THE ALTERNATIVE LIVES

                  OF

       GERALD RENNICK PINGFAST

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gerald Rennick Pingfast gets a glimpse behind the scenes.

 

 

 

Pingfast had been considering the question of free will. He was a thinking man, after all, but it was not, as he admitted to himself, the sort of problem that normally concerned him. Nevertheless he wondered about it all, but, like so many before him, he found the question rather too large. Nevertheless, he could not altogether shake it out of his mind.

 

"How much, G.R.," (he enquired silently of himself) "are we swayed by imponderable forces?"

 

But there was no reply. He felt that no-one in the office would be interested in this internal debate, and that his wife would not concern herself with his dilemma beyond enquiring whether he was feeling alright, or advising him to see the doctor. Gerald didn't think that his doctor would have much time for such problems either, especially not in working hours, and realised that the local clergymen would not be likely to consider the question with the clear and unbiased gaze that he thought necessary. Besides, G.R. was not what you would call a religious man. And so it was that Gerald Rennick Pingfast, a man no-one thought likely to entertain such a profound and far-reaching discussion did not trouble to disillusion anyone of their comfortable preconceptions of him.

 

If his wife or colleagues noticed anything in the way of a puzzled frown or a distracted air, they ignored it, or attributed it to something far more mundane than profound philosophical considerations, such as tight shoes, or indigestion. They made of him, in short, a mirror of their own failings. By being this Gerald Rennick Pingfast performed a very useful service to his

fellow men. Everyone was cheered by looking at him and thinking

 

'There is a man more ordinary, average and unexceptional than even I.'

 

But they were not a party to his inmost thoughts.

 

Gerald passed his days in an abstracted manner, sleeping badly, rising early, drinking tea, wandering to, from, and around the office, smoking and eating in the normal way, but feeling remote from all that happened to him. He was, to all external appearances, the ordinariest man in the world.

 

One night Gerald Rennick Pingfast went to bed, as usual, and had a very strange dream.

 

 

 

 

=+=

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, dear reader, please select one of these alternative lives to explore.......

 

 

pingweb dalmar beg.htm

 

pingweb dream syndicate.htm

 

pingweb imagination.htm

 

pingweb knife.htm

 

pingweb ordinariest.htm

 

pingweb positive.htm

 

pingweb record.htm

 

 

Or, better yet, try the most complicated alternative.....although it may take some time to download.......

 

pingweb total.htm