THE THREE PIPERS
The definition of boredom is the state of weariness and restlessness caused by things or life being uninteresting. Life had definitely been boring for Prue, Piper and Phoebe for the last month. No demons needed vanquishing, no witches needed saving, their jobs had nothing interesting going on and, the worst part, no interesting men in their lives. Dates there had been, but they were all dull like the rest of their lives. It was a Saturday night in late August and three grown women were reduced to arguing over what to watch on T.V. Phoebe always liked to catch Early Edition. She thought the guy with the newspaper that read about the future was cute and they both had something in common, wanting to change future events for the better. Piper wanted to watch a Japanese cooking show and Prue wanted to watch African Queen, again, on one of the movie channels. The boredom had everyone on edge and they fought until they decided to watch nothing.
"How about some Scrabble?" asked Phoebe as she headed for the closet.
"Anything that we won't argue about," said Prue, "Just something to pass the time. I even am willing to listen to one of your long convoluted stories, Phoebe."
Phoebe shot Prue a dirty look though she knew she was only kidding. "I wish something interesting would happen," said Piper, as there was a knock at the door. Phoebe went to answer it and to her utter amazement there stood two Pipers, who said in unison, "Hello, Pheebs!"
After several moments, and the two Pipers asking if they could come in.
Phoebe calls out, "Piper, it's you!"
Piper came over correcting her saying, "You mean it's for me,"
"No, that's not what I meant," said Phoebe as Piper came over and Piper 2 and Piper 3 stepped into the Manor.
"Hi Piper, Hi Prue," they again said in unison. Prue came over while Piper 1's jaw dropped. "Who are you two, and where did you come from?" Piper 1 said with astonishment.
Piper 3 answered, "I'm from four months in your future and this copy is from one month in your future."
"Whoa, copy? We're all quite the originals, in our own time that is," chimed in Piper 2.
Phoebe asked, "Did one of you try to increase your power like Prue?"
"No!" called out all three Pipers.
Prue said, "This is too strange, and we wished for something interesting. At least you're all wearing different outfits. Since our Piper is in dark, would one of you tell us what is happening here?"
The five Halliwell sisters sat down and Piper 3 started her tale.
It was, or rather will be; almost Christmas and we had had a very busy month with various otherworldly problems along with the usual Christmas rush. The club had been dong very well and I was getting ready for a club Christmas party. It was a Monday night and we had closed down to have the party and I was getting the last of the food and drink ready. I brought out a big tray of cheese for the buffet and I tripped sending the tray into the punch bowl. As a reflex reaction, I said, "Freeze." And as usual it stopped. Unfortunately the punch was frozen hanging in mid-air all over the table. There was no way to stop it all without cascading down all over the table. I thought to myself that it would be nice if it went back into the bowl and stayed there. To my astonishment it did go back in and the plate of cheese flew back into my hands.
"Did I do that?" I thought, "Have my power gotten stronger again?"
So I went in the backroom to try it out I knocked several containers on the floor and they went back up to the shelves. Then I opened the door and went back into the club. Everyone was undecorating the club, or rather, they were doing everything backwards. I had completely sent time in reverse. That's why I'm here now. I tried to make it stop, but every time I tried things started going backwards faster. By the time everyone around me was going three times their normal speed I headed home to Book of Shadows. When I got there it was yesterday and I found all THREE of us going about our Sunday chores in reverse. Somehow I was existing in the past and running backwards. It was major weird. No one could see me or hear me and no one could help me. I went up to look though the Book, but it didn't say anything about this power. The Book often says what we need to hear once we need to see it, but now I am in the past and the answer might only be in the Book in the future. So downstairs I went, had a bite to eat and tried to figure it out myself. Every time I tried to stop it, things just started going faster. Before long people were moving so fast that they were invisible and the shadows in the house were only taking a few minutes to completely cross the sky. If I didn't get it stopped, years would be passing by in minutes soon I thought. So if trying to stop it made it go faster, I tried to make it start again instead of stop. The speed at which yesterday passed began to slow down and eventually stop. The day calendar on the desk read the 5th of October. I had lost over six weeks! It was nighttime and I heard someone say, "Who's down there? This is not a house you want to fool with the occupants. Go away."
I called out, "It's only me, Piper. I've got a little problem." Then I saw that it was Piper2 who came done the stairs.
Back in the present Piper2 said that now she could finish the story.
"Whoa. Who are you, and where did you come from? And if you're me, who am I?"
said Piper2.
Piper3 tried to explain her new power and about going back in time. "I only think it's to reverses small things, not to keep traveling back in time. Now how can I get back?"
"Cool Power," Piper 2 said who tried out the power. Kit walked downstairs to see what happened and then Piper 2 tried to send him upstairs. "Well that old cat took off backwards are flew up the stairs!"
Piper3 broke in, "Wait we don't have any control over it yet!" Then, we were again heading backwards in time.
Piper 2 continued, "It didn't come with a manuals, anyway things were really freaky outside so I went out and Piper3 followed me." Cars were racing down the street at breakneck speed; leaves were flying up from the ground and going back into the trees. As it got earlier, people were running by backwards. Then the most disturbing thing was that the sun started coming up in the west and yesterday was starting again. I saw myself returning from work and that really freaked me out.
"Piper3 told me how to stop it. So I forced myself to make it start again and time started to slow down. Unfortunately we had lost a month before we got time back on the right course and after that we knocked on your door this evening. And here we are the Piper triplets!"
Piper 1 listened to their story and did have an urge to try out the new power, but it sounded like she needed to really learn to control before she ended up like these two gals.
Phoebe quipped, "That is one freaky tale, real Twilight Zone stuff. Our lives have had a lot of that since we become witches."
Then Prue said, "Our Piper can save herself by not making the same mistake, but what about you two. It seems three different timelines exist and you're not going to fit into this one."
"I don't need two extra Piper's running around San Francisco," said Piper 1, "I'm not changing the name of the club to P5."
Prue had another suggestion, "Maybe the Book of Shadows can help us. A traveling spell is all we need."
All five of the Halliwell sisters went up to the book, which was already flipping to the page they need. "The Marvelous Traveling Spell." read Piper2 and Piper3.
"That spell was never in our book before," said Phoebe who was the most versed in the Book.
"This spell will send witches to where they want to go across time and space. Perfect. Now here are the ingredients we need," read Prue. The ingredients were mixed and they all stood around the cauldron. Each witch recited a different line:
Through time and space
They want to go.
Where they once were before.
On the winds of which we lack,
Off they go, send them back.
And with that Piper2 and Piper3 vanished in a violet mist and were heading back home. Each of the witches looked at each other quite satisfied. The boredom no longer had any grip on them.
"We're going to have to be very careful as our powers grow. We are supposed to be very powerful witches," said Prue.
"But what a neat power," said Phoebe, "You can relive anything you want over and over."
"Not till I can control it," said Piper. "Forwards in time with fine with me. Now, how about a nice boring game of Scrabble?"
THE END