Watching an episode of 'The Twilight Zone' when I was in college, I wondered about time. Time was a strange thing we knew almost nothing about.
Standing in the hallway without any sound or light, a pin dot sized light come from the end of the hallway. Heading toward the light I passed the interrogation room and then the board room. With the light still growing in size my body kept heading toward it.
Stopped and leaning against the wall, there was no recollection of the building ever being that long. Focusing on the lights being on, light blared into the hallway with enough force to blind me for a moment.
I thought I was looking down the hallway, but there was nothing in front of me at all. Looking behind me, basically the hallway went just past the conference room and then it was blank. Blank like that of a canvas with half the painting missing paint.
Turning back around a figure was coming toward me out of the white ahead. The closer the figure got the easier it was to tell it was a woman. When she was about fifty feet away, I could tell it was my mother.
"Hello, Michael," her voice was so soft and pleasant.
"Hello, mother. Where are we this time?" sounding nervous.
"Interesting choice of words, son. The same as before. We are in a place only one human has the ability to be in. You Michael. We are in the middle of time. This is what time looks like in the middle. Think of it like the eye of a tornado. This is the eye of time." Her voice was soothing, but her words were painful in a way.
"Thanks for leaving me in the middle of the freezing cold of Canada last time," letting out some sarcasm.
"Oh, dear, that was not me. That was you. You just didn't know you did it," she looked at me with the loving face of a mother. "Michael, all of life is made up of one thing."
"Yes. Matter." Clearly she did not know I went to college for Physics.
"Correct," she smiled happily as if she had just seen me win a spelling bee. "Now, you have done a very good job of learning how to control your abilities, but you are missing two important aspects of these that will help you," behind her the landscape started to change.
Something was erecting itself tall into the air. Then lights were on it and it became night. A hugely oversized moon was behind it and under it was crystal clear water reflecting the moonlight. Millions of tiny stars popped up all over the backdrop portion of the pitch black sky.
In the middle of the water which became a magnificent lake, was a silver shining Ferris Wheel going around at night with the moon and stars out to greet it. It was quite magical.
Shaking my head trying to get out of this fictional world, "What does this have to do with me?"
She turned and walked on the water toward the Ferris Wheel, "What is it you have the ability to do, Michael?"
"Open a Wormhole? I do not know."
"And that is the problem. You need to know," she implored. "What would allow you to change your clothes anytime you wished?"
"I can control matter?" it felt like a pop quiz.
She clapped her hands together, "Precisely! Now, all you have to do is learn to control and manipulate it for what it is. Right now you are doing it on instinct. You need to grasp and understand the Matter you are manipulating. When you can do that you can do one other thing that no human has ever been able to do before."
Curiosity was getting the better of me, "That is for you to find out, Michael." Okay, that would not be any different from everything else. The 'figure it out on your own' rollercoaster was already in motion.
Reflecting back at me from the water of the lake, was my own face. The Ferris Wheel was enormous and very beautiful in this setting. Stretching my hand out, one of the cars moving around detached and hung in the air. Putting it down on the water and started to twirl my finger. It broke apart particle by particle and sat above the water as a cloud of dust.
"Yes, but you must see it in your mind. Each piece of matter interacting with the next. Right now you are still picturing what you want it to do. You need to be one with it not just talking to it," she said urging.
Spreading my fingers, the dust disappeared and reformed on the Ferris Wheel. Trying to focus on the place deep in my mind where everything seemed to happen from, I tried to mix with the particles for the Ferris Wheel, as if I was one of the lights or a piece of metal or some particle that made it up. Closing my eyes I broke up every particle into each piece of matter and worked with them to create something different.
Opening my eyes, the Lincoln Memorial was sitting in front of me. It was just what in my mind at the time. Feeling the electricity running between me and every other piece of matter around me it was like a friendship. In this friendship, I would ask them all to follow me as I created something new and they filled it in. Matter was never connected just to one thing. It could be whatever it wanted to be, given the right guidance.
While changing the matter into whatever I felt like, "What is the other thing? You said two things. What is the other?"
"Well, this is only the first step to what you need to learn for the second, but that will take a lot of practice," she put her hand on my shoulder. "The second is learning how to get in and out of all the information that has been passed to you. The wealth of knowledge in your mind is incredible and you need to be able to access it as quickly as possible," she had become a little confusing.
