Stephen's Secure Blog #36
These stories about Stephen began was when he was 10 years old, and
moving to a new part of the country to attend a special school for
gifted students, in the 1950's. This was from a time before computers
would fit on a desk, and when people communicated with friends in other
countries by actual letters sent through the postal service. He wrote
225 of them to a friend. He stopped writing to his penpal, but found he
still wanted to record his life, in case he lost his memory again, and
wrote 30 entries in his first logbook. Then he wrote to an artificial
intelligence called Geenee, in the master computer in his school for
gifted students, which he started attending in 2016. Now it's 2018 and
later, and he's continuing to save his memories in a secure blog.
All characters are fictitious, even if some of them might have names
that belong to some actual people, or act like people we know.
The stories may not be posted in chronological order.
Stephen is 12 in this story, in the Summer after year 2 of his special
school.
Stephen's Secure Blog #36 "Wood It Work?"
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As we were leaving the festival grounds, I asked Hawk's parents, "Is
there a place around here which sells wood for carving?" Hawk said, "I
guess you can't make that like you can make diamond." I said "Right.
That it's alive, makes it my favorite thing to carve." His father said,
"Yes there is, over in New Mexico. Gallup." I said, "Can't. Walking."
He said "It's the name of the city." We grinned at each other. He said,
"Anything to support such an artist. We'll go there now." It was a long
drive, and we sang to pass the time. I said after we arrived, "I'm not
sure I want to hear 'The Yellow Rose of Texas' ever again!" They
laughed. We went in the store and looked around. They had a lot of nice
wood, of all kinds, but not exactly what I was looking for. So I asked.
The salesperson went and got the owner, and I asked him, too. He said
"I think we have something like you're asking for. It's a very special
piece, and rather expensive." I said "If I want it, I'll pay for it, if
the price is fair. In any currency or material." He looked at Hawk's
father, who nodded to him. The owner came back with a big piece of
heavy wood, and put it on a table. It was walnut, but in two different
color layers. Light brown, and almost black. Hawk said, "That must have
come from a very big tree!" He said "Yes, and not recently. They aren't
allowed to grow that big anymore." I said "Dried very slowly, too.
Stable and no cracks." The owner said, "Young man, you do know wood. Is
this suitable for your project?" I said "It might be. Usually, I carve
what the wood tells me to. This time I need wood which will let me do
what I want. I don't know if it will, until I do it. I'll take it. How
much?" He said "How good an artist are you?" I didn't know what to say,
and that must have shown. Hawk's father said to him in the Navajo
language, "Are you of the People?" He replied, "Yes I am, and of the
full blood." Hawk's father told him, "He has been made of the People in
full, for the gift of his art."
The store owner said, "If you will give me something of your art,
there will be no charge for this." I said "But I don't know what to
make for you. I have to know you for that." He said "Can we discuss
this in my office?" We all went to his office. It was crowded. More so
after more chairs were brought. He said to me, "What kind of art can
you do?" I said "If we are talking about independent visual arts, like
painting and sculpture, all of it, in any medium, from precious gems to
paper." He looked like he had trouble believing that, so Hawk said, "He
doesn't lie. Nor does the Tribal Council. Call the manager of the
Festival, and ask how good an artist Stephen is." I said "Please do
that, and ask about the restrictions they have placed on my art for the
looked at me in wonder and said, "Amazing!" Hawk's father said, "And
you don't know the half of it!" I said "So, what do you want for art?"
He said right away, "If you can do it, me, in full war chief regalia,
of two hundred years ago. Like you did at the festival." I said "Doing
something?" He said "Sitting on a horse, alone, waiting for a battle to
begin." I said "Tell me about yourself. Who you are, what your dreams
are, how you feel about yourself, your life, and your family." He
nodded and said, "In private." The others left, and he told me
everything. I asked about the battle in the picture, and what he would
be thinking about it.
I said "You know the restrictions, and will obey them?" He said.
