Door No. 8

Door Number Three - Alternate Realities (1)

"Have the lessons from yesterday's field trip reached you yet?" he asked, smiling politely.

"More than I care to process," she thought, still upset about the musts and the have to's, but she answered in the same good mannered vein. "A few, I'm still analyzing them."

"Just remember, before we go through door number three, that not every rule is there to be broken, but it helps, every now and then, to question your assumptions. It seems fitting, since we are on this subject, and given that all of these doors look more or less the same, to remind you of a rule that you shouldn't be breaking. Do you remember what I warned you about during our first encounter?"

"Don't go through door number eight," she recited, trying very hard to suppress an eye roll.

"You say that, but you don't believe it, not in your heart, anyway," he probed her with a sharp gaze, and then, not finding what he was looking for, continued, slightly disappointed. "Anyway, ready when you are," he took a bow, pointing towards the door.

"What's through there?"

"You."

They stepped through the door and found themselves back in her room and she didn't feel any different at first, she just noticed some slight alterations in her clothing and hairstyle, alterations that suggested a substantially heftier monthly allowance.

"So, what now?" she asked.

"Nothing, let's go out."

"Where are you taking me?" she smiled.

"I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise," he smirked. They walked in silence towards the library, whose recently finished addition glistened in the afternoon sun.

"Welcome to the Bradford Science Wing," he mock curtsied, very amused by her stunned expression.

"Any connection?" she asked him, remembering that among the plethora of weird that surrounded their interaction there was also the minor detail of their sharing a last name. She thought maybe he came from money.

"That's not exactly right, it's you who are an heiress, Miss Bradford."

"Get out of here!"

"You should be able to remember all the details of your life here. In this alternate time line that's who you've always been."

She did remember, her entire life so far, in fact, the schools she had gone to, her home, her vacations with her parents, the fact that her father was alive, the admission process, the perfection standards she had always held herself to, her pets, her friends, her plans for the future.

"But how?" she asked.

"Oh, I don't know, there are so many choices in our lives it's almost impossible to figure out what precise collection thereof led to this specific outcome. Do you remember that technological process your father was working on but never managed to get off the ground? That's Bradford Industries. Beyond that, I'm not sure. You would be surprised of the impact of even minor decisions. How do you feel?"

"I don't know, I'm still trying to get used to it. The same, I guess."

"You know, when I just started teaching this class I thought showing people idealized versions of their lives would be a mistake, that it would make them feel burdened by their current circumstances and disappointed with themselves. Imagine my surprise to learn that, even at their most privileged, in their heart they felt exactly the same. I heard it over and over again." He glanced at her to see if he should continue. "Although I must say that some people did decide to stay in the 'better' version."

Taylor kept ruminating as they walked around the library, to see the addition from all angles.

"The truth is I have to scour the alternate lives for hours, sometimes days, to find the particular stream where everything is as close to the standards of perfection people expect from existence as possible. More often than not lives are externally driven and random, and all of the things that can happen to somebody will happen in at least one of the streams."