Almost a week had passed since Lola had woken up to find Lana gone.
With it being pageant season she was homeschooling. How criminally irresponsible it was to leave a child of only seven, home alone, let alone the fact that her parents had been doing this since she was six, was for some reason lost on the family.
Given what had happened Lola could not focus on her pageant training, her heart was simply not in it. Also Lola's new tiara just didn't sit well with her. She had lost her old one eight months ago. After many stressful weeks of looking with Lana and lots of crying, it was after all the tiara she was awarded for the first pageant she ever won when she was five, Lola had come to accept it was gone. Her replacement, while superficially identical, just felt kind of off, like she was constantly aware it was there rather than feeling like a natural part of her. While this was by no means a deal breaker and she had still competed, she lacked the confidence and focus she once had and it had started to eat away at her enthusiasm and so didn't put up much of an effort to fight this additional feeling of disinterest
After explaining to Lynn Sr and Rita that she would be taking a break from padgets for a while, they said they thought it would be best for her if she continued to homeschool rather than having to deal with the other kids at school during this difficult time.
Over the preceding days an unspoken agreement had been reached between her and her family. They would not say that Lana never existed while on Lola's part, she would not accuse them of lying to her. To be fair, she found her side of the bargain pretty easy to uphold given how, after her initial outburst, Lola was certain they weren't.
Like a drowning man holding tightly to a log to keep his head above water as he's being swept downstream by rapids, Lola had latched on to the theory that they were not her real family and she had in fact traveled to a parallel world. This was a world where Lana never existed, so they simply didn't know any better, she reasoned.
Of course this theory was not without its flaws and Lola's desperation to hold on to it did not make her blind to them. If she had in fact arrived almost a week ago in a world where Lana never existed, what happened to their Lola? Did they swap places? Is she right now struggling with her family who are telling her she's had a twin all along she has no memory of? More seriously, why would this other family have memories of their Lola imagining Lana this whole time until she replaced her?
These were the questions that rebervated around her young mind and eventually led to Lola seaking answers.
It was Friday evening and as they had been doing for the past six days, Lola was curled up next to Lincoln watching another episode of Sliders. The episodes had been interesting, if a little far fetched.
One she really liked, where Britain had suppressed the American revolution, featured an actual prince and even a sword fight at the end. Another showcased the world under the grip of a global pandemic. Lola rolled her eyes at that one finding it difficult to believe something like that could get so out of hand.
The current one, where smart people were treated like celebrities, rather than athletes or beautiful people like herself, was not holding her interest. It didn't help that she got an image of Lisa on the cover of Vogue stuck in her head in her scientist get up holding a beaker, the tagline below her reading, 'White Lab Coats are the New Black!"
What Lola really wanted was the show to go into more detail about the whole traveling between dimensions thing so she could work out how to get home. Unfortunately, so far, the details had been pretty sparse.
"Say Lincoln," Lola began. "Do you think they'll explain how the whole sliding thing works in an upcoming episode?"
"I doubt it," Lincoln answered, much to Lola's dismay. "It's not really that kind of show. It's more about showing off the new worlds each episode where different ideas are explored."
"Oh," said Luna quietly.
"I mean, if it was like Star Trek they'd probably go into it in more detail." Lincoln continued. "But even then, they'd most likely just give us some technobabble about tachyons or reversing the polarity of the neutron flow."
"Technobabble? Tachyons? Reversing the, whatever you said?" Lola said confused. "Lincoln I don't speak nerd."
"Sorry," Lincoln said sheepishly. "Technobabble means made up science to explain away stuff with tachyons and reversing the polarity of the neutron flow being examples of that."
"I see," said Lola meekly. "I just thought, well, isn't science fiction supposed to be, well, sciency?"
"Not always," Lincoln answered. "There are different stands of science fiction. You have science fantasy on one side that just uses advanced science as an aesthetic but does not even attempt to base itself in real science. Then you have what's called hard science fiction, that grounds the science fiction elements in as accurate an understanding of science as we currently have."
"So, Sliders is not hard science fiction?" Lola quired.
"Nope," Lincoln shot back. "I mean, it's closer to it than something like Power Rangers but don't expect any lectures on theoretical physics or mechanical engineering."
Lola was silent for a while, processing the information her brother had given her. She felt deflated, the answers she was searching for now seemed beyond her reach.
