JOAN'S FLASHFORWARD

Chapter 15 Epilogue

(AUTHOR'S NOTE: I didn't make any effort to dovetail with the ending of the TV show. I planned out the story during the midseason hiatus and had no idea what direction the TV show would go)

"And now," said the TV announcer. "Let's bring on the world expert on Flashfowards, Herman HeisenBorg."

Professor HeinsenBorg entered onto the stage.

"Thank you, Mr. Numberman. But it would be unjust for me to put myself forward as The Expert. There are other people who deserve credit as much as or more than me. This was a project where the whole world needed a solution, and vast numbers of scientists cooperated to find the cause, either in person or on the Internet. In particular I want to credit a Harvard undergraduate who first put me on the right path, and who is in the audience tonight: Mr. Luke Girardi. Luke, please stand up."

Luke stood, and all the TV cameras turned to get him in their sights. He looked a little uncomfortable at the fact that the cameras were on him. He pulled on Grace's arm and persuaded her to stand as well. "Thank you, and in turn I want to praise a woman who helped defeat a disease that had been predicted in my own Flashforward. My fiancée, Grace Polonski."

Grace smiled for the cameras. She had long left behind the days when she wore a motorcycle jacket and butch haircut to shock teachers, but she still objected to "prettying myself up." The compromise was that she presented a dignified, serious façade. She was paler and leaner than she used to be; it had taken three months to find the cure for her disease. Neither Luke and Grace complained: the important thing was that they had found it and may have averted an epidemic. Everybody had contributed; there was no one big hero.

"So the target date for the Flashforward is two days from now," said Mr. Numberman as the cameras turned back to the stage. "What can we expect?"

"In my opinion, nothing," replied the professor. "All the energy will be deflected into the past. We might not even be aware that it is happening on a sensory level, though of course nobody will forget that the flashforwards happened."

"Is there any chance of preventing it? Change history so that the Flashforwards didn't happen?"

The professor shook his head. "I don't believe so. Change happens inside time; you can't change the timeline itself. What we have now is two timelines in parallel, the one where the Flashforwards didn't occur and the one we're on now. Our math implies that a timeline can't be destroyed; any attempt to change time will simply create an additional line. I know people would like to rescue their loved ones who died in all the accidents, but I'm afraid that's scientifically impossible. The only consolations I can give is that the loved ones are alive in an alternate timeline, and that Flashforwards will never happen again."

"How did you arrange that?" asked Numberman. " 'You' meaning all the scientists in the world I mean."

"It's hard to explain directly, but let me make an analogy. Benjamin Franklin, after his famous experiment with the kite, theorized that lightening is the result of the buildup of unbalanced electric charges in the clouds and that mankind could decrease the danger by bleeding off the charge slowly, with lightning rods. Similarly, we've found how to redirect the flow of dark matter near the earth so that it will never again be so vulnerable to supernova radiation."

"Why couldn't God do that the first time?" Grace whispered to Luke.

"I don't know. Maybe it would violate scientific laws to simply Think the matter around. He needed man to do the work."

"And you to think of it," said Grace, giving her betrothed a quick kiss.

.......

If anybody had told Lily that she would spend the evening BEFORE her wedding in bed with her husband, she probably would have been incredulous. But she remembered remembering that detail from her Flashforward, and why fight fate?

To be sure, her current actions in bed were rather tame: reading letters and Emails.

"Joan, Adam, Luke, Grace have all RSVP'ed," she said. "They won't be at the wedding. They'll all be at celebrations of their accomplishments: Adam's picture, Luke's scientific suggestion, Grace's role in preventing an epidemic."

"Does that bother you?" asked Henry.

"Nah. They all deserve to be the center of attention; why should they have to play second fiddle to us?"

"I meant---"

"Yeah, I know what you meant; that they may resent my marrying again. Well, if they feel that way, it's understandable. At least Will and Helen are coming, and nobody is creating a fuss. Taking into account how touchy this subject it, we should consider ourselves lucky. The Girardis have been good to me, Henry. Make sure we go to Luke's wedding, regardless. I hear they'll do it in the Jewish style, with the canopy and the wineglass."

"As long as the absenses don't bother you. You seem worried about something, Lil."

"Yeah," said Lily. "There's something I need to tell you before we get married, Henry."

"Some deep dark secret?" asked Henry, exaggerating the melodramatic tone. "I won't let it bother me."

"It's not dark, though I suppose it's really deep," said Lily. "It has to do with God---"

........

After the presentation of the check (Joan made sure the real check got in her purse, since Adam was not very careful with money) the Girardi-Roves circulated through the crowd. Occasionally Joan turned to look at her husband's painting again. It looked much like the one in her Flashforward vision, with two differences. In the original painting, the Visionary/Joan had been nude. In this version, she was wearing a modest Greek robe. That wasn't because of Joan's modesty – she had modeled for an artist/husband for four years – but to keep Adam's promise to Luke, to make a deliberate change and prove that time be different the second time through.

The other difference was in the artist's intent, though it was hard to isolate the actual change in the painting. In the original painting the Visionary represented Joan herself, with her meetings with God, although of course nobody outside Joan's little circle knew that. This time around, everybody in the world was a Visionary.

"Joan!" called out one of Joan's female classmates, a bit high-strung. She rushed up to the couple. "Look, I don't know anything about art, but I do know I need to thank you. You helped me get my head on straight after the Flashforward; I don't know what I would have done otherwise."

"You're welcome," said Joan. "But the person you should really thank is over there." She pointed to a woman off to the right.

"Ellie Himmel? Yeah, I know she organized the talk sessions, but she's rather cold. You were the one with the empathy." She gave Joan an unexpected kiss on the cheek, and rushed away.

"I'm getting tired of this," Joan complained to Adam. "Professor HeisenBorg was right, people who have the original ideas should get more credit." She walked over to Ellie, who was standing like a wallflower – literally against the wall.

"Ellie, I'm sorry. People aren't giving you proper credit for the work you did after the crisis."

"It's all right, Joan. I get praised all the time. I thought it was time you got honored for a change."

Joan stared. "Oh, crap. It's YOU."

"Yes, Joan. I wondered if My name might give me away. El is Hebrew for God."

"I've had a lot more on my mind the last few months than looking up Hebrew dictionaries!"

"You had the proper priorities, Joan." Ellie/God assured her. "Helping people through one of the greatest crises in recent history."

"Were you being truthful when you told Dad there was no way to stop it?"

"I am the God of Truth."

"Okay."

"But if I couldn't eliminate the crisis, I did My best to make good come out of it. On the personal level – Lily finally realized that she could remarry without feeling like a traitor to your brother. Your family no longer has to lie to your father. Luke and Grace, no matter how self-effacing they try to be, finally got the public recognition they deserve, and they finally realized it was time to make it official and get married. On the broader level, biologists have expanded their ability to fight epidemics, and your scientists know far more about dark matter than they did – that'll be important in the future. And the entire human race has gone through a crisis together – it'll make it difficult for them to go back to hating stereotypes of each other."

"I still wish I had Agnes back, though." A sliver of sadness crossed her heart.

"You'll see her again in the afterlife, Joan. But you still have work to do on Earth." She walked off with her characteristic wave and Joan had to resist the urge to roll her eyes.

"Maybe so," muttered Joan. "But at the moment I am not looking forward to it!"

THE END