“Miss Wong,” said Marilyn’s voice in the Asian reporter’s earpiece. Her tone was somber. “I must warn you and your team on earth. Do not play with any of this. If you set her off emotionally, you may very well end the world at this point so close to the real temporal end. We entered a wrinkle of time, and the Multiverse won’t care if I start this final curtain-draw early by a couple of weeks.” Milly’s pulse raised sharply. “Sophie’s power is now today, to my calculation, ninety-seven times more powerful as when she pushed all of us into the pinch. I strongly advise you remain mostly factual. Get her to tear up at your species’ own peril.”
Then there was silence.
“She is scaring you, right?” asked Sophie.
“Warning is a better word.”
This wasn’t a hopeful warning, it was information. Marilyn had warned Ronaldo as he entered the caves. He dismissed her and died moments later. What Marilyn added in her ear shocked the journalist. “Not that I care at this point when this all ends. But you bipeds deserve to go on a bang, not a burp.” There it was, Marilyn was the proud protagonist of the Sixth Attraction.
Milly was looking at the Attractor. Marilyn had spoken. Sophie was smiling and playing with the chess pieces. The journalist swallowed as her pulse raced up to 140. Like most, she knew this was it. Once that interview was over, her role in whatever-this-was would end. This was probably the last interview she would ever give.
“Good girl,” added her sexist producer in her ear to help complicate matters. Milly pulled the plug out and slid into her picket.
“I like Timothy,” added Sophie, “it’s a great name.”
Milly could not hold her tears.
To anyone oblivious to the events of the last few months, tuning-in to CNN and Electoral's broadcast at this precise moment would seem the most mundane of circumstances. An aging Asian woman was sitting on a chair, a small pad of paper and a pencil on her lap. Legs folded on a large bed, a young girl played with wooden chess pieces. This was a healthily chaotic teenager’s room. Posters of her favorite singer, a tall, lean Asian man with long hair were taped to the wall. Sophie was smiling and ready to answer the journalist’s questions. “We went a long way since the ship.”
This moment was unique and special. Sophie’s pinch had transformed time, the universe, and every living being in it. She alone knew what the road ahead might be. Everyone, every living creature in the world, paused.
Milly slipped a hand in her pocket and pulled out a pair of dark-rimmed glasses. She unfolded them and slid them to the tip of her pointy nose. “Ready?” she asked.
“Yes, we are,” answered the Attractor simply.
Milly looked at the young girl. In ordinary circumstances, the first question would have centered around her use of the pronoun "we," but this situation required more. Milly was interviewing the Attractor, not her companion Liam. “On behalf of everyone watching, let me first thank you. Whatever this is, we all feel reassured you are at the center and not someone else.”
“Are you sure?” Are answer surprised Milly, “Be honest.”
“Of course.”
“I can do wonderful things if I try. Because of who I am, I am letting the earth suffer; my father suffers in his frail body. Maybe I should snap a finger and destroy mars and Marilyn. There are hundreds of things I could do, yet I play Pokémon all day. Are you really sure you do not wish this power had not been given to you?” Again, Sophie had instantly and subconsciously retreated into her habit of speaking as a seasoned adult
“Absolutely not,” the response was genuine and echoed the feeling of everyone.
“These waves of mine, they seem to be pushing you to like me. If they were not around, I know your answer would be quite different.”
“No, I doubt that.”
“Why do you say that?”
In most circumstances, Milly would deflect questions bounced back upon an interviewee, but this wasn’t an ordinary interview. The girl was right; something about her demanded, without asking, an undeniable sense of duty, compliance, and aid. “I see your point, Sophie. But the reason, and it seems clear to me, is because men generally have been greedy and selfish for so long. Men fight, spend, and hurt each other. You do not care for any of that. You are at the polar opposite to these notions. You, my little friend, are who we all should be if we were stronger.” Milly winced a bit at her own honesty; who was interviewing whom, here?
“That is kind. But how can you say that?”
Milly added, “It’s easy to point the finger at the kindest person we know. Imagine having to leave your home, your friends and everything you hold dear for months on end? Who would you hand your keys to? In my case, I would trust you with my few possessions, and I know everyone watching shares this feeling. This feeling grew from knowing you, not from these waves. The Multiverse seems to agree with me. Who is the person you would trust with the care of your father if you were forced to do that?”
“Doctor Susie.” The caretaker listening in the corner turned her hear away from the discussion and began to cry in silence of gratitude. The Attractor saw her this way.
