Philip entered the Study, and switched on the computer. He was surprised that Caroline hadn’t mentioned she had changed the pictures. Landscapes hung alongside the familiar astro-photos. He would examine them later. Right now he was obsessed in finding information about Dinwoodie’s hair-brained idea. Philip wanted to write an article to prove Dinwoodie wrong. He looked for information online. He read his hand-written notes while the computer took an infuriating long time to browse from website to website.

His wife entered the room. She busied herself watering plants at the far end by the window. They exchanged pleasantries without Philip taking his eyes off the screen.


“Something’s wrong with my device. I have put in all the right keywords but I can’t find him.” Philip stood up, rubbing the strain out of his eyes. 


“Find who darling?” She stared out of the window.


“Professor David Dinwoodie. I’m doing some research into how he discovered BZT particles.” He glanced at his wife at the far end of the room. 


Caroline is wearing a dress. She never wears a dress.


“Never heard of B-what’s-it particles,” said his wife. “Who is this Dinwoodie guy anyway?” His wife fidgeted moving one ornament, then another, to what she perceived as a more attractive arrangement. 


“Oh you must have heard of him. He has just made the most significant discovery in atomic physics in 50 years - probably of all time. He’s been headline news in all yesterday’s ‘papers.”


“Really. I hadn’t have seen it.”


“That’s odd.” Philip sat down to do an Internet search. There was no references to the most famous, most acclaimed, most quoted scientist of modern times. It was well known, especially by Philip, that Dinwoodie escaped the clutches of death as a child. He searched the online newspaper archive:


13 January 1962

BOY DROWNS ON POND

David Dinwoodie, aged 6, was drowned whilst walking on an ice covered pond at his home… 


Philip was trying to disprove Dinwoodie’s theory that there is a whole series of multiverses. Each one in our realm was based on the same Earth, but each one differed as people took different decisions. Quite ridiculous, he thought. Yet he knew that Dinwoodie had proposed such a theory, but he now knew that Dinwoodie had died as a child. 


He knew that Caroline had an obsession. She only wore trousers ever since, as teenager, some pervert had put his hand up her skirt and touched her private parts. Yet here she was wearing an attractive dress.


Dinwoodie dead. Caroline wearing a skirt. Different pictures on the wall. It was as if he was living in a different universe to the one he woke up in. Had his wife noticed anything different?


“Caroline, I think …”


“Whose Caroline? Phil are you having an affair?”


“Of course not. I love you. We’ve been happily married for ten years, why should I have an affair?” He looked at her as she turned to look at him. It wasn’t Caroline’s face.


“Because my dear, my name is Joanne, and its eight years that we’ve been married. So who is this hussy Caroline?” Joanne marched up to Philip and stood before him hands on hips. She had suspected that Philip was having an extra-marital affair. Her friend, Jennifer, told her she had seen Philip with a girl called Elaine. They were enjoying themselves in a cafe in Newton Stewart, and also at other times in various pubs in the area. Now it seemed he had two mistress. Joanne was furious.


“Caro…Joanne, what I am about to say will sound ridiculous, but please hear me out,” Philip stood up, took hold of Joanne’s hand and looked her in the face. “Yesterday I started to research this David Dinwoodie fellow. Yesterday I knew him as a leading scientist, but today I have found that he died as a child. He walked on a pond covered in ice. The ice gave way and he drowned. So that is the reason you don’t know him. But I believe in my reality he managed to gain a hold on the ice and survived.”


“What are you talking about? What do you mean ‘your reality’?”


“Some people, like David Dinwoodie, believe there isn’t a single universe, but an infinite number of multiverses. I am trying to prove them wrong, but somehow I have been moved from one universe to another. In this universe I am married to you, Joanne, but in my previous universe I am married to Caroline.” Phillip felt Joanne move. He let go her hands and she sat down. He did the same.


“I don’t have any explanations, I don’t understand what is happening, I don’t understand how I crossed from one universe to another. Like I said, I was trying to prove Dinwoodie wrong. I believe there is just one universe - but I think it is me that is wrong.”


Further discussion ceased as a Mildred, Joanne’s seven year old daughter, screamed. 


“Mildred! What's the matter?” Joanne was first in the bedroom.


“Daddy! This boy just came into my bedroom - and where’s Sarah?” Mildred ran to Phillip ignoring Joanne as she did so. 

Phillip automatically took her into his arms. “That’s all right Mildred. It’s okay.”


“Daddy. Why do you call me Mildred? And whose this woman?”


“I’m you mother Mildred. You’ve had a bad dream.”


“No you’re not. Tell her Daddy. Tell her I’m Emily.”


“Emily? Is it really you?”


“Of course it’s really me. Where’s Mummy?”


“Emily, my precious, do you remember Mummy and I talking last night about different universes?”


“Yes, yes, you said that somebody was going to do an experiment. Mummy was afraid it would open up a portal, or something.”


“That’s right. Mummy thought it would, but I didn’t think other universes existed. But here we are in a different one now. He must have done his experiment. In this reality I’m married to this lady - she’s called Joanne - and I don’t know where Mummy is. But we’ll find her. In the meantime you have ended up in Mildred’s body. Take a look at yourself in the mirror. It doesn’t look like you.”


As she did so she burst into tears. The next few hours were pandemonium as everyone came to terms with the new arrangement. Emily-Mildred decided she would go to school, against the advice of both Philip and Joanne. 


“It’ll be just like my first day again, getting to make new friends, meeting Mildred’s friends, and finding out if any Emily’s friends made it into this universe,” Emily was determined. Philip was proud of her. Joanne thought that Mildred wouldn’t want to do that, but it was Emily talking.


It was 10am when Philip made it back to his home-office to try and sort out his haulage business. Hugh had an overnight delivery to Inverness. He should be home by now. The doorbell rang. That’ll be Hugh now. He was wrong. Two police officers stood before him.


“I’m sorry sir, but your van has been involved in an accident in Thornhill. It burst into flames and your driver was killed.”

Hugh wasn’t just a driver. He was a close friend.