Chapter 5 Structure
The builders where not what Jenny had expected. The picture in her minds eyes was... well builders, all living very close type 2 diabetes, massive figures who looked like they had been brought to life by a blue collar Prometheus who had formed them out of the materials they were destined to from with their broad coarse hands. What she got instead where three outlaws straight out of the very niche genre of the construction western. The leader Adrian was a tall wiry man who's warm smile somehow reinforced the 'man with no name' vibe, he was the wall and electricity guy. Stu was the closest to the 'classic' builder type, the heaviest of the three, the one that would described as am man who loved food in children's books or dating apps, which was offset by the feline way he moved and by the smirk in his face that was almost constantly dripping with sarcasm, his speciality was pipe work and painting. The third one Dan was a small, compact guy who had the personality of a 7 foot bruiser condensed into his 5'6" he took care of tiling and plastering.
They stood in a lose wedge formation in front of the water mill, Adrian in the middle scanning the property, Stu lokking at the pavement in front of the building as if looking for something that he had lost a long time ago and sporting a smirk that did that had given up on dripping sarcasm, deciding to just open flood gates instead. Jenny was standing tat the entrance looking out suddenly feeling very protective of her chosen castle. Barbara had gone back in after she had announced the arrival of the trio to continue evicting stones that had overstayed her welcome.
Adrian moved a stop forward. Jenny squashed the impulse to step back, her hand grabbing the wooden door frame hard.
"This is going to be expensive." Adrian said.
"Define expensive." Jenny said.
"Just getting the building stable will take time. Barb also told me that you were planning to take down walls, install new windows, things like that. We'll need someone to do the maths. And we will need the materials." While Adrian was saying this his eyes kept moving all over the building, stopping every once in a while becoming narrow slits as he focused on a detail. Stu had wandered away mumbling under his breath while still looking at ground. Dan was just enjoying the show putting some half hearted effort into not openly laughing.
"Tell me something I don't know yet?" Jenny said, she was starting to feel like when she had told her parents of her plan again and she didn't like that one bit.
"First of all. This," Adrian pointed at the watermill, "is going to be months of work. Second each of us takes 25 pound per hour. On weekdays and regular working hours. Everything else costs extra." he paused waiting for Jennies reaction.
Jenny try to hold his gaze while at the same time doing the maths in her head, comparing it with the resources she had. The result was not a disaster, but what she had though off as 'loads of money' was actually just adequate at best.
"Found it." that was Stu who had stopped his meandering a short way down the road.
"Huh?" Jenny said as she was being pulled out of her calculations.
"The water pipes." Adrian said. "I assume there is no running water inside of the building."
"er... no..."
"Then it is safe to say that there is no connection to the sewers," Adrian continued checking off points from a mental list, "no electricity, no phone line, no cable or gas."
"No..." Jenny said her calculations she had just made dying in her hands leaving an expensive corpse behind.
"You need to think what you want to have. Double check if you can get it here." Adrian said, "Then we can set you up. This is also pretty much the first thing that needs to be done. We need electricity and running water. And there are of course the things that you will need."
"Anything else I should consider?" said Jenny doing her best not feel overwhelmed.
Adrian thought for a while. "Central heating. You'll want some for of that, and installing that will be a mess. It's something you want to get done when we are still tearing the place apart. Not when we have started building it up again."
Jenny just nodded. Her plan that had seemed complicated before had just exploded into a fractal nightmare that reached into dimensions that were usually only ever visited by mathematicians in their most obscene fever dreams.
"Do you want to have a look inside?" she said smiling weakly.
Inside they met Barbara who had been building a barrow out of the stones she had been collecting from around the watermill.
"Hey Barb." said Adrian.
"Oh, hi Adrian. Good to see you. How do you like the place?" Barbara asked her enthusiasm clearly shining past the layer of grime she had acquired during her anthropological adventure.
"Well. It's a challenge." Adrian said smirking. Jenny felt that the list of things that had to be done that he was compiling in his head was getting longer and longer. "And I'm not so sure if our client," he cast a meaningful look towards Jenny, "has enough funds to see this through."
Barbara crossed her arms. "Really? That's how you are going to go about this?"
"You know how we work. We like to do things right. And we like to finish them." he said.
"Well, then you should focus on getting things done..." Barbara's tone had very carefully lowered it's temperature to a point where it threatened into icy territory. "Jenny, why don't you give my friend here the tour. I believe he needs to get a proper feel for what you are planning to do."
Adrian was about to reply when, icy turned to skewering. He sighed, his features relaxing a bit, he turned to Jenny. "Ma'am?"
Jenny gave Adrian, Stu and Dan the tour around the mill feeling like she had to defend what she was trying to do. When she had shown Barbara the place it was almost like she was already in the renovated building. It felt bright and warm. Like home, like a little fortress in a cold harsh world. A haven that she could share with others the feeling she had when she was visiting her grandfather. No matter how bad it was out there in here you were safe.
Now though it was cold and grey. The air smelled of rock dust, the wind found its way into the mill, past her cloths to drink away her warmth. This was a ruin that was just refusing to yield to time, but its endurance was running out. Brining it back to life was not going to be easy. But that was not the worst part. Jenny could work; especially if it was something that it was worth working for. But Adrian was right. All of this would only ever stay in the realm of the possible as long as there was money. The moment she ran out of funds, no matter how far along she had come, the dream would end leading into a rude awakening for her.
"And behind this wall," Jenny said now feeling to cold seeping past her bones into her soul, "is I believe the way to the basement."
"Basement?" Adrian asked. Dan knocked on the wall, making a non-committal gesture with his head.
"Yes." Barbara said. "I remember back in the day, there was a stairway leading a large basement."
"How large?" asked Stu who had not said anything since he had found out where the water access was but had been taking notes in a grubby tiny notepad since he had entered the windmill.
"At least as large as the building." Barbara said. Could be even larger.
"Did it ever flood?" Stu asked.
"Not that I know of." Barbara said. "But the last time I was here this wall did not exist.
"Not the same material as the rest of the building." Dan said. "Under all the dirt," he tried to rub away some with his sleeve without much success, "are cement bricks. Quick and dirty work. Nothing a sledgehammer can't get rid of." as he said this he started to grin.
"You want to check?" Adrian asked.
"Has to." said Stu. " 'tis the first thing we need to take care off. Without it, all of this," he made a circular gesture with his index finger. "house of cards."
"When do you think we can check?" the empty husk that used to be Jenny asked.
Dan looked at her. "I can start in 10 minutes. I just need to get my hammer."
One worst case scenario later.
The wall that had sealed off the basement was now reduced to rubble. Dan who had done all the work by himself was still steaming from the effort. Covered in grey dust, eyes gleaming he looked like a demon from a concrete hell that had come to earth to collect what he was owed. Before him was a large ragged hole where the new wall used to be. Beyond it an old wooden stair that after three steps was submerged in water.
"Well," Stu said adding another note to his records. "that would explain why they sealed off the entrance to the basement."
Jenny was numb. When she had heard the first splash when Dan had broken through the wall for the first time, her soul had given up all hope and started packing. While it was still considering how to leave the still breathing body behind she noticed that Adrian's expression had changed. For the most part he had just been mostly unconvinced, but now he was angry.
"Those bastards." he said between clenched teeth.
"Bastards?" Jenny asked. The change of Adrian's demeanour was strange enough to bring her closer to life again.
"Yeah. From the city.", he said. "They knew."
Stu shook his head,
"You sure about this" asked Dan.
Adrian nodded. "Old building. Close to a river. They do an inspection every once in a blue moon. They notice the basement has started leaking. What's the cheapest solution?"
"You look where the water comes from and seal it." Stu said.
"Stop thinking like a professional." Adrian said. "That would be work and it would be expensive."
Dan shrugged. "They just out up a wall and poof: problem gone."
"But..." Stu started to say. "The foundation..."
"I know." Adrian said. "But it would take a long time before it failed, long enough that it becomes the problem of some future dick head." he looked at Jenny, his face softening for the first time since his arrival. "I'm really sorry about this ma'am."
"Yeah. Me too." Jenny responded feeling like she was physically drowning in the cold water of the old basement.
"For how long can you pay us?" Adrian asked.
"Adrian!" Barbara snapped. He held up his hand.
"No, this important." he turned back to Jenny. "How long."
She went through the numbers again. "Counting just weekdays... six months tops. Including materials, I guess." She had no idea what and how many 'materials' she would need. But did this matter any more?
Adrian thought about the answer for a while. He looked at his friends. Stu did not meet his eyes concentrating on the floor instead. Dan looked at him and just shrugged.
"We will help you. This is not going to be easy. Far to many risks. But this..." he pointed at the water, "this isn't right."
Jenny looked at him still dazed she did not know what to feel. She just nodded.
"Oh and one more thing," said Adrian, "you need to get a lawyer."
Saturday, 10 November 2018
Wednesday, 7 November 2018
Project Coffee Break Redux 003
Chapter 4 The Cook
After Edmund was confident that Linda was sufficiently aboard to have a look at the mill where, he was sure of this, she would get infected Jenny's drive and the strange charm of the location he moved towards his next target. Finding the right man or woman to take care of the kitchen. His brilliant plan of doing some restaurant/café/bistro hopping to find the right kind of inspiration had failed him. Yes he had a good feeling of what was hip right now and what wasn't but that really didn't lead him towards where he needed to be. Before he started he was sure that once he found the right individual he would _know_. After all his 'research' he was absolutely, totally and utterly positive that he would know when he found the one. A kind of stochastic victory perhaps. A kind of victory that helped get someone directly to the goal in one out of a thousand cases.
Edmund sighed. He had to resort to drastic measures it appeared. He had to actually do some work.
He contacted his friends that were part of the culinary scene either as craftspeople or as educated consumers. Jenny had told him to go through the hipster overground but Edmund decided to cast his net as wide as possible adding some old school foodies and a few healthy living zealots to the list. Out of that work grew like the most pestilent of weeds more work. More names more contacts and possibilities. And just knowing people wasn't really all that helpful either. He could hardly start a cook off royale with dozens of participants to see who would be the right person. Right? Even if the idea did seem rather appetizing to him for a short moment. But then could he really just talk to the people and hope that their words would translate into their dishes? For a moment he thought about asking Jenny for advice but that would mean letting her down. He couldn't do that. Not after seeing the fire back in her eyes. For one he could not risking camping that flame, also she had given him this quest and coming back with the tail between his legs after just a couple of days with only a maybe engineer in tow? No. That would be to horrible to contemplate. It would be even worse because by now Jenny had probably already gotten the basics of the café laid out and ready to go. No. That was impossible. He had to get this done on his own. So he did the only thing that would help him in this situation. He called Stephen and Lexa two friends he had neglected for far too long anyway, they could help he. As he had hoped they had a 'come together' planned for the night in their flat share and they welcomed him back into their overcrowded apartment with open arms, alcohol and indecent amounts of drugs. He felt an immense wave of relief wash over him and take with it all the stress and anxiety. He was safe.
The Lexa and Steven's layer was located just beyond the border of the city's centre. It was no longer in the beating heart of the city where the rent had reached philosophical levels that could only be understood by professional thinkers or ignored by those wealthy beyond reason. The flat was located in a place that once was the refuge of the working class but which long ago had been washed away by the affluent. The only way Lexa and Steven could live there was because they spent more than half of their rather generous city wages on it, as did Chris and Sarah, their flatmates. They all worked respectable jobs. The kind that came with almost as much prestige as long hours and enough competitions to make sharks nervous. However those who lived here had made a pact, that they would not sacrifice their lives at the altar of a society that burned away their people. Their words, not Edmund's who believed in not throwing yourself into this specific machine in the first place. But he had to admit that their form of pugnacious hedonism had a singular beauty to it. This was not the bland 'work hard, party hard' bravado from the usual young professionals whose lives while expensive were as pale as the champagne they wasted. Instead they worked a lot but lived hard afterwards.
When Edmund arrived the apartment bursting with music, smoke, dozens of voices and laughter. Chris and a few friends Edmund half remembered from other such 'meetings' were getting their coats.
"Hey, Edmund! Long time no so old man. Good to see you again.", said Chris when he saw him.
"Hey, I've been busy lately." Edmund say.
Chris laughed "When aren't you mate. Listen we were about to go to the chippy. You want to join us?"
"Nah, thanks I'm good."
"We can also get you something, just say the word." Chris offered.
"Thanks mate, but I have so much food in my mind that I could not possibly eat anything right now."
"That," said Chris, "made no sense at all. But suit yourself."
"Heeeey Edmund!" that was Steven who had just come out of a room carrying a giant bong that would have been the pride of any Venetian master glass-blower. "You have come at just the right moment. I am about to try out Lethe."
"The bong you are holding?" Edmund said.
"Oh Edmund, you wound me, this is not a bong. Well yes it is. But it is more than that. This," he held it up, "is part of a spiritual experience. Don't just stand there, come in and get yourself a drink. Hey Lexa!" he shouted "Edmund has descended from his heaven and is paying us a visit."
Edmund followed Steven into the large living room where a large sofa table was menaced a a circle of couches in several sizes and colours and they had brought reinforcements in form from many chairs. Most places were already filled by people who looked up as Steven entered the room holding up his trophy. The people cheered. Some of them recognized Edmund and greeted him calling him over to join them.
"Leave the man be." said Steven, "He hasn't even got a beer yet. For fuck's sake show some manners. Lexa?! Where are you."
"I heard you the first time." Lexa entered the room from the other door leading to the kitchen. She had a massive bag of weed in one hand and was holing two open bottles of beer in the other one. "'lo Edmund. I brought you a beer." she grinned.
"Perfect." said Steven. "Now make room. Make room for Lethe."
Ten minutes later Edmund and everyone else in the room was stoned like a heretic listening to the music or just enjoying the mood. The room itself was now filled with a sweet smelling smog that gave a very warm and fuzzy second hand high to anyone who entered the room.
"So what to what do we owe the honour of your presence Edmund?" Lexa asked who was had spread out over her part of the couch.
"First of all, it was time to see you all again." he said.
"And?" Lexa asked looking at him with surprisingly clear eyes.
"And I needed a break." Edmund said taking a sip from his now tepid beer.
"And there it is." Lexa said her hand shooting up pointing vaguely towards the ceiling.
"Is what?" Edmund asked letting his head slump into Lexa's direction.
"The truth, Edmund. The truth."
"I'm helping Jenny with project of hers and..."
"You bit of more than you can chew." Lexa said. "You saw, what ever it was she was planning, thought you could help her with it and in your youthful enthusiasm charged first and started asking question when it was too late."
"I don't charge first... I go and scout out the possibilities." said Edmund.
"Euphemisms will not help you E."
"It's not an euphemism."
"So your scouting mission is going well?" Lexa now turned towards Edmund.
"No, not yet."
"See?" Lexa said but there was no triumph in her voice only sympathy. She moved forward a bit and started rummaging in the segment below the tabletop. "Ah there we go. Here take this." she said handing Edmund a piece of white cardboard and a set of crayons.
"Really?" Edmund asked looking at the cardboard then at Lexa, then at the crayons, "Really...?" and that back to Lexa.
"Yes. Just draw something doodle a bit. Forget what you are doing for a while and return to yourself. I'm pretty sure that you haven't been there longer than your last visit."
So Edmund took his crayons and started drawing. In that time Steven had reloaded Lethe and called for everyone to taste her sweet breath again. When Steven saw what Edmund was doing he told him "You know what, I think your little project there needs a little help."
"I'm just doodling." Edmund said.
"You but, I know what will help you with your doodles." with that Steven got up only to return with a tequila bottle and two shot glasses. "This, my friend, is the good stuff."
It was far past midday when Edmund woke up. A bunch of doodles his pillow. Someone had thrown a blanket over him. The sunlight pushed its way through the curtains claiming the room for the day. Even discounting his simmering headache and the taste of existential futility that had taken over his mouth he was not alone. On the couch to his left lay a young man who was still sound asleep. He sat up, slowly. He didn't fell that hungover, but this could be trap. The hangover could be waiting, biding his time until Edmund made a sudden movement or did something stupid like trying to walk upright or breath to deeply, to then pounce and destroy him.
He felt a bit woozy and the head ache was happy just being a harbinger of future doom. He stood up. That was not to bad. He felt still a bit drunk and a bit baked. But all in all good enough to walk. He moved past the strange pyramid of glasses and past the grave mount of bottles towards the kitchen. He forded a lake of empty crisps packets, reaching the door. He opened and was blinded by the bright sunlight flooding the kitchen. He whimpered. The headache moved around uncomfortably but luckily it could not be arsed to do any real work.
The kitchen itself was another battle field, covered in plates real and cardboard, more bottles here standing upright covering almost every surface in a strange forest of glass. The sink was buried. And the stove looked like someone had attempted to cook by volcanic explosion. All in all it wasn't too bad. Edmund went to the refrigerator to be pleasantly surprised to find the tomato juice he was looking for. A good omen. Edmund went looking for some beans and toast and found them too. Another good sign. He dislodged one of the pans from the stove and prepared two virgin Mary's while he waited for the beans to heat up. He had been in this situation often enough top know better than to look for the other inhabitants in the flat. Either they had already gone to work or were still sleeping. In the first case no one would answer his calls and in the second one he would get screamed at for waking them up. The unwritten rule here was that if you wake up after a party you took care of yourself and your people. 'Your people' being who ever you woke up with. So in this case that meant breakfast (?) for Edmund and who over the fuck that guy on the other couch was.
