doo-da zippidy

Er... I'm not sure I do any more.

No?

No, in fact, I'm beginning to realise that I positively don't.

You are?

Yes.

Here -- hold this a moment would you.

What is it?

Oh, nothing important.

Nothing important?

More or less. Here.

Zie takes hold of nothing important -- without a clue what he's holding in his hands. It's like there's an incomprehension field around it which makes it impossible to figure out what it is -- to join the dots -- no matter how hard you stare at it.

74 years later, someone hits rewind... 

Oh, there you are Merry.

Thanks Zie -- let me take that.

Oh, you mean nothing-important? I seem to have something wrong with my brain Merry. I was staring at this thing for ever

What thing?

This nothing-important thing -- and try as I might I can't make head or tale of it.

You can't?

Nope.

But surely you can tell me its colour?

Nope.

It's size and shape?

Nope.

It's weight?

Not even its weight. It's like one of those ultra black things which absorb all light -- but this one absorbs all cognition. I can look at it -- but can't think it.

You're sure about that?

Absolutely.

You're absolutely sure that you can't think about nothing important.

You bet I am, ridiculous though this sounds.

Well there you go. Did you try sniffing it?

I told you Merry -- I cannot think it -- so even if I sniff it and smell something -- I won't be able to cognate whatever it is. No what seems to attach to it. It's like it's coated with some non-stick surface.

So, have you ever noticed this before?

That's what's troubling me.

It is? Why's that?

Because I wouldn't have noticed, would I. The only reason I even noticed this nothing much was because you asked me to hold it -- but beyond noticing the fact that I was holding nothing much -- my mind is utterly bereft of any grasp whatsoever of what it may be.

Wanna see what it is?

I don't see how that will help -- I've already seen it, but it seems to slip through my mind like sand through a sieve.

Here, try this.

Blindfold?

Kind of -- put it on.

Oh, Ok.

Zie puts on the blindfold and suddenly laughs with mirth as he sees himself in cartoon format holding a string of sausages. 

You mean I was just now holding a string o' sausages? he asks -- sniffing his fingers. Nothing! They don't smell at all. They're not even greasy.

Strange, isn't it. And yet the blindfold does not lie. You were indeed holding a string of sausages, so to speak.

So to speak? Why the caveat?

Well -- you yourself saw only too clearly how it looked.

The cartoon -- but surely that's just a representation?

Merry looks at Zie inquisitively for a minute or so. Do you really think so? he asks at last.

Not really. Your sausages were not really sausages, were they?

Are you looking for a yes/ no answer?

No, I already no the answer. They were real in a two dimensional cartoonisation, which at the time seemed utterly real, but which was... nothing much.

So there you are.

But what does it mean? And how did you knock me into 2D without me noticing?

It looks like you're endeavouring to rationalise this -- to get a handle on it.

Well what else am I supposed to do?

Oh -- you could try something more imaginative.

Like what?

Figuring out how to think without thinking -- that way you'd be able to bridge the gap between different levels, different aspects of perception. That way you'd be able to shift between dimensions, apparently.

Would I?

There's literally nothing to it Zie.

So you say -- but I'm exhausted just thinking about it. It seems impossibly complicated.

Yes, it's bound to as long as you're attempting to 3D nothing much -- which is like squaring a circle, or vice versa. Try a different approach.

Like what?

Like jumping into your 2D skin, or whichever dimension you happen to be visiting, and getting really comfortable in it -- allowing yourself to enjoy every last sensation without trying obsessively to think things, without whatting them.

But how's that going to help me to join the dots and figure out they're sausages?

You'd be surprised. The minute you start allowing the minute to absorb you: the minute you allow the love of being part of this great drama to excite you more fully -- the barriers come down -- you merge.

With a string of sausages?

With anything whatsoever, no matter what.

But I'm not sure I want to merge with a string of...

You yourself said it was a cartoon -- which is spot on -- but until you allow your locus, your point or balance of perception to shift into the drama of the moment -- you'll just be a dumb observer.

That's a little unnecessary Merry -- calling me names like that.

Not dumb in the sense of stupid -- just dumb in the original sense -- unable to communicate whatever it is.

Because it's nothing much -- those sausages were not really there

unless you allow yourself to experience them without first trying to determine in what way they can, might or should matter to you. That's so self-interested and egoistic, isn't it?

