Seymore's Interlude

by Franci Neale

  Chapter 16

  Making Waves

  Seymore didn’t have any recollection of these impressive personages being in one place at the same time except after they had left The Rim. However, now they were famous for teaming up for special events and situations that caught their fancy. It was most likely that someone has passed the word to one or all of them about ES360; and they weren’t above having a few informants here and there. It was safe to assume that their association on this occasion was no accident and was motivated by a shared desire to see his newly established platform. They were each certain to have an opinion about his achievement and would not hesitate to share their points of view.

  When Seymore met up with them on the lane they greeted him like a long lost friend and each smiled and exclaimed about how good he looked and spoke with enthusiasm about how much they admired his achievements. He thanked them kindly and was careful not to offer any information about Seymore Place nor did he extend an invitation to see more of it.

  They continued to grin and fawn over Seymore and eventually they took his arms and propelled him up the lane toward the cottage all the time chattering away about Seymore’s genius, creativity, and on and on. When they reached the picnic table where Mesa and Geralty were sitting, the little group stopped and Seymore wrenched himself free of their guidance. Despite feeling quite cranky, he graciously introduced Mesa as his trusted assistant and Geralty as his gifted protégée.

  He was left with no choice but to introduce the three visitors to his friends. “Mesa, Geralty, may I introduce the mathematician, the mentalist and the Mahatma. It appears they have arrived to congratulate us on our creation and we can all be grateful for that.”

  Neither Mesa nor Geralty knew who the men were beyond the meager introduction, but Seymore seemed to pay them substantial but grudging deference so they just nodded and shook hands all around. Mesa, however, was sure that there was much more here than met the eye. Geralty smiled while relishing his good luck to be in on what looked to be a whole new kind of adventure.

  Seymore invited the group to sit at the table and he took a place next to Geralty. He carefully folded his hands in front of him and unflinchingly glared at the three newcomers. He didn’t say a word and sincerely hoped he wouldn’t have to. Unlike Mesa he knew exactly who he was dealing with. Though they were housed in diverse and unfamiliar images, they were best known as Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud and Gandhi.

  He knew them all very well and had worked with each of them many times at Middle Mind. All three really liked Middle Mind and because they had transitioned from The Rim so many times they, each in their own way, was sure they knew more than either Seymore or Valentino about the process of transition and how to improve it. They each had their own points of view, powerfully held, and never hesitated to state their opinions, critiques or suggestions. They were meddlers through and through. Not one of them understood the concept of leaving well enough alone. He admired them all but each could be a trial. Now all three were on hand and apparently were prepared to provide ES360 with the benefit of their undoubted expertise.

  He was only half right. These three had plans for Seymore’s station.

  As he held his guests captive on the picnic bench with his unwavering stare, he made some personal and unspoken observations. First, they all were using images from times other than the ones they were famous for when they made their incredible contributions at The Rim. All looked strong and healthy, rested and alert. And they each had an aura of anticipation and expectation. They all smiled with a forced sincerity that was highly suspect.

  It was Seymore’s plan to not give an inch, but eventually curiosity got the best of him and he asked, “What brings you to my humble Place? I know that all of you adore Middle Mind and I’m certain you treasure our associations there, but this small station is nothing like the Transition Zone. You’ll not find much entertainment value here.” He paused and reminded himself that these three were masters of persuasion, and if that failed, weren’t above more devious methods. He wished Valentino was here to reduce the odds; to Seymore three to one seemed like a lost cause from the start. He was to learn that the odds were very much in his favor.

  For an uncomfortable few moments there was not a sound and even young Geralty sat as still as a stone. Then the Mahatma spoke.

  “Seymore we have come to borrow the dome and the light to return to The Rim to make some corrections.” The Mahatma had cleverly chosen the image of a very young and handsome Edwardian gentleman who appeared mannerly, soft spoken and perfectly innocent. Seymore almost burst out laughing. Instead he carefully looked up toward the inside of the umbrella and quietly and firmly said, “Sir, you cannot do that.” Under the table Seymore firmly grabbed Geralty’s leg because he knew that the youngster was about to laugh out loud. Seymore was right; Geralty was experiencing a vision of the 19th century dandy being whipped around in the dome as he had been.

