THE MOMENT
"You're 23?" Ophelia asked. Normally, she would have assumed the pre-teen girl with curly brown hair was telling a simple lie. But, lately, she's met strange new people that have introduced her to amazing places. At the moment she stood on the beach of a picturesque lake with the sun rising over a nearby mountain. It was easily the most beautiful place she'd been to so far; but, she knew there would be more sights to see. Ophelia looked the girl up and down and wondered about her introduction. She liked to think she was growing more open-minded; but, some habits were hard to break. "...is that your Unique number.... or your age?" The additional question came as a result of her new open mind. Before her life changed, she never would have thought to ask if the girl was 23 years old. But, Ophelia was there to learn about time and the girl was her tutor; anything could be possible.
"That's my name," the girl giggled. Her brown eyes sparkled with amusement. "But, also my Unique number," she nodded.
"Oh, okay," Ophelia smiled. She could honestly say that '23' was not the most unusual name she'd heard in the past few days. "Well, 23, I'm ready to learn, where do we start?"
"With the easy stuff," 23 replied with a smile. "What year is it?" she asked.
"Oh, it's uhhh..," Ophelia stalled for a moment as she reached into her pocket for her node. But, 23 shook her head.
"Don't use the node, that only gives you Sharp Standard Time," the girl interrupted her. "Use your Unique Ability to look at this Earth's timeline," she said.
"Oh," Ophelia nodded. She closed her eyes to concentrate as she tried to sense the flow of time around her. The first time her Ability was explained to her, Mundo said that there was no one right way to do it. Each Muerte like her would perceive the timeline in a way that made sense to them. She was a seamstress by trade and she easily imagined the timeline to be a woven tapestry. She could see where it began, where it ended, and she could guess how long it would take. Using that knowledge, she looked at the 'present' to see how much progress had been made so far.
"2037," Ophelia said.
"That's right," 23 nodded. "What else can you tell me about the timeline?" Ophelia was so concerned with the year that she hadn't looked at the timeline as a whole until she was asked to. But, once she did, she couldn't help but open her eyes in surprise.
"It's... wait..," She shook her head and closed her eyes again to really make herself focus. She'd only visited a few Earths and seen a handful of timelines since she learned about her Ability. Every other one had been a glorious mess of clashing layered patterns in a rainbow of colors. She knew that each color and pattern meant something else, but there were too many to know where to begin. But this tapestry only had a half-dozen colors with only a single elegant pattern from start to finish.
"It's clean," she said. "It's repetitive; boring almost... but, it's not a time loop," she added.
"Perfect, you got it," 23 grinned. "This Earth has a special timeline that's good for beginners. Within 24 hours after someone dies, every memory and instance of them is erased as if they never existed. It keeps things pretty simple," she said.
"But, if it's not a time loop... why is it the same pattern all the way?" Ophelia asked.
"Let's go this way," 23 smiled, then turned. She walked into an open black portal that wasn't there a moment ago and Ophelia followed. They emerged near the foot of a mountain and Ophelia could see a group of strangers in the distance. They were gathered around something that she couldn't make out. But, their lack of clothing drew her attention. The filthy strangers wore basic, makeshift animal leathers in primitive clothing.
"This is the same Earth and the same time," 23 said as she nodded at the group. "That's why it's the same pattern."
Ophelia's epiphany struck when she saw another stranger walk out of a nearby mountain cave. He was older than the rest and wore more elaborate rags. The group parted and Ophelia noted the large animal corpse between them. Despite 23's assertion, Ophelia needed to check. She sensed the timeline and it was indeed 2037 on the same Earth.
"This isn't just some weird caveman club, is it?" Ophelia had to make sure she was understanding the right lesson. 23 shook her head.
"This is a valid sample of this Earth at this time," she said with a giggle. "At every time," she added.
"Whoa...," Ophelia said with quiet awe.
"Now that you know the base you're working with, let's start with an easy exercise," 23 said. "But, don't worry," she grinned playfully. "It doesn't extend to us. Even here, you'll still keep anything you learn from me after I die."
"It didn't even cross my mind," Ophelia giggled at the joke.
"Oh, yeah. Since I'm training you, I should probably mention it," 23 said. "I know you're working at Alicia's hotel too; but, we should make the best of the next month or so. After that, I'll kind of be dead."