A man wakes up in the morning, showers and dresses as usual. Today he will go to visit his friend down the block. He packs two changes of clothes, his toiletries, and a small ice chest of food. He looks forward to the next day’s baseball game between the Mets and the Yankees, and figures if he drives quickly the trip might take less than eight hours. He goes outside to his truck, which takes an hour in itself, throws his bags inside, then starts the engine for the long trip. He yells to his friend down the block that he’ll be there by late afternoon and begins driving.
   Elsewhere in the same city, a woman wakes up in the morning, showers and dresses as usual. Today she will go to visit her grandmother who lives in Canada. She packs no items with her, just an apple to munch on for the short walk. To her, it is just an everyday 5-minute jaunt. She calls her grandmother via long distance to say she’ll be there soon. She then sets out of the house and towards her grandma, all the while enjoying the blur of passing scenery.
   Does this seem odd? In this world, the laws which govern moving people are somehow different. If a person desires to move but the smallest distance, perhaps just a meter, it might take a week. To move a few inches, it might take a year. If they wish to move to the next state, country, or continent, it takes no time at all. And yet somehow, the light wave, the electric pulse, and the drop of water from a faucet remain quite the same. One can still see the neighbor next door through an open window, one must still use a phone to call a distant relative, and the water drop takes but a few seconds to make its splash on the sink bottom.
   Most people are unaware that anything amiss, for to them, nothing is. They have always lived in the universe of these laws, and they have taught their perceptions that it is nothing more than mundane. It is perfectly normal to have to plan a long trip to get across the street, and just as normal to walk from Mexico to Maine in a few minutes. They go about their lives happily, as it is very convenient that long distances take so little time to traverse.
   There are those however, who can sense that something is not right, that the Creator has played some kind of trick. They see the neon sign of the grocery store down the street and wonder why they must use their car to get there instead of walking. They are tormented when they see the autumn leaf falling from the tree, knowing that they would never make it in time to catch it. They see the leaf fall so quickly, taking only seconds to reach the ground from the tree limb, and wonder why they could never move in such a way. These people are usually scientists, they strive to unravel the mystery before them, but no answers ever come.

© Copyright 2000 Brandon Nefcy

All rights reserved. For permission to reproduce please contact Jack C. Straton, University Studies, Portland State University, Portland, OR, 97210-0751, straton@pdx.edu.

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