The boy was ever sharp and quick to comprehend.

“You mean that you’ve known all these years how I feel?”

“About me? Yes. I cared for you before I met the older Quinn. Then I knew you’d become this world’s version of him. You know I’m not 21 anymore. If you don’t mind the fact that there’ll always be nine years difference in our ages, I’d like so much to start seeing you.”

“On dates? Of course I don’t mind. I’ve always dreamed of it, and thought it would never be possible.”

“That’s what he said, in different words. Nobody else has touched me like you have, and I’ve already seen a glimpse of the man you’re becoming. It is possible for both of us, if we want it to be.”

“I do,” said Quinn.

“Well I am still a teacher at your school. If we’re going to start a relationship, we should do everything we can to conceal it both from other students and from the teachers.”

“And from Mom. She might not understand,” said Quinn, “Although I know she trusted the older Quinn. From remembering things she’s occasionally said about Jim Hall, I now think she suspected who he really was, but didn’t want to confuse me with the details.”

“I wonder if the other worlds out there are all out of phase with each other’s times. Maybe they’re all in phase with ours, except for his world,” said Heather.

“I don’t think they are,” said Quinn, “Remember the way they were dressed, not just Quinn but his three friends too? I met them all in his hotel room. They had different fashions, futuristic fashions. If they’d been visiting a series of worlds, they must have been dressed according to the fashion styles of those worlds. It’s just possible that ours is the only world that was 12 years out of time phase with Jim’s … Boy, it’s still so hard to think of calling him Quinn.”

“He lost his father too, and was bullied all the time. I wonder how it ended for him,” said Heather.

“I think I know,” said Quinn, “Before he started teaching me martial arts, I had been thinking of using a baseball bat on Brady. Even with my new training, I still felt scared and took the bat anyway. I don’t think you saw it that day, but I hid behind a tree with the bat, waiting for the bullies, and very nearly hit Brady, before I dropped the bat and fought back with my hands and feet. If he didn’t have an older Quinn to teach him differently, he most likely used the bat.”

“And came here 12 years later and taught you a better way,” said Heather.

“He was setting us up,” said Quinn, “He knew he couldn’t stay on our world, so he told you he was another me, so that you’d wait for me. I’m so glad you did wait for me, and that you trusted me with this today.”

They were sitting beside each other on a seat with the wall behind them. It had vinyl cushions mounted on it for comfort and they were very close to each other. Heather Hanley looked intently into Quinn’s eyes. He realised what she was waiting for him to do. He’d never known how to initiate things with girls before, and he realised now that it was because he feared a rejection in their response. This was different, because this was the girl he’d really wanted all along, and she had made her feelings so apparent at last, that he had no reason to fear.

Quinn leaned a few inches closer with his head and kissed Miss Hanley.

She put her arms around him and responded keenly.

“I wish you were already out of school, so that we could be more frequent and open about this,” she said at last, “But I know in all my heart that I’ll wait for you. At least from now on, we can do our waiting together.”

Quinn Malory finished school at the top of his class, and went to study a lengthy five year double degree of science and engineering. He did not expect to have Professor Arturo as his teacher until the fourth or fifth year. Yet he wanted to make the acquaintance now.

He talked it over with Heather, whom he was now able to date far more openly.

“I know I should see him, and show him the designs for my vortex timer device,” said Quinn, “But should I tell him that I’ve met his older self and mine, that parallel earthlings have already come here to our world years ago?”

“Do you think he shouldn’t know about that?”

“It’s not that. I just don’t see how I could convince him, and get him to take a freshman seriously, when I won’t qualify to take his classes for years.”

“I’ll go with you, if you like,” she said.

The local Professor Maximillian Arturo had done a better job of preserving his marriage than the one that the sliding Maximillian Arturo had learned about in 1996. He enjoyed teaching, and had a cheerful disposition.

One day he had a knock on his office door , and opened it to a boy and a young woman.

“How can I help you?” he asked.

“I’m Quinn Malory, a freshman here, and this is my girlfriend Heather Hanley. She has showed me your paper on the Einstein Rosen Podalski Bridge.”

“Oh that,” said the Professor, “My wife thinks it’s just a pointless theory I’m helpless to prove.”

“But you wouldn’t be,” said Quinn, “I’ve already started building a device that could cross the Bridge, into other dimensions. I don’t have the income to get all the parts I need soon enough, and I’m still learning myself. With your help I think we could get it working within a matter of months.”

“Young man, I am engaged in the somewhat demanding task of marking assignments of other students. Did you really interrupt me, expecting that I would involve myself in your flights of fancy?” said Arturo.

“Sir you must give him a chance. There are other worlds, out of time phase with ours, but parallel nonetheless. I’ve seen his older counterpart, and just briefly, I’ve seen yours,” said Heather.

“Are you sure?” asked Arturo.

“Yes. It was years ago. He had longer hair than you, and was dressed in fashion that’s only just coming in now on our world, but he was you. I watched Quinn’s older counterpart leave this world through a vortex. They’ve already done it, and you two could do it much sooner if you worked together,” said Heather.

“Well … perhaps we could have a look at what you’ve worked on so far,” said Arturo, “Where exactly do you work on it?”

“In my basement,” said Quinn, “Would you like to come there with us tonight? I’m sure Mom would set another place at the table for you to join us for dinner. Heather’s coming over anyway.”

“And just how did you two meet?” asked the Professor, who’d been curious about their ages for several minutes.

“I was his teacher at high school,” said Heather.

“And I was secretly in love with her, until my older double’s last words to Heather paved the way for us to start dating,” said Quinn.

“That makes for quite a story,” said Arturo, “And one best kept under wraps, young people. Mr Malory, I accept your invitation. I’ll bring my own file full of my old notes and theories over, and we’ll compare notes.”

By the end of the university’s final semester for the year, Quinn Malory and Maximillian Arturo had co-created a VURT (Vortex Unit Remote Control) which was far more advanced than the timer that the older Quinn had designed. This one could track wormholes, set coordinates for controlled intentional visits to specific earths, and could be activated at the time of their own choosing, rather than only when a countdown of random length reached zero. With such a device, they could come and go from any world as they chose, and would never have any trouble reaching their home world.

“I think we should make two more of them, just in case we ever get separated on another world,” said Quinn.

“How about three? I’d like to take my wife too. I’ve told her nothing about our secret endeavour, but at last I have the means to prove my theories to her,” said Arturo.