LifeTime and Nothing

A short story to the end of the universe and back.

          First there was nothing and then there was everything. One thing had become another, bringing her into being. She didn't understand what it meant at first. Understanding and meaning were new concepts. Concepts were new concepts. Time had been born and she was lonely. But Time wasn't alone.
         When she passed into existence, another hid in the darkness. But he wasn't yet ready to be known. He would wait for Time, his sister, and let her believe what she had done was good.
         Feeling lonely, Time eventually began to dream of another. Someone to see her, know her, experience her—someone to talk to.
         Her brother, lurking in the void, gazed on her actions curiously.
         She extended her arm and grabbed at the budding universe, forcing coalescence. Reality became violent, loud and messy--another figure began forming then melted away to nothingness. Undeterred, Time tried again to will another into being. The figure shook, trying to keep form, amorphously dis-corperating—breaking down into nothing again.
         "Stupid thing," the figure in the dark thought. "Does she not know? There is only us; there can be no others." He laughed to himself. "And in the end there will be only me." He watched Time yanking with sound and fury thrashing at the light and matter, heat and motion; straining herself to breaking-point and—the form held.
          Another, had come into being; albeit a bit late to the party. Still, showing up late was better than never. "Where? Who? What am I?" Unlike Time, she flowed; her appearance undulating in an ever changing flux.
         "You are Life, my daughter," Time said, "and you are here to keep me company."
         Life felt its vibrating face; paranoid and scared. "But why am I?"
         Time didn't understand. "What is this word, why? You are because you are." Time watched Life as she gazed at her ever changing hands in terror. Something had gone wrong. Why was she not happy to simply be?
         "Why, what, why, what ..." Life continued like this, repeating herself over and over.
         Thankfully, Time was very patient and had no issue with history repeating itself. Not that history existed yet, either. But if it had, it wouldn't have bothered her. As this went on, she began to fear she might have to return Life to the nothing from which she came.
         Life flinched, noticing the shadowy figure behind her mother, and stilled. "Things to be done. Time's a wastin'."
         "Am I?" Time responded, confused.
         "No, sorry. You look fine, mum; poor choice of words. Look, I gotta go." She turned and fled, leaving Time alone and confused.
         In the darkness, however, the figure grinned. "So, she made another; remarkable but still folly. I will consume them both in the end. It matters not to me.
         Life spun through reality, new galaxies forming in her wake. She orbited a freshly created yellow sun, and landed upon a bare, rocky planet. Life poured herself out—the pristine ocean of a new, watery planet. The waters receded. She created a paradise, sparking a vast array of plants and animals. But none of them spoke to her.
         In a flash of inspiration, she created humans, breathing herself into their lungs. She also forged several, minor, celestial beings; to govern the inner workings of human minds. Thinking of the human's needs, she created the pinnacle of creation, the perfect lifeform standing above all others—tea leaf bushes. Naturally, she was the first to brew tea, and judged it good, inadvertently creating Judgement in the process. Judgement was a small, skinny, chatty sort of thing that could never quite be satisfied with anything, but wasn't that important to the story anyway.
         These actions drew the attention of Time's brother. "How pointless! How laughable to defy my will; attempting to reverse it with my own power. It cannot last. The stars' slow destruction, she is syphoning energy from, will run out. I wonder what she will do then?" To his surprise, Life turned from her blue-green marble to face him. Staring him dead in the eyes, over her cup of tea.
         "You don't scare me, you know. You're nothing," she said with ludicrous confidence.
         "That I am," said Nothing, "and that doesn't terrify you?"
         Life plonked her teacup down on some solar winds. "I'm gonna outsmart you."
         "Well, I see you've inherited your mother's arrogance, and stupidity. What makes you think you can run from me, survive me, with this," he leaned towards Earth, "trinket?"
         Life flew in front of him. "Those lot, down there, are humans and if there's one thing they don't like it's you. They can't stand nothing, death, emptiness—most of 'em, anyways. Drives 'em up the wall. Well, that and the thing that happens when you walk into a room and can't remember what you went in for. But that's my own fault for creating Forget."
         "What is a room?" Nothing snarled.
         "It's a sort of box thing. They're very fond of 'em. Oh, you don't know what a box is either ... erm." She adjusted herself and faced Nothing, standing tall. "All the more reason they ain't gonna fall to you. They love makin' stuff, can't help themselves. Sometimes, make stuff just for the hell of it. In fact, they're making stuff right now."
         Nothing scowled, slightly disgusted. " Downright incestuous. First, Time makes you, then you make them, then they make things. What's next, they make things that make more things?"
         "Well now you mention it they make these baby things. They're quite fond of 'em too."
         Nothing lost his patience. "Enough of this nonsense, Life! You must see this is pointless. It matters not what they make, I shall consume every last one of them."
         Life was unphased "If you can catch 'em."
         "What?"
         "I'm made 'em so they get smart, see," Life said, beaming at her own cleverness. "One day, Nothing," she said, "they'll leave the planet and escape there!" She pointed excitedly into the depths of the universe.
         Nothing looked at the void, then back at Life. She'd lost the bloody plot. "That is me, it's an infinite nothing. You've not thought this through, have you?"
         In front of him his sister, Time, materialised facing Life. "Have you seen your kid Thought around anywhere? Felt like ... I don't know ... like he wobbled out of existence for a moment there "
         "He's fine, mum," said Life, "could you give us a minute? Sorta in the middle of somethin'."
          "Well alright then." In an instant, Time was gone; off to mess around with black holes and relativity--a new favourite pastime of hers.
         "You should talk to her more often, you know," said Judgement, sitting on the edge of Life's teacup.
