-Epilogue

 

            They had spent the next—how many could it have been?  Five or six or more?—several hours working to convince the workers that Joey was who he was and that all of them were here for the exact reason that they were here.  Of course, that wasn’t what took up the whole of the time; a simple explanation was obviously not enough to convince a group of highly skilled researchers that some kid would really be the guy who would begin the Time Travel Project.  Anyone else would have immediately shunned the idea, and the researchers up in the top room of the building seemed to have a hard time believing it at first.

            Then came the blood and DNA tests.  Using devices like the one used by the police Yoshies Olivia had confronted much earlier, they took some time to figure out Joey’s identity scientifically.  The same procedure was performed on Tiffany as well.  And for nearly the whole time, Yoshata sat out in the upstairs hall as if it were a waiting room.

            Now she sat in the same place, leaning against the wall near the door to the Universe Mapping System room.  Joey had fallen asleep beside her—the past hour had required only Tiffany to stay in the room with the others—and she had little else to do but sit back and look at the sunshine peering through the glass door.  It was coming from the large windows in the Universal Mapping System room, telling her that it now officially daytime.

            She began humming a tune that had been stuck in her head for the past five or so minutes.  She was humming quietly to keep Joey from waking up (He’s been awake for nearly twenty-four hours to this point, after all, she thought) and thinking thoughts that were just as subtle as the tune in her head.  Things seemed not as important now as they had when Olivia was around; this was probably because Olivia no longer was around.

            What is that tune? her mind questioned.  Not an important question, but her mind tried hard to answer it all the same.  It gave her a hint with a subtle memory:

            “…This is really weird elevator music.  It seems kind of familiar….”

            Joey’s voice, shortly followed by Tiffany’s:

            “Yeah.  It’s the Yoshi’s Island National Anthem tune.” 

            “Oh yeah….”

            That was what she was looking for.  That tune was the Yoshi’s Island National Anthem tune, and for some odd reason she had recalled it now—over a day later than she had actually heard it in an Orange Springs Hotel elevator.  Such a random recurrence…especially after all they had gone through.

            But I suppose that if you’ve gone through as much as me, Joey, and Tiff have, anything can happen, she reasoned.

            She continued the humming, still unable to get it out of her head.  Was it all just out of boredom?

            Probably…this hallway was a waiting room, even if it had no magazines or other things to do.  While there were highly educated workers in the next room, and while they were performing blood tests to figure out if there was anything wrong, they weren’t doctors, and this was no hospital.

            And speaking of which, Yoshata began thinking as she stopped her humming, when will get these bruises fixed up?

            The cuts on her legs were still causing pain on a certain level of consciousness—her forehead cut was still a bit noticeable, as well, although all pain there had left much earlier—and she was hoping that one of two things might happen soon.  Either the guys in the next room bring me a few bandages, or we get to leave this place and go back home.  And that would be nice.

            Indeed it would.  Home—that is, the year 2003, sometime in the fall—seemed so close now.  Closer now than it had when she and Tiffany had paid a mandatory visit there, in fact.  Yes, now that the antagonist of their adventure was gone, there was little left to do but wait.

            And even waiting seemed pointless, for in some deep part of her mind, Yoshata already knew that they would obviously be granted a way to get back home.  Why?  Well…if they didn’t end up getting back home, then their hard work would have been for nothing.  And that was simply—how can it be put?—against the rules of what they were doing.  Their whole ordeal in escaping Olivia would be thrown aside if that were to happen.

            But I know that that won’t happen, Yoshata told herself, now caught in a whole new branch of thinking.

            It’s been…it’s been about four days since we met Tiffany and started running away from Olivia.  How could that ever be possible, though?  We know each other so well…the three of us have become such tight friends over this time, and…that just doesn’t happen in such a short time, does it?

            Normally, such things do not happen in such a short time; however, there was something special about Tiffany, and something special about the circumstances of the time they had spent with her.

            Perhaps it does.  Perhaps if someone spends time with people like Tiffany, working together to stop people like Olivia, they can become close friends no matter how short their time together is.  Maybe that’s true…because I know that Tiffany has become a good friend to Joey and me.  She’s been great, even if so much of her time was spent working to protect Joey.  And for that, I hate having to face the fact that we’ll have to leave her soon.

            Not long now…not long before our last day of this whole thing is over.  And to think that back home, this whole trip’ll have taken only a little over a day.

