A man with the ambition and ability to do anything, he did many things all at once, never finishing one project; he kept notebooks or plans for future projects. He was all over the place, in a land called Puerion in the southern regions where there was always sun in an almost deserted city. He lived in a circular compound where the mayor once presided over the council of representatives from other parts of the city. Pueiron was located in a mythical world where the sun, beaches, and tropical jungles gave rich, intense colors to the city, where there were transparent dark clean shadows that drew strong lines across the buildings. Monkeys chattered in the nearby jungles; giant spiders crawled across the abandoned buildings. The city was named Ivri. Talv-e was the man’s name. He drew plans for projects, kept drawings in notebooks, and made maps of the almost abandoned city so that he could find parts of the machine he built; he was a doctor too, a scholar, a wizard who worked magic, a philosopher with two followers, he was also a scientist, an engineer who created things that worked but were of no use. As the everywhere man Talv-e lived all over the city on different days. To the annoyance of the few inhabitants, he considered the town his house; one woman who lived alone who was once a classmate during their childhood always warned him, “Talv-e, you are not the king or mayor; stuff yourself away in one place and don’t bother us!” He never listened to anyone’s words; he did his thing.
It was said he lived in other periods, and there were obscure records that mentioned someone like him centuries before, rumored or known by the city’s people that he could cross into different times and existences as if he had no limitations. Someone could have seen him working on drawings; they could have observed him in another part of the city or seen him as he gathered wood in the nearby forests. Big projects required months or a few years, or others to the average mortal a whole lifetime, but at the same time, each project was sometimes completed. That was why he was called the everywhere man.
People thought the many things Talv-e was engaged in took thousands of lifetimes to complete, which was why most people believed he didn’t finish anything. Still, he did complete gargantuan things, unlike Leonardo da Vinci who started something and never finished. Talv-e didn’t finish everything he started, but he said he needed time. People observed that he didn’t seem to age.
Robert J. Matsunaga
