Play@YSDC

"Does your mother know about the dreams?" asks Jacqueline.

"What does he say to you?" asks Ellis.

Mr. Handy wrote:"Does your mother know about the dreams?" asks Jacqueline.

"I haven't told her, Ma'am. I couldn't."

HoneyDog wrote:"What does he say to you?" asks Ellis.

"That he can use me to come back. Make me help him. That shed I told you about - whenever I wake up there, there are numbers drawn on the walls. I think me makes me write them when I'm blacked out."

"We should go take a look at the shed and see these numbers," says Jacqueline. "Maybe they mean something."

"Yes" agrees Ellis. "Let's try and make sense of this."

The shed is in St Nicholas Park, a thin strip of rough greenery along the edge of St Nicholas avenue. It's clearly meant as storage for gardening tools, though the New York city concil doesn't bother maintaining a park in Harlem, and neither of you recall ever seeing any workers going in or out of it - the lock has been broken open, which Alexander admits was probably him during one of his blackouts. Inside there are some tools piled up near the far end - a couple of rakes, a set of shears, a rusty mower. Otherwise there is an open can of paint, presumably the source of the numbers daubed on every interior wall.

OOC,Ellis's Mathematics skill: 70 Rolled 1D100: 65

Ellis can tell that numbers are clearly equations, and advanced ones - they're repeated many times, in slightly different versions. They appear to be vector calculations, but in four dimensions rather than three.

"Every time I wake up here there are more of them," Alexander says.

"Well, that stuff's over my head, and I'm not bad at math," says Jacqueline. "You're the teacher, Mr. Ellis. Maybe you can make more sense out of these numbers."

From what Ellis can glean, the equations seem to be describing movement and direction [that's the vector part], but they reference four directions of movement rather than three - as if they were describing were length, width, height, and something else. Most of them have the same basic construction, which you can note down on its own - they then plug different numbers into the calculation, yielding different answers.

“It’s almost like there’s another, a fourth dimension, in these equations” Ellis muses. “Maybe that’s where you go to in your dream, Alexander. This is fantastic.”

"Is that where he is then? This fourth dimension?" Alexander asks. "How can he get into my head?"

Ellis shrugs. "I guess the natural laws must be different somehow. People are able to do things that they couldn't do here. Question is, why is he doing this? You'd better tell us everything he tells you, if we're going to figure this out."

"I think I get it," says Jacqueline. "I once read a book called Flatland, which was about a two-dimensional world with which a three-dimensional man observes and interacts. It does suggest that there could be a fourth dimension beyond ours. A four-dimensional being could look into this world in a similar way. If it were to physically interact with our world, all we'd see of it is a three-dimensional cross-section. Just like if I were to move my finger through Flatland, a Flatlander would see a circle that changes in size. I can't even imagine what a four-dimensional being would look like to us. Shifting spheres, maybe?"

"He just looks like a man in my dreams, Ma'am. Dressed rich, but very old-fashioned," Alexander says. Turning to Ellis he adds, "He says my family are... his. And that I have to help him come back. He doesn't say where from. Every time I sleep, I dream about him, and then I wake up here with more of the math written on the walls. He never calls me by name, just 'boy.' But a lot of white men do that."

"That's what these numbers are about, then" says Ellis. "A way to come back."

He stops, unsure of how to proceed.

"Well, no white man is going to make you his slave, dream or not," says Jacqueline. "I'm not sure how to stop him yet, but we'll find a way. This sounds like a spiritual problem to me, and you were right to come to the pastor. Maybe if we go have a talk with him, we can convince him to help."

“No” Ellis shakes his head. “Sorry, Miss, normally I’d agree. But these equations show that the problem has a logical explanation, which can be solved scientifically. It’s just that the usual rules don’t apply. I don’t think the pastor would be able to provide any explanations for this. I want to show these equations to someone who could make sense of them.”

"Maybe it's a little of both," says Jacqueline. "We can pursue both avenues. A religious expert can help us with what sure looks like an attempt at demonic possession, and a math expert can help us with the numbers."

Ellis shrugs, unconvinced. He’s not sure he’ll be able to do anything to help, but if it can make Alexander feel better, he’s willing to try.

“Sure. But if you bring the pastor here, don’t let him touch these numbers. For now.”

He starts to copy the equations into his notebook.

"Thankyou, Ma'am," Alexander says to JJ.

Ellis: You would be aware of a physicist named Dr Elmer Imes, who lives in New York - the second black man to be awarded a physics doctorate - and he works in quantum mechanics. at the City University of New York. Most others in the field, in the physics department or otherwise, would be white and it might be hard to get them to listen.

JJ: Do you plan to approach the same pastor Alexander was speaking to, or find another one?

And in the meantime, what are you advising Alexander to do?