by Paul Harm
It was something that did not only trouble him; philosophers and astronomers alike were haunted by the growing suspicion that they were indeed alone in the universe. Considering the impact that finding someone else out there would have, after chasing that philosophical and spiritual rabbit for centuries, the implication of not finding anything were depressing. All alone in the endless night, it felt wrong, why would they be alone? Well humanity still had a long way to go to achieve type II civilization standards, so Joseph guessed they might find something else later on. He took another sip of his coffee and felt very wise. A beard, he thought. Yes, a beard would make him look way more philosophical, like the ancient Greeks, who had long, bushy white beards. Nothing emanates philosophical awareness and wisdom as a white beard and being surrounded by slaves. Unfortunately, he had black hair and no white in it yet. A plan for another day, he thought. Joseph wondered what the ideal female philosopher would look like. White beard? Probably would not emanate the same wise or philosophical touch on a woman as on a guy. So what would a wise and philosophical looking woman look like? Joseph pushed the thought away; the time for philosophy was over anyway. The immediate and real challenges laid right ahead, there were space stations to be built, machinery to be forged and expansion strategies to be made. His daughter was part of it. Joseph felt proud. Even though he never pursued the space endeavor himself, he was always proud of his little girl and he was sure she would build the best space stations ever.
“Why did we never join the race for the solar system, honey?” Joseph asked Claire. Joseph kind of sounded like a middle-aged man with regrets over some directional life choices. “You remember your travelling settings for the water pods?” “Point taken.” Joseph laughed. “I guess it’s more fun imagining it than it is to actually work on it. Furthermore, we gave humanity a great woman who is pursuing this goal anyway. Right?” Claire raised an eyebrow. “How noble of us Joseph.”
VI. Go, Johnny, Go, Go
The next couple of weeks were going smoothly, but of course Joseph missed his strange Friday afternoon patient. Besides that, everything was going just fine. It had been seven weeks now since Melinda took off and Joseph started to grow a suspicion that she might not return, which made him a little sad actually. It felt somewhat like unfinished business, although he could not say why. After spending most of his day with patients and paperwork, Joseph was looking forward to an evening with John. He had not seen him in quite some time and it always had been fun meeting John. Very busy man, though, nanotech specialists were rare. Usually they would do something very special for their meetings, like, a weekend in the forest or a trip through the desert. Something that had the character of both a meeting of old friends and a sense of adventure to it. This time it was unusually boring, since John’s leisure time had grown shorter and shorter over the last couple of years. He was in charge of the Nano-Tek division responsible for deep-space, orbital and planetary repairs and material testing. Especially over the course of the last couple of years John seemed to have so little time they had not seen each other more than once.
This time they were going to have a drink, and Joseph wasn’t the kind of guy for stuff like that, so he was kind of not looking forward to the drinking part. He was looking forward to seeing John, though, and therefore he had a persisting smile over his face for the last couple of hours, a smile he wasn’t aware of, but it made his day fly by, just like that. Joseph used his Friday afternoons now to sort out old files to archive what was worthy of keeping. He threw away most of the paperwork which he had digitalized anyway. It was a nice thing to muck out the old stuff and open up some space for new stuff. As he wandered through his old notes he found one about Melinda. It was an old one, maybe even his first personal notes about her. He turned it around and took a closer look at it.
---
Melinda, single, no children, age 45 years, social circles, relationships/friendships: none mentioned, work: unknown probably academic, field of expertise unknown, main issue/problem: unclear, probably loneliness, might be depression as well.
---
Now that was helpful Joseph thought. He found a date on the back from years ago, it could have been the first one he thought. This definitely had to be archived, although the information contained nothing but: He did not have a clue what was going on with this woman. Anyway, it’s better to be aware of the fact that this had always been the case, so no shocking surprises, plus Melinda seemed to get something out of their meetings, so that was the most important thing anyway. “Damn it, it’s already six o’clock.” Joseph jumped up and as he looked on the floor below him he saw that he was surrounded by boxes and loose files. He made a run for it, like every bad bureaucrat would have done.
