From the Corner of His Eye

three, after all, and neither ready nor able to absorb the scientific theory that supported her intuition.
        "All right. Well… Jesuits are encouraged to pursue education in any subject that interests them, not theology alone. I was deeply interested in physics."
        "Because of a certain awareness you've had since childhood," Celestina said, recalling what he'd told her in San Francisco.
        "Yes. More about that later, just let me make it clear that an interest in physics doesn't make me a physicist. Even if I were, I couldn't explain quantum mechanics in an hour or a year. Some say quantum theory is so weird that no one can fully understand all its implications. Some things proven in quantum experiments seem to defy common sense, and I'll lay out a few for you, just to give you the flavor. First, on the subatomic level, effect sometimes comes before cause. In other words, an event can happen before the reason for it ever occurs. Equally odd… in an experiment with a human observer, subatomic particles behave differently from the way they behave when the experiment is unobserved while in progress and the results are examined only after the fact-which might suggest that human will, even subconsciously expressed, shapes reality."
        He was simplifying and combining concepts, but he knew no other way to quickly give them a feel for the wonder, the enigma, the sheer spookiness of the world revealed by quantum mechanics.
        "And how about this," he continued. "Every point in the universe is directly connected to every other point, regardless of distance, so any point on Mars is, in some mysterious way, as close to me as is any of you. Which means it's possible for information-and objects, even people-to move instantly between here and London without wires or microwave transmission. In fact, between here and a distant star, instantly. We just haven't figured out how to make it happen. Indeed, on a deep structural level, every point in the universe is the same point. This interconnectedness is so complete that a great flock of birds taking flight in Tokyo, disturbing the air with their wings, contributes to weather changes in Chicago."
        Angel looked up from her coloring book. "What about pigs?"
        "What about them?" Tom asked.
        "Can you throw a pig where you made the quarter go?"
        "I'll get to that," he promised.
        "Wow!" she said.
        "He doesn't mean he'll throw a pig," Barty told her.
        "He will, I bet," said Angel, returning to her crayons.
        "One of the fundamental things suggested by quantum mechanics,"
        Tom proceeded, "is that an infinite number of realities exist, other worlds parallel to ours, which we can't see. For example… worlds in which, because of the specific decisions and actions of certain people on both sides, Germany won the last great war. And other worlds in which the Union lost the Civil War. And worlds in which a nuclear war has already been fought between the U.S. and Soviets."
        "Worlds," ventured Jacob, "in which that oil-tank truck never stopped on the railroad tracks in Bakersfield, back in '60. So the train never crashed into it and those seventeen people never died."
        This comment left Tom nonplussed. He could only imagine that Jacob had known someone who died in that crash-yet the twin's tone of voice and his expression seemed to suggest that a world without the Bakersfield train wreck would be a less convivial place than one that included it.
        Without commenting, Tom continued: "And worlds just like ours-except that my parents never met, and I was never born. Worlds in which Wally was never shot because he was too unsure of himself or just too stupid to take Celestina to dinner that night or to ask her to marry him."
        By now, all here assembled knew Celestina well enough that Tom's final example raised an affectionate laugh from the group.
        "Even in an infinite number of worlds," Wally objected, "there's no place I was that stupid."
        Tom said, "Now I'm going to add a human touch and a spiritual spin to all this. When each of us comes to a point where he has to make a significant moral decision affecting the development of his character and the lives of others, and each time he makes the less wise choice, that's where I myself believe a new world splits off. When I make an immoral or just a foolish choice, another world is created in which I did the