Back to the Garden

HEAT

Intermezzo Four


The location does not exist in our reality.

To even talk about it in terms that we are familiar with diminishes the emotions, the consequence and the outcome. That said, we can try to make sense of it - because to truly understand - we need to make sense of it.

So let's approach it through analogy - we'll start with the Chronicle of Narnia films - and we have to imagine a place where homo sapien like creatures and animal and plants have equal intelligence and can communicate.  I will say they can 'talk' to each other and that will have to suffice. And it will have to suffice - because in a world where 3 dimensions mean nothing, and the speed of light means nothing - we will never be able to map that reality onto ours at all.

This is a place that has never known conflict - in any form - and therefore has never known the genesis of conflict in any form - and therefore the results of conflict in any form.

But it is also a place where there is complete acceptance of the 'is' - of the moment - there is no thoughts of why am I here - what does this all mean - because, what 'is .. well ... 'is' ... and that is because there is no 'death' ... no concept of 'finiteness' ... time ...decay ...

We have all seen pastoral paintings of heaven and clouds and angels and cherubs and harps.

Imagine a setting like that ....

There is a large gathering ... of plants, and animals and what we might refer to as human like beings .... they came there by serendipity .. but they are there ... all communicating with each other at once ... grokking ... and then a stray thought so foreign, so different, enters the communication stream ... all communication ceases and then there is a collective puzzlement ... the thought .... 'why are we here?' ....

And like a virus ... this thought takes root and it spreads and it grows ... and suddenly .. what once made sense to the collective gathering now makes no sense at all ... 

A serpent slithers corkscrew along the limb of a fruit tree ... and coils around several of the fruit ... and it sticks it head out of the leaves .. and gazes around and opening it's  mouth, blasts a huge jet of fire towards some of the puzzled assemblage, engulfing them in flames ... the serpent has just bestowed the gift of pain and death ... and what we would call panic ensues ... 

Another thought now takes over the communication stream .... 'now you can see ... now you can know ... and now you will know what it means to really be alive' ... and with that, the serpent grew in stature  .. and as he did the fruit fell from the tree ... and when he had increased in size, hundreds of fold, he breathed the breath of pain .. incinerating everything around ... and the soul raker is 'born' ...

'So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.'

Within You Without You

HEAT

Chapter 10 - Part 2

It is 2 days after the hypnotism session and Fill and the FBI tech are sitting around the kitchen table in Fill's cottage. Fill had spent the night in hospital on Pine Island after his collapse and is now resting at home.

Fill wanted to know what happened after he fainted and the FBI tech went through it all. Fill asked to see the writing pad that he had scribbled on while 'out'. The tech removed it from his briefcase and laid it on the table.

The first question I asked was - What is it? - you wrote - Who is 'it'.

The second question I wrote was - Who are you? - you wrote - I am 'it'.

The question I asked was - What is going on? - you wrote - kill four door.

Four door started barking loudly at another dog barking outside - wonder if he knew what had been written.

Fill watched the tech closely for almost a minute - just stared - and finally said what the fuck is going on - and what the hell has my dog got to do with it?

The tech smiled and pulled a picture out his briefcase - do you know this guy - and he tossed the picture on the table. I don't know him, but I have seen him with Jenade - and by the way, where the fuck is Jenade?

Jenade is OK - he's at a happy hour somewhere I am sure - that guy in the photo - he's a known drifter around town - goes by the name of Lou Kerras.

The tech ripped a blank piece of paper out of his notebook and with his pen wrote,

L O U K E R R A S    on the paper.

He then wrote underneath these letter the following numbers,
4 2 3 7 8 9 5 6 1   and passed it Fill.

The tech told Fill to rewrite what he had written by putting the letters in order numerically - 1 2 3, etc,

Fill looked at the tech puzzled and then grabbed the paper and following instructions wrote,

S O U L R A K E R

Yes - the tech said - he has taken many forms over the millennia - we knew him as Caligula, Ivan IV, Pol Pot, Adolf Hitler - with each reincarnation, the killing fields become larger. You have something he wants - it resides within you - if he obtains it, all life and the universe itself will be destroyed - the ultimate killing field.

Fill started to ask the tech if he was crazy and suddenly Fill's arm shot forward and grabbed the pen and started writing on the paper ... I am inside you .. it is me he wants ... you must kill Four Door ....

I Can Remember, Faintly

HEAT

Chapter  10 - Part 1

Fill was seated at a small table in a small fishing shack just off the coast of Pine Island. Fill had kayaked here based on directions he had received in an e-mail from the FBI tech. It was early afternoon and overcast - muggy and no wind. Fill was soaked with perspiration.

The FBI tech sat opposite Fill and asked Fill if he was ready - Fill indicated he simply wasn't sure - he didn't believe in it - but that said, what was there to lose. The tech nodded his head - exactly.

Fill asked the tech - well what do we do - you swing a pocket watch in front of my eyes and tell me I'm getting very sleepy. Well we need to relax you for sure but let me ask you a few questions first. 

