Final Chapter

For those of you who may be a bit confused, Tommy, who really believed that he was a she, was transformed into a female version of himself when he mysteriously went through the door of the cottage and immerged as Tanya. Likewise Tanya always considered herself to be a boy and when she went through the door, transformed into the person she always knew she was, Tommy.

Confused? Well all will now be revealed…



Previously from Chapter 9…

Tommy turned as he heard a groan, looking over to where a settee was, he could see behind it, a foot sticking out.

The foot was moving.

The foot was wearing white trainers with pink laces.

Tommy recognised those trainers, they looked very similar to ones he had when he was still, physically a girl.

He reluctantly walked over to the settee, but before he arrived, a head popped up.

They both saw each other.

As one, their eyes opened wide and their jaws dropped.

He gasped.

She gasped.

They both said together, ‘It’s you!’

Then, as one they both turned at the sound of a gentle cough.

‘Hello Tommy and Tanya, I wondered when you would arrive.’

And now the story concludes…

‘Miss Busby!’ exclaimed Tommy and Tanya together.

‘For goodness sake, stop making fish faces, yes, it’s me, Miss Busby.’

She was standing in the doorway of the sitting room, looking just as they remembered her in both universes, if that was the word for it.

‘You both look a bit startled. Sit on the settee and then I’ll do my best to explain to you what has happened.’

Tanya looked from Tommy to Miss Busby. She looked and felt thoroughly bemused.

‘I don’t understand what’s going on.’

‘Me either,’ said Tommy who could not help looking at Tanya.

‘It’s neither not either,’ said Miss Busby in her well remembered classroom voices. ‘Although some people say…well never mind that now; you are both confused and want some answers?’

Tanya and Tommy dragged their eyes from one another and looked expectantly at the teacher.

‘Hmm, you both look a bit shocked. I have a pot of tea brewing in the kitchen and that is always good for shock. I won’t be a moment and then we can have a nice little chat.’

She left them and everything was quiet for a moment as once again the two children looked at each other.

‘Erm,’ h…hello Tommy,’ said Tanya.

‘Hi,’ said Tommy with a lopsided grin on his face.

‘So, how is it in my old body?’ asked Tanya.

‘Weird, what about you?’

Yea, weird…but nice too; I feel much better as a girl.’

‘Me too,’ said Tommy enthusiastically, ‘as a boy, I mean.’

‘This has got to be the strangest thing to happen to anyone. Was it you that passed me in the doorway when I changed into a girl?’

‘Yes, it must have been, but who knows, it could have been the chocolate eating fairy for all I know,’ replied Tommy with a grin. Then he stopped smiling. ‘How is Nan, she wasn’t well, the last time I saw her over there. Where I was, she’s as fit as a flee and made me feel tired just looking at the things she got up to.’

They could hear the sound of crockery being bashed about as Tanya looked at Tommy and then held his hand. It seemed so natural and normal to do this that Tommy didn’t seem to notice as he saw the look on her face and knew that something was wrong.

‘Oh Tommy, she had another stroke and died…’

Tommy may now have been a boy and proud of it, but he had emotions like everyone else and he burst into tears.

Tanya and Tommy hugged one another as they grieved for their Nan. The fact that there was another Nan, in another place who was fit and well, didn’t make a jot of difference. They both hurt.

Miss Busby came in with a tray and laid it down.

‘You heard about your Nan, Tommy?’

‘Y…yes.’

She nodded sadly and then bustled around, handing out teacups and biscuits and giving the children time to get a hold on their emotions.

They sat in silence for a minute or two as they drank their tea and nibbled on biscuits. It all seemed surreal to Tanya and she could sense that Tommy felt the same. What were they to each other? Were they related, or the same person or what? There seemed to be some sort of mental link between the two of them, almost as if each other knew what the other was thinking.

Tommy was looking at Miss Busby and wondered what she knew about what had happened. She was, he knew, a strange teacher; strict, but fair and he knew that beneath that hard exterior there was kindness and compassion.

Tommy and Tanya finished their tea almost at the same time. Miss Busby had already finished hers and was looking at the children expectantly. She could see before her, almost two peas from the same pod, one so obviously a boy and the other, a very feminine girl. She smiled.

‘All done? Good. Now you need an explanation and you shall have it. It must all seem very confusing to you. Now sit back and I’ll tell you what has happened.’

She seemed to gather her thoughts for a few moments and then continued.