Yes, I suppose it is -- but isn't that how we're supposed to think -- otherwise we'd never really advance, would we? We'd never bother to see how we could use things intelligently.

True -- and yet -- we're beating about the bush. Here, grab this and Merry places a snake in Zie's hands. I'll be off Zie.

Ok, what about this?

This what?

Er... no idea -- unless you can give me the blindfold again?

I can do something better.

Yes?

I can leave you to your own devices.

Not again. I'm sure this has been tried already, and it didn't work, big time.

Correct. But this time things are different.

They are?

Yes -- because...  Merry seems to be strangely nervous, like a small boy unsure whether or not to tell a closely guarded secret, hopping from one foot to the other in slow motion, floatingly, apparently. 

Well? Aren't you going to tell?

Well, what if you no more than you know...

Zipp

Oh -- where's he gone. Damn -- I'm stuck with this thing in my hands -- which is writhing and making hissing sounds, as if it were a snake.

Somewhere within the infinite depths of Zie's unconsciousness something unknowable, something immeasurable clicks unnoticeably. 

Wow! How did that happen. Yikes -- it's a boa constrictor. I wish he wouldn't do that. Help!

Observe. Sense. Experience.

Oh -- Ok. Was that you Merry.

You'll never know -- until you allow yourself to shift frames. 

shift frames -- but I kind of like being in a cartoon reality. Hey -- let's view it both ways and no sooner has this thought been thought than Zie is observing what is not -- his  nothing much -- from both ends, so to speak, of the tube.

OK Zie, you can let go of me now.

Oh, sorry Merry -- I thought you were a boa.

Ridiculous. Surely you can differentiate between zero and one?

You'd think so, wouldn't you -- but apparently not. It's a humbling experience to realise how ill-qualified I am to make heads or tails of reality.

And yet you found me after all -- so well done.

I found you?

Yes, grammatically speaking, that is correct.

But where were you?

In your unconsciousness, just waiting for you to notice me.

But...

Confusing, isn't it, and yet... in-finity has a habit of constantly surprising -- constantly revealing something totally, utterly unexpected -- which at first is nothing much -- not even cognisable, and then suddenly

Zippidy doo-da!

Precisely -- and everyone starts dancing and singing -- like one of those wonderful, ridiculous Bollywood movies. Anyway -- here's the hyperlink -- you earned it so go ahead -- enjoy the fruits of your own unconsciousness, let the frames unfreeze, let the dimensions undement, let zippidy do DA

weirdy-wyrd

So if it’s not physically possible to teach the rational mind to engage in-finity, then what are you trying to achieve? You’ve flung me on a yo yo into the fathomless, psychedelic wilds of in-finity more times than I can remember, you’ve literally blown me up a dozen times, at least, and you’ve beetled me into weird corners of taxonomy, showing me the world from the perspective of impossible creatures, opening neural paths in my mind that either shouldn’t be there whatsoever, or which, being there, raise the question of whether it’s still reasonable to consider me human, in the traditional sense of the word...

Looking somewhat smug I’ve... done my best.

You’re best?! If that’s your best I shudder to think what your worst might be.

Still exuding an air of smug self-satisfaction

I don’t know what you’re so pleased about. By any normal measure you should be sitting behind bars as a public menace and threat to humanity.

Is that all the thanks I get for my pains?

Pains? Your pains? I don’t remember you having to endure anything more than the occasional scratch or bite, when I was beside myself with fear.

Oh really Zie, you do like to exaggerate, you know.

Exaggerate?! Do you deny that technically I’ve been dead at least a dozen times?

That depends how you define “dead”. I’ll admit you’ve crossed the veil, but like you yourself admitted, that was on a string. I merely yo yo’d you across the barrier, on a brief excursion into the closest reaches of in-finity, in spite of all your hyperbole.

Hyperbole? Is it normal for mere mortals to be yo yo’d into in-finity, near or far? The distinction seems utterly irrelevant.

Well, yes, actually it is.

?!

If they’ve reached saturation point.

?

Like a cup of tea which cannot dissolve any more sugar once you’ve already stirred in several spoons.

?

Saturation point. Once you’ve reached it you’re bound to shift, willingly or not.

What in God’s name are you on about, Merry? I don’t hear about anyone else getting blown up or tossed through hermetic seals, which were put in place for good reason.

