‘Get in the car and sit down,’ she said. ‘We’re going for a ride. Strap yourself in. It’s going to be a long one.’
She didn’t have to ask me twice. I loved riding in the X31 and Ms Blit—sorry about this, Dad—was the best hovercar driver in the world. Maybe in the universe.
I don’t know what Ms Blit did to the X31’s back engine, but the way the car travelled was amazing. It sounded different, too. It moved like a torpedo cutting through the air. It seemed to be going much, much faster than before. Everything around us was a blur—even the trees and houses way below. Only the distant hills seemed to stay in focus.
Ms Blit flicked switches and turned knobs, making the car go even faster. It started to shake.
‘Slow down,’ I yelled.
My seat rattled. I gripped the bracing handles so tightly that my knuckles went white.
The car sped up even more.
‘Ms Blit! ’
The surrounding hills started to blur and the dashboard glowed blue. I’d never seen that happen before.
‘Hold on tight,’ she said, calm and in control.
I pushed myself back into the seat and shrieked.
‘Aaaaaaaaah. ’
There was a thunderous whoosh and the sky and clouds disappeared. The car shot forwards like a rocket and it was hard to see anything out the window. We were racing iridescent rainbows of no shape and all shapes. Then we were going down a tube. Then we were flying across a flat plain. Then we entered something spinning. Then it stopped spinning and our craft was spinning. Then we entered a zone of pulsating stars.
I couldn’t speak. I kept gulping and wondering what this was doing to my stress level.
Finally the craft steadied and Ms Blit seemed to put it into some sort of autopilot mode. She flicked a few switches and then took her hands off the wheel and looked at me.
I couldn’t see anything I recognised. Flickering colours filled my view, like the aurora australis. But instead of just being overhead, they were all around us.
Eventually, I managed to find my voice. ‘Where— where are we going?’
Ms Blit paused for three seconds before answering. ‘Wrong question,’ she said.
I thought for a moment. ‘When are we going?’
She nodded.
‘Are we going—can we go somewhere else in time?’ She counted slowly to three before answering.
‘Bingo, Simon! Do you know you’re a genius?’
‘Well, I’ve often suspected . . .’ I shrugged.
‘What you said before was absolutely right,’ Ms Blit went on. ‘We need to approach your problem from a different angle. In your case, none of the old answers work, but maybe we can find a new solution. I’m taking you to meet Albert Einstein.’
‘One, two, three—this is amazing. I didn’t know you were allowed to take people back in time,’ I replied.
‘We’re not.’
‘One, two, three. Will you get into trouble?’
‘Yes,’ said Ms Blit.
‘One, two, three. Sorry.’
‘I’ll lose my job, but it doesn’t matter. Sometimes you have to do what you think is right, even if it is against the rules.’
‘One, two, three. Why will you lose your job? I mean, you’re only trying to help. That’s what you’re supposed to do, isn’t it?’
‘I’ve already told you way too much. I’ve told you about the state of Twilight and Nowhen. That’s enough to get me thrown off the Maintenance Crew. It’s strictly forbidden. This morning I woke up feeling really bad. I’m not making good progress with you at all, Simon, and I’m going to be honest with you from now on. I wish I had been truthful all along. Your deterioration is continuing to accelerate. I’ve broken the rules to tell you things I shouldn’t have, to try to force you to keep on the program. That didn’t work. I think this may be our last chance.’
‘One, two, three. How will your boss find out that you told me that stuff? I won’t tell. It’ll be our secret. I promise.’
‘Everything that happens in time is visible to those in charge who work outside it,’ she explained.
‘One, two, three. Can’t you speak to your boss’s boss? Explain everything. Who’s in charge?’
‘At the top? That would be the one we call the Weaver because he’s hidden deep in the structure of everything that exists—woven in, like an invisible thread. He doesn’t need to be told. He already knows everything.’
‘One, two, three. What will you do?’
