As the morning sunlight spilled through the curtains, Max, a 14 year old boy ,groggily woke up to another ordinary day. He usually spent his mornings playing around the house, till his mum screamed at him to get ready for school. Little did he know that things were about to change.
While rummaging through one of the drawers in the living room, Max stumbled upon a peculiar object. It was an intricate, otherworldly looking rectangular-shaped guitar. The guitar had a thousand string as fine as a spider’s web. It surely didn’t belong on earth, and definitely not in a drawer in Max’s living room.
Intrigued, Max reached out and strummed the cosmic guitar, expecting nothing more than a melodic tune. But to his astonishment, the vibrations from the strings reverberated through his very being. Colors blurred, and reality shimmered for a brief moment. Read more
As the cosmic vibration settled, Max was still in his living room, but something felt different. A newfound confidence surged within him. He instinctively knew that something extraordinary had been stirred. Max quicky hid the guitar in his backpack and went to school.
At school, he spent the day experimenting with his new toy. He strummed the cosmic guitar and witnessed its transformative effects. He soon discovered that with each strum, he was shifting into a parallel universe of himself. Each strum gave him access to knowledge, skills, and capabilities that he never knew he had.
Max strummed the cosmic guitar and found himself to suddenly have incredible athletic prowess. He effortlessly dribbled a basketball during his basketball practice, he executed flawless dance moves while goofing around with his friends, and scaled tough, towering walls with agility in his PT class. Max realized the limitless potential that this instrument gave him.
As evening descended, Max set off for home. Tired with the events of the day, he went to bed early and drifted off to sleep, feeling a mix of calm and excitement as to what he would unearth the next day.
Days went by and Max spent gained control over this magical device. For instance, when Max needed artistic talent, he strummed the string representing a universe in which he’s an artistic prodigy. Similarly, if Max needed scientific expertise, he strummed into a universe where he’s a science wizard. He soon became popular at school. He gained an extraordinary confidence, authority and friendships like never before.
However, one fateful day, as Max tried to maneuver his personality, his cosmic guitar glitched. The magnetic pull was not as powerful. The guitar was malfunctioning. Each time he strummed the guitar, there were spurts of abrupt disruption within him. It felt like all his personalities were converging and diverging simultaneously. The personalities from his parallel universes were getting jumbled. Max was so disoriented.
At first, the mix-up seemed harmless. The odd personalities that showed up amused Max’s classmates. During a classroom presentation, Max summons a knowledgeable historian to assist him, however, to his surprise a comedian with a penchant for inappropriate jokes appeared instead. Max finds himself in a challenging game of basketball and decides to summon a projection of a skilled athlete. However, instead of a team player, an arrogant and brash athlete steps in leading to clashes with teammates and opponents. Max seeks guidance for a crucial art project. But the extreme perfectionist that turns up leads him to spend endless hours reworking the same project, leading him to miss his submission deadline.
Within a few days, his personality took an evil turn. Max sabotages his friend’s science project so that he comes out at the top. He feels jealous, anxious and irritated if anyone performs as well as him. He is revengeful and full of rage. The world around him is so confusing. He’s unable to make sense of anything.
Trying to gain back control, Max tries to strum back to his own reality. Max tries several times but he’s unable to find his true self.
He leads the rest of his life in constant confusion, strumming the guitar and trying to figure out if this is who he truly is or just a projection from one of the other parallel universes.
While this story is a complete work of fiction and several creative liberties, here’s the original science article that led to the exploration of the concept of parallel universes.
Read the next story here – A Starr is Born.