clifford_a-_pickover_surfing_through_hyperspacebookfi-org

126 surfing through hyperspoce
"Could Slade do any of those things?'
"No. Nevertheless, the fourth dimension continued as an amusing
interest for laypeople and scientists. A. T. Schofield, in his 1888 book
Another World, suggested that
A higher world is not only possible, but probable; such a world may be
considered as a world of four dimensions. Nothing prevents the spiritual
world and its beings, and heaven and hell, being by our very side.
Sally sits down on a bench and begins to pull off her shoes. "Man, my
feet are killing me."
You sit down next to her, and edge closer, and she stays where she is.
Her eyelashes flutter, long and smoky against smooth, white cheeks. Here
all is quiet, mostly deserted. You feel strangely alone, as if you and Sally
can look down upon the world without being part of the world.
You turn to Sally. "It's good to be alone with you."
You feel her tremble slightly.
"I wish you wouldn't talk like that."
"Why?" you ask.
"I just prefer you didn't."
You feel as if you have pricked some layers of her psyche that she
wishes to keep to herself. And yet you cannot stop. "You know, I sometimes
feel you're not with me."
"I'm almost always with you."
And again you feel that she is being defensive.
"Will you stay with me if I keep talking? Sometimes I don't feel real.
When I saw that Santa Glaus man, I had the same feeling I get when I'm
with you, a kind of fantasy."
"Tell me about him."
"I can't say much. His tesseract tattoo is odd. I know it's crazy to think
he's following me, but I guess anything's possible in Washington."
"True. It's hard to separate illusion and reality. Sometimes I don't even
try."
"Was I imagining the Santa Glaus man? Am I imagining you?"
"If you're imagining me, what of it? Do you enjoy it?"
"Yes."
"Then that's enough."
"I wish it were, but I'm the kind of person who wants answers to
everything."