What if everything you knew unfolded differently?
This week, we’re crossing deeper, into the “what if.”
Every dimensional branch begins from a single choice. Somewhere down the line of split off dimensions, there’s a version of Earth where history took a detour, maybe a war never happened, maybe an empire never fell, maybe one word changed everything.
What would you recognize? What would you miss about your current dimension?
Beyond the Bridge
As an author, these kinds of “what if” moments are my fuel. I’ve always been fascinated by how fragile our version of reality is, how a single decision, or even a delay of a few seconds, can spin up a new universe. Consider when you take a few more minutes to leave and come across a car accident along your route. You can’t help but wonder: what if I left on time?
When I was writing Knocked, I imagined the differences that could exist, I imagined the different perspectives. I tried to have fun with the concepts of what would different realities look like.
What we think of as truth may just be the version of reality we ended up seeing, but not the only truth out there.
A snippet that relates to this issue:
From Chapter 10 – Bon Appétit
I turned the corner coming out of the alley and was taken by the many lights of Boston Times Square, even during the day. This strip was named after The Boston Times acquired The New York Times and decided The Times Empire hadn’t created enough landmarks. Digital billboards were the facades of most of the buildings on the five-mile stretch (fun fact about Times Square in NYC, it used to be called Longacre Square, and one could think the Boston version might have been overcompensating for something by making it three times larger).
It was awe inspiring how they integrated windows around the billboards, so occupants could still take in the sights of the street from inside their high-class restaurant space, high end office space or luxury apartments. This strip could be called Monopoly Row since Only Media owned ninety percent of the digital ad space on this street, as well as office space spanning two and a half of the five miles.
A wild experience is when ads start following you while walking down the street, when the sidewalk’s not too busy, after detecting your digital tracking marker from your face or even your scent (Bloodhound AI Inc. had a trillion-dollar market cap for a reason). My ads varied because the tech had a challenging time pinpointing my markers and I did a lot to obfuscate those (another trillion-dollar industry was high tech perfumes). Right now, I was seeing streaming ads for the best uses for drone companions.
The Reese’s store took up half a block, and I couldn’t resist popping in. Needed me some Pieces. The entryway was expansive, large glass windows went floor to ceiling, and there were transparent orange and yellow tubes that zig-zagged upwards. Kids could go up to the upper level and drop large fake Reese’s Pieces in the tubes and watch them race down to a giant pit. I bought some varying styles of candy, along with some high fiber, protein gummies that were near the checkout, good for slowing the sugar metabolism.
Your Turn To Cross
If you could peek into one alternate version of your life, just for a minute, would you look? Or would you rather not know?
Hit reply. I’m reading every response.
Recommended Reading
• The Man in the High Castle — Philip K. Dick. A haunting look at a world where the Allies lost WWII.
• The Years of Rice and Salt — Kim Stanley Robinson. A reimagined world history where the Black Death changed everything.
• Wraith Knight — C.T. Phipps. A fantasy take on legacy, power, and who really wins the wars we’re told about.
• The Dread Machine — Ben Farthing. Liminal, eerie, and questioning what makes one timeline “real.”
BTW
In case you missed it, you can check out Knocked: Into Another Dimension here: [Amazon link].
Don’t forget to check your inbox (or spam folder) to claim your free copy!
See you in the next issue,
Derek C Chance
