There is no mathematical theory to decipher emotions, much to the regret of Alan Turing. In twentieth-century England, two boys dream of changing the world. However, when the unimaginable happens, that tough job is handed to Alan alone. As a code-br...
"I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying."
-Oscar Wilde
Thesilence of the sea was deceptive. With a fishing rod in his hands, Alan stared at the swirling void, as blue as the eyes of the boy next to him.
He smiled weakly at Chris as he lifted a giant perch triumphantly high above his head. That sight made his heart ache, yet he could not avert his eyes. He knew it would be over soon, so he would savour every second.
Alan put down the fishing rod; he had no idea how the thing worked anyway.
The boy was kneeling in the boat, his hand reaching for the water. The tips of his fingers drew lines in the sea as the little boat bobbed on.
A smile played on Alan's face as he attacked Chris from behind with a hug, who laughed and turned around in the embrace.
The little face was so familiar, yet something was missing. As Alan wiped a strand of blonde hair from his face, he got it – this Chris was frozen in time, petrified by Medusa. Still, he couldn't help but say how much he missed him.
But Chris' eyes stared at a point behind Alan, the light in those blue mirrors nowhere to be seen. 'Mine,' the boy whispered.
Even before Alan could turn his head, a bang filled his ears. Instinctively, he wrapped his arms around Chris. The searing heat of the blast scraped along his back just before they were catapulted into the water.
The air was knocked out of his lungs. Alan gasped for breath even before he reached the surface. A stinging sensation filled his entire body. His cry for Chris vanished into the dark void. Floundering, he surfaced again. The boat was nowhere to be seen.
The boy on the other side floated right in front of him, a trail of blood running down his temple.
"How many more deaths," Chris grabbed him by the shoulders, with a strength not fitting his petite body, "before you start using your brain?"
Alan stopped flailing abruptly and looked at him incredulously.
"You're not smart enough, I would have deciphered the messages a long time ago."
Alan knew that all too well.
"Then you also know that all those people are dying at the expense of your folly," he continued mercilessly, as if he could read his mind. "I should have stayed alive, history has made a mistake. It is time to rectify it." The boy pushed him under with his full weight.
Alan let him.
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His face was so drenched that for a moment Alan imagined himself still in his dream and gasped for breath, disoriented. A choked scream finally escaped his throat as he pushed a shape away from him.
