I was sitting the porcelain throne (the Papal seat at the Volrathican), when someone knocked at the door.
“Ummm, I’ll be done in a sec!” I cry out as I’m not quite finished with what I’m doing here, “Give me a minute!”
Whomever it is ignores my request, opens the door and walks… well, almost trips in, and, takin’ a look around, launches a wad of paper with her foot. It bounces off a wall, knocks over three empty soda cans, and lands on my serial bowl from this morning… or lastnite. I think it’s from this morning… Is it this morning now, or is it now the next morning, or is this now lastnite?... When my creative juices start flowing I have a hard time finding cartons or boxes to hold it all in, so it gets pretty messy, and I lose track of anything approximating time as most know it. Sorta riding the moment, the ever new now, and not looking at clocks ‘n calendars, so I really don’t think about sleeping… or cleaning.
“This is a sty!” She exclaims to me wide eyed, while looking at dishes, coffee cups, wads of paper, cans, and piles of clothes.
‘She’ is Evalyn. A smart looking, no nonsense de-meanered woman, dressed in a plain (almost drab, but she pulls it off well) brown business skirt suit, with her hair in a severe bun, and horned rim glasses that sit her nose. Evalyn is Volrath’s I.O. (info offsir, heehee…) okay, actually it stands for Informed Observer, she’s really a keen observer, and always seems up on what’s goin’ on. She and Volrath pal around quite a bit I hear, but she and I hardly ever interact.
“If you’re talking about my grammar, it’s called style…no matter what Holey Bob says.”
“Hmph…I’m talking about this room!” Evalyn clarifies the best she can through the clutter as she makes her way to me, “How can you have anyone, umm… ‘visit’ you here?” She looks hard at me, “I sure couldn’t visit, sleep, or… whatever in this pigpen.”
“Whad’ja want, Evalyn?” I ask, a little embarrassed as I look at her from where I sit the porcelain throne, and not really interested in speaking of my nitely activities, or really, the lack of.
“Here.” She hands me an envelope embossed with Volrath’s symbol (pi within a pie). Evalyn turns, and kicking a shirt towards a pile, makes her way as best she can to the door. Taking a last shocked look around, she closes the door behind her with a sigh.
“Thank you!” I call after her.
Opening the missive, I’m quite surprised ta find that it’s an invitation to enlightenment. Surprised because, well… well it’s usually me writing such invites, mostly as stories that no one really reads. That’s what I’d been doing when this intrusion, this interruption happened, and causes a new story that needs to be written… and I’d almost got done with the last one.
Oh well, this is turning out to be an eyebrow raiser. Not about how messy my room can get, I mean, it’s very unusual to nail down a place and time a person is going to experience Samadhi… Well the place is always the same for everyone, ‘here’, and the time is always ‘now’, but it seems Volrath understands something I don’t know. Which is pretty much the norm as I know I do not know.
The invite is for me ‘plus one’ and I smile to myself. If’n I’m goin’ on a sudden adventure, I’m gunna drag along a long eared someone with me. Fishing around in my clean pile of clothes (well… I think it’s this pile), I come up with a nice tie-dye that doesn’t seem to smell or have any (or many) stains. That, a pair of shorts and my combat sandals complete my ensemble… well… it’s an ensemble to me.
Finally dressed I… What? Oh, I hadn’t been when Evalyn burst in, but hey, I’m not body conscious, and at the Volrathican you’ll see beings dressed and undressed in various manner. Clothes can be just a matter of a harness with clips and pouches for the convenience of carrying shit, I swear ta Volrath. We don’t objectify each other here, though we do appreciate the forms we’ve each taken in this lifetime, and attraction can raise its head, or crinkle nipples at some of the most awkward times, depending on how one’s body shows such reactions. Polite beings ignore such, and friends may razz ya, but it sure lets another see your interest so they can either initiate a conversation about a possible future or ignore it outwardly, and inwardly take it as the compliment it truly is.
Anywho, dressed, I make my way down the corridors lit by the light of understanding at the Volrathican while keeping an eye out for Bob. This place is vast and ya never know what hole he’s holed up in. As I turn a corner, wondering where I should start lookin’ for his Holeyness, I bump into him…
“Here you are!”
“Uhhh, where else would I be?” Bob asks rhetorically, and we each see the other has an invite in their hand. “Ahh, you got yours.”
“Um, yes, I was just lookin’ for you, it has ‘plus one’ and I thought I’d bring you, but you’ve already got an invite…”
“Well buddy boy, I think you got that ‘plus one’ already.” He tells me, nose twitching, “There’s gotta be at least one person reading your shit, I swear to Mom/Dad.”
“Really?...Kewl.” The prospect of a reader brightens my spirits, “Okay, what about you? Who’s your ‘plus one’?”
“I thought I’d ask Giz-Gaz, you’ve both been shut-up too long.” Holey Bob gives me his silly grin as such isn’t something one would really say about me… I mean, my own brother calls me ‘the mouth,’ which I’m okay with, kinda’ reminds me of Metatron, and no that isn’t a transformer…sheesh. Bob continues, “Let’s go to his playpen and, uh, see if he’s up to haulin’ your big head around.”
Turning around, we hop/walk back down the corridor and past my room’s door.
“Why is his place a playpen and mine’s a pigpen?” I put it to Bob.
“Well for one, it’s your room…and, uh, it’s a pigpen.” Bob puts it back to me, “Clean it up if you want anyone to think otherwise, also, uhhh, Giz-Gaz does have a lot of toys.”
“He likes ‘em and I do clean.” I claim. No, I’m not being defensive… Okay, maybe a little, “It’s just I get so into what I’m focused on that I don’t see the mess I’ve made ‘til I’m done… or someone comes in and says something.”
“Ahhhh, who delivered your invite?”
Why Bob asks me anything to begin with when he reads minds is beyond me. Then again, I’d have nothing else to write about, just long dis-courses and diet-tribes if he didn’t.
