A Tiroir is a Drawer

"Yes, ma'am."

== ... the rest of this conversation is not worth repeating... ==

Basically, she went on for a while about how great Canada is, but she was preaching to the choir and I think she saw that so she begged off and we went our separate ways.

We finished our tour in front of a grand old 3-story brick Victorian about 5 blocks from campus.

The house filled its lot in width and depth, though it faced onto a two-lot mini-park (across a low-traffic street with aggressive speed bumps). Swing-sets and playground equipment filled the park so we looked at it as nearly an ideal location.

Chaque didn't have house keys, but he did let us walk around the front yard - the back kept going pretty far. He said it had been a rooming-house at one point, had been recently renovated, and was one of the homes the university owned to entice young students from the states.

We definitely were that.

I asked when the semester was over, and he said their process was a little different. We'd go at our own pace, using any materials we wanted and getting help when needed either from other students or from a team of professors. So, we could start tomorrow morning, if we wanted, even though it was Friday.

Technically, there were semesters, he said, but they were very flexible on starting dates especially for transfer students, to get as many people in, as fast as possible. He was amusingly honest about that.

The differences in the classes themselves were that most students were incentivized to master every subject and that meant that one fifth of class requirements time was to be spent tutoring classmates, which would help everyone to learn faster.

I'd been in lots of team environments before, so I wasn't afraid of that, and the girls seemed to think the collaborative aspect sounded really cool.

Driving the small car around Toronto, we got a feel of the place, going to some grocery stores, shops, a few restaurants (which happily accepted US money since our dollar was stronger then).

The girls hadn't ever had Thai food. We fixed that - and I had to keep my mouth shut despite wanting to talk back to the cook in Thai. I'd have no way to explain to the girls that I had secretly spent 18 months writing conveyor-belt warehouse management software for a transshipment ocean freight terminal in Chanthabury.

The trip back to Illinois was earlier than we'd planned since we just didn't need to stay longer to prove what we knew already.

I wanted to leave quickly because I knew moving with women who were in their 3rd trimester would be tricky, and then some would be hesitant to move.

There was another complication that I wanted to address, too, and it would take a little negotiation.

I wanted to bring someone else.

In fact, I wanted to bring two other someone-elses.

I'd been hanging out with Connie Willis at lunch (and when she'd come over with her brother Dave sometimes in the evenings), both in The Before, and in the past few weeks. I knew she'd gone on my 'verse to marry some Irish guy and have six or seven kids, and those kids went and did fun stuff - one had clerked for a supreme court justice.

Connie was on my radar.

I'd mentioned her and Barb (a friend from Band) before to Amy and Jane, and we'd had Barb over for a party the previous weekend. What I hadn't told the girls was what I wanted there.

Barb wasn't gorgeous or anything, she was just one of the sharpest people I'd ever met. She was the kind of person that you think about long after you were in the same room, a person not necessarily with charisma, but someone who you just Felt Really Good About.

Connie was that way, too.

So, after we were pulled up and set up for the night in Grand Rapids (our last Michigan campout before we could get home the next day), I called us all in to a meeting.

"I have something to discuss with you. I am contemplating doing something, making a change for who we bring to Toronto."

Coira was super-nervous at the meeting anyway, and I could tell the very idea of changing the 'who' in our group (since they were Reds) meant danger.

"Coira, girls, relax, it's not a subtraction."

They breathed easier.

"I've been contemplating that I know a really good cross section of our town now, of the girls about my age, who they are, what kind of people they are, now. I know I'm not the only person who knows most of our fellow students - you girls do, too."

They nodded, they were obviously wondering who I was about to say should join us in Toronto.

"First, I've had no additional premonitions, or dreams, or visions, whatever, about anyone else. This is just my idea, but I think it's a good one. Before I tell you who I'm thinking of, I want to have you ... whisper to me, in my ear, maybe up to three names of people you'd choose to live with as roommates, possibly, who would be fun to hang with, and who are highly capable people."

"So, think a minute, then tell me."

This exercise got the girls considering, though I think Jane was less than enthusiastic about the idea. It probably was going to make her life harder, having to coordinate a larger group.

One by one, they got up and whispered names.

