New Year’s Expectations (Epilogue)

Though a long process, it was very fun to write this story and collaborate with both BLZBub and Ageiss. I want to thank to both of them.

Prologue and Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

New Year's Expectations

by Ageiss, BLZBub and Planet

EPILOGUE

“Oh, my God, Genevieve, is that really you? You got so big!” said Marianne, her hand over her mouth.

She had just returned from Australia to Carrie’s house, and had just met her other sister Genevive as an adult for the first time, waiting for her before the fireplace. It was shocking enough for Marianne seeing her as a 31-years-old, but what really surprised her was the size of her pregnant belly.

“It’s so good to see you, Marianne!” said the blonde hugging her sister. “Yeah, can you believe I’m about to become a mother? A pity you had to see me like this for the first time, though. I look all swollen.”

“I think you’re gorgeous anyway,” said Marianne. “Wow, there’s really a baby in there!”

The three sisters sat together for the first time in almost seven months… Or twenty years, rather.

“I’m so, so glad to be with you again,” commented Marianne. “You can’t imagine how lonely I got all that time in Australia, believing I was the only one.”

“We got you now,” said Carrie. “We’ll always be together from now on.”

“I’m sorry I missed all that happened to you two,” commented Marianne, then she turned to Genevieve. “Carrie told me about you and Lance. I’m also sorry that didn’t work out.”

“Yeah, so am I, but life goes on. What about you? Were you involved with someone?”

“I had a boyfriend,” admitted Marianne. “But we had broken up just before I was transported here.”

“Oh, that’s too bad,” said Genevieve. “As much as I’m hurt by what happened, I’m glad I got to see life as a married woman. You two missed it.”

“Oh, yeah, Carrie was telling me she has two ex-husbands!”

“I think I’m actually glad I missed that,” reflected Carrie. “For what I can remember, they weren’t particularly happy marriages.”

The redhead laughed and Marianne was somewhat surprised by her eldest sister’s behavior.

“You seem to be taking your divorces really well,” she commented.

“Oh, yes, Carrie has taken all of this quite well,” intervened Genevieve. “I believe she’s quite happy with her life. I even think she might want to stay here forever.”

But Carrie was shaking her head.

“You’ve misunderstood me. I’m not happy I got to miss twenty years of my life. Look at me, I’m almost middle aged. I just don’t think I can do anything to go back, so I’m doing my best to enjoy my stay here. But I would give anything to return and relieve my lost childhood, to be a teenager eventually… to grow into an adult and do all these things for real, without the mistakes, and not miss the best years of my life.”

She took a small sip from the drink she had just poured herself.

“But what I want the most is to be with you, and if we’re all here, then I’m happy I’m staying.”

Indeed, the three of them kept living together for the next four months.

Marianne found a new job at Carrie’s company, and both of them took turns to look after Genevieve, who was having quite an extenuating pregnancy. Marianne in particular was trying to keep her sister in shape through a routine she knew for prenatal women.

“I can’t, I’m too fat right now,” complained Genevieve during their latest session. “This is impossible.”

“Anyone can do anything with the right dosage of effort,” Marianne told her.

“Oh, yeah, well, this can’t be done.”

“A bet, then. If I can touch the ceiling with my back, then you give me your word you’ll keep trying.”

“Okay.”

Marianne smiled deviously as she planted her hand on a wall while she pressed her shoes against the opposite one. Then, she climbed the corridor upwards effortlessly, until her backside moved towards the ceiling.

“See?” she asked, pleased.

“Okay, you beat me,” agreed Genevieve looking at her sister with disbelief. “Your butt and belly are rock-hard, though. I’m so jealous. Mine will probably be flabby forever.”

“I swear I’ll help you make them firm again,” said Marianne.

Indeed, after a few minutes of effort, Genevieve was able to bend in the right position.

It was a few weeks later that Carrie woke up with the feeling there was something important to do.

“Oh, my God, Genevieve is due for today!” she realized after shaking off her grogginess, quickly throwing some clothes over her underwear.

Despite all, Genevieve felt remarkably well that day. She walked on her own all the time, until she was ready to be admitted at the hospital. Both her sisters wished her luck as they rubbed the bump that hid their future nephew or niece (they had all wished to keep the baby’s gender secret until birth).

But after a few hours, and though she had all the right contractions, Genevieve still wasn’t ready for labour.

“The doctors said it could happen any minute now, but I still haven’t dilated enough,” she informed her sisters when they entered her room and sat beside her.

Suddenly, Genevieve started crying.

“Are you in pain?” asked a worried Carrie.

“Well… of course. But it’s not that. It’s just… today was my last chance.”

“Your last chance for what?” Marianne wasn’t sure what her sister meant.

“To go back without feeling guilty. After my child is born… I don’t think I’ll be able to endure going back. But that’s what I want. I also long to live all those lost years. But if I become a mother, then…”

She kept weeping, and Carrie and Marianne joined her silently.

“I also wish we could go back now, before it’s too late,” whispered Marianne.

Just then, they all gasped when a clock chimed 12pm. They turned to see a wooden grandfather clock against the wall of the comfy room.

“That clock… It looks familiar,” said Carrie studying it for the first time.

“Looks just like the one Mom and Dad used to have in their living room,” remembered Marianne.

“That could very well be the same one, since Mom told me they had donated a few of their old things to the hospital,” commented Genevieve, then she clutched her groin. “Oh, my God, I think it’s time! The baby is almost here!”