“Evalyn did, what’s with her? I sometimes think she doesn’t like me, though I’ve never felt it from her or seen it in her eyes…” Thinking more on it, I declare, “She’s like a bullseye lantern, the light blazes in her, but I only see the focused side of her.”
“Don’t be a dope, Pope. She doesn’t dislike you, Evalyn’s been trying to discern what kinda’ being you are, uhhh, behind the nose and make-up. All you dirtlings have dark pasts, uh, look at your histories, and she was devastated when Peter Cottontail abdicated and became such an arse.”
“That was two decades ago, and “the past is past, can’t change it so learn from it.”” I quote Bob to Bob, “I’m focused on how I am, here and now.”
“Yes, and she’s tryin’ to discern if you are doin’ just that. Evalyn’s been with Volrath for many thousands of years, and time has taught her to be cautious.”
“Thousands? Oh… I guess twenty years ain’t much in comparison.”
“Not really, no.” Bob twiddles his ears, then pokes a finger into a hole in his head, twisting it to clear it of any obstruction, “To her, you’ve just met.”
“Yeah, that makes sense.” I say, seeing what Holey Bob’s sayin’. Heck I wrote it, how could I not? Plus, I’ve never written of Evalyn in a story before, so it is like we’ve just met for the first time… Wish I’d cleaned my room so to make a better first impression.
Arriving at Giz-Gaz’s, I knock, and we’re answered by an adolescent voice in our heads.
~Come on in.~
Entering, we scope out Giz-Gaz’s den, it looks as if he went to the Toys ‘R’ Us going outta business sale and bought the remaining stock… So many toys everywhere; stuffed animals, a unicycle, RC cars, trainsets, kites, games, dolls, doll houses and action figures, some are set-up as a small city. Giz-Gaz likes to pretend he’s a giant dragon and stomps through it… carefully. Toys and more toys, but none are broken and they’re all well-kept. He likes his stuff and it shows, even if they’re not put away.
“See!” I exclaim, “And my rooms the pigpen.”
“Yes… Yes, it is.” Holey Bob looks through his pierced eye at me, “This is a youngster’s room, uhhh, you’re an adult.”
“Ummm…” I crack a smile, “Okay, I’ll clean it up when we get back, Giz-Gaz’s room too.”
“Good.”
Laughing, I look around and still don’t see Giz-Gaz anywhere. It’s a pretty large den, I mean really big, we could put a small wood in this place. There is a garden, and a kiddy pool, as he likes flowers and splashing.
~Here I am!~ Giz-Gaz sends us, erupting from the bottom of his ball pit. An explosion of colored spheres fly out everywhere and one bounces off my forehead.
He looks so cute sitting amongst the colored globes. A pi-ball dragon, Giz-Gaz is a fuzzy blue, has two legs with two horny feet, two ears, a feathery tongue he tastes emotions with, and two amazing eyes I can’t help but fall into… It’s love I see in them, I mean, who can’t help but fall in love? I’m moved to hug him, so I dive into the ball pit with a big grin and hug the lil’ dragon while scratching him behind an ear as he leans into me.
Bob sits and dangles his long feet in the pit, occasionally kicking up a shower of color as he talks with him. He explains that we’re going on a special adventure, and as there’s some hopping involved, Bob would like him to join us as his ‘plus one’ and so give me a ride. All the while Giz-Gaz’s tongue goes in and out, tasting as much as listening to what’s being said.
Pondering, or digesting for a moment, Giz-Gaz nods his assent, and headbutts me, which knocks me on my back and makes the task of getting out of the ball pit more challenging. I think he’s funny and very playful, I mean…look at all the toys! He really doesn’t say much often as he’s a young dragon who hasn’t experienced much, but he’s a great observer and quiet companion on our journeys together.
Even though I seem to be caught up in defending my piggish ways, I’m over it. Ya see, Bob gets me and he takes the time to let me see when I’m reacting to something. Then he gets me to laugh about it, a real response, and with that I can leave that reactive state and be response-able. I’m pretty good about Giz-Gaz’s room, he’s messier than I am when I’m bit by the moose, um… muse (though I’ve read that moose bites can be dangerous, mind you). What I’m really caught up in is the excitement of getting to witness a rare event and welcoming someone to the place and time of ‘be with us’.
“So now what?” I ask as I saddle Giz-Gaz, “When and where do we go?”
“When? It’s always ‘now’, and, uh, ‘here’ is where it’s at.” Holey Bob says, pulling a hole off his body and throwing it into the air.
The black hole sticks to nothing and expands. Mounting Giz-Gaz’s padded saddle, we head through with Bob grabbing and pulling the hole in after us as he follows.
This may seem strange to you, but I’m pretty used to it. I’ve gone down the rabbit hole more than a few times now, it’s highly strange, and always different when dealing with the unknown. Heck, it’s not what you expect… ever… it’s unbelievable!
A cacophony of sound, site and smell bounces off my head as we pop out the other side… Really? Again? Why’s everything gotta bounce off my head?
~Large target~ Slips into my mind, delivered deadpan by Giz-Gaz.
Bob laughs reading our thoughts. Head turned towards me, Giz-Gaz stares into my eyes, his tongue going in and out, suddenly he side-steps, and we just miss being run over by a mid-sized dragon pulling a cart, painted with a logo. Who’d have the nerve, or that much paint to paint the side of a dragon with a logo, I really don’t know. On the side of the cart is painted a picture of… of a mid-sized dragon pulling a cart, painted with a logo…
“Bizarre.” I comment.
“Yes, it is. This is one of the biggest in the area.” Bob replies while putting his hole back in place.
“That’s not what I spel…” I begin to tell someone who reads minds, “Never mind.”
Holey Bob smiles at that and I take in the place… Wow! It reminds me of going to a Rainbow Valley Barter Fair, but bigger, brighter… dirtier and louder too. The whole place is full of bustle, and the voices of the merchant’s calls mix together, advertising their wares, or whatever they’re sellin’. Much of which I’ve no clue what they are or what they’re for.
“Four?!?... For this gourd? I paid eight.”
“But you just said I could have it for free!” I hear from a nearby booth.
