War/Peace. Matthew Vandenberg

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СКАЧАТЬ Chloe replies. ‘My friends. Sure.’

      ‘You’ll like these girls. But only when you get to know them as direct friends^. We gotta let them in. It’ll be fun.’

      ‘Maybe Jackson’s right,’ Shaun states. ‘We outnumber them. We’re the majority in this joint, just as if we were in the north. Maybe we need a spy anyway. A south-sider or two could totally help us out, help gather information for us.’

      ‘They’ll never help us,’ Chloe presses. ‘They’re virgins Shaun! Probably have Kallmann syndrome^^ too! They all do! These south-siders are frigid, frozen, raw! They feel nothing! And you wanna let one, two, of the savage beasts into our block? I can’t believe we’re even discussing this. We finally have a safe place where we don’t fear for our lives and you wanna let a couple of zombies through the front door! Way to destroy the positive mood. Don’t matter whether these girls are happy or sad when they enter, they’re so gonna bring us down^^^.’

      ‘It might be ready,’ Shaun says. He taps a finger twice on the fridge door and then strolls over to a cupboard. The door is already ajar and I watch as light – so dim - emanates from the inside of the cupboard, as though Mexicans crossing the border into the United States.

      ‘What?’ I say.

      ‘Nothing,’ Shaun replies. ‘Well . . . it’s something, but nothing to them. They won’t even know. Know how we were discussing the worm idea the other day at Bankstown?’

      ‘Yeah right? You expect me to believe that you got remote control worms in that cupboard?’

      ‘Not exactly,’ Shaun says. ‘I never got the chance to design them. But here I have the liquid which I was planning to soak them in after I’d built them. It’s a perfume, right? Get this: 5a-Androst-16-en-3-one^^. That’s the name. Totally odorless. It’s a pheromone. Once it enters someone’s system this person’s reward systems become activated. The pheromone runs through nerve zero^^ and this nerve releases the powerful sex hormone GnRH^^ into the person’s bloodstream.’

      ‘Are you saying you can change them?’ Chloe asks. ‘You can turn them into Protestants? Increase their promiscuity?’

      ‘It’s worth a shot,’ Shaun says. ‘I need to test out this formula on a south-sider eventually. So now might be my chance. Of course, I have no idea how Catholics process things mentally so I can’t be a hundred percent sure this will work. I have serotonin # also. There is a theory that Catholics are manically depressed, you see. This might explain why they dropped the bomb on the Harbour Bridge.’

      ‘Then the north struck back,’ Chloe states.

      ‘And that made you feel good?’ I ask. ‘Some striatum stimulation, perhaps? Schadenfreude?##’

      ‘What?’

      ‘Never mind. Look: if these girls are depressed then this also means that they are deep thinkers###. A depressed person would be far too smart and intelligent to ever wanna bomb the Harbour Bridge. Plus those with serotonin are usually more religious. Their brains are overloaded with sensory information#. I don’t think serotonin is what these girls need. Hey . . . you hear that?’

      ‘What?’ Chloe asks.

      ‘Put your earphone in. He’s talking to us. He says he wants us to let Jerri and Shelly in. It’s really important that we obey his instructions.’

      ‘Big brother?’ Shaun asks.

      ‘It’s the voice of the citizens of the planet,’ I say. ‘Yeah. He’s big alright.’

      ******

      References

      1 *Marano, H.. (2010, November). The World's First Health Food. Psychology Today, 43(6), 48. Retrieved December 4, 2010, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 2178206521).

      2 **Knaresboro, T.. (2010, November). The Pros of Probiotics. Psychology Today, 43(6), 46. Retrieved December 4, 2010, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 2178206511).

      3 ***Paolini, S., Hewstone, M., Cairns, E., & Voci, A. (2004). Effects of Direct and Indirect Cross-Group Friendships on Judgements of Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland: The Mediating Role of an Anxiety-Reduction Mechanism. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30(6), 770-786. doi: 10.1177/0146167203262848

      4 ^Paolini, S., Hewstone, M., & Cairns, E. (2007). Direct and Indirect Intergroup Friendship Effects: Testing the Moderating Role of the Affective-Cognitive Bases of Prejudice. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33(10), 1406-1420. doi: 10.1177/0146167207304788

      5 ^^Fields, D. (2007: Also in the 'Your Sexual Brain: How It Rules Your Life” special collection lift-out with the November-December issue). Sex and the Secret Nerve. Scientific American Mind, February-March, 21-27.

      6 ^^^Branan, N. (2010). The “Me” Effect. Scientific American Mind, November-December, 14-15.

      7 #Branan, N. (Reviewer) (2010). Review of: “Your Brain on Food – How Chemicals Control Your Thoughts and Feelings” by Gary L. Wenk. Scientific American Mind, November-December, 68.

      8 ##Anthes, E. (2010). Their Pain, Our Gain. Scientific American Mind, November-December, 39-41.

      9 ###Fabbrocile, F. (2010: A letter writer sure. But you'll find a million articles to back up the claim if you look hard enough). Happy Spenders. Scientific American Mind, November-December, 5. [Note: Scientific American Mind 75 Varick Street, 9th Floor New York, NY 10013; 212-451-8200; [email protected] for correspondence].

      SHELLY FREEMAN – 2:02pm - December 17 - 2011

      ‘Don’t be shy. Say whatever you like.’

      ‘I’m not shy,’ I retort. I blush. My cheeks light up like Rudolph’s nose. Inside the pores of my skin are tiny flames which burn so bright. ‘I just don’t know where to start. Um . . . ok. So hi. My name’s Shelly Freeman. I’m the lead female cast member. You’re probably wondering why I’m here, right? Why I’m actually inside Jackson’s beach house. I’m a catholic, a south-sider, and I’m inside a north-sider safe haven. Guess I’ve found out a lot about myself over this past week.’ – I place a finger on my bottom lip and trace some circles on the thin skin and feel spheres of sensation run deep into the soft apple which frames my mouth . . . as though worms. – ‘I feel lighter, light-headed. Free. They’re saying I ain’t weighed down by thoughts anymore: these are simply butterflies with wings like rose petals that I let free like they were pheromones. I don’t know.’ – I stretch – ‘My dorsomedial prefrontal cortex was a little less active just now: I couldn’t reason as well but I felt great*. My amygdala was less active also, so I wasn’t so vigilant. That was when her hand was inside mine . . . It sounds so silly but . . . her skin was so soft . . .’

      ‘Who?’

      'Jerri. I ran my fingers up her arm first. She was giggling: so beautifully, a spring bird singing – it felt like the rays of her voice were brushing my arm as summer sunlight. Then I traced this very path my fingers took with my bottom lip. Because your lips have the slimmest layer of skin on the human body**, you know that? The lips carry such a dense population of sensory neurons. So . . . this sounds silly . . .'

      'Go on. It's a diary. The others confess also. It's nothing to be ashamed of.'

      'I СКАЧАТЬ