“Good morning!” A voice came out of my computer as I joined the online lesson. “Today we will be talking about how UAE was like long ago,” said the history teacher. I didn’t like history and I wasn’t interested in knowing how UAE was long ago. I went outside of my room, just to find my family each absorbed in what they were doing. My dad was in a meeting, my mom was cooking, and my brother was glued to his iPad. The usual depressing atmosphere. I went back to my dreary room and sat on the bed. I lowered the computer’s sound and went back to sleep.
*
“HELLO?!!” I had woken up on the greeting of an unfamiliar voice from behind. I opened my eyes and tried to adapt to the light, I turned around lazily and looked.
“AAAAAAAAAH!!!” immediately I covered my mouth with my hand to block the loud scream that escaped my mouth.
Great, now I’m hallucinating.
I wasn’t. The figure I was seeing in front of me was real!
*
I’ve been staring at her like a statue for a couple of minutes now. I calmed myself down and was ready to talk.
“W-who a-re you?” I gathered my courage and asked. I have never talked to someone other than my family face to face. “How… did you get here?” I threw my questions at her without giving her the time to answer any of them.
“Hi, I am Laura,” Said the figure. “I… I came from um…” There was a moment of silence before she completed her sentence, “A parallel universe!”
A what? A parallel universe? Seriously?
“Are you my long-lost twin? but I am sure I don’t have any twins,” I said, half murmuring. I had ignored the nonsense she said before.
“I am not from here…. I came from another world. A totally different one,” she insisted on continuing with this charade.
How did she enter? I thought. No one can get out or inside of this house. Nothing made sense.
“So, you are from a different world?” I asked. She nodded as a response.
*
I had decided to believe her for now and see what she wanted. Since there wasn’t any other solution that my mind accepted.
“So… you are my doppelganger?” I asked.
“Umm, yeah, you could phrase it that way,” said the girl who looked like me and claimed to be Laura.
“So, let’s say you really are from a parallel universe a…and you really are my doppelganger, why are you here then?” I shot another question at her. And to be honest I talked pretty well for a person who had never communicated with others before.
“Oh yes, I almost forgot!” she said, “I didn’t come here I was sent here!” She stopped, and pulled a chair, sat on it and continued:
“In my world we have this old myth that says that there is an alternate universe. It says one universe will be a living nightmare because of the government’s neglect and greed, and the other one will be a livable life because of the government’s care. I was sent here by my gramma. I wasn’t grateful for anything I had, and I was always greedy for more. So, she told me about the myth and gave me a necklace that allows me to travel between the two alternate realities.”
She took a breath, “She told me that living a life like mine is a blessing and there are some people who can’t live a life like that. She sent me here so I can see it with my own eyes,” she explained.
I nodded but I didn’t quite understand.
Different life? Government’s neglect?
“Well, if you came here to know how I live, I will tell you,” I said. “My life is not very pleasing. I spent my whole life inside of my house because the temperature outside is so hot to the point that its life-threatening- I’ve never went outside once.”
I kept on: “There are also some days in which strong dust storms occur and dust start to fill the house, I don’t know how since there are no windows in our house. I go to school online, and I’ve never really had friends but if I did, they would be all online. My brother never played in the playground before, the only playing he ever knew is playing on his iPad. My mom isn’t in a good condition, the changes in the weather is affecting her in a really negative way. And for my dad, he is trying hard to survive in his job since there isn’t much to do in this destroyed world. Those are only some of the problems we face.” I explained. I turned and looked at Laura’s face and she was horrified.
“I think I understand what gramma told me now, my life is a total blessing,” she reflected.
She told me briefly about her life, and to be honest I envied her. I envied the fact she goes outside of her house everyday and goes physically to school, the fact that she goes to the beach and enjoys the different seasons. I envied her because she had freedom. She then left and has never returned. The only thing she left was the question that kept lingering in my head:
Will I ever be able to live a life like hers?
