Across the Universe on a Wish

“Once upon a time”

In a small American town there lived a great scientist. He was an expert in the fields of quantum mechanics and cosmological relativity. It was he who put forth and supported the theory that every person has a twin in a galaxy about 10 to the 10 to the 28th power meters from here. His paper on this subject, published in a leading scientific journal, had been very well received by the scientific community. He was in his own sphere famous.

But Tom, that was his name, was not happy. He knew he had a double out there living the same life as him but he would never see him . He could never travel to that world. Even if he could fly at the speed of light he would never make it there in his lifetime. So his life went on as usual. All week long he worked on perfecting his mathematical proofs of the existence of the other world. He defended himself from attacks by others that had not caught the vision.

But On Saturday he was just Tom. Just a guy who lived in the neighborhood. Like other guys he took out the garbage, played catch with his son, and watched the ball game. It was a pretty normal life. Every other Saturday he drove down to the homeless shelter and helped serve lunch. He brought coffee and milk as well as donating his time. When he’d leave for home around two he felt good. He had made a little bit of a difference in a very selfish world.

It was on a  Saturday as he was driving home that he suddenly found that he wasn’t alone in the car. A little man in a green suit with shoes that curled at the toes was sitting next to him. The elf introduced himself and explained that his good deed had gotten him one free wish. Tom was sure that this was some kind of hallucination because though he believed in an another planet with his double on it he did not in any way believe in elves. So he said “ I wish to be on the planet where my double lives sitting in the park just a block from his house”.

The elf said “ As you wish so shall it be” . There was a flash of light and Tom found himself sitting on a park bench just a block from his house. The question , of course, is was it his park bench or the park bench of his double? How would he know? What happened to his car. If this was the