"I don't know." A smile came to her face. "I don't care either. All that matters is we're here."
A scream from down the hall interrupted their kiss. Samantha leapt from the bed, crashing against the wall before regaining her balance. She raced down the hallway to the guest bedroom where the scream had come from. When she opened the door, she heard two screams.
Prudence and Wendell hurried to cover their naked bodies with a sheet. "Prudence, what's wrong?" Samantha asked, a moment of relief tickling her mind that she'd lost her childish speech impediment.
"Nothing," Prudence said, pressing a hand to her temple. "When I passed out my feet hurt so much, but now they're all right and I'm here and I'm not little anymore. I don't understand. What's going on?"
"I was sitting right there beside her in the girl's dormitory and then all the sudden I was lying here," Wendell added. "What happened?"
"The fountain," Joseph said from the doorway. He held up his digital watch. "This says it's the day after Prudence's birthday. That means someone used the fountain to go back in time and stop Veronica from poisoning us. And-"
Joseph took off running down the hallway. He pounded down the steps, ignoring Samantha when she called his name. She caught up with him in the kitchen, where he knelt down on the floor with tears in his eyes. "What's wrong?" she asked.
"He's not here," Joseph said.
"Who?"
"Dad. Do you think he's still alive?"
She knelt down beside him, putting a hand on his back. "I'm sure he is. Let's get dressed and go down to the docks to see if we can find him."
In the guest bedroom, Prudence stuck a finger into her bulging stomach. Never before had she been so glad to see her fat. She pulled the sheet away from her legs to stare down at her chubby feet. She reached down to feel the undamaged skin on the soles of her feet, sighing with relief when she didn't see any burnt flesh.
Wendell put a hand on her back. "It's all right," he said. "None of it happened. We're safe."
"How do we know? Veronica might still be out there. Even if she didn't do it this time, she could try again." Prudence rolled out of bed and gathered up her clothes. "We have to go back and make sure the fountain is destroyed. Come on!"
"Prudence, relax-"
"I can't relax." She picked up his clothes, hurling them at him. "I don't want to be a little girl again. I don't want to be brainwashed into thinking you're my brother again. I don't want to lose us. I love you."