Sliding Universes

The last two weeks in July 2019, had been so stressful and hectic. My daughter and I had reached nearly the limit of our endurance. I decided that to relax, Really relax, it would be best to take a daytrip somewhere nice, maybe a little exotic (for us) and just kick-back and have a good time.

I suggested Newport, Rhode Island. We had already been there a couple of times and we loved it. The shops and stores along the waterfront, the restaurants and the boats. The sights and the sounds all combined to create, what for us, was a novel experience.

Newport is about a two hour drive from our home in central Massachusetts so it really wasn’t too far and the time there, combined with the distance from the frenzied craziness of home, would be just what we needed to relieve some stress and just truly relax for a day or two.

We left around 9:30, picked up my daughter’s boyfriend a few minutes later arriving in Newport at about 11:45. There was a place a couple of blocks from the waterfront where we “always” parked. We parked near there again, about another block away. We walked a block laterally and then took a right angle turn and walked another two blocks to the waterfront.

Lunch, as always, was incredible. We watched the yachts sail in and out of the harbor and admired a huge cruise ship at dock, which I estimated at over 800 feet long.

We strolled along the walkway, peeking in around at the stores, gazing at the trinkets and gifts. My daughter picked out a couple of things to buy and after a couple of hours the kids wanted to go to the beach before we left home. I said that it was such a long distance home that if we wanted to spend any time at the beach at all, we had best leave now. The kids agreed.

We walked the two blocks to where we “always” parked — and the car wasn’t there! We walked up and down the street and a few of the nearby side streets, but no car. Then I remembered! We hadn’t parked at the spot where we ”always” parked but at another block over. We were so relieved. Now we knew where the car was. The “kids” (I’m still calling them kids but they’re 16 and 17), were tired after walking for three hours, two by the waterfront and then one looking for the car, so they decided to grab a coffee and a donut. I knew I would be back in a few minutes so I had no concern with them sitting in a very public place with their cell phones.

I walked the one more block up and then the block over to the where the car was certain to be. I turned the last corner and crossed the street to where I could see the car. But. No car! I stopped in the middle of the street and spun around. No car, not anywhere. There was a street sign right next to where I parked. When I parked, I had seen it and it read “No Parking - May 1 to Oct 1-Parking Restrictions Strictly Enforced” But I had thought, “There’s no way they’re gonna tow away cars. This is a tourist tour. They’d have a million tourists complaining.” When I got to the sign I reread it. Yep, that’s what it said all right. And I looked right beneath the sign to where I had parked the car. Still not there. I looked back up at the sign — and then I noticed in smaller print at the bottom of the sign: “Parking Restrictions Enforced from 6 PM to 6 AM.” There was never any danger of us being towed. So where was the car!?

I walked another hour up and down and across the streets of Newport. I came across a cop and asked him if anyone had towed a car. “No, he said, we don’t do that anymore.” I told him my car was missing and probably had been stolen. He said he would help me look and he would catch up to me later.

I walked another hour. I then stopped in at the police station and described my car to the officer on duty. She said she already knew, several officers were searching for the car. I was surprised. She asked if I would mind waiting for an officer to come by who would drive me around to look for my car. No problem I said.

Fifteen minutes later another officer came to the station. She asked me about the car, where I had parked it and suggested we go look for it together. I agreed. Just as we were about to get into her car, she received a call, they had found my car! I was so happy!

We got into her car and we pulled out of the parking lot and then drove in the opposite direction of where I had parked the car.

The car was parked a mile away from where I remembered parking it. Getting to the waterfront from here would have required crossing five main streets where you would have to push the walk button to cross the street. When we parked, we had not crossed any streets requiring you to push a button to cross the street.

From where the car was found to the beach was nearly a mile. There was over eight blocks to walk a distance which would have required at least a 35 or 45 minute walk, not the ten or fifteen minutes we remember walking.

How could the three of us remember parking so close to the waterfront and then the car later be a mile farther away?

When I told my friends and family of the experience they offered several alternatives. The best one was that we simply forgot where we parked. I would have accepted that answer, I wanted to accept that answer. Except. Except how could we cross five main streets, wait for traffic, walk forty-five minutes and not remember?

In 2008 I wrote a book about quantum physics. It was there I found the answer.

We live in a universe of multiple intersecting realities. In one universe, event A happens, in universe two, it is event B that happens instead. In some cases, these realities will blend and different events and results will all be happening at the same time. It doesn’t last long. The universes will quickly separate leaving only one event and one result. But the participants may remember a totally different reality.

I believe this is what happened to us. We parked the car in one universe, the multiple universes temporarily blended and then separated leaving the car in a different universe from the one we remembered. I call this “Sliding Universes.”