She Has an Hourglass Figure
By Christian Alexander Roberts, with apologies to Stephenie Meyer, and no infringement intended
"What is that, and why is it flickering?" Emmett regarded suspiciously the thing which had once been a boulder in his back yard; it had stopped being one when he and it became the unhappy losers of an arm-wrestling contest. It had become a gravel donor after the match, and what remained of it was nearly level with the ground, having been recently worked and smoothed by the red-eyed, olive-skinned young man to whom Emmett had spoken.
All that remained of the former boulder was now a smooth plane of granite, rising a few inches above the soft turf at the edge of the Cullens' immaculate lawn, on the verge of the lush, green forest. One end lifted slightly higher than the other, creating a gentle slope of smooth stone, into which two concavities had been set, with a channel running between them, looking much like an hourglass. Finely powdered granite ran from the upper to the lower, making the act a convincing one.
"Wait, don't answer that yet." Emmet's wide brow furrowed between frustration and growing bafflement. "Why is the top one not running out of sand? And why is the bottom one not overflowing?"
Benjamin smiled, beatifically. "Because it is the purpose of Art to bring to life what previously existed only in the imagination." He received a jaundiced glare in return for his philosophical observation.
"Oh, yes, it's all so clear, now. Thanks for that illuminating insight. What's next, you gonna pull a rabbit out of a hat?" Emmett seemed ever-so-slightly vexed, as though he found this to be irksome.
The Egyptian vampire chuckled. "Perhaps charming a snake would better suit the stereotype of the Mystical Stranger from the East. Really, Emmet, sarcasm is not your most endearing trait. Okay! No need to flex up; do allow me to explain in more enlightening detail.
"It's not really an hourglass, for a number of reasons. As you so astutely observed, the sand isn't going to run out, so it doesn't actually mark time. It's more like a figure of an hourglass, you see. It represents and expresses the idea of one, without actually being one at all. That's the basis on which I call it Art. It is also a metaphor, inspired by (and in tribute to) Esme's beauty – both the inner, and the physical. Neither of those will ever fade, you see, any more than the sand here in the figure will run out.
"I call the work, "Esme's Hourglass Figure." Benjamin smiled, expectantly.
Emmett made as if to speak, winced, and then paused. "Well. Um…that's…real nice, man." He paused, again, and then spoke.
"Now HOW the HELL did you DO IT?"
Benjamin threw back his head, and laughed. "Patience, my mighty friend; all things will be made clear, in time. In fact, time is the key to this image of a timepiece. Wait! Please restrain your perfectly understandable urge to inflict violence on me, just for a moment more. I come to the point even now."
"You'd better. I bet Jasper and Edward have already picked up on my intent to bend you into a pretzel, and Alice is telling them I'm about to do it," growled the predator of grizzlies.
The young elementalist's face took on a mildly inscrutable expression. "Somehow, I do not think Alice will have much to tell them; but I was answering your questions…allow me to proceed.
"There is only one indentation impressed into the surface of the stone; it is filled with sand ground from the gravel left in the aftermath of your humiliating arm-wrestle defeat by a little girl."
Emmett bared his teeth and snarled, "This had better be going somewhere." The distant sound of fast-approaching bodies through the forest suddenly increased in speed and urgency. Emmet's phone rang.
"Once I had bent the stone into the shape of a smooth plane with one concavity near the bottom of the slope, I then used my ability to move the indentation several inches to a point near the top; as I did so, I also nudged it through time to a point immediately prior to my having moved it from its original position. So, even though I moved it from one place to another, it exists in its "new" position before it was moved away from its "old" position. This creates a circumstance in which it has yet to be moved from its place; and so it is also still in its original position – having not been moved yet.
"This is something of a juggling act. But the distance in time that I moved it is so brief – are you a student of particle physics, are you familiar with Planck time, measured by intervals of ten to the negative 41st power (or so) of seconds? No? This would be so much easier if you had your doctorate in something other than mauling things, Emmett. I jest, my friend!
"The time frame which is spanned by these two moments in the existence of the sole indentation in the surface of the stone is no greater than the length of time it would take for a photon (or other particle traveling at the speed of light) to cross a distance equal to the diameter of an electron…the smallest possible increment of time, at least from my perspective. That was the smallest interval I could perceive as I did this thing, and also the largest gap across which I could push an element (in this case, Earth) through time as I can easily do through space – or "distance," if you prefer, but the distinction is meaningless: Distance equals Rate multiplied by Time, after all. One is but an expression of the other.
"Now, although Einstein taught us truthfully that space and time are one and the same, it is incredibly difficult to put that theory into practice…which is the other reason I did this at all, of course. The figure seems to flicker because you can just barely perceive, at the edge of your perspective, how the concavity shifts from one location to the other as the two adjacent moments juxtapose. No human could possibly see that; it would look like a perfectly ordinary pair of hollows in the rock, with grey sand flowing from the upper to the lower, never running out, nor flowing over.
"Once I had the depression emplaced where and when I wanted it, I made a shallow channel between the two (carefully, so as not to upset the balance), powdered some of Bella's gravel (no need to growl, Emmet!), and then poured it into the figure. The sands flow from the top to the bottom by virtue of gravity along the channel set into the slope, of course. Since the two seeming concavities in the rock are one and the same, sand flows into the bottom of the figure and thus replenishes the top. It is a thing of quiet, elegant beauty, unmarred by the ravages of time; even though it is not untouched by time. In that way, it reminded me of Esme, and so I named it after Esme's hourglass figure, you see – in honor of a surpassing beauty, far greater than a mere work of Art can hope to accurately portray." Emmet's face relaxed, at the compliment to Esme.
Alice, having arrived with Edward and Jasper to overhear Benjamin's observations, looked frustrated, while her two companions' faces expressed relief as Emmet's thoughts of administering a beating faded.
"Why couldn't I see whether or not Emmett was going to try to clobber you, Benjamin?" Alice demanded in tiny but potent frustration. "Did you break Time? I'm going to be severely put out if you did. I was particularly fond of it." She stamped a petite foot, for emphasis, and then shook her head. Her raven tresses swayed, pixie-like, and she fixed the pale, dark Egyptian with her bright gaze.
"Something else new messing up my sight, and you put it right under my window! Why can't I ever see the things I most need to be aware of? It's not fair!" Storm clouds flew across Alice's fine features, and Benjamin spoke, soothingly.
"Dear Alice, please do not pout. You'll break my heart, and then Tia would be unhappy. If I were to seek to answer your question, I would say that even though you can see through time as the rest of us see through space, none of us ever know everything we think we need to. We act on what we do know, and we do the best we can with what we do not, or cannot, see or know. Welcome to our world."
Alice stuck out her tongue.