Warlock, page 28
“Do you talk with him about this?”
Fred waved with his head:
“Yes. But it seems that we talked with another person,” he looked down to table and said. “But I can bet that Mary thought about small bottle of blood that we once saw in Antony’s home.” He straightened up and continued calmly. “One day, when we were a gang, he shows us small bottle with dark red liquid. We asked about it, and he said – it’s a blood. He said that it was a dead dog’s blood. For that days we don’t surprised for such things. We asked – what for? His answer was – it would work for me, and blood is like a sponge – what you’ll put it in, it would dissolve it in itself.”
Barns frowned, noting something in his notepad:
“Can you explain about sponge?”
Fred shrugged:
“I can only repeat that things that Antony said to us. His thought was that blood is a strong powerful liquid, which feeds bad and good people equally. And its charge – good or bad depends only from people’s heart and soul. Therefore, you can use that charge, or change it, making lower or stronger. Dog, he said is a pure animal, Chinese culture see it with a horse like most loyal creature. And if you collect dog’s blood, you can use it, making strong ingredient, which would hold effect for a long time.”
Alex looked up on Fred:
“And you think that he used it on Ms. Prey?”
A boy shrugged one more time:
“I do not know. That was one of things that he showed to us, and I’m afraid to suggest how many of them he hides. I know one thing – that we were bound in that case, and could not say anything.”
“Why?”
Fred smiled with his cold non-expressive smile:
“We helped him for a number of things and some rituals – we can’t say we helped him with this not or not… Anyway, we were afraid,” he sniffed a little. “As he, I suppose. That’s why it was such a reaction – silence. Some silent pact, if you want a pathetic name, signed with afraid.”
Alex wait a little, and wanted to ask next question, when Fred said:
“After it, I think, I am and Mary knows that something bad would happen…”
“And incident itself…”
“I told you truth. Visions, ritual, my attempt to stop him, and my injuring,” Fred looked straight into the Alex’s eyes. “Except of one thing, maybe – I knew a spot where I must to hit. Antony named it once – liver. He said that it’s a very important organ, and it can regenerate itself very fast, and scientists think that secret of long life is need to search there. Besides, he told that in ancient times people thought that all bad things of our body and souls is collecting in liver. Ancient doctors cut people up, and saw that that one’s who was a drinker or had bad illness have a strange liver. So I hit there.”
Last sentence makes Alex worry. Fred said it calmly, in a straight common tone, like about going to the movie. Using this pause, boy looked to the watch:
“Half an hour, gentlemen.” He sipped his milk shake to the last drop and said. “That is. A pure acid what can melt all story up to something could lick it. Thank you for shake, and please, erase my number.”
Saying this, he rolled out from a café.
Alex return to his coffee, which became cold, but do not lost its taste. He thought about quality of coffee that do not become a trash after cooling out, and about those things that he just hears. Jim reached for a dictaphone, and turn it off. Waitress come to them, and pick up all cups. She said:
“Friend of yours?”
Alex was in the land of his thoughts and can’t hear her question:
“Huh?”
“Boy, Fred. Is it your friend?”
Alex frowned a little:
“I don’t think so.”
“Pity,” said girl, wiping out a table from watery circles. “You can be asked him to call her mother for permission of filming here.”
“His mother is…”
“A manager, that I can’t call,” interrupted girl. Jim starts to laugh. She looked at Helper for a second without understanding what he finds fun here, and asked. “Something else?”
Barns cursed silently, and smiled a little:
“Check, please.”
---
Jim asked, where they will spend time their time before meeting with Antony’s father. Alex wants to propose to go back to the hotel room, but thought a little and said:
“There always a hotel room, but with this rain it pretty dull and uncomfortable.”
“I think so too,” said Jim. “Nancy’s?”
Barns grimaced a little and waved with his head, as evaluating options:
“Yeah. We have a meeting there. Look, how’s the internet there?”
