Disclaimer: this story should never be thought of as Bikini-Beach canon in
any shape or form. It's less of a story and more of a thought exercise,
telling the first day's transformations of Luke and Peter in "A Bikini
Beach Summer" using a suggested Multiverse view of Bikini-Beach reality
shifts, and imagining how things would have to work.
As usual, the characters who say things about Bikini Beach, or whose
thoughts about BB we are privy to, may get things wrong.
The Bikini Beach Universe is copyright 2001 by ElrodW.
Multiverse Lucy & Ruth
by Daphne Xu
As Ma stepped up to the booth, fourteen-year-old Luke stood behind Ma,
next to his seventeen-year-old brother Peter. While Ma was engaged with
the saleslady, Luke used this opportunity to look around at all the girls
and women, most of whom were very pretty, many of whom were already in
their swimwear often covered by tee-shirts.
While they were standing in line, Luke had kept his eyes averted. He
didn't want anyone -- Ma in particular -- to see that he found pretty girls
in swimwear -- bare legs and all -- quite attractive.
This whole situation was bizarre, thought Luke to himself. For whatever
reason, Ma never took Peter's exoneration seriously. She still believed
that Peter had raped and murdered that girl. So why was she taking them to
a girls-only water park, of all places, to enjoy a relaxing, fun-filled
day?
Peter was standing still, but he was clearly fuming his usual bad temper
from the past two weeks -- muttering and growling to himself, clenching his
fists, sometimes shaking them. Luke could see why; Peter had told him some
of his experiences in police custody, leading to his false confession to
the murder. Peter and his attorneys were preparing to sue.
Finally, Ma handed Luke and Peter their passes. As Luke glanced at his,
a guest pass good for that day, the saleslady spoke loud enough for Luke to
distinctly hear, "Remember to shower. It's a health requirement." They
walked through the turnstiles, swiping their passes, and turned toward the
locker rooms.
******************************
Meanwhile, very far away -- not in the country, not on this earth, not
in this galaxy, not even in a galaxy far, far away -- yet in another sense
rather nearby, a certain distance off in another dimension, utterly
unfamiliar to us all -- in another nearby Universe, almost identical to
this one, on an Earth almost identical to this Earth, a similar event was
taking place.
That world's Ma was taking her two daughters, Lucy and Ruth, to Bikini
Beach for the day. Fourteen-year-old Lucy had never heard of Bikini Beach
before, and was very much looking forward to seeing it. Ruth, only nine
years old, was less successful at containing her excitement. The only
thing marring Lucy's excitement was concern about Pa. Pa would have hated
it if he knew they were going to a place called Bikini Beach -- even if it
was girls-only. Yet Ma had told both of them to bring their bikinis, which
would have utterly outraged Pa.
"Remember to shower. It's a health requirement," said the saleslady, as
the three of them headed towards the locker rooms.
Lucy and Ruth both stopped at an entrance and were about to enter, when
Ma turned. "No, girls, this way."
"But it says right here, `Men's Changing Room'," said Lucy.
"Whoops, you're right, my mistake. Sorry about that."
Lucy opened the door, and the two girls entered as Ma proceeded onward
towards the women's locker room.
As Lucy entered, she was very glad to have Ruth with her. The locker
room was completely empty, almost spooky. Nevertheless, the two girls
chose lockers at random. Lucy changed into her bikini and headed toward
one of the showers.
Lucy briefly noticed the pink mist rising in the shower, and wondered if
it was her imagination. She forgot about it though, jumping at Ruth's
shriek from the next shower over.
Apparently, Ruth had lost her bikini top.
******************************
Meanwhile, showering in the women's locker room, Ma changed from a happy
housewife and mother of two girls to an angry housewife and mother of two
boys -- furious at her older son's murder of Jill Denison, furious at how
his attorney had got him off scott-free, and furious at how both Pa and
younger-son Luke supported Peter. Luke, at least, she could understand.
Peter was his Big Brother. But Pa? He was supposed to properly discipline
and control his children, not support and defend them when they get in
trouble!
