This Merry-Go-Round

He holds his hand up for silence.

I know what he is about to say. I already know what happens next.

He will be right, and then he will be wrong.

“We’ve done it! We have the proof. Ladies and gentleman, today we have made history.”

We did it. Despite the naysayers claiming we would blow up the world, we went ahead and we did it. And we didn’t blow up the world. Not exactly.

There is cheering and back slapping. Hugging. Unusually high affection among usually reserved people.

I should warn them, but I didn’t before, and so I can’t now. I am just a passenger on this merry-go-round.

We had the science all worked out. It was just a case of going through the motions to prove it. Round and round and round and smash. There it would be. And there it was, now. Proof.

We were right. Science was right.

The high spirits falter and people begin to look confused. They move as though viewed across a lagging network, in jumps and starts. Real people popping from one place to the next without going through the spaces in between.

The world cracks. Perception falls apart.

Everything becomes shattered.

Rushing stuttered fragments.

Splintered snapshots.

Reality stumbles.

Then suddenly,

everything is ok again.

I am at the back of the room, pondering the nature of history. I am away from the instruments; this part is for the project head, this part is his triumph.

He holds his hand up for silence.

I know what he is about to say.



(John Xero rambles)