Looking up as the gentleman sat down across the table from me, I tried to calm my nerves. Sometimes it is the little tricks of patting one’s hair into place or brushing imaginary lint off helps. I did both and it didn’t help.

“Miss Hart, I’m John Case. We have a mutual friend Don Strickland, set up this meeting and insisted I talk to you about your research.” He set a recorder and a camera up on the table. “I won’t start until you tell me it is okay.”

“Let’s order something to drink first. Do you mind?” I motioned for a waiter.

“Sounds good.” He waited for me to order first as the waiter walked up to our table.

“I’d like a Dr. Pepper, please.”

A hint of a smile touched John’s eyes. “I’d like a coffee, cream and sugar.”

The waiter dropped two menus down and the table and left.

“How much did Don tell you?” I was closely watching John’s face for small tell tale signs.

He grinned. “Enough to spike my curiosity. He said you do really weird things with harmonics and I’d be a fool to not talk to you. I don’t think I’m a fool so here I am.”

The waiter returned with the drinks and stood by waiting for our order for food. I handed my menu back to him. “I’ll have the lunch special.”

He looked over at John who handed his menu back just as quickly. “I’ll have the same.”

We were alone again. I cleared my throat wondering if I was going to lose any normal life after I shared my story. “There was a man who experimented with harmonics or frequency and found everything is tuned to a specific frequency. He built a lab and began testing his theory which was actually not just theory. With each different frequency tuned to a specific virus, disease, insect, animal, plant or virtually anything physical he could kill it, heal it, or destroy it.”

John looked like he had swallowed a bug. “You mean everything?”

Nodding in agreement, I continued. “Needless to say, he was murdered. People are afraid of what they don’t understand. They are willing to kill those who rock the status quo.”

John shook he head. “Not everyone. Most like progress.”

“Yeah, progress in short baby steps so the system isn’t shook up.” I took a sip of my drink.

“I had no idea what the frequencies were the gentleman used. Being a dumb kid with more moxie than brains, I set up a sound system in my room. I had tweeters, woofers, bass speakers, plastered all over the room and was cranking up the amps when…”

======================================================

“Harold, turn it down. I think they can hear you on the other side of the world.” Janet was yelling at her son.

Getting no response she turned to her husband Aaron. “Pull the breaker.”

Aaron put the magazine down and headed for the garage. Minutes later the ear grating noise suddenly stopped.

“MOM!” I yelled out from the bedroom. I knew what they had done. Everything went dark.

“Don’t you mom me young man. Turn everything off and get your butt out of that room. I expect the police will be here in a few minutes. I want you to be out in the yard mowing. Tell them that must be the noise the neighbors were complaining about.”

I knew she was right so I quickly shut everything off and headed for the garage and the lawnmower, passing dad on the way. He shook his head. I had made two passes across the yard when the patrol car pulled up in front of our drive.

The big guy was grinning as he slid out of the patrol car. He walked over to where I shut down the lawnmower. “Trying to play innocent again are you Harold?”

I looked over at him in perfect innocence. “The neighbors complain about me mowing the yard?”

He couldn’t stop the grin. “No son, they complained about you rattling their windows, causing their dogs to howl in pain, their cats to crawl under the bed and all the birds fleeing for their lives. I don’t think it was you mowing the grass which caused such a fracas. Harold, it isn’t just the neighbors next door but the whole damn neighborhood. You hit a new high this time. Cindy received thirty nine calls complaining about the noise. I’m going to give you a summons if you don’t quit.”

He pulled a ticket book out of his back pocket. “This is the last time I write a warning. Next time it will be the real thing.” He filled in the spaces and wrote warning on it.

I took the ticket. He returned to his patrol car and left. “But I’m so close. I can feel it.”

That was Friday. Saturday came along. Before mom and dad left to visit some friends for lunch and play cards she pulled me into a hug. “No turning up the screech sounds. Okay?”

I crossed my fingers as I hugged her. “Okay mom.”

Ten minutes later I had everything ready. I was going for the ultra high frequencies humans can’t hear. Kicking the amplifier on, I dialed it in and started adding the speakers to the mix one by one. What I didn’t notice was the room growing dimmer with each added speaker.

