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Reflections.	By : Wilde_Guess Category: Harry Potter > General > General Views: 1056 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: The “Harry Potter Universe” belongs to J. K. Rowling, Bloomsbury, Scholastic Press, Warner Brothers, and others who are not me. This work is unpaid fanfiction, and I make no money from it.

Chapter List
- 1-Chapter 1. The Journeys Begin
- 2-Chapter 2. Meetings.
- 1
- 2
The usual disclaimers for Harry Potter Fanfiction apply. The “Harry Potter Universe” belongs to J. K. Rowling, Bloomsbury, Scholastic Press, Warner Brothers, and others who are not me. This work is unpaid fanfiction, and I make no money from it. While I will minimize direct quoting, a FEW direct and near direct quotes from the US Hardcover Editions of the Rowling books will occur under "fair use." Eventually. If this story continues that far.

While this is a real story with a real plot, it is also a “character study” of characters from Riding the Lincoln Way and The Yankee’s Nephew and the Philosopher’s Stone, as well as the Hogwarts Mystery video game and the rest of the JKR Universe. Harry Potter will appear.

Chapter 1. The Journeys Begin

It was five-thirty in the morning of Friday the sixteenth of July 1982. David John Hernando Rush-Cook Dvorak awoke startled. He awoke his girlfriend, Saria Beatrice Cook as he woke up. He wasn’t startled by Saria; they had fallen asleep totally nude in each other’s arms the night before. But he was startled by his surroundings. When he’d gone to sleep, Saria and he were on a full size bed. He and Saria awoke in a twin bunk bed with bed sheets fashioned into bed curtains.

The two lovers had been born within seconds of each other at 3:27 PM on the twentieth of October in 1970, with David being born at Holy Cross Hospital in Chicago, and Saria being born at Grundy County Hospital in Morris, Illinois. Despite their young age, their adult caregivers were allowing the two lovers to share intimacy, to the point that Saria was taking birth control pills.

They were also the “same” to each other as they thought they were the night before, at least at first glance and hug. At five foot one and one hundred pounds, Saria was slightly taller than average for her age, with shoulder-blade length black hair, a light but healthy tan, and blue eyes. David was the same height as his girlfriend, and just 10 pounds or so heavier, which made him noticeably taller than average for his age. His bright red hair was short without being excessively so for the time, he was quite freckled, and when he opened his eyes, they were silver, which was a very uncommon eye color outside of his family.

After closing their eyes and sharing a good-morning kiss, Saria asked, “David, why do you have a stick tied to your arm?”

David asked in reply, “You’re you, Saria, and I’m me, but something’s wrong. Last night, you knew the ‘stick’ was my magic wand. We were also on our full size bed in Number Two, not one of the bunk beds in Number Four with blankets subbing for bed curtains.”

Saria informed him, “Last night you had no stick, but you had five mostly healed scars on your inside and front upper right thigh. This morning, you have the stick and no scars. I’m probably the one having the weird dream, since Number Two and Number Four sound like characters from The Prisoner instead of addresses.”

“Saria, either we’re both having a weird dream or something’s very wrong. Where are we now?”

“We’re in Mokena, Illinois, in my bed in the ‘girls’ bedroom.’ Where were we last night from what you remember?”

After a moment’s silence, David told her, “We were in Number 2 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, in Ashford, Surrey. That’s just south of Heathrow Airport, in the UK. Are we in my birth-father’s house, or Dad’s ‘Limestone Treasure Palace?’”

“If that’s what you call it, it would be the Palace. Where was your birth-father’s house compared to the ‘Palace?’”

“Right across the street. Dad had much fancier stuff, and more of it, but we had more pianos” David answered faux-smugly.

The blanket acting as the bed-curtain facing into the bedroom got pulled down to reveal the other three female occupants of the room. Patricia Susan “Pixie,” who David assumed was still a Drake, was already dressed for the day in a halter top and jean shorts. She was fourteen, four foot ten, and weighed 104 pounds. Like David, who was her first cousin, she had silver eyes. But she tanned evenly and had strawberry-blond hair, which was wavy and worn at shoulder length.

