In what he could only describe as a possible fake memory, an imagined recollection, or even perhaps a “strange confluence of various timelines on his own perception,” it was reported that local man Byron Hays could swear on anything that the term “Mandela Effect” had, at one point, two L’s.
“I first came across the phrase about ten years ago while surfing the net,” said Hay, 38. “I distinctly remember it being spelled differently. Specifically, with the double L at the end. There’s a chance I’m misremembering, but I think that it’s much more likely that I have been transported to an alternate universe where the only change is that ‘Mandela’ is spelled with one L rather than two.”
Hays reached out to friends and family in an attempt to reconcile his memory with objective reality.
“At first I told him to Google it, but he said he had been trying that all afternoon,” said Mark Callahan, 37, a lifelong friend of Hay. “When I said they both looked right to me, he got quiet for a second. Then he started going on about ‘twin consciousnesses’ or some nonsense like that. Before I ended the FaceTime, he started yelling that we needed to find a way back home. I hope he’s okay.”
Fiona Broom, an expert on memory who coined the term “Mandela Effect,” commented on Hay’s predicament.
“This type of revelation is common, and is entirely fantastical,” said Broom, who is a neuropsychology professor at Brown University. “Apart from my own recollection as the phrase’s creator, there is plenty of well-archived evidence that it has always been spelled with two L’s. Wait, that’s not right. Is it? Because that’s the way he thinks it is, and we were saying—shit. I don’t know anymore. Maybe the Monopoly guy actually did wear a monocle.”
At press time, Hay was shocked to discover that his name did not end with an S, though he was certain it had only moments earlier.
