THE MOMENT
"Oh wow," Evan was cleaning out a desk that he hadn't used in years. He was digging through the back of the bottom drawer and pulled out an old newspaper. The rustling was loud enough to attract his wife's attention.
"Do you really have time to kick up your feet and read the paper?" Shelly asked from across the den; she was dusting off the library shelves. They planned to close the study while hosting Thanksgiving dinner, but someone inevitably found their way in there, and when they did, they would find it spotless.
"It's a memory," Evan nodded with a playful smirk as he crossed the room to her. "See, that's me," he said. Shelly looked at the black and white picture of a blonde boy, then glanced at the title.
"You went missing?" she asked. "Looks like they found you."
"Yeah," Evan shrugged. "You know how it is when you're a kid. One second you forget to pay attention to where you are, and the next you're in an alternate universe."
"NOooooo," Shelly grinned and shook her head. "YOU are the 'Sharp Idiot'??" Shelly couldn't hold back her laughter as her own memories from that time came back. It was big news, over three decades ago, when Sharp Development arrived on their world from an alternate universe. They opened up multiversal trade, and these days, visiting an alternate universe was as simple as a dash to the local convenience store. But, it all happened because of one lost little boy. For a short time, he'd become a laughing stock for, 'being so dumb he went home to the wrong Earth.' But, Shelly only vaguely remembered it because she was in the right age group at the time. The rest of the world quickly moved on now that the multiverse was open for business.
"And here, I'd forgotten all about that nickname," Evan chuckled as he started folding the paper again.
"Stop, what are you doing?" she asked as she gently stole the paper out of his hands.
"Getting back to cleaning," he said. "We have guests coming, remember?"
"Yeah, we do," Shelly giggled. "And I can't wait to tell them all how my idiot husband changed the world," she continued as she carried the paper out of the room to do something decorative with it. "I can't believe you kept this hidden from me all these years."