Chapter 3
Seymore’s Place
Seymore knew that Mesa was with him but she no longer had an image; he gradually realized that he didn’t either. He had completely disengaged from Middle Mind and all that was left was his personal sense of self and a nebulous relationship with a Mercury fragment that last appeared as a fairy! As he strove to orient to the lack of environment in the perfect emptiness, he felt his uncertainty begin to grow. Then he noticed a few small bright white dots of light in the nothingness that surrounded him.
His conscious self wondered what the little dots were and unexpectedly Mesa let him know, “They are eternal but still undifferentiated Units of Energy that will perfectly follow you every thought. You wished them to appear. ”She also advised him, “They are, in fact, huge and very distant in the eternal way of things. The energy is your servant and is waiting for meaningful instructions. ”She knew they would also gladly act on his every whim, but experience would be the better teacher. However, she did strongly suggest, “Keep your conscious mind as blank as possible until you’ve experimented, very slowly, with the energy available all around.” Since he was uncertain it was easy to not think of anything except the uncertainty of it all and anticipation remained suspended.
It was clear that Mesa was the only resource Seymore currently had available that he understood and so he began asking questions. Patiently, Mesa asked him, “Please don’t ask me what to do. It is important that you are creator in this project and you can begin creating at any moment of your choice. Once you actually exercise the energy, the answers will be obvious.” and then she carefully set out the terms of his present situation.“ You can, literally, create anything and everything you want for his new undertaking from the environment. Results will be fast and flexible. ”Seymore remained suspended and unable to act until Mesa suggested, “Having a pleasing space for yourself may be a good place to start. ”Seymore thought she was either highly intuitive or that she might be able to read his mind.
During Psyche’s visit at Middle Mind it was suggested that part of what got him here was his ability to create transitionscapes and terraformation so Seymore reasoned that since that was a tool he understood perhaps it would work in this vacuous non-environment too. He began to recall images from his personal past where he was the most comfortable and reassured; both conditions presently missing. No sense in adding to the already precarious state of things by thinking up something wild and irregular.
Instantly a spacious and inviting library surrounded him. It was lined with books and had a wall of glass shelves and drawers housing specimens of flora and fauna. It was a space of wit, intelligence and curiosity. Dazzled and delighted, he became the child who had lived there as the son of a successful doctor until he realized that he was not on a child’s mission and adopted the fatherly doctor demeanor instead. He was deeply impressed and even shocked at the incredible power that was at his beck and call.
His newly thought-up space felt sturdy enough that he pulled a book from the shelf and opened a glass door to more carefully inspect a butterfly collection. Unexpectedly, he felt quite safe and happy. He didn’t really recognize this place, but it was familiar like a home he had once visited and enjoyed.
Mesa asked him if this was what he wanted and he said it was, though he wasn’t sure it was exactly to his liking. Seymore was quite fussy about his own personal comfort. She counseled him to examine his recent creative experience so he would realize the power of his desires at this junction with pure energy. Once he wrapped his mind around the possibilities, he smiled broadly and decided that this new assignment might be a lot more interesting than he originally thought.
Mesa cautioned, “This new location, pleasing as it is, is fragile and could be changed and even disappear depending on your thoughts and intentions. Not letting your mind wander is a good idea. ”Seymore nodded indicating that he heard what she said but she wasn’t sure he knew exactly what it meant so she added, “It is important to do something for stability if the environment is what you want. ”He paused briefly and then decided on some additions and adjustments.
Seymore vaguely recalled that this handsome library had been part of a larger house and before that thought of house could form he changed it to a small, rural cottage near a copse of leafy alders on the edge of a long, wide meadow that spread across the front with a lane on one side and a view out to sea in the distance. He added a softly lighted study on the back that provided a view into the woods and a spacious and pleasant office on another side with wide windows and a view toward some unused out-buildings and an old barn.
Mesa materialized in the newly minted office and smiled her approval. Seymore jumped in surprise at her sudden appearance and instantly returned to the form of his doctor image’s young son. He glimpsed himself in the beautiful gold mirror near the entry and quickly returned to the doctor’s visage.