I won't tell who got the most votes.

"You've read my mind, apparently. With your votes of confidence, or confirmations that I'm not crazy in thinking this is a good plan, I'm going to ask three new people to join us in Toronto."

They were silent, waiting, and I will admit there was some tension.

"Connie Willis. I have a great feeling about her. We've known her awhile - Amy, Jane, and I, at least - and she'll be great. She's organized and wicked smart."

Kat nodded at this, too, and Coira was still relaxing after probably panicking.

"Next, Barb Fabin. There's no real need to explain why - she's just kickass smart and I want to be around her."

They got that.

"Third, Missy Green. She's a little more outgoing than we are, but she's gangbusters into doing whatever needs doing, and I find that whenever I'm sitting near her at lunch - several times in the past few weeks - I'm grinning my butt off."

"Lastly, Ming Yee Soon. I ran into her at Joanne's witness dinner, that first week, and Wow she's sherp as a tack. Quiet, calm. I know she's... the kind of person i'd want around in a crisis, is all I can say, she just has that kind of self-power."

"So, that's it. Four new people. Connie, Barb, Missy, and Ming. I will invite negotiations with them. Do you have any objections?"

They looked at each other, and at me. There were pursed lips. Jane said, "You don't have to do this."

"Do what?"

"Set up marriages now. You can wait. They will still be there after we go. You can go back next month and bring them back with you, with us?"

I leaned back in my seat and considered.

Finally, I said, "No. If I move there with you girls, and then bring these four along after, they will perceive themselves as encroaching on a space more-owned by you, than them. And, it might be tempting for you to think that, too. Nope. Timing has to be this."

Amy said, "I really like Connie. I always have. I think she's a great addition. Missy, I think she's a little outgoing for us? Is any of this, with her, her looks?"

Remembering the idea that in my Before, the racism idea would have worked the other way. Now, genetic diversity was a Very Good Thing.

"It's her smarts, and her go-getting attitude. I've seen her in quiet moments, too, and she's a lot more laid back."

Losa knew Ming and in a break from her normal rain on everything mood (more upbeat since she got pregnant), she complimented that choice.

It was decided.

We talked about how we'd arrange logistics, getting packed, finishing classes by taking tests early, etc., what we wanted to bring along, etc.

Jane was the organized one. She had a phone directory for everyone in the high school, and got it out.

We walked over to a pay phone and made some calls.

The first one was to Connie.

Dave answered the phone, "Willis residence, Dave speaking."

I almost laughed.

"Dave, Kevin Cooper. I need to talk with Connie. Can you get her on the phone?"

"Sure...." She came and said hello.

"Connie, Kevin Cooper." I told her where we were, a little of where we'd gone. "...This is a pretty important phone call, so... sorry you're going to get kinda blind-sided about this, but it's better to tell you over the phone, now. Then, can you come over to my house about 2 pm tomorrow? It's pretty important."

"Sure, Kev... Why?"

I hesitated. "You might want to bring some socks. Of use. Or not if you're not interested."

She gasped, then cried out, and it was obvious she was in tears. "What...?!??!?!"

"Yeah. So, our timing on this is going to be moving right along, so there's some considerations there. I'll say, we are going to finish the next two weeks of the school year, it'll take a few weeks to pack anyway. But, no delays then. Think about it?"

"I'm .... Thinking!!!!"

"Okay. Tomorrow, my house, 2 pm. Don't tell my parents or anyone. They don't know any of this yet. You can tell Dave though."

"Okay??? I'm... I'm crying."

"See you tomorrow."

"I will see you then. Yes. I'll be there."

We hung up and the next three calls were about the same level of OMG.

Jane and I walked back to the RV, listening to the crickets around us, and an owl or two (or morning doves? It's hard to tell the 'Hwoooo' sounds apart). She stopped me, and faced me to her, and we kissed.

Her hand went down my back, then over her abdomen. "Kev. I know you're ... amazing. I worry about this, and me, and you... and all of us. And, I'm happy, too, but... I worry."

"Thank you. I'm happy you worry. You're worrying so I don't have to. It's why I pay you the big bucks."

She laughed.

"Is this wise?"

