james found himself back out on the street, blinking in the bright sunlight.
he checked his phone, which he had been obliged to turn off when he had entered the central building.
it was ten minutes past one. less than three hours before the meteor would destroy the earth.
what now?
i could try the library, james thought. the women at the information desk at the library had always been polite to him.
but would anybody at the library really have any power to help him, or any ability to save the earth?
how about the local police station? james’s understanding was that since the total reorganization of society carried out by chairman-president x-jones, all power was in the hands of the central committee, and the local police only directed traffic and found lost dogs. and rescued kittens from trees. no, that was the fire department.
the fire department! he would try the fire department. he had an obscure feeling that the fire department might treat him more politely than the police department, even though the police department only directed traffic and found lost dogs.
but a police station was only a block away, and james was not sure where the nearest fire station was,
a young woman in uniform was seated at the front desk of the police station and politely asked james what his business was, and listened politely as explained that the meteor was hurtling toward earth.
the young woman checked something on her screen and asked james,
how fast did you say the meter was running?
at the speed of light. and it is not a meter running, it is a meteor traveling.
if it was traveling at the speed of light, the young woman observed calmly, and was about two hours and forty five minutes away, it would have passed neptune and be clearly visible from just about any observatory on earth.
but, james patiently replied, it is not traveling through the solar system, but through a hole in space which will bring it within the orbit of mars twenty minutes before it strikes earth.
hmmm. that does not sound very promising. are you sure of your calculations? do you have a way of accurately measuring holes in space and their entry and exit points?
i do not rely on the so-called scientific methods taught in schools, james replied. i have recourse to the wisdom of the ancients in these matters. the ancients, of course, knew things of which we dare not dream.
excuse me, a voice interrupted, but i could not help overhearing your conversation.
oh hello, arthur, the young woman in uniform said. how are you today?
very well, thank you, the personage thus addressed answered in a gravelly voice.
james turned and beheld an elderly man dressed in what james took to be an “old-fashioned” suit (though james could not have said exactly what “old fashion” it was, or if it dated from twenty or two hundred years before). the old man had a head of wildly sprouting gray hair and the thickest eyebrows james had ever seen.
this young man seems to share some of your interests, arthur, the young woman said. maybe you could take him aside and have a nice conversation with him.
and what might those interests be? arthur growled, casting a glittering suspicious eye on james.
he says the world is coming to an end, just like you, the young woman told him, as she favored james with a friendly but pitying smile.
in that moment james experienced a moment of the most terrible thing that can happen to a living creature, perhaps only excluding death - seeing himself through the eyes of another being.
he must have turned and fled, because he found himself out on the street, almost stepping into traffic.
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