Part 18 (1/2)
”You're not taking anything!” Ritchie said. ”This ends right here, right now.”
”Why?” Julia asked.
All turned to her, equally shocked and stunned.
”What do you mean why?!” Ritchie demanded.
29. Behind the Curtain ”Life is but a dream, a grotesque and foolish dream.”
-- Mark Twain
”Does that mean you're on our side?” the Director asked with uncertainty.
Uncle Justin, with a stunned expression, asked: ”What are you saying, Julia?”
”Is that what all this has been leading up to?” she asked. ”The coincidences? The odd connections? Six people running across each other in order to quash some silly, escapist conspiracy?”
”It's not silly!” the Director objected.
”It is escapist,” the Lab Coat Man admitted.
”What brought us here?” Julia asked. ”To this lobby, at this time, facing off over something that seems like a weird dream?”
”Oh cripes,” Denny said. ”Don't get metaphysical on us.”
”Mathematical innovations always seemed unreal at first --” Uncle Justin began.
”The math doesn't matter. It never did,” Julia said flatly. ”It was all part of the same thing.”
Justin's jaw opened and closed silently several times as he grasped a bench to keep himself vertical.
”What the heck is she getting at?” Ritchie asked Betty.
”I think you're over-thinking it, dear,” Betty said to Julia.
Tom and Alona exchanged confused looks. Kurt scratched an itch that had appeared on his hand.
”Why this conspiracy?” Julia demanded of the Director, (who had seemed to suddenly age five years).
”To take this town to a better place,” he said, attempting to remain calm.
”Why not just go there, then?”
”We, uh, as I said, we wanted to take the town with us.”
”What for?! What would you need to take with you if it's already a 'better world'? Wouldn't you make that better world worse just by taking the town with you?”
The remains of the conspiracy looked at each other.
”I don't know, I just joined up,” Kurt said.