Sand Glass (3 page)

Jules wandered
off towards what I supposed was the kitchen.

‘Is he drunk?’
Marcia asked me.

‘No Idea. I
don’t know what drunk really looks like in other people when I’m
sober.’

‘Do you think
we should follow him in the kitchen?’

‘Yes. I think
popcorn at least could be done better and quicker by you.’

‘Ok.’

Jules was
searching in cupboards. The kitchen was very tidy. In fact it was
such a contrast to the room we had already seen it was like two
different houses had been stuck onto each other.

Jules looked at
me with glittering eyes. Clearly at that stage of drunkenness that
doesn’t show itself by slurring your words but by irrational feats
of stupidity.

‘You didn’t
call first.’ He was still searching the shelves. ‘Here it is.’

‘Would you like
me to do this?’ Marcia took it gently from him. I propelled Jules
back into the front room. He sat down, and then put his glasses on.
He showed me a book; ‘I’ve been searching through all the research
I could find. Nothing else to do.’

‘Why’s
that?’

‘I’ve been
sacked. Letters there.’

I picked it
up.

‘Yes.’ He said
shuffling some papers, ‘It’s all there. Clearly I’m too bright for
that kind of work. Damn him to Hades and back!’

‘Who?’

‘Who do you
think?’

‘Oh?’

‘It doesn’t
have his name on. But his paw prints are all over it.’

‘Jules… I’m so
sorry.’

‘Now isn’t that
the truth. You’re sorry. I know you are. One of the few…..’ He
stretched back in the chair, ‘I really need popcorn right now!’

‘Coming up!’
Marcia shouted from the kitchen.

‘I didn’t know
you wore specs.’ I said, as much for something to say.

‘Only for
reading.’ He took them off, ‘we didn’t do much of that on the
expedition did we?’

I went in the
kitchen. ‘Marcia? Does Jules wear glasses?’

‘Yes… for
reading. But he uses contacts sometimes; when he’s doing lectures.
Doesn’t want to appear too professor-like.’

‘Thank you. I
thought that we had one of those little things that had changed
around us.’

‘I would call a
change of optician’s prescription a “little thing”.’

‘No.
Sorry.’

‘Will you stop
apologising! Go and see if Jules is ok. And then make coffee. If
he’s going to drink like a fish I’d prefer it to be on a full
stomach.’

‘I wouldn’t
call popcorn filling.’

‘Depends how
much you eat. Go!’

Jules was sat
just were I had left him.

‘I hoped you’d
come round. I’m glad you did. It gets very lonely here sometimes. I
only have my work… the research. But you know that there are things
that they don’t know. I know I’m not right. I mean sorry for being
a trifle tipsy. But there is something that we can use.’

‘What’s
that?’

‘It is the
final design of the thing that caused the trouble in the first
place. It all in here….’ He tapped his head, ‘I admit. Not
accessible at the moment. But I’ll work on that.’ He poured some
more whisky in the glass.

‘I think you’ve
had enough.’

‘You do?’

‘Yes.’

He raised the
glass. ‘Here’s to those who’ve had enough.’

‘Jules. Can you
tell me anything right now about this Modulator?’

‘You want it in
Layman’s terms right?’ he asked smiling. I nodded. ‘It’s easy. It
just takes time to produce streams of consequences to one action.
Instead of one outcome you get dozens. Then the knack is to choose
between them.’

‘Marcia said
something about a dice experiment?’

‘Oh, that. Yes…
it’s the original game for dummies. How to win at any game. The
secret becomes not how you play but what you choose. It’s about
making the right choices. Ok… where’s that popcorn got to?’

Marcia came in
at that moment with a big bowl full. Jules dived straight in; ‘The
problem is,’ he said with his mouth full, ‘to not have too many
choices. Because then it just becomes impossible. You cannot win.
Or even get close because you cannot process that number of
different outcomes. Even a chess master has an absolute limitation
on how many moves ahead they can consider.’

‘But
surely?’

‘It’s like
asking the Master Chess to think ahead onto moves in a game that he
hasn’t even played yet, while still playing this one.’

‘Is anyone
capable of such a feat?’

