A Heathen in the Kingdom of Peace -- Arrival

A Note from Jeremy

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$ search KOP sessions 7D9.02.14 Arrival

## Arrival (read-only browse) 7D9.02.14 C:43 --

$ chat Hailey

# private: 7D9.02.14 C:43:E1
# Hailey 9:80 -

Oh, Hailey,
how I wish
you had been willing to come with me.
It's what? Two in the morning there?
You'll be sleeping now, I guess.

Nope.

I'm awake

You're awake.

Wishing you'd been willing 

To put off this part of your coursework

Just a little longer.

just a little?

Okay, a couple of years.
Your master's in education could wait that long
Couldn't it?

My supervisors said
I really need to move ahead.

Yeah, the supervisors say

This could have been a great honeymoon.

For a few day
Or even a couple weeks
Sure, great
If we could've afforded it.

But we could be getting paid to do this,
paid student teaching,

together
 in this beautiful Kingdom of Peace.

We've talked this over before

How many times?

Too many,
 I guess.

I'd've been happy just to spend

Our first year together student teaching
Near our families.

What about
my foreign language requirement?

Well, you've got another language 

You need to pick back up

The language of the Kingdom of Rabbits.

It's my foreign language. 
What have you got against it?

 

I've only studied the language for a month,
a long time ago.
What have you got against
 the beautiful Kingdom of Peace?

Honestly?

Of course.

I don't think it's so beautiful.

I still can't see why.

It gives me bad dreams.

Bad dreams

It takes you away from me.

In your dreams?

And in the real world, too.

It owns a place in your heart I can't touch.

Touching what can't be touched
is part of growing old together.

If only. 

Your Kingdom of Peace is not

# 7D9.02.14 C:64:B8
# Hailey 9:80 -

Not what?

A kingdom of peace to me. 

There's my train into town.

It's taking you away

# 7D9.02.14 C:6F:D4
# Hailey 9:80 -

From me.

# 7D9.02.14 C:7E:3F
# Hailey 9:80 -

Okay, I'm on the train.
I miss you so much.

# 7D9.02.14 C:8B:72
# Hailey 9:80 -

Hailey?

# 7D9.02.14 C:9E:96
# Hailey 9:80 -

#include "pic/0000A5" 3 compressed copy "
West Region International Airport
shining in the night
on its own little island in the bay --
  Looking back from the train
as I head in to Grand Incline."

Well, get some sleep.

$ terminate

# 7D9.02.14 C:A0:01 saved
# Hailey 9:80 -

$ journal KOP

# private unshared: 7D9.02.14 D:07:3D

#include "chat/Hailey/7D9.02.14 C:43:E1" copy

So it uses my traveling bandwidth to post pictures for her, but I do want her to see what I see here -- to see at least some of the beauty.

Would she be having those bad dreams if she were willing to join me in this adventure?

I have forebodings as well, but it is because she refuses. I am sure it is because she refuses to come with me.

(But no confirmation in my heart.)

So she did not come with me.

It would cost a day's wages to stay overnight at a cheap hotel in Grand Incline, and that is cheaper than staying at the airport. Hailey's not here with me, no reason to waste the money.

A night train with sleeping berths is a little more expensive than a hotel, but it would leave me in Deer Isles, just a local train to Shining Springs and a ferry to Three Days' Island. If I decide to be really cheap and take local trains, I'm going to be sleeping on a station bench somewhere between 0:80 and 3:00 or so.

I could deal with that if I didn't have the luggage. Even with my luggage, odds are not high that it will grow legs while I'm asleep in this country.

If I want to play the odds.

(No impressions in my heart.)

Hmm. Night buses --

There's a direct route to Deer Isles. Stops in Shining Springs after that. Seat available, has a luggage compartment. I'm within luggage limits.

(This feels right.)

$ terminate

# 7D9.02.14 D:0D:EB saved.

$ journal ALT

# shared: 7D9.02.14 D:25:72
# Hailey 9:80 -

Shifting to shared journal so I don't wake you. Sorry about using the chat before.

#$[Hailey/7D9.02.14 F:16:15 9:80 -:

It's okay. 
I was having trouble sleeping anyway. 