Lethe a holy totem sat on top of the couch table almost alone as people had preferred to put their glasses and bottles on the floor or in the compartment below the tabletop rather then profane the holy space above. Which was great for Edmund as he could just put the things he brought from the kitchen on the table without having to try to make space in a room where the very concept clear surface had become preposterous.
Edmund touched the guys shoulder. "Good morning." No reaction. Edmund thought about letting the poor guy sleep, but decided to give it another try first. He shook him gently. "Hey, wake up, there's breakfast."
The young man made a noise somewhere between a grunt and a question mark.
"Good morning." Edmund tried again.
"Murbl..."
"There's beans and toast..." Edmund said.
"Blurghlmngh.." the answer was less then enthusiastic.
"Yeah. I know. Don't worry about that. I also made virgin Mary's, extra hot and spicy. That'll help you come back to the living."
"Vrghl mrruh?`"
"Like a bloody Marry but without the Vodka." said Edmund.
"gnnnn"
"Don't worry. I don't want to drink anything ever again either. You are safe. So what about sitting up? It's what's all the cool,kids are doing these days."
The unhappy man shape sighed and attempted to move. One had to admire the effort. First a leg was cast from the sofa, anchoring the man to the ground then a jerky motion to free one arm from the blanket. That mostly lead to the blanket tying itself around its victim. Some hapless arm waving and struggling later, he sat up only to fall back into the soft embrace of the couch. At least he was sitting more or less upright now. While the poor guy was still wrestling with the harsh realities of consciousness Edmund was making his way back into the kitchen.
"Try drinking a sip of the virgin Mary. It will bring you right back. I'll make coffee."
When Edmund returned from the kitchen the shape had turned mostly human and was nursing his virgin Mary. Edmund stopped in his tracks when he saw him. The young man was wearing simple utilitarian clothing. Workman like, but far to clean to have ever seen real labour, there was also something meticulous about its simplicity. This extended to the young man wearing them. His hair and beard was full and wild, but it was the wildness of a Japanese garden, where every single thing was carefully placed to perfectly embody wild unrestrained nature.
"Kismet..." Edmund breathed.
"What?" Michelangelo's hangover lifted his gaze towards him.
"Are you," Edmund spoke softly afraid of breaking the fragile strand of fate he felt at the very tips of his fingers, "by any chance a cook?"
"Yeah. How did you know."
Edmund had found his hipster.
After Edmund was confident that Linda was sufficiently aboard to have a look at the mill where, he was sure of this, she would get infected Jenny's drive and the strange charm of the location he moved towards his next target. Finding the right man or woman to take care of the kitchen. His brilliant plan of doing some restaurant/café/bistro hopping to find the right kind of inspiration had failed him. Yes he had a good feeling of what was hip right now and what wasn't but that really didn't lead him towards where he needed to be. Before he started he was sure that once he found the right individual he would _know_. After all his 'research' he was absolutely, totally and utterly positive that he would know when he found the one. A kind of stochastic victory perhaps. A kind of victory that helped get someone directly to the goal in one out of a thousand cases.
Edmund sighed. He had to resort to drastic measures it appeared. He had to actually do some work.
He contacted his friends that were part of the culinary scene either as craftspeople or as educated consumers. Jenny had told him to go through the hipster overground but Edmund decided to cast his net as wide as possible adding some old school foodies and a few healthy living zealots to the list. Out of that work grew like the most pestilent of weeds more work. More names more contacts and possibilities. And just knowing people wasn't really all that helpful either. He could hardly start a cook off royale with dozens of participants to see who would be the right person. Right? Even if the idea did seem rather appetizing to him for a short moment. But then could he really just talk to the people and hope that their words would translate into their dishes? For a moment he thought about asking Jenny for advice but that would mean letting her down. He couldn't do that. Not after seeing the fire back in her eyes. For one he could not risking camping that flame, also she had given him this quest and coming back with the tail between his legs after just a couple of days with only a maybe engineer in tow? No. That would be to horrible to contemplate. It would be even worse because by now Jenny had probably already gotten the basics of the café laid out and ready to go. No. That was impossible. He had to get this done on his own. So he did the only thing that would help him in this situation. He called Stephen and Lexa two friends he had neglected for far too long anyway, they could help he. As he had hoped they had a 'come together' planned for the night in their flat share and they welcomed him back into their overcrowded apartment with open arms, alcohol and indecent amounts of drugs. He felt an immense wave of relief wash over him and take with it all the stress and anxiety. He was safe.
The Lexa and Steven's layer was located just beyond the border of the city's centre. It was no longer in the beating heart of the city where the rent had reached philosophical levels that could only be understood by professional thinkers or ignored by those wealthy beyond reason. The flat was located in a place that once was the refuge of the working class but which long ago had been washed away by the affluent. The only way Lexa and Steven could live there was because they spent more than half of their rather generous city wages on it, as did Chris and Sarah, their flatmates. They all worked respectable jobs. The kind that came with almost as much prestige as long hours and enough competitions to make sharks nervous. However those who lived here had made a pact, that they would not sacrifice their lives at the altar of a society that burned away their people. Their words, not Edmund's who believed in not throwing yourself into this specific machine in the first place. But he had to admit that their form of pugnacious hedonism had a singular beauty to it. This was not the bland 'work hard, party hard' bravado from the usual young professionals whose lives while expensive were as pale as the champagne they wasted. Instead they worked a lot but lived hard afterwards.
When Edmund arrived the apartment bursting with music, smoke, dozens of voices and laughter. Chris and a few friends Edmund half remembered from other such 'meetings' were getting their coats.
"Hey, Edmund! Long time no so old man. Good to see you again.", said Chris when he saw him.
"Hey, I've been busy lately." Edmund say.
Chris laughed "When aren't you mate. Listen we were about to go to the chippy. You want to join us?"
"Nah, thanks I'm good."
"We can also get you something, just say the word." Chris offered.
"Thanks mate, but I have so much food in my mind that I could not possibly eat anything right now."
"That," said Chris, "made no sense at all. But suit yourself."
"Heeeey Edmund!" that was Steven who had just come out of a room carrying a giant bong that would have been the pride of any Venetian master glass-blower. "You have come at just the right moment. I am about to try out Lethe."
"The bong you are holding?" Edmund said.
"Oh Edmund, you wound me, this is not a bong. Well yes it is. But it is more than that. This," he held it up, "is part of a spiritual experience. Don't just stand there, come in and get yourself a drink. Hey Lexa!" he shouted "Edmund has descended from his heaven and is paying us a visit."
Edmund followed Steven into the large living room where a large sofa table was menaced a a circle of couches in several sizes and colours and they had brought reinforcements in form from many chairs. Most places were already filled by people who looked up as Steven entered the room holding up his trophy. The people cheered. Some of them recognized Edmund and greeted him calling him over to join them.
"Leave the man be." said Steven, "He hasn't even got a beer yet. For fuck's sake show some manners. Lexa?! Where are you."
"I heard you the first time." Lexa entered the room from the other door leading to the kitchen. She had a massive bag of weed in one hand and was holing two open bottles of beer in the other one. "'lo Edmund. I brought you a beer." she grinned.
"Perfect." said Steven. "Now make room. Make room for Lethe."
Ten minutes later Edmund and everyone else in the room was stoned like a heretic listening to the music or just enjoying the mood. The room itself was now filled with a sweet smelling smog that gave a very warm and fuzzy second hand high to anyone who entered the room.
"So what to what do we owe the honour of your presence Edmund?" Lexa asked who was had spread out over her part of the couch.
"First of all, it was time to see you all again." he said.
"And?" Lexa asked looking at him with surprisingly clear eyes.
"And I needed a break." Edmund said taking a sip from his now tepid beer.
"And there it is." Lexa said her hand shooting up pointing vaguely towards the ceiling.
"Is what?" Edmund asked letting his head slump into Lexa's direction.
"The truth, Edmund. The truth."
"I'm helping Jenny with project of hers and..."
"You bit of more than you can chew." Lexa said. "You saw, what ever it was she was planning, thought you could help her with it and in your youthful enthusiasm charged first and started asking question when it was too late."
"I don't charge first... I go and scout out the possibilities." said Edmund.
"Euphemisms will not help you E."
"It's not an euphemism."
"So your scouting mission is going well?" Lexa now turned towards Edmund.
"No, not yet."
"See?" Lexa said but there was no triumph in her voice only sympathy. She moved forward a bit and started rummaging in the segment below the tabletop. "Ah there we go. Here take this." she said handing Edmund a piece of white cardboard and a set of crayons.
"Really?" Edmund asked looking at the cardboard then at Lexa, then at the crayons, "Really...?" and that back to Lexa.
"Yes. Just draw something doodle a bit. Forget what you are doing for a while and return to yourself. I'm pretty sure that you haven't been there longer than your last visit."
So Edmund took his crayons and started drawing. In that time Steven had reloaded Lethe and called for everyone to taste her sweet breath again. When Steven saw what Edmund was doing he told him "You know what, I think your little project there needs a little help."
"I'm just doodling." Edmund said.
"You but, I know what will help you with your doodles." with that Steven got up only to return with a tequila bottle and two shot glasses. "This, my friend, is the good stuff."
It was far past midday when Edmund woke up. A bunch of doodles his pillow. Someone had thrown a blanket over him. The sunlight pushed its way through the curtains claiming the room for the day. Even discounting his simmering headache and the taste of existential futility that had taken over his mouth he was not alone. On the couch to his left lay a young man who was still sound asleep. He sat up, slowly. He didn't fell that hungover, but this could be trap. The hangover could be waiting, biding his time until Edmund made a sudden movement or did something stupid like trying to walk upright or breath to deeply, to then pounce and destroy him.
He felt a bit woozy and the head ache was happy just being a harbinger of future doom. He stood up. That was not to bad. He felt still a bit drunk and a bit baked. But all in all good enough to walk. He moved past the strange pyramid of glasses and past the grave mount of bottles towards the kitchen. He forded a lake of empty crisps packets, reaching the door. He opened and was blinded by the bright sunlight flooding the kitchen. He whimpered. The headache moved around uncomfortably but luckily it could not be arsed to do any real work.
The kitchen itself was another battle field, covered in plates real and cardboard, more bottles here standing upright covering almost every surface in a strange forest of glass. The sink was buried. And the stove looked like someone had attempted to cook by volcanic explosion. All in all it wasn't too bad. Edmund went to the refrigerator to be pleasantly surprised to find the tomato juice he was looking for. A good omen. Edmund went looking for some beans and toast and found them too. Another good sign. He dislodged one of the pans from the stove and prepared two virgin Mary's while he waited for the beans to heat up. He had been in this situation often enough top know better than to look for the other inhabitants in the flat. Either they had already gone to work or were still sleeping. In the first case no one would answer his calls and in the second one he would get screamed at for waking them up. The unwritten rule here was that if you wake up after a party you took care of yourself and your people. 'Your people' being who ever you woke up with. So in this case that meant breakfast (?) for Edmund and who over the fuck that guy on the other couch was.
Lethe a holy totem sat on top of the couch table almost alone as people had preferred to put their glasses and bottles on the floor or in the compartment below the tabletop rather then profane the holy space above. Which was great for Edmund as he could just put the things he brought from the kitchen on the table without having to try to make space in a room where the very concept clear surface had become preposterous.
Edmund touched the guys shoulder. "Good morning." No reaction. Edmund thought about letting the poor guy sleep, but decided to give it another try first. He shook him gently. "Hey, wake up, there's breakfast."
The young man made a noise somewhere between a grunt and a question mark.
"Good morning." Edmund tried again.
"Murbl..."
"There's beans and toast..." Edmund said.
"Blurghlmngh.." the answer was less then enthusiastic.
"Yeah. I know. Don't worry about that. I also made virgin Mary's, extra hot and spicy. That'll help you come back to the living."
"Vrghl mrruh?`"
"Like a bloody Marry but without the Vodka." said Edmund.
"gnnnn"
"Don't worry. I don't want to drink anything ever again either. You are safe. So what about sitting up? It's what's all the cool,kids are doing these days."
The unhappy man shape sighed and attempted to move. One had to admire the effort. First a leg was cast from the sofa, anchoring the man to the ground then a jerky motion to free one arm from the blanket. That mostly lead to the blanket tying itself around its victim. Some hapless arm waving and struggling later, he sat up only to fall back into the soft embrace of the couch. At least he was sitting more or less upright now. While the poor guy was still wrestling with the harsh realities of consciousness Edmund was making his way back into the kitchen.
"Try drinking a sip of the virgin Mary. It will bring you right back. I'll make coffee."
When Edmund returned from the kitchen the shape had turned mostly human and was nursing his virgin Mary. Edmund stopped in his tracks when he saw him. The young man was wearing simple utilitarian clothing. Workman like, but far to clean to have ever seen real labour, there was also something meticulous about its simplicity. This extended to the young man wearing them. His hair and beard was full and wild, but it was the wildness of a Japanese garden, where every single thing was carefully placed to perfectly embody wild unrestrained nature.
"Kismet..." Edmund breathed.
"What?" Michelangelo's hangover lifted his gaze towards him.
"Are you," Edmund spoke softly afraid of breaking the fragile strand of fate he felt at the very tips of his fingers, "by any chance a cook?"
"Yeah. How did you know."
Edmund had found his hipster.
Monday, 5 November 2018
Projekt Coffee Break Redux 002
Edmund had to leave his culinary comfort zone to find the right people for the watermill. He was usually chasing some idea, following a vision or trying to put into words a vague half manifested idea. These situations asked for food that was rich, nourishing and uncomplicated. He had a deep love for the kind place that looked a bit dilapidated because the people there were more focused on getting the food done and the hungry fed than keeping up appearances. Clear clean cooking was more important than fancy chairs or tables.
This was Edmund's food for thought, he had done so much thinking when eating that food, that now when he ate the right things the ideas would come. He even had categories. Fish and chips was for mathematical or stochastic problems, obviously. While a good strong curry was the food for great narratives. Analysis and research was clearly best suited for Chinese takeaway eaten on public soil somewhere in the city.
Now however he had to do research, look for possible allies and recruit a potential engineer while at the same time going to a strange new place to eat. Highly irregular. So Edmund went all out, the food would be distracting him anyway so he chose something he usually would avoid, also this would be a test for Linda. He had chosen The Enchantress a vegan place in a successfully up-scaled former working-class neighbourhoods. He was still poring over the menu when Linda arrived. While neither knew how the other looked like Edmund had assured her that she would know him when she saw him. He he cultivated an old school Bourgeois, slightly over-dressed style that would have caused Sartre to break out in sarcasm. Also he had reserved a table under his name just in case he had overestimated his individuality.
Linda appeared 5 minutes early, all practical clothes and combat boots sporting an expression of existential bemusement. When her eyes met his, she paused her eyebrows moving up an inch. He answered her question with a smile warmed by smugness.
"You are Edmund." a bit of a question flowing into a greeting.
"I am." he said. "You must be Linda." he stood up to shake her hand. "Pleased to meet you."
"Hi. I'm Linda. Likewise." The question was not quite done yet.
"Please take a seat and feel free to get whatever you like. Dinner is on me." Edmund waited for her to sit down before he did the same.
"Thanks." she said now focusing on him. "I heard from Russell that you have project that I might be interested in. Something about high efficiency power generation?"
"Yes. A friend of me Jenny is looking to renovate and old watermill. And I'm talking middle ages old. She plans to rebuild it, turn it into a café but she wants it to be something special."
"Special like this place?" Linda asked looking at the menu still not quite sure of what to make of it.
"No. Not like this place." Edmund said.
"OK" Linda said not looking any more convinced than when she had entered the place. "So special in what way?"
"I'm not sure how yet. Jenny has a vision, but I think it is not quite clear to her yet what it is yet. She is trying to give a dream of hers form. And... have you ever had a great dream that faded the moment you woke up but you tried to remember?"
Linda just nodded.
"Well I think it is something like that. But one part that is absolutely clear is that the place will produce its own power. At the very least we would like it to produce as much of the power it needs on its own. If you need more details you will have to talk with her. But first of all I need to know if you have what it takes" that made a pair of eyebrows rise "and then if you are interested in our little project."
"Who else have you talked to?" Linda asked her eyebrows brought back down setting her face into poker configuration.
"So far just Russell. Right now I'm spreading the word."
"What kind of solution are you thinking about?"
"Er..." Edmund paused. "There is more than one?"
"Are you going for a single source of power, or a hybrid system? Are you trying to shift the energy balance towards neutral or do you want full self-sufficiency? And is this going to be low emission, zero emission?"
As Edmund heard this his polite smile broadened into full enthusiasm and his eyes shone. "I have no idea. But I would love to hear what you think about it."
