A World of Difference

He grinned, and said, "Well, when someone asks me how my day was, I can truthfully say it was out of this world."

"How long can you stay, babies?" Grandma asked.

Stephanie answered, "Only until about 1:30, I guess. I've got to fly back to Phoenix this evening. I'm a Senior at Arizona State, in the Nursing Program. Steven's got to get back to Earth 1, he's enrolled at Boston University there."

"I suppose we're Earth 2 in this arrangement?" Jack asked.

I responded, "Yeah, for a pretty arbitrary reason. At least they didn't call them Earth Steven and Earth Stephanie. Not like they even knew we existed, we were just a day old in our Moms' wombs at that point. It took them all this time to confirm that we were the earliest variant event they could find, and then we were just tested to confirm that we actually were conceived before the portal was opened, as well as to prove we came from the same egg, yet are different people."

We wound up having a delightful visit, Grandma showing us all the old photo albums of our parents as kids. I snapped a few photos of ones I liked best with my cell phone's camera. I had no service of course, my phone wasn't recognized on the network. Grandpa had made pork sliders with cole slaw as a side dish for lunch. Simple but delicious.

They were delighted to hear that Steph wanted to become a Tucker again, but just as Sam had, quickly realized the underlying reason for it was me.

"Kids, I am never going to approve of incest," Grandpa said, when we admitted to our intimacy. "It's wrong a dozen different ways. But I'm wise enough now to know that I don't get to make your choices for you. Even if I disagree with your choices, the only real choice I have is whether to still love you or not. I chose wrong 23 years ago, forcing my own children to run away from us, and missed out on Steph growing up, as I'm sure our counterparts missed out on you, Steve. I'm not making that same mistake today, and Steve, please deliver that message to your parents. I lost out on the chance to apologize to my own children, I at least owe their Earth 1 counterparts that much, especially as my own Earth 1 counterpart is gone."

All too soon, it was 1:30, and we had to leave, to get Stephanie back to Carlson in time for her to get to the airport. We both promised we would be back to visit as often as we could, with Sam coordinating our access to the portal.

Stephanie and I both got in the back seat of Sam's car, knowing we only had an hour or so before we'd have to part, at least temporarily. We cuddled and kissed, but didn't do anything more risqué in front of our uncle. The hug I gave her in front of her rental car must have lasted five minutes. "I love you, Steph. As your brother-me, as a man, every way possible. Come back to me."

"Once I graduate, I promise. Nothing's going to keep us apart, again. I love you with all my heart and soul. As for the body, we're already almost identical twins, right?"

I waved her goodbye, then had Sam take me back to the portal to cross to Earth 1. As soon as I got back to my car, I was on the road back to Nashua. There was one more reunion to do. I pulled up to the nearly same house about 3:30 PM, and knocked on the door. Grandma Mary opened the front door but not the screened one, and I had to remind myself that this was a different Mary, who had not met me yet. She looked sadder, and frail, compared to the Earth 2 version. I guessed losing your spouse would do that.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

"Mrs. Tucker, this will probably sound shocking, but I'm your grandson. Jim and Caroline are my parents, and I finally know that those are their real names, after 22 years. The names they took on after they left Nashua are Jim and Catherine Mobley, and they named me Steven Samuel Mobley, after their brother Sam. I grew up in Denver, but go to school at Boston University. There's a lot more to tell, but I think we should do it indoors."

She opened the screen door, and grabbed onto me, saying, "Baby, baby, baby," over and over. I finally had to scoop her up in my arms, and take her into the house, and set her on the same couch in the same-but-not living room that I'd just been in on Earth 2.

I sat with her, just holding her hand, as she regained her composure. "Grandma, are you okay?" I asked.

"I can't believe it. You're really here. Oh, I have so many questions!" she exclaimed. "You said there was more? What more could there be?"

"If I said the words parallel worlds, would that mean anything to you?" I asked.

"My sons all read those crazy comic books that talked about those," she said.

"Well, they're real, and this weekend, I met my opposite half from another world. Her name is Stephanie Mobley, and she's almost as close to being my identical twin as she can be, and still be female. 88% of the same genes, they calculated. She's the one who told me that my parents were brother and sister, but she didn't know their real names, and they died last year in her world. Suddenly, she had no family at all."

