Meeting with oneself

It was a sunny morning, hot enough to keep people inside house, and so they did since it was Sunday.

"Arghh! Who goes to school on Sundays." Cried Clay, stopping at the bridge over a dried up canal. He sat on the guard rail, below a tree, which struggled to keep out the sunlight.

Clay liked this spot, because it was quietest place in whole town, even quieter than his own house.

He sat on the guard rail, made of wood, with beautiful and ancient carving. They weren't original but still, were pretty as a picture.

As the yellow flowers fell from the tree, Clay rose his head to sniff the regular scent of someone, mixed with those of flowers.

The tree was quite old, Clay has been enjoying it's company since he was small. After all this years, both of their appearance changed, Clay gained tissues, while the tree lost it. It was a golden shower tree, and has showered golden flowers all it's life.

But all this time, it wasn't just Clay who enjoyed it's company. There was that other person whose scent was always there, mixed with the flowers.

"Why did I even join this club?" Clay hopped off the guard rail and started walking, after having a glance at his watch.

"And why is our meeting on Sunday?" He kept complaining while dragging himself.

He reached school somehow, while sipping juice. He took a deep breath while standing before the club room's door, preparing himself for what was going to happen next.

Standing in a calm manner, he took in a long breathe and released it out, and reached out his hands for the handle.

The door opened and the soft murmuring faded away. All that was left in the room was silence with many gazes on Clay.

The ceiling fan was spinning slowly, barely keeping the heat inside the room in control.

Everyone's faces were sweaty and the air in the room was tense.

Students were sitting around a circular table and every seat except for one was occupied.

Clay let out a deep sigh and slowly went toward his seat, everyone stood up as he approached and greeted him formally. He greeted back and took his seat.

Everyone's gazes were still locked on him.

"Fine I am late, now cut out the staring please!" Clay spoke up, standing in haste.

"Dear president, please be calm and get back to your seat. We are already late on schedule, please refrain from extending it!" Said one of the girls sitting next to him.

Clay was gifted in the field of cosmology and from a small age he theorized most of the things about space correctly, without reading anything about them.

But his laziness always held him back from doing anything new or even working on theories that are near completion.

The reason according to him us maths. He can theorize any thing but when it comes to proving and giving a suitable equation, he backs off.

It was not long when he came to high school and the club members noticed this extremely rare gem coated with the coal known as laziness.

They forced him to enter this club and assured him that he won't have to use maths ever, all he need to do is theorize everything for them.

Eventually his potential lifted him to top, and he was made club president the moment previous one graduated. Though Clay wasn't too pleased about it, he didn't have a choice.

"If you are done relaxing, should we start today's discussion, President?" Said a girl, sitting opposite to him. She was Kylie, the club's vice president and Clay's classmate.

She was the only one who could officially lash out on Clay.

Clay kept both his hands on the table, took a deep breath and asked softly, "So! Why are we gathered here today?"

A sudden silence sorrounded the whole room. Clay gulped as everyone stared at him.

"Ahh I see, our BUSY president has so much work that he forgot why we gathered here today!" Said Kylie, emphasizing the BUSY.

"Haha, thanks for your understan..."

"Don't you have any shame Clay? You just do nothing but procrastinate on your work. Atleast do a little for club's sake." Kylie exclaimed, leaving her seat.

"Hey, hey, calm down." Clay bent for his bag.

"Calm down my ass, say everything you know about parallel universe and get out!"

Every club member was looking down seeing their vice president this angry.

It was a regular phenomenon, still they didn't dare make eye contact when she is angry.

'THUD' Clay threw a diary on the table, hanging his bag on shoulder, "Everything you need is written there." He approached the door.

He grasped the handle, pushed it and was about to step out when he felt a force stopping him.

"Return to your seat you piece of shit!" Kylie said slowly in a heavy tone while grasping his bag.

"Would you care about your language in front of juniors?" Said Clay annoyingly.

"You, who is ruining their CCA grades shouldn't be saying that!" She continues to speak in heavy tone.

Clay let out a sigh, "Okay but make sure they don't keep spreading words about what happens here..."

Kylie turned toward members, "You all saw something just now?" Her tone changed to cheerful and feminine one, "If yes then forget it!" And back to heavy.

"UNDERSTOOD" all the members exclaimed at once.

"We've got good juniors haven't we?" She asked Clay in a cheerful tone.

He frowned at her.

She frowned back and he nodded.

They returned to their respective seats and clay started, "Read the diary, and ask if you don't understand anything."

One of the member distributed xerox copy of the diary to all members and they started reading it. Meanwhile Clay played on his phone. The clubroom was silent, and everyone was reading Clay's work carefully.

