As always let me begin by reassuring that this experiment consisted of six willing and handsomely compensated volunteers. The participants were chosen after undergoing a standard (somewhat) physical and mental ((mostly)) evaluation . The applicants varied in age, gender and intelligence, but all included “the single flaw” identified by Dr. Johnstein (a great hero of mine), and all indicated different levels. The participants willingly signed a contract that was strenuously written by a \\\. The six participants proved invaluable to the research, but obviously the only two I am required to talk about are “Fuse and “Tack”. The two exhibited the highest levels of “the flaw”. Both were very badly riddled with the illness (poor \\\..).
Even though much data was lost and there is still the lasting controversy behind the end result. It has become much easier to develop identification technology for “the single flaw”. An amazing silver lining! But I do not write to bask in my own research, or to clear my name, but to drag the truth farther into the (light) sun (and to comply with the state’s mandated terms of conviction). However, I would like to praise the faith and diligence of my team of students -a truly brilliant and sometimes ((to their brilliance)) calculated bunch of kids- and also sometimes little \\\’s. As always though I recount them to a true and lasting call to abstractions of the collective conclusion.
Let me be clear. I maintain my innocence. I intend to write with great pride and humility about this. It has now been ten years since my conviction, and my confession has not been accepted so this will also be my last. There are just a few points that need to be highlighted, not out of contempt or mistrust. It is just the opposite! It is out of absolute and unwavering trust in our leaders, because I know, like me, and I hope, most of you. They encourage such questions. Because, like me, and I know, all of you. They only want what is best for this great nation! Besides, I find the historic value far beyond the exchanging rates as of now. I find the whole experiment to be enthralling and (surely) (possibly vainly) I am sure it is what I will be remembered for (even if sullenly). Still, I do not fully possess the depth of understanding for the results, which I cannot fully explain. I suppose doubt is just a big \\\, but just like my grad students, these things are necessary to grow us! So I must pose these questions (for the sake of the betterment of our great great nation) (I have no doubt our great rulers would do the same if they were placed in the corner I now reside in).
First, I am, and have always been a patriot. Sometimes this means following those more equipped (and I maintain that I have done so throughout this experiment!). I am after all a man of the mind, not a man willing (selflessly) to run nations, I don’t pretend to understand that weight. That said I have spent a lifetime of trial and error and study and self-reflection and observation (being one of the few, with my deepest most sincere gratitude, to study the mind). Now on this 10th anniversary of the original experiment. I would implore you to revisit yourselves (I have included this material along with my annual reflection fee of $2000 in the form of a check). The check is certified as per section 8-d of my original conviction. Let me humbly and thankfully start with the notes from experiment #5 with “Fuse” and “Helmet” on the 9th day into “the flawed” experiment.
Exercise #5 The Peacock
We had given both subjects an entire closet each of brightly colored shirts and pants, drawers of socks (different and printed with silly emblems and stitching), 3 different and forbidden drinks to choose from, ten pairs of shoes, a mirror ((borrowed from the archives of forbidden material from the state, kept away from all participants excluding these two subjects ((per amendment 5-F)), under my own lock and key)), a hair brush and a razor). The room was divided by the feminine and masculine racks of adornments (we couldn’t seem to get any results when we put the subjects in a room alone) but split by a soundproof (3 inch thick) glass wall. The rooms were loaded with EFOCWB’s (ears for our common well being) and speakers were placed on both sides (and also in our monitoring room) . We tell the subjects that we are only monitoring the sounds from the room and the objects displaced, but in reality we watch from a monitor attached to several EOOCWB’s (eyes of our common well being). We told the subjects that their independent EFOCWB’s were connected to the speakers in the corresponding room.
10:34 morning
We bring both subjects in with the lights dimmed. Once both are in their allocated positions we turn the dimmers off and illuminate the room. “Helmet” stands looking around the room with wide eyes and an almost shaking mouth. “Fuse” seems calmer, he removes his hands from his pockets and looks around the room. He stands stoically and it’s not until he’s seen every detail and every corner that he slowly walks towards the drinks. Neither of them seem to truly acknowledge each other. No looks are given, no words are spoken.