“Most of us have few people to rely upon. Your refusal to use your special gifts for mundane acts, say, moving the chairs around this room, shows you understand that this is not your house, your world, or your Multiverse to tamper with.”
“Very kind. That is how I feel. Ask your questions then.”
Milly paused and flipped through the thick pad, the pages were crumbled in part, lines were struck. She was desperately trying to find the perfect question. “For months, I replayed in my mind what my first question would be if I ever got to interview you.” She shuffled in through her notes in frustration. Nothing was worth it. “They all suck equally.” Sophie chuckled. She loved where this was going.
“You know what,” Milly removed her glasses and got up. She handed the pad of questions, her pen and her glasses to the Attractor. “If there is one thing you have shown me, it is altruism. This is not about me, this is not about the viewers. You are the Attractor, not me.”
Sophie was puzzled and interested. She put the glasses on playfully. “I can’t really interview you. I want you to interview me, not as Milly, but as one of the billions out there watching. I promise to tell you the truth. See me as a viewer: a mom, a dad, a child down on earth scared by all of this.” Sophie smiled. She jumped off the bed and grabbed Milly’s paper pad and glasses. She walked to her father’s cradle, detached the silk scarf from his warped form and handed it over to Milly.
“You okay?” she asked Susie. The woman nodded her hear without turning back.
“Daddy and I want you to have this.”
Milly wasn’t often the type of person to make grandiose private displays or wear emotions on her sleeve; she was more of an entertainer. But the gift touched her deeply. She stopped moving the moment the scarf touched her hand. Sophie returned to her bed to start her mock interview as Milly remained, at first, immobile, then bringing the silk to touch her face. The gift moved her. As most people touched deeply, Milly needed to return the kindness.
Sophie inspected the pages in the pad. She flipped through it and read some of them until one question caught her attention. She read playfully, pretending to be Milly, following up with another, and a third. Her mind was moving quickly. She kept reading.
“There is a lot here.” Sophie kept reading, her face darkened. “You really . . . .” The Attractor was unable to lift her eyes from the pages. “This is incredible. This one, I have to answer this.” Then she continued reading, she flipped pages read questions. “You want to know if I like Marilyn and her game. You want to know why I am not nicer to her, even knowing she is helping my dad so much.” Milly did not recall this specific question. Sophie kept scrolling down the inquiries.
“You know, I spent months in the digital reality with Liam and my father talking about 'higher things.' I, Liam and Daddy agreed my innocence and lack of deeper understanding of some important ethical and sociological matters. In the end, we all admitted that things I didn't know weren't that useful. I also had thousands of hours discussing with Liam how the world is; how and why life matters.”
Sophie looked at the woman and said: “Ask it.” Milly smiled but remained silent. “Really, ask the question on everyone’s mind. Just go for it.”
Milly looked around as if she needed further approval. “Can’t you just snap your fingers and save us all?”
“I wish it was that simple. What happens if I bring my mother, my father back?” she began rhetorically. “Really think about it. We all know what happens to the unlucky who actually win the lottery. Study after study shows how people chase a dream that does nothing but hurt them. If I do have the power to save everyone, shouldn’t I collect as much information first? I mean, the only reason this needs to happen now and not on my birthday is if we think I won’t be around or I will lose these powers. Instead, this is what I think: Liam told me something very wise. He said, ‘If you see a drowning man and you jump in to help too quickly, in his panic he will drown you both. If you wait too long, the person will drown on his own. Wisdom is the art of using knowledge to be able to jump in at the precise moment when he is exhausted but alive.’
Stolen novel; please report.
She added, “Looking at a man drowning and staying immobile is hard. I am watching the world die, earth will be destroyed, my father and I will also go. If I ever try anything, it must be wisely timed. I agree, my birthday is the best time.”
She read more of the book and was touched by the effort that Milly had poured into it. Her eyes, like an old wise man began to drift. She was thinking, “A question means something different when you ask it at different times. For example, 'What’s your favorite drink?' is a question here.” Sophie paused briefly, then altered it, adding, “since you arrived on Mars?” Sophie looked at Milly, who smiled. “If I ask the same question about the drink for today or last month, your answer would be different. You do not know this, but in the digital world of my father, time can be slowed down. Liam has been teaching us, daddy and me, what he calls universal philosophy.” Sophie was now speaking directly to a buzzing camera. “People forget that our road up the passage of time changes us. As we move in time, we bring with us a part of our past. We carry our memories. Some live only in the present or even live in the future.
