DOCTOR J. Now.
(_They regard each other_)
DOCTOR J. My nurse tells me you made the world.
SMITH. Yes. (_In a confessional tone_) I did.
DOCTOR J. (_Settling back in his chair_) All of it?
SMITH. Yes.
DOCTOR J. And everything in it?
SMITH. Take a little, give a little.
DOCTOR J. You're sure of this?
SMITH. (_With an expression that clearly says--I am telling the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help me._) Quite sure.
DOCTOR J. (_Nods once_) When did you do this thing?
SMITH. Five years ago.
DOCTOR J. How old are you?
SMITH. Forty-seven.
DOCTOR J. Where were you the other forty-two years?
SMITH. I wasn't.
DOCTOR J. You mean you started out....
SMITH. Forty-two years old. That's correct.
DOCTOR J. But the world is millions of years old.
SMITH. (_Shaking his head_) No. It isn't.
DOCTOR J. It's five years old.
SMITH. That's correct.
DOCTOR J. What about fossils? What about the age of rocks? Uranium into
lead. What about diamonds?
SMITH. (_Not to be bothered_) Illusions.
DOCTOR J. You made them up.
SMITH. That's....
DOCTOR J. (_Breaking in_) Why?
SMITH. To see if I could.
DOCTOR J. I don't....
SMITH. Anyone can make a world. It takes ingenuity to make one and then
make the people on it think that it's existed for millions of years.
DOCTOR J. How long did all this take you?
SMITH. Three and a half months. World time.
DOCTOR J. What do you mean by that?
SMITH. Before I made the world I lived beyond time.
DOCTOR J. Where's that?
SMITH. No where.
DOCTOR J. In the cosmos?
SMITH. That's correct.
DOCTOR J. You didn't like it there?
SMITH. No. It was boring.
DOCTOR J. And that's why....
SMITH. I made the world.
DOCTOR J. Yes. But ... how did you make it?
SMITH. I had books.
DOCTOR J. Books?
SMITH. Instruction books.
DOCTOR J. Where did you get them?
SMITH. I made them up.
DOCTOR J. You mean you wrote them?
SMITH. I ... made them up.
DOCTOR J. How?
SMITH. (_Mustache bristling truculently_) I made them up.
DOCTOR J. (_Lips pursed_) So there you were out in the cosmos with a
handful of books.
SMITH. That's correct.
DOCTOR J. What if you had dropped them?