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John and Sally hand their plates and utensils to the bus boy just as the waitress approaches with their dessert. "Here is your dessert - flan for the four of you. Enjoy," she says cheerfully as she sets it down on the table. Sally looks puzzled and glances at John. "Four?" she asks, as if he might somehow have the answer to this mystery. Just then, a familiar voice breaks through her confusion. "Hey John. Hey Mom." It's Penelope, casually strolling up to their table like she owns the place. Sally's expression shifts from puzzled to stern in about half a second. "Penelope? What are you doing here? And this better be a damn good reason, or you're in serious trouble, young lady," she says, giving her fourteen-year-old that look every teenager knows and dreads. Penelope, unfazed by her mother's glare, slides into the seat next to John with all the confidence of youth. "Nice to see you too, Mom," she says with just a hint of sarcasm, then leans over to give John a warm hug and kiss on the cheek.
Sally's not letting this slide. "Penelope! You know damn well you're restricted from using the booth when I'm not home, and you absolutely know you're not supposed to come to Powder Junction without supervision. So what's going on here?" Her voice has that edge that means business.
Penelope rolls her eyes with the practiced expertise that only teenagers possess. "Well, first off, I didn't come unsupervised, and second, I didn't use the booth. I came with him," she says, pointing toward Josh, who's making his way over to their table with perfect timing.
Sally's eyes widen in disbelief. "You came here with a stranger? Haven't I taught you anything?!" The shock in her voice is unmistakable.
"Stranger?" Penelope looks genuinely confused. "Mom, you've talked about Josh non-stop for years. Josh this, Josh that. Sometimes I think maybe he's my real dad instead of your ex, you know? So when he showed up and asked me to come along, I felt like I'd known him forever. Just like you said happened when you first saw him." There's something almost wise in the way she says it, despite her young age.
Sally turns her attention to Josh, and there's a mix of emotions in her voice - confusion, concern, maybe even a little hurt. "Josh? You went and got my daughter without clearing it with me first? I don't think I'm comfortable with that. I mean - well - I guess I don't even know what I mean. I'm getting the sneaking suspicion that you two are up to something. What's going on here?"
Josh's expression softens as he watches Sally slip into what he clearly finds endearing. "It's actually pretty cute watching you switch into full mommy mode like that. But like Penelope said, I feel like I've known her forever - and in fact, I have. So I guess I have the advantage here. I promised you an adventure, and Penelope's part of that, so I asked her to come along. Besides, she was dying of boredom at the lake anyway," he explains, hoping Sally won't be too irritated with what could technically be called kidnapping her daughter.
Sally takes a deep breath, and when she speaks again, there's a vulnerability in her voice that wasn't there before. "OK then, I guess that's... fine. I trust you, Josh, and I trust Penelope. But please, no more surprises like this. I'm not exactly tied together very tightly right now - emotionally, I mean - and I can't handle much more upset. Please, you guys, just be gentle with me," she asks, though she's still giving Penelope a bit of that maternal glare.
"Alright Mom, we won't rock your boat - much," Penelope says, then makes a face as she tries the flan. "What is this stuff? Flan? Now I know why Dad didn't like it. It's sweet and all, kind of yummy in a weird way, but the texture is just... icky." She's rolling it around in her mouth like she can't decide whether to swallow or spit it out. "Here Mom, you can have the rest of this. I really don't like it."
The four of them sit quietly as they finish dessert - well, three of them finish dessert while Penelope gets herself a piece of pie instead. There's a tension in the air that's hard to miss. Sally is visibly uncomfortable having Penelope there, especially with Josh present at the same time. She likes to be uninhibited when she's out with the guys, but having her teenager along forces her into that more reserved mommy mode. Meanwhile, Penelope has instinctively snuggled up next to John - her Penny Lake grandfather and safe harbor whenever she feels her mother's anxiety flare up, which has been happening a lot lately. John's more than happy to be her anchor whenever she needs him.
Josh stands up and reaches for his wallet. "The check's on me this time," he says with a smile. "Now, are you guys ready for that adventure?"
John, ever practical, raises a concern. "Don't you think we should let our food settle before we go running off somewhere?"
"That won't be a problem where we're going, I promise," Josh replies, and there's something mysterious in his smile.
Penelope's eyes light up with excitement. "OK, let's get out of here and start having some fun!"