“Helmet” sits on a chair and pulls a small illegal candy from her pocket (which interestingly she must have stolen from experiment #2) and removes the wrapper, she sucks at it and looks bored. “Fuse” picks up the bottles and starts smelling them. One is a fermented drink called alcohol, the second a sugary juice made from apples, and the third is a hot beverage brewed from a seed called “coffee”(all inferior and outlawed contraband obtained by request 1084-g). He winces at the first two and picks the warmed beverage and adds the contraband sugar (1084-g) to it and stirs slowly with one hand in his pocket. “Fuse” seems completely insane, his mind is on full display. It is at complete ease without a task at hand. “Helmet” still sucks at her same contraband (make note of the subjects attraction to this). Her insanity is also on the silver screen, she just sits there with glaze on her eyes in complete comfort((make note))).“Fuse” never uses the chair (make note). Instead he takes a few quick sips of his seed drink, shakes aggressively and laughs (This subject seems to display more of the illness than “helmet”) . He starts removing his white shirt but leaves his pants on, he seems almost hysterical as he flails his arms and legs in an almost rhythmic pattern, he seems to be singing a little melody as well (I wonder where he learned this tune?). “Helmet” picks at her nose and wipes the remnants onto the side of her chair (she did score much higher on her preliminaries ((make note))).
“Fuse” searches the racks and meticulously sifts through the shirts, touching every one, studying the pattern and rubbing the fabric in his fingers. He walks through the racks like this 3 times until finally (make note) he takes a red button up off of the rack (still on its hanger) and walks to the mirror which we placed above a small sink with basic toiletries). It has small prints of something like a black star and buttons on the sleeves. “Helmet” begins to choke on her illegal candy (we have medics on staff but
wait to see if it subsides ((which it does))). “Fuse” pauses and looks back at “Helmet” as she coughs (loudly) for approximately 10 seconds. His face is expressionless but he looks at her until she stops (helmet never sees this). “Helmet” stops and resumes her relaxed stance. “Fuse” turns back around at the mirror and smiles in his reflection.
“Fuse” says “are you OK?” in a bored way without looking away from the mirror, studying his face.
“I’m fine” says helmet without looking over at him
“Helmet” starts to break the diminished candy with her teeth.
10:41 morning
“Fuse” seems indifferent to the crunching but starts to apply shaving cream to his slight five o’clock shadow. He moves slowly and with precision using the mirror as a tool. From the monitoring room we watch through the EOOCWB in above the mirror.
“You know they can tell what you are eating from the frequency?” says “Fuse”
“They will know that you stole illegal food and you could still be prosecuted.” he adds still applying the cream indifferently.
“Helmet” sneers at the back of his head. Her MFCWB’s (monitors for common well being) indicate that she is feeling betrayed. The MFCWB’s on fuse wont register though. He is operating outside of our known intention spectrum (make note). My small team and I agree that he is the anomaly we have been looking for. In the same test of different occupants we found the same malfunction in “Tack” a female volunteer (who drove her test partner to quit the experiment altogether during #3). My top aid proposes that we place the two together for this rare and unprecedented opportunity.
“Helmet” is removed (and later imposed a fine of $500 for stealing illegal contraband). Half the room dims and “Tack” takes “Helmet”’s place. “Fuse” shaves his face during the process but when we turn the lights back on in the feminine side he looks at “Tack”, and sitting in her chair, she looks back at him. The two stare with emotionless faces for approx. 10 seconds and before “Tack” looks away and she starts toward the beverages (as predicted, their MFCWB’s never alarm and wont register ((interesting))). “Fuse” turns back and grabs a tube of tooth paste (his FMFCWB’s((facial monitor for common well being)) sets off a small alarm indicating intrigue).
This is the first time his FMFCWB has alarmed (possibly a malfunction). “Tack” walks to the drinks and just like “Fuse” she sniffs at them before choosing (make note) the fermented corn, and mixes soda water and sugar with it. She closes her eyes as she swallows a long sip and shivers, her FMFCWB indicates that the taste is unpleasant (but she finishes the drink?). With her drink in hand she too, begins inspecting the racks and drawers.
“Fuse” rinses off his freshly shaved face and grabs his chosen shirt. He walks back towards the racks and places the hanger back on the pole. He starts to browse again (make note). Now
“Tack”’s MFCWB indicate that she is also thinking of someone outside of herself (can it be “Fuse”?).
“Fuse” is still scanning the shirts as we all hear the clink of “Tack” removing a dress from the racks. A red rose velvet colored dress of medium length. She smiles and heads towards the island holding the stockings and socks, shoes and shiny accessories (I failed to mention the cosmetics we included ((even I forgot about these details as I left my team mostly in charge of the rooms and at the time I was not sleeping completely sound because of the incredible price and privilege my thoughts were costing))).