She asked, “David, are you high, or just fucking with us? Either way, it’s not funny.”
David asked her, “Ubi est virga tua? Novistine magicam?”
Pixie asked in turn, “Etiam Latine loqui potes? Non potuisti heri.”
“Promitto tibi Latinum meum melius fuisse quam tua nocte, consobrina tua. A Dalila, moje čeština byla taky schůdná.”
Sixteen year old Delilah Johnson, who was wearing a tube top and jean shorts, was five foot five and about 125 pounds. Her strawberry blond hair was slightly longer than Pixie’s but still shoulder length. Her skin was evenly tanned but her blue eyes glittered in consternation while she asked, “Okay, Merlin. Where’s David? You aren’t bughouse, but ‘you’ couldn’t speak Czech at all last night, and you couldn’t quite speak Latin, either. How good was he, Pixie?”
“He speaks identically to Uncle Rick, including the odd accent. Whoever ‘Merlin’ is, he grew up speaking Latin like I did.”
After a pregnant pause, David offered, “The only thing I can think of that this resembles was a legend that usually needed a magic stone to make happen. I certainly wasn’t off rock hunting last night, and I don’t think the David that was here last night was, either. And I’m guessing that you’ve never studied magic, Pixie?”
After an even longer pregnant pause, Pixie answered, “That’s so deep into the weeds of familia negotium that if any of you mention it outside of this room you will be arrested.”
David asked, “Didn’t the Family sign a treaty with MaCUSA in 1965?”
“We did, David, but there’s still the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy to deal with. Grandma Rose had barely started teaching me before she died, and I still haven’t seen any of the Family Wand Crafters. Show me your wand?”
David twisted his right wrist, and he was holding a magic wand, which somewhat resembled a conductor’s baton except being thicker. David told Pixie, “It’s from Ollivander’s in London. Sakura wood, eleven and three quarter inches long, phoenix tail feather core, and supple.”
“May I hold it?” Pixie asked after hitching her breath in surprise.
“You may touch it” David replied somewhat coldly.
Pixie touched the side of David’s wand and drew her hand away quickly. She told the room, “That wand’s real, and you’d have to be really powerful Magically in order to get such a wand as David’s to accept you. One of the first things you learn about wand lore is that it’s the wand that chooses the wizard or witch, and not the other way around.”
David informed the room, “In ‘my’ last night, Dad, Danny, Michael, our cousins Andy Floyd, A.D. Dvorak, and Sally Dvorak, along with my younger brothers Aaron and Paul could wield magic, along with the two of us. Dad’s wife was a Squib, but the son and daughter she bore Dad are a wizard and a witch, and the one she’s carrying now is almost certainly magical. Her younger sister’s son, who we had to take in, is also a wizard.”
Fourteen-year-old Debbie Ptak, the last of the girls in the room, was five foot three and one hundred four pounds. She was wearing a t-shirt and jean shorts. Her coloring was identical to her older full-sister Delilah, but her hair was in a “pixie-cut.” She asked David, “Who lived and who died?”
To everyone else’s confusion, she added, “If this isn’t some kind of cosmic mind-fuck from Pixie and David, then some people died, and some didn’t. Since David didn’t freak out seeing any of us, we were alive in, “his world?” But David’s just a little bit heavier than he was yesterday, and nothing’s wrong with his hair.   Anyway, some of the people we know died for both him and us, but not necessarily at the same time. Others who are alive for us were dead for David yesterday. And others might be dead for us, but alive for him. And still others might be alive both here and there, but either David doesn’t know them or we don’t. And this is why I read science fiction, Delilah.”
After all five of them laughed, David suggested, “We might start by asking back and forth, Debbie.”
Debbie replied, “Okay, who are you calling ‘Dad?’”
David replied, “John Abner Dvorak. He was my paternal uncle before.”
“You referred to John’s wife as John’s wife. Why?”
“Because if we’re all in Mokena, then Dad never met her, because she’s English. Otherwise, I’d call her ‘Mom’ like I did once they got married.”
“Who were your birth parents?” Debbie continued.
“They were Richard Christopher Dvorak and Stacy Rush Dvorak, nee Cook, double-nee Taylor.”
“Did they both raise you?”
“Of course. They were happily married until they died.”
“How many full siblings by blood do you have?”
“Two younger brothers. Aaron’s my third birthday present, and Paul just turned five on the first, providing that it’s Friday the sixteenth of July here.”
Debbie assured him, “You’ve got an Aaron and a Paul here, too. Same birthdays and stuff. You weren’t surprised to see Pixie, Delilah, or me, and you got all of our names right. So, we’re supposed to be here. What are Delilah and me to each other, and what happened to our parents.”
“Delilah’s and your parents were actually the first of the lot to die. Dad and Aunt Cathy lived with your maternal grandparents ‘til 1969. Dad found this place in Mokena, and he and Aunt Cathy bought it. He stayed at home while Aunt Cathy kept working at the Playboy Club and modeling in porn magazines, at least until Danny and Michael were both old enough for all-day pre-school. Then, he went to work selling Cadillacs, Buicks, and Oldsmobiles.
“Tomas and Sandy Ptak moved out right after we did. Tomas worked at Republic Steel. Sandy stayed at home, since her back was messed up and she couldn’t drop the weight back off to keep her Playboy Club job after having Debbie, which suited Tomas just fine. Sandy ended up hooked on pills and booze to dull the back pain, ‘til 1971. I’m told that she dropped the two of you girls off with Aunt Cathy to baby-sit, and met Tomas in the parking lot of the mill. She shot Tomas four times in the crotch, once in the head, and ate the last bullet for dessert—or at least so I was told. I was born in ’70, and my earliest clear memory is being in the delivery room watching my birth-mother give birth to Aaron in ’73, so I only remember Delilah and you, who are full sisters even though Tomas never gave her his name, living here.”
Pixie decided to get into the game by asking, “Why weren’t you surprised to see me here?”
David told his cousin, “Uncle Kevin and Aunt Wilma were visiting the Captain and his family on the twentieth of January in 1978. They left you here with Dad and Aunt Cathy. I invited Tim Cash, who was my friend by then, for a sleep-over at my place. When we woke up on the twenty-first, we found out that both apartment buildings where the Captain was living had been firebombed and were burned to the ground, with no survivors at all. Dad ended up taking both Tim and you in. Oddly enough, Rosacio Floyd was found burned to death in her ’56 Packard with a lot of broken bones about a week later. In another unusual coincidence, Harley Floyd got his throat cut in Pontiac.”
Pixie told David, “They died a lot more recently here than they did for you, but my parents are dead, and it was a side effect of the Family Business, if barely. What happened to have you, and all of us, move to London?"
After gathering his thoughts for a moment, David told the room, “Aunt Cathy was the oldest of three girls. Aunt Hannah, who is still alive ‘for me,’ was the middle sister, and my birth mother was the youngest. Aunt Cathy took Aunt Hannah and ran away from their Minnesota home because their parents were abusive religious sociopaths. Those people had my birth mother taken away from them and adopted by Saria’s grandparents in Morris.
“Aunt Hannah ended up meeting Uncle Junior when she went to UIUC as a student in the mid-1960s. They have two kids, A.D. and Sally. We cousins always got along okay, but Dad and my birth-father barely got along with Uncle Junior or Uncle William. If not for Aunt Cathy, my birth mother, and especially Aunt Hannah, they’d have probably remained enemies to this day.
“On September third of ‘78, my birth parents and Aunt Cathy went to visit with Saria’s maternal grandparents and mother. Aaron, Paul, and I went along as well. Saria’s grand-dad had a fifteen passenger Dodge Van, and we were all driving south in it to meet up with the rest of the family for a Labor Day Cookout and overnight stay at Grandma Dvorak’s old place in Coal City…”
David paused for a moment to recompose himself. He continued talking.
“Anyway, we were all meeting up at Grandma Dvorak’s old place in Coal City for a back-yard cookout Dad was hosting there. He took Danny, Michael, Tim, Delilah, Debbie, and you in his ’68 limo to help him set up and get the food cooking. The Dodge Van ran fine, but it wasn’t built for a semi crossing the centerline of Route 47 and running into us head-on. Us kids made it out relatively unscathed, since we were all in the very back and wearing our seatbelts. Saria was in the hospital for several weeks. Aaron’s Paul’s and my magic, though we didn’t know it at the time, protected us from anything more than a few scrapes and bumps, and it mostly protected Saria, too.
“Dad decided that while he wanted to keep working, that he wanted to get the hell away from Mokena for a few years. So he called an old friend from the Army, and got a job at the US Embassy in London. When we moved out there, he met one of the pool typists at the embassy, and it was about as close to love at first sight as it comes. They married on the first of September in 1979.”
Debbie asked, “Okay. What did John do in the Army? And was your birth father ever in the Army?”
David told them, “The only sons of Hernando DeSoto Floyd or Sally Dvorak who didn’t serve were Uncle Joaquin Mariano, who died of polio as a kid, and Carlos Luis, aka Harley, who was a total fuck-up and a piece of shit. Aunt Wilma was the ‘baby’ of the family, and she married a guy who was the Captain’s Battalion RTO back in ‘Nam. Pure coincidence, but it happened. Uncle Frank served in the early stages of the Korean War and won a Silver Star. Uncle Junior and Uncle William were both drafted and became cooks in the late 1950s.”
