Galwrst

I was trying to get some rest and relax, sitting in my wing chair, near to the drawing-room chimney, reading a Vikings's Saga, and letting the gay notes of the Air des Clochettes or Little Bells Song of Lakmè, magistrally sung by Lily Pons, draw nimble sounds around me, when I was disturbed by a messy sound around the hall of my mind.

Reluctant, but resigned, I went into the place to find Elf, making room for a comfortable chair near the thought-processor.

Elf

Not wanting to repeat myself, I could not help me, but ask:  

What are you doing?

Elf looked at me as if he didn't know me and answered:

I am keeping my word, dummy!

Ah! I said feeling myself very dummy, and it was...?

My word! you speck of a man! he seemed so sure I should understand it made me more confused.

Not wanting to hurt his feeling I just could say:  

Oh, how nice!

Uncle Brough

Nice! you said Nice!! Oh, by Jove you are so... so... he was without adjectives to name what I am!

Well, what is going on here, said an old voice behind me.

Oh, here you are, uncle Brough! Elf was midway between obsequious and happy!

I promised you I would be here, and I always make my word good! said the old elf who has appeared in my mind, I do not know how!

Hey, you, Elf addressed me somewhat rudely, meet my uncle Brough, he looks older than me, but we were glwstryr on the same day, only he likes to be seen as an experienced Elf!

Uncle Brough looked like the Granddad of Elf, but they had the same age? What the...? I was more confused than ever, but I took refuge in my not giving acknowledgement to those anachronisms!

Yes, and I am here to tell you about the events that gave origin to our beings and our possession of Galwrst, said old uncle B, as he said he liked to be called, so sat down on the carpet and listen to this interesting story.

Well, if he said that the story was interesting, I was ready to exchange my book for listening to this old man, so I sat at the foot of the chair and next to Elf, to listen. A new thing since I found Elf in my mind.

Uncle Brough, sat on the chair, made himself comfortable, and brought out a corn pipe, already giving out smoke from its pot.

I was alarmed and asked him to extinguish it as I didn't like any smoking in my mind.

He smiled patronizingly and told me:  

Don't you worry, this smoke is not real, I use it for effect, you see!

The smoke was not real? but I could see it..., and it was used for effect... My old argyle socks are for effect! This man... eehh,  old Elf confused me with his alternative reality!


I had to accept this, anyway, because Elf was tugging anxiously to my sleeve and blowing: hush, hush, please!

After a while that uncle Brough, considered needed for effect he started to relate:

Galwrst

It all began with the end of the previous era.

Since the beginning all went easy and on schedule, Mado and Mada were the owners of the original Galwrst, and nobody could foresee the hecatomb, in the sense of the big upheaval that awaited us in the following days.

Please, take notice that the word "day" on these days, if I may use the redundance, did not mean the same time, and pass of time it has now, here on Earth.

Unicorn and female elf in Galwrst

Mada had received the order to identify and name all things in Galwrst, while Mado had to recheck that her husband work was neat. Also, there was some restrictions about what they could do, but those particulars were not known by the other dwellers in Galwrst.

And then it happened, somehow Mada and Mado had put in jeopardy their right to be part of the original plan, and they had waived what was their inheritance, and in an instant, the whole essence of being a 'man' and a 'wo-man', was deprived of the wonder it had before.

Most of us did not know, or understand what have happened, we were left with the idea there was a breach of obeisance, or the like. The only real fact was that the man and wo-man were evicted from Galwrst and sent to live with most of the beings they have named to a place at the East of Galwrst, where life was difficult and not free, it was said, to our amazement, that you had to earn, in the sense of making an effort to have it, the right to eat, grow, and proceed into a living.

These difficult ways seemed dreadful in themselves, but even after stating them, some of the news-bearing beings, added in a whisper: The worst punishment seems to be a kind of suspense of Life, after a time...

Suspense of Life?...

After a time?...

What can those sentences mean?

As you can see, in those days of innocence we did not know about Death, nor Time.