‘Pretty much what I told you yesterday. I’ll be asked to leave. I’ll get married. My boyfriend works in the operations department of maintenance. He’s impatient, which is kind of a funny personality defect to have in our line of business. People who work outside time aren’t usually impatient—doesn’t make sense for them to be, if you think about it. But I know how he feels.’
‘Is he nice?’
‘He’s absolutely gorgeous. And he’s been waiting for me for eons—literally.’
‘One, two, three. Do your mum and dad like him?’
‘They adore him. They wanted me to hand over my post as soon as I met him. But I like my job. I liked my job.’
‘One, two, three. I’m sorry.’
‘Don’t be. It had to happen one day. And what I’ve got ahead isn’t so bad. Unlike you, I like people. And like I told you, I want to have a big family. Lots of children. At least six. Maybe more.’
The car started to shiver slightly. She adjusted some of the controls to steady it.
‘Your dad’s done a good job with this car. I would have found it hard to believe that a car at this stage of Earth’s development could be souped up to do this job.’ ‘You still haven’t told me when and where we are going.’
She didn’t answer. Somehow I could guess. ‘Are we going to 1879? That’s when Albert Einstein was born, isn’t it? In a place called Munich? Have you ever taken anyone back in time before?’
Despite her brave smile, I could see that she was very nervous. Her cheek muscles were flat and she kept sort of gulping. ‘I’ve never taken a temporal being out of time before. None of us have. This is very, very much against the rules. But I decided this morning that if I was going to be hung for a lamb, I might as well be hung for a sheep. That’s a good Earth saying. If I’m going to prevent you going to Nowhen, Simon, I’m going to have to do a lot of things that aren’t allowed. The trouble is that the only person who can really help you, is you. You can’t give up. Do you understand me? All I can do is provide you with the information. And I am going to provide you with every bit of information I can. The rest is up to you. That’s why I told you about Twilight. And that’s why I am taking you to see Al.’
‘After all this is over, where will you live?’
A dreamy expression crossed Ms Blit’s face. ‘From when I was a kid I dreamed about having an underground farm on what you call Halley’s comet—then we could tour the universe. I’ve always thought of Halley’s comet as the loneliest body in the universe. It needs company. I’ve always been drawn to lonely things. I guess that’s why I’m here with you. It won’t be so bad. I’ll see my family a bit more. They live on Asceti III. It’s a glorious planet a million light years away from Earth. It’s a wonderful place. The sea is above the sky! Can you picture that?’
It was hard enough to picture Ms Blit as a farmer.
‘I’m an only child, so my parents are devoted to me. Can you believe, they call me every day? Every single day. As if I were a kid. It’s a bit embarrassing in a way, but there’s no such thing as being loved too much. So, don’t worry, I’ll be just fine. I’ll settle down and give my parents the grandchildren they’ve been waiting for within a year or two. It’ll be good to have time to do other things. I’ll hang out with friends. Do a bit of gardening. Spy on you. Watch you grow up.’
Ms Blit touched her neck and pulled out a silver chain. On the end of it was a little heart. ‘Have a look at this. There’s writing on it,’ she said.
I bent over and
saw the words Remember me etched in tiny letters in the centre of the heart.
‘That’s what it says in my mum’s Bible,’ I said.
‘When temporal beings say it they mean it at face value,’ said Ms Blit. ‘It’s a message from a person that they want you to keep them in the back of your mind. The phrase means a lot more to a Stitcher, though. It means, “Keep us out of Nowhen.” It’s like a prayer.’
‘Are all Stitchers women?’
‘You ask too many questions. And more to the point, I give you too many answers. Do your homework.’
She handed me the book she always carried and told me to read the section which was about Albert Einstein. It was very different from the things I had read about him on the internet encyclopedias.
Care and Maintenance of the Fabric of Time, first edition
7.1: Albert Einstein and relativity
Albert Einstein was born on the planet Earth in the Sol galaxy on March 14, 1879.
