The Go Big Red Fan

 

The Go Big Red Fan was John Wesley Fenrick's, and when
ventilating his System it throbbed and crept along the floor with a
rhythmic chunka-chunka-chunk. Fenrick was a Business major and a
senior. From the talk of my wingmates I gathered that he was smart,
yet crazy, which helped. The description weird was also used, but
admiringly. His roomie, Ephraim Klein of New Jersey, was in
Philosophy. Worse, he was found to be smart and weird and crazy,
intolerably so on all these counts and several others besides.
As for the Fan, it was old and square, with a heavy rounded
design suitable for the Tulsa duplex window that had been its station
before John Wesley Fenrick had brought It out to the Big U with
him. Running up one sky-blue side was a Go Big Red bumper
sticker. When Fenrick ran his System—that is, bludgeoned the rest
of the wing with a record or tape—he used the Fan to blow air over
the back of the component rack to prevent the electronics from
melting down. Fenrick was tall and spindly, with a turkey-like head
and neck, and all of us in the east corridor of the south wing of the
seventh floor of E Tower knew him for three things: his seventies
rock-'n'-roll souvenir collection, his trove of preposterous electrical
appliances, and his laugh—a screaming hysterical cackle that would
ricochet down the long shiny cinderbiock corridor whenever
something grotesque flashed across the 45-Inch screen of his Video
System or he did something especially humiliating to Ephraim Klein.
Klein was a subdued, intellectual type. He reacted to his
victories with a contented smirk, and this quietness gave some
residents of EO7S East the impression that Fenrick, a roomie-buster
with many a notch on his keychain, had already cornered the young
sage. In fact, Klein beat Fenrick at a rate of perhaps sixty percent, or
whenever he could reduce the conflict to a rational discussion. He
felt that he should be capable of better against a power-punker
Business major, but he was not taking into account the animal
shrewdness that enabled Fenrick to land lucrative oil-company
internships to pay for the modernization of his System.
Inveterate and cynical audio nuts, common at the Big U, would
walk into their room and freeze solid, such was Fenrick's System, its
skyscraping rack of obscure black slabs with no lights, knobs or
switches, the 600-watt Black Hole Hyperspace Energy Nexus Field
Amp that sat alone like the Kaaba, the shielded coaxial cables
thrown out across the room to the six speaker stacks that made it
look like an enormous sonic slime mold in spawn. Klein himself
knew a few things about stereos, having a system that could
reproduce Bach about as well as the American Megaversity
Chamber Orchestra, and it galled him.
To begin with there was the music. That was bad enough, but
Klein had associated with musical Mau Maus since junior high, and
could inure himself to it in the same way that he kept himself from
jumping up and shouting back at television commercials. It was the
Go Big Red Fan that really got to him. "Okay, okay, let's just accept
as a given that your music is worth playing. Now, even assuming
that, why spend six thousand dollars on a perfect system with no
extraneous noises in it, and then, then, cool it with a noisy fan that
couldn't fetch six bucks at a fire sale?" Still, Fenrick would ignore
him. "I mean, you amaze me sometimes. You can't think at all, can
you? I mean, you're not even a sentient being, if you look at it
strictly."
When Klein said something like this (I heard the above one
night when going down to the bathroom), Fenrick would look up at
him from his Business textbook, peering over the wall of bright, sto
record-store displays he had erected along the room's centerline;
because his glasses had slipped down his long thin nose, he would
wrinkle it, forcing the lenses toward the desired altitude,
involuntarily baring his canine teeth in the process and causing the
stiff spiky hair atop his head to shift around as though inhabited by a
band of panicked rats.
"You don't understand real meaning," he'd say. "You don't
have a monopsony on meaning. I don't get meaning from books. My
meaning means what it means to me." He would say this, or
something equally twisted, and watch Klein for a reaction. After he
had done it a few times, though, Klein figured out that his roomie
was merely trying to get him all bent out of shape—to freak his
brain, as it were— and so he would drop it, denying Fenrick the
chance to shriek his vicious laugh and tell the wing that he had
scored again.
Klein was also annoyed by the fact that Fenrick, smoking loads
of parsley-spiked dope while playing his bad music, would forget to
keep an eye on the Go Big Red Fan. Klein, sitting with his back to
the stereo, wads of foam packed in his ears, would abruptly feel the
Fan chunk into the back of his chair, and as he spazzed out in
hysterical surprise it would sit there maliciously grinding away and
transmitting chunka-chunka-chunks into his pelvis like muffled
laughs.
If it was not clear which of them had air rights, they would wage
sonic wars.
They both got out of class at 3:30. Each would spend twenty
minutes dashing through the labyrinthine ways of the Monoplex,
pounding fruitlessly on elevator buttons and bounding up steps three
at a time, palpitating at the thought of having to listen to his
roommate's music until at least midnight. Often as not, one would
explode from the elevator on EO7S, veer around to the corridor, and
with disgust feel the other's tunes pulsing victoriously through the
floor. Sometimes, though, they would arrive simultaneously and
power up their Systems together. The first time they tried this, about
halfway through September, the room's circuit breaker shut down.
They sat in darkness and silence for above half an hour, each
knowing that if he left his stereo to turn the power back on, the other
would have his going full blast by the time he returned. This impasse
was concluded by a simultaneous two-tower fire drill that kept both
out of the room for three hours.
Subsequently John Wesley Fenrick ran a fifty-foot tn-lead
extension cord down the hallway and into the Social Lounge, and
plugged his System into that. This meant that he could now shut
down Klein's stereo simply by turning on his burger-maker, donut-
maker, blow-dryer and bun-warmer simultaneously, shutting off the
room's circuit breaker. But Klein was only three feet from the
extension cord and thus could easily shut Fenrick down with a tug.
So these tactics were not resorted to; the duelists preferred, against
all reason, to wait each other out.
Klein used organ music, usually lush garbled Romantic
masterpieces or what he called Atomic Bach. Fenrick had the edge in
system power, but most of that year's music was not as dense as,
say, Heavy Metal had been in its prime, and so this difference was
usually erased by the thinness of his ammunition. This did not mean,
however, that we had any trouble hearing him.
The Systems would trade salvos as the volume controls were
brought up as high as they could go, the screaming-guitars-from-Hell
power chords on one side matched by the subterranean grease-gun
blasts of the 32-foot reed stops on the other. As both recordings piled
into the thick of things, the combatants would turn to their long thin
frequency equalizers and shove all channels up to full blast like Mr.
Spock beaming a live antimatter bomb into Deep Space. Finally the
filters would be thrown off and the loudness switches on, and the
speakers would distort and crackle with strain as huge wattages
pulsed through their magnet coils. Sometimes Klein would use
Bach's "Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor," and at the end of each
phrase the bass line would plunge back down home to that old low
C, and Klein's sub-woofers would pick up the temblor of the 64-foot
pipes and magnify it until he could watch the naked speaker cones
thrash away at in the air. This particular note happened to be the
natural resonating frequency of the main hallways, which were cut
into 64-foot, 3-inch halves by the fire doors (Klein and I measured
one while drunk), and therefore the resonant frequency of every
other hail in every other wing of all the towers of the Plex, and so at
these moments everything in the world would vibrate at sixteen
cycles per second; beds would tremble, large objects would float off
the edges of tables, and tables and chairs themselves would buzz
around the rooms of their own volition. The occasional wandering
bat who might be in the hall would take off in random flight, his
sensors jammed by the noise, beating his wings against the standing
waves in the corridor in an effort to escape.
The Resident Assistant, or RA, was a reclusive Social Work
major who, intuitively knowing she was never going to get a job,
spent her time locked in her little room testing perfumes and
watching MTV under a set of headphones. She could not possibly
help.
That made it my responsibility. I lived on EO7S that year as
faculty-in-residence. I had just obtained my Ph.D. from Ohio State in
an interdisciplinary field called Remote Sensing, and was a brand-
shiny-new associate professor at the Big U.
Now, at the little southern black college where I went to school,
we had no megadorms. We were cool at the right times and
academic at the right times and we had neither Kleins nor Fenricks.
Boston University, where I did my Master's, had pulled through its
crisis when I got there; most students had no time for sonic war, and
the rest vented their humors in the city, not in the dorms. Ohio State
was nicely spread out, and I lived in an apartment complex where
noisy shit-for-brains undergrads were even less welcome than
tweedy black bachelors. I just did not know what to make of Klein
and Fenrick; I did not handle them well at all. As a matter of fact,
most of my time at the Big U was spent observing and talking, and
very little doing, and I may bear some of the blame.
This is a history, in that it intends to describe what happened
and suggest why. It is a work of the imagination in that by writing it
I hope to purge the Big U from my system, and with it all my
bitterness and contempt. I may have fooled around with a few facts.
But I served as witness until as close to the end as anyone could
have, and I knew enough of the major actors to learn about what I
didn't witness, and so there is not so much art in this as to make it
irrelevant. What you are about to read is not an aberration: it can
happen in your local university too. The Big U, simply, was a few
years ahead of the rest.

Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp

 

There once lived a poor tailor, who had a son called Aladdin,

a careless, idle boy who would do nothing but play all day long in

the streets with little idle boys like himself.  This so grieved the

father that he died; yet, in spite of his mother's tears and prayers,

Aladdin did not mend his ways.  One day, when he was playing in the

streets as usual, a stranger asked him his age, and if he was not

the son of Mustapha the tailor.  "I am, sir," replied Aladdin;

"but he died a long while ago."  On this the stranger, who was

a famous African magician, fell on his neck and kissed him saying:

"I am your uncle, and knew you from your likeness to my brother.

Go to your mother and tell her I am coming."  Aladdin ran home

and told his mother of his newly found uncle.  "Indeed, child," she

said, "your father had a brother, but I always thought he was dead."

However, she prepared supper, and bade Aladdin seek his uncle,

who came laden with wine and fruit.  He fell down and kissed the

place where Mustapha used to sit, bidding Aladdin's mother not to

be surprised at not having seen him before, as he had been forty

years out of the country.  He then turned to Aladdin, and asked

him his trade, at which the boy hung his head, while his mother

burst into tears.  On learning that Aladdin was idle and would

learn no trade, he offered to take a shop for him and stock it with

merchandise.  Next day he bought Aladdin a fine suit of clothes and

took him all over the city, showing him the sights, and brought him home

at nightfall to his mother, who was overjoyed to see her son so fine.

 

Next day the magician led Aladdin into some beautiful gardens a

long way outside the city gates.  They sat down by a fountain and

the magician pulled a cake from his girdle, which he divided

between them.  Then they journeyed onwards till they almost reached

the mountains.  Aladdin was so tired that he begged to go back,

but the magician beguiled him with pleasant stories and lead him

on in spite of himself.  At last they came to two mountains

divided by a narrow valley.  "We will go no farther," said

his uncle.  "I will show you something wonderful; only do you

gather up sticks while I kindle a fire."  When it was lit the

magician threw on it a powder he had about him, at the same time

saying some magical words.  The earth trembled a little in front

of them, disclosing a square flat stone with a brass ring in the

middle to raise it by.  Aladdin tried to run away, but the

magician caught him and gave him a blow that knocked him down.

"What have I done, uncle?" he said piteously; whereupon the

magician said more kindly:  "Fear nothing, but obey me.  Beneath

this stone lies a treasure which is to be yours, and no one else

may touch it, so you must to exactly as I tell you."  At the word

treasure Aladdin forgot his fears, and grasped the ring as he was

told, saying the names of his father and grandfather.  The stone

came up quite easily, and some steps appeared.  "Go down," said

the magician; "at the foot of those steps you will find an open

door leading into three large halls.  Tuck up your gown and go

through them without touching anything, or you will die instantly.

These halls lead into a garden of fine fruit trees.  Walk on till

you come to niche in a terrace where stands a lighted lamp.  Pour

out the oil it contains, and bring it me."  He drew a ring from

his finger and gave it to Aladdin, bidding him prosper.

 

Aladdin found everything as the magician had said, gathered some

fruit off the trees, and, having got the lamp, arrived at the

mouth of the cave.  The magician cried out in a great hurry:

"Make haste and give me the lamp."  This Aladdin refused to do until

he was out of the cave.  The magician flew into a terrible passion,

and throwing some more powder on to the fire, he said something,

and the stone rolled back into its place.

 

The man left the country, which plainly showed that he was no

uncle of Aladdin's but a cunning magician, who had read in his

magic books of a wonderful lamp, which would make him the most

powerful man in the world.  Though he alone knew where to find it,

he could only receive it from the hand of another.  He had picked

out the foolish Aladdin for this purpose, intending to get the

lamp and kill him afterwards.

 

For two days Aladdin remained in the dark, crying and lamenting.

At last he clasped his hands in prayer, and in so doing rubbed

the ring, which the magician had forgotten to take from him.

