by David Smith
THE SUBJECTS OF THIS STORY – the key players if you will – were all adolescent children.
This – adolescence – is an interesting time for your kind; still containing all the innocence and simplicity of youth, but beginning to have increased levels of adult-like abilities, as far as humans go. And yet, with this newly-emerging capability there is enough youth left that there is still the capacity for wonder and imagination, which seem to leave your kind soon after you reach adulthood. These qualities of childhood are one of the most useful, and indeed most appealing, characteristics of humans. The change that happens from childhood to adulthood, when these qualities are lost, leaves most of you about as interesting as a piece of dry pastry, with all of the filling squeezed out of it.
Their names were as follows: Sally and Chip, brother and sister, ages thirteen and fourteen years respectively, Diane and David, not brother and sister, also ages thirteen and fourteen respectively. You will also want to know their last names, but this information is irrelevant.
And while you will get to know these children better as a natural course of this account, it has come to my attention as a result of other works I have done for others of my kind, that most readers like to know a little bit about the subjects of the story “up front,” as you would say. So while this information would seem unnecessary at this point of the story to me, for the sake of others I will here give a few details regarding them.
Both Sally and Chip were blond. Diane was blonde to brown and David had dark hair. As far as eye color: Sally and Chip, blue; David brown, and Diane greenish brown. (Of course, had you asked any of them, none of them would have been able tell you any of this. One wonders why someone reading this document would need to know, when the actual people themselves never noticed. But I suppose you wanted to know, didn’t you?)
I could also mention each of these children were what one would call attractive for your kind. In fact, Sally and Chip (largely due to genetic reasons but also partly due to lifestyle choices) would grow up to be noticeably beautiful. Diane too would grow up to be beautiful, if a little heavy-set, and David would also be acceptably attractive in his adulthood, if a little on the thin side.
As far as their personalities: Sally and David both were similar to each other, as were Chip and Diane. Sally and David were the type of people who had a tendency to do things the hard way, by which I mean they tended to resist advice and therefore had to find out for themselves the way things actually are. This trait is referred to by your kind either as “courage and independent thinking,” or as “foolhardiness and bull-headedness.” Whether it is referred to as one or the other, is entirely a question of whether those persons, in doing just whatever they want, turn out to be right or not. Chip and Diane on the other hand tended to be more conventional, tended to accept and appreciate advice, and tended to conduct themselves in a manner in which they thought others would want them to.
Diane and Chip tended to be cautious, whereas the other two children tended to be more impetuous. Diane and Chip tended to be conservative, whereas David and Sally were more inclined to seek the advantages and opportunities that can come from taking risks – in some cases excessive ones.
These four were all related to one degree or another by “family ties” and as such, found themselves all together on this day at Thanksgiving party, at the home of some grandparents. And yet, other than for Sally and Chip, the four children were not actually related by blood. This is worth noting, as what the future held for Sally and David, and for Chip and Diane, is that they would one day find themselves joining as is typical for your kind, in your ritual of marriage (And suffice it to say this ritual is not uncommon in my realm either. And you did just wonder about that, didn’t you? Well, you should have.)
In any case, what the future held was that Sally would marry David, and Chip would marry Diane. Both marriages would prove highly successful, although Chip and Diane’s would be far more tranquil than David and Sally’s.
Or at least, that’s what the future would have held for all of them. (You see how difficult it is for me to describe matters involving time, using your language.)
Finally, David was unusual in that he had a rare intuitive sense that will become evident shortly. This tended to isolate him from others to a degree, since difference sometimes leads to isolation from that which is more common. Why this is true may seem interesting to you but I have already paused far too long in this descriptive foray and I have no intention of prolonging it any further
On the occasion of this family get-together, comprising on the order of 40 members of the extended families and relatives, the customary events were transpiring. While the adults busied themselves with preparing the foods and drinks your kind find pleasant and which are customarily prepared and consumed on such an occasion, and while others of the party were occupying themselves with tedious conversation, observation of various electro-mechanical devices in the home and so forth, the four mentioned children were running around through the rest of the house. In this sense, they were having the most fun and stood the chance of doing the most good, as nothing worthwhile at all was being accomplished by the adults, other than for preparing the meal. And indeed, the children’s activities were far more interesting as well. For the parents, while they could have been engaging themselves in interesting conversation regarding the intimate details and secrets of their lives, chose not to do so, as adults almost always choose.
