"I know what a lessor Sorkin is... and I want to be one."

Ark Book IV: Ghosts, Chapter 3, Part 1

"Slick, how did you know I'd be here at this time today?"

"I didn't. I was just hoping you'd come back ASAP. You turned out to be the person I'd been hoping to find here. I've had hopes and dreams, more so than the other guys on the team. We all love this place, but there's gotta be a reason we keep replaying these games over and over here. Don't get me wrong, we still love playing. This was the best time in our lives. There's a higher power making us do this over and over. I think Stephen Hawking is full of it. There must be a God."

I heard a voice this morning, out of nowhere, telling me to return to the Ark, today. Was that you?"

"Say what?" I can't say anything that can be heard outside this building, and inside, only to my team, and now, you. In fact, none of us can even leave this place. I can't explain the voice. Take that again, Mr. Hawking!" Slick said.

"Hey Mister, are you alright? You're talking to yourself." A scruffy, back packed student in shorts and a blue Sunnyside tee shirt was staring at me out of the corner of his eye.

"Don't mind me," I fumbled. "Sometimes I mumble to myself... it's a long story," was the best I could manage. The kid just shrugged, and sauntered away from us.

Slick was getting a good laugh out of this. "Sorry, I forgot. Today, it's not just the watchman we have to consider while talking. I'll make sure no one's around when we talk," as we moved over to court side. This could be a neat trick. There wasn't a game day crowd in the place, but enough to cause stares if I wasn't careful to whisper. "C'mon, the guys are waiting for me so we can play Mega again."

Sure enough, there was the Mega starting five getting ready for the jump ball, and the Sunnyside players minus Slick doing the same. Then I noticed something very strange, again. None of the Mega players seemed to be aware of my presence, yet the "Sunny" players all nodded my way.

"Slick, why can't the Mega players see me?"

"You mean nothing to them, or they to you. All of your energy is with us. How much, and what kind of energy, I don't know, but it enabled you to be here with us. I still don't have all the answers, we'll just have to let this all play out, and learn as we go."

"Slick, how often do you beat these guys?

"John, I said back then, after we played them in real time, we could probably win six or seven out of ten, and that pretty much has been the case. That first game, we weren't ready for the big stage." Slick then took his place on the court, and another five on five was about to begin. Ball up.

I stood on the sidelines, trying to absorb the surreal spectacle before me. On the court were the ten players and three referees. Across the court on the other sideline there were a few substitute players for each squad, and the head coach for each team. These other players and the coaches didn't seem to acknowledge my presence, except for "BB," the sixth man for Sunnyside. He gave me a thumb up from the far sideline. I guess Slick was right, I seemed as invisible to all but the six Sunny players as every player on the court did to the present day people milling around the Ark. Each player had a faint aura around him, not as intense or beacon like as the night before; I'm guessing because it was daytime.

The players exchanged gentle knuckle bumps in lieu of handshakes for good luck, took their places around the jump circle, oblivious to the 2011 students and staff members of the College who were walking right through them, going about their present day business.

This was short circuiting my mind watching two 'realities' collide in the same space. It wasn't the past colliding with the present, exactly. The game, as Slick pointed out to me, was not just a replay; it had an outcome yet to be determined. So to them, and to me watching, this was real.