Mike was the last person I wanted to talk to on this amazing day. I was just about to quietly explain to Stewart that he must be witness to what I was about to do, when Mike from our cycling club came bowling over with his inane chatter. Stewart was the only person who knew that The Portal on the beach was not just an art installation. Now my watch was telling me that the portal alignment was reaching the optimum moment again.

I had messed up the first time, but a scientist learns from his mistakes and keeps trying. Taking a step forward I had felt a force I can’t describe, saw a break in reality… or did I see anything? Flustered, I would not use the word panic, I had instinctively closed my eyes and stepped back.

This time I must do it, there might not be another chance, the portal was only granted a few days as part of the arts festival, then it must come down. I could not let all my work and research be wasted. Nobody would notice me as they wandered around the portal, taking photos of themselves in the reflections, touching the shiny surface to feel the vibrations. I strode forward.

It hadn’t worked, I was still standing on the beach looking at the sea, the portal behind me. Then I saw myself walking towards me.

The other me spoke, or had I read his thoughts?

‘I’ve done it, brought myself from a parallel universe.’

Simultaneously we reached out to touch each other, then we both recoiled, speaking at the same moment…

‘I’m not sure if… we must be careful…

I was expecting to go over to your world as you arrived.

I expected you to go over as I arrived.

Surely we can’t both exist in the same place.’

I motioned to him to be silent.

‘But we have proved that parallel universes exist, what I see around me is exactly what I left behind, you are even wearing exactly the same clothes.’

‘Are you Doctor Benjamin Gower?’ we spoke together again.

‘All these people on the beach have not noticed a thing, if they looked at us they would probably assume we were identical twins.’

We both laughed. ‘I’m an only child, I always wanted a brother.’

For a moment I felt as if we were naughty school boys doing an experiment that would not be approved of. I decided to remain silent, giving the other Ben a chance to relate his story.

‘I wanted Stewart to observe what happened, but that awful Mike turned up and started talking, once he starts he never stops.’

I twisted round to look back through the portal and sure enough there was Mike jabbering away to Stewart, gesticulating as if he was working his new bicycle gears. What could be better proof that an alternate universe would be exactly the same, in how many universes was boring Mike replicated?