Chapter 2: Dreaming . . .

CHAPTER 2: DREAMING **. . .**

Deedee looked away from the softly sobbing person in the windowpane. After a while, her attention became focused on the 500 channel, 70 inch flat screen, surround sound, digital television in the family room. No entertainment there! From reruns of “Fear Factor” showing people eating horse manure, to commercials of animated mucus, from old cartoons featuring talking meatwads, cups of soda pop, and French fries, to archived news programs reporting all about what United States senators do in the men's room, it seems that just about everything in the vast wasteland of commercial and cable TV annoyed and offended Deedee's sharp mind and sensibilities. “Surf's not up. No channel surfing today!”, thought Deedee.

“The Internet is not much better”, she thought to herself, as she walked over to the high-speed, all digital, unlimited broadband computer. However, Deedee shared a secret with Sherry, and that was a love of classical music. She booted up the computer and called up one of her favorite classical music stations, WAUS, from Barrien Springs, Michigan, USA. When the calming music started playing through the computer speakers, Deedee walked over to the big sofa and dropped into it like a ton of bricks. Soon, she felt very weary and stretched out on the sofa like a cat ready for a catnap. As she began drifting into sleep, the announcer on WAUS mentioned that the next selection to be played would be “The Nutcracker Ballet Suite” by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. How pleasant, she thought, that music is so dreamy . . .

Soon, Deedee fell into a vivid, bizarre, and seemingly so very real dream.

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Darla D'nell Ryevalley was bored. Bored and lonely. As lonely as she had ever been in her fourteen years of life, or so it seemed. She sat in an easy chair, next to a lobby window at the J. Paul Getty / Yuri Honda Memorial International Research and Education Center, located on the Prince Edward shoreline of Antarctica. Unchecked global warming had already begun, and had begun causing changes to the earth's climate systems, including the melting of the ice at the Antarctic shoreline, and the southern polar glaciers, so that dry land was now exposed around the entire parameter of Antarctica. The United Nations, together with wealthy private benefactors, had built a research and education facility there, to bring together the world's best scientific and educated minds to combat the growing global warming crisis. The climate crisis was so bad that the land areas adjacent to the equator were now so hot as to be inhabitable.

Deedee looked out of the lobby window at the U. N. flag atop a flagpole, snapping sharply in the chilly, blowing wind. The cold, windy day belied the fact that it was the second Sunday of December, 2054 C.E. Summers in Antarctica were now cool, crisp, and pleasant, with only an occasional day of cold weather. Deedee always thought it was so unusual to observe the upcoming Christmas Day in the middle of summer.

After her mother had died in a tragic automobile accident, her father had been asked to join the investigative team at the Antarctic research facility. Deedee had gone with her dad; they had been there for over two years now. It was exciting at first, meeting all of the different people from all over the world. Deedee enjoyed attending the middle school that was part of the Education Center. But as the months went by, especially the cold winter months with little or no daylight, Deedee became increasingly restless and bored.

" There you are, Deedee! Your dad said to look for you in the lobby, and that you would be wearing a green polo shirt and denim capris.”, came a voice from across the lobby. It was Dorisu Toyoda, the young Japanese woman who was her father's lab assistant. She had on a white lab coat, unbuttoned to reveal a pretty pink dress. " Here are your tickets to tonight's performance of the Nutcracker Ballet. It will be held in the center's amphitheater, in Building 22, at the 7:30pm half-hour. There will be a reception afterward. Included in this envelope is your ticket for that. Your father says that you should please try and attend, since tonight is the last performance of the ballet troupe's World Tour. Your father also told me to tell you that he regrets that he can not attend the ballet with you, so he has asked me to be the one to accompany you tonight." said Dorisu.

“Busy again, with no time for me? So typical of dad ! ” thought Deedee.

" O.K., I'll meet you at the vending machine enclave of Building 22 at 7 p.m.", said Dorisu. "I'll look for you there.”, replied Deedee.

Deedee put the ticket envelope into her jeans’ back pocket and settled back into the easy chair. Once again her attention was fixed on the fluttering U.N. flag. “The global warming project wasn't the only endeavor at the research center.”, recalled Deedee. About nine months ago, to combat her boredom, her father obtained for her an All Access Pass and I.D. card. After all, how much trouble or concern would a fourteen year old girl be? Now, with the freedom to explore the entire facility without restriction, and the ability to talk to everyone that she would meet, plus the opportunity to overhear bits and pieces of others conversations, Deedee was able to gradually piece together what was going on.

Called " Project Resurrection", the secret program involved the implanting of a RAM computer chip, the size of a lima bean, into the brain of a volunteer human. The chip would contain all of the lifetime output of notes, research papers, speeches, comments, ideas, and personality traits of a famous and important scientist from the past. So, instead of humans spending years or decades of time teaching and learning, with this one operation, the volunteer human overnight would “become” the famous scientist of the past.

The altered humans were called P.A.I.N.E.D. humans, an acronym for Planned Artificial Intelligence Network Engineered Development. Once interfaced with the chip, the P.A.I.N.E.D. human could immediately join the team and use their new found knowledge to begin solving the global warming crisis. However, it was rumored that the first P.A.I.N.E.D. human died the next day. The second volunteer human went insane within a month, and the chip had to be removed. However, the third attempt was successful, resulting in the “reincarnation” of “Albert Einstein”, and the fourth one became “Thomas Edison”. Although she was allowed full access to everything on base, Deedee had yet to met a P.A.I.N.E.D. human. You would have to recognize them by their selected subject's personality, not by their actual looks.

