Image by Игорь Левченко from Pixabay When your lookalike inadvertently causes trouble, sometimes you have to travel to her world and fill in for her temporarily. At least until she returns and the balance in the universe is restored. I had five days to find her and bring her back. I didn’t know anything about my double except her address. She lived in a college dorm. I jiggled the doorknob. Darn! Locked. I sat down to wait. A few minutes later a woman around my age arrived and saw me. Her brow furrowed and a moment later recognition dawned on her and she smiled at me. “Kala?” she asked. “What are you doing outside?” “I got locked out.” “Well, lucky for you I’m here.” She fished a key out of her pocket and unlocked the door. “I have a spare,” she handed me the key. “Thanks.” We both went in. “What are roommates for?” she grinned. I stood there, taking in the layout of the unfamiliar dorm. “Your hair’s different,” she said. “Did you get extensions?” “Yes, do you like it?” I ran a hand through my hair, hoping she didn’t realize my long hair was real. “It’s nice to vary it,” she smiled, then headed to her room. I assumed the other room was Kala’s so I went in and shut the door. Then I began to search. I didn’t even know what Kala looked like or what her personality was like. I was just guessing as I went along. I hoped I hadn’t raised any red flags with the roommate. I went to the desk and found Kala’s wallet and driver’s license. Could she have left these things because she wanted to intentionally leave this world behind? All I knew was that Kala had disappeared from this Earth and needed to return within five days. Otherwise, the universe would begin to unravel. As Guardian, I could travel across the Unisphere whenever I wished, guarding it and making sure it stayed in balance. From the license photo, Kala had chin-length black hair and brown eyes. Yeah, she looked a lot like me, other than the hair. My hair was longer than Kala’s, reaching my mid-upper back. Maybe I needed to do something about it. If I went to Kala’s classes and her teachers or classmates saw me, they might wonder how Kala’s hair had grown so much overnight. Or they might not notice or care. I found Kala’s schedule and walked to the university, making sure I had a backpack and supplies with me. No time for a haircut; I’d have to wait until after classes. Imagine me, the Guardian, going to a university! As the Guardian, I had access to the Room of Knowledge. So I pretty much knew everything there was to know about the universe. It wasn’t like I knew everything at once. The knowledge kind of came and went, but it was always there when I needed it. But I had no idea how to act like Kala. The woman had disappeared and I had to fill in for her until she was found. Kala, Kala, I muttered to myself. Where have you gone? I hurried to the physics class and found a seat near a window. “Would any of you like to explain the modern double slit experiment?” the professor asked. I needed to lie low, but unfortunately my hand was up before I knew it. The professor did a double take when he saw my hand raised. I cringed inside. It was possible that Kala wasn’t usually someone who spoke up in class. “Kala, please enlighten us,” the professor said. “And feel free to draw on the board if you’d like to show us.” I couldn’t resist. I walked over to the board and picked up the marker. “The modern double slit experiment involves two slits, here and here.” I drew two doorways. “Imagine two doors. Let’s take light particles, for example. When photons are sent through these doors, they go through both and interfere with each other, resulting in a pattern like a ripple effect. But, when someone is observing…” I drew an eye. “…the photons pick one door to go through and you get this instead of the ripple effect.” I drew a line. “And so this shows us that having someone there watching actually influences whether the photons go through just one door or both.” “Very good,” the professor said. I returned to my seat. I knew all about the Observer. She had called me to be Guardian a few months ago. I had gladly accepted the offer. As Guardian, I was a talented dreamwhisker. Using a dream as a portal to another world. That’s how I’d come to the Central Earth. Little did anyone know that the double slit experiment helped explain parallel worlds and dimensions. I was Arys, Kala’s double. After Physics, I went to Chemistry. Once again I couldn’t resist and mentioned how the atoms are like a little universe. Universes were all around us. I shut my mouth when the other students started giving me strange looks. Finally I returned to Kala’s dorm and went in. After putting together a sandwich from the meager items I