Read The Mendelssohnian Theory: Action Adventure, Sci-Fi, Apocalyptic ,Y/A Online
Authors: Dor Toker
The Mendelssohnian Theory: Action Adventure, Sci-Fi, Apocalyptic ,Y/A
The
Mendelssohnian Theory
Dor Toker
The Mendelssohnian Theory/Dor Toker
Copyright © 2015 Dor Toker. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the
permission, in writing, of the author.
Translated from Hebrew by Yaron Regev
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dortoker
Email: [email protected]
Table of Contents
In the beginning, there was nothing.
A long time, endless in its essence, chaos governed all. All
was nothing, and nothing was chaos.
Not immediately, not all at once, thousands of twinkling
lights began to brightly burn, puncturing the darkness with the beams of their
light, celebrating time and again the cycles of their birth and demise.
Two vast blazing bodies slowly sailed the liquid space,
heading toward one another, and with a thunderous crash exploded into a million
separate bodies, spreading all over the vast expanses. Flames of light preceded
thick inflammable jet streams that punctured the darkness and burned the remote
distances. At the center of the bubbling spheres of light, hydrogen and helium
atoms crumbled into protons and neutrons, unforming and reforming. From among
the nebulas of gas, new suns were born, and around them, circling planets were
formed, attracted and repelled by the burning heart.
Between the second and the third planets, at the center of a
system circling a large fireball, just now created in spaceless, timeless
terms, a tiny black seed materialized. As soon as it appeared, the seed
attracted gasses and particles of matter from the space surrounding it. Its
volume increased until it formed itself into an elliptical ball, changing its
position among the nearest planets and the sun.
The unexpected appearance of this new body forever changed
the balance of the powers of attraction and repulsion between the planets
orbiting the burning star.
Somewhere else, hundreds of thousands of parsecs away from
the infantile solar system, the being called ‘Inseminator of Worlds’ nodded at
his female partner, also an ‘Inseminator’. A smile rose on her face, and they
both concentrated and reported their success to the center. Their mission was
now complete, and they needed to wait for the evolutionary process to run its
course. The estimated time before full hatching will occur: four and a half
billion of the tiny planet’s cycles round its mother star.
Wisdom begets patience.
A creation story from the traditional writings of the Kner-Odin,
the third millennium.
“Tell me,” asked the girl, “do you think there’s anything out
there?” in her voice, whispering in his ear, hope and curiosity mingled.
Unexpectedly, her question paralleled exactly the teenage
boy’s own thoughts, and the coincidence surprised him and deepened his feeling
that this was a special moment in his life. The expression itself
‘coincidence’, had never been so clear as in the moment they lay on their
backs, touching one another without touching, their gazes concentrated on the
dark skies visible beyond the transparent dome (Bubble ©) that had enclosed
their lives since birth.
As far as the two youths were concerned, there was no other
reality. They’ve learned a bit about the history of the world, and were
familiar, just like any other boy or girl their age, with the sequence of
events that led to the construction of the climate bubble that enclosed the
Jewish Reservation, and protected them from annihilation. But they have never
gone beyond the opaque inflexible walls of the bubble. Therefore, they were
unsure whether the stars hovering in the sky were real or artificially painted
on the ceiling of the dome. And because they had no way of knowing which of the
stories told to them from birth were true, and which were invented by the
feverish minds of their parents, teachers and the few Mendelssohnian rabbis
they’d met at school, they chose to doubt them all.
The boy did not answer, and his friend’s question continued
to echo between them. He did not know what to say and was afraid to ruin the
moment with a foolish answer. It felt good to lay quietly like that beside her,
at night and out of town, only the two of them looking at the universe above.
He hesitated and considered for a long time before inviting
her to follow him to ‘his mountain’ as he referred to the small hill next to
the farm in which he had once lived with his parents while they were still
alive. He was admitting her into his holiest of holies.
The sudden death of his parents had brought a change in his
official status and overnight he’d become an orphan, supported by the community
of the capital, Kfar Saba.
A short time after the “Shiva” mourning period over the death
of his parents had ended, he was sent to the city’s main boarding school, the
Kinneret Boarding School, and was housed in a room with two other pupils his
age. When the first night at the boarding school had descended, and the heavy
breathing of his new neighbors could be heard in the background, he had
realized for the first time that he was alone in the world. Throughout his
life, his parents were always by his side, and he did not need anybody else.
And now, he felt that they had abandoned him. He was alone. Tears ran down his
cheeks while he lay on his back and stifled his sobs. He fell asleep as morning
approached and woke about two hours later, baffled, as the two children in the
adjacent beds rose and began to prepare for the new school day. He waited until
they finished dressing and left the room, only then did he get up and get
dressed. He walked out of the room and passed through the long and narrow
corridor into the classroom he’d been assigned on the previous day. Once he had
entered, he located an available desk and chair at the far end of the classroom
and sat down, ignoring the stares of the other pupils. The teacher, who was in
the middle of checking attendance, was quiet for a moment and waited until Adam
took his seat. She nodded at him and flashed a little smile, then continued to
read the students’ names. The boy did not make an effort to return her smile.