  The mathematician interjected, “Well, we think we can. In fact, I’m nearly certain of it. After I found out about your capture of the great light I calculated and recalculated a series of projections and formulas and it is indeed possible to move to The Rim from here. It’s what we all want to do, the sooner the better. ”Einstein had chosen to arrive at Seymore Place as a portly innkeeper with dancing blue eyes and eyebrows that moved in several directions as he talked. He wasn’t tall, but Seymore was pretty sure he was strong.

  Seymore this time looked the great calculator square in the eyes and said, “No, you can’t do that.” He tried to be as firm as possible without being rude or ill tempered, even though that was pretty much how he felt.

  As Seymore expected, Freud could not remain silent, in fact, Seymore was surprised he hadn’t been the first to speak. The famous mental health worker trained his eyes on Seymore, paused to meaningfully look him over, and said, “Seymore, we know this is your Place. You even named it after yourself. And well you should, it is a monumental achievement. We don’t mean to diminish your talents in any way. But we must find a way to overcome your resistance and use the light for transport so we can take care of important business at The Rim.”

  Oh, he is good, thought Seymore. All the practice in telling people they’re crazy had not been wasted on the clever doctor. The image selected by the renowned shrink for this occasion was of a 20th century politician: tall, lean, handsome, smooth spoken and dripping with sincerity.

  Seymore could not resist smiling warmly at Sigmund as he said, “No, Sigmund you cannot use the dome and its light to travel to The Rim or for any other purpose no matter how necessary or noble you perceive your intentions. Is that clear enough?” Sigmund was left to his own devices in the face of Seymore’s unqualified rejection. Wisely, he remained silent and contemplative.

  Seymore resumed sitting quietly with hands folded waiting for the next attempt to break his will. Some few moments passed before the Mahatma asked, “Why can’t we use the light, Seymore? ”He was totally sincere and looked steadily into Seymore’s eyes. It was a real question, no ulterior motive. He actually wanted to know why he couldn’t use the light for his personal aims.

  Good! Seymore thought and turned to Geralty and said, “Tell them, Geralty” Seymore knew it would do no good for him to explain the dangers, but they might believe he voice of experience.

  Geralty looked at Seymore and said, “It’s really, really dangerous.” Seymore said, “Tell them how you know.” Geralty turned to the visitors and continued, “I went into the dome to do some investigating and it was just luck that I got out with Seymore’s help. It was a wild and dangerous ride.”

  The three looked at Geralty with surprise and then the numbers runner said, “Really! I need to review my calculations. I was sure that we could travel in the light.” Everyone else remained silent.

  Sigmund said to Seymore, “Are you sure that we can’t at least try. We are not without exceptional skills of our own, you know. ”The mentalist had no shame. An
d before Seymore could say a word, Geralty looked at Sigmund and asked, “Can you fly? I can.”

  Both Seymore and Mesa broke out laughing. When they we just about to regain their composure they looked at each other and enjoyed more giggles and guffaws. They hugged Geralty, who was stunned by their reaction, but took it all in as best he could. This was the strangest adventure he’d been on.

  The tourists were left to deal with their own thoughts as their host and his staff had a jolly time at their expense. They didn’t think it was funny at all. Of course, none of them could fly, and they were pretty sure Seymore couldn’t either. They could transition, transport and project, but flying was a talent only naturally available to Mercury’s tribe, or so they thought. Then the light went on.

  Seymore had returned for the most part his normal self, but Mesa was still muffling giggles He looked at the Mahatma who was studying Geralty and Seymore saw that the venerable guru knew that his young protégé was Mercurial. What the wily politician didn’t know was there were two such remarkable beings at the table and Seymore decided to reserve that information.

