Janice's Little Big Adventures
A funny story full of discoveries, where everything is imaginary, which is to say… very real.
– I – The Dreaded Dream
The City, year 2237
Janice was a bit uneasy. Usually, she was a very lively and joyful little girl, but today her pretty face could not help but being a bit sullen.
After all, this was her first day she would attend a gathering (what the Ancients called a lecture) in Interactive History at the Great Library. But she had been so full of anticipation the previous days, that it could not have been the reason for her turmoil. Perhaps it was something she picked up from another of her other focuses, especially from those within the time of the Ancients. The times had been quite challenging for them, and rightfully so.
For one of her focuses of this time, 230 years from her, she would have seemed a quite normal child of seven, fair headed and freckled. Yet, something in her beautiful pale blue eyes with gold flecks may have betrayed a more mature look than those of the children of her age at the beginning of the millennium. For she was indeed very aware of herself, much like every child by now.
In any case, the anxiousness that children of the Ancients felt when they were first going to school was mostly alien to her, because she knew instinctively that nothing was hidden from her, and where was knowledge, fear had no place. She rejoiced in the differences she would discover in her comrades, and the explorations they could do together by bringing together their intents. It was difficult for her to understand that differences were mostly felt as threatening in that past, where she was also living in other forms, or focuses.
The Great Library was not a physical construction as the Ancients might have done, in sometimes hubristic displays of creativity. In fact, it was even more hubristic than any of the constructions they might have done.
It was as immense as imagination could be stretched, and every one of the persons going there could interact with the structure and add their own stone, so to speak, to it.
She had awoken this morning with a kind of tune lingering in her awareness, and words that did not make any sense to her. Something about life being a “roller coaster” with strange imageries of people screaming as they were crashing into the earth. Her body was responding strangely, as if she was all shaken up, and about to vomit.
She took some time to breath long, deep breaths, seated straightened against the sleek white wall of her bedroom, facing the large window that showed only the blue sky with puffs of smooth white clouds over the orange of the rising sun. When she found herself re-grounded, all was clear again.
She was a bit hungry, but a bit concerned of losing her focus when in the other attention, while she would attend the gathering. It had taken her about two years of training to be able to orient herself into the various wonderful distractions that were in her mind, and to be focused enough to be able to attend gatherings into the Great Library without either waking up or blinking off into other realities.
So she took a sip of fresh water and only one pill for her breakfast that would provide the necessary nutrients for the mental trip she would take.
She then knew what to do. She was still not confident enough to project directly from her first attention, but she had her method that worked well. Gently resting into a comfortable pouffe floor cushion, she breathed slowly, concentrating on her breath, once at a time, very slowly.
Then she began to picture herself into a nice glade, starting to feel the sun warming her bare arms and flowing hair, hair slowly lifted by the soft breeze. The sound of the ruffled canopy was so nice she was starting to feel nearby intoxicating smells of black locust flowers and sounds of buzzing bees kissing the buds.
Then a visual started to form, of the scenery that she was only feeling at the moment, and before her eyes, a familiar whiffing face was there, staring at her.
A white fluffy bunny was here, standing on its rear feet.
It was how she had often come to picture her inner guidance, the greater part of her, which was also a dear friend and companion. And when she looked into its black piercing eyes, she felt the immense knowledge and lovingness that it was radiating.
“Time to go, Janice!” said Yuki (which meant “snow” in one of the old Earth languages), immediately snapping her back from her elation.
“You’re right. Let’s go!”
And both of them glided into a tunnel of shimmering shades of blue, in gales of laughter and joyfulness.
– II – The Living Library
The Great Library hall was indeed an awe-inspiring vision. Light poured from the ceiling, which gave into a lush atrium filled with trees and birds of the old Earth, most of them had chosen at the beginning of the millennium to remove themselves from the planet to accompany the changes that had taken place.
“Come on, stop wobbling like that!” snapped back Yuki, “you have to keep you attention focused my dear. And we’re late; I’d like you to know!”
“You’re so funny when you play the rabbit from Alice’s legend! But you can’t trick me now, there is no time here!”
“Perhaps, but your body will require your attention sooner than you know if you keep trying to do everything at the same time”
“Yeees, you’re right, as always. Show me where to go then!”
Under one of the arcades, they could locate a corridor leading to a great meeting place surrounded by shining tiles engraved with vibrating symbols. She knew those tiles for she had played with some of similar ones when, as an infant, she had discovered her physical toys. She would have loved to touch each one of them, but Yuki was steadily bouncing its way ahead, and pretended not to wait for her. “Later, then.” she thought.
The open air amphitheatre resonated with a kind of vibration she could feel all around her translucent body as she approached it.
A radiant woman of serene and inviting looks and indefinable age went to greet her.
“Greetings, Janice! We have been expecting you here!”
“Oh, Cyprus! I was so looking forward to meeting you… well, though I have already, in a way.”
Cyprus laughed a hearty laugh. Of course, they knew each other as they had had countless interactions, within dreams and also with other less conventional avenues, in other focuses.
