The Arcturus Man

  “This is really, really cool. Where did you find this stuff?”

  He thought about her question, but decided to answer it anyway. “I wired the house myself. I built a gadget for this and another for that. I doubt I will ever feel that it is really finished.”

  He paused again. “If you run into something you can’t figure out, just say ‘talk to me’ and the house will play some audio files that tell you what you need to do to make it work. Sorry. I already told you that.”

  She waved it off…smiling.

  “It does have AI, but it is still somewhat primitive.”

  “AI?” asked Jenny.

  “Artificial intelligence!”

  She was stunned. “I’ve heard of houses like this. Or, maybe I haven’t. It is incredible.”

  “Not really. It is only a few months of work.”

  She tried to grasp it all.

  “Do you sell these systems?” she asked.

  “No. No. It’s just fun to build them. I like things that can never really be finished. Would you like to see the rest of the house?”

  “Of course. By the way, what is the time? I need to call my Mom.” She couldn’t see a clock anywhere.

  “I’m sorry. I don’t have one. I do have a Clepsydras in my bedroom but I think that wouldn't be what you are expecting."

  There was puzzlement on Jenny's face.

  "A Clepsydras is an ancient water clock. The model I built was developed by Ctesibius, a Greek who invented a reasonably reliable way of using water leaking from a reservoir to tell time. I would love to show it to you."

  "That sounds fascinating, but right now I need to know the time." She was not about to walk into his bedroom. No way!

  "I know where we can find the time. This is my work room,” as he led her out of the living room. All of the walls were saturated with book shelves and books. There were computers everywhere.

  “Parallel processing…of course,” as his hand swept the room.

  Jared glanced at the lower corner of one of the monitors.

  “It is 7:18 p.m. Now that I think about it, there is a clock on the range as well.”

  “That’s OK.”

  There were colored wires running around all of the base boards, but they were neatly tied and bundled. Some stuff didn’t have any wires. It must be wireless. “Now that was dumb,” she thought. “Of course its wireless.” At one end near the stone fireplace was a massive television screen—larger than any she had ever seen before. He hadn’t touched anything or even said anything, but as they walked around the computer monitors were turning themselves on. “How are you today Jared?” one computer said in a feminine voice. The ceiling fan started to turn slowly. There was a huge flat screen monitor on the ceiling.

  “Doesn’t that hurt your neck trying to see the monitor on the ceiling?”

  He glanced up. “I like to read while I am lying on the floor.” She saw clusters of fluffy pillows in the center of the room.

  “Oh yeah! It is like a library,” she said.

  “Actually, most of my books are on DVDs. I have digital ‘juke boxes’ that hold hundreds. The servers are in the basement. You can see that I have a lot of Blue Tooth. If you’re interested in reading something, let me know. Any of the monitors you see that are sort of vertical, as opposed to horizontal, are set up for books. It is much better and faster than reading hard copy. Unfortunately, there are many books that haven’t been digitized yet—especially the older ones.”

  There were electronic games all over the place. They were all unplugged. He even had some old time pin ball machines. There was a chess board on a marble table, but the board was empty. Some of the monitors looked like they had video games on them. She had never seen so many games. They were everywhere. Games of all kinds.

  “Wow. A lot of games.”

  “Yes.”

  “Why so many games?”

  “Do you remember the song by the Beach Boys, In My Room?”

  “No, why?” she answered.

  “Well, this is my room.”

  She didn’t have a clue what that meant.

  Jared grabbed a guitar that was leaning against a chair and sang.

  “You’re pretty good. That was great. What’s it from?” asked Jenny.

  “Beach Boys. 1963”

  “Neatl Boy, you have a lot of toys and games.”

  “I don’t know what a lot is. I suppose so. The pachinko machine is the most interesting,” he said.

  “Why is that?”

  “It lets you play around with interesting probability experiments. You can slightly improve the odds of winning by thinking about winning. Just slightly! You might have read about it in The Secret,” said Jared.

  She still didn’t have a clue. What was he talking about?

