Slap Part 5
(Chapter 52 of "Senses")
Day 83
Morgana was the only member of the group still in Northern California when she finally had a revelation about her dreams, and about the whole approach to solving the problem of the time snap. Larry had left her in charge of the book store while the others poured over formulae and experimented. Morgana agreed to it, thinking that if she had anything to offer she could do it by phone, and would keep up normal appearances while the others worked on the problem.
Morgana hadn't been in the best of moods when she was left in charge. Now that her relationship with Detective Dylan had ended, she was moody and often felt a bit overwhelmed by all they were trying to do. So she welcomed the change of pace and the busy work to allow her time to get her thoughts in order. She had been alone in San Francisco for almost a week and was feeling much better when it happened.
Morgana had an insight.
She had had them often over the past several weeks, and most of them were shifted into red colors only. The phenomenon was becoming a source of frustration, as she would only see brief views that made little or no sense to her at all. She had been able to ascertain that they had something to with nature, but any specifics that were there would always manage to elude her.
Until now.
She called Scott in Los Angeles using the communications network he had put together for the group and asked how she could speak with Debbie as soon as possible. Scott replied that it would be a few minutes. Currently Debbie had taken Janis and Nicki on a tour of the solar system, so he had to realign the satellite dish that he and Janis had designed for communications purposes.
Morgana had just enough time to make herself some tea when Janis' voice came through the phone. "Hello Morgana," the ship said.
"Hello, Janis," Morgana replied. "Am I speaking with Deborah?"
"You are." It was Janis' voice, but the connotations took on Debbie Davis' personality.
"Deb, are we alone?"
There was a brief pause. "Yes, we are now. I waited until Nicki went to sleep."
Morgana took a sip of her tea. "All right then," she said. "I think I know how to get everyone back into some form of mental health. It involves waterfalls."
"Please elaborate."
"I had an insight just a short time ago that had all four of you simply staring at a waterfall. It went on for some time, so I was able to see the falls in some detail. It was very large, but with a sort of terraced effect. It fell for a very long drop onto a ledge, where it almost picked up like a river for a bit, then another fall. You were on some kind of bridge."
Although the break in conversation was only six seconds for Morgana, it was clear that Debbie had thought about it for a very long time. "How tall was this waterfall?" she finally asked.
"Enormous," Morgana said. "Easily a thousand meters. I've never heard of such a thing except in some fairly remote places. And the falls were thin somehow. It wasn't Niagara Falls."
"You haven't traveled much, have you. I know of a waterfall that fits your description almost exactly. Yosemite Falls."
"Here in California? That's close by."
"It is. Okay, so we go to Yosemite. Then what?"
"I'm sorry Deborah, that's all I know. I just know that it will work."
"All right. So we get everybody and take them to Yosemite. That's harder than it sounds. I can take Nicki easily enough, but 'drink isn't supposed to meet with us for another two of your days in Boston, and we'd still have to get Mats. Your vision said all four of us were there. Are you certain of this? What would happen if only the three of us go?"
"I am certain that this involves all four of you. Don't go without Mats, because that will be a waste of time."
"I have a lot more of it than you do."
Morgana sighed. "And a lot less. Make Janis go get him. Come up with something, anything. But all four of you need to be there for your mental problems to have some sort of resolution."
Morgana didn't need to hear the returned sigh. "Nicki just woke up, so I'm going to go now. Well, you've not been wrong before so I'll go with it. I hate thinking that we're going to still be in this snap while we work this out. Whatever the boys in Los Angeles are working on probably won't work, will it?"
"No, it probably wont. Sorry."
"She had already signed off," Janis said in response to Morgana's last spoken words. "Shall I store the comment for her?"
"No, that won't be necessary." She sipped her tea, then asked, "I'm curious about something. How does she remember our conversations when we talk?"
"Debbie has a printed log of the conversation, so that she can sleep, eat, or do whatever she wishes during your side of the conversation. For your own knowledge, this conversation took four real time minutes, or four of her hours."
Morgana sipped her tea, and nearly choked when she realized something. "Janis," she finally said. "Is that time conversion exact?"
"Within my ability to determine, yes."
"And I assume that your tolerances to detect a variance of degree are very high?"
"Correct. I can see a variance of time as small as 10-13 of a second."
