"Fantastical!" Zadie cries with delight, "how cute!" We can make a fortune selling singing hamsters."
"But you can't sell Zirus. This is now my favorite pet!"
"OK", but keep this our secret for now."
"Mom, let's got to the old fashioned video store and buy one of those movies that has singing mice, like Mickey Mouse, and put that baby hamster in front of the video machine to learn to sing."
So they went to fetch Zigger to walk him to the store and Zeddy says, "Let's first measure Zigger", and rolling out a measuring tape exclaims, "Mom! Zigger grew an inch, so we have to get a license to own a domestic wolf."
Approaching Ms. Zitch's house, Zadie whispers, "Shhhh, don't look at her," but it was too late. Ms. Zitch calls out, "nice little wolf, my pretties."
"Just keep walking", Zadie whispers, and then notices Zigger ran to fetch a magic cookie.
As soon as Zigger swallowed the cookie he shrunk into half his size, and Ms. Zitch laughs, "Now that he is a domesticated fox, his name is Ziger with only one ‘g’.”
Ziger growled angrily at Ms. Zitch and Zeddy bursts out, "Glad I didn't eat another cookie." But then he realized that principal Dennis Meniacle would no longer be able to confiscate Ziger, so he says, "Thank you, Ms. Zitch."
"Glad you see the wisdom in turning wolves into foxes."
Zadie calls her husband's friend, Zictor, and asks, "Did your connections find heads or tails of Zmack?"
"My connection checked with the Global Information Grid, now run by the International Government, which ties into the NSA, CIA, DIA, NAO, NGA, NRO, NCI, FBI, HLS, TIDE, NIMA, NCTC, CIFA, DARPA and INTERPOL, but there is no trace of him."
Zeddy heard that on the speakerphone and blurts out, "That should be called the alphabet soup of intelligence agencies, but did they check 'GeoEye'?"
Zictor says, "Good idea, that's what I'll call that bunch of spies from now on, but what is ‘GeoEye’?"
"They can follow your movements like in the movie, 'Eagle Eye'. Sometimes my dad calls me 'Eagle Eye'. Did you check with the Federation of American Scientists?"
"Now, that's a good idea", Zictor replies and asks, "How did you know about that Federation?"
"Because I will be a scientist when I grow up and my father is a member."
"You’re a chip off the old block," Zictor says. "Like father, like son."
"Thanks!" Zeddy smiles.
While they had Zirus watching old Mickey Mouse movies, Zadie took Zeddy to visit his best friend, CJ, for a birthday party.
"Welcome" CJ's mom, Cindy, says as she invites Zeddy in, "CJ's in the den."
In the den, Zeddy found some of his classmates there: Samuel, Logan, Samantha, Zara and CJ.
"Look!" Zeddy's here", sings Zara. In kindergarten, Zara once gave Zeddy a hug and another time a kiss.
"Did you bring your golden Pokémon?" CJ asks Zeddy.
"Yes!" As he slides it out of his pocket, all of the boys and girls gather around to gaze upon one of the most prized Pokémon, they hear splashing and look up at a dark fish tank.
"What's in there?" Samantha asks CJ.
"Eels."
"Electric eel?" Logan asks.
"I don't know."
Bravely, Zeddy puts his finger in the fish tank for a second and jerks it out saying, "yep, electric eel."
"Why is it so dark in there?" Logan inquires.
"The plug for the light short circuited."
Then Zeddy says, "I have a brilliant idea."
As the kids watch, Zeddy unplugs the electric cord from the wall and puts the plug into the water, and a slight glow of light barely makes the eel visible.
The girls both scream and Zara says, "Look how ugly the electric eel are, like part snake and part fish with a hideous ugly mouth, and they are staring at us."
Zeddy says, "Feed them!"
So CJ grabs some fish food and sprinkles it on the water as Zeddy says, "Watch how the glow increases as they eat." Lo and behold, as soon as they started eating, the brightness increased.
"How did you know that", the children ask.
"Because I have a scientific mind that I inherited it from my father and I want to be a scientist."
CJ asked what the others want to be when they grow up.
Logan says, "I want to be an astronaut and explore the 1500 exo-planets that have been recently discovered beyond our solar system."
