The Circle and the Dot - E. C. Nemeth (best ereader for epub .TXT) 📗

/> “Zeus, meet Camarilla,” Dot introduced them.
“Pleased to finally make your acquaintance,” said the circle.
“Hi there,” and to Dot in an aside, “A real looker. Nice going, slugger,” then the present predicament riveted him, “Where are we? Heaven – or hell?”
“Such distinctions make no sense from this perspective,” answered Camarilla, her form twinkling with energy, “There is what is. That’s all.”
“But life is over. The universe is no more. Right? So what’s left must be either…”
“No, wrong,” contradicted Dot, “Life is not over, neither is the universe. I have been and seen everything. I know the skein of life and the universal timeline. I am their embodiment.”
“You?” Zeus looked baffled.
“Yes Zeus, me. You never answered my question,” Dot took a sharp left turn in the conversation, or was that a sharp right.
“What?”
“You know. What can’t you do as a mere god with a small ‘g’? And before you answer, remember where you are and what has transpired.”
“Alright, since you’re leading me I suspect you already know. The one thing I can’t do is create life. I can twist life into new forms. I can call forth life where none existed before. But I cannot make life.”
“So if you could do that you would be God, with a capital ‘G’?”
“Yes, I suppose that’s correct.”
“And would you want to be God, do you desire to create life?”
“You must know, by the way you are talking, that I desire that above all else. I just don’t understand how you could know these things about me.”
“It is very clear to me, my friend. And although your motives are suspect right now they will be tempered in time.”
“What are you going on about now, Dot?” although Zeus thought he somehow already knew.
“It is time for me to do what I have come to do. The universal timeline has reversed polarity and it now requires that the central frame of reference be redefined and fixed. Will you be there for the cosmos, Zeus? Do you want the honor of becoming the center of the universe?”
“Yes!” the god heard himself say without hesitation.
“Good. You have been prepared well. I now declare your apprenticeship successfully completed. Congratulations Zeus.”
Zeus still didn’t understand what was really happening, and he seemed to be rapidly loosing his understandings altogether, but he had an uncanny feeling that all would be well. He clung to that notion as his awareness continued its slide toward oblivion.
“My only task has always been to find my way home. But in order to do so I first had to become lost. That in turn lead me on a road of discovery that ends back here with my final action.” So saying Dot began to move. Zeus just knew to follow.
“For I now know and I have no further need. That realization frees my will and steels my determination. I have been forged in the fires of eternity and tempered in the universal field of experience.” Dot continued moving.
“I am the dot and I am the circle overhead,” he declared and stopped, “My center is as easy for me to find as your navel is for you.”
Zeus stepped up and onto the indicated spot.
“Now you are the dot,” Dot said to Zeus.
With that the god’s awareness slipped away and Zeus became the dot.
“Camarilla!” Dot screamed, suddenly frightened of the change about to overcome him.
“I am ready to receive you, my love,” but even her voice trembled.
His form dissolved and he became pure awareness.
The new dot took his place.
Dot followed the universal timeline to its other end, where Camarilla awaited him. He embraced her and they remained that way to draw strength from each other, both suddenly wary of the new change that stood ready to sweep them away.
“I have been all there is not,” he whispered to her.
“As I have been all there is,” she softly crooned in his ear.
“Now I am all there is,” he moaned, knowing what was to come.
“As I am now all there is not,” she sobbed.
“We are one…,” he dared not say it, but knew he must, “There is only me, here.”
So saying Camarilla’s essence dissolved and there was only Dot, now the circle.
But Camarilla was with him. Her residual awareness was a large part of who Dot now was. And the main thing was that they were together again and this time forever ... until the next midpoint was reached at least. Yet he missed the beauty of Camarilla’s form. He knew he was now that same figure but from this perspective it no longer held his attention in the same manner. He resolved himself to shoulder his burden of grief and move on out of respect for the memory of Camarilla as she had been before they had fused together.
Without any warning Dot found himself immersed in new surroundings. He immediately recognized the feel of the place as one he had experienced before. It was when he first stepped out of the cosmic egg and felt that sense of bigger than big and smaller than small. This was the same place. It was the place of absolutes, the realm of the master.
There was no distinction to be made of any kind in this strange environment. Over here and over there were indistinguishable from each other. Dot realized that he could not even determine where he ended and his surroundings began. He was unwilling to explore this novel domain because he was daunted by the fact that he seemed to have the same dimensions as his surroundings. To explore would mean to travel inside his own flesh and that could pose many a threat to his existence in ways he might not even be able to imagine.
