The Relic Read online

  The Relic

  The Relic

  Midpoint

  Francisco Angulo

  Francisco Angulo

  The Relic

  Mandala & LápizCero

  © Francisco Angulo, 2006

  Editor:

  Javier Estévez Lozano

  © Mandala & LápizCero, 2006

  C/ Moquetas, 19

  28029 Madrid 91 314 86 23 [email protected]

  Translated by:

  Teresa Rodríguez

  www.voxroxmedia.com

  [email protected]

  Sponsored by:

  CiÑe (Círculo independiente Ñ de escritores) www.circuloindependiente.net [email protected] 669 900 284

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  Octógono Libros Imprime: Publidisa

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  Printed in Spain

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  The Relic

  Hazel Eyes

  “HAZEL EYES”used to spend many long hours staring at me. I can’t quite understand what she saw in me but she loved sitting acrossthe field and lookat me intensely. I too loved watching her. She was rather small –not even five feet tall – and thin. Her skin was tannedand it was generally covered in animal fur to protect her from the cold. On her hair, there were always a myriad of decorations that varied with the seasons. Spring time called for tiny flowers carefully plated in while in winter she seemed to prefer strings dyed in different tones.One ornament or another dangled always from her necklace, usually a fine leather strip and a shell or small mud figurine that she had shaped with her own hands. She belonged to a tribe that had settled near me in a group of very shallow caves they had converted into their home. “Hazel Eyes”had apenetrating look and observed everything with curiosity, trying to make sense of the world that surrounded her as if part of a magical realm. She studied the dancing of the tree tops caused by the wind. She held small insects in her hand, and after examining them and trying to understandwhat they were, she’dput them back on the ground careful not to harm them. She spent hours observing birds and mimicking their chirping. And then she’d run around me in circles, stretching her arms and moving them up and down as if one of them.

  In spring, the green grass of the meadow to my left grew tall and filled with dandelions. “Hazel Eyes” loved to jump on that green mantle and in doing so she ended up covered in dandelions’ seeds which were then, washed away by the gentle breeze of spring. That beautiful creature was tireless. She could spend hours jumping and playing to catch the seeds fluttering in the wind and when these quivered upwardly towards the sky “Hazel Eyes”would stopher movements, closeher eyes and stand still waiting in silence. Then, some of them would begintheir descent, gently caressingher face. I would have loved to experience that feeling of soft seeds landing on me like feathers. At times a seed would enter her nostrils, making her sneeze - this was very funny, because “Hazel Eyes”looked sopuzzled and baffled by what had just happened.

  She always came to see me, except on rainy days.I looked forward to her visits and when the day was sunny, I waited until I saw her appear over the hill, usually humming a melody andhappily skipping as she walked.

  The arrival of spring was a wonderful time -the huge flocks of migratory birds hoveringover me and the almond trees blossomingsignalled that spring was just around the corner. In spring everything filled with colour and sound, birds and squirrels revelling in their courtship rituals. Everything filled with life.

  “Hazel Eyes” always watched with bewilderment the magnificent world around us. Some days, she would spend the afternoon with me, and in summer she stayed until dark. She laid down on the grass and watched the night sky - the starlight was bright, and we were able tomake out the details of the constellations easily. She glanced at the stars through the crystal clearsky, raised her hand and pointed to one of the stars, then moved it aiming at another and so on until forming a figure. It was a magical game. When she finished, the figure she had drawn was left illuminated in the sky, then it faded gently until finally vanishing altogether. Then she began drawing a new figure. And another.

  In winter, and especially at the height I used to live, everything was concealed by a white mantle. It was fascinating to see how her footprints soon filled the new virgin snow, just as letters fill a blank page. The animals awaited in their burrows until it stopped snowing, only to leave in a hurry, eager to see the splendid scenery. Everything covered by that thick white coat, a veil of perfect whiteness. “Hazel Eyes” was bewildered by this landscape, thrilled by the first snowfall and the chance to go out and jump on the snow. Sometimes she’dpick up a handful of it in her hands and squeezeit hard, compacting it, and then would lickit to savour it.

  “At first humans invented language to communicate with each other and eventually they perfected it to the point that they stopped talking for fear of corrupting it”. When “Hazel Eyes” became older, she made sounds and gestures to try to communicate with me. She loved to see plants blossom, and discoveredhow, where there was nothing but dirt initially, plants with beautiful flowers and trees with sweet fruits would grow slowly just bydepositing a seed. So she began devoting more and more time to this, marvellingin seeing how those beautiful trees grew. She planted different species and went on to create magnificent gardens. She walked with satisfaction, admiring that strikingtapestry woven by Mother Nature. She had a large family and taught her children how to care for the land and the plants, and made them understand that all that was needed was a little effort for nature to show her appreciation. If you offered Earth a drink, she’d return the favour by providing you with food.