Not wanting to let go of her only lead, in spite of the many problems and gaps it had, Lola decided to press her brother further. "What about you Lincoln, do you think alternative Earth's exist and it's possible to travel to them?"
"Hummmm," Lincoln mused. "It's a cool idea to think about. If it were true, who knows, maybe there's a dimension where Luan is actually funny? Or I was born a girl called Linka with my nine annoying brothers?" Lincoln chucked at his own jokes while ruffling Lola's hair. She just smiled lightly after knocking his hand away. "But do I think it's possible? I don't know, it could be?" Lincoln shrugged his shoulders. "Zach totally believes it, but then he and his parents can be pretty out there. They even have a conspiracy website Zach's always trying to get us to look at."
"Zach? He's your weird friend that recommended you check out the show right?" Lola asked.
"Weird friend, that's him alright," Lincoln answered with a smile. "One time he invited me, the guys and Stella to his place to watch all three of the Matrix films, plus the Animatrix. When we were finished, he got us all doing these strange exercises to try and wake us up from the simulation."
Lola looked at her brother up and down. "I'm guessing it didn't work?" She asked sarcastically.
"No," Lincoln answered as he reminisced. "But I think it left poor Rusty with a permanent fear of spoons."
"So," Lola said, trying to sound casual as an idea began to form. "What's the name of their website?" Out of the corner of her eye Lola noticed Lincoln turn his head towards her, his face questioning. "I just think it could be fun to read some of their crazy ramblings and you did say Zach wanted people to check it out."
"I guess it couldn't hurt," Lincoln said. "Their site is called, 'Seeking Truth in the Darkness,' you should be able to find them with a simple google search. The homepage has some UFO photos on it."
"Thanks Linky," Lola said, hugging her brother's arm and nuzzling his shoulder.
"No problem," Lincoln replied awkwardly and turned his attention back to the episode.
After the, for Lola, rather tedious, episode concluded, the siblings said goodnight and Lola made her way back to her room. On the way there though she decided to make a slight detour and ended up outside the room of her younger sisters, Lisa and Lily. From the various bleeps and humming coming from the other side Lola knew Lisa was still awake and would not be disturbing her.
Knocking, she heard a frustrated "Entre," from the other side so Lola opened the door and slipped inside.
"Oh it's you," Lisa said in a distracted tone, giving Lola only the briefest of glances from her work before returning her focus to the various chemicals in front of her.
"Hello Lisa," Lola said, enjoying the subtle calling out of her sister's impolite greeting.
"Yes, yes and a formal greeting to you as well, elder sister," Lisa fired off as she continued to fixate on the bubbling chemicals in front of her.
"I need to ask you something," said Lola, unphased by Lisa's apparent disinterest in her presence.
"Lola, as much as I enjoy debasing my genius intellect to assist you with your second grade homework," Lisa began sarcastically, "This experiment takes priority and furthermore given the late hour both of us should be engaging our REM sleep cycle shortly."
"It's not my homework," Lola said impatiently, stamping her foot. "I have a question about-" she broke off, struggling to remember the term Lincoln had used. "Theoretical physics," prompting a raised eyebrow from Lisa as she looked at her.
Having got her attention Lola asked her question, "Do you think parallel Earths exist and if so, do you think it's possible to travel between them?"
"Ugh," Lisa groned while she closed her eyes and started rubbing her temples. "To think the sanctity of science is continually violated by this science fiction garbage."
Opening her eyes Lisa locked them with Lola. "No Lola, I am a scientist and so my starting point is theory based on empirical data. To quote the founder of modern science himself, Sir Isaac Newton, '...for all the difficulty of philosophy seems to consist in this - from the phaenomena of motions to investigate the forces of nature, and then from these forces to demonstrate the other phaenomena;...' that's from his introduction to the Principia. Then we have Newton's fourth law, 'In experimental philosophy we are to look upon propsistions collected by general induction from a phaenomena as accurately or very nearly true, notwithstanding any contrary hypothesis that may be imagined,...'"
Lisa broke off for a moment, stood up straight, arched her shoulders back and puffed up her chest before continuing to quote Newton in a raised voice, "'This rule we must follow, that the argument of induction may not be invaded by hypothesis!'"
Seeing her older sister with what she imagined would be, were this a cartoon, several dozen question marks floating above her head, Lisa calmed herself and adjusted her glasses. "Forgive my overly hyperbolic response to your inquiry Lola," said Lisa. "To put it in layman's terms, the theory of the multiverse cannot be deduced, that is, discovered, though verifiable facts based on empirical data arrived at through observation, that is to say, things we can measure and test. It is a pure construct and has no more weight to it than the notion that, beyond the range of our most powerful telescopes, the entire Universe is on the back of a gigantic space testudines, or turtle going by it's non-scientific name."
