Richard knew Michael from high school. They had been good friends and companions but they had lost touch when Mike moved before their senior year. Richard had been rather in awe of Mike because Mike was smarter than he was. They had both been fascinated with technology and space travel and had read the same science fiction books.
“Hello, Rich! What a coincidence!” replied Mike. “I’m just checking this thing out. I thought the name sounded interesting, and here I am. But what brings you here? I thought….”
“Well, my friend Julie invited me,” said Richard, seeming embarrassed. “Mike, this is Julie. Julie, this is Mike, an old friend from school.”
“Hello, Mike,” said Julie.
“Hello,” said Mike. “You’re Chinese, right? As opposed to Japanese?”
“Uh, yes, I am.”
“I like to try to guess,” Mike said, a bit apologetically.
“How can you tell?” asked Julie.
“Oh, the accent—not that yours can really be called an accent, but there is a bit of something. And the face.”
“An expert, huh? But what did you think about the meeting?” Julie asked. “I haven’t seen you at the others.”
“Yes, this is my first.” Mike paused a while. “I liked…,” he said.
“Me too,” said Richard.
Mike and Richard both laughed. “Remember….” Richard began.
“Phil,” Mike finished and they laughed again.
Julie looked bewildered. “What’s going on?” she asked. Richard looked sheepish. “Sorry,” he said. “When Mike and I were in school together, we had so much in common that we got to the point where we both knew what the other was going to say before he said it. One time this friend of ours named Phil was listening to us and he complained that he couldn’t understand us because we never finished a sentence. One of us would start talking and the other would say, ‘yeah,’ and that would be it.”
“That explains a few things!” said Julie, laughing. “So translate what you just said, or didn’t say.”
“Oh, we just liked the music,” said Richard. It was clear that he was leaving something out, but Julie didn’t press the issue.
“Well, that’s why I asked you to come,” she said, somewhat defensively.
“Actually the idea that the moon and the sun have an effect on us fits in with some of my ideas,” said Mike.
“Really?” said Richard. “What do you mean?”
“Remember that chaos theory stuff?”
“So you think the moon is like the butterfly….”
“Who knows. Certainly there’s a psychological factor.”
“Translation, please,” interjected Julie.
“It’s like this,” Mike said. “According to chaos theory, small causes can have large effects. There’s an analogy they like to use, exaggerated of course, that says that a butterfly flapping its wing in Thailand can cause a hurricane in the Bahamas.
“I’ve always felt that life is like that. Little choices can have big effects. Walking a little slower, for example, can cause you to miss an encounter that would change your life. Every choice we make can have incalculable effects.”
“But isn’t everything determined?” asked Julie.
“I don’t think so,” said Mike. “I think we have free will. After all, everyone acts like they have free will, and mostly treats others like they have free will. So I think the burden of proof is on those who deny free will.”
“But if you’re right,” began Richard.
“Yes.” said Mike. He looked at Julie and continued quickly, “Uh, that is, we have free will and each choice we make could be crucial. So we have immense responsibility for our lives.”
“But we don’t know enough,” said Julie. “If we can’t know the consequences of our smallest actions, isn’t free will a burden?”
“You got it,” said Mike. “I used to think that was why people believed in God. If there’s a God, then he has enough knowledge to help us make the right choices. So I thought people believed in God for the comfort factor.”
“But you don’t think that now?” asked Richard.
“No,” he said.
There was silence. Finally Richard said, “Why don’t we go out for coffee and talk for a while.”
“I’d like to,” Julie said. “As long as you guys….”
“…remember to translate, I know.” finished Mike with a smile.
“Hey, maybe I’m getting in on this mind-reading stuff too!” said Julie, smiling back.
As they walked, Mike remained silent. He looked at Richard and Julie with a quizzical look on his face. Richard noticed.
“We met in High School,” he said. “I saw her around and one time I helped her with her math during a study break.”
“I thought you couldn’t talk to girls,” said Mike.
Richard blushed and looked down sheepishly.
“He can’t,” said Julie, smiling. Mike laughed.
“She was literally the only girl I ever had what could be called a successful conversation with while I was in high school,” said Richard.
Julie smiled. “When he was helping me with my math, he started erasing the part of the problem I had done wrong. He started at the end, and he just kept erasing. Finally he had erased the whole problem. I must have laughed for five minutes. I just cracked up.”
“I guess that did kind of break the ice,” said Richard.
“Ooh, bad!” said Julie and Mike in unison.
“We became friends and started studying together a lot. Then we found out that we both got in to Berkeley and we decided to stay in touch,” continued Richard.
Julie slid her hand inside Richard’s arm. “See, I’m staying in touch,” she said.
Richard smiled and blushed again. He was almost paralyzed, hoping Julie wouldn’t take her hand away and not wanting to do anything to encourage her to do so. Mike had a big grin on his face. “You’ve come a long way since I last saw you! I remember when you wouldn’t even talk to me about girls.”
Finally they came to the coffee shop. It was still fairly early; they were on Telegraph Avenue and there were plenty of people around. They found a table that gave some privacy, sat down and ordered.
Julie said, “I don’t mean to offend you, but it sounded like you believed in God, or disbelieved in God, or something.” Mike sighed. “I don’t really believe in God,” he said. “But some things have happened, well, I haven’t told anyone about it because they might think I’m crazy.”
Mike paused, and for a moment it seemed he would remain silent. Richard said, “Come on, Mike, you can’t just say something like that and leave us hanging.”
Mike said, “No I won’t.” He paused again. “You know me, Richard. I haven’t really changed that much since I moved.” “You seem the same to me,” said Richard. “Mostly,” he added. “As far as God goes,” Mike began, “No, I’m not convinced that there’s a God in the traditional religious sense. But I know there’s life after death.”