Morgana sat back for a moment, thinking this through. "Get me Larry," she finally said.
"Fuck!"
Jim was literally bouncing off the walls at the lab, using the trampolining installed in various patches to work out and vent his frustration over the various problems they had encountered.
Only Jim, Larry and Scott were still in the lab. Constance and Rand had gone to dinner with Angie and Karen while A.J. and Carrie had gone home, exhausted from two non-stop days of experimenting. Paul had gone upstairs to his own room above the lab, barely able to keep his eyes open.
The group was in poor shape in terms of morale. Nothing they had tried was working. They had made some advances in not only determining how Rand's ability worked, and had figured out how to double the mass of objects lifted by telekinesis for not only Jim and A.J., but 'drink as well. Unfortunately, all of this had nothing to do with solving the time problem.
Jim was jumping from wall to wall, vowing to do it one-hundred times. He was up in the mid-fifties when he started shouting "fuck" every time he hit a wall. When he was done, Larry said, "That's one hundred bounces and 47 fucks I counted there, brother."
Jim nodded and let himself down to the floor. "I like a lot of fucking," he replied without humor.
"Everybody knows that," Larry said, smiling, trying to help his brother relax. "I know you're really not sleeping with Angie, but appearances must be maintained, correct?"
"Damn straight. A worthy change of topic big bro'. Scott! Toss me my bottle, would you?"
Scott David, busily monitoring the conversation between Morgana and Debbie, reached down below the monitor without taking his eyes away from it. He picked up the half-empty bottle of Bushmill's that Jim had left there earlier, felt to make sure that the cap was on tight, then tossed it over his right shoulder without even a backwards glance. Jim had to dive to catch it.
Jim slid on his back until he was next to Scott, holding the bottle closely to his chest. "Thanks one fucking hell of a lot," he said.
"You're very fucking welcome," Scott replied, his attention never leaving the screen.
Jim laughed, then used a gravity formula to stand himself up. Once standing, he opened the bottle and drank over half of the remaining contents.
Larry shook his head. "Want to talk about it?" he asked.
Jim nodded and walked back to his older brother. "Frustrating as all hell, isn't it?" he asked. "We're making a lot of progress here, but not in the right direction."
"It's been rough on us all, you know."
"I know. But at least I wear myself on the surface. So do you and A.J., and Karen does to some degree. Everyone else here looks like a fucking ulcer convention." He took another drink. "Except for Rand and Constance." he added.
"Karen's counseling people as best as she can. Even Rand and Constance. That's why she went to dinner with them tonight."
Jim nodded. "She told me. You know them better than I do, what the fuck's going on?"
"They support each other. Remember that problem we had with the Black Wiccans a while back? Rand and Constance took on a binding spell voluntarily when it was over. Those two will never be separated again."
Jim let out a whistle. "Now that's commitment."
"Neither one of them will even outlive the other. The spell is that solid."
Jim looked at his inscrutable brother for a moment. "That must hurt," he said.
Larry looked sheepishly at the ground for a moment. "A bit. Keep it to yourself, all right? No one else here knows about Constance and me. I'm surprised you remember it, it was so long ago. You were what, twelve?"
"Hey," Jim said, "I had had my first whisky by then, so don't even start on the age crap. You know, you need to be selfish once and a while. Go and get yourself a woman. I still don't understand why you turned Angie down."
Larry smiled. "My tastes don't run into short and compact women like yours do. I like them tall and lithe."
Jim laughed a belly laugh. "Like Constance!" He finished the bottle, then looked at his brother quizzically. "Like Morgana?" he asked quietly.
"Don't go spreading rumors around," Larry replied.
Jim turned serious. "Understood." He tossed the empty bottle towards a trash can in a far corner of the gym. He missed and the bottle shattered against the far wall. "Shit!"
"Not fuck?" Larry asked.
"No, that was my own fault. That merits a shit. We got off topic, didn't we?"
"That we did."
"What I'm really worried about is Paul."
"You're not alone there."
"I mean, this has got to be weird for him. No matter what happens, his younger sister is now his older sister. And there's not a goddamned thing he can do about it. Paul's used to fixing problems either by his reputation, his negotiating skills, or even his brute strength."
"But not this time," Larry said.