Her friend and fellow Firmlove member Mrs. Winstead had told her about
Bikini Beach and the properties of its magical transformations. It was
decided that Peter would become Ruth and relive the last eight years of his
life. Ma would provide the proper discipline and instruction, and by the
time Ruth returned as Peter at seventeen, Peter would be an upstanding
young man, prepared for a legal and productive life.
The accompanying reality-shift would ensure that as far as the world was
concerned, Peter never existed; the girl was always Ruth. Thus Ruth would
get no support from Luke or Pa, who would be unaware of the change. As a
side effect, Jill's murder would never have occurred.
The young mage in charge here -- Ma thought she was probably a
substitute; she seemed rather unsure of everything, confused, and
overworked -- let Ma visit the new Lucy and Ruth in the men's changing room
to explain things. Admittedly, she knew little herself, but she knew
enough to explain to Ruth, and according to the mage, Lucy would have no
memory of the changes and need no explanation. The mage had given her
Ruth's bikini top; that would provide the excuse for her to enter the men's
room.
Ma walked over to the men's changing room -- labeled inside Bikini Beach
as the women's overflow room -- and returned Ruth's bikini top, shooing
Lucy out in the process. She would explain everything to Ruth, and tell
her the situation.
******************************
Back on this Earth in our universe, Ma muttered as she started the car,
"I have no idea what I was thinking. Of course, Bikini Beach is for women
and girls only. What could possibly have possessed me to think... I'm
going to have a good long talk with Mrs. Winstead the instant we get
home."
Peter and Luke were both in the back seat. Luke was burning with
humiliation. The whole crowd had all seen the saleslady chasing after
them, returning them to the sales booth to refund their passes, and sending
them back to their car, their metaphorical tails between their legs.
Peter growled to Luke, "It figures. If Ma can't figure out that the DNA
mismatch between the criminal and me meant that I wasn't the criminal, then
of course she can't figure out that `girls-only' means what it says: we are
excluded. But the truly scary thing was that the saleslady actually sold
us eight-year memberships before realizing that we were boys and not
permitted at Bikini Beach."
"Eight years?" said Luke, confused. He got out his own voided pass.
"Mine was good only for today."
"Interesting," said Peter. "That makes the puzzle all the more
puzzling. There may have been something further than meets the eye here.
I'm going to have to look into it."
The family returned to their lives. Peter's attorneys ultimately worked
out an undisclosed settlement with the city for the police misconduct. The
actual murderer, who had been arrested the day before the attempted visit
to Bikini Beach, ultimately pled guilty to capital murder and was sentenced
to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Life went on.
The END
PS. Sometime around midnight or 2PM, Lucy is supposed to revert to
Luke. Luke would have always existed, visited Bikini Beach as a boy(!), had
experiences at Bikini Beach similar to Lucy's, and potentially had some
memories fogged up by Bikini Beach. That now entails a 3rd universe, with
Luke and Ruth as Pa and Ma's children, and with 2nd-universe's Ruth and
Ma's memories and mind (already possessed by our universe's Peter and Ma's
minds) superimposed on Ruth and Ma.
"A Bikini Beach Summer" could have taken different route: when Lucy
reverts to Luke, reality is now that Luke never went to Bikini Beach. Ma
and (probably) Ruth remember Luke becoming Lucy at Bikini Beach. Luke is
not supposed to remember any reality-shift or get hints of it, so he, along
with Pa and everyone else, remembers only his non-Bikini-Beach day. Maybe
he joined Ma and Ruth going to Bikini Beach (perhaps to enjoy the view at
the entrance) and then returned home on the bus. In this version of the
story, Luke never meets Lucy's Bikini-Beach BFFs. Again, we have a third
universe where the children in the family are Luke and Ruth. That
universe's Ma and Ruth have the minds of the second universe's Ma and Ruth
(already possessed by our universe's Ma and Peter's minds) imposed on them.
As one can see, things can get grossly complicated and unwieldy,
especially if one wrote the story properly, and explicitly jumped from
universe to universe as needed. (And then, incorporate Vernon and
Vanessa...)