Thinking to get the right phrase, I said, "A house with these people in it, will be a house with power of brain and heart. These people? These amazing women, YOU, and these amazing women? This is the stuff of which epic families are made. There will be lots of kids, but lots of hearts, and plenty of inspiration and perspiration. I love you, Jane Cooper."

She inhaled.

"Give it time. We'll make it happen. Every minute I'm with you, it's a minute stolen from the Gods, of Grace and happiness and a better future than I would have had, without you."

Melting against me, we hugged silently for a while, then just turned and walked back to the RV.

== ==

Mom and Dad met us as we pulled up at home, and in the gushing of we-saw-this, etc., it slipped out that we were going away sooner than we'd said.

It was 1 pm, we'd cut it kind of close.

We brought in our clothes to be washed and started unpacking onto the lawn, and I told Amy called the RV place to have them come out and pick up the thing the next morning.

Amy was confused. "Why?"

"To return it. We're renting, right?"

She laughed. Nope. This is ours. Paid cash. You said it was okay to negotiate for a good deal, and they wanted to move it, so I got them to come down about 15% and throw in the jalopy on the back for free, it's used."

Ah.

We didn't need to worry, apparently. I liked the thing. It'd been comfy. And, if we wanted to go visit somewhere, we could.

About 3, we had visitors. I'd told Mom and Dad I was inviting some girls over.

Since Amy was pregnant, the House Rule didn't have to be followed anymore.

== ==

The idea of going off to Canada wasn't something that Connie, Barb, Missy, or Ming had contemplated before, probably ever. Yet, I'd offered to negotiate Tiroir with them, a somewhat unprecedented four at once, on top of having ... a unique and large number otherwise.

Of all of them, I got the most pushback from Connie, I think, because she was really dedicated to the concept of hanging around and being near her mother during any kind of difficult times with pregnancy and childbirth.

I allowed that I had made enough money from secondaries (etc.) that I would be happy to help her mom come up for a visit of several weeks, pay for travel, etc., and have her stay in either our house or a nearby one.

That tipped the scales.

We did a ceremony for establishing with me four Tiroirs. It worked easily that way since I was promising the same terms to all four girls, and they agreed on common wording for themselves.

I'd thought maybe Mrs. Cain could be our witness, but she was pregnant (with my child)(!!!) and although I was sad I wouldn't be with her again, the tradition was that it had to be a fertile woman, so she was disqualified.

Kelly Brewbeck, part of a Tiroir with Dan early on, had separated from him by then.

Connie knew her pretty well, so she came over at a moment's notice to be our Fair Witness.

Kelly remembered that I'd told her to watch out or she might have a daughter as pretty as herself and there might be another Trojan War.

Kelly was JUST as beautiful as I remembered her being.

Kelly was Definitely Interested in me.

I had to put that aside for a moment to get the witness payment handled (to her multiple Enjoyments), but afterwards? We lay there side by side, I looked at the Wow right there, and told her that if this did work, she should come up and live near us in Toronto and go to U Toronto with us when she had the baby. And, if it didn't, come up to see us, and we could try again.

But, I warned her: She would need to be ready to babysit a lot because we'd have a houseful of needy infants for her to help with.

Until we knew, she had to stay silent on the topic. I didn't want lots of girls from my Aardmore following me to U Toronto.

Kelly understood the reasoning. She had started crying but made an attempt at a stiff upper lip.

I could do a lot worse in any universe than having Kelly in my household.

== ==

The school year ended, finals were done and we were packed, all in just the next two weeks, ready by the first of May.

A giant moving truck came took our carefully-packed boxes away, and we said goodbye.

There were a few parties, but none with alcohol.

It seemed that a large number of students at Aardmore Senior High were pregnant and would not be drinking alcohol.

Yay!!!!

On one level, I was sad to be going since some of those I was leaving behind didn't get pregnant despite efforts and I would have been willing to try again. I was also going to miss the pregnancy, birth, and growing-up of many kids with my genetics.

I had to let go of that.

We were going to a Great school, in a beautiful place.

We were going to make a lot of happy (and cute-as-hell unhappy) babies emerge into a Canadian future, and that was something that gave me great joy.

Morgg had gotten that much right, and I'd just started this existence, mostly.

