Now, getting back to where we were in the apartment…

“Duuuude,” Zoe said in a near-whisper. “You’ve got relatives? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I don’t have relatives! Or…I didn’t. I never thought I did. I-i-i-it never even crossed my mind!”

Once again, Al was our personalised Information Checkpoint.
“Your Future self arranged for us to place you in the universe that most closely resembled your original dwelling. The only difference – from your standpoint – between this universe we are currently residing in, and the universe that you came from, is that here your father died in a car crash, and your mother died in childbirth. Entering this universe before either of those things happened meant that Letrodacta had no one to exact her vengeance on because of you, and that your brain would accomodate the universal change by deleting invalid memories.”

Wow, I thought.
“So…Future Me was protecting me Me?”

Zoe said it at the same time as Al:
“Correct.”
(Only she added “Jinx” under her breath.)