The Unpredictable Essence of Humans

“Can anyone tell me about Murphy’s Law?” He said with a glint in his eye.

His eyes lifted to glance at the sea of confused faces. Their puzzled expressions exhilarated him. He loved explaining his favorite philosophy to a younger generation. The professor proudly inhaled the baffling tension in the room. He came back to life as his gaze met his enthralled students'. This would be the year. These are the right kids.

The confident girl in the front broke the silence “Sir, we all know that Murphy’s Law is: ‘If something can go wrong it will’ but why bring this up?..” This was not the statistics class that they signed up for. “Shouldn’t we be more concerned with…. math?” A crooked smirk formed on his face after the question was asked. Everything was going according to plan. In the stained lecture hall he did not see one graduate’s focus that was not on him. This was it, so he had better sell it.

“Great question, Stephanie!” he shouted exuberantly. “We have been doing nothing but looking at patterns of different companies, different animals, and different events to use distinct methods to predict what will happen next within a 95% certainty. As humans we are programmed to notice patterns. It’s how we learn, it's how we adapt, and it's how we have been able to exist for this long.” He peeked above his lecture podium to soak in the confusion his students felt. “But what if… there is no math that can predict what we, as humans, do next?”

“But there is.” Interrupted Dylan in the back. “we can still – and have been able- to predict what humans will do. I do not see the point here…”

“This is true! An exceptionally good point, Dylan.” the professor excitedly rejoined, like he was not only expecting this question but anticipating it. “We have been able to predict most human actions. We have been able to do so for years.” The students in his class now looked upset by his contradictions. His crooked smirk shifted into a delighted smile. “But… what if we predict what someone is going to do…and they do the exact opposite?” The crowd became more confused. “What about that five percent we haven’t been able to calculate for? I am talking about outliers we have witnessed already. Human’s actions are, insanely hard to predict, even if you try to evaluate what they will be doing in the stock market; it could change in an instant based on nostalgia and feelings of other humans. How do you explain it when a random stranger protects another stranger from death by risking death themselves? Does this not go against our instincts? Humans are incredible because there are some things they do that cannot be predicted.”

“Maybe the math is not there yet,” chirped Stephanie.

“Exactly, Stephanie!” He knew this would definitely be the year. “I would like to test this theory with all of you.” The class looked perturbed by the ridiculous ramblings of the professor; eager to hear what he said next. “I have set a bag in a tree.” He glanced sternly while making eye contact with the group before he spat out his next senseless words: “I have put this bag in the local swamp in the historical large tree. If anyone of you even looks in the bag I will cease to exist.” The students sat up. Clearly this man was insane.

“WHAT?!” spoke the shy girl in the back. The professor could not contain his excited look as he waited to hear what she would say next. “Professor Wood, why in the world would you do that? The swamp? With the crocodiles? The crocodiles that will kill you. Why would you do that and how did you not die? “

“Oh, but I did it. I put it in there 20 years ago. If anyone of you go near that bag, you do not only risk my life, but yours as well.” Everyone gasped. “I put this bag there for a reason. None of you are to go near it. If you do, all of you will fail the class and must retake it, not to mention the dangers of going into that swamp.” He looked thrilled at this statement. “That is all for class today. No one go near the big tree.” Professor Wood turned to exit, he almost skipped out the door leaving his graduate students with his insanity. The group was silent for five long seconds after he left.

“What the heck…?” Dylan started.

“Clearly he is senile.” said the shy girl in the back, rolling her eyes. “Are we done here?” she got up and began to leave. She did not want to be around that many people for that long, so she walked back to her house where her parents were waiting for her with dinner. As she was walking out of the classroom, she heard the excitement and madness of her classmates talking about the mysterious bag.

“Ashley! Here’s your dinner, sweetheart!” Ashley thanked her mom and went upstairs to her one place of solitude. She began to munch on her favorite foods while watching her favorite movie in her bed. “This is the life!” Ashley shouted in her head. Her fingers tapped on the glass of the window next to her bed…it is too hot outside. A cool bed, loving parents, her favorite foods, in her favorite atmosphere: complete solitude. Ashley’s mind wandered to the professor. What an insane man he was, clearly no one would go for that bag, why would he even bring it up? There are no benefits to looking into that bag; no stupid item would be worth risking their lives for. “They need to hire better professors. He should have been screened better before they hired him. Oh well,” She said under her breath. Right before Ashley put on her sound reducing headphones, she heard three clicks on her window. “Hail?” she questioned to herself.

She peeked outside to find the entire graduate class of Professor Wood throwing tiny pebbles at her window to get her attention. Fury encapsulated her as she slammed open the window. “WHAT?!?!” she shrieked at them.

