Later at the grocery store, Alex and Miles turned down an aisle while heading for the check-out line. Miles was carrying a can of shaving cream and a package of disposable razors. Alex was talking about a movie that she saw when Miles saw boxes of condoms on the shelf. Miles abruptly stopped at the condoms and picked up one of the boxes. Alex stopped and turned to see what Miles was doing.
When she saw what Miles was holding a surprised expression and somewhat of an amused grin came across her face before asking, “Isn’t that rushing things a bit?”
Miles gave Alex a curious look. Alex just responded by looking at the condom box. When he realized what Alex was referring to, he said, “Oh, uh, I wasn’t thinking about getting this for tonight, but eventually I’m hoping that we can… when you’re ready that is. In fact, I don’t have to get these today.”
Alex gave Miles a kiss that lasted a couple of seconds before telling him, “Buy them. In fact, I need to look into getting birth control.”
“Should we go to the feminine products before we leave?”
“I think I should talk to a doctor before buying anything.”
“Okay. Then I guess we’re set; unless you have something to get.”
“I don’t need anything.”
“Let’s go check out then.”
Alex slightly grinned before the two continued towards the registers. After Miles paid for the items, they left the store.
Alex drove back to campus and as the afternoon progressed, she helped Miles by calling auto repair shops. However, before they were able to locate a shop that would look at Miles’ van before Tuesday Alex had to go to class.
6:45 P.M., Alex and Trudy were taking their seats in the bleachers to watch Miles’ game. During the game Trudy noticed how much Alex was enjoying herself.
Near the end of the first half, Trudy got Alex’s attention before saying, “Your mood has certainly improved a lot since you decided to give you and Miles a chance.”
“I am in a good mood,” Alex agreed. “I don’t feel stressed out like I was.”
“It shows. Perhaps Doug will realize as to how happy you are and not try anything to force you to return with him.”
“Until you mentioned it earlier I didn’t even think that he would try something to force me back with him. After thinking about it though, I agree that he might try something. Whatever he might try, I won’t have to worry about it until Sunday.”
Trudy stood up and when Alex gave her a curious look, Trudy said, “I’m going to the concession stand. Do you want anything?”
Alex grinned before saying, “No, thanks. I don’t want to fill up on anything before Miles and I go out to dinner.”
“All right; I’ll be back.”
Alex just nodded. When Alex turned back towards the game, Trudy made her way to the aisle.
As the game progressed Miles was able to prevent the other team from scoring and when the game ended Harvard won by a score of four to zero. As the spectators were dispersing and the players were leaving the field, Alex and Trudy positioned themselves to where the Harvard’s team would pass them.
When Miles saw Alex and Trudy waiting, he stepped up to Alex before saying, “You are definitely my good luck charm.”
Alex grinned and while giving him a confused look, she asked, “Why do you say that?”
“We were the underdog in this game by two goals, and we just skunked them.”
“I doubt that my presence here has anything to do with you winning the game.”
“Thinking about our date tonight had put me in the spirit to stop those balls coming my way.”
Alex smiled before saying, “Well, I’m glad I was able to inspire you.”
Miles gestured towards his team before saying, “I need to go with them.”
Alex nodded while saying, “I’ll be with Trudy in our dorm when you get done.”
Miles gave Alex a quick kiss before saying, “I’ll see you in a few minutes.”
Alex delightfully grinned before saying, “All right.”
As Miles turned to rejoin his team, Alex and Trudy walked away.
Forty minutes later, as Alex and Miles were walking towards Alex’s Jeep, Alex gave Miles her keys for him to drive.
Miles took Alex to a romantic restaurant where they dined by candlelight. They spent an hour at the restaurant and as Miles was paying the check, Alex saw a basket full of peppermint candy near the register.
As Miles was receiving his change he noticed Alex dropping several peppermints in her purse. Before starting for the exit, he nudged Alex while saying, “You must like peppermint.”