"But not this time," Jim repeated. "The progress has simply been too fucking slow. His sister and her family is so important to him. They're the only family he's got."
"I didn't know that."
Jim sighed. "Yeah, most people don't. Paul's parents and grandparents on both sides were killed in a private plane crash while Blue Shift was on our first European tour. The plane went down in the Atlantic Ocean, on their way to see us. Paul wasn't even eighteen at the time. Debbie was in some prep school at the time and Paul went and got her. They hadn't seen much of each other lately, before all of this, but they were close."
Larry whistled this time. "Does Karen know this?"
"She does. But Paul hasn't been willing to talk to her about any of it. I'm worried about it, but I don't think there's a damn thing I can do about it."
Larry put his hand on Jim's shoulder. "We'll figure this out somehow."
Jim nodded, and was about to reply when Scott shouted, "Larry!"
"Yes?"
"Morgana on the link! She says it's important!"
Angie, Karen, Rand and Constance were at Jim's favorite bar on Montana avenue, eating dinner. The bartender, who had never served a vegetarian dish at the bar the entire time it had been open, made an exception for Rand and managed to create a salad out of sandwich parts. Angie and Karen both had hamburgers, and Constance ordered a turkey club sandwich.
"Pervert," Rand had said to Constance when she had ordered.
"And you love it," she had replied.
During dinner a photographer took a picture of Angie and Karen together. There had been a lightbulb flash because of the dark room, and many of the patrons complained about the sudden light. The photographer got bounced from the bar.
"How do you guys put up with it?" Rand asked.
Karen laughed. "It's not so bad," she said. "I've had a lot of time to get used to it."
"So have I," Angie added. "And actually it's kind of fun. We've had a great deal more than our Warhol-allotted fifteen minutes thanks to Jim."
"Besides," Karen continued, "the attention can be a bit flattering. Even we get asked for autographs sometimes now."
"How does Jim feel about it?" Constance asked.
"Jim ignores it entirely. His defenses are simply good enough that he treats reporters like flies. He also doesn't care what anyone thinks of him, so he acts naturally. It's not his fault that a lot of people can't handle his morals."
"Or yours," Rand said through a bite of food.
Angie and Karen shared a secret smile about that. They and Jim had agreed to keep up the appearance of the manage-a-trois that the public believed was going on even for their friends. The reason for it was a serious one for all three. AIDS.
Jim had been one of the last people in the entertainment business to be convinced that AIDS was a problem that merited attention outside of certain communities. He had even once said to Karen early on in their relationship that AIDS was just a scare, and he paid no attention to it. Karen had refrained from comment, being too tied up in the moment, and neither of them had brought it up again.
That was before Freddie Mercury of the band Queen had died. Freddie and Jim had never even met, but Jim was shaken up. He had designed his own stage shows keeping Queen's flamboyant style in mind, so he considered the band to have been a great influence.
After the tabloids began stories about Jim and Karen and Angie, all three of them began answering the questions about the supposed liaisons they were having by saying, "at least we're practicing safe sex - when the rest of you do the same, then we'll talk about morals". It was even the truth. Angie practiced safe sex with whomever she was with, while Jim and Karen were monogamous and steadfastly avoiding trying to have children.
"What about you two?" Angie asked Rand, while pointing at Rand and Constance together.
"What about us two?" Rand asked back.
"You two seem to absolutely radiate happiness when you're together. How do you manage that?"
"Deftly done," Constance said. "A change in subject." She laughed.
"We're attached together by a bonding spell," Rand said. "We will always be together, no matter what happens, and we will always be right for each other."
"We were already in love when the spell took place, so the spell reinforced it."
"So you're inseparable," Karen said.
"That's right. Not always though," Rand said.
"Oh?"
"We were engaged to be married when an accident happened that both of us believed I was at fault for. Neither one of us was able to forgive me for it, so I fled."
"It was a rough time for both of us," Constance continued. "Rand was looking for answers and submerged himself in religion while I tried to continue teaching."
"You're a teacher?" Angie asked.
"Was," Constance replied. "One of my students, of all people, helped me out of my depression and suggested I look for something else. Turns out the kid was right. I had met Rand at Berkeley, and everything I saw in any school reminded me that I had lost him. The kid was even nice enough to lend me some money for a while."
