Hi. I'm Brooklyn, Stephanie's husband. I wanted to interrupt my wife's weird diary, to pose a question about her. I often wonder why Stephanie constantly appears and disappears. My wife becomes increasingly agitated every time she returns from her mysterious and terrifying adventures. At first, I thought I was having nightmares.
While, I was pondering this aloud, her brother, Doug, came through a strange transparent wall, like something out of a science fiction movie.
Although this felt like a supernatural fantasy, he convinced me that it was real. He jostled my memory with videos and questions and even kicked me to get my attention.
Doug's explanation was long-winded, so I asked him to summarize with as few words as possible:
1. Life was normal until an agency polluted a river.
2. Everyone got sick.
3. Stephanie said that the people looked like toads.
4. She had different storylines about what was happening. For example, sometimes she claimed her father was kidnapped. Believing she would find him, she went to university to study various disciplines. As an all-purpose doctor and surgeon, she could cure whatever ailment her father might have. At some point, she was able to cure the deformed people, who drank the polluted water.
5. The " kicker" is that somehow Stephanie traveled through time and space so many times that…
"Wait! What?" I yelled. "I thought you were telling me a real story. Either Stephanie really believes in reincarnation, or she has mental problems."
"No, I don't know how I forgot to mention this," Doug said. "Something extraordinary did happen, although I can't say how long it took. An especially formulated sunbeam hit the contaminated river…"
"You've got to be kidding!" I shouted. "Innumerable sunbeams hit the Earth every second."
Doug smiled broadly and replied, "This one was filtered to remove harmful elements and substances. It had a perfect balance of nutrients, which allowed it to clean and cure the lethally polluted river and everything affected by the harsh chemicals."
"A perfect ray cleansed and renewed the planet and all its inhabitants? That's not possible," I said.
"Remember when there was a beautiful ribbon of bright energy from the sun? It made everything look sparkly, hazy, and vibrant?"
"Actually, I remember a warm yellow light from the sun. It made me feel younger, healthier, and lighter," I reflected, recalling a wonderful sensation that kept growing.
"Yes! Yes!" Doug shouted happily.
"Although the new atmosphere healed everything and everyone, it also caused some problems," Doug lamented.
"What went wrong?" I asked as I came to terms with the new reality. Fear crept into my soul.
"The understanding of time and space evolved. People were able to travel through time, whether they desired to or not."
Again I yelled, "Wait! What! What does that mean?"
"Don't yell at me, Brooklyn," Doug said firmly. "Listen closely: this place is both a fountain of youth and a wishing well. The Sunwater and its steam—or something within it—recognized that Stephanie was upset and sent her back in time to confront a future problem. Unfortunately, she remains unaware of the circumstances surrounding her time travel. A recurring pattern in her experiences is that she often finds herself stuck going back and forth between the same situations. There are variations in the settings and events during these repetitions. For instance, a girl is born, grows up, goes to school, joins a group of friends, and eventually gets married. After that, the scenario frequently repeats."
"Poor Stephanie. How did this happen?"
"When you and Stephanie renewed your wedding vows, she said something embarrassing that made you cringe. The Sunwater, or something in it, transported her to the past. Stephanie needs to move out of the time tunnel so she can avoid repeatedly living her life with variations."
"What can I do?"
"Brooklyn, go to her. Lift her off the bed. Reassure her that everything is okay. Put her in a chair instead of the bed so that she can escape a time tunnel. Also, a new one won't form."
I followed Doug's instructions, and I was successful!
Stephanie transformed before our eyes, appearing twenty years younger, radiating health and strength far beyond how she looked just moments earlier.
As she awoke, Stephanie stretched and yawned as if she were 6. "Hi. What happened? I feel rejuvenated. I don't remember anything."
Doug asked her, "Are you sure?"
"I'm not sure why I'm wearing this fancy dress. I feel like I should remember the reason for all this."
Doug said, "There are two important things: 1. You are the Empress of this island, which appeared when a sunbeam hit the coast of Connecticut. 2. You have renewed your wedding vows."
Stephanie looked shocked.
When she calmed herself, she said, "Are you from the future? I'm not the Empress, nor have I remarried Brandan ↔️Brian.
"Who?" I asked. "You've said that a lot. Aside from appearing and disappearing every split second, I wondered why you keep calling out those names."
"You. I'm talking to you. Let's see:
1. I remember saying that you're my distant relative, or we're related through someone else's marriage. That's not true. We met when we got to this place. I remember now.
2. Your mother spoke the ancient Vitality Language. I speak that. Since it is unwritten, and hard for others to understand, she wrote Brandan ↔️ Brian on your birth certificate, because either name was close to your unpronounceable name."
"What is she talking about now?" I asked Doug.
"Oh, yes. After the Earth changed, people discovered that they could travel back in time. They collected a special substance called sunwater for use in the past or future. For instance, if I wanted my daughter to be cured of an ailment, I could retrieve some sunwater, bring it to her, and let her drink it.
