“Slow down or you’ll get us killed!” yelled Shrona.

“I’m not going fast,” replied Jack Molani, turning the steering wheel on the curve. “It just seems that way with one headlight.” He straightened the car on the road, heading back from the nightclub on the other side of the mountain. “I’m only going forty.”

Stones on the sides of the road crunched under the tires as the fuel-cell car made the turns in silence. With colors muted by the darkness, gray trees popped into view, then slipped past and disappeared into the black in the rearview mirror. The road curved back and forth as the ribbon of white line snaked around the edge of the mountain. One moment all he could see was a rocky wall or a clump of trees, the next a guardrail and open space. An occasional pair of headlights lit up the road.

“At least it’s not raining,” he added.

The moonless evening belonged to them. And what a night it had been! When the band played “ Moon River”, their favorite tune, he pulled her onto the dance floor. They spent the rest of the evening arm in arm as he savored the scent of her perfume and the softness of her cheek. Her breasts pressed on his chest, a reminder of what lay in store when they got home.

On their way out, Jack had noticed the left front headlight was smashed. “Hey! What’s with the headlight?” he demanded of the valet. The poor man stammered an apology and the manager promised to pay for its replacement. He hadn’t liked the idea of driving on the curvy road at night with only one headlight, but what could he do?

Now he wished they had chosen some place other than The Mountain Peak, the very latest out-of-town hot spot in the mountains east of Half Moon Bay.

“Watch out!” she cried, as she squeezed his right arm.

He yanked the wheel to bring the car back into the middle of the lane. “Sorry about that,” he apologized. When he rounded the next bend to the left, a pair of hi-beam headlights snapped into view, halfway into his lane.

“Jack!” Shrona screamed.

“What the hell!” Jack squinted and swerved to the right to avoid a collision. The single headlight revealed the approaching guardrail. He yanked on the wheel just as the fender collided with the barrier. Darkness filled their vision as they went over the edge.

“Oh no!” yelled Jack. Shrona screamed as the front of the car dropped, bringing a white rock into view. He brought his arm up to protect his face and shut his eyes.

#

When he woke, a white room surrounded him. Someone touched his wrist. As he turned to look, an ache stabbed into his neck and his ribs gave him a lightening jolt of pain.

A nurse, in a green uniform with her RN nametag over her breast, placed a cylindrical device with black sensor pad against the side of his neck and held it there.

“Where am I?” he asked.

“This is Half Moon Bay Memorial Hospital.” She studied the diagnostic panel above his head.

“Where’s my wife?” he asked. “Is she okay?”

“No talking. Breath easy,” the nursed insisted in a firm voice.

“I want to know how my wife is!” he yelled.

She sighed and removed the device from his neck.

“I have some bad news, Mr. Molani.” She gave him a forlorn look with furrowed eyebrows. “You had a pretty bad accident last night. You were very lucky, just some nasty bruising. Your wife was not so fortunate.” She took a deep breath and stared into his eyes. “I’m sorry to tell you this, but she didn’t make it.”

He inhaled in a rush and his head felt very light. “Oh no! Oh God!”

#

Jack took another sip of Black Russian from the ebony coffee mug. “Has it been only a month since the accident?” He looked out the window of their laboratory in San Jose, as if he could lose himself in the green bushes and swaying trees of the public park beyond. “It seems like a year.”

“I’m sorry, Jack,” replied Professor Don Crawson between sips of his soda. “I miss her too.”

What could he say? He sighed and took another swallow, then stared at Shrona’s signature in metallic gold on the mug. “We were married only three months. We planned on having children.”

He remembered their visit to Yosemite National Park where she had bought the mug. They’d taken a detour off the beaten path for a picnic and walked far into the cedar woods. After some lunch and a little wine, he kissed her on the back of her neck. After more kisses, they made love on the multi-colored Indian blanket they had bought at the park trading post. She was wonderful and impetuous in the fresh air, as her blond hair caressed his face. It was one of their best love times, one they relived over and over.

