The Edge Read online

  Sally said, “So I wonder why we're going, if we already know about the pie.”

  “Oh, that was just our edge, everyone is different. Even other Cilis have had different experiences. Ask Luci about hers sometime, it's pretty interesting, that is if she's the Luci I think she is, it's hard to tell sometimes. One piece of advice, when you come back here, don't expect that any of the other wives or Williams will remember you from this time. They may not be the same ones, and that includes me. Have a good time, and enjoy your visit, just don't expect any continuity from one trip to the next.”

  Sally did ask Luci about her visit to the edge.

  Luci said, “It was a jewel encrusted forest, incredibly beautiful, and totally artificial looking, like a movie set, in fact the jewels were all fake, as were the gold leaf leaves on the trees. There were no animals at all, just some painted plaster beavers and rubber ducks floating in the water.”

  Cili said, “Oh, you're not the Luci I thought you were.”

  “Don't expect any continuity.” Sally said, reminding Cili of her own words.

  Cili continued, “The last Luci I saw had been to an edge world that was all inverted, there were lakes filled with clouds, and the sky was an ocean, you could reach up into it and grab a fish.”

  “How can all the edges be so different?” asked Sally.

  Luci explained, “Remember, that the macroverse contains every possible universe, and even though some universes are extremely improbable, they are still possible, though I don't know how 'possible' is figured, and these highly improbable universes are clustered at the outer edge of the macroverse. Actually, I think some of them ARE impossible, and the Prime Entity just put them there for its, or our amusement.”

  This was the first time Sally had heard “the Prime Entity” mentioned, “What is the Prime Entity?”

  Luci explained, “In the world I come from, we believe that the whole Macroverse was created by 'The Prime Entity' who is.. well... an entity, and was the first one.”

  “You mean like God?” Cili asked.

  “No, God is an invention of the human mind, perceived to be somehow like people, and to have wants and desires like people, and who influences events on Earth, either good or bad, 'It's God's Will', you know.”

  Cili interjected, “That’s just her people's belief, everyone else has their own ideas.”

  Luci continued, “The Prime Entity created the Macroverse, which contains every possible existence, every possible being, and every possible pathway for each being. Every pathway, every possible choice, is taken somewhere, by someone.”

  Cili interrupted again, “So there's a world where you're taller?”

  Luci continued, tersely, “No, there's no possible world where I'm a giant freak. Anyway, as I was saying, The Prime Entity does not make things happen, everything happens somewhere, we just choose which way we go. We can ask it to guide us down the best paths, and sometimes, if you listen very carefully, and allow yourself to be guided, you will find a path that is better than the others. And in exchange, it just wants for us to appreciate the beauty that is out there, and that's within others.”

  Cili said, “It sounds like a religion that started because of William discovering parallel worlds, and visiting yours.”

  Luci slowly nodded her head, “Yes, it would sound like that, except for one thing.”

  “What's that?” both Sally and Cili asked.

  “We were taught this about fourteen hundred years before William arrived, by our prophet Philo, during his fourth incarnation. When I met William, and he told me what had happened to him, it confirmed what I already believed, it was one of the reasons I was willing to walk away from my life, my family, and my career.

  Sally said, “My William's world was visited by someone named Philo, I don't know much about him, but I don't think he talked about a Prime Entity, just about being nice.”

  Cili said, “My brother was a Philoan, he tried to get me interested, but it seemed so freakin' dull, 'Be nice', that was it, he never talked about eternal punishment or reward, angels, Wrath of God, or any of that stuff, it was so boring, but then, my brother is boring.”

  Luci said, “It could just be a coincidence, with the two Philos, I think my William's world just had the one incarnation of Philo.”

  Cili said, “That's all I ever heard of.”

  Sally said, “If it wasn't a coincidence, maybe Philo didn't feel that William's world was ready for more information, or ready for him to appear more than once.”

  Cili said, “Or maybe, Luci's little world just needs more help. So, anyway, Luci, this guy Philo, how tall was he?”

  “Just over one meter, slightly taller than average.”

  “Couldn't have been the same guy, ours was just under two meters.”

  “Just out of curiosity,” Sally said, as she walked over to the nearest salesclerk, and read her name tag, “Boonie, is it?”

  “Yes ma'am, it's short for Boonolda.”

  “Boonie, have your people had any prophets?”

  “None since Puugnitz the wise.”

  “And what did he teach?”

  “He taught us the importance of eating our vegetables.”

  “That was it?”

  “Well, that and that one day a stranger would come and heal our sick and injured. Most of us believe that he foresaw the coming of William. When I say 'eating our vegetables', I mean not eating each other.”

  “Was that a problem?”

  “It was starting to be, during the ‘The Time of Great Hunger’.”

  “A famine?”

  “Yes, before we learned restraint when it came to... you know...”

  “Sex?” asked Sally.

  “Please, not so loud, it's embarrassing. But yes, what you said. People didn't restrain themselves, they did it all the time. They bred like... like..”

  “Rabbits?” offered Cili.

  “Exactly.”