Slowly, Dot became aware of distinctions in the background. The feeling of bigger than big began to resolve into something discernable, so too with the feeling of smaller than small. Shapes began coming into focus. Then the shapes grew fuzzy again. The more Dot tried to determine details about the shapes the more the shapes flickered in and out of focus. His training soon came into play and Dot realized he needed to consider his position as the circle in order to refine his ability to see details in this strange place.
Dot felt his point of reference expanding outward and accelerating rapidly. It continued outward ever faster until Dot was convinced it would never stop. The experience was too much for Dot to bear so he stepped out of it … and he was the circle! He felt as though he had been turned inside out but he was elated nonetheless. Dot was the whole ‘bigger than big’ circle! From this perspective he immediately saw in exacting detail the shapes that a moment before had been displayed without detail.
They were the individual skeins of separate universes. And there were countless numbers of them. Where he had experienced the tangled web of one such skein now he saw the skeins of a multitude of universes woven together into a very much larger tangled web. Dot marveled at his precision because he could focus in on one particular universe or even on a single individual lifeline with no effort. With considerable surprise he noticed that he could focus on any number of different timelines in any combination he wished and he could still experience them all simultaneously.
His first inclination was to go back to the original universe where he had become aware and see what happened after he had left. He could also check on Zeus to see how he was getting along, he decided.
The very next instant Dot found himself looking down at Zeus and experiencing the entire universe spinning around him in complicated patterns. Zeus stood like a rock, he saw. Dot knew that Zeus was putting down roots into this reality in a way he had never imagined possible.
Suddenly, a green fog swirled into existence out of which emanated all manner of fauna and flora. Then Mother Nature appeared in her usual living vine costume. She twirled once and dropped into a deep curtsey.
“It is an honor to welcome you to our land,” she kept her eyes to the ground. Then she looked up and held his gaze, “It is a special treat to have the opportunity to thank the one with you called Dot.”
“He has heard,” came an imperious voice that Dot would take a long time getting used to.
“He might also wish to know that his friend Death has made a complete turn around in his attitude. He now not only takes his work seriously but adds a heaping of compassion for his victims as well. He even asked my advice on how to make the experience less traumatizing. Funny how people can change their opinions about things once they experience them first hand.
“The shift in polarity went well. All is fresh and ready to bloom. There will be many suns to give you children. Let Dot know we will not ever forget him and that we wish him glorious adventures!”
“He thanks you,” and Dot felt strange saying it but he uttered what his heart commanded, “And he sends his blessings and benedictions upon you and this, his home!”
“Thank you, master. Fare well then,” she said winking.
Mother Nature got up and danced happily along until she was a short distance away. Then she leapt twirling into the air and disappeared. The green fog and living things withdrew after her.
Dot willed himself to leave and felt his awareness expanding outward until he stepped into the persona of the circle again. Something was nagging at his awareness. Something that threatened to catapult him even higher into yet another new reality. Then he saw that what he was now perceiving was the ‘smaller than small’ part of the feeling that he constantly felt in the background of this odd place. With that realization, Dot slowly swept his gaze about and above him. He saw more hazy shapes all the way to the horizon of his awareness. These shapes were each as large as the entire multi-universal skein he had just become familiar with.

Becoming

He experienced the usual tugging at his essence as his awareness transcended its previous limits. Dot applauded himself for he was becoming an old hand at this threshold transitioning ritual. Dot let the feelings wash over him and transport him to his new destination.
When he saw the situation from his newly evolved perspective Dot was simply, utterly and forever, transformed.
There was a multitude of multi-universal skeins and together they formed an even larger extra-multi-universal skein. And Dot knew that if he willed it he could expand ever further and find ever larger structures all similarly designed.
He saw how it worked now. He smiled to himself at the simplicity and at how it all escalated to such complexity. Then he shrugged his hypothetical shoulders. So be it. Why resist what is? He chuckled at the thought that not only had he truly become the circle but that he had now come full circle.

For by declaring I am that I am, I state my divinity.
And I am suddenly home again, at last!


Ernest Cornelius Nemeth
Jan 1, 2013