Haggopian and Other Stories

Jason, sitting at the table staring at the artefact, then bursting abruptly into speech: “My brother—and especially my mother—bring me warnings. Yes, I’m oneiromantic, but my precognition isn’t so much advanced knowledge of what to do or to avoid doing but, as you might have it, knowledge of the direction in which my current position or standing is leading me. In other words, their warnings are useless by reason of the fact that the outcome cannot be avoided. They can warn of my going to hell, but they can’t offer me a fire-proof parachute!”

James: “Que…”

Jason, cutting the other off: “Yes, yes! Of course! What will be will be.”

James, nodding sagely: “So then, the dead go on; at least their thoughts: they are not dead who can forever lie. Having undergone their change—knowing more of Being by experiencing Not Being—they attempt to communicate their knowledge, their warnings, to the living loved ones they left behind. In which case I suspect—no, I affirm—that we have this in common with the gods of outer spheres. They too go on forever. Except they don’t die but are truly immortal! In my dreams I’ve seen them; their myriad shapes seeping down from the stars!”

Jason: “I only know of me and mine, which are real things. As for alien beings ‘seeping’ down from the stars: the nearest star—other than Sol—is four and a half light-years away. That is one hell of a seep! I am convinced it’s all a fiction. Think about it. A certain star is a billion light years away. Even at the speed of light your alien ‘gods’ will take a billion years to get here. And if they are only ‘seeping’…?”

James, with a shrug: “As for it being a fiction, our hosts don’t seem to think so, else why are we here? And as for ‘seeping’: a poetic turn of phrase. The Old Gentleman might just as well have used ‘filtering’, which is another slow process.”

Jason: “Yes, he used ‘seeping’; but he meant it like poison in a wound, like pus from an open sore. And remember: the gods of his pantheon were evil. Is that what you crave, the destruction of everything we consider good?”

James, sneeringly: “Hah! Good, bad, love, hate—emotions in general—They are beyond, above all that! And anyway, you miss what should be obvious: that they are timeless.”

Jason, grunting, and the corners of his mouth turning down: “Timeless—sleeping but not dead—oh yeah, sure.”

James, dreamily, ignoring Jason’s obvious sarcasm: “Immortal they journey, wandering between the stars, pausing now and then, but only long enough to…to harvest their worlds.”

Jason: “Immortal? They will be here until the end? Doesn’t that imply that they were here at the beginning? How, immortal? Though I’ll grant you they would need to be to ‘seep’ down from the stars!”

James: “Exactly! And that is the point you missed. For when you speak of the speed of light you should not forget that time stands still at such a speed! It is the secret of their immortality: that during their journey they do not age!”

Jason does not answer immediately; when he does, it is only to frown and ask: “Do you think that perhaps we’re confused? Do you feel confused? Our conversations, our arguments, seem to go in circles. And personally my mind never felt so cluttered! But…maybe I’ve asked you that before? Or did you ask me?”

James, ignoring the other’s question and indicating with a nod of his head and a pointed finger the artefact in its glass globe: “There it is: a ‘lens of light’, or so I believe. But do you know where they found it, these people who are using us in an attempt to prove its properties?”

Jason, blinking rapidly, as if to clear his head of confusing thoughts: “No, do you?”

James: “Absolutely! Before I volunteered my person for this experiment, I had them volunteer their sources, their whys and wherefors. Are you interested?”

Jason: “I shall try to be.”

James: “It was five years ago, in Iraq, after the war that deposed Saddam the Dictator.”

Jason: “Ah, yes! Saddam Hussein and his alleged, er, weapons of mass destruction? I remember.”

James: “The American forces stopped a truck on its way to Syria. They found a large amount of gold, a million dollars in hundred dollar bills, and certain items of immense antiquity—including an old book or scroll written in an ancient, indecipherable script. The book contained a map of the desert—with a certain area marked out in the shape of a five-pointed star. It transpired that the book’s ancient text was the language of a sunken city or continent lost in Pacific deeps.”

Jason: “By any chance, (R’xxxx)? Where (Cxxxxxx) lies dreaming?”

James, nodding: “The same—or so I suspect—though for some reason no one has deigned to confirm my suspicion in that regard. But, learning of the book’s existence, a certain esoteric organisation took steps to obtain it. Among our hosts are members of that organisation….Do you want to know more?”

Jason: “All very interesting. And by all means carry on.”