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Chapter Nine: Operation Fall Blau

Conveniently for Anna, her past self and Maggie Adler decided to leave their tiny radio room to go have coffee or something. Clarissa didn’t get to finish freaking out; Anna flinched and slapped the teenager as soon as she jumped and started screaming. “I’ll have your head if you try that again!” she yelled at the girl, rubbing her hand as it began to get sore.

“Jesus Christ!” Clarissa yelled back. “You can’t just sneak up on me like that!” she angrily explained as she began to massage her stinging cheek. “What did you think I’d do, Anna?!”

“Not scream?!” Anna wondered incredulously, throwing her arms into the air in frustration. “I was trying to communicate with Mags, but you suddenly started calling out to me! I thought you were expecting me! I dare say a month is long enough to go without contacting me, child.”

Clarissa froze. She remembered wishing for that but didn’t- it hadn’t been a month for her. “I didn’t know who you were when I did that,” she recalled, her voice wilted and somber. “I didn’t remember anything. I thought I had just blacked out on the beach. Anna, every time I go back to my time-”

“You can go back? How? You must-” Anna tried to request, only to be cut short as Clarissa explained further.

“No, no, no! I don’t get to- I don’t- I didn’t think I could, like, control whenever I slingshot between your time and mine. Anna, every time I, like, wake up here I remember everything,” she summarized, her heartbeat accelerating as she started to piece things together. “But suddenly the triangle people got super pissed at me. I think it’s when I pulled you into this... whatever this shallow zone is. They didn’t like that at all, and they chased me when I- when they threw me back to my time.”

“They threw you? They forced you back to your time?” Anna asked, clearly more interested in figuring out how to replicate the experience on her own terms.

Shaking her head, Clarissa kept her ego down and brought her up to speed. “They must have put me in your time when all this started happening for me and my friends. I.. I don’t think they expected me to cause trouble, Anna. But I think I can control it, the slingshot power.”

“But you just said they were throwing you back and forth across the timeline,” Anna observed, hand on her hip and the other to her mouth. “You’re sure you can control it yourself? Last I saw you, I dare say you were swept away like smoke in the wind. I haven’t seen you in a month.”

“It’s only been a few hours for me,” Clarissa managed to squeak out. “I’m... I’m sorry. I know what it’s like being alone.”

“Spare me the theatrics,” Anna sighed. “Come now, we’re clearly on the clock. Tell me about your power; we’re going to need it.”

Nodding, Clarissa revealed, “For the longest time I couldn’t control it, or I didn’t know how to. And I kept forgetting everything that had happened when I slingshot back into my own time. But when the triangle ghosts got pissed at me, they kept yelling at me in my time. I thought it was the first time I saw them, but I think they were just fogging up my memory. They trapped me in this room, and I thought I was gonna die, and they kept saying I wasn’t done soaking or something.”

“Soaking? In what?” Anna wondered, observing the girl with both concern and caution.

“I don’t know, this shallow zone? But I know they’re trying to find me,” Clarissa decided, confident in that much at least. “They told me they could track me down. I didn’t know I was able to escape their watch, but I think I’m safe now. I... I think I evaded them by wishing to be here?”

“You think? Do you, or do you not know? How can you be sure, and what are we going to do to outrun them?” Anna kept wondering, growing more and more worried as she realized that the peace wasn’t going to last.

“I wished myself away from them, somehow!” Clarissa nearly stammered in her excitement. “I don’t know exactly how I did it, but I remember it all, Anna! I stayed conscious this time! I didn’t black out, or fall asleep, or whatever; I stayed awake and saw the timeline change before my own eyes! I think I can control it, and the ghosts don’t like it.”

Anna took it all in. Clarissa came up with the perfect analogy. “They thought I would just drown in the Shallows, but now I can swim,” she confidently and bitter-sweetly realized.

Slowly nodding, Anna finally understood. “And it stands to reason that I must possess the same abilities as you do; though I must admit that I shall require your tutelage in picking up objects. Though, I can’t help but wonder how long it will take for them to wade around and find us in this new spot... this new pool in the creek. Furthermore, why did you chose this date, of all dates, to call me ‘downstream’ as you might say?”

Shrugging, Clarissa reasoned, “I didn’t wish to be somewhere else. I mean, I did, but I didn’t think I could change what location I was in. I just... I thought I was stuck, and I figured that Anna Shea was the only one who could help me in my moment. So I swam to a different time in the same location, I guess? Maybe this was the last time you were ever in this room?”

It was like Clarissa had thrown a spear made of ice into the woman’s heart. Wincing, Anna looked around the radio room with great interest, and yet she had a thousand-yard-stare in her eyes. Nodding, she decided, “It... it would explain why I heard you. I was still in the present. Present for me, that is. And it’s ‘Shay-ah’, not ‘Sheey-ah’, in case you ever feel inclined to attempt another pronunciation.”

