Chapter 24: Ties, Old and New

Late-June, 1986

Charlie POV:

When we arrived back at home, we were totally disoriented as far as what time of day it was. When the whole episode with the assassins started it was around 4:00 pm on Friday. Looking outside, it was twilight and all the workers were gone from the back yard.

It was very quiet.

All of the babies were hungry and needed changing. We all pitched in taking care of the kids, even Sheila and Joni. Rex and Jeremy took orders for carryout chicken and took off to get dinner.

The kiddos weren’t the only ones starving.

I walked out back after changing CJ and Sissy, and discovered the concrete had all been poured and looked pretty damn good. The posts for the new gazebo looked straight and the concrete around the posts looked just as nice as the new patio.

Greg and I brought in a few chairs and opened up the kitchen table in preparation for dinner. Rex and Jer got back and the 11 of us were flat chowing down on some damn fine tasting fried chicken, mashed ‘taters, slaw and biscuits.

We’d no sooner finished when TJ was flashing us. “Hey guys, um, what happened to you all this afternoon? It kinda felt like you deserted us!”

I really wasn’t in the mood for this. “Um, things got extremely complicated. I’m sorry, but, Mary and Sheila were almost abducted by Viktor and that other evil Catalyst, Akbar, and we had to take care of that. We just got home a half hour ago. It’s been a very long day, Dude.”

“Oh shit! Sorry for copping an attitude, Charlie. It’s just that... “

I wondered where he went. “Just what, TJ?”

“Sorry, SHIT. I don’t know how to tell you, but, that assassin that shot that guy you were going to interrogate, somehow got sprung from the State Police Holding Center! We also found out that all of those other guys were fucking CIA Agents! THEY got sprung too!”

“Fuck! You’ve gotta be kidding ... I didn’t think the CIA could operate in the States!?”

Everyone had been listening and Rex huffed, “What about Todd?”

TJ sighed, “He’s dead ... they found him hanging in his cell. It’s pretty suspicious. It looked to me like he must have had some help.”

Bob swore, “It’s that fucking Co-op, I just know it! TJ, was there somebody by the name of Chen involved in getting them released?”

Dad chimed in, “Why don’t you guys go to our hideout in Colorado? Charlie and I went there last fall. He knows where it is.”

Bob chuckled, “I’ve got a better idea ... we’re going to see my new girlfriend! They probably wouldn’t find us at the hideout, but they CAN’T find us at Ibera’s place!”

I almost swallowed my tongue.

I whispered, “Bob, how will ‘Spirit Walking’ to the 5^th dimension protect our bodies?”

Bob chuckled, whispering back, “Who said anything about ‘Spirit Walking’? We’re GOING to the 5^th dimension! Trust me!”

His eyebrows were waggling as he told Dad and TJ that we’d be ‘incommunicado’ for a little while, but we’d get in touch as soon as we could. Bob told the girls to get the babies ‘ditty bags’ and everyone would meet in the living room.

Rex and Jeremy felt like they should stick around, but Joni and Sheila were curious about who Bob’s girlfriend was. They absolutely wanted to go.

Linda was giving Bob a hard look as she roughly crammed some extra diapers into her diaper bag.

Sarah, Jamie and Mary had never met Ibera and they kept giggling and joking about meeting Bob’s new ‘girlfriend’. Every time they made a joke, Linda seemed to cut them off with an unrelated question or simply ignored them.

Bob was rushing around and totally oblivious that Linda was far from her normal bubbly self.

With the babies in our arms and ditty bags in hand, Bob told us to just ‘teleport’ to the 5^th dimension, just like we were going anywhere else.

It was amazing!

Actually ‘being in’ the 5^th dimension made the place feel much bigger than when we ‘Spirit Walked’. We all snorted and giggled when Ibera leapt into Bob’s arms and started kissing him like a long lost lover!

“Oh Bobby, you came back!” Ibera gushed. And who are all these beautiful ladies? Oh, and these cute babies!? Are any of them yours?”

Bob was grinning, but almost choked when Linda said, soto voice, “Hi, I’m Linda and Bobby is my husband ... and these two little ones are our twins, Erik and Olivia.”

Ibera grew pale. “Oh, I’m sorry ... you must hate me, Linda. I guess I got carried away thinking I’d never see him again.” She was giving Bob a look of deep concern.

Linda sounded despondent, “Don’t worry. I don’t hate you. I know if it wasn’t for you, none of us might even be here. I’m not jealous ... it’s just that ... I’m not sure which Bob came home...” She then broke into tears.

Poor Ibera was at a loss, as to what to do.

