Catherine's Journey Begins

As she sipped on her luke warm Earl Grey tea, while the chairwoman of her current volunteer quest droned on about the increasing need of  money, time and efforts to help with the city’s increasing number of homeless citizens, she dipped her finger in the tiny China tea cup and stirred the tepid liquid. Her mind was numbed by the same speech she had heard on many occasions for all the numerous charitable organizations she participated with over the years.  

She looked out the large arched window of the library of one of the elite social clubs of Manhattan and wondered why she, Catherine James, was now wasting away days away with other women that had nothing better to do with their time than attend charity meetings, or go to yoga and Pilates, or other ridiculous pursuits that still left one wanting and yearning for something more. For Catherine, she longed for a true romantic adventure that one only read about in novels. The kind of adventure that once read, every man and woman would never want to put the book down and demand for more.

As she sat there she pondered the idea of cashing in some of those now very valuable stocks she won in her divorce and board a plane for parts unknown, to return a time of only her choosing. For Catherine, whose Filipino and Chinese heritage made her look nearly 30 years younger than what anyone would have guessed, the idea of turning back the clock and embarking on an exotic journey had been in her mind for a very long time, especially since her last trip to Japan, whose culture fascinated her and left her yearning for much more. Unfortunately, her ten days were all to brief, after which returned to her then husband, her perfect and loving children, taking care of all of them and keeping up appearances.

 
However, with her recent divorce, and the graduation of the last of her children from high school, she knew, as she sat there, the time was now for that long awaited adventure. As the Chairwoman finally brought her speech to an end, the lovely Lady Catherine stood up, put on her coat and said her goodbyes to the women she now realized she could no longer identify with, as they now to her were living out meaningless existences, the thought of which made her quickly head for the door.  

As she pushed through the revolving doors and marched down the side walk in the freezing cold mid-January afternoon towards the train station to take her back to the Hamptons, she teetered on her favorite pair of high heeled boots, with her head down trying to huddle farther into her coat, so as to ward of as much of the bone chilling wind as possible. Turning the corner a strong gust of wind caused her to stagger and then stumble into a glass window of small shop. The force of the gale made her instinctively slap her leather gloved hands against the window to avoid tumbling to the ground while she steadied herself and looked up to see a Pan American poster on the window advertising the only international destination that mattered to her- Japan.

Now steadied, she stood straight up and gazed at the beautiful photo of the kimono clad and exotic ageless 1960s woman, whose features reminded her of herself, with her own Pan-Asian and Spanish blood.  Catherine's ageless beauty she knew was not just the result of her religious like exercise routine, her diet, or her lack of age causing vices, but also her genes, which allowed her to defy age like no other woman in the world.

For lack of a better word, Catherine was a beautiful youth filled Goddess and every man's fantasy come to life. Her beauty of course was more than skin deep, as she had a beautiful soul to match the outward beauty she showed, the combination of which could not help but make other women jealous and cause old men to sigh. Catherine was, and still is, physical and spiritual perfection, with an intellect to match, and courage within her that no soldier could ever match.

As she entered the travel agency, which to her seemed like a step back into time, with all it's 20th Century travel posters, she was greeted by an older man of about 60, who looked her over with a smile, but not in a leering way, and greeted her.

"Cheers, my name is William. Where would this pretty lady like to go today?"  And that is where Catherine's journey began....