He continued with more pride and admiration in his voice, “Dad and my birth father both joined in 1962 as regulars. Dad was a Special Forces Team Medic and Team Chief. He won the Medal of Honor along with a DSC, several Silver Stars, and such. Dad got medically retired from the Army after he lost the lower half of his lower left leg. He was trying to stay in, and he was posted at Fort Sheridan while receiving physical therapy at Great Lakes. He ended up meeting a Playboy Bunny in March of ’67, and Danny was born in December. Since Aunt Cathy wasn’t cut out for being an Army wife, he let the Army retire him, and he and Aunt Cathy got married six months after Michael was born.
“My birth father became a CH-47 Helicopter pilot, and served in Vietnam until they retired him. Grandpa Hernando “bought” a few doctors at Fort Wolters so my birth father’s asthma was not “discovered.” He was able to hide it for a few years after arriving ‘in-country.’ But flying combat missions every day eventually made his asthma so bad that he almost needed an oxygen bottle just to walk from the Operations Tent to his helicopter. He was promoted to CW2 years ahead of his peers, and they promoted him to CW3 right before they medically retired him. When he got home, he started Orchard Municipal Helicopter Service so he could keep flying. He turned out to be a ‘natural’ at running and growing it. By the time he died, Orchard Muni was more than large and strong enough to be turned over to a good management team.”
Pixie decided to get into the game by asking, “Have you ever heard of a ‘Sam Kopchek?’”
After thinking for a few moments, David told them, “He was one of Harley’s guys, along with being my birth-mother’s first husband. According to what my birth-father told me, Kopchek, along with his two younger brothers, came up with some kind of crazy-ass scheme to drug my birth father and her, have her get pregnant by my birth-father raping her, and use the films of the ‘rape’ along with that child to blackmail my birth father into doing whatever Sam Kopchek wanted. My birth parents discovered the plot first and they “made arrangements” for the Kopcheks. Sam was found, and the other two weren’t found. The ‘Widow Kopchek’ decided that having a child with my birth father voluntarily might actually be fun. So, they made me and managed to marry civilly before I was born.”
She followed up with, “You ever hear of Joe Stock?”
After thinking again for half a minute, David told them, “Yeah. Tim taught him how to play the drums when they were in Band together back at St. Mary’s. Joe had a brother around my age, but we never really hung out with each other, and I can’t remember his name. They had a sister too, I think.”
“How many kids did John and Cathy have?” Delilah queried.
After laughing for about fifteen seconds, David regained his composure. He explained, “You’re dating ‘Manžel’ Danny here, too; that was the funny part. The answer itself is sad. Sally Catherine Dvorak was supposed to be born within a day or so either way as Aaron. She was born premature in August ‘cause of rH antibody stuff. She barely lived twelve hours. They were all devastated. Danny was perhaps the most devastated of all. He still lights a prayer candle for her every year on her birthday.
“Dad and Aunt Cathy had Sally’s body frozen to go into the coffin of whichever of them died first. So, she’s in Aunt Cathy’s casket with Aunt Cathy at Arlington. The rest of the family who died are buried in Morris, Coal City, and Effingham.”
Delilah replied, “I call Danny ‘Papírák,’ but Debbie and I didn’t grow up next to you guys. I’ll eventually tell you the details, but Tomas Ptak had an “accident” at the Mill. He had it coming. Mom didn’t take it so well, so she ate a gun in the parking lot of the gun store, wiping out the station wagon along with herself. Debbie and I actually lived on our own for several months before re-making John’s acquaintance. The steelworkers union got me a house and a rust-free ’70 Ambassador that had so few miles on it that it could pass for new. Dad’s almost got my house fully rebuilt, and he’ll furnish too; but if I ever live in the place it won’t be any time soon. I might get my Ambassador back today with the last of the repairs done on it.”
Changing the subject, David asked, “Did I at least bring a bathrobe with me last night? I need to use the bathroom and get dressed in something.” His stomach grumbled loudly to make his point.
Pixie, Debbie, and Delilah looked at him sternly. Saria disagreed with them, and told them, “This isn’t the David we had last night. But, he’s our David now, and at least for now. David and I will go into the bathroom and get ready for the day. If one of you can bring fresh clothes and underwear for us, please? We’ll leave the door unlocked.
“And David, it’s just after six, and we’re just crossing the hallway, so deal with it. I won’t be putting anything on either.”
David blushed down to his chest, but he replied, “Sure, Saria.”
The two young nude lovers crossed the hall quickly, closing but not locking the bathroom door behind them. After a quick gesture from Saria, David used the toilet first. While they maneuvered through the process of quickly showering, brushing teeth, and getting ready for the day, they talked.
David started by telling Saria, “I was only blushing ‘cause of Delilah, Debbie, and Pixie. We didn’t do it nearly as often as we wanted, ‘cause I had Aaron and Paul to help and take care of, but we liked to get naked with each other and share the bathroom and stuff.”
Saria asked, “Is that invisible wand holder on your arm waterproof?”
“Yeah, thank God. I’ll have to wear it in the shower this morning. By this afternoon, if whatever happened doesn’t un-happen, we should all be comfortable enough that I can take it off without worrying; but only for showering and the like, and I’ll still have to wear it to bed. If I didn’t have my wand with me when this happened, I have no clue how I’d have dealt with it. And thank God Pixie at least has magic.”
Saria replied, “That makes sense, I guess. Still, we need to talk about sex, and about both versions of you. We were obviously that far along in our relationship in your world as well as mine. Who else did you had sex with?”
Most guys would get upset, evasive, or indignant receiving such a question from their girlfriend. David simply answered, “No one. No girls, no guys, nothing. I didn’t even jack off that much, and I only did that because I started having wet dreams, and masturbating made those stop. The ‘other you’ told me to try that, by the way.”
“Okay, David. If we’re lucky, whatever happened to switch you with the David I went to bed with last night will un-happen. But, you will learn a lot about what the other David did, and he will learn the same about you. Also, we will either have sex with each other or we won’t. I give my word that if we don’t, but the ‘other’ David and Saria do have sex that I won’t give him any grief about it. If both pairs of us have sex, I don’t see any problem. But if we have sex where they don’t, I give my word that I will accept any rebuke without complaint, and that I will let him quit me if he sees fit to do so, but that I will never knowingly lie to him about ‘us’ no matter what. Do I have your word for the other Saria?”
“Yes, Saria” he answered sincerely and without hesitation.
“Good. Second, I need your word that you will not judge the other David, or the ones he’s had sex with voluntarily, or anyone else who was supposed to care for you. Do I have it?”
David hesitated for a moment before answering, “I give my word. It sounds like the other David had a lot of problems in his life. How bad? And he also has good taste in clothes, as do you.”
David had just finished dressing after drying himself off and putting on deodorant. He was wearing a “blown-out” yellow tank top and faded blue jeans with a belt. The jeans were loose on him, and also about three inches short of covering his ankle. Saria had just finished dressing before David started. She was wearing a light halter top and jean-shorts.
Saria could tell by his expression that he was actually sincere in his compliments. She was also only slightly surprised when he started doing basic barre stretches, alternating between the bathroom countertop and windowsill as needed.
After sighing, Saria asked, “Did you at least get lessons for your Vagina Carcinoma shit instead of just teaching yourself like he did?”
Once he got his laughing under control, without even pausing his stretching, David replied, “It’s ‘Vaganova-Cecchetti,’ and Mommy had the devil of a time finding a teacher who even understood what I’d made up, much less being able to teach it. While she didn’t really pay attention when I checked the books out of the library, she absolutely paid attention when she caught me stretching, and got scared that I’d rip every tendon out of my body trying to teach myself.
“So, I got ballet lessons to go along with the piano and guitar lessons. So long as Aaron was where I could see him, I was fine. I picked it up well enough that I could teach myself once everyone died and Dad took us out to England, which saved everyone a lot of bother we just didn’t have the time to deal with. And it’s still a shame that dishwashers make more money than ballet dancers. Dancing makes me feel alive, but I couldn’t afford to live like that.”
Saria sighed before answering, “He felt exactly the same way. And the dancing is amazing, even if watching either of you stretch so you can keep doing it makes me nervous and I can’t remember what it’s called.
“I’ll go through the troubles the other David had as quickly as I can. It will hurt you. Even so, we’ll only have time for me to tell the basics. I can tell you more about the details later, at least as far as he’s told me. But we just weren’t together long enough for him to tell me everything.
“Sam Kopchek stayed married to your birth-mother until just over a week ago. Her divorce is already final. Kopchek is still alive, and he’s in either the Kendal or DuPage County jail awaiting trial on child abuse and countless charges of gay-raping children and youths, and making videos of all that. His two younger brothers are up on at least some of the same charges, and they’re also in jail.
