by Hugh Macnab
Reason the third?’
‘Yes,’ came the odoriferous response.
‘Well,’ said Shylock. ‘I was wondering if you could possibly render some assistance. You see, it all started when I….
…when he entered Bb’s shop,’ Permission interjected, with a particularly diaphanous fragrance.
‘Ah, Get Lucky!’ smelt Reason III.
‘Hmm,’ agreed Shylock, still surprised at how many people seemed to know Bb and even in this case - his new shop. ‘Just so.’
‘And you want me to show Bb the error of his ways, or at the very least remonstrate with him on your behalf, coax him or otherwise prevail upon him to extract a lesser sum of profit than here-to-fore. Is that correct?’ guessed Reason III, quite reasonably.
‘Not exactly,’ Shylock wafted back in the perceived direction of his host. ‘The problem has nothing to do with Bb actually - it’s Dilemma. He’s cogitating at length on a problem of mine, and I need him to know I can manage without the answer to the question I asked him, and I didn’t mean to confuse him. I’d much rather he came out of his considerations sooner rather than later.’
‘Sooner? What’s that?’ smelt Reason III.
‘Ah,’ Shylock replied fragrantly, ‘That’s what we talked with Time about, but that’s another tale. I really need you to help reason with Dilemma. I would really like an answer to my question, but if he can’t provide it…well, I’d rather he gave up.’
‘Hmm, not easy,’ smelt Reason. ‘Dilemma’s a tough nut to crack, an intricate predicament. Waft the wrong aroma past him and you could send him into a catch twenty-two situation, or worse – up a blind alley.’
‘But I can’t just ignore Dilemma’s dilemma, and Time implied that you would be able to help?’
‘Well, I’m sorry to disappoint, but great as I may be at persuading, convincing, urging and otherwise bringing people around, I cannot prevail over Dilemma.’
‘But that’s unreasonable!’ Shylock retorted stench-fully.
‘Non, Au-contraire! Unreasonable is illogical, thoughtless, posterous and insensate. Altogether a different person.’
‘No, you don’t understand,’ cut in Shylock.
‘No, you don’t understand,’ replied the scent of Reason III, suddenly strong and pungent. If you cannot restart time, there is no means for me to accelerate Dilemma’s cogitations. And if there were, you wouldn’t notice anyway – when he really gets into a good dilemma, he likes to enjoy it for as long as possible. So reasoning with him is not the answer.’
‘But Time has retired!’ Shylock almost shouted with frustration.
‘In which case, why don’t you talk with ….’
‘Errr, no thank you,’ inter-whiffed Shylock. ‘I think we’ve talked with enough people, thank you all the same.’
‘Oh, very well,’ replied Reason III, in a sour odour. ‘Be like that.’
Infinite Shylocks
Sitting under the two spinning orbs in the sky over the beach at Get Lucky, Shylock was deep in thought when Permission interrupted him. ‘I just don’t understand why you had to be so rude to Reason III?’
Shylock looked up from the sand he had been allowing to sift through his fingers. ‘ Permission,’ he said sadly. ‘I didn’t mean to be rude. Wilderment is such a confusing place, and the more people I talk to, it seems the more confused I become. I have no idea how to get out of here, and even if I do, how can I possible return with Earth’s back-taxes?’
Permission - understanding perhaps for the time, just how unhappy her new companion was – moved closer to him and put her arm around his shoulder, pulling his head onto her chest. ‘Oh, Shylock, dear Shylock. Don’t worry. We’ll find Bb, and you’ll manage to do everything you’ve been asked to do, somehow. I just know you will.’
Entranced by her closeness, and the heady true fragrance of her warm femininity, Shylock relaxed and accepted her words of reassurance – allowing them to comfort him. He nestled his head against her chest for some time, before eventually pulling back to refocus their thoughts on the problem at hand. ‘So,’ he started. ‘Let’s see. Can you remember precisely what Dilemma told us about the other side of the moon?’
Permission thought for a moment, then replied choosing her words carefully. ‘Time….or the multiple possibilities…..in the absence of it,’ was what he said.
‘And Time?’ asked Shylock. ‘Can you also remember what he said?’
‘I think so,’ replied Permission. ‘Let’s see, he asked… if time has stopped - how many of you are there?’
