Sci-fi Novel - The Dream Artist - Part 5

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Part 5

When Peri and I entered our department located on the sixth floor, there were no people there yet. We got ourselves a coffee and started digging into the pocket computers. We just finished our coffees, Önder and Melis, whom we're going to take over the investigation, came to the office.

I couldn't get along with Önder for a long time, he was a crafty man, and about a year ago, he had been the head of our division. Even though he claimed otherwise, I thought he was effective in my retreat. Önder was a hard-working and disciplined man, who combined these qualities with the characteristics I didn't like such as oiliness and hanky-panky. These traits opened the door to the presidency of the department.

”Welcome, Ruhi," said Önder.

I said, “We're here to take over Selim Özben's investigation file.”

It turns out that as Önder started the profession in the same period with me, it was also the case for Melis and Peri.

“We were very close to solving the case, so I couldn't understand why they made such a decision,” said Melis.

“Our elders must have known,” said Önder, did not want the motivation of his colleague to fall.

”They don't want it to be solved; I suppose that's why they gave it to you," Önder said. It was not his habit to say such sharp words; it seemed that in the past time, his self-confidence had increased.

I said, “We'll see.” I wasn't going to let him upset me.

“We want to get to work as soon as possible. If we could get the code for the research file...”

“I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know about the developments. Although the researchers have changed, the file is still my responsibility,” Önder said.

Half an hour later, we left the office and started moving towards the dream artist's home on the Beykoz Ridge. I was very impressed with the view when we landed in the woods with the quadcopter of Peri. With their thick-bodied, centuries-long trees, giant vines wrapped in trees, trees blocking daylight, many bushes and thorns, it felt like a wild forest in the mountains. Wild forest and the dangers brought by it had a prominent place among the themes of Selim Özben dreams. I remembered the news that a wild bear from the adjacent forest attacked him as he wandered here in the darkness of the night so that the feeling would feed his dreams. In the early years, news about the dream artist appeared more in the press, and it was interesting that in the last 3-4 years the news about his private life was rare. In a sense, his disappearance was a rebirth regarding occupying a place on the society's agenda. I shared my thoughts with Peri.

“At the time of his disappearance, the statistics of his dreams were at the historical peaks,” said Peri.

Instead of researching the dream artist's house, I wanted to wander around in the woods, but I didn't do it because I wished to Peri to appreciate me. For some reason this thought didn't scare me, I imagined myself as a leaf dragged by the wind, a dervish who had consented to his fate; resisting the external conditions was causing nothing other than misery.

We turned and started to stroll into the depths of the woods. The soft light of the grove, filtered through the leaves, the moist air laden with oxygen, the hum hidden behind the bird's chirping, seemed to have affected even the task freak, Peri. When I heard the sound of a flying bird, a bee passing ahead of us, a squirrel jumping from branch to branch, I could observe the changes in the expression of her face. As we progressed into the depths of the grove, I realized that the path we followed was a kind of guidance that allows us to see all sides of the forest with the curves drawn. When I shared this observation with Peri, she said, “It will take one and a half hours for a full ride on the path.”

The difference in the light of the grove has led me to be filled with gratitude, whether the sun is cloaked with clouds or the height and species of trees passed by changed. I considered the fact that this diversity was not fully reflected in Selim Özben's dreams as a loss in the name of the art of dream.

When I thought about the previous difficult cases, I concluded that the knot was resolved after the discovery of an incompatibility that seemed insignificant at first sight. It seemed natural to put it this way, but to catch the variance, we had to study on a vast set of data. The sad thing is that those who have patience and determination to handle and examine mountainous data one by one were not capable of noticing the first spark that allowed them to see things in a new light. If a few observations confirmed this hypothesis, then events could be seen so clearly under the light provided by the new model. In our research, the possible solution would be something that we had been knowing all along. Being able to formulate the research like this would of course not guarantee that the result would be positive because in some cases the solution did not exist anywhere. There was no easy way to know before you try and fail. In fact, an entire research process was carried out with a steel chain of historical determinism. The more immature it is, the higher the effort that must be made to find it.

"You've been deep into thoughts," said Peri. "I think we should take a look inside the house while we're going through the house, and I'm looking forward to it," she added.

Image Source: https://pixabay.com/tr/orman-sis-do%C4%9Fa-a%C4%9Fa%C3%A7lar-mistik-931706/