  There was a large framed photograph of Albert Einstein hung above the mantel over the fireplace. Einstein was sticking his tongue out for the camera.

  “That’s funny,” said Jenny. “I’ve seen this photo before.”

  “Yes, it’s famous.”

  “If you admire this man, why did you choose to use that photo? There must be plenty of better photographs of Einstein.”

  “I wanted Einstein in a playful mood,” said Jared.

  “But why?”

  There wasn’t any point to trying to get her to understand. She wouldn’t understand no matter what he said. He wasn’t going to answer that question. She couldn’t comprehend how sticking his tongue out was a part of how Einstein survived. Jared was still learning how to stick his tongue out. He needed the photo to remind himself to keep trying.

  Jenny fingered the carvings on a wooden box on Jared’s desk. It had carved designs on the sides and it was constructed of many different colored woods. It was highly polished. The brass fittings on the corners and at the lock gleamed. Someone polished the brass every day to make it look so bright. It was a work of art.

  “This is beautiful.”

  “Yes, it is. My father made it quite some time ago.”

  “The carving and inlays are exquisite.”

  “They are ancient Latvian symbols. Each one has a meaning. Many are similar if not identical to Sanskrit designs.”

  “What is it actually?”

  Jared looked puzzled. “It is a box. What are you asking?”

  “What’s it for? Is this where you keep your keepsakes?”

  “Not exactly! It’s like Pandora’s Box. I keep my thoughts in it.”

  “You mean like Pandora’s Box from Greek mythology.”

  “Yes, exactly. Jupiter hid all of the world’s diseases, sorrows, and crimes in the box. When Pandora opened the box because she was curious, evil was inflicted on humanity. It is the same story, in essence, as Eve and the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. Of course, it never really was Pandora’s Box. It never belonged to her so she had no right to open it.”

  Jenny didn’t understand. Did Jared keep a diary in the box? It sounded mysterious. He was beginning to sound certifiable. Was he a nut case? Or, was he testing her? Was this a ruse to find out if she was like Pandora and would open the box. Was this a game? He obviously liked games. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. She won’t ask about the box again.

  “What do you do for a living, Jared?” asked Jenny.

  He thought about how to answer her question. “I invent things. I make a decent living from the royalties from my patents,” said Jared.

  “You make a living off of your inventions. That is amazing.”

  “You know, of course, that I don’t invent knowledge—not really, or at least not that often. I mostly assemble knowledge that already exists. The secret of most discoveries is connecting knowledge, not so much the discovery itself. I am good at connecting the dots. Actually, I suppose it comes down to being able to remember where the dots are. Let me show you around.” He led the way. “The kitchen is over here. Just help yourself whenever you want something. I have a cook but I don’t ask her to come in very often.”


  The kitchen was a chef’s dream. There were two microwaves, but they looked odd. He had three ovens, two up and down and one really big one next to them. The center island had a “Jenn-Air” smooth-top range. The sink looked like it was made of granite. She wasn’t sure but she thought he had two massive refrigerators that any restaurant would kill to own. One might have been a freezer. One corner of the kitchen looked like a booth out of a diner from the 50s. There was even a miniature juke box in the booth, the kind where you get to flip through leaves of song titles. The ceiling was covered with hanging bright copper pots, pans, and cooking gizmos. There were wine racks and wine glasses suspended upside down from overhead shelves. Just like the rest of the house, the kitchen was fabulous. She felt guilty about not being much of a cook. About the only thing she saw that might have been in an ordinary guy’s apartment was something that looked like it was beer on tap. There was a poster next to it of a voluptuous girl who looked like she was selling beer. The words were in German. It was St. Pauli Girl beer.

  “And in here is the Florida room.” He led her out of the kitchen. The room was a glassed-in porch with marvelous white wicker furniture. It was full of ferns and Norfolk Island pine trees. A large white hammock was stretched across the far side.

