Written by: Sam Radak
Brian sits on the rocking chair on his sister´s porch, gazing into the distance when his niece approaches him “Here uncle Brian, I brought you Whissy”. She hands him a glass of Whisky and he can´t help but smile. He asked for two fingers but it looks more like she filled the glass up to the rim. “Thanks love, much appreciated!” He took a sip and leaned back, and let out a deep sigh. His birthday is approaching and while he usually isn’t much for a rest, he does enjoy having family around and reminiscing on his life so far. “ You know, when I was a young lad born and raised in rural Ireland..”
“You are from Limerick City, uncle” squeaked his niece. Brian cleared his throat and continued without acknowledging her interruption but patting her gently on the head.
“…the son of poor farmers… “
“Granddaddy is super-rich and mommy said, the reason why you could study in Dublin was that he bought the Dean. How can you buy a dean, uncle?”
“Hush now, love. Uncle Brian is thinking out loud.” he patted her head again, with a little more emphasis on the pats. “Don´t you have some homework to do?” “No,” she says, “it’s Saturday, silly” and starts giggling. “Do I detect a wee fib there, love? Your uncle never neglected school, always did his homework, and see where he is now!” “Sitting on our porch, telling fibs himself,” she said with the biggest grin on her face, both hands stemmed on her hip, “I´ve read your diary, uncle! No way you are telling the truth now” she got her tongue out, waved an old notebook at him and ran off. Brian took the bait and ran after her, which wasn’t a big challenge. For a man of his size, one step equals ten of his niece´s steps so he caught her with not much effort. She rolled herself up and around the notebook and he started tickling her “Do you surrender or do I have to get the Pentecost Tickle Cannon” She giggled and gasped for hair, starfished on the floor, and revealed the notebook. Brian took it from her and pulled her up to her feet “Now go and ask your mom to make me a strong coffee, please” his head was spinning from the Whiskey his niece so generously poured him and bending head over whilst being screamed at by a tiny sirene didn’t help with that much either.
A few minutes later she came back with half a cup of coffee and a trail of coffee stains behind her. “Thanks love. Now be so good and give me a few minutes alone with this here”, he tabbed on his notebook. She opened her mouth to protest but he narrowed his eyebrows and tilted his head. The universal sign for kids to get going unless…
Once he was alone he left out a deep sigh, took a big sip off his lukewarm coffee, and started to flick through his old notebook.
Research Entry No. 1
Today is a sunny morning in Dublin, which in itself is already quite impressive but I won’t be tempted by it. Today is the first day out of university and I will take my next steps into researching the Tesla coils. I remain convinced that with the right approach they can be used to assist organic growth and recovery. My thesis was a good start but it was just that, a start and a thesis. Now it’s time to put my research into reality and build a device that will change
Edit:
It is now late at night and I just got back from a day out with Aoife and Conor. They picked me up early this morning, motivated by the good weather and we´ve spent the day in Howth, getting our feet wet and skin burned.
Tomorrow is the time to take the first steps into my research!
Brian made some indistinct sounds and continued to flick through the pages.
Research Entry No. 13
I finally found the time to sit down and start reading Madam Maeva´s book “Transcendental phenomena and their real-life applications”
Brian released another deep sigh and regretted emptying that glass of Whisky so soon. “Transcendental phenomena…Gheesus lad, what were you into as a young man. All that hippy dippy nonsense ”See, I told you, you weren’t as much of a teacher´s pet as you like to remember, old man” sad the niece with a big smile, popping her head out of the window behind him”. Brian jumped a little (something else he won’t admit to later) and clutched his hand into his chest. “Gheesus wee one! You are everywhere! Class A spy in the making, I would say” That made her feel proud and she walked away while being pressed against the wall and surveilling her surroundings, something she thought a spy would do.
Brian shook his head a little but couldn’t help but smile and continued reading his old diary.
Research Entry No. 45
After a lot of sleepless nights, I finally found the reason why the PTC didn’t heal alcohol-induced liver damage but simply grew a new additional liver next to the old one. The classic mistake of sign error and a missing comma in the code! It should work now but I have to find different test subjects than the drunks around the corner. They are just happy they could keep drinking without even noticing a massive growth in their lower right abdomen.
Research Entry No. 57
While adjusting the distance in which a target can be reached, I must have made another mistake. I accidentally hit one of the prisoners who got volunteered to assist me in testing the PTC in the face. Unfortunately, this is irreversible.
On the bright side though, his skin was never smoother!
Loud and energized flipping of pages
Research Entry No. 187
I decided to change the scope´s colour from grey to a more radiation colour like Folly or maybe Cerise.
“WHAT?!”
Research Entry No. 265
Decided to go back to grey as a colour for the scope. Apricot Red was too distracting after all.
Sigh…
Research Entry No. 499
Success! People I’ve recently healed from their sinuses reported some lightheadedness and when I met them, their head´s volume actually increased by 18.76%. I´ve reduced that now to 1,87% and it is barely noticeable.
Brian pushed the notebook away from him and put his head into his hands while quietly sobbing “Why?! I was so certain, I was more focused on helping people. All the time wasted with that childish stuff”.
His niece snuck up to him, slung her arms around him (which means she barely reached up around one of his upper arms) “Chin up uncle, you are just one massive dope like the rest of us”.
‘Sometimes this kid spooks me. How is she so wise beyond her years?’
Brian was thinking to himself but what he said out loud with a smug smile was “Aren’t you a little firestarter! If I am such a dope, how come I know where your mom hides away the good biscuits?!”
She immediately let go of him and released the biggest gasp a tiny human-like herself can muster “Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!”
“Okay, okay, okay but it’s a secret mission and we have to be stealthy. Can you do that, little spy” She nodded so hard that her piggy tales were whipping through the air, gesturing that she would not open her mouth again.
´Ah yes,´ Fionn was thinking to himself ´how can I be so hard on my past self while seeing how much joy it brings that wee one to simply engage in make-believe. Life is good, and with these unspoken words, he flung himself against the wall and started to tiptoe along it, followed by his little niece doing exactly the same.
It was a unique sight to see a tall, buff hunk of a man pretending to not be seen while being followed by his shadow which looks a lot like a tiny girl but they clearly had fun so the entire family decided to buy in and pretend they couldn’t see them.
They rolled over the carpet and hit behind the couch, gestured weird and indecipherable signs at each other (they later will insist on this being the whole point of secret signs!) and finally made it into the kitchen, where Brian gave his niece a boost so she could reach behind the coffee pods where the good biscuits are hidden (in case anyone is wondering, Bourbon Biscuits are the best biscuits they were after!). She grabbed the package and sprinted off into the storage space underneath the staircase and Brian followed her by foot. They giggled and laughed and annihilated the biscuits like it wasn´t five minutes to dinner time!
“It’s good to see Brian taking a break and still being able to enjoy life. Good to know we haven’t fully lost him to the war.” Said Brian’s sister and everyone agreed with a content smile and a silent nod.
