**Episode 59 – THE HEDONIC TREADMILL**
**Part Three: The Race Toward Tomorrow**
---
For a long while...
Nobody spoke.
The giant wooden wheel stood silently in the clearing.
Its shadow stretched across the grass like the hand of an enormous clock.
The jungle, usually impatient to interrupt every thoughtful moment with birdsong or monkey-related disasters, remained strangely quiet.
Even the wind seemed reluctant to offer an opinion.
---
Tarzan slowly walked around the wheel.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
He crouched.
Peeked underneath.
Tapped the wood.
Then placed one ear against it.
Everyone watched.
"...IS IT ALIVE?"
he whispered.
Professor Gandalf smiled.
"Only metaphorically."
Tarzan nodded thoughtfully.
"...THAT IS THE HARDEST KIND OF ALIVE."
---
Dr. Milo Finch ran his fingers across the carved symbols.
"There has to be more."
"There always is."
Gandalf replied.
"This wheel isn't about happiness."
"It is about adaptation."
---
Milo frowned.
"Those aren't the same thing."
"No."
"They're neighbors."
---
Arjun folded his arms.
"So if every achievement eventually feels normal..."
"...why achieve anything at all?"
The question settled over the clearing.
It wasn't cynical.
It was honest.
---
Gandalf looked toward the river winding through the jungle.
Instead of answering...
He asked one.
"Does anyone remember their first night here?"
---
Everyone did.
---
The jungle had terrified them.
Every rustling leaf sounded like danger.
Every unknown animal seemed enormous.
Even sleeping had required courage.
---
Milo remembered sitting awake until sunrise.
Convinced that something with far too many teeth was studying him from the darkness.
It had turned out to be a very curious deer.
---
Diana smiled.
"I jumped every time a branch cracked."
---
Meera laughed.
"I refused to leave the camp after sunset."
---
Tarzan looked confused.
"I SLEPT WONDERFULLY."
Everyone turned toward him.
"You did?"
"YES."
"What about the noises?"
"I MADE LOUDER ONES."
---
Even Gandalf laughed.
---
Then the professor asked quietly,
"And how do you feel about the jungle now?"
---
Nobody answered immediately.
Because they all knew.
The jungle hadn't become safer.
They had simply become...
Used to it.
---
"The jungle didn't change."
Gandalf said.
"Your nervous system did."
He pointed toward the wheel.
"The same thing happens with happiness."
---
Milo's eyes widened.
"So our emotional baseline keeps moving."
"Exactly."
---
"The extraordinary becomes ordinary."
---
"The impossible becomes expected."
---
"The miraculous becomes Tuesday."
---
Tarzan looked offended.
"I LIKE TUESDAYS."
---
Professor Gandalf continued.
"The first time you drink cool water after crossing a desert..."
"...it feels like a gift from the universe."
"The thousandth glass..."
"...barely receives your attention."
---
Meera looked at the Moon Blossom she carried.
"I searched twenty years for this flower."
She traced one glowing petal with her finger.
"Yesterday I thought nothing could ever make me happier."
She sighed softly.
"This morning..."
"I was already wondering if an even rarer flower existed."
---
"Precisely."
said Gandalf.
"The mind quietly whispers..."
**'What next?'**
---
"And it never stops."
---
Tarzan stared thoughtfully into the distance.
"...MY MIND IS VERY DEMANDING."
---
"It is."
Gandalf replied.
"So is everyone's."
---
A sudden shriek echoed overhead.
One of the younger monkeys swung triumphantly from vine to vine carrying an enormous coconut.
"I FOUND THE BIGGEST ONE!"
he shouted.
Every monkey below erupted into cheers.
The young monkey grinned proudly.
He climbed onto a high branch and held the coconut above his head like a trophy.
"I AM LEGENDARY!"
---
Exactly one minute later...
An older monkey wandered past carrying an even larger coconut.
Without saying a word.
The cheering immediately shifted.
"WOW!"
"LOOK AT THAT ONE!"
"INCREDIBLE!"
The young monkey looked down at his own prize.
It hadn't changed.
But somehow...
It felt smaller.
---
He quietly climbed down.
Sat beneath the tree.
And muttered,
"...I was legendary for almost a minute."
---
Professor Gandalf pointed gently toward him.
"Observe."
---
"The younger monkey didn't lose anything."
---
"The coconut is exactly the same size."
---
"The only thing that changed..."
"...was the comparison."
---
Milo wrote furiously in his notebook.
> **Comparison alters satisfaction without altering reality.**
He underlined it three times.
---
Tarzan scratched his chin.
"So..."