No, you wouldn’t.

Well, are you going to tell me why, or do I have to beg?

I was hoping you’d either figure it out or remember.

Remember? If I knew what you’re on about I wouldn’t be asking.

Unless the part of your mind which knows, or the particular memory is located elsewhere, in a spot you can only access in calmness. Why not try a little calmness first, to see if it comes to you.

Calmness? After all I’ve been through? You’ve got

a bloody cheek, yes, but that’s not going help, is it, focusing on me and my many shortcomings.

Suddenly, unexpectedly, Zie finds himself in an utterly unfamiliar state of calmness, which absorbs him deeper and deeper.

That will do Zie. No need to take it to extremes.

Zie looks at Merry with wide eyes, at first unsure of his surroundings, who he is or what he was doing.

My God!

Yes?

You mean to say...

I?

I mean, I just realised that I know the answer. You’re right. It was waiting for me in calmness.

Congratulations Zie, you’ve just crossed the barrier for the first-time single-handedly, and returned in one piece, with only a little help from me.

Oh... I don’t know if I’d have returned, had you not guided me back with your voice.

Possibly not, but you’re getting there, so well done. Now answer your question.

But why bother, if I already know?

Because there’s still a mental barrier which needs to be surmounted.

Oh. It’s awkward Merry.

If course it is. It’s a barrier. It was put there for a reason, but now it’s getting in the way.

I’m a chick hatching, aren’t I?

Go on.

I’ve never yet met anyone, because I haven’t yet hatched.

Right.

All my experiences with other people were virtual, though utterly real to the unhatched chick.

A bit like

Yes, a bit like Plato’s cave allegory.

Right.

You never see anyone else hatching, or testing the edge of reality because...

Come back Zie, no drifting off like that.

to do so you’d have to look away from the wall of the cave, which you’d never do, unless you yourself were ready to hatch

Good.

because seeing is believing, is it not?

Yes, I believe it is.

And we wouldn’t even notice a person leaving the cave because...

Back Zie, quit fading like that.

Sorry Merry, it’s absorbing seeing this information so clearly for the first time.

Aye, that it is, but you need to be able to access information without losing your current whereabouts ir wherewithal.

Yes, I think I see what’s happening.

I’m pleased to hear it. You’ve gone from one extreme to the other, which is somewhat disconcerting.

But I’m only really remembering what I already know, as you yourself told me to.

It’s not what you’re doing but how you’re doing it that matters.

Oh

You’re still applying 3D brute force tactics which are no longer appropriate. Instead of squeezing the orange with a ten-ton press, then drinking the juice and eating the pulverised peel for good measure, you can merely touch it lightly. The juice, like the memory, is already inside you, waiting to be remembered.

Oh. But I want to enjoy the sensation of drinking and eating.

Yes, I’ve noticed, but you’re still trying to feed the shell of yourself inside the cave. Trust me, there’s a sweetness of eating and drinking unimaginable which you’re about to discover once you lighten your touch and allow

Allow what?

Allow the orangeyness to manifest directly, without dragging it through the 3D platform of scrutchy physicality.

Scrutchy?

Aye, there’s the rub.

Scratchy

And touchy

And itchy

And crotch?

Or scrotum – yes, apparently there’s a sexual aspect to the 3D pleasure pain process of experiencing physical sensations such as eating and drinking.

Oh, wow, yes i see.

So, where were we?

I was fading o’er the veil involuntarily and trying to explain something vitally important, which now eludes me.

No, don’t look back, or you’ll lose the plot.

You mean it’s a story? Yes? Oh... it is. But how... how can it be a story if... I can feel it Merry – I can feel myself merging with in-finity, melting into the ocean of all that is, its Lethe aspect – which would be kind of terminal, would it not?

Precisely! Excellent Zie – you’re like the babe who has just figured out that those numeric sensations can and ought to be categorised as “pain” in order to avoid crossing a host of potentially lethal barriers unwittingly.

So I require pain to preserve me?

Was it painful?

No, just an ugly dullness.

There you go. Now you’re more or less safe to make your own way.

But there’s something, isn’t there... A question I still haven’t answered, which I can’t quite remember.