Jack took another sip from the cold cup, then wiped his hand on his slacks. God, how I miss her touch, her laughter, even her smell. “If only I had gone slower or taken another road that night. Maybe she’d be alive today.”

“You’ve got to pull yourself out of this funk,” said Don. “Believe me, you’ll feel better if you come back to work. You’ve been out for damned near a month. Pretend you’re working on something you enjoy and will see her tonight when you get home.”

He grabbed Don’s upper arm. “That’s it! I wanna go to a universe where Shrona is still alive. We’ve got to scale up the Multi-verse Transporter.”

“Whoa, partner! Hold on! All we’ve done so far is send a few helium atoms back and forth to whatever universe would take them.”

Jack stared back. Don was always the more cautious. He recalled how he had met him. Professor David Deutsch of Oxford spoke at Stanford University and explained his take on quantum mechanics. He described how sub-atomic particles move from our universe to another and back, and nothing in the theory forbade larger objects, even people, from moving between universes. Deutsch had told them how every decision they make spawns another universe, where they made another choice.

That lecture had fired both their imaginations. But even with two research grants, the latest in miniature technology, and months of hard work, they had little to show for it.

Don opened up a bottle of soda and filled his own glass. “We’ve only succeeded with a few atoms--and their organization didn’t matter. Do you know how many atoms there are in a human body? If even one in a million atoms were transported incorrectly, the person would come out on the other end in god-awful pain and a blithering idiot.” He took a sip of soda. “I won’t do that to you.”

“You miss my point, Don.” Jack looked at his empty cup and pulled the bottle of vodka closer. “No one is asking you to go directly from atoms to people. We’ll find lots of problems on the way, I’m sure, but we’ve proven the concept. Now we’ve got to scale it up.”

He looked at his friend. “I want to go where it was me who died and Shrona is still alive.”

He straightened his back and raised one eyebrow to Don. “Take your pick. Do you want me to keep on drinking Black Russians,” he raised his cup, “or will you help me make a transporter to get to other universes?”

“This is blackmail!”

“And you love it.” Jack grinned.

Don pursed his lips. “This could take a while. Years. Decades even.”

“What will it be, Don? Shall I pour another vodka and Kahlua? Or switch to soda and get back to work?”

Don looked into Jack’s eyes, as if searching for another answer. “You’re serious.”

“You betcha. I’ll either see Shrona again--or die trying.”

Don took a deep breath and sighed. “Well, at least I’ll get some good work out of you. Beats watching you drown yourself in that stuff.”

Jack beamed with the broadest smile he could muster, his first smile in a month. He grabbed a bottle of light green soda and twisted the cap off. “I’ll drink to that!”

#

Three months later they were able to send inanimate objects and even a few rats. But the chimps came back in a coma, no matter what they tried.

Jack pushed both of them harder and harder. The emptiness in his life drove him on. Each month that passed meant every universe’s timeline would diverge from the others, making it harder to find one with Shrona alive. Already it was four months since the accident. Don estimated that the divergence of the timeslines would reach a critical maximum over five months. Time was running out.

When they had tried every possible combination of key factors at least twice, Don exclaimed, “You have to face the truth. It may not be possible for higher developed brains. And it may be too late to find the right Shrona timeline anyways. “

Jack shook his head emphatically. “I don’t want to hear that!”

Don bowed his head. His shoulders slumped as he sighed. “It won’t work, I tell you.”

Jack didn’t want Don to get discouraged. He needed him if he was to have any chance of success. “What do the equations tell us? Have we considered all factors for the complexity of the test subject?”

Don stepped up to the ever-present whiteboard in their lab. “Here’s that part of the field equations.” He added another equation below it, with subscripts and superscripts in a matrix. He circled one string of variables. “This is the complexity of organization of the test material.” He continued on the board.

Jack commented as Don wrote, “In order for this to work, right there is where we must find an error.”

“But there is no error,” Don retorted, slamming down the marker. “Jack, you’re not listening to me.”

