The Seventh Direction

PART THREE: Stalking Violet. Episode 95

 ["D/A" narrates —A.A.]

                                                               14

                                                   Rites of Passage

I hadn't blinked. Not this time. Lady El had blinked, though. Rapidly, one time. Hawk . . . then gone. I looked . . . Aces gone, too. But I knew where they went. I got up, destination Wood's End and the plateau. 

About to step through thicket's door, but there was nothing out there, save those micro-subtle bits of Pure Being scooting back and forth and around. Am I looking at my eyelids? You'd think so. But no, it's got to do with timelines and/or probabilities. Of course it does. It all makes perfect sense! All the components were there—I just couldn't do the math. Wouldn't if I could have! What would be the point? Just let it be, I thought.

Let it be. Let it be. Let it be. Let it be magic. Let it be mystery. Let it be Great Mystery. What if I stepped out there? (Wait for me here.) Where is here? What if I went for a little Mystery Tour? "Wait," Lady El had said. So I stood at the door, closed my eyes and turned them inward. A moment, two . . . yes, there it is, the fire's orange glow, up on the plateau, and my three best friends (holding hands) standing round my Wyllen. I opened my eyes, expecting to "—Damn it!—" and sat down on my bed, alone. I looked down at dead Dorothy. "Hi, Dorothy. This really sucks. How's it going with you? Seen the other guys?"

'No,' she said. (No, she said!) 'You think it sucks out there?'

"Not to worry, Dorothy. You'll be coming with me, soon."

'Fuck soon,' she said. 'Do you mind me saying that reprehensible, gawd awful four-letter s-word "soon?"'

Just then I heard a groan, and the toilet flushed. Aces came out of the can. "Boy," she said, "I really had to take a crap. Bad." She closed the door. "Don't go in there."

"You're avoiding the unasked question," I said.

"Yeah," she said. "Well . . . suddenly there we were, standing around Wyllen." She paused.

"I know that much."

"Right," she said. "So, there we were, standing around Wyllen, holding hands and sending him energy. Then Master Jay said, 'Wyl's getting to know you on some level.' But that's all Master J' said. Then suddenly I had to take this wicked crap. Then just as suddenly I'm in the bathroom, sitting on the can, firing away. Did you just as suddenly get here, too?"

"Mm-hmm, I did." Should I tell Aces what Dorothy said? (—Fuck no, Dorothy said. I'm sure she will come to know that dread s-word soon enough.) I didn't have a chance to, anyway. Master J' and Lady El came THROUGH my unopened room-door, floated by, and situated themselves near the window. (—They probably know Gertrude Crabtree, she doesn't like to knock either.) Agreed, Dorothy, but at least Trudy opens the door before she comes through. One day she'll learn to knock. (—Soon?)

And that dread word "soon" was Dorothy's last word ever spoken. Then she burped.

"Come, you two . . ." Lady El said.

A ring of white radiance was forming, quickening round Lady El and Master J'. And within the ring their perspective robes of pink and blue were in motion, swimming, and firing off bolts of color.