“Yes, but it’s worth eight.”
“Let’s go…” His Holeyness says, “Tis a silly place.” And he starts making his way to an edge of the bizarre.
I made it outta there only having bought five, no three, three new toys for Giz-Gaz. So what if I spoil him? You’re only young once a lifetime, and sometimes I’m busy so can’t romp or play with him.
The shops peter out and dwellings look more like homes ‘n such, the crowded homes make room for farms and ranches, with the occasional wooded area and meadow between as we ramble on, and on, kinda’ like one of my involved super stylish sentences, i.e. this one. Soon a large stone wall joins us on our right. Did I write large? Ummm, that’s not quite right, it’s… it’s friggin megalithic, and within a few miles another joins us on the left. Feels a bit eerie riding between ‘em.
“What is this?” I ask in wonder.
“Uhhh, a wall… (Holey Bob thinks he’s funny…) Okay, it’s a wall around one of the Annunaki’s dens.” He explains as we come abreast of a gate in the righthand wall. I mean it’s like the doors to a Jurassic park or somethin’… Really big!
“Ummm, just how big are these Annunaki?”
“Real big,” Bob replies, “with heads even bigger than yours… Uh, unbelievable as that may seem.”
“Ha ha, funny. So, are we here to see one?”
“No, this is a special case. We’re going to the culmination of Enki’s great experiment, he’s the, uh, head Annunaki.” Bob tells me solemnly. “This is Ama’s den, we’ve got a ways to go yet.” And he starts hopping down it.
I look at the great doors and see a big sign above ‘em, on it engraved, -‘A’ den-. We catch up to his Holeyness quickly, Giz-Gaz is quick, and I wonder at Holey Bob’s solemnness as we pass a few other entrances to these dens.
Really, they cover huge, vast tracks of land, and I can see the tops of trees that rise above the megalithic enclosures. I mean, we’ve gone miles and miles, passing only three other entrances, two on the left and another on the right. Expecting another to be on the left, we come to an entrance in the one on the right. Bob stops, so I think this must be the right one… What if we’d come from the other direction, would it still be the right one? Just a silly thought I had as we left the road.
Besides having the Jurassic gate doors, there are some advanced security measures being taken here. Four laser beams crisscross and move up and down the face of the doors, and some sorta warning sign is posted. Engraved at the top of its megalithic stone archway is -‘E’ den-…
“No!” I exclaim in shock as it hits me… ‘E’ den…, “It can’t be! THE GARDEN!?!”
“Took ya long enough, ya dope!” He laughs, and, I swear ta Volrath, Holey Bob’s face lit-up with a shit eating grin… probably at my astounded expression.
“I thought it was just a story.” I wonder at it.
“Just? Just? No such monster as ‘just’ and I haven’t read a story that was, uh, ‘just’ a story either.”
“I mean I didn’t think it was an actual… um, damn!” I’d researched, and I’d thought I’d understood that ‘Eden’ was a region… but this is a place, here, real now like it’d never been to me before.
Looking over the entryway, I can see that the stories of Sumer describe it more accurately than anything else I’ve read. I mean, if you didn’t have the words for the technology being used here, how’d you explain such? Four angels with fiery, blazing swords did indeed guard the way… Why angels? Well when’s the last time you saw one? Angels, gods and daemons are a catchall for the unexplained, unknown, and unseen… also for those that descend from the starry heavens above, or pop outta holes in the air. So, it must be angels wielding those swords. Come on! They’re moving, someone’s gotta be waving that fiery death around. That’s plain sense… well, to someone who isn’t familiar with technology. Are you aware that people who didn’t have experience with electricity in the 1900’s would try to blow out lightbulbs to turn ‘em off?
Speaking of off, I don’t see a control panel… Not that I know what one would look like. Hey, I recognize lasers when I see ‘em, but it don’t mean I know how or what’s working ‘em, or even how to work a panel if one was here. Not my bag, my bag has smelly, green flowers in it that burst aflame in my serial bowl... The only thing I see is a warning sign, a very long and involved one. It has ‘WARNING’ in big letters, but what follows would make a contract lawyer turn three shades of puce, then run away and join a commune. I didn’t bring my readers, well, other than you, so Bob gives me the gist as I stretch my legs and give Giz-Gaz a break.
“All those dirtlings at the bazaar, they’re the ‘others’.” He starts to explain.
“What others? They’re dirtlings, I mean they’re people, aren’t they?”
“Of course they’re people, uh, that’s what this is all about.” Holey Bob tells me, “They are the ‘others’ that Rangy Lil ran off to, and the people that Cain will end up living with after his most unfortunate fight with his brother.”
“Ahhh.” I see, understanding the Cain reference, “Rangy Lil?”
“Lilith, a rowdy red head who couldn’t stand Adam, or Enki’s rules. She ended up jumping the gun, and, uh, eventually Enki’s den wall after her Samadhi.” Bob grins, “She wound up partying with Volrath and has been ‘with us’ since.”
“Huh… I don’t recall ever meeting a Rangy Lil, or a redheaded Lilith at the Volrathican.”
“Em, em, even the enlightened have their likes, and are drawn to what resonates with ‘em…”
“And?...” I goad Bob.
“She, uh, resonated with someone that another has her eye on and has hope for. Was best for all involved that she be elsewhere a while, so she does field work in the elsewhere. Ergo her nickname ‘Rangy Lil’,” Holey Bob eyes me with a piercing look. Well, it is his pierced eye he’s eyeballing me with, “How’d you, uh, think she got her name?...” He chuckles, then continues enthusiastically, “What a gal!”
“Bob!” I cry in shock, “Gentlemen do not talk.”
“I’m a rabbit, bub.” Bob grins lustily, “Nah, of course I don’t talk…” then whispers behind his… well, his paw… or hand. Hey, he grabs stuff with ‘em and he runs on ‘em, so… Anywho, this shocks me even more as he whispers, “I’ll whisper the juicy parts to ya later.”
“BOB!!!”
“What!?!... Don’t you ever talk about sex?”