Sorry I zonked out on you while you ran for the train.
]

#$[Jeremy/7D9.02.15 4:35:72:

No problem about the train. Sorry about your trouble sleeping.

:'-(
]

Since you're not here with me, it seems to make more sense to not spend much time in Grand Incline, or on sightseeing on the way to the job.

I looked at taking a night train that has sleeping cars. It would be more expensive than a cheap hotel room, but it would leave me in Deer Isles within easy reach of Three Days' Island, just a local train to Shining Springs and then a ferry.

Also looked at taking local trains, but that would leave me sleeping on a station bench somewhere, waiting for a morning train.

The cheapest fare is a night bus, and it will also save me a hotel stay. So I'm heading on to Deer Isles tonight. The bus just happens to stop in Shining Springs after the Deer Isles Station, so it saves a bit of local fare as well.

#$[Hailey/7D9.02.14 F:18:6C 9:80 -:

And if I'd been awake, 
I'd've told you to get a hotel. 
I'm glad you're not going to be sleeping on a station bench.
Yeah, the sleeping car sounds interesting. 
But you need a place to crash before your first face-to-face with the board of education. 
And sightseeing by yourself wouldn't hurt you, either.
]

So, any pictures I take on the way, when I'm not asleep, will be night views.

#$[Hailey/7D9.02.14 F:19:C9 9:80 -:

And that's just fine. 
You really don't have to show me all the good stuff I'm missing.
]

#$[Jeremy/7D9.02.15 4:38:34:

:-/
]

On the plus side, it will save my traveling bandwidth a bit to not send pics. Want to save money in case you change your mind or decide to come visit.

#$[Hailey/7D9.02.14 F:1A:E1 9:80 -:

/:-|
]

$ suspend

# 7D9.02.14 D:4A:39 (autosave)
# Hailey 9:80 -

$ resume

# shared: 7D9.02.14 D:C3:7F
# Hailey 9:80 -

I'm on the bus, going over Great Lighthouse Bridge. With the cloud cover, I couldn't get a good night shot of Grand Incline, or of anything until God's Door.

#include "pic/0000A8" 3 compressed copy "
God's Door, city at night -- looking back from Great Lighthouse Bridge."

#include "pic/0000AB" 3 compressed copy "
Breaker Road Island in the moonlight -- looking ahead from Great Lighthouse Bridge."

Still too cloudy to get good shots. I guess I'd best try to get some sleep.

#$[Hailey/7D9.02.14 F:26:F5 9:80 -:

Nice pics for the conditions. 
It'd be a romantic view. 
Yeah, I'd kinda like to be there with you.

But I've got student teaching waiting for me here, and I've got to go meet with my supervisors today.

Get what sleep you can. 
Maybe you can find one of those old, traditional dinner-bed-and-breakfast style places when you get there, and relax and get organized before you talk with the BOE.
]

$ suspend

# 7D9.02.14 D:DB:5D (autosave)
# Hailey 9:80 -

$ resume

# shared: 7D9.02.15 4:3F:92
# Hailey 9:80 -

So I slept most of the way. 

Yeah, finding a db&b is my plan.

The bus driver was worried about the foreigner getting off alone before dawn in the middle of nowhere. I assured him that I could speak the language well enough to keep out of trouble.

But then the operator at the Deer Isles bus terminal seemed to really want to contact someone for me to meet. When I told her I was a few days early and would find myself a db&b until the scheduled meeting, she told me the db&bs would not let me register until after lunch and insisted I stay at Deer Isles Terminal and catch a later bus. Then she explained that the stop in Shining Springs is just a post by the side of the road, with not even a convenience store nearby. And the ferry terminal is a long walk.

There's a db&b within two long minutes' walking distance, but she says it's not that great a place.

You know me, I was all for going on anyway, but the bus driver went to the trouble of removing my luggage from the bus and putting it in the holding area for a later bus. So I gave in and now I'm spending a few hours in Deer Isles City.

#$[Hailey/7D9.02.15 4:51:55 9:80 -:

Now there's a woman who can talk some sense into you. 
Maybe you should marry her.

Hah. You know I'm just kidding.

