He scoffs.
‘You are. I mean, it’s not an opinion, it’s a fact.’
‘In your world, maybe.’ He runs his hand through his hair. The same thing he does when he’s embarrassed.
‘In every world.’ I meet his eyes, hoping the gravity in my tone will sink in and make this Tyler believe in himself. I need him at the top of his game.
His eyes break away from mine and he clears his throat. ‘Okay.’ His words are soft. ‘Tell me everything.’
I tell him about Bethany’s machine, the one she used to send her consciousness out into the other universes. I tell him how Amina’s attempts to bring this Bethany back have pulled me through instead.
‘So she’s in your world, and you’re here?’ he clarifies.
‘Oh. Ooohhh.’ I hadn’t thought of it like that. Is that what’s happened? Is this Bethany in my world? ‘You think we just ended up swapped?’
‘It’s the most logical conclusion.’
He’s right, it is. But then I think of my other theory, the one where other Bethanys were in worlds almost identical to their own, but with just one or two tiny things out of place. ‘The other Bethanys, the ones whose lives I skipped through, some of them thought they might be out of place too. One of them had scribbled a note in a journal that said “this isn’tme”. One thought their shoes should have been matt instead of patent. Shiny,’ I add for clarification as I see the same look of confusion another Tyler wore when I talked about the Louboutins. I feel like I’m testing him, trying to see what conclusion he might draw and if he might add more insight to my own theories.
‘Hmmm.’ He stares at his coffee, deep in thought. ‘You mentioned that the worlds you skipped through had bigger and bigger variations to your home world.’
‘It was like the thing that made the world different to mine was something that had happened further and further back in my timeline.’
‘Branching world.’ He nods a few times. ‘It’s an interesting theory.’ He sips his drink. ‘So, what if as this Bethany was travelling forwards, she was displacing the other yous. Like they were all shifting a tiny bit to make space for her?’
I stare at him, waiting for him to elaborate.
He pulls a battered notebook from his bag. I catch a glimpse of the cover. He-Man. ‘A gift from one of my students,’ he says when he sees me looking. Then he flips it open and starts to sketch.
‘So. This is this world.’ He draws a blob to the far left of the page, right in the middle. ‘And this is yours.’ He draws another blob on the far right. ‘And you have skipped how many times? Twenty?’
‘Nineteen,’ I confirm.
He marks a number of points across the page between the two points. ‘So these are the worlds you skipped through. And each one represents a point on a continuum between this world and yours. Now then, if this Bethany managed to leap all the way from here to your universe –’ he draws a curve between the left and right blobs – ‘she wakes up in your world. Right?’
‘Yep. Lucky me,’ I say with more than a hint of sarcasm.‘That she landed in my world and not in another Bethany’s, I mean.’
‘So what happens to you?’
‘I started skipping.’
‘No.’ He raises a finger and I can see why he makes such a fantastic teacher. ‘Thatonly happens because your friend starts messing with things.’
‘She was trying to help.’ I feel indignant on Amina’s behalf.
He ignores me. He’s on a roll and so he continues. ‘No, you shuffle.’ He marks a series of tiny points between the blob of my world and the first time I skipped and knew it. ‘We have no way of knowing how many worlds exist on this continuum, but it’s not ludicrous to think it’s more than the nineteen you skipped through.’ He draws a ring around the first mark he made next to my world. ‘This is where you go. And every other Bethany, the dozens, or hundreds, or thousands, or millions …’ he glances up as he looks at me, his voice taking on an ethereal quality as if he’s finally realized just how big the universe might be and it horrifies and fascinates him in equal measure ‘… all the other Bethanys shuffle too. Just a tiny skip. Most of them wouldn’t even realize it had happened. There might be one tiny difference, one small thing they can dismiss as a dream, or a missed memory, or stress, or having one glass of wine too many.’
‘But then I start skipping,’ I say, taking the pen from his hand to add a curved arrow between the larger blobs on the page.
‘And every time you do, the other Bethanys shuffle again.’
‘But back the other way. Back to where they belong.’ I look up at him. ‘So everyone is home.’
‘Except you. And the Bethany from this world.’
‘And none of them even realize,’ I say. Except … ‘This Bethany spent six weeks in a coma. Six weeks betweenher jump and me arriving. So … if we all just shuffled along …’
Tyler visibly shudders. ‘The Bethany here …’ he taps the paper just to the right of the blob representing this world ‘… was the one in the coma.’