The high blazing figure with the brilliant thing in the hand stood at the door of Galwrst not letting anybody go out or come in, until finally the whole of the East of Eden was transported to a new Reality.

And so, we fairies inherited Galwrst, the man and the wo-man had not named us, so we were spared the eviction from Galwrst, but it was not a blessing since we were left disorganized and not knowing how to step forward our lives.

In some moment, Gowt the Maker, came and told us we should find a new leader and get arranged in a way we could function as a whole, and then we should wait for the new task that will be assigned to us.

Titania

So, we had a big meeting in the Central Garden, and looked forward to finding a new Leader. After seeking deeply in our ranks and soul we decided by unanimity to name Titania, the Beautiful, as our Queen.

She was overwhelmed by our choosing, She has always been a simple soul and this responsibility seemed too big for her shoulders. Anyway we insisted until she accepted and we asked her to look for a partner to complete her Yin with a Yang needed to balance the forces of Nature.

So it came to happen that Titania chose her husband in Oberon the Mighty, and together they gave new life to Galwrst. Naming each elf, sprite, pixy, troll, dwarf, and all the creatures that are known as Mythological, since they were not named before, came to be part of our world.

Oberon

News arrived that things were worse and worse in the East of Galwrst, men and wo-men, being far away from Gowt, developed a special kind of evil, and to our horror, we were informed they had learned to kill!

At first we didn't understand the meaning of this new word, but with time we could ascertain the evil in such action. And it was not the only perversion men and wo-men devised, but they enjoyed in creating new and worse aberrancies in their behaviour.

Female Green Elf

Then we received the command to grow in numbers, so Titania and Oberon created a way to make us glwst, that is to come to be, to be born. As we are not as men and wo-men, we have a different way to glwst: first we look for fresh dew on the flowers petals and leaves, and then we spray it with Maiden Mead produced by LOVE itself in the chalice of the kowrth flower at dawn of the Day.

After a while, and depending where the dew is resting on, we glwst as a different creature, if the dew is on a green leave we have green fairies, females if the Mead is soft, and males if the mead is strong in alcohol.

If the dew is on a red rose petal, a red elf is glwstryr, again male of female as befits to the Mead used, and so on! 

Male Red Elf

That is how we were multiplied on our land, and when it was the right moment, Titania told us she had received the command to send us to the land at the East of Galwrst and to make our residence in men and wo-men minds, to help them to learn how to be good people.

I must reckon it was not well received this command, since we felt humans, as men and wo-men were called now, did not deserve our help. I must tell with shame that some of us rebelled against Titania's order, proving with that behaviour that we were not better than humans. So some dwarfs, orcs, and Nibelungs were exiled into Valhalla and are part of a Myth, instead of being part of Real Galwrst.

Fortunately, there were few desertions and those of us who obeyed were blessed with many graces, and gifts, as you can feel when you know us as mentors.

I was fascinated by this tale, and waited for uncle Brough, start talking again, so I was not prepared for his words:

Hey son, have you some Strong Mead about here?

Eh? I said lamely as I always I do when I speak with Elves.

Mead, strong Mead, you bigheaded little human, he repeated without raising his voice.

Ehhrr! Elf came to help. No, uncle Brough, there is no Mead in here, nor out in the World. Mead is one of the gift given to Fairies, remember?

Ah! yes! yes! you are right, the old elf said.

Then getting up he added:

So, if there is no Mead I guess I have ended my narration here. It was my pleasure, do not stand up, I know the way out.

He turned on his feet and was lost in the shadows of the Archive.

I was so stunned I could not move. Elf waited for a second and then he said, in a manner of excuse:

Well, hope you have enjoyed this session! We will make another if the occasion arises.

He followed his uncle trail, and I was left alone and confused, my usual reaction to Elves, sitting on the carpet.

After a while, I went out again to my wing chair, trying to forget the procedure but to keep the gist of what uncle Brough thought was a good story if I could separate the preposterous from the important.