Bob was beside himself. He looked lost as he handed me little Erik then took Olivia from Linda and handed her off to Sheila. He tried to take Linda in his arms but she kept turning away as her tears continued to flow.

Bob finally grabbed her forcefully, “Linda, Sweetheart, I don’t understand how you could say that!?”

Slap! “LET GO OF ME ... DON’T EVER TOUCH ME AGAIN.”

Linda slapped Bob’s arms away and ran a few steps before staring at Ibera, “He’s all yours...” She pointed at Bob, “that man stole the Bob I knew away from me and now he’s gone ... forever.” Linda then collapsed on the floor, whimpering disconsolately.

I headed over to her, but Mary cut me off. She caught my eye, giving me a knowing smile, then said to Linda, “Come on Sis. I think you and I need to go see a friend.”

Mary helped her up, then the two of them disappeared.

Mary POV:

I felt like I should have seen this coming.

With all the shit that Bob had just gone through, why couldn’t things have just been peaceful for a little while longer when we got home? Poor Bob, my dancing soulmate, never had a chance to be alone with Linda to ‘decompress’ and share with her everything he’d been through. We got home, hungry and tired, the babies were cranky and we were all doing the things that most needed to be done. We’d just finished eating when, TJ informs us that all of the assassins that the guys and he had arrested had all been released from custody!

What the hell? We all just stared at each other in disbelief.

Somehow, with all of the ‘investigating’ that Bob had done while trying to fix our ‘universe’, Bob was the first to recognize the dire situation now facing us. Naturally, he just took charge and got us rushing around to get the hell out of here. That was a side of Bob that Linda had never seen before and it blindsided her completely. Charlie, and now Rex, were normally the ones to give directions when a crisis occurred. No one, except me, noticed Linda’s expression as Bob told us what he felt we needed to do.

I thought she might have been in awe. Now I realize it was fear.

You see, when ‘Bob-2’, as Charlie called him, materialized in Zeus’ chambers Linda had been holding Bob-1’s hand. I think she felt that Bob-2 was like an alien that looked like the Bob she knew and loved. Of all of us, Linda has the least amount of experience of being in another dimension. She has even less understanding about ‘Time Travel’. She didn’t understand how the two ‘Bobs’ could ever have just been the one whose hand she was holding.

Then when Bob-2, after seeing his other self with Linda and the twins, made the comment that maybe he should just go back to Ibera, I truly believe that would have made Linda feel safe.

And, knowing Bob as well as I do, if it hadn’t been for CJ and his desperate outburst, he would have done just that to avoid traumatizing Linda and the twins.

I also now realize that Linda had no idea what Zeus and Hera were trying to do to ‘Unify’ Bob-1 and Bob-2. After it happened, Linda was confused and desperately looking for signs of ‘which’ Bob was now standing naked before us.

So, when Bob said we needed to go ‘see his girlfriend’, that confirmed Linda’s darkest fears. Bob-1 was gone and now only Bob-2 remained ... and she didn’t feel like she even knew this guy! She felt that the ‘Bob’ she was a soulmate with was now gone forever.

That’s why I’m taking my troubled sister back to see Zeus and Hera. They can show Linda the whole story of what Bob did. Not just the ‘Cliff’s Notes’ that she saw earlier this afternoon.

When Linda saw Zeus, she was trembling. Hera sensed Linda’s plight, “It’s lovely to see my two favorite ladies have come to see us again! How are you ladies?”

I nodded at Linda, then said, “Not well, I’m afraid. My sister feels that Bob isn’t the same man she was holding onto before the Unification Ceremony.”

Hera looked at Zeus, then sighed, “Linda, my dear. You’re right. The man that emerged from the Unification Ceremony has nearly 6 months’ worth of memories and experiences that the man you knew never had!”

“I don’t understand ... Bob never left my side!?” Linda exclaimed.

“Did you not watch the display of what happened?”

She looked sheepish, “I’m afraid I was a bit overwhelmed seeing the other Bob show up and got lost. I don’t understand how there could have been two of them or how they could be the same person?”

“Linda, dear, have you ever been on a ‘Spirit Walk’?” Zeus asked.

“No. I’ve never been invited.” Linda said softly.

Zeus chuckled, “Well, this will be an interesting experience for you then. Mary and Hera, are you going with us?”

I giggled, “Sure, I need to keep my Sis company. Let’s go.”

Zeus took us back to our ‘Honeymoon Cruise’ last year. He pointed out the date: July, 23, 1985, 3:43pm, “Do you remember what happened here?”

Linda sighed, “Yeah, Bob and Greg nearly died trying to move the yacht that had trapped Craig, Brian Gleason’s son. Charlie and I nearly died from dehydration, trying to save all three of them. It’s weird seeing this, it’s like watching from just above everyone’s heads.”