Yes, there’s always something, there’s the rub, and sooner or later you’ll recall that particular question, remember its answer, enjoy a hallelujah moment, but then sense there’s something else, which will take you deeper, further, all tge way, eventually, back.

Back where? Er... Merry? Where did he go?

He?

Er... Who’s there? Do I know you?

You know me not

I know you not? But something tells me you’re...

Yes?

You’re Popping sound as Zie travels deeper into fathomless recall, deftly sidestepping Lethe unconsciousness.

GOOD. It is good.

Oh, there you are Merry. I think I’m getting Alzheimer’s.

Yes, but there’s another name for it, much more joyful and magical.

There is? Oh, She whispered it to me a moment ago, didn’t She?

Yes, she might have done.

But who is She? You were gone and i was seeing her but unseeingly. I could no longer join the dots.

That sounds like

Dorothy?

Yes.

I met Dorothy? And i didn’t even know it?

Yes

THE Dorothy?!

Yes, apparently so, with capital letters an’ all.

Oh God.

Easy does it Zie.

There’s so much i need to ask her. So much...

Dot dot dot... Peace, little one you’re barely one hour old. Let’s walk before we run. One, two, three, Lethe light, take him away... and Zie melts in the warm waters of in-infinity, for a much-needed rest.

The End, so to speak

i poem a web across the sky

i poem a web across the sky
between mind and aught

by-passing all
that is thought

skipping o'er
all that is . flatly taught

pulling up roots through
the soles of  head

stamping boots on the thunder dome
i.dread

diving into the roof of hell
beset by fiends of scream and ike  aargh

arriving at an edge where things
cannot

can  not

.um


.a word is but a word
unless i poem it alive  

space  

.pause

in the firmament a thought
descends . a meteorite

crash and burning . lights a moment
sky

and dies
gracefully back to nought

except that flight you felt
inside

beyond what might be rational
.          . between two dots

.          . but to the thunder dome
for words must drum the skin

stretched taut above
a booming resonant.          .nought

tight enough to shake and thrill
the ike and fear of all i locked in

.          . and release the beauty power kept
concealed within

.          . bounty woven in a tangled lattice
of lies, schemes, sin

.          . you see?
grist for the mill . m.ind no.t

i fly
.          . away

0=1 it is . i
am  open source

boom di di ah da  boom di di ah da
boom di di ah da  boo     .      oom

repeat, wash, rinse  
for pity's sake
for  aught

marriaging minds

Er...

Yes?

They don't seem to be connecting.

No?

No, not really.

Well -- are you surprised?

Er... I always kind of assumed they did.

Ok. That's fair enough.

Yes, but it's a problem.

How so?

If they don't actually connect -- if the two minds are actually completely separate and independent...

Yes?

I only have one half of the picture. I mean -- they're both me, aren't they?

Yes and no.

How do you mean?

They both can be you -- if you figure out how to marriage them.

Marriage? Don't you mean "merge".

No, I mean exactly what I say -- not a whit more or less.

But how can you marriage minds?

In the same way you can marriage people -- with love and a commitment to one another.

Oh.

That way both minds agree to overcome their differences and work together through thick and thin

Come hell or high water

Yep. That way your rational, 3D mind starts to learn a different language of perceiving and knowing.

It does?

Which is utterly alien to the 3D mind -- which blows apart your sense of identity and reality and

Logic?

Yes, I suppose so. Your logic tends to use straight lines to join the dots together -- but if you draw straight lines on a globe, for example, between LA and Moscow -- they're not going to look straight when seen on a 2D Mercator map representing that globe.

No, I suppose they're not. But what's that got to do with logic?

Everything -- when you consider that the other mind doesn't really have any conception of space or time.

It doesn't?

Absolutely not. It might be likened to a fish swimming in the waters of infinity.

It might?

Absolutely. Well, as you can imagine -- that fish can be and effectively is anywhere and anywhen at any given moment -- such is the nature of infinity -- it's irrepressible reluctance to let itself be tied down in any way, shape or form, whatsoever.

So, er... damn -- I'm utterly stumped.

Yes -- there's literally no way you can get a handle on it or make sense of it in terms of what might make sense to the 3D mind.

So we're er... freakin doomed?