“People should get better at understanding time and how it is at the center of all we do and how we see the world. When I met the Multiverse, what became apparent is that she cannot see us today. She sees us, simultaneously, as a baby, as a three-year-old and even a twenty-year-old. We are not simply slices of today. We are more like lines drawn in the sand to her, not simple dots. She can’t talk to us, and we can’t hear her because she does not know how to speak only to a slice of us. When she speaks, she always touches the entire person, all of me. It’s a gentle push, a bias; the God Bias they call it.”
“What you are describing is very close to the notion of a God.”
“If you want but it is not.”
“Why is that important?”
“Take a person, any person. You understand how, if you place them on mars, or in Iceland down on earth, as a baby, their entire lives will change? The same body, the same mind, but its environment is critical to what it is and how the Multiverse sees the person. Do you water a plant to make it more beautiful today? No. You water a plant to make it last longer. The water given today changes the plant in the future. We understand education and how learning today brings us more money tomorrow.” Milly was a bit taken aback. She was expecting much out of Sophie but not a class in philosophy. The girl continued. “We spent hundreds of class-days in the computer with Liam talking about these important matters. What’s education? It’s setting upon a path, a slow change to get to a different place. Addiction is the same. Addiction and education are powerful because both leave a lasting touch on our being. That is how the Multiverse works. Our traumas, our loves change us over time.”
Milly did not know what to say. “Thank you, but how is that linked with you or the Sixth Attraction?”
Sophie handed her the glasses. “If our lives are a line, and we exist in the past, present, and future, it seems like in two weeks, the future ends. She can’t see past this point, and she is, for lack of a better word, scared.”
“So the Sixth Attraction is the end of the world?”
“Not sure. Maybe the plant is re-potted. I see it as a door that must open, and we don’t know what’s on the other side.”
“What’s your role?”
“I get to open the door.”
“Why you?”
“I now know the answer to that question. It’s actually much simpler than you think.”
“Is it?”
“Yes. I am what's called an anti-hero.”
“An anti-hero?”
“Yes. Most stories feature either a hero or a villain. The hero wants the good side to win, the villain wants the bad side to win. An anti-hero is a person who truly does not care whether it's the villain or hero who wins. I am that person. This game, these planets, the Attraction, I honestly don’t care about any of it. This will sound awful to you as you are looking for a champion. That is the President, he wants to save you. The earth could end along with all life, including my own, and that would be fine to me.”
“Why do you say that?”
“My english teacher once explained why the best stories feature an anti-hero. The stories that turn around one are impossible to write, she explained. As the story unfolds, the anti-hero stops making sense because the story forces one outcome. The more compelling a story, the stupider the character who refuses to do the right thing and not save the world begins to look. After all, who can want their own end? This Sixth Attraction is not about the end of all life, I know this, and who in their right mind truly does not care if it all ends?” Sophie used both hands to point at herself and smiled. “Me.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It does, really, it does. Think about it. An anti-hero is a character who is unpredictable. Since the character does not care, we don’t know how the anti-hero will act at a junction. It gives unpredictability at the crux of the discussion. So if a story were about a door, the only person who can open it is a person who can’t be predicted or relied upon to do so. The Multiverse needed a creature with uncertainty, a true anti-hero. The other Attractions failed because the Attractor must have cared. They see events circle, and they decide to act. I must, if possible, stay neutral.”
“This is hard to understand.”
Sophie grabbed the chess piece and waved the questions away. “This tells me everyone out there is powerless to act. They are nervous and worried; they should be. The answer is complex, but you deserve it.”
Milly rubbed the humidity and natural oils off her forehead. What the girl was saying was shocking on so many levels. Sophie stood up. Her mood and expression changed. The young girl was now a mature woman. She was talking mostly to herself or to Liam. A month ago, her words would have fallen flat. Today, they meant everything. “You know why Daddy is hurt, right?”
“The accident?”
“Yes. It wasn’t an accident, it was a test. The Multiverse needed to see if, after great trauma, I would change and remain unpredictable. It’s easy to be an atheist until you are sitting in a plane on fire about to crash. Everyone finds God as death approaches.” Sophie wasn’t aware of how adult and mature her words sounded. Without a pause, she continued, “The Multiverse wanted to see how I would react to extreme situations . . . if I would use these powers to save Daddy. She injured him, then because she sees all of me, she sees my future and knows I would never use the power to help Daddy.” She looked at him. “Loving him means I love him this way.” Sophie paused solemnly, her sudden eruption of fully mature insight threatening to gutter out. "Even if there is nothing in the world I would prefer to do. I passed her stupid test.” There was, naturally, a healthy dose of resentment in Sophie's voice.
