Double Bind

From the previous part:

The group exchanged glances, but Dan was the first to speak. “We’d better start searching for him.”

“We don’t need to – I know where he is,” regular Trixie asserted. “And what Brian wanted with spades and pruning saws.”

Her alternate closed her eyes. “So do I. Let’s get going – the other Jim needs rescuing, too.”

Part Five

They went off as a group, regardless of the fact that they now had two Trixies with them. One of them led the way, taking the group down winding trails to a part of the Preserve not all that far from the lake. There, they found a deep pit and at the bottom of it, among the broken branches which must have covered it, a very irate Jim Frayne.

“Get me out of here!” he called, when he saw them. “This is all Brian’s fault and I’m going to wring his neck for him.”

“You’re going to calm down, now,” one of the Dianas told him, in her dreamy voice. “You’re going to let us decide what happens to Brian.”

“You’re right,” Jim answered, as the tension flowed out of his face. “You’re so much better at that sort of thing than I am. I’ll let you decide. But, please, can I come out of the hole, now?”

Dan and Mart lay on the ground and reached down to help him out and they had soon lifted him back to the surface. Together, they all went back to the clubhouse to celebrate the last hour’s successes with the other Bob-Whites.

When they entered, it was to find that the alternate Brian had a now-familiar dazed look on his face, courtesy of Diana’s hypnotic influence. She turned and smiled at the newcomers.

“We’re doing really well, here,” she told them. “Brian has just told me how much he hates electronics and how he’d never know how to make something out of it.”

“That’s a big relief,” Honey answered. “I hope he never gets electronics ideas ever again.”

Five or six different conversations started up at once and the room was noisy with talk and laughter. Alone of the group, alternate Brian lay back in his chair, apparently content to sit and watch while the others conversed, not even bothering to rattle his chains.

“There’s a few things I don’t understand,” one of the Honeys confessed to one of the Trixies some time later, when they had all had time to exchange news and the noise had lulled. “Like, why did Brian decide to lock Jim and Brian in the trunk of his car? And how did he get them in there?”

The Trixie in question, who happened to be alternate Trixie, leaned over her brother. “How about if you explain that for us, Brian?” she asked. “Tell Honey what you told me before.”

He gazed around, bleary-eyed, for a few moments before fixing his attention on Honey. “I met with Brian, as arranged. I told him that I was planning on closing the portals permanently, without letting him go home.” Other conversations had fallen silent. One of the Dianas let out a gasp, and the other Brian began to blush. “He lost his temper with me and we fought. Jim – I thought it was the Jim from my own world – tried to help him. I easily overpowered both of them because I was all-powerful.”

“You were what?” regular Trixie demanded.

“All-powerful,” he repeated. “I had the amplification device on me at the time, but I will never do so again. It was the wrong thing to do. I no longer know, or am even slightly interested in, anything about electronics.”

“Very good,” alternate Diana told him, in soothing tones. “And you do not want to be all-powerful, do you, Brian?”

“No, I do not.” His gaze swam out of focus. “I am going to go back to how I was before; before I ever thought of reality displacement. Reality displacement is wrong. Meddling in affairs I do not understand is wrong.”

“Yes, but why was there black stuff inside the trunk?” Honey persisted. “They couldn’t breathe in there, you know.”

Brian focussed on her once more. “They couldn’t?” A shadow of his former self flashed across his face and he began to be alarmed. “I didn’t think of that. I had been using it to store the real electronics. It was a special, multi-layered coating, designed to prevent any of you knowing what was inside. It never occurred to me that it might also be air-tight. I wasn’t thinking clearly when I put them in there – I only wanted them out of the way so that I could complete my plan. You should have completed my plan when you rescued them. The circuit should have been completed when you opened the car door, closing the portals permanently.”

Trixie patted her alternate-brother on the shoulder. “I think, maybe, you should get back to thinking straight before you try any more plotting. I never thought I’d live to say this, but it wasn’t that hard to out-smart you.”

Brian nodded dismally. “That’s good advice, Trixie. I think I’ve gone a long way off track.”

“And, speaking of tracks,” Honey interjected, “or, at least, trails and paths, is someone going to explain how Jim ended up in that huge hole?”

