'Wait a minute! I remember!' I cried. 'I remember the First Law! The First Law says:
You exist. That's it, that's the
First Law. You exist! '
As
I might have expected if I'd been at least half sober, this idiotic outburst of
mine brought the house down. Aklo was literally bent over in raucous laughter.
Of course the jokes kept coming. So if I
exist, where does that leave you? or, If
I don't exist, do I break the Law? or, Everything changes except Law Six, and
other such puerile inanities.
Believe me, it's funnier when you've had a
few drinks in you. I laughed as much as they did. In fact, I hadn't actually laughed as much for
as long as I could remember. What would
Zol think of me now? Xendo? Solari? I
felt so ashamed of myself and yet I was laughing my head off. No wonder the
Lemurians couldn't trust the wheelies.
I was as ridiculous as any of them.
As the merriment died down, a deep,
soft gong rang out, followed by an announcement that our shuttle was waiting to
transport us to our island airport. As I
stood to leave with the group, in the distance I could hear someone singing that
song again. Solari's song. Where was it coming from? I started to weep quietly
as the tears welled up and before I knew it, the sobbing became uncontrollable. Jordan? queried Sanshi, staring into my
eyes through her huge, black spectacles, holding my arm, are you all
right? I hadn't noticed how beautiful those
large green eyes of hers were...Sanshi...Jordan?...Jordan?....
'Jordan?'
It's
Lucy's voice.
'Lazarus!' she laughs. 'Are you OK? I'm sorry, I had to wake you. I thought you
were choking, your whole body was trembling. One minute you're laughing your
head off, then the next minute you're shaking all over and crying. That trip
must have been quite a roller-coaster!
So sorry to have to wake you, but I was getting a little worried. You
were really out long enough for one day. Cup of tea before we do the recording?'
Long
Time Sun is playing in the background.
I wipe the tears from my face and try to
remember the Six Laws.
Lucy returns with a tray of
tea and a slice of her delicious apple and blackberry pie.
As she goes over her notes after my recording, she remarks
that the Jainists, who go back to the time of the Buddha, are also very
conscientious about the life-forms under their feet. They use brooms to sweep
the insects away in front of them as they walk.
She tells me that the term merkaba
has captured her interest. She
took a course once which included a module on Egyptology she says. When she was
a student. In another life, as she puts it jokingly. The ba
and the ka terms also appear in
ancient Egyptian culture. The ba was
the personality; the ka the spirit, or
vital spark, that kept the person alive. In Egyptian hieroglyphs, the ba was represented as a bird with a
man's head. Or was it a man with a bird's head?
I'm exhausted. And to be honest, far too tired to be bothered
by any of this right now. I need some air. Mercifully, Lucy's phone rings and she answers
it. I point urgently at my watch, grab
my phone, wave at her and dash for the door, feeling relieved to be out of there
at last. I look forward to a cool beer and a normal chat at home with Cathy. In the breeze, on the way to the bus-stop, I
can still feel the tears on my face.
Lucy rings me on my mobile while I'm on the bus. She's
wondering if I'd ever heard of the I
Ching, pronounced Ih Ging. No, no
I don't believe I have. Can I remember anything else about the chessboard design
on the wall, the squares of straight and broken lines of silver and lapis
lazuli? Oh, yes, of course. Yes. What
about it? She asks me to Google the I Ching as soon as I get home and to
contact her if I can make any connections. She spells it out for me. I try to
show some interest and tell her I'll do it first thing. I take out my biro and write I Ching on my fist.
As
I get off the bus and cross the road, I look around for the guy in the
wheelchair. I wonder where he is now.
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