Immediately an enormous and frightful genie rose out of the earth,

saying:  "What wouldst thou with me?  I am the Slave of the Ring,

and will obey thee in all things."  Aladdin fearlessly replied,

"Deliver me from this place!" whereupon the earth opened, and he

found himself outside.  As soon as his eyes could bear the light

he went home, but fainted on the threshold.  When he came to

himself he told his mother what had passed, and showed her the

lamp and the fruits he had gathered in the garden, which were in

reality precious stones.  He then asked for some food.  "Alas!

child," she said, "I have nothing in the house, but I have spun a

little cotton and will go sell it."  Aladdin bade her keep her

cotton, for he would sell the lamp instead.  As it was very dirty,

she began to rub it, that it might fetch a higher price.

Instantly a hideous genie appeared, and asked what she would have.

She fainted away, but Aladdin, snatching the lamp, said boldly:

"Fetch me something to eat!"  The genie returned with a silver

bowl, twelve silver plates containing rich meats, two silver cups,

and two bottles of wine.  Aladdin's mother, when she came to herself,

said:  "Whence comes this splendid feast?"  "Ask not, but eat,"

replied Aladdin.  So they sat at breakfast till it was dinner-time,

and Aladdin told his mother about the lamp.  She begged him to sell it,

and have nothing to do with devils.  "No," said Aladdin, "since chance

hath made us aware of its virtues, we will use it, and the ring likewise,

which I shall always wear on my finger."  When they had eaten all the

genie had brought, Aladdin sold one of the silver plates, and so on

until none were left.  He then had recourse to the genie, who gave him

another set of plates, and thus they lived many years.

 

One day Aladdin heard an order from the Sultan proclaimed that

everyone was to stay at home and close his shutters while the

Princess his daughter went to and from the bath.  Aladdin was

seized by a desire to see her face, which was very difficult,

as she always went veiled.  He hid himself behind the door of

the bath, and peeped through a chink.  The Princess lifted her veil

as she went in, and looked so beautiful that Aladdin fell in love

with her at first sight.  He went home so changed that his mother

was frightened.  He told her he loved the Princess so deeply he

could not live without her, and meant to ask her in marriage of

her father.  His mother, on hearing this, burst out laughing, but

Aladdin at last prevailed upon her to go before the Sultan and

carry his request.  She fetched a napkin and laid in it the magic

fruits from the enchanted garden, which sparkled and shone like

the most beautiful jewels.  She took these with her to please the

Sultan, and set out, trusting in the lamp.  The Grand Vizier and

the lords of council had just gone in as she entered the hall and

placed herself in front of the Sultan.  He, however, took no

notice of her.  She went every day for a week, and stood in the

same place.  When the council broke up on the sixth day the Sultan

said to his Vizier:  "I see a certain woman in the audience-chamber

every day carrying something in a napkin.  Call her next time,

that I may find out what she wants."  Next day, at a sign from

the vizier, she went up to the foot of the throne and remained

kneeling until the Sultan said to her:  "Rise, good woman, and

tell me what you want."  She hesitated, so the Sultan sent away

all but the Vizier, and bade her speak freely, promising to

forgive her beforehand for anything she might say.  She then told

him of her son's violent love for the Princess.  "I prayed him to

forget her," she said, "but in vain; he threatened to do some

desperate deed if I refused to go and ask your Majesty for the

hand of the Princess.  Now I pray you to forgive not me alone,

but my son Aladdin."  The Sultan asked her kindly what she had in

the napkin, whereupon she unfolded the jewels and presented them.

He was thunderstruck, and turning to the vizier, said:  "What

sayest thou?  Ought I not to bestow the Princess on one who

values her at such a price?"  The Vizier, who wanted her for his

own son, begged the Sultan to withhold her for three months, in

the course of which he hoped his son could contrive to make him a

richer present.  The Sultan granted this, and told Aladdin's

mother that, though he consented to the marriage, she must not

appear before him again for three months.

 

Aladdin waited patiently for nearly three months, but after two

had elapsed, his mother, going into the city to buy oil, found

everyone rejoicing, and asked what was going on.  "Do you not

know," was the answer, "that the son of the Grand Vizier is to

marry the Sultan's daughter tonight?"  Breathless she ran and told

Aladdin, who was overwhelmed at first, but presently bethought

him of the lamp.  He rubbed it and the genie appeared, saying:

"What is thy will?"  Aladdin replied:  "The Sultan, as thou knowest,

has broken his promise to me, and the vizier's son is to have

the Princess.  My command is that to-night you bring hither

the bride and bridegroom."  "Master, I obey," said the genie.

Aladdin then went to his chamber, where, sure enough, at

midnight the genie transported the bed containing the vizier's

son and the Princess.  "Take this new-married man," he said, "and

put him outside in the cold, and return at daybreak."  Whereupon

the genie took the vizier's son out of bed, leaving Aladdin with

the Princess.  "Fear nothing," Aladdin said to her; "you are my

wife, promised to me by your unjust father, and no harm will come

to you."  The Princess was too frightened to speak, and passed

the most miserable night of her life, while Aladdin lay down

beside her and slept soundly.  At the appointed hour the genie

fetched in the shivering bridegroom, laid him in his place,

and transported the bed back to the palace.

 

Presently the Sultan came to wish his daughter good-morning.

The unhappy Vizier's son jumped up and hid himself, while the

Princess would not say a word and was very sorrowful.  The Sultan

sent her mother to her, who said:  "How comes it, child, that you

will not speak to your father?  What has happened?"  The Princess

sighed deeply, and at last told her mother how, during the night,

the bed had been carried into some strange house, and what had

passed there. Her mother did not believe her in the least,

but bade her rise and consider it an idle dream.

 

The following night exactly the same thing happened, and next

morning, on the Princess's refusing to speak, the Sultan

threatened to cut off her head.  She then confessed all, bidding

him ask the Vizier's son if it were not so.  The Sultan told the

Vizier to ask his son, who owned the truth, adding that, dearly

as he loved the Princess, he had rather die than go through

another such fearful night, and wished to be separated from her.

His wish was granted, and there was an end of feasting and rejoicing.

 

When the three months were over, Aladdin sent his mother to

remind the Sultan of his promise.  She stood in the same place as

before, and the Sultan, who had forgotten Aladdin, at once

remembered him, and sent for her.  On seeing her poverty the

Sultan felt less inclined than ever to keep his word, and asked

his Vizier's advice, who counselled him to set so high a value on

the Princess that no man living would come up to it.  The Sultan

than turned to Aladdin's mother, saying:  "Good woman, a sultan

must remember his promises, and I will remember mine, but your

son must first send me forty basins of gold brimful of jewels,

carried by forty black slaves, led by as many white ones,

splendidly dressed.  Tell him that I await his answer."  The

mother of Aladdin bowed low and went home, thinking all was lost.