The rest of the evening was spent filling napkins with sketches, plans and projects while eating significant amounts of surprisingly good food. When they left The Enchantress they had a several different plans for Jenny to decide on.
Chapter 3 Foundations
While Edmund was out and about trying to find people to give her Café power and something to offer beyond a dry place in a storm, she was working towards clearing the place. The first day she did it on her own. A horrible idea but a necessary one. Picking up the trash and putting it into bags was easy enough, even if it took her ages to just filling bags with rubbish. No matter how much she collected, there was always more left for her to get rid off.
As Mount Trash, as she called the black pile in front of the mill began to grow, she had started to attracted the curiosity of her new neighbours. Most of them had been happy from simply watching her for a while from the security of their property casting their silent judgements in forms of nods, shaken heads and various species of smiles.
An older Lady who had watched Jenny for a while was different. She looked looked young for her age, in a way that was one part a lucky draw in the gene lottery for the greatest part though a resolute determination to not give a single inch to age without an all out war. Where other people had aged with dignity she had worked on being young for her entire life and was now a veteran. She had observed Jenny far longer than anyone else. At first Jenny had not noticed her at first, then ignored her as she thought that she was just a curious bystander like all the others. When it became clear that this wasn't the case Jenny paused swung the trash-bag in her hands towards the summit of Mount Trash and then turned towards the woman. She waved with and said "Hello." and after a short pause added, "I come in peace."
The woman tilted her head waved back smiling and disappeared into her house.
'OK. So that's the local strange old lady...' Jenny thought and went back into the mill collecting the souvenirs of a small army of teenagers past. While she was taking out another nest of beer cans she heard a knock on the door. She turned around to see the old woman standing on the threshold. She had changed into hiking boots and put on a crimson scarf and a coat the colour of dried blood. She was armed with a Thermos and a large tin.
"Hi I'm Barbara." she said, "I bring tea, " she lifted the Thermos, "and cookies." she said lifting the other hand, presenting her offerings to Jenny. And if you like I have also brought a little something to give the tea a kick." she added with an impish smile.
"Hello Barbara. I'm Jenny. And tea sounds perfect." Barbara's smile began to fill with pity "Preferably reinforced." The smile was back to normal after that. "What do you have?"
"Rum." Barbara said.
"Perfect" Jenny said sitting down on the floor next to the beer can nest. "Please take a seat."
Barbara joined her on the floor after moving a few stones away to clear bit of space on the floor. "Nice place you have here." she said while pulling out two mugs from the depths of her coat pockets.
"Thanks although I'm thinking about redecorating." said Jenny while she watched Barbara pouring the tea steaming in the cold air filling the room with its pleasant scent.
"Milk?" Barbara asked.
"Just the rum for now." Jenny said.
"Prefect choice." Barbara nodded and added a very generous splash of rum two both mugs.
As the fragrance of the rum joined the smell of the fresh tea Jenny Jenny could feel how the place came alive. She nodded to herself smiling. "This will work."
"I beg your pardon?" asked Barbara.
"Oh, I was just thinking aloud. I think that what I have planned for this place will work."
"And what have you planned?"
"I'd like turn this place, the mill, into a place where people come to forget the world outside, to relax and to have a cup of tea." Jenny said.
Barbara toasted Jenny with her mug. "It seems to me that right now you are passing the proof of concept stage. Cheers!"
"Cheers."
"It is good to see that someone is finally taking care of this place. I've always loved it." Barbara looked around. "I grew up here, lived in the house," she pointed with her thumb over her shoulder towards where she had come from, "until I was done with school and left for the university... among other things. I played here when I was little and when I got older this was the place where I could hang out with my friends without my parents being a constant embarrassment. The mill is a special place to everyone who grew up here. I remember that I had dreams of taking care of it should I win the lottery. Turning it into a gallery or a workshop or something like that. We all did. But in the end no one ever did anything..." she paused for a moment lost in thought. "but then, in the end, life tends to get in the way of your dreams, doesn’t it?"
"Yeah..." Jenny sighed "But not any more. I'm here to change that." she nodded more to herself than to Barbara when she said that.
"Is there anything I can help you with?" Barbara asked "if there is something I've left in abundance it's free time."
"Well... as a matter of fact, yes."
"Want me to help you getting rid of the rubbish?"
"That would be great. However there is another thing..." Jenny said.
"Yes?"
"I may have taken a few of the blessings of modern civilisation for granted."
"You need to go to the toilet right?"
"Yes, please?" Jenny said.
Barbara got up. "Well then, follow me. You can sing my praises later.
As midday approached Mount Trash had grown so high that it tempted any passing summiteer to check their climbing gear. However looking at her work Jenny could not help but feeling slightly annoyed. She had not come as far as she had wanted to. Despite her creation of a new mountain range in front of the watermill, going inside everything still seemed to be crawling with rubbish. Every big piece she removed just seemed to bring a swarm of smaller refuse to light. Besides that was just the shit people had left around. The next step would be to take all the bits of broken building out of there. The Bits of stone and wood, the broken sheets of plaster. Some of the which had to be removed with the use of some well applied force as parts were still attached to the building clinging unconvincingly to their life of old. And what would happen then? While she could a pretty structural analysis on a text, doing the same with a building was a task she was completely unsuited for. Nonetheless she did know that if you went ant took out parts of buildings willy nilly buildings tended to take that lying down, on top of you.
It was Barbara who brought her back from her contemplation.
"You look glum." Barbara said.
"I was just thinking about what I still needs to be done." Jenny said not taking her eyes off of the old watermill. "I was thinking that I was starting on square one. Or actually square three or four considering I had to secure financing and the rights to the watermill in the first place. Turns out I'm square mines five..." her shoulders fell as she said that her entire form shrinking. Barbara put her hand on her shoulder, very softly as not to weigh Jenny down any further.
"That's actually a good thing." Barbara said.
Jennies eyes swivelled to look at Barbara, she did not have the will to move her body, but her posture hardened making her look like a sulky gargoyle. "Oh really...?"
"Yes." Barbara said her hand now grabbing hold of her shoulder. "If known many people like you, people with vision, people following some impossible dream, and they all sooner or later arrive at the place where they realize that their idea was shining so bright in their hearts that they had misjudged how far it was.
There are two types who tend to reach the finishing line the most. The ones who notice early on how hard the road ahead really is, those who do not give up become careful, they know how hard the way is and plan accordingly." Barbara let that sink in.
Jenny relaxed a bit regaining her composure. "And the other type?"
"They are drawn so strongly to towards that light that they simply will not be stopped by such trivialities. Reality will give way to their vision."
"Those are the other ones who reach their goals?" Jenny asked now standing up straight again and turning towards Barbara.
"You have to remember that most people fail or give up. Most fall for the common sense's siren call others simply burn out as we are never taught how to pace ourselves when following our passion. Passion burns. And blindly playing with fire is..." Barbara was quiet for a moment her smile still tender turned sad "...it does not end well."
"I think you were trying to lift my spirits." said Jenny.
"Yes I am." Barbara said returning to the present. "You already know how much work is ahead of you and that it won't be easy. That is much less of risk. Right now you are in a situation where you are realising that your little walk in the hills is actually a mountain climbing expedition through an unmapped mountain range."
"Spirits still firmly grounded." Jenny said though she could not suppress a smile sneaking in.
"I know, wait for it." Barbara shushed her. "You know what you are up to though. You are not yet lost. You see what you are really up to and now you can plan. You walked through all those hills and now notice that you are now at the food of a mountain. Look right there." she pointed towards the heap of rubbish in front of the watermill. "You alone got all that out of the mill in only a morning. That's a lot you achieved right there."
"But there is so much more left."
"Yes. But look at that" Barbara insisted. "Look at it. That is already not there any more. And you are not alone."
"That's true. But Edmund is still out trying to get people to take care of things that won't be possible until I am done here..."
"Who is Edmund?" Barbara asked.
"My best friend." Jenny said.
"Well I was not talking about him."
"No? But..."
"I didn't even know that he existed a second ago. I'm talking about me."
"You...?" Jenny attempted to interject again.
"Yes, me. And I have a few friends who will be able to help you."
"You do?"
"Yes, I'm pretty sure there a few other details that you still have not thought about."
"Like..."
"Where will the water and electricity come from? Where will be your toilets, or the kitchen, where are you planning to have power sockets, and what about a computer network? Pipes and cables need a place where they can go through. And you'd want to know where these things are going to be before the builders come."
"Oh." Jenny said.
"Where are your spirits now?" Barbara asked.
Jenny looked at her blinked a few times before saying, "I guess they just found the basement."
Barbara looked surprised. "The basement!"
"Yes now I am really feel like I wasted my money and am now sitting on a ten thousand year lease paired with a set of on second thought really crippling obligations."
"Forget about that for a moment. Did you find the basement? When I was a teenager it was already a half collapsed death trap. A very interesting one though." Barbara grinned.
"er... nope. No basement that I know of." Jenny said.
"They must have sealed it. You'll want to open it up again. It will give you more space and you need to be sure that it is OK, you don't want to build on a decaying foundation."
"Right..."
"Right. Now back to your spirits. Are you hungry?"" Barbara asked.
"I was ten minutes ago."
"Perfect. I brought you a few things." Barbara pointed towards a big wicker pick-nick basket Jenny had somehow failed to notice until now. "You've got enough reality for the moment. It is time we go in there and find your vision.
Jenny took a deep breath. "Let's go." She took the lead back into the watermill. "Where would you like to have lunch?"
"I don't know" Barbara said. "Why don't you give me a tour."
"Well..." Jenny paused looking at large room in front of her. It filled the entire area of the part adjacent to the actual mill. "This is the main room. You can't see it for all the crap lying around but this will be were the people will be sitting having a great view at the river over there," she pointed to the wall in front of them, "and the terrace over there. Which you cant see because there are no windows there or a a terrace. Yet." She turned around and pointed to the wall to her right. That wall will be opened up and second as kind of bar the kitchen will be behind that where the actual mill is." She hesitated for a moment. "provided I can take out so much wall without everything falling apart..."
"Well now that you know what you want, you will be able to ask people who know about these things how you could get it done." Barbara said calmly. It had been dark when she had followed Jenny inside but not her eyes were getting used to it and it was illuminated by Jennies imagination she could see it. She could feel the warmth of the sun warming the room even on fresh autumn day as today. The space was wide open and yet comfortable.
Jenny opened a door to her right leading further into the mill.
"This will be the corridor that leads to to the kitchen, the storage space and the generator." Jenny said.
"The generator?" Barbara asked.
"Yeah. The mill will generate its own electricity. It's been here for so long and it has been using the flow of the river to do its job it would be a pity if that would change."
"That makes sense." Barbara nodded. "What about the toilets."
"The toilets?" Jenny said. "Oh... yeah. They should probably be here somewhere. They cant go there..." she looked at the wall to the left. "That's where the stairs are." A short pause. "Hmmm, the wall here should also vanish the stairs should be accessible from the kitchen the main room and the back... So the toilets could go to over there" She pointed towards the other end of the corridor."
"You should consider putting them behind the kitchen." said Barbara.
"Why?"
"Piping. The water needs to come from somewhere and you don't want pipes in all walls. That will be a lot of fun once you decide to put a new picture on a wall. Also the further warm water has to travel, the longer it will take to for it to come out warm."
Jenny just nodded. Went through the next door turned sharp to the left and went up the stairs. Barbara followed her but with far less trust in the steps that Jenny was showing careful to only step on the outermost parts of them.
"Then up here would be another room with a great view. More like the place were you would read a book or follow your thoughts. More bath rooms over there. A dumb waiter in the corner there and more toilets, separating the public part from the private area..."
"Private." Barbara asked.
"Yeah. I feel like it would be nice to live right here. there could be a bathroom on the other side and maybe an apartment. Over the main mill room. Or maybe around it?" she led the way again leading the gallery of a large two story room that looked like an ancient city god had lost his temper in half way through assembling a timber framed house and thrown all of the remaining materials into the air and left in a huff.
"That treeish looking thing poking out of the rubble should have been the drive shaft or what ever it's called of the mill. Even if the generator is large we don't need all the head-room. And there is another floor above us that has also enough space for a small but comfortable flat. Maybe this could be a hostel too." Jenny crooked her head as she said that thinking about it. "Nah. That's not quite right. More like a place where friends can crash..." She looked back down. There are also some old storage rooms down there, which would make great new storage rooms." She looked again at the mountain of rubble and broken wood downstairs biting her lower lip lost in thought. She looked up at the ceiling and then down to where the floor was hidden. "This there is the heart of the mill." she nodded to herself. "This part is the most important."
"Why?" asked Barbara.
"Because here the energy of the mill will come from. This is the part that will make it all come alive. Everything else is just an extension."
"All right," Barbara said, "I think I know the right people for the tasks you have at hand."
Jenny changed focus from her vision of the mill back to the present. "And who would that be."
"Friends of mine who dropped out of University around the same time as I. They also followed their vision."
"What vision was that?"
"One of stone and mortar, pipes, metal and electricity. They became builders."
This was Edmund's food for thought, he had done so much thinking when eating that food, that now when he ate the right things the ideas would come. He even had categories. Fish and chips was for mathematical or stochastic problems, obviously. While a good strong curry was the food for great narratives. Analysis and research was clearly best suited for Chinese takeaway eaten on public soil somewhere in the city.
Now however he had to do research, look for possible allies and recruit a potential engineer while at the same time going to a strange new place to eat. Highly irregular. So Edmund went all out, the food would be distracting him anyway so he chose something he usually would avoid, also this would be a test for Linda. He had chosen The Enchantress a vegan place in a successfully up-scaled former working-class neighbourhoods. He was still poring over the menu when Linda arrived. While neither knew how the other looked like Edmund had assured her that she would know him when she saw him. He he cultivated an old school Bourgeois, slightly over-dressed style that would have caused Sartre to break out in sarcasm. Also he had reserved a table under his name just in case he had overestimated his individuality.
Linda appeared 5 minutes early, all practical clothes and combat boots sporting an expression of existential bemusement. When her eyes met his, she paused her eyebrows moving up an inch. He answered her question with a smile warmed by smugness.
"You are Edmund." a bit of a question flowing into a greeting.
"I am." he said. "You must be Linda." he stood up to shake her hand. "Pleased to meet you."
"Hi. I'm Linda. Likewise." The question was not quite done yet.
"Please take a seat and feel free to get whatever you like. Dinner is on me." Edmund waited for her to sit down before he did the same.
"Thanks." she said now focusing on him. "I heard from Russell that you have project that I might be interested in. Something about high efficiency power generation?"
"Yes. A friend of me Jenny is looking to renovate and old watermill. And I'm talking middle ages old. She plans to rebuild it, turn it into a café but she wants it to be something special."
"Special like this place?" Linda asked looking at the menu still not quite sure of what to make of it.
"No. Not like this place." Edmund said.
"OK" Linda said not looking any more convinced than when she had entered the place. "So special in what way?"
"I'm not sure how yet. Jenny has a vision, but I think it is not quite clear to her yet what it is yet. She is trying to give a dream of hers form. And... have you ever had a great dream that faded the moment you woke up but you tried to remember?"
Linda just nodded.
"Well I think it is something like that. But one part that is absolutely clear is that the place will produce its own power. At the very least we would like it to produce as much of the power it needs on its own. If you need more details you will have to talk with her. But first of all I need to know if you have what it takes" that made a pair of eyebrows rise "and then if you are interested in our little project."
"Who else have you talked to?" Linda asked her eyebrows brought back down setting her face into poker configuration.
"So far just Russell. Right now I'm spreading the word."
"What kind of solution are you thinking about?"
"Er..." Edmund paused. "There is more than one?"
"Are you going for a single source of power, or a hybrid system? Are you trying to shift the energy balance towards neutral or do you want full self-sufficiency? And is this going to be low emission, zero emission?"
As Edmund heard this his polite smile broadened into full enthusiasm and his eyes shone. "I have no idea. But I would love to hear what you think about it."
The rest of the evening was spent filling napkins with sketches, plans and projects while eating significant amounts of surprisingly good food. When they left The Enchantress they had a several different plans for Jenny to decide on.
Chapter 3 Foundations
While Edmund was out and about trying to find people to give her Café power and something to offer beyond a dry place in a storm, she was working towards clearing the place. The first day she did it on her own. A horrible idea but a necessary one. Picking up the trash and putting it into bags was easy enough, even if it took her ages to just filling bags with rubbish. No matter how much she collected, there was always more left for her to get rid off.
As Mount Trash, as she called the black pile in front of the mill began to grow, she had started to attracted the curiosity of her new neighbours. Most of them had been happy from simply watching her for a while from the security of their property casting their silent judgements in forms of nods, shaken heads and various species of smiles.
