Anna Maria
Roland Michel Tremblay
44E The Grove, Isleworth, Middlesex, London, TW7 4JF, UK
Tel +44 (0)20 8847 5586 Mobile: +44 (0)794 127 1010
www.themarginal.com
Summary
Anna Maria in 300 Words
Prologue - Letters from Anna Maria and the Duke of Connaught
Genesis – God lives in Chiswick
The Marginals – Westminster’s Predictions of the Future
Psi-Star – Victorian Ignorance is Bliss
Déjà Vu - Oxford’s Reality Multiplication
Dead Girl’s Song – York’s Resident Ghost
Save Devon from this Filth – Righteous Citizens of Sidmouth
Kill That Prime Minister – London’s Library from the Future
Ham III Time Paradox - The Uncertainty of King George Varney
The Box on the Seven Dials – Full Circle in Covent Garden
Scale Universes - The Richmond Park Experiment
Bibliotheca Alexandrina in El Cerro Del Pueblo
Anna Maria in 300 Words
In God lives in Chiswick, Anna Maria and the Duke of Connaught meet Ms Barnsworth, a mentally ill patient who claims she’s from another universe in which she is sent to a space station around Saturn. She is also apparently capable of creating human beings out of the vacuum of space.
In The Marginals, our heroes meet two scientists who are studying statistical probabilities, predictions of the future and people’s behaviours. When they meet they realise that they are a perfect match but don't dare admit to it in order to avoid being the victim of this predestination.
In Psi-Star we find out about how Anna Maria at 18 learned to cope with being the most psychic woman alive whilst developing quantum computers in Victoria.
In Déjà Vu they get to fear a Professor from Oxford capable of changing reality at will.
In Dead Girl’s Song, we meet a special ghost from York in quest for the key to the city.
In Righteous Citizens of Sidmouth, our characters have to fight against a small group of people who denounce online inhabitants who do not conform to their beliefs.
In London’s Library from the Future, it is not easy to distinguish the reality from what books from the future are describing. Should they destroy the career of the Prime Minister or not?
In The Uncertainty of King George Varney, the existence of some of our descendants is due to a temporal paradox, and the survival of humanity after two world wars depends on Anna Maria finishing the work she started years ago.
In The Box on the Seven Dials, the Duke of Connaught experiences for himself what mind powers can do to his own personal existence.
Finally, in The Richmond Park Experiment, we find out about other scale universes.
Prologue
Letter from Anna Maria to the Duke of Connaught
Humanity does not yet understand many things on this Earth. I am proof of that, no one has been able to explain to me who I am, and I am still trying to figure it out myself. For a long time I thought I was alone in this world, a lone and lost woman. I thought I met people like me, I know now that I am unique.
Arthur, do you believe that you know me? Would you recognise me if I were to meet you somewhere on the street? I know you would not, but I see through you, I know everything there is about you. I know what you think, I know your past, I would guess your most probable futures. I could even tell you where you were and who you were before you were even born. I could also tell you when you will be.
Nothing unusual I guess, there are many psychic mediums on this planet capable of such things, and for a while I accepted that, I was just another one of those crazy clairvoyants who could predict the future, even though I never did open for business. I never needed to, I was born very rich from parents who, just like my friend Bertrand Russell, died when I was still a child. However, my parents are still present in my life, so I’m never alone.
This whole adventure started with a scientific mind. I was a young and promising scientist working in a variety of fields, as I was fascinated by any mystery underlying this world. Who are we, what is this universe we are living in, and what is our role or purpose, if any, in that universe? How’s everything working? What is the science underlying all this that could explain any phenomenon?
So I studied on my own philosophy, psychology, the mind, my mind, which for some reason never appeared to work the same way as everyone else. I was also highly interested in theoretical physics, perhaps I thought I could find there some answers to explain scientifically what was happening to me. Bertrand has been my mentor all those years, even though he is but a ghost.
I could try to explain my life, I could never be certain that I was right. I then looked into many New Age movements, their beliefs, which led to reading a lot about religion and mystic philosophies. This was another dead end, because I could not picture the universe the way they did. Perhaps it was just a barrier of language or vocabulary and we’re all ultimately talking about the same concepts. But I continued on my own, understanding that no answer would come from any other human being or school of thought.
For a while I was considered like a genius mind, I made many discoveries in so many different fields, even though I had not carefully studied any of them. In fact, I don’t even have a degree, I just had many interests, and my strange abilities gave me the chance to work in these fields.
I live in Richmond Park, in a coquette house overseeing Thames Valley. I suffered a lot during my life, no one really knows all that has happened to me. I decided to isolate myself completely, so I would not have to tell anyone, or explain why I knew so much about their existence and everything else about everyone. I could also hear all their thoughts and see their pettiness, and after a while this so-called civilisation can be so depressing. I had to go as far as I could to stop witnessing the stupidity of mankind.
Also that anyone who got too close to me, with a genuine interest in what could be called paranormal phenomena, would have liked nothing better than imprison me into a lab and dissect my brain for posterity, hoping somehow to get some answers about my abilities. Unfortunately my brain scans showed nothing unusual, maybe it is at an esoteric level that something could be witnessed. And I’ve gone through so many tests in my life which did not bring any answer, that there’s no way I would like to be a lab rat again. You have been warned.
