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He looked up and stared blankly at the wall. Then he turned around to look at the two of them standing there. His face had the anxiety of a wild animal that was trapped and feared for its life.

“What is it, honey?” Margaret called.

He raised one finger and pointed at the ceiling.

“It is not unlike autism,” Margaret said.

“That's like being in a dark place?” Charles asked.

“Yes,” Margaret replied, “it is the effect of shock. Until it wears off, they seek a high ground or a person with unquestionable authority to anchor themselves for stability.”

Charles was at ' Little Angels, ' the Center for mentally challenged children in Venice, Los Angeles.

“How is it different from shell shock,” Charles asked again.

“Well, what we have observed of shock may be divided into two separate experiences, but they are in a final sense related to each other. There is the physical in which a certain outcome that was expected, produces an opposite effect. This raises doubts of the individual regarding the validity of physical reality.”

They sat down at one of the small tables, beside the children.

“The second refers to expression and communication. Something that a person thinks and speaks of, is proven to be without basis in reality. This produces doubts about their personal identity.”

“So it causes everything to grind to a halt,” Charles suggested.

“That's it,” Margaret replied. “We think, at this time, that these two conditions are the tools that establish the experience of reality and illusion. And that all symptoms arising from illnesses related to mental health, have these two as the basis.”

“It's Dwaraka,” said Charles.

“Excuse me?” inquired Margaret with raised eyebrows.

“I'm sorry,” Charles apologized, “just something from the Sanskrit experience.”

It amazed Charles that a person can find anybody, he was looking for these days, by simply inquiring into the search engines. On his Facebook account that night, he had an e-mail message from Mike.

The message was addressed to him with a short note. It said a Mike Flanders wanted to speak to him on certain issues and to confirm his identity by return mail. Charles replied in the affirmative, with a comment that the pancakes in Dennys are great.

Mike's reply arrived an hour later.

It said he was back in the country but for security reasons was staying in another city.

It said that he wasn't sure if he ought to inform Charles of the events that he had encountered in the last two years. But certain incidences, he encountered recently has caused such a consternation in him that he just had to get it off his chest.

He referred to the two years in India as having taught him humility. It said it was just enough for him to step down from an impression of his own professional nature and to view the fact that many situations that take place in our daily lives are filled with an exactness resembling trained professionalism.

He mentioned his trip to the Crimea where he had met the Queen Etsiraga, and his father the Satyr. It said, he has come to understand himself better and that a little effort by man each day is received with great aplomb by forces in our lives, who are there to protect and help us grow, even in the darkness of our ignorance about these issues.

He then referred to a loose end he wanted to tie up in Belfast. His companions had thrown a hood over his head and driven him out to an isolated farm on the moors. There he had met again, the brother of the girl he was once madly in love with. It had almost cost him his life in Kosova.

He said he had made a present of a Luger to Bosennica. On reflection, he didn't know why he did that. Perhaps the fates had guided him.

In the conversation that followed in the company of free men, something had pulled the hammer back in Bosennica's head. He must have figured that he had lost the protection of the pack in Northern Ireland. He was handling the Luger and suddenly, shot the three Bonners who were there and held it against me and the Fenians.

It had appeared to Mike that there was no greater animal than the man who stood there that day. He said it reminded him of their conversations about the dreaded Mura of the Indian legends. His home had been divided and he had nothing to call his own anymore. He had to reunite or die trying.

"He said he had always wanted to know how good a Seal is. And with that he said he'll be waiting for me outside. I took an automatic from one of the Fenians and went to look for him."

He confirmed Charles's comment from previously, that all our rage and anger about the world and everything else actually comes down to one man. We have to meet him and get it over with. He had shot the man in the back of the head after placing him face down in the bog about a mile from the house.

 

On a separate matter, he suggested that Charles try to get in touch with Gangothri. He has left the hotel and nobody knows where he is.

He thanked Charles for hearing him out and ended with the best wishes of the season. In a footnote, he suggested that Charles destroy the message after reading it.

Charles deleted it.

Reviews

[Dayran]

The story is about one man coming to learn of himself and the world. The plot is being designed to bring out the elements that influence such a perception in our lives and make the issues, in these times, clear. At some point, the plot is expected to thicken. It is what creates the climax.

[patricia]

with a book in my hand, i could turn to the back cover and get a quick run down of what the whole book is about, i have read all the chapters since my last review, and whilst everyone of them is fascinating, the mental states, and the geographical moves, along with more sinister elements, and madness/sanity analyses...it is a bit like having all the jigsaw pieces but no box with a picture on it. i used to know the right word for what you need as explanatory info...is it synopsis or capsule or something...anyway your chapters were interesting, but i am well aware that i may be reading characters as good when they might be bad, and vice versa, and i havent got a clue what the plot is...i hope you will enlighten us some on the practicalities, cant you put a run down in the authors note...a prologue or something? thanks Sri. Bye for now.