The Beginning (continued)
I don't remember it all, but I remember enough.
Let’s see, where did we leave off?
Oh yeah, that’s right. I’m in the craft for the first time. Still hovering above the Grizzly Cafe. I look out the window and see the trickle of East Rosebud Creek, where I had caught countless wild trout. I see the top of the cafe, where I have consumed countless cups of their (generous) bottomless coffee. I see Jerome’s truck in his driveway, looks like he is throwing chopped wood in the bed. Prepping for winter.
In this brief moment. I’ve surrendered to the idea that I’m entering a new phase of life. I’m leaving the familiar behind. All the faces I’ve seen everyday year after year. The same food I’ve eaten everyday at the cafe, sitting there reading the paper and chatting up Mary Applegate about what it would be like to ‘finally leave this place’. Well, here I was. Leaving. But it wasn’t of my own will. Or was it?
”How long before we get, er, to wherever we are going?” I ask.
”Time doesn’t exist”, Glarzak swiftly replies in a monotone growl.
”Hmmmph. From where I come from it does”, I said, as I light up what I fear is one of my last Lucky Strikes.
”Put that thing out! Whatever that thing is!” he barks.
“It’s the only familiar thing I have at this moment. Could you let it slide?” I ask.
“Fine. It has a deathly smell to it, like a burning Ordon field, but I’ll allow it this once. SilverLining, turn on the ventilation system, full blast! Oh! And did you remember to shut off the Glurpulator? I shouldn’t have to ask over and over! Gotta get that firmware fixed as soon as we get back”, he mumbled.
"Ordon? Glurpulator? What is he on about?” I pondered.
“We’re headed to Glarphonia. It’s in Galaxy Proctor 5. It’s a long journey”, says Glarzak. “Silver, show him to his room.”
The android proceeds to walk me across the craft. There’s a big steel, curved door. The door looks as if a stick of dynamite couldn’t blow the thing open. Sturdy as hell. There’s a lit-up pad with numbers to the right of the door. He pushes some button. Beep beep boop beep. Whoosh! The door opens up to the ceiling at incredible speed. What I see is quite extraordinary: through the doorway is a room looks almost like a carbon copy of my room back in my little cabin alongside the East Rosebud River. My home. It’s got my full size bed, same wool blanket, an old acoustic guitar in the corner, a turntable and stacks of records… I start rifling through them. Hank Williams. Ray Price. The Everly Brothers. Johnny Cash. I kept looking around the room. A bookshelf full of classics. Books by ancient philosophers and astrophysicists, like Aristotle’s “Physics” and “The Early Type Stars” by Anne Barbara Underhill.
”A bit rudimentary, really”, Glork was in the doorway behind me, to my surprise. “You’re about to learn how things really work out here. Don’t have to read about it. You’ll be in it. The thick of it.”
”Wow, my dad would be over the moon to be in my place now”, I thought. While I hardly knew my dad, I knew his writings. Some published work, but mostly the stacks of drivel I found in the attic. He never cleaned any of it up before he ran off. That all is a story for another time, I reckon.
Anyway, I started to feel some anxiety leave my mind and body. The room they prepared for me was comfortable. I had records to listen to, books to read, hell, even a guitar to keep writing my simple little country songs on. This wasn’t so bad, whatever this was.
”Fire it up!” I hear from the main cabin area. Glarzak was instructing SilverLining to power up the ship.
”I guess this is it”, I thought to myself. I took a deep breath.
Before I knew it, we were souring through the atmosphere. I looked out the closest window, and Earth was rapidly shrinking in size, looking like a little blueberry floating in space. We were moving fast, but somehow, I could just stand there, not losing any balance, not even feeling like I needed to brace myself.
”Get comfortable” said Glarzak". “It’s about 10 days until we reach Galaxy Proctor Five,”
”Aha!” I replied. “You said ‘time doesn’t exist’”.
”I’ll play to your level of understanding, for now, to benefit your limited consciousness. Once you better understand why humans created the construct of time, once you know how it all really works, I’ll speak to you more like the evolved being you will become.”
"He’s not all bad”, I thought. “He may seem like a curmudgeon, but he cares, deep down”.
”Get some rest! Tomorrow, I’ll show you the Holosphere. It’s our practice space. We’ve got work to do.” stated Glarzak.
I had no what idea what he was talking about. But, I was feeling excited to find out.
To be continued…