DysFUNCTIOpia

by Jose Moreno

CHAPTER XI***

  Barón woke up on a metal table in a room made out of metal. Everything inside that room was silvery and shiny. It was like being in a house of mirrors. The table was at the center of the room and there were two uncomfortable metal chairs at the opposite sides of the table. The only thing not made out of metal was the nice halo of light that was coming from a crystal ball attached to the metal ceiling twelve feet above the table where Barón was laying flat on his back. When Barón opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was the white crystal ball above. He was peaceful. He felt like he had just woken up from a nightmare; however, he knew that what he had gone through was real. There was something about waking up in that place that gave him a feeling of unexplainable euphoria. He stretched his arms and sat on the table looking his image reflected on the metal wall twenty feet in front of him.

  Then, he heard the man in the suit right behind him, seating in one of the metal chairs, “Barón, I hope you feel much better now.”

  Barón was startled by the man’s deep voice given that the man was right behind him; Barón’s body eclipsed the man’s image in the mirror in front of Barón. Those words broke the feeling of euphoria; instead, those words brought up the anxiety he had felt earlier. Seating on the table, Barón span his body around the location where he was seating to see who had said those words right behind him. At first, Barón struggled to recognize who that man was. He looked familiar. He squinted and moved his head trying to recall where he had seen that man and his smirk. Then, Barón lifted his right hand, put on his forehead, and gave himself a soft massage to try to alleviate the headache he had just felt. He felt slight nauseated. Although that man looked familiar and Barón knew that he had been a source of anxiety in the past, Barón’s attention turned to his physical health. It was more important for Barón to know why he felt dizzy than remembering his relation to the man sitting in front of him.

  The man in the suit said, “If you are feeling dizzy it is due to the beam of Controlled Low Frequency Electromagnetic Waves (CLFEW) that you experienced early on. If you do not remember what happened it is due to the disruption of the short term neural circuit by the electromagnetic field which impeded the consolidation of a long term memory.” From the chair, the man leaned forward, put his elbows on the table, and looked closely at Barón’s face. Then, he asked, “Did you understand what I just said”

  Barón, rubbing his head with both hands and with his eyes closed, responded, “Yeah…you mean that I can’t remember just a few minutes before I went unconscious.”

  The man shouted with joy, “Excellent!”

  Barón was trying to figure out why that man seemed so excited about his response. Barón stopped rubbing his head, opened his eyes, gave the man a deliberate somnolent look and asked, “Why are you so enthusiastic about my response?”

  The man responded in a serious tone of voice, “Because we knew that you are a very smart guy.”

  Barón did not dare to inquire more about that man; instead, he wanted to see if he could walk even though he felt slightly dizzy. Barón blinked his eyes and moved his head from side to side. By doing so, he gained confidence that he could walk. Thus, he slid to the edge of the table, sat at the edge, left his feet hanging while his hands held the edge, looked at the floor, and jumped while keeping his hands holding on to the edge. He noticed that his balance was not bad. He stopped holding the edge and dared to take a few steps forward. Then, he turned his head towards the empty chair and began to walk slowly. While he was walking, he was feeling satisfied that his walk was better than the way he remembered his grandfather used to walk. Finally, he sat down on the chair across the table facing the man in the suit.

  Just a few minutes had gone by and Barón was noticing that he was feeling less groggy and ready to hear answers from a man that seemed to be paying attention to every little thing Barón did. Barón’s heart rate began to rise up as he started to remember. He remembered that Carl disappeared and that there were some strange luminous objects hovering high above them in the woods. He remembered that something had happened to Martin, but he could not remember much of the details. Mary’s tears and her sensibility came to his mind. Nevertheless, Barón was feeling much less anxious in that metal room than in the woods. It was strange to him that being there with that man gave him more peace of mind than being with his friends. Only his foggy memories of the woods made him anxious. On the other hand, Barón had to hear a story from that man in order to assemble his memories clearly again. In that frame of mind, Barón asked, “Please, tell me, what happened?”

  Smirking, the man responded, “Sure. Let me tell you what happened: you were in the woods and we were searching for you and your group of friends. Then we found you all, we captured one by one, and here you are”

  Barón horrific memories came to him suddenly. He felt like cold water was being poured on his back. It was clear to him that the man in front was responsible for the angst they all went through at the woods. Barón shouted with anger, “Where are my friends!?” He wanted to stand up and punch the man on the face, but he held his anger and decided to remain on the chair to listen.

