Move by Conor Kostick

lotus position. On the wall was a framed picture of a bald man in a maroon robe. He was smiling and looking out at the room through very unfashionable large round glasses.
    ‘That’s the Dalai Lama.’ Geoffrey noticed my gaze.
    ‘Friendly lookin’ fella.’
    Beside me, Tara stiffened, sensing a note of disrespect in my voice, but I was just thinking of something to say.
    ‘Yes, he’s a very warm person.’
    ‘Did you ever meet him?’ Tara asked Geoffrey.
    ‘Several times. He made a very strong impression on me, a very calm, dignified man.’
    Geoffrey gestured at me to sit at the table.
    ‘Tea?’
    ‘Sure.’
    ‘It’s just green tea, I’m afraid.’
    ‘That’s fine,’ I replied, but I’d never heard of green tea. Tea was brown in my experience.
    Tara and I said nothing while we waited. She was anxiousperhaps, although whether it was on my behalf or his I had no idea. Looking along the bookshelves, I saw there were lots of books about religion and Buddhism as you might expect, but there were also some other surprising titles, like a whole set of Calvin and Hobbes cartoons.
    Soon Geoffrey was back. On the tray he carried was a pot of tea, three mugs and a plate with some chocolate digestives. A bit decadent for a Buddhist, I thought, but I didn’t really know why I felt that Buddhists shouldn’t eat chocolate biscuits.
    ‘Tara says you have some interesting spiritual questions.’
    ‘I have.’ I paused. ‘Did she tell you I can change universes?’
    ‘She did, but I would like to hear your account.’
    ‘Well, it’s like this. Right now the universe is dividing up in all directions. I can see one where you are spilling the tea, another where Tara is smiling at something you said – lots and lots of alternatives . If I want, and the universe is not too far away, I can swap into it.’
    ‘I see.’ Geoffrey looked carefully at me.
    ‘I can prove it.’
    ‘Can you now?’
    ‘Yes. Think of a number between one and a hundred.’
    ‘Go on.’
    ‘Forty-two.’
    ‘Interesting, you just moved into the universe in which your guess was correct?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘What about the universes where you got it wrong?’
    I had a quick look around, before they faded.
    ‘They are branching away, disappearing for me. Hey though,’ I paused to glance at him, ‘even where I guessed wrong, in some of them you are willing to believe me.’
    ‘But this is the universe in which I am most convinced?’
    ‘I think so.’
    ‘Well, it’s true. I think that I would be sympathetic to your statement in most universes.’ He got up and ran his finger across the back of a number of books before stopping and pulling out a slender volume. ‘According to many accounts of the life of Buddha, he existed, and to some extent still exists, in millions of worlds. This book says, for example, that after he achieved enlightenment, and I quote: He emanated into all the human realms of the thousand million cosmic systems with which he was associated.’
    I was excited by the description. It was very like the way the universe felt to me. It was not, in fact, one universe but a thousand million cosmic systems – a metaverse. This was good, already. The quote Geoffrey had just read to me had one word, however, that didn’t feel right.
    ‘What did he mean by emanated?’
    ‘Spread, diverged. This is only a translation of Maitreya’s work, so I would have to see the Tibetan characters to give you an exact meaning.’
    ‘When I move, I don’t feel like I’m spreading out through all the other worlds. I can sense them, but I’m definitely in this one.’
    ‘Perhaps that feeling would be different if you had overcome your attachment to particulars. Perhaps, if, like the Buddha, youwere as liberated, as unattached, as it was possible for a human being to be, you would simultaneously exist in all universes.’
    ‘Possibly.’ I liked this conversation. There was no way I could talk about such things with Zed and Deano. With a quick