To Begin at the Beginning: A Novella With a Beginning, a Middle, and an End

1:17 PM ON TUESDAY, APRIL 22, IN THE YEAR 2025 THE UNIVERSE BEGAN

Cosmologist Dr. Robert Porter is having a crisis of faith. Not of a faith he has lost, but of a faith he has gained. Robert now knew for a fact that the universe did not come into existence 13.8 billion years ago but rather precisely at what every person in the greater Los Angeles area would have considered to be 1:17 PM on Tuesday April 22 in the year 2025 but was actually second one of hour one of day one of week one of month one of year one of the existence of the universe. Robert did not doubt that fact. In fact, he had total faith that it was true.