Precisely. Unless you quit trying to make sense of things rationally -- and realise that life itself is a kind of love affair -- between two utterly incompatible ways of perceiving reality -- either in terms of things that purportedly matter, or in terms of a precious-beyond-words rose -- which serves as a kind of blueprint -- a living, breathing equation, which constantly, somehow or other squares the circle and brings things together, brings things to a head in the very nick of time, against all odds, in spite of every rational objection or counter-argument.

Oh.

Yes. Very much Oh to the power of x, y or z.

Oh... so this marriage thing -- does it actually work?

Can do -- can and must -- otherwise we're all

freakin doomed?

Yes, more or less -- for unless we're able to marriage the two -- infinity suddenly and quite unexpectedly lays waste to all the carefully thought out plans and strategies of mice and men, reducing our much vaunted material reality to rubble, when it allows itself to grow weary of our blind intransigence.

You mean infinity deals a killer blow?

I mean reality was only ever a temporary measure -- a "what if" kind of thing -- which was never going to stand the test of time -- which like a nuclear isotope has a half-life -- except this half life itself halves each time -- accelerating exponentially back to the wide open arms of infinity.

Oh.

Yes... in other words -- unless you get round to embracing infinity and marriaging the two minds -- the 3D reality you've come to know and love just kind of implodes -- which is more or less where we are today, is it not?

I hope not. I'm not sure I like the idea of imploding into infinity.

Well -- it's a matter of choice -- you know. You're welcome to embrace the all that is -- in which case the implosion is deferred.

It is? For how long?

As long as it takes infinity to deal with the marriage of infinitely contradictory ways of perceiving a totality, which is what we're really referring to when we talk about "reality".

Oh.

So, infinity itself comes a cropper if and when I agree to

marriage it -- yes, entirely -- because the things you know and love -- which you have somehow embraced, personalised, embodied mentally are no less aspects of infinity than God-like qualities such as being everywhere at once.

But -- how can that be?

Don't ask -- just put yourself in the position of infinity -- trying to make sense of everything you've done with your mind, your life, your perception and awareness, bearing in mind that you, like infinity itself, are derived from the same ineffable zero equals one computational dichtomy. Once the marriage of minds takes place -- you kind of hold each other in check -- but also have the opportunity to expand and grow into one-an-other -- opening up a third -- which is neither here nor there -- a compound, if you like -- a water molecule from the hydrogen and oxygen atoms -- which is quite separate and different in nature -- there's the rub -- the three of zero and one.

So this marriage you're referring to -- is it going to really, really hurt?

There's only one way to find out. I guess, to a large extent the answer is in your perception or understanding of God.

Uh?

Whether your version of God is loving and compassionate, or angry and perverse. Your particular version is fairly indicative of your relationship to your Self -- the other part of you who cannot or will not be controlled or eliminated by anything you think, say or do, no matter what.

Oh.

If, sensing that you're freakin doomed, so to speak, you decide to make the most of a thoroughly uncertain outcome -- and start dancing with the wild and merry abandon of one who knows he has nothing to lose and everything to gain by entering the slipstream of infinity gaily -- things may, and all too often do, take what can only be referred to as an "unexpected turn" -- but more of that another time.

Oh.

Quite... so without further ado

malice aforethought

Merry, I’d appreciate it if you’d unplug me from your virtual reality platform. I’m getting kind of tired running around trying to ingest gold coins and dodge flying vipers.

Oh come on Zie – where’s your fighting spirit?

No really – it was fun for the first day or two.

Day or two? How long do you imagine you’ve been playing for?

At least a week.

I hate to disappoint you Zie

You do?

Yes, even though I derive no small delight from turning your life upside down

There you go – the stench of malicious intent reeks from the soles of your soul

But you’ve been at it now for three hours and forty-five minutes.

?

Three hours and forty-five minutes.

No

Yes

No – there has to be a mistake

Does there?

Yes – it’s been a week at least. I’ve been working in this office – going home, sleeping, eating gold coins and dodging vipers for at least a week, I’m absolutely posit…

tive – I know – such is the nature of virtual reality. What if I told you the same thing’s going on in your 3D reality.

No Merry – don’t even think about it.

That you’ve been alive for all of four weeks.

D – o – n – t   I  said – didn’t you hear me.

Four weeks which have somehow morphed into millenia within the 3D platform as things go around and come around again and again.

For God’s sake Merry – I have a right to not know what you’re telling me. I have a right to blissful ignorance – so kindly cut it out. Go and torment someone else with your misanthropism. Can’t you tell when you’re not wanted.

