Project Echo

Have you ever wished for a better life?

Maybe no. Maybe you have a great life, and sure there are some parts you could live without, but you wouldn't change anything.

Or maybe you're a dreamer, like me. You keep hoping for change, or something to give you a fresh start. So maybe, just maybe, you would have made the same mistake I did.

I was desperate, possibly even a little self-loathing too.

I had a lame job - since graduating college was apparently meaningless when it came to job applications. My friends never messaged or called me. My dad was always off working and my mom couldn’t care less about me.

I hated it all. I always found myself wishing for a better life.

Then, one day, an opportunity presented itself. I saw another version of me, one who had everything I could ever ask for, and I wanted her life.

It wasn't exactly my plan to hop into another universe, find another version of me, knock her out and take what she had, but the circumstances leading up to it were complicated.

My father approached me one morning while I was trying to decide what to eat for breakfast. And by 'approached me', I meant he slammed open the front door and ran into the kitchen where I happened to be standing.

“We’ve finally done it, Elise!" He said, shaking me from my very important thoughts (I was trying to decide between cereal or toast). "We’ve finally made a door to the other side! And I want you to join the team that's going to be the first to visit the other world!”

“The other what?” I replied, peeling my attention from the back of the cereal box I had in my hands. "What are you doing in my house?"

“We've succeeded in making a door to another world, Elise,” my father carefully repeated.

I rolled my eyes. He always took that tone with me. Did he think I was stupid?

“Okay.” I shrugged and then poured the cereal into a bowl.

At the time, I hadn’t thought of the possibilities.

Later that week, my Dad brought me to his lab. He introduced me to some of his colleagues: Michael, Sylvia, and Abigail. Michael was someone I always heard a lot about. He and Dad also went on fishing trips. (I think I remembered meeting him back before he had grey hair.) Sylvia was my dad’s other best-work-friend. I also heard stories of all the pranks they pulled on their coworkers. Then there was Abigail. I didn’t really hear much about her except at the end of Dad’s stories since she was usually the reason the story ended.

I smiled and nodded as Dad walked me up to each of his coworkers. I could have introduced myself, but Dad insisted on stopping to exchange a story about me with each new person I met. When we reached Abigail, she shook my hand then interrupted Dad’s story about the first time I ever caught a baseball (and the last).

“We’d better hurry up, Mr. Anders, the other volunteers are waiting,” Abigail said.

Dad’s grin shrunk. “Oh! That’s right! I nearly forgot… sorry, Elise, it’s just that everyone has been dying to meet you.”

“And I’m dying standing here,” I groaned back.

My Dad sighed and his gaze of - ugh - disappointment landed on me. Sorry-not-sorry, Dad, that I didn’t want to meet and share my life’s story with your boring-ass coworkers.

He turned his gaze from me to Abigail. “Let’s introduce Elise to the other volunteers.”

“Can’t wait,” I muttered, half hoping that Dad wouldn’t hear me but also hoping to remind him not to talk about me in the third person while I was standing right there.

Dad either didn’t notice or didn’t say anything as he turned to the door. We shuffled out of Dad’s office, down a grey hall, past a large printer, and into a room large enough to be a gymnasium. Across from the double doors we just entered in, there was an observation room. It was two floors tall with the top floor's walls made completely of glass.

“Meet Alice, Marvin, Stanley, James, and Jennifer,” my father said, pointing to each person in turn. It was hard to miss the only other objects in the room, that being the five people standing in the centre.

People didn’t like me, so I never liked them. I made no effort to greet anyone as I lined up beside the other volunteers.

“You'll all have to go through some training before you can cross over. There are rules to follow. These are rules all agreed upon by those funding the project, but they are also my personal rules to ensure that no one gets hurt and that this mission doesn't fail.” My father seemed to narrow his eyes at me. “Anyone who doesn’t take them seriously will be immediately kicked from this team.”

I rolled my eyes.

The first week passed quickly. I didn’t try to bond with the other volunteers but I still ended up liking one of them anyway. Her name was Jen. She was 25. She had dark hair and endless freckles. I learnt that Jen had a habit of tucking her shirt into her jeans about every five minutes.

“Why do you do that?” I asked.

She shrugged. “I don’t know. A habit, I guess. I just can’t stand it when my shirt isn’t tucked in. Or when my glasses haven’t been washed three times before I put them on. Or when-”

“Okay, miss OCD, I get it,” I muttered.

Jen scowled at me. “Or when people don’t let me finish my sentences,” she snapped. That was the first time I had ever noticed the scar on the right side of her upper lip.

“Okay, sorry,” I chuckled. I raised my hands in defence, giving her an innocent smile. It had just been a joke.

She turned away from me.

Our next training session was dumb. I mean beyond the stupid trust exercises we’ve done so far. They wanted us to ‘resist temptation’.

“When you’re over there,” my father spoke, “you’re likely to notice that their world is very similar to ours. We aren’t certain if it’s a parallel world or a mirror world, but either way, you can expect to find people you might know and places you are familiar with. You cannot go to them.”

I bit my lip. Sounds boring.

I saw James raise his arm from the corner of my eye. I turned to him as he asked, “I don’t mean to sound rude, but why can’t we go? Wouldn't this give us the best insight as to what's different between our world and theirs?”

Sylvia stepped forward from beside my father. “As cool as I’m certain you think it would be, our entire operation could be put in danger if you were to run into another version of yourself. We’ve only just created the door, and you six will be the first ones ever to visit the other world. We haven’t even made contact with the other side yet. That’s why you’re all receiving additional training than you may already have, and why we’re taking our time when it comes to briefing you about this operation. We want you to be fully prepared, and we want you to be safe.”

Stanley leaned close to Marvin. “I’m going anyway,” he whispered, not loud enough for my father or any of his associates to hear.

Jen shot a glare at them.

I couldn’t help but agree with Stanley. It would be such a waste not to go, and what was the real harm? I didn’t have to say hello to my other self, but seeing what kind of life she had would definitely be interesting. Maybe she made different choices than I did? Maybe she made smarter choices, ones that led to less heartbreak...

I promised myself that I would speak to Stanley after today's training exercises. If Marvin’s nervous face was anything to go by, I’d say he wasn’t all that into Stanley’s plan. This meant that Stanley would need someone else to help him plan his little adventure. Once in the other world, we could easily sneak off together, distract the others... or something. Since dad was so adament about 'properly training us', Stanley and I clearly had time to work out the details.