As Joseph saw John sitting at the bar, a tingle of anxiety ran down his spine, he could not say why. It was gone as soon as it appeared though, and simple joy replaced it. As he walked into the bar John was focused on what seemed to be a gin and tonic. Joseph patted John on the shoulder and smiled at him. His friend stood up and hugged him, it was good seeing him. It felt a bit like home and a bit like good old times. Nostalgia was going to be the mood of the evening, Joseph wrote in a mental note. “How are you doing, John?” “Could be worse.” He laughed. “And you? How is it going with your therapy thing?” “You really wanna know or are we just making polite conversation?” “Hehe, no really, I wanna know if you’re happy with your job and the meaning you give your life!” Joseph made another mental note, something about John’s work was bothering him. He pushed it away, he was a friend and friends were allowed to open up doors. If they did not want to come through, you were not allowed to go in. “My therapy thing, as you call it, is very fulfilling to me, always has been. It’s the secrets people let you into, the same human’s experience and the inner mechanisms of the psyche which govern every individual, that’s what fascinates me. Most of all its ability to heal after traumatic losses, hard breakups, abuse of any sort and so on.” “Yeah that sounds like you, Joseph, always curious about what’s going on behind closed curtains.” Joseph laughed. “Now, drinks? What’ll it be?” “I’ll have a tea for now, thanks.” Now John laughed and ordered a gin and tonic for Joseph too. Joseph let it happen to him, although he knew he would not be able to finish a second one.
After the first gin and tonic, Joseph made away towards the toilet and when he came back John was waiting exactly where he left him. With a freshly-refilled gin and tonic. - Damn it, that’s going to end ugly - “So, where are you stationed right now, John?” “Top secret.” Joseph’s eyebrow rose. John started to laugh. “Mars, Ruby Station to be specific.” “Holy crap, that’s really far out.” What did you expect? I’m part of a space station building division and not an Earth station builder after all.” Panning his drink in a big circle underlined his seriousness, or it should have but the circle wasn’t as mathematically correct anymore. It looked way more like a person trying to not fall from their barstool, and barely succeeding.
When John grabbed on to the bar for stability and a steady hand, he looked at Joseph with a deep and meaningful gaze. Quietly he started to whisper “The UEF is planning on building a deep-sea station on Enceladus, they took me in as a scientific advisor, but they aren’t sure what might be under the icy surface. I mean, we’re sure there’s water, but there might be something in it.” “Like, what?” “Shhh, not so loud! God damn it, this stuff is top secret, no one on Earth knows except a few scientists and political figures.” “Like, what?” John leaned forward and whispered in Joseph’s ear. “Like, some sort of bacteria!” Underwhelming, yes that was the word for it, underwhelming, Joseph thought. “And?” “What and’? That’s huge!” „Didn’t they find bacteria fossils on mars? Like 180 years ago?” Yes, so what’s your point?” John seemed a bit pissed at Joseph for not sharing his enthusiasm, taking a huge gulp of what little was left in his glass. “Seems like old news to me, nothing more?” “Yeah but this one might be alive! That would be the first contact to extraterrestrial life
, Joseph! Don’t you see the implication?” “We will have to set up a peace contract I suppose…” Joseph proposed while patting John’s shoulder. John wasn’t amused, Joseph on the other hand was laughing hard, when he was finished he continued focusing John with a serious look on his face. “But how are the bacteria going to sign it? Damn, they don’t prepare you for stuff like that at the academy!” “Very funny, Joseph.” It took quite some time before Joseph stopped shaking from laughing at his own joke. When he finally did, he had tears in his eyes. “The implication is…”, John continued, “…that we’re able to study a new life form which is probably based on a different kind of metabolism.” You could not talk to a psychologist about stuff like that. A biologist would have been a far better choice, hell a biologist might even have been excited. John felt like this was big news and he got stuck with a shrink. Bad luck, he thought, not only that he risked his ass to tell him and then he just made fun of him most of the time. Although after some time it became ridiculous, something similar to Stockholm syndrome kicked in. Observing how Joseph was developing an Enceladus exclusive bacteria evolution-care-plan made even John chuckle a bit.
