Arnie returned home after a long day at the science center. He had spent a lot of time reading essays on parallel universes from a few obscure physics professors of the world. There was more than one physicist in favour of the idea of parallel universes.

Most Scientists he had spoken to or studied held that one could not travel between these universes - but that they did exist. For example - an entire universe could exist a mere 5 seconds away from this one - not far away yet at the same time seemingly impossible to get to.

Arnie believed that these unreachable universes did exist. He also held firm to the belief that in the very makeup of the world there were gateways to some of these universes - universes that were not separated by time - but by some sort of barrier of energy or matter - that could be travelled through or across.

He had submitted essays on it in physics classes and had written letters to many leading and not-so-leading physicists. There were only a few who supported his belief and an even fewer who were actively working towards the same goal. But it never put him off. He knew it was true and that was enough to keep him going on his quest.

He fixed himself something to eat. He didn't generally spend a lot of time on feeding himself and today was no exception. His meal consisted of just a couple of mini pizzas in the microwave and a banana. Once he had eaten, he sat down at his computer. His computer was a shiny silver, sleek, state-of-the-art machine. It featured all the latest technology.

His parents were both successful. His father was the head of a private hospital in London and his mother was a business consultant specialising in marketing and recruitment. They supported him in what he wanted to do and paid for his admission at Cambridge where he was studying advanced physics.

He pulled up his latest report. He was working on a paper looking at various ways of accessing parallel universes. It was all theoretical at this stage but if he could find support in the scientific community he could bring his work off the page and into the real world. That was his ultimate aim.

He read through what he had written so far and made a few changes based on what he had studied today. After playing around with that for an hour or two he remembered his decision to find out what happened to his socks. He lifted himself from the chair in which he sat and went to the spare bedroom or, as he liked to call it, his workshop.

The room itself was bare except for a large mahogany coloured workbench pushed up against, and affixed to, the back wall. It reached from one end of the room to the other and was scattered and strewn with all kinds of interesting odds and ends. Above the bench, from wall to wall, were cupboards and shelves. There was a stool in front of the it all, three-legged and hard. The rest of the room consisted of plain white walls and the same mustard coloured carpet as his own bedroom. He walked over to the stool and sat down in front of the desktop computer that was sitting there. The desk was littered with little mechanical drawings, pens and pencils and other electronic gadgetry. His cupboards and shelves were filled with all kinds of wonders. He pulled up a blank word document and stared at the flickering cursor pensively.

What to do? He thought to himself, considering the problem of the disappearing socks.

He rolled it through his mind for several minutes before he started typing into the document. The times new roman, 12 point text began crossing the screen:

"Objective - To discover and therefore be able to prevent individual socks of a pair from going missing. To end the mystery associated with this...

"Plan -

1. Make sure that all pairs of socks are different. Ensure each has some kind of distinguishing characteristic.

2. Tag each individual sock of each pair with an electronic tagging device. Make sure that each pair of tracking devices has a distinguishing characteristic also.

3. Log each pair of socks before returning them to the sock drawer.

4. Place a trigger in the sock drawer that responds to activity therein. Make it so that it can be disabled when socks are being selected for the day ahead."

He sat back and admired his plan!

Genius! He thought enthusiastically. He felt excited at the idea of this project. He loved Science projects!

He pulled out a pad of plain white A4 sized paper and started drawing up a design for his electronic tagging/tracking devices. They had to be small and each pair with individual characteristics, which is why he chose to design his own.

When he was finished, he scanned in his completed drawings and fired off an email to a company in Japan that created such products. He put a rush on the order. He had an account with them and he used them regularly so they would deal swiftly with his business anyway.

He then went to work writing a computer program for recording the signal from the tracking devices in each of the socks. A few hours and several pages of coding later that part was finished and he was nearly complete with his day's work.

He went to his bedroom with a notepad, a measuring tape and a pencil and started taking measurements of his sock drawer. He was getting ready to design the alarm trigger. Once he had noted all the information he wanted, he returned to his workshop to work it out.

He came up with a fairly simple rig that relied on motion sensors to pick up movement. With a sensor on each corner of the drawer, any movement in the drawer would be picked up. He would have this set up to send a feed to his computer, which in turn, through the internet, would send a text message to his mobile phone, thus alerting him to the situation. At the same time as alerting him, it would automatically activate a micro web camera in the sock drawer, which would film what was going on and send it wirelessly to his computer. The computer would then record and store the video file. This way, even if he wasn't in, he would be able to replay what was happening at the time.

Pure, unadulterated genius. He thought merrily.

He ordered a few parts on the internet and then, satisfied, returned to his room to retire for the night.

As he lay his glasses on his chest of drawers he thought about figuring it out and then drifted off into a world of dreams, full of socks and gadgets.

Please remember to vote if you like it! Let me know your thoughts so far by commenting too! We are getting closer to Sockland now.