OriginalMcFishie
Epilogue
March 25, 2019
"I thought it was folklore, a hoax the local paper printed."
"So did I, Professor, until I inherited the box with all the information from Dr Gilbert Blythe, he was just a lad when it happened"
"And he was your grandfather?"
"Great grandfather, on my mother's side. That's where I get my middle name."
Ethan Blythe Ford was excited. He loved history and science and putting them together to unravel an 1870 mystery was making his thumbs tingle.
"He worked out what happened," Ethan continued, "but didn't have the technology to prove it, so he wrote it up, carefully packed the tissue samples, and left it a future relative – me – to do the analysis."
"So it was the mould spores in the elixir the local doctor prescribed to women with menopausal symptoms that turned them all into cows? Quite extraordinary," commented the Professor.
"Yes, and of course once they were cows they stopped taking it and spontaneously turned back into women six weeks later when the effects wore off. According to Dr Blythe's notes it caused quite the kerfuffle, all these cows suddenly turning into women – naked – in the fields. One, a Mrs Rachel Lynde – had to walk home seven miles in her birthday suit. She was so angry she walked five miles before she realised she wasn't dressed! Seems her husband had sold her to a local abattoir, and she turned back just in time. Gave the poor lad there quite a shock, but that was nothing compared to what her husband experienced when she returned."
"Divorced him I suppose?"
"Oh no not in those days, he had rather a hard life after that, it says here. Forced to eat meals on the lawn – sometimes made of lawn - unable to leave the house unless in the company of someone trustworthy, that sort of thing."
"Let me look at those results again, "asked the Professor. "Sandwich?" He offered Ethan, "roast beef, my wife's recipe."
"Oh no", responded Ethan, "my family has been vegan since the 1870s. Probably since this happened! I suspect after being cows the women couldn't face cooking meat again. And drinking milk, well it must have just felt wrong."
"Quite, quite", agreed the Professor "What's this?" He asked picking up a small tablet on Ethan's desk.
"Oh" responded Ethan, embarrassed, "I'm planning on going back to Avonlea, thought I'd trace my family roots, set up a hobby farm. It's the latest Farmer's Almanac, all updated, they say, with new Predictive Text, though thats hardly revolutionary for 2019," he joked.
"Ooo let's try it, I've an interest in farming myself you know."
For the next twenty minutes the pair had fun perusing the Almanac.
"What's this?," asked the Professor pointing to a flashing icon in the bottom right of the screen.
"I'm not sure", responded Ethan, "click on it, let's see what happens."
A new screen popped up "Time -Travel Tips, Skype, Coming 2168."
The Professor and Ethan looked at each other perplexed. What could it mean?