‘By its very nature, the things that have happened to you have been fantastic and unbelievable. There are many things in the universe that still puzzle scientists to this day. There are places on Earth where even now, little is known about, for example, what its like deep beneath the oceans in certain places and within the Earth itself, where there are huge caverns untouched by mankind. Likewise in medicine, there are many things that are still a mystery to us. Take the brain for example, where do we pull our memories from and how is it done? We still do not have all the answers about why we dream and how important is for us to sleep and why if we do don’t, we die. Do you understand?

The children both nodded.

‘Good, we are getting somewhere. Shakespeare’s Hamlet said “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy,” and never a truer thing has been said. As you know I do not believe in embellishments in any way and like to stick to facts as a good teacher should.’

She smiled at the simultaneous nods.

‘What do you know about ley lines?’

Tommy looked blank, but Tanya spoke up.

‘Do you mean the St Michaels Ley Line or alignment?’

‘Yes, I see that you have been studying about it. For the benefit of Tommy, let me explain in layman’s terms. ley lines cross our country in many places. In fact ley lines crisscross many areas of the Earth. One of the most famous and deeply significant ones is the St Michaels Ley Line. Steeped in mythical legend, binding pagan and other ancient religious beliefs, ley lines intersect important sites across the country including Glastonbury, The Hurlers Stone Circle, Bury St Edmunds and other…

Note from Ed.
Miss Busby continued to explain to the kids, the significance of ley lines as mentioned in Chapter 7. We wont repeat it, as repetition is boring.

‘So, because we are on Treusva Common and that is on the ley line, this has something to do with what’s happened to us?’

‘Yes Tommy, it has everything to do with it. If you like, the ley line here is a fracture point where different dimensions of the same world merge and intertwine. Think of where we are now, in this time and space. Other dimensions are here too, although you cannot see them. ‘

Tanya and Tommy were beginning to look confused and she sighed.

‘Alright, think of an onion. Unions have different layers and you can peel away one from another, each layer is different but incredibly similar to the ones above and below. Do you understand?’

‘Yes,’ they said, as one.

She smiled.

‘You are so alike, its almost frightening. Anyway, normally everything goes on OK and there are no problems, but when you were both born, something did happen and that has put you where you are now. Treusva Common is, as I say on the St Michaels Ley Line. You both, I know, have taken Geography and last year, I believe you studied San Andreas Fault?’

‘Yes,’ said Tommy as Tanya just nodded, wondering what that had anything to do with what had happened to them.

‘What occasionally happens along the San Andreas Fault?’

‘Earthquakes,’ said Tanya promptly.

‘Correct, that is where the plates move toward each other and collide, if you like, something has to give and that give, for want of a better word, results in earthquakes. What you two have experienced is what I term as a psychic earthquake. A simple explanation but will suffice for now.’

She glanced at her watch.

‘We have little time, but please take for granted that we are in a place where there has been the equivalent to an earthquake but one where instead of the Earths crust, it is a dimensional and psychic earthquake that occurred when you were both born in different dimensions. You see, it should not have happened like that. Before your birth, everything was as it should be, after your birth, instead of you being twins, one of you was born in one dimension and the other in an alternative one.’

‘So, we are twins?’ asked Tommy.

‘Yes, it is hard to explain and goodness knows how it happened, but at or around your conception, something happened that split you two up and sent one into, shall we say dimension A and the other into dimension B. This was an anomaly and caused problems with the very fabric of time and space. In effect, there were two time lines when there should have only been one.

‘I am not going to get too technical as I can see that your eyes are beginning to glaze over, but just take it as a fact that you were both in the wrong place at the wrong time. This cottage is a sort of portal and you were both attracted to the cottage at the same time by the psychic link you have, a very strong link, I might add.’

‘Because we are really twins?’

‘Yes.’

‘I have heard that twins can have this sort of bond, is that the kind of thing?’

‘Yes, but in your case, I believe that the bond is incredibly strong, telepathic and psychic in nature. Nature has a wonderful way of trying to balance itself and that is the same in the psychic as well as the physical world. Being on the St Michael’s Ley Line helped harness the power needed to propel each other back towards the place you should have been when you were born, but something went wrong. Instead of you arriving in this dimension, you crossed over and sort of did a swap.’

‘So this all shouldn’t have happened?’ said Tommy.

‘No, it shouldn’t have. This is where I came in. I am, for my sins, a gatekeeper, if you like. Do not ask from where I came, but take it from me, there are gatekeepers all over the world, tasked to keep things from going awry. Occasional problems of this nature crop up all over the world, many on ley lines, as they are where the psychic faults tend to occur. I am, as you may have guessed, a strong psychic myself and I, shall we say, persuaded you to come to the cottage at exactly the same time to try to rectify the problem and put everything to rights again. The fact that you are here together means that the attempt was successful.’

