NINE TIME MACHINES: Do you want to undo your entire life on planet earth?

CHAPTER 185

My foot changes the scenery as it touches the next step down. The engraved walls remain but now they show a canopy that towers above the stairs and feels real to the touch. It appears to stretch on for miles, like different countries in communal, or maybe just one big country. And the further I walk, the more I feel like a seed about to be abandoned beneath rich soil. Now can someone tell me what the hell a forest is doing in a stairway? The only thing I figure is that I am walking backwards in my memories, and this is my beloved park. Good. Think of it like that, Mary. This way you'll get to the bottom with your mind still intact.

And sure enough this new way of thinking helps me forget that I'm moving beneath the earth. But when I reach the landing I don't know what to think. There's no throne there, just a pale horse, wearing copper shoes, standing in its place. So what now? Am I supposed to talk to a horse? Maybe I should just slip past it and continue on my journey. Think, Mary. What would be the evidence that you mastered the throne? What throne? As usual, this whole thing makes no sense.

"If he likes you, he'll take you to other worlds," says a voice behind me.

I spin around alarmed and almost fall. He grabs me by the waist. And now I'm standing in a tight space with a strange man, feeling the way I did when Pete held me close.

"Er, I didn't see you there," I mumble, and pull away.

"No one ever does. That's the beauty of being here, there and everywhere at the same time."

"Sounds impossible to me."

"Why? Because you think they're different places?"

"And there's only the one you."

"Just like there's always one Rubrum in any given part of the Karmic Islands at a time?"

"They're different people."

"Have you ever seen them all in one place to confirm that?"

"No, but you know what I mean."

"The trick is to see all the places as one place."

"All of the Karmic Islands can't possibly be one place. Just like Florence is not Lillian Street."

"What makes them any different?"

"For one thing, the bank; and most of Florence Street has no money."

"Travelling is easy. Just make the bank come to Florence Street."

"That's not how it works. You have to travel to a place."

"Travel simply means to move, either you to a thing or a thing to you."

"Oh, you're talking virtual travel."

"You came to the horse, didn't you? It made you come to it."

"No." I laugh. "The horse was always here, waiting to block my way out."