Okay, so here's the beginning of that past reincarnation, girl in WW2 prison camp story. I just wrote this last night so it's unedited and raw. In an edit, I will probably cut half of this dialogue out but until then, it's all here. I'm starting a screenplay writing class on Monday. I write so much dialogue that friends have suggested, I try my hand at writing screenplays.

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Some people say the hardest part about living your life is knowing what’s real and what’s not real. I say the hardest part is going on with your life, you know, your real, mundane boring life, after having a fantastic adventure. Was she real? I like to think she is, although there are no historical records to confirm her existence. She was real to me as just as if she was my own dear sister. So what that she lived in the 1940’s during World War two and I live here and now in 21st century america. There’s a theory in quantum mechanics that the past, future and present are all happening at the same time. Now don’t you think that if this fact is true, that there could be overlapping of the past, future and present. I like to think that’s what happened with me and Gerta. But it all started out innocently enough.

“Come on, Jane, let’s go have that woman tell us about past lives. Don’t you love this sort of stuff.” Annie motioned over to a woman sitting at a table with a waiting life of people to the side of her. She had curly shoulder length black hair and dark brown eyes. She had the requisite dangling earrings, arm full of bracelets and neck full of colorful beaded necklaces. She looked like a gypsy of some kind, or at least what I imagined gypsies would look like. Her appearance was a little bit unusual but not out of the ordinary at this psychic fair.

“I don’t know why I let you drag me to these things. God, that smell of patchouli is revolting. I mean, can’t these people come up with a new smell to wear. It’s been forty years since the 60’s, you know.” I complained to Annie. Annie was my best friend but we were as different as night and day. Annie had explored every single new age woo woo group in California, had been a vegetarian off and on since she was 18 years old, and could talk philosophy and religion all night long. I ate meat and grew up catholic, but had long since stopped going to church. Religion was something you did on all the major holidays like Christmas and Easter, except I stopped believing in religion in college. Annie grew up catholic too but her fervor for religion never stopped. It was our catholic upbringing that brought us together because we had first met in Sunday school and had remained friends ever since.

“Oh come on, this is fun. It’s all just fun and interesting.” Annie smiled at me and winked. “I mean, you can’t tell if this stuff is true or not and you can’t prove that it’s false. It’s just fun to hear what the psychics have to say, that’s all, especially when they talk about your past lives. So what if it’s all bullshit. Who cares? It’s entertainment and it’s totally harmless.”

Looking at Annie, I wondered what she saw in all of this psychic mumble jumble. I knew she was in her element though because her brown eyes were sparkling and she had dressed herself up in her gray and flowery skirt, white t-shirt and matching gray sweater. I’m sure when Annie looked at herself in the mirror she thought to her herself “hippie outfit”, but she was a little too coordinated to pull that look off. She looked like she was attending a wedding reception instead of this free psychic fair in Golden Gate Park.

“You just want to hear again that you were a princess in another life just to assuage your guilt about princessy self.” I said this laughingly and looked over at Annie, who had this stricken look on her face.

“I’m only kidding.” I told her and her face broke into a smile again. She knew I wasn’t kidding but I knew she liked that I told her I was.

“You wouldn’t be so cranky if you’d only dressed the part. I told you it was a psychic fair. God, you look like you’re going to a business meeting or something. You could have at least worn something a little more casual.” I looked down at my outfit of fitted black pants, white t-shirt, pearls and black and white checked blazer.

“I look the way I always look, casual, tailored and professional. Ready to dash into a meeting if I have to.”

“But that’s the point, you aren’t going to a meeting here. You’re totally rigid and hopeless, you know that?” Annie said shaking her head.

“I’m not rigid, I have standards, high ones too.”

“Yeah, well that and that sour puss smile you have on won’t bring you any fun in life. It’s not all work you know, you have to have some fun sometime. And this kind of stuff is just pure entertainment and harmless fun. I’m sure you’d like to hear that you were a queen in a past life.”

“Well, that goes without saying, of course I was a queen.” I said proudly.

“I thought you didn’t believe in this kind of stuff.”

“I don’t, but if I did, I was definitely a queen.” I turned so Annie could see my profile. “See my face, my profile, I could have been on a coin.”

“Yeah, and what would that coin be worth, half a cent?

“A dollar, of course. No, I changed my mind. My face would have been on a gold coin. You know, the face that launched a thousand ships, that kind of thing.” I couldn’t stop myself and I started giggling very hard.

“God, I can see you now waving your hands at the masses.” Annie smiled at me and grabbed my arm so we could head over to the woman giving past life readings.

“This is all a joke, you know. She’s going to spin me a bunch of lies.”

“Who cares, it’s free and it’s entertainment for $10.”

Annie was a fervent believer in reincarnation. Listening to her over the years, I often wondered whether reincarnation was true or not. Annie had all kinds of feelings that she’d been in a new place before, or that unfamiliar places were known to her. I never had such feelings but then again, I was a numbers person and maybe I was too rational and even if I had experienced any “dejavu”, I wouldn’t have known it anyway. I ran my right hand through my hair, a nervous habit I had when something was troubling me. Reincarnation wasn’t troubling to me, I just didn’t understand it and not understanding something made me nervous.

“God girl.” Annie said grabbing a handful of my hair. “When is your next haircut? Your ends are getting really dry. How do you keep your hair so black? What color dye are you using?”

“I told you, I don’t dye my hair. My hairdresser guy told me I have virgin hair because it’s never been dyed.”

“Well, whatever. Your ends are dry anyway.”
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