Karen stared at the couple. "That's amazing. The kid had money?"
"Yeah, he did. His parents were rich and he didn't even spend all of the money they gave him, so he just gave it to me. He also kind of felt obligated, because we had slept together."
Karen nearly choked on her drink after that last comment of Constance's.
"The kid felt kind of guilty about it," Rand said, picking up the conversation. "Besides, it's not ethical to sleep with your students."
"So I left the school and until Rand and I got back together, Stephen felt very bad about it all."
"Stephen?" Rand asked.
"That's his name," Constance said. "I thought I told you that."
"I never even met him."
"I wish you could have, but he was too uncomfortable with the idea. You did get him over his guilt trip however. He felt that, how did he put it, 'a burden has been lifted from my conscience' now that Rand was back in the picture."
Karen laughed. "Kids," she said.
There was a commotion at the door, and crowd noise filtered its way back to the table the four were sitting at. They all turned to see two back-lit silhouettes standing in the doorway of the bar, the bartender close by with a bottle in each hand. Most people in the bar were standing agape, not believing their eyes. There were two of him?
For the first time ever, Jim had brought his older brother to the bar. Even the bartender was caught off guard for once. He had brought two bottles of Bushmill's to the door.
"This is my older brother Larry." Jim called out to the bar. "It's his first visit, so let's welcome him, shall we? He doesn't talk like me, he doesn't act like me, and he doesn't even fucking drink like me, so don't get him started. He also doesn't play darts so don't even think about it." He looked at the bartender. "Mike, get Larry here a Coke Classic."
The bartender smiled, then laughed aloud. "You cheated, but someone finally managed to trick me on a drink," he said. "One round on the house!" The bar erupted in mayhem as everyone there ran for the bar. Somehow, before the bartender returned to the bar for his customers, a Coke Classic wound up in Larry's hand and the one of the two bottles of Bushmill's was in Jim's.
Jim and Larry slowly worked their way over to the table where the others were sitting, as Jim made a few introductions. When they finally arrived at the table, Karen kissed Jim passionately while Angie said, "That was quite an entrance."
"That it was," Larry agreed. "I had to say at least twenty times while getting up here 'no, I'm not a musician'. I still got three people who challenged me to a darts game."
"You don't play?"
"I don't even know the rules."
They pulled up two extra chairs for Jim and Larry and Karen said, "What's up? I didn't expect to see either of you here. I thought you were going over the results."
Jim smiled. "We think we've had a breakthrough, thanks to the lady Morgana."
"What, what?" Rand asked.
"Numerology waves," Larry said.
"Excuse me?"
"It a theory about numbers that we've shared with no one," Angie said, "because it seems too fantastic on the surface to be taken seriously."
"But you know better?" Constance asked.
"I've used numerology waves in some of the experiments. They were essential in getting Jim and A.J. to fly. They haven't helped with the time problem though. We looked at them once and abandoned them."
"What's changed?" Rand asked.
"It occurred to Morgana that it was odd somehow that the Davis' and Mats were sped up exactly sixty fold," Larry began. "It was as if someone had said 'one second now equals one minute'."
"So? We had already assumed that this was what happened."
"But why?" Jim continued. "Why that specific time reference? They've kept the time snap on a reference we could all understand, as opposed to something generic, when they didn't have to stick with Earth's own standards of time. We did the calculations at the lab, and 60 is no magic number as far as our not being able to see them and their still being able to breathe. The threshold is about 40 on the low side and close to 75 on the high side. It doesn't even make sense as far as we tell time: seconds and minutes are artificial measures of time. They were created because the period of our orbit around the sun isn't an exact thing.
"So I ask again, why sixty?"
There was silence at the table, which Constance broke by saying, "Because we're supposed to get them out somehow? Because there's a common reference that we all understand there should be an easy answer to all of this?"
Jim nodded. "Take it a step further," he said.
Rand brightened up. "This is a test?" he asked.
"No," Larry replied, "although that occurred to us as well. It would be too elaborate a thing. The Foundationers would need to know about all of us, including the 'normals' in the group, to be able to even begin setting this up. I don't believe that's the case. What Jim wants you to see is that numbers are the key to this whole thing."
"No you've lost me," Angie said. "What does time have to do with numerology waves?"
"And what are numerology waves?" Rand asked.
