So Many Worlds Away

In Short

Raymond Horning, a neglected inventor trapped in a loveless marriage, builds a transdimensional machine to cross into parallel worlds. Encountering multiple alternate versions of himself living through their own variations of misery, betrayal, and violence, Horning is forced to confront the dark mirror of his own desires. When his vengeful wife Myrtle follows him across the barrier and seizes control of their fates, Horning is stripped of his illusions. Through a harrowing cycle of bloodshed and psychological torment, the couple confronts their mutual malice, ultimately leading to a quiet, hard-won reconciliation with the limits of their own lives.

The Story

The story opens in a windowless basement laboratory where inventor Raymond Horning finishes building a transdimensional registration unit. Having left a stark farewell note for his detested wife Myrtle—explaining that his work means everything and that he is escaping through the space-time continuum or dying—Horning activates his machine. Carrying a treasured photograph of his deceased first wife, Margaret, he steps through a glowing light-loop onto a boundless, shining silver plain.

Using his scanner, Horning locates a parallel apartment and projects himself into it. He is shocked to find his exact physical counterpart, an armed authority on parallel worlds who holds a snub-nosed pistol. His counterpart warns that interdimensional transit is a practical menace because it places identical personalities on the same plane, creating deadly temptations. Despite this warning, Horning is soon forced out at gunpoint. He returns to the silver plain and observes other harrowing worlds: one where a counterpart is torn apart by wolf-like beasts, and another where a fat, sodden version of himself is brutally beaten by uniformed guards in a cheap café.

Drained and horrified, Horning returns to his original basement, only to find Myrtle reading his note. Enraged, she attacks him and defiles Margaret's photograph. Before Horning can react, his dead counterpart's alternate self arrives from across the barrier, bringing the corpse of his own murdered wife and proposing a sinister scheme to switch their sleeping wives so the women will go mad in strange realities. When Horning refuses, his counterpart turns violent, accidentally shooting his dead wife and attempting to force Horning to hang himself. In the ensuing desperate struggle, Horning kills his attacker with a wrench.

Myrtle witnesses the carnage, takes the dead man's pistol, and forces Horning back through the light-loop onto the silver plain. After smashing Horning's scanner, she compels him to dial a specific world where another Horning lies dead. Myrtle then destroys Margaret's photograph, uses the transit units to banish herself to the wealthy counterpart's world as a "widow," and leaves Horning behind. Stripped of his bitterness, Horning feels a sudden pang of pity and understands that his own flaws contributed to their misery. The hate fades, leaving him able to smile at last.

How It Unfolds

• The final test — Horning finishes his transdimensional machine in his basement laboratory, leaves a blunt note for his wife Myrtle, and steps through a glowing light-loop onto a silver plain.
• The meeting of mirrors — Projecting himself into a parallel apartment, Horning comes face to face with his armed, sardonic counterpart who warns him of the dangers of identical personalities occupying the same plane.
• Wonders and horrors — Driven out by his alternate self, Horning wanders across the silver plain and watches other versions of himself suffer gruesome fates in desolate and brutal worlds.
• The visitor — Horning returns to his basement, but is soon confronted by a second counterpart from another world who carries the corpse of his own wife and proposes a malicious wife-swapping scheme.
• The struggle in the lab — When Horning refuses to participate in the plot, his counterpart tries to murder him, forcing Horning to fight back and kill his attacker with a heavy wrench.
• The final separation — Myrtle seizes control of the transit units, forces Horning through the gateway, shatters his equipment, and flees to another world to claim a wealthy alternate life.

The People

• Raymond Horning is a dedicated inventor and grieving widower whose unbearable marriage drives him to pioneer interdimensional travel. He seeks peace and an escape from his bitter reality, but through encounters with his alternate selves, he gradually sheds his illusions and finds a measure of inner maturity.
• Myrtle is Horning's shrewish, sharp-tongued second wife who detests his scientific work and regards him with deep suspicion and venom. Bound by social shame yet fiercely vindictive, she ultimately seizes control of the transit technology to escape her own life.
• Margaret is Horning's deceased first wife whose memory and photograph serve as his emotional anchor throughout his trials, representing a lost ideal of gentleness and happiness that haunts his present life.

In Its Own Voice

It was nearly four o'clock in the windowless basement laboratory when Horning screwed tight the last connection.

This sentence establishes Horning's solitary, obsessive dedication to his craft right at the story's opening.

The place was an apartment, he decided.

Horning makes this observation as he peers through his scanner into his very first alternate world.

The silver plain stretched endlessly before him ... infinitely vast, infinitely lonely.

This description captures the profound isolation Horning feels while navigating the spaces between parallel dimensions.

What It's Really About

The story explores the dangerous illusion that changing one's environment can cure internal despair. By confronting multiple versions of himself—each trapped by the same fundamental flaws, fears, and aggressions—Horning learns that running away to parallel worlds offers no true refuge from the self. The narrative questions whether human nature remains constant across infinity, suggesting that true peace cannot be engineered through physics. Instead, it requires accepting one's own complicity in relational failure. The narrative also examines the heavy toll of grief over a lost past, showing how idealized memories can distort the present until a person is willing to risk everything just to touch a ghost.

Why Read It Today

Readers who love cerebral mid-century science fiction driven by psychological suspense rather than flashy space battles will find much to appreciate here. Reading the story feels like watching a slow-motion existential puzzle unfold in a claustrophobic, dimly lit room where every solution deepens the trap. The prose moves with a steady, deliberate rhythm that mirrors Horning's mounting exhaustion and quiet realizations. Modern readers should note the mid-century period attitudes toward marriage and gender roles, which are depicted with blunt realism through the caustic dynamic between Horning and Myrtle. Despite these dated social tropes, the emotional core—the struggle to let go of an idealized past and live honestly in the present—remains striking. What stays with you long after the final page is the quiet image of Horning standing alone among the ruins of his obsessions, finally able to smile as the bitterness falls away.