Convolute Prine, by Elver von Gondwanis

Convolute Prine

by Elver von Gondwanis

PART I

At the Confluence of
Two Structurally Incompatible Edifices

one

Beckoning Coma

A freezing rain began to fall. Eddie cursed and wiped the inside of his windshield yet again. He cursed himself for the twelfth time this evening. Why had he signed up to help with this geek rescue service at the onset of winter (knowing this was the 'seventh year' and going to be a bad one) escaped him at the moment, but was something he vowed to correct as soon as he got home... IF he got home. And if the phone lines were not down already. He cursed again, and wiped the glass again.

At forty-five, one could expect to be securely ensconced in their selected field, but here he was starting over in yet another new career -- two, if you included this drive in these ridiculous conditions. Most friends he grew up with had taken that route, while he dabbled in this and that, always trying to find his niche. Now, they had children finishing high school while he was just starting a family. And boning up to get his GED.

Yes, he chuckled drily to himself, life certainly was funny, but quit thinking and concentrate on the road. Earlier, there had been plenty of slush on the roads to make the drive annoyingly tense when he started this latest rescue: a frazzled gray-haired gentleman with a home-based web business to whom time was money -- at least his own time. As if that was the most important --

A sudden lurch brought Eddie back to the present. The freezing rain had changed the slushy conditions into a glass-smooth danger. Instinctively, he slowed again, though the speedometer registered only 20 miles per hour. Fortunately, there was no traffic on this road to be annoyed by his snail's pace. Yeah, no one in their right mind is on the road tonight, he thought. It was but one of the many blessings of their rural location: no traffic to be bothering or rushing him; no honking, no cussing, no fingers being exercised in his direction...

He tensed. It also meant an accident might not be discovered for hours. He pulled his glove off with his teeth and fumbled on the seat for his cell phone, hoping it would make a connection in these horrid conditions.

Static... click... half a ring... static... click...

"Hello?" the voice crackled.

"Hey, hon! Ed here, getting near the creek -- almost home."

"Ed?" Crackle... static... "...say what? Where.... you?"

"At the creek! I'm at the creek! Can you hear me?"

"...creek? Trouble... phone cutting..."

"Yes! I'll be home in five minutes!"

"Five minutes. Okay, swee.... ya soon. 'Bye."

"'Bye."

Whew! Bad connection, but at least he got the message through. If something happened, help might get here before too many hours passed. IF, he thought, but I certainly hope not. He concentrated harder on the familiar track ahead, wiping the windshield again and braking instinctively before descending to the creek.

Tap. Tap. Tap the brakes. The speedometer eased down to the lowest number: five. He eased up and down slowly on the brake as the road gradually sloped, careful not to press too hard or ease up too long. Curve to the left, then back to the right, and then ease across the small stone bridge. Coasting over the frozen creek, he exhaled and wondered idly how long he had been holding his breath. He gave it a little gas. The hill coming up out of the creek was not as steep as the one he had just descended and he relaxed slowly.

Suddenly, a shadow loomed up beside the car. Deer! His instincts took over, braking and turning to avoid collision. The car spun on the ice and for a moment all he saw was a blur as his headlights scanned rapidly in a circle. Turning into the skid, he tapped his brakes to stop the skid.

All motion ceased. The sound of the motor could barely be heard between his panting.

Putting it in neutral, he set the brake, unfastened his seatbelt and opened the door. The cold air was bracing, invigorating, waking him completely as well as easing his rattled nerves. He marveled at the talents he called up at such times -- where had these memories of physics and driving come from? He shrugged to himself and breathed deeply. The light sounds of ice particles hitting the ground came to him before the crunching of his boots on the icy pavement drowned out all other noise.

The spinning had pointed the vehicle back at the bridge once more. Looking up the road he considered just hoofing it the last half-mile and getting the car tomorrow. The road was narrow, but there seemed enough room for another vehicle to pass. He sensed a motion. He looked down at the tires. Was the car rolling? He thought he had set the hand brake...

Yes, the car was moving: sideways. It was going to slide off the road!

Quickly, he opened the door and hopped inside. He gave it gas, but the wheels found no purchase. To his horror he realized his getting in as well as spinning the tires had accelerated the sideways motion. He thought about getting out again just as the farther wheels hit a rut. The door came slamming shut and he was overcome with a weird weightless sensation. The car seemed to be tipping over! Stunned, he felt the momentum transferring upward through the vehicle as the car swung over into the ditch, freeing the wheels stuck in the rut, slamming him to the passenger seat, and now sliding on the passenger side down the small slope on ice until it slammed up against a power pole.