“Oh, I’m listening all right. You’re the one who’s not listening.” He stared at the parameters. “I can’t give up. If I do, I’ll never see my wife again.” He leaned back and crossed his arms. “Take another look. What do we have to change in order to make it work?”

He got up from his dark brown padded folding chair next to his instruments and paced the floor. “Our tests of atoms worked. The centigram of wood worked. The rats seemed to work. But the chimpanzees failed.” He rubbed his chin. “Gravity. Mass.” He spun around. “Write a mass-effect component for the complexity. Your best guess.”

“Hmm.” Don took a red marker and wrote two terms, then enclosed them in parentheses. He hesitated, the marker suspended off the board. “That means an energy adjustment.” He wrote some more, laid the marker down, and stepped back. “That might do it, to a first approximation.”

Jack touched one term with his index finger. “If it’s negative, maybe instead of adding energy, we need to take it away.”

“Of course!” Don slapped his palm to his forehead. “We forgot to include waste heat!” He grabbed both of Jack’s upper arms. “You’re a genius! We were cooking the chimps’ brains!”

#

Two days later, they managed to retrieve a live chimp after a ten-minute “visit” to another universe. And the chimp still remembered how to solve the test puzzle. The same happened with the next two chimps.

They partied till midnight that time.

It took another couple days to build a larger model of the Transporter to fit Jack.

The next morning, Jack winced from the cut on his chin. He had let his beard grow over the past few weeks, but had shaved it close. Can’t have a scraggy beard when I meet my wife for the first time in a year.

“I’d prefer we run some more tests,” Don pleaded. “Chimps are one thing. Humans are another.”

Jack sat on the black padded chair of the Transporter and buckled up. “The longer I wait, the greater the odds are that she’ll have found someone else.”

Don’s eyebrows turned down, as did the corners of his mouth. He placed one hand on his friend’s shoulder. “You realize you could very well die in this.”

“I’ll die if I don’t. I can’t take much more of being without her. We’ve worked hard and done all the right tests. It’s time for the big one.” Jack looked up to Don’s face. “Cheer up, Don. I promise I’ll return--if I can.”

Don stepped down off the rim of the machine. “I’d hate to lose you to a world where somebody pressed the Big Red Button years ago and it’s all radioactive cinders now.”

“If that’s the case, I’ll be right back, I promise you!” He flashed the thumb-up sign.

“Be careful, Jack,” said Don, with furrowed eyebrows.

Jack smiled, took a deep breath, and activated the jump.

#

In the few microseconds before the jump, like lightning feels out the path prior to a strike, the Transporter tested the target universe to locate a safe area. It would not do to materialize in the same space as a large object; its atoms would vaporize in an explosion. For ten nanoseconds, it was actually in two universes at once.

A loud bang slammed on Jack’s ears. His lab disappeared, replaced by an empty warehouse, similar to the one he’d left. He looked around for the source of the loud noise, then realized it came from his own entry into this universe. His popping into the same space must have displaced some of the air in the warehouse.

One thing was sure. This was not the lab he left.

“It worked. I jumped!” He slammed his fist on the console. “Hot dog! We did it!”

The open air of the warehouse seemed cold, so he put on a jacket from his bag. He locked the door on the capsule, picked up his bag, and went out to the street to look for a taxi. His left leg felt a little numb, like it was half asleep. He could walk on it, but it felt weird. He wondered if any of his nerves had been damaged in the jump and if they would recover later.

At the apartment building, the hallway steps looked no different. The same worn, woven, welcome mat on Mrs. Tandy’s doorstep made him smile. In the distance he heard the loud music of the teenager, Charlie Tan. Down the hallway the light shone under that old, worn lampshade.

His heart pounded as he approached the apartment. It would not do to use his key to get in if a stranger lived here in this space-time, so he knocked instead.

After two tries, a feminine voice from behind the door asked, “Who’s there?”

He cleared his throat and gave it a try. “It’s me, Jack.” The lock snapped loose and the door opened to reveal Shrona.

