Epilogue

And that's what happened five years ago, when a hot August day and a power failure in the northeastern United States changed a few lives, and I changed them again, for better or for worse.

For better or for worse.

I thought a lot about what I should do when I had the power, for those few brief ( minutes / days / years / lifetimes ) when I saw everything and understood how everything fit together. And I remember the fear that came with that knowing, the terror that what I was doing wasn't right, wasn't fair. And the farther I had tried to look into the future to see what would happen, the fuzzier the little silvery pieces had gotten. So I just tried my best.

I could not fix Lauren's life, or Courtney's life, or Lisa's life. I tried to do something. Courtney Collins was a host on a gab-fest called "The View," now. I couldn't restore her family and friends, and I didn't think I had the right to take away her memories of what had happened to her. I thought, then, if I had seen things unfold correctly, that this would be a stepping stone for her that would have her end up pretty close to where she started.

Lisa Antoine was in Hollywood again. She moved there with her boyfriend, a brilliant computer programmer and designer. With no criminal record. I wrestled with letting Brock remember what happened and decided that I couldn't risk it. But he did deserve some reward for everything he'd done, and everything he'd been willing to do. I didn't write Lisa and Brock together; that's how they turned out. I did write some things into the world that gave Lisa an edge with casting directors everywhere, and I hoped this would be enough for her to feel like she hadn't lost everything. Her memories, like Courtney's, I left in place. I didn't feel I had the right to erase her journey. Both Lisa and Courtney I tried to slip back in the stream of the world as smoothly as I could. Only their memories were left as a testament to what was.