The Universe Builders: Bernie and the Putty

by Steve LeBel

  But living in the woods had its own dangers. Fierce creatures also lived there. And sometimes these creatures would catch and kill them. So they had to be vigilant. Anything else meant death.

  Finally, it was time. The young god closed the door to his home. Bowin took the lead. He glanced behind him. There were four others. He knew he could trust them. Catila, who moved without sound, and Renot, fast and smart. Also Gower, whose courage rivaled Bowin’s, and Sibot, who had distinguished himself when he saved two children from a hungry Groddix that would surely have eaten them. Bowin smiled; he was pleased with his team. They trusted him and would obey without question.

  The first part of the journey was easy. In the outer section of town, the woods were everywhere, and they had plenty of places to hide. Bowin hoped the boy wouldn’t go all the way to the center of town, although he knew it was a real possibility. He had prepared his team for any kind of terrain. He even ordered them to sharpen their claws. The sharp claws where not for fighting, of course, but they were invaluable for climbing walls and rough surfaces, especially the wooden bridges they would have to cross. Bowin knew he must lead his party inside the bridge, where they could be seen, so he trained them to scamper along the wooden beams above the walkway of the bridge. Hidden high above, they could follow the boy unobserved until he exited the bridge.

  The plan was going well. Bowin signaled for everyone to stay close as they scurried up into the rafters close behind the boy as he entered the bridge. There were other people using the bridge, and although the boy sometimes talked with them, none of them looked up. Finally, the boy exited at the far end of the bridge. It was the same path he had taken when he went to school. It led to the open area in the center of the town.

  Now was a dangerous time for the watchers. They must leave the bridge and make it to an area with vegetation or some other cover where they could hide. The Town’s Central Plaza was filled with gods and goddesses going about their business.

  Bowin signaled for Catila, the stealthiest of the lot, to move to a small grove of red and blue flowers on the corner of the building closest to the bridge. The flowers had wide petals, and Bowin knew they could easily hide behind them. Catila signaled she was in place. Bowin ordered the rest to join Catila and then took up the rear as the four of them rushed to the flowers. In his haste to secure cover, Gower bumped into one of the flowers, which reacted with a shrill sound. Immediately, all the red and blue flowers withdrew inside their stalks as they too joined in the screeching sound. The thick lush flowers that were to have provided cover for Bowin and his troop had disappeared. Anyone who looked in their direction would see all five as they crouched behind thin stalks that did nothing to hide their presence.

  Bowin ordered the troop to move quickly along the wall to a nearby shrub full of long undulating tentacles. He had no choice. To remain there guaranteed discovery. As they scurried to find cover among the branches of the tentacle tree, they watched in fear as the tentacles reached toward them. Bowin whispered to be calm. He said the trees were just curious and would not harm anyone. It was a credit to the loyalty of the group that they obeyed Bowin. Had they not, there was no place else to run. Several gods already stood by the empty stalks trying to figure out what had alarmed them. They would have been seen.

  Bowin ignored the tentacle touching his arm and the other one sliding along his back. He turned his attention to the young god they had come to follow. It was well he looked when he did, because the boy walked into a large building on the other side of the plaza. Bowin did not know the name of the building, but he knew it was important because many people were entering it.

  So this was where the boy was going now. As Bowin scanned the area, he saw the other building where the boy had always gone before. Most of the gods and goddesses going into that building were smaller and younger than the boy. For some reason, the boy stopped going to that building, and now must go to the new building. Perhaps, Bowin thought, it’s something that happens when they got too big for the first building.

  Bowin looked around the plaza. It was a beautiful sunny day. He saw other places they could hide if he wanted to move closer to the building, but that would be reckless. He could not enter the building without putting everyone at risk. He must content himself with staying where they were. Bowin prepared his team to wait until the boy emerged from the building. Renot was convinced the boy would not leave until the end of the day, and it turned out he was right.

  During their long wait, a pair of air angels discovered them. They measured eight feet tall from the top fin to the bottom fin. Their bodies were very thin as they moved silently through the air, as a fish might move through water. Large eyes on each side of their head looked in every direction for anything of interest. One of the air angels saw Sibot’s tail and came closer to examine it. The angel tilted downward, looking closer, as Sibot held his tail between his legs and tried to melt into Gower. The angel extended two long antennas as it carefully touched Sibot. Sibot trembled, but did not move or cry out.

  Then the angel seemed to lose interest. With a quick jerk of its fins, it joined its mate as they swam through the air on their way to some place of greater interest. Bowin was proud of his people for their courage and for not betraying their position.

  Many hours later, when the sun hung lower in the sky, people began leaving the boy’s building. The plaza filled with people as friends met friends, and they strolled through the still-warm sun on their way to tables in the cafés lining the open square. Bowin began to wonder if the boy had used another exit when at last they saw him leave.

  The young god walked listlessly toward the bridge that would take him home. Bowin didn’t understand shimmers, but he knew when a shimmer was weak and tired. Something in the building was making the boy weary and sad.

  They followed the boy back to his home, where he walked inside and closed the door. When Bowin and the others made their report that night, there was much concern. They didn’t like what was happening to their boy, but what could they do?