‘Not by
ordinary methods. No. But give it time. And they are in the process
of perfecting a technique where the divided self can exist
temporarily in the same space. It is quite literally multiple
personalities induced by a combination of drugs, and exposure to
the modulation frequency.’

‘That sounds
horribly dangerous.’ Marcia picked a little popcorn up.

‘Yes. Of course
it is! But get this. If you do it more than once you build up a
kind of tolerance. It has been done. And not on me… so don’t ask me
that. At least, not that I’m aware of.’

‘So these
different personalities… are they aware of each other?’

‘Yes. The
central ego state remains. It’s what controls the whole thing. You
can play around with mind as much as you like if the ego state is
strong. It has to do with a certain predisposition to megalomania.
You see what’s coming don’t you?’

‘Do that mean
that the most likely people for it to work on, are the ones that
will tend to misuse it?’

‘Succinctly
put.’ Jules pointed at me, ‘Dear lord do I love popcorn!’

‘So….so let me
be really clear,’ I said, ‘they have the power to change
history?’

‘If you really
insist in putting in such simplistic terms then, yes; they do.’

‘But Jules….
Doesn’t that mean that with one action someone could undo what has
been done?’

He sat back and
rubbed his temples, obviously trying to think of a way to explain
this to me… the class dunce.

‘Give me that
bottle!’ Jules took it off Marcia who was examining the label, ‘I
think you need to get your head round this a little more; if you
are going to attempt to do what I think you’re going to attempt to
do…..’ he poured another inch and a half into the glass, ignored
Marcia’s expression and continued: ‘you must understand that a
system… any system has an absolute value basis… I mean there is a
point at which all probabilities are zero. That point is when all
things have either worked their way out… already happened; or they
have not yet started.’ He raised the glass to his lips, took a
large satisfying gulp and continued with a relaxed confidence, ‘You
cannot…. And I mean must not under any circumstances, change what
is happening on a particular line of consequence until it has
worked its way out. You must work with it, not against it. Time is
a killer. But also a creator; rather things are being made and
destroyed all the time. But you just have the problem of sorting
out which events are part of your pattern and which aren’t… in
other words you’ve got exactly the same problem that you had before
you started messing with Time itself. Too many choices. And no way
of knowing which end up in the channel you want, that brings about
the outcome you want it to…’

‘So how are
these people on the board of the Project doing this?’ Marcia
asked.

‘They are
breaking the rules and storing up trouble for themselves for later…
I guess,’ Jules focused vaguely on her, ‘You are one hell of a
beautiful girl. I think that Jared ought to appreciate you just a
little more…. Give up being an insane idiot. He is still in a state
of uncertainty.’

‘What?’ I
said.

‘At the level
of uncertainty in physics…. The events from a fixed point in time.
But since we don’t know what that point is we will have to go with
nudging the time line in the direction we want it to go in..’

‘What?’

‘Take control
Milnes…. That is the issue. And I know what you are going to say
next…. “What about Janey?”’

‘I admit there
was a certain thought there…’ I said.

‘Look.’ said
Jules, ‘I’m pissed as a newt and still twenty times smarter than
the most intelligent person in the room. That’s what I got… sacked
for. Get it. And so whatever assistance I can render will be
forthcoming. But you need to be careful! And I mean really careful.
I don’t want to see this all end in tears. We must preserve the
time lines that we are existing in at the moment. You get that
don’t you?’

‘Yes.’

‘What about
Jared?’ Marcia said, ‘and our Janey?’

‘You want to
save them. So save them. But know that every action creates another
set of events that fall like dominoes outward from any point in
space-time. You are creating history Mr Milnes. And in Janey’s
Cloud Field, if you mess up, you will create more and more parallel
realities that line up like crackers in a box until something
snaps.’

‘Huh?’

‘I will not be
able to explain this to you properly, because you are not one of
the few real Physicists alive. But I can just say this; be Bloody
careful! I value my existence in this world and I don’t want it to
be erased.’

I had stayed
with Jules. Marcia left by taxi at about nine in the evening. We’d
talked and even laughed. Jules had kept drinking. I had one glass
just to keep him company. Marcia said that it wasn’t her poison and
stuck to endless cups of tea.

