The Escape Clause

Please note: child/spousal abuse and alcoholism are mentioned.

Errors with science are all mine ;)

144 517.25 Librarian Calendar

Update: Clients 25672 and 25673

Female and male human couple have chosen Infinite Realities package 2A.

Choice by Client 25673 has grave issues and will negate the Escape Clause. 

Request alternative options for her contract.

Eeeoooshyiii

Librarian, Highest Order

***

In a room with diaphanous walls, billowing white as if blown by ocean winds, a couple sits with the Librarian. Alongside the illusion of breezes, come the changing colors to the air around them; light touches of peach, mauve, pear, honey and larimar. Rather than distracting, the swirling colors play gently with their senses and bestow feelings of contentment. The couple instinctively trust the Librarian who is guiding them through their choices.

“While it is unusual for couples who are as … secure…as you are to seek separate destinations, it can be done,” says the Librarian. The couple hear his/her words voiced telepathically; the woman hears a male voice; the man hears a female voice. Both understand that it is the Librarian speaking to them. The man reaches down by the surround seat that hugs his wife’s lithe body in comfort and takes her left hand in his right. Just a gentle touch that after decades conveys a world of support and reassurance. 

A translucent screen appears above the trapezoid table where they are seated. An exact view of the Deucalion-Earth wormhole flickers in intensity as it pulses during a cycle of opening and closing. A grid is overlaid on the Einstein-Rosen bridge.

“This is where we are in time now. Your destination, Ananyaelizabethrehema-littlebuffalowalksonfireliketiger, will be here in the wormhole.” The librarian highlights the spec in bright yellow to show where Ananya will enter the alternative place in Earth’s time, in her past. 

“For you, Littlebuffalowalksonfireliketiger-ananyaelizabethrehema, this is where you will travel forward to the future as per your choice.” The tiny spot is highlighted in bright orange.

The Librarian downloads the documents that both husband and wife require to complete their passports. She/he hands a shimmery case, the size of an ancient eye-glass case, to his/her clients.

“The red disc has the caveats and FAQs for you to further understand the transference to another dimension, the blue disc has your destination and necessary re-entry data and the black disc is to record your permissions and dying wishes.” 

Except, neither of the humans is dying. The Librarian is akin to a salesman for the alien technology that has come from TRAPPIST-1e (the planet known to the earthlings as Deucalion.) With the use of the Einstein-Rosin bridge between the two planets, beings from either home world can choose an alternate reality to the life they have already lived. It only costs the form of money now used--bitcoin from the one institution handling Earth-Deucalion monetary exchanges.

It is the Earth year of 2374. First contact was happenstance -- just 258 years earlier. As the home planet for the alien race exists in the Aquarius constellation, the beings are euphemistically called Aquarians by humans from Earth. It has been a partnership with little rancor or strife; the Aquarians are aptly named for their celestial gifts of understanding and harmony.

“Please take your time to go over all of the contents. Discuss it with your family and friends and with others who are also in the application process. As always, you can contact me at any time.

“When you are ready, please record your time for departure on the blue disc. We will proceed from there.

“Any further questions or concerns?”

Littlebuffalo exchanges a glance with his wife and asks their shared thought. “Will we remember this life and each other?”

Both husband and wife hear a sigh as light as a single snowflake brush their ears. 

“You, Littlebuffalo, will have the history of your past life travel with you. The memories will be shrouded as to details but you will carry a general sense of what you have lived before. Your feelings will be retained but again, not intensely; rather like a dilution of what you once felt.

“Your choice, Ananya, to travel back to your past erases all that you have had in this life. You will not remember Littlebuffalo or your lives together.

“When you read through the black disc, you will note 'The Escape Clause.' It is vital that you read it several times as it will only apply to your journey, Littlebuffalo.

“Ananya, again, because your journey is back in time, before we developed the worm hole technology of alternate realities, we cannot offer you the escape clause. It is another factor to consider in your final choice.”

The Librarian pauses, waits several moments in companionable silence for any additional questions and then flicks the switch to pull back the moving walls. She/he does not stand as many humans find the tall, willowy height of the Aquarian to be intimidating. Instead, the Librarian indicates the path to the teleporter with delicate suction-cupped finger tips and the couple hear a benign whispered ‘goodbye’ as they leave.

***

Ananya and Littlebuffalo sit quietly on their well-worn recycled composite sofa. Each feels a maelstrom of emotions and opposing thoughts but neither can describe the hurricane to the other. They are miserable.

“I do understand, I do, Ana. You were born to alcoholic parents and have always yearned for the childhood you dreamed of as an abused child. I just wish we could be more to you than that dream.” Littlebuffalo is hurt. They have been married for an entire century; have children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren together and yet, his wife wants a family she never knew.

