by Jacob Wenzel
“I understand four dimensions; I've been doing the math since I was a teenager.”
“Not the math, the reality.”
“I don't get it. The human mind can't grasp four dimensions.”
“I know, you've taught me that, but in my dreams, I can.”
“Okay, let's start over, tell me about your dreams.”
“All my life, I've dreamed about flying, not high, usually, just over the treetops, but once, and this was not long before I met you, I dreamed about flying high, far above the Earth, into space, past the moon, and out into the solar system, that's how I knew the Earth was round. When I was awake, I confirmed it by watching a lunar eclipse. In the dream, I then saw planets that I now know to be Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.”
“So, you dreamed about planets that you could not possibly have known about, except maybe, as bright stars.”
“And, after I met you, and saw pictures of them, they were exactly as I had dreamed.”
“You dreamed about Saturn's rings?”
“The rings, Jupiter's Great Red Spot and moons, Mars' polar ice caps.”
“That's incredible, I don't know how you could have known about those things. Did your father talk about the planets?”
“He never mentioned them.”
“So the dreams stopped then?”
“Those dreams stopped, then later, after I met you, and learned about higher dimensions, the weird dreams started.”
“Dreaming about real planets that you can't possibly know about is not weird?”
“Not compared to the later dreams, the four dimensional ones.”
“What were they like.”
“I can't really describe them, at first they were confusing, then I began to adapt, and learned to maneuver, I could see all sides of all the three dimensional objects at the same time, including the inside. In my dreams, I'm now very comfortable in four dimensions, so comfortable, that when I awaken after one of them, the real world seems flat, and it takes a few minutes before things seem normal again.”
“That is weird, but then, as we have already established, you have a remarkable mind. It could be that you're just dreaming, our perceptions in dreams are usually distorted, or it could be that your subconscious mind can truly understand four dimensions, even though your senses cannot perceive them. But our dreams are not limited by our senses.”
“So you think my dreams might be real? I hadn't mentioned them because I know that dreams like that are not normal, I couldn't find any references in my research.”
“It would not surprise me in the least if we found out that your dreams are real, but then, with everything I know about you, it would not surprise me if, some night, you were to float into the sky, and become the brightest star in the heavens.”
“I'm not sure how to respond to that.”
“A kiss would be good start.”
She kissed him. “You don't want to hear about the rest of my dreams.”
“There's more? I'm not sure I can handle more right now.”
“That's good, there is more, but I'm not sure I'm ready to talk about it right now, I need to better understand this new phase.”
“In the meantime, it looks like Zeeeb is back with offerings.”
Zeeeb was walking toward them on his hind legs, with his head held low. He was being followed by several dozen other squirrels carrying nuts and berries. They were all having difficulty staying upright and occasionally one would stumble, and drop everything, the others would chitter angrily, but wait while the dropped load was gathered again. It seemed that at any given time, there was at least one squirrel gathering his nuts and berries, so progress toward the Winnie was slow. A fight broke out between three of them, and most of the others dropped everything, and joined in the fray. It was broken up by Zeeeb, who was the largest, and apparently toughest of them. The finally stopped in front of William and Sally, and placed everything in a pile in front of them.
The others stood back while Zeeeb approached, and said, (as translated by Bob) “Oh, Mighty Ones, we beg your forgiveness. In our ignorance, we mistook you for some large edible beast, we did not know you were gods. We humbly ask that you accept our meager offerings, and refrain from kicking our skinny squirrel asses from here to the river. If you must, Kelb has offered up his skinny squirrel ass for kicking.”
William said, “We accept your apology, and will grant forgiveness for your transgressions. And, for now, we will kick no skinny squirrel asses. But we make no promises for the future.” At Bob's suggestion, he added, “And, as a sign of our forgiveness, we shall give to you one of the foods of the gods, Oreos.” Sally went into the Winnie, brought out a plate of Oreos and set it down in front of the squirrels, who gasped, and jumped all over the plate. After stuffing themselves, several of them examined the plate, it was too large for any one of them to lift, but four of them, working together, were able to pick it up.
Sally said, “You may keep the plate as a reminder of our visit, but you must stay away from us for the rest of our stay, or kicking shall occur.”
“We shall stay away, as you command, and this object, this... plate...will have a place of honor as a gift from the gods who came to Earth.”
The squirrels groveled appropriately, and managed to carry the plate away.
As Bob had advised, Sally and William stayed close to the Winnebago. The squirrels, as commanded, stayed away, but occasionally, William or Sally would catch a glimpse of one of them peeking around a tree.
They made the jump in the morning before the next full moon, at Bob's suggestion, they made it while airborne.
42.
Larry was ready, he was wearing his new uniform, much more colorful than his old one, he had found the baggy suit covered with multi-colored polka dots in a bag in the lodge, along with a pair of red shoes, that were huge on the outside, but the insides were too small for him. He was also wearing a diving mask and snorkel he had found in a car. He wasn't sure why he had put them on, but he liked the feel.
