Challenges: SciFi Short Stories

Bird Brain

Autumn sunset reflects on the fallen golden leaves, dazzling the eyes of chestnut chasers, left to rely on sole's feeling and spiky bogues crushing sound. Among them, two people in scientific attire, white dirty doctor's coat, washed blue dirty pant, sandals. They rush into the deep of the forest, complaining on every painful step.

"Doc! Are we here yet?" says the taller, younger, candid eyes, brown afro, man.

"We just arrived, Junior. Look at your feet, and behold! The door of the MUL-TI-VERSE" answers with a inappropriate deep voice, the smaller, older, sparkling eyes, white disheveled haired, man.

"That beaten, time stained, termite holed, door? I already told you that I was tired by your jokes Doc. Please tell me, we didn't drive for hours, and walk for minutes in this spiky hell, just to... Oh, I can feel my sanity leaving my body"

"Me, joking! We are here at the peak of an unfathomable discovery! The whole world knows of the existence of multiverse, every days some people disappear while others rise from the dust, claiming worlds so similar, yet at eons away from us. But from all this knowledge, nobody can explain how to jump from a universe to another! And here it is, now, right here, the door of the MUL-TI-VERSE!"

"For real?"

"fr bruh, as younglings says. Squint eyes! Take a better look!"

Junior applies the recommendations, and letters start to emerge from the door and form the sentence "Door of the MUL-TI-VERSE".

"Doc, I see it! But wait, Is English the common language across universe?"

"Try read it in another language."

Junior wishes it, and under his marvelled eyes, the words change and unravel a new scripture "Porte du MUL-TI-VERSE". He falls off, looking at Doc for an explanation.

"See, my dear Junior. All visitors, yet unable to explain their crossing, had one common point, a strong wish for a change. A door, an elevator, a tunnel, a comfy bed, falling from the sky, or just two wooden sticks in the sand, the multiverse opened in front of them. As the beauty dwells in the eye of the beholders, the universe shifts in the mind of the dreamers. Now, lift the door and let's start the experiment."

Junior obeys, lifts the door, begins to clean up the few dead leaves, but accidentally remove a chunk of moth-eaten wood which puts an end to his unnecessary actions. Doc smiles, and nods for him to proceed.

"Here I go!" Junior opens the door, the frame gets stuck on his afro, a few nods later, drops it on the bed of chestnuts, looks behind him. Doc is still here, watching him scrupulously, the place is perfectly identical. "Oh my... I had enough! This joke has been going for too long."

"What do you mean, a joke? This is a success!" answers Doc, with a big smile. "You are Junior, but not my Junior. A Junior from another universe?"

"Yeah, right. I am from another universe, and I will give you a multiverse beating."

"Wait, wait," Doc gets on his knees "don't you trust me... Remember the door's hieroglyph? Maybe this universe is too close from where you came from. Why don't you try jumping to another, and see for yourself."

Junior calms down, silently lifts the door again.

"That's my boy!" shouts with enthusiasm the Doc, "Open the door of the MUL-TI-VERSE!"

Junior opens the door, again, the frame gets stuck on his afro, again, a few nods later, again, drops it on the bed of chestnuts, looks behind him. The place as it was never left, Doc is laughing out loud.

"Incredible, like they said, third time's a charm. I didn't expect to behold another alternate Junior. So how is your universe? Does your chestnut have spiky bogues too?"

Junior, eyes spitting hatred, lifts the door, slams the dead leaves.

"Doc, you know what? Like you said. Third time's a charm. Then, I will open the door again and wishes that, in the next universe, you never existed!"

The ritual repeats itself, the door falls in on the dead leaves, place identical, but Junior is alone, overwhelmed by the silence of the forest. For the first time, the fact that he was jumping between universes occurred to him. He began to run in haste, with his sloppy sandals over the nature carpet of spikes, towards the parking, screaming alternately in pain or anger. But the car was not here, so he kept running along the road, the sun has set, the moon has risen, lights of the city washing on the horizon, the slumber catches up with him, he falls, eyes close.

Eyes open, lying on the couch, a familiar ceiling, and the big head of Doc enters his field of vision and makes him jump in fear.

"Ha! Help!" shouts Junior in panic, unbuttoned shirt, until he recognizes Doc's house interior, and Doc handing him a glass of milk, that he chugs in one gulp.

"Come on, Junior. I am no kidnapper but who are you trying to bait, lying on the road like a dead pigeon? We were casually experimenting moult tiredness at the birdhouse, and pop! You disappeared... By the way, you should see a doc for those bites on your chest, kinda nasty."

Junior looks at his chest but finds nothing different. Doc points with his two fingers, tickling the air.

"My nipples?" answer Junior.

"Ripples? More a circle, than waves."

"You are all nipples-less in this universe?"

"Last time I checked my ID, I was not Nepalese. You got brain damage? Come on, drink another glass of milk, you loved it."

"Oh, no! Where did it come from?"

"Cow? Where else, my boy."

"Where?"

"Where...? Where... The other way, you know. Hey... I don't need to explain you how it works, and we have work to do this afternoon. Ready yourself, and no disappearing tricks this time"

Junior is disgusted, he tries to vomit but his tired body refuses to expel.

"I need to return to my universe, I wish to meet the old Doc!" he murmured while squinting at the front door. Suddenly cracks form on it, shaping the letters into a sentence "Door of the MUL-TI-VERSE".

"Bye Doc! I am going to another universe." says Junior, the hand on the handle of the front door.

"And don't forget to take a shower, before coming back." answers Doc, with a glass of milk in the hand and a milk moustache.

The door opens, scratches Junior's afro, and closes behind him.

Doc's car is still parked crooked, neighbour houses aligned like dominoes, while children are playing under the Autumn sun, destroying the piles of dead leaves made by city workers, under the gazes of exhausted, or drunk, parents.

Junior turns around, the scripture were not visible on the front door any more. He opens it, and see the Doc laying on the couch.

"Hi Doc!"

"Oh, Incredible! Junior, is that you? The real one, not a multiverse one?" jumps Doc, rushing to shake his hands and confirm its genuineness, "Come on! Sit down. Have a glass of milk!"

Junior drinks, with a grin of satisfaction.

"Finally Home."

"So, how are the other universes?" asks the Doc with glowing eyes, that could light in the dark.

"Mostly the sames, yet totally differents. There is one where nipples doesn't exist."

"For real? Damn. So our local nipples-less Nepalese buffaloes get milked differently in another universe? Who cares! if it's good, it's good! Was it?"

"No comment" shivers Junior.