

‘Women turn into werewolves after the light of the full honeymoon! It’s like getting drunk; you have a stupid night then you wake up with a hangover that just won’t go away…with marriage it never ends until you end it.’

‘Would you like to meet one of your old friends?’

‘I met my best friend from school…he changed for the worst and things didn’t work out…Now and then I run into someone I used to pal around with before Stash and Joey, but they’ve changed once they married and had kids. They aren’t fun anymore; all they do is complain about their aches and pains and their family problems, so again, I know I’m right about marriage.’

‘You’ve never been attracted to riches; one of the things everyone loves about you…you’re happier than the rich people I know.’

‘I’ve got good health and great friends; I don’t work too hard’, he smiled with a memory, ‘Someone said the rich have money, but the wealthy have time to enjoy it.’

‘But…let’s be hypothetical…what would be the one thing that you’d love to have?’

Ray didn’t believe it was his own voice that answered,

‘A trip around the world…with a special someone, as it wouldn’t be any fun on my own…It’s not only where you go…it’s who you’re with…’

The crystal ball glowed and throbbed brighter in different colours, Ray’s head felt light, was there something in the wine?

She reached from under her table and produced a comic book that she handed to him.

The Phantom…’

The cover featured the purple-clad masked Phantom firing a pistol from a convertible driven by a beautiful woman…danger, excitement and romance together in one image…Ray heard the tyres squeal, the engine roar and gunshots in his mind…At the top a black band read,

Inside: FREE ROUND-THE-WORLD CONTEST.

She opened it to the middle where two pages featured a giant aeroplane, a map of the world with a route marked, two smiling children and bold letters announcing,

AROUND-THE-WORLD TOUR FOR TWO FREE! By Qantas Super Constellation.

On the other page was a picture reading,

PUZZLE: HOW MANY PYGMIES IN THIS PICTURE?

‘I’ve never seen a comic book like this…’

‘It’s Australian…like I am…’

‘That contest must be long over, Janice.’

‘Not for us, Cobber!…Let’s go ‘round the world…together…’

Suddenly Ray was on an airstrip walking to a gigantic four engine triple tailed thunderous QANTAS Super-Constellation. He was holding hands with a smiling woman in a white trenchcoat; it was Janice…the same age as Ray.

‘Our first stop…San Francisco…’

They rode a cable car; there was the Bay, Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge…they walked through Chinatown, they boarded their aircraft in the starry night and fell asleep next to each other.

‘Honolulu!’

They were greeted by the stars of Hawaiian Eye putting flowered leis on them, they watched hula girls beneath the palm trees, changed at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel where they expertly surfed together at Waikiki, than enjoyed a wonderful meal, walked the beach, then Kim’s Kab drove them to their airplane.

‘Nadi!’

There were palm trees and ships coming into the Fijis, red coated soldiers and blue coated policemen in white Sulu skirts. At an outdoor café they drank from coconuts and ate the inside, then walked through the lush green hills dressed in khaki bush jackets, trousers and slouch hats, boarding their plane again under the star filled sky,

‘The Southern Cross!’

He awoke again as she purred in his ear,

‘Here’s my home, Sydney!’

They looked down at the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and she guided him through her home city, meeting her family, riding a ferry, walking through the Rocks, body surfing at Bronte Beach, relaxing over a BBQ, tea at a petting zoo where he met colourful birds, kangaroos and a koala, then singing Waltzing Matilda with her family, who put them aboard their Super Constellation.

‘Singapore!’

Janice was in a red cheongsam; he was in a white tropical suit as they rode through the streets in a rickshaw to tiffin at Raffles followed by Singapore Slings on a balcony.

They had what seemed like a day and an evening in each place before returning to their aircraft…

Colombo! Karachi! Beirut!

They lived each one together with its colourful costumes, beautiful women, fantastic foods and the sights of a lifetime resembling postcards, picture books and movies. They grew closer, time had no meaning, a day and an evening seemed enough. Air hostesses served drinks on their plane; they only woke up when they arrived in a new city.

Rome! Paris! London! Bermuda! New York City!

They saw the sights and enjoyed 1001 wonders.

Chicago…the thundering drone faded away…The young Janice kissed him…

Ray woke up in his chair inside the tent.

‘Did I…I can’t…’

‘You did, and don’t let anyone tell you that you didn’t! Oscar Wilde said, “Live life with no excuses, travel with no regret”…and never forgetHooroo, Ray.’

Gypsy Janice kissed him, their embrace seemed timeless...

He walked towards the flap, then suddenly remembered something and turned,

‘Oh, I…’

She’d forever vanished from his life…

Outside the tent, Stash, Betty, Joey, Connie, Peter, Katrina, Angie and Karen awaited him. His sad expression transformed to his usual self-confident grin.

Angie asked,

Whaddid she give yuh, Ray?’

Ray held up his Australian comic book.

‘The whole wide world…’

FIN

Author Notes: I am the author of three Extra Dimensional/Ultraterrestial military science fiction novels MERCENARY EXOTIQUE, OPERATION CHUPACABRA and WORK IN OTHER WORLDS FROM YOUR OWN HOME! as well as two travel books THE MAN FROM WAUKEGAN and TWO AUSTRALIANS IN SCOTLAND (all from Lulu.com). I live happily ever after with my wonderful wife in paradise (coastal Kiama, NSW Australia).

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JPYoung
JPYoung
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18 Sep, 2024
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