She was every bit as beautiful as he had remembered. Her blonde hair fell in straight lines, ending in upturned curls that offset her face. Her light blue eyes stared back at him. Her face was a wonderful sight to his heartbroken soul. He stood in shock, lost in the experience of seeing her again.

“Why didn’t you use your key? Forget it again?” She opened the door and turned to the kitchen.

His heart pounded as he watched her walk away.

She glanced back. “Well, don’t stand there. Dinner will be ready in ten minutes.”

He didn’t know what to say. He had daydreamed so many times about grabbing her and kissing her passionately, but he realized this Shrona wouldn’t understand. He needed time to prepare her. Something nagged him, something was wrong, but he couldn’t figure out what it was. His jubilant mood made it difficult to think clearly.

He picked up his bag and stepped in, his feet feeling lighter than they had in months. The front room had the same orange and green sofa and chair. His desk still stood in the corner. And over there, the television in the blonde-wood entertainment center. It even smelled like their old apartment. He heard classical piano music from the kitchen. He couldn’t recognize the piece, but he was never good at that anyway. She was the music expert in the family.

He put his dark green camping bag down by the sofa and walked to the dining room. He wiped his wet palms on his sides and approached his favorite place at the table. He took a deep breath of the smell of roast beef. He realized he hadn’t eaten since breakfast. He suffered easily from low blood sugar, but was so excited back in the lab that he had forgotten lunch and was starved. My God, how I missed her cooking!

She stood by the stove, stirring something in a gray pan, then placed a glass lid over it. He remembered the set of glass-topped pots and pans his mother gave them. Times were tight then and they appreciated her little packages. Since then, as a bachelor again, he had dropped and broken three of the glass tops.

He had lived alone for so long he forgot how warm and alive the apartment could be with Shrona in it. How would he tell her about himself?

He heard a noise from the living room and recognized the sound of someone using a key in the lock. He turned to face the door as it opened. There stood another Jack.

The two men locked eyes and froze.

Oh, no! His dream of having his wife back crashed. He stood but his damned leg wouldn’t cooperate and he staggered.

“Who the hell are you?” demanded the Jack by the door.

Shrona’s head turned, a surprised look on her face. She came out to the living room, stopped, and stared at the Jack by the door. She twisted her head to look back at him still standing by the dining table. “What the...?” escaped her lips.

This can’t be happening! He limped to the sofa and collapsed on it, massaging his now aching leg. He looked up to see the new Jack still standing by the door, wearing the same jacket with the same rip in the lining.

That Jack looked more real than even his own image in a mirror. The other Jack glared back at him and said, “Who are you?”

“I’m Jack.” He winced from the pain. “Jack Molani.”

“The hell you are! I’m Jack!” yelled the other man, as he stepped closer.

Shrona put herself between the two men and placed her hand on the other Jack’s chest. “Wait. He’s hurt.”

“I don’t give a damn,” bellowed the other Jack. “I want to know who he is and what he’s doing here in my apartment--with my wife!”

Oh God! What am I gonna do? Jack put up his open hand to stop the advancing man. “Wait a minute. I can explain.” He moistened his dry lips with his tongue and then bit his lip as he concentrated. He took a few breaths to give him time to think. He asked, “Have you been experimenting with transportation of matter between universes?”

The other Jack replied, “Yes.” He stood with a dumbfounded look on his face. “Are you telling me...?”

“Yes, I have come from another universe.”

The other Jack froze. He looked Jack up and down and stared into his eyes. “No. That’s not possible. It didn’t work.” He shook his head slowly.

Jack scrambled to recall something from his past to convince this man he was the same person. Something from his childhood only he would know. “Do you remember having a dog named Pepper when you were a little boy? We lived on Dalton Road. One day, we couldn’t find Pepper. I cried as I searched for him in the woods, calling out his name. When I couldn’t find him, I sat on a log by the pond and sobbed. I prayed and promised I would be a good boy, if only Pepper would come back to me.”

The other Jack looked down to the floor, lost in thought. Then he looked up to Jack. “Nobody knew that. I was alone.”

