Home.

Strangely, nothing had gone wrong.

Once Coral had tamed the land, he asked Mr. Chinea to rent his abandoned warehouse, where they used to sell cakes. At one time it was part of his livelihood, and now it was just part of a memory that did nothing but gather dust and get in the way. He never went in, he avoided looking at it. So the request was not so far-fetched, and besides, it would help supplement his meager pension. Imobach was worried at the wrong time, if the retirement benefits were like this, how would they be in forty-seven years when it was his turn…

It took one day to load the few belongings from La Chama , a neighbour whose banana plantations bordered the ravine, loaded the most expensive things into his van. And although the lady kept her courtesy in check, the gentleman ignored her dry comments.

“Who would have thought? Ha ha” Coral laughed on the other end of the line. “It sounds like something out of a soap opera.”

"It is from the country where the best ones come from," Adassa decreed.

No one expected that the rude and unsympathetic brunette would be a fan of that television format. When she turned on Cristal for the first time , she did so with headphones and a face of absolute intrigue. She enjoyed all of them, the more than twenty she had seen, even though sometimes she didn't understand the love affairs and the fuss. Her passion, over the years, would also extend to Turkish and Korean soap operas.

“…with one of the emigrations to Venezuela,” Teresa continued reading. “she fell in love with a new worker. He was older than her, attractive and surly, although over time they began a relationship that went beyond the physical… once she had saved enough, after several years, she returned to Spain. She pursued him, but her world fell apart when she discovered that he already had a family here... That is the story of Gladys Mariela.”

“She was offered the job at the radio station because of the morbid nature of the story, Imobach said.”

“It's good marketing.” Yuusuke said categorically.

I wasn't on the call, not even framed in the shot, I was just listening to the conversation in the background while looking for a documentary I hadn't seen yet.

“Why would he have wanted to stay?” No matter how hard she tried, Coral couldn't come up with an idea that would have kept her from returning at the time. There she had a family that loved her, friends to talk to and a name, recognition, here she was nothing more than a spirit that frightened those who approached the ravine.

“Would he be ashamed to return?” The feeling filled Teresa with sadness.” It was not his fault.”

“And what does that matter?” Adassa's not-so-pale and pierced face took up the entirety of the blonde's screen.

“Simple, pride.” Imobach suggested, putting an arm behind her to draw her sister closer.

“Or she was better off here.” Yuusuke answered without looking up. “Even though it was his home, nothing tied him down, here, although painful, she was free to do whatever he wanted. Besides, the situation had changed over the years, it would be worse when she returned.”

“Compared with the situation now, of course…” Imobach snorted sarcastically.

He expected someone to laugh at his witty comment, but, a silence fell. He became serious again.

“Come on! We all win, and you want to throw away all the walking we did.”

“Seven minutes, don't exaggerate.” the athlete did not take into account the lack of sportsmanship of the two girls on the other end of the line.

This was clearly stated by the latest generation pacemaker watch - which counts calories, calculates, measures blood pressure, and much more - from Imobach.

“The journey there is always longer than the return journey, you never know what to expect” she added.

“Whatever you say. At least I didn't shake like a flan the first time.” Adassa lied.

“Trembling serves a purpose. From a distance it makes the prey appear larger and makes it impossible to hunt. It is an ancient mechanism.” Yuusuke agreed.

"It's my rottweiler," she whispered proudly to her brother, "I'm taming him."

“Although a seventy-year-old woman with osteoporosis could do little.”

The boy with the smooth, almost porcelain skin added. What he didn't count on was the surprise attack with a 100% cotton pillow all over his face.

"We couldn't have known that!" Coral justified herself, removing the large cushion. "It's like Schrödinger's cat."

“Schrödingeru?” Yuusuke thought he knew what he was referring to, however, he didn't know the last name. And, unintentionally, the question escaped from him in a confused tone.

“Yeah, you know… that experiment, until we observe it we can't know how it is.”

“I think… it’s not applicable,” Teresa said. “I’m not sure.”

“And that's why you shouldn't copy.” Adassa smiled at him with the need to annoy.

“Look who has a sense of morality now.” Imobach glanced at Coral.

“But how come not? You explain it to him.” Coral again sought support from the Asian.

“Apfelhunt.”

“What is he saying now?!” again the big face of the one with almost black eyes all over the screen.

Yuusuke made a face of disgust, more at the comment from the only one who had two computers, than at having to explain everything.

“In my universe it was the scientist Apfelhunt, not Schrödinger. Ha,” he laughed to himself. Since he was there he had discovered many things about himself, some of which he didn't even like. He didn't know which side he belonged to, but lately he was taking many things for granted, and that was a serious mistake. “It's funny. Until today He thought our worlds were almost parallel, but these small differences... They diverge more than I thought.”

“But it makes sense, right? I mean, they should be different. If in this universe someone has a completely gothic aesthetic, in the other one it might be all pink, candy and stuffed animals," Imobach said.

“Yes and no. Rather, the differences refer to the fact that time in another universe can flow backwards…”

“Backwards?!” Teresa was totally shocked, trying to imagine what it was like to go backwards. She got stuck for a while.

“Yes, time moves in reverse, or antimatter is part of its system. Everett, in my universe.” he clarified. “And explaining it so that you understand, showed the existence of multiple parallel universes, each one with its own time date, ours, as far as I have seen, are relatively similar, but there have been small quantum events that generate dissonance between both.”