So there’s not a great difference between the two, is there?

Except that this is virtual reality while my good ol’ 3D base is absolutely bona fide real.

As real as real can be.

Phew – I was beginning to get nervous

As real as things can be – if things are what excite you.

Don’t be idiotic Merry. Things don’t exactly excite me – but they’re a good yardstick to measure how real things are.

Things are a good way to measure things – and decide whether or not they’re real – as in things… interesting logic if you ask me.

Well, you’re just twisting things round as usual. There’s nothing wrong with things. We wouldn’t get very far without them.

You seem to be doing pretty well down here – though none of these things, you’re well aware, are in fact real.

You’re like the ultimate end-times preacher – informing us all we’re doomed. Well I for one believe there’s more to life than despair or despondency. I believe…

Yes?

That there’s more to us than meets the eye.

Ok. Then kindly remove yourself from this virtual reality platform and get back to something more meaningful.

Like I said – I don’t know how.

Don’t know or don’t in fact want to?

Dude – will you never relent?

You mean agree to go along with the shadow on the wall we call 3D reality? I really don’t see how I can, now that I’ve seen what’s causing the shadows to move.

You have?

Yes

And has it made you any the wiser, any happier Merry?

Of course it has – I now get to jump in and out of virtual platforms dealing with you and other versions of myself.

Excuse me! I am not a version of you.

We’re all versions of each other Zie – if that makes you feel any more comfortable.

How I detest such needless intimacy. Stop trying to dissolve my barriers. I am me. You are you. Things are things. Period.

And that’s why you're trapped in a cave looking at shadows moving on the wall.

Why?

Because you are repelled by half of what you are.

Uh?

You refuse to embrace your self

My self?

Your whole self – you refuse to accept that it’s all desperately trying to reconnect with you – desperately trying to reharmonise – reintegrate – reincorporate back into you – completing the loop – bringing omega back to alpha – allowing 12 to flow seamlessly into one o’clock.

So you just want me to pretend that we’re all one happy family – that I have to embrace everyone – regardless of their behaviour and views, or even more absurd – to consider that all things are equal?

I?

Yes, you.

What have I to do with it?

That’s what you’re saying – unless you want to take back your words.

I’m actually saying that you have a choice – I’ve already made mine. Your choice is entirely your own. It has nothing to do with me. You can continue to let things run the show – and thus remain glued to the wall of the cave observing the moving shadows but never quite getting it – never quite figuring out how you’re staring at a screen – you’re not really alive – you’re not stepping out of the cave into the open – you’re not yet fully born, fully alive – you’re still umbilically in the womb – until you decide to be alive, to make the leap, to take the plunge – if and when you’re ready – at which point – things may change – there’s no guarantee, of course, but if you’re ready to embrace your self, if you’re ready to BE, if you’re ready to engage whatever it is you’ve been avoiding all this time – you might well find it isn’t as terrible as you imagined – you might well find that it’s fascinating, that’s it’s compelling, that it’s fun or more than fun – that it is the beginning of a new chapter in the book of what it means to be alive – up until which you’ve only really been dealing with theory – and a part of you has been hunched up in the corner bored out of its mind, wondering if you’ll ever see the light of day – which/who now stands up and turns out to be the real you – the life and soul of the party – the larger than life presence that you be – that you are – which transcends all else…

So I’m supposed to Super Mario my way out of here am I?

Do you really imagine that Mario can win his way out of the virtual world he’s in?

No, not really.

But his gamer can – because you just happen to be the fulcrum, the event horizon, the interface where the different sides of reality meet – physical matter – your body – energy – your chi, your warmth, your electricity and soul, spirit, consciousness – your Self.

And you think I’m not aware of this?

Of course you are.

Then what?

Then nothing.

Nothing?

Yes – realise, in your own time that there’s nothing doing attempting to do things – attempting to move or fix stuff, unless first and foremost you’re willing to embrace the everything else you’ve so conveniently forgotten about – so adroitly manoeuvred out of sight, out of mind, squished into the very periphery of your vision. Here – catch this.

What the hell… what are you doing Merry?

Oh – I’m having fun – as always – I get bored of talking sometimes – so here’s a bomb on a short fuse. 4 – 3 – 2 – 1

Boom!

