Chapter thirty

The day was the greyest it had been since I had begun my journey on the Monmouth. Each of us planted ourselves on her gay prow overlooking the rolling waves. Neddy joined us up there; why should he stay down in the Library for the remainder of the trip? Dion and I were still tied together in brotherhood, so I sat with my feet dangling over the port side of the gunnel; Dion, bracing me a bit, sat with his feet on the deck, facing the starboard side of the ship. As peaceful as it all was externally, I was inwardly agitated. A part of me wanted to be at peace, so I tried to relax with Dion and the Solomon Learned unit. But I couldn’t help thinking about the other book, and the goons awaiting our arrival. So many errant thoughts bubbled within my mind, fighting their way to the surface, but I staved them all off. Dion noticed that I was a bit troubled.

“Don’t think about it, Lester,” he said to me. I couldn’t just corral such spirited thoughts like that. He smiled a sort of fake tight-lipped smile at me, and I reflected it back at him. At least we were finally friends. No, strike that, we were brothers now.

“I don’t know if I can avoid thinking about it,” I said. “We don’t have to talk about it though, I mean, not if you don’t want to.” Dion offered me a real smile now, laughing a little out of exasperation.

“I think we better talk about something,” Dion said, “because if you think too hard about any of this, you might just force me to start thinking about it too.” Well, he was right about that; I didn’t want to put any thoughts into his noggin that he didn’t want there. “Question is: what do we talk about?”

“I got something,” I said, twinkling a little. “Remember how it was nighttime that first time I came up here to the deck after we set sail?”

“Yeah, it was wasn’t it?”

“And it’s been daylight ever since. Honestly, I hadn’t really noticed until just now.”

“You’re right!” Dion exclaimed. “Hey Neddy, what’s up with that?”

“It is just another effect produced by your abilities here in Pipeline,” Ned answered. “Do you desire that I should explain what I know to be true about the effects of Pipeline upon people of magic?”

“Yes,” Dion and I answered in unison. We shared another brief, if not serious smile.

“If Master Lester should put a thought into your mind – like a sunny day for example – you will create whatever thought he places into your mind.” This was quite a revelation for me, but it seemed to make perfect sense.

“The axe,” I said.

“What?” Dion said, addressing me.

“It was me, Dion,” I said. “I put the thought of the Axe into your head and you summoned it, without even the desire to do so.” Dion was having the same epiphany I was at that moment, naturally; anything in my head ended up in his, and anything in his head, ended up falling from the sky.

Dion started to say: “So all of this trash –”

“I think I did it,” I finished his sentence, guiltily. “Neddy, please continue.”

“Gladly. Inside of your mind, Master Lester, you have imaginings. These are absorbed by Dion, whose imaginings become a part of reality here in Pipeline. You are incorrect though, in your assumption that all of this trash came from you, because Dion also had imaginings before your ruminations impressed additional ones upon him.”

“Well, at least it’s not all your fault, Lester,” Dion said, placating me.

“There’s more. As both of you have learned to control your abilities little by little, less trash has been produced. You, Master Lester, have learned not to impress every thought upon Dion, which results in less refuse falling from the sky. And you, Master Dion, have subsequently learned to focus upon less and less trash in general.” It seemed like Ned was finished, but he was actually processing another monologue, so we gave him a moment. “Furthermore, you have both learned additional skills.”

“Well, what are they?” I said, perhaps way-too-eagerly.

“Master Dion, you have learned to use your abilities in two new ways. First, your influence has extended beyond the boundaries of reality and into the realm of dreams.”

“I’m one-hundred percent sure that I don’t understand,” Dion said, bewildered.

“I will attempt to be as clear as possible: your influence is so powerful here, that the account of this journey has been transferred into Master Lester’s consciousness in the form of a nightmare.”

“Are you saying that I am not actually here right now?” I questioned.

“No, sir, you are here, but to you this could be all a dream. If that is so, then you have another body somewhere else. Essentially you are either singularly here, or you are in two places at once, Master Lester.” That’s just peachy: so not only am I a clone of some fellow named Chris, I may exist in two places at the same time. Now I know it was all a dream, but in that moment everything sure felt real.

“Second, Master Dion, you have expressed an ability to make anything you produce useful and easy-to-sort. Anything that comes into your mind, you have made sure that it will not just be junk. Anything you produce will be manageable according to its weight. Now this would have made Lester’s job easier – much easier – that is, if he actually had to do any work.”

“If?” Dion said, he gaze resting on me now. It was news to me too.

“Which brings me to Master Lester’s lone new-found ability.”

“Just one, huh?” I said, a little miffed.

“Your one ability is more powerful than all of the others combined.”

“Spell it out, then!” I said, brimming with eagerness again.

“Everything that happens here happens because you thought of it, Master Lester.”

“We know that already, Neddy,” I said. “You told us already about the sunny day, and we figured out how the axe fell from the sky.”

“It is more than that,” Ned went a little further. “Haven’t you wondered why you haven’t felt hungry? Haven’t you questioned why you are not tired, on account of either fatigue or lack of sleep? Perhaps you noticed that there is no trash for you to sort anymore. All of this stems from the fact that you have not been thinking of these things at all, Master Lester.”

“What exactly are you trying to say, Neddy?” I asked.

“I am explaining that what happens in Pipeline happens solely on account of your thoughts, or the lack of them,” Ned continued. “It was you who determined the name of ship. You enumerated the number of rooms aboard the ship. You made the elevator appear. All of these things happened because of the thoughts inside your head that escaped, and impressed themselves upon Dion’s brain.”

“So, what, am I like God or something?” I asked in disbelief.

“Not you,” Ned answered. “Not by the definition you perceive anyhow. But it is a fact that both of you, Masters Lester and Dion, have the ability to create or do anything in tandem here in Pipeline.” With that, Dion and I looked at each other in awe and fear. I couldn’t help but read his thoughts, in which we were like-minded. Our star-crossed destinies were becoming exponentially more entwined with each passing moment, and our pea-sized brains were having trouble catching up.