Alex Papan: “Friday……fry THE day”

Alex took some free days – five days plus two weekends. He is not sure whether he will count this Friday too. He left office at thirty past ten. Boss didn’t say anything. Alex always makes some extra hours in week to keep it for Friday’s. Naahhh….intelligent…….Alex laughed…

Although it’s just noon, but Alex thought it’s time for his favorite bier – Krombacher. Why he likes the brand……he doesn’t know. Once Alessandra asked him……..and it might be slip of tongue……Krombacher came out to his world. He sighed. How fast time flies! Nothing went fine with her. There were troubles everywhere, in everything. He should have consulted an astrologer. Love’s there, troubles too. But why? This co-existence?

It’s sunny. City centre is full of human beings. May be hundred years later it will be full of Aliens. Because that time Humans will be shopping on Alien Planets. NASA is working hard to get some friends out there in Space. Number of habitable planet candidates is increasing from one day to the other. Alex is thrilled….he loves Aleins, UFO’s but not ghosts. He hates them.

‘Let me make a walk first’, Alex thought. ‘Let’s have a look around. What’s new in the town’. He thought to walk the All Bohemian Street. City’s largest shopping Centre ‘Chameleon’ is there. It’s after the name of Nana Chameleon Nuskin (to Alex it always sounds like pumpkin). He tried to remember….he heard from someone, Mr. Pumpkin is a Jews from Romania. Jews are always successful in business. In space too. Just think about Einstein……his gravity, relativity, space……hummm. Alex loves to think about time and space, there is always mystery there. One ‘myst’ solves, new ‘mysts’ pop up. ‘Myst’ is his replacement word for mystery. He loves mysteries. He likes that photo of Einstein with his extending tongue. What the great Scientist wanted to tell…….’You know nothing of what I know’, ‘Well, I myself is still swimming in Ocean of Questions……’or ‘I am just too innocent!!!’. It should be one of the three. Alex is sure. At least he tries to understand Prof. Stein. In German ‘Stein’ means ‘Stone’. Einstein must be the most valuable (or invaluable) ‘stone’ in Earth’s history. Krombacher….Krombacher……Someone is crying inside. It’s Alex’s other half that loves bier more than anything on Earth and of course, in Heaven too.

From his childhood, he heard, in Heaven people will get what they want. Alex will ask for Krombacher. Definitely. Ja!

Two minutes more, next to McDonald stands ‘Jaguar’, his favorite restaurant cum bar. He loves the cuisine there. Alex thought to have Shrimp and Basmati Rice for lunch. No chicken today.

Moment…just a moment. Alex just managed a stumble somehow. Opposite of ‘Jaguar’ there’s a new restaurant, ‘Puppenfest’. He got strong attraction by the name. Why not to try something new today. He has still nine days, in case of a bad stomach.

‘Why do you call it Puppenfest’, Alex asked the lady in the Bar. She is friendly, beginning of her 50’s. But she’s stuffs still tight. Uh..hu.hu..Alex felt a lightning just passed though him.

‘Lilybell, my daughter loves puppets’, she answered promptly.

‘Liliy…Lilybell…’

‘Yes, my Lilybell. She is my Lily…,her father’s Bella’, Lilybell’s Mom is just bursting with joy. A loud laughter from the bar counter took the restaurant and the pedestrians.

‘I see…she in School, right?’

‘Ohh no…she finished her studies last autumn, now got a job in a Bank. She has Masters in Economics’…Momy is proud of her Lily. No doubt.

‘I see…..’. Alex started to wonder, Lilybell must be very beautiful and attractive like her mother…she might already have many ‘Puppen’ around her to pull the rope and play the toy-boys. Alex would love to be one, but Lilybell is too far.

He took a table that was still empty and ordered rice with shrimps with extra olive. But before everything, a big glass of beer.

He looked around inside Puppenfest. It’s a small restaurant and bar. Just six tables. Two for eight, two for four, rest are round tables that can host upto six guests. Paintings on the wall are very old, some depicting the 18th or 19th Century sceneries of the town. One portraying ‘Benjamin Steiger’ as he could read the name – first mayor of the town from 1898 – 1902. The mayor had a powerful look with thick and long mustache.