“Ashley! We are going to get the bag and bring it back!” Dylan stated this as a matter of fact. Ashley was livid.

“Why?! That is the worst idea ever!” she screamed back.

“We think something valuable could be in there. We have to know!”

“I AM NOT GOING!” she shrieked.

“Come on, Ashley! All of us are going! We found a safe path that could lead us to the big tree.”

“DON’T! Do you even care about your well-being?!”

“Yeah, of course we do! But why would Mr. Wood say that thing about Murphy’s Law right before he left? Let’s show him we can do something he can't predict!”

“No way!” Ashley slammed her window. She was unsure of the cult-like actions of Professor Wood’s class. They will get hurt or the cops will catch them going into forbidden and dangerous territory and they would never make it to the bag. She put her headphones on and ignored her class outside, determined to salvage this night for herself.

The next morning, Ashley woke up, got ready and reluctantly went to class. She could not stop thinking about how dumb all her classmates would sound talking about how they almost grabbed the bag, but then chickened out. Professor Wood would have some stupid point to make about this, she was sure, but as soon as she entered the class…all her classmates were there early. They were silent. Ashley walked in and the eyes of her classmates were immediately on her. She loathed the attention. She just wanted a nice quiet life and to blend in without jeopardizing too much.

“We did it.” Stephanie stated looking directly at Ashley.

“You what?” She replied back.

“We did it. We found the bag in the tree and we took it.”

“WHAT?!” Ashley angrily screamed at the crowd. “IDIOTS! We surely get in trouble now!” Words were pouring out of her mouth “How could you do something so stupi-“

“Don’t you want to know what’s in it?” Dylan said with a smirk.

“NO.” she replied, very firm on her decision. “I will not be a part of this at all.”

“You have to.” Said Stephanie. As she directed a few students to block the exits.

“WHAT IS GOING ON!?” Ashley was clearly having a nightmare.

“Dr. Wood did not show up to work today.” Stephanie said somberly. “He’s gone, Ashley.”

“What are you on about?!” yelled Ashley as she tried to get past the barricade of students to escape this madness.

“They do not know where he is. He is gone.” Stephanie choked a little on the last sentence. “We did this.” Tears started streaming down her face. Rage coated Ashley’s throat “YOU COMPLETE MORONS! How could you want to find this stupid bag after all tha-“

“Ashley look in the bag.” Dylan demanded.

“No!” Ashley screamed; but the bag was emptied right before her eyes. A small Moleskine black notebook and twenty thousand dollars were in the bag. “What the heck?” She asked.

“This little black book has all the answers” Stephanie looked intoxicated by the curiosity, but devastated that she could not hold onto it further. “Read it. It has all these calculations to locate the exact locations of mythical creatures.” Ashley’s eyes widened. “There’s locations of vampires, bigfoot, even Eden the Garden of Life.” No words came out of Ashley’s mouth. She was stunned. “On the last page it says in order for our teacher to return, we must return the book.”

“WHY?!” shouted Ashley.

“Do not shout at me. We need to get our teacher back.” Stephanie said with a stern tone.

“Are you just going to risk your lives again for some stupid fake book?! You cannot go back to the swamp!”

“We need to find him.”

“What makes you think you can find him by following the insane ramblings of this notebook?”

“He wrote this book. At the very end it says the only way to see him again is to return the book to the tree. We have to try-”

“Oh, come on, Stephanie.” Dylan interrupted “You saw the professor’s face. He wanted us to look for this. Why else would he have brought it up? Maybe none of this is real, but I know for a fact Mr. Wood would have wanted us to use the twenty-thousand dollars to follow this book and travel anywhere to unlock these mysteries.”

“We decided we are not going!” Stephanie snapped. “I will return our professor.”

This was everything Ashley didn’t like; no solitude, no comforts, no family, all to risk her own life. She needs to get home and decompress from the bandwagon of lunacy in the room, but the students blocked her exit.

“Sorry, Ashley...” Stephanie said with a hint of remorse. “…the book says all of our class has to put the book back if we want to see the professor again.” Ashley’s arms were restrained by her classmates as they tied her up and loaded her in the trunk of Dylan’s beat-up van. Everyone in the van could hear her muffled protests and squirming in the back seat with all the luggage. The classmates sat in silence as Dylan drove them back to the crocodile infested waters.

“We are going to put the book back, save our teacher, and then NEVER speak of this again.” Dylan declared as everyone got out of his van. He lifted the trunk to grab Ashley. “I’m sorry Ash-“

Ashley was gone. To the classmates’ surprise, she had escaped. What is worse; she uncharacteristically took the bag containing the money and the black book with her.

“I do not think any of us could have predicted that!” joked Dylan.