Installment 7

"What can I help you with, Joe?" Charles Haanel asked from a nearby seat. "You look perplexed, or puzzled, perhaps." Dressed in a 1920's-period suit, he was comfortably seated, biding his time by answering correspondence from his students.

"It's a few points, but mainly this point of creation being a key part to living."

"Love is the Master Force in this Universe, a law which can be denied, but not broken. It is Love which built all you see around you. Love is the creative force."

"So this falls into loving your neighbor as yourself?"

"Simply, as you love others you create them. You cannot hate a person out of existence. It is like a dark room. You don't shovel out the dark, instead you turn on more light."

"Then I should expand my creative nature, my Love to deal with adversity from others?"

"It is very much like the parable of the light under the basket. Don't hide your native abilities to Love and create. Let them shine."

The Nazarene nodded, and many others as well.

"My dreams, they are created?"

"Everything is created. It's more the question of whether you take responsibility for your creations. Contact the Universal and you'll see the answers you need. Seek the Silence daily and allow these answers to come to you."

More affirmations of this concurred from around the table. More smiles and quiet talks between the members of this set of counselors.

Haanel continued, "What you do with your life, in your dreams as you call them, is entirely up to you. You will get all the guidance you could possibly want - if you will but listen for it."

- - --

The beach was as clean as ever, the waves constantly washing it.

"How am I to hear these lessons?"

"Try using your ears. They are good for hearing."

"Well, I guess if I ask a stupid question..."

"There are no stupid questions, only considerations of value. What you value things as determines their use. Your ears are not stupid."

"Then do you suggest a way to open them?"

"You just got told to seek the Silence. There are lots of ways to do this. Some just sit quietly, others practice yoga-like meditation, some others use Silva methods or visualization - the list goes on forever, and I certainly don't pretend to consider I've heard about all of them. You have to pick one which fits you."

"Out of that long laundry list?"

"Or none of the above. Try a long walk on the beach, maybe. Plenty of beach in this dream of yours."

"This dream of mine. This dream. Mine. Ok, let me try that."  And I rose, dusting off the sand and leaving my sandals so I could better feel the sand and water under my feet. "See you."

I worked to relax as I walked, as I had been taught. To just be with the sea and water, air and birds and fish. Just to relax and let the world move over, around, and through me.

While I saw impressions on the clean beach, I saw the waves were carefully washing it clean again.

- - - -

The Prefect would have stormed into the room if it didn't take so long for the doorway to dilate. Visibly angry, his brows furrowed and eyes narrowed to small, intense beams. "What is going on here? REPORT!"

Roger, startled, was somewhat prepared. "The Anomaly has gotten worse, with longer and longer stretches of non-responsive behavior. You can see in this report we sent you..."

"Yes, I've read the report and had to drop everything to come and see what you two have been up to. I just don't know why such a routine problem has been made so complicated."

Sue interjected, rattled by his thunder, "But Prefect, you'd said we had been chosen because of the complexity of this problem and because of our skills..."

While the Prefect softened at this, he continued on with a growl, "Your job was to get this back to being simpler, to reduce the complexity back to norms. It was a simple anomaly, where the subject had introduced a repeating inconsistency which should have been able to be resolved with some slight modifications to existing algorithms."

He motioned Roger to give up his seat, and sat down in his place, typing. "Your texts are very clear on this. The structure of the human mind was determined years ago, and the math surrounding it's control and manipulation are precise. If you two need a refresher course, I'm sure it can be arranged..." The prefect lost himself into studying the code on the screen.

Roger and Sue glanced at each other with alarm. Having to repeat classes would set back their grad date and force them to start their final projects over from scratch. Their lives would be in shambles. Sue slumped back in her seat. Roger leaned against the control room wall, almost in a daze, but concentrating on reviewing his code mentally to see where things had turned wrong, something he had missed...

"Ah, here it is. Simpler than I thought, but more that we didn't throw enough at this scene. Look you should have asked for more help instead of trying it all on your own. Okay. We're piling more onto this one."

The Prefect rose and paused for a minute, gathering his thoughts. "You know this used to be a much larger room, but was closed down as we had computers take over more of the routine functions. The deal with this subject is that he's much more involved than usual. Most of the subroutines require custom coding just to keep up with his changes. He's taken this anomaly and spread it into the core functions. This is what is causing the perceptics problems."

