“The plural seems more natural,” said the specter. “To speak of an individual is to speak from a fixed position in time. The concept is clear, but the reality is difficult. All time exists, in a glorious tapestry. Your grandmother, once removed from the oppressive ‘now’, possesses all the joy that she has ever experienced.”
Jenny frowned. “I think I understand, but I’m not sure. It’s like you’re saying a movie is the same as a sculpture. But they’re not the same.”
The specter remained silent for a long moment. When he again spoke, his voice was very quiet. “You will need to see for yourself.”
“See what?” Jenny said. But before she could utter another word, the room seemed to rush around her, as though she were being pulled into a tunnel. She felt herself trying to cry out, but the sound from her throat merely hung in the air somewhere before her eyes, like a smudge upon a vast canvas.
It took some time for her mind to process what she was experiencing. Everything was smooshed together, and nothing made any sense. Gradually she began to perceive landmarks. There was her mom, but her mom was young, younger than Jenny had ever seen her. And also old, all at once. She saw days in her life, events she had barely remembered, suddenly there before her, clear as day, as though they were happening right now.
But “happening” wasn’t exactly the right word. Jenny found she could move around everything, like walking around a sculpture. Depending on where she went, any moment she looked at seemed different, like when Josh gave her a frog for her eleventh birthday or the day her dad died. As she changed her point of view, the same day could be sad or happy, funny or just plain weird. It was strange and familiar at the same time, like she’d always known all those ways of seeing things, but hadn’t really been paying attention.
It was all too much, this everything at once. She tried to speak, to say she wanted it to stop, but it was no use. There was no “now” to speak from. Maybe if she could get to the present, to the room — the day — where they had been talking. She had to find her way back.
And that’s when Jenny saw her grandmother Amelia. But not the way she had ever seen her grandmother before — the way he saw her. It all came rushing in at once, filling her head.
And then everything went black.