Registering the look of disappointment on Lola's face Lisa softened her tone as she continued. "Even if, for argument's sake, so-called parallel Universes did exist," she began. "There would be no reason to expect that the prevailing laws of physics that govern them would be identical to our own, ruling out the possibility of traveling to or existing in one."
Lola's head had nodded forward during the lengthy reply by her younger sister and she now stared intently at the floor. Lisa observed how her hands were squeezed tight and she was shaking slightly. "Lola?" Lisa asked, a rare trace of emotion creeping into her normal detached, monotone, way of speaking. "Are you alright?" At once whatever spell had ensnared Lola came to an abrupt end. The girl's head snapped up and Lola found herself stepping back on reflex at the distubed look in her sister's eyes. "I don't believe you!" Lola snapped. "You think you're so smart but you don't know everything, you can be wrong!" She stormed out of Lisa and Lilly's room to her own before Lisa had a chance to reply.
Arriving in her room, Lola changed into her nightie, grabbed her phone, switched off the light and climbed into bed. Lying back and getting comfortable, Lola accessed google and quickly found the website ran by Zach and his parents.
There were a number of topics split into different sections covering everything from alien abductions to chemtrails. Of course what she homed in on was the section titled, 'The Mandela Effect and Parallel Universes.'
For the next few hours Lola read. Fortunately, while she had struggled with reading in the past, thanks to extensive support and tutoring from Lincoln and even sometimes Lisa under protest, she had made such tremendous progress she was now reading at a fourth grade level. The Mandela Effect proved, in her mind, beyond doubt, that people did in fact travel between dimensions. Most were ones that were almost identical to their own but with subtle differences that conflicted with their memories of their home one.
As she dived deeper into the website, Lola eventually came across more dramatic examples than simply remembering 'Looney Tunes' as Looney Toons' or Nelson Mandella being dead years before he died, where the phenomena got its name from. There was a woman who explained she had come from a dimension where she was single but suddenly found herself in this one where she was married to a man she did not know and had several children with him. Another man claimed that in his home dimension he had been a millionaire owning a successful software company but in this current one he was working a dead end job as a Walmart greeter.
The more she read, the more convinced Lola became that this is what had happened to her. It was all finally starting to make sense, even if she was still left with some nagging questions to explain away the inconsistencies and above all, how to get back home.
She had also learned that those responsible for people traveling to alternative dimensions, along with a number of other things, were an evil group called the Illuminati that were secretly ruling the world from the shadows. Apparently the iIlluminati of different worlds were in contact with one another and worked together. These were experiments you see, to test the limits of their power in manipulating and controlling the population.
It scared Lola a little to think that the Illuminati had targeted her for one of their experiments. Were they watching her and this other family? She supposed they must be so they would know how well their little experiment was going.
She was however somewhat comforted to read that an alien species known simply as The Greys, were waging war against the Illuminati on humanity's behalf.
It had all started back in the 1940's when the Illuminati's grip had only extended to the United States. They had shot down one of The Grey's explorer spaceships in the sky above Roswell, New Mexico. In response The Grey's made several attempts to land invasion forces throughout the following decade, always choosing to land in remote deserts in order to keep the possible human lives lost though collateral damage to a minimum. The Illuminati had responded with nuclear weapons under the cover story that the US government was carrying out 'atomic testing' to develop bombs that would be used to defend America against the Soviets.
Slipping under the covers for comfort Lola read the section of the website regarding contacting them. There were instructions not to give any personal details, no name, no address etc in case the Illuminati succeeded in hacking the site and discovering who had seen through their lies.
With nervous, shaking fingers, Lola began to write up her story. It was very cathartic, being able to communicate her thoughts freely and honestly like this. She finished her account with a series of questions about the seeming contradictions in the idea she was from another world and of course, is there a way for her to get home?
Switching off her phone after sending the email Lola hugged her pillow tightly, imagining it was her lost twin. "I miss you so much," Lola whispered. "But I'll make my way back to you." Before she drifted off to sleep.
Lori Loud was having a pleasant dream about her and Bobby. The details were in no way x-rated, rather they were getting married in a church so ridiculously large the attendees needed to take an indoor tram ride from the entrance to get to their seats.
