Wisdom tooth

A story about friendship

Friendship never had such a big say in the life of an Individual as it did by the end of year 293420. Cave era was a thing of past, it has been 293420 years since the first Individual finally walked out of the cave and saw the sun-light as nobody had ever seen before. However, friendship is a new thing, as soon as the first individual walked out of the cave, they did not show any interest in the other Individuals, it made sense because they were locked together in the cave for so long, they had lost the appetite for it, but as soon as wisdom tooth emerged, it all changed.

It was a common occurrence for Individuals to have wisdom tooth as soon as they turned 200 years old, some had it a few years earlier and some had it little late but the flow of it soaked everyone, it was a bullet in perpetual motion, nobody escaped, they did not want to either.

Technological era started about 90000 years ago, when newton first discovered gravity and everybody could shift their focus to earth for once, instead of the sky, for it was believed earlier that the Sun was the driving force of planet Earth and it was more or less depicted as a driver of a car which was driving recklessly on an untrodden path. That view shattered, people started believing that the Earth also possessed some power of its own which had nothing to do with the Sun because apple was falling on the ground even when it was night and the Sun was not visible.

All the technological advances brought people closer because there was so much time at hand as machines were doing most of the work and Voice assistants were inherently boring to talk to. Voice assistant lacked a sense of humour for it was just a piece of code written and humour is hard to inject in code. Thus friendship emerged, Individuals finally started talking to the other Individuals even when there was no business involved, people started inviting their “friends” for coffee, it would be considered a ridiculous thing subjected to public mockery in the Agriculture era.

The wisdom tooth still appeared around the mark of 200 years of age and it changed everything. As soon as the individuals had their wisdom tooth, they started craving for intimacy, a thing which they did not know before, only heard in stories, a distant thing, but now it is a thing of present, here and now, they want to touch a human, make love to them, have babies and forget about the past, for past was not real. However this is not something they could control, as soon as the wisdom tooth appeared, the friendships were gone. It never faded gradually, it disappeared, overnight, it was just gone for them. However, the other end of friendship remained until this forlorn friend went through the same process. People of earlier eras were immune to this condition because they never had “friends”.

Parents warned their kids about friendships for they were never permanent and just went away, there were Deceiving Centres put up by government where the Individuals were taught to never open their hearts to anyone before the wisdom tooth appeared, for it only brought them misery. But Deceiving Centres were a big failure, nobody was interested in leading a lonely life for 200 years before suddenly one day their wisdom tooth appeared. People continued opening their hearts to others, invited other people for coffee because they liked their company and this went on. Everyone knew clock was ticking, one day they will lose this person and it will happen in a moment.

Jack was no different but he was weird for an individual, he was 197 years old, a healthy individual and his clock was ticking. People, as soon as they reached 190 years of age, stopped making friends because it brought them only misery, for it was like holding a giant ball of mercury in the palm, they will eventually have to let it go. Some did not stop because they were certain they will grow the wisdom tooth first and the suffering will strike the other end of this invisible rope they called friendship. It was rather a sadist behaviour but it was original, it was engraved in their genome, for they were caveman where they had to eat the other Individuals and rocks to survive. Jack did not carry such sadist tendencies for he was raised by women, he was soft spoken and kind hearted. His reasons were different, he actually liked the connection two people shared, this invisible rope, it made him feel more alive and he had been at the forlorn end of it many times. Friends were always there and they never ceased disappearing. This insanity hit him first when he was buying a coke can from the supermarket and he saw his friend passed by, their eyes clicked and it gave him no joy because he was looking at a stranger, he did not know these eyes, the friend did not recognise him because wisdom tooth fairy had greeted him last night. It was one of the saddest days of his life, that night he drank until he passed out.

Jack lost all of this friends and he was at the remaining end of so many lost friendships, he could probably write poems out of them and make a living but Jack was not a sadist, he was full of life. Jack met David at Buddhist meditation camp, they clicked instantly because they both believed that Gautama buddha never spoke to anyone after he got enlightenment and they made fun of all of the preachings being delivered. They both started meeting for coffee, they discussed the life of Gautama buddha and sometimes they meditated together. This was a tranquil period, however short that was, it was a calming ground between a river of fire ready to engulf everything, for they had opened their hearts to each others, it was ridiculously warm. It made sense that why Individuals did not make friends before, for it was a thing which made them more humane, it filled them with love and for a civilisation which was born out of apathy & ferocity, it was an alien concept, to know someone more than the time allows, to know them as you had known them forever, as the time has stopped flowing and it made you question the authenticity of clocks.

However, the clock was ticking and the judgement day arrived, Jack was at the receiving end of it again. David had moved on, for wisdom tooth emerged for him. Jack saw David in supermarket with another person and it was not just any other person, he could tell they have been exchanging bodily fluids just by looking at their body language. It disgusted him, he ran out of the supermarket and never returned. It had happened many times but this time it was different, Jack knew this would happen but he did not know it would happen so fast, he thought that the garden of heaven will be here for a while because David was 4 years younger than him but it did not stay, he was again left alone, desolated, the world has fallen and he was the first one to get hit. He drank so much that night that he puked blood and ended up in a hospital.

Jack wanted to break out of this pattern. He enrolled himself for a camp organised by a Deceiving Centre where they were conducting a 10 days workshop on “how to be extremely cold and cunning”. The camp followed a very rigorous regime, everyday they had multiple session of extreme sadism, they were taught to treat others like an object, to erase empathy from their hearts, occasionally hurt them if the situation demands and most importantly, never make eye contacts, because eyes are the doors of the soul, it is exactly the place where a warm light can enter your heart and make you more humane and thus it was forbidden. Jack had a hard time adjusting to this regime, he could not bear the sight of an Individual treating other Individuals the way they did. During the previous session he saw some Bullies walking on a floor made by the Subjects, the other Individuals were lying on the floor and the Bullies were walking on their body, stomping them, for hours it went on, it cut jack open, he could not sleep that night. He thought about the purpose of this lonely life, the cave era and his friend David, he knew that once he gets the wisdom tooth, all of the things will change but he was not sure when it will happen. It only made him more anxious, it was changing him, all of it and it went on.

Next day, during first session, jack was the first one to arrive. He was aware of the proceedings of the ceremony, it started with them staring at other Individuals in the most horrific manner, it was the only time of the whole session when eye contacts were allowed but only to instigate hate and fear, for they are the most original feelings. Then they went on singing songs which made them more furious, songs which were designed to do so. After the initiation of ceremony the crowd divided largely into two circles, the Bully and the Subjects. There were small other groups like the Observers, the Commentators and the Undecided. It was advised from camp authorities that they became part of all the circles in rotation but it was completely optional. In the previous sessions, Jack found himself hanging out with the Observers mostly, but something had changed today. A voice was heard as soon as the session resumed to its normalcy after initiation. A bully shouted pointing at the Subject circle:

“I want to walk on a floor made of the bastards, bring your filthy body here and let me walk on you and stomp your fucking self”

Jack was the first one to step out of the Subject circle and he knew that he had redeemed himself.