"Actually, that won't be necessary," Josh says, and now his tone has shifted to something more serious. "For this particular adventure, we all need to hold hands, close your eyes, and let your mind go quiet for a minute. Just try to let yourself float. Trust me - I'll make sure there's no danger. It's going to feel a little weird at first, then it's going to get really weird for a while until you get your bearings. But trust me, you'll be OK. Are you ready?"
Sally's voice carries a note of concern. "This isn't going to be like the void, is it?"
"No, it isn't. It's going to be nothing like the void at all. Ready?"
Sally takes a breath. "OK, let's do it. And this better be fun, Josh. I really need some fun right now."
"Me too," Penelope chimes in eagerly.
John's voice carries that familiar authority. "Girls, hush! Let the boy drive."
Sally does her best to quiet her mind and let herself float. She's just starting to get that strange, weightless feeling when suddenly - whoosh! It's like being unplugged from her body and hurtling through space at impossible speed, swirling through a multicolored vortex that defies description. Then, like a cork popping, she's plugged back in again. Except everything is completely different.
"Mom!" Penelope's voice is panicked. "I can't see right and I feel really, really weird. Shit! Mom! I have paws, and fur!"
Sally's voice is steady but demanding. "Josh? You better start explaining this. Right now."
"OK guys, this is going to take some getting used to, but I think you'll appreciate the experience once we settle into it," Josh begins patiently. "Your level 5 human bodies are still standing at that dinner table, frozen in a moment of time. Your consciousness - your awareness - is now far, far away from there, in a completely different time and in completely different bodies. There's a family of wolves here who were taking a nap, and we've borrowed their bodies for a little while. When we speak, we're doing it telepathically, which is something wolves are accustomed to anyway, so we don't have to howl or bark at each other. They're just waking up as you take control of their bodies. No harm will come to them - when we leave, they'll just go about their business normally. That is, as long as you guys behave yourselves and don't do anything stupid."
Penelope, with the resilience and humor that only teenagers possess, can't resist. "So Mom, how does it feel to be a real live bitch?"
Sally's response comes without missing a beat. "Ask yourself, sweetie. Apparently my daughter is a little bitch too."
John's authoritative voice cuts through their banter. "Knock it off, girls. Josh went to a lot of effort to bring us here. Let's be nice and enjoy the experience. I'm having a little trouble getting up - there being paws where I expect hands and feet to be. I'm a bit wobbly, but I think I'm getting the hang of it." He stumbles around like a newborn calf at first, but after a few attempts, he finds his rhythm and starts walking like a proper wolf.
"Hey guys, come out here and check this out! This is ferocious!" Penelope calls out excitedly.
John sounds concerned. "Ferocious? You mean like there's a bear out there?"
Sally, slipping back into mom-translator mode, explains with a chuckle, "No, John. That's teenager speak for 'new, exciting, interesting.' You know how teens are - they make up new words when the perfectly good old ones work just fine."
"Ah yes, I remember," John says with what passes for laughter in a wolf. "I met you when you were fifteen, and I had to learn a whole new language just to communicate with you."
Suddenly Sally's voice cuts through the air like a whip. "Penelope!!!"
"What?" Penelope responds with that innocent tone that every parent recognizes as anything but.
"Don't 'what' me. I saw what you just did. You just sniffed his butt! What are you thinking?" Sally's voice carries that mix of horror and disbelief that only a mother can achieve.
"I dunno, Mom. It just seemed like the wolfish thing to do. I won't do it again, I promise," Penelope says, sounding genuinely contrite.
Josh steps in to defuse the situation. "Don't be too hard on Penelope. These bodies have many instinctive behaviors that just play out without our conscious thought. It's completely normal. I wasn't the least bit offended."
Penelope suddenly goes still, her head tilted. "Be quiet, everybody. I hear something. Something very interesting."
John's voice carries concern. "What is it, sweetie?"
"It's going puff puff puff, beat beat beat, really really fast. It's just up ahead, sounds like it's under that dead tree. Oh SHIT! It's moving!" And with that, Penelope takes off like a shot, kicking up snow and dust and grass in her wake. In a cloud of debris she pounces, and with a lot of shaking and some serious growling, the dust settles to reveal Penelope trotting back proudly with a limp, freshly killed rabbit in her mouth.
Sally's voice is a mixture of horror and disbelief. "Oh for the love of God, Penelope, what the hell have you done?"
"I just had the most fun of my entire life! I can't believe it. I've never killed anything before, but this is like, mega-fun. Here, you can eat this one - I'm going to look for more," Penelope says, already sniffing the air for another rabbit trail.