The issue was that many people did not pay attention to which water they sampled. Most rivers weren't treated with this specific formula. As a result, instead of the sparkling golden water, your doctor sometimes scooped up regular river water, containing bits of stones and sand. On another occasion, someone attempted to correct the mistakes by putting marbles in the mother's mouth."
"Your mother's words were garbled because someone put something in her mouth?" Stephanie asked.
"Listen. Mrs. Robarts didn't write anything on the birth certificate. She was trapped in a nightmare that kept repeating itself in a time tunnel. Someone kept coming, to put something in her mouth. The person came about a minute earlier each time he wanted to make a change. The thing was, for your mother-in-law, it was a repeating nightmare. Plus, it's not
"How did my mother escape?"
Someone traveled to the past to find her and soothe her. This person instructed your mother to say, "I don't want to be here at all," clearly, firmly, and pleasantly.
"Your mother commanded the wishing well and fountain of youth to create a shield around her against time travelers," Doug responded.
Doug looked at Stephanie. Then he said, "Do you remember hearing something about this?"
"I remember now. I was told there was a special 'hard-to-pronounce language' and that we all had names that were difficult to pronounce. Each of us had a year associated with our names. I had a book to keep track of our ancestors."
"There is no unpronounceable language in this country. How can I describe this phenomenon? The year indicates the time you traveled to in the past, marking the point at which you did not return to your present. This explains why there are so many versions of you. The individuals who resemble you are not relatives; they are different versions of yourself. Similar to movies, there can be various Stephanie Robarts living their own lives simultaneously, all because of time travel."
"Doug, do you mean my life is...?"
"Look, you are real. Your memories are yours. You might remember how you got to this place. No one can take away your memories. These things happened. You can't change the events of any time. If you want, you can forget the lies that people told you."
"Okay. How do I know what happened, and what was a lie?" Stephanie asked.
Doug thought about that. Then he said, "Do you know the story about this place?"
"Yes. A man and a woman met each other here on this Southern Vitality Island. They came from different places, and they walked through the new hypnotic haze of energy from the star. They sat at the base of the mountain, as they created a language."
"Hay! That wasn't just anyone! That was you and me! We didn't "create a new language ". I yelled at my wife. This glittering atmosphere is making her silly.
"Oh. It seems like someone else, " Stephanie said surprised.
I suddenly had an idea. I found a notebook, and a pen. I went to the past, to get answers from these "versions of my wife".
I saw her having a fit as a transparent room engulfed her. Stephanie disappeared. She came back again. I said, "Hi. Calm yourself so the time tunnel won't open again. Also, move away from that spot.
Stephanie complied with me. "Here is a notepad and a pen. Please write down your troubles," I instructed.
"Whenever a lady gets married in this place, she has to work the soup kitchen a few hours after the reception. I wanted to make my food, serve it, and then have the reception. Women need our sleep. I'm in a repetitive nightmare," Stephanie wrote.
"I took the dish from her, so I could put it on a table. I hugged my wife. You don't have to do anything. We're already married. We never had a duty to do anything hours after the reception."
"Look, Brooklyn my love, it's coming to me in waves. I experienced so many things. I don't
know which scenario actually happened, as th e...."
Suddenly, a transparent, revolving cylinder appeared above Brooklyn. It lowered itself so that the man was inside it. The walls spun faster as the time tunnel lowered itself, and Brooklyn fell through the floor. A split second later, nothing was on the floor, whe re Brooklyn had been standing.
That's the first time I ever had the tunnel come like that. Normally, I just app.... Wait! I remember now! I have jumped through time a lot. I,.... Oh. I'm supposed to do something. There's a house that looks familiar.
I walked over to a white house with a bay window, green front door, and ....
Stephanie ran out of the house. She looked like she was 30. Her Redish brown curls flapped against her head.As she got closer to me, she said, "Oh! Your Majesty!"
"Hello! Stephanie! You don't have to call me that. I don't have a crown. You're ceremony was never completed!"
"What?" I'm not ...." "Oh! Oh! No! I forgot! Yikes! I hate this place! You're right, Brandan↔️Brian. I'm Stephanie, with the weird story about going down a mountain as a child. Oh! That reminds me. I was about to tell you that there's a child who had some awful experience. She ...."
"Excuse me, please! Stephanie. You are the only one who keeps a steady quantum leap in and out of this time and place," I bet she's sick and tired of getting interrupted.
"Incidentally, I'm Brooklyn. We never had a strange unpronounceable language in Vitality. Time-travelers went to the wrong date, before the changes in the river's condition, when it was normal. They scooped up regular river water, with the silt, sand, stones, and whatever. Without knowing that this was not special sun medicine water, the people gave us this stuff to drink. It's hard to talk. Wow! The things I remember, when I come to this date and place."
"Oh, right. I came here, in this transparent, sparkling