For instance, Chip’s father, Duane, was a single parent who lost his wife, Ginger, to a strange illness that was never correctly diagnosed. Therefore, Duane was left to raise his children – Chip and Sally along with their younger brother Donny – all by himself. While that is in itself not all that interesting, there is something interesting about Duane that he could have talked about at this Thanksgiving party had he chosen to do so, along the following lines:
Having lost his beloved wife, Duane was inconsolable for a great long time. For his wife had not only been his love, but had been his fondest, truest, and deepest friend. Her death left a vast space in his life that could perhaps never be filled.
And yet, as your kind often does, Duane’s mind attempted to fill this space in his life through imagination. Interestingly, Duane became convinced that the spirit of his wife had come to occupy the body of his youngest son, Donny, and on one occasion he had confided this to a group of friends. In his living room, Duane had described how little Donny was showing so many of the traits of his deceased mother that Duane was sure Ginger was somehow inside of Donny. The little boy even seemed to have many of his dead mother’s mannerisms. This was a great relief to Duane, knowing that his dearly departed wife had taken up residence inside his youngest son.
Duane expressed the concern however, that there were a few traits of his wife’s personality that were at the present time only partially expressed in little Donny’s personality. This, he confided, left him distressed and wondering whether his wife was really in there at all.
Upon hearing this, his friends’ feelings ranged from skeptical, to concerned about Duane’s state of mind. Strangely one of them, trying to be helpful, offered that there was a possible explanation for why the boy did not seem entirely like Ginger. Little Donny, the friend pointed out, had only an immature brain, whereas Duane’s wife had been in possession of a fully mature brain at the time of her demise. Naturally therefore, if Duane’s wife had taken possession of little Donny, she would seem a little altered, inasmuch as inside little Donny she only had the brain of an immature boy through which to express herself. Obviously, this would make her seem a little different than she had been when she was alive. The friend offered this explanation as a solution that could relieve Duane’s concern.
It is an interesting emotion that your kind calls, “love.” To some of you this word means physical attraction. To some it means a sense of devotion. To some it means a sense of responsibility. But perhaps the most common and compelling definition of
what that word means for your kind, is a powerful urge merely to be in the physical presence of the one you love – a need to be simply near them. Thus, Duane’s mind imagined his wife was inside his little son.
Similarly is your habit of locating the physical remains of your deceased in a safe and certain location, so that you can then imagine that you can “visit” them, imagining yourself to there be in the presence of the one you love, even though you must know that there is really no one there at all.
Of course, these involuntary self-delusions of Duane’s were all nonsense. But they were somewhat novel, weren’t they? They were something Duane could have talked about to make the party interesting, but he chose not to do so. In fact, nobody talked about anything personal, private, or secret at all. Therefore, the party (where the parents were) was entirely nondescript and pointless.
But the four children I mentioned previously on the other hand, were about to happen upon something extraordinary. Indeed, they were about to happen upon something that was simply one of the most remarkable creations that has ever been in your universe.
As they rummaged throughout the house, the four children had come upon a closet with double doors. Giving in to curiosity and devilishness, they all (these four children) opened one of the doors and endeavored to climb inside. This was actually a large utility closet and as such it contained the furnace and hot water tank, along with such accumulated detritus as the owners of the house had placed there.
But it was not all worthless material, it turns out. As Chip tried to close the door with the four of them inside, David moved further back into the closet and unbalanced a pile, which fell over. A number of objects fell against the other door, pushing it open, and the objects and the children spilled out of the closet.
Among the objects that fell out was one that was much larger than the rest.
It was the Device. (Hereafter then, one of the words I will use to refer to this object will be: the “Device.”)
There are various Devices, and they have various names. They are created by, and used to amuse, beings who are on a higher plane of existence than your kind. This Device is the particular toy that I mentioned previously, created by a being outside of your world and your reality. I mentioned it was left such that it found its way into your world. In addition, this Device was unique in the sense that it was substantially more than the usual plaything, even for those creatures that would consider it to be a toy. As I stated before, it was the most powerful Device ever conceived.
For three of the children, as they watched the items fall out of the closet, what they saw was junk. And what they thought was that they would get into trouble if they didn’t get it all back into the closet before they got caught.
