Mary was livid, and untangled herself from Isabelle to get to her feet just in time to see the portal close. "No!!!" she insisted. She looked for the stopwatch, but it was gone. It must have fallen out of her hands when she fell.
She turned to see the shopkeeper. "The boss is not going to be happy about this," he said.
"Well, get him on the phone. Make him fix this."
"Look...I can send him a message...but he's not exactly going to get back to me in five minutes. It's going to take a couple of days." He doubted Mary would enjoy meeting the boss. He certainly hadn't.
Isabelle got to her feet, looking confused. She looked around. "What is this place?" She asked.
"Don't touch anything," Mary told her. She turned back to the shopkeeper. "What about her?"
"She can't stay here," he said. "You probably have a spare bedroom, right?"
"There's Brandon's room..."
He paused. "Look, lady...I respect you for trying...but your son is too far gone. He just threw that woman here to avoid coming back. And..in the present..." He seemed to be trying to figure out how to express it to her. It wasn't so much compassion as not wanting to get pepper sprayed again.
"What?"
"Look, this is magic. Once your kid went to the past, he was erased."
"Erased?"
"No one here remembers him kind of erased. You were here when it happened, so you remember. But anyone you tell will think you're nuts, and won't remember you even having a kid."
She stared at him. She'd been running on adrenaline, anger, and a mother's protective instinct. Those words just stopped her in her tracks.
"What is this about?" Isabelle said. "I demand you send me back to where I came from immediately."
