Jimmy walked through the spaceport gate and was glad to have made it back to his base and its familiar sights, sounds, rhythms and scents. He also felt himself already missing his new friends even as he relaxed back into the mental attention to daily routine he had become familiar with.

The young soldiers who had been guarding the gate accompanied Jimmy to the near-by space-base internal bus route; the base bus stop is behind the entry building and further from the front gate itself. The soldiers all wanted to know what happened. Jimmy explained how his life jacket and clothes were ripped off and he didn’t get a scratch yet three soldiers drowned. Jimmy saw the soldiers remained curious so he told them; I was just a little late and the helicopter took off without me.”

“Look at me,” he said continuing his story for the soldiers. “I’m dressed like a surfer and look like one. When I waved and called for the helicopter to wait; one of the crew actually smiled and waved back. We were close but the helicopter took off without me. Of course the crew member that waved could not hear me over the roaring helicopter; anyway, now I’m finally back on the base.”

Jimmy’s first stop was the base exchange for new clothes and a set of identification papers stored on base records. All but one soldier left him at the store front; that soldier accompanied him to debriefing to explain what had happened at the front gate and why Jimmy was there to be debriefed. The inclusion of the war resistors league in the soldier’s description was noted but did not at that point seem particularly important. The soldier left the debriefing area when his version of the front gate events had been told.

Three officers remained to ask questions. They sat at a table with Jimmy and the empty chair the soldier who just left had been using.

“Alone?” He asked himself. “No, not at all.” Jimmy answered his own question; “I’m back on the base. This is my job.” He turned to the three young officers assigned to figure out what happened on the launch that had caused three good men to drown.

“Where should we start?” Jimmy asked.

“Okay,” The first officer responded. “What is your name, age, unit and hometown?”

I’m Jimmy Gardener, eighteen years old, Aloha-1 is my unit, and I’m from El Segundo.”

“We have you listed as a missing helmsman after yesterday’s shore launch crash when three soldiers died, seven were injured and another six made it safely to shore with minor cuts and bruises.” The second officer said.

“I was dragged ashore by a hand linked chain of surfers.” Jimmy responded. “The surfers rescued almost everybody that made it to shore alive.”

“What were you doing on this mission?” The third officer asked.

Jimmy explained that he had taken a crew ashore to investigate a peace sign that was being carved into the cliff by the surfers. “It is difficult to tell just how large breaking waves are from the back. I was going to follow a wave in and power the launch up onto the beach between waves. The back flow was too strong and dragged the launch back into the breaker zone. The next wave smashed the launch to pieces.”

“You were ordered to do this?”

“Yes.”

“Who ordered you to go ashore?”

“It was the first mate in charge of the deck,” Jimmy answered.

The questions began to come at Jimmy faster and faster.

Did anyone say why?” “Did you see the surfers?” “What did you say?”

Each of the three officers had started asking questions, one following the other in close order.

“I was told the people on the beach might be trying to communicate with foreign ship crews. I responded they looked like local surfers messing around on the beach because on-shore winds were wrecking the waves. The mate told me there was a war going on with Russia, China and Iran and higher ups wanted to know what the surfers were up to. A foreign freighter had sent morse code greetings to them and the skipper wanted to know why and exactly who the cliff carvers were.”

Jimmy was beginning to feel a little bit ganged up on rather than welcomed but urged himself to be calm; he was being questioned like this because three soldiers had drowned and answers were needed, fast. He reminded himself his adopted country was at war.

“I’m just a low-level deck hand who doesn’t know much about it.” Jimmy thought as he decided to keep his mouth shut as much as possible.

The pace of questioning suddenly let up, almost as if his interrogators had reached some point in an agreed upon plan.

“Okay,” The first questioner said. “I think we have established that you did your best as a seaman in a tough situation. Now we all need to put our heads together and figure out what to do next. Are you up for that, Jimmy?”

“I guess so,” Jimmy responded. “I think the best thing for me to do is report for duty with Aloha-1 and continue to follow orders from my unit’s leader. Is that what you mean?”

“Not exactly,” the ranking officer responded. “We have heard of this spontaneous formation of a near-by war resistors league and it requires someone on the inside to learn more about it. We want someone who is accepted by the war resistors league to penetrate the cell and keep us informed.”

“You call a group of surfers a cell?” Jimmy asked.

“It’s just a military term.” Was the general agreement voiced by the debriefing team.

“I don’t know what to say,” Jimmy answered. “Those surfers risked their lives to save the lives of six or seven soldiers, including me. Besides; How would I know what they are doing from here at the spaceport?”

A lead questioner looked Jimmy straight in his eyes and cleared his throat, “We went over your enlistment papers and saw you are eligible for college upon conclusion of your service time. Perhaps we could have you enrolled in the local city college.”

Jimmy’s heart stopped yet he remained outwardly cool and reminded himself to say as little as possible. He knew he might look overly surprised so he said nothing at all and waited.

The highest ranking lead questioner sensed what she decided was Jimmy’s confusion and continued on; “The space force would be willing to put you through college all the way to a degree, with some slack to figure out your course of study.”

Jimmy is a streetwise guy that felt the hair on the back of his neck rise. His mind raced to wonder if the interrogators knew he was also Jaime Jardinero. There was no way to know.

“I’ve always wanted to be a medical doctor.” Was all he could think to say, even though he was simply stalling for time and the idea had never occurred to him before.

The lead interrogator tossed a manual on the table. “That manual contains all the regulations on education offers. Millions of soldiers and sailors have gone to college based on this manual. I’m not an expert yet I believe something like medical doctor is performance based on how well you do.”

Jimmy was stunned; the Space Force wanted very much to know about the war resistors league and wanted him to be an under cover agent. “Why are you so interested in a bunch of surfers who have decided to resist the war? I don’t get it.”

One of the debriefing officers picked up a small bell that had been sitting on the table. Jimmy had assumed it would be wrung to bring focus if he strayed too far off topic. He was wrong; the bell summoned a high ranking officer wearing medals and a wide display of service ribbons on her chest.

Jimmy stood and saluted, he wasn’t sure if the officer was a Major or Lieutenant Colonel until he was introduced; “Seaman Jimmy Gardner, please meet Colonel Jean d’Barque.” Wow Jimmy wondered if she was related to the famous French female warrior saint. She saw the question in his eyes and shook her head, No. She then sat in the empty chair and indicated Jimmy should also sit.

Colonel d’Barque told Jimmy she had stayed in an adjoining room listening and had waited to see if he would wonder why Space Force was interested in a the group that called itself a war resistors league.

“Almost everyone knows that our country has worked hard to defend freedom around the world since it was founded.” The Colonel began. “Now we are locked in a struggle for human rights and democracy like never before. Usually there is only one bad guy at a time but now there are three; Russia, Iran and China.”

Jimmy nodded and said he had heard that several times in the last two days.

“Our country is worried about loyalty of its people,” the Colonel continued. “Most will go along with meeting this grave security threat but we need to know if a potential mass antiwar movement begins to develop. That’s where you come in. Will you help your country withstand a fourth front organized by a confused yet vocal antiwar minority within the homeland?”

“I suppose I could help, Colonel, but the only war resistors league people I know dragged me from the waves and saved my life.” Jimmy responded. “What is it you want me to find out?”

“Well, we’re making good progress,” Colonel d’Barque responded. “Although we have a strong corp of talented reporters and script writers working with civilian morale management in news, cinema and television, there is reason to worry about passionate young students swaying older workers to also form into a war resistors league. Did you see or hear anything like that?”

“Hmm, No, I can’t say anything about that. Remember, I never heard about any of this before yesterday afternoon. I had no idea we were in a war with Russia, and never thought at all about China or Iran.”

So, if we get you registered for the city college, will you go and help us with reports about what you learn?”

“I guess I could give it a try,” Jimmy said. “This means I’ll need to order a new surfboard, buy school books and rent a place to live; I don’t have enough money for that.”

“No problem,” Colonel d’Barques replied. “But keep this in mind; if you mess up and the other students find out, you will be discharged from Space Force and we will deny you ever worked for us except for the trial period leading up to your accident in the surf and after that you were discharged.”

Jimmy stood up and saluted the Colonel, “Okay then, I’ll give it a try.”

Surfer Manifesto Vignette 20

Wave riders at the beach are in some ways relieved when a huge swell has ended. Big waves are scary hard work for everyone. Rest and relaxation are easy when calmer waves are prevailing. Those kinds of days are measured as knee high, chest high, head high and overhead. These measurements are sometimes exaggerated for effect, similar to jokes about fish catch size and exaggeration.

Surfers are also driven in search of waves after a spell of no surf. This search even for small waves can entail danger demanding the same concentration as larger sizes. An example is super-fast waist high waves where the surfer rides perfectly clear water across small boulders. Reefs spiked with sea urchin spines are worse. Sharp coral reefs are also a danger.

The easiest smaller surf is over relatively flat stone reefs covered with sea anemones or plain sand bars. Good surfing spots like where the antiwar work was organizing have patches of flat sand between flat stoney reefs covered with sea anemones, which seem to like being walked on by bare feet, occasionally. The five meter diameter peace sign had been a good ship target. Almost three weeks have been devoted to create a small monument they called a peace cathedral in the cave left by cannon fire.

Howie and Pam were on a work break, it was a hot summer day and they cooled off by riding small waves directly in front of the work. Although peace cathedral was a war resistors league term for what had replaced the peace sign, it was simply a large room-size cave that tapers inward at the rear. A table had been made from freshly cut eucalyptus saplings and driftwood and was set toward the back. Surfers were riding small waves close to the beach and could see a meeting of war resistors inside at the table. Others continued work on peace cathedral carvings being done on the cliff face surrounding the opening. A three meter wide wooden balcony cantilevers outward from the opening facing seaward, it measures about two meters above the high tide mark and has a porch-like roof.

Pam watched Howie scooting across a wave as she paddled out. He traveled about as fast as running speed and was crouched a bit with arms spread so if he fell he would not fall far or deep, he was mimicking a water spider that walks on water in order to stay safe above the rocks should he fall. Howie was aimed straight at Pam though his ride would not reach her. He looked up at her from watching the wave and smiled before turning back to reef and wave. Pam watched Denny and Brenda take-off and ride their own similar waves as she paddled out. Alan caught a wave and took off just as Joel reached the right place for his next ride. Pam joined Joel waiting for his ride, she waved to Howie as he finished his wave and started paddling back out. It was a rotating line of surfers and paddlers.

Joel and Pam were sitting a little more than a meter apart as the next wave started to show itself further out in the seaweed kelp bed. The two of them were trying to figure out if it was going to be big enough for Joel to ride when a giant sea lion head came up between them and snorted. It turned and looked at Joel. He looked at it and then Pam with wide eyes and took-off on the small wave not caring if it was good or not. It all happened fast, Pam saw the sea lion turn and look at her; it appeared to smile and wink one eye before disappearing under water. Pam thought the action might be funny yet the thing was so huge she probably couldn’t reach around its neck with both arms; She also took off on the next wave whether it was good or not. Howie watched the entire episode as he was paddling out and decided to paddle into the white water and go back to shore as quick as he could, too.

Jerry had been about to go ride a few waves and saw what had happened. He joined Joel, Pam, Howie, Alan, Denny and Brenda as they gathered at the water line. They all stood together on shore but the sea lion did not return. After some laughter about the giant that winked at Pam, and further discussion, it was still impossible to decide if the sea lion was just playing.

Sea lions are huge. Nobody had heard of one hurting anybody but they decided to go back to work for awhile rather than surf with what everyone decided was a northern giant sea lion, even if it is playful. Surfers being what they are, though, it wasn’t long before the surfer manifesto prevailed and war resistors league workers were back out cooling off in the water.

Weeks of construction on the peace temple that replaced their peace sign made into a cave blasted by hostile ship canons turned time from summer to school opening, for most younger surfers. Brenda Romanoff had been a relentless organizer pushing for the peace sign communication sculpture and now the peace cathedral. Brenda knew it was Dory who fist proposed this idea and was fine with that; Dory Chen was a genius who enthusiastically worked and surfed with everybody.

Brenda stood with Jerry and surveyed their summer’s work; “It looks more like a Tombstone Territory saloon with a covered plank boardwalk than a cathedral,” she said.

“You’re right,” Jerry responded and then laughed along with Brenda’s wildwest saloon comparison. “What should we do to clear this up?” Jerry asked still chuckling. “We don’t want to present the wrong peace image.”

Brenda appreciated Jerry as a guy who worked hard and laughed easy, his eyes sparkled when he asked her what she thought. When Jerry said, “Peace image,” Brenda Romanoff revealed her brilliance. “Let’s put another peace sign next to the cathedral of peace,” she responded to Jerry, she was still thinking about organizing as part of the surfer manifesto; enjoyment of life and fun in Nature.

“If the Space force sends its navy to blow up our new peace sign, we’ll have another cave to work with and we can try a new style.” Brenda concluded.

Jerry wanted to but didn’t laugh; he was intrigued. Jerry is a hard worker and an equal with Brenda at organizing a task. “Sounds good to me, he responded, “You organize a meeting in the cathedral saloon, quick; World war three and environmental collapse are scary and too close. From what I see, it’s already ww3, so let’s hurry a bit and do it now. I’ll back you up on meeting procedure.” Then he laughed. “Wait! Bob is Robert; let’s ask him tell us Roberts rules of procedure, I’ll help if needed.”

Brenda looked closely at Jerry and commented he looked a lot like President Assad of Syria.

Jerry laughed, As a matter of fact, the President of Syria might be my distant relative- and just to be clear; he’s the black sheep, not me.”

