Mahatma Gandhi
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Penelope glances around, completely caught off guard to find herself right back where this whole thing started. "Well, crap," she mutters, "we're back at the restaurant, and it's just us again. I really thought we were finally going to see Mom." She turns to John, frustration clear in her voice. "I'm starting to have serious doubts about this Josh guy. Maybe Mom's got a point about him." Just then, a waitress walks over carrying a couple of glasses.
"Yeah, he definitely could've handled that whole situation better," John agrees with a sigh.
"Here you go, guys," the waitress says cheerfully as she sets down the glasses. "Josh is back in the kitchen right now. He had me bring you some iced tea and said he'll be out in just a minute." John and Penelope are still standing there holding hands, exactly like they were before they left. Still feeling pretty disoriented from whatever just happened, they slowly get their bearings and sit down. They can't help but look around the room, wondering if anyone noticed them standing there like statues while they were gone. But everyone else in the restaurant is completely absorbed in their own conversations and meals, paying them no attention whatsoever, so there's really no need to feel embarrassed.
"Maybe this whole crazy trip is finally over," John says, trying to reassure Penelope. "She said he'll be out any minute, so we can ask him what the hell is going on."
Penelope's voice gets quieter, more worried. "John, do you think Mom is actually... dead? Not like Joshua, living in someone else's body, or like you guys when you came here from Earth, but do you think she somehow figured out a way to just... not exist anymore? I get the feeling Josh isn't telling us everything, and honestly, I'm really, really scared right now." Her eyes start to well up with tears. "No, sweetheart," John says gently, "I think your Mom is way too stubborn and ornery to do something like that."
"And what exactly is 'ornery'?" Penelope asks, wiping her eyes.
"It means the same thing as 'cantankerous'," John replies matter-of-factly.
"Never mind," Penelope says with an exaggerated eye roll. "And you guys blame us teenagers for making up words. You old folks have the absolute craziest vocabulary ever."
"Language is tricky," Josh says as he approaches their table. "Words don't always mean what you think they do, so it's really easy to get confused when you're trying to communicate. But since you humans have evolved to use language as your primary way of connecting with each other, that's what we have to work with. It was pretty nice though, wasn't it, using telepathy while you were in those wolf bodies? You should really consider targeting your continuing evolution to move back toward telepathy. It's so much more accurate." Josh sits down at the table while the two of them just stare at him. "I know you're both pretty confused right now, but we needed to come back here first to prepare for our trip to find your Mom. So, are you guys rested up and ready to go?"
"Hold on there, fancy pants," Penelope says, giving him a serious look. "Are we going to end up as some weird animal again? You need to start telling us what's going to happen before you just dump us into these situations. That wolf thing was actually kind of fun, but it was terrifying too, and that's not fair to us. I'm honestly not sure you're a very nice person. So tell us exactly what's going to happen, or I'd rather just stay right here."
"Okay, that's completely fair," Josh says. "I'm sorry I scared you. This stuff is so routine for me that sometimes I forget to look at it from your perspective. So here's my plan: your Mom is on Earth. That's where we need to go to find her."
"On Earth now, or somewhere in the past?" Penelope wants to know.
"She's there right now. So we'll go there in this current time frame... sort of," Josh replies.
"Sort of?" John asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, what I mean is that it's 'now' there the same way it's 'now' here, but level 5 has drifted out of temporal sync with level 3 in terms of how fast time actually moves. So when we go there, we're going to do it in a special way that lets me get you tuned into level 3's time rate," Josh explains.
"I think the booth already does that when we go on ethereal visits - puts us on Earth time," John points out.
"Yes, it does, John. Actually, it adjusts your mind to experience time at Earth's rate. But I want to get you into sync with level 3 in a way that's not possible with the booth. So I'll take you there myself, using my own special method. Sound okay to you guys?"
"On one condition, Josh," Penelope insists firmly. "If I get scared, I want you to promise you'll get me back here immediately."
"Agreed. If it becomes more than you can handle, I'll bring you right back here. But please, for your own sake, try to enjoy as much of this adventure as you can. It really will be fun, I promise. Try thinking 'excitement' instead of 'fear' and you'll enjoy it a lot more."
