We are running as fast as we can back to the meeting point.
I am a little bit hazy but I still manage to find the way back to the field.
When we get there every one was gone, except professor Torecchi, the math teacher.
Prof Torecchi is a tall, sturdy man, he is built like a mountain and everyone respects him, he is a no-bulshit- tolerated man.
I think he has something against me because I am always under his shooting fire, but I'm chill so nothing really took him on the edge.
But today.
I think I might be cooked.
I gots to lock in.
As we approached him the rain got lighter.
His face looks like a block of cement.
I bearly have the courage to look him in the eyes while Marco hides behind me.
"You are 15 minutes late"
"I am sorry sir, Marco fell in a ditch and it took me a while to help him"
"His trousers look quite clean for someone who fell in a ditch"
Marco grabs my arm.
"It was the left over of a creek and the water was clear".
I get the courage to look at him...his eyes, they are ... grim.
"Let's get going" he says.
As we walk, leaving behind the forest, the sky clears and a spray of Orange and purple lights hit us from the setting sun.
I quickly glance for the last time at the woods.
We are finally arrived at our destination as the door opens and our other two teachers rush to meet us.
"Where were you guys, we were so worried"
"You to rasclas are in big trouble, you're not get away with this"
Hmmm, yes, I think it's time to off my brain right now, this is bullshit my autopilot can handle.
I see the others laughing at me and Marco, the teachers keepth shouting as if I like staying other heavy rain with Marco.
We walk to the dinning Hall where almost every one got a hot plate of lasagna with asparagus and a drink served.
"So, you to managed to get lost in an opened field in like what, the last 5 minutes?" Chris says with that obnoxious, sardonic tone.
I glance at her ugly face, then me and Marco remove our raincoats.
We are pretty dry if you count we were outside the longest, I guess being under the thick foliage help.
Other are laughing and enjoying the food; but after they serve mine I quickly eat, even though I have to admit the food is delightful.
Marco is rushing his food too and we finish in the span of 10 minutes, I get up and I go to prof Torecchi, "sir I am very tired, could I go to the my room and rest please"
"Yes, uhm, me too,sir"
The math teacher looks at us for a couple of second second then nods his head.
As I walk towards the exit I hear him say "don't repeat what you did today, Nathaniel"
I turn and say as respectfully as I can "yes sir".
Me and Marco keep walking, as I was leaving the history teacher handed me our room keys, immediately we got out of sight we sprint toward our rooms.
I open the door, we enter and then I lock it.
"What's happening ?"
I bring out my luggage and take out my personal notebook, a black Sharpie and a portable whiteboard.
"What's that?"
I open up the whiteboard and stick it on the wall, then I take my Sharpie an start sketching some numbers on it.
"What are you doing? please let me... on it I want to understand too"
I look at him.
"Are you sure ? because if it's happening what I'm thinking... things are going to get complicated pretty quick"
"Yes please, I want to understand your thought process"
I pause.
"Before I start I want to have a general idea of your prospective on the situation"
Marco mumbles for a bit and says "I don't know, we went in the woods, I followed the rabbit and saw another kid, but then he disappeared and when I followed him and my phone's clock was broken... ,was that boy...a ghost?"
"Hahahahhahahahahhahahababhababahahahhahahahhahahagahahahhahahahahha hahahaha hahahaha"
"Why are you laughing, didn't you see him too?"
I stop.
"Hahahhahahahahhahaha...hahahhahahahahhahaha!"
Marco frowns at me.
"Ok, sorry, I just found it funny you jump to the conclusion we met a poltergeist.
I believe, we experienced time dilation."
"Time... Dilation?"
"Ever watched that movie where earth is dying and McConaughey travels to a planet orbiting a black hole?"
"Yes... That science fiction movie where if you are close to a black hole time passes faster, right?"
"The thing is, that isn't science fiction, it's a real theory in physics: Einstein's special relativity.
Basically, because of the symmetries of our universe and the shape of space time, when you approach the Lorentz factor, or you are close to a strong gravitational pull, your worldline experiences time..."
I look at Marco face.
He is clueless.
"How do you know it's special relativity and not a ghost?"
"This is... Not that bad of a question..."
I take a couple of seconds to display whats in my mind to the best of Marco's understanding, the more he gets, the easier it will be to solve this mystery.
"Basically I work by the rule of thought that the less I assume, the more my explanation is true".
Marco reflected for a good minute then he said.
"Wouldn't the simplest explanation be that our phones broke and that we saw a mirror or just another kid".
I smile "you would be right, even thou the chances of our phones breaking twice at the same time is slim, is definitely non 0.
But there is something this explanation doesn't explain: why did the computer error change the time in a constant way".
I actually cought Marco soprised by my last statement.
"This is the truth of Ockham's Razor: all else being equal, the simplest explanation is the true one; therefore, explanations with more entities must explain more in order to be truthful. If I had to put it in the simplest terms: do not multiply entities beyond necessity."
"Ockham's razor?"
"Yes, it is the logical principle that makes me think that we are dealing with special relativity, not only because the simplest explanation doesn't explain the time dilation, but also because we already have a proved theory that almost describes this phenomenon"
"But you haven't proven that it's not a ghost — you're simply assuming that the explanation with fewer entities, as you call them, is the correct one. But what if there really is a ghost? what if not everything is measurable and numerically calculable, Nathaniel?"
"Well then, if there's one ghost, why not two? And if not two, why not three, four, five? Why not fifteen ghosts, a magic tree, an ancestral deity — and let's throw in some arcane magic while we're at it?
Occam's razor is not a logical proof…
That said, for all practical purposes, whether or not there's a ghost doesn't change the final result.
Science is operationalist — it can only rely on what is measurable.
And do you really want to face me using Russell's teapot?
I am basing my supposition in well known and accepted physics, can you bring a proof that it is a ghost? Can you tell me a step by step experiment to interact and study it?"
Marco gasps and surrenders " ok you have wone, I am not good at debating, I don't know how you came to know all this philosophical stuff"
"You weren't that bad, it's just that I listen to too much YouTube video essays "
I pause, Marco looks at the white board with a childish glare "I still believe in ghost "
"Sigh" there is nothing to do with him...
"So you know it special relativity huh?"
"Oh, no I don't "
"Weren't you arguing for it just a second ago?"
"Yes I believe it is the answer, but what I believe dosent count, we need a proof!"
"And how do we make one"
"It's actually very simple, I'll try and prove that I am wrong"