“Kopchek did do the fake-rape-thing with your birth-father and it worked, with the added bonus that your birth-mother randomly abused you, especially when she was on her period or had been drinking, along with turning a blind-eye to all of Kopchek’s stunts, at least for a while. Kopchek started raping you along with the severe beatings he was already giving you last Ash Wednesday. Three weeks ago today, he made Aaron rape you, and the other you made Aaron go along with it so he wouldn’t be raped alongside the other you. That day, Tim Cash and Pixie Drake got married, and they had their wedding reception here. You drank enough booze to kill a horse, Michael got it puked out of you, and John made Stacy give up custody of you to him before realizing that you were his nephew. He adopted you three weeks ago tomorrow.
“And before you ask, Kopchek had your hair died brown and made you wear contacts that changed your eye color to brown. And we’ve only been dating for two weeks yesterday.”
“How bad is Aaron?” David asked in a near panic.
“Calm down! Aaron’s getting by. Kopchek hurt him again right after you left Stacy, but he’s safe now. The ‘other you’ has been helping him”
“How?” David asked.
“Somehow, they got him taken from Stacy for just a day or two, and they put him in the main Will County Adult Jail instead of a juvenile facility or temporary foster home. He was in the ‘system’ for less than twelve hours, but his ‘sperm donor’ along with both of his so-called uncles and several other inmates raped him while videotaping it. If Will County hadn’t figured out that they messed up several different ways and got him returned to Stacy, the group might have even killed him.
“Your birth-father was supposedly killed in a large explosion in Effingham the same day John adopted you. That allowed him to ‘give up’ the identity of Ricardo Floyd, and live as Rick Dvorak full time.
“Hernando Floyd didn’t buy a doctor at Fort Wolthers, so Rick washed out of flight training. But he did learn how to fly afterwards and still set up the helicopter company. Rick and John spoke for the first time since their mother died a week and a half ago, and they reconciled completely. Once she saw the truth of what Kopchek pulled with Ricardo Floyd, Stacy discovered that she actually liked Rick Dvorak. He’s renting my Mom’s old house down the street, and Stacy’s living with him along with Aaron, Paul, and your three year old half-sister Christina. Kopchek got Stacy pregnant with them. The kids are all mousey-brown and average size for their age.
“As for Mom, she married John a week ago, and they’re both certain that Mom’s pregnant. And before you freak out, he loves her like a mom, but he calls her Miss Cook, and both she and John let him. I’m the same with your dad.”
David opined, “I guess the other David was really fucked. But who did he voluntarily have sex with, and why are you putting up with it?”
After sighing to not snap at David, she replied, “I ‘put up with it’ because he needed to, he never lied to me, and because he’s worth all the effort. I saw that the very moment I first met him. The more I got to know him, the more desirable he was to me. He suffered so much, yet he never gave up or lost his humanity. He will start high school this year, despite starting school late and being held back another year out of spite…”
David quieted Saria by chastely kissing her on the lips. He assured her, “I meant no slight against either David or you. He and you truly started falling in love at first sight, and decided to spend the rest of your lives together before the day was done. I was the same way with the Saria I grew up with. We first met eight years ago yesterday. Neither one of us had any idea how a baby got in its mother, even with me watching Aaron come out of mine.
“But who did I sleep with? I’m guessing it was at least one guy with the rape shit going on, and with you not just saying their name.”
After sighing again, Saria told him, “You’ve had consensual sex at least once with Danny, Michael, Andy Floyd who is now Andy Dvorak despite Frank Floyd still being alive, Bill Cash, Chris Cash, Tim Cash, and Max Stock.” John knows, but he isn’t exactly stopping it. Mom is maintaining ‘plausible deniability,’ but she also knows. Grandpa and Grandma Cook know generally, but not the names or the exact ‘body count.’ Rick knows what John does, and Stacy knows just enough that she thought you might be ‘getting ideas’ about Aaron and Paul…”
After squeezing David’s shoulder hard enough to make him wince, she continued, “… The other you already shut her down cold on that.”
David told her, “Thanks for stopping me Saria. You aren’t the Saria I grew up with, and I’m not the David you fell in love with. But we’re each different from the other only in the details. I don’t do gay sex, but I’m not an asshole to those who do, either.   In ‘my world’ or whatever, Danny and Michael were doing it with each other, with Delilah’s and Debbie’s permission. My Saria did get kinda jealous of Tim Cash when he’d gotten a crush on me without my realizing it. I set him up with a friend of mine in Devon who wanted to try ‘that,’ while also telling both of them that a sexual relationship between the two of them wouldn’t last beyond the end of the summer because of school, and that I was ‘off-limits.’ They’ve been ‘discretely having a good time’ with each other.
“Will you keep helping me, Saria? I give you my word that I’ll keep listening.”
Saria sighed before assuring him, “David, I’ll keep helping you. I have to. I have no idea if I can get my David back, so you just might be the only David Dvorak in town. And while it’s only been two weeks, I’ve already realized that life without David Dvorak would only be existing. By the way, were you always ‘David?’ And, what’s your full name?”
“David John Hernando Rush-Cook Dvorak from birth. Daddy liked the name David, he honored Dad with John, Hernando was my grandpa, and he was ‘kissing up’ to Mommy’s adopted brother with Rush-Cook. My Aaron is Aaron Russell Rush-Cook Dvorak, and Paul is Paul Tarsus Rush-Cook Dvorak. Me?”
“You were born Samuel Christopher Kopchek Junior. When John adopted you three weeks ago tomorrow, you chose the name ‘David John Michael Daniel Dvorak.’ David was for Samuel finding King David in the desert, John was to honor your new Dad, Michael was because Michael not only got the alcohol out of your system, but he also asked John to adopt you at the same time as you asked John to adopt you, and ‘Daniel’ was to honor Danny for being the ‘older twin’ and for taking care of both Michael and you.”
David asked, “Was the other David musical at all?”
“He sang an entire acapella double-funeral Mass, plus the graveside service a week and a half ago. Michael has started a band he’s calling ‘The Treasures,’ and we’re good enough that we’re actually negotiating a recording and publishing contract with CBS Records. I play soprano saxophone, David sings, and he’s also started to learn the bass guitar. You?”
“The Treasures has moved a bit faster in my world. We played a sold-out show at The Barbican in London the fifth of last month, and our first album is already Platinum. You play the soprano sax brilliantly. My normal instrument is the bass guitar, and Michael is barely better at it than me. I also play the six-string guitar very well, and I can do all right with the piano.   I’m better than Debbie, and almost as good as Delilah. Aaron outplays all of us on the piano, but he won’t even be nine ‘til October, and Michael’s more likely to use him on twelve string guitar, since he’s the only one in the family who can play one and sound any better than ‘okay.’
“If the other David and I end up being ‘swapped around’ for a while, he can just turn his bass off for the songs he can’t handle yet ‘til he catches up, since everybody notices Michael’s playing more. He should be musical enough that he just needs to learn how to play. That’ll still take a while, but no one outside of the band should notice. Has he written any songs?”
“He’s written two, You Can Make History Young Again, for both Big Band and Top-40, and Smoking Gun. You?”
“Same as him, plus Home By the Sea and Here Comes the Rain Again. I’ve also just started playing around with a song written last year by a New York Folk Singer, but I’ve only shared that with Saria so far. But I had two sets of parents who gave a fuck where the other David has only just escaped hell. And, we’d all been playing together in a ‘sorta-band’ since Dad moved us to the UK. My ‘Treasures’ have been playing as a band more or less for almost four years. How long for you guys?
“Not even a month yet, David” Saria informed him.
Saria and David had entered the bathroom at six in the morning. They were both fully showered, teeth brushed, dressed, and ready for the day by twenty after. But now, it was twenty after seven, which the knock on the door and the entry of Daniel Andrew “Danny” Dvorak, along with Danny himself told them.
Danny was fourteen, and would turn fifteen on the twelfth of December. He stood five foot eight and weighed 125 pounds. He had silver eyes, a pale complexion, and burn scars on his right hand. His fine black hair was in a long braid that went down past the backs of his knees. His face was handsome yet stern looking, even when he was happy and smiling. He was dressed for the day in a plain white t-shirt, a denim “kutte” type vest that he wore open, and button-fly Levi’s jeans. The jeans and kutte were both slightly faded.
In a speaking voice that would remind one of a teenaged Robert DeNiro where either David would be Ethan Peck, Danny announced, “Okay you two, you’ve been hiding in here for almost an hour after you got dressed. Do you have your stories straight?”
In answer to David’s and Saria’s sputtering, he informed them, “Pixie and Delilah told Dad what was going on as soon as the two of you got into the shower. While everyone else used Dad’s bathroom to get ready for the day, Dad called Uncle Frank, who backed you up and said he knew a little more about what probably happened. He’ll be by around eight or so, which will give the two of you just enough time to eat and for David to finish getting back some of his composure from finding out how different ‘the other half lived.’”