Jim thought a little, and said:
“Fine… I think. I do not note this especially. What?”
Alex looked into through the window of the van:
“We still haven’t talk with Prof,” he said. “And it seems a perfect timing for it. One option – internet.”
Jim turns ignition key, and a van began to hum.
“At the worst, I’ll give you my phone – you’ll use it like modem”
Moreover, after this words van, washing by rain went up the road to the “Nancy’s”
Thirty minutes later guys sit inside with two cups of coffee, wait of their supper. They agreed that going to the hotel room was fail idea. Rain was the – because if they need to go outside once again they want to go home, and stay there. Alex opened his notepad and connected to local Wi-Fi, for their amusement, it gives a nice stable signal.
Alex took his pone, and launching skype, dialed number of the account that was signed “Prof.” After a couple of buzzes Alex heard “Hello.” A narrator of the “ABnormal” smiled:
“Hi there, Prof! How are you?”
“Alex, my boy!” Barns can hear smile of his friend even without eye contact. “Fine, fine. Thank you. Janine told me that you may call, but I’m almost forgot about it. How can I help you?”
Jim smiled and waved with his palm.
“Jim here,” said Alex. “Waving with a hand.”
“Say hello to Mr. Helper, Alex. So? What did you get?”
Alex frowned a little:
“Janine doesn’t tell you?”
“Something about honeycombs? Hexagons?”
Alex nodded:
“Right. Can we record your commentary now?”
“Now? I admit, that I’m doesn’t prepare properly.”
Alex grimaced a little, and then smiled:
“Prof, come on. We know you! Your “doesn’t prepare” means that you can’t give us lecture for a two hours, just one. Let’s shoot your thoughts right now, huh?”
“Oh… Oh… Oh-kay,” said man. “But it would be the strangest of my appearances in your show, Alex.”
Alex smiled wider:
“Don’t worry, Prof, it’s the strangest case ever. Be on the screen, two minutes.”
“Ok,” said man, and disconnected.
Alex turn on recording software, and call to the Prof via skype. A set of standard sounds and on screen appeared smiling broad face of silver-haired man. From a first look, he reminds a Shaun Connery a little, if he loved the sweets more than it was supposed to.
“Good day, Mr. Williams,” said Jim. “Nice to see you!”
Prof saluted into the camera and cheerily said:
“The brave Sancho of our Alex! Good day, Mr. Helper. So, Alex, let’s go?”
“Yep. Three-twoo-one. Good day, Mr. Williams.”
Prof nodded:
“Hello, Mr. Barns. It’s nice to see you.”
“My pleasure,” smiled Alex. “Mr. Williams, we have met an interesting thing in our latest story,” said Barns. “Our hero was obsessed with hexagons. Right figures principally. So, we want to ask you, and how can he use them? What’s the meaning of its figures?”
Prof nodded and said in lecture’s tone:
“As about most of right and simple figures, mankind knows hexagons for many years. Early people can see them in honeycombs, some stone structures, or even in snowflakes. Pre-human saw that it’s a very stable structure, and one of the meanings is stability itself. Also, it is one of the perfect pattern unit. Adding hexagons one to another, you may draw them as many, as you can. Later, in China people saw a symbol of human in hexagons – six ends: two hands, two legs, body and head. Most accurate description gives us Euclid – he shows in 300 A.D. how to draw it with compasses and ruler. Some interesting math about it. Some cultures thought about six as a perfect number because it is the sum of its divisors, one, two, and three. Note that factorial 6, or 6! is 720. The sums of the angles of a hexagon and the tetrahedron are 720.”
“Religions,” said Alex. “Do a hexagon in some way used in them?”
