when the chickens had free range of the garden.
To everyone but Sophie, the old hedge was just as useless as the rabbit hutches
at the other end of the garden. But that was only because they hadn’t discovered
Sophie’s secret.
Sophie had known about the little hole in the hedge for as long as she could
remember. When she crawled through it she came into a large cavity between the
bushes. It was like a little house. She knew nobody would find her there.
Clutching the two envelopes in her hand, Sophie ran through the garden,
crouched down on all fours, and wormed her way through the hedge. The den was
almost high enough for her to stand upright, but today she sat down on a clump of
gnarled roots. From there she could look out through tiny peepholes between the
twigs and leaves. Although none of the holes was bigger than a small coin, she had a
good view of the whole garden. When she was little she used to think it was fun to
watch her mother and father searching for her among the trees.
Sophie had always thought the garden was a world of its own. Each time she
heard about the Garden of Eden in the Bible it reminded her of sitting here in the den,
surveying her own little paradise.
Where does the world come from?
She hadn’t the faintest idea. Sophie knew that the world was only a small planet
in space. But where did space come from?
It was possible that space had always existed, in which case she would not also
need to figure out where it came from. But could anything have always existed?
Something deep down inside her protested at the idea. Surely everything that exists
must have had a beginning? So space must sometime have been created out of some-
thing else.
But if space had come from something else, then that something else must also
have come from something. Sophie felt she was only deferring the problem. At some
point, something must have come from nothing. But was that possible? Wasn’t that
just as impossible as the idea that the world had always existed?
They had learned at school that God created the world. Sophie tried to console
herself with the thought that this was probably the best solution to the whole problem.
But then she started to think again. She could accept that God had created space, but
what about God himself? Had he created himself out of nothing? Again there was
something deep down inside her that protested. Even though God could create all
kinds of things, he could hardly create himself before he had a “self” to create with.
So there was only one possibility left: God had always existed. But she had already
rejected that possibility! Everything that existed had to have a beginning.
Oh, drat!
She opened the two envelopes again.
Who are you?
Where does the world come from?
What annoying questions! And anyway where did the letters come from? That
was just as mysterious, almost.
Who had jolted Sophie out of her everyday existence and suddenly brought her
face to face with the great riddles of the universe?
For the third time Sophie went to the mailbox. The mailman had just delivered
the day’s mail. Sophie fished out a bulky pile of junk mail, periodicals, and a couple
of letters for her mother. There was also a postcard of a tropical beach. She turned the