Who Cares?

His restraint finally broke, and his eternally guilty conscience began to speak. “But I am!” he cried. “I’m here because I wanted something so desperately that I was willing to do wrong, to lie and cheat for years just so I could make sure I won bike races!”

“But why do you dig these holes?”

“I’m not sure…I’m looking for something. I haven’t found it yet, but I’m sure it’s here. I will keep digging hole after hole, until the end of time if I have to, until I find it.”

“What are you looking for?”

“Well,” he said, “I’m looking to be a champion, I suppose.”

When Kelli returned to Dr. Einstein’s side, Armstrong immediately returned to his frantic digging. It wasn’t long before a wave of green slime erupted from the ground without warning and oozed toward the sinner, dissolving his clothing and skin and leaving his drug-enhanced muscles exposed. The cyclist writhed and screamed in agony.

Kelli’s stomach turned. “Can we please go now?” she begged.

“I’m not sure you’ve gained enough appreciation for this place yet,” Einstein smiled. “If you’d like to leave here, you first need to understand how.”

They wandered on through the desert for many hours. Several times, Kelli caught her dehydrated, heat-tortured mind wandering irrationally. She began seeing imaginary trees, rivers, and even people in the distance. When they finally came upon another of the condemned, she was not sure whether to trust her eyes.

As they came closer, though, Kelli recognized the figure of Bernard Madoff, the infamous Ponzi-schemer, sweltering in his sweat-stained business suit as he feverishly pounded his shovel into the dirt. As Kelli watched, she reflected on what she’d learned from Lance Armstrong, desperately considering how she might escape. Her hazy ...

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...ar Satan laughing with delight.

Finally, Einstein turned to her. “Here is where I must depart. I return to my place in a holier sphere. I have more hearts to teach.”

Kelli was terrified. “But…what will happen to me? I don’t know how to get out of here!”

“Don’t worry, young one. Soon you will realize that your window to this place was your dreams. Please remember to never stop caring. I would like to meet you again one day—more permanently.”

With that, the physicist disappeared, and Kelli awoke with a start. The alarm clock on her dresser read 2:53 A.M. She fished her history book from the floor. In the margin of the open page, under a thumbnail photo of Albert Einstein, she read the words he once penned in an essay entitled “The World as I See It:” “The world is a dangerous place not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.”