Mirror, mirror

It was a stranger’s voice, yet there was something familiar about the tones and cadences.

I fought back from the verge of panic. The caller had said: “I know what you did!”

Behind me Rosie stirred in her sleep. I quite liked the blonde look but was less enthusiastic about the butterfly tattoo.

I sucked in a breath of clean air and blessed the marvels of dimensional shift technology.

It happened because a madman was trying to work out how sub-atomic particles appeared to have the ability to be in two places at the same time.

Once we discovered how to step into the doppelganger Earth, production of the most polluting industries was immediately shifted into third world countries on the other side of the curtain, as were all strip mining and deforestation activities. Waste disposal was also booming.

There was a pest control problem, of course, with ‘gangers’ regularly smuggling themselves onto Earth hidden in shipments.

As head of security for Akiko Toxic Waste Industries I never once thought of taking advantage of my privileged access to this wonderful, world-changing technology.

Until, that is, Rosie’s tragic accident.

I knew I couldn’t live without her. And then I thought. Why should I?

Because, there was another Rosie across the curtain, living with another “me”.

It was a standard operation ending with me striking myself on the back of the head with a tire-iron and slipping some Diphenhydramine into Rosie’s cocoa.

As I pondered the workings of fate, I heard a knock. I opened the front door cautiously, my snub-nosed magnum cosy in the small of my back.

It was like looking into the mirror, only the battered looking me had a magnum already thrust in my face.

The other me said, “I know what you did”, and pulled the trigger.