Samuel says, "I want to be a pirate like Johnny Depp in the Pirates of the Caribbean."
Samantha says, "I want to be a brain surgeon."
Zara says, "I want to marry Zeddy when I grow up."
Zeddy's face turns red and to get the attention off himself asks, "And you CJ?"
"I want to be a spy like James Bond."
"Does anyone know how many ants there are on earth,” Zeddy asks.
Logan guesses, "One Trillion?"
"Good guess,” Zeddy encourages, "try 10,000 trillion!"
"How do you know that" asks Sam.
"Read it in 'The Ants' by Professor Wilson who recently wrote a novella called 'Ant Hill'. Ants are fascinating."
"Cool, that's lot of ants."
"There are nearly 7 billion humans and if you round up mankind's total weight to 1 trillion pounds that weight should balance out to the same as 10,000 trillion ants' weight, so we are equipollent in weight. If you want to know how much each ant weighs, divide 10,000 trillion into 1 trillion pounds, which means each ant weighs one 10,000th of a pound.
"Ants have six legs and to keep them out of your kitchen you can draw a thin line of boric acid around your house.
"Ants have developed super colonies like humans that are in danger of running out of resources, and there are two warring factions of an Argentinian ant that migrates all over the world, and right here in California you might find on the right side of the road the enemy of the ant living on the left side of the road. If the ant from the right side goes to the left side, it will be torn apart by its enemy on the other side, but vice versa and the ant will be accepted as a sister ant.
"Ants control dirt like humans control earth, and they are also social creatures, so their social intelligence is now being used to develop artificial intelligence."
"Who wants to go ice skating at the Streets of Brentwood Shopping Mall?" Cindy asks.
"We do!" all of the children shouted in unison.
This was Zeddy's first time skating and he fell down immediately, saying, "If I can heely, I can skate," so he gets up and takes off like a pro.
The song, Bohemian Rhapsody, was playing, which allowed Zara to open a conversation with Zeddy. Grabbing his arm, she says, "This is my favorite skating song. It is by a band called, 'Queen.'"
"I like Queen's song, 'We will Rock You', better. It was written by their lead guitarist, Brian May. He used physics to make that cool boom! boom! clap sound, and 30 years later he earned his PdD in astrophysics and wrote a book called, 'Bang'," Zeddy explained.
"Bohemian Rhapsody was also on a Muppets TV show and in the Wayne's World movie."
"Sounds like, while you spent time watching TV, I've been busy reading. In fact, in the 'Bang' book, you can learn how important dust is to our existence."
"How's that?"
"We are made out of star dust."
"Really?"
"When stars or supernova die out and turn into dust that dust floats into earth's atmosphere and settles here just as the Bible says, 'from dust to dust'. It turns out the Bible was correct, as science proves. Brian Hall wasn't the first musician turned astronomer. There was a classical composer named Hershel, who, long before, accurately predicted that infrared could be used to see dust in outer space."
"How can a 6 year old know so much?"
"I'm almost 7!"
Giggling, Zara says, "Well, that explains it."
Approaching the rest of the group, Zeddy shakes off Zara, embarrassed that they looked like a couple, and darts ahead where his mom is waiting. She says, "Let's get some yogurt, and show your friends
my boutique, Glamora, to see the exciting display of the new apparel."
Zeddy says, "I helped my mom invent a shirt that, once on you, asks, 'Are you comfortable?' and then the shirt adjusts if you say, 'too tight', loosening a little. We are filing a patent for this invention."
"Try on this dress," Zadie says to Cindy.
Cindy slips on the dress and says, "Too loose", so the dress hugs her tighter and CJ says, "Mom, you look so beautiful" as he runs to give her a big hug.
Zeddy asks, "Mom, can we try on voice controlled clothes, too?"
"OK, but they are too big."
Everyone was astonished when their selected clothes shrunk on their demand to their own sizes, and the clothes questioned back, "Good fit?"
~Chapter 6~
The Secret Adventures of Zeddy continue as he relates his dream
On the way home from Glamora, Logan says, "Would anybody like to challenge my legendary Pokémon?"
Zeddy replies, "I present to you the fiery dragon breath of Archious!" as he pulls his prized hologram Pokémon out of his pocket and lights it up.
