Just Not Here

“Imagine, if you will, a dot, moving through a maze. It comes to a split in the path. Does it go left, or right?”

“Um, left?”

“Okay, that’s fine,” said the man in the dark suit conducting the interview. “It goes left. But now imagine that when the dot moves to the left, another one just like it moves to the right.”

The applicant for the job, just a college kid, raised an eyebrow. “Wait, so it...splits?”

The man’s eyes lit up as a grin spread across his face. “Exactly. You see, for every decision, every change to the world, there is a double where that decision or change went in a different direction. During this conversation alone, an airplane has crashed into this building, killing us both. A robber has burst into this room, and either robbed us, or killed us, or both. Or neither. We’re having this conversation at the peak of some mountain, or out on the street, or really anywhere. It’s all happened. And that is what we call many-worlds.”

“Many-worlds?”

“Yes. Infinite possibilities, and infinite outcomes.”

The applicant scratched his head. “So where do I fit into all this? Where do we fit into all this?”

The man smiled widely. “That’s where it’s so simple. You come in to assist us in our operations.”

“And those are...?”

“Bluntly? Stealing money, gold, jewels. With our machines, we go to a world that gets us access to what we want, we take it, and come back. Simple.”

The applicant stared, eyes wide.

“So, kid. You interested?”

The applicant gave his answer, and the man shrugged.

“Oh well. Doesn’t matter much anyway.”

The kid looked confused as he started to leave. “Why is that?”

“Haven’t you been listening? Many-worlds. You said ‘yes.’ Just not here.”

_

299 words.