Warm Glowing Embers:
Simone’s Notes:
In psychology the terms affection and affective are of great importance. As all intellectual phenomena have by experimentalists been reduced to sensation, so all emotion has been and is regarded as reducible to simple mental affection, the element of which all emotional manifestations are ultimately composed. The nature of this element is a problem that has been provisionally, but not conclusively, solved by many psychologists; the method is necessarily experimental, and all experiments on feeling are peculiarly difficult. The solutions proposed are two. In the first, all affection phenomena are primarily divisible into those that are pleasurable and those that are the reverse. The main objections to this are that it does not explain the infinite variety of phenomena, and that it disregards the distinction that most philosophers admit between higher and lower pleasures. The second solution is that every sensation has its specific affective quality, though by reason of the poverty of language many of these have no name. W. Wundt, Outlines of Psychology, maintains that we may group under three main affective directions, each with its negative, all the infinite varieties in question; these are (a) pleasure, or rather pleasantness, and displeasure, (b) tension and relaxation, (c) excitement and depression. These two views are antithetic and no solution has been discovered.
Paul lied on the hard wooden floor. It was just like the old days in his childhood. Only this time was different. He was almost a man now. The junior began to think back to his night all the way from the YMCA to this morning in his childhood place. The whole mini-saga goes like this:
Paul walked over to the door of his apartment. He turned to the living room.
“I’m heading out, dad!” he called. “I’m going out to the Y.”
“Okay,” Steven said. “Be careful out there. We’ve already had a mass string of homicides in this week alone.”
“Will do,” his son replied. Then, Paul walked out the door and closed it behind him. He walked over to the car. The boy had just gotten his license last week. Paul had been itching to drive for days now. However, no day seemed right to do so. Steven constantly worried about his boy’s safety. Despite Paul’s protests that he would be safe, his father refused to hear of it.
“I don’t want you out there on your own with the car,” Steven nagged him. “You’re the only son I’ve got!” Tonight, Steven seemed to have backed off a little bit. Maybe, it was okay to drive now. But yet when Paul got to the car, second thoughts crept into his mind. He winced for a moment. Suddenly, driving seen like a good idea anymore. Steven’s lectures got to him hard. “Should I drive tonight or not…” he thought. It took the battle seconds to rage on in his head. In the end, Paul decided against it. Why risk his dad having a spaz at him about driving at night and the murders are running wild. Not worth it. Just not worth it!
So, Paul walked all the way to the YMCA. It wasn’t too far from the apartments. Besides, the streets were well-lit at this time. All he had to do was look around him at all times and he would be fine. The trip turned out to be a rather short one. Paul made it to the Y just before it closed. He drew out his key card and swiped it through. The door clicked open and the boy slowly went inside. Not many people were in the Y tonight. They must have gone home. Only the receptionist stood at the desk looking bored. Paul walked over to her smiling.
“Hello,” he said. “I just came here for a swim.” The receptionist didn’t look up at all.
“Sure, sure,” she mumbled as she looked at her Facebook. Paul shrugged to himself. They must be very lax at night. No bother to him; just as long as he got some nice swim time in.
“You have a good night,” he told the receptionist.
“Whatever,” she mumbled. Paul shrugged to himself and walked down to the men’s locker room. Once changed, he headed out to the pool for his swim. Why is he doing all of this? Paul had a date tonight! Yes, that is right my friends. With who? The lovely Kira, of course. They had been dating in secret since Christmas. Why the secrecy? They wanted to try out the relationship first before they told their families. Paul made it out to the pool. Kira sat on the edge waiting for him. She looked up when she heard footsteps. Her boyfriend stood inches from her smiling.
“Hey there,” he greeted her.
“Hi,” she said. Paul sat next down next to her.
“I’ve missed you.”
“Me too.” Both sat there in silence for a moment. They took in the moment that they had together, slowly. This was their moment and their moment alone. Paul leaned and kissed Kira on the lips. It took her a moment, but she finally kissed him back. Another kiss soon followed. Paul moved in for a third kiss when he made a proposal.
“I want to show you a place after we swim,” he whispered. Kira looked at him for a slight moment.
“Where to?” she asked. Paul slowly pulled back and smiled at her.
“You’ll see afterwards,” he replied. Kira raised an eyebrow at him. Paul noticed her suspicious face.
“Aw, what’s wrong?” She gave him kind of a sharp look.
“You aren’t going to try anything, are you?” Paul gave her a little mischievous smile.
“Oh come now! I won’t pull anything nasty. I just want to show me a place that has been close to me ever since I was child.” His girlfriend still looked at him sharply.
“Paul Walker! You remember our agreement!”
“I know! I know! We won’t have sex until we have told our families about our relationship. I know and I respect. I just want to show this one place that is so dear to me.” Kira only lightened her gaze a little bit.
“You promise?” Paul nodded at her once.
“You know my soul very deeply to know the answer to that one.” His girlfriend only thought about that for a long moment. Paul waited for her answer. Kira finally turned to him smiling.
“Alright,” she replied. “But nothing dirty.” Her boyfriend nodded at her once.
“Right…” he said. Kira smirked at him and splashed with the cool pool water below them. Paul laughed out loud.
“Oh, you’re going to pay dearly for that, missy!” he announced. His girlfriend laughed at him.
“Oh really?” she challenged. “How so?” Paul smirked at her boldly.
“Come here!” he commanded. He playfully tackled his girl into the pool. This was how their “date nights” wound up most up of the time. However, it is not over from here. The story still goes on. But, there are more important matters to worry with in this birth of a Fallen World. The Dogs of the Military are learning about that rather quickly. They are soon to learn this with the forever growing trail of dead bodies that keep stretching out through Central City. And the new start hits too close to home.
