The George Fox Chronicles: Blankness (Chapter 5)

George woke up. All he could see was white. He remembered going to bed after Anika said she’d be back tomorrow to see him use his size shifting abilities. That was irrelevant now. All he could see was white as far as the eye could see.
“Did I forget to take off my VR headset? What’s going on?” George said to himself.
The white expanse had no end, as George got up and walked around. He knew he wasn’t on the Sun or on a light bulb as the heat would incinerate his clothes.
After wandering for 5 minutes, the Narrator un-muted his microphone.
Here we see George, alone in a white expanse of what seems to be nothingness.
“What was that?” George said reacting to the voice seemingly speaking his actions.
George made a rude gesture and kept ignoring the Narrator as he sat down on the floor. He didn’t know how he ended up here and he didn’t care that the Narrator knew all.
“Alright then, tell me.” George said to the Narrator finally acknowledged that he was paying attention.
George Fox, you’ve been sent here by the universal council of multiverses for a violation of life path rules. Remember the film “The One?” You know, the film where Jet Li teleports across universes and his evil ego starts killing himself from other universes one by one? That film is somewhat true. There is a universal council of multiverses that deals with multiverse crimes.
“What did I do? All I did was make friends with this girl that was Carmelita’s roommate.” George sai… “And please stop narrating “George said!”
Well George, one of your alter egos tried to develop a relationship with someone whose universe control found to ruin the life path of multiple people. We’re detaining all of your egos until we find the right one. You’re our first, but you certainly not our last.
“Wait, I wasn’t responsible for it and I’m being detained? If you do know that movie, you do know each multiverse has a separate personality for each version of a person! You’re imprisoning innocent people!”
The Narrator stopped to think, but um… (distant whispering) Ah! Yes, you’re actually part of the trial program conducted by the multiverse council to see if detaining all combinations would yield the correct one to stand trial. We picked you because you were the most recent multiverse crime at the time of the decision. You’re one of all the combinations we’ve currently detained and we’re currently number crunching to figure out which person is which. I expect the process to take, an hour, so sit tight.
The narrator reached for the mute button and hit it.
“Ha ha ha, I’m so impressed by that self-referential humor…” George said sarcastically.
George’s mind started to wander for the next hour. Random thoughts started popping into his head. Was it because of the presence of all of his other selves?
One of George’s thoughts went back to the dream he had before he rode the bus with Anika. The dream with the Fennec fox and the wet sneakers. That thought started to take him over. In this unknown realm, who knew what power his thoughts had?
Without warning, a screen appeared in front of his eyes. It showed… himself… on a train wreck rant.
“All I was treating her to was my company. Yeah, I wanted it, but I didn’t expect the others in her circles!” The George in the monitor said.
The Narrator un-muted his microphone again.
Well, we’ve found him. It looks like the algorithm worked.
Wait… Why are more screens popping up? The algorithm was only supposed to find one match not a dozen! Please excuse me, I need to leave the room. My female narration associate should be here any minute to fill in. (distant banter)
…
“Computer algorithms… heh… I knew they’d be wrong some days.”
The female announcer arrives up to the microphone after being rudely shouted at by the previous narrator. This didn’t change the fact that there was a crime committed by one of his versions. However, this narrator believed the algorithm was still too flawed to be put into production.
“You’re right about that, lady!” George said to the new narrator.
Tell you what, we of the universal council of multiverses are sorry this has been such a poor experience. We will now reset the life paths of all of you to before any irrational behavior was going to occur. Don’t worry, we see these in the slipstream all the time, and fixing them is what we do if the court finds defendants not guilty.
“Wait, does this mean everything resets?”
Yes George, some elements won’t be the same as the last time, but we will try our best to bring you back to where you were supposed to be.
“Will I still see my friend Anika?”
That’s not guaranteed, George. A reset also reworks slipstream life paths. I’m sorry, but there is the possibility you and Anika may never meet.
George sighed. “Alright. If that’s what all of my versions have to go through , I guess I’m no different.”
The new narrator tweaked the slipstream of life paths and was ready to hit the reset button. Thoughts went through her head that she was speaking out loud. Was this the right thing to do? Could she trust the machine? Can she salvage the rela…
“OH COME ON, JUST PUSH THE BUTTON!”
White turned into pitch black. George tried to open his eyelids, and he was able see his bedroom ceiling after opening them.
George remembered everything that had just happened. He knew this time, his life was different. Anika and Carmelita may not exist in this new reality, and he had to keep going. He had to leave his past realities behind.
George went downstairs. The rest of the oranges weren’t there. The living room looked different and there was no sign of Carmelita’s boots and shoes.
George went back upstairs, only to check his social website on his computer. His social website had changed, and on the page, he focused on one thing: “Marital Status: Single.”
He knew he was Carmelita’s boyfriend in his previous life, but the fact he had no significant other in this new reality sunk deep to his core. One tear came out. He needed to move on, but he had no clue how. George searched for Carmelita’s page on the social site. He found her, and found that she was taken by one of the world’s only comedian millionaires: Ben Stein.
George honestly didn’t know where to go with his life from then, he guessed the most important things were to pay the bills and just keep trucking along the new path set for him. George wasn’t going to cheat his life path by asking Eggleston to modify it for him, he had to accept what was coming next. George walked out the door, got his mail, and read it at the kitchen table. All bills he had to pay. Totally expected of someone who had to live alone.
George could size shift again without the need for oranges. He remembered the nights Carmelita allowed him to be in her boot and the many times he used that size reference thought to get himself to shrink into the boot. The thrill was gone though, he did the thoughts as usual, but her figure wasn’t there to grab him to stuff him in as usual.
George sat there, staring at the letters on his kitchen table, he forgot to eat lunch. He doesn’t know his friends in this new reality. He was lost, alone, and unsure of everything.
TO BE CONTINUED?