All of their mouths drop open as they behold a live 3D image of Archious, standing and moving on a small metal plate, making a zinging sound as flames fly from his mouth.
"Wow! How did you do that?" The children all ask in unison.
"My father taught me to make holograms using a lighting technique known as holography."
"I choose your water powers Regi," Logan says, as he shows off his favorite legendary.
Zipping out to show off his legendary, CJ shouts, "I fight with the super dragon powers of Rayquaza."
With all the excitement, both Zara and Samantha bring out their Geratinas, simultaneously showing off their legendaries’ ghostly dragon powers. Zara says, "Spook with your ghostly powers, Geratina" and Samantha adds, "I, too, with ghostly dragon spookiness."
Zadie, overhearing the engaging Pokémon battle, declares that Archious won against Regi and Geratina against Rayquaza.
The children had their own mysterious ways of determining the winners, which seemed arbitrary to grownups, while their parents' methods seemed archaic.
Another round of counteracting battles ensued, until the children grew tired of the games.
Zeddy says, "Mom, please turn the radio to FM channel 88.5 NPR. I heard a 10 year old girl named Miss Gray discovered a supernova and she will be interviewed at this time." The children listened with fascination and were amazed that she was the youngest person ever to discover such, ten years earlier.
"I have a great idea; Professor Zenith can help me create an artificial reality like his space travel, but instead, we’ll be battling Pokémon using each Pokémon as our avatars."
"What's an avatar?" Samantha asks.
Zara answers her question with this question, "Didn't you see the movie where that guy laid in a sun tanning like coffin and when he fell asleep he could live as a blue alien?"
"Exactly!" Zeddy says. "So we’ll put on 3D glasses and hook up to sensors which will make each Pokémon our personal avatar, enabling us to spit fire when we blow our breath out and move our Pokémon’s hands by moving our own, and sometimes move them with just a thought. Through our 3D glasses and earpieces we will see and hear each other as if we are those Pokémon in that virtual world."
~Chapter 7~
The Secret Adventures of Zeddy continue as he relates his dream
That night, Zadie tells Zeddy, "We have to take a redeye flight to Jungle Island where your dad was spotted by GeoEye."
"That's juicy, mom. You mean Zictor got the alphabet soup spies to use my idea to engage GeoEye?"
"Sure enough, but your dad disappeared within seconds after one glimpse."
On the Jet Blue flight just at midnight, Zeddy turned on his iPad and explored four types of galaxies, where he reached level 15 in the game. He kept busy collecting rocks, tips, things and stuff which he used to improve his galaxy island. When he got bored, he began multi-tasking, using his newly-acquired cheat codes to capture Pokémon.
"Mom, don't tell my friends I can capture any Pokémon I like with these cheat codes."
"That doesn't sound like my son to cheat!"
"Mom, this is just a game; it isn't like cheating on a test at school."
"But doesn't that take the fun out of it?"
"For me, it puts the fun into it."
"How did you get those codes?"
"I hacked into the Pokémon web site using WIZARDHAX software."
"That is more than cheating; that is cyber breaking, entering and stealing information!"
"But mommy, nobody cares; kids hack stuff all the time."
"Don't sass me boy. Next thing you'll be hacking GeoEye, looking for your dad and then that alphabet soup of spooks will be at our door to take you away. Without you, the sun will no longer give me light, not even the moon will glow at night, and the stars will burn to ash, and I will be in utter darkness. Promise me you won't hack anything ever again!"
"Well, mother, I promise I will be a good boy and not get in trouble."
When Zeddy checked his email he read from Logan, "I got the best Pokémon in the world! Guess which one."
Zeddy replied, "What powers does it have?"
Says Logan, "It has dark powers, including fire, ice and electric."
Says Zeddy, "I'll trade you my Archious for that Darkria."
"No deal! What else can you offer?"
"Cheat codes!"
"No deal!"
Zeddy fell asleep waiting for an idea of what else to offer for that prized Darkria.
In the morning, Zeddy and his mom went for a swim in the Jungle Island resort swimming pool where Zeddy noticed a lizard crawling up a wall, so he tip-toed up to the lizard and pounced on it, catching it with both hands.
"I got you lizard! I name you Zizzard. Mom, look at this cool lizard."
