Parallel Universes

I'm so excited to try out my latest invention which I've just finished working on and modifying. I've been working on it for the past eight months and now it's finally done, I can't wait to test run it and see how well it works. No one thinks I can pull this off, not even my parents and especially not my sister, Aimee. She's just twelve minutes older than me but acts like she's twelve years older than me. They all think I'm wasting my time but I'm gonna show them, I'm gonna show them all. 

"You still on this shit?" Aimee asks as she comes into my room. Here we go. 

"She's a full grown invention now, so address her with some respect okay," I say, raising my voice a little. Just a little. How dare she call my invention a 'shit'. 

"Why don't you just give it a break? You've been on that thing for months."

"Did Thomas Edison give it a break when he invented the first light bulb after so many failed attempts?"

"Dinner's ready, weirdo," She deadpans and leaves. 

I sigh. I'm not going down for dinner till I turn this baby on and prove Aimee and everyone else who never believed in me wrong. This invention of mine has the ability to transport objects and people between parallel universes. The first of its kind and it would be even more iconic if it works perfectly. 

I place a marble next to the invention, I will use it to do a test run before I can try it out on larger objects and actual people. I push a large green button, turning on the invention then pull the two large levers on it, making it spark and releasing bright diffuse rays of light for a whole sixty seconds. I shield my eyes from the bright lights and when the disco show is over, I check for the marble. 

It's gone. 

My invention actually works! It works! My subconscious does a happy dance and pats me on the back. Can't wait to show the world what I made and do a happy dance for real. Now, to bring the marble back from whatever universe it's in. 

I push the yellow reverse button and pull the levers back up. The diffuse rays of light put up another bright show, making me turn away. After sixty seconds I check again for the marble but it's not there. Doesn't it work when on reverse? 

Before I can worry any further there is a loud thud in my bathroom. I grab a hammer and walk slowly to my bathroom. As I step closer, a tall boy about my age with a good form and long dark hair walks out of the bathroom and glances at me and my hammer. 

"Where am I?" He looks around like he just found himself on Mars. 

"Who are you?" I ask, confused. Firstly, as to what he's doing here and secondly, as to how one's hair can look so fricking good. I would have to ask him later what products he uses on his hair if he's not dangerous. 

"Travis," He replies casually. He doesn't seem scared of me. Why would he? "And who are you?" he asks back. 

"Avan," I try to sound as casual as he did. "Where are you from?" I ask again but before he can reply, realization hits me and my eyes widen in shock and partial excitement. 

"You must be from a parallel universe!" 

"If this is a parallel universe then what in the world am I doing here? One second I'm at the park picking up a stray marble and the next, I'm in a parallel universe?" 

"Did you just say you were picking up a marble?"

"Yes, but that's not the point." 

"That marble you picked up from your universe was the object I used to test my invention. Perhaps you got teleported here because of the contact you had with the marble when I tried to bring it back," I explain to him. 

"So how do I get back?" 

"That's not a problem, come this way please." I direct him to my invention, eager to show him that it works even though he'll be leaving for another universe soon. 

"Is this the invention that brought me here?" he asks as he brushes his hand across my invention. 

"Yes," I reply, searching for my journal so I can ask him a few questions about his universe before he leaves. 

"How does it work?" 

"You push the green button then pull the two levers beside it."

"Like this?" He pushes the button and pulls the levers with so much pressure that one of the levers ends up in his hand. "Oops."

"My baby! What have you done?!" I exclaim, snatching the handle from him. 

"I'm really sorry," he apologizes but I'm in no mood. This is eight months of my hard work broken in a single second. Travis looks genuinely sorry, he can probably see how important this invention is to me. 

"Well, amidst this tragedy, the good news is that this is going to take just a few hours to fix, twenty four hours tops," I announce and Travis smiles, glad that I'm not too mad about the lever. 

"That's good news, this means I'll be back home by tomorrow," Travis says happily.

"In the meantime, why don't you meet my family, I wanna show them just how well my invention works."

"That would be cool."

I give him a once over and realize he's dressed like every other teenage boy except that he's wearing a cool gray jacket. I really thought he'd be dressed differently since he's from another universe. I pocket my journal. 

Aimee barges into my room again looking frustrated. "Would you quit fooling around with that machine and come down for dinner! Mom won't let us eat unless we're complete at the table. Hurry up!" She yells. 

"Avan dear, dinner is ready. Please come downstairs, you can't work on an empty stomach," Mom calls out from downstairs and I give Aimee a look. It won't take anything from my sister to be a bit more polite, but she chooses not to. 

"If you were gonna call him, why did you send me up here?!" Aimee yells back at mom. 

"He's your brother."

"Whatever."

I smile. "I'll be down in a sec mom!"

"Who is that?" Aimee points at Travis. 

"This is Travis, he's from a parallel universe," I reply proudly. 

"A parallel universe?" She scoffs. 

"Of course." 

"Of course," she mimics me. 

Travis walks up to her smiling sheepishly. "Hello, I am Travis."

"Travis, this is my twin sister, Aimee, she's a beauty queen and a drama queen," I introduce. 

Austin scoffs and is about to spin on her heels but I stop her. "Wait, don't you wanna know how my invention works?" 

"I refuse to be bored while hungry," She deadpans and leaves. 

Travis nods approvingly. "She is a fine young lady."

"Uh... Thanks." 

"Avan get down here. It's already fifty seconds and you said you'd be down in a second, fifty seconds ago." Mom says from downstairs. 

