A night to remember

Happily ever after?

Kirsten and I got married shortly after she quit from her active duty for 'the Circle'. My own house was sold at a fair price and now we lived together at her beautiful place. The rejuvenation proces seemed to have slowed down. At least the horrible pain attacks had gone. It sure did not feel right, I felt exhausted most of the time. And in some areas in my body there were these pains that seemed to be there indefinitely. Somehow Kirsten did not mind me being like this, while I struggled with it every day.

Could Natoshi not have told me this was going to happen? Even though most of those who had the rejuvenation anomaly died within a year after it had started, I was still around. Closing in on 13 months almost, but not really feeling alive and kicking. Haven't heard anything from the next incarnation of Sukoshi Genkin, who was Natoshi Sakamoto before his next Quantum trip. Nobody would have believed me even if I had wanted to tell them. There were times I even doubted if this all was real or just a crazy dream.

"Koppar, lyssna, jag vill berätta något om din situation." {EN: Koppar, listen, I want to tell you something about your situation.}, Kirsten said in Swedish. We did seem to speak more in the language of our ancestors since we lived together. Although my Swedish was still pretty aweful, I could understand her very well. "Could you please tell me in our native tongue hon, I want to be sure I understand it completely.", I said as I sat down with her at our couch. "Okej älskling." {EN: Okay darling.}, she replied with a smile on her face.

Her maison, now ours, was nice, warm and cozy. She really knew how to make a house feel like a home. There were candles burning everywhere and the wood in the fireplace made soft crackling and hissing sounds. The smell of burning spruce oil filled the small living room. It had a low ceiling with dark wooden beams underneath. Kirsten cuddled up to me, took my arms and put them around her. It had become our winter evening ritual. "Why the musk smell honey?", I asked as I kissed her on her hair, while taking a deep snif. She knew how I really loved it and what a total sucker I would become for her when I even smelled the smallest whiff of that specific perfume on her. When I proposed to her she was wearing it too. Coincidence? I think not.

"During the 50's, 60's all the way into the 70's of the 20th century several secret experiments were conducted under the flag of a certain American intelligence service. They were done all over the world, in countries that had become Allies after the second world war.", Kirsten started her story, avoiding to answer my musky question. "The selection of those who to use in any experiment, without their consent, depended on them being considered 'disposables'. You know, like their human cattle.", she continued while I had a hard time not to become hypnotized by the smell of her perfume. Rather than listening to this I wanted to get into bed early with her.

"Koppar, fokus!", she said as if she knew I was drifting off. "Do we have to go through this now Kirsten, I'd rather do something else.", I said in a kind of a spoiled child like way. But Kirsten seemed very determined and just continued telling her story: "This region was on the list, because of political reasons. Cold war based, this area was considered to be part of the 'red danger' expected to come from the East. Hence the inhabitants here were considered 'disposables'. No problem using the people who lived in this area for secret experiments, without their consent." Damned, I had such a hard time focusing on her story. She was smart, beautiful and very hot right now. Really wanted to get under the sheets with her, as soon as possible.

"Koppar, I can clearly feel something poking me, but could you please have it stand down, for just a little while longer?", well yes, if she did put it like that, I might try my best. "Here they used children, mostly around the age of 2 years. Reasoning that children of that age would not really be able tell the tale. And you were one of the 'selected'. Most of the experiments were done in the Catholic hospital in the city of Groningen. You probably wont be able to remember Koppar, but do you have any knowledge about you going to that hospital?"

"My mother had told me about me having surgery there when I was about two. She was expecting my kid brother, highly pregnant, last stage. So it must have been in the summer of '69. My tonsils were supposed to be taken out. It was a pretty standard procedure, considered to be 'normal' back then. She told me the head nurse pulled me away from my mother roughly the day her and my dad took me there . And I was not allowed to say goodbye to them. When my parents came to pick me up the next day she noticed how I seemed numb. Not responding to seeing her in the way as I normally did as a toddler.", I told Kirsten, the way I remembered my Mum telling me. "And there apparently was another oddity, it seemed I had not only lost my tonsils, but also was potty trained over night."

