The Way Things Seem

by Mackey Chandler

  “Well, normalacy bias certainly. It’s not uncommon. The whole state of California lives that way, refusing to expect an earthquake that experience says is inevitable. They pay lip service to preparing for it, but drive under freeway overpasses and go up in tall building everyday anyway.”

  “I think I will have to make a dramatic demonstration, or you will walk away and never let me finish telling you my story from the start,” David decided.

  “Fine, overwhelm me,” Linda invited.

  “Get something out of your purse with which I couldn’t have tampered,” David invited.

  Linda got the fob for her car with a couple keys dangling from it and slapped it on the desk like she had the logo card. David willed it aloft and let it drop to the desk a half meter away. She frowned at it and ran her hand through the path it took through the air and felt along the desk. She picked them up, scooted her chair back from the desk and said, “Do it again here,” and held them out in her hand.

  The fob and two keys gently lifted and just floated above her hand. She blinked at it and waved her hand over and beneath it.

  “OK, you have my attention,” she admitted, snatching the fob. “What is at work here?”

  “I can’t explain it in psychological terms. My knowledge of that is sadly lacking. But I’ll express what little I understand of it in terms of the physical sciences I know. If that makes sense to you good, if it doesn’t I’ll try to expand on it. Are you familiar with the difference between Newtonian physics and relativity?” David asked.

  “Not in detail. I know more from reading science fiction than school and you have to take that with a grain of salt. Authors take liberties or don’t understand things themselves. I understand time slows down when you go really fast and even satellites like my phone uses for GPS have to allow for it a little. I understand you see some of the things Einstein predicted in the lab, but they aren’t really observable in everyday things. I probably lack the math for most of it.”

  “That’s a fair statement as far as it goes. The Lorentz–FitzGerald phenomena are described just fine with plain old algebra, but the point is, the rules of the universe as far as Newton explained them work pretty well only for to a first approximation.”

  Linda nodded.

  “But get in extreme circumstances and those rules start not working right. Well, a great deal of our universe exists under conditions we’d find personally extreme. What we consider normal is a rather special case. For example the planet Mercury almost orbits with the numbers Newton would calculate. But it’s going fast close to the sun and if you watch it a bit the numbers start to diverge from what they should.”

  “OK, but that doesn’t make my keys float,” Linda said.

  “No, but my point is we have a mental set of rules for how things work. If you drop your keys you reasonably expect them to fall to the floor. It’s very hard to accept there might be other rules than what we have experienced. That we know the way things are is basic to our very sanity. But the way things seem isn’t hard truth. Einstein taught us that. The things he predicted seem very counter intuitive, but reality doesn’t care about our beliefs.

  “I was shown some special circumstances where the rules I learned growing up like everybody else – don’t work. I’ve seen things to make me think these other rules are associated with another place, but I’m still gathering data and can’t offer you a comprehensive theory to define how it is different like Einstein did. I just have a few examples shown me that suggest there is at least one other set of rules.

  “I’m entirely speculating to say those rules seem to leak over at certain congruent points. It just occurred to me talking to you that maybe ours leak over the other way too. I’d point out it took Einstein years to formulate broad theories to explain his view. I’ve just started measuring and trying to find out the whys of it, but I’m not there by a long shot.”

  “I can accept that much, but don’t expect me to say so publicly,” Linda warned.

  “It’s entirely sufficient for me to say so privately,” David agreed.

  “Does my mom know about this?” Linda asked.

  “We have not discussed it the way the two of us just did, but your mother saw some things just as strange as your keys floating and simply accepted it. Her sense of reality and self is very strong.”

  “Tell me about it,” Linda said. “If the universe doesn’t agree with her it may have to change its mind.”

  David had to smile. That was a pretty accurate assessment.

  “I’m sure there’s a lot more to it,” Linda said.

  “It’s a big long story that it would take awhile to tell. I’m not very slick at asking, but I’d like the favor of your company to tell it. If I’m crazy you are welcome to cure me. Some parts of the story are pretty interesting. For a start can we go to dinner this evening?”

  Linda thought about it. “Yes, but pick me up at my parent’s house. I want to go talk to my mom anyway and you know where it is.”

  “What time?” David asked.

  “Whenever you can get away from here,” Linda said, encompassing the company with a gesture.

  David took that for a test, to see how badly he wanted her company and if he’d make her wait.

  “I’ll pick you up at seven,” he said, to show he could set priorities.

  David would have liked to see Joan’s face when Linda told her she’d be coming over this evening and why, but she would know that’s why he was seeing Linda out. That wasn’t his habit.

  Whatever Linda thought now, she took her logo card with her.

  * * *

  “How can you eat like that and stay thin?” Linda demanded. She had the petit filet and a salad. She skipped the soup and appetizer as well as a side of potatoes Diane like David enjoyed. He had the not so petit filet and a lobster tail. She was finishing with a tiny ball of watermelon sorbet and he was having a huge apple dumpling with ice cream.

