Many years from now …

Dear Emma,

I’m sorry I couldn’t come to your birthday, but the storm over the island is really bad. There are temporary power outages and there’s a lot of interference on the signal. 

It doesn’t make me feel any better, though, because it seems I have always had to make excuses my whole life for not being able to do things for others, even if it wasn’t my fault as such.

I feel I have a lot to make up for, and perhaps that’s why I have stayed for so long in Mom’s old house here on Skye, even if it rains and pours half the time, and I don’t much like that either. But I feel I owe her.

And, you know, my avatar would have been pretty useless anyway, given the weather situation. I would have looked like a bad hologram, like those in the old scifi movies.

Speaking of the past, I found some old prints in Mom’s stuff—pictures from your 10th birthday! I remember that day clearly, for some reason.

In the morning, before we went to the cafe, you were mad at me, and I didn’t understand why. You tried to explain and I understood some of the words, but not why they meant that you were mad.

And I wasn’t able to stop myself. I ran around and made lots of noises because there was so much restlessness in my body, and I think, as usual, I hadn’t been able to eat.

We talked about it years afterward, and I understood you had been very sad that morning because you were bullied in school and you had no friends who could go to the birthday party.

For some reason I felt more bad about that.

More than all the other times, I remember you were mad at me.

It’s strange the things we come to think of when we find old memories in photographs. Even if they are only 2D.

But here comes the really strange part. I also found a print from around the same year, of an article about “Ghost Universes” which for some reason was tucked away in Mom’s archives, among the drawings.

It’s about the early theories that we live in a universe, not just imaginary but physically, which is ‘filled’ with other, alternate universes that are real—some closer than others. 

Mom was super smart, wasn’t she? I think I know how she felt all those years about not being able to get a job. It must have been terrible.

Anyway, I messaged Uncle Dave about the article, but his memory is very bad now. He says he may have written something about it back when Mom and he still talked about how she should illustrate his planned books.

But it gets even stranger than really strange!

Last night, before I found the article, BluAI recommended a news clip about the latest findings of the Wisemann Institute. They are getting close to being able to test if these Ghost Universes exist.

I hadn’t mentioned anything about it, not even searched for it on the Net. Sometimes I think ol’ BluAI knows me better than I know myself!

Well, the clip mentioned that we can test if the other universes exist by looking for their traces in the cosmic background radiation.

But I know you don’t care much for all that, so I’m not going to tell you more unless you ask. But it is very exciting, I think.

Rest assured, I have learned that that’s not always the case for others, so don’t worry—my birthday present is not a course in quantum string physics! 

I did my best to select something pretty for you in the Grassmarket. But I have to admit I am still very nervous if it is the right gift for you.

It’s hard to know when something is good with others or not, whether it is a present or a random interest—it’s hard when you feel a lot for it yourself but can’t read people’s faces and feelings well.

It’s kind of like trying to read a map without legends. 

Or maybe being in two different disconnected universes, at the same time, I don’t know. But they are disconnected. Still, after all these years.

But I do know you know all of this. I just needed to say it, I guess.

And I know that I love you because you are my sister and you have been there for me for over half a century. I will be there for you, too.

That’s one universe I am not in doubt of.

Happy birthday, Em. 

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MICHAEL, 6 May 2068

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End of “Ghost Hearts” – part IV

Next up: DEBORAH

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Photo by Katie Gerrard on Unsplash

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42-080324.1214

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