Okay, as promised, today's second snippet - because the first one told you NOTHING. Chronologically, this one takes place right after yesterday's snippet.
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Just then, there was a knock on the door, and another of my students popped her head in. "Hello?"
"Come in, Alyssa - we were just discussing your final." I greeted her. "You're the first to activate a portal, but Lynn Stevenson is back as well. You passed, by the way - both of you did. Do you have any questions for me?"
"Just two. Why was I pulled back here when that wasn't the choice I made, and will I get to go back after class is over?" While her questions looked easy enough on the surface, the answers were anything but.
"Interesting questions - and not unexpected, from what my sources have told me. For your first question, before you decided to stay in Australia, you had already decided to come back here and end things with Kyle, correct? That decision was the one my portal spell looked at, not the later one." Best to stick with the easy answer where possible, I figured.
"Okay, that makes sense - and the other question? After I end things with Kyle, how soon can I see Matt again?"
"Well, that's a separate issue from your original wording, and I think you're smart enough to realize that," I pointed out. "The way you first said it, the answer sounds a lot simpler than it is - you're here now, and you have been locked into this time so you can't go back; even if you get one of your classmates to agree to it and happen to know the exact place and time you left. I would imagine right now you do, to the nearest quarter hour at least; and if it weren't for my lock, your friend Lynn would have more than enough info to return you after you talked to Kyle." In fact, it would be good practice for her if I were able to allow it, but that wasn't the issue at question here. "The complicated part is my reasons for the lock - which start with the fact that no matter what you think today, you belong in this time. For the re-wording of your question, I can't tell you when you'll see him again, but I can honestly say that you will. And I foresee an argument between you and Paul at your first available opportunity regarding this subject."
"So you know we'll meet again, but not where or how? Or you just won't tell me? And who's Paul?" she persisted, being as familiar as I was with a certain expert at dodging questions - despite being apparently unfamiliar with the name I was used to calling him.
"Paul Robinson... let's see, what did you say his name was in your Youth Group pictures... Arthur Simon, wasn't it?" In truth, I knew of several of his aliases - although Alyssa's church camp pictures of him occurred over a period of a few years and reflected a younger Paul than I was familiar with, so I was inclined to consider this name might have a ring of truth to it; but I still called him Paul, and I was aware that despite the photographic evidence of him spending a decent portion of that time of his life in what I would now call the present day, it was possible he grew up somewhere else and only came here upon reaching adulthood by that culture's standards, as her photos started at around age 18.
"Wait a sec - you know Arthur? As Paul? Is he the reason you know stuff about Matt?" She picked up right away on this, especially as he was critical in them having met up in the first place.
"Yes - to all three of your questions. And for the one you haven't asked, that you're afraid to ask but I can still read it on your face - yes, Matt still remembers you, and he cares about you very much. My use of the present tense is deliberate, by the way - while he has no idea of your current whereabouts, you aren't, and never were, just a blissful, meaningless fling to him. I know that doesn't help you miss him less, but you'll be grateful for that information as you go on with your life, trust me."
"I can see that - knowing what you just said will prevent me from worrying about it and having it eat at me until I get really messed up inside," she replied, understanding the significance of my comment. "Am I allowed to ask how you know Arthur?"
"You're allowed to ask anything you want, Alyssa. That doesn't mean everything you ask will get a full answer, though - but for that particular question, I can honestly say I met Paul the same way you did, on a trip I took awhile back." While obviously unsatisfactory, it was the only answer she would get.
"Riiiight. I should've expected that answer." As I said earlier, she was used to Paul's evasion of questions, and my sidestepping a question about him went right along with that.
"There are things I can't tell you because I'm bound by something stronger than a mere promise, and other things - such as the questions you undoubtedly have about Paul - that I honestly don't know the answer to and am as curious about as you are." This was the truth - just when I thought I had him figured out, I would discover something new that changed my perception; and there were things I had come to accept as impossible to get a straight answer from him about. "Anything else you'd like to know?"
"Plenty, but I think I'll go call our mutual friend first and see if I can get any straight answers out of him."
"You do that, then. Good luck with him, and with everything." I told her, meaning every word. If she could get a straight answer from him, she deserved it right now. "You can go now, if you want - and don't forget there's a paper due next week on what you've learned." At this, she walked out of the classroom, already looking through her cell phone's address book for the correct phone number.
"Well that was interesting," Andrea remarked, reminding me that she was still here and had heard the whole thing.
"Yes, it certainly was - it says a lot about Alyssa that she handled this so well, although there's always a possibility she's just in shock and it won't hit her until a bit more time has passed. I know we both learned a lot, but I wouldn't be surprised if you thought of more questions than you got answers to." I wanted to see just how much Andrea had picked up from that conversation, as it touched on some questions she had tried to get me to answer several years ago.
"Definitely. Let's start with some names - who's Matt, and why does Alyssa know your friend Paul as Arthur?"
