Prologue - Bill in Three Persons

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There is no way to teach someone to listen. It either happens or it doesn't. Occasionally, the universe bumps something one way when it meant to bump it the other. No one knows why this happens, and we can only hope that it happens for a reason. But...if its the universe making the mistake, what could the reason possibly be?

Bill Toge was one of these mistakes. But no one really knows why. One night he set off in a rage, intent on abandoning everything he could have called his life. At a crossroads near the Faux Hamptons, heading for the I-95 and freedom, he missed a stop sign and careened into an oncoming van. Bill got a bent fender. The driver of the van got his head splattered all over the pavement. In a dazed panic, Bill sped away from the crossroads as fast as he could. In three different directions.

6 years later he came back to that same crossroads, only to meet his other selves in a three-car pile up of chance and destiny. They were all running from something. But drawing them back together again...well, that was a problem.

The Accident

A late night road-trip on the part of three college buddies gets waylaid when they come across a horrible accident in the middle of nowhere. Gen Frederick, Zeke Vimes, and Mike Absalom were on their way back from a concert when the only cop at the scene stopped them and asked for their help in dealing with the three-car pile up. They do so, carefully pulling the three men from the wreckage, noting that all three of the vehicles are badly leaking gas, to judge by the smell. The three quickly realize that not only are the three cars identical, but that so are the men. This is more than a little disturbing, but they don't have much time to think about it before the cop identifies the men (man?) as one Bill Toge, a local troublemaker who vanished 6 years ago.

At that moment, the wreck explodes, the energy being enough to actualize the string of probabilities that have become tangled, and send the three men to the point where they can all be corrected.

The Supermarket

It is exactly 12 hours earlier. The trio find themselves crouching in the dog-food aisle of a supermarket under-siege. Four masked men armed with assorted guns are here to loot the safe. One of these men is one of the Bill's. Confused as to how they got here, the three simply seek cover from those with the guns, one of whom just got done killing the cop who was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. The presence of that cop did, however, mess up the robber's plans - there are squad cars on the way, if the sound of sirens is any indication.

TBC