And there were animals.
Or should I say, "creatures"? The first ones to come ambling up were a pair of cats that hadn't quite made it into twins-there were two of them from the middle forward, but at the end of the rib cage, they joined, and only had one set of hindquarters. A single tail snaked around and tickled the ear of the head that had its eyes shut; they opened, and the other head's eyelids closed.
That unnerved me, not to mention its offending me - how would you feel if someone sauntered up to you and fell asleep? "What's the matter?" I asked the wide-awake head. "Early morning last night?"
"Nay," the cat answered, which somehow didn't surprise me. "He has died-and I have come alive."
I stared.
Then I said, "Is he going to come alive again, too?"
"Aye, at some odd moment. We can never know when, though. We know that when he lives, I die, for the two of us cannot both be alive at one time."
Something connected. "I thought that only applied when you were in your box," I said.
"Nay," he contradicted me. "When we go home to our box, both become comatose-neither alive nor dead."
"Till someone opens the lid," I said. "You're Schredinger's Cat." Which explained the joined hindquarters - only the front part had split into two time lines yet.
The cat turned to the Demon with a look of surprised approval.
"You have found a mortal with some modicum of sense."
"No," I said, "just a little knowledge."
"Then you are very dangerous."
"More than you know," the Demon sang. "I did not find him - he called for me!"
The cat looked at me and shuddered. "You could visit chaos upon us all! "
"I could?" I said blankly, then realized that I was throwing away a bargaining chip. "Oh, yeah, I could! I wouldn't, of course - especially since your friend Maxwell's Demon has helped me out of a tight spot. "
"A hot spot, rather," the Demon explained. " 'Twas like to fry his brains. " The cat looked at me as if that might be an improvement. "Can you not send him back?"
"Aye, when the night has come, and coolness with it" I glanced around at the alien setting, feeling kind of nervous. "If you don't mind the waiting." I wasn't sure I didn't.
"Oh, we need not wait!" the Demon sang. "From this space-time, we may project you to any point within your own."
"Oh," I said, feeling stupid. "You mean I'm not even in the same universe?"
"Nay. This realm lies between universes."
"Then it's a universe of its own."
"Mayhap, though I would be reluctant to term it so, when it is so small."
I sat bolt-upright, galvanized by a sudden revelation. "Then you could just as easily send me back to my home universe!"
"I could," the Demon agreed. "Do you wish it?" That brought me up short. I frowned, considering alternatives, Angelique, and the fun I'd been having not working magic, and Angelique, and the adventure, and Angelique, and the friends I'd gained - or companions, at least - and Angelique, and the fact that I felt as if I was worth something. Especially to Angelique. Okay, there was danger in it, too, but at least it wasn't boring. "No," I said slowly, "not just yet."
After all, I couldn't commit myself to not committing myself, could I?
"Then to the universe of Allustria, whence you came," the cat urged.
But the Demon asked, "Are there many like you, in your home universe?"
"Not enough for comfort." I frowned; a long horizontal plane was coming into focus, looking like a fence made out of a continuous sheet of plywood. "Like me in what way?"
"In believing in Maxwell's Demon."
"Oh." I relaxed, shaking my head. "No, not many. Maybe a million."
"A million!"
"Out of three billion," I said quickly. "Even out of the ones who know about you, most of them think you're just a scientific fable."
"But we are," the Demon and the cat sang together, and the Demon went on, "This is the home of all such fables - and of those of logic and reason, too."
But I was distracted by the big eyeballs and the long nose peeking over the fence. When I glanced directly at them, though, they disappeared. "What's he doing here?"
The Demon didn't even look. " 'Tis as much his home as Yehudi's."
"Yehudi"' I glanced around, noting a series of level planes rising away off to' my left, like a staircase - but it was empty. "I don't see him. "
"Of course not; the little man is not there," the cat said contemptuously. Behind him, I noticed two guys with saffron robes and bald heads, sitting in lotus position facing each other; each was holding a light bulb, but one was so dark it must have been burned out.
"I suppose that makes sense," I said. "Then the Gremlin is here, too?"
"Shh!" The cat glanced about with apprehension. "Speak not of him, for if he comes, he will make all go awry."
"I don't think so; we've been getting to know each other." I felt in still wasn't home - and even better, better, knowing the Gremlin from the cat's look of surprise. I noticed a guy with medium-length hair and a very bland face, in a powder-blue oxford-cloth shirt, blue jeans, and running sneakers, strolling along the row of polygons.
"Who's he?"
"The Norm" the Demon sang.
"I thought he didn't really exist."
"Be still!" the cat spat, but he was too late. The Norm faded away and disappeared. "Now you have done it." The cat sighed, "It will take him many days to believe in himself strongly enough to manifest again," so I whispered the next one.
"Sorry," I said, feeling very guilty, "Who's the anorexic over there?" I was talking about the guy who was a stick figure, like the ones kids draw-a featureless circle on top, with straight lines for arms and legs and torso.
"The Statistical Abstract," the Demon hummed softly. "You need not fear; he will not go away."
A robot came clanking up and ground to a halt.
I stepped back, ready for trouble. "He doesn't belong here! Where I come from, he's real - these days!"
"Only my body," a voice said, but the robot's mouth just opened once, and a wispy form drifted out of it to float in midair before us.
"I had wondered how long 'twould be ere you came amongst us!"
"Hey, I know you!" I said. "You're the philosophy assignment I really resented!"
"The Ghost in the Machine," the breezy voice agreed. "Wherefore did you resent me?"
"Not you," I said, "just having to prove that you didn't exist, when something inside me told me you did!"
"Indeed I do, but only in this realm that defies all logic, agreed the ghost "Oh," I said. "So that's why you thought I'd come here some day."
"Indeed," the ghost agreed. "Do you still rail against reason, even as you practice it?"
"Not really," I said with a smile. "Kant got me out of that."
"Even so," said the large, egg-shaped guy who came strolling up. I looked closer and realized he really was an egg. " 'Tis even as I've said about words - only a matter of whether they will master you, or You will master them"
"Right." I nodded. "Logic's just a tool. You can't let it run your life by itself." But I was bothered by the implication of his knowing my inner thoughts so well - was I really as much of a fence sitter as he was?