Coming of Age

Today the young men and women gather at the village. Today they come of age. They face three trials.

The first trial is one of patience. A huge obelisk of chocolate stands before the young men and women. A block is lopped off of the top and lobbed into ninths. Each individual places one block in his or her mouth. The block takes exactly one day to dissolve. It is too hard to chew. They will be watched. If the block leaves an individual’s mouth, that one fails.

The second trial is one of willpower. The young ones are given a very addictive substance. They are then placed alone in a room with additional doses. They are told to resist and are secretly watched. Those who overdose fail, or die.

The third trial is to build a computer, harness resources to power it, then use the computer to complete an application to NASA. The computer is then destroyed just before the application is sent. Those who take revenge with physical violence fail.

In short these trials are set up to prepare for a life of waiting, trying not to over-consume or die, doing the impossible, having terrible things happen and finding ways to deal with those terrible things that don’t end in violence.

Those who pass are told that they are not adults, just oversized children with more hair and strange sexual fetishes.

Words from the Heart

My best friend Jan was different. They took her away. I don’t know if I’ll ever see her again.

Growing up, we were just like any other kids. We talked about things we liked and things that scared us and things that made us angry. We built forts and had sleep-overs. We played games and laughed. We went to school together and sometimes we had the same teacher.

In fifth grade, Jan tried to call home from our phone. Her parents couldn’t hear her very well. It didn’t seem strange at first. It just seemed like something was wrong with the phone, because I was right there, and I could hear Jan fine.

Later that year, Jan tried to leave a message for me on the answering machine. We got in a really big fight the next day. She was really angry that I hadn’t responded to her message. There was nothing on the answering machine except silence.

We started to do some experiments that week. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t record Jan’s voice. We could both hear it, and so could everybody else, but for some reason, her voice couldn’t be recorded. It was really frustrating.

When we showed Jan’s parents they didn’t believe us a first. Grown-ups can be real jerks when they think they know everything already. Eventually we got them to let us show them. They believed us once they saw for themselves.

Jan’s parents got scared and started talking to professionals. None of them knew what they were doing. Then Dr. Helsbourg came. I saw $ $ in his eyes from the start. He had a case filled with strange spinning devices with lots of knobs and wires. He said, “It seems that your daughter doesn’t use her vocal cords to speak. My sensors indicate elevated levels saratonin of in her brain. She may be using telepathy.”

My parents thanked Dr. Helsbourg and paid him for his services, but indicated to him that they did not wish to perform any further testing. Dr. Helsbourg was furious. He told Jan’s parents that they were wasting on of the greatest discoveries in human history.

Dr. Helsbourg came back the next year. The government was with him. I heard a rumor that they want to weaponize Jan’s telepathic abilities.

I miss you Jan.

Jan breaks out of a government facility years later while I am in high school. She takes me away. I will convince her to use her abilities to make the world a better place. She will never really feel like she belongs with other people, except perhaps with me. Before she dies, she transmits a dream that she has to every member of the human species. It is a dream of peace. We all see it for a time, in our minds eye, then the moment is past.