Elgie at the End of Time pt 2
Elgie had his ‘casually clever’ face on, looking nonchalant. He was rather hoping to impress Jerry Cornelius with his grasp of the situation.
“So it is either the case that you have chronoloped sidewise from another universe, in which you do exist, or that we have somehow brought you into existence.
“Come again, shorty?” Jerry tended not to over think things like this. He was thinking about something else.
“Well, your appearance at Hollybrook House as a result of Lady Billington-Whych winding up a watch implies that other universes exist, and that they intersect with our own at certain points. They are also so diverse that what is fiction in one of them is fact in another. Or, as I said, you just popped into existence”.
It was exciting as well as rather disconcerting. The writer Michael Morcock’s creations Catherine and Jerry Cornelius, sister and brother, and Una Persson, their fellow traverser of timelines and, apparently, universes, more commonly associated with the 1970s, had popped up in the Timepiece Treasure Trove in 1928 and given the thief something of a fright. They had been dressed as Columbine, Pierrot and Harlequin, as they often were. Given the festive Easter atmosphere they had not looked especially incongruous. But having recognised the trio immediately, and knowing how trouble tended to follow them around and vice-versa, Deirdre realised that she had to get them out of there. So here they all were, back at the office.
“And you say it’s happened before?”, said Una. They had explained about Baby Cthulu.
Elgie continued,”Maybe it happens all the time and people don’t notice it. I mean, we only recognised you because the Cornelius books survive in the canon of anarchist whimsy. We are big fans!”.
Jerry nodded appreciatively, putting the kettle on and snorting a line of coke while it boiled. Catherine patted Elgie on the head and, easily distracted, the dog wagged his tail with delight and turned to helping her arrange Easter Eggs she had pilfered on the way home when the Detective wasn’t looking.
Deidre was excited by the possibilities, if still rather unnerved.
“Tea all round?” Jerry was nodding enthusiastically. Deirdre smiled a smile of resignation. She had stopped a theft, after all, but in all the excitement, had forgotten to get paid.
“I’ll have a very strong camomile please, Jerry dear”.