Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Little Thinker (1)


In my childhood, the history courses were taught differently. Not just the past but the all times were covered. When I say all, past and future included. In the evenings, after the evening news, in addition to the weather forecast, they would give the future forecast. Based on the things done by people during the day, how the future of the country and future of the planet has changed was conveyed to people.



The instrument to observe the future was called futuroscope. Using it, you could watch as the future continuously evolved with the actions of people. With that information, usually people took care of their deeds, and tried to exercise will power in the face of the temptations of the world. But sometimes, some person would say "one person can't hurt anything" and keep their benefit in front of everything else, another would say "future forecasts are different than the weather forecasts; they have a margin of error" and prefer the instant but temporary gratification to a permanent but later gratification. Because of the storms triggered by the actions of these people, the entire community would suffer, and worse, the coming those storms were observed day by day with the use of futuroscope. Preventions to avoid such disasters worked sometimes; but at other times, no matter what precaution was taken, the calamity settled on us as we watched it come. This is why, as I said in the beginning, in the history courses, both past and future were covered so that the new generations could learn history not just in theory but also experimentally.

Still, the futuroscope images were not clear enough to pinpoint who caused what, and the future was a culmination of the actions of everybody, instead of just one person. So, from time to time, there were people who got away with the evil they committed. And their existence led some others to say "don't worry, it's all right". Nevertheless, despite these and other imperfections, our community was a stable one in the long run, and it was able to digest the evils and conflicts, and the futuroscope was of great help for these.

Like me, there were futuroscope enthusiasts, who bought one for their home use. By observing the ever-evolving the future, we were trying to prepare ourselves and our friends. But as you can appreciate, our very actions to prepare ourselves changed the future, too. So, a very long term prediction of the future was not probable. You can call this a kind of turbulence in time.



In one such observations of mine, I saw myself writing a book. This looked so curious and strange, becasue I had no such intentions at the time. By changing the focus of my futuroscope, I tried to see what I was writing, but the waves of the time were too strong and were constantly changing and intermingling what I was writing. I waited for a while, in case the storm would cease, but to no avail. "If the same future is still valid tomorrow, I can try it then" I told myself. What was odd was that despite what I saw with the futuroscope, I still didn't have an idea about a book or any other literary work what so ever.

The following day, I tried to see myself and my book again, but they were gone. We were nowhere to be found. I thought what could have happened. Was it that I gave up the idea? Or did I go on a trip or something?... Don't know why, but a quite different idea occurred to me and all of a sudden, I got goose bumps. Was I going to die before writing the book?



This thought shook me from deep within. I was just twelve... I went around like a to-be-mother who had a miscarriage at seven months. I didn't feel like watching the future, either. But later, another thought occurred to me. It wasn't that I was immortal and was becoming mortal! If the reason behind the disappearing of my book and myself was my death, nothing was abnormal. Maybe my devastation was because of the disturbance of my dreams extending to infinity. With my end date fixed more or less, I would not be able to make 100-200 year plans, and I would not be able to think of humanity and the planet like in my palm. Also, thinking of all this, future forecasts were like weather forecasts; they were not certain. What they showed was the ever evolving future, not how it is going to come to pass exactly.

As I calmed down and got thinking on what to do, I thought maybe I should write a book. But a book of what? I was just twelve, what could I write? I decided to go out with the hope of finding people who could help me on this. Either I had to find those who read a lot or those who write. Around me, there were many who read; but someone who writes... That was the hardest thing. Usually, people preferred the books authored in the past, and their authors were dead. How could I talk to the dead?

In one of our history classes, I learned about a person who is dubbed "owner of two times". What could be the reason for such a nickname? I asked the teacher. She mentioned the possibility that this person could be a prophet, and a miracle given to him could be time travel. Even the thought of such a thing was enough for my imagination to undergo nuclear reactions, and much like a black hole, swallow my entire being scattering gamma rays. I wondered if I could see that person. Maybe the second time he lived could be ours or some other time in the future that I could observe... And could it be that my disappearance from my future with my book is because I am embarking on a travel with the owner of two times?






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