Ogg
by
J
ames
Gault.
Smashwords edition
copyright 2009 James Gault
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Chapter 1
Ogg looked carefully at Antonia Collins and thought. Was she the right person to help him? Did she have the qualities she would need to face up to this new challenge which was facing Ogg and indeed the whole planet?
He was rerunning the ‘first’ time he had met her. The exact meaning of ‘the first time’ for Great Beings was somewhat more complicated than for ordinary humans. Ogg after all could, and did, travel at will back and forward through both all time and all space. So, having met someone for the first time, he could easily go back in time again and meet that person for the first time once more, and that’s what he was doing now. So, was it still the first meeting? Maybe he could call it a second first meeting. But then there could be a third first meeting, and even a second, second first meeting. Ogg’s travels in time could be extremely complicated and keeping track would get unbearably difficult were he to adopt such a cumbersome reference system. In any case, if each first meeting had exactly the same outcome, was there any point in being able to differentiate them? An interesting one? Ogg smiled to himself.
Interesting maybe, but thinking about it had diverted him completely from the question in hand, which was to choose or not to choose Antonia as one of his helpers. This was why he had been going over their first meeting before letting his thoughts so rudely interrupt themselves.
Antonia had impressed Ogg so much the first time he met her. She had taken a break from studying for her upcoming AS levels and opened up a copy of Nietzsche’s ‘Thus Spake Zarathustra’ for a bit of light reading. She polished off the first few chapters and found herself thinking that she didn’t really think very much of the German writer’s superman. For one thing, he seemed to be distinctly lacking in social skills. OK she didn’t have too many friends herself, but she at least had an excuse. She was an only child, daughter of a garrulous mother and a father who was prohibited from speaking in his own household. Her mother’s favourite torture was to make grotesque frocks from curtain material and force her daughter to wear them to school, and, embarrassed about being seen in the presence of such a strangely attired seventeen-year-old, her classmates avoided her as much as possible. Another thing which singularly failed to impress her about Zarathustra was that, while he spoke with great and profound weightiness, nothing he said really seemed to make any sense. So he didn’t seem to her to be much of a candidate for a role model, and she was wondering why she had bothered with the book.
As Ogg was flitting frantically around the past, present and future of the entire world, he had stumbled across Antonia’s thoughts and found them quite intriguing. His mission was to save mankind from its own stupidity. It was a never- ending and probably hopeless task, and he needed all the help he could get. So whenever he came across a bit of reasonable critical thinking, he always thought it worth his while to stop and talk to it. This was how he recruited his best helpers.
So while Antonia was thinking that maybe she should give up on Nineteenth century German fantasy and get back to her school books, Ogg had materialised in front of her.
“Oh, hello! Who are you?” Antonia had asked in a rather matter of fact voice. In considering her for the role of special helper, Ogg noted her relative equanimity on being faced by a complete stranger who suddenly appeared in her own room. It was one important thing in her favour. Ogg could adopt any physical presence he liked, and this time he had chosen a look based on a rather down-at-heel middle-aged university professor he knew, so he must have appeared to Antonia rather like one of her teachers and consequently unthreatening. Nevertheless, the calmness she had shown would come in useful later: he didn’t know what or who they would meet in their quest.
“Who would you like me to be?” Ogg had asked in reply to her question.
Antonia had thought this was a surprising thing for anyone to say, even for someone who mysteriously appeared in front of her as she was doing her homework. She was an avid reader of websites and articles on the paranormal, so materialising from nowhere was not a totally alien concept. But she had never heard of anyone not owning some kind of name, which was what her visitor seemed to be suggesting. And if he was playing games with her, she didn’t think it was a polite thing to do, and she was going to tell him.
“I really don’t think it’s very polite to just appear, uninvited, in someone’s presence and then avoid saying who you are”
“I do apologise, Antonia, but it’s just that I have so many names...”
“Well, if you invite everyone to call you whatever they want that’s hardly surprising,” she had interrupted. “And please don’t call me Antonia, I really don’t like it.”
“How about ‘Ant’?”
“Not much better, but it’ll have to do. Now what about you? What did your parents call you, for example?”
“That’s a difficult one, Ant.” And it was, because Ogg had been around from the very beginning of time and even before. No one else had been born before him, so how could he have parents?
“You mean you’re an orphan?” Antonia had asked, after a moment’s reflection. Ogg noted that she could take a fact or situation and make a sensible attempt at an explanation. That was another point in her favour.
“More or less,” he had replied, “but in any case why don’t you call me Ogg. Lots of people do.”
“Ogg it is then. Nice to meet you, Ogg!”
“Nice to meet you too, Ant.”
“Well, Ogg, now that we’ve got the formalities out of the way, maybe you would like to tell me a bit more about yourself and why exactly you are here.”
When he heard this Ogg remembered exactly what had been in his mind when considering Antonia as a special helper. First of all, she could exhibit a distinct tendency to take over when she was getting impatient, a trait which, although often infuriating, could also be useful. But she also seemed able to hit upon just the right difficult question from which illuminating insight followed. He had often found this ability in many young people, and whether this ability was due to childlike naivety or deep insight, Ogg had never been able to tell, and he wasn’t sure that there was any real difference between the two anyway.
Ogg cogitated. Being a Great Being, it only took him a few seconds. If he remembered rightly, that made three good reasons for bringing the young Antonia onto his team. Enough for even the most discerning of the Great Ones! Yes, Antonia really was just right for the difficult job he had in front of him.
