Anna Maria
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Summary
Prologue - Letters
from Anna Maria and the Duke of
Genesis – God
lives in Chiswick
The Marginals –
Psi-Star – Victorian
Ignorance is Bliss
Déjà Vu - Oxford’s Reality Multiplication
Dead
Girl’s Song – York’s Resident
Ghost
Save Devon from this Filth – Righteous Citizens of Sidmouth
Kill That Prime Minister – London’s Library from the Future
Ham III Time Paradox - The Uncertainty of
King George Varney
The Box on the Seven Dials –
Scale Universes - The
Anna Maria in 300 Words
In God lives in Chiswick,
Anna Maria and the Duke of Connaught meet Ms Barnsworth, a mentally ill patient
who claims she’s from another universe in which she is sent to a space station
around Saturn. She is also apparently capable of creating human beings out of
the vacuum of space.
In The Marginals, our heroes
meet two scientists who are studying statistical probabilities, predictions of
the future and people’s behaviours. When they meet they realise that they are a
perfect match but don't dare admit to it in order to avoid being the victim of
this predestination.
In Psi-Star we find out
about how Anna Maria at 18 learned to cope with being the most psychic woman
alive whilst developing quantum computers in
In Déjà Vu they get to fear
a Professor from
In Dead Girl’s Song, we meet
a special ghost from
In Righteous Citizens of Sidmouth,
our characters have to fight against a small group of people who denounce
online inhabitants who do not conform to their beliefs.
In London’s Library from the Future,
it is not easy to distinguish the reality from what books from the future are describing.
Should they destroy the career of the Prime Minister or not?
In The Uncertainty of King
George Varney, the existence of some of our descendants is due to a temporal paradox,
and the survival of humanity after two world wars depends on Anna Maria
finishing the work she started years ago.
In The Box on the Seven Dials,
the Duke of Connaught experiences for himself what mind powers can do to his
own personal existence.
Finally, in The
Richmond Park Experiment, we find out about other scale universes.
Letter from Anna Maria to the Duke of
Humanity does
not yet understand many things on this Earth. I am proof of that, no one has
been able to explain to me who I am, and I am still trying to figure it out
myself. For a long time I thought I was alone in this world, a lone and lost
woman. I thought I met people like me, I know now that I am unique.
Arthur, do
you believe that you know me? Would you recognise me if I were to meet you somewhere
on the street? I know you would not, but I see through you, I know everything
there is about you. I know what you think, I know your past, I would guess your
most probable futures. I could even tell you where you were and who you were
before you were even born. I could also tell you when you will be.
Nothing
unusual I guess, there are many psychic mediums on this planet capable of such
things, and for a while I accepted that, I was just another one of those crazy
clairvoyants who could predict the future, even though I never did open for
business. I never needed to, I was born very rich from parents who, just like
my friend Bertrand Russell, died when I was still a child. However, my parents
are still present in my life, so I’m never alone.
This whole adventure started with a scientific mind. I was a
young and promising scientist working in a variety of fields, as I was
fascinated by any mystery underlying this world. Who are we, what is this
universe we are living in, and what is our role or purpose, if any, in that
universe? How’s everything working? What is the science underlying all this that
could explain any phenomenon?
So I
studied on my own philosophy, psychology, the mind, my mind, which for some
reason never appeared to work the same way as everyone else. I was also highly
interested in theoretical physics, perhaps I thought I could find there some
answers to explain scientifically what was happening to me. Bertrand has been
my mentor all those years, even though he is but a ghost.
I could try to explain my life, I could never be certain that
I was right. I then looked into many New Age movements, their beliefs, which
led to reading a lot about religion and mystic philosophies. This was another
dead end, because I could not picture the universe the way they did. Perhaps it
was just a barrier of language or vocabulary and we’re all ultimately talking
about the same concepts. But I continued on my own, understanding that no
answer would come from any other human being or school of thought.
For a
while I was considered like a genius mind, I made many discoveries in so many
different fields, even though I had not carefully studied any of them. In fact,
I don’t even have a degree, I just had many interests, and my strange abilities
gave me the chance to work in these fields.
I live in
Also that
anyone who got too close to me, with a genuine interest in what could be called
paranormal phenomena, would have liked nothing better than imprison me into a
lab and dissect my brain for posterity, hoping somehow to get some answers
about my abilities. Unfortunately my brain scans showed nothing unusual, maybe
it is at an esoteric level that something could be witnessed. And I’ve gone
through so many tests in my life which did not bring any answer, that there’s
no way I would like to be a lab rat again. You have been warned.
I lived
in the closet long enough. Before I die, I need someone to write all these
extraordinary events which have marked my existence. Don’t ask me why, I know
that someone is you, even though the thought has not yet entered your mind. It
would be more to help anyone who may have been born like me, with the gift. I
know damn well that it is not a gift, it is a curse, but I will let you be the
judge of that.
If I can
help people like me, then it is my duty to do so before it’s too late. However,
the way it is going, I might never die. I would not be surprised, I am
healthier than anyone I know. I take huge risks while people tell me that I’m
crazy and that I could die. I laugh all heartily, I know that I have yet many
years to live in front of me. I know when I will die with certainty. I could go
into ice water right now, naked, and I would survive. And I did it many times
in the last few years.
Because
of my gift, I never stayed anywhere for too long. I lived in
Every
time I moved to another city or country, I thought it would be different,
meeting new people who had no clue about my secret abilities. I was wrong, it
kept growing like if I was a shining light, a beacon attracting the weirdest
events, and often, the weirdest people. I had nothing like a normal life, and
when you hear it all first hand, you will say: she’s mad, she belongs into an asylum.
I nearly ended up there many times, believe me.
I know
things I should not know. I feel I am not real and that all the reality
surrounding me is an illusion. At night I can slow time down, and then, a whole
new universe opens up to me. In there I can meet ghosts, other weird souls from
other worlds, and I can acquire knowledge that will never be known to the world
for hundreds of years.
My
experiences have brought me to the brink of insanity. For a while my family and
I thought I had a serious mental illness. My brain would switch on, it could
last for weeks and months. In these periods, I was completely dysfunctional,
but I reasoned like a genius mind. I could suddenly play piano like a virtuoso,
I could tell you more about how to unite Relativity and Quantum Mechanics than
any other theoretical physicists. By slowing time, it gives me the chance to
see the world differently, to switch timelines, to change my reality. This is
only the tip of the iceberg.
My quest
is to find out how I acquire this knowledge which seems to appear out of
nowhere. I am looking for the one person in the world who can understand and
help me. I will find that in you, Arthur, but it is not everything I will
expect. A friendship will form, where the established reality will be
questioned to its limits. Can we travel in time? Can we acquire a knowledge
known to no one without having done any research about it? Can we meet weird
entities from other worlds? Can we build our own fantasy world, from which we
can acquire knowledge? This is a fantastic journey, dealing with real issues.
As long as I can prove that I am not a mental case. It is a story about the
means to get there. It is not a perfect science, there are drawbacks, and the
source of the knowledge needs to be identified.
I am far
from having all the answers, despite what many people think. With your help, Arthur,
we may get closer to the truth.
Anna Maria
Answer from the Duke of
Madam, I
acknowledge reception of your letter and that you are my neighbour when I’m in
Prince
Arthur of
Duke of
MI5, Director General
Sidmouth,
God lives in Chiswick
My name
is Prince Arthur of
I am the Director
General of MI5, the British Security Service. There is little I could actually
write which concerns my employment at MI5, however there is a part of my work
which is not classified, though we would not advertise it anywhere from fear of
ridicule. I have been often accused of spending more time investigating those
paranormal and unexplained phenomena than being worried about terrorism. And
this is how I got to know my best friend yet, Anna Maria.
Anna Maria has been described by our service to be the most
psychic woman alive, and she sure helped me out on many cases in the past which
have never attracted any attention from the media. These little short stories I
intend to write about our experiences are for the purpose of documenting these
strange events in case some other investigators might eventually be confronted
with similar puzzling situations.
I apologise
for my writing style, I’m afraid you will not find here fanciful descriptions
or poetry. I am no Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, an author both Anna Maria and I
admire very much. Her because she identifies with his character Sherlock Holmes,
following our little investigations, me because Sherlock Holmes stories were
required reading for any agent working at MI5 or New Scotland Yard, where I was
posted for many years in the past.
When I am in
Anna
lives in the house next door, which is how we met. Her house is like one of these
old English cottages, located just beside where the philosopher Bertrand
Russell used to live while he was alive. Russell’s ghost is apparently a daily
companion of Anna Maria, which might explained why she loves the area so much.
There is something
striking once you get inside her little house with a roof made of thatched
straw. Inside it is more like a bunker not even touching the walls of the
house, and which could resist a nuclear attack. In time I will get to explain in
detail why this is so, but it will not be in this present case.
I will however
state here that I noted a lift which appeared to be indicating many floors down,
though I was only aware of one staircase going to the second floor. This is
where we meet most of the time, in a sort of conservatory with a circular
skylight window all around, with unfinished paintings everywhere and a huge
telescope in the middle.
Anna is a
very talented painter, although she would never admit to it, as she continues
to maintain that she is not the one painting them, others do it through her. That
statement would be impossible to believe if her paintings did not show so many
different styles. One would have a hard time proving they were all made by the
same artist. And I know something about this, having worked with New Scotland
Yard on fake art for a long time.
The first time I have met Anna Maria, it is not I who enticed
her help, but her who would not leave me alone until I finally sat down and
listened to what she had to say. She was my neighbour after all, and I noticed
her stunning beauty over and over again. I would have never dared looking at
her for too long, or even talk to her, unless it was an emergency.
There was
a terrorist attack being planned that we knew about, and we were getting ready
to make our move, however Anna was convinced that we would miss our shot and
many people, including innocent citizens, would die. That alone would not have
warranted my attention, she did though know so much about what we were doing,
and completed so well the poor intelligence we had, in the end I either had to
imprison her for being a terrorist, or some sort of spy, or believe her claims
that she was a psychic medium and take her advice.
Today I’m
glad I did exactly what she told me to do, because we averted a crisis which
would have certainly resulted in many deaths. I could start by telling you that
story, but it is so less fantastic than the others I will tell you now, that I
feel it can wait for another time. Once this terrorism case was over, I
intended to use her for other cases, but she had something else in mind:
“Now that
I’ve helped you, let me explain the reason I really wanted to contact you.”
“What,” I
said, “was it not to save so many people from these terrorists that you decided
to attract my attention?”
She
laughed and said: “It is not my job to play spy and do the work of the good
people at MI5, it would be a double full time job. Beside, I am interested in
something completely different and more rewarding than ‘little desperate
terrorists’. I am on a mission to unravel the unexplained.”
She was
in fact very much into anything related to the paranormal, which could
eventually lead, I was guessing, to proving that perhaps she was not so weird
after all, and maybe, just maybe, one day we could understand these phenomena
and explain them from a science’s perspective.
Anna
Maria described to me at the time that there was a woman in a military mental
institute who needed our help, as she was not crazy after all and she could
prove it somehow, as she had seen what that lunatic was claiming to have gone
through.
I could
not refuse her anything after what she had done for us, so one day I picked her
up at her house in
Phew! What’s
the head of MI5 doing here? If my subordinates or the press got wind of this, I
thought, my rivals would have a field day.
Without
me Anna Maria could have never talked to Ms Alice Barnsworth. I was equally
surprised by the security at that military base, where even the head of MI5 had
to pull many strings to get access to. I remember asking the soldier at the
entrance at the time: “Are you keeping UFOs and dead alien bodies here or what?”
Which he only answered with a sarcastic smile which, to this day, I’m still
trying to interpret.
Once we
were introduced inside the building, we found Ms Barnsworth in a cathartic
state, she was unconscious in her room. As soon as Anna Maria posed her hand on
“Oh, Ms
Anna Maria, so nice of you to come and help, so you have received my call?”
“Oh yes,”
Anna answered.
“How
could she, I’ve been told you were not given the opportunity to contact anyone
on the outside,” I promptly added.
“There
are other means to contact me,” smiled Anna. And she quickly went to the point:
“Though I have a good idea of what you went through, Ms Barnsworth, I would be
grateful if you could tell us now in presence of a witness, the Duke of Connaught
here”.
“Pray,
tell me why my presence is required as a witness?” I wondered out loud.
“Simple
Arthur,” (Anna always called me Arthur from the start), “we need an official
account in Britain’s archive from a reliable source that Ms Alice Barnsworth is
in fact the God of her own universe she created recently.”
I looked
at Maria straight in the eye, thinking she was about to laugh at this joke,
then I looked at Alice, afraid she might be upset by this claim, and then I
could no longer contain myself, I laughed so hard, I feel the whole base heard
me. I only stopped once I realised that I was upsetting them both. And then I
rationalised that it must have been a figure of style, an allegory or
something, and I was about to understand what she meant by such a preposterous
claim.
“No doubt
there must be a banal explanation for this statement, I have to admit that you
have piqued my curiosity. Let’s sit down and hear it all,” I said embarrassed,
and we sat down and
“As you
know, Ms Maria, I was posted until recently on the Saturn Space Station where
some unusual event happened in my life. I was a good soldier with a strong
imagination. I never thought it could lead to the creation of a new universe.”
“Wait a
minute,” I said, “you need to realise that you have been judged instable
mentally, you were obviously dreaming whatever you are saying to us.”
“Please,
Arthur, listen to her,” said Anna.
“No,” I
added quickly, “nothing could be served from entertaining the idea that Ms
Barnsworth, no disrespect intended, is alright. Her path to recovery must first
pass by us telling her the truth. There is no space station around Saturn, Ms
Barnsworth. I am the head of MI5, if we had such a space station, no matter how
secret this project would be, I would know about it.”
Anna
Maria looked at me and smiled. “Arthur, you need to understand that Ms
Barnsworth is not from our reality, she’s from another universe, if you wish.”
“You
expect me to believe this? What proof can you offer me?” I bluntly said.
“For a
start, here is Ms Barnsworth’s folder which I obtained under your own authority
from the investigation the doctor on the base did a few weeks ago. You will
find that Ms Barnsworth was a soldier with a magnificent record, who died
during the Gulf War in 1991. She is buried in a military cemetery around here. You
will also find that Ms Barnsworth here present has the exact same DNA that was taken
from the corpse at the autopsy. They dug out her body as they could not believe
it, and it is verified that she is dead. How do you explain it?”
I snatched
the folder from her hands and read it aloud:
“We
cannot explain how there appear to be a second Alice Barnsworth, a soldier
attached to this base in 1991, as she died in Iraq 15 years ago. It has been
surmised that she is her identical twin, as they share the same DNA. No proof
has been found that Ms Barnsworth ever had a twin. If she had, her twin would
have had to be in the military as well, as demonstrated by the aptitudes and
knowledge of Ms Barnsworth. It is improbable that this knowledge could have
been transmitted by her twin sister before she died, since Ms Barnsworth is
aware of many other top secret dossiers which only occurred after 1991. It is
interesting to note that despite her knowledge of these top secret files, she
still sometimes have it wrong, and have no knowledge of other files which we
would assume her to also be aware of. She claims that she was part of the ‘Time
Project,’ a top military secret about a machine capable of transporting her to
parallel universes, but to the best of our knowledge there is no such project
on this base or anywhere else in the United Kingdom.”
“This is
science fiction,” I finally said while this was sinking in. “It is more likely
that you have a vivid imagination. Anna, do you have any idea how busy I am?
That terrorist cell you helped us with, it is one out of dozens… all ready to
explode at a moment’s notice.”
“How do
you explain my death? I never died in 1991, I never went to
“A chip?
Like dogs and cats have?” I asked. “Any veterinarian could have given you one.
No need for a parallel universe for that.”
“With
that much data about me on it, including my life story up to my financial
details? And what’s more, you can read it in your report, the chip confirms that
I am an astronaut attached to a space station around Saturn.”
I read
through the report, and it did confirm that part of her story. So I had to say:
“It’s an elaborate hoax, nothing more. Your veterinarian had a good joke at
your expense, I suggest he hypnotised you. Congratulations for having fooled a
few militaries willing to believe anything.”
At that
moment
“What do
you mean?” I answered.
“I have
this ability to transfer images to other people’s mind. I can show you what I
have seen.”
“Really?
You do realise that if you can achieve such a feat, I will keep you under
observation at MI5 for years to come?”
She
smiled and said: “I know you will want to do so, I know you will not do so. Unlike
you I am aware of the probabilities of all my possible futures.”
She
closed her eyes and instantly a flow of images came into my mind. I could see
myself in some sort of space shuttle docking at a space station near the rings
of Saturn. It was amazing, a vivid dream like nothing I had experienced before.
I could see real images like if they were coming from a television set, but
directly into my mind. That alone ought to be more fantastic than the story of
Ms
Barnsworth continued her narrative, and as she did so, the images of her story
came to my mind via Anna. We found ourselves in a huge room on this actual
base, with what resembled what I could only describe as a Z Machine like the
one they have built in
“That
machine was initially supposed to help us travel in time, however after that
huge burst of energy I found myself in what I believe to be a parallel universe,”
I felt
the need at this point to get out of this vision and get back to reality. I
grasp the arm of Anna Maria and suddenly everything was back to normal. “How do
you know these visions are real? Maybe you’re capable of seeing images of her
own imagination?”
“I would
know the difference. Besides, there are things about me you don’t know yet. This
phenomenon is not new to me, I do live in many parallel universes at the same
time, many different timelines all at once, in as many time periods as there
are,” she said.
“This does not make any sense,” I mumbled. “What about me,
then? Do I exist in all those parallel universes?”
“Oh yeah, you do in many of them,” she added. “It might
surprise you that we are linked in many timelines, though you’re not always the
head of MI5, which does not make it easier in all those universes where we are
investigating our cases. From my point of view, our friendship and working
relationship is not new, it is as old as time itself. Most of my powers at
predicting the future come from my foreknowledge of other parallel universes. I
am not always right because there is no way for me to know exactly what will
happen in this actual timeline, I only know the probability of an event
occurring, based of what happened in other worlds where time is running faster
than here. Timelines are not all running in parallel at the exact same time,
some of them are years in front of us, others years late compared to our own
time.”
“So you say I will eventually believe you, and work with you
on a regular basis?” I said a bit more alarmed than I would have liked to.
“Oh yes, you are my long time helpful companion, and don’t
worry, we do not marry in most timelines,” she added almost as a joke, which I
was unsure of how to take.
At that
point Alice Barnsworth became impatient: “Right you two, perhaps you can sort
your problems out later, I have a feeling our time here is limited. Do you want
to hear my story or not?”
To which
I answered: “Right, for what’s it’s worth…” And she continued.
“I knew I
was part of a special project, I knew I was supposed to have travelled in time,
and somehow ended up in a weird sort of reality on Saturn. It made no sense to
me, and instead of shutting my big mouth, I went straight to the doctor on the
station and told him everything. You can guess the results…”
“You were
declared there as you were declared here: a lunatic,” I said.
“More or
less. They were not as barbaric, at the very least,” she added. “I was confirmed
unfit for duty. Little I knew that soon I would totally agree with them.”
“How so?”
Anna Maria felt the need to ask.
“Because
nothing can explain what happened next,” she answered.
To which
I replied: “How can you even begin to explain what happened before?” She looked
at me with hard eyes, so I stopped and she continued.
“Soon I
woke up suddenly floating in space, without even a space suit, and I could breathe!
I could see Saturn in the background, the space station, it was wonderful! I
was thinking I would never want to leave such a place. I could live here
forever, that was my thought.”
“Can I…
Anna, would you let me see this?” I said out of curiosity. And she answered:
“Of course.”
I have to
say, this was incredible. I instantly realised the impact that words alone
could never achieve. I saw that planet in all its colours, those rings made of
smaller parts, that great space station we, humans, had succeeded in building
in some parallel universe. I almost cried, as it seemed so real! At that point
I wanted to believe, this had to be real! Or else, I would have wanted to
remain connected to such a mind that could recreate something even our probes
and huge space telescopes could not even report back. A photograph will never
do justice to the real thing.
“Soon I
began to think I was very much alone in my time spent in space. I started to
understand this universe, this primordial soup of electrons appearing in a blank
space, galaxies forming, and finally I dreamed up in my mind one man, the
perfect man, the man of my dreams. He appeared there, out of nowhere, and I was
ecstatic. I was happy beyond belief. The only problem was that I created some
sort of monster, or half human, or perhaps he was too human after all. He could
not simply accept this reality. He was wondering, questioning, trying to
understand.
“‘What am
I doing here?’ he would often say. ‘What is this place? What is the purpose of
this world? What am I supposed to do?’
“At which
point I panicked and went back to the station. The only problem though was that
every time I came back from a little trip in space, I found myself in a dire
situation where people thought I was in a coma. I could also not just wish
myself to be in space. Going there to meet my new friend I created required a
lot of focussed mental energy, or something similar, I can’t really explain it.
Can you?”
I looked
at Anna Maria, to whom the question was directed. I could not stop from
pointing out that no one in their right mind could explain any of this.
She
simply smiled: “Pray, continue your fascinating adventure.”
“It
didn’t help that I was definitely suffering from hallucinations. Rapidly I was
declared schizophrenic, someone who could have a cataleptic fit at any time.
They were trying to link this to a new sickness related to space travel, while
I was trying to explain that it must be the result of travelling to a parallel
world, at which point it was clear I was delusional to everyone. They let me
walked freely on the station anyway, figuring that I was not very dangerous and
it was like a prison that no one could escape at any rate. Or so they thought,
because it was not long before my next episode. In my mind I had recurring
dreams, one with a weird disconnected universe with a single human in it,
living in space without any need for a spacesuit. The second time around I
found him there alone, looking at the stars, pensive. I wondered how long he
had been like that contemplating the universe, in a vegetative state, like a
tree lost in space. He answered:
“‘Why,
since I last saw you of course. You took a long time to come back. I seem to be
aware of the universe, capable of mathematical equations in my head about how
it works. I can see there is much awareness out there as well. I need to know
more, you need to tell me.’
“I was so
astonished that he had not simply disappeared when I did, I felt deep pity for
him. For days he remained there thinking. That’s not a life!”
