“Have you ever noticed that animals can’t eat everything we can?” Meen asked.

“Let’s look at cows and buffaloes; they are coded to eat only grass and a few select weeds. You will never see cows and buffaloes eating fruits or foraging for taro and potato.”

“Some animals’ dietary needs are unique. All their life, they have never eaten anything other than what they are allowed to eat. For instance, there is a kind of bear on your planet, a cute black and white bear, instantly adored and loved by everyone who sees it. But it’s only allowed to eat hard bamboo bark and sharp bamboo leaves. While eating, it has to painstakingly peel off the outer stalk of the green bamboo branch. Actually, it can eat other things, but it prefers bamboo. This phenomenon shows that it’s been programmed to do that by someone.”

“This someone, who is that person?” I wondered.

“He’s the one whom you are going to meet on your journey soon,” Meen said, and the thought started to worry me a bit.

“In fact, describing that person’s identity can’t be done in a few words, and even words can only define a

small part of him,” Meen tried to explain more, but what he said confused me even more.

“Never mind, you will meet someone soon who can explain this better than I can,” he said, while picking some fruits from the tray.

“Now, let’s go back to the matter that I’ve been holding off since we met this afternoon. It’s actually about the mission that I’ve been assigned to complete. I apologise if I couldn’t explain it well enough or if I’ve made any mistakes. Frankly speaking, this is my first assignment,” Meen started his introduction.

“What is it about? I already forgot …” I asked.

“We had started to talk about the parallel worlds, and why they exist,” he said.

“Oh, right,” I remembered now.

“I will try my best to translate my thoughts into words. I have to admit that I’m not very used to this. With the soul language, which is used most commonly here, I would just need to intend that you understand what I want you to know, and you would receive all the information immediately,” Meen explained.

“Everything in the universe is in a relative form within the rules of space and time. Relativity means that one thing can exist only if the other thing exists as well. When there is that something, there’s also this other something, too. In other words, if that something does not exist, then the other something can’t exist either,” he continued.

“Oh no, your introduction to the topic already confuses me. Can you try explaining it in an easier way? I think my brain isn’t good enough for this type of things,” I said.

“I will give you an example,” Meen continued. “Let’s talk about the relativity of light and darkness. Imagine that the whole universe consists only of light, you would only see light wherever you go; in every corner of the universe, light is only what you see. I’d like to ask if you can still call this light ‘light’?”

“Umm …” I paused, trying to follow his explanations.

“I couldn’t, could I?” I answered cautiously, playing it safe.

“The word ‘light’ wouldn’t exist. You couldn’t call it ‘light’. You couldn’t even think about it. You wouldn’t be able to define its quality. You wouldn’t even recognise it, as if it had never existed,” Meen went on.

“But it’s there, as long as it appears in front of us,” I protested.

“Yes, that’s right. It’s there but you would not call it ‘light’. You wouldn’t call it anything at all which means it does not exist,” he replied.

“Why is that so?” I wondered.

“Because there is no darkness to contrast it. So, we cannot call ‘light’ light,” Meen said with a smile. “This relativity appears in everything, in every process under the realm of the universe.”

“When that happens, there is a process that follows, which we call the ‘in-between’. This process causes distance, and it has a beginning and an end, which we refer to as ‘space’, and then it is logically followed by ‘time’,” he added.

“Therefore, within the universe, there is always a beginning, existence, constant change, an end, and an endless resumption of this process. All of this is called the ‘cycle’ which is the mechanism of the time system, from the smallest particles to the largest which form the cosmos and the universe.”

“Oh God! This is so hard to understand,” I groaned.

“What you have just expressed is something that you are so used to exclaiming without having considered its real meaning, haven’t you?” Meen interrupted, and I really didn’t know what he was talking about.

“I think so. I feel like I’m being challenged with a very complex subject,” I answered.

“I know. Let’s continue on that topic which I’ve been telling you about,” Meen cut me short.

“Whoa! You are overloading my brain,” I complained.

“Please allow me to explain further. I’m actually having fun and feeling rather excited about this first assignment. It’s good to have this sense of challenge followed by accomplishment,” he said.

“I think you are doing a good job. The challenge is more about my brain,” I said sheepishly.

“Thank you very much for your kind compliment,” Meen said, smiling broadly.

“Okay, we’ve talked about the rules of space and time. Now, everything that moves in a cycle needs an initiator. Listen carefully because I’m getting closer to clarifying the point,” he said.

“What? You’ve not come to the point yet?” I was beginning to feel that Meen was overdoing it.

“I’m sorry that you think that I’m overdoing it, and I do feel the same. But I really want you to be clear about it,” he replied as soon as I had the thought formed in my mind.

Oh boy! I didn’t like his telepathic ability because I couldn’t even secretly judge and comment on him.

“Hang on! I still don’t quite understand the part about space and time,” I interjected, like a good student.

“Well, let’s imagine that you are in a race. You are at the starting point and your goal is to cross the finish line. The distance from the starting point to the finish line equals ‘space’, the overall distance, and the time you need to run that distance is the overall ‘time’,” Meen had picked an easy example, and I thought that it was actually very elementary.

Meen chuckled, holding his hand over his mouth.

“I’m sorry, I can’t help but receive your thoughts,” he apologised quickly, as he laughed at me before returning to his narration.

“Now, whatever moves has to have something that pushes it. Assuming that at the starting point of the track, there’s a stone instead of a runner, then there must be something that moves the stone.”

“What creates the movement is called ‘energy’. Now where does this energy come from?” Meen asked, but it seemed that his question didn’t require an answer.

“Now we come to the most important point: energy is the key, and the answer to everything in the universe. Even more, it’s the answer to everything in the whole cosmos,” he added.

“I will separate the energy into two parts. In fact, it’s only one part, but it can be divided into two parts, which means that if the first part does not exist, then the second does not occur,” Meen explained.

“Wait a minute. Are you sure you are answering my questions on parallel worlds?” I asked.

“I’m positive. But I’d like to explain the initial part first so that you can see the whole picture,” he answered.