After looking at Danny’s hair intently for a moment, David asked, “What’s with the hair, Danny? That’s a bit long even for you.”
Danny answered the question with a question; “Was I ever in the hospital in your world?”
“Yeah, tail end of second grade for you. Dad took Michael and you out with the rest of the Cub Scout Troop you belonged to on an early May weekend campout. One of the other kids in the troop was a pyro and a nut-case. The kid threw a pint of gas on your sleeping bag with you in it, whether from spite or carelessness. Morphine didn’t really work on the other you, but Michael reading to you to distract you did. You guys were in the hospital for over a month, and it took most of the summer for you to heal up all the way.”
“Did I have any problems with one of the nurses messing with my hair all the time?”
“Yeah. But it was more that Aunt Cathy was too freaked out to visit you before the surgeries, or even after, at least at first; especially since Morphine didn’t really work for you. And it had to be Michael reading and talking to you. I tried, Daddy, tried, and Dad tried, but we just weren’t anywhere near as good as Michael was.
“You weren’t all that fussed ‘bout seein’ Aunt Cathy, but Michael was getting kinda frayed around the edges. And unlike you, he actually liked her as well as loved her. So, when the nurse kept playing with and trimming your hair, which was starting to get a little long, you lit up that poor nurse like a Christmas tree. Aunt Cathy finally went up to Great Lakes, gave you a buzz-cut, and got Michael to quit stressing out as much as he had been. She tried to take Michael home with her, but he started throwing a fit, so she left him in your room and left. And it was Michael who told me ‘bout that part later on. After that, you wore your hair longer, but only to your shoulder-blades in a pony tail.”
Danny chuckled and replied, “Michael must have forgotten to tell ya’ ‘bout the blood-oath, especially since your Danny got ‘trimmed up’ the same or next day.
“In this world, Catherine Taylor had her tubes tied and ditched us the very day she gave birth to Michael, ‘cause she wasn’t a good mother, and she was convinced that she’d end up abusing us and get us taken away from Dad if she stuck around. Michael and I knew that she and Dad communicated with each other somehow, but since she was never there, we almost never missed her.
“Michael was missing her when I was in the hospital, and that nurse wouldn’t stop messing with my hair. So, I told her off and made a blood-oath that only Mom-Catherine would be the next person to cut my hair, even if it grew past both my ass and the nurse’s.
“Dad did try to get her to come out and cut my hair over the years, but it never happened. So, he buys the ‘fancy’ and very expensive shampoo and conditioner for me that you saw in the shower, and what you see is what you get. She died last February. Michael and I’ve seen only pictures of her.”
David asked, “Is the bucket and stepstool for the hair, too?”
“The stepstool is only when I’m showering alone, and I sit on it. The bucket helps me get a good rinse without pissing through gallons of hot water.”
Out of left field, David asked, “Were you my first voluntary time, or was Michael?”
Michael Aaron Dvorak walked into the bathroom while David asked his question. Michael was the same height as Danny, but he was visibly more muscular. Michael could otherwise pass as a twin to his younger double-first cousin, and easily as a full sibling. He was dressed for the day in a green polo shirt and zip-fly Levi’s jeans in a faded blue.
After getting control of his breath, and while Michael himself walked into the room, Danny answered, “It was both Michael and me, though it was just a little more Michael. And…”
David interrupted, “Neither one of you owes either David an apology. If anything, he might owe the two of you one, but if he needed that, he really needed it. I’m guessing that he enjoyed it?”
To the blushing and sputtering of the other three people in the room, David added, “Just idle curiosity. I can easily guess that he did at least as much asking as getting asked if not more, and I already promised Saria that I wouldn’t be an asshole about it.
“But like you said, Danny, I need to get out and eat breakfast. First, though, I need a quick list of who’s dead and who’s alive. Rick Dvorak and Stacy are alive, and I have a sister here I didn’t get where I came from. Since Bill and Chris are alive, I’m guessing that the Captain and his wife are alive, but that Ms. DeVos is dead, since Chris is now Chris Cash. Miss Cook married Dad last week, and thinks they’re expecting. Uncle Frank freaked out too much about Andy’s dyslexia, and Dad took Andy in. Anything else I need to know?”
Michael asked, “What do you know about Dad’s older Dvorak brothers?”
“Aunt Hannah was the glue that patched our family back together, for a given value of ‘patched.’ A.D. and Sally were supposed to go to Magic School in Scotland with me, since Ilvermorny creeped them all out. Uncle William is dying of liver cancer, which Magic can’t fix, and Uncle Junior is the Head of the English Department at UIUC.”
Michael replied, “We only learned about Aunt Hanna Wednesday, She, Junior, and Sally were killed in a car crash last month that we also only found out about Wednesday, and Dad adopted A.D. at the same time he adopted Andy yesterday. William is still dying of liver cancer, otherwise he would have kept custody of A.D., and he’s been taking care of him for the past month up to Wednesday evening.
“Holly DeVos is still alive, but she has liver cancer too, though there’s still a small chance for her. Just the same, she had the Captain and Sandy Cash adopt Chris now to beat the Christmas rush. It’s not like we didn’t all know or at least strongly suspect they were brothers since first grade.
“Also, if it hasn’t already come up, Catherine Taylor left you an insurance payoff in a eight digit or better trust fund, and Ricardo Floyd left you a huge trust fund, along with a ’66 Cadillac Fleetwood Derham sedan.”
“How much of that is he taking back?” David asked.
Danny told him, “None. Beyond giving people Ideas they shouldn’t have about how dead Rico Floyd is if he tried, he’s got more than enough money as Richard Dvorak and doesn’t need or want any of yours. Not like any of us kids who ‘have money’ can touch any of it directly any time soon anyhow. What year in school would you have been starting?”
“First year of high school, although I earned it with less outside bullshit and hurt than the David you know did when he earned it. Or, I could start at one of two Magic Boarding Schools. You’ll find out when I do.”
Danny replied, “That’s one less worry if they don’t get you two switched back around. How are you with music?”
“My voice is just as good as his is, plus I can play both bass and six-string guitar, including slide guitar, plus piano. I know the two he’s already written, ‘cause I wrote ‘em too; plus two more he hasn’t written yet.”
The group of now four youth left the family bathroom for the short walk to the dining area. David had expected to see everyone who lived in or was staying in the house that morning. He was pleasantly surprised to only see the doppelganger to his adopted father and the living doppelganger to his girlfriend’s late mother, seated beside each other on the love seat that faced the hallway from the opposite end of the living room.
John Abner Dvorak was still thirty-seven, still stood six foot and seven inches tall when standing, still appeared to weigh around 270 pounds, and was still red-haired, freckled, and saw the world through silver eyes. He was wearing his normal weekday attire of a Hart Schaffner and Marx two-piece suit with a Medal of Honor rosette, a white Brooks Brothers dress shirt, Army cufflinks, and a red clip-on necktie with a plain gold tie tack.
The sight of Beatrice Susan “Betty” Dvorak, nee Cook, almost caused David to faint, even with his expecting her, and even with her being four years older than she was almost four years ago when she had been taken from his life. She was still five foot four inches tall and weighed about 120 pounds, and shared the exact coloration of her daughter. She was wearing a black below-the-knee cocktail dress since company was expected. When she spoke, her voice was pleasant and medium in tone.
She inquired, “How are you holding up, David?”
Regaining some of his composure, he told her, “I’m trying to keep up, Miss Cook. Depending on how much Pixie told you, you could imagine that it isn’t easy.”
“What did you call me before today?”
“Once you started teaching, I called you ‘Miss Cook,’ and I continued to call you that while you were alive. We’re first cousins by adoption, and since Saria and I were already dating steady, we really wanted everyone to forget about that.
“I started first grade in Mokena the same year you started teaching first grade at Mokena. I ended up testing into second grade in November, and both Tim Cash and I tested into third grade in March. Aaron decided to get into the game, and he tested into first grade right after I tested out. That’s the farthest they’d let him go that year, since he only turned five in October. So, you taught both Aaron and me your first year teaching, just not at the same time.”
John asked, “Are you wearing underpants?”
David asked in return, “Did you want to check for my birthmark?”
To John’s nod, David stood before John and unfastened and dropped his jeans, allowing for John to check the birthmark he had on the inside of his left upper thigh. After John sat back up and nodded again, David pulled his jeans back up, fastening both his jeans and his belt. David asked, “What should I call you?”
John looked David in the eye and replied in kind, “What did you call John Dvorak yesterday?”
David looked John in the eye and replied, “Dad.”
John told David, “There’s your answer. The four of you need to go into the dining area and eat your breakfasts, which Delilah and Debbie are setting out right now. We’ll talk more while the four of you eat. The rest of the kids who live in this house have already eaten. They will join us after Frank does.
§§§

