Chapter 22: CHAPTER 22 – EXPLANATIONS ABOUT A PECULIAR WORLD
*Note: The explanation you will be able to read in the next two chapters, that is, in this and the next one, is the same as in the book. I did that because of the people who doesn't know about the background of this world or don't remember.
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...
Normally I wouldn't copy anything from the book because I want to do it my way, but it's very important that you know about the background of this world. I obviously know it because I have it recently, but I've copied it for those people who don't remember it, who just saw the movie or that, people who are discovering the world of peculiars with me for the first time.
After these two chapters, everything will return to normal. Again, it is important to know the background of the world for future history, that's why I copied the explanation.
...
I followed Miss Peregrine down a wide corridor to what appeared to be a school classroom. In fact, it was identical to one, a blackboard, a few tables with their respective chairs and a huge desk in front of all those tables, surely that is where Miss Peregrine sat to teach the peculiar children.
"Sit down, please" - said Miss Peregrine.
Again I nodded and sat down.
"Tell me, Mr. Portman, what exactly do you know about our world? That way we will go faster" – said Mis Peregrine placing herself in front of me.
"I only know about you and a little about the loops that they told me on the way while they were holding me as a hostage" – I said.
"I see, so Abe didn't explain anything at all. I didn't expect that" – Miss Peregrine said somewhat thoughtfully.
Neither did I, but not only in this world, but when I read the books and saw the movie as well. In fact, I always wondered why his grandfather hadn't told Jacob anything about the peculiar world. I mean, he told him about Miss Peregrine and everyone else who lived in this house. Couldn't he has explained something more? For example, what loops are and how they work or something like that.
Right now my sealed memories don't help either because they make me look as ignorant as the original Jacob. But I assure you that, when I remember all or most of them, I won't need to ask these tedious questions because in my memories I have everything I need to know. As I said before, my memory is very good, it's not that I have a photographic memory or anything like that, but I can perfectly remember the story of a book and a movie that I liked. I would never forget that no matter how hard I tried.
[Have partient, the moment will arrive]
I have a lot of patient, believe me.
"I don't know what to say" – I said with a shrug.
I really didn't know what to say. Why didn't Grandpa tell me anything? (When I wasn't Jacob), I don't understand. Did I want to protect him? It seems right to me that he wanted to protect him, but let's be clear. It was impossible for someone as old as him he could protect me from such a threat (although he was very clever, I mean). He should have told me all or at least a large part, so that when i came here, i would not be treated as ignorant.
I don't consider myself an exceptional or anything like that, but I do know a lot about many topics and I'm an expert in some of them, while I'm a complete novice in many others. However, it's been years since I've been in a situation where I literally don't know anything about the topic.
And what made me most angry of all was not that my grandfather didn't tell me anything, but that I didn't have access to memories that would give me an absolute advantage in this world.
"Either way allow me to give you a brief basic introduction. I think you will be able to find the answer to many of your questions thanks to it" – Miss Peregrine said.
"Perfect, I'll hear it" – I nodded.
"The composition of the human species is infinitely more varied than most humans suspect it to be" - she began to explain.
Seeing that Jacob was looking at her expectantly to know what she was going to say next, she continued:
"The real taxonomy of Homo sapiens is a secret known to only a few, of whom you shall soon be one. It's a simple dichotomy, really: there are the coerfolc, the teeming mass of common people who make up humanity's great bulk; and then there is the hidden branch, the cryptosapiens, if you will, known as the syndrigast—the 'peculiar spirit'—in the venerable language of my ancestors. As you have no doubt surmised, we here belong to the latter type" – explained Miss Peregrine.
At that moment, I felt the same sensation of freshness running through my body and, suddenly, I remembered that I had already read this in the book. Those memories had been unlocked by listening to them, but... why do I need them now that she is already explaining to me?
"I understand, though, I'd like to know why they're hiding, I mean, I've never heard of a peculiar person, so they're technically hiding from normal people, am I wrong?" – I said.