‘What about our pasts was that real and if we are here now, what has happened back in the places where we have just come from?’ asked a frankly bemused Tommy.

Miss Busby looked at them and appeared to be considering her reply. Then after some internal discussion, she nodded slightly.

‘You have asked the question and you have the right to an answer. An analogy might help. Imagine that you are in a car on a road together. The car stops and you both get out. There is a split in the road and one goes one way and the other takes the other road. Are you with me so far?’

They nodded.

‘Good; now, for some years you carry along your own road, feeling as I am sure that you did, that something was not quite right. Both of you felt that you were in the wrong body. Eventually, the roads came back toward each other and crossed so Tanya became Tommy and vice-versa. What should have happened was that the road would come together or merge again and you could then both get back in the car and carry on, as you should have in the first place. Instead, you sort of crossed over and followed each other’s road rather than a merged one. Perhaps it happened that way for a purpose, so that each of you would be in the correct body for the next stage to take place, otherwise you would still both feel as if you were in the wrong body and gender.

‘That is supposition, but I believe that that is the correct interpretation on the events that happened to you. Anyway, for a short while you carried on the alternative road, but now in the correct gender. Eventually, due to circumstances we have already spoken about, you were both brought together and can now carry on the journey that you should have been on in the first place.’

‘I understand that…I think,’ said Tommy, ‘but what about our pasts were they real or what?’

‘Real enough,’ replied Miss Busby, ‘but reality is a tricky thing. Continuing the analogy, you are now together going along the right road. Your past, such as it was, was a fractured past, now reality has readjusted things so that there is only one continuous road and not two. Things that have happened in your past, where you have been separated, may not have happened in this reality. Faults have been healed and time is now as it should be. Accept that the past that you both experienced separately may not necessarily be linked to where you are here and now. I can say no more as I am not allowed to say more, lest I influence the future.’

The twins looked at each other. They kind of understood what she was saying but there were still more questions than answers, but it looked like they were not going to get any more information from the mysterious Miss Busby. It was strange, as they seemed to realise what the other was thinking and accepted the situation.

‘So, what now?’ asked Tanya.

‘Now, my dears, you go home. Hopefully, everything will have been put to right and all the fractured time lines will have merged.’

‘So you don’t know if what you have done has worked out all right or not?’ asked Tanya, voicing exactly what Tommy thought.

‘No, that is beyond my powers, such as they are. All I know is that you are both in the right place at the right time and the anomaly or fracture has been healed. I cannot interfere in what must be. It is now up to you too to go and find out if things are as they should be. I will be here if you need me, but only for a limited time as I have other things that must be done. Now go home and see what you shall see.’

The twins made their way out of the cottage. When Tanya turned the handle of the door, she winced, wondering if she was going to be sucked into yet another dimension, but all was well as she walked out into the garden. It had been raining and, as is usual in those parts, the sun was now blazing strongly and what water that lay about on the ground, was evaporating. The sky was a clear of clouds and in the distance, the sea was calm and deep blue.

Tommy followed Tanya out and as they turned towards home, each of them was wondering what would happen now.

‘This is so strange,’ said Tommy as they walked down the well-worn path.

‘Strange is not a strong enough word,’ replied Tanya.

‘’What if…’

‘What if what, Tommy?’

He turned to her. It was strange to see Tanya standing there, long hair moving in the slight breeze and looking every inch the girl.

‘What if things are worse. Maybe Mum and Dad are dead and Nan too, here. Maybe we live with foster parents or perhaps been adopted. Why wouldn’t Miss Busby tell us anything?

‘She might not know. It all seemed to happen rather fast. It may be that this is the way we find out and it is meant to be,’ speculated Tanya.

‘You are beginning to sound like her. This whole thing is more fantastic than Star Trek.’

They both laughed, but it was an uncomfortable laugh.

‘Mind you,’ said Tommy, ‘I love being a real boy now. Did you have the same feelings as me, trapped in the wrong body before all this happened?’

‘Yes, I love being a real girl. It was nice dressing as a girl, but I just didn’t have the right parts and it’s wonderful now. What isn’t so wonderful is that I lost Dad and Nan too.’

‘I know what you mean; I lost Mum, although Nan was well where I was. At least I have now gained a sister.’ He smiled.

‘And I have a brother, how cool is that?’ said Tanya, perking up a bit.

‘Aren’t we supposed to argue and hate each other?’

‘Probably, but lets get used to being together and maybe there are things we can do together?’

‘Like stamp collecting and studying hard for our grades?’

They looked at each other and burst out laughing.

