After the apartment scuffle, Seth went missing. He and Ri were separated and there was no trace of Marjorie. Matthew Fastener was taken into the Communist Party’s custody for re-education.
Zhao An, Seth!
The innermost?
Come walk with me through the gardens of the Summer Palace. It wasn’t so much an invitation than a command.
Try as he might, Seth couldn’t glimpse much of the leader of the supreme council, shielded by two beautiful Asian women in robes and parasols, apart from his obscuring bamboo cone sombrero.
Do you know where Marjorie is?
No.
Would you like to -or is Ri more important to you?
Seth fidgeted with his finger stump. It bore memories of his ex-love and newer ones of his wife, now estranged, possibly.
The women with the innermost giggled to one another, shooting him shy glances. One of them looked like Gracie.
You… my finger…
But the women ushered him through the high doors of a pavilion where shadowed against the lush sun-lit greenery, the innermost practiced Tai Chi Chuan on an overhead walkway.
You have 2 hands, Seth. Don’t be such a worrywart.
It’s time for you and me to disappear.
Why?
Things need to happen. The innermost fanned his palms about wrists pressed together and threw a ball of Chi past him.
This must look good, Seth!
The wind picked up, swirling their robes. Balls of concentrated energy blew past the teenager. He dodged, but was unable to swerve fast enough due to the winds stirred up by the innermost, and he was soon knocked flat out.
Gracie brought Marjorie to his funeral. Mr Frederick also attended. Two geckos were staring down at the coffin. One whispered to the other, how do you feel about Marjorie now?
She’s beautiful, said the other gecko.
But?
Ri is half as pretty but somehow I like the way she thinks.
How she emotes?
Also.
Is it true that western women are full of themselves?
I suppose they are more careful from being more trusting.
Chicken and egg problem. Seth, there is no time to dally here over your effigy. The Universe beckons. You’ve read Erasmus Jr power Nth?
Yes…
So have I -after I edited it.
Seth, God wants you to know He loves you. Sometimes what happens to you is out of His divine control. What then would you say is the ultimate sacrifice?
Death? Torture?
Neither, young man -it is un-existence. You will be me and I will be gone.
It is the only way.
Seth looked down at his hand and his finger had regrown. He tried to find a mirror. There was one in the hotel washroom. He was a grown man of 40 with wavy sandy hair.
Someone flushed the toilet in a loo stall. The door swung open but it was empty.
*Godspeed, Sir Percival*
He emerged from the men’s room, tamping his hands against his linen suit. He stood beside the two women who had betrayed him and a small smile came to his bearded lips. He drew a handkerchief and dabbed at the tears flowing automatically from his eyes.
Friend or family, he was asked.
Council representative.
Oh, right! Said the organizer, reading his lapel tag… Sir Percival of the innermost.
Seth wondered how Marge and Gracie had made up when he realized that they hadn’t at all. They just came to gloat over his death.
*Herod and Pilate*
Is it true you had him?
Gracie, don’t ask.
I would have rode him all the way.
Now he’s dead.
He killed your brother by being slow to learn, and he killed my husband by cheating him. This ‘Seth’, he’s nothing but a waste of Kleenex.
He was surely a diamond in the rough, -a big one nobody could finish cutting and polishing.
And you must be?
Mr. P of the supreme council.
The ladies curtseyed. Seth bowed slightly.
Which of you young women would like to accompany me through the parking lot, you see my eyes don’t work well in the dark.
Then we can ride home in the Tesla.
Marjorie looked a little frazzled but Gracie took the hand of the older man and they locked arms. She glanced back as Marjorie fidgeted with her gloves, blinking spontaneously.
One man, now dead, and 3 women can’t forget him?
You’re a witch. She’s a clairvoyant. And the Chinese college student -she’s a mistake -she was THE mistake.
What is the council’s verdict on the e-bomb fallout?
Rebuild. You see, we had Seth put… ‘away’.
You have his DNA sequenced!
You must be his sister then, of course. We took precautions to safeguard his biological and shepherd his philosophical permutations.
Why then kill Saim?
Walk through enough doors with no keys on you and you’ll quickly learn how to be lost in your heart.
Sir, what do you mean?
Your brother was a leaky plug in our bubble bath.
Seth followed the words flowing from his new memories and knowhow. Gracie never suspected he was in and in control of ‘Mr. P’.
The white self-driving stopped outside the overgrown mansion. She looked at the dapper gentleman through eyes slatted with thick lashes, would you like to step inside?
You’ll find I’m in poor company.
Gracie bowed, humbly.
But honestly I would love to.
She understood like any witch would, the ternary entendres of the council.
Seth handed her a blank white card. It was of pure e-matter, worth its weight in diamonds.
You know how to use it.
Seth smiled and Gracie grinned ear to ear.
*That’s a’right, boy -aright, arite, ARITE*
