"Wizards."(Kevin Hughes) “I swear…I saw it. I did.”

Marvin smirked at me. We just got to Earth in the year 2023…the same year it is on our Parallel Earth. Don’t ask me why we got pulled…we just did.

(Authors Note: “Pulling” , is how they transport folks from one Parallel Earth to another. Some kind of machine decides who to “Pull” and then…poof! You are on Earth, but not your Earth. You do get a notice that you will be “Pulled” along with how long you will be gone. Usually not more than a year.)

“You saw a guy tell his lawnmower to cut the grass in the yard next to ours?”

“Yep.”

I laughed out loud.

Marvin smirked again.

“Look, I will show you.”

I followed him into the house they gave us this morning. He stopped in the doorway and clapped his hands. Every light in the room came on. Scared the bejesus out of me. He smirked again.

“Alexa, start the coffee maker, check the fridge for half and half, and oh, yeah, could you put on some soft music so we can chat?”

“Yes, Marvin.”

I almost fainted. The coffee machine started up with the smell of fresh brewed coffee (which, back home on our Earth, has to be percolated through a cheese cloth why a buddy pours from the kettle.) The Fridge said that there was plenty of half and half, and we wouldn’t need anymore until the 12th, when the container expires. Then beautiful music surrounded us, low enough to enjoy, but not to loud to hinder conversation.

“Wa..wha…how did you do that?”

“I listened to the briefing this morning. It isn’t my fault you got “Pull Bends” and spent most of the morning in the Medical Center.”

I didn’t want to say anything, but he saw the look in my eye.

“Spit it out, what going on?”

“Eh…er…well, at the Medical Center they put me in a tube. When I came out, they gave me a series of shots, showed me the inside of my body…”

Marvin interrupted with a squeal a ten year old girl with her finger caught in a door couldn’t match.

“Inside your body?!”

“Yep, they call it an MRIf or something. Anyways, they found a couple of things…so you have to get some shots too.”

“Me, for what?”

“Well, measles, smallpox, mumps…and a whole army of other things. It appears I am also short of Vitamin D (whatever that is) and Vitamin B12…whatever that is. I can tell you this, once they gave me that B12 shot, wow. I felt better and stronger in just an hour.”

This time I smirked at Marvin. He was staring at me like I grew a new head…out my ass.

“Kyle, that isn’t funny. Those things kill a third of our young people…back on Earth….our Earth.”

I shook my head. Almost everyone I knew had lost at least one child to one of those horrible diseases…and smallpox, well, whole town disappeared. I gave him a sad smile.

“Yeah, here you can avoid them…with just a shot in the arm, or taking a sugar cube for Polio.”

“Polio? They can cure POLIO!”

“No, they can just prevent you from getting it.”

Martin stepped back to the wall and slid down. I knew the tears would come. Mine were too.

Finally he looked up at me…

“What else?”

“Well, you know the big Library back in Juno on our Earth?”

“Yeah, the one that has a million books in it?”

“Yeah, that one. Well, they gave me this (holding up a Kindle) in the Medical Center to read while I waited.”

“That’s a book? It is made out of glass!”

“No, it isn’t a book. It is a Reader. And it has four and a half million books on it. Or in it, or somewhere anyway. I browsed through about a thousand titles in the Recovery Room. And…if you can’t read (tapping the Kindle Cover) this thing will read the story to you out loud.”

Marvin got back up.

“Show me!”

I did.

We listened to a Podcast about how to have your hip replaced and leave the Hospital the same day. You can call a car, with no driver, to come get you and take you there…and call it to come pick you up when you are done at the hospital. We marveled at that.

“They can replace your skeleton?”

I laughed.

“Not all of it, I think. Just hips, knees, shoulders…stuff like that, you know where this is a joint.”

“Just joints , eh?”

The incredible scope of what we had just discovered from the Podcast made us both laugh hysterically.

It was our first day on Earth, and we were close to being overwhelmed.

“Don’t these people know how amazing this all is?”

I shook my head. Puzzled.

“Nope. It seems they all take for granted. They bitch about something called money, like we bitch about the harvest, never enough, or to much. Same gripes, different names.”

We heard the coffee machine say: “Your coffee is ready.”

We were drawn to the smell in the kitchen. Marvin spoke up as he filled his cup.

“You know what would go with this coffee?”

“What?”

“A nice breakfast roll with some sausages.”

I opened the freezer door. There were microwaveable breakfast trays in there. I read the note.

“Put in microwave on high for 1 minute (1200 watt) one minute 30 seconds for 1000 watt microwaves.”

“What’s a microwave?”

“Alexa, what’s a microwave.”

A picture appeared on a big screen on the wall by the kitchen table. A video showed us what a microwave was, and how to use it. We put in our breakfast trays with eggs, sausage, and a muffin. A minute later, we had hot food next to our coffee.

“You know what these people are…don’t you Kyle?”

“Amazing?”

“Nope. Wizards!”

We laughed an ate our food, wondering what Wizardry we would find tomorrow.

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