Having made up his mind, Ogg shot off, leaving this rerun of their first meeting rather in the air. Didn’t this behaviour leave Antonia a little bit puzzled or annoyed? Not a bit of it! Of course, because of the first, first meeting, she knew what came next: in fact she had experienced it. And as a human being and not a Great Being, she had no idea that an incident in her life was being rerun for the sole benefit of an uncertain Superior One. So while the second first meeting ended for Ogg at this point, it continued for Antonia, although for her it seemed to be the first, first meeting.
Not that it had gone on to great things anyway, the first, first time. In answer to her request for more information about himself, Ogg had merely asked her again who she would like him to be, and invited her to tell her what she would like him to do. When encouraged to be more specific, he had informed her that he moved in mysterious ways, doffed the old soft hat covering his greying hair, and bid her goodbye.
The visit had made her think, all the same. Who was he and what did he want with her?
During the following days, Ogg had visited her frequently. It got so that if a day passed without at least a fleeting Ogg conversation she felt a little let-down. He always stimulated her imagination with difficult questions she never seemed able to quite answer. She learned a lot about Ogg, and about the differences between ordinary humans and Great Beings, which is what she had decided Ogg was. They were strange conversations, for often Ogg would use his superhuman powers to reach into her thoughts and respond to them without her even having to say anything. It was both disconcerting and annoying for Antonia, because it made her feel a bit useless, and on one occasion she had mentioned it to Ogg. But he had reminded her that while he could read her mind, she couldn’t read his, so she needed to hear what he said so that she could react to it.
“But, if you like,” he had told her, “I can be here, and talk to you, and you don’t have to see me, or even hear me.”
“What, like inside my mind, you mean? I’m not at all sure I’d like that. How could I tell when it was you speaking and when it was just me thinking?”
“Ah! That is a G.P.Q.!”
“G.P.Q.?”
“Great Philosophical Question. It’s a question that almost no one understands, no one knows the answer to, and lots of great and learned men spend years and years thinking about.”
“What’s the point of it, then?” Antonia asked.
“That,” Ogg told her, triumphantly, “is another G.P.Q.”
“Aah!” she had said, looking puzzled but obviously thinking. And, when the Great Problem arose, it was this response, above all, that confirmed Ogg had been right to choose her to help him.
Chapter 2
The next day, as Antonia was walking down the little lane that led to her school, Ogg suddenly appeared beside her, out of nowhere, just as she wasn’t expecting him. It was early in the morning. She hadn’t slept well because she had spent the whole night thinking about GPQs, so she was exhausted and therefore bad–tempered. What did he think he was playing at?
“I wish you would stop doing that,” she told him, “It’s time you grew up.”
Ogg only smiled, making Antonia’s ill humour worse. Great Beings should be above practical jokes.
“Suppose someone saw you appearing out of nowhere like that! I can’t imagine how I would explain such a trick to a rational person.”
“No one saw me, as far as I know,” Ogg replied,” but if anyone ever does, I want you tell me about it right away.”
Antonia was about to say OK when a sudden realisation struck her. There was something not right about what he had just said. Ogg had the ability to read all human minds; he ought to have known for certain if somebody had seen him. Their thoughts would have given them away. Yet he apparently didn’t always know, and Antonia could only draw the one obvious conclusion, which she immediately drew. Ogg was a Great Being, yes, but he was a flawed Great Being. Was what he lost in omnipotence made up for by the approachability that came with being less than prefect? She wasn’t sure.
“Ant,” Ogg went on, “I think I’m going to need your help. You are living in troubled times and there is evil is everywhere.”
“Ah!” smiled Antonia. “You don’t have to tell me! I know what you want.”
Ogg smiled. He knew what was coming. The older you get, the more you travel, the more frequently you come across the same things. Eventually you die of sheer boredom, if you are an Ordinary Person, but Great Beings don’t even have this escape. Was this the reason for his penchant for practical jokes and his fondness for winding up his friends? Desperate attempts to stave off monotony in old age? Ant meantime continued to rage with enthusiasm over her little bit of inspiration. Nothing to be done, Ogg said to himself, but to let her get it off her chest.
“You are the embodiment of everything good in the world. When we do good deeds, it’s you who are directing us. But there’s also another super-being with special powers, and he is responsible for all the evil things that happen. You and he are engaged in a bitter battle for the future of mankind. If you lose, the human race is doomed. And you need my help because I am young, innocent and uncorrupted, and incredibly clever.”
“And modest,” Ogg added.
Antonia just couldn’t see any reason why modesty was a particular virtue. She was young (a good thing), innocent (some pluses and minuses there, she thought), uncorrupted (unfortunately) and clever (thankfully). If it was true, why lie about it, for fear some stupid person might think you’re arrogant? She was surprised that Ogg had even mentioned ‘modesty’. Maybe that was another aspect of the flawed side of his Great Beingness.
“Listen, Ant! That was a very good story of yours, and very popular, but I’m afraid it doesn’t hold water. Of course, it would be very convenient if you could blame someone else for all the bad things you do, but you can’t. It is true that I am lucky enough to have lots of special powers, and I know what goes on inside the head of all human beings. But I can’t make you do good deeds. No one can but yourself. Nor is there any evil Super Being who can make you do evil things. So if you’re a bad person, it’s entirely your own fault. So you mustn’t try to pass your faults off on people like me.”
“But how can we fight against all the evil in the world if it’s spread out among the minds of billions of people?”
“You’ve hit on another Great Philosophical Question, Ant.”
Antonia was pleased and upset at the same time. Formulating a G.P.Q. was a bit of an achievement, and it was nice to be thought smart enough to do it. But she had really wanted an answer to her question. During her insomnia of the previous night, she had made list of few GPQs as a means of trying to put herself to sleep. But when that didn’t work, she used her time to try and come up with some answers, but with no success. It appeared to her that there were a great deal too many Great Philosophical Questions going around. Time for some Great Philosophical Answers.
