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...)