The third world 10/10

Jennifer Jane woke up on Monday morning feeling excited. Her 'parents' had invited Jack from the museum and a scientist friend to try and help her return to her real home. Shortly after breakfast was cleared away a van drew up at the front door. Jennifer Jane ran out to meet it.

"Hello Uncle Jack"

"Hello Jenny, where's the little girl who's supposed to have arrived from a parallel world?"

"It's me,” said Jennifer Jane, "I know you because you're my Dad's friend from the museum. Did you find a Jumping Jimmy in this world?"

"Do you know what she means?" asked Jack's friend who was unloading equipment from the back of the van.

"No idea," said Jack, "I've never heard of him."

They all went indoors and sat down round the kitchen table. Jennifer Jane told her story once more.

Jack's friend whose name was Bill, asked a lot of questions.

"There's certainly something strange going on here," he said, "if we assume that her parallel world theory is correct she would certainly be experiencing these phenomena."

Jennifer Jane explained how she'd arrived in the recreation ground and met the boy with his model yacht.

"We don't have wingsail rigs in my world and that's what made me think that the door worked rather like the Gate that leads back to my real home"

"Bother!" said Bill," I'll have to load all my equipment back into the van and take it up to the park."

The menfolk and Jennifer Jane climbed into the van and set off. Mary and Jenny waved goodbye. Mary had lots of housework to catch up with and Jenny wanted to play with her dolls rather than risk getting muddy. Bill parked his van and everyone helped him move his equipment into the park.

"Nice yacht son," said Dave as he passed the boy and his model.

"Some one with sense at last," muttered the boy and stuck out his tongue at Jennifer Jane as she followed the others.

Eventually everyone and everything arrived at the spot of burnt grass in the middle of the field. Bill explained what he was going to try and do.
"If my theory is correct, then different points in space time can be illustrated simply as two dots on a strip of paper. Fold the paper in the correct way and you can make the two dots come together. If we can find the right two dots as it were, then this world and Jane's can be brought together at the same point and a crossing made."

He started up the portable generator they had just wheeled across the field. Then he set up an array of rotating mirrors and connected some cables to the generator terminals.

"It's a stroboscopic principle," he explained, "an ordinary strobe slows down events and lets us view them in slow motion. My modification should increase the effect and drive events backwards. Then time will slow locally and may become concurrent with a parallel world. It ought to work quite quickly because we know there was an event here recently."

He threw the switch and the mirrors started to spin. They were very soon rotating so quickly that they apparently disappeared. In their place was a slightly shimmering view of the ground on the other side of Bill's equipment. Bill handed out ear defenders and opened the throttle on his generator to maximum. The mirrors spun faster and faster, a high-pitched whine came and rose beyond the range of hearing. Then just as the generator started to overheat, Bill pointed through the mirrors. Some shadowy figures were riding towards them on bicycles. Then there was a colossal bang and everyone ducked as pieces of machinery whizzed through the air as the generator seized up.

"Exponential power requirement," said Bill with a grin, "but I think I really saw someone."

"Riding bicycles doesn't sound like the right world to me," said Jennifer Jane.

Then just the other side of the burnt piece of grass there was a pop and a door came into existence. Bill and Jack stood still in amazement as Abigail came through backwards, carefully taking three bicycles, one after the other, from someone on the other side.

"Abigail!" called Jennifer Jane and then burst into tears.

"Is that Jennifer Jane?" came Mary's voice closely followed by Mary herself and then her Father coming through the door.

Jennifer Jane and her Mother were both hugging and crying at the same time.

"Hello Jack," said Dave

"Hello Dave," said Dave and Jack at the same time and then they all burst out laughing.

"We're not really either of us," said Jennifer Jane's Dad in a rather muddled fashion.
"Nor am I," said world three Dave looking rather dazed. Both of Jennifer Jane's Dads shook hands.

"Come back through the door, carefully now," said Abigail, “I think you'll find this interesting."

Quite a few of the villagers were waiting on the other side of the door. Tornak, his wife Tasmin and Cyril their son were all steaming happily. Several witches were in their Sunday best pointed hats and cloaks, even though it was a Monday and peeping shyly over the tops of the trees was the local giant who'd come to see what all the fuss was about.

Esmerelda and Dulcibella came forward.

"Sorry dear," said Esmerelda, "we didn't mean to muck it up but we did point out the post holes to get the alignment right didn’t we Dulce!"

"Yers," said Dulcibella

Everybody seemed to be talking at once. The two Dads were comparing sailing technology, a witch was explaining to Bill and Jack that the permanent Gate behind them led to a world comparable to their own, but that this world was full of fairy folk. Jennifer Jane was telling her Mother how she'd got on with her alternate family. Then Abigail twiddled her fingers and produced a loud bang to gain everyone's attention.

"Only a short speech I promise," she said.

"The best sort," shouted one of the witches in the crowd.

"I'm sure Esmerelda and Dulcibella won't be attempting doors any more, mainly because I've returned the paper to it's proper spell book in the Library. I'm sure I speak for all of us when say how pleased we are that Jennifer Jane has come back safely."

Everyone clapped and cheered.

"All's well that ends well and now if everyone goes back to their right worlds I'll close the door for the last time"

Jack and Bill went back and started to pick up pieces of their generator. World three Dad shook hands with world one Dad and kissed Mary goodbye.

"Absolutely amazing, everyone looks the same and yet we’re all so different." He went through the door shaking his head in disbelief. "I don't think anyone will believe us even if we tell them."

"I'm sure they won't," said Abigail with a grin and a wiggle of her fingers.

Another finger wiggle, the door collapsed and everyone started back to their respective homes.

"Now then Dave and Mary, it would be a bit awkward for you if had to lose all your memories of the last few days. So I've had a word with the senior witches and they've decided to let you remember everything you've seen and heard. However you must never tell anyone else about this weekend's events. If you do try, you will lose your memories and will never know what happened during these three days for the rest of your lives. There I think that tidies everything up, so let's all go home and get back to normal."

And so they all did, except for third world Jack, Bill and Dave, who found they each had a very old fashioned bike to look after. Abigail was right, they did try and tell the story to their friends, but they were laughed at and it was suggested that they'd really been captured by aliens in a flying saucer.

There was one other person who remained puzzled over the weekend's events. The small boy sailing his model on the pond had seen people appearing and disappearing in the middle of the recreation ground all weekend. When at last it had all gone quiet, he went across and found the burnt patch of grass where there had been an explosion. He walked over the burnt area and then all round it.

It seemed ordinary enough, so he went home for his dinner and soon forgot all about it.