“You must be able to do something about all the evil in the world!” she challenged Ogg. “Or why do you have these special powers?”
“Another…” Ogg began.
“Great Philosophical Question.” Antonia finished, with an exasperated sigh. Antonia had begun to suspect that youth was the age of idealism, and that growing up was a mere euphemism for increasing cynicism and disillusionment. To a clever girl like her this was plainly obvious in the way her parents and teachers behaved. But really, you expect better of a Great Being, and Antonia did hope that Ogg wasn’t going to let her down.
“Now, please listen carefully, Ant, because I’m going to tell you exactly why I need your help. It’s a very complicated story, and you’ll require all your brainpower to understand it.”
This sound more promising to Antonia, but she suddenly realised that her life was not her own to dedicate exclusively to Ogg. She looked at her watch, and squealed.
“Oh, no! Blast! Is it going to take long? I absolutely mustn’t be late for class. We have the horrible Mrs. Ghoul first period and she’s impossible if we’re late.”
Ogg didn’t even speak. It was a long and extremely complex story he had to tell, and listening to it would certainly have kept her late for school, but he had an instant solution to her problem.
Two hours earlier, Antonia was sleeping peacefully in bed when there was a tap on her shoulder.
“Wake up! Wake up! I’ve something to tell you, Ant.”
Antonia woke up to see Ogg’s face peering down at her.
“Oh, hello Ogg! What do you want at this time of the morning?”
Ogg had jumped back in time but Antonia didn’t know this. So for Antonia the meeting with Ogg on the way to school was still in the future and hadn’t yet happened, so she knew nothing about it. And now, of course, it wouldn’t happen, because Ogg was going to tell her everything right at that moment, two hours earlier than before. If he stopped her two hours later and told her the whole thing all over again she would have found it extremely odd. So the discussion between Ogg and Antonia in front of the school both took place and didn’t take place. At first sight one would suppose such an idea to be absolute nonsense, because ‘obviously’ something either happens or it doesn’t. But don’t be seduced by such simplistic logic and that insidious word ‘obviously’. Ogg and Antonia talked in front of her school and they didn’t. Impossible? Not at all! We know exactly why such an apparently impossible thing occurred, and the explanation is extremely simple and totally logical. If there’s one thing that Ogg has learned in his travels through time and space, and which he kindly teaches all his friends, it’s that one must never dismiss the most seemingly outrageous things. As often as not, they are true, and the explanation is usually extremely simple and totally logical.
“What do you want at this time in the morning, Ogg?” Antonia asked again.
“Ant, I think I’m going to need your help sooner rather than later. You are living in troubled times. Evil is everywhere”
“Ah!” squealed Antonia. “Don’t tell me! Don’t tell me! I know! I know!”
Ogg of course had already heard this, two hours later. He didn’t want to hear it again. Enough is enough! He quickly interrupted her.
“I want you to listen carefully, Ant, because I’m going to tell you exactly why I need your help. It’s a very complicated story, and you’ll need all your brainpower to understand it.”
Antonia admitted to being young and inexperienced, but she wasn’t stupid. As far as she could tell, she had understood everything that Ogg had told her so far, and had even managed to come up with a few Great Philosophical Questions off her own bat. So why should he doubt her ability to understand what was no more than just a collection of events? It wasn’t the kind of attitude she expected of a Great Being, but she supposed even they must forget themselves sometimes. She felt like telling him off, but she was in a forgiving mood and anyway Ogg had started to tell his story so she let it pass. This time!
“As you know, I can travel freely in time and space, and I can look into the thoughts of every human being. Recently, however, things have changed.”
”What do you mean by recently?” Antonia asked. It wasn’t just a question of semantics. When you have the capability to travel through time, the meaning of certain expressions like ‘now’, ‘later’, and ‘earlier’ become a little confused. So, without knowing it, Antonia had just formulated yet another Great Philosophical Question, and Ogg was at a loss for words. Finally he said,
“If we can leave that difficult question to the side for now, let me tell you about these changes. In my travels in time and space, there have always been a few minds I’ve been unable to read. Not many, but the odd one or two. However, on my last few visits to your time, I’ve noticed a considerable increase in the number of such minds.”
“Can I have a question?” Antonia asked.
“But of course. It is only through questions that the knowledge of mankind is increased.”
“Why can’t you read these minds? After all, you can read the minds of every human being.”
“Ant, you should be ashamed of asking such a question. It’s a simple question of logic. I can read all human thoughts, I cannot read these thoughts, therefore…. ?”
“They don’t belong to humans!” Antonia shouted triumphantly.
“The next part is even more worrying. I used to travel in a time not so far forward from now, when you are no longer a girl, but a full-grown woman.”
“What will I be like? Will I have children? Will I be rich and famous?”
Ogg looked at her and frowned. Antonia had allowed her mind to stray from the point in question, an unforgivable fault in someone who has ambitions related to the solution of Great Philosophical Questions. But who can resist the temptations of a fortune-teller? Ogg ignored her and went on with his explanation.
“The last five or six times I’ve tried to visit you as an adult, I haven’t managed to get there. It’s as if there is a barrier. I try to go forward ten years, but now I can get to two years beyond today, but no further.”
“What does it mean, Ogg?”
“Come on, Ant, you can work it out! I can go as far into the future as I want, but I can’t go any further than two years ahead, therefore…?”
Antonia shivered. The conclusion seemed both too obvious and too terrible to be true.
“In two years time, there is no future!”
Ogg and Antonia sat together. Thinking in silence. Antonia thought about the future where she was a woman. Then she thought about this new non-future which had suddenly appeared from nowhere. A future which ended in two years time.
But the future is the future. Isn’t it? Ogg had seen her there. Only now, there is to be no future in several years. The world ends in two years.