  “So there was overpopulation?” asked Sally.

  “That's the word, there was a lot of overpopulation, a whole lot of it. And there wasn't enough food for everybody. People were starving to death, and some people were so hungry, that they started eating other people, it must have been terrible. Puugnitz started telling people not to eat each other, and to stop doing, you know... it, so much so there wouldn't be so many people. Oh no, I wish we hadn't started talking about it, it's making me start to itch, sometimes it itches real bad, and we're not supposed to do anything about it, if we start giving in, we could start the hunger all over again.”

  “What about birth control?” asked Sally.

  “What's that?”

  “It's so you can do it without making babies.”

  Boonie went from bouncing to almost jumping, “Is that possible?”

  “Yes it is, but, judging from your level of agitation, I don't think we should talk about it anymore here. Maybe you could come to our Winnebago after work.”

  “Wow. I've only heard about the inside of your vehicle, I can really come?”

  Sally nodded.

  “That would be great, can I bring my boyfriend, Drek?”

  “The phone kiosk guy?”

  “Yes, that's him, isn't he cute? Can he come too?”

  “He's already going to be there for another reason. We're going to fix his sister's leg.”

  “But his family can't afford that yet.”

  “We're doing it for free.”

  “Sally, you're not like the others, are you?” Boonie asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “The humans don't do anything to help us, they only fix us up so they can go shopping. They don't care about us, but you do, don't you, Sally?”

  “I hadn't thought about it, I guess I do, you're different than me, but you're still people, and, if you don't mind me saying, you're really cute with that fur, I just want to cuddle you.”

  Boonie looked around, “I guess that would be okay, I won't tell anybody.”

  Sally bent over and
hugged her, it was weird, but pleasant.

  After they left the store, Cili said, “You're really going to invite the rabbits into your Winnie?”

  “They're not rabbits, they're just descended from rabbit-like creatures, and yes I'm going to invite them in. Why?”

  “You'll miss the party.”

  “I don't go to the parties. I'd rather just stay with my own William in the Winnie.”

  “Sweetie, they're all William, it's a blast, stop listening to Shortstuff, here, and come along, have some fun. Bring your William, he'll like it too.”

  “No thanks. I hope you have fun, though.”

  Sally was really beginning to dislike Cili, not as much as she had immediately disliked the Claras, so she was relieved when Cili spotted another Cili, and went off to go shopping with her instead.

  “She really gets on my nerves, sometimes.” Luci said.

  Sally changed the subject, “I'm getting hungry, do you want to go back to the Winnebago for lunch?”

  “We could eat in the food court here, if you don't mind vegetarian.”

  “Vegetarian?”

  “Yeah, they don't eat meat, and they don't think we should, either, it's one thing they refuse to compromise on. They do have cheese and other milk products, so technically, it's lacto-vegetarian.”

  “Is it good?”

  “It's mall food.”

  “I don't know what that means.”

  “You'll find out.”

  Sally soon found out what mall food was. While it wasn't as good as she and William cooked, or even as good as the food synthesizer made, it was better than a lot of the food she had grown up with, the difference being that there was no meat. As Luci had said, there was cheese, which was something Sally had never eaten until she met William, but liked tremendously. Luci ate at a place called “Turniburger”. A turniburger, was just like a hamburger, only instead of having a piece of cooked ground beef, it was just a slice of raw turnip on a bun with mustard, Luci explained that it was an acquired taste, and was something that you could get nowhere else. Sally suggested that was because in most places, people use their taste buds. Sally then bypassed “Carrot-On-A-Stick, and chose to eat at a place called “Bowl-O-Leaves”, which turned out to be a pretty good salad bar.

  After a little more shopping, they went back to their respective Winnies. Sally told William about Drek and Boonie, and they would be coming in a few hours.

  “Sally, you always find a way to help people, don't you?” William said.

  “You don't mind, do you?”

  “Not at all, you care about people, even people you've never met before, it's one of the things I love about you.”

  Sally hesitated, “William... do you know what goes on here in the evening?”

  “I've heard about it from some of the other Williams, including Luci's William.”

  “Is it something you're interested in?” she asked.

  “I suppose that if I weren't totally in love with you, I might be interested in something like that, something different, but you're very good at giving me all the love I need or want, so I think I would prefer to stay here with you.”

  “I was hoping you'd say that, because I don't want to go either.”

  “Sally, in addition to the way you care about people, and your incredible mind and wonderful spirit, there is something else I really like about you.”

  “What's that?”

  “Your body, do you mind sharing it with me for a little while?”

  “We only have about three hours before Drek and Boonie get here.”

  “So we'll have a quickie.”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  Afterward, they were showered and dressed just in time for their visitors, who were hesitant to come in, because Fluffy had returned from a day of whatever it was he did in the woods, and was napping in the foyer on a synthetic bearskin rug that William had put there for him. Drek, Driga and Boonie had heard about the tiger, but had never seen him. Fluffy only glanced at them, and sniffed the air before going back to sleep. William carried Driga past him and the others followed, William explained to Driga what would happen. She was nervous, and asked what her new leg would feel like. He told her that he had had a foot replaced by it just a few months earlier, and he couldn't tell the difference. She said that her old one had hurt a lot, but that was from the bone cancer. He assured her that the new one would not hurt. William placed her in the Mecha-Med, and she fell asleep almost immediately.

