The Universe Builders: Bernie and the Putty

by Steve LeBel

  Bernie pushed the core back to the center and then remolded the planet to its original shape. Once satisfied, he set it back in orbit around the sun and resumed the gentle rotation of the planet. He advanced his time lever, stopping periodically, checking for wobbles or flaws. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Nor did he discover anything to explain what had happened.

  Shaking his head, he gave the world another critical look. Although the surface was riddled with extensive cracking, the crust was now thick and stable again. Bernie thought, if no one looked too closely, it didn’t look too bad. Good thing there wasn’t any water or life on the planet.

  Even though everything was restored, Bernie was troubled. This should not have happened.

  It shouldn’t have happened at all.

  Back to the Drawing Boards

  Over the next few days, Bernie filled six notepads with ideas and sketches for his universe. Universes, even those with only one star and one planet, require a lot of planning.

  As he paused from his writing, he noticed again the sticky on the glass in front of him. Plan First, Then Create.

  He heard Beatrice’s voice saying, “Bernie, you have to do more planning. You’re jumping in before you know what you want. Good creations never happen by accident, you know.”

  He smiled as he thought of Beatrice. He had taken several of her classes. She treated him as if he had all the ability in the world and just needed to be shown how to use it. Even when she scolded him for being too impatient and not doing enough planning, Bernie knew she was trying to help.

  In honor of her, Bernie pulled down his sticky and underlined the words Plan First, Then Create three times and stuck it back on the frosted glass. What advice would she have for me today?

  He remembered the time she had looked over his shoulder, and said, “If you want to solve a creation problem, Bernie, first make sure you’re starting at the right place.”

  “But how do I know where to start?”

  “That’s easy. You start with the ending.” She had gone on to explain Top Down Planning—Bottom Up Creation. Beatrice said his plan should be based on his ultimate goal: usually the people he wanted for his planet. Once he figured out the people, then it was time to figure out the animals. When those decisions are made, it was simple to figure out the best environment for them. His decisions about oceans, atmosphere, planet type, sun type and all the rest would follow naturally.

  “When your plan is complete,” she told him, “then you create everything in the reverse order from the way you planned it. Create your sun, then your planet, then your plants, then your animals. Only then are you ready to create your highest life form.”

  Before Beatrice’s words had stopped echoing in his head, Bernie jerked up in his chair. He grabbed his pencil and wrote People, Animals, Plants, Oceans, Atmospheres, Planet, and Sun. He shook his head. He hadn’t come close to following her advice. Here he was trying to decide what kind of world to make before he had even decided on the people. Beatrice would call that a beginner’s mistake.

  First, he had to decide on the life form. What do they look like? What kind of culture do they have? Are they kind or cruel? Are they scientific or artistic? How smart should they be? So many things had to be figured out. Once he made those decisions, he could work his way down, layer by layer, deciding on the environmental elements needed to force his life forms in the direction he had chosen for them. The planning continues downward, addressing issues like atmospheric conditions, planetary composition, and distance from the sun, and anything else that might be related. He wrote out another sticky with the words Top Down Planning—Bottom Up Creation and stuck it on the frosted glass.

  Bernie thought about this for a while. He didn’t want to go back to the Supply Division and ask for a different planet and a different sun. Since he already had them, he would accept this sun and planet as givens. True, this eliminated some life form options, but not as many as one might think. Plus, it wasn’t like he was going for the Exotic Life Form Award or something.

  Bernie reviewed his notes and found them riddled with failure after failure to apply Beatrice’s advice. The worst case was his bright idea to make a world with both water and land so he could work on water creatures and land creatures at the same time. He’d reasoned if the land creatures didn’t work out, then maybe the water creatures would or vice versa. Then he could add or remove some of the ocean and pretend he’d planned it all along. It seemed like a good plan, but it wouldn’t have impressed Beatrice. He needed to put his effort into one high level life form, not two. It was hard enough getting one to turn out the way you wanted, let alone two at the same time. Reluctantly, he tore those notes off the pad.

  Looking through his stack of notepads, he was discouraged to see no notes for the people section. This was the most important decision of all. Nothing made sense until he made this decision. This was his top priority.

  Deep in thought, Bernie was startled when he heard a voice behind him.

  “Hey, kid. How are you doing?” asked Shemal.

  “Well, I’m having a little trouble getting started, sir,” stammered Bernie. “But I did read the manuals, like you told me.”

  “Let me see what you have so far,” he said, peering into Bernie’s void. Bernie watched as Shemal’s face took on the faraway look that happens when a god’s awareness moves to another place. Several minutes crawled by as Shemal stared into the void, and Bernie shifted nervously in his chair. Slowly, Shemal’s face came back to life, but this time it came with a frown.

  “I hope you can do better than this,” he said. “All I see is a couple of prefabs. And your planet is all banged up.”

  “Well, the planet experienced some sort of anomaly overnight, sir. It was perfect before I left the night before.”

  “Don’t they teach you kids anything in school these days? Don’t you know how to test for a stable orbit and rotation?”

