Drifting Along the Infinite Spring

Chapter 23 Pt 1 - A Freeway of Forests

"Aw... Is Martha in her feelings?" he teased.

"Me? Are you kidding? 'I... kinda consider you my dad.' Where did that come from?"

"It was sincere! I do kinda consider him my dad. Granted, I'm much older than he is and have been since the day we met. But still..."

Martha stuck out her lower lip. "Poor widdle Jimmy never had a daddy..."

"You're lucky I'm so secure or else..." His voice began to waver comically. "...Your words might have been hurtful."

"Oh relax. I'm just messing with you... Just trying to keep the spark alive now that you've knocked me up."

"Don't worry," he said as he pulled onto the highway entrance ramp. "We've got so many sparks, I really should be wearing protective goggles!" As he accelerated, the canvas top of the Jeep flapped like a tent in a hurricane forcing them to shout over the noise. But it was their intention to feel every last inch of this life and the Jeep fit the bill. The road ahead would be rough and loud and they would embrace every bump and sound.

"Har, har," Martha deadpanned. "Seriously, will you still love me when I'm waddling around like a whale on cankles?"

"Shouldn't even have to dignify that with a response..."

"But you will anyway."

"...But I will anyway. Martha my love, any ideal body type is a construct of the human ego. It is entirely irrelevant to my love for and attraction to you. I want you to be happy and healthy. Whatever shape that presents is the perfect shape for you to be."

"Gee thanks, professor. Anything else?"

"Okay." He thought for a moment, then said, "As you gain weight, I will be reminded that it is for our child growing within you. That weight will represent the sacrifice you're making, the gift our child will be, and the infinite joy their birth will bring."

"Also nice... But strike two."

"Tough crowd! Alright, alright. I got this..." He switched lanes to go around a slow moving truck, then back again to let a street racer scream past. Finally, he appeared ready. "Martha... if one were to have asked me a lifetime ago, or ten lifetimes, or one hundred – I would have said, 'I've reached the end! I cannot possibly love this girl, or woman, or soul any more than I do in this moment.' And yet, here I sit, disproving each claim. For as the universe continues to expand beyond our comprehension, so to my love for you..." He felt for her hand and brought it to his lips. She smiled and felt her chest sparkle.

"Fair enough. You pass." She let him kiss her hand a second time before taking it back. "Speaking of the universe – or universes – I've been thinking about Dr Tanaka."

"Good Ol' Seamus?"

"Mm-hmm. So... he said that every time you die, you don't go on to a new universe, but directly back to the one you were just in. And then you create the new universe once your consciousness returns?"

"Right. Because the previous life has changed me, I'll make different decisions and poof! New universe."

"But then it's not just your first new decision – it must keep happening. Your next decision creates a new universe, then the decision after that..." Martha noticed the freeway signs ahead. "Like, we could take the 5 north and get there sooner or we could take the 101 along the coast which would take longer, but, you know... it would be along the coast. And so there are two universes just hanging there waiting for that decision?"

"More than two," James added.

"Yeah. Way more! Because you could choose the 101 and drive until we need gas or choose it then take the first exit after the split or just slam on your brakes in the middle of the freeway-"

"Will not be slamming on my brakes."

"Which I appreciate... But each choice creates a... a tree of infinite universes branching out, based on every micro-choice we could make thereafter."

"Maybe not infinite..."

"Fine. Sure. Like, your car's not going to suddenly turn into a luck dragon who will fly us to the Southern Oracle."

"Solid reference."

"Thanks. I guess every possible universe is created. And they're..." Martha suddenly thought of the global chaos and suffering she'd caused after their spy games in Hawaii. "They're all real – not just in theory or in our imagination – but they actually exist, superimposed over ours... Happening right next to us..."

"Everything okay?" James asked after a moment.

"Yeah, yeah. Just... feeling claustrophobic all of a sudden."

"No doubt. Because while we're creating universe tree after universe tree, so are all the other drivers." He motioned to the cars and trucks on the freeway. "And their passengers... and people at home... animals even... It helps if you forget about the concept of three dimensional space."

"How's that?"

"Well, where do the ba-zillions of universes go? How do they all fit?"

"It doesn't matter!" Martha concluded. "Because none of them, including ours, actually take up any space." Then, in her best Rod Serling, "'There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and timeless as infinity.'"

"Do-do-do-do. Do-do-do-do," James intoned as he merged onto the 101.

The plan wasn't actually to travel all the way to Canada as they'd told Steven. Instead, their destination was thirteen acres of land just west of the Mendocino National Forest in northern California. And it wouldn't be a gap year for Martha so much as a gap eight months, give or take, before everything would change forever.

The idea had formulated after they left Martha's apartment in Chicago for James' house on the lake in the previous life. She was thoroughly impressed that he'd built the isolated lake house on his own and fell in love with the idea of their own private Walden to build and share with their daughter or son.

And it certainly would be private. The property was thirty miles from the nearest town; five from the nearest neighbor.

Of course, they weren't stupid. Though they planned for a home birth, they would travel to James' residence in San Francisco as her due date approached. It was a modest two bedroom that would triple in value over the next ten years, close enough to a hospital in case something went wrong.

Presently, Martha placed her hand on her stomach. At roughly the size of a grape, he or she was too small to kick. Martha knew, however, that a cascade of miracles was unfolding as they drove, and wondered at the tree of possibilities bursting therefrom.

Author's note:

Again, with the traffic??  Not quite as bad as the first book.  But this is what happens when you write a novel and commute through Los Angeles every day.

Return of like, totally 80's reference:  Hey kids!  Did you know The Neverending Story is an actual movie and not just a song Dustin sang with his girlfriend?  Give it a look!  (And it does actually end in case you've got stuff to do later)

Kind of burying the lead here but... Martha's pregnant!!  Now we get to re-imagine all of the fights we had with our parents if they had been omniscient immortals.  Poor kid!  (Maybe he/she will bond with Steven over it)