As some time passed the ladies assembled and were directed towards an open plane with what looked like a fire dance show. Rhythmic drums could be heard as they walked closer and Peiyun leaped and whooped on her feet! “Reminds me of when I was a child and my parents took me to a Samhain Night festival.” “Uuuh… this isn’t holy…?” Peiyun rolled her eyes in response. “It seems that we’re all on some kind of literal intercultural lesson from our lively debate back in the meeting room if you haven’t noticed. Ricca had to swallow a little pride just now, I’m sure you can to.” Peiyun swirled around, hands open wide as she revelled in her latest outfit which was an ankle length loose flowy skirt with a short sleeved blouse with ruffled long sleeves. She took a pin from her hair and shook it loose. “Let your hair down, come join in the dance. It’s just a little fire!”

Solanti feeling happy from her time with her Dia le Meurtos experience, grabbed Asia’s hand and both ladies giggled in their respective outfits and ran to join others in the dance and festivities.
Peiyun held out her hand towards Christie as an olive branch.
“Samhain is the eve of the Celtic New Year, so alike what you know at church, today is indeed when the veil between the world of the living and the dead is the thinnest. It’s almost the same as what we’ve just come from. Besides we dance to keep the bad spirits away, there’s nothing evil about it.”
Christie nodded and took Peiyun’s hand before they both went to greet other festival revellers and enjoy learning the dances. Ricca and Wisal grabbed warm cups of tea and sat to watch the various fire dances around them, cheering with the rest of the audience.

Wisal looked at her team, seeing the ladies dance freely, laughing without restraint and soaking up the atmosphere. She knew this is the kind of joy she’d like to replicate for the event they had to plan and curate and so did her best to be as present as possible with the moment too.

After the some, the ladies all returned and sat on the ground next to her.
“Had fun?” She asked rhetorically.
“Yes! I have never been near fire this big with no safety guards or anything!” Asia exclaimed.
“Begrudgingly Christie said, “Yes. It was somewhat freeing to sway with the drums and the warmth of the fire was quite comforting. I can see how others like me would be wary of fire and what it symbolises relating to hell but… I think we can make it work.”
“Make what work?” Solanti asked.
Christie smiled, “The event. Our job. We are professionals after all, I know it isn’t lost on us that is some kind of… divine lesson we’re all going through.”
“That, or we’re all having the wildest, realist dream ever!” Ricca added.
“Oh… there’s an announcement.”

The ladies listened to hear that they were going to start a fireworks show and for the audience to focus looking up at the night sky as there was to be an important message for everyone at the start.
“Fireworks?! In autumn?”
“Yes. In the UK on the 5^th of November, there’s an event called ‘Guy Fawkes Night, or Bonfire Night, where they set off fireworks from bonfires like the one in front of us. It’s very much an autumn event!”
As the ladies looked up, the first set of fireworks were lit, filling the sky with various explosions of red, blue, green and yellow.
“Did anyone catch the message? I didn’t see anything!”
“Neither did I. Do we need to keep watching?!”
The show soon entered its climax, and intense barrage of fireworks exploding to the point the ladies momentarily closed their eyes and opened them a split second to the sounds of cheers and ‘tamayaaaa!”

“Waaaa! It’s a matsuri! I think we’re at a Japanese fireworks festival.”
The ladies looked at each other, their hair tied up in beautiful styles with various flower ornaments, all wearing different colourful yukata.
“I was wondering why it was feeling a little warm. I thought it was from the fire and fireworks!”
“So wait… we’re in… Japan?!”
All ladies looked behind them in unison and saw the crowd rising to their feet and walking towards lights and stalls further down the distance. Traditional Japanese taiko drums and bamboo flutes could be heard faintly as the ladies also stood to their feet and followed the crowd to the new cultural festivities.

“Actually, Japanese people tend to have shrine festivals together with Obon dance, where we all gather around a tower and dance in a circle… Kind of like what we’ve just done now!” Asia continued explaining as she led the group through the shrine grounds filled with lights, cheers and stalls selling all kinds of food, snacks and games. It was almost like a theme park Ricca noted. “Obon is also the festival of the dead but held in August! At the same time, Japanese people have firework festivals typically by a large river, but I guess we’re experiencing both today!”

As the ladies were about to go their separate ways to check out the festival, an kind elderly lady dressed in a navy yukata with fireflies on it approached them and bowed.
“Welcome! We’re happy that you could make it to our Obon summer festival. Allow my team and I to guide you around the stalls before we’ll reconvene at the tower, where you can learn a simple Obon dance and enjoy dancing with everyone.