Have you ever been hospitalized. Fill described his ordeal as a young child and his fall. Had Fill ever been anesthetized - yes at age 21 for the removal of a cyst.

Good - OK - come with me - Fill followed the tech out onto the deck around the fish house - Fill was told to lean slightly against the rail and stare into the water. Fill gingerly approached the rail and started to lean against it and it started to give - Fill tried jump back but could not and as he experienced the sensation of falling he fainted.

The tech grabbed him and the two other men who had been waiting for this helped the tech to prevent Fill from free-falling and got him back inside and seated at the table.

Can you hear me Fill - yes - black dots in front of Fills eyes - he was feeling nauseous - the tech knew he had only 30 - 45 seconds to work with.

Fill - I need to talk to your friend - the one who is with you - in there. 

Fill heard this as in a dream and then the tech heard Fill say 'pen' - 'paper' - Fill was quickly provided with a pad of paper and a pen. 

What is it the tech asked.

Fill grabbed the pen - and scratched something on the pad.

Who are you the tech asked.

Fill scratched on the pad.

What is going on the tech asked.

Fill again, scratched on the pad.

All of a sudden the wind picked up and the sky started to turn almost purple - a cascading line of lightning bolts flashed across the horizon. Fill was coming around now and was vomiting on the table. The tech and his aides tried to help Fill as best they could.

Beneath them, in Pine Island Sound, Lou had almost collected himself - 2 days at the most and he would be ready to make the move. 

Only 2 things could stop him - and they would need to be apart - one was above him in the fishing shack - the other was in a cottage in Matlacha, barking at the sudden change in weather. 

What Possessed Fill?

HEAT

Chapter 9 - Part 2

Jenade had been released from custody and Fill had been released from hospital after his 'lie detector' collapse. The hospital doctors had suggested a series of tests which Fill agreed to and he was waiting to hear when the test series would start.

It seemed that as a result of the circumstances surrounding the lie detector test, the authorities were both backing off on their suspicion of Jenade and Fill, but becoming more perplexed, bewildered and frustrated.

Fill was out walking Four Door when he received a cell phone call from the lie detector test tech. He inquired  as to how Fill was and then said that he had an idea. He had not run this by the FBI but if Fill was interested in getting to the bottom of what might have happened at the end of the test, hypnotism might shed some light.

Fill laughed at this and simply said he didn't believe in it and even if he could be hypnotized - so what?

The tech said he understood how Fill felt and he went on to say that he had felt that way until he too had been hypnotized. The tech went on to describe, in great detail, his experience to Fill, and Fill, just as perplexed by what was going on as everybody else, said, 'let's do it - what have we got to lose?' The tech suggested that afternoon; Fill said sure - where? We'll do it at your place - you'll be more relaxed there. 

Fill asked who was going to be doing the hypnotizing - I will the tech responded. Fill laughed - holy shit - an FBI tech and a hypnotist - what next. 

Well, the tech said, hold on to your hat - I used to be a priest - and Fill - you are not alone in your body - no - not alone at all ....

The Needle and The Damage Done

HEAT

Chapter 9 - Part 1


Jenade and Fill were being questioned almost daily now  - if it wasn't the Lee County Sheriff's office, it was the FBI. They had made up their minds that Jenade and Fill knew more than they were saying, and in fact, they had arrested Jenade for public drunkenness and put him in jail.

Fill offered to take a lie detector test and the FBI jumped at the chance. Fill said they could do it anywhere they wanted and the FBI took him up on that as well. It was scheduled to be done in Barnhills Restaurant where this whole mystery started - they would do it in the morning before Barnhills opened.

So at 9 AM on a Wednesday, Fill walked over to Barnhills, waltzed right in, saw where everything was set-up and sat in the chair provided for him. There was one agent and a tech to run the test. The tech hooked Fill up with the electrodes and then after about 50 questions to set a reference, and once the tech was satisfied that it was running properly, the agent handed the tech a list of questions that had been prepared for the session.

The questions used in the set-up were repeated and then a quick question asking if Fill knew the location of the ambulance that had disappeared - no; back to the initial questions again and then; do you know the whereabouts of the ambulance attendants - no; more of the set-up questions and then; do you know the whereabouts of the missing woman - no.

The test went on this way for about 45 minutes or so and then the tech went through the litany of initial questions again to establish a reference for the end of the test - is your name Fill - no. The tech almost missed this as the polygraph needle never budged - he started to ask the next question and then perplexed asked again - is your name Fill - no.

The tech looked at Fill and realized that Fill hadn't passed out but was definitely in a state of - for want of a better word - hypnosis. 

The tech went off script - what is your name - 'it' -and that moment the polygraph went wild, seeming to randomly sweep back and forth across the graph paper - but as the tech watched and the FBI agent awoke from a catnap in his chair - it looked like something was being spelled out on the paper by the polygraph needle.

The needle kept sweeping across the page and suddenly Fill simply fell out the chair onto the floor - at that exact moment the needle stopped completely. 