An older Lady who had watched Jenny for a while was different. She looked looked young for her age, in a way that was one part a lucky draw in the gene lottery for the greatest part though a resolute determination to not give a single inch to age without an all out war. Where other people had aged with dignity she had worked on being young for her entire life and was now a veteran. She had observed Jenny far longer than anyone else. At first Jenny had not noticed her at first, then ignored her as she thought that she was just a curious bystander like all the others. When it became clear that this wasn't the case Jenny paused swung the trash-bag in her hands towards the summit of Mount Trash and then turned towards the woman. She waved with and said "Hello." and after a short pause added, "I come in peace."
The woman tilted her head waved back smiling and disappeared into her house.
'OK. So that's the local strange old lady...' Jenny thought and went back into the mill collecting the souvenirs of a small army of teenagers past. While she was taking out another nest of beer cans she heard a knock on the door. She turned around to see the old woman standing on the threshold. She had changed into hiking boots and put on a crimson scarf and a coat the colour of dried blood. She was armed with a Thermos and a large tin.
"Hi I'm Barbara." she said, "I bring tea, " she lifted the Thermos, "and cookies." she said lifting the other hand, presenting her offerings to Jenny. And if you like I have also brought a little something to give the tea a kick." she added with an impish smile.
"Hello Barbara. I'm Jenny. And tea sounds perfect." Barbara's smile began to fill with pity "Preferably reinforced." The smile was back to normal after that. "What do you have?"
"Rum." Barbara said.
"Perfect" Jenny said sitting down on the floor next to the beer can nest. "Please take a seat."
Barbara joined her on the floor after moving a few stones away to clear bit of space on the floor. "Nice place you have here." she said while pulling out two mugs from the depths of her coat pockets.
"Thanks although I'm thinking about redecorating." said Jenny while she watched Barbara pouring the tea steaming in the cold air filling the room with its pleasant scent.
"Milk?" Barbara asked.
"Just the rum for now." Jenny said.
"Prefect choice." Barbara nodded and added a very generous splash of rum two both mugs.
As the fragrance of the rum joined the smell of the fresh tea Jenny Jenny could feel how the place came alive. She nodded to herself smiling. "This will work."
"I beg your pardon?" asked Barbara.
"Oh, I was just thinking aloud. I think that what I have planned for this place will work."
"And what have you planned?"
"I'd like turn this place, the mill, into a place where people come to forget the world outside, to relax and to have a cup of tea." Jenny said.
Barbara toasted Jenny with her mug. "It seems to me that right now you are passing the proof of concept stage. Cheers!"
"Cheers."
"It is good to see that someone is finally taking care of this place. I've always loved it." Barbara looked around. "I grew up here, lived in the house," she pointed with her thumb over her shoulder towards where she had come from, "until I was done with school and left for the university... among other things. I played here when I was little and when I got older this was the place where I could hang out with my friends without my parents being a constant embarrassment. The mill is a special place to everyone who grew up here. I remember that I had dreams of taking care of it should I win the lottery. Turning it into a gallery or a workshop or something like that. We all did. But in the end no one ever did anything..." she paused for a moment lost in thought. "but then, in the end, life tends to get in the way of your dreams, doesn’t it?"
"Yeah..." Jenny sighed "But not any more. I'm here to change that." she nodded more to herself than to Barbara when she said that.
"Is there anything I can help you with?" Barbara asked "if there is something I've left in abundance it's free time."
"Well... as a matter of fact, yes."
"Want me to help you getting rid of the rubbish?"
"That would be great. However there is another thing..." Jenny said.
"Yes?"
"I may have taken a few of the blessings of modern civilisation for granted."
"You need to go to the toilet right?"
"Yes, please?" Jenny said.
Barbara got up. "Well then, follow me. You can sing my praises later.
As midday approached Mount Trash had grown so high that it tempted any passing summiteer to check their climbing gear. However looking at her work Jenny could not help but feeling slightly annoyed. She had not come as far as she had wanted to. Despite her creation of a new mountain range in front of the watermill, going inside everything still seemed to be crawling with rubbish. Every big piece she removed just seemed to bring a swarm of smaller refuse to light. Besides that was just the shit people had left around. The next step would be to take all the bits of broken building out of there. The Bits of stone and wood, the broken sheets of plaster. Some of the which had to be removed with the use of some well applied force as parts were still attached to the building clinging unconvincingly to their life of old. And what would happen then? While she could a pretty structural analysis on a text, doing the same with a building was a task she was completely unsuited for. Nonetheless she did know that if you went ant took out parts of buildings willy nilly buildings tended to take that lying down, on top of you.
It was Barbara who brought her back from her contemplation.
"You look glum." Barbara said.
"I was just thinking about what I still needs to be done." Jenny said not taking her eyes off of the old watermill. "I was thinking that I was starting on square one. Or actually square three or four considering I had to secure financing and the rights to the watermill in the first place. Turns out I'm square mines five..." her shoulders fell as she said that her entire form shrinking. Barbara put her hand on her shoulder, very softly as not to weigh Jenny down any further.
"That's actually a good thing." Barbara said.
Jennies eyes swivelled to look at Barbara, she did not have the will to move her body, but her posture hardened making her look like a sulky gargoyle. "Oh really...?"
"Yes." Barbara said her hand now grabbing hold of her shoulder. "If known many people like you, people with vision, people following some impossible dream, and they all sooner or later arrive at the place where they realize that their idea was shining so bright in their hearts that they had misjudged how far it was.
There are two types who tend to reach the finishing line the most. The ones who notice early on how hard the road ahead really is, those who do not give up become careful, they know how hard the way is and plan accordingly." Barbara let that sink in.
Jenny relaxed a bit regaining her composure. "And the other type?"
"They are drawn so strongly to towards that light that they simply will not be stopped by such trivialities. Reality will give way to their vision."
"Those are the other ones who reach their goals?" Jenny asked now standing up straight again and turning towards Barbara.
"You have to remember that most people fail or give up. Most fall for the common sense's siren call others simply burn out as we are never taught how to pace ourselves when following our passion. Passion burns. And blindly playing with fire is..." Barbara was quiet for a moment her smile still tender turned sad "...it does not end well."
"I think you were trying to lift my spirits." said Jenny.
"Yes I am." Barbara said returning to the present. "You already know how much work is ahead of you and that it won't be easy. That is much less of risk. Right now you are in a situation where you are realising that your little walk in the hills is actually a mountain climbing expedition through an unmapped mountain range."
"Spirits still firmly grounded." Jenny said though she could not suppress a smile sneaking in.
"I know, wait for it." Barbara shushed her. "You know what you are up to though. You are not yet lost. You see what you are really up to and now you can plan. You walked through all those hills and now notice that you are now at the food of a mountain. Look right there." she pointed towards the heap of rubbish in front of the watermill. "You alone got all that out of the mill in only a morning. That's a lot you achieved right there."
"But there is so much more left."
"Yes. But look at that" Barbara insisted. "Look at it. That is already not there any more. And you are not alone."
"That's true. But Edmund is still out trying to get people to take care of things that won't be possible until I am done here..."
"Who is Edmund?" Barbara asked.
"My best friend." Jenny said.
"Well I was not talking about him."
"No? But..."
"I didn't even know that he existed a second ago. I'm talking about me."
"You...?" Jenny attempted to interject again.
"Yes, me. And I have a few friends who will be able to help you."
"You do?"
"Yes, I'm pretty sure there a few other details that you still have not thought about."
"Like..."
"Where will the water and electricity come from? Where will be your toilets, or the kitchen, where are you planning to have power sockets, and what about a computer network? Pipes and cables need a place where they can go through. And you'd want to know where these things are going to be before the builders come."
"Oh." Jenny said.
"Where are your spirits now?" Barbara asked.
Jenny looked at her blinked a few times before saying, "I guess they just found the basement."
Barbara looked surprised. "The basement!"
"Yes now I am really feel like I wasted my money and am now sitting on a ten thousand year lease paired with a set of on second thought really crippling obligations."
"Forget about that for a moment. Did you find the basement? When I was a teenager it was already a half collapsed death trap. A very interesting one though." Barbara grinned.
"er... nope. No basement that I know of." Jenny said.
"They must have sealed it. You'll want to open it up again. It will give you more space and you need to be sure that it is OK, you don't want to build on a decaying foundation."
"Right..."
"Right. Now back to your spirits. Are you hungry?"" Barbara asked.
"I was ten minutes ago."
"Perfect. I brought you a few things." Barbara pointed towards a big wicker pick-nick basket Jenny had somehow failed to notice until now. "You've got enough reality for the moment. It is time we go in there and find your vision.
Jenny took a deep breath. "Let's go." She took the lead back into the watermill. "Where would you like to have lunch?"
"I don't know" Barbara said. "Why don't you give me a tour."
"Well..." Jenny paused looking at large room in front of her. It filled the entire area of the part adjacent to the actual mill. "This is the main room. You can't see it for all the crap lying around but this will be were the people will be sitting having a great view at the river over there," she pointed to the wall in front of them, "and the terrace over there. Which you cant see because there are no windows there or a a terrace. Yet." She turned around and pointed to the wall to her right. That wall will be opened up and second as kind of bar the kitchen will be behind that where the actual mill is." She hesitated for a moment. "provided I can take out so much wall without everything falling apart..."
"Well now that you know what you want, you will be able to ask people who know about these things how you could get it done." Barbara said calmly. It had been dark when she had followed Jenny inside but not her eyes were getting used to it and it was illuminated by Jennies imagination she could see it. She could feel the warmth of the sun warming the room even on fresh autumn day as today. The space was wide open and yet comfortable.
Jenny opened a door to her right leading further into the mill.
"This will be the corridor that leads to to the kitchen, the storage space and the generator." Jenny said.
"The generator?" Barbara asked.
"Yeah. The mill will generate its own electricity. It's been here for so long and it has been using the flow of the river to do its job it would be a pity if that would change."
"That makes sense." Barbara nodded. "What about the toilets."
"The toilets?" Jenny said. "Oh... yeah. They should probably be here somewhere. They cant go there..." she looked at the wall to the left. "That's where the stairs are." A short pause. "Hmmm, the wall here should also vanish the stairs should be accessible from the kitchen the main room and the back... So the toilets could go to over there" She pointed towards the other end of the corridor."
"You should consider putting them behind the kitchen." said Barbara.
"Why?"
"Piping. The water needs to come from somewhere and you don't want pipes in all walls. That will be a lot of fun once you decide to put a new picture on a wall. Also the further warm water has to travel, the longer it will take to for it to come out warm."
Jenny just nodded. Went through the next door turned sharp to the left and went up the stairs. Barbara followed her but with far less trust in the steps that Jenny was showing careful to only step on the outermost parts of them.
"Then up here would be another room with a great view. More like the place were you would read a book or follow your thoughts. More bath rooms over there. A dumb waiter in the corner there and more toilets, separating the public part from the private area..."
"Private." Barbara asked.
"Yeah. I feel like it would be nice to live right here. there could be a bathroom on the other side and maybe an apartment. Over the main mill room. Or maybe around it?" she led the way again leading the gallery of a large two story room that looked like an ancient city god had lost his temper in half way through assembling a timber framed house and thrown all of the remaining materials into the air and left in a huff.
"That treeish looking thing poking out of the rubble should have been the drive shaft or what ever it's called of the mill. Even if the generator is large we don't need all the head-room. And there is another floor above us that has also enough space for a small but comfortable flat. Maybe this could be a hostel too." Jenny crooked her head as she said that thinking about it. "Nah. That's not quite right. More like a place where friends can crash..." She looked back down. There are also some old storage rooms down there, which would make great new storage rooms." She looked again at the mountain of rubble and broken wood downstairs biting her lower lip lost in thought. She looked up at the ceiling and then down to where the floor was hidden. "This there is the heart of the mill." she nodded to herself. "This part is the most important."
"Why?" asked Barbara.
"Because here the energy of the mill will come from. This is the part that will make it all come alive. Everything else is just an extension."
"All right," Barbara said, "I think I know the right people for the tasks you have at hand."
Jenny changed focus from her vision of the mill back to the present. "And who would that be."
"Friends of mine who dropped out of University around the same time as I. They also followed their vision."
"What vision was that?"
"One of stone and mortar, pipes, metal and electricity. They became builders."
Friday, 2 November 2018
Project Coffee Break Redux 001
Chapter 2 Looking for allies
While Jenny was out and about securing the money and the watermill itself Edmund was on his dual quest to find the right people who could help them in bringing it to life. He was a good choice for the task, he and Jenny knew each other from the university but where she had followed the narrow path towards success, Edmund hat followed down the broad boulevard of academic purity. The most noble of paths for any academic, but also the one framed by private mansions reserved only for the rich, powerful and lucky. He wasn't rich, his family was unremarkable and while Lady Fortuna didn't fancy him all that much. That combined with his adamant pursuit of academic purity made him to one of the most promising people in his field who would never work in it. He loved the platonic ideal of knowing and understanding not only things but also people, which brought him into contact with other driven people and made it easy to get to know them. His acquaintances were legion.
He was determined to do right by Jenny. For one, he loved the project. He had seen the watermill and as Jenny had given him the tour through its decomposing structure, her words had brought the building back to life in many different ways one more beautiful than the other. He had faith in Jennies vision from the very beginning but after she was done with her tour looking at him beaming, smile radiant and eyes shining he had absolute faith in her. The fire in her soul was back, a bright bonfire illuminating her from within. The quality that had drawn him to Jenny when he first met her and kept him at her side ever since.
So the first thing he had done after they had parted ways that morning was to go and get some breakfast. The city was marbled with cafés, bistros, eateries, restaurants, snack-bars in all their possible manifestations giving it its excellent taste for which it was world famous. Its varied delights attracted chefs, critics, writers, bloggers and instagramers, which again lead to more places to open up. The city servants of the city loved it. It made their hive so much more attractive and as the city prospered so did they. Getting a license to sell food was always easy. Where the clerks usually jealously guarded their city against the unwashed and the poor, pretty much everyone was welcome to try to feed the inhabitants.
This made Edmund's first mission simple to start but very hard to get done. So he ate a morsel here, drank an espresso there, drifting through the city getting a feeling for what was working and how. He was also hungry, that helped too. He had started with traditional places serving at least metaphorically the meat and potatoes, switching over to the more out there and exotic and turning back to the outrageously simple. By midday he was stuffed like a Christmas turkey but not one inch closer to knowing what the mill needed to be able to thrive as a café. However he had become acquainted with the terroir and was now near the ivory towers of the university which was integral to finding the right people who could help him with this second quest.
He left the grey of the city entering the hallowed grounds of the university. Everything was more vibrant, more real here. This was a place where people thought about everything and they did in depth and in detail. Outside people just believed things, nothing had to make much sense as long as it seemed to make some kind of sense and the first truth that appeared was usually good enough and cordially invited in into the minds of people. In here things were different. Even ideas that had proven themselves were often invited out for a sound thrashing just to make sure that they still lived up to their promise. Sure even this paradise was unclean as it still involved people and their petty motivations, but they were polluted with a hight degree of sophistication. Edmund felt right at home again, he relaxed and became more like his ideal self. He also became bitter as he was reminded that he would only ever be a visitor in this place and would never get to live here ever again. Before that thought could drag him to far down he reminded himself that it also meant that he was free of the hierarchies that controlled this world. 'Well' he thought to himself 'I will enjoy the virtues and leave the vices behind me.' he shrugged his bitterness off, leaving it to be blown away by the autumn wind while he walked towards the engineering department at a brisk pace.
"Hydroelectric power?" Russell who was slightly nervous as always said looking at Edmund blinking a bit to frequently, "Big style? Like damns? That'll be difficult." His eyes twitched their focus into space.
"No not dams." said Edmund "It's for a watermill. The water turns the wheel and that power is used to make electricity."
"Oh." said Russell his eyes twitching back to Edmund and remain there now calm. "That's actually pretty trivial."
Edmund waited for a moment thinking that Russell would say more, but as he didn't he tried again.
"So there is no on that?" Edmund asked.
"No." snorted his disdain giving him the coolness that evaded him in his normal life. "That would be not much more than a dynamo. That's something your bike can do."
Lesser men would have either run out of idea by now or would have recoiled from the physical force Russell's condescension produced,for Edmund this was a challenge.
"You obviously don't see what is at hand here." Edmund said.
"Nothing which can't be solved by something you could by in any store." Russell said overestimating what a normal store sold.
"I'm not talking about something you could buy in a store." Edmund had to find the spark that would ignite Russell's passion. "I'm looking for something better."
"Better?" Now Russell did not look like a nervous techy any more but more like a predator who was now considering if it was not about time to become hungry. "Better how?"
"Well..." Edmund said "First of all we are looking for a bespoke solution. This is an ancient watermill that we are talking about, the engine must fit the mill."
"Generator" Russell corrected.
Edmund lips moved only the tiniest bit but his eyes betrayed his smile. "Yes, sorry, the generator must fit the mill. An old structure with no technical infrastructure at all. Well apart from the moving parts which might as well still be from the middle ages."
"I can see how that would need at least some proper work done." Russell was now looking inwards visualising the situation throwing around a few variables. Before he he could add anything more to the conversation Edmund added: "And the place needs to be completely self-sufficient."
Russell paused at that. "Self-sufficient? How big is the water wheel?"
