River of Dreams #33: Coffee Shop Enlightenment II

Posted on November 2, 2010 by randomyriad

Chapter 17

Coffee Shop of Enlightenment II

“I stayed with the Talagi a year with nothing better to do than to learn their language, hunt and fish. I got pretty good at all three.”

“They talked a lot about ‘the last child of the water people’. She was only part water person and part human or ‘people with hair only on their heads’ as they called us, ‘like him,’ they would always point me out being the only one around.”

“Anyway after a year of living among them, they came to me and said they had a way I could repay my debt to them. I said I would be willing to do anything within my power that did not involve killing people including their kind. They said all I had to do was make sure ‘the child of the water people’ was safe and in a place were she could grow strong for many years. I thought it sounded reasonable.”

“So you wan’ me to believe Iyam the queen of de mermaids?”

“No, the water people were mostly human with a little bit of a race that the Talagi say came out of the dream world, Tegethnot, long ago, and somehow managed to live in the waking world and have since died out. You have a small part of that inheritance, but it is very important in being able to travel with purpose in the dream world.”

“Then why would Random have thees skeel?”

“I don’t know. I’m just telling you what I know.”

“Who sent you here now?’

“I got a message sent from Venezuela by cable. It just gave today’s date and said this exactly: ‘Somewhere east of Santa Cruz and West of Los Gatos, California. Esmeralda needs to know’. So I drove up from LA where I was staying with friends and stayed last night in San Jose. I started this morning at Los Gatos. And, here we are.”

“Thees ees why youwar not surprised to see me here.”

“I figured it had to do with you and all that stuff they told me you were supposed to get strong for.”

“So you took me to the USA because dat ees where you could keep me safe and geev me help to become strong.”

“That’s right.”

“And you have fun along the way weeth a girl you don’ really love.”

“I said I loved you, and I mean it, and I did then.”

“But, you leave me as soon as you can, when I get my papers,” she could still feel the pain of that day when she read his note. It said: Sorry, I wish I was strong enough for you, but you are strong enough for yourself. She knew those words by heart. She had not felt so strong, but Random helped her to see it.

“We just weren’t working out. You gotta know that. We were not good for each other, and I still could not tell you about the Talagi and all that, because you still wouldn’t believe me.”

“You was always lying to me.”

“I was trying to hang in there until you could make it on your own.”

“Random, he loves me, I know. He don’ lie to me,” tears were leaking out of Essie’s eyes and running down her cheeks as she said this softly, but not to Jered.

“I’m glad to hear that. Man is a good guy.” Jarrod said gently and smiled and chuckled a little, “Of course his plans were always gone astray, but still he kept us on the map. And that old wild man Steve. It has been longer than I expected.” He was silent for a while and then continued as if he hadn’t been sidetracked.

“When the Talagi sent me to you. They told me that there were forces who were close to finding you that would cause you to lose that part of you that was of the water people. Choices that you would have to make to survive would destroy the part of you that came from the water. I didn’t completely understand, but when I met you and saw your struggles, I knew I had to take you back to the US with me some way.”

“And you lie to me again an’ again. Why should I beleef you now, tell me?”

“Because, like I said, I loved you from the first time I met you and now and forever. It’s not my fault we can’t live together without tearing each other to pieces.” Jered was totally unperturbed by her passion, but not disrespectful of it.

“Oh, right, so you said before.”

“So you’ve stuck with Random? I was happy that you went to him, but I thought he wouldn’t be able to handle your temper.”

“He deedn’t pees me off so much as you,” she said with naked spite.

“I know you want me to fight with you now, but I can’t, not even for old times’ sake. Time is too precious. Some one called me this morning (I don’t know how they found me.) and said whatever your task is needs to be completed by midnight tonight, and there are balancing forces to overcome in order to keep certain aspects of the whole equation viable and safe including that part of you that belongs to the dream world.”

“But, maybe I don’ want to be part of that any more. Maybe I am bedder off weeth out eet. I would steel be with my Random weeth out these stupid dreams.” The more she thought about spirits using her to fulfill some purpose she was not even let in on, the more she thought she should just go home to Random and forget the whole thing.

