Sunday, November 7, at 8:45 A.M., Miles was walking near Harvard’s library and saw Doug, Randy, Kenny, Ben and Brandy walking into the library. Miles also saw some-thing in Randy’s hand, but he couldn’t make out what it was. After seeing what he did he turned and walked towards the dormitory.
Meanwhile, at Alex and Trudy’s dorm room, Trudy woke Alex up from her sleep before telling her, “Hey, Cindy is here and wants your help on something.”
Alex turned over on her back before asking, “With what?”
“She didn’t say. She’s carrying a book on Roman Mythology and I think it has something to do with that.”
“Okay, thanks. I’ll be out in a minute.”
As Alex was getting out of bed, Trudy went back into the common room.
Cindy and Trudy were casually talking in the common room when Alex opened her door to step out. Cindy was in a middle of her sentence and when Alex stepped out, she stopped talking.
Cindy turned towards Alex before telling her, “Alex, I’m sorry to wake you, but I would like to get your help on an assignment for my class.” Cindy held up the book. “Is this the mythology book you used when you wrote that paper in Dr. Carson’s class?”
Alex was still sleepy and she sluggishly answered, “No. The book I used was on Greek Mythology.”
“I was thinking it was this book.”
Alex shook her head before saying, “It’s not, but it does have a similar cover to the one I used.”
“I really would like to use that book you had. Can you go to the library with me and help me find it?”
“Sure. Let me put on some shoes and we can go,” Alex said before going back into her bedroom.
A short time later, Alex and Cindy were walking down one stairwell as Miles was walking up another. As Alex and Cindy were leaving the dormitory, Miles was knocking on Alex and Trudy’s door.
When Trudy opened the door and saw who it was, she asked, “What’s up, Miles?”
“Where’s Alex?”
“She went with Cindy to help her find a Greek Mythology book.”
Miles, with a worried expression across his face, dreadingly asked, “Did they leave for the library?”
Trudy gave Miles a perplexed look before saying, “They did.” Trudy then saw the disgusted expression that appeared rapidly across Miles’ face. “Alex is going to find that book for her.”
“When did they leave?”
“Just a short time ago. I’m surprised you didn’t pass them in the hallway.”
“They must have gone down the other stairs. Come on, we have to warn Alex.”
“What are you talking about? Warn her about what?”
“Cindy is leading Alex into the library, so come on.”
As Miles made a gesture for Trudy to come with him, Trudy uttered, “Miles, wait! Tell me what you’re talking about.”
“I just saw Doug, Kenny, Brandy, Ben and Randy walking into the library and Randy had something in his hand… it could have been a remote. Now Cindy is leading Alex into the library.”
“Oh God; we have to get to Alex before something happens.”
“If you would have followed me when I said, we could have been halfway down the hall by now.”
Trudy grabbed Miles’ hand and as she began to pull him along she said, “Shut up and let’s go.”
9:02 A.M., at the library, Doug and the others were standing between the bookshelves and out of sight from the entrance. When Alex and Cindy walked in, Cindy pointed towards the bookshelf that held the mythology books before nervously saying, “I got this book from over there.”
Cindy saw that Alex was giving her a curious look before Alex said, “Let’s see if we can find the book.” After taking a couple of steps towards the shelf, Alex noticed how nervous Cindy was acting. “Are you all right, Cindy?”
In a snappy reply Cindy said, “Of course. Things couldn’t be better. Randy’s remote is supposed to be ready today and all of us can return to our home reality.” Alex abruptly stopped. Cindy stopped and looked at Alex. “Is there anything wrong?”
“You wouldn’t be looking for a specific book knowing that you’ll be returning to your own reality.”
As Alex was looking over the room, Cindy nervously asked, “What do you mean?”
Alex looked at Cindy before saying, “You made a good attempt, but I’m staying here.”
As Alex was turning to leave, Cindy grabbed Alex before crying out, “Doug, help! Alex knows!”
