As Long As You Wish

In Short

When former philosophy professor Charles J. Fisher acquires photographs of an alien sphere's mysterious light projections, he becomes obsessed with deciphering its unknown script. Working independently, Fisher constructs three-dimensional models of the characters and discovers that viewing them through a glass sphere triggers precise, shared emotional and visual responses. However, his successful translation reveals a mind-bending truth. The translated document he hands to his psychiatrist forces both reader and listener directly into a closed temporal loop, repeating the exact interaction from the beginning. Its strength lies in its tight, inescapable structure.

The Story

The narrative takes place entirely within a psychiatrist's office, where a patient named Charles J. Fisher sits rigidly in a leather chair. Fisher, formerly a professor of philosophy at Reiser College, obsessively handles a custom double-sided coin engraved on both faces with the paradoxical statement: "THE STATEMENT ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS COIN IS FALSE." As the consultation begins, the doctor prompts Fisher to tell his story, which Fisher offers to repeat "as before."

Fisher recounts how eight months earlier he read news reports of an unidentifiable, impervious ferro-plastic sphere discovered during an earthquake on Paney Island. Archeologists found that when exposed to a focused light source, the transparent sphere projected three hundred and sixty distinct microscopic characters across eighteen different sequence orderings, plus a nineteenth ordering that listed every character. Intrigued by the implication of an advanced non-human origin, Fisher obtained photographs of the projections to attempt his own decipherment.

Realizing standard linguistic decoding and comparative language methods were useless without a known key, Fisher worked on the premise that the language's key was implicit within its own structure. He constructed scaled physical models of the projected characters. By chance, when he viewed these models through a sphere of equal size, the optical distortions formed distinct visual entities and triggered precise Gestalt emotional experiences—such as light hilarity—that proved consistent across multiple observers.

Before handing over his finished translation, Fisher repeatedly warns the psychiatrist that the truth is logically impossible to believe and dangerous to one's sanity. He urges the doctor to consider several mathematical and physical clues: the three hundred and sixty characters matching the degrees of a circle, the eighteen to nineteen orderings reflecting the square root of three hundred and sixty, the curvature of light across space, and time as a physical dimension.

Fisher then hands over the papers containing the complete idiomatic English translation. The psychiatrist begins reading the document. The text of the translation is revealed to be the exact opening sentences of the short story itself, verbatim: "The patient sat stiffly in the leather chair on the other side of the desk. Nervously he pressed a coin into the palm of one hand. 'Just start anywhere,' I said..." The narrative concludes by restarting the exchange in an infinite loop, trapping both the characters and the text in a circular time system.

How It Unfolds

The paradox introduced Fisher sits in the psychiatrist's office compulsively flipping a coin engraved on both sides with a self-contradictory logical paradox. He identifies himself as a former philosophy professor and agrees to tell his story once again from the beginning.

The discovery of the sphere Fisher explains how an earthquake on Paney Island uncovered a two-foot sphere made of an unknown ferro-plastic material. Archeologists discovered that light passing through the sphere projected three hundred and sixty unique characters in nineteen distinct sequence orderings.

Cracking the visual code Unable to use standard decoding software, Fisher builds large physical models of the characters and views them through a glass globe. The resulting optical distortions trigger identical emotional and visual responses in every test subject, revealing an implicit Gestalt language.

The logical trap closes Fisher warns the psychiatrist that the translation will destroy the sanity of anyone who believes it, pointing out the mathematical relationship between the character counts, circular geometry, and light curvature. He hands over his written transcript, which turns out to be the exact text of their current conversation, restarting the story at its beginning.

The People

• Charles J. Fisher wants to decode an alien artifact and understand the ultimate nature of its written message. He is a thirty-eight-year-old former philosophy professor with a penchant for logical puzzles, represented by his custom double-sided paradox coin. His relentless curiosity drives him to solve the code, but the translated reality leaves him trapped in a rigid, repetitive state, repeatedly recounting his story to his doctor.
• The Psychiatrist (Narrator) wants to complete a routine clinical evaluation of Fisher by listening to his story and reviewing his evidence. He maintains a calm, professional demeanor, taking notes and occasionally smiling at Fisher's eccentricities. However, by reading Fisher's translated papers, he unwittingly becomes an active participant in the circular temporal loop.

In Its Own Voice

"I had the coin made when I was an undergraduate. I enjoyed reading one side, turning it over, reading the other side, and so on."

Charles J. Fisher explains the origin of his paradoxical coin while sitting in his psychiatrist's office.

"There was reason to believe they had origin in an unknown culture. A culture more scientifically advanced than our own."

Fisher describes the light-projecting sphere recovered from the earthquake fault on Paney Island.

"Doctor, what would you say if I told you the translation was unbelievable; that it couldn't be seriously entertained by any man?"

Fisher cautions his doctor right before handing over the written translation of the alien text.

What It's Really About

The story examines the danger of seeking absolute knowledge and the structural trap of infinite regression. Through the symbol of the double-sided coin, it explores logical self-reference where a premise invalidates itself yet continues indefinitely. The plot extends this logical paradox into physical reality, proposing that geometry, light, and time can form a closed system with no beginning or end. Fisher's drive to decode an advanced language ultimately exposes him to a cosmic loop where cause and effect collapse into a single repeating point.

Why Read It Today

This short piece is an ideal choice for fans of high-concept science fiction, logical puzzles, and meta-fictional narrative tricks. Reading it feels like solving a sleek mathematical riddle, building quiet tension through a simple dialogic setup before delivering its clever structural twist. It moves quickly with minimal setup, focusing entirely on intellectual momentum.

Readers should note that the story is exceptionally brief and functions primarily as a single-scene thought experiment rather than a deeply characterized drama. It assumes a basic familiarity with mid-century sci-fi tropes and scientific jargon—referencing Gestalt psychology, ferro-plastics, and light curvature—without dwelling on lengthy explanations. What stays with you is the elegance of its execution: the prose itself becomes the circular artifact it describes, leaving the reader trapped in the same paradox as its protagonist.

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