His dish is served. Just prepared……smoke is still trying to escape from the Basmati grains. He is not hungry but he had to start. Half-finished, his mobile started to sing ‘Hit me baby one more time…….’, so he had to hit OK. Alex dislikes callbacks.

‘Hello Benti’, Alex didn’t expect him. Friday is a busy day for Doner Kebab shops, especially when weather is so good.

‘Alex..how are you doing my friend?’

Woow, Benti sounds very happy today. There’s something new for sure!

‘I am fine, what about you?’

‘..am waiting for Berin. She will be here in ten minutes!’

‘Berin…???…!!!

‘Oh I forgot to tell you dear. My fiancé, Berin. Berin Fatman’.

FAT……F-A-T-M-A-N….’….ohh….no, no…..no, no, no…no, no. Alex knows BatMan, SuperMan and SpiderMan. Now..F-A-T-M-A-N…..no…no..

‘No….no..Alex. She..e.., she is not fat at all, slim and very attractive. I love her smile’, somehow Benti could read his mind. Psychic power…Alex thought.

Benti continued, ‘She has curly hairs too. She is very nice, I am in deep love with her’.

‘Woow….what she is doing’, Alex is curious and happy for Benti.

‘Studying Genetic Engineering’, Benti replied.

‘Great!!!’…. although he said it, but he is always skeptics and critics of genetic engineers.

‘I am in a new restaurant now. It’s opposite of Jaguar. Join me with your fiancé. Be my guest today.’

‘No Alex. Berin and me, we will be driving to the Airport to receive Miss Julia Halleprova, Berin’s friend from Siberia’.

Woow.., Miss Halleprova! When did Benti become such a gentleman!!??

‘I don’t know anyone from Siberia. I would like to ask her, what they do when it’s minus 100’, Benti is very excited today.

Minus 100??……may be in Siberia it’s possible, Alex thought. ‘OK, I am sorry. I will miss the chance to see your love’.

‘No problem. I will call you soon. I got ‘Avatar’. We four can watch it tomorrow or Sunday’, Benti assured Alex.

‘Then…have nice Friday. Enjoy the sun’.

‘Thanks, you too Alex. Bye’, Benti closed.

Waitress brought his second bier.

Alex thinks it’s not Apple, Mango, Google, Microsoft or IBM who is going to change the world so dramatically and drastically as the genetic pundits will do. He often ends up with thoughts that genetic engineers will make creatures like half human, half animals. Why it always comes his mind, he is not sure. May be a fairytale from grandma that penetrated so deep in his subconscious mind that the ‘creature’ starts to fly when Alex gets some free time. He can’t find other reasons.

It’s a nice Friday afternoon. He has his first sip in the second round. His thoughts and imaginations continued flying:

Somewhere in New York. ‘Orion Restaurant’.

World’s richest man Warren Bullet invited top genetic Scientist for a dinner. Both have a common interest but stand on two sides.

Warren Bullet: I need a friend. I have lots of money but ‘cuts of friends’.

Mr.Scientist: No problem Sir….I know….I know. He was exactly expecting this to hear. ‘I will make a Centaur for you’.

Mr. Bullet interrupted…’You mean that wonderful creature – half human and half horse’

‘Exactly’, Mr. Scientist burst into joy. WB could get him. It means more money for his new project.

World’s number one Magazine ‘Forget’ recently ranked the top 100 richest man. Warren Bullet’s wealth exceeded that of Bill the Gatekeeper. Mr. Gatekeeper is now the second richest according to ‘Forget’. Some guardian angels went flying around early Saturday morning leaving the gate slightly open when the Bullet Train passed through the gate with tremendous speed, somewhere close to that of Sound.

Surprisingly this year, for the first time in Forget’s history of listing the top hundred richest man in the world, an innocent looking Mexican drug lord took the third position. He is Hacky-Miguel Castanos.

