Day 358 - Where to look for remains

Where to look for remains

Matthew Ryan Fischer

 

 

The machine lay in ruins, so it hardly mattered anyway. Max stared at the parts, knowing the answer was impossible, but he did it nonetheless.

The sliding porch door opened and Sally peered out.

“Still broke?”

Max didn’t respond.

“You can come inside. It will still be broken in the morning.”

She was right; however, Max was angry and didn’t appreciate her flip attitude.

“I think I need to sit her for a few more hours,” he finally responded.

“We’re alive. We survived. Take the win.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Fine. Have it your way.”

 

 

Two days later, they sat around the bonfire – Max and Sally and Reed and Liz and Ethan. Max was fairly quiet, still lost in his ponderings.

“You’ll have to forgive him. Nothing short of a perfection and even then, he probably won’t be happy.”

“No, I understand,” said Ethan. “I don’t think any of us were prepared. I... I...”

“You had to,” said Liz.

“Did I? Or was it just easier. Isn’t that what we always say – don’t just take the easy way, do it right.”

“He would have killed us.”

“Me, you mean? I would have killed us.”

“He wasn’t you.”

“Close enough.”

Liz couldn’t imagine what Ethan was feeling or begin to know what to say to him.

“Any of us could have encountered ourselves,” said Max. “Ethan was unlucky.”

Ethan began to laugh. “One shitty definition of luck.”

Max nodded then put his hand on Ethan’s shoulder in a thin attempt to console.

The machine was broken. There was no way of knowing. No way of going back. They had all known the risks. And they had made it through. Max did, however, suspect that things had ended in ambiguous enough fashion that he could not be sure where exactly he was and if this indeed was his life. Ethan seemed to be Ethan, or at least one of the Ethan’s. Max wasn’t sure which one lived or died or if there had indeed only been two. There was always the potential for the infinite. Clusters of similar versions, so close in vibrations that any of them could have ended up on any world. Ethan certainly would have felt such grief, but then again so would many versions. Max thought he had seen a second Reed, or perhaps a shadow or reflection. But he couldn’t be sure. Sally seemed real, but felt different. He was afraid to sleep with her for fear he might instantly know for sure. If she wasn’t her, then his Sally would be lost forever.

The machine was broken. It was the only option. They had agreed. Still, it did make things impossible to sort out if it needed fixing. Max only hoped that he was his original and in the right place at the right time. Perhaps they were all having similar thoughts and no one could be quite sure who was really the real ones there. A problem with no answer.

Max sipped his scotch and tried to smile. Real or not, original or multiverse, Max would be stuck here, stuck with these people. Better or worse, he needed to make the best of it.