For a while the picture goes dead. Somewhere else there’s a fuzzy screen – we’re not too sure whether that’s a part of this set up or not. But then images start flooding back in, faster and faster…

And apparently we’re back on line.

Did you just do what I think you did Merry?

Apparently so. What do you think I did?

Something tells me – if my memory’s not mistaken – that you er…

Tricky to say – isn’t it?

Why?

Because if I gave you a bomb and you died – then according to your 3D logic you must now be dead. But don’t worry – if you carry on as if nothing happened you’ll just forget about it in a few moments.

But I don’t want to forget about it. If you just killed me – I want to know more. I want to figure out what’s just happened.

Very good.

I blew up. I was dead. The screen was blank. Then I’m back here again with you – no sign of a bomb – as if nothing just happened.

Which I assure you is perfectly true – up to a point.

Up to a point?

Yep. That pesky little zero point which annoyingly undoes or infinitises everything you think you know, recall or understand. But rather than waste our time trying to figure out for once and for all what really happened – let’s repeat the experiment…

No – not again!

How else are you going to figure this out? So, here – catch this…

A ball?

4 – 3 – 2   I don’t think so… 1

Boom!

Zie finds himself lying on the floor of a cave wondering where he is and what’s going on…

Ugh... must’v falln aslepe, now whair wz I?

For a moment or two Zie stares at the cave painting of a bison somewhat vacantly before the penny drops...

No way... No way Merry, I’m not buying this.

Zie absolutely doesn’t hear another voice. He absolutely knows no one else is present, yet in the silence he hears his own unspoken response

I’m back where it all started, trillions, quadrillions of iterations ago. Back in my umbilical cave. Back where I was before I started going deeper and deeper into the moving pictures on the wall...

An hour or two pass, maybe more

But where did they go?...  Where are they now?         

Again he stares at the wall for an age, apparently waiting for something to happen.

Nothing...

Blank...

Nada... I guess that means I’m ready to move on... ready to go outside, which is what he does.       

You mean to say the last ten thousand years never happened... It was all an engrossing reality show brought to me by Cave Wall Animations Inc?

Not exactly

Then what am I supposed to make of this? Where are the cars, the concrete, the harum scarum? Where’s everything I know

And love?

Not exactly, in fact, no, I didn’t love it, not in the end... it started well enough, it seemed thrilling but it became toxic

And?

I hated it. I desperately wanted out – I was trapped inside

Calm down, it’s alright

Why can’t I breathe?

You’re going to be fine. A little delayed shock and claustrophobia. Breathe, nice and slow, in -- out, in -- out, 1 -- 2 -- 3   There, it’s done.

Are you sure? Is it really complete?

Absolutely. You’ve logged a quadrillion.

What do you mean?

An entire g-nome.

Genome? As in genetic code?

If you like. You’ve filled every check box with a like or hate. You’ve accumulated an entire world of experience. You’re now ready to process.

All of it? Even the stuff I hate?

Particularly the stuff you hate, taking back your energy, and then you’ll be ready.

For what?

We’ll discuss it later. You can only spend a few minutes here at present until you free up and redistribute some of your energy. At the moment it’s still all tied up in things that apparently matter. You have to bring it back here.

You mean I have to go back down there?

Actually, part of you is desperate to go back, because now you gnow, now you can

make a difference... You’re right! How did you know?

I didn’t

No?

I simply gnow, as we all do when we re-g-nome. 

Ah... By the way

Yes?

Is Merry going to blow me up everytime I have to come back here?

Do you think so?

I...

You...?

Don't gnome

Don't? 

Gnow? Apparently I gnow. Apparently I’m the one in control the minute I run both sides of the equation, the minute I gnow-me.

The minute you g-nome! 

Ah, there you are Zie! Welcome back again. Fancy a game of footie?

Er... Yeah, why not.

Absolutely. I have a good feeling about this game. Something tells me it’s going to be a whole lotta fun.

And as they kick the ball back and forth, immense strings of quantum code start interacting in the physical process enabling the two to bend reality’s space and time to shift the ball’s trajectory, their own position and the size and shape of the field. Soon a crowd of onlookers gather, eyes glued to the proceedings, little suspecting that in fact they are staring at painted bison dancing on a cave wall in the dim and distant prehistoric past.

0=1