  “I got in such good shape marching around in the desert. Uncle, who taught me all this alternate reality stuff, was a real power walker. I used to think the old black and white flat films I saw of people walking in the city or pouring in and out of a factory gate were registered wrong and speeded up. Now I suspect they walked everywhere and had somewhere to be so they all walked faster compared to soft people today.

  “When I returned, to what passes for civilization, I over indulged in two things. I was so tired of being gritty and sticky I took long luxurious showers every chance I got. Plus, I went nuts with enjoying all the rich food I wanted. I was ordering double breakfasts and big lunches.

  “I thought I’d start packing it on, but in the end I don’t think I even got five kilo of it back. It seems like every time I get rested and recovered some crisis makes me drain myself to do these cute little tricks I was showing you. You’d be amazed how much it saps me. Last time I slept sixteen hours before my friend Jack shook me awake, worried that I’d slept too long.”

  “You would persuade me to try this stuff myself. All the skills you have revealed so far and the ability to pig-out and stay thin too. What’s not to like?” Linda asked.

  “My friend Jack, the eternal skeptic, said until the unknown side effects catch up and one morning your ears would fall off.”

  “But this Uncle fellow has been using it for years without apparent harm,” Linda said.

  “Good point. I failed to think of that to tell him. At this point I simply don’t have any spare plant to share with anyone. I’m betting it is a year or two before I can get a serious growing operation going, find out the optimum conditions to raise it and ways to make sure it is secure.”

  “Is that your next fortune?” Linda asked. “Marketing the plant?”

  “Good grief, no! I’d be happy to keep it a closely held secret if I could. Also, as soon as you charge money for something it puts your motives into question. I’m already in the position of not being able to explain how it works. I’m going to have to demonstrate some reproducible phys
ical evidence before people will even talk to me.

  “If I just show them flying keys most scientists are going to walk away convinced in their own minds I’ve faked it somehow. The world is full of fraudsters faking things like free energy machines and magnetic motors with hidden batteries or broadcast power.

  “I already know some people use these talents for bad. Uncle warned me of that clearly and I found the same talents already rooted in misuse here when I came home. Now, I don’t know if any of these characters use the weed to enhance their powers. I don’t even know if the government agent I met is aware of it. Some people may just have a genetic pre-disposition to have a talent without the weed enhancing them.”

  David had a sudden uncomfortable thought. “If some of the bad actors already have that strong a natural talent, the last thing I want to do is amplify it.”

  “You’ve already revealed it to too many people to control it,” Linda said.

  David said nothing, but looked worried.

  “Not right away, but in the long run, some competent organic chemist is going to run a sample of this plant down a chromatographic separation column and identify the active compounds. From there, it is a hop skip and a jump to synthesizing them,” Linda predicted.

  “That makes horrible sense to me,” David said.

  “If it isn’t inevitable it’s at least highly likely,” Linda said, “You have money. Why don’t you get ahead of it and do that yourself? At least it will give you control as long as the patents run.”

  “Again, you make perfect sense. I’d need to hire even more experts and form a different corporation with different goals. Would you like to work for me?” David offered. “You seem to have a clear vision of what would have to be done. You can be CEO and run it with a very free hand. I have enough on my plate without trying to manage an entirely new company.”

  “Is that why you asked me out?” Linda asked. It seemed to upset her. “I’m not at all sure I want to cut my schooling short like you did. I seriously doubt you will ever go back and finish it.”

  “Not at all. I didn’t even have the idea until you laid out a case for it just now in logical succession. I asked you out because you and your family mean a great deal to me. I didn’t want you to think me a raving nut case and refuse to have anything to do with me. I can see in these false colors that play on your face that you find me attractive. The possibility exists for a stable long term relationship that would be a good thing for both of us, a win-win.”

  “Well, I’ve never had a gentleman assure me so plainly of his honorable intentions on a first date.”

  “Is that a bad thing? If you had the same talent I’ve acquired it would be an automatic first test before you’d even go out once. You couldn’t even help utilizing it once you had it. I have reason to be cautious about relationships. I have a fortune in eight figures and that paints a big target on my back for gold-diggers. Until I gained this new insight I’ve been afraid of my ability to sort genuine affection from the ability to project false sincerity. I’m pleased to see you don’t get all excited at the mention of money. That’s not even a big consideration in your thinking. A lot of people when offered a start up like I just did would have immediately tried to pin down their compensation, not focus on it interfering with getting their degree.”

  “It’s important to me. What you are offering would take over my life,” Linda predicted.

  “No offense if you turn it down,” David said, spreading his hands in surrender. “It’s true I stopped caring about credentials. If I still did, I could plan on endowing my old university sufficiently. They’d be happy to award me all the degrees anyone could want and name a building for me.”

  “That’s outrageous,” Linda said, “but true,” she admitted after he just looked at her.

  “This is unfair and unbalanced,” Linda decided after a period of silence and thought.

  David didn’t say anything. If she wanted to share more she would.