  His guests (he was beginning to think more hospitably toward the interlopers) were quite shocked to learn that the light in the big dome could be seriously dangerous and would have closely questioned and cross examined Geralty except that they knew better than to take on the skills of a relation of the great Mercury. Even a young and inexperienced one had more communication skills than the three of them combined. They didn’t have the same reservations about Seymore, however, so they turned to press him for more details.

  Seymore was determined not to be dragged into some long discussion of the ins and outs of the great lights. Even he and Mesa didn’t understand everything about the nature of Seymore Place and he wasn’t about to give the three meddlers one morsel toward satisfying what he knew was their bottomless curiosity. He decided that playing dumb was the best and easiest means to fend off the questioners and his reply to every query was some version of I-don’t-know.

  Mesa rose and excused herself saying she was going to look for Fred. She really was. He had apparently gone all the way to the beach and hadn’t returned. She was also very curious about how the visitors had entered Seymore Place as the edges were stabilized and sealed. There was no previous trace of them on the station so they couldn’t project or transport in as there was nothing to fix on. Fortunately the answers to both of her questions were in the same direction. She started down the lane, walking quickly and keeping her wings camouflaged against the fabric of her dress. Somehow she didn’t particularly want to reveal that she too could fly. She had noticed as well that Seymore had not revealed her Mercurial heritage.

  At the top of the sand dunes she looked up and down the beach but didn’t see Fred anywhere. She was standing in tall grass and he could be easily hidden in the vegetation that covered the sandy soil. She didn’t know where to start looking so she furled her wings and glided low over the sand at the edge of the lapping water. It was very near the edge of Seymore Place as well so she would be able to see any gaps or breaks in the construction.

  She neared the end of the beach where the alder woods picked up and hadn’t seen anything out of the ordinary. The cat wasn’t found either. Somehow she thought Fred would be easy to find because of his striking coloring, but he seemed to have vanished. She dropped her feet and gently landed in the soft sand at the edge of a dune to think about how the visitors might have arrived. She stood for a long time looking out over the sea. Then she knew exactly how they arrived. They came in over the water.

  After the space where it washed up on the shore, the sea was an optical illusion and there was actually nothing there. The result was an open space in the construction that allowed for the illusion to play itself out.

  The psychiatrist was right, they did have great skills and they had simply projected on to the surface that supported the illusion, crossed the dunes and walked up the lane.

  It was easy. She jumped off the ground and was again flying very low right along the edge of the illusion. She was looking for any disturbance that would tell her where they came in. As she approached the other end of the beach she saw Fred crouched in one of the clumps of dune grass looking out at the last bite of the beach. She dropped her legs, landed, bent down to pick up the cat and gently nuzzled him. He seemed fine and apparently had found the entry point before she had.

  She looked down at the sand and saw the last faint impressions of foot prints from the three clever intruders’ arrival. The illusion had almost washed the evidence away. She hugged Fred and said, “You are one very smart cat, Fred.” She knew that something had to be done to protect the station from future trespass by way of the water illusion but she needed to talk to Seymore first.

  So she carefully unfurled her wings back into a fabric design, walked over the dunes and up the lane. Half way to the picnic table she released Fred and he wandered along beside her until Geralty saw them. He ran to get the cat and ask her where she found him. She told him and included finding the fading footprints. She also swore him to secrecy before they reached the table which was still occupied by contention for control of the light. It was immediately clear that Seymore was winning. She took Geralty’s hand and they walked on to the cottage entrance and quietly slipped in through one of the double doors.

  What Mesa had viewed as contention Seymore and his guests looked upon as lively discussion and debate. Mostly it was now friendly as the visitors came to realize that there was much more to ES360 than they had assumed. Seymore finally took an unequivocal stand and flatly said he would not ever allow them to enter the light in the dome and there was no circumstance they could conjure or contrive to change his mind. The meddlers gave up. They even laughed when they saw they were pursuing a hopeless cause.