"Yes, and I will." Hawk brought in my art supplies I had ported to the
car, and left. I said "What I'm going to be doing won't take very long.
Most of the creative effort happened while you were talking. I have
programed the painting in my mind. What I will do now is let my body
follow that program, and another part of me will be putting feelings
into the art. This will require intense concentration. Please don't
disturb me while I'm doing it." Seven minutes later, I finished. While
he was staring at it, I said, "The dress and accessories are taken from
the archives at the museum. So is the hair style. It's interesting that
you picked this kind of leader. You actually were him, in a past life.
I think you knew that." He said in a whisper, "Yes, I knew."
I asked him, "Will you allow the family with me to view the painting?
Something for their help and understanding, and patience." He said,
after a while, "Yes. They deserve to see it." Hawk brought them back
in, and they looked at the painting in admiration. The store owner was
puzzled, and said, "How did they know?" I said "Love finds a way." I
gave him my love, and he nodded.
In the car on the way back, Cress said "I could see the wind blowing
the feathers and his hair. How did you do that?" I said "I don't know.
I think it's because I put my feelings and imagination into it, and you
are feeling and seeing it like I did. From what I did at the festival,
I knew people who had some psychic abilities could see that. I didn't
know somebody as young as you could, though. Well anyway, I already
knew you were special, so I shouldn't be surprised." She said "Oh!"
There was a lot of love in that.
After supper, we sat in the living room and talked about history.
Then Hawk said, "Stephen!" I said "Something wrong?" He said with a
wide grin, "Got art on your mind?" I played back my memory, and saw I
had been distracted. I said "Yes, actually. Sorry. I'll put that off
into a sleep partition." Cress said "What's that?" I said "At the
school, we learn how to divide up our minds into partitions. Something
like virtual containers, which can run independently of the rest of our
minds. That way we can do more than one thing at a time, like multiple
processor computers can do. Some of us can do many things well at the
same time. That sculpture over there, for instance. If I had to do that
in real time, it would take years to make it. Instead, I created the
image of it in my mind, and set a partition to kind of print it in
three dimensions with very involved math, like a computer would make a
special file to send to a printer. When the calculations were finished,
I took that mental file, and put it in a different partition which had
programs for psionic tools it would use to make it, and so it did that,
very fast, automatically, all by itself, like a computer printer would.
What I just did now, was to put the thing I was working on, in a
different partition so it could be worked on when most of me is asleep.
It's hard to describe what goes on in the mind with words. I hope what
I said about it helped you to understand something of that idea." She
said, "I think you said it very well. You're a good explainer." I said
"Thank you," while Hawk was laughing. Rose asked him, "Why're you
laughing?" He said "Explainer! Stephen is our best teacher!" She said
"Oh. Well, I'm not surprised. I think I've used them up for a whole
year, where he's concerned." We all laughed.
In bed with Hawk, I said to him, "I love your family." He said "They
love you." I said "I'm glad." He said "What are you going to make with
that big piece of wood?" I said "There is a problem with that. I don't
want anybody to see it until I want them too. That's going to be VERY
hard to arrange here." He said "I see what you mean, if you do it here.
You could put an opaque shield around it while you're slicing and
dicing it." I said "That would be impolite." He said "Or you could
abandon my bed, and port to someplace at night and work on it. I'm sure
you've already thought of that." I said "I couldn't do that to you.
But, I need to have it done before I leave." He said "How long do you
think it will take to finish it?" I said "If the wood allows me, about
a day and a half of solid work. If it doesn't, I will have to scan the
entire Earth to find what I need, and then other planets, if I have
to." He said in surprise, "You can DO that?" I said "Sure. So can you."
He said "HOW!" I said "Ready to receive?" He said "Yes. Fire away!" I
pushed it at him. He said "Wow!" I said "I hear that a lot." We
laughed. That is very nice when we have our hands on each other's fun
parts. That reminded us of what we were really doing, and so we did it
more, in the link, and squirted very well, and went to sleep in each
other's arms, very relaxed and happy.
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Grant
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