"I'm not sure twelve meters perhaps?"
Russell smiled a lopsided smile. "That's difficult."
"It probably won't be possible." Edmund added to the fire he had carefully brought to life.
"I never said impossible." said Russell. "This is nor my area of expertise but I know someone who I'm sure would love to talk to you. "Her name is Linda and she is really into ultra high efficiency energy conversion, she's working on her PhD right now and I think she just might want a project that can bring her work together in a coherent way"
"That sounds excellent." Edmund said. "You can tell her that can discuss the project over dinner. The location her choice." He might as well use the time he would spend talking to this Linda person to keep working on his other assignment. Win win.
While Jenny was out and about securing the money and the watermill itself Edmund was on his dual quest to find the right people who could help them in bringing it to life. He was a good choice for the task, he and Jenny knew each other from the university but where she had followed the narrow path towards success, Edmund hat followed down the broad boulevard of academic purity. The most noble of paths for any academic, but also the one framed by private mansions reserved only for the rich, powerful and lucky. He wasn't rich, his family was unremarkable and while Lady Fortuna didn't fancy him all that much. That combined with his adamant pursuit of academic purity made him to one of the most promising people in his field who would never work in it. He loved the platonic ideal of knowing and understanding not only things but also people, which brought him into contact with other driven people and made it easy to get to know them. His acquaintances were legion.
He was determined to do right by Jenny. For one, he loved the project. He had seen the watermill and as Jenny had given him the tour through its decomposing structure, her words had brought the building back to life in many different ways one more beautiful than the other. He had faith in Jennies vision from the very beginning but after she was done with her tour looking at him beaming, smile radiant and eyes shining he had absolute faith in her. The fire in her soul was back, a bright bonfire illuminating her from within. The quality that had drawn him to Jenny when he first met her and kept him at her side ever since.
So the first thing he had done after they had parted ways that morning was to go and get some breakfast. The city was marbled with cafés, bistros, eateries, restaurants, snack-bars in all their possible manifestations giving it its excellent taste for which it was world famous. Its varied delights attracted chefs, critics, writers, bloggers and instagramers, which again lead to more places to open up. The city servants of the city loved it. It made their hive so much more attractive and as the city prospered so did they. Getting a license to sell food was always easy. Where the clerks usually jealously guarded their city against the unwashed and the poor, pretty much everyone was welcome to try to feed the inhabitants.
This made Edmund's first mission simple to start but very hard to get done. So he ate a morsel here, drank an espresso there, drifting through the city getting a feeling for what was working and how. He was also hungry, that helped too. He had started with traditional places serving at least metaphorically the meat and potatoes, switching over to the more out there and exotic and turning back to the outrageously simple. By midday he was stuffed like a Christmas turkey but not one inch closer to knowing what the mill needed to be able to thrive as a café. However he had become acquainted with the terroir and was now near the ivory towers of the university which was integral to finding the right people who could help him with this second quest.
He left the grey of the city entering the hallowed grounds of the university. Everything was more vibrant, more real here. This was a place where people thought about everything and they did in depth and in detail. Outside people just believed things, nothing had to make much sense as long as it seemed to make some kind of sense and the first truth that appeared was usually good enough and cordially invited in into the minds of people. In here things were different. Even ideas that had proven themselves were often invited out for a sound thrashing just to make sure that they still lived up to their promise. Sure even this paradise was unclean as it still involved people and their petty motivations, but they were polluted with a hight degree of sophistication. Edmund felt right at home again, he relaxed and became more like his ideal self. He also became bitter as he was reminded that he would only ever be a visitor in this place and would never get to live here ever again. Before that thought could drag him to far down he reminded himself that it also meant that he was free of the hierarchies that controlled this world. 'Well' he thought to himself 'I will enjoy the virtues and leave the vices behind me.' he shrugged his bitterness off, leaving it to be blown away by the autumn wind while he walked towards the engineering department at a brisk pace.
"Hydroelectric power?" Russell who was slightly nervous as always said looking at Edmund blinking a bit to frequently, "Big style? Like damns? That'll be difficult." His eyes twitched their focus into space.
"No not dams." said Edmund "It's for a watermill. The water turns the wheel and that power is used to make electricity."
"Oh." said Russell his eyes twitching back to Edmund and remain there now calm. "That's actually pretty trivial."
Edmund waited for a moment thinking that Russell would say more, but as he didn't he tried again.
"So there is no on that?" Edmund asked.
"No." snorted his disdain giving him the coolness that evaded him in his normal life. "That would be not much more than a dynamo. That's something your bike can do."
Lesser men would have either run out of idea by now or would have recoiled from the physical force Russell's condescension produced,for Edmund this was a challenge.
"You obviously don't see what is at hand here." Edmund said.
"Nothing which can't be solved by something you could by in any store." Russell said overestimating what a normal store sold.
"I'm not talking about something you could buy in a store." Edmund had to find the spark that would ignite Russell's passion. "I'm looking for something better."
"Better?" Now Russell did not look like a nervous techy any more but more like a predator who was now considering if it was not about time to become hungry. "Better how?"
"Well..." Edmund said "First of all we are looking for a bespoke solution. This is an ancient watermill that we are talking about, the engine must fit the mill."
"Generator" Russell corrected.
Edmund lips moved only the tiniest bit but his eyes betrayed his smile. "Yes, sorry, the generator must fit the mill. An old structure with no technical infrastructure at all. Well apart from the moving parts which might as well still be from the middle ages."
"I can see how that would need at least some proper work done." Russell was now looking inwards visualising the situation throwing around a few variables. Before he he could add anything more to the conversation Edmund added: "And the place needs to be completely self-sufficient."
Russell paused at that. "Self-sufficient? How big is the water wheel?"
"I'm not sure twelve meters perhaps?"
Russell smiled a lopsided smile. "That's difficult."
"It probably won't be possible." Edmund added to the fire he had carefully brought to life.
"I never said impossible." said Russell. "This is nor my area of expertise but I know someone who I'm sure would love to talk to you. "Her name is Linda and she is really into ultra high efficiency energy conversion, she's working on her PhD right now and I think she just might want a project that can bring her work together in a coherent way"
"That sounds excellent." Edmund said. "You can tell her that can discuss the project over dinner. The location her choice." He might as well use the time he would spend talking to this Linda person to keep working on his other assignment. Win win.
Thursday, 1 November 2018
Project Coffee Break Redux 000
The following is an editeted version of last years attempt at writing a novel, it is the seed and basis for this years attempt.
Project Coffee Break Redux
Prologue: Into the Dream
Make your dreams come true. Sounds easy. Yet most people don't even try. For most of her life Jenny had been one of those people. Retreating from the world into the dream was far easier than trying to force the dream into reality. It's lot of hard work. Dreams are supposed to be comfortable places, safe and warm. Not something one wants to sully with the sweat of work and dirtying it with the banalities of everyday life.
So for many years she just cultivated her dream in her mind, letting the warm feeling it left follow her where ever she went. It worked well for her. If life got hard or tedious, she could change focus from the world to her fantasy. Here she was the proprietor of a small café. A cosy place that always had the smell of freshly roasted coffee in the air, filled with the light of a late summer sun that never set, to the sound of clinking cutlery and the murmur of the other guests. It was like a little holiday of the mind. It had the great advantage that she could change the interior and the location whenever and however she wanted. She also didn't have to worry about small details like paying bills, where to get all the things she needed to run a café in the first place or learn how to roast coffee.
As time went by however there was something missing in her life. She had a good enough job, her colleagues were nice, some of whom she counted as her personal friends.
Life was... OK.
Yet there was this tiny little hole in her soul, one that slowly increased in size as time washed through it. At first she had not realised it was there.And when she started to notice that something was amiss she was still not sure what it was. Well, apart from the fact that her life was for all intents an purposes pretty 'meh'.
Se only came to understand what was wrong when she went out of the city for a short vacation during a long weekend. She was thinking about renting a small cottage not too far away from the city to spend some time there with herself. To get to know her heart again. Leaving the daily routine behind to see what was left of her if she let her daily life slide away.
Turns out there was a lot of her still left. Mostly she was just tired, not in a sleepy way but her mind and her feelings were tired. Being outside in the warm tempestuous wind of an impatient autumn that was wrestling with a summer that just didn't want to die, helped to clear her thoughts. She didn't hate her life she was just bored to tears by it. She had muddled her way through school, forced herself to push towards approaching what as considered excellence at the university only to enter a world that didn't really give a fuck about her. She was to work somewhere, her qualifications be damned and her needs as a human being barely tolerated as nuisance as long as she was fulfilling her functions as a human resource.
"Meh" she said to the wind. The wind roared with sympathy ruining her hair in the process.
Looking up the skies she could see that autumn had brought some big burly cloud friends to its disagreement with summer. They were already flexing their edges and starting to turn into dark grey towers to scare summer away. It was time to seek shelter. So she hurried along her path which wound through fields and little patches of forest, resulting in the picturesque landscape she had sought for her weekend retreat. According to her phone and the strength of its signal civilisation was near hiding behind a some trees. Which turned out for the best, it had already started to rain when she reached the little outgrowth of the city. The kind of rain that with thick ponderous drops of water gave fair warning to everyone that the real show was about to begin. The air was starting to heat up, the light turning to a dramatic green.
Jenny realised that she would have to find proper shelter soon or risk being washed away by the quarrel of the seasons.
This is how she found the watermill. Deliberating whether or not to knock on a random door to ask for asylum and hope for a warm cup of tea, she reached a little stone bridge that looked like it had crossed the the little river it was built over for more than a thousand years. Composed of rough hewn rock and clothed in patches of moss and lichen that would always be in style it stood there calmly waiting for the storm to do its worst. It had stood there for countless centuries and it was planning of continuing doing so for the aeons to come. As Jenny was crossing it her eyes were automatically drawn to an ancient watermill that stood not far upstream from the defiant little bridge. Not as old as the bridge the watermill too had stood on the same sport for dozens of generations. Jenny felt a slight tug of admiration as she saw it, there was something about the building that she found touching. That mill had been a place where people had lived and worked for so long that the language and the country around it had changed in character and appearance so much, that it had left the mill stranded in an utterly alien place. And yet it was suited perfectly for that spot. Then Jenny felt a much harder tug, this time it was strong gust of wind telling her that the show was about to start and if she did not get out of the way very soon she would become part of it.
She was not quite sure why she was doing it, but the first place Jenny sought shelter at was the watermill. She tested its door. It was unlocked. Now looking at it directly she noticed that the watermill was very close to being a ruin while still maintaining enough of its dignity to keep up appearances. Inside the building was mostly empty apart from some random debris and what other people who had sought shelter here before had left lying around. It was far from tidy but then Jenny knew some streets back in the city where this level of 'cleanliness' would've been considered close to spotless. She looked around the ground floor found the stairs and went up a floor. Still mostly a ruin upstairs but it much cleaner upstairs. Most things that had broken had fallen to the ground floor and it seemed that most people were not feeling so adventures as to tempt going up the creaking wooden stairs of an ancient derelict like this. Distracted by her fascination for the old mill Jenny kept exploring. She found a small room with a mostly intact window overlooking the river that had changed into his best white foam attire to take part in the dispute between the seasons that was reaching its full force outside. Jenny was pleasantly surprised that the window was actually keeping wind and rain outside. Letting her eyes wander she was delighted to find an old leather chair. Its best years had past long before she was born. Jenny didn't mind she sat down surprised to find, that it was still supremely comfortable and that below an aroma of stone dust she could still smell the leather. This feeling of comfort reminded her of the times when she had visited her grandfather's home and sat in his leather chair, a monster of a thing that to her child sensibilities had enough space that she could build herself a room on it. She loved to sit in that chair like a tiny queen, while here grandpa sat on the couch facing the chair reading fairy tales to her.
She remembered feeling the warmth of the sun in her face, the voice of her grandfather fading slowly. She smelt freshly ground coffee, he had gotten up when she fell asleep to make himself a cup and he would make her a giant cup of hot chocolate. She smiled slowly opening her eyes, the sun was getting close to the horizon changing into her crimson night clothes but still bright enough to blind her, she looked around the room, filled with wooden shelves an a tidy work desk that she remembered always wanting since she had been in university. Which reminded her that her grandfather was long dead, and that there was no couch in the room. And like that very slowly the dilapidated room where she had fallen asleep in slowly resurfaced from what had been left of her dream. Only the the bright light of the setting sun remained.
That and at the very edge of perception the smell of coffee.
Chapter 1 Into Reality
That moment in the windmill got stuck in Jennies heart. Her usual dream had turned into a deep kind of yearning. Her soul café stopped changing its form and location, instead it was now filling the spaces of the old watermill. The light of the setting sun which had woken her up had also pulled her dreams out into the waking world. Now when she left work after another day of joyless toil she was embraced by this crimson glow showing her this other world. A place that was only slightly out of reach.
The next step was being declared completely and utterly crazy by pretty much everyone she knew.
Starting with her parents who somehow managed to act as polar opposites while coming to the same conclusion. Her mother was deeply distraught berating her for even contemplating of throwing her security and thus her life away for such a foolish dream. "I mean just look around you", she would say. "There are cafés everywhere." the last bit stressed in a way that was usually reserved for cockroaches. "Surely every café that is needed has already been opened." her mother had always been the one with a vision in her family. "And remember the nice little place by the embankment that I liked so much?" the one her mother loved to walk past on her fitness walks but never entered, because she could have her tea just as well at home and eating cake would surely defeat the point of doing sports. "It is gone. Just like that." With that the matter was concluded for her mother.
Her father was even worse. He just laughed. She tried to explain to him why it was a good idea, how it would help her get ahead not only professionally but also as human being. He found the entire endeavour hilarious. No matter what she told him he was mostly choking on the M&Ms he was eating at the time. She tried several angles which to her father all sounded like the funniest thing in the world. "And you will get that money from where?" he'd ask and while she was still explaining he was already trying to suppress his laughter not wanting to waste his mirth until she had reached the punchline. She came out of that conversation feeling like a tiny little idiot.
The conclusion to this fiasco was a last ditch effort from her side, putting both her parents together in the living room sitting before them and asking them for a loan. A substantial one, but one she knew they could afford. She also explained her meticulous plan of how to pay them back and how the entire thing would be delayed if it all should end badly. Her mother sat there with a face so full of pity it deformed her expression, while her father sat there with big unbelieving eyes marvelling that this joke had turned out into one that just kept delivering.
So there they sat, side by side delivering their final verdict. "No." cold and worried from her mother. And a chuckled "No bloody way." from her father. There they were her parents playing the part of an exalted royalty amused by the incomprehensible wishes of the mortal peasants. Like Oberon and Titania, but arseholes.
It went better with her brother Chris, who at least took her seriously. He could not really help her, as he spent his time mostly travelling around the world for his work as a lighting artist for live concerts or where ever else people needed spectacular light shows. There was little help he could offer in getting the renovations done. And as he usually spent most of his salary back into his work, there wasn't much money to be borrowed from him either, beyond a very welcome but mostly symbolic sum. He did however promise her that if she got the thing off the ground he would take a month of his schedule and give her café the best lighting that human ingenuity could provide.
As small step at least. Jenny was also surprised how much comfort she got from having at least one person believing in her and her dream. Even more impressive was that in that short Skype conversation, that had regularly descended into confused robots trying to establish communications, she had gotten closer to her brother than she had been for many years. Turns out that when he decided to become a light designer he had encountered pretty much the same reaction from their delightful parents. Only with reversed roles. It was their mother who had found the idea hysterical, while it was their father who had asked him how the hell he was supposed to make a living by setting up a few lamps. Resistance had been futile. The only alternative he was given was to be more like his elder sister who had done the sensible thing of not dropping out of university to run with the wrong crowd and getting a job afterwards instead of deciding to follow what ever drug fuelled idea he stumbled over after a particularly debauched night. That episode had inspired Chris to go on a rebellious rampage, on the way developing a deep distaste for his sister that he never admitted even to himself, but seeped out of his very pores whenever they met. Chris went on to become a light wizard as well as the best paid member of his family drifting ever farther away. But that night, for him an early Indonesian morning, Jenny had found the brother she had almost forgotten she had. She was delighted to find an ally in the most unexpected of places especially after the reaction of her parents.
Edmund however was the rock on which she built her confidence. Her best friends reaction was relieve spiced with enthusiasm. "Finally! I was hatching plans of how to save you for years now, but I couldn't think of anything sane and feasible." it was clear that his problem had been the feasible part, sanity was strictly optional.
"Save me from what?" Jenny asked not quite sure what exactly buying a watermill to open a café would save her from.
"From fading away." he said stating the obvious. "So this watermill will need some work right?"
"Yes, it is closer to a ruin than to a proper building." Jenny hesitated. "Fading away?"
"This might be a good thing. If you're lucky the mill belongs to the city which would love to sell it for a few quid along with the responsibilities of maintaining it." he continued getting more exited by the minute. "And yes, fading away. You, the you that lives in the core of your heart, it was slowly wilting away."
