Eric--Part Twelve

Splog # 62

Twelve

   Nol stopped talking and stood looking at Eric. Eric looked back at him and realized that the room had become completely quiet. There was no movement and everyone was focused on him, waiting expectantly for his response to Nol.

   Eric took a deep breath and straightened up in order to make himself as tall as possible. He slowly started walking down the length of the room, trying to convey the impression of someone who was taking some time to make a difficult decision. He looked around at the people as he made his way to the fireplace. They seemed quite an unhomogenous group, although his first impression was that only a few of them were women. But there were very tall men and very short men, there were very old men and very young men, and their skins seemed to vary in hue from very dark brown to a paleness that reminded him of albinism. And they didn't seem to have arranged themselves in groups according to any of these characteristics. Tall, short, old, young, dark, light were scattered around the room in a quite haphazard manner. While noticing all this, and wondering how he could deal with his case of mistaken identity, a flash of white caught his eye, between a tall, dark, old man and a tall, light, young man. He stopped walking and turned his head to the right. The two men looked at him expectantly, and then a girl stepped out from behind the older man and walked up to him. She was quite short, her head only rising to his chin, and her skin was a shade that Eric associated with American Indians. Her face and figure proclaimed her to be about twenty years of age and she was wearing a white dress and holding a rabbit in her arms.

   She smiled up at Eric and said, "Much time, Cor. Were you, by any chance, chasing a rabbit through the forest earlier? If so, I should be happy to present her to you. With compliments on your fleetness and praise for your compassion in allowing her to outstrip you."

   Eric was at a complete loss. Was this girl the white spectre he had been following in the woods? If so, did she know who he was, or rather who he wasn't? And what was she up to now with this rabbit?

   And then Nol was stepping between them. "Bev, this is no time for rabbit games. Let Cor alone."

   The girl just stood there looking at the both of them. Eric looked at Nol and then resumed his deliberate pacing to the fireplace. When he got to it he turned and faced them all.

   "My friends," he said, "I will join your conference."

   There were smiles and murmurs of approval. Nol came up to him and clapped him on the arm.

   "I knew you would. Now, before we start, what if you tell everyone the way you see this endeavor developing, what directions we should take, the aim of each group, how things need to progress for the aims to be accomplished..."

   Eric held up his hand. An idea was starting to coalesce in his mind.

   "I've said that I will be a part of your conference," he began, "but I will not take charge of it. What I will do is, I will listen to you to discover if you have a grasp of the problems and difficulties that we all face. Once those are outlined with some clarity, I will again listen to you. I want to hear your thoughts and ideas about solutions and answers. I want to see if they are at all compatible with the ones that have been occurring to me. Then, when I have heard all that you have to say on these points, I will present you with the thoughts that have been brewing in my mind. That is my decision at this time."

   There was silence as the people in the room looked around at each other.