Writer Unblocked

Gina and George held hands as they gazed on the world below, an oasis of blue and green in the dark cosmos. Gina’s long auburn locks framed her pixie face with its green eyes. Hazel eyed, bronze skinned George squeezed her hand. They sighed as one. “Have we really done it, have we found a sister Earth?”

They had first met at a science fiction book club, their passion for reading only surpassed by their thirst for space travel. When they looked in each other’s eyes, they found a mirror of their own. Their love ignited straight away, a sunrise in their soul that would and could only burn brighter.

This was their first long distance spaceflight as assistant commanders. The couple had risen through the ranks swiftly, space exploration in their blood and the eternal question deep in their hearts, are we alone in the universe?

They sent a signal across all communication media. “We come in peace.” Four words that would never age. The answer came back straight away, “We welcome you in peace.”

It was a world just like Earth. In fact, the city where they landed looked identical to New York, sharing a mirror skyline.

The welcome party spoke English with very little difference to theirs. They shook hands with them, laughter in their eyes. “You are not the first to come from Planet Earth,” they confided. “There has been a party before. They are as surprised as you to find a mirror planet. But we are not a mirror. We are you. You are us from an alternative reality.”

The words battled in Gina and George’s head, a truth that was intangible. Then the impossible happened. The welcome party arranged for them to meet their alternate selves.

Gina stared in to her own soul, her heart beating like a bird trying to escape a cage. Mirror eyes contained so much emotion and eerie excitement. “I want to stay,” Gina said slowly. “I would like to experience this alternate reality for a while.”

So Gina and George remained on Mirror Earth. Here, the other Gina and George were not a couple. The second Gina was no space explorer, instead she was a science fiction writer, preferring to explore inner worlds beyond the constraints of reality. “I am writing a novel of alternate realities,” she confided. “And how you can get lost in them.”

One day, Gina and George decided to return to their own Earth. Happiness hugged their hearts, a return to normal reality where they had a place and a purpose!

They arrived at a mirror Earth, their Earth. Only it wasn’t. They had found another alternate reality, and were to meet yet another Gina and George. Gina recalled her sister self’s words: “… how you can get lost in them.”

They travelled for years, but never found their own reality again. A mirror reality had claimed them, and like a bird in a cage there was nowhere to fly to. They looked in to each other’s eyes, their love reflected back. In no other reality were their counterparts together. One day, this love would set their little bird free. Until then, they were drifters within their own destiny, two space explorers with nowhere left to go, the cosmos a cage around them.