Alex gave Miles a grin before saying, “Actually, they’re for morning breath for the mornings that I can’t brush my teeth right away.”
Miles gave her a grin followed by a passionate kiss. After the kiss they left for the exit.
When they left the restaurant they went to a nightclub. Neither one of them drank very much as they spent most of their time dancing. When the club closed at three in the morning, Alex and Miles got into the Jeep and drove off. Alex was driving.
When Alex had pulled onto the street from the parking lot, Miles said, “I’m having such a good time that I hate for this night to be over.” Alex gazed at Miles as if she was debating something over in her head. He got nervous as to how long she had her eyes off the road. “Alex, face the road. I don’t want to get into another accident less than twenty-four hours apart.”
Alex turned back towards the road before saying, “Sorry; I was thinking that this night doesn’t have to end.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“Do you have any of those condoms with you?”
Miles gave Alex an interested stare before saying, “I do.”
“There’s a motel a couple of miles from here. Let’s go there.”
“Alex, we don’t have to do this.”
“Are you against the idea?”
“No-no; I’m not against it. It’s just that… I don’t want you to feel that you’re being rushed into anything.”
Alex looked at Miles before saying, “I’m the one who brought it up.”
Miles pointed towards the road while saying, “Alex, the road.”
Alex faced forward again before saying, “Miles, I’m not being rushed. I have been thinking about it since I saw you holding the box of condoms, and I want to do this.”
Miles smiled before saying, “Okay; let’s go to the motel.” Alex took hold and held Miles’ hand.
Several minutes later, Miles was in the office and paying for a motel room for the night as Alex waited in the Jeep. After getting the key, he went back to the Jeep. Once Alex parked her Jeep, she and Miles entered the motel room.
Saturday, November 6, 11:50 A.M., Alex and Miles were returning to the dormitory after being out all night.
Just after reaching the entrance, Alex said, “Give me an hour to get a shower and for me to change my clothes, and I’ll meet you in your dorm.”
“You still want me to order a pizza, right?”
Alex nodded while saying, “Yeah. Pizza sounded good since you mentioned it. No mushrooms though.”
“I’m getting mushrooms on half of it and you can eat the half without it.”
Alex grinned before saying, “Fine.” Alex then gave Miles a quick kiss. “I’ll see you in an hour.”
As Alex was walking away, Miles said, “All right.”
As the hours passed, Alex, Miles and Miles’ roommate Dennis watched a couple of movies. At 3:45 P. M., Alex left for work.
At 6:35 P.M., Doug was eating dinner with Liz and her grandparents at Liz’s grandparents’ house. Midway through the meal Doug’s cell phone rang. Doug looked at who was calling. When he saw everyone staring at him, he said, “It’s just Randy… a friend of mine. I’ll call him back after this delicious meal.”
“We’re not against accepting phone calls during dinner,” Liz’s grandfather said.
“I doubt what he has to say is important enough that it couldn’t wait for another ten minutes or so.”
“Okay,” Liz’s grandfather said. He then picked up the conversation of where they had left off.
Doug put his phone back on his belt, and took a bite of food. Doug had finished his meal and a dish of apple pie within fifteen minutes. As he got up from the table and was walking towards the living room, he dialed Randy.
When Randy answered, he said, “Doug, I’m glad you called me back.”
“So what’s going on?”
“The remote is finished.”
“Well, right now Alex is at work, and she won’t get off until after one.”
“We can do it bright and early in the morning then.”
“That’s sounds good. I’ll get Cindy to make up some excuse to get Alex in Harvard’s library at nine in the morning.”
“If it wasn’t for Trudy being on Alex’s side, it would go a lot smoother if we all met at Alex’s dorm.”
“Even if Trudy wasn’t on Alex’s side, that would be too obvious of what we have planned.”
“You still believe that Alex will be looking for us to try to trick her?”
“If the situation was reversed, I believe that Alex would do what she can to get me to go back.”
