Dark Matter

Foreword

            Astronomers tell us that the Universe is queerer than anyone might suppose. The motion of the billions of galaxies each containing their billions of stars is easily observable with the sophisticated giant instruments now available on earth and on satellites in the far reaches of outer space. What is not known is why and how these motions can exist. The only explanation they can make, and it is not really an explanation but only a means of rationalizing the pattern that is observed, is that there must be a pervasive mass of unseeable matter that affects everything. They estimate that this stupendous quantity of matter, Dark Matter, represents 96 percent of all the matter in the universe. All the stars and dust and gas observed with their exquisitely powerful instruments constitute only four percent of all the matter in existence. The rest is unseeable but felt. Maybe there are forces among us in our society here on earth that ape this astronomical mystery.

            If the basic premise of this tale is a challenge to credulity one should just suspend disbelief and enjoy the tale of the making and unmaking of a psychotic killer. Being easily forgotten or not noticed is a quality that every secret service and spy agency on Earth values highly. MI5 and MI6 in Great Britain make a special effort to avoid enlisting and training handsome six-foot athletic types. Sky Marshals today complain that they give away their identity aboard aircraft with their suits and ties.

            Then there is a chamber opera, The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat, which deals with a Doctor who has a peculiar visual disability, which the layman would hold unbelievable if it were not based on a serious psychiatric account of the peculiarities of the human mind. If a man could think that his wife was a hat might not most people think they really did not see anyone at all if that person was very ordinary and had a special unconscious talent for blending with the background?

            Steven Pinker, Julian Jaynes, and countless other reputable scientists have described and concluded that the eye and mind are notoriously unreliable witnesses. Ask any legal professional about the value of the eyewitness. We see Henry Morris everywhere every day and never notice.

            The major portion of this tale is set in Southern California on or about the teens of the twenty-first century. The San Diego Trolley has been extended to Escondido to relieve the traffic on Interstate 15. The Zoo is the same and easily recognized as is the constantly growing and improving San Diego State University campus. Nothing has disturbed the Star of India at its anchorage along the harbor front. Airport operations and accommodations have changed but Lindbergh is still the major location for most traffic.