CHAPTER 29
Enlarged Possibilities
All of this and more was soon further discussed at the Simple House a few very busy days after the heroes returned there, accompanied by Henry Cross, the newly appointed United Nations Earth Ambassador to Narma. For this meeting they all sat around the elf table in the kitchen, which had conveniently reconfigured itself to accommodate everyone, despite their different sizes and shapes, which ranged from tiny elf to massive troll.
It was readily agreed by the group that Henry would live much of the time in the Simple House, and when his duties permitted him help Grog and Ruth Hendricks, the new Simple House librarian, audit and arrange the books and other items. He would in the process learn much of Narma. As the Narma ambassadors to Earth, Kip and Belinda would also spend much time at the Simple House, learning much more of Earth.
Several elves had also set up residence in New York's Central Park, where they mystified New Yorkers with magic and cured humans of what had been incurable disease. A portal in the Park already supported teleportation between there and the Simple House Portal. It was envisioned that within a few years hundreds more elves would set up residences in the several unicorn established forests around the world, while thousands of adventurous humans would migrate to Narma and to other worlds accessible via portals.
Rick also moved into the Simple House. Far from retiring, he managed for George most practical matters regarding the House. He also seemed to also be already developing a romantic interest in Ruth the librarian!
After most topics of interplanetary importance had been discussed Marge Williams by sheer force of will and personality took control of the meeting. "Your chief job the next few years will be to return to school," she pronounced to the three teenagers, "all of you! You're going to live your lives as normal as possible, given that two of you are super-heroes, and everyone here is going to support that as one of their highest priority concerns." She glanced around the table at everyone.
"That is agreeable to elves," declared Belinda.
"And preferred by the Government, I'm sure," said Henry.
"Nifty!" said Johnny cheerfully. "Think of my fame as the super-hero sidekick! I won't even need football!"
"The Simple House video tours we produced and the monthly press conferences we agreed to should reduce pressure from the outside world, but not totally abate it," said Rick. "The wards are still needed to protect this House and the Williams house. That is unfortunately the price of fame."
"Weekly visits by the Chosen to randomly selected hospitals throughout the world should also help ease political pressures," said Henry. "I spend much of my time explaining to people that even superheroes can't fix everything in the world, and that widespread disease cures via elves and unicorn amulets will take years to establish."
"Speaking of fixing things, are there any signs that the nations involved will acknowledge to the public the fact that George and I disposed of all nuclear weapons last weekend?" Mary asked.
"None," said Henry. "They're all very upset of course, but I'm certain it was the right thing to do. I'll announce it at the United Nations next Friday, so expect another round of intensified publicity. Personally I think that you two thereby saved Earth a second time. It was a weekend well spent. The hate and war-mongers will protest vehemently, of course."
"When it hits the public we will have made ourselves even more famous in the process," said Mary in dismay. "Already when we are outside the House wards the reporters and politicians drive us crazy!"
"I could teach you a stasis spell that would detour their over-zealous efforts," said Pip.
"We'll get by," said George, shaking his head. "Besides turning ourselves invisible or flying or teleporting away from them we could also spend weekends, summers, and holidays on Narma, all of us beleaguered humans could! There is no better place to escape humanity, according to you elves."
"Yes, though travel by Earth humans to Narma will be kept to a minimum, at least until restoration of Narma is a little further along," said Belinda. "The present company of course has unfettered access to Narma. Once Narma is ready it will take at least a year or two to return most Narma artifacts from here to Narma. "
"We'll video everything and I have television and book deals in the works already!" said Trent.
"You teens will have frequent Narma visits only if you keep your school grades up," said Marge.
George shrugged. He and Mary of course had no real need of school from the standpoint of learning Earthly knowledge, but they needed it to help keep themselves grounded psychologically.
"That's court-ordered, you know!" continued Marge. "Your young lives have to be kept as Earth-traditional and normal as possible, unless some Earthly emergency comes up requiring a superhero. Then you get to work closely with Henry and his buddy the President!"
"How are we going to work with President Jeffers?" asked Johnny. "The man is a total dick-head!"
George shrugged. "Of course he is! Dah! You should have seen his face when I told him that we had gotten rid of all nuclear weapons!"
"WE ELVES WILL NEED A SIDE DISCUSSION LATER TO CLARIFY THE MEANING OF THE TERM 'DICK HEAD' THAT JOHNNY FREQUENTLY USES," said Kip, as he made a notation in his journal.
"But Jeffers is up for re-election in a few months," noted Mary. "And we've made it clear that he doesn't run the show here. I trust Henry to watch out for us with respect to the Government, just as we'll watch out for him."
"I appreciate that," said Henry, between sips of table-warmed tea. "We'll get along. I calmed Jeffers down with regard to the nuclear weapons. However it will take a while for people to get used to the idea of no more wars, that's for sure."
"As long as everyone remembers that teens growing up is job-one for this family, we'll all get along," said Marge.
George smiled. Family! He really liked the sound of that! He liked being still treated as a human, and being part of a family again! Marge and Trent Williams had legally just been given parental custody of him, and he was happy about that, for the most part. After all, he loved the Williams family, and despite his recent adventures he didn't think he was quite ready to jaunt about the Multiverse with his dragon. Freedom and Jewel had promised to frequently visit their Chosen here on Earth anyway.
During Freedom's visit the day before, Johnny had already gotten his spectacular dragon ride to school, making him probably the most famous and popular teen in the world, aside from the Chosen Ones, of course. Yes, Johnny would manage to get along well in school and beyond, George knew. Perhaps the elves would come to regret the unfettered access that Johnny and Trent had been granted to visit Narma.