Brenda looked at Jerry’s dark tan and held her relatively pale arm up to his chest, “I get the picture,” she said with a smile.

Jerry already knew he liked her, “We better get to work,” he said, returning her smile. “Our lives depend on us organizing into a serious grown-up style war resistors league. This is radical. We are trying to figure out draft registration, war and healing Earth, our parents should be doing what we are and people their age tell us we are too young, even so, the future is as much ours as anybody’s.”

Brenda agreed with Jerry. She turned and walked across the beach to the peace cathedral. Jerry is a fairly tall guy with long strides and he had to hurry to keep up with Brenda. Everyone on the beach followed them into the shade of their cannon blasted cave.

As soon as everyone was inside Brenda held both arms up and called for a general assembly of surfers beset by military madness and environmental collapse. Jerry liked Brenda’s word choice and urged her on.

“People say we are too young to worry about military madness and poisonous environmental collapse!” Brenda was so excited she almost yelled. “They say young people like us are only interested in the birds and the bees and surfing!”

Thirty people giggled and that started the meeting. Everyone was alert. Jerry banged a gavel shaped out of driftwood and the meeting began. Howie started as soon as he had Brenda’s permission.

“Let’s begin with what we we know: Unending war is as bad for us as it is for the environment. And our country has enemies it cannot convince me to hate. I am a war resistor. I resist the Hollywood hate mongers and their Wall Street money changers. They want us to register for a draft to fight Russia, Iran and China. Pam and I did not think ahead to thirty of us already being a unit before school starts. Time is moving fast. My mother’s work partner told her seventy percent of young males are too fat to fight so slim athletic women will have to go fight, too. My question is; Are we in solidarity as a war resistors league, male and female? It’s our job to stop world war three and environmental collapse with new young people’s ideas? Are we ready for that?”

“What happened to the birds and the bees?” Someone in back yelled. Pam laughed, she thought it might be Bob’s brother, Alan. She hugged Howie’s waist. He smiled and hugged her back.

“There’s no time for that,” Jerry said, banging his driftwood gavel and looking at Howie and Pam. “Our lives are at stake.”

Everyone laughed except Brenda Romanoff, she stepped to Jerry’s side, stood on her toes, and kissed him on the cheek. Thirty happy people were bouncing around totally ready to start the school year yet still wanting to know what their plan was.

“We don’t have a plan, yet,” Dory Chen said. “We are here to figure out how to ride a very dangerous wave.” She pantomimed taking off and dropping into a big wave. Dory stopped time when she reached the bottom and turned. Everyone there was in sync with her; They looked back and clearly saw a crashing wave of wars behind them. They groaned in unison when they looked ahead and saw eternal war also filling the future. Dory continued her imaginary ride. War resistors in solidarity rode the biggest wave of all; Cosmic powered biology surfed Big Bang at life speed while standing in a small cave blasted into the cliff by a coast guard cutter.

Bob suggested they all write letters to the editor after Brenda had called on him because he had raised his hand to speak. Denny raised his hand and Brenda acknowledged him with a wave. “It’s your turn, Denny,” she said.

“I think we should send copies to neighboring towns when we write a letter to our local paper.” Denny said. “How many different schools do our sports teams compete with?”

Louise raised her hand and Brenda signaled it was her turn. “I happen to know we compete with seven other towns because my mother helps coordinate that. I will get the addresses of those other newspapers from her.”

“Would you volunteer to put together that list for us?” Brenda asked. Louise nodded, Yes.

Jerry raised his hand to speak. “I personally am refusing to register to kill innocent people I have never met. That is going to be my first letter to the newspaper. Is this what we as a war resisters league do?”

Howie Raised his arm in a fist like athletes do. “I’m with you until some higher up explains where the hate comes from; in person, face to face.”

Dory Chen raised both her arms; “One hundred percent of us here will have to go fight manufactured enemies in Russia, Iran and China. I am in the war resistors league to stop that happening to me and my friends.” She let one arm down and left one raised in a fist.

Marlin walked to his surfboard, he had leaned it against the cave wall on his way in. He was on his way for his last rides of the day. He walked with his arm raised and Brenda asked him to speak.

“We are the a living manifesto that says enjoy nature and have fun. I will never register with anybody to help destroy anything. Let’s get those letters going as soon as we reach home. Set the blank page out, first, before anything.”

Poseidon had seen enough; Aphrodite was stunning, and there was Athena with Howie. Everyone saw Marlin walk out of the cave into bright golden setting sun. Poseidon also saw the golden sunlight and knew Zeus had come to see for himself. Marlin rode several good waves and was joined by Louise. Late sun reflected warmth from glass-smooth water. Louise and Marlin were two surfing silhouettes performing water ballet before everyone watching.

More suggestions Filled the silence that followed Marlin and then Louise, who obviously agreed with Marlin. Leaflets with a position paper were agreed upon. Distribute them at grocery stores etc. And a weekly vigil somewhere soon. Joel said he had traveled out east and seen several vigils. “They give people a chance to talk the week over,” he concluded.

People were beginning to tire and Jerry banged his driftwood gavel.”That’s it! We’re tired after work, surfing and lots of thinking. Meeting adjourned.” He banged his gavel again and then turned to Brenda. “Would you like to ride home with me?” He asked. Brenda smiled and said she would like that. The cars were loaded up fairly quickly. Louise and Marlin had to quit surfing before they wanted to. The sun was almost setting when they reached the parking area. This was one of those times tired, hard-working surfers rode home quietly.

Surfer Manifesto Vignette 21

“I’m home.” Dory Chen called as she entered the door. She was surprised by quiet darkness. Wondering where her mother might be, she turned on the light and called out, “Mom, Are you here?”

Dory started to walk toward the kitchen and turn on more lights. Something about the strange quiet of the house transformed her first step into the feeling of a hair-raising taking-off on a big, scary wave. Dory stopped time; She accelerated to life speed and sensed a dark figure sitting at the kitchen table waiting for her. It was not her mother.

Dory did a life-speed turn and was out the side door before the dark shadow even moved. Another quick turn away from repulsive molecular level waves from a second ghoulish intruder outside the door boosted her acceleration; Dory pulled her phone from her pocket and left it on the ground as she ducked through a hole in the hedge she hadn’t used since grammar school chase games. She ran through the neighbor’s yard, pushed aside a loose board, and was able to slowly squeeze through what had been quick and easy for her as a small child. She stood up, repositioned the loose board, and silently melted into a fairly large area of brush; she was safe.

What happened to mom? She almost fell into paralyzed grief but kept moving. “Oh, dear Mother. Oh, dear Kim,” Dory chanted as she trotted along narrow paths leading her up a ridge and deeper into the brush. “What happened? Where are you mom?”

The trailhead top was a small hill, not quite a mountain yet relatively large. Dory had been here before, perhaps at twelve years old, maybe only eleven. She had not, then, paid attention to where she was relative to the sea, the coastal mountains, and the main parts of town. Now she knew where she was.

Except for a few fishing boat lights, the sea was dark to the horizon. The background coastal mountain range was pitch-black with final dark peak ridges marked by myriad stars. The city lay before her shining light so bright she subconsciously stepped into shaded protection of night’s invisibility.

Dory looked over the inland side of the hill and on across town to the mountain. She knew she could not call the police yet realized she needed some kind of official help. Joel’s dad, Dave, occurred to her; “He is a policeman I have known most of my life. But their house is too far.” She knew if she started out, a goal would become apparent. Worry about her mother kept on the edge verging toward control.

Dory dismissed worry, she spread her arms like a bird and began trotting down the side of the hill away from her house. The city light made her downhill speed an easy full run, something like skiing, fun. Her mental map of bus routes led her to the closest bus stop near the edge of trees, where she could stand in a shadow waiting for a bus. She didn’t wait long. The bus stopped when she and it reached the bus stop together. Dory held on to an upright post as the bus accelerated. She deposited coins rather than show her bus card and requested a transfer for the next bus. Dory had decided where she was going— The parking area where Howie’s mom, Maureen, sometimes walked to the bus to and from work. The added benefit was off-road trails from the bus stop to Howie’s house, she would actually be able to observe his house before stepping into the open.

Surfer Manifesto Vignette 22

Dory wasn’t sure of the distance once she had stepped off the second bus and disappeared into shadowy yet well used trails leading upward until they feathered out to individual dwellings. She liked it that housing was moving out of farm land to make jobs and save fuel before worry about her mother and the two who tried to nab her, thinking in cadence with her steps made the distance disappear. Howie’s house was right in front of her.

She stopped well within the shadow line. Though Dory did not really want to peek in the window, an ancient Chinese goddess, Mazu, Ma-Tsu, flashed across her mind; Dory was compelled by love for her mother to look in her friend’s window, and she did.

Nothing seemed amiss. Dawn was happily playing music, she sang and played several instruments. Her music teacher said she should settle in on one and get good at it. That seemed strange to Dawn so she shrugged it off, for now. Howie was, as usual, eating. He had actually put a stool near the refrigerator for after school and he was sitting on it as he ate.

Dory was beginning to feel weird when she saw Dave and Maureen cuddled up on the couch and watching a movie. “My very own cop is here!” Dory exclaimed and started pounding on the window with both fists.

The house went quiet. Totally quiet. Dory heard the crickets chirping but nothing else. She tapped again on the window just to make perfectly clear she was serious. Everybody inside came outside wondering what was going on. They stood watching Dory still tapping on the window. She felt safe and had slipped into grief, knowing yet not fully knowing what she was doing or what had actually happened to her mother.

Maureen immediately walked to Dory and hugged her. “What’s wrong dear child?”

“My mother is gone and two men tried to catch me,” she said and swooned on Maureen’s shoulder. Dave carried Dory into the house and laid her on the couch. Maureen turned off the movie they had been watching. She then called a friend in a nearby town and asked her to call Dory’s mother, Kim. There was no answer.

“What should we do?” Everyone asked Dave, giving him full authority to be their private family cop investigator.

He glanced at Maureen and mouthed, Noah. She read his lips and nodded, Yes.

“Call Noah.” Dave said. Everyone could see Dave and Maureen were already becoming a team operating under pressure. Maureen called Noah. He said he would meet with them after school started in the morning. He wanted to know if Dave would be there to discuss this. Dave nodded, Yes. “I am also required to file a missing person report,” Dave concluded.

“Where did your mother work?” Dave asked Dory.

“She is a research scientist who works at the Eindhoven Technical University, Wuhan Science and Technology centers and here at our University. She also does a lot of research and writing from home,” Dory said.

“What does your mom do in that awesome circuit?” Maureen asked. “Wow,” she said with a smile to Dory. “I know you are tired and under tremendous stress; Tell Dave what your mother does so he can put it in his report and then Dawn can show you to the kitchen for something to eat before it’s time for bed.”

“Okay,” Dory responded; “I might think of more later.”

Maureen handed Dory a glass of water and a plate of thinly sliced apple and cheese. Dory revived visibly, quickly, her mother depended on her.

“My mother is involved with development and theoretical use of three nanometer chips for computers and other devices. I actually don’t know too much about it, maybe I’ll study some about what mom does when I get to college. It seems interesting, there are very few in the US who know how to develop the technology. Mom says more money goes into prisons than Universities so the US may never catch up. We may not even have sufficient high tech construction labor to install the latest machines from the Netherlands. My mom says chip tech in the US is a mess.”

“This is enough to get started,” Dave said. “The fact that your mom is so valuable indicates to me she’s going to be okay. The attempt to nab you, too, supports the same conclusion. The kidnapers could be a government or a corporation, whoever they are thinks your mother will be more productive if you are with her.”

Dory and Dawn went to the kitchen to prepare a meal for Dory. Howie tagged along thinking he’d like a snack, too.

“No more calls. Do not call out for awhile,” Dave requested as they left the room. “Tell me if you need to call someone, and if someone calls you, do not mention or discuss Dory or her mom, Kim; regarding what is happening here.”

“How can you inform police headquarters from here if the kids can’t talk about it on the phone?” Maureen asked Dave.

“We have to risk it,” Dave replied. “Even government leaders and presidents have taps on their phones, we have to assume my communications are not private either and just hope it’s missed. Even so, Kim is a missing person and I have to call it in.” Which he did, in full detail.

“What about school tomorrow?” Maureen asked after Dave had finished his phone report to police headquarters. “All the other kids are going to want to know what has happened. Dory won’t be able to hide how she’s feeling from her friends. She won’t know what to say, either.”

“Hmm, That’s a tough one,” Dave replied; “We can’t leave her stewing alone here all day wondering what’s going on with her mother. Could she sit in at the city college for a few trial classes and a little counseling until you get off work at the university? That won’t solve the problem but might keep her a little bit interested and slightly distracted.”

“I think we have a plan,” Maureen said and kissed Dave goodby. I’ll see you in the morning at Noah’s university office.”

Surfer Manifesto Vignette 23

The next morning, after breakfast, Howie drove Maureen and Dory to the bus stop, dropped his sister at the junior high and continued on to school. He knew what the parents didn’t. Twenty-nine war resistors had already spent quite a bit of time attempting to find Dory. The high school search spilled over into the junior high and even adult fisherman level plus family searches. Nobody knew the full extent yet many people were unknowingly uniting as they looked for Dory and her mother Kim.

Nobody at the city college recognized Dory; She was wearing dark glasses and blended in perfectly. Just another college girl; brunette, fairly tall - 165 cm, shapely and feminine yet big-boned and strong. Nobody could see her still slightly blank crying eyes. Dory was safe, she had declined counseling and was completely incognito settled in among the safety of many people in the cafeteria, just as Maureen and Dave had planned. They had met up with Noah and told him their story over breakfast at the university faculty cafe, it was late morning by then.