She gave Aladdin the message adding, "He may wait long enough for

your answer!"  "Not so long, mother, as you think," her son replied.

"I would do a great deal more than that for the Princess."

He summoned the genie, and in a few moments the eighty slaves arrived,

and filled up the small house and garden.  Aladdin made them to set

out to the palace, two by two, followed by his mother.  They were so

richly dressed, with such splendid jewels, that everyone crowded

to see them and the basins of gold they carried on their heads.

They entered the palace, and, after kneeling before the Sultan,

stood in a half-circle round the throne with their arms crossed,

while Aladdin's mother presented them to the Sultan.  He hesitated

no longer, but said:  "Good woman, return and tell your son that I

wait for him with open arms."  She lost no time in telling Aladdin,

bidding him make haste.  But Aladdin first called the genie.

"I want a scented bath," he said, "a richly embroidered habit,

a horse surpassing the Sultan's, and twenty slaves to attend me.

Besides this, six slaves, beautifully dressed, to wait on my mother;

and lastly, ten thousand pieces of gold in ten purses."  No sooner said

then done.  Aladdin mounted his horse and passed through the streets,

the slaves strewing gold as they went.  Those who had played with

him in his childhood knew him not, he had grown so handsome.

When the sultan saw him he came down from his throne, embraced him,

and led him into a hall where a feast was spread, intending

to marry him to the Princess that very day.  But Aladdin refused,

saying, "I must build a palace fit for her," and took his leave.

Once home, he said to the genie:  "Build me a palace of the finest

marble, set with jasper, agate, and other precious stones.  In the

middle you shall build me a large hall with a dome, its four walls

of massy gold and silver, each side having six windows, whose lattices,

all except one which is to be left unfinished, must be set with diamonds

and rubies.  There must be stables and horses and grooms and slaves;

go and see about it!"

 

The palace was finished the next day, and the genie carried him

there and showed him all his orders faithfully carried out, even

to the laying of a velvet carpet from Aladdin's palace to the Sultan's.

Aladdin's mother then dressed herself carefully, and walked to the

palace with her slaves, while he followed her on horseback.

The Sultan sent musicians with trumpets and cymbals to

meet them, so that the air resounded with music and cheers.

She was taken to the Princess, who saluted her and treated her with

great honour.  At night the princess said good-bye to her father,

and set out on the carpet for Aladdin's palace, with his mother

at her side, and followed by the hundred slaves.  She was charmed

at the sight of Aladdin, who ran to receive her.  "Princess," he

said, "blame your beauty for my boldness if I have displeased you."

She told him that, having seen him, she willingly obeyed

her father in this matter.  After the wedding had taken place,

Aladdin led her into the hall, where a feast was spread, and she

supped with him, after which they danced till midnight.

 

Next day Aladdin invited the Sultan to see the palace.  On

entering the hall with the four-and-twenty windows with their

rubies, diamonds and emeralds, he cried, "It is a world's wonder!

There is only one thing that surprises me.  Was it by accident

that one window was left unfinished?"  "No, sir, by design,"

returned Aladdin.  "I wished your Majesty to have the glory of

finishing this palace."  The Sultan was pleased, and sent for the

best jewelers in the city.  He showed them the unfinished window,

and bade them fit it up like the others.  "Sir," replied their

spokesman, "we cannot find jewels enough."  The Sultan had his own

fetched, which they soon used, but to no purpose, for in a month's

time the work was not half done.  Aladdin knowing that their task

was vain, bade them undo their work and carry the jewels back, and

the genie finished the window at his command.  The Sultan was

surprised to receive his jewels again, and visited Aladdin, who

showed him the window finished.  The Sultan embraced him, the

envious vizier meanwhile hinting that it was the work of enchantment.

 

Aladdin had won the hearts of the people by his gentle bearing.

He was made captain of the Sultan's armies, and won several

battles for him, but remained as courteous as before, and lived

thus in peace and content for several years.

 

But far away in Africa the magician remembered Aladdin, and by

his magic arts discovered that Aladdin, instead of perishing

miserably in the cave, had escaped, and had married a princess,

with whom he was living in great honour and wealth.  He knew that

the poor tailor's son could only have accomplished this by means

of the lamp, and travelled night and day till he reached the

capital of China, bent on Aladdin's ruin.  As he passed through

the town he heard people talking everywhere about a marvelous

palace.  "Forgive my ignorance," he asked, "what is the palace you

speak of?"  Have you not heard of Prince Aladdin's palace," was

the reply, "the greatest wonder in the world?  I will direct you

if you have a mind to see it."  The magician thanked him who spoke,

and having seen the palace knew that it had been raised by the Genie

of the Lamp, and became half mad with rage.  He determined to get

hold of the lamp, and again plunge Aladdin into the deepest poverty.

 

Unluckily, Aladdin had gone a-hunting for eight days, which gave

the magician plenty of time.  He bought a dozen lamps, put them

into a basket, and went to the palace, crying:  "New lamps for old!"

followed by a jeering crowd.  The Princess, sitting in the hall of

four-and-twenty windows, sent a slave to find out what the noise

was about, who came back laughing, so that the Princess scolded her.

"Madam," replied the slave, "who can help laughing to see an old fool

offering to exchange fine new lamps for old ones?"  Another slave,

hearing this, said, "There is an old one on the cornice there which

he can have."  Now this was the magic lamp, which Aladdin had left there,

as he could not take it out hunting with him.  The Princess, not knowing

its value, laughingly bade the slave take it and make the exchange.

She went and said to the magician:  "Give me a new lamp for this."

He snatched it and bade the slave take her choice, amid the jeers

of the crowd.  Little he cared, but left off crying his lamps,

and went out of the city gates to a lonely place, where he remained till

nightfall, when he pulled out the lamp and rubbed it.  The genie

appeared, and at the magician's command carried him, together with

the palace and the Princess in it, to a lonely place in Africa.

 

Next morning the Sultan looked out of the window towards Aladdin's

palace and rubbed his eyes, for it was gone.  He sent for the

Vizier and asked what had become of the palace.  The Vizier looked

out too, and was lost in astonishment.  He again put it down to

enchantment, and this time the Sultan believed him, and sent

thirty men on horseback to fetch Aladdin back in chains.  They met

him riding home, bound him, and forced him to go with them on foot.

The people, however, who loved him, followed, armed, to see

that he came to no harm.  He was carried before the Sultan, who

ordered the executioner to cut off his head.  The executioner made

Aladdin kneel down, bandaged his eyes, and raised his scimitar to

strike.  At that instant the Vizier, who saw that the crowd had

forced their way into the courtyard and were scaling the walls

to rescue Aladdin, called to the executioner to stay his hand.

