7

"Okay, honey…" Jerry escorted his adult daughter to the middle of the room and placed his middle three around her in a three-pointed circle. "Now, I'm not sure when exactly you land, but since you traveled roughly fifteen years from the future you should land sometime in the Eighties back when I was working here with Mr. Hennessey and this place was a burger joint."

"How will I know you?"

"Your father was a very handsome man." Theresa stood at the sink filling the dishwasher. "But if you run into me, don't mention anything about magic otherwise I might not have married him at all." As much as she loved her husband and marriage, the sorcery in it was often too much for her to handle by herself.

"What?!" Jerry stood offended.

"Oh," Theresa reacted at what she had said. "I'm sure I would have. I'm sure I would have…"

"Uh-huh…" Jerry was starting to see another side of his wife. "Okay kids, let's do this…"

"One last thing…" Future Alex grabbed her younger self by the sleeve. "For the love of God, please study your magic, I do not want to go back to the future unarmed against those brats!"

"Way ahead of you!" Young Alex could not agree more.

"And if I get back to the future and don't have my powers, I'm coming back and beating you up!" She took her place again. Alex held aloft her wand as did Justin and then Max. They held them aloft as their father recited the spell from the magic book.

"Okay kids, repeat after me…" Jerry looked up as he recited the incantation. "I call upon the shadows of the past…"

"Wait!!!" Justin reacted. "Dad, I'm getting a bad case of déjà vu like we've done this."

"Yeah," Jerry stopped and thought about it. "So am I…"

"Dad…" Alex looked around the room. "Was Mr. Hennessey a tall stocky guy who told really bad jokes?"

"Yeah…"

"And did Harper's mom used to work here?" Justin asked.

"Yeah…" Jerry looked to Theresa and around the room. "I think we did do this before and it went awry." He looked upon Max. He had a folded-up copy of an old Bob's Big Boy menu in his back pocket.

"Where did I get this?" He wondered out loud. Alex and her future counterpart exchanged looks.

"I think we're experiencing something called folded-time syndrome." Jerry had heard of it not from a book of sorcery but from an alchemist's book on time travel. "It's when the timeline splits into two versions, and you recall both versions." He looked back at his book, and studied the spell. "Alex, switch places with yourself. Alex, take your wand back."

"But…" Adult Alex reacted confused. "I don't have my powers."

"It won't matter..."

"Jerry, what are you doing?" Theresa reacted with alarm.

"Trust me on this…" Jerry took a deep breath, looked to his wife and back to his kids both present and future. It looked like he was sending the wrong daughter back in time, but as odd as it looked, he knew it was right.

"Alex…" He looked to his older daughter. "Even though you don't have your powers, recite this with the rest. I call upon the shadows of the past…"

"I call upon the shadows of the past…" Justin, Max and the two Alexes recited in unison upon the younger Alex Russo.

"Open the doors of time and the windows of infinity…."

"Open the doors of time and the windows of infinity…." The kids chanted together.

"Return this one to a place in time…"

"Return this one to a place in time…" The door to the patio drifted open as a breeze filled the room. Clouds outside started rolling eastward.

"To take her place back in time." Jerry added.

"To take her place back in time." Adult Alex held her old wand with her younger brothers Justin and Max continuing to hold their wands aloft. The room shimmered and there was a bright light from the teenaged Alex Russo. It grew brighter and brighter and winked out completely. When she opened her eyes again, she and her adult self had changed places and she was back in the circle. Her future self was gone. Theresa gasped and held on to her chest. She was so scared something might have gone wrong.

"Dad…" Justin reacted confused. "What happened?" Max was reaching into the space his sister had exchanged.

"I almost screwed that up…" Jerry exhaled a breath of relief. "You see, there's a reason traveling to the future is so difficult; it hasn't occurred yet! From here, the future has changed. Justin, you might not marry Harper after all, and Alex, you could still keep your powers. We don't know if any of those things predicted still happen. They may, or may not…." He chuckled a bit. "Always in motion is the future…" He mimicked a tiny Jedi Master.

"I never got that before…" Max finally understood the Star Wars line. "What, wait… I may not get to keep my powers after all?"

Justin and Alex shook their heads.

"What a gyp!"