Kendric walked down the hill to his village Portree, on the isle of Skye. He never left his hometown and knew the hills surrounding his village very well. His parents didn't like to travel but Kendric longed for nothing else. He wanted to get a taste of all those different cultures living on earth. But in Portree every day felt like the same.
While he felt restless, he saw his friends running down the street. It looked like they did something stupid again as they always did and had to flee for the consequences of their actions. Kendric laughed, his friends were funny but to stupid for their own good at the same time.
Kendric hurried home since it was his uncle Jerry's birthday. He looked a lot like his uncle, not only their faces with small blue eyes and blond stubborn hair, but the way they walked the same as well and the need to see the world was definitely something he inherit from his uncle.
Uncle Jerry talks with a heavy Scottish accent. Kendric tried not to as much as possible since he wanted to travel the world and many people had problems understanding the heacy Scottish accent. Uncle Jerry had traveled many places, seen so many cultures and even married a woman from Peru whom he met on an expedition. They couldn't have any children so he always gave Kendric a little extra attention and actually spoiled him like crazy.
Kendric had no siblings, which he hated. He would've loved to have a little sister or brother. He hated it to be an only child. Though he made friends easily, he had never find someone in Portree which he truly could connect to. He felt like he didn't belong in Portree, like he belonged somewhere else, doing something else...
He finally arrived home and before he even stepped through the door his mother already yelled at him. Nagging about him being late and all dirty and demanded he took a shower immediatly. Kendric rolled his eyes and mumbled to his mom while he went up the stairs. His mom yelled some more but the only thing he heared was her asking what he was mumbling about. He smiled at her.
'Nothing mom. I will hurry up, I promise,' he said with his deep voice and he went into the bathroom.
He looked in the mirror at his dirty clothes. It was August, school was starting soon, the wetter hadn't bin that great this summer and it showed on his dirty clothes covered with mud. But the rain had never stopped him, nor the wind.
Downstairs his mother complained to his father while she ran through the house probably looking for her shoes and hairbrush as always. She was messy and never could find anything of her belongings.
His mom had a short haircut. Kendric thought she was a natural blond but she told him last year that it was dyed. He could care less about her hair or her way over the top makeup. He thought she looked ridiculous with all that makeup, like a clown. But what did he knew about it? He just didn't care about those girly things and certainly not at his mom. She just needed to be his great mom, which she always was and that was enough for him.
He had a quick shower so his mother wouldn't complain to much, which was impossible to prevent since he already came home late. While he was running down the stairs he buttoned up his blouse. His hair was still wet and the wax he put in, made it even more messier. His hair was constantly jumping up again, he always had a war going on with his haircut.
While he was on the last step of the stairs he felt his mom's eyes burning through his skull. He knew he was screwed and desperately looked for his father's help. His father came out of the kitchen and gave him a quick nod, which he always did. It was his way of telling Kendric it was ok whatever his mom was nagging about. For her a sign to start yelling at his father while still in search for her shoes.
Kendric saw her shoes next to the industrial leather chair with heavy black metal footrests in the living room. Their whole interior changed every 3 years or so. His mom always needed to change things and this time she chose for an industrial design. There were suede leather chairs and a couch, where before an iceblue corner sofa stood. A lot of rusty old things. But this time she was heading overboard. She had even re-wallpapered the wall with some rusty grey look wallpaper. Kendric felt like living in an old factory with all the industrial details in the house.
His mom still on a rampage - now spitting out her words of fire - roughly replaced all the furniture while looking for her shoes. Kendrick quickly brought her shoes. She looked furious, but then she smiled and kissed him on his cheak. His father knew when to keep his mouth shut when she was in a hurry and Kendric knew he had to find the missing object she was looking for and than she always inmediatly calmed down. It was a recurring event, every day, over and over. His mother suffers from early Alzheimer's and the forgetting part got worse overtime. His mother was only 32 years old and diagnosed 1 year ago.
When everyone was finally ready they walked to uncle Jerry who lived at the end of the street. The little house on the corner was nothing special. It was very simple, just like his uncle was. He never cared for the materialistic part of life. Kendric used the oldfashioned doorknocker and knocked three times with it. His aunt Jenna opened the door. With her high pitching voice she welcomed them in and hugged Kendric very tightly. He tried to congratulate her with uncle Jerry's birthday but he almost couldn't breathe because of her. He always wondered how such a small woman had so much strength. When she finally let go of him, he walked into the cosily furnished living room where Uncle Jerry was sitting in his big darkblue leather relax seat.
He never got up when someone came in. In the years of travelling and enjoying himself he loved to eat as well and it showed. That was one of the many things Jerry and Kendric had in common, eating... Uncle Jerry was a big guy!
He gave his uncle a steady hand and congratulated him with his 40th birthday.
'I see you're 40 years old now uncle Jerry, your belly starts to show like a full-term pregnant woman.' Noted Kendric with all his charmes and the most cheesy smile on his face.
While uncle Jerry just took a zip out of his pint, he spat out his beer, laughed out loud and almost choked on it. His mother entered the living room and she was concerned about uncle Jerry who was still coughing and laughing at the same time. She sat down next to uncle Jerry and hit him hard on his back only to kiss him and congratulate him at the same time. Leave it to his mom, to do the impossible all at once. She truly was a multitasker. His father gave his brother a firm handshake, nodded to uncle Jerry and sat down next to Kendric's mother.