“Okay, well Ben and I will be hiding out in the library before nine; bye.”
“All right, bye,” Doug said before putting his phone away.
At Little Bucks, Alex was finishing up at taking the food order from a group of six when Becky and Catherine walked in.
Becky and Catherine stepped up to the bar and took their seats while Alex was turning in her food order. After Alex walked up to the bar and placed her drink order, Catherine tapped Alex on the shoulder. When Alex looked at Catherine, Catherine asked, “So do you want to bite someone’s head off today?”
Alex had a big grin on her face before saying, “I’m actually in an excellent mood today.”
Becky grinned while saying, “You had sex last night.”
Alex looked at Becky and as she continued to grin she asked, “What makes you think that?”
“I know you and your moods, and you had sex last night,” Becky said. “Am I wrong?”
Alex smiled before saying, “You’re not totally wrong.”
Catherine grinned before saying, “It was this morning.”
Alex continued to smile as she said, “Actually, it was last night and this morning.”
“So tell us the details,” Catherine said.
“Was it with Miles Appleby?” Becky asked.
“It was with Miles, and that’s all the details you two are getting from me,” Alex said.
“Well, I’m happy for you,” Becky said.
“Becky, you’re just happy to know that I’m not trying to rekindle things with Stephen,” Alex said.
“Stephen is with me, so I’m not worried about you attempting to rekindle anything with him,” Becky said.
“Oh, so you don’t come here when I’m working to keep an eye on me?” Alex asked.
“Maybe I did on the first day you worked, but I miss our friendship, and so I come here in the hopes that we can be friends again,” Becky said. “So can we put the last two months behind us and the three of us go back to the way that things were before?”
Before Alex was able to respond, Bryon called out, “Alex, your drinks are up.”
Alex looked at Bryon before saying, “Okay, thanks.” Alex then faced Becky again. “Becky, our friendship will never be the way it was before, but I would like it if we could rebuild our friendship.”
“Rebuilding our friendship is good too,” Becky agreed.
Alex nodded with a grin before she turned; placed the drinks on her tray and walked towards the customers with the tray of drinks.
An hour later, Miles walked in and before he was able to find a seat, Becky invited him to sit with her and Catherine. As the hours passed Becky, Catherine and Miles talked. Alex talked with them between waiting on and serving the customers. When the kitchen closed, Stephen sat next to Becky and joined in on their conversation.
Sunday, November 7, at 8:45 A.M., Miles was walking near Harvard’s library and saw Doug, Randy, Kenny, Ben and Brandy walking into the library. Miles also saw some-thing in Randy’s hand, but he couldn’t make out what it was. After seeing what he did he turned and walked towards the dormitory.
Meanwhile, at Alex and Trudy’s dorm room, Trudy woke Alex up from her sleep before telling her, “Hey, Cindy is here and wants your help on something.”
Alex turned over on her back before asking, “With what?”
“She didn’t say. She’s carrying a book on Roman Mythology and I think it has something to do with that.”
“Okay, thanks. I’ll be out in a minute.”
As Alex was getting out of bed, Trudy went back into the common room.
Cindy and Trudy were casually talking in the common room when Alex opened her door to step out. Cindy was in a middle of her sentence and when Alex stepped out, she stopped talking.
Cindy turned towards Alex before telling her, “Alex, I’m sorry to wake you, but I would like to get your help on an assignment for my class.” Cindy held up the book. “Is this the mythology book you used when you wrote that paper in Dr. Carson’s class?”
Alex was still sleepy and she sluggishly answered, “No. The book I used was on Greek Mythology.”
“I was thinking it was this book.”
Alex shook her head before saying, “It’s not, but it does have a similar cover to the one I used.”
“I really would like to use that book you had. Can you go to the library with me and help me find it?”
“Sure. Let me put on some shoes and we can go,” Alex said before going back into her bedroom.
