Warlock, page 22
“Hello, Antony,” she tilted her head a little. “Something’s changed.”
“I smoked some grass,” I said. “Is that a problem?”
She looked at herself and smiled:
“I’m here, so all fine,” she looks at me. “Maybe this even will help. First, we need to warm up a little.”
I shuddered a little, like from a cold. She continued:
“That teachers dress… I don’t like it. Change it for something else.”
I look at her, concentrate, and her strict dress had changed to a light summer dress of nice green color. She looks at herself, and nodded a little:
“Nice. Much better. Next.” She came to me and sits in front of me. “Now, I’ll show you something, I’ll lead your meditation. Hold on!”
And she began saying words. First they were a different, recognizable words about time, space, size and all like this. But then they climbed on top of each other, stumbled together, parted and tangled in pieces, forming an illegible ligature, a constant stream. It was hypnoses. Words, it’s ligature swing me, turn me around and around, leading me far away. A minute, half an hour or hour (I don’t know how many time I listened to her.) everything around me faded, and I found myself in a space. I looked at an endless grey surface. I felt something familiar, but can’t recall what it was. I looked around and rather guess then saw that endless surface – it’s a cube. That was a scene from my dream, where was a couple of space-cubes with a relevant and cyclopoid sizes. I was one of them. I looked attentively to the cube in front of me and saw that surface is not solid at all. It has a pattern. I looked more closely (not knowing how far it’s surface from me – a couple of meters or light years), and saw a honeycombs. Like a carbon it looked solid, and had a hexagon pattern in the same time. I do not know why, but they’re inspired me, I watch them, how they curved, how one side become another, hiding in a next hexagon, transforming and changing. Still a pattern become live when you pay attention to it. And then, when I thought that I can guess secret of that surface, something stung me in the forehead, and everything faded.
It turned out that floor stung me – I was passed out. Mara was absent, of course. At first, I can’t recognize my own room – hexagons were everywhere, a little ones and a medium size of them were printed on the walls. When they begin to fade I understood that they were just a flash on my retina. I stood up, and looked to my notebook, and saw this:
(next page was full of hexagons, drawn in a hurry, but they looked like hand that draw this complicated pattern know exact result that he needs to reach)
I need to ask Mara what this pattern means…And with a hope that I wouldn’t have a bruise on my forehead I tell you good night, my filthy diary. ”
“Diary entry #34.
Today I was almost hit by a police car when I had a ride to a school. The dog barked at me in the open window, and a policeman told me a small lecture about attention on a road. But my head was far away from here – I thought about my plan for the bullies. This close location of the police department could be helpful.
I must admit that bullies seems forget about me – they beat me one day through three, and this interval gets bigger with every week. I think if I would be calm, I can stand all this, and they would forget about me totally. But, hey, I can’t do this. I think in this way – if you can play some role, and you comfortable with this – continue. And if this is a role of a vengeful person – so be it. I don’t have problems with a good or bad side, if bad side can give you a good profit – so fuck that good! Really. You need to have enough brains to protect yourself, and think about your next step. Do not turn up your nose, do not become arrogant, think.
So I think.
Another detail that said that It’s a nice idea - was handle of the PD. I know this looks like madness, but it was hexagonal. Yeah, you can call me crazy, but I felt something… stitching. Like goosebumps, but these ones were because of excitement.
Next was boring day at school. It’s really funny – after a couple of weeks in a new school, after a couple of months in new country and a new life – all stresses become routines. Verily, man is the most adaptable being. Fred and Mary became a good friends to me, and we spend our free and lunch time together. I do not tell them about my evening with Joe and my plan – one of an important part of such plans is their secrecy. This that I mean saying “think”. Think, if you want to break the law, and set up a couple of bullies – how many people you would tell you whole plot, huh? The lesser – the better, because if you’re will be caught – you can lie strictly, and if there would be other people… You understand.
Boring of the day was erased with a history teacher. She said at the end of the week we would have a test. Perfect. I can’t say two words rightly, and I need to say something about history… I hope that I would catch up something in a week.
Next thing that happens today was rather interesting one – I had invited to a party. I do not know why, I suspect that it’s a Mary’s influence in the girls' group, but I had a red invitation. When we had a lunch, I asked a Fred – is it for real?
He said – yes, one girl set up a Birthday party. It’s her every year tradition, and her parents leave town for two or three days. I continued to ask him, until Mary knocked me under a table, and I understood that he wasn’t invited. That was awful feeling.
“Come on,” he said. “Such guys as me never invited.”
Sucks. I was in a compilation of all movies that I saw early – party’s bullies, geeky friend that haven’t invite for a party. Watching all this on screen is more peaceful, guys.
“I’ll tell you all gross stories,” I said. “About princesses vomiting, and …”
“And I do not want to hear all this,” said Mary and walk to the girls.
Yes, I think that this invitation – was her idea. I need to watch on her closely.
