Discussions

We settled at a table in the Student Union coffee shop and ordered up. While we waited for the food and drink to be delivered, the Professor sighed and rubbed his eyes tiredly. I finally took note of the fact that he had blue eyes, but they weren't the same startling shade of blue as Tommy Pentacle's, even though his complexion and coloring were very much the same. I found myself wondering, Is this really Wish's and Tommy's father?

The Professor startled the living daylights out of me by responding, "Actually, no. Tommy's surname is 'Green', although he is like a son to me. And as for Wish---"

I gulped and thought, My God!! Telepathy??

Outwardly, my response was a little more circumspect; my voice was rock-steady and my expression was - I think - perfectly composed as I raised an eyebrow and commented, "Impressive. What else do you do?"

His responding smile was frank, and warm, and a little relieved. "I'm pleased that overt evidence of mental telepathy doesn't alarm you."

"Who, me?" I ventured a laugh; it came out sounding a little strained. "Actually, I probably should be a little weirded-out, but considering what I've been through for most of my life, I think I'm a little past freaking when something paranormal happens. I feel surprisingly at ease with you, Professor...and it's a relief to be allowed to just be myself, for once. It's nice to be around someone who's okay with psychic phenomena. I get tired of having to walk on eggshells around people."

The Professor chuckled dryly. "Spoken like a true kindred spirit. The paranormal senses are just as normal and natural as the accepted five physical senses; it's just that our society has developed a marked bias against the entire subject. Earlier cultures actually honored seers and mages; sorcerers and wizards were respected..."

I favored him with a wry smile. "...or feared and despised."

He chuckled. "Touche. But only the evil ones, as a general rule. The benevolent ones were sought out, respected, and in some instances actually worshipped, like the Oracle at Delphi. But then, Christianity became an ascendant social force, and someone misinterpreted the Hebrew word for 'poisoner' in an old Biblical text and translated it as 'witch', and after that people took the misinterpretation of 'thou shalt not suffer a witch to live among you' a little too literally; they began applying the term 'witch' to anyone who displayed any abilities not sanctioned by the narrow-minded, straitlaced interpretations of the Holy Roman Church, and---well, you know what happened after that..."

He trailed off sadly.

I laughed sourly. "Do I ever! On the other side of things, if a member of their own Church displayed exactly the same sort of paranormal abilities, they were declared saints, or messiahs, or something of that sort. Talk about a double standard!"

He chuckled and sipped at his ice water. "Those in positions of power interpret events in the way that most benefits their ends; it helps to insure their positions of power."

Since we'd gotten sidetracked from the subject of Wish, I decided to just take the bull by the horns: "So, tell me about Wish."

His eyes brightened at her name; a look of fatherly fondness swept across his face. "Wish is my adoptive daughter; she and Tommy aren't related by blood, although I have raised them both, in a very real sense. Emotionally, they're brother and sister; if you prefer the more popular New Age term, I suppose you could call them 'soul mates'."

To myself, I thought, Nothing about any romantic feelings between them, I notice.

He shook his head slowly. "In one past life that I know of, yes; in this one, no. In this instance, the word 'sibling' is far more applicable."

I winced a little. "That's going to take some getting used to."

He smiled faintly. "I know. I've been doing it for more decades than I care to remember, and it still unsettles me, from time to time. The fact that you didn't bolt from the room the moment I revealed it to you speaks well of you. Many of the people I've encountered who professed open-mindedness toward - and acceptance of - the paranormal have proven to be profoundly intolerant of another person peering into their minds; they consider it to be an intolerable violation of the last bastion of human privacy."

I laughed sourly. "I haven't got that much in my head that I have to be private about."

He smiled discreetly. "You might be surprised what you have in there."

My sour smile turned into a sour chuckle. "Who'd want to peek in on erratic and uncontrolled precognitive dreams?"

That set off another train of thought. "As long as we're on the subject, I had dreams about Wish and Tommy before we met---for months on end."

He smiled again---this time a little strained, as though he were treading on risky ground and wasn't sure just how to proceed. "Yes, I know---Alex."

I jumped at the name. I tried not to, but it wrung the reaction out of me before I could stop it. "Why do all of you call me 'Alex'? Is it some sort of an 'in' joke?"

Again that gleam showed up in his eyes---part elation, part hope; for the second time in less than an hour I'd hit upon something important, here. I felt a sense of triumph---and at the same time, a sense of foreboding.

He sighed, started to say something---and the waitress chose that moment to arrive with our orders. He glanced up at her pointedly, then turned back to me and murmured, "Forgive me, Rain, but now is not the time for that sort of thing. Some matters are best not discussed in public---and there are types of information - like this - that are best presented in the proper time and the proper order, no matter how eager the student might be."

For the remainder of the encounter he made it a point to call me "Rain"...and while he answered a few more of my questions, he put most of them off, promising that I'd learn what I needed to know when the time was right; too much information too quickly can overload even the most receptive of minds and initiate the emotional equivalent of a computer crash. Naturally, a large part of me was wildly impatient, and wanted to know everything now...but an even larger part of me realized the truth in what he was saying, and held me in check.

We talked for almost three hours before we finally parted company; as he left, he promised me that I'd receive the information I needed as I was ready for it. Of course, it wasn't properly satisfying to me to leave it at that, but I didn't have much choice; he was scheduled to give another lecture in London the following day, and if he delayed any longer he'd either be late for it, or so jet-lagged that he wouldn't be worth - as he put it - a brass farthing.

So, reluctantly, I said good-bye to him; as we shook hands in parting, he favored me with a sly smile and commented, "There's an old Chinese curse that goes: 'May you live in interesting times.' I think your life is going to become very 'interesting', soon; I just hope you won't see it as a curse."

And with those enigmatic words, he disappeared through the coffee shop door into the growing evening, flagged down a taxi and left me to wonder at his meaning. Frankly, if I'd had any inkling about what he was alluding to, I probably would have turned right there and run, screaming, for my life. Of course, if I had, I wouldn't be married to Wish, now...and that would be a true curse.

As it was, the next time I encountered Professor David Pentacle face-to-face, he wasn't even a human being...

Copyright 2007 by Wren Hazard and Dennis Crabtree

Chapter 10 | Table of Contents |

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