Patrik Jones
And the code of the universe
Robert S. Kleinstone
We move on the Earth,
we get old and we die, while she,
transformed and wounded by our passage,
continues to live after us.
But what if she were to age?
If it were up to her, to be a sad spectator of her own decline,
while our souls rebound eternally in the universe?
We are born unique and each of us is destined to save the world,
millions and millions of worlds,
until the last moment of light ....
To Patrik Jones,
because one universe really saved another.
Mine.
Robert S. Kleinstone
When it was first catalogued in 1677 by Edmond Halley, Eta Carinae was very bright. However, by 1730 observers noticed that the star had undergone a considerable increase in brightness, and had become one of the brightest stars in its constellation.
In April 1843 the star reached its peak of brightness, when, despite its enormous distance from the Earth (7,000-10000 light years), it became the second brightest star in the sky after Sirius, with a magnitude of -0,8.
The space around Eta Carinae shows traces of great explosions, the last of which occurred in about 1843.
The phenomenon has been defined by astrophysicists as a "false supernova”. In fact Eta Carinae produced, in a few short years, a quantity of visible light comparable to that radiated by the explosion of a star but managed to survive the event.
After one hundred and seventy years the cause of this sudden explosion still remains largely unknown.
*
Around1835, the world's population underwent an unprecedented exponential increase from one and a half billion to seven billion. This was in just over one hundred and fifty years.
Prologue
18th September, 12:47 pm
Elsenfeld, north of Bavaria, Germany.
Who could have ever imagined that such a small place, just south of Frankfurt, where the most one has to do with their time is to visit local festivals, held in very neat town halls, could be the theater of something that Hollywood had long ago designated to cities like New York or Los Angeles?
Yet right there, above the road that connects the city to the nearby town of Kleinwallstadt, the sky seemed for a moment to be slashed in two. It was as if the powerful hands of Zeus had decided to open a breach to take a peek at the world below. There was a roar like an overture, not quite powerful enough to shatter windows but strong enough to trigger the alarms of many parked cars and, above all, to capture the attention of everyone around. The enormous mass of iron and steam that slowly began to fall from the sky made all the people stop and look, as if they had been chosen to be photographed posing for satellite imagery.
Stationery cars with wide-open doors, above the River Main Bridge, made it clear to everyone who came from the Obernburg and Moemlingen villages that something strange was happening in their surroundings.
The slow descent of that "thing" to the ground caused a slight wind which gave life to small dusty whirls, the German and Bavarian flags billowing madly in the schrebergarten, those gardens the municipality offers to those who have a passion for green.
Further down, followed by the line of glances that accompanied it, it approached the glade that divides the road from the first trees of one typical German forest.
A solid, irregular with occasional squared edges, black in color and able to overcome Earth's gravity with a barely perceptible noise ... and a total absence of lights!
And finally it touched the ground.
The possible answer to all the questions and hopes, that for millennia had obsessed the people of the Earth, settled in the middle of central Europe on an ordinary day in September, without any strange astral alliance or predictions but simply because the time had come.
The wind suddenly dropped and an apparent calm returned. It was as if someone had just put up a new building near the town.
A few seconds of unreal silence enveloped the little world that lies on the Main river banks, like The Truman Show’s glass hood, until the bubble burst under the sound of Obernburg police sirens.
18th September, 12:50 p.m.
Elsenfeld, north of Bavaria, Germany.
1
Patrik woke up early that day.
It was Saturday, school had just started again and that first morning of freedom still had the taste of summer holidays. Too short and precious to remain in bed. The alarm clock on the bedside table marked 8.52 and the light from behind the curtains promised a bit of sunshine to put an end to the previous, boring rainy days.
Although he firmly intended to get up, Patrik moved silently, almost in slow motion, to avoid the slightest noise and win the daily challenge with Billo, who leapt on the bed every time he woke up.
Billo was a five-year-old Labrador who seemed to have a motion sensor connected to Patrik’s eyelids. There was no way to understand it, but when he woke up, Billo knew. Only a few times had Patrik managed to get away undetected but recently the dog had not been feeling well, and so that was not fair. He seemed to not get along with the solar eclipses!
A smile was stamped on his lips as soon as he heard the heavy gallop of the big dog coming from the living room. He took refuge under the sheets, but Billo’s wet snout made a breach under his left knee. Battle lost!
«How on earth do you do it?» Patrik asked, trying to free himself from the dog's wet kisses. «And stop it big pig, I can wash my face by myself, you know!!» With a jump he got out of bed and put on his slippers before heading to the bathroom, followed by his faithful friend.
«I told you a million times not to jump on the bed, you know mom gets angry with me» Patrik scolded, while Billo with his curious snout and his crazy tail stood guard him while he was peeing.
«Now I’ll have to remove all your hairs to hide all traces of your attack». The tone became serious and paternal.