Now I know all that and why they hide too, but hearing it from the real person is much more exciting than reading about it in books. That's why I asked.
"That's right Mr. Portman, we are indeed hidden from normal people" - Miss Peregrine agreed.
"Hmm, I've deduced why you hide, but I'd like to hear it from you to prove my theory" – I said.
"You see, there are peculiars all over the world. However our numbers are far lower than they were in the past, and those who are left alive live hidden among us... That is the part that you have surely deduced, but there is more. In the past, there was a time when we could openly mix with normal people. In fact, in some places of the world we were considered shamans and mystics, and we were consulted when there had problems" - she explained.
"And what happened to make them end up hiding?" – I asked.
"That's what I'm going to explain, be patient. As I was saying, a few cultures have kept up friendly relations with our kind, though only in places where both modernity and the major religions have failed to take root—such as the black-magic island of Ambrym in the New Hebrides—but the world at large has long since turned against us. The Muslims drove us out. The Christians burned us as witches. Even the pagans of Wales and Ireland came to believe we were all changeling spirits and malevolent faeries" - explained Miss Peregrine.
I was so immersed in hearing what she was saying that I began to ignore everything around me. Told by her, that whole story seemed like fiction. In fact, when I read it I thought it was, fiction created by the imagination of a talented person who one day came up with an incredible idea and decided to put it on paper or on the computer. But at that moment I never believed that I would really listen to someone whom I thought was fictitious in person. For the first time I was so excited that I forgot where I was and I just listened to hrt fantastic story, a story that seemed completely unreal, invented, but that in this world was a reality, a reality in which tens of thousands of people lived and not a simple book or a movie where everything was it is false. This is real life and the problems they have are real, they are alive, they think, feel and suffer like all humans on my previous planet. I was amazed by all this...
"You seem extremely interested in the subject, Mr. Portman" - said Miss Peregrine.
"I'm so sorry, but it still seems so... unreal that sometimes I think I'm having a dream and that at any moment I'm going to wake up and everything will go back to normal" – I answered.
These were my real thoughts. Everything that was happening to me was so exciting that I was worried that this was a figment of my imagination, that I actually fell asleep in my bed and that soon I will wake up and go back to my shitty life, that I will be unhappy again in a normal and boring world.
"This is as real as you and me, Mr. Portman, but I understand that it may sound to you as if this were unreal, fantastic, like a fairy tale. After all you grew up with normals and even though your grandfather told you about our existence, you didn't believe him, that's why you think like that. But believe me when I tell you that this is not a dream. I am as real as you and vice versa" – said Miss Peregrine.
[She is absolutely right, this is not a dream, now it is a reality and all these people are real and not NPCs or actors who work in exchange for a millionaire salary]
"I know... but even so it still seems to me... I wouldn't know how to describe it correctly" – I said.
This was my answer to the system and Miss Peregrine.
"I understand what you will be feeling right now, but let me first finish what I was going to tell you. You might also think, since the normal people disowned us, why don't we create our own country made up only of peculiar people?" – Miss Peregrine continued.
Actually, I know, those were one of the few memories I don't have sealed, but anyway, I'll play along.
"It certainly makes sense, but I suppose that if it was not done it is because there is something wrong. Otherwise a country would have already been built entirely made up of peculiars" – I nodded.
"You are very sharp, yes, unfortunately it is not feasible since peculiar traits often skip a generation, or ten. Peculiar children do not always, or even as a rule, beget peculiar children. Can you imagine, in a world so fearful of what is different, why this would be a danger to the whole peculiar race?" – Miss Peregrine explained.
"Yes, in the event that, for example, a peculiar child is born from completely normal parents. I think they would be surprised if suddenly their son began to manifest strange powers, am I wrong?" – I answered.
I already knew this, that's why I was able to answer the question. However, even if I hadn't known the answer, it would be easy to deduce it. It is clear that any normal person would have a heart attack if his/her son with supernatural powers is born.
"You are not mistaken, Mr. Portman, you are absolutely right. The offspring of ordinary parents are often mistreated and neglected in the most horrific ways...