chapter twenty two

Chapter Twenty Two

            When he entered the cave, Tom wasn't inside the apartment.  Maxwell searched the caverns and crevices, and still he found nothing.  He went back to the apartment and just sat there.  His anxiety slowly began to melt away into the usual feeling of euphoria he would begin to experience.  He closed his eyes and centered his mind.  Colorful planes twirled and twisted into hyper-dimensional geometric figures.   Calabi-Yau structure, and fanciful fractals.   The shapes had a grid pattern, and in between the lines he could see the texture of the objects.  The surface bubbled and foamed wildly with activity, like a boiling pot of water, but only more subtle and furious.  Out of the bubbles, like a geyser from a spring, a stream of numbers sprang forth.  He watched all of this in curious admiration and amazement.  The numbers themselves meant something.  Maxwell wasn't sure what it was, but he had a pretty strong intuition that it was the mathmatical representation of something truly grand, like pi or Euler's number.

            He sat in amazement.  It felt like wisdom was all around him, trapped inside space-time.  Maxwell was in a trance now, and were it not for the rapping of a hard and gnarled cane banging against his skull, he might've stayed in that beautiful place forever.

            "Ouch!  Don't do that, what's happening!?"  Darkness swallowed him whole as he opened his eyes.

            "Looks like your flashlight died," said a familiar voice, "Here, let me help."  Immediately the room was filled with Tom's typical bio-luminescence.  "This is the last time I'll see you for a while.  I have work to do, but so do you.  I figured it's only polite that I should tell you this so that you'd know not to bother wasting your time trying to find me."

            "Where are you going?  What kind of work are you going to be doing?"  Somehow he was sure these were pointless questions.

            "Don't worry, you'll find out soon enough.  Just know that I'm never as far away as you might think."

            Maxwell nodded.  He was surprised at how this news made him sad.  He'd managed to grow somewhat fond of this old bum.  Tom was his old bum.  Tom put the pipe to his mouth and took a strong drag.  The light radiating from his body intensified.  "I can't stress to you enough how important it is that you listen to me very closely.  Remember this when I say to you that things are not always as they seem.  You've seen things, and they're more significant than you might realize.  It'll be hard for you to understand, and even harder for those around you.  Remember to be friends with the world."

            He took a few more puffs, "Right now is a special time for your species on this planet.  It's a special time in evolution here.  The evolution of the cosmos is at a critical junction.  It's at a bifurcation point, where society and its relationship to all living things and to the living planet are in it's greatest state of instability.  In the final moments before the new age there will be escalating difficulties, up until a point in which I have called the bifurcation, where humanity either crumbles from its destructive force, or it takes its place as it ushers into a true heaven on earth.  You are one of these ushers.  There are more like you out there in the world right now."  He raised his cane and pointed towards the world above.  "There'll be many more to come, but not until after much suffering.  The earth has a fever and is employing built-in mechanisms to cope with humankind's destructive nature.  Wars, drought, widespread famine, global warming, new diseases, new drugs, mental insanity, humanity is at a stage of isolation, trapped by its own insanity.  Televisions and computers have replaced human to human contact. 

            Mankind is fragmented.  The self has become cut off from the community.  The ego of man has forgotten the much greater sea of consciousness of which it has always been a part.  A return to Eden is not only possible, but is eminent to those who choose to deliver it.  Earth will give way as the gates of heaven open up and flood the hearts and minds of every creature who chooses to accept it.  Go.  Be strong.  The lord is with thee.  Thy kingdom come, your world is one, for all and for forever."

 

            In a blaze of incredible light Tom dematerialized and the cave gave way to his bedroom, and he slept the deepest and most peacefully serene sleep of his entire life.

            The next day, when he awoke in his room, he realized he couldn't remember walking back, but wasn't that surprised, nor that alarmed.  He got dressed, ate cereal, then he and his mother went to church.

            Maxwell noticed a real difference. 

