Sometimes, a story has a moment when one small action has a disproportionate consequence. So, what if that character didn’t make that choice? And which moment is the important one? Where is the pivot point?
Honey paused with her hand hovering over the door handle. Minutes before, she had decided that being nice was overrated and that it was time to make some changes in her life.
What if I’m wrong? she wondered. What if that wasn’t what they were talking about?
She ran through the conversation she had overheard in her mind. Could she have misinterpreted it? With a sinking feeling inside, she realised that she could have.
Her hand shot away from the door.
“What am I doing?” she asked herself, in a shocked whisper.
Honey scurried back to her room and locked the door behind herself. For the first few minutes, she paced back and forth, trying to get a grip on her emotions.
“It still hurts,” she admitted to herself, a short time later. “It hurts, and I don’t know when it’s going to stop.”
She didn’t say the words aloud, but part of her was shocked by the things she had seen and heard that night: the things the other teenagers had said and done; the liaison she had witnessed through the cemetery wall; and the things she had heard her parents say, when they didn’t know she was listening.
“But that doesn’t have to change me,” she decided. “There’s nothing wrong with me. And I’m going to be okay… someday.”
Sinking down on the bed, she let the tears come, mourning a potential relationship that now would never exist, and an innocence which had been tarnished a little. She could still be the person she had always been; she didn’t have to change.
And with that one decision, her whole future was transformed.
I can’t tell him! Helen shook her head. No, I have to tell him. This is not something I can keep from my own husband, even if he has already had another shock today! She waited, however, until they were alone in their room for the night, with their offspring all safely in their own rooms.
“Peter?”
“Hmm?” he answered distractedly, as he poked around in the closet.
She patted the bed beside her and waited for him to sit down.
“I can’t do this, Helen,” he told her, and she noticed his hands were shaking. “I can’t start again at my time of life; not this way.”
She took his hand. “I’m sure you can and that you will. But there’s something that I need to tell you; something that will affect the plans that we’re going to make and the decisions we make, too.”
For the first time in the conversation, he looked her in the eyes and she saw apprehension, fear and a certain reluctance to hear what she might say.
“I took a pregnancy test today. It was positive.”
His whole demeanour changed. Instead of the broken, worn-down man she had seen only moments before, Peter’s face lit up with joy.
“Well that’s a delightful way to end a horrible day,” he told her. “Not that this doesn’t complicate things, but we’ll find a way to cope; we always do.”
This is an alternate version of a flashback scene in Ourobouros. Because, if Honey didn’t rebel, then she never would have met Michael Parker, which means that her entire future changes.
What if Helen chose to tell Peter her news right away? Would he have made different choices?
Honey stared after Dan, wondering just what had just happened. Could she really trust that the man she was in love with had changed? Was it possible that maybe Dan knew something that she didn’t; something that would let him see things that she didn’t see?
After a moment, during which she struggled with her own tendency to trust whatever her beloved said, she came to the conclusion that yes, Dan knew things she didn’t.
“What do I do now?” she wondered, as she wandered back to the house.
“What happened to Dan? Trixie asked, when Honey entered the house alone.
“I need you to do something for me,” she requested, ignoring the question. “I need you to find out what it was that my boyfriend did that he’s saying he’s stopped doing, and find out if he’s actually stopped doing it, or if it’s all an act.”
Trixie stared at her, open-mouthed, for a long moment. “Sure,” she replied. “But what’s brought this on?”
A wry smile twisted Honey’s lips. “I got a tip-off, I guess you could say.”
“From Dan?”
Honey nodded.
Trixie looked away. “Okay. I’ll see what I can do.”
Her best friend pulled her into a hug, whispering her thanks. “And if you do find out that he’s lying to me, I’m going to need you to help me pick up the pieces of my life.”
“This is stupid,” Jim muttered to himself. “It’s obvious that the other Jim and the other Brian have got this whole thing wrong. Why should I pretend to be him?”
He marched right up to Trixie, Honey and Diana. “I don’t live here, okay?” he declared. “And I know that you’ve got unusual things about you, too, and that you know that we do, too.”
Diana began to speak, but Trixie grabbed her arm, saying, “Wait. Let’s find out, first, what he wants.”
“For you to explain what’s going on,” Jim burst out. “And to keep me away from Inga, if you don’t mind.”
“This is definitely not our Jim,” Honey confirmed, “otherwise he wouldn’t need to ask the question and he wouldn’t want us to do the other thing.”
“I just don’t understand,” Jim complained. “This looks like my house, but no one acts the way they should and there are people I don’t know.”
“That’s just typical of our Jim to not explain anything,” Trixie grumbled. “But the main thing you need to know is that the Jim and Brian from here are crazy.”
“Then, I need to stop them,” Jim decided. “Will the three of you help me?”
“Stop the Jim and Brian from here?” Trixie asked, to clarify.
Jim nodded and her lips twisted into a smirk.
“We thought you’d never ask.”
“Can I be honest with you?” Jim asked Trixie, as they sat together by the lake.
She glanced at him sideways and nodded her permission.
“I like you, but I’m not ready for there to be an us, right now,” he admitted. “Honey’s been hinting to me that you’ve been hoping for something to start between us and I’m not saying I’m not open to that, at some point in the future–”
“It’s okay,” she interrupted. “Because I’m not sure that I’m ready for that, either, and I’d hate to mess up my friendship with you over something as silly as pushing you into something you don’t actually want.”
He breathed a sigh of relief, his whole body taking on a more relaxed stance. “I was afraid you’d be offended, or hurt, or that I’d somehow misunderstood Honey somehow and that you’d laugh at me.”
She smiled. “I’d never laugh at you!”
He shrugged. “You say that now…”
“I wouldn’t.” She smiled at him again. “I’ll look forward to another conversation, one day, where we make a different decision.”
He sucked in a breath. “I’ll look forward to that, too. One day.”
Trixie looked away into the distance. Yes, that would be a good day.
This one has been edited to remove spoilers for the upcoming story Enigma. Honey made a choice whose consequences have echoed back and forth through this universe. But what if she didn’t? What if she didn’t send Dan down that path?
This one probably doesn’t make much difference. But maybe things would have been easier on Jim if he had just talked to the girls instead of trying to outsmart them.
I will admit that I did not re-read the first story before I wrote this. What if the Bob-Whites had been up-front with each other? Would they have taken that whole convoluted journey?
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