“I know,” John said. “It’s confusing all around, but there’s some sort of principle involved in the thing. The old man refused to explain it to me, but I got the sense that our doubles — the other me and the other you in these other universes — live parallel lives, but sometimes they do exactly the same thing for completely different reasons. So somehow or other you were going to be on that road at that time, and the other Jillian was going to kill you there.”
“Then why couldn’t you explain it to me? If I was fated to be there ….”
“It’s not like that,” John said. “It’s not fate, and there are no guarantees. There are differences between the worlds, but there are also parallels, and only some things cause changes.”
“Like that old Star Trek episode, where Dr. McCoy found the same stain on the table in the sick bay in the other world, even though everything about the worlds was different.”
“I guess,” John said with a laugh. “I can’t say that I understand it all.”
Jillian lay back against her pillow and looked up at the ceiling for moment.
“So I’m really supposed to be dead,” she said.
“No, you’re not. Don’t think that. The other you — some sort of evil version of you — was going to kill you. But the old man worked with me to stop it.”
“What was your part?” she asked.
“Less than you might think. It was frustrating and strange and he pressured me in ways I can hardly describe. All I had to do was stand on the side of the road and smoke my grandfather’s pipe. It doesn’t make any sense to me, but somehow that allowed him to make the jump into this world and get into the cabin just in time.”
“And Gayle had the pipe? And that’s why she called?”
John looked embarrassed.
“I know you’re jealous of Gayle,” he said, “but don’t be. There’s absolutely nothing there. But when we were dating in high school I found an old pipe in my dad’s work shop and I took it and started smoking it. Gayle didn’t like it and she took it from me. It’s been sitting in her parents’ attic for years.”
“And what …. What does that particular pipe have to do with anything?”
“You got me,” John said. “But the old man insisted that I had to be smoking that pipe at that spot at that time. It was the only way he could be sure to stop the other Jillian.”
“So … what happened to them? There was a wreck, right? Are they okay?”
John shrugged.
“I guess we’ll never know. The tractor over-turned and made a huge mess on 197, but nobody ever found a driver. They were just … gone.”
Jillian took John’s hand and squeezed it.
“Well, at least we’re back to normal, right?”
“Yeah. Although I think I’ve developed a taste for strong pipe tobacco.”
END
Afterward
In case you’re tempted, it would be a mistake to try to organize these stories chronologically, for a few reasons.
First, the characters and circumstances don’t cross over well. For example, what happened to Karl? He only exists in one iteration of the story. Also, you will have noticed that the implied history between John and Jillian in What God Has Bent is very different than what you read in The Witch’s Promise.
The second reason not to try to impose a chronology is the technologies in the various stories fit in different decades. What God Has Bent is the earliest of the extant John and Jillian stories, and it’s explicitly set in 1998. The other stories took place into the 2000s and 2010s.
The best way to understand all these stories is to know their origin in the hidden back story – the original (unpublished) The Witch’s Promise.
In that story, John and Jillian meet and quickly fall in love, but Jillian is a pagan and John is an agnostic. In trying to understand Jillian’s religious views, John starts to study mythology and religion as if it were merely an intellectual puzzle, and is startled to discover there’s a Somebody on the other end. He finds himself as the one being pursued. The All-Seeing Eye of The Witch’s Bastard is a glimpse into that back story, where John’s only escape from madness is to bow the knee to the Hound of Heaven.
That original version of The Witch’s Promise never set well with me. It was too sweet. As one person who read that early draft told me, you always knew John and Jillian would get together. It lacked conflict, and John’s struggle with madness didn’t seemed to be quite enough.
Besides, it didn’t fit with the song lyric that originally inspired the story!
Rethinking that story led to the calculating, evil Jillian of the current version.
The Witch’s Bastard was an attempt to steer the story back in the direction of the original Witch’s Promise, where John struggles with a religiously induced madness and eventually converts.
The idea of the unknown child in What God Has Bent was also an attempt to deal with the saccharine sweetness of the original Witch’s Promise.
