Page 86 of Ideal Life

“Simultaneous translation,” Sam explained to Libby and Jacob.

“Oh, of course!” Libby said. They had recently started using earbuds like that, too, during their travels. She rummaged in her purse and retrieved hers. Jacob was just as quick with locating his.

Jenny reached into her own purse but came back with an unwrapped box decorated with two happy pineapples holding hands, one wearing a chef’s hat and the other, glasses.

“Oh my gosh, Sunshine Cakes!” Libby clapped her hands.

“You know them?” Jenny asked.

“Of course. You used to send boxes of your pineapple cakes to Sam in college, and I’d steal half of them when he wasn’t looking.”

Sam laughed. “It’s true. But I actually knew you were doing it and let you.”

Libby wrinkled her nose at him, but in an affectionate way. She’d always liked Sam and secretly hoped he and Talia would get together. Her sister was far from perfect, even though she tried hard to be, but Sam would leap in front of a train for her if she needed him to. And he’d loved her steadily in the background for years and years. Everyone could see it, except Talia.

Which is why when he’d called to say that Talia needed Libby, Libby had jumped on a plane without question.

“So,” Libby said, “you wanted to wait till we were here in person to tell us what was going on with Talia. What’s happening, and what can we do?”

Sam sighed and shook his head. “It’s kind of an unbelievable story.”

Half an hour later, Libby sat back in her armchair, dazed. Sam had told them about Talia’s watch, from the night it appeared until recently, and how Talia had gotten addicted to the ability to redo her life over and over. It was taking a toll on her, too—not just physically, but also mentally. Sam worried Talia’s obsession over creating the perfect life was preventing her from actually living one.

And then there was the problem with the Omni deal.

“I don’t know what to do about any of it,” Sam said. “I tried talking to her, at least about the rewinds, but I don’t think I’m getting through to her, and I’m out of ideas. So I called you.”

Libby’s mouth had been hanging open almost the entire half hour he’d been talking.

“I’m still stuck on the part about my sister being able to turn back time. How is that possible?”

“Possible,” Roger said. “But time is… complicated.”

Jacob, who had recognized that Roger didn’t speak much so maybe this was important, leaned in. “Can you explain more?”

“With the help of these earbuds my amazing son bought for me? Absolutely.” Roger took a moment and looked at Sam, so clearly happy and proud that it made Libby tear up a little. She knew that Sam had been lonely in college, and he’d said more than once to her and Talia how he admired their closeness and how he wished he’d had family like that. It seemed like maybe he and his parents were starting to find their way to each other now, too.

“Western thinking,” Roger began, “views time linearly, as a discrete past, present, and future. However, Eastern philosophy sees it differently. It is consciousness itself that shapes our experience of time, making it more fluid than fixed.

“For example, the Taoist concept of time is cyclical, rather than a straight line. This view sees time as rhythmic patterns that repeat but also transform, like seasons changing or day becoming night becoming day again.”

“Yeah…” Sam said. “I remember studying the I-Ching, and there was something about how all possibilities exist simultaneously. Each moment actually contains potential futures that branch out, which I guess could explain how Talia can rewind to access different branches. But does that conflict with what you’re saying?”

Roger shook his head. “Perhaps, perhaps not. These ideas about time are, themselves, not linear. They are not necessarily mutually exclusive. But I don’t think we will solve how Talia’s watch works. Regardless, it is enough to know that there are potential explanations. And as long as there is a possibility, we cannot rule out that that is the reality.”

Libby chewed on her lip. This was all so improbable. But Sam wouldn’t drag her into something that was just a fantastical conspiracy. What Roger said made sense, too… sort of. Just because Libby had grown up thinking time worked one way didn’t mean it was the only way.

“I also know for a fact that Talia has gone back in time,” Sam said. “She proved it to me once. Hell, she could have rewound you and Jacob, and you wouldn’t know it if she didn’t tell you.”

“She wouldn’t do that,” Libby said.

Sam made a noise in the back of his throat that sounded like a noncommittal “hmm.”

Libby poked at the crumbs on her plate, all that remained of her pineapple cake. “Part of me still can’t wrap my head around the watch, but a bigger part of me says, Who cares? Whether the watch actually works or not, Talia’s problems are real. And that’s what I need to focus on.”

“What should we do?” Sam asked.

“You’ve already done so much for her. Now it’s my turn. And I have an idea… I just need to think on it a little with Jacob.”