  Once they quit wrangling to have their way, Seymore invited them to come into the cottage to have a look around. They quickly rose and headed for the entrance with Seymore leading. He knew that they probably were thinking of ways to use the house tour to find a way to slip into the dome. So at the double doors he paused, turned and said, “Psyche is the one who commissioned this experiment, you know.”

  Actually, they did know. They admired the Great Psyche and she had actually told them about ES360 though she didn’t suggest a visit or that interference at Seymore Place was a good idea. They were anxious to see the cottage and continued hoping to gain some kind of advantage that would release Seymore’s grip on control of the light.

  When they were safely inside the cottage library, Mesa kept her hold on Geralty’s hand and lead him through the hall and out the back door on the alder woods side of the cottage. They went around to the back where the pretty pond was and took a seat on the bench that was under the weeping willow. Mesa sat very close to Geralty and said, “We need to keep out of Seymore’s way for a while. His old associates seem to have agendas that we can’t really help with. And we have plans to make on our own.”

  At first Geralty was disappointed but brightened at the prospect of being in cahoots with Mesa. And he already had several secrets that he nurtured and cherish. For once things were both safe and exciting. Even Fred seemed pleased to just spread himself out on the grass and purr with gusto.

  Mesa wanted to shift into super-reliable schoolmarm but she didn’t want to be caught in either the process or results and again warned Geralty against any revisions to his own image for the same reasons. He readily agreed and then asked “What are we up to, Mesa? ”She gave him her patient look and lightly smiled, “Geralty, we’re not up to anything. We are going to think about a few things that need to be done so we are prepared to make some workable suggestions to Seymore, mostly about the way the visitors arrived.” And to herself thought, and a way to get them to leave.

  She went over at length what she found at the beach and the use of the water illusion for trespassing. She wondered out loud, “I wonder how the threesome even learned about Seymore Place, don’
t you? Surely this small platform is of little consequence in the entire scope of Everything.” She seriously considered a short return to Mercury Place to catch up on all the news. Then she had a better thought.

  “Geralty, I have a great idea. You and I are going to figure out a way for ES360 to have a link to Mercury Place so we can know what’s going on. I don’t know about you, but I miss being in the know about events and comings and goings. I have a feeling that if we were better informed we wouldn’t have had any surprise visitors. It would have helped to know they were coming.”

  Geralty was thrilled with the idea of having access to more information. He would never be bored again! He grabbed Mesa’s slender arm and said, “We could put a receiver in my room. There’s a nice cabinet with doors and it’s on an outside wall. If we put the connection in the thatch on the roof we could run a link right into the cabinet and no one would be the wiser. I mean, it would be safe and protected. We’d tell Seymore, of course, before we made such a major addition.” He stopped but his mind was rapidly creating scenarios about how much he would enjoy such a splendid addition to his room. He loved being at Seymore Place and was thrilled to work along side Seymore and Mesa, but at times he missed the incredible communication and information sharing at Mercury Place.

  Mesa smiled and said that was a wonderful idea and it would be included in the options for Seymore. To calm Geralty, she changed the subject and asked, “Do you think you could fly over the edge of the station with me to see the underside of the water illusion?” Geralty hesitated and then observed, “I’m sure I have the strength for such a flight, but I’m not sure if I can fly long enough, Mesa. ”Mesa agreed that it was a difficult flight. Then she said that maybe the best idea was a barrier that ran the length of the beach that would allow the water illusions to function but prevent anything from crossing at the point where the illusion and the beach met. She’d present that to Seymore as an option.

  Geralty turned to Mesa and said, “I don’t know much about water. Could I take that little boat out on the pond to see what water is like?” Mesa said that was fine but to be careful as it was unstable and he should not stand up in the boat. Although, she thought, if he falls in that might be the best lesson and she was pretty sure she could easily rescue him even though her knowledge of water was scarce as well .He left the bench and walked out on the dock to the row boat. It was a comedy of errors as he tried every which way to get into the boat. Finally he got down on his hands and knees, pulled the boat in as close as possible stern first and carefully crawled into the boat, sat up and the boat started to drift away from the dock. He was then immediately busy with figuring out how he was going to get out of the boat.