Hope you can do the same!


 The music is "Air des Clochettes" (Little Bells Song) by Delibes in his opera Lakmè, and sung by Lily Pons.


© 2013 Od Liam.






 

Cheating

I remember this girl from Bayou,
Who was sadly looking for you,
She couldn't forget,
How you could get,
all the money she had in the tutu.


The music is "The Limerick Song" by Art Wong.

© 2013 Od Liam.

Limitless

When I realized the Mare was in my bedroom, I was in awe.

 You may think that the Mare was a member of the Equus genus, but if so, you are wrong!

She is a kind of an old succubus, of extraordinary beauty. Female because I am a male.

When she told me she was bringing for me the most absolute Power over the Universe...

...I fought hard to wake up!

The music is a fragment of "Invocation Of The Succubus" by Nachtmahrwalzer.

© 2013 Od Liam.

Wren

It was Wednesday, hiking day in the Westflorded Forest. I had been making this ritual for a long time now.

Clearing

It put me in good humour and my body response, beside the natural tiredness, was a well-being that justified the effort.

After an hour of walking I found myself approaching the middle of the wood where there was a clearing. I felt its proximity because there was a quickly reduction of shadows and dampness in the air.

A few seconds before reaching the clearing I was surprised by the bright light that seemed to flow from the place.

As I walked past the last trees into the open space, I saw a beautiful being kneeling near a big bush, there was a vital light flowing from the strong body, and in that moment the luminous head turned towards me.

I cannot describe the beauty of that face, the eyes were so amazingly clear, and the way they looked at me showed a kind of solid sight, not the intangible way we human have, but a three dimensional embrace I cannot explain.

Wren

Then the figure smiled, and all things around seemed to explode in light and in a second there was a soft breeze that dissolved the vision into the common big bush.



In awe, I approached the shrub and to my amazement I see that the object of interest of the apparition was a little wren struggling to fly, but not making it because one of its wings was broken.

I took the bird, and carried it to town, where I left it in the Vet's office, with the promise to get it back when it has its wing healed.

Some weeks later I went to get the bird back and found it totally recovered, but confined in a small cage where it could not fly too much.

I took the cage and went to the clearing again, and setting it on the ground near the big bush, I opened the cage door, but the little wren was cowing in a corner of the prison.

I stood up and went back some paces, always looking at the bird.

When it saw I was far enough, it jumped to the gate and looking both sides leapt up and flew to a bough of a nearby tree.

I am not sure, but I think I could see a faint figure around the little wren as if embracing it, and smiling towards me. A great well-being filled me, and while the little wren flew away, it chirped as if saying:

See you later...

See you later...



The music are Celtic Forest songs "Guardians of the Woods followed by Spirit of the Wild".

© 2013 Od Liam.

Logical sequence

There was the screeching...

Then it was the crash!

Finally, the ominous silence filled the hollows of sentience.

The music is a fragment of "Final Peace" by Nox Arcana.

© 2013 Od Liam.

Avalon

 It was dawn, but the valley was still sunken in shadows.

The first beams of a bashful sun were trying to jump over the peaks, letting some sparks of light to be shed from them and descend to a losing battle against the deep darkness on the low ground.

Avalon

Somewhere, at the mouth of a cave near the buttress of the mountain, a small movement betrayed a silent presence.

The large snake was patrolling its territory for the last time before going to its lair.

Something fell heavily at the entrance of the cave, and rolled some feet, coming to a halt, curiously the serpent came haltingly to the place, and found a new and fragrant apple on the ground.

An apple! it awaked some dim memories in the viper, but it could not find anything to grasp an understanding.

A few steps away, the animal saw a dark figure standing with the arms pointing to the sky, while a whispering chanting came from it.

Lady Morgana! the snake felt a shudder shaking its body, what was the Lady doing here, at this time and with an apple?

An apple?... Ah, yes, the Avalon that should save King Arthur's life. But was King Arthur's life in danger?