Anyway, a couple of hours lately I was sitting in my room, surrounded with a papers with complicate ornament of hexagons on them, and meditating. I do not need to draw anymore – practice does its job – I can call Mara much easier. She sublimates from an air.
“Hi,” she said. “How’s your day?”
I look at her and smiled:
“I think that you know all about this.”
She signed:
“Nope. If I do not near you – I can’t get such information,” she looks around at the papers and finished. “In other words – I live only when you see me”
“Live? So, when I alone, you’re…”
She lifted her head:
“No. No-no-no. Dying is a bad word. It’s just... A dream. A coma, to be fully right. But you bring me to life, so I think I can stand it.”
It bothers me a little. But I begin to retell her all my day, and soon find that it’s a nice way to set all emotions and thoughts to their places in my head. Mara agreed that party is a nice thing, and thought that Mary is a nice girl. As for my plan about bullies – she asks to wait a little, that I need to think about all things a little more, but I said that all is set – today I’ll pick a sack of grass from a Joe. She was little disappointed but then shuddered a little and said that she’ll thought how to help me. And finally, when she hears about the history test, she smiled:
“That’s the easiest thing from all that you tell me today.”
I was shocked:
“You are kidding? How...”
“I can help you,” she said. “Look. You let free this part of the brain where I live. So store all info for the test here. And call me in the class.”
“But…,” I was bewildered. “But, how? How I…”
“What do you miss in a class?” she looked at me like a Ms. Prey, when she perfectly knows that I can tell her an answer if I’m thought promptly. “Meditation is just a way of concentration. No one would see me. And anyway – you’ll teach all this – it would not be any harm, if I would listen all this.”
“But…,” I don't have any arguments, and I just can’t understand all this idea of Mara (in fact – my own idea).
She put her hands on my shoulders, and I felt their weight and coldness:
“We’ll do this. Trust me.”
That moment you can call intimate. And sexy in some way. She straightened up and smiled:
“You said that you had some question about yesterday meditation…”
I’m came to myself:
“Yeah. All this pattern,” I pointed at papers with my finger. “What do they mean?”
She grimaced a little, and thoughtfully said:
“Assume that magic exists. Why do you think witches and mages use spells, books, potions and special movements and passes?”
I smiled:
“To divert attention”
She clicked with her fingers:
“Antony, I said assume that magic is real. Why do they do this?”
“To… “
She looks at me with interest:
“Well?”,
“To help it happens?”
“It?”
“Magic”
She nodded:
“Indeed. It’s like a metronome. Spells, potions, passes and other things cause… a sort of vibration of our world that magic happens (as you said) easier. That’s a principle of this pattern work.”
I frowned:
“One problem with all this stuff,”
She smiled and lifted into the air, like a spirit. She often does this, reminding me that she’s not real:
“Yeah?”
“Magic. It’s not real.”
Mara turned her face strictly to me:
“Oh really? Look at this. We call magical something that can’t happens with common laws of our life.” Her ability not to blink scare me a little. “Yeah?”
I nodded and she continued:
“But, as we know nothing is impossible for a hundred percepts. Probability theory and physics only give a small probability to some events. So think of magic like something that can change probability here and now. Locally, fast and narrowed force.” One of her eyebrows jumped. “Think about this today. And tomorrow we’ll start preparing to the exam.”
Saying this, she was gone, and today almost without smoke in the air – Mara became transparent instantly, and then missed her density.
I can’t think a lot today, so I looked at Mara’s words at different angles, and thought that she had some sense. At last – it was my thoughts too. Good night my filthy diary. Hope you’ll see some naughty dreams. ”
“Diary entry #35.
Another boring day, my filthy diary. It was so boring that even nice legs of Ms. Prey doesn’t make it better.
At my way home I watch on PD once again. If I need to make my plan true – I need to think how to manage a couple of things. I bought a bottle of coke and drink it sitting in front of PD. Nothing interesting happens, except of one curious thing – with the first blow of the city clock, notifying about the onset of five o'clock in the evening dog that I had saw earlier took one of the policemen on the street from a building to pee. It may be coincidence, but if that dog listen for a clock – it’s my chance. With a silly smile in a couple of gulps, I had finished my drink, and drive home.
There was a session of teaching history with Mara. It’s a strange thing if you think of it calmly. I read schoolbook at loud, and can’t remember a lot of things, I’m even yawn when I read it, but Mara said at loud almost all-important facts! Fuck me, if the brain doesn’t human’s last big mystery and frontier!
It was hard, and after a couple of hours Mara say “good buy” to me and vanished. I felt on a bed, and read next book in my list of great American literature. For this time, it was “Moby Dick”. And I finished it today, and instead of talking about boredom of my life, I want to talk about white whale a little.
Do I like it?
Yeah. I guess.
It’s need to besay right. It’s not a great text, it doesn't have such a suspense that makes you to read from beginning to the end with your breath hold. And you know all metaphors and cross-cultural meanings even if you live across the world in a country with a snow falling half time of a year.