Jered could tell he was losing her to her anger.

“Look, your anger is a perfectly right reaction to this situation. But you have to understand that my only interest in this is to pay back an old debt. I have no idea if what you are doing is right or will make something good come about, although I get the feeling that it probably will preserve something ancient and beautiful like an artifact from an ancient civilization, only this is preserving ancient spirits and symbols. Things that you hold inside you and if you find the dreamer and wake him then you will share this and spread it enough to make it strong enough to survive at least one more generation.”

“But, you don’ know xacly what eet ees?”

“No not being of the dream world or even understanding what the fuck that means. I can only say what I have said and probably I am guessing about a lot of that.”

“You are a stupid, stupid, foolish man, and you hurt me so much, but I see you telling the truth now. Mebbe I wanted to believe someone would love me so much to do the things you deed for me. It made me feel bery eemportant.”

“You are very important to me and always will be.”

“Yes, I know always have been from the day we blah, blah de blah . . . “ she held her hand up like a puppet and moved the fingers and thumb opening and closing it like a mouth.

Jered laughed and nodded toward her hand.

“You’re friend there is not very articulate.”

“You are always so smart. But I forgive you anyway for my sanities sake.”

“Thank you. It really means a lot to me.”

“So, what zacly I gotta do to pull dees teeng off.”

“We’ve got to find a place somewhere near hear that has a stream running through it and a yellow house and cows. They showed me a picture in my head somehow, but it was kind of underdeveloped and out of focus.”

“I theenk I know jes’ de place, but I haf to wait for a friend of mine to get home from school.”

Jarrod looked puzzled.

“Eet is a long story. And she is worth waiting for I tell you sumtin’.”

She told Jarrod about Maddie and The Eagle Tree Ranch and all that had happened the last two days.

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River of Dreams #32: Coffee Shop Enlightenment I

Posted on November 1, 2010 by randomyriad

Chapter 17

The coffee shop of enlightenment I

The coffee shop was bustling around Jered and Essie. Dishes clanked and orders flew. The cash register chinged, rattled and zipped. People moved in and out greeting and parting. None of this penetrated the bubble of intense space around the two in their booth. The waitress took their order and brought it without intrusion. All was suspended inside the conversation. The hum and hubbub around them broke like waves around a glass wall.

“I am sorry if I caused you worry. I just got caught up on another track for a while,” Jered explained once they had settled. “My father got sick. I went to see him, and one thing led to another. And, I kinda lost track of phone numbers and addresses. You know how it goes.”

“Do you remember the day we met?” Jered asked after a short silence.

“I was on that reever taxi on my way back to Esmeralda to geev my mother the drugs for her pain.”

“Do you know why I was on that boat?”

“You were on an adventure, right? Seeing de world.”

“I was sent there to find you.”

“Why? By who?”

“The Talagi,” Jarrod smiled and his pale blue eyes challenged her to believe him.
”You are jes’ trying to get me to laugh or scare me or sumtin’. Well?” Essie challenged him back with her chin, looking sideways at him her lips tight.

“Essie, you can’t scare me. I’ve been too many places and seen too much. I know I hurt you, but I stayed with you long enough for you to become a citizen and get a good start here. That was my commitment from the start.”

“What are you talkin’ about? We was married, and then you jes’ lef me and den you show up a coupla times here and there and then you are gone forever.”

“I knew you wouldn’t believe me back then. I couldn’t tell you until now, now that you need to know what really happened, so that you can go in with your eyes open.”

Essie’s face was blank with confusion and hurt.

“Our whole life together was a lie?”

“Not a lie, I still love you, Essie. You have to know that, but the marriage was to get you situated and strong here, to put you in a better place with helpers around. So that when the time came to do what you need to do, you could be strong and ready.”

“What was wrong with Esmeralda?”

“Your family was all dead and any allies you had were gone. And your benefactors could not help you anymore for fear of being discovered by lumber company workers. They had to move deep into the rainforest, but they couldn’t until they knew you were safe and growing strong, preparing for the task that they knew was coming.”

“What task, and who are these benefactors you speak of?” Essie’s voice rose a little and quickened with impatience.