  “This is very nice in the winter. I’ll have to put the screens in tomorrow. And this is the downstairs bathroom and shower. It’s handy if you come in from the beach, although there is a shower at the boat house as well. The bathrooms have some surprises that I will let you discover for yourself,” said Jared.

  She peaked in. “A bidet? This might be the only bidet in all of Maine,” she thought. “Yes, that is a surprise.”

  “Over there is the laundry. Feel free to use it. And, that’s the door to the cellar.” “It is a fabulous house, Jared.”

  “I’m glad you like it.”

  “I’m going to take that shower you offered.”

  “Good. I’ll start fixing some dinner,” he said as she walked out of the room. She walked up the stairs. Lights were coming on ahead of her.

  getting used to how unique this house was. But it was really super cool. It was difficult She could still

  hear the Mozart. She walked into the large bathroom and found the bath robes he mentioned. There were four white terry cloth robes. They all had a Bellagio monogram on the front breast pocket. “Interesting,” she thought. Jenny locked the door. She stripped off her blouse, pulled down her cut offs and panties, and took off her socks. She sat on the commode and pulled off some toilet paper, when suddenly there was a mounting sucking sound and a bright purple light came on that shined out of the bowl.

  “Jeeze, what the Heck?” She jumped up. The toilet had some kind of vacuum machine in it and the bowl did indeed have a purple light in it.

  “Thanks for the warning, Jared,” she said loudly. “I guess THAT’S the surprise.”

  She finished peeing as quickly as she could. She peered nervously to make sure that no other contraptions were about to go off. Those thoughts having come to mind, she stood up, holding the bath robe tightly in front of her. She walked around the shower room surveying the ceiling and mirrors to see if there were any more tricks—“like TV cameras.”

  She couldn’t see any and admitted to herself that she didn’t think that Jared would do that sort of thing. She walked over to the glass-enclosed shower. She heard a strange sound and turned. The top lid to the commode dropped down and the toilet flushed and made some other gurgling sounds. It startled her again. This was spooky. “Thank Goodness the purple light went off,” she thought. She assumed that it was an ultraviolet light that sanitized the toilet. She didn’t want to be sanitized too.

  She peeked into the shower stall. It was the size of her kitchen at home. She hung up the robe and pulled a large towel closer to the shower. She opened the glass door. There were no handles. Trying to remember what he said, she spoke the word, “shower.” Suddenly, three or four jets of water came from every corner—cold water.

  “Too cold.”

  That didn’t do anything.

  “75 degrees.”

  That didn’t help either. “ Gosh, he said centigrade. Let’s see you subtract 32…no you add 32…Oh, the heck with it.”

  “Talk to me.”

  The bathroom immediately answered. “May I be of assistance, Jenny?”

  The voice surprised her. It was a calm feminine voice. It wasn’t a typical monotone computerized voice. Rather, the voice had life and personality.

  “How did it know her name?”

  “Yes, please,” said Jenny. “Warm the water to 75 degrees—Fahrenheit, that is.” Since she never actually measured shower water temperature at home, she still wasn’t sure if that would be too cold or too warm. It seemed to be a reasonable guess.

  “Jenny, may I suggest 88 degrees?” said the house. He had programmed Jenny into the system. “That’s quick,” she thought.

  “Yes, please make it so.” “Do I have to be polite to a computer?”

  She hesitated a few minutes and felt the water with her hand. It was perfect. She stepped in. It was marvelous. Absolutely marvelous! She soaped herself from top to bottom. The blue clay created a colorful stream going into the drain. She found shampoo on the shelf in the shower. That was lucky since she forgot to buy any. It was a big shower. He even had a chair in there. I guess you could shower sitting down. She sat down and washed her hair. She thought about Jared and what she should do if he came on to her if the evening went that way.

  “I don’t even know the guy,” she said to herself. “He is definitely an Alpha male, so it is bound to come up sooner or later.”

  It was something she had started to think about when he first asked her to stay. She normally wouldn’t have considered going off with a stranger, which is what he still was. He was interesting, however. Was worth the risk? “Was there a risk?” She didn’t think so. She wondered if she hadn’t been dreading the Memorial Day traffic on 95 and missing her scheduled computer time if she still would have accepted his offer.

