At the beginning of the universe there are three people watching, usually. Chloe, her friend Jamais, and Chloe's dolly.
Chloe sees the speck (it won't be called a primeval atom for billions of years) hanging in the void. There's no light, no space, no time passing; she knows she shouldn't be able to see at all, really. But it's there before her, sometimes the size of a pinhead, or a marble, sometimes so big she can barely catch its curvature.
Jamais shows it all to her as they hover like phantoms in this void of nothing. He can take people anywhere. He has his own time inside his black, furry belly, and as he breathes it out so you can see.
They definitely, positively should not be here, Chloe knows that. They're not supposed to travel by themselves. She squeezes her dolly more tightly. But when Erasmus confronts them, asks where they've been, she can tell him the truth: Nowhere. Chloe doesn't like lying, but she likes to take Jamais for walks, and where else can they go to play away from everybody and get away from everything?
She strokes Jamais's seal-like head. It bobs around on the end of his long flagpole neck. 'How will we start the universe this time?' she asks him.
Jamais scampers about in the nothingness. He leaves no tracks. Then he bounds up to her and nuzzles her arm. Chloe instinctively raises her dolly out of his reach.
Jamais hates her dolly because she's the only other thing Chloe loves. Jamais doesn't like competing for her affections. He's bitten the doll before. She slapped his nose for it, and he howled and was sorry. But still from time to time Chloe catches the hungry look in his round, indigo eyes, and she doesn't want more teeth marks in her doll's shiny legs.
'What is it?' she asks him, pushing his sleek head away.
He noses under her arm and a piece of cold coloured plastic flops to the nothing at her feet. Chloe smiles and retrieves it.
Jamais's eyes are glittering, the light inside them making the void sparkle like frost. Chloe places her lips to a valve in the plastic and heaves out her biggest breath. The plastic stirs sluggishly, then lifts and grows.
Soon, it's the biggest, brightest beach ball ever!
Chloe giggles and throws the ball to Jamais. He catches it expertly on his nose, bounces it in the air, flaps about beneath it, faster and faster. Chloe and her dolly both laugh, both get more and more excited. They both know where Jamais's dancing will lead and they have to be ready.
Then at last, Jamais jumps extra high and bats the ball with his glossy black head, towards the blob. It sails through the air that Jamais exhales and taps against the ball of matter.
POP, goes the universe.
For a long, lingering trillion-trillion-trillionth of a second Chloe shrieks with laughter, as a pinprick of light appears. It grows and expands everywhere. Its temperature is close to infinity but starting to fall. Now space has been created, time may flow freely. Now time exists, space can start to expand.
'That was the best way of starting this little universe so far!' she squeals as Jamais nuzzles around her knees, happy that she is pleased with him. 'How will we start it next time?'
But the incandescence is hurting Chloe's eyes and she knows that they can be seen now, should anyone be watching. It's time to go. She feels the tug of time like the teeth of Jamais pulling at her pretty pink skirt. He's bored now the fun is over, restless. He wants to go home.
She turns, and a glimpse of blue flashes into her eyes. Something sharp-edged and rectangular, waning in the workaday forces pulling and pushing the shape of this young universe.
'Look, dolly,' she whispers. 'Look, it's him. The man from the book. He's found his way here at last in his funny box.' She smiles. 'I think it's going to be pulled apart, don't you?'