Once the six youth and teens were eating, with John and Betty drinking coffee, John provided more explanations.

“Part of why the rest of the kids are in the garage is because I wanted to see for myself what we were dealing with. Until I actually got your measure, for all I knew, you could have either been the David I had yesterday gone insane or been a complete stranger, either one of which would need to be dealt with far differently than what we actually have on our hands. You are who you believe you are, and that is my adopted son David Dvorak from a parallel universe, hopefully with the David I had yesterday in your place and being properly cared for by ‘that’ me.

“The bigger part is because you quite literally got jammed into someone else’s life, and they are hopefully in yours. You’ll be seeing people who either died in your old life, or lived under different circumstances. For example, what do you know about Sally Dvorak’s eldest sons?”

David answered easily between bites, “I’ve talked some of that out with all the girls, and a little more with Saria while we got dressed and stuff. Grandma Dvorak had four children, all boys. Abner Doubleday Dvorak Junior was ‘Uncle Junior’ to me, because somehow all three ‘Taylor Girls’ forced enough of a reconciliation that we at least knew each other, and all of us cousins got along okay. Uncle William Clay Dvorak was fully gay where Uncle Junior was bisexual. Uncle Junior and Uncle William were, and in ‘my world’ still are lovers, along with Aunt Hannah still being alive. The other Uncle William also has metastasized liver cancer, and he isn’t expected to live out the summer.

