Getting a slot on the multiversal scanner is hard. They're booked out for months with research projects, but really it's about who you know.

"Hi Herbert," I said, super friendly like.

Herbert looked up from the computer and closed his eyes. Nobody else was around in the research labs at this hour.

"You can have 30 minutes," he said. "We're between appointments. Just make sure you put everything back like you found it."

"Don't I always?" I smiled. "Thanks Herbert!"

Finding out you’re brain dead in every adjacent reality might seem like a creepy thing. And it is! No doubt about it.

But it beats having to share your identity with a bunch of strangers. This way I’ve got my a whole sector of the multiverse to myself.

There’s an ongoing background murmur from my ghosts, but I barely notice it.

I’m brain dead in 72 different realities, but not this one. So it is very special to me.