Zeus smiled, “This event is what prompted both the Indian Spirits and me to call you and Charlie. The Indian Healing Spirits, unbeknownst to you, gave you a boost in your powers the night you and Charlie met with them not long after this. We were very proud of the selfless way you all used your powers, as meager as they were at the time. I also showed you this so Linda could relate to what I want to show you next.”

He showed Bob at home with Linda, Me, Sarah and Jamie. The date changed to July, 28, 1985, 2:17am. We were all at home and asleep. Zeus froze the picture, then split the view and zoomed into the U-Haul truck on the road in Florida, same date and time. Both Linda and I gasped, when we saw Bob in the back of the truck, taking two bundles of cash out of one of the black duffel bags. Zeus again froze the vision.

“This is to illustrate to Linda, just how far Bob went back into the past.”

I had to clarify, “The ‘Bob’ we saw in the truck was in the ‘Alternate Reality’, right?”

Zeus grinned, shaking his head, “NO. You see both views bordered in green. That signifies your current Reality. I’ll explain in depth in just a moment ... You need to understand, the ‘Alternate Reality’ was only in existence for a total of about 15 to 20 minutes! Let’s go back to what happened in your reality, before Bob changed things. We’ll follow Bob, step by step so you’ll understand everything better.”

Zeus then took us to the street above Charlie and Bob. I had to experience the pain of Charlie getting shot twice. The first in the base of his skull, then the shot that took half of his head off. Linda looked at me in horror, knowing there would have been no chance of curing Charlie. We saw Bob rushing to Charlie, sobbing, when two more shots, just a few seconds later, took Greg’s head apart too. Bob then saw the sniper and threw him more than 300 feet in the air, before going to Charlie to hold his lifeless body.

Linda asked if we could somehow hear Bob’s thoughts. Zeus smiled then we heard like a song going through his head. Linda’s mouth made a perfect ‘O’. “That’s ‘Rock and Roll Band’ by Boston! That always plays in Bob’s head when he’s deep in thought! I can hear him thinking that ... oh my God! He’s going into the past to try and save Charlie. He’s counting measures ... there’s still 30 seconds left in the song, so he’s going back in time 3 minutes!”

We then watched Bob disappear, only to reappear at Lenny’s cabin in Wisconsin. At this point the border on the screen was still green. When Zeus ‘Realigned’ the time on the two portal ‘screens’ there were now two Bob’s, one in each screen. Both had green borders. Linda exclaimed, “That’s why I saw two of him in that show you gave us earlier this afternoon! I DO remember that ... one was him crying, just like he’s doing now at Dad’s cabin!”

We noticed that when Bob, at the cabin, hollered for Charlie to get down, as soon as the shots rang out, the border for the cabin scene turned yellow. Zeus froze both portal screens. The time on both were now the same.

Zeus explained, “Bob at the cabin, or ‘Bob-2’ as Charlie called him, is now transitioning to the ‘Alternate Reality’. It’s not always instantaneous. You’ll notice, as he yells at Greg, it then turns red. Notice that ‘Bob-1’ is now NOT running towards Charlie, but is mentally checking to see if he’s okay. Bob-2 is doing the same thing. Bob-2’s last contact with the original reality was seeing Greg ‘throwing’ the sniper repeatedly over the light pole. Now watch the red portal...”

We watched as Bob sat, deep in thought. Bob was thinking, “I’ve got to find a way to get back to Linda and our twins. I’ve only got one shot at this, but, I need information. I need to go see Ibera and do some ‘Spirit Walking’ ... my Linda needs me to get back to her...”

Bob then disappeared and the red portal disappeared too.

Linda gasped, “Where did he go? He’s trying to get back to me! Oh my God! He still loves me ... that IS my Bob!”

Zeus smiled, “Yes he is. Now, let me explain what I think happened. He didn’t know that at this point that he’d lost his ability to ‘Spirit Walk’. So, when he ‘thought’ he was spirit walking to the 5^th dimension, he actually ‘Travelled’ there. Now, watch Bob-1. You see him ‘fading away’. That happened because HE tried ‘Spirit Walking’ at the exact same millisecond that Bob-2 entered the 5^th dimension! Somehow, the simultaneous events confused the overseers of the dimensional world and that caused the two of them to merge!”

I noticed Bob’s absence now on both portals. “So, we still don’t get it ... where did he go?”

Zeus chuckled, “The ‘merged’ Bobs, at this moment in time,” He pointed at the portals, “are not in either reality!”

Now BOTH Linda and I were confused. I jumped in, “I don’t get it? Isn’t THAT a paradox?”

