Life in Pentapia
Posted by Jack E. McCarty on November 12, 2009
This is a glimpse of life on a planet called Pentapia. It is in a universe that may not exist yet, with five spatial dimensions with ten three-dimensional sub-planes. It is held together by having both three-dimensional and five-dimensional matter. There are two general varieties of three-dimensional matter, that which is locked in one sub-plane, and matter that can change planes.
The peoples of Pentapia, the Homincommutons, are much like us in mind, but only similar in body. They are free to move through all ten sub-planes.
* * * * *
Julie steps into the living room and notices some knickknacks knocked off onto the floor. She can hear her two young boys playing down the hall. As Julie starts to reach for a pair of sparkling gloves, she can hear that her two boys are starting to run up the hall. She stands off to one side and changes planes.
As George and Danny run into the living room, they do not notice the dimly glowing vertical line standing off to one side.
In the blink of an eye their mother appears. “Haven’t I told you not to run in the house?”
The children shriek.
Danny says, “You scared us, Mom.”
She replies, “Well, I am scared that you will break something again. Why don’t you play outside? It is cold only in Kappa plane today. If you go into Kappa, bring some energy. I don’t want to see you come back gray.”
“Okay, Mom,” says Danny.
As the two boys go into the energy preparation area, Julie puts on the sparkling gloves and starts picking up the knickknacks on the floor made from matter in several different planes.
As George and Danny leave the house, Danny, the younger and more dominate of the two has a small shimmering bag tied onto him.
Outside is a cloudless, sparkling green sky contrasting with a faintly glittering dark terrain. The objects, plants, and animals have many colors. Some of what they can see appears solid, while many things are either flat images or lines, including some of the life forms in the air.
Danny starts running. George does his best to keep up with his quicker brother. As he is about to catch him, Danny suddenly becomes a flat image, with the bag continuing down the path around the image. Just as George reaches him, the bag drops and he grabs at seemingly nothing. He picks up the bag and pops into his brother’s dimensional plane, calling out to his younger brother, “You lost the bag, Danny.”
“No, George, I did it on purpose to slow you down.”
“Here, Danny, you take back the bag.”
Danny takes off, leaving George with the bag. With the bag now in hand, George follows him. As Danny goes down a slope, he again changes planes, appearing as a vertical line going down the hill.
George does not see his brother as he starts down the hill. When he spots his one perceivable dimension, he begins to catch up. As he draws near, he knows which is Danny’s plane.
When George goes to his plane, it is windy, and the sky is cloudy. He finds Danny standing at the bottom of the hill.
Danny says, “George, Mom was correct. It is cold here. I don’t think I put enough in the bag for this.”
“Beta is nice and warm. Let’s go back there, Danny.”
“Okay, George.”
Beta plane is more to their liking. They look for a place to take an energy break, and find a spot next to something that looks like a log.
A friend of George’s walks up and says, “Hello, George, Danny. Fancy meeting you boys here.”
“Hello, Angela. How are you? We were just going to take an energy break,” George says to her.
Danny gives George a nudge in the side.
Angela replies, “I’m fine, George. I could use an energy break, too. Do you mind if I join you, boys?”
Danny nudges George again.
George answers, “I think that would be okay, Angela.”
Danny is not happy with Angela joining them for energy. However, the only time he often does not get his way is when it involves Angela. He is learning to accept that.
They sit down on the ground, open their bags and put on sparkling digitation gloves because the contents of their bags are in all ten planes and they are only in Beta plane.
Angela takes a sparkling cloth out of her bag and places it on the ground.
“It is like a girl to make it a picnic,” Danny remarks.
“Yes, it is, Danny,” she responds.
Danny is the first to start when they begin to consume their energy. He picks up an item from the cloth, holds it up to his lips, and it crumbles into dust. His lips glow slightly. He tosses the dust into the air.
Angela says, “Danny, is that good manners?”
“What?”
“Tossing your table dust into the air.”
“We’re outside. Girls….”
George says, “Danny, it is a good idea to practice good manners whenever you consume energy with other people. Would you please use the dust bowl?”
“Okay, George. But you are beginning to sound like Mom.”
“We all change as we live longer, Danny.”
“I am starting to see that, George.”
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About the Author
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I never thought about having more dimensions in a story than just the three (four) we’re accustomed to on the everyday basis. At least not literally like that. I’ve thought of perhaps a spiritual dimension or a dimension of dreams, but I’ve never actually referred to them as dimensions in my mind. That little story opens up entirely new imaginative realms to explore.
I am happy you had a good response to this story. One intent I had behind writing this story was to expand the reader’s imagination.
I see the spiritual and dream “dimensions” as other aspects of creation. Other physical universes would also be other aspect of creation. The “dream dimension” could be called part of one’s personal universe, a part of one’s mind.
This story was also inspired by “String Theory.” I hope you do not find this comment confusing.
I find it a very interesting Idea. I’ve read of inter-dimensional beings, but not ones that could switch that quickly, easily or frequently. I think it has great potential.
If you don’t mind reading something that some might call a little “daring,” it is based upon a story in my portfolio at Writing.com. It has a 13+ rating.