86 year old Rachel Wachowski suddenly laughed to herself. For a moment there, she'd imagined she was one of these young ones....instead of being here to watch her granddaughter play. You're getting to be a silly old woman, she thought to herself. she hadn't been that age since Ike was President.
She had no idea that she had been "one of these young ones" just a moment ago.
Until two days ago, she was a junior named Rachel Edwards.
Her father Brad Edwards had never been successful in a relationship with anyone from his native Lake Point, so he went online and found Larysa Nimchuk in Ukraine. Brad should have figured that if he couldn't get along with someone local, he'd have an even worse time with someone from abroad. But by the time that had become obvious - which was almost immediate - it was too late. Larysa was pregnant with Rachel and had nowhere to go. She was stuck in a foreign country and was dependent on Brad.
Almost two decades later the Edwardses muddled by in a cold state of truce. Although Larysa's English had improved considerably over the years, she had hardly anything to say to Brad - and vice versa.
As the byproduct of a marriage that should never have been, Rachel fantasized about being born into another family. She wrote stories about a fantasy version of herself who was fully American with parents who shared a common language and much more.
On Tuesday at 3:47, her fantasy came true. Rachel Edwards morphed into Rachel Bush. Her face changed, but little else did: her hair and eyes remained brown, and her height and build remained average. Even her clothes and shoes stayed the same - as did her personality. Such consistency was common among the changed; not everyone had a spectacular fall like Athena who went from DeVries to Drucker.
Rachel Edwards had inherited Larysa's shyness, and that shyness carried over into her new life. As a result she didn't feel she belonged among her new sisters. Rachel Edwards had written stories about her idealized American self being part of a big, happy family. The Bush family was certainly big, with daughters ranging in age from eight to eighteen. Four attended Lake Point High - one in each grade. Rachel replaced the daughter who had been a sophomore.
Casey Bush loved reading manga. Rachel Bush loved drawing comics. Her creative impulses had been directed into another medium. Yet her output was still escapist. Rachel continued to depict an alternate self living a better life. One without so many siblings.
Rachel didn't fit among the bubbly Bush babes; she shared their genes but not their positivity and extroversion. They thought she was a weirdo and shunned her.
Her new mother was like them, not her. Mrs. Bush's fluent English didn't insure a strong bond with her new daughter Rachel.
At least Rachel Bush's parents got along with each other. Rachel Bush had no memories of the fights between Brad and Larysa - or of those two people at all.
Rachel loved her new parents but feared they didn't love her. She felt lost in a crowd of kids. With her left hand - Casey had been a southpaw - Rachel Bush drew herself as a member of a smaller family. One in which she'd get the attention she deserved.
On Wednesday at 3:47, she went from being the third oldest child to the oldest of two as Rachel Stott. Once again, her physical changes were minimal and mostly limited to her facial features. She lost the traits that she had shared with her sisters - who also lost those traits when they too became members of other families. She did shrink a bit because she had lost a year of age, but her clothes only changed a size; their color and style remained intact. From a distance or from behind it would have been easy to confuse Rachel Edwards, Rachel Bush, and Rachel Stott.
As a Stott, Rachel got more attention from her parents and had more confidence. Not enough to make friends, but enough to go public with her talents. Rachel Edwards' stories were for her alone, as were Rachel Bush's comics. Rachel Stott, however, was painting 1930s New York City buildings on a backdrop for Annie. Rachel Stott retained Rachel Bush's left-handedness and artistic talent but also acquired Avery Stott's interest in theater. Avery was going to audition for the part of the quiet orphan Kate. Rachel couldn't bear to be on stage, so the stone found a more suitable, silent role for her in the production.
Alas, Rachel Stott would never finish her painting. At 3:47 on Thursday, she gained more than seven decades of age and a titanium knee as Rachel Wachowski.
Rachel had sort of come full circle. Rachel Edwards was the daughter of a Ukrainian immigrant. Rachel Wachowski was the daughter of Polish immigrants. Not Polish, but still Slavic and from one of Ukraine's neighbors. Rachel Edwards had a passive knowledge of her mother's native tongue. Rachel Wachowski had faded memories of her parents' native tongue.
Neither Rachel knew their roots were at odds: Rachel Edwards' mother came from western Ukraine which had been oppressed under Polish rule before being annexed by the Soviet Union.
Rachel Wachowski was unaware of that aspect of Polish history or any other. Her parents had already been in the US for years by the time she was born, and unlike Larysa who never assimilated to Lake Point, the Wachowskis embraced an American identity, and their daughter Rachel knew no other.
Rachel's one tie with her past was her membership in the Catholic Church. Her family wasn't very Polish anymore - her children had married members of other ethnic groups. But at least they were all still Catholic. Rachel Bush had been Baptist, Rachel Stott had been Episcopalian, and Rachel Edwards wasn't religious - her mother was nominally Orthodox, but there was no Orthodox church in Lake Point.
Rachel Wachowski had at last found her spiritual home. She belonged to a Catholic women's group that gave her the friendship she had never experienced in her three preivous lives. The support she needed to go public with her paintings. An exhibit of her birds and landscapes had materialized in a Lake Point gallery. She had gone from painting a retro New York City for Annie to nature for herself ... and someone who had made her an offer. Money had never been a motive for any of the Rachels. Yet Rachel Wachowski could hardly say no to anyone willing to pay for her painting.
For the first time in her life - or lives - Rachel was recognized. Content. At peace. No longer trapped with parents who found each other unbearable and her to be a shared burden. With a huge clan that had no time for her. The Stotts had been good to her, but being a Wachowski with memories of her late loving husband and a granddaughter out on Lake Point High's field was even better.
Brianna Lambetti was Makayla Brusnikov's rival in the Youth Soccer League. Makayla's parents, educated recent Russian immigrants, looked down on Rachel Edwards' mother Larysa as a mail-order bride. Larysa in turn saw them as stuck up. The tension between the Brusnikovs and Larysa Edwards had parallels in a younger generation's soccer game in the new reality, even though Rachel Wachowski wasn't related to Larysa anymore.
Rachel's granddaughter was the little sister of Kelsey Lambetti, the wannabe Instagram model whose life Julie Santiago had assumed on Tuesday. Who had Brianna been before she became a Lambetti on Thursday? And what had happened to Kelsey on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday?