“I’ve looked into Kim Chen’s university position,” Noah said. “She is a top scientist here and operates in both Europe and China as well. Kim appears to be a problem solver across several fields. Her understanding of advanced computer chips and laser tech to make them has placed her in the center of modern communications. She has, so far not been directly associated with military work. Even so, Kim is also deeply involved in space travel and works closely with the Chinese and Russian effort on their goal to build a permanent lunar research colony.”

“How to find her is our top priority,” Dave interjected. “Kim Chen is involved in high level research with few people. Is there a way to study and then keep an eye on her work patterns and possibly discover who on Earth might be desperate enough for Kim’s input to kidnap her and attempt to kidnap her daughter, too?”

Maureen chuckled and then laughed; “My first guess is our own local space force,” Maureen said it so softly no one could possibly overhear. “We’ve cut back on education and invested in private prisons and corporate research projects. The US has lost the advantage that came with building the world’s best public universities. Now we’re prodding China and Iran into war just like we did Russia. China is offering many scholarships to Taiwanese students.

“Taiwan, Japan and South Korea are among the few places that make the advanced chips— The US does not have the technology to make them. I’m guessing Maureen is hidden away at the space port. The US is petrified that Taiwan will rejoin China peacefully and then the most advanced chips will come from China rather than Taiwan.”

“Your idea sounds logical, Maureen. Even so, we all know it’s a big world out there,” Noah responded. “We have no idea who has taken Kim Chen and need to schedule a meeting of Kim’s associates for this afternoon, here. I’ll round up as many people as I can who know about Kim and her work. Now is a good time for you to go check in with Dory and let her know what we are doing. She might have come up with some ideas, too. I’ll let you know when the most knowledgable people can join us later this afternoon.”

Noah was already arranging the afternoon, on the phone as Maureen and Dave walked to the parking lot. They hopped in Dave’s car and bee-lined for the city college.

There at the college and at their preplanned time; Dory reopened already opened packaging and turned on a cheap phone Maureen had bought for her at a corner gas station on the way to school. Dory called Maureen, who said Hello, after about half-a-ring.

“We are headed for lunch soon.” Maureen said and turned off her phone. She handed her phone to Dave and he put it in a police jamming box between the seats.

Dory, in the cafeteria, turned off her phone and put it in a large paper cup of orange soda she had specifically bought for this purpose. There was a thickly planted landscape area just outside the door. That’s where the phone inside a plastic capped paper cup of large orange juice was hidden, in a handy sunken gray cement topped sprinkler valve box. Dory then went back to blending in at her spot in the cafeteria. She liked looking out the window and forced herself to be calm.

Dory did not see the person looking at her from slightly behind and to her left. He was handsome and of a healthy athletic build and being careful not to stare while feeling like he’d seen her before. He felt sure. But where? Then his memory saw her wearing string-tie canvas surfer shorts and a woman athlete’s top instead of a light jacket, pulled up collar and dark glasses. She was one of the surfers who rescued him the day he crashed the coastal patrol launch.

Jimmy stood up and quietly walked into her view without looking at her. He let her see him for half a minute or so and then turned to her. “Do you recognize me?” he quietly asked. “You saved my life and I thank you,” a grateful, strong, handsome man smiled; “I’m Jimmy Gardner, the helmsman who crashed in the surf and you rescued. My mother thanks you, too.” Jimmy grinned.

“I can see you have problems,” Jimmy continued; “Can Jimmy, the guy you saved from certain death, help you now?”

“Yes. Thank you;” Dory responded, taking off her dark glasses and looking directly at him. I recognize you, Jimmy. I am Dory Chen, all those friends you saw are helping and I still need all the help I can get— My mother has been kidnapped and I got away.”

Jimmy didn’t think Dory would say anything like that. It was way worse than being beat to death by giant waves. Jimmy didn’t have any idea what to say. He walked to her and indicated the bench seat beside her; “May I sit here with you and absorb what you just told me?” He asked. “Do all the war resistors know?”

Dory nodded Yes. “It happened last night.”

Jimmy was overwhelmed by Dory Chen’s story. He felt what she was going through as if he were on a giant wave. He felt himself riding at the top of a big wave. Large gobs of water were being torn from the steepening water wall and slamming into his face. He couldn’t see and surfed straight down to get under the battering water globs, and he made it; Time stopped. Jimmy looked into a curled-over ragged-topped tubular wall held up by air pressure. And just past the curling over wave they both saw Dory’s mother. She was sitting somewhere with a gray background. Kim Chen did not have time to be surprised when she saw Dory and Jimmy looking at her. It happened cameraflash fast and was over.

“She’s alive,” Dory said and leaned back with a sob and a sigh. Jimmy nodded in agreement.

“And she saw us see her at Life speed,” Dory concluded, regaining composure.

Jimmy agreed again. “What did we just do?” He asked.

“We have done something new,” Dory responded. “Our war resistor league surfers have figured out how to travel at Life speed and share it with each other. None of us have ever done what you just did on your first try. We don’t know if there are others who have discovered this, too.”

“Wait a minute!” Jimmy exclaimed. “Back up a bit; I need a few facts. What are you talking about? We just saw your Mom someplace that was gray.”

“Joel has explained it best, so far,” Dory began. “Our bodies are made up of molecules that are actually built up from sub-atomic wave particles called quarks. They are like light; sometimes waves and sometimes particles. Light can be photons or waves depending on more than science has totally figured out, yet— Same story for our body’s atoms; we are each a separate sum of uncountable trillions of tiny waves adding together to become you and me. I am going to study this when I go to college.”

“You are not in college?” Jimmy asked. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m hiding from people I do not know.” Dory answered and then silently examined Jimmy’s face and looked into his eyes. She saw clear skin, good health and what appeared to be frank openness;

“What are you doing here, Jimmy? We made ourselves into a human chain, rescued you, and then took you back to the space port only a few weeks ago. Now you are a college student? Why are you here?” Dory concluded.

Jimmy saw a hint of suspicion cross Dory’s face. Her eyebrows first furrowed then raised, questioning, then concentrating. He felt himself again being studied by Dory at the same time Maureen and Dave arrived in the city college cafeteria, on the opposite side of the dining area. Neither Jimmy nor Dory saw the others enter and remained absorbed in their own conversation.

Maureen and Dave walked across the dining area toward Dory and Jimmy who were discussing something intently and silhouetted before a wall of large tinted windows viewing the vast blue pacific ocean. Dave’s trained police senses didn’t pick up danger signals yet he and Maureen quickened their pace and presented themselves at the dining table before they were noticed. “Is everything okay?” Maureen asked.

Dory had been expecting the new arrivals, who totally surprised and interested Jimmy. He greeted them warmly, “What a pleasant surprise,” he said, “I’m guessing you are here because of what Dory has just told me about her mother.”

“You guessed right,” Dave responded. “We are surprised to see you here, too.”

“He’s become a student here at the city college,” Dory interjected.

“It’s a new idea,” Jimmy said, “I did well on my tests.”

“What are you studying?” Maureen asked, remembering her student’s story about the on campus military recruiter who had been seen in Latin America. Maureen was leery of military presence on campus.

Jimmy saw suspicion again and tried to be reassuring even as he knew she could see right through him; “I’ve just now, this very minute, decided to study wave theory and biology,” Jimmy answered.

“Do you think I could transfer to city college and study this same subject with Jimmy?” Dory asked. “We just stopped time and saw my mother alive.” She concluded.

Jimmy smiled at the idea of studying Life with maximum surfer girl and nodded his agreement that Dory should transfer from high school to city college.

“You did that?” Maureen and Dave asked in unison. You saw your mother?”

Dory and Jimmy nodded Yes together. Jim explained how he suddenly found himself on a big wave with globs of water slamming into his face. “I had to turn my head sideways and look out of my eyes sideways to see myself atop a straight up and down wall of water frothed white and hurling water in my face. Time stopped when I dropped down the wall and through the storm to the bottom— That’s when we saw Dory’s mom.”

“And she saw us!” Dory exclaimed. “I don’t know who can help us learn about this.”

“I don’t either,” Maureen responded. It sounds to me like you and Jimmy should come to the University with us and enroll there to study on your own in the visiting scholar program.”

“But I haven’t even graduated from high school yet,” Dory said.

“Me neither,” said Jimmy.

“It’s just one line on a form.” Maureen said. “Noah will figure it out for us.”

“This is too wild; Let’s go back to the University now.” Dave said. “Can Noah get our kids into the university, too?

Dory laughed in response to Dave; “You might as well send all thirty or forty of us to the university. It was your son, Joel, who figured out the wave theory we have discovered is pure physics completely by chance.” Dory laughed again, returning strength warmed her voice;

“I’d like to go by my house to feed the cat and pick up my phone and car. Is that okay with you? The cat will be fine awhile longer with added food and water. The phone and car are advanced devices that are to remain in my control. I no longer care anymore if my mother’s kidnappers know where I am, they will be sorry when I find them.” Her stern look disappeared when she smiled at Jimmy, “Will you ride to the university with me following Maureen and Dave?

Jimmy smiled a definite, Yes. All four of them stood and went all but unnoticed out the back door; The exception was Jimmy’s space-force shadow. She now had her eye on four people instead of one, Dory Chen, Dave Clayton, Maureen and Jimmy.

It was a short drive from the city college to Dory’s house. She lived in the same working class neighborhood as Pam. They had been surfer girls within walking distance of the beach since early childhood. Two small girls carrying the two surfboards in single file, each sharing surfboards in a way to make a stretcher loaded between them with towels clothes and lunch. The moms called Ranger Mac and they could watch until the ranger called and said he was walking to meet the girls.

Dory and Pam can surf waves just like they can walk. They can see weather waves. Once, completely by chance, at a country gas station, they showed weather waves to awed old farmers who asked them what they were looking at. The farmers easily saw the weather waves when they were pointed out. It was an unforgettable moment for two young women and two wise old farmers who stood as equals before a god of weather; Together they felt weather ranges vibrating between mischievous and devastating. Youth and Age felt it and knew it takes people to do that.

Everything looked completely normal when they arrived at Dory’s house. The only thing out of place was the open side door she had run through as she escaped her own kidnaping. Dave went inside when Dory passed it by. She was hoping to find her phone laying where she left it near the hole in the hedge she had squeezed through at full life speed.

The phone was just where she left it. Dory picked up her phone and texted Brenda Romanoff.

“I’m back on line. Met up with Jimmy, Maureen and Dave. We’re headed for the university student cafe and might be signed in as university students. Be there if you would also like to transfer to the university. Might as well bring a few Brenda selected friends. All of us if you say so. Over and out.”

Maureen and Dave, who had found nothing alarming in the house, saw a mischievous look in her eyes when Dory put her phone away.

“What?” Maureen asked. Dave looked at Dory like a dad with his eyebrows up.

Dory laughed out loud; “The war resistors league knows what happened to my mother, how you are helping and where we are going. They are eagerly studying where no person has gone before. Whoever has done this to my mother is going to be very sorry.”

Moms and dads know half a story when they hear one, especially if it is delivered with a mysteriously intriguing young person’s slant on life. It’s part of the joy of being a parent. Maureen and Dave were all ears, waiting to hear more.

“We should get going to the university cafe and try to figure out what help there is there in our search for my mom.” Dory said with a hint of a grin Maureen and Dave both saw. “Would you like my techmobile to take us the quickest route?” Dory asked.

Dave and Maureen agreed that might be interesting. Dory and Jimmy took the lead and at the first stop turned right instead of left. They followed back roads almost all the way to the university until one bad intersection before the front gate, its where you are told how to get where you are going and given a parking ticket for the closest parking lot. It was lunch hour and the expected entrance traffic slow-down was exactly as Dory’s car had predicted; They saved 12.662 minutes by avoiding traffic until the very end of their trip, according to Dory.

Brenda Romanoff had quickly organized a phone tree to alert war resistors who were intimately and knowingly creating their own individual young lives according to the surfer manifesto of having fun, enjoying nature, and leaving Earth richer because they had been born. They were now a group of slightly over fifty. A school beginning semester cut-off point was happening right now in the university cafe. The war resistors knew there would be people following Jimmy. They formed into waves at agreed upon intervals with the idea of spotting space force spies following Jimmy and caught between surfers being waves.

Dory and Jimmy followed Maureen and Dave into the student union at about the time the first wave of war resistors reached the university front gate. The war resistors were set up as eleven waves made up of five war resistors each. Unmeasurable trillions of brain synapses connected to alert senses operating on a hunt. War resistors who had welded themselves into a league of war resistors were hidden among throngs of students while they searched for a spy.

Chapter 5 Surfer Manifesto Vignette 24

Maureen recognized Noah among about twenty professors at a six sided round of cafeteria tables, four professors per table with the new arrivals at a table. The tables are plain cafeteria tables with fold out gray legs at either end. The professors all looked at Jimmy and Dory as if they were laboratory animals. Maureen and Dave were also interesting specimens who had somehow bridged an undefined consciousness hurdle and fairly well understood what their children were talking about.

Dory’s mother, the missing scientist had been kidnapped, so assembled scientists wanted to talk with Dory first. Several of the scientists were more than surprised she wasn’t a sobbing mass of human female protoplasm but they didn’t show it. Others saw her as a physically fit, brave young woman.

Dory recounted coming home to an empty house and her escape; she had told her story so many times it did not occur to her that people who listened heard the story of a super woman who had escaped certain capture. On top of that she seemed to have picked up her own personal cop, who sat at the table with her. All the professors were amazed by Dory’s story. They next asked Jimmy what he thought about her escape, as much for information as a way of opening conversation with him.

