Naked Minds

Luke

6.

Luke emerged from the house. The sun blinded him momentarily. He raised his hand to cover his eyes from the glare.

“What did you tell Mark,” Luke asked. “He looked like he saw a ghost.”

“I told him exactly what he needed to hear,” Johnny said.

“Listen to you; you’re a real Zen preacher!”

“Not really a preacher though. I asked him questions and he talked more than I did. I gave him an advice I felt was appropriate based on the views he expressed.”

“That’s also very Zen! I guess you’re not a preacher but a Zen master!”

“Do you want to join me here on the grass?”

“I’d rather sit on the porch.”

“I’m afraid that they might’ve bugged the house. I don’t want them to hear any of our conversations.”

“We can sit in the car and take the rooftop down.”

“They might’ve bugged the car also.”

“We’ll put on the radio. They won’t be able to make anything out from the music and the birds chirping.”

Johnny thought about Luke’s proposal for a few seconds.

“Ok. You’ve convinced me”

They strolled over to the garage, hoped into the Beetle, and drove it out into the driveway as the garage door closed behind them. Luke put the rooftop down while Johnny searched through the radio stations. He stopped on the classic rock station and adjusted the volume to just the right degree or what his suspicious brain thought was the right degree.

“I hope I don’t end up looking like Mark after our talk,” Luke said.

“I can’t promise anything,” Johnny said and smiled mischievously.

“So…what would you like to know?”

“What were you doing with your life before May 1st?”

“I was working for a non-profit organization that was feeding and clothing homeless people. That’s how I ran into Baptist. I thought he was one of the crazy homeless but he started talking some sense. It was either that or the TNDM really started to jolt around in my system at that time. I also volunteered a lot and was politically active like I mentioned before.”

“Active in a different way from Simon as you mentioned before.”

“Exactly. Non-violent all the way. That’s my approach that will never change.”

“You would never change it? So I presume that it was effective then?”

“Yes and no. You win small victories but you have to be satisfied with those too. Any change however small is significant change. As you slowly chip away you end up building something completely new.”

“Chipping away,” Johnny said absently imagining a sculptor chipping away. “It’s like a rock that has no distinct features but a sculptor makes it into a thing of beauty.”

“Precisely! You get it!”

“But what if the chips are so few and far in between that during you entire lifetime you don’t get to see the rock change into anything significantly new?”

“That depends on what you consider to be significantly new. Your definition is probably different from mine.”

“The worst case scenario would be that everything eventually goes back to how things were before TNDM. Mark said that things are already different but I have a feeling the drug has freaked out so many people that they are probably desiring the old world of routine and predictability. They most likely want the status quo to return because they can’t handle the unpredictable ups and downs of the drug. Sometimes I fear the government was behind the attacks in order to strengthen the desirability of status quo.”