What happened? Has Lady Morgana finally fulfilled her promise to make disappear King Arthur from the surface of the world?

Sliding silently, it approached the tall dark figure and could make out some words... Lady Morgana was not chanting a curse, but a healing song!

The song stated that after king Arthur unwisely chased Sir Lancelot, to avenge the affront of his affair with Lady Gwenhwyfar, the land was raided by Sir Medrawd who mistreated King Arthur's wife and usurped the throne.

Arthur kills Medrawd

When King Arthur came back, he demanded his land to be returned, and repayments to the honor of Lady Gwenhwyfar, but Sir Medrawd refused, so the Battle of Camlann started. After some skirmishes, both enemies were facing each other and attacked with hate and passion!

King Arthur killed Sir Medrawd on the spot, but was mortally wounded in the procedures, so his men brought him to Avalon, the magic island where Excalibur was forged, and Lady Morgana was trying, vainly, to keep the minions of Shadowland from taking King's Arthur soul into the underworld.

When all was done, the last effort used up, the only remnant left for those who loved Arthur was the epic song that kept the memory of a great man.

The stubborn Sun rays had finally achieved their purpose to jump over the range and were now chasing the shadows away from the land.

Lady Morgana wrapped in a mourning cloak let the wind take her to her chambers, feeling sad and expended after her effort at the futile nightly magic spell.

The snake coiled in its lair and prepared to let the day go out, so it could patrol its dominion during the next night again.

Life went walking the path to Eternity, proving that there are no indispensable things or beings in its way.


 The music is "Arthur's Farewell" a Celtic song by Enaid.

© 2013 Od Liam.

From a deep nothing

(This is a reprise of a tale lost in the disappearance of my former blog, I found it resting on Elf's pillow, so I rescued it, and put it where it belongs)

---oOo---

From a deep nothing, It and It, woke at the puff of a breath, or so seemed to them, with a new feeling in their inside.

They could not remember the past, they don't even knew the idea of past, as if this were the first experience of their body.

Near them there were several trees which seemed familiar but it could be because they were full of beings, eating and jumping from branch to branch, those creatures were similar to them, but not quite.

Looking down, they found a small pond full of mud where something or Somebody seemed to have been making mud dolls.

 All was very strange, they thought they came down from the trees and at the same time they felt as if the mud in the pond was part of their being.

Looking toward the great savannah that followed the end of the forest, they felt as if there was a job to be done. So they started walking away from the forest.

And so passed the evening and the morning of the sixth day.


The music is a fragment of "La Plage de Blâne Est" by Ehma, it marks the precious first seconds of...

© 2013 Od Liam.

Wisdom

The old master opened his tired eyes and embraced all his disciples in a warm look.

With a great effort he descended to reality bringing his teaching so much waited for by his followers, and said:

"Life is an arrow that flies into Eternity."

His favorite devotee asked: "Are you sure, Sarjana, that life flies into Eternity?"

"What?" the sage asked with a look of fright in his venerable countenance, "have you found it doesn't?"

 Five sentence fiction

The music is a fragment of "Voices of Eternity" by Vadim Kisilev.

© 2013 Od Liam.

Locked!

Me, or sort of...

My first discovering as a human being was 'my mind', and my second finding, with amazement, was that it had and has, a dweller from Fairyland, though he, my Elf, states that there is not such place as Fairyland.

At first I was chagrined by his presence, why there was another being living in my inner quarters?

When I asked Elf about that, he laughed and answered: Whose inner quarters? Can't you understand you are a prisoner in this place, doing time for a huge mistake, and should be grateful to have company?.

Elf

Prisoner? I said, what does it mean? How come I am a prisoner if I feel freedom running through my neurons?

You deceive yourself, Elf said sadly, you cannot leave your mind and your scarce communication means out of it are small peepholes called pompously The Five Senses.

Lillie McFerrin Writes

 This forlorn, Metal music is a fragment of "Mind Prison" by Frank Klepacki.

© 2013 Od Liam.