Jimmy explained how Dory had been part of a human chain that rescued him and he had been surprised to see her in the city college cafe looking out the windows.

How did you get from space force to city college student in a bit shy of three weeks? That was their first question.

Jimmy Gardener suddenly became Jaime Jardinero, a street wise surfer from El Segundo. He knew exactly where he was and who he was talking to; twenty top university professors assembled on short notice could not be side-stepped. Jimmy told them space-force had sent him to find out what was going on with surfers communicating with foreign ships about the Eurasian war.

Dory was incensed; “That means you are a spy!”

“No it doesn’t,” Jimmy responded. “You saved my life and I told the space force that. They wondered what you were up to and said they’d send me to college to find out. I already told them I figured the surfers were war resistors who knew they would all get drafted, male and female, because 70% of Americans are too fat to fight. Plus,” I told them, “Japanese and South Koreans might not want to be chewed up in a US designed Chinese meat grinder like Ukrainians have been in the Russian war.”

At that point Noah assumed leadership of the conference; “Let’s skip over how people you and Dory’s age have come to understand these sorts of things for a moment, I’ve been told by my working partner, Maureen, that you and Dory have discovered her mother is alive, and furthermore that her mother, our friend and colleague Kim, knows you did.”

Dory raised her hand to speak and Noah asked her to proceed. “We are almost fifty surfers who have discovered we are each a sum of waves, Dory began. We became unified when our bodily waves were studying and in sync with ocean waves. Among us are full-on science nerds; They shared the vision of quarks precipitating on the cooling surface of big bang. Those first quarks were separating from each other far faster than the speed of light, there was as yet no light so that speed barrier was not at the time in operation.”

One of the world renowned physicists at the table saw what Dory was getting at. “Quarks are the only known bodies that attraction force increases with distance and becomes mild when they are together comprising different kinds of atoms etc. Is this what you are telling us about?”

“Sort of,” Dory blushed beet red and covered her face. “You scientists named quarks with strange names and missed that biology was the first thing that happened back at the beginning. Girl quarks and boy quarks got together and made new kinds if things. That’s why people power is so strong. Biology has been here from the beginning. Gaia does not want humans to go extinct and we are her helpers... Explaining the facts of life to adults is embarrassing.” Dory concluded.

“Quarks are male and female, rather than strange.” She added, quickly.

Maureen raised her hand and Noah recognized her to speak; “We already know evolution is accelerating at an accelerating rate and I believe our children have discovered something profound and the University should admit them all as visiting scholars. They tell us they learned to stop time as individuals and next realized they were really accelerating to life speed with shared solidarity. They wish to attend the university and study here.” Maureen turned to Jimmy and Dory. Please tell the professors how you two found out Kim is alive.”

Jimmy recounted how he was totally amazed when what he thought might be Dory’s normal problem turned out to be her mother was kidnapped. He had been so suddenly overwhelmed and felt himself as if going over the falls on a very big wave. He even knew where the wave was. After surviving a straight down vertical take-off, he had stopped time at the bottom of the wave, that was when both he and Dory had seen her mother, who also saw them, for a brief part of a second.

“Most surfers stop time at the bottom of a wave and don’t clearly notice what they are doing, only surfers can do it. Surfers around here, now including me, have learned how to do something that needs emergency research and experimentation. Life on Earth is in peril. I am also beginning to think Gaia sent us.”

Jimmy heard people behind him and turned to see five surfers moving a table and chairs into position behind them. It was Howie, Pam, Jerry, Brenda and Louise. “This is why Dory and I and all our friends want to become part of the university. We practice the surfer manifesto and have taught others to stop time to see behind and ahead in order to make a plan.”

“Surfer Manifesto?” Several professors asked in unison.

“Enjoy life, have fun in nature, and, when you grow old and die, leave Earth more fertile than when you were born.” was the central response theme.

Five more surfers arrived and moved a second table and chairs into position next to the first table. Two surfers with Dave and Maureen and two tables of five each followed quite quickly by another table of five. One more table arrived and war resistors outnumbered the professors. One of the new arrivals walked to stand between Jerry and Brenda; Li Wan quietly told them they had located a spy and wanted to open a channel to Dory’s advanced Chinese telephone to facilitate nonviolent video and physical isolation of the spy. Jerry tapped his phone as a signal to Dory to turn her phone on. She clicked multi open channel.

There she was on everyone’s screen; It was close to slapstick comedy. The spy was peering through a potted giant fern and watching the meeting. The last incoming surfers made a semi-circle that enclosed the spy into an enlarged meeting. Surfers already seated at tables stood up and made wings from the professors to the surrounding semi-circle behind the spy.

“We are happy you are here and pleased to welcome you into our meeting,” Noah said to the spy. “Come out from behind the fern so we can talk. There is no need for fear.”

The spy saw herself projected onto a screen that had been set up for Noah in case he needed it. She stood up and looked behind herself to see twenty-five or so smiling surfers standing in a semi circle behind her. She felt no threat.

“Join us,” Noah said in a kindly father’s voice. “Tell us your story. This is serious. You are at this moment under police surveillance. Please start with your service ID number. We are here as a central search committee for a kidnapped colleague. As I mentioned, this meeting is very serious, it is a kidnapper search committee meeting and you have placed yourself in the center of it voluntarily. You may of course remain silent if you wish.”

The woman hiding behind the giant fern stepped into the open and hung her head. “My name is Shell Nakamura, I don’t know anything about a kidnapping. I am just an enlisted person at the space port assigned to tag along behind Jimmy. His boss is my boss.” the spy concluded, she also told them her military identification number. Dave asked for her drivers license number. Shell complied by removing her license from her wallet and reading that number to the meeting as well.

“When did you start following Jimmy?” Dave asked and Shell told him she was waiting at the city college cafe and saw him meet Dory, who she had not noticed until then.

Noah thanked Shell and told her that she might as well return to the space port as they had important work to do.

“I don’t want to return to the space port,” Shell responded. I am Chamoru, an indigenous Guamanian, many say Chamorro. It makes me sick to think of what the US did to the Polynesian people during atom bomb tests. I am also a surfer and know exactly what is being discussed here.”

“You can also stop time?” Noah asked.

“I did not know that was what I was doing until I heard Dory and Jimmy describing it. I may have glimpsed what they did. It was too fast to identify.”

The assembled scientist professors began a discussion among themselves that became quite excited and so absorbing that Shell and the other surfers were all but ignored. Shell was invited to sit with the war resistors, who eagerly wanted to know about surfing in Guam and how she ended up at a space port that used humans for missile target practice and atom bomb tests.

“We have great surf and the United States government is fiendish,” Shell said. “It let radioactive fallout drift like snow over populated islands of peaceful fun loving Polynesians just to learn what happens to people after an atom bomb blast.”

“What happened to the people?” The war resistors all wanted to know.

“It is too ugly to talk about.” Shell said. “I will say one thing that needs to be said; radiation can cause jelly fish babies.” She patted an imaginary bouncy jelly fish on the table for emphasis.

“Yuckola.” Several surfers said. “The surfers manifesto includes direct action via BDS Yuckola.”

“Really,” Howie interjected. “First our government bombs happy Polynesians and now more and more of us are being called up to register for the Eurasian war. The entire enemy threat is total nothing burger for TV propaganda control over people, our country is the problem.”

“So what should we do? Howie” Pam asked. Howie glanced at his friends and saw them smiling encouragingly for him to continue. He looked behind and to the sides, everyone wanted him to continue.

“Number one is get ourselves registered here at the university and then we continue with a general internet alert. I’ll start with Surfers Against Sewage, their based in England. The sanitation system is breaking down there because the eurasian war takes so much money and worker power.”

“We don’t need the university for that,” Alan pointed out, and Louise agreed. We can do that staying in our regular school schedule at the high school.”

Dory raised her hand and Jerry banged his fist on the table for attention. It was louder than he expected but perfect for Dory, who said; “Whatever we do, my mother is first on my mind, we are here and now assembled at fifty-four surf riding war resistors, counting Shell and Jimmy. We can’t wait another second. Can we expand our experiment? Who will ride this wave of urgency for my mom?”

The professors had stopped talking amongst themselves and were observing their newly found students. The university cafe seemed quiet around the assembly itself while the rest of the cafe hummed with voices and occasional kitchen clatter.

“There’s enough waves for everyone,” Jimmy said to Dory. “You named the first wave. What’s your idea? I’ll follow you.”

Dory felt herself riding urgency searching for her mother. She pantomimed dropping into a large wave and time skipped a beat. Dory repeated what she had done in the cave only yesterday, which seemed another life-time. They became a solid unit; Cosmic powered biology surfing big bang at life speed, they were rooted at the beginning of time.

“That’s my call!” Pam said and physically strode into the center of students and professors. “This is for all our parents.” Athena took off in front of Aphrodite. Even so; They reached their pantomime duet wave bottom turn together, in a flash. Everyone there saw forever wars ahead, yet this time presented a different vantage, a fork in the road, and that way led to happy people and a healthy Earth. Everyone there shared a plain and simple vision. Another way is possible and it looks to us like more fun.

Okay, was the general consensus. We’ve seen a better way. We may not know exactly how to get there but we do know we are still looking for Kim Chen. What can we do to find her? here and now?

Surfer Manifesto Vignette 26

Maureen started the day telling Dave and Noah she had reached her limit, she told them she knew they had, too.

“What are the kids up to?” Noah asked. “Mine look up to your youngest, yet they seem involved with the older kids now, too.”

“They are all network texting. Nobody in that generation knows exactly how old who is,” Dave added. “Information, ideas, suggestions and then either wind or surf gets good and they disappear for a day or two. The peace temple facing the setting sun is worked on every day. Kim Chen remains the over arching theme. She has been missing for five days, today.”

“We haven’t heard from Shell or Jimmy, either.” Maureen said. “Their silence indicates to me that Kim is imprisoned at the space port. It’s a repeat of when Canadian police were ordered by the US to arrest Meng Wanzhou, an executive in Chinese 5G tech. They arrested her publicly, at the Vancouver International airport. That was over phones and chips and now, this time, they’ve gone secret, Kim Chen is hidden away. This kidnapping is over way more advanced space-age chips and unknown sci-fi stuff. The United States does not want the world to know how far it has fallen behind after dumbing down its own people to make them easier to manage. Getting Kim back is not going to be easy.”

“I am sure the 5G phone episode has not been forgotten in China,” Noah added. “And you are correct, Maureen, the difference is Meng Wanzhou is an executive who took over her father’s business while Kim Chen is the creative spark animating advanced scientific research that cannot be accomplished in the US without her.”

“She works in Wuhan, China using Eindhoven scientific staff and brings projects here to the university system,” Dave added. “Am I correct on that?”

Agreement from Noah and Maureen solidified Dave’s position; “I think you are probably right about them all being held somewhere out of sight at the space port— Shell and Jimmy went in there as visiting scholar war resistors looking for Kim and we haven’t heard anything from them since. Have we heard anything from fishing boats in that area?”

“Yep. Tom and Rehlein are cruising south toward the spaceport,” Maureen said. “I talked with Rehlein about twenty minutes ago; she is riding in the crow’s nest and Tom is whooping it up for her. They’re following a large wind swell from the north. Rehlein says it’s a little like surfing. She is hanging on tight in the crow’s nest because she’s back and forth from a midpoint high one moment and then like she will get soaking wet dunked the next, she’s being whipped side to side and over the top and says she doesn’t think she can get out of the crow’s nest to climb down. On the other hand, she doesn’t think she can climb down even if she she does get out of the crow’s nest and onto the ladder. She says it’s totally radical fun so she is staying safe in the crow’s nest and riding waves like never before. She says Tom occasionally sticks his head out the window; then he looks up and laughs at her.”

“Where are they now?” Noah and Dave both wanted to know.

“Is it okay to call her?” Maureen asked.

“Let’s wait for them to call us,” Dave suggested.

The main calling volume was being prompted by Brenda Romanov. Howie, Pam, Jerry and many others formed up as visiting scholars doing unimagined science totally by chance and Brenda kept focus on the job at hand. The war resistors league had forgone major platforms and opted for texting and talking with a five to nine core of individuals, each with their own five to nine core. The base wave of the visiting scholars was fifty-five, texted maybe, six to equal 330 queries in the first round. Although a questioning idea-seeking wave spread to two thousand minds in minutes, it repeatedly came up blank, hour after hour, with regard to finding Kim Chen.

The trick for everyone was learning to recognize conversational reverberations as waves. They all knew their communications went through central computer places as a fact of life. They saw the gain from avoiding large social platforms is reduced entanglement with corporate content via algorithm cookies. They operated in cyberspace knowing there were good and bad sides of it. People could be listening in. Buzzwords activated recording devise search engines. Polycrisis was the word of the day. It was a race between evolution accelerating at an accelerating rate and a polycrisis stampede. There was not much reason to hide that as a topic of research among visiting scholars.

Meanwhile, Rehlein, was sky rocketing back and forth in the crow’s nest and beginning to wonder if it was too much fun. The boat twisted. Tom poked his head out the window and looked up wide-eyed. He ducked back into helms mastership at a time when Poseidon seemed to have taken over. There was not much Tom could do before raging seas swept them ashore. The fishing boat skidded up onto flat sand like a kid on a bicycle. Rehlein did one of her high-school acrobatic tricks and easily dropped from the crowsnest to standing on barely damp wet sand, with both arms raised. Ta da! Tom climbed out the window sideways and joined Rehlein on the beach. They were stunned; Maybe Tom more so.

“How did this happen? Dahling.” Rehlein asked.

