The Way Things Seem

by Mackey Chandler

  That amused David at himself. He still believed the laws of physics and chemistry he knew. These new things didn’t sweep them away, they just added to them. He needed to make them work together. For now trying to create an active laser out of the air seemed a bad idea in a hotel room. The other thing, the shield seemed worth doing with sufficient caution.

  David tried to remember what the man did accurately. He’d swept his hand counter-clockwise and a golden circle appeared in the air. David did the same, visualizing the color, but much smaller. A glow trailed his hand but faded right out. He tried it clockwise and got the same thing, so the rotation didn’t seem to be key. Had the shield appeared bit by bit or all at once? He honestly couldn’t remember.

  David got up, used the bathroom, got another beer, and thought about it sitting on the bed. Drinking beer flat on his back didn’t appeal at all. After he made it the man had control of the shield. It stayed attached to his hand just like it had a handle on the back. Of course he couldn’t see through it so it might have had a handle on the back for all he knew. If you could conjure up a golden shield out of the air what was a handle on it too?

  But that point was useful. David hadn’t seen the other side of the shield. Most of the false colors he’d seen so far presented as transparent to some degree. Indeed Uncles warnings about becoming too attached to the shadow world implied how there was usually shading with that world being perceived to a lesser degree by displaying some level of transparency. If one came to see the alternative world as your primary David assumed his usual world would then be the one to display transparency. That would be an awkward situation. He could well see you might have to be led about by the hand. It might become easy to run into objects in one’s home reality, or not see clearly where you were walking.

  So far the gold and the black hues were the only ones that didn’t display these graduations of transparency. They’d been associated together in the monster’s hunting hold from the other side. Davis was making a huge assumption that there was only one other side, he realized. The shield the man created at the rest stop didn’t have any black associated with it, unless… that’s what was on the other side.

  David thought about it a bit and set the beer on the night stand. He did the same cautiously small circling motion with his palm, but tried to visualize pure black. A dead black circle the size of a softball appeared in the air. He took a deep breath, amazed it worked. When he moved his hand back and forth it followed. It wasn’t quite touching his palm, it was a finger’s breadth away. It kind of scared him. He didn’t know what he was doing here with powerful forces, yet he didn’t have anybody to ask about it. If Uncle knew about this David suspected he’d advice David not to mess with what he didn’t understand. When he rotated his hand the other direction and willed it away he was relieved it disappeared. What would he have done with the damn thing if it wouldn’t go away? That much control made David feel a little better about it.

  He took another swig of the beer, got his mind back in that place it had to be and made another circle rotating his palm the other way. That worked the same. Did removing it require the reverse motion? He rotated his palm the same direction he used to create it and willed it away. It vanished.

  Well that was interesting. It displayed a topological parity that hadn’t been intuitively obvious to David. He made one again and cautiously turned his hand over, ready to stop if the black disk didn’t follow his hand, didn’t show any resistance, or extend any influence from the plane it occupied. First of all it didn’t seem to have any perceivable thickness and the opposite side was the solid gold expected.

  David reached up and touched the gold face very tentatively. It didn’t feel hot or cold. There was no real sensation. He pushed a bit harder and it was unyielding. What was different and freakishly unnatural was he didn’t feel the push against the little shield with his right hand guiding it. That just violated every law of physics he knew.

  Not unnatural he decided after the first shock wore off. These were simply new rules of physics that applied to this special case of interaction between the two realities. He had to untrain his expectations and expand his catalog of natural laws. The shadow world might have different laws and the boundary between them have peculiarities different from either alone.

  When David tried something like this out in the bush with Uncle it tired him quickly. He had much more stamina now, but that was enough for right now. He did feel a little tired and he found he suddenly had room for the other half of the pizza and finished it with no trouble. He kicked his shoes off and went to bed even though it was still a little light out.

  * * *

  The phone woke him up in the morning. When he answered the clerk informed him his suit was in the hall outside his door and this was his wake-up call as well. David hadn’t told them to call him when the suit got there, he somehow assumed that, but it was too late to undo being woke up so he just thanked the man to be rid of him. What he really wanted to do was throttle him for a fool, but then it had been a different clerk last evening. No problem, throttle them both, he thought stumbling in the bathroom half awake to use the toilet and wash his face trying to wake up.

  The suit was indeed hanging on a little wheeled rack outside his door that remind him of the chrome stands a hospital uses to hang an IV bag. He left the stand and brought the suit inside, stripping the plastic bag off and discarding it. He threw the cheap socks and shirt away. He didn’t want to put them back in the bag with the clean ones. He’d be home soon and have his nicer things, but then remembered they’d hang loose on him now. He had some shopping to do.

