The mirror of infinite worlds

We can reach into the multiverse and find your happiest self.

“Are you sure you want to look?”

I nodded. There were risks associated with looking in the mirror, I knew. Most people were never the same. Some came away with a new spring in their step, ready to make changes to their lives that they knew would lead to happiness. Others felt trapped by a sorrow they would never escape. For a few, the pain was so great that they chose to end their lives.

I’d paid my money and I was going to go through with it. Intellectually, I knew what to expect, but I knew the emotional hit would be stronger and stranger than anything I could prepare myself for. Still, it would be worth it to know.

The steward — a thin, tall man with a plastered-on smile just thin enough to convey a professional seriousness — presented me with a waiver on a hand-tablet. I placed my thumb in the middle of the contract to sign, and the screen blinked to acknowledge. Nothing that happened next would be no fault but my own.

He led me down a pristine white corridor to what could have been mistaken for a photo booth. “You have thirty minutes,” he said. “Nobody is recording, and you’re not permitted to take anything with you. The conversation is yours and yours alone.”