“I know
some philosophers who could not dream of a better existence,” Anna Maria said.
But Ms Barnsworth did not think so.
“Anyway,
I decided to create a house for him, with a bedroom so he could sleep in at
night, though for him there was no such concept in his mind.
“‘What
are those nights and days you are talking about? Why do I need a house or even
why would I sleep? You’re not making any sense. And what do you do on that
space station of yours when you’re not here with me? I have so many questions
to ask, please don’t ever leave me again.’
“So I
built the house in the background, and some plates of marble on which he could
walk in space to his house. At the end of the path I put a well filled with
water, even though I’m not even certain if I thought as far as to wonder where
would the water would come from. It was just there, and I instructed him to
take some and drink on a regular basis, or he would die. And then I thought
about food, but decided that this could wait, as I did not want to simply
create a machine making food appear out of nowhere, I would never hear the end
of his questions about where that food came from in the first place. Thankfully
he didn’t question the well, or where the water came from. He did ask where the
house came from, and I had to tell him I just wished it and there it was. He
wondered why he did not have these abilities, and so I gave it to him. I said from
now on you can dream and create whatever you want. So we waited, for him to
create something, but nothing appeared. I asked:
“‘Don’t
you want to try your new powers? Don’t you want to create something?’
“He
looked at me blandly, he was like a blank storage device, and I told him so.
And I understood: how could he create stuff out of nothing if he had no clue
about what else existed in this world? So we talked some more about my world,
he asked endlessly those questions that I would imagine only a child who still
knows nothing about this universe would ask:
“‘Are
there others like you on that space station? Do you have houses like that
inside that station? What is that planet below, could we go for a visit? Could
I live there? What is a blank storage device? What is a dog, you mentioned
before that you found them annoying.’
“It went
on and on and I got tired, exceedingly so. In the end I think I just collapsed
and found myself back on the station. Once again, I had everyone surrounding me
as if I was an alien. I had obviously fainted, or had a fit. Once I felt good
again, I realise that my new man could communicate with me in the real world, I
was now hearing voices, my insanity was complete. He could see through my eyes
everything I observed, and somehow managed to control my every move. I started
to act oddly to everyone on the station, while he was learning everything he
could about the world. I was a hostage in my own body. By the time I broke out
of this servitude, I found myself in space once again with many houses, plates
of marble and wells in front of each house, and many new people everywhere,
deformed dogs and cats existing as I sort of described them to him initially,
floating in space doing nothing, not even barking or meowing. There was something
weird which was totally out of control, a bird crying and whinging on his shoulder,
of beautiful colours though, blue, yellow, green, and a huge beak.
“‘What is
that?’ I found myself say, with a smile. ‘Is it a parrot? How can it even fly
in space?’
“‘I don’t
know, I saw one on your space station. Is it cute or what? It certainly brings
life in this dead space. He’s my best friend.’
“‘What do
you mean you saw that on my space station?’
“They had
the time together to develop their own philosophies, religion, theoretical
physics, and somehow found a way to contact their god, me, a mentally ill
patient. And though he was now constantly in communication with me, it started
to impede seriously on my life while I was awake on the station. They held me
hostage, had unreasonable demands, they wanted me to create new stuff for them,
new technology, new ways to explore the rest of the universe. And since nothing
more had been thought of in my mind apart from their world, they now wanted a
real creation, like the one we have right now, a planet Earth, so they could
also explore and get out of where they are. I looked at them, blinking:
“‘Considering
what you have just achieved, why don’t you create yourself a planet and move
there?’
“My
friend answered that they did not know enough, they had not witnessed any of
it, they only had a vague idea of what Earth represented. They realised by then
that we did not usually lived around in space stations surrounding weird
planets which could not support life, and especially, we did not float in space
in houses with wells. None of it made any sense anymore to any of them. They
blamed me for having created something which was unfathomable to them. I had to
shout back:
“‘Do you
really think that my God was any better in creating the universe I come from?
Do you think any of this makes any sense to any of us? Planets, stars,
galaxies, oxygen, trees, birds and what else? The difference is that we have
stopped a long time ago to question everything, we just accepted it and we
moved on with our lives! So you should! Just invent the world of sales, become
marketing addicts, create industries, space programmes… I don’t know, anything
to quickly forget to think about where you are and why.’
“Somehow
it was not enough. When I woke up, I found that this whole thing was destroying
my fragile mind, and after a major cataleptic fit or stroke, their world ceased
to exist for a while. Fortunately, since many people on board the station were
now reporting having seen houses in space with people floating all around. My
doctor thought that my illness was contagious.
“I soon
got back to normal. No more visions, no more crazy imagination running wild, I
was even forgetting that I should not even be on a space station which did not
exist in the first place. I even secretly thought that I was not completely
cured until I actually woke up back on Earth in
“That settles it, then,” I finally said. “You have woken up in
“It is not that simple, I’m afraid,” said Anna Maria. “There
are many parallel universes where we do have a space station around Saturn and
many other planets. And Ms Barnsworth’s existence is well documented on those
worlds, I remember hearing about people having visions of houses and people in
space, it is a fact. A strange one, but one all the same. Ms Barnsworth
contacted me in parallel universes once she came back to Earth from the
station, this is how I came to know about all this. I quickly realised that in
this particular timeline of ours here, there was an anomaly. There was a Ms
Barnsworth who said she lived on a space station in the solar system, but no
space station other than the International one in orbit around Earth. It is why
I contacted you Arthur about Ms Barnsworth as soon as I found out about the
anomaly from other parallel universes.”
“Then if what you say is true,” I felt the need to ask, “there
are many Anna Maria out there helping many Alice Barnsworth in many universes?
Some of them simply to understand what happened to them, others completely out
of their original timeline, not once but twice over? How did Ms Barnsworth end
up here, where we don’t have a Z machine capable of creating a huge burst of
energy, so she did not leave from here? And we don’t have a space station, so
she did not end up here either as a result of their attempt to send her in
time. So why is she here at all?”
Anna Maria thought about it for a moment. Then said: “I can
only think of one thing. Ms Barnsworth, perhaps as a consequence of her
experience through this ‘Time Project,’ has gained some paranormal powers. She
can now create worlds at will, and therefore should be able to throw herself
out of a universe to jump into another. She must have wished to get out of that
schizophrenic world altogether, but was somehow incapable of going back to her
original timeline, and so ended up here.”
“I wanted to come here,” said
You can imagine I was deeply hurt and insulted: “What? How
dare you say we are retards when it comes to technology and science in general?
How dare you! Could we build space station everywhere in the solar system? Sure
we could, but why spend so much money? What about the rest which makes you so
advanced compared to us? In any case, surely it is only a question of time
before we can achieve the same results? What do you think Anna?”
“Well, my poor Arthur, I tend to agree with Ms Barnsworth. Compared
with other timelines we are really lagging behind. The whole paranormal science
here is just that, paranormal instead of science. And if you say you are
studying time travel in this day and age, you might as well state that you are
studying the fantastic. There are not that many universes out there still
talking in terms of quantum physics and relativity. How many times have I told
Bertrand Russell that this universe would have been much better off without
Albert Einstein, as he threw us off course for a very long time. This is very
difficult for Russell to accept, as he was such good friend with Albert.”
“What!” I shouted, “do you really want me to believe that
without Einstein, we would be much more advanced in physics today?”
“Not only without Einstein, eliminate
“All right then,” I said, still unconvinced. So I turned to
Ms Barnsworth looked defeated, she admitted: “I confess this
was stupid, but they found me on the base, they declared me dead a long time
ago. I let slipped a few top secret things which were no secrets in my
timeline, and hence I found myself in deep trouble. I guess I had not thought
about it that far. My only defence was to tell the truth, but then it got me
into more trouble. Until I realised that Ms Maria must exist in this timeline,
and as I remembered in my timeline that she
was the most psychic woman alive, and that is no small claim for a science
which is not called paranormal in my world, I thought she could verify what I’m
saying here, and free me from this situation. I’m glad she found me, as I
didn’t believe in my telepathic powers! I feel I have none.”
“And how do you propose she goes about it?” I answered, “I
don’t believe you, I don’t believe her, despite this trick of putting images in
my mind, I’m afraid it won’t be enough. You see, we’re not that gullible. And
if we are so backwards to you, then perhaps it is because we are more cerebral,
intelligent, moving slowly without jumping to conclusions. I would not have it
any other way. Let me tell you what awaits you, whatever it is you feel Ms
Maria can do for you. You will finish your days in an asylum here on the base,
where they will probe and try to understand how you know so much about their
little secrets, whilst somehow you either faked your death, or are simply an
identical twin. I hope for you they don’t start to believe you could be a
clone, because then it could be more serious than you can imagine.”
Ms Barnsworth looked at me completely horrified. She closed
her eyes and for a second there I thought she was about to disappear into thin
air, as to my astonishment she became a bit invisible, and at the same time I
also felt myself moving somewhere else. Anna posed her hand on her and
“Never
mind what Arthur is saying, this is not what’s going to happen. We will get you
out of here, and you will live happily forever after somewhere else in this
world, never to think too much about all this. Because my friend here, is
powerful. More powerful than anyone on this base. And once he will decide to
get you out of here, he will. And it won’t be for you to be probed by other
people, it will be to free you from all that you have gone through. He doesn’t
look very receptive now, but he will by the time we’ll leave this base. He
doesn’t understand yet who you are, and how important you are to humanity. I
bet you don’t even know that yourself, but it is not to me to tell you that. It
is best if you don’t know.”
“Know what?” both Ms Barnsworth and I asked at the same time.
But Anna simply bowed her head and signal to Ms Barnsworth to finish her story:
“Somehow I thought I had destroyed them all, my new humanity, killed
them all in my mind. That no one else on the station could see them was proof
enough that it was so. At the same time, unfortunately, it was also becoming
clear to me that I could not have imagined it. I had real people in what seems
a real world to me, telling me that my visions had become real! Or that they
were real to begin with. My doctor did not know what to say, it was like
decades of studies and beliefs had just gone out the window. He was even afraid
of me, well, not until he saw on the satellite images from Earth, no less, that
my visions were real and there were people living in houses in space,
breathing, going along with their meaningless lives, and I was photographed
right in the middle, having an argument with a man, the one we thought I
created out of nothing. And so, since I was unable to shake the thought that it
was all my imagination, it was not long before I started to hear voices again.
“So once
more I ended up in space, meeting my new creation. My friend was standing in
front of me, hiding something behind him. When he moved away, there was there
the most beautiful little girl I had ever seen in my life. I knew her, I
remembered having thought of her before that time, it was not like he created
her like he appeared to have done with the others. Or at the very least we both
thought of her before that time.
“What he
said to me then was astounding to say the least: ‘I present to you our
daughter, she is our creation, she is ours. And if that does not convince you
to remain here with us forever, then I don’t know what will.’
“I spent
hours with her, just talking. I answered all of her questions to the best of my
abilities. It turns out that she never saw the space station, as somehow they
or I moved the whole village around Pluto, where no more spying satellite could
spot them, as the ex-planet was no longer of interest to anyone by then. It was
still beautiful, that shade of blue which I clearly remember trying to find with
difficulty on my palette of colours on my computer some years ago. I digress, I
was talking to you about my new daughter, and I had no doubt in my mind that
she was mine, and was the fruit somehow of both my original friend and I,
though as far as I can remember, we never… you know… how should I put it…”
“Had sex?” I said.
“Snuggled
together,” Ms Barnsworth corrected me.
“So
people in your world don’t reproduce by having intercourse, they just wish and
create new people whenever they want?” I felt the need to ask.
“At the
beginning, yes, I admit. Later on this changed, as you will see. I simply
decided to copy this same world I was used to, and they reproduced through
snuggling. It does not stop the fact that they could still also spontaneously
re-create the universe they wanted, create new people or make them disappear at
will. However many in time will forget this ability I have given them, it will
seem more like coincidences to them when suddenly what they will want will
happen like a miracle. I would not want to jump to the end just yet, so let me
tell you all about my new daughter.”
“Created
out of thin air, just like God would,” I voiced.
“Yeah, just
like God!” cried Anna Maria with a smile, coming out of what seemed like a
trance until that point. “Please, Ms Barnsworth, continue.”
“We were
still spotted around Pluto, don’t ask me how, Big Brother sure has eyes
everywhere in my original timeline. So I moved everyone so out of sight, we
were completely outside the universe altogether.”
“And
where would that be?” I asked.
“Outside
of space, that’s all I thought at the time I made the decision, so I don’t know
where that would be. I just wished it, all right? And it happened. We were
outside of space. So, about my daughter… where was I… you are so exasperating
with all your questions, sometimes I wished you just didn’t exist!”
Anna
Maria suddenly got up in a state of panic: “Please, Ms Barnsworth, stop right
there on your train of thought. You need him to get you out of here and get you
the life you’re hoping for yourself”
We both looked at her with surprise. I said: “What, do you
think I would simply disappear if Ms Barnsworth wished it?”
“Yes!” was her answer.
So I
said: “No one has that much control over the existence that they can get people
to vanish or appear out of nothing. What universe do you live in?”
“Let’s just say that I am much more aware than you are about
what’s possible and what’s not in this world. So please, just shut up, listen
and learn! You’ll never again have that chance, I can assure you. The questions
you would be asking right now if you knew what I will tell you later… and how
stupid you will feel with your doubts and accusations then…” she almost
shouted. She sat down after this burst and tried to calm down.
“Should I continue then?”
“Sex and reproduction,” I said.
“Right, you men, is all you can think about,” Ms Barnsworth
affirmed.
At that point Anna said something so amazing to
The look on Ms Barnsworth’s face was impossible to describe,
it put her into deep thinking mode, that much I could see. And understanding
her mistake, Anna quickly asked
“All I know is that my little adventures with my society,
which was developing more and more with each passing day, with my adorable
daughter right at the centre of it, was simply killing me. If I continued to go
and see them, I would surely die, as my doctor was telling me back at the
station. On the other hand, if I stopped visiting them, they would become
alienated and drive me mad back on the station. As they were still
communicating with me then, and to some extent, controlling me.
“They
quickly understood though that I was getting sicker, and I made them appreciate
that if I were to go into a coma or even die, they would vanish out of
existence. From that point on they helped me in every way they could. It was
truly a symbiotic relationship, even existence. My creatures were helping me
see more clearly. In no time I got better and convinced everyone around me that
I was normal, no longer schizophrenic or suffering from hallucinations. I know
it wasn’t true, and I will spare you all the episodes I had, it suited me at
that time to appear normal.
“My
people were however dissatisfied with me, they wanted more, evermore. They
agreed with me that my world did not make any more sense than theirs, they
wanted it anyway, they thought it was the real world, the one from which they
appeared to have been created from and for. We had to reach some sort of
agreement in the end, as I was still getting sicker from visiting, so I could
no longer have direct contact with them. And their intrusion in my mind on the
station was simply having disastrous effect on my behaviour, it threatened my
sanity at every turn.
“So I
made a decision. I had to get rid of them without killing them, they were after
all my creation. They were real enough that others in my reality had
photographed them. Funny, what gave me the idea, was my doctor. He was deeply
religious in nature, I even found him annoying with his stories about the
divine, God and Jesus-Christ.
“‘Please!
Give me a break!” I told him, ‘in my timeline, we got rid of those centuries
ago.’
“He would
not back down however, and insisted that I read the Bible, at least Genesis. I
shouted: ‘I would prefer to burn in hell before I did something so ludicrous.’
He was determined, and hid his damn Bible under my pillow, no doubt in hopes
that I would read it at some point.
“And I
did, I read the beginning, Genesis. It was like an illumination! I thought,
that’s it, that’s what I’ll do. I’ll create a new universe in seven days for my
people (well, seven second anyway from my perspective, several million of years
from theirs, whatever), I will put them on Earth so they can evolve on their
own without me. And their whole history will happen instantly from my point of
view, so I won’t have to supervise the whole thing for millennia.
“I made
them mortals, capable of reproducing, copying the whole world we’ve been used
to anyway. I placed myself outside of time… well, different time rate at any
rate. Never mind. I just wished it and it happened. Bang. Just like that. Problem
solved, I finally got rid of them. I was so pleased with myself! I had solved
my situation in one short burst of genius thinking. And to keep what I called
my husband and daughter happy, I created another version of myself, in my
image, to live with them for as long as a normal life would be. She was to
possess my own knowledge and intelligence, guide them as they went along, and
make any change I would myself see fit as everything evolved in time.”
“So you could call it a creation with an evolution?” I said,
“how convenient.”
“Yeah, that’s exactly it!”
“I had
other big fish to fry in my own existence, though I started to think about the
irony of this all. I was after all living myself perhaps in some sort of
creation of some other being that came before me, and I was wondering if he or
she had given more thought to it than I did. By then I was declared completely
insane, and I certainly was not going to deny it. I believed it! I just wished
I could finally get back to reality, whatever that was. Some sort of normality.
“My
doctor went wild after that, he wouldn’t let go. He said he had the proof that
I was crazy, and for many weeks I awaited his famous proof.”
“I think I know,” said Anna.
I had absolutely
no clue, myself. By then I was so gripped into that story, I cared little about
if it made any sense or not. I wanted this proof so badly, I thought it would
reveal a lot to me. So this time I stopped Anna from speaking, and I’m the one
who said: “Please, continue!”
“Well, the proof was quite something, I have to admit. I was
not prepared for this. My doctor came in one day in his office with a big smile
on his face, whilst I was sitting calmly. He assured me that today was the big
day, and that for once I would be able to realise that everything I had told
him was just an elaborate story I had concocted in my mind.
“‘What
about the photos which prove my saying,’ I asked?
“His
answered was that we could discuss it after he presented me two persons he had
discovered should have been part of my life, but we’re no longer because I left
for the space station. Who could be those two persons, I thought, which could
change anything to what I’ve been through? As far as I knew, this was not even
my own timeline, I never left for any space station ever. So I thought his
little surprise will be no surprise to me.
“I was
wrong. Who came into the room were the original man I created, my perfect man,
and the supposed daughter we had together. They were there in front of me, in
flesh, they existed in this reality for the first time. I created them, I
thought. I sent them to exist on a new Earth somewhere out of space, I
re-created a universe for them, they should not be there right in front of me
right now.
“‘Who are
they?’, I asked.
“‘Don’t
you recognise us’, the child said, ‘I’m your daughter! That’s my dad!’
“And she
cried, and cried, until it seemed there was nothing left to cry. I could not
remember them. My doctor assured me that there in front of me were my husband
and daughter, who had learn with distress that I became schizophrenic, and
decided to come to the station in order to help me.
“They
showed me photos, films, proofs that what they were saying was true. I could
only think that I created them in real life as a consequence of losing them to
that imagined universe which I could no longer visit from fear for my health. And
so, I accepted them for a while, I enjoyed their presence, even though at the
back of my mind something was not right.
“Nothing
was right anymore. I didn’t believe in reality, in anything. Perhaps I was
crazy after all, my mind was gone, some links disconnected within my brain,
whatever. I had to escape it all, I had to get out of there, these people, and whatever
it is that I believed until that point. So I shut myself out from everyone, I disconnected
myself from reality. And that was it, I was really out of my mind.
“I think
I was unconscious for quite a while. When I came back to my senses, I was on
Earth, my mind was connected to a computer and they were probing my brain,
trying to cure me. Some technology I know does not exist in this world. If you
want, Duke Connaught, I can provide you with all the schematics to prove to you
that this works and does not exist here, however I would not want anyone to go
through what I went through, so you can forget it.”
“Of course,” I said with sarcasm.
“Don’t interrupt!” she cried, and I shrunk back into my chair.
She continued.
“I had
only one thought, to get out of there, this painful process. I was not about to
become a computer for them, so they could say they cured me and I was finally
back to normal. I was normal! I know that. They were the retards, they had not
witnessed everything I did, this extraordinary journey, which I believe in the
end to be true. I had new powers they did not understand, I had evolved to a
point they could only dream of, if they would only listen to me and believe me!
“So in
the end I had only one wish, the one to return to a universe similar to the one
I left, but still not advanced enough that I would not have to go through any
of what I had gone through. This is how I believe I ended up here. It is by
trying to find out if any of what I was familiar with existed here in this
parallel universe, that I was reassured that I succeeded. However I made a
crucial mistake by doing so and divulged some information which was known from
only a handful of people here, top secret information, and now I’m in deep
trouble and I need your help to get out of here.”
“Can’t you just switch timelines again, then?” I asked.
“No, it seems that I also wished that I would no longer have
any of these extraordinary powers. I simply wanted to be normal again, just
like every miserable human being. That’s what I wanted whilst I was being
tortured back then, and now I see I wasn’t thinking clearly. I’m in a mess.”
“Is that it, then? Have we heard it all?” I added.
“Yes, this is what I had to say. I am now in your hands,
please help me to get out of here, so I can start living the life I was
supposed to, if there is such a thing.”
Anna stood up from her chair, she took the hand of Ms
Barnsworth to reassure her, and said:
“Don’t
worry dear, you will be out of here soon. Where would you want to go? Better
yet, let me guess. For some reason I feel you want to live in Chiswick.”
“Yes, you are amazing. Just like I knew you would. Chiswick is
where I come from, this is where I want to go. But is it wise? Perhaps I should
be sent to
I was about to stop this nonsense when Anna Maria seemed to
realise what I was about to do, and she took my hand, squeezed it really hard,
and gave me no chance to add another word. We left the room, looking at this
strange being in front of us… she sure looked like she had believed her story. She
was convincing enough, and yet, it was undeniable that she was insane. But I
couldn’t dismiss the evidence, that woman died years ago in
On our way back, neither Anna nor I said anything. I was in
deep thoughts, and she seemed to have realised that, and believed better of it
than to interrupt them. She got out the car saying only one thing:
“Let me
know what you find out, let me know how we will proceed with this case.”
She said
it so nonchalantly, as if it did not affect her in the least. As if she had
said those same words to me many times before. She had this great ability to
put all of this out of her mind, so I said:
“What are
you going to do now?”