The ladies looked at each other and shrugged with a smile.
“It’s good for us to experience what it’s like to be a guest and how we each feel when we experience new things. I’m game,” Peiyun said.
“I’m glad,” the guide replied. “We’ll meet again in an hour at the tower. Have a lovely time ladies. You all look beautiful in your yukata.”

~~~~~~~~~~~

“I think for the first time, I’m experiencing fatigue. When I stop to think about it, we’ve been non-stop… for days?”

The ladies were sat across from each other 3 on 3 on a wooden bench with a table between them. They were snacking on candied fruits which were a gift from their guide after they had finished dancing around the Obon tower. The melted sugar coating the strawberries, grapes and orange segments was soft, not too sweet and blended with the tart juices of each fruit. They had never had anything like it and happily enjoyed each of their fruit skewers.

Solanti covered a mild yawn right after Wisal’s comment.
“You’re right. Moreover… it just hit me… How do we get back to our world?”

The rest stopped eating at the same time, the seriousness of this fact chilling their hearts and freezing their muscles in place as it began to sink in. Ricca broke the silence after a yawn. “Things have been non-stop crazy, we all never had a moment to think about that… until now.”
“Can we even get back?”
“To our jobs?”
“Our friends? Our families?”

Christie’s last sentence left an even heavier chilling weight in everyone’s hearts as they continued processing their conundrum, however their adrenaline had also collectively fizzled out, leaving them feeling heavy-headed and drowsy.
“There’s no point us getting into a panic right now. Lets… let’s just take a moment to rest and we’ll ask our guide if she can help…”
Wisal saw that Asia, Solanti and Peiyun had already rested their head on their forearms while she was speaking. Christie and Ricca’s heads drooping in fatigue were the last thing she saw before feeling her own eyes close and rested her head on her own forearms.

The sweet and tart taste of her candied strawberries lingered in her lips and the faint beat of the taiko drums lingered in her ears before sleep stole her over.

A repeated but slightly urgent knock on the door roused Wisal from her nap.
“Excuse me? Are you all okay? I’ve knocked a few times but when no one answered, I came into the room…”

Wisal sat up in an instant from her desk at the front of the meeting room, a mix of embarrassment and bewilderment swirling in her mind. In the corner of her mind, she saw the other five also awake at the table in a similar emotional state of confusion. The same elderly woman who had served them their drinks at the start of the meeting had already closed the door thankfully Wisal thought and was pushing her trolley tentatively, a little apprehensive on how to take in the sight in front of her.

“Oh. Goodness, how embarrassing. My apologies, we must have worried you for you to find us all like this. We’re okay.”
Christie who had caught on the fastest immediately rearranged slightly her dishevelled shirt and skirt from her nap and chimed in. “Oh yes! We’re fine! The air may have lacked oxygen a little. It was quite warm in here too, ha ha.”

The elderly lady just nodded and went to collect their empty tea and coffee mugs.
“You all work so hard, it’s no wonder you may need a nap or two at work. I hope the drinks were to your satisfaction?”
Nervous glances flittered between the ladies but Asia broke the silent visual dance.
“Oh yes. My tea was perfect. I was surprised it was Earl Grey which is my favourite.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot to say my coffee was amazing.”
“My hot chocolate too.”

Each member once again fell into a confused silence as they processed what they were saying. The elderly lady had finished collecting their mugs and headed towards the door once more. “I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it. Well then, I wish you much success with your meeting, the resolution you all agree on and what looks like an exciting event you have to create. All the best.”

And with that, she pushed the trolley into the hallway and gently closed the door.
Each person was still frozen in shock for a full 10 seconds as their brains quickly put all the pieces together and their realisation was collective. The ball dropped.

“I swear we saw her!” Ricca exclaimed.
“On the beach for me!” Solanti gasped. “At the Halloween parade with the kids!” “The graveyard too!”

“She was our guide at the festival!” They all roused together.

“But, she looked younger then…” Wisal added.
She appeared looking like various ages actually…

Wisal nervously laughed a little frightened but set her apprehensions to the side. She knew they all were thinking the same but for now, they had a job to do. She regained her composure and added,

“I think now’s a good time for a break. Let’s reconvene in 15 and start planning this thing.” They all nodded in agreement as she continued with a mischievous smile.

“I’ve a good feeling though, that we’ll be able to give our visitors a trip and experience of a lifetime that they’ll never forget!”