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Epilogue: Time Zone – 1977
“Mom? Mom, can you hear me? Mom?”
Everything was still white over Diana’s vision, and the voice she heard of her daughter was like a faint echo to her ears; fortunately, things started to become clearer within seconds. A figure began to materialize before Diana’s eyes, wearing a pointy hat of some type from what she could make out. It was soon revealed that the figure was in fact Joanie, her face and lovely blue eyes quite a welcoming visage for Diana, considering that she had not seen it for so long. Diana touched her daughter’s young, beautiful face and embraced her so tight that Joanie could hardly breathe.
“It’s okay, Mom. We’re okay now.” Joanie said with a chuckle.
Diana looked around to see that they were both back in the basement laboratory of Bunsen Honeydew with Kermit, Fozzie, Gonzo, and Scooter. Everything looked exactly as how they had left it with one notable exception: the Magic Gateway machine was gone. The metal arch, the chamber entranceway, and all of the computers that were attached to it were nowhere to be found. All that remained in the room were four brick walls and a desk situated at the center of the room.
Glancing over the brick walls that surrounded them, Scooter remarked, “What happened?”
The group soon heard footsteps nearby and looked upward at the top of the repaired wooden staircase that led out of the room, finding Robin standing in the doorway with Bunsen and Beaker. The tiny frog happily exclaimed, “Joanie! You did it!” He slid down the rail of the staircase and emerged amongst the group, moving to Joanie and hugging her torso, which his arms hardly got around.
Joanie embraced her small best friend by placing her hand over his back with a smile. Watching them hug, Gonzo was focused heavily on what Robin said coming in. “What did Joanie do?”
“And where did you get the funny hat?” Fozzie inquired, pointing to the very sorcerer hat that Joanie was wearing.
Taking the hat off her head, Joanie brushed her red locks with her head as she explained herself to her friends and family. “This ‘funny hat’ was what helped me bring everything back to normal. I restored order between our world and the Disney worlds.”
“She put Buzz and the Beast back where they belong.” Robin clarified. “She also helped Joie, Gina, Michelle, and Bella return to their home dimensions with their brothers – the other versions of Sean.”
Hearing the name of her grandson reminded Diana of how she last saw him before the restoration. “Oh, no! Sean! Is he…?”
Before her mother could finish her question, Joanie placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and informed, “He’s fine, Mom. He’s back in his own time with his sisters and Tracy.”
“Did Rizzo and Pepe go with them?” Gonzo curiously asked.
“Yeah, what about Bobo and Clifford?” Fozzie added.
“And Bean?” Scooter also added.
Joanie nodded. “They’re all back where they belong…thirty-four years ahead of our present…and with no memory of everything that happened.”
Kermit’s mouth opened wide with amusement. “You mean…you made them forget about Bunsen’s machine, the Disney worlds, and…us?”
“I didn’t have to make them forget, Kermit,” Joanie elucidated, “because – from their point of view – everything is completely normal. I guess you can say that I might’ve inspired an alternate reality for them…in which all of us are still together and as happy as we can be.”
Robin smiled upon the thought. “Our own ‘Happily Ever After.’”
“That’s right, Robin.” Joanie acknowledged with an enlightened smile.
“So…we’ll get to see them again…in the future?” Fozzie asked with a glimmer of hope in his eyes.
“Of course we will.” Joanie confirmed. “We may start to see a few of them much sooner than expected.”
Although Joanie’s confirmation brought some ease over the bear, Fozzie was still a bit unsettled by one thing: “It’s still gonna be hard knowing all that we been through with them and, to them, none of it ever happened.”
“But that’s what will make our connection with them stronger than it ever was before all of this happened, Fozzie.” Diana indicated. “We’ll cherish the time we spent in our adventure and see them in ways not many other friends or families could ever see each other.” Diana got very misty-eyed upon adding, “I’ll get to see my grandson, hold him in my arms, and tell him how much I truly love him.”
Her mother’s words made Joanie quite misty-eyed herself. “I wouldn’t trade the experience we had for anything in this world or the next. I’m no longer worried about what my future will bring…because I’ve seen one possible future with new resolve.” She then looked to Bunsen and Beaker, who had moved into the basement and faced the very brick wall where the Magic Gateway machine used to be. “Bunsen, I’m sorry about your invention.”
