William stepped out the front door of the hotel and froze. Rather than facing a run down street in San Diego, he was in a meadow. There in front of him was a contrived scene of life and death. To his right, a man was facing death as a giant wrecking ball swung towards him from behind. To his left, a different man faced an identical death. He shouted, "Duck."
Both men stared at William as the wrecking balls swung through them. William stared in horror at the result. Two broken bodies lay on the ground in front of him. It was not a pretty sight. With his shout he had tried to save both, but had saved neither one. Sick to his stomach, William stared at the consequences of his failure.
William stepped forward only to find the scene repeated. Two men, each with death bearing down on them from behind, looked at him. Still trying to save them both, William shouted, "Get down now."
The men stared at him with puzzled expressions on their faces. A fraction of a second later, two broken bodies lay on the ground. Angry, William said, "It's not right."
He took a step forward and the scene repeated. Rather than shout, he ran to one man and tackled him. The wrecking ball passed over them. William turned and saw that the second man was dead. He had managed to save only one of the men. The man he had saved thanked him and walked off.
William rose from the ground and took a step forward still wanting to correct the problem. The scene repeated. This time William tackled the other man. The wrecking ball passed over them. The first man was dead. Frustrated, William rose from the ground and took a step forward to find that the scene was repeated. Over and over, William tried to save both men. Each time, either one survived or both died. He could find nothing to do to save both. He tried everything that he could imagine.
The flashback to his trial in the glade ended leaving William blinking in the bright sun.
Beads of sweat had formed on his forehead. He frowned as he thought about the lesson taught in the trial. He looked forward through the immediate future and saw two people dying. One was a young boy and the other was a middle aged man.
Turning to Ed, William said, "There a joke about a stubborn mule that dies of starvation because it is standing exactly halfway between two bales of hay. It couldn't decide which way to turn. I find myself in that position and I don't find it very funny."
"What's the matter?" Ed asked. He had nearly run over William when his son had come to a stop outside the door of the hotel.
"If I go to the right, I'll save someone from getting run over. If I go to the left, I'll save someone by preventing a robbery. I can't save them both," William answered.
"I'll go one way and you can go the other way," Ed said.
Shaking his head, William turned to the right and headed down the street. He said,
"Sometimes, it doesn't work that way."
Puzzled by William's answer, Ed stood watching William walk off. There was a sense of resignation about how his son was walking. He decided to try to save the other person and headed off in the other direction. William turned back and shouted, "It is a barber who gets killed, but I can't describe the place to you. I'd recognize it if I saw it, but I don't see enough details to describe it to you."
As Ed walked, he tried to spot the beginning of a robbery. He wished William had known enough to tell him what he was to look for, but he hadn't. All he had was the occupation of the victim. The most likely place to find a barber was in a barbershop. He decided that he'd look for a barbershop, but also that he'd keep his eyes open in case it didn't happen in a barbershop.
It was a simple street in a low end neighborhood of San Diego. Little stores with bars on the windows lined the street. There was a little trash here and there, but it wasn't the kind of filth that one found in a truly impoverished neighborhood. A few stores were freshly painted, but more than one had paint peeling. Not all of the stores had permanent signs that described the business inside. Some stores had signs that were written on cardboard using a black marker and taped to the window. This was the kind of neighborhood in which people knew the businesses and didn't need the signs.
Ed walked a little and looked around trying to spot something that didn't fit. He walked past two men talking. He paused in his walk for a moment to overhear what they were saying. Their conversation concerned a car. There was nothing out of place with the conversation and nothing to identify either man as a barber. He walked past a check cashing service and looked through the glass windows. If there was a robbery taking place, then this would be where he would expect it. A clerk sat behind thick glass looking bored.
Ed shook his head and continued on down the street. As he walked, he glanced into one place of business after another, never seeing a sign suggesting a barbershop. Everything just looked so normal. He heard a gunshot behind him and spun around trying to see where the noise had come from. A man ran from a shop. Ed gave chase, but he was too far away and the man got away. Frustrated by his failure, he bent over to catch his breath and said, "I'm going to give William a piece of my mind."
Ed returned to the shop and looked through the window. Only when he had looked through the window did he see that it was a barbershop. A man was lying on the floor with a wound in the middle of his chest. He tried the door, but it wouldn't open. Ed pulled out his cell phone and called the police.