“Actually, no. It’s a ‘consequence’, maybe, just like when Bob-2 changed the original past and was trapped in the new ‘Reality’. What this is, as you will see, is your Original Reality correcting itself. You see, when I backup the original timeline...” We saw the green timeline reverse and Bob was back in it! “The Reality would have had two Bobs in it, just moments from each other. I wanted to show you this, so you’ll understand what comes next.

“I’m freezing this scene for now. So, you’re wondering where Bob-2 is. Well he’s in the 5^th dimension, sort of in ‘Limbo’. Exactly what happens next was all up to Bob-2. He had to make a decision. Since he changed the original reality, he would only be able to reassume the original reality wherein Charlie and Greg were both dead. The ‘new’ original reality that you are now in, wouldn’t even exist. You ladies would be living in two realities. One would be a world without Charlie and Greg and one would be the ‘alternate’ that Bob just created. Bob knew that. He could have chosen to rejoin the ‘alternate reality’ that had everyone alive, but his heart couldn’t bear ANY reality where the people he loved would be suffering like you know they would.”

That’s when what Bob had done really sank in to both Linda and me. The very thought of any of us living in a world without Charlie and Greg was breaking my heart. “So, can we see and hear what Bob-2 was deciding?”

Hera said, hesitantly, “Linda, dear, are you sure you want to see Bob making love to Ibera?”

Linda, for the first time, giggled, “Oh, I saw that earlier. That was just Bob being Bob. He knows he can make love to anyone he falls in love with as long as he doesn’t keep it a secret. I DO want to hear his thoughts, if I could?”

We heard a ‘song’ playing in his head as he was making love with Ibera the first time. It was Chicago’s ‘Just You and Me’. Linda smiled, “Yes! My wonderful, loving Spinner Bear ALWAYS complains that whenever he’s making love to someone, THIS song reminds him of how much he loves me! Maybe Bob-2 IS my Spinner Bear!”

The scene where Bob-2 first appeared while Bob-1 was holding Linda’s hand appeared before us. Hera said, “Linda, please listen to what Bob-2 was singing in his head just before he ‘volunteered’ to go back to be with Ibera for all eternity...”

The scene zoomed in on Bob-2. A song from Dolly Parton, sung by Bob started playing.

If I ... Should stay

I would only be in your way

So I’ll go ... But I know

I’ll think of you every step of

the way

And I...

Will always

Love you, ohhh

I will always Love you

Linda was now failing to hold back giant tears, especially when, we heard CJ wail, “No go Bobo! Please no go Bobo!”

Linda turned to me, “Please take me home, Mary. Bob needs me ... and I need him ... Thank you, Zeus and Hera for this.”

Back to Charlie:

Bob was looking as lost as a fart in a hurricane. The hurt on his face was heart rendering.

I put my arm around him, “Blame those god damned assassins and that Chen fucker.”

He stared at me, blank-faced, “HUH???”

Greg put his arm around him too, “What my brother so eloquently tried to say was, those fucking assholes DIDN’T give you the chance to reconnect with your soulmate, Bubba! I’m afraid poor Linda thinks she lost the ‘real you’ that she knew and loved and ended up with somebody she doesn’t know!”

I said, seriously, “Think for a minute, little Bro, how much does Linda really know about Time and Dimensional Travel? Have you ever told her all the aspects of the time dilation?”

Bob stared at me blankly, his shoulders drooping as the light started coming on in his head. “No ... she never seemed all that interested in it. Shit. Then the first thing I do is act like ‘Billy Badass’ and start telling everyone we needed to go see ‘my girlfriend’ ... THEN I go and kiss Ibera like a love starved puppy ... Aaaarggh! How could I be so STUPID!?”

Both Greg and I patted Bob on the back, “Join the club, Brother!” Greg chuckled. I added, “Just try not to fuck up twice, too close together.”

Bob just started nodding when Mary and a tearful Linda appeared right in front of us. Linda bowled Bob over with a furious flurry of kisses, apologies, bone crushing hugs and finally, the wonderful giggle that we all love so much.

Linda then Sang, “Spinner Bear, You, Darling You, I’ll always, I’ll always Love You!”

Bob broke into tears, holding Linda like he never wanted to let her go. He whispered, “So, Zeus let you hear my thoughts?”

Linda giggled, “Yes, and Mary scolded him that he should have led with that, right from the git! Now, go and let your ‘girlfriend’ know I don’t hate her ... I think I might even love her ... like a sister of course!”

Bob extricated himself from Linda’s embrace, then hugged and kissed a wistful looking Ibera.

Ibera looked at Linda, “You really don’t mind? I really like your husband...”