“Well yes, I’m kewl with it, but not about names!... Especially about someone I haven’t, but could, possibly run into. No details, I don’t want to hear it.” Seeing it vividly in my mind’s eye, “All I can picture now is you two going at it like… like rabbits!” and we both burst out laughing, while Giz-Gaz’s eyes shine with myrth. “You know I’ll be picturing it, at least for a moment when I meet her now.”
Bob nods his head as he laughs into a furry hand… Wait a sec… why’d I see a strawberry shaped birthmark on her left tit?
“You!... You did it on purpose!” I start to realize the magnitude of his joke.
“Yeah, she isn’t even my type… You, uh, dirtlings don’t have the fur for one thing, I’m a rabbit.” And he plops on his cushy tail, laughing even harder.
Ya see, he put it here in my head, or opened himself so I could pick it up, and I’ll recognize her the moment I lay eyes on her, doomed to remember the image Bob provided me. He really didn’t need to send the image once that seed had been planted, no matter that it never happened, the joke had and will come to fruition. In Magick we call this a glamour, illusion, but they can have real affects. Holey Bob cast this one well, I’d fallen for it hook, line and stinker… Rabbit!?! Rapscallion is what he is, but we do laugh.
Side note: I do eventually meet Lilith, and her face blanches as we shake hands and hug… Ya see, Bob never told me that she’s a telepath. Anywho, it back-fires, probably ‘cause she was dressed, and I’d pictured the strawberry birthmark she has on her left tit which I hadn’t yet seen. So Holey Bob gets the pie Lil brought to share with us... in the face. Thank goodness it’s a Volrath pi, so we all still have a piece, and peace as we get to learn about each other, laughing the while.
With a tear of laughter glistening on his holey cheek, Bob continues giving me the dirt on dirtlings. He tells me of the Annunaki’s plight and their need for gold. How they’d used their DNA and spliced it with other life forms on this playnet. The end result has surprised and delighted some, causing a stir.
“Ya see, the Annunaki needed workers, that’s what they were making. Biologically oriented as well as, uh, techno, they thought it easier to just grow workers instead of manufacturing robotic workers using the precious metals they were here for in the first place, and so, uh, many look on dirtlings as ‘just’ cattle. Much like the governments of your playnet do,” He shakes his head, “don’t believe me, but don’t disbelieve me either. Go check your birth certificate, and look for the French word ‘chattel’, it’s printed right on it.”
(I did check later, and he isn’t joking, go on check it, but finish the story first if’n ya would… or I can wait…)
“Some of the Serpent People that could take being around such emotionally noisy beings were delighted with the potential they saw in a few of these dirtlings. So, uh, Enki proposed an experiment to see if dirtlings could ‘be with us’, ‘here’, ‘now’ and, uh, brought into the fold.”
Turns out dirtlings can, but it’s an individual thing. Enki is coming to realize this, so the ramifications of this experiment cause the Annunaki to change their view of dirtlings, and finally let dirtlings alone… for the most part. Well, they cease occupying this playnet we think of as ours anyways.
“So, we’re here for Adams enlightenment.” I state, though I ended the sentence with a period, it was really a question. No really, I don’t know.
“Nope, nope Pope. We’re here for Eve’s Samadhi (told ya I didn’t know, and I still don’t). Ya see, uh, more women have experienced enlightenment through millennia as they end up doing repetitive, monotonous tasks, and while, uh, knitting, sewing and such, their minds would calm. So much so that it allowed the torpid mind to ease, finally reflecting the light of being, and allow it to shine in them unobstructed.” Bob tells me, “A needle and thread ends up sewing the rambunctious shadow, uh, their consciousness, to their ‘Self’, the spiritual being, and it’s done with the kiss of enlightenment.”
“Peter Pan!” I exclaim, recognizing the reference.
“Exactly. Pan, the god of laughter, the spirit of unconditioned innocence, eternal youth, and, uh, partyin’.”
“What about Adam?”
“He gets ‘here’, eventually. Takes him a few hundred years, but he’s, uh, ‘with us’ too. Eve ends up staying with him ‘til he is. She loved… loves him, and understood that he’d almost succeeded in the, uh,” Bob pauses and looks at the megalithic wall, “in this garden. After his Samadhi, Adam takes off with Enki and, uh, Eve goes off on her own way.”
“Hmmm. Why such an elaborate warning sign?” I look warily at it, “I mean other than the lasers I can see, I don’t see anything else here that would necessitate… all that.”
“Precautions. Samadhi is an experience of breaking through the illusion and the belief in knowing. It transcends reason, and so, uh, therefore is unreasonable.”
“Yeah, so?”
“So, Enki showed Adam things; plants, fruits, animals ‘n such, and had him name them all, so he should ‘know’ them.” His Holeyness chuckles at this, “Ya see, once you give a name to somethin’, you think you ‘know’ its name, and this most often leads one to, uh, believe they ‘know’ the thing they’ve named… And that’s how Adam became a ‘know it all’ decades ago.”
“Oh.” I say understanding, I mean think about it, like the word electricity. Do you really believe you know what ‘it’ is, the essence of ‘it’? Scientists will tell you that electricity is energy… and if you ask what that is and its cause, an honest one will answer, ‘We don’t know… yet.’ Gee, I like positive thinking people who actually look for answers.
“The warning is for anyone interacting with Adam and/or Eve. To never argue or contradict ‘em as Adam’s names are made-up by him, and no one is to disillusion him as to the nomenclature generally accepted. One must also be able to hold a straight face while speaking with ‘em, uhhh, which is difficult sometimes.” Holey Bob explains further, “Take for instance a banana, well Adam’s word for banana is ‘aardvark’, which isn’t even a fruit.” He giggles.
“Basically, you’re sayin’ Adam doesn’t question anymore as he believes he already knows. What’s his word for an aardvark by the way, and what about Eve?”
“Funny enough, uh, Adam’s word for an aardvark is ‘plantain’, which looks like a banana, but isn’t.”
“High strangeness… And Eve?”