"You mean the white screens."

"Precisely. Our sensors can't interpret the data, as they are based on established models, which this subject is altering, almost on the fly. So we have to set up a team again for this one."

As the older programmer stood there he again posed, considering all the options and resources he had. "Here's what we are going to do. Start the Tanslinksy Solution and keep it up until he mutes and goes offline. That should fill up his dreams with multiple scenarios and keep him from reflecting on anything but those. I'll borrow some other grad students from other
projects and we'll get this other equipment back online. Hope they don't bother you much. Just stay focused on getting him into a Tanslinksy and that should give us time. Meanwhile, just ignore the white screens. He's still getting what we are sending him, but we can't always read the response. Start sending on a Level 8 frequency and increase this as needed."

With that the Prefect spun on his heel and quickly left the small space.

Roger slunk into his customary seat, his heartbeat starting to slow as he forced himself to take deep breaths.

Sue reached over to touch his arm. "If he's using that method, he's pulling out all the stops."

Roger looked at her, also concerned. "And he's planning something which looks huge. But he can't let a dreamer get away from him. It would look bad on him and the university as well. Last one which got away almost got that prefect sacked and the department lost most of their budget."

"And the grad students were transferred, having to start over. Some transferred to a completely different major."

Both realized their own future plans were now completely riding on how this one dreamer-project turned out. With a pale face, Sue put both hands in her lap, staring through the screen to an unfocused object beyond.

Roger moved first. "Well, let's get this solution implemented. Start the timer. Let me pull up the code."

Keyboards started clattering, the only noise in a room which seemed suddenly smaller.

- - - -

"What a fine day - maybe I should get up and enjoy this!" Joe found himself thinking out loud, which was surprising at first. "As soft and warm as this bed is, maybe I should do something about this - something fun."

While the ideas were interesting, it wasn't what he was planning on earlier, which had simply been some quiet time to review everything.

"Well, maybe that rec room has something interesting going on. Let's see, how to get there?"  Joe pulled out the briefing sheet and turned the colors and sound up. "Oh, this looks simple."

Humming a simple tune which came to mind, he programmed his ID card with the directions and clipped it to his hospital gown. Moving to the bedside, he looked down and found his slippers, scootching his feet into them. Then rose and took his robe from a nearby hook.

There was some juice left on the meal tray, so he opened the container and took a sip. "Mmmm, just as I like it!" he enthusiastically said to no one there.

Fastening his robe with the sash, he moved out into the hall, still humming that catchy tune, occasionally breaking out into mumbling some of the words he remembered, particularly when the chorus came around.

As he continued down the hallway, he found himself nodding and smiling to everyone he met. He waved to the nurses, who seemed puzzled, but waved back as he went by.

A few turns and doorways later found him in the rec room, which was deserted at this hour. "Great, means I'll have the big screen all to myself. Let's see what we have here..."

He dropped into an easy chair close enough to immerse himself in the screen, filling even his peripheral vision. Picking up the remote showed several dozen movies in every genre. "Let's do a 'feel-good' movie here. I don't have a date, but it will help me feel better." Still talking out loud to no one, he punched in a light comedy and sat back.

The movie started up with producers' credits, followed by the title and some fast action. Joe thumbed up the volume as he was the only one around and could better immerse himself in it.

Soon, Joe had lost all sense of where he was and had become part of the movie as it played.

- - - -

The kahuna-kapua met up with him as he was walking the beach.

"This is really weird." I asked him.

"What's that"

"When I seek the Silence, my mind is filled with all sorts of thoughts. Old movies I'd watched, other situations I'd been in. Tons of stuff moving through my head."

"Well, of course. The harder you try to quiet the mind, the more stuff fills it."

"But that's no good. I should have a quiet mind so I can listen for inspiration."

"Yes, but you don't get there by forcing everything to be quiet. That just causes more noise."

"Oh - the old thing of you can't negate a negative."

"Right. The more you work at changing something, the more is persists. Allowing something to be, to accept its essence is always the first step - after deciding to be there at all..."

"In order to get something, you have to let it go."

