A Novel Excerpt
by Dwight Okita

LUKE: “Boomerang”

“Those who start life hopeless rarely acquire it later on. Those who are hopeful in their early years can sometimes lose hope. Can hopefulness be acquired? Can it be conjured or created? Some scientists think so.”

                                                                    — AlternaScience Magazine

It took years for me to learn how to throw my voice out into the world and wait for it to come boomeranging back to me. It was an uphill climb.

The day I first walked into LiveWell Laboratories, I went looking for answers. I had heard there was a new clinical trial to increase hope in the hope-challenged. I was enthralled. And what did I have to lose but my dignity? My job as a textbook editor paid my rent and covered my indulgent movie-going habit, but I didn’t feel it was my calling.  So it was a pleasure to meet Kazu Mori, scientist extraordinaire. And he was super cute. A tall Asian man, his long shiny black hair and clean-shaven face were in stark contrast to my buzzed head and the soul patch on my chin.

Though I was Japanese American (still am, by the way), it was hard to find a Japanese bone in my body — aside from my love of sushi and Zen rock gardens and films by Nagisa Ôshima. My face was unmistakably Japanese — but when I opened my mouth, only American ideas poured out.

The rock star scientist guided me past the many rooms of LiveWell with glass windows longer than a stretch limousine.

“I can tell you have a great curiosity,” said Kazu with a grin. “I like that. Let me tease you further by showing you my favorite room of all — the room where the magic happens.”

We watched through the long glass window as a man sat as if upon a throne, his whole body encircled by a halo of white light. Confetti began to trickle down on him, but it wasn’t the kind you see in parades. This confetti was shiny and fell in dream-like slow motion. What struck me was the expression on the man’s face. He looked ecstatic, like he had just learned something that would change his life forever. If that’s what it looked like to have hope installed — I wanted to know that feeling too. I wanted to feel it right away.

NOTE: By this point in the book, Jada has had her first hope installation. She predicts she will feel nothing and this is all a hoax. But instead, for the first time in her life — she feels hopeful. And things are great. Until…

In the middle of the night, I look at the clock: it’s 3 a.m. When I roll over, I’m startled to see someone lying in bed next to me, looking right at me. It’s a woman. Huh? Am I dreaming? Then the woman sits bolt upright in bed. She’s me! She’s my mirror image.

“Hi, I’m from your parallel universe. You can just call me Jada2,” says the woman.

“Excuse me?”

“I must have slipped through a membrane or something. Stranger things have happened.”

I’m scared. I’ve never had an intruder in my house. “I’m going to call the police. I have a gun,” I lie.

She laughs. “Everyone’s got a gun these days. You think that makes you special? Please, this is Chicago. The Wild MidWest. And the police? Parallel universes are out of their jurisdiction, I assure you.” She laughs. “We don’t even have donuts where I come from.”

I study her face. She’s a pretty, black woman. She definitely has my eyes. I’d recognize those windows of the soul anywhere. Her manner is alert but guarded. And she’s wearing the same blue-green pajamas I’m wearing.

“Are you really from my parallel universe?” I ask, more fascinated than frightened.

“I’m sorry for dropping in like this. I’ll be on my way.” She closes her eyes and puts her hands together as if praying.

“Wait, what’s it like…over there?”

She smiles. “In your parallel world, you finally get your hope levels together. In your parallel world, the love you take is equal to the love you make. In your parallel world, there are no side effects whatsoever.”

I smile back.  “Do you think I’d like it there?”

“Well, I like it. And I’m you.”

I think for a minute. Something doesn’t make sense.

“Gotta run, sweetie. If you make it to the other side, let’s do coffee.” The woman turns into a cloud of silver confetti and blows away.

That’s when I remember the list of possible side effects they gave me at the Hope Store. Manic episodes.Short-term memory loss. And ah yes…hallucinations. How could I have forgotten?