Jack shook his head. “I know.”

The other man said, “Well, I’ll be damned!”

Jack squinted his eyes and rubbed his left thigh. Come on, leg, wake up!

Shrona said to the other Jack, “Get some aspirin.” When he hesitated, she added in a firmer voice, “And a glass of water.”

When the other man went into the kitchen, he saw an opportunity to be with her alone for a few seconds. “I missed you.”

“Who are you?” she asked.

Jack took his time catching his breath and the pain subsided a little. “I’m Jack Molani, your husband.”

She shook her head slowly while she squinted her eyes.

He heard the sound of running water from the kitchen. His private time with her was almost over. “This is going to be hard to believe, but I’m your husband too. Where I came from, you died in an accident.” He winced from another shot of pain. “I’ve come a long way to find you.”

The other Jack came up next to her, placed a bottle of aspirin in her outstretched hand.

She poured out three pills. “Here, take these.”

He took the aspirin and water, while the other Jack studied him with one eyebrow raised and tight lips.

Shrona pulled her eyebrows together as she stared at him. “The resemblance is amazing. You could be a twin.”

“I’m not a twin. Or more correctly, I’m more than a twin,” he replied.

The other Jack crossed him arms and glared at him. “Where did you come from?”

He took a deep breath. “It’s a long story.” He took the time for a few more breaths to collect his thoughts. “How could I explain this?”

“Start at the beginning,” ordered the other man.

How like myself, direct and to-the-point. “A year ago, I was in an accident. I was driving home with Shrona,” he nodded to her, “when a car came at us in our lane. I turned and we went off the road.” Jack dropped his head as the memory flooded back. “She died.” His eyes watered and he rubbed them. “It was my fault. If only I hadn’t taken that turn.” His nose filled with fluid and he leaned forward to pull out his handkerchief. He always had difficulty hiding the emotion of that moment and was embarrassed.

“The next few months were hell. I never felt so alone in all my life. I turned to the bottle again. Then my colleague...”

“What was your colleague’s name?” asked the other man.

“Don. Don Crawson.”

The other Jack raised his head and looked toward the ceiling. “Good God!”

Shrona turned to her husband. “What?”

The other Jack returned his gaze to Jack. “Then it’s true.”

Jack smiled. “Yes.”

“Will somebody fill me in?” Shrona sounded irritated. “What are you guys talking about? What’s going on here?” She looked at her husband standing beside her.

The other Jack turned to her. “It’s alright. Do you remember Don saying that quantum mechanics applies to large objects as well as small?”

She nodded. “Of course. That was the key point of your research grant, wasn’t it?”

The man added, “Yes. Only we never succeeded with anything larger than a block of wood or a couple rats. Chimps were too complicated.”

“That’s what we thought too.” Jack nodded.

“But you overcame it. How?”

“Wait a minute, you two!” Shrona placed her hands on her hips and glared back and forth at both men. “You two may know what you’re talking about, but I’m left out of it.” She stomped her foot and yelled. “I want an explanation and I want it now!”

Jack took another deep breath. The pain was subsiding. “Let me continue with my story and I’ll explain.” He took another sip of water. “I’m feeling weak. I haven’t eaten since this morning. Any chance I could have some of that great-smelling roast beef?”

Shrona closed her mouth and breathed out loudly through her nose. “I suppose--with an explanation!”

Jack nodded. “I promise.”

Over dinner, he told them the events of the past and explained how he wouldn’t quit until they solved the problems. He had to see Shrona again.

“Then I knocked on my apartment door.” He pointed. “That door. You know the rest.” He sank his fork into another piece of gravy-covered beef and chewed. He hadn’t had such a great home cooked meal in...well, in half a year.

“Fantastic!” The other man wiped his mouth and slapped his napkin on the table. “It works! The theory works!”

Shrona looked less excited and shook her head. “I wouldn’t believe a bit of it if anyone else had told me. It sounds so preposterous.” She looked from one man to the other. “But here at my table sits the spitting image of my Jack.”