U.S. agencies are crazy to get him – ‘Wanted but Alive’, that’s what the posters say in the border towns. But Hacky-Miguel is still elusive, enigmatic. CIA accused him for hacking their computers and selling those data to Chinese Intelligence. Problem is too large: one of the files was awaiting approval of top security adviser to the President. It was highly confidential. Top Secret. It reads – ‘How to destabilize China in 30 Days’. But now it’s all gone. Hacky-Miguel caused an immense loss of time and energy. Langley still feels the pain. And for the CIA Boss Michael Lovehorn, it’s even more embarrassing. Since the robbery, President David Long Basket got very upset. The President was about to finalize a six-day state visit to China. He wanted to keep one day especially for a long walk on the Great Wall. But alas! It’s all gone. Although China officially never uttered a single word, but the third Chinese aircraft carrier is now floating in the Yellow sea. It all happened within a month of the robbery. Lovehorn wants that ‘Basta..’ at all costs. What the hell FBI’s doing? He can’t wait.

Hacky-Miguel is a pain for FBI too. The office accused him foiling the last six attempts to capture him, and wounding two top agents in Ciudad Juarez operation last year. There’s always a hole in the Spider Web, FBI Director Thomas Wrongman told in a recent interview with Time. May be not one but several ….Alex thought. FBI is making mistakes just by reasoning ‘one hole’ at a time. There are certainly many rats who would love to pay their dues when such wonderful occasions show-up.

FBI reports say, Hacky-Miguel has a peculiar romantic trend. He married Maria, a school teacher, at the age of twenty. Maria was fifty-two then. Although her monthly salary was only one thousand and one hundred in dollars, but she possessed a Bungalow in California with two swimming pools and twenty-nine rooms. Though she has no criminal records in Mexican Police Department but her cousin Angelo was one of the top lieutenants to the then notorious drug lord nick-named ‘Bunker’. Her ex-husband was a police officer in Los Angeles Country, California.

Now at fifty-two he is going to marry Selsa Mirella Velderado. A twenty years old former ‘Miss Chihuahua’. Selsa wanted to study astrophysics but couldn’t get admission to any University due to her very poor college grades. Afterwards she established ‘Help the Addicts’ social platform to help the addicts in northern Mexico. But since her engagement with Hacky-Miguel, she disappeared from public appearance. Mexican police want to question her. But although she is not in public for months, she still holds the general secretary position of her organization. There’s no candidate for that post. Government tried but all in vain.

Now let’s get back to the Orion Restaurant.

‘Right…..you can both ride him and talk with him all day long. Isn’t it nice?’ Mr. Scientist finished his sentence somehow. His body is shaking with excitement.

‘It’s very nice!!!’ Mr. Bullet could hardly hide his excitement too.

‘But..ahh…something is still missing!’

‘What’s that’, WB is not worried about the missing point. He can ride the horse and talk all day long. That’s fine for him. He doesn’t want anything more right now.

‘Wings…..’

‘Wings!!!’, it didn’t come his mind. ‘Ohh, yes…but……’, Mr. Bullet seemed little confused.

That’s the long-awaited moment for Mr. Scientist to start about his new project. ‘I mean, if your Centaur would have wings, wouldn’t it be nice? Besides riding and talking with him all day long, you could fly anywhere you liked’. Mr. Scientist needed some extra air to pump into his lungs before he continues. ‘You could even reach Pairs in few hours. It’s faster than the latest supersonic jet that Google is trying to build’.

WB interrupted, ‘Ja, you are right. But depends on the wing speed. Other thing is, Google’s supersonic jet will get its power from solar energy, what about your Centaur?’. WB is really curious. All lifelong he was busy with his world famous construction and reconstruction firm ‘ZebraTail’. He never thought to think about technology. But he feels happy that he could ask something so technical.

‘Well….ah, umm…it’s the genetic code that will do all those amazing stuffs for you Sir. You don’t need to worry about it’, the great scientist wanted to assure WB. Both are excited to some degrees.

‘Wait….you mean genetic code?’.

‘Yes, exactly. You got it’.

‘But who is going to write those code?’

‘Excuse me….’, Mr. Scientist finished his coffee. He needs one cup more. Now the discussion is going to take a serious turn.

‘I mean…did you get the right programmer for your codes’, WB moved a bit forward with a comforting gesture to the Scientist.

‘Oh yes…oh yes. We have a super scientist from China. He studied genetics and knows programming too. He got 1+++ in China’.

‘Well, you have to be careful. I don’t want any Chinese Wings for my Centaur. I want purely American Wings’.

‘That’s no problem Sir’, Mr. Scientist got back his rhythm again. ‘You know that in 1969 we put the America flag on Moon…..’

