Might Have Been Ch. 08: Conclusion

I wasn't sure why I had kept it a secret -- maybe I was worried how it might be used. One of the reasons why I had returned to my own timeline rather than stay in another, was that it felt wrong to permanently take over the consciousness of a version of me from another universe. If that alternate-me had made better choices, he deserved to enjoy the benefits.

I also wasn't sure what would happen if everyone knew. Would everyone want to find a universe where they had made better decisions, and abandon this one? Would they all find worlds where they were elected President, or were Hollywood stars, or had won the lottery? What would happen to this one if they never came back? I wasn't entirely convinced of my own arguments, but because there was so little I understood, it felt right to be cautious, to reside permanently in my own universe, keeping my secret.

The array stared at me from its containment unit. I extracted it, holding it in my hand. I pulled my portable power supply from my pocket, and thought to myself, decision time.

Should I use the array to visit an alternate universe where I can travel to New York a couple days early, and watch Sarah's morning routine for this upcoming Saturday? I could see what she wanted for breakfast, choose a time when I could get inside her building, and then surprise her. I could also perform a trial run or two, test my plan, and modify it if I didn't get the desired results. Once I had a plan that worked, I could leave before the seduction was complete, so the first time with Sarah would be in my real timeline. I could then return to my "home" timeline, knowing the plan was successful to a certain point. I would have to trust to improvisation from there.

Alternatively, I could just go home and eat dinner.

I decided to go home and eat dinner. Let the future take care of itself.

Of course, having made the decision, I could regret it, and use the array to change it. I rotated the array in my hands and smiled.

Some things were too important to be left entirely to chance.

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The End

Author's Note:

One thing I enjoyed doing in my writing is re-using characters in other stories. For those who are interested in what happened to some of these characters outside the novel: Tasha has an off-screen cameo in Words With Friends with Benefits and is the main character in Hope in Hell, where she finally confronts her demons; Amber is the title character in Trapped in Amber; and Courtney is the central character in Shell Game, and has a brief appearance in Thirteenth Seduction.

Thank you very much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed a story that soaked up about a year of my free time in the telling, causing me to neglect work, house-cleaning, my ever-growing unconsumed backlog of books and movies, and personal hygiene. But don't take that as any pressure to vote or write a comment saying you enjoyed the damned thing. Nope, no pressure at all.