Reality Churns

“Truth is a mist,” Anton Jessup told his virtual followers as they watched him board the Niagara Maiden EV hoverboat. He wore a cheap red plastic poncho over his blue long-sleeve tunic and black cotton pants. The observer orb bobbed along, a silver shadow tracking his movements and moments from about shoulder height.
“You can see it swirling.” He subvocalized a command to the orb, instructing it to direct the lens toward the falls on the American side, not far from the concrete dock at the base of the tourist elevator. “But if you try to touch it, it just moves around. Maybe some moisture sticks to your skin. Your clothes. But that’s just residue. That mist always exists *only* outside of our reach.”
Now he told the camera to swivel back to his face. More passengers clad in colorful ponchos flowed onto the hoverboat. “Don’t put your faith in mist,” Jessup said. The camera obeyed his unspoken command to fix on the distant falls on the Canadian side. “If you want what’s real, look behind the mist. Find the source. What moves it? What forms it? What drives it?”
“Somewhere in that tumult lies reality,” he said as the camera rotated to face him nose-on. “Try not to drown.”