The Muppet scientist looked down and sighed. “It’s quite alright, Miss Joanie.” He and Beaker turned and faced her, both smiling confidently. “It was a machine not meant for humanity to discover. I only hope that wherever you sent it, it will never be discovered or tampered with by anyone.”
Thinking of Bunsen’s machine led Robin to ponder over one other person who the group met in their journey. “Joanie, what about Brandy? What will become of her in this new future you’ve inspired?”
Joanie shrugged in response. “I don’t know, Robin. It really depends on how Sean decides to live his present…she is his daughter after all.”
The revelation came as a total surprise to all of the Muppets. “WHAT?!”
Laughing over their reaction, Joanie quickly changed the subject before it moved on any further. “Hey, let’s just get back to the way things were. I am just dyin’ to see that new space movie!”
Kermit nodded in approval with her idea. “Yeah. Me, too.”
“You mean you’ll come with us, Uncle Kermit?” Robin said with excitement.
“Of course. I’ll always have time for my family, Robin.” Kermit said, putting his arm over his nephew’s small shoulders, which overjoyed the tiny frog more than his uncle could imagine.
Once everyone was in agreement for seeing the movie together, they started to make their way out of the basement. The last ones left in the room were Joanie and Diana. Diana waited for her daughter to place her sole souvenir from their adventure, Yen Sid’s sorcerer hat, upon the desk in the basement. When Joanie went back to her mother’s side, Diana could not help but to gaze upon her red locks with a sense of dissatisfaction.
“We need to fix that hair of yours first thing tomorrow.” Diana demanded.
“What?” Joanie said with a chuckle. “I like it like this, Mom.”
“Joanie, the women of our family have always been brunettes. It’s been that way long before I was changing your diapers. I am not going to let you tarnish such a legacy by going redhead.”
“O.K. Well, I guess I’ll just go purple then.”
With the snap of her fingers, Joanie’s hair color magically transformed from red to purple, much to the surprise and displeasure of her mother.
“No, no! Red’s fine! Red’s fine!”
Snapping her fingers once more, Joanie’s hair switched back to red.
Diana shook her head and smiled while she and her daughter started moving up the staircase. “I’m never going to get used to this new sorceress lifestyle you’ve taken on.”
“I just hope I’ll get pass brushing my hair with a fork. Seriously, man, what is up with that?”
Once the two women were out of the basement, Diana switched off the lights and shut the door, leaving the area in total darkness. In the pitch blackness, the sorcerer hat glowed brighter than a light bulb, providing the only source of illumination as it sat upon the desk.
Dimension B Zone – 1977
A black Lincoln Versailles drove through the Mojave Desert under the intense afternoon sun, kicking up huge dirt clouds in its wake. It traversed across five miles before coming to a stop near a cliff that overlooked the largest portion of the Mojave. The driver, a young redheaded woman in a black suit, stepped out and bravely approached the cliff. Clipped to the left breast pocket of the woman’s suit was an FBI badge that had the name “Nicole Smith” printed on it with the image of Nicole’s face right above it. At that particular moment, Nicole’s face was hidden beneath of pair of binoculars that she used to gaze upon a shimmering object in the distance.
Adjusting the focus on the binoculars, Nicole got a clear view of the distant object: an 18-story geodesic sphere. It was sitting within a massive crater, smoking and sparking with electricity. Nicole was not entirely certain how the sphere had gotten there, but she realized that it was not in her jurisdiction to analyze its origins. For that, she lowered her binoculars while returning to her vehicle and hopped back in the driver’s side, activating the built-in CB radio. As soon as she was tuned with the right frequency, she spoke into the microphone…
“Smith to base, Smith to base.”
A voice came over the radio, directly addressing her. “This is base. Go ahead, Smith.”
“I’ve discovered the source of the anomaly. From the looks of it, you probably won’t have any luck carrying it back to base. You may just want to build a construct over it to do your research.”
“We appreciate your service, Smith. Your discovery will certainly be recognized for many years to come.”
Nicole smiled. “Message received, base. Over and out.”
After placing the microphone back on its hook and turning off the radio, Nicole closed the car door and backed away from the cliff, driving away from the geodesic sphere of unknown origin as it continued to smoke and spark beneath the intense afternoon sun…
WORLD OF DISNEY