The End (II)

We arrived in Tribhuvan International Airport at Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal, in the wee hours.

The night closed over us, but there were three lorries ready to load the parts of Syn-Vac, our belongings and ourselves. The travel through an unknown territory has started. We had to go up the Himalayan to a small hamlet where a herd of mules waited for us to carry down to a square valley all our things.

It was so difficult the descent into this small valley that only could be done on mules' backs. From the heights of the mountain you could see a perfect square with an orchard in each of the four corners, and the big and tall Monastery in the exact middle of the lowland.

We went down slowly, for safety and forced by the narrow, steep path with a mountain wall at one side and a precipice on the other.

After what seemed a long time but only was a pair of hours, we reached flat land some three-quarter of a mile to the right of the Temple.

On the ground near the end of the path, a group of young novices had gathered to help us with the mules, which was a blessing since neither of us, city slickers, knew how to handle them properly.

In almost no time we were in the closed court of the Monastery, unloading the mules and preparing everything to be carried to the place where my team was going to install Syn-Vac, as soon as possible.

The Head monk, came to offer his respect and ask our leniency because the Dalai could not be present since he was exiled in India, far from the Chinese authorities who had invaded the country.

He was delighted to see us, and asked if he could change the name of Syn-Vac, since it brought to mind the return, and presence of sin, which was untoward to the uses of the Community.

I had to think this a bit before I understood the petition, but I agree soon to his request. It was not important how you call the machine, it will work disregarding completely how you name it, if at all.

Anyhow, he seemed overwhelmed by my kindness, doubtless, he was a very gentle soul!

While my team proceeded to locate the different units of the mainframe and inter-connect them with the interfaces hoses, I went to visit the buildings invited by the Head monk.

We passed through different rooms filled with novices and full monks praying for Nirvana. When I tried to cross the big central yard, the Head monk asked me not to, and apologized profusely, but he said:

It is a sacred place that could only be trod by especial monks with a previous preparation to know and acknowledge the holy work they were doing there.

I was curious, but I could not offend such a mild man so I followed him to other places, such as the room of praying wheels which started all this adventure of mine.

Praying Wheels

According to the Head monk, Buddha was the creator of these hollow metal cylinders containing a very tight written mantra on the outside, surrounded by small bells, and, inside, a sacred text written, or printed in Sanskrit on paper or animal skin. This texts were used to pray or recite a mantra or invocation to a particular deity. He said that spinning the wheel was the same than reciting the prayers and mantra aloud since the power of the sound was equal to the praying with the mouth. Besides, they, the wheels, were very useful for illiterate persons who were learning to pray.

Manual Praying Wheel

After showing me some of these wheels, he added that they, the monks, were appointed by the Dalai Lama some eons before to compile all the prayers, mantra, invocation, and several more scripts, and the actual Dalai wanted to finish the job in his lifetime since it was told that a great awareness will spread over the world when the work ended. This was the reason to buy Syn... err, Hope, the new name of the machine.

After that we went up the high tower, on top of it there was a cubicle where a watch man could scan all the place over its four sides and see who was coming near the walls with anticipation that may help to keep the Monastery safe. It was an easy task to look toward the small orchards in each corner of the square and to any other place of the vast land.

Taking advantage of the height I looked through the transparent panels over the inner yard and could glimpse a strange toiling there before the Head monk interrupted me and took me down the tower stairs.

After guiding me to the installation room the Head monk excused himself with the explanation he had many things to do, and I stayed with my team giving the last touches to Hope, and followed very near by a young novice who said he was appointed as the machine operator, so he wanted to know everything without reading the manuals. I never understood that whim of most customers to know everything without the 'bothersome' effort to read the tutorials!

I asked him if he knew how to make Hope to compile the prayers, he said he was the one that had written the algorithm to do just that, and he has also written an algorithm to solve the steps of the mystery in the central yard, but he was asked to forget it.