“Ogg, can there be two futures? And if there are two futures, can there be two pasts? And is this the only present, or are there lots of them?”
“Great Philosophical Questions, Ant.” Ogg smiled an infuriating smile.
To be honest, Antonia was a bit browned off with Ogg’s Great Philosophical Questions. There seemed to be no answers to any of them, only more questions.
And there was Ogg, sitting motionless and silent in front of her. He seemed tranquil and contemplative. But at the same time he was darting back and forward in time and space, seeking opinions and gathering information to help him solve the mystery of the missing future. So when a dark cloud passed over his face, it wasn’t the outward indication of some sudden awful thought. It was the reaction to a new and terrible turn of events that he had discovered on his journeys. Antonia had learned very quickly to understand this.
“What’s happened, Ogg?” Antonia asked when she saw his face darken.
“More bad news, Ant! I’ve been spending a lot of time at the end of the future recently, looking for clues. I would have expected some kind of warning. A political crisis with great powers threatening each other with nuclear or biological weapons, for example. But there was nothing more the usual bad-tempered squabbling of greedy people looking after their own interests. Then I thought of some natural disaster, like an enormous comet from outer space. No sign of that either! A sudden massive weather phenomenon, perhaps? No! Nothing! Nor were there any signs of a virulent widespread disease springing up abruptly and killing the whole of mankind instantaneously. It doesn’t happen to me often, but for once I hadn’t the slightest inkling of where the problem might lie. So I came back to this time.”
“Thinking that you might find the answer here, with a smart person like me to help you.”
Ogg found himself thinking that Antonia sometimes tended to forget that pride was one of the seven deadly sins. He threw a disapproving glare in her direction before continuing. “Perhaps there is a connection between the end of the world and all these minds I can’t read.”
“The non-humans? The aliens. The invaders from another planet?”
“Don’t jump to conclusions! Think properly! They might be aliens, but we don’t know that. We don’t know exactly what they are, we only know what they’re not. Logic tells us they’re not humans. They might be from outer space, but there might be another explanation.”
“Sorry, Ogg! Sloppy thinking again!”
“Anyway, the one thing I know is that, over the next two years, up to the point everything stops, more and more minds become closed to me. ‘Could it be,’ I ask myself, ‘that these minds are shutting the gates of the future?’”
“Can I say something, Ogg?”
“Of course you can, Ant.”
“Does it really matter?” she asked.
“What?” Ogg was completely taken off-guard.
“Does it really matter about the end of the future? I mean the future used to go on and on, you know that because you’ve been there. It’s only recently that it’s decided to end itself in a couple of years’ time. Maybe it’s only a temporary thing. And even if it’s not, so what? There’s at least one future where I go on to have a career and maybe a family and presumably everyone else has a normal future too. So if there’s another future which is so stupid it decides to pack it in a couple of years, does it really matter?”
“Ant, you’ve come up with a few G.P.Qs in the short time I’ve known you, but this is the best I’ve heard in a long time. It’s one of the Greatest Philosophical Questions ever.”
Surprisingly, this particular compliment didn’t please Antonia in the least.
“You mean you don’t know the answer?” she shouted.
She immediately regretted shouting. Her parents might be odd, but they had instilled a Victorian sense of propriety in their offspring, and she knew she ought to have shown more respect for her elders, especially someone as revered and ancient as Ogg. But frustration had just gained a temporary victory over upbringing. She was living in a world where no one seemed to really know anything important. And all Ogg could do was calmly shrug his shoulders and shake his head.
“Ant, you can’t expect me to have the answer to everything. There are some people who pretend that I do, because they just can’t face up to uncertainty, but it isn’t true. There are even some arrogant people who say the ‘Ogg knows everything.’ Then claim that I’ve told them all my secrets so they know everything too. When everyone does know everything, maybe that’s when the future will end. And maybe that’s why it does matter that the future, or at least one future, doesn’t prematurely end in two years’ time. In any case, I don’t know if I can do anything about it, but I believe I have to try.”
This wasn’t much of an explanation. More of an excuse really, and totally unworthy of a Great Being! But Antonia baulked at telling him so. Not that she was reticent, but she still felt she just didn’t know him well enough yet. She was beginning to realise the difficulties that Great Beings had in living up to their reputations. It was annoying, yes it was, but Ogg was doing his best. It was obviously worrying him that he had no clue about the future. No sense in further damaging his self esteem.!
“Let us assume that it is important then, Ogg, although you will agree that we can’t be sure about it.”
“Agreed! So, working on the basis, which may or may not be true, that it is important to save the future from extinction, I formed a hypothesis,”
“A hypothesis which has to be tested,” Antonia interjected. They had taught her the basic principles of scientific theory at school.
“Which has to be tested,” Ogg concurred. “My hypothesis was that there is some connection between those non-human minds which I can’t read, and the approaching end of the future. I therefore decided to go forward to the end of the future once again and devote some attention to the phenomenon of the non-human minds.”
“What did you find out, Ogg?”
“Nothing!”
What did he mean ‘nothing’? Just how flawed was Ogg going to turn out to be? She could accept that he might not know everything, but with all his great powers he could surely find out something.
“Worse than nothing!” Ogg added.
“Nothing can be worse than nothing!” From the point of view of pure logic, this was a very interesting statement, being at the same time a tautology and a paradox, and Ogg was sorely tempted to spend some time explaining all the possible meanings to Antonia. But he had some world-shattering news to reveal, and he had been building up to its revelation rather nicely. To postpone revealing the important news would have infuriated her once again.
“Some things can be worse than nothing, Ant! When I tried to go forward two years just now”
“To the end of the future”
“The previous end of the future! When I tried to go back there, I couldn’t reach it.”