“The Talagi were your benefactors. They knew the truth about you and your heritage.”

“The monkey people? They are bedtime story people not real, not someone who you talk too?”

“I did.”

“When? How? And why couldn’t you tell me then?”

“Would you have come to America with a man who talked to monkey people and told you that you were a child of the water people?”

“No, probably not. I would probably think you were crazy and not talk to you.”

“Which is why I am talking to you about it now that I am not trying to get you to do anything but know the truth and help you with your task.”

“I know Iyam supposed to do somethin’, but eet ees not clear at all. Eet has to do weetha farm and Random and a black bird and a dreamer that needs to be awake.”

“Random? I didn’t know he was involved. I knew you were living with him, but I thought he would just be on the side.”

“Hees part of the dreams Iyam having. Hees so much a part of my life. I need hees help. I need his help!” When she realized that she was almost pleading, Essie straightened up and tried not to look like the lost, little girl she felt like.

“I believe you. I’m not aware of all the nuances involved. Just that you need to know that you have special powers in the dream world, the Talagi call ‘Tegethnot’. ”  He said the last word as if it were a delicate explosive device that he did not want to trigger.

“That’s what the bird keep saying when I see heem.”

“He is the guide and messenger for the ones who want you to succeed.”

“Who are thees ones that want me to do the task, to wake the Dreamer, the Talagi?”

“No, they are just interested bystanders with a lot of information.”

“How deed you meet the Talagi? not that I believe you yet.”

“I was with a friend on a backpacking expedition. He was looking for a new species of monkey that he had heard about that lived near the Orinoco deep in the forest upriver from Esmeralda. He was from Venezuela and went to college at Stanford. I met him at a party in Berkeley. I told him about some of my experiences in survival and world travel which I exaggerated. In my youth I was a very good liar as you know.”

She kicked him under the table without changing her expression.

He smiled and shrugged, “hey, can I help it if people believe me?”

“Never again, jerk!” Essie hissed not too harshly.

Jered nodded sympathetically and continued after a slight pause.

“Well, anyway, he let me come along on his expedition, and there we were in the middle of the rainforest with 5 guides, 3 biologists and me. We were on a small tributary of the Orinoco when my boat with a guide and supplies got separated from the others in a rapid. The guide drowned. I made it to shore, banged up and water logged but not too bad off. I waited on the edge of river for 2 days. I had to drink the water or die. But, I got so sick I was feverish and hallucinating. I saw talking monkeys before I passed out and thought I was a goner. Turned out I wasn’t hallucinating. There were talking monkeys, and they saved me.”

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River of Dreams #31: Monday Morning

Posted on October 31, 2010 by randomyriad

Chapter 16

III

A Storm of Horses Coming

 

Emmylou dreamed of beautiful grey horses running, six of them running across a dawn field. There was a murmuring music that gave the whole scene a clear consistent rhythm. The drumming of hooves and music like water over stones as the horses shifted positions in their steady progress in a weaving dance. They came to sudden curves and moved as one to shift into the center of a broad path. She was not one of the horses but her mind was guiding them some how to find the right pattern and path.

Masses of ominous dark clouds loomed in the distance and thunder rolled like timpani along with steady rhythm of horses hooves coming closer and louder. They were all coming here to do something, to complete something. She was a part but somehow not involved, an audience with limited participation for a show as big as the earth. She felt the immensity of the horses their mighty bodies pounding down the earth yet leaving no trace as they passed.

She woke expecting to hear the drumbeat of hooves, but the night was oppressively still and the room seemed confining after the expansive space of the dream.

She sighed and snuggled down into a more comfortable position and immediately fell into sleep.

IV

Maddie the Mermaid

After the dream of the snake, Maddie gave up on sleeping for a while. She got out her history book and started reading something about the Missouri River and Lewis and Clarke. She lay on her stomach her elbows planted to either side of the book, her palms supporting her chin. Every now and then her eyelids drifted down to cover her eyes. She shook herself awake a few times, planting her chin firmly on her palms.

