Chapter 1

“I don’t care!” Tanya cried out. Frank held her tightly while she beat on his chest with her fists. “That’s my daughter inside her!” She broke down again, weeping hysterically.

Frank held her tightly while she sobbed. ‘This whole family has gone fucking nuts!’ Frank thought to himself, furious and upset and not knowing who to blame.

His grandson’s new wife had collapsed while she was being introduced to Jake and Béla, and now Béla was acting almost as weird as Tanya. She was completely unwilling to help anyone while she stood guard over her ‘grandmother!’

Finally, Béla allowed her husband and her stepson to carry Tabatha inside. Béla and Tabatha were alone in the bedroom now, Béla having chased everyone else out. She sat, perched in the middle of the bed, protecting Tabatha until she awakened.

Suddenly, Frank Junior burst through the front entrance and into the living room where the others were gathered.

“I got your call, Dad,” he said hurriedly. “I got here as fast as I could ... What happened? Is Mom all right?”

“Son, I don’t even know where to begin,” Frank said, feeling helpless. “I suppose you should go and check out your nephew’s wife first. Her name is Tabatha and she’s in the bedroom. And be careful! Béla’s on the warpath! She won’t let any of us near either of them!”

“She’ll let me,” Frank Junior assured his father. “She trusted me with her childbirth – she’ll trust me with anything!” He walked quietly to the bedroom door and tried to open it. It didn’t open. It wasn’t locked. The handle turned – it just didn’t open.

‘Béla’s holding it shut with her mind, ‘ he realized, then knocked gently. “Béla, sweetie, open the door. It’s Doctor Frank. Remember me?” There was movement inside, then the door opened a crack. It closed in his face, then he vanished!

Frank, Tanya and both Jakes heard a startled yelp from inside the bedroom as ‘Doctor Frank’ rematerialized on the other side of the door.

In the meantime, Tanya had stopped her hysterical crying. Frank gently lifted her head off his shoulder. “Hey, honey,” he said, quietly. He kissed her tear-streaked cheek.

“I’m all right,” Tanya said quietly, her voice sounding weak and shaky.

“Wanna talk about it?” Frank asked.

“Talk about what?” Tanya asked, belligerently. “You saw what happened! She fainted and I leaned over her and she opened her eyes – Katie’s eyes – and she called me ‘Mom!’ Tanya was started to tear over again, and her voice was rising, sounding more hysterical. “And then in my head she asked me to sing to her and make it feel better!” she sobbed. “She didn’t remember who she was!”

“No, darling, please,” Frank pleaded as he held her tightly against him. “You don’t remember who she is...”

“No!” Tanya screamed and struck him on the chest with her fist. “She asked me who she was! She didn’t know! But she remembered I used to sing to her when she was hurt...” Tanya sobbed against his chest.

Frank held her tightly, not speaking. ‘Everything I say makes it worse, ‘ he realized. ‘All I can do is give her my support.’

“That’s all she wants, Frank,” Jake, Béla’s husband, said. ‘Your support – your love – That’s all she’s ever wanted from you, and you’ve always provided it.’ The words sounded in his mind, but not in his ears.

‘Are we mind-linked now?’ Frank asked, not knowing if he should be annoyed. ‘I can hear your thoughts. Why can’t I hear Tanya’s?’

‘The Praetor must be nearby, ‘ Jake told him. ‘I was thinking about how I could talk to you privately. This is evidently what it thought I meant.’

‘Yes, ‘ Frank thought. ‘The Praetor’s in our bedroom. It showed up a couple of days ago.’

‘It’s in the same room with Béla?’ Jake asked, suddenly more concerned.

‘Yeah, I guess it is, ‘ replied Frank. ‘Is that important?’

‘No. Maybe. I don’t really know. That could be part of the reason she’s acting so weird. That thing talks to her in her head and gives her information that the rest of us don’t have.’

‘So, what did you want to talk to me about?’ asked Frank, referring to Jake’s explanation as to why they were mind-linked.

‘Béla told me that your daughter, Katie, was lost in time and that bringing her back to the present would somehow destroy her entire world. Without Katie’s influence, Béla said, she would have died back in the seventeenth century.’

