Ogg

by James Gault

  Chapter 18

  It took Antonia two days before she could bring herself to speak to Perg. She might have held out for longer, but Ogg had gone back into hiding and she couldn’t get the end of the world problem out of her mind. In the absence of the Great Being himself, Perg was the only one she could talk to. And maybe she had been a bit too hard on him anyway. After all, she hadn’t suffered any permanent damage, and she had proved to herself that she could manage on her own well enough without Ogg and Perg to help her out. She called him on his mobile and instructed him to meet her on the high street and bring his credit card. Oh, and he wasn’t to forget to wash his hair before he came out.

  Perg turned up as directed, his long clean hair flouncing over his shoulders, and Antonia noticed with satisfaction that all of his spots had finally disappeared. Only his clothes to fix and he would be presentable. She took him into her favourite shop and chose some clean jeans and a decent t-shirt. When the assistant put his old clothes in a bag and offered them to him, Antonia quickly told her to throw them in the bin. At last he was looking presentable.

  The trouble was, she was now embarrassed about herself. Her jeans weren’t too bad, but she was still wearing one of her mother’s extravagant floral curtain material creations as a top. It was at this point that Perg unexpectedly came to her rescue.

  “Wouldn’t it be cool if we had matching T-shirts? Let me get you one as a present, to make up for my bad behaviour in the virtual world.”

  Now here was something she had never expected from him, a really practical apology.

  “No, I couldn’t accept,” she began, but Perg fortunately insisted, so there she was in a new shop-bought modern T-shirt that she really liked. The shop assistant held up her old floral top and pointed to the bin. Antonia was on the point of saying no , but then she thought ‘What the hell’, and even managed a cheeky wave of farewell as the detested garment disappeared into the rubbish bin.

  They went to MacDonald’s for coffees. At first Antonia was inclined to hide in the back room, but then she caught a glimpse of them both in the mirror and this gave her the confidence to sit right in the window. Who cares who saw them together? They looked OK, both of them.

  “Nothing from Ogg at all?” she asked him.

  “Not a peep. He must be busy.”

  “You know, I’m beginning to get a little less impressed by him. Don’t get me wrong , he’s still a great Great Being, and a good friend, but in some ways he’s only human too.”

  “Yes, I’ve noticed that. Quite a lot human, in fact.”

  “Not that different from us, really. He’s made a few mistakes lately.”

  “He has, Ant. Or at least it appears like that. Of course, maybe we’re missing something.”

  “Great beings know best, and all that stuff? I’m not so sure any more. I mean, we’ve been trained to do this correct thinking, haven’t we?”

  “By the expert. No one thinks more correctly than Ogg. He’s been training us well, but we still make mistakes.”

  “Yes, but so does he. That’s the point I’m making. Basically, is he any different from us?”

  “Well...”

  “And another thing, Perg. Have you noticed the way he never answers any questions?”

  “Moving in mysterious ways?”

  “That’s what he’d like you to believe, but have you thought that maybe he just doesn’t know.”

  “I suppose it’s possible. But it seems kind of disloyal, talking about him like this.”

  “No, I think it’s what he wants. After all, if we have to think correctly, why shouldn’t we think correctly about him?”

  “You’ve got a point, Ant.”

  A voice interrupted them. More a screech than a voice, really.

  “Toni, how are you? Fancy seeing you here!”

  Antonia looked up and winced. It was Trish. All tight sweaters, make up and empty head.

  “I was just in town shopping for a little something for the disco tonight. You’ll not be going? Studying as usual, huh! ”

  Trish gave Antonia a pitying smile, which Antonia returned. She realised Trish found it sad that Antonia spent most of her free time reading instead of going to discos, but she herself also found it sad that no amount of reading or studying could turn Trish into anything resembling an academic.

  “Yeah, well, like, too bad,” Trish muttered. Muttering was the only form of speech known to her.

  She was gazing open-mouthed at Perg, obviously waiting for an introduction. Antonia already knew she would be the hot topic for classroom gossips on Monday morning and she was damned if she was going fan the flames of their inquisitive little minds. She said nothing. Trish shifted her weight from one high heel to the other, but Ant’s partner appeared not to notice. She tried pushing out her breasts a bit and flashing her eyelashes, but whoever he was seemed only to have eyes for Ant. Not to worry! There were a lot of words that Trish had never learned and subtlety was one of them.

  “Nice T-shirts you guys have got. A matching pair, huh! Cool!”

  Antonia looked at her T shirt and then at Perg’s.