The people, indeed, looked so threatening that the Sultan gave

way and ordered Aladdin to be unbound, and pardoned him in the

sight of the crowd.  Aladdin now begged to know what he had done.

"False wretch!" said the Sultan, "come hither," and showed him from

the window the place where his palace had stood.  Aladdin was so

amazed he could not say a word.  "Where is your palace and my

daughter?" demanded the Sultan.  "For the first I am not so deeply

concerned, but my daughter I must have, and you must find her or

lose your head."  Aladdin begged for forty days in which to find

her, promising if he failed to return at suffer death at the

Sultan's pleasure.  His prayer was granted, and he went forth

sadly from the Sultan's presence.

 

For three days he wandered about like a madman, asking everyone

what had become of his palace, but they only laughed and pitied him.

He came to the banks of a river, and knelt down to say his prayers

before throwing himself in.  In doing so he rubbed the ring he

still wore.  The genie he had seen in the cave appeared, and

asked his will.  "Save my life, genie," said Aladdin, "and bring

my palace back."  That is not in my power," said the genie;

"I am only the Slave of the Ring; you must ask him of the lamp."

"Even so," said Aladdin, "but thou canst take me to the palace,

and set me down under my dear wife's window."  He at once found

himself in Africa, under the window of the Princess, and fell

asleep out of sheer weariness.

 

He was awakened by the singing of the birds, and his heart was lighter.

He saw plainly that all his misfortunes were owning to the loss of the lamp,

and vainly wondered who had robbed him of it.

 

That morning the Princess rose earlier than she had done since

she had been carried into Africa by the magician, whose company

she was forced to endure once a day.  She, however, treated him

so harshly that he dared not live there altogether.  As she

was dressing, one of her women looked out and saw Aladdin.

The Princess ran and opened the window, and at the noise she made,

Aladdin looked up.  She called to him to come to her, and great

was the joy of these lovers at seeing each other again.  After he

had kissed her Aladdin said:  "I beg of you, Princess, in God's

name, before we speak of anything else, for your own sake and

mine, tell me what has become of an old lamp I left on the cornice

in the hall of four-and-twenty windows when I went a-hunting."

"Alas," she said, "I am the innocent cause of our sorrows," and

told him of the exchange of the lamp.  "Now I know," cried

Aladdin, "that we have to thank the African magician for this!

Where is the lamp?"  "He carries it about with him," said the

Princess.  "I know, for he pulled it out of his breast to show me.

He wishes me to break my faith with you and marry him, saying that

you were beheaded by my father's command.  He is forever speaking

ill of you, but I only reply by my tears.  If I persist, I doubt

not but he will use violence."  Aladdin comforted her, and left

her for a while.  He changed clothes with the first person he met

in the town, and having bought a certain powder returned to the

Princess, who let him in by a little side door.  "Put on your

most beautiful dress," he said to her, "and receive the magician

with smiles, leading him to believe that you have forgotten me.

Invite him to sup with you, and say you wish to taste the wine of

his country.  He will go for some, and while he is gone I will tell

you what to do."  She listened carefully to Aladdin and when he

left her, arrayed herself gaily for the first time since she left

China.  She put on a girdle and head-dress of diamonds and seeing

in a glass that she was more beautiful than ever, received the

magician, saying, to his great amazement:  "I have made up my mind

that Aladdin is dead, and that all my tears will not bring him

back to me, so I am resolved to mourn no more, and have therefore

invited you to sup with me; but I am tired of the wines of China,

and would fain taste those of Africa."  The magician flew to his

cellar, and the Princess put the powder Aladdin had given her in

her cup.  When he returned she asked him to drink her health in

the wine of Africa, handing him her cup in exchange for his, as a

sign she was reconciled to him.  Before drinking the magician made

her a speech in praise of her beauty, but the Princess cut him

short, saying:  "Let us drink first, and you shall say what you

will afterwards."  She set her cup to her lips and kept it there,

while the magician drained his to the dregs and fell back lifeless.

The Princess then opened the door to Aladdin, and flung her arms

around his neck; but Aladdin went to the dead magician, took the

lamp out of his vest, and bade the genie carry the palace and all

in it back to China.  This was done, and the Princess in her chamber

felt only two little shocks, and little thought she was home again.

 

The Sultan, who was sitting in his closet, mourning for his lost

daughter, happened too look up, and rubbed his eyes, for there

stood the palace as before!  He hastened thither, and Aladdin

received him in the hall of the four-and-twenty windows, with the

Princess at his side.  Aladdin told him what had happened, and

showed him the dead body of the magician, that he might believe.

A ten days' feast was proclaimed, and it seemed as if Aladdin might

now live the rest of his life in peace; but it was not meant to be.

 

The African magician had a younger brother, who was, if possible,

more wicked and more cunning than himself.  He travelled to China

to avenge his brother's death, and went to visit a pious woman

called Fatima, thinking she might be of use to him.  He entered

her cell and clapped a dagger to her breast, telling her to rise

and do his bidding on pain of death.  He changed clothes with her,

coloured his face like hers, put on her veil, and murdered her,

that she might tell no tales.  Then he went towards the palace of

Aladdin, and all the people, thinking he was the holy woman,

gathered round him, kissing his hands and begging his blessing.

When he got to the palace there was such a noise going on round

him that the Princess bade her slave look out the window and ask

what was the matter.  The slave said it was the holy woman, curing

people by her touch of their ailments, whereupon the Princess,

who had long desired to see Fatima, sent for her.  On coming to

the Princess the magician offered up a prayer for her health and

prosperity.  When he had done the Princess made him sit by her,

and begged him to stay with her always.  The false Fatima, who

wished for nothing better, consented, but kept his veil down for

fear of discovery.  The princess showed him the hall, and asked

him what he thought of it.  "It is truly beautiful," said the

false Fatima.  "In my mind it wants but one thing."  And what is

that?" said the Princess.  "If only a roc's egg," replied he,

"were hung up from the middle of this dome, it would be the

wonder of the world."

 

After this the Princess could think of nothing but the roc's egg,

and when Aladdin returned from hunting he found her in a very ill

humour.  He begged to know what was amiss, and she told him that

all her pleasure in the hall was spoilt or want of a roc's egg

hanging from the dome.  "If that is all," replied Aladdin, "you

shall soon be happy."  He left her and rubbed the lamp, and when

the genie appeared commanded him to bring a roc's egg.  The genie

gave such a loud and terrible shriek that the hall shook.