"If everyone around me catches bigger fish..."
"...MY FISH SHRINKS?"
---
"No."
said Gandalf.
"Only inside your imagination."
---
Tarzan gasped dramatically.
"...IMAGINATION IS A MENACE."
---
Diana smiled.
"It can be."
---
The professor slowly walked toward the wheel once more.
"This is why people often believe..."
'The next promotion will finally make me happy.'
'The next invention.'
'The next adventure.'
'The next treasure.'
'The next victory.'
---
He gently spun the wheel again.
"It does."
"For a while."
---
The wheel kept turning.
"And then..."
"...your mind quietly moves the finish line."
---
Everyone watched the wheel rotate.
Slowly.
Relentlessly.
Without malice.
Without mercy.
---
Tarzan suddenly stepped forward.
"I OBJECT."
Everyone looked at him.
"If happiness keeps moving..."
"...I SHALL RUN FASTER."
---
Before anyone could respond...
He sprinted toward the wheel.
Leaped onto one of its wooden spokes.
The wheel immediately began spinning.
At first...
Gracefully.
Then...
Much faster.
---
Tarzan laughed triumphantly.
"I AM CATCHING HAPPINESS!"
The wheel accelerated.
Around...
And around...
And around.
---
For one glorious moment...
He looked magnificent.
A jungle warrior racing toward destiny itself.
---
Then centrifugal force remembered it existed.
Tarzan's expression changed.
"...THIS HAS BECOME..."
Another rotation.
"...SIGNIFICANTLY..."
Another rotation.
"...MORE EDUCATIONAL..."
Another rotation.
"...THAN I ANTICIPATED!"
---
He continued circling the wheel at astonishing speed.
"I BELIEVE..."
Whoosh.
"...I HAVE MADE..."
Whoosh.
"...A TACTICAL..."
Whoosh.
"...MISTAKE!"
---
Finally...
The wheel slowed.
Tarzan stumbled onto the grass.
Collapsed onto his back.
And stared at the clouds.
---
After nearly a full minute...
He raised one finger.
Without sitting up.
"I HAVE DISCOVERED..."
Everyone leaned closer.
"...THAT CHASING HAPPINESS..."
A deep breath.
"...CAN CAUSE DIZZINESS."
---
Nobody argued.
Mostly because everyone was laughing too hard.
---
Professor Gandalf smiled.
"An unexpectedly accurate conclusion."
---
The afternoon sun drifted westward.
Long shadows stretched across the clearing.
The great wooden wheel stood motionless once more.
Patient.
Waiting.
As if it had all the time in the world.
Because perhaps...
It did.
---
**To be continued...**
**Episode 59 – THE HEDONIC TREADMILL**
**Part Four: The Merchant of Tomorrow**
---
The laughter slowly faded.
Tarzan was still lying flat on the grass.
His hair pointed in directions that geometry had never intended.
He stared at the clouds with profound concentration.
"I CAN SEE TWO MOONS."
Milo glanced upward.
"It is three o'clock in the afternoon."
"They ARE VERY WELL HIDDEN."
---
Professor Gandalf offered him a hand.
Tarzan accepted it.
Immediately lost his balance again.
Recovered.
Then proudly announced,
"I MEANT TO DO THAT."
Nobody challenged the statement.
There were battles not worth fighting.
---
The afternoon drifted lazily through the jungle.
Warm sunlight filtered through the leaves.
The air smelled of wet earth and wild jasmine after the previous night's rain.
Everything felt peaceful.
Almost...
Too peaceful.
---
Then...
A bell rang.
*Ding.*
Another.
*Dong.*
Then a cheerful voice echoed through the forest.
"Wonderful dreams!"
"Better tomorrows!"
"Guaranteed happiness!"
---
Everyone turned.
Even the monkeys stopped stealing from each other.
Which was statistically extraordinary.
---
A brightly painted wagon emerged from between the trees.
It was pulled by two elderly tortoises who looked as though they had signed the employment contract sometime during the previous century.
The wagon itself glittered with colorful banners.
Tiny golden bells hung from every corner.
Dozens of strange bottles, clocks, mirrors, and boxes decorated the shelves.
A large wooden sign swung above the entrance.
It read:
**THE MERCHANT OF TOMORROW**
*"Today's happiness is good.*
*Tomorrow's happiness is better."*
---
Tarzan's eyes widened.
"...I DO NOT TRUST ANYTHING..."
"...THAT RHYMES."
---
The wagon stopped in the middle of the clearing.
Its owner stepped down.