The agent rushed to help Fill who was coming to - the tech grabbed the graph paper role from the machine and held it up - sure enough written on the page were the words, 'soul raker' followed by the phrase, 'four door' ... 

Blue 'Lou'

HEAT

Intermezzo 4

'it' and 'Lou' have battled throughout the millennia. 'Lou'can be pushed back, but 'Lou' always resurfaces to fight again. 'Lou' has no 'memories' of these push backs. When he re-gathers himself after one of them, a million years has passed.

'Lou' is not aware of 'it'; 'Lou' slowly realizes that with each resurrection that his salvation resides in finding his 'soul' ...  'it' however is quite different - 'it' clearly is aware of the task at hand - each time 'Lou' is in the ascendancy, 'it' must push 'Lou' back.

Man - homo sapien - would codify these battles as 'good' vs. 'evil' - a whole ethos across many cultures would evolve based on this - and all religions today would evolve from this dichotomy.

This is always as it has been because when 'spark' serendipitously created life, 'Lou' was quick to make it in his own mold - 'it' reacted quickly to imbue this life with the power to pro-create and to overcome this mold, but to have a finite existence - in other words to die - but because only in death, can there truly be a defeat of 'Lou' ....

Pass Gas

HEAT

Chapter 8 - Part 2

The wind has swung to the north ans was gusting 10 - 20 mph across Matlacha Pass. It was a clear night and the moon even though in it's waning phase still lit up the pass and the house and mangroves adjacent to it.

Tonight the waters of Matlacha Pass contain more than dolphins, rays, mullet and crab - they contain Lou in atomic form and he is once again gathering himself together and in water this will take a bit longer than if he had been gathering 'itself' in air. The water was cold and cold was Lou's enemy.

Lou realized he could not get very close to his 'soul' but it wasn't close enough - he needed to get close enough to touch the entity that 'it's was inhabiting - though Lou knew nothing of 'it'.

He would have to inhabit an animal suddenly - one that was close enough to Fill that he night even be holding it or touching it.

Not too far away, at the dock's edge behind a peach cottage Fill walked, carrying his dog Four Door, who for some reason had to have a 4 AM leak. Fill caught a sudden chill and shivered - Four Door started to growl and then just whimpered. Fill picked him and carried him back inside.

Out in the Pass the waters seemed to boil in several different seemingly unrelated small areas - fish exploded in these areas and crabs were immediately cooked. It almost seemed the waters of the pass were laughing - laughing with a newly acquired knowledge.

Fill and Four Door slept uneasily - Lou gathered himself together - knowing exactly what his next move would be ... 

Melt Down

HEAT

Chapter 8 - Part 1

It was a glorious sunny day and warm on the water. Fill paddled his kayak slowly toward the opening in the mangrove.

The interviews with authorities continued, as Fill and Jenade were questioned over and over, as various jurisdictions looked for clues to what happened to the woman, the 2 ambulance attendants and the ambulance itself after the incident at Barnhill's.  After a week now, the FBI and CIA had concluded that this smacked of something that was very professional and therefore of intense interest.

Fill had had his own intense session with Jenade and all it yielded was some incoherent story about a drifter, Lou, living on an abandoned boat in the mangrove. Jenade had indicated that Fill could see the mangrove opening from his cottage backyard - just get a line of sight on the cell phone tower and kayak for it.

That is what Fill was doing at the moment. White Ibis flew overhead, Osprey dove for fish and curious pelicans drifted around Fill thinking he might be the source of fish or something edible.

Fill approached the mangrove and saw the opening immediately and paddled into it. It was quite wide and meandered a bit but after a minute on his right was the remains of an old sail boat - mast gone, but otherwise seemingly ship-worthy - encrusted with oyster shells, but looking not too bad.

Fill could see pillows and blankets piled on the rear deck - so someone indeed was using the boat as accommodation. Fill paddled upstream above the boat, turned himself around and paddled back. There would be no easy way to board the boat from the kayak - to do that Fill would have to first get out of the boat, walk partially into the mangrove and then climb in from the mangrove side.

Just as he was making up his mind on how to do that, Fill felt his kayak lurch and then lift, and soon he was 2 feet above water level on the back of a 1/2 ton manatee. The kayak balanced for a few seconds and then slid off into the water. 

As the kayak righted itself, the manatee literally melted in front of Fill's eyes - just like hot lard in a frying pan - just like wax liquefying - but the eyes melted last - and Fill would never forget - they were filled with fire - the manatee had flames for eyes - Fill screamed and hundreds of buzzards took to flight - they watched Fill closely - anything screaming that loudly must be dying.

Fill set a record paddling home - he needed to join Jenade at happy hour - he needed more info from Jenade - much more - and he needed a drink - a large one ...

There's Something In The Air

HEAT

Chapter 7 - Part 2


The wind was up and blowing from the north - the weather was turning cooler in Matlacha and would stay that way for the next two weeks or so. The wind of course was just movement of air caused by temperature differentials and cooling effects of the ocean and land mass. The air itself was nothing more than oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen, smog, pollen, dust, moisture, and - Lou.