"Poor thing," Grandma said.

"She thought she had no way to find her grandparents, until I pointed out that my parents knew, so we pressured them for their real names and yours. I actually spent the last few hours visiting with Stephanie's grandma and grandpa on Earth 2..."

Her hand went to her mouth, and a tear streamed down her face. "David's alive? On this other Earth?"

"Yes, he is. The other big coincidence in all this is that the other Earth's Sam Tucker actually works at the lab that runs the portal. I found out from him this morning, that apparently both David Tuckers knew where my parents lived and, on the day ours died, he was watching me play baseball at Boston University. Grandpa's counterpart on the second Earth didn't attend the game, because he only knew about Stephanie, and she goes to Arizona State."

She stared at me for a few seconds, then asked, "That's why he was there? Nobody could ever explain why he was at a BU baseball game. He hadn't told a soul that's where he was going or why. I almost thought he was having an affair on me, but it was to see you? Damn that man! First he runs my older kids off, then tells me he knows where they are and they're okay but won't tell me where no matter how much I begged him, then he knows that my grandson is a short drive away and still won't tell me."

"Well, we're going to start fixing that, right now." I got out my phone, and called my parents. Mom answered, and I said, "Mom, I've got someone who wants to talk to you," and handed the phone to Grandma, then stood up to walk around the room a bit, noticing small differences here and there to the Earth 2 version, affected by Grandpa's death here.

She took the phone, and said, "Caroline? It's Mama. ... Yes, baby, he's here. You raised a fine young man. ... I wish... I wish so many things could have been different, baby, but the thing I wish most is to see you again. When can you and Jim get here? ... Graduation? That's almost a month away. ... Steven, she said you could skip or something like that?"

She handed me back the phone, and Mom had already hung up. I opened the Skype app on my phone, and initiated a video call, then sat back down next to Grandma, as Mom answered, with Dad by her side. "Hi, Mom, hi, Dad. I don't think any introductions are needed this time."

"I love you, Mama," Dad said first, tears in his eyes. Mom was holding him tight, her head on his shoulder, tears flowing.

"I love you both, babies," Grandma said.

We kept chatting until my phone started warning me about my battery, and I didn't have a charger, so we had to say goodbye. I stayed another hour, talking to grandma, catching her up on my life. She also read straight through into my feelings for Steph, chuckling, "You're going to nearly be cranking out clones, if you get her pregnant. Not that I think there's anything wrong with your genes, as reinforced as they already are, but you better consider adoption."

Finally, it was dark out, and I needed to head back to Boston, as I still had assignments to do for morning classes. I gave my grandma a long hug, promised to be back on Friday, packed for an overnight stay, when she was going to get my uncles to visit.