            Yet another strange phenomenon incorporated into this whole time travel bit.  Yoshata also noted that it was because of this phenomenon that Joey was sound asleep and she wasn’t.  But it would pass, of course; after a few days back home, their sleeping schedules would go back to normal, and they could both get to work forgetting about their entire visit to the future.

            With the exception of Tiffany, thought Yoshata.  They most certainly could not try to forget Tiffany, after all they had gone through with her.  That would be like deciding to leave a friend that never did anything wrong to you.

            In fact, it’s sometimes hard to even forget those that do wrong you.

 

            Within the next thirty minutes—or something around that; Yoshata hadn’t been really counting—Yoshata felt like taking a nap herself.  There was nothing to do but wait…what were those guys doing in there, anyway?  They were taking so long, and Yoshata wished that she could at least be in there to hear what was going on.  But I’ve already told them my view on this whole story, she thought, a bit sadly.  Joey too.  So now they just need our expert in there, explaining the unexplainable to them.

            She couldn’t fall asleep, however; she didn’t want to be dozing off when something really big began to happen.  It wouldn’t be too long before it happened, she was sure of it.  Then Tiffany would come out with the good news and—

            The secure glass doors to Yoshata’s left swung open, and out stepped Tiffany.  She was followed by six other workers in the building: five researchers / technicians from the Universe Mapping System room and the familiar communications operator from the room downstairs.  Now it was time to go.

            “There’s a time for everything.”  Those were Olivia’s words from her dream, once again popping up with some strange relevance.  “A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to part with; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace; a time to heal—”

            Yes, a time to heal.  That fit this situation.  And, strangely enough, it was just before the last item in Olivia’s list: a time to kill.

            She stood up as Tiffany walked over to her, still rolling the thought around in her head.  I suppose it was a time to kill a few hours ago, when Olivia was around…so now it’s the next thing from the end.  But then…that would mean that after peace, there would be war.  So that makes no sense.

            As Yoshata dismissed that idea, Tiffany spoke to her, finally smiling a truly noticeable smile.  “They’ve verified that Joey is really Joey.  We’re free to go, as long as they take us to a time machine first.”

            There was little more that she needed to say.  Yoshata started to wear a grin just as real as Tiffany’s was.  She needed to say nothing; all Yoshata had to do was either carry Joey around or wake him up.  And although she was sure he really deserved a good night’s sleep right now, she also thought that he deserved to be awake for their last few moments with Tiffany.  Tiffany deserved that, too.

            “Hey,” the communications operator piped in.  “Get him to come along…the sooner we do this, the better.”

            A few of those standing behind him silently agreed.

            Yoshata and Tiffany did as the operator told them.  They woke Joey up, and he came along with a good amount of complacency.  He was awake enough; the few hours of sleep he ad would be sufficient until he could get to a bed in his own house.  That’d be nice about now, he thought as he rubbed his eyes.

 

            They were headed down to the elevator.  From there, the six workers planned to take Joey, Yoshata, and Tiffany down to the Projects room on the storage floor.  There were plenty of time machines there, and that would likely be where they’d find the safest one to use.  That’s where they all were going; however, Tiffany remembered something important as they all entered the elevator.

            “Wait,” she uttered as the elevator moved down.

            One of the workers turned to her.  “What?” he asked.

            “I haven’t told you about this…but we have to go to the Orange Springs Hotel.”

            There was a pause for a moment.  “But don’t—” the worker began, but he was interrupted by Tiffany.

            “I know, but we really have to go back there; I’ll explain on the way there, if you can drive all of us to the hotel.”

            A small period of chatting amongst the group of workers ensued.  When the elevator was at the bottom floor, they finished talking, started the elevator’s trip back up, and turned to Tiffany and her friends.  “All right,” began one of them.  “We’ll take you there.”

 

            They had soon reached the building’s entrance floor, and not long after that, they reached one worker’s silver SkyCar.  They clearly could not all fit into the car; thus, four workers of the Project (the communications operator included) stayed behind, and the other two got into the front seats of the vehicle.  After checking if the five of them were all ready, the driver started up the car and lifted it into the air.

            I dunno how they learn to do this so fast, Yoshata questioned, although she was far from jealous of it.

            She, Joey, and Tiffany sat back as the SkyCar went up and started driving on.  To Tiffany, it felt great to not have to drive for once.  To Yoshata, it felt great to know that cars like this wouldn’t be around for another twenty years when she got back home.  To Joey, it felt great to be alive and headed home.  Finally.

            They all shared the last thought, of course.