“It may be a reality problem,” Tom responded. “I saw windows up there in the dunes looking out to sea. Next thing I know; here we are looking at my boat on dry sand.”

“Shall we go look where you saw the windows looking out to sea?” Rehlein asked, Smiling and not saying Dahling.

“Let’s go,” Tom said. “They are right up there.”

Rehlein and Tom ran up the beach dunes and into a larger than expected forest of slightly overhead brush with trade wind twisted trunks and shiny red bark. “The leaves and bark are similar to Manzanita,” Rehlein mused aloud. The miniature forest was easy to run through and they arrived at a long patio behind buried ferrocement bungalows. They went down the line opening simple gate-latched bungalow doors.

Out came Jimmy, Shell, Dory’s mom Kim, and several others.

“We saw you crash ashore,” Jimmy said. “Let’s get away from here.” Shell said. “Forget the boat!” Kim agreed. “Humanity is in dire straights,” a gray haired father time person said.

“We are one of the keys to the future! Run!” Another prisoner they did not yet know said. The last prisoner nodded agreement. “Hurry.”

Tom pointed the way back onto the miniature forest and they all ran to be out of sight. Tom led them on a path through the forest toward the high tide line just past the spaceport boundary. He reckoned the course as a savvy fisherman who knew where they were on the sea or in a rolling hill dune forest. Before them lay several kilometers on soft dune sand. Father time kept up for quite awhile, yet, about halfway, he needed a person in each side to semi-carry him over the soft sand. Everyone refused when the very old chronos figure asked more than once to be left behind for the safety of the others.

Life speed bravery and solidarity existed in this group of eight even running on soft fluffy sand half-carrying an elderly father Chronos. None of them had any idea they were the first major confrontation between a fourth front made up of peace seeking people and a hegemonic capitalist dominance needing compounded interest growth forever.

Eight peace workers chant-jogged through soft sand and thought of eight different ideas for reaching safety. They joined as one when they heard the distant sound of a searching helicopter. Was it alone? Was there also a ground search team? Tom listened with fisherman’s senses and announced the search pattern was still between where his boat had crashed and the space force’s private luxury beach-front jail.

Jimmy and Shell chant breathed. “You have stopped time.”

“We analyzed the helicopter sound waves and synchronized our waves that add together and present us as individuals.” Jimmy and Shell chanted while plodding through deep soft sand. It seemed like a quick-sand horror movie Rehlein was a child-star in; she still has quick-sand feelings about things like huge strong spider webs.

All eight resynchronized to life speed and rode helicopter sound waves to make their chanting jog even faster. Father Chronos smiled throughout what he found to be a gleeful ride. They were leaping over gullies in what he imagined as a single bound. The border fence was only a sagging cattle fence and just as easy as a gully. Chronos almost giggled. The group skidded and stopped at the bottom of the first gulley after the space port border fence.

They rested leaning against a vertical earthen gulley bank. Kim Chen was the first to speak; “I know you wouldn’t leave old father time back there,” Kim said. “Even so, You are safe now and should pick a direction and keep going without me. I will wait for an hour and follow in your general direction. It’s not too far to safety among people enjoying the beach. Break up into smaller groups before you arrive. We meet again at the downtown main street restaurant nearest the beach.”

“We can’t do that,” Shell responded, immediately. “Jimmy and I are here looking for you, we are in touch with your daughter, Dory.”

“We were in touch,” Jimmy interjected. Shell smiled and continued; “Before we split into two groups; Why are they after you, Kim. It will help us to know what is going on.”

“Very well,” Kim Chen agreed. The US is pressuring the Netherlands to back out of business association with China. I troubleshoot and communicate between Eindhoven technical research, Wuhan technical research, and our university. The US cannot recreate the work being done in other countries and Netherlands cannot afford to lose the Chinese business or research association. Our university is an equal partner in this. Note there are many more than three bodies associating in this system.”

Kim Chen removed a paper from her pocket and unfolded it. “This field report is written by the Irish research team, Gearóid Tóibín O’Conghaile, it explains the gravity we are in;

“The US is at war with Russia and Europeans will do the fighting. The US is at war with China, though it’s not settled that South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Australia will agree to do the fighting there. The US is at war with Iran, a country with the strongest coastal defenses on Earth. Russia has opened the Volga and Don rivers to Iranian shipping. This connects Iran to the Beijing-European freight route through Moscow and provides Iran with a safe and short shipping route to the Mediterranean sea.

“Russia, China, Iran, Cuba, North Korea and Venezuela are being prodded by a US war stance and bullying threats. Iran, the first empire on Earth, has not attacked anyone in six hundred years. Chess masters in Iran face grade b checker players with nukes. It’s definitely scary.

“Many other social economies are effected; What will Mexico, Indonesia, California, Brazil, Vietnam, South Korea and Argentina do?”

Gearóid Tóibín O’Conghaile

“Okay, I get the idea,” Rehlein said. “The US goal is to stop China from developing advanced science that the US is too dumbed down to do itself. Those dullards think if they keep you locked up then China won’t advance. Am I right?”

“That’s about it.” Kim responded. “It’s a goofy idea.”

Rehlein looked at Tom, “After hearing Kim’s story, I suggest we all stick together.” She said. “We’ve done spectacularly well thus far together and shouldn’t change anything.” There was a general murmur of agreement.

“Which way? Tom.” Rehlein asked.

Surfer Manifesto Vignette 27

Dawn and Early, two of the younger war resisters league, were among the first locals to learn of Tom’s fishing boat beached high and dry at the space port. Dawn and Early are what their friends call, Wingers; they have been surfing since they could walk and swim but settled into windsurfing as their main fun. Wingers have a wing under their board that lifts the board off the water so they just ride the wing, which has very low resistance in the water and allows for good sailing in either light wind or strong.

Windsurfing opens up more space for more people. It is slightly more social than riding waves for this reason. Dawn and Early had grown up watching Howie surf and were comfortable riding waves or wind with either foot forward. The two sisters have two friends who are twins. They are wind-surfing south behind their mom and dad’s fishing boat; Everyone in that sea going family saw Tom’s boat beached and laying on its side. The two son’s windsurfed to the beach riding waves and wind in a zig zag pattern, on low wave shoulders, they were avoiding larger peaks. They ran to Tom’s boat as soon as they were ashore; It was empty.

One brother, Kai, started walking around the boat while his twin, Pat, climbed into the same window Tom had climbed out of just hours ago. Kai stopped at the stern and phoned Dawn and Early. Pat phoned the boat and his mom answered. She phoned Maureen and Dave. And the two younger girls phoned Brenda Romanoff and Louise Casey; That began the alert cascade they had been practicing. Some visiting scholar surfers felt the cascade hinting its presence as being a biologically generated quark wave of an as yet undefined nature. They noted the possibility of a new wave form in their journal; Surfer Manifesto by Jerry Habib, for example. Jerry is smart, humorous, sensitive and strong; he also has clear handwriting.

Five soldiers with high powered assault rifles and a small cannon weapon pulled like a wheeled golf bag waited until Kai finished his call and then walked into plain sight.

“Freeze!” The groups commander commanded...

Kai froze. He didn’t move a muscle. Kai barely breathed.

“What are you doing here? Gentlemen.” the group commander asked, as Pat crawled out the side window and slid down the deck to the sand.

“We saw this beached boat and came to find out about it.” Pat responded. “Maybe we can pull it back to open sea when the tide comes in.” Pat is a quick thinker.

Kai is as quick as anybody but the shock of the guns still had him frozen. Pat had only heard it. He had not been in front of it.

“There is a war going on,” the commander barked. “You can at any moment be declared an internal enemy threatening national security, even if you voted properly. Now tell me; Who is on that boat out there.” He pointed beyond the surf line.

“Our parents,” Pat and Kai said in unison. “We are a fishing family and live on our boat.”

“We are moving to our winter port and saw this boat on the beach.” Pat concluded.

Mom, Anna, on the boat, was still on the phone describing the soldiers and her sons when a full war security clamp-down shut off communications over a 100 kilometer radius. That immediately alerted a lot of people there was something secret going on. The radio blackout radius was quickly dropped in half and then halved again to ten kilometers. But the damage was done. Some visiting scholars felt waves of social anger and dismay, they noted this with interest in their individual versions of surfer manifesto.

Maureen turned questioningly to Dave. He called police staff, they confirmed a brief civilian communications blackout, including police. Anna and her family were still inside the communications blackout. Military protocol had defined a local family as a national security threat, internal enemies of the state.

Pat and Kai claimed they were below the high tide line. The soldiers claimed they owned all the way out into the pacific. It was a stand-off in radio silence. The General and Colonel had to go there in a golf cart or a huge truck and chose the golf cart. The soldiers with guns started complaining about what Pat and Kai claimed about the high-tide line as soon as higher rank officers arrived.

“We the people own this place and we are investigating a boat that has run aground,” Pat said slowly and clearly.

“Please tell your soldiers to quit aiming their guns at us. We are simply student scholars on our way to the university and saw a beached boat.” Kai stated.

“University student scholars could be studying anything,” the patrol commander said to the officers and saluted. “We have heard that many modern students like these do not understand and even dismiss revealed history as explained in the bible. They preach stories about boy and girl quarks surfing big bang. We are serious,” the group commander concluded. “We’ve seen and heard their video clips on whodat, during training.”

Though the general knew there were iffy and edgy people guarding the spaceport perimeter, he did not come into direct contact with them very often. The general was not personally frightened yet worried for the safety of the two young brothers; he pushed a button of his coat and two helicopters took off, headed to help him. Reinforcements were less than a minute away. Big helicopters are noisy. The perimeter group commander and his crew backed down as soon as they heard them. Strong authority is their savior and leader. The helicopters landed just as regional communications were restored.

Even so; Chaos ruled long enough for Tom, Rehlein and six former prisoners to walk up and out of their slow yet safe river path and catch a local bus to a regional bus and then flee the area. They paid for their tickets with barely enough cash between them and disappeared leaving no trace.

Anna called both her sons hoping at least one of them would answer; they both did. “Hi, mom,” they both answered at once, loud enough for the soldiers to hear. Anna was so worried, the general could hear a mother’s voice demanding to know what was going on. He listened to the sons explain to their mother what had happened;

“The soldiers said students could be studying wrong ideas and are internal enemies of the state. Students are a national security problem during war with Russia, China and Iran,” Kai reported.

“I’m glad you called, mom,” Her second son, Pat, added; “They might have shot us if the higher ranking officers had not arrived.”

“Yeah,” Kai agreed, “The squad commander seemed to think we are dangerous because we are in college and don’t get our learning from word sent direct to them via their religion.”

“We are below the high tide line and they say they own everything, even the ocean,” Pat concluded.

“Hand you phone to the officer in charge,” Anna said. “I want to talk with him, or her.”

“It’s both,” Kai said. “One male and one female.”

“Give your phones to both of them,” Anna said, sternly. She immediately began berating the Colonel and General without even bothering to find out who was who. Mom was irate that military personnel had threatened her children. General Jack and Colonel d’Barque could not get a word in until the kid’s dad, Ted, took over the phone and Anna took over the boat’s helm;

“Hello there, I am Ted Martin, Captain of the fishing boat, Ranger. I observed a beached fishing craft below high tide line and, in accord with the laws of the sea, sent my two able-bodied sons to see if anyone was hurt and if the Ranger could be of assistance. As near as I can gather, they were captured and threatened by a squad of five heavily armed rightwing christian fundamentalists wearing US military uniforms. Please have your highest ranking officer explain where I might be wrong and where my sons might be wrong seeking to give aid to a stranded craft as instructed by me, Captain of an assisting sea craft.”

There was a fairly long silence after Ted explained a duty-bound rescue ship captain’s point of view. The five person perimeter patrol squad was escorted to and boarded one of the helicopters. It returned to home base.

Ted slipped his phone into it’s dock on the cabin dash board. He flipped on the speaker system so that his wife, Anna, could listen and speak. Ted pulled his binoculars from a padded dash cabinet and looked first at his sons; they were standing with their backs to the beached fishing boat facing a General and a Colonel. It looked as if his son’s were protecting the boat. Ted felt a swell of honest pride. He then spoke to the officers holding his son’s phones;

“Please switch to your own phones and give my son’s, Kai and Pat theirs. We have done nothing wrong. You have a three-front war going with Russia, China and Iran. Your troops have clearly illustrated that some of you are opening a fourth front against civilians of this country who may not be happy with authoritarian higher ups who started this war.

“This family fishes to help feed our nation. I will tell you plain and simple: My sons have been raised under the sun and stars in all kinds of weather; they are definitely more interested in actual Cosmos than revealed christian scripture written in long ago cave-man days, some of it discovered in a cave quite recently. Tell us what you have to say, General and Colonel; How are we hurting your war against Russia, China and Iran? And I take this opportunity to stress it is your war and not ours.”

The conversation was made more difficult for the General and Colonel by real-time reports of a multitude of ships leaving harbors and headed toward them.

The war resistors league communications cascade was turning into a wave. Everyone could feel it. Father Chronos was ecstatic.

Uh oh. “It’s a big one!” Surfers world-wide were alerted. Even when they didn’t know exactly what was going on. Surfers against Sewage were on full alert. “Stink bombs are the worst!” Surfers Against Sewage announced this with full indubitable candor.

“To fix sewers; Peace Now.”

“A new post office or school?” Peace now!

“What’s your heart’s desire?” Peace now!

Satellites showed the fishing boats, clear as a bell. Intercepted radio chatter was all about a coordinated pull seaward as the tide came in. As hard as it tried, Homeland security could not isolate one snippet of a secret phrase that might mean a violent fishing-boat overthrow of a fragile, shining city democracy already distracted by unwanted war with Russia, China and Iran.

