2024-09-22 “More Ideas” by Emma

I was undressing for bed, as you see, but I stopped to tell about some things that happened o’er at Merritt and Devon’s earlier.

You might‘ve seen the post from 1880 that got put to our pages where they was accounting for where all the different versions of ever’body was. Well, naturally, we was talking ‘bout that.

I wanna say we got real silly thinkin’ ‘bout 1880 Merritt sitting in a train one second, then going into a sparkly cloud and comin’ out driving a car! I sure hope he didn’t have a wreck, but Merritt said the time-shift pro’lly stopped the car.

Then Devon said, “You know what, the three of you in 1880 are the most knowledgeable people in the world about science.”

We all just stopped, and Devon went on. “If Emma 1984 took AP Chemistry, then she knows about electron orbitals and the electron cloud. And the other two would have had chemistry in college, as well. In biology… what? Genetics? Antibiotics… If they could get to the right people, they could change… life… What if they could get… like… transistors going before 1900?”

Well, the discussion on that took a long, long time, an’ then I said, “Maybe why we shifted was to put them three back in 1880 so they can make ever’thing better.”

“What if,” Merritt said, “they do something and the future we are in breaks?”

Then I said, “Well, if that’s so, they already did it, ‘cause if they are on the same world as us, it was a 144 years ago.”

Devon smiled. “She’s right about that. Emma, you are so smart.”

“I don’t feel very smart,” I said. “‘Round Merritt an’ Hannah an’ you… Engineers…”

I guess I sort of got worked up and a little teary, but Devon reached over an’ took my hand for a few seconds, real sweet, and he said, “Smart is different from educated. You have lots of intelligence and it hasn’t been ruined by teachers and professors forcing you to use it a certain way.”

Merritt nodded. “He’s right, Emma, about you being smart. Since we met, you’ve understood a lot of things long before anyone else has.”

I ain’t sure ‘bout that, but it was nice to hear.