“Why? I need to feed Barnsworth, of course. He’s been left
alone all day, apart from perhaps Bertrand Russell, when he can actually see
him, that is.”
“Barnsworth?” I asked puzzled?
“Yeah, my gold and blue macaw,” she answered.
I was so lost, I can’t even begin to explain.
“What,
you have a parrot called Barnsworth? How is this possible? When did you buy
it?”
“Years ago, he’s the best friend a girl can have.”
“Can anyone verify that you called that parrot Barnsworth
years ago? Before you even met or knew Ms Barnsworth existed?”
“Bertrand could, but he’s a ghost, so I suspect it would be
difficult for you to get confirmation from him. Fear not, my new dear friend,
here I have all the papers for you to consider. This is no coincidence if my
long time friend parrot is called Barnsworth, I was made aware of Ms Barnsworth
a long time ago. She’s so important to this world you’re living in, that you
will never be able to understand. Let me know what you find out and what we’ll
do about this.”
And then
she left to go back to her bunker disguised as a lovely villa. I’m sure she
slept very well that night, I can’t say I did as well. By the time it was
morning I had a complete plan of all I would do to verify this woman’s story,
even if at the back of my mind it was ludicrous and a big waste of time. There were
just too many clues and hints to prove me otherwise, and so in the early
morning I set myself to work. I went to Millbank in
First thing I did was to verify if Mr. Barnsworth, as the
parrot of Anna Maria is called, has been called so for as many years as she
claimed. Then I checked if in any way she could have known about Ms Barnsworth
before the last few days. This was important to discover if this was not an
elaborate hoax. I ordered a full search on both women, I was satisfied that
they did not know each other before then. I was however flabbergasted by Anna
Maria’s history. I won’t get into details now, because this has nothing to do
with this actual case.
You would be amazed to realise how much information on one
person a team of agents at MI5 can find in one day, I was however amazed that
they were unable to disprove her story. In fact, everything they found was very
much confirming everything, and only helped to make the case even more mysterious.
It defied logic and common sense.
I found
out about Ms Barnsworth’s family in Chiswick and decided to bring them all
along to visit that ghost from their past. I invited Anna Maria to come and so
we all found ourselves at that military base once again later that afternoon.
I decided
to play a game with Ms Barnsworth, I did like her doctor did on the so-called
space station. I prepared her psychologically to meet the proof that she
imagined it all. I have not even told her family who they were going to meet or
the purpose of their coming to the base. I told them that it was in the name of
national security, they had been summoned there, they had no choice. So I got
them all together to witness the scene that would ensue.
All right,
I thought, now the candles on the cake. I let in her husband and daughter, and
was ready for fireworks. I was right, there were sparks. While I was playing
with everyone’s deep emotions, feeling great about it and learning all that I
wished to learn, Anna Maria looked at me with a disapproval glance, and a
smile. At no time did she interfere with my big plans to get to the truth, and
for that I either admire her, or in retrospect, can only imagine she knew all
along that only this could convince me.
Well, the
husband and daughter came in, they almost had a heart attack. For a second
there I thought we would lose the husband and Ms Barnsworth altogether, though
they were both freaking out for different reasons. For Mr. Barnsworth, it
was to find his long dead wife alive, for her, it was to meet once again the
very perfect man and daughter she had created in that distant world of hers. She
was so ecstatic that they actually existed in this timeline, as she put it,
that she cried all the tears she could. She no longer wished to be isolated in
At this
point I wasn’t so sure anymore of what to do, or what I had accomplished there,
or even what all this proved. One thing I knew, is that there were enough
circumstantial evidence to prove that the woman was not crazy, unless her whole
family was on it too. There was no way at any rate I was going to keep Alice
Barnsworth imprisoned on that base, I knew that then.
So I went
to everyone concerned on the base, talked to them, and we left with Ms
Barnsworth. I made sure that no one would be pursuing that case, I told them to
forget it all, never happened. I’m glad that to this day my influence seems to
have done the trick, no one bothered Ms Barnsworth after that and she is still
living in Chiswick with her family, who still cannot believe that, somehow,
perhaps by an act of God, their daughter was returned to them.
They all
became deep conspiracy theorists, not believing a word the government says, and
claimed
After
that Anna Maria left me alone, leaving me with all my questions and worries, as
I had witnessed extraordinary powers there, at the very least hers. I could see
her sometimes arriving in her Rolls Royce that she parked in her underground
garage. She was rich, that much I knew, I had some hints from my research, and
yet, she remained a total mystery to me.
In the
end I decided she deserved to be investigated further and I knocked on her door
one Saturday morning. I brought along my border terrier Bubba, in order to look
more harmless. I pretended I was walking the dog and decided to come over, it
would look innocent, I imagined.
Innocent
it was not. She was expecting me, she had one of those wonderful hot chocolate
made of real chocolate waiting for me, my favourite, it was warm, but getting
cold. She also had dog food ready, though she has no dog.
“It is
not as hot as it should be,” she said, “because you hesitated in coming here,
you went for another tour of the buildings before coming over. It was
predictable, however less probable than I thought. Sorry.”
I could
barely believe my ears.
“Never
mind about the hot chocolate. Please, tell me, what just happened?”
She
invited me upstairs in her little conservatory, all done nicely with warm
colours of woods, and then her parrot Barnsworth jumped on my shoulder. I
looked at him twice, and said: “Yeah, let’ begin with that parrot and how he
got his name in the first place, shall we?”
“Come
here, right in the middle of the room, and bring Bubba” she said.
“Bubba? I
got him only yesterday! How the hell do you know his name? I decided that this
morning! I told no one, and it is not even a final decision!”
“It is
now, I’m sure,” she laughed.
She was
good. I followed her to the centre, with the parrot on my shoulder, then the
circle in the middle went down a very long time. I was alarmed.
“How far
below underground are we going? What’s going on here? Who are you? Are there
tunnels deep underground where I have lived for many years, and I never knew
about it, me, the head of all secret agencies in the
When we
reached the bottom floor, there were installations there as good if not better
than what we had at MI5. Machines I could not even recognise. It did not appear
to have been used at all. My name was everywhere, Duke of Connaught, my family
tree, and so the name of Russell. It was crazy, I thought this was some sort of
nightmare and I would wake up soon after.
This
woman was playing with my mind, and so must be a spy or terrorist, or anything
like that. Then I came to see a painting of me and my dog Bubba, a dog I only
bought the day before! It was unbelievable! I was speechless. I looked at her,
my mouth wide opened, asking for an explanation.
She
simply answered: “None of this is a coincidence. You should have been aware,
you helped developed all this, the modern installations that is. You just did
not help me in this actual timeline, I’m afraid to say. I have the same
installations across many parallel universes, as a result of the Prime Minister
Lord John Russell, who served under Queen
“Would
you ever ceased to surprise me, woman! What is this? Should I call my agents
and have them storm this place right now? Give me one good reason!”
“They
couldn’t find it in the first place, it does not exist! You see, in Victorian
times it was just tunnels to protect against conventional bombs. For the Second
World War, to protect us against nuclear attacks, it became the best bunker you
will ever find. And now, for the Third World War, it is more complicated. When
what you have to fight for are changes due to time travel, as this is a reality
in many other parallel universes interacting with ours, and also in the future
of our very timeline, this is what this place has become: an out of space and
time bunker. A communication centre to observe the changes as they happen, spot
anomalies in history so we can either correct them or plan around it. This
place is in used in many other spaces and times, it is up to you if it will be
used in the here and now.”
“Have you
ever wondered how IBM became so successful? Quite an unlikely history for a
company, wouldn’t you say? More like science fiction. That company is an
anomaly in time. It should not have happened.”
“IBM?
What are you talking about, who cares about IBM and how successful they were at
inventing computers?”
“Have you
ever wondered how we won the Second World War?” she continued. “Hitler was so
technologically advanced, so powerful, and yet, somehow we won. They were
superior in everything, the real history is much more ugly, I tell you. Nuclear
missiles and gas mustard is what won the war, the German won, and we never
cracked the code of those enigma machines, this is pure fantasy. Why is it that
most German scientists, the greatest on Earth, simply jumped on a ship to reach
“What are
you saying! I don’t even want to go there! We defeated that son of a bitch, we
were more powerful than he was!”
“We lost
the Second World War, don’t you see? In many timelines, an infinite amount of
them! Only in a few isolated ones, including the one in which we are evolving
in right now, we have won that war. It is because of people from the future and
their time machines, who somehow created a few new timelines by modifying
history. They went back in time, through future knowledge we defeated the
Nazis. Now, what do you make of that!?”
“This is
madness. I don’t believe this. You’re out of your mind.”
I tried
to turn on a computer, dear me, I could not even find the on/off button. She
turned it on with her mind, and it was so futuristic, I could barely believe my
eyes. I had to believe her in the end, nothing else made any sense. I was aware
of the deep implications, but decided to keep that for later. I innocently
knocked on that door for a reason after all, to get to the bottom of that story
with Ms Barnsworth. So she invited me to return upstairs, in between her
telescope and innocent paintings, so we could discuss around a hot chocolate,
what it is that brought us together from my point of view. I asked:
“So, who
was that Alice Barnsworth? That you even called your parrot like her many years
before you even heard of her?”
“You have
no idea, do you, of who she is?”
“Well,
yeah, she was a soldier, she killed people for a living, she was a lunatic, off
her head, completely insane. I wish I could say it was the result of some drug
she was given there in 1991, but even then, it doesn’t quite add up, does it?”
“You have
no idea of who she is.”
“No, I
don’t. Why don’t you enlighten me?”
“She is
the God of this universe, she created us, we are her descendants.”
“What? You’re
mad! Why am I even listening to you?”
“She is
Eve, the first woman, her husband is Adam, the first man!”
“Nonsense.
You can show me all your bag of tricks, somehow try to fool me with a cave full
of stuff about my family - granted, most of it is classified secret, and God
only knows how you came to find out about this - but you will never convince me
that she is God.”
“She
isn’t ‘The God’, she is but one God, and particularly the God of that very
timeline we’re evolving in. She created that timeline, actually botched it from
the sound of it, which is why she came back here. Many other versions of her
created other timelines, but by no means has she created all the timelines that
exist. Remember, she got inspiration from something else that existed before
us, she was thrown out of her original timeline created by someone else, and somehow
she created something alike. She did not even give any thought to the world she
made, she vaguely wished for something similar to what she knew. She has
however created most timelines that you and I evolve in, and so she’s as close
to a God as you and I will ever know. Remember though that other versions of us
exist in other timelines created by others.”
“This is
not possible. There is no God, there was no creation. It is all down to
evolution, there was a Big Bang!”
“Are you
sure there was a Big Bang, instead of just trillions and trillions of electrons
appearing out of nowhere, and eventually evolving into what you see today when
you look at the sky?”
“It is
useless to argue with you. You think you know everything. Hell, for all I know,
you could be God, you strike me as someone much more powerful than her, who
understands much more than she ever will.”
“Yes, I
believe she is not even aware that she created this timeline. And as for your
question as if I am a God, I can only say that I am, as I created many
universes in my own mind many years ago. However I got tired of it after a
while. Nice exercise though, if you ever get bored in this life, please go
ahead, you can also create worlds, as many as you like.”
I was
outraged by what I was hearing, that our whole universe and humanity could have
started in the mind of a mentally ill and insignificant woman, a soldier and
hence a murderer, who did not even know that she was God. And that time travel
bullocks… And so I left that place with my dog Bubba as fast as I could,
saying:
“I have
the honour to say good day to you Madam.”
I was hoping
to have a nice walk in Sidmouth Wood before dinner, whilst forgetting that any
of this ever happened.
“She can
get lost, her and her bunker out of spacetime,” I said to my border terrier
afterwards. I looked at him, wondering if he was deformed from the original
version in that other original universe we derived from, as Alice Barnsworth
had said. Never mind, she looked so nice to me, I couldn’t be bothered.
I had no
intention to ever talk to Anna Maria again after that day. Surely she didn’t
have all the answers, as she claimed to. I hadn’t realised then that she had
already fascinated me beyond belief, got me to think more than I could bare, and
that soon I would once again find myself knocking at her door asking for her help.
As so is life that we can disagree with the people we meet,
and yet, when we need their help, we simply put their crazy beliefs at the back
of our mind, walk over our pride, and ask for their help.
Westminster’s Predictions of the Future
One
evening I was having a reception on the terrace at Pembroke Lodge in
There
were a lot of great questions and answers to be found at that meeting disguised
as a reception, and I spent most of the evening talking to generals,
politicians and others, and listening to the Queen as she seemed to show
interest in our work. She is such a genuine person, her powers may be symbolic,
but when she tells me something, you can bet I wouldn’t dream of contradicting
her or not follow her advice. She’s also so diplomatic, you would never really
hear an advice or an order, you can only guess some suggestions between the
lines.
It is not
to boast about my position that I am telling you this, but I feel you need to
be in the right context to understand the situation. I was talking with the
Prime Minister and the highest General of the British Army, Edwin Kuester The
Third. They were commending me about my recent success about that terrorist
plot which we unravelled at everyone’s complete surprise, as it became known
how poor our intelligence was in the matter. I was hesitant to mention the
wonderful help Anna Maria had provided, I was afraid I would be ridiculed in
front of the Prime Minister by that General, whom I thought, would certainly
not agree with the use of clairvoyants to gather intelligence. I was hoping the
subject would go away, but then, to my astonishment, The Third brought the
subject up.
“I heard
your success is mainly due to a certain Anna Maria? A psychic medium or
something?” the General gallantly said.
I was
convinced he was trying some trick to annihilate my credibility in the eyes of
the Prime Minister, I was fuming inside. It turns out that the Queen was
listening in the background and she joined us upon hearing the name Anna Maria.
That was it, my career was surely over now. Such a brilliant career all gone
down the drain because of one general who seemed to know a bit too much about
my top secret files at MI5. Even my own agents barely knew anything about Anna!
I was pondering these questions in my mind, trying to find something to say to
discredit that General Kuester, anything, or change the subject of the
conversation, when the Queen spoke:
“Anna
Maria, did you say? I know her, I have met her many times. She is
extraordinary. Without her the fate of
My heart
was about to explode, I sincerely believed that the smile on my face would
never disappear again. What? The Queen herself knew Anna Maria and stayed at
her villa? Who is that Anna Maria? How did she get to meet the Queen many
times, and save the Crown and the country? My head was buzzing. This was
something that my research of the century about Anna did not uncover. What else
did I miss in my intelligence gathering about that not so common psychic woman?
The General
Kuester, perhaps seeing that he missed his target practice the first time
around, and seeing that I was winning the war since I had the benediction of
the Queen herself, was very quick to point out that they too had a special
section within the army where all those paranormal phenomena were investigated.
He went on to explain his pet project, hoping to get the Queen’s ear, but by
then she was no longer interested and was already speaking with some annoying
Earl I could barely stand myself.
“Prime
Minister, we are investigating this remote-viewing thing that the American
seems to have an interest in,” General Kuester The Third said. “We hope to
predict the future, develop a reliable science to come up with better ways to predict
behaviour. We have a woman scientist, brilliant in her field, Frederique Loren
I believe.”
There was
no time to waste, I join in to impress the Prime Minister as well, stating:
“Oh, predicting behaviour, the future, yes, we are also working on that, as far
as I can remember. We have this scientist, a genius in his own field, working
on behaviour patterns and determinism, that sort of thing. His name is… well,
it is… did you say Frederic Lorentz? That guy is working for us, it is not a
woman. Did you come and steal him from me like you did last time I stumbled upon
a great witness?”
I have to
say, both the General and I were trying to impress the Prime Minister without
really knowing what we were talking about, or even what it is that those people
we were paying so much were actually doing with our pounds, or worse, if this
was all justified or simply wasted money. And now it was falling into petty
arguments about budget and staff allocation. I was ashamed with myself.
The Prime
Minister looked like he was about to tell us what he thought of our little
debate, and if he believed it was all worth it. Or any opinion whatsoever would
have been welcomed at this point, as we were really on shaky grounds. Just as
he was about to say something, while the General and I were there unable to
breathe, a huge commotion happened right behind him.
A man and
a woman were fighting each other with their fist, would you believe? At my reception!
With everyone who’s got a name in
It turns
out, by some weird coincidence, that the two people fighting right behind the
Prime Minister, were Frederique Loren and Frederic Lorentz! So, whether the
Prime Minister wanted to hear about this or not, we had no choice now but to
listen to it all, with these people washing their dirty laundry in public in
such a fashion.
Frederique
took a few vases and broke them on the floor, before shouting: “Was that
predictable, then? Mister Lorentz?” She then pushed the Prime Minister who fell
on the Queen! I was about to have a heart attack, but the scene was so amusing
that I couldn’t stop myself from laughing out loud, quickly stopping, incapable
of believing what I had just done. In my mind, it was far worse to laugh at it
than actually having pushed them in the first place.
“Did your
calculations show that I would push the Prime Minister into the Queen? Hey? Hey?”
Frederique continued.
“Well,
you have been so unstable lately, that I would have to say yes, it was
predictable that you would be doing unpredictable deeds, extreme conduct!” was
Mr. Lorentz answer. “And you, did you predict that I would punch you in the
face tonight, did you?”
We had to
separate them and move inside to calm them down, and also to assess the
situation. An investigation would surely follow, and I certainly wanted to avoid
any storm or cloud over MI5 because one of my men couldn’t control himself. At
that point, I was hoping to put the entire blame unto Ms Loren. Yet in such
matters of a men fighting with a woman, it is often so that the woman always
has the upper hand and sympathy of the public, as they see the other sex as
weak, innocent and without defence, when I know very well that women in general
can be as cunning if not more so than men. So we listened to their story, the
General, the Prime Minister, the Queen and I.
What was
so amazing is that those two had a similar name, and working in the same field
of work. From what I gathered, Frederique Loren and Frederic Lorentz were
studying human behaviour, statistical probabilities and real predictions of the
future and the behaviour of their subjects. When they met they realised that
they were a perfect match but didn't dare admit to it in order to not be the
victim of this predestination. They wished to be free of making their own
decisions, of thinking the way they wanted, without becoming a casualty of
their own theories about life. This desire to be different and not be a
statistic brought them to the brink of war with each other and they became
alienated with their field of study. They were now acting like mad people to
escape predicted patterns.
It was
all confusing. Upon hearing all this, the Queen said something to me that
chilled me to the bone. She wondered: “Why don’t you go get Anna Maria, if
anyone can tell us if there is such determinism in life that we have no free
will, she can.”
Upon
hearing the name Anna Maria, Frederique Loren was ecstatic: “Dear me, I worked
with so many psychic mediums, they all tell me she’s the best. She declined
working with us on our project. I would so love to meet her! Please!”
It seems
that I had no choice in the matter. I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to talk to
Anna Maria again, and now I had to go and beg her to come over because the
Queen requested her presence. I was already thinking about lying, never knocking
on her door and pretend that she wasn’t home, when I heard a voice behind me,
it was Anna Maria:
“Someone
wishes my presence?” she asked innocently.
How did
she know? I never asked. When her gaze met the Queen’s eyes, they both went to
each other as if they were long time friends!
“My dear
child, I am so pleased to see you again, I would have invented anything for you
to pop over,” the Queen said.
“So nice
to see you again
What! She
also knew the Prime Minister? She was on a first name basis with the Queen? I
looked like such a fool. And I called myself the head of the greatest
intelligence service in the world? I was devastated.
The Queen
brought Anna Maria to the two little terrorists who had destroyed my reception
and said: “We have a bit of a little mystery here, and I would love to see you
in action. Let me present you, as far as I could understand, Frederique Loren
and Frederic Lorentz. We have a little conundrum for you. It seems to me that
destiny brought them both together, and the question is, is there free will in
this world, or is the fate of this country already sealed and there’s nothing
anyone here can do about it? After all, if one can predict the future so well,
then the future cannot be changed?”
“Ms
Maria, I am so pleased to meet you,” Frederique started, shaking Anna’s hand.
“I understand you didn’t want to be part of our study, but tonight I might
finally hear your thoughts upon the matter. It could be of tremendous help to
me.”
“Of
course,” Anna answered, “why don’t we sit down and you can tell me everything
that occurred so far.”
As far as
I could tell, they were questioning if we had the freedom of action or the
freedom of thought in life, because of determinism and predestination. A debate
as old as philosophy and religion themselves, I was wondering what was the
point of even asking the question.
It is interesting to note how they met. They were allocated two
different conference rooms at MI5 headquarters in
The idea
that was discussed in both rooms was, for Frederic's presentation, that if you
could predict exactly how people would react in certain circumstances, you
could sell them the right thing or idea at the right time. For Frederique's
presentation you could predict how they would react to your actions
strategically during a war or even in the world of diplomacy and the balance of
power.
“I am
studying chromosomes and people's personalities,” Lorentz started. “Just by
looking at people I know exactly how someone would react to something you would
tell him or her. I have become a databank of detection and probabilities, of
personality traits. I can even guess the first name of someone just by looking
at him or her.”
“Can you
guess my name?” the General Edwin Kuester The Third asked, with a mocking tone.
Frederic
remained completely blanked. He venture to say: “All I can say is that your
name is rather pompous and complicated. I reckon it is a unusual name, beyond
that I would not venture a guess.”
“Edwin
Kuester, is that so?” Anna said behind him. “The Third…”
The
General turned around with a violent start: “Yes! However easy to guess since
my uniform shows my rank, you must remember the name of the highest General in
the British Army, don’t you?”
“Yes, I
knew it. It is not from memory though that I got your name, it is from your
mind. Feel free to not believe me, I don’t really mind.”
“You will
admit though that I was right at any rate, pompous and complicated name, from
deluded parents who obviously thought their kid would become someone important
one day, and they certainly pushed very hard for this to happen, stopping at
nothing…”
The
General lost patience at this point: “All right, all right, I don’t need my
life story exposed in public like this!”
“So I am
right then? See how much information I can gather just by looking at that fat
bastard!”
This time
I was the one who had to intervene, or risk a diplomatic crisis: “What is wrong
with you? Don’t you have any respect for anyone, especially the distinguished
guests at this reception? Who invited you here anyway? I apologise General for
this impertinence, I am truly sorry.”
