“We’re all here for you.” The other Tillie smiled and squeezed Tillie’s arm. “We just keep coming, but there’s always room for one more.”
“Thank you.” Tillie felt a welling-up of warmth, a deep, abiding comfort that she’d never felt before. Other hands touched her, reaching out from other selves, and she closed her eyes.
It was then she thought of the EeePavoosh. Where was he now? Off devouring the rest of the timeline, no doubt, bringing the end of time to the universe Tillie called home. She hadn’t been able to stop him, back on the purple-and-yellow planet, or even delay him much. Her stories of stretched-out time, which she’d told to entice him to open the doorway, had made him want to cross over; by the time she’d realized her mistake and switched to stories of speeded-up time, it had been too late.
But it didn’t matter anymore, did it? The EeePavoosh had been grateful and set aside this one hour for her, this hour forty years in her past which had now become her present and her future as well.
It was the first thing the EeePavoosh had done after coming through the portal. Tillie had told him about this one time in her life, this one good hour that she’d make longer if she could. Then he’d brought her back to it. He’d given it to her for helping him find the portal.
And she was going to spend the rest of her life here.
“Come on,” said the other Tillie who was holding her arm. “You want to see this, don’t you?”
Tillie opened her eyes. “Are you kiddin’?”
She shivered with anticipation as the other Tillie escorted her across the room. The women who were huddled around the hospital bed—Tillies, every one of them—slowly parted to make way for her.
Heart racing, tears flowing, she stepped forward. The last few Tillies moved aside, giving her the place of honor at the head of the bed.
“Hello,” said the woman lying in the bed...the brown-haired twenty-year-old girl looking like an angel in her white hospital gown.
Her green-eyed gaze met Tillie’s, and Tillie melted. Had she really been so beautiful forty years ago? Had she ever been so beautiful?
“Her name is Michelle.” Young Tillie looked down at the newborn baby in her arms...so tiny and frail, she seemed to be fading into the little pink blanket in which she was wrapped.
The truth was, she really was fading. She had exactly one hour to live.
That one hour had been the happiest of Tillie’s life. And it would be again, and again, until she faded out, too. Until the cancer took her.
Because the EeePavoosh had created a loop. At the end of the hour, after Michelle died, Tillie would go back to the start and live through it again. Every hour that remained before Tillie’s own death, she would spend it here, stringing together a lifetime out of this repeated hour like a strand of glittering pearls.
Each time she started the loop again, she coexisted with past and future versions of herself who’d also entered it. All the Tillies from all the hours she had left to live were sharing that precious fragment of time and space...but somehow, the hospital room didn’t seem crowded. They were all in this together; even the twenty-year-old version, to whom this experience rightfully belonged, didn’t seem to mind the company.
“Would you like to hold her?” asked young Tillie.
“Yes, please.” Tillie nodded and reached out.
When the tiny bundle touched her hands, it was like a bright new star blazed to life in her heart. It didn’t matter who the baby’s father was or how much pain he’d caused; it didn’t matter why the child was sick or that she had less than an hour to live.
All that mattered was that this was Tillie’s baby, her precious lost Michelle miraculously restored to her. And they would never be apart again for as long as they both lived.
Dozens of Tillies crowded around, beaming and cooing, but the moment belonged only to those two at the head of the bed...only mother and child, brought together after an eternity apart.
The baby squirmed, and Tillie trembled. Cradling Michelle in her arms, she bent down and kissed her softly on the forehead.
And Michelle, as sickly as she was, as fast as she was fading, opened her tiny green eyes and looked up at her. Their gazes met for the first time in forever.
And they both smiled.
Acknowledgements
This project wouldn’t have gotten off the ground without the Kickstarter support from these wonderful people:
Gerard M. Ackerman
JC Andrijeski
Donald J. Bingle
Kirsten Brodbeck-Kenney
AnneMarie Buhl
T. Thorn Coyle
Gary Dockter
Eric Edstrom
Lynda Foley
Karen Fonville
Robbyn Foster
Mark-Wayne Harris
Malachi Kenney
Pierre L'Allier
Rich Laux
Stephen Lebans
Christel Adina Loar
John Lorentz
Michael Lucas
Big Ed Magusson
Lisa M. May
Robert J. McCarter
Sean Monaghan
Carole Nelson Douglas
Alexei Pawlowski
Jeanette Sanders
Risa Scranton
Janna Silverstein
Bob Sojka
Margaret St. John
Robert E. Stutts
Raphael Sutton
Scott Tefoe
Edd Vick
Terry Weyna
Stephanie Writt
Thank you!
About the Editor
Bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith has written more than one hundred popular novels and well over two hundred published short stories. His novels include the science fiction novel Laying the Music to Rest and the thriller The Hunted as D.W. Smith. With Kristine Kathryn Rusch, he is the coauthor of The Tenth Planet trilogy and The 10th Kingdom. He writes under many pen names and has also ghosted for a number of top bestselling writers.
Dean has also written books and comics for all three major comic book companies, Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse, and has done scripts for Hollywood. One movie was actually made.
Over his career he has also been an editor and publisher, first at Pulphouse Publishing, then for VB Tech Journal, then for Pocket Books. He is now an executive editor for Fiction River.
FICTION RIVER
Year One
Unnatural Worlds
Edited by Dean Wesley Smith & Kristine Kathryn Rusch
How to Save the World
Edited by John Helfers
Time Streams
Edited by Dean Wesley Smith
Christmas Ghosts
Edited by Kristine Grayson
Hex in the City
Edited by Kerrie L. Hughes
Moonscapes
Edited by Dean Wesley Smith
Crime (Special Edition)
Edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
A subscription to Fiction River saves you money and ensures you receive the very best short fiction from some of today’s best authors. Subscriptions are available in electronic and trade paper formats and begin with the very next volume. Don’t wait! Subscribe today at www.FictionRiver.com.
Missed a volume? No problem. Buy individual volumes anytime from your favorite bookseller.
Time Streams - Fiction River Smashwords Edition Page 24
