Island Wars

The universe begins in an explosion that resembles a dandelion clock--so bright that its light pierces and persists through the far reaches of time, weaving nets of superclusters through the monarchial dark, pioneering the virgin universe. The dark stares back, pliant to the bright stranger's entry.

Thirteen billion years later, a sixteen-year-old girl finds an abandoned mobile phone in a corner of her schoolyard and, being slightly less scrupulous than most and slightly more familiar with cravings, particularly for things one cannot own, she pockets it surreptitiously. She's had her fair share of scuffles with the prefects, and while not averse to aggression, she'd rather not get into trouble if it can be helped.

One would think the latter event the direct consequence of the former, but in absolute objective truth, there is no temporal hierarchy between the two. Neither event caused the other, the Big Bang did not cause the discovery of the phone, even if the discovery can apparently be traced to factors that were generated by the Big Bang.

The Big Bang happened contingent on the fact that the phone would someday be found.

This is a quality of time rarely discussed by beings of the third dimension, because it is not easily-acknowledged by minds confined to such a planar paradigm.