AEAJ - Chapter 4

Chapter 4 - In Which Justin Inevitably Changes His Mind (Or In Which He Doesn't And The Story Ends)

Justin returned to his apartment, making a point to avoid his mailbox. No good had come of that thing lately. He collapsed on the couch, and made a valiant but ultimately futile effort to clear his mind and think of nothing. Deciding the only way to keep Chadwick out of his head was to busy himself with other things, he went shopping.

Which would have worked, had he been able to afford any more than milk, bread, cheese and a bar of chocolate. Justin returned home and ate a cheese sandwich, accompanied by a cool glass of milk. He finished the meal with a bar of chocolate.

Who did he think he was, anyway? Justin's being broke was none of Chadwick's business. He may not have had a working phone line, or next week's rent, but he still had electricity. Chadwick had been wrong about that, at least, he thought, a small but meaningful victory. Of course, upon the completion of this thought, the lights all went out. Justin uttered some words that need not be printed.

In any case, there were more important things than electricity. It wasn't like he couldn't start paying the bills again when he got a normal, non-suspicious job working for someone who wasn't leaving the country for any reason, or...well, someone who wasn't Chadwick. A job like that would be perfect. Even Justin's normal sanity-preserving indifference couldn't help him from feeling a little let down by life. Law school had taught him that law wasn't about fairness but about competition, his parents had abandoned him at the first sign of failing, and his boss had probably killed the ambassador to a friendly country, or at least sold a book with instructions on how best to do so.

To be fair, Chadwick was technically trying to help. Deep down, he knew that. Chadwick's smile was many things, but it was not a lie. Even so, it was just too much. Justin didn't have much of a life, but he wasn't about to abandon everything for someone he didn't know. He went to bed as soon as it got dark, and had a deep, dreamless sleep.

He awoke to the smell of bacon. It wasn't a bad way to be introduced to the waking world, and his first thought was surprise at how hungry he was. His second thought was that his apartment smelled of bacon, which was not an altogether bad thing but that was at the very least unusual. Justin got out of bed and sleepily made his way to the kitchen, where Chadwick was cooking something in a pan over what appeared to be a fire in his sink. Justin struggled to find words to express the amount of confusion present in his head, but all he managed to say was "Is there toast?"

Chadwick had prepared huevos rancheros, two strips of bacon, a split slice of buttered toast and glasses of both milk and orange juice. He made nothing for himself. When Justin asked about this, Chadwick explained that he'd picked up a breakfast sandwich on the way to his apartment this morning. Justin found it odd that Chadwick had then decided to make breakfast without a working stove, but he explained that it was nice to wake up to the smell of cooking food. He had already been up for hours, so it wouldn't have done him any good.

Not one to refuse a good meal, Justin dutifully ate the breakfast Chadwick had prepared. Chadwick cleared away the newspaper and wood chips acting as the stove in the sink, and cleaned the pan.
"Justin, I've another question for you. Your faucet, currently, is working. But, on occasion, it does not. Sometimes, you don't get the correct temperature of water. Why is that?"
Justin wiped his mouth before answering.
"Well, I don't know the specifics of it, but it'd have to do with the water heater, or drain systems, things like that. Why?"
Chadwick turned around, leaning on the counter. He seemed to be collecting his thoughts.
"Could it not be that your faucet is simply deciding not to give you the correct temperature of water? That perhaps you might have done something to upset it?"
"Its not something that ever occurred to me, to be sure." A reserved response to what Justin assumed was another test, something more to support Chadwick's theory on convictions.

"Smart answer. No trick, this time. Its a serious question. We personify everyday items all the time, without really thinking about it. The washing machine is acting up. A repairman can tell you why, but that's only one way of looking at it."
Chadwick went over to the table and sat down, looking thoughtfully at Justin, whose expression didn't betray any particular feeling about what he was saying.
"What would you say a dog spends the day thinking about?"
"Eating, sleeping, maybe playing or chasing things."
"So," Chadwick said, swaying slightly, as if organizing his response through movement, "a dog does not, for the most part, care whether or not the stock market is doing well."
"Not unless he's planning on eating it." This provoked a chuckle.

