Still reeling a bit, but better now. At least I'm able to focus a bit better. I think I had my wife worried. I know I had me worried. But it's the sort of idea that I don't want to think about and have to think about at the same time. So let's take it from the top.

I remember a couple years ago being 60 years old. I remember taking a walk in some woods near home and finding a glowing gold circle on the ground, about three feet in diameter. It wasn't metal; it seemed to be made of light, though there wasn't a visible source.

I remember stepping into it, which was probably a stupid thing to do, but I was like, hey, a circle of light. What could happen?

What happened was that I found myself in another place, which turned out to be another world. A world that was, or was a reflection of, or was the inspiration for, Final Fantasy XIV, a MMORPG. A video game. I was also younger, like around 30. Which is weird, but not the weird part of this.

I spent over a year there, in Eorzea. Most of the world was full of NPCs, like the people in the Jumanji movie with Dwayne Johnson. The only exception was a woman who resembled my character when I played the game, Tsu'na. I was lucky to spot her within a few days of getting there. We met, we talked, we got to know each other, she helped me get established in that world. We eventually got romantically involved and got married. She's not human, and I'm not a miqo'te, but it felt as if we were the only real people in the world. Which is weird, but still not the weird part of this.

The weird part is that we found a golden circle in that world. I told Tsu'na it would take us to a new world, and asked her to go there with me. We both stepped into the circle and found ourselves in some woods outside of Wyatt, Oklahoma, about 50 miles west of Tulsa.

We made our way to Wyatt and stopped at a diner for a bit. I still had my things from when I stepped into the circle, so I had a little cash and my phone. I borrowed a charger and made a call. I started with my buddy Owen, figuring we could bring each other up to speed.

Turns out he was having lunch with me at the time. Not the me in Wyatt, Oklahoma...the 62-year-old me that had stepped into that circle over a year ago, who had seen that circle fade away, who had shrugged and kept on walking along. Which means the circle didn't take him to Eorzea...it made a copy of him, complete with all his memories. And which probably means, though I have no way of knowing for sure, that the circle in Eorzea behaved the same way, and that the me in Eorzea saw that circle fade out, even as a copy of him and his wife wound up in Oklahoma.

So I'm a clone. Or something. Of a clone. Or something.

That's the weird part.

Though I suppose that implies there's a normal part. I don't think I'm there yet.