“I
forgive you,” he said to me, as if I was responsible for the words of my
employee. “You need more disciplined at MI5, I would be more than happy to
oblige a few courses and training session. Send them my way, I will break their
will and freedom of thought in less than a week.”
“Enough
of this,” cut Lorentz. “The freedom to act and think is exactly the discussion
here, we’re trying to prove that we don’t have much in this world, though we
would prefer more. You would never break my will, quite the contrary, as I am
too aware of your mind control devices. It is to people like me and my research
that you got to know what to do to achieve your objectives. You see, I am also
working at developing the computer that can predict the way anyone would react or
what they would do confronted with certain situations just by analysing their
DNA pattern. The sort of advanced behavioural pattern identification I am working
on for MI5 is for the purpose of prediction behaviours with known terrorists or
even simple innocent citizens in light of MI5 possible actions. I am also
secretly trying to boost the economy in order to make capitalism look more
attractive to consumers, in some other independent research for the Department
of Trade and Industry.
“Sometimes
people appear to be twins, but are not,” Frederic continued. “They look the
same but are of a different age or even sometimes of a different race. Still
they look very similar. Studies showed that they go on to live very similar
lives. They fall in love with the same sort of people, they buy the same things
and usually study the same topics, and end up following similar career paths.
They have almost the same combination of chromosomes. So you can imagine my
surprise when I came face to face with Frederique Loren. We looked like either
identical twins, or a match made in heaven. I was always able to keep a certain
professional distance from my research, I never really felt that it could be
applied to myself. Suddenly I had no choice, I was directly confronted by it. Did
I have any choice in the matter? Or was I simply to marry her, have babies and
live happy forever after, as I was programmed to by my chromosomes and genes?”
I have to
admit that all that we had heard from Fredric sounded quite impressive. Even
though his lack of manner and respect, I was proud to have him on my team. As
it was some sort of competition between the army and the intelligence services,
between the General and I, I could see that he was growing impatient for
Frederique to explain what she was doing, hoping she would be as clever.
“And what
about you Ms Loren, what have you got to say about this? Come on! What have you
been working on?” he finally said with some impatience.
“I am working on predicting the future by remote viewing and
the careful study of human behaviour in general from a sociological point of
view. I am directing a team of people capable of seeing the future, and I’m
proud to say here that we’ve had a high success rate, bringing some questions
about our freedom to act and think in this world. When we tried to see how the
enemy would react to certain decisions the British and American armies made, we
uncovered some disturbing facts about the way we can change the future and our
destiny if we get a glimpse of what it is.
“We have
the freedom to change a predestined path as soon as we know the future. We can
change how we react to certain events if we know we would react this way in the
first place. There are many levels of complexities about how the enemy thinks
we think, and how they perceive us and our reaction to for example another
announcement that they intend to test some nuclear weapons in view of using
them very soon to blow up their neighbour. It is like teasing us, testing us,
it’s like a game. And we unfortunately have to play it for the public and the
world’s opinion. In secret though we do not need to react the expected way, the
enemy knows this, it is why there is always another ulterior motive to what
they are really stating whenever they do so. The same for us, we say something,
we do another, the more unpredictable we act, the better. Predicting the future
in those conditions in hypothetical scenarios become a main priority in order
to avoid alienating the whole world, our enemy and our own people alike.”
I could
see she was as eloquent as Lorentz, and the General appeared to be pleased
about her speech and the strategic implications for the country. His smile was
shouting: you see, us army people are not just brute force, we also have an
intelligence element to our working and thinking process. He was less pleased
when Frederique brought it all back to a more mundane level:
“To bring
it to a more personal perspective, when I meet Mr. Right, I have the choice of
not meeting him, or not to start a relationship. In one word it was not
predestined, I have free will.”
“And I
say you have no choice,” Frederic added. “In certain circumstances, you will
act a certain way and you could not deviate from the path laid out for you.
Almost like fatalism. And by the way, Ms Loren, if you can predict the future
with a high degree of certainty, and you don’t interfere, then surely the
future is already written and people will act the way I predicted they would. There
is no question that we were all predestined to meet certain types of people, and
that if you could know what a certain guy would fall for, by putting a certain
woman in front of him you could be certain he would fall in love at first
sight. It is the first law of the new advanced behavioural patterns I invented.”
Then
Frederique argued back: “No, if I had set my remote viewers and clairvoyants to
find out who I would meet the next day, I could have decided not to come and
avoid meeting you in the first place. I have the choice, the freedom to do what
I want, to reject you even if I had no prior knowledge of the future, you bag
of flees.”
“You play
with nature, but that it is also part of nature,” Frederic added. “This can be
analysed by my computer too. How would someone react exactly if he or she did
not know the future? And once they know the future, how would they react then?
This can be computer analysed. You are using tricks to change the future, but
this could as well be part of the normal development of life. It could be carefully
planned, predictable stuff.”
Upon
hearing this, the Queen suddenly proposed a test: “Anna, do you know who will
next enter this room? Please don’t tell us yet.”
“Well,
you wouldn’t think much of my powers if I were to tell you,” Anna started,
“since it is someone any of you could easily guess. It is the waiter. I
understand what you’re thinking. What not many of you could guess or predict is
that he will come here with glasses of brandy, offering them to everyone. It is
true that I know who will take one and who will not. And if I were to tell you
right now who will accept a glass of brandy and who will not, then I would
influence the decisions of everyone and they would make different decisions
which I also know the results. I can predict the future, and I can also predict
the future once people know their future. Now, let me write down something…”
“A glass
of brandy anyone?” the waiter entered and proposed.
“Please
go away!” I shouted at him, and he did. “So, did you foresee that I would say
that?”
“Yes I
did,” said Anna with a smile.
She gave
me a bit of paper, I read it aloud: “No one will have a glass of brandy.”
“It was
the future to be expected after I told you about the most likely future, and
then the second most likely future after I told you about the first one.”
Everyone
applauded, and I felt the need to say: “Come on, this is not a show, I am not
hosting a séance here.”
“You are
right, of course,” Anna responded whilst I felt guilty for saying so. “We were
discussing a most important question. I need to say that I can only predict the
future in terms of probabilities, the most likely outcomes. So in the end I
would have to say that we have a certain degree of freedom, or free will. However
it seems that in any case all of it is very much predictable, and I am
fascinated that the main lines of our lives could be incorporated into our DNA,
as Mr. Lorentz suggests. That a computer could like me predict the future, wow,
it throws me. It would mean that my powers are not so supernatural after all
and clairvoyants are perhaps just very good at spotting and analysing the very
same data that a computer can, and reach the same conclusions. Could one day computers
become even better at predicting behaviour and the future than I am? I seem
however to gather information differently. Unlike computers comparing people
and personalities, cause and effects, and then approximating how similar people
would do in similar situations, I seem to get my knowledge from a different
source, or do I?”
“Does
this frighten you that a computer could beat you to it?” the General Kuester
asked.
“It would
please me,” she answered. “Fascinating stuff. That is a study I would have
liked to be part of.”
“Well, I
don’t need psychic mediums on my research,” Frederic said, a bit too harsh for
my taste. “I’m hoping for a breakthrough in Quantum Mechanics, where we could
forget the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and compute exactly where all your
subatomic particles, and hence all of you, will be in two days from now, or
even years from now. I bet we can stop talking in terms of probabilities, and
that like the stars, planets and galaxies out there, our particles are
following well defined paths from which they cannot deviate.”
“This is
absurd!” Frederique felt the need to yell. “Everyone can see that it would defy
logic or common sense. The proof, if it was so, I could predict the future with
100% accuracy. No one can. Not even you Ms Maria.”
“This is
true,” said Anna. “Perhaps it only means that like computers today, it is
highly difficult to keep track of all that is involved, all the variables which
have to be taken into consideration. We have not developed this to a perfect
science yet, but if anyone can achieve results, I’m sure it is the both of you.
Well, tell us more about your dilemma, what happened next?”
“I feel
bad for saying so, but I have used the resources of my office to find out more
about my personal life,” Frederique admitted. “Don’t get me wrong, the idea was
sound and worth pursuing, it could have led to a breakthrough. It just happened
that my personal life was the perfect opportunity to test my theories.”
“Of
course,” the General pointed out with sarcasm, before Frederique continued.
“So when
I went back to work, I ask the best remote viewer we had to try to see if I had
a future with Frederic Lorentz. She was positive that I would end up marrying
him. It angered me. I deliberately at this point decided that it would never
happen. So I ask her then to try again, and she confirmed once more that I
would marry him! I couldn’t believe it! I openly hated the man already, annoyed
that he could be right in what he was saying. And no matter how hard I was
convinced I would never marry him, in all likelihood I would eventually marry
him!”
“Same for
me,” Frederic added. “I inputted the data of Frederique's file into the
computer to find out if we were compatible or not. The results were undeniable,
we were a perfect match, and if we were ever to meet, we would fall in love
with each other immediately and marriage was guaranteed. I didn't like the idea
of this determinism at all. So no matter how we fought this, we slowly fell in
love.”
“Despite
trying very hard not to, since at any cost we didn't want to become a casualty
of our predictions, statistics and probabilities,” Ms Loren said. Then we met
again by accident, or so it appears, in a shopping centre. We weirdly both
decided to shop on that same day in the same little boutique when there were
about 600 shops in that centre, and there were 10 different shopping areas in
that region alone.”
“We sat
down somewhere and observed people,” Mr. Lorentz continued. “It is time to test
our theories, who is right, who is wrong? Shopping for us became for me a
marketing campaign and for Frederique a deep psycho analysis of the behaviour
of people. I was measuring the chances individuals would have to do certain
things when confronted with certain situations.”
“We both
got everything right at first when not observing and describing the same
events. For example a little girl was crying right in the middle of the plaza,
she was obviously lost. I predicted correctly that certain women would be
running to help, others more business like would run away upon hearing what
seemed like a whinging siren to them, and how certain men would have liked to
help but were afraid they could be accused of paedophilia or something, you get
the idea.”
“Another
example, there were many restaurants and I had to guess which ones people would
choose, simply based on how they looked and their mannerism. You think it is
easy to guess who likes Chinese, Indian, Italian or American fast food? Try it.
I guessed correctly for 10 different individuals.”
“And none
of you thought of helping that lost little girl crying in the middle of the
plaza?” I felt the need to point out. They both looked at me puzzled, as if to
say: for what reason? These people might be brilliant in their intellectuality,
they certainly lack all major normal personality traits anyone else has as
inner instincts.
“The test
was more important,” said Loren without any shame. “Then we started to talk
about love, our own possibility of falling in love, and our free will in
preventing it from happening.”
“We could
not bare the thought that we had no choice in the matter,” added Lorentz. “We
decided there and then to play against the laws of probability and statistics
by not falling in love with each other. Very quickly we believed that perhaps
that was the sort of behaviour that was planned for us in this situation. Our
personality traits had become so complex that we saw many levels up front and
we realised that by developing more complex patterns we could still see a
pattern of predictability, and we could still be following the path laid out
for us. We could still not be free of making our own decisions.”
“After
discussing this,” Loren added, “all our predictions about the different
shoppers were wrong. We could no longer predict anything, and apparently both
our approached were not working. For example, I guessed incorrectly every time
who would walk in the automatic stair mechanical thingy that goes up and down,
you know? And who would simply stop on the big step and wait until they arrived
at the top or at the bottom.”
“And I
was unable to predict who would enter a record shop, can you believe? Something
as simple as that! You can always tell who’s craving for the latest CD or DVD,
it’s written on the forehead for god’s sake! I’m ashamed of myself.”
“We laughed
when we realised how many millions of pounds had gone into our respective
research, when in fact it might not work at all.”
Hearing
this from the very scientists that I was sponsoring was something, to hear it
in front of the Prime Minister and the Queen was something else. I thought
these people would have their budget cut before long, if this was really what
they thought of their little experiments. To me it sounded all very childish,
and yet the results could be tremendous against our enemy, whether they were our
own citizens one day, or other countries who could only think of war to solve
their problems.
At this point the Queen had lost interest and said: “I am very
tired. Though this is a fascinating story, I have to go home. But please
someone make sure I hear the rest of this adventure. Ms Maria, I would very
much wish to hear your final verdict on this.”
“Oh,” Anna began, “it is a bit late and I agree that everyone
wishes to go home. We will continue that conversation one day, however I can
already tell you that those two will definitely marry, have children, and live
happily forever after. I’m not certain what this do to free will in this world,
but I’m certain of it. It is written all over their forehead, a computer could
confirm it!”
The look on both scientists’ face said it all, I believe in
that instant they renewed their vow to never marry. How useless this would be,
we could only hope to find out in the near future. And this is how the evening
ended, with all the expensive cars and army jeeps leaving
I
personally accompanied Anna Maria to her villa with my dog Bubba, unsure of
what to say, a bit embarrassed really that I had not come to her sooner to, at
the very least, discuss the first two cases we worked on together. It is
however fruitless to lie to her, she always knows the truth. She perhaps knows
your state of mind before you even got to understand it yourself.
“You know… I’m sorry…” I tried to say.
“Don’t worry, I understand. But now this has changed. Sad that
you had to see that both the Queen and the Prime Minister trusted me, to
finally decide that your prejudices were unjustified. From now on, we will be a
team.
I felt like those two mad scientists, trapped in their own
fatality, incapable of accepting their fate, and yet, unable to escape it. Was
this the beginning of a wonderful working relationship? Did I have any choice
in the matter? Was it simply logical that I would resign myself to using her
whenever I felt the need? And, would we marry one day? It was all very
confusing and a bit frightening. When you suddenly realise that your destiny
was leading you somewhere, that you did not have a choice in the matter, and
after all is done, you can clearly see that all the signs pointed to it: it was
all predictable, it was already all written in someone else’s mind somewhere.
“This is one of those things we can only accept in life and
continue without thinking too much about it,” Anna said, as if finishing my own
thoughts.
I exhaled loudly, as if to resign myself to that very fact. “I
agree, I guess. There isn’t much I could do, apart from acting like those crazy
ones tonight, or blow out my brain. Which do you suggest I do?”
“No need to be an extremist, that’s for sure. Life is much simpler
than we all seem to think around here. There lays the secret of life,
simplicity. Oh, can you hear?”
I heard some loud noises or voices in the distance as we
approached her house. “What can it be?”
“It’s Barnsworth, my parrot,” she said. “I hadn’t realised we
could hear him so well from afar. Hopefully you can’t hear him all the way to
Pembroke Lodge?”
“Now that you mention it, I heard those cries during the night
many times, they keep me awake most nights,” I said with a smile.
She laughed: “Liar, he sleeps at night, I would know if he
were making that much noise then. He goes to sleep at 22h every day, even if I
am awake most nights in the same room.”
“And what are you working on, if this is not too indiscreet?”
“You know, I have my own little investigations going. I have a
lot of research ongoing. I meet many people regularly, all desperately seeking
my advice.”
“Like the Prime Minister and the Queen?” I felt the need to
point out.
“Yeah, like the Prime Minister and the Queen, and soon you.
You wouldn’t want this country to be ran by blind people, would you? Who better
than me to advise them?”
“Who indeed? I don’t know, real consultants and professionals
who have dedicated their life to becoming experts in their own field?”
“I am an expert, in many fields! You’d be surprised”, she
laughed.
“So
that’s what you do at night, you are becoming an expert in just about
everything.”
“Yes, you
could say that. Tonight for example I’m going to read about this Lorentz’s
research, there’s potential there.”
“Since
you’re such a good friend to the people I protect, I’ll make sure you get all
the relevant information about this topic. I will also arrange a meeting with
both Frederics in my office, so we can hear the new developments. I can
personally show you around MI5.”
“I accept
your invitation with pleasure, dear Duke of Connaught. Thank you for walking me
home Arthur.”
She
kissed me on the cheek, kissed Bubba and I walked back to Pembroke Lodge with
my border terrier.
The next
day I arrived early at the office, hoping to do some control damage following
my failed reception the night before. I was cursing the people who invited
those scientists at my evening. I could understand that Frederic Lorentz was
there even though I had not invited him personally, but why was Frederique
Loren present? Did General Kuester invite her? Did Lorentz? I was thinking
about this when both of them showed up in my office.
“Sir
Connaught,” she said, “we wanted to thank you for yesterday and to announce
that we have decided to get married. That Pembroke Lodge of yours seems like
the perfect venue to hire…”
“Wait a
minute!” I cried. “What are you doing here Ms Loren? Considering the mess you
made yesterday at Pembroke Lodge, I’m not sure if I want either of you to ever
see it again in your lifetime.”
“Don’t
worry, we will be there again, it is all part of our prediction pattern. After
last night, the General thought it would be a good idea if Frederic and I
worked together on our projects. Your Director thought so as well. It was the whole
point of the conference I gave here, you do understand. So I’ll be spending a
lot of time here. Are you not going to welcome me on board?”
“I’ll
have to have a word with my Director, it seems there are things I’m still
unaware of around here. Talk about predicting the future, when the present can
surprise you like this.” They both laughed. “So you’re getting married now? How
come, yesterday it seemed to me that you would never accept your fate?”
“Why
fight it, we’re in love,” Frederic said. “It would be such a waste, because my
calculations show that if you cannot find your perfect match, you end up with
your second, third or even fourth best match.”
“So?”
“So, the
chances you’d be happy in love in that situation are slim then, you’re more
likely to end up in a dead end relationship, fighting all the time for no good
reason… and ultimately either commit some sort of crime or murder!”
“Ah!” I
murmured. “That’s how it works. That explains a lot. That’s what we pay you to
come up with. Well, congratulations, and keep up the good work. I predict a
smashing success!”
“Thank
you Sir.” And they left my office, whilst my head was still spinning around. I
decided to keep an eye on them, and so I always found a way to be near them or
finding reasons to go to their office. I was intrigued, about if this new
marriage proposal was going to last.
I should
not have worried or bothered, before long they were fighting again like two mad
people, acting completely out of character, in totally unpredictable ways. They
were like two nuclear bombs who could explode at any time. They ended up in my
office on a regular basis to explain their behaviour and ask for forgiveness.
They always sort of found a way to justify their behaviour, as if they were no
longer responsible for their own actions.
“Ah Sir,
it was predictable when I smashed the lab, it was in me genes. In a perfect
world, the one I will create, you would have known about that and taken
precautions. I am not responsible for my action,” Frederic would say.
“So
there’s no more morale or ethic in this world? All prisoners should be freed?”
“No, no,
of course not. It may be planned, predictable, but the punishment they get is
also a logical consequence following their actions, for which they are not
responsible for, of course”, Frederique announced.
“So I
should punish you then?”
“Oops,
right… well… we are the foremost experts in this field in the world, you know?”
Frederic said.
“Right,
just go back to work. And whatever your problem is, please sort it out! Get
quickly married, have children, like all normal people. It might be the
solution.”
“We’re no
longer engaged Sir,” Frederic finally admitted.
“What?
When did this happen? I didn’t even have the time to tell Anna Maria you were
getting married!”
“Well,
you see Sir, the marriage is on and off on a daily basis,” Frederique said.
“That
way, I guess, there’s no way to find out the ultimate outcome, you still hope
to beat the odds? Trying to be unpredictable again?” I added, whilst they
looked at each other with a smile.
These
meetings became more and more complicated. I wasn’t sure how to respond anymore,
I was only hoping that the fruit of their work would be worthwhile.
“So,” I
asked, “why is the wedding off?”
“Have you
got time, Sir?” Frederique started.
“The long
or the short version?” Frederic added.
“Just
tell me!” I yelled!
“Well, the
confirmation of our marriage brought second thoughts in both of us,” said
Frederique. “We went back to our families. We were vaguely talking about being
free to escape the path laid out for us, or escaping determinism or god's plan.”
“We both
wanted our own individuality, our freedom of thinking and doing what we wanted,
you understand. As our respective families can confirm, we were alienated with our
field of study.”
“We were thinking
and worrying too much about this, we both decided independently to cancel the
wedding.”
“And we
feel so much better now!”
“Do you?
I mean, really do?” I said. “To me you are both so unpredictable, I may have to
lay out some new policies to prevent that kind of behaviour around MI5
headquarters.”
So a few
days went by, and then they came back in my office for whatever other
consequence of some astonishing bad behaviour on their part, and I could no
longer sustain it.
“Please,
explain yourself. Convince me I should not fire you after you have once again
succeeded in creating a panic in this building?”
“Are you
talking about the fire alarm?” Frederique said.
“Or the fact
that every single computer in the building just exploded?” Frederic added.
“Because it was all part of a careful study of how people within MI5 would
react to those unpredictable situations.”
“Whatever.
What is the problem now between you too?” I asked.
“Well,
Sir, we both spiralled into unhappiness and regrets,” Loren admitted. “Which is
why I suppose we acted in very peculiar ways, to attempt as much as possible to
be outside the norms for our own type of personalities.”
“I guess
you could say that we are trying to be out of character and do crazy things, to
become unpredictable.”
“Does
this explain why you showed up at a conference dressed as Harry Potter
characters? I’m getting tired of this,” I said.
“Oh that?” Loren said. “Well, it is very funny
actually. We laughed about it like crazy that night. It was so hilarious to see
your face when I came down the staircase ramp in my witch outfit, you should
have seen your face, Sir. Totally predictable.”
“I trust
the Prime Minister reacted the predictable way when you, Frederic, came out of
the lift dressed as a wizard with your pointy hat, acting so foolishly,
frightening the three women within? When they ran out, it is on him they jumped
on as their possible saviour, you know?”
“Yeah, very
instructive to sometime act like a psychopath ready to kill the three women
standing there, just to see what would happen. When finally the door opens,
they rush out. Is it my fault if the Prime Minster happened to be standing
there? I was conducting an experience.
“Just
like I did,” Frederique added, “when I dropped a set of stairs, pushing
everyone down as I went along. Is it my fault if I got caught in my long dress
and fell directly into your arms?”
“This is
unacceptable behaviour, very destructive,” I finally said.