  The man stopped smirking, giving Barón a penetrating look instead. He remained silent for a few seconds. Then, the man said, “Your friends are fine. They are being held for questioning just like you.”

  Barón wanted to make sure his friends were fine. He was skeptical about their well being. Thus, he asked, “Are you sure they are fine?”

  Nodding and rolling his eyes, the man responded, “Trust me, they are all fine just like you”

  “Who the hell are you?”

  “I am a member of a secret technology company that acts as an agency for the government. Our function is to prevent revolutions before they happen,” the man said with a chuckle.

  “Why are you after me?”

  “We were aware of your functio-guerilla group. We have been spying on you since last month.”

  Barón’s anger turned into a self inquiry. How did they know about their functio-guerilla plans? How were they able to find them? Barón was trying to determine how much they knew. However, all Barón could think now is that he was in deep legal trouble. Thus, he said, “I have the right to remain silent. I would like to speak with my lawyer.”

  The man laughed and responded, “Of course. You may have a lawyer; however, I have an offer you cannot refuse. I offer you a job with us.”

  Barón was puzzled by the offer because he knew that he was being accused criminally: he thought, “Why would he offer a job to him after being criminally charged?” The man’s tone of voice certainly seemed to make the offer legitimate; however, Barón wanted to make sure that the man was not simply trying to avoid dealing with a defense attorney. Thus, Barón wanted the information to come from him and not the other way around: He was not going to speak about himself at all and give out information that could put him at jeopardy in a criminal court room. Thus, he asked, “What kind of job?”

  “I want you to be one of my agents: you could go around the world looking for people that are enemies of the United States of America.”

  The man in the suit paused and looked into Barón’s eyes. He knew well that Barón was only going to ask questions in order to avoid talking. Thus, in order make sure Barón was not economical in words, he added, “You witnessed many things that you had not seen before. Wouldn’t you like to be a part of it?”

  Barón’s memories of the strange luminous vehicles came to his head. He remembered being perplexed and scared of the way those vehicles could fly without any sound and take off from any point at amazing speed. He truly believed that those objects were extraterrestrial in origin. Also, the memory of the white beam of light manipulating Martin’s behavior filled him with fear. However, he could not remember anything after that. He was asking himself, “how did I become unconscious?” Many theories came to his mind. He was quickly trying to remember every detail surrounding Martin’s disappearance. But, those details were not sufficie
nt to construct a reasonable story, according to Barón’s experience, that could explain how a beam of light could have made Martin just turn around and walk in the opposite direction. Baron thought, “Could it be that they came up with an electromagnetic device that can do that? Isn’t that what he was implying when I was rubbing my head?”

  There were many foggy moments in his recollection of the events in the woods: Some things he could not remember very well and others did not make much sense to him. He thought that instead of guessing it would be better to ask the man about what happened to him and the others. But, he had to be careful not to provided information about himself to the man. His recollection of the events at the wood was so extraordinary that he became extremely curious about the technology that he had witnessed because now that man could provide a logical explanation for what puzzled him and the others. While he was sitting there, he was battling his desire to know about the technology that the man was so willing to disclose to Barón. For Barón, the situation was a card game where he did not have to show too much desire and had to find a way to ask questions that did not tell the man that he was dying to know about that wonderful technology that was unheard off. He thought that if the man could really provide technical details about the flying luminous objects, the offer that the man had put on the table was a privilege for any human being.

  The man noticed that Barón was thinking hard. So, he decided to regurgitate the question, “If you are curious about the physics involved in the things that you and the others witness in the woods I am the one that can provide the answers.”

  Barón felt that he had to play hard to get. Thus, he said, “Well… I do not believe that you can provide details about what we saw in the woods.”

  The man implied correctly from Barón’s demeanor that he really wanted to know more about their technology. Thus, the man, in order to observe his reaction, said, “Ok… here we go: We make our vehicles fly by means of electromagnetic pressure [19]. We call them High Electromagnetic Pressure Vehicles (HEPV). Basically, the vehicles send away low frequency electromagnetic waves at very, very, very, high intensity so that the waves give out so much energy out per second that it can actually push many pounds off the ground. That is why they do not make the turbine sound of the flying vehicles that you know.”