As Doug and the others rushed to help stop Alex from leaving, the librarian also walked towards Alex and Cindy to investigate the commotion.
Alex was just about to break free when Doug and Kenny ran up and grabbed hold of her.
“Alex, you’re not going anywhere so settle down,” Doug quickly said.
The librarian stepped up and demanded to know, “What’s going on here? Why are you holding this young lady?”
“This young lady is my sister, Alex, and she’s a kleptomaniac,” Doug said.
Alex gave Doug a surprised looked before blurting out, “What?!”
Cindy held up the mythology book that she had while saying, “I found this book in her possession and if you check your records, this book was reported missing yesterday.”
“And Alex was making such progress at getting better these last few months,” Doug added.
The librarian took the book before saying, “Hold her until I can check my records.”
As the librarian was walking away Alex said, “You guys are my friends and I can’t believe that even one of you would sink so low as to resort to this.”
Randy pulled out the remote that was preset to an address that he thought to be the correct one before saying, “Because you are our friend is why we resorted to this.”
“The book was actually checked out by my roommate, and I was returning it for her,” Brandy said. “We just told the librarian what we did so he would walk far enough away from us.”
“It’s time to go home,” Randy said.
Alex watched Randy’s thumb as he pressed the remote.
Sunday, November 7, at 9:06 A.M., in the reality Alpha 0.0.0.0.0.0.0, Randy and the others were in their respective rooms at the mental institution. As agreed upon by the parents, each one of them was being monitored by a camera. When each one of them fell to the floor unconscious at the exact same time, the staff members who were monitoring the cameras became overly alarmed. Dr. Jacob Tyson, Dr. Martin Adams and Dr. Barney Gray, the three psychiatrists who were assigned to their cases, were called in.
In Randy’s room, Randy was just waking up when Nurse Palmer and two orderlies rushed in. Both orderlies were holding the ends to a stretcher.
Randy noticed the white uniforms that they were wearing and as he was standing up, he asked, “Am I in some kind of hospital?”
“You are in a mental institution in Boston,” Nurse Palmer said.
The nurse saw the confused expression on Randy’s face just before he asked, “How long have I been in here?”
“Since the first time you blacked out at Harvard.” Nurse Palmer pointed to the monitor as she continued to say, “We were watching you and we watched you black out again. We were going to take you to the infirmary by a stretcher, but since you are awake and seem to be coherent you can follow me.”
Randy read the nurse’s name tag before saying, “That won’t be necessary, Nurse Palmer. There’s really nothing wrong with me.”
“Mr. Miller, I can give you a sedative and have you carried to the infirmary as I had originally planned,” Nurse Palmer pointed out.
“Now that you put it that way, let’s go.”
“I thought you would see it my way,” Nurse Palmer said before leaving the room. Randy followed behind her as the orderlies followed behind him.
As Randy, Nurse Palmer and the orderlies were walking down the hall, Randy asked, “Do you know anything about my friends, Alex, Doug, Kenny, Brandy, Ben and Cindy?” Nurse Palmer stopped walking and quickly faced him
with an astonished expression across her face. Randy and the orderlies had stopped walking as well. “Did I say anything wrong?”
“On the contrary. Until now, you haven’t acknowledged knowing them.”
“Do you know where they are?”
“They’re also in this facility.”
“Can I see them?”
“I can’t allow that right now, but I will inform Dr. Adams of your request. Now we need to get you to the infirmary and see if we can find the answer to why you had blacked out.”
“There’s nothing wrong with me, but let’s go and let your medical staff verify it.”
As everyone continued walking Nurse Palmer said, “There are a few patients here who feel that they don’t belong here.”
Randy gave Nurse Palmer a grin while slightly shaking his head. A minute later, Randy, Nurse Palmer and the orderlies were walking into the infirmary; however, before Randy was able to be examined, Doug, Kenny and Cindy also were being escorted into the infirmary.
