Perihelion, Episode One: The Convolution

by John Pirillo

  She looked to Richard's more commonsense nature to assert itself, but then was rudely disappointed, when he shook her comment off like a dog shaking off the spray of a water house on its body. Sometimes she just wanted to kick him in the ankle, it made her so mad. She restrained herself; she could see he was still shaken. No need to stir the hornet's nest with her own personal brand of hysteria.

  Richard shook his head. He finished his tea and stood up. She watched him stretch that wondrously agile body of his. Just the thought of all those angular muscles rippling beneath his stained shirt stirred pulses of thoughts she had to suppress. Now was not the time for that either. She smiled when she remembered the first time they had met for breakfast.

  He had chosen a Coco's because it was close, and open on the holiday. They were celebrating a Christmas without families. Both of them had been a bit depressed at the time. She had met him there, not wanting him to pick her up. She was still uncertain of him at that time, even though the Professor spoke highly of him. She was no man's dummy. She made up her own mind. When she wanted to; and if she wanted to.

  She had been sipping her favorite organic coffee when she heard sleigh bells. All ten of the customers and two waitresses had turned at the same time to look at the door. And there he stood like a dumb, supersized Elf, all decked out in green and bells, wearing a gigantic skintight stocking that revealed his beautiful shape.

  No one panicked. She had felt heat rising in her at the time. Not the angry kind, but the how dare you embarrass me like this. And then he had pulled inside her mother and father. That instant, she not only fell in love with him, but forgave him for all the years he hadn't been in her life.

  Richard could feel the shakiness vanishing. The tea always did that to him. It was very nourishing, filled with minerals and vitamins. It was better than any of those health food drinks one always saw advertised, or read about. There was health food, and then there was healthy food. Even the health food industry had been contaminated by the commercialism of corporate America, putting more emphasis on profit, than honest and safe service.

  He knew his tea was safe and healthy, because it was based on formulas passed down from thousands of years ago. And it worked.

  Nancy touched his wrist. "Please, Richard. We need to evaluate what went wrong?"

  “No, I’ve got to try again.”

  His eyes glowed as he spoke. His excitement was almost electric. "It's the most incredible experience I've ever had. I know we can do this right next time. I think what I did wrong was that I didn't aim my visualization. I relied too much on the formula alone."

  Professor perked up. "Then you do think this Convolution has some kind of sentience?"

  "Not in any sense of the word as we understand it." Richard replied carefully, weighing his thoughts before speaking. "It's more like it amends itself as it unfolds. Like there's a second agenda buried within the first."

  Nancy got excited. "Like invisible ink. Written into the overall symbolism."

  Professor frowned. "That doesn't make sense either. And if so, how could we ever gain control of something that writes its own boundaries?"

  They all fell into a kind of heavy silence, the ramifications of the Professor's thoughts flowing in and out of their minds in various and exciting ways, as well as terrifying ones.

  What if the Convolution wasn't their idea at all, but some kind of alien invocation that had been projected into their minds to gain control? Richard thought in flood of dark thoughts. What if they were being manipulated into opening a gateway to some kind of invisible force that desired to use them and their world?

  Nancy could almost read his mind. She nodded, and then said. "For it to be an alien outside force, then there'd have to be a vehicle for its transportation."

  "Convolution!" Exclaimed the Professor, as if announcing Bingo in a game of chance he had just won. Then he frowned deeply. "No, that is just too plainly obvious. Anyone with that magnitude of intelligence would consider us as nothing more than ants in the scheme of things."

  Richard shook his head. "And don't we play with ants, move their colonies around, and destroy them when they get in the way?"

  The room became frozen with a kind of electrifying terror for a moment, as they considered how small they must appear to such a kind of mind.

  "Einstein, before he passed away to be with his loved ones," Richard interjected, "was working on a theorem that would unify all of the sciences, all of creation."

  CHAPTER FOUR

  "The Unified Field Theory." Nancy agreed. "But he could never complete it.

  Richard shook his head. "You don't understand. Maybe he didn't need to. Maybe we weren't ready for it then. Maybe that mind we just spoke of had larger plans, greater plans for humanity. Maybe it was waiting for us to grow up some more."

  Professor sighed and shook his head sadly. "Then it certainly couldn't be God, because He must be absolutely sad at the state of affairs of our world today. Greed, corruption, slavery, power mongering...surely, we must look like barbarians to Him still."

  "Maybe so, Professor." Richard acknowledged, "But perhaps, evolving ones, ready to reach another plateau of evolution with a friendly push."

  Nancy sighed and sat back down, her nervous energy threatening to exhaust her. "This is getting us nowhere. We all have our beliefs when it comes to what Reality is, that perhaps God has a firmer grip on our lives than we are willing to admit, but regardless of what we believe, some facts are undeniable."