She was walking down the aisle with her farther on one arm and Lincoln on the other. Untraditional? Yes, but she knew Lincoln's pure heart had helped to shape her into the better version of herself she was today in much the same way Lynn Sr had and it seemed cruel to not give him his due.
In the front row sat the rest of her family along with Bobby's, a mixture of smiles and happy tears on their faces.
Reaching the altar Lori faced the love of her life, his normally slightly hairy chin from his lazy and irregular shaving this time smooth and flawless for the most important day of their lives.
Their personalized vows said, the Priest went through the obliquity asking if there be any one who knew of any lawful reason when these two should be wed and to her horror Lisa objected. Oh she didn't explain why, rather she just got up from her seat, ran over to her and grabbed hold of her arm. Lisa then proceeded to start tugging on it gently while saying her name softly over and over again.
Opening her eyes Lori found Lisa stood next to her bed, her hand on her arm just she had been in her dream. "Lisa?" Lori murmured, her brain foggy. "What time is it?" Through blurry eyes Lori glanced over to Leni's bed in the darkness and saw she did not appear to be awake.
"Lori," Lisa said quietly, drawing the older teens' attention back to her. "While I regret intruding on your REM cycle, it would be remiss of me if I did not bring something of critical importance to your attention."
Lori moved to sit up in bed and Lisa paused a moment while she got comfortable. "It's about Lola," Lisa continued, causing Lori's eyes to widen, "It seems there may be an unaccounted for variable in our calculations." In spite of Lisa's pretentious way of phrasing it, Lori picked up on her meaning.
"But I thought things were going so well," said Lori.
"As did I," Lisa replied. "However, after the disturbing exchange I had with her several hours ago, I entered all the available data into my quantum probability generator. If events are left unchecked and allowed to play out on their present trajectory, we are looking at an 87.4% chance of catastrophic failure within the next fifteen days."
The colour drained from Lori's face at her younger sister's words. Rather than berate Lisa for more details though, the shock has exacerbated her feelings of exhaustion at being woken up so early in the morning and she struggled to keep her eyes open for a moment before shaking herself awake.
"Lisa," said Lori. "While I appreciate you telling me this and I understand how serious it is, there's literally nothing I can do right now while everyone is asleep. Could this not have waited till morning?"
"No," Lisa replied solemnly. "According to my calculations, every hour we delay results in an exponential increase in the probability of failure. Furthermore, they also point to your intervention being key to achieving success?"
"Me?" Lori exclaimed, surprised. She had never been particularly close to Lola. The gap in years had been too vast for many opportunities at bonding. "Wouldn't Lincoln be a better candidate? He's closer to her than anyone." Lisa frowned.
"I've explored that, the issue is that the algorithm representing Lincoln is...unstable," Lisa said calmly.
"Unstable?" Lori questioned.
"Yes," Lisa continued, "He has the potential to help of course but his emotions, his sentimentality, may cause him to lose sight of the goal. In his misplaced belief he'd be helping her, the results could be disastrous." Lori took all this in and her resolve hardoned.
"What do I have to do?" She asked.
"You're not working tomorrow," Lisa began. "Start planning to spend the day with her. Get her out of the house as soon as she's up and do whatever frivolous girls do who are not consumed with unifying general relativity and quantum mechanics."
"Okay," Lori answered and got her phone to start making notes while she came up with a plan. As Lisa turned to go Lori put down her phone, reached out and grabbed her shoulder. "Wait a second," she said before leaning over and hugging Lisa from behind. "Thank you."
"Your affectionate gesture is noted and appreciated," Lisa said while squirming slightly, unused as she was to public displays of affection.
Releasing her sister, Lori went back to work on her plan while Lisa returned to her's and Lilly's room, being careful not to wake her baby sister as she entered.
Before going to sleep the young genius stopped by the only small light source in the darkened room, a monitor that was connected to her quantum probability generator. On the screen there was an impossibly complex series of coded algorithms that would deftly the comprehension of all but a few dozen of the most intelligent people on the planet.
Next to said algorithms was a chart containing percentages of various outcomes that, while fluctuating slightly in the decimal range, were relatively stable. With a smirk Lisa observed how certain outcomes had in fact dropped by over 20% since she left her room to talk to Lori. "Your move," Lisa whispered smugly to the series of numbers and mathematical symbols on the screen before switching off the monitor and climbing into bed.