Another Place Another Time-synopsis

Another Place, Another Time
Laura Moehrle
Synopsis
1851, Willow Glen plantation
Virginia
Southern Belle, Abigail Peterson is given her own personal body slave for her 15th birthday. Abby is thrilled to have someone close to her own age to talk to, even if it is a servant.
Hestie quickly learns that her new mistress is not like other girls, so wrapped up in themselves that they care for no one else. Abby is kind and treats Hestie like a person, something the young slave girl has never before experienced. When Hestie takes Abby’s new brooch, Hestie is surprised yet grateful when Abby doesn’t have her whipped. A special understanding and closeness begins to form between the two of them.
During Abby’s birthday celebratory ball, Hestie trips while carrying a tray full of cocktails. The gown of one of the guests is completely ruined by the spilled drinks. Abby is furious when Hestia is beaten for the incident and confronts her father. It was an accident, she protests. Willard Peterson explains to his daughter that slaves must be kept in line or there would be too many accidents.
Meanwhile her mother sternly reminds Abby that Hestie is nothing more than a servant and must be treated as such.
Abby begins to see the harsh reality of the slaves’ lives. They are not treated as well as she’d always thought. She begins to question many of the things that she was raised to believe.
Hestie risks her life trying to get a gun away from a vengeful slave. Abby is shot in the shoulder and instead fleeing on a north- bound train, Hestie tends to her wound and gets her safely back home. Abby is shocked by her parent’s meager show of appreciation.
Abby is torn between the beliefs of her parents and her own feelings. She wishes she could be like her brother and sisters, young and care free. When Aunt Catherine shows Abby a picture of herself as small child she realizes that she must grow up on the inside as she has on the outside. She must follow her own heart, even if it’s not in agreement with how she was brought up.
When Abby is attacked by one of her suitors, Hestie hits him with a heavy cast- iron skillet, killing him. Now Hestie must run north or face lynching.
Before she leaves, Abby gives Hestie a picture of herself, with instructions to send it back when she was free. Abby also gives her the brooch, for luck. As Abby watches Hestie disappear into the night, she convinces herself that their paths would cross again…”perhaps in another place or I dare say another time.” Many years and generations later, their paths do indeed cross again.

excrept from "Second Chance"

The baby boy was born on March 25, 1986. He was blond, blue eyed and perfect. The baby's mother however, was terrified.

May 12, 2010
I had just sat down on the sofa with my laptop ready to get some writing done when the phone rang. "Check the caller ID please Chris," I called to my son Christian who had just started loading the dishwasher.

"Brian something," Chris said picking up the phone. "Moehrle residence, Chirstian Moehrle speaking...Yes, it's for you mom."

I was expecting somebody from work needing a sub, or a new Creative Memories customer wanting to order. Either would would be great. "Hello?"

"Hello, is the Laura Ann Weis?" inquired the young woman on the other end.

"I used to be," I said with a laugh. Her use of my madian told me it wasn't someone from work or Creative Memories. Perhapps a former classmate was trying to find me.

"My name is Jamie Mush and this is going to sound like a weird question but..." she hesitated for a minute then continued. "My husband has been looking for his birth mother, did you have a child 24 years named Michael Norman?"

Her words hit me like a tidal wave, leaving me under water, struggeling to breath. I knew this day would come..."yes I did." I answered slowly.

I was suddenly transported 24 years in the past. It was a very painful and difficult time, one I have tried to forget. Now the past has come forth and the story must be told. It must be told both for my sake and for the sake of my son. We both need to heal.