“You’re an idiot, Joseph.” Laughter accompanied his phrase. “Just think about it. How many problems would not arise if you consistently coached them?” “Seriously?” But Joseph was already off. “Just imagine you could influence certain evolutionary developments. Like... don’t you sometimes regret not having a tail?” “WHAT?” “A tail, John, don’t you regret not having a tail?” A dead serious look on Joseph’s face pushed John somewhere between disbelief and curiosity. “Imagine, John, if there would have been someone around when evolution decided to make us monkeys without a tail. It probably punished us for leaving the treetops and start living on the ground.” Joseph expresses his train of thoughts. “I don’t think we ever had a tail, Joseph.” “That’s not the point!” “Oh, I’m sorry, Joseph, enlighten me here, please, what exactly is your point?” “My point is…” Gin and tonic number three made a straight journey to his liver as he wolfed it down. “... that humans would be way happier with a tail.” Pointing to his empty glass at John like an accusation.
“Well, just imagine what it’d be like for the kids, Joseph.” Joseph took his glass back to the bar waving the barkeeper over and hovering an up and down floating finger over his glass, the universal, international and timeless sign for a refill. “What do you mean?” “What I mean is, that kids would constantly grab each other’s tails, Joseph.” “No!” “Sure! Just imagine it, could you resist grabbing someone’s tail who isn’t paying attention?” “Well, I mean, I guess it’s intriguing, but we’re all grownups here.” “I’m not worried about the grownups here, Joseph.” “But it’d be a small price to pay for having such a gorgeous thing, a fluffy tail! Just imagine all the colors the youth would put on them.” “Not going to happen, Joseph. If you’ve got a distraction like a tail, I wouldn’t be surprised if you and I’d still be darting through the bushes, and treetops. Because all we’d do is be chasing tails! Maybe even each other’s!” “I’d chase your tail, John!” A drunken bow into a hug from one barstool to another told the tale pretty well, fourth gin halfway done. John hugged him back. He did not admit that he would have chased Joseph’s tail as well, but at this point he probably would have. “I think we need to take a walk.” “Yes, that sounds like a plan, lead the way, monkeyman!” Joseph sprang off his barstool and ran towards the door like a mad chimpanzee. Thankfully, John remembered to pay the bill and followed his tailless comrade into the night.
After walking through the night for what seemed to be an eternity, they entered a park. The warm summer night invited them to lay down in the soft grass and gaze at the stars for a while. After a couple of sleepy drunken breaths, Joseph looked at his old friend and slowly started to speak. “I missed you man.” “I missed you, too.” “You remember when we had the Rick Berners situation?” Johns smile vanished. “Oh, come on, not these old stories.” “What do you expect me to talk about? We haven’t seen each other in years, and that’s just the kind of thing you talk about at this point in life.” John’s gaze did not express amusement of any kind. “If you must know, I don’t like that story at all.” “But it’s what happened, and you should be ok with it.” As the stars blinked above them and a soft and warm summer breeze blew over the meadow with all the sensational smells and sounds it came with, the two of them faded into a semi-awake state. “I’m neither proud nor ashamed of it, it couldn’t have been handled any other way.” “It was genius. I remember it like it was yesterday.” “You know, like the paladin needs the darkness as much as the darkness relies on the paladin, because there would be no paladin without the darkness, there would be no need. They’re both sides of an old concept. Like God the almighty and his counterpart, the devil, that he can’t get rid of. Almighty is a pretty big word.” “Now look at that!” Joseph rushed up from lying down gazing into the starry night into a straight up seat, energized with the surprise of finding such profound philosophical knowledge in the mind of his hardcore science companion. “I didn’t know you had it in you, John.” Laughter accompanied his words. “Well, a truly curious mind stretches in every possible direction.” John explained while rising up gesturing one hand like those old noble pictures of aristocrats where your hand majestically rises up while his gaze wandered up, pointing into the velvety night sky. Heroic, to put it in one word, a wise technician or maybe even a technical philosopher. Joseph had a hard time stopping laughing. “And that’s why I had to show this little asshole Rick Berners some boundaries, and his simple-minded friends.” “You’re a true hero of not only my heart, John, but my mind as well!” Joseph paid the man the respect he deserved, while regaining balance using one hand.
