Mr. Handy wrote: ↑Sun Nov 14, 2021 9:38 pm
"Yes, I believe Miss Winters referred to the I Ching," says
Reverend Trask.
"That is one possibility, though perhaps we should wait for Nathan Forbes and Jeremiah Collins to return from Arizona, in case they also wish to return to our time. But how did Miss Winters come to my time in the first place? Perhaps there is another way."
Professor Stokes ponders this question for some time, sipping sherry and pacing around the room, stopping now and again to consult a volume for a moment.
"Allow me to propose a hypothetical scenario. Given the fact that Miss Winters arrived at Collinwood
before Mrs. Stoddard intended to invite her -- I confess I have an interest in the frequent gossip that surrounds the illustrious Collins family -- I took the liberty of making some discrete inquiries. It seems that a Miss Victoria Winters, according to my sources of information, is still in residence in an orphanage in New York, and knows nothing about the Collins or Collinsport. Was the Miss Victoria Winters who arrived at Collinwood an imposter?
"From what you have told me, I have dismissed this possibility. Rather, I must suggest that the Miss Victoria Winters in New York and the Miss Victoria Winters currently in the Great American Desert existed in parallel times, and exist in the same plane of reality only due to the dislocation in time the latter experienced. As to how this occurred, I can only speculate.
"Given, from what you say, of her disorientation at the time of her arrival in your time, it seems likely that she had participated in some sort of parapsychological ritual; a séance, for example. If she happened to possess psychic abilities herself, perhaps unknown to her, that could have caused a sort of slippage between two parallel times, out of synchronicity with each other, if you see what I mean. She may have been transported from 1967 One to 1795 Two. Do I make myself clear?
"Whether such a procedure could be undertaken to reverse the effect is difficult to determine."