"Long Reach" by Richard F. Yates

The Observer cringed. He saw the arm---extending across the room, across town, across the planet, the universe, multiple dimensions... And it looked like it was reaching for his donut.

That would, naturally, mean WAR! If the arm actually attempted to GRAB the donut, the Observer had not choice... He WOULD bite. And not a LOVE-BITE either. Multi-dimensional appendage or not, he intended to draw blood---or whatever the universe that the arm came from used for blood... Chocolate syrup or jam or dish soap, the Observer didn't know---and frankly, he didn't care. He would protect that donut.

Until after lunch---when he planned to EAT the donut.

That is, as long as that infernal arm didn't wrassle it away from him before he went on his break. (Observer worked as an observer, and he needed another observer to replace him before he could leave for lunch. His parents had kinda pushed him into that career, really, but secretly, he did like his job.)

The arm flailed and coiled and stretched... And then shot past the Observer. Thousands of millions of miles it extended, through time and space and various mathematically formulas, groping through the multitude of cosmoses...

Until it found what it was looking for...or reaching for, I suppose... It's prize grasped (it wasn't a donut, so the Observer was safe---even if the donut itself was ultimately doomed), the arm shot back through time and space and various formuli, and as it careened by the Observer on its way back to its own universe, he saw what it was clutching in its weird, green fingers...

A television remote control...

---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)

[P.S. - Sorry about that one! Ha!]