  Sally then broached the subject she had previously discussed with Boonie. Both Drek and Boonie were starting to bounce while seated on a sofa. Apparently, in their species, between the ages of eight and thirty, the females were almost always in heat, almost always conceived during sex, and, after a gestation period of less than five months usually would usually have between three and six babies. Overpopulation was a real and immediate threat. During her lifetime, an unrestrained female could give birth to between a hundred and fifty and two hundred offspring, the record was three hundred and twelve.

  Sally explained various methods of birth control. Both Boonie and Drek were interested in something semi-permanent, and they decided that they would both like to have reversible sterilization. After Driga came out of the Mecha-Med and woke up, they told her what they were doing, and she wanted to go back in to do it too. So the Mecha-Med was busy for a while, performing three sterilizations, and afterwards, Sally offered them the salads she had promised.

  Drek said, “Maybe another time, we have a lot of catching up to do, if you'll excuse us.”

  Driga said, “Me too, I'm going to call my boyfriend, Buck, and show him my new leg and new...attitude, he's really been after me to do it, but I didn't want to start a family yet, won't he be surprised. Thank you for everything.”

  “Yes thank you,” Drek and Boonie said, “We'll be back.”

  Sally was somewhat relieved that they had gone, she had had a salad for lunch, and really wanted something more substantial than 'rabbit food' for dinner. William suggest crab.

  “Great idea.” said Sally.

  Apparently, word of the procedures got around fast. The next day, a full twenty percent of the operations in all the Mecha-Meds in all the Winnies were sterilizations. The day after that, the number was eighty percent. On the third day Sally went to the mall only to find that most of the stores had not opened that morning. Most of the employees at the mall, and nearby businesses had not shown up for work.

  “What have I done?” Sally asked William.

  “You've made a lot of people here very happy, they're all at home humping their little bunny brains out. With luck, they'll get it out of their system soon, and everything will get back to normal. Any predictions, Bob?”

  “Things will get back to normal in about three months, the people here will be much happier, and a lot more relaxed.”

  “Well, we won't be here that long, but maybe we'll stop back here someday, and see the difference,” William said, “By the way, aren't we coming up on our jump window?”

  “Tomorrow evening, at Seven-twenty-eight.” replied Bob.

  Luci and her William were still in the space next to them, and wouldn't be leaving for another two days, so Sally invited her and her William to a barbecue.

  “It's been fun shopping with you, Luci, I'm going to miss you.”

  “Don't worry, we'll see each other again, as my William says, 'If I don't see you in the future, I will always have seen you in the past'.”

  “I know that we'll see each other again, but will it be the same us?” Sally asked.

  Luci thought for a moment, “Are you really the same person that you were last week, or last year? Will you be the same person tomorrow? Who knows, all of us, especially those of us who are the travelers, are all constantly in a state of flux which does not stabilize as long as we live. And who knows if, after we make the big change when we die, we even stop then. Perhaps we continue shifting and changing for all eternity.”

  “I was just
saying I was going to miss you. I wasn't asking for a whole philosophical discourse.”

  “I'll miss you, too, Sally.”

  30.

  As I wander through this land,

  Over mountains grand,

  And through the desert sand,

  I sing my songs for you.

  I chose the lonely life

  Far from the city's strife,

  No family or wife,

  I sing my songs for you.

  Long hours and low pay,

  Ridin' all the day

  Travelin' the tortoise way

  I sing my songs for you.

  Randolf “Chunky” Farkus finished his song, and surveyed the valley before him, he saw no obvious path that led from the bluff on which he perched to the valley floor, surely there was some way to get his tortoise down to the town below, it had carried him across the Great Western Desert, traveling sometimes up to two miles a day.

  He could not even consider the possibility of leaving “Dusty” on the bluffs while he went into the town alone, after all what's a singing tortoiseboy without his tortoise? And Randolf was not just a “singing tortoiseboy”, some said he was “The” singing tortoiseboy.

  It hadn't always been so, he had started herding the great beasts when he was only fourteen and was still rather chunky, earning him his nickname. After his parents had both died in the great flu epidemic, he had decided to leave his home in Providence and head west to seek his fortune, like his brother, Eric, had done before him. He sought out his brother, at first in Chicago, the last great city before the frontier, which was where Eric's last letter had been postmarked.

  He had no luck, he managed to find only one person who had ever seen Eric, a young woman who worked as a choofy-girl at the local pogsnest house, and she hadn't seen him in over a year, and had no idea where he had gone. Randolf had not really expected to be able to find Eric in such a big city, but he had hoped. He took a few odd jobs, skrilling geebers here and there, something for which he seemed to have a natural talent, and if he had stayed and worked at it full time, he could have made a decent living. The problem was, the smell of the geebers being skrilled made him dizzy.