“Fuse”’s FMFCWB indicates that he needs to urinate but he doesn’t (another malfunction? But everything was calibrated perfectly?). Instead “Fuse” moves toward the seven pairs of pants laid out for him (more or less representing the colors in a rainbow). “Tack” moves around her island in the same melodic movement that Fuse moved around his room (she holds her fermented drink and smiles and sips at it). He dumps his coffee on the rug and smiles too (both FMFCWB indicate that they are smiling). “Fuse” heads back to the bottles and this time doesn’t sniff, instead he just grabs the bottle of rotten corn and makes himself the same drink that “Tack” made. He turns and holds it up in the air laughing slow and loud. “Tack” looks back confused for a moment but eventually smiles and holds hers up as well. She laughs too, until they both drink until the glasses are empty (how do they know the other will drink till finish?).
“Fuse”’s MFCWB finally indicates that he is feeling sad, but his FMFCWB indicate that he is happy (I think about ending the session because at this point I am sure something has malfunctioned). “Fuse” sets his drink on the island as “Tack” steps into the changing room (her MFCWB’s go from one end of the spectrum to the other at nearly 60 hertz but we can’t monitor her FMFCWB’s at all). “Fuse” finds a purple shirt with bright blues and greens on it looks like a peacock feather and slowly buttons it up, still laughing and smiling! His MFCWB’s indicate arousal and anger (at this point I wonder how high his fine will be?)). He picks the yellow pair of pants and replaces them with his white jumpers. “Tack” emerges from the changing room with her MFCWB’s still going haywire (make as many notes as possible ((is this still recording?))).
“Tack” is fully adorned with her red dress red heel tan stockings and a small single gold necklace (she has also applied red paint to her lips). The male students in the room are sent out at this time because their FMFCWB and MFCWB’s are setting off alarms in the room (The poor young men had to pay a $100 fine each ((that I reimbursed))). “Fuse” held his drink again and smiled (his FMFCWB blew through the fuse in his monitor (he is unharmed but this is unprecedented). (This is was shortly before breaking protocol).
This is where we discovered the new “heat” spectrum (see 4-h in “Tack”’s notes).
“Tack”’s MFCWB’s could no longer be measured even though they would register (it was at this point we decided to disable them fearing another blown fuse). So all MFCWB’s and FMFCWB’s were temporarily taken off line using the state provided “Last Resort” machine (This, I can only assume is what scrambled the audio and video recordings of the events that followed). “Tack” spins around her room and laughs (god the data that we missed..). She looks at “Fuse” and smiles before she begins tearing the clothing one by one from the racks. The two seem to be feeding off of each others flaw. “Fuse” seems to be delighted by this and he responds by pulling out the drawers of socks and belts and ties and underwear in his island. They still haven’t spoken a word to each other. I send the two remaining female students out of the room at this point because their MFCWB’s were also off line and I feared that they would be fined for observing censored material. I am at this point completely alone (breaking protocol, but I had no idea that recordings had stopped!).
After the racks and drawers were empty “Tack” went back to make another fermented drink (she fixed it just the same way), she took a sip and laughed to herself in the mirror for approx. ten seconds before breaking the mirror by throwing the bottle at it. “Fuse” stood with a stoic face as if awaiting the answer, it looked like he had just asked the time and was patiently waiting to know, it was peaceful and patient. This is where the dialogue began. If I had the money to write it down again I would (purely out of scientific merit), but the last fine has put my value in the negative (I will be turning myself in tomorrow), so to avoid further embarrassment and the possible drought of my predecessor I cannot reproduce it. Halfway through (as I have for the last decade insisted) the EFOCWB and the EOOCWB monitors failed and I could no longer see or hear what was taking place within the room! I raced down the hallway to continue observations from the two-way glass behind “Fuse”s unbroken mirror.
When I finally made it down to the glass I observed an empty room, only the discarded clothing and broken glass remained. Both “Fuse” and “Tack” had vanished. I cannot, to this day explain, but If I am to be stripped of my exploratory and monitoring grant (and possibly executed), then I am finally free to speak. So despite the charges of releasing volatile subjects, I maintain my beliefs and my innocence. I also believe “the single flaw” to be the most powerful thing I’ve ever seen. To think, something unknown and invisible could make two individuals suddenly appear, and vanish too.
Will Overall lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He hopes to find the time and money to finish his pursuit of a degree in English, but his scratch offs and lottery tickets are always printed with the wrong numbers. His poetry has been featured in Five:2:One Magazine.
Occulum 