“Sorry,” Clarissa groaned. “I just- but you heard me. You just appeared behind me, like that.” Clarissa snapped her fingers for emphasis. “How did you do that?”

It was Anna’s turn to shrug, but she didn’t do that, because shrugging is a very childish body gesture. Instead, she shook her head. “I’m afraid that I am not privy to that information; however, I suspect that it is correlated to my own desire, my own ‘wishing’ or ‘swimming’ power, as you might say. I was simply attempting to communicate with Mags when I heard you calling. Your crying sounded rather urgent, so I felt it was necessary to follow the echoes I was hearing. In my travels, I simply honed in on the source, and I found you here.”

Clarissa nearly gawked at her. “You make it sound so simple.”

“Despite some light-headedness at the door, I’m rather partial to the opinion that it was,” Anna decided with a smirk.

Scrunching her lips, Clarissa slowly nodded. “Yeah, great for you...”

The two stood comfortably close to one another, yet Clarissa felt like a chasm had been torn between them. “I’m sorry,” she said again.

Anna bent her head, curious as to why she was receiving a second apology.

“For bringing you here,” Clarissa explained. Motioning to the radio equipment, she further elaborated, “I saw how standoffish you and Mags were, in the cave. If you two had a fight-”

“My dear girl, that is simply two very different women attempting to cope with their personal feelings while trying to work together,” Anna lectured. “Going off of your looks, I’m privy to the opinion that you’ve had a few entanglements yourself, am I wrong? It was simply how Mags wanted to deal with me after we ended our romantic interests.”

Offering a friendly smile, Clarissa nodded. “I see.” She considered what Anna had said, and then she remembered more of what she had just seen. “You were in civilian clothes today. Not just in the cave-”

“This day happens long before that day,” Anna shortly answered as she strolled to the window.

Clarissa followed. “So you left the army,” she confirmed aloud. “But they let you back into the fort? In war time?”

Anna gazed into the courtyard. A smile grew on her lips. “It’s the seventh of August, nineteen fifty-one, Katie. I didn’t even need that calendar,” she both informed and bragged as she motioned the the calendar posted on the door.

“I’m not-” Clarissa turned around. Sure enough, there was a calendar with the past days marked through with a red pen. The top page was a drawing of a topless Hawaiian girl covering her dignity with a necklace of flowers. “They... grow... big down here, the coconuts I say?” Clarissa awkwardly read aloud. Scoffing, she decided, “I’m not surprised an army base would order Playboy.”

Chuckling, Anna told her, “I don’t know what ‘Playboy’ is, but that’s probably our version of it.” Her eyes never left the courtyard.

Clarissa went back to the window to enjoy the apparent show. It was pristine. Freshly mowed grass, a nice patio area for food and drinks, even flowers had been planted in colorful patterns of red, white, and blue. “Nice,” Clarissa muttered to herself. She perked up when she saw 1951 Maggie Adler and Anna shea strolling out to the picnic table with sandwiches and coffee. The two set their trays down and began to talk intensely, with Maggie doing most of the talking and Anna asking a few questions here and there, prompting more talking.

“Getting back together?” Clarissa asked, looking to Anna.

Anna smiled and took a heavy breath. “No, though if she had asked me back, if she had possessed the spine to ask for forgiveness, I dare say that I would have lacked the will to resist right there.”

“Then why are you back here?” Clarissa couldn’t help but wonder.

Sighing fondly, Anna explained, “I received a civilian pass for the base and a letter explaining as much as she knew. Mags said she was able to hear the sunken crew of the Kanaloa. I took a plane, a cab, and a boat to get here today. You just saw me listening to the recording of them Mags had made in Site Eighty-Two. Right now...”

There was too much sniffling for Clarissa to not look. Anna had to dry her eyes as she explained, “Right now we’re talking about how we’re going to save them... the Sunken.”

Eyes going wide, Clarissa knew where they needed to go next. “Where’s Site Eighty-Two?”

“My apologies,” Anna somewhat giggled. “It’s the comm tower in Epiphany Fields.”

“Let’s go! I’ll explain as we run!” Clarissa exclaimed, bolting out of the room with Anna close behind her. She didn’t get too far. Anna held her up at the courtyard. Past Anna and Maggie were having a distant but warm conversation with each other, discussing their plans to save the crew of the Kanaloa. They even started to discuss the years that had passed. Anna daintily sipped her coffee and had a small bite of sandwich while Maggie tore into the heap of sandwiches she’d piled onto her plate, talking with her mouth full as she elaborated on how her staff were nice but not that interesting, filling her mouth with hot coffee once she’d made her case.

Smiling ear to ear, Anna was clearly not going to budge until she’d had her own appetite filled. With the clock ticking, and so much more yet to be done, Clarissa angrily left her behind.