“Eve was told to listen to and obey Adam. Raised to this patriarchal idea, she too believes she knows, and believes if she doesn’t, well, uh, then Adam does.”
“Oh…”
Giz-Gaz, who’d been chasing a rather large, brightly colored flutterby, trots over with his tongue going in and out rapidly. He tastes something’s up, and so I look around, but see nothing. Well, nothing new, and then a kinda scary lookin’ hominoid pops suddenly outta thin air right before us.
“Hey Reggie.” Holey Bob greets…um…him?
~Your Holeyness.~ Slips into our minds, and he turns to me, ~Kindness is theirs for those who’re kind.~
“As those who give love will always have it.” I complete the ancient greeting. Wow, this guy is formal, but it sets me at ease… which is probably what he intended.
Reggie’s a Serpent Person, not a Draco, though they are distant relatives, kinda’ like Vulcans and Romulans, as they started as the same people. He stands about five feet tall, has a mottled, scaly skin that’s mostly a copper brown with blue and green reflections that glisten when the light hits it just right.
How do you tell the difference between a Serpent Person and a Draco? Serpent People don’t eat people, they’re empathic telepaths. Draco’s got all techno, close minded about it, and don’t eat their people… often. They’re telepathic, but not empathic, and think all others are ‘just’ game, fair game. Serpent People went the spiritual route and see ‘people’ as ‘Self’ aware beings, and is why Reggie’s here. He sees the potential in dirtlings, believes that eventually we’ll be that ‘people’, and so ‘be with us’. Well, that’s what Bob spake me, and I can say with complete surety that I believe he says it’s so… Yeah, unbelievable.
Reggie turns and walks toward the gate, holds up something akin to our invitations and a fairy of light dances upon its surface… Okay, it was scanned, but really, if’n you weren’t familiar with such what do you think you’d think was going on?
Anywho, the lasers shut off as the megalithic doors open inwards. After Reggie passes through, the lasers snap on again… scary. Holey Bob nudges me and I walk towards fiery death holding forth my invite. A quick scan and the lasers turn off for me and ‘plus one’ to pass. Come on, let’s check this place out!
Whew! We made it inside (finally). Giz-Gaz and Bob quickly follow us after goin’ through the same motions, and I mount-up. It seems Reggie went on ahead, well, he is a major player in this experiment and has to play the part. Luckily, he doesn’t have to act or lie, though that’s not spoken of in ancient texts. Ya see, Serpent People are an open book, no defensive walls to hide lies, or block out other’s emotions. They can’t close their minds to what’s going on, it’s part of their senses… Like our hearing and seeing, imagine trying to go amongst a people you aren’t sure of, and walk around with your eyes shut while covering your ears, just not somethin’ you’d want to do. These Serpent People hear, see and feel what’s thought, and we humans are beacons of such, not understanding that the vibes we’re putting out have a real effect, on their senses, and those whose senses have awakened.
Looking around, the place is… well, it’s… it’s the Garden of Eden, it’s very tranquil. The forest is cleaned of under branches, you know, those prickly dead ones that snarl and grab your hair… or scratch your big, bald target. Grass is kept like a luxurious shag, it carpets the ground between trees, bushes bare their berries, birds are chirping, but only intermittently, and I see a grizzly plopped down in front of a huckleberry bush having a good tim
“A BEAR!!!” I exclaim, breaking off my observation mid-sentence. Okay, right at its end, but… “BEAR!!!” I shout again, pointing as Holey Bob looks on nonplussed. I mean, I’m riding Giz-Gaz, his ‘plus one’ so… ah…maybe that’s why he looks so.
“That’s no bear, uh, that’s an opened toed, stiletto high healed dress shoe…” Bob looks at me seriously, “Told you some of the names are pretty funny. Don’t worry, all the animals here are tame, another precaution. If’n ya got a honey treat on ya, I could, uh, introduce you...” His eyes twinkle at my nervousness, “No? Well, maybe another now.” And with that Bob hops into the garden.
It’s a veritable arboretum we’re travlin’ through as we tread upon the manicured areas between. Conifers, seeding trees, trees nutting, flowering, and baring fruits. All kinds, multiples of ‘em, all but one genus… the Malus is glaringly missing. Not a one I see, which is a shame as there are so many varieties. The Malus domestica is a deciduous tree in the rose family best known for its sweet, pomaceous fruit… apples. Ever have an apple straight from the tree? Amazing, so much more to the taste than the ones that’ve been waitin’ for you to buy. I worked an orchard as a teen, so have a great appreciation for ‘em.
Anywho, I guess in this garden there’s only one apple tree, code named, ‘The Tree of Knowledge’ and it’s in the middle of this place… wherever that is. We’ve gone a couple of miles already, and frankly I’m lost as I can’t even see the tops of the megalithic walls that enclose us.
Holey Bob motions with his fist up, we stop, and silently I dismount Giz-Gaz. Up ahead I catch the sound of a one-sided conversation. Not quite making out what’s said, Bob eases closer at an unobtrusive tip-toe… which is hard with his big feet. Giz-Gaz and I slide forward on either side of him ‘til we can hear and see what’s goin’ on. Reggie’s projection reaches us then and added the other half of the conversation as well.
~I’m hungry, and this is a good fruit to eat.~
Reggie’s holding an apple, a golden delicious I think. The branch he’d plucked it from is still nodding, as if in agreement with him. Next to him stands a very nicely formed woman, with long, flowing, brunette hair, and tan skin… all over. It’s Eve and she stands here undressed and unaware. Unaware of us and the lie perpetrated upon Adam, and so too her. A lie whose purpose would decide the Annunaki’s quandary, and whether to let mankind find its way to enlightenment or continue using dirtlings as cattle, domesticated animal workers created for their comfort and entertainment. Holey Bob had clued me in as we journeyed through this den. Seems that Enki has actually taken a real liking to Adam, plus he gets a kick outta hearing the names Adam comes up with. Makes him laugh, so much so that Bob thinks Enki is now hoping the Serpent People are correct.
“It’s unfortunate that Enki focused on Adam.” Bob whispers to me.
