Chapter 23

I kept munching pizza, as I tried to figure out a solution to the problem.

“Is her original photo unchanged?” I asked.

‘Her original photo is unchanged.’

“Ok, we need to test this. I had planned on making Instagram my new personal chef.”

I did a search for #ReedsGingerBrew, and scrolled down to find an unopened bottle. I found one with a cat curled up next to it. I hit the power and volume up buttons on my phone simultaneously, and took a screenshot.

I opened the screenshot, did the pinky circle, and pulled out the bottle. It was disappointingly warm.

“Is the photo on Instagram changed?”

‘No, only the screenshot is missing the bottle.’

“Fantastic, but now I need ice.”

With pizza slice still in hand, and a grin on my face, I grabbed a cup from the cabinet and filled it with ice from the fridge dispenser. I had finished most of the slice, and the crust was sticking out of my mouth as I opened the bottle, which took both hands, and poured it into the glass.

I took a big sip, and sighed in pleased fashion.

Adam ruined it, ‘I’m sure you really are enjoying the pizza and drink, but most of the pleasure you are feeling is coming from the Orb.’

“Yeah, but this is really good pizza.”

‘Too bad that’s the only picture.’

“Is it? Turn back into a tablet screen and show me the original picture.”

Adam slid off my arm, and recreated himself as a large screen display, sitting atop a small base on the kitchen island. The original photo displayed, and I took a picture of it.

Using my phone, I reached into the photo, and pulled out a second pizza.

“Unlimited pizza!” I said.

I looked up at the display, and the pizza was missing there as well.

“Crap, what happened?”

‘I’m not sure, the original photo, your picture, and the picture on my screen all lost the pizza after you did what you did.’

“Alright, so some poor Italian lady just had a treasured photo of her dead father damaged. Did we actually alter time, and make the pizza disappear from history?”

‘Of course not, that is ridiculous. Time is completely linear, except where it’s not, especially in universes with excessive amounts of time travel,’ Adam said, reverting back into a cube.

“Ok, so where did these two identical pizzas come from? Is there two universes out there now missing a pizza?”

‘Considering that there are an infinite number of universes, the answer should be yes. Oddly enough, it’s No, instead. There has never been a recorded case of an item disappearing from a universe because of an Orb taking it.’

“But what if I traveled to the universe, took it, and then came back.”

‘Then yes, it is possible to travel to new places, and steal their stuff. Using the hand to reach into a universe does not, but the item does disappear from visual media if it is used.’

“Why?”

‘Remember, that the abilities of the Orb are only limited by your imagination. Consider your imagination as the origin of these items.’

“Stuff doesn’t vanish out of a written source.”

‘That would be hilarious. Imagine a mystery where you plucked the defining clue out of it. Would the book end, or run off in a different direction?’

“What would happen if I did that to a video? A recorded football game suddenly has the ball disappear mid game. Would a video act the same way as a photo?” I asked.

‘That sounds like an excellent experiment,’ Adam agreed.

I turned on the TV, flipping thru the channels looking for a game. I found a golf game, and did my thing, but the Orb didn’t penetrate the TV. “It’s not working.” I told Adam.

‘Try pausing the TV.’

I hit pause just as a golfer was taking his shot, I paused on the backstroke, and successfully retrieved his ball. I hit play, and the ball returned on the TV, and he got an impressive hit. I rewound the video, and watched carefully, as the ball flickered for a tiny instant. Even then I had to play it back in slow motion to even see that.

“I guess it treats video like a series of still images,” I said.

‘That is what video is, after all,’ Adam agreed.

I flipped a few channels, and there was Darth Vader on the screen. I watched in eager excitement as he battled Luke onto the bridge at Cloud City. Darth’s lightsaber cut off his hand, he screamed, and jumped.

I hit pause just as the exit door opened, and paused the tiny object that was the lightsaber. I giggled. I did the pinky gesture, and reached into the screen, grabbing the lightsaber and pulled it out.

It was so beautiful, and surprisingly heavy. I carefully pointed it away from myself, and anything else that could be damaged, and thumbed the on switch. It moved, but nothing happened.

“Why doesn’t it work!”

‘I believe you have successfully retrieved the movie prop, as that is what the image contained.’

“That sucks!” I responded.

‘Indeed, you’ll have to use your imagination to retrieve an actual lightsaber.’

“Well, there are books, and comics. Hiram pulled real gold from Treasure Island, I bet if I tried the old movie, I’d only get prop coins.”

‘You are probably correct.’

“Oh, I know!” I said, and excitedly switched the TV to Disney Plus. I scrolled thru, and found the CGI cartoon Clone Wars. The young Anakin should be using the same lightsaber that Luke just lost in the movie.