About 50 years ago, Adrian was in the hall bathroom, opening and closing the cabinets trying to find his toothpaste. He glanced to the right into his room to see if he left it on his dresser, where he absentmindedly placed most things he didn't have an immediate home for. The only thing on it was his small rock collection and a lamp. The sun was rising above the mountain peaks, and Adrian stopped for a few seconds to admire their silhouettes painted against the orange light.
Further down, he heard a door open and footsteps stroll along the creaking floor. His sister’s face popped in the doorframe.
“Goodmorning,” she said. “You’re up early.”
“I know. I told grandpa I would meditate with him this morning,” Adrian replied. “I’m starting to think I should’ve slept in.”
Clara raised her identically thick black eyebrows. “I see. Well I need to use the bathroom when you’re finished,” Clara replied, and continued down the hall to the kitchen.
"Wait," Adrian said. "Have you seen the toothpaste I just bought?"
Clara kept walking. "No, you can use some of mine, but you'll owe me later."
Adrian stared into the mirror and frowned. He didn't like the sound of that. He also forgot to shave yesterday too. Teeth brushing would have to be skipped this morning then. He momentarily thought about skipping out on his grandpa, but he resigned himself to his fate, and with a sigh he walked into his room to dress. He threw on a crisp white t-shirt and replaced his gym shorts he wore to bed with a pair of green khaki shorts that ended mid-thigh. White socks were slipped on to match with the shirt. It was supposed to be a warmer spring day than usual all across Rasmania.
Adrian walked out of his room and down the hall into the kitchen and living room space where his mom and dad were gathered. His mom stood at a black gas-fired stove placing scrambled eggs with onions, peppers, and potatoes from a large cast iron pan onto a large brown ceramic plate. Kaarina worked as a lawyer an hour away from their home in the largest city in the region.
Kaarina Surbeck had the same dark brown hair as Adrian, which was shoulder length and straightened this morning. Her eyebrows were brown and thin instead of the family’s usual black bushiness. She wore small golden pearl earrings and a dark purple blazer with a smart blouse underneath. Her dress pants were gray and crisp, her heels were polished and black.
Kaarina finished heaping the eggs onto the plate and turned around in the kitchen to place them on their big dark brown dining table. After placing them in the middle across from Clara, who occupied the chair at the far right, already poised to shovel a portion onto her plate, she looked up to see her son walking towards the cupboard containing plates and cups.
“Good Morning son,” she said. “Clara told me you were meditating with grandpa this morning. He’s out on the back porch drinking his tea.”
Adrian sat down next to his dad after filling up a glass with water from the faucet. He grabbed a big wooden spoon in the middle of the table and scraped a large quantity of the egg mixture onto his plate.
“Are you going to make it to school on time?” his dad Olsen said, taking a sip out of a large blue ceramic mug filled with coffee. His mustache dripped the liquid onto his jeans.
Adrian took a fork and tasted the eggs. “Yeah don’t worry,” he gruffed. “I’m taking my bike with me. I’ll go through the wooded trails.”
“Sounds good. Nothing better than an education you know.”
“So you tell me.”
Kaarina sat a cup of orange juice next to Adrian and glanced at the clock hanging above the kitchen sink. “I’ll have to get going soon,” she said. “You kids let me know if you need anything when I’m driving home.”
Olsen slammed his mug down and declared that he was going out back to the greenhouses to begin his day of work.
“I need to hit the bathroom for a few and then I’ll be out there,” Clara replied in between bites of toasted baguette with butter.
Kaarina stood up from her chair and placed her dishes in the sink. She walked over and kissed Adrian’s head before grabbing her purse on the kitchen countertop.
“Love you guys, everyone have a good day. I’ll be back home later than usual. There’s going to be a lot of paperwork today since they’re breaking ground on the new place,” she said. A new construction project to build an ammunition plant in Teresin was scheduled to begin today. She was expected to finalize all of the necessary paperwork.
She walked out the front door. Adrian heard their old green hatchback turn on and the car reversing out of the gravel driveway and onto the street. He shoved the last bite of eggs into his mouth.
After placing his dishes in the sink on top of his mother’s he walked back to his room to grab his old canvas backpack. Adrian’s house was shaped almost like a key, with his room and his sister’s next to each other composing the teeth. His parent’s master bedroom sat at the end of the single hallway. The head of the key had very high ceilings containing the kitchen, living space, and dining table. The house was made of brick. Two glass sliding doors led out to the wooden back porch where his grandpa sat.
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Adrian put a pair of black sneakers on and walked out the back door onto the porch. His grandpa was sitting in a wooden rocking chair underneath an umbrella, sipping from his mug. Viktor was in his mid-seventies and possibly the most fit man Adrian knew. Old age had taken his hair and shrunk him down, but his youth continued to persevere in his mind and body. He was not overly muscular but fit and toned from daily walking, swimming, and hiking. A big white mustache attached itself to his bronzed wrinkled face. He wore baggy sand colored pants and black sandals with no socks, and a white sleeveless undershirt. He looked out over the landscape with sunglasses masking his eyes.
Viktor turned his head to Adrian’s footsteps on the wooden floor. “Good morning grandson. Did you sleep well last night?”
