'For the most-part we sleep out of doors-except there are no doors-usually for an hour or two, your hour, at a time. Where we won't get stepped on by an ap, of course. By the way,' he interrupted himself, sitting up again, 'since sexual contact is not a desirable thing on our PLANET, or on most others, men and women are free to share everything without fear or the need for guile. You might find yourself lying down for a nap near someone of the opposite gender, but you don't need to worry about what your wife or husband-or whatever-might think if he or she hears about it, or suffer embarrassment or discomfort of any kind, even though we usually wear little or no clothing. Sexual apparati are simply no big deal on K-PAX, especially since there are only two varieties and, as you know, when you've seen both, you've seen them all.'
He leaned back and closed his eyes again, obviously enjoying the exposition. 'Okay, we've awakened, we've eaten something, we've urinated, picked our teeth, what do we do now? Well, whatever needs to be done. Soak some more grains for next time, wipe out our bowls, fix anything that's broken. Otherwise, anything we want! Some prefer to search the skies, others observe the leafing of the trees or the antics of the aps or the behavior of the korms or horns, or play music or paint or sculpt. When I'm not traveling I usually spend most of my time in one of the libraries, which are usually filled with beings at any given time of cycle.'
'Tell me more about the libraries.'
'There are some books there, of course, but those are very old, and there is something much better. Let me see if I can describe it for you.' Prot's eyes rolled up again, and his fingers began tapping together, more rapidly this time. 'Imagine a computer with a monitor that projects three-dimensional images complete with all-sense capability. Now suppose you are interested in ballooning. Let's say you want to know what it was like to pilot a balloon a hundred million, cycles ago, before we learned how to travel with light. You just set up the computer, tap in the instructions, and there you are! You would find yourself in an ancient gondola, floating at whatever location and altitude you specified, at the authentic wind speed and direction on the date you selected. Feel the ropes in your hands and the suns on your face! Smell the trees below! Hear the korms of that time who perch on top of the bladder or join you in the gondola! Taste the fruit and nuts provided for the trip! The surface features you see below you are perfectly accurate. It is exactly like being there!' By now prot was virtually quivering with excitement.
'What happens if you fall off?'
His bright eyes opened once more and his fingers became still. 'That's a question only a human being would ask! But the answer is: nothing. You would find yourself back in the library, ready for another adventure.'
'What other kinds of adventures might you have?'
'Use your imagination, doc. Anything that has happened on K-PAX in the last few million years is yours to experience, in three dimensions and all senses. You could recreate your own birth, if you wanted to. Or relive any part of your life. Or that of any other being.'
'These holograms-do you have any for other planets? Will you be taking something back from Earth?'
'Planetary travel is still somewhat new to us. We've only been at it for a few hundreds of thousands of your years, mostly just scouting expeditions, and our library is rather incomplete on that subject. As for EARTH-well, I find it to be a very interesting place, and I will so state in my report. But whether anyone will want to set up all the parameters...' He shrugged and reached for a mango, bit into it without peeling off the skin. 'But that's only the beginning!' he exclaimed, with a noisy slurp. 'Suppose you are interested in geology. Tap in the instructions, and samples of any and every rock, ore, gem, slag, or meteorite, complete with name, origin, composition, chemistry, density, from whatever source you specify, will be at your fingertips. You can pick them up, feel them, smell them. Same with flora and fauna or any group or species thereof. Science. Medicine. History. The arts. You like opera, nicht wahr? In a matter of seconds you could select anything you wished to see and hear, from a list of everything ever written or performed on K-PAX or certain other PLANETS, organized by title, subject, setting, types of voices, composer, performers, et cetera, et cetera, all cross-referenced. If you had this capability on EARTH you could take part in a performance yourself alongside Ponselle or Caruso! Sound good?' I had to admit that it did. 'Or you could sail with Columbus, sign the Magna Carta, drive the Indy Five Hundred, pitch to Babe Ruth-you name it.
'After a time in the library,' he continued, a little more placidly now, 'I might go for a walk in the woods or just sit or lie down somewhere for a while. That's one of the nicest things of all.' He paused for a moment, apparently deep in thought, then said: 'A few months ago I sat beside a pond in alabama. There was no wind at all and it was absolutely quiet, wonderfully still except for the occasional jumping of a fish or croaking of a frog or the sound of insects making tiny ripples on the surface. Have you ever experienced that? It is beautiful. There are no ponds on KPAX, but the feeling is the same.'
'When was this?'
'Last october.' He leaned back with that perpetual smile on his face as if he were, at that moment, actually sitting beside the pond he had just described. Then he sat up and sang, rather loudly and not on key, 'And that's a typical daaayyyy' (tap, tap), 'in dogpatch (tap), u.s.aaayyyy.' A reference, according to my son Fred, to a popular Broadway musical of the fifties called Li'l Abner.
And then he said something totally unexpected, something precipitated, apparently, by his 'reminiscing' about life on his 'world.' He said, 'No offense intended, gene, but my time is almost up here and I can't wait to get back.'
This took me completely by surprise. I said, 'What-to K-PAX?'
'Where else?'
Now it was my turn to sit up straighter. 'When are you planning to return?'
Without a moment's hesitation: 'On august seventeenth.'
'August seventeenth. Why August seventeenth?'
He said, 'It's 'Beam me up, scotty' time.'
'You're 'beaming' back to K-PAX on that date?'
'Yes,' he replied. 'And I shall miss you. And all the other patients. And,' he nodded toward the nearly empty basket, 'all your delicious fruits.'
I said, 'Why does it have to be August seventeenth?'
'Safety reasons.'
'Safety reasons?'
'You see, I can go anywhere on EARTH without fear of bumping into anyone traveling at superlight speed. But beings are going to and coming from K-PAX all the time. It has to be coordinated, like your airport control towers.'
'August seventeenth.'
'At 3:31 A.M. Eastern time.'
I was disappointed to find that our own time was up for this session. 'I'd like to take this up again next week, if that's all right with you. Oh, and could you draw up a KPAXian calendar for me some time? Just a typical cycle or so would be fine.'
'Anything you say. Until august seventeenth, I'm all yours. Except for a little side trip up north, of course. I haven't been to a few places yet, remember?' He was already out the door. 'Ciao, ' he called on his way down the corridor.
AFTER he had gone I returned to my office to recopy my notes. As I was trying to make some sense of them I found myself gazing at Chip's picture sitting on my desk. 'Ciao' is one of his favorite expressions, along with 'Truly,' and 'You know?' Now on summer vacation, he had gotten a job as a lifeguard at one of the public beaches. A good thing, too, since he had already weaseled two years' advances on his allowance. The last of my children, soon out of the nest.
I should wax philosophical here and report that I pondered long and hard the implications of that inevitable fledging, both for Chip and for myself, but the truth is that it brought me back to prot's 'departure date.' August seventeenth was only two months away. What did it mean? It would be like Russell's saying that on such-and-such a day he would be returning to heaven. But in all the years he had been with us Russell has never announced a date for that journey and, to my knowledge, neither has any other delusional. It was totally unprecedented in the annals of psychiatry. And since it was patently impossible for prot to travel to K-PAX, or anywhere else, what would happen to him on that day? Would he withdraw completely into his amnesiacal armor? The only possible way I could see to prevent that from happening would be to find out who this man really was and where he had come from before it was too late.
But suddenly it occurred to me that August seventeenth would have been the approximate date that prot claimed he had arrived on Earth nearly five years earlier. With this in mind I asked Mrs. Trexler to put in a call to the
