"What do we do now?" asked Karyn
"Well as I just said, other versions of myself seem to be working on this. The best plan would be to wait till we have more information." Jon told her.
"How long will that take?"
"I don't know. It could be hours, days or longer."
"So what do we do until then?"
"Just stay here, for the time being at least."
"Why here?"
"It's as good a place as any, there is no Jon here and now no Karyn, so we don't have to worry about duplicates. We just pretend to be the Jon and Karyn from here."
"I'm not sure about this Jon. Wouldn't that be kind of weird and besides I'm not a very good actor."
Jon sighed.
"Just be yourself and act like you normally would. We're nearly identical to the Jon and Karyn from here. It's not like we have to do a Marty McFly and fudge every conversation because our entire lives have changed in a myriad of subtle ways."
"Okay I guess, still..."
Karyn didn't sound entirely convinced.
"Look I'll show you."
Jon took her downstairs to the kitchen. He stood in front of the fridge.
"Okay what are we doing here?" she asked.
"I'm hungry and I know in our dimension there is some leftover pizza in the fridge."
He opened the door and they both looked inside. There on a shelf was a pizza box.
"Want some?" he asked.
"Yes please."
Jon placed several slices on a plate. He put it in the microwave. They both stood silently as the pizza heated up.
A voice spoke behind them. They both spun round to face it.
"I'm glad you're eating that, I was just about to throw it in the trash." Jon's mom said.
"Hi, mom." Jon said
Karyn looked petrified.
"How are you Karyn?" she asked.
"Err.. Uhh... good thank you Mrs. Madison"
"I keep telling you, call me Linda."
"Err... Yes Linda."
"Now Jon, don't make a mess with that and don't leave your dirty dishes in your room." she told him.
"I won't, mom."
"Good."
She turned around and returned to the living room just as the microwave bleeped. Jon took out the plate and both of them returned to the bedroom.
"How could you be so casual about that?" Karyn asked as they sat down on the bed.
"Easy, it's just my mom, I see her every day." he told her as he picked up a slice of pizza and began eating it.
"She isn't your mom, she's another Jon's mom. You just impersonated her son." Karyn said as she too picked up a slice of pizza and began eating it.
Jon spoke between bites.
"You... really... have a problem with this don't you?"
"Uh-huh." Karyn vocalised while chewing her piece of pizza.
"Just try not to think about it and you'll forget all about it. Like learning to ride a bike or something."
The DTH beeped. It surprised Jon which caused him to drop his pizza on to his shirt.
"Goddammit!" he said picking the remains of his pizza off his t-shirt.
"What was that beep?" Karyn asked.
Jon wiped his hands on his shirt. He picked the DTH up off the bed and examined it.
"A notification apparently." he replied.
"The DTH can send notifications?"
"This isn't just some factory assembled piece of electronics you know. This is a highly sophisticated machine. I'm sure notifications are probably one of it's most basic functions."
"Okay so what is the notification?"
"Something weird is going on with one of the non-sequitur divergences."
Karyn leaned over to look at the screen.
"The end of that red line is black, what does that mean?" she asked while following the pattern on the display.
"A DTH created the divergence. Look at the adjacent timeline." he told her pointing at the screen.
"It keeps looping inwards like the petals of a flower, I thought it just showed straight lines."
"It should only show straight lines."
"Do you think Jon and Karyn are there? Could you get them?" she asked excitedly.
"I'm not going to the flower place. I'm not even sure causality is working properly there. It would be too risky." he told her.
"Oh..." she said as she returned the remains of her pizza to the plate.
"That adjacent divergence might provide answers though."
"Are we going?" Karyn asked.
"I'll have to put on a fresh shirt first." he told her as got up and headed towards his dresser.
"Oh, so you are stealing clothes now?" she asked.
"Look I'm going to help rescue this guy. I don't suppose he'll mind if I take one of his t-shirts. Now will you please take the plate downstairs so 'his' mom doesn't get mad."
Karyn left the room. Jon quickly opened a drawer and pulled out a t-shirt. He noticed the pile of money he kept hidden in the bottom of tha drawer. He took some of the notes and put them into his pocket.