As situations arose that needed me to access something I was able to find the book and open it. Someone would ask a question about how the airplane was invented and the information allowed me to give them details on the method and then the physics of it along with all the engineering designs. When asked how a surgical procedure was accomplished, again, it would just come out from the top of my head.
"You need to walk through the knowledge. John's representation of the knowledge in your mind was a creative one and one that makes it easy to imagine. You can enter that library in your mind at any time and just start walking through it. Six thousand years of knowledge and experience will help anyone, especially you." She looked at me with such loving eyes it made me completely relaxed.
A strange feeling crept over me remembering something she said, "Mother, what is this all about?"
"I cannot tell you that, Son. You have to learn that on your own. Part of what this is about is the journey it will take to find out. Do you understand?"
Turning back to the moon, my head was bobbing. Distant in some ways and close in others, the moonlight always seemed to have a grasp on my mind and my heart, beautiful in all its glowing triumph that radiated from it. Calming and soothing all at the same time.
"Now, Michael, you have to go back," she pointed behind me where the hallway was. "Try not to end up in Canada this time," she gave me a laughing smile. "When you get back to the room, nothing will be back to normal until you figure out how to make it that way." She put her hand on my face. Her hand seemed so smooth and gentle with warmth radiating from it. "Now, go, Son."
Doing as she asked, I spun around and walked across the blank whiteness to the edge of the hallway. Turning back and she was gone along with everything else being returning to blank. Feeling alone and a bit overwhelmed, I glided down the hallway. My eyes twitched and the lights in the hallway and the blank space all went off. The only light was glowing from the door of my room.
Opening the door and walking in, the room looked at peace. I wanted to stay and just think for awhile. The place was completely silent as before. There was no humming of the lights or any power. No shuffling of feet echoing down a hallway. No one was trying to get into the room to ask me anything about life or take any tests.
Looking at the desk, I closed my eyes and went to that spot in my mind. Making each piece of matter resemble a little person pictured like a Weeble. Standing with them, I told the crowd, "Let's make a rocket!" They all cheered and followed and the desk reformed into a rocket.
Seeing the desk turned rocket for the first time, the picture of it made up of Weebles was a funny one. Out loud, laughter flooded the small room.
Around the room everything was at peace. Now the goal was to figure out how to put myself back into the natural course of time. There was no knowledge of what was needed to accomplish this task. Was time catching up to me? Was I catching up to time? Was this place outside of time? My mind could not come up with an idea of how this all worked.
Keeping what my mother said in my mind, the thoughts and ideas kept racing. Controlling matter had something to do with it, putting it together without any knowledge of how it worked was a stretch. Closing my eyes and focusing on being in the room with people walking around, all my attention was on that thought and moment.
Opening my eyes, nothing had changed. This was not the same thing as everything else. Holding my face in my hands and wanting to get back to reality, or whatever it would be called at this point, I thought about my little Weeble friends. "Everything is made of Matter" repeated in my head over and over.
Closing my eyes and reaching back to the space with the Weebles, "Let's make a doorway to my 21st birthday!" They all cheered and moved around. Forming in the middle of my mind was an actual door like any other you would find inside of a house. It was made of brown wood with brass hinges and a door knob. Around the door was glowing blue light around a white cloud. It was the same as when I Moved.
Walking up to the imposing door, my hand nervously swung it open. On the other side was a familiar room. Lying in a dentist's type of chair, next to me was John in his. People with lab coats were running all over the room looking at electronic equipment and pushing buttons. At the back side of the room were more people in lab coats watching and writing on clip boards.
Opened my eyes, there was no door, but instead it was an oval shaped hole with the electricity running around the white cloud. Without the electricity and the cloud it would have been an oval hole in any wall except this was right in the middle of the room. On the other side was the same as what I saw in my mind.
Standing up off the bed and walking over to the opening, my stretched arm though to the other side. At first, nothing happened. There was no telling if I was even in that time. Then, a woman in a lab coat at the back of the room jumped as she saw what I can only think was my arm. Pulling it back quickly she dropped the clipboard she was holding and tapped the man standing next to her on the shoulder. She said something to him and pointed over to where I was standing.
Shrugging her off after looking, he turned back to John sitting in the chair. She kept staring at the hole. After a few seconds she reached down and picked up her clipboard, but kept her eyes on the where my arm had appeared.
Like with so many things with my abilities, I let go of my Weeble like friends and the hole closed in front of me. It was amazing to think about what had happened. Trying to wrap my mind around what my mother had said and what just happened, it was easy to figure out what was going on. It was not only controlling a specific moment of time, but also the ability to move through it.