And then…, There she was. A girl appeared in my room standing in front of me. She looked as surprised as me.

She pointed her finger at me. “Who are you and what are you doing in my room?”

Well, that was a lot calmer than I felt. I was totally freaked out. “YOUR ROOM! THIS IS MY ROOM!”

She shook her head. “No bozo, this is my room. And…, oh shit, you split the dimensions didn’t you? You’re my alternate. We both can’t exist in the same dimension. What did you do!”

She began to fade. “How could the other me be so stupid?”

She was gone. Talk about freaking out, I was out there. Looking around the room I realized it wasn’t my room. It was in a girl’s room. I had no idea where I was, how I got there, or how to get back home. It was time to calm down and figure out where I was. Her purse was on the vanity. Something I assumed was a computer was on what I assumed was a computer cabinet. It didn’t look like any computer I had ever seen. A lot of things in that room didn’t look like anything I had ever seen. I headed for the purse. ID and addresses were priority. The billfold I retrieved from the purse had lots of pictures in it, along with funny money, and an ID driver’s license of some kind. The license was issued to Juliann Elizabeth Hart. The address was twenty one sixty eight Sandburg Drive.

That was my address? The city was Chapel which wasn’t my town. The state was Brendort? I never heard of it. I was beginning to suspect I had teleported. The problem was to what part of the world? As I was trying to figure out just where I was and how I was going to get home, she returned.

She pointed her finger at me again. Girl was good with the finger pointing thing. “YOU STUPID IDIOT! I figured out what you were doing after I was shifted to your room. You split the dimensional portals. The frequency was still set. God how did you stand all that before you jumped? My head still hurts.”

She slapped what looked like a tiny cell phone on me. “We can’t exist in the same dimension. One of us has to go. Tag, you’re it sweety.”

“I’m in love. You’re the prettiest girl I have ever met. By the way, where are we so I can come and get you for a date.” Yeah, there was nothing wrong with my sex drive, it was my brain that was fried.

“You still don’t get it do you? You’re me. You caused a rift in the dimensions and fell through. I’m not going to miss me because you aren’t too bright.”

She was starting to fade. “Wait, don’t go.”

=================================================

Looking across the table at John I shook my head. “I was in my room. Or what used to be my room. Somehow she had fixed it so the whole harmonics system I had put together fried itself. Slowly I was beginning to realize there were more problems. I didn’t seem to be myself. Well not true. I was myself or herself. Somehow she imprinted on me as I transported through the dimension portal. Looking in the mirror I saw the girl I had left behind.”

It didn’t take a counselor to see the look on John’s face and realize he wasn’t buying the story. It didn’t matter. “I know you don’t believe me. I was born Harold Chervenski. After they returned home, my parents had a hard time believing I wasn’t some girl who abducted their son and took his place. It took days and weeks of my parents grilling me about everything we did as I was growing up as Harold. At least I retained his memories. What I didn’t retain was his emotions and feelings. I still love my parents but other things changed. I date boys now. I like girls as girlfriends. I have her emotions and feelings inside me.”

John shook his head. “I don’t believe it. You and Don set me up for a spoof didn’t you?”

Laughing, I ran my finger around on the top of the water glass causing it to sing. “I have her memories too. My parents explained to the school board Harold had gone to stay with his uncle Dave Chervenski in Albania while I, his daughter’s daughter, came to stay with them, mom and dad. It was my senior year of high school. Harold was a C and D student. Juliann Elizabeth Hart in this dimension is a straight A student bored out of her ever loving mind with Physics, Trigonometry, Chemistry, and computer science. I was offered a scholarship at MIT. I’m not sure this dimension is ready for what Juliann already knows. I pray I didn’t get Harold’s memories in my other dimension.”

Juliann slid back from the table and stood up. “You don’t believe me and that is probably a good thing. You don’t seem interested in taking any notes so I’ll be going. It was nice talking to you John Case.”

Walking out of the cafe I was smiling. I still had a crush on the girl I had met in another dimension. She was the prettiest girl I had ever laid eyes on. Yet, here I was able to look in the mirror and see her whenever I wanted. I no longer felt like I wanted girls in my bed but there was one exception. Juliann would be welcome in my bed anytime and that isn’t the one in the mirror.