To check the time, Deedee flipped open her Personal Device. It created a 3D hologram just above the surface of the device, that of the Big Ben Clock Tower in London. “Time to get ready for the ballet.”, thought Deedee, as she dragged herself from the easy chair.

That evening, Dorisu met Deedee prior to the seating in the amphitheater. Each congratulated the other on how nice they looked. Dorisu had on a light gray sleeveless china dress with pink trim, split on both sides up to her hips, and red pumps. Deedee was wearing a sheer cream-colored chiffon blouse, black velvet stretch leggings, and black oxford flats. The Nutcracker Ballet Suite was unbelievably wonderful. Deedee especially liked the young teen-age girl who danced the part of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

At the reception afterward, Deedee recognized the young ballerina standing by the refreshment bar. She was wearing a white formal blouse with a dark red bow tie at the front of the neck collar, over that was a form-fitting black dinner jacket. She also had on a dark green plaid, pleated mini-skirt. She also wore black ballet slippers.

“YO ! I just wanted to tell you that I really enjoyed your performance tonight. You Rock!”, said Deedee.

" Why thank you so much! I'm Cindy Grant ”, replied the pretty teen-age girl.

“ Chill out, No way! Are you related to Amy Grant ?”, cried Deedee.

“Amy Grant was my grandmother”, said Cindy.

" You look just like her, especially wearing that outfit", Deedee observed.

" My outfit is similar to the outfit that my grandmother wore for the filming of her first secular music video. She also wore this outfit to the Grammy Awards one year.”, said Cindy.

“It's still real cute! I'm so glad I got to meet you. Maybe I'll see you in another ballet sometime. I really love the ballet", said Deedee, as Cindy was distracted by another well wishing guest.

A few minutes later, Deedee saw Dorisu, and told her that she was going to wait in line for some snacks and a drink. While she was in line, another person came up and stood behind her. Deedee looked around and saw a pleasant middle-aged woman dressed very professional and business-like. She was wearing a sharp, upscale black ladies business dress, with a light blue bolero jacket over the dress. Deedee found herself staring at the woman, and after a moment, blurted out-

" I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I . . . ahh . . ., It's just . . .err . . . , You look so wow . . . double wow . . . . ahh . . . I mean nice. I mean, I'm Deedee Ryevalley, Giles Ryevalley's daughter . . . you know . . . ." The woman smiled sweetly.

" My, my. You are the observant one. I know who you are. Hi! My name is Mary Clinton, Antarctic ambassador to the United Nations”, said Mary, " I'm related to the Clinton family. "

They talked for about five minutes, until they reached the refreshment tables. After she filled her plate and grabbed a drink, Deedee looked admiringly at Mary one last time, before she walked away to find a place to sit down.

After Deedee had finished her snack, she got up to dispose of her leftover items in the recycle bin. She returned to her seat, and began to look through the crowd for Dorisu. Suddenly, she thought she saw a familiar face. This person looked like Leonard. No! Can't be! Although not related to Leonard, this person looked like he could have been Leonard's older brother! Same dirty blonde hair and everything! Deedee made her way through the crowd to stand next to him. He was talking to an older couple. They referred to him as “Albert”.

As Deedee was waiting her turn to talk to the seemingly familiar stranger, her attention was drawn to a couple of children a little distance away, probably a brother and sister. They were talking and playing with one another. The boy was about ten years old, wearing blue dress pants, and a white shirt with a small dark blue bow tie. The eight year old girl was dressed in a beautiful snow white little girls party dress. The dress had an empire waist, and was styled like a child sized maternity dress. Her dress had tiny white ruffles around the square neckline, and around the above-the-knee hemline. She had on a pale blue hoodie over the dress. The dress was matched to a pink and white petticoat, white frilly socks, and pink Mary-Janes.

Without warning, the boy cried, "I'll get you”!

“No you won’t!", squealed the little girl, as she bolted through the crowd, with the boy close behind. As they darted past “Albert”, he was startled. They upset him causing him to spill his mixed drink, and the cold drink in his hand splashed all over Deedee's left shoulder and back.

"I'm so sorry, Miss!", said Albert as he came to Deedee's aid. He had her sit down and then he retrieved a towel from a nearby waiters’ station. The wet polo shirt clung to Deedee's back and arm, revealing the outline of her training bra. Albert patted her dry as best as he could, apologizing profusely.

Deedee knew that she should not ask, but she was burning with curiosity.

" I heard people calling you “Albert”. Are you a P.A.I.N.E.D. human", she implored? Albert was taken aback for just a moment, then he smiled.

" I shouldn't be telling you this, but yes, I am a P.A.I.N.E.D. human. I am Albert Einstein", said Albert.

“I'm so glad to meet you. I'm Darla D'nell Ryevalley, Giles Ryevalley's daughter", replied Deedee.

They sat at the table and talked for about twenty minuets. Albert was a very likable person, thought Deedee, plus he looked a lot like Leonard. In fact, Albert's personality was similar to Leonard's, but without Leonard's toxic masculinity and bad attitude. Albert asked Deedee what her favorite hobbies were. Deedee explained that she loved to play Chibi Chess, and that she played almost every Sunday at the recreation center on base. However, it was rare that she would win.

" Playing at Chibi Chess is all about knowing matrix mathematics and mathematical probability. So . . . .

Would you like to know how to win at Chibi Chess? ", asked Albert.

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