As Henry spouted familiar words about how committed the Government was now about maintaining a good relationship with Narma, George's thoughts gravitated towards another member of his new family: Mary. What about Mary? George certainly didn't think of her as a sister, even though he now lived in the Williams house with her. He did think of her as his best friend, but she was already much more! Living together in the same house was going to be totally weird; maybe just as weird as having super powers.
"I AGREE," said Mary, reminding George to keep his thoughts quiet. "BUT WE'LL WORK IT OUT. THAT'S WHAT BEING A TEEN IS ALL ABOUT, WORKING SUCH THINGS OUT." She smiled at George, again reminding George how beautiful she was, inside and out. It had been her idea to get rid of all nuclear weapons and he was so proud of her that he could burst!
He shrugged and smiled back at Mary, letting some of his love show through. Yes, he and Mary would get by alright, that's for sure! Theirs was going to be a complicated but interesting life together. "READY TO DO SOME MORE WORK?" he asked her, as the little meeting broke up. Marge was already talking to Rick about taxes, and Trent was on a phone talking to investors trying to cash in on the Dragon Phenomenon, as it had become known in social media. Johnny the social media phenomenon went home to his new computer to further boost his celebrity status. George knew that it was time for him and Mary to get back to
their most serious work. The young Chosen Ones were, as Uncle Harry would have put it, studying the 'way of things'.
"SURE," she replied. "YOU AND GROG SHOULD CONTINUE EXAMINING THE ATTIC ARTIFACTS AND RUTH AND I WILL WORK IN HARRY'S FAVORITE STUDY."
The teens popped out of the kitchen and to the attic and study. Teleportation was becoming as routine to them as breathing. Mary resumed her study of the Harry Simple journals written in elvish. The elf civilization went back hundreds of thousands of years, Harry had found, and they entertained many thoughts about many topics of interest, which they verbosely documented in books and other artifacts. In his journals Henry had usefully distilled many of their most interesting observations. Mary was busily condensing those into an English-language book for access by humans of the world.
The elfin books were not the only Simple House objects that contained valuable information. Many statues stored throughout the Simple House embodied the thoughts and personalities of long dead individuals that. The statues had been fashioned by elf mages to capture important aspects of the individuals they were shaped to resemble. He, Mary, Grog, Marge, Rick, Kip and Belinda were even helping Pip create a Harry Simple statue: a sort of personalized 'living' biography that would when complete would look and have thoughts resembling those of the original Harry, at least for the benefit of those psychically gifted enough elves and humans to access them. Statues of Joan, Mary, and George were also being considered.
Today as Grog continued to straighten out the cluttered attic, George resumed his conversation with the learned facsimile of Rudal Kin, a long dead Elf natural philosopher, about the way of things. Rudal lived on Narma over five thousand years ago, even before the Horde had taken over Narma. His tiny statue was bursting with information and personality.
"Can you explain why there is intelligent life in the Multiverse, wise Rudal?" George asked.
"OF COURSE I CAN, CURIOUS YOUNG SCHOLAR," replied the statue's clear thought. "THE ANSWER IS RATHER STRAIGHT-FORWARD, AS YOU HUMANS MIGHT SAY. AS HINTED AT BY WHAT YOU HUMANS HAVE DISCOVERED WITH YOUR SO-CALLED SCIENCE AS REGARDS TO YOUR OWN UNIVERSE, A LASTING, STABLE UNIVERSE MUST BE A SELF-CONSISTENT MATHEMATICAL SYSTEM OF SUITABLE SPACE/TIME DIMENSIONALITY. SUCH SYSTEMS ARE CHARACTERIZED BY SPONTANEOUS INSTANCES OF COMPLEX LARGER SCALE STRUCTURES. SUCH STRUCTURES FAVOR THE ADVENT OF LIFE, AND WITH SUFFICIENT TIME, LIFE FAVORS THE ADVENT OF INTELLIGENCE. IN BRIEF, THAT'S IT."
"That's it?" asked George. As Johnny would have said, it seemed too simple.
"THAT'S IT; AT LEAST THAT'S MY BRIEF ANSWER TO A QUESTION WHICH ELF SCIENCE AND NATURAL PHILOSOPHY ANSWERED DEFINITIVELY VERY LONG AGO. IF YOU WANT DETAILS YOU'LL NEED TO CONSULT MY BOOKS ON THE MATTER; THIS ARTIFACT I OCCUPY HAS ONLY LIMITED RESOURCES. I SUSPECT THAT IS WHY YOUR UNCLE SPENT MOST OF HIS EFFORTS ON BOOKS. NEXT QUESTION?"
"Is there a God?"
"HA! AMUSING! YOU HUMANS ALWAYS ASK THE SAME QUESTIONS; EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU! THAT ONE IS EVEN EASIER TO ANSWER! THE ANSWER IS, I DON'T KNOW!"
"That's your answer? I can do that good myself!"
"CONFOUNDINGLY FRUSTRATING, ISN'T IT? CONSULT MY BOOKS FOR THE GORY DETAILS, NOT THAT YOU'LL BE SATISFIED WITH THEM. NEXT QUESTION?"
George was beginning to suspect that the primary purpose for sentient statues was for them to push their books. "Tell me about dragons!"
"THE DRAGONS INHABIT MANY OF THE MOST STABLE AND INTERESTING UNIVERSES OF THE MULTIVERSE, YOUNG CHOSEN, AND THEIR DIFFERENT COLORS REFLECT THE DIFFERING MATHEMATICAL RULES FOLLOWED IN EACH OF THEM," said Rudal. "BUT THAT IS ONLY A TINY
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