I step through the portal into a late ’80s bedroom exactly like mine. No, not quite exactly like mine. The wallpaper is a different design, the posters are of bands I haven’t heard of, their outfits familiar yet uncanny.
What else is different in this world? I ask myself. I look over to the volumes of encyclopaedias on the shelves. No, I have a quicker way.
I locate Billy Joel among the tapes, pop a cassette in the boom box, and press play on “We Didn’t Start the Fire”.
(When I am king and I remake _Sliders_, the theme song will be “We Didn’t Start the Fire” with lyrics specific to that episode.)