All these stories sat, alone and forsaken on my hard drive, for many years, until I came up with Pipe Dreams, which seemed to spring out of my head like magic. It provided a way to allow all the stories (except the original) to live together in a “multiple worlds” context.
A Collision of Worlds draws on the logic of Pipe Dreams to provide a nice ending, where John and Jillian can live happily ever after.
I hope you enjoyed the stories. If you have questions or comments, please feel free to write me at [email protected]. Also, I would greatly appreciate it if you would leave a nice review on Amazon, and perhaps tell y our friends about the book.
If you enjoyed this book .... Independent authors rely on our readers to spread the word about our books, so if you enjoyed this work please give it a positive review on Amazon.com, tell your Facebook friends and otherwise spread the word.
About the Author
Greg Krehbiel is a happily married father of five wonderful children. He’s had a distinguished career in professional publishing, including lengthy gigs in editorial, product development, IT and tech development, marketing, and audio and web conferencing. He has a degree in Geology and studied theology as preparation for ministry – then thought better of it. He’s a home brewer (beer, wine and mead), an occasional jogger, an avid writer, and enjoys camping and fishing. You can contact Greg directly at [email protected].
Other Books and Short Stories by Greg Krehbiel
The Hidden Village - Geof Franklin falls into a strange reality of guilds and clans who live their lives half in the real world and half in the virtual world of Hidden Village – an exciting new online game. The action starts when Geof gets the late-night phone call every parent dreads and discovers that his son has been missing for weeks. As he relentlessly searches for his only son, he gets pulled into the orbit of the cult-like sub-culture of Hidden Village and discovers that the clans live by their own rules and think nothing of killing anyone who stands in their way.
Escape to Mars - Billy Chen and Amber Harris are two 10-year olds who, along with their parents, steal a ride on a next-gen space shuttle to avoid the impending destruction of Earth. Billy’s father, a particle physicist, believes he has accidentally created a black hole. To save humanity, a team of six adults and two children are rushed off to Mars to start a new colony. This story is exciting and fun – and age-appropriate for young kids!
The Intruder - Jeremy Mitchell is a refugee from a separatist, anti-technology community who is a fish out of water in the high-tech society of the 21st century. He recklessly plunges himself into his new environment and finds himself caught in a confusing web of technology and intrigue. Powerful forces try to make him a pawn in a contest between rival intelligence organizations, but he doesn’t play along with their game and makes his own rules. His loyalties are tested by a budding love affair with a young college student, who, along with her computer geek girlfriend, are unintentionally pulled into the conflict.
Patriarch - Sam is a patriarchal kind of guy caught
in a matriarchal society. In this dystopian vision of the future, men can’t go to college, work white collar jobs, or even own books. They do all the hard and dangerous work that keeps the economy moving, while a select few of the most gifted women rule society and lead ostentatious lives of privilege. Other women are left to breed. Sam isn’t the kind of guy to take this lying down.
The Trilby - Shy Hans can’t make any progress with the lovely Sara and is afraid to approach her, but then a mysterious hat gives Hans the skill and confidence of an experienced pick-up artist. As he learns how to use the hat he discovers that he has his choice of many beautiful women. Will Hans stay devoted to Sara? Will he ever win her heart? Is there a secret price that comes with use of the hat? And has Hans gone too far in dating the fabulous Julia, the girlfriend of a dangerous gangster?
The Inner Voice - Al knows exactly what Johnson is up to, and he isn’t going to allow him to get away with it any longer. This human cancer has to be stopped before he ruins even more lives. Justice has to be done. But Al has to move carefully. Purchases for the job need to be discreet, and untraceable. He needs to learn how to make his own weapons that will leave no evidence at the scene of the crime. All the while, the tech guys at the office are watching, ... and Al wonders if he’ll ever resolve his inner turmoil.
About Crowhill Publishing
“Krehbiel” is a German name that roughly translates to English as “Crow Hill.” Crowhill Publishing is the imprint for all of Greg Krehbiel’s books. Find out more at http://crowhill-publishing.com or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/crowhillpublishing
The Five Lives of John and Jillian Page 37