"Second question first - when you've been around as long as Paul and age as well as he does, you learn a thing or to about aliases and fake ID's. And before you ask the obvious follow-up questions, no, I don't know which of those is his real name - if either of them are - or anything about his age or which time period he was born into." This was true despite my earlier thoughts, as Paul had appeared to be in his early 20's when I first met him, and only looked a year or two older despite the fact that I had experienced that first meeting nearly 20 years ago and he had maintained regular contact over the years. "As for Matt... the simplest answer is that he's the father of Alyssa's child. Which is also why I locked her in this time, if you were wondering about that - or at least one of the reasons."
"Only one of them?" I was suddenly grateful she had chosen to observe silently while Alyssa was here, as the thought of the two of them putting their minds together on this issue started to frighten me.
"Right. As I told her, she belongs in this time, and also has some loose ends to be tied up before she can start a new chapter in her life. If everything goes according to what Paul told me, she'll get the happy ending she's looking for - it just might take a bit of patience."
"Which brings me to the first question I'm surprised she didn't ask - next time she sees Matt, how much time will he have experienced between then and now?"
"I'm glad you caught that - she probably just assumed, and with good reason, that I wouldn't give her a straight answer. After all, Paul introduced them, so you're right to think the answer's a lot more comparable than it would be otherwise." And trying to get a straight answer from him on this subject was sure to be a major source of frustration, as I doubted Alyssa would leave the question un-asked for too much longer. "However, it's a bit tricky to calculate that - and when they meet again, he'll still be a few years younger than her, so that's enough to make her realize some things about him. There are a few problems with your question, though, starting with the fact that it's hard to explain how much time someone experiences when the rest of the world is on pause - some people might argue they don't, even though he'll still be breathing and able to move and talk." Andrea nodded at this, making me glad I wasn't about to lose her - after all, she had asked the question. "Also, how much time do you spend watching something if you have to rewind it several times to make sure you saw what you think you saw? Do you only count the first time - because you can't be in the same place at the same time more than once? Or does every time count, like how you can spend all day watching a movie that normally runs two hours if you watch it frame-by-frame so it takes several times longer than usual, and then go back and watch it a few more times? Depending on your perspective, the week Alyssa left from takes him over a month to get through, most of it spent on that day and the ones right before it. Then he stays back there longer than he'd originally planned - finishing his tasks and searching for answers." And that was just the part that could be explained - I wasn't even sure of the precise answer to her question myself. Still, I went on to fill in a couple more gaps for her. "I was probably under-exaggerating when I told her she was more than just a fling to him - she meant enough that he was willing to stay there with her. And that was actually the decision that got her pulled back - not her need to end things with Kyle, and not her willingness to turn her back on the world she belongs in, but the fact that he belongs to this time as much as she does, and they both need to realize that. Because that would complicate matters much more than anyone wants to deal with right now.
"How so?" Apparently Andrea wasn't going to let me off the hook - not that I'd expected her to. So I went on to give her an example of a comparable situation.
"Imagine for a second if Arianna Williamson had a younger brother. Young enough to not be able to recognize what her friends looked like at his age, and the wrong gender to have enrolled in this school and therefore been able to see their pictures on the graduating classes wall. Between his not being a student here and the number of older siblings and cousins who have gone through my class, he never gets locked, but instead learns to control his talents on his own. Like the rest of the world who has never gone to school here, he has no idea what my class final involves. Now let's say this imaginary boy grows up in the modern world, but in the course of learning to control his abilities he goes back in time - and has to create an identity there, as practice and to make sure he can survive in the sort of world his abilities put him into. By accident - or by Paul's contrivance, which is probably more likely - he happens to meet up with one of my girls. She treats him as any other person from that time period, having no idea he doesn't belong there any more than she does. They fall in love, and she becomes pregnant. Don't you think she has a right to know what her child is capable of? And for that matter, shouldn't he be made aware that she won't freak out at the first hint that such a thing is possible?"
"So what you're saying is that -" Andrea started to ask, but I interrupted her, knowing what she was about to say.
"Arianna Williamson does not have a younger brother. The rest of that scenario, however, is a very real description that loosely describes more than one former pupil of mine, and I doubt that Alyssa will be the last such girl."
"How does that happen?" Not satisfied with this explanation, Andrea prompted me to continue.
"Well, if they've never met before, why would that be something they'd talk about?" I used the question rhetorically, as an answer to hers. "He's not local, and contrary to popular fiction, not every civilized country in the world has an education system like ours. For that matter, there are regions in America - spanning several states, in some areas - that only the strongest or strangest of talents would even be considered for admittance at a school that is the only one of its kind in the area where its potential students live. Raised in it's father's family, Alyssa's child would go to a normal school, have classmates whose most impressive talent is being able to juggle 5 objects at once or to walk with a book on their head, and get private lessons from Matt's mother on how to control the inherent talents it will possess when they first start to appear."
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There you go. I know you learned something about Paul; and you got to meet a couple new characters at the same time, and learn something about the rest of the world they live in. I could extend the snippet, but I'm reformatting as I go, and I think I need to jump back to my notebook and the new material now while new ideas are appearing in my head. Besides, it's almost February (ok another 24 hours my time, but if I'm acknowledging and operating by Australian seasons then I don't get to go by American clocks, right?), and I've got a fresh new quota to consider.