"A dog does not care about the stock market because it has no value to him. Up or down, it doesn't essentially effect his day. He chooses not to care about it, or what's on TV, or what time he has to do anything. He exists on a level in which he acknowledges that such things are largely inconsequential to him. Everything has a different level on which it exists. A faucet's existence is its function; it dispenses water. Anything unrelated to that is of no interest to it. As humans, we have complicated our means of existence such that we are unable to see any means of existing besides our own as important. An ant spends its lifespan of mere days with no desire other than to do mindless, repetitive tasks for the colony. It has the choice to spend its time going out and seeing the world, but to it, the option has no color, no appeal. It exists on a level we could not understand, a simplicity we could not hope to match. What, then, is to prevent a faucet from existing on that level?"
Justin mulled over this for a minute, before he replied with the only thing he could, and as he said it he knew it was exactly what Chadwick was expecting him to say.
"Humans built the faucet."
"Is that so different than God building us? Just because we do not specifically imbue a faucet with life does not mean that it lacks life. There is an essential truth of humanity, and it is both our greatest strength and most debilitating weakness."

"The truth is that much of what we see is a lie. We build a world around us that is easy to comprehend, that we can shape and mold as we wish, with little to no influence of outside forces. Man has spent thousands of years operating under this essential principle. While humans have always wondered about, if not prescribed to, the influence of higher beings, it stops on a certain cosmic level. We collectively interpret the world as being much, much simpler than it is, as a survival mechanism. We essentially have created our own world within the world that operates by the principles we have set forth." Chadwick now took a sip of Justin's milk, and paused, letting Justin absorb some of what he'd said.

"The faucet was built by humans, and is, thus, considered an inanimate object. In fact, from the moment of its completion the faucet has been, in fact, living. Its existence is so simple and straightforward compared to ours that it is difficult to consider fully, but it exists nonetheless. It exists as much as it needs to in order to fulfill its function and get satisfaction. So, if you neglect to clean your faucet, it may decide it does not want to give you water, or at least put up a fight. It is the only way in which it can communicate with the outside world, because the outside world isn't listening."

Justin finally spoke up, surprising even himself by interjecting. "This is all very interesting, but then how do you know all this?"
Chadwick smiled, wider than Justin had seen so far. This entire conversation had been planned out beforehand, and Justin was feeling increasingly helpless, like thinking you're driving a car only to discover you're on a track and have no control.
"I said we built a fake world within the world. I am freed from that world, and can see things for what they really are. Its a skill, more than anything. I can teach you, if you wish."
"And how is that? Is there some sort of "break out of the Matrix' class?"
"A delivery. One delivery is all you'll need. I told you that you were the only one, Justin. You have the predispositions and situation, among other things, that are necessary to aid me. Not everyone can break down the walls we build around ourselves and..."
Chadwick rubbed his chin, attempting to find a more sensitive way to finish his sentence, but failed.
"Frankly, I need someone who wont go insane and run away."

Justin narrowed his eyes.
"That five hundred dollars. That's the kind of money I'd be making, on a regular basis?"
"More, most likely."
"And all the travel?"
"Everything paid for by me."
"And danger?"
"Everything's dangerous. The question is whether one is able to deal with it or not."
"So, good pay, travel, but obviously not very secure safety-wise."
Chadwick's smile morphed into a sidelong smirk.
"So there were actually hippos at that table?"
"Oh, I've no idea. I just needed an example, and that's what I came up with."
Justin looked around at his apartment, the early sunlight doing nothing to pierce the darkness that pervaded the place. He really didn't have much lower to go.
"One package. One bullet hole or stab wound, and its over."
"Oh, they wont be carrying guns. But I'd watch out for biting."