Breakfast

Patrick woke late as Tobias let him sleep. The clock was at half past nine, and Tobias had been up since seven making himself a small cup of coffee and reading a newspaper while waiting. It was a happy Patrick who came into the kitchen to greet Tobias good morning.

Tobias smiled and said, “You’ve slept well, I presume,” looking up from his newspaper at the big kitchen clock at the wall.

Patrick smiled back, nodding as he made his way to Tobias and gave him a gentle hug where he sat at the kitchen table.

“I’ll fix us breakfast while you take a shower and freshen up—we have things to do today.”

“What are we going to do today?” Patrick curiously asked, as if he were eager to get going right away.

“That I will tell you when we have our breakfast,” Tobias answered, smiling back at him.

Patrick smiled too and quickly he turned to the bathroom.

“You have all your things laid out for you,” Tobias like raised his voice after him.

This new life brought with it so many new things—routines and manners—that Patrick never before had considered. Before, his mornings were just getting up, grabbing something from the fridge, whatever, and out. He couldn’t remember ever having sat down in peace and quiet with breakfast. There was so much to discover now, and Patrick enjoyed every minute of it.

He didn’t rush showering; instead he took his time to prepare himself for the day as he didn’t want to disappoint Tobias, or anyone else for that sake, showing up like a dirtbag as so many times before. When he finished in the bathroom he got dressed and went back to the kitchen again where Tobias had made them both a nice breakfast with tea, juice, yogurt, bread, butter, marmalade, cheese, ham… well there was a lot of all sorts of food.

As everything else, Patrick enjoyed his breakfast together with Tobias talking. What exited him the most was hearing about Mr. Cantini and his gang’s efforts to break open the mailbox from last night to get hold of all the money they still thought was there. Patrick smiled and laughed out loud as Tobias told him what had happened.

“They even tried to use a giant excavator to get to the mailbox, but as with all their other attempts, something happened,” Tobias started off.

Mr. Cantini had gone berserk after Eve and Liam’s escape, and he ordered every man he had to go out there and take his money out from that mailbox no matter what, and he wanted it at breakfast the next morning when he woke up.

At first some of his guys went there to have a closer look at the mailbox to try to break into it, tilt it or something to get in. But the mailbox turned out to be solid as a rock, and when they tried to pick out the envelopes through the mail slot with any kind of device they always failed one way or another, like by getting their hands stuck in the slot or the device, squeezing a finger and such. On one occasion one of them had lowered a weight with glue on it through the mail slot and just managed to get hold of something that he thought was one of the money envelopes, when he felt a push, which made him drop it back in again. There was an argument of course, as no one watching had delivered the push and everyone blamed each other. And as the argument developed there was a stamp on a toe, a concealed punch, and so on, and it all had ended in a big fight.

Trying to tamper with the mailbox ended in disaster, like when they tried a glue tube once the now-bruised men had calmed down. The glue tube cracked at the bottom end during a hard squeeze, squirting glue all over them. And as it happened, glue landed on the most inconvenient places. Hands, fingers, clothes, and other stuff were stuck instantly to each other and to things around them, making it impossible to do anything. One of the men even got a small glue squirt on his eyelashes, which on his next blink closed his eye for good.

Next, other men took over, carefully lifting explosives from their car trunk. There was some arguing about how much to put under the mailbox so the money wouldn’t blow up too, but then they dug a small hole under the box, put the explosives in, lit the fuse, and moved away to await the explosion. But as it happened, a big stray dog showed up, and of course the mailbox was just perfect to pee on. ZZzz… the fuse went out and the dog unconcernedly strayed away. Trying to light the fuse again was impossible as the explosives were wet, and it must have stunk terribly. Anyway, one of the men took out the explosives from the hole and quickly threw them back in the car trunk again… where they of course happened to explode.

That blow woke most people up from their frustrated dazes, the police came, and it was all just a mess, except for the mailbox. It just stood there, untouched.

So their next smart move when the police and by-standers had left the area was to get a truck with a crane to remove the mailbox and open it elsewhere, as all their fuss and yelling attracted too much attention. However, that truck and all the other trucks sent for never got close to the mailbox for various reasons, from flat tires, malfunctioning engines, to a big splat of bird shit on a windshield, getting all smeary when the wiper was turned on and making the driver not see a thing, such as the police car they just happened to meet and smash in to.

“But the best was when they got so mad that they stole that huge excavator with its runners ripping up the asphalt surface and leaving a track all the way from where they stole it,” Tobias said, laughing even more.

