Knowing LOST

They were in a desert, the sun sweltering down upon the gritty sand from the bright azure sky above. They had been in the restaurant only moments before. The violet was only just receding from the sky.

The table and chairs had travelled with them, as well as Jacob’s salad and water.

“You really should have ordered,” Jacob commented, spearing a tomato with his fork.

“Not hungry,” Kevin retorted, staring at him. “What was that you were saying before the scenery changed? Fact from fiction?”

Jacob swallowed, his eyes betraying a slight amount of amusement at Kevin’s persistence. “If you’re looking for clarity, this is fiction.

“Well,” he said, stopping himself. “That depends on what viewpoint you take, doesn’t it? Reality is in perception. To you, this is reality. To everyone else, it doesn’t exist.”

“This doesn’t feel like nonexistence,” Kevin replied.

“I didn’t say it was nonexistence,” Jacob countered, taking another bite of salad. He chewed on it thoughtfully, obviously thinking of his next words. “It exists to you. Right now, this is… This is you.” He gestured, a sweeping motion around the entire empty horizon surrounding them.

“Flash sideways?” Kevin asked, smirking.

Jacob laughed, a fleck of tomato flying from his mouth. “No, no, no,” he replied, finally, wiping his mouth with his sleeve. “What you call the flash-sideways is very different from this. It’s… shared. This is just you.”

Kevin stared. “That means…” he said, his eyes narrowing.

Jacob speared the fork in his direction. “Bingo!” he said smiling. “You’ve figured it out.”

Kevin stared at him for a moment longer, the corners of his mouth dipping down into a frown. “You don’t exist either,” he said, tasting the words and wanting not to believe them. “You’re just in my head too.”

Jacob nodded. “That’s what I’m saying. I’m just the part of your mind that’s trying to make sense of all this… mess.”

Kevin reeled, unsure of how to react. “Make sense of it then,” he said quietly, his voice barely above a whisper.

“It’s very easy,” Jacob said. “This is just your comatose brain acting strangely because of what’s happening to you in the real world.”

Kevin’s eyes widened. “So that’s what the Island was!” he said, almost joyously. “Just my head!”

Jacob shook his head sadly. “When I said the real world,” he said softly, “I meant the Island. To you — us — that is reality. This is simply a diversion from that reality.”

He took a sip from the glass of water, and then flung it away. The glass shattered somewhere in the distance with a wet splat of broken glass and freezing water. Steam almost immediately began to rise from the puddle it formed.

“Right!” Jacob announced, standing up. “Enough talk. We’ve got to get you out of here.”

“What?” Kevin protested. “This doesn’t make sense, none of this makes sense!”

Jacob smiled knowingly. “We don’t know everything, so obviously you’re going to be confused. But we can get you out of here.”

They were on the Island. The arid desertscape flashed into jungle with a vivid violet burst, and Kevin collapsed to the ground, his head throbbing. It was too much.

When he finally looked up, Jacob was standing there, extending a hand to help him up. He pushed himself up, then stared at Jacob.

“Why are we here?” he asked.

“Ah,” Jacob replied. “The age-old question.” He searched Kevin’s face. Finding no trace of humor, he shrugged. “I can’t help you anymore,” he said, “because I don’t know.”

“What?” Kevin shrieked. “What don’t you know!?”

Jacob frowned. “You’re going to have to do this one by yourself,” he replied quietly, looking down at Kevin’s feet. “But you’re running out of time.”

Kevin followed Jacob’s line of vision down to his foot, where he saw a bloodied stump of blood and cartilage where he foot had been. He collapsed to the ground, writhing in the pain he should have felt but didn’t. His mind was telling itself that it should be — must be — in pain, but after a moment he discovered that he didn’t feel anything. The foot — or where the foot had been — was completely numb. He stared at it with blurring vision.

He glanced back up to yell at Jacob, to ask why, to ask why the hell has this happened, but Jacob was gone. There was only John Locke.