Roy Milford hated his life.
He glanced out his dirty, second story apartment window at his broken down car sitting out
in the parking lot. He was going to need a new transmission, but there was no way he
could afford that on his meager salary.
Sighing heavily, Roy went to put on his work uniform. His shift started in just under an
hour.
Roy had always figured that by the time he was twenty-three his life would be better than
this. He'd done well in high school, gone on to college... but now somehow things had
fallen apart for Roy. He still shared a tiny apartment with a roommate (his best friend Jack).
He himself had no girlfriend. And the best job he could find was slaving away as Assistant
Manager at the local Burger Bonanza establishment. In essence, he was a glorified burger
flipper, working alongside teenage kids and high school drop-outs, earning little more
than their minimum wage.
“I hate my life,” Roy reiterated, sliding on his Burger Bonanza uniform shirt.
“You shouldn't,” said a strangely familiar voice.
Roy spun around and was greeted by his own spitting image – only better dressed and
more confident and happy-looking.
“Who are you?” Roy sputtered.
“Why, I'm you of course!” said the doppelganger. “Or rather, I'm apparently a considerably
more successful version of you.”
“Huh?” asked Roy.
“Indulge me for a moment,” replied his twin. “I'm you – from an alternate reality. And from
the looks of this dump, I'd guess my world is at least four or five-hundred years
technologically more advanced than yours. Does this place even have running water and
electricity?”
“Yes,” scowled Roy.
“Well, where I come from, we've got a lot more,” continued Roy's double. “And I'm a much
more successful version of... well... you! I'm an independently wealthy scientist and
inventor. And right now, I'm using one of my latest inventions to explore and chart some of
the nearby alternate universes. There's an infinite number of parallel realities out there,
you know. Your world is... oh, let's see... QLX-0948-Kappa-Delta-IV, from the Negative
Purple-3 Spectrum, of course.”
“Oh, of course,” muttered a thoroughly confused Roy.
“Listen, brother,” said Roy's duplicate with a sympathetic smile. “I hate seeing myself like
this. Especially since I know what a brilliant genius you're capable of being, if only given
the proper chance. I've got to get going – lots more realities to map, y'know. But before I
go, let me leave you with a little gift.”
The Other Roy rummaged around in a belt pouch for a moment, finally retrieving a thin,
rectangular object that vaguely resembled a high-tech cellphone of some kind.
“I made this,” said the Alternate Roy with a proud smile. “Totally unique item. I think you
may find it extremely useful in these barbaric, backwards, dark ages. It's a Role Swapper. It
actually alters reality and re-writes history! With this, you can re-create your own personal
history and give yourself the sort of life you deserve to have. Just point it at a target and
press the button on the left... then point it at a second target and press the button on the
right. The Role Swapper will re-write history so that everyone believes the two targets were
actually each other! The only person immune to this memory-rewriting-feature will be
yourself... or whomever is holding the device. So don't let this little beauty fall into the
wrong hands! And once you've swapped yourself into a life story you're happy and content
with, it'd be best to destroy the machine.”
“Uh, thanks,” muttered a thoroughly confused Roy, accepting the gift.
“Listen, buddy, I gotta go!” said Future Roy. “But best of luck with this thing. Hang in there
and believe in yourself! Like I said: I know from firsthand experience just a brilliant and
visionary genius you have the potential to be!”
With that, the Parallel Reality version of Roy abruptly flickered out of existence leaving the
Original Roy standing in his cramped little bedroom, still half-dressed in his work uniform.
“Guess I should test out this crazy gizmo,” Roy mumbled to himself.
Who does Roy select as his target?