In the beginning, was an idea.

It wasn’t a new idea. Perhaps the oldest idea of all… the very first one.

And being first, it naturally became that which drove all others. Down the road of existence. But since there were no previous ideas by which to navigate, it drove them blindly. This does not mean there was no destination. In fact, the destination was inevitable. As if predetermined, preordained.

Destiny.

The idea was that one could truly, be safe.

——————-

“I will make the perfect Nurf” repeats Takeshi.

To himself of course since there is no one left now. By court order (and as he is told, by their choice) he may never see his beloved wife and daughter again. None of the colleagues and admirers that used to compete for his valuable time and attention would dare visit him now. Devoted followers of the once great scientist hero… inventor of Nurf. They are all gone. All far too afraid to be seen as sympathetic (and thus tacitly approving) of the now completely discredited, disgraced… to be shunned as social pariah.

“That man who endangers children!”

How quickly and completely they turned against him. But Nakamura is not a man for recrimination. That patently futile exercise and product of the bloated ego. No, Takeshi’s character flaws lie on the flip-side of an all-too-common coinage in sabotaged self image. Blaming himself is far more productive.

Takeshi has developed a personal philosophy that his logical mind sees as most effective. When something in which he is involved goes wrong, he takes full ownership. That way he can also own the strategy for dealing with it. Fixing or discarding the faulty bits, and moving on. This strategy has always worked in the past. He has used it to turn all manner of failure into triumph. Culminating of course with this one great big success… from which he has now, failed.

Facing the most difficult regrouping of his life (internal as well as external) this lonely exile has at least facilitated an adequate venue. If all his efforts have led to this, he must now question everything at a more basic level. Look at the problem from a completely different perspective.

“Can Nurf be made perfect? But how… ? How can it… ?”

Suddenly a light appears in his mind. Sparked by switching the question from “Can?” to “How can?”

“Of course” he says to himself. “Saying that I will make the perfect Nurf and thus framing the question as asking if it can be made perfect, and then answering that I can and will… That was what was limiting me.”

“But by instead asking how… How can Nurf be made perfect…?”

“Yes! how indeed?”

Takeshi’s brilliant and considerably well-disciplined mind is now thrown into high gear. That seemingly simplistic exercise has opened this problem (that he has been working for so long) to completely new areas of discovery. Previously discarded and/or overlooked data are now in play as much as are the still salient solutions from that which he documented long ago. Looking at it from a completely new angle, he now sees what was hidden. He now considers what he once thought unworthy of consideration and… Takeshi suddenly looks up from the notebook into which he had just been writing. Furiously getting it all down. Does he dare consider…

“Oh my… !” The words bust from him. So long held back by his subconscious mind, they now sore into the light. Brazen and unabashed. Free at last!

“I need to speak with John.” Caught up in the surging joyous verve of his now unfettered verbage, Takeshi is suddenly moved to share this new insight with his old friend and colleague. Not at all aware of the ramifications of what he is about to do.

“Something is not quite right here… I need to speak with him right away.”