The Volatile Composition of Knowledge

Chapter 6

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.
- Maya Angelou

Louis was glowing with satisfaction. This sliver of a book exceeded his wildest dreams and was only the beginning. The trunk was full of books, all of them much thicker than this one. Now that his life long quest was being realized, he was swimming in an orgy of pleasure and satisfaction.

Douglas was also intoxicated, but his intoxication was tempered by the responsibility laid on his shoulders.
There was much that needed to be said and done but he did not want to interrupt the moment of rapture Louis was experiencing with a didactic sermon. He would let him speak first, so he just rested his chin in his palm and admired his son.

For a long while Louis could only look at the small journal, caressing it with his fingertips. He didn't know it was possible to feel amused, amazed, content and excited all at the same time. "I can't wait for everybody to know." He smiled at his father.

"We should go then." Douglas went to the trunk and extracted the blue tome. "We should put this old crate in the cabin, just in case it rains." Louis helped him carry it in then they walked down the long path to the car. Douglas had decided to hold his tongue for a few minutes longer while his son basked in the glory of his discovery.

"Why didn't they want us to know about them Dad? Why the big mystery, especially since it seems now they want us to know? I don't see the sense in it."
Douglas didn't respond. He wanted Louis to think it through for himself. "I always thought knowledge was power, there must be a lot of power in that old crate." He had been caressing the journal since got into the car. He looked at it and perused the pages as if the answer was somewhere in the words he had just read to his father. He closed the book, looked out the window for a while before he turned and said;"power isn't always a good thing, is it?"

Douglas took his eyes off the road long enough to direct a serious gaze at his son;"in the wrong hands it is fatal, fatal to the the power of seven billion people sacrificed in the name of power."

"Seven billion! That is just beyond comprehension!"
Louis set his jaw, put his arm over the back of his seat then placed his hand on his fathers shoulder.
"Is that what your dreams are telling you?" Louis was becoming unsettled. His father was the wisest, most stable person in the world. As much as he liked to joke there was still this serious and sober nature about him which commanded respect and admiration. Multiply it by the thousand times his father had mentored him, guided him, nurtured him, understood him, and ultimately fathered him, he would believe anything that sprung from his lips. His words would sound ridiculous coming from anyone else on Earth, but from his father Louis considered it a fact. It was a fact he wasn't equipped to reconcile.

"What are you thinking right now?" Douglas had noticed Louis combing his hand through his hair, something he always did when struggling with a new concept. "You don't have to answer. I already know, I've been feeling the same thing the last few weeks."
He slowly brought the tiny vehicle to a halt so he could give Louis his undivided attention.

"These new books merely serve to document things I already knew, things my dreams have been telling me for the past few weeks. These dreams are very vivid, very graphic."

"Pre history is not pretty. This worlds population was not decimated by any natural event, no mere accident of nature. It was destroyed by man, the most dangerous predator to ever exist. What our forefathers have done was to attempt to re-create mankind sans the voracious appetite for destruction. Right now the success of their endeavor is squarely on our shoulders. We must proceed prudently."

Louis gently placed the book in the glove compartment. "Dad, I have never felt fear like this before. What if we become what they were? What if..." Louis couldn't think of 'what if', he didn't know what the if was. He felt as if his mind had fallen into a deep abyss. There were no reference points anywhere in his past to acclimate his thought process.. He slumped in his seat as Douglas slowly began to move the vehicle forward.

"I have confidence enough for the both of us. I have been given the insight, you possess the drive. Together we have determination and purpose. With all of that going for us, we'll see this through."

For as long as he could remember, his fathers words had been able to motivate and inspire him out of any kind of mental morass he may have fallen into. As Louis watched the dappled sunlight dance across the vehicle he could visualize them chasing away the clouds of doubt.