That much, the little girl was aware from her early years, even though she never had seen Cyprus elsewhere than in her other attention, that is, never outside of the dreamscape.
Her father had told her that Cyprus was connected to her in ways difficult to explain, that Janice would experience over the years. He told her also that Cyprus own experiences where so large that she herself would no longer feel the need for physical experiences, and was focusing her attention in other frameworks of existence.
And when she looked into the kaleidoscopic blue eyes of Cyprus, she was feeling a rocking into her dream body, as if she was about to burst into a firework.
But the deep and profound voice of Cyprus brought her back gently:
“You have just come here; you certainly do not want to leave us so early. We will begin shortly our gathering.”
“I can’t wait to begin!”
“So please make yourself comfortable, there is plenty of room.”
“Sure. But, wait… where are the others?”
“Dear Impatient One, this first gathering will be held with only you, so that you are less distracted. As you probably know, I am quite able of holding an infinity of attentions at a time, which you may learn to to also.
But in the meantime, do not be concerned with the others, they also have their own version of me teaching them in other dreamspace arrangements.”
“Oh, really… That sounds like a…”
“That is not a punishment my dear, it will prove beneficial, for you have some trouble keeping track of your own developments, as you are so very curious about the others’.”
“I don’t have trouble!” retorted Janice, immediately feeling herself blush, and wondering at the same time how blushing rosy translucent cheeks would look like, and feeling immediately wobbling around. But Yuki’s paw on her hand brought her back.
“Do you?” answered Cyprus with a smile. “And how about this morning dream? Perhaps we will start our lesson with it.”
– III – A Short Lesson
“But why? I thought we were having some serious Interactive History lesson?” asked little Janice in dismay.
“Ah, here we are. Let me tell you something,” continued Cyprus. “History is not about what your Ancients thought of it. History is a convenient term in your language, but its meaning has always been “searching information”, regardless of how small it appears.
And be sure that you will soon discover how it relates to you and the big picture.”
“But I can’t remember clearly this dream, and I don’t want to relive it neither, it was so strange and disturbing and…” Janice was almost panting even without air around her for her dream body to breathe. She turned around to look for Yuki’s support, but he was playing around like a simple mindless rabbit, pretending not to have the slightest clue of what was happening.
“I see…” Cyprus said after a moment. “You will be glad to know that you do not have to relive it if you do not want to, but perhaps you will, or have already. In the meantime, I will let you investigate a bit. Till we next speak, follow the white rabbit, dear Janice!”
And she was gone.
Janice was dumbstruck. That was all. Class dismissed, and already some homework to do…
“Would you mind a simple mindless rabbit’s help, Milady?” Yuki was just beside her, having materialized a funny costume that made it look like a clerk, with a most serious look that made her laugh.
She tried to answer as seriously. “Very much so, Milord. That would be an honour…”
“But I don’t know…” She looked defeated again.
“Munch, munch… What’s up doc’?” She looked up, and she saw a hilarious Yuki holding a carrot in its right paw like a cigar. Memories from one of her Ancient focus instantly came to her mind, making her realize the joke when she recognized the character Bugs Bunny.
Now, she thought, that was the Yuki she loved so much!
She really could not fail, and her spirits were lifted at once.
“So, am I supposed to follow you, Milord?”. Yuki was back to its stiff clerk frock coat.
“That probably would be easier if you could remind me of the clues we have.” He took a huge magnifying glass out of his outfit as if to examine the tiled floor.
Between two laughs, Janice managed to tell it of these strange rhymes about a “roller coaster”.
“Oh, I see…” said the rabbit meaningfully. “Perhaps we should go and see a friend who is very knowledgeable in these Ancient devices.”
And all in a sudden, she was dressed up in a flowing pale moss green robe, and like Alice was following the white rabbit in a meadow.
She could have sworn she was hearing the delightful laugh of Cyprus…
– IV – Potty Potted Patel and the Roller Coaster
Janice was half-running, half-floating as she followed Yuki, and all amazed by her graceful movement, she almost bumped into the rabbit which had abruptly stopped in the middle of the grassy landscape.
“What’s happening?” She asked him.
He said nothing, and kept staring at the rosy-peachy horizon.
There, near the clear line separating the unclouded sky from the grassy lands, she saw something move forward, like some mossy spread flowing down the hills in their direction.
“Here he comes” finally answered the rabbit with a smile.
And Janice saw a swarm of vegetation coming in their direction at such a speed that she thought they would be swept by it —if they had a physical body, of course.
And when the swarm arrived at their position, everything stopped still, and she found herself in the middle of a kind of forest of huge daisies.
“Greetings, my dear friends!”. A voice was coming from the hive of the big grinning daisies dancing in the wind.
“Greetings, Patel. Very entertaining manifestation of yours, I must say!” Yuki said, bouncing forth to meet one of the funniest creatures Janice had ever seen.
“I’m very pleased you love it. Well, I’d thought I’d be blending into the mood of this young lady’s dreamscape.”
And Patel was indeed a funny blend. If you can imagine something like a Humpty Dumpty face with the broad smile of the Cheshire Cat on him, on a body of a… potted daisy-flamingo!
“And to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?”
