Learning to Love Time Loops Without Going Insane

Stan was in the basement with his wife and kids as the rumbling started. “It’s alright, everyone, there’s nothing to worry about. We’re just going to stay down here til it’s over. Trust me, your big brother Cal promised everything will be fine, and you know he never lies to you.” Stan looked over his younger two kids as he calmed them down.

His life had taken a strange turn back when Cal was twelve. He knew things he shouldn’t. He told him a story about himself that was impossible for Cal to have known, and if that didn’t clinch it that everything Cal was saying was true, Bug’s new found ability to speak English sure did. Stan believed his son and wished he could do more to help. More than anything, he wished Izzy was still alive. She was always so much closer than he had been with Cal.

Stan was a giant of a man, and he had always been worried about hurting Cal accidentally just by touching him as a kid. Stan stood at seven foot two inches with a frame to match. He felt terrible about that now, but at least they had long since repaired that bond. Still if he could go back to do it all over again, he’d have ensured he was there for Cal from the start. He thought about how that was exactly what Cal had the option to do now and realized just how proud he was of his son. He really believed he would find a way to fix all this.

Cal had given him the broad strokes of his life in previous loops, and Stan found it hard to believe he had fought mutated bears and monstrous spiders, but then again, if Cal’s life was in danger, Stan knew he would have been standing right there side by side with him.

“Anyone want to play a board game while we wait this out?” Stan looked over at his family.

“Only if I get to be the top hat,” Camden responded with a smile. Camden looked the most like Stan himself. He was the oldest of Stan’s younger kids with Jen.

“So I guess we’re playing Monopoly then?” Jen asked as she looked through the shelves for the game box.

“Oh, I want to play Monopoly!” Chris joined in. Christopher looked more like Jen. Both of them looked like they were built for track and field, whereas Stan and Camden looked ready to wrestle a bear at a moment’s notice.

Stan was smiling when the white flash hit.