 

            As it had in the beginning, time seemed to go much quicker for the three friends.  The time it took for them to drive from the building to the Orange Springs Hotel seemed like only five minutes, and during that time, everyone in the car was almost completely silent.  Many of them (maybe all of them) were deep in thought, with the two Project workers pondering this increasingly unusual situation and the Yoshies in the back seat thinking of the hopeful end to their time here.  There was a lot to think about, really: What had happened during the past few days was a phenomenon worthy of investigation (for the workers back at the T.T.P. building) and a life-changing experience (for Joey, Tiffany, and Yoshata).  And there was work waiting for both parties at the end of this experience: much research that had to be done, and many events that would best be learned from and forgotten.  It probably wouldn’t be hard work if they were determined, either.

            The familiar hotel loomed over them once again as the SkyCar drifted towards the parking lot.  The driver didn’t bother to drive up to the SkyCar parking zone; he just parked it on a ground lot.  Then everyone stepped out of the car.

            There were a couple of the hotel’s security guards standing around near the entrance doors.  Apparently, Tiffany’s theft of the red SkyCar didn’t go very unnoticed.  But even so, they were free of punishment for their actions; they were free from practically everything now that they were free from Olivia.  And the sooner they escaped from this universe, the better.

            “I’ll explain now,” began Tiffany as the group stepped through the entrance doors.  She led the other five through the lobby and into the hallway.  Rian wasn’t at the desk at this time…although none of them took the time to check anyway.

            They walked down to the elevator, with Tiffany still leading the group and the conversation.  She was giving a summary of why they were here and how a time machine had made it into their room.  Since she didn’t know how Olivia had managed to steal a time machine or how she had gotten into their room—this was one of the few times when that actually became important in her mind—she had to say that she really didn’t know.  It wasn’t the best thing to say…but it wouldn’t suddenly make these guys not believe their first story, and Tiffany truly had no idea how Olivia had done what she did.

            “…So, when we opened the door to our room,” Tiffany continued as she pushed the button to the top floor, “Olivia was there waiting for us.  We were all very tired—Joey still is, as I’m sure you’ve noticed—so we weren’t prepared for her surprise.  She threw me and Yoshata into the time machine, and she closed it up when we went through to the other side.  And if I’m correct”—the elevator stopped at the eighth floor, and the doors opened—“the machine should be in the same place it was; as far as I know, Olivia left it there once she had Joey, since I didn’t see any trace of it outside the building.”

            The six of them stepped out of the elevator, and Tiffany continued leading them to their room.  “So, you’re saying you’re not sure if this time machine will even still be in your room?” asked one of the Time Travel Project workers.  He sounded a bit doubtful.

            “That’s true.  However…I’m pretty sure that it’ll be in there,” Tiffany replied.  “My reasoning would be that I don’t think Olivia expected us to survive her.  And I know that isn’t the best reason that I could think of, but I still believe that the machine’ll be in our room.”

            “Where is your room?” asked the other worker.

            “…We’re there.”  Tiffany stopped at the door to Room 243.

            “Is it locked?” Yoshata asked.

            “I doubt it.”  She tried the door and found that it was unlocked, as she had expected.

 

            They all stepped into the room and found that the time machine was, indeed, still there.  That was, to say the least, a good thing.  It was the portal home, and they could now safely step through it.

            Joey and Yoshata were the only two who fit the category of they, however; Tiffany would be leaving to her own home soon.  This was yet another special time: a time to part with.  And the three of them knew that it could very well be the hardest part of their journey.

            Why?  Because while Joey and Yoshata were going home together, Tiffany would go back to her own life, where she possibly had no other friends.  What did she have to go back to besides her own family and her own life?  Not as much as her two friends had…and that was what made it somewhat difficult for Joey and Yoshata.  Pity for Tiffany, and a friendship that seemed like it would be broken the moment the portal closed on them.

            But…could it be possible that they might see Tiffany again?

 

            The machine was re-plugged and set up again within minutes.  Tiffany gave the workers the paper she had shown them before: her universe number.  Once that was typed in, the coordinates were set, and the universal portal was opened, revealing the intersection of two ever-familiar roads.  “Everything’s ready,” one worker announced quietly.

            Not quite, thought Tiffany, not yet crying but becoming sad.

            “Wait,” she uttered, although Joey and Yoshata hadn’t even turned to leave.  She turned over to the two workers standing at the machine’s controls.  “Leave the portal opened for a few minutes…I’m gonna be with them for a little while, and then I’ll come back through to here.”