It took him twenty minutes to deal with the police. It was only after he showed his medallion that the questioning took a more respectful tone. After the police had finished their questions, he stepped back and looked at the building. There was absolutely nothing that William could have said to him that would have allowed him to identify it. There was a small cardboard sign in a corner that announced that it was a barbershop. He had walked past it without noticing the sign.
He turned to head back to the hotel. As he walked along, he thought about what William had said. He had two choices and there wasn't a good answer. He reached the hotel to find William sitting outside waiting for him. William looked up and said, "I can see by the look on your face that you didn't prevent it."
"No, I didn't," Ed said.
"I could see it happening, but I couldn't see the details," William said with a shrug of his shoulders. He would have liked to have been able to give Ed directions that would have prevented the robbery.
"Did you save your person?" Ed asked.
William nodded his head and answered, "Yes. A kid came out of an alley riding his bicycle. I grabbed the kid before he entered the street, but a car totaled his bike."
"There would have been no chance of me being able to catch him?" Ed asked.
"You're a good fighter, but your reflexes just aren't that good," William answered looking at his father. He knew with the surety of his gift, that his father would have been close to the scene, but wouldn't have been able to stop it.
"You might be right," Ed said as he sat down beside William. He sighed and said, "At least you saved one of them."
"I'll have to take comfort in that," William said with a sad sigh.
"There was nothing that could be done to save them both?" Ed asked with a frown.
William sadly shook his head as he stared at a small patch of grass in front of him. He said, "I can see glimpses of the future, but I'm not all powerful. There are things that I can do nothing about. I can't be in two places at once."
"How does that make you feel?" Ed asked. He studied William taking note of his posture. It was obvious to him that William was saddened by the affair.
Irritated, William asked, "How do you think it makes me feel?"
"Helpless," Ed answered.
"Useless," William countered. Deciding which one was to live and which one was to die was one of those choices that he never wanted to make. What good was his gift if it couldn't be used to save lives?
"It makes you human," Ed said.
Nodding his head, William said, "You're right. It is easy to forget that at times."
Ed thought about it. The potential for William to become arrogant in his abilities was significant. He wondered if this had been a lesson by the Two-Sided One. Events like this would serve as a reminder that he wasn't a god. He asked, "How did you decide which one to save?"
"I picked the youngest," William answered. Knowing nothing more than what each person looked like, he had no real criteria to select.
"Oh," Ed said. He would have probably made the same choice. He favored the potential represented by youth.
William said, "I hope you don't mind, but I don't really feel like going to a burger burner right now. Let's just get room service."
Cole sat down and studied the two clowns seated across from him with a twinkle in his eye. They were not the happy characters that their costumes suggested. He asked, "Do you know why a clown's nose is never twelve inches long?"
"Because it would be a foot," Barbara answered in a low growl. A week of walking around dressed like a clown had turned into ten days. She was ready to kill Cole.
"I take it you are tired of being clowns," Cole said.
"Very tired," Sandra said. No one took a clown seriously.
Nodding his head, Cole said, "Barbara. I want you to go upstairs to your suite and get into the fat suit that I left on the bed. There's a woman up there who will help you get into it. Be nice to her. Sandra, you can get into your regular clothes."
"Fat suit?" Barbara asked feeling a little sick in the stomach.
"Yes. I was talking to a gentleman who works in the movie industry. He told me about a fat suit that he made for a movie. I had one made for the two of you. You get to be the first to use it," Cole answered.
"Okay," Sandra said thinking it would be great to be wearing her regular clothes for a change.
"When each of you is finished changing your clothes, go to the restaurant here. I made reservations for you," Cole said with a smile.
Barbara had learned not to trust Cole's smiles. She asked, "What's the trick?"
"No trick. I imagine that Sandra will finish changing clothes first and will have to wait for you at the table," Cole said. Looking at Sandra, Cole said, "Enjoy your clothes because tomorrow, you get to wear the fat suit."
An hour later, a very fat Barbara waited for the hostess to take her to where Sandra was seated. More than once, the woman had seated others who had arrived after her. It was as if the women didn't see her standing there. Barbara wondered how the woman could miss her; she was so big that she nearly occupied the entire room.
Furious, Barbara went into the dining area to search for Sandra's table. It took her five minutes to locate Sandra seated at one of the best tables in the place. Sitting down, she said, "That damned hostess just ignored me."