  She stepped out and began to towel her hair dry. The floor was warm. Very warm! Some kind of air jet was blowing across the mirror above the granite sink. The mirror wasn’t fogged. “This is incredible,” she thought. “Everything is incredible.” She opened another door out of curiosity. “Well, that’s cozy.” There was a sauna. It was sort of an octagonal room completely lined in spruce. Jenny knew her wood. “That might be nice, later.”

  She didn’t have a change of clothes so she rinsed out her underwear and socks with the help of a little hand soap. She left her shorts and blouse on a chair. She remembered that there was a laundry next to the kitchen but she wasn’t about to start a laundry cycle for shorts, skimpy thong panties, and a pair of white socks.

  There was a towel dryer to the left of the sink. She hung them on the hot pipes. She had seen towel dryers in Canada, but never in the States.

  She opened the Wal-Mart bag and laid out the personal items she bought. She combed out her hair the best she could. She put on just a little makeup—just a touch of lipstick. She brushed her teeth and rinsed out with mouth wash. She put on the plush bath robe and closed it with a double knot.

  “I guess I go to dinner au natural,” she whispered to herself decorously.

  She found a pair of wool knitted slippers next to the bath robes and put them on. They looked new. She glanced at herself in the mirror one more time. Jenny picked up the magic button thing Jared gave her and put it in her pocket.

  She left the bathroom and walked downstairs. She found Jared in the kitchen. He had two live lobsters scurrying on the counter. She avoided walking near the lobsters. As a marine biologist, she didn’t want to show that they made her uncomfortable. The claws weren’t held shut by rubber bands.

  “Lobster? Is this what you call scrounging a dinner?” asked Jenny.

  “I always have a few in the tank in the shed. You look squeaky clean. I’ll take a shower now. Maybe you can help with the salad.
Everything you need is in the vegetable crisper. By the way, I hope you don’t mind leftovers. I have some mashed parsnips. I think they’re pretty good.

  “No problem! I’ve never had mashed parsnips. In fact, I don’t know that I’ve ever tasted parsnips of any kind. Sounds interesting!”

  “I won’t be long,” said Jared.

  “Wait. What about these guys?” asked Jenny, pointing to the lobsters?

  “Put them in the sink for now.”

  He looked at her closely—perhaps really for the first time--as she turned away to go to the frig. She was beautiful. She had that warm after-shower radiance. Her wet hair was very sexy. He truly liked damp girls. He was conscious of hormones rushing through his system—and hers. “It is a good thing some times. The language of chemistry.” She was rife with pheromones. That was where the radiance was coming from.

  “Wait,” she said. He paused again.

  Jenny thought for a moment. She wanted to think of some excuse to run upstairs and hide her underwear, but then thought better of it. It was silly. They’re just clothes. People wear underwear. Still, it was an intimacy that she wasn’t ready to share yet. Panties are very personal, especially thongs. What would he think about a girl that wore a thong? She didn’t like panty lines, besides, they were really comfortable.

  She let it go. “If he sees them, he will have to deal with it.” She opened the refrigerator.

  “Never mind,” said Jenny.

  “I like salads. Take your time.” He was looking at her but didn’t seem to be listening. “I guess you didn’t see the hair dryer. I’ll bring it down.”

  “Don’t bother. My hair dries quickly. I just need to brush it out.”

  “OK.” He left.

  She glanced at the stove. It was almost 8 and the sun was about to set. Lights were coming on in the house—on their own. More Mozart could be heard although she didn’t recognize the piece that was playing now. She took out lettuce, tomatoes, green and red peppers, and radishes. She loved raw onions in her salad, but this time she was going to skip the onions—just in case! She checked around to see where the wandering lobsters were. She gingerly used a cutting board to push them into the sink. The tub was deep. It didn’t look like they could crawl out. Minutes later, she discovered that she was wrong about that.