Yuki nudged Janice to speak with a swift movement of its paw, as she was obviously staring in awe of the funny creature.
“Oh. Sorry. Yes, I’m supposed to investigate something called a ‘Roller Coaster’.”
Patel hopped his pot a few steps nearer, and leaned towards her with a sly smile on his face.
“And what do you suppose it to be, dear one?”
“Mmmh… I don’t know, but it seems it has to do with one of my focus in the Ancient times.”
“Very perceptive indeed! You know, your Ancients in their extraordinary creativity have made some interesting entertainments. But the analogies with actions in consciousness most of the time eluded them. I’ll see that you take good care of that, my dear!”
“So, can you show me what it is?”
“Very well. I can even do better, with your help if you will.”
“Sure! What should I do?”
“Just give me your hands, will you…” And Patel extended his folded pink flamingo wings to hold her little hands.
When Janice had her hands placed into Patel’s wings, she felt immediately dizzy and the scenery of dancing daisies wobbled and morphed into a kind of labyrinth made from bushes, with bright colours and rounded shapes, open blue sky and a excitement in the air that was bustling in the noise of the crowd all around.
“What is that?” asked Janice who felt she knew the scenery from a distant past. Her hands when she looked at them now were like real ones, but she knew she was not awake in her own time.
Patel was now only a soft and playful voice that surrounded her.
“Ahah, now I have only allowed you to tap into the memories of your Ancient focus. You can play here for as long as you will! This is Alice’s labyrinth, of course; a good place to start your hunt. All of this area was called an amusement park in the old days, and you’ll find your roller coaster somewhere in there. Till we next speak, ta!”
A big broad smile was still lingering all by its own in a tree from where the sound seemed to come from, and then disappeared.
And she was alone again. Well, not entirely, for she had now a funny looking bunny plush toy that winked at her when she noticed it in her arms.
– V – Outside of the Labyrinth, Inside the Old Earth
Janice could feel the excitement of the treasure hunt building inside her, like she was about to burst. She run delighted into the maze, and quickly found the exit. Too easily, she thought. For it was not as much of a real maze as she thought. Nothing meant to disorient people, at least.
Now she was in a large alley full of people, a lot of young children about her age munching on cotton candy bigger than their heads, followed by parents lazily strolling around, enjoying the bright sunlight.
Amidst of them were also some funny disguised people, that she had first thought to be real creatures that her fertile imagination had materialized. But they were not disappearing when she demanded them to, petting her head instead, like she was very amusing. So she figured out that they were part of this strange “amusement park”.
She wandered a bit into the alleys to discover funny machineries in front of which people were lining up, pressing themselves as many Alices into a squiggled labyrinth.
She was about to ask Yuki about direction, when she noticed the screams and the deafening noise that had so much unsettled her in the dream. She could even feel the pit in her stomach, though it did not make more sense than it did at the time.
Driven by her feeling, she made her way into the crowd, and past a huge pirates’ ship, quickly found herself in front of the entrance of a cave seemingly made of plastic, boastfully named in bold letters “The Adventurer’s Roller Coaster in Suleiman’s Mines”.
“So this is it?” she asked her toy rabbit who nodded vigorously.
“But Cyprus told me I didn’t need to relive it, right?”
She was feeling a bit dizzy, like her energies were waning, and this time, the touch of Yuki did not help ground her, but instead amplified the feeling.
She then began to float very lightly around the amusement ride, seeing it in every details, and at the same time being in it, living every emotion that went through the ups and downs in the screeching trail of coasters rolling on the tracks, in and out of the earth’s entrails.
The exhilaration and the exhaustion finally had woken her. She was in her white room again, almost panting, with mixed feelings of joy and sheer fright at the same time.
These Ancestors were really reckless folks!…
And their madness was so much fun!
– VI – Dreamfaring Funfair Songs
Paris, nowadays
“Stupid song!”
Quintin had had the song stuck in his head since it had awaken him yesterday morning on the radio.
“ ‘Na-na-na-na-na…’ Christ! Can’t it get any dumber?”
And now, he had it follow him even in his dream. He could not remember well the indefinable things that he felt that night, but among all the fuzzy movements, there was something he did remember well. Apart from the song, that is.
He was back in his past, with his friends when they went to that big amusement park that had just opened. He had been scared to death that day.
He had so wanted to go in. But once in, he had had his eyes closed all along their ride into the roller coaster, too sickened to be able to scream, only wanting to hurl himself off the coaster, but he was so well strapped in that he only could wait. And that wait lasted an eternity. An eternity of feeling he would collapse at every new acceleration, of feeling of having as less control as a leaf torn inside a twister.
And now, he had relived the same anguish in that dream, except that he was alone in the coaster, and the tracks were his own life.
The strident sound of the garbage truck passing in the street made him cringe as he remembered this event.
He was confused and messed up. Just like after that succession of extravagant scenes in that pirates blockbuster movie he had seen yesterday evening.
Perhaps that was the reason for the dream after all.
Those pirates have always been one of the funny and not-so-scary rides of that amusement park.