Lou of course was now floating freely in the sir around Matlacha but Lou was slowly gathering himself. It usually took about 3 or 4 days before he could become corporeal after a 'flame-out' - and then only if he found a suitable host.

Even though he was spread across about 50 square miles of Matlacha, Pine Island, cape Coral and Ft. Myers, Lou could still 'think' - in the sense that we can only pretend to understand how that would work.

Lou now realized that by 'body snatching' an 'animal' he could get bey close to his 'soul'. All he needed was enough time to touch 'it' and he would be free. He would trial this again a soon as he 'got himself together'. 

But for now he was entertaining himself by gusting the winds and causing various osprey and pelicans to misjudge their flight paths and crash into trees, telephone poles, etc. Death was Lou's greatest gift - and it was always better to give than to receive .. oh yes ... so much better ... 

He's Bad .. He's Nation Wide ...

HEAT

Chapter 7 - Part 1

Fill and Jenade had finished being interviewed by the Lee County Sheriff's office, the Ft. Myers Police, the FBI and soon - if what they were lead to believe, the CIA.

It had been three days since the incident at Barnhills and the subsequent disappearance of the woman, the ambulance and the two attendants. The story had gone 'national' and Matlacha was chock full of news people and vans with dishes on the top and folks running with video cams and mics everywhere.

Fill and Jenade were escorted from the back of the Lee County Sheriff's Office and into an unmarked car. Instructions were given to the officer driving the car to drive around for a while to lose whoever may be trying to follow and to return Fill and Jenade to Matlacha.

It took about two hours but eventually Fill and Jenade were dropped off at the base of Island Avenue and, in complete anonymity, simply walked to the main drag and then across the bridge to Bert's Bar & Grill.

Fill invited Jenade in for a drink, Jenade went to wave him off, Fill let him know he had no choice. Jenade shrugged and preceded Fill into the bar. Fill lead Jenade to the back of the bar and then outside on a deck that was over the river - he walked to the back where no one was sitting; Jenade followed and then sat down. 

When the basket of beer was delivered, Fill simply asked Jenade what the fuck was going on. Jenade didn't know but started talking about meeting this guy Lou and how things seemed to go downhill from there.

As Fill and Jenade were talking, adjacent to them, a seagull sat on the pier no more than 5 feet away. It shrieked what could be described as a shrill, 'me, me , me ... 

Jenade and Fill both turned to look, and at that moment, the seagull self-immolated - it was simply consumed in flames - what really scared the shit out of them - what really wouldn't allow them to sleep for a week - were the soul raking screams of the 2 ambulance attendants ... that the seagull kindly shared with them alone ...

That's Life

HEAT

INTERMEZZO 3

In the prison that was formed for 'Lou' - our universe - at the moment of it's creation, it's inception, it's genesis - 'Lou' was unknowingly joined by 'it' - but in so doing something happened that was not intended - the singularity co-mingling of 'Lou' and 'it' combined with an unthinkable amount of energy created a 'spark'. This spark would lead to what we call 'life'.

The 'spark', like a seed, lay dormant; but as particles combined into atoms into molecules into structure, form started to appear - form that was repeated infinitesimally over and over again.

The 'spark' randomly existed anywhere but only as a singular occurrence  So, even though there were infinite forms coalescing, the 'spark' was only randomly associated with one of them.

Maybe random is not quite the right word - it was randomly associated with one form because that is where 'Lou' and 'it' were associated. 

Approximately 5 billion years ago, a 'form' which will become a planet, takes shape from the dust grains revolving around a large, dense cooling cooling mass that will some day result in it's own accretion disc.

The 'spark' is contained in the dust grains surrounding the dense cooling mass. 'Lou' is also re-integrating - unbeknownst to Lou, 'it' is as well. Their child, if we can call it that - the 'spark', is about to start a chain reaction that is still unfolding today - we call it life - the dust grains become the Earth, the cooling mass is the Sun.

Against this backdrop, 'it' and 'Lou' will wage a continuous battle through the millennia; the first battles will be at the uni-cellular level - and on and on - thus, the affects of all previous confrontations will be  built into our genes and our reptilian memory.

We will have an unlimited capacity for right - and an unlimited capacity for wrong. 'Lou' and 'it' will be (and are) fighting inside of each one of us - every minute, every day. 

But one of them has a slight advantage .... inside of us .. and in the larger play, that is all of our interactions .. outside of us .... 

We'll need it ...

Cool Cat

HEAT

Chapter 6 - Part 2

Lou woke up in an ambulance streaking towards Ft. Myers - it had just crossed the Matlacha bridge heading out of town. There were two attendants working om him trying to staunch the blood coming out of 'her' ears. 

Words fail here because Lou simply reacted - we would say in human terms that he lost it. The ambulance, the 2 attendants and 'she' simply vaporized in what can only be described as a small nuclear explosion. 

Everything was vaporized in a very small contained area - all that remained were atoms - basically the air that we breath.  Nothing surrounding the ambulance was harmed; 'she', the 2 attendants and the ambulance existed now as the wind.