Description
Chapter Nine: Operation Fall Blau

Conveniently for Anna, her past self and Maggie Adler decided to leave their tiny radio room to go have coffee or something. Clarissa didn’t get to finish freaking out; Anna flinched and slapped the teenager as soon as she jumped and started screaming. “I’ll have your head if you try that again!” she yelled at the girl, rubbing her hand as it began to get sore.

“Jesus Christ!” Clarissa yelled back. “You can’t just sneak up on me like that!” she angrily explained as she began to massage her stinging cheek. “What did you think I’d do, Anna?!”

“Not scream?!” Anna wondered incredulously, throwing her arms into the air in frustration. “I was trying to communicate with Mags, but you suddenly started calling out to me! I thought you were expecting me! I dare say a month is long enough to go without contacting me, child.”

Clarissa froze. She remembered wishing for that but didn’t- it hadn’t been a month for her. “I didn’t know who you were when I did that,” she recalled, her voice wilted and somber. “I didn’t remember anything. I thought I had just blacked out on the beach. Anna, every time I go back to my time-”

“You can go back? How? You must-” Anna tried to request, only to be cut short as Clarissa explained further.

“No, no, no! I don’t get to- I don’t- I didn’t think I could, like, control whenever I slingshot between your time and mine. Anna, every time I, like, wake up here I remember everything,” she summarized, her heartbeat accelerating as she started to piece things together. “But suddenly the triangle people got super pissed at me. I think it’s when I pulled you into this... whatever this shallow zone is. They didn’t like that at all, and they chased me when I- when they threw me back to my time.”

“They threw you? They forced you back to your time?” Anna asked, clearly more interested in figuring out how to replicate the experience on her own terms.

Shaking her head, Clarissa kept her ego down and brought her up to speed. “They must have put me in your time when all this started happening for me and my friends. I.. I don’t think they expected me to cause trouble, Anna. But I think I can control it, the slingshot power.”

“But you just said they were throwing you back and forth across the timeline,” Anna observed, hand on her hip and the other to her mouth. “You’re sure you can control it yourself? Last I saw you, I dare say you were swept away like smoke in the wind. I haven’t seen you in a month.”

“It’s only been a few hours for me,” Clarissa managed to squeak out. “I’m... I’m sorry. I know what it’s like being alone.”

“Spare me the theatrics,” Anna sighed. “Come now, we’re clearly on the clock. Tell me about your power; we’re going to need it.”

Nodding, Clarissa revealed, “For the longest time I couldn’t control it, or I didn’t know how to. And I kept forgetting everything that had happened when I slingshot back into my own time. But when the triangle ghosts got pissed at me, they kept yelling at me in my time. I thought it was the first time I saw them, but I think they were just fogging up my memory. They trapped me in this room, and I thought I was gonna die, and they kept saying I wasn’t done soaking or something.”

“Soaking? In what?” Anna wondered, observing the girl with both concern and caution.

“I don’t know, this shallow zone? But I know they’re trying to find me,” Clarissa decided, confident in that much at least. “They told me they could track me down. I didn’t know I was able to escape their watch, but I think I’m safe now. I... I think I evaded them by wishing to be here?”

“You think? Do you, or do you not know? How can you be sure, and what are we going to do to outrun them?” Anna kept wondering, growing more and more worried as she realized that the peace wasn’t going to last.

“I wished myself away from them, somehow!” Clarissa nearly stammered in her excitement. “I don’t know exactly how I did it, but I remember it all, Anna! I stayed conscious this time! I didn’t black out, or fall asleep, or whatever; I stayed awake and saw the timeline change before my own eyes! I think I can control it, and the ghosts don’t like it.”

Anna took it all in. Clarissa came up with the perfect analogy. “They thought I would just drown in the Shallows, but now I can swim,” she confidently and bitter-sweetly realized.

Slowly nodding, Anna finally understood. “And it stands to reason that I must possess the same abilities as you do; though I must admit that I shall require your tutelage in picking up objects. Though, I can’t help but wonder how long it will take for them to wade around and find us in this new spot... this new pool in the creek. Furthermore, why did you chose this date, of all dates, to call me ‘downstream’ as you might say?”

Shrugging, Clarissa reasoned, “I didn’t wish to be somewhere else. I mean, I did, but I didn’t think I could change what location I was in. I just... I thought I was stuck, and I figured that Anna Shea was the only one who could help me in my moment. So I swam to a different time in the same location, I guess? Maybe this was the last time you were ever in this room?”

It was like Clarissa had thrown a spear made of ice into the woman’s heart. Wincing, Anna looked around the radio room with great interest, and yet she had a thousand-yard-stare in her eyes. Nodding, she decided, “It... it would explain why I heard you. I was still in the present. Present for me, that is. And it’s ‘Shay-ah’, not ‘Sheey-ah’, in case you ever feel inclined to attempt another pronunciation.”