Closing my eyes and seeing all my friends again, I simply asked to move me back to my time. With a cheer and my eyes closed they all moved around me and with a whirlwind of matter spinning me around, my eyes opened.
Nothing seemed any different to me. No one was in the room. The lights were on as they had been before. Walking up to the mirror I tapped on the glass. Waiting, there was nothing. Impatiently walking over to the door to try the handle, a tap came back from the other side.
My body collapsed on the bed with relief. Within a few seconds an agent came into the room. He was tall and dressed only in a black suit and black tactical boots.
"Everything alright?" he asked. I knew who was paying his salary.
"Yes, could you get me a club sandwich, please?" it was nice not trapped in some place that time forgot, literally.
"Sure. I'll send that up," he walked back out of the room.
With this new ability and my mother saying I only one person could do it, it made me wonder if I was the only one that could see it. The woman in the room for my birthday saw my arm, but no one saw a glowing hole in the room.
Slyly looking around, I closed my eyes to find my friends. We created a doorway to that night in Vale, Colorado after moving from my apartment. It was the bar where a conversation ensued with the bartender.
Looking directly in front of the mirror was the oval hole. Waiting and looking at the door every few minutes, an expectation was there for my keepers to come busting into the room. No one came. When the agent came in with my sandwich it was obvious no one could see it.
"I was wondering," stopping the agent to test something. "Do you see anything with the mirror right there," pointing to the mirror right behind the hole. He walked over squinting at the glass and passed right through the hole but nothing happened. To him, it was not even there.
It was hard not to laugh or smile at all. Needing to test a few other theories this guy was going to be my guinea pig.
"I don't see anything wrong with it," he turned and looked at me.
"Must just be my eyes. Can you come here for a second?" wanting him by me for the next one.
Placing my hand out and touching his shoulder, "Look at it now." He turned around and jumped back in surprise.
"What the hell is that?!" My theory was validated.
"Shhhh. Please, I need to test one more thing," he looked at the hole and then me and then the mirror. He just nodded. "Walk up to it," moving with him keeping my hand on his shoulder.
"Now what?" his voice was so shaky I thought he might start trembling.
In the hole, the other me was walking away from the bar and heading for the door. There were men in the tactical boots watching me from the wall as the other me walked out.
"We are going through there," tipping my head at the hole.
"Do you think that's a good idea?" he asked half heartedly and very scared.
"Maybe not, but I think we will be just fine. Ready?" he shook his head which made me smile.
We both jumped through the hole and ended up on the floor in the bar between the door and the men in the boots. Both of us looked back and could see the hole still there. The room of the bar was all shocked and everything stopped as they stared at two appearing men.
Glancing at the agent, "That was interesting. You alright?"
"I'm fine," he stood up and with me no longer quivering scared.
"Can you still see that hole?" with my hand on him. He nodded.
Removing my hand, "Where did it go?" he panicked.
Putting my hand back on him, "It is still there. You can only see it when I am touching you. We will go back together." He nodded and we walked up to the bar.
The bartender was still in shock as he looked at me. It had to be a strange thing to watch me walk out of the bar and then just appear out of nowhere a few seconds later. Looking around at everyone it was evident this would be a bad situation.
"Excuse me, I was just in here, right?" The bartender dropped the glass he was drying and nodded in agreement.
Grabbing the agent, we walked back to the oval shaped opening. "Let's go. Time to go back, now!" We hopped back through the hole and I let go of him.
Spinning around to find the hole, which was there, he waved his hands in front of him. He was searching all around the room looking like a blind man searching for the coffee table.
Closing my eyes, I talked my friends into opening a second door to my 21st birthday which was now to the left of the first one of the bar in Vale. The people in Vale were searching the wall area where we had just left.
"Come here, please," motioning for the agent. He was reluctant this time. "I just want to know if you can see this. Nothing more. I promise."
Walking over to me I placed my hand on his shoulder and spun him around. He flinched some, but not like moments ago when he saw it for the first time.
"What do you see?" hoping for the best.
"Over here," he was pointing to the right, "is where we just were." He pointed to the left, "That looks like a room here in the building, but that's you in that chair. How can that be?"
Smiling, "Okay. Thank you. Please, do not talk about this or you will end up locked in here with me," probably not a completely true statement.
"Well, you're not really locked up, are you?" he said with a devilish grin.
"I guess you are right. Now get out of here," kicking him out of the room.
