I sit down in the Private Lawyer Room with Terry and my youthful doppelganger; Zoe didn’t come with them. Sam starts talking. “So, uh, Dad? Mom?”

I hold out my hand. “I know our family connection is… weird, but we’re really just meeting for the first time. Hi, I’m Jordan Jameson.” He gets the hint, shakes my hand, and introduces himself. I turn to Terry. “Am I getting out of here today?”

Terry smiles and nods. “Sam’s agreed to make a statement saying that you’re welcome in the home and that he mistook you for someone else when he called the police. I’ve arranged things with the police so that nobody will get charged or bothered for filing a false report. You can go home today.” He and Sam exchange a brief glance. “Of course, ‘home’ is the house that’s owned by the late Josh Bradford and the missing Jordyn Bradford, so you may not want to get too settled there, especially with Zoe being less than comfortable sharing space with you.”

Sam rolls his eyes. “She said she’s spending the nights at Carina’s house until she has a chance to ‘process’ things. She wanted to stay home and leave you here, but I convinced her that it wasn’t okay to keep someone who didn’t do anything wrong in jail because she’s uncomfortable.”

“Thanks. Do you two know the story?”

He nods. “Dad wrote us both letters for Terry to give us. I’m not going to lie, it’s extremely weird, but I can’t imagine it’s less weird for you to suddenly be twenty years older and have kids.”

I laugh. “You have no idea. Sam, tell me about you and your sister.”

While Sam fills me in on fifteen years of sports games, recitals, academic interests, and board games, Terry works on the paperwork necessary for my release. By the time I’m mostly caught up, I’m a free man.

Terry drives Sam and I to the house and Sam gives me “the tour”. He looks sheepish when we pass by family photos that Jordyn is in, which is only every hallway in the house. I look at the photos, trying to get a sense of the family I’m finding myself in. Josh looks genuinely happy in a way he never was when I knew him – comfortable and surrounded by those he loves. Jordyn, for her part, is absolutely stunning in every picture she’s in, even the candids where she was “caught” making a weird face or less than put together. I can see both how she’s the person I wished Josh could have and how she’s the person I might have been if I’d had my own family.

When Sam shows me Zoe’s room, I’m reminded of something he said at jail. “Who’s Carina?”

Sam’s eyes widen – he wasn’t expecting this question. He sighs. “Yeah, I guess you wouldn’t know her. She’s been Zoe’s best friend since like second grade, and they’ve been dating for about three months. They came out to Mom just last week.”

“People still have to come out to their parents in 2024? That sucks.” I look at the picture of Carina on Zoe’s desk. “Are they happy? Are you seeing someone?”

Sam shrugs. “They’re as happy as they’ve been together for half their lives, as far as I can tell. I’m seeing a girl a year older than me, Sarah. She’s really into me, but I’m just not sure if I’m feeling it.” He looks a little guilty as he adds, “Truthfully, I’m really only still dating her until I get my driver’s license and don’t need her to drive me around anymore.”

I wince. “Dude, that is not a great reason to keep dating someone.” I pause and check Sam’s reaction – he’s definitely hearing that as a teenager listening to an adult and not the older teenager I still think of myself as. “Sorry, I guess you don’t need the advice of an old guy you’ve just met.”

Sam shows me into his room and sits on his bed. “No, it’s cool really, you’re right.” He looks at me. “This is going to be weird for a long time, isn’t it? You feeling like an older brother but looking like a parent?”

“Yeah, probably, and it’s not going to get less weird once I’m living with a teenage girl who feels like she’s almost old enough to date but is actually young enough to be my daughter.”

Sam pauses at this. “So… Dad told us in our letters how he felt about you when he was in college, that he had the same feelings for you that he did for Mom. Did you…”

I get where he’s going with this. “Unfortunately not. Amanda and I probably weren’t going to work for much longer, but I was – am – still straight. Your dad was a great friend, but he wasn’t anything more than that to me.” I sigh. “I think, overall, I’m one of the few men of my generation who can honestly say his life would be a lot less complicated if he had been gay in college.”

Sam laughs. “Sadly, that’s also a part of life that hasn’t changed in the last twenty years. Rip Van Winkle you’re not.”

Sam calls Sarah and invites her over to meet me and play board games. He calls Zoe and Carina, too, but they don’t answer their phones. It hurts a little, but I understand. This will be as big a change for them as it is for me, and I don’t want to force it.

Sarah kicks our asses at Gizmos, and Sam suggests we try something cooperative to spare my feelings. I decline and ask for a game I actually recognize, Ticket to Ride. We order pizza to arrive after the game’s over. Sarah kicks our asses at this game, too, and I hold my hands up in surrender. I think that she’s wonderful and cute, but I also watch her and Sam and see that beyond their mutual like of board games and her driver’s license, there just isn’t any there there.

After a final board game – Coup, which I win – Sam heads over to Sarah’s for the night. I tell them not to make a grandfather out of me and retire to Jordyn and Josh’s bedroom (I still can’t think of it as mine). I look in Jordyn’s jewelry box and see the ruby left over from the pendant. Holding it in my hand makes me feel comfortable, like I’m where I belong and with the people I belong with, but I know it’s a lie; whatever magic is left wasn’t enough to sustain Jordyn, but it’s enough to influence me. I put the stone back and close the lid.

I spend the rest of my night catching up on the news of the last 20 years. Twitter. The iPhone. Obama’s election. The Marvel Cinematic Universe. The end of the space shuttle and the Mars selfie. Obergefell v Hodges. Brexit. The Curse of the Billy Goat ending. Pokemon Go. MeToo. Trump’s election and impeachments. Black Lives Matter. COVID. Dobbs. Queen Elizabeth’s death. Sam’s right that I’m no Rip Van Winkle – plenty hasn’t changed – but I’m living in a very different world than the one Jordyn entered.

Just before going to sleep, I see if I can find anything out about the Talisman. I have access to Jordyn’s phone, so I can see what she found, but I want to look specifically to see what I can do to get access to some of her memories – learn enough to hold down a teaching job, for example. I don’t find anything.

I sleep, I dream. I’m in a dressing room with my best female friends from college, getting ready to start the rest of my life with the man I’ve loved ever since I met him. My dress is perfect. My makeup is perfect. My hair is as good as it’s going to get, and he loves it a little messy anyway. We hear a knock on the door and the organist start playing. It’s time.

My family isn’t at the wedding; they probably don’t even know I’m getting married. I’ve asked Terry to walk me down the aisle instead. I get to the altar where my fiancé awaits. We play our roles in the ceremony, but the entire time have eyes only for each other. We do everything we’re told until and including Josh being told to kiss the bride. He lifts my veil, and I have my first kiss as Mrs. Jordyn Bradford, the name I’m going to carry for the rest of my life.

I wake up to see Mrs. Jordyn Bradford standing over me, glaring.