Brian frowned. “But Jim was in the trunk of my car. How could he be in the pit as well?”

One of the Jims scowled and gestured to his own double. “There are two of us. I’m the one who lives here. You send me on a wild goose chase and laid a trap for me.”

“It was supposed to be for your own good,” Brian muttered. “It was to keep you well away from the device when it was activated, so that your powers would be at least partly preserved.”

“You could have just asked me to stay away, rather than make me fall into a hole,” Jim returned angrily. “Do you have any idea how much falling in there hurt?”

“I’m sorry, okay?” Brian answered. “I’ve admitted that I did the wrong thing. Even without the mind trick thing that someone’s been doing on me, I can see that, now. The idea of power went to my head and I did things that I normally would not have considered.”

“There are no mind tricks,” Diana told him, softly. “And, it’s time for you to have a rest.”

“You’re right: no mind tricks,” he answered, then closed his eyes as if sleeping.

“I think the only thing left to do is destroy the device, so he can’t start it up again,” alternate Trixie announced. “So, are you all going to stay for the destruction party?”

“I really hate to miss it, but I think we should go home first, if we possibly can,” regular Trixie decided, her face falling. “As much fun as this has been, I don’t want to be stuck here forever, if destroying the device means you can’t open a portal.”

The disappointment at missing the end of the adventure was shared among the regular Bob-Whites and their alternate counterparts reflected it in empathy.

“Maybe they could watch,” alternate Di suggested to alternate Trixie. “Couldn’t we have a small portal open and they could look through as we did it?”

In a moment, everyone was talking at once, debating the advantages and potential dangers of the idea. Before long, they had come to an agreement: they would do as Di had suggested. It was also agreed that they would do it as far from Brian as possible, but they would let Jim be near, as he had suffered for Brian’s scheme as well and had shown considerable return of his usual mental faculties.

It did not take long to make the arrangements. Brian escorted his double, with some help from the other men, up to the old schoolhouse, where they chained him securely. Meanwhile, the others gathered the things they would need. All of the Bob-Whites, other than alternate Brian, gathered at the clubhouse where they bid their farewells. Alternate Trixie created a portal and the regular seven reluctantly stepped through it, calling to each other as they did so. The storage area grew crowded.

“It’s kind of sad to be back,” Trixie mourned, as the large portal blinked out of existence. “I’ll miss the other world.”

Honey, beside her, nodded. Jim shook his head, but did not speak. A small spot on the wall shimmered and a new, smaller portal appeared. Through it, their friends could be seen once more, but it was difficult to allow everyone a view at once.

“Ready?” alternate Trixie asked, looking from one friend to another and into the portal to her other-world friends.

When each had nodded, she grasped the wire cutters and began to snip. On the third component, she staggered slightly in place, as did all of the watchers, and the portal snapped shut. In the storage room of the regular clubhouse, Trixie thumped the wall in frustration. Her eyes widened a moment later when she saw the faint shimmer of blue and green, like that made by any of the portals she had seen. Concentrating hard, she tried to make the same motions that she had seen her alternate self use and managed to create a portal a little larger than the palm of her hand. At almost the same moment, another portal of similar size appeared right next to it.

“You did that?” alternate Trixie demanded, pointing from her portal to the one made by regular Trixie. “You can make portals, too? That’s brilliant!”

“Are you all okay?” regular Trixie asked of her, ignoring the question she had been asked. “How are the powers?”

“We haven’t finished trying them out,” Honey answered, peeking from one portal to the other. “Everything seems fine; though, of course, we haven’t had time to find out if the thing with Brian worked or not.”

Alternate Mart edged his way to the front to get a view. “The thing that concerns me is, since you can now make portals when you couldn’t before, is there any other leak of powers to your world?”

Regular Trixie turned to consult her friends. “I don’t think so. Anyone got their other-self’s powers?”

After a minute of two of trying, they each shook their head. By this time, the alternates had all confirmed that their powers were back to what they had come to know as normal.

“Any other strange things?” alternate Mart prompted. “Everyone feel okay on your side?”

“Now that you mention it, I feel kind of funny.” Regular Di shook her head back and forth a few times. “Something is different, but I’m not sure what.”