He wanted to rationalize the all thing away and put it on the lack of sleep, but there was definitely something more. As if everything were tied up, and he could only see the poles scattered on the land and not the cables linking them together.
In a way, the song was right: his life was like a roller coaster, but not because of the thrill. Not at all. Just because he felt he was powerlessly rolling on a thin thread without the control to steer himself away of that helter skelter.
He paused a moment… Funny words… “helter skelter”… Another amusement ride’s name that became a song which had invaded the vernacular, just like the other song had invaded his dreams.
Well, his main problem he now saw was simply that he was thinking too much.
And he was late, as usual.
No matter how early he programmed the clock, he still managed to be late. At least, that was the last day of the week, and tomorrow morning he would be leaving for a much anticipated reprieve in one of Europe’s most delightful cities.
But from now, it was high time to speed up a bit.
– VII – Friends Open their Booty Chests
Janice had been thinking of her adventures all day long and could hardly concentrate during the afternoon with the other children at the oval meeting room inside the main dome.
Physical life seemed so boring at times, she could not wait to be having her next session to report her findings and continue her explorations.
Her father Jacob, who was in charge of their group was asking them to share their discoveries, for there was actually a physical counterpart in these dream sessions and their mutual sharing was meant to enhance their own trust in their abilities…
Of all the others’ stories, only one really caught her attention.
It was her friend’s Iriel who was talking about having to find more about some seafarer adventure focus in the even more ancient history, at least from a linear perspective.
She had been prompted to do so by her totem animal, a big quaintly moustached cat named Ezdale, after having had a dream about a ship caught in an attack on the seas.
In fact, Janice felt she had probably shared some adventures also here, but was more interested by the ship itself, which reminded her of the one she had seen in the “amusement park”, and which was for her a very fascinating antique machinery.
So they went on discussing their respective adventures, but it was rather frustrating, because the exercise insisted on using the outer senses: reasoning, language, logic, all of the tools that they tended to forget in favour of intuition and the more natural inner senses.
The focuses they were dealing with were obviously not related in time, one being manifested perhaps about 600 years before the other, but perhaps they were others not so obvious that linked them both, or even a lineage of them… Things could really get intricate…
In the end, all they could figure out was that there was a counterpart action for both of them, and that it probably could be beneficial, when they know more, to bring their energies together in their investigations.
At least, the next part seemed pretty straight-forward: they had to make contact to get to know more of their other selves, to discover how each of them was influencing the other.
The night should be exciting!
– VIII – Dream-mails and a Journey’s Throes
Quintin’s night had been very short: he was so wary not to wake up that he had barely slept at all. But he had remembered at dawn that a funny thing had occurred.
When he was standing between sleep and wakefulness, there had been a moment were he had found himself at his computer and was reading his emails. There was a kind of strange email, probably some spam he thought, but which he felt prompted to open and reply to.
That was almost all he could remember.
There was also this strange feeling that he was writing to someone… in the future. How preposterous!
Well… that had seemed so real, he could even have remembered the feeling of the keys under his fingers, and the purring sound of the laptop’s cooling fan. Except that it had been shut off since last night.
“Never mind”, he had told himself, at least he had not had dreams about sickening roller coasters.
Now, he was seated in the plane about to take off, and as he was finally more relaxed, all of this came back to him.
The roaring sound of the reactors started to make him feel uneasy, not that he was much preoccupied with the flight itself, but because he still felt the connection to something lingering around.
Perhaps having to do also with an anxiety about his trip that he could not quell down…
To relieve the pressure, he had devised a method that was very successful with him. Some said all that was to do was to breathe deeply, but when he was in this state where it was like a big knot in his solar plexus, he couldn’t just make himself comfortable enough to breathe in a confident way. So he had altered a bit the method to suit him more.
He exhaled in quick long blows, until the knot-feeling receded. Just like mothers about to give birth he thought…
He almost did not notice the take-off.
After having had the bits and pieces of his meagre lunch offered by the air hostess removed, he leaned his head backwards, and started to drift.
And before he realized, he was back in front of his laptop, which he had left in Paris, writing emails to someone he felt very familiar. He was telling her… yes, it felt definitely like a feminine presence… about his past few days, and she seemed curious (how strange, he thought all along that she answered immediately his thoughts as if the email was a mere pretext) about his trip.
Then, without warning, the scenery changed and he was with his friend Gustav in a scene from the Pirates’ movie, congregating with other unknown faces for… that part eluded him. But there was a comforting feeling in his hand, like a soft fur of a rabbit’s foot he was holding in the dream.
The voice of the captain announcing their descent to Vienna snapped him out of his dream, but he was still feeling cushioned in a velvety cloud of cotton…
– IX – The Next Lesson Unfolds
Janice was very proud of herself, for the night had been very interesting.
She had successfully connected with her other focus, in a very ingenious way she thought.
Ancients were so likely to freak out meeting other of their lifetimes that it required a really soft hand to deal with them.
She herself had been aware of other herselves in her own time; and they were all feeling either no threat or no interest doing this, all the more since they knew that intentionally messing up with other selves would equally reflect on each of them.
