Patchwork Universe

The Janitor · Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2004 10:02 pm Post subject: An unexpected visitor

John Angelis found himself in an expanse of white space.

As he gradually made sense of his surroundings, it became clear that he was in a vast white room that was almost featureless except for a geranium in a small pot. There was a piece of lint hanging from the plant.

John Angelis · Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2004 10:33 pm Post subject:

John got up.

"Hello?"

He walked around a bit.

"Hello?"

John did something of a walking tour of the place, then elected to go back to the geranuim. With no features, he felt he was only moving relative to the geranium anyway.

He waited, pensively, for something to happen. For someone in white robes and wings to turn up and say he'd not been quite good enough, and show him the stairs down. Or something.

Time passed.

John decided to talk to the geranium.

"So this is heaven is it?" he asked the geranium. The geranium did not hazard a reply.
"Hmmm. Am I the first person to die around here then?" The geranium was unable to confirm or deny the hypothesis.
John sat down, crosslegged, next to his newfound companion.
"You'd have thought they could at least have put a couch in. Maybe some magazines." The geranium's opinion on couches and magazines remained known only the geranium. And perhaps its closest friends, amongst which, perhaps, it did not count John Angelis.

John realised he was talking to a geranium. How long had he been here? Minutes? Hours? Days? Time was unusual in this universe. Perhaps he'd been here years, centuries. Perhaps time had no meaning.

Or perhaps he'd been here about fifteen minutes, and a man can get pretty bored in an all-white room in fifteen minutes. His watch supported this hypothesis.

As all men do, in times of stress like this, he rummaged though his pockets in an attempt to find something to entertain himself with. He discovered the cards that Yarrow had sold him. This gave him an idea.

He removed the geranium from its pot. Fortunately for the geranium, there was a flowerpot inside the outer pot, and no lasting harm was done. John checked that the pot was empty of anything wet or dirty, then took a position three metres or so from the pot. He began flicking the cards into the pot. Or trying to. He wasn't very good at it.