Both Kirsten and I stayed silent for a while. And I listened to her slowly breathing and felt how nice it was to have her close to me like this. She pulled my arms tighter around her and held on to them. Like she did not want me to let go. And then she continued: "Some kids had brain surgery, part of a communication experiment. The implants would have these children being able to hear voices. But in this case, real voices, remotely broadcasted into their brain directly. These kids would go crazy at one point or another, seen as trouble makers with psychological illnesses. Yet, they were driven nuts, on purpose. It was supposed to be used to control key figures in human society. Like those puppets in politics. But the experiment seemed to fail, as most of the children developed severe cases of schizophrenia."

"Well, I think I know someone who has this, he's an old friend of mine. He even let me see the scar and bumped ridge on his skull. And he told me about the voices that would never leave him in peace. He only sleeps on his sofa, on and off, in the living room. Did not dare to go to bed anymore. You know him, my friend 'the professor', he actually has got a brilliant mind. It is so sad to see him suffer like that.", I said to Kirsten. "Did you belief him when he told you, as it might seem like pretty crazy, or not?", she asked. "Well, I did believe he heard voices, and I took his story very seriously. What the source could be I did not know. Our mind is capable of some crazy shit. But there were stories he told me that went way further than someone 'just' hearing voices, more in line with what Natoshi, later Sukoshi and then you told me about 'the Square'."

"Yes, that is part of 'its' experiments. And you Koppar were part of a genetic experiment. Part of knowledge 'the Square' had gained from eternal living cancer cells. Those that could do mitosis endlessly. Part of that process was isolated and adapted for the rejuvenation experiment. While humanity might have thought gene therapy is more of a recent thing, it actually is already much older. And you were part of the children who were selected to take part in this. While parents thought their kids were only having their tonsils removed, they actually also got something added. Which would alter them completely. Only 'the Square' had no clue how and when this alteration would actually come into action. And at some point they lost interest in the outcome, as it seemed to have failed, somehow."

Again Kirsten and I just were locked in a moment of silence together. While my thoughts started to wander in all kinds of directions. How odd it was that I had not been having a severe cold for almost two years now. Only at the beginning of autumn I seemed to have caught a cold. Within a day my body seemed to already have gotten it under control. Just about three days and it had gone completely. While in the past I would have been sick for about two weeks, at least. Losing sleep due to the endless coughing. While these days everywhere around us people already would go nuts by somebody just sneezing, I did not worry the slightest bit. Though I did not understand why I did recover so fast, not even really getting sick anymore.

"Did you notice anything odd during puberty Koppar?", Kirsten asked while she turned round facing me. "Well, I did grow 1 centimeter per month at one point in time, during my early teenage years. My spine grew about 13 percent off to the side because of it. And I had a lot of growing pains during that time.", I replied, somehow I did remember that vividly, lots of hospital visits back then, no explanation at the time. While I told her she looked straight at me. And I could not help to observe her beautiful face, with those deep green eyes, lit up by all those candle lights. They were like the water near a Caribbean island. How I now wanted to drown in them.

"Vad tänker du om Koppar?", {EN: What are you thinking about Koppar?} Kirsten asked smiling. "Vad vacker du är Kirsten och hur mycket jag älskar dig.", {EN: How beautiful you are Kirsten and how much I love you.}, I replied at a low volume, as I pulled her up close, her face near mine. Her warm breath was heating my lips and I really was done talking about this difficult subject. It was a lot to take in at once. "Du har pratat klart om det, eller hur?", {EN: You are done talking about it, right?_", Kirsten whispered, as if she read my mind, or I was signaling the obvious. "Let's go upstairs my love, I want you near me, my skin is hungry for yours. You wearing musk made it worse. Please, still my hunger." Kirsten laughed while she got of the couch and grabbed my hand: "Well come on then you hungry heart, help me to blow out the candles and we'll make this a night to remember..."

A night to remember.

Artwork by me.

Previous episode of the Coop Files: @oaldamster/matters-of-the-heart