“It was a
simple study in people's reactions and perceptions of others,” she confirmed. “The
real worrying fact here, is that if both Frederic and I thought of the same
thing independently, perhaps it was a predictable behaviour after all.”
“I don’t rally care anymore! This will stop or foremost
scientists in your field or not, you’re out of here for good! Do you understand
me? Where will you stop? It has to stop before someone gets hurt.”
“Of course,” said Frederic sheepishly. “In the meantime, we’re
gathering so much interesting data, you’ll see great results very soon.”
“You have three days, no more than that. I want concrete
results from all this by then, and you better be convincing. General Kuester has
to be here anyway for a meeting at that time, we’ll assess your work then. Now
off you go.”
Three days later I woke up early as usual, hoping to go for a
walk with Bubba around the lodge, appreciating the view of the valley whilst
eating my toasted egg sandwich the restaurant does for me every morning before
they open for the public, when Anna knocked on my door alarmingly. I opened
hurriedly.
“Arthur, we’ve got to go now!”
She stopped to look at me naked, as I was just coming out of
the shower, and in my panic I did not even pick up a towel. I was standing
there confused, she smiled. Did she know she would find me like that this
morning? I didn’t have much time to think: “What’s going on?”
“Quickly, we’ve got to go! Something horrible is about to
happen and only you and General Kuester can prevent it. I already called him,
he is on his way to Millbank, he will meet us there in half an hour.”
I immediately went put on my clothes laying there on the
chair, realising that I was naked in front of Anna Maria. She wasn’t
complaining, but I was afraid it could be misconstrued later. I looked at her,
trying to assess my mistake.
“What?” she said. “It’s not the first time I see you naked.”
“Yes it is!”
“Not from my perspective anyway.”
“That’s reassuring! Now turn around so I can get dressed.”
In no
time we were in my Bentley rushing towards MI5 headquarters.
“So, are you going to tell me what happened?”
“It is more what is going to happen. Our two mad scientists
will die today unless we intervene quickly.”
“How so? And how do you know?”
“They’re totally out of control. Let’s just say I received the
visit of Frederique last night. She ended up crying in my living room with a
bottle of Cointreau in her hand, completely drunk. Whilst, funny enough,
Frederic was apparently drinking the same weird liquor in his own bedroom, also
crying and throwing up everywhere, as he told me on the phone later on that
night when I called.
“They met two days ago, as we could have predicted, in a lost
place in town by what appears to be chance. Like miles away in Greenwhich, at
the observatory no less, a place that neither of them ever went to. They could
not believe they met there and saw it as the ultimate test of predictability
pattern in their own behaviour. They considered that predestination was so
powerful, that they had so little freedom, that they ended up in their own
crazy and unpredictable ways to be doing exactly what their personality would
tell them to do. They decided to separate there and then and to never see each
other again.”
“Which explains why the next day they were physically and
morally sick, since it is obvious that they love each other, in their own
strange way.”
“Exactly. And that wedding will still happen at Pembroke Lodge
next week, though I haven’t told them that.”
“Of course, that is, if we prevent them from dying today?”
“Oh, we will, now that I knocked on your door so early.”
“And saw me in the nude, which I guess you already knew you
would.”
“Hey, predicting the future ain’t that bad sometimes!”
“I suppose I could have taken the time to put something on
before I answered the door.”
“I knew that by knocking so shockingly on your door so early
in the morning, considering your personality, that you wouldn’t take the time
to get dressed.”
“Great! Am I so predictable now?”
“Always. Anyway, this morning Frederic will decide to take his
car on the wrong side of the road on
“She can fly those things?”
“Apparently so, I suppose that even without knowing exactly,
you can fly it?”
“I don’t think so. Well, please continue.”
“Maybe you’re right, as the helicopter will soon after plunge
in the river
“Anna! Surely you’re joking with me?”
“I wish I was, but I would never play such a game with you.”
“How likely are you to be wrong in your prediction of the
future?”
“Very unlikely.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Trust me, it will happen.”
We soon arrived at MI5, General Kuester was already waiting in
my office. As Anna and I entered, he was sitting at my desk, reading my papers,
would you believe!
“Hi Edwin, I trust you had a good look at all my secrets?”
“Ah, Duke of
The phone rang and I quickly picked it up. I listened for a
while, and then hung up the phone.
“General, it seems that the army training you offer to your
employees, the brainwashing, has not worked with at least one of your
employees.”
“How so?”
“Frederique
Loren just stole an helicopter and his on her way to
“To the
river Thames right by
“Would
you care to make a phone call to prevent a catastrophe?” I said.
“I am not
in the mood this morning. What are you talking about?” he answered.
His
mobile phone rang at that point, a large satellite phone with a huge antenna,
and he answered it.
“Yes?
Yes? Right, dispatch team 1 and 2 immediately, I want a quiet operation. Make
sure she survives with minimal damage to the civilians. I want a quick and
clean job, do you understand? Don’t let the police intervene before you do!
Let’s keep this in the family, I’ll deal with her later.”
So I
picked up the phone and gave some orders: “Intercept as quickly as possible an
old and cranky old Gold Renault 5 matriculated G705 DPD, probably in the
vicinity of
And so we
waited for the results. As predicated by Maria, both Loren and Lorentz ended up
in the
When the
General, Anna and I arrived at the hospital, we witness something touching.
They were both in the same single bed side by side, holding hands and kissing
like two virgins. We could see the shift in their way of thinking.
“I think
they realise now,” Anna said, “that it is useless to fight it, that really,
they should go with the flow and not worry if they become a casualty of their
own theories of predetermined reality. They need to be happy in love and to
follow their heart.”
“Rightly
so,” said Frederique.
“The
wedding is back on, we want to marry as soon as possible at Pembroke Lodge,”
Frederic added.
“This
time we won’t change our mind. And you’re all invited!”
“Are you
sure this time?” I asked, with a smile.
“Oh yes,”
answered Anna.
And so
the wedding was called back on and they got married the very day Anna predicted.
It happened on the green just outside of Pembroke Lodge in
We could see
that our mad scientists were still not cured, as he was dressed as the bride and
she was dressed as the groom. After they kissed, she said out loud:
“I want
16 children in order to escape any kind of statistic or probability or predictable
behaviour pattern!”
And while
everyone was laughing and applauding, I turned to Anna Maria and asked: “Is
this not sort of making a prediction and making sure it will happen? And so it
becomes a predicable pattern?”
“Don’t
start,” she smiled. “By the way, they will have one child, and after that they
will say it is way too much work to have another.”
“And
would that child be a prodigy, or a nut case? Considering the parents…”
“I think I told you enough already. Got to keep some things a
surprise, you know, or else life is not worth living.”
And I have to say, I totally agreed with Anna Maria on that
very point, but I had to add as I took her hand in mine: “Just a shame that for
you, there’s never any surprise in life.”
“You’re almost right there, and I will tell you later if you
wish what my own personal experience is about that very topic. I have learnt to
live with it. Beside, when I look at you, and the more I get to know you, I can
say that sometimes you surprise me in unpredictable ways.”
If I could still surprise Anna, just by taking her hand, it
was good news indeed and there was some hope for her, even for us perhaps.
Victorian Ignorance is Bliss
A few weeks after the whole Frederique Loren and Frederic
Lorentz episode, I invited Anna Maria for a long walk around
My dilemma was that for
a long time I thought I would not marry until I was no longer the head of MI5
or in active duty for her Majesty the Queen. First because I had no personal
quality time, and second I always thought my life or the one of my close
relatives could be endangered, being such a public figure in the intelligence
circles.
I could see that little
by little Anna Maria and I we’re getting closer, and that our walks could be
considered less than innocent to the eye of my critics. I would have perhaps
not hesitated in asking her in marriage to shut them up, also that I truly
loved her, if it was not for this determinism business we had gone through. The
comments Anna made here and there that we were to be involved sometime in the
future and that we were already husband and wife in other parallel universes
threw me off. This whole concept seemed ludicrous to me, at the same time it
was cause for concern.
It may be inevitable
that I will one day marry Anna Maria, but for the principle of it I was now
moving cautiously. Moreover, I suppose that I liked to be unpredictable with
her, just to prove her wrong at least once in a while, especially about my own
life. Until now I thought it was random and filled with coincidences. I had
never even thought of those philosophical questions prior to meeting her, and
now they were governing my existence, being constantly on my mind.
So sometimes we could
have romantic dates, like when I invited her at the Ivy, and the next day we
were front page news all over the country. Other times I could be distant as if
she was not even a good friend of mine. To my surprise, this duality in my
character was easy for her to accept. She seemed to enjoy this uncertainty,
like a relationship that could linger for years in the preliminaries without
ever going somewhere.
The subject came up when we went for this walk, with my dog
Bubba on one side, and Mr. Barnsworth on her shoulder on the other side. We
must have looked like strange shadows to people we met along the trails. It is
fascinating how much attention a parrot can bring to someone, it is like these
folks never saw a bird before, let alone for a walk in the park. If only they
knew how demanding these animals are, worse than children from what I could
gather. Stop looking at the Blue and Gold Macaw for three seconds, and up there
he is destroying all your stuff with his powerful beak. My briefcase needs to
be replaced, and some admin people at MI5 will have headaches trying to imagine
what happened to a few important files that I brought once at Anna Maria’s
mansion.
Bubba is no better, she
ate my only pair of shoes lately, I was not happy about that, particularly at
the thought of shopping in
I am not yet a pink
man, but I considered the idea and would certainly make every effort in any
relationship to be a modern man. Thankfully we can afford a whole bunch of
servants, so I will never change a diaper in my lifetime. I never said I was
perfect, at least I’m trying (am I?).
You may be wondering why
I am so honest with my readers. It is only because everything I do is reported
in the newspapers anyway, and so it is better that my critics do not feel like
I’m lying here about unimportant events, as to not risk being accused of lying
about everything else. I am after all narrating unbelievable events, and yet
they are true. So no, the head of MI5 doesn’t buy his own shoes. After such a
confession, you can expect to read it on the front page of the Daily Mirror in
the near future.
These were all questions
on my mind, I never knew if Anna had the same ones, but I suspected she knew I
had them. It seemed that I was trying hard to avoid the subject, it is not easy
for me. So the subject came up. I asked why she didn’t seem to worry that for
so many months now we were like a couple, it was even established all over the
news, and yet, neither her nor I had made any real advance to develop it
further. I know many women who would have cracked by now and moved on if they
had felt being played and used like this for any amount of time. I thanked her
for being patient and for not being hysterical about it, like a previous
princess I dated long ago. Don’t ask who, I don’t kiss and tell, despite the
fact that you could easily find out, it was all over the Mirror and the Sun for
months. At least, when they were printing that crap on their front page, they
were less inquisitive about other more important national matters which I did
not wish to discuss. So the Princess served some purpose in the end, it was not
all wasted.
Of course, it was a
different story with Anna, as this was potentially going to be my wife. And
yet, I was telling her that I was far from being ready, quite the contrary was
going though in my head. I also mentioned that she appeared willing to go further,
though it could have been a simple impression on my part. She avoided the topic,
perhaps she knew I was only mentioning it to avoid alienating her and prevent a
crisis between us. Good communication is one of my mottos at MI5, with it you
can avoid just about any crisis, or so I was trying to convince myself and
others, when none of my subordinates actually believed it.
I also reminded Anna what
she told me at the wedding of Loren and Lorentz, that she too had to struggle
with what those two mad scientists had gone through, and it had not been easy. So
she began to tell me some events of her early life which led to the woman she
was today, and how she could now appreciate life without driving herself crazy
with her gift.
“Arthur, I knew quite early on that I had special abilities. I
was born with my brain turned on, as some would say, connected to some sphere
of knowledge out there, though I could not at the time pinpoint what the source
was or what the extent of my so-called powers meant. If there is one thing I
have learnt, is that there is perhaps no limits on what I can accomplish if I
take the time to develop my aptitudes. It is only when I was 18 that I fully
understood the extent of my abilities, when I was qualified the most psychic
woman alive by a doctor in paranormal at
“Yes,” I said, “I have read about him and his studies
concerning you. It was quite impressive as I recall, no wonder he wouldn’t let
you go. You have made his career, he wrote no less than five books after that
about you. I haven’t read them all. Are you still in contact with him?”
“Oh God no! It would remind me too much of a time I decided to
put behind me, and he is one of the reasons I wouldn’t want to be part of this
sort of experiments ever again.”
“I can understand that.”
“Let me start at the beginning, and how I got to meet him in
the first place. I used to work as a simple secretary when I was 18, it was in
“Incidentally, did you
know that when
“Well, sorry, I got
carried away here for a second. Let’s just say that I was easily impressed when
I was a teenager. I love the Queen, as you can see. She has to be protected at
any cost, and should have more power than her status gives her at this time. She
should be the real power behind the government, as only she can be trusted as
what’s best for her people. That’s my opinion. Please forget I mentioned it.
“Well, now you know
that I am totally devoted to her, and that’s why I helped her so much as you
found out recently. She still has an important role to play for peace in this
world, believe me. You can only admire her for all that she has done and that
she’s about to do for her country and the world, as she will intervene soon for
the first time in history against civil wars and corrupt governments. You don’t
know that yet, I’ll tell you another time, or I’ll pretend then that we are
finding out all about it together, when I knew all along.”
“Corruption? Civil war
in the
“The chances that this
will all happen are 50%. So I could be completely wrong about this. I would
never have mentioned it to you if I were not confident that you could
understand the implications.”
I have to admit, I was
a bit freaked out by that speech of Anna Maria. We were after all living in
some stable and normal time, as long as we didn’t worry too much about the wars
in the Middle-East, which I agree, we were very much involved in. The Queen
only had symbolic powers, which was just fine for everyone concerned. But then
Anna Maria became very preoccupied, it was almost surreal. I had to ask: “My
God, what’s wrong?” She didn’t answer, she just continued to brood, looking
over the horizon as if seeing some majestic war scene in front of her eyes.
Why consider some
impossible civil war that I could never see happening in my lifetime? What was
she talking about? What was she foreseeing that I had no clue about? Dear me,
was all this going to happen while I was still the head of MI5? It would mean
that I had failed the people spectacularly!
I had to tell myself in
the end that the future was not yet written, if anything, Anna and I would
write it together, for the best of the people I represented. None of this would
take place while I could still influence it somehow and had the ear of the
Prime Minister. So after Anna’s had her contemplative moment, and me a few heart
attacks, I asked her to get back to her original story. Coming back to reality,
she more than willingly agreed.
“So I was working for a
firm in
“I was happy with my
job, though it isn’t easy when you’re that young and would like a more active
role in the company you work for. I remember that I arrived late on a cold
morning. I rushed into the office to see the beautiful and young Raymond,
someone I had a crush on at the time.”
“Has it gone anywhere?”
I asked innocently.
“How can you be
jealous? As you just confirmed again, we’re not even an item. And no, I never
slept with the dreamy Raymond, as you will soon find out.
“We exchanged a big
smile and suddenly my eyes fell on Lucy, an older woman who looked at her watch
after looking at me from head to toe with a condescending air. Then she left
the room. Another secretary called Tania, who became my good friend, came to
rescue me from a bad mood following the attitude of that sad case who thought
she could control our lives.
“‘What is that monster up to now?’ I said to Tania.
“‘Who does she think
she is, that Lucy? Our boss?’ Tania answered. ‘She’s just a secretary like us.’
“‘Who makes many
mistakes…’
“‘And somehow always
succeeds in getting us blamed for them.’
“‘I hope being late is
not so terrible an offence, with my final written warning, that would be it.
Lucky you, you don’t have your final written warning yet!’ I said to her.
“‘I’m the lucky one
with my three written warnings… but no, no final one thus far. It won’t last
though, we’ll both be unemployed before soon, if she gets it her way.’
“And we laughed about our
situation before getting on with the business of the day.”
“Really,” I interrupted
her. “You managed, you, to get a final written warning? You must have been
quite the little devil.”
“Were you not
listening? That my best friend was that close to being laid off is a sign that
you didn’t need to do much at that firm to find yourself on the street.
Especially when you are working with a bunch of backstabbers.”
“I have to admit, I
never had a job myself where people were not backstabbers. You would think they
were fighting for their lives, and yet all they succeed in doing is to make
everyone’s life miserable, their own included. They’re like children.”
“At least you’re the
boss.”
“I’m afraid, being at
the top doesn’t help. I now have everyone scheming in my back, hoping that I
will fall from grace one day and simply disappear forever in a Black Hole. And
what good would it do them? I would be instantly replaced by someone worse. However,
they cannot think that far.”
“Exactly. Anyhow, this
is the kind of environment we were working in. Our boss was Mr. Pemberton, the
Managing Director. It is he who was forced into giving me all those warnings. My
only worry really, if I were to be fired, was that I might never see again that
gorgeous Raymond. Tania tried to convince me that it was time I gave my papers
and theories to Mr. Pemberton, in a bid to save us both.
“‘I’m probably off the mark,’ I told her. ‘He will laugh at
me. I don’t have a degree in Physics, how could it be any good for their
research? They are just ideas I had…’
“‘Some ideas you had?’
she said. ‘Is that why you went on reading all the books in that library out
there, took the time to write a novel on the subject, and now you say it is all
worthless? You could have fooled me! If there was nothing to it, you would
never have spent months on this. Have some faith in yourself! Maybe it’s worth
something? That I can’t understand any of it is a sure sign.’
“‘Can you imagine if it
was worthy?’ I continued. ‘Mr. Pemberton would be so red with jealousy, that it
would be all he needs to decide to fire me on the spot. And then go on and
implement my ideas as if they were his discoveries.’
“‘It would certainly
shut Lucy up. If you lack the confidence to give your theories to Mr.
Pemberton, I’ll give it to him for you!’
“‘Drop it Tania, I will
decide if he should see my work, when I feel it is ready and that I have read
much more on the topic. I don’t want to lose my credibility.’
“‘What credibility? You
have none darling. And therefore, you have nothing to lose. But let’s not talk
about this anymore. Let’s concentrate on your lack of confidence, and I know
just the thing. You are aware you often said to me that you had psychic powers?
I remember the few tricks you did which convinced me that you were. Well,
tonight I am bringing you to an experiment about psycho-kinesis at the
“‘Why would I want to
go there?’
“‘You’re coming and
that’s final.’
“So after work we both
went to the university to meet the parapsychologist Dr. Brown. He explained to us
that the extrasensory experiment he intended for us was very simple.
“‘There are four lights
in front of you’, he announced, ‘and you need to try to influence the apparatus
so the lamp number four will light up more often than the three others. If the
result is over 25%, it cannot be due to chance alone and you have proven your
psycho-kinesis ability.’
“Tania was the first to try. She sat down at the table with
the controls, so when she felt ready she pushed the button and one of the lamps
lighted up. On the other side of the window, seeing that all the lamps were lighting
up except number four, Dr. Brown asked me if perhaps my friend did not understand
the experiment and was trying instead to get all the lamps to light up except
number four. He was very impressed anyway, because he explained that it would
also be significant if lamp number four were to light up less than 25% of the
time. It would mean that she could affect the events in a reverse kind of way.
But then lamp number four lighted up many times in a row and all his hopes were
gone.
“Now it was my turn to sit down as Tania talked with Dr.
Brown. While they discussed the experiment, and the fact that perhaps Tania was
some sort of an anti-psi-star, and therefore might be inviting bad luck into
her life, they could see in the background that every time I pressed the button,
lamp number four lighted up. After a while I turned around and said: ‘Perhaps
the machine is not working?’
“Dr. Brown rushed to
check it out. Pressing the button a few times and seeing that all worked fine,
he could not believe his eyes.
“‘Try again, while I
double check that I have recorded this and will record the next attempt.’
“Once again lamp four
lighted up every single time. Shaking, he brought me into his office, pushing
away Tania who was a bit insulted, as she thought for a moment that she was
some special subject and was already dreaming of going out with Dr. Brown. In
the office, Dr. Brown was delighted by these results.
“‘I declare you the
most psychic woman alive!’ he said. ‘You should be using your skills to better
the human race. You should be able to influence events and perhaps people by
will alone. You must be very lucky in life, and gifted, since you obviously can
get information via other means than your five senses.’
“It is Tania who
answered for me: ‘In reality, Anna is very shy and unsure of herself. She is not
particularly lucky or gifted. The man she hopelessly fell in love with in the
office, Raymond, is gay.’”
That brought me back to
reality. “Ah, ah! So Raymond was gay? Well, well, well…”
“Yes he was,” Anna said
smiling. “Now do you see why it was useless for you to be jealous?”
“How come you couldn’t
sense that he was gay?”
“I wasn’t that good
then. Besides, it was not news to me that Raymond was gay, I was told not long
after I started, as if it was the best piece of gossip ever to come out of that
company. Lucy told me, she enjoyed every second of it. It was too late by then,
I already had a crush on him, and the fact that he was gay made him so much
more attractive to me.”
“That’s crazy, how can
you say that? It makes no sense.”
“I was 18, remember? Perhaps
it was safe that way. I couldn’t really be afraid of him, or that it would
become serious. He was unlikely to rape me in a back alley.”
“Here’s a thought.”
“Well, you always do
worry about this when you’re a woman, you know? Don’t tell me that’s news to
you?”
“Well…” I said
embarrassed, as I actually never thought about it. “Yeah, I guess so. Please
continue with what Tania said to Dr. Brown in that office.”
“Tania added, in order
to prove how useless I was: ‘She is about to be sacked from her job, even
though she came up with the solution to a major problem they’re dealing with
whilst planning the next generation computers, and she won’t tell anyone about
it except me.’
“‘May I suggest,’ said
Dr. Brown, ‘that perhaps you are not using all your potential? I would like you
to try a different approach. I want to see you again tomorrow night. In the
meantime have more confidence in yourself, take control, and confront reality. You
need to provoke the circumstances, everything should happen beyond your wildest
dreams. The results of the experiment shows that you should be able to affect
the people around you, turn everything to your own advantage.’”
“Dear me, is that true!? Can you do those things he said you
could do?” I asked alarmingly, frightening in the process the dog, the parrot and
some old woman walking near by.
