Draft 2019.06.07
The golden glow of the Tree of Life illuminated what was most definitely not Paradise — just the Garden.
On the desk next to Ellie lay a single, blank white card, set far away from the bottle of champagne. She had long since stopped glancing at it, for her guest would arrive when it was time. Instead, she contented herself with the knowledge that, should nothing happen, she had only wasted a night.
Ellie stared at the Tree’s twinkling through her glass wall, swirling her champagne. She had yet to taste it, choosing instead to watch the clear bubbles float upwards to dance on the meniscus. Only the momentary distance traveled upwards in a line that was not so much linear as it was maligned by the swirling of the liquid defined the brief moment of their existence, extinguished as briefly as they had appeared, from nothingness back into nothingness.
She wondered if she should wait for her guest, or to start herself. But what if he never came, and the bubbles stopped? A waste of good champagne, however lacking the company.
Bringing the flute slowly to her mouth, she breathed in the enchanting scents. Contemplation led eventually to action.
She sipped.
Knock knock.
Ellie almost coughed as her sip turned into an inhaling.
“Who is it?” she choked, hacking out the words.
She flinched as a hand extended a silver-gray handkerchief into her vision.
“My apologies; bad time?” came the jovial, bemused voice from beside her, the man stepping into view, still offering the handkerchief. “I wavered regarding when I wanted to interrupt your, ah, pensive musings, and decided this was for the best. I hope I’m not intruding, miss.”
Ignoring the handkerchief, Ellie rumbled her throat, trying to get back her bearings and dignity. She glared at the smiling man, taking in his silver-gray suit and matching fedora. But her eyes were drawn to a thin, golden chain that hung from his breast pocket. She blinked. In the light of the Tree of Life, that chain seemed to glow.
“You are late,” Ellie sniffed derisively. “And how did you get in here…Mister…?”
“The same way anyone gets anywhere,” replied the man, tucking the rejected handkerchief into a pocket, “and please, call me Kolo. You were about to offer me a seat.”
Ellie glared at him, wondering how he had so effectively disrupted her own desired tempo. She then coughed again, and enunciated clearly, “Eve. A …. stool.” Glancing Kolo up and down, her lips curled. “60 centimeters tall. For my…” she cleared her throat, “Guest.”
The room responded immediately as E.V.E. responded to Ellie’s command, and the floor immediately 3D printed a stool for Kolo. They watched together as it slowly came together, rising up from the floor.
“You may be impressed.” Stated Ellie, gesturing at the stool to Kolo meaningfully. Ellie fully intended to seize back the initiative that he had disrupted.
“Not really,” Kolo smiled back, taking a step towards the stool and then leaning against it. “I’ve seen better, miss.”
Ellie frowned, wondering if he was intentionally irritating her. “This is state-of-the-art. No one but those in the Garden have access to E.V.E. And,” Ellie added, “Call me Dr. Abel. Not ‘miss.'”
The Time Merchant lifted himself and sat on the edge of the stool, still smiling. “I stand by what I said.”
Ellie did not want to pay him any mind, but decided she needed to humor him for what was about to come.
“Champagne?” she offered tentatively, deciding she should play the gracious host.
“Please,” Kolo beamed.
“Eve,” Ellie began, but Kolo interrupted her.
“May I see the bottle?” He lifted the bottle, swirling its contents lazily with a circular motion of his wrist and glancing at the labeling.
Ellie’s eyes narrowed. “Eve, cancel.” She then raised an eyebrow, “Swirling will ruin quite an expensive bottle.”
“A pittance in the grand scheme of things. And surely not something that the great Doctor Ellie Abel cares for.” He set the bottle down, “Now, shall we get to this — shall we call it — planned therapy session?”
A moment passed as Ellie struggled to piece together her next sentence. She had not expected him to be so forward. “How much do you already know?” she finally asked. She needed more information.
“A dangerous question to begin a negotiation with. It implies to your negotiation opposition that you are unsure of the cards you already hold.”
Ellie straightened her back, then said, “If we are discussing cards held, then I met a journalist. She had quite an interesting question to begin our interview.”
She picked up her champagne, glancing at its golden liquid and still rising bubbles, waiting for the Time Merchant to respond. But he did not.
Trying her best to hold down her frustration, Ellie continued, “And at the end, she told me something that surprised me. Then she handed me your card.” Ellie indicated at the white card that lay on the table.