“Sorry,” Clarissa groaned. “I just- but you heard me. You just appeared behind me, like that.” Clarissa snapped her fingers for emphasis. “How did you do that?”

It was Anna’s turn to shrug, but she didn’t do that, because shrugging is a very childish body gesture. Instead, she shook her head. “I’m afraid that I am not privy to that information; however, I suspect that it is correlated to my own desire, my own ‘wishing’ or ‘swimming’ power, as you might say. I was simply attempting to communicate with Mags when I heard you calling. Your crying sounded rather urgent, so I felt it was necessary to follow the echoes I was hearing. In my travels, I simply honed in on the source, and I found you here.”

Clarissa nearly gawked at her. “You make it sound so simple.”

“Despite some light-headedness at the door, I’m rather partial to the opinion that it was,” Anna decided with a smirk.

Scrunching her lips, Clarissa slowly nodded. “Yeah, great for you...”

The two stood comfortably close to one another, yet Clarissa felt like a chasm had been torn between them. “I’m sorry,” she said again.

Anna bent her head, curious as to why she was receiving a second apology.

“For bringing you here,” Clarissa explained. Motioning to the radio equipment, she further elaborated, “I saw how standoffish you and Mags were, in the cave. If you two had a fight-”

“My dear girl, that is simply two very different women attempting to cope with their personal feelings while trying to work together,” Anna lectured. “Going off of your looks, I’m privy to the opinion that you’ve had a few entanglements yourself, am I wrong? It was simply how Mags wanted to deal with me after we ended our romantic interests.”

Offering a friendly smile, Clarissa nodded. “I see.” She considered what Anna had said, and then she remembered more of what she had just seen. “You were in civilian clothes today. Not just in the cave-”

“This day happens long before that day,” Anna shortly answered as she strolled to the window.

Clarissa followed. “So you left the army,” she confirmed aloud. “But they let you back into the fort? In war time?”

Anna gazed into the courtyard. A smile grew on her lips. “It’s the seventh of August, nineteen fifty-one, Katie. I didn’t even need that calendar,” she both informed and bragged as she motioned the the calendar posted on the door.

“I’m not-” Clarissa turned around. Sure enough, there was a calendar with the past days marked through with a red pen. The top page was a drawing of a topless Hawaiian girl covering her dignity with a necklace of flowers. “They... grow... big down here, the coconuts I say?” Clarissa awkwardly read aloud. Scoffing, she decided, “I’m not surprised an army base would order Playboy.”

Chuckling, Anna told her, “I don’t know what ‘Playboy’ is, but that’s probably our version of it.” Her eyes never left the courtyard.

Clarissa went back to the window to enjoy the apparent show. It was pristine. Freshly mowed grass, a nice patio area for food and drinks, even flowers had been planted in colorful patterns of red, white, and blue. “Nice,” Clarissa muttered to herself. She perked up when she saw 1951 Maggie Adler and Anna shea strolling out to the picnic table with sandwiches and coffee. The two set their trays down and began to talk intensely, with Maggie doing most of the talking and Anna asking a few questions here and there, prompting more talking.

“Getting back together?” Clarissa asked, looking to Anna.

Anna smiled and took a heavy breath. “No, though if she had asked me back, if she had possessed the spine to ask for forgiveness, I dare say that I would have lacked the will to resist right there.”

“Then why are you back here?” Clarissa couldn’t help but wonder.

Sighing fondly, Anna explained, “I received a civilian pass for the base and a letter explaining as much as she knew. Mags said she was able to hear the sunken crew of the Kanaloa. I took a plane, a cab, and a boat to get here today. You just saw me listening to the recording of them Mags had made in Site Eighty-Two. Right now...”

There was too much sniffling for Clarissa to not look. Anna had to dry her eyes as she explained, “Right now we’re talking about how we’re going to save them... the Sunken.”

Eyes going wide, Clarissa knew where they needed to go next. “Where’s Site Eighty-Two?”

“My apologies,” Anna somewhat giggled. “It’s the comm tower in Epiphany Fields.”

“Let’s go! I’ll explain as we run!” Clarissa exclaimed, bolting out of the room with Anna close behind her. She didn’t get too far. Anna held her up at the courtyard. Past Anna and Maggie were having a distant but warm conversation with each other, discussing their plans to save the crew of the Kanaloa. They even started to discuss the years that had passed. Anna daintily sipped her coffee and had a small bite of sandwich while Maggie tore into the heap of sandwiches she’d piled onto her plate, talking with her mouth full as she elaborated on how her staff were nice but not that interesting, filling her mouth with hot coffee once she’d made her case.

Smiling ear to ear, Anna was clearly not going to budge until she’d had her own appetite filled. With the clock ticking, and so much more yet to be done, Clarissa angrily left her behind.