There was once a concept to get famous science fiction writers to create stories that were less than two-hundred words. These would be printed on postcards which could be sold by the millions. The postcards were never made. Only Asimov and Clarke seemed to have ever written them. But I was inspired to give my mind a workout with trying to make an interesting story in less than two-hundred words.
You can read Clarke's short-story, Quarantine as well if you're up to it.
Alex and Jon first met in grade school. They grew up together as best friends. Both loved science. Both earned degrees in physics. Both fell in love with Jennifer. Only one married her.
The two of them performed research that led to the invention of the device they nicknamed the Magic Hat. The two produced phenomena that came surprisingly close to breaking established laws of physics, but the friends knew they were exercising mathematics yet to be invented.
One drunken evening, Jon performed the first human experiment with the Magic Hat. When he finished, time had taken two paths. In one, Alex had met an unexplained accident in his youth, and Jon was happily married to Jennifer. In the other, it was Alex that had married Jennifer and Jon was having the affair.
Alex was dead and alive. Jon was married and single. But soon, some event would collapse the world back into one path. Would he be a murderer or an adulterer? Rather than let probability control his outcome, Jon chose to collapse it. He downed a bottle of Nembutal with whisky. Jon just didnít know if Alex would be around to mourn his death or not.