‘Yes….of course! And I am very proud of it’.

‘Well….the main machine of Apollo spaceship was made in China’, Mr. Scientist tried to understand himself whether he can put ‘slip of tongue’ as an excuse later when he will have sleep problem that night.

‘Humm….’ WB seemed unaware of the fact whether Mr.Scientist told him any (science) fiction or there’s any sand in the bucket.

That’s it. Mr. Scientist is confident he could convince the most important man for his project.

‘Well…..how much you need’

‘Not that much…ahh….ah….ammm….just 150 M’

‘Hundred-Fifty-Million!!!!!……….to write those codes’.

‘Well, that’s not only writing the codes Sir, we need the right spices to cook the curry, that’s a big challenge’.

He learnt about spices and curries from his research student Tabla Ahmed from Bangladesh. Although Ahmed still works as a post-doc in his lab but now-a-days he avoids any direct contact with his Professor. But the Professor doesn’t mind about that. He thinks science has nothing to do with emotions. And these Asians are a bit emotional in everything. On the other side, after so much hard work and many sleepless nights in the lab, Ahmed thought he will get a ‘one plus’ in his thesis. He even kept fasting for two days before his Defense. But nothing helped. His deep wishes even could not reach the Heaven. Plus, those were days full of stress. He couldn’t even eat anything during his Defense Day, only five cups of coffee oversaturated with sugar and milk. But at the end two point seven. Professor wanted to award him three point zeo. How? Ahmed still doesn’t understand. But Professor was careless, showed even no sympathy. So Ahmed is following every possible means to avoid a face-to-face encounter with his professor for the time being.

‘I see….’, Mr. Bullet went into silence. He is deeply thinking something.

‘Please…’. Mr. Scientist got little nervous now, started to sweat. May be it would be better to avoid those popular Asian words ‘spice’ and ‘curry’. No doubt Ahmed will be very happy if WB now refuses to fund his project for the wings.

Few seconds passed. But it seemed like hundreds of years went by. Mr. Scientist thought they are somewhere before the Big Bang, waiting for the train to reach the station ‘Earth’. Alas! If Einstein would be here today!

‘Naahh….good. That’s no problem at all’, WB broke the silence suddenly.

Mr. Scientist took a deep breath. Got it. Got it. Another cup of coffee. No problem, he will not sleep tonight.

A new star is just discovered in Chile’s Very Large Telescope. It’s hundred times bigger and brighter than Sun. ‘Based on our observations and models, we are 89 percent sure, there are habitable planets out there’, said top NASA Scientist Wolf-Bikram Hayena in a statement. Dr. Hayena originally comes from Madagascar.

‘Do you need anything else’, waitress’s soft and sweat voice brought Alex back to Planet Earth.

‘No, thanks. Oh…may be…may be a cup of coffee. That would be nice.’

‘OK, I will bring you a nice cup of cofee’, she smiled. Benti popped up suddenly: ‘she has curly hairs too!’. Alex took his thoughts some steps forwards: What will happen if they get a son and he is curly too….and….what if they are going to call him Baku. Then…

Berin, Benti and Baku…….Woooow…..

Alex started to laugh……he feels happy today. Coffee is served. He paid the bill and two euro tips. His usual is one.

Alex came out from ‘Puppenfest’. It’s just two-thirty. He left office at ten-thirty. How many thoughts are flying, swimming or walking in his mind. He agrees, he got an empty head today. No pressure from work. Could this be a reason? But his holidays just started. What’s going to happen the next days!!! Alex smiled.

Alex thought he will walk uphill today. Weather is nice. His two rooms’ apartment is four and half kilometer from the center. It’s not that far. Alex will walk today anyway.

Just few meters, he met a nice couple. It’s Wuan. Wuan Michael Dong-Dong. His floormate for two years while he was at the Uni. Together with Wuan, Alex was in Hanoi. It’s was a hot summer for him. Now he met him after two years. By the meantime Wuan got married and the couple has a baby. They invited Alex for dinner that evening. It will be too hot and spicy, Alex knows. But never mind, he is ready to get burnt tonight. He agreed.

Shams.            

Halle, by the River Saale.

January 15, 2013.

It’s Tuesday today.

*P.S. The story is partly based on small German town called ‘Zeitz’.

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