Everyone looked at him with bewilderment, as if he were speaking in incomprehensible incantations. He sensed this and continued, explaining calmly, "As you know, in our universe, everything has its opposite, like night and day, good and evil, and so on. And since there is a thing and its opposite, there is also matter and antimatter! When the two meet, they annihilate each other. That is, if there is a kilogram of matter and a kilogram of antimatter, and they are combined, they will both vanish and become nothing. They will disappear into thin air. Somehow, this tree contains both matter and antimatter, but they are separated from each other by spaces invisible to the naked eye. That is, the particles of matter are close to the antimatter, but they do not meet, otherwise this tree would disappear completely. That is why when the soldier—what's your name?"
"Ali, sir."