“Good enough I guess,” Adrian replied. “I hope it wasn’t too stuffy in your house. You know you can always sleep on the couch inside."
Viktor lived in a small guest house about 60 meters away from the back porch. The one-room building essentially only contained Viktor’s bed, a nightstand, a cramped closet, a bathroom, a small couch, and Viktor’s various small belongings. There was no electricity, furnace, or air conditioning.
“Oh you know I like to open the windows at night. Besides, when you get to my age you get colder more easily.”
Adrian nodded. His minimalist grandpa only used what he required. “Well, I’m ready to go when you are. Remember I still have school this morning.”
With that Viktor sprang out of his chair and grabbed a pair of rolled up woven rugs that were at his feet. The two walked eastward, towards big stone hills covered in trees. Adrian craned his head to the left and watched the many acres of unused farmland that grass and other native plants had started to reclaim. Ever since his dad started growing what he called his “cash crop” in the two greenhouses he stopped plowing and planting the more traditional crops.
Adrian and Viktor came upon the large facilities standing side by side. They could see the hazy outline of thin dark green stalks, with pointed leaves sticking out of thin branches. Past the greenhouses was a red and black barn containing various farming equipment. Clara and Olsen were stacking bags of fertilizer on a wheelbarrow when the pair walked by. Olsen slammed down a bag and looked up when he saw Adrian.
“I forgot to mention at breakfast, but do you know what slang term they started calling my new crop in the newspaper?” Olsen said.
Adrian thought for a moment. “I dunno, Green Fuzz?”
Olsen shook his head. “They’re calling it “weed”. Can you believe that?”
“Weed? Like the plants you kill with the chemical stuff in the barn?”
“Exactly. I don’t know how the hell I’m going to sell my crops when these new terms are making it synonymous with crabgrass!”
Clara came out of the open barn doors struggling with a rather large bag of fertilizer on the ground.
“Believe it or not, dad, but a lot of people our age prefer using that word,” she grunted.
Olsen turned to her and frowned. “But what’s wrong with cannabis? I think it sounds exotic.”
Clara heaved the bag onto the wheelbarrow. “The less syllables, the better,” she said matter-of-factly.
Adrian and Viktor continued on their way to the forest, stopping to get Adrian’s bike. Adrian usually rode it to school, which was 4 kilometers away. There was a bus stop a little less than a kilometer down the road from his house, but he preferred to cycle.
They reached the edge of the property and walked onto a dirt trail leading through dense underbrush and canopy. Adrian’s house sat right at the edge where the flat land turned into hills of sedimentary rock. A long time ago a sea had blanketed the country, leaving the crags and bluffs as a memorial to the underwater world. The landscape was a little rough but very pretty. Rivers had sliced through creating small gorges and canyons with waterfalls cascading into pools scooping out the rock underneath. This area of the country was popular with the more outdoorsy citizens of Rasmania.
The two started along a private trail that had been created before Adrian’s family moved into their home. They stepped over tree roots snaking their way into the rock, shimmied their way in between overgrown branches, marched up and down steep inclines. After 15 minutes they were at their destination atop a rather large cliff.
Adrian set his bike and backpack on the ground and walked to the edge and gauged the view this morning. He was standing on a ledge of rock facing north, a long sharp drop right below him into the wilderness. Looking out he could see the craggy bumps of more tree covered hills off in the distance. The sheer greenery available to take in with the eye was almost too intense. In the lower right hand side he could see a glimpse of a river cutting through the earth. It was beautiful as always, no matter the season.
Viktor walked up beside him and placed one of the small woven rugs at Adrian’s feet.
“What are you going to work on today?” he asked.
Adrian pondered the question. “I think I’d just like to play around with it today.”
Viktor chuckled. “That’s not very hard. You know when I was your age, I would’ve been up for hours already. I used to sit under waterfalls when I just wanted to “play around””.
Adrian rolled his eyes. “Whatever, I don’t have much time today, you know that. We can do the more in-depth stuff this weekend.”
Viktor placed his rug on the ground below him and sat. He took off his sandals and sat with his legs crossed placing his palms on his knees. He took a deep breath.
“I’m only teasing you. Come, let’s get started. Focus on your mental state at least. You told me about the quiz you have this morning.”
Adrian placed the rug on the ground and assumed the same position as his grandfather. He closed his eyes and listened intently to his heartbeat and breath. A breeze blew gently across the two and rustled the leaves in the trees above.
It is one thing to be in touch with your emotions, and another to be in touch with your energy. You may feel your heartbeat, your lungs draw in breath, your skin may feel sensations, but to a vast majority of people they could never manipulate their own physical mana. Adrian can grip and stretch it, rub and caress it, even throw it around inside his ribcage, and run it through his fingers like sand. He plays around with it like a child with a ball.
But looking from the outside you would never notice. You would only see two men appearing to be meditating atop a cliff. Stand a little farther away and you might miss them, that’s how still they are. They blend into the landscape and become one with each other for a moment. For Viktor it has become routine to climb up here and sit for at least an hour at a time. But for Adrian, it is instead a form of training, rather than leisure.