by Jose Moreno
****
The next day, after school hours, Barón went again to the park to meet with the proud zeros. He was eager to talk to them. This time, Barón was earlier than the day before; nobody had arrived when he arrived at the bench where they always met. After waiting four minutes impatiently, Carl and Mary made their way across the wooden bridge; then, as they approached the bench, Barón said to them, “Well, now you are all late!”
“That is not true…it is 5:19 pm.” Mary responded
“Yeah…you are right.” Said Barón
They all sat together at the Bench in order to wait for Martin. They were all contemplating the sunflowers that were in front of them in silence in the mean time. The silence was very comfortable for all of them.
In that silence, Barón’s mind was going insane, figuring out ways to approach the mattered he had dealt with Martin and the other teen-agers. Although the goal of the Proud Zeros meeting was not to talk about functio-assaults, Barón had the intense feeling that it was a matter that he had to present to them. He knew them too well to know that they were going to be cooperating with his plans if he could talk to them somehow about the things he had discussed with Martin and the other two teen-agers, but it was not going to be easy to bring the matter up to them because secrecy in a place surrounded by ODFs and VRSs was necessary.
However, Baron had not realized that the other members of the group already knew what Baron and Martin discussed the day before; Barón did not know that Mary and Carl had already been introduced to Martin’s group.
Thus, Mary broke the silence saying, “Why are you so pensive Barón?”
Barón, not knowing how to bring the matter said, “Ah…I talked to Martin…and… we need to talk one of these days about….something.”
Mary and Carl giggled, hearing how Barón’s speech was impaired by his nerves, and knowing the reason why he was so nervous.
Barón asked, “Why are you giggling?”
Carl responded, “Why are you so inarticulate today?”
Mary and Carl began to laugh.
Then, Carl said, “Barón, we talked to Martin about yesterday’s meeting. He is not coming today. Do you understand?”
Barón feeling relieved about approaching the matter began to smile. Then, he laughed and said, “No wonder you were so quite! You both know what is up!”
They all laughed together.
Then, they all stopped laughing; it was the time to talk about Barón’s plan for assaulting functiomatons. Barón said, “Well, I do not know how much you heard about my plan to…”
Immediately, Mary put her hand on Barón’s mouth so that he did not talk about it. Then, she pulled a notepad from her TRS bag and gave it to Barón. Barón understood that they had to communicate using the same method he performed with Martin’s group the day before. Since they were all sitting very close together on the same bench, one note could be read simultaneously by all of them. Furthermore, they were going to make sure to write really small so that even by magnifying the image of the ODF, it would be impossible to read clearly what they had written.
Barón wrote on the note pad, “What do you think about my crazy idea?”
After they both red the note, Carl responded in a note, “I like it! I would not mind doing some vandalism on functiomatons.”
Mary responded to Barón’s question with a note that said, “I would like to help too.”
Barón dared to ask them with a note, “How would you like to be actual functio- vandals?”
They both accepted whatever Barón had in mind.
Then, Barón asked them in another note, “How do you see yourselves creating a functio-guerilla out in the woods of Northern California where we could recruit people?”
The last question came as a shock to both Mary and Carl. They remained silent not knowing what to say. They knew that such idea would entail living behind their lives in Truxes; on the other hand, they saw, like Barón, necessary to do something about the course of human history.
Like Barón, Mary and Carl felt that humanity itself was at stake. The three of them believed that it was time to bring humanity back to its natural roots. Implicitly, the three of them shared the same philosophy about life. Their philosophy was perfect for Baron’s plans.
After four minutes went by, Mary and Carl looked at Barón instead of writing it on the notepad. They both nodded with a look of sincerity in their eyes implying that they were going to be with Barón all the way; after all, the group was more than friendship, it was an extension of their families.
Before they left the bench, Barón dare to ask them without a note, “Where is Martin?”
Mary responded, feeling relieved that she could talk again, “Do not worry. He is taking care of business.”
Barón, with a nervous tone in his voice, insisted, “What kind of business?”
Mary said with a smile, “He is trying to convince the other two guys that your plan is reasonable. He thinks that you scared both of them!”
Baron chuckled; however, he was not surprised.