Matters of the heart
Interim
"Coop is not really your first name, right?", said Natoshi as we were cleaning up. It had been quite a busy evening in the restaurant. A full house almost all of the time. "No, it is Koppar, it is Swedish and means Copper, my mother thought it was a funny name for a boy." Only one last table to clean, then mop the floor and enjoy a beer afterwards. "So you have Swedish family roots?", Natoshi asked as he was walking towards the kitchen to start the dish washers. "Yes, hence my surname: Framsteg. But I was born and raised here. In my younger years my friends started to call me Cooper and that then became Coop."
This was one of those days where Natoshi would ask if I could lend a helping hand. And when he would tell me to leave my spyware at home next I would know he had something special to tell me. "If you put the chairs up side down on the table then that will make it easier for you to swipe the floor." He did tell me that every time. Just like I should use clean glasses if I wanted a nice foam head on my beer. Guess he was merely thinking out loud. "Shall I pour us a couple already Coop San, or do I need to wait another hour, hahaha." Only had to get rid of the dirty water and clean the mop, still it felt like I'd been moving a bit too slow indeed. "Make sure you use clean glasses Sensei. And do you think you can manage to tap a foam head of two fingers thick on your own?" Again he laughed in his typical way. As he was normally the one telling me that.
"It is your heart Coop, that is the issue. It does not rejuvenate like the rest of your body...", again Kirsten kept silent for a while. We had been going out for a long stroll through the neighborhood. From the place where she lived, just outside of Winschoten, to Westerlee and back. Autumn already had entered the year, leaves were falling. Trees slowly turning from green to yellow, orange and red. As we walked towards the top of the moraine I asked her to tell me more about my rejuvenation 'condition'. "That is why you said I should take it easy?" And while we got near to the top I did feel somewhat breathless. It is quite steep though. Although Kirsten did not seem to experience it like me. At the top there are a couple of boulders at the side of the road, time for me to take a break there.
"Heart cells become scar tissue when they are damaged. No replacement with new cells. During a longer period of time this can cause the heart to become more rigid, causing all kinds of issues.", while she tells me this I have the impression I am having a conversation with a doctor of medicine. The sun is slowly descending towards the West, this is really a beautiful place. If I had taken my mobile phone I could have made a couple of great golden hour shots. But I was told to leave my spyware at home, again. All of a sudden I had a funny memory. Dave 'the tongue' Iggens once had a slip of the tongue. In his own unique clumsy way he wanted to explain to his mates, me included, when it was the best time of the day to take great shots. But instead of 'during the golden hour' he said: "during the golden shower." Nobody explained to him why we started laughing every time he said it. But after a couple of times Bob felt sorry for him and told him what a 'golden shower' was.
"Why the big smile, honey? What I told you sure aint funny.", Kirsten frowned while she said that to me. While I looked up to her the sunlight was creating a beautiful aura around her. "And there I was thinking you could not get any more beautiful Kirsten. Wow, somehow my left knee wants to bow to the ground and my ankle bends all by itself. It must be you, your mystical magnificent enchanting beauty has made me kneel before thou my fair lady." Actually I had a hard time getting up in one go after taking a seat on the boulder for a while, but this way it might look less silly.
"NOT ... FUNNY ... KOPPAR!!!" Damn, she used my real first name, now that was a bad sign. "Vilken åsna jag är." {EN: What a donkey I am.}, I said in the best Swedish I could remember. "Har du glömt att jag också är av Svensk härkomst?" {EN: Have you forgotten that I am also of Swedish descent?} Yes, I guess I had forgotten many things. Was Kirsten really of Swedish descent, originally, with all those Quantum jumps? Must have been thousands of years added up somehow. "But seriously Coop, do not pretend as if you are about to pop the question, not now, not ever. Only lean on it if you are going to follow up on it..." Did Kirsten just try to tell me she might want me to ask her to marry her, for real? Nah, it must have been as a figure of speech.
Finally I was able to join Natoshi at the bar and enjoy a nice cold beer. "Somewhere between 2020 and 2030 'the Square' will get very close to total world domination." Well, Natoshi did not first go for the day to day chit chat first this time. That first sip of beer really did go down well. And as I put my glass back on the bar I was waiting for the rest of the story. But first there was only silence for a while. So I tried to keep it going by asking a silly question: "How come you are not able to exactly pinpoint the time, place and date Sensei? As I came to understand 'the Circle' are the masters of the Quantum, then they should know, right?" And I was expecting some kind of annoyed response, although it was a legit thought I had.