  “You said you aren’t a mind reader, but you can read my basic intentions and emotions off my face so plainly you might as well be one. What do I have to rely on for my own decisions but gullible trust?”

  “I suspect you will have the same benefit from the weed I do,” David said. “If you weren’t sensitive I doubt that you would have seen scintillation in the logos that most people can’t.”

  “But you just told me it won’t be available for some time,” Linda objected.

  “Perhaps you got a wrong impression,” David said. “I’m not in any great hurry. In fact, if you want to finish up your degree I’d risk waiting for that rather than rush ahead with somebody who doesn’t display the clear vision you just showed. I willing to bet it won’t be a problem earlier than that.”

  What could she say to such praise?

  “I’ll think on it,” she promised.

  * * *

  David was tired. He was trying to make permanent the transfer of the day to day operations of the company to his CFO, Paul Frederick. The man effectively ran the company and ran it very well in David’s absence. He’d offered make him CEO and give him stock options he’d never made available to his employees, if Paul wanted it and could handle the increased burden. He wanted much more free time to investigate the talents he’d learned from Uncle.

  The problem was not that Paul thought he couldn’t handle the new job. He was confident of that. He just had too much ego to accept any of the candidates to take over his old job. He’d interviewed three different people today and had complicated reasons to reject each. David wasn’t sure the man would ever find somebody he could regard as his peer. Paul was so picky David suspected he wouldn’t stand a chance of being hired by Paul for night cleaning crew.

  If you asked Paul, he’d acknowledge it was too much for one man to do both jobs, but that was what he was effectively doing at the moment. He felt carrying it a little longer was better than accepting a less than optimum candidate for the job just to have the position filled. David decided he was going to let the man continue looking unless he started to show signs of burning out under the load. He hoped that didn’t happen. Then he might be looking to fill two positions.

  On top of the time his own company demanded, several companies in which David’s father had significant holdings contacted him to inform him of their next board meeting and invite discussion how he intended to manage his ownership. One broached the subject of him sitting on their board and several sent their current prospectus. Just one had the timidity to have their CEO demand his proxy for the next meeting without any discussion. David declined as much for how it was said to him as the actual request. He calmly indicated he’d let his proxy go unvoted rather than vote it in ignorance or hand it off to someone who was an unknown. Such a move might very well open unexpected shifts in power at any company, where there had been no problem before. That particular CEO was going to have to lose some of his arrogance if he wanted David’s cooperation.

  After considering how much time would be involved in tracking the performance of each company and attending their meetings, even by video conferencing, David decided he needed a manager to track them, keep him briefed, and vote his shares for him as instructed. Now he just had to find time to hire that manager, find time to familiarize him with what issues would be of concern to him, and explain his business philosophy sufficiently to give the fellow some sort of idea when new events needed to be called to his attention and discussed.

  David would love to ask Linda to work for him again, but was pretty sure a second job offer would just irritate her rather than flatter her. Instead he called and asked when she might be free for dinner again. She agreed to three days hence, but insisted she would pick him up and drive him to a place of her choosing. She had that challenging tone to her voice and he was sorry he couldn’t see her face. She obviously was still worried he’d try to dominate her. He had no desire to do that at all and easily agreed to let her run the date as her show. It would be a pleasure to let somebody el
se make decisions who wasn’t needy or rude. When he hung up after agreeing he was in a much better mood. It was the only thing he arranged today that he could actually look forward to.

  After a long day hard day David bought some carry-out on the way home and was ready to put on some music, have a quiet dinner and get to bed at a decent hour. Then his phone chirped and it was the cop or agent of whatever Johnson styled himself wanting to come over.

  David got the same uneasy feeling he’d learned not to ignore and he refused.

  “What exactly is your business this time?” David asked.

  “I have an artifact. Something of a nature like your gift to me, but much more substantial. I remember you offered to destroy the item with which you gifted me. We are having trouble accomplishing that with this one and hoped you could help. More than that I don’t want to say on an unsecured phone,” Johnson insisted.

  “Hold the line for just a moment and I’ll get back to you,” David promised. He heard Johnson agree but he wasn’t actually waiting for his agreement, He paused that contact and called Jack. He wasn’t going to make it a conference call and speak openly in front of Johnson.

  “Jack, the fellow Johnson is calling wanting to see me and I have a really creepy feeling about bringing him in my apartment. I don’t want him in your house again either, but I want somewhere private and safe to meet him. Can I tell him to meet us around back of your house by the fire pit?”

  “Sure, I’ll even go start a fire,” Jack offered. “It’s cool this evening. There are already four chairs out there. Did he indicate he’d have his posse with him again?”

  “He didn’t mention them. I think it’s just him.”

  “Do you want me armed again?” Jack asked.

  “I sure don’t see what it can hurt,” David said, “thanks.”

  “You know where you talked to me before,” David said, as cryptically as Johnson had been about his gift. “Meet me there. Pull around back by his garage and we’ll be sitting out back.”