The Complete Stories of Philip K. Dick Vol. 2 by Philip K. Dick

saw. Visions of ultimate reality. Like the Middle Ages. His own son. There was a grim irony in it. Just when it seemed they had finally licked that proclivity in man, his eternal inability to face reality. His eternal dreaming. Would science never be able to realize its ideal? Would man always go on preferring illusion to reality?
    His own son. Retrogression. A thousand years lost. Ghosts and gods and devils and the secret inner world. The world of ultimate reality. All the fables and fictions and metaphysics that man had used for centuries to compensate for his fear, his terror of the world. All the dreams he had made up to hide the truth, the harsh world of reality. Myths, religions, fairy tales. A better land, beyond and above. Paradise. All coming back, reappearing again, and in his own son.
    "Go on," Ryan said impatiently. "What do you see?"
    "I see fields," Jon said. "Yellow fields as bright as the sun. Fields and parks. Endless parks. Green, mixed in with the yellow. Paths, for people to walk."
    "What else?"
    "Men and women. In robes. Walking along the paths, among the trees. The air fresh and sweet. The sky bright blue. Birds. Animals. Animals moving through the parks. Butterflies. Oceans. Lapping oceans of clear water."
    "No cities?"
    "Not like our cities. Not the same. People living in the parks. Little wood houses here and there. Among the trees."
    "Roads?"
    "Only paths. No ships or anything. Only walking."
    "What else do you see?"
    "That's all." Jon opened his eyes. His cheeks were flushed. His eyes sparkled and danced. "That's all, Ryan. Parks and yellow fields. Men and women in robes. And so many animals. The wonderful animals."
    "How do they live?"
    "What?"
    "How do the people live? What keeps them alive?"
    "They grow things. In the fields."
    "Is that all? Don't they build? Don't they have factories?"
    "I don't think so."
    "An agrarian society. Primitive." Ryan frowned. "No business or commerce."
    "They work in the fields. And discuss things."
    "Can you
hear
them?"
    "Very faintly. Sometimes I can hear them a little, if I listen very hard. I can't make out any words, though."
    "What are they discussing?"
    "Things."
    "What kind of things?"
    Jon gestured vaguely. "Great things. The world. The universe."
    There was silence. Ryan grunted. He did not say anything. Finally he put out his cigarette. "Jon -"
    "Yes?"
    "You think what you see is
real?
"
    Jon smiled. "I know it's real."
    Ryan's gaze was sharp. "What do you mean, real? In what way is this world of yours real?"
    "It exists."
    "Where does it exist?"
    "I don't know."
    "Here? Does it exist here?"
    "No. It's not here."
    "Some place else? A long way off? Some other part of the universe beyond our range of experience?"
    "Not another part of the universe. It has nothing to do with space. It's here." Jon waved around him. "Close by. It's very close. I see it all around me."
    "Do you see it now?"
    "No. It comes and goes."
    "It ceases to exist? It only exists sometimes?"
    "No, it's always there. But I can't always make contact with it."
    "How do you know it's always there?"
    "I just know."
    "Why can't
I
see it? Why are you the only one who can see it?"
    "I don't know." Jon rubbed his forehead wearily. "I don't know why I'm the only one who can see it. I wish you could see it. I wish everybody could see it."
    "How can you demonstrate it isn't an hallucination? You have no objective validation of it. You have only your own inner sense, your state of consciousness. How could it be presented for empirical analysis?"
    "Maybe it can't. I don't know. I don't care. I don't
want
to present it for empirical analysis."
    There was silence. Jon's face was set and grim, his jaw tight. Ryan sighed. Impasse.
    "All right, Jon." He moved slowly toward the door. I'll see you later."
    Jon said nothing.
    At the door Ryan halted, looking back. "Then your visions are getting stronger, aren't they? Progressively more vivid."
    Jon nodded curtly.
    Ryan considered awhile. Finally he raised his