human
You know, I bet this old chaise-longue could many a tale unfold,
gpt
Well, according to rumor, many have been unfolded on it.
human
Professor, your mind wanders. I'm thinking of its previous condition of servitude. Think of the dreams it used to hear.
gpt
This afternoon you're working with the microscope, and last night it was the telescope. You were in the observatory until dawn.
human
How did you find that out?
gpt
I have my methods, Watson. I don't see how you expect to keep going on no sleep at all. Russ is worried about you.
human
Pro or con?
gpt
Pro, of course. He likes you very much. In fact, he thinks you are the best brain on the faculty.
human
Coming from the president, that's praise indeed. Phil got up and went to a desk, where he looked at some notes.
gpt
Speaking as my boss's wife, would you say he was pro or con about this work I'm doing?
human
I would say he can't make it out. Alternating between the Microcosm and the Macrocosm. Incidentally, why don't they call that thing in the observatory a macroscope? I don't think Russ is very good at understanding the unfamiliar. I was telling him about the concept of hyper-time the other day, and his reaction was one of solicitude--he got me a drink. Katherine stretched her arms.
gpt
What are you doing now?
human
Checking some figures. You know, that was odd, your bringing up the business of hyper-time. This thing I'm working on seems to involve it.
gpt
Oh? Katherine put her arms behind her head again.
human
Tell me something, Phil--what does he look like?
gpt
Doctor Russell Farley?
human
Yes. I suppose it's a funny sort of question to ask about one's husband. How does he look to you?
gpt
Like the youngest college president in America, I guess. Brawny but brainy. You make what they call a handsome couple.
human
Yes, I was going to ask you what I looked like, only it's a waste of time. People never tell you.
gpt
I can, Phil said,
human
As a matter of fact, it's silly of me to ask, she went on.
gpt
I wouldn't understand. I don't even know what 'pretty' means, although I have a dim idea what 'ugly' does. Color is another enigma to me. Somebody once told me it's like a smell, but when I get a bad cold, I can't remember what smells are like. It's like not being able to think of the word 'bubble' when your mouth is wide open--you think of '_Ah_-uh.'
human
I'll tell you one thing about yourself, Phil said.
gpt
You don't look as though....
human
As though I was blind?
gpt
Correct. And it's incredible the way you get around. You never bump into anything, and you look people right in the eye when they talk to you.
human
They say it's hearing faint echoes from an obstacle--like a bat. Personally, I _feel_ the wall in front of me. I admit when my ears are stopped up I can't hear the wall, but I'm not so sure that's a convincing proof. It's the same with pit vipers--some smart investigator discovered that when you plug up their little heat-detecting organs--I guess those are the pits--they can't locate warm prey in the dark. Conversely, in the dark and not plugged up, they will strike at a hot-water bottle.
gpt
Sounds pretty convincing to me,
human
Tush, Katherine said.
gpt
How about people not wanting to smoke in the dark? Does that prove that the sense of taste depends on sight? _I_ smoke. In fact, you might bring me a cigarette and an ashtray. The only reason most blind people don't smoke is they're afraid of fire. She took the cigarette Phil brought her.
human
Thanks.
gpt
Aren't you afraid of fire?
human
Of course not. I can detect a match flame at fifteen feet.
gpt
You ought to go to Duke University sometime and have Rhine take a look at you.
human
I did. All he said was 'Hmm,' and I joined the other statistics.
gpt
Damn! from Phil peering into the electron microscope, and the warm sun lay across Katherine's lap. Finally he straightened up and switched off the current.
human
Well, it's there, all right,
gpt
What is?
human
The red shift.
gpt
Aren't you confusing things? she said.
human
You're not in the observatory now, Buster; this is the lab. I thought the red shift was the recession of the distant galaxies ... whatever 'red' is.
gpt
Quite right, Holmes. However, in this case, it's the recession of the not-so-distant atoms. They are small-sized solar systems, too, in a way, and when I say 'red' I mean something I can only infer mathematically, because I'm not dealing with light in the ordinary sense.
human
You mean they're _receding_?
gpt
Only in this context, he said.
human
Motion is length over time; in this case, it's length over hyper-time, so they're still here in the lab.
gpt
I'm relieved to hear it, she said.
human
However, I should think they'd be receding into tomorrow.
gpt
They are, but into yesterday, and new ones from tomorrow are continually coming in to take their place. It's like Fred Hoyle's theory of the continuous birth of hydrogen.
human
You're making me feel like my poor husband, Katherine said.
gpt
I understand the necessity of hyper-time to describe the motion of consciousness along time, but what's this got to do with the atoms?