And that shut me up for awhile. This changed everything - and kept changing it, the more I thought about and applied it.

- - - -

We both woke when something thudded above our heads.

I looked up to see a throwing knife had embedded itself into the headboard several inches above my face. Doreen let go of a small scream as she slipped down the side of the bed and peeked back over it, staring at that knife.

I glanced at the doorway, seeing the door slowly close and thought I heard faint, rapid footsteps retreating down the old carpet in the hall outside.

As my heart raced, I swallowed and looked at the knife again. Tied to its handle was a message. I twisted the knife out of its fresh hole in the headboard and untied the message from the handle. Written in a red-brown ink, it said only, "Leave now - or face your maker."

I handed the note to Doreen, who read it with wide eyes full of fear. Meanwhile, I examined the knife. While the steel was foreign, the handle had been remade with native materials, bound by treated jute to hold a wood form in place. It was balanced for easy throwing, but could have been created by any craftsman on the continent. Where the original knife came form was probably one of the many soldiers who had come into this land in it's long history of conflict and wars.

Doreen, calmer now, rose from the bedside, having recovered her robe. She moved to her bathroom through the door which joined our rooms into a suite. I could hear her washing and the toilet flush, while she made noise of getting dressed quickly.

I did the same, putting on some fresh duck trousers and a comfortable study shirt, rolling up the sleeves. Running a comb through my hair, I noticed Doreen had returned to my room, and that she had packed. A small suitcase was in the doorway.

"You ready?" she asked.

"Ready for what?"

"Ready to leave. Obviously someone wants us to go. Now." She was still scared, and for good reason.

I walked over to her and took her hands in mine. "Not quite yet. That was a warning, not an ultimatum."

"It sure read like a final notice to me..." Her bravery suddenly shattered as she fell against me and wrapper her arms around my neck. "Hold me. I'm so scared I can't think straight."

She was trembling as I hugged her and then rubbed her back to calm her down. Petting her blond hair, I pulled my head back slightly to look at her face. The tears had stopped, but as she looked at me again, they started to well.

"What did we get ourselves into? Who are these people?"

Calming her, I said as reassuringly as possible, "That's what I intend to find out. But first things first. Breakfast - OK?"

She nodded. I grabbed my slouch hat and lead her by the hand out into the hall way. Locking my room (for whatever good it would do) we continued down the old to the stairs and then to the main cafe, which opened into the hotel. Sitting in a corner with our back to the wall seemed prudent, so we found a table to the side and ordered Huevos Rancheros.

Doreen was sitting as closely as she could and held my hand under the table. I looked out across the room for anyone paying attention to us, and then out the large windows. I was scanning for clues as to who was wanting us gone.

It was then I saw a familiar face, as he entered from the hotel side and smiled broadly. His pace didn't seem to slow as he maneuvered  his bulk through the room with tables and chairs and morning customers.

I rose to greet him, "Alphonse!"

"Joe, mi amigo!" His great, meaty hand encompassed mine in a hearty shake and released it as he pulled a chair from a neighboring table to sit at ours.

Looking Doreen over appraisingly, "And who to we have here?"

"Doreen, this is Al, my good old friend." They nodded to each other.

"And what brings you here?" I asked.

"Same thing that brings you. Treasure, discovery, adventure, and lovely ladies." Al smiled at Doreen, who blushed but frowned slightly.

At that point our plate arrived. Alphonse told the waitress to bring him an order as well.

Of course, I found myself starved, but also was curious about Al, as he was about us - but Al beat me to the punch as we both filled had our mouths with beans, tortilla, and eggs, he started telling story after story to Doreen about our mutual adventures, laying it on a bit thick about what we had been through together, as well as other stories he had heard about me.

Finally, his plate arrived and I could return the favor. Doreen took this all in stride, quietly listening to two blow-hards who were practicing their tall-tale telling at her expense. She was eating in a more measured fashion, lightly, almost as if she ever saw an opening, she would be able to interject a question or clarify something too good to be true.

However, she quickly learned that the more questions she asked, the wilder the stories became.

After all the plates were clean, and picked up by the waitress, a bottle of local wine was delivered and the real reasons we were here started to come out.

Alphonse glanced around the room as he talked, and said, "I knew you would come if I sent you that amulet."

