Weekend Writing Warriors / #8Sunday 2017-10-29

WELCOME TO OASIS

Welcome to OASIS, the Other Self Identification and Assimilation System. We understand that the collapsing of two alternate realities into a single time stream (“The Merge”) might be confusing, even frightening. OASIS is here to answer all of your questions and to guide you through this historic event.

By this time, most people will have met the version of themselves from the alternate reality (hereafter referred to as your “Other Self”) as both realities now occupy the same time-space. It is not uncommon to experience a range of emotions upon coming face-to-face with your Other Self—anger, fear, confusion, amusement, even excitement. Who hasn’t wondered “what if” at some point in their life? This unprecedented peek into an alternate reality provides each of us a unique opportunity to see how things might have turned out if we had made different choices. While not all of these choices will have turned out well, it is an opportunity for each of us to learn a little more about ourselves. We encourage you to embrace this opportunity with a spirit of adventure and open-mindedness. However, please refrain from “twin switch” type practical jokes—they are not amusing.

Why let a little thing like dying get in the way of a good time?

Thirty-six-year-old Irene Dunphy didn't plan on dying any time soon, but that’s exactly what happens when she makes the mistake of getting behind the wheel after a night bar-hopping with friends. She finds herself stranded on earth as a ghost, where the food has no taste, the alcohol doesn’t get you drunk, and the sex...well, let’s just say “don’t bother.” To make matters worse, the only person who can see her—courtesy of a book he found in his school library—is a fourteen-year-old boy genius obsessed with the afterlife.

Unfortunately, what waits in the Great Beyond isn’t much better. Stuck between the boring life of a ghost in this world and the terrifying prospect of three-headed hell hounds, final judgment, and eternal torment in the next, Irene sets out to find a third option—preferably one that involves not being dead anymore.