Thank you for the vote of approval and allowing me to put tidbits of my writing up as I write the story.  I probably should give you the gist of the story first though.  The book is intended to be a Buddhist allegory, not unlike The Chronicles of Narnia which was a Christian allegory.  The template is from Buddhist mythology which claims 31 planes of existence.  Our hero is thirteen year old Josh who meets up with a mentor named Daniel.  Daniel hires Josh to clean up around his mixed martial arts studio in exchange for lessons.  Daniel's idea of 'cleaning up' is Josh's mind however and he teaches Josh a form of meditation.  After several months, Josh passes beyond a veil and ends up on one of these 31 planes of existence where he and Daniel have a dangerous adventure which they survive based on Josh's internalization of some of Daniel's lessons in Buddhist morality.  The following exchange between the two of them occurs as the story is finishing up...(I'm not writing this in sequential order).  Incidentally, I copied it here but it seems that I can't copy quotation marks - they are there in my copy.  Too, this is of course, just a first draft.

 "Oh my god," Josh exclaimed suddenly, "Mom!"

"Just got around to thinking about that did you?" Daniel asked.

"She's going to kill me!" Josh said, "his voice rising in panic."

"Well, that's possible of course, but I don't think its as bad as all that.  In fact, Daniel said with a smile, I doubt she will have even noticed that you've been gone."

"Daniel," Josh cried, "this isn't funny!  We've been gone almost a month!  She's had to have called the police by now.  I'm probably on the back on a milk carton somewhere and you're probably on the most wanted list for kidnapping!  What are we going to do?"

Daniel took another sip of his tea and settled back looking content, "The theory of relativity explains why your relatives," Daniel began with a smirk, "or anyone else for that matter, won't have noticed how long you've been gone."

"Daniel," Josh exclaimed exasperated, "come on, this is serious.  What are we going to do?"

"Well apparently, I'm going to enjoy my tea while you let yours get cold." Daniel replied before continuing.  "What do you know about relativity?"

Josh forced himself to take a breath, "You mean Einstein's theory of relativity?" 

Daniel gave a nod and Josh continued, "Not much, something about time being relative I think."

"Time and motion," Daniel began, "or more precisely, that motion through time was relative.  Einstein realized that time and space were related and that one's passage through those mediums was relative to the observer.  Odd that it took science so long to come to that conclusion; simple stuff actually."

"Oh yeah," Josh said rolling his eyes, "who doesn't know that?"

"I know, huh," Daniel said, "not acknowledging the sarcasm.  Imagine you are standing on the side of a freeway with cars zipping by you at 65 miles per hour.  How fast does the car appear to travel as it passes you?"

There was a pause as Josh realized he was waiting for an answer, "Sixty-five miles an hour?"

"Very good." Daniel said.

"Yeah, Einstein and I are geniuses like that." Josh remarked.

Daniel continued, "Let's say there is a housefly buzzing by the driver's head toward the front window just as the car passes you.  Let's say that the housefly is traveling in a straight line which, incidentally, they almost never do and is traveling at a constant speed of five miles per hour which they also almost never do.  How fast is the housefly traveling?"

Josh looked at Daniel quizzically, "Five miles per hour?"

"Well in that case," Daniel said calmly, "you're right, we are in trouble."

"Five miles per hour isn't the answer is it?" Josh asked, a pained look on his face.

"There may be hope for you yet." Daniel smiled as he took another sip of tea.  "How fast the housefly zips past you as you stand on the side of the road?  In other words, how fast is the housefly traveling relative to you?"

Josh started excitedly as he got a glimmer of where this was going, "Seventy miles an hour!"

"And," Daniel continued, "how fast is the housefly traveling relative to the driver of the car?"

"Five miles per hour!  Tell me this is going to save us somehow!" Josh pleaded.

Daniel smiled, "We're on a different plane than your mom right now and so..."

"You're saying that were the fly in the car and she's on the side of the road?" Josh interrupted.

"Almost." Daniel said, "Fact is though, from your mom's perspective, only about a minute passes for every two and a half days here."

Josh did some quick calculations, "So we've only been gone like twenty minutes?  Please tell me we've only been gone twenty minutes."

"Depends who you ask," Daniel replied.  "Ask me and I'll tell you that weve been gone for almost two months; ask your mom and she'll say we've been gone about twenty minutes."

Josh breathed a huge sigh of relief, "So we're not dead."

"Not yet," Daniel said cheerfully, "but there's still time, relatively, of course."

-- Edited by Angell on Thursday 11th of July 2013 10:47:49 PM