== Chapter: Epilogue ==

I've now lived to be 68 years old, AGAIN, past my first 68, a second lifetime that I celebrated with a different meaning than others.

It's entirely appropriate I mark this anniversary with descriptions of how I came to be here, by writing and curating this. Admittedly I wrote most of the above 48 years ago, but the time is right now to mark the occasion of "now" equaling "last".

That said, I'm putting this document in a "time capsule" under the foundations of a large building, to be opened no sooner than 100 years from now.

I never ended up telling my wives where I really was from, the truth of how I knew the things that I knew. I couldn't, in good conscience. Some secrets are better held onto.

My story instead was that sometimes my visions were so clear and vivid that I confused what reality I was from, since I remembered so vividly another life in addition to my own.

It was a version of the truth, from the perspective of the body my consciousness was placed into. More importantly, it had enough truth that even when I messed up (and I did, on occasion), I could be forgiven my "mis-remembrances".

Most of my children are grown now; I still take Secondaries but age has cut my sabine score down to one a day, roundabouts, and that I try to reserve some for my wives.

Yes, I married my Tiroirs. Of course I did. Duh. And, I did take four more besides my original set (Amy, Jane, Kat's 4 makes six, Connie, Barb, Missy, Ming, and Kelly is 11).

To these we added two First Nations girls (Leena and Purn), a math scholar from Egypt (Suha), and a fellow-student Azerbaijani physicist (Habrot) who knew how to cook for 25 just as easily as she could for 3.

Most of my many great-grandchildren are now good Canadian citizens, members of the British Commonwealth all, and some of them were inspired by me to re-create some of the technologies I remembered from my former life.

Strangely, one of the odd effects of my transference to this place was the enhancement of my memory (aided by my daily journal from the weeks after I arrived), so I can put down on paper enough to get this new world a gist of what my old world and experience here has been like.

I've often wondered what became of my old world. At least one other person came from my Earth, to add the 'Hovercraft full of eels' reference. Or, someone in a distant future of this world will invent an AI and send a person with that phrase into my world's past.

Or, a third universe sent people to both my 'verse and this one.

How many more people shifted around, in the end? Is it useful to count when there are infinite universes and an uncountable number are in a shard-subset down a timeline where a person shifted? How do you count a subshard containing a set of infinities?

Math is fun.

Did my AI, Morgg, send others here, too, before or after me? Was it another force?

In an infinite set of universes, I could have my own and there would still be That Many More where I wasn't there to do the things that I did.

And, who controls it all? The same AI that shifted me? Some other power? An alien intelligence or one from our future in a causal time-loop?

I have one firm answer: I remain Catholic.

God abides above, watching all these infinite places with infinite peoples. He smiles, or He doesn't, because what God does is Not For Us to Fathom.

As a theologian and science fiction writer said once, 'God has an Ineffable Plan'.

So.

You're probably wondering.

How many kids have I had?

How many IVF eggs got a close-up meeting with my once- or twice-a-day donations for years?

As best I can figure, our kids - kids where I was the father - didn't suffer from the 12-Trials nearly as harshly as those in the first generations. My grandchildren suffered even less.

There have been other pandemics, but none as bad, so far. Maybe we're on borrowed time, with so much genetic engineering and so few ways of stopping disease transmission, even now.

We don't want to stop it, I think.

Stopping diseases usually requires a separation. We'd be pulling apart, one from another, driving walls between our communities and making us spiritually weaker from not interacting with our neighbors.

Some things have stayed the same, these years later: women are leaders, and don't want to let men do that job again, it's what got us wars and famines and any number of evil things.

Maybe women have decided matriarchies are Just Better. I'm not one to disagree.

Governments certainly are better - run for the benefit of citizens more than the wealthy, with mandatory voting and anti-gerrymandering laws the far more common worldwide rule than the exception.

Happily, there have been no further world wars.

Some of my children did solar cell research. Every little thing helped, but none of my daughters won a Nobel prize, so ... oh well.

Happily, Chernobyl didn't happen either.

From my family to yours, from my universe to yours wherever you are, I wish for you the peace that comes from a house full of loving people, good hugs, forehead-kisses, and hair-toussles.