found in the fridge, I ate and then resumed my investigation. No one was home and I searched Kala’s room thoroughly, taking mental notes as I went. Where had Kala gone? If she didn’t return, I would have to stay here to keep the universe balanced as well as I could. But I couldn’t stay here forever. All I knew was that Kala was no longer on this Earth. One day down. Four days to go. I needed help. And I knew just whom to call. * That night, I entered my dreams and called to my boyfriend, Flame, to assist me. He appeared in my dream and we talked at length. He was nicknamed Flame because of his fiery, orange hair. “I’m coming over there to check her items. Maybe she left some clues,” he said. Flame’s special power allowed him to sense feelings and emotions. The next morning, I found Flame sitting at Kala’s desk. I filled him in on what was happening. “Wait, so Kala’s gone and you only have five days to find her and bring her back? And if you don’t, the universe starts to unravel?” “Exactly.” “Why would the universe unravel just because of one person?” his brow furrowed in confusion. “Because each world has an anchor person. All the anchors have to be in their place. Kala happens to be the anchor person of this Earth. Remove one anchor and everything falls apart.” “What determines who the anchor is?” “It’s random. The way it works is that each person is an anchor somewhere in the Unisphere, and there are no two doubles who are both anchors. This is how the balance is kept through the universes.” “So there’s another one of me who’s an anchor somewhere?” Flame asked in interest. “Yes, but don’t ask me where. I’ve no idea. There are so many parallel worlds that only the Observer knows them all,” I smiled. “If I were the Observer, I’d get a headache every day,” Flame laughed. “Same here,” I grinned. * “I found her diary,” Flame said. “I’m going to see what emotions come from it.” “Why not just read it?” I asked. “Emotions speak stronger,” he said. I watched as he put his left hand over the diary and closed his eyes in concentration. A moment later his brow furrowed and he rubbed his temples with his other hand. Several minutes later, Flame gasped as if something had struck him. His chair tipped backwards and he crashed to the floor. “Flame!” I hurried over and helped him up. “I’m all right,” he sat up, and I saw tears slide down his cheeks. I wiped them away. “She feels like a failure,” he said, a tremor in his voice. “That’s why she left. She feels like no matter what she does, nobody accepts her for who she is. She’s never enough for anyone. She’s incomplete. She’s doomed to failure.” “Do you know where she might have gone?” I asked. “I can think of only one place,” he said. “Dyzten.” I gasped. Dyzten was a peaceful planet. A utopia. It was almost impossible to leave once you visited. It was so perfect that nobody wanted to return home after having been there. Sometimes we’d have to erase someone’s memory to take them back to their own world and restore the balance. “She was in so much mental and emotional pain,” Flame rubbed the sides of his head as if he had a headache. “I think I need to lie down for a bit. Emotions are very powerful things.” * Kala kept loads of diaries, and they didn’t have any dates written on them for some reason. So we didn’t know which diary was the most recent. But Flame found the diary that packed the biggest emotional punch. We read through the diary: I have a deep sorrow inside of me that can’t be extinguished. It’s in the deepest parts of me. Way down deep in the recesses of my mind. Something that tells me this place is temporary. It’s not my eternal home. I need clarity, perspective, light. I want light in the darkness. All I see is the starless night. I don’t know what direction I should go. I’m just wandering endlessly in this maze of hurt. I don’t want to be here anymore. I wish to go somewhere else. I want to go where I will be free. Imagine a world where all are free. Truly free. Their minds are free. Does such a place exist? I lack all. I call myself the president of mistakes. The captain of failure. The lonely, misunderstood one. I wish I knew my life’s path. Am I doing anything right? The road ahead is lonely and uncertain. And frightening. I hate not knowing. I hate the uncertainty. I wish I knew the future of my life. Then I could make the right decision instead of endless mistakes. I don’t want to mess things up anymore than they already are. I dreamed of a beautiful utopia. Where things like fear don’t exist. I wish that place was real. But it was only a dream. My dreams are getting more vivid now. I keep seeing the same place- the utopia- when I dream. A woman has showed up in my dream and is telling