  Barón was very excited about the physics involved in the statement that the man had said. Barón knew that many Nobel Prizes could be awarded to anyone that could accomplish what the man had just described. It was science fiction made true. He was boiling with the desire to jump out of his chair and scream out his deranged excitement. He never thought that technology could make him so euphoric—Barón knew that if that information were disclosed to the general public it could change the course of history. Barón was going to act as if he was unimpressed with those words. In this way, with an exaggerated tone of skepticism and scratching his right cheek with his right hand, Barón asked, “I do not think that is possible because you need a lot of energy for that.”

  It was easy for the man to know that Barón was very curious–Barón was so bad at acting out his excitement. The man gave out a wide smile and said to Barón, “We are also able to produce controlled nuclear reactions that can provide enough energy”

  Barón broke his defensive role. He was not going to hold his curiosity anymore. With opened excitement and a wide smile, Barón asked, “What else can you do that the general public is not aware of”

  Immediately, the man said in a very sardonic tone, “Oh! Let’s see… we can send controlled electromagnetic pulses into people’s brains, disable their brain cortex, and make only their lower brain operate by our own will temporarily. That’s what we did to you and Martin. Yeah. The device is very similar to this…” The man reached under the chair, pulled out Barón’s electromagnetic gun, and threw it on the table with anger. Then, he screamed at Barón, “This is yours and do not give me any bull shit!”

  Barón had not been aware that there was evidence linking him to a crime until Barón’s electromagnetic pulse device was shown to him. It was the device that he thought the police officers were not going to find buried in the yard. Furthermore, he thought that anyone was not going to make sense out of that device if it were to be found—it was a technology that Barón had invented. But, he was not going to confess to the crime. Barón decided not to respond to the accusation. On the other hand, the man’s accusation brought up a bite of conscience in Barón because for just a few seconds, he had desired to inquire about the divine technology he had witnessed with horror at the woods that he had considered extra-terrestrial in nature. That technology had been stalking the teen-agers and had caused traumatic memories due to the free rein that those noiseless, fast moving, luminous vehicles had given to the teen-ager’s imaginations. Baron asked himself, “Do I really want to know out of idle curiosity more about instruments whose purpose is to chase functio-vandals like me?” With disgust, Barón admitted to himself that just for few seconds, he had considered the man’s offer of working for him whether the offer was true or merely a means to get Barón to talk.

  The man was frowning and looking at every detail about Barón’s demeanor. He wanted to convince Barón that he should be a part of their agency—the device invented by Barón demonstrated his superior intelligence. Thus, he said, “I know you do not want to talk. So, I am going to make the offer clearer: If you decide to be part of our agency, we will be lenient. We will teach you EVERY thing about the wonderful technology you witnessed”

  “What if I refuse?”

  “I suggest that you do not refuse.”

  The man knew Barón was going to be defensive and that their marvelous technology was going to be one way to open up the path for communication. He knew that it was more fruitful to disclose more information about their technology than to accuse Barón of wrong doing. The man could notice that Barón’s curiosity was making his own mind swelter. In a more soft tone of voice, the man said, “I can show you today about our secret technology”

  “I do not want to know about you technology!”

  “Do you realize how fortunate you are to have been offered a position in our agency?”

  “I do not feel fortunate to be talking here with you.”

  The man had to make sure that the protocol from his superiors was followed. The instructions from his superiors were clear: If Barón decided to join their agency, he would receive leniency in the time he was going to serve in jail; Otherwise, Barón was going to have a difficult time for many years in a penitentiary. In spite of the instructions the man received, he truly admired Barón’s leadership –Barón and his group had been under careful surveillance—which he grasped from the many illegal recordings he had about his meetings with the other members of the functio-vandal group. Those recordings had given the man a clear picture of Barón’s true personality and character. In order for the man to accomplish his goal, he had to study every facial expression that Barón was making, like in a game of poker, and use psychological maneuvers based on all the information he had gather from Barón and the teen-agers by means of recordings.

  Given that Barón seemed verbally adamant to the persuasion techniques that the man was trying use, the man decided to use the personal information that he knew about Barón. With a calm demeanor and a smirk on his face, the man slouched on his chair just a little in order to imply clearly to Barón that he was going to be relaxed. Then, he said, “Barón… what are we going to do with you? You are too smart. You know that. You are right. I can only help you if you want me to help you.” Then, he waited patiently for any response from Barón.

  Barón responded, “Yes, I know I am smart.”

