by J. Blanes
The final consisted of seven time-controlled games, with a point for each win and a half point for each draw. At first, Keira wasn’t nervous; her confidence made her impervious to the tense ambience in the hotel conference room where the tournament was taking place. In addition, she started with the white pieces, a slight but important advantage. Then, the incredible happened: she lost her first game. A crushing, unexpected sacrifice move by Albert crumbled her defenses and forced her resignation before the game reached its twenty-fifth move.
Keira had never seen anything like that before. Lucky guy, she thought, reassuring herself, but luck had nothing to do with it. The remaining games were not much different; no matter the position, Albert would always find a way to hinder her plans. It was frustrating and fascinating at the same time, and she started to develop an admiration for her opponent. She had always played by instinct, relaying on her good grasp of the board positions, but it was clear that he had something more than instinct, something beyond Keira’s understanding. The final score was four to nothing.
Unexpectedly, after the final match, Albert congratulated her. He told her that he had never before confronted such as strong opponent and that he would like to continue improving his game, playing more games against her in the future. This was shocking news for Keira. How could he, of all people, think she was a strong player after he’d beaten her so easily? However, she was happy to comply, as his game would not improve as much as hers. After that tournament, they met many times, first for playing and then, after a friendship grew between them, just for the fun of each other’s company. Albert always found Keira’s stories interesting, as they usually were much more exciting than the pace of his quiet country life, and she found him a fascinating human being, ever ready to amaze and surprise her with all his bizarre ideas and research.
When Dylan entered Keira’s life, she thought that her two friends would also become friends, but this proved to be a difficult task. Dylan and Albert shared no common hobbies or interests, and their encounters were reduced to long, pathetic silences or, when they were at their best, monosyllabic exchanges. Keira, not one to surrender easily, tried one way or another to raise common interests between them, but to no avail. It was clear that the only thing that glued them together was her presence.
One weekend, Keira tricked Dylan into accompanying her on a trip to Albert’s farm. He thought they were going to meet some person of interest in one of Keira’s investigations, but her real goal was to compel them to spend the weekend together and get to know each other better. It was a desperate move, a measure of last resort. Either they accepted each other this weekend, or she would give up trying.
Dylan was mad at her when he found himself in front of Big Boy Albert, who himself was not in a cheerful mood either. However, they were guests, and Albert’s parents would not hear anything about them leaving. The big farmhouse had more than enough rooms to accommodate them, and they stayed the night, at first much to Albert and Dylan’s regret.
To Keira’s surprise, the weekend was a resounding success. That night after dinner, Dylan discovered Albert’s immense video-game collection. He even had an exclusive playing room with a high-definition, sixty-inch flat screen and all available gaming consoles on the market, ready for him to play anytime he desired. For Dylan, who had never owned more than a few games in his whole life, much less had more than a few feet in his room available for playing, it was like entering paradise. Their gaming session started just after nightfall and lasted until dawn.
The next day, they both wake up soon after noon, and after a late lunch, Albert invited them all for a horseback-riding trip around the farm and the land nearby. Dylan was reluctant at first. He had never ridden a horse before and was a little scared, but he didn’t want to show his fears to them, so he went along. They walked to the farm stables, and Albert selected two fine mares for them. Albert realized Dylan’s troubles as soon as he saw his futile attempts to mount the horse. Keira was also amused, almost laughing. Albert pretended not to see what transpired, and approached Dylan. Then, he tactfully taught him how to mount the saddle, maintain his position, control the reins, and with smooth but firm commands make the animal obey his wishes. Lessons finished, they started their journey around the farm.
It was the first time Keira had seen the valley around the farm, and its beauty overwhelmed her. Massive snowy mountain peaks provided the perfect majestic background. In the valley in front of them, rolling hills, wrapped by millions of colored flowers and dotted with commanding, solitary trees, rose as far as the eye could reach. To their right, a river flowed in a seemingly senseless snake pattern, avoiding the hills that obstructed its way to the sea, its water hypnotizing her with its flickering flashes of reflecting sun while a soft, fresh breeze caressed her face. She had never before felt so alive. It was mesmerizing.
Before the trip started, Albert had told them the reason for the horseback trip was that he wanted to show them something, and now, after an hour of riding, he announced they were close to their destination. They rode to the top of one of the highest hills, where the view was fantastic. They could see almost all the valley up to the mountains, and Albert’s surprise left them speechless: an immense herd of buffalo extended several miles in every direction, hundreds of them, some eating, others watching for possible predators, and even several small ones playing and bothering their elders. Their snorts inundated the whole valley. Keira could not believe it; even Dylan, not a fan of the outside world, gazed with an open mouth. Albert looked at them smiling, proud of his surprise’s success. They stayed for a few more minutes until some threatening clouds peered over the tops of the mountains, and Albert told them it was time to go back.