Four gin and tonics was not to be underestimated in those who sip a drink just every couple of months. “You did scare us a lot those days, though.” John lost his heroic expression and his gaze sank into something sad and sorrowful. “I wished it didn’t happen back then, because I wanted to be friends with the four of you and not the boy who went… you know…” “It was what it was. I’m pretty sure Lucia still holds a small grudge against you because of it, though.” “That’s just like her.” John sank backwards into the green grass, so did Joseph. John drifted away into a soft slumber, the other one into a mixture of sleeping and old memories.
VII. The Plan
The weather that day must have noticed the gloomy sentiment, so it played along with thick fog hanging all over the town. First step of the plan was to get into school without being seen by any of the opposing party’s members. The most important part for the beginning was to not get picked off one by one, while they were distributed in different classes or locations. So, they made sure they just arrived at school late enough, so that they barely made it into their classes in time, avoiding being picked off by the enemy one by one which would have certainly slimmed their chances of fighting back down to zero. To be honest, even if they had encountered them as a closed group things would not have gone well. When the school bell rang for the break, they immediately met in the schoolyard.
Hiding in plain sight wasn’t the worst tactic. As long as a teacher was around, it was unlikely they would be harassed. When they arrived at the swing, as they had planned, John wasn’t there. “Where is he?” This time Mathilda could not hide the worry in her voice. “Damn, they must have gotten him in the morning.” They exchanged worried looks and after another minute in stunned silence Lucia spoke up. “We have to find him, fast!” “Yes!” a chorus of voices chanted at her. “But where to start?” Mathilda had a point. “His classroom is on the second floor.” Mike stated with worry in his voice.
They were running towards John’s classroom but when they arrived, there was no sign of him or the bullies. “Maybe they dragged him into a toilet or something” Lucia had a point, so they darted for the nearest toilet, but again, nothing. “God damn it, where is he?” Mathilda was emotionally somewhere between worried and pis
sed. After checking every toilet on the second floor, they checked all the toilets and the basement, as far as they could access it. They were on the ground floor when the bell rang again, and they hurried back towards their classes, when suddenly Rick and his henchmen showed up. Unfortunately, they spotted them instantly. Lucia’s fury was as real as it was last time. “Where is he?” she yelled at Rick and actually tried to grab his shirt, but this time Rick saw it coming, and from his last painful encounter with that girl he did not waste time throwing the first punch. Lucia jumped sideways and tumbled a few steps back dodging Rick’s swing, now again standing in line with her team, which carefully kept its distance. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” His evil and borderline mad grin told them everything they needed to know. Teachers would show up in the long hallway soon, time to get back into class, Joseph thought. “Let’s go. We need to get into class.” “Yes, run, you dimwitted bunch of simpletons”, Rick sort of yelled behind them, but they were already gone.
The next two hours in class were the longest hours any of them had ever experienced. The minutes did not seem to pass by and instead a time capsule had taken its place. Seconds took minutes to pass, minutes took hours, hours filled with worries about their lost comrade. After an eternity of waiting they rushed out of class and ran towards John’s classroom, but again he wasn’t there. “What’s going on?” Joseph was worried, and so were the others. “Let’s ask if he went home?” Mathilda’s voice wasn’t worried at all, she figured, that this was too much for poor little John and he just took the high road. “Yes, let’s ask Principal Victoria.” Mike’s voice carried more anxiety, but nothing too intense. After all, if it turned out he just went home, that might really suck for them as friends, because that wasn’t part of the plan, but at least he would be alright.