“Wait, don’t you think all this is cruel?” I whisper, “Not only are they being kept like animals, their minds are being fucked with.” I whisper harshly.
“Yes.” He answers me with one word, and now I understand his solemnness earlier in this story as it’s in his voice now. “It’ll also introduce the patriarchal modality and thinking that is such a dis-ease on your playnet. Uh, a byproduct of Enki’s great experiment.” Holey Bob whispers, “Now shhhh.”
“But you’re the one who…” I start to whisper back and decide it isn’t important, so I shut-up. Let’s listen…
“If you eat that you will surely die!” Eve warns Reggie, looking very concerned, and looks beautiful as she stands in her motherly… um, sorry. I think I’m feeling some stirrings as I look on. Hey, I’m a man, this life, and this is the woman that’s purported to have birthed all of mankind, no matter that there are ‘others’ here already. Maybe I have a small Oedipus complex, I don’t know, but she has a certain somethin’ that’s resonating in me… a potential. Or maybe it’s the potential that’s about to come to fulfillment affecting me this way. Enlightenment… it’s a real turn on.
~Why would such a tree be in this garden if that were so?~ He sends back to her, including us, ~Hasn’t Enki said that you can eat the fruits of all the trees in this garden?~
“He said that we may eat the fruits of the trees, but of this tree in the midst of the garden we may not, neither shall we touch it, lest we die.” She implores wide eyed at the fact he’s holding one in his hand, um, claw… whatever.
Reggie slices the apple with his long nail, then shows her the meat of the fruit and the star pattern within.
~This fruit is truly the fruit of knowledge, and is ripe, rife with symbolism.~
He explains the symbols within, and the esoteric meanings of such. She recognizes her own bodies form shown in another apple he pulls and slices top down. Never having given birth herself, Reggie explains the birds and the bees to Eve. She isn’t embarrassed about a vagina, or any other part of her body, and becomes awed at the ability that she could bring life into this world through such. I mean, aren’t you?... I am.
~You surely will not die, for Enki knows that the day you eat hereof, your eyes shall be opened, and you will become as gods.~ And with that he takes a half in one bite. Chewing and swallowing it down, he proffers the other half to her.
Hesitantly she reaches out and takes it in her shaking hand. Wide eyed, she brings it to her lips and, after a moment, does what she’s known will end her. She takes a large bite, filling her cheeks (well, if’n you’re gunna do somethin’, might as well be bold about it and take a big bite). Juice trickles down her chin as she chews, and her eyes get even wider, if that’s even possible, but it seems so from where I’m standing. Wonder is plain on her face, then her eyes crinkle in joy at the taste. Eve swallows and becomes still, her mind working over the ramifications of what she’s done, the ramifications of her existence, and it happens... Samadhi. I can feel it from here.
“I AM!!!” Bursts forth from those inviting lips, followed by a hearty laugh. Laughter at all she’d thought she knew, all she’d believed, and even the idea she’d had of herself. She’d just died laughing, and is ‘now’, reborn anew. It’s at this point Eve looks around the surrounding area and our eyes meet. “I can’t believe I used to think I knew what I was doing… I know I do not know.” She says to me across the way then continues laughing, and I can’t help but join in. Bob does too, Giz-Gaz stomps his feet in merriment, and Reggie gives off a very satisfied joyous emotion. After a few, we all come to a break in the laughter at the same time, and she looks me up and down, then turns to Reggie.
“Thank you, my new friend,” She thanks him with love in her voice and a kiss on his cheek, “I must share this with Adam right away.” And taking the other sliced halves from Reggie, she gives us a last look, well, I really think it’s me she’s lookin’ at, and heads off to find Adam… the lucky dog.
Wow, what a woman... Oh… oh shit! I swear ta Volrath I’m… I think I’m in love… It happens, and sometimes it can happen fast. Ya see, I love everyone, well, their essence, but usually for love to grow for an individual I have ta invest time and cultivate it. On rare occasions though, I love ‘em when I see ‘em, no really, it’s true, love at first sight, and it’s happened with a few people in my life… like now. It’s something that resonates deep in your being.
Seeing her leave to be with another, well you probably think that I’d feel jealous, or be sad at such. Nope, nope, as Holey Bob says to me often, no, love is not jealous, that’d be attachment and ownership that brings that ugliness. I’m feeling love for this gal I don’t even know, and it’s the love of being. Wistful?… Maybe a little, but only for what won’t be, but I have hope, hope she is happy in her life with Adam.
Even though I’ll never see her again, truly I’m happy to have another flower in my garden of love, I’ll tend to it as if she were with me, for in love she always will be. Guess you could say I’m polyamorous as I’ve never seen a reason to limit love to one person. Not that I look to have some mass relationship as I’ve found it difficult to deal with other’s hang-ups, and conditioned behaviors. No, one person is kewl with me, but I’ll not quit loving anyone I’ve loved before. Ya see, I’ve found those flowers in our garden never die unless pulled or neglected, and love’s what it’s all about for me, so that ain’t gunna happen. I live my life in love, even if there’s no one living it with me… I have hope, hope for all, along with love and a green thumb.
Giz-Gaz is watching me with his amazing eyes, tongue moving rapidly, tasting my emotions as I contemplate, and feel this new love. Holey Bob is silent as I, which is unusual for us both, and then Reggie joins us.
~It is done. Dirtlings can and will ‘be with us’ eventually~ He tells us mentally with satisfaction coming from him in waves.
“Yes, but it’s Adam that the Annunaki are focused on,” Bob scratches a hole in his ear, “remember Lilith, it may take a bit to convince ‘em.”
~Enki cannot deny Eve’s enlightenment, she is and so ‘with us’ now.~ Reggie is certain in his very being and I am too. I mean, the four of us were all here with her and rode the wave of ecstatic bliss that struck… it’s experientially validated and witnessed. A done deal.
“I’m sure you’re correct Reggie, but, uh, will he look to see it?” Holey Bob asks.
~Hmm, good point. I better go talk with ‘em.~ So with a nod to us, and an inaudible pop, he disappears… well, it could have been a sploosh, I really don’t know as I couldn’t hear it.