“How far could you get?”
“The new end of the future, Ant, is in one year’s time.”
Antonia shivered. Her life expectancy had just gone from two years to one. It was a strange sensation having your whole future cut in half, just like that.
Chapter 3
“What we need to do,” Ogg announced, “is to lay all the facts out in front of us. Then we may have to make some assumptions. From these facts together with the assumptions, we can attempt, by a process of deduction, to formulate one or two hypotheses, or theories. If we then test our hypotheses by experimentation, we will be able validate our assumptions.”
“Or invalidate them.” Antonia chipped in. She wanted Ogg to know she was getting the hang of this logical thinking.
“Or invalidate them, and in the case of invalidation, we will revise our assumptions and repeat the process, on an iterative basis, until the truth becomes apparent.”
“Can I have a question?”
“Questions are the source of knowledge. Go ahead, Ant!”
“It is true,” she began, “that the process you have just described is of course the only correct way of thinking for humans. But I was just thinking that it is entirely possible that the non-humans - who may or may not be aliens; we agreed that that was an assumption - that these non-humans may think in a different way entirely. And if this is the case, might we not have to think in the same way as they do?”
Ogg shuddered. The thought of anyone thinking in an incorrect way always disturbed him. It was exactly that that kept the world in the horrible mess it always seemed to be in.
“Ant, there are too many people in this world incapable of thinking in the correct fashion. They frequently get into positions of great power and authority, and you only have to glance at the history books to see the kind of damage they can do. So, while there may be some merit in your suggestion, I don’t believe I could bring myself to think in any other way than the correct way. Besides, as we don’t know how the non-humans think, I don’t see how we will be able to imitate them.”
Antonia found Ogg’s response a bit disappointing. If there are non-humans with cogitative capacities there could well be more than one correct way of thinking. So what exactly might these other ways of thinking be? Wasn’t that one worthy of some reflection? Not to Ogg, apparently! Well, in her opinion,. his lack of adventure and deep-seated conservatism in this matter weren’t worthy of him. But she personally would dedicate some of her time to exploring this question, without Ogg’s help. It would be something to do while the Chemistry teacher was attempting those boring experiments that never worked. She was about to let her mind wander down that path right away, but Ogg’s voice brought her back to the present problem.
“Let’s look at the facts, Ant. Fact number one - the world ends next year.”
‘In the current circumstances, the world ends next year,” Antonia corrected him, proudly. “Our goal is to change these circumstances, and so save the world.”
“Yes…quite… er! Fact number two – while there have always been a certain number of minds which are closed to me, the number of minds I can’t read has been increasing dramatically recently.”
“And as you can read all human minds, these minds must belong to creatures who are in some way not human. Ogg, you couldn’t be wrong about your ability to read all human minds, could you?”
“Impossible, Ant! The ability to read every single human mind and to travel at will through all times is the very definition of ‘Oggness’. Why do you ask?”
“Because these two facts could be explained quite nicely by a diminution of your great powers, caused perhaps by the advent of old age.” Antonia said this with a small voice. First of all, nobody likes to be reminded they are getting on in years, and, secondly, she was afraid the idea of an Ogg with reduced powers might hurt his feelings. But the logic was totally correct, and after all it was Ogg himself who had insisted that they go down the path of clear and proper thinking.
“Your deduction is entirely reasonable, Ant, but my powers are an inviolable given, so you will have to abandon this theory. And, of course, the allusion to old-age is entirely out of place.”
‘Oh dear,’ Antonia thought, ‘I really have hurt his feelings.’
“Physically, I have the power to be any age I choose. And also, as a time traveller, it is impossible to put an exact start date to my existence. The whole idea of any age, either young or old, is therefore irrelevant in my case.”
Did she detect a slight emotional tremble in his voice? Were his reasons slipping in the direction of excuses? Better not upset him any more. Better stick to listing the facts.
‘Fact number three - the end of the world is getting earlier all the time.”
‘Not quite, Ant! At first there was no end to the world. Then I discovered that this had changed and suddenly it had decided to end in two years. And now, it appears that the end of the world has moved again, and is only one year away. However, your conclusion that the end of the world will continue to get earlier and earlier is not a deduction but a mere extrapolation of current events and we don’t actually know if there will be a further change, or, if there is, in which direction it will be. The events of the past are never an infallible predictor of the future.”
“Fact number three, then, is that the end of the world has just moved forward, once only, by one year,” Antonia corrected herself.
“Much better, Ant! A clear, exact, definition of the evidence! Now, let’s think! These are the facts, and now we need a theory.”
“Assumptions first! You remember, you told me. Facts, assumptions, then theory.”
Ogg frowned. He hated it when someone caught him out.. Of course it should never happen, but even Great Beings are human. Anyway, a mistake’s a mistake, all Ogg could hope for was that he didn’t sound too flustered when he scrambled through his reply.
“Really, Ant, you’re mixing up the explanation of theories with their formulation. Of course, to explain a theory, you start with facts, then it’s assumptions, and finally the theory. But when you’re trying to create a theory, you start from the facts, then you make up a theory, and finally see what assumptions you have made.”
“Ogg, that’s cheating!” Antonia almost shouted. “It’s like making up an answer and then deciding what the question is.”
“We live in a less than perfect world, Ant, even when it comes to the processes of correct thinking.”
In many ways, in spite of Ogg’s friendship and advice, the world was becoming more and more complicated for Antonia. First of all, it was so difficult to think in a correct fashion, and then there were all those annoying Great Philosophical Questions. It seemed that everything she wanted to know fell into the G.P.Q. category. And now it appeared that the process of logical thinking itself was not inviolate, and could be changed whenever it was felt to be convenient. If she lived to be thousand, she would never succeed in understanding the ways of the world.
