There�s a Diamond in My Pocket

Heft arose from his deep sleep. As he sat up in the cot he turned to his brother still sleeping and said with enthusiasm, �Arise Pious, it is early morn, and we must tap the beer keg for it is fathers birthday today! �

  Pious rumbled from his slumber and arose from his cot without a word. Moving across the dirt floor, Pious reached the closet where the family kept their cloths-dress, grabbed a vest from the coat rack and headed out through the wooden door, �Wait for me! � Heft exclaimed as he shuffled his massive body following in quick pursuit.

  The two brothers arrived at the cellar door a few yards from the cottage. Heft grabbed the massive wooden mallet and swung it over his shoulder-Pious already had the iron tap in hand. Opening the door they entered the dusty cobweb hole that housed the beer keg and some wine bottles.

  The two nomads in the cavern moved silently to their destination as driven by some unknown force. Pious held the iron tap over the corked hole in the beer keg and muttered, �I don�t know who is going to be happier today-me or father.� Heft acknowledged his brothers statement by drawing back the massive wooden mallet and hitting the iron tap with such force as to drive the cork into the keg and replace it with the iron tap knocking Pious to he floor.

  Pious looked up from the dirt floor at Heft and knew they had been successful by the large grin on his brother�s face. A glimmer of light caught Pious�s eye in the dark cavern. Hay look Heft, the light from the cellar door is making something sparkle.�

  �What is it?� Heft asked with curiosity.

  Pious reached over from his position on the dusty floor and grabbed the sparkling object. �Why �it�s a diamond. There�s a diamond in my pocket. I thought I saw something fall out of it as I was knocked down!�

  �Oh no!� cried Heft. �Your wearing fathers vest!�

  Lorn began to phase into reality as Pluvial walked through his office door. �Sorry Pluvial, I was just thinking about the original owners of the cottage I just purchased. I didn�t mean to ignore you.� Lorn said in anticipation. 

  �What do you have there Lorn, � Pluvial said in a breathless tone.

  �Well let me tell you about who I have here first,� replied Lorn

  �Have you gone mad?� Pluvial scorned.

  I purchased a cottage up in the mountains last summer. In fixing up the place I had to put a composite foundation under the cottage to replace the old cement. When I lifted the cottage off the old foundation with the Graviton, I found this diamond in the far right corner of the house near the cellar.

  The story goes that two brothers, Heft and Pious, had stumbled on to their father�s only possession of wealth. It�s a diamond the father found while clearing the property for the original cottage. He took it to town and had a local cutter shape the diamond. I think Pluvial they became friends after that. Unknown to his sons and the towns people, he carried the diamond in his vest pocket.

  Apparently, on their father�s birthday, they got him so drunk he couldn�t remember the day. Later, when he realized the diamond was missing, he approached the two brothers and told them the story of the diamond. He then asked the two if they had seen the diamond around or near the cottage.  The two brothers convinced the father that he must have lost it in his drunken stupor. For whatever reason, they hid it in the corner of the house. They never sold it for money; they were probably terrified someone would tell the father.

 �It�s a wonder that the thing was not lost eternally in the five renovations that have been made to that cottage over the centuries.� Pluvial commented.

  �I don�t think it wanted to be lost eternally. And I don�t believe the brothers could sell this diamond. I believe it lives there at the cottage and will return home this summer when I go on vacation.� Lorn returned.

  Pluvial stood breathless and motionless before the diamond sparkling in Lorn�s hand.

�That�s right, we have to give this diamond the New Turing Test. We can�t use the language setting. The hardware it possesses is quantum mechanical. It�s embedded in the electron cloud of the carbon atoms no more than atto-femtometer in length. Well be using the Schrodinger thinking equation today.

  Lorn�s suspicions about the diamond were true. He had stumbled on an intelligence that had existed for centuries. In the end, the diamond and Lorn became good friends. With the quantum interpreters of his time, the two could actually communicate through language. Before, friends of the diamond only had the diamonds strong sense of belonging and feelings of friendship.