Lou, while simply random molecules, gathered 'itself' in a manner of speaking and simply became part of a palm tree - he needed time to think.

If he was ever to get close to 'its' soul he was going to have to inhabit something more robust than a homo sapien - he was never going to get within 500 feet. He wandered back through the millennia thinking about the various roles he had played in this game of life he had created for his own enjoyment. 

Lou of course was the Phoenix but he had to stop burning and rebirth long enough to snatch the soul - and then just like that he had it - he knew what he had to do.

Cats were revered in Egypt - yes - he remembered that  - I mean of course he did - he was the reason they were revered. As Mafdet he had presided over the raking of many Egyptian souls - many indeed. He loved raking the souls of cats - Bubastis was full of the mummified remains of those soul rakings.

Lou was the reason cats were personified with the destructive power of the sun's heat. If Lou inhabited a cat, he would have a fighting chance of getting close enough to 'it's soul, but would it have to be a cat .....

Lou laughed figuratively .. after all he was a palm tree ... the palm tree burst into flames and the home owner, watching it, fell down on his knees and began to pray .... 

She's All Ears

HEAT

Chapter 6 - Part 1

Fill was concerned about Jenade. As much as he tried to concentrate on his research he kept coming back to his arm and what he had seen through his camera. This part of Florida was an escape location for a countless number of folks who just wanted to drop off the radar. Fill was not tough - but he would not leave something like this one - once he thought someone was in trouble - he would go to the extreme to help them - beyond what normal common sense would allow or dictate.

Fill knew Jenade would be at Barnhills for happy hour and so he just found himself walking to Barnhills at 3 PM. Fill grabbed a bench seat by the canal at the back of the restaurant and waited.
Sure enough, at 3:30 PM, Jenade walked in and sat at the bar and just as soon as sat down, a beer appeared before him.

Fill watched for an hour or so - sipping his beer - Jenade had 6 in the same time - Fill was counting. Fill then moved to the bar and sat down about three seats to the right of Jenade.

Jenade was talking to himself - in French. Fill looked at Jenade and uttered the phrase for not understanding French. Jenade  started and looked at Fill and then smiled saying something about being an old man and rambling. Fill asked Jenade if he could join him and Jenade jokingly said if you're buying and Fill agreed.

Fill and Jenade had a few more and then Fill, knowing that Jenade was well adjusted by this time, told him that he had seen his arm the other day and it certainly didn't look like sunburn. Jenade started to laugh, but then quickly stopped and turned to look at Fill and it let Fill know it was a burn, just not from the sun. Jenade drank the pitcher dry.

Fill asked Jenade if he could help and Jenade simply told Fill to stay away - don't get involved - don't attract attention - 'his' attention.

Whose attention - Jenade simply said Lou. Who is Lou - and at that moment, the door to Barnhills opened and a woman walked in. There was nothing special about that, as many women walked through the door's of Barnhills - what was different was the fact that as soon as she made eye contact with Fill, both ears exploded in a flood of blood as she collapsed to the floor .... 

Louven The Oven

HEAT

Chapter 5 - Part 2

Lou is burning - literally - he is on fire.  He is in the oven of a crematory in Cape Coral along with an 89 year old great grandmother. Lou is at peace here and can think.

It is time to go looking for 'his soul' - but there is a problem - one he has never had to deal with before - it appears the 'soul' has come looking for him - and while Lou has no words for this and the words I will use can't describe Lou's feelings - it can be stated this way - 'the soul' is as strong as Lou and maybe - stronger.

While Lou may not have an advantage he has an angle - 'the soul' and he both inhabit a human organism - some are weaker than others - and Lou decides that it time to shed the one he now inhabits for one younger - more robust and stronger.

He is going to have to do something else - abandon his itinerant alter ego and adopt something that 'his souls' organism would feel passionate about excited about.

Lou was going to have to first find 'his soul' - and then observe the organism 'the soul' inhabited to understand what he needed to do.

The first task was to locate 'the soul' - that shouldn't be a problem given Lou seemed to become a blood fountain whenever he was close. Lou leaned his back and laughed - the temperature in the oven rose suddenly by 1000 degrees F, setting off alarms and causing the attendant outside to have a pulmonary embolism - he was dead before he splashed to the floor.

Soul Burn

HEAT

Chapter 5 - Part 1

Fill was out walking Four Door on the dock when he noticed Jenade watering the palm trees and shrubs. It was about 8 AM and Jenade was obviously favoring his right arm. Four Door barked at Jenade and strained at his leash to get to him, Fill just reeled him in like a tarpon.

Fill put Four Door back in the cottage, grabbed a book and headed back to dock to find some early morning shade to read. Jenade finally came over to water the grass and trees by the dock and Fill nodded and asked Jenade how he was doing. Jenade smiled and said he could have used one last happy hour the night before. Fill smiled back - yeah, he knew exactly what Jenade meant although it had been university days since he partied that hard continuously.