Early morning
light in an unstructured bedroom. I cleared some space by the
simple process of putting laundry in the laundry hamper. Jules was
still asleep where I had left him covered with a thin summer
duvet.

I was just
wondering if a hair of the dog would be appropriate, when the phone
rang. Being a bit slow at that time in the morning I answered
it.

‘Jules?’

‘No it’s
Davey.’

‘Oh. Well I’ll
be round in half an hour. Just tell him I called ok?’ Violette was
business like in a way that I hadn’t woken up to. She had rung off
before I had chance to respond.

I looked round.
How to transform this into Jules awake and coherent in half an
hour? Easy.

‘Violette is on
her way! Jules! Do you hear me?’

‘Ok.’ He
burbled and turned over.

‘Tea. Strong.
Must make right now....’ I dashed downstairs. And quickly threw
everything into order.

Jules was
nursing his second cup still in his shorts and tee shirt, when a
key turned in the front door.

Dr Rhodes swept
in looking flustered. She went straight to Jules and embraced him
in a way that suggested things had moved forward since four days
ago.

‘I just found
out.’ She said.

I turned to
leave the room.

‘I’d like
coffee please Davey,’ she said, ‘black. And will you check in the
bread bin over there for the wholemeal?’

‘How would you
like it?’ I said obediently.

‘Honey. And
look in the fridge. There should be some fresh garlic.’

‘Garlic?’

‘To put on the
toast.’

‘Garlic?’ I
went and looked never the less.

She fussed him
in a way that I tried to avoid looking at. Jules put his arms round
her neck, and squinted at her from the stage of hangover that was
probably not as bad as it was going to get.

‘Sorry
Violette. I had too much. To be fair Davey did suggest I stopped.
But I ignored him.’

She kissed him
softly. He was kissing her back. I tried to look away. Terribly
embarrassed I suppose. I carried on with Violette’s instructions.
Then I left the mutually consoling couple in private, and went back
upstairs to find where I’d left my jacket.

We zoomed along
in Dr Rhodes’ Jeep. It was bright yellow outside like sunshine; and
completely tidy on the inside. She had Jules in the front passenger
seat and I sat behind him in the back. She glanced at me in the
rear view mirror.

‘Just when I
think I reached a dead end, something always turns up.’ She said
with a purposeful tone.

I told her
about my need to see Janey.

‘That’s fine.
We will do a little house call first.’

‘Who?’

‘You’ll see.’
She smiled coolly, ‘You will be surprized I think.’

We arrived. It
was in a street I knew quite well. A wide avenue, with verges and
lots of trees, and huge Victorian terraces.

We walked some
way along, having left the car neatly parked in a side street. I
saw the feathers jammed in a vase just inside the window and the
chaotically arranged curtains. Dr Rhodes knocked in a sharp
rappity-rap that made Jules flinch.

‘Sorry,’ she
said to him and touched his hand.

‘It’s fine.’
said Jules. He bowed his head to stumble into the gloom of a badly
lit hall way.

‘What took you
so long?’ I heard a familiar voice and saw none other than my dear
pal Alex. We followed him through to his old-fashioned plaster
walled kitchen with herbs hung from the ceiling. Alex sat back down
near a bowl of cornflakes and chopped up bananas.

‘Oh.’ I sat
down on the nearest chair.

‘I’ll always
watch your back.’ he said.

‘Is this a
conspiracy?’ I asked

‘You ok there
mate?’ said Alex to Jules.

‘Maybe.’ Jules
sat down too.

Dr Rhodes
continued standing.

‘Have you been
spying on me?’ I asked Alex.

‘What?’ He
dropped the spoon with a clatter in the empty bowl, which I was
sure didn’t do much for Jules’ head.

‘Err....’ I
really wasn’t used to Alex out of hours. Literally anything was
possible.

Dr Rhodes stood
looking prim. ‘I now know that you two do know each other. I must
say it is quite a useful situation. But perhaps Alex would like a
full background from you.’

‘I think that
is not necessary right now.’ I said stiffly. I felt caught out.