On his face was stretched the same uncaring expression he adopted for himself a
moment after he’d heard about his parents’ death. Whenever one of the adults
around him attempted to console him, the boy would push them away with a
nervous and impatient flutter. His gaze would turn opaque, and he enclosed
himself with furious silence.
At the end of the lesson, he followed the rest of the pupils
to the schoolyard and watched their games from the sidelines.
“Are you Adam?” he heard a voice behind him. He turned
around, surprised, and stared straight at the most beautiful girl he’d ever
seen. She took his breath away, and he could barely manage to nod in
affirmation. “This is for you,” said the girl and handed him a folded envelope.
She smiled a little smile, turned from him and went back to her friends. Adam
followed her with his eyes until she disappeared among the other students. Only
then did he open the envelope. In it, he found a Friday dinner invitation from
Dr. Amir Lev and his wife, Alona. He had heard of Dr. Lev just like any other
boy within the confines of the bubble. He was the head of the reservation’s
Mendelssohnian engineer guild. His father had brought up Amir’s name on
numerous occasions, and judging by his tone, Adam assumed they were more than
mere acquaintances, but also close friends. Nevertheless, what interested the
boy the most was the messenger girl. During their brief encounter, he had felt
her penetrating gaze peeling him from all the protections he’d wrapped his body
with since that terrible day, exposing who he really was.
Throughout that day and the ones that followed, the boy,
Adam, could not take his eyes off her. He was fascinated by her beauty, with
her careless demeanor, her confident gait, and infectious laughter; he
attempted, only partially successful, to conceal his interest in her.
From listening to other pupils’ conversations, he had learned
the girl’s name was Naomi. As he suspected, she was Dr. Amir Lev’s daughter.
The moment she addressed him on the first day of school was the first hopeful
moment in his aimless journey in the kingdom of sadness that reality had forced
upon him, even though he assumed the girl was completely unaware of her
influence on him. And indeed, during the family dinner, he’d decided to attend
after many hesitations, Naomi did not notice his longing, but her parents, Amir
and Alona, had indeed noticed the bashful glances of the youth. Adam felt the
sympathy Amir Lev had for him, but he felt a certain reluctance from the mother
and could not understand why. Both parents were surprised to discover the
likeness Adam bore to his late father, and Alona had bothered to mention it
aloud. In reaction, the mother received a barrage of fiery gazes from her
husband and daughter while Adam felt a growing discontent in the sound of her
voice. The way in which she’d hurled the likeness he bore to his father at him
left no room for doubt about her opinion of the late father and his son who was
standing before her. He thanked her with politeness and a seemingly indifferent
expression, even though he was shocked by her direct words and the mention of
his late father. Everyone else avoided mentioning him even with a hint. To all
appearances, it seemed that mentioning the likeness he bore to his father had
not influenced him, but inside him, the insult burned. She had embarrassed him
and cracked the fortified wall he’d erected around his heart to remove and
suppress his pain. The first chance he had, he parted from the family and
returned to the boarding school.
Later that evening, a knock was heard at the door of his
room. Naomi, who’d just returned from her home, stood in front of him silent
and embarrassed. He overcame his own embarrassment and invited her in, but she
remained standing at the entrance. “I apologize for my mother’s behavior,” she
finally said and lowered her eyes to the floor.
Adam blushed. “That’s all right,” he tried to calm her. “You
can’t control the thoughts of other people. Besides,” he added, “I’m sure she
didn’t mean any harm.” He no longer felt angry with her mother. Actually, he
was surprised by his reaction to her words; he should have expected some people
might notice the resemblance between him and his father.
“Sometimes I don’t know if that’s right or not,” said Naomi.
And following a moment of silence, she added, “I think she can’t control it.”
Adam was embarrassed. Naomi was excited, and he realized that all the airiness
he’d seen in her till now was nothing but pretense. Behind the mask of trusting
freedom on her face, a sensitive girl was hidden. Without uttering a single
word, he held her hand and invited her outside the dormitory. They walked
around the complex of the boarding school till dawn, and then parted and each
returned to their rooms without exchanging any words.