Ananya is a vital 132 years old; Littlebuffalo is a healthy 139 years. 

Ananya is torn. Love for Littlebuffalo and her family is overcome by a drive to erase the life she lived as a child. She cannot change her origin parents but she can be born to her alternative parents in another reality. The Aquarian technology has given her that hope. 

The drawback is: Ana will be caught in whatever reality she arrives in. The choices and life she may encounter will be permanent.  

Ananya pulls herself into Littlebuffalo’s arms. She is trembling, exhausted and overwhelmed but unable to let go of the inner child she protected and nurtured. Deep within her is the desire for wholeness.

“When we first considered Infinite Realities, we were going to travel together.” Littlebuffalo’s voice is without reproach; he is only stating the facts. “We would see other worlds, cultures, species and enjoy visits with our descendants. I thought you were excited by the adventures we could entertain with retirement and our new freedom.”

“I was …but, even by your side, I feel we will be strangers wherever we go. I guess I am more of a homebody than an adventurer after all.”

Littlebuffalo is swimming against a tsunami. “We could change the destination back to Earth and consider a new marriage in another parallel time. Possibly the timeline where the Aquarians don’t arrive until 2246.”

“Please understand Buff, I need to have another start to my life. To see what my potential was meant to be. In this timeline, I am broken. My existence is full of holes -- as if made from a bolt of lace. You can start over again! You can have more experiences and partners and another family. You could be the person who did not have to deal with my depressions, my irrational thinking or my quick anger. You wouldn’t have to be the one holding our marriage together. The one who mediated, acquiesced and gave in to me to keep our lives functioning.”

Littlebuffalo’s heart beat slows to a deadly rate; he is going to lose Ananya, his love. And all because she will not accept herself as the unique woman she is. This, then, will be his last gift to her; to grant her the one choice she desires most. 

The final few weeks are tumultuous – filled with all the last-minute considerations of a couple leaving a world behind them, forever. Littlebuffalo meets, alone, with the Librarian. The couple is ready but both are simmering pots of emotions: anticipation, nervousness, and doubt as well as excitement. An overriding feeling of loss.

144 519.58 Librarian Calendar

Update: Clients 25672 and 25673

Client 25673 will be joining her parents in sector 263 of the year 2105. Adult parameters for the personalities of the parents are attached and the exact parallel dimension has been pinpointed. The transfer will occur on 144 520.41.

Please confirm that alternative plan for Escape Clause has been approved by both planetary governments.

Eeeoooshyiii

Librarian, Highest Order

Ananya kisses her husband a long and tender farewell. She waits to hear that his transfer has gone well and his future is successful. She lets go of who they were.

Ananya’s transfer is complete. She is born, Donna Joy Blackwell, to a talented couple who bring copious amounts of love into her world as she grows up. They are artist performers who teach others to delve into their beings to become happy and healthy. Donna is loved and grows up to be a confident, well-adjusted adult working in physics focussing on string theory. She feels as if the world is hers. She has no memories of Littlebuffalo.

Littlebuffalo has married and is loved by his two partners— Rehema and Little Haven and their six offspring. There are times when a child’s cry or a spouse’s laughter brings a feeling of something illusive or missing for Littlebuffalo. The moments of disquiet are temporary; easily quelled, living in the now. 

145 917.38 Librarian Calendar

Update: Clients 25672 and 25673

Need to instigate Escape Clause for Client 25672.

Requires immediate reunion with Client 25673

Requesting permission to proceed.

Eeeoooshyiii

Librarian, Highest Order

Littlebuffalo had never wanted to leave Ananya. He and the Librarian had discussed a means to implement Littlebuffalo’s Escape Clause if Ananya was ever in danger. Both were concerned: Ananya’s focused desire to have a perfect childhood could have unforeseen consequences in her future. Littlebuffalo’s revised package had been carefully structured – there would be no repercussions to the space/time continuum should he be retrieved.

Ananya, despite all the peaceful and positive happenings of her childhood, marries a beguiling and manipulative physician. Their life is one of discord and Ananya suffers abuse to an intensity that far exceeds her first timeline. The Librarian discovers that this husband absolutely murdered his first wife. He activates the Escape Clause for Littlebuffalo.

Littlebuffalo transfers to a point in time that is three Earth years prior to the year Ananya would meet the doctor. 

“Is this seat taken?” The earnest young man asks Ananya as she scoots over on the air train bench. His smile of thanks is as stunning as observing the Witch’s Broom Nebula as a virgin astronomer. The connection is made; the couple’s fate is synchronized once more. And they live together—perfectly.

147 134.88 Librarian Calendar

Update: Clients 25672 and 25673

Actions successful. Both clients living in new reality. (Date, time, location recorded on master disc.)

Eeeoooshyiii

Librarian, Highest Order