"Uh, Josh?" Sally's concern is palpable now. "What's going on here? I think Penelope's getting a little too into this whole being-a-wolf thing."
"It's completely normal, Sally," Josh reassures her. "Penelope's just adapting faster because she's younger and less attached to being human. We're not going to be here long enough for her to get stuck. If we stayed for an extended period, we'd all eventually turn completely into wolves - our awareness would blend with the wolf consciousness and we'd become one with it, totally forgetting we were ever human. But we're not staying nearly that long. She'll be fine. She's just an adolescent wolf right now, full of that wild wolf energy. The bloodlust and call of the wild are strong in this species, but at the same time, they're beings of high consciousness. That's why I chose them. Our consciousness is a good fit with theirs, making it easy to blend. Even though wolves sustain themselves through what looks like violence to us, and it's genuinely exciting for them, they have no concept of murder or cruelty. They're simply feeding themselves."
"Speaking of natural behaviors that just happen on their own," Sally says with motherly worry, "there aren't any adolescent male wolves around here, are there? Because I don't need Penelope having puppies anytime soon."
"Yes, there are males around, but don't worry. Neither of you are in heat, and Penelope's too young anyway, so they won't be attracted. Plus, wolves are highly social animals with complex social structures - they don't just mate wherever and whenever like domestic dogs or some humans do," Josh explains with what might be amusement.
"Well then, what now?" John asks practically. "We're here, we're wolves. What do we wolf-people do now?"
"First, let's be good stewards of these borrowed bodies and make proper use of this rabbit - and that other one Penelope's dragging up the hill. We don't want to leave our wolf friends hungry when we depart," Josh says, and there's definitely something like lip-licking in his telepathic voice.
"You have GOT to be kidding me!" Sally says incredulously.
After they finish their unconventional meal, the group heads down the hill to continue their wolf adventure. Questions are beginning to form in their minds as they explore this strange new landscape, and Josh patiently attempts to answer them one by one.
"Josh, I've got some questions," Sally begins. "I know we can't be on Earth because the rabbit blood was golden instead of red, the trees are white instead of green - which I thought was snow at first, but it isn't - and there's nothing on Earth now except plants. So this can't be Earth. But wolves? Rabbits? Did they evolve somewhere else exactly the same way they did on Earth? Where are we?"
Josh makes a sound that might be laughter and answers, "You also have to ask 'what' and 'when' in addition to 'where.' What we are is wolves, and they don't see three colors like humans do - they only see two. They can't see green at all, so trees look white to them, and red and yellow appear as the same color. Look around and you'll notice everything is in shades of blue and gold. It's actually quite a beautiful world from their perspective. Their field of vision is wider too, so you don't have to turn your head as far to see what's coming up behind you. Your depth perception isn't quite as sharp, but if something breathes or moves, your ears have already told you exactly where it is. And notice how the sun is setting and the moon is coming out, yet you can see as well as if it were high noon. These wolf eyes are designed for nighttime - much better night vision than human eyes. That's the 'what.' Here's the 'when': in this domain, they call it the year 1875. Now I bet you can figure out the 'where.'"
John's voice carries sudden recognition. "Josh, you sneaky little bastard! I thought I recognized these hills, but the colors had me confused for a while. I know where we are now. These are my old logging fields in California, in 1875. I thought I was remembering some song I'd heard years ago, but I'm really hearing it, aren't I? Listen carefully - I bet you can hear it too. That's her, isn't it? That's my Akasha singing, isn't it?"
"Grandma Akasha?! I get to meet my grandma Akasha?!" Penelope practically bounces with excitement, running in circles.
"Well, not exactly meet her," Josh clarifies gently. "I don't think she'd appreciate being approached by a pack of wolves. But we can use the natural stealth of these wolf bodies to sneak close and observe. If that's okay with you, John? This is your history, and I don't want to show any disrespect."
"I'll lead the way," John says with unmistakable excitement. "I've got my bearings now and I know exactly how to get there. This is going to be wonderful. Thanks, Josh. You couldn't have picked a better adventure."
"Oh man, this is fucking ferocious!" Penelope blurts out enthusiastically.
"Watch your mouth, young lady!" Sally fires back automatically.
"I learned those words from listening to you, Mom!" Penelope retaliates with teenage logic.
"Both you girls hush up! I don't want to have to use these fangs on your butts," John says, stopping to wait for them to catch up.
"Grandpa, you wouldn't really bite my butt, would you?" Penelope asks with just a hint of uncertainty.