The General and Colonel communicated their agreement with the fishing fleet and gave them permission to pull the grounded boat back to sea when the tide was high. The officers then proudly strode back to their helicopter. They left the beached boat re-float rescue to people obviously uniting for the job. The nation needed defending and the fishing fleet was on turning tide time.

Jimmy, Shell, Kim, Tom, Rehlein, and Chronos traveled with two others still unnamed in the rush as a unit from the bus stop to the university student union. They were moving fast and discovered one of the extra people was Elizabeth, she was fleeing because she was also an imprisoned scientist, a drone designing scientist from Iran. Walter, the last to introduce himself, is a photographer who inadvertently took secret pictures. “I had no idea exactly where I was,” he said as all eight of them burst into the university cafe and walked in triumph to the visiting scholar’s table.

“We are back,” Jimmy announced. “Thanks to Tom and Rehlein and everyone here.”

“Are you AWOL?” The scientists immediately asked Jimmy and Shell.

“No way.” Jimmy and Shell responded together. “We followed them here. And it was not easy.”

“We are hearing and observing everything.” Shell and Jimmy shared a smile. They were beaming— Maybe they still had scholarships. Chronos knew they did. He smiled to everyone; his body shivered, his smile faded and he died. Right then and there at the table, with a smile on his face. Nobody said anything.

Noah looked at Chronos and the expressions on his companion’s faces. He saw that Chronos was loved. There was no smoke or steam. The old man disappeared into death though his body remained. An emergency medical team arrived quite quickly but they were too late, Chronos was gone.

Jimmy broke the silence.

“The trip was arduous,” Jimmy said. He was already missing old Chronos. Seven remaining survivors agreed; they all owed their lives to the magic of father time’s enthusiasm. They carried Chronos in their heart from there forward;

Chronos would have appreciated their living solidarity, his new friends gave him eternal life.

Chapter 6 Surfer Manifesto Vignette 28

Howie had researched and documented how war resistors are focused on the United States and western Europe; Those were the primary nations that had already committed resources and people to destroying Russia, China and Iran;

“World war three is being pushed by the US without concern for the environment.” Howie reported, almost in a monotone, “There was no consulting civil society before it was brainwashed with high tech evangelical hate propaganda produced by Hollywood. Even so, contradictions between propaganda and reality have become more obvious and understandable with each passing day.”

The war resistors league had worked tirelessly to counter US and Nato lies claiming Russia was attempting to take over the world. Surfers against Sewage was just one wing of resistance that experienced a membership surge when the christian right began burning books and cutting education budgets... Cutting sewer budgets and then health care had been the final insults to anyone living near a river in England.

Howie carefully explained this to the university audience; “It’s been centuries since people in Europe discovered waterborne diseases. Now; Surfers against Sewage is often working alone and wondering if anyone else sees the need for self-organized survival via a new form of real democracy.”

Howie found himself rushing a little while concluding his report; he respected the students and faculty yet also wanted to go surfing. The waves were good and knowing others were waiting for him, he spoke quickly, sounding more like a regular, everyday seventeen year-old than a visiting scholar; “Dumbing down the people has proved itself to be a major war-fighting problem,” Howie pointed out. “Possibly the main US war problem; Huge doses of sweets and greasy junk food were used to reward those who adopted hatred for enemies. This created health problems; Most men are too fat to fight so thinner men and women have to go fight. More and more thin, healthy students are being signed up for war. It’s happening to us, now, at recruiting tables right here in our schools, simply because we are in good physical condition.”

“Although none of these ideas are new to surfers,” Howie concluded; “Millions of people have been too busy trying to earn a living to stop and think about what’s going on— The war resistors league is centered around surfers with clear explanations and deep thinking. We are becoming a real headache for those who denied climate and environmental concerns while pushing instead for war. Corporatism and military empire has no real plan other than to keep people preoccupied with fears that Russia, China and Iran are taking over the world. Become a war resister alone or in a group of friends. Join us. Resist war. Become a war resistors league member or form your own league with friends. Do it now! There’s no time to lose.”

Howie folded up his presentation, thanked those who were there and then eagerly trotted to the surf mobile waiting outside the entrance. Pam drove so Howie could edit and put away his research speech. Brenda and Jerry were in the back seat and Dory Chen followed with her mother’s high-tech car, it too was loaded with surfboards on top and four surfers inside.

The day was a hot one and the ocean was glass smooth; the waves were perfect as Dory and Pam braked their cars to a stop eight or ten meters back from the bluff’s edge. They were almost exactly between the peace temple and Pam’s favorite surf spot. In front of them stretched a beautiful reality of ruler straight blue-black waves playing out into roaring whitewater. A far distant storm brought waves to their favorite summer surfing spots free of charge. God danced because they were born. Mother Earth, Pacha Mama, was happy with her children, especially those who enjoy her pure and simple; their lives make her more fertile because they were born. That’s the surfer manifesto. They were shepherds, fishers, artists and surfers who spontaneously became a war resistors league. Pam was the first one out and she caught a wave right away.

Brenda watched Pam drop into a wave that was over her head about as far as her graceful arms reached. She watched Pam stop time and pick her direction. Watching rides while paddling out is almost as good for surfers as being the rider. Howie and Jerry stopped at the water’s edge as Pam raced across a vertical wall of water with time on her side.

“Awesome ride,” Jerry pointed out. “Though I’d be afraid to do that wearing a teeny weeny polka dot bikini.” He grinned.

Howie nodded his agreement; “Look at Brenda; her wave is bigger and her bikini is even smaller.”

They both jumped into the water and started paddling out as Brenda came off the top of the wave with her arms accentuating her moves as if choreographed for a wave ballet. They both agreed that Pam and Brenda were equals on waves. Dory had paddled out while they were watching and she took off next.

“Dory is as good as Pam and Brenda and her bikini might be the smallest,” Jerry pointed out. “It’s hard to say,” he concluded.

“Awesome,” Howie responded. “I’m going to ride one wave and then go sit on the beach and watch this performance starring our very own top surfer babes shredding world-class waves.” Jerry laughed. He liked Howie, they had been friends for a long time.

Surfer Manifesto Vignette 29

The water was warm and the waves were so good Howie stayed in the water and rode one wave after another. While it is true that lithe athletic female surfers are a special attraction for male surfers, the same story goes for women watching strong handsome young men surfing powerful perfect waves.

Shell and Jimmy had called the spaceport and reported they had followed along with the surfers and others who had been released by Tom and Rehlein. They had been told to wait for word from General Jack or Colonel d’Barque before doing anything. The Colonel had called back almost immediately and told them to follow the surfers if they could. The colonel asked Shell to stay on the phone for further instructions while Jimmy tracked down a ride. Jimmy was successful; they rode in a third car along with Louise, Alan and Denny just a little later than the others who were already in the water.

Shell was ready to surf the moment her car arrived. She raced across the dry sand and hit the water running full speed. While paddling out she formed a group with Pam and Brenda, who had just finished their rides. All three continued outward together. They watched Howie and Jerry racing into position to catch a slightly larger set of waves.

Howie pulled his board around to take off but Jerry was in his way. So Jerry tuned toward shore, laid on his board and just fell into the wave as it curled over. It was a no paddle take-off that seemed impossible.

“Look at that guy go!” Brenda exclaimed. “How did he do that?”

“He’s as strong as a bear.” Pam said. “Look at his legs, they have muscles on top of muscles.”

“I can’t believe the power coiled up in his shoulders, they look like like car springs.” Shell commented as she chant paddled outward. “And look at Howie, he’s doing almost the same thing on his wave. And his arms have muscles on top of muscles.”

Howie had been blocked by Jerry and had to turn and paddle outward several strokes before turning back toward shore to make a late take-off on his wave. One quick paddle and he was in the wave and dropping downward already on his feet, crouched low and riding high inside the curl, holding the shoreside rail of his board with his left hand and trying to get his back to the wave lower as it hurled itself over him. Life speed prevailed. Time stopped long enough for Howie to make it.

Pam, Shell and Brenda were in awe. “It’s no wonder military ass holes wants our guys,” Pam said.

“He’s got a nice butt, too.” Pam pointed out with a solemn sly grin.

“Maybe so. I can see. But They want you, too.” Shell said. She grimaced as she said it; “Believe me, I know. It doesn’t take big muscles to pull a trigger. All you have to be is in good enough shape to climb up and down hills, stuff like that, which rules fat people out and rules you in.”

They watched Jerry drop into the hook where his wave ended at deep water. He made a graceful turn after ducking under the tube at the shoulder and held both arms high. He knew god danced because he was born. It was as clear as the smile on his face.

Surfer Manifesto Vignette 30

It was not overly crowded yet the surf was so good and the water so warm that the day became an end-of-summer magnet. Many surf spots were open and many surfers liked each one individually. Surfer socialism gave each surfing space room for full life expression. The ride in front of the peace temple was like that, too, though it was unique in that it included a shift working on the temple. Several people surfing extraordinary world-class waves in warm water wished there was more room in the labor force. Hard to believe yet true.

Expanding labor opportunity and sovereignty became an organizing topic. It sky rocketed into the world. “What can we do to build our own life? I can’t say for you, but everyone knows when it’s theirs... We can get by with help from our friends... Could it be anybody? All we gotta do is be friends.” Old rock and roll music, updated and open source.

Work rotation was quick at the war resistor league peace temple facing the setting sun. “Don’t forget, this is designed to be fun.” War resistors worked to accomplish everything needed even though the to-do list kept growing.

The bluff cave that had been blasted open by military naval canons that destroyed their five Meter diameter peace sign was now a very real peace temple. A surrounding cliff-sculpture was rapidly earning a position as world-renowned epic art. The temple inside had become ferrocement via tech from a sculpturally experienced mountain drive area nearby. Surfers had learned to sculpture with ferrocement.

The setting sun peace temple was lined with ferrocement, it was designed to last through several millennia. A modern version of locally grown art had been designed and created with modern tech and community effort to communicate using flashing light code with passing ships. The code was almost the same in every language and many languages were spoken by war resisters and turned into morselamp code.

Some passing ships were huge international monsters, others were small and coastal. Much time and effort had gone into this war resistors league plan to implement the surfer manifesto; Have fun in nature and leave the Earth more fertile because you are born.

We all live the gift of life for our lifetime and have fun leaving Earth more fertile because we were born. The setting sun peace temple had learned to discuss this simple message with ships from many nations. Local war resistors had learned to speak blinking light ship code. They weren’t telling people what to do, yet wanted answers from around the world;

“Mom, Dad; Why do you vote for politicians pushing pollution and eternal war?”

War mongers had learned of the setting sun peace temple. They knew about the Surfer Manifesto and put pressure on the spaceport as well as inside agents employed as university faculty. They hadn’t yet heard about Jimmy and Shell yet that was probably just a matter of time.

Jimmy had paddled his new surfboard out to the wave take-off area while feeling how it floated and turned. He had watched Shell ride and saw her grace as powerful. She was a brown-skinned Polynesian wave dancing surf ballerina to the max. She clearly proved Guam has very good surf and it had honed her skill. Shell rode the best waves as an equal with anybody. When it was Jimmy’s turn to take off on a wave and stop time, nobody there missed it.

Jimmy showed himself to be a star surfer with his own unique style no one had ever seen before. Jimmy is all business. His grace and focused strength operate at attention grabbing intensity that is almost impossible to describe; some that day put it this way, “Jimmy shredded what was to him a new wave and got the best rides of anybody there. He and Shell became awesome surfing partners the first time they surfed together.”

Yes, Shell and Jimmy made quite a show yet didn’t take over; They naturally lived full-on fun in nature while leaving Earth more fertile because they were born. Whether building, resting or surfing, everybody there liked Jimmy and Shell as if they had known them all their lives.

Although Jimmy enjoyed meeting a beautiful brown-skinned surfer goddess who matched his skin-tone and surfing ability, he reminded himself of the need to find out what Colonel d’Barque had told Shell while he was arranging a ride back at the university. The surfer manifesto required special clarity from and between both of them. They were among the seven who had clearly heard father time tell them Humanity is in dire straights. Chronos spoke to them with more authority than space-force command hierarchy, yet even so, they were officially involved with the war against Russia, Iran and China whether they liked it or not.

Howie and Pam were walking around the cove to the peace temple and noticed a large cargo ship blinking messages shoreward, they could not see the war resisters response. International tensions had increased dramatically since the war in Ukraine started and they quickened their pace to find out what was going on. They knew Russia, China and Iran had been targeted via increasing economic sanctions engineered by the US and wondered what country was home port for the ship sending messages to the setting sun peace temple.

Pam and Howie were interested most by a newly arriving fleet of fishing boats dropping anchor in the cove. The fishing boats were also blinking code communications. Pam giggled watching rapid blinking light gossip she couldn’t understand, she and Howie watched two windsurfers leave the fishing fleet heading straight for the peace temple. “I’m glad the wind surfers don’t also have blinking lights,” Pam commented wryly as they set their surfboards down and joined others operating the lights.

“You wonder what’s going on?” Alan asked with a wide grin. He wiggled his eye brows and ears in opposite directions. Pam laughed as Alan continued more seriously. “The fishing fleet has pulled Tom and Rehlein’s beached boat back into the water and anchored it here in the cove. The cargo ship is from China and is thanking us for supporting their country’s development and desire for peace. Two chinese surfers who were born in the US are coming ashore to join us. It’s a tiny boat way out there, one of the fishing boats is going out to accompany them in. The wind surfers are Kai and Pat; They were threatened at gunpoint and called internal enemies threatening national security. They were saved just time by arrival of the space force base general.”