Jenade dropped the hose by accident and when he bent to pick it up he winced in pain. In fact he had to switch to his left arm to do that and that prompted Fill to make a comment about tendinitis in his right elbow from lifting too many glasses. Jenade smiled again and said no, he had just fallen asleep in the sun and it was badly sunburned.

Fill offered some aloe vera lotion he had, but Jenade said thanks but he had already applied some cream and it was feeling a lot better, although if he had a drink it would help. Fill went to the cottage and grabbed a beer and took it to Jenade who simply drained it on the spot. With a huge belch he passed the bottle back to Fill and smiled broadly now and went about his business.

It finally got hot enough that Jenade took his jacket off revealing an old stained and tattered T-shirt. Fill did a double take on the shirt - one from the late 70s - Neil Young - Rust Never Sleeps - yeah, tell me about it! 

But what really got Fill's eye was Jenade's right arm - just where the T-shirt ended. Fill couldn't be sure but it certainly looked like a large arm and hand had burned the T-shirt and made a large palm 'burn' print on Jenade's bicep - not just burned red but also bruised yellow and blue.

The strangest thing though was that the palm lines and print lines were burned right in as well and they formed a pattern - Fill grabbed his camera and focused on the arm with his telephoto - the pattern was a phrase - it was 'rekar luos' - but the 'r's were mirrored ... wtf was that all about ....

Fill Of 'it'

HEAT

INTERMEZZO 2

Saint John, New Brunswick July 1954

A young boy plays on the veranda of a three story house that has been converted to apartments. The veranda on the third floor looks out over a small ravine. The back of the house faces Saint John harbour 150 feet below.

The front of the house faces an open area that is bordered by hard rock on one side and drops precipitously to the level of the next house. These houses have been built on a promontory that is high above the main street leading to the centre of Saint John proper.

The young boy is, and has been, hard to handle. Fifty years later he would be labeled ADHD - his young mother, who has her own issues, can`t cope. She lets the young boy play on the veranda while she tries to hold it together.

The veranda has a fence but the spaces between the horizontal members will not contain a young boy.

The young boy runs back and forth - it is a sunny day and he has boundless energy. He is alone - in ways he doesn't even contemplate yet - but ultimately alone.

He is aware of music - his mother plays it on the radio - `Too Old To Cut The Mustard Anymore' is one he will remember years later - right now he is vocalizing Bingo - Bingo, Bingo, where you going to go-ee-o - he is running with reckless abandon on the veranda - he is lost in the moment - he stumbles over his own feet and rolls - and simply, easily and unluckily - slips between the veranda rails and begins a free-fall to the hard rock 50 feet below.

The boy is thrilled by the sensation of falling - but just as he clears the veranda one level below - he feels a jolt - more than that, a physical push, and he falls inward and hits the first veranda floor - hitting his head and suffering a concussion.

He wakes in the hospital alone and tied down to his bed - he whimpers and wets the bed because he cannot escape the restraints. He will remember that moment as long as he lives.

So will 'it' - who saved the boy so that he could fulfill his destiny - Fill and 'it' have a date in the future - and 'it' doesn't know this, but Fill will return the favour ... 

Jenade is a Lou-ser

HEAT

Chapter 4 - Part 2

Lou sat down at the bar in Barnhill's and ordered a beer and a dozen oysters on the half shell. He loved the idea of swallowing something still alive - besides it was happy hour - 4 beer and a dozen oysters - $14. 

Jenade was sitting further down the bar with his friends and Lou couldn't figure out who was buying but the beer was being delivered fast and furious.

The bleeding and headache incidents were increasing in intensity and frequency and Lou was beginning to think he might have to adopt a pro-active strategy to find his soul, rather than sitting back and waiting for it to make itself known to him.

Lou was working with the crews replacing the old Matlacha-Mainland bridge; basically a gopher running for water and anything else the main crews needed. He didn't know how much longer he could work there because he was too close to relieving a couple of them from the ability to breath anymore.

Jenade's friends left in a flurry of maniacal laughter and belching and then all was quiet. Lou got up from his seat and walked to where Jenade was seated and sat down. Jenade turned to look at Lou and just for a second - the briefest moment in time, Lou's eyes seems to be consumed with flames. Jenade started and then Lou put his arm around Jenade's shoulder. Jenade laughed nervously, Lou leaned back and laughed loudly. Jenade's nose exploded with a nose bleed to end all nose bleeds.

Jenade couldn't be sure - too much beer. But in the mirror, where Lou should have been reflected, all Jenade could see were flames, a fire so hot that it seemed to burn Jenade's face. 

Where Lou's arm was wrapped around Jenade's shoulder, draped over Jenade's nylon jacket, the nylon was beginning to yield and morph - it was beginning to melt.

Soul Woman

HEAT

Chapter 4 - Part 1

Fill had developed a routine at Matlacha.

In the morning he would take his guitar down to the dock behind the cottage and play. He had a plan. He was warming his technique up so he could learn a number of new tunes to play with his friend Richard - who was a really good guitar player. Nobody was up at that point and he could simply pick away - to the osprey and the gulls.