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In the following hour it felt like the whole town was dripping in. The small livingroom was totally filled with people who all listened to the tails from uncle Jerry about far away places. Uncle Jerry could tell everything in such a fascinating way that you just needed to stick to the end. With his humour he kept the interest of all. It was truly a gift how he could tell the tails of the world and fascinate so many with his vivid imagination which he often used to increase the power of his storytelling.
But Kendric had heard them all before. Many, many times and went upstairs in the small office from his uncle to look at some old pictures and all the souvenirs which uncle Jerry took home over the years. As he sat at the desk, he saw among some old books a white photo album he had never seen before. He went to the shelf and picked it up. He opened the photo album as he walked back to the desk and read the first page:
"To my best friend Jerry, to look into the future you first need to see the past."
Signed: your best friend J.P
Kendric heard many stories but never had uncle Jerry mentioned his best friend. Who was J.P.?
He frantically flipped through the pages but the entire photoalbum was empty. Every page just blank and Kendric checked them over and over again.
Uncle Jerry suddenly entered the room: 'What are you doing Kendric?'
Kendric showed him the frontpage of the photoalbum. Uncle Jerry took the photoalbum in his hands and also flipped through the empty pages.
'Do you get it Kendric? Because I never did. I would think he was playing a joke on me, but J.P. was never much of a joker. Unfortunately he died one day after giving me this empty photoalbum, as if he knew he wasn't going to be around much longer,' and he looked sad while he stared at the empty pages.
'You probably wonder why I have never mentioned him, don't you? J.P. and I were friends for years, I met him in Italy on an excursion as our tourguide. We immediatly bonded. Since then we traveled a lot around together. He introduced me to many unknown places, forgotten places...' Uncle Jerry said while sounding a bit mysterious.
Kendric was intrigued by uncle Jerry's story but couldn't stop thinking about J.P's words on the frontpage. He wondered what they meant.
'Don't Kendric, don't!
I've thought about his words for so many years, never knew what they meant though and I never found out what it could've mean. I have searched the internet, searched everything. But without a clue, I just don't know where to start looking,' he told Kendric while the dissapointment dripped of his face.
Kendric took the photoalbum back in his hands when uncle Jerry handed it over to him and flipped through the empty pages again, but there was really nothing to see. In the signature he thought he catched a glimpse from a golden shimmer for a second but when he looked up close, there was really nothing special to see. Uncle Jerry patted him on the shoulder and returned to his guests downstairs again.
Kendric read the words over and over again. It frustrated him not to know, to not have any clue where to start to solve this riddle.
Why give someone a riddle without leaving them any clue where to start?
He was being hell-bent on finding out what this was all about. The cloud which blocked out the sun had a little opening and the sun filled the room with light for a second. There he saw it again, a golden shimmer on the signature appeared all over it. He held the photoalbum into the light and studied the signature carefully. He read the golden letters that were shining through, the capital A and yes it was the letter N! While dancing on the sunbeams he read out loud letter for letter:
A-N-U-N-N-A-K-I
He checked the other pages but those were still empty. There was just this one word shining through J.P's signature. He wondered what it meant and had no clue, never had he heard from Anunnaki before. As he closed the photoalbum and put it back on the shelf between the other books, confused as he was, he walked down the stairs where the living room was even more packed by now. His parents where enjoying themselves with all the guests and uncle Jerry had even more stories to tell and was leaning with one feet at his chair and moving like Jack Sparrow but with a bottle of beer in his hands instead of a whiskey bottle. He walked through the kitchen to the backdoor and went into the garten.
They had a very large garten, filled with lots of trees and bushes. There wasn't much place left to walk anymore but at the end of the garden there was this little place overgrown with weeds where you could still sit. Kendric made his way through the trees and bushes. While he sat down at the bench he wondered what the words of J.P. meant and he took his phone out.
He opened his searchbrowser on his iPhone and typed the word Anunnaki in the searchfield and pressed enter. He opened the first hit which continued on wikipedia:
The Anunnaki (also transcribed as Anunaki, Annunaki, Anunna, Ananaki and other variations) are a group of deities who appear in the mythological traditions of the ancient Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians, and Babylonians.[1] Descriptions of how many Anunnaki there were and what role they fulfilled changed over time. In the earliest Sumerian writings about them, which come from the Post-Akkadian period, the Anunnaki are the most powerful deities in the pantheon, descendants of An and Ki, the god of the heavens and the goddess of earth, and their primary function was to decree the fates of humanity.
To him this was all just a lot of religious cult gibberish, which he never had any interest for. He didn't know a lot of history, neither did he paid attention in class. He closed the browser. Why make a reference in secret which only appear with sunlight about the Anunnaki mythology and at the same time refer to the past and the future? It just didn't make any sence. For someone without any sense of humour, this was actually quiet funny. One of many conspiracy theory thinkers? These days, the world seemed to be filled with them. Youtube, facebook, twitter, there is just no avoiding them. Impossible! Everywhere they pop up with their link to some weird website with a whole blog about some conspiracy, youtube video's with weird robotic voices and so on. If we thought the darknet was a hostile place, than stay away of social platforms these days. Kendrick laughed at his judgmental theory and what he thought was a perfect analysis of contemporary behavior.
Kendric got up with his phone still in his hand. But all of a sudden he couldn't move anymore and it seemed the bushes had closed in on him. He was startled and accidentally dropped his phone. While he turned around he noticed that there was just no light to be seen anymore. It went darker and darker and he felt claustrofobic while desperately searching for his phone. It seemed the bushes were closing in on him more and more with every breath he took. He hyperventilated and tried to reach for his phone to call someone for help but had the feeling he couldn't breathe anymore. Slowly everything went dark before his eyes and he became dizzy untill he passed out...