"Okay then, I'll go," Penelope says, her eyes dry now but still looking very serious and concerned. "But if you mess this up, Josh, I'm never going anywhere with you again. So Mom is really on Earth? There's nothing but plants there. What is she going to eat? She's definitely not much of a vegetarian. And we are going to find Mom there, right?"
"Yes, you will find her. And there are actually a few animals there now, but I doubt your Mom would want to eat them. Ready? Let's join hands like before and we'll go to Earth. Hold on tight."
Penelope feels that same whooshing sensation, but this time she doesn't feel like she's being pulled out of her body. The scenery just changes - suddenly she's surrounded by an ocean of green.
"Oh wow! Why is everything all blurry and getting brighter and then darker and then brighter again? What am I standing on? It feels like I'm just floating here and there's no ground," Penelope asks, sounding bewildered.
"You're floating because you can't actually stand on the Earth since you're a level 5 person, and the dirt is invisible to you anyway. It's getting brighter and darker because we came here without adjusting for the time difference between level 3 and 5. You're experiencing time here 610 times faster than what you'd consider normal. That's why thousands of years have passed on Earth in the 14 years you've experienced in Penny Lake. Over eight thousand five hundred years have gone by here since you were born, and so much has changed. Those brightness changes you're seeing are the sun rising and setting. Daytime and nighttime only last about a minute from your perspective. You can't actually see the sun itself, since there's no life energy there, but you can see the plant life here brighten up during the day and slow down during the night. The leaves look blurry because as they blow in the wind, they're moving 610 times faster than what you're used to. You feel like you're standing on nothing because you basically are - the sand and rocks that don't contain life can't interact with you or your feet, and they're invisible to you. I brought you here this way so you could experience this place completely. To do that, I need lots and lots of energy and quite a bit of time because I want to transform your bodies so you can fully experience being here. Right now you can only see the glow of life. I want you to see everything," Josh explains.
"Josh! I warned you about this. You better not transform me into some creepy animal," Penelope insists.
"No, I'm only going to transform you into you. I'm going to adjust you to level 3 equivalence, but to do that I need to increase your density. Using Earth physics, your mass is dimensionally 1.57 radians out of phase with level 3 mass, which means it can't interact with anything. The only reason you can see anything here at all is that life energy creates a slight dimensional phase shift that's just enough to make it visible to you. I need to rotate you dimensionally so you can interact with level 3. A side effect is that each kilogram of your mass has to become denser by a factor of 6.5585 times 10 to the 14th power. That requires a massive amount of energy that I'm going to pull from the planet itself, from Earth's soil, to make that transformation happen. Then you'll be able to experience level 3 from a level 3 perspective," Josh continues explaining.
"Dad would probably understand what you just said and then argue about the fourth decimal place. But to me it's just blah blah blah," Penelope says with a shrug.
"Ah, the old 'dust of the Earth' trick. I've heard of that," John says knowingly.
"Yeah, something like that. And we're going to do it at 610 times normal speed, so it should only take a few minutes instead of a few days. I can't transform energy from the Earth too quickly without blowing the place up, and that would make quite a mess," Josh says.
"Okay, so we're going to get transformed and then go meet Mom? Has she already been transformed like this?" Penelope asks.
"Not exactly. She has transformed herself, but not in this particular way. This is so you can see the place fully, and that will give you the perspective you need to understand where she is and why she's there," Josh replies.
"I guess I'm ready to be transformed then, but I'm warning you - any of your stupid tricks and I'm going to slap the holy shit out of you," Penelope says firmly.
"I'm sufficiently warned, Penelope. No tricks. Well, not any big ones anyway. I'm going to ask you to stand here facing away from each other. When the transformation is complete, you'll notice a broad-leaf plant in front of you. I know your Mom raised you to be modest. You'll need to grab a leaf. I can't transform your clothes," Josh instructs.
"Shit! We're going to be naked? Okay, Josh, then you're going to look the other way too, and if you turn around before I tell you to, the slap fest is going to begin," Penelope declares.
"Agreed. Let's begin then," Josh says.