But!
It’s a great book about human nature. Just look into yourself and agree with me, that humanity doesn’t changed radically from the time when we lived on the branches. Sex, food, surviving, joy, angry, friendship and obsessions. Shake but do not mix. Even old, almost encyclopedically parts about whales – you can see a great sense even there. Just a description of a human with all its courage and deep inner world.
Nice book. So nice that I’ll change first words in my diary. Suck it, Salinger!
Mara said that she’ll show me something in my dreams, so I don’t need to be too late to go to bed. Wish you a nice dreams, my dirty diary!
(Hey, it’s interesting idea for a novel – to write about wandering of a person in the world of dreams, thinking about its life. And so on. And in the end you’re figuring out that your hero – it’s someone diary! What a twist! Nah, I go to bed)”
Chapter 13
When they asked Nancy for a coffee and today’s pies, Alex ended story about what he had read this night. Jim looked at him, nodded, and picked a piece of cherry pie. Chewing, he said:
“Do you give a chance that that,” he draws a circle in the air with a fork. “All, that our guy written is his sick imagination? Just that.”
Alex enthusiastically nodded:
“Yep. But,” he sipped coffee. “But look at this with a point that if it is a true…”
“If”
“If!” Barns saw obsession of his friend and know that he can’t do a thing with it. “If it’s a true – we have an additional act in our story!”
Jim frowned and sipped a coffee:
“Four act?”
“Y...!” Alex looked around and said calmly. “Yea! Don’t you see? What would we do now without it?”
Jim shrugged:
“Well… Shooting general script, making some additional takes, panoramas’…”
“And went out,” finish for him his friend.
“Well, yes.” Helper saw where Barns goes, and finally he nodded. “Ok. Let’s take a several key moments from that diary and check them after the breakfast, ok? If they are not true – fuck it and we shoot general script.”
Barns nodded heatedly:
“And if I’m right?”
“We’ll make your forth chapter.”
“Hurray!” said Alex and leaned back. “Somewhere in your pretty plan must be a time for a sleep.”
Jim smiled and cut another piece from his cake. This was a victory in such situation. He perfectly knows that Alex would do what he wants anyway, but now he had a chance to lead him. Therefore, Helper looked on his friend and say:
“I allow you two attempts.”
Alex waved with his head:
“Uh-uh! Three!”
“Two,” said Jim.
“Three”
“One,” said Jim calmly
“Ok, two! Dick.”
“Watch your language, young man,” said Nancy. None one of them notices her.
“Sorry, Nan. He twists my hands,” smiled Alex.
“And this is not a cause to swear here.”
“I’m sorry, Nancy,” Barns lowed his head.
A woman smiled and took their empty plates:
“I can’t be angry at you, boys! You are so fond of my pies,”
Giggling she went to the counter. Meanwhile, guys went to the exit. Alex paid by check, and stepped outside. It was a nice sunny morning. Bright light makes him squint, and he put on his cap.
“Our first point?” asked Jim.
“Let’s meet Joe,” he opened a diary, and found page that he needed. While he sat on a seat, he said address to Jim. He snapped belt, and hide diary. “I hope he’ll proof my position.”
“Yeah-yeah,” said Jim, nodding.
They drive half an hour to store where Joe worked. Alex began to nap, and Jim tried to move him with help of conversation. It helps for a while, and Helper was glad that this town is so compact.
Outside weather become worse, heavy clouds running through the sky and air become humid. Not paying attention to spoiling weather they prepared for interview like always. No matter what – they were professionals, and that fact that cause of this talk is bet – they want to do it right.
Alex and Jim entered the shop and look around. There were no clients inside, and thin guy bored with a book at the counter. He rises his head for a second, dropped “Hello”, and returned to a book. But after a moment he rise his eyes again. He lifted his hand and pointed at friends:
“You!” a guy screamed. “ABnormal! That’s you!”
Alex smiled and said to Jim:
“Apparently, we have a huge fan base here”, then Alex turned to shop man. “Yes, we are. Hi. Say, are you Joe?”
The guy nodded, like a bewitched.
“Nice! Said Alex. Do you have a time for interview? A couple of questions.”
“Huh… Boy…” Joe looked around. “I can’t go anyway from here to end of my shift…But it’s in the evening…”
Barns nodded and turned to a cameraman:
“Dude, how do you think, light here is ok?”
Jim looked around, grimaced a little, and said:
“Not perfect but pretty good”
Alex turned to Joe:
“Then, if you don’t mind we can talk here. You’ll be first man behind the counter in our show.”
Joe smiled and nodded:
“Ok”
With a style of talk, Joe reminds to Alex young Keanu Reeves from the “Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure". It was awkward, but nice at the same time.
“We are here collecting an information about last year’s incident at school. Do you know about it?”
“Sure,” Joe nodded. “In our town if someone sneezes on one end of it, from an opposite end you hear “Bless you””
