Leaky Minds
Written for NPR's 3 Minute Fiction Contest April 11th 2010
Sharon sat at the kitchen table pouring over her copy of Science News. She took the magazine, because she enjoyed being up on what she considered to be “current events”. Really it was because she enjoyed the pictures of things like outer space and the insides of plant cells. And reading it gave her ideas. She loved guessing what scientists might come up with next. It was a bit like writing science fiction.
Henry came out of the bedroom, his button fly jeans fitting snuggly around his hips, his bare feet padding on the floor. Sharon looked up from her article and sighed.
“What’s up buttercup?” Henry asked as he made himself a cup of coffee.
“Just enjoying the view.”
“Glad you like it.” He sat down at the table and flashed his winning smile. “You looked very pensive when I came in.”
“That’s one of the many things I like about you, Henry” Sharon laughed. “You don’t mind that I think.”
“I find it one of your most alluring features. So what in that magazine has made you so thoughtful this morning?”
“Oh, I was just reading about this big quantum theory thing and it got me running on the whole ‘alternative reality’ idea. You know, how there are supposed to be alternate universes? That every time we make one decision, somewhere, another us makes a different decision and goes down a different path.”
“What time did you get up? That’s pretty deep for this hour of the day.”
“Then I started to wonder if those ‘alternate us-es’ thought the same way we do, I mean like you and me. Are there other Sharons out there who don’t read Science News? Are there other Henrys who aren’t into listening to the other Sharons babble about weird new discoveries over breakfast? And are the other Sharons and other Henrys even together, or are they off with other people?”
“We’ll never know, will we? We’re us, not them.”
“Yeah, but do you think we ever kind of get a glimpse of them? Have you ever had a weird thought pop into your head that doesn’t quite jive with your current reality? You know, like ‘I hope I remembered to feed the dog this morning’.”
“You don’t have a dog.”
“Exactly! That’s my point. Perhaps it’s another Sharon’s reality that I am accidentally hearing. The Sharon that got the apartment that allows dogs and decided to go ahead and get one.”
“You want a dog?”
“No, but I almost got a different apartment because this one won’t allow pets.”
“Oh.” Henry scratched his head. “So why does this matter?”
“It doesn’t. At least, the dog part doesn’t. I was just pondering where thoughts come from. I mean, maybe really smart people end up getting some of their weird ideas from this ‘leaky mind’ concept. Like if a science experiment didn’t work in one world, but it did in another, the failed scientist would hear their own success as a leaked thought and then re-vamp the experiment so it succeeded.”
“Hunh. Well that would be a clever trick.”
“I don’t think it would work like that. I think it would just end up being random. You’d just end up being lucky if you got the right leaked thought.”
“You know, I love the way your mind twists and turns like this, however I’ve got to get ready for work.” Henry took her hand, kissed the back of it, and got up.
Sharon went back to her article and closed herself off from all the other Sharons’ leaky minds.
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