‘Hmm,’ Shylock pondered. ‘If time has stopped….hmmm…in my world, time differentiates one event from another. We describe everything by when it exists – I went there yesterday, she’ll be there an hour from now…and so on. If we’re not able to do that in Wilderment, what do we do instead?’
Permission simply stared at him, totally confused. He continued. ‘You see, on Earth I would be able to say that we had just been to see Reason III, and before that we dropped in on Time…but here, that isn’t true. In Wilderment, we did both of these in the same instant - or more specifically, in no instant at all. And,’ he said, getting quite excited as a new idea formed in his mind. ‘ We must be still there! Don’t you see? Without time, were everywhere and nowhere – all at once.’
‘You mean there are more than one of each of us?’ asked Permission, beginning to follow Shylock’s idea.
‘Precisely!’ he agreed. ‘In fact, there are an infinite number of us.’
‘Just as Time told us,’ said Permission. Then continuing, suddenly puzzled. ‘But why don’t we keep bumping into our other selves?’
Shylock frowned, his shoulders suddenly drooping - sure he had been onto something, and now once again stumped.
‘Perhaps,’ muttered Permission, tentatively. ‘There are only as many of us as we think there are?’
Shylock looked at her, leaned forward and planted a resounding kiss on her lips with a resounding smack. ‘Brilliant! I really should have thought of that. That’s exactly what this place is all about. It’s whatever you think it is, and these multiple possibilities can only exist if there’s no time. That’s what Dilemma meant.’
‘So, how does that help up find Bb,’ asked Permission.
‘Oh, that’s easy - now,’ replied Shylock. ‘Come on. Follow me!’
The moon
The moon under their feet was silvery-grey and roughly pitted, and as Shylock scuffed his shoes a cloud of dust flew up high around them. Above, the deep dark void of space stretched forever in all directions, the darkness only broken by the twinkling of the stars reminding Shylock of Chaos’s eyes. The silence around them was absolute. It was Permission who spoke .
‘So, I’ve been here several times before and never managed to get to the other side, and whenever I’ve asked Bb he has always refused to tell how to get there. Now you know, don’t you? ’
Taking her hand, Shylock explained how he intended to use what he’d learned from Time and Dilemma. ‘It’s simple really. If I understand what we’ve learned, we can’t get to the other side, but we can duplicate ourselves an infinite number of times and set each copy at a different point around the circumference. That way some of the duplicates must be at the other side of the moon!’
‘Very clever,’ said Permission, congratulating him. ‘When should we start?’
‘Don’t think about it, just do it,’ replied Shylock already creating multiple copies of himself and commanding them to start forming a line around the planet.’
Watching him, Permission was beginning to see a couple of problems with Shylock’s solution. ‘Just before I start, can I interrupt for a moment,’ she asked tentatively.
Shylock stopped his duplication process and several hundreds of him turned towards her. ‘Of course,’ they said in unison.
‘Well, firstly I’m concerned I lose sight of the original you,’ she said.
‘Oh, that’s easy - I’ll wink,’ they said winking at her in unison.’
‘Hmm,’ puzzled the collective-Shylocks like a swarm of bees heading for pollen. Perhaps I could raise my hand,’ they suggested, raising their hands. ‘Nope!’ they said, temporarily stumped. ‘What’s your second question?’
‘Not so much a question. More an observation,’ Permission replied.
‘Very well,’ the Shylocks replied. ‘What’s your observation?’
‘If this is how Bb gets to the other side, should we not be able to see multiple Bb’s?’ she suggested to several hundred puzzled faces.
‘So, there is another way?’ asked the many Shylocks.
‘I think so,’ said Permission. ‘And frankly, the thought of trying to figure out which of you I lo…I mean…like, is daunting.’
A poorly veiled ripple of jealousy flushed through the Shylock congregation, each momentarily jealous of the other. ‘Surely, we are all the person you…like?’ they suggested. ‘So does it matter which one you are with afterwards?’
‘I suppose not,’ replied Permission, clearly uncomfortable with her own conclusion. ‘I can’t explain it, but it just doesn’t feel right and I want the original Shylock back. The one who gave me my own image, who – when we travel - looks into my heart and mind, and still loves me.’
‘You know about that…’ blurted a single Shylock, standing out suddenly more clearly than the others.
‘Don’t you think you would notice someone visiting your inner thoughts and feelings. Someone entering so