“But that doesn't help us at all.” Coral unconsciously scratched the top of her head.

“I certainly don't. It has already been proven on my planet, in your case, that a lot of money can be made depending on how you use it. But of course, it can also create disruption.”

The words came out of Yuusuke's mouth without fear, he knew them, and for better or worse, some would not be able to create anything and others, although capable, had a minimum of common sense.

“It's a nice power for a fictional villain,” Imobach commented.

“Tere! Knock out Adassa, now. Did I forget?” Joked Coral.

“Me?! Uh… how?”

The one with the long and extravagant hair made herself comfortable on the bed, on her knees and between her roommate's body, she tried to find the right position to knock her out.

She gave up after a few seconds, even though her job would determine whether her universe was still standing, but well, the supposed destroyer of worlds didn't seem to care about the information. Not enough.

“Seeing that the conversation is no longer going well, I take advantage and leave.”

Imobach could not deny to his conscience that perhaps the reason for returning to his room was to see Teresa in that frugal nightgown.

“Yes. I've already assumed that our conversations are, for the most part, filler.” said Yuusuke, who finally pressed play .

“Okay girls, it seems to me that it's my room's turn now.”

Coral pushed away the huge squish plush of a Shiba Inu that she hugged every night.

“Have you uploaded everything from the case yet? And the photos?”

“Yesss.” Adassa responded insolently, although Teresa heard him type a little more before hitting enter .

“It feels so good, doesn't it?” Coral was elated. “Let's celebrate!”

“Let's go to the beach!” Coral and Teresa shouted at the same time.

“Look what I have.”

Coral had kept that long-brimmed hat with a black bow in the closet for a while to surprise her friend; she knew she would love it.

"Beach…" Adassa complained, but she knew she was going anyway. "I have something more important. You asked me to look for any possible trace of the brainiac while traveling."

“I really… don’t want him to notice me anymore.”

It was a completely different thing to help him get back home, back to his daily life, and he would be fine, but he no longer had the need to attract his attention. Not so much.

Without realizing it, that illusion had diminished to the point that he already considered him another one of them.

“And what did you promise me about the money?”

“I didn't promise you anything” her eft eyebrow arched.

“Oh no? Well. I had to try it… Anyway, read on.”

A notification arrived at that moment on the chestnut's phone.

It was a screenshot. Specifically, of an Amazon item , it was on sale but its price… was a bit exorbitant.

“A laser welder and it has been on sale for a year. Pfff normal, at that price.”

“No! Look!”

“The seller is from Uganda,” Teresa said, bringing her face closer to the screen.

“And…” Adassa gave them a second chance, but the second one ran out of patience. “The name. Translated it says Hara Aisuke.”

The lapse of time did not surprise the unscientific Coral; Yuusuke had taken the time on one of those lazy afternoons to take a brief look at traveling through passable gorges. The explanation to the other three had been later and shorter.

As far as the chestnut had understood, a white hole works in such a way that it expels everything that passes through it, and even if the energy tried hard to pass through a single tunnel, several expulsion points had been created. Making it so that, inevitably, the different things that traveled would arrive at different ports.

"Your brother is crazy," she thought as he explained everything. As far as she knew, he could have been expelled in the middle of the Pacific Ocean or in a decadent post-war era, like the Meiji period she had seen in that famous anime.

“Your brother!” Coral replied after her astonishment.

“Very good, how fast. Also…”

A second notification bubbled up on Coral's phone.

“Are they his too?” Coral asked.

“I think so. It says H.A.”

“Why would he have the need to mark everything with his name?” Teresa was surprised by the suspicious nature of the situation.

“In any case, it has been good for us.”

The three pairs of eyes, two green, three brown and one red, looked at a pair of old but well-maintained lead glasses. According to the description, they were anti-radiation and had been in a museum in Chicago since the 1960s.

“What are you planning to do?” It wasn't her plan, so Teresa didn't really know what to do, she was waiting for orders and was willing to do whatever she was asked to do.

“Well… to be honest… I don’t know.” The itch on Coral’s head was slowly increasing. “I thought it would be easier. A button or something to go back through a portal, like in the movies.”

“You can make a deposit to my account number and I'll buy the welder. Without putting anything, anonymous. It's a good start.” Adassa nodded.

“I'm not stupid enough to fall for it.” Coral pouted. “I'll tell him, it's the easiest thing to do, he'll know what to do.”

“In short, I have done all the work.”

“No, thanks to me you have mobilized, if he had asked you, with his Hey, you look for this.” She perfectly imitated the boy, making the girls laugh. “You would not have done anything.” She winked with his right eye.

“It's fascinating, isn't it? A little secret that no one else knows, and so much to discover out there.” Teresa's eyes had begun to shine. “I mean, we're not alone in the different universes that exist, that means that we can miss a lot of things. Down here, there are various planes, dimensions, that we are not able to see, disappear…”

“Sorry, I'm hanging up.”

She hated having to leave her friend's monologue unfinished. She didn't like leaving people aside, especially her, but an incoming call made her react.

Looking back, he thought he hadn't seen the word Dad directly on his phone for days, not even in conversations with his brother. And now it had appeared like that, immediately.

She picked up the phone in a thousandth of a second and, anxious, she answered. She also wanted to hear her mother's voice, but she didn't. She didn't care, she would call her, now she wanted to bring her up to date and receive congratulations for her many achievements.

"Should I tell him about the club? No, I'd rather not," she thought.