Once in a Blue Agave Moon: Chapter 47

Mordecai the Warrior

(His brothers’ keeper, and the finder of lost children)

When April found Leigh-Anne and Mordecai, she appeared to them in the form of Betty, the Giant Amazon Macaw. She flew up and landed on Mordecai’s back and announced herself as she usually did.

“Boop-Oopa-Doop! What’s up Toots?”

“I assume that you are addressing Leigh-Anne, but hello Betty” Mordecai replied.

Leigh-Anne was initially startled by the bird’s vocalization, as well as her remarkably beautiful appearance, but when Mordecai appeared to be answering her out loud, she attributed it to the effects of ‘The Knowledge of Good and Evil’.

They had already been ‘conversing’ telepathically since the the start of the onset of the drug, but thus far, nothing had exceeded what she considered to be beyond her limits of reality, given her previous experiences with LSD decades before.

“Holy shit! A talking dog?!?! I’ve seen plenty of talking birds…and ‘A boy and his Dog’ was one of my favorite films years ago, because it reminded me of Elliott and Gonzo, his dog back then. He always said that he believed that dogs were put on this earth to teach Mankind how to speak without words, but…” Leigh-Anne exclaimed. She realized that she was starting to babble.

“I remember…that was me back then as I appeared to both of you. Neither one of you were ready yet to comprehend all of it, but this day was inevitable, and you both needed a little bit of preparation for today.”

Mordecai continued.

“Without getting too technical, suffice it to say that since Time/Space are connected and curved in a closed universe like this one, they fold back onto themselves. If you could see far enough, eventually you would be looking at the back of your own head, but because of the distance, even at the speed of light, given the age of what you call the ‘Known Universe’ and your incredibly short lifetimes, it isn’t physically possible, at least for you.”

Mordecai’s voice was deep, resonant, and soothing.

“What I’m leading up to, is that we already knew what was probably going to happen today, or at least eventually, so we decided to intercept you at this particular junction to provide some guidance for all of you.”

“(Rather than continue to revert back to the utterances of words, how about it if we continue where we left off? Funny isn’t it? Here you are, perfectly comfortable conversing telepathically with a pan-dimensional being, but the idea of a talking dog leaves you speechless?)”

“(After all, even in the Animal kingdom, the Human dependance upon the grunts, moans, hissing and almost ridiculous assortment of articulations of your lips, tongues, and even teeth just to express an idea seems pathetic and puerile, not to mention the fact that you depend upon hundreds of different languages, and thousands of dialects even within your own species.)”

Mordecai’s voice sounded the same in her head, but his lips no longer moved. Leigh-Anne simply nodded her head in agreement.

“(But first, please allow me to introduce myself. As you know, I am Mordecai. My name means ‘Warrior’ but more importantly, I am a Centurion, a guardian of ‘The Gates’ and I provide guidance, support, and protection for those of you who will eventually make the next quantum leap in your evolution of Sentience and Self-actualization.)”

Then he added:

“(It’s not so much of a job description as it is a calling…you say things like ‘water reaches its own level’…where I come from, we end up assigning ourselves with certain tasks based as much in our interest as by recognizing a potential, or an actual need.)”

“(It is inevitable, but nonetheless hinges upon probabilities, much like the ‘Infinite number of monkeys on typewriters eventually producing Shakespeare’…it is remarkably humorous that one of you should describe yourselves this way, because ever since that ‘Garden of Eden’ incident we’ve referred to you as ‘The Talking Monkeys,’ but really, no offense intended, however from our perspective that is a fact.)”

Mordecai continued.

Leigh-Anne found Mordecai’s voice (even inside her head) to be soothing.

“(The being that you call your ‘God’ was playing with your ancestors, like they were his pets, or laboratory rats, but given his self-described ‘Jealous,’ ‘Angry,’ ‘Wrathful’ and ‘Vengeful’ personality, when we stepped in and provided you with Sentience, his condescension and possessiveness didn’t allow for you to ‘…think they are like Us’ and so he threw you out of the Garden of Eden, which is to say he abandoned you, and only comes back from time to time to torture and scare you.)”

Mordecai sounded more like a parent consoling a child after a bad dream.

“(In our world, Sin, Guilt, Shame and Fear are nonexistent. Your ‘God’ is dependent upon Subjugation, Groveling, and incessant Praise and Worship. In your own human behavior, these are considered faults, or defects of personality and character.)”

“(Once we intervened, we became responsible for you as a species, but His programming of Fear into your world, and his innate Jealousy caused you to believe that the rest of ‘Us’ were devils, or Satan, but your scientists are more pre-disposed to think of us as ‘Aliens,’ which all things considered, isn’t too far off the mark.)”

