Gateway To Heaven

by Maggy Diak

The Head of the Sorbonne University, Mr. Pearson, was about fifty years old, of average height, quite slim, grey-haired. No wonder, I thought. The Sorbonne University is a big institution, to manage it must be stressful.

  We shook hands and he showed me and Kate where to sit. He sat opposite us.

  “You said on the phone it was urgent,” he started.

  “Yes,” I answered, “I’m sorry to bother you, but it is urgent.” I pointed to Kate: “This is Kate Otrin, Peter Otrin’s wife.” I feared he would say he did not know any Peter Otrin, had never heard of him, but to my relief he nodded. Got up and again shook Kate’s hand saying with regret: “Madam, I’m so sorry. I can’t believe it!” He said it in English, bad English in fact, nevertheless, Kate was able to understand it.

  “Isabelle is your student, isn’t she?” I asked in French again. “Yes, she is. Have they told you that she, too, disappeared?”

  I said yes.

  He got up again, and after shoving his chair closer to us, he whispered: “Can I be frank with you?”

  “Sure,” I invited him, wondering why he was whispering. Was he afraid to be overheard?

  “If you ask me, he is in the hands of either CIA or FBI or Scotland Yard.”

  I decided not to tell him that I had already heard this from Maurice. “Really?” I pretended to be surprised. “Why? What did he do?”

  “Because of the things he was lecturing. You know, I’m partly responsible for this.” He sounded guilty, “I should have had myself informed in advance what he was going to talk about. But I trusted Isabelle and Maurice. Now it seems I shouldn’t have.”

  “Wait, wait,” I stopped him, “can you tell us, what were ‘those things’? Illegal?”

  Mr. Pearson sighed. “According to J.E. more than that. Things that endanger the security of our country.”

  “What? “I shuddered and turned to Kate. I had to translate this!

  “Kate,” I said, “what the hell does your husband write about?”

  Kate’s face contorted in anger: “What … What is it again? I have told you!”

  “Police thinks that his writings endanger national security!” Openmouthed she stared at Mr. Pearson. Then she cried out: “Are you crazy? My husband is a poet, a writer! He is exploring languages, words, letters.”

  “Madam, I’m not accusing him of anything, the police are,” he interrupted her in his broken English. “And I shouldn’t be telling you this! Inspector J.E. explicitly ordered me to remain silent until the investigation is over. However, I can imagine how you must feel and you came so far, I just can’t keep silent.”

  He took a pile of paper and handed it over to me with the words: “We tape the lectures of all our lecturers. After Mr. Otrin’s disappearance and police accusations, I had his lectures typed. I want you to read them. Sooner or later, you’ll have to confront the inspector J.E., so you’d better know what Mr. Otrin was telling the students.”

  “Have you found anything aggravating?”

  “If I had, I wouldn’t be breaking police orders, would I?” he said.

  I agreed.

  He looked at his watch. I got up and so did Kate. We thanked him. When we were at the door, he said: “You’d better hurry. I mean, you’d better find Mr. Otrin before J.E. does.”

  “I’ll do my best,” I said.

  “And please, don’t give me away,” he added.

  “I won’t,” I promised and asked: “Do you know where I could find Maurice?”

  He gave me his phone number, but I again had to promise not to tell anyone that he helped me.

  “I hope Maurice will be able to tell you more,” he said.

  “Isabelle is his girlfriend, isn’t she?”

  “Yes. You are right. They’ve been living together for four years. They seemed to be in love, that’s why I don’t believe the rumors.”

  “What rumors?”

  “Well, you know people. When a man and a woman disappear it is because of love or better, sex. Especially if the man is an elderly man and the woman is a young girl.”

  He glanced anxiously at Kate, but luckily, she did not understand what he was saying.

  “It crossed my mind, too,” I admitted. “So, you don’t believe those rumors?”

  “No.”

  “How did Maurice react when he found out his fiancée had disappeared? What did he say?”

  Mr. Pearson once again looked at his watch. “I’m sorry, “he said, “but I really am in a hurry. Call Maurice and he will tell you himself. If he is not away, looking for Isabelle. He really is upset, which is understandable.”