He had his weapons ready to defend against anyone or anything that might attack. He had promised to protect the kids, and dammit, he was going to do it. He fired, and then looked. Okay, it was just a tree, but he was sure that it had moved, it had to die. He reloaded. He came around the corner while making his rounds. There was something new there, someone new. He fired.
43.
“Sally, look out!” William shouted as he pushed her. She fell in slow motion, and as she fell, and turned to see William explode behind her. “No!” she screamed, but he was gone, as was her left arm below the elbow. She somehow managed to climb back into the Winnebago and into the Mecha-Med before losing consciousness just as Bob made the jump.
Sally came to, and crawled out of the Mecha-Med, it must have been a nightmare, her arm was fine, it hadn't been blown off. But then she saw that her clothes were covered with blood, as was the floor in the hall coming into the medical room. Sally screamed “William!” She fell to the floor, crying. “Bob, what happened? We were back at the lodge, we were going to visit Maggie and Desmond. Where's William?”
“I'm sorry, Sally, he's gone.”
“William's dead? No.....what happened?”
“It wasn't the same Deux world, it was the two percent where Larry was there with bazooka.”
“Why didn't you warn us?”
“I did warn you.”
“You did warn us, NINE JUMPS AGO! Why didn't you warn us this time? William's dead!”
“I'm sorry, Sally, it was that two percent chance, I can't know which way we've gone until it happens, I went to all possible worlds, in some them, one of you dies.”
“But I went to... this one....,” she sobbed, “the one where William died, and I lived. This was not supposed to happen, we're soulmates, we're supposed to stay together.”
“You need to rest, Sally, you should try to get some sleep. It will be alright.”
Sally was angrier than she had ever been, even angrier than when her father had
disappeared, “How the fuck is it going to be alright, Bob? She shouted, “How the fuck is it going to be alright?” She curled up in a chair, and stayed there, crying until she fell asleep. Fluffy laid down at her feet, trying to provide some comfort.
When she woke up, she tried to compose herself, she couldn't talk to Bob, and he didn't talk to her. She showered, and put on clean clothes. The 'bots had cleaned up everything while she was asleep, or in the shower, and had disposed of her bloody clothing.
Sally wandered around the Winnebago, it was exactly as it had been before, except for the empty space beside her where William used to be. A space that was much larger than he had been. She looked out a window, the Winnebago was in a clearing in the middle of a forest, much like the one in which she had lived most of her life. The sunlight filtered through the trees, and illuminated the rhododendrons, which were in bloom. It might have been one of the most beautiful things Sally had ever seen had she been able to appreciate it.
“Bob, I want to go home.”
“I know, Sally, we have to wait until next week for a jump window.”
“I'm going outside.”
“You aren't going to ask if it's dangerous?”
“I don't care.”
“It isn't, this world has no people, and no large predators.”
“I don't care.”
“Sally, it really is going to be alright.”
“How, Bob?”
“Trust me.”
“Your perceptions are so different from ours, what's alright with you may not be alright with us, you don't understand us, you can't understand us. Bob, how could you let this happen?”
“People have been asking that of me since the world began.”
“And you've never answered.”
“Humans cannot understand the answer, Sally, you know that.”
“Yes, I do know that.”
“Were you going to tell William about the rest of your dreams?”
“I was.... before..., why.”
“Well you know, as well as I, that sometimes, divergent timelines re-converge.”
“Yes, I do know that, but I don't understand what you're getting at.”
“You know, of course,” Bob continued, “that in some philosophies, nothing exists unless it is being perceived by a sentient being.”
“A tree falling in the woods, yes, I've read about that, why.”
“Sometimes, the only thing that prevents two timelines from merging are the perceptions of the inhabitants of those timelines.”
“Okay, Bob, we're getting really esoteric here, you're losing me.”
“Sally, we're the only two sentient beings in this timeline, and I see many other timelines, therefore, your perceptions are the only thing that prevents this timeline from merging with a nearly identical one.”
“I mean, really losing me.”
“Close your eyes, Sally.”
“Why?”
“Just do it.”
“Okay, they're closed, now what.”
“Now stop believing that which you know to be true.”
“That's a lot to try for.”
“What do you really know to be true?”
“I know that William is dead.”
“Then that is what you need to stop believing.”
“I'm not sure I can, I saw it happen.”
“You saw it happen in one timeline, only.”
“Yes, I know that, logically, but I still can't believe it.”
“You can't believe what?”
“I can't believe that William is dead.”
“Bingo.”
“What?”
“Now, open your eyes, both of you.”
They both opened their eyes, and looked at each other in disbelief for only a brief moment before they embraced in the longest embrace they had ever had.