Penelope stands looking at where the plant is supposed to be, staring at a green glowing blur. Then, starting from her feet and moving upward, she sees a swirling vortex of yellow glowing energy beginning to surround her. She feels an increasing weight pressing down on her and sinks to her knees in a sitting fetal position, her head too heavy to hold up, unable to move. She gets all tingly and blacks out, unable to bear the weight. Some time later - she has no idea how long - she feels normal again and begins to stand up, her feet now on solid ground. She's surprisingly energetic in this heavier body. The first thing she does is look around to make sure the boys aren't looking, then she dashes to the plant and pulls off a couple of big leaves. Once she's satisfied they're securely fastened around her body, she calls out, "Okay, you guys, you can turn around now. And you better be wearing your leaf!"
Penelope, John, and Josh look around, absolutely stunned by the beauty surrounding them. They're standing on a sandy seashore. The water is brilliantly blue and crystal clear - you can see all the way to the bottom. A school of fish shimmer in the sunlight. Beyond a narrow beach stretches a jungle of green plants as far as the eye can see. The air is fresh and clean. Everything looks absolutely pristine.
"Wow. This is a lot more beautiful than I remember Earth being. Everything is so fresh and new. Can we go for a walk in that jungle, or is some giant dinosaur going to come gobble us up?" John asks.
"This is your new Earth. No, there are no dinosaurs here. That period was skipped this time around. During the first few billion years of this planet's life, everything had to evolve from scratch and adapt to a rapidly changing environment. This time the environment is stable, so all that harsh evolutionary pressure doesn't have to happen. The first time, Earth had to invent herself. This time she only has to remember herself. The terraforming experiment started the process, and then the natural life processes on Earth kicked in, and that's what's running the show now," Josh explains.
"So is Nettie here? She's the one who did the terraforming. I think Mom talked about Nettie almost as much as she talked about you, Josh," Penelope asks.
"No, Nettie isn't here anymore. All the remnants of that civilization are buried under about twelve thousand years of dust and dirt and dead bugs. On one of your Mom's adventures into other dimensions - helping them with their problems - she made some friends, and they helped move Nettie to her new home. That blue box she keeps in her bedroom is where Nettie lives now, except she's asleep. When your Mom is done here, she's going to wake Nettie up and bring her back," Josh says as they stroll into the jungle.
"Oh holy fucking shit!! What the hell is that?!?!" Penelope screams as she runs up a small hill, holding her leaves so they won't come undone.
"It looks like a possum to me," John says, laughing at Penelope's reaction.
"It looks like some huge ugly rat to me," Penelope says, carefully coming back down the hill after the animal has disappeared into the undergrowth.
"It's not actually a rat. It's a marsupial, which is a very sturdy, adaptable, and resilient creature. This one looks very similar to the varieties that existed just after the dinosaur period. It's one of the earlier creatures to emerge. This planet has been seeded with genetic material, so many animals will start to appear - not necessarily in the same order they evolved the first time, but all the animals that can handle this type of climate will eventually re-emerge here, including humans, which is what you are."
The three of them wander through the jungle for hours, with Penelope constantly asking "What is this?" and "What is that?" Josh never gets tired of her questions or of pointing out new things and new ways to look at things. Occasionally a strange creature, a bug, or some flying animal startles her, but she's getting used to them and beginning to enjoy the rich diversity of life she's witnessing. They find some fruit to eat and sit down to rest for a while. Penelope has many more questions she needs answered.
"John, Josh, whichever one of you knows the answer - why was my Mom so freaked out? Has she gone crazy? Is there something wrong with her mind?" Penelope asks.
"It's a normal kind of crazy, honey," John explains gently. "Losing Joshua was such a devastating shock that she's barely begun to recover from it. So she's angry - mad at everybody and everything. And the longer she thinks about it, the angrier she gets. She's directing all her rage about losing her boy at everyone else around her. It's normal, sweetie. It's how we humans deal with extreme loss. Anger is one of the stages we go through to process grief."
"But it wasn't anybody else's fault. It was an accident. It isn't anybody's fault at all. So why is she so mad at all of us?" Penelope wants to know.
Josh explains further. "Penelope, your Mom is a very special person, but she's at a disadvantage right now being human. Her spirit didn't originate from Earth, at least not recently. Most of her evolution happened elsewhere, at higher levels of existence. So being human is still unfamiliar territory for her. The feelings and emotions and physical drives and desires are incredibly intense in humans, and she hasn't yet learned how to balance all of that out. Balance is what she lacks right now. Give her time, though - she'll get it together, and you'll be amazed at what an incredible being she truly is."