She sipped at her champagne, waiting for him to respond or acknowledge what she had said. But through the glass, she saw that he did not move or say anything, even when she had drained her flute. Ellie swallowed, looking at her guest, wondering if he had even heard her
“And now,” she finished lamely, forcing herself to fill the dead air, “You are here.”
She set the glass flute down gently, then looked back at him and almost started. A change, barely visible, but perceptible enough. His smile had widened.
“Did you enjoy meeting Michelle?” he asked.
Ellie stiffened, wondering if he was taking back his card, then relaxed when he made no move to retrieve it. “I suppose,” she replied, “She was a very confident interviewer. Is that all you came to discuss?”
“No,” was the reply, then his eyebrow lifted slightly. “I am still waiting for you to finish offering me champagne.”
Ellie’s blood pounded in her head as her jaw tightened. She counted in her head, then set down her almost-empty glass, composing herself before she forced out, “Eve. A champagne flute for my guest.”
The room responded with a silent whirring, and in moments a freshly made champagne flute was settled down from the ceiling.
The Time Merchant stood up and poured for himself from the champagne bottle. She could not help but notice that he used the correct method for pouring, and it reminded her of professional servers.
She watched as the Time Merchant set the bottle down and sat on his stool, sipping at her champagne.
“And you did not think to offer to refill mine?” she finally said, calculating that it may throw him off.
“You would have refused,” he replied flatly, “Because you wanted to save it for when you may need it.”
Ellie felt her neck muscles tighten, but ignored it and counted silently in her head. “Do you want to be thrown out?” she whispered.
“I could leave, but that is not what you want, is it? You received my card a week ago and have been … anticipating this visit since.” He sipped, looking at here with his piercing eyes. Ellie looked away, but her eyes were drawn towards the golden chain.
“…do you already know everything?” Ellie eventually asked. “I knew your title from your business card and … the card itself told me everything I needed to know. But this is the first time I have met you — and yet you already seem to know everything about me.”
“As a scientist myself, I profess that I wanted to meet the mind behind a device that looks and acts like a blank business card, but is able to … I suppose I would call it uploading information into someone’s head,” she paused, wondering why she had slipped into such formal word choice. “But after extensively analyzing it myself to see if you’ve stolen the Garden’s technology for Apples, it was most definitely paper. Then I waited, and you so casually sauntered into the most heavily guarded facility in this city. So, consider my curiosity…piqued.”
The Time Merchant set down his glass, then gave her an evaluating look. “Ellie, if you think I already know everything, why bother hiding the main reason you waited?”
Ellie realized the golden glow illuminating the room was no longer from the Tree of Life. The glowing chain hanging from the Time Merchant’s breast pocket glowed brilliantly, almost blindingly, yet it did not hurt to look at it. She was struck by a sudden eureka that all was not as she had thought it was in the world. The marvel that there was much more to be known.
And the terrifying realization that if it was true, he knew. He had known before he had walked in.
Perhaps he had always known.
“How do I know I would like the result?” Ellie felt deflated. “All of…this.” She waved her arms around the room, gesturing out the window at the Garden, then back into the room. “All of it would be different.”
“Not really. Is this what you want to undo?” Kolo gestured around the room. “Or something else?”
The room shimmered as Ellie contemplated the question. “It all started with Adam’s Apple,” she admitted.
“Of course it did,” responded Kolo, “And you feel that it was warranted?”
“I…I wanted to save as many people as I could.” Ellie looked out the window again, at the glowing orbs that adorned the Tree of Life. “And I thought that someday…all of this. Could help everyone.”
“Has it?”
“It has helped some,” Ellie snapped.
“‘Some’ is not everyone.”
“The Trees are not ready for the masses.” Ellie paused. “At least, not yet.”
Kolo’s head tilted as he looked at her.
“Fine.” She acceded, “The masses are not ready for the technology.”
“And who decided that?” asked Kolo.
“The Tree of Knowledge,” Ellie answered automatically, then sighed. “Adam, of course.”
“But you agree with him.”
Ellie measured her words carefully. “It…is a very delicate situation.”
“Certainly it is. But let us get to the thing you want to undo, Dr. Abel.” The Time Merchant looked sideways at Ellie, and then gestured to the Tree of Life and the golden orbs that adorned it. “You waited for me because you had a wish.”
“You refer to when I saved Adam,” Ellie’s eyes narrowed. “And created the first Apple.”
“I refer to nothing,” the Time Merchant held out his hands disarmingly, “I simply came to fulfill a wish of yours in exchange for payment.”