But good for her.
]

#include "pic/0000B0" 3 compressed copy "
Sun coming up over the horizon in Deer Isles City -- taken outside the bus terminal. There are a couple of schools in view, the map says the near one on the left is an elementary school and the far one is a tech school. These are not schools where I will be scheduled to teach, I think. But if you were with me, you might have a chance to teach at one or both."

#$[Hailey/7D9.02.15 4:52:72 9:80 -:

Deer Isles City looks big city to me. 
Narrow streets, houses close together.
Is there any place in your beautiful Kingdom of Peace that isn't crowded like that?

And, I gotta say, you aren't convincing me of anything with this pic.
]

The operator is urging me to wait until the bus that arrives after noon. And she says she can arrange a taxi for me. Suggests I can hike around here a bit. Terminal staff will keep an eye on my luggage.

#$[Hailey/7D9.02.15 4:53:9B 9:80 -:

Ack. 
Now my radar is up.
]

I'm not inclined to ask that of them.

$ suspend

# 7D9.02.15 4:50:21 (autosave)
# Hailey 9:80 -

# chat request[Hailey private/7D9.02.15 4:55:01 9:80 -]

$ accept

# chat private: 7D9.02.15 4:55:87
# Hailey 9:80 -

Is this operator good looking?

You're asking me?
You know my opinions.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

So what is the beholder over there seeing?

Hang on, let me check.

I don't see her.

It looks like another operator has come on duty.

Male or female?

Male.

If you were here

I'd have to put up with 
Watching you watch the girls

you would see that I am not watching anyone.

And trying to guess which one has your eye.

Only you, Hailey, only you.

How am I supposed to believe that?

How am I supposed to prove something
 you won't see?

I know your aesthetic theories.
Moving attracts attention.
Attractive is what moves with confidence.
But beauty is what is most familiar and dear.

Exactly.

Aren't any men that rational.
And we haven't 
Known each other 
That long.

No couple knows the real beauty

in each other

until they've been married for years.

I don't want to wait that long
To know I can trust you.

If I thought it would prove to you

that I really do love only you,

I'd have put off the foreign teaching requirement

until you were ready.

But you didn't.

Because it wouldn't be the proof you need.
That proof can only be had
by keeping covenants together.
We could have made those covenants
and come here together.

Look who's talking.
I remember somebody besides me had qualms.

That was six months ago.

I talked it out with God.

Yes, you talked it out with God 
And your bishop.
But first you called me up at three in the morning
And scared me with your talk 
Of mistakes you made 
Under the stress of commitment
Making you doubt 
Whether your commitment to me was right.

I misunderstood.
I thought the errors were more serious than they were.

I know. 
If it hadn't been my heart on the rocks
I'd have thought it was cute.
Very idealistic.

I'm an idealist.

It took my bishop and yours
And both our parents
To convince you 
You were being too idealistic.

Sorry.

Your idealisms can be scary. 
You promised you'd stand by me.
Why aren't you standing by me now? 

I'm trying the best way I know how,
getting the advanced degree
 that you say I should.

It scares me,
You're changing your life
For me.

Why should it scare you?

I'm not that beautiful.

Yes you are.
You have to get past this fear.
You are beautiful to me.

But we really, really haven't 
Known each other 
That long.

 We knew each other before we were born.
I'm sure of it.

I'm just not sure.

It's the only explanation I can think of
for why I feel I've known you for so long.

I can't believe that easily.

I don't think you're going to be happy

until you do.

You're a great one for telling others
What they have to do.

I keep doing what you say you want

and watching it make you more unhappy.

How do you know what makes others happy?

If it made you happy

I don't think you'd keep asking me

to do more difficult things.

What am I asking that is so unreasonable?

Now there is a question
 I have to quit trying to answer.

Because I'm not being unreasonable.

If you were here I could kiss you.

And you've got to quit trying to solve your problems 
With kissing.
You didn't answer my question.
Is she good looking?
Is she beautiful?

I don't really remember,
so she must not be familiar to me
in any way.

Weasel words.

I remembered you
after the first time you said hi to me
at that dance.

But you don't believe in love at first sight,
Either.
So tell me about this woman.

Well, I remember she moved with confidence.

Uh, huh. 
And maybe you knew her 
before we were born, too.

 That's not fair.
I can't even remember her face.