"She seated me right away," Sandra said a little irritated at the delay. She had gotten tired of waiting for Barbara to arrive. The waiter had come to the table repeatedly to see if she wanted something.
"I'm hungry," Barbara said.
"You really look horrible," Sandra said taking in the effect of the fat suit. Barbara looked like she weighed a ton.
Barbara looked over at Sandra. The woman was wearing an outfit that made her look like a million dollars. She said, "You look nice."
"Thanks," Sandra said. The chance to wear nice clothes for a change had too good to pass up. She had gone all out to look nice.
The waiter arrived and, turning his back somewhat to Barbara, addressed Sandra, "Are you ready to order yet?"
Twirling a lock of her hair, Sandra smiled at the waiter and answered, "Not yet. My friend needs a chance to look over the menu."
With barely a glance at Barbara, the waiter said, "Of course."
Once the waiter had left, Barbara frowned at Sandra and said, "That waiter was rather rude."
"What do you mean?" Sandra asked.
Irritated at how Sandra had been flirting with the waiter, Barbara answered, "He totally ignored me."
"No he didn't," Sandra said looking at Barbara feeling a little confused by her insistence that everyone was acting rude.
Barbara said, "It didn't help that you were flirting with him."
"What are you talking about?" Sandra asked staring at Barbara.
Across the room, Cole looked over his menu and chuckled as the two women glared across the table at each other. This was too much fun.
Lucy frowned as she studied the equations. She had written a small program that would allow her to study the effects of minor variations in what were typically considered constants. As the program progressed, it suddenly transitioned from a single solution to three separate solutions. Curious, she examined the solutions and backed up the calculations a few steps. Running them forward with a minor variation in the parameters, she saw that again there was a point where the single solution suddenly transformed into three separate solutions.
For eight hours, Lucy played with the program trying various adjustments to the parameters. In some cases, the solution broke into three separate solutions. In a few cases, it broke into five separate solutions. She knew that this was a case of chaotic behavior, but she had no idea how to force the world down one path over another.
There was a knock on the door of her office. Irritated at the interruption to her thoughts, Lucy opened the door and asked, "What?"
Peter stepped back a little surprised at her harsh greeting and said, "You haven't eaten a thing all day. I've brought you something to eat."
Lucy wiped her eyes and said, "I'll stop for lunch."
"Lunch time was seven hours ago," Peter said looking at her. She had lost a little weight over the past few weeks. The hours spent in her office were taking their toll on her.
"Really?" Lucy asked. She turned and looked up at the clock finding that it was nearly eight at night. Confused, she said, "Where did the time go?"
"I have no idea," Peter said. He pushed the little table with food on it into the room. The table had been specially designed for them. The sides would rise to form a nice circular table for two. He set up the table and arranged the plates.
Her stomach growled on smelling the food while she watched him work. She asked,
"What did you make for me?"
"I figured that without having eaten for a while that you'd appreciate something light. I made some desert crepes with a blueberry filling," Peter answered. It wasn't the best meal in terms of nutrition, but it was one that she'd eat the entire thing.
"Um, sounds good," Lucy said. Her eyes widened when Peter removed the cover and she saw the four crepes. Licking her lips, she said, "That looks good."
"Eat," Peter said gesturing to the dish.
Lucy pulled her chair over to the table and took a seat. Peter put one of the crepes on a plate and set it in front of her. With her hunger fully roused, Lucy attacked the crepe. She moaned as the full flavor hit her mouth. Unlike fillings that came from a can, this one wasn't overly sweet. The full flavor of the fresh blueberries teased her taste buds. She rolled her eyes and said, "This is heavenly."
"I'm glad that you like it," Peter said watching her gobble down the treat. In a restaurant, the dish would cost twenty dollars. It hurt to watch her eat the crepes without savoring each bite.
"I'll take another," Lucy said.
Hoping that she would take her time on this one, Peter placed another crepe on her plate.
He asked, "So what were you working on that made you lose track of time like that?"
"Just studying the model that William created," Lucy answered glancing over at the computer trying to decide what she should try next. The crepe on her plate demanded her attention and she returned to eating.
"Sounds boring," Peter said.
"Not really," Lucy replied between bites thinking that this was the perfect treat.
"What's so interesting?" Peter asked. He never understood how someone could get so involved in something that they'd forget to eat.