         Nothing was getting more and more annoyed. All this noise; all this nonsense. He had much preferred it when it was just him. Just then, he saw another small being float to Life's ear and whisper something.
         "Thanks, Thought, I'll give it a try," said Life, then turned to Nothing. "Nothing, what do you say to a wager?"
         This took Nothing by surprise. In what position was his niece to make any sort of bet? Curiosity overcame him, but that may have been because she was whispering in his ear too. "What kind of wager?"
         "Relinquish your hold on this universe, just a little; enough for them to move about a bit. Then, if my lot outlast you; you leave them alone—not completely of course. All something needs a bit of nothing, otherwise there'd be no space for it."
         "And should they fail? Keep in mind that even if I resist gobbling them up right now and give you this 'space', of which you speak, all things shall inevitably return to me. To the Nothing."
         "If they fail, I promise to stop all this resistance in the end. I'll go quietly into that dark night."
         "A bet wagered, and yet a bet already lost," he said, nodding and backing away. "I agree to your terms, Life. See you and your lot at the end of the universe." As promised, Nothing retreated.
         The space Nothing relinquished began filling with galaxies and nebulae; ultimately a place for humans to venture. Life had bought some space and time—spacetime.
         "That was a stupid bet," came a shrill voice.
         "Shut up, Judgement. No one asked you." She blew Judgement off her tea cup, and into Earth's orbit.
         "You should talk to your mum more," cried Judgement, as she was swept away.
         Borrowing some of her mothers' powers, Life sped up her plans, accelerating human development; working with Creativity and Curiosity, sending them all into overdrive.
         Far below, on the Earth, a young man named Ali was enjoying a coffee with his girlfriend. Little did Ali know that in a few minutes he would be in communion with Life herself. "Look Patricia, all I'm sayin' is why even worry about the meaning of life. Isn't it enough to just exist?"
         "That's the problem, because existence is fleeting." Patricia got up and ordered another round of latte. On her way back to the table she continued. "I mean one minute you're here and then you're—" She looked up from the drinks she was carrying. Ali was gone, his coffee cup falling to the ground.
          From Ali's perspective he had been enjoying the dregs of his coffee cup when all of a sudden he was face to face with his creator making an odd drinking gesture with a coffee cup that was no longer there.
         "Hello," said Life.
         Ali screamed in terror at the sheer cosmic horror of it all.
         "You done?"
         "I ... I don't know. Am I? What's happening? Am I dead? Are you god?"
         "What? No nothing that grand." Life placed a finger on her lips in thought, brow furrowed. "Wait, God ... huh, did they create me or did I create them? Doesn't matter, look I'm Life. I made you, sort of ... It's a prime mover thing. You follow?"
         "Not at all."
         "Look, Ali, I need your advice. I made a bet with your great uncle, and now I to weasel my way into winning it.
         "My great uncle?"
         Life explained all that happened to Ali, which—after a while—bizarrely made sense to him. He was either becoming more enlightened or had become as mad as her. He thought hard. He was no philosopher by any means, nor was he a scientist, or even an artist, but he enjoyed reading. He remembered something; a work around, a loophole. A plan formed in his mind.
         Once he had finished describing his idea to Life, she grinned and agreed. "That just might work. But Ali, you realise what that would mean, don't you?"
         Ali nodded. "I do, but the way I see it; Nothing lasts forever but we don't. And using that ... well ... that's our advantage; that's our ace in the hole."
         Life returned Ali to where he was before. Of course, this was in the middle of night now and in a very much closed and locked coffee shop, that wouldn't be reopened until morning.
Life let her humans continue on as she sought out her mother to tell her the plan. Time was confused at first but in the blink of her eye it had arrived; the end of the universe.
         Even with the extra stuff in the universe, Life was failing; everything had broken down, as Nothing had said it would. With the last of her energy she held what looked like a seed made of light.
         "Are you sure about this, my daughter?" asked Time. "There is no guarantee it will work. I've learned of my brother and how he operates. It seems that, when he puts his mind to it," she looked around at the last warm clump of matter as it settled amongst the rest, "he finishes the job." All was the same temperature now. All was the same matter. No more reactions left.
         "I don't know. Maybe that's what I had to learn ... it's okay not to know, mum. But you've got to try.
         Time nodded her head, hugging her daughter for the first and final time. She reformed Life into a layer around her seed. Time held the light, alone now save for her brother who arrived on cue.
         "Hello sister," said Nothing. "You are the last thing to run out, and now I shall claim my rest. I knew your daughter's silly bet would amount to, well, me"
         "I don't understand why you do what you do," said Time, looking at the ball of light that was once her daughter. "But do what you must."
         "What is that word, why?"
         "Something my daughter said once." Time discorporated, becoming the final layer around the sphere of light; taking her place in the centre of the heat and ubiquitous matter.
         Nothing started his final task. He enveloped all that remained; compressing what was left. Smaller and smaller reality became. Soon, there would be nothing; only him. He squashed and squeezed, until all that had been was now no larger than a pip. However, no matter how hard he tried; the pip remained stubbornly in his hand. He tried once more; feeling Time and Life and her children deep within the pip—their essence persisting. This was not what he had planned. Threatening to break himself apart; he squeezed and squeezed them smaller and smaller until;
         First there was Nothing and then there was everything. One thing had become another, bringing her into being again. This time with more stuff around.


         This is why the universe is mainly empty. Each cycle takes Time. But consider how many things there are now in existence, and how many cycles there must have been; a celestial scoreboard that shows Life and Time catching up.