“Well, I feel completely normal,” Trixie told her alternate self. “I think we’d better go and check if we can find anything else different before we decide that it’s been successful, though. How about if we check back with each other later tonight? An hour and a half from now here in the clubhouse suit you, Trixie?”

Alternate Trixie nodded. “Sounds fine to me. See you then.”

With many cries from both sides to keep in touch, both portals were closed and the regular Bob-Whites split up to investigate whether there had been any changes in their world. An hour later, they met back at the clubhouse to report. Gathering around the conference table, they each cast anxious glances at the others. Once they were all seated, Trixie banged on the table to bring the meeting to order, but it was hardly necessary. None of them were speaking, but all looked at her in enquiry.

“Does anyone have anything bad to report? Raise your hand if you do.” She waited, but saw no hands raised. The conference room echoed with sighs of relief. “Okay, then, we’ll go around the table and tell what we’ve seen. Honey, you go first.”

“Everything’s fine up at Manor House. I’ve spoken to Mother and Daddy, Miss Trask, Tom, Celia and Cook. I’ve looked everywhere I can think of, but I can’t find anything wrong or different.”

Di, who sat next to her, went next. “It was the same at my house. I couldn’t find anything wrong, either.”

“I’ve checked the farm,” Mart added. “It was all as usual.”

It was the same story all around the table – at the stables, the lake, Maypenny’s cabin and Lytell’s store, in Sleepyside itself and some of the surrounding area, everything seemed to be completely normal. They all began to relax.

After one final check-in with her alternate self, Trixie was finally satisfied that her mission had been a success. She, Honey and Diana left the clubhouse together after the meeting, talking as they walked along the rough path to Crabapple Farm.

“I was so glad to hear about the progress they’re making with Brian,” kind-hearted Honey noted. “Even if he did maybe almost destroy both of our worlds, I’m glad that he’s getting better. In fact, I hope they can help him get back to being sensible.”

“Well, I was glad to hear that his powers were reduced to almost nothing,” Trixie added. “It serves him right for being so bone-headed.”

Di gave a shrug. “I think everyone was glad to hear that we haven’t had any negative side-effects here. I know I was.”

The three nodded in agreement to this sentiment, their minds so fixed on their discussion that none of them noticed that both of Diana’s feet had lifted an inch or two off the ground.

The End

Author’s notes: Thank you to all who hung in there with me on what has been a rather confusing journey. I hope you had fun with it. A huge thank you to Mary N. (Dianafan) who did a very speedy edit for me. I did change this part quite considerably since she saw it, so please don’t blame her for my mistakes. This story is a CWP Anniversary 7. An element list may be found below, for those who are interested. As it happens, I had a considerable amount of this story written before deciding to make it this particular CWP. I mentioned previously that I chose it because I was posting the story for my seventh Jixaversary. The deciding factor for whether I would post this particular story was that the story already contained a number of the CWP elements. Several of the others were very easy to incorporate and I really only had trouble with one or two.

You may also be wondering about the last line of the story. Yes, it is true that I have left things open for another story. I have very little idea what that potential story might contain, though, so please don’t expect another sequel right away! It took me over four years to get to this one, so perhaps it will be a similar gap again. I’m also not going to call this a universe; I have too many of those already.

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CWP Anniversary 7 elements… … and where they're found.
CrabsOn the cover of one of Brian's books.
Seven, something in multiples of sevenBob-Whites! Seven regular Bob-Whites and seven alternate Bob-Whites.
Something found in a stack of old newspapers or magazinesThe plans Trixie found.
Surveys, silly or otherwiseSurveys of Bob-Whites to make decisions on what to do with alternate Brian.
“Come to the gutter, we have cookies”Said by Diana, to Mart.
Baby rabbitsOn the cover of another of Brian's books.
A book with the word “parrot” or “parrots” in the titleParrots for Dummies, which, incidentally, is a real book, written by Nikki Moustaki.
The phrase: “I do trust you, (insert name), but that sounds ominous.”Said by regular Jim, to alternate Trixie, I think.
A mysterious codeFor use by Trixie to tell Trixie whether it was safe to make a portal.
Flaming grapesPart of the mysterious code.