Short Story - Meeting Relativity, by Joe Grand

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     “Why do you say that?” I explored.

     “Let me ask you a question”, he continued. “Have you ever thought of parallel lines…? Imagine yourself standing in the middle of train tracks, with the rails on either side of you. Now look down the tracks into the distance as they grow closer together and finally meld into one single track on the horizon.”

     “ I really don’t know what you are getting at...”

     He continued without comment. “Now think before you answer. Have you ever thought about the profundity of a straight line?”

     I smiled, “They say it’s the shortest distance between two points - I guess that’s kind of profound...”

     He didn’t flinch. “I only ask these questions because you look Euclidean to me. Any thoughts on Pythagorean’ theorem?”

     This last question left us in a kind of awkward silence during which the door closed again. I found myself on the step reaching into my pocket to see if the ten-dollar bill was still there. The door opened again.

     “Kid”, he intoned with a kind of resignation, “ you are completely unsuitable to meet Relativity. But I am going to help you. I really don’t know why; except there has been a long line of people this morning and none of them got in.

     “Let me guess, what did you say...’too Euclidean’…?!” He nodded with great gravity.

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