The Seventh Direction

PART ONE: The Flow. Episode 2

____Innocence

"Yes, dear, the dread s-word—sooooooooooon," Lady El said. She was all smiles. In the short time I'd known her she hardly ever called me Andrea. "But let's never mind that now, shall we, Aces? Let's mind The Big Bang metaphor. Go ahead, my love, now's the time. Start the story. Write the beginning."

I turned around. No typing. Just speak and the computer did it for you. No trance either, not tonight. Just a sort of candlelight, ambient haze. I felt a little nervous—an audience.

"Speak it then, as you say. And nervous is okay," Lady El tutored: "Go ahead. Speak the beginning to me. Speak it to the reader. Tell us what you saw, take us there. I'll be here, I'll be quiet. Master J's vibes are all over your chair—he will be even quieter. Probably. And remember the innocence, love: It's the 12 year-old in everyone to which you speak."

But I didn't speak the beginning, not right away. I went off on a tangent. Lady El and me and old Dorothy, and sometimes young Wyl, were notorious for going off on tangents.

"I get it, Lady El. I talk like a 12 year-old all the time. But not when it's The Voice. Then I can't—you know? Still, I feel and resonate more with innocence when I think of myself more as my seven year-old self."

"Of course you do, love. It can be no other way, really. At seven years you are much closer to the Dimension of Innocence from which you were born. Yes? Your 12 year-old self is more or less on the cusp, has access both to childhood-innocence and to growing-wisdom in adulthood. By age twelve, but of course there are exceptions, one's innocence has mostly already become LOST so that she (or he) can find it again." She winked.

"On the cusp, Lady El. That makes sense."

"It's a very powerful position, Aces. Innocence IS your POWERHOUSE. 'You must be like a little child before you can enter the Kingdom of Heaven . . .' Ever heard that one before, dear? You should ask Master J' about it sometime."

Powerful position and Innocence IS your POWERHOUSE started me thinking, and another tangent got me: "Lady El? You said a while ago that you'd talk sometime about the dire straits the world is in. And I'm totally thinking about power right now, about the corrupt—"

"I did and I will, sweet. But it can be a very negative business; and we know that we only want to focus on 'the negative' long enough to find some understanding and then move on with something positive. Yes?"

"Umm, I guess . . . and I'm totally thinking about corruption, and the stranglehold that the powers-that-think-they-be have upon the masses. A very negative powerful position. And—don't you worry, Lady El. I will ask Jay sometime."

Her brow raised: "You have in mind the so-called Elite, yes? Specifically the heads of a very few, very rich families that seek to control the world?"

"Yeah. I do . . . El. And I don't mind pointing the finger, because I've seen a documentary that interviews some of these billionaires, and they boldly admit (right in front of the camera!) their callous, heartless, even cold-blooded desire to control the world! They admit it, El! So why wouldn't I point? I'm pointing."

"And they do in a way. Control the world, that is. No disrespect to the sea creatures, love; but picture a giant black squid, or two, with its many arms wrapped around the planet—"

"Yeah, those heartless billionaire squids squeezing the life out of dear Mother Earth and keeping the lion's share for themselves! And many peoples from many different countries are rebelling, Lady El. Revolution keeps growing! I don't get how it ever got to a point where one of us is a billionaire, and another one starves."