Sci-Fi Short Story
The “Proof” of the Multiverse
If it Looks Like a Duck….
“I have proof that the multiverse exists.” Came the voice from across the street. It was my crazy neighbour, Victor. I always dreaded garbage day, as I had to wheel my bins out in front of my house. There I was exposed — naked — for my friend from over the road to buttonhole me and talk my ear off for the next two hours.
I looked at him and smiled. He was already halfway over to my side of the avenue. Fortunately, our street is not busy, as I’m sure he hadn’t checked for traffic. “Victor, so nice to see you, brother.” I greeted him. I’m sure he is insane, but my conversations with Victor were always interesting. “What was that about the multiverse?”
Victor was breathless as he reached the sanctuary of the curb in front of my house. He shook my hand and patted me on the back. “Good to see you, my old friend. I’ve missed you over the last few weeks. Where have you been — it seems your bins magically appear every Tuesday morning?”
To avoid such meetings, I strategically put my bins out late on Monday evenings. But last night, I got home a little too late, and it was a bit too chilly. My hedonistic ways had now directly led to this situation. With my ears and face turning red, I quickly changed the subject. “The multiverse — did you say you had proof?”
Victor’s eyes lit up as the words left my mouth.
“Yes, yes! Absolutely.” He exclaimed as he waved his phone about. “Andrew, I have the proof right here.”
“So, Victor. Fancy a coffee?” I put my right hand on his back while extending my left towards the front door — welcoming him inside. He quickly nodded, and with that, we retreated to the warmth of my home.
Coincidently, the kettle was already boiling. I was planning to have a coffee before getting down to work — not a chance now. Victor had already ensconced himself in his usual chair at the head of my dining table. “Brazilian Latte?” I asked. His face was beaming as he nodded. It was his usual — a pre-mix coffee I kept on hand for such occasions. He liked it rich, so I doled out five and a half teaspoons into his favourite mug and added the scalding water — stirring it vigorously. A seductive coffee aroma filled the air. I loved this part of the morning.
With my black coffee prepared, I joined Victor at the table and placed his mug before him.
With the steam slowly rising like a charmed snake from his latte, he held out his phone. It was a washed-out image of — something? Victor enlightened me, “Andrew, it’s an image of the large-scale structure of the Universe. It’s from a massive simulation by the Max Planck Institute.” Victor sniffed his latte and savoured the fragrance with his eyes closed as an expectant smile broke across his face. He took a satisfied sip after a few blows to cool the brew.
I pinched the image wider, zooming in on the detail. It became clear — I’d seen this image before. It was exquisite. The picture showed a blue network of fibres, with the various areas being yellow, indicating high concentrations of matter. This was the structure of the Universe at a vast scale — whole Galaxies had been reduced to pixels. It looked a little like the brain’s axons forming a neural network. “I see it, but what’s it to do with the multiverse?” I asked.
He held up a sponge — the thing you use to wash the dishes and wipe the bench.
I blinked, “What?”.
Victor brought the sponge and the image on his phone closer until they were side by side. “See any resemblance?” He asked.
My eyes darted between the two. Yes, I could see some similarities. The voids were ragged at the edges. The tendrils of material went from wide to thin and wide again. The overall structure was very similar — I’d not noticed it before.
“Ah, Andrew. I see you comprehend.” Victor elaborated as he looked at my face. “Can you imagine — the whole Universe reduced to a giant cleaning implement of God!” He jumped up from the table and walked across to the kitchen. With a flourish, he said, “Let there be light!” and wetted the sponge under the faucet. He quickly turned and used the sponge to wipe the benchtop. “The Hubble constant is due to the pressure and acceleration I apply.” He continued explaining, “And the big crunch, well….” He wrung the sponge dry over the sink, “That’s when God’s finished cleaning.”
It was brilliant but totally loony! I was dumbfounded — stuck for words, as my brain struggled to catch up with his insane mind.
He quizzically looked at the sponge, “Can you envisage those poor little physicists and cosmologists stuck in that world, trying to suss that all out? Obviously, for them, time passes much slower. For God, he’s just cleaning the bench, but for those guys, it’s billions of years.
Victor sat down and took a big gulp of his latte. He looked like a lawyer who had made a slam-dunk proposition before the judge while resting his case. “Got any chocolate chip cookies?” He added, looking around expectantly.
To be honest, in the days and weeks after Victor’s demented proposition had seeped into my consciousness, I did start to enjoy washing up and cleaning the kitchen. I began imagining I had galactic powers, as I held the ultimate fate of the Universe, er, um, sponge in my hands. I guess somewhere deep inside everyone, a closet dictator is lurking.
“I’m sorry, Victor. I’m all out of chocolate chip cookies.” I said. He looked a little disappointed as he continued to drink his latte. I added, “That’s a fascinating theory, by the way.” My mind had finally caught up with the conversation. “So you’re basing all of this on how a sponge resembles the texture of the large-scale Universe?” Victor nodded.
“So I’m following your argument, but how do you get to the proof of the multiverse from this point?” I asked innocently.
Victor looked at me nonplussed — as if I was a half-wit. “Of course, it’s a multiverse! Everyone knows you can’t buy a single sponge in the store. They always sell them in six-packs! Ergo — the Multiverse is real.”
Thank goodness he’d finished his latte — time to go HOME.
There are two points I want to make clear.
Point one: This is a work of fiction — I don’t own a dining table.
Point two: I would very much like to own a dining table! To do that, they tell me that this story needs to go “VIRAL”. So, I need your help as outlined below.
Before you read this story, make sure you are not wearing a face mask. After reading, do not wash your hands. Then make sure you shake hands with every one of your friends, sneaking in a cough when no one is looking. Together, by following these simple steps, we should be able to achieve community spread of this STORY within the general population, thereby making it VIRAL.
Copyright ©2023 by Andrew Dart All Rights Reserved.
Thank you for getting this far, and I hope you enjoyed the story. I wish you a perfect morning, afternoon, or evening, wherever you are in the World.
If you want to read some of my other Science Fiction stories, you can check them out in my library here.