  I don’t really know when or for what reason she started acting like a Gardener, and went from observing nature to interacting with it, creating new plants. I guess after much contemplating and observing all living creatures, it awakened in her a deep respect for all of them, discovering something she identified with, perhaps adopting them as brothers, or even as teachers, as it was through watching many animals that she learned how to create those beautiful gardens. It seems that even the wisest person has a lot to learn from an ant or a goldfinch.

  She fashioned forests of almond and cherry trees which, when in bloom, filled the world with colour. The appearance of their flowers was the unmistakable sign of the arrival of spring. When the flowers matured, their petals broke away, white as snow, flying gracefully in the dainty breeze. “Hazel Eyes” walked under the canopy of the trees with her eyes closed, her face glancing at the sky, her hands outstretched like wings, small flower petals falling over her. She walked over them, over a swampedlandthat felt soft under her naked feet. Walking on flower petals was like walking on feathers.

  Time passed quickly for me, as quickly as summer comes and goes. That’s how I saw “Hazel Eyes” grow older. She no longer came to me skipping or playing. She now found it hard to climb up the slope. The brightness in her eyes seemed to be slowly fading away, that inquisitive look began to crystallise, freezing like water in the cold winter.

  The day dawned with heavy rain and the soil filled with mud. Then I saw “Hazel Eyes” walk up the hill. She walked and approached me slowly. She looked at me for a moment and then bent down, and put her hands in the mud, joined them, filled them with mud and brought them to my face. She looked at me again and began to put the mud on my structure. She performed the same operation time and time again to form a figure, a human-shaped figure. After completing the sculpture, shepaused to look at me and left immediately. The sun came through the clouds and hardenedthe mud.

  Days later I saw her walk up the hillagain. She was already an old woman and came accompanied by several younger members of the same species. They came closer towards me and “Hazel Eyes” pointed
at me with her hand while emitting different sounds with her mouth - all members of the tribe looked at me. "Hazel Eyes" made a soft gesture to the member who, holding her with a clawed arm helped her maintain her balance. He let go of her and she staggered. She approached me bearing flowers in her hands and placed some of them right next to me. Then, she gently lowered her head and all members of her clan did the same. After this, she looked at me and began to say a few words. I didn’t understand her language but I knew exactly what she meant.I knew her life was coming to an end and she was thanking me for having made it possible for her to see so many wonders throughout her life. She thanked me for the gift of life and introduced me to her descendants so that I could take care of them when she was gone.

  I felt uneasy knowing there was nothing I could do to help - at least, I would have liked to be able to communicate with her, tell her I enjoyed her company, that I had spent endless joyful moments watching her, but I could not communicate with her. That was the last time I saw “Hazel Eyes”and I still often dream of her.

  The Creation of the Universe

  IN THE BEGINNING there was nothing. Let us not assume that Nothing equals zero, because zero is a balance between positive and negative and Nothing has no balance. Nothing can be defined as the absence of things and also as the amount of negative numbers that there can be in a sum. If we have 5 coins, this is Nothing, but it’s a quantifiable Nothing, so it's Something. In the universe, Nothing can be antimatter, it can be the space where the light of the stars does not reach but whatever shape or form we want to imagine it, it will never be zero. Zero does not exist in nature, zero does not exist in the universe, zero exists only in our mind.

  In the beginning there was nothing, only darkness, a darkness that spread everywhere and, as it expanded it picked up speed and movement, and it created time. With this movement Nothingness began to spin, spinning ever so fast on itself. Upon reaching a certain speed, it created energy and when it reached even more speed, energy created matter. Spinning to suchvertiginous speed, a single particle formed a gravitational force around itself, and ended up weighing as much as the entire universe. Finally it collapsed, breaking down into such small pieces which,when shot out produced an enormous amount of energy. The small atomic fragments ejected at a speed that neared that of the light, enlarged their mass and volume.

  Nothing gave way to time, time to movement, movement to energy and energy created matter. The entire universe was created from a small portion of matter, - so small that it was imperceptible -, when the matter was fragmented by a centrifugal force, hurling it into space in infinite portionsthat acquired a greater mass because of the high speed at which they were shot out.

  An Instant after the Big Bang

  WHILE from our perspective it feels as though a long time has passed since the Big Bang, we truly live just a moment after it and we could even go as far as saying that we exist because of this. Energy, when moving at speeds close to the speed of light, was transformed into matter and our entire universe was created from a small particle, a single subatomic particle that burst firing its fragments in all directions at such a speed that formed the whole universe, an explosion not unlike that of a rocket in a fireworks performance. It is in that very brief instant when the light illuminates the skythat we currently live in.

  The whole universe, all the matter we perceive,exists because itis powered by speed. Just as the lights of the rocket are to vanishso will the matter that forms the universe when it completely loses its speed.

  We keep on moving at nearly the speed of light. If we were to move any faster, we would disappear.

