After a Creative Break

Tobi and I have taken a creative brake…
Sort of.
I have been thinking about long lost friends, they not dead just lost, for a long time and some from way back. I remembered the time from nearly 15 years ago when computer games as such started to take off. At the time I was into programming and learning everything I could about this things but my machine was about good as a type writer. I only got to watch other people playing the gaming wonders on their brand new and shiny AT486 or something like that, it was a long time ago.

We found a game on the net that has been released 14 years ago… it sounds like history now. It has taken all our waking hours in the last couple of… actually 5... Days (now that I check the calendar).

Fun it was. Childhood trauma forgotten, taken care of.

So we are back but it is not easy to be back completely. 5 days is a long time. Spring has came and gone here in Oulu while I have been looking only at the screen and we are not sure yet if summer or winter will follow. In this day and age the weather forecast is the last thing I will pay attention to. Tobi claims anyway that he as a bone to sense the weather to be for the coming days, occasionally I even listen to him although I think I might be better off tuning into weather forecast from Doha. Would be just us much use. Don’t tell him this, I wish not to hurt anyone’s feelings.

I recall something now that has not been a computer game and was mildly interesting to capture our attention. Actually it was Tobi’s attention captured and he dragged me into it.

Last week when spring has begun and the sun was shining and I ran around wearing sandals, and other clothing as well but on my feet it was sandals only, so start again: Last week when it was warm on the sun and people swarmed to the parks and café terraces, the trees have finally wakened. As if rising from deep, unconscious coma they looked around and realised it is time the add some colour to our lives. Which probably was not their primary realisation but most relevant to our sense of aesthetics.
Wannabe leaves, buds have begun to swell on the branches and some, some wild and reckless have started opening to the world exciting our anticipation ever more for the sight of bright green tender leaves. We hoped especially for the birch for that is, fresh leaves from the birch is something of a gastronomical heaven in dragon land and I have grown to like them as well (not kidding).
Then came Monday! Temperature dropped to just above 0 Celsius, a 20 degrees drop. Clouds, some snow, sleet and misery for all!!!
Misery for the buds that only a day before were so excited about the coming of a wonderful, everlasting summer.

I was oblivious to all these as my thought on getting home were involved only with tuning into the ancient game but Tobi is not so focused, thanks the … is there a creator? … for that. He, Tobi sitting on the back of my bike overheard something, a small segment of a conversation from among the trees we passed that he thought was worthy to investigate further. He could have just hopped of and we would have met at home but he really thought I should know about it as well so he leaned forward, head down to the right and in the right moment gently grabbed my foot and kept a tight hold of it till we came to a bumpy stop avoiding a lamp post with a breath and serious injuries by some wicked luck.

I limped back to the trees with him, he was limping also from solidarity and we started listening. There was it, faint voices coming from somewhere among the trees. I could not make out what they were talking about so I took a cautious step toward the noise, among the branches. Now I heard so close as if it was next to my ears yet still very quiet. Strange it seemed and I looked at Tobi to see if he could give me some advice. He was looking at me with the ‘what is your problem?’ look and pointed at the branch next to my head.

It took me several seconds, or perhaps minutes to realise that the voices seemed to be coming so faintly and from next to my head in the same time because they were. The buds, leaves to be were talking: To each other! Should I be a cartoon character my dropping jaw would have broken some of my toes but fortunately I am real. And so were the buds. We listened for several minutes but I could not realise the language they spoke, I didn’t understand any of it and I didn’t find it even the least bit familiar which of course didn’t surprise me. I am human and they were … I guess baby leaves so for all I know I could have been listening to baby giggles and googles. I glimpsed at Tobi several times, checking if he was just as puzzled by all this as I was but he appeared to take the situation as perfectly normal and he seemed to have understood the language as well, or at least his face gave the sign of someone who is concentrating on listening and taking in all the information that goes about ( a rare one for him by the way). Eventually I started to bore of the scene and asked Tobi if he could tell me what the leaves were talking about. Bit by bit he released it to me and it actually sounds quite interesting.

They think that they started too soon and now must stop and ‘grow back’ or ‘ungrow’. They blamed the trees for this rush generally and of course they understood where the trees are coming from in this. They need to breathe as well but until the weather is better they must find another way. The super young leaves smart enough to know that individually they will not achieve a scientific breaktrough but if they stand together they will be invincible. They have formed collectives and begun working on the problem of becoming basic buds that have no life in them till later time. We earnessed the dialogue from one or two of these collectives and their scientific discourses.
Apparently they have contacted the leaves of the pines applying for know-how. Those, have quite some experience on survival and may be able to provide assistance, unfortunately throughout the many generations they have forgotten much and nowadays they only do, not really know anymore. Some collectives have been set to estimate a timescale for positive scientific breakthrough and they possible applications for life of … buds and leaves regarding regrowing, degrowing and surviving winter. While we were there news came that it is said that as early as 2012 there will be applicable results. On this Tobi was laughing so badly all the way home that eventually I had to tie him with a bungee to the rack on the back. I didn’t want his loose legs to get caught in the wheel.

I still don’t know if it is true, we will never because the leaves wont be around till 2012. Generations will have passed by then. I am also suspecting that some really bored fairies tricked us and it hasn’t downed on Tobi yet. Never mind, at least he has got a good laugh out this.