I read a lot as a kid.
Mom and I would always go to the public library and spend the afternoon. She would wander through aisles of Dean Koontz, Stephen King and the occasional Danielle Steele or Harlequinn. I was discovering and rediscovering Robert Munsch and later on R.L Stine and Christoper Pike.
Like mother, like the kid I guess.
I was the kid who’d beg their mom to go to the park and then she’d find me reading under the large sweeping weeping willow. Or upon the slides, I was also the kid who got their night light taken away from them for using it to read.
My love of reading introduced me to Levar Burton and Reading Rainbow on PBS. I remember an episode they did, a fun Behind the Scenes episode of Star Trek The Next Generation. Mom told me Mr. Burton played a character named Geordi and she thinks I’d like the show based on my reactions of the behind the scenes stuff.
(also queue a Queer awakening, but that is another blog post for a different blog).
Watching Reading Rainbow connected my love for books with my mom. It also connected another love with my mom and watching Star Trek The Next Generation.
Some of my favourite episodes of Star Trek all had to do with time shifts and alternate reality. The holodeck or some other form of their technology screws up and as a result, they get stuck in whatever nonspace adventure they were on. We get episodes like ST: TNG meets Sherlock Holmes.
Star Trek led me to a lot of love for space and physics and time travel. Sadly, any and all career choices have been stunted when I realized I couldn’t understand the math or science needed to figure out time travel.
Then David introduced me to comic books and all things multiverse.
I admit the idea of a universe where a bunch of different versions of me existed intrigued and fascinated me. I liked the idea that a bunch of new universes were created because of a decision I made and then that built off a whole new universe off of that one decision.
Maybe there was a universe where I went to that school in Thunder Bay Ontario where I would have studied Early Childhood Education? Where would I be now? Still, teaching? Would I still be up north? Would I own my own daycare now?
Is there a universe where David and I stayed broken up?
A universe where I became a paramedic?
A lawyer?
A private investigator who dealt with cyber and sex crimes?
Is there a universe where David moved to L.A?
Another one where he moved to Vancouver?
Became a professional wrestler?
Did my parents get divorced?
All these different universes I would love to experience them. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? being able to close your eyes and slide into another universe and experience what the other you are experiencing, even for a few moments.
It could be fun, maybe I would end up in the arms of someone I fancied, or would finally have purple hair! I guess if there are universes where fun things can happen to you there would be universes where scary things can happen or sad things.
If I parallel travelled into another universe where I died do I completely screw up their timeline? How would that work? What if I decide to stay? Would I cease to exist in this one? Would there be a weird universe where David and I didn’t meet and didn’t know each other? A universe where David didn’t die?
Oh…
I don’t know if I like this game of what-ifs anymore.