The life guard and all the children by the pool come over to have a look, so the life guard says, "That is a rare, dark chameleon. It only changes to dark colors, not like the common ones that turn to light green that you see everywhere here in Florida."
All the kids wanted to hold it, so Zeddy reluctantly shared it, and while they were goggling over it, Zeddy opens his iPad and fires off an email to Logan that reads, "Hey kid, I just caught a rare, dark chameleon lizard over here on Jungle Island."
Logan wrote back, “Awesome kid, but they won’t let you take it on the airplane home."
Zeddy writes, "I can smuggle it on somehow."
Zeddy wasn't sure if he wanted to trade his dark chameleon for Darkria but, in case he did, he thought he would have the advantage if he could make Logan think it was Logan's idea to make the trade.
Meanwhile, the children playing with Zizzard offered Zeddy all of their various toys and one even offered a brand new one hundred dollar bill, so Zeddy says, "Anyone have a Darkria to trade?", but no one had such, so Zeddy began bragging to Logan via email, "I named my dark chameleon 'Zizzard' and when I put him on something black he turns black or brown he turns brown in the blink of an eye!"
Logan began to covet the rare lizard and wrote back, "Can you catch one for me?"
"I'll try but, being so rare, I doubt it will be possible."
"Will you sell it to me? If so, how much?"
"How much will you pay?"
"Well, I only have fifty saved up."
"I was just offered one hundred, but we could do some horse trading."
"You mean Pokémon trading?"
"Now you're talking my language."
"A dark lizard for a dark Pokémon sounds about right. It's a deal!" Logan writes in his last email.
Not to upset his mom, Zeddy searched the Internet for a free legal alternative to GeoEye and was surprised to find that with Google one can use 'GoGGles'.
Zeddy thought to himself, "How weird, "Google goggles."
He chose his Google goggle settings to start viewing, using the best picture he had of his dad on his iPad, right at the entrance gates
to Jungle Island. He had Google Goggles scan the whole island, using that photo of his dad, until it alerted Zeddy that a match was found for a second at the area that displayed the paradise flying snakes, mildly venomous aerodynamic snakes found in parts of Asia.
"Mom! Quickly, follow me! I got a hit on daddy's location just now."
“Great, but I begged you not to hack into GeoEye!"
"I didn't mommy. I goggled using a new google application, a crude version of GeoEye, and it’s free."
As they approached the exhibit, Zeddy noticed, launching from the inside roof, a serpent flatten its body into an aerofoil-like shape, providing a little lift as it took off by jumping upward from the highest branch. Witnessing the tree snake’s trajectory, he could see it fall at a steep angle as it undulates from side to side with its head 25 degrees higher than its tail. Gaining speed it began to glide away to a lower branch 24 meters across.
Right where the snake landed, Zeddy also beheld a holographic image of his father, Zmack.
"Dad, where are you?"
"I'm on Zamira. Just like Zmally told you, but I can't get back through the portal, so I'm studying the aerodynamics of these sidewinding gliders, in order to make a snake-like robot I can use to glide through the portal and land outside of it."
"Why's that dad?"
"Did you ever see on Star Trek how Captain Kirk got beamed down from the transporter of his Star Ship Enterprise to a planet that he dematerialized from just to re-materialize on the planet below?"
"Yes!" Zeddy replied.
"Well, it’s like that, but I have to maneuver like one of these gliders outside the portal's magnetic field before I settle on earth, because Zamira's chief scientist engineered automatic reversal, so that the second I settle within the portal of earth's magnetic field I'm sent straight back to Zamira."
"Can I help, Dad?"
"Yes, son, please contact Dr. Jake Socha of Virgina Tech and ask him to share the flying snake research he did for America's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Tell him you need it for a school report. It is hard for me to research it through this hologram and you can read the research to Zmally."
"Dad, Zmally keeps asking me for a secret passcode."
"5799 to the 7th power, but don't try to visit me here unless we can figure out how you and mom can both materialize here simultaneously, OK?"
"OK, dad, I love you and miss you."
"I love you, too, and miss you and mom very much. That’s the only reason I'm doing this air slithering research, so I can see you again in person."
The Boy Who Played With Dark Matter Page 9
