Paul Melko: The Walls of the Universe

“Where did you get that?” John had never seen so much money. His bank account had no more than three hundred dollars in it.

Prime handed him the stack of cash. The twenties were crisp, the paper smooth-sticky. “There’s got to be two thousand dollars here.”

“Yep.”

“It’s from another universe, isn’t it? This is counterfeit.”

“It’s real money. And no one in this podunk town will be able to tell me that it’s not.” Prime pulled a twenty out of his own pocket. “This is from your universe. See any differences?”

John took the first twenty off the stack and compared it to the crumpled bill. They looked identical to him.

“How’d you get it?”

“Investments.” Prime’s smile was ambiguous.

“Did you steal it?”

Prime shook his head. “Even if I did steal it, the police looking for it are in another universe.”

John forced aside a wave of panic. Prime had his fingerprints, his looks, his voice. He knew everything there was to know about John. Prime could rob a bank or kill someone and then escape to another universe, leaving John holding the bag. All the evidence of such a crime would point to him, and there was no way he could prove that he was innocent.

Would Prime do such a thing? He had called John his brother. In a sense they were identical brothers. And Prime was letting John use his device, in effect stranding him in this universe. That took trust.

“Twenty-four hours,” Prime said. “Think of it as a vacation. A break from all this shit with Ted Carson.”

The lure of seeing another universe was too strong. “You pick apples with my father tomorrow. If he doesn’t suspect anything, then maybe I’ll take the trip.”

“You won’t regret it, John.”

“But you have got to promise not to mess anything up!”

Prime nodded. “That’s the last thing I’d want to do, John.”

Prime was sprawled in the loft. A hay straw clung to the side of his face.

John nudged him in the thigh.

He jerked awake clutching at his chest as if he were having a heart attack. No, John realized, Prime was reaching for the device, still strapped to his chest under his clothes.

“Damn, it’s early,” Prime said, brushing at his hair.

“Don’t let my dad hear you cursing,” John said.

“Right, no cursing.” Prime stood, stretching. “Apple picking? I haven’t done that… in a while.”

“It couldn’t have been that long ago,” John said. “A year? You’ll remember soon enough.”

“Yeah.”

Prime peered out a small window. John could hear his father puttering out to the orchard on the tractor.

“What’s up between you and your dad? Anything heavy?” Prime asked.

John took off his coat and handed it to Prime, taking his in return. John shook his head. “We talked last night about the Carson thing. He wanted me to write the letter.”

“So that’s it. What about your mother?”

“She was pissed with me before. She still may be. We haven’t talked since Thursday.”

“Anything happening this afternoon?” Prime took a pencil out and started jotting things down.

“Nothing until tomorrow. Church, then chores. Muck the stalls. Homework. But I’ll do that.”

“What’s due for Monday?”

“Reading for physics. Essay for English on Gerard Manley Hopkins. Problem set in calculus. That’s it.”

“What’s your class schedule like?”

John began to tell him, then shook his head. “Why do you need to know that? I’ll be back.”

“In case someone asks.”

“No one’s gonna ask.” John pulled Prime’s jacket on after struggling to get his arms through the right holes. Why were there no sleeves? he wondered. He used his binoculars to gaze out at the sun-filled orchard. “I’ll watch from here. If anything goes wrong, you pretend to be sick and come back to the barn. You’ll brief me and then we switch back.”

Prime smiled. “Nothing’s gonna happen. Relax.” He pulled on gloves and climbed down the ladder. “See ya at lunch.”

John’s hands shook as he watched Prime walk across the barnyard toward the orchard. What had he gotten himself into? And yet the mystery of it was a magnet and he was the iron filings. He had to understand what this John was about. It was a conundrum.

Prime cast a glance over his shoulder and smiled, while John watched with his binoculars. He raised his hand and waved at John’s father.

John’s father barely glanced at Prime, and said something.

Prime nodded, then gripped a branch and pulled himself into the tree. His foot missed a hold, and he slipped.

“Careful there,” John heard himself say.

Prime made it into the tree and began pulling apples. He said something and John’s father laughed in reply. John felt a twinge of jealousy as he watched his father laugh. He wondered what Prime had said. Then John realized that if his father was laughing at Prime’s jokes, there was no danger of being found out.

The precarious nature of John’s situation bothered him. Effectively, Prime was him. And he was… nobody. Would it be that hard for someone to slip into his life? He realized that it wouldn’t. He had a few immediate relationships, interactions that had happened within the last few weeks that were unique to him, but in a month those would all be absorbed into the past. He had no girlfriend. No real friends, except for Erik, and that stopped at the edge of the court. The hardest part would be for someone to pick up John’s studies, but even that wouldn’t be too hard. All his classes were a breeze, except for Advanced Physics, and they were starting a new module on Monday. It was a clear breaking point.

John wondered what he would find in another universe. Would there be different advances in science? Could he photocopy a scientific journal and bring it back? Maybe someone had discovered a unified theory in the other universe. Or a simple solution to Fermat’s last theorem. Or… But what could he really do with someone else’s ideas? Publish them under his own name? Was that any different from Prime’s scheme to get rich with Rubik’s Square, whatever that was? He laughed and picked up his physics book. He needed to stay caught up in this universe. They were starting quantum mechanics on Monday after all.

“Here’s lunch.”

John looked up from the physics book, startled.

Prime handed John a sandwich.

“You went inside?” John asked, alarmed. “You weren’t supposed to go inside.”

Prime shrugged. “Your mom didn’t notice either.”

John took the sandwich. Prime looked different. He was covered in sap, there was a scratch on his cheek, and his clothes were grimy. “You look happy,” John said.

Prime started. He looked down at himself, then smiled. “It felt good. I haven’t done that in a while.”

Around a bite of sandwich, John said, “You’ve been gone a long time.”

“Yeah,” Prime said. “You don’t know what you have here. Why do you even want to go to college?”

John laughed. “It’s great here for the first fifteen years; then it really begins to drag.”

“I hear you.”

John handed Prime his jacket. “What will I see in the next universe?”

Prime caught his eye. “So you’re gonna take me up on the offer?” he asked.

John thought about it for a moment longer. He had to know whether Prime was a crackpot or the giver of a fabulous gift. If Prime was nuts, John had lost nothing and could go about getting rid of him. If Prime’s device worked, the whole universe was open to him.

“Yeah, I think so. Tell me what I’ll see.”

“It’s pretty much like this one, you know. I don’t know the exact differences.”

“So we’re-one of us, I mean-in the next universe?”