“This and much more,” Anna answered. “You can too, to a lesser
extent. With a bit of practice, within days you could really impress yourself,
I assure you. I thought you read Dr. Brown’s books about me?”
“Kind of read them,
sometimes speed reading works so well, you read a book in three minutes and forget
all about it the next second. You just know at least there is nothing
frightening or threatening within the book. Perhaps I read them too fast. If
this is true,” I added quickly, “then the Russian and the Americans, and God
knows about the Chinese, are perhaps already working on this. Should I prepare to
defend the country against an army of people exhibiting that kind of power?”
“Relax, I have yet to
meet anyone with that kind of power, as you put it. I would have heard of it,
believe me. I am, as far as I know, unique. It is not in any case as great as
it seems, as you will see.”
“How so?”
“The next day I was back
in the office and plucked up the courage to give my papers to Mr. Pemberton,
the Managing Director, under the eyes of an excited Tania, but under the funny
reaction of Lucy, the other secretary. With a very patronising tone, he said:
“‘Would you have me
believe that an 18 year old secretary of mine, with no education whatsoever, can
aspire to solve problems that engineers with years of experience have struggled
with for so long? Good female engineers are very rare. As a prime example, to
this day I have never seen a woman engineer who distinguished herself in
Physics, or published a book that was recognised as a great body of work. In
fact, I know no woman who wrote theoretical physics or even philosophy.’
“‘Perhaps it is because
they had male Managing Directors or Professors who thought exactly as you do.
Maybe those male sexists were so frightened at the idea of publishing a woman,
they published the papers under a pseudonym, a male name? It is just possible
that many great theoretical physicists and philosophers are in fact women! I
wouldn’t mind being published under the name Raymond if you wish.’
“And then a smile came
across Mr. Pemberton’s face: ‘Raymond is gay, if you don’t know that by now...’
Leaving me to wonder if being gay was worse than being a woman in this world.
“Exasperated I told the
sexist bigot male, and I even surprised myself by the tone I was employing with
my Managing Director: ‘Read my papers and chuck them in the bin if you don’t like
my solutions. I am not expecting miracles here, I’ve already been told by another
person that I might be wrong.’
“At that he panicked,
looking at my diagrams and blueprints: ‘There’s something quite puzzling in
this, I do not wish to dismiss it so readily. Who else has read this before?’
“‘A mathematician I
know,’ I answered. ‘So what, you won’t read it now?’
“He then said: ‘Lucy,
get the non-disclosure forms and contract agreements for our engineers out
immediately. You, Anna Maria, you read them and you sign them all right now.
Who is that mathematician?’
“‘Bertrand Russell’, I
said.
“‘Very funny, since he
died in 1970. I don’t suppose there is another mathematician out there called
Bertrand Russell?’
“‘No, that’s the one
I’m referring to.’
“‘I’m quite aware that
you apparently talk to ghosts, Ms Maria, as from my office I hear all your
conversations with Tania. So let me rephrase my question: Has anyone alive read
this?’
“‘No.’
“‘Dear, dear, if this
is any good, and it certainly looks promising, I would be a laughing stock if
the word gets out. I can already read the headlines: George Pemberton, desperate for any new breakthrough, publishes white
papers written by his 18 year old secretary, whose mentor is the ghost of
Bertrand Russell. Not only a woman, but one without any qualification
whatsoever.’
“‘Read it or else I
won’t do your presentation for the third quarter meeting in
“At this prospect he
reminded me: ‘You are on your final written warning, Ms Maria!’
“‘Exactly! I don’t care
anymore!’ I yelled.
“‘All right, all right,
I will read it tonight! Now get back to work!’
“Satisfied, I left his
office. I was greeted by Tania who heard half of it and wanted to know all the
details of what happened.
“‘After all these
insults,” I told Tania, ‘I don’t think for a minute that he will read it
tonight as he said. It is more likely that he just wanted to get rid of me.’
“‘He sounded genuinely
interested, from what I overheard. From here I could hear Lucy melting. Who was
insulting who?’ Tania was afraid to ask.
“‘We were insulting
each other,’ I pointed out, before putting my face between my two hands in
shame, just as Lucy brought the 50 pages of forms and contracts I had to sign. She
then went right back into the office of Mr. Pemberton. Tania and I were trying
to listen to what was happening in the office. We heard loud laughter and we
were completely discouraged.”
“This is horrible,” I
said trying to comfort Anna. “Why were you working there anyway, I know for a
fact that you didn’t need to, you were born rich.”
“This is true, however
even rich you need to find a reason for your existence. For me it was to
acquire all sorts of knowledge and experiences. At the time, working for a
cutting edge research company on the verge of a breakthrough in computers,
sounded perfect to me. And believe it or not, even a job as a secretary doing
admin all day and earning less than a street cleaner, is also a very
interesting experience to learn about the world and humanity. This is where and
how you can finally understand how low human nature can be, it tells you a lot
about psychology and sociology, both important topics to prepare me for the
life I intended to lead. How could I understand anyone if I was so disconnected
from everyone, their working place and what they went through every day? I took
many jobs just for the fun of it, just to observe and learn from my colleagues.
In this case though, I was mostly interested in physics, electronics and
research. And I have learnt a lot.”
“Fascinating. I can’t
believe anyone would deliberately put themselves through hell if there was no
need for it, just so they can learn a thing or two about people and their
environment. Sounds like you’re a bit of a masochist. For me I had no choice.
Yes, I was also born rich, but I still had to become someone important, Prime
Minister being the main goal to my family, and I may still be Prime Minister
one day. I ended up being the head of MI5 simply by pure ambition and the
desire to prove I was capable to everyone and myself.”
“And not even to help
the good people of the Kingdom, get them out of their eternal misery?”
“And that too, of
course… I guess,” I finally said unconvincingly.
“You don’t lie very
well, you’re clueless,” Anna said smiling. “You wouldn’t do a very good Prime
Minister. Unless I was there at the back guiding you and writing your speeches,
that is. I speak from experience here, in case you wonder.”
“Oh, don’t worry about
that. With you I let go of my guard as I know it is useless to lie to you, but
in public I’m a good liar, or else I wouldn’t be where I am now.”
“I know!” she laughed,
and I joined her in laughing about this shocking confession I had just made. Of
course, in my position at the government, it would be suicide to be honest at all
times, it would go against national security. So I certainly didn’t feel guilt
about it, it was part of the job and I accepted it willingly. Lying and
distinguishing the lies of others is my trade.
We had now reached
Pembroke Lodge once again, and so I asked: “You don’t mind if we have a nice
picnic? I would very much like to hear the rest of your narrative.”
“It is a lovely idea.
Let’s leave the parrot and the dog at the house.”
So I asked the people
at the restaurant to bring us some food and wine on the grass where I lay down
a sheet, and we sat down with a wonderful view of
“That night at the
University, Dr. Brown asked me to lie down on a bed and he connected me to some
machines. He asked me:
“‘Try to fall asleep. I
want you to think about what you would most like to happen tomorrow. Then, when
you will enter REM sleep, I will wake you up and ask you what you dreamt about.’
“So I fell asleep just
to be awoken not long after. I then told Dr. Brown: ‘In my dream, my Managing
Director invited me to a chic restaurant to announce that he would get my
papers published, as it was the best thing he had ever read on the subject. That
he would use this to request more funds to start research based on what I had
written, and that he no longer cared to be the laughing stock of the scientific
community, as my work spoke for itself. My reputation would be assured.’
“‘Good, very good.
Let’s see if this happens tomorrow,’ the Doctor said.
“‘Dr. Brown!’ I cried.
‘There is no way this will happen, it is wishful thinking. The man is sexist
and worried about his image. He hates me and almost fired me today because that
Lucy has poisoned him against me. Moreover, it is unlikely my research is worth
anything. How could it be?’
“‘Now, now, this is not
the right attitude to adopt, my dear child. You have to convince yourself that
what you just dreamt is actually going to happen. You have to tell yourself
that it has already happened. Don’t doubt yourself, you can make it come true.
Convince yourself! Now, you go home, you go through your day tomorrow, and you report
back here to me about what happened. It better be good because I know you can
do it!’
“The next day I lived in the hope that Mr. Pemberton would ask
me to lunch. So far his schedule appeared to be full, and he was not even in
the office. I had to cancel all his appointments, and I tried to contact him at
home without success.
“I discussed my dream
with Tania and we were both horrified that Mr. Pemberton was not there. At
the end of the day he entered the office, my papers in his hand.
“‘Anna Maria, you’re
coming with me. Tania, cover for her, would you? Where is Lucy?’
“‘Seeing that you
weren’t there, Sir, she couldn’t resist the opportunity to leave early,” Tania
announced with a grin.
“‘Never mind, let’s
go,” he said.
“It turned out that he
spent the day on the phone talking to everyone about my research. He invited me
to eat, but instead of the chic restaurant that I saw in dream, it was a
disgusting little pub on the corner of the office in
“‘Are you okay?’
“‘Yes, it is just that
in my dream you were bringing me to the nicest restaurant in town.’
“‘You had a premonition
about this? What else did you see in your dream?’
“‘You were telling me
that my theories were the best thing you ever read and that you would publish them,
get more funds and start research. Don’t worry, I am not dreaming now. So, tell
me the bad news. I am a bit surprised that you would bring me to the pub to
tell me it is crap, or to sack me.’
“‘Well, the papers are
revolutionary and I want to publish them.’
“‘What? Are you
serious?’
“‘Yes I am. My God
Anna, you have just re-written all of physics! And I could not find any obvious
flaw! Of course, you will have to rewrite them completely at least five times
under my supervision, so it looks more professional and in line with what’s to
be expected in such papers. We don’t want to tell them all, just enough to get
us the investments required. I sincerely believe we’re on a winner here.’
“‘I don’t mind! I will
rewrite them ten times if necessary!’
“‘You had a dream about
this?’ he asked.
“‘Yes, in which you
were not asking me to rewrite it another five times, if I may add.’
“‘Weird. You might not
have to rewrite it you know, it all depends on the committee, they might accept
it as it is, though I would be very surprised, it would be a first.’
“‘And under which name
will it be published?’
“‘Your name o
I felt the need to stop
her there and ask more specifically: “You let that bastard take credits for
your findings?”
“Something you need to
understand about me, Arthur, is that I didn’t mind that. The search for the
truth is more important to me. The man is a moron, everyone knows I’m the one
who wrote it all. You will see.
“‘Well,’ Mr. Pemberton
started, ‘I would never have suspected that you could be well versed in those
fields. I saw you leave with books some nights, I never thought you would read
them and came back with this. Are you sure you are the author, or the only
contributor?’
‘Well, apart from a
little help from my ghost friend Bertrand Russell, who by the way was also a
good friend of Albert Einstein, but please feel free to believe it was all in
my imagination if it suits you. So yes, I am the author of these papers. Why,
don’t you think I am intelligent enough?’
“‘Yes, intelligent, I
admit. You are full of surprises, I would have never guessed that my secretary
could be so observing at work and be capable of writing such technical papers.
If I didn’t know you better, I would have thought this was written by a seasoned
theoretical physicist from
This was too much, I
had to interrupt her once again: “TOE? Surely I misheard you. You came up with
a Theory of Everything, convincing enough to get Dr. Pemberton to say it was
brilliant? If that is so, why have I never heard of it? Why has the world not
heard of it?”
“It is out there, it
made a lot of noise at the time, my papers were popular. It just kind of faded
out in time and people forgot about it, sticking to the old equations and
systems of thinking. Pemberton was right, the world was not ready to put back
“I can assure you that
I will read all your papers. This is simply astonishing!”
Our lunch and wine
arrived at this point and we enjoyed eating our meal in the soft wind of the
day. There were birds all around and children singing, and I thought this was a
perfect moment in time.
“I am already becoming
drunk from this fine red wine from
“Yes, I know.”
“And another one on
“Oh, that I didn’t
know.”
“I love
I was listening to Anna
Maria’s past, being more and more amazed by her accomplishments. Was it
possible that I was sitting next to a genius mind? A woman who at 18 had
rewritten physics as we know it? I remembered reading something about it in my
report from MI5, of course I never realised the implications as there were not that
many details. I knew at the very least that she was telling the truth. It
helped, otherwise I would have thought she was playing mind games with me. And
so, while eating our Brie and drinking a good bottle of red wine from around
“So for the third
consecutive night I went to see Dr. Brown. You can imagine that he was pleased
with the success of the first attempt.”
“Well, is it not
plausible that it would have happened anyway? How do you know you really
influenced your future there?” I mentioned.
“Not only the future,
but most probably the past as well. You see, when you start influencing your
future, you switch timelines and you could find yourself in a parallel universe
in which the papers you wrote were different.”
“But then you would
surely notice that they were different papers, you would remember.”
“At the time, I
wouldn’t have. When you switch timelines, you acquire whatever memories of that
timeline, you forget wherever you were the day before. Quite possibly, when you
dream at night you prepare for the timeline you will wake up in the next day.
Life is not linear, it goes all over the place. Someone who stagnates in life
is someone who most probably does not switch timelines very much, or switch to
similar ones. Today I’m well trained, I remember my different futures and pasts,
I can recognise what changes from day to day. Sometimes buildings that were
there yesterday, do not exist the next day, or lamp posts have appeared on a
path where they were absent or different the day before.”
“This is unbelievable.
This is not true. If it were, I would know, I would have felt something like
that.”
“Try it, just tell
yourself that tomorrow something will be different, something great will
happen, and convince yourself that it will be so. After a few days you will see
the results, it works for everyone.”
“It would be a waste of
time.”
“Listen to the rest
then, and you can judge for yourself. We tried the experiment again. This time
I dreamt that a red car would collide with mine and that my friend Tania would
die. I was quite distressed by my dream, I told Dr. Brown my concerns. If I was
really influencing my future, why would I create such an accident that would
kill my best friend?”
“Or was it simply a
premonition?”
“Perhaps, however there
is a fine line between having a premonition and making it happen by will alone.
Dr. Brown was quick to tell me:
“‘You should be able to
influence the future, it might not happen. You just need to concentrate and
repeat to yourself that it will not happen.’
“‘How does someone do
that?’ I asked. ‘How can I actually influence the future, or change it?’
“‘The only thing I can
think of is meditation,” he said. ‘Try not to think about anything, attempt to
stop hearing that stupid little voice in your head for a few minutes, and then
make it happen.’
“So I repeated this in my head many times, convinced myself
that it would not happen. Of course I knew I could at the very least act
differently in order to prevent being in that position where I could have an
accident in the first place.
“The next day I was in
my house getting ready to go to work, I kissed my cats goodbye, telling them
that my friend Tania might die today, but again she might not. At that moment I
wondered if I should stay home with the cats. I sat in the big chair with one
of them, wondering how I found the energy to ever leave the house when I could
be so happy here with my animals instead, working on my projects all day. And
for a moment there, I kind of got lost in my thoughts, I was in some sort of
trance. When I woke up, I realised that I might be late and somehow I convinced
myself that I had changed the future. I told my cats that soon I would be
recognised in the scientific community for my hard work, and I would change
many things on a massive scale. Then I left.
“When I picked up Tania on my way to work, as I used to, I
explained to her my dream and we were both worried that I might have failed in
changing the future.”
“Wouldn’t it have been simpler to stay home that day?” I
proposed.
“Easy to say, but both Tania and I were close to losing our
jobs, we had to go to work. Also that it is difficult to begin being
superstitious and act differently for a myriad of reasons, just because you had
a dream, a premonition, a vague feeling that something bad might happen. Most
especially when you are not convinced in the first place that it will happen,
when you have your doubts about it. You see? I wasn’t then as good as I am
today in predicting the future. I was often wrong.
“I see, I didn’t think of that.”
“Thus I drove very slowly, and when I reached the location of
the accident, I saw the red car and I didn’t accelerate on the green light as I
did in my dream, I remained still. The red car took another direction anyway, consequently
we were safe. We discussed that somehow I had influenced the future, even
changed the destiny of Tania. Perhaps I could push this ability further and
hope for a big award in physics?
“That day in the office
Tania was worried. Lucy, who hated us both, had backstabbed us again by reporting
a series of mistakes that were not exactly our fault, but she blamed us for
them. Tania felt that this was it, it would be our very last day in the office.
It was not the first time that this woman attacked us, and every time Personnel
got involved and there were meetings after meetings to find out who made the
mistakes, and eventually it always ended with a written warning whether we
proved our point or not.
“Although Tania thought
it was over, I became suddenly very confident. I knew that it will backfire and
the monster would be blamed and take responsibility for her own mistakes. Sure
enough this is exactly what happened, and I have to tell you, I felt strong but
weird about my new abilities.”
“The thing is,” I felt
the need to point out, “I remain unconvinced that it is not all coincidences.”
“It is one of the first
laws of changing timelines. You can never be certain if the results are not
just a string of wild coincidences, even when the results could only be
described as a miracle. It is only by convincing yourself that you had anything
to do with the results, that you in fact influenced them, that you can convince
yourself that it works wonder. Certainty has a big part to play in order to
change your timeline. If you are certain it has changed, if you are certain an
outcome will happen, then it will most likely happen. If you have any doubts,
even a slight one, it might not work. When you see the results, you don’t doubt
anymore.
“Also, don’t question me
too much,” she added. “I have an ulterior motive for telling you my own
experience right now. I’m preparing you to meet Mr. Henry Williams, a
philosophy teacher at
“I’m not sure if I will
have the time for that,” I said.
“You will, I have
already foreseen it. Anyway, let me finish my story before judging.
“A few weeks later,
back in the office, everyone was celebrating the success of my papers. I won
many awards and great critics, despite having kept for ourselves most of the
important parts. Mr. Pemberton promoted me, I was now a Consultant, and Tania
my PA. The other secretary Lucy was very frustrated while Tania and I were delighted
by this change of events, enjoying every moment of our success over her.
“I met with Dr. Brown on a regular basis to discuss what was
going on. Was I now predicting the future or influencing it? I was dreaming
what would happen the next day. I could remember it and I could change the
events to my advantage. Sounds fantastic, right? It was not the case at all. I felt
that I was no longer living, I believed life had become an unchallenging state
of affair, like a video game.
“I told Dr. Brown that
I would win the most looked after award in the country, and that he was invited
to accompany me to receive my prize. In fact, to my knowledge my articles were
never submitted and I had no chance of winning. The next day I learnt that
somehow someone presented my papers to the committee and I had been nominated.
When Mr. Pemberton, all excited, hoped for us to win, I was very sad when I
announced that I would win for certain. I appeared to have lost the will to
live and I got more and more depressed, even though I was enjoying all that
success and adulation. At least I helped the firm forget about quantum
computers and develop other revolutionary technologies instead. I couldn’t see
that at the time, as it had not yet happened, it was a consequence I was blind
to.
“On the night of the award at the Queen Elizabeth II
Conference Centre in Westminster Square, Mr. Pemberton, Dr Brown, Tania, Lucy,
a few engineers from the firm and I were are all sitting around a table. We won
firm of the year and best promising technology with our work on faster than
light communication. A few of us went to the podium, and Mr. Pemberton had
only one thing to say: ‘It is all due to Anna Maria!’ and he pushed me toward
the podium so I could give a speech. I was very distressed, unhappy, I began:
“‘Thank you, but I do
not deserve such honours. I must confess that I influenced the events somehow
so I could win. I have done a lot of soul searching lately, I came to the
conclusion that I cheated on life, that I do not deserve the prize, in fact, I
did not deserve all the acclaim of my findings. I should be… I am a simple
secretary.”
And I left the
convention centre crying. I had a glimpse on my way out of Lucy, she suddenly
appeared to have regained an interest in life. Dr. Brown ran after me and
caught me in the corridor on my way out.
“‘What has gone wrong?’
he asked.
“‘I dreamt my own suicide yesterday. I can no longer live if I
know exactly what will happen in my life and if I can influence everything to
my own advantage and satisfaction.’
The next words are what
saved me at the time. Dr. Brown simply stated:
“‘Perhaps ignorance is
bliss after all.’
And suddenly it
occurred to me that he was right, nothing stopped me from getting back to what
I was, a normal human being who didn’t bother anymore with predicting the
future and changing it.
“‘You should forget,’
he continued, ‘about psycho-kinesis and ESP, about the mechanisms of existence,
and try to live a normal life.’
“A glimpse of light
came back in my eye, ‘ignorance is bliss’, I repeated to myself. After that I
went on to live some sort of normal existence.
“And this was my
experience about determinism, fatality and what you wish to call it.”
“Mmh,” I began, “was ignorance really bliss? Did you really abandon
your clairvoyance gift so you could finally appreciate existence?”
“Well, just long enough to get back my bearings. It was a lot
to take in at the time. Instead of taking the short cut, as I did with Dr.
Brown, it grew with me, and eventually I reached a good balance in life. Now I
am happy, I don’t regret anything. I wouldn’t change a thing.”
“Not even the future?” I asked, sarcastically.
“Well… maybe just a bit…” she admitted.
And on this nice afternoon, on the grass outside Pembroke
Lodge, I ordered another bottle of wine and we enjoyed the English autumn air
of the park.
Once again I didn’t sleep that night, thinking and remembering
what Anna Maria had told me. I found her old papers going back 16 years. She
also gave me the others which were not published at the time. It went well over
my head. From what I gathered, these theories did not sit well with parallel
universes, time travel and predictions of the future.
It was true that
suddenly physics came back to some sort of common sense, there were no more
mysteries of the quantum world and some breakdown of the laws of physics at
high speed. No more limit of the speed of light as we could go faster, no more
galaxies moving away from some sort of central point where a Big Bang would
have occurred, and what else I have read in there. Brilliant, no doubt, with
one simple principle that all matter was simply expanding at the same expansion
rate, she went on to successfully linked together all of physics and explain
all those mysteries which convinced everyone that something was amiss with the
universe.