            His mind was absolutely quiet. 

             He was no longer lost in his own thought, and every word Father Wimbly said penetrated his mind and resonated inside his head.  Father spoke of Job, a servant of God who worshipped and remained faithful even though his world increasingly turned to shit. 

            God had blessed him greatly in his life and bit by bit, allowed everything to be taken away.  He lost his family, his health, all his money, livestock, and all his friends.  He grew old and ill, and yet still, he remained a fervent disciple.  God saw the faith of his son, and gave everything back to him and then some.  "The point, I believe, is to have faith no matter what, no matter who, no matter when.  We're being watched.  God may look like an impartial, detached, and even ambivilent god, but he is with us, and he is inside us, whether we want to believe it or not, and if we have faith, miracles can take shape inside our lives.  Furthermore, God is so wonderful that no matter how terrible this material world appears, it isn't as bad as we might think, because this material world is only an illusion, illusory, transient.  We'll all die and our bodies will decompose and our cities will crumble and Earth will descend into the Sun, but it's only a change that's taking place.  Our time here is short.  It's up to each one of us to fill it with meaning and purpose.  Like the larval caterpillar, we assemble our cocoon.  Someday we'll wake up transformed and fly away into the sun."

 

            This sermon resonated all sorts of truth inside Maxwell.  It seemed like slowly the picture that was once very blurry in his mind was beginning to clear up.  His life, which had been chaotic and messy for such a long period of time, was finally slowing down, but then again in many ways it was actually accelerating, and everything seemed to make more and more sense to him.  The context of things seemed to mesh together as if a tremendously deep understanding were merely inches away, ... and his eye suddenly twitched, ... but only for a moment, ... then it was gone.

            The next week went by quickly and was rather uneventful compared to recent weeks.  Maxwell felt pretty alright.  He didn't have any otherworldly visions.  It was, all in all, a pretty good week in fact, mainly in that it was very normal.  Ms. Mooseknuckle didn't give him any trouble, and he didn't act in a way that might even remotely draw negative attention to himself.  He was very busy with his project.  His team met up every night that week to prepare their case for evolution. He was quite infatuated with Jenna, and she seemed to at least show a mild interest in Maxwell in return.  She always laughed at him and Jimmy, who fed off of each other in the way only the best of friends know how to do.  She seemed to pay particular attention to Maxwell, and if he didn't know any better, he might've even gotten the impression that he actually stood a chance with her.

            Then, on the night before the last schoolday, the night before the final project, she showed up at the library in tears.

           

            "What happened? Are you alright?," Maxwell quickly inquired.

            "Yes, I'm fine.  Its just, ... "

            "Just what?  What happened?," Maxwell asked frantically.

            "Its nothing, really.  I just had a terrible fight with William.  He called me some pretty terrible things.  I told him to stop, he was mad at me for nothing, but he wouldn't stop, he just went crazy."

            "I'm sorry to hear that," Maxwell felt badly for her, and hated to see her crying.  He was also upset at William who didn't have any appreciation for how lucky he was to be with someone as awesome as Jenna.

            "Don't be sorry, I broke up with him.  Its okay, he can't get away with treating me like that."

            Maxwell was surprised by this response.  He was even more surprised that he was starting to feel sorry for William, even though he was a classical jerk.  He was mostly surprised by what Jenna said next. 

            "He was mad at me because, ... well, I guess he was complaining to me about how much time I spend with you and Jimmy, and he was upset that I always talk to him about you and how funny and smart you are."

            'What?,' Maxwell's heart, he was sure, had swollen to the size of a watermellon.  He felt dizzy and laughed giddily, "You didn't, ... I mean, he was upset because you were hanging out with us?  We were working on a school project for Christ's sake!  What's up with that?"

            "I know, but we started arguing and he was just saying incredibly mean things and, ... we really need to get to work, this project is due tomorrow."

