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The Longest Story Ever Told
This is the longest story ever told. It lasts for hundreds of billions of years, and it's about a small, sub-atomic particle named Jason.
Jason was moving about in his corner of the universe rubbing up against other small sub-atomic particles, and as he rubbed up against these small sub-atomic particles he built up a tiny positive charge. So Jason was a happy, positively charged sub-atomic particle. And he felt a sense of attraction towards negatively charged sub-atomic particles.
He was particularly attracted to one beautiful negatively charged sub-atomic particle named Elvira.
The force of attraction between Elvira and Jason grew until one day, eventually, they touched. Suddenly there was a HUGE chain reaction. An enormous burst of energy called nuclear fusion and heat and light radiated out from them.
At first Jason was terrified, but then he realized that something wonderful had happened. Through this force of attraction that Jason and Elvira felt they had created a beautiful, wonderful, glowing white...
...star.
Jason turned to Elvira and said, “Look, Elvira, we have done something wonderful! We have created a star!”
And Elvira said, “Yes Jason, I know. And, in a few billion years, we'll have our very own planets, with moons, and asteroids, and comets. Our very own solar system here in our corner of the universe.”
She was right. After a few hundred billion years they had a wonderful solar system to call their very own, and they were happy for a long, long time.
After several hundred billion years had passed, one day Jason turned to Elvira and said, “Elvira, do you remember that day, many hundreds of billions of years ago, when we first touched? And there was that wonderful burst of heat and light and our precious, beautiful little star was born?”
She said, “Oh yes Jason. I remember it so well...”
As they said these words to each other, they felt the force of attraction between them growing once more and a few nanoseconds later they touched.
Once again there was a HUGE nuclear fusion chain reaction, an enormous burst of energy, and their tiny white star exploded! It began to swallow up all of the planets closest to it! Jason was terrified again when he realized that they had created...
...a supernova.
Jason looked at Elvira and said, “Look, what have we done! Our beautiful white star has exploded into a supernova, and it is swallowing up all the planets that are closest to it! Elvira turned to Jason and said, “Jason, be calm. This is the life of a star. It is born. It grows. Later it dies, only to be re-born again.”
For many hundreds of billions of years Jason and Elvira's beautiful supernova continued to grow. It's enormous force of gravity pulled in every galactic object close to it. It swallowed up planets, moon, even other stars, and it became incredibly heavy. Soon the force of it's gravity became so strong that light could no longer easily escape from it. As their beautiful supernova began to dim Jason turned to Elvira and said, “Oh, Elvira, our light is about to fade.”
Elvira said, “Yes Jason, I know.”
Jason said, “Elvira, for the last several hundred billion years you are the only sub-atomic particle I've ever been attracted to!”
Elvira turned to Jason and said, “Oh Jason, you are the only sub-atomic particle I have ever been attracted to, too!”
And with these words, the last rays of light escaped from their supernova and it became...
...a black hole.
Inside Jason and Elvira's black hole there was no light, there was no heat, there was no space, there was no time, there was no reality as we know it here in this universe. There was only a mighty, inky, massive blackness. For hundreds of billions of years the black hole continued to swallow up every galactic object around it. It became more massive, more heavy, more dense.
Eventually it became so dense that right at its core the massive gravity tore a tiny, infinitesimal hole in the fabric of space and time.... and one little sub-atomic particle slipped out through the tiny, infinitesimal hole and appeared in our universe, hundreds of billions of years from now.
As it floated around in its little corner of our universe the sub-atomic particle rubbed up against other, small sub-atomic particles and build up a small positive charge. And as the charge grew on the sub-atomic particle, it remembered something from hundreds of billions of years before. It didn't know where the memory had come from. It didn't know who the memory had come from. But it remembered. And our little, tiny sub-atomic particle thought to itself...
...I think I call myself “Jason.”
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