“Richard Christopher Dvorak was born Ricardo Cristobal Floyd, and kept that name into his teens. He left House Floyd and finished ‘growing up’ with you, living with Grandma Dvorak in Coal City. In the other world, Grandpa Hernando ‘bought’ enough doctors to keep Daddy in the Army ‘til late ’66, when his asthma got so bad that you had him grounded, and he was medically retired. He might have started up Orchard Muni later than here because of that, or certainly differently. Mommy and He died in ’78, you adopted me, and Orchard Muni is still mine in trust, but being run by trustworthy and competent managers.

“You were always ‘John Abner Dvorak, and you were born in ’45. Uncle Junior and Uncle William’s father claimed you as his rather than publicly admit that he had his testicles shot off in the war. While you didn’t send him on his ‘Journey of Self-Discovery’ in 1956, you made sure that all of his bags were packed right.

“Aunt Cathy stuck around in my world, Mommy and Daddy paid-off Kopchek and his creepy brothers with aluminum before Kopchek could go into the porn film business, and decided that they really liked each other. Uncle Frank was more than happy enough to help Daddy take out the trash once Daddy had it all bagged up. I was at the wedding, but nobody really saw me.

“Aunt Cathy found out that Aunt Hannah married Uncle Junior when all of you with kids in tow showed up at Grandma Dvorak’s house in Coal City at the same time. Daddy and Mommy showed up later that day, and after Aunt Hannah did a lot of arm twisting, the family was mostly put back together. Aunt Hannah was the glue that mended our family, where Aunt Cathy found love and family an intellectual challenge and a duty. Mommy was more of a Cook than a Taylor once she batted her way out of the toxic orbit of Sam Kopchek.

“Mommy, Daddy, Aunt Cathy, Uncle Benji, Aunt Susan, Miss Cook, Saria, Aaron, Paul, and I were all in a Dodge passenger van driving out to Coal City for a cookout at Grandma Dvorak’s old place. You held onto it after Grandma Dvorak died, since you’d owned it with Grandma Dvorak since the mid ‘50s. You kept the place up at Aunt Cathy and Aunt Hannah’s request as a family gathering spot instead of renting the place out. The living room could be used to extend the dining room, Daddy still had the piano he got Grandma Dvorak that she never played, you had the house loaded with books in book cases and Persian rugs and stuff like here but smaller, and Mommy kept up the flowers that Daddy couldn’t take care of, since he couldn’t even take care of ours in Mokena…

“Sorry, memories can run away with you, I guess. That stuff is much nicer to remember than the alkie trucker crossing the centerline on Route 47 at the last minute. One moment we’re all laughing at something Uncle Benji said, the next half-second the grownups are screaming while Daddy was trying desperately to steer the van anywhere the semi wasn’t going to be, and the next second I’m waking up in the Morris Hospital Emergency room with Delilah crying over me and Aaron begging me to wake up from the next gurney over. Saria and I got hit in the head pretty hard, and she was hurt more besides. Aaron was only scratched up, and Paul’s car seat kept him completely safe.”

