Inside, everything was empty and terrifying. Instead of a bloody fall, I heard:
— Why do you keep refusing such a profitable offer?
I snapped my eyes open. I was sitting across from the smiling gentleman, unable to say anything. I tried to catch my breath and pull myself together after what I’d just been through. My knuckles ached. My new jeans were splattered with blood.
— What was that? — I breathed out.
— Your future. If you turn down my offer, you’ll get your diploma in two years, go home. In seven years you’ll cripple your wife, rob your son of the power of speech, throw yourself off a fifth-floor balcony. You’ll end up here, and I’ll be the one running your fate from then on. You, young man, are a suicide. Your place is in hell.
What could I say to that?
— Two options: you end it in suicide and end up here, as prescribed, or you sign a contract and come back here, as agreed. There is no third option, — the gentleman continued. — That’s your calling. Fate.
My capacity for logical thought returned. «Bravo,» the gentleman’s eyes seemed to say approvingly.
— How do I know it’ll happen that way? Maybe you’re lying. How do I know you’re telling the truth?
— Nursing illusions? Don’t bother. It’ll happen exactly like that and no other way. As for truth, let me answer you. I never tell the truth. Don’t twitch. I never tell the truth because there’s no such thing. There is no truth as such.
— What do you mean, there isn’t?
— Just that, — an ironic smile slid across the gentleman’s face. — There are only empty words.
— And the truth?
— It doesn’t exist.
— ?
— It can’t be explained in a couple of sentences. If you’re not in a hurry, listen. God created me to interact with the physical world. Then, a couple of million years later, he threw in human beings to help out. Why — I still don’t understand, we’ll get into that in the sequel. But right now the conversation isn’t about bipeds. For millions of years everything ran to the established order: God thinks, I act, the livestock stirs. But yesterday — or rather, a hundred thousand years ago — God had a whim. Plugged people into himself. The old man likes to experiment. He decided to teach the ugliest animal around abstract thought and planning. Complete nonsense followed — feuds, squabbles, grudges out of nowhere. Understand?
— No.
— Before man, there were things and beasts in the world, and they got on fine. After man came along, words appeared to describe those things and beasts. Then meanings appeared, understandable only to those who can speak.
The gentleman fell silent, his whole manner suggesting that words were nothing, that silence was golden, and behind it lay divine meaning. I still understood nothing at all. The gentleman went on:
— Here’s the thing: first the world appeared, then people appeared, who invented words to name things. Five thousand years ago, the adjectival function of speech became the dominant one. Instead of simply narrating events, man started loading words with ideas. Words came to carry more meaning than the things they stood for. And that was the beginning of the trouble. Right now, the meaning of a word depends not on the thing itself but on the circumstances under which the word is spoken... I see you’re bored.
— I didn’t understand any of it, — I admitted honestly.
— I was trying to get across to you that there’s no truth in the world. There are only words, whose meaning depends on circumstance!
Seemed like I’d finally caught the point of the conversation. The gentleman was messing with me! Let me take a swing:
— So everything I’ve heard from you is a lie.
— Yes, my words are pure lies, — the gentleman didn’t so much as blink. — But so is everything you’ve ever heard before, and everything you’ll ever hear after.
— You’ve completely confused me.
— Happens. Every person’s got one of these sitting on their shoulders, — the gentleman pointed a finger at his own head. Then shifted the finger to point at mine.
I suddenly felt like scratching the top of my head, hollering «Ah, if only I had a mountain of money!» and hurling my cap to the ground! The gentleman paid no attention to my sudden shift of mood.
— A unique device. Not built for holding up a hat. Analyze, reflect. For example, — the gentleman took two yellow pebbles from his pocket and tossed them onto the table. — Some people insist that two times two is four. Correct?
— Yes.
— And indeed, it’s conventionally believed that two times two equals four. Now watch, — the gentleman produced two more blue stones. — Two on the table and two in my hand, we add these to those.
He tossed the blue ones in with the yellow. The pebbles flashed with little sparks, hissed, and turned into five green stones, the same size as before.
— Five, — the gentleman smiled.
— That’s impossible.
— Did you see it?
— Yes.
— Do you trust your own eyes?
— Yes.
— So then it happened?
— No.
— You’re a fanatic.
