the butterfly effect;
(with reference to chaos theory) the phenomenon whereby a minute localized change in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere.
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In which she is sent to another world.
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[Book 1 in the Lorenz System Serie...
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When Sarah was a little girl, she would hide up in the treehouse in her family's backyard, reading and rereading the piles of books she had collected over her short life.
She loved the large words and the detailed descriptions that painted larger than life stories of the character's lives that she would read. She could never pick a favorite genre. Syfy, fairytales, fantasy, drama, adventure, mystery, you name it, she loved them all.
Sarah would sit up there for hours, thumbing through the pages of the paperback books her mother would buy for her, smiling along as she read the adventures of different character's lives she encountered, never once getting tired hearing their stories again and again. She would also carry up scraps of paper and pencils, sitting on the hardwood floor as she sketched out illustrations of what she thought certain characters would look like, and even some of her own family members and friends as well, taping the drawings up onto the wall in satisfaction as she grinned childishly to herself.
She had been a carefree child, having an idealistic view of the world as she went through her life.
One day, that had all changed.
Sarah remembered the day well. She had been seated in the living room in front of the TV as her dad prepared dinner in the kitchen with her sister, Harper, seated at the table in her high chair, babbling away to her father as they all waited for Sarah's mom to get home from work so they could all have dinner together.
"She's just late. She'll be here soon." Her father had told her, gently kissing Sarah on the forehead before he went to cook dinner.
That's when the call came.
The shrill ringing of the phone cut through the noise of the house like a knife, echoing through the living room as her father's brows furrowed in confusion, turning off the stove before going to answer the phone.
"Hello?" Her dad had asked, voice filled with uncertainty as he listened to whoever was on the line. "Yes, I'm Mr. Williams. Is there something I can..." His face twisted into an expression of disbelief. "What? No, no, that can't be right, I just talked to her an hour ago. I can't... oh, God..." Her father's voice had broke, body trembling as he collapsed onto the couch in front of Sarah, who gazed up at her dad in confusion. "No, yes, I understand... I'll be there soon." He hung up the phone, staring blankly down at the device in a daze as his hands trembled.
Sarah remembered very clearly what had happened next. She had gotten up and walked over to her father, placing her little hands on his leg as she looked up at him in worry, before asking him what was wrong.
The words her father said next would forever be seared into her brain.
"Mommy isn't... she isn't coming home, Sarah." Her father's voice had shaken as he gazed down at his daughter, eyes filled with tears. "I'm... I'm so sorry, sweetheart, but she's not coming home..."