After that he would eat and then do the reading/research he needed to do on the book and that usually took him into the late PM.

Then it was down to Bert's Bar & Grill for 'happy hour' - $1.50 pints and $4.00 blackened shrimp - sitting on Bert's outdoor patio and watching the boaters and the pelicans.

Today Fill was having an especially good time because the folks around him were being so bloody entertaining with their talk about politics and guns and Obama. He had to restrain laughter more than once as folks were going on about how gun control was the first step in a master plan to allow the UN to take control of the US, etc.

Fill could see Jenade at the the far end of the outside patio with some friends of his that hadn't seen soap or shower for a while. They were drinking $1.50 pints like they were going out of style and chain smoking like a ban had just been lifted on smoking.

Jenade was from Orleans France and had been here since 1968 when he came over to visit his sister who married a GI. Orleans was where the maid of Orleans, Jeanne d'Arc, one of the patron saints of France, was from.

Unbeknownst to Fill - the soul that inhabited young Joan 700 years ago was the same one that was now inhabiting him - and 'it' had similar work to do ....

Lou Fill

HEAT

Chapter 3 - Part 2

Lou had figured out long ago that if you were just showing up in any town intermittently it aroused too much small talk and suspicion. He showed up often and did small jobs - painting, grounds-work, light repair - whatever it took. He became part of the itinerant, derelict community. In fact it worked so well that folks didn't think about the fact that he had been in Matlacha for 85 years. If folks over the years had taken pictures of Lou, they would only notice a subtle difference in hair coloring and skin wrinkling. He had chosen this human host very well.

Lou was in Matlacha today watering lawns and picking up fallen palm fronds and coconuts. He kept an old 70s pick-up in town and threw everything in the truck bed and carted it to the landfill.
Lou never missed a happy hour - that is what the itinerants did - and therefore to blend in that is what he did. Lou was legendary for his capacity - actually he had infinite capacity - he had to pretend drunkenness after a while - again to blend in.

Lou could hardly stand the insect intelligence of the others and he looked forward to harvesting them and raking their souls with great delight.

This day Lou was working in mid-Matlacha and he caught sight of Jenade across the street working around three cottages. Jenade was talking to someone he had never seen before. All of a sudden a brilliant red jet of blood shot from Lou's right ear.  Lou immediately covered his ear and quickly got inside his truck.

Lou grabbed the steering wheel in both hands as 'pain' - something he didn't have a word for - racked his skull - the steering wheel started to melt - Lou's body temperature rose to a point where the ear self cauterized. Smoke rose from the truck seat where Lou was sitting and started drifting out the open windows.

The stranger Jenade was talking to turned and caught sight of the truck and the smoke. The pain in Lou's head increased - Lou started the truck, slammed the accelerator to the floor and peeled out onto the main drag heading towards the land fill.

Fill looked at Jenade and said, 'What the hell was that all about?'

Cinq A Sept

HEAT

Chapter 3 - Part 1

Fill had gradually gotten to know the folks in staying the cottages adjacent to him. They all got together at 4 PM every day - something they referred to as 'happy hour'. They discussed the events of the day but  very astutely avoided politics and religion. Snacks were always provided by someone and of course everbody had a drink of choice - Fill's today was Yeungling Amber.

David - of which there were two - so David north - was quite a project guy and needed something to work on to keep his interest up. He had repaired a picnic table the day before - replaced all the rotting top and underneath supporting members.

Fill had actually watched that episode - Fill liked work - he could watch it all day. His old man used to say that - not any more.

The reason Fill had become so fascinated with the picnic table repair was that someone had showed up out of the blue to help - and with a French accent no less. And when I say French, I mean Quebecois; not Parisian.

Fill could see that he wasn't adding much to the operation but he did add a a degree of humour and irreverence  which for a silent observer, can be a source of endless entertainment; and thus Fill's interest.

Fill gathered from the conversation that his name was Jenade - or most likely a bastardized version of his name that everybody could pronounce as opposed to his real name.

When Fill had let his attention to the repair lapse, all of a sudden Jenade was right there - 'what - no fish today?' - Fill was startled a bit but very quickly recovered - 'later'.

'That's quite a project you've got going over there', Fill said - 'oh yeah - but it's happy hour at Bert's so I'm done' - and - just like that - off he went.

Later that day at the gatherings happy hour - and not Bert's - conversation eventually turned to Jenade - originally from Quebec - came down here years ago - opinion differed on whether he was an alcoholic - opinion did not differ that he did indeed enjoy a drink.

He was living with an alcoholic - they couldn't remember the name - but it was in town somewhere - close to all the bars - where liquor was so cheap, alcoholism could be funded quite easily.

Not too far from Fill, in an old abandoned sailboat hull in the mangrove, Lou was playing with a BBQ lighter, shooting the flame directly into his eye sockets of an osprey he was tormenting. Lou now needed another derelict to befriend for a while. He had seen this character in town at the bars - a distinct French accent .... 

