No sound but the wind
In perpetuum {EN: For Eternity}
"Coop San, pour us a couple will ya, and use clean glasses this time...", Natoshi says as he's wrapping things up. Foam head, two fingers thick, I know the ritual by now. Been helping him out in his restaurant, it has been quite a busy day. It's only two blocks away from where I live. We've been friends for years. Found it hard to believe he actually was the man who created Bitcoin. Already early 2010 he told me to install the wallet. Did not take it serious at that time. It had a wxWidgets interface and I did not see any use it could have.
Though my PC at that time still would have been able to find a solution. Meaning 50 BTC back then. Deinstalled it, not long after that, had tried it two times, for a few minutes. He laughed in his typical way when I told him about it after we had become real good friends. "You should learn from a donkey Coop San, it never makes the same mistake, ha ha ha.", after which he then would slap me on my back a couple of times. Et voilat, two pints, perfectly foamed, at least he could not complain. Natoshi Sakamoto, or Sensei, as I named him, could act quite up-tight sometimes. But I had to admit, two fingers thick foam on a tapped beer, looked nice and did seem to make it taste better.
"Hey Coop, where is your mind wandering off to again?", Kirsten snaps her fingers in front of my face. She had been asking me to come and stay with her. Sell my place and move in with her. It was after another pain attack I had and I actually told her I'd rather be at my own place. We had a firm argument shortly after one of those pain attacks. Where I wanted to be on my own, she wanted to be there for me. And when in such pain I cannot handle anybody being near me. It is even tough to deal with myself at these moments. Sell the house, move in with her, don't think I can deal with that. This rejuvenation thing kind of sucks.
Kirsten got on my lap and has put her arms around my neck. It is weird but again it looks like her face is lit from the front. While the sun is in the west, behind her, ready to go down. It is a nice place she's got here. Just outside of the small-town of Winschoten, near the baby-forrest, close to the moraine landscape of Westerlee, with 'the mountain' in our view. Well, a mountain is slightly exaggerated, a lot actually, it is probably not even a hill. For this region, mostly filled with flat polders, it is a beautiful place. "You did put musk on, right? Have you never heard of fair play woman!?" Kirsten knew me way too well, I could be her violin, if she'd know how to play one. With here twinkling green eyes she looked deep into mine and said with a big smile: "Never underestimate the cunning tricks of a woman, you men are soooo easy to manipulate. But seriously, move in with me, I want you near me."
"Those who control the media, control the minds of the people with fear Coop San. But first there's the control over the matter of exchange. Or the monopoly on the creation of money. And with that comes the monopoly on the use of violence." At least this was something that even I could grasp. That whole Quantum thing was quite interesting, but also gave me a lot of headaches, or it was the beer and whisky we drank, while talking about it. "That is why you created Bitcoin and released its source code as Open Source, right?" Natoshi just smiled and tapt his glas against mine. You see, slowly I actually started to get it. "When the pupil is ready, that is when the teacher will appear.", he said after which he finished his beer in one go. "You know Sensei, sometimes I think you just make these things up as you go..."
It had been quite a while since Kirsten first had told me about my rejuvenation anomaly. We had spend quite some time together, even though my body gave me quite a lot of challenges. She stuck with me through it all, even though I acted quite like an oal grump many of times. One thing that she had left out off the story though was why I actually had the anomaly, causing my body to rejuvenate. We had been walking and cycling a lot together, talking about 'the Circle' and its timeless battle with 'the Square'. Kirsten had been Quantum jumping for ages and one day asked me how I would feel about her to retire. Which came as a surprise to me.
It was during a long cycle tour that took us to Alteveer, Onstwedde and back to Wedde via Wessinghuizen. One of my most favorite regions in the Northern parts of Netherland. A beautiful moraine landscape, with lots of woods, not far from Winschoten. "Coop, what would you say if I'd retire from my active duties for 'the Circle'...?" It was an end of summer day, still a quite nice temperature, the harvest of the potatoes had just started. Lots of farmer activity in this region. "What do you mean Kirsten, is it like quiting your job after thousands of years of service?", it was hard for me to understand that Quantum jumping thing. What age would she really be by now? Even though in this time and age she was quite a bit younger than me. Could really do with some more rejuvenation, although she had told me none of those with this condition had made it past the first year.
"On a global scale 'the Square' has created many nexuses Coop San. Places of sacrifice, massacres, evil centers of genocide, they believe it is giving them endless powers. As they hunt for the secret of eternal life, they will do anything to get what the want. No empathy, no remorse, no feelings for what they percieve as their cattle." When Natoshi was talking about what he called 'evil squared' he would become very sad. They were the so called 'witch hunters', they became the nazis and they never left, just changed their looks, but the patterns were the same.
"We're fighting a tough battle Coop San and the biggest advantage 'the Circle' has is that we know how to Quantum jump. In combination with our creativity that might one day give us the final victory." That night he taught me some more Quantum stuff, which I had to learn from the top of my head. Do not even know why I wanted to bother. Guess there was nothing better for me to do. Shortly after that he was going for another Quantum trip and became Sukoshi Genkin. Very in the here and now, he changed gender, became a woman. Same soul, different body, could get it why 'the Square' would want to get this under their control.
"So, tell me Kirsten, why is it that I do seem have this anomaly that causes me to rejuvenate?" We were walking at a place near Winschoten that was known a 'Tusschenwegen'. During which I had been fighting off lots of blood thirsty musquitos. They always came for me, Kirsten called me her saviour, as I would take all itches for the both of us. We passed through a cattle of Scottish Highlanders on our way. Or just Coos, as they call them in Scotland, which makes sense to me. Kirsten did keep her silence on, which gave me a bad feeling, as I suspected she did know more about it. Have had experiences before with women not replying and supposedly that actually should tell a man a lot. Or to drive them slowly crazy? "Come on, just say what is on your mind woman!" Many times that thought passed my mind. The enigma that is the other gender, the female part of humanity. And yet, I could not imagine life without her.
Another evening, autumn just started. Kirsten and I are at the last farewell to Sukoshi Genkin. Well, it is the clone of her, the soul whom I also knew as Natoshi Sakamoto, my teacher, the inventor of Bitcoin. Sukoshi went for another Quantum jump, like Natoshi before. The sun was already under, a beautiful orange red glow lit up the sky. Kirsten and I where standing at the side of the field of the many ashes. And even though I knew this was just another run, another trip to a new reality, I could not help but feeling sad.
"Is it raining tapid salty water again honey?", Kirsten asked softly while she hugged me tighter. "It is that, or I'm actually crying my love.", I replied and I kissed her on her forehead. We stood there for a while, in silence, with our own thoughts. "Until we meet again my dear friend.", were mine. And all that was left was nothing but the sound of the wind.
No sound but the wind.
Artwork by me.
This story is part of the Coop files.
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