Anyway, she now had a better idea of who he was, but why they had had that connection at this moment of their lives still was a bit of a puzzle for her. So she had stopped asking him questions via this archaic means of communication, and had simply observed him.
And she had felt that Yuki had been there all along, almost unnoticeable…
Now, it was time to report all of her discoveries to Cyprus, and she was so bouncing with impatience, that she had to calm her down to be able to have a clear enough mind to reach her mental destination.
When she and Yuki arrived to the Library, Cyprus was mentally conversing with a tiny panda, hovering over the tiled floor in a cross-legged position like a old Chinese Buddha (Yoddha mentally corrected Yuki playfully) of knowledge ancient as the mountains, absorbed in his meditation.
They interrupted their conversation when the young girl entered.
“Greetings, dear Janice!” told her Cyprus. “Patel here was telling me of your progress, I am very encouraging of you!”
“Oh, is that… truly Patel?” Janice still had the funny creature in her mind.
“Truly!... As true as you are Yuki!” Patel said with a mysterious grin, his eyes circled by patches of black fur still half closed.
“Oh, well… if that’s the case, then… You look so much more serious… and cute also, I must say!”
“Thank you” answered the panda with a slight and graceful bow of its head. “Though not as much as… mein schnucki putzi liebling Yuki.” The last words pronounced by this wisely panda seemed so much out of place, that there was a feeling of extraordinary lightness and fun in it. Even Cyprus could not hide a smile on her lovely face.
“Hmmm, thank you for your help Patel.” Janice managed to tell him between two chuckles.
“Don’t mention it, young lady; you did almost all the job. Anyway, I will leave you now, and we’ll probably be meeting sooner than you know. Keep watching out!”
And * pof *, the levitating schnucki-putzi-looking panda Patel had disappeared again.
“So…” Cyprus looked at Janice with an inviting smile. “What have you learned so far?”
“Oh… Well, I have this Ancient focus, who is quite concerned by a feeling linked to a past experience of a roller coaster. Though I don’t see why, because it seems so much fun, but he does not seem to get the point. I had so much fun in this “amusement park”... We don’t have anything like it here, everything is so… balanced here, we can only have this kind of fun in the dream space, but all is so easy, that we don’t have our attention focused on it for much time…”
Janice was very excited just to think about the whole experience that she had, that the words were shot out of her mouth in a myriad of multicoloured sparks.
Cyprus was smiling broadly.
“Very true.” She said. “But you have only told me about one part of this treasure hunt, it seems…”
“Oh, yes. I have also noticed a synchronicity, which surely means something, though I have not really found what” she said, while Cyprus was grinning and nodding in approval.
“It seems this adventure is connected somehow with my friend Iriel, but I don’t know how…”
“Perhaps the next events will tell you more… But for that, you will have to pay close attention to your feelings. Let’s say that it will be our next lesson. And that will be a group lesson.”
She turned to Yuki who was chewing on an hallucinatory radish. “Yuki dear, would you be so kind as to found out Ezdale and his protégée for us and meet us in the Auditorium?”
Yuki bowed obligingly, and blinked off. The half-eaten radish was still hovering in mid-air.
Then, it popped off suddenly, with the hasten voice of Yuki saying “Sorry, I’m so absent-minded at times!”
Janice then followed the graceful Cyprus in the great halls of the Library, passing by rooms where strange living pictures where hanged in. Some made sense to her, which she recognized as great chapters of human History, playing right before the eyes of everyone. She would have liked to touch or interact with some of them, especially the more colourful and fascinating ones, but they were protected by a strong electromagnetic field, which would not allow people to interact with them. Would she have interacted with them, she would have immediately been propelled into them, and most probably would have lost her memories during the lifetime of the experience she would have lived inside the “picture”.
In fact, she had not known anything about these pictures before, but it seemed as if being near Cyprus in this second attention, she was able to pick up instantly the answers to her questions.
“Indeed!” Cyprus said gaily not even turning to look at the little girl.
“And you probably know that these Ancient storylines were specifically expressed for people in there to be unaware of their wider connections with the source of their being, and to be exploring a definite personality.”
“Yes, I know that, it sounds like the legends my father have told me about Ancient times…”
“And, as you know it, legends are real, and translate in many many many manners throughout the Creation.”
They were arriving to the entrance of the Auditorium.
It was a sort of vast and clear room, much like a huge dome, but with walls seemingly made of frosted glass, which seemed living and reacted to the thoughts of people in front of them.
Inside, there were a few unknown people, each absorbed by their own visions, but Janice found a familiar face: Iriel was here with Yuki, and a big gingerly ginger cat she guessed was surely Ezdale.
– X – Focus Hunt in Wienner Prater
Once Ezdale and Yuki had hallucinated two more seats for them to sit, they all waited for Cyprus to tell them what to do next.
She smiled at them and only told them “Now, I only expect that you pay close attention, and of course try to remain discrete.”
Then she lightly touched the frosted glass which swirled and moved until they could see a scene appearing before them.
First there were trees, at a distance, chirpings of birds and cawing of crows, then they saw some people with dogs strolling or jogging on a vast pedestrian street under the shades of tall maples full of whirligigs brushed by the breeze.