Closing my eyes I asked my friends to let go over both doors. They dispersed, but did not seem too happy about it. In a way, they had little minds of their own. It was kind of strange. Maybe the picture of the Weebles was a mistake. It was distracting from the reality of it being a particle of Matter.
Feeling good and hungry my mouth chewed into the sandwich. My tension was high and needed to release. My hope was the agent was not running to the Director right now to discuss our little adventure. The fear was minimal knowing who actually paid him.
It had been years since my 21st birthday, almost ten, and in that time almost all of my abilities were able to be controlled. Yet, the understanding of how and why was not quite there. Also, there was not a lot of trying to get into the 'Library' and just walk around reading.
Inhaling the rest of the sandwich, my decision was to take a trek into my own mind and find the library. It was time to walk through the shelves and start to understand as much as I could about what was happening to me and just anything else I felt like in general.
Lying down on the bed I and shutting my eyes, I traveled down the path to the deepest part of my mind. Turning it into a hiking expedition, I pictured myself in hiking gear headed up a mountain in search of a lost city and its library of history.
My legs carried me up the dirt and rock path marching through trees and shrubs. Sweat was trickling down my face as while searching in every direction. There were no animals in my mind and no wind to speak of. It was just me against the trail trying to find something that was lost.
My search pulled me off the trail after hearing a noise and following it. Louder and louder the crushing sound of something was coming over a ridge and echoing off the trees. There was the ledge of a cliff and what sounded like a waterfall. Moving up to the ledge, a building was in sight below me, at the top of a waterfall that split and came down either side of a cliff below it. The rushing water made it impossible to get to. In a tree next to me was the only way to the building. It was a cable that ran down to a balcony.
Climbing the tree I took off my belt and slung it over the cable. I leapt out and slid down to the balcony of the large brown wooden building. Standing in front of the door I put my belt back on and opened the door. Walking in, it was just as I remembered it. An enormous library of shelves and shelves of books reaching up to the top where there was a glass roof, this time, and a door which I walked through. Crossing the threshold of the doorway my close changed into a comfortable pants and t-shirt under a smoking jacket. It seemed appropriate for a library.
The desk was just the same as John had left it. Although, it did have some dust piling up on it. Subconsciously, there was symbolizing of the amount of time it took for me to visit the place. Glancing behind the desk at the shelves, the catalog system did not look familiar.
Examining the spine of a few of the books it was not the Dewey Decimal System. They did seem to be in some type of alphabetical order in sections. Figuring out the arrangement of the section was the key.
Climbing the ladder to the third floor there were brass plaques running around each floor. It looked like my mind was going A to Z from the bottom to the top. Since I read left to right it only made sense the books were ordered that way.
I scaled up the ladder until T was on the plaques. Stepping off the hunt began down the shelves all around the room and down the back isle.
"Ti. Ti. Tim," finally, getting to what I was looking for. "Time." There were a few books on the shelves dealing with time as fiction and some more that dealt with the wormholes like the Einstein-Rosen Bridge. Not that much more. Opening every book and soaking up all the knowledge of everything in each. One, the knowledge was blindingly fast to absorb.
When I opened a book it was as if every word flashed into my mind so fast a bright light was exerted from the book. This is how my mind pictured it so there was a strobe like light that burst into my face each time a book was opened.
Since there was not much information on Time Travel on the shelves, what John said was right. I was the only one. The shelves on this subject would be filled by my own experience and knowledge. Glancing up, a space on the shelves opened and a book appeared. 'Time Travel by Michael' it said on the spine. It made me wonder if everyone pictured their world in their mind the way that mine was.
After going through everything there was in the 'Time' section I moved on to searching for the history of people like me. No telling where it was in the library. Since it was my mind the hunt started with some basics that I thought it might be under. 'History' was a pretty simple place to start.
Moving the ladder and dropping down a few levels, the search was on for the 'H' section. Moving through the shelves quickly it was pretty easy to find and took up the entire floor. 'Abilities' was an empty space on the shelf. 'Powers' had nothing Non-Fiction on the shelves, which was the same with super powers. That turned out to be a dumb idea. It seemed that John did not like comic books.
Resting against the railing and looking out over the monumental library gave me a chance to think. Remembering something in the NSA files from McCoy's office, one said the other six. 'Seven' was not on any shelf. On the third shelf from the bottom was a brass plaque that said 'The Seven files are in the desk'. Either the note was left by me subconsciously or John left it.