Although history books usually refer to him as Einstein, a member of the Maintenance Crew who visited him revealed that he was called Big Al by his friends. He was of average height and his hair stuck out in all directions, like a man touching a Van der Graaff generator—one of those metal balls of electricity. His companions at the patent office where he was employed called him Shaggy (or, more accurately, Haarig, because most of them spoke German).
Big Al had various office jobs, but his hobby was physics, the study of the universe. He had been raised with a traditional understanding of the mechanics of existence. The basic understanding of physics at the time Al was studying it was as follows:
The foundation on which everything exists is Time. Time is measured in chunks so that people can understand it better: on the first day God did this, on the second day he did that, and so on.
Building on this biblical view, a very intelligent human being called Sir Isaac Newton noticed that there were certain rules which were always followed in nature. These were called the laws of physics, although no one knew who enforced the laws. Curiously, no one even theorised about the presence of a Department of Time or any kind of Maintenance Staff.
Among the most famous laws that scientists discovered between the time of Newton and Einstein were these:
• Gravity pulls lighter things towards the centre of a heavier object.
• The speed of light is 299 792 kilometres per second.
• Nothing can move faster than light.
Most physics students accepted these facts, wrote them in their exercise books and never thought of them again until exam revision time.
Not Big Al. He felt there was something wrong with these basic, fundamental facts about physics. But he couldn’t work out exactly what it was. He thought about this all the time.
One night, Al dreamed that he was travelling at the speed of light.
He was zooming along at 299 792 kilometres a second. His shaggy hair was blowing away from his ears and his moustache was flattened against his face.
At that moment, he had a strange thought. He wished he had a mirror with him so that he could look at his face. Not so he could see himself with his hair all over the place and his moustache flat; but to check one of the most fundamental facts of physics.
If he had had a mirror to hold in front of him, the image of his face would be travelling at 299 792 kilometres a second from his face towards the mirror.
But if Al himself was already travelling at 299 792 kilometres a second, in some sort of super car, how could that be? Since one of the laws said that nothing can go faster than light—including light itself—his image would have to go faster than light to catch up with the mirror.
In other words, he would be holding the mirror in front of him, but it would not reflect his image. It was an intriguing idea. If his face wasn’t in the mirror, what would appear in it? Nothing? Someone else’s face? The face of God? If there was nothing there, what did nothing look like? Was it black? Was it white? Or would there be no colour? What colour is no colour? The whole mirror problem really bothered him. There was no satisfactory answer to these questions.
This dream triggered a series of ideas that led Albert Einstein to be the first human to unravel many of the deepest secrets of the universe.
25
The car shook. The colours in the sky started spinning. The X31 appeared to be revolving as it flew.
I had to stop reading. The bright, multicoloured lights began to fade and we emerged through some clouds into a night sky. Lights twinkled in the blackness below us, and stars shone between the clouds above.
We swooped down and parked the car on the first-floor terrace of an old stone house.
‘We’re in Zurich,’ said Ms Blit. ‘In the year 1905.’
26
A man with very shaggy hair was sitting in the window we were hovering next to. Ms Blit nudged me.
‘Hello Mr Einstein.’ I cleared my throat nervously.
‘Hello strange dream boy. You can call me Al, everyone else does.’
‘Well, Al, I’m hoping you can help me find an answer to a very difficult question.’
‘And I think we can help you answer a few questions of your own,’ broke in Ms Blit.
But Al was looking past Ms Blit to the Breaker. ‘Was ist diese Sache? ’
‘It is a piece of equipment that I think you’ll find useful. It’s a vehicle that travels at the speed of light.’
His eyes widened and he smiled. ‘My dreams are getting stranger and stranger,’ he said to no one in particular. ‘And I thought last night’s was the strangest ever.’ He climbed out of the window.
I clambered nimbly over into the back of the car, so that Al could sit next to the driver. I wasn’t exactly sure what Ms Blit had in mind, but maybe if I just observed Al for a while I’d discover something about displacement.
Ms Blit turned the ignition key and—whuuuuummmppp —we took off vertically.