me that the place is real. Is she real? I don’t know. I’m sure it’s just a dream. My imagination is really working overtime. Today I saw the dream guide again. I still don’t know her name. She introduce a new word to me: Unisphere. The Unisphere is everything that exists- all the universes. * I breezed through Kala’s homework on the theory of relativity, the answers coming to me quickly and easily through my connection to the Room of Knowledge. I loved having this ability. When I’d become Guardian, this ability had been a gift granted to me. Flame read Kala’s diary and found out she’d dreamed about Dyzten and dreamwhisked there. It was confirmed. “How in the world did she learn how to dreamwhisk?” I wondered. “Maybe it was a subconscious connection to you,” Flame said. “Sometimes people share in the life journey of their doubles.” “The collective unconscious, perhaps,” I said. That would explain it. After this day’s classes, I came back to the dorm, shut the bedroom door and went into a trance. The roommate had been home when I’d arrived, and she was puzzled when she saw Flame. “He’s my lab partner,” I told her. “We’re working on a project together.” “That’s so unlike you,” her brow furrowed. “You usually go to the library, not your room. And you’ve never brought a guy here before. Ever. What is going on? Why are you acting so strange?” I groaned inwardly. “All right, I’ll tell you,” I whispered conspiratorially. She leaned in to hear better. “I think I'm in love!” I whispered. “I’m hoping my lab partner becomes more than just a lab partner.” She smiled. “Well, I’m glad you found a potential boyfriend.” “After we finish our project, he’s staying over for dinner. And then I’m planning to confess my love to him,” I continued whispering. “So I’d prefer to not be disturbed this entire day. Now… I suppose I could go to the library but I don’t want any eavesdroppers…” “Got it,” she laughed. “I have to go study in the library anyway. See you later!” She left. I sighed in relief. That would keep her occupied for a while. Hopefully. I didn’t know what I’d tell Kala when she returned. I hoped I wasn’t making things difficult for her. “What was that all about?” Flame asked, coming over. “Kala’s roommate was suspicious, so I made up a story about a love confession.” * “It’s me Arys,” I contacted Aileen through my dream. Aileen was my double from the Northern Universe. “I need your help. Kala has gone to Dyzten. I’m here keeping her place and the universe balanced. Would you mind coming here to the Central Universe and keeping Kala’s place? I have to leave for Dyzten and am planning to have her back soon. I don’t want her life to be disrupted. It will probably be for a couple of days at most.” “I'll be right there,” Aileen said excitedly before vanishing from the dreamscape. The next morning she was sitting at Kala’s desk. Flame had left yesterday and returned to his universe. I gave Aileen the schedule and dorm key. “Thanks,” Aileen smiled. She looked through Kala’s clothes and exchanged her own clothes for Kala’s. “I want to look the part,” she said. After seeing a photo of Kala, Aileen tied her hair in a ponytail and tried to hide its length. Aileen looked like Kala too, but her hair reached her mid-back and she was a little taller. Hopefully no one would notice. “Maybe they’ll think it was a growth spurt,” she grinned. “Or you could blame it on the shoes,” I added. As soon as Aileen went out the door, I entered a trance-like state and traveled to Dyzten. * Dyzten was one of my favorite worlds in the Unisphere. It was true, once you went there it was so hard to leave because the planet had world peace. I remembered the time when Aileen had gone to Dyzten for a mission and then it had taken a lot of convincing for her to return. The same was happening to Kala. I saw the blue and purple light swirling around in the dream and I jumped into the vortex. I traveled through many light years and soon awoke on the shore of Dyzten. I stood up and began walking. A woman about my age saw me. “Hi, I’m looking for Kala,” I said. “She’s over in that blue house,” the woman smiled. “I’m Deerflame. Nice to meet you.” The inhabitants of this world had very interesting names. I knocked on the door. Kala answered and gawked at me. She was speechless. “I’m Arys. I’m here to talk to you.” I brushed a strand of hair out of my eyes. Kala stood there for a moment, as if not knowing what to do. “You look like me,” she said. “That’s right,” I said. “I am you, but from another universe.” Kala looked me up and down, then stepped aside to let me in. We sat on the couch and I noticed a Chess board on the coffee table. Several cats entered the room and meowed. A rabbit hopped onto