I lived in the closet long enough. Before I die, I need someone to write all these extraordinary events which have marked my existence. Don’t ask me why, I know that someone is you, even though the thought has not yet entered your mind. It would be more to help anyone who may have been born like me, with the gift. I know damn well that it is not a gift, it is a curse, but I will let you be the judge of that.
If I can help people like me, then it is my duty to do so before it’s too late. However, the way it is going, I might never die. I would not be surprised, I am healthier than anyone I know. I take huge risks while people tell me that I’m crazy and that I could die. I laugh all heartily, I know that I have yet many years to live in front of me. I know when I will die with certainty. I could go into ice water right now, naked, and I would survive. And I did it many times in the last few years.
Because of my gift, I never stayed anywhere for too long. I lived in Ottawa, York, Paris, Carcassonne, Mont St. Michel, Brussels, Los Angeles, New York, London and even near the North Pole. I was born in Richmond Park in London, it has always been my permanent home. That alone could do a great book, without the fantastic and the paranormal which has plagued my life, but I have decided that it was time to tell it all as it was.
Every time I moved to another city or country, I thought it would be different, meeting new people who had no clue about my secret abilities. I was wrong, it kept growing like if I was a shining light, a beacon attracting the weirdest events, and often, the weirdest people. I had nothing like a normal life, and when you hear it all first hand, you will say: she’s mad, she belongs into an asylum. I nearly ended up there many times, believe me.
I know things I should not know. I feel I am not real and that all the reality surrounding me is an illusion. At night I can slow time down, and then, a whole new universe opens up to me. In there I can meet ghosts, other weird souls from other worlds, and I can acquire knowledge that will never be known to the world for hundreds of years.
My experiences have brought me to the brink of insanity. For a while my family and I thought I had a serious mental illness. My brain would switch on, it could last for weeks and months. In these periods, I was completely dysfunctional, but I reasoned like a genius mind. I could suddenly play piano like a virtuoso, I could tell you more about how to unite Relativity and Quantum Mechanics than any other theoretical physicists. By slowing time, it gives me the chance to see the world differently, to switch timelines, to change my reality. This is only the tip of the iceberg.
My quest is to find out how I acquire this knowledge which seems to appear out of nowhere. I am looking for the one person in the world who can understand and help me. I will find that in you, Arthur, but it is not everything I will expect. A friendship will form, where the established reality will be questioned to its limits. Can we travel in time? Can we acquire a knowledge known to no one without having done any research about it? Can we meet weird entities from other worlds? Can we build our own fantasy world, from which we can acquire knowledge? This is a fantastic journey, dealing with real issues. As long as I can prove that I am not a mental case. It is a story about the means to get there. It is not a perfect science, there are drawbacks, and the source of the knowledge needs to be identified.
I am far from having all the answers, despite what many people think. With your help, Arthur, we may get closer to the truth.
Anna Maria
Richmond Park, Surrey
Answer from the Duke of Connaught to Anna Maria
Madam, I acknowledge reception of your letter and that you are my neighbour when I’m in London, living next to Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park. I have read your missive. In layman terms, what was all that about? Please, discontinue all communication with me. This is a serious matter and shall be acted upon.
Prince Arthur of Connaught
Duke of Connaught and Strathearn
MI5, Director General
Sidmouth, Devon
Genesis
God lives in Chiswick
My name is Prince Arthur of Connaught. I am the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, a title now officially extinct but unofficially still in existence. I am a descendant of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and for security reasons dating from before the Second World War, the title has been past to descendants in secret. I may one day tell you that story. I was born in 1972 in Sidmouth, Devon, which is still my permanent address in the United Kingdom. I live in the clock tower overlooking the sea, just beside the Connaught Gardens.
I am the Director General of MI5, the British Security Service. There is little I could actually write which concerns my employment at MI5, however there is a part of my work which is not classified, though we would not advertise it anywhere from fear of ridicule. I have been often accused of spending more time investigating those paranormal and unexplained phenomena than being worried about terrorism. And this is how I got to know my best friend yet, Anna Maria.
Anna Maria has been described by our service to be the most psychic woman alive, and she sure helped me out on many cases in the past which have never attracted any attention from the media. These little short stories I intend to write about our experiences are for the purpose of documenting these strange events in case some other investigators might eventually be confronted with similar puzzling situations.
I apologise for my writing style, I’m afraid you will not find here fanciful descriptions or poetry. I am no Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, an author both Anna Maria and I admire very much. Her because she identifies with his character Sherlock Holmes, following our little investigations, me because Sherlock Holmes stories were required reading for any agent working at MI5 or New Scotland Yard, where I was posted for many years in the past.
When I am in London, I live at Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park. It is not a coincidence if the green just outside Pembroke Lodge is called Sidmouth Wood, this has been in my family for a long time, even though no one would find any record stating so.
Anna lives in the house next door, which is how we met. Her house is like one of these old English cottages, located just beside where the philosopher Bertrand Russell used to live while he was alive. Russell’s ghost is apparently a daily companion of Anna Maria, which might explained why she loves the area so much.
There is something striking once you get inside her little house with a roof made of thatched straw. Inside it is more like a bunker not even touching the walls of the house, and which could resist a nuclear attack. In time I will get to explain in detail why this is so, but it will not be in this present case.
I will however state here that I noted a lift which appeared to be indicating many floors down, though I was only aware of one staircase going to the second floor. This is where we meet most of the time, in a sort of conservatory with a circular skylight window all around, with unfinished paintings everywhere and a huge telescope in the middle.