“It appears in many religions. Buddhism use it like a base of lotus flower that remind a David’s shield a lot. Sometimes it was drawn with swastika inside, and many mandalas have it in their bases. Here a quote:
A lotus flower with twelve petals symbolizes Anahata (also known as Anahata-puri, or Padma-sundara). (See also heart mind). Anahata is related to the colors green or pink. Key issues involving Anahata involve complex emotions, compassion, tenderness, unconditional love, equilibrium, rejection and well-being. Physically Anahata governs circulation, emotionally it governs unconditional love for the self and others, mentally it governs passion, and spiritually it governs devotion.”
“Thank you, Mr. Williams. So, it’s a perfect and good sign?”
“Mostly. You know, later scientists saw its structure in molecules connections and even in Saturn. And again and again everyone saw there high scale of stability. For example, of you make a set of balloons filled with water and put them one onto another, as a result you’ll have a…”
“Honeycomb structure,” said Alex.
“Exactly,” nodded Prof. “So, in practice we have a pattern, which organize, regulate something to perfect view.”
Man on the other side turn page that laid ahead and continued:
“As abstract – you can search for those directions. Connection, structure and something global. There’s one interesting thing: David’s shield is also have six points. But our hero is a figure that lays around perfectly, hiding its sharp corners. But it’s a very rare link – most recent is the sun and connections”
Alex said:
“Thank you. One more question. Can someone change a meaning of the figure? And how would it work if someone can?”
Prof looked on Alex and smiled:
“Nice question, Alex. We have a lot of examples of such things in history. The most horrible change is the swastika. European nations, Slavs and other revered it as if symbol of the Sun, but Hitler change its charge for a long time. It’s not an impossible thing, but, considering a meaning of some signs, you must do awful things to change their meaning.”
Alex looked on Jim, and write fast in his notepad “dog blood”, and almost without pause asked:
“So, say, if I’d want to see something besides stability in hexagons – I can see it and extend my view, changing sign?”
Prof waved with his head:
“Let’s see on the example of an eye. Egyptians draw it like a mention of the Ra. Sign means the woman side of Ra, and drawing it you meant that God oversee you and defend a human, houses and of course – pharaoh itself. But if you’ll draw a simple fork around it, you’ll see something like this,” Mr. Williams show simple picture, and Alex smiled.
“It’s Sauron’s eye,” said narrator.
“Glad to see that you recognize it,” smiled Prof. “The same things are about right figures. If you’ll draw a red line in the border – most of them will transform in the alert traffic signs”
Alex looked in his notepad for a second, and asked:
“Mr. Williams, can you say such a thing – if you saw a number of such hexagons, wrote on the walls – what would you think about them?”
Man on the other side of internet connection stroked his beard and said:
“Maybe that host of this picture wanted to connect something. Or that he wanted to make something more stable as it is now…”
“Or bigger.”
“Or large-scale,” said smiling Prof.
Alex smiled:
“Thank you, Mr. Williams for as always a full explanation.”
“Thank you, Mr. Barns,” said Prof, nodding. “For invitation and interesting conversation”
“A-a-a-and, cut,” said Alex. “Thanks once more”
Prof shrugged:
“Your welcome, but I’m afraid that most information I took from the internet. You see, David’s Star is more complex symbol, and hexagon is it’s only a base of it. So, if you find meaning that want to see your hero in it – it would be interesting.”
“Yeah”, said Alex dreamily. “Very interesting.”
Then Alex shakes a little and said more enthusiastically:
“Have a nice day, Mr. Williams”
“You too!”
After these worlds, they heard sound of disconnect. Nancy saw that they finished their work, give them two plates of hot mushroom soup with croutons. Alex handed over their laptop to Jim, and last put in on the windowsill. They had a half an hour before meeting with Luc.
---
Thirty minutes later Alex become to doubt that Antony’s father will come to the meeting. Rain becomes a pure waterfall. Torrents of water slide on the windows from top to bottom, highlighted with a streetlight remind to Barns Christmas garlands, especially with a total blackness as a background.