  The rental agency couldn’t find his original rental data on their computer, so David asked if that meant it was free. After a twenty minute delay while they made calls he considered just keeping it. He could drive it into the Bronx and leave it unlocked on the street with the key fob on the dash. Nobody would ever see it again. If they had no record he rented it that should be the end of the matter. They agreed they could accept his original paperwork, but balked at copying it and letting him retain the originals. The copy machine was in the back room where they were not allowed to take customers. He finally dropped the key fob on the counter and walked away. He really didn’t care if they charged him for the cost of the stupid thing. He had bigger concerns.

  The car service into New York tried to give him a free upgrade to a limo that he declined. Traffic in the city was so bad he didn’t want a big car that would slow him down. Apparently they had no full size but un-stretched vehicles uncommitted. They actually settled on what passed for a mid-size Toyota now. It sure looked compact to him, but he could squish into it for a few hours. It had a driver, who he was assured knew the city, so he was happy. Crenshaw offered to take him to lunch if he got there early enough and the driver said it was doable. Crenshaw promised to wait for him if he was a little late and have his own car take them to lunch.

  The driver was pleasant and chatted with him, but seemed deaf to other driver’s horns. Still, he got David to Crenshaw’s building ten minutes early and never actually hit another vehicle. The one spot they hit a block of gridlock, he did hit a trash bin while taking an off road excursion over the curb and across the sidewalk. David was surprised but glad he’d picked the smaller car. They’d have never managed that with a limo. The driver had military tats on his arms that made David wonder if he used to be a tank driver.

  All that time saved was squandered. Crenshaw had a self driving car that drove like a hundred year old legally blind man. It braked as soon as anybody cut in front of it, which opened a hole that somebody else cut into. At least it didn’t back up when somebody was too close in front or they might go faster pointed the other way.

  Crenshaw told the vehicle to orbit until he called it back. David wondered how many of the cars jamming the roads were orbiting, unoccupied, but burning fuel and occupying road space because there was nowhere to park them. It was all kinds of insane.

  The building where the ca
r let them out had brass street numbers that were a little on the large size, but no other signage. The doorman acknowledged Crenshaw by name and more impressively, he knew the doorman by name.

  “This is a private club. Your father was a member for years although I hadn’t seen him in the place in the last decade,” Crenshaw said. “It dates from the eighteen hundreds.”

  “But you don’t have any sign. Not even a little plaque by the door,” David noted.

  “The name is ridiculously long. In fact the name has changed twice over the life of the club for legal reasons. Once to reflect the fact it could not exclude blacks and other ethnic groups. Notice I don’t say race. I won’t adopt the common usage, because we are all the same race. Then later we had to drop gentleman’s society, because we could not exclude women. I won’t make excuses that the necessity for either was excusable, but at least the club didn’t fight the needed changes in the courts like some.

  “I rather suspect we’ll end up changing it again for similar reasons, perhaps within my lifetime. Not having a sign also eliminates casual walk-ins demanding membership. We feel there is still a rational basis to be exclusive. Any organization that becomes very large and open to the public necessarily suffers a reduction in quality. Currently new members must be sponsored and undergo an evaluation that is frankly very subjective. I’d have no problem sponsoring you if you ever think you’d use the facilities often enough to bother. Members who live outside the city are not that common.”

  “I probably would go years between visiting,” David decided. “If I should change my mind I’ll speak with you and make sure your opinion hasn’t changed.”

  “Well, that was modestly well put,” Crenshaw said.

  A Maitre ‘d approached and informed Crenshaw they had a room on the second floor and the floor supervisor there would seat them. They took the elevator unescorted.

  The supervisor was obviously alerted, standing waiting for the doors to open and acknowledged Crenshaw by name. Crenshaw just thanked him by name, calling him Benjamin, not Ben. They were led to small room with a view of the busy street. The décor didn’t try to overwhelm, it wasn’t the dark sort that copied an English club. There was wood up to a chair rail that appeared to be hickory, and green paint above. The table and chairs were maple old enough to have aged to a mellow red color.

  “May we speak of business?” David asked, sitting after he held back to see which side Crenshaw favored. “If you’d rather wait until after we’ve eaten I can respect that, especially if you have to inform me of conflicts.”

  “Ah, you anticipate your family will contest the will. That’s true but it won’t upset my digestion to discuss it. In fact all we have had to deal with are letters threatening action. I’d characterize them as written to placate irrational clients who don’t want to be told they have no basis to sue. It doesn’t cost anything to speak of and possibly retains their business without making the lawyer look silly in public. We understand such gestures and their real purpose privately.”

  “I’m not cut out for the law,” David admitted. “I’d probably be regarded as rude from the way I’d reply to pointless threats like that.”

  “One drives the point home harder, the milder the reply,” Crenshaw said smiling. “I simply responded to each that I’d be happy to accept a call if they wished to discuss the relevant case law. So far nobody has been eager to do so with me, much less before a judge.”

  “The only one about whom I had any real concern was my brother Mark. Not only was the sum in question greater, but the emotional aspect might drive him to act, even against his own interests.”

