Tom Peters left home with his sister, following his normal routine of dropping her off to her school on is way to his own. His sister Stacy is thirteen and is in middle school. She drives him crazy most of the time, but he loves. He drops her off in front of her school and waves bye before continuing the five block walk to his high school.
Tom stops at his locker and grabs his history books for his first period class. He waves hi to a couple friends on his way to class. He sits in his usual seat in the second row, and tries to pay attention to his teacher's monotone voice when suddenly....
BADUMP!!
Tom clutches his chest in severe agony. It hurts so bad he can't even breathe.
BADUMP!!
Sweat begins to pour off his face. He looks around trying to ask for help but no one seems to notice anything is wrong with him.
BADUMP!!
He tries to stand up to get his teacher's attention but falls on the floor instead. He has no strength in his legs at all.
BADUMP!!
He looks up hoping the sound of his fall alerted anyone to his need for help, but no one is paying him any mind. As he looks around in fear and confusion he notices that his vision is slowly going dark. His last thoughts before everything goes completely black is, "Why is this happening to me?!"
When Tom can sense himself waking up again he tries to open his eyes, but it doesn't feel like he has any. He feels like he is floating in a empty void. He has no idea how long he has been here but he a least doesn't feel that pain anymore. He tries to turn his head to look around but he can't tell if he's moving or not. Everything he can perceive is the same blackness. After an indeterminate amount of time he slowly starts to see a white light. It seems as if it is getting closer to him because its slowly getting brighter. As it gets closer Tom can feel a pressure starting to impose upon himself. Its like he must bow down and prostrate himself before this light. Suddenly a voice comes from everywhere at once, "Tom Peters i regret to inform you but you no longer exist."
"So I really did die?", Tom asked.
"No what I mean is you no longer exist. Your life and the time you have spent on your home world of Earth have been completely erased from existence."
"W-w-w-what does that even mean?" Tom asked completely confused, "How does that even happen?"
"I could explain everything in detail but the concepts are far beyond your meager understanding. The simple answer is you mother erased your father's life and in doing so she erased yours as well."
"That can't be true my mother would never do something like that."
"Well your delusional concepts of your mother's behavior mean nothing to me. And since I have neither the time nor the patience to try and convince you of the accuracy of my words I'll just show you"
Tom feels himself being pulled somewhere, suddenly he can see the world again but its like he's a specter. No one can see him, hear him or interact with him. When he stops trying interact with things and just pays attention to what is going he can see his mother, and then the scene starts moving like watching a movie from inside the film itself.
Diane begins to cry uncontrollably. Can she really do this to Jerry? After watching not only their reunion, but Jerry's successfully saving her life, could she take all of that away from him. She could still feel the pull of the light source she sees across the galaxy. She glances behind her and sees the earth. The blue, white, and green jewel of our solar system. As she peers at it she thinks about her family. While she does this her vision zooms down to her kids. Tom is already home and he's being a good big brother. He's making a snack for Stacy and himself. Stacy is just getting off the bus. She has a big grin on her face and she chatting with her best friend Amanda. Not best friend its "Bestie", I have to remember to be more of a hip, cool mom. Diane starts to reconsider her plan. Things at home are not that bad, are they? That's when she hears the house phone ring. Looking at the phone she wonders who's calling. Her vision splits and part of it travels along the telephone wires to its source, Mikes office. When Tom answers the phone Diane can see her husband and her son at the same time, like two open windows on her computer. She can also hear everything they say.
"Hi Tom, is your mother home?", Mike asks
"No her car is here but she's not home right now, maybe she went for a walk," Tom replies.
"That's probably it. Can you give her a message for? Tell her I'll be working late, and I'll see her in the morning. K thanks champ." Mike blurts out in a hurry.
"Um dad I didn't want to worry mom, but I haven't been feeling good and I wanted to get your opinion on it," Tom says quietly
"Huh..? These readings are incredible.... oh yeah that's great champ I'll talk to you more about it tomorrow. Love you, give your sister a kiss and a hug for me bye." *click * Diane's heart literally breaks seeing her son brushed off so easily by his father. And for what? Research that will supposedly lead to fame and fortune. As she thinks of these things Diane is once again shifted through time. She sees Mike he's accepting an award for his research in time travel. Instead of being home more as he promised he is now awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to take his thesis from hypothetical to practical. She watches as her family gain notoriety and fame but lose their cohesiveness. Her children start mixing with the wrong crowds and begin doing drugs and drinking alcohol at a very early age. The pressure continues to increase for Mike, and he soon crumbles under it. The disappearance of his best friend sends Mike on a downward spiral that he never returns from. Diane sees that she soon leaves Mike and takes the kids with her. After sending Tom and Stacy to extensive rehab. As young adults her children and her finally feel like a family again. Mike is dead. The stress he was under and his depression leads him to swallow a bottle of pills. His final act of selfishness further pushes their kids down a slippery slope of self-destruction. Diane struggles with her own sanity. The loss of their father, her husband, the love of her life. It crushes her, she must focus only on her kids and ignore that hollow feeling that was slowly consuming her soul. She can't look anymore, she knew with all of her soul that she couldn't let that future happen.
