developed than we?”
“Maybe it sounds paradoxically for you but it’s true. If to count in a percentage proportion, it means that now we use only 10% of our possibilities and they used more that 50%. Just count it. It means that they were five times more clever than we despite all our illusionary ‘high technological’ development of our times.”
“But how could it be possible?”
“The thing is that in fact we only come up to the mastering of our possibilities. However, in the beginning of this civilization people with high potential of their mental possibilities simply degradated, that is they went from their big achievements to small. It’s normal as those isolated groups were remnants of previous highly developed civilization. Later their descendants lost the former possibilities and knowledge, so to say fully degradated, and then they started from the beginning again. The main problem is that highly developed civilizations are very dependant on the external factors,” Sensei looked at the sky. “Take for example the Sun. Modern scientists assume that its resources are enough for a billion of years. And then it can expand and die out and as a result all living beings will disapear on the Earth. But first of all these are only their assumptions and guesses as scientists know little about the Sun. And second, even now a solar megaflare directed to the Earth can happen any moment. And if it happens there will be nothing left on the Earth just in three days. There will be in the best case only small isolated groups of people who will face an acute problem of survival. As if you want to eat even plants, first you have to grow them and in order to do it you have to find their seeds. But even if not to take into account a global catastrophy, just imagine what will happen to us if to leave us now without electricity, gas, oil, to put is simply, all benefits of civilization. We will be practically unadapted to survival. It happened like this that time…”
“Right, in such a way ‘hunters’ and ‘gatherers’ appeared in the history,” the doctor smiled sadly, “with sudden flashes of astronomic and mathematical knowledge peculiar to higher civilization.” “That’s true. First there were tribes and communities. Then religions started to appear. Some individuals usurped power and were interested in degradation of intellect of the masses. It’s easier to control narrow-minded people. This is how we, my dear Nikolai Andreevich, came to what we have.”
“Well,” the psychoterapist drawled sorely and after a short reflection he added, “You are right, the human is first of all a consumer of various goods of civilization and just a small part of the chain of their reproduction. And if there will be nothing, what will happen then? He will not be able even to build a house. Because apart from theoretical knowledge you need also a bulk of inventions of civilization such as bricks, cement, nails etc. Otherwise…” Nikolai Andreevich shrugged his shoulders.
“Otherwise only a hut or an earth-house,” Sensei joked.
“Right, it will be a cave in the best case,” Nikolai Andreevich kept up his joke. “If to analyze in details what can a modern man do if he happens to stay face to face with the nature? Nothing good, indeed.”
“That’s true… And some especially lazy individuals even have no idea about elementary things, for example, how and what can be grown,” Sensei said half in jest. “Their food ‘grows’ in shops, already nicely packed. What can be said else about it?”
Having heard it I started to ‘fit’ what was said to my person. I tried to quickly recollect the experience of my family when we lived in the country and what and how my mother grew in the garden. And in general what I know how to do in this life and what not. There were so many gaps in ‘elementary knowledge’ that I was scared. And I decided to fill all these gaps as soon as I can. I planned to ask the elder generation how they managed to survive during the war when there were severe conditions, hunger, ruins. And I aimed to take part in all possible activities in our cottage works and really to learn all those ‘elementary’ things, according to Sensei. Because one thing is when you are forced to do something and quite another when you burn with the desire to learn.
Our “sages” again laughed on their jokes and then Sensei suggested: “All right, doctor, that’s enough to talk about “sad things”, let’s go to swim.” And having looked at the location of the sun in the sky he added in philosophical manner. “While we have such an opportunity.”
3
Having swum enough, Stas and Eugene decided to make a voyage on water with their air-bag, to dive with aqualung and to fish if possible. Volodya and Victor eagerly accompanied them. Having prepared the air-bag and having loaded it with fishing-tackle, they rowed along the sea coast towards the fish-factory. The others fully saturated their desire to swim, combining long-term swimming with short rest on the hot sand. Sensei and Nikolai Andreevich mostly preferred “sun baths”, after that they swam far in the sea where our young guys didn’t dare to swim.
The rest time flew by invisibly. After one of the swims our guys blissfully stretched out on the sea coast. Having created a few small sand hills they improved their creativity and made up to form a simple sand sculpture from different parts of their bodies. Kostya, Ruslan and Slava became ‘victims’ of this grand idea, or to be more precise, their heads, arms and legs. While making a ‘sculpture’, the raising creative appetite and wild fantasy inspired them to decorate the ‘monument’ with plates, spoons and forks, clothes, as well as with the gifts of nature such as rush, seaweed, sea shells and thin local plants. As the heads of the ‘monument’ were fixed in their position during our creative activities, all the time we had to water them, to feed, to scratch their noses, cheeks, to keep off flies and other insects which used this opportunity and tried to climb them like curious tourists climb the mountain of Kilimanjaro. Finally after the painstaking work accompanied with the non-stop laughing we have got, according to Andrew, a ‘mutant of unknown origin’ instead of the planned ‘three-heads-Dragon’ from a fairy-tale. When we were giving the final touches to the decoration of our ‘beautiful creature’, one of his ‘heads’ (bearing the name of Ruslan) noticed Stas and Eugene running far alongside the sea coast.
“Oh! And where is the air-bag?” wondered the most ‘sharp-sighted head’ of the ‘three-heads-Dragon’. “What’s wrong with them?”
The “head” bearing the name of Slava extravagantly decorated with its ’hat’ lazily turned to that side, hemmed and added, “They must have forgotten something.”
And lastly the third ‘head’, the most wise one (bearing the name of Kostya), which was located between the two others and according to its status was ornamented with the super-turban made by Tatyana from a roll of toilet paper, uttered prudently, “If they had forgotten something they wouldn’t be running with such a speed.”
Indeed, judging by the hurry of the guys one couldn’t say that they were running with a slow speed. Moreover, the absense of Victor and Volodya as well as fishing-tackle obviously showed that something has happened to them. All our attention concentrated on the senior guys.
They reached our camp and started to restore their breathing after the speedy run looking with surprise at our ‘masterpiece’.
“What has happened?” the most ‘wise head’ asked puzzled.
“Well, really!” Eugene smiled on seeing the grandiose sculpture.
“Where is Sensei?” Stas questioned in reply to our question.
“He is over there,” Andrew pointed out to the sea where two heads were seen in the waves from time to time. “They swam far with Nikolai Andreevich.”
Stas and Eugene turned their heads to the sea looking far away. Without thinking twice Eugene put on his fingers to the lips and started to whistle loud towards the sea. The sound was so shrill that Andrew