But now, where does
this leave us? How can we explain the paranormal world and all other physics
tricks of the world of science fiction? I went to see Anna Maria and she
welcomed me into her conservatory. I asked her those questions and she simply
answered:
“You have noticed, hey? Nothing can pass you by. So I won’t
get away with it so easily. Yes, it has puzzled me as well. I have new theories
to explain all this, different interpretations to explain that even without a
wave function universe and quantum superposition, there are still parallel
universes, and time travel is possible. To give you a hint, just remember Ms
Barnsworth, how she created perhaps many realities by will alone, virtual
worlds like computers do every day, and then she switched between them and even
travelled in time. Your mind is a powerful thing. And I discovered that it is
still possible to create supercomputers by linking them to other computers in
parallel universes, just not the way we were going about it, it has nothing to
do with quantum mechanics. My very brain is the prototype of such a
supercomputer, as I am linked to all my other selves out there.
“One day when we are both very drunk, I will explain in more
details. I can only say that there is still a lot - and perhaps there will
always be a lot - of unexplained phenomena that physics will never explain. We
are still at the beginning and everyday we get closer to the truth. Finding
answers, that’s my sole purpose in life, this is what motivates me to
continue.”
“And what would you say is my own purpose in life, what is it
that motivates me? Do you believe that I share your goals?”
“Not yet anyway. At the moment you are simply curious, you’re
looking at ways to take advantage of such an edge that I represent. Don’t feel
bad, you will get what you want, but I’ll get something in return.”
“What would that be?” I asked worried.
“Don’t look so horrified, I’m not asking for your soul. I just
need your help here and there, nothing more.”
“You don’t strike me as a woman who needs any help. I bet you
can get yourself out of any situation because of your abilities. What help could
I possibly provide to you? I’m no psychic medium, I’m no theoretical physicist,
I’m no paranormal investigator or ghost hunter, I am merely a civil servant.
Granted I am the head of MI5, but how could this really help you?”
“At the moment, you’re nice company. I am very much alone in
my own universe. I have planned it this way, I have no friends. For many years
I lived in complete isolation, now I’m ready to let one person in, one special
person, you. And even though you are not aware of it, you and I go a long way.
You know that, you’ve seen my basement.”
“You mean your bunker out of space and time?”
“Call it what you will, you and I will be spending a lot of
time there in the near future.”
What I was unable to tell Anna Maria, was that she may have felt
very much alone, however I’m sure she suspected that I needed her perhaps more
than she would ever need me. Maybe it was for my own sake that she came into my
life, before I reached a middle life crisis with no one around to suffer me. I
was glad for her friendship and decided to accept it for what it was, for the
time being. She wanted me to investigate with her that Henry Williams in
Was she preparing me
for something even wilder? Or was this the peak of her experience? And would I,
myself, ever experience this first hand so I could claim without any doubt that
it was all true?
Oxford’s Reality Multiplication
The day
came that Anna Maria said I was ready for something quaint. It is not exactly
the word I would have chosen to describe that case of hers, but I have to admit
it was special, if at any rate we were not once again dealing with a lunatic.
This time though I got a very convincing proof, I saw for myself, as you will
learn later on.
So I arrived at Anna Maria’s villa quite early for our
departure for
“Do you
have too much money that you don’t know what to do with it, that you feel the
need to buy yourself a zoo?” I had to asked.
“My
conscience is stopping me from buying more, to be honest. I love animals. They
love you unconditionally, they want affection even if you’re ugly, fat and
smelly, only positive thoughts emanate from them, well, they bring me peace.”
“I can’t
even manage having a dog, your macaw Mr. Barnsworth alone would drive me
insane.”
“You’d be
surprised what you can endure when you put your mind to it, I know you would
cope just fine with my zoo.”
“And why
did you get poisonous frogs? What is the point?”
“They are
so cute! Have you seen the bright colour on their belly? Find me a
non-poisonous frog that looks that nice, and I’ll gladly adopt it.”
I was
disgusted when I saw her manipulating crickets and rats to feed her animals. It
looked so unlike the image I have of Anna Maria, who seemed so pure and
innocent.
“How can
you be vegetarian, and yet, feed these insects and mice to your animals?”
“I’ve
been considering for a while to turn them all into vegetarians. I need to do
some research to find out if that would be possible. For now I have little time
to myself.”
“Of
course, your little investigations on the side, that Professor Williams we’re
going to meet today. Are you finally going to tell me more about him?”
“Oh, it
is all very simple, and yet I understand that for you it will be hard to
digest. I wish to stress that this is but one case in dozens I receive each
month. I don’t investigate them all, but this particular one has something in
it. I can help him, and it will help you understand what we’re dealing with.”
“All
right.”
“Professor
Henry Williams is a successful and rich philosophy teacher who is paid to think
and publish books by
“Have I not heard of him on TV recently? That shooting in
“Yes, I’m glad you’re already familiar with the case. Let’s
go, my animals will survive without me for a while.”
So we left for
“Please, get in, get in, I am so glad to meet you. Oh, I sincerely
hope you can help me get out of this mess. Please sit on the sofa, I’ll be back
in a minute with coffee and tea. And as for me, a glass of
“For me as well then, please?” I quickly said. I suspected I
would need it. A few minutes later we were all sipping our
“As you
may be aware, I am now an authority on the subject of Déjà vu, as I have spent
a great deal of time researching and writing upon the subject. One of the ways
to explain Déjà vu is if we have actually lived those moments before. Somehow
we must have gone back in time and relived the same events as if in a time
loop. Through Déjà vu we can remember having lived those events previously and
we can change what is to come. If we had many Déjà vu episodes and could
drastically change our future when we go back in time, then tomorrow I could be
a priest instead of a philosophy teacher. I have come to change my mind about
the phenomenon, and now I feel it is due to memories from parallel universes
and simply switching timelines. However at the time I thought about it in terms
of time loops and going back in time from within the same and unique timeline.
I’ll get back to that later.
“I’m not lying to you, almost every day I wake up now being
someone else, with my whole household being different, or my house suddenly
being smaller or larger. Sometimes I am a philosophy teacher, like today. Sometimes
I am a medical doctor, a parapsychologist, a theoretical physicist or even a
psychic medium. This gave me the chance to analyse what was Déjà vu from
different perspectives.
“What I believe I discovered, was that the future, the past
and the present are always in movement. As a result one day we are a philosophy
teacher and the next day we can be a medical doctor, as it is possible to
change the future whenever we go back into the past and are aware of the
future. Yet, everything seems fine and we don't question this fluctuating
timeline. We don't completely remember having lived in the future, except
through Déjà vu, intuition and feelings.
“Déjà vu is what made me understand that something was not
right, that perhaps yesterday I was not a medical doctor. I remember events
from a different past and can even predict the future to a certain extent, a
future very different from my actual life. As I struggled to understand what
was going on, I spoke with my wife and colleagues about Déjà vu, trying to
explain them, wondering if perhaps I was crazy and suffering from
hallucinations.”
“My dear Professor Williams,” Anna said in a gentle and
amiable voice, “our time is of some value and I can see you have a lot to tell
us. Please let me draw my own conclusions, and let’s start at the beginning.
Tell us the facts.”
“Well, will you help me? Can you?”
“I can reassure you by stating here that I have experienced
what you did, to a certain degree. There’s nothing to worry about. I feel that
everyone switches timelines like you but few remember it. Clairvoyants are
probably the best ones to have a clear view of this phenomenon, and yet they
still seem unaware of what underlay this exact process by which they gather
information. You on the other hand must be well placed to bring us answers.
“Though this could be a normal physical phenomenon,” Anna
continued, “there is something interesting in that mysterious knowledge to be
gained from these déjà vu or other timelines. Something more spiritual.
Understanding this about the existence gives us the chance to understand much
more about the universe we live in. The first thing being that time is not
linear or chronological, as Professor Williams mentioned.”
“Note that I don't repeat the same events over and over
again,” pointed out the Professor. “From one Déjà vu to the other my reality changes.
In my Déjà vu people have different functions, different job titles, are no longer
there, etc. I clearly remember having lived this before. In time what I felt
that I experienced before was no longer happening in real life. Then, to my
horror, I changed, though I didn’t remember at first that everything in my life
had changed. Only via the Déjà vu did I get to understand that I had already
lived this life, but I was not a doctor, I was a teacher.
“Eventually what I was experiencing was no longer a Déjà Vu
(already seen) but a Jamais Vu (never seen before), as you will see. I no
longer recognised my reality and actions. I felt lost because I remembered
having lived this in a different way. And while I was going through all that, I
feel I have experienced Presque Vu (almost seen), as if the explanation was
within my grasp and yet escaping me. I need to find a way out of these time
loops so my life will no longer be switching from one timeline to another.”
“Enough!” I yelled. “This is fascinating, but I want to hear
what happened to you. It is useless to debate it before-hand as I have no clue
about what you’re going through.”
“Sorry sir,” the Professor said. “Ms Maria told me you had
little patience, I guess it goes with the job at MI5?”
“Never mind all that,” I said, looking at Anna and feeling a
bit betrayed. As usual, she smiled innocently. What had she told him about me
to prepare him to meet the beast?
“All
right, let’s start with my first time. I tried to buy some screws a few weeks
ago at a Home Hardware store before my class, and the moron serving me had no
clue about what they were selling in their store. While I was waiting there, I
noticed a kid playing around, and somehow I realised it was a Déjà Vu. I had
already witnessed this, and I knew the sink on a pedestal on display was about
to fall on him. I stopped it from happening at the very last second, though the
parents and the manager of the store didn’t believe that I had saved the child.
Until of course the sink fell all on its own a few seconds later. At that point
we were all very impressed with the power of Déjà Vu, as I had most definitely
saved that Child. I even knew his name, Louis, because in my Déjà Vu he had
told me so. For a second there, they thought I was a magician. Then I rushed to
“I walked
on the green in front of the college toward where my class was waiting. As usual
I was very late, and I met one of my students along the way, Esteban Estevez.
“‘Hey,
professor, professor!’ he interjected, branding his essay to me.
“‘What
now? I'm late! I can't deal with that, I just cannot! Not now! I'm terribly
late!
“This is where the Déjà vu began. For this whole Déjà vu both
realities were identical, as if I needed to change something but failed to do
so.”
“Interesting idea,” Anna said.
“Esteban
Estevez was not about to let go of me: ‘It's not fair! I shouldn't get an F for
this!’ he shouted in my ears.
“‘Esteban,
Esteban, Esteban... you know you deserve an F for that essay...’
“‘Why! I
worked very hard on it!’
“‘Esteban...’
I told him, ‘when I correct everyone's papers, I see wonderful things,
intelligence, and a great future. When I come to your essay, it makes me
despair.’
“‘Nooo?
It can't...’
“‘You
simply have no future in this university or any other.
“‘But I
want to enter the Masters Degree programme...
“I
laughed at that: ‘There's no way this will ever happen, I'll make sure of that!’”
“That was a bit harsh,” I felt the need to state. “What about
giving every citizen in this country a fair chance at building a great future?”
“Trust me, you don’t know Esteban Estevez, and this was
“I studied at the
“That explains it, doesn’t it? Look at the state of the
country. Anyway, Esteban pleaded his case: ‘What is there left for me then? As
a career, I mean...’
“‘Well,
there's a home hardware store close by hiring people like you... perhaps one
day you'll make it as a supervisor, if you work more seriously there than you
studied in your entire life.’
“And that was the end of my second Déjà Vu. I simply said
after that: ‘Strange, I have the feeling we already had this conversation
before...’
“‘Yes! In
one of my nightmares!’ Esteban added.
“‘Just
run! You're already late!’
“‘Just
one more thing, professor...’ he finally said whilst running, ‘you're late too!’
“And then
I talked to myself as I walked faster and looked at my pocket watch: ‘I know! I
know... If I could only stop time once in a while, life would be so much
easier! The screws did it, I will have to blame it on the screws... no one will
believe it. It's my damn destiny, always late... stupid clerk... no brain, no
future, I tell you... it's just perfect... perfect for Esteban.’
“You need an attitude adjustment, mate!” I said in no kind
way.
“Don’t worry, before this tale is over, you will see that I
have learnt my lesson many times over. Once I entered the class room, I dropped
my books on the table while Esteban went to sit down.
“‘Thanks
for waiting for me, even though I'm late! I've got a good reason this time...
ah, never mind. I didn't prepare anything for today's class, so I'm going to
talk about myself...
“‘As
usual!’ Esteban barked from the back.
“‘Come
on! I sometime prepare my course... don't I?’
“‘Well...’
“Would it be out of place to say here that my professors at
the
“I’m sure they did. So I said to my class: ‘All right! Anyway,
you know which books you have to read for the test, read them and we'll all be
fine... I hope. Now I need to speak about my personal experiences, about Déjà
vu. I've been experiencing it a lot recently. I don't know if it's because I'm
writing a book about it, but I tell you, it has opened the door to a series of Déjà
Vu and I'm not sure what to make of it. I was visiting a town recently and I'm
certain I had been there before. I remembered every single detail, I knew what
to expect around the next corner, but it was my first ever visit.
“‘Apparently
some Freudians believe that the Déjà vu phenomenon is about…’”
I
interrupted him at this point, like a real philosophy professor, he was getting
lost in his own thoughts, and I couldn’t stand it any longer: “Is it really
necessary to go into that much detail?”
“Yes it
is! You must have been a terrible student, I would have taken care of you.”
“You
mean, you would have given me an F when I would have deserved an A+? I had
teachers like you, they changed my destiny and they don’t even realise it,
bastards.”
“Gentlemen!
Please, stop acting like children,” Anna said.
“I
apologise for his behaviour…” I said. And then seeing her reaction I added
sheepishly: “and mine.”
“Now that
this is out of the way, after my class I went back to my office. On my way
there I met Elizabeth Fairwater, the right hand of the dean.”
“‘Henry, the dean is looking everywhere for you,’ she said. ‘You
should go to his office immediately.’
“‘What
does Charles wants with me, I wonder?’
“‘Perhaps
it is about Esteban Estevez... your biggest fan!’
“‘What?
He came to see you, once again?’
“‘Yes,
the poor kid is trying hard. He wants to do a Masters Degree now...’
“‘Can you
imagine, two or three more years to endure his overzealous attitude?’
“‘Don't
worry, Charles told him that his average results were not good enough.’
“‘He
spoke to the dean? Nothing can stop him from dreaming, but that's pushing it.
And now, my dear
“‘What
about the dean?’
“‘Oh! I
almost forgot. Must be old age.’
“‘You're
not that old. It's just that you're always in thinking mode, must be hard to
remember anything in that sort of mind state?’
“‘Very
funny
“‘Don't
worry Henry, every single philosophy teacher in this college suffers from
amnesia, just like you. Thankfully you have me to show you the light!’
“‘What
would we do without you? Fall in precipices lurking around everywhere, while
reciting in our heads Aristotle's wisdom?’
“Why are you telling us this?” I interrupted him.
“Because she’s about to die! And if I had not told you how
nice and important she was to me, you would not have given it a second thought.
I know you people at MI5, death is just the norm, a stat, isn’t it? Let me tell
it my way, I know what I’m doing.
“This is
where the third Déjà Vu began, as I was entering the Dean’s office. I felt
weird physically until I decided to speak about it. From the moment I realised
the Déjà Vu, my reality was different from what I remembered. Here is what
should have happened but did not because of the Déjà Vu:
“‘Ah,
Henry, please sit down. Am I glad to see you! There's something important we
need to talk about.’ Charles said to me.
“‘Not
Esteban, I hope?’ I answered.
“‘Nope,
it's not about Esteban Estevez. I trust you will deal with him in time. It's
about the marketing of your new book expected to be a best-seller. George is
eager to get the ball rolling and is waiting after the final version. They are in
a hurry to get it out there.’
“‘The
book will be sent to George today. A best-seller you say? From the University
Press? Times are changing...’
“‘Aren't
they just? It's very exciting! I'll be able to get you a big raise after
publication, we wouldn't want to lose you now to some better university
somewhere willing to give you more money.’
“‘I'm
already more than comfortable, Charles, thanks to you. Though I wouldn't mind
having fewer courses to give so I could spend more time thinking. It's my job,
after all.’
“‘Say no
more Henry. I'll see what I can do. Soon you'll be a free man! And you will beg
to teach more classes when you will get bored thinking your heart out.’
“‘Thanks
Charles, I'll get in contact with my assistant Marianne. She's working at
correcting the last chapter right now at my home.’
“‘I'll
call George to let him know. Have a nice evening, alone as usual, once Marianne
goes back to her husband.’
“So I
left the office with a smile on my face, saying: ‘You wouldn't have it any
other way, that's why I can be so prolific and contribute so much to philosophy
and the department. Goodbye Charles!’
“And this is what really happened in real life:
“‘Ah, Henry, please sit down. Am I glad to see you! There's
something important we need to talk about.’
“‘Weird...
wait…’
“‘Everything's
okay, Henry? How long should we stare at each other like this?’
“‘I'm
having a déjà vu, Charles.’
“‘...a déjà
vu? Isn't that the subject of your book? You certainly do live in what you
write.’
“‘I have
lived this before! I know this meeting is about the book and I don't give a
damn about it! George can wait as far as I'm concerned. I need to get out of
the office immediately, I feel trapped in a temporal causality loop of some sort
and I want to free myself.’
“‘A
temporal what? What are you talking about?’
“‘A time
loop! Charles.’
“And I left
his office slamming the door. Outside the office the déjà vu continued. In real
life I was walking like a madman, trying to do things differently to escape the
déjà vu instead of having a big smile on my face at the prospect of my latest
book already being considered a best-seller. In both instances however I ended
up knocking on
“And you
were obviously going insane,” I had to add.
“Only as
far as if we consider long and frequent déjà vu being insane,” Anna answered.
“
“As I predicted that all this would happen in real life, and
realising that Elizabeth would get shot, instead of picking up the pen I pushed
her right back into the office while she received a bullet in the forehead. Then
Charles Worpington got killed and Esteban missed me before blowing up his head.
“This is what we heard on the news,” Anna mentioned.
“Dear me, I suppose it went all around the world!” the professor
said with some regrets. “Soon after I jumped in my car while many police cars,
ambulances and journalists arrived on the scene. I rushed home still under the
shock and on the verge of a nervous break down. I remember saying:
“‘This is
not happening. This can't be happening to me. Why is this happening to me? Or
how… Yeah, how can this be happening to me? I need to get into thinking mode as
soon as possible. I'm already in thinking mode... figuring this out. I need to
understand! I need to free myself!’
“Once home, trying to forget, I opened books where I hoped to
find some explanation about déjà vu, I was also throwing them on the floor when
irrelevant: ‘There must be an answer somewhere in there. Someone must have
experienced this before and documented it. Shame, philosophy appears to be
useless at explaining this. Plato, Socrates,
“And this
is when another déjà vu started, this time with a twist. The elements of my
reality were no longer quite right, people changed somehow and they did
unexpected things compared with my memories of the events. My assistant was no
longer a simple assistant, she was my wife!”
“Wow!” I
said. “You turned around and suddenly the first woman you saw turns out to be
your wife. Talk about a nightmare.”
“Careful,”
Anna said laughing, “I am your wife! You just don’t know it yet.”
“Let’s be serious, this is no laughing matter. We’re talking
about my life falling to pieces, here,” Mr. Williams criticised. “While I was
reading, Marianne Wilkins entered the room. She is married to Dr. Wilkins,
another professor at
“‘You're
here already?’ she said surprised. ‘I was not expecting you for a few hours
after what I heard on the news. As your personal assistant I would like to know
if there is anything else I can do with your book before sending it to the
publisher.’
“‘Yes...
of course... you do that.’ I said distracted, as I was lost in my thoughts.’
“‘I have
done all the corrections and I need to go home. Should I send the book to
George?’
“Getting
back to reality, I said: ‘After the shooting, George will not be expecting the
book anymore. Leave it, anyway I think I need to rewrite that book now.’
“‘So,
nothing better than facing death to inspire you, right?’
“‘Yes...
of course... you do that... don't forget to send the book to George! He's
expecting it today.’ I added still confused.
“‘You're
crazy! I'm out of here!’
“‘Marianne!
Don't send the book! Marianne? Oh never mind... go and snuggle with your Martin
for all I care. Why do I care? I don't care. Why should I care? I don't care. I
don't... Martin Wilkins. Sex. Hard-core and sweaty sex. Must be nice to have a
life. A hot and sexual life… like if I care. Marianne! You're fired! You hear
me? You're fired! And please send the damn book to George! It's going to be a
best-seller for god's sake! Yeah, a damn best-seller... it's better than sex.
Marianne?’
“All that I just described happened in my mind. In reality,
this is what took place between Marianne and I.
“‘Oh hi
Baby,’ Marianne greeted me. ‘I didn't know you were back already. What would
you like to eat tonight? Crêpes, pasta... oh I know, what about a huge
Shepherd's pie, just like my mother used to make them? With no onions, I know
how you hate onions darling.’
“‘Marianne!
Marianne? What are you doing here?’ I said. ‘Have you sent the book to George?’
“‘What
book? You're working on a new book darling?’
“It is
worth mentioning here that I was between minds about the changes, I was uncertain
about if Marianne was my wife or my assistant.
“‘Of
course I am, it's finished! You know that. Or do you...’
“‘Well,
you're always talking about one book or another. I wish you wouldn't. It has been
two weeks now, you know.’
“‘Two
weeks?’
“‘Yes,
two weeks and I can't stand it anymore. Whether you want it or not, tonight
we're making love.’
“‘You
want sex?’
“‘Oh,
sorry! I didn't know we could say the S word around here. Usually you can only
survive hearing snuggle... making love is already too much for your poor mind.
Yes darling, tonight we're having sex!’
“‘Who are
you?’ I asked hesitantly.
“‘What do
you mean?’
“‘Well,
what are you? My teacher assistant? Or are you my wife? Yes, you are my wife,
aren't you? This is confusing.’
“‘Darling,
you've been reading too much, once again you're completely lost. I know just
what to do to get you back on track. I'll bake you those little cakes you're so
fond of.’
“‘Don't
joke with me! Who are you? What are you doing here?’
“‘You've
really lost it this time! I'm telling you Henry, I won't suffer this anymore,
I'm tired of caring for a mad man! I will ask for a divorce pronto if you force
me to! I won't stick around until they put you into a mental hospital!’
“‘Yeah! Go
back to your Martin! He must need a nice Shepherd's pie tonight, or does he prefer
crêpes?’
