I like
magic! Early next morning I was dreaming. That is I believed I was dreaming. As
on the previous days, some early morning birds were chirping so I am not sure.
When I turned around in bed, the small box was there once again. Nothing
rattled inside. I opened the box. There were some sheets of paper. I wanted to
read chapter 12.
12. IN THE
GRASS
Grass as
far as the treeline some hundred meters away. Lush knee-high green grass.
Someone was standing in the shade under the trees.
As I closed
in, I saw he held a bloody axe in his hand.
- -
Don’t
be afraid, he said. – I am a time traveller. Not very different from you. I saw
you appeared from nowhere. Suddenly you just were there.
-
- Yes,
I have no idea what happened.
-
- Then
there are two of us.
-
- Why
the bloody axe, I said.
-
- No
good for you to know, muttered the time traveller. – You just follow me, and
maybe you will learn.
-
- What
about the mirror, I asked. – A moment ago I put my hand through a mirror. On
the other side was this field of grass.
-
- There
are mirrors everywhere. You see this one?
He pulled
out a small mirror from his west pocket. The mirror was inside a silver
setting.
- -
It
is just an ordinary mirror, isn’t it?
-
- There
are no ordinary artefacts in this world. You remember Stalin’s dagger?
-
- Yes.
I have read about it.
-
- That
is how I use this mirror. For time travelling. I want to track down the dagger.
If you look here, you will see there is a mirror on both sides. When I press my
finger through the mirror on this side, I move to the past. The other side
makes me go to the future.
-
- What
about the axe? I see blood on the sharp edge.
-
- That
is another untold story, the time traveller whispered and cleaned the edge on
his shirt. – You just walk in my footsteps.
-
- What
is going on, I wondered. - The grass is growing, and so are the trees.
- -
Don’t
worry. This happens to me from time to time. Why do you think I suddenly
appeared under the trees? I know the dagger is around some place. At least it
was in the past.
- -
I
feel I grow smaller and smaller. I want to stop this!
- -
Just
relax. You don’t need to be afraid.
But afraid
I was. The treetops were rushing towards the clouds up there. Soon grass was
all I was able to see. Gigantic beetles were walking like elephants. They
watched us, but did not care. The earth under our feet were full of deep caves,
and there was no place to walk except down, and down we fell.
-
- What
are those nasty things with long tails, I asked.
-
- They
are bacteria, the time traveller answered.
-
- They
are huge! And they are growing bigger. What can we do? I want this to stop!
Particles
of different sizes were passing by.
- -
I
am waiting for the neutrinos, the time traveller said. – They will take us
around at the speed of light until we find the dagger. When taking a lift with
neutrinos time will stop or have no meaning. We can go anywhere by jumping from
neutrino to neutrino.
-
- I
want to stop this!
-
- You
think you have a free will? You do not. According to science, if you believe
science, everything has a reason. Therefore science says there is no free will.
That is why I want to control Stalin’s dagger. Now jump for that neutrino!
What followed
I cannot say. Events speeded up, and it was impossible to tell. Eventually we
found the dagger. Where I do not know. Coming from wherever or nowhere, we were
standing in the shade of the trees watching the lush, green grass. The time traveller
cleaned the bloody edge of the axe on his shirt as if nothing had ever
happened.
End of
chapter 12. To be continued in chapter 13.