Ellie sniffed in disbelief. “The Apples are the culmination of my research, Kolo. Why would I regret any of that?”
But the Time Merchant did not answer her immediately. Instead, he walked back to her, pulled the stool closer, and sat down on it, his eyes twinkling.
“I believe you refer to each Apple after the mind it was fashioned from,” Kolo smiled, gesturing at the orbs of light hanging from the Tree of Life, “which means the first Apple is referred to as Adam’s Apple. Quite the hilarious naming scheme.”
“Matthias’ idea, not mine,” Ellie replied softly. “He thought it would be funny, and the name stuck.”
“Yes, you remember that day well. A day you look back upon and detest,” the Time Merchant leaned in close, “When you linked Adam’s Apple to run tests on the Tree of Knowledge. I could offer you champagne now, but you will need it later.”
Ellie looked at him in disbelief, unable to understand how he could speak of her greatest mistake and make light of the situation at the same time.
“But before you explode on me,” the Time merchant leaned backwards and settled his hands on his knees, “Consider if it was possible for Adam’s Apple to have never been linked with the Tree of Knowledge.”
The most gifted mind in the world analyzed and considered all the scenarios, possibilities, probabilities, perhapsabilities, mayhaps, perhaps, pasts, presents, futures, cans, could, and most definitely did not neglect the woulds; taking extra care to incorporate all negligible variables and opportunity costs in her swift but most thorough scrutiny of a possible world where Adam had lived even if she had not undertaken the procedure that saved his life.
Ellie’s eyes snapped back up at the Time Merchant. “But the Eden Corp. —” she began, trying to formulate a response to the inevitable conclusion, “the Garden itself. Adam created it.”
“No, Eden created Garden. You created the Tree of Life. Mia created the Tree of Knowledge. Adam created the Garden as much as you had a hand in creating this bottle of champagne.”
Ellie stared as Kolo sipped at his glass again, deliberately not looking at her.
She needed more information.
“Eve.” Ellie commanded, “To the Tree of Knowledge.”
The room whirred and E.V.E.’s disembodied voice answered, “Acknowledged.”
Her room began to move, ferrying itself within the Garden as E.V.E. carried out her orders. Ellie organized her thoughts as Kolo sat unperturbed, sampling the champagne.
“I did enjoy the Tree’s glow.” Kolo spoke conversationally. “And your room.” He gestured at the back wall, where Ellie’s collection of empty bottles gleamed brilliantly in the light. They were intricately placed against honeycomb shelves, arranged with care to make sure their labels were facing outwards. As the room moved, the glow from the Tree twinkled against the empty bottles. “They make for brilliant decor.”
“Thank you,” Ellie sniffed, trying to hide her pride. “A hobby of mine. And this,” she indicated at the nearly empty bottle still on the table, “Would be the last one for the collection. I am…” she swallowed, “happy to be able to share the end of this journey with you.”
The color of the glow in the room began to shift as the Tree of Knowledge came into view. Ellie gazed at the silver glow of the Tree of Knowledge’s orbs wistfully, wishing she could shake off the somber feeling she had come to associate with seeing it.
“Oh, wondrous,” Kolo said softly, “Let’s stop right here.”
And then the room ground to a halt.
Ellie frowned. “Eve,” she began, but the Time Merchant gave her a look, gently putting a finger to his lips. He then gestured around the room.
The room was awash with the golden glow of the Tree of Life and the silver glow of the Tree of Knowledge, almost dividing the room in half. The Time Merchant walked up to the giant glass wall that afforded them the view. Ellie could not help but marvel at the striking image of the man as he looked at the Trees.
“They’re beautiful,” Kolo said, “You must be proud.”
Ellie sniffed. “I did not create the Tree of Knowledge, but the Tree of Life is one of my great accomplishments, yes.”
“No, and you have no need to go to the Tree of Knowledge either. I came to offer you a way to change things.”
Ellie fell silent, buried in her thought and observations as to her current experience. “I suppose,” she said slowly, “that time has stopped for us.”
“A brilliant deduction, Dr. Abel,” the Time Merchant did not look in her direction. “But it is such a wonderful view, no? I like to think that all of us are simply travelers looking for places to stop.”
Several more moments passed as Ellie processed the implications as swiftly as they were conceived, comparing what she now knew to what she thought she knew.
“Is it all set in stone?” Ellie finally asked. “Did it matter? Anything I did, all my choices. Since you know all of it.”