I felt my curiosity grow and asked the young monk what he meant by this "mystery". The novice was proud of his knowledge and could not skip the opportunity to speak about it, so he tell us about the main objective of the community.

The real commitment of the community was to work on solving this mystery, he said, and proceed to explain what I had only glimpse from above.

There were three tall poles firmly fixed in the ground of the yard (I have seen them from above), they were situated several yards apart. When they started this job, many eons ago, the first pole was filled with stone cylinders four inches in height and different diameters, from several yards to a foot wide, these cylinders were piled in the way that always there was a smaller one over a bigger cylinder in a kind of a mountain slope.

The monks were given the task to move the pile of cylinders from one pole to another, no matter which one of the two remaining, moving a cylinder each time between the stakes, the only restriction was that never a small cylinder remained under a big one, nor a cylinder was to be left out of a stake before to move the next. This was a very difficult task because the many movements it required and the weight of the cylinders.

Thinking in alleviate their task he wrote the algorithm which could solve the sequence of movements in a few seconds, but the older monks were very scared by this notion, they were too gullible and superstitious, and they believed all those old wives tales about the ending of the world when this job was finished. He had learned in an American College, when studying Computational Proficiency that it is almost impossible to end the world in the coming years. Science has control of everything.

Unfortunately, he was told that he could not stay here if he insisted in running his program. He loved to be a monk, and he won't do anything since he promised the Head monk to try and forget the idea.

By this time he was surrounded by my team, really interested in his narration. It was the small cute girl from the group, Eve, who asked him:

Do you promised not to give this program to any other person, too?
No, said the novice, I promised only not to run it. You, see, it is highly improbable I meet any idoneous person in my lifetime here, so the Head monk was not worried by that possibility.

Well, you can give it to me, retorted Eve, and I will run it, we will show them they were wrong and finished their heavy commitment, leaving them with time to pray and seek Nirvana.

The novice, was doubtful. He didn't want to displease the monks, but he was half convinced already by his own thinking that what Eve said was the right way to do things, so it took few more cajoling to make him accept the deal.

While Eve was feeding the procedures into Hope I stopped to listen to the subdued noises coming from all the Monastery, there were the little bells from the praying wheels, the heavy movements from the yard where the monks were forever changing cylinders from a stake to another, the sacred songs from the altar, all these sounds mixed together creating a solid hum that seemed to fill the place as another guest.

Eve, stirred in her chair near the console of Hope and said:

OK, it is ready, I will start it ... now!

I was waiting for some miracle or something wonderful to happen, but there was none of them, Hope ran humming to itself contently and after some minutes it sent the finished work to the printer and stayed quiet in its case.

The novice run to the printer, took the recently printed paper, and reading it, he said excitedly:

Yes! Here is the final solution, we have helped those poor men. They will rest now.
When he stopped talking I felt something was lacking, after a moment I realised that we were immersed in a deep silence, there were no more noises from the whole buildings!

Fearing the worst, I grabbed my field glasses and ran to the tower staircase, nobody was in sight, which was an omen in itself since the Monastery was packed out with monks and novices.

I reached the watching site, and saw it was deserted, another weird thing, there always was a guard in the place.

Then I looked around, there was a strange glow in the square, I saw movements in one of the orchards, I lifted the field glasses and looked in that direction.

A man, if it was a man, was leading a horse out of the orchard, I spin on my feet and looked to other orchard, and I saw another man and his horse, the same was happening in the other two orchards.

The real weird thing were the horses, two of them had a very strange color: one was purple, and the other was pale. The other two were a common white one, and a black one the other.

The men saddle up their horses and jumping on them came toward the Monastery, when they were at the gates of the walls, they turned around and looked away toward the mountains.

I could see them very clearly now, their completions were forbidding, and they looked menacing, each one of them had a label on the saddle:

The white horse bore the word:    Pestilence

The Horsemen

The purple horse had the word:      War

The black horse carried the word:   Famine

The pale horse uses the word:       Death






They stood motionless for a while as waiting for a signal, then the ranges of the Himalayan started to fade out on the horizon, when it was a vast terrace and all traces of the High Himalayan range disappeared, the Four Horsemen went into the world carrying...


