Once Hannah (1962) and I heard from Devon about Shay’s name carved on the inside facing of the door to the attic, it was hard to concentrate on the CAD course. We took a break and stretched our legs.
“So,” Hannah asked, “does that mean this is all one timeline?”
“Maybe?” I shrugged. “But… It’s messy.”
“What about the idea that we are duplicates that Kent brought up?”
“I don’t know… That seems to… fit…” I shook my head and put my arm around her waist as turned back from looking out the window.
Hannah then shook her head. “We shifted from 1984. We’ve done the chart. There should be versions of us that shifted to 1984. What happened to them?”
I called Will and brought up the fact that Hannah and Merritt should have come to work at NY SysCo around the same time as him. He said he’d already thought of that.
“In 1984, our personnel documents were still on paper. We went to hard drive around ‘88. If they worked here after that, they would be in the system, but they aren’t. When you come in next, I’ll have you go to the dungeon and dig around.”
We assumed that was a pet name for where the old files were stored. We told him we’d be done with the training on Tuesday.
“Well,” he replied, “if either one of you doesn’t shift, we’ll see what can be found. If you both do, I’ll brief the other yous and send them…”
Hannah then looked at me. “Our parents would be… my mom would be 87. My dad… 90.”
“This is so strange,” I replied. “Copies of my parents are… in Atlanta. And the other Hannah has parents in Scranton. But… my real parents… they'd be 90 and 91…”
We talked about all the possibilities for a few minutes, then Hannah said, “Do… you think… Are we really duplicates or… I mean… you’re the same as the Merritt I’m with in 1880, right? I’m the same Hannah? I mean… it’s okay for us to have feelings for each other on both timelines, right?
I heard her question, but my mind just sort of shut down.
I suppose I was overloaded with ifs and maybes, but for the span of a couple of breaths, my mind was blank.
Hannah perceived my disconnect. “Merritt, it’s okay, right?”
“Sorry…” I said. “I… blanked out.”
“You were thinking about the question?”
“No… literally blank… I guess everything was trying to find some place to attach or something. This is all so… confusing.”
Hannah looked at me curiously. “You’re not confused about us… or… about you and the other me, I suppose I should say… Are you?”
“No,” I replied. “Not at all… we’re good together. It’s nice. It’s all good.”
“You’re sure?”
I answered true to my feelings. “Yeah… we… Me and both versions of you… We’re good together. I like how things are.”
I don’t think Hannah was entirely convinced that what I said was true.
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