Two hours later, Randy was being escorted to Dr. Adams’ office. Randy walked into the office alone and after he walked in Dr. Adams said, “Mr. Miller, please have a seat.” Dr. Adams watched Randy as he sat down. “Mr. Miller, two hours ago you and your friends had simultaneously fainted for no apparent reason in the same manner as all of you did at Harvard. The first time when all of you fainted, all of you remember events differently, and now after fainting again you remember everything has it had happened. I’m reluctant to call this a miracle…”
“It’s no miracle, Doctor.”
“You talk as though you know what happened.”
“I do know what happen. In fact, I’m the one who caused all of this.”
“What did you cause?”
“I’ll tell you, but you won’t believe me. And because you won’t believe me, I’ll most likely be in this facility for years while you and your staff try to convince me that what had happened was all in my head. However, what’s going to throw you into confusion is that all my friends will tell you a similar story.”
“Mr. Miller, what did you cause?”
“When my friends and I woke up the first time, was I found with a remote in my hand… or was there a remote near where I had fallen?”
“I have no knowledge of a remote, Mr. Miller.”
“Well, there should’ve been, and that remote was a device that I created to open up a wormhole that would take whoever who would enter into another reality. It worked, but unfortunately it didn’t work as I had planned.”
“Explain what you mean by, it didn’t work as you had planned.”
“A wormhole never opens, but what does happen is that me and the me from the selected reality would switch bodies. After pressing the remote the first time, I found myself in a Mexican jail cell…”
Randy continued to tell his story in great detail.
Chapter Eighteen
As Randy was telling his story to Dr. Adams, Dr. Gray opened the door to Alex’s padded room. Alex was sitting in the floor while wearing a straight jacket.
Alex looked up at Dr. Gray as he walked in before saying, “This straight jacket isn’t necessary.”
“I thought that about two weeks ago and when I had it removed, you put two bullets in your abdomen,” Dr. Gray said. “It was really short of a miracle that you even survived.”
“So Michelle was right.”
“Who is Michelle?”
Alex shook his head before saying, “She’s no one important. Doctor, there’s probably nothing I can say that would convince you that I won’t attempt to commit suicide. However, I will say though that I’m not the same Alex who had attempted suicide.”
“What do you mean?”
“You won’t believe me.”
“If you don’t tell me then you are not even giving me a chance to believe you.”
“All right. I will tell you everything.” Alex told Dr. Gray what had happened from the beginning to end.
As the days passed, the psychiatrists didn’t know what to make of the story that was told to them. The parents to Alex’s group were even called in.
Thursday, November 11, at 9:00 A.M., the parents were sitting in a conference room with the doctors and were told of the story.
After hearing the entire story Nicholas O’Brien said, “I’m also at a loss at what to make of the story, but there were some facts in Alex and Doug’s part of the story that I never told anyone.”
“What kind of facts, Mr. O’Brien?” Dr. Gray asked.
“When I was injured on the job and had to go to the hospital, a nurse was about to give me a shot that I was allergic to. However, before the nurse injected me with it she asked me if I was allergic to any medicine. When she asked, she asked me as if it was an afterthought. I can still remember the look on the nurse’s face when I told her what medicines that I was allergic to.”
“So the nurse almost gave you a shot that you were allergic to?” Dr. Adams asked.
“As I said, the nurse asked me only as an afterthought, and my mind wasn’t on that either, so yes if other realities are real, I might’ve been given that shot. And also like my sons’ story goes, I had taken out a life insurance policy and made Beverly the beneficiary.”
“Did Alex or Doug know any of that?” Dr. Gray asked.
“I was the only one who knew about any of it.”
After Nicholas spoke his piece, Cindy’s mother said, “Eighteen years ago, I came extremely close to going to an abortion clinic when I found out that I was pregnant with Cory.”
With a surprised expression across his face, Cindy’s father uttered, “What?!”
