Parallels

Raul, Annette, and Keegan looked up and over at the same time, jarred by the noise, peering across the room at the tiny pub hallway leading back from loo. There, predictably, Martin had managed to drag bog paper from the Men's on the heel of his left shoe, trip on it with his right, pirouette and plummet to the floor, while managing (almost impossibly) to hold his drink aloft so that it wouldn't spill. "It's said that we travel together in parallel universes," Raul commented. "That we are companion souls always and forever." "Or until lessons are learned," Keegan added, "or limits decidedly reached." Martin was yelling, "I'm all right! I'm all right!" and waving at them. "I wonder if we've had to murder Martin in any of these other worlds," Annette mused softly. "Infinite opportunities," Raul whispered. "Zillions of times, I suspect," Keegan added. Martin beamed at them as he drew closer, misunderstanding why they were smiling.