Leaping over the railing, figuring it was safe in my own mind, my feet planted with a thud right next to the desk. I walked over to the desk and sat in the chair. Looking through the drawers there was nothing there but pens, pencils and stationary. The bottom right drawer was the biggest and would not open.
Bending down and examining, there was a dial with six digits like a briefcase. A combination was going to get me in, but what was it? It would not be my combination because John had put the files here. It did not take long to figure out what the dial needed to read. '122599' was the day that John gave me all this information and then died.
Easily the drawer slid open and there were about twenty large books stacked in order. Each one said 'The Seven' and some type of note on the outside in handwriting as to what was inside. Very first in line was one noted 'About The Seven'.
Pulling it out and placing it on the desk I took some deep breathes. It would come at me pretty hard. Pulling the cover back a light emitted from the book right into my face. Centuries of information was being crammed into my brain all at one time. Yelling out, as it tried to force itself to fit where there was no room, was my only outlet for the pain.
Slamming the cover shut, my breath was gone and it was difficult trying to catch it. Hyperventilating and dropping to the floor images passing through my brain in nonsensical random order. Horses and swords, spears, animals and planes. It kept coming over and over. Squirming on the floor the library in-between images as flashed while rolling around. Abruptly it stopped and I wiped my nose with my hand. My hand was covered in blood as I got up into the chair. It would hit me every few seconds like being hit with a bat.
Knowing no bounds the second volume noted 'John' came out. Opening it put me on the floor in the same pain and with even more flashes in my head. The next five books were all noted with someone's name. Each time the pain was greater than the one before. Not only was my head in pain, but I was getting to the point where the images were going so fast there was no pause.
A voice was calling out, a man's voice. "Michael," it yelled in my ear. "Can you hear me?"
Opening my eyes a man in a lab coat with glasses on and a stethoscope in his ears was standing over me. In his right hand he started waving a pen light into my eyes. His gloves were covered in blood, but not from him. Looking down, my shirt was soaked in blood that had run off onto my bed.
The doctor, educated guess, spoke out, "He's awake. Let's get him down to the medical room. We can hook him up in there."
Feeling light headed and dizzy, they transferred me to a gurney. Flashing images started to hit me again. One after another, still in random order. I could see some of John as he was in different times. He was fighting in France. There was a short man on a horse with his hand in his vest.
John yelled out, "Get Napoleon!"
Then he was fighting some barbarian looking men riding horses with swords drawn. They looked Mongolian so it figured to be Genghis Khan's army. The images would come through at different times in different places.
My eyes were twitching so fast and I could not control them or myself. My body was twitching and thrashing on the gurney. Above me a light exploded and then blood was jetting out from under my eyes. It sprayed a woman wearing a lab coat holding the railing and running beside the bed.
"Napoleon," yelling out when he passed through my vision.
"Did he just say Napoleon?" the doctor asked.
"Khan. Must stop the Khan," every thought of John's was coming out as if it were me was living the moment right then.
The hallway changed as we turned into the medical room. They transferred me to the bed using the sheet. Then images were flashing as if seeing these things first hand. All kinds of bodies piled up and a symbol hated by all the world. I saw the man responsible for the bodies of dead woman and children and all the men.
"Kill Hitler!" sitting up in the bed as my arms flew out to my sides. I could hear an explosion of crumbling wall as I fell back to the table and turned my head to the side. The wall along with everything else on that side of the room was in the next room. Drywall was falling from the jagged edges where everything hand crashed through.
"My God, what was that?!" the doctor cried out.
A feeling of dizziness along with blurred vision came over me while watching and listening to the doctor run all over the room. It was going to happen and then it finally did. I slipped into the world I was seeing flash through my mind.
Walking around in the colonial period of American history there were carriages and the people on horses riding along. Seeing the American flag with the original thirteen stars in a circle hanging everywhere was a little strange. It was John's vision, but to make sure my hand wiped my nose. There was no blood. It was convincing I had not just moved through time.
Not knowing where taking a stroll up the street seemed logical. People were waving and nodding to me all the way up the street. The scenery looked like it was somewhere in Massachusetts, but It was hard to say with the period difference.
"Good day, John," a man tipped his hat to me.
John replied, "Good day, William."
We walked a little bit further and another man tipped his hat and said, "Good day, Mr. Hancock."
I began to choke but John never coughed at that moment of the memory so he did not cough at all. John had been John Hancock at his time during the late 1700's. It was amazing to think about and bewildering to try and comprehend. John was one of the greatest United States historical figures.
