Tom has a faux Tom attend classes. Sometimes it\u2019s a wave. Sometimes it\u2019s a particle. This leaves his Lethal Professors, overall, perplexed.<\/p>\n
Tom stares at the still, non-chaotic walls surrounding his room and his mind.<\/p>\n
After a while Cheryl says, \u201cIt\u2019s not your fault, you know. The world isn\u2019t made for happy endings.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot my<\/em> \u2014\u201d he starts, outraged.<\/p>\n He stops.<\/p>\n He looks at her. He says, reluctantly, \u201cI suppose I should thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou were dying,\u201d she says. \u201cI could fold stuff. So I folded it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt would have worked really well,\u201d Tom says, \u201cif it hadn\u2019t meant me dying and the world probably eventually reverting into a pointless, purposeless mass of unconscious impulses.\u201d<\/p>\n She gives him a thumbs-up.<\/p>\n \u201cMy evil adoptive uncle,\u201d he says, \u201cgot poetic justice. I think. Is it poetic justice when a space princess assassin kills you using rock-paper-scissors?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019ve slaughtered your way through space playing hobbit-Spock-spider,\u201d says Cheryl.<\/p>\n \u201cHm,\u201d says Tom.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you just invent calculus,\u201d she says, \u201cI\u2019m not so sure.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCalc \u2014 oh.\u201d<\/p>\n Tom looks embarrassed.<\/p>\n \u201cI actually just tell<\/em> people that Newton was my evil adoptive uncle,\u201d says Tom. \u201cMy real evil adoptive uncle was a dissolute milliner named Bertram with half-flesh and half-gold for a face.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d wondered,\u201d Cheryl admits.<\/p>\n \u201cI always thought that was kind of undignified,\u201d says Tom. \u201cSo I substituted old Isaac! He\u2019s the best.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t have an evil adoptive uncle,\u201d Cheryl explains, \u201cso I didn\u2019t want to challenge your story.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou didn\u2019t?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI had an aunt,\u201d Cheryl says. She gestures vaguely, possibly indicating her aunt\u2019s height or general direction. \u201cBut I folded her. I didn\u2019t mean to, but I folded and she died.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat sucks,\u201d says Tom. \u201cI\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMm.\u201d<\/p>\n Then Tom frowns.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought you said \u2014\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI choose<\/em> not to fold people,\u201d Cheryl says. \u201cI did not really mean to imply that I could<\/em> not<\/em> fold people. You learn to see the possibilities for origami in anything, after a while.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBack when,\u201d says Tom, \u201cI wanted to bring him back. It was how all this started. I saw him dead, and thought \u2014 wait. How can something just end like that? I want a different <\/em>ending. Come back, Bertram Gulley!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGulley?\u201d<\/p>\n Tom makes a dismissive gesture. It\u2019s not important. \u201cBut if he did<\/em> come back, I would just punch him in half of his face. So I don\u2019t know. Possibly then we\u2019d laugh. Or he\u2019d shoot me down with a rocket. We had a kind of . . .\u201d<\/p>\n Tom waves a hand.<\/p>\n \u201cA thing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI hear you,\u201d says Cheryl.<\/p>\n \u201cNow all I want,\u201d says Tom, \u201cis to make the world one thing \u2014 one bright flow of purpose. So that the dead don\u2019t have to be dead, and Linus doesn\u2019t have to be empty and the antichrist, and I can be glad I\u2019m alive.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd to be an ophidian planet-inheritor again,\u201d she says. \u201cInstead of just a human.\u201d<\/p>\n Tom looks away. \u201cAnd that,\u201d he admits.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd to have everyone who ever laughed at you,\u201d she says, \u201cTremble before you, and say \u2018sorry.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHardly anyone ever actually laughed at me,\u201d Tom says. \u201cYou have acquired an inaccurate impression from my occasional vigorous ranting.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd to \u2014\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEnough,\u201d he says. He looks at her. \u201cI am only one thing,\u201d he says. \u201cSo I have to aim for a single ending.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI stole back your otter,\u201d Cheryl informs him. She tosses it to him.<\/p>\n \u201cOh,\u201d he says. \u201cThank you!\u201d<\/p>\n And it lives happily ever after \u2014 the dead otter \u2014 amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tom has a faux Tom attend classes. Sometimes it\u2019s a wave. Sometimes it\u2019s a particle. This leaves his Lethal Professors, overall, perplexed. Tom stares at the still, non-chaotic walls surrounding his room and his mind. After a while Cheryl says, \u201cIt\u2019s not your fault, you know. The world isn\u2019t made for happy endings.\u201d \u201cNot my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"series":[50],"class_list":["post-5594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vidars-boot-chapter-3","series-vidars-boot"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Icon_Jewel_NoBG.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5594"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6067,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5594\/revisions\/6067"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5594"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fseries&post=5594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}