"Good question Koppar San." and he smiled for acting like a total schmuck. "Empty yours already, even in drinking you are way behind!" Natoshi had emptied his glass in one go, while I was merely slowly enjoying my drink. He could act quite competitive, but I was not always willing to join him in that. "Reality, this current one, is not deterministic at all, nor is it totally chaotic. It is more about possible outcomes and there can be an endless amount of those. Meaning it is highly improbable that a certain future can be exactly predicted." While Natoshi told me this he put another pint in front of me. "But there is a certainty that a particular outcome will become our reality, right?", I asked as if I actually had a clue what he was talking about. "Very good Grasshopper! See, I told you that even you could master this knowledge! Cheers!"
"Thoughts can become things my friend. There in lies a deeper understanding of the Quantum reality." Aaaaand, there he lost me again. "Reality is mostly about perception Coop San, those who control the perception of a large part of humanity, do in fact control a virtual reality. That is what 'the Square' is trying to enforce. And there is a extremely high certainty that 'it' will make it happen." After Natoshi explained it to me he stared into the distance for a while, there was a sad look upon his face. "Like you told me before, 'it' having control over the mass media channels will make it happen, right?" Natoshi just nodded and planted a glass of Oaldamster finest malt whisky in front of us. The way this was going we would end this night singing ACDC songs again.
"Remember Coop, like I also told you before, a majority can be wrong. Actually there is a certain risk most of the time apparent majorities are on the wrong side of history. If only history could tell itself, unbiased. Less misery my friend, way less. But currently 'the Square' has many people in their force field, so to speak. They can have them believe any big lie, have the masses do anything, as if they lost their mind. 'It' now can even claim without shame 'it' is 'the authority'. And people will bow. They will believe the biggest lie ever. Even start to attack those who still can see through the facade. But those who can are in danger, somehow they will be the made the scapegoats. And then it gets really ugly, once they are dehumanized..." So far his predictions have been close to what happens in reality. Yet no solution either.
"The Quantum, my good friend, can also be known as The Essence. It is all there is, was and can be, there is nothing it is not. Everything is possible and nothing is impossible. And the hardest thing to grasp is that it is now, there is only now. And this reality of apparent time-space can only exist because of non-time-space. The Now needs to be instant on, as it were. The speed of light cannot manage that, it has lag build in. Reality could not be stable for even a split second if it had to depend on the speed of light limit. That is where non-time-space comes into play. It is nowhere and everywhere, at the same now. Hahaha, how is your headache now Coop San?" Guess he was right about that, this was a lot to get in. Though I remember how he explained the symbol for zero, was not zero, it just helped to be able to use the concept of it. Just like the symbol for eternity. Yet no solution how to help humanity to snap out off the spell casted through all of 'its' controlled mass media channels.
"The rejuvenation is a heavy strain on your heart Coop, that was the case with all those who did not make it so far." Kirsten and I had entered the forest at Westerlee, known as 'de Garst'. "Could you not just inject stem cells into my heart muscle tissue?", I asked as this seemed actually a possible solution. "That would also come at a high risk, injections straight into the heart are quite dangerous. Scar tissue is not just a part of lost heart muscle material, it has become rigged. Stem cells probably wont change that, unfortunately." Damn, this story did turn for the worse even more. It seemed hopeless to me right now and I was done talking about it, for the time being.
"Hey Kirsten, I really would also like to know how I got this anomaly. But I've had enough for now. Let's order some Chinese food and stay in for the rest of the evening." We had been walking for about an hour and I really wanted to just stay home at Kirsten her place and relax. "How about us going in early tonight honey?", Kirsten asked after which she kissed me on the cheek. "You, early to bed, why, are you that tired?" And ad I replied with a question I looked at her with my eyes wide open. Kirsten had a big smile on her face when she replied in Swedish: "Kom igen dumt. Vad vet du om svenska kvinnor?" {EN: Come on stupid. What do you know about Swedish women?} And that made me laugh out loud, as the line I was about to say was not suitable for everyone ro hear: "Hahaha, Svenska kvinnor knu..." But before I could say what Swedish woman are best at she made me shut up. In this case showing she also knew some French. Kissing in this case.
I go crazy if I dont go crazy tonight.
Artwork by me.
This story is part of the Coop Files, the previous episode is here:
@oaldamster/no-sound-but-the-wind