An Unusual Pact

I am an older man. My name is Anders, but I am not going to tell you exactly how old I am today. While out walking, I met a pleasant woman considerably younger than myself. She is married, but she feels a strong need for freedom in whatever she does. Now, after several conversations, I know that she will always do whatever she feels like doing, regardless of the objections of those around her—meaning her husband and children.

For several weeks now, we have been walking through the nearby park almost every day. We live in the same residential neighborhood, which is considered exclusive. It really is a lovely place, and at the same time it is close to the center of this large city.

We like the park where we walk almost every day. Its paths rise and dip beneath old beeches, their smooth grey trunks catching patches of sunlight. Along the quieter paths, the air smells of earth and leaves. The traffic remains a distant murmur, occasionally interrupted by a bird calling quite close to us. Higher up stands the little wooden church of St Michael, its dark timber and steep roof visible between the trees.

Selene likes to leave the broad avenues and take a narrower path, sometimes changing direction halfway through a sentence. I follow her willingly. We pass benches warmed by the sun and others still deep in shade. There is always somewhere to stop, and neither of us seems particularly eager to reach the park’s edge. More than once, we have walked the same stretch twice because a conversation was not yet finished.

In today’s world, colorful, diverse, and overloaded with everything imaginable—anxieties, conflicts, threats, goods of every description—people feel less and less inclined to talk. I, on the other hand, am very curious to hear what Selene will say at our next meeting. During these conversations, we experience that sense of flow: becoming truly absorbed in the subjects we discuss.

You may ask how to explain this. I think it stems from an agreement we happened to make during our first meeting, when we took an immediate liking to each other: we would speak with complete honesty, without beating around the bush, about anything that intrigued us, however difficult or even disturbing the subject might be. We also decided to propose solutions straight away and say how things really are, without deferring to orthodoxy or clinging to established theories and explanations.

Yes, I think it is important that you have a fairly clear picture of what Selene looks like.

She is forty-five, with chestnut hair falling loosely to her shoulders and green eyes that meet mine steadily when we talk. Her full lips often curve into a smile just before she says something provocative. She has a shapely figure and moves with an ease that I find distinctly sensual. Sometimes, as she listens, she gathers her hair to one side, exposing the line of her neck. Her voice is warm and slightly husky. I enjoy listening to her, even when she is telling me that I am completely wrong.

You will probably ask what we talk about, and what the point is of writing it all down and sharing it, when the number of people writing these days is disproportionately large compared with the number of people reading. My answer is simple. We are interested in everything, because we know that anything becomes interesting once we get close to the essential details of how it works.

Will anyone read us? Well, yes… Not many people will, because everyone is reading something different. Through a titanic amount of work, however, each of us has gathered a following of people who will read what we write. These groups number only a few hundred each, but an audience of that size is enough.

To round off this introductory explanation of the kind of story we are beginning here, I will add only that Selene and I simply talk about the state of the world. We have a reliable way of choosing the subject of our next conversation. We have both read the books that make up the Andromeda Saga, and we understand the “New Legend” that underpins it. We can sense, and generally agree on, where its gaps, ambiguities, and unresolved questions lie. So, we can always take issue with some shortcomings in this vast realm. In a sense, we could say that we have also taken up the challenges posed by the so-called Arrivals, regardless of whether we believe their descendants are living among us. Or, to put it rather grandly, Selene and Anders have entered the Meta-Game.

Today, Selene started the conversation. She is usually the one who provokes me. Out of the blue, she said something strange.