Master of Space and Time (5 page)

The sun was out, and the three of us had a nice time walking over to church.

“I'm sorry I was so ugly to you yesterday, Joe.”

“And I'm sorry about the money, baby. Maybe we can drive up to New Brunswick today and see what Harry's done with it.”

“No, thanks.” Nancy looked light and pretty in her Sunday dress. I took her hand. Serena skipped along ahead of us, light as dandelion fluff.

The church building was a remodeled bank, a massive granite building with big pillars and heavy bronze lamps. Inside, there were pews and a raised pulpit. In place of an altar was a large hologram of Albert Einstein. Einstein smiled kindly, occasionally blinking his eyes. Nancy and Serena and I took a pew halfway up the left side. The organist was playing a Bach prelude. I gave Nancy's hand a squeeze. She squeezed back.

Today's service was special. The minister, an elderly physicist named Alwin Bitter, was celebrating the installation of a new assistant, a woman named—
Sondra Tupperware
. I jumped when I heard her name, remembering that Harry had mentioned her yesterday. Was this another of his fantasies become real? Yet Ms. Tupperware looked solid enough: a skinny woman with red glasses-frames and a springer spaniel's kinky brown hair.

Old Bitter was wearing a tuxedo with a thin pink necktie. The dark suit set off his halo of white hair
to advantage. He passed out some bread and wine, and then he gave a sermon called “The Central Teachings of Mysticism.”

His teachings, as best I recall, were three in number: (1) All is One; (2) The One is Unknowable; and (3) The One is Right Here. Bitter delivered his truths with a light touch, and the congregation laughed a lot—happy, surprised laughter.

Nancy and I lingered after the service, chatting with some of the church members we knew. I was waiting for a chance to ask Alwin Bitter for some advice.

Finally everyone was gone except for Bitter and Sondra Tupperware. The party in honor of her installation was going to be later that afternoon.

“Is Tupperware your real name?” asked Nancy.

Sondra laughed and nodded her head. Her eyes were big and round behind the red glasses. “My parents were hippies. They changed the family name to Tupperware to get out from under some legal trouble. Dad was a close friend of Alwin's.”

“That's right,” said Bitter. “Sondra's like a niece to me. Did you enjoy the sermon?”

“It was great,” I said. “Though I'd expected more science.”

“What's your field?” asked Bitter.

“Well, I studied mathematics, but now I'm mainly in computers. I had my own business for a while. Fletcher & Company.”

“You're Joe Fletcher?” exclaimed Sondra. “I know a friend of yours.”

“Harry Gerber, right? That's what I wanted to ask Dr. Bitter about. Harry's trying to build something that will turn him into God.”

Bitter looked doubtful. I kept talking. “I know it sounds crazy, but I'm really serious. Didn't you hear about the giant lizard yesterday?”

“On the Jersey Turnpike,” said Nancy loyally. “It was on the news.”

“Yes, but I don't quite see—”

“Harry made the lizard happen. The thing he built—it's called a blunzer—is going to give him control over space and time, even the past. The weird thing is that it isn't really even Harry. The blunzer is just
using
us to make things happen. It sent Harry to tell me to tell Harry to get me to—”

Bitter was looking at his watch. “If you have a specific question, Mr. Fletcher, I'd be happy to answer it. Otherwise . . .”

What
was
my question?

“My question. Okay, it's this: What if a person becomes the same as the One? What if a person can control all of reality? What should he ask for? What changes should he make?”

Bitter stared at me in silence for almost a full minute. I seemed finally to have engaged his imagination. “You're probably wondering why that question should boggle my mind,” he said at last. “I wish I could answer it. You ask me to suppose that some person becomes like God. Very well. Now we are wondering about God's motives. Why is the universe the way it is? Could it be any different? What does God have in mind when He makes the world?” Bitter paused and rubbed his eyes. “Can the One really be said to have a mind at all? To have a mind—this means to
want
something. To have
plans
. But wants and plans are partial and relative. The One is absolute. As long as wishes
and needs are present, an individual falls short of the final union.” Bitter patted my shoulder and gave me a kind look. “With all this said, I urge you to remember that individual existence is in fact identical with the very act of falling short of the final union. Treasure your humanity, it's all you have.”

“But—”

Bitter raised his hand for silence. “A related point: There is no one you. An individual is a bundle of conflicting desires, a society in microcosm. Even if some limited individual were seemingly to take control of our universe, the world would remain as confusing as ever. If
I
were to create a world, for instance, I doubt if it would be any different from the one in which we find ourselves.” Bitter took my hand and shook it. “And now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to get home for Sunday dinner. Big family reunion today. My wife Sybil's out at the airport picking up our oldest daughter. She's been visiting her grandparents in Germany.”

Bitter shook hands with the others and took off, leaving the four of us on the church steps.

“What'd he say?” I asked Sondra.

Sondra shook her head quizzically. Her long, frizzed hair flew out to the sides. “The bottom line is that he wants to have lunch with his family. But tell me more about Harry's project.”

“How well do you know Harry?” put in Nancy.

“We've been seeing each other off and on for about six months. He introduced himself to me at the Vienna Café. It's a nice bar and grill in New Brunswick.”

“He's no good,” said Nancy emphatically. “You
should steer clear of him, Sondra. Do you know what he said when I told him about world hunger? He said, ‘There's too damn many people anyway.' Isn't that horrible? And what was it he said at Serena's christening, Joe? Something about dying?”

“'Born to die' is what he said: ‘Fletcher, you've just made something else that has to die.' I know it sounds bad, but there is a certain point to it. If there were no more people, there'd be no more suffering.” I was trying to sound as cool as Alwin Bitter. “We want to be alive. Fine. But that means we have to accept the suffering that comes along with living. Don't you agree, Sondra?”