A short time later, Alex and Cindy were walking down one stairwell as Miles was walking up another. As Alex and Cindy were leaving the dormitory, Miles was knocking on Alex and Trudy’s door.
When Trudy opened the door and saw who it was, she asked, “What’s up, Miles?”
“Where’s Alex?”
“She went with Cindy to help her find a Greek Mythology book.”
Miles, with a worried expression across his face, dreadingly asked, “Did they leave for the library?”
Trudy gave Miles a perplexed look before saying, “They did.” Trudy then saw the disgusted expression that appeared rapidly across Miles’ face. “Alex is going to find that book for her.”
“When did they leave?”
“Just a short time ago. I’m surprised you didn’t pass them in the hallway.”
“They must have gone down the other stairs. Come on, we have to warn Alex.”
“What are you talking about? Warn her about what?”
“Cindy is leading Alex into the library, so come on.”
As Miles made a gesture for Trudy to come with him, Trudy uttered, “Miles, wait! Tell me what you’re talking about.”
“I just saw Doug, Kenny, Brandy, Ben and Randy walking into the library and Randy had something in his hand… it could have been a remote. Now Cindy is leading Alex into the library.”
“Oh God; we have to get to Alex before something happens.”
“If you would have followed me when I said, we could have been halfway down the hall by now.”
Trudy grabbed Miles’ hand and as she began to pull him along she said, “Shut up and let’s go.”
9:02 A.M., at the library, Doug and the others were standing between the bookshelves and out of sight from the entrance. When Alex and Cindy walked in, Cindy pointed towards the bookshelf that held the mythology books before nervously saying, “I got this book from over there.”
Cindy saw that Alex was giving her a curious look before Alex said, “Let’s see if we can find the book.” After taking a couple of steps towards the shelf, Alex noticed how nervous Cindy was acting. “Are you all right, Cindy?”
In a snappy reply Cindy said, “Of course. Things couldn’t be better. Randy’s remote is supposed to be ready today and all of us can return to our home reality.” Alex abruptly stopped. Cindy stopped and looked at Alex. “Is there anything wrong?”
“You wouldn’t be looking for a specific book knowing that you’ll be returning to your own reality.”
As Alex was looking over the room, Cindy nervously asked, “What do you mean?”
Alex looked at Cindy before saying, “You made a good attempt, but I’m staying here.”
As Alex was turning to leave, Cindy grabbed Alex before crying out, “Doug, help! Alex knows!”
As Doug and the others rushed to help stop Alex from leaving, the librarian also walked towards Alex and Cindy to investigate the commotion.
Alex was just about to break free when Doug and Kenny ran up and grabbed hold of her.
“Alex, you’re not going anywhere so settle down,” Doug quickly said.
The librarian stepped up and demanded to know, “What’s going on here? Why are you holding this young lady?”
“This young lady is my sister, Alex, and she’s a kleptomaniac,” Doug said.
Alex gave Doug a surprised looked before blurting out, “What?!”
Cindy held up the mythology book that she had while saying, “I found this book in her possession and if you check your records, this book was reported missing yesterday.”
“And Alex was making such progress at getting better these last few months,” Doug added.
The librarian took the book before saying, “Hold her until I can check my records.”
As the librarian was walking away Alex said, “You guys are my friends and I can’t believe that even one of you would sink so low as to resort to this.”
Randy pulled out the remote that was preset to an address that he thought to be the correct one before saying, “Because you are our friend is why we resorted to this.”
“The book was actually checked out by my roommate, and I was returning it for her,” Brandy said. “We just told the librarian what we did so he would walk far enough away from us.”
“It’s time to go home,” Randy said.
Alex watched Randy’s thumb as he pressed the remote.
Sunday, November 7, at 9:06 A.M., in the reality Alpha 0.0.0.0.0.0.0, Randy and the others were in their respective rooms at the mental institution. As agreed upon by the parents, each one of them was being monitored by a camera. When each one of them fell to the floor unconscious at the exact same time, the staff members who were monitoring the cameras became overly alarmed. Dr. Jacob Tyson, Dr. Martin Adams and Dr. Barney Gray, the three psychiatrists who were assigned to their cases, were called in.