«You know very well that your stay in this house is precarious. All your mess I have to answer for!»
Billo sat up, cocked his head to one side and barked twice. Patrik could not hold back a smile as he lifted his pyjama pants and flushed the toilet.
The two had become inseparable since the dog while still a puppy had decided to sleep on Patrik’s bicycle that was lying on the ground, as he played football on an August Saturday five years before.After having played with him and his friends until late that evening, the wagging mutt decided to follow him home and from that moment the battle began with his mother to let him keep Billo.
She had tried for days to find out who the dog belonged to.
As a purebred animal he could have been mislaid, but after several attempts she surrendered to the increasingly tenacious insistences of her son.
Hansen, the parish priest, told her «The mysterious love of dogs is a feeling that surrounds us and accompanies us during their lives. Faithful friends who listen and speak without a voice; these two chose to be together and there is nothing more to say».
Patrik’s smile at the sound of those words had illuminated the church's doorway. He never felt so much faith as he did that day!
However, it would have been very difficult to say ‘no’ to the boy, considering the situation. He grew up without a father and had no brothers or sisters, so a little company, with a mother always at work, was not a bad thing. However she was clear from the beginning that if Patrik was her son, then Billo was Patrik’s and the responsibility of that bulky animal inside just seventy-five square meters of house had to be entirely his.
/> *
Even on Saturday morning his mother worked and he was almost always alone to start his day.
A system of post-it notes left around to remind him about things to do was no longer necessary. At the age of 18, Patrick felt like the man of the house and to prove it he sometimes tried small household chores, with discreet results that his mother was struggling to admit were good, perhaps for fear that he would try to outdo himself.
«For a single woman, forced to play the role of both parents, life is not easy» his Uncle Oliver told him one day. Uncle Oliver was his mother’s brother, and while he wiped away Patrik’s tears because of a tantrum, the boy had pretended to understand something that with each day passing he perceived more and more.
He prepared breakfast as usual and switched on the radio on the kitchen window sill. Radio Primavera was playing a foreign song, an Italian one. Bread began to toast next to the cooking eggs machine.
He turned on the computer to look at Facebook and then checked his e-mails, the likely Bundesliga formations, and the weather forecast for the weekend.
No news of Angelica, he noted sadly as he looked at the screen on his Mac.
For a little while, that girl had been driving him crazy.
Angelica was the living proof that fairies really exist. They have long blond hair and a look that makes the legs shake. Despite going to another school, Patrik had been able to meet her thanks to a mutual friend, during a clandestine street party, after a match won by the German national soccer team.
They had gone out one afternoon to get an ice cream. Gelateria da Olly in Obernburg that day was flooded with sunlight and everything seemed to be going in the right direction, until he saw her in a car with a guy from Aschaffenburg two days later and his dream shattered in a moment.
His scooter could not compete with a brand new Volkswagen Golf and, as if that wasn’t enough, he had only recently passed his driving test. His mother was certainly not willing to share her Opel Corsa with him.
The worst thing was that, about a week before, Patrik had written something very nice and original, the result of at least two hours of elaborate thought, on a Facebook post to the girl. The total absence of a response from her could not have meant anything good.
Damn women! He thought, with his elbow on the desk and his chin resting on the palm of his hand.
Billo’s snout on his thigh brought him back to planet Earth and he decided to finish getting ready. He combed his ash blond hair and pulled on jeans, a sweatshirt and his Stan Smith shoes. He took the leash and ran down the stairs with Billo and his iPhone.
*
The day was not bad at all. The blue sky was interspersed with isolated patches of clouds moving swiftly in the Hofstetten sky.
Patrik lived in the middle of Raiffeisenstrasse, in a cul-de-sac in the hills, where stillness and tranquility were never lacking. The nearby town of Elsenfeld, only four kilometers away, was certainly more attractive for a boy of his age, but at least there was no shortage of greenery, and Billo really seemed to like it.
As she climbed into the car, Teresa, a friend of his mother who lived near the large lawn, greeted the Labrador with loving strokes that made Billo wag his tail.
That morning she was even more beautiful than usual, thought Patrik.
Her wavy black hair fell on her shoulders and her symmetrical features framed her emerald green eyes. Her dress was tight enough to reveal the shape of her harmonious body.
Teresa had just divorced, her former husband travelling a lot and rarely there, and Patrik had often fantasized, thinking about her alone in the house.
«Hi Patrik. Who knocked you out of bed on Saturday morning?» she asked smiling.
«Well, I'm quite an early riser in the morning,» he replied, blushing, cursing for the stupid and banal response his twisted mind had created.
«Well!» said Teresa, with amusement at his embarrassment. «It's a great quality for a young guy of your age. Say hello to mom and tell her I'll call tonight».
She disappeared, away in her black Renault Clio that slid from view down the slope.