"Well, it seems that the world can evolve along different paths. It is unpredictable as to which path the world will select," Lucy said. She had a feeling that William understood it from a completely different perspective than her.
Peter snorted and said, "It will take the path of least resistance."
Having studied the models, Lucy knew otherwise even though there was an element of truth to the comment. There had to be pivotal events that selected one path over another, but it was impossible to know to the level of granularity of the world what those events were. She said, "Not really. It is hard to say why the world takes one path over another.
It is like flipping a coin. The physics may be well understood, but the specifics of what leads to heads or tails are so fine grained that all you can give is probabilities."
"Maybe that's why we have Druids," Peter commented with a chuckle.
Lucy sat back in her chair and looked at Peter with a stunned expression on her face. A number of historical data points suddenly made sense to her. She said, "I'll have to study that in a little more detail."
"Not until after you've eaten," Peter said pointing to the food in front of her.
"Okay," Lucy said absently. She barely tasted the blueberry crepes that she mechanically ate. Her mind was busy thinking of some test cases that she could run to test the hypothesis that the Powers That Be were working through Druids to drive the world along the best possible path.
Peter watched her eat her meal with a disgusted look on his face. His comment had distracted her away from his food. He had hoped to get her attention focused more on the food with his Druid comment. It seemed to him that no matter how hard he worked on creating masterpieces of culinary art, Lucy and William rarely noticed.
Nodding her head, Lucy said, "You've given me a very good idea. Thanks."
Noticing that her plate was empty, he served another crepe. She didn't even notice the addition on her plate. Her fork made the round trip from plate to mouth as if on autopilot.
Peter said, "Next time I will serve dishwater as your soup."
"That's nice," Lucy said absently while looking over at the program. She decided that it was time to run the simulation for illegal drug usage to see how that had evolved over time. Druids had played a major role in the elimination of drugs as devastating social problem that it had once been.
"I will follow that up with a poison ivy salad," Peter said.
"Okay," Lucy said not listening to a word that the Chef was saying. She smiled as she realized how to code that specific problem.
Shaking his head, Peter said, "I'm sure that a little roast of road kill will serve as a main course."
"What ever you think is fine with me," Lucy said. She rolled over to the computer in her chair and started to run a simulation.
"We'll finish with a crepes stuffed with dirt," Peter said watching her leave the table.
Her fingers flew over the keyboard entering data. Hearing only one word, Lucy said,
"You make great crepes."
Disgusted, Peter cleaned up the table noticing that she had left half a crepe on her plate.
Shaking his head, he said, "You are as bad as William."
"I know," Lucy said watching the curves slowly appearing on the screen. She stopped the simulation and adjusted the factors consistent with the actions of Oliver Brown during the cocaine drug war in South America. Rather than splitting, the simulation followed the downward trend for drug use.
Peter lowered the wings on the table so that he could wheel it out of the office. Glancing over at Lucy, he could see that she was lost in her work. He pushed the table out of the office and headed towards the kitchen. As he walked, he muttered, "She ignored my crepes for a stupid computer. What kind of household is this?"
Juanita saw Peter muttering to himself. Amused by the expression on his face, she asked,
"What's the matter Peter? You look upset."
"She ignored my crepes for a stupid computer," Peter said.
"Who?"
"Lucy," Peter answered looking back the way he had come.
"You managed to get Lucy away from her work?" Juanita asked.
"For about ten minutes," Peter said shaking his head in disgust.
Juanita laughed at the Chef knowing that he had no idea what he had accomplished. She said, "I'm impressed that you're even alive. Even William doesn't try to get between her and her work."
"But, they have to eat," Peter said.
"Do you want some advice?" Juanita asked.
"Sure."
Juanita looked around and said, "You put a plate of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches next to where they are working. Both William and Lucy enjoy peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. William likes his with grape jelly and Lucy likes hers with strawberry jam.
You won't have to kill yourself cooking and they'll give the food as much attention as they're willing to spare."
"Barbarians. I work for barbarians," Peter said pushing the table down the hallway.
Lucy sat back staring at the computer screen. Oliver Brown had removed over sixty tons of cocaine from the supply pipeline. Although it wasn't a great amount in the grand scheme of the drug traffic of the time, the sudden disappearance of that much cocaine from the market had changed the evolution of drug use in the country. The numbers had taken a significant downturn almost overnight. With a smile she said, "The Druids have been directing the evolution of society all this time."