Is that all?” Howie asked, grinning ear to ear. He picked up a pair of binoculars and quickly spotted the launch coming shoreward from the freighter.

“There’s more,” Louise responded. She and Alan had learned to be fluent with morse lamp code. Others were studying. Louise and Alan were the best at this point as they were the first to begin studying what they also referred to as signal lamp code.

Pam picked up a second pair of binoculars and spotted the launch, “I see more than two,” she said.

“Two are arriving surfer scholars and four are going to work on the fishing boats; they have proper work papers and passports. The fishing boats need help and asked if anyone on the big ship wanted to change jobs.”

“Is that legal?” Howie asked. “Has anyone called the Harbor Master?”

“We all of us together just found out this very minute,” Louise answered. “I think we war resistors have gone real time.”She did a little bit of a dance and smiled.

Alan was operating the signal lamp and dictating to Denny, who was keyboarding it all into a laptop computer. Kai and Pat sailboard-zoomed onto the beach and folded their sails while Denny recorded their arrival into a video clip using the laptop camera. The fourth front was maximum info-age savvy. WW3 was being shown to the world uncensored from inside the beast by cosmic powered biology surfing big bang at life speed, the setting sun peace temple was up and running.

“What a great day!” Howie exclaimed and leaped off the temple deck to greet Pat and Kai. A quite large circle of war resistors joined together standing on soft dry clean warm beach sand. Everyone waited to hear from the twins.

“We have learned that some people see us as internal enemies of the state who threaten national security by seeing reality via science rather than only the true word written in christian scripture.” Pat said.

“This is exactly what you told mom, I’m repeating it,” Pat said; “The soldiers felt that students could be studying wrong, brainwashed ideas. They are internal enemies of the state. Students are a national security problem during war with Russia, China and Iran.”

“Yeah,” Kai agreed, “The squad commander seemed to think we are dangerous mostly because we are in college.”

“University student scholars could be studying anything,” the patrol commander told the officers with a crisp salute. “Students like these do not pay attention to official history. They preach stories about boy and girl quarks surfing big bang.”

Pat concluded the description; “The group commander told the General that they had seen and heard our video clips on whodat, during their training.”

Kai nodded. “Then a helicopter came and took them away.”

A circle of perhaps thirty, maybe forty war resistors attempted to fit these ideas into their surfer manifesto; Enjoy nature, have fun, leave Earth more fertile when you leave thankful you were born.

“How does our science-based surfer manifesto conflict with the idea of a christian shepherd, or muslim or any other kind of Earth shepherd?” Howie mused into the circle of friends.

Two Chinese war resisting surfers arrived via the shore launch had quietly joined the circle. The launch turned outward from shore and anchored with the fishing fleet. The new arrivals heard Howie’s question, it was they who answered;

“There is no present conflict future cooperation cannot heal. Unity will squelch world war three. That is exactly why we want to join with you as visiting scholars.”

Acceptance was unanimous, there was no hesitation.

Surfer Manifesto Vignette 31

The area of the student union occupied by visiting scholar war resistors was a minor yet noticeable portion of the entire building. The professor’s work area was within visiting scholar space; it was smaller yet made dense by info-age gizmos and devices connected to the university system in ways computer nerds were enjoying immensely.

Maureen and Dave were listening to reports of waves emanating from social experiences, like the mass social irritation from a one-hundred kilometer public communications black-out. The subject posited was; “Since we are composite waves originating with our quarks, and we become synchronized with each other when we examine the same ocean wave; It quite reasonable that biology itself generates waves en masse that we as individuals can also sense and synchronize with in an unknown manner. We are studying this while expecting to verify and understand it. Human extinction is quite likely and it is up to us to change from that course as soon as we can.”

“The idea that biology began in the first instants of big bang is a mind boggling new idea for me, and I like it.” Dave said to Maureen. He gave her a quick kiss on her shoulder and noticed her eyes had turned distant from him; Something had caught her attention. Being a trained cop, he slowly followed her gaze using a motion that might accompany conversational speech. Dave is smart, quick, and always on the job. Dave is a real pro and a good dad on full alert. He was seeing what Maureen was seeing.

A military recruiter had set up near the cafeteria food order line just far enough away from the food service line to avoid causing a traffic jam yet close enough that anyone selecting a meal could not miss the war poster display and table stacked with reading materials. Two of the visiting scholar guidance professors had brought the recruiter a cup of coffee and were looking at the printed materials.

“I saw him at the city college cafe,” Maureen said, “One of my foreign students had seen him in Latin America. The students were afraid to tell me which one saw the recruiter as a troop advisor but one young woman was from Peru and that’s where a vicious coup happened right after Columbia, which borders Peru, voted for a new a government that ended US control there. That was the day I first heard about governments declaring there own populations as internal enemies of the state.”

“Whoa. Slow down.” Dave said, softly. “Is this what you were so involved thinking about when you day-dream walked into the street and smack into my patrol car?”

Maureen smiled and nodded, Yes. “I’m going to get a cup of hot water for tea and take a picture,” she answered. “Would you like me to bring you something?”

Dave shook his head, No. He turned his attention to a computer map of Venezuela and Columbia. Next he glanced at articles indicating Mexico and Brazil were losing patience with the US and improving relations with each other. The president of Mexico was quoted as saying few in Latin America believe anything anyone says north of the Mexican border, he said Mexico was weary of being bullied into using US GMO corn and Bayer’s Roundup herbicide.

Maureen saw the Latin American news summary Dave was reading online as she stood to go take a photo of the recruiter. “This is big.” She whispered as she turned to walk behind Dave and toward the food line. “I’m going to hurry for a photo, I want to share it with my city college class.”

Dave gave her a quick lover’s swat on the butt as she walked on by. He felt fortunate to have become life partners with his high-school girlfriend; His wife who ran off with the banker had faded into a distant memory.

Maureen was still smiling when she joined the food queue. She glanced at the military recruiter and took a picture so quickly no one noticed. Dave watched her take the picture and thought, she’d be a very good cop.

“We’ve had an interesting time since we came back together,” Dave said when Maureen returned with her hot water and tea. She bent over at the waist and kissed him.

We make a great undercover cop team,” she said. “People look right on by plain ordinary moms and dads like us; But Watch Out!” They enjoyed a moment laughing together before Maureen asked if Dave had looked up what happened in Peru.

Dave grimaced; “It was bad. US trained security forces declared indigenous people who objected to the coup to be internal enemies of national security. People died. The news has not covered this so it has taken over a year for it to become more widely known.”

Maureen’s smile turned to a frown.

“Making matters worse,” Dave responded. “The twins, Pat and Kai were declared to be suspects as internal enemies and dangerous to national security, while on their way here, with their mom and dad, Anna and Ted— Pat and Kai were examining a beached fishing boat at the time this happened. All students were branded as possible internal enemies of the state being brainwashed into learning the wrong things.”

“We best hurry to the setting sun peace temple.” Maureen voiced her thoughts as they focused to a calmer clarity. “We might need help from the next closest bordering county.”

“Let’s go.” Dave responded. “Bring your tea.”

At that very moment, no one outside the spaceport had any idea that General Jack and Colonel d’Barque had also decided the setting sun peace temple was a national security issue. Hollywood script writers began working feverishly on the evening news before the General and Colonel fired up a helicopter ride to meet cosmic powered biology surfing big bang at life speed and waiting for them with open arms at the war resistors league setting sun peace temple.

Surfer Manifesto Vignette 32

Marlin was siting in warm sand resting from both work and surfing. He had positioned his surfboard with the picture of Poseidon looking out to sea. They saw Maureen and Dave arrive a few minutes before the General’s helicopter showed up. Dave brought his surfboard, everybody noticed. Maureen had a board, too, and was wearing a bikini! Everybody noticed her, too; “A mom in a bikini!” one of the guys, maybe Denny, said, “Radical.” It was then that approaching helicopter blades became too loud to talk. Yelling was possible.

Howie jumped onto the sand and raised his arms like a conductor, “Concentrate on the helicopter sound waves— Test surfer synchro. Think of the surfer manifesto; Enjoy life while here and leave Earth more fertile because you lived.”

Joel came out of huddle with the other nerds and jumped down to the soft sand next to Howie and shouted, “Listen for the back wave reflected off the cliff. Can you feel where the incoming chopper blade beat meets the outgoing echo? It slaps into a return echo peak/spike just like surf does.”

Forty war resistors, maybe fifty, felt themselves synchronize with the wave and its echo just as the helicopter itself entered the back wave echo slap zone. Fifty people were laser focused and their cosmic power multiplied by a million. The helicopter engine coughed once and stopped. The helicopter coasted in quietly with blades still whirling. It landed safely behind Dave’s unmarked special operations car.

Dory really did have here own cop. She watched where the helicopter landed with a smile on her face. “Did we do that?? She asked, softly. There was no longer any need to shout.

Marlin, a top nerd, joined Howie and Joel on the sand. He also spoke softly. “What we just witnessed is most likely chance. Even so, we each can verify the synchronization, I think old Chronos would be proud. So, before you forget, write this experience into your scholar’s log, now. Do not stop even for the visitors who are approaching from the parked helicopter. Remember; We are involved in real-time science by chance and helicopter engines break down somewhere quite a few times a year.”

“Exactly,” Dory said, “The idea of us being the sum of waves and able to synchronize remains allegorical. Cosmic powered biology as a sum of waves starting with quarks is fact. Synchronizing with other waves remains us living in a story.”

“No doubts from me on that,” Alan said; “But the engine did quit when we did our, shall we say, allegorical projection. That’s what I call it in my version of our story. Are we a fourth front learning to evolve into a real democracy able to project and protect itself as a bio-laser? That’s my question.”

Howie and Jerry stepped toward the approaching soldiers. An unspoken group decision moved Jimmy and Shell behind everybody else; They were gently pulled to the rear as others stepped forward. No one spoke. All of them began seriously writing contemporaneous thoughts and observations in their field notes, including Howie and Jerry, who had been joined by Pam and Brenda.

Noah, Maureen and Dave walked around their gathered students and waved the General, the Colonel and a small squad of soldiers to stop and talk. They hurried to meet the military officers and men. It was Noah who spoke; “We are doing science for and under direction of an international university consortium. I am the lead professor. Is everyone on the helicopter okay? Can we help you?”

Surfer Manifesto Vignette 33

War resistors and their professors were dressed in swimsuits and obviously non-threatening. Spaceport General Jack and Colonel d’Barque signaled their troops to relax. Noah had offered to help space-force personal but there was nothing surfers on the beach could actually do other than welcome heavily armed unexpected guests to their peace temple.

Louise and Alan finished their field notes and returned to the morse code signal lamp to continue their interrupted communication with fishing boats and the Chinese freighter. They did not mention exchange of crews or that Chinese students had joined their peace work and visiting scholar program. The freighter was completing a five kilometer loop and close to resuming its original course.

“What are they saying with the signal lamp?” Colonel d’Barque asked.

“There are two conversations going on,” Denny responded. He was able to say that because he had studied signal lamp code almost as long as Louise and Alan.

“So what are the two signal light conversations?” The General wanted to know.

“First, The fishing fleet has successfully salvaged a beached fishing boat anchored there in the bay with the other fishing boats.” Denny responded. “The fleet is waiting for, Tom and Rehlein, the rescued fishing boat owners.” Noah responded.

“The second is an interview asking the Chinese freighter crew if they think war with the US is inevitable. It’s a school study project.” Maureen interjected.

“Why is the Chinese freighter turning a huge looping circle?” The Colonel asked.

“They saw your helicopter lose power and make a rapid emergency landing. Their medical staff is small but they offered to help if needed,” On duty Dave replied.

The General and Colonel conversed with each other in a quick hushed huddle. Please tell the signal light operators to thank the ship and then sign off. I cannot allow you to continue communicating with ships without official permission.”

Brenda Romanov raised her left hand, her right held her phone. “This real-time video is broadcasting live to the world via the war resistors network. Please explain why we cannot use a signal lamp instead of our phones to communicate about the Surfer Manifesto with passing ships.”

Pam saw the next question in the soldier’s eyes and answered it without being asked; “Have fun in nature and make Earth more fertile because you were born.”

The pounding beat of two distant helicopters became audible at that moment. War resistors synchronized their senses with the sound and its growing echo from the cliff face. Soldiers were forgotten, briefly. The General motioned for his armed squad to remain at ease.

Brenda kept filming for real-time distribution, she added occasional commentary. “Surfer Manifesto recognizes controlled full speed evolution is a path to escape human extinction. No one could ever have guessed a repeat experiment would avail itself so soon.”

Both helicopters spluttered and coughed when they crossed the line where the echo waves spiked in amplitude on impact with new chopper blade pulses. Even so, the helicopters made a powered landing. Heavily armed troops jumped out and ran to the cliff’s edge.

Nobody moved until Pam and Dory joined Brenda, who slowly walked together toward the line of troops at the top of the cliff above the peace temple. Brenda continued video recording and broadcasting in real time. The rest of the war resistors gathered around three young women in bikinis facing the soldiers and then drifted into the temple by twos and threes, until all were out of sight to the soldiers above except Brenda, Pam and Dory.

The General and Colonel had their pistols drawn. The squad with them was a formidable force even without reinforcements. They and the military platoon atop the bluff stood on alert ready for any trouble. The only sound was surf and an occasional distant seagull cry. The day was silent otherwise until Dory stepped toward the bluff and Brenda stepped further away so Dory’s back and the facing soldiers filled the camera’s view.

“Do you hate me because I am Chinese?” Dory asked the troops on the cliff above her.

