LJ Idol // Week 25 // Uncarved Block
I should say that this is a companion piece to my Round Two Entry, but you don't need to read that to read this one.
Days at the Edge of the Universe
Lysander Greenwood was the sort of boy for whom taking things apart was a perfectly normal way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Very occasionally, if he could be bothered, he thought to put things back together again. Either way, the item in question almost never worked again, and so Lysander was forbidden from touching anything of value around the house. This was no matter, for he had taken to trawling charity shops on Saturday afternoons in search of things to take apart on a Sunday.
This particular Sunday - the Sunday we meet Lysander - he was sitting on the roof, reconstructing a vintage wireless. The specific details of the reconstruction are not particularly interesting, or relevant, and since even Lysander will not remember how he achieved the results he did, we will move on:
This particular Sunday was the Sunday that something worked.
Lysander had balanced the completed wireless on the chimney pot and sat quite still for several minutes admiring his handiwork. Then, when he was quite sure he had completely appreciated his own marvellous skill - he turned it on.
Hello?
Lysander jumped. "Hello?" he said, to the wireless.
Is anybody out there?
"Me," said Lysander. "I'm here."
Hello?
Lysander shuffled all the way along the roof to put his mouth to the speaker. "You can't hear me, can you?" he whispered.
The voice continued:
I am talking through a radio to nothing and nobody, and...
...I fear that in the darkness, and the silence, in the shadow of dust: I have begun to lose my mind.
I am travelling at the speed of light towards the edge of the universe, and it is beautiful...
...
It is dust, I think, seeping through the cracks. It was there when the world began, and it will be when the world has ended.
I do not understand.
What should a man do, when faced with something so unknown?
Some will run, and never stop running.
Others will bury their fear in tales of gods and ancient warriors.
And a few, so very few will step into the jaws of the beast.
...
I do not know what is coming, but it is rushing toward me through the stars and the sky, and I fear I may not turn away from its beauty.
I should run.
...
I will not run.
If this is dust at the edge of the universe, then it is the dust at the beginning of the universe.
It is the dust which builds the human race.
The dust in the silence when all things have come and gone, and been.
...
This is the dust of all things yet to be.
...
My name is Percival Mulligan: manservant to the Archduke of Andromeda 4.
I have reached the edge of everything.
It is not my place to be afraid.
After that, the wireless fell silent and did not speak again.
As for Lysander? Well, that's a different story altogether.
Days at the Edge of the Universe
Lysander Greenwood was the sort of boy for whom taking things apart was a perfectly normal way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Very occasionally, if he could be bothered, he thought to put things back together again. Either way, the item in question almost never worked again, and so Lysander was forbidden from touching anything of value around the house. This was no matter, for he had taken to trawling charity shops on Saturday afternoons in search of things to take apart on a Sunday.
This particular Sunday - the Sunday we meet Lysander - he was sitting on the roof, reconstructing a vintage wireless. The specific details of the reconstruction are not particularly interesting, or relevant, and since even Lysander will not remember how he achieved the results he did, we will move on:
This particular Sunday was the Sunday that something worked.
Lysander had balanced the completed wireless on the chimney pot and sat quite still for several minutes admiring his handiwork. Then, when he was quite sure he had completely appreciated his own marvellous skill - he turned it on.
Hello?
Lysander jumped. "Hello?" he said, to the wireless.
Is anybody out there?
"Me," said Lysander. "I'm here."
Hello?
Lysander shuffled all the way along the roof to put his mouth to the speaker. "You can't hear me, can you?" he whispered.
The voice continued:
I am talking through a radio to nothing and nobody, and...
...I fear that in the darkness, and the silence, in the shadow of dust: I have begun to lose my mind.
I am travelling at the speed of light towards the edge of the universe, and it is beautiful...
...
It is dust, I think, seeping through the cracks. It was there when the world began, and it will be when the world has ended.
I do not understand.
What should a man do, when faced with something so unknown?
Some will run, and never stop running.
Others will bury their fear in tales of gods and ancient warriors.
And a few, so very few will step into the jaws of the beast.
...
I do not know what is coming, but it is rushing toward me through the stars and the sky, and I fear I may not turn away from its beauty.
I should run.
...
I will not run.
If this is dust at the edge of the universe, then it is the dust at the beginning of the universe.
It is the dust which builds the human race.
The dust in the silence when all things have come and gone, and been.
...
This is the dust of all things yet to be.
...
My name is Percival Mulligan: manservant to the Archduke of Andromeda 4.
I have reached the edge of everything.
It is not my place to be afraid.
After that, the wireless fell silent and did not speak again.
As for Lysander? Well, that's a different story altogether.