I got back to the apartment, and brought Scott up to date on everything that happened that day, and he looked dizzy by the time I was done. I didn't blame him. It still seemed a bit unreal to me, too. So much was changed and changing between the two worlds, yet I felt even more transformed by the events of the weekend. I had a sister, who was nearly me, and a girlfriend and lover, all wrapped up in one. I had not one but two new families to love and love me.

~~~~~

The parallel Earths were all over the news on Thursday, as President Obama made the announcement in a raucous Press Conference. As promised, our names were kept out of it, with only "Evidence has recently been uncovered that the two Earths diverged before the portals were opened" stated as justification to open additional portals, possibly to additional Earths. However, it did not take long before reporters asked to see this evidence, and once the genetic analysis was leaked, likely by someone in Congress, since they were supposedly the only ones who had seen it outside of Carlson, it was only a few more hours before other geneticists announced to the world that the mystery duo were the children of incest. The President continued to protect our identities, however, as they were also protecting the name of the lab where the portal was located, until it could be made more secure.

I knew we were still at some degree of risk, if the press on Earth 1 could ever coordinate with the press on Earth 2 to gain access to both sets of the birth records from 1994, to compare them, the same way the Carlson Labs had. Already, Freedom of Information Act requests were being made trying to access those records on Earth 1, and quickly denied, by different press outfits in different states. Even with Steph changing her name, the fact that a Stephanie Tucker did not exist on Earth 1 but a Steven Mobley did would still stick out like a sore thumb. I could only hope people would stop caring by the time any communication networks were integrated, if ever.

The new InterEarth Immigration Agency was announced, and my uncle Sam Tucker was nominated to head it. No mention of his counterpart being involved with the lab was mentioned, probably to protect the lab's location. Despite being the first in the nation Presidential Primary, New Hampshire's Senatorial Primary isn't held until September, so it was easy for him to withdraw from the race. He had been polling third anyway.

The public was enthralled, with people already placing bets on what other worlds would be found when other portals were opened. Stuff like a world where JFK wasn't assassinated, or WWII never happened because Hitler died in the Beer Hall Putsch were imagined and debated. Why did the imagination always spring to differences originating with the major figures of history, instead of ordinary people like me and Steph? I could only imagine how Earth 2 was reacting. How Steph was doing. I missed her so much, even after only knowing her for 48 very tumultuous hours.

Almost lost in the torrent of news of the day were a series of rather paranoiac tweets by Donald Trump about the threat of immigration from Earth 2, even from the other U.S., and how it would lead to an infestation of incest, somehow, parroting another Alex Jones conspiracy theory. Criticism of Trump from the other candidates in both parties was swift and harsh. He was hospitalized for "exhaustion" by the end of the day. Had the mere knowledge of Earth 2's existence just changed the path of Earth 1's election? Time would tell.

~~~~~

The next day, as promised, I returned to Nashua, to visit Grandma Mary and my Earth 1 uncles. I was a little earlier than I had told Grandma I would be. When I pulled into the driveway, I noticed a car in the driveway that was nicer than the ones that I'd seen my uncles driving on Earth 2, and the first thought was that this must be my Congressman uncle Sam's car..

I rang the doorbell, and when that didn't bring an answer, I knocked on the door, several times.

The best word to describe Grandma Mary when I opened the door is disheveled. Her hair looked out of place, her lipstick was a bit smeared. She exclaimed, "Oh, Steven, you're early," in an out of breath voice, as she unlatched the screen door and pushed it open for me. I looked through the doorway, and saw Uncle Jack tucking his shirt into his pants. Oh, my, what had I almost walked in on? Had this Uncle Jack and Grandma Mary been the latest to succumb to the incest bug (hey, maybe Trump was right), or had this been going on since Grandpa died, grown out of comforting his mother, something the Earth 2 Jack hadn't needed to do?

I just didn't know how to ask, without offending either one, and really, it was none of my business if they chose that path, if I was going to ask others to react the same way to mine.

Grandma introduced us, and Jack asked, "So, do I seem different from my counterpart on Earth 2? Mom says you met them all, even their version of Dad?"

'He wasn't tucking in his shirt after being nearly caught with his Mom,' I almost said. Almost. Instead, I said, "Too early to tell, really. I only spent about 3 hours there, and I'm just getting to know you now."

Uncle Sam arrived soon after, and walked straight up to me. "Hi, Steven, I'm Sam, your uncle, and also your contact at the IEIA. Do I have you to thank for my new job, somehow?"

I answered, "No, I think that has more to do with your Earth 2 counterpart being Head of Security at Carlson, and the Presidents wanting to pair the two of you up to jointly run the new agency. I guess they figured you'd be more compatible with each other, yet come at it with different skill sets, you on the political side, him on knowledge of the portal. Nobody else at Carlson or the White House knows we're related, at all, so there would certainly be no reason to single you out just because of Steph and I."

"Steph is your counterpart on Earth 2?" he asked.

"More like she's my replacement. I call her my sister-me. We were two of many possible outcomes at the time of conception. One egg, different sperm which could have fertilized it, so she resulted in their world, instead of me. Almost 90% similarity genetically, because of having the same DNA from that shared egg, plus who our parents are to each other. Identical twins are 100% the same due to splitting after fertilization."

"So, you are the mystery duo everyone has been puzzled about. I'm glad your names are being kept out of it," Sam said. "I don't want to see you or your parents get hurt out of all this."