I don't believe you.

I can't.

Uh, huh.

Hailey, I love you.

Why don't you come back where you belong?

We've had that conversation before.

Facts is facts. 
You never give in.

I've given in all too often.

If you aren't willing to come back
You should consider yourself free
To look as much as you want.

Zero isn't much.

You'd better believe 
I'll be looking.

What am I supposed to say to that?

When you come back,
If we're both still free,
Maybe we can talk again
About whether we should make those covenants
you say you want to make.

But,

Until you're back here again,
I don't want to talk about that.

Then what can we talk about?

The lessons, 
the students, 
the people we meet, 
sure.
Just not that.

Well,
I'm glad you'll let us talk
about some things.

So go hike with your bus terminal operator.

That's not fair.

Besides, she's not around any more.

Anyway, go hike around that city
Since you're not going to do any regular sightseeing. 
I need to get ready for tomorrow.

Well, maybe.

'bye.

Take care.

# chat Hailey private
# terminated by Hailey: 7D9.02.15 4:74:2A 9:80 -

$$ suspend browse

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[Note(Joel): Xhilr has several species of large rodents, (or small cattle, depending on point of view) very simliar to the Earth's rabbit, and also several species similar to the hyrax. The kingdom whose language Hailey and Jeremy mention is named after the rabbit-like animals, not the hyrax-like ones. And there is a somewhat separate historical Land of the Hyrax-like-animal.

Also, their calendar, as I'm sure you have noticed, is hexadecimal. 7D9_sixteen is 2009_ten and 15_sixteen is 21_ten. And you might have guessed it, but the meridian is a true zero, and month and day numbering also use true zero, so 7D9.02.15 is the 22nd day of the 3rd month of the 2010th year.]

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Before the Storm

TOC

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Backed up at https://joel-rees-economics.blogspot.com/2019/07/bk-heathen-in-kingdom-of-peace-arrival.html,

Backup of the formatting mess that Google's blogger.com editor made of the formatting (5th backup) here: https://joel-rees-economics.blogspot.com/2019/08/bk-5-blogger-fail-heathen-in-kingdom-of-peace-arrival.html.

A Heathen in the Kingdom of Peace

A Heathen in the Kingdom of Peace

by Jeremy Trace,
of Wide Island, Kingdom of Peace, Xhilr,
year 800_sixteen.

All Xhilr Publishing Rights Reserved by Author.

Earth Copyright 2019 Joel Matthew Rees

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Jeremy Trace of the planet Xhilr explores firsthand some of boundaries between cultures in his world, and the consequences of breaching those boundaries.

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0. A Note from Jeremy
1. Arrival
2. Before the Storm
3. Editorial Discussion

A Heathen in the Kingdom of Peace -- A Note from Jeremy

Title

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I suppose you'll think it goes without saying. Still, the parallels between the Union of Independent States and your United States of Columbia -- No? Oh. Amerigo. America. Whatever. Even though the parallels are there and are rather clear, they are not the same.

Xhilr is not your world.

There will be some who say the Kingdom of Peace is a proxy for some country on your Earth. For the sake of those who will cry Privacy! and Cultural Appropriation! -- It is not.

Springmoon and Mei had to think twice about it, but they decided we are far enough separated in spacetime that, by the point at which the privacy issues might matter, neither you nor we will have any reason to care that they are mentioned or known on your world. Hailey doesn't speak to me, but, when she last did, she told me she didn't believe in my fantasy worlds. I don't think her husband does either.

Names are at best approximately symbolic anyway. You would not recognize the actual name, in either the language of the Fishers (my language) or the language of the People of the Dawn (Springmoon and Mei's).

Of necessity, I borrow Joel's voice. I trust his translation. And since I have no use for money or other legal instruments from Earth, I assign Joel the copyrights in your world. I also trust him not to play intellectual property games with them, although he will only hurt himsel if he does.

[I've got a handle on the part about intellectual property games. Let's hope I get close on the translation.

My apologies about the images. Getting the text here is pretty difficult. So far, the images have not transferred well at all.

Oh. And I could mention a few translation issues here:

Most of the countries of Xhilr use hexadecimal numbering systems -- base sixteen. I'm using the common earth convention of A through F for the digits beyond nine:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F, 10_sixteen.

