The Maze of Madison: Chapter Four, The Ponderous Path Home

Chapter One: So it Begins
Chapter Two: Into the Dark
Chapter Three: Confounded by a Lock of Stone

Chapter Four: The Ponderous Path Home

Tobias and I weaved our way through the way back to the outside world. It was very simple, really. It was more intimidating than dangerous. What could be in the dark? What could our boosters not tell us was there? What could..? Where? How...?

We had emerged just fine, but part of the reason the trip hadn't seemed to scary was the fact we had a puzzle. We had a mystery. And we had it to ourselves. One of the struggles of teenagerhood is the awkward clawing out of an identity. A unique identity. One that defined. One that set someone apart. One that also met with acceptance. At least by someone or preferably some people whom you are close to, family, friends and someone more than either. The balance between acceptance and uniqueness for an American teenager even in the 22nd century, even on a distant world, was a powerful one. If not the powerful one.

Who am I? has dominated so many lives.

The highbrow riposte was 'we are who we choose to be.' One can choose to do good. One could choose to do evil. One could choose inaction. One could choose to let the choice to be taken away. This was true in situations and in life. Yet, those choices are tempered by experiences and resources and circumstances. Being a colonist on the edge of human space within the United States of America made it highly unlikely, if not impossible, for me to become President of Indonesia. It also made it unlikely I was going to be a musical memetic star either on Earth, but that was of increased likelihood than President of Indonesia or Prime Minister of India. Likewise, if something bad were to happen to me, then I may not be able to get over it. If lost my family, for example.

My folks would retort 'we are more than the sum of our experiences.' They were right. To a degree. But they are my parents and I am a teenager so I need to find some fault with them! Their assumption is there is a choice that can be made. Maybe there is. Maybe there isn't. And maybe the choices possible are all bad.

Experiences are the whetstone of the personality. They can sharpen and improve. They can blunt and destroy. They are a tool. They can be doom. As we walked down the stairs and into the forest, I realized we had a mystery, alright. We also had a problem: if we told no one of the cave, path, lock and key, then we could either get ourselves into trouble or we could end up having someone else find it and get into trouble. No matter what, our find was going to be trouble.

The logical thing would have been to tell an adult. Preferably our parents and the colony leaders, Jane and Juan, but then, they would have then either blocked access to the site or had someone else come and explore it instead of us. That would have been the safest thing to do. It would have been the right thing to do. However...

I had this feeling this find, this lock, this cave, this mystery was going to be an experience. Something that was important. Something that would defining and shaping for my life. Something that would be defining and shaping for Tobias' life. Either I could let that defining be I played it safe or I could have let that defining be I embraced the experience. Come what may.

I was an American teenager. What do you think I did?

Yup.

We had not said a lot as we had left the cave and made our way through the forest. More trees had dropped their branches in anticipation of fire season. Not all would. But more than enough to be concerning. I noticed, even in the lengthening shadows, that even more of them had fallen than when we had left. It was a good thing we were going home then.

I turned to Tobias and steeled myself. I was going to try to convince him we needed to keep this to ourselves and approach the cave and its lock carefully so as to not involve anyone more than we had to. We had some friends we might be able to rely on, but who we brought it was going to be really important and really, really careful. I opened my mouth and he looked down at me - he was tall! - and winked with a smirk.

"I know."

He could be wildly infuriating at times since he seemed to know what I was thinking before I did sometimes. It was comfort. It was annoying. It was an elation. I had been worried he would disagree with me. That could have been a distasteful disaster.

As we walked, we talked about what we would do. We needed to encrypt our booster data. We, like all teenagers, concocted our own encryption scheme to cover our tracks. Quantum computers were ancient history now, and they chewed through encryption like a fire chub through a coffee planation: old lady Stephanie Rodgers had planted a field with coffee and the fire chubs had swarmed down eating their way through the plants like there was nothing better to eat on Madison. However, if the adults didn't know there was something to look for, they would not find it. We were going to have to first doctor the data on our boosters and then put a false image underneath. That would have been something worth hiding, even for teenage reasons. The original data would have to be scrubbed, but good. That would be after we moved it to a clean booster we would not use near or around our parents.

That only required getting clean boosters.

On a world with less than ten thousand people on it.

Discreetly.

Ha!

That was going to be sooooo easy.

NOT.

There was only one way to do that. Tobias did know what to do. That meant having to deal with Daniel Davis Dachnovi. One of the bad eggs on this new world. If there was something someone wanted, Daniel Davis Dachnovi could get it. It would cost though. Sometimes the price was really high. Sometimes it was deceptive as to how high it was going to be. Dachnovi would always get what he said he would. A person might not like the cost in the end though. And the cost always came due.

And we were going to have to deal with him.

Tobias volunteered. I insisted I participate, too. I couldn't let my best friend get into trouble by his lonesome. The risk was to be shared.

I was choosing to do this. Dealing with Dachnovi was going to be part of this whetstone experience. Sharpen. Blunt. Destroy. Improve. I was choosing.

Tobias and I were arguing over my participation when we heard a snorting grunt. And another. And a chuffing. We turned and there was a drift of fire chubs.

They were puffing.

Terror struck us both and we ran.

You might say we chose to run.

Or it would have been a very bad experience.

this normally runs on Saturdays, but I was having some issues with the net last night. The week before I was not able to get to steeming, sooo... The Cliffs of Utpala will be on time today though.