Like a buzzing vibration in my vision, everything twitched and we were sitting on a thrown in a castle. "All hale King John!" a man said standing next to us.
My mind was racing with things from John's thousand years. All I wanted to get out of this and back to my world before finding out he was someone bad. The same doctor was standing over me shining a light in my eyes again.
"Doc, I am really getting sick of that light," he smiled.
"Good!" we both smiled. "Son of a bitch you can be a pain in the ass sometimes." He put his hands on his knees and looked over at the wall.
"Oops! Sorry, Doctor." Trying to get up, but he put his hand on my chest.
"You've lost too much blood. You need to stay here for a little while." There were tubes and pads running all over me to electronic monitoring equipment in the room.
Closing my eyes and seeing my little Weeble friends I asked them to fill in as blood. As they did everything on the monitors came back and I pulled his hand away. The doctor watched all the equipment and just kept moving away from me.
"That's amazing! How'd you do that?" he had asked me that so many times before.
"After almost ten years do you honestly think I would tell you anything now?" pulling the tubes and pads off and walked to the door. Focusing on the walls I destroyed, my Weeble buddies rebuilt everything the way it was. Passing my hand over my clothes, the blood disappeared.
The nurse in the back dropped a tray on the agent standing next to her. "There, all better," extending my hand out and the tray lifted back to her arms. She might have been more shocked by that. Winking at her, I left the room confidently.
Walking down the hallway the flashing images were coming at me but they were being held more at bay. At least enough so there was no blood or stumbling down the hallway.
Sitting on my desk, Indian style, with my eyes shut, watching the images that zipped though my memory as if they were my own. It was like a movie about history that only had the Popcorn missing from it.
I spent the next few hours on the desk absorbing the history of all seven books opened at the desk in my library. It took a long time once I learned to slow the images down and not let them come at me so fast they were causing physical pain.
Just as I finished up a group of doctors that had tested me over and over for the ten previous years walked in.
Keeping my eyes closed, "Hello, Doctors." Each of them had a chair with them. It was visible in my mind. "Planning on staying awhile, are we?"
"Yes, Michael," the oldest of the five said. His name was William Simmons. "Michael, could you please talk to us."
Raising my finger, "Just one moment, please."
"Of course," Simmons said.
The last bit of the very first of us was passing through. "Okay," opening my eyes and moving off the desk to the chair, "Please, begin."
Simmons started, "We would," cutting him off.
"Like to understand what happened with me today," the doctor looked surprised as if he thought I was reading his mind. "Why else would you come in here this late with a team of four other doctors with you? It was just an obvious observation," seeing what was on his mind and everyone else's but it was not the time to give that away and it was obvious.
"Over the years some strange things have happened with you around. More so that last couple of years and it has progressed even more here recently. Can you talk to us about this?" he crossed his legs and got ready to take notes.
"Yes. I had a very bad dream and somehow I ended up with a nose bleed," they all looked disappointed.
"What about the walls in the medical room and the nurse's tray? Or, how about this, the agent and yourself who seemed to disappear and then a minute later reappear here in your room?" They all started something on their paper as if they expected me to say something about it.
"Well, I would be willing to wager you have all these things on video?" looking over at Simmons.
Nodding, "Yes, of course."
Rising from the chair I walked over to the mirror at the front of the room. Everyone was visible in the mirror. My decision was to make sure this all came to an end at some point.
"Doctors, I will give you an option," they rustled in their chairs. "Within the next month I will explain not just today's events, but all the events that have happened the last ten years," all of them were excited. "Or, I can explain what happened just today and every piece of evidence you have from the last ten years will disappear and I will never tell you the rest. I leave the fate of this entire ten year project in your hands." They all looked somber.
"Michael, we would rather have spent the last ten years to get all of it than for the last twenty four hours."
"I think there is hope for humanity. You could have all been selfish, but instead you chose for the greater good. Well done to you all," turning and lifted my arm for the door. "Now, if you all would, please, excuse me for the evening. I am tired from my day."
"Of course, Michael," they opened the door and wheeled their chairs out into the hallway. Simmons turned to me, "Thank you, Michael."
Cordially, "You are welcome, Doctor. Have a nice night everyone." Often I felt as if this was my house, this little room I lived in. This situation felt like I had a dinner party over for the evening.
After they had left, I went back to the desk and climbed on top. It was time to go back to the library and spend the next month looking at every single book possible. It was time to know the world. My eyes shut.