As he arrived at the large meadow on the hill, Patrik glanced around.
A person in the distance was sitting on an isolated bench, looking at the horizon.
Just one person.
He decided to take Billo’s leash off, and the dog started to run, swirling around like he always did. Patrik put his headphones on, selected Hotel California and pushed play.
Uncle Oliver, rocker and guitarist, son of 70s music, was mainly responsible for Patrik's musical tastes. When you are lulled as a child with Led Zeppelin's Stairway To Heaven, something inevitably stays with you.
Patrik also clearly liked some new songs, but his trend was old rock, and even when friends told him it was old, he didn’t care. They would not have been able to understand the genius behind the music that his uncle loved to say had been really played!.
Patrik had even had a little brawl with Angelica about it.
He reluctantly remembered that he had defined the singer she adored as a wax statue with gears controlled by an unstable law of physics. He immediately regretted the comment, but this was not enough to avoid a bewildered look for this strange comparison.
Besides, Patrik was used to being labelled as a guy who was a little out of the ordinary. He was very good at school (this was one of the ongoing agreements with his mother to permit Billo staying inside the house), with science being his strongest subject and he remembered everything he read with a frightening ease.
Sometimes he could even predict his teachers' questions in advance, or he had the distinct sensation of somehow knowing the point explained in class but he carefully avoided making this obvious, after an incident that had happened about six years earlier.
*
Patrik was nearly twelve. He had been sitting near the window in the classroom looking at the sky, bored to death by an obvious explanation of mathematics.
Almost without thinking, as if awakened by a dream, he turned his head towards the desk and stood up with his fingertips resting on the desk, breaking the silence and getting the attention of the class with the noise of his chair scraping backwards.
«Patrik?! Can you please explain to me why you’ve stood up?» asked the teacher whirling around, with an incredulous expression.
«Well, ehm ...» he replied, becoming more and more red in the face, with the eyes of the whole class looking at him, «... the school principal enters» he finished, looking down without being able to control the hotness in his face.
Mrs. Meyer looked at the closed door and after a couple of seconds she said «I think you fell asleep boy, or maybe you managed to revolutionize the simplest rules of space-time!».
A ripple of laughter towards Patrik crossed the class and he sat down, angry for the bad impression.
«Ok, it’s enough. Let's go back to our exercises» continued the not-so-young teacher, bringing order and calm among the students who commented on the incident just to steal a few more seconds from the boring lesson.
When the silence returned, she turned again to the blackboard and resumed writing, but she was again interrupted by the sound of knocking on the door.
«Good morning guys, good morning Mrs Meyer» said the principal, stepping into class with some sheets and his ever-present spectacles hanging on his neck.
The teacher and the students answered the greeting, standing up as usual.
«As you were boys» he replied, without taking his eyes off his notes and putting his glasses on.
Everyone sat down but the astonished looks of about twenty people were turned towards Patrik, who cursed himself for having gone into that situation.
Five, maybe ten seconds passed, and, inexplicably, almost without realizing it, he was standing again with his eyes on the other side of the classroom.
«Mrs Meyer» he said in a very serious and resolute tone, turning his gaze to the teacher «call an ambulance immediately!»
«
Patrik do you feel bad?!» she answered worriedly, placing the note on the desk that the school principal had shown to her a few moments before.
«It's not for me, but please ...!» he continued, annoyed and impatient, still looking to his right. «Call an ambulance right now!»
After a careful look at the students, the woman looked inquisitively at the principal and, turning to Patrik, said «I do not understand what ...»
«I told you call an ambulance!»
He jumped out of the way of the desk in the direction of the teacher, forcefully dodging his classmates and the tables in his way. He put his hands inside the woman's bag, while she stared in disbelief as he dialed the emergency services with her cell phone.
«Stop it now boy, or I will ... »
«Aaah!». A gasp went through everyone's hearts.
The shout of Eva Platz in tears, who was watching her friend Christina lying on the floor in the grip of epileptic convulsions, broke the chaos that had enveloped the room.
Patrik left the phone in Mrs Meyer's hands to get to the girl, while the operator tried to understand the reason for the call.
He knew what to do, he had seen it in one of those afternoon reports of which German TV is particularly rich. He made space around her, put her on her side, and used her sweatshirt as a pillow to keep her from hurting herself as he stroked her head, waiting for her to stop shaking.
«Let it pass quickly» he whispered almost to himself with tears in his eyes, squeezing her hand. «Let it pass quickly...».
The school principal stood next to Patrik to help the young girl, while the teacher's voice was pleading for an ambulance as soon as possible, all the while under the astonished looks of a couple of dozen schoolchildren.
After the incident, for days he had to endure the curious looks of the whole school and half of the town, while the legends about Patrik the hero or Jones the seer made their way around with alarming speed.
Patrik Jones and the Code of the Universe Page 1