The silence was broken by one of the member, "Uhmm, this thing is really complicated I would like you to explain it..."

"Okay, so..." Clay was cut in middle

"And did you take two weeks just for this?"

"Huh, I worked hard for that!" He said in a surprised tone.

Everyone started staring at him again.

"What? Do you all think I haven't worked hard on this?" Clay asked in sad tone.

And everyone nodded.

Clay frowned at Kylie, "Okay I'll explain just once so listen carefully!"

He started, "I will try to keep the explanation very simple. So, taking the law of conservation of energy from classical physics in mind, we say energy is never created or lost. It just changes its form. Using this thing, I've come up with a theory that whatever energy is lost here, in this dimension is replenished in its pair dimension or the parallel dimension to maintain the balance."

"We would like a practical example for better understanding." Kylie interfered.

Clay frowned at her again, and started, "Tch! Okay, let's say, a man in one of the dimension dies at the age of thirty and taking average human life as eighty, we can say that the remaining fifty years worth of energy is replenished in another dimesion, to the same man..."

"Hey wait!" Another member exclaimed, "First, why would the energy be replenished there, can't it be in the same universe? And second, let's say that was true so why don't we often see people crossing there eighties? If that were the case, they should atleast cross their hundreds?" He crossed him confidently.

"Look" Clay started to explain in a more calm manner, "I am talking about energy replenishment from one dimension to another because we are talking about parallel dimensions. Means we have to take any means possible we can...

And for your other question, we are not talking about just two parallel dimensions, we are accepting the possibility of infinite dimensions, and an infinite number of energy replenishment. And if you ask what if they come to end at some point, so what if the same person is child in any dimension and adult in another, that way, the energy keeps getting lower and lower by each replenishment."

"But how can the same person be child in one and adult in another? Aren't parallel universes the same? Means they operate parallely don't they?"

Another question raised was raised for Clay.

"Time is not something natural, its something we created for our convenience and thus nature does not follows time. So the possibility of same person being child and adult is not fully wrong."

"Prez, what about the hypothesis which says parallel universe contain everything opposite of ours?"

"Honestly speaking, that hypothesis sounds idiotic, if that were the case then there is a possibility that in another dimension, universe is not even formed by the big bang or big crunch thing..."

Kylie smiled, seeing Clay acting serious and clearing every doubt so calmly.

Clay looked at her, and she suddenly removed her gaze from him. This was the first time she didn't look back at Clay.

Realising this, she suddenly looked back at him and said, "I guess the questions end here, so let's work to prove it shall we?"

Everyone exclaimed in affirmative and Clay stepped back, while keeping his hands in surrender position.

Laughter filled the whole clubroom, "And with this I end today's meeting." Clay exclaimed.

"Work hard and report us if you find a way to prove it." Kylie exclaimed as everyone started to leave.

"YES" everyone replied in sync and went out one by one.

"Why don't you take things seriously just like you did today?" Kylie asked packing her bag.

"You think I am lazy intentionally?" Clay replied while taking the clubroom's key.

"So, what's the reason for the way you are?"

They stepped out of the clubroom.

"I don't know how to explain, but whenever I try to work I feel tired, and fatigued. I also want to discuss stuff and do activity like today, but whenever I try to I feel my whole body cannot even stand..." Clay said, locking the clubroom.

"That's just your laziness!" Kylie said stretching his cheeks.

"Uhh, why are you suddenly acting so girly?"

"Because I am a girl idiot." She chuckled.

Clay blushed, "yeah but you always act like a gangster, always threatening me."

They came out of school's gate.

"I will do anything it takes to improve you, haha" she winked, smiled and left.

They lived in opposite directions so the corridor was the only place they walked together.

Clay smiled, "wheew, what a weird and busy day..." And headed home.

The sun went down a little but still no one was seen on streets. Clay was walking in a relaxed state, sipping juice, when suddenly he heard a voice from behind, "Clay..."

He turned around to see a translucent figure of a man wearing hoodie. The person was not real for sure.

"Wow, cool! Is this any kind of distant projection?" Clay asked curiously, not caring whether the person is dangerous or not.

"As expected, yeah it's a distant projection but on a whole different level..."

"Huh!" He finally sensed something was strange, "What do you mean by a whole different level? And first of all, how do you know me? Your voice sure seems familiar."

"Well it wouldn't be hard for you to believe, as a fellow cosmologist, so try to understand me." Saying those words, he removed his hoodie, "This voice seems familiar because its yours, Clay..."

"Woahh dude, you look a lot like me" he completely ignored whatever the man said.

"Its because, I am you Clay..., We are the same..." Said that strange man.