            Maxwell wasn't able to pay attention at all the rest of the evening.  Everytime he looked at Jenna, he felt pangs of feelings he'd never experienced before.  He felt stupid in a way, but he didn't care. 

            They wrapped everything up and said goodnight.

            Maxwell got home that night and couldn't sleep.  How could he after what had just happened?  He kept thinking about what Jenna had said and how much he'd totally love to hug her and tell her how he felt, that is if he could actually put words to what it was that he felt, which he was pretty sure he couldn't.  He eventually went to sleep and just like that, his alarm clock was blaring in his ear. 

           

            Maxwell got ready for school with an unusual pep in his step.  His mother was taken aback when she saw him at the breakfast table before she'd even gotten downstairs.

            "You look handsome this morning," she said, "and you're smiling, too!  That's a good look on you, maybe you should try it more often!"

            "Yeah yeah," Maxwell said as he poured another bowl of cereal.

            Once he got to school there wasn't any time to waste.  Ms. Mooseknuckle was determined to get the class underway so she could get to summer faster.  Either summer or the buffet, but it was definitely one of the two.

            Team Creation started first, and a kid named Ackley Wilson was the first to give his speech.  Then another kid went up and talked, and then another, until all the kids from the opposing side gave their opinions.

            Then, it was Team Evolution’s turn to present their arguments.

            Maxwell felt the most curious thing during this whole demonstration.  He listened to each of the students, and he agreed with them, each and every one.  He couldn't have explained it if he tried, and on top of that, he saw a different radiant light coming out of every single student who spoke with the strongest light of all coming from none other than Phil Dick.  It was something truly innocent and pure.  With Phil, innocence and purity didn't really go together, so something had to give.

            Then it was Team Evolution's turn.  Vince went first.  As Vince spoke, Maxwell reviewed over everything the other side had said. 

            One kid, whom Jimmy called Bumpkin, talked about how the Bible didn't say there was evolution, so there couldn't have been any evolution.  Maxwell laughed at the idiocy of the statement, but then as he continued thinking about it, he realized that this wasn't terrible logic.  Not for a country kid, another endearing term conjured up by none other than Jimmy.  This Bumpkin kid was raised to believe the Bible was the whole truth and nothing but the truth and to question nothing, so to him, it really was everything. 

            Another kid, who Maxwell referred to as boy genius, eloquently stated that, "people didn't come from monkeys.  I've never seen a monkey born from a human being, except in the paper at the checkout at the grocery store, but they were monkey-alien hybrid babies."  This made sense to Maxwell as well, as dumb of an argument as it were.  Monkeys never really could be birthed from a female human.  In fact, each feeble argument that the creation side had come up with, Maxwell agreed with on some level.  

            Vince finished his speech and gave way to a kid named Ernie.  "Evolution is one hundred percent verifiably proven by science to be true because fossils show verifiable evidence of creatures that existed well before the time of Genesis.  Carbon dating has shown this to be the case, and, ... blah, blah, blah," was all Maxwell could hear at that point.

            Just as he heard this, another strange sentiment washed over Maxwell as now he started seeing the problems presented by his teammates retorts.  Evolution really wasn't proven to be true by science at all, it was only a theory.  There were all kinds of holes and things that no scientist could explain about evolution.

            Then Jimmy spoke, and then Jenna.  They both spoke very well and made lots of interesting points.  But Maxwell was thinking even more crazy thoughts right now and didn't know if he was even going to be able to speak because his mind was swimming with the ideas of all of the kids in the class and his incredible and sudden loss of trust in all the scientific research he'd sifted through over the previous few weeks.

            "Alright Jenna, thank you very much.  That'll be our last speech of the day, you'll all be getting 'A's for participating, class dismissed."

            "But Maxwell didn't get a chance to speak!," Jenna exclaimed. 

            "Yeah!," said Jimmy, "you forgot Maxi-pad!"  