The two men exchanged glances again. Silence reigned as each appeared lost in thought.

This is more real than staring into a mirror.

She broke the silence. “Now what are we going to do?”

Jack studied her. She was so close, and yet so far away with the other Jack sitting next to her.

The other man must have been thinking along the same lines because he reached over and took his wife’s hand. “We’ll have to find another apartment for him. And a job.”

Shrona turned to her husband. “Why?”

Her husband looked deep into her eyes and shouted. “Because I’m not about to share my wife, that’s why!”

Shrona’s jaw dropped and she turned to Jack.

He lowered his gaze to the tablecloth. He enjoyed himself with these two, but reality came back to hit him again. If their roles were switched, he wouldn’t want to share her either.

He got up from the table. “Excuse me.” He went into the living room and sat on the sofa. It all looked so simple and wonderful while he was eating. But it wasn’t right. He couldn’t stay here. He had no job, no place to live, and no identity of his own. I can’t even use my own Social Security Number! He put his elbows on his knees and bowed his head into his palms, putting off the inevitable departure.

Shrona came into the room and sat next to him. She placed her hand on his shoulder. “What are you going to do?”

He straightened and took her hand into both of his. He looked into her eyes. “I missed you a lot!” He bent his face down and kissed her hand, so she wouldn’t see his face.

She left her hand in his for a while, and then eased it away.

He put his knuckles over his eyes and kept his head down. When he looked up, he could see tears in hers.

Her husband walked into the room and sat in the recliner Jack loved so much.

Silence reigned again. He took the time to collect himself. “I’ve got to go.”

“Can’t you at least stay the night?” Shrona pleaded. “You could sleep on the sofa. You look awful. You need some rest.”

Jack looked over to his alter ego, who sat with a somber face. The two men stared at each other.

He stood. “No. I can’t stay. The sooner I go, the better. This place isn’t for me.”

Shrona rose and extended her arms to embrace him.

Her body was so wonderful. He had waited so long for her! Her cologne smelled so reassuring, so familiar. He whispered in her ear, “I love you.”

She looked deep in his eyes and said nothing. He pressed his lips to hers and enjoyed a moment of heaven again.

He gathered his strength and pulled himself away. She wore the same neck scarf he had given her on her last birthday. “May I have your scarf?”

Her eyes filled with tears as she took it off and handed it to him.

He put it into the inner pocket of his jacket, close to his heart. He walked over to the edge of the sofa and picked up his camping bag. He stopped at the door and turned to the other man. “It was very nice to meet you, Jack. I never expected it to end this way. You weren’t supposed to be here.”

The man nodded and came over to him. They shook hands.

Jack glanced once more to Shrona. He started to choke up, so he walked out.

#

For the next jump, he needed to recharge his Transporter’s batteries. He rewired the 440-volt three-phase current of the vacant warehouse and waited. The battery would only go to ninety-five percent of full charge. The dielectric constant of the capacitor was dropping, making it harder to get enough charge for the best jump. He set the parameters and pressed the button anyway.

This time he ended up in a very dark room. As before, he heard a loud bang. An exit sign gave him enough light to recognize the equipment. He had landed in the lab.

When he stepped down from the Transporter, his left leg still felt numb, but at least it didn’t ache so much. He turned on a light and saw he had a new problem--the vision in his left eye was a little blurry. He recalled Don’s warning about possible errors from misplacing too many atoms.

“Damn!” If this kept up, he could end up a basket case.

He connected the battery to the lab’s recharger and limped out to the street to call a taxi. It helped to focus if he closed his left eye.

At the apartment building, everything looked the same. There was Mrs. Tandy’s welcome mat. It was quiet though, so maybe Charlie Tan was out. His heart pounded as he knocked on his apartment door. What will I do differently this time?

An old woman opened the door. The furniture in the background was not his and the air smelled of lemon polish.

He froze.

She looked him over. “Yes?”

“I, ah, was looking for someone who used to live here. Her name was Shrona. Her husband was Jack.”

