Stephen's Secure Blog #204
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 after
2018, 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 16 in this story, in the Summer after year 6 of his special
school.
Stephen's Secure Blog #204 "Performance"
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Our time at the Mongolian Naadam Festival had come. My horse Gray,
was ready, all geared up. I had made a large stock of arrows, and put
them in quivers in strategic places. The workers had already set up the
targets I had designed and made. Srinoy was already on the field, in
costume, when I came onto the field on Grey. I got off the horse, and
Srinoy came to me. I said, in Mongolian and English, in a way which
would come out of the device I gave the manager to put near the mic,
"Er, can I hear me?" The sound game out to the whole festival area. I
rubbed my ear and said, like all the rest, in both languages, "Well,
that sure works." Some laughter. I said "I am Stephen, and this is my
student and friend, Srinoy. We will be demonstrating some things from a
Mongol life. What we will be doing is real. There are no special
tricks. It's all from skill and very hard training. The clothing were
are wearing, and the saddle and the weapons, are all made by me, and
are exactly like what was worn and used at the time just before the
Great King began the wars of conquest. Mongols of that time did two
things most of the time, and together. Ride and fight. We rode our
horses almost all the time, and we fought to steal things from the
towns, and we fought tribe against tribe for dominance, and bride
rights. And we fought each other inside our tribes, in duels. All that
practice means we were VERY good at those things, which might have
helped us conquer a lot of the world." Srinoy yanked on my sleeve. I
bent down to listen to his whisper, and stood up and said, "Alright,
DID help us conquer a lot of the world." Some more laughter.
I said, "First, we will show you some unusual work with the bow and
arrow. Srinoy will shoot at a target. I will try to knock every other
arrow out of the air with my own." Some murmur of comment. Well, that's
what happened, and they applauded. After that, I said, "Oh Srinoy,
weren't you supposed to shoot at ONE target?" He nodded his head
exaggeratedly. Then he waved at the others, one at a time. I said "I
see. I didn't say you couldn't do that to one DIFFERENT one at a time.
Did you really have to make me run around like that?" He nodded with a
big smile, very vigorously. I sighed, and they laughed, and applauded.
I said "Srinoy will now shoot at those targets again." He looked like
he was ready to do that. I said "But from a galloping horse." He looked
at me in surprise, and shook his head. I said "You wanted to make it
difficult for me. Now it's my turn." I said to the crowd, "That's fair,
right?" It sounded like they agreed. Srinoy gave in, and got on the
horse. Then he looked around for his bow and arrows. I said "Forget
something?" He nodded, and they laughed. I handed him his equipment. He
rode around shooting the targets, and did very well. They applauded.
I said "That was very good. Now you can do that while standing on the
horse." He shook his head violently, and got off, and then pointed to
me, and motioned me to the horse. I said "Oh, you want ME to do that?"
I said to the crowd, "Should I?" They said I should. I bowed to them,
and said, "I think I should try doing that without the bow, first." I
vaulted onto the horse, and we cantered in a big circle. I did all the
usual tricks, including hand stands, summersaults, and hanging off the
side. I stopped, and they applauded. Then we galloped past Srinoy, and
he threw my bow and quiver to me, and I caught them. Then I did some
shooting passes while standing, and while hanging off the other side of
the horse. I stopped, and they applauded. I said, "We did that
standing, to shoot over the heads of the first line of the enemy. But
not often, because that made us better targets for their arrows. Most
of the time, we shot from the other side of the horse, which was
wearing armor. Much safer. Some of the villages we raided had high log
or stone walls. Here is what some of us would do to shoot arrows at the
defenders who were out of sight behind them." We galloped around to
alongside a target, and Grey reared, and then came down and bucked
hard, sending me flying high up into the air, and forward. In the
middle of a summersault, at the top of the arc, I shot an arrow into
the target. At the same time, Grey was still moving forward under me,
and I came down on the saddle, sitting astride it. We galloped some
more, and stopped, facing the stands, and there was a lot of applause.
I said to Srinoy, "That happened fast. Some of them might have missed
it. Do you think I should do it again?" He nodded very vigorously, with
a big grin. I said to the crowd, "He said I should. Do you?" They did.
So I did it again, to a lot of applause. After that, I got off the
horse and walked around a little funny. I said, "We didn't do that very
often. Even when it worked, sometimes that made our wives lonely that
night." A lot of laughter.
I said "This is the end of our demonstration. To say our farewell in
a different way, Srinoy and I will do it together on horseback." I got
back on the horse, and pulled Srinoy up to sit in front of me, after he
had taken off his boots. We cantered around steadily in a big circle,
and I pulled Srinoy up to sit astride my shoulders. Then I grabbed his
ankles, and lifted him high above my head while he was straightening
up. I stood in the stirrups, both of us tall and straight as an arrow,
and he waved to the crowd, to a thunderous applause, while were were
cantering all over the field, and the workers were taking down and
removing the targets. They were fast. We were all done at the same
time. I brought Srinoy down to my shoulders, and then down to sit in
front of me, and we rode to the stable.
We were mobbed by our friends the workers and competitors, and some
of the other performers, too. There was a lot of backslapping and
hugging. We didn't complain. Then we groomed Grey. The competitors went
out and marched with the other performers in the parade, in the closing
ceremony. After that, the manager came to us, and thanked us all for a
great festival. Then he said, "Some of the exhibits will remain. This
year we will include some archery targets, and some horses, because
Stephen has offered to do some teaching for a few days. Those who will
be the students, will have to clean up after themselves, and manage the
horses, before we take them back to the ranch. All who want to
participate in that, will not have to pay anything, but your food and
where you sleep, you will have to arrange on your own." I said "I have
taken care of that. The Temple has agreed to provide rooms and meals to
those of us who would like to accept their generosity. It won't be like
that of a fancy hotel, but then, who has ever stayed in one?" They
agreed. We asked them to sign a list, so we would know what to tell the
Temple.
The workers lived in the city or near it, so didn't need to stay at
the Temple. Some of the archers did, too. Five archers and horse riders
signed up for the Temple lodging assistance. Our grinning friendly Monk
was waiting outside for the list, which Srinoy gave to him. He went
ahead to deliver it. It was getting dark, and the horses were taken
care of, so we walked to the Temple. We were all treated very well
there, but the festival people did notice how differently Srinoy and I
were treated. I was asked why, so I said, "Er, we've already met." One
said, "It's more than that." The nurse, who had decided to stay for
lessons, said, "It embarrasses them. Let it be. Friends don't need to
do that." They agreed, and didn't ask again. We washed and ate, and
then slept together in one medium sized room. We were given plain
clothes, while they washed ours overnight. We kept them to wear the
next day back at the festival grounds. There was a lot of friendship in
the air, while we slept well.
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Grant
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