‘Dieses ist erstaunlich,’ exclaimed Al. From his tone of voice, I think he was saying that the Breaker was seriously cool.
He turned to Ms Blit and spoke in English. ‘If you are my guardian angel, please remind me to eat Frau Gesundheit’s toasted cheese bread before bed every night. Last night’s dream was not nearly so vivid. Ja, it must have been the cheese.’
‘What did you dream about last night?’ Ms Blit asked. ‘I dreamed I was flying at the speed of light. That’s 299 792 kilometres a second. But I wanted to have a hand-mirror with me. I was frustrated that I did not have one.’ He suddenly looked distressed. ‘Ach! And now here I am in tonight’s dream, this time an amazingly vivid and real dream featuring a real flying car, and again I have no mirror. I should have brought one with me tonight. Maybe I can get a mirror just by willing one to come into the dream.’
He shut his eyes and held out his hand. Nothing happened.
I reached into my pocket.
‘I’ve got one you can use.’ I put Mum’s mirror into his hand.
‘Danke, danke,’ he said, staring into it. He tidied his moustache and did up a button on his pyjama top.
Ms Blit pointed to the screen in the dashboard. ‘That shows the speed. I’ve programmed it so that the whole dashboard display will glow blue when we reach 299 792 kilometres a second. Are you ready? Everyone hold on.’ I gripped the steadying handles and so did Al.
The car shook as Ms Blit stomped on the accelerator. I was so proud of my dad. He might be a hopeless father, but he’s a great mechanic. The Breaker was rising to the challenge amazingly well.
We soared over Zurich.
My hair whipped my face. Al’s hair flopped around and got into his eyes. I could feel my cheeks being flattened by the speed we were doing.
Ms Blit pressed a button and the automatic roof closed. The wind dropped. Then she stamped hard on the accelerator again.
The car shook.
Colours whirled. I felt myself being pressed into the seat. Out of the corner of my nearly shut eyes, I saw the dashboard start to glow b
lue. Everything around us turned white.
‘This is it,’ I heard Ms Blit shout.
Al slowly lifted Mum’s mirror up to his face. He had his eyes closed. When the mirror was directly in front of his face, he opened them. What he saw made him gasp. He saw his own face staring back at him—his mouth was open and his eyes were popping out of their sockets—but it was definitely his own face.
He shrieked.
Ms Blit slowed the car. The blue glow disappeared from the dashboard. The white light faded and we were back in the clouds.
Then the darkness of the night sky returned and the city lights twinkled once more.
We headed back to Al’s house in Zurich.
Al’s face was white. He pulled a piece of paper out of his dressing gown pocket and scribbled madly on it.
As soon as it was quiet enough to talk, I started to ask him my question, ‘Excuse me Al. I have a problem with time and— ‘Small boy, my face was there!’ Al interrupted. ‘In the mirror. Did you see that? Did you see that! Why was the mirror occupied? One of the laws of physics says that that nothing can go faster than light, so how did my image catch up with the mirror? Was that really me in there or not? These questions are important, because they change the way we understand the universe. And they give us great power.’
‘What sort of power?’ I asked hopefully He thought for a moment and then spoke slowly and carefully.
‘The speed of light—that means the speed at which images normally travel towards mirrors—is 299 792 kilometres a second, right? The speed of your flying car is also 299 792 kilometres a second. That means that when we were flying just now, you would think the speed of the image of my face travelling towards your mirror was 299 792 plus 299 792, which equals 599 584 kilometres a second. Understand so far?’
I was already nodding.
‘That seems simple enough,’ he continued. ‘But since nothing can travel faster than 299 792 kilometres a second, the equation is really 299 792 plus 299 792 equals 299 792.’
He stopped and looked at me. ‘Can you see the problem?’
I could. It didn’t add up right. You can’t add two numbers together and end up with one of the original numbers, unless one of the numbers is zero.
Twilight in the Land of Nowhen Page 8