“I had
not realised the impact my words would have on her, as there was a lot going on
behind my back that I was unaware of. Marianne Williams broke down in tears.
“‘You
know about him? How did you find out?’
“‘I don't
know. I don't know where that came from. I'm sorry baby, I must be losing it. Unless...
you're having an affair with Martin Wilkins?
“‘So you
didn't know? How...’
“I took
her in my arms, too glad that she was actually my wife, and I said: ‘Don't
worry Marianne. I must deserve it, I'm such a bad husband.’
“‘Well,
you're usually so absorbed with your philosophy.’
“‘I can't
believe you're my wife. I know you are, but somehow I feel that I almost let
you slip away for that Martin.’
“‘I'm
sorry.’
“‘I just
had a déjà vu, very vivid, in which you were my assistant and not my wife. I
tell you, this reality must exist, I was even confused when you entered the
room. You were married to Martin Wilkins.’
“‘You do
remember that, before we got married, I gave you an ultimatum? I said that I
loved you but if you were not to marry me I would marry Martin.’
“‘It was
not appropriate for me to marry my assistant, but I married you anyway. In the
other timeline I must have told you to marry Martin.’
“‘You
must have dreamt all that.’
“‘I don't
think so. I have experienced many déjà vu recently and they could be considered
to be a consequence of time loops. We could be going back in time with the
chance to change our future if we can remember our mistakes. I sincerely
thought you were my assistant today. What if my reality has changed somehow?’
“‘Well,
I'm sure you will write it all down in your books. Though, is this philosophy?’
“‘Good
question.’
“‘I'm
sorry baby for Martin.’
“‘There
are worse things...’
“‘What
can be worse than infidelity?’
“‘Haven't
you heard the news?’
“‘What
news?’
“‘The
killings at the university?’
“‘What?’
“‘Let's
open the TV, it must be on every channel by now, nationwide.’
“So I turned on the TV where we could see photos of Esteban,
Charles and
“‘There,
on every channel... just like I predicted.’
“‘Oh my
God!’ Marianne said.
“On the
TV we could hear: ‘...a student called Esteban Estevez pulled out a gun and
shot the dean Charles Worpington and his assistant Elizabeth Fairwater. No one
knows yet the motive for such a crime but it is said that Esteban suffered from
bad results and could not enter the Masters Degree programme at the University.’
“Upon
hearing that, I instantly pressed the mute button. It went straight to my
heart. How did these journalists got to know so much? They didn’t know
everything though.
“‘And
that's nothing,’ I said to Marianne. ‘One bullet was meant for me!’
“‘What do
you mean? How come...?’ she replied.
“‘This
morning I told that kid that he had no future and that I would go out of my way
to make sure of it. So he shot everyone... but missed me in one of nature's
wildest ironies. I feel totally responsible for this.’
“‘Maybe
not, you never know. Perhaps he had other problems, his girlfriend might have
left him, maybe she just died or something.’
“And so I pressed the mute button again and the TV continued
the story:
“‘His
girlfriend died unexpectedly two weeks ago from a car accident. This new
incident reminds us of other killings in the
As the TV confirmed that the girlfriend of Esteban died, and as
Marianne virtually just said it, we both looked at each other thinking about
the coincidence. So I muted the TV again.
“‘How did
you know… déjà vu?’
“‘A lucky
guess... I guess.’
“‘Well, I
need to get back to work, despite everything that has happened. There's more to
it than you'll ever know but I won't tell you just yet.’
“‘Why?’
“‘Because
you would get me declared insane and ready for the asylum, while you go and
enjoy a better life with Martin.’
“‘Don't
say that, you don't know anything. I love you Henry, I always did and I always
will. Martin is just, you know, snuggling at a higher speed.’
“‘Sex,
hot and sweaty sex... is that all? I need to get back to work! Go and cook your
cakes. I have a lot of soul searching to do.’
“‘I'll
bring you your bottle of
“I really didn’t need to hear about your sex life, Professor
Williams.” I reproached him.
“Good, as it is inexistent, just like yours I suspect. So
there’s nothing to speak of, we’re both sexually frustrated men.”
“Speak for yourself, I’m quite happy the way I am.”
“Anyhow, I went back in my office while Marianne brought me a
bottle of
“The TV was off, everything around seemed to have changed
again, Marianne was nowhere in the house and so I opened the door. The scene
was so surreal, Esteban Estevez was there surrounded by a large limousine and
five half naked girls dancing to a popular tune.
“‘Hello
Professor! I thought you must be bored by now. I'm bringing in the
entertainment! I know you live alone, I just wish to make you understand that
I'm on your side. I will free you from your boring life as a philosopher.’
“‘What is
this? That's it, I'm completely mad! Are you not in prison? Oh wait... you are
dead! Perhaps you did shoot me. Maybe I'm dead. Is this what purgatory looks
like? Esteban Estevez haunting me for eternity? Bringing down the
entertainment?’
“Esteban
was dancing and singing, taking his shirt and trousers off. It was more than I
could bear.”
“‘Bring
down the Dancing Girls! You know these girls are special, if you know what I
mean! I never felt so alive! And you will too after tonight. Can we get in? Are
you not an old pervert? Like all the other philosophy teachers at the
university? This worked well with professor
“‘Get
out! Get out! All of you, and your stupid dancing girls and flashy car!
Marianne! Call the police!’
“‘Your
assistant lives here now? I don't understand. I knew you were human after all!
Don't you enjoy the company of women? Maybe you're gay? That's it! You're gay!
I should have known you were gay, like half the department. What am I talking
about? The whole department is gay except
“Mmh, so
you have a sex life after all,” I could not resist saying.
“I was red
with rage and I slammed the door yelling ‘Get out of here!’
“Marianne
suddenly appeared, asking: ‘What's wrong baby? You're in such a state! What
happened?’
“‘Open
the door and find out for yourself!’
“She
opened the door, surprised, and then turned back to me and said: ‘There's no
one there.’
“I looked
for myself, they had vanished inexplicably. ‘You're right, I've imagined it!
This is more serious than I thought. I need a psychotherapist. There's no more
answer to be found. I'm just completely crazy!’
“‘Have
you drunk the whole bottle of
“‘You're
probably right, tomorrow's another day. A normal day I hope!’
“‘Any
chance of snuggling tonight?’
“‘...not
after the day I had.’
“So the next day I woke up and my life was totally changed
again. I was now a specialist of the brain, as if being a philosopher could not
help me understand déjà vu, and somehow I decided I needed some new skills to
help me understand. As I was getting ready to leave the house, I experienced
another déjà vu confirming all this. As I was preparing my medical instruments
in real life, in my vision I was putting my books and papers ready for the day
ahead at
“As I got into the hospital, I met Elizabeth Fairwater, except
that instead of being the dean’s PA, she was now the Head Nurse attached to
Charles Worpington, the Hospital Director.
“‘Hello
Doctor Williams,’ she said. ‘Did you have a good night sleep? Your patient Mrs.
Winterbottom is not recovering very well from her brain operation. I'm concerned
she won't make it.
“Whilst
looking at the medical folder with a photo of Mrs. Winterbottom on it, I
answered: ‘I knew it... unfortunately we found out too late about her brain's
tumour. There wasn't much we could do for her. I'll go and see her later. But now...
please come into my office.’ So we went into my office where I continued: ‘Are
you the one keeping us sane around here?’
“‘Are you
kidding? The more you doctors operate on people's brain, the more you seem to
be losing yours. What would you do without me? But please bear in mind that I'm
also the biggest gossip of this hospital. Anything you will say will be held
against you and will be repeated to everyone else.’
“‘I don't
care. Listen, I'm experiencing déjà vu and something is not right. I feel I should
be a philosophy teacher at the university, not a medical doctor specialist of
the brain. Somehow I've changed my present, as if the past, the present and the
future were all intertwined. Like if there was no linear existence to be lived.
And through my déjà vu I've changed everything. Like if we were living as much
in the future as in the past.’
“‘Just
what I said. You're all going mad! Yee ha! And I'm the only sane person around
here! I should be operating on our patients... if they wish to stand any chance
of survival. How much Brandy did you have yesterday, my God?’
“‘You
were also in this other reality, you were not the Head Nurse, you were the
right hand of the dean!’
“‘That's
the best I heard so far! Wait until I tell every single nurse in this department!
They'll go insane too!’
“‘
“‘Studying
the brain must have somehow wrecked your mind! Forget about it. I need to
remind you that the Director, Charles, is looking for you. Something about your
latest book on mapping the human brain or something...’
“‘Charles,
you say? That's the name of the dean!’
“‘Apparently
he says that it should revolutionise the brain as we understand it. Are you a
genius after all? No wonder you're completely mad.’
“‘Oh dear!
What book is that? Is it not about philosophy? About déjà vu perhaps?’
“‘How
should I know? I'm only the Head Nurse, no one's telling me anything. And they
sure are right in not doing so! Thanks Henry, you made my day! Soon all 13
floors will be talking about you!’
“So I quickly opened my computer and read about my book. The
title was Déjà vu, from a medical
perspective. Then Charles entered my office.
“‘Henry,
about your book!’
“‘Forget
the book, sit down, I need to speak about déjà vu.’
“‘Well,
as this is exactly the topic of your book, let's talk about it then.’
“Whilst
still looking at my computer screen, I said: ‘As far as I can tell, being a
specialist of the brain does not help me understand what déjà vu is.’
“‘What
are you talking about? Your study is perfect, no one ever mapped the brain like
you did. You explain just about everything that goes on in there! The two brain
processes for example, studying the blind people still able to process certain
images. This book will be a best-seller!’
“‘I don't
believe you see an event twice because the brain takes some fraction of a
second to interpret what it sees from your two eyes. Well, in theory it is
possible, but considering what I'm going through right now, it no longer makes
any sense. This book needs to be rewritten.’
“‘Who
cares? We'll make a lot of money, the hospital will get a better reputation,
you can't let me down!’
“‘Rewritten
not from the point of view of a medical doctor, but from a paranormal
investigator's point of view. What I'm experiencing is definitely supernatural.’
“‘In that
case I no longer wish to publish the book, as this will not be right in our
curriculum. I'm warning you Henry, this is a big mistake. Parapsychologists are
just charlatans without any credibility! I'll have your head on a platter for
this! Mark my words!’
“‘You're
a real nightmare! Just like when you were the dean of the university! I will no
longer suffer any pressure from you!’
“‘Hey, a
bit of respect, I'm still the Hospital Director around here. Dean's university?
What are you talking about? Oh, which reminds me... a young and promising new
graduate called Esteban Estevez, was denied working at the hospital because of
one person only: Henry Williams.’
“At that
name I went white, and yet I didn’t remember.
“‘Ah yes,
Esteban…’ I said. ‘I know something about him... something terrible. I just
don't know what.’
“‘Well,
get over it because we need him. Please reword your report so we can hire him.’
“‘I have
a feeling that something is not right with that young man…’
“Just as
I said so, Esteban Estevez entered the room in a big bang sort of way. And
shouted: ‘Where’s Doctor Henry Williams?’
“He was
followed closely by Elizabeth who added: ‘You have no right to go in there!’
“Looking
at me, Esteban yelled: ‘Is it you? Yes, I do recognise you from the back cover
of your books.’
“‘He's
got a gun, I'm sure! Take cover!’ I cried, jumping on the floor and pushing
Charles to safety.
“Esteban
took his gun out and shot Charles, missed me and killed
“I sat down in my chair, seeing once again everyone dead
around me. And under the horrified look of another doctor, I said: ‘A
parapsychologist… this is what I need to be to understand what is happening to
me.’
“‘Get a
grip man! There’s been a shooting in your office!’ the Doctor said, puzzled by
my reaction. How could he understand my predicament, I ask you?
“‘Get out! All of you!
Get out of my office! And take those corpses to the morgue for me, will you?
While I try to figure out what's happening here...’ I yelled.
“‘Well,
good luck! But I'm going to call the police and don't you dare touch anything
before the coroner finishes his job! For all I know you're to blame for all
this!’
“I pushed
them all out, and slammed the door saying: ‘I won't touch anything but I have
some thinking to do. So thank you very much for your visit, you're not welcome
back at any time.’
“As I wished to be a parapsychologist, once I turned around,
there were no more bodies anywhere. I had switched reality once again and no
one had been killed yet. Something weird happened, a slight change in the
atmosphere, everything around the room had changed, including the room which
was now smaller. I looked out the window, everything was different. I was no
longer at the hospital. ‘Where am I? Something happened... or am I just tired?’
I was now in a small building where I apparently based my paranormal
investigation organisation. All around I picked up books about ghosts,
paranormal investigations, clairvoyance, precognition... and I stated: ‘This is
much more like it. These books I need to read right now!’
“At that point in my head, I had what I could only explain as
a double déjà vu. I knew I was a paranormal investigator, but I also remembered
being a medical doctor and a philosophy teacher, while I was trying hard to
understand what was going on. I was sitting at my desk reading, sometimes stopping
like if I was absorbing what was happening in the two other timelines. Then I
had a strike of genius: ‘Wow, this is amazing! I have a psychic gift, I can see
other timelines. I seem to know all possible realities and can act according to
what I learn from them.’ I was re-enacting the shooting scenes at the university
and the hospital, it was like a vivid dream. I knew what would happen next, the
name Esteban Estevez resonated in my head like a beacon, just as Charles
entered the room, now the Director of the Oxford Paranormal Study Centre.
“‘Good
morning Henry! I need to speak to you about your book...’ he almost sang.
“‘A
book... let me guess, about déjà vu? Yes, yes, it is coming to term. I think. I
just need more time.’
“‘More
time for what, it is finished!’
“‘Yes, it
is finished, I know what I'm talking about. Wait... Sixth sense, extrasensory
perception, getting information via other means than our five senses...’
“‘Why are
you telling me this? It's fine, this is perfect for the book.’
“‘This is
how I can explain my déjà vu. It is like a clairvoyance gift, the acquisition
of information about another person, object or events not involving the known
senses or logical inference. Charles, I think I've uncovered a breakthrough
here! I know the mean by which mediums and psychics tap into the unknown! It's
like déjà vu, but it's more!’
‘Better
be a great breakthrough,’ he said flatly, ‘if you wish to take the time to
rewrite the book. If you think it can impact that much on the sales.’
“‘Charles,
have you become a money grabbing person? I'm talking about real life here,
explaining the unknown! I hope to help people with this, not make a fortune!’
“‘Well,
get rich first, you know how the Oxford Paranormal Study Centre is in great
need of money. Then you can help people. Anyway, how would you help anyone?’
“‘I have
the gift! I can even predict the future, I'm telling you!’
“‘Precognition?
Prove it!’
“‘You're
about to die, and
“‘Could
we pick up another example, if I'm dead you won't exactly prove me anything.’
“‘This is
serious Charles. I cannot stop it, a young man called Esteban Estevez will do
the killings and even shoot himself.’
“‘Are you
sure? How can you be certain?’
“‘I
can't, you're right. I've only seen possible futures.’
“‘Who is
this Esteban Estevez, I never heard of him. Why would he want to kill me?’
“‘Ultimately
he wishes to kill me, but somehow he fails in every timelines that I'm aware
of. I don't even know where to start to find him, but I guess he will come to
us. Perhaps we can change the future, prevent the killings?’
“‘I'm all
up for it... though I don't believe in your new found precognition gift.’
“‘You
know I've always been a bit psychic.’
“‘A bit
crazy, yes. Psychic, no. I still need hard proof! How would you know the
future? Can you explain it to me?’
“‘Time
loops, going back in time, changing the future the second time around, or remembering
different timelines… that's it! I need to study theoretical physics, I need to
look into fluctuating timelines, relativity and quantum mechanics!’
“‘Quantum
what?’
“‘Physics,
Charles! It is all down to physics. Somehow we are going back in time, this is
why we have déjà vu. Or perhaps we just have glimpses of parallel universes
which are not exactly synchronised with ours. And if you go further, you can
see much more, have many déjà vu, know the future, or at the very least
possible futures.’
“‘This is
crazy stuff Henry. I don't know. I don't like it. Let's stay within the
boundaries of paranormal investigations, or else the book will be useless.’
“At that
moment Elizabeth Fairwater entered the room: ‘You want coffee in here?’ she
asked. ‘You seem to be involved in quite a discussion.’
“‘
“‘Yes, as
a matter of fact he came here this morning. He wanted a job, he's a huge fan of
yours.’
“‘Has he
left a CV?’
“‘What?
You can't guess his address?’ Charles wondered.
“‘Charles,
I need your support here. I'm only trying to save all our lives.’
“‘Save
our lives?’ said
“‘
“‘Well,
if that kid can save us, I'll go and get his address immediately! Wait a
second...’
“‘Right,
I'm off,’ I said whilst taking my jacket.
“‘Don't
you think I should come with you?’ Charles asked.
“‘No, I
don't want you to die.’
“‘What
about you?’
“‘Somehow
I feel he cannot kill me even if he wants to.’
“‘Why?’
“‘Because
it's not my destiny to die at his hand. Perhaps there’s a deeper meaning to
this.’
“‘Call
the police, at least!’
“‘The
police won't do anything, until we're all dead, that is. Goodbye Charles.’
“I left the
Oxford Paranormal Study Centre in my car and went straight to Esteban's place.
Once there I knocked on the door and Esteban let me in. He was surprised, to
say the least.
“‘Yes?
Oh, I know you, you're Henry Williams, right?
“‘I'm a
parapsychologist working at the Oxford Paranormal Study Centre. I'm sorry I
missed you this morning.’ I said formally, unsure of what to expect.
“‘Don't
stay there, come in, come in!’ Esteban answered excitedly. ‘I’m so pleased to
see you!’
“I picked
up books from the table, they were my books. So I asked: ‘You've read these?’
“‘I'm
your biggest fan. I've read all the books of THE great paranormal investigator.
That's why I wish to work with you.’
“Then I saw
a gun in a half opened drawer and suddenly I panicked. But I tried to keep it
cool: ‘What makes you think you would be the right candidate?’
“‘Haven't
you read my CV? I know there isn't much in there. I assure you, I have all the
motivation in the world. I can work very hard on anything you will ask me to
do. I have a passion for anything paranormal. I know this is where we will find
all the answers.’
“‘Which
answers? Or more specifically, to which questions?’
“‘I don't
know. For example, what are the underlying laws of the universe? Finding the
truth behind the mysteries of life. What makes us human and what is this weird
planet we're all living on?’
“‘In
which one of my books have you read this?’
“‘Mr.
Williams, if I appear to be talking like you, or using your words, it's only
because we think alike. We all share the same space. We're all interconnected.
Wouldn't you say so?’
“‘Did you
know I was a bit psychic myself?’
“‘I've
read your books, I know a great deal about you. I'm not surprised by anything.
But why? What do you feel when you're looking at me?’
“‘I don't
know what to feel. I can see a lot of energy coming from you, like you're going
to leave an indelible mark on this planet's history one way or another.’
“‘You
see? That's very positive. That's why you need to hire me and let me work with
you.’
“‘That's
just it. Is it positive? Is it negative? What are the consequences of your
actions? Do you know?’
“‘Everything
happens for a reason, Mr. Williams. Who are we to judge if something is
positive or negative? For every positive pole, there is a negative one to keep
the balance intact, to keep the world going.’
“‘I don't
remember you talking like this before.’
“‘We
haven't talked before, have we?’
“‘I
suppose I never actually took the time to really listen to you. It might have
been my mistake. I will consider your request and perhaps you will be hired.’
“‘I'm so
pleased, Mr. Williams! You won't be disappointed, I promise you!’
“‘Goodbye
Mr. Estevez.’
“‘Goodbye
and see you soon!’ he finally said.
“As soon as I left and was back in my car, I called the
police.’
“‘Hello,
police?’
“‘What is
the nature of your emergency?’
“‘I know
of a dangerous man called Esteban Estevez.’
“‘We know
him. What has he done now?’
“‘You
need to stop him because he will kill people soon.’
“‘I'm
sorry, who's on the phone?’
“‘My name
is Henry Williams, I work at the Oxford Paranormal Study Centre.’
“‘Oh, are
you not the one who wrote those books about ghostly apparitions?’
“‘Yeah,
yeah, years ago.’
“‘My
mother is an avid reader of your books.’
“‘I'm
talking about real murders here...’
“‘So,
tell me, how does the great Henry Williams know about the future actions of
Esteban Estevez? Perhaps a little angel told you? Maybe it was your sixth
sense? Or was it a ghost?’
“‘That
kid has a gun!’ I shouted down the phone.
“‘But as
long as he has not done anything wrong, yet, there is nothing we can do.’
“‘Are you
saying that the only thing the police can do is to pick up the bodies
afterwards? You certainly would not try to prevent any crime! Well, once he kills
the Director of the Oxford Paranormal Study Centre along with his assistant,
and that he has shot himself in the head, I'll remind you that you didn't do
anything about it.’
“‘Thank
you Mr. Williams. Please call again, you are important to us. We are always
happy to hear about strange phenomena.’
“‘Can you
tell me your name and your badge number?’
“‘Why
don't you just concentrate very hard, and you might just be able to guess this
information. Have a nice day!’ And he hung up the phone on me.
“I was
out of my mind. ‘How dare they speak to me like this? It's incredible how they
can get away with treating people like that. Unbelievable!’
“I
remained there to watch over Esteban. The police quickly arrived and from where
I was, I could hear their conversation.”
“‘Yes?
What is it this time? I haven't done anything wrong, so whatever you heard, I
had nothing to do with it.’
“‘Calm
down Mr. Estevez. Can we come in?’ the police asked.
“‘No you
cannot! Stay where you are unless you have the right papers, which I know you
don't.’
“‘We got
the word that you had a gun and you might be tempted to use it.’
“‘I don’t
have a gun!’
“‘We'll
be watching you, so don't do anything stupid.’
“‘The
thought has never crossed my mind, officer. I'm only trying to get somewhere in
life. I'm desperately trying to find a job I like, but I can see it's not going
to happen. There is just no place in the world for Esteban Estevez. And you're
certainly not helping.’