“Thank you, my old friend.” I smile musingly at Bob, “This was more than I could have expected, and I’m honored to have gotten to be a part of it.” I’m sure Volrath has been keeping tabs on us, so I send her/him a mental smile, and my thanks as well. “And thank you too, Giz-Gaz, I woulda been beat having to walk all this distance to get here, I can’t think of anyone else I’d have wanted to do this with… you two, and my ‘plus one’ too.”
“We’re not through ‘just’ yet.” Holey Bob informs me, “I want to show you something before we head back to the, uh, Volrathican.”
Again, Bob pulls a hole from himself and tosses it into the air, with curiosity I mount Giz-Gaz and pass through the rabbit hole.
Coming out the other side, I can see [SMACK!]… Really!?! A bat flew into and bounced off my forehead… Really? Anywho, I can see that we’re back on that same road we traveled a few pages back, but now it’s dusk and we’re just on the outskirts of the beginning of the megalithic Annunaki dens. I’m getting tired of my head being a target, and really not looking forward to another long trek. This has gotta be the longest story I’ve written yet, I’ve enjoyed it so far, but…
Bob is just putting his hole back in place when I turn to him.
“For real? We’re goin’ ta go down this road again?” I’m wanting to get back home, I’ve got rooms ta clean and a love to contemplate. “Can’t I just copy and paste what I’ve already written?”
“No.” He grins, “We’re in a different now and, uh, we’re leaving the road anyways. It’s not that far, I promise.”
A small foot path leaves the road here, I hadn’t noticed it… Come on! I got a bat to the head, it’s kinda’ dark, and I’ve got an emotional front that moved in clouding my thinking.
Anywho, Bob motions us to follow and sets out on the path. Holey Bob’s word’s good, it isn’t too far before we’re in a small wooded area, and we move off the path. He starts tippy-toeing again, so I dismount, and we slide through the brush ‘til we come upon what looks like a well lived-in campsite. There’s a fire going, and like before, we can hear a conversation in progress.
Moving to where we can see and hear, I’m happily surprised that one of the people speaking is Eve. She’s wearing a hide shift, and the man with her is wearing… umm, fig leaves? That must be Adam. They’re sitting on logs around their fire eating… I give Holey Bob a quick look, but he’s not twiggin’, he’s kewl… Ya see, they’re eating what looks and smells like rabbit.
“This is nothing like what we ate in the garden.” Adam is complaining, “One bite is undercooked, the next it’s all grubbly.”
“Burnt.” Eve corrects him.
“Burnt… Yeah, it’s burnt and unburnt.”
“Undercooked, you had that right the first time.”
“Well… well it is!” Adam insists.
“You had no problem eating the apple “because I put it before you.”” She replies, “So then, I’ll thank you to eat what I put before you now without any complaints… Like I stuffed that apple in your mouth, you pig.” Eve stares hard at Adam and he has the good sense to look sheepish, “No, you ate it knowingly.”
“I thought that since I hadn’t died that Enki would kill me…” He tries to defend his throwing her under the dragon-cart.
“Listen dear, if you want your meat done evenly then go invent the rotisserie.”
“Maybe I will!... Well, I could ya know.”
“What I know is that I don’t know.” She smiles to herself as she says this, “You don’t know what one is, do you?”
“Of course I do, it’s a… it’s a… It cooks meat evenly.” He looks knowingly at Eve, then gives in, “Okay… so what is it?”
After Eve explains a slightly complex device that has cogs, belts and wheels run by small Rodentia; mice, gerbils, or the such, Adam stomps off into the surrounding wood.
Quiet now, I watch as Eve moves about, doing domestic things, pulling something from near the fire and fixing whatever she’s working on. I can see that freedom suits her, she’s freer than most having destroyed the beliefs, and conditioned thinking that had held her mind and emotions captive. Dressed she looks slightly different, and her hair’s in a ponytail to keep it outta the way, and outta the fire as she cooks. Yep, I am smitten, ha.
It’s very dark as we hear the foot stomps of Adam returning. He comes into the campsite, their home, and tosses three sticks down by the fire.
“What’s this? Firewood?” Eve asks him incredulously, sitting down on a log by the fire.
“It’s a rotisserie.”
“That!?! That’s what you got!?!... It’s like I’m speaking a different language to you.” And she launches a loogy into their fire pit where it sizzles her frustration, “I tell you all that, and you bring back spit… That… That’s what that is, a spit of the rotisserie I explained.”
“Well these two sticks hold the other up,” He starts explaining as if to a child, “they hold it at their… ummm, at their… um, Vee?”
“Why?” Eve asks herself, exacerbated.
“Yes! That’s it, the one stick is held up by the other two at their ‘Y’.”
“At their fork.” Eve clarifies.
“What’s a fork?”
“Really?... You’re such a pig.” (Seems I’m not the only one, maybe it’s a man thing?... Nah, I’ve met plenty of messy women too) “You never told me why you brought a rabbit back instead of the flour, eggs and the other things I sent you to the bazaar for.”
“They all laugh at me…” Adam says forlornly.
“Did they? Again?…” She has a sympathetic smile on her moist, inviting lips, and her eyes… um, sorry, damn, love makes ya see a person differently… So, um, Eve smiles sympathetically, “What did you ask for?”
“Well, I asked for what you wanted.” He looks sheepish again, “I forgot the names, so I used mine. When I asked him for an orangutan and a poke ‘a’ dot umbrella… He told me he didn’t sell monkeys and had no clue what the other was, then burst out laughing.”
“Oh dear.”
“You know how they are, he started crying it out so the whole bazaar was in an uproar.”
“Sorry love, they are rude. Well then, how’d ya get the rabbit?”
“I hunted for it.” He claims, and she looks at him dubiously, “Well I did, and I almost got side swiped by an opened toed, stiletto high healed dress shoe.”
“A BEAR!?!” Eve looks startled and concerned, she really does love Adam, and is probably the only one who understands him, “You ran into a bear?”
