"Perhaps when I finish with the Pharmacy here. But it would be better if you read my book on Shakespeare and Bacon first. Can you wait?"
"Yes, I'll wait. I 'see' this is a 'biggie'; by the way you are skirting the question. Am I right?"
"You are getting better." Bob serviced the crowded drug store on the main street at the corner and they began to head for downtown Los Angeles and his accounts in Little Tokyo and Olvera St.
"Can you give me a little smidgen of knowledge about the nature of alchemy and its import in history that isn't in that book and won't ruin the story?"
"OK! This is quite esoteric and will make little sense to you but here goes. A small treatise of the Arabic viewpoint on alchemy called the 'Rislat al-hadhar' or the Epistle of Warning was found in India and attributed to Agathodaimon the Sabeen, which means prophet and teacher. It gives practical details for achieving the making of a 'Philosopher's Stone' which has many attributes that include the 'Elixir of Life' and time-viewing like you may have seen on the cover of Nostradamus' book at Fahrenheit 451. The colors of the different stages of the process to achieve the 'Stone' are described in this little book. Red is one of them. It can come from Cinnabar which will yield mercury and can also include the red blood of the crow or a code expressed that way. This is necessary when one is preparing the 'Virgin Earth' when you do not have access to meteorites and the black ingredient that probably includes Rhodium and Iridium. These ingredients are useful in augmenting the pineal Gland or psychic 'Third Eye' and can be harvested in human sacrifices from the clarified remains of the brain."
"OK. I see you are using an 'information overload' technique that will leave me with no memory of anything except a lot of ambiguous words that I haven't a 'clue' about."
"That is often the nature of esoteric and cryptic meaning due to the potential misuse of the knowledge by those who pursue POWER!"
"Is this knowledge really SO powerful that such secrecy is necessary?"
"It has included the ability to focus cosmic energy to enable atomic fission in a harmonically controlled manner which you can relate to as a result of the nuclear scare that is overblown in our modern age. It includes genetics and the ability to live for a thousand years and more and it involves making animate from inanimate."
"You also said time-viewing or time travel."
"I didn't say time travel in relation to alchemy, but I did mention Murry Hope who recounts time travel with the aid of a pyramid at first."
"I can see why your Ogham scholars want you to write this book. God didn't seem to know so much before I met you and Lynn! She has a much simpler way of making sense. I liked her word 'householder'. It makes the whole title and adepthood thing more sensible to me."
"She is a marvel! I can assure you that what she introduced me to this morning was another 'kettle of fish' and very interesting all on its own. The mountains might soon be my friend just like Castaneda writes about."
"You DO drop a lot of names. I guess if I read these things and know more I might understand you better. Do you really discuss these things with Christine and 'strippers'? I mean do they really read these things?"
"Yes, Christine is good at Tarot and is an artist as well as a singer. She has little formal education but she can 'trip the light fantastic' with me. I LOVE her dearly!"
"I AM looking forward to meeting her. Is this downtown?"
"This is downtown, and I can not promise Christine will be there tonight. I do have her phone number somewhere and she may not have moved. Anyway I will see you there tonight. Remember where it is?"
"Yes, In Bellflower." Sean got out of the car and Bob went to Olvera St., which is the original settlement of L.A.
Sean got to Fritz's about four o'clock and sat outside reading Bob's book. He had read half of it while at the consulate, and was committed to finishing it before five o'clock. Occasionally he would look to see the girls who were coming into or out of the bar. Some of them seemed very friendly towards him, but none came to talk to him. He had noticed a lot of beautiful women when he was downtown having a bite to eat after Bob had let him off. His thoughts and reminiscing about Susan were the cause of frequent smiles but he felt himself making comparisons and wondering how much of himself he knew how to share. The character in Bob's book that was inspired by Christine seemed increasingly real and loving and he hoped that he and Susan could reach this level of understanding together. He didn't even know what that level was. He could see Bob was going through similar changes in relation to what Lynn was doing with him as well. It was exciting and confusing but he had to admit he wouldn't change it for all the tea in China. He was smiling as he thought about the endless clichés that Bob had been using on him.
"Hey there cutie! What ya' reading?" A remarkably ordinary looking girl that had just come out of Fritz's came up to him.
"It is a book by my friend Bob Baird, about Shakespeare and Bacon. I'm almost finished. What is your name?"
"My stage name is Carly, but you can call me Karen. I think I've met your friend. Does he read palms and all that crazy crap?"
"Yes. That's him."
"He gave me a book called Return To Love by Marianne Williamson that has really helped me a lot. How do you know him?"
"I met him a couple of days ago in Las Vegas. I am from New Zealand but I am going to move there. We are working on something BIG!"
"Be careful he is much more than many of the girls here have any insight into. I read a lot of spiritual things and am a Carmelite. I think he is some kind of 'remote-viewer' like Mel Reilly. That world of psychic warfare is full of users who wield power despite his claims of 'goodness'. He thinks St. John of the Cross is just a student of psychic things and I know he is wrong."
"Have you told him this?"
"I told him he was a sorcerer or heretic in as many ways as he told me I was just a fringe fanatic of some kind. I can't prove anything but he gives me 'bad vibes'. There is my ride, just be careful! That is all I'm saying." Carly or Karen left Sean with a thought that had been with him ever since he met Bob. So much of what Bob was saying seemed RIGHT but how could any ONE really be that good?