But one of the four children saw something different altogether. What David not only saw, but focused upon, was the largest object that fell out of the closet.
For you see, David saw only, the Device. And what he thought is that his eyes and mind were looking at something unique in his world – nothing like he had ever before seen.
In one of those rare moments of clarity, his mind reached to another place, a higher place, and somehow achieved a realization that this object was different – valuable – even wonderful. This is a rare quality some of your kind has – the ability to see that to which all others seem blind.
The party, the other three children, and indeed, the rest of the world now essentially, all disappeared for David. And while the other three children scrambled to return the items to the closet, David – in what the children would later recall as an almost reverent, trance-like state – approached and put his hands on the Device.
Let us digress now. The Device was laying on the floor, on its back. When upright, it looked vaguely like a small, upright piano: the base, 22 inches wide, and 15 inches deep, and overall, 50 inches tall. The entire back of the Device was essentially straight and flat, with the upper half only about half as deep as the base. So about 28 inches up, the front surface tapered back. Picture an upright piano about that size: about half-way up, a keyboard slopes down toward you as you sit at it, and behind the keyboard there is a surface, sloping slightly back, where you would put the music if it were a piano.
The entire Device was essentially smooth, and dark, almost glossy black. I will refer hereafter to the back, sides, base, and so forth of the Device, but the important parts I will refer to as the “keyboard” and the “screen.” The “keyboard” is the sloped part of the Device where the “keys” would be if it were a piano. The “screen” of the Device is the surface behind the keyboard, where one would put the music, if it were a piano. I say these are the important parts – the keyboard and the screen if you will – but that will only be evident later. For at this time, the object had no keyboard, no screen, and indeed, looked like a black object with no obvious features other than for its overall shape. The lines were extremely simple – with minimally rounded edges at the intersections of the sides of the Machine, with no embossing or embellishment of any kind.
I note I just said “Machine” instead of “Device.” Within your range of understanding both words are reasonable ones to use for it. In any case, you know what I’m talking about.
Here is a test: did you wonder why a being such as I would describe the Device with measurements in “inches” as I did? Did you feel that a being as advanced as I should have used measurements such as “centimeters” or some such metric? Well if you wondered about that, you will want perhaps to feel good about yourself for a moment – but only for moment – after which I must remind you what a silly creature you are. What difference should it make to me which of your absurd systems of measurement I should use? Indeed, if “inches” are the units which would make the most sense while I am trying to use your language to describe things as best I can, would not measurement in “inches” be the most reasonable for me to use? In any case, I now resume the story.
By the time the other kids noticed, David had already begun to drag the Device down the hall into his grandmother’s bedroom. The Device has no weight per se, or, another way to look at it is that depending on the situation, it weighs different amounts. When on your planet, and when dormant, as it is at this moment, it would seem to weigh on the order of about thirty pounds. (Yes, I said pounds, not kilograms, didn’t I?)
“Hey David, what are you doing with that?” Sally asked. “Get it back in the closet with this other junk before somebody finds out!”
It’s worth noting that David was already becoming fond of Sally, but you would never have known that right now. He said nothing. Instead, he dragged the Device over to the back side of his grandmother’s bedroom by a rarely-used sewing table, and he stood it up near the window. The sun was blazing outside in a perfectly clear day.
To the other three, the strange object cast a dark sense about the room, and shadows seemed to dart among the knick knacks and other objects that were cluttering it. But this was just their imagination. It was David’s odd behavior that was really troubling them.
The grandparents, like most of you, were packrats, and they came into possession of the Device at an auction. Seeing it there, Grandma thought it was a cabinet and would make a nice addition to the bedroom. She bought it before realizing it had no drawers or openings of any kind. It was simply a black object, seemingly useless for any purpose. And so like most of you would do in a similar situation, finding herself in possession of an object for which she had no conceivable use, she took it home, put it in a closet, and forgot about it.
How the Device got into your world in the first place, is beyond your capacity to understand, and is irrelevant to the story at this point, but I will tell you that the Device will sometimes have a tendency to drift. This involves a type of slippage that you cannot understand, but that you may have some sense of later.
David knelt in front of the Machine, and began to examine it with his hands.
Ch
ip looked at David. “Hey David,” he asked in his usual friendly tone. “What are you doing? We need to get that back in the closet before somebody finds out.”