  The man responded with satisfaction, “Good! Then, we should be talking about intellectual stuff. I was pretty smart in school also…well, the old kind of school”

  Barón knew that the man wanted to talk about Barón’s philosophy. He did not see anything legally harmful with talking about personal perspectives in
life. It was better than trying to talk about technology. Barón, with a serious expression, dared to say, “I think that technology has become the anathema of humanity.”

  The man responded, “I do not think that technology is our enemy! Just because human beings are a reflection of our technology it does not follow that it should be the enemy of humanity. Technology can help us find life meaningful like religion helped humans during medieval times. Barón, at some point in history it was going to happen. We had no choice, right?”

  Barón had to admit to himself that those words the man had said where intelligent and offered a reasonable perspective on the humanity that Barón arduously wanted to defend; however, Barón thought that the man’s point of view was not closer to any truth than his own philosophy; –Barón considered all truths to be just a particular perspective that people held as truths for their own purpose—thus, Barón decided to defend his point of view. A radical romantic view of life without technology, Barón had to defend. Thus, after reflecting on those wise words for a few seconds, Barón responded “Well, I think that humans should not allow technology to define their lives. Nature should be defining our lives.”

  “What do you mean by “nature”?”

  “By nature I mean the type of life that one would live if we were thrown into a natural environment and we had to depend on whatever was provided by that natural environment…well, there could be some farming. The point is not to allow at any moment any tool to be more than a human.”

  “Oh! You mean that we should not be dependent on technology and live like people lived before the industrial revolution?”

  “Yes…something like that.”

  The man laughed and shook his head not accepting Barón’s statement. He knew Barón too well already from all the information he had gathered several months before that face to face investigation with Barón. The man’s conclusion at that moment was that Barón was just a kid. Certainly, Barón’s intelligence, according to the results from his school tests, was above a genius; on the other hand, Barón’s neural connections where deprived of the sensory information that would help him maximize his potential in a much more dull society. Barón was too smart for the type of “education” that most students were receiving at home from functiomatons. Barón had just fallen through the cracks. He was a special case. Moreover, the man knew that Barón did not realize the level of his own intelligence relative to the intelligence of other students in the same age group—Barón did not interact much with students outside the Proud Zeros Club, where Martin, Carl, and Mary were the other three members whose intelligence were also superior. Barón had not had the opportunity to live with his intelligence in social settings due to the fact that his non-libidinous identity was still not understood by the large majority of teen-agers in the year 2054. The man realized that Barón had been socially treated as a strange specimen by most of his young neighbors. From the dialog the man had had with Barón, the man had concluded that jail time for Barón could be his first time in a “true” social setting outside his home.

  Barón was upset after having watched the man burst into laughter. He could not understand what he found so amusing. For a minute, Barón doubted the logic of the dialog they had. “What could be so funny about living close to nature? Is it the way I said it? Is this man capable of holding an intelligent conversation?” He could not hold those questions; thus, pretending not to be upset, he asked, “What is so funny?”

  The man was smiling at Barón observing his defiant demeanor. Trying to be tenderer, the man said to Barón, “I am sorry about my laughter.” The man paused and shook his head again, thinking about a way to explain tactfully that he thought Barón was just an immature teen-ager. Then, he said, “Look…you are very smart. But, I THINK, your intelligence lacks social experience. You grew up in an environment that did not allow you to be in touch with other teen-agers except for the other three.”

  But, Barón did not see his social experience in Truxes to have been a factor in the development of his ideas. He believed that if he had had a more sociable life with other students in an old fashion classroom, like the one that his grandfather used to talk about, he would still have advocated for stronger human relations. In this way, Barón did not see how the man’s comment on his social life was relevant. He believed in his own intellect. Also, he believed the information that he had learned from many philosophers and poets that he had read in his spear time. Thus, he responded, “I trust my intelligence and my theoretical knowledge.”

  “Do you trust your intelligence and knowledge even when you make judgments about the life of others?”

  “I do.”

  “Hmm… So, you must believe that your intellect is sufficient for making social judgments?”

  “Yes, I do”

  “How do you describe your ideal world?”

  “I describe my ideal world… as the world of nature. We should live harmoniously with the natural environment…not destroy any ecosystems… we should use minimal technology.”