Even the time is usually hexadecimal, refer to the Xhilr clock on the right and the Earth clock on the left, below:

There are sixteen hours in a day. So, what we would call 3:00 PM would be A:00 (essentially) on Xhilr.

That makes the Xhilr hour roughly half again as long as what most of us call an hour on the earth. (We will ignore differences in rotation periods and in the entropy field.) Think of this as 90 minute hours.

I've chosen to call the sixteen divisions of the hour "long minutes". Work that out as 90/16, or about five and a half (5.625) earth minutes long.

And I've chosen to call the sixteen divisions of the long minute "short minutes". Short minutes work out to be about 21 seconds long.

A:BC would be about 11 x 5.625 minutes + 12 x 21.09375 seconds past the 5/8 of a day point that we call 3:00 PM, or about 4:06 PM on an earth clock.

I am essentially translating Jeremy's digital logs, comparable to chat, blog, and journal sessions, including the time stamps in the records. But I'm leaving out the cryptographic elements, since they provide no useful information to anyone on this earth. Can't access the timestamp servers, and what would we do with the proofs, anyway? -- Joel]

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Arrival

TOC

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Backed up here: https://joel-rees-economics.blogspot.com/2019/07/bk-heathen-in-kingdom-of-peace-note-from-jeremy.html.

思いで その壱 -- Omoide, Sono 1

When I was teenager, I was certain I would never see my fortieth birthday. I've beaten that by nineteen, and don't have any good reason to believe I won't beat it by twenty-five or thirty. And?

Some of my earliest memories:

(Why? No good reason. I was trying my hand at being an author of fiction, but life has gotten in the way. Fiction is hard to write well. At least, the stuff I've tried to write is. Personal memoirs should be easier. Much less planning and research, much less need to retain focus.)

-- I remember hearing my name called, running to ask my mom what she wanted, being greeted by a puzzled look. And one time she said, "That must be angels calling you."

(I had mostly forgotten those occasions by the time I was ten. Mom did not forget. She may once have mentioned Samuel, from the book of the Old Covenant. Many things come back to my memory as I get older.)

-- I remember getting a shock from sticking a screwdriver in an extension cord my dad had left out in the front yard so he could work on the car. That may have been one of the times I ignored the angel voices. Call me lucky, say there were angels watching over me. Same thing.

I recovered quickly, didn't tell my parents until much later.

But it left me with a dangerous addiction that I have somehow survived. No, I haven't randomly stuck screwdrivers in sockets since about the time I got baptized. There may be a connection there. Or it may have been my older brother that caught me at it around five and gave me a laconic warning that eventually took. Or both. My older brother baptized me, by the way.

Electronics and electricity have been something of a debilitating passion for me for about as long as girls have.

-- One morning, I woke up from a vivid dream that I had been given a fantastic new toy. I ran out in the front yard looking for it, but it was nowhere to be found. I asked Mom, but she knew nothing of it. I was bitterly disappointed when the reality of her suggestion that it was just a dream took hold. This was about the time I got the shock, I think. Don't remember whether it was before or after, though.

The toy? It was probably inspired in part by one of those all-purpose road-grader/bulldozer/backhoe/cement-mixer/crane toys that some toy companies persecuted parents with back then. I'm sure they are banned for safety reasons now, too many small parts to choke on, etc.

But this toy was a true Goldberg contraption. It had ten times as many gadgets on it, and was made of wood.

The dream was in color, if anyone is curious.

-- It would have been around this time I developed my first crush. (I think it was my first. Maybe not. Maybe my first big crush. Not counting my mother.)

She was the oldest child of a couple from the church branch who were friends of my parents. I got dragged along on the visits, but I don't think I needed much persuasion.

Being shy, I hid underneath my mother's legs and snuck peeks at her. Tried to get up the courage to ask her to share her toys, but couldn't think of how to go about it. (This was a pattern for most of my early years, maybe it has remained a pattern most of my life.)

She was cute in her diaper and no shirt. (Hey, I was the same age.)

For most of my pre-teen years I seemed to have a reputation among the girls my age at church of being something of a pervert. Or something. It did not help me get past my basically shy nature.