He looked at the visitors of Nancy’s today. It was most loyal people to this dinner, who despite horrible weather came here to eat pie, drink couple of cups of coffee or just to chat with the host.
But then Alex saw car that parked across the street. Car’s lights catch a light cone from a wall of water and then shut down. Then a figure fast run to the dinner, and entered. That was Luc Tychov, totally wet and pale as a sheet. He looked around the dinner, and Alex raised his hand to help him. Antony’s father noticed him and went by the aisle to cast of “ABnormal”.
He sits on the bench, splashing a drip of water on the table.
Alex nodded:
“Good evening, Mr. Tych…”
“Fuck you, Mr. Barns,” said Luc. “You know perfectly, that I’m here only because of your blackmail.”
The smile wiped from Alex’s face, but his mood in the voice were the same, he said:
“I’m sorry, Mr. Tychov. It’s a misunderstanding.”
“Really?” said in an angry whisper Luc.
Nancy came to them, smiling:
“Good evening, Luc. What do you want this evening?”
Antony’s father calmed down a bit, and even smiled a little:
“Hi, Nan. Coffee and pie… What kind of today?”
“Cherry,” she said, smiling.
“So be it,” nodded Luc.
“And the same to us, Nan,” said Alex, tapping Jim’s leg.
Helper raised his pupils to the camera, and Alex noted that green light is on. He smiled a little, and turned to Luc:
“Mr. Tychov, you are here because of your lies.”
“Fuck you, Barns,” said Luc in the same angry whisper. “How do you know about affair?”
Alex shows a slight smile, because at this moment came Nancy in an apricot color apron and give them their order. Three men said, “Thank you.”
Barns cut a smile piece of cake, chew it and sipped a coffee, and then he looked at a pale face with a wild eye of Luc, and calmly said:
“That’s no matter, where I got this info. You lied to us, Mr. Tychov. Lied about your son. That’s…”
“That’s my case, Mr. Barns,” said hissing Luc, “You got your story, so…”
“Your story, Mr. Tychov. Your own imaginary story. Where you don’t find a place of your affairs, alcoholism of your wife and your attempts to fed up medicine to your son”
Luc became paler than he was what caressed Alex a lot, because he thought that it was ended with a heatstroke to Antony’s father. His eyes became little foggy, and he opened his mouth like a fish on a shore.
“So, Mr. Tychov. How can you explain that such a details left untold, huh? Or you think that they don’t connect with your son’s death?”
“He’s… It…,” Luc dropped his head, and close his face with his palms. In this pose, he sits for a minute and then drop both of hands under the table. “We were scared. Yes, I… We all spoiled a lot of things… My wife’s troubles with alcohol had a horrible impact on Antony and me…”
He looked at Alex, and last saw a tear, which dropped from the nose of men across the table. Luc continued:
“Ms. Prey and me… I think I felt trouble in our family and tried to run from it… Moreover, my wife too. Something was wrong, and everybody closed about themselves. Everybody finds something dark inside – treason for me, dependence for my wife, and… something dark for Antony”
“What was that?”
Luc shrugged:
“I do not know. Sometimes I think that it was an evil itself. Sometimes I think that it was that darkness that everyone has inside, but Antony gave it leading role… And sometimes I’m too scared to think about this, because I think that he found something… Something that don’t belong to our world…”
Alex looked into his notepad:
“How do you think, it was his reaction, or it was inside of him for a long time?”
Luc looked ahead on one spot somewhere on the table, and said with an emptiness in his eyes:
“It was like a nuclear reaction. You know what happens in Chernobyl?”
Alex frowned:
“It blew up?”
Luc focused his gaze on Alex:
“In general – yes. But in details, it was an uncontrolled reaction. For some fraction of time energy that were in uranium rods doesn’t diverted. That energy, which can be used for a light in houses, make a roof flying up to the skies. I think something similar was happing with Antony, and school incident was the same thing for his classmates as Chernobyl for Pripyat.”