And on a bench, two people were talking.
It was a strange sensation for Janice, and also for Iriel though the latter would not have easily admitted it, being a bit older than her friend. It was as if she was both inside the scene, and outside of it; like she could see herself being at times inside a glass bubble floating around the Hauptallee in Vienna, and at times like being behind a glass wall surrounding the pit of strange animals in a zoo.
“You know,” Gustav was saying to his friend and guest Quintin “we can have a walk in the Prater if you want, I know a nice Heuriger there.”
“You mean, a restaurant?”
“Ja. They have good food, good wine, what do we need more?”
“Ha, you know I’m not so fond of these big amusement parks, and these amusement rides make me a bit uneasy –even when it’s just looking at people being shaken like that, just for pleasure.”
“Hahaha, but I won’t force you. I kind of like this mood, people behave like children, it’s like they forget their real life for a moment. It’s like, the more they get shaken in there, the more they appreciate when it’s over and they are back to their lives; don’t you think?”
“Perhaps… I never thought of it like that.”
A moment of silence, dispersed in the beautiful sunny day. An infant in a stroller, staring at them, as if discerning some indiscernible fluctuation in that state of peace. A faint smile perhaps, a greeting of another being, regardless of its age, who dared to look at them straight into the eyes.
Quintin broke the silence, as he knew his friend was very well capable to stay on the bench for hours without a need for a word being spoken. A stark contrast with Gustav usual volubility, but as opposite as they seemed, both traits were distinctively part of his friend’s personality.
“OK, then. Will you show me where that Heurig-thing is?”
Silence again. Laughs of nearby children cycling on a hillock.
Then Gustav rose slowly, and said with a smile “I’m kind of hungry too.”
While they were walking slowly under the shades of the trees in the direction of the Prater, Cyprus turned to her pupils and said
“Now, I get you’ve noticed something here?”
“Oh,... I don’t know, there is… this Gustav who feels so familiar” Janice said, “it’s like…”
“It’s me!” Iriel cried in sudden recognition, almost waking up the purring Ezdale half-asleep on his seat. “But, am I not supposed to watch out for pirates? Isn’t it all mixed up?...”
“Very good!” Cyprus said, smiling widely “Now keep watching, if you will”
Quintin did not know why at first, but he remembered he had not yet asked his friend for his impressions on that pirate’s movie. Then he saw that they were passing nearby a amusement ride with colourful resin characters, and a floating black flag. Must have been his subconscious picking up signals in his periphery.
Anyway, he pointed out the characters to his friend and was about to ask him, when they both busted out laughing. It was as if they had picked up each others’ thoughts.
“Yes, I’ve seen it” answered Gustav to the unspoken question. “You know how I liked the previous two. It makes me remember of the fun I had when I was a kid. I read a lot of these pirates’ adventures…”
“Yeah, I could picture you in such an adventure, rum and sea, new discoveries every day, and no plan for the future. And with that beard, it’s like it’s written on your face!”
“Hehe. It’s funny you say that, Barbarossa was not really my favourite one. He had so many trials and loss in his life… He lost his younger brother at the hands of enemies, he lost his freedom, temporarily of course, but then he lost his arm, he lost his companions, and his life… not to say that he lost also his head, but well, that was after he died” Gustav was smiling.
“And he was not really a pirate, you know, he was a corsair…”
“Kind of a legal pirate?”
“Ja. A mercenary of the seas, except that the seas where smaller back then. Mediterranean Sea was a more crowded playground than the Caribbean.”
“You seem to know so much of these guys.”
“Ja, you’re right. We all have our own strange interests…”
The scene slowly blurred away, and voices disappeared in a distance.
Iriel and Janice both tried to maintain the focus, devoured by curiosity, but it was now gone.
“I think you have enough for your next assignment” a cheerful Cyprus said.
“An assignment?” both girls were now much less curious to know more.
“Before I’ll explain to you what I expect, do you have any question?”
“Yes,” Janice had had a question since the pirate incident. “Could they… hear us?”
“Interesting question Janice, but you should be able to answer it yourself. Remember that the display in the Auditorium is a simple separated projection or objectification for your comprehension. But this is also you, and is not separate, neither in time nor in space. So, it is quite natural that there was a bleed-through between your focuses and you.”
“I also have a question.” Iriel was uneasy. “I know I have had this strange feeling when Gustav was talking about that famous pirate.”
“Yes…” Cyprus smiled encouragingly
“This is also one of my focus, right?”
Cyprus nodded.
“Then this is my connection with all of this, I see now… It starts to make sense. But, if Gustav seemed to be somewhat aware of him, he did not seem to appreciate much of this lifetime.”
“You are right, Iriel, and this would be part of the assignment, but before we go to that part, there is one point that you might both find useful.” She was now looking intently at Janice. The little girl pondered for a moment, visibly at a loss to find what she had not seen.
Yuki who had been unusually calm, came to her help. He said with a sly look “Don’t you see something is missing to have a perfect symmetry?”