I fished it out of my pocket. "You mean this one?"

Al dropped his big palm over the top of it and said, "No. Put it away."

I protested, "Al, what's the big deal - afraid it will get ripped off?"

Doreen's curiosity was piqued as she stared at what was between our hands. I closed my fingers over the amulet and handed it to her under the table. Her eyes widened as she saw it below the edge of the table,

"It's beautiful, so beautiful." Her voice was a near whisper as she studied it in admiration.

The amulet was circular, a black and white stone perfectly matched and polished, held together with a wide band of braided gold and platinum threads in an endless weave.

Al again checked the room and said in a much lower voice, "It a very rare item. The reason has to do with the stones themselves. The combination is almost never found together. And most people would rob you only for the gold itself, and not realize that the stones are what's most valuable."

Doreen and I both looked at the amulet she held in her lap.

My native friend just smiled and sipped his wine, drawing out the suspense.

Finally, I looked into his eyes past the twinkling. "Ok, I give, is it like that figure in the canyon?"

Both Al and Doreen looked sharply at me. It was my turn to pause, running my finger around the top of my glass.

"You've seen the statue?" Al leaned forward, expectant.

"Well I had a glance at it. When I wasn't saving my own butt from being flooded out."

"Did you notice anything different about it? Not like your ordinary jungle statue, eh?"

I was amused at how the tables had turned. "Oh, I don't know. You see one, you've seen them all. Like those Olmec figures we saw up in Mexico? You know - nicely carved and all that. This one was black and white, that's all."

"That's ALL?!? My friend, I know you better than that. I knew you'd look this up when I sent it to you and study the legends. That brought you all the way here from your comfy teaching job. So don't give me that." Al took a gulp of wine and poured himself some more.

"Look - " he said as he topped up our two glasses as well, but continued more quietly, "You know and I know what you saw. And you're the first gringo to see this in several hundred years, much less someone who knows what it means."

"I know it's worth nothing to any museum or collector. It's one big piece stuck down in that sandstone in the canyon floor. And in this country, every time it rains, it floods. It would cost millions more to get it out than it would ever be worth - so good riddance, I say."

Al sat back, honestly shocked by my attitude, not knowing to believe me or call my bluff.

Doreen simply fingered the setting on the amulet and studied both of our faces, not knowing what to think and curious about the interaction between us.

Al finally spoke, through narrowed eyes. "Well, if that's what you think, then fine. But I want you to come and see the priest and hear his stories."

Doreen finally broke her silence, "Wait, we were supposed to be headed out of town - that knife..."

Al started at this. "A thrown knife, wrapped in cord?"

I reached into my boot and pulled it out, handing it hilt first on top of my open palm to Al.

With a low whistle, he murmured a small prayer almost under his breath.

"What does that mean?" Doreen burst out.

"It means you are in this way over your head already. And maybe it would be best for you to just get back to the airport and leave. These guys are deadly serious about what they want and how to get it."

"Yes, Doreen, we'll take you there, then Al and I are heading on to that priest." I replaced the knife and shot back my drink, then took the amulet back from her to put it back into an inside vest pocket.

Standing, I put some coins on the table to cover breakfast and took my hat off its peg to place it back on my head. Doreen and Al also stood. Nearby, an unknown figure darted into the alleyway and was gone.

Both I and Al noticed the movement and followed with our eyes.

Doreen moved toward the door and we followed. She strode out toward her Land Rover.

I finally caught up with her at the door. "Don't you want to get your luggage first?"

"I thought you said we were visiting that priest?"

"We. WE? No, it was Al and me."

"And how are you getting there, on his burro?  Your jeep is still back there in the forest somewhere, and it's going to take you all day to get it back, by the sound of it." She opened the driver's door and climbed in. "Coming?"

Al squeezed into the backseat by moving some of her camera cases. I settled in front.

"Go south, out of town," Al said. Take it slowly though, that's also the direction to the airport. I just hope we weren't overheard too much."

The Land Rover started easily. With a smooth shift of gears, Doreen backed away from the hitching post and moved into the main thoroughfare to start out of town.

The sun had just peaked over the mountains to the east and was beginning to lighten the western landscape. The clouds looked peacefully white, with no portending of any danger that may lay ahead of us.