Intrinsic Encounters (el. knyga) (skaityta knyga) | K. M. Oddeck | knygos.lt

Aprašymas

MY DESIRE TO BECOME A GENIUS started when I realized my parents love electronic gadgets above all else in this known universe. The two are highly passionate physicists, madly in love with all things science and magical. Ever since I can remember, it’s all they’ve lived and breathed for, and many a time during limited edition issues at the mall, very nearly died for. This I couldn’t understand. I, of course, was left to my own means. It was driving me crazy.
This insufferable situation lasted until the eve of my adolescent years, when, suddenly emboldened by the wild prospect of approaching teenagerhood, I decided, that’s it! Enough is enough! I’m irrevocably taking back control of my life! I’m going to be the center-stage of their closely knitted universe, win back their attention, come rain or sunshine, or whatever else in between, I recall thinking fervently to myself, having figured it all out to the letter, and missing nothing more than a solid plan of how I was going to accomplish this astronomical miracle.
It was then I felt this brilliant idea suddenly taking root in my mind. I stood stock still twiddling my chin while staring at the clouds above. “Fantastic,” I suddenly exploded, eyes glowing as I breathed heavily. “That’s it!” I danced, as the rest of the plan fell into place. “I’ll emulate them, that way, we’d have something in common, spend time together, be a real family, adventure, fun, tralala, isn’t that great?”
I was excited. Finally, a strategy. My future was no longer unknown. I was going to be an electronics genius. What’s more? My parents and I were going to be a team. Isn’t that amazing? All for one and one for all. We were destined to be the three Musketeers of all things electronic. Damned, this is going to be awesome!
Needless to say, I was on a roll. It wasn’t long before I started taking devices apart.

At first, I tinkered away at little things—discarded watches and toys, nothing anybody would miss. This didn’t bring me immediate attention though, but by then, I was having so much fun at it, that I lost sight of my original goal to snare my parents. Surprisingly, I quickly acquired a taste for reverse engineering. The talent to go with the same, however, was another matter altogether.
As I got bolder and took to probing and jabbing away at larger gadgets and more-complex machines I had absolutely no business at all looking into, weird things started to happen. A particularly bizarre incident involves my parent’s favorite radio. On splitting this up and then creatively putting it back together again, I decided on a whim of inspiration to try and sell it on eBay. And wonder of all wonders, it sold! But when the paying customer got back to me and told me my unique creation actually doubled as a lovely designer toaster, I was shocked and zapped to the very core of my being. This new functionality had never been my intention at all. Create a designer toaster? Never in a million years! I just wanted to spice up ‘my’ radio, that’s all, I swear.
So of course, for hours on end after that, I battled with feelings of self-doubt, suffered panic attacks, spent days trying to breathe new life into my battered ego, and even imagined my tinker days to be over for good.
Meanwhile, the radio was gone. The good old days of music ricocheting off the four walls of the living room, was a thing of the past. Upon noticing how suddenly quiet it was within their home, Mom and Dad went in search of their missing radio. I slithered away and went underground for a week.
They searched high and low for their prized possession. I believe by then it was industriously toasting bread for its new owner across town. Lucky bugger! As for me, my nightmares came in the form of toasters. I lost all interest in bread. My legacy was in tartars.
When Mom and Dad eventually caught up with me, they put me through a series of such intense interrogations, that when I finally cracked and told them marmalade would never be of any use to me ever again, they were seriously puzzled, and discussed my mental health for days.
Eventually, though, lack of music got to them. And so, they were back at it. Night after night, they would come home from work and grill me about the whereabouts of their missing broadcast receiver. For just as long, I mumbled unintelligible words about eBay and big dreams.
They lacked evidence. But were rich in suspicion. And copiously grumbled on and off for a while.
Days went by before things got back to normal.
Old habits die hard. When I noticed they no longer missed their missing radio, I rejoined the land of the living, and, of course, took up tinkering again. This time around, I was messing about with Mom’s brand-new blow-dryer when—I swear this happened—instead of spewing forth the old familiar heat we are all so accustomed to, it suddenly shot out long jagged bolts of brilliant-orange lightning. To say that I was stupefied would be a complete understatement. For two straight da...