“Let’s think for a minute, Ant. Let’s try to come up with a good sound theory.”
Ogg was lounging on the bedroom chair, rubbing his chin and screwing up his face in a puzzled frown, while Antonia was sitting up in bed, her head propped against the pillow, staring at the ceiling.
‘I know what you’re thinking, Ant,’ he said.
“Ogg, I really wish you wouldn’t do that. For one thing, it would have been much more polite to ask me like a proper person, instead of jumping inside my head and helping yourself. And for another, I hadn’t quite finished formulating the idea myself.”
“I just thought I would save some time.”
“Oh, really Ogg! As if time made any difference to you. If you need some more time you can just go back and start again. You were just being wicked.”
“Wicked is a bit strong, but I do admit to being a little naughty. But also I was testing out your deductive capabilities, and I’m glad to say you came through with flying colours.”
Antonia fixed him with the chilly gaze of an ice maiden. All this stupid messing about! She was glad she was a girl. Even Ogg’s mind was chained for ever to male silliness.
“If you would be so kind as to listen, I will explain my idea to you, now that I have had time to reflect on it and to construct it in a clear and understandable fashion.”
Ogg nodded. He knew never to cross a woman when her temper was up, no matter how young she was.
“It seems to me that the key to this mystery lies with the non-humans. We know nothing about them, and I think we need to know more. For example, how non-human are they? Is their non-humanness genetic? Is it handed down from father to son, from mother to daughter? Are they born non-human, or can they become non-human later in life?”
“Good questions, Ant, and I have to admit I don’t know the answers.”
Antonia was sitting up in bed and her eyes were gleaming. One hand she was stroking her chin, the other index finger was waving about as if she were in a swordfight. Her hair was dishevelled from her night’s sleep. Her white nightie had a strange ghostly look to it. Had her mother had peeked into the bedroom just at that moment, she would have thought her daughter had gone completely off her rocker. But Antonia’s mad dressmaking parent was fortunately sound asleep in her own bed, dreaming no doubt of ghastly grotesque garments she could make for her child She was spared the demonic spectacle of Antonia enthusiastically expounding her latest ideas, the impeccable results of a fecund imagination and a faultless process of correct thinking.
“In the absence of answers to these important questions,” Antonia ranted, ‘we will have to proceed on the basis of assumptions. Suppose, for example, that non-humanness is indeed hereditary. The growth in the number of minds closed to you could then be explained by the simple fact that these ‘people’ are reproducing at a much faster rate than we normal humans. I haven’t yet quite worked out what this has to do with the end of the world.
“On the other hand, should there be no hereditary element in non-humanness, then these non-humans must be coming from somewhere. This assumption would thus favour the ‘invasion of aliens from outer space’ theory. The end of the world may simply be the annihilation of the entire indigenous population of our planet by space invaders.
“However, in the case where it is possible to convert from humanness to non-humanness, simply by closing one’s mind to your excellent advice and support, another explanation is indicated. I don’t wish to hurt your feelings, but this would mean that you were suffering from a sharp decline in your popularity. Though why everyone in the world should suddenly sever all contact with you suddenly at the same time, and so cut you off completely from the future, is a bit of a mystery.”
Antonia clutched her knees in her arms and beamed at Ogg. Her logic was perfect, as any reader who tries to verify it with the aid of diagrams or to subject it to the rigours of algebraic proof will see. Ogg was impressed. It was surprising that it was Antonia and not Ogg who had produced such a deep and accurate analysis. With all his powers, Ogg had to be infinitely more capable of such a feat than a teenage girl. But any of Ogg’s friends will tell you that Ogg moves in mysterious ways. He scorns the problems of Great Philosophical Questions. He never ever expresses an opinion on the meaning of life, the nature of truth, or the hypocrisy of politicians. However, he does encourage his friends to speculate on such weighty matters. Then he proceeds to annoy them intensely by refusing to comment on their meagre attempts to resolve such insoluble problems. When Antonia beamed in the hope of some enthusiastic response, Ogg merely grinned back weakly and shrugged his shoulders. But it didn’t put her off.
“There are just too many things we don’t know, Ogg. We need answers to some of these questions. In your travels in space and time, you’ll have to talk to these non-humans, and find out more about them.”
“I can’t Ant!’ Ogg whimpered.
What was wrong with Ogg? Why was someone with such great powers so pathetic? Was he moving in one of his mysterious ways? Antonia was just a little suspicious.
“Why not?’ she asked, warily.
“I have terrible problems with these non-humans, Ant. You know that I can’t read their minds, as I can with normal people. And they don’t know I exist. They can’t see me or hear me, so there’s absolutely no way I can communicate with them.”
“But humans can communicate with them?”
“Oh, yes. To you, non-humans are indistinguishable from humans. So you can meet with them, talk to them and listen to them. But not me!”
Antonia put her hands over her ears, she didn’t want to hear this. Up to then her future had been completely in Ogg’s safe and capable hands. Apart from a few lapses of concentration, he was all-powerful, able to take care of everything. The impending end of the world hadn’t been really all that worrying. Ogg was there and in the end everything would work out all right. Now Ogg had revealed the true extent of his limitations. There was a large and apparently increasing section of the population completely out of his sphere of influence. This must be why, in spite of Ogg’s worthy intentions and tremendous efforts, the world was and always had been such a terrible place. Ogg’s failure to eradicate wars, disease and misery was now all too readily explainable. But, while it was impossible to deny the wickedness of the past, there had always been the prospect of a better future. Now the future might well be no better than the past, if indeed it was to happen at all.
“This is terrible news, Ogg. What are we going to do? Will we ever be able to save the world? Is the future doomed?”