                                                   The End


The music is a fragment of "Waltz" by Georges Sviridov. It sings to the hope of humankind to a better life. The second fragment is from "Funeral March" by F. Chopin, it is self explained.

© 2013 Od Liam.

...Flight!

Nest

It was so dreary!




Safe ground seemed terribly far away!





The little Condor fledging was coming of age, and it was time to leave the nest.

Papa condor

Many things crowded in his frightened mind. Old Papa was looking, and waiting.





Overcoming the drawbacks in his chest, the little bird opened his wings and, oh surprise! he was in...

...Flight!

Lillie McFerrin Writes

The music is Cantata 140 "Chorale" by Bach giving frame and help to follow difficult tasks.

© 2013 Od Liam.

The End (I)

  
It was 9:05 AM, I was hanging my coat when the phone on my desk started to ring, I never knew why they made it with that monstrous bell, I guess they wanted to disturb recipients so much as to coerce them to answer with no delay.

Before I could take the phone, Ayelen, my pretty aide put her head into my office and said:

Heaven's calling, M!

I picked the handset and heard a voice saying:


You are needed at the 21st.

And then the communication was cut off. I kept looking the handset trying to understand the meaning of the solid tone coming from it.

I was taken out of my trance by the voice of Ayelen, who had her head into my room and her body in the reception room, she said:

Wake up, M, you must go to Heaven! It is a strange call, of course, but you must comply now!

I looked at her and understood her goading me, you do not make Heaven wait for you!

So I took my coat and run towards the Angels, these being the three lifts, or elevators that went into Heaven (the 21st floor), hence their name.

I got an empty car. It was not surprising since nobody goes to Heaven unless called.

When I reached my destiny, the car's doors opened slowly to reveal the figure of St. Peter. Well, he was Mr. B, but as he was named as Heaven doorkeeper, we knew him by that nickname.

When he saw me he smiled with half his mouth, and his opposite eye, I never knew how he could do that, It was real weird!

Welcome to the 21st, Mr M, he said, please follow me!

I did, of course, what else?

When we were two steps from a huge oak door, it slide noiselessly, and I followed St. Peter inside an immense room all the walls littered with masterpieces from the best painters of the world, old and new. Besides that it was  almost empty except for several comfortable looking armchairs, a real big polished teak desk in an L shape, big enough to sleep on it, and the lounge chair (could not see it completely, but I knew from the office grapevine it was a lounge chair brought from France at special request).


St. Peter stopped inside the door and told me: Nice to have met you, M! Please, go right in.  (And he smiled again but changing sides of his mouth and eye! Remarkable!).

I walked into the Sancta Sanctorum and with each step toward the big teak desk in an L shape I felt I was decreasing in size reaching the 2 inches tall when I was near the desk.

In that moment, the lounge chair gyrated on its axe and Mr. A was disclosed in all his royalty!

I recovered my normal height, and looked at the smiling face of our revered Mr. A.

He was a normal man, with an avuncular smile designed to gain my trust, I guess.

Signaling behind me, he said:

Sit down on the small chair.

Only then I discovered a small wooden chair between two armchairs, a very uncomfortable place to sit down, but I obeyed without a word.

My dear Mr. M; this is a very especial assignment I have for you, Mr A said intimately.

Some month ago we received a very strange order of work, not because what it asked, even if it was a complete Syn-Vac, the computer star we make in our laboratories, as you know, but because the request came from a very unusual, and peculiar place.

The order was signed, no more, no less than by the Dalai Lama Himself. He stated they were assigned a job from far away in time and it was very slow and difficult, so they thought it would be good, for a change, to be helped by our exceptional technology. 

I couldn't see where all this led to, so I just nodded.

He seemed satisfied I understood the situation and went on:

Now, we have prepared one of our best machine, and it is waiting in a container in Albery Airport for the installation team, and its leader, that is YOU! to fly to Nepal in the next hours.