Finally gravity and sleep won out. She drifted off into an easy dream of the lake and the musical reeds. They played like panpipes, a river song. It was a river not a lake. She parted the reeds and saw through the warped glassy ripples of the current, fish, silver and flashing. Maddie realized that she was a mermaid and dove into the water, moving with the fish.

A man sat watching from the bank. He scooped her out and tossed her on the bank. Then she was a fish, flopping and wriggling and gulping for air. He carried her up the steep bank, showing her to a woman.

“This is the one I caught,” He said.

When the woman raised her head she could see it was Essie. Maddie tried to speak but couldn’t. Her mouth opened and closed without any sound.

“That ees the wrongwon,” Essie said, “that ees Maddie. She ees helping us already. We need the one from before. You know the one that I could not hold on to.”

“Oh, I know which one,” said the man and grabbed Maddie and ran back to river and threw her in, saying, “Thank you little fishy. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He grabbed another one and charged off up the bank.

Maddie’s face hit the book and she rolled over on her back and fell into a deep sleep and slept until her alarm woke her up.

She remembered the dreams, the one with Random and the snake and the fish dream, more clearly than the trip to the lake which was colored in dreamlike twilight.

Maddie was almost too excited for school. She thought of the coming afternoon with Essie with growing anticipation, as she threw together an outfit, stuffed her feet into her large, black boots, and thumped down the stairs. Over breakfast, as she half-heartedly finished reading her history, she told Debbie she was going to take some pictures at The Eagle Tree Ranch with Essie.

“Isn’t that Emmylou’s place up the other side of the ridge?” Debbie had said.

“Yeah, who’s she?”

“Oh jus’ a woman who runs a farm, comes into to the casino to see the bands and dance. I talked to her a few times. She’s got people livin’ up there with her, college students and artists, real hippie types. Jes don’t do no drugs. Essie don’t do any of that funny stuff does she?”

“No, she just writes and knows how to use a camera.”

“Alright, baby, I’m glad to see you workin’ hard on your books. You better get goin’ or you’ll miss the bus.”

Maddie gave her mom a quick kiss, as she stuffed her history book into the large black daypack, and clomped out.

“I love you too, sweetie,” Debbie said softly and smiled at the slamming door.

Maddie ran up just as the bus rattled to a stop. She skipped up the stairs.

“Mornin’ Clyde, hows the road conditions?” she always asked him some such question.

“Oh, tolerable, I s’pose, but still this highway’s not getting’ any younger.”

The bus left a puff of blue smoke dust devil that was blown apart by a black Porsche racing up the highway seconds behind the bus.

V

The Man in The Black Porsche

Essie was crossing the highway to the coffee shop as the bus passed. She did not see Maddie.  The Porsche roared past, just missing Essie, did a U turn without slowing and pulled into the coffee shop parking lot, screeching to sideways skidding stop ten feet in front of her. The driver got out and leaned casually on the side of the car. He was just under 6 feet tall, wore a black leather jacket, over a blood red t shirt and nicely fit but worn jeans. He had light brown hair, a mustache and goatee with a soul patch under his lip.

“I don’t suppose you’ve forgiven me yet,” he said casually.

Essie’s jaw dropped and a look of shock, joy and fury fought for possession of her face. Her body went limp with just enough tension to keep her standing.

“Jered? Jered! Jered you bastard where haf you been?!” She finally mobilized herself and flung herself on him fists flying.

He leaned back and let her fists fall on his chest where they were aimed.

“I’ve been in Maryland with my folks, and in Europe, and Egypt, and other places.”

“Eet has been 5 years you bastard. We thought you were dead.”

“ 5 years? Wow! I didn’t realize. I shoulda let people know,” Jered said in his usual dry tone.

She looked closely at his face trying to read his intent. She could never get a fix on whether he was serious or not. He was always half smiling.

“If you let me buy you some breakfast, I’ll try to explain.”

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River of Dreams #30: Shared Dreams

Posted on October 30, 2010 by randomyriad

Chapter 16

(finale)

Strangers Sharing a Snake Dream

Maddie Bolter stood calmly leaning against an ancient gnarled pine tree her pack at her feet. Though Random did not know her name; To him she was just a strangely dressed young woman who smiled as she watched him struggle up the steep slope. He puffed and raised a cloud of dust with his trudging feet.  Random stopped half-way up the slope and scowled up the tall thin girl.