(I met this girl again at college. Remembered her name. If she remembered me, she did not admit it. She admitted vaguely remembering her parents talking about having lived in the town. She did not seem happy that I and my neighbor were called as home teachers for her roommate. But she didn't really complain. When she understood we were not using home teaching as an in for asking her or her roommates for dates, she dropped some of the walls she had thrown up. Even joined the conversations sometimes.)

I think the adults at church noticed my interest. Weirdly (but not really surprisingly, now that I understand the psychology of it) my shy interest in girls led to one sister calling me Joella Mary or some such thing when she wanted to tease me.

-- My mother would sometimes recall one occasion she was preparing me and the portable tub, to give me a bath, and when she turned her back I escaped in "nothing flat".

She would tell me of her growing panic as she searched the house, and her relief when several of the neighbor girls brought me back in my au natural state, crying. The neighbor girl had found me sitting on an ant-bed, ants crawling all over me.

I have something of a resistance to insect bites which may derive in part from the experience. But I have no memories of it.

-- My "best buddy" lived close by. He had a sandbox in his back yard, with toy trucks, road-graders, and other cool toys. He also had a tree house, and I think there was even a zip-line from the tree house for a while. (And I think I recall some discussion among the adults about the wisdom of that unsupervized zipline. There were safety issues on the terminating end, as well.)

But the most interesting thing about the guy was his imagination. We spent a lot of time in fantasy worlds.

Lest I give the wrong impresson, the fantasies were not exactly innocent. Rather dark, in fact, if a child's fantasies should be considered dark. They did cause me internal conflicts, even though they were interesting.

I don't think children under six trying to understand the stimulations of thinking about the human body should be considered perverted. Perverse, maybe. Not perverted. And if the sensations induced in the body by such questioning are confused with the pain of being cut, should that cause alarm at that age?

As long as it remains in the imagination.

I vaguely remember seeing "adult" magazines on their coffee table, and wondering about them.

There were aspects of his upbringing that I'm afraid his parents will have to answer before God for, even if he himself was by nature inclined, somewhat more than whatever is "normal" among humans, toward sexual interest.

-- This guy did not remain my best buddy.

Once, he told me to be sure to come over to his back yard. When I rounded the corner, he had one of the neighbor girls our age with him, and her pants were down. I do not remember much after that, but his backyard gate and the latch that took too long to open showed up in my nightmares for several years. In color.

My mother remarked on the sudden cooling of our relationship. She also mentioned once, about the time our friendship cooled, that I came back crying because I had had to beat him up for some reason. I still do not remember telling her that.

If the two incidents are the same, I seem not to have told her the whole reason. And now the memories are blocked.

-- I've had a hard time defending myself in fights since I was four or five. Conflict would tend to stimulate me, and the stimulation would make me uncoordinated. This may be connected with the above incident.

-- We had a dog we called Tuffy. He had to be tough because of the attention he got from some of the friends of my older siblings. When he got caught in the wheels of a car he chased, it broke my mother's heart. She swore off pets for several years.

-- My brother and his buddies dug a fort in the backyard. It wasn't a big fort, but it was big enough to once bury Tuffy up to his neck in.

Okay. It was big enough for a couple of kids a bit older than nine to hide in, if they scrunched down, and if it didn't count that we knew where they were hiding. I was too young to play with them, but I did sneak in a couple of times when they were at school.

After Dad found out Tuffy was getting fed dirt, the fort was filled in.

-- There was a public pool near the house, in a park named for forests that simply never existed in that semi-arid climate. We would go as a family, or as siblings. I learned to swim there, and swimming was my favorite way to exercise until I learned to dance in college.

Underwater is my favorite way to swim, by the way. I don't get enough traction to satisfy me on the surface.

I still remember the summer days in the pool, with the radio playing hit songs on the PA.

-- There was also a decommisioned bomber in the park, where children could play during the day (and teenagers during the evening). It was reasonably safe if you were reasonably intelligent how you played. It was eventually removed, some twenty years later, after it became commonly recognized as a dropoff point for illegal drugs.

It often smelled of urine.

But it was a great place to pretend we could fly, and it stimulated more than one child's interest in history and aviation.