the couch, and I spied a deer in the kitchen, eating from a plate of veggies. “Kala, I’m Guardian of the Unisphere and it’s my job to keep the Unisphere in balance. Right now, the Earth you’re from is out of balance.” “Why?” she narrowed her eyes at me. “Because you’re not there,” I said. “You’re missing.” “Earth doesn’t need me,” she said. “I go where I please.” “How did you learn to dreamwhisk?” I asked her. “I’m not sure,” she said. “I guess I was at my lowest point and I wanted so badly to find peace. Next thing I knew, in my dream, a guide gave me a hint and I figured it out.” So that was it. Her dream guide had taken pity on her and taught her to dreamwhisk. That was against the rules. I made a mental note to talk to that dream guide later. “The point of dreamwhisking is not to do what you want, but to help the universe,” I told her. “The universe doesn’t need my help,” Kala said. “All it does is cut me down and make me feel insignificant. I’m failing at everything.” “What do you mean?” I asked. “I’m a failure at life in general,” Kala wiped a tear from her eye. She picked up the rabbit and set it in her lap. Then she fed it some lettuce. “I prefer it here. Just me and the animals. And my friends. And peace all the time,” she said. “Did you know everything on this planet is free? Also, you can have any career you want. You can even create your own. I took on the task of taking care of these animals.” This was bad. She had become so attached to this planet in such a short time. In fact, I was amazed at how quickly she had adapted to it. Usually it was a shock to go to a different world. “How did you find out about Dyzten?” I asked. “I saw it in my dreams. Many times. When I was at my lowest, I glimpsed this place and came back to it again and again in my dreams. Then I dreamed of this girl who told me I could travel there for real. I didn’t believe her at first. But then she showed me how.” “Kala, have you ever heard of an anchor?” I asked. “Like an anchor for a ship?” “Kind of. There’s an anchor for each world. A person.” “Oh.” “When an anchor person leaves their world, it causes that world to go out of balance and tips the universe towards chaos.” “I see,” she said. “You are the anchor of your Earth.” “What?!” her mouth opened in shock. Nothing came out of it. “We have a few days to get you back or the universe will begin to unravel. Your Earth needs you.” “Can someone else be the anchor? I wish to pass it on.” “No, only one lookalike can be an anchor. If we passed it on to someone else, it wouldn’t work, because then there would be two anchors of that person. The universe would be out of balance.” “So what happens if I stay on Dyzten?” Kala asked. “I mean, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with staying here. I don’t want to go back to Earth. I prefer this place. Is is possible I could switch anchors with one of my lookalikes? You’re my double. Why don’t you become the anchor?” “I can’t because I’m the Guardian,” I told her. “Well, maybe there’s a double of me on Dyzten,” she said. “There isn’t,” I said. “Dyzten is an exception. It’s different from other planets. But there is a way to find out what would happen if you stayed on Dyzten. Have you seen the Oracle yet?” I asked. Kala shook her head. “Come with me,” I told her. We went out the door and headed to the Oracle. It was a beautiful fountain in the middle of the town, crystal blue water flowing from it in waves. “The Oracle shows you the result of your choices. You can ask to see anything you wish,” I told her. “It can show you what would happen if you don’t return to your Earth. I’ll leave you alone with the Oracle. I’ll be right over here.” I sat on a bench several feet away to give her privacy. I watched as Kala stared into the water and whispered. She closed her eyes and entered a meditative trance. After a half hour her eyes opened and I saw tears glistening along her cheeks. She walked past me without a word, and I stood up and followed her. “What did you see?” I asked. “Chaos,” she said, sniffling. “Everywhere. No peace anywhere. Dyzten was no more. It only exists when the universe is balanced. So me being here actually puts it in danger.” She glanced down and wiped her eyes with her sleeve. Then she gave a sad sigh. “Which means that I can’t stay here.” Her voice trembled at the end. She sounded so forlorn and anguished that I went over and gently put my arm around her. “Why?” she asked. “Why does me coming here move the universe out of balance? Even if I’m an anchor, I’m insignificant.” “You may want to talk to the Observer,” I told her. “Who’s that?” she asked. “The entity who oversees the Unisphere. You’ll meet her soon.” * I let Kala dreamwhisk with me