“No, Dr. Abel. I simply have a better grasp of the variables that exist, and am able to circumnavigate them in ways you cannot.”
But she was unable to take that at face value. “How do I know I have free will in any of this? That this and anything is my choice?”
The Time Merchant turned around to look at her. His eyes, still piercing, held her breath with a somber gaze. Ellie almost felt the glow of the room shrink.
“What is regret but the most painful evidence that you have free will?”
“Whatever gave you the opinion that I have regrets?” Ellie snapped back.
The Time Merchant held out his hands disarmingly. “You have yet to ask me to leave. Why?”
She glared at him, trying hard to avoid looking at the glowing chain. “Curiosity.”
“Killed the kitty. Or so they say.”
Ellie flinched at his choice of words. “You already know,” she accused him.
“Yes,” the Time Merchant replied, “But that does not make it any less your choice. And is that really your regret?”
She looked away from him, choosing to observe the patterns of light that was frozen mid-splash on the ground and wondering why the light worked if time had frozen. Her mind tried to consider the possibilities of how the time bubble worked. But she did not want to keep her guest waiting.
“Any other person and I would have them thrown out for questioning me like that. Well,” Ellie mused, “if I can even have someone thrown out in a … time bubble such as this one.”
The Time Merchant waved a hand dismissively. “You dance around the topic of your regret.”
Ellie considered him carefully. “You seem quite in a hurry, for someone that has all the time in the world.”
Kolo drained his glass before he responded. “I only seem like it. Instead, you should view me as the only one that understands the value of time.” He set the empty glass down on the table, then reached for the bottle and looked at her to make sure she was looking. Before Ellie could stop him, Kolo had tipped the bottle onto the table and gave it a push, sending it over the table and to the ground.
“What are you doing?!”
Ellie found herself half-standing in her chair, reaching forward to where the bottle was heading, before realizing that it was suspended in midair. The sea-green bottle was frozen, tilted downwards in a diagonal angle, with frothy champagne spewing from its mouth, threatening to spray everywhere.
The Time Merchant held open his arms disarmingly. “I see you can be made to panic as well.”
Ellie allowed herself to relax back into her seat. “Do you know how expensive that bottle is?” she whispered, almost hissing.
“Quite cheap to you, I imagine. Immeasurably negligible to me regardless,” was Kolo’s answer. “And now for a question of my own. Do you care for the bottle, or the champagne?”
“What?”
The Time Merchant raised a hand and snapped his fingers, and time started for the cascading champagne and doomed bottle at the same time, for just a moment, before a successive finger snap caused it to freeze all over again.
Ellie found herself half-recoiled from the expanding shards of the bottle’s neck as it broke against the ground, gazing on in horror at the champagne that splashed against the floor.
“That is the only bottle of its kind,” she finally said, “the last bottle in a lengthy journey I started to collect and drink every one of its series.” Ellie looked at him accusingly, “What have you done?!”
“So, the bottle?” Kolo asked, “You care more about preserving the proof that you’ve drank the champagne, more than the champagne itself?”
With another snap of the Time Merchant’s finger, the champagne bottle’s time reversed itself. Ellie watched as the spilled champagne slowly began to collect back into the bottle as it reformed, then it sped up, flew backwards up onto the table and stood there meekly, as though nothing had happened.
The Time Merchant walked up to a stunned Ellie, gently picked up the bottle and admired its labeling, then poured the rest of the champagne into her glass.
“Champagne?” Kolo smiled, offering it to her.
Unable to come up with any response, she took the glass silently.
Kolo walked back to his stool and sat upon it again, winking at Ellie. “You know, perhaps the real question for some would be: did that violate the five second rule? But we digress; now that you have the champagne and the bottle again, which one mattered more?”
Ellie stared at the liquid in the glass, the bubbles rising silently, tinted silver by the glow of the Tree of Knowledge. She stared at the Time Merchant again, and then sipped at the champagne. Her tongue and mouth told her that it was perfectly fine…but when coupled with what she just witnessed; she could not help but think that it was no longer the same.
“You are trying to dissuade me from my regret,” Ellie stated. “With…this. Actually, I have no idea what you are doing. First you tell me something you can do, and then you show me why I should not ask you to do it.”
“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Kolo replied simply. “I’m showing you all that I think you should see.”
“Well then, Kolo,” Ellie spoke softly, “What is it you think I should see?”
“I think you’re misunderstanding something,” Kolo said. “I’m just a merchant. I auction off what you want as you bid with what you need.”