  It is possible that the universe will never contract, that it will never apply a brake and engage its reverse gear, thus making a Big Crak very unlikely. One of the possibilities is that the entire universe will fall,forming a parabola just like a stone thrown into the horizon that bends into a spherical shape with all matter coming together again after falling on the same point on the other side of the sphere. On the other hand, the galaxies could lose their speed gradually and, unless the particles that make up matter increased their rate of vibration while slowing the expansion rate of the universe, the entire universe would disappear just as the glare of the rocket disappears in the darkness of the night.

  It doesn’t really matter what mass a star might have or how much energy a galaxy might build up – as soon as it begins losing speed, there will be no space-time left for it to exist.

  The end of time might occur violently. The universe expands in a similar fashion to a balloon being inflated. Thespeedof expansion along with the speed of vibration of the universe itself have created matter.

  If the universe applied its brakes, if its movement was to slow down, matter could cease to exist violently and suddenly. The entire universe would disappear in an instant, just like a balloon that we continue to inflate would end up bursting. Although, in that case the result would not be an explosion, but a disappearance, an immediate vanishing of matter and space-time.

  Furthermore, we might feel more comfortable thinking that if the universe lostits speed after it stopped expanding, it would be able to recover it when it began contracting - it would be a soft reversal back to the starting point.

  We may think that the universe is like a living being and can die suddenly at any time after collapsing, or that after growing and growing, it will shrink to be a particle.

  Evolution

  THE CHAIN of hominid descendants keeps on growing as it goes farther back in time. Possibly the first hominids had an advantage no other species earlier had ever possessed–being able to walk on two legs, to ramble through the tall grass to go from one tree to another. They could also see better than other species and were able to look out for predators lurking nearby. Walking on two legs furnished them with even greater benefits, since now their upper extremities were free to obtain food more easily from the most inaccessible places. At one point, stones and sticks were used as tools to crush seeds and extract termites from their nests. With these new skills their diet changed, from eating only fruits to a greater variety of foods. Subsequently, they acquired the skill to manufacture and throw sharp objects that could be effectively used to hunt. An improved diet helped the brain develop even further and, as a result, languageevolved, and even art, with their painting of the walls of the caves they used as homes. Since then until the present, only a very brief period has elapsedwhen compared to the time when we came down from the trees for the first time until we were able to control fire.

  About León

  THE RICKETY TRUCK snorted and vibrated, trembling with each step as it climbed the steep road. It was a small truck that could be driven with a normal passenger car license. The condition of the vehicle was deplorable and it felt as though the engine was going tocollapse to the ground at any time. Inside, León, its driver, didn’t really look much better than the truck. León was a somewhat peculiar man - he had a big, round head like a watermelon, and a very red face caused by his fondness for anise. His hands were also unusual - they were big and strong but equally clumsy.

  León and his truck were an odd team. The vehicle moved along the road like a dying elephant, although when it began descending a hill it seemed to be in a hurry to fall apart, as if all it wanted was to rid itself of its body and be left alone with its motor and wheels to feel lighter and achieve more speed and reach. Sometimes, ittumbled from side to side of the road invading the opposite lane. This happened when León lit a cigarette because when he did, he moved very slowly. He’d first pull the packet of cigarettes from the pocket in the chest of his shirt. He’d then put his hand through the collar of his jumper, pull the packet out and put it in his mouth, forcing one of the cigarettes to come out through the unsealed area of the packet. He’d hold it between his lips and begin to search for the lighter by first looking in the dashboardamong numerous papers, fines and old transport schedules. Then, he’d continue looking in a receptacle under the dashboard, in the centre of the vehicle
, near the shiftlever. Then, the glove box. It was far, in front of the passenger seat, so he would be forced to lean towards the side to reach it. León’s movements were slow and untroubled, unconcerned by the fact that the truck was lurching from side to side on the road and other drivers were beeping and cursing. Eventually, as he found the precious lighter, León’sface split into a sharp grin, like someone who has found a very valuable object. The driver's window was wound half way down, causing the outside air to blow the light out every time he tried to light his cigarette. Then, freeing the hand that held the steering wheel, he’d put it over the lighter to prevent the air from blowing it off and at the same time, he’d try to light the cigarette over and over again, while the truck circulated on the road without any human control and headed directly towards an oncoming vehicle. Collision was imminent but León was very busy trying to light his cigarette and the truck seemed to accelerate more and more. It appearedas though the poor old truck had made the decision to end itsarduous life. A loud honkwas heard and it quickly became louder, indicating that the vehicle was fast approaching. Then, the screeching of wheels against the asphalt as the carskid. León looked up. A small red car was already almost under the truck, smoke gusting from its wheels blocked by the brakes. A sudden swerve by Leónsucceeded in averting the truck from invading the opposite lane and, by a strange coincidence, managing to avoid the collision. He took the cigarette, still unlit, with the same hand he used to hold the lighter,and loudly bawled out: