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It's a classic film, despite it's heartbreaking ending. Two lovers running away with each other on a crime-filled road-trip. The climatic scene sealing it's place both in cinematic history and as Yi's favorite film.
She knows the critics loved the tragedy, but what really matters to her is the kiss. A lifetime of love and devotion poured into one desperate moment. Sometimes she daydreams of what it would be like to take off- head off to see the world and never look back.
But she knows that just as surely as Thelma and Louise died for being queer women in cinema, that her own travels would end with blood and catastrophe.
Still- it won't stop her from dreaming.
"Hey, Moja- if you could go anywhere, where would you go?" She asks her sister one day as they lay side-by-side listening to the old record player.
"Uh, I don't know,Yi. I've never really thought about it. Where would you wanna go?" The larger turtle answers with a shrug.
"If I could go anywhere?" Yi repeats staring starry-eyed at the dirty ceiling.
"Yep, that's what you asked me so that's what I'm asking you."
"Plas Newydd in Denbighshire," she answers definitively. Hours of her life she'll never get back have been spent imagining what it would be like to be able to visit the small cottage. And she doesn't regret a single one.
"What the what, kid?" Moja repeats curiously turning over to look at her sister.
"Plas Newydd- it's in Wales. Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby eloped to live there together for nearly fifty years in the late 18th Century! I've seen some photos and it looks so romantic! I heard there even used to be a museum there! I know it's probably in ruins by now… but I think I would still like to see it for myself…"
She trails off, wondering if her sister will understand her odd desire to just stare at what is likely some crumbling ruins. The heartbeat in her that feels a sense of kinship with those long silenced.
"Ohhhh, wow, okay. That's a good answer. Let me think about it for a minute," her sister replies nodding thoughtfully and closing her own large brown eyes, as though in concentration.
"I've got it! I'd wanna go to Paris!" She exclaims after a moment.
"Paris, huh? Okay, yeah, there's a lot to see there.." Yi considers, but Moja interrupts by grabbing her shoulders.
"Did you know that's where Josephine Baker got famous?! There's this one cabaret in particular called, uh, Folies something where she did her Banana Dance… uh, I think I'd like to visit there and y'know.. .just imagine her on stage," the larger turtle confesses. Her sheepish little smile at the end warms Yi's heart.
"Oh! Speaking of Josephine Baker, I think I'd love to go to the Casa Azul! Did you know that Josephine Baker and Frida Kahlo actually met each other in Paris?! Now I know the Casa Azul doesn't have some of her most famous art, but did you know it was kept exactly how she lived in it for years? … I wonder if it's still standing."
"I don't know, babygirl, but I'd sure love to go with you to find out. You know what was right here in New York that I would have liked to see?"
Yi shakes her head.
"The brownstone that used to house the Lesbian Herstory Archives. Grammy April told me a woman named Mabel Hampton who actually knew Gladys Bentley the drag king - helped with a lot of the history. Apparently her and her girl Lillian were together for like forty years!"
"What happened to the archives?" She finds herself asking.
Moja frowns and shrugs.
"I'm not sure exactly. I know the brownstone was destroyed in some bombing, but I hope someone stole some of the archives. Took them far away from here."
"I hope so too. So, if we could go anywhere, we'd start right here - you could show me the ruins before heading down to Mexico."
"Then after Mexico we'd head to Europe. Paris first - I'd love to listen to music there if there's any nightlife left."
"And after Paris, we'll go to Wales and enjoy the countryside."
"And there's just one more spot to see after that, right?"
"What? Where, Moja?" Yi questions reaching out to hold her sister's hand.
"Lesbos, " comes the giggled answer and she can't help but roll her eyes.
"You're so cheesy," she scoffs, but with monstrous hands clasped tightly she knows she'd follow her beloved anywhere.
If there were anywhere for them to go.
“someone will remember us
I say
even in another time”
- Sappho of Lesbos