Josh answers for John with amusement. "You'd better be careful. John's the alpha male in this little wolf pack, and if his instincts kick in and he needs to restore order, he will, in fact, bite your little butt. So behave yourself."
The small pack continues down the hill toward John's old stomping grounds. John leads confidently, followed by Penelope, then Josh, with Sally bringing up the rear. Normally Sally, as the alpha female, would be in second position, but she wants to keep both Penelope and Josh in her line of sight - just in case Penelope's butt-sniffing instinct, or any other wolfish behavior, kicks in again.
As they round a corner, they peek out from behind some large boulders, and the light is absolutely blinding. It illuminates the entire forest like daylight. Akasha has a fire going in the backyard - she always preferred cooking outside when possible to avoid filling the house with smoke and cooking smells. To wolf eyes, firelight at night is brighter than the sun, so they have to wait several minutes for their vision to adjust. John warns them not to look directly at any humans, because they might see the golden glow of wolf eyes reflecting the firelight and get frightened. Or worse, the 1875 version of John might grab his trusty rifle and start shooting at what he'd see as dangerous forest predators. They just want to observe without causing any disturbance.
"John, she's absolutely beautiful - gorgeous. You weren't exaggerating when you said she was pretty. Who's the young woman with her? She's lovely too," Sally asks softly.
John whispers, though it's unnecessary since they're communicating telepathically. "That's my oldest daughter, Alannah. There should be a young man here too. I think I remember this particular night. She brought her boyfriend home to meet the family. I already knew the boy from work, but she wanted to do the formal 'meet the family over dinner' thing. That's why she's helping with the cooking - she was showing off. Usually Akasha would have to practically beg to get any help from the girls, and sometimes it was easier to just do everything herself rather than fight with them about it."
"Oh wow, who's that cutie? Is he the boyfriend?" Penelope asks as a young man appears on the back porch to talk with Alannah.
"Yes, that's Jason. The boyfriend," John confirms.
"Mmm. Wow. He's gorgeous too. Your daughter's a lucky girl. He looks a little like a grown-up version of my brother Joshua," Penelope observes innocently.
Sally stops dead in her tracks and drops to the ground, her legs suddenly unable to support her. She crosses her paws and lays her head on them, her whole body trembling.
"Mom, are you OK? Are you sick?" Penelope asks with genuine concern.
Josh answers gently, "Your mother will be fine in a minute. She's just had what's called an epiphany - a sudden realization of a profound truth. There's so much going through her mind right now, and so quickly, that her body has partially shut down to give her time to process it all."
"So what's the epiphany? What truth has she realized?" John asks.
"This is going to be difficult for all of you to understand, but I'll do my best to explain," Josh begins carefully. "You've all been working incredibly hard to restore Earth so you can resume living there in human form - the form you've grown accustomed to. While you wait, you're stuck in level 5 because there's nowhere else for you to go. That's true because souls typically incarnate forward in time, most of the time. But sometimes - it's very rare - sometimes a body becomes available to receive a soul, or to facilitate the joining of two souls, in the past. One of my responsibilities, since I have access to all of time, is to assist with those transfers. They're extremely tricky because you have to be careful not to scramble the timeline.
"If you create a temporal causality loop, you can cause tremendous chaos and potentially destroy a universe or two. That's where my expertise becomes crucial - to make sure everything happens smoothly. When your Joshua died - and by that I mean when his physical form in level 5 was fatally injured - I was there. It was Joshua's choice how to handle that situation. It was an accident, completely unintended, not part of anyone's destiny. In cases like that, there are several ways to process it, including backing up time and preventing it from happening at all. Many of you have experienced those sudden moments of pause - where you suddenly stop what you're doing, or turn around, or change direction, and realize that if you hadn't, you would have died. You probably did die, but we reversed it and fixed it by sending a small message into the past, just a feeling, just enough to get you to stop or move out of danger's way.
"Joshua, remembering more of who he really was, knew of an opening for a soul in 1855, and that it would be a stable transfer. He also knew that this new life would become intimately connected with people he already knew and loved. Rather than continuing as Joshua in level 5, he chose to come here, to join with and become the person we've just seen. He doesn't remember any of this now - he's become this new person completely, and that's all he knows. But the essence of what he was is still there in the background, part of the foundation of who that young man is and will become. That's why Penelope could see the resemblance, and why Sally could feel it. The Joshua you knew still exists within Jason. Jason just doesn't know it."