When Albert woke up that Sunday, he found Dylan working on the engine of one of the farm tractors, which had broken several weeks ago and never gotten fixed because it was waiting for the arrival of a special transportation truck…or a special mechanic. Dylan had been working on it since early in the morning, and he had almost fixed it already. He told Albert it was a kind of repayment for letting him stay the weekend. It was a nice gesture, the kind of gesture Dylan always made, which Keira was well aware of, but it really took Albert by surprise and made him appreciate the kind of man Dylan really was.
That weekend changed things for all three of them. From then on, Keira never had to pressure them again to get together, and now, more than three years after that weekend, they were about to meet again under very different circumstances.
The train arrived at the station half an hour late. They got off the train and followed the already well-known path toward the exit. There, they saw Albert waiting near the exit door, as he always did. It had been more than four months since their last encounter, and Keira greeted him with a friendly hug. He helped her with her baggage and guided them to his pickup truck. Albert politely inquired about the state of her wrist and Dylan’s face wound. Keira’s sprained wrist was almost completely healed, and Dylan didn’t even notice the bandage on his face.
The trip from the station back to the farm was forty minutes long, and to Keira it was like a trip to heaven, so different from the rush and concrete of the city, so relaxing. She never got tired of the views, but her favorite stretch started when, closer to the farm, the horses grazing on the open meadows started galloping along the pickup, saluting the arrival of their beloved caretaker. The first time she had witnessed this spectacle, and after Albert’s explanation of the horses’ behavior, she was so moved she could not contain her tears.
When they finally arrived at the farm, it was already twilight. They knew their rooms from previous stays and went there to unpack and take a refreshing shower while Albert prepared a light dinner for them. His parents were on a trip out of state because of a case they were working on, so they had the whole house for themselves. After dinner, Albert invited them to go up to the rooftop terrace, but before that, he turned all nonessential farm lights off.
&n
bsp; “What’s up with that?” Dylan asked.
“You’ll see” was Albert concise answer.
It was a clear, moonless night, and without the interference of the farm lights, the stars shone more brightly than Dylan could have ever imagined. To him, someone who had spent most of his nights blinded by the city lights, it appeared as if the stars had suddenly multiplied by millions.
“Wow!” he exclaimed, thinking he had traveled to another planet.
“If you want to see them better, try this.” On one corner of the roof, Albert had installed a telescope that his parents had given him for his fourteenth birthday.
He walked to the telescope and focused it to the center of the Milky Way. Dylan approached and leaned forward to look through the eyepiece. Thousands of brightly colored dots filled the whole view. He was so surprised that he had to lean back and look at the stars directly again, as if the telescope were somehow tricking him into seeing something unreal.
“I never thought there could be so many stars out there,” he confessed.
“There are billions of them, and this is only in our galaxy,” Albert explained. “There are billions of other galaxies with billions of stars in each of them.”
“I see,” Dylan lied. He couldn’t comprehend the magnitudes Albert was talking about, and his mind only registered a simple “yes, there are a lot.”
Keira had seen the stars many times before, but still, she couldn’t resist the view one more time. Then, she asked Albert to point the telescope to one of the planets.
Albert stared at the night sky for a moment and readjusted the telescope’s position, focusing on another part of the sky.
“Jupiter,” he announced.
Keira looked at the planet Jupiter though the telescope. It didn’t have the nice colors like in the NASA pictures, but all the same, it was her favorite, with its visible features, like its cloud patterns and all its satellites. Then, it was Dylan’s turn.
“Cool! What are all those lines?” he asked, curious about the patterns he noticed on Jupiter’s surface.
“Clouds,” Albert replied. “Some of them are never-ending, huge storms.”
Dylan was impressed. He continued observing the planet for a few more seconds. “It’s a small disk,” he said, “but much bigger than the stars.”
“The stars are so far away that we can only see them as simple dots, no matter the telescope,” Albert explained. “But planets are much closer, so we see them bigger and better.”
The night was so pleasant it invited them to stay a little bit longer. There were some reclining patio chairs close to a wall. Albert’s parents used them from time to time when they wanted to relieve their stress after long working days, and now it was their turn.
They lay down on them, looking directly at the sky. Albert was so big that the chair squeaked and squashed under his weight until his butt almost touched the floor. Dylan chuckled at first and tried to suppress a laugh, until Keira burst out laughing. Soon, the two of them were laughing uncontrollably, and even Albert could not help but surrender to their contagious laughter.
“What are those for?” Dylan, still half laughing, asked suddenly while looking at a cluster of parabolic antennae on top of another section of the roof.
“It’s part of a project I’m working on,” Albert explained. “I’m looking for signals coming from intelligent life.”
“Yeah, right,” Dylan scoffed, “like alien signals or something…?”
“Years ago,” Albert continued without letting Dylan’s incredulous comment bother him, “a project called SETI, meaning ‘search for extraterrestrial intelligence,’ was born. The idea was to scan the sky for any signals that could prove that intelligent life exists and is out there.”
“Signals? What kind of signals?” Keira wasn’t sure she understood.