She looks one last time at Jerry's future. Lisa graduates with honors thanks to Jerry's assistance. She completes her doctorate and becomes an Oncologist. She focuses on cancer research and finds the cure for a rare genetic cancer. Jerry becomes a stay at home dad after their first kid is born. It's a girl and they name her Diane after her Auntie Di. They have two more kids, both boys, Jerry Jr (JJ for short), and Michael after his Uncle Mike. They are very happy and truly still love each other after many years together.
The scene shifts to his Uncle Jerry driving up to his house.
Driving up to Mike's house Jerry could tell instantly that something had changed here too. There was a presence that was missing from here, as Jerry thought on what he was feeling he just couldn't find words to describe it. It was as if the world was missing a part of itself right here where he was standing. He looked around in utter confusion and wonder. This missing part had to be replaced, he couldn't possible allow this travesty on a universal scale to go unchecked. It pulled at his soul to do something, any and everything he possible could to correct this. As he shuffled forward one awkward step after another, Diane exited the house and stopped him dead in his tracks with the words that came out of her mouth.
"He doesn't exist anymore Jerry," Diane says.
"What do you mean he doesn't exist anymore, and why does it feel as if the world has a gigantic festering wound right here at your house." Jerry pauses for a second to think about everything he's experienced so far. He looks back up at Diane and sees her completely differently than he did before. First he noticed the rainbow of colors that seemed to surround her. When he softened the focus of his eyes on himself he could see that he had the same rainbow surrounding him. Then he noticed her facial expression and couldn't in all the years he's known her remembered her looking like that. There was outward disdain and malice, tempered ever so slightly by grief and acceptance. No not acceptance but a giving in, as if her spirit had been broken and finally accepted her miserable fate. Seeing all of this Jerry asks, "What have you done Diane?"
"I did what I had to do to save my family," Diane replies with a firm resolve in her voice
"And what exactly was it you had to do to save your family?", Jerry asked angrily.
"I want to start off by apologizing for your loss, Lisa and you were very happy together. And your time-line you created was very beautiful indeed. I wish that was the time-line I could have chosen for myself, but it seems fate has other things in store for me. I watched as my kids were first ignored and then abandon by their father. I watched as my kids became alcoholics and drug addicts right before my eyes. In the very next moment I watched my family disintegrate into nothing. I loss everything I hold dear just so Mike can chase some dream of fame and fortune?"
Jerry was shaking with rage at this point, he shouted his words with such venom and animosity that spittle few out of his mouth," So it's okay for me to lose everything then?!!! Your happiness is of greater importance than mine! You miserable, narcissistic bitch!" Breathing violently Jerry paces back and forth, he feels like he's losing his mind. Nothing is making any sense to him. How could she do that to him, to her own kids..... to Mike? Diane's actions are so contrary to everything he has come to know and understand about her that it's as if Diane is a complete stranger to him. This wasn't his best friend's wife, the loving aunt to his children. No, this demon doppelganger was somehow sent to this world to destroy everything that he held dear. Seething with rage Jerry slowly starts to march toward Diane, a look of pure murder in his eyes.
The scene ends here and Tom finds himself back in the empty void. He takes his time digesting the information he just received from that vision. Was it real? That was the first question he asked himself. He replayed in his mind his mother's every move, her every mannerism, even the tones and inflections of her voice. He couldn't find anything off about them, they truly came from his mother. He then asked himself is this all an elaborate hoax used to deceive him? But then he had to ask himself why? Who would go thru this much trouble just to convince him? He was no one important, he had no power anyone would want to covet or use. Also the being in front of him had enough power to crush him with a mere thought, there was absolutely no reason for it to deceive him. Ockham's Razor- the simplest explanation is the truth. When he finally comes to terms with the truth he doesn't know how he feels exactly. There is a numbness in his chest. To understand that the person who you put the most faith in in your life does the ultimate betrayal, where does that leave you? Crushed would be the understatement of universal proportions. If he had eyes he would be balling them out in the fetal position right now. But he doesn't have the time nor the ability to do that, because his train of thought is very soon interrupted, "Now that you know the truth of what has happened to you I will explain what happens next for you."
All Tom could think was, 'My whole life, it ended just like that...'