“Yes,... I see something… Iriel has found two focuses, beside herself of course. And I have only found one… Is there… one in the pirate chapter for me?” She had pronounced the last words with haste.
Now, Yuki, Cyprus, and even Ezdale were all nodding, encouraging her to continue.
“And, of course, this focus would be close to Iriel, I mean, the pirate, or it would not have concerned you so much…”
“Don’t second-guess…” warned Yuki “just feel it”
She was beaming. “I got it! It’s the pirate’s younger brother!” They all waited for her to finish, as she was still deep in her thoughts.
“I sense him now,... I have a name floating; it’s something like Ea-sy-al… No, wait… Ilyas! That’s it: Ilyas!”
“Congratulations!” said Cyprus.
She started to clap her hands as if to applause her, but as she stopped, they were no longer in the Auditorium.
– XI – Living Pictures of Piracy in the Vicinity of Cyprus
They were now standing in front of one of the living pictures.
Cyprus then gently said to them:
“You will be able to stay here and watch as long as necessary, so don’t be overly concerned about this picture. It will merely help you remember parts of this particular past in which you are interacting.
You see, you have created here a great drama, with a great cast, a wonderful set, and most important, very recognizable characters who influence even people in the distant future of that human tribe.
Now, it may seem a game, and in a way it is, but it is also very real.”
Iriel and Janice were listening very carefully.
“And you will learn from it, of course. So, let’s talk about this assignment.
I would like both of you to assist one of your focuses in recognizing their own importance, and the greater importance of their actions, in response to their doubts. You can choose either one of those whom you have identified. Janice?”
“I think I’ll take Quintin, I feel close to him, even if he is so serious about everything.”
“Or so he seems” interjected Yuki mischievously “I am him also, as much as I am you, remember…”
“Very fine then. Iriel?”
“Oh, I think I will change my mind. I first thought I would take Barbarossa. I could already feel him hanging around before I connected with Gustav and he had so much energy and strength. But now that I’ve seen more of Gustav, I have a sort of impulse to choose him instead.”
“Very fine choice” Ezdale said dreamily, caressing his Dalí-styled moustache.
“Very well. Now, my dear ones, I will let you play with these and enjoy the ride… We will not be very far.”
And then, with a smile, she became more and more transparent, as if she was disappearing inside the picture that was behind her.
Iriel and Janice were very excited by the picture and sat crossed-legged in front of it to stare at the many scenes that seemed to overlap.
It was difficult to keep track of the many different perspectives at play. They were interested above all by their mutual bond of friendship or brotherhood, but the individual story was interspersed with many other references. Religion wars and conflicts of interests, Catholic Knights of Cyprus and Rhodes and Muslim Sultans of the Ottoman Empire, Spaniards and Italians, Turks and Tunisians, such a blend and clash of differences was occurring at that time. The set was indeed wonderful.
The Ancient Earth was full of life and colours, sharp as a raw jewel in its gangue.
The part they loved the most was the most tragic one, when Ilyas had died, killed by the Christian knights –in fact, these ‘knights’ seemed much less knightly than the name had evoked at first. And then, Oruç who was not yet known as Baba Oruç or Barbarossa, was imprisoned for three long years in the Christian Knights stronghold, blaming himself for having let his younger brother take to the sea after his own example.
Nevertheless, all of this would not dent his resilience and his will; to seek revenge and to make himself a name in the world, he, the son of a potter.
For the two girls, this morning session at the Library fleeted away like all of these magical moments when everything seems to be in such a state of perfection than nothing more than what is given need to be added.
The afternoon meeting in the communal dome was much less of a fun. They had to try to explain what they had understood, but in the first attention where everything was linear, it was not so easy to keep track of all the thoughts and intuitions that materialized so easily and effortlessly in the second attention.
So they explained the best as they could, but they were mostly concerned about how they would manage their first assignment.
After the meeting was over and they had listened to others’ Histories, which were equally exuberant as theirs, all of the small groups that had formed naturally were invited to work together to make the assignments easier and funnier.
For most of the others, it was not their first, so they were not very concerned about it. Seeing Janice uneasiness, her father went to see her.
“Janice, you seem to take that so very seriously, it’s very well, but it does not look like the little Janice I know… You did very well fot your first exchange with –what’s his name, yes, Quintin.”
“Yes, I know,… but I have to make such a big thing for him, I feel so responsible…”
“Yes, this is what I thought. You know Janice, even if this is another of your focuses, you are only responsible for yourself, here and now.
There is nothing that you need to change in others, and I’m sure Cyprus or Yuki wouldn’t have asked you such a thing.”
“No… You’re right… But why do I want to help him then?”
“Aah, wanting to help can be a tricky thing, honey. Pay close attention to what you want to change into others, because that tells you a lot about yourself.
And above all, trust that everything is as it should, and it will be.”
– XII – Dream Assignments and a Panda’s Kung-Fu
The day at the Prater had been one of the most delightful ones in Quintin’s life. He was like out of space and time in this foreign place, but at the same time had felt at the centre of everything, grounded in the present moment, not concerning himself with anything farther than some few minutes ahead.
