Chapter 16: The Awakening

I Awoke, With A Start. For A Moment, I Wondered Where I Was. Then Memory Came To Me...

The Room Was Still Lit With That Strange Light--Half-Sun, Half-Moon, Light. I Felt Refreshed, And The Tired, Weary Ache Had Left Me. I Went Slowly Across To The Window, And Looked Out. Overhead, The River Of Flame Drove Up And Down, North And South, In A Dancing Semi-Circle Of Fire. As A Mighty Sleigh In The Loom Of Time It Seemed--In A Sudden Fancy Of Mine--To Be Beating Home The Picks Of The Years. For, So Vastly Had The Passage Of Time Been Accelerated, That There Was No Longer Any Sense Of The Sun Passing From East To West. The Only Apparent Movement Was The North And South Beat Of The Sun-Stream, That Had Become So Swift Now, As To Be Better Described As A Quiver.

As I Peered Out, There Came To Me A Sudden, Inconsequent Memory Of That Last Journey Among The Outer Worlds. I Remembered The Sudden Vision That Had Come To Me, As I Neared The Solar System, Of The Fast Whirling Planets About The Sun--As Though The Governing Quality Of Time Had Been Held In Abeyance, And The Machine Of A Universe Allowed To Run Down An Eternity, In A Few Moments Or Hours. The Memory Passed, Along With A, But Partially Comprehended, Suggestion That I Had Been Permitted A Glimpse Into Further Time Spaces. I Stared Out Again, Seemingly, At The Quake Of The Sun-Stream. The Speed Seemed To Increase, Even As I Looked. Several Lifetimes Came And Went, As I Watched.

Suddenly, It Struck Me, With A Sort Of Grotesque Seriousness, That I Was Still Alive. I Thought Of Pepper, And Wondered How It Was That I Had Not Followed His Fate. He Had Reached The Time Of His Dying, And Had Passed, Probably Through Sheer Length Of Years. And Here Was I, Alive, Hundreds Of Thousands Of Centuries After My Rightful Period Of Years.

For, A Time, I Mused, Absently. ‘Yesterday--’ I Stopped, Suddenly. Yesterday! There Was No Yesterday. The Yesterday Of Which I Spoke Had Been Swallowed Up In The Abyss Of Years, Ages Gone. I Grew Dazed With Much Thinking.

Presently, I Turned From The Window, And Glanced ‘Round The Room. It Seemed Different--Strangely, Utterly Different. Then, I Knew What It Was That Made It Appear So Strange. It Was Bare: There Was Not A Piece Of Furniture In The Room; Not Even A Solitary Fitting Of Any Sort. Gradually, My Amazement Went, As I Remembered, That This Was But The Inevitable End Of That Process Of Decay, Which I Had Witnessed Commencing, Before My Sleep. Thousands Of Years! Millions Of Years!

Over The Floor Was Spread A Deep Layer Of Dust, That Reached Half Way Up To The Window-Seat. It Had Grown Immeasurably, Whilst I Slept; And Represented The Dust Of Untold Ages. Undoubtedly, Atoms Of The Old, Decayed Furniture Helped To Swell Its Bulk; And, Somewhere Among It All, Mouldered The Long-Ago-Dead Pepper.

All At Once, It Occurred To Me, That I Had No Recollection Of Wading Knee-Deep Through All That Dust, After I Awoke. True, An Incredible Age Of Years Had Passed, Since I Approached The Window; But That Was Evidently As Nothing, Compared With The Countless Spaces Of Time That, I Conceived, Had Vanished Whilst I Was Sleeping. I Remembered Now, That I Had Fallen Asleep, Sitting In My Old Chair. Had It Gone... ? I Glanced Toward Where It Had Stood. Of Course, There Was No Chair To Be Seen. I Could Not Satisfy Myself, Whether It Had Disappeared, After My Waking, Or Before. If It Had Mouldered Under Me, Surely, I Should Have Been Waked By The Collapse. Then I Remembered That The Thick Dust, Which Covered The Floor, Would Have Been Sufficient To Soften My Fall; So That It Was Quite Possible, I Had Slept Upon The Dust For A Million Years Or More.

As These Thoughts Wandered Through My Brain, I Glanced Again, Casually, To Where The Chair Had Stood. Then, For The First Time, I Noticed That There Were No Marks, In The Dust, Of My Footprints, Between It And The Window. But Then, Ages Of Years Had Passed, Since I Had Awaked--Tens Of Thousands Of Years!

My Look Rested Thoughtfully, Again Upon The Place Where Once Had Stood My Chair. Suddenly, I Passed From Abstraction To Intentness; For There, In Its Standing Place, I Made Out A Long Undulation, Rounded Off With The Heavy Dust. Yet It Was Not So Much Hidden, But That I Could Tell What Had Caused It. I Knew--And Shivered At The Knowledge--That It Was A Human Body, Ages-Dead, Lying There, Beneath The Place Where I Had Slept. It Was Lying On Its Right Side, Its Back Turned Toward Me. I Could Make Out And Trace Each Curve And Outline, Softened, And Moulded, As It Were, In The Black Dust. In A Vague Sort Of Way, I Tried To Account For Its Presence There. Slowly, I Began To Grow Bewildered, As The Thought Came To Me That It Lay Just About Where I Must Have Fallen When The Chair Collapsed.