Sentence The Sixhundredth

The text message certainly came from Rilla Balquhidder's phone, but how she had got hold of Jasmine's and Sam's work mobile numbers, neither knew: "bit of a security breach somewhere down the line," muttered Sam, though Jasmine knew from his diffidence that he was unlikely to follow it up, and nor wood she; it was an invitation to see Little Levy Balquhidder's new toy bear, though neither of them had any particular interest in Teddies, but the hook was that the particular bear in question was named 'Karla' and that was what decided them both to accept, although when she received their acceptances: 'Happy to come to meet Karla at 3pm this afternoon,' Rilla had sent them both identical texts '?????' which they each interpreted as a simple case of touching the wrong key, for she had probably meant to send 'xxxxx' surely? however, on their arrival, Rilla was clearly more flustered than usual, though she brought them through to the sitting room, where they observed two small babies: Little Levy and his friend Toots, playing happily on the rug before a well-guarded fire;
they were joined a minute later by Toots' mother Myra Teitlebaum, who looked rather flushed ('taking a cold,' thought Sam; 'taking a liberty,' thought Jasmine) who said she was just going, and that she was pleased to meet Rilla's uncle and cousin and so it was just the three who sat in the living room in that awkward silence when none of them really knew why they were there, until Levy rolled over to Jasmine's feet and held something up towards her: it was Tavish's note, rolled tight and when unravelled gave his name. rank and serial number followed by a few words which would assuredly have meant nothing to anyone outside that room, and even then, only to two of them; Jasmine handed it to Sam, with a look that said something serious was afoot, he quickly read it twice, turned it over, looked at Little Levy who sat on the floor smiling at him, then asked: "where did you get this?" and in answer was given the bear, and Little Levi carefully showed him the small hole in the bear's side; "it came from here?" asked Sam, feeling rather foolish, for surely the baby was too young to either understand his questions or answer them, he was probably only showing the hole because it was something he had just discovered, but then, in a voice which sounded like that of a baby, with immature vocal chords and neck and throat muscles, traces of that scratchiness so like the sound of those Greek cicadas, the tettix, yet strangely orotund from the mouth of one so very young, Levy uttered his first ever sentence – which went way beyond the Dadda and Mamma which had hitherto been the only words Rilla herself had heard - said: "it's the portal to a Worm Hole, or perhaps a Moth
Hole, in the Space/Time continuum, which links through ripples of Space/Time to another such portal in the doublet, or cloak worn by Tavish Dalwhinnie in the year 1266AD and by which means I have been able to communicate with him and he has begun to communicate with me," and Sam could not help himself standing and staring about the room, a normal reflex in one whose entire life has been spent planting or discovering listening and viewing devices in public buildings and private residences around the world: there were four possible camera lenses he spotted, and umpteen places where microphones could be hidden, but when he reached each of the lenses they turned out to be quite innocent, and he felt he was making rather a public exhibition of his own humbuggery, and he stopped, turned to his niece Rilla and asked her: "has Levy ever spoken like this before?" but realised from the unmistakeable look of shock and consternation on her face that this was a first for her too; a quick word to Jasmine, and she helped her cousin out of the room and soon there was an eerie silence broken only be Little Levy's quiet chuckle: "I'm sorry," he said to Sam, "I never intended to distress my Mummy, but this situation is of such critical importance that I could not delay in explaining matters to you, Mr Smiles," at which Sam asked him: "and you are only 9 months old?" and the baby nodded, then said: "Levy is only 9 months old, but I am his Spirit and I have existed for a thousand thousand generations, indeed, like all Spirits, The Creator eternized us, we have existed since before the Creation of this Universe and it's predecessors, and will continue through it's successors, for all Time, or, as you might have heard it expressed by Buzz Lightyear . . . . ."