6 7 8

By William Cayhews

A messenger from the future reminisces about the end of the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: William Cayhews
• Release date: May 8, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463588789

William Cayhews

After we posthumously published Door Posts for William, we found other projects he had written. Great Chasm Fixed was written for his five children, so they all worked with me to get it published. Then, we recently found this rather bizarre short story, 678, tucked away in another area of his studio. I must say, in his stories he definitely was fascinated with the notion of extending beyond the limits of time. Kendall Daddo ~j~

Book preview

6 7 8

future memoir

William Cayhews

Smashwords Edition | Copyright 2020 William Cayhews | All Rights Reserved

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~ THE DOTS ~

Dorothy knows there must be more... even though she has no idea what more is.

‘I have enough, so what exactly is this strange notion I am sensing within myself? Why do I feel limited? Limited from what? Everything is right here. Everything was right here yesterday. It is here today and it will be here tomorrow. It always has been. It always will be.

‘So what is this strange idea of more? Why do I sense there must be more to life than merely me living here on this dot?

‘Why is this not enough? Why can I not simply be satisfied with myself and my own world? Everything is fine. I don’t have any needs. I am perfectly satisfied here...

‘But there must be more... honestly... there must be more.

‘There must be.’

Dreams certainly can be persistent.

And in Dorothy’s case her dreams drive her into a discovery that completely changes her world.

She musters up every ounce of her courage, takes in a deep breath, closes her eyes, reaches out, and... and she reaches out and finds more.

She discovers more.

And to her great delight, upon her first glance, more happens to be everything she ever dreamed it would be. And to her further joy and excitement, she soon discovers that more is actually so so much more! She looks around and sees that more is a vast flat surface stretching out beyond her in every direction. It is more than she ever dreamed possible! More than she could have ever even imagined!

And as Dorothy begins to further explore more, she realizes that every bit of it actually existed right there where she found it before she mustered up the courage to step out into it. It was already there during the entire time she was dreaming about it.

All she lacked was that initial courage to step out and enter into it.

Then upon further exploration, Dorothy learns that more is not foreign to her at all. She feels perfectly at home. It is everything she always knew before, but just way way more.

~ THE FLATS ~

Dorothy (Dot for short), with a slight bit of trepidation, continues to walk forward and moves further away from her starting point on the vast flat surface.

After a while, Dot suddenly finds she can move no further forward in her current direction. Again, she musters up the courage and attempts a step to her side instead of to her front. And with great joy, she discovers side-stepping is also an option in addition to moving forward.

Dot’s joyous exploration of the vast flat surface goes on and on. But soon, she discovers she has no idea where she is. She is completely and hopelessly lost.

So she starts to think about why her progress was thwarted in her pioneering forward moving direction. Then she thinks about why she was able to continue her journey after she side-stepped and moved in other directions. She began to postulate about why she was able to continue her movement after side-stepping each time.

Soon she surmises that those moments may have been when she encountered another point, like hers, out there on the vast flat surface. She concludes that if it were actually a point just like hers, then maybe it was even possible that there was a person just like her living on it.

To test her theory, Dot madly dashes in one direction until her progress is halted. Then she screams at the top of her lungs, I am here!

She pauses and then screams again, I am here! I am here!

And then, she waits...

Nothing.

I am here! she cries.

Please! I beg you! Please! Listen to me! I am here!

I... am... here... she gasps, out of breath.

Dot continues in this plea until she is completely exhausted and lying on the flat surface curled up in a fetal position.

And then... Dot feels a totally foreign sensation on her shoulder -- the touch of ‘another.’ It is warm and completely comforting. Her soul melts into satisfied rest. She closes her eyes and drifts away into complete peace of mind.

Hello.

‘What? What is hello?’ thinks Dot.

Hello.

There it was again.

I knew I was not merely dreaming. I knew I would find you.

Dot dares to open her swollen tear saturated eyes. At first, she thinks she is looking in a mirror. But then she realizes that the image is moving independently of her.

She rubs the watery tears out of her eyes.

I just knew someone else existed out there. But I had no idea what there was. I heard you calling. I heard it in my soul. So I mustered up the courage and I stepped out. I stepped out and I found you. Right here. Here you are. Here we are.

Energized by the warmth of his hand on her shoulder, Dot stands to her feet. She looks at him and smiles and asks, curiously and inquisitively, What is we?

What is what? he asks.

You said, we... you said, ‘Here we are.’

He smiles and then laughs out loud, I do not know! I do not have the slightest idea! It just came out! It must mean you and I. We must be what we call you and I!

Dot laughs, You must be right!

Soon enough, Dot and her newfound friend, Flat Top, make their way across the vast flat surface and call out to the occupants on each of the points they encounter. They joyfully introduce each of the occupants to the beauties of the lines that exist between each and every one of the points on the surface. Soon they are all connected in harmonious unity across the entire vast flat surface.

(And speaking of ‘soon enough,’ the occupants of the flat surface are now exposed to the concept of time because it becomes possible for them to experience time as a measurement between each of the points.)

As time passes, several of the individuals living on the vast flat surface form an Art Colony. They assemble regularly and further expand upon the beauty of life in The Flats by creating rectangles and squares, which naturally progress toward triangles, trapezoids and hexagons.

Much more time passes as the people of The Flats go on enjoying their new discoveries and becoming more accustomed to their exciting new way of life.

Dot’s granddaughter, Linnea, is an active member of the Art Colony (Dot is very proud of her), and similar to her grandmother’s experience a long time previously, Linnea begins to sense that there must be something more than merely left and right and forward and backward.

During Dot’s next visit to see what Linnea is working on at the Colony, she is excited to happen upon Linnea working furiously on some new projects.

I call it a circle, announces Linnea proudly. Watch this, she continues, as she starts alternating between forward movement and movement to her right. If you keep moving at this same combination of directions, you eventually wind up back where you started. But as you do, the path does not continue along an angular direction.

It is a curve, says Dot quietly.

What did you... what is a curve? asks Linnea.

It is simply what I heard in my mind while you were forming it. Then Dot walks over to get a better look at Linnea’s projects and says, Yes. I believe these are circles, like you said... and curves.

~ THE DEPTHS ~

Naturally, more complex curves are explored and begin to fill The Flats with their interesting new beauty. Time goes by and Linnea becomes one of the teachers and visionaries in the Art Colony.

May I show you something, Teacher? asks one of Linnea’s young students, as he directs her over to his drawing table and asks, What is it?

You are the one who created it, answers Linnea. You tell me.

Shade is what comes to my mind when I look at it, says the student as he shrugs his shoulders.

I can see that these are an interesting combination and arrangement of parallelograms in conjunction with a square, observes Linnea. "And the value