#11 (The Infinite) Tess Himmel
(The Infinite) Tess Himmel
Poor Tess. She’s always to vast or too small. Never the right size. She touches the infinite, it courses through her — it’s kind of her job to keep the universe going, just by being her. But she also feels, sometimes, ever so small, and then, when one can float in a bubble or get lost in the tall grass, the world seems full of gifts.
Her father was a German immigrant, her mother is Mongolian. A burgeoning punk/artist, her desperate parents sent her at 13 to the Madewell Girls’ Academy, a private ultraconservative Christian academy run by ex-radicals and bikers. They berated her, telling her she was small, nothing, a worm before Christ. Her rebellious nature meant she spent a lot of time in the Get Close to God room, essentially a small closet. She escaped into her imagination, and met an angelic being who offered her a deal: if she agreed to take on the responsibility of the Infinite, she would be allowed to escape. The Infinite wished to be mortal, but needed someone to mind the store while it was gone. Tess was determined to have the proper nature for the job.
After that Tess escaped the Academy easily, going to the City of Angels and blocking out her painful memories of that place. But eventually, she tires of the responsibility of the Infinite, and when she tires, she also remembers the Academy, and begins to feel smaller. (Since she still has the Power of the Infinite, she actually gets very small and this causes trouble until she can get her mind right again).
But the Infinite has gotten lost, and forgotten its true nature. The angelic being returns and tells her that if she ever wants to return to a human life again, she needs to find it, or she’ll have to be the Infinite for eternity. She agrees to help search, but she has mixed feelings about being a normal person again.
Track: Big Harp, “Everybody Pays”
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