  It was beyond them.

  The Headache

  Billy waited until Bernie left for the day. Things were going extremely well. It was just a matter of time. There was no way Bernie’s incompetence could be ignored much longer.

  The best part was knowing Bernie felt the pain. It was fun to see Bernie’s reaction when he discovered Billy’s latest prank. Bernie’s shimmer normally extended a foot or two above the walls of his cubicle, so it was easy to see when Bernie discovered one of Billy’s little jokes. The first few times, Bernie had responded with confusion and doubt. Last week, Bernie was so depressed, his shimmer could barely be seen above the top of his cubicle.

  And to make it even more delicious, when Uncle Shemal stopped by to check on Bernie’s universe, he commented on how bad it looked and how disappointed he was with Bernie’s work.

  Bernie will be fired soon now, thought Billy. Just a few more tweaks, and it will be over. The moron doesn’t even know what’s happening. He must think his universe is out of control and spontaneously generating random anomalies. Or, even better, he must think it’s his own fault. Billy had heard him lie to Shemal, claiming the volcanoes were part of his plan. Yeah, right. That’s part of my plan, Bernie, not yours.

  Billy decided he was going to hit him hard today. Bernie won’t see it coming. He was going to heat up the planetary core, and then move time forward until the heat reached the surface. It would do nasty stuff. The plants would dry up and start burning. The oceans would boil away. By the time Bernie got in tomorrow morning, his planet would look like a burned out cinder, drifting through space. Revenge is sweet, he thought.

  Billy was careful not to touch anything as he sat in Bernie’s chair. He cleared his mind and slipped into Bernie’s universe. He smiled at what he saw. He had ripped and torn Bernie’s world in so many ways. Bernie may have stopped the continental drift, but the continental plates looked like a stack of dirty dishes. Billy chuckled as he moved deep into the
center of the planet. It was easy work for a god to increase the temperature. He stopped short of anything that might change the physical makeup of the core. He didn’t want his tampering to be obvious. Bernie may be a moron, but he wasn’t stupid.

  Billy returned to the surface, where he would have a better view of his handiwork. His excitement mounted as he thought of the heat moving slowly to the surface, eventually melting the outer crust, and leaving a world of molten rock. All that remained was to push his time lever forward so he could watch it happen.

  He reached for his lever and the future—

  Suddenly, his vision went white. Blinding pain, more intense than anything he’d ever experienced, crashed into his skull. Black emptiness was the last thing he saw as consciousness left him. The shimmering figure that had hovered above the doomed planet abruptly blinked out.

  * * *

  When Billy regained consciousness, he found himself slumped in Bernie’s chair, drenched in sweat. Intense pain hammered the inside of his head, slamming him again and again with every heartbeat, threatening him with a return to the blackness. He couldn’t move. He felt some clarity return as the drying perspiration chilled his face. He had to move. No one could find him there.

  Billy staggered back to his own cubicle, where he rested for several minutes. Finally, he pulled himself upright and lurched toward the door, ricocheting off walls and cubicles alike. He hoped he could make it all the way home.

  It would be close.

  Billy’s Healer

  Billy should have stayed home for a few more days. That’s what the healer told him. And she was the best, at least according to his mom.

  Rachel had an office full of new age stuff like pyramids and crystals, with flute music playing in the background. She had long dark hair and wore one of those flowing dresses like you see on water planets. Oh, and beads. They were everywhere. And lots of incense and other smelly stuff, too.

  Billy hadn’t told Rachel, of course, what he was doing when it happened. He just said he was at work at the time. Even that was a mistake, because his mom wanted him to file an injury claim with The Business. But there was no way he could tell anyone he’d been messing with Bernie’s universe when it happened. Fortunately, Rachel didn’t seem interested in those things.

  She made him stand while she walked around and around him, examining his shimmer and whatever else she had the skills to see.

  “Billy, this is just awful.”

  “It feels awful. Especially my head.”

  “Yes, I can see that’s where it started. But the pain was so strong it made other parts of your body hurt too. I can see it in your shimmer. Do you see how it looks almost normal down by your feet? Around your head, I can barely see anything.”

  “How bad is it?”

  “I’ve seen something like this before when people crash really hard into the Past Barrier. Your pain is centered in the upper left section of your skull, near your time lever. But I’ve never seen a case this severe. Were you using your time lever when it happened?”

  “Yes, but I was heading forward in time, not back.”

  “Are you sure? I don’t know how this could happen if you were moving forward.”

  Billy paused to think. Had he become confused and jerked the lever backward instead of forward? He didn’t think so. But he couldn’t remember exactly what happened, except the blinding white pain.

  “How can you tell this from looking at me? I don’t know much about shimmers.”

  “Well, that doesn’t surprise me. Boys don’t seem to care about such things. When I was your age, there were never any boys in my shimmer classes.”

  “I don’t think that’s changed. I don’t know any guys who took those classes either. We don’t care as much about how we look as girls do.”

  “Well, it’s not just about how you look. Shimmers are a lot more than just what color your aura is. They tell us lots of things. I use them to see how you are feeling and to diagnose problems.”