"But that doesn't make any sense. My Dad is from the same place she is. They started out as the same person. He isn't acting all weird about it," Penelope says, looking confused.
"There's a difference. When a soul divides like your Mom and Dad did, it isn't always an even split. In each one there's a little more of this and a little less of that. They're also not the same gender, which makes a huge difference in how you handle emotions and feelings. The biggest difference is probably this: she is much more than how she started out. She inherited a lot of her makeup - her predispositions - from her Earth parents. Her body is of Earth, but her spirit is not. That isn't always a comfortable fit. She's actually done a remarkable job keeping it all integrated. She just needs some time to get her emotions, her fears, her anger, and her sexuality in balance," Josh explains.
"Her sexuality? Ewwwwwww," Penelope says with a disgusted look. "She does get a bit boy-crazy from time to time. She can be sooooooo embarrassing sometimes. I'm just glad I was never in Powder Junction when she was drinking. I've heard some stories, and I would have died of embarrassment if I'd been there."
John, trying to keep the record straight, says, "You can't believe everything you hear, sweetie. Those stories got pretty exaggerated over time. I was there for most of those occasions, and yeah, your Mom does like to have fun, but she was never less than a lady."
"She said she was going to proposition Josh. That doesn't sound very ladylike," Penelope points out.
"She didn't mean 'proposition' the way you're thinking," Josh responds. "She wasn't looking for a one-night stand. She was looking for a real relationship with someone she's genuinely in love with. I never intended for that to happen, and I didn't take this form just to make her attracted to me. I came this way because this is my human form. I was human when I ascended to level 10, and I took my form with me. When I manifest here, this is the form I'm most comfortable with. I never intended to break her heart. There are many surprises in these Earth-based domains. That's also what makes it exciting to be here as a human - you never know exactly what's going to happen next. Even if you've experienced the future, you can experience it again, differently."
"But she is - or was - married to my Dad. They're like the ultimate soulmates. Shouldn't they be the perfect match, a happy couple?" Penelope asks.
"All I can say is it ain't easy, kid," John explains. "Relationships, no matter how perfect a match you are, are never easy. Sometimes they aren't even possible, no matter how hard you try. Life has a way of complicating even the simplest things."
"Another factor in your parents' situation is that they grew up together," Josh explains. "They knew each other as babies. It was always assumed by their families that they would eventually marry. But when kids grow up together, they tend to develop more as siblings than as lovers - more like brother and sister than boyfriend and girlfriend. It's usually the new person who seems the most interesting, the most exciting, the most attractive. The kids you grew up with, especially if you were very close growing up, aren't the most exciting - they're just the most familiar and the most available. She was attracted to me mostly because I was the new guy in town. That's all, and that's totally normal."
"So then I'll fall head over heels in love with a boy from a different domain? And not with ones I already know?" Penelope asks.
"That's not a universal law, so maybe yes, maybe no. But it is more likely than not that you'll find the new guys more appealing than guys you've known all your life," Josh explains.
"John, when we get back, I need you to start bringing me some new guys, okay?" Penelope says with a giggle.
"Uh, let's wait a few years on that one, sweetie. You have plenty of time to find the right guy, and I'll help you find a good one too," John says with a grin.
Penelope feels all warm inside, chatting with the guys about life and love. Deep inside, though, is that gnawing feeling of worry about her Mom. She needs some real answers before she can feel better, feel complete again.
"Hey, check it out. I'm going to see what that white thing is. It doesn't look like it belongs here," Penelope says as she jumps up and starts jogging toward her new discovery. John and Josh follow. Penelope is young and agile and hard to keep up with, so the guys catch up with her a few minutes later.
"This is weird. It's made out of some sort of hard stuff, but it doesn't look natural. Is it leftover from the before time?" Penelope asks.
"No, it's quite new. The 'hard stuff' is ceramic, which is a type of glass. It was put here by some friends of your Mom who have access to level 3 matter. It's part of a biospheric transduction system which will allow for a phase-locked standing wave interface to be developed between the biosphere - the life systems on this planet - and a quantum field synaptic network interface that's built underground," Josh explains.
"Hey, I've heard some of those words before. Isn't that what killed the planet?" John asks.