            The two workers understood and agreed.  Tiffany wouldn’t take long.

            She led Joey and Yoshata through the portal to 2003.

 

            It was an autumn day in 2003, but it had the appearance of a summer day.  The sun shone brightly overhead, causing the clouds around it to glow with what looked like a heavenly radiance.  The trees were hit with the sun’s light, looking lively and beautiful; the sun made everything look more beautiful, including the shade cast by it.  There was a cool breeze passing by today, and with the sun it made what seemed like a perfect balance of temperature.  Yoshata and Tiffany, who had been here one day before this one, thought that the cloudy sky and cold weather must have eventually changed into this.

            Tiffany wished she could stay longer with these two—they were the greatest friends she knew—but she knew that this couldn’t be long.  This would be the last time she would talk with them before she had to go back to her own home.  And of course she missed that…but….

            …But what I wouldn’t give to have both of those things, she finished.

            She turned back to Joey and Yoshata, who were standing closer to the portal.  The sun was shining upon them as well, giving their eyes and skin a beautiful glimmer.  They both smiled weakly at her, showing that they were just as sad—and just as hopeful for getting home—as she was.  They had already begun to tear up a tiny bit, which Tiffany hadn’t done yet.  However, when she tried to find a way to say goodbye to them, she began to cry as well.  Whichever way she tried to look to find a starting sentence, she found the same thing: Well, this is it.

            So she finally chose to go with that.  “Well…I guess…this is it….”

            “Yeah,” Joey and Yoshata agreed solemnly.

            “I…I wish I didn’t have to leave you guys…but it’s really no use trying to avoid reality.”

            “Look at what it did to Olivia,” Joey remarked.

            Tiffany gave a small smile.  The sun shone upon her as well, magnifying her smile and the teary areas under her eyes.  “Yeah…and now that I’ve done my job in stopping her, I have to finish this with what I planned to do: go back home.  I didn’t think I’d become so close to you two—after all, we’ve only spent…three or four days together—but I have somehow.  I’ve become really close to you.  And now leaving you is much harder than I had once expected it to be.  But…well…how should I say it?”

            Yoshata smiled a bit.  “There’s a time for everything,” she said, beginning to quote Olivia in a somewhat singsong fashion.  “A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to part with; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace; a time to heal…and—and another time, which is past us now.”

            Tiffany smiled back, but she was starting to cry again.  Joey and Yoshata slowly followed her in action.  “Time to part with,” she said simply.  “And if only there were a time to return…but that’s not in the proverb.”

            She walked over to them, and they all shared a group hug.  It was a sad time for them; they were all crying enough to be noticed, although being noticed meant nothing right now.

 

            It seems that sometimes, when we finally have what we’ve been waiting for, there remains with us an empty feeling, a feeling of incompleteness…a feeling that makes happy endings less happy than they should be.  Perhaps this is the feeling of reality; perhaps it is longing.  Or perhaps it is the sometimes burdening feeling of knowingness.  Knowingness—the realization that everything in the world that we anticipate passes and that nothing good in this world lasts forever.  Knowingness, which makes summers stop lasting forever and days stop being long and beautiful.  Knowingness, which speeds time up as one grows.  And just as time cannot be stopped, knowingness cannot be stopped either.

            And just as the past can sometimes not be changed, knowingness cannot be reversed.

 

            It was knowingness that told Tiffany that it was pointless to try and remain here.  Perhaps she could eventually go on with her life as she had before this.  Perhaps she could take from this experience the only thing that made knowingness useful: understanding.  And perhaps Joey and Yoshata could do the same.

            But at least they have each other, thought Tiffany, feeling a tiny bit jealous for a second.

            When they were finally finished with their group hug and their crying, Tiffany turned to walk back through the portal.  Before she stepped through, she looked back at them and gave them a smile.  How bright the sun makes them look! she thought to herself, still giving them a final farewell gesture.  They were still crying a bit.  So was she.

            But with knowingness, there came a hope.  A small hope, which said that maybe one day she could see them again.  It was a small hope, of course…but it was practically all she had.  She walked through the portal and turned back to see them one last time.

            With her small hope in mind, Tiffany watched the image of her two greatest friends dissolve away.  It disappeared and showed nothing but the wall behind the time machine.  It was as if the door to a familiar year and a familiar place had never existed at all.  But the two great friends behind that door did exist, and would exist.

            I will never forget, Tiffany told herself, as another image began to appear in the portal.