  “Well, I don’t care about that stuff.”

  “There’s more to shimmers than just medicine, you know. Lots of people have to learn to control them. An actor, for example, needs to make his words and his shimmer line up. No one will believe what he’s saying if his shimmer is telling a different story. Models have to manage their shimmers so they don’t detract from the clothes they’re wearing. Even a sales person has to manage it if he wants to be good at selling.”

  “What does it have to do with sales?”

  “If someone is trying to sell you something, but they’re thinking about the bad day they had yesterday or an errand they have to do after work, then that’s what their shimmer will show. Most people, when they see distracted, unfocused shimmers, don’t want to buy anything. They can’t see the sales person’s sincerity.

  “Your shimmer, for example,” continued Rachel, “is very tight and controlled—not necessarily in a good way. You carry it around like a shield, carefully keeping your real feelings hidden.”

  “So I already know how to control my shimmer. I don’t need any classes.” Billy made a crooked grin.

  “That’s only part of what they teach you. Yes, there are times when you want to control it, but it’s usually more important to let it flow. For example, if you are happy, you want to show it in your shimmer. If you are curious, it is okay to shimmer your curiosity. It’s a way of emphasizing what you’re thinking or feeling. Your shimmer is like an extra facial expression. You can use it to smile, frown, show your happiness, or even show your anger. It helps you communicate with people because you’re telling them how you feel and what you want.”

  “I think I would rather keep my secrets,” Billy said, as his shimmer tightened a little more.

  Astrology Says…

  Bernie spent the morning planning life forms. Although he had most of the details worked out for his Fish2Birds, the secondary animals continued to trouble him.

  He wanted companion animals for his Fish2Birds, but, so far, the secondary animals he designed had numerous potential conflicts with his people. For example, if he created an airborne creature as a companion for his people-birds, what was to stop it from deciding his fish-babies were more appetizing than the plants? His secondary animals required more thought.

  As Bernie considered the problem, he thought back to his dad’s universes. Simeon hadn’t created companion creatures. He said in his book he didn’t want any distractions for his primary life forms. That didn’t feel right to Bernie. Shouldn’t there be a higher purpose than just looking good? Isn’t it important for creations to enjoy living? Shouldn’t they have meaning in their lives? Some sort of purpose? What else was living for? He knew most gods would laugh at him for wasting time on such questions. But still, the questions troubled him. He wanted his world to make sense. He wanted his people to understand their place and to live happy lives, content knowing they are fulfilling some higher purpose.

  He spent the morning thinking about higher purposes and companion animals. By lunch, he had no answers, but he was confident he was asking the right questions. As long as he did that, the answers would come.

  * * *

  “Hi, Bernie. I see you’re in a better mood today,” Suzie said.

  “Yeah, my world was fine again this morning,” he said. “I’ve had a chance to do some planning.”

  Lenny arrived a few moments later. “Hi, guys.” He lowered his lunch tray, scowled at the tapioca pudding, and asked, “Is there a way to tell if this stuff is alive?”

  “Well, you could plant it on a sterile world and return later to see if it had babies,” Bernie suggested.

  After they settled in, Bernie said, “I’m trying to work out some issues with my animals. Can I bounce some ideas off you both?”

  “Sure. Animals are one of my specialties,” said Lenny, his tapioca suddenly forgotten. “For my universe project, I made giant armor-plated reptiles with horns, sharp teeth and a bellow that could knock you over. When they fought, they sounde
d like thunder and earthquakes together. And when—”

  “That’s not what I’m looking for, Lenny. I don’t want anything that will hurt my higher life forms.”

  “For goodness’ sake, Bernie. Why do you care about that?” Lenny asked with unconcealed confusion.

  “I just don’t like it when they hurt each other.”

  “So what? You can always make more of them.” Lenny was still confused.

  As Bernie struggled to find an explanation, Suzie responded, “Bernie is a gentle soul, Lenny. You know that. He doesn’t have to make animals that hurt each other if he doesn’t want to.”

  “I know,” said Lenny. “I just can’t figure out why anyone would want to. It’s so boring.”

  “Have your named your higher life form yet?” Suzie asked, guiding the conversation toward easier ground.

  Bernie looked gratefully at Suzie. Still defending me after all these years, he thought. Someday I will make it up to you, Suzie. I promise.

  “I think I’m going to call them Fish2Birds. Either that or Pod People.”

  “Pod People?” said Suzie. “I don’t understand.”

  “Well, you know how the fish-kids go from eggs to a cocoon?” asked Bernie. “When they hatch, they become land-people. Then when the land-people get old, they jump off the mountain, shed their skins, and become bird-people. I’m having trouble designing a fast enough metamorphosis for the bird-people.”

  “It’s hard to mix morphological processes in the same species,” said Lenny. “If you’re going to multi-morph them, it’s easier if you keep the morphing process as similar as possible. If you’re going to use cocoons for the first transition, then keep it the same for the second one, too. Have your land-people climb the mountain and spin a second cocoon up there. Then after they hatch, they can grow wings and fly away in bird form.”