Antonia’s mind filled up with an immense darkness, stretching into infinity in every direction. She was looking into a colourless void and only the rasping of her half sobs reminded her that she was still part of something. It was scary. Ogg noticed a little tear at the corner of each of her eyes, and to be honest her heavy breathing was deafening. But, he had been around since before the beginning of time. He had lived through an infinite number of lives an infinite number of eras. He had seen absolutely everything before. He knew nothing was either as good or as bad as it seemed, and he thought that this thought might comfort Antonia.
“Nothing’s as bad as it seems, Ant!’
Antonia sniffed. It was a thought she had heard too often from her mother.
“Don’t worry too much that I can’t communicate personally with those non-humans. That’s exactly why I need your help.”
Antonia wiped her nose with edge of her sleeve. It was a disgusting thing to do but her mother wasn’t there and Ogg was a friend. And it was the quickest way to remove the tell-tale signs of despair. Things weren’t so bad. If he needed her help Ogg must have a plan. Plans were good, there was something positive about plans. He had decided to move on from pointless platitudes to concrete actions. And she didn’t want to listen with a snotty nose.
“You’re completely right. We need to interrogate these non-human individuals further. That’s where you come in. I want you to travel with me in time and space, and talk to them for me. You’ll be my interpreter.”
Antonia managed a grudging smile. It seemed a good plan. All was perhaps not lost after all. The world could still be saved. And there was the added bonus of a bit of travel in time and space and the adventures that would bring.
Chapter 4
The best part of a journey is the planning, especially if your trip is to somewhere you’ve never been before. You go down to the library, you borrow some guidebooks and maybe a couple of geography texts, and you spend hundreds of happy hours browsing. Where will you go? What will you see? Does Venice really smell as badly as they say? Should we risk the Ramblas of Barcelona at night? Can you see Naples and survive? You pre-live exciting excursions, satisfying shopping-sprees, romantic encounters. Before you step into the plane you have already had more fun than the trip could possibly give you, and the whole experience is doomed to be bit of an anti-climax. No matter, your pre-travel dreams were well worth the price of the ticket.
Antonia was just at this magical stage of planning her promised journeys through time and space when Ogg interrupted her thinking
“Let’s be off, then!” he said.
“What, right now? What about school? And my breakfast?”
“Oh really, Ant, do try to think straight! Our trip will take some time, of course, but not some of this time. I’ll have you back here before you can wink an eye.”
Antonia wondered if there was some rule that Great Beings had to interrupt and spoil your very best private moments. She had just been walking down a particularly interesting street in a fascinating country she didn’t recognise, and had been standing in front of an especially mysterious door when Ogg brought her back to reality before she could even peep inside.
“Why the hurry?’ she asked, in what was a rather petulant voice.
“I don’t want to waste any time.”
“That is a stupid and totally illogical thing to say, Ogg. Especially after what you have just told me. You have total control of time.”
“I used to have total control of time. Things are changing and we don’t have a moment to lose.”
But Antonia hated going anywhere without at least a town map and a phrase book. Then there was the question of clothes.
“If we have to go right now, we have to. But where and when are we going to? I need to know what to wear?”
“Everything has been taken care of. Let’s go!”
And with that Ogg whisked a truculent Antonia off into another time. It was, to say the least, a disappointing journey. Where were the exotic vehicles, the time-machine, the broomstick? Where were the flashes of lightning and the ominous thunder rolls? There wasn’t even a timid whisper or an apologetic squeak. One second they were in her bedroom. The next second they were in a completely different time and place.
To Antonia’s mind, it was not an appropriate way for a Great Being with unbelievable powers to get about. Whisking people about in time and space with no special effects! It was so minimalist! There should have at least been a whoosh of air, or an eerie whistle, or something. But she had yet to learn that Ogg is not the ostentatious type. He moves not only in mysterious ways, but also in unobtrusive ways. This is a matter for concern among some of his friends and supporters, who are exactly the kind of people who go in for a bit of pomp and circumstance. They often embellish his frequent visits with complicated rites and ceremonies of their own devising. Ogg views such activities with an indulgent smile. He is mysterious and unobtrusive, but he is also tolerant. If they want to dress up, sing, dance and do some play-acting, and they enjoy it, why not let them?
Ogg asked Antonia if she had had a comfortable and pleasant journey.
“Journey? I hardly noticed it,” she told him, rather huffily, her back turned to him.
“Sign of a good journey,” Ogg replied. Antonia left her silence hanging in the air by way of a reply.
“When are we?” she asked, after a suitable and, she hoped, edgy lapse of time.
She knew where they were. They were in a cul-de-sac. It was the street where her school was, or, at the moment, wasn’t. But she recognised some of the buildings, the older ones in her street. At the bottom end, where her school should have been, was an old factory. She supposed it made boots, the street was called ‘Boot Lane’. She also found the frequent gaps in the terraced buildings fascinating. She was used to seeing new, fashionable shops in these gaps. Some had been cleared, but the rest were floored with a layer of dusty rubble. Entrance was prevented by makeshift barbed-wire fences, adorned with signs saying ‘Keep Out’ or ‘Beware’ or ‘Danger’. Some of the signs carried a red skull and crossbones.
Before Ogg could answer her question about when they were, they heard a voice shouting from the entrance to the cul-de-sac. They turned to look. There was a rather odd figure, dressed like a soldier in an army which had run out of money, waving frantically for them to come towards him. He was wearing a tin hat and a rather shabby navy blue greatcoat. He had some kind of armband, but they were too far away to read the writing on it. He couldn’t possibly be a real soldier. Even from a distance she could see that he was an elderly man, much older than her parents. Possibly even as old as her grandfather.
