"It changes people, Marcie." He continued the theme he had begun in the car as he let her in the door. "Experiencing alternate pasts changes your view point." He closed the door and took her coat, seeing her disbelief. "I know, it sounds impossible, and none of us are completely certain, but we've been running some very careful experiments and they seem to pan out our suspicions."
She expected him to bring her to the theater right away, but he was walking to the kitchen.
"Would you like something? Tea? Coffee? Something stronger?" He was filling the kettle and putting it on the stove.
More alcohol at this point sounded like a really bad idea. "Tea would be fine, thanks."
She sat down on a stool and pondered what was happening, for the umpteenth million time this week. "Hold it, Monty. Let me try and sort this out:
"1) You have a belief in Tantrism, which, among other things means you choose not to ejaculate
2) Your choice to not ejaculate also means you have been squirreling away life force from the river, giving you even greater vision into the past, and apparently into the future
3) You learned this trick 25 years ago from a guru named Sundar, who, after letting you fuck young women in his ashram, let you go when you had mastered all he could teach you."
She looked at him wickedly for a moment to let him know she was poking a little fun.
"4) You are brilliant, of course, everyone knows that, but your ambitions with Tantrism led to something more than just spiritual pursuit. Apparently you have tripped over a machine that is a digital equivalent of what you and only a few others in the history of humanity have achieved.
"5) You have become fabulously wealthy, through a mixture of cunning, bravery, courage, 'Forsight' and what I would call just blind luck and what you would call 'strange attractors.' How'm I doing so far?"
The kettle was whistling, momentarily interrupting her and distracting him. He had been smiling the whole time, eager to see her be comfortable back at the house, and completely relaxed at the ribbing.
If she can make a joke about it, it's a good sign.
"Good. It all sounds familiar." He brought her a mug.
"Let's see, what else have we learned? Oh yes:
"6) You not only don't ejaculate, you stay hard. A long time. Without Cialis or Viagra. That's a nice side effect, by the way....
"And what have learned about me? I suppose it wouldn't be fair to only inventory you." She sipped a little.
"Well," she continued. "A) I like to strip naked in front of complete strangers; sometimes when I'm sober, but more often than not after a few drinks." She smiled shyly at him over the cup. " B) I am an excellent auditor. I can decipher a set of books in no time. C) I love to eat. (As do you, for which I'm thankful). But I love to eat cock. Not all cocks...yours for sure. I love to feel it in the back of my throat. Mmmm, I'm already thinking about it even though I swore I wasn't going to do anything other than hear you out...but if you have to,
Dr.
Green, I would take an injection from you anywhere, anytime.
"But I've gotten way off-track here. Let's see, what else do we know about me? A, B, C," She rattled off the letters on her fingers. "D) > I don't like to strip naked in front of other people. That's in complete conflict with exhibit A), and hence, E) I see a therapist, often. Oh yes, and while we're on the topic of my insecurities and frailties, you should know two more things: F) I am falling in love with you completely and utterly, and G) I can't imagine why you would even have the time of day for a fucked up chick like me."
He was about to answer her, when she stopped him. "And one more thing, which I don't understand at all, and which I demand to know the answer to before we continue any further: why is it, no matter when we're together, your phone doesn't interrupt us?"
The question caught him completely by surprise. "What?"
"Your phone. We've been together almost two months and I can't remember a single time when it's rung. But I know you use it -- I've called you on it..." She stopped. He was starting to laugh at her again and it annoyed her.
"You...you are so...wonderful!" He reached out to hug her, still laughing but with a twinkle in his eye. "What do you suppose people did before cell phones?" He whispered in her ear.
She turned to face him, letting his lips brush hers. She shook her head.
He didn't answer, but instead pressed his lips to hers, moving his tongue between them. She kept her teeth closed, still annoyed. She pulled away. "Not so fast, buster. I'm not going to play that game. You're going to tell me about the phone before we go any further." She didn't let him go, and she didn't let him kiss her.
"Okay," he pulled away firmly and looked at her gravely. "I'll tell you about the 'mystery of my phone,' but first can we do this thing in the theater?"
She pressed half of her mouth together, twisting her face, annoyed and thinking. She capitulated and they took their mugs down the stairs to the theater.
"So where did we leave off...oh yeah, sideways. It certainly wasn't obvious to us when we started that we'd be able to look
sideways
along the space-time grid. We knew the future was going to be tough, and we were surprised at seeing so many pasts, but
sideways
was something we hadn't thought was even an option. And as it turns out," he unlocked the door and let her in, "looking sideways,
along an infinite number of paths
, is a poor-boy's way of gaining Forsight."
She sat in the front seat and waited for the curtains and projector to do their thing. None of it made any sense to her, in spite of being able to rattle it off on her fingers.
What could looking sideways on the space-time grid possibly mean?
