Manu Iti: Ah - my old friend Ruru - come! Join us at the fire...
A flurry of movement followed as Ruru responded to the invitation and perched herself atop of Manu Iti's staff, fluffing her feathers as she settled.
William: Greetings Ruru.
Ruru stares back at William and winks. William smiles and then focuses his attention back to his Father.
Manu Iti: Would you care to hear a story my Son?
William's smile widens. There is no better thing he can think of doing on such a beautiful night under the stars, than to hear one of his Father's stories.
William: Yes please Father!
Manu Iti returns the smile and takes a sip of brew.
He then clears his throat and begins.
Manu Iti: Once Upon a Time - I was visited at this very fireside, by a man identifying himself as Jean Nouer - very French in name, but American in nature, was Jean Nouer.
It is his story that I now tell to you.
This is the story of how Jean Nouer meet his Zombie Jesus.
William: Woo....scary story.
Manu Iti: Sad, more than scary.
Manu Iti took another sip of brew and continued.
Manu Iti: As Jean Nouer told it to me, so I tell it to you.
I didn't at first realize I had died...if that's what you call it. I just snapped awake and found myself in a daylit fog.
I stood up - and immediately realized that I could not feel my feet - or for that matter - my hands...I could will to lift my hands and they would lift and I would see them before my eyes and wriggle the fingers, but all feeling was absent. It was as if I was a mind inside a robot, and in understanding this as it unfolded, I thought myself in a dream. A Lucid dream that I would awake from.
After a few days of this, I realised that I was in no dream and had no choice but to think I had died from my former life and this was where I ended up.
The fog was - at first - kind of comforting but as I willed my unfelt body to walk forwards and to turn left or right as I pleased, the fog was all that there was, everywhere I went and I began to despair and then my tormentor - invisible and cowardly for that - started mocking me ceaselessly and telling me that I should kill myself, knowing that there was nothing I could use to do so.
William: Hmmm...that does sound like a sad state of affair...
Manu Iti: At least my tormentor was something - and I did get asccostomed to his cutting tongue and he eventually eased of his taunting and continued to do so until I heard no more from him.
Then the loneliness set in and dug away at me and finally I thought about Jesus and Christians and how I had always taunted them and how they warned me that there would be consequence's and how I had mocked their God and his uselessness.
I began to imagine how wonderful their heaven must be, while I was stuck - alone - in this fog and how much of a hell it had become for me.
And so, I cried out to Jesus to have mercy on me and save me from this wretched fate, and as I did - a flickering light appeared ahead of me and grew brighter as I approached, until out of the fog appeared the face of Jesus - or rather - the face of Zombie Jesus - like the one I imagined as the Christians told their tales of the Resurrection...
Ruru hooted softly
William: Eew.
Manu Iti: I pleaded with Zombie Jesus to help me out of this fog, and I could see intelligence in his eyes as he looked at me - but the dribble out of the side of his mouth told me not everything was present and correct with this Jesus.
I had to laugh at that realization as I wondered how I could expect it any other way from a Zombie.
Mind you - he might have some kind of magic which could assist me with my quest to get out of the fog. He had to have come in from somewhere, and any company was better than none.
As I was thinking all this, Zombie Jesus turned and started moving away, and - almost from fear - I called after him "Wait! Don't go!" as my unfelt legs moved me forward to follow, and as I caught up to him, my arm reached out and my hand touched his shoulder - well it was more of a grab really.
And as soon as it did, I could feel my body again! It was a miracle!
William laughed out loud at that...
William: Ha! Good one! Zombie Jesus 'got the magic'.
Manu Iti: It gets worse.
Having gained feeling in my body, I started to feel the aches and pains caused by being consistently in a foggy environment for what seemed like hundreds of years.
It wasn't overpowering - just dull and always present...like an annoying tune in ones head.
And speaking of annoying things in one's head - my accuser also returned his voice into the mix, only this time he wasn't coming from an invisible place, but from Zombie Jesus!
So now I had a physical companion slurring the words of an ancient nemesis spawned in my days being human - a voice I could never decide if its nature was internal or external - and now I was following the sound of that voice, through the fog.
I had questions to ask.
Manu Iti paused, to let the sounds of the night enter the conversation.
His stoked his favorite pipe with 'erb and lit it, drawing back on the sweet taste.
William: It is interesting how Jean ends up following his ancient nemesis through the fog...his aloneness mollified by the presence of the form of Zombie Jesus infused with the accusers voice...
Manu Iti: The Noetics involved - like a Mule Kick in the head...The Devil as more than just a Presence...Jean not wishing to be Separate from the monstrosity creating a sort of Apophenia in his awareness - the Mind Games continued in a purposeful manner...and so back to the story...as Jean spoke it to me;
I was like a lamb following its master. I questioned and complained for a long - long time, following this spectre ... It felt like hundreds of years.
Eventually I gained some insight - insight into my self. My inner workings. My subconscious psyche, and the accusers voice began to change and eventually became very encouraging.
You see, at some point in that interaction I began to realize that I was in this state - this reality experience - through my own making...
I cannot say exactly how long it took for me to get to the realization other than it was a lenghty progress which could have been a day a week a year or many lifetimes, because of the nature of the environment I was within didn't change in any way whereby one could differentiate so a day was like a thousand years...
But changes did happen and at the very point where I came to the realization and accepted that I was suffering my fate because of my own unrealistic demands and that I deserved everything I was experiencing and could neither blame anyone nor demand or plead or otherwise ask anyone to save me from my self and my decisions - the fog opened up and Zombie Jesus disappeared with it, and I found myself looking down upon and object I at first couldn't identify because it was almost transparent - but - as my eye adjusted to the fact of seeing things beyond the fog after what seemed an eternity of the stuff - well you can imagine my shock and need to adjust to the new reality of my surroundings...
...the object I saw was a bridge...
William: Ah! The Bridge of Forgiveness!
Manu Iti: It was dark and the stars were brilliant as I took in my surroundings, the soft light of the moon revealed where the bridge appeared to be and noticed I was on a pathway which lead down toward it. Looking around, I noticed that the landscape on the side of the bridge I was on, was rugged and stony, whereas the land on the other side of the canyon the bridge spanned, was fertile and inviting.
Behind me the land rose sharply and in the distance I could see a range of mountains which looked uninviting and impenetrable.
I decided to make my way down the pathway to where the bridge connected to my side of the canyon and in short time I was standing on the abutment looking across toward the far bank. It took all of my resolve to summon the courage to step onto the almost invisible decking of the superstructure - no doubt prompted by the desire to reach the far side and be rid of the arid landscape.
As I took the first few steps, I felt acrophobic but this quickly passed as I pushed forward and soon enough made it to the other side, no worse off for the experience... I felt elation growing as I then made my way along the gently rising path meandered through the forest, barely noticing the incline with each liberating step I took.
As I reached the top of the hill, the forest gave way to a clearing and in the short distance I saw the flickering of a fire and made my way cautiously toward it.
William: And that is where our traveler met you.
Manu Iti: Yes. The Ruru had, of course, let me know we were about to have company so the kettle I had placed on the embers next to the fire was softly bubbling away in anticipation of the arrival of our guest.
William: That was a fine story Father. Did Monsieur Nouer remain on this side of Crystal Canyon, once you heard his story and explain to him where he was?
Manu Iti smiled and lit his pipe and drew the sweet flavor into his lungs before answering.
Manu Iti: Eventually he did - although it did take a little time to convince him, that would be the better choice for him to make - but that story can wait for another time.
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