Free Road Less Traveled by Cris Ramsay Page B

jumping up and down, and both were grinning like idiots. “And do you know what this means?”
    â€œUm, I don’t,” Carter offered, raising a hand. “What’s going on, exactly?”
    â€œDr. Russell’s demonstration wasn’t a failure at all,” Allison explained happily. “It just worked even better than we’d ever expected. We really are looking at another dimension here!”
    â€œBut it looks just like this one,” Carter argued.
    â€œI know!” Allison gave Dr. Russell a big hug. “Dr. Russell has just proven the existence of parallel dimensions!” she announced happily.
    â€œParallel what? Is that like parallel parking, only bigger?”
    Both women laughed, then Dr. Russell sobered up. “I need to get my technicians back in here at once,” she stated. “We’ve got to start analyzing all of this, and recording it!”
    â€œAbsolutely! Let me know once you’ve got a preliminary report put together,” Allison told her. She turned and guided Carter back toward the door. “We’ll give you room to work.”
    â€œThank you,” Dr. Russell called after them. “And, Sheriff? Thank you !”
    He nodded and waved as Allison led him away.
    â€œOkay, what’s the big deal?” he asked once they were back in the hall. “What’s this about parallel dimensions?”
    â€œThere’s an old theory in quantum physics,” Allison explained, “that every time a decision could go one of two ways, it does both. It goes one way here, but then there’s another reality where it goes the other way. It’s called divergent realities. As a result, for every decision or choice there is, theoretically, a universe where the other choice was made and those consequences played out.”
    Carter processed that. “So there’s a universe where I turned left instead of right when I pulled out of my driveway this morning?”
    â€œExactly. And in that universe, turning left might have meant you got hit by a truck, or got to the office late and missed an important call, or noticed a potential problem before it could get worse.” Allison shrugged. “Each of those paths would have led to other decisions, other choices, and each would have then split off into its own reality as well.”
    He nodded. “And what we’re seeing is a world where, somehow, one of those decisions meant Vincent never opened Café Diem.”
    â€œRight. And who knows what other little changes exist between that world and our own?” She grinned. “Like I said, it’s an old theory, but it’s only been a theory because there’s never been a way to prove it. Until now. This is an amazing accomplishment!”
    â€œOh. Well, that’s cool.” Carter only vaguely understood what she was talking about, but that was okay. The important thing was, he’d been right to show her what he’d noticed. And now both she and Dr. Russell were thrilled. That had to be a good thing.
    They got back to the lobby, and Allison checked her watch. “I’ve got that call in two minutes.” She smiled at him. “I’ll see you later.”
    â€œOkay, sure.” He smiled back, as always. He’d never been able to resist her smile. “Later.” And he headed out again. His socks were still damp, so he decided his first priority was to go home and get a dry uniform. Then he’d check in with Jo and see where they were about the Thunderbird egg. It had already been a busy day, and it wasn’t over yet.
    Â 
    Zane was calculating vectors for the new project he had going with Arnold Gunter, something that built off Gunter’s work on the MRS, but a bit less dramatic and thus hopefully more immediately usable. He had his computer pad in his hands but was doing most of the math in his head, as usual. That and the earphones that were blasting Scandinavian death metal