He shook his head to clear it and looked... UP... through the driver's door window.

The freezing rain was collecting rapidly on the now horizontal surface and he could barely make out the pole weaving from the blow. Moving to free his arms, he grabbed the steering wheel and stood as best he could. Now, for sure, he was going to have to walk home in the blizzard. He wrenched at the handle and pushed up on the door. Amazing how heavy those doors are, he thought. They swing open so easily, usually, that one does not consider their actual weight.

He forced the door open a bit and stepped upward, using the headrests on the seats to propel him up and out of the vehicle. A frozen body giving birth into a frozen world, he thought with a touch of the macabre.

Half out of the door, he turned to get more of the weight of the door off him, when he heard a crack above. He looked up in time to see the power cable snap in two. One section fell lose. Like in some horrifying slow motion techno-thriller he saw it falling – toward him – tiny sparks flying as the miniscule ice crystals fell against the exposed wires, giving up their lives in some insane cosmic dance: see me, I existed for a moment!

Realizing he was soaking wet and pinned between two large pieces of metal, he wondered again how long it would be before anyone came down this road. And find... what?

The wires descended closer. He wondered if he could free himself in the 1.2 seconds he had left, and concluded correctly that he could not. Now what science class did I ever learn anything like that? In wide-eyed fascination he saw the wires touch the car and his final thought: I wonder if this is gonna hurt much?

The night lit up in a terrific darkness.

two

on the bright side

The corridor was well-lit, he could at least give it that. But it was so very BORING!

He could not remember how he got to be in this corridor, but when Eddie pushed his memory back, he could remember only more of the corridor, before that everything was a little fuzzy. He could remember his childhood, growing up in west Texas, the girlfriends, and his wife Marcy, but getting into the corridor escaped him. He tried another door on the right. Locked! Just like all the others. He continued walking. The "feel" of this experience was like a dream, but his own or another's he could not tell. Heck, he thought, if this is my dream, why won't any of the doors open?

"Just like the doors in your life, eh?"

Eddie looked around for the source of the voice. There was no one there, nor any speakers that he could see, just the corridor stretching off to infinity in both directions.

"And who might you be?" he asked of the corridor. "Are you God?"

There was a chuckle, followed by: "A lot of people have just called me 'the voice in their heads'."

"So that would mean you are God, at least my interpretation of you."

"I much prefer 'voice in the head' to 'interpretation of God'. The former has a more artistic ring to it."

"Okay, voice in my head. Why won't these doors open?"

"As in life, Edward, not all doors open to you. Can you imagine the utter chaos if all doors DID open? No one would get anywhere in life."

"Very funny." He shook his head and continued walking. "Would you at least put a marker or something on the doors that will open for me?"

"Since we have time, at the moment, and you are not doing anything else of interest, I suppose we could open all the doors for you. If nothing more than at exercise in futility, as you will soon see."

Another door loomed on the left. "Any door, you say? Like this one?"

"Yes, that one or any other one up ahead. Take your pick. For a change, ALL doors will open to you."

"Thanks, pal. You are so kind. But this is my dream, after all." He reached for the knob.

The voice chuckled again.

Eddie paused, hand on knob. "Wait! This isn't some kind of trick is it? Like I open the door to find another corridor just like this one?"

"No, nothing like that!"

"Good. I've HAD that dream before and it really sucked."

"I know."

He turned the knob and pushed the door open.

"You! Get over here and give me a hand!"

Eddie blinked at the scene. The room seemed to be swaying. Rough timber, dark and damp, were the walls. One small window seemed taken up with a large cylinder that seemed, though his eyes were not completely adjusted to the dimness, seemed to be a cannon. His eyes bugged - a cannon with a dead body laying across it!

"You! Snap out of it, man!" Eddie realized the voice was not in English, but he understood the words well enough. He stumbled closer to see what the man wanted, only to pull up short at the sight of the man trying to stanch the flow of blood from the stump of what once was a leg.

A loud noise sounded above him, and he suddenly realized this was a ship! And in the middle of a battle!

He turned and ran out the door, slamming it shut as another blast sounded.