  A waiter appeared and had a daily menu printed on a single sheet. David held up a hand and declined the sheet. “You know the house. I’ll let you order for both of us.”

  David figured Crenshaw for a man who would order steaks, but he got a Caesar salad to share, a Spanish wine, lobster rolls and pre-ordered a chilled lemon cheesecake for dessert.

  “Better make that two lobster rolls for the young gentleman,” Crenshaw added.

  “I know from experience to order the dessert early because it runs out easily,” he told David.

  “I could see the conflict between you and your brother,” Crenshaw said. “There were practically electric sparks jumping between you,” he said stabbing his fingers at each other. “How do you assess your own feelings about him? Are you willing to suffer damage to thwart him?”

  The waiter didn’t actually serve them. He stood back in an alcove far enough away to give them some privacy. When they needed something he made a little gesture and someone hurried in from behind a screen to attend to it. It was minimally intrusive.

  “I didn’t think my father’s instructions left you much room to maneuver,” David said. “It seemed plain he was willing to eat the inheritance up in extravagant hours billed rather than see his will ignored. Also, I can go home right now and suffer no harm. I was enrichened far beyond any amount of money by my trip and I didn’t come to your reading desperately poor and willing to fight tooth and nail because it was my only opportunity to rise from poverty. We haven’t even discussed whether I did in fact successfully complete my father’s quest.”

  “Your father’s instructor was able to call and confirm you’d met him and accompanied him willingly before the authorities shut off communications,” Crenshaw said. “He said you were an apt student and had surpassed your father even though your time together was cut off by events. So I knew that provision was satisfied. I didn’t really expect you to report failure.”

  “That was a bit of a dirty trick, not telling me I’d be met and not need to search for a teacher. Did you do so to avoid my brother being aware of what was planned?” David asked. “It seemed to upset him the most that he thought I’d be the judge of my own success.”

  “Although your father gave us the phone contact for the Sahar’s family, he didn’t really detail how we were to use it. We might as easily have given the number to you to arrange your own meeting. It is perhaps more an aspect of the legalistic way we think that we saw there was no specific instruction we use it at all. We might as easily have cast you to your own devices to find a Sahar. You deal with computers. I understand it is critical you tell a computer exactly what to do, since it has no volition to vary from your commands. A lawyer can be very similar or not. A legal mind can decide to take your commands very literally if it thinks doing so will serve another higher purpose, or can decide to test the limits of those instructions for another outcome, if fairly sure it won’t be called on it.”

  “That can be adverse compliance if you want to take everything literally. I think you wanted to be sure I’d actually go without being forced to do so,” David decided.

  “Indeed, or what my generation would call a white mutiny. We also did not want your brother actively interfering,” Crenshaw added.

  “Yeah, that’s the sort of thing he might do,” David said.

  “For a hundred million dollars he might stand off the end of the runway trying to throw rocks in the plane’s engines as it leaves,” Crenshaw said.

  David had a brief struggle to avoid blowing wine through his nose.

  “So again, how hard do you want us to follow your father’s instruction like an unthinking robot? To be blunt, he is dead and you are alive. It would be rather self serving to run up millions of dollars in billable hours with the excuse we are serving the dead, to the harm of the living heir it makes more moral sense to serve. You did fulfill the provisions of the will. To consume what you are owed now in an endless legal battle would serve no one and make our firm look bad to many.”

  The lobster rolls arrived and surpassed their reputation as street food. The roll was hot out of the oven and the lobster in big chunks deeply chilled. The parts hadn’t had time to approach equilibrium in temperature and were subtly seasoned.

  “Not that we will ignore our instructions, but we are not robots unable to apply reasonable discretion to our instructions. How hard d
o you want us to search for the most obscure legal theories and historic decisions to justify carrying on the fight? Weigh the idea that although you are right, it doesn’t follow that the other person is wrong. In fact Mark and your other relatives may genuinely feel wronged. If your father had died intestate the outcome would certainly have been different.”

  “But I’m not your client to instruct you,” David objected.

  “That reflects very well on you,” Crenshaw said. “I’d happily accept you as a client after this matter is closed, but of course not before. We’d be reprimanded for that and rightly so. However we are supposedly officers of the court and serve the law too, even if many lose sight of that. It does not do anyone good to promote bad law. God only knows there is enough of that.”

  “If my brother tries to negotiate a settlement to avoid a battle, I can only think of one compromise that would satisfy Mark, for me to voluntarily relinquish part of the bequest. But this trip and the instruction I received has changed me. I’m not positive it would have benefited Mark, but that might be my personal bias. If he asks, offer him half the estate if he completes the same quest on the same terms with the same success,” David said.

  David could see he’d managed to shock Crenshaw.

  “You don’t believe he could do it,” Crenshaw said.

  “I don’t believe he’d even try,” David corrected him.

  “Well, that was rather novel and unexpected. I won’t explore other contingencies, because that’s more generous than I ever expected or would have suggested.”