" 'Can a cube that does not last for any time at all, have a real
existence?'
existence?'
'Clearly,' the Time Traveller proceeded, 'any
real body must have extension in four directions: it must have
Length, Breadth, Thickness, and Duration.' "
real body must have extension in four directions: it must have
Length, Breadth, Thickness, and Duration.' "
"H.G. Wells, The Time Machine?"
"Correct. Well, do we have real bodies?"
"We have our minds, our experience, our memories."
After their second journey down the rabbit hole they were no longer quite sure what was the basis of their reality. They were sitting at a large round table with a Tiffany lamp above it, in what they presumed to be a brown cafe in the Jordaan, called Cafe De Tuin. Trylyan wanted to go out for a while and all four Flatlanders decided to go for a walk and a coffee. The weather was sunny and windy and seemed real enough.
"Where shall we go next?"
"Perhaps we should ask the tarot."
At that moment an elegantly attired stranger with a fine moustache and a rather old fashioned tweed jacket asked to join them at the large round table. He sounded British.
"Where are you from?" asked Robert.
"Cambridge in England. Dr. Wendell Howe at your service."
A Cambridge man.
"I'm Robert Langford, from the other Cambridge in Massachusetts."
"What a coincidence. Do you believe in synchronicity?"
"I do." said Trylyan.
"Me too." added Sarayu.
"I'm a temporal anthropologist."
"Just what we could do with right now."
Trylyan was thinking this really was a huge awesome chunk of synchronicity.
"You are the #TemporalTues (day) guy?" asked Sarayu.
"The very same. You have heard of me?"
"For sure. We are kinda in the same business in a way."
Alphonse was mumbling 'curiouser and curiouser' to himself.
"Do you have a real body?" Sarayu came straight out and asked the obvious.
"I'm a fictional character."
"So are we!"
"Now that really is a coincidence."
Dr. Wendell Howe just happened to be passing through Amsterdam on his way to Paris. A temporal anomaly had brought him to the Jordaan, just as he was thinking of some
coffee, and for some odd reason, Van Goch sitting in a garden. The Dutch word Tuin meant garden, just to pile on some more synchronicity.
"Perhaps you can give us a few hints on where we could go on our next temporal anthropological study tour?"
"You could look at The Virtual Victorian. The site is a good resource for ideas about Victorian England. If you ever get the time, come and join me for a pint in the Time Stream pub!"
With that Dr. Howe got up and bowed, then disappeared as quickly as he had arrived.
"Well all we have to do now is geolocate that pub."
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