The old woman nodded her head. “I do recall Mrs. Tandy mentioned someone by that name used to live here. But the lady died in a car accident. I don’t know what happened to the man. I’ve only been here a couple months myself, you see. Who are you?”

“Ja . . . Just a friend.”

He thanked her and went back down the hall.

#

When he opened the lab door, he smelled the acrid odor of overheated electrical components. Smoke flowed from the Transporter. After he put the fire out, he spent the rest of the night fixing it as best he could. This lab had few spare parts and he had to improvise. It didn’t help having only one really good eye.

He remembered Don’s discussion of the hardware. “This is new technology. It wasn’t built to last. If it breaks down, you’ll be stuck in whatever universe you’re in. Worse, you could end up in pain or with a scrambled brain.”

Jack shook his head as he massaged his numb leg. “Damn!”

He remembered rubbing his leg in Shrona’s apartment. The memory of that last kiss haunted him. He licked his lips. Every time he closed his eyes, he could picture her, could smell her cologne and her bath oil. On their first date, he had fallen in love with her scent.

He looked back on his past year as a bachelor and knew he didn’t want to return to that life. He pulled out her scarf and buried his nose in it. There she was.

“I love you, Shrona.” He choked up. “I’ve got to find you, even if it kills me.”

He climbed back up on the Transporter. The power charge was only eighty-seven percent. He recalled the curve Don plotted for the charge level versus transport errors. Below eighty-five percent charge the error rate rose exponentially. He worried about becoming a human vegetable, with a body torturing him in unending pain. He pictured being unable to move, his mouth open and drooling saliva.

Maybe this whole thing was the worst mistake of my life. Being a pioneer is not all it’s cracked up to be.

He tried to set the parameters so he could go back to his own universe. “Maybe Don can fix this damned thing!”

But after several tries, he couldn’t get the settings to go there. He sank in his seat. “I’ve drifted too far from my own timeline.”

He was more alone than he had ever been.

“Sorry about not coming back, Don. I hope you don’t give up.”

He changed the settings again, to try for one with a live Shrona. He was getting very close to the outer limit of settings for a universe where she might still be alive.

He was so tired. His body begged for rest but he couldn’t afford to lose time. He pressed keys on the calculator to finish the settings. His heart and energy sank. The probability readout showed a eight percent chance of a match. The number had gone down with each jump.

He slumped in the chair. I can’t take much more of this. His hand shook as he punched in the coordinates. He wasn’t sure he entered the right numbers. Not that it mattered much--this would be his last jump.

The clock ticked down the numbers. His eyes filled with water and a tear slid down his check. “Oh, Shrona, Shrona...”

He took out her scarf and pressed it to his nose. The scent was weaker, but still strong enough to evoke a clear memory of her face and that last kiss.

An alarm went off. The main flex coil had overheated. A flash of light preceded flames. His leg was too close to the fire in the cramped capsule and pain seared his calf. He screamed, hoping he could jump one more time before his machine broke down.

In increasing pain, he yelled. “Oh, Shrona!” The pain escalated. “Shronaaaa!”

He passed out.

#

He woke in a hospital, his legs and left arm in bandages. His mind was woozy, probably from painkillers. His left eye was still a little blurry and now his right hand trembled. I hope nothing more is wrong. But at least I’m not a vegetable.

He sighed. I hope the doctors here can fix me up. This is the end of the line. I’m stuck in this universe.

From beyond the curtain surrounding his bed, a female voice asked, “Where is he?”

“Right there,” said another female voice.

The curtains parted and Shrona stood there, as beautiful as ever with her blond hair and blue eyes.

“You called my name.” She frowned and stepped forward to get a closer look. “Who are you? How did you know my name?”

He opened his parched lips. He hadn’t realized he was so dry. “I’m Jack...Jack Molani.” His own raspy voice surprised him.

“I don’t understand.” She studied his face. “You look a little look like him, I admit, but that can’t be. He died in an accident last year.”

Jack’s downturned mouth changed into a smile.