Interview with an Invisible ManPart 5
By John Pirillo
"Anchor your thoughts in love and you shall never deceive...yourself or anyone else!" --- Merlin the Wise
When we stopped the interview last time to refresh my phone's charge, we left you on a cliff hanger. Why are so many heroes and authors alive at the same time in the Baker Street Universe?
I was as eager to hear his answer as you are, because while I may have fictionalized the Baker Street Universe, it has existed forever in its own timeline, separate from us, which brings up a lot of interesting questions for this last interview.
If any of you have further questions, please feel free to contact this author with such and he will endeavor to seek answers as time and the interviewed allow.
Now for the remainder of the interview with Professor Langdon, the Invisible Man.
I pressed the record button on my cell phone, after Professor Langdon and I reseated ourselves at the table. We had both taken a stroll into the woods. Snowy as they were, the brisk air and the silence of the newly fallen snow were both invigorating to our minds and created a heightening of our senses that we could both appreciate, even as the grown men we were.
"Professor Langdon."
"Yes."
"When we stopped the last portion of this interview, I had asked you about the equilibrium of your universe."
"Yes. I remember. You were curious how the authors of us could co-exist with their creations and vice versa. Am I correct?"
"To the letter."
He paused to examine the surface of the fresh tea I had brewed for him. Chamomile. He intended to take a room and rest for the night before returning to the alternate universe where his friends were. He looked up and gave me a hesitant look.
"I'm afraid I can't answer that entirely."
"I'll take what I can get."
He smiled, understanding my eagerness and also my sensitivity to his feelings and the interview going professionally.
"As I am sure is the same in your own world and universe, we have scriptures, mythologies and legends."
"I would be surprised to find that not so."
He smiled at my quip.
"Indeed. Blasphemy was it not so, hey?"
I laughed.
He chuckled, and then continued. "In the Chinas they believe that our universe sprung from the mind of the Great God Buddha, who later, of course, incarnated as the Golden Buddha, and continues to live among us in the higher realms of the Himalayas."
"That's interesting. In our world he was never seen as the one who created the universe, but rather the one..."
"Who had come to awaken humanity to its Divine Right?" Professor Langdon interrupted with an amused look. "Yes, I have read of that conundrum in several of your text books I have managed to snag from one of your Beer and Nobles stores."
"Barnes and Noble."
"Right. That one."
He looked out our balcony window, watching as a flight of sparrows cut across our view momentarily, then did fanciful spirals in the air, before landing in t he neighboring trees, where even from our distance you could hear them talking and singing to each other.
"In the India Isles it's a different story. They believe that Krishna built the world from a turtle shell, and then rode it from the Cosmic Depths to land near our sun."
I laughed. "That' seven more fanciful yet."
"Touchingly so. They truly believe this, and who am I to discourage them if it brings peace into their hearts."
I nodded. I also agreed, even if finding religion a bit confusing at times because of its on again off again stances against what most men would call normal. But that wasn't the time for discussing philosophy and politics, which often lead to times of great strife and anger, even among usual friends. For our beliefs, many of us hold onto them, even with certainties of them being wrong, for fear of losing our position in the universe we have created for ourselves.
"And the Europes?"
He replied immediately. "Logic and reason, God and country."
We both laughed. That was a given since the center of Christianity began in England when King Arthur and Merlin drove out the purveyors of dark magic, the evil Druids and dark fairies. Not in our world, of course, but in that very near, yet distant world of the Baker Street Universe.
"How has this dichotomy of beliefs affected the politics of your world?"
He thought about it a moment, then spoke. "As you know Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Tesla and Edison are alive in my world, as are H.G. Wells and Jules Verne. Likewise many other great minds, but also in our world are many of great confusion and dark motives, so it is not so uncommon to find the good people...who usually are more intent upon survival...putting food on their table...shaken up by those scoundrels and driven, momentarily, if not permanently to buy into the nonsense they proselytize."
"Sort of like our politicians here who are on the pay of corporations and pass laws favoring the rich, start wars that benefit none but the rich, while they indulge in wealth and self delusion."
He looked at me, startled for a moment. "You sound bitter."
"Not bitter, so much as sad."
He considered that. "Likewise. With so many good minds you'd think that logic would win out."
"But there are far too many more who are not logical and who refuse to expand their horizons."
"Thus dooming both our universes to ceaseless wars and combat, poverty and destruction."
I sighed. "Yes, but I'm getting off base again. I find our views so similar."
"Perhaps why you have been able to attune to our Universe and write so well of it, even if..." Here his eyes twinkled a bit in mischief..."Even if a bit off at times."
I let it pass. No one is perfect. Since I had found out their world truly existed, I had learned many of my stories had certain flaws in them, and I hope one day to rectify that when I publish a volume...collection of my works that will be annotated to explain the differences and point out what was lost in the translation between our worlds.
He plucked his stop watch from his pocket, eyed it a moment, and then put it back. "I have an appointment in Harrisburg in a few hours."
"I understand. Time for another question or two?"
He nodded.
I leaned closer. "What's it like working with Sherlock Holmes?"
He barked with laughter. "Like being caught between a hammer and an anvil. The man is a genius, misses nothing, has a perfect memory and never lets you forget it."
"Are you saying he's arrogant and proud?"
"Hardly. That would have been more of Professor Moriarity's charms, but since he has left our world...or at least the original one has...that comparison fails now."
"One last question."
"Please."
"In all the adventures I read of about these brave men and women, I never once hear of Edgar Rice Burroughs, or Robert Heinlein. Do they exist in your world?"
"Both men are now monks of an order led by the Buddhists and the Golden Buddha."
"That explains a lot." I said as he rose to leave. "I always wondered why when I thought of them, I saw them in some kind of kind of dark cloister, with incense and candles. I was afraid to ponder their stories further, fearing they had become ensconced in the demonic beliefs of the Dark Ones."
Professor Langdon reached a hand out and I took it. "The Hollow Man."
"He."
He clasped my hand with his other and gave me the warmest of shakes. "Mister Pirillo. John. May I call you by your first name?"
"I'd be honored." He smiled. "You just wrote a new story about me. It's that one...the villain of that piece I'm the most concerned with. That which is physical and dark like the Hollow Man. There are ways of dealing with, even if sometimes a bit harsh or extreme and dangerous. But until we discover a way to deal with the other, I fear for our world. For one day that wretch may take over someone like a Moriarity or a Holmes and then..."
I shuddered at the thought as we let go of each other. "And then." I spoke the words that rang like death in the air.
"It has been my pleasure to have met you." I told him as he headed for the door. He opened it and turned back to smile at me.
"Oh, you haven't heard the last of me yet, John. Not by far."
With those fateful words, he slipped into the daylight of our world and headed off for an adventure which I hope someday to share with all of you.
So, reluctantly, I end this interview and sit back in my chair to review the words dictated to myself. I can see that much was covered, and much was not. Professor Langdon answered much, but he also left some things dangling in the air, some things that worry at the back of my mind as they prepare to launch into further stories, for you, my dear readers.
I am sincerely and with love
Your Author and Interviewer
John Pirillo
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