‘That sounds pretty wild, ‘ Frank replied. ‘How did she arrive at that conclusion?’

‘Believe it or not, ‘ Jake began, ‘one of her sisters – the blond one – came from the future to warn her. Whatever it was, it made such a violent difference in reality that the sister actually disintegrated right in front of Béla and Lisa.’

‘What’s your point, Jake?’ demanded Frank. ‘Do you mean I’ll never see Katie again? I’ve already accepted that. Why are you telling me this?’

‘If Katie was trapped in the past, ‘ Jake replied, thinking slowly to get it straight, ‘her ‘soul’ would eventually ‘live’ its way back to the present. It’s actually possible that Tabatha is, or rather, once was, Katie. She would have lived out her life back in the distant past, maybe more than one life. As time progresses forward, it’s logical that she would be alive somewhere, living another life, now. Perhaps even in that bedroom... ‘

‘That’s ridiculous, Jake!’ Frank fumed. ‘That girl in there is at least twenty-five! Katie hasn’t been ... gone ... that long. Stop torturing me and let it be!’

‘Don’t take me for stupid, you jackass!’ Jake snarled in his mind. ‘You’re thinking in linear terms. There’s a time loop involved here! From what Béla’s told me, there is probably more than one loop. What happened in Albuquerque – just a short time ago to us – happened a thousand years ago to the girl in that room!’

“Stop it!” Frank cried out.

Tanya jumped back and snarled in rage, thinking he meant for her to stop sniveling about Katie. “How dare you!” she screamed, picking a new target for her misery. Enraged, she launched herself at Frank.

“Mommiiieeee!” Lisa shrieked, in their minds and in their ears. Terrified, everyone instantly stopped moving!

Béla appeared next to Lisa, crouching protectively. She looked around quickly to determine what might be threatening, then put her attention on Lisa. “What is it, baby?” she asked anxiously.

“Mommy, make them stop!” Lisa cried.

“What are you doing to her?” she snarled at the men.

“They’re fighting about Tanya’s lady,” Lisa explained.

Each person in the room felt Béla’s cold and angry mind brush against theirs as she looked at each one in turn. “Fools!” Béla spat at them. Then she vanished, taking Lisa with her. She reappeared a second later, and took Tanya.

“Well, I guess that’s that!” Frank exclaimed, and sat down. He was actually relieved that Béla took Tanya off his hands for now. He was fighting a losing battle with his own sanity trying to handle her grief and upset.

“What do you mean, Gramps?” Jake Hedron asked.

“She’s gone off the deep end,” Frank explained with a sigh. “They’ve all gone nuts!”

Jake Pestova laughed. “You think so? I think Béla was restraining herself admirably! She could have killed all of us just by thinking it for threatening her daughter!”

“How do you live with that?” Frank wanted to know. “Don’t you worry that you might find yourself enslaved? Or even worse? Her powers have become godlike!”

“I love her!” Jake protested. “And even though I know that wouldn’t protect me if she thought I needed to die, I’m not about to leave her – I’ve been without her too long!”

“Besides,” he continued. “Béla fought for dozens of years to come back to me. And I don’t think she’d actually hurt any of us. She considers us her family.”

“She fought for dozens of years to come back to you,” Frank began. “And if I believe you, then Katie’s fought for a thousand years to come back to us.

“Tell me,” he said, talking to his grandson now. “What do you think about all this? The girl is your wife, after all.”

“You’re asking me?” Jake Hedron asked. “I don’t have a clue. It’s ... possible, I suppose. I mean ... if you look at it in the proper perspective. Tabatha is an Empath. Something told me right then that she was special. She even told me she’d been looking for us – me – this family – her entire adult life.

“I’ve met Aunt Katie,” Jake continued. “I didn’t know her well, and I never noticed a similarity between Tabatha and Aunt Katie. But, I suppose it’s possible...”

“That is the most lackluster bit of non-reasoning idiocy I’ve ever heard!” Frank exclaimed. “How did you ever become Chairman of Tomlin?”