Note: Written in collaboration with Fernando.
Quote from Fernando on Jul 4th, 2019, 8:05pm:It’s been a long short day of a lot of walking, exploring and some shopping. Fernando only got the basics for Ruth and the others to start on making a dinner for the group, they will have to make do with what they got or go to town and get more of what they need. The meat and pasta lunch was good for Fernando and maybe dinner would be the same: Meat, sauce, vegetables, carbs in the form of pasta or grains, and something to drink- juice, sweet water (soda) or beer.
But he is tired, as is most likely his partner in crimes – Hondo. But he has to make do with what he has for VW Camper is not a home unless one makes it his home. Thus he lies down on his bed after taking of his outer layers off, his cat joining him on the bed. Even with the curtains drawn, he cannot get it as dark as he would want it to be. Nor does peace comes to him as he would want it to come.
The bad thing about the VW Camper is when somebody knocks on any of its doors or body panels, it echoes inside the camper. And as such, when somebody did some to knock on his side sliding door, it echoed inside.
“Fernando?”An all too familiar voice calls for him. Then the sliding side door slides open. “Are you awake, Fernando?”
Fernando lets out a disgruntled sigh before yelling, “Jeanette - Get In OR Stay Out, EITHER WAY CLOSE THE DAMN DOOR!”
Jeanette gets into the electric camper and closes the door, sitting down on the folding jump seat behind the passenger front seat.
“Now, what do you want?” Fernando almost growls at her.
Jeanette gets straight to the point. "There are two reasons I'm here. You may already know the first reason."
"Let me guess," Fernando interjects. "Your younger self met Ichigo today, which for you would have been fifty-six years ago. There was something about Ichigo that piqued your interest. You gathered enough information for you to find her in the 2040s and moved in her neighborhood to establish yourself in her memories. She does not remember you at the moment; you know what to do to fix that. You had to leave after you found Ichigo unconscious and not come back until now. If you had deviated from this, it is likely you would have never met Ichigo. After fifty-six years, you can now execute your plan, whatever that may be. What is the second reason you are here?"
Jeanette nods. "As for the second reason I'm here, I want to talk to you about correcting the timeline."
"We already talked about that earlier this week. If we stop the Spirits from interfering with the war in the Middle East, millions of people will cease to exist. We must restore the world as it was without time travel."
"I know," Jeanette responds. "We can't save everybody; I believe there is a way to preserve the existence of a lot of people. Transport them from the present time to before the Happening before we correct the timeline."
"How do you propose that we correct the timeline?" Fernando asks.
"I need for you to act as a negotiator between the Illuminati and the Spirits." Jeanette's answer was as subtle as a bomb in a china shop.
"Why?"
"The Illuminati and the Spirits are at an impasse. The Illuminati funded and needed that war in the Middle East to bring about their New World Order. The Illuminati were mad as hell when the Spirits interfered. The Illuminati does not possess time travel technology nor do they have the Spirits' military technology. If the Illuminati were to go to war with the Spirits, they would have to pick the battlefield.
"Before I continue, let pose this question. As a time traveler, why not use time travel to stop that son of the devil from murdering Cathy or prevent the crash that killed my dad?"
"Certain events of the past cannot be altered. No matter what you change to try to stop the event, another event will guarantee it will happen."
"Why is that?"
"It just is. There is no questioning how the universe is aligned. If something is to happen, it will happen. Death of millions in Pompeii and Herculean in 75AD when Mt Vesuvius erupted. Challenger Accident, Columbia Incident, Apollo 1 – events that happened that cannot be changed."
"I have not mentioned this to you before; a person kidnapped me when I was ten-years-old."
"Figures. Explains your condition and how things are different than they appear."
"How did you know I was kidnapped by a time traveler? You and Hondo are suffering from the Mandela Effect?"
"The Mandela effect is when some remember events differently from most others. Hondo and I remember an Adult Jeanette, not a Child-Adult Jeanette."