They all looked away from the clock, which just then chimed for the twelfth and last time, as all three girls felt pressure building inside them and everything exploded in white light.

Marianne closed her eyes to shield them from the blinding flash, and she kept them shut for a while.

Yet, she could tell something had changed abruptly. She was still sitting, but the sensations were very different. She had gotten very used to her large and firm buttocks over the last few months, but suddenly they felt small and scrawny.

She opened her eyes and gulped. She was at her old room… the one she had when she was a little girl, before the time jump. She quickly looked down at herself. Everything was just as she expected. She was 7 again, a bit too big for her age as always, and wearing one of her usual girly clothes.

Marianne was sitting in front of her old mirror, and she stared intently at her reflection. Wow, she looked young and cute. She was suddenly hit about how much her features had changed when she had transformed into a 27-years-old. It would take her a while to get used to this face again.

She looked around lovingly at her old toys and things and couldn’t help but smile widely. She was back.

Genevieve immediately knew something was off. She was suddenly standing, no longer resting over the hospital bed. But what really hit her senses was the lack of weight on her abdomen.

Her hands traveled there and she gasped when she realized her belly was flat, and they traveled up to discover the flatness was apparent upwards too. Her milk-filled breasts had deflated into nothing. She was a 10-years-old again.

She felt light as a feather. She wasn’t pregnant anymore, and in fact, her body was currently incapable of having children. It felt as if she had lost something precious to her, but she knew, deep down, that her time to be a mother wasn’t due yet. She smiled.

Carrie, meanwhile had also noticed her body felt much more energetic than it had been for a while. It didn’t took her long to discover she too was back to being 14. And like her younger sisters, the redhead also smiled, happy to have returned to her proper time and place.

All three of them found each other in the corridor of their parents’ house and they shrieked together “We’re back!”, and they then proceeded to hug each other and laugh, still unused to their childish voices.

“We’re kids!” a happy Marianne yelled, “We’re no longer women!”

“Don’t scream! Remember, we live with our parents again. They could be here and hear us!” warned Carrie.

“I know, this is just so great!” continued Marianne, then she glanced at Genevieve sadly. “I’m sorry you couldn’t have your child. You didn’t even know if it was a girl or a boy.”

“I prefer it that way,” said Genevieve, a bit more serious but still smiling. “I know whoever my child was, I will have it again eventually. When the time is right.”

“Speaking about time,” said Carrie, pointing at the calendar on the wall. “Did you see what day is today? January 1^st. 1996! We were gone for just a few hours!”

The three of them stood in there for a while, still looking down at themselves.

“I had forgotten how small I was,” commented Carrie.

“And I’m so skinny,” complained Marianne. “I can’t wait to be able to hit the gym and build my body again. I guess it’ll take a while for us to get used to be kids again.”

“At least you were never pregnant,” nodded Genevieve. “I got to experience everything about being a grown woman.”

“Yeah, you’re not even a virgin anymore, VV,” recalled Carrie.

Genevieve blushed intensely.

“Well, that’s only somewhat true. I was a married grown woman then. I’m a little girl now, and though I remember having done all those things with Lance, the details are kind of blurred. I reckon those memories won’t fully come back until I’m the proper age again.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” said Carrie. “I’m also having trouble trying to picture the more adult facts about that life. Still, I remember mostly everything.”

“Me too,” agreed Marianne. “I believe those months were lessons. Maybe we were given those experiences to learn about ourselves so that we can build a better life now.”

20 years later

And build a better life they did.

After spending almost a year as adults, growing up was a piece of cake for the three sisters. Everyone was surprised about how mature they were, but then again, they had kept most of all the knowledge they had acquired after the first time skip.

Carrie, for instance, had retained her nose for business, and from an early age she had started making profit. Now, by the time she had grown back to 34, she didn’t just have a swimsuit brand, but a global clothing company that was among the most successful international corporations.

She hadn’t spent any time in marrying into fame as she had done in her lost life, and had indeed made a name for herself all on her own. Actually, after a couple short-lived relationships, she had decided marriage was not for her.

Genevieve had gone back to being a successful theater actress at first, then jumped to the big screen this time around. Her career had advanced a lot since she hadn't become too besotted to the point of becoming distracted from the rest of her life. Actually, she had never even pursued a romantic relationship with Lance. They were still good friends in this life, but she had learned in the previous one that they loved each other deeply but maybe a bit unhealthily, and she didn't want that for each other again. She had gone on to marry another man, maybe a bit less passionate, but much more centered than Lance.

The really happy event for her had happened recently, when she delivered a girl on the same day she was due in the previous timeline.

Marianne was still very much into fitness, and her body had again developed as impressively as before, but what had grown the most for her was her maturity.

This time, she hadn’t dismissed family values, nor had she eluded responsibilities. So this time, her life had become much less taxing. She had graduated from college and had a steady job which could support her quite well. And though she still loved to go to the gym, the only person she had to train now was herself. She had recently become engaged, and at 27, she didn’t feel like she should have rushed things either.

Growing up again had been a weird experience for all of them, though. Regaining their grown bodies, which they knew exactly how would look, not to mention recapturing their missing behaviors and needs had been strange indeed. Equally odd had been living without the future commodities they had grown accustomed to. They had spent their teenage years wishing they could have a smartphone, but the thing wouldn’t be invented for a few years. And they had also learnt about many historical events that would come to pass during their lifetimes.

And there was yet another thing they had learned: they would never, ever again, wish for anything while standing close to their parent’s old clock.