to the center point of the Unisphere, the place where the Observer resided. It was like being in a bubble in the middle of space, surrounded by stars and galaxies in the distance. You couldn’t see where you walked other than foggy swirls. It was like walking through fog that came up to your knees. Kala gazed around at the starry night sky, surrounding us on all sides. We stood over a silver platform, a glittering fountain of water in the middle. A dazzling woman wearing a shimmering blue gown was gazing into the fountain. She had silver hair and deep blue eyes and seemed to be in her 30s. There was something powerful about her. She exuded power and elegance and we looked at her in awe. “Kala, Arys,” she greeted us, beckoning us over. Her voice had the power of the ocean waves and also a musical quality to it. “Kala would like to speak with you,” I said. The woman smiled and took Kala’s hand. “I am the Observer,” she said. “I am glad you are here.” “I don’t understand why the universe is unbalanced without me on Earth,” Kala said. “There are billions of people on the planet. So why me?” “My dear, you are the anchor of your planet, also known as the Perceiver,” the Observer smiled. “That’s why the Earth tilts into chaos when you’re gone. We need you back there to restore the balance. Otherwise chaos will descend on the entire Unisphere.” “Yes, I witnessed all that at the Oracle,” Kala looked down in sorrow. The Observer placed a gentle hand on Kala’s shoulder. “Kala, I want to show you something,” she said. I followed as the two of them entered two grand doors that had materialized out of the clouds. The sky shimmered blue, then purple, and we walked into a mist and came out inside a spacious building with blue walls. “This is the Museum of Souls,” the Observer said. We looked around and saw crystals adorning each wall. Each set of crystals was different and unique. “These are star crystals,” the Observer said. “Each being in the Universe has a star crystal specific to them. Here is an example.” They stopped at a display. There were several purple crystals hanging on the wall, arranged in a musical note pattern. The Observer pushed a button and a tune began to play. The crystals and the tune were enchanting to listen to, rendering us speechless for a moment. “Would you like to see your star crystal?” she asked. Kala nodded slowly. We ascended a staircase and came to another dream-like space. There were fewer crystals in this area. We walked to one wall and stood there, looking up. Kala gazed on, speechless. Several beautiful crystals were on the wall, glittering like diamonds. “These are your star crystals,” the Observer smiled. “They’re beautiful,” Kala whispered. “What are they for?” “They show you your soul’s path. Your soul’s goals,” the Observer said. “As you can see, you are accomplishing your soul’s path. You’re not the failure you think you are. You are a success. Success means following your soul’s path.” Kala looked on, a few tears running down her cheeks. She wiped them away. For several moments she stared up at the star crystals. “Thank you for showing me this,” she said. The Observer smiled and took her hand. They walked on together, and I stayed behind to let them talk in private. After a while, they returned. Kala took a deep breath and turned to me. “I’ve made a decision,” she said. “I’ll return to Earth.” I smiled, reached out my hand, and she grasped it. We dreamwhisked together and returned to her Earth. * “So let me get this straight,” Kala was talking to Aileen. “You signed me up for Badminton and Soccer? But how am I supposed to have any time for that?” “Well, I did do all your homework,” I grinned. “Perfect scores all the way!” “My professors are going to be shocked when I get less than an A+ from now on,” Kala laughed. “Although, I should warn you. I led your roommate to believe that you had a crush on a guy,” I said. “I hope I didn’t ruin anything. I needed to hide Flame somehow and that was the first thing that popped into my head.” “Well, I’ll just tell her he wasn’t the one,” Kala smiled. I put a hand on her shoulder. “It was so nice to meet you and thank you for coming back,” I told her. “It was weird meeting two doubles, or triples…whatever you’re called,” she replied with a laugh. “But it’s also been very enlightening.” She gave me a hug. “Thank you,” she smiled. I waved to her, and Aileen and I dreamwhisked to our respective homes. “You saved the universe once again,” Aileen smiled at me before we parted ways. “I’m not done yet,” I said. I needed to go have a talk with a certain dream guide. Notes I got the idea of the star crystals from a vivid dream I had.
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