  Yes, it was understandable. And I was sure that he did not fear CIA, FBI or Scotland Yard. They were only a mask. He feared something else. Being an academic, he was probably no fool. They might have arrested Peter Otrin for something he was lecturing, but why would they arrest Isabelle? Because she suggested to invite him to the Sorbonne? But so did Maurice! They both invited him in the name of Sorbonne University and nobody did any harm to him! Did Peter Otrin and Isabelle after all run away as lovers? Kate insisted her husband was not like that. But in my opinion, he might have been disinterested in other women in the presence of his wife. Not because he wouldn’t care for them but because he might have been too afraid of her or did not want to hurt her feelings. But away from her it was probably different. I can’t imagine a man who would turn down a young girl’s proposal to spend a few days with her. I certainly wouldn’t.

  As for me, I’d be happier if Peter Otrin was on a love mission because my investigation would be over and I would be able to return home. I had no intention to witness his reunion with his wife.

  It was none of my business. Yet even though I was sure my guessing was correct, that is, he was on a love expedition, I nevertheless decided to read his lectures first and then bring Kate face to face with the truth.

 

  6.

  While leafing through the pages of Otrin's lectures, I noticed that the content was somehow biblical. It started with the conversation between Abraham and Isaac, his son. I had to dig deeply into my memory to remember who exactly they were. It was a long long time ago since I last had to do with the Bible. I stopped going to Church at fifteen.

  Despite my efforts to remember more, I didn’t so I went to the library. Kate decided not to go with me, she said she’d rather take a walk in the nearby park, which was okay with me.

  That’s what I found in an Encyclopedia:

  Abraham was one of the three sons of father Nahor. He was married to Sara, who was sterile and was unable to bear him children.

  According to the habits of those times, she chose a girl and made her Abraham’s second wife. Her only right was to bear children to Abraham. This second wife was Hagar and she gave birth to a son, named Ishmael. When Sarah and Abraham were about one hundred years old, God told her that she too would give birth to a son. She did not believe him, she even laughed which was a sin. But she really gave birth to a son named Isaac.

  Now Sarah became jealous of Hagar and Ishmael and persuaded Abraham to expel both into the desert. An Angel rescued them by showing Hagar a well. With water they survived.

  Now that I refreshed my memory, I returned to the hotel to read Otrin’s notes. Luckily, there was no sight of Kate in the lobby, so I hurried up into my room. I threw myself onto my bed and started reading:

  “My lectures consist of two parts,” Otrin wrote in the introduction. “The first tells about places and people. This will not be any places or people. I will talk about places that in fact, according to their names, mean Jerusalem, or have a strong connection with it, which I will prove etymologically. As for people, I will talk about individuals, about three people who left a strong, indelible mark on at least one period in history. People, who, in fact, were leaders of the period. I named them Trinity. Not the Holy Trinity, but The Period Trinity.

  I will try to prove, what I personally strongly believe in, that nowadays places, people and events already existed before. The
y existed long before us in the so-called pre-places, pre-events, pre- beings. Those pre-whatever are the source of later whatever, (places, people, events). There are small differences among them, resulting from differences between two periods. Two periods may be different in styles of life, a way of thinking, technological and other development, wishes and expectations, however, the main role of places and people and events, even though put into another time and onto a higher level of development, remains basically the same. And what is their role? To be the mobile force of the period. Each Trinity is the mobile force of the period they live in.

  You will probably ask me why that is important. What benefits can arise from knowing who the Trinity was in a preceding period or periods.

  Well, there are some benefits. By analyzing the Trinities, we can foretell the future. The future of our Earth, the way it will move. The dangers it will be exposed to. We even might learn how to avoid them. For, we all, places, events and people, possess free will. It means we can act if we want to. Don’t believe those, who say, we are being pushed around like puppets by our destiny not being able to change anything. Don’t surrender to such beliefs. We possess free will; we can fight for better future. We can look for a way out.”

  “I can’t agree more!” I murmured to myself and went on reading. “I chose the period of Abraham as my starting point. I could not choose the period of Adam because there were only two people living on the Earth then, Adam and Eve. However, before starting to research, I had to find first a Trinity, that is, three people whose lives, or traces of lives, I was able to follow to the present day. The first period or trinity, which complies with my requirements, goes back to the time of Abraham. The Trinity are Abraham, his wife Sarah and their nephew Lot.

  As important as people, three people in each period are also places. Places connected with Jerusalem.

  Before we start analyzing individual words, let me read a chapter from my newest book titled TRINITY OF THE PRE-BOOK. It will give you an idea of what I believe. I believe that Abraham was clairvoyant. I believe that times are mixed. What I want to say: there is no linear time. Past, present and future are here. Now. All mixed and at the same time.

  In the chapter, which I’m going to read, Abraham has a conversation with his son Isaac. It’s raining and thundering and Isaac, still a small boy, is afraid.