The Oddfits (9 page)

“There’s more than enough room after all. Don’t you think?”

Murgatroyd found himself again in the crowded flat field. Gravity had resumed. The Filipinas were once again seated together in small clusters, and seated next to him, staring at him solemnly but with a faint smile in her eye, was Ann.

Murgatroyd opened his mouth, and when he did, his voice came out in a very croaky whisper. “Who are you?”

Ann corrected him. “Who are
we
, Murgatroyd. Who are
we
?”

CHAPTER 9

Ann took something out of her bag and handed it to Murgatroyd. It was a ball of tightly crumpled aluminium foil, about the size of a small lime.

“I always carry this around with me. It’s a very useful way of explaining a potentially complicated concept. Now, Murgatroyd: think of that ball of foil as the world. Feel the surface.”

Murgatroyd rolled the ball between his palms and fingers. It was slightly rough and jagged.

“The surface of the ball—the part exposed and visible to us, is what we call the Known World. But you’ll notice too that there’s more to this ball than meets the eye.”

Ann took the ball from Murgatroyd and uncreased it ever so slightly so that instead of a compact, round ball, it was more of a loosely crumpled wad.

“See?” Ann said, pointing to the crannies and crevices that had been hidden in the ball’s interior, but were now exposed to the outside. “And if you undo all of the ball,”—Ann proceeded to do just that—“you can see that most of the ball consists not of what is on the surface, but what is crumpled and packed together to form the interior.”

Ann smoothed out all of the creases and lay the sheet of foil flat on the grass between them for Murgatroyd to behold. Even flattened out, the foil had a rugged texture to it, its surface crisscrossed in wrinkles and lines from where it had been crumpled.

Ann continued: “Remember how the surface of the ball represented the Known World? The rest of this foil—the parts you weren’t able to see when it was rolled up into a ball—all this represents the More Known World. Murgatroyd, look around you.”

Murgatroyd looked around.

“All of what you see around you now, and in fact, all that you’ve ever seen almost all your entire life, is the Known World—the surface of the ball. Now, tell me what you saw just a few minutes ago. You didn’t see this field the way it is now, did you?”

Murgatroyd shook his head. “It was like this, but
. . .
” he couldn’t think of any other word for it, “but unfolded.” He put two and two together. “Like the ball!”

Ann smiled. “Exactly. You caught a glimpse of the More Known World. Most people go through their entire lives perceiving only the Known World. That’s all they ever experience, all they ever know. But beyond the limits of their perception—or at least what they
think
are the limits of their perception—lies
. . .
” Ann gestured towards the flattened sheet of foil, “the More Known World.”

Murgatroyd’s eyes widened. “So that was the More Known World?”

“Just a small part of it. The More Known World is vast—unimaginably v
ast and intricate beyond conception. The name is a bit of a misnomer, actually, because there’s still a lot of it we
don’t
know about at all; we’re not even sure that it
is
possible to ever explore all of it, even if our numbers were tripled and we were given millions and millions of years. Just look!” Ann pointed to the sheet of foil. “It’s covered with creases. Make note of each crease where it was folded. Make note of every kink in each crease, every irregularity. Look even closer. The foil isn’t even completely flat: there are still tiny folds, tiny ridges, tiny valleys that can’t be smoothed out entirely. Now imagine that each one of these creases, kinks, irregularities, folds, ridges, valleys is a new portion of the More Known World—we call them Territories. They’re innumerable: in reality, more innumerable than what you see represented in this imperfect model before you.

“What you saw just now was a tiny—an infinitesimal—part of the More Known World. In fact, what you most likely saw just now was a fusion of the Known World and a Territory of the More Known World. You saw this portion of the Known World—this field—slightly uncrumpled; you saw the unseen facets of this world that most people never see and will never be aware of.”

It was clear that Ann had explained this many times before. Yet, as she explained, it seemed that even she herself couldn’t resist being awed anew by the amazing facts that she was uttering for perhaps the umpteenth time. Her face never altered, maintaining its steady expression of calm intensity and nonchalant seriousness, but the words spilled out of her mouth with increasing rapidity; her eye positively glowed with excitement and joy. “If they only knew that this field could unfold to produce a thousand different surfaces. If they only knew they could stroll through any of the wide, open spaces separating every blade of grass, and that each of those spaces possessed its own unique geological and climactic features—glacial plains, lush forests, swamplands, star canyons, gossamer stalactites, shimmering fields of terrafluffs; if only they knew they could perch on any one of the millions of layers in the sky, or eat their picnic lunches on any groove of any leaf in that single tree over there,” (Ann pointed to a small frangipani tree about twenty metres to her right), “and experience countries consisting entirely of waterfalls, or mountain ranges formed entirely out of yellow straw and sky.