“’Ere you two,” he shouted, “what yer doing down there? Ain’t you ‘eard the siren?”
Antonia ran forward to answer him.
“I beg your pardon, sir, but we haven’t heard anything.”
‘You ain’t from round ‘ere then, miss, are you? You’re from up west, you are! I can tell by the way you talk.”
Antonia wanted to tell him that she was from ‘round ‘ere’ but not from ‘round now’, but she realised rightly that it might be too complicated and incredible a story for him to swallow. She just nodded her head.
“You won’t know where to go then, miss, to hide from them Germans with their bombs.”
Antonia shook her head.
“There ain’t no shelter. Everyone dosses down in the Tube station -just up the road there, on the left.” He pointed up the main street. “Take your grandpa up there, miss. They’ll look after ‘im. Give ‘im a nice cuppa, I should think.”
Antonia was surprised by the reference to her grandfather. Then she suddenly realised she hadn’t looked at Ogg since they had arrived at whenever they were. She had been walking much faster than him, so he was still behind her. She had to turn round to inspect him. He was a man of well over eighty, dressed in worn old clothes, and he was shuffling towards her with the aid of a stick. She hadn’t been expecting him to change his appearance. Did she still look the same herself? She glanced down at her body, and saw she was wearing different clothes. Just as well, it wasn’t polite to talk to strange people in your nightdress. Mind you, if she had been allowed to choose, she wouldn’t have picked this coat. It was a dark blue raincoat, not entirely clean and not in the least fashionable. The dull grey knee-length woollen socks wouldn’t have been her choice either. Nor the shoes, built for service rather than elegance. As for the underwear, well, she couldn’t see it, but it felt awful – heavy, prickly and uncomfortable. She wasn’t sure that Ogg was able to dress her much better than her eccentric mother.
Antonia ran towards the new elderly Ogg.
“When are we?” she asked again.
“Haven’t you worked it out by now, Ant? I’m disappointed in you.”
“History’s not my best subject. During a war?”
“We’re in nineteen-forty.”
“The man said we’ve to go to the Underground station. Something about Germans and bombs.”
“I know. It’s the Blitz. And the Underground station is why we’re here. There’ll be someone important there you have to talk to.”
“One of the non-humans?”
“Yes. Take my arm and help me.”
Antonia put her arm around Ogg and trundled him up the main street. It was hard going. They made very slow progress. It had really been very inconvenient of Ogg to take on the appearance of a decrepit OAP. Too many inherent disadvantages in terms of mobility. Although his ways of moving were mysterious, there is a good reason for everything that Ogg does, but what it could be in this case she had no idea. So, remembering that Ogg had told her that it was only through questions that the knowledge of man was increased, she decided to ask.
“Can I have a question?”
“Of course you can, Ant. It is only through questions that the knowledge of man is increased.”
(Many of Ogg’s friends derive comfort from the absolute consistency of his opinions, especially those who don’t quite understand them. He has the habit of repeating himself frequently, so even his most dull-witted supporters have ample opportunity to learn his sayings parrot-fashion, and are thus able to expound his ideas without having the faintest idea of what they are talking about. These kinds of people never ask questions, sometimes because they can’t work out what questions to ask, and sometimes because they are afraid they won’t understand the answers. But Antonia had neither of these problems, and she pressed on confidently with her interrogation of the Great Being.)
“Why did you decide to change into an ancient cripple? I hope you won’t get upset by me saying this, but it isn’t very practical, is it? It’s really slowing us down.”
“There is a good reason for everything I do,” Ogg told her, shrugging his shoulders in the exact fashion that most got up Antonia’s nose.
“Well, I can’t imagine what it is this time,” Antonia hissed.
Ogg grimaced silently. They struggled on together in silence into the Underground Station, and Antonia panted and puffed to keep the Old Ogg upright. Was she hearing a cheeky whistle from under Ogg’s scarf? She hoped not.
At the Tube station, what Antonia didn’t need was a handful of tatty old uniforms nagging her to ‘get down the moving stairs and onto the platform in double quick time, miss’. Couldn’t they see that Ogg was almost a cripple? It had taken them forever just to get to the wretched Tube Station. She didn’t know who was making her most angry - Ogg in his stupid impractical disguise - they and their senseless exhortations to ‘move a bit quicker’. She was just preparing a piece of her mind for both of them when the initiative was wrung from her by two able-bodied wardens. They lifted a surprised Ogg clear of the ground and whisked a whinging Ogg down the motionless moving stairs. It was a miracle Antonia didn’t go head-over-heels trying to keep up with them.
Then she was suddenly abandoned again. Everyone else in the crowded tube station knew exactly what had to be done. Families were marking out pitches for themselves with mattresses and picnic hampers. Folding chairs were being erected , cushions were being placed against already crowded walls. Small groups of musicians were tuning up accordions, mouth organs and fiddles. Children were being slid into sleeping bags and told to ‘drop off to sleep and be a nice littl’un’. Beer bottles were emerging from large shopping bags. ‘WVS’ badges were dispensing tea in white mugs and sympathy in clipped consonants. Greetings were being made, gossip was being exchanged, health and family members were being enquired after. There was noise from floor to ceiling – snoring, crying, talking, singing, shouting – and everywhere – on the floor, against the walls, on mattresses, on chairs – were bodies – lying, sitting, standing, eating, sleeping, drinking.
Antonia was desperate. Ogg seemed to have decided to make himself as big a burden as possible.
“Me old bones are so tired, Ant,” he whined in a phoney Cockney accent. Antonia was looking around. Every available space was taken, there was nowhere for him to sit down and rest. Ogg had promised her an adventure. She was having a nightmare. She hoped she wasn’t sobbing.
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