May Year 5

Children of the Atom: Mutants alone in a world with no mentors, no resources, and no barriers but prejudice.

What has gone before: Too much. Actually, the kids went for a picnic that was disturbed by the Walrus and, just when they were going back to their stuff, a march of right-wing extremists started.

I think I'll just toss around some ideas about cubism for you to better understand this title/this issue.

"... Fragmented images consisting of intersecting planes to impart a sense of motion to their work..."

"... Create or describe visual reality without resorting to illusionistic painting. The artist does this by synthesizing the object, even to the point of including real components of it in a collage, thus creating a new, separate reality..."

"... Seen from multiple viewpoints at the same time... denied the notion of multiple viewpoints... the cubist structure was developed as a means of providing all the essential information regarding a three-dimensional object within a two-dimensional canvas... "

"What's so funny?" Bruno Woolcot asks his girlfriend. They are lying on the bed after a long minutes of two or three different baseball metaphors.

"Nothing..." Amanda says, sheepishly.

"C'mon... Tell your beau what's so funny!" Bruno says, tickling her belly.

"Stop it... stop it... I'll tell ya! I'll tell ya!" Amanda says, a bit too aloud, amidst giggling. "I was just thinking about those costumes we were for that party before we were taken to that Oasis place..."

"What about 'em?"

"They were just so, I dunno..."

"Strange?"

"Yeah, but they made me feel... I just sort of knew how she felt when she was..."

"Who?"

"Nobody." Amanda says.

"Now, really: who?"

"Nobody, Bruno! Nobody!"

"Ok, ok... Geez, Mandy, relax..."

"I know just how to..." She says, grinning as she leans over her boyfriend to kiss him... and more.

"Mark, whatever happened to your bike?"

"My bike? I don't have a bicycle."

"No, I mean your motorcycle. When we first met you and Ted were on a bike. But then it disappeared. What happened to it?"

"Oh. That. It was Ted's father. We returned it the following day."

"Ted's father has a bike?"

"Yep. 250cc. I insisted a lot, and after I showed him my driver's license, and he taught me a bit..."

"Cool."

"Yeah. Ted's dad is... cool. I wish mine... Well, I'm late."

"Mark, where are the matchsticks?"

"We don't have any."

"And how do you light up the stove?"

"With this. That's why sometimes people call me 'Burn'."

"Geez, man! Stop that! Wanna burn the building down or something?"

"Sorry. It's just that I never needed any matches or stuff like that, I just always..."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. I'll just buy some. You got any cash?"

Mark Hayes is speaking to his mother-in-law. Forget all the stereotypes about them, Mark's is actually sweet. Don't we envy him? So many of our temporary lifetime companions had such unbearable mothers that our relationships were strained sometimes. Mother. Mark wishes his mother was like Ted's. Envy. He feels a bit of shame for it, so he looks away from her, as if he could hide this feeling from himself. He looks towards the window and he sees him. Ted Cleary stands alone in the rain. It pours drop by drop on his gray sweater, and he just faces the dark sky, his eyes closed, a peaceful smile on his face.

"What the?! Excuse me, Mrs. Cleary." And Mark exits the room. He goes to the rain, his umbrella producing loud sounds from the water pouring on it.

"Ted, what the hell are you doing out here?"

"I'm standing in the rain." His answer is so simple, plain and direct that it sounds offensive. "I like it here."

"You into pneumonia, too?"

"Don't push it, Mark."

"Ted, hon, really, you're gonna get sick and..."

"Mark, you know that I..."

"... And then you're gonna complain that your sinuses..."

"... Perfect health as always, so just..."

"... I tell you, Ted, I'm not gonna..."

"... Kinda selfish of you to..."

"... Just like that time I insisted you didn't..."

"... Do I even have to remind you of..."

A strong female voice erupts from the background.

"Theodore Cleary! Get out of that rain immediately!"

Ted makes some low growling sounds, tightens his fist, grits his teeth and yells:

"Going, Ma!"

Bruno Woolcot is at his English Literature class. He isn't much a fan of Literature, but perhaps today's lesson might interest him. His teacher grabs a book and starts to speak up:

"And so Shylock says

To bait fish withal. If it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgrac'd me and hind'red me half a million; laugh'd at my losses, mock'd at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies. And what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions, fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me I will execute; and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction. when Salerio asks him if he will take the pound of flesh.

"With this Shylock shows his humanity while still retaining his evil. He justifies his ways, to the spectator and to himself; vengeance must be his because it will be justice, he thinks. It is hard to think of Shylock as completely evil through this light, but such was the custom in Elizabethan era --- and in many others. Eventually this stereotype started to fade away, even though leftovers of it still remain. This has happened to many in History, and Shakespeare here highlights it, even though he probably shared the prejudice... Yes, Mr. Woolcot?"

Bruno has his hand raised. Has it touched him? Perhaps Ms. Finkler's speech on the persecution of a people solely because of a condition of their birth, and how it enacts vindictive feelings on some of its members, touched that side of him that wants mutants and humans to live as one.

"Can I go to the bathroom?"

"Yes, Mr. Woolcot, you can."

Perhaps not, it hasn't.

Solace for one with non-offensive powers Oh Seeker of peers, (thy power be like ears!) The Burn of your heart, his flaming art Is vain compared (though still to be cared) To the grand skill of finding who feel As though they were thou. I speak not of thy gift (man make it a rift!), A matter so trite, undeserving of light; I speak of thy ways (or some, anyways) That bring you forth to others as North, Giving reason to "now". Perhaps not many, (mayhaps not any!) Other than Mark, light to your dark, Black to your white (filling as one might). So, see, it be not a curse, you need none as nurse That you make none howl.