If Leigh-Anne hadn’t been looking at Mordecai’s face, she would have been sure that he was talking out loud. “(Believe me though…he doesn’t care about your prayers, and in fact, the whole idea of ‘Satan’ is also just another aspect of his own personality. Your ‘God’ is also ‘Satan’ aka ‘God’s Prosecutor’).”

He then continued:

“(If you can ever learn to recognize ‘Him’ in all his myriad manifestations, you will be able to avoid or escape all the Evil in your entire world. When you connect with any of the rest of us by allowing us to ‘jump in’ to your consciousness you will be safe, because ‘Betty’ and I are here to protect you. We always have been.)”

“(Jedidiah, Aimée and Jeanette, or as you call her ‘Rebel,’ brought The Fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil’ here from the Home for Wayward Souls ‘…and now…’ as John Cage once said, ‘we begin again’.)”

“(The Knowledge of Good and Evil allows you to comprehend that your ‘God’ whether he be called ‘The Lord,’ or ‘Jesus,’ or ‘Allah,’ or ‘Satan’ or whatever ‘devil’ you perceive ‘Him’ to be are one and the same, and THAT is what got him so pissed off in the first place.).”

Mordecai paused to let Leigh-Anne assimilate what could have been very disturbing information, especially for a Catholic not plagued by Agnosticism.

Mordecai then added “(‘The Knowledge of Good and Evil’…it doesn’t sound bad at all, does it? Yet with no Sin in their world, and only one prohibition, what could be the harm in knowing the difference between Good and Evil?)”

“(One might say simply that if God said it was a sin, then they should neither do it or even question why it is forbidden to KNOW something, which means God was the one who put the temptation into their world.)”

“(Why?)”

“(Who created the Serpent? Who placed the tree in the garden? Is this not the same God that told Abraham to kill his only son, just to see if he would do it?.)”

“(Is this the kind of god that parents would want to model as an example?)”

“(Yet for some perverse reason, he gives you these little clues…like the whole ‘God’s Prosecutor’ or ‘Fallen Angel’…’He’ is his own self-described ‘Trickster’.)”

As Mordecai spoke, ‘Betty’ (the Macaw) morphed into ‘Betty Boop’ the cartoon character, and eventually into April Tremski, (now deceased), classically trained musician, guardian angel and long-lost lover of Elliott, musician, artist, Media Wizard, sex addict and part-time fool.

“(Hello Leigh-Anne, it’s so good to see you again. I was the one that convinced Mordecai to put the idea into Jedidiah’s head to go out and bring you here.)”

“(I’m really glad that you decided to try the ‘Knowledge.’)”

“(Of course, I don’t need it now, but I really wish that it had been available while I still was…available.)”

“(You’ve been ready for this for awhile, although I also know that you have another completely separate life that has enabled you to achieve comfort, secure love, and enough financial security to build a self-sustainable home on your ranch in Arizona.)”

April and Leigh-Anne had great respect for each other, as they were never at cross purposes regarding Elliott; both were well-educated and talented. They didn’t need to manipulate him to get his attention, and had no need to control him.

April continued.

“(But even too much true happiness and achievement bores you, because you crave challenge, obstacles to overcome…and danger.)” April paused for a moment; she did not wish to overstep her boundaries or offend.

“(You were the only one of the entire group to achieve that level of worldly success and happiness, but as they say, ‘not for nothing’…you alone had the wisdom to escape your world in Miami; if you had stayed, it could have easily doomed all of your plans to the same chaos that plagued the rest of us.)”

“(By the way, did you ever hear Elliott’s song ‘The Ex-Wives I Never Married’?)”

April did not pause for an answer; as it was largely rhetorical.

“(It’s about You and I, and Aimée. We were the only ones that really understood Elliott enough to know that the Jealousy and Possessiveness that had made him miserable most of his life were the tools of the women that he did marry. )” April winked at Leigh-Anne knowingly.

Then Leigh-Anne remarked:

“(You’ve seen Aimée recently…it’s quite a change for the better in a lot of ways…sadder, but wiser, and so much more compassionate. She was very deferential toward me from the minute we met…again. She’s funky, she’s very street-wise, and funnier than  I remembered her…Very funny in fact.)”

“(She’s certainly come a long way from North Miami Beach Senior High School…actually, we both have, come to think of it)” April admitted.

They both tolerated Amy’s addiction to Drama, despite her ‘High Maintenance’ expectations, because she loved Elliott dearly, and she filled many of his considerable needs.

Her beauty, but most of all, her intelligence captivated his attention, but it was also her undoing, leaving her high strung, and more fragile than she would ever care to admit.

