A storm was approaching, not in the immediate weather, but somewhere within the distant future. There was a hint of disturbance in the atmosphere, a feeling, a surge. Seagulls gathered and dove along the shoreline. My attention focused on the fantastic view as I stood at the French doors before swinging into my yesteryear.

The summer home was open for the season. The staff of help worked with diligence to prepare for the arrival of Elizabeth and her parents. They were paying particular attention to the details, more so than normal. There was talk about a wedding scheduled in a private ceremony in the back garden. The groom would arrive in just a few short days to marry someone he had never before met. An arrangement, a merging of assets rendering both British and American families additional prominence and wealth.

"Romantic." Beatrice commented as she scrubbed the entryway. I entered past, not paying much attention to the preparations around me. Although I was there, I was now a spectator in the world that I had once known with intimacy.

I wandered from room to room. The summer home was a grand mansion even in that era. Marble floors imported from Italy, the finest of tapestries, windows oversized outlining the great lake. It was an inland ocean and everything about the rise and fall of water threw an immediate hypnosis over me. I adored the lake, I adored the summer home.

"Should we anchor Elizabeth’s raft on the point this year?" Beatrice asked aloud.

I answered in unison with Alfred the butler. "No." He had said. "Yes." I had managed with sentiment.

"She won’t have time for any of that! She’s a grown woman now, she’s going to be head of her own estate." Alfred replied.

"Do you think she understands what’s in store for her now?" Beatrice asked.

"If not, she’s up for a rude awakening."

Another woman whisked into the room like a burst of rotten air. I didn’t recognize her since often times the summer help was hired as seasonal. "Let’s get a move on!" She said clapping her hands. "The Fenmore’s will be arriving this afternoon. There’s still much to accomplish!"

As quickly as the woman made a disturbance, she was gone.

"I’ll be glad when this is over." Beatrice groaned as I sauntered up the ornate stairway carved from oak.

On the far end of the mansion, in a peaceful section of rooms, I slid into my private sanctuary. The suite was light and airy with sheer draperies cascading around the bed. I thudded onto the familiar mattress and gazed about the room. I tingled with excitement. How often had I taken this all for granted? My life from a hundred years ago, so close that I could now smell it and yet the taste somehow eluded me.

There was so much to do and yet I remained immobilized by the familiarity of my previous world. I opened the small drawer in the night stand. I pulled my summer diary from the enclosure and my hands trembled as they slid along the rawhide cover.

Whispers rose and fell as the workers did chores throughout the house.

I opened the pages of yesterday and was shocked to see my dreams, my insights in bold print before my eyes.

As I flipped pages, the progression from child to woman was apparent by the distinct maturity of penmanship. I was about to focus on one page in particular, but a shrill voice sidetracked my concentration.

"They’re here!" Someone announced from below.

I tiptoed from the room, across the hall to gaze out at the back drive. Two automobiles arrived, ancient models that by modern standards appeared quite inept.

I watched as my human self was helped from the first horse-less carriage. Mother, father and daughter smiled in a demure way revealing nothing as the three entered the home. A flock of workers lifted and lugged heavy chests of clothing in their wake. The staff handed things off, reminding me of an army of ants carrying food in an organized troop.

Ten minutes passed before my human self entered the hallway. I gasped in disbelief as I the spirit, lagged behind. Everything about me appeared snobbish. I carried myself with such arrogance, I suddenly realized what an embarrassment I had truly been.

"Elizabeth?" I said as she turned about startled.

I watched as curious eyes scanned the empty hallway. Discounting the voice, the other me disappeared closing doors behind.

I shook my head. With curiosity I followed her, sliding in through the heavy wood enclosure. She removed lace gloves and the wrap of a proper woman. There was sadness in her expression. I could sense an overwhelm, as if the lake was now polluted and no hope was available to change the circumstance.

"What’s wrong?" I whispered, not remembering my mindset that day.

The other me gazed about, obviously disturbed by the voices suddenly apparent within her tortured brain.

"The wedding." My human voice responded.

"Wedding?" I questioned.

"My wedding to a man I’ve never even met!"

I was never married I thought, suddenly confused by the entire episode.

"On Saturday, I will become tied to a man and they may as well wrap that rope about my neck, suffocate my body right along with my soul!"

"Do you know who I am?" I questioned lightly.

Elizabeth the human nodded, as if she understood more than her spirit of experience.

"You and I are kindred." She replied in a sure tone.

"Yes." I whispered full of emotion.

She extended her hand with a slow deliberate grace as I swung forward invisible to the world. Since her instincts and mine were one, she realized why I was there. I reached to her and placed my transparent fingertips into hers.

Tears of emotion welled up in her eyes and I felt a jolt of human. For the first time in nearly one hundred years, my body was lining up with the skin, the heart, the essence of who I was in that yesterday.

I fell within my own body. It was as if we became a perfect eclipse and the mingling of past and future was awesome. I could hear my thoughts and our minds meshed with confusion. Jeanne Wishgiven was evaporating and Elizabeth Fenmore was completely reborn.