"Mom, when I said I'd be down in a second, I didn't mean that I'd be down in a second." I respond. 

"Well whatever you meant you better get down here."

I nod my head at Travis and we go downstairs where my family is waiting for me to join them before eating. 

"Look who decided to finally join us for dinner," Mom says sarcastically. 

"And who is this young man?" Dad asks, eyeing Travis. 

"Oh yeah. Travis, these are my parents and you've already met Austin. Mom, dad, this is Travis, he's from a parallel universe!" I say and my parents drop their forks. 

"A parallel universe?" Mom asks. 

"How did he get here then?" Dad asks. 

"Well, my invention brought him here by accident. I call it the Inter-Universal Teleportation Machine 1.0. It transports objects and people," I explain, holding Travis, "from one universe to another. It's amazing isn't it?"

"It is." Dad agrees. 

"The name's lame," Aimee comments with a deadpan tone. 

"You can call it the ITM-1, it's more catchy."

"No it's not."

"Hello everyone, I am Travis." Travis smiles at them. 

Mom smiles back at him and turns to me. "So what now?" she asks and I know what she means. 

"Um, actually, one of the levers on my invention got broken so I can't take Travis back to his universe until I get it fixed. I was hoping you guys won't mind him staying here till tomorrow," I reply. Mom and dad look at each other and have a conversation with their eyes before turning back to me. 

"He can stay, as long as he doesn't do anything out of the ordinary," dad says. 

"He's from another universe so I can't promise that, but, I'll make sure to keep him in check till he leaves," I assure them. 

"So your invention is finally ready to go, I'm so excited for you!" Mom holds my face and ruffles my hair, making me move my head away from her. It took me about thirty minutes to style my hair this way, not everyone is blessed with obedient hair. "Come, let's have dinner."

"Finally!" Aimee groans and digs into her food. "I thought all this talking was going to go on forever."

Travis and I sit at the table as mom serves us some spaghetti and meatballs with sauce. Good thing our dining table has six chairs. 

"What kind of food is this?" Travis asks with a mouthful. 

"Spaghetti and meatballs," I tell him. 

"It's delicious, I've never tasted anything like it. I mean, I never thought pasta could be eaten with balls of meat. The meat is so meaty and not plastic," he comments. 

"Thank you Travis." Mom blushes. She loves it when people appreciate her cooking. 

"Isn't the entry for the inventors stuff ending today? By eight?" Aimee asks. 

I look at the clock and it's seven thirty. Shit! How could it have slipped my mind? I was busy testing my invention cause I wanted to be sure it worked. If it doesn't work later on then I could get disqualified, though I was pretty confident that it would work. Now that I have just thirty minutes to get to the center to register, I have to hurry. If I miss this chance I'll have to wait till next year and I don't think I can be that patient cause I've already spent eight months on this invention. 

"I promise to finish my dinner when I get back," I assure mom who is already giving me a look. Throwing a meatball in my mouth, I literally sprint out of the house. 

"Come on!" I say to Travis as I poke my head through the door. He also throws a meatball in his mouth and runs out of the house, almost knocking me over.  

We run all the way to one of the IAI branches and arrive at seven fifty-five, sweating and panting.

"We should have traveled in one of those vehicles on the road," Travis says, panting. 

"Yeah, I didn't think of that." I mentally slap myself for not thinking of that. 

We run to the front desk where a middle aged lady is staring at her watch like her life depends on it. On the wall behind her is 'International Association of Inventors' written boldly in black block letters. 

"Good evening ma'am," I greet the lady. 

She groans when she sees us. "Another day for another set of delinquents to come rushing in here right before eight. Ya got three minutes, make it quick cause I leave here eight o'clock sharp."

"Yes ma'am. I wish to participate in the Young Inventors Contest being organized by the IAI and I'd like to—"

"Name of the invention and inventor?" She cuts me off impatiently, typing on a computer. 

"The invention is called the Inter-Universal Teleportation Machine 1.0 and the inventor is Avan Allen." She requests for my phone number, email and address and types them on the computer then switches it off. I frown. "Don't you want to know what the invention does?" I ask. 

"Save it for the contest so it'll be a surprise for everyone," She retorts and grabs her purse. 

"You know, I thought you were gonna ask me what it does so I could show you my friend who came from a parallel universe," I say, holding Travis. 

"I think I've seen enough people that are not from this universe in one lifetime, aliens, gnomes, dragons, you name it," She says and gestures for us to leave. "Now scram, I gotta lock up."

"No, this is different, he's not from a fantasy world," I argue. 

"I don't care."

She clearly doesn't care so we just leave and take the bus back home. 

"Did you get your entry in?" Dad asks when we sit back at the table. 

"Yeah I did," I reply. 

Travis and I uncover our meals and continue eating. Travis compliments the food once more, making mom smile at him adoringly. If he keeps complimenting her this way, she may want to adopt him. After we're done with dinner, I put the dishes in the dishwasher and wipe them dry with a napkin while Travis just stands there watching me and talking about how our universes are barely different from each other. When I'm done, we go back to my room so we can get some shut-eye. 

"By the way, I never got to know your name," Travis says to me after we've taken our baths, gotten dressed and tucked in bed. 

"It's Avan."

"Good night, Avan," he mumbles.

"Good night."

Travis may be a stranger but I feel like this is going to be the start of a new friendship and I can't wait to find out more about this boy from a parallel universe.