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 ou
know, this is really neat. This gives me a reason for why all of us, all
bodies, are separate and opaque. What I mean is, this will explain why we
are all divided from each other. If Homer needs to constantly be sorting
out which one he wants to keep and wiping out the ones he doesn’t need,
then he needs to have us be separate units. I hadn’t been able to figure
out why Homer would have all of his “beings” be divided from each
other.”“You’re supposed to ask me questions. I’m supposed to have to convince you that my part of the story is believable.” Jeanie was a little bit annoyed that Lily seemed to be adding to the game when it wasn’t her turn. “Oh. Sorry. Let me see. Well, the first question that comes to mind is why has Homer let so many different life forms continue? If he is supposed to be wiping out the ones he thinks aren’t as good, why do we have zillions of different kinds of plants and animals and even microscopic little living things?” Jeanie frowned. “Well, all those things are so different. I mean, my Mom and I decided we liked my cookies better because we were comparing them to the old version of the same cookie. We wouldn’t have compared them to, say, broccoli casserole and then chosen candied cookies over a vegetable dish. They’re too different. You can only choose between two things if they are almost the same or what I mean is if you wouldn’t want to have both. Mom and I didn’t want to eat the old cookies since we had the new, better ones, but we would still want the broccoli casserole with the cookies.” “So maybe Homer isn’t looking for the one perfect vehicle, or tool, he’s looking for the perfect set of tools. He only wants the very best wrench, so he’ll get rid of all other wrenches, but he will still need a hammer and screwdriver. Hmmm… though, you know it all depends on what his purpose or motive is. Does he have a single, specific goal that he’s working towards, or does he want to control as many things as possible in this universe?” “Well, if he loves power as much as you say he does, then he might hate giving up on any living thing that had some control over some part of the world, even if that wasn’t part of his original purpose or plan. I think of Homer as being really crazy about things that can manipulate things. He likes the idea of being able to make things happen any time he wants to. He likes to be ready, just in case. You know, like the type of guy who buys all the tools in the Sears catalog, even though he’ll never use most of them.” “So, that means he’s not sure what he needs to be ready for. It sounds like he doesn’t really know what’s out there or, I should say, out here. Or, actually, the guy who buys tools he’ll never use knows what they are for, he’s just not sure if those things are going to happen to him, in particular. I mean, he knows what all the different size wrenches are for, but he doesn’t know if or when he’s going to want to use them. I think it also might be a precautionary thing. He wants to be prepared in case something breaks. He wants to be able to make things happen, but he also doesn’t want things to happen that he can’t control.” “My Mom says that’s what insurance is for. She always fusses about the insurance bill for our house. She says she’s paying for something that will never happen, but if I ask her why she pays it then, she says she couldn’t sleep at night if she didn’t.” “Yeah. We don’t like risk. If we had power over everything, there would be no risk. I don’t know what Homer can do about natural forces like hurricanes and floods. Eunice probably likes them. She’s wild about excitement, confusion and chaos. She likes discovering and exploring the unknown. Homer hates it.” |
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| “Great
aunt Lily, I was thinking about Homer and Eunice this morning when I was
taking pictures and they seemed kind of like how my camera works. You know,
there is all this light bouncing off of everything around me, it comes into
the narrow opening of the camera lens, and when I click the button, one
clear image is fixed on the film. That’s sort of how I understand what you
talked about. Eunice is all of the ‘light’ going off in all possible
directions from all the things in the scene. The lens would be the ‘sparkle’
or the little place where she intersects Homer’s world. And the image would
be the single image, out of all the possible images from the unfocused light.” “Yes, yes, yes! That’s a wonderful analogy. You know, your eyes are lenses, too. They focus the light so it makes a sharp picture.” “It’s not really right, though. Because the stuff on this side, Homer’s side, is what’s being seen. In a camera, the stuff that makes the picture is on the outside, on Eunice’s side. So this has to work sort of backwards.” “Hmm. I think maybe you could think of a tiny beam of possibilities coming from Eunice, through the ‘lens’ of our mind, and shining onto this side, or whatever we’re thinking about. Since the aperture or connection to Eunice’s place is so small, we only get a very small sample of what might be made out of whatever we’re thinking about. Maybe it’s this way, on purpose, now that I think about it. I don’t think Homer could handle more than a tiny bit of Eunice at a time.” They had finished their lunch. Jeanie had begun fidgeting restlessly, waiting for Lily to push back her chair and signal that the meal was over. Lily had laid down her napkin, but was so absorbed in their conversation that she failed to notice the girl’s impatience. Jeanie finally pushed her own chair back a little, causing it to scrape the floor noisily so that she caught Lily’s attention. “Jeanie, did you check for ticks since you came in?” “Yes. I checked my legs and my head right before I washed my hands.” “Here. Let me take a look at your back.” Lily pulled Jeanie’s t-shirt up, and put on her glasses. She looked carefully at the soft faintly pink skin of the girl’s spinal indent. “Wonder why Homer didn’t get rid of ticks. Or why he ever came up with them in the first place.” “Yeah. And fleas and roaches. There must be millions of them. Do you think there has to be a Eunice and a Homer in each one of them?” “The way the game is going so far, I think there would have to be. They can’t be alive without having a sparkle from the intersection of the two universes. I don’t know, though. I sincerely doubt that roaches have imagination or a craving for new knowledge.” “Well, they are from a primitive stage of development. We all started as single cell things. They had to get the thing running before they could start directing it to any particular task.” Lily tucked the t-shirt gently back into to top of Jeanie’s shorts and straightened the collar where it had been pushed awry. Together they rinsed their plates and glasses and put the pitcher of tea back in the refrigerator. Jeanie wiped off the table with a damp sponge while Lily rummaged in the freezer for something for supper. “What would you like for supper? Since you complained about my cooking yesterday, I think we’ll have to have something other than macaroni and cheese or hotdogs. Shall we have fish? Baked fish?” “Yum. Yes, please. I know how to make some stuff that you can roll them in before we cook them.” Lily put the frozen fish on a plate on the stovetop to thaw. Continue on next page |
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