Explicated Implications
“Look,” the inexplicably ancient version of Tuuri that stood before them said, “I know you all either have or are about to have a few million questions all trying to get out at once, but none of us have a whole lot of time here, so if you’ll just let me say my piece--” She broke off abruptly.
Less than half a second later, Sigrun burst out with, “Look, how do we know this isn’t a trick?” The Elder Tuuri spoke the words along with her, so Sigrun (and the Elder Tuuri) snapped out, “Chrysanthemum! Sarsaparilla!” Then she paused, and remarked, “Thunderation!”
“I am Tuuri Face-Still-Like-Baby, and I walked among you many winters ago.” She certainly had their attention. “Now that that’s done, there’s a lot I need to tell you guys, but not much time left. I’ll get into that in a bit.
“Where we are, right here, is Malmö, a city in Sweden, and the year is 1936.” Before the others could voice their objections or astonishment, the Elder Tuuri raised her hand and continued, “Reynir told us what he Saw: a ‘cave we must enter’, with ‘past, present and future colliding and ricocheting like the balls on a billiard table’, and ‘us, and us, and us again, echoed down through the ages over and over’. This is how that all plays out--the different cave branches lead to different times and places, not all of which are as welcoming or peaceful as this one is. In fact, in most of them, you’ll be fighting the Man in the Black Hat and his henchmen. Enjoy the breaks when you get them, because you’re about to get a glimpse of Armageddon.”
The Elder Tuuri sighed. “I’d say more--reams more--but Taru, who thinks you’re the house band, the ‘Malmö Musikers’, is about to try to bustle you onstage. Don’t worry; you’ll be able to fake it well enough. Oh, and at least here, y'all are speaking the local lingo without realizing it.”
Sure enough, Taru bustled in, fretting, “Come on, snap it up, guys! Quit horsing around and get on stage! Everything’s ready for you!” She began efficiently herding them out the door.
As they left, the Elder Tuuri called out, “Guys! One more thing!” When they turned back to look at her, she grinned and told them, “As to how I got here--I flew! I took a beautiful silver aeroplane across the Atlantic, like Lindbergh!” She grinned a bit more, and finished, “That was it.”
*
Amazingly enough, the six of them actually performed creditably for the hour or so that they were onstage. When they went back to the cranny backstage for their first break, they found their counterparts waiting for them.
“Thanks, guys,” the other Sigrun told them, “but we’ll take it from here.” She and the rest of her bandmates were disheveled and strained-looking, but the Westerners forbore to ask what had kept them.
The Western Sigrun did, however, think to ask, “Is there a back way for us to sneak out of?”
“Some goons are watching it,” the other Sigrun said. “They’re waiting for us, in fact. You might need to shoot your way out, if it comes to it.”
The Western Sigrun pretended to think it over. “Go back onstage or blast our way back home--what do you guys think?”
All six Westerners chorused, “Blast ‘em,” even Doc Mikkel.
*
In the end, there wasn’t an actual fight. The goons were looking for six frightened musicians; when confronted with six frontier-hard gunslingers, they ran for their lives without a single shot being fired.
“Yellow dogs,” Sigrun spat derisively.
“City rats,” Emil pointed out. “Bully-boys used to roughing up folk who never held a gun in their lives.”
“Vultures,” Lalli agreed.
“Like the Arapaho, just more yellow,” Tuuri said.
“I don’t know,” Doc Mikkel mused. “If they come back with friends, they might not be so easily run off again.”
“I took care of that,” Reynir told them. “I knew what to tell ’em to keep ‘em from bothering our lookalikes back there. It was part of what I Saw.” He looked around again. “But we still oughta go now, or we’ll be too late.”
“The Man in the Black Hat?” Sigrun guessed.
“He’s already on the move, so we might be too late for somebody else already.” And with that, Reynir dropped back into the drains that had led them there...
