Chapter 5

Fortunately, Rich was right about his ability to traverse the space between the two pylons. He arrived at the Moongiver Pylon just before his children. "Bill! Holly! This way!"

"Dad?" a confused Bill said, "How did you get here before us?"

"I'll explain in a minute. Just get over here, both of you." His children did as they were told. "I want you to get down behind these bushes and stay out of sight until I get back." Though they weren't sure why their father was acting so strangely, Bill and Holly complied.

Satisfied that his children would not be seen, Rich looked at his watch and realized he only had seconds remaining until the door opened and history repeated himself. He ran toward the Moongiver Pylon and prayed that his plan would work. He had to get a message to the girl but he didn't want her to see anything that would cause her to ignore it. He decided to write a note in the dirt in front of the door so she wouldn't miss it. The note would say "HOLLY DON'T EXIT HERE."

As Rich kneeled down in front of the pylon to write his message, his heart dropped as he heard the familiar humming sound of the pylon door opening. He only had seconds to act. Desperate, he quickly wrote the words "HOLLY DON'T" and sprinted toward his children to make sure they all remained hidden.

"Daddy, what's going on?" Holly asked.
Rich put his hands on both his children's shoulders as he motioned for them to stay down. "Shhh," he said to Holly quietly as all eyes focused on the pylon.

The door opened and the family watched as Beige Universe's Holly's voice came from the pylon. "Oh I think we're back in the Land of the Lost," she said. Rich watched nervously as the child stuck her head out and looked around. Before the girl could exit, the box-like creature hopped out, just like Bill and Holly described in the other timeline.

Rich held his breath as the moment of truth had arrived. Just as his daughter's counterpart was about to set foot in the wrong Land of the Lost, she looked down and saw Rich's note. "Holly don't?" she said out loud. Before she could do anything else, she looked at the creature that arrived with her just as it exploded. Instinctively, the girl took a step back and the pylon door closed. Rich let out a sigh of relief.

"Dad! That looked just like Holly!" yelled Bill.

"What was that?" asked his daughter.

"It's a long story," replied Rich, "I'll tell you back at the cave."

"What about the pylon?" Bill inquired.

"I don't think that's the way home son, at least not for us. I'll explain."

Hours later, the Marshalls were at the cave, winding down after another day surviving in the Land of the Lost.
"I still can't believe there is another universe and another version of us out there," said Bill.

"Well I think it's great. It's like I have a sister," added Holly with a grin.

"Maybe you do," said Rich, returning the smile.

"It's a shame the other Marshall family doesn't know what you did for them," added Bill.

"Well, I'd like to think they would do the same for us. We also have Enik to thank. If he didn't lead me to the Library of Skulls, I wouldn't have been able to help that other Holly."

"What's even more amazing is that we can control time now!" said Bill.

"Not exactly son," Rich responded, "I wanted to return the temporal regulator to Enik so he could have a shot at returning to his time, but when I went back to get it, it was gone."

"Who could have taken it?" Holly asked.

"I don't know, honey. It couldn't have been Enik because he wouldn't have known about it. The Enik that helped me would not have experienced the events that led me to the temporal regulator in the first place. If I could have given it to him, maybe we could have even gone with him and found a way home with the Altrusians of the past, since they know how things work here. I'm not even going to bother telling Enik now because I wouldn't want to upset him."

Bill added, "he gave up a lot for us, didn't he?"

Rich nodded. "We're lucky to have a friend like him."

"So are the other Marshalls," said Holly. The humans chatted a bit longer, not realizing just how wrong they were.