He was an elderly man with bright silver hair, an emerald-green coat, polished boots, and a smile so confident that it appeared to arrive several seconds before the rest of him.
He bowed dramatically.
"Good afternoon!"
"I sell futures."
---
Milo frowned.
"Financial investments?"
"Oh no."
The merchant laughed.
"Far more valuable."
"I sell..."
He spread his arms.
"...future happiness."
---
Silence.
---
Tarzan whispered,
"...IS THAT LEGAL?"
---
The merchant ignored the question.
"I have exactly what each of you desires."
He walked toward Milo.
"You."
He produced a tiny brass telescope.
"This allows you to glimpse the invention that will make your current invention seem primitive."
---
Milo blinked.
"...Excuse me?"
---
He turned toward Meera.
"For you..."
He revealed a crystal box.
Inside rested a tiny glowing seed.
"The flower that blooms only once every thousand years."
---
Meera's eyes widened despite herself.
---
The merchant continued.
"Diana."
He produced a compass made from silver.
"It never points north."
"It points toward undiscovered places."
---
Diana stared.
---
"Arjun."
Out came another map.
Older.
Larger.
Covered with even stranger symbols.
"The map beyond the map."
---
Finally...
He stood before Tarzan.
After a dramatic pause...
He lifted an enormous fishing hook made of polished gold.
"The fish..."
he whispered reverently,
"...even bigger."
---
Tarzan gasped so loudly that several birds evacuated nearby trees.
---
Professor Gandalf remained completely silent.
Watching.
Waiting.
---
The merchant smiled.
"You see?"
"There is always..."
"...something more."
---
Tarzan reached for the golden hook.
Milo caught his wrist.
"Wait."
Tarzan frowned.
"...WHY?"
---
Milo looked toward Gandalf.
The old professor hadn't moved.
He simply observed the merchant with calm curiosity.
As though he had met him before.
Perhaps many times.
---
The merchant noticed.
He smiled politely.
"Professor."
"It has been a while."
---
Tarzan looked back and forth between them.
"...YOU KNOW THE HAPPINESS SALESMAN?"
---
Gandalf chuckled.
"I know his profession."
---
The merchant bowed again.
"I merely help people pursue their dreams."
---
"Do you?"
Gandalf asked gently.
"Or do you help them postpone their contentment?"
---
The clearing became very quiet.
---
The merchant's smile never disappeared.
"Without tomorrow..."
"...who would strive today?"
---
"And without appreciating today..."
Gandalf replied,
"...who will ever arrive tomorrow?"
---
Neither man sounded angry.
They sounded...
Like two chess masters making their opening moves.
---
The merchant slowly walked around the great wooden wheel.
"What a lovely symbol."
he said.
"But incomplete."
---
"Oh?"
---
"You teach that happiness fades."
"Correct."
---
"But surely..."
The merchant smiled.
"...the solution is simply greater happiness."
He tapped the golden fishing hook.
"A larger victory."
"A rarer flower."
"A greater invention."
"A richer treasure."
"One more achievement."
---
Tarzan nodded enthusiastically.
"...HE IS MAKING ALARMING AMOUNTS OF SENSE."
---
Professor Gandalf looked toward the horizon.
"The horizon."
he said quietly.
"Tell me..."
He pointed into the distance.
"If you walk toward it all day..."
"...when do you finally reach it?"
---
The merchant said nothing.
---
"You don't."
Gandalf answered.
"Because the horizon isn't a destination."
"It moves."
---
He looked at each member of the group.
"So does the version of happiness that always depends on..."
"...one more thing."
---
The merchant folded his arms.
"And yet..."
He smiled.
"People always buy."
---
Nobody could argue with that.
Because everyone knew...
At least once in their lives...
They already had.
---
Tarzan slowly looked at the golden fishing hook.
Then at his enormous fish back in camp.
Then back at the hook.
His expression changed.
Not dramatically.
Just...
Thoughtfully.
---
"...IF I CATCH A BIGGER FISH..."
he asked quietly,
"...HOW LONG BEFORE..."
"...I WANT AN EVEN BIGGER ONE?"
---
For the first time all afternoon...
The Merchant of Tomorrow did not answer.
---
Professor Gandalf did.
"Usually..."
He smiled warmly.
"...by tomorrow."
---
The wind gently stirred the leaves.
The bells on the merchant's wagon chimed softly.
No one reached for the treasures anymore.
Not because they had become worthless.
But because everyone had begun wondering whether they were chasing the treasures...
Or whether the treasures had been chasing them all along.
---
** TO BE CONTINUED **
Written By,
Ivan Edwin
Pen Name :Maximus.
©All Rights Reserved