  “But, I did check—”

  Shemal interrupted, “You’re going to have to do a lot better than this if you want to work here.” Then he abruptly walked back to his office.

  Bernie’s heart pounded so hard, he almost didn’t notice the soft laughter coming from somewhere nearby. When he looked up, he saw Billy’s face just above the glass of the next cubicle. There was an evil grin on his face as he lowered himself down out of sight. Bernie sighed. It’s bad enough to mess up, but to have Billy witness it added to the pain.

  Bernie spent the rest of the day trying to complete his design process, but he couldn’t get past his creator’s block. At the end of the day, he headed home, exhausted. All he could think about was how unimpressed Shemal had been.

  Definitely not a good way to start a new job.

  Lunch with Suzie

  Ever since Bernie started work, Suzie had avoided going to lunch at her normal time. She didn’t want to see him. She was still hurt over the way he’d treated her. He could have at least been polite.

  Today, she hoped to grab a quick lunch and get back to her desk. She saw him enter the cafeteria. He walked like he always did, deeply engrossed in some thought or daydream only he could see. She put her head down and ate faster than before, hoping she could get away before he saw her.

  “Hi, Suzie. I’ve been hoping to see you here.”

  “Oh. Hi, Bernie. I’m just leaving,” she said as she picked up her tray, most of her food still uneaten. She couldn’t avoid eye contact and was surprised to see his disappointment. What’s going on here? she wondered. Last time he wouldn’t even look at her, now he wanted to talk to her. “Well, maybe I can spare a couple of minutes.” She put her tray back down.

  As Bernie sat down, she could see him struggling. It was obvious from the way his shirt collar had just turned up into a tight roll. This was the same old Bernie from school. She knew it was best to let him work through this part, because if she rushed him or questioned him, he would insist it was nothing and change the subject. She knew him really well for someone she’d never
even held hands with.

  Finally, he looked up. “Are you mad at me?” he asked, his voice barely audible.

  “No. Why would you think that?”

  “When I came to work on my first day, you wouldn’t talk to me or even look at me,” Bernie blurted. “I thought I’d done something wrong.”

  “Bernie! You were the one who wouldn’t look at me. When you came in, I was going to come over and talk to you, but you saw me and then you ignored me!”

  “I did? I am so sorry, Suzie. I didn’t mean to,” he said, stung by the accusation.

  She shook her head. Bernie just may be the dumbest smart person ever to graduate as a builder, she thought. He doesn’t get it when you’re subtle, and when you spell it out for him, he gets scared and tries to run away. If he ever gets married, it’ll be because some girl used a net on him. Sheesh.

  “So how’s your job going?” she asked, changing the subject.

  “Not so well.” He sighed. “I’ve been having problems with my universe. And Shemal took a look at it yesterday and told me it needs to get a lot better or I won’t make it past my probation.”

  “You have to do your best, Bernie. Shemal has a reputation for being harsh. He’s fired more people than anyone I know.”

  “I’m trying to do my best. I just can’t seem to get an idea of what I want to do. I have a sun and a planet, but when it comes to figuring out the higher life form, I’m drawing a blank. I feel like nothing I did or learned in school helps.”

  “Maybe you should talk to Wanda. She started three weeks before you, and she’s been nominated for Outstanding New Employee of the Month. Apparently she finished her universe in only eight days.”

  “It doesn’t surprise me. She’s a planning freak. I don’t think anyone can plan like she does. She probably had it all planned before she even started work.”

  “Actually, that’s exactly what she did. Her boss says she showed great initiative and respect for her new job and The Business. Her boss really likes her. You should see the glowing report he put in her file. It almost has a shimmer of its own.”

  During the pause in the conversation, Suzie sat back and looked again at Bernie. What was it she liked so much about him? He could barely take care of himself—and not just because of his cloud. Back in school it had been a full-time job watching out for him. They were the same age, but, because of his dad, they made Bernie skip a grade. It wasn’t fair, really. He had to compete with older students like Billy. Actually, most of Bernie’s problems were because of that awful Billy.

  The fight was really Billy’s fault. He had picked on Bernie for years, and Bernie never did anything about it—until that day. Bernie would never have hit him if he hadn’t pushed me, Suzie thought. But why had Bernie done it? He had no chance of winning, and Billy quickly turned the tables on him. If Bernie’s cloud hadn’t intervened, he might have died.

  The fight changed Bernie. He had never stuck up for himself before. After the fight, she doubted he ever would again. Bernie was so afraid of hurting someone, she’d seen him walk away from anything that might lead to a conflict. And Billy? It just made him more hateful than ever.

  The last incident was two years ago. Billy had been taunting both of them. But then Bernie did something that surprised her. She noticed they hadn’t seen Billy for several days. When she mentioned it to Bernie, he said, with the smallest of smiles, “I think his schedule got changed.”

  When she asked him what he knew about it, all he said was “Quite a bit, actually.”

  Leave it to Bernie to find a non-violent solution to a problem. Bernie, my hero, she thought. Sheesh.

  * * *

  “I just don’t know what to do. I can’t seem to make my life form choice,” he finished.