“Even though the driver of the thing knew what he was doing, it just didn’t behave like it should have. Instead it behaved more like the other way around. When he closed in on the mailbox trying to turn left a bit, the excavator turned right instead and climbed on top of a line on parked cars next to the sidewalk, which it mangled down for almost 150 feet before he got the machine to stop. Trying to get out in the street again, he just happened to start the bucket arm, which turned and smashed right into the building on the other side of the sidewalk.”

Patrick laughed along with Tobias, as he had no problem picturing the scene after last night’s performance.

“After that they gave up and fled what now looked more like a warzone than a peaceful sidewalk,” Tobias said, ending the story.

“But what happened after that?” Patrick asked.

“We don’t know yet. Mr. Cantini hasn’t had his breakfast yet, and, anyway, we can have a look at it all happening if you want to like we did yesterday, or we can have it all presented to us as the late night show.”

“Late night show? What’s that?”

“Well, we do record things, and we have sort of our own TV channel. What I told you so far was on the morning news,” Tobias explained in a cunning way.

Patrick happily smiled back at Tobias, like why would he be surprised after what he had seen and experienced yesterday? Tobias laughed at Patrick’s reaction and Patrick joined in.

They had almost finished their late breakfast, chatting about the mailbox adventure, and to finish Tobias told Patrick what was on the schedule for today as well as five days ahead.

“After that we are going on a trip,” Tobias said.

His serious expression piqued Patrick’s curiosity. Patrick returned his serious look.

“We are going to Skyjland. It’s not just any land; it’s our land and it’s governed by us. I haven’t told you much about Ms. Matey, but if Mr. Zed is our wizard, Ms. Matey is our witch. However, she’s no wicked witch. Actually she’s quite the other way around. If Mr. Zed is our technical genius, Ms. Matey takes care of the social side of things, and she’s very much doing it the enchanting way.”

Patrick listed intensely because of Tobias’s tone of admiration and respect.

“There’re four: sort of our congress, senate, parliament, or company board if you like. They run and govern Skyjland and they do it in a very special way. Ms. Matey is the architect behind it all, and although she talks in riddles, she also enjoys telling us tales.”

Tobias asked, “Have you ever heard the expression, ‘When your fairy tale comes true’?”

Patrick nodded, but added, “Yes, but I don’t really know what that means.”

“Well, it’s like if you have a wish, a positive wish of course, and that wish in a magical way comes true … well, all Ms. Matey’s tales so far have come true for us. Technically Mr. Zed and his wizards have made it possible to make Ms. Matey’s tales come true, but without her tales, the thought behind all of this, there would be nothing.

“The vision Ms. Matey has seems to match what is possible, for example giving us a place to stay. She and her genies and trolls, as we call them, have made us a place, Skyjland, where we “unwanted people” can live, where we can make a living and manage on our own, and I would like to take you there for a visit.”

Patrick didn’t quite understand what Tobias was trying to tell him, but he trusted him more than anyone else and felt that sooner or later he would find out.

“So, I suggest we do some more clothes shopping today plus buying some other necessities for you, and then in the afternoon before dinner we visit Mr. Zed to see what he has to offer. You did talk about wanting a cellphone, didn’t you?”

Patrick smiled back at Tobias shyly, nodding.

“And then after dinner I suggest we cozy up here in my apartment a bit with some snacks and lemonade to watch the late night show, featuring Mr. Cantini with his wise guys. What do you say?”

“Yeah!”

After they finished breakfast and Patrick helped Tobias wash up, they went down to the garage where they met with Liam, who had prepared a small car for them. Tobias explained while driving that Liam really did like cars, even though he wasn’t technically minded at all, but he enjoyed cleaning and polishing, making their small fleet of cars shine.

“He takes pride in what he does and he does a good job, which is worth a lot to us all,” Tobias explained.

Patrick agreed.

Their shopping to extend Patrick’s wardrobe went well, and again Patrick used some of the money Tobias had given him. He was still a bit puzzled about that $100,000 Tobias said was his. How come? How on Earth could he be given such a substantial amount of money just like that? “I’ll tell you more tonight,” was the only answer he got.

Back home they had a late lunch with some of the others, and afterwards back in the garden Patrick met Eve and had a chat with her. It was obvious that he liked Eve, and despite their differences there were no strings attached. Tobias enjoyed this, seeing how Patrick so fearlessly and without any second thoughts took his time socializing with the others, regardless of their looks, handicaps, or whatever.

“What do you say, Patrick? Should we go and check out Mr. Zed’s store?”