“You were killed,” William said, crying, “Larry hit you with a bazooka, I was unable to push you out of the way in time.”
“You pushed me, and saved me, but got hit yourself.”
Bob interrupted, “I'm sorry that you had to go through that, but the only path to the where you need to go was through that two percent. But with the next world after that being uninhabited, it was relatively easy for you to re-converge your timelines.”
“We re-converged the timelines? You didn't do it?” Sally asked.
“Yes of course you did it, I just observed, and gave a little guidance, it is the perception of sentient beings that controls the timelines.”
“You're sentient.”
“Lower order sentient beings.”
This was new to William, “Bob, are you saying that you are a higher being than us?
“Sally will explain it to you. You have a week here, enjoy.”
That night, they just held each other and talked.
“You're supposed to explain to me why Bob thinks he is a higher order being.”
“He thinks that because he is.”
“He's just a computer network, I, along with Williams in parallel universes created him.”
“No, you created the network that he uses as a conduit to our dimensions.”
“He existed before the network?”
“He has always existed.”
“You talk about him as if he's God.”
Sally was quiet.
William said, “Well?”
Sally said, “He prefers the title 'Prime Entity.”
“So, we have computer with a Messiah complex?”
“William, have you ever wondered why Bob chose the name 'Bob'?”
“I don't know, it's simple, basic, I guess, I never thought about it.”
“Best Of the Best.”
“What?”
“Bob stands for 'Best of the Best', he is the best being, the first, and still the best.”
“He told you this?”
“No, I figured it out.”
“How do you know that you're right, and that Bob isn't just crazy?”
“I never finished telling you about my dreams.” Sally said.
“The four dimensional ones? What do they have to do with Bob?”
“Four dimensions, and there's more.”
“More dreams?”
“More dimensions, after I was comfortable negotiating four dimensions, my dreams expanded to five.”
“What was it like?”
“I can't describe it in terms comprehensible to the human mind, but it was the most wonderful, and most terrifying thing I have ever seen, and it was infinite, and infinitely complex in all directions.”
“Fractal?”
“Yes, like the edge of the Mandelbrot Set, only in all five of the dimensions I could perceive, and in constant flux, and I could sense shadows of more dimensions beyond.”
“Are you saying that was Bob?”
“Actually, Bob is just the name of a manifestation of It.”
“It? What?”
“It, the Prime Entity. It is twelve dimensional, and cannot manifest itself in fewer than five dimensions, any more than we can put ourselves into a painting on the wall. At least It couldn't manifest itself in fewer than five until you created the network. Now, it has a conduit, the network is Its eyes, ears and voice into our worlds.”
“Again, how do you know that all this is true?”
“I don't know it, I feel it. I sense Its presence.”
“Have you confirmed all of this with Bob?”
“I haven't felt the need.”
“Do you mind if I do?”
“Not at all.” Sally said.
“Bob, is Sally right about all this?”
“Sort of.”
“Just sort of?”
“Within the confines of human conceptualization and language, she is right.”
“I'm sorry, what?” asked William.
“William, we've been over this before, humans are very limited.”
“But Sally seems to understand it.”
“Sally's special.”
“Yes, I know that, but how, why?”
“You can't understand, William,” said Bob, “you should stop trying, it just distracts you from thinking about things you can understand.”
“Oh, but Bob, if you're God...”
“A manifestation of the Prime Entity.” interrupted Bob.
“Okay, if you're a manifestation of the Prime Entity, why don't you know what's happening everywhere?”
“If you look at a slide through a microscope, at three or four spots, you know what you're seeing in those spots, but how do you know what's happening in other spots?”
“I can't know, I can guess, based on limited observation, but I can't know for sure.”
“Exactly, I can see details where my nodes are, but I can only guess what's going on in other places.”
“But you're supposed to be omniscient.”
“And I am, I know every possible path in every possible timeline for every possible planet in every possible galaxy in every possible universe. But only when I have nodes such as the ones you and the other Williams created, can I really feel what's happening, can really see what's happening with individual souls, at least until the integration.”
“The integration?”
“The integration, you will never need to know about that, so you can forget I said anything.”
“I suppose I can ask Sally about it.”
“You can later, she hasn't deduced it yet, but she will.”
“Of course she will.” William said.
44.
Without any significant animals, the forest was very quiet, there were a few insects, which were all non-stinging and non-biting since there were no animals to sting or bite. William and Sally spent a lot of time swimming in a nearby stream, and generally running around naked. Their temporary loss of each other strengthened their love beyond that which they had already known, and they frolicked as if they had just discovered each other.
When they made the next jump, the world was similar, but the plants seemed to be smaller, and more primitive, and so on to the next world. William speculated that they were on a fairly linear path. His speculations were born out after several more worlds, where, eventually, complex plant life gave way to simple one celled plants, and then to nothing more advanced than amoebas.