“Yeah, a… a bear. It took a swipe at me with one of its huge dildos.”
“Claws.”
“Claws, yeah, and so I ran as fast as I could.”
“So, where’d ya get the rabbit?” Eve asks again.
“Well, I was pretty haggard after that, so I stopped at the Howard farm and got a drink from their well. The Howards all gathered ‘round, and I told them about my day… They laugh too, but it doesn’t feel mean. Anyways, they gave me the rabbit to bring for sup.”
“I’ll be sure to thank them when I see them next.” Eve gets up from her log, gets something, and brings it to Adam.
“What’s this?” He asks looking at it.
“It’s what I wanted the fixings for, I used them all up making this. Go on, eat it.”
“What do you call it?”
“Well, I haven’t thought of a name for it yet. It’s covered in honey…” She ponders for a moment, “Maybe, maybe I’ll call it a “honey somethin’ or other” or some such.”
Looking at the honey covered pastry, Adam’s reminded of the dildo, no, the claw that almost swiped him.
“Bear claw.” Adam mumbles.
Eve looks up from where she’s setting up the spit and smiles brightly, “That’s it! A bear claw, that’s its name.”
“You mean I…”
“Yep, you finally got a name right.” She laughs as she works on attaching a forth stick to the spit.
We leave ‘em here with Eve getting a handle on things… including the spit.
Traveling by hole, we end up back where we started, in Giz-Gaz’s playpen. Holey Bob stays and helps me clean up the place, Giz-Gaz helps too, but in the way an adolescent does… very distractedly. We did such in relative silence for a while, but I’m curious about Eve.
“So, um, Eve…”
“Yes?” Bob teases me.
“Come on, give buster, tell me about her. I’m sure you know more than you’re sayin’.”
“Hmmm, ya heard about a woman’s patience?” he asks, and I nod, “Well, it started with her. Eve stayed with Adam for several hundred years, having and raising their children, providing meals, and, uh, keeping it all together through the trials and tribulations of life. She’s, uhh, also the originator of the idea of women’s suffrage.”
“Wow, what a woman!”
“So you’ve said and written more than once.” Bob chortles at me, “How are you doin’?”
“Actually… pretty good.” I smile through my painted on frown, “For a moment, I swear our eyes met again when she was alone by the fire, and I think I saw a glimmer of laughter, love and longing in them.”
“You did, and she did, and does.” Holey Bob tells me as he puts his arm around my shoulders.
“So… so it wasn’t just me?” I ask with hope. Not that it changes anything now, but to know she loves… loved me too.
“No, it isn’t just you. She has love in her heart, and I felt it there for you. Eve did see us, but she understood that she is, uh, was where she needed to be.”
“Oh…” A tear escapes its prison and makes a run for it down my cheek, “Yeah… I think I understand it too. Adam would be lost in the world without her.”
“Yes, he was lost, for a few hundred years. Enki really messed him up, uh, but they made up later, and after he’s found, when he experiences Samadhi, he and Enki get spaced out together. They’re still out ‘n about, traveling playnets together.”
“What did Eve do then, or…” I face the fact that she lived long ago.
“No, she didn’t die then, she met Volrath and Rangy Lil.” Bob grins his lusty grin at that, “They were a trio, a trinity of adventure and partyin’, uh, ‘til somethin’ caused a small spat. And with that I’ll leave you as this place is clean.”
“But what abou” I start to ask.
“Your room’s your mess, not gunna happen.”
“That’s not what I…” and I’m talkin’ ta thin air. He’d disappeared as he will.
That’s not what I was going to ask him, and I’m sure he’d read my mind and knew it, but for whatever reason, Holey Bob was done talkin’ ‘bout Eve with me. Was I… am I obsessing over this? Look, I can’t be with her, so I just wanted to hear about this new love I have. Maybe he wants to save somethin’ to talk about for later… I don’t know.
I tuck Giz-Gaz in his nest and read him a story, ‘Godzilla’, he likes the stomping through cities parts. Hugging, and kissing the top of his blue head, I wish him goodnite and make my way out, closing his door behind me.
Ramblin’ my way down the corridors of the Volrathican towards my pigpen… um, room, I deal with the emotions I’m holding in. They expand my chest, tasting melancholic, so I cough that out and concentrate on the fact Eve loved me too. I mean, how many clowns can claim the ‘mother of mankind’ has a special place in her heart for ‘em? Well, actually, since she did experience Samadhi, all us clowns can, ‘cause she found love of ‘Self’, and so loves the essence of all beings. This cheers me up a lot as I arrive before my door.
Opening the door, I’m in shock… Someone’s cleaned my room, furthermore they’ve organized my things. Great, now I’ll never find anything… Looking closer I see that things are actually organized in the manner I’d do it… Did I come back here and clean up in some other story?... Seeing how the porcelain throne shines, I figure it couldn’t have been me as it would take me days to get this place lookin’ so good. Heck, even the piles of clothes have been folded and put away or tossed in my laundry basket… I have a laundry basket? Huh, I didn’t know I had one, and there’s a small table set beside it next to the water closet door with a folded outfit sitting on it… kinda’ drab looking for me to wear, I like tie-dyes, but brown looks good on me too. I wonder who… and then I see ‘em… glasses.
Just then the water closet door opens and out steps a naked, beautiful woman, with long, flowing, brunette hair, eyes that shine with a divine understanding, and inviting lips…
“Ev…Evalyn?” I stammer.
“Eve.” She corrects me, and smiling, comes into my arms, tilts her head up and gives me a kiss akin to Samadhi… Ecstasy… Bliss… Laughter bubbles up within me and Eve joins in as we hold each other.
“I… I… you… you’re.” Seems I can’t put a sentence together.
“Here, now, with you.” She stops me from saying anything further by covering my mouth with hers, and starts to guide me towards our bed, us kissing the while. Eve pushes me onto my back and starts to undo my…
“Wait a sec, love.” I stop here and, pulling out the invite I still carry, tell her, “We aren’t alone.” Grasping the card with both hands, I tear it in ha