The next day and the ones that followed, they acted as if
nothing had happened between them and were careful to hide their embarrassment
from one another. A few days later, during gym class, the pupils went outdoors
for a two mile run across the sandy areas next to the boarding school. The
class ran as a single body, but Adam and Naomi hastened their pace and quickly
left the rest of the runners behind them. Toward the end of the second mile of
the race, Naomi pushed Adam in the direction of the sand dune. They rolled down
the slope and lay still at the bottom of the hill without being discovered by
any of the teachers. The rest of the runners had passed them by as well,
without noticing their absence. Just in case, they waited for some time, and
only when they were certain they had been left behind and were by themselves,
they rose to their feet, brushed off the sand and began to march side by side.
Once more, they were silent, and it appeared that silence suited them. They
later explained to their classmates that they had taken a wrong turn, and by
the time they realized their error, they’d found themselves to be far removed
from the planned course. Since that day, they returned to meet several more
times, always secretly, a little less quiet, telling each other about their
past. She was the only one to whom he revealed the anger he felt toward his
parents after their death for leaving him alone. The widespread version was
that they had committed suicide, but the more Adam refused to believe that
version, the more doubt trickled into his most secret thoughts and the more he
was overcome by anger.
Most of the time, it was Naomi who would initiate their
meetings. This time it was different. This time Adam had mustered his courage
and invited her to visit the special place he’d once shared with his parents,
and he was excited and elated when she’d consented. This time, he had decided,
he would share his concealed emotions with her.
Now here they were, on top of his mountain, maybe soon to
become their mountain? And his heart was beating fast.
He took an instrument to which two thin wires were attached,
a little ear knob at the end of each. He inserted one knob into his own ear and
offered Naomi the other one. “Insert the edge into your ear,” he instructed.
She was unfamiliar with the ancient technology and hesitated for a moment.
“It’s all right,” he calmed her down, “that’s how they listened to music once.”
She obeyed him and he activated the instrument. Naomi became tense when a song
began to play in her ear. “They were called Floyd and Pink,” the boy explained,
“four hundred years ago, they were considered to be the most important
musicians in the world.” Because she trusted him, Naomi immediately relaxed and
examined the way he was listening attentively, a smile flooding his face. She
surrendered to the music and relaxed her body next to his. “The music makes me
brave,” he said after a few moments and did not elaborate. But he didn’t need
to explain anything. Naomi felt exactly the same.
“My father owned a Nut telescope, (NUT-Narrow Ultra wave
Tellespace ©),” he began to speak again without looking at his girlfriend by
his side, “we could see the mining factories on the surface of Mars with it. I
once even managed to see Europa, Jupiter’s moon, so close that I thought I
could even see the Sailships there. Of course, that was impossible because the
telescope, according to my father, was not powerful enough to see across such
vast distances.” He drew silent and continued to stare at the dark skies above.
Naomi shivered and her arm clung to his. She was taller, but their heads were
close as they lay side by side. She turned on her side and her nose fluttered
on his cheek. He didn’t even dare to move, but she’d noticed his excitement and
smiled.
“I asked him whether Europa was the furthest point human
beings managed to reach or were they able to leave the solar system and find
aliens. Well, you know, the sort of questions a child would ask,” she nodded
and he continued, “then my father told me about the Creators.”
“The creators?” she didn’t understand. “Who are the
creators?”
“Oh, it’s just a stupid legend,” he dismissed the matter
offhandedly, “the type of story my father would invent because he had no energy
to answer his son’s complicated questions.” Anger weaved itself into the boy’s
voice, as well as restrained insult and hurt. Naomi could feel the force of his
emotions passing to her from his body, touching hers.
She rose on her elbows and kissed his mouth. He was surprised
and lay petrified, not daring to move a muscle. Naomi burst out laughing and
embarrassed him. “So this is how it feels to kiss a corpse,” she said and Adman
reluctantly smiled. “Come,” she instructed and sat up. He rose and sat in front
of her. She took his face between her hands and bent to kiss him once more,
this time he yielded to her touch and his lips parted. They kissed forever; at
least that’s what it felt like to the breathless, dizzy Adam.
Suddenly, while they were clinging to each other, the place
was flooded with a glittering artificial light. From among the rocks
surrounding them, appeared, as if from nowhere, dark figures that surrounded
them. They attacked the young lovers that had just now begun to discover their
love, and forcefully separated them. Adam tried to release himself but was held
by strong hands that pulled him back. He saw that Naomi was held by one of the
attackers as well. The knob dropped from her ear while his remained hanging
from it. He managed to hear her emit a sharp and frightened scream before her
abductor sealed her mouth. Adam twisted wildly and attempted to break free, but
his attackers were many and far more experienced. He was forcefully bound, his
hands were tied behind his back and his head was covered with a black cloth.
After he’d been thrown on one of the attacker’s shoulders, he was carried for
some time, he couldn’t tell how long, until he was thrown roughly into the
trunk of a vehicle of some sort. He tried to jump outside, but a hard blow from
a solid object to the back of his head dizzied him until he lost
consciousness.