“I thought this was supposed to be the easy way,” he said in between huge intakes of breath.

“It is. Even I have to breathe hard on the other path. You just gotta get used to the mountain air.”

Random caught hold of his breath and wrestled it into control. He put his head down and continued up the slope. Maddie picked up her pack, turned and strolled off into a grove of redwoods of incredible size. She looked like a tiny doll, but she took little notice of them as if she strolled across an unremarkable suburban lawn.

The mid-day light came straight down through the needled boughs and hit the forest floor in narrow jagged patches.  The air was warm but every now and then a breeze from the distant ocean would set the trees to whispering and swaying. It carried with it a hint of salt and decay.  Random stopped to taste the breeze.  It showed him dreams of his home and the great white birds silently following their shadows low over the grey sand.

“Hey Man! let’s go!” Maddie yelled from the top of a toppled giant of a tree laying sideways across the narrow track. She offered him a hand up

“it’ll be dark before we get there if you stop every time you hear a fly buzz.” She said as Random scrambled up next to Her.

“Come on! Just over that ridge we’ll be able to see the farm.” Maddie pointed up the gradual slope through the trees.  There was a large rock glowing in sun framed in blue sky. Random looked hard at the rock it shimmered and wavered. It was shaped like a giant head with its mouth open.  A low rumbling sound came from below them and they looked down the tree trunk had smooth bark and diamond patterns. They felt the log move under Their feet. Random grabbed Maddie, and they sat down carefully. The log moved and began to undulate as if there were muscles under the bark. Random looked away from Maddie and saw the dark sinuous serpent body the tree had become winding off into the gloom of the forest. He looked toward the ridge and saw that the rock was the snake’s head. The serpents eyes stared at him and opened its mouth. A hissy-purr the rumbled through its body under them.

60 miles apart Random and Maddie shot to a sitting position, their hearts hammering hard at their throats and chests.

Chapter 18

An Early Morning Fish

Random woke just as the sky was beginning to show subtle dark grays on the eastern horizon through the trees outside the window. He got dressed and pulled on his dark green hoody and zipped it up. The house was not quite completely dark. He was able to pick his way through the shadows and outside without making much of a sound. He felt like he had to put the story together in his head. It was all happening so fast. But, the cool air and gray slowly waking feeling helped to slow his thoughts so he could look at them. What had Lucille said?

Watch your thoughts like bright fishes? She had, however said nothing about giant snakes and strangely dressed woman. But, his thoughts shone bright against the gloom of the just born day, and like fishes moving slow in cold water they flashed easy to see one at a time.

He climbed up a winding path slowly choosing his steps carefully, but confident that he would not fall. He reached the top of the ridge. There was bare snag leaning over a small cliff and steep slope down to the winding stream below. He saw all this in shades of grey. He sat with his back against the snag facing the east and the coming sun.

Suddenly he picked up one of his thought fishes and it said, “Go home, messages await you.”

The rim of the sun peeked over the edge of the horizon and added colors to the world like subtle washes of paint.

II

A New Plan Forms

When Random got back to the house, Lucille was bustling in the kitchen. He could here Steve and Lin moving around upstairs.

“Well, you were right about the fishes. I caught one and it told me to be home by tonight,” Random said standing by the table looking out the window at the cars and the little log house. “Can I use your phone? I need to call my work.”

“Sure it’s in the living room,” Lucille said without looking away from her cooking.

As he went through the doorway to the living room, he nearly ran into Karen who was tottering in from the stairs bundled in a blanket.

“Oh, sorry,” Random said steadying her with his hands, “How are you doing this morning, better I hope.”

“Better and worse, I feel better physically, but its all hitting me about my dad,” she said hoarsely. Random noticed the red rims of her eyes.

“Lucille’s making something in there,” he pointed to the kitchen.

“I don’t know if I can eat much yet,” she said wincing a little and holding her stomach. Then she touched his arm and said, “I still can’t believe you brought me here after the way I behaved.”