"Dammit", look at this! 'C' again What did I do this time?" Ted Cleary starts thumbing through his test, looking for the X's that mark his errors. One of his classmates looks over his shoulder and asks him: "This one here; I didn't get it right either. Weezie, you got this one?" "Hmmm. No, let me try and redo it." Louise lowers her head and starts scribbling numbers and formulas. Ted does the same and starts seeking for a correct answer. Thoughts rush through his mind. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Shouldn't've done that, this stuff is easy. Stupid like these stupid useless superpowers. Such an obvious stuff. All I gotta do is multiply the positive combination with the double negative with one positive and divide it by the... "I got it!" Ted exclaims. "Shush, Mr. Cleary!" Debra Whitman, his teacher, chides him. "Save Math corrections for Math classes, this is a History class."

"You know who probably has it real hard? Russell Crowe. I mean, the guy's name. First, that isn't a name, those are two last names asking for a name. He should find a new one and give his to Cher and Madonna or something.
Then there's that last name there: 'Crowe'. That's a bad last name. Not that it's bad sounding, it's just that it's bad guy's last name. Every year there's a movie where the bad guy's last name is Crowe. Or his first name is that. In 'Streets of Fire' the bad guy is called Raven. What is a raven? A crow! I tell you, the guy had some cruel parents...
But it doesn't stop there. He is never the good guy in his big movies, not completely good anyway. In 'Virtuosity' he was a robot with Charles Manson's mind. In 'LA Confidential' he was--"

"Bruno, shut up with that, I'm trying to watch the movie! And you didn't even watch LA Confidential."

"Ok, ok. But I still say he..."

"And don't mumble."

'I hate Biology tests. Why do I have to learn Biology? I'm going to be an architect, for crying out loud, I don't need to know what a nefrid is. Besides, I hate Genetics. This stuff makes me nervous. And the great problem is--'

Should I tell Mike I got to first base with Laura? No, I shouldn't. But he's my friend! And she's his girlfriend, he'd kick my ass. No, he wouldn't, I'd kick his. Laura has a nice ass. I wonder if...

'Damn, not only a Bio test, I can't stop these mental cries these morons keep making. Teenagers and their drama are getting tiresome, dammit. Couldn't you think about Brad Pitt naked on a beach? You have to visualize Laura Harrison's ass, right, Tommy?'

Ok, so let's see, if this is an heterozygote and this is a recessive homozygote than the proportion is probably 50/50. No, wait, that isn't right.

'It is. It isn't. Make up your mind. Damn! This is influencing my test scores. Stupid telepathy. I can't speak with these people considering what they think so loudly around me, and now my test scores... Shit! Calm, Susannah, calm. Think calm, pleasant thoughts.'

I gotta break up with Laura. But she'll be heartbroken. But I want Suzie.

'Uh?'

Susan Smith is...

'Whew'

... hot. I just wish she'd strip tease in front of everybody and then I'd take her right on that desk. I'd go for her tits and then lick her--

"Laura, why don't you just dump Michael for Tommy already and get this over with?!?"

'Oh, God! I said it out loud. And now they're staring. I hate when they stare. Damn!'

"... I need one I can just hack away. You have one of those?"

"Hahaha. That's so..."

"I don't get it." Jimi Powell turns to Mark Hayes and states that. They are watching a Seinfeld marathon, and Jimi didn't laugh much through the entire first episode. The second is just starting and Jimi is finally getting vocal about it.

"What don't you get?"

"This. It's not funny, it's just a white guy telling jokes. You said I was in for the comedian of the decade."

"Why does every black man I know hate Jerry Seinfeld? The guy doesn't tell racist jokes, he just says funny stuff. But every black man likes him as much as a KKK loony. And it isn't a minority thing, 'cuz I'm a minority and I like him. It's the black man who isn't into him. Why is that?"

"He's not funny."

"Deep, Jimi. Deep."

Queen The Corrs Duran Duran Hootie & the Blowfish Ricky Martin

Joe Satriani Eurythimics Lenny Kravitz The Verve

The Eagles The Doors Deimos Dream Jimi Hendrix

Will Smith Guns 'n' Roses Rob Zombie Aerosmith

Eclectic, isn't he? I know I am not this diverse on my selection of artists.

"That guy is so staring at you, Greta!" "I know! You think I should go there?"

"Hmmm Let's see: He's not very tall, and not very cute. Bruno, go talk to him."

"Me?! What do I have to do with anything?"

"If he's funny and smart and all, tell him about Greta... If he's rich, tell him about me."

"Mandy!"

"Hehehe... Just go! Go, go, go!"

You're probably wondering what happened after last issue... Well, to tell you the truth, nothing of importance. They didn't rush to confront twelve men with superpowers, they just ran away and called the police.

Maybe if I had more time I could show you things better. Sadly, this is the series finale. The end. The big one. This is it. Sniff, sniff, I'll really miss my kids. There are just so many things you're not going to see that I planned to show, but... Ah, that doesn't really matter.

So what that you'll never know that Mandy's mom was a superhero in the late seventies? Big deal that you won't see the outplay of what the bad guys put into motion? Who cares that a young British mutant was going to move to Clarksville due to the anti-mutant histeria in Britain?

Maybe it's all for the best. Their lives will develop outside our voyeuristic watch, and maybe someday somebody will revisit these characters. I'm a good dad for them, I let them go out and play... This series was always about being alive and young, and Life is not confined to what we're shown, and Youth is about blossoming to a far greater adventure than any man ever dreamed of.

E-mail your comments, thoughts and constructive criticism to Francisco Araujo da Costa

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