  "Such as?" Professor asks, liking the direction she's taking.

  "Such as the fact that perhaps we depend too much on the concept of someone else doing it for us, rather than we doing it for ourselves."

  "Sort of like free will breeds free will, and free will that seeks guidance, is still free will, but in a direction different than before." Richard added.

  Nancy grinned at him. "Aw, Richard, you are so dumb sometimes. I could just pinch you to get you to come back into your right mind."

  She makes to pinch him, and he scrambles behind the Professor, who laughs good-heartedly.

  "Come on, children. It's been a long day. We'll have time enough to weigh all of this later. I suggest we all repair to our rooms to rest and meditate, and then come back later to discuss the ramifications of what has transpired."

  Richard and Nancy both yawn at the same time. They break into laughter. Professor smiles. They all head for the living quarters, when all hell breaks loose. The corridor starts to tremble lightly. The teapot and lighter pieces of silverware and porcelain knock about, and then the pictures on the walls begin rattling, and the furniture to move.

  “Earthquake!” Professor said calmly, wheeling further back from the windows.

  Everyone dropped back with him. The trembling stopped as suddenly as it began. Richard looked at his friends, then at his

  watch. It had stopped. “My watch stopped.”

  “Mine too.” Nancy said.

  “That makes all of us.” Professor said, pointing with his nose towards a wall clock that was now awkwardly cocked against the wall, its hands frozen to the exact same time as on Richard’s watch.

  “A magnetic anomaly.” Richard said.

  “Definitely not...not an earthquake.” Professor added.

  “You don’t think this is tied to the Convolution, do you?” Nancy asked, catching the fire that was growing in the men’s minds.

  Professor nodded his head. “I’m afraid so.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  They spent the rest of that day and well into the next morning going over their notes. The Professor made a number of phone calls. Nancy researched the television networks, searching for related events, and then later went online to her Web friends. By the next morning a pattern of events was forming up, taking shape before their very disturbed eyes.

  “India. London. Russia. China.” Nancy said. “All report similar incidents. Exact same time.”

  Professor nodded his head as he rolled about the room. His way of
thinking. Minus legs, he used the hum of the wheelchair’s electric motor to soothe his mind when he was troubled over something.

  His gray eyes were almost shut in thought, his eyebrows looking like gigantic caterpillars fighting with each other as he grimaced against what he perceived inwardly. He had been a large man in his youthful days. Although hardly more than forty now, he was a husk of the man he once was. He had lost great amounts of body mass, until he was wafer think, emaciated. But even as small as he had become in weight, he still radiated a great strength. Perhaps that was because of his inner courage. He was not the kind of person to go down without a fight.

  “We’ve got to test the Convolution. But I think I already know the answer.” Professor said calmly. His eyes spoke thoughts that he couldn’t hide from them. Even Nancy was stricken by what she saw, because he wasn’t usually a negative man.

  “What?” She asked. “What’s wrong?”

  He sighed, and rolled his wheelchair to the windows. He looked out over the ocean, watching the morning sun kiss the waves with its lambent arms of gold and white. Seagulls were calling out to each other as they circled the beach below, searching for washed up crabs, snails, sea carrots, and other ocean items that they fancied. He wiped his brow with the back of one arm, and then turned again to face them.

  “When Richard and I created the first layers of the Convolution,

  I had done a great deal of research on native spiritualism. You know the eastern philosophies. Not just the Vedic, which Richard is all so familiar with. But the earth philosophies. The myths that the natives of China, the fishermen of Borneo speak of at night, gathered around campfires.” He said slowly.

  He paused a long time, and then wiped his forehead again. “Ancient myths talk of a time of great tribulations for the world.

  Not just our world. But all worlds.” He continued.

  “Ragnarok.” Nancy said.

  “Armageddon.” Richard spoke up.

  “Similar, but not quite so apocalyptic. Least not in the since of evil forces trying to destroy those of the Light. No I’m talking about an almost certain unhinging, unbalancing of the life force of the universe. Perihelion.” He finished.

  Richard stood from the chair he was seated on, spilling the tea in his lap to the floor. He just managed to capture the cup before it shattered on the floor. He straightened up, gave an embarrassed smile to the Professor, and then took a deep breath. “But no one’s talked about that in generations as anything more than a myth. Look, Professor, you had to dig for a score of years into native legends to even get what you did about it!”

  “True enough.” Professor admitted. “But the facts remain the same. Legends say that there will come a time when man will unwittingly cause a disturbance in the lines of force, the walls of space and time that keep everything in the universe connected.”

  “You’re saying that our Convolution has tilted the balance. Opened up the universe to chaos?” Richard demanded.