"I wasn't wilting!" Jenny said, she had joined a gym a year ago and worked hard on keeping fit and there was certainly no wilting. "Why would the city sell the mill if it wants it maintained?"
"Come on, you know what I am talking about. You were getting more and more tired. Your hobbies were either going to that infernal gym of yours or couching your way through your Netflix list. When was the last time you painted? Also remember how we used to go to the theatre? Or go on our little expeditions trying to find new interesting artists? The most Jenny things about you were disappearing. But look at you now! Your eyes are on fire again. I look at them and I can see the stars again." he grinned broadly. "And they would sell because the city loves its scenic and historical sites, but really hates to spend money on that, so they'd rather give it away to some idiot, like you for example, who is under an obligation to maintain it, doing all the work, while they can boast their historic sites and shit like that."
"So how little would a few quid be?" she asked.
"Do you want to get way ahead of yourself?"
"Yes." Jenny nodded earnestly.
"One." Edmund said with equal gravity.
"One?"
"Yes. But only if you are really lucky, the city very desperate and you very stupid." he said.
After thinking it through for a couple of seconds Jenny said "I can be stupid..."
"And when it comes to not spending money, the city is always desperate." Edmund beamed.
"Also, the fire in my soul was always burning, I was just conserving its power waiting for the right moment."
"I'm just glad to see you coming back to live J." his smile widened.
The following week she investigated the watermill. Turned out it was a historic site. The city was not actively looking for anyone to take over the mill, however there had been some half hearted attempts to save the mill trailing back to at least the beginning of the 20th century. None of these attempts had amounted to anything as there were always more worthy projects with a higher priority, like for example not spending any money on some old mill no one would ever use. This however meant that it was a historical monument, at least it was declared one. While not quite what she had envisioned it led Jenny to formulate a plan.
She told her brother to plan for his return home in the near future to work his lighting magic. Then sent an overexcited Edmund on a couple of grand quest: the first was to find ways to turn the watermill into some kind of tiny hydroelectric power plant, the other was immersing himself into the hipster overground to learn as much about their café magic as possible. Jenny knew that giving him two monumental tasks instead of just one would yield the best results as Edmund's perpetual enthusiasm constantly engaged in a heated war with his attention deficit to see which of them was the most powerful of his defining characteristics.
With the longer term goals in Edmund's twitchy hands she went to a few banks to get the most biggest obstacle present out if the way. Where ever she arrived she did her well studied song and dance. Injected with only the tiniest bit of her true love of the project it was mostly power point to the dissonant tune of corporate logic she had learned at her work. This led to the reaction that Jenny had expected, the bank puppets who only faintly remembered what it was like to be human had nodded politely, asked the Exceedingly Clever Questions that had been handed down the generations of ancestor puppet people, followed by days of careful ritual motions representing what they understood as deliberation. The result was always the same they told Jenny in the politest terms to please go away and ruin another bank. Puppet smile. Deceased handshake.
What they did not know, was that Jenny had planted seeds in their minds, which now had time to germinate. Soon she would return and water them. While the idea gestated she went back to the city and told it that she wanted the mill. Another song and dance to another breed of institutional undead. Here she painted another picture. One of a site that would be revived to its full splendour, another jewel in the crown of the city.
"But it is a small mill. Faraway in the remotest corners of the city." the clerk people said.
"Ah, but just think what the tourists will think, when they walk to the outer rim, where the city touches nature and they see that even out there, so close to the wilderness the treasures of the city are kept in perfect condition. How far its reach! How great its commitment."
The clerk people had not expected this. One of them, with a willy strong animal soul smelled an opportunity and perked up. When Jenny noticed this she added "Also think what it will do to the property value. Nice part of the city, close to nature, a main road not far away and now add to that a historical monument in pristine condition." The feral clerk could see how that would improve his standing in his murder. He liked that mental picture. "Now add to that the possibility of some quality gastronomy..." The clerk thing did and he liked what his senses told him. Licking his lips he offered her the building and the plot of land for 100 currency, a symbolic price but one with weight, each year, a ritual repeated that would increase its power continually.
"For how long?" Jenny asked now avoiding most movements or expressions, this was a crucial moment.
"For as long as you and your heirs live but not longer than.... ten thousand years." the clerk bared its teeth in a face splitting smile. 'One thousand more than Guinness, I will be legend.'
Jenny agreed and thanked the clerk thing profusely, telling it with demands wearing the ashen dress of simple minded questions to give her the most pompous certificate its bureaucratic heart machine could come up with.
Armed with the certificate and one last weapon she returned to the banks. Now she wielded the will of the city, who saw Great Worth in her endeavour in one hand and a piece of paper that told the bank people that she called a well developed five figure amount of money her own. Both powerful motivators for the bank tribes. The vision of the city was a handy replacement for their lack of vision. And seeing fertile money that could be theirs was a most juicy morsel. The little idea she had planted before had become a tiny seedling. What to the bank people had appeared as desert ground now looked like good mother soil and so the seedling was nourished and grew. The bank people withdrew into their caverns of glass and steel and they discussed the matter anew. After that Jenny just had to direct their attention at each other. Two of them remained resolute. They would not stoop for mortals and much less for other, lesser banks, but the others hissed at each other, showing off their bespoke suits and designer accessories until only one remained and proudly presented Jenny with the least worst deal for herself.
Thus she returned from the dark depths of the city with a sack full of money and a predatory gleam in her eyes.
She felt like her ancestors must have felt when they had hunted down the beasts that preyed on mankind using their tools and their cunning.
Project Coffee Break Redux
Prologue: Into the Dream
Make your dreams come true. Sounds easy. Yet most people don't even try. For most of her life Jenny had been one of those people. Retreating from the world into the dream was far easier than trying to force the dream into reality. It's lot of hard work. Dreams are supposed to be comfortable places, safe and warm. Not something one wants to sully with the sweat of work and dirtying it with the banalities of everyday life.
So for many years she just cultivated her dream in her mind, letting the warm feeling it left follow her where ever she went. It worked well for her. If life got hard or tedious, she could change focus from the world to her fantasy. Here she was the proprietor of a small café. A cosy place that always had the smell of freshly roasted coffee in the air, filled with the light of a late summer sun that never set, to the sound of clinking cutlery and the murmur of the other guests. It was like a little holiday of the mind. It had the great advantage that she could change the interior and the location whenever and however she wanted. She also didn't have to worry about small details like paying bills, where to get all the things she needed to run a café in the first place or learn how to roast coffee.
As time went by however there was something missing in her life. She had a good enough job, her colleagues were nice, some of whom she counted as her personal friends.
Life was... OK.
Yet there was this tiny little hole in her soul, one that slowly increased in size as time washed through it. At first she had not realised it was there.And when she started to notice that something was amiss she was still not sure what it was. Well, apart from the fact that her life was for all intents an purposes pretty 'meh'.
Se only came to understand what was wrong when she went out of the city for a short vacation during a long weekend. She was thinking about renting a small cottage not too far away from the city to spend some time there with herself. To get to know her heart again. Leaving the daily routine behind to see what was left of her if she let her daily life slide away.
Turns out there was a lot of her still left. Mostly she was just tired, not in a sleepy way but her mind and her feelings were tired. Being outside in the warm tempestuous wind of an impatient autumn that was wrestling with a summer that just didn't want to die, helped to clear her thoughts. She didn't hate her life she was just bored to tears by it. She had muddled her way through school, forced herself to push towards approaching what as considered excellence at the university only to enter a world that didn't really give a fuck about her. She was to work somewhere, her qualifications be damned and her needs as a human being barely tolerated as nuisance as long as she was fulfilling her functions as a human resource.
"Meh" she said to the wind. The wind roared with sympathy ruining her hair in the process.
Looking up the skies she could see that autumn had brought some big burly cloud friends to its disagreement with summer. They were already flexing their edges and starting to turn into dark grey towers to scare summer away. It was time to seek shelter. So she hurried along her path which wound through fields and little patches of forest, resulting in the picturesque landscape she had sought for her weekend retreat. According to her phone and the strength of its signal civilisation was near hiding behind a some trees. Which turned out for the best, it had already started to rain when she reached the little outgrowth of the city. The kind of rain that with thick ponderous drops of water gave fair warning to everyone that the real show was about to begin. The air was starting to heat up, the light turning to a dramatic green.
Jenny realised that she would have to find proper shelter soon or risk being washed away by the quarrel of the seasons.
This is how she found the watermill. Deliberating whether or not to knock on a random door to ask for asylum and hope for a warm cup of tea, she reached a little stone bridge that looked like it had crossed the the little river it was built over for more than a thousand years. Composed of rough hewn rock and clothed in patches of moss and lichen that would always be in style it stood there calmly waiting for the storm to do its worst. It had stood there for countless centuries and it was planning of continuing doing so for the aeons to come. As Jenny was crossing it her eyes were automatically drawn to an ancient watermill that stood not far upstream from the defiant little bridge. Not as old as the bridge the watermill too had stood on the same sport for dozens of generations. Jenny felt a slight tug of admiration as she saw it, there was something about the building that she found touching. That mill had been a place where people had lived and worked for so long that the language and the country around it had changed in character and appearance so much, that it had left the mill stranded in an utterly alien place. And yet it was suited perfectly for that spot. Then Jenny felt a much harder tug, this time it was strong gust of wind telling her that the show was about to start and if she did not get out of the way very soon she would become part of it.
She was not quite sure why she was doing it, but the first place Jenny sought shelter at was the watermill. She tested its door. It was unlocked. Now looking at it directly she noticed that the watermill was very close to being a ruin while still maintaining enough of its dignity to keep up appearances. Inside the building was mostly empty apart from some random debris and what other people who had sought shelter here before had left lying around. It was far from tidy but then Jenny knew some streets back in the city where this level of 'cleanliness' would've been considered close to spotless. She looked around the ground floor found the stairs and went up a floor. Still mostly a ruin upstairs but it much cleaner upstairs. Most things that had broken had fallen to the ground floor and it seemed that most people were not feeling so adventures as to tempt going up the creaking wooden stairs of an ancient derelict like this. Distracted by her fascination for the old mill Jenny kept exploring. She found a small room with a mostly intact window overlooking the river that had changed into his best white foam attire to take part in the dispute between the seasons that was reaching its full force outside. Jenny was pleasantly surprised that the window was actually keeping wind and rain outside. Letting her eyes wander she was delighted to find an old leather chair. Its best years had past long before she was born. Jenny didn't mind she sat down surprised to find, that it was still supremely comfortable and that below an aroma of stone dust she could still smell the leather. This feeling of comfort reminded her of the times when she had visited her grandfather's home and sat in his leather chair, a monster of a thing that to her child sensibilities had enough space that she could build herself a room on it. She loved to sit in that chair like a tiny queen, while here grandpa sat on the couch facing the chair reading fairy tales to her.
She remembered feeling the warmth of the sun in her face, the voice of her grandfather fading slowly. She smelt freshly ground coffee, he had gotten up when she fell asleep to make himself a cup and he would make her a giant cup of hot chocolate. She smiled slowly opening her eyes, the sun was getting close to the horizon changing into her crimson night clothes but still bright enough to blind her, she looked around the room, filled with wooden shelves an a tidy work desk that she remembered always wanting since she had been in university. Which reminded her that her grandfather was long dead, and that there was no couch in the room. And like that very slowly the dilapidated room where she had fallen asleep in slowly resurfaced from what had been left of her dream. Only the the bright light of the setting sun remained.
That and at the very edge of perception the smell of coffee.
Chapter 1 Into Reality
That moment in the windmill got stuck in Jennies heart. Her usual dream had turned into a deep kind of yearning. Her soul café stopped changing its form and location, instead it was now filling the spaces of the old watermill. The light of the setting sun which had woken her up had also pulled her dreams out into the waking world. Now when she left work after another day of joyless toil she was embraced by this crimson glow showing her this other world. A place that was only slightly out of reach.
The next step was being declared completely and utterly crazy by pretty much everyone she knew.
Starting with her parents who somehow managed to act as polar opposites while coming to the same conclusion. Her mother was deeply distraught berating her for even contemplating of throwing her security and thus her life away for such a foolish dream. "I mean just look around you", she would say. "There are cafés everywhere." the last bit stressed in a way that was usually reserved for cockroaches. "Surely every café that is needed has already been opened." her mother had always been the one with a vision in her family. "And remember the nice little place by the embankment that I liked so much?" the one her mother loved to walk past on her fitness walks but never entered, because she could have her tea just as well at home and eating cake would surely defeat the point of doing sports. "It is gone. Just like that." With that the matter was concluded for her mother.
Her father was even worse. He just laughed. She tried to explain to him why it was a good idea, how it would help her get ahead not only professionally but also as human being. He found the entire endeavour hilarious. No matter what she told him he was mostly choking on the M&Ms he was eating at the time. She tried several angles which to her father all sounded like the funniest thing in the world. "And you will get that money from where?" he'd ask and while she was still explaining he was already trying to suppress his laughter not wanting to waste his mirth until she had reached the punchline. She came out of that conversation feeling like a tiny little idiot.
The conclusion to this fiasco was a last ditch effort from her side, putting both her parents together in the living room sitting before them and asking them for a loan. A substantial one, but one she knew they could afford. She also explained her meticulous plan of how to pay them back and how the entire thing would be delayed if it all should end badly. Her mother sat there with a face so full of pity it deformed her expression, while her father sat there with big unbelieving eyes marvelling that this joke had turned out into one that just kept delivering.
So there they sat, side by side delivering their final verdict. "No." cold and worried from her mother. And a chuckled "No bloody way." from her father. There they were her parents playing the part of an exalted royalty amused by the incomprehensible wishes of the mortal peasants. Like Oberon and Titania, but arseholes.
It went better with her brother Chris, who at least took her seriously. He could not really help her, as he spent his time mostly travelling around the world for his work as a lighting artist for live concerts or where ever else people needed spectacular light shows. There was little help he could offer in getting the renovations done. And as he usually spent most of his salary back into his work, there wasn't much money to be borrowed from him either, beyond a very welcome but mostly symbolic sum. He did however promise her that if she got the thing off the ground he would take a month of his schedule and give her café the best lighting that human ingenuity could provide.
As small step at least. Jenny was also surprised how much comfort she got from having at least one person believing in her and her dream. Even more impressive was that in that short Skype conversation, that had regularly descended into confused robots trying to establish communications, she had gotten closer to her brother than she had been for many years. Turns out that when he decided to become a light designer he had encountered pretty much the same reaction from their delightful parents. Only with reversed roles. It was their mother who had found the idea hysterical, while it was their father who had asked him how the hell he was supposed to make a living by setting up a few lamps. Resistance had been futile. The only alternative he was given was to be more like his elder sister who had done the sensible thing of not dropping out of university to run with the wrong crowd and getting a job afterwards instead of deciding to follow what ever drug fuelled idea he stumbled over after a particularly debauched night. That episode had inspired Chris to go on a rebellious rampage, on the way developing a deep distaste for his sister that he never admitted even to himself, but seeped out of his very pores whenever they met. Chris went on to become a light wizard as well as the best paid member of his family drifting ever farther away. But that night, for him an early Indonesian morning, Jenny had found the brother she had almost forgotten she had. She was delighted to find an ally in the most unexpected of places especially after the reaction of her parents.
Edmund however was the rock on which she built her confidence. Her best friends reaction was relieve spiced with enthusiasm. "Finally! I was hatching plans of how to save you for years now, but I couldn't think of anything sane and feasible." it was clear that his problem had been the feasible part, sanity was strictly optional.
"Save me from what?" Jenny asked not quite sure what exactly buying a watermill to open a café would save her from.
"From fading away." he said stating the obvious. "So this watermill will need some work right?"
"Yes, it is closer to a ruin than to a proper building." Jenny hesitated. "Fading away?"
"This might be a good thing. If you're lucky the mill belongs to the city which would love to sell it for a few quid along with the responsibilities of maintaining it." he continued getting more exited by the minute. "And yes, fading away. You, the you that lives in the core of your heart, it was slowly wilting away."
"I wasn't wilting!" Jenny said, she had joined a gym a year ago and worked hard on keeping fit and there was certainly no wilting. "Why would the city sell the mill if it wants it maintained?"
"Come on, you know what I am talking about. You were getting more and more tired. Your hobbies were either going to that infernal gym of yours or couching your way through your Netflix list. When was the last time you painted? Also remember how we used to go to the theatre? Or go on our little expeditions trying to find new interesting artists? The most Jenny things about you were disappearing. But look at you now! Your eyes are on fire again. I look at them and I can see the stars again." he grinned broadly. "And they would sell because the city loves its scenic and historical sites, but really hates to spend money on that, so they'd rather give it away to some idiot, like you for example, who is under an obligation to maintain it, doing all the work, while they can boast their historic sites and shit like that."
"So how little would a few quid be?" she asked.
"Do you want to get way ahead of yourself?"
"Yes." Jenny nodded earnestly.
"One." Edmund said with equal gravity.
"One?"
"Yes. But only if you are really lucky, the city very desperate and you very stupid." he said.
After thinking it through for a couple of seconds Jenny said "I can be stupid..."