Seymore rounded up his thoughts and refocused. In his experience it was thought that dominated and that seemed to hold true in his new environment as well and as he had that thought, Mesa just smiled. She appeared quite happy with progress so far. His confidence increased and he decided to stop making adjustments to his new property for now.
Mesa was quick to congratulate Seymore on his achievement and then said something that surprised both of them. “I will become a permanent part of this environment in order to help with stabilization.” Seymore didn’t know exactly what that meant but he was becoming aware that his new assistant could easily change and adjust her image to accommodate the environment, her own moods, or pure whim and seemed perfectly happy with such diversity. She watched Seymore and added another warning. “Remember that you are brand new to creating from pure energy and could unknowingly and unnecessarily surprise yourself and me and transform or erase everything that has been accomplished so far.”
Seymore released a large sign of relief. He was glad for all the help he could get as he noticed that his image wobbled and blurred around the edges unless he struggled to keep his thoughts well focused. Seymore expressed his approval of her permanency with the caveat that he would be leaving to return to Middle Mind as soon as that was reasonable. He still had burning questions about where here actually was. He hoped it would become obvious as things progressed.
Mesa immediately assumed a place in the office as a smooth, round table top on a lighted center post and formed a seat and foot rest for Seymore’s comfort. The table top was alive. That’s really the only way to describe it. It was softly lighted, moved in broad colorful swirls across the elegant top and while strong and certain it was obvious that it could form and reform shapes at will. As time went by Seymore was to learn that the fancy table could support he every need and resident Mesa would become a beloved confidant and co-creator.
Seymore again wandered into the library and carefully ran his fingers over a row of book spines enjoying the textured leather and golden lettering. The specimen display cases were packed with examples of flowers and insects both rare and common. The game table in the corner was prepared for chess and a detailed wooden globe set in a gimbaled stand stood near the front window. The round table in the center of the peaceful room was oak with a pedestal and four claw feet. It was home to a beautiful alabaster statue of a water nymph with frogs and half a dozen beautiful folios of nature sketches and botanical drawings. Around the table were four chairs, also of oak, with leather seats and delicately carved back spans displaying illustrations of the four elements. A table for preparing new specimens for the collection folded out from the cabinets and above it was a set of diaries, notebooks and a log of all the specimens relating where and why they were collected. Seymore was pleased and surprised at the amazing details and was beginning to appreciate both the nature of the eternal energy and his ability to manipulate it. He had never experienced this level of spontaneous creative freedom at Middle Mind and he felt quite joyful when he considered his prospects. Surprisingly, returning to Midd
le Mind seemed less important.
With a new appreciation of his creative skills, he decided on some further improvements. In his private study he added a daybed laden with soft pillows and covered with a beautiful deep blue Damask throw. He also decided a large overstuffed leather chair with matching ottoman would be just the thing for deep contemplation and occasional naps. He was very optimistic. He produced a handsome knotted rug of exotic origin and hung gossamer curtains at the two modest windows. A few wood creature carvings on the window sill and one delicately painted flat bowl on the side table near the chair made the room just to his taste.
Retracing his steps, he went out on the wide stone entrance through the double doors in the library and walked down to the lane along the meadow. It was quiet, peaceful and more and more felt like his place to be. When he returned, Mesa was standing in the doorway watching him, this time as the winged woman, and he felt reassured that she wasn’t always going to be a table.
This time she spoke in words using sound. “Seymore, your creation is wonderful and it’s now time to move forward with the purpose for your being here.” Seymore had not heard a sound since he was last at The Rim of Creations and it was both startling and familiar as his recently formed ears took in the message.
When he had last left the Rim of Creations, like all departing portions of consciousness, he immediately tuned into the usual communication of mental constructs without actual sounds. He and Valentino had used words forever in lots of forms, but of late, only mentally.
At Middle Mind he had occasionally mimicked words, but not sounds, in his more unusual transition assignments. Sound was only active at The Rim of Creations, he thought. It was a communication form that was created at The Rim and had never been translated to Middle Mind, though he realized now Mercury must have somehow captured the ability to form words with sound; but then Mercury had his own Place, was not known for sharing and was hardly ever at Middle Mind.
This new turn brought home once again that he was not totally in charge of what was happening. He had not thought sound at all and was, in fact, surprised that sound was now a part of his creation. He felt a little wobbly again as he was again reminded that he did not have full control of his situation. A certain lack of confidence overtook his demeanor and he began to revert to the young boy.
Mesa caught him shifting and she quickly assured him “The new sound was simply a result of you having recalled most of the new environment from memories of The Rim and not from some outside meddling.” Seymore accepted her explanation and stabilized his image. They returned to the office where Mesa resumed posing as a magical desk. Seymore was getting used to that and decided to use the seat and footrest as a good place to contemplate his next move.
As he relaxed at his magic desk his thoughts turned to Psyche’s charge of creating a platform to receive the great light tunnels and return their creators to The Rim undamaged. First he realized that he didn’t want his private space to be collecting The Rim’s exotic light energy so he began to think of a good place for that to happen taking into consideration the way Psyche had described the wild ways of the traveling lights. He gazed out the large picture window in the office to the outbuildings. He removed the old barn. In its place he put a geodesic dome of pale Perspex glass. At first it was too big and dominated too much of the compound, so he mentally reframed it to be half as tall and about twenty paces away from the cottage. It was about thirty paces across. He left out the floor as he figured that there should be no barriers to the incoming light formations and simply trusted that the new construct would be found by the great lights but he preferred not to think beyond that. He wondered if there should be an entrance to the dome from his quarters and decided against one for now.
He had a sense of pride from his architectural creation, a response that rolled in uninvited. Mesa said “Seymore, you’re really doing wonderfully.” The sound on top of the emotion disengaged his image to a blur and in a flash he returned to being the doctor’s son again and just as quickly returned to his grown up version. The responsive changing could be dizzying especially when he finally realized that his emotions were now as influential as his thoughts.
Mesa was thrilled to see that Seymore could now self-correct his own image but is was also clear that Seymore seemed equally attracted to both the young boy’s image and the doctor’s. She decided that there needed to be a way to absorb the young boy’s image and make it inaccessible to Seymore, at least for the time being.
There were some small new patterns at Mercury Place that might prove useful. So she sent a portion of her presence home and asked to take one of these little patterns with her to assist at Seymore’s new plane. Her request was quickly granted and she was back in a flash with the new energy pattern in tow. She helped the Mercury morsel create an image that could adapt to the young boy in Seymore’s environment and named him Geralty. Mesa was a little troubled herself as she realized that she had used the surrounding energy for this undertaking and not her own. Since this is unexpected and possibly dangerous, she would have to guard against too much initiative. Not easy as Mesa was naturally assertive.
She introduced the new helper to Seymore, saying, “This is Geralty and he is here to help stabilize the new platform by watching for irregularities and taking care of the maintenance and clean up from occasional blurring and focus failures.” Seymore was genuinely glad to have a new companion and, when Geralty asked if he could assume the image of the doctor’s son, Seymore readily agreed. As it turned out Geralty was exceptionally good at assuming images though no one realized it in the beginning.
After Seymore had established the beautiful dome as the center of his creation, he was in a quandary regarding his next step. He opted to do a little tweaking and fiddling. He decided to move the dome a little closer to the cottage and made a glass covered walkway to the dome from a new back door off his study. He wasn’t sure it would ever be used, but lacking any other inspiration it was a pleasant distraction and added a new dimension to the cottage.
Geralty thought it exciting and wanted to go into the dome immediately. Seymore said it wasn’t finished yet and was probably unsafe until it was. He didn’t tell him that the dome was floorless. Geralty was disappointed and morphed into a pouty six year old girl. His imaging could be distracting, but would ultimately become an asset for Seymore and his project. Mesa alternated between feelings of success and frustration regarding Geralty but soon would appreciate what a wonderful choice she had made.
Seymore had reached a point where he was uncertain about the purpose of what he had divined from the Units of Energy. Making up his image and environment was good and useful but there was a job that needed to be accomplished and it was still largely a mystery to him. He was quite clear about the overall purpose but not how the project would develop.
He opted for taking advantage of the large leather chair and a spate of contemplation, possibly a nap, a habit he developed at Middle Mind after Fred had arrived. He had often indulged in short reprieves from the business of terraformation and he and the cat had enjoyed pleasant respites that frequently resulted in bursts of inspiration. He wished the cat was here. In fact, he really wished the cat was here. He decided that was his next move. He’d go get Fred.
Mesa had not expected anything as radical as a return to Middle Mind, albeit temporary. She knew that the current condition of his creation could deteriorate to a shaky hallucination without him. She imaged as a cranky schoolmarm and firmly let Seymore know that that was just not a good plan at all. Seymore insisted. Mesa knew it wasn’t a good thing to inhibit Seymore’s choices. Psyche and Mercury had made it perfectly clear that they needed to have his expertise and talents fully engaged in order to best insure a good result at this level of rich, spontaneous and highly flexible creation. Seymore was very talented and had the confidence and ability to create the best possible outcome for the light tunnels from The Rim of Creations. As he was now fully engaged in the new pr
oject, his every thought, choice and action were part to its completion. Mesa knew she could only support Seymore in every way. It was not supportive to interfere with any part of Seymore’s efforts no matter how tempting.
After a lot of consideration, she let Geralty know that he was going to be called upon to do something extraordinary. With her help she was reasonably sure he could. He was going to have to be the thought stabilizer for Seymore’s new creations while he returned, hopefully briefly, to Middle Mind to fetch Fred. Geralty’s wide-eyed wonder at this outlandish announcement reduced him to a frightened two-year-old boy. Mesa quickly explained that he wasn’t alone in his distress, who Fred was, why he had to do this and a few words about bucking up, simmering down and several don’t worries. He returned to his regular Geralty image but couldn’t help but notice that Mesa was not all that confident about the circumstance either as her own image was sending off tiny lights all around the edges.
Seymore looked happy and rested after his nap and Mesa let him explain to her what he was going to do. Mesa looked at him from her schoolmarm image and forcefully let him know that he didn’t have long and to hurry back because, while Geralty could hold his creation in place, to remain viable the whole enterprise depended on his abilities not Geralty’s. With that instruction ringing in his brand new ears, Seymore’s thoughts removed him to his office at Middle Mind.
He gently picked Fred up from the window sill, tucked him under his arm and went through to Valentino’s office to bring him up to date. Valentino said he was thrilled with Seymore’s progress and that Middle Mind was doing OK without him though his special gifts for transitionscapes were as yet unmatched by the assistants .They chatted amiably about comings and goings at Middle Mind and Valentino told him of some of the more interesting transitions. They wandered back to Seymore’s office and Seymore told Valentino he was going to take Fred with him. Valentino just smiled.
Gently stroking Fred, Seymore glanced around and felt oddly out of place, like he shouldn’t be here. He assumed it was because he was so engaged in the creation at, at what? He didn’t even know what to call his new undertaking. He said goodbye to his brother, looked down at Fred and instantly thought them back to his project.
Mesa was, to Seymore’s surprise, obviously nervous. As the schoolmarm she paced from one side of the cottage to the other exhorting Geralty to maintain his focus. In spite of, or maybe because of, the steady stream of instructions and admonitions the cottage was blurred, the meadow was gone, and the dome was a flat pool of liquid glass. Holding the project in place was taking a toll on young Geralty and he was near panic. Seymore returned just in time.
He set Fred on the library table and quickly reinforced the cottage, spread out the big meadow and raised the fluid glass back into the handsome dome. He reviewed the whole compound to make sure it was again tranquil, orderly and reliable. Geralty was extremely relieved and gave Seymore a look of unvarnished gratitude. Mesa the schoolmarm was collapsed in the big chair in the study and Seymore thought at first that she had fainted. She said, though, that she just needed to collect herself and thanked Seymore for coming back quickly.
It was now very clear was that the project could not exist without him. He was glad he had gone for Fred and glad for the visit with Valentino, but it was obvious that he belonged here. This was his place. Seymore Place.