“If they
only knew
how
much
of the world there is! If only they knew!” Abruptly, Ann re-crumpled the sheet into a compact ball. “But most people don’t know. And many don’t want to know. So many will always be perfectly content to experience only the surface of this tiny little ball.” She sighed, and as if repeating to herself something that had been told to her time and time again, said resignedly, “And if they’re content, then that’s fine. After all, the Known World itself is remarkable and holds many wondrous things.” She sighed again. “But there’s so
much
more.”

There was a brief pause as Ann seemed to contemplate this. Murgatroyd took the opportunity to venture a question.

“You keep saying most people can’t see the More Known World. How come I can?”

“Because,” she answered, placing the ball back inside her bag, “it just so happens that you don’t fall into the category of ‘most people.’ You, Murgatroyd, are what we call an Oddfit.”

“Come again?”

“An Oddfit. I’m one too. Most Questians are. About four-fifths of them, to be precise.”

“What are Questians?”

“One thing at a time and first things first. Ask me what an Oddfit is.”

As both the terms “Oddfit” and “Questian” puzzled him equally, Murgatroyd was happy to oblige.

“Erh. What’s an Oddfit?”

“Excellent question.” With no ball of foil to keep her hands busy, Ann’s fingers turned back to shredding the blades of grass around her, this time methodically splitting them lengthwise and arranging the halves in a little heap. “All people in the Worlds fall into three different categories: Sumfits, Oddfits, and Stucks. All of them,” and here she paused briefly before continuing, “
all
of them have the ability to experience the Known World to its fullest, and with few exceptions, none of them will ever suspect that there is any more to the physical world besides the Known.

“Most people are Sumfits. In fact, about 99.5 percent of the world’s population are Sumfits. With proper training and willingness on their part, a Sumfit can learn to perceive, experience, and inhabit a certain number—a certain
sum
, if you will—of Territories in the More Known World
in addition
to the all of the Known World. But transferring between Worlds and Territories is an extremely draining process for a Sumfit. As a result, many Sumfits who are able to access the More Known World settle permanently there in a Territory of their choosing, or make transfers only once in a while.”

“People live in the More Known World?”

Ann nodded. “The number isn’t huge, but there are about four thousand Sumfits who’ve chosen to make some part of the More Known World their home. To continue, Sumfits make up most of the worlds’ population. However, every now and then, for reasons that still remain a mystery to us, someone ends up being born an Oddfit. Oddfits have no difficulty transferring between the Known World and the More Known World, or even among the different Territories of the More Known World. But even beyond that, Oddfits are blessed with a unique ability. A unique ability indeed.

“Only Oddfits have the ability to discover
new
Territories. Only Oddfits can sense, discover, and explore portions of the More Known World that have never been visited before. Only Oddfits,” Ann leaned forward and dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, “have the capability to make the More Known World
more known
. And
you
, Murgatroyd—or should I say
we
, Murgatroyd—happen to be Oddfits. Now what do you have to say to that?”

Murgatroyd did have something to say. “Wow.”

Ann nodded. “Wow, indeed.”

“But how
. . .
how did I become an Oddfit? Are my parents Oddfits?” Murgatroyd asked.

“No, your parents are Sumfits. Interestingly enough, oddfittingness doesn’t seem to be hereditary at all. The likelihood of an Oddfit, or even two Oddfits together, producing Oddfit offspring is about the same as that of Sumfit parents producing Oddfit ones. Oddfittingness just happens. We have no idea why. Similarly, we have no idea why some people are born Stucks.”

“Stucks?”