"Because of those who might blame us for divergences, or because of the incest?" I asked.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Either, really. I've never felt that the laws against incest made that much sense, once you're talking about consenting adults, and the laws against child abuse and rape cover the rest. All couples ought to get a genetic comparison done, regardless, and if there is a risk, deal with it, but don't tell people not to love who they're going to love. I would bet there are a lot of unrelated couples actually at higher risk than your parents, or you and Steph, would be."

We had a nice dinner together, getting to know each other better. Uncle Jack was in high end computer sales, just like his Earth 2 counterpart, but I began to see small differences, especially in the ways he interacted with Grandma and his brother. Apparently, his dad's death had not just changed Grandma. There had been some conflict over how Jack had used his share of life insurance money, as in buying a new car, when Sam thought he should have saved it for retirement or a downpayment on a home. And where the Earth 2 Jack talked about a girlfriend, this one didn't.

I asked Sam, "Have you been briefed in on why Carlson needed to test Steph and I in the first place?"

"Yeah, something about needing to know that you were conceived before they opened the portal. Why?"

"Just something that's been bugging me," I responded. "They said they were concerned about the portal having created a new world, that operated in parallel from that moment, rather than bridging to one that already existed. But if every action that can have multiple outcomes creates yet more parallel worlds, doesn't even inaction cause a parallel, as a possible outcome of a decision? Isn't there another world just like this one, but where the portal wasn't ever opened or even built?"

"Sounds like a question for the piled higher and deeper crowd." he answered.

Grandma and I said goodbye to my uncles, and she showed me to what used to be my Mom's bedroom, nearly unchanged after all these years. It still had her desk, and I still had some school work to do, so after saying goodnight to her, I started working on it.

At least, that was my intent until I started hearing what sounded like sobs from the hall. Bookmarking where I was, I started walking down the hall to where the sound was coming from. The door to Grandma's room was ajar, and as I crept to it, the sounds turned into moans. A peek showed my grandmother on her back, her knees up, shoving a vibrator into her pussy, moaning the name David over and over.

No, I didn't enter the room and try to take the vibrator's place, although Grandma's body had aged very well, sharing the same basic build as Mom and Steff. Boobs can't sag much if they aren't very big to start with, and she hadn't developed many wrinkles. It might have been different if she'd been moaning my name, but she was remembering her husband, and I had zero reason to think she wanted me.

I was already in one incestuous relationship with Steph, probably headed into another with Mom, I sure didn't need a third, especially if Uncle Jack was already in one with her. I didn't need to horn in on that, so just backed away from the door, and went back to my room, got out my iPod for some music, and got back to work.

Half an hour later, she came to check on me, and when she gave me a kiss on the cheek as a second good night, I got a whiff of her arousal off of her fingers. I thought, 'Dang, Grandma! If you weren't going to be in my dreams already, you sure will now!'

My dreams, the ones I remembered, anyway, were of Steph, though.

The next morning, Grandma made me breakfast, then we said our goodbyes until Graduation.

~~~~~

The tide of the election had indeed turned. Trump was off the campaign trail for four days, as his polling numbers dropped. His tweets after he was released from the hospital only doubled down on his opposition to Earth 2 immigration, although making no further mentions of incest, and his polling numbers finished cratering after that. John Kasich won the next three primaries, and talk of a Cruz-Kasich ticket was emerging, if they could keep Trump from clinching the nomination in the remaining primaries.

The Carlson facility in Burlington was secured, and space set aside for IEIA offices, and another portal was opened at their lab in Denver. Set with the same power level as the originals and the openings synchronized across both worlds, it simply created a second link between the two worlds. Both locations were announced as the sites for future travel between the worlds for approved U.S. citizens only, with more sites planned.

At the same time, plans were in the works for experimental portals where the power levels would be varied, and only opened on one of the two Earths, to see if other Earths would be linked.

The telephone and Internet systems were scrambling to figure out how to interoperate with the other world's identical systems, but I didn't know how they could come up with a new standard without communicating to the equivalent outfits on Earth 2, so they were kind of in a catch-22. So far as I knew, nobody knew about the small links that Carlson had already established, and visas had yet to be issued.