"Second question first," Larry said. "We've been expressing everything in the form of formulae, including formulae for physical objects and people and everything else. A.J.'s eyesight bears out that this is true. When Jim or A.J. send out a formulae, the numbers for the formula are already planted in. These thought-sendings are in the form of waves. We've never said that aloud, but it is the way it works.
"Now what about when Karen or Angie here are thinking numbers and send them to Jim or A.J.? We assumed at first that they were sending formulae, but the record shows that they weren't. Jim and A.J. were supplying the units of measurement, while these two were simply sending numbers. The question I asked myself some time ago was how?"
Jim, who had been drinking from his bottle, picked up the narration. "The answer that Larry came up with was that numbers must also be waves. We just don't notice them because everything has them."
"You lost me," Rand said.
Jim held up the bottle. "Why is this just one bottle?" He asked.
"Because there's only one there."
"Wrong. We perceive only one bottle there. The word 'one' is just a label for the actual count of the bottle. But what about a fly? A fly would see many bottles, due to it's compound eyes, but it would still land on the 'one' bottle. Does it see many bottles, or does it see only one?"
"It must see only one," Larry continued. "No matter what the eyesight is saying to the brain, such as it is, the fly knows there is only one bottle."
"Wouldn't it become clear as the fly got closer to the bottle that there was only one?" Constance asked.
"You're making a human assumption, that it thinks like we do. If it were us looking through the image, then you'd be right - as you got closer to the bottle the image would become clearer. But it's a fly. It cannot think like we do so don't assume that it does."
"So you assumed that it also thinks there is one bottle," Rand said, "to fit the theory."
"We did," Larry acknowledged, "but then the other pieces fell right into place. I gave the theory to Angie, and Angie started using numbers when she sent the things she could send."
"I wasn't aware of it at the time," Jim said, "although Angie did try to tell me. I just took what she sent and went with it." He lowered his voice to a whisper. "And I can fly now. Just like fucking Peter Pan."
They all paused to let that sink in. "Numbers," Larry said, "are waves."
They all sat in silence for a moment, then Karen asked, "How does this help? What's the breakthrough?"
"That numerology waves hold the answer," Jim said. "Somehow. Now that we know that, we just need to figure out how."
"That's a pretty tall order, lover."
"We need to get back to the lab," Angie said. "Now, while this is fresh in our heads."
"Agreed," Larry said. "Scott and Paul are already cleaning up the lab and recalibrating all of the gear from the work this morning."
Rand looked at the others and nodded. "Let's go to work."
They all stood and headed for the door. The bartender intercepted the group half-way to the door. "You want to pay for that food?" he asked.
Jim roared with laughter. "I'll cover it Mike," he said.
"Good. You haven't been in here in a while."
"Sorry about that. Work's been a lot rougher lately."
"Must be some album you're working on."
Jim smiled his trademark ironic smile. "Must be." He turned around just in time to overhear Rand's hushed comment to Larry. "If we're supposed to get them out, what happens when we do?"
It took 131 days of relative time, but Debbie met with 'drink in Boston, near the house he was born in. He had spent the entire trip looking for ways of duplicating some of his skills, so that he could pass the knowledge on. He learned much, but he had long forgotten whom he was planning to teach his skills to. Meeting with Debbie and his daughter overwhelmed him.
As things came back to him, he realized how much he had missed his family, and how much wrong he had done to them by staying away for so long. He found an empty room in the ship and hid away, ashamed.
Debbie in the meantime had been trying to reason with Janis and enlist her help in retrieving Mats, with no success. So it came as a surprise when only three relative days after picking up 'drink Janis suddenly said, "We're going to get Mats."
It turned out that Mats had finally called in. After he had recovered his health as best as he could from the near starvation he had suffered during the boat cruise, he had wandered around Florida looking for advanced computers to destroy. What he didn't anticipate was that there would be so many.
After three relative weeks of this, he decided that there must be a centralized computer and sought it out with his mind. When he found it, he started his hike, and reached it five relative days later. And what he saw shocked him.
He saw a spaceship, one of the shuttles, blasting towards space. He saw the clouds moving, and the shuttle actually lifting off. It moved slowly to his eyes, but it still moved! Years of denial came back to him in an instant, and he fell to the ground, crying. He lay motionless for a period of time he could not count, then softly said, "Janis, help me."