“We were separated and I didn’t want you to think that I was trying to get you to come back by saying that I was pregnant.”
“What stopped you from having an abortion?” Cindy’s dad asked.
“My mom told me as I was leaning towards an abortion that she had an abortion when I was about five years old. Having that abortion caused her to not be able to have any more kids. I saw the regret of that decision in my mom’s eyes, and I didn’t want that to be me in twenty years.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell me this?”
“I didn’t feel it was important enough to tell you.”
“Okay, obviously there are facts in your sons’ and daughters’ stories that are true to a degree, but for them to trade realities with their other selves from another reality sounds more like a science fiction story,” Dr. Tyson, the leading doctor, said.
“My sons knew about Avery Larson and his sister Melissa,” Beverly said. “They never met those two people before, and the story of how Avery and I would have gotten together if the reality of Nick dying would have come true does fit.”
“Dr. Gray, I believe my sons’ story and I would like them released,” Nick said.
“Mr. O’Brien, at this point in time, I don’t see that to be a wise move.”
“I don’t care. I want Doug and Alex released,” Nick said.
The parents of the others spoke up and said the same thing about their kids.
“Other than Alex, the others never displayed any dangerous tendencies towards themselves or towards others, so I have no problems with releasing them,” Dr. Tyson said. “I do have a problem with…”
Nick interrupted with, “I want Alex released also.”
“I really don’t see that as a wise decision,” Dr. Gray said.
“It is my final decision on this and if you don’t release Alex, I will be contacting a lawyer.”
Dr. Tyson sighed before saying, “Okay, Mr. O’Brien. Alex will be released; however, I strongly suggest that Alex… and even the others be placed in an out patient therapy treatment. My recommendation is for them to go to therapy at least once a week for the next eight weeks.”
“We’ll agree to that,” Beverly said. Beverly looked at Nick. “Right, honey.”
“Them going to therapy sounds like a reasonable suggestion and an alternative to staying here.”
&n
bsp; “Okay, give me about two hours to get the paper work in order and all of your sons and daughters will be released.”
11:35 A.M., outside near the entrance of the facility, Alex, Doug, Randy, Kenny, Ben, Cindy and Brandy were gathering for the first time in days as their parents were signing the papers.
Alex saw Doug and Randy walking up to him and when they stepped up, Doug asked, “So, bro? Are you mad at us for forcing you to return with us?”
Alex shook his head before saying, “Actually, I’m slowly returning to my former self. I mean I would have been okay if I was living my life in the other reality, but I am finding myself with my old opinions again… oh and my attraction to women is back.”
Brandy grinned before asking, “Are you certain about that?”
Alex grinned while saying, “I’m certain. In fact, there’s a beautiful nurse in there who I am definitely attracted to.” Alex pointed to a spot on the right side of his lip. “The nurse I’m talking about has a dark freckle right about here.”
“I saw her too and she is pretty,” Kenny agreed.
“Well, it sounds like you’re returning to normal,” Doug said.
“Alex, I heard that the other Alex attempted suicide while she was living your life,” Cindy said.
“That’s true,” Alex said. “I have half healed bullet wounds just below my rib cage. According to Dr. Gray, the other Alex came very close at committing suicide.”
“What would’ve happened to you if the other Alex had committed suicide?” Ben asked. “Would you have jumped along with us?”
Randy was the one to say, “No. Alex wouldn’t have jumped with us.”
“How can you be sure?” Brandy asked.
“Using the term Alternate Reality Traveler… or ART for someone who swaps realities, the only way an ART can swap realities is if the person traveling exists in both realities. In Alex’s case where he is a man in this reality and a woman in the other reality; the moment when Alex was conceived, the exact egg was fertilized in both realities, but by different sperm. The same would be true with all of us in other realities as well.”
“So there’s a reality out there that I wasn’t able to jump along with you guys, isn’t there?” Alex asked Randy.
A Crossed Reality Page 26