Ellie’s fingers curled around her empty glass as she looked at the Time Merchant. “And that is what I am telling you; you already know everything. What purpose is there to any of this?”
The Time Merchant pondered her expression, then said, “You waited for me when you received my card and the information contained within. A combination of curiosity and regret caused you to stay for this meeting. Now that your curiosity has been sated…your regret has lingered.”
“My regret lingers because I keep wondering to myself ‘what if?’ like a lesser-minded being instead of focusing on the current state of affairs,” Ellie said flatly, leaning back into her seat.
Kolo gestured at the empty bottle of champagne. “Tell me, Dr. Abel. When I pushed the bottle down and the champagne splashed on the floor as a result, was that the intent?”
Ellie would have perceived the question differently had anyone else asked her such a question. Yet the nature of the question-giver bid her pause for an extra moment before she answered.
“If you are referring to the intent when you pushed the bottle down, it was to ask me this question now,” Ellie said triumphantly. “And the purpose of this question is to…” she trailed off, then looked at him again and whispered, “Is…to make me consider what would be different if the Tree of Knowledge was never under Adam’s control.”
The Time Merchant raised his shoulders in a shrug. “And your opinion, dear doctor?”
She stared at the silver glow of the Tree of Knowledge without answering the question, considering the situation from all angles.
“The price?” she finally asked.
The golden chain glowed, distracting her from the Time Merchant’s face as he answered, “Mia’s Apple.”
Ellie felt a cathartic sense of relief when the Time Merchant named the price, for she had the utmost confidence in rejecting the deal outright. “No,” she said, “That’s … just no.” Ellie looked guiltily down at the silver patterns glowing on the floor. “I cannot trade that away. What would you even want with Mia’s Apple?”
But the Time Merchant walked up to her and knelt gently on one knee, gripping her hands in his. She almost started, but his hands were warm.
“I want you to complete what your best friend willed to you, Ellie,” The Time Merchant spoke softly. His eyes found hers, and to her surprise, they were soft and understanding.
But she could not. She shook her head.
“To fulfill your wish, I will link Mia’s Apple to the Tree of Knowledge first, before Adam’s is linked first.” He spoke softly. “The Tree of Knowledge would be able to —”
Ellie shook her head again. “The situation has changed since I received her will,” she spoke softly, “I want to let her rest.”
“She made a decision when she gave you her Apple. You could have given it to Adam or David. Instead, the world’s most famous doctor sits here, collecting Apples from the greatest minds for the Tree of Life just as she collects champagne bottles for her private collection.”
Ellie breathed in deeply, then exhaled slowly. When she was out of breath, she opened her eyes and reached for the empty bottle of champagne, but it would not budge. A pointed look at the Time Merchant made him gesture at the bottle, and she was able to pick it up. Contemplating the bottle, she stood up and walked to the honeycomb shelves, placing the last bottle into its waiting seat. She gently turned the bottle until the label was facing outwards, then turned around to look at the Time Merchant.
“Alright.”
Two Days Later
“Mr. Solomon, Adam is entering your Sanctum,” E.V.E.’s voice was soft in the dark room, yet it did not echo.
David Solomon did not respond immediately as he silently watched the events unfold from the projector for the second time.
“Pause,” David said, “Rewind three seconds. Freeze.”
The projection rewound itself as E.V.E. obeyed David’s command. “E.V.E. Until this point, no trespassers were detected?” he asked.
“There are no indications that Dr. Abel’s guest entered the building until this point in time, Mr. Solomon.”
David fell deep in thought, barely registering the soft footsteps that walked up to him.
“There should be light,” came the deep, rich voice accompanied by the scent of crushed pine leaves. The room obeyed, immediately casting a soft light all around the room, allowing David’s eyes the chance to adjust. The projection also changed in color and intensity, staying completely visible for the viewers.
“That wasn’t stated as a command,” David observed out loud with his eyes closed. “I know E.V.E. is registered to listen to you, but she should still only respond to commands.”
“All of my words are commands,” spoke Adam. “You have found our problem.”
David sighed wearily. “Before my daughter-in-law entered the Tree of Knowledge, she received a guest. Unfortunately, records do not indicate who this man is when Ellie received him in her office, but E.V.E.’s logs indicate that he was categorized as a guest. That is all we have before all of E.V.E’s logs are wiped. Next thing we know, Ellie entered the Tree of Life, retrieved an Apple, and left the Garden.”
“The Apple belonged to whom?”
“Mia Caine.”
Monadic Storytelling 