‘But we were talking about messages that predict things that haven’t happened. Surely that means someone has to be in a different now while also communicating, which according to your theory means they have to be in the same now. So it doesn’t work.’

‘Everything we’ve talked about up till now, Will, is widely accepted metaphysics.’

‘Metaphysics?’

‘The place where science meets philosophy. The place where, some day, the answers to the Big Questions will likely be found.’

‘Understood.’

‘But now we dip into something a little more … what’s that word we keep using?’

‘Hypothetical?’

‘That’s it. Let’s be hypothetical. So, what if there was a special case of consciousness? A mode of existence that breaks the rules the rest of us abide by. Imagine a conscious being who could exist in one now while being able to communicate with someone in another now.’

‘Is that possible, you reckon?’

‘Oh yeah. I think beings with that ability certainly exist. There’s a massive body of evidence to back it up, in fact.’

Will is about to quiz her further, but he stops himself, a more pressing question taking over his mind. ‘You’ve looked into this?’

Her thoughtful silence seems to last a long time. ‘Well, yes, I suppose I have. These sorts of subjects fascinate me. I’m always reading up on something or other. The ways in which we’re all connected are fascinating, I think. All … fascinating. Wouldn’t you say?’

That’s a lot of ‘fascinatings’, Will thinks. Why has she seized on this subject? Why is she so well read about it? Bursting with her own theories, for that matter? Try as he might to disguise it, there’s confusion in his tone when he replies. ‘Really interesting, yeah.’

Again, she’s quiet for a moment. ‘Sometimes we get a feeling about things, Will.’ She looks deeply into him as she speaks. ‘Sometimes we sense things that are going on around us. Some of us do. Well – I do anyway.’

‘Right.’

‘And we do some thinking about what we can … sense. And some research. And perhaps seek out other people who may have … come across such situations. You follow me?’

Will nods. Her answer begs a thousand more questions, but he says nothing. He needs to let her talk now. He can pick what she just said to bits later. ‘So who are they, then?’ he asks.

‘Who do you mean?’

‘These special conscious beings who can communicate between nows.’

‘In a way, Will, it’s all of us.’ Her look suggests she’s enjoying waiting for Will to catch on. ‘All of us, eventually.’

‘Don’t think I’m with you.’

‘Think about it. For someone to move between varied nows and yet be able to communicate with people of a different now, they’d have to exist in a different plane from the one we are most familiar with.’

‘Got it.’