Dicen Burke had it all. As lead singer in the world famous rock band, Dark Army, the world lay at his feet. But the path to super stardom warred with a painful past and during a performance the demons haunting him finally descended. Unable to stop the self-destructive path of alcohol and drugs, when he fell, he fell hard.
He wakes up in a world he doesn’t know. The Twenty-first century rocker is now in the 1920’s, lost and bewildered. He’s taken in by Juliet Fox, a beautiful woman trying to be a positive influence in her brother’s wild lifestyle among the Hollywood Motion Picture elite.
Dicen does his best to adapt, and with Juliet by his side, he discovers a world that offers him a clean slate. But when he’s pulled back to the present, separated by time from the one person that gives him a reason to live, will he find a way to push past his demons as well as find Juliet again?
“Aren’t speakeasies illegal?” he asked her.
Tonight, she wore an all-white sleeveless dress that fell into a drop waist where pleats fanned out every time she turned. A string of pearls wrapped around her neck once and then fell past her breast. Her dark hair contrasted sharply with the white hairband, where a large white feather stuck up on the side.
“Shh!” she hissed, looking around. “Yes, they are, hence the big six standing guard. If the buttons show up, they give a signal and all the hooch disappears. It’s not illegal to dance.”
“You called me big six once,” he commented. “What does that mean?”
“Tough guy, as in the six-cylinder engine.”
“Makes sense,” he mused.
One man walked up to them, and Juliet handed over some bills. Once the money had changed hands, they were greeted with a grin and the entrance to the speakeasy. Immediately to the left, a long bar rested, with several men in white shirts, white aprons, and black ties working, trying to keep up with the order demands. The area in front of the bar was packed with people, to the point that individual movement was impossible. Dicen kept his hand firmly around Juliet’s as they made their way slowly through the throng. The crowd seemed to sweep them along, and they moved like driftwood upon the ocean, all the while Dicen tried to keep his eyes open for Thayer.
Women were dressed in variations of style, from flapper girl to matron. Most men wore hats, coats, and ties. The crowd thinned toward the back and pushed forward, breaking free of the cattle pen so a dance floor opened up. Several tables with chairs surrounded it, and against the far back wall a quartet, consisting of piano, clarinet, trumpet, and cello, played.
He hadn’t known what to expect when Juliet announced they were going to a speakeasy, but it certainly hadn’t been this. He’d envisioned a dark, dank hole in the wall where people chugged bathtub gin strong enough to strip paint off walls. Instead, he discovered a place where wild and catchy music allowed people to jitterbug around the dance floor. The bright, fun atmosphere invigorated him, and all Dicen wanted to do was hop on stage and bang out a few melodies and share in the revelry.
Keeping hold of Juliet’s hand, he skirted the dance floor toward the platform stage. Bunting hung from the ceiling and swept outward to hook on various points near the bar, forming a sweeping cave-like setting that helped the music resonate. He didn’t know how to dance like the other people, but he pulled Juliet close and swayed with her to an upbeat, modified version of present-day slow dancing. As a musician, he knew rhythm, so he made sure to keep his hips in tune with the beat. He stared down into Juliet’s smiling face and felt the last wall around his heart shatter.