  “Yes indeed. So they are. Isn’t that a coincidence?”

  “Oh, yeah! Right!”

  Trish tried smiling at Perg who did look back, but it seemed that he was waiting for permission from Ant before opening his mouth.

  “I’m Trish,” she tried, directly to him. He smiled briefly by way of response and turned desperately to Antonia.

  “Trish, is that your make up that’s a bit smudged?” Antonia asked.

  “What? Oh no! Look, gotta go. See you Monday.”

  “Enjoy the disco, Trish!”

  They both watched as Trish tottered out of the restaurant.

  “Pretty girl, don’t you think? She’s the class beauty, you know.”

  What was Perg supposed to say to that? Of course, he couldn’t agree, that was obvious. He could try ‘not as pretty as you’ but it would only have sounded trite. Although Perg didn’t know much about girls he knew that even the stupid ones could set the most insidious of traps for any poor male, and the smart ones had to be treated with the care normally reserved for live dynamite.

  “She sounded a bit dizzy to me,” he replied, and by pure accident he had hit on just exactly the right thing to say to Antonia.

  “Let’s forget about her,” she said, satisfied. “Let’s talk about Ogg!”

  “O.K.”

  “I think we both agree now that maybe Ogg just isn’t infallible after all.”

  “It’s a possibility, certainly.”

  “And so he could just possibly be wrong about the end of the world.”

  “Just possibly.”

  “And there’s another thing! He has visited the future in the past, so how can it not exist? Can you visit something that doesn’t exist? It’s not logical. Surely, if Ogg was thinking really correctly, he would see that.”

  “Well, maybe, but the logic of time travel is very complicated. I’m not sure even Einstein could have understood it properly.”

  “Humpph!” This suggestion seemed to smack of the ‘you’re still young - you’ll know better when you’re older and wiser’ syndrome. She narrowed her eyes and stared at Perg, who wondered what he had said now.

  “I’m certainly not sure I understand it myself, Ant.”

  Antonia was considering whether Perg had given her sufficient justification for a quarrel when Ogg suddenly appeared beside them.

  “What are you two talking about,” he asked.

  They immediately blushed, both of them. Of course, no point in trying to hide it. Ogg had asked the question, and their minds automatically turned to the answer. Of course he read those thoughts right away. Of course they knew he had done it. And, of course he would be upset by their lack of faith, but what could they do? It might be wonderful to be a Great Bein
g and read minds, but don’t do it unless you have a thick skin.

  “You think I might have a mistake?” Ogg asked.

  “We were just considering the possibility, weren’t we Perg?”

  “What can we know with certainty?” Ogg asked.

  “Great Philosophical Question?” Ant and Perg said together.

  Ogg smiled at them.

  “Ant, I think what Ogg wants to say is that, in the absence of certainty, we have to make do with probability.”

  “So, while it is possible that Ogg is mistaken, we shouldn’t bet the future of mankind on it? Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”

  “Exactly!” Ogg smiled at her.

  “Nevertheless, it leaves us room for hope, don’t you think?”

  “It does, Ant, but not too much hope. And certainly not enough hope for us just to sit about and wait for something to turn up.”

  “I wasn’t suggesting that. I was just...”

  “Just what?”

  Antonia was silent for a long time. Perg just looked at her, totally clueless, but he wasn’t a Great Being. But even Ogg was struggling to know what was going on in her head. There was something about probability, and images of her great grandfather, and there was even a flash of the hippie J.T. Wishbone whom they had met in the desert. But nothing was connected to anything else, and mostly there was just blackness. And when eventually she opened her mouth, it wasn’t so much to speak as to explode.

  “I don’t know! I just don’t want the world to end. And we’re getting nowhere! All this is really worrying, especially with my A levels coming up. And you with all this correct thinking! It’s like having someone holding a knife at your throat and asking you to solve a mathematical puzzle. Our minds don’t just work like a computer, you know? Even you have feelings Ogg, don’t pretend you don’t! OK, maybe when we get emotionally involved, when something affects us inside, maybe that’s when we screw up. But if thinking like a computer all the time is the right thing, why are there any people at all? There’s a Great Philosophical Question for you to chew over, Ogg! And maybe it’s one you should try to answer, for a change. AFTER you solve the end of the world problem!”

  Antonia was sobbing softly. Ogg said nothing. Perg had his arms around her shoulder and was whispering “It’ll be all right, Ant, it’ll be all right.” But Antonia was far from sure that it would be.