 

"Wretch!" he cried, "is it not enough that I have done everything

for you, but you must command me to bring my master and hang him

up in the midst of this dome?  You and your wife and your palace

deserve to be burnt to ashes, but that this request does not come

from you, but from the brother of the African magician, whom you

destroyed.  He is now in your palace disguised as the holy woman,

whom he murdered.  He it was who put that wish into your wife's head.

Take care of yourself, for he means to kill you."  So saying, the

genie disappeared.

 

Aladdin went back to the Princess, saying his head ached,

and requesting that the holy Fatima should be fetched to

lay her hands on it.  But when the magician came near,

Aladdin, seizing his dagger, pierced him to the heart.

"What have you done?" cried the Princess.  "You have

killed the holy woman!"  "Not so," replied Aladdin,

"but a wicked magician," and told her of how she had

been deceived.

 

After this Aladdin and his wife lived in peace.

He succeeded the Sultan when he died, and reigned

for many years, leaving behind him a long line of kings.

 

END.

THE THIRD CIRCLE {Stories}

 

 

 

There's more to San Francisco's Chinatown than you can dream of in heaven and earth. Actually, Chinatown is divided into three parts: the one that the guides show, the one that they don't show you and the one that no one has ever heard of. This story has to do with that last part. A lot of them could be written about that third circle of Chinatown, but, believe me, they will never be written—at least until the neighborhood has been, as it were, drained of the city, as a fetid bog is dredged, and then we can see the strange and fearful life that is stirring down there, oozing deeply—  that crawls and writhes through the mud and darkness. If you think this is not true, ask a Chinese detective (the usual patrol is not to be trusted) and ask him to tell you the story of the Lee On Ting case, or what they did to old Wong Sam, who thought he could end the trafficking of enslaved girls, or why Mr. Clarence Lowney (a Minnesota priest who believed in direct methods) is now a "dangerous" inmate of the State Asylum... Ask them to explain why Matsokura, the Japanese dentist, came home faceless... Ask them to tell you why Little Pete's killers will never be discovered, and tell them to tell you about the little slave Sing Yee or—no, on second thought, you can spare that story.

The story I'm going to tell you here began about twenty years ago, in a See Yup restaurant in Waverly Place -demolished a long time ago-, but I don't know where it will end. I think it is still going on. It began when young Hillegas and Miss Ten Eyck (they were from the East and had become engaged) went to the restaurant Las Setenta Lunas late in the night of a March day. (It was the year after Kearney's downfall and the subsequent bewilderment of amateur baseball players.)

"What a beautiful, picturesque, and ancient place!" cried Miss Ten Eyck.

He settled into an ebony stool with a marble seat, and laid his gloved hands on his lap, looking around at the huge hanging lanterns, the engraved golden screens, the lacquerware, the inlay, the stained glass, the dwarf oaks planted in satsuma pots, the marquetry, the painted mats, the metallic jars of incense,  tall as a man's head, and all the grotesque trinkets of the East. At that time there was not a soul in the restaurant. Young Hillegas pulled up a stool to sit in front of her and rested his elbows on the table, throwing his hat back and pulling out a cigarette.

"It's as if we were in China itself," he said.

"As if?... - she replied. We're in China, Tom... In a little piece of China transplanted here. Even though all of America and the nineteenth century are just around the corner! Scope! You can even see the Palace Hotel from the window. And beyond, above the roof of that temple, the Ming Yen, I can see Aunt Harriett's rooms.

"Well, look, Harry"—Miss Ten Eyck's first name was Harriett—"let's have tea.

"Tom, you're a genius!" It will be a lot of fun! Well, of course you have to have tea. What a laugh! And you can even smoke, if you feel like it.

"This is the way to know places," said Hillegas, as he lit a cigarette. Stick your nose out there without anyone watching you and discover things. The guides have never brought us here.

-No, they never have. And I wonder why. We have had to find it alone. So it's ours, isn't it, honey, for having discovered it.

At that moment Hillegas was convinced that Miss Ten Eyck was the prettiest girl he had ever seen. There was a great delicacy in her—an undoubted elegance in her custom-made dress, as well as in the scarcely perceptible inclination of that new hat which enhanced her charm. She was pretty, no doubt, possessed that fresh, vigorous, and wholesome beauty which is found only in certain specimens of genuine American stock. Suddenly, Hillegas stretched out his arm on the table, took her by the hand, and kissed the small round lump of flesh that lay uncovered where the glove was buttoned.

The Chinese waiter appeared to take their order, and while they waited for tea, dried almonds and pieces of watermelon, the couple approached the balcony that faced the outside to contemplate the darkening streets.

"There is the soothsayer again," observed Hillegas. See? Down there, on the steps of that stage.

-Where? Oh yes, I see.

"Let us bring him up, shall we, let him give us his fortune while we wait."

Hillegas yelled for him to come and eventually got the man into the restaurant.

-Golly! "You are not Chinese," said Hillegas when the soothsayer placed himself under the circle of light of the lantern. The other showed him some brown teeth.

"Half Chinese, half Kanak.

"Kanak?"

"Like in Honolulu, you know?" My mother, Mrs. Kanaca, washed sailors' clothes back in Kaui. And he laughed as if he had just explained something funny.

"Well, I'll call you Jim," said Hillegas. I want you to give us good fortune, you know? What is going to happen to the lady? Who are you going to marry, for example?

-No future... Tattoos.

-Tattoos?

-Only tattoos. All birds. Three, four, seven, many little birds in a lady's arm. What? Do you want a tattoo?

He pulled a tattoo needle out of his sleeve and pointed it at Miss Ten Eyck's arm.

"Tattoo my arm?" What an idea, though it might be funny, right, Tom? Aunt Hattie's sister came back from Honolulu with a beautiful butterfly tattooed on her finger. I partly feel like doing it. And it would be so eccentric and so original...

"Well, let him do it on your finger, then." If it is on your arm, you will never be able to wear an evening dress.

-Of course. I can get a ring-shaped tattoo, and I can always cover it with the glove.

The Chinese-Kanak drew a fantastic-looking butterfly on a piece of paper with a blue pencil, licked the drawing a couple of times, and wrapped it around Miss Ten Eyck's little finger, the little finger of her left hand. When he detached the wet paper, the imprint of the drawing was imprinted on it. Then he poured the ink into a small seashell, dipped the needle into it, and within ten minutes he had finished the tattoo of a small, grotesque insect that could be a butterfly as well as anything else.

"That's it," said Hillegas, when the work was finished and the soothsayer had gone. It's already yours, and it will never vanish. Now you better not plan a small robbery, or forge a check, or strangle a baby to keep his coral necklace, because you can always be identified by that butterfly on the little finger of your left hand.