"Then you probably remember a different voice. I don't mean an adult version of my current voice. Precisely sixty seconds, according to the clock on Wilbur Robinson's time machine, is how long I was gone. Everything about my outward appearance remained the same. I removed everything I wore when I reached my destination, to preserve them, and put everything back on before returning to my time. Nevertheless, people noticed a difference in my voice."
"Jeanette, get one thing straight. To that time lime, you were gone 1 minute. Because from the looks of it made into an immortal with a ten-year-old body, have spent 50 to 80 plus here. You are not counting the time you were stuck here, and if you were not an immortal, you would have died from old age."
"Legally, I'm eighty-years-old. Add to that five years, two months and counting."
"I could leave right now and spend 100 years time traveling but arrive an hour later. To you, I would be gone for an hour. In truth, I would have been gone for 100 years. Just because you were gone for a minute on that timeline does not mean a thing, how much time you spend away, what you did, what happened to you - all that adds up to you and your time even if you return 1 minute later. Understand where I am coming from?"
"I understand. As I said, add five years, two months and counting to my legal age of eighty."
"In telling me, what you want me to do? Because in correcting the timeline, you become an adult."
"That depends on how you correct the timeline. I told you what I wanted, act as a negotiator. Before you borrow Hikaru's katana to perform surgery on Wilbur's neck, hear me out. You said why you would not prevent the crash that killed Dad."
“Your father’s accident is an immutable event. Your kidnapping can be changed.”
"In an alternate timeline, you created a paradox. It may have been inadvertent. I don't know. The Spirits, in response, created multiple universes to fix this enigma. The puzzle remained. Wilbur corrected the paradox in one move. You can go to Penn Springs and take Wilbur's head off. If you did that, we might be back to having a puzzle to solve and a lot of what I wanted will be out the window."
Fernando presents his thought on the matter. "Then let me propose this: Let this Time Line be. Let the rescue happen. Let the course of events fulfill themselves as they should. If everyone ends up as 'living happily ever after,' then nothing will be done to correct the timeline."
"The Spirits believe that the Time of Chaos was not supposed to happen. Nevertheless, according to them, it happened because they interfered with an event in time that was supposed to happen. They want to restore time to how it was supposed to happen while at the same time preserve the existence of many people who would not have been born if time is restored."
The glaring problem with Jeanette's proposal is that there will be people who will cease to exist if the timeline is corrected. Is she willing to deal with that? Even with Lain, the Spirits' artificial intelligence system, and life signs detectors, they can't with 100% accuracy determine who should and should not be sent back in time. Jeanette is starting to believe that Fernando is right.
"If the Spirits want to restore the Timeline, then they must leave Earth and never come here at all. If they believe their actions interfered, then all their actions interfered and to end that and restore things as they were, they are not to come to earth ever. Are they willing to do that? I doubt it."
"The Spirits believe one action caused the discrepancy in the timeline, not all actions. Look back before the Spirits interfered with the war. The current mass distrust of the Spirits did not exist then. The biggest complaint was from the liberals who did not like the Spirits' conservative views.
"How about act as a negotiator between the Illuminati and Spirits; not to correct the timeline. Instead, get the Illuminati and Spirits to work together to rebuild the current world? As is, neither side is willing to make compromises."
"Don't get me wrong on this statement as it is just to prove a point. It would be easier for me to strip your clothes off and have you share this bed with me right now than it would be for the Spirits to work cooperatively with the Illuminati."
Jeanette nods in agreement in that it would be easier to split the Red Sea than to get the Illuminati and Spirits to sit down at the same table. "We may be in a perpetual state of limbo. The Spirits don't want to curse Isreal through inaction and the Illuminati want their New World Order. To get their New World Order, the Illuminati needs a war which will involve Isreal."
"The Spirits have no choice. The Illuminati have no choice. They are to accept the status quo for now and the next 100 years."
"With that line of thinking, it would take an act of God to get out of the state of limbo."
"Then let God act or the people take care of themselves. People must stop relying on Spirits, organizations and superior beings for doing things for them and must do things on their own again."
Jeanette Isabelle