“You and I can thank Steve for that. He talked me into it.”

She leaned her head into his chest and put one arm around him.

“Thanks anyway. You saved my life.”

Random shrugged and moved into the living as she went in to the kitchen.

He found the phone and punched in his work number and had to do it again with a one and area code. He finally got the answering machine.

“You’ve reached the Research Associates Division of Applied Psychology at the University of California Medical Center. We are not available to take your call right now but if you leave your name and number we will call you back when we are able.” It was Bianca’s most professional and slightly sarcastic voice.

“Hey, Miss B this is your lovely assistant telling you that I am in Mendocino and won’t be back at work until Wednesday. Have fun with your data. If you have a message for me leave it at my house. I will be home tonight.”

“Always a plan. The man with the plan,” Steve said softly with a grin on his face as came down the stairs. Lin followed silently behind looking very calm, but wary.

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River of Dreams #29: Dream Images

Posted on October 29, 2010 by randomyriad

Chapter 16

III

Dreamtime Illustrations

Random straightened the papers and folded the file on his lap. He  looked up at the others, who sat in silence around the room.

“I like the story of the Princess. She used creativity and art to feed her people forever,” said Lin. “That is a good story.”

“Essie has a wonderful voice. She used to sing everywhere she went.” Random said lost for a second in the spell of the story.

Lin asked if she could look at the file. Random handed it to her with a look at Lucille who nodded. She examined a few pages and stopped on one. The picture was full of grim imagery, a skeleton wearing a peaked cap of bright pink and purple waving a curve blade with a short handle  and leaving a trail of body parts behind which grew into plants from which blossoms burst forth.

“This one must mean out of death comes life?” Lin asked with a little hesitation.

“He is the Lord of Transformation and Release from Pain and Suffering. These people consider death a very positive and freeing thing if it is approached properly.” Lucille finished and looked at their tired faces. “I’m goin’ to put a pot of tea on would anyone else like some.”

“I’d love some,” Steve said picking up the file from Lin’s lap and turning to the illustration of Ma’ani Tubo the Wanderer. It was a picture of a one eyed man walking on a crooked path through the jungle with a jaguar riding on his back. There was a doorway in the foreground with a golden light bleeding onto the edges of the figure.

“Hey, this guy is coo’. He’s got one eye right in the middle of his face and he’s jammin’ down this here path like nothin’s wrong, and there’s this big cat takin’ a bite out of his shoulder.”

“Oh, you must mean Ma’ani Tubo,” Lucille called in from the kitchen. “He is one of my favorites.”

“Yes, he is usually considered a great good omen, unless anything dangerous is being attempted” Lucille continued as she bustled in the kitchen.

They talked over the pictures for a little while longer and drank tea. Finally Lin said, “I did not sleep well last night. I am sorry to be rude, but I am falling asleep and feel that would be more rude.”

“Well bless me. Here we are rattling on, and you’re all in. Let me show you to your room. Will you and Steve be sharing a room?”

“Yes, he is my boyfriend,” she said as if uncertain if this was the correct term.

“That’s right dear. Boyfriend or partner is OK.”

“Partiner,” Lin repeated slowly tasting the word, “Like in dancing.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Lucille laughed. “Like dancing.”

She helped Lin find the bathroom and told her to use whatever she saw fit, “And take a nice hot soak if you want dear, I know how long drives can make you feel a little grimy.”

“You mean a bath?’ Lin asked.

“I haven’t got a shower only this old clawfoot, but she’s a beaut and comfy to snuggle in.”

“I think that would be nice thank you.”

“Towels are there and there’s bubbles and soap over there,” Lucille pointed out things quickly, “Good night dear, It must be so much for you to handle coming from China and all of this, I just can’t imagine.”

“It is not so bad. Steve has been so nice, and I am having more food and not working myself to death, but I miss my brother.”

Lucille gave her a hug and said, “Random will take you to find him. You just wait and see. He’s the one who brings things to where they belong. Take a nice hot bath and get some sleep and try not to worry. Things may seem upside down and crazy but they will turn right before long.”

“Thank you, Lucille, you are very kind.”