“I'm all for accepting reality,” said Sondra with a laugh. “Though I'm not sure that Harry is. Were you serious when you said that he was building a machine to give him control over the universe? Harry Gerber? I
love
Harry, Joe, but—”

For the first time I really let myself imagine the kind of world that Harry might design. The guy had no respect for the ordinary human things that make life worth living. Weirdness was all he cared about. Weirdness and sex and plenty to drink.

“I better go up to New Brunswick,” I said abruptly. “Before he gets carried away.”

“I didn't mean,
Is it a good idea?
” said Sondra. “I meant,
Do you seriously believe it's possible?
After all, Harry's just a TV repairman. There's a big step from that to—”

“Go, Joey,” Nancy urged. “Before it's too late.”

“This is getting awfully hysterical,” said Sondra. For such a plain woman, she had extraordinary presence. “Maybe I better come along.”

“You've got your reception to go to,” I reminded her. “And by the way, welcome to our church.”

“Yes,” said Nancy, “we've been meaning to come more often. But are you going back to New Brunswick after the party, Sondra?”

“Yes.”

“Well, stop in at Harry's shop then and make sure Joe's on his way home. When he and Harry start working on something, they lose all track of time. Maybe there isn't any big danger, but still—”

“I'll check up on them, Nancy.”

“Thanks.”

Nancy and I strolled home together, each of us holding one of Serena's hands. She liked us to swing her in the air. Nancy didn't say much—I could tell she was doing some thinking.

“If it works,” she said after a while, “if it works, what are you going to ask for?”

“Five million dollars.”

“And for me?”

“What do you mean? The money's for both of us.”

“I want more than money. I want you to make a wish for me.”

“All right. What do you want?”

“Make Harry eliminate world hunger. Make him come up with something that turns dirt into food.” Nancy smiled happily at the thought. “That'll show him!”

H
ARRY'S
shop was locked tight. I pounded and pounded, but nobody came, not even Antie. I decided to try in back. There was a two-story wooden porch. Harry was sitting on the steps in the afternoon sun. He was wearing pajamas and looking through a stack of dirty magazines.

“Hey, Harry!”

“Say, Fletch. You're in time for lunch. Antie's stewing some chicken and my pet lizard, Zeke. He got some wounds and today he died.” Harry gave me one of his wet, unfocused smiles.

“The lizard!” I yelped. “I saw him in your store window yesterday! Was he the—”

“That's right. Tonight, when I go back to visit you on Friday, Zeke will jump forward from Thursday to visit you on Saturday. Fifty-five hours each way, with the visits lasting about fifteen minutes. It
balances out. I noticed the marks on Zeke when I fed him Thursday, but of course I didn't realize. He was all shot up, poor thing. Antie found lots of little bullets in him when she skinned him today.”

“You're lucky you weren't killed yesterday.”

“If I'd gotten killed, then it couldn't have happened, could it? Poor Zeke. I'm sorry I threw those rocks at him. But the noise was just so—”

“Harry, I don't think this should go any further. I know that there'll be a time paradox if we don't build the blunzer today, but after seeing what you did yesterday, I'd almost rather—”

“Aw, come on, Fletch. Don't be so—”

“I was talking about it this morning with Nancy and Sondra.”

“Sondra Tupperware?”

“She was at our church today, the First Church of Scientific Mysticism. She's the new assistant.”

“Oh, yeah, she told me about that. I think mysticism's a bunch of crap. All regions are a bunch of crap.”

“What
do
you believe in, Harry?”

“Who's asking?”

“Well, Nancy and Sondra and I were talking, and I realized how disastrous it could be for someone like you to get any kind of control over the world. Do you remember what you said to Nancy when she was talking about world hunger?”

“Sure. ‘There's too damn many people anyway.' It's true, Fletcher, and you know it. Don't give me this holier-than-thou routine.”

“Are you going to bring some terrible plague down on us, Harry? Would you kill off the whole human race?”

“I'd save
these
girls.” Harry grinned and patted his stack of magazines.

“Dinner's ready,” called Antie from inside the house.

The whole floor above Harry's shop was an apartment. Apparently Antie had been expecting me; two places were set in the dark old dining room. Harry and I took our seats, and Antie brought in the meal.

Besides the lizard stew, we had fried potatoes, cucumber salad, fresh rolls, a plate of hot sauerkraut, and a bottle of good red wine. Harry ate with his hands.

“The lizard's not bad,” I observed between forkfuls. The meat was pale and spongy, a bit like soft-shelled lobster. It gave me a good feeling to be eating something that had tried to kill me only the day before.

“Mmmpf,” said Harry by way of agreement. He chewed with his mouth open, then swallowed. “I've always had a thing about Godzilla. It's no surprise I picked on poor Zeke for the counterweight.”

“But that's just so irresponsible, Harry. You could have used a
shoe
or something, and then yesterday would have been no problem. A giant shoe would have blocked our way for a while, and then it would have disappeared. How do I know what other craziness you're going to pull? What if you crack the Earth in half or something? You're not into disaster movies, are you?”

“Nah, not really. I got enough of that stuff when I was little. My Dad used to read the Book of Revelations to us every night.”

“Oh, brother. That's all we need. Look, Harry,
it's time we had a serious talk. I've seen both you and Zeke travel through time, so I know the blunzer is going to work. We're going to build it today and tonight you'll be master of space and time, at least for a while. God knows I would have picked someone else, but at least you're my friend and I can count on you to make me rich while you have the power, right?”