Short Story - Meeting Relativity, by Joe Grand

Continued from Page 4

     I found myself back on the street in a few minutes after changing clothes; feeling a little cheated. The profundity of a straight line indeed! Then I noticed something I never really paid much attention to before: the street in front of me really did grow narrower in the distance. I reasoned that if this were true, then it must mean it widened out behind me. I knew it didn’t and I didn’t turn around to see. But I enjoyed this new thought. What had the old man said about the painting...? The perspective was all wrong.  I noticed two people walking toward me and I began to see what he meant. The car on the street beside me appeared larger than the cars down the block. But this perception must be the same for the people coming toward me; the cars near them must be larger as well.

Wherever people appeared in a streetscape, the objects nearest to them would be larger than the ones in between them. An accurate streetscape would reflect this truth. I couldn’t think of a single painting that did. If light bends and space curves and time can be altered, what kind of world did Relativity walk around in? I was being puzzled and amused at the same time.

     I let my eyes drift down from the top of the street to my feet. The world stopped for a second. I felt as if I had contradicted myself, for my gaze fell on two perfect parallel creases running down my pant legs. My mind wandered.

     Was I really in there for my full five minutes...?

     I checked my watch and noticed the regular movement of the second hand. Neither running faster nor slower - just moving at its regular pace. Didn’t seem right. I slipped it off my wrist and placed it on the lawn. Digging out a pen and a bit of paper, I scrawled a note and attached it to the watchstrap: “Free to a good Euclidean home. Keeps perfect time.”

The Writings of Joe Grand

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