Consequences of Gods

Chapter 4.

In a sense all destinies are linked. We all come from the big crunch or big bang in truth. Depends on if you look in the past or look to the future. It also depends on where in the timeline you would be looking from.

Those minute seconds after the big bang meant everything was expanding ever outwards. Creeping forward at such pace, lightspeed in fact, to someone who looks at the whole universe if such a thing was possible. But given the expanse of the universe the modelling would suggest a very slow expansion if looked at from a distance. Yes, it would have to be a very great distance away where time look incredibly slower, and things move that slowly it's almost imperceptible to notice anything moving at all.

As scientists, there could be a consensus that the universe has expanded to the point that it ran out of steam well nuclear power or whatever source you want to call it and is contracting and reversing back in on itself.

Scary thoughts. That this back-and-forth dance has been going on for that long that the word 'time' doesn't do it justice.

As Terry sat there in total bewilderment to what Ms Boulangerie had just told him, he couldn't even comprehend what the heck this all meant for his future and in reality, the future of mankind.

Terry's world had been indeed flipped upside down like a pancake being flipped in a frying pan. He suddenly thought of the gentleman callers being 'thwacked' by Mrs Commons and how their heads must if hurt. He instantly reminisced of sitting feeling joyous at the thought of getting the lovely cream scones and sitting with mother while devouring them. Devouring was not a good word today!

What he had been told had just settled his outlook on the very existence of life on earth. Or the very existence of the planets. Destiny could be a fickle little cow it seemed to Terry.

In essence, the story that Ms Boulangerie had so eloquently put to Terry had been just a little unbelievable. Well, that's putting it mildly. Terry's mind tried to fathom out how any of the story could have any truth in it. Was he listening to an utter nutcase? Was there a partial religious zealously involved? Had there been a frying hit over her head when she was younger and a serious case of fantasy going on in that head of the sweet-smelling woman??

Terry tried to gauge it all in his little mind, like trying to piece together the intricacies of an old watch after cleaning. Methodically he went through each stage and attempted to make sense of it all.

Firstly, there was the fact that there were 'beings' as such who were acting up like spoilt children.

Secondly, like roman myths who played with the lives of humans as though they were chess pieces for their own amusement, these 'beings' couldn't see past their own noses let alone spite.

Thirdly? Well third on the list was there seemed to be a big corporate argument going on in the other place, where these spoilt brats were having tantrum after tantrum which in the real world was having consequences. But they were too much in the huff to notice.

Lastly, and most importantly as to why it had had to involve little old Terry, he thought to himself while trying not to have to rush to the lavatory once again, the little ring box had somehow held a talisman of sorts, which allowed the holder to actually see and interact behind the scenes of this otherworldly debacle that was unfolding unknowingly to almost every other human being. Which at that point Terry realised he must be losing it, mentally!

These beings were being, well, little shits to put it bluntly. Their nursery class teacher had murmured that under her breath several times daily. In the nursery there were all sorts of things to do.

Sandpits became the Sahara Desert, climbing frames became the Andes, paddling pools became the Pacific and Atlantic, depending on the height restrictions. You get the drift!

They were taught to play nice but as is inevitable, toddlers will have meltdowns. These meltdowns then had direct effects on Terry's world. When the sandpit shovel threw sand, the deserts had sandstorms. Which to the locals, came as a bit of a shock, considering it was a lovely Tuesday afternoon and they were quite happy having a nice quiet lunch.

When one of the brats decided he wanted to be a monkey and decided to shake the climbing frame rather violently, it seemed as though for those more adventurous hillwalkers in the higher echelons of the Andes, the earth shook violently, so violently in fact that a local guide who had taken five minutes to relieve himself was squatting just off the beaten track and who ended up rolling through his own excrement to his utter dismay and utter surprise. And to that of the tourists he was guiding as well.

One day, when around fifteen miles off the coast of Portugal a local fisherman was mightily impressed with his haul on a particular Thursday, when he had had to throw back several hundred Amberjacks. What he less than impressed with was when he saw the wave the size of a five-storey building coming at him from like a bulldozer from his port side. After one of the little munchkins had their lunch, it hadn't sat too well, and he then proceeded to let rip in the pool causing a tidal surge. That then flew at high speed to the fisherman and his haul tipping most of the catch back to where they came from to their delight and the fisherman's dismay.

The problems were profound for everything and everyone. They were magnified massively every time some event or out of season freak weather occurred. TV, radio social media, then it became word of mouth that a bad thing happened.

Phrases took on different connotations to Terry now. 'Comes in threes' for example could come from a mythology viewpoint about three brothers from a Roman family called the Horatii of to fight another three brothers from another town. Or it could come from the time of the Great War where if a match burnt long enough to light three soldiers’ ciggies, then the enemy would spot it and blow them to smithereens.

'Comes in threes' comes from a historical point when a set of otherworldly triplets decided to have gate-crashed a big birthday party of one of their contemporaries, and unleashing mayhem by setting of party poppers it was said. Pompeii unfortunately didn't last long!

The issues that Terry's world faced with, were put down to this, that and the next thing. All down history there has been many disasters, many horrors that have occurred. Many storytelling’s that have survived war and famine, but none that Terry thought could be as outlandish as this.

The opposite mirror image effect from Terry's world to the alter world was not something that happened to any great degree unfortunately. Well not in the manner that made any difference. There was notice taken when Hiroshima went up in a mushroom cloud to be fair, but only by one sheep, as when his friend standing in the field next to him, grazing, suddenly shot forward about ten yards with a rather scared ' Baaaaa!???' and bewildered look on his face with a small cloud dissipating in the air behind him. The friend of the fastest sheep over ten yards in the alter world noticed, bleated twice and went back to his lunch of grass and ladybirds.

Another example of minimal fuss when the reverse physics between worlds came into play was when Mary Antoinette got her head removed from the rest of herself. It involved the 'Troupe du jour' (the name came from the area that the alter world’s greatest circus act had first been set up before they left to seek fortune anywhere else apart from where they’d set up about. Which happened to be the one of the coldest places you can imagine to be tightrope walking in only a leotard with icicles hanging from unmentionable places). (Does nothing for your balance by the way). But to keep them warmed up the local delicacy was soup, carrot and coriander to be precise.

Alongside the circus, there had happened to be the usual stalls selling candy floss and 'throw the darts' and win a prize. When Mary had lost her head and was bouncing down towards the basket, her alter effect came into play. A coconut rolled of one of the poles, all by itself to anyone that cared to notice, but nobody did in all actuality.

Where it rolled to was under the foot of the stall owner who didn't notice it either. He stumbled, crashing into the adjacent stall and knocking a poor little goldfish bowl up into the air. As it seemed all to happen in slow motion, with the passing donkey 'eee orring' rather loudly. He started to kick uncontrollably and booted the cage that was behind him which burst the lock, and the lioness had quite simply taken the opportunity for a spot of lunch at that point.

All this information was coming thick and fast at Terry and just couldn't quite keep up, so he asked Ms Boulangerie, if she wanted a cuppa and a cream scone seeing as though his delicacy was lying under a table in Stans Snacks.

‘Soooo does that mean?.....’ Terry had tried to contemplate the words, put them together into a understandable sentence and got stuck half way through the process.

‘It means....’ she thought she’d best not overwhelm the poor man,

‘Well it means there is trouble ahead most likely’ she tried to put on her most ungruffiest voice for him in a consoling tone.

To be fair Terry hadn’t asked for any of this and she knew what lay ahead, the path that had to be trod and she wasn’t exactly looking forward to it herself if truth be told.

Terry looked imploringly at Ms Boulangerie, to try and understand what path she was on about.