“Mostly radio ones,” Albert concisely explained, trying not to obscure a simple idea with unfamiliar technical terms that they wouldn’t understand anyway.
“So it’s like the satellite TV dish in my roof,” she remarked. “It captures signals coming from TV satellites.”
“Exactly, but it’s not as easy as that,” Albert replied. “With TV dishes, we know the exact satellite position and frequency, so capturing their signals is simple. But when you have the whole sky flooded with all kind of signals, some of them ours, some of them coming from other objects in space, like satellites, planets, or stars, finding the right one, the one that makes the difference among all of others, is much more difficult.”
“How can a signal demonstrate that intelligent life is out there?” Dylan said in disbelief. “I think it would be easier to pressure the government to declassify and release all Area 51 documents—I mean, the real ones, not the fake ones they’ve already published.”
Albert smiled because it was the kind of answer he would expect from Dylan. “Maybe you’re right,” he said diplomatically, “but I prefer the scientific methods. And, answering your question, a signal with an unnatural pattern is a signal that could prove the existence of intelligent life, and the kind of signal we’re looking for.”
“And have you found your miracle alien signal?” Keira asked, intrigued.
“Well…not really.” Albert seemed disappointed.
“Are you working with SETI?”
“At first, yes, I worked voluntarily with them, but after a few years I decided to build my own mini-SETI program here; so I bought all those dishes, as Dylan calls them, and started scanning the sky by myself, one little bit at a time.”
They continued looking at the starred night until Dylan snoring broke the spell.
“Hey!” Keira shook Dylan slightly to wake him up. “It’s time to go down.”
They were walking down the stairs when Albert had an idea.
“Would you like to go fishing tomorrow?” he proposed.
“Fishing? I don’t know how to fish,” Dylan said, still a little drowsy.
“Me neither,” Keira concurred.
“Don’t worry, I’ll teach you how. It’s very easy. Come on, it’ll be fun, I promise,” Albert insisted.
“OK, OK,” Dylan reluctantly agreed, as outdoor activities were still low on his list of fun things to do.
“I really don’t think I’m going to like it,” Keira said truthfully, “but I don’t want to be the party pooper here, so I’ll go with you. I’ll bring my camera along. I’m sure taking pictures of your fishing skills will be interesting,” she added sarcastically.
“Perfect, you won’t regret it!” Albert said with excitement.
Early next morning, Albert packed all the fishing gear and provisions, and was loading the pickup truck with them. However, as the weather was so nice, Keira asked for a horseback-riding trip instead and Dylan readily agreed. He had grown fond of horseback riding since the last time they spent in the valley, and was eager to enjoy the experience again. Albert thought about it for a minute. They would have to leave some of the nonessential fishing gear, and with the help of an additional horse or two for carrying the provisions, they would be perfectly capable of carrying the rest.
“OK, let’s go on horse,” he finally agreed.
They helped Albert to unpack the things they would leave at the farm and pack the rest back again. They put the provisions in two special containers that Albert secured to one of the horses. It took another horse to carry some of the fishing gear, and they distributed the rest of it between themselves.
They started their trip only half an hour later than their original scheduled departure time. With five horses, two of them riderless, the fishing rods protruding above them and their cargo, they looked like a weird caravan in the middle of the valley. Keira, whose horse was first in line, looked back and realized that fact. She was so amused that she asked them to stop near the top of one hill while she took a picture looking back at them from her horse
. “A perfect picture for a perfect day,” she mumbled. They proceeded leisurely. The goal was not the fishing activity in itself but the whole day, so they were in no hurry to arrive.
One hour later, Albert recognized the river spot he was looking for. It was a shallow part with some small sandbanks in the middle. A huge stretch of pebbled shore made it perfect for fishing. They selected an area where a grove of trees provided good shade as their base camp for the day. They unpacked their things, then unsaddled their horses and tied them to another grove of trees a little farther away. Then, Albert and Dylan put on their waders and grabbed their fishing rods and baits.
“You look like a perfect angler,” Albert told Dylan.
“A what?”
“This kind of fishing technique is called angling, so he called you an angler,” Keira clarified.
“Oh, I see, and now what?” Dylan had no idea how to use anything he had in his hands at that moment.
“Come with me; I’ll show you,” Albert said. “What about you?” He was now talking to Keira, who was holding her camera.
“I’m going for a walk. I want to take lots of pictures of places I’ve seen on our way here,” she said while inspecting her camera. Then, she turned to her left and pointed. “I’m going that way.”
“OK. See you at lunch?”
“Perfect, I’ll be back by lunch. Good luck with your fishing!” she said before leaving.
Dylan turned out to be a skilled angler. He caught almost twice as many fish as Albert. The count was difficult to track because they released the smaller fish back into the water and only kept a few of the bigger ones, but it was clear that Dylan had the advantage from the start. After a few hours, he was enjoying angling as much as he enjoyed horseback riding, and he started wondering what other outdoor activities he had disregarded as boring that, in fact, could be as entertaining as these.
