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inkstains "torrent" thingy. 579 words
People said that all the knowledge of the world--its history, its arts, and its science -- are hidden away inside a cave, behind a waterfall near the top of the seventh tallest mountain in the world. To get there you would have to battle a one-eyed captain with a cutlass, as well as all the men the captain had.
Estiv knew it was a lie, of course. Not the cave or the waterfall, but the mountain.
It didn’t make sense. It would be too much trouble to lug all those tomes and chests and whatever vessels were required to contain the world’s wisdom all the way up the seventh highest mountain of the world, whichever mountain that was. He supposed he could search it on the Gee, but the Gee was now too much trouble and unreliable.
The cutlass didn’t make sense either. What could an old car have to do with battle? Maybe the captain would try to run his opponents over? It made his head hurt just thinking about it.
Stupid Meerketz, he thought. Just manage to get all the power in the world and what do they do? Make even the knowledge of the simplest things hard. No wonder people were getting stupider by the day.
It was easier on the other side of the world. No Gee police banging on your door if you tried to find out stuff that weren’t age appropriate. Like how to work matches, or peel vegetables. You had to be at least eight years old to learn how to work matches or peel vegetables. Movies were worse. Anything that had to do with death or dying, you couldn’t watch before you were thirteen, not unless you submitted a form that said you already had an experience of death, maybe a pet or grandparents.
Estiv was lucky that way. His pet goldfish and his grandfather both died last year so he got to watch the movie Bambi. No one else in his class got to watch Bambi. They were missing a lot, he thought. But it did suck that no one knew what he was talking about.
Still, he didn’t mind, even if it meant he didn’t have too many people to talk with. It was good enough he knew about death. There were too many things he wanted to know, to see, to read, too watch—things that he wasn’t allowed legally, even if he had his parent’s consent. His parents were pretty cool about knowledge, unlike those of his friends. They believed that the more you knew, the better. Too bad there wasn’t some way he could get it. Everything was restricted: books, films, paintings—there was so much he wanted to see that he wasn’t allowed.
Yet.
At midnight, he would turn thirteen. Then his mother would unlock the door to the room and let him sit on the chair of wisdom, the one facing the glass window that showed the waterfall. And they would let him spell out the words that would tell the one-eyed man he could pass. The waterfall would disappear, and then all the knowledge of the world—art, science, film, history—everything recorded by man from then till now, would be his to possess.
There were so many things he wanted to read, watch and see. He wondered how he’d take them all from the pirate’s bay, then laughed as the answer hit him like a wave.
One torrent at a time.
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on 2010-10-09 12:16 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-10-09 12:18 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-10-09 12:24 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-10-09 12:26 pm (UTC)(kinda like new york, but brighter. :P)
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on 2010-10-09 01:10 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-10-09 01:14 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-10-09 09:48 pm (UTC)I loved this. :D
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on 2010-10-10 09:35 am (UTC)I'm glad your entry's open now, You locked us out for a while. :(
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on 2010-10-10 01:21 pm (UTC)