  Mesa could see he was going to be occupied for a while and let her mind go back to finding ways to handle the potential consequences of the visit from the three trespassers. She looked up at the cottage and could just make out Seymore and the visitors in the study through the willow tree’s drapery. It was cool and comfortable and she really liked this new retreat that Seymore had added during the remodel. She must remember to thank him. She relaxed and gave up worrying about the visitors.

  During the tour of the cottage a running conversation revealed a number of facts that Seymore was surprised to learn. All three of the tourists said they had learned about the station through the constant stream of information that emanates from Mercury Place, which was at least partially true. The announcement was short and didn’t say much about Seymore Place, but rather emphasized that for the first time ever a great white light had been captured. That news was motivational for The Meddlers.

  The visitors were reluctant to discuss exactly what kind of changes they wanted to make at The Rim. Seymore persisted and they all finally confessed to a long list of things they suspected had lead to poor outcomes as a result of their much heralded but incomplete accomplishments. Sigmund was particularly remorseful that some of his conclusions about women were not only misconstrued but wrongheaded in the first place. The Mahatma said he had inadvertently endorsed some life style, living arrangements and eating habits that were unhealthy and persisted because of him. On the other hand, the mathematician felt that his work was largely good, excellent in fact, but incomplete in some small ways which had sent some very talented scientists off on the wrong track. He wanted to make a few formulas available to some select physicists so that his previous findings could be corrected in such a way that he would get the credit. And they all had dozens of small items of interest and concern that they would like to adjust, add or remove.

  Seymore carefully set out why it was not a good idea to return to The Rim aboard a great light even if it was possible, which it wasn’t. The residents at The Rim had superior abilities for making corrections and utilizing the rich bed of creativity available there. Any influence from them would be unwise and most likely unwelcome. He knew for sure that not one of them would endorse his position in any way, but he said it four or five times in several different ways just to be sure they actually heard what he wanted them to understand.

  As they sat together in his study, Seymore noticed that there was something about his pleasant room that had relaxed his guests. Sigmund and the Mahatma were half-reclined on the ends of the day bed and Albert had easily fallen into the depths of the big leather chair. Seymore sat at his desk in the office chair while he listened to the amiable and informative conversation.

  The most meaningful bit of news he received was that his experiment was widely held to be a big success and that the dome’s attracting the white light was a remarkable coup. Seymore also noted that not one mention was made of light travelers, though each of the three guests wanted to be one. Moreover they didn’t seem to grasp that the lights were highly individuated and would most likely not accept any rider but its own. However, for the most part, Seymore remained mute about anything and everything that he knew about the great lights.

  With everyone so comfortable, Seymore asked the question that he hoped would bring the tour and visit to its natural conclusion. “So, gentlemen, what’s next on your agenda? ”To his dismay there was no reply, not even a meaningful look.

  Since a voluntary departure didn’t seem to be in the offing, Seymore stood and said he had many matters that needed his attention but that he would be glad to assist them in making the easiest exit. He suggested, in a flash of intuition, that they pay a visit to his brother, Valentino. “At Middle Mind there were new happenings there that could provide methods of pursuing the desired Rim corrections. ”At that implication, they all rose and followed Seymore out the doors that faced the atrium. They all stopped to look through the French doors at the lighted dome. Sigmund offered, “Too bad. You know, it doesn’t look dangerous. ”And Seymore quickly added, “But it is. ”With that they all turned and left through the double doors in the library.

  On the path outside Seymore said, “If you’ll tell me how you got here, I’ll be sure that you can leave the same way. Or, since you now have a small imprint here you can transport to one of your well established markers at Middle Mind. I think that Valentino would be glad to see you and you can even use my office for the time being.”

  The latter was an offer they couldn’t refuse. They each selected their individual marker that was closest to the Administration Offices at Middle Mind and were gone.