Ritchie felt like reclining his chair all the way back and calling it a
night, but his wife reached over and patted his hand, which was all the
support he needed, all that he would ever need, to get up in spite of
himself and do what had to be done.
24. Challenging assumptions
"I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my
mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to
founts of wisdom and knowledge."
-- Igor Stravinsky
"And there's something else about this movement business," Justin
began, still sitting on the floor and leaning back against a dry
portion of the couch.
"Where did Cecil go?" Julia asked, looking around the corner into the
bedroom.
"I don't know. The thing about this instantaneous movement is -- "
"Cecil!" she called. "Kitty, kitty, kitty!"
"He's probably in the bathroom," Justin grunted. "Hiding. He'll come
out in his own time."
"I know, I'm just feeling paranoid right now."
"I understand. But the thing about this movement -"
"Look, I can barely follow physics when I can think straight -- which
is not now -- so skip over that and just tell me where we go from here."
Justin sighed. What good was discovering something important if no one
wanted to hear about it?
"There's only one thing we can do. We find Seltsam, whatever that is.
That's probably where they're operating from. I don't know what
they're planning, but from what's written in here, it's big!"
"Uncle Justin, you've stumbled on the secret of instant travel, you've
gone half-way around the world in the last hour or so, and you don't
have the first clue where Seltsam is. Is that what you're trying to
tell me?"
Justin grimaced. "Yeah. And with their freedom of movement, I'd say
it could be anywhere on Earth."
"I think I can find out," she said, standing up and walking to the
phone. She began to dialing, but suddenly stopped and turned to
Justin. "Uncle Justin, would you mind... just going somewhere else for
a moment? Like outside? No, go outside the normal way, through the
door. Thank-you. And shut it behind you!" Justin allowed himself to
be forced outside, where he waited at the top of the steps, wondering
whether or not he could blip himself a coat if the wind got any colder.
"Oh, but baby!" Rhonda squealed on the other end of the line. "I'm not
supposed to say! I didn't want to give you those cigarettes! Denny
told me to!"
"Denny's in on this, too?!"
"Oops," Rhonda muttered.
"Well, forget Denny for a minute. I just need to know how to get to
Seltsam. Is it an avenue? A street?"
"How to get to Seltsam-ee Street!" Rhonda sang, her voice growing
farther away.
Just how wasted is she this time? Julia wondered. "Hello! Earth to
Rhonda! Put the phone back to your ear, darling. Tell me where
Seltsam is and I'll let you get back to... whatever it was you were
doing."
"Oh, I've been up to my eyeballs in what I've been doing -- !"
Julia nearly hung up the phone, but decided she had to try one more
trick before giving up. She leaned against the counter and tried to
make her voice sound threatening. "Tell me where Seltsam is or I'll
send you off God knows where!"