Chapter 45: Ripples Redux

Sunday, January 24, 1982

We arrived at Jane’s office around 1pm. We’d let Mom and Dad know we had some plans since group was off. Those consisted of Jane, then Jasmine and Lexi for me, and Gene for Angie. I imagined her back seat just might get a workout, maybe.

Jane greeted us both with hugs. I could feel the friendship building. Or at least, I was pretty sure I could. It could be an act, but I was fairly sure it wasn’t.

We went back, sat on the couch, holding hands, and she sat in her chair, facing us. “I’m finding this more normal. I’m not sure that makes me as sane as I’d like to believe I am.”

“Um ... yes, tell me about it,” I said, chuckling.

Angie nodded, laughing too.

“The more I think about it, the more I realize why you’re so paranoid. It’s ... governments, companies, organized crime, and every religion would want a piece of you.”

“Yeah. And we just want to be left alone. But, then, we also want someone to talk to, and we found someone good,” Angie said.

“That’s very flattering, and I won’t do anything to betray that trust. It wouldn’t be worth it. For one thing, I doubt that any of those groups would be happy with me knowing once they had you.”

“Yeah, maybe not.”

“So, both of you. How have you been?”

Angie laughed. “Busy! First two rehearsal meetings, and even if we’re not doing anything with our understudy roles, we still need to take them seriously. And then all the other stuff.”

“Uh ... Sis, about that...”

“Uh oh. What?”

“I might have had enough other things going on that I forgot to mention, um ... Lexi said that Steffie often tries to arrange it so that understudies go on when their parents are in the audience.”

“You mean...?”

“Yeah. Reasonable chance you get a shot at playing Meg, even as second understudy. Lexi thinks you and Paige will each get a shot.”

“Um ... wow. That’s some news, there!”

Jane laughed. “Well, I know which night I need to attend. So, Steve. Lexi...?”

“I didn’t even get a better kiss this time. Okay, not a worse kiss.”

“I’m not sure that’s an answer.”

“Odds are good we’ll wind up in bed. At Jasmine’s. Without Jasmine ... at least, at first.”

She blinked and laughed. “You do have interesting relationships. And you, Angie?”

“No plans with Lexi right now.”

She laughed harder. “I meant with Gene.”

“Oh, we’re great. And he’s tentatively okay with me and Jasmine.”

“Of ... of course he is. Of course.” She was shaking her head. “I should know not to bother even asking.”

“Hey, at least we’re not all going to be there together,” I said.

“That’s a blessing!”

“I’d say so, too. I mean what brother and sister would want to watch ... Oh! Yeah, right, us. Never mind,” Angie giggled.

Jane shook her head. “Definitely not in the same world I used to live in. And I work with crazy people!”

“Gene might want to watch. Probably wants to. We decided that was okay. But not Steve, too. Then it’s a live sex show.”

“Shoot me now!” Angie and I laughed. Plenty. “Okay, I will switch subjects. The game today. This one you know?”

“Want me to tell you?” I said.

“Sure. Too late to bet, I think.”

“I know. I placed mine a month ago.”

“Of course you did.”

“Hey, like I said, it’s the only sports bet this year where I’m sure I know the answer. After this it’s educated guessing. Anyway, the 49ers win and Joe Montana is the MVP. I think it’s close. Don’t quote me on that if I’m wrong — it’s been forty years since they played this game in Steve time.”

“That hurts my head to think about.”

“That’s why I waited to bet. I didn’t remember the regular season, but when I saw the playoff brackets, then I knew it had to be the Niners. Who I really don’t care for.”

“Do I want to know why?”

“I lived in the San Francisco area for a while, a decade from now. Their fans are horrible.”

She rolled her eyes. “Again, this hurts my head a bit. That’s something that might never happen, of course.”

“Of course,” Angie said. “Anything in our personal future is written on sand. The big picture is much more concrete, at least until we butterfly-effect it. Inadvertently or not.”

“Butterfly effect?”

I laughed. “Oh, that. It’s a phrase that’s more well-known later, I guess. It comes out of Chaos Theory, which, believe it or not, will be an important area in mathematics before long. The name comes from the conjecture that a butterfly flapping or not flapping its wings in one place, could, in theory, produce a tiny change in the wind that becomes a bigger change that becomes a bigger change that becomes a hurricane. You could never pin it down, but if, for instance, a time traveler stomped on the butterfly...”

“Then a hurricane goes away. Wait! I read that! A long time ago.”

“A super-early version of the idea is in a Ray Bradbury story from the ‘50s. One of the Chaos Theory guys lifted it for his paper.”

“That’s like what you described as ‘ripples’.”

Angie nodded. “Yeah. For instance, take Gene. This time, I’m Gene’s girlfriend. Either he didn’t have one, or he had a different one. Either way, he’s different. It might affect his parents as well, especially if he didn’t have one. If he did, her life is different, too. Maybe she’s with some other guy. Maybe they’ll marry. Maybe Gene and I will marry instead of whoever else he married.”

She shook her head. “And you carry this with you every day. I mean, everyone does, I suppose. We believe our decisions matter. But you both are aware of worlds where these things never happened as a concrete reality, not as just a might-have-been.”

“Peripherally aware. We know our own histories, but neither of us knows what Gene was like before junior year nor after graduation. And it’s only me, from my first time, that knows that much. Angie never knew him.”

“So ... wait. Junior year?”

“Yeah, I flipped the relationship. It’s happened more than once. Remember, my first time, I started Debate in my junior year. Gene and Sue were veterans. This time I was a veteran, gave Gene a leg up, and may have helped recruit Sue, though I think she’d have joined, anyway. But who knows?”

“Headache!” she laughed. “And of course, the places you were, you aren’t, now.”

Angie smiled. “Yeah. I’m not in high school in Illinois. None of those people even knows me. I skipped a grade in this reality, but not in the other. That made up for losing my first freshman year this time. So, none of the few high schoolers I met were my friends the other time. And Steve’s dropped D&D for over a year, so his absence there has had whatever effect it would have for a long time.”

“And my former best friend presumably has the rest of our mutual friends, minus me.”

“I’m sticking with what I said before. I think it’s remarkable that you’re settled and happy and convinced me, for a year, you were ... well, not regular teenagers, exceptional ones, but still teenagers. Mature, but not ... well, what you are.”

I shrugged. “We are regular teenagers, mostly. I keep saying that. We have unusual memories, but in our personal lives, we’re fifteen and we don’t know what effect our actions will have. We can do some things, like win a bunch of money on the Super Bowl, but mostly ... well, for instance, I never attended a single debate tournament that I’ve attended this time. It’s not like I have secret inside knowledge that lets me beat the system. I knew Sue and Gene and knew they were quality people, but they’re quality people anyway. It’s not so big a difference.”