"I almost regret having let it happen. Will he never leave? Golly! "But I really find it very chic," said Harriett Ten Eyck.

-But, well! Hillegas cried, jumping to his feet. Where are the tea, cupcakes, and so on? It is getting late. We can't spend the night waiting. I'm going to go find the boy and hurry him up.

The Chinese man who had placed his order was not on that floor of the restaurant. Hillegas went down the stairs in the direction of the kitchen. There didn't seem to be a soul in that place. On the ground floor, however, where they sold tea and wild silk, Hillegas found a Chinese man who was making beads using some balls strung on wires. The Chinese man in question was a very good-looking guy who sported round tortoiseshell-rimmed glasses and a dress that looked like a dressing gown, made of quilted blue satin.

"Hey, John," Hillegas told him. I want some tea, do you hear me? Up. Restaurant. Tell it to the Chinese waiter, who doesn't even show up with gunshots. Let's see if you get going, okay?

The merchant turned and looked at Hillegas over his glasses.

"Ah," he said slowly. I regret the delay. Without a doubt they will attend to you right now. New to Chinatown?

-Ahem..., well, yes... I—we are, yes.

"Without a doubt—without a doubt!" murmured the other.

"I suppose you are the owner, aren't you?" Hillegas ventured to ask.

-I? Oh, no! My agents have a silk house here. I think they rent the upper floors to the See Yup. By the way, we just received a batch of Indian silk shawls that you might like to see.

She spread out a bunch of shawls on the counter and selected one that was especially beautiful.

"Allow me," he remarked solemnly, "to offer it to you as a present for your distinguished companion.

Hillegas felt that his interest in this extraordinary oriental was awakened. I was looking at an aspect of Chinese life that I had never seen or even suspected. He stayed for a while talking to this man, whose attitude might have been that of Cicero before an assembly of the senate, and said goodbye to him after agreeing that he would visit him the next day at the consulate. He went back to the restaurant and found that Miss Ten Eyck was gone. He never saw her again. Not him or any other white man.

I have a friend in San Francisco who goes by the name of Manning. He's a wanderer of the Plaza—that is, he sleeps all day in the old Plaza, that crowd where so much human waste has gone—and at night he goes about his business in Chinatown, a block up. Manning was once a scuba diver looking for pearls on Oahu, and now, since his eardrums burst on one of his dives, he can smoke from both ears. That achievement was the first thing that made me like him, but then I discovered that I knew more about Chinatown than is usual and even prudent to know. The other day I bumped into Manning in the shadow of Stevenson's ship, recovering from the effects of a binge of undiluted gin, and I told him, or rather reminded him, of the story of Harriett Ten Eyck.

"I remember," he said, leaning on one elbow and chewing grass. A good mess was made at the time, but nothing was ever known... Nothing more than a good mess and they also killed one of the Chinese detectives in the Gambler's alley. The See Yups specially brought an uncle from Beijing to take care of the matter.

"A hitman?" I asked him.

"No," Manning said, spitting greenish. It was a two-knife Kai Gingh.

-And that?

"Two knives—one in each hand—" You cross your arms and then you put them together, right and left, like scissors... He almost split that guy in two. They paid him five thousand. After that, detectives said they couldn't find a single clue.

"And of Miss Ten Eyck nothing was heard from again?"

"No," Manning replied, nibbling on his nails. They took it to China, I suppose, or maybe to Oregon. That kind of thing was a novelty twenty years ago, and that's why the one that was put together was put together, I suppose. But now there are a lot of women who live with Chinese and everyone doesn't care, even if they are Chinese from Canton, the lowest class of coolies. One of them lives in Saint Louis Place, just behind the Chinese theater, and is Jewish. A very strange couple, the Hebrew and the Mongolian, and they have a boy with coppery curly hair who massages in a hammam. A curious gang, yes, and there are three other white women in a slave slum below Ah Yee's tanning salon. That's where I stock up on opium. They even speak a little English. It's funny: there's one that's mute, but if you get her drunk enough she lets loose a bit in English. I swear! I've seen her do it often—you can get her drunk until she starts talking. "I'll tell you something," Manning added, rising to his feet with effort. Now I'm going there to see if I can get some drugs. You can come with me and we'll take Sadie (her name is Sadie), put her up to the top, and ask her if she's heard of Miss Ten Eyck. "They've got a big business," Manning said as we drove over there. It's Ah Yee, those three women, and a policeman named Yank. They collect all the yen shee, that is, the residue that remains in the opium pipes, you know, and turn it into pills that they pass on as foreigners to the prisoners of San Quintín through someone they trust. When he arrives at the prison yard, the dose of drugs has risen from five dollars to thirty. When I was there, I saw a guy being stabbed for a pea-sized pill. Ah Yee gets the material, the three women turn it into pills and the policeman, Yank, passes it on to his cronies. Ah Yee is already a rich and independent man, and the policeman has a bank account.

-And the women?

"Those are slaves... Ah Yee's slaves! And they usually take a slap at the first change.

Manning and I found Sadie and her two companions four stories below the tanning salon, sitting cross-legged in a room the size of a large trunk. At first, I was convinced that they were Chinese, until my eyes became accustomed to the darkness that reigned in this place. They were dressed in Chinese style, but I quickly noticed that they had brown hair and a high bridge of their nose. They were making pills from the contents of a jug of yen shee that was in the center, on the floor, and they were moving their fingers with a speed that seemed horrible.

Manning spoke to them briefly in Chinese while lighting a pipe, and two of them answered him in genuine Canton sonsonnet: all vowels and not a single consonant.

"This is Sadie," Manning said, pointing to the third girl, who was silent.

I turned to her. He was smoking a cigar and occasionally spit through his teeth, as a man would. That woman was a fearsome-looking beast, wrinkled like a dried apple, her teeth blackened by nicotine, and her hands bony and prehensile like the claws of a hawk... But she was undoubtedly a white woman. At first, Sadie refused to drink, but the smell of Manning's gin can put an end to her objections: after half an hour, her loquacity was unstoppable. I can't say what effect alcohol had on his paralyzed organs of speech. Sober, she did not let go; drunk, she could emit a series of discreet bird chirps that sounded like a voice coming from the bottom of a well.

"Sadie," Manning said, blowing smoke from his ears, "what are you doing living in Chinatown?" You're a white girl. You'll have family somewhere. Why don't you go back to them?

Sadie shook her head.

"I prefer the Chinese," he said, in a voice so weak that one had to make an effort to understand it. Oh Yee is very good to us... There's plenty to eat, plenty to smoke, and all the yen shee we can handle. Oh, I'm not complaining.