"And when it comes to not spending money, the city is always desperate." Edmund beamed.
"Also, the fire in my soul was always burning, I was just conserving its power waiting for the right moment."
"I'm just glad to see you coming back to live J." his smile widened.
The following week she investigated the watermill. Turned out it was a historic site. The city was not actively looking for anyone to take over the mill, however there had been some half hearted attempts to save the mill trailing back to at least the beginning of the 20th century. None of these attempts had amounted to anything as there were always more worthy projects with a higher priority, like for example not spending any money on some old mill no one would ever use. This however meant that it was a historical monument, at least it was declared one. While not quite what she had envisioned it led Jenny to formulate a plan.
She told her brother to plan for his return home in the near future to work his lighting magic. Then sent an overexcited Edmund on a couple of grand quest: the first was to find ways to turn the watermill into some kind of tiny hydroelectric power plant, the other was immersing himself into the hipster overground to learn as much about their café magic as possible. Jenny knew that giving him two monumental tasks instead of just one would yield the best results as Edmund's perpetual enthusiasm constantly engaged in a heated war with his attention deficit to see which of them was the most powerful of his defining characteristics.
With the longer term goals in Edmund's twitchy hands she went to a few banks to get the most biggest obstacle present out if the way. Where ever she arrived she did her well studied song and dance. Injected with only the tiniest bit of her true love of the project it was mostly power point to the dissonant tune of corporate logic she had learned at her work. This led to the reaction that Jenny had expected, the bank puppets who only faintly remembered what it was like to be human had nodded politely, asked the Exceedingly Clever Questions that had been handed down the generations of ancestor puppet people, followed by days of careful ritual motions representing what they understood as deliberation. The result was always the same they told Jenny in the politest terms to please go away and ruin another bank. Puppet smile. Deceased handshake.
What they did not know, was that Jenny had planted seeds in their minds, which now had time to germinate. Soon she would return and water them. While the idea gestated she went back to the city and told it that she wanted the mill. Another song and dance to another breed of institutional undead. Here she painted another picture. One of a site that would be revived to its full splendour, another jewel in the crown of the city.
"But it is a small mill. Faraway in the remotest corners of the city." the clerk people said.
"Ah, but just think what the tourists will think, when they walk to the outer rim, where the city touches nature and they see that even out there, so close to the wilderness the treasures of the city are kept in perfect condition. How far its reach! How great its commitment."
The clerk people had not expected this. One of them, with a willy strong animal soul smelled an opportunity and perked up. When Jenny noticed this she added "Also think what it will do to the property value. Nice part of the city, close to nature, a main road not far away and now add to that a historical monument in pristine condition." The feral clerk could see how that would improve his standing in his murder. He liked that mental picture. "Now add to that the possibility of some quality gastronomy..." The clerk thing did and he liked what his senses told him. Licking his lips he offered her the building and the plot of land for 100 currency, a symbolic price but one with weight, each year, a ritual repeated that would increase its power continually.
"For how long?" Jenny asked now avoiding most movements or expressions, this was a crucial moment.
"For as long as you and your heirs live but not longer than.... ten thousand years." the clerk bared its teeth in a face splitting smile. 'One thousand more than Guinness, I will be legend.'
Jenny agreed and thanked the clerk thing profusely, telling it with demands wearing the ashen dress of simple minded questions to give her the most pompous certificate its bureaucratic heart machine could come up with.
Armed with the certificate and one last weapon she returned to the banks. Now she wielded the will of the city, who saw Great Worth in her endeavour in one hand and a piece of paper that told the bank people that she called a well developed five figure amount of money her own. Both powerful motivators for the bank tribes. The vision of the city was a handy replacement for their lack of vision. And seeing fertile money that could be theirs was a most juicy morsel. The little idea she had planted before had become a tiny seedling. What to the bank people had appeared as desert ground now looked like good mother soil and so the seedling was nourished and grew. The bank people withdrew into their caverns of glass and steel and they discussed the matter anew. After that Jenny just had to direct their attention at each other. Two of them remained resolute. They would not stoop for mortals and much less for other, lesser banks, but the others hissed at each other, showing off their bespoke suits and designer accessories until only one remained and proudly presented Jenny with the least worst deal for herself.
Thus she returned from the dark depths of the city with a sack full of money and a predatory gleam in her eyes.
She felt like her ancestors must have felt when they had hunted down the beasts that preyed on mankind using their tools and their cunning.
Thursday, 9 November 2017
Project Coffee Break 002
Chapter 1 Into Reality
That moment in the windmill got stuck in Jennies heart. Her usual dream had turned into a deep kind of yearning. Her soul café stopped changing form and location and was now filling the spaces of the old watermill. The light of the setting sun which had woken her up had also pulled her dreams out into reality. Now when she left work after another day of joyless toil she was embraced by this crimson glow showing her this other world. A place that was only slightly out of reach.
The next step was being declared completely and utterly crazy by pretty much everyone she knew.
Starting with her parents who somehow managed to act as polar opposites while coming to the same conclusion. Her mother was deeply distraught berating her for even contemplating of throwing her security and thus her life away for such a foolish dream. "I mean just look around you", she would say. "There are cafés everywhere." the last bit stressed in a way that was usually reserved for cockroaches. "Surely every café that is need has already been opened." her mother had always been the one with a vision in her family. "And remember the nice little place by the embankment that I liked so much?" the one her mother loved to walk past on her fitness walks but never entered, because she could have her tea just as well at home and eating cake would surely defeat the point of doing sports. "It is gone. Just like that." With that the matter was concluded for her mother.
Her father was even worse. He just laughed. She tried to explain to him why it was a good idea, how it would help her get ahead not only professionally but also like a human being and he found the entire plan hilarious. No matter what she told him he was mostly choking on his M&Ms he was eating at the time. She tried several angles which to her father all sounded like the funniest thing in the world. "And you will get that money from where?" he'd ask and while she was still explaining he was already trying to suppress his laughter not wanting to waste his mirth until she had reached the punchline. She came out of that conversation feeling like a tiny little idiot.
The conclusion to this fiasco was a last ditch effort from here side, sitting both her parents together in the living room sitting before them and asking them for a loan. A substantial one, but one she knew they could afford. She also explained to her her meticulous plan of how to pay them back and how the entire thing would be delayed if it all ended badly. Her mother sat there with a face so full of pity it deformed her expression, while her father sat there with being unbelieving eyes marvelling that this joke had turned out to keep delivering.
So they sat there side by side delivering their final verdict. "No." cold and worried from her mother. And a chuckled "No bloody way." from her father. There they were her parents playing the part of an exalted royalty amused by the incomprehensible wishes of the mortal peasants. Like Oberon and Titania, but arseholes.
It went better with her brother Chris, which at least took her seriously. He could not really help her, he mostly travelling around the world for his work as a lighting artist for live concerts and stuff like that, so there was little help in getting the renovations done and as he usually spent most of his salary back into his work there wasn't that much money to be hand from him either, beyond a very welcome but mostly symbolic sum. He did however promise her that if she got the thing of the ground he would take a month of his schedule and give her café the best lighting that human ingenuity could provide.
As small step at least. Jenny was also surprised how much comfort she got from having at least one person believing in her dream. Even more impressive was that in that short Skype conversation, that regularly descended into confused robots trying to establish communications, she had gotten closer to her brother than she had been for many years. Turns out that when he decided to become a light designer he had encountered pretty much the same reaction from their delightful parents. Only with reversed roles. It was their mother who had found the idea hysterical, while it was their father who had asked him how the hell he was supposed to make a living by setting up a few lamps. Resistance had been futile. The only alternative he was given was to be more like his elder sister who had done the sensible thing of not dropping out of university to run with the wrong crowd and getting a job afterwards instead of deciding to follow what ever drug fuelled idea he had after a particularly debauched night. That episode had inspired Chris to go on a rebellious rampage and developing a deep distaste for his sister that he never admitted even to himself, but seeped out of his very pores whenever they met. Chris went on to become a light wizard as well as the best paid member of his family drifting ever farther away. But that night, for him an early Indonesian morning, Jenny had found the brother she had almost forgotten she had. She was delighted to find an ally in the most unexpected of places especially after the reaction of her parents.
Edmund however was the rock on which she built her confidence. Her best friends reaction was relieve spiced with enthusiasm. "Finally! I was hatching plans of how to save you for years now, but I couldn't think of anything sane and feasible." it was clear that his problem had been the feasible part, sanity was strictly optional.
"Save me from what?" Jenny asked not quite sure what exactly buying a watermill to open a café would save her from.
"From fading away." he said stating the obvious. "So this watermill will need some work right?"
"Yes, it is closer to a ruin than to a proper building." Jenny hesitated. "Fading away?"
"This might be a good thing. If you're lucky the mill belongs to the city which would love to sell it for a few quid along with the responsibilities of maintaining it." he continued getting more exited by the minute. "And yes, fading away. You, the you that lives in the core of your heart was slowly wilting away."
"I wasn't wilting!" Jenny said, she had joined a gym a year ago and worked hard on keeping fit and there was certainly no wilting. "Why would the city sell the mill if it wants it maintained?"
"Come on, you know what I am talking about. You were getting more and more tired. Your hobbies were either going to that infernal gym of yours or couching your way through your Netflix list. When was the last time you painted? Also remember when we used to go to the theatre? The most Jenny things about you were disappearing. But look at you now! Your eyes are on fire again. I look at them and I can see the stars again." grinned broadly. "Oh, because the city loves its scenic and historical sites but really hates to spend money on that, so they'd rather sell it off to some idiot, like you for example, who is under an obligation to maintain it, doing all the work, while they can boast their historic sites and shit like that."
"So how little would a few quid be?" she asked.
"Do you want to get way ahead of yourself?"
"Yes." Jenny nodded earnestly.
"One." Edmund said with equal gravity.
"One?"
"Yes. But only if you are really lucky, the city very desperate and you very stupid." he said.
After thinking it through for a couple of seconds Jenny said "I can be stupid..."
"And when it comes to not spending money, the city is always desperate." Edmund beamed.
"Also my flame was always burning, I was just conserving its power waiting for the right moment."
"I'm just glad to see you coming back to live J." his smile
The following week she investigated the watermill. Turned out it was a historic side. The city was not actively looking for anyone to take over the mill, however there had been some half hearted attempts to save the mill trailing back to at least the beginning of the 20th century. None of these attempts ha amounted to anything as there were always more worthy projects with a higher priority, like for example not spending any money on some old mill no one would ever use. This however meant that it was a historical monument, at least it was declared one, that was the cheap one. While not quite what she had envisioned it led Jenny to formulate a plan.
She told her brother to return home to do his lighting magic and sent an overexcited Edmund on a grand quest, one was for ways to turn the mill into some kind of tiny hydroelectric power plant, the other was immersing himself into the hipster overground to learn their café magic. Jenny knew that this would yield the best results as Edmund's enthusiasm was engaged in a heated war with his attention deficit for the most powerful of his defining characteristics.
Next she went to a few banks. Did her well studied song and dance. Injected with only the tiniest bit of her true love of the project it was mostly power point and the corporate logic she had learned at her work. This led to the reaction that Jenny had expected, the bank puppets who only faintly remembered what it was like to be human had nodded politely, asked questions the Exceedingly Clever Questions that had been handed to them by their ancestor puppet people, followed by days of careful ritual motions representing what they understood as deliberation. The result was always the same they told Jenny in the politest terms to please go away and ruin another bank. Puppet smile. Deceased handshake.
What they did not know, was that Jenny had planted seeds in their minds, that now had time to grow. Soon she would return and water them. While the idea gestated she went back to the city and told it that she wanted the mill. Another song and dance to another breed of institutional undead. Here she painted another picture. One of a site that would be revived to its full splendour, another jewel in the crown of the city.
"But it is a small mill. Faraway in the remotest corners of the city." the clerk people said.
"Ah, but just think what the tourists will think, when they walk to the outer rim, where the city touches nature and they see that even out there, so close to the wilderness the treasures of the city are kept in perfect condition. How far its reach! How great its commitment."
The clerk people had not expected this. One of them, with a willy strong animal soul smelled an opportunity and perked up. When Jenny noticed this she added "Also think what it will do to the property value. Nice part of the city, close to nature, a main road not far away and now add to that a historical monument in pristine condition." The feral clerk could see how that would improve his standing in his murder. He liked that mental picture. "Now add to that the possibility of some quality gastronomy..." The clerk thing did and he liked what his senses told him. Licking his lips he offered her the building and the plot of land for 100 currency, a symbolic price but one with weight, each year, a ritual repeated that would increase its power continually.
"For how long?" Jenny asked now avoiding most movements or expressions, this was a crucial moment.
"For as long as you and your heirs live but not longer than.... ten thousand years." the clerk bared its teeth in a face splitting smile. 'One thousand more than Guinness, I will be legend.'
Jenny agreed and thanked the clerk thing profusely, telling it with questions to give her the most pompous certificate its bureaucratic heart machine could come up with.
Armed with the certificate and one last weapon she returned to the banks. Now she wielded the will of the city, who saw Great Worth in her endeavour in one hand and a piece of paper that told the bank people that she called a well developed five figure amount of money her own. The little idea she had planted before had become a tiny seedling, it was growing on desert ground but now it was nourished and grew. The bank people withdrew into their caverns of glass and steel and they discussed the matter anew. After that Jenny just had to direct them at each other. Two of them remained resolute. They would not stoop for mortals and much less for other, lesser banks, but the others hissed at each other, showing off their bespoke suits and designer accessories until only one remained and proudly presented Jenny with the least worst deal for herself.
With that she returned from the dark depths of the city with a sack full of money and a predatory gleam in her eyes.
She felt like her ancestors must have felt when they had hunted down the beasts that preyed on mankind with their tools and their cunning.
That moment in the windmill got stuck in Jennies heart. Her usual dream had turned into a deep kind of yearning. Her soul café stopped changing form and location and was now filling the spaces of the old watermill. The light of the setting sun which had woken her up had also pulled her dreams out into reality. Now when she left work after another day of joyless toil she was embraced by this crimson glow showing her this other world. A place that was only slightly out of reach.
The next step was being declared completely and utterly crazy by pretty much everyone she knew.
Starting with her parents who somehow managed to act as polar opposites while coming to the same conclusion. Her mother was deeply distraught berating her for even contemplating of throwing her security and thus her life away for such a foolish dream. "I mean just look around you", she would say. "There are cafés everywhere." the last bit stressed in a way that was usually reserved for cockroaches. "Surely every café that is need has already been opened." her mother had always been the one with a vision in her family. "And remember the nice little place by the embankment that I liked so much?" the one her mother loved to walk past on her fitness walks but never entered, because she could have her tea just as well at home and eating cake would surely defeat the point of doing sports. "It is gone. Just like that." With that the matter was concluded for her mother.
Her father was even worse. He just laughed. She tried to explain to him why it was a good idea, how it would help her get ahead not only professionally but also like a human being and he found the entire plan hilarious. No matter what she told him he was mostly choking on his M&Ms he was eating at the time. She tried several angles which to her father all sounded like the funniest thing in the world. "And you will get that money from where?" he'd ask and while she was still explaining he was already trying to suppress his laughter not wanting to waste his mirth until she had reached the punchline. She came out of that conversation feeling like a tiny little idiot.
The conclusion to this fiasco was a last ditch effort from here side, sitting both her parents together in the living room sitting before them and asking them for a loan. A substantial one, but one she knew they could afford. She also explained to her her meticulous plan of how to pay them back and how the entire thing would be delayed if it all ended badly. Her mother sat there with a face so full of pity it deformed her expression, while her father sat there with being unbelieving eyes marvelling that this joke had turned out to keep delivering.
So they sat there side by side delivering their final verdict. "No." cold and worried from her mother. And a chuckled "No bloody way." from her father. There they were her parents playing the part of an exalted royalty amused by the incomprehensible wishes of the mortal peasants. Like Oberon and Titania, but arseholes.
It went better with her brother Chris, which at least took her seriously. He could not really help her, he mostly travelling around the world for his work as a lighting artist for live concerts and stuff like that, so there was little help in getting the renovations done and as he usually spent most of his salary back into his work there wasn't that much money to be hand from him either, beyond a very welcome but mostly symbolic sum. He did however promise her that if she got the thing of the ground he would take a month of his schedule and give her café the best lighting that human ingenuity could provide.
As small step at least. Jenny was also surprised how much comfort she got from having at least one person believing in her dream. Even more impressive was that in that short Skype conversation, that regularly descended into confused robots trying to establish communications, she had gotten closer to her brother than she had been for many years. Turns out that when he decided to become a light designer he had encountered pretty much the same reaction from their delightful parents. Only with reversed roles. It was their mother who had found the idea hysterical, while it was their father who had asked him how the hell he was supposed to make a living by setting up a few lamps. Resistance had been futile. The only alternative he was given was to be more like his elder sister who had done the sensible thing of not dropping out of university to run with the wrong crowd and getting a job afterwards instead of deciding to follow what ever drug fuelled idea he had after a particularly debauched night. That episode had inspired Chris to go on a rebellious rampage and developing a deep distaste for his sister that he never admitted even to himself, but seeped out of his very pores whenever they met. Chris went on to become a light wizard as well as the best paid member of his family drifting ever farther away. But that night, for him an early Indonesian morning, Jenny had found the brother she had almost forgotten she had. She was delighted to find an ally in the most unexpected of places especially after the reaction of her parents.