In Randy’s room, Randy was just waking up when Nurse Palmer and two orderlies rushed in. Both orderlies were holding the ends to a stretcher.
Randy noticed the white uniforms that they were wearing and as he was standing up, he asked, “Am I in some kind of hospital?”
“You are in a mental institution in Boston,” Nurse Palmer said.
The nurse saw the confused expression on Randy’s face just before he asked, “How long have I been in here?”
“Since the first time you blacked out at Harvard.” Nurse Palmer pointed to the monitor as she continued to say, “We were watching you and we watched you black out again. We were going to take you to the infirmary by a stretcher, but since you are awake and seem to be coherent you can follow me.”
Randy read the nurse’s name tag before saying, “That won’t be necessary, Nurse Palmer. There’s really nothing wrong with me.”
“Mr. Miller, I can give you a sedative and have you carried to the infirmary as I had originally planned,” Nurse Palmer pointed out.
“Now that you put it that way, let’s go.”
“I thought you would see it my way,” Nurse Palmer said before leaving the room. Randy followed behind her as the orderlies followed behind him.
As Randy, Nurse Palmer and the orderlies were walking down the hall, Randy asked, “Do you know anything about my friends, Alex, Doug, Kenny, Brandy, Ben and Cindy?” Nurse Palmer stopped walking and quickly faced him with an astonished expression across her face. Randy and the orderlies had stopped walking as well. “Did I say anything wrong?”
“On the contrary. Until now, you haven’t acknowledged knowing them.”
“Do you know where they are?”
“They’re also in this facility.”
“Can I see them?”
“I can’t allow that right now, but I will inform Dr. Adams of your request. Now we need to get you to the infirmary and see if we can find the answer to why you had blacked out.”
“There’s nothing wrong with me, but let’s go and let your medical staff verify it.”
As everyone continued walking Nurse Palmer said, “There are a few patients here who feel that they don’t belong here.”
Randy gave Nurse Palmer a grin while slightly shaking his head. A minute later, Randy, Nurse Palmer and the orderlies were walking into the infirmary; however, before Randy was able to be examined, Doug, Kenny and Cindy also were being escorted into the infirmary.
Two hours later, Randy was being escorted to Dr. Adams’ office. Randy walked into the office alone and after he walked in Dr. Adams said, “Mr. Miller, please have a seat.” Dr. Adams watched Randy as he sat down. “Mr. Miller, two hours ago you and your friends had simultaneously fainted for no apparent reason in the same manner as all of you did at Harvard. The first time when all of you fainted, all of you remember events differently, and now after fainting again you remember everything has it had happened. I’m reluctant to call this a miracle…”
“It’s no miracle, Doctor.”
“You talk as though you know what happened.”
“I do know what happen. In fact, I’m the one who caused all of this.”
“What did you cause?”
“I’ll tell you, but you won’t believe me. And because you won’t believe me, I’ll most likely be in this facility for years while you and your staff try to convince me that what had happened was all in my head. However, what’s going to throw you into confusion is that all my friends will tell you a similar story.”
“Mr. Miller, what did you cause?”
“When my friends and I woke up the first time, was I found with a remote in my hand… or was there a remote near where I had fallen?”
“I have no knowledge of a remote, Mr. Miller.”
“Well, there should’ve been, and that remote was a device that I created to open up a wormhole that would take whoever who would enter into another reality. It worked, but unfortunately it didn’t work as I had planned.”
“Explain what you mean by, it didn’t work as you had planned.”
“A wormhole never opens, but what does happen is that me and the me from the selected reality would switch bodies. After pressing the remote the first time, I found myself in a Mexican jail cell…”
Randy continued to tell his story in great detail.