"But you know you can get out of here whenever you feel like it, don't you?" Why don't you stop one day when you're out there? Go to the Sacramento Street Mission... They will treat you well there.

"Oh," said Sadie, absently, kneading a pill between the stained palms of her hands. I've been here so long that I've gotten used to it, I guess. I have nothing to do with white people. They would take away the yen shee and cigars, and that's pretty much all I currently need. If you dedicate yourself to the yen shee for a while, you end up not wanting anything else. Pass me the gin, will you? I'm going to faint from one moment to the next.

"Wait a little," I said, taking Manning's arm. How long have you been living with Chinese people, Sadie?

"Oh, what do I know. All my life, I intuit. I don't remember much from the past... Only fragments here and there. Where's that gin you promised me?

"Only fragments here and there?" I asked him. Can you remember how you embarked on this kind of life?

"Sometimes yes, and sometimes no," Sadie replied.

And suddenly, his head slung over his shoulder as his eyes closed. Manning shook her hard.

-For! For! she exclaimed, sitting up. I'm dying of sleep, don't you see?

"Wake up and stay awake if you can," Manning told her. This gentleman wants to ask you something.

"Ah Yee bought it from a sailor on a junk boat on the Pei Ho River," one of the women interjected.

"What do you say, Sadie?" I asked. Have you ever been on a reed in a river in China? Hey? Try to remember it.

"I don't know," she said. Sometimes I think so. There are many things I can't explain, but it's because I don't remember much in the long term.

"Have you ever heard of a girl named Ten Eyck..., Harriett Ten Eyck, who was kidnapped by some Chinese here in San Francisco, a long time ago?"

There was a long silence. Sadie stared straight ahead, her eyes wide open; the other women continued to make pills at a good pace. Manning watched the scene over my shoulder, still fuming from his ears; and then Sadie's eyes began to close, and her head tilted to one side.

"I've run out of cigars," he murmured. You said you'd bring me gin. Ten Eyck! Ten Eyck! No, I don't remember anyone with that name. His voice broke suddenly, and then he sighed. Hey, how did they do this to me?

He extended his left hand and I saw a butterfly tattooed on his pinky.

 

The end

Traslate Spanish to English by Paya Frank

 

The prophecy of the end

 

The Earth was devastated and, after years of radiation and mutations, humanoids neither knew nor remembered the history of humanity. Daily life consisted of hunting giant scorpions and centipedes to feed themselves, trying to act in groups; one that pointed the spears towards the mouth and the center of the eyes of the beasts and another that linked the sting, because in the case in which they were in danger of death they stuck the sting themselves, poisoning the flesh. The hunt was carried out especially in the gloom that preceded dawn or sunset, since the destruction of a large part of the ozone layer made the exposure to the sun too great to even bear to be under its rays. They could run upright, but they were adapting to running on all fours again.

They subsisted as groups of nomadic humanoids, however the inclement weather prevented them from undertaking long migrations. Their skin was leathery and black, as melatonin protected from UV rays that entered directly into the atmosphere. Nature always adapting despite the mistreatment inflicted on it by the ancestors of these beings, who were paying the price of having been the most evolved species in the history of the planet. Some humans set out on intergalactic journeys in search of new planets that would provide them with the necessary conditions to survive, but these migrations failed after the Great Nuclear Explosion. Humanity as we knew it in the middle of the twenty-first century was completely extinct; the dust that was, dust was.

But in that rudimentary language of the new humanoids persisted the oral tradition and the deep-rooted belief of the thinking beings in the Divinity, forces that could deflect the sting of the scorpion that was hunted, that allowed them to find plants that were not bitter or poisonous due to radiation or that allowed them to find a well where the water was sweeter.  knowledge that was dominated and monopolized by the priests, who in turn supported or deposed the rulers of the tribes.

And among them appeared the Stranger, with pale and hairy skin, whose words were difficult to understand, but he surprised them with his miracles. He healed the sick and raised the dead, he behaved in an affectionate way. A strange man who looked so much like the Ancients and who was beginning to generate so much distrust among the priests and rulers because of the number of followers who joined his cause. At the same time the Stranger appeared, whose influence on the powerful increased as he revealed to them secrets and stories of the Ancients, especially of a book with a strange sign on its flap. The powerful did not know how to read, but the Stranger gradually revealed to them what the book told. He first made them swear that they would not say anything about what he was telling them and told them that the Stranger was already known to the Ancients and that there was a way they could make the planet go back to the way it was before the Big Bang, that precisely for this reason the Stranger and he himself had come,  just at that moment.

He asked them to accompany them to one of the ruins of the Ancients and inside the remains of a church he showed them the figure of the Crucified. He told them that this man had died on the cross to save mankind and wash them from their sins by the shedding of his blood. That he had first preached the word of God and promised them the Kingdom of Heaven and that he had to be sacrificed so that God would forgive mankind. That now he was back and that surely God would forgive them all and transform the earth into a Paradise again if they sacrificed him again, on the cross, as the first time. He told them that in order for the prophecy to be fulfilled, the Stranger could not know that he had revealed his story to them and that they should leave him for a while longer sharing with the tribe until the precise moment came when the holocaust would be repeated, that they should not listen to his pleas when the time came, because after all fear would invade him like anyone else. He ordered them to call the tribesmen one by one, to make them promise under oath that they would reveal nothing to the Stranger, and to prepare to love him in such a way that his death would redeem them all as promised.

The Stranger knew that in order for his new mission to be accomplished he would have to fight with the Stranger. He sensed it and knew it was close, even if he hid from it. What I didn't know was the direct influence that the Stranger was exerting on the people this time. The combat would take place and once the Stranger was defeated, the Kingdom of Heaven could be established on earth with the Stranger as King of Kings, for so it was written in the book of Revelations.

The tribe, which knew nothing of prophecies and second comings, understood the meaning of sacrifice to alleviate their hardships. When the Stranger least expected them, they surrounded him in a loving and deadly embrace and, despite the fact that he struggled and shouted, they crucified him outside the town, in the depths of the desert. It was useless for Jesus Christ to beg them, to explain to them that the Stranger was the Antichrist and that, if they killed him, hell would be established once and for all. They hurried to tie him tightly to the cross despite his pleas. They kissed and caressed him in the meantime, thanking them for all the miracles he had done for them, and tried to retire to the sunset, just before nightfall. Jesus was groaning even though he was not hurt, but when he saw the giant scorpions beginning to approach, he began to howl.

 

The end

Translated from Spanish to English by Paya Frank