Marilyn’s face appeared on the wall, “You are I correct,” she said.
Sophie, without looking back, waved her hand. As if she had brushed the image away, it vanished.
“I am correct,” she snapped back at the computer. “I understand these notions are hard to grasp, even to Marilyn.” Sophie was more than a young girl playing with Electro the Dog. She stood like the most powerful creature in the Multiverse. She was now majestic; when she spoke, her gaze lost in the horizon, space around her started to change, bend. Her power was slowly returning. Around her, a glow began, a deformation of the way light moved as if she was the center of a black hole.
“Milly? You're looking at me oddly. I need to say one more thing."
“I'm sorry,” Milly started, then stopped herself. “Dear one, my job is . . . .” she stopped again. Sophie stood there, unfazed. She had a message to deliver; words that the Multiverse needed said.
“I am no nihilist, at least not one that denies realism,” she began. Eyes around the universe widened. A twelve-year-old girl was no longer speaking simplicity. She was the Attractor and Liam had worked his magic.
***
President Sanchez, from the Berlin apartment, stood up from the couch as he watched the television, transfixed. In his unique mind, able to show alternative futures, paths were darkening. He now could at best see a handful of available futures amongst a hundred of voided paths. But all of a sudden, in the fading light his mind was perceiving, there was a flash of color on some of the roads as if a spotlight had been switched on. Sophie was working her magic; she was moving the Multiverse. He alone saw the beauty of the changes.
Emilio drank his coffee and listened in awe.
***
Eyes in the distance, like the main actor of a Greek play, she spoke, “Liam and I have been talking at length about his consequence to cause theory. He convinced me to join him in my father’s world for mentoring. He believes the Multiverse arrives at a junction, a pivot, where science and ethics have no real place. Instead, philosophical concepts and universal physics are important. As I said, in the electronic world, things can be slowed down. So we spent months learning. There's something called existential nihilism that argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value." Sophie smirked and made air-quotes, no doubt acknowledging Liam's tendency to pontificate on all matters complex. "That is both childish and not relevant to the Multiverse. I think Plato’s works on reminiscence and the maieutic have value. First, I disagree with Plato on his supreme concept of good.”
“Maieutic?” asked Milly incredulously, unable to hold her words.
Without missing a word, Sophie added, “Oh, it’s very simple.” Inside the young girl’s head hummed the proud silence of a mentor free to leave the world knowing his job was done. Liam had obviously poured every bit of knowledge he could into the Attractor. “Plato believed we understand deep inside ourselves rich notions of good, self-awareness . . . and the list goes on. These latent ideas and concepts can be brought into clear consciousness by maieutic efforts. Many of us feel eating meat is wrong. We should not eat other humans, dogs, or even cows. Yet, we are built in a food chain which drives us to this primal instinct. A person can, with great effort, teach herself to be a vegetarian. Our notions of theology are born from a deep maieutic understanding we touch the Multiverse, or better yet it touches us. We live in it, and like a baby in her mother’s womb. We are connected via an umbilical cord.”
Energy of a different type was surrounding the girl. It was like water changing the density inches from her skin. “Since we don’t understand the Multiverse, we cannot feel how it touches us, we cannot reason to clear consciousness these strange feelings. That is where I come in. Humans can’t connect to the Multiverse, but they can connect to me. This connection is getting stronger by the moment. Said differently, I am not the one that will open that door, we all are.”
There was silence.
Sophie added, “That is why she need all of you to be there in two weeks during the final.”
“Why the game? Your birthday? Marilyn?”
“Those parts I have yet to understand, but I do understand the Multiverse. Do you?”
“Not really.”
“I can show you,” she offered. She looked at the camera around her, the air was shimmering. The lights grew and without as much as a pause, she raised a hand and simply said, “This is her.”
***
Emilio opened his right hand and let his coffee cup drop. As if Sophie controlled time, the cup stopped halfway to the ground as if time halted. With both hands, he was only able to grab the marble slab of the kitchen counter. He was, like the victim of a heart attack, stuck. He just said “No . . . .”
***
Marilyn was sitting in her make-up chair down in her world. She was taking manual notes with a feathered pen in a manuscript. She looked up as images around her vanished in the wind. She just said, “Milly!”
***
Georges was sitting in front of his computer screens. Red blinking lights erupted all around him. He looked up and squinted. In his mind, the voice of Ronaldo said, “Not again.”
***
Liam smiled to himself, he was proud. The young girl was learning, growing and playing the perfect role of the anti-hero, she was helping the story along, not moving it in any direction.