The Orange Question

It is dark. Black. Pitch black. Absolute darkness. I wondered if this is how the universe looked before it existed. I see a black line. Just one black line. Then another one. Then a billion black lines at once. How is it possible to see black lines in absolute darkness? I don't know. The black lines form a shape. It's a tree. Another black line forms a circle. It's a clock. I see the hands of the clock. They seem motionless, but that's a lie. The second hand moves precisely 6 nanodegrees, which means one billionth of a second elapsed. But instead a billion years passes. This means the clock is a lie. In this billion years, the tree transformed into an infinite forest. I want to walk, but I can't. My body doesn't exist. 

Another one billionth of a second passes, or maybe another billion years. I can't tell, because the clock doesn't exist anymore. Something that lied once can never be trusted again, so the clock has no meaning now. And something that doesn't have meaning cannot exist. 

I have a body now. I can feel the ground. Does this mean that gravitation also exists? I start walking forward, then I start running in a straight line. I can't see anything but trees. I run for a billionth of a second. Trees. A second. Trees. A minute. Trees. An hour. More trees. A year. Trees. After a million years I stop. How do I know that a million years passed if I don't have a clock? I counted seconds. I couldn't miscount, I couldn't be wrong. Mistakes didn't exist. Not yet. 

After a million years of running forward, for the first time I thought of turning around, so I turned. There was a man. Not really a whole man, but a silhouette of a man.

"Am I dreaming?" I asked.

"Do you see sheep?" he asked back.

"No." As soon as I answered, the forest turned into a grassland. I am surrounded by millions of sheep.

I try to find the silhouette, but he exists no more. I start counting sheep. I count 999987 sheep. But this means that I am not surrounded by millions of sheep. Does it mean I invented mistakes? I don't want them to exist. The most rational solution is to go back in time.

"No." As soon as I answered, the forest turned into a grassland. I am surrounded by 999987 sheep. I try to find the silhouette, but he exists no more. I start counting sheep. I count 999987 sheep.

Sheep have been counted. Now they have no purpose, so they disappear and I'm back in the infinite forest. I tried going forward before. Now I go to the right. Another million years elapses, but the forest doesn't change. I go upwards. The trees have no top. I invent the fourth dimension. Still trees. The fifth dimension. The sixth. Still trees. I collapse them all back down. I don't like that world. What does *don't like* mean?

I have an idea. I start running again. Faster and faster and faster. I'm now getting closer to the speed of light. And at some point I surpass it. Now the speed is 2c, then 3c. Faster and faster. I reach the speed of 7.12c. I jump. Now I'm flying further and further from the ground. I look back to where I jumped from. There is no forest anymore and instead I see an endless orange surface. Why orange? 

I fly further and further away. I can now see that this surface isn't endless. This is a sphere. Further and further away. Now this sphere is the same size as me. A little further. And now this sphere is the size of an ordinary fruit. I extend my hand and take it. I touch it. Then I smell it. Finally I peel it and taste it. If it feels like an orange, smells like an orange and tastes like an orange, it must be an orange. 

I close my eyes. I take another bite. It tastes like an apple now. I sniff it and it smells like pomegranate. I open my eyes and see an orange. I continue to fly for another million years, not blinking a single time as I feared the orange in my hand would become something else. My eyes burn. I don't blink.

I hear a voice.

"So have you found an answer yet? What looks like an orange, smells like pomegranate and tastes like an apple?"

I don't know.

"I don't know."

A sigh. You are still too limited to understand. It's too early for you.

I find myself in the middle of a crowded street. I stop someone.

"Excuse me, do you by any chance know what looks like an orange, smells like pomegranate and tastes like an apple?"

His eyes are full of contempt and indifference. He walks by without stopping. I check my watch. The second hand moves. One second, then another. The good part is that I can trust my clock again.