Everything seemed normal as they approached the village. Nothing much was different from the place they knew before. Maybe a house or cottage was decorated differently and one or two of the faces were different, but in the main, it was the same.

PC Snow was walking along with his pushbike and talking to the vicar. The twins knew them both well and Tanya wondered at what reaction they would have to seeing her and Tommy together like this.

‘There you are kids,’ said the young vicar, smiling, ‘don’t forget, choir practice tomorrow evening at six.’

‘It wasn’t you two I saw in Mr Adam’s orchard, nicking apples was it, before lunch?’ asked the policeman.

‘No,’ said the twins in unison.

‘Hmm,’ I don’t trust you two. You look so flamin’ innocent, as if butter wouldn’t melt in yer mouth, but I reckon you are the cause of a lot of little incidents that happen around here. I’m keeping my eyes on you two.’

The vicar tried to hide a smile at that but failed miserably.

‘Erm, we have to get home,’ said Tommy hurriedly and with that, they continued on their way leaving the policeman and vicar to carry on discussing the various transgressions, real or imaginary of the twins.

‘I don’t get it,’ said Tanya.

‘What?’

‘We are here now, but who was here before?’

‘What?’

‘Alright, you were with Dad and I was with Mum before we came together here, yes?’

‘Yes, that’s obvious.’

‘Right, so now we are in this different dimension thingie and the policeman and vicar recognise us, then who do they really recognise?’

‘Oh, I get it. Is there another Tommy and Tanya here already and when we get home, will there be two set of twins?’

‘Exactly,’ said Tanya.

‘Well wouldn’t Miss Busby tell us if that was the case?’

‘She doesn’t seem to know too much about it, as she sort of told us that she didn’t know what we would find when we get home.’

‘There couldn’t be another set of twins, that would make things worse not better and Miss Busby said that things were now sort of put right when we landed here.’

‘I ‘spose so, my head hurts.’

‘Mine too!’

They continued on and they met a few other people who they vaguely knew, who just nodded and didn’t seem to think it strange that the twins were where they were.

They arrived at their home and looked at it. It all seemed about the same except that it looked as if it had just been freshly painted and had climbing roses around the doorway. The garden looked more immaculate than either of them had seen before and it was obvious that someone had green fingers.

They looked at each other and then Tommy opened the gate. They walked up the path. As was usual, the door wasn’t locked and then, after some hesitation, they walked in with Tanya taking the lead.

There was subtly different wallpaper and furniture, but other than that, it was pretty much the same inside.

The cottage was empty.

Then they heard a noise coming from the back garden and they went through the kitchen and into the garden.

Two people were at the end of the garden, digging around a flowerbed and talking quietly.

Their backs were turned and the twins could hear some laughter.

The twins looked at each other and grinned and then ran towards their parents.

‘Mummy, Daddy!!!’

Their parents turned and then were nearly bowled over as the two children grabbed them and hugged them both with tears and their eyes and laughter in their voices.

‘Hey, what’s up you two?’ asked their father, ‘you’ve only been gone for an hour.’

Tanya and Tommy spoke at the same time, not making much sense.

‘Not being playing up have you?’ asked Mum, laughing and looking younger than either of them remembered.

‘No, we’ve been good,’ said Tanya, sniffing and not letting go of her Daddy.

‘You haven’t swapped clothes again have you? Mum can tell, but I never can.’

Tanya and Tommy laughed at that and shrugged. It seemed like there could be more fun being twins than maybe meets the eye…

‘You two are funny,’ said Mum, ‘you look like you have just seen a ghost…’

‘What’s that about a ghost?’ asked a voice from the kitchen door.

‘NAN!!!'

The twins flew at their Nan and hugged her just as hard as their parents. She looked fit and well and had a rucksack on her back. No sign of the frail old lady, she was the picture of good health, who looked like she could climb Everest, without oxygen, in time for lunch.

‘Hey, you too, let me down. I have to go on a ramble with the Over Sixties and I’m late, I just called in to let you know that we might decide to stay out and camp for the night. Will you two stop snivelling like that? What’s up with you, anyway?’

The twins looked at each other and grinned.

‘Nothing’s wrong Nan,’ said Tommy.

‘Everything is just right, now,’ said Tanya.

Thank you so much for sticking with me on this story. It was one of the hardest ones that I have ever attempted and I'm sort of pleased that I have been able to pull the various threads. I hope that it all makes sense! Remember this is fiction and my knowledge of geography, earthquakes and ley lines is scanty to say the least, so please give me poetic license on anything that doesn't make sense to all you egg heads out there!

Please leave comments and kudo thingies...thanks! ~Sue