"Wow, that's quite a story, Josh. It's going to take me a while to wrap my mind around it, especially since I actually knew the boy back then," John says thoughtfully. He's moved to lie down next to Sally, putting his head close to hers for support. Her body feels hot, like she has a fever. John recognizes that Sally's mind is in turmoil and her wolf body is responding by increasing its metabolic rate. "This girl's going to need some time to digest all this. Her mind and body are both in chaos. I can feel it," he says, trying to be as supportive as possible. The four lie quietly, watching the domestic scene at John's old house while giving Sally the time she needs to process everything.
After what feels like an eternity, Sally gathers her strength and rises. Josh and Penelope approach to offer support, but they're met with a low, menacing growl and bared teeth. Sally's hackles are raised and she's in an attack stance, ready to strike if they come any closer. They freeze. Without warning, Sally turns and gallops into the darkness, disappearing from view. The three remaining wolves stand in shocked silence.
"Josh? What's wrong with my mom? Has she gone completely wolf?" Penelope asks, fear creeping into her voice.
"Not yet, anyway. But we can't stay here much longer or that could happen. She could transition from being a human spirit to being a wolf spirit. Given the pain she's experiencing right now, that might seem very appealing to her. Don't worry though - I'll get us out of here before that happens."
"What if she won't come with us? Even before my mom became a literal bitch, believe me, she's always been a stubborn bitch. What if she just stays out there and doesn't come back?" Penelope's worry is palpable.
"If that happens, then that's what happens," Josh says simply. "Sally has placed her future into temporal flux, so from this perspective, I honestly don't know what will occur. Penelope, your parents aren't typical earthlings. They were highly evolved beings before manifesting in this universe, and Sally is an extremely powerful entity - much more so than she currently remembers. Part of her frustration has been her inability to control her reality, which was never a problem where she came from. When Joshua died, every fiber of her being told her she could bring him back, but her efforts were frustrated. Now she knows why.
"Joshua didn't want to come back, and I helped him stand in the way of her will to prevent her from bringing him back anyway. That's an enormous amount for her to process - she feels betrayed and abandoned. Give her some time, though. I'm confident she'll come back and be the Sally we all know and love."
"Hey you guys, come down here and help me with this thing," they hear Sally's voice calling from the distance. They can see a pair of golden eyes reflecting the firelight, so they use those as beacons to find her in the darkness. Sally has found and killed a young deer. Its throat has been torn out and the amber blood is still steaming in the chilly night air. "Sorry guys, I just got so angry I had to go kill something. Anyway, this is a tender one, so our wolf hosts will get a really good meal before we leave."
"So are you OK now, Mommy? I was about to start crying I was so worried about you," Penelope says, licking her eyes with her wolf tongue.
"No, honey, I'm not OK," Sally says with brutal honesty, "but I'm dealing with it, and I have a plan. The one thing I asked you guys before agreeing to come on this trip was no big surprises. And then you dump this shit on me? I'm not very happy with any of you right now, especially you, Josh. You knew better - or you certainly should have known better. Then, to top it all off, you bring Penelope along. Josh, you're an all-knowing being. You knew when you manifested the way you did that I would fall in love with you. Why didn't you come as some wrinkled old man in a white robe?
"So now I'm standing here with my emotions scattered like this gutted deer, desperately needing my baby boy back in my arms, looking to you to help fill that void, and instead I'm presented with the sight of you and Penelope making googly eyes at each other. You have got to be the rudest, most completely inconsiderate person God ever created. So thank you, Josh. Thank you from the bottom of my shattered and broken heart for totally fucking up my life. Now I can't have you, and I can't have Joshua either, and I find out you were there when it happened. You were there and you didn't do a damn thing to stop it. After that, you had the power to reverse it and you talked Joshua out of it. Oh my fucking God, Josh. Did you for one second ever consider my feelings? What you were doing to me?
"While in this wolf body I've been remembering a few things, and I'm done with all your shit. John, I love you - take care of my Penelope for me. And whatever you do, keep her away from this asshole. Goodbye, guys. I'm out of here." As Sally finishes her devastating speech, her eyes go blank for a moment, she stumbles to her knees, then gets up looking completely confused, and runs off into the darkness again.
"Mommy? Mommy?! Josh! John! Let's go get her. I think she's going to do something stupid!" Penelope screams.
Josh moves close to Penelope, his voice gentle but firm. "It's too late, sweetie. She's left us. What you saw running into the darkness was just the confused host body after she departed. I know where she went though, and I'll take you there. She's found a place to calm down, to rest, and put herself back together again. Come close, guys. Close your eyes and relax, and we'll go be with her."
