The Seventh Chakra
Page 52
* * *
Billy looked down at Jackie, still asleep. It was almost eleven and she had slept since her center had opened. John had left early but had told Billy to watch over Jackie, and that he wanted a full explanation of what was going on as soon as he returned.
Jackie groaned and opened her eyes; she felt comforted seeing Billy there. She now shared his secret along with Morgan.
Jackie went silently to the bathroom and refreshed herself in a long comforting shower; as soon as she came out John had returned from his long day. Neither Jackie nor Billy had eaten that day; although she had slept, she was feeling hunger pains which physically hurt.
“Well Billy, what's going on?” John said as soon as he entered.
Jackie saw Billy hesitate and quickly said, “Can we go get something to eat? I'm starving.”
“I'm sorry,” John said, “where are my manners? You haven't eaten all day?”
“Me neither, boss,” Billy added.
“Jackie, have you been asleep all day?” John asked, noticing Jackie yawn.
“How did you guess?” She smiled.
“We've just got time to catch the 11:15 boat into the city,” Billy said.
They silently got into Billy's truck and drove on to the ferry boat. As they sat in the truck John again asked. “Well, Billy, start talking. Tell me what's going on.”
“Can we wait till we eat?” Jackie intervened. “We can tell you while we eat.”
Billy sighed, and started his engine as soon as the ferry boat docked on the Manhattan side.
“How about some of Ray's world famous pizza?” Jackie asked.
“Sounds good to me,” Billy agreed. “Let me pull out of here and I'll circle the block and come back down to it. You have to take a right here, “ Billy explained to John, “and then you go up, go left and then come back down. Actually the pizza joint is right at the South Ferry subway terminal.” Billy pointed to his left. “You can see it from here; of course, the hard thing is finding a place to park over there.”
But they were in luck and found a place to park. They each ordered two slices of cheese pizza and a soda.
“Let's sit over in the park and have our pizza.” Jackie suggested.
“Yeah,” Billy agreed. “Then I can fill you in on everything I know, John.”
“Okay by me.”
They chose a bench near the spot where the Liberty Island ferry boat tied up and began to eat.
They sat there for a few minutes staring out across the black water, Ms. Liberty shining brightly as always with her image wavering in fragments of reflected light.
The Liberty Island ferry boat pulled closer to the dock and then the lines from her aft and stern were thrown out to tie her up.
As John sat there waiting for the others to satisfy their hunger so he could get an explanation, he saw his friend Michael O'Malley getting off the ferry boat. He didn't pay any attention to the couple who were in front of Michael.
“Michael,” John called out. Jackie turned to Billy and nodded. Billy nodded in understanding.
Michael looked up to see if someone was calling him; Michael was a common name. Then he heard “Michael, Michael O'Malley, hey–over here.”
John started to walk over to greet Michael―and stopped short. The couple in front of Michael came to a stop in front of John.
Jamal looked into John's eyes. He hadn't been this close to the man before, but even in the street light glare from the park he could tell there was something unusual about him.
“Yes.” Mindy thought, face to face.
As Azid stood in the shadow he couldn't hear anything. He could only see the white man confront Jamal. He was keyed up, taunt with tension from his long vigil.
The black man stopped in front of John and looked directly into John's eyes. John started to dismiss the feeling of familiarity he felt toward the man, but as he stood there, the feeling increased in intensity. Do I know him?
John extended his hand in greeting to the man and started to introduce himself.
Azid saw the white man's arm move toward Jamal and with swift reflexes pulled his knife from his anklet sheath. He was behind John before anyone realized from where he had appeared.
John glanced over Jamal's shoulder at Michael's terrified face and wondered what was wrong.
Billy jumped from the bench as he spied Azid darting forth with the knife. He recognized the dangerous potential of what was happening.
At the same moment, Jamal saw Azid coming toward the white man. “Azid!” He shouted in protest.
But Azid interpreted the shout as encouragement; and he and his blade were one, intent on the white man's back.
Jamal shoved John aside as hard as he could just as Azid's blade touched John's flesh. John's shirt slit under the blade's sharp edge as it sliced a long gash from the middle of John's lower back around his side.
Azid's weight and momentum continued with the inertia and his blade didn't stop until its full length entered Jamal's gut.
Jamal fell to the ground across John's unconscious body.
The world began to fade before the eyes of all of the onlookers. All were being drawn into the vortex of John's energy center spinning open. Even Azid, the assailant, and Rudy who still watched the scene from the bench as it unfolded were pulled along into the opening.
As Mindy stared down at Jamal and the world faded, she smiled.
From across town Morgan, Bernie, Zolar and the Reverend Thomas Lamb experienced their invisible connection.
Once again, John was alone in the center of the universal nothingness. He felt as if his very being were being split in half; as if the pain was tearing him apart. With each division of himself, he was no longer alone―but was now two, and then four, and then more.
He was being torn into fragments, but he continued to cling to a fragment of himself for fear of being alone again.
His mind became fragmented; each part began to think on its own. Each aspect of himself began to live―and they forgot who they had been. As the fragments began to view the whole, each part became limited to its own perception of where it was when it separated. All concept of his previous wholeness vanished.
But then parts of him wanted to become all of him again, and while other parts did not. The parts began to fight to control the whole; finally he cast away all those parts of him which fought. The stillness around him was shattered as he cast that which had been him out and again he exploded into nothingness—for there was only him. It all repeated over and over....