 

            Joey and Yoshata were silent for what seemed like hours.  Now that their friend had left them through a disappearing doorway, time was slow again.  They both cried for a short while longer, now almost wishing that Olivia had continued chasing them.

            When they were finished, they both looked at each other.  Neither smiled, in spite of the evidence around them showing that they had won.  It didn’t feel like winning at all…no, it felt more like how Tiffany had said it: This was just finishing what Tiffany had come to do, and it seemed harder than any other part of her job.  There was no guarantee that Tiffany would ever come back, either; this made everything even worse.

            But this was as Olivia had told Yoshata: a time to heal.  They would heal from their sad memories of Tiffany.  And when that happened, there would be a time of peace.  Perhaps this wouldn’t be so bad after all.

            Yoshata began to smile as she thought about it.  “I know it’s sad now,” she said to Joey, “but…but eventually, our memories of Tiffany won’t be that sad anymore.  And maybe this isn’t the last time we’ll see her.”

            Joey nodded lightly.  “I guess so.  And I hope that we do see her again.”

            It didn’t seem likely to happen…but like it was with Tiffany, it was just about the only hope they had if they wanted to ever see their friend again.

            “Well, I’m gettin’ tired,” Joey said, and yawned.

            “Yeah,” Yoshata agreed.  “We’ve all had a tough few days, and I’m sure it’ll take a little while longer than that for us to get back into everyday life again.”

            I’m sure the time to heal will take a while, she thought to herself.

            Joey gave a little smile, showing that he would heal as quickly as he could; in time, Tiffany would only be a very fond memory of a very wonderful friend.  Yoshata smiled back.  “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow,” she called to him.

            “Yep, I’ll see you too!” Joey called back.

            For one brief moment, Yoshata felt as if everything already were back to normal…as if this had never happened at all.  But then, everything came back to her, and she knew better.  It was sad that Tiffany was gone—it always would be, on some level—but there was still hope.  And if that hope was worth nothing and if Tiffany was bound to never see them in their present state again, there was still her memory.

            With those things, now was the time to heal.  A time to heal, and then a time for peace.

 

            Yet not all could be healed.  Peace doesn’t last forever, and healing can sometimes only be temporary.  If her plan worked, then her purpose might still be fulfilled.

            Olivia wasn’t dead.  Not dead, but trapped—trapped inside the universe of an old world, where she was the only living creature of her kind in the area.  Her original plan hadn’t worked; Joey and the others were still alive, somewhere, and she had ended up being the victim of her own plot.  And there was no way out.

            I’m going to die, she thought to herself.  But for some reason, she didn’t seem to care.  Perhaps it was because she was too busy putting together the pieces of the puzzle around her.  A strange assortment of objects lay in the dirt around her: several pens, pieces of paper, and a container for some fragile item.  She had no idea where these objects really came from, and she didn’t really care.  But she knew she could use these things; she just wasn’t sure how.

            She ran over to the container and pulled the lid off.  She dipped her hand inside—her hand stung horribly now, giving her a terrible reminder of her failure—and pulled out the fragile item.  It was nothing important to her; no, she was concentrating on the box itself.  “This should help,” she muttered, lifting it up.

            Next, she walked over to where the fuel pipe had been cut in half—black oil had seeped out of it and polluted the ground—to pick up one of the dropped pens.  With one in her right hand, she picked up a piece of paper from the ground and began writing.

            She would take the container and her written message to a special location.  The location, as she knew, wasn’t far from where she stood now.  And once she got there, she would secure her written message in the box and bury the box.

            It’ll be a time capsule designated for many, many years in the future, she schemed.  I know that they’ll begin an excavation there sooner or later…and when they do, they’ll find my message.  And then….

            …Then, a time for war.

            She finished writing her note, and then she placed it on top of her secure container, carrying both away.  Things were going to change, even if not by her own hand.

            I’m going to die, she thought to herself, once again not considering it as a matter of importance.  Because there is a time to die.  But soon, it’ll be time for war.  Things are going to change.  I’ll make sure of it.  They’ll know what to do when they get my message…Joey will die somehow, whether I’m involved or not.

            You’ll keep—but after peace, it’ll be time to part with.  You’ll have your time—but after peace, it’ll be time to kill.

            You’ve caused me so much trouble since my task’s beginning.  This should be enough to repay me for my good cause.  And since it wasn’t enough the first time….

            …This isn’t over.

 

November 2003–January 2005

 

“A time to kill, a time to heal, a time for peace, a time for war.”

 

~Joey



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