  This wasn’t the first time Bernie had creator’s block. It happened whenever he had to come up with something on his own, especially if he hadn’t done anything like it before. It was time for Suzie to come to his rescue.

  “I have a suggestion. Go to The Museum. All the best ideas in the world are right there on display. I’m sure you’ll find something to inspire you there.”

  “That’s a great idea, Suzie! The Museum is perfect. I can get a ton of ideas there.”

  One of her favorite things about Bernie was when he got excited. He was like a child full of enthusiasm and no way to contain it. It spilled excess energy onto everyone in the area, to say nothing of the invisible hand that was now patting her on the shoulder. She savored his enthusiasm for a little longer. It was a shame to send him crawling back into his shell with what she was about to say.

  “Well, I have to get back to work now, but I’ll meet you at The Museum right after work,” she said with a pleasant smile. She didn’t bother waiting for him to find words.

  Yes, he’s a nerd. But he’s my nerd, she thought as she headed back to Personnel.

  Museum for Ideas

  Suzie waited just outside the main entrance of The Museum. Although it was wasted on Bernie, a more careful observer would have noticed she’d touched up her makeup and let her hair down. Her shimmer showed an inner pleasure not visible earlier in the day.

  Bernie, on the other hand, spent most of the afternoon trying to get over his nervousness. He also critically evaluated the day to make sure it wasn’t a dream. It passed the not-a-dream test, which only heightened his anxiety. It was one thing to see Suzie in the cafeteria, but something else to see her outside work. Even back in school, their after school contacts had been infrequent. Bernie prepared for their meeting, but it consisted of practicing things to say and checking to make sure he was wearing clothes.

  “Hello, Suzie. Thanks again for helping me,” he said, ticking the first line off his list.

  “I’m always glad to help, Bernie. Have you thought about what you want to build?”

  “I really like graceful life forms, like flying and swimming things. I haven’t been too successful with them so far, but I think I want to do something along those lines.”

  “Well, maybe you’ll see something to inspire you here.” She picked up two museum brochures and handed one to Bernie. “Where do you want to start?”

  Bernie looked at the brochure. All the award-winning worlds were on display here. No matter what your major in school, the teachers found something for you to study in The Museum. For builder students like Bernie, a common assignment was to deconstruct a universe and explain how the builder had made it. The teachers never tired of Museum-related assignments. Mercifully, Bernie had never been asked to critique his dad’s work, although his fellow students had received the assignment more than once. He was glad; it would have been hard. Yes, his dad’s work was good, maybe even great. But did great work make a great god? Bernie wasn’t so sure.

  “Let’s start with the water worlds,” said Bernie.

  Suzie led the way. As they walked along, they paused to look at the universes mounted on the walls. Neatly printed plaques proclaimed the award, the builder’s name, and highlighted its unique elements. Suzie said, “I know they put them in The Museum as soon as they make an award decision. I heard they did it fast so the builder can’t do any more tinkering with it. Is that right?”

  “Yes. It’s hard for builders to resist the temptation to tweak a little more here and there. So they don’t let anyone change the universe after it wins an award.”

  “How do they keep people from changing it?”

  “They remount the viewing window. Normally, when we’re building a universe, we position viewing windows just inside the edge of the void that makes up that universe. When it’s located there, it’s easy for us to move back and forth through the window. The instant we move into the void, even by the smallest amount, our powers become active.

  “But The Museum doesn’t want anyone entering the universes here, so they remount the viewing window on this side of the void. That keeps anyone from going in, but we can still see everything just fine. We just can’t touch or change anything.”

  �
�Why are some windows bigger than others?”

  “Basically, the viewing window is used to keep the opening to the void in place. The window size doesn’t matter much, but it’s convenient to have them about the size of a picture frame. If you want to take things out of the universe, you may need a bigger window, but big windows don’t stay in place very well. In The Museum, I would guess the larger windows are more to accommodate the number of people viewing them. See how the winners from last year have large windows?”

  “Interesting.”

  Suzie’s shimmer suddenly radiated a rainbow of colors. “Oh, Bernie! Have you ever seen Josephine’s Universe? She is one of my idols. She changed everything!” Suzie pointed to the second exhibit in the Water World Section.

  Bernie noticed the way Suzie deliberately jangled the seahorse earrings she always wore, but, like so many thoughts about Suzie, this was destined to be another thought that never went anywhere.

  “Everything? I know she was the first god to make her females before she made the males, which caused quite a stir. What else did she do?”

  “You have to understand why this was so important. They called it the Male-First Controversy. It changed the way we view the world. I studied it in my history of building classes.”

  “I know about the Male-First Controversy,” said Bernie. “They used to teach everyone to make the male of each species first, and the female was created afterwards as a variation of the male. Josephine decided to do everything backwards and make the females first.”

  “This is her world, Bernie. She created a race of giant intelligent seahorses. The female produces the eggs, but then deposits them in a specially designed incubation pouch on the male. He has to carry the eggs until they hatch and even goes through contractions to expel them when their time has come. Josephine’s world shocked everyone, but it really upset the elder gods.