“Yeah,” said Craig desperately, “but you don’t have to destroy something
to prove you own it, right? I mean it’s enough to know that you can do it,
isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Mikey said with the same dreamy smile. “Sometimes that’s enough.”
“So all this is really theoretical, isn’t it?” Craig pressed. “I mean it’s
not like you’re actually gonna destroy anything, are you?”
Mikey came out of his trance and regarded him closely. “Sure it’s all
theoretical.” He turned away from Craig and back to the crystal thing on
his desk. “Just theoretical.”
Craig hesitated, torn between a desire to press his companion for more
assurances and the fear he might not get them. Finally he turned away,
mumbled something about needing to get back to work, and started down the
dark and twisting stairs.
Mikey didn’t even grunt goodbye.
Thirty-seven: CHUCK JONES’S CAT
“Not only is the universe stranger than you imagine, it is stranger than
you can imagine.”
-J.B.S. Haldane
“And so are all the other universes.”
-Wiz Zumwalt
Jerry and Danny listened intently when Wiz related what Duke Aelric had
told him.
“That’s weird,” Danny said when Wiz had finished. “I wonder how much of it
is true.”
Jerry leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on the console. “What I
want to know is what stirred these things up. If they’ve been around
forever why did they pick now to start causing trouble?”
“Duke Aelric talked about that some when he first joined us,” Wiz said.
“He thinks it’s because of us. Our brand of magic apparently triggered
something.” He glanced past Jerry’s feet to the console screen where the
convoluted blue shape slowly rotated.
“I think the whole thing’s crazy,” Danny said. “Is he still around?”
“Aelric? I don’t think so. I think he left again right after I talked to
him.”
“Pity,” Jerry said. “I would have liked to ask him some questions about
this.”
“Bet you wouldn’t get any straight answers.”
Before Wiz could reply the door opened and Moira came into the computer
room carrying a wicker basket with a cloth over it.
“Forgive me, my Lords, but I thought you might enjoy some refreshment,”
she said as she put the basket down on the console.
Wiz started to object to covering up the stacks of papers, but then Moira
folded back the cloth and he goggled instead.
“Doughnuts! Where did you learn to make doughnuts?”
“Jerry took me to a doughnut shop while I was in your world. I liked them,
but it took me some little time to master the recipe.”
Wiz grabbed a chocolate-frosted chocolate a fraction ahead of Jerry’s and
Danny’s reaching hands. He took half of it in one bite and closed his eyes
in bliss.
“You sure got it right. This is wonderful.”
“You said it,” Danny enthused, spewing crumbs from his second choice over
Moira’s skirt.
The hedge witch dimpled and bobbed a curtsey. “Thank you, my Lords. Now,
if you will excuse me, I must see to the unpacking of our latest load of
supplies.”
“Won’t you have some with us?” Wiz asked his wife.
“Thank you, no. I, ah, sampled several while I was making them. I fear I
am more than somewhat full.” She turned toward the door. “Do not eat too
many and ruin your appetites. June is preparing something special for
dinner.” Behind her Wiz nodded and reached for his third doughnut.
For several minutes the only sound in the computer room was working jaws.
Eventually a combination of sated appetites and an increasingly limited
selection made the three more talkative.
“If she can whip up doughnuts why can’t she make coffee to go with them?”
Danny asked.
“She didn’t like coffee when she tried it,” Jerry told him. “She liked
doughnuts.”
“Okay, but why so many maple ones? Everyone hates maple.”
“I think they were her favorites.”
“Anyway,” Wiz put in, “isn’t there something about looking gift horses in
the mouth?”
“Yeah. Sorry,” Danny said perfunctorily.
“You know,” Jerry said after a moment, “what Aelric said almost makes
sense in a quantum mechanical sort of way.”
Wiz looked around. “I’m not sure anything makes sense here,” he said.