Sobriety and Gravity

"I want you to close your eyes and do this." He spread his hands out wide to the side and pointed with his index fingers. Slowly, he brought his arms in an arc and drew the tips of his index fingers closer and closer until they touched just in front of the badge on his chest.

"Do I have to close my eyes?" I really didn't want to close my eyes and do this.

"I believe those were the instructions, sir. Now, come on. Let's do this."

I sighed, hoping I could do this. I wasn't drunk, I just had a lot on my mind.

"Let's go," he was getting impatient.

So, I closed my eyes, and there they were. Stars and planets wheeled around. I could feel their heat. I could hear them in the vacuum of this vast, inner space. Stretched out in every direction were galaxies, clouds of dust, spinning, shooting, pulsing masses of light and heat and energy woven in tight and loose arrays. As always, I felt myself being overwhelmed by all of it.

"I don't have all day," a Texas drawl came in from somewhere far away, somewhere outside.

I focused out to the left. Way out there, past a million galaxies, just past the last giant, green nebula, out on the outer rim, I could feel my left hand. Slowly, trying not to disrupt star systems or unravel spiral galaxies, I folded in all my fingers except my index finger.

Then, trying not to lose my sense of the left hand, I focused out to the right. I had a little trouble finding it. There was so much activity out in that direction. Then I felt a deep cold in my thumb. Moving it gently, I felt the smooth suction of the event horizon of a collapsed singularity it was rubbing against, a black hole. I pulled easily away from it and folded in all but my index finger. Then I froze, afraid to move.

"Sir, if you can't cooperate, we're going to have to go downtown."

I opened one eye slightly and glanced at the man. How could I explain to him how difficult this was? I nodded slightly, and closed my eye.

How could I bring these arms together without sweeping away everything in their paths? Why was this necessary? There was only one way. Exhaling deeply, I began to sink into another level of awareness, to unravel my perception of the dimensions curled up into this inner continuum. Slowly, I began to see through the noise and glare of the electromagnetic cacophony and perceive the undulating curve of space time behind it. Focusing the gravity of my position, of my central essence in this inner universe, I began to bend and curve the space around my index fingers. I saw these two bulges grow and deep and narrow, amazed at the flexibility of real matter, until the depressions became deep shafts, burrowing through the empty gap that separated them. These fingers of gravity, these tunnels, finally met just in front of my chest, and they merged together into a long tube, a wormhole.

Concentrating on the wormhole, fighting its natural desire to collapse, I pushed my left fingertip toward the opening on that side. Carefully, I touched the surface of the opening, and I saw the unnerving sight of my fingertip elongating to fill the wormhole. I saw the tip come out on the other side. Softly, carefully, I reached with my right fingertip and touched the end of the left. I could feel the exertion of it all starting to overwhelm me. Sweat dripped from my forehead into my eye as I opened one to look at the officer. He was not impressed.

"Okay sir. Thank you. Now you need to..." He gave a lecture about driving safety, but I wasn't listening. I pulled my left finger back ever so slightly, and the wormhole was empty. I stopped focusing gravity on it, and it happily collapsed. I sighed in relief. When I finally opened my eyes again, the officer was walking away toward his cruiser. I wiped my forehead with my sleeve and headed back to the car.

Comments

[toadman]

This kind of thing happens to me all the time. I once accidentally formed a black hole with my left foot, right in my office. I wasn't able to move from my chair for hours, but then it fell into the earth and I haven't seen it since. I kinda miss that little bugger.

[peefer]

Tres cool. Tres. I pictured all of this quite clearly. Gimmesomemore. Gimmesomemore. Gimmesomemore.

[Susan]

God Complex if I ever saw one.

[twyla]

So good. So good.