"Yes and no. That was a similar but much more primitive system that the old network used. This is a more mature design with safeguards built in to prevent the kind of catastrophe that happened before."
"Isn't that dangerous? What if they screwed up their equations again?" John asks.
"Yeah, we don't want to put all this life back here and then blow it all up again," Penelope adds.
"These systems have been used successfully in other biospheres for thousands of years with good results. There's always some element of risk, but it's minimal."
"So basically Mom asked some people she knows to install this stuff and they just came and did it?" Penelope asks.
"It's a bit more complicated than that. Your Mom and Dad, and John and a few other people in your domains gained a lot of knowledge and experience dealing with the Earth problem. They became quite famous throughout the Multiverse because of their success. So they've been called on to help out with other catastrophes in other places. Your Mom is smart, though, and she didn't do all that work for free. She bartered - traded services - with these other entities that needed her help. So they paid her back by installing this equipment for her, since they had the technology and dimensional access to level 3 that she didn't have."
"What does she want it for? Is this where Nettie is going to live?" Penelope asks.
"Yes," Josh replies. "Sally's plan from the beginning was for this to be Nettie's new job, her new life. You see, over the three billion or so years that life evolved on Earth, a collective consciousness developed - a global memory system, a global wisdom. You Earthlings referred to it as Mother Earth. In addition to interfacing with humans through electronic devices, Nettie was also experimenting with connecting to all life consciousness in the biosphere, and she was starting to have some success. That was before her great miscalculation. When that happened, Mother Earth died. Nettie is meant to become the new Mother Earth, but in a very modern way."
"Isn't that a bit dangerous, mixing the natural with the artificial like that?" John asks.
"There's no such thing as artificial," Josh replies. "Unguided evolution is no more natural than conscious evolution. You thinking beings are part of nature, and your thought-assisted evolution is just as natural a part of evolution as the unthinking chemical reactions that started it all. It is, in fact, all part of the plan. Human culture will continue to evolve, but not just like bugs and trees and lizards. You'll evolve your bodies, your culture, your consciousness, your awareness, and your technology - including your quantum computers - together, and forever, whether on this planet or beyond. That is your destiny, and this is just one step along that path."
"Wow, so Mom is like the linchpin in this whole chain, isn't she?" Penelope asks.
"If it's a chain, you should say 'link,' sweetie. A linchpin is used to hold a wheel on an axle," John corrects his granddaughter.
"Shut up, Grandpa," Penelope says with a smile. "You know what I mean."
"You all are an important link in the chain," Josh continues. "Your Mom, your Dad, John, Ben, and you, Penelope, and your kids too someday. This little group is the link that's connecting your past to your future. It's happened before that just a few souls made the trip from one epoch to another, and you are one of those little groups. That's why all the other domains at all the other levels are giving you guys so much attention right now. This is really exciting stuff. I had to pull some serious strings and throw my weight around a bit to get to be the one to come here and be with you during this transition. But I don't want to say too much, or you'll all get big heads. Ego is still a major problem with humans. You're making progress though."
"Kids? What if I don't want to have kids? Is that going to screw everything up?" Penelope asks.
"No, there are countless opportunities for the future to work itself out if you don't have children. The difference is the opportunities you'll miss. I can tell you, looking forward through the several most probable futures for you, that they're all going to be a lot of fun. I think the ones with kids, though, are going to be the most fun," Josh explains.
"So... who am I going to marry? Do I already know him? Is he cute? Is he sexy?" Penelope asks with a giggle.
"You are so much like your Mom. I could tell you all this stuff, but then that might lock you into a certain path that isn't your best choice. So I'm going to leave all this up to you. When you meet the right person, I think you'll know, and you'll do what Penelope decides to do when the time is right. If you make a few mistakes along the way, you'll learn and grow and choose better the next time."
As darkness begins to fall, it's been a long and exhausting day. The group finds a doorway into the network building, and inside there are rooms for sleeping, complete with cots, robes, and water for bathing. It takes a while to figure out how to wrap the robes around their bodies, but Penelope figures out a way that actually turns out really cute. She's so happy to get rid of those leaves. The cots appear to be designed for smaller creatures, but Penelope fits just fine. The guys have to struggle to get comfortable, but as tired as they all are, sleep comes quickly and sweetly.