            As it turns out, he wouldn't have to give any speech at all, which was probably a good thing because the class was literally blinding Maxwell from the light radiating off the students.  His mind was swimming away, far away, ... he felt like he was about to lose it again in front of everyone, that is, until Ms. Dick tapped him on the shoulder.

            "What?  Where am I?"

            "You're in the principal's office.  Son, I'm sorry to say that you won't be able to go to school here anymore.  We have a strict zero-tolerance policy for drug use in our school system.  We wish you the best of luck next year at, ... well, at wherever your mother decides to enroll you." 

            Dr. Schmidt was at his desk.  When Maxwell looked at him, incredulously, he turned away.  This left Maxwell speechless, 'how could this possibly happen?'

            The room began to swirl, ... but slowly he maintained his composure.  He couldn't think as his head began to throb with the worst migraine headache imaginable.  The next couple of hours became fuzzy to him.  The world seemed to be coming apart by the seems.

            Before he knew it, he was in front of his mother as she shook her head in disbelief.  He told her he'd been expelled from school as the headache intensified.  There was a definite ringing in his ears.  The room was beginning to swirl again, and Maxwell blinked a couple of times in an attempt to make it all go back to normal. 

           

            The world was falling apart around Maxwell and he was completely helpless in every possible way, no longer at all in control of his body.  He thought to himself, 'on some level, deep inside of my very soul, ... go within, ... go to, ... the cave.' 

            He was in the woods now, standing in front of the great monstrosity.  The headache now was even worse.  He felt a burning sensation shooting from his spine into his forehead, and his stomach seemed to bulge with a painful gas.  The ringing in his ears intensified.

            He looked inside the cave, and he was sure, if only for a moment, that it actually had a pair of eyes looking back at him.  Two fiery red eyes, blinking at him.

            He was still dizzy, as if he could fall down and pass out at any moment.

            The beast was inside the cave, he could feel it's presence.  It had him now, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

            Blink, blink.

            His head was pounding furiously.  If it got any worse, he was sure he wouldn't be able to take it, and it actually did get worse.  The ringing now became a roar.  For a moment he blacked out as a cross flashed in front of his face, then he was back in front of the cave again. 

            "NOW I HAVE YOU!" 

            "Who said that?," Maxwell looked around, there was nothing but the forest behind him.  The colors and the leaves and the grass and everything was melting and merging together.  He blinked his eyes and it was normal for only a second, but the ringing was getting louder, ... Maxwell felt like he was about to pass out for sure, and then he turned around to, ...

            "Maxwell, what are you doing out here!?"

            Blink, blink, ... the headache was gone.  The ringing was gone.  Everything was, ... back to normal.  There he was, in the middle of the woods in his own back yard, with his mother, standing there, looking at him.

            "What are you doing out here?  Are you okay, son?  You look like something was bothering you and I tried to get your attention, but you just looked at me like, ... like I don't know, ... like you weren't even there.  You looked like you'd seen a ghost!"

            "I'm fine, mom, everything is, ... fine."  Maxwell sighed in relief now that it was over, "I was just coming out here to go into the cave, see?  That's it right there!"

            His mother looked at him blankly.

            "Well?"

            Her expression now turned to complete perplextion, "Well, what?  Where's this cave you're talking about?"

            "It's right there, can't you see it?"  Maxwell turned around to point, but there was nothing there for him to point at, nothing except trees, a few shrubs, and a small creek flowing through the undergrowth.

            "I don't see anything, Christopher."  Her confused look changed into one of growing anger, "This isn't funny young man.  If you're joking around with me, so help me God, ... "

            "But it really was just there,"  Maxwell found himself feeling very confused, exasperated in fact. 

            It really wasn't there. 

            In this very moment Maxwell slowly understood how completely arbitrary and malleable this reality actually is. 

            Not more than twenty minutes later Maxwell's mother was on the phone with Sunnydale, a behavioral hospital for the wayward and disturbed.