“Stucks are even rarer than Oddfits. They are people who are unable, however willing and however much training they undergo, to access any part of the More Known World. They are confined to the Known World for the entirety of their existence. Like oddfittingness, stuckness just happens. About five years ago, two Oddfits who were part of the Quest gave birth to a Stuck baby girl. They were immensely sad—all the Territories they could go to, all the parts of the More Known World they themselves had made known! But their own daughter would never be able to see any of it, not even a small portion. And worse still
. . .
” Ann trailed off.

“What?” Murgatroyd asked. “What was worse still?”

“We’ll get to that later,” Ann said, shaking off the barely perceptible tone of melancholy that had crept into her last few sentences. “They ended up producing a lovely series of illustrated picture books dedicated to her—each one documenting to the fullest extent possible every Territory they had ever visited, just so that she could learn about the More Known World without ever going there.”

Murgatroyd was too overwhelmed with new information to sympathize with the Oddfit parents the way that Ann seemed to. But his ears did perk up when she mentioned that they had been part of “the Quest.”

“What is the Quest? Is it related to Questians?”

“Good. You’re quite sharp when you need to be. The Quest is an international Tupperware manufacturer specializing in the production of unconventionally shaped Tupperware containers.”

It took a while for Murgatroyd to process this underwhelming answer. “What?”

“I’m joking, Murgatroyd. Look at my face,” Ann said, her face as calm and unruffled as it had ever been. “But seriously, the Quest is precisely what its name implies: a quest to explore and expand our knowledge of the More Known World. Think about it, Murgatroyd. Each small area of the Known World contains hundreds, even thousands, of different Territories. It is the purpose of the Questians—those who have chosen to embark on the Quest—to discover and to open our eyes and our minds to the vastness and greatness of the universe as we know it.”

“But why? So people can live there? You said just now that some
. . .
‘Sumfits’? Is that right?”

Ann nodded, even though the term still felt strange on Murgatroyd’s tongue.

“You said that some Sumfits live in the More Known World. Wouldn’t it help with the overpopulation problem in this world—I mean the Known World?”

Ann frowned and shook her head. “You mean, like resettlement? Colonization? No. That’s not the point of the Quest at all. Think of it this way, Murgatroyd: we are tiny ants. Tiny ants who have confined ourselves to our tiny anthill on our tiny patch of the earth, completely unaware of the meadows and jungles and deserts and rivers and oceans and caves and mountains and islands and continents and moons and stars and planets and even the great sun shining overhead. It’s not a matter of figuring out what parts of the great universe we can utilize for our own selfish, petty means. It’s a matter of putting aside our own ridiculous self-importance in order to attempt to understand it in all its magnificence and splendour. This, if you will, is the ‘point’ of the Quest, and if you choose, Murgatroyd, you too can be a part of it.”

“Me?”

“Yes, you. The Quest depends on the ability of Oddfits to explore unknown parts of the More Known World. Without Oddfits, the Quest would consist only of theoretical postulation.”

Murgatroyd still couldn’t believe his ears. “Me? Join the Quest?”

“Well, if you choose.”

“But
. . .
but I don’t understand. If I’m really an Oddfit, why haven’t I ever been able to see the More Known World before this?”

“For one thing, you’re rather old to be discovering your Oddfit abilities. Most Oddfits are identified and trained at a much younger age. You’re twenty-five, if I’m not mistaken?”

Murgatroyd nodded.

Ann nodded in return, but more contemplatively. “Yes. That’s old.
Exceptionally
old. The younger an Oddfit, the easier it is for him or her to perceive the More Known World. The fact that you were able to see it at all just now is actually quite remarkable, considering your age and the fact that it was only your second time.”

“My
second
time?”

“Yes. Surely you remember the first time. You visited Yusuf’s ice cream freezer, didn’t you?”

Murgatroyd’s jaw dropped. “That was real? I thought that was something I imagined
. . .
”

“Murgatroyd, that was probably the most real experience you’ve had so far in your life. Yusuf, by the way, was one of the three Beginners.”

“Beginners?”

“The three Oddfits who originally began the Quest sixty-five years ago: Francesca, whom we call the One; Hector, whom we call the Other; and Yusuf, whose official title was the Another, but who always preferred for us to just call him Yusuf. At first, they sought only other Oddfits, but after a while, they began to find Sumfits who were eager to join as well. I was ten years old when the One found me. And Yusuf was the one who found you. Unfortunately, he passed away before he could send us more of your details, which is why you’ve gone undetected until now.”