When he finished speaking I realized I had been letting my mouth open all by itself in amazement. I shut it suddenly, almost biting my tongue.

Gathering all my last resources, not to stutter, I replied.

But sir, I am only a M class employee, and cannot have personnel in charge!

He looked at me with a kind face, and said:

Oh, that! that is easily fixed, as from now you're raised to B class employee, and forget all that nonsense of earning the place.

He was referring to the normal motto of the Corporation about earning our own progress into the living forces of the community.

I was left without words; or breath.

The man took a small golden pen and started to write on a paper for a while, then he raised his head and asked as if surprised:

Are you still here? Hurry up; you must get a Class B attire, and rush to the Airport!

I was scared and annoyed, when speaking with these bigwigs, I never know when the interview is considered finished. So I rose from the wooden chair with a small pain at the back, and run toward the door.

Two steps before I reached it, the door opened and there appeared the weird smile of Saint Peter, he looked at me and said:

Congratulations Mr. B, please follow me.

Mr. B? How could he possibly know, maybe he was eavesdropping, but no, not a B Class man, or did he? well, it did not matter, even Mr A could have told St. Peter before my visit, but Mr A was genuinely surprised by my mention of it, as if it was a minor glitch not worth to think about.

I just let it go with a:

 Thank you, sir

Do not call me sir, he answered, you are a peer of mine now, and can just call me B.

Yes, thank you B, 

I said it uncomfortably, it was too early to speak to these people as my peers.

We walked the corridor to a small oak door which slid out of the way when we were... yes, two steps from it, B motioned me to enter, and he stayed outside.

A few second after the door closed, a small man with a measurement tape around his neck came running and told me:

Please let me take your size, and then strip off all your clothes!

All of them?, I asked confused.

Yes, he said, definitively, all of them. They are not worthy of your new state!

Ah, well he also knew of my rising on the scale. This was a bit strange.

Anyway I did as I was told, and waited naked for some seconds when he returned with his hands full of clothes of an especial kind. After donning all these things I looked like a Prince without a Reign, but I must say I felt very comfortable in them.

The man, a tailor perhaps?, controlled that everything was in the right place and saying 'Good luck' ran away into the next room. In that moment the first door opened and St. Peter was standing there looking a bit in a hurry.

Come on, B! he said, lets get the next transmigrator!

Transmigrator? What in heaven could that be? I didn't dare to ask, just follow him almost running toward a green steel door which... yes, yes, you know.

It was like a lift car. St. Peter pointed toward it and told me:

Hurry, get in. It is coming now.

I went in, the door closed, and in a few seconds I felt as I was diluted into a fine mist and blown by a big fan toward a channeled exit. I almost lost my senses in my fright but soon 'my' mist was into another green car and in a few more seconds the mist condensed in my own person, leaving me scared and not knowing what had happened to me.

The green steel door opened, an orderly asked me to get out before the transmigrator started the next trip. I obeyed not understanding anything.

As soon as I was out, the man brought a small scanner and surveyed all my person. After that he murmured as if talking to himself: 'All seems to be in the right place'. Then looking at me said:

Follow this corridor, Mr B, and you will find your team waiting for you.

My team!? So I was at the Albery Airport. But how on Earth? Oh, well, better leave it alone.

I did as prompted and soon found a room with six men and a girl. As soon as I entered they stopped talking and stood up, the older, it seemed, said:

Nepal Map

Welcome, Mr B, the container is already aboard the plane, we are ready to leave at your word.

I was not used to leadership so I had to make an effort to look grave and important and said, trying to make my voice two points down-pitched than my own:

OK, let's go! It sounded so poor that I run ahead of my team before they could see my embarrassment!

We boarded the plane, got places in the cabin and the pilot started our trip to Nepal.


(To be continued)

 The music is 'Na birse timilai'  (I could not forget you) by Anju Pant. A Nepali popular song

© 2013 Od Liam.