Patrick responded immediately, saying goodbye to everyone and giving Eve a short, friendly hug.

In one end of the house, on the first floor, Mr. Zed had a small workshop together with some other people working there, and he arrived himself to show Patrick. Not that Patrick understood everything that Mr. Zed said, as his language was kind of crippled, but Tobias and the others explained to him.

“Don’t worry, Patrick. It takes a while to understand what Mr. Zed is saying, but in time you will get it,” Tobias said.

First was a cellphone, and Mr. Zed showed Patrick some various models. They looked sort of like cellphones in shape, but their displays and keyboards were different.

“Is it a touch screen?” Patrick asked.

“Well, yes and no” Tobias translated.

“It’s the other way around, Mr. Zed says; the screen touches you instead. There is a built-in awareness that is locked to one user only. No one but you can use the phone, and you can’t lose it or whatever you store in it.”

Patrick listened intensely.

“But how?”

Tobias looked up at Mr. Zed, as if he were asking for permission to answer, and Mr. Zed spoke like there was nothing to it, and word-by-word Tobias translated.

“You are one of us, and as one of us you’re entitled to know. To be able to operate a “TeeWee” like this … we call these cellphone-like things TeeWees and they’re far more than a just a phone, iPod, or whatever’s out there. The name comes from Ms. Matey’s riddles and tales, but anyway, it connects you mentally. A TeeWee can sense you, and like the tube display you’ve seen, you can be connected and you can connect to others too.

There’s no ordinary network relaying your connection. These TeeWees can be directly linked to each other wherever you are. You could be on the Moon or be locked in a hermetically sealed iron coffin—it doesn’t matter—the signal will still come through. It’s like life has its own fingerprint, like a telephone number that is you. If you approve we can set up a TeeWee for you.”

Patrick’s head was swirling, but even so he thought he understood the meaning and power of this TeeWee.

“Does that mean that you can go in and listen in on me?” he then asked.

“Yes, we can if we need to. This, however, can’t be done without you knowing it, and there has to be a legitimate reason for it. For instance, I can’t check you out on my TeeWee; you decide if you want to approve of me contacting you. No one can check you out unless you are in some kind of danger. The TeeWee senses that, or if you’re up to no good, the TeeWee senses that too. Otherwise it won’t reveal a thing to anyone.”

“But how does that work?”

“Unlike ordinary cellphones, these connect using the space between matter, that space that is nothing, literary speaking. Like, if you’re on the Moon and I’m here, there’s both matter and nothing between us, and using this in-between zone when communicating means there is no distance, no time delay, and we could touch each other like through a tube display.

“All imaging and communication is in real time and encrypted using yours and the other’s life prints. A TeeWee display like this has no pixels or other resolution limits; in fact it can display and sense more than your eye can see. And there you have your touch feature: it senses you, and you can sense it. In time you will learn to feel your TeeWee, as it will learn to feel you.”

Mr. Zed made a small interruption explaining something to Tobias and urged him then to tell Patrick.

“Mr. Zed says that we know privacy for you is vital, and that’s why we need to tell you exactly what this is. Mr. Green has specifically told us that you are special and that we never, ever should fail to present you with the truth as we know it. A TeeWee like this is a tool, and it’s up to you how to use it. This tool reacts on its own only if misused, if you misbehave, or if you lose contact with it, like if you should lose it or if it should be stolen. And it tracks you, like searching for your DNA, so you can’t get lost even without it. There are some quite sophisticated life-identifiers these devices use. I have one, as well as Mr. Zed here and all the others, but it’s up to you if you want one of these to use as your own.”

Tobias ended his long speech with a gentle smile, and Patrick smiled too looking back at him. But it was those previous moments of eye contact with Mr. Zed when Tobias was talking that made Patrick feel safe. Whatever it was Mr. Zed reflected Patrick felt deeply, and he felt no need to ask any more questions now.

For a while Patrick looked at various models Tobias and Mr. Zed showed him, but he also became aware that a TeeWee could look like anything he wanted. Patrick pointed one model out that, whenever he wanted, for him Mr. Zed could change its shape or colors.

The part about Mr. Green having said he was special puzzled him. But he also felt that he couldn’t take all that in now, and, anyway, he was convinced that someday he would be told.

Patrick got his TeeWee and was eager to learn and try it out, and then he had the evening with Tobias telling him more about Skyjland to look forward to. And, of course, the late night show. How would Mr. Cantini react when he wakes up without the mailbox money in hand?