For Janis, who could hear him at all times, this was all the signal she needed. "I'm on my way," the ship sent back. Within three days relative time, the ship landed at Cape Canaveral and picked up Mats. Then, as per Debbie's request, headed for Yosemite National Park.
When they arrived, they all spent a few relative days putting up camouflage around Janis, so that they would have a permanent base. Then, at Debbie's urging, they all headed for Yosemite Falls. Then the show was Debbie's.
"It's been a long time," she began, looking at the falls. "We've been stuck here almost fifteen years now, and what have we to show for it? Not much.
"None of us has done very well. We've withdrawn into ourselves in some way or another. I studied. You," she pointed at her husband, "have been trying to decide if you're a god or not, while you," Mats this time, "had some problems that we'll probably never know about. And you," Nicki this time, "dear daughter, eat too much.
"You've not had a very good childhood, and while we're not the cause, we're certainly at fault for not being there for you when you've had problems. Nicki, most of us have problems at your age. That's normal.
"Now I want you to all look at this waterfall. It's moving, just like we do, but slower. Find it and look at it. Then decide what you're going to do with the time we have. And what you're going to do to make peace with yourself and the real world when we return to it. I've had the time to think about it already, so I'll go first."
Debbie turned to face the waterfall. "I resolve to show my daughter what the real world is like, not just our world. To communicate with her again. And I resolve to love my husband like I first did - without reservation and with complete trust." She turned to face the others. "Your turn."
'drink, who had sat in his room for more days than he could count, went next. "Hey waterfall," he said, "if you're listening. I've been thinking about this. I want to spend some time teaching my daughter about what she is, and what she can do. I want to open up possibilities for her. I love her deeply as I love my wife as well."
Nicki looked at her parents. "I'm confused," she said. "What's going on?"
"We're trying to get our lives back," 'drink said.
"I didn't lose mine."
"I know. But I need to show you what else is out there."
Mats stood before the waterfall and interrupted, saying, "Do I need to do this right now?"
"No," Debbie said. "You have all the time in the world."
Mats laughed. "I'll get back to you, Waterfall."
"Me too," Nicki added.
The next three years of relative time were spent in Yosemite. 'drink and Debbie devoted all of their efforts in bringing Nicki up to speed with how life was supposed to be, and her abilities. Debbie took her through nature, and gave her a look at other families, answering questions as patiently as she could. She even reached into her educational background and taught some history to her daughter, and had Janis teach her about math and science. Nicki had always enjoyed reading, so that was no problem.
'drink meanwhile taught his daughter about his abilities, and they discovered together that Nicki could do thought projection even better than 'drink could - even to the point that she could speak with Janis like Mats did and not in simple binary like 'drink, but she could not pull objects from thin air. They could do telekinesis about equally, but not well. They began practicing together, and over time they got better.
And closer to one another.
Mats, during this time, went out on long nature hikes. He climbed Half Dome and El Capitan, both adventures of a lifetime, and loved simply laying out under the stars contemplating them, something he was able to do for very long periods of time thanks to the time snap. Slowly, he began thinking about his 'mission' and the consequences of his acts of violence. He asked Janis to investigate, and discovered that his actions had cost Earth over four years in Artificial Intelligence research. Upon realizing what he had done, he took his axe and threw it into the Yosemite river.
After nearly a full year, he approached Yosemite Falls and spoke aloud. "Hey waterfall," he said. "I'm here, finally. I don't know where this is going to lead, but I've decided what I'm going to do. I'm going to think before I act. And someday, I'm going to repay the damage I've done. Probably by some act of compensation, some contribution, somehow, but I'm damn well going to do it.
"Most of all, I'm not going to forget what I am, and who I am, ever again."
And with those simple words, Mats became part of the family again. He even began to help with Nicki's education about the real world.
On the eighteenth relative anniversary of the time snap, They said goodbye to Yosemite, happy again. Mats was whole, 'drink was back with his family, Debbie was glad to have their lives back. Even Nicki was happy. While she hadn't lost much weight, she hadn't gained any at all during the stay.
And just before leaving, Nicki stood before Yosemite Falls alone and said, "I resolve to like myself. End of story. And happy birthday to me."