April paused, thought for a moment, then added

“(It wasn’t so much that he got married. He just shouldn’t have gotten married to any of them…except for Chiana. She gave him stability, children, and they both gave each other the Love and Freedom he had ever only known with the three of us.)”

“(Elliott, for all his talents, was easily led astray by women, most especially by manipulative women. As stubborn as he can be, sometimes he seemed to have no backbone, as you observed, and tried to tell him years ago.)” April added.

“(That’s one reason that we recruited Jedidiah to bring us here with a plan to empower the four of you to take charge of your portions of what will become the new world order, once ‘Civilization’ starts to return, as it is already beginning to do.)” April continued.

“(As you already know, Jed can barter, sell, and trade better than anyone I’ve ever seen. People just like him, and this whole traveling caravan has given all of you plenty to show for it…even you.)” April added.

LeighAnn’s part in their traveling caravan was largely as a consultant, a nurse, comptroller, and essentially their quartermaster, but she did little traveling with them so far.

“(Elliott, on the other hand, has found a way to produce something that everybody wants, but he’s a mystery…no one knows who he is, and he protects his privacy with a vengeance, but the more he evades the public, the greater his cult following becomes.)”

Leigh-Anne interjected:

“(His Tequila is quirky, but remarkably smooth, although it still has that wild, almost gamey flavor of a Mescal. Moonshine has become more commonplace than commercially-produced whiskey, which has become very scarce, at any cost.)”

Although she almost never drank more than a sip of anything alcoholic, Leigh-Anne took pride in being a connoisseur of ‘the finer things’ and worldly matters in general.

She continued.

“(But people with means, and even those who don’t have money want it; he is a symbol of our self-reliance and ingenuity and also because it is endemic of the times. He was never a moonshiner, but one day, he just started doing it, and one thing just led to anther. As you well know, he is capable of doing just about anything that he wants to with panache just because it interests him.)”

“(Anyone with the means of production of just about anything right now has the chance to write their own ticket, and a lot of the old guard has retained their power and control over most of everyone else. And with no one to stop them, their power has become absolute.)”

Leigh-Anne had a way of balancing Romance of a sort with a Pragmatic sensibility that had served her well over the years.

Then April abruptly changed gears.

“(Your part in this drama is to complete ‘The Four Winds’…the four cardinal points of the compass…the four elements according to your combined natures, as a group.)”

“(You are self-programmed to succeed, regardless of the obstacles, and strong enough to guide, yet wise enough not to attempt to control those around you, and if guidance doesn’t work, you move on.)”

“(Three of the four of you are witches, which constitutes a ‘Ya-Ya’ for Majik and Sex. You have Stability and Nurturance, and you represent the ‘One True Voice of Reason’ when all around you have lost their minds.)”

“(Jed is sometimes overcautious, but he at least knows enough to think before he leaps…unlike Elliott, as we both know.)”

LeighAnn’s curiosity was piqued to a point where she could no longer stifle herself, and she finally blurted out the name of the elephant that had been taking up so much space.

“(OK, so tell me  this, and I mean no disrespect, but…how did you…I mean, how did you do it so quickly?…I can’t imagine anyone just stepping into your shoes just like that, I mean, well, this is kind of awkward….you died a couple years ago. What are you really?)”

At this point, Leigh-Anne wasn’t sure what much of anything was.

“(Well, for starters, as you noted, you have to die first…and I wasn’t in any hurry, believe me…)” April continued.

“(And as for what am I, I am what I always have been…If, or when I return to a physical form, I won’t remember any of this, but I will always be me, and you will always be you; that which comprises your character, and your nature is an enigma, or a paradox that you will continue to act out, trying to solve the riddle, the mystery of all of it. We learn, we grow, we make mistakes, but our essence is still the same, time and again.)”

“(It’s just a different form…pure energy, no matter…or ‘No matter?, no matter,’ as we like to say.)”

“(We make plans, and we think that we make choices, but some things happen all by themselves…)”

Leigh-Anne, as well as April, understood that better than most.

“(It’s not like you sign up for this.)” April held her hands, palm up, in an imploring gesture, but she giggled in the process of making a curtsey. She looked very etherial, like a hologram.

LeighAnn’s head was spinning, but she followed more of it than she thought she was capable, which she confirmed as she said/thought:

“(Alright…and ‘As it is above, so it is below’…what’s next?)”

Namasté

नमस्ते

Chazz Vincent

copyright  ©  March 12th, 2021  

Fish swim with the tides, in and out of the lagoon as it empties itself, receives from, and flows back into the sea.

*ALL REFERENCES TO ANY PERSONS CONFIRMED STILL LIVING IS PURELY CO-INCIDENTAL…AND THE DEAD ARE TOO BUSY LAUGHING AT US TO CARE.