John quipped sardonically, “I guess your Aunt Cathy had a thing for semis. In this world, she left and moved to California right after Michael was born. Last February, a semi driver who wasn’t drunk lost his brakes and lost control of his semi on the I-5 Grapevine. He went into the median, went air born, and the truck landed directly on top of her ’65 Corvair coupe. The car was crushed completely flat and burned to a crisp.

“Somehow, if she was still wearing our wedding ring and her engagement ring, they survived where she didn’t. At least, when her executor sent them out to me, they were worn, but still perfectly presentable. Even before I told her about them being at least your Grandmother Dvorak’s if not your Great-Grandmother Dvorak’s set, as well as my band being from the same set, she had no problem wearing them instead of having me buy another set.”

David offered, “The woman the ‘other you’ married in England, who I called ‘Mom,’ ended up wearing Aunt Cathy’s rings, too. She is a good person for the other John Dvorak, but from what little an almost twelve-year-old boy can tell, you are better off with Miss Cook. Until we talk with Uncle Frank, I won’t have any idea if I should even think about the UK right now.

“Saria has also explained, at least in broad terms, the full breadth of and reasons for my double’s ‘social life.’ I won’t judge him or anyone else because of it, and they did what was best as best they understood it. That stuff doesn’t bother me, but it’s just not for me. Other than maybe Saria, I won’t be able to keep up any of the other David’s ‘social obligations,’ though I also won’t interfere with or criticize the ‘social lives and obligations’ of others. If Saria and I do ‘that’ and the other David doesn’t, or if we don’t but he does, neither Saria nor I will say anything against him or the other Saria or be a jerk to them.

“But why would the other me get ‘busy’ with Max Stock? I barely remember Joe Stock from my world, and from what I’ve learned so far, the ‘me’ here didn’t exactly have a lot of friends at St. Mary’s.”

Danny decided to answer David, “There’s a lot of ‘context’ that will be much easier to explain later on. But, the ‘too fast’ version is Joe and Max’s sister Fiona is a sociopath and a schizophrenic. She’s been institutionalized now and won’t be getting out. But last May, she tricked Max into thinking that you tried to rape her. That’s the incident where the scars you don’t have came from, after Max chased you for a couple of miles from St. Mary’s into the Forest Preserve. In turn, you dislocated his right shoulder, broke his right arm, and barely stopped yourself from caving his skull in. A lot of other fucked-up stuff came out of that. Max also decided he wanted to try gay sex with his brother Joe, who went along with it, and they both liked it.

“Fiona tried to pull some similar shit with Aaron right here in the back yard, last Tuesday. That’s why she’s in the bughouse. Between Max staring at your crotch and ass, Pixie ‘egging things on’ for reasons that are only slightly messed up, and you wanting to not be bouncing back and forth between being terrified of Max and primed to kill him where he stands, you went along and had full and complete gay sex with Max at least twice. The other you seemed reasonably pleased, and Max acted like he’d never had it so good.”

“Are the Stock brothers in the band, or just friends? Joe I could see either way since David taught him how to play drums. And I honestly don’t remember Max Stock.”

“They’re both in the band” Michael offered. “We might not be as popular as Glen Miller was back in the day yet, but we sure are bigger.”

David laughed, “If there’s anyone who can make an actual rock orchestra to go up against ELO, you’d be the one.”

After everyone had a good laugh, Michael asked, “What kind of covers do your Treasures do?”

“We do bossa nova, but we haven’t performed any in public yet. We also do late ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s rock, with some R&B thrown in here and there. We usually open with our cover of I’m Just a Singer in a Rock and Roll Band, and we also cover ‘British Invasion’ bands.

“For the Barbican, we opened with Concrete and Clay, since Unit 4+2 filmed performing that song at the Barbican Construction Site in ’65. You’ve also had me cover Paolo Conte songs sometimes, since I can sing Italian and get the pronunciations spot-on with the damn Cuban accent. You usually have Tim sing those, since his voice is closer to Conte’s.

“When Daddy was a kid, he was the ultimate Desi Arnaz fan. And, everything he spoke other than English had a Cuban accent. His Spanish, of course, was Cuban, and guess which male parent taught me how to speak Latin?”

After everyone finished laughing, Debbie asked, “Why are you referring to Rick and Stacy as ‘Daddy and Mommy?”

After a pause, David told her, “I still used ‘Daddy and Mommy’ for them when I lost them. Dad was always ‘Dad.’ Back in the world I came from, they were my ‘birth-parents’ to tell them apart from Dad and the woman he’s married to, whom I called ‘Mom.’ That woman is not ‘Mom’ here, no matter how nice she might be, since neither Dad nor I know her. ‘Daddy and Mommy’ also sets them apart from Uncle Rick and Aunt Stacy here, who will remain Uncle Rick and Aunt Stacy. I’m sure the other David still loves Stacy Cook. I’m also sure that he will never trust her with him again, and that he might even have reservations trusting her with Aaron, Paul, and Christina.

“I’m also sure that David has already forgiven Uncle Rick completely for the circumstances that led up to his birth. However, asking to be adopted is more of a commitment than merely consenting to being adopted. Having the opportunity to live in a house where people always kept their word and honored their obligations must have seemed like Heaven-on-Earth to him. Likewise, I keep my word. Dad gave me his word that I was his son, and I in turn gave him my word that he was my Dad. Dvoraks don’t casually break their word, if at all. Smysl a síla, after all; lying and oath-breaking are weakness.

“Dad might not be the ‘John Dvorak’ I knew yesterday, though I think he’s probably just like him. He’s also the only one on offer today, just like I’m the only David. If Uncle Frank can help us get switched back, or even help us figure out how it happened in the first place, I’ll do my best to not do anything the other David can’t keep up with or won’t agree to, and I’ll trust that he does the same. For the musical instruments, he’ll learn what he can, and if we get ‘switched back,’ he’ll just make up either medical excuses or a ‘different creative inspiration’ until he catches up to me. If I were a betting kid, I’d bet that both of the songs he wrote here are identical to the first two I’ve written. The ones I ‘leave behind’ if and when we’re switched back are his, and anything he leaves behind will be mine.”

The “family group,” at least for a given value of “family,” finished up their breakfasts and coffee. They were waiting for “Uncle Frank” to arrive, hopefully with more answers than questions.
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Reflections.