Then Chip looked at the Device. “Hey, so what is it? Do you know what the heck it is?” He reached over and rubbed his hand on its smooth surface. As the girls gathered around, David pushed Chip’s hand away.
“Leave it alone,” David said quietly. He had not even so much looked at any of the other kids since exiting the closet.
“David,” Diane said politely, “are you all right?”
After hesitating for a moment, she reached over and shook him a little, “David?”
Finally, he looked up. “Yeah,” he said, “Hey, can you all leave? I mean, can you all go back to the party or go play or something? I mean, it’s okay with me if you . . . . I mean . . . . can you just . . . . I, I don’t want to be rude, but . . . . .”
“You want us to what? You want us all to leave?” Sally frowned indignantly. “Well, it is rude,” she said. Then turning to the others, trying to get ahead of the conversation she said, “Well let’s leave then if that’s what he wants.” But David seemed not to be listening.
“Wait a minute,” interjected Chip. “What are you going to do, David – stay here all alone in here with this – this wooden rock thing?” He reached over and rubbed the smooth surface again.
David was deep in thought. Without looking at him, he started to push Chip’s had away again. But then he looked at Chip, and his voice was neither friendly, nor polite. “You can just go ahead and go. I mean, you can come back after awhile . . . but right now, can you just . . .” then he looked back at the Device, and without taking his eyes off it, he said softly, “just leave. . .”
“Okay this is too weird,” Diane said.
Sally was giving directions again. “Okay well if that’s what he wants why don’t we just leave him here with his – his box? I’m going.” She moved toward the hall, then stopped and looked back at the others.
“Let’s go.” And she headed down the hall, with the other two following.
And they went into another bedroom, closed the door, and then stood around and talked about, and wondered about, what David was doing, and what that strange object in which David was so strangely and so intensely interested, was
If at this point you are wondering about details such as what the other people in the house were doing, what they said, what the rooms looked like etc., I can tell you: these things are unimportant. Let us proceed.
You may also be interested in what happened to David, and this is useful to tell. His mother, when the appointed time came for their Thanksgiving feast, went looking for him, and upon finding him she fairly had to pry his hands off the Device and force him to go to the table with the rest of the family.
After first taking a mother’s interest in what her son was doing, but finding David unwilling to accede to her wishes to leave the object and come to dinner, she first lowered her tone somewhat and commanded him. This having no effect, she threatened him, informing him that his father would be called. Growing more disturbed than angry, she grabbed his arm and pulled him down the hallway. David’s mother, in addition to being unusually strong for a woman, was not one to stand much on excessive talk and entreaties where the obedience of her children was concerned.
As David subsequently turned and pulled away to go back to Grandma’s bedroom, his mother’s gritted teeth and a mild slap to his face together with her reciting his full name to him, convinced him that his mother would not be trifled with any more in the matter, and so he went with her to dinner.
David didn’t pay much attention to dinner, and didn’t eat much of it either, in spite of his mother’s unhappy protestations about the time she had taken with the others making the dinner, and couldn’t David at least notice how nice it all was – a few of the foods were among David’s usual favorites after all. But David seemed odd and distant to her. And so, in addition to essentially missing the dinner his mother had helped prepare for him, David largely ruined it for her as well.
Later in the evening as the Thanksgiving party began to conclude, David surprised everyone when suddenly he demanded that he be allowed to take the Device that he had found, home with him. But in spite of the fact that for Grandpa and Grandma it was nothing of any particular use, they were not inclined to give it to David – they had bought it at an auction after all, they asserted.
David, having been thrifty in his life, had accumulated a fair amount of money for a child his age. And although not a lot of money per se, when he offered the entire sum to his grandfather in exchange for the Device in front of the other members of the family (and thereby shocking everyone, and continuing to further shock his three playmates, Sally, Diane, and Chip) his grandfather, for appearance’s sake, could not see denying the boy, and he relented to let David have it – for free.
(It should not however be overlooked that during the process, David concluded that Grandfather could either take the money, or David would come later and steal the Device. This was unusual for David, as he had always been rightfully regarded as among the more upright and responsible of all of his Grandfather’s posterity. Or at least, up until now, he had been.)
Anyway, the Device ended up in David’s bedroom.