He had even done things he would not have done in other circumstances, like putting this copper coin that had caught his eye on the ground in the machine full of plush toys nearby.
And he who rarely gained anything had managed to get a funny looking tiny plush panda with a key-ring attached. One of the mascots of the next Olympic games it seemed.
And now, the panda that he had put on the table near his bed was looking odd at him. Was he not supposed to sleep anyway?
“Well, that’s only a matter of perspective” the panda told him.
“Right! Like I said. You’re not even supposed to speak –much less in English” a dismayed Quintin said
“Don’t underestimate the kung-fu of a Shaolin panda” the panda said, taking a deep long huge breathe that made him grow and grow until he was as big as a bear, too big for the room in any case.
“Care for a ride?” he asked to Quintin.
“Well, I’m probably too drunk to drive, so I’ll let you take the pilot.” And with a light leap, he was now sitting on the panda’s back, holding tight to the soft and short fur of its back.
“Hang on!” the panda said, and with a leap that Quintin thought would have them crash into the window, they simply went right through it into the dark still night sky illuminated by the full moon and the lights of the fun fair.
“You’re right… A flying panda… That’s more kung-fu that I would ever have thought possible to witness.
There should have been something not quite legal into that wine…”
“And where are we going?” Quintin asked to his mount.
“See some friends.”
“Fine… I’m gonna spend a night into some kind of panda party. Just my luck if they happen to be smoking their bamboo leaves…”
The panda visibly had some kind of sense of humour, for Quintin was feeling the huge ribcage pulse frantically as if it was laughing.
But there was something different… He did not quite know what but… Perhaps that was the little girl in front of him sitting on a big rabbit, going up and down, and round and round…
“Wait a minute,…” he said.
But the panda did not answer for it was a big wooden painted panda he was now sitting on, going merrily around a big carousel.
“If pandas cannot be trusted any longer…” he grumbled.
Janice was enthusiastic beyond words. Yuki had been bringing her here, and had found a way to have Quintin in that dream. As for Iriel, she could sense her presence in the fair as well.
Now that the props, set and characters were all united, all there was left to do was to follow the flow and the thread of improvisation.
The carousel finally stopped, and she dismounted the big flying wooden rabbit. Quintin was still on his panda, visibly at a loss.
“Hello,” she said. “So you have met Patel?”
“What? Oh, you mean… the panda?”
“Yes, he is funny, isn’t it?”
“A reckless driver, you mean. But wait… Do we know each other? It seems like…”
“Oh yes. I’m Janice, we’ve had some email exchange last morning.”
“Ah, that’s why you feel so familiar then. Do you live here?”
“Oh no. Though I’d love to. It’s so nice here.”
“I guess that’s because you’re so young. I’d rather have a good drink at a terrace. Moreover, these crazy jacks everywhere give me the creeps.”
“And who would you prefer to be then? An adventurer in a gold mine, a passenger in a spaceship,… or a pirate perhaps?”
Had he been awake, Quintin would have surely said that he did not like these amusement rides, but here, it was like the question meant something else. Like he had the power to chose what to experience and either of his choices would be equally meaningful.
“Yeah, why not a pirate! I’ve always have wanted to sail on the sea, with so much freedom.”
“Let’s go then!”
In front of them, a track of luminescent rabbits paws seemed to have been lit, and Janice followed them without hesitation.
Following her, Quintin could not help but look around and wonder. As they went passing a nice Bavarian castle, he mumbled:
“That’s so funny… It’s as if there is no time here; all the epochs are mixed up.”
“That’s because there is not” answered slyly Janice. “You’ve only been seeing one ride for so long.”
Coming from nowhere, he could hear the song he hated so much…
And something started to make sense for him. That’s what it meant: his life was a roller-coaster, among all the roller-coasters in the whole fair.
“And they are fun, you know, even the most haunted house!”
A gorgeous woman with glimmering pale blue eyes with gold flecks, dressed as a pin-up with large rabbit’s ear was handing him a ticket for the pirate’s ride.
He smiled at her, like under a spell.
“Thank you…” He looked at the name sign on her mini teal cardigan. “Yukee”
So they sat with Janice in one of the dinghies lined up in the small rivulet.
When Quintin woke up, he did not remember much of the night, but the nice rocking of the dinghy he remembered. He also remembered flashes about a distant attack, with Gustav dressed up as Barbarossa, leaning on him amidst the havoc as if to wake him up.
And there was also this gorgeous woman, in the fun fair… How he would have liked to know her more, she seemed to know him so well.
“Dreams are a funny thing” he told the facetious panda lying on the bedside table…
Epilogue
“So I have failed…” Janice was overwhelmed.
“And what makes you think you have?” Cyprus said compassionately. “This adventure has given Quintin much to think about.”
“But I hardly did anything. Hopefully there was Patel, and Yuki and…” she was on the verge of tears.
“But my dear one, do you remember that there is also something for you to learn in this adventure?”
She was smiling to Janice who in surprise did not know what to answer.
“My dear one, how can you be so sure that Yuki and Patel’s help was not yours also?”
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Interesting…….Does, “Ancient Treasures”, ring any bells??