This old-fashioned life (OPEN)
The days were long and exhausting here. Being a blacksmith was a different sort of work than cocktail waitressing as she had back in the 1940s world. She was sore at the end of the day but there was something zen about the process. Mary found that she could easily zone out and keep her mind off all of the things that she had bouncing around in there while she was working on forging weapons with steel and iron. She still didn't know what to make of the randomness of the aliens' choices of planets. On some planets, they had housing taken care of. Here, they had jobs and houses and it was almost as though they'd slipped into other peoples' lives. In fact, some of the items in the house that she'd been directed to indicated that someone else had lived there. Mary wasn't sure if she wanted to think too hard about what might have happened to the previous occupant. In fact, she'd heard a few whispers about 'the war' and that gave her a pretty good idea as to why there were so many job openings to be filled here.
Unlike the 1940s planet, the gender roles were very different here. It had taken her a little while to even realize that she was treated with more respect than even what she was used to in her own time. And that men were sometimes treated as accessories or as though they didn't matter. She didn't like it, even if she was relieved to no longer have to deal with some of the crappy attitudes that she'd dealt with a few planets back.
Of course, all of that was less important than the fact that she hadn't been able to find everyone that she needed to. She'd found her mother and heard that her dad was around. More importantly, she'd heard that her Uncle Sam-or a version of him-had joined them. She wanted very badly to see her uncle, but she was holding back for now. He needed to acclimate himself and she wasn't sure that she was ready to look into his eyes and see the lack of recognition. Not when... certain members of their party were missing.
Maybe it was just like those islands all over again. Evan and Johnny were gone. Possibly others, she wasn't sure yet. It mattered, but didn't matter quite as much. The fear was there. The fear that Johnny was gone for good. That the aliens had decided they were done experimenting with him and...
Well, she supposed that each new planet when she didn't find people immediately, she'd have this fear. Wouldn't she? Especially when she and Johnny had just started to figure things out. They'd just gotten to a very good place and she... well, she missed him on the nights that she woke up screaming.
She'd already lost track of the days that they'd been in this world. One day blended into another when they were all the same. She just kept working her way through it and hoped that they'd get to another planet and that she'd find him again. Unfortunately, today seemed to be a day when there was little work to be had. So she decided to explore a bit more. There was a marketplace in the middle of the village and she wandered through it, idly looking at some of the clothing and fabrics on display, studying the weapons crafted by the silversmith and admiring them. There were also various foods on display-everything from treats to produce. And of course, other fineries that she had no interest in. She did her best to keep walking as various venders called out to her. She had a few gold coins but wasn't quite sure where she wanted to spend them or if she wanted to spend them at all today. Instead, she wandered through the marketplace and kept checking the faces for any sign of a familiar face. There were others that she still hadn't found within the village and she wanted to know who else was here.