Beneath My Skin

Back at lalaland again last night. It seems to have changed. Still, there's some sort of familiarity hanging around in the air. The more things change, the more they remain the same. The oxygen in the air still smells the same and every step taken there seems to fill him with renewed euphoria. That, is the part of him that knows. That, is the part of him who can see, smell, hear, feel and touch. He sees the familiarity of things around him. He sees the logic and rationality hidden beneath the surface.

Despite that, he is always separated from himself there, at lalaland. he doesn't know that he is separated from He. But He knows. he would probably realise too, but that would always come much later. He stands at the side, looking at the ridiculous things he is doing.

Things that do not make sense. Things that you know are made up. These things are the ones that you can expect to happen every moment at lalaland without you even finding anything strange about them.

he was brushing his teeth at home. after rinsing his mouth, he jumped back onto his bed and started reading his book. after two pages, he was in a library reading a thick reference book. He stood at the corner, chuckling to himself. he did not realise it. because he is still reading. soon, he got tired of reading. he walked to the library counter. and ordered a glass of lychee martini. not surprisingly, the lady served it to him. he held the glass and sipped the drink to quench his thirst. Again, He smiled to himself after seeing what happened.

he began to feel a little bored in the library. it seemed too suffocating, to be trapped behind four walls and artificially cooled air. he walked to the lift and entered the doors. he pressed on the button '4'. the doors opened and he walked out quickly. as soon as he stepped out of the lift, he walked to his right and laid on the bench, enjoying the fresh air in the open park. there were some kids playing with kites at the far corner. a few metres away from his bench was a dog running on the spot in circles. He grinned wryly again.

It is now time. Yes, time's up now. It's gonna stop. He went to him. And he became He. He became he. He opened his eyes and found himself on the bed, with the alarm clock beside him screaming for some attention. Another day begins.

It is weird isn’t it? Things always happen when you least expect it. When you hope that the one million dollars from the lottery would be yours, it never happens. When you make a birthday wish, you seldom expect it to be fulfilled. When you enter a lucky draw contest, you can almost for sure say that the winner will not be you. Yet, sometimes when you are just that certain that such things would not happen, it just happens, probably just to irritate you, and to show you that nothing is certain in this world. Indeed, one can never be too sure about something. When the bookmakers offer the odds payout of 1.01 for something, think twice before assuming that it is a foregone conclusion that you will win.

From time to time, something would sprout out of nowhere to challenge existing pillars of truth, to make the formidable appear vulnerable and to reveal the cracks and crevices within the magnificence and majesty. Perhaps this is the real world order. This is the way things work. The world has its own balancing mechanism, to ensure that when something has achieved too much stability, something must present itself to disrupt this peace and tranquility. It can be said that such a measure is necessary, without which complacency would breed and in time, because of prolonged stability, apathy might also strive to dominate. The end result would be the turning against of the very stability that everyone had put their faith in from the start.

Norbwand just began to understand all these things. He had a tremendous discovery and was sure that it would rock the world. But how was he going to make this discovery be known to the world? Surely he could not be traveling physically around the world to tell people about it. What was he thinking? In this modern age of technology, news would spread faster than he could even imagine. He decided that he would put his ideas down in a book and everyone who read it would be astounded by the new insight he discovered.

He sat down on his chair and started writing.

Tommy was lost for words. He never imagined that things would turn out like that. We had all been deceived! This could perhaps be the biggest cover-up in the history of mankind. Mathematics has been considered the foundation for science. It had manifested itself in everyone’s lives. Calculating the change you will receive when you pay for something. Counting the time you need to leave your house and get to your destination. Putting the numbers and figures right in your bank accounts and tax sheets. What if the fundamentals of mathematics are proven to be wrong? Would the world fall apart?

Everything in the world follows certain axioms, which are sets of assumptions that were made, upon which more ideas were built on. If these very axioms were one day proven to be wrong, the skyscrapers that were piled on top of the foundation stone would topple like falling bricks of Jenga.

Tommy was gasping for air. His discovery must be made known to the world. Everyone must know the truth and stop living in deception. In mathematics, one of the very first things taught is that one plus one is equals to two. From simple arithmetic to more complex mathematical topics, the rule ‘one plus one equals to two’ is the building block upon which everything is built on.

How would his discovery change the world? Tommy had no answers. A world where one plus one does not equal to two was simply something too much for his mind to comprehend. The founding fathers of mathematics had deliberately created such a rule, to ensure that their legacy continues. They knew that they would one day die, but their rule would live on forever. Even if it was false, it did not matter to them.

In his research, Tommy discovered that one plus one is actually three. When one man and one woman come together, they produce one child. So one plus one equals three. Sometimes, it can even be four, five, six or even more. How amazing. When you put one spoon of salt into one glass of water, you get a glass of salty water. Here, one plus one equals one. Hence, one plus one can be one as well. When you take a paper and put it to a flame, you get no more paper left. One plus one becomes zero! Tommy took a moment to savour the brilliance of his own discovery.

Soon, the world would know about the selfish evil plot the founding fathers of Mathematics had created to bring glory to themselves. It is necessary to reveal the truth, but the truth might be too great for anyone to bear. What must be done must be done.

Norbwand stood up from his chair. Finally, it was completed. He would get the book published and soon everyone would be talking about it. Maybe they might even make it into a movie. Whatever it might turn out to be, it was his responsibility to shed light onto the rest of the deluded world.