Edmund however was the rock on which she built her confidence. Her best friends reaction was relieve spiced with enthusiasm. "Finally! I was hatching plans of how to save you for years now, but I couldn't think of anything sane and feasible." it was clear that his problem had been the feasible part, sanity was strictly optional.
"Save me from what?" Jenny asked not quite sure what exactly buying a watermill to open a café would save her from.
"From fading away." he said stating the obvious. "So this watermill will need some work right?"
"Yes, it is closer to a ruin than to a proper building." Jenny hesitated. "Fading away?"
"This might be a good thing. If you're lucky the mill belongs to the city which would love to sell it for a few quid along with the responsibilities of maintaining it." he continued getting more exited by the minute. "And yes, fading away. You, the you that lives in the core of your heart was slowly wilting away."
"I wasn't wilting!" Jenny said, she had joined a gym a year ago and worked hard on keeping fit and there was certainly no wilting. "Why would the city sell the mill if it wants it maintained?"
"Come on, you know what I am talking about. You were getting more and more tired. Your hobbies were either going to that infernal gym of yours or couching your way through your Netflix list. When was the last time you painted? Also remember when we used to go to the theatre? The most Jenny things about you were disappearing. But look at you now! Your eyes are on fire again. I look at them and I can see the stars again." grinned broadly. "Oh, because the city loves its scenic and historical sites but really hates to spend money on that, so they'd rather sell it off to some idiot, like you for example, who is under an obligation to maintain it, doing all the work, while they can boast their historic sites and shit like that."
"So how little would a few quid be?" she asked.
"Do you want to get way ahead of yourself?"
"Yes." Jenny nodded earnestly.
"One." Edmund said with equal gravity.
"One?"
"Yes. But only if you are really lucky, the city very desperate and you very stupid." he said.
After thinking it through for a couple of seconds Jenny said "I can be stupid..."
"And when it comes to not spending money, the city is always desperate." Edmund beamed.
"Also my flame was always burning, I was just conserving its power waiting for the right moment."
"I'm just glad to see you coming back to live J." his smile
The following week she investigated the watermill. Turned out it was a historic side. The city was not actively looking for anyone to take over the mill, however there had been some half hearted attempts to save the mill trailing back to at least the beginning of the 20th century. None of these attempts ha amounted to anything as there were always more worthy projects with a higher priority, like for example not spending any money on some old mill no one would ever use. This however meant that it was a historical monument, at least it was declared one, that was the cheap one. While not quite what she had envisioned it led Jenny to formulate a plan.
She told her brother to return home to do his lighting magic and sent an overexcited Edmund on a grand quest, one was for ways to turn the mill into some kind of tiny hydroelectric power plant, the other was immersing himself into the hipster overground to learn their café magic. Jenny knew that this would yield the best results as Edmund's enthusiasm was engaged in a heated war with his attention deficit for the most powerful of his defining characteristics.
Next she went to a few banks. Did her well studied song and dance. Injected with only the tiniest bit of her true love of the project it was mostly power point and the corporate logic she had learned at her work. This led to the reaction that Jenny had expected, the bank puppets who only faintly remembered what it was like to be human had nodded politely, asked questions the Exceedingly Clever Questions that had been handed to them by their ancestor puppet people, followed by days of careful ritual motions representing what they understood as deliberation. The result was always the same they told Jenny in the politest terms to please go away and ruin another bank. Puppet smile. Deceased handshake.
What they did not know, was that Jenny had planted seeds in their minds, that now had time to grow. Soon she would return and water them. While the idea gestated she went back to the city and told it that she wanted the mill. Another song and dance to another breed of institutional undead. Here she painted another picture. One of a site that would be revived to its full splendour, another jewel in the crown of the city.
"But it is a small mill. Faraway in the remotest corners of the city." the clerk people said.
"Ah, but just think what the tourists will think, when they walk to the outer rim, where the city touches nature and they see that even out there, so close to the wilderness the treasures of the city are kept in perfect condition. How far its reach! How great its commitment."
The clerk people had not expected this. One of them, with a willy strong animal soul smelled an opportunity and perked up. When Jenny noticed this she added "Also think what it will do to the property value. Nice part of the city, close to nature, a main road not far away and now add to that a historical monument in pristine condition." The feral clerk could see how that would improve his standing in his murder. He liked that mental picture. "Now add to that the possibility of some quality gastronomy..." The clerk thing did and he liked what his senses told him. Licking his lips he offered her the building and the plot of land for 100 currency, a symbolic price but one with weight, each year, a ritual repeated that would increase its power continually.
"For how long?" Jenny asked now avoiding most movements or expressions, this was a crucial moment.
"For as long as you and your heirs live but not longer than.... ten thousand years." the clerk bared its teeth in a face splitting smile. 'One thousand more than Guinness, I will be legend.'
Jenny agreed and thanked the clerk thing profusely, telling it with questions to give her the most pompous certificate its bureaucratic heart machine could come up with.
Armed with the certificate and one last weapon she returned to the banks. Now she wielded the will of the city, who saw Great Worth in her endeavour in one hand and a piece of paper that told the bank people that she called a well developed five figure amount of money her own. The little idea she had planted before had become a tiny seedling, it was growing on desert ground but now it was nourished and grew. The bank people withdrew into their caverns of glass and steel and they discussed the matter anew. After that Jenny just had to direct them at each other. Two of them remained resolute. They would not stoop for mortals and much less for other, lesser banks, but the others hissed at each other, showing off their bespoke suits and designer accessories until only one remained and proudly presented Jenny with the least worst deal for herself.
With that she returned from the dark depths of the city with a sack full of money and a predatory gleam in her eyes.
She felt like her ancestors must have felt when they had hunted down the beasts that preyed on mankind with their tools and their cunning.
Thursday, 2 November 2017
Project Coffee Break 001
Project Coffee Break 001
Prologue: Into the Dream
Make your dreams come true. It sounds easy. Yet most people don't even try. Jenny had been one of those people for a long time. It was easier to just retreat from the world into the dream, than trying to force it into reality. It was also a lot of hard work. Dreams usually where comfortable places, safe and warm. Not something one wants to sully with the sweat of work and panic.
So for many years she just cultivated her dream in her mind letting the warm feeling it left follow her where ever she went. It worked well for her. If life got hard or tedious, she could change focus from the world to her fantasy. Here she was a the proprietor of a small café. A cosy place that was always filled by the smell of freshly roasted coffee filled with the light of a summer sun that never set. It was like a little holiday of the mind. It had the great advantage that she could change the interior and the location whenever and however she wanted. She also didn't have to worry about small details like paying bills, where to get all the things she needed to run a café in the first place or learn how to roast coffee.
However as time went by there was something missing in her life. She had a good enough job, her colleagues were nice some of whom she counted as her personal friends. Life was... OK. There was a tiny little hole in her soul though, one that slowly increased in size as time washed through it. At first she had not realised it was there, when she knew that something was amiss she was still not sure what it was, apart from the fact that her life was for all intents an purposes pretty 'meh'.
Things only came together when she went out of the city one long weekend. She was thinking of a small cottage not to far away to spend it with herself. Spend some time getting to know her heart again, leaving the daily routine behind to see what was left of her if she let the daily routines slide.
Turns out there was a lot of her still left. Mostly she was just tired, not in a sleepy way but her mind and her feelings were tired. Being outside in the warm tempestuous wind where an impatient autumn was wrestling a summer that just didn't want to die just yet made her thoughts clear. She didn't hate her life she was just bored to tears by it. She had muddled her way through school, forced herself to push towards excellence at the university only to enter a world that didn't really give a fuck about her. She was to work somewhere, her qualifications be damned and her needs as a human being barely tolerated as nuisance as long as was functioning.
"Meh" she said to the wind. The wind roared with sympathy ruining her hair in the process.
Looking up the skies she could see that autumn had brought some big burly cloud friends to its disagreement with summer. They were already flexing their edges and starting to turn into dark grey towers to scare summer away. It was time to seek shelter. So she hurried along her path which wound through fields and little patches of forest, resulting in the picturesque landscape she had sought for her weekend retreat. According to her phone and the strength of its signal civilisation was near hiding behind a some trees. Which turned out for the best, it had already started to rain when she reached the little outgrowth of the city. The kind of rain that with thick ponderous drops of water gave fair warning to everyone that the real show was about to start. The air was starting to heat up, the light turning into a dramatic green.
Jenny realised at this moment that she would have to seek proper shelter or risk being washed away by the quarrel of the seasons.
This is how she founds the watermill. Deliberating whether or not to knock on a random door to ask for asylum and hope for a warm cup of tea, she reached a little stone bridge that looked like it had crossed the the little river it was built over for thousands of years. Composed of rough hewn rock and clothed in patches of moss and lichen that would always be in style it stood there calmly waiting for the storm to do its worst. It had stood there for millennia and it was planning of continuing doing so for the millennia to come. As Jenny was crossing it her eyes were automatically drawn to an ancient watermill that stood not far upstream from the little bridge. Apart from the defiant little bridge there wasn't any other building that had stood here for so long as the mill had. Jenny felt a slight tug of admiration as she saw it, there was something about the building that she found touching, that had been a place where people had lived and worked for so long that the language and the country around it had changed in character and appearance so much, that it left the mill stranded in an utterly alien place. And yet it was suited perfectly for that spot. Then Jenny felt a much harder tug, this time it was strong gust of wind telling her that the show was about to start.
Not quite sure why she was doing it in the first place Jenny hurried to the watermill and tested its door. The building was unlocked. It was at closer inspection very close to being a ruin but still maintaining enough of its dignity to keep up appearances. Inside the building was mostly empty apart from some random junk and what people who had sought shelter here before her had left lying around. It wasn't tidy but then Jenny knew some streets back in the city where this level of tidiness would be considered close to spotless. She looked around the ground floor found the stairs and went up a floor. The picture was mostly the same only that it was almost clean up there. She found a small room with a mostly intact window overlooking the river that had changed into his best white foam attire to take part in the dispute that was reaching its full force outside. Jenny was pleasantly surprised that the window was actually keeping wind and rain outside. Letting her eyes wander she was delighted to find an old leather chair. Its best years had past long before she was born. Jenny didn't mind she sat down surprised to find, that it was still supremely comfortable and that below an aroma of stone dust she could still smell the leather. This feeling of comfort reminded her of the times when she had visited her grandfathers home and sat in his leather chair, a monster of a thing that to her child sensibilities had enough space that she could build herself a room on it. She loved to sit in that chair like a tiny queen, while here grandpa sat on the couch facing the chair reading fairy tales to her.
She could feel the warmth of the sun in her face, the voice of her grandfather had faded away. She smelt freshly ground coffee, he had gotten up when she fell asleep to make himself a cup and he would make her a giant cup of hot chocolate. She smiled slowly opening her eyes, the sun was getting close to the horizon changing into her crimson night clothes but still bright enough to blind her, she looked around the room, filled with wooden shelves an a tidy work desk that she remembered always wanting since she had been in university. Which reminded her that her grandfather was long dead, and that there was no couch in the room. And like that very slowly the dilapidated room where she had fallen asleep slowly resurfaced from what had been left of her dream. Only the the bright light of the setting sun remained.
That and at the very edge of perception the smell of coffee.
Jenny had found a place where dreams and reality intersected.
Prologue: Into the Dream
Make your dreams come true. It sounds easy. Yet most people don't even try. Jenny had been one of those people for a long time. It was easier to just retreat from the world into the dream, than trying to force it into reality. It was also a lot of hard work. Dreams usually where comfortable places, safe and warm. Not something one wants to sully with the sweat of work and panic.
So for many years she just cultivated her dream in her mind letting the warm feeling it left follow her where ever she went. It worked well for her. If life got hard or tedious, she could change focus from the world to her fantasy. Here she was a the proprietor of a small café. A cosy place that was always filled by the smell of freshly roasted coffee filled with the light of a summer sun that never set. It was like a little holiday of the mind. It had the great advantage that she could change the interior and the location whenever and however she wanted. She also didn't have to worry about small details like paying bills, where to get all the things she needed to run a café in the first place or learn how to roast coffee.
However as time went by there was something missing in her life. She had a good enough job, her colleagues were nice some of whom she counted as her personal friends. Life was... OK. There was a tiny little hole in her soul though, one that slowly increased in size as time washed through it. At first she had not realised it was there, when she knew that something was amiss she was still not sure what it was, apart from the fact that her life was for all intents an purposes pretty 'meh'.
Things only came together when she went out of the city one long weekend. She was thinking of a small cottage not to far away to spend it with herself. Spend some time getting to know her heart again, leaving the daily routine behind to see what was left of her if she let the daily routines slide.
Turns out there was a lot of her still left. Mostly she was just tired, not in a sleepy way but her mind and her feelings were tired. Being outside in the warm tempestuous wind where an impatient autumn was wrestling a summer that just didn't want to die just yet made her thoughts clear. She didn't hate her life she was just bored to tears by it. She had muddled her way through school, forced herself to push towards excellence at the university only to enter a world that didn't really give a fuck about her. She was to work somewhere, her qualifications be damned and her needs as a human being barely tolerated as nuisance as long as was functioning.
"Meh" she said to the wind. The wind roared with sympathy ruining her hair in the process.
Looking up the skies she could see that autumn had brought some big burly cloud friends to its disagreement with summer. They were already flexing their edges and starting to turn into dark grey towers to scare summer away. It was time to seek shelter. So she hurried along her path which wound through fields and little patches of forest, resulting in the picturesque landscape she had sought for her weekend retreat. According to her phone and the strength of its signal civilisation was near hiding behind a some trees. Which turned out for the best, it had already started to rain when she reached the little outgrowth of the city. The kind of rain that with thick ponderous drops of water gave fair warning to everyone that the real show was about to start. The air was starting to heat up, the light turning into a dramatic green.
Jenny realised at this moment that she would have to seek proper shelter or risk being washed away by the quarrel of the seasons.
This is how she founds the watermill. Deliberating whether or not to knock on a random door to ask for asylum and hope for a warm cup of tea, she reached a little stone bridge that looked like it had crossed the the little river it was built over for thousands of years. Composed of rough hewn rock and clothed in patches of moss and lichen that would always be in style it stood there calmly waiting for the storm to do its worst. It had stood there for millennia and it was planning of continuing doing so for the millennia to come. As Jenny was crossing it her eyes were automatically drawn to an ancient watermill that stood not far upstream from the little bridge. Apart from the defiant little bridge there wasn't any other building that had stood here for so long as the mill had. Jenny felt a slight tug of admiration as she saw it, there was something about the building that she found touching, that had been a place where people had lived and worked for so long that the language and the country around it had changed in character and appearance so much, that it left the mill stranded in an utterly alien place. And yet it was suited perfectly for that spot. Then Jenny felt a much harder tug, this time it was strong gust of wind telling her that the show was about to start.
Not quite sure why she was doing it in the first place Jenny hurried to the watermill and tested its door. The building was unlocked. It was at closer inspection very close to being a ruin but still maintaining enough of its dignity to keep up appearances. Inside the building was mostly empty apart from some random junk and what people who had sought shelter here before her had left lying around. It wasn't tidy but then Jenny knew some streets back in the city where this level of tidiness would be considered close to spotless. She looked around the ground floor found the stairs and went up a floor. The picture was mostly the same only that it was almost clean up there. She found a small room with a mostly intact window overlooking the river that had changed into his best white foam attire to take part in the dispute that was reaching its full force outside. Jenny was pleasantly surprised that the window was actually keeping wind and rain outside. Letting her eyes wander she was delighted to find an old leather chair. Its best years had past long before she was born. Jenny didn't mind she sat down surprised to find, that it was still supremely comfortable and that below an aroma of stone dust she could still smell the leather. This feeling of comfort reminded her of the times when she had visited her grandfathers home and sat in his leather chair, a monster of a thing that to her child sensibilities had enough space that she could build herself a room on it. She loved to sit in that chair like a tiny queen, while here grandpa sat on the couch facing the chair reading fairy tales to her.
She could feel the warmth of the sun in her face, the voice of her grandfather had faded away. She smelt freshly ground coffee, he had gotten up when she fell asleep to make himself a cup and he would make her a giant cup of hot chocolate. She smiled slowly opening her eyes, the sun was getting close to the horizon changing into her crimson night clothes but still bright enough to blind her, she looked around the room, filled with wooden shelves an a tidy work desk that she remembered always wanting since she had been in university. Which reminded her that her grandfather was long dead, and that there was no couch in the room. And like that very slowly the dilapidated room where she had fallen asleep slowly resurfaced from what had been left of her dream. Only the the bright light of the setting sun remained.
That and at the very edge of perception the smell of coffee.
Jenny had found a place where dreams and reality intersected.
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