“and again, where is here, exactly?”
“well, this is the wherehouse.”
“the what?”
“no, the wherehouse. where lost things are sorted.”
“so when i lose something and i ask myself where it is?”
“you catch on quite fast for a new-commer!”
“and is this another place?”
“no, another place is a few doors down the hall, this is the wherehouse.”
“uhm. okej. i don’t really understand that.”
“no, you don’t. perhaps you will, perhaps you wont. there is no telling in advance.”
adam looked around while ruperth kept sorting his items. as far as his eyes could see, there were massive and tall shelves. all labeled at their ends. some with numbers, some with letters, some with a mix of both, some with labels like shoes, letters or numbers.
“am i correct in assuming that on that shelf over there, the one labeled letters, that you store actual letters there?”
“what do you mean by letters?”
“the once you get in the mail. or are you storing letters that you compose words of? is that why there are a shelf labeled numbers next to it? for storing numbers?”
“that was a lot of questions in one.”
“i am sorry. should i keep it to one?”
“yes please.”
“well, the first one then?”
“which was?”
“oh, i forgot.”
“then it probably ended up in one of the piles.”
“because i forgot it?”
“yes.”
“so lost items and forgotten things end up here?”
“yes.”
“and as for the letters?”
“yes. they end up here.”
“letters sent by mail that never finds its way to the recipient.”
“stored here until they are meant to arrive.”
“and then rem-bot get the letter from the shelf, removes it from the records and sends it back to whoever is meant to find it?”
“yes.”
“how does rem-bot know?”
“it follows its programming.”
“and who programs it?”
“don’t know.”
“god?”
“no! not god. god has better things to do than programming rem-bot.”
“do you know god?”
“of course! god comes here once and a while for a cup of coffee and some chit-chat.”
“huh.”
adam was speechless. it was a lot to take in. some kind of other dimension. nowhere. now here. the wherehouse. godf. and ruperth the sorter. rem-bot. luna the keeper and, what was the other sorter called?
“raymond.”
ah, yes. raymond.
“do you hear my thoughts?”
“yes.”
“so i don’t need to speak to you?”
“no.”
is it enough to think and you’ll hear it?
“yes.”
scary!
“for you maybe. not for me.”
“does that mean that you know all my secrets?”
“yes and no.”
“what do you mean?”
“we only get to know what we need to know. hear what we need to hear. find what we are meant to find.”
“if that is true, does it mean that i only loose what i am meant to loose and forget what i am meant to forget?”
“as i said before. you catch on quite quick for a new-arrival!”
“is this a big place?”
“imagine the biggest possible…”
“wow, that big, huh?”
“noop!”
“ok, how big then?”
“much bigger!”
“much bigger than the biggest possible that i can imagine?”
“yup.”
“wow!”
“yup! feel free to explore!”
“what if i get lost?”
“i have a feeling you’ll manage…”