  “Oh! That is interesting. What do you have to say about humans and technology? “

  “Humans and technology…. Well, in the world of nature, we could have stronger human relations: We could depend on one another…. in the world of nature, intelligence could not be alienated from social experience. It is in the world of technology where intelligence can be separated from social experience…”

  The man was baffled by Barón’s young brain. He had to admit to himself that there was not going to be a way to win an argument with Barón if he tried to maintain a position. But, he kept reminding himself he just wanted to keep Barón engaged in a conversation. Little by little, the man was going to pave the way to open up a conversation about the secret plan that Barón had been drafted to carry out by the man’s superiors. Barón did not know that the legitimate criminal investigation was also a clandestine interview to determine his worth. If he was found worthy, he would receive an immediate invitation for a mysterious, hidden world within the world he knew; if not, Barón would have to be purified in a tough prison. For now, the point of maintaining Barón talking was to tell Barón smoothly that if he did not recant his philosophy, he was going to learn to recant in jail.

  The man was studying Barón’s frame of mind while Barón was lecturing passionately like a teacher. The man was like a tiger looking for a weak animal in Barón’s mind; nevertheless, the more Barón talked, the more the man became convinced that Barón’s mind was like a den of Lions. Furthermore, every iota of thought uttered by Barón was welded to every other; the structure of Barón’s mind was like a rigid, iron battleship where cannonballs would not even make a dent. The man reached the unfortunate conclusion that he would have to resort to stronger tactics.

  In this frame of mind, the man interrupted Barón’s lecture and asked, “Ok…I understand your position on humans and technology”. He paused. He was touching his chin with his right hand in order to show Barón that he was thinking deeply what he was going to say next; it was a way to tell Barón that an important moment was coming. Then he said, “Let me bring my point to you. You are going to finish your education in Jail. We have a special project for you.”

  Barón was distraught by the word “Jail.” But, he had to look strong. He simply replied, “What kind of project?”

  “You will have to do an educational project. You are going to a jail where no functiomatons are allowed and you are going to do everything the old fashion way.”

  Trying to focus on the phrase “old fashion way,” and omitting from his head everything else, Barón said with a fake expression of excitement, “I like that!”

  “Basically, you are going to teach there…”

  “What? Teach? Teach what?” asked Barón not knowing how “jail” and “teaching” could happen together.

  “You are going to teach other high school students. You are going to teach the same high school subjects you learned from functiomatons; you will be a trusty; as such, you will
be the teacher for youth who were arrested for missing their functio-education. You will have the opportunity to be an old fashion teacher in an old fashion classroom.”

  The man laughed after he finished his last statement. From the point of view of the man in the suit, it was not going to be easy for Barón to manage slothful students who had skipped their structured functio-education; even professional, experienced, specialized human tutors had been ineffective on those students before they were locked up. Moreover, the man found comical that Barón was still too naïve to understand that he was intellectually energetic, a characteristic that would contrast the mental inertia of imprisoned teen-agers; Barón’s social world had been only four intellectual teen-agers. On the other hand, for the man, it was a way to provide him with the opportunity to be “educated” in an average social setting; the man understood well that Barón’s genius did not need school knowledge. The man’s goal was to break Barón’s staunched humanist philosophy which had grown in Barón’s tender mind as a result of pernicious social isolation in his neighborhood.

  After the man laughed, Barón thought that teaching in a prison was going to be absurd. It was unheard that anyone accused of committing functio-vandalism ended up being a pedagogue for other students who simply could not adapt to “the inhumanity of some functiomaton”—but, he felt that he had knowledge to teach them. He could not imagine himself being a role model for any of those students; instead, he thought that he would try to sympathize with those student while being their teacher; Doing the latter would defeat the goal of reforming the inmates—Given that he was a strong leader for Carl, Mary, and Martin, he felt confident that he was going to lead his future pupils in the same direction that he was able to accomplish with his four friends. Full of wrath for the man in front of him, Barón thought that he was going to make sure to demonstrate with actions how ridiculous it was to have allowed him to become a prison instructor. Furthermore, he was determined not to allow the senselessness of being a teacher in jail destroy his philosophical views about technology.

  Noticing that Barón was pensive, the man said, “so…what do you think about being a teacher in prison?”

  “I think it is ludicrous. Do I have a choice?”

  The man smiled and said with piercing eyes, “You have another choice: You could serve life in prison.”

  Understanding that it was better to teach than serve extra time in jail, Barón responded, “Ok…Let’s do it.”

  The man said, “Great! I knew you were a reasonable person. You are going to be a prison trusty. I know it makes no sense to you; however, I hope it makes sense in two years.”

  ***