Pam suddenly wanted to show off her cute bikini figure to the world and stepped to Dory’s side; two surf goddesses faced an army wearing bullet-proof armor. “Do you think we are on Iranian TV wearing bikinis?” Pam whispered to Dory, who turned around and did a quick shimmy shake wiggle for the camera. Pam giggled. “You’re nasty,” she said, and burst into laughter. Then she turned around and repeated Dory’s dance before the world. She winked with a provocative smile she’d seen in a sexy movie scene and then turned back to the troops. Both of them wiggled their butts at the camera before once again becoming serious. Surfers are like that, male or female; It’s the waves that beat it into them.

Shell and Jimmy then left the protection of the cave and joined Pam and Dory.

Jimmy spoke first, “We two are space-force personnel assigned to monitor events here at the setting sun peace temple. Are you going to shoot us for following orders? Do you hate us because we have brown skin and name God as Dios, Allah or Cosmos?”

Then Shell spoke. She described the blue jellyfish babies born among the pacific island peoples after US nuclear testing. The young soldiers involuntarily stepped back with wide-eyed horror when she patted an imaginary jiggling jellyfish baby.”

Jimmy seized the moment; “My unit is Aloha-1, I was rescued by these war resistor folks right here at this beach. It is total chance that I am now at the university years before my recruiting officer said was possible. I had never heard of war resistors and did not know the US military budget growth requires a Eurasian war to justify itself. The surfer manifesto is enjoy life, have fun in nature and leave Earth more fertile when you go. It’s as simple as that. We are developing new science for a better future, a more perfect union, and leaving behind obsolete ideas of war. Are you with us?”

Surfer Manifesto Chapter 7 Vignette 34

The spaceport General and Colonel were caught by surprise when their troops began bonding with war resistors. Although it wasn’t obvious to the troops, the officers had begun to squabble with each other, before pulling themselves back together;

“Don’t be upset with me.” Colonel d’Barque had said so quietly that only the General could hear. “I told you only a few days ago that we should have science officers present when we relate with these war resistors.”

“And I agree,” the General responded, “Even so, we do have Jimmy Gardener and Shell Nakamura planted in the group.”

“It looks to me like the war resistors have been protecting those two from us,” Colonel d’Barque pointed out. “We already decided we need science officers just for those two alone.”

“Okay,” the General said. “We know these war resistors have nothing against individual soldiers; Holster your pistol and stop them from building solidarity with our troops— I’ll take this squad up to the helicopters and call for science officers and helicopter mechanics.”

Colonel Jean d’Barque holstered her pistol and speed walked as fast as soft sand allowed until she could stand between Dory, Pam, Brenda and the troops on the bluff. Her first intention was to admonish the gathered war resistors against fraternizing with troops in the middle of the war. She stopped herself from that approach realizing that Brenda was broadcasting live video and no matter how many hundreds of thousands or millions of people had died, the US had not declared war on anybody. The Colonel was herself uncomfortable with double standards and did some quick mental work as she stepped in to block what she sensed as surprisingly quick war resistor solidarity building with trained US troops.

Maureen, Louise and and Rehlein joined in for talking with Colonel d’Barque as the General hiked back up the trail to the helicopters on the bluff. He put in a call for helicopter mechanics, a science officer and a new communications blackout centered on the peace temple as soon as he reached the helicopters. Brenda’s high tech video phone that Dory’s mom had given her created an interesting operating system report and then it went off-line. The war resistors were reduced to their peace temple signal lamp as their phone’s high wattage rebroadcasting freighter powered away into the distance. The fishing fleet watched with telescopes and binoculars, it craved signal lamp updates that were out of sight from the military activity in the normally very quiet parking area.

The male half of war resistors decided to leave well enough alone as they watched Pat and Kai’s mom, Anna, walk up to Colonel d’Barque and start lecturing her nonstop. Alan saw some of the fishing crews paddling in to surf and decided to go ride a few waves as well. Marlin and Joel had a theory about what might have stopped the helicopter engine and decided to find out what the helicopter mechanics might do. Ted decided to go with them, Ted is a theoretical physicist who became a philosopher earning a living with Anna and their two sons as a fishing family. Ted and his family lived as a working class family by choice; they had a philosophy of life requiring their souls be free to explore and experience life unburdened by frantic acquisition of wealth. The fishing family lived the surfer manifesto and enjoyed nature.

Pat and Kai watched their mom berating the Colonel and decided to boogie on up the hill and speculate about helicopters with their winter port friends. They and their dad were told by Joel and Marlin about the wave theory of life and how when the sum of their quark’s waves synchronized they became a biolaser just as the helicopter crossed the line where its new sound waves impacted their back-wave echo the instant they formed. “That helicopter’s main thingamajig got all shook up,” Howie said as he caught up. “I had it happen to me riding a back-wave out. The waves smack together and make a peak.” They were close to the top of the trail and the flat parking area.

“The engine died from projected allegory.” Joel said as a matter of fact.

Marlin nodded seriously. He solemnly said, “Now you are up to speed on one part of our student scholar studies.”

Pat and Kai’s dad laughed out loud; his laughter was nearly bellowing when they entered the parking area. “This is wonderful!” he said, quickly quieting down when he saw all the soldiers including the general were looking at him.

“Those helicopters are cool,” Kai called out. “We just came to see them a little closer.”

The General recognized Kai and his brother Pat, he accurately figured Ted was their dad. “That’s okay,” he said. “Just don’t come too close and interfere with the work.” The general was a mechanically inclined guy and he, too, was interested in what might have gone wrong with the helicopter engine as it was approaching a normal landing. The last helicopter system readout is, “all mech points at green light,” a mechanic called out.

Six war resistors, one from the parents and workers league chapter, huddled to learn and think together.

“I know it sounds funny,” Marlin said, even so, we should all know this together; a semi-poetic version of this physical experiment is projected allegory when focused by a wave sync biolases at a million times the square of the power’s biolasing population, in this instance we were 50+.”

“Wow. That’s direct democracy in action,” Dad Ted said with shifty eyes and a brow wiggle. “So what do visiting scholars recommend we do?” he asked, more seriously, an interested dad and equal among war resistors.

Howie jumped on his toes, “We think one of us should ask them if they have tried to start it again.” Marlin and Joel both nodded and grinned.

“I’ll do that.” Pat said... When nobody objected, he called out to the military workers; “Have you tried starting it again, lately?”

This is new and in-the-field science, the war resistor audience had all discussed and decided that Howie’s aptly described thingamajig had probably drained off the disturbing power surge through the ground cable by now.

Why not? The general waved for a try— The helicopter starter motor barely turned one or two cranks before the helicopter fired up running smooth. The war resistors grinned and walked on down to the beach. They passed the Colonel huffing up the trail. She was white as a sheet and didn’t look at them in passing.

Surfer Manifesto Vignette 35

Ted, father of Pat and Kai, parted with the younger set and walked straight toward Noah, they knew each other as fellow scientists and admired each other’s work and methods. The others who had gone to see the helicopter reached soft warm beach sand and scattered in separate directions to talk with friends in order to open new dialog trees. People were intrigued by ideas involving the helicopter’s ground cable draining off what might someday prove to be a form of wave energy overload from weaponized biolaser power unknowingly and quite surprisingly under development right here and now.

“Necessity is the mother of invention,” Howie concluded after relating the helicopter story to the still gathered group of women who had talked with Colonel d’Barque. Pat and Kai were also curious to hear what their mother would say; they could see her cheeks were still flushed and her eyes were wide open while listening to Howie.

“Why was the woman soldier who passed on the trail blanched as white as a sheet?” Pat and Kai both wanted to know.

“Your mom gave her a full-on total what-for,” Pam said. And then she laughed. So did all us women here. We haven’t talked about it yet.

Maureen then spoke with a mom’s voice, “We explained about turning war resistors into internal enemies of national security who then go on to organize themselves and become a very large internal fourth front in the three front war against Russia, China, and Iran,” Mom said. “You all go tell your friends what you found out. We need to decide among ourselves what we just did while talking to the space-force Colonel.”

“It was some kind of anger wave is what I suspect.” Pam called out to Howie as He, Pat and Kai left the small women’s conference that other women were joining.

Howie sang as they walked away; “Hey! Hey, Lois Lane; You won’t face no superman... I’ve got a pocket full of kryptonite. Oh yeah, A pocket full of kryptonite” The surf was still good and the three of them left the women in deep conversation and ran to get surfboards, all three had wide grins on their faces and ran with skips and a leaps.

Humanity evolving at an accelerating rate matching cosmic expansion is a natural phenomena. A military empire built on expansion, dominance and wealth has tunnel vision focused on anti-life wealth in big piles. The paths between a good life and piles of money eventually clash— that realization is what had so shocked Colonel d’Barque that her face had blanched white. Colonel d’Barque realized millions had died in just her life-time so that a few hundred piggy people could be fabulously wealthy; that was why the women who had corralled her on the beach were so furious. They also told her about the jelly fish babies. That was the topper.

War resistors would soon be delighted to discover that Colonel Jean d’Barque resigned from the military as soon as her helicopter reached base. She strode purposefully yet without haste to the main space-port office and resigned then and there on the spot. Though she lost her retirement Jean d’Barque floated free for the first time since she was a teen-age recruit focused on working her way up the ladder.

At the beach, now quieted from noisy departing helicopters, Noah was impressed by Ted’s clear analysis when the two met and Ted told him him what the star students had accomplished at the helicopter. “Do you think our young student scholars will actually harness their version of emergency high speed evolution?” Noah asked.

Ted shrugged an IDK, I don’t know.

Noah grinned. “Do you think they will be able to stay focused so that humanity might survive?”

“All we can do is provide guidance, tell of what we have learned, and hope they figure out how to use us.” Ted responded. “They have discovered a totally new branch of physics completely by chance.The oldest among this research project is maybe eighteen, not counting us, there’s more at every age. They all just stumbled into discovering a new wave theory of life. We are their parents, they still need us even if we eventually aren’t able to keep up.”

“Let’s go ride some waves with our visiting scholars,” Noah suggested. He waved to Dave and beckoned for him to join them in the circuit of riding and watching other riders while paddling back out. The older surfers were at first a tad stiff and a bit jerky but they could ride strong glassy overhead waves and not be afraid to wipe out. Youth noticed. Solidarity between generations happens quickly at life speed; the war resistors league knew itself to be multi-generational. Human survival depends on every kind of people for dealing with climate collapse, poison pollution, plastic, the Eurasian war and etc.

On duty Dave let out a hoot and took off on by far the largest wave of the the day. Everyone stopped to watch their own totally official cop drop to the bottom of an at least double overhead left. Quite a few in the water and on the beach synchronized and saw what he saw. Dave stopped time, it was his first shared awareness of doing so. There was a vertical wall of water ahead already curling over him. He adjusted his feet ever so slightly and pumped the turn to life speed while tucking himself into a smaller and smaller ball as the wave hurled itself over him and then swallowed him. He was way back inside the tube and beginning to be buffeted. Then crashing water slowed him down. He held strong for a few seconds before the wave swept him inside out into churning whitewater. Dave dove away from his thrashing board and was swept shoreward, board leash pulling, not in control, tumbling, sort of relaxed, somewhat aware of the bottom, aimed seaward and conserving his air.

Calming whitewater turned into a smoother part of the ride. He wasn’t a teen-ager anymore, yet Dave in his later thirties was feeling in his prime. Even though no one was paying attention to his adventure anymore, Dave’s face held a wide smile. The surf was wild and happening, he did not care or even notice he was forgotten until he paddled out and took off on his next ride. Fun enjoyment of life in nature happens in millions of ways, the fourth front was fully awake. And the surfer manifesto by its very existence establishes leaving Earth richer for the joy of life is an old discovery brought back to life.

Dave finished a good ride and then paddled on by the wave riders waiting for their turn. Noah and Ted were sitting on their boards in warm glassy water further out. They were watching the surfers and the women still grouped where they were after talking to Colonel d’Barque. Dave joined Noah and Ted floating on their boards and watching the view. Good surfers going right or left and a band of very civilized yet wild women running a meeting on the beach. Two others from the fishing boats joined the elder bunch watching the waves and those on the land.

One of the fishermen, Brad, wanted to know why all the women were on the beach and all us men are out here by ourselves.

“Not quite,” Manual, the other fisherman pointed out; “There’s a mixed gender crew working on the peace temple carvings.”

“This whirlwind of activity is being generated by our sons and daughters and wives;” Noah said. “ We are husbands and fathers of a growing resistance to war.We are also at the center of a new science happening right here and now, at the peace temple of the setting sun. We are among the luckiest dads on Earth.”

Ted began to summarize the surfer manifesto as a place to start when Tom paddled into the dad’s powwow. “I was hanging out at the edge of the women’s circle with Rehlein and was basically told to run off and go play with my friends.” Tom reported with a laugh. “What’s going on around here? It ain’t exactly clear.”

“Put it this way,” Dave also laughed when he spoke. “The military brass departed in helicopters and left behind their two teenage spies: one of them is in the women’s meeting and the other one is carving on the peace temple sculptures. We’re all sitting out here on our surfboards as the observers. We’re watching it all happen.”

“We heard you set the spies and others free from the spaceport jail and then escaped using miraculous powers,” Noah told Tom. Who answered quickly;

“I had told Rehlein I saw windows in the sand dunes above the forest of small wind blown and twisted trees. My darling wife said we should go see. We opened the back doors and prisoners came out. I believe the oldest one might actually have been Chronos. The Time God. And Poseidon crashed my boat. They were in it together. I figured it as a type of discrete quantum dimension delirium. Now I’m banned to riding waves and talking to you guys. Moms want their children safe at home before idiots in the US government start ww3 and mess up everything.”

end