“Well, I should hope so. It’s just as easy as being tough and ornery but there’s more hugging.”

She bustled out leaving Lin to experiment with the bath.


IV

Watch your thoughts like a good fisherman watching for fish.

They looked through the file some more and talked about what it all could mean that they came together like this. It was obvious that Random and Essie were the focal points, but they could not figure out the next step.

At about Midnight, Lucille showed them to the rooms. Lin was sound asleep. Steve tiptoed in and closed the door.

“That man is an angel,” Lucille said and Random could not figure out if she meant it figuratively or actually. At this point he was prepared to believe just about anything.

“This is your room. It’s my husband’s old study. I’ve fixed up the sleeper sofa for you,” she said as she turned on the light. It was a room nearly ceiling to floor of books on every wall. There was a large window on one wall looking out onto the forest.

“When I die all this goes to the University,” Lucille motioned to include all of the books. In between some of the shelves were filing cabinets and a desk with papers still strewn about.

“I’ve been trying to organize his writing and research, but he was a sloppy man who ran from one project to the next,” she said with an almost sullen disappointment, “I guess I should be more kind, but I am tired of the project, and I miss the man.”

Random nodded sympathetically.

“But, this is not your problem,” she said suddenly smiling, “My advice to you is to watch your thoughts and dreams like a good fisherman watching for fish. I think that was what St. Rimauld wrote in his charge to the monks.”

Random smiled, “You’re sure have a wide range of interests. Did you study Saints too?”

“No, that was my husband’s forte, ancient Judeo-Christian and Islamic texts and mystic beliefs. The Kabala and such things. He used to say that every now and again to people who were in some kind of spiritual crisis or deep study.”

“Well I like books. So this room should suit me just fine,” Random said pushing down on the mattress that extended out from a chocolate brown sofa almost to the desk that was situated far enough from the wall to allow access to the overflowing bookshelves behind the antique swivel chair behind it.

“I wish you happy and productive dreaming, and thank you so very much for bringing my Karen to me.” Random could see tears misting her eyes as she stretched to kiss his cheek.

“You really are like a son to me now, whether you like it or not.”

“You know it was Steve who convinced me to do this. He told me it’s what I do.”

“He’s right, and he is my very own angelic son too,” she said with no equivocation. “You will both be in my heart whether or not I ever hear from you again after this.”

“Oh, you will hear from me. Steve you might have to get his number and call him every now and then. He’s a go with the flow kinda guy.”

“I get that about him,” Lucille smiled and backed out of the room.

“Try to get some sleep. I think you are going to need to be alert tomorrow,” she said in a tone which had a confident but ominous ring to it. She closed the door and her footsteps receded down the hall.


V

All The Sparkling Fishes In the Stream

That night in Essie’s room a forest grew and became the world all around, the rich and teeming forest of her youth on the Orinoco. She went down to get water from the stream behind the thatch topped house. In the water silver fishes gleamed, crisscrossing over the smooth round stones, swimming into the current. She looked at the stones on the bank and found a perfect skipping rock and flung it sidearm spinning across the surface of the water. The stone glided, kissing the water many times before landing on the other side with an echoing thunk, which scattered the fish. They disappeared to shadows on the edges of the stream.

She was looking by the edge of the water in the singing reeds for someone, but could not remember his name. He had something to do with the fishes and a mission that had something to do with a great tree and a turtle. It was all so unclear.

She parted some cattails and saw a face reflected in the black stagnant water at the swampy brink of the stream. There was the reflection of a man with golden glowing eyes the rest of him was silhouette. She jumped back and looked behind her. There were the walls of a fortress and a bridge. She knew she could wait no longer and started crossing the bridge, which was a pipe about 10 feet in diameter with rope strung across at either hand to steady her. The pipe was slippery and after slipping to one side and the other and just clinging to the ropes she decided that going backwards she could get more traction. As she reached the other side a man in white came along the wall searching and leaning this way and that.

She tried to call out but no sound came from her mouth she jumped and thumped on the pipe, but he could not see or hear her.

He came to the pipe and went down into the foliage and did not come up again. Essie waited and woke up waiting.

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