  “I’m saying that we’ve opened up Pandora’s Box, and God only knows how we’re going to close it up again.” Professor said calmly, turning his eyes back out to an ocean that no longer seemed as safe and secure and soothing as it once was. “I’m saying that the laws of Physics have been altered. Not a great amount. But enough. And until we can right them again. Nothing that is known or unknown will ever be the same again.”

  Almost as if to accent his belief, the room began shaking again. Richard stepped over to Nancy as she rose, and took her into his arms. The room began to shake more. A rending sound came from behind them.

  CHAPTER SIX

  “The Jump Room!” Professor yelled.

  Without another word he zoomed from the room as fast as his electric motor could move him. Richard and Nancy followed swiftly after him, dreading what they would find.

  They passed through the plastic flap into the room and stopped. The Professor was already there, staring at the Convolution that was swirling in the middle of the room. It was more intense than anything they’d ever seen. It was filled with strange symbols and equations. As if it had somehow been blended with a number of alien cultures, unknown worlds.

  “It’s worse than I thought.” Professor said, not so calmly.

  Then the Convolution reached out spiraling arms of energy masses and absorbed them into its spinning, whirling chaos.

  The End of Episode One: The Convolution

  Acknowledgements

  I'd like to thank all the wonderful people in my life who have made this journey and adventure an exploration of the heart, mind, soul and body.

  To all those who aspire to greatness I say keep on trucking, the road is a long one at times, but like the little train that thought it could, we all can with patience.

  To all the great writers upon whose wonderful words, fantasies and characters I ride.

  To my good friends and family, without whom none of this would have any meaning.

  To the planet without which I would have no home, and to all those brave enough and wise enough to want to preserve it for future generations.

  To all my friends who have bowed out of this life. And to all the new ones I hope yet to meet.

  Novels (Young Adult)

  Perihelion (All episodes of this Serial Novel)

  Escape to Adventure, The Dreamers Awaken

  Escape to Adventure, Island of the Gods

  Escape to Adventure, Gods of Air; Gods of Earth

  Serial Novels (Young Adult)

  The Baker Street Adventures

  Hyde

  The Land Beyond the Beyond

  A Matter of Grave Perception

  The Jungle Lord

  A Strange Thing on a Strange Day

  The Power of One, the Power of Nine

  A Baker Street Snippet, The Death of Conan

  Cartoon

  Episode One: Shades of Gray, the Portal is Opening

  Episode Two: Ahoy Matey, Fire in the Hole

  Episode Three: The Princess of the World

  To Hell and Back

  Episode One: The Demon Lord

  Episode Two: Death Comes in Seven Flavors

  Perihelion

  Episode One: The Convolution

  Episode Two: The Plummet Of Death

  Episode Three: A World Gone Mad

  Episode Four: Revenge of the Interlopers

  Episode Five: Death in the Trees

  Episode Six: On the Edge of the Abyss

  About the Author

  "What evil lurks in the hearts of men," were the grounding words of dialogue that John heard as a kid, and he's been working on scrubbing that harsh view of life forever after.But on a serious note, besides cutting his teeth and almost breaking them on Lamont Cranston's "The Shadow," radioplays, he also got a good dose of insantity from comic books such as Third World War, Tales from the Crypt, Wierd Tales, Plastic Man and that most insidious of comic books,Casper the Friendly Ghost.

  On a lighter note George Lucas rocked his world with Star Wars and the Force, Spielberg with this huge mothership that converted shrimp sized astronauts into even tinier slim-jim aliens, and the more benigh and high flying Richard Donner Superman with Christopher Reeeves.

  Somewhere smashed in between those years of intellectual starvation and silliness, he manged to get totally wiped by the Beatles and their crazy way of singing and acting in front of reporters, the screaming girls and their wonderful "Hard Day's Night," and "Help" movies.

  Eventually, to stop the insanity, he fled to India to study at the feet of the Maharishi, where he got to meet a semi-naked yogi who was supposedly over a hundred and forty years old but looked like Marlon Brandon in his peak years.

  After enduring dozens of monkeys banging on the roofs and windows of his small room that lacked both heat and warm water, living off cashews and chapitis, he fled back to America where he hid behind his computer for years plotting the overthrow of reality by the Invisible Forces of Fantasy.

  And today he proudly stands tall, having man
aged to survive comic books, movies and pulp fiction, ready to deliver to unknowing throngs of kids and adults his own brand of enlightenment.

  Hoping you have as much fun riding my adventures, as I did lassoing them for you.

  Best, John Pirillo. --Author and Dreamer--

  To find out more about me and my work visit me at my blog:

  https://johnpirilloauthor.blogspot.com.