Lou's 'it'

INTERMEZZO 1

Present Time

The Book of Genesis - Chapter 1 - Verse 1

בְּרֵאשִׁית, בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים, אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם, וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ.
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
In the beginning | created | God | the heavens | and | the earth

The first sentence is the original Hebrew of the first verse of Genesis.
The second sentence is the King James version of the translation of that Hebrew first verse.
The third sentence is the literal translation of that Hebrew first verse.

Translated properly it should yield, 'The Beginning created God, the heavens and the earth'.

Genesis - Chapter 1 - Verse 4

וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים אֶת-הָאוֹר, כִּי-טוֹב; וַיַּבְדֵּל אֱלֹהִים, בֵּין הָאוֹר וּבֵין הַחֹשֶׁךְ.
And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.
And saw | God | the light | that | (it was) | good | and separated | God | between | the light | and | the darkness.

The first sentence is the original Hebrew of the fourth verse of Genesis.
The second sentence is the King James version of the translation of that Hebrew fourth verse.
The third sentence is the literal translation of that Hebrew fourth verse.

Translated properly it should yield, 'The light (beginning) saw God divided between the light and the darkness.


14 Billion Years Ago


A great wrong exists. A wrong serious enough that the punishment is banishment for eternity - not death - but a fate worse than death - eternal life in solitary.

Like the initiation of a lethal injection sequence an irrevocable process has started. The accused is atomized and then injected at velocities millions of times faster than the speed of light into an area of such density that the term black hole has no meaning.

There is a cataclysmic warp in time and distance and from nothing something is created and expanding at velocities whose math will never be understood.

The universe as we know it has been created - and it's purpose is the eternal life imprisonment of the entity we will call 'Lou'.

14 Billion Years Ago Minus 1 second

Not all agreed that the entity Lou should live. There was 'one' who felt so strongly about this that, 'it' - and since we have no words to describe these entities, 'it' will have to suffice - 'it' was committed to making sure that Lou did not survive in banishment - 'it' became part of Lou at the last possible millisecond and was with Lou as the transition to banishment was made.

14 Billion Years Ago Plus 1 second

The energy of a million suns has just exploded and is expanding at unimaginable rates into the void. Lou and 'it' are nothing but electrons, protons and neutrons. They will re-aggregate - but not together - for 'it' now has a fate similar to Lou - eternal life in banishment. 'it' however will not entirely re-aggregate and this simple matter of serendipity will produce a domino effect that will inevitably lead to 'life'.

Bang On

HEAT

Chapter 2 - Part 2

Fill is sitting on the dock Matlacha.

It is dusk, the sun has gone down, the full moon is providing enough light that one could actually kayak or boat.

Phil is looking towards, what would be in daylight, a large dead tree standing in the middle of the mangrove. If Fill's hearing was just a bit better he would be able to hear the scream's from a throat whose vocal chords were about to give out.

The screams were coming from the hulk of an old boat blown into the mangrove during one of the tropical storms that hit this area from time to time.

The boat is Lou's home and he had just harvested a soul - a soul of a derelict -  a wanderer - someone who will be missed a few months from now when someone asks, 'whatever happened to old so and so - he just seemed to disappear'. How right they were.

Lou blew the molecular remnants of old Margueritte's body into the wind, knowing her soul was waiting for the ultimate torment - the raking - which he would get to soon enough.

Over the centuries Lou had held many influential and history defining roles but he finally figured out that the derelict was the best role of all.  Everybody saw you, yet they didn't - it was like hiding in plain sight. It had the added bonus of being able to harvest the odd one for soul raking - and no questions were ever asked.

In the past, to do that, he had to start wars of conquest or religion to hide the soul raking - this was just more economical. 

Lou leaned his head back and laughed - animals and birds nearby cowered - fish jetted away in every direction - those too close just exploded in a flash of blood and gore.

Lou had not been in Matlacha proper for a while - Margueritte had been here with him for almost a month - he had finally tired of her nonsense about the stars - which were his prison - if she had only known - that's the only meaning it had - his prison.

Lou didn't know yet where his soul was but he knew it was still here in the area - he had another nose bleed today - and considering Lou had no blood, that indeed was a big deal.

Lou began to think back to happier times - if happy can be used in his context - remembering his time in another part of the world as a man history knew as Genghis Khan - yes, how the blood flowed across the steppes - but then he grew quiet as he remembered ... 

Harson Rhymes With Arson

HEAT

Chapter 2 - Part 1

It was another sunny day on the dock at Matlacha.

Fill had just finished a kayak paddle around the west harbour and west bridge and was making an omelet - not quite like Julia and Jacques, but no slouch either.

After breakfast, Fill was going to the local library; the first start of this project would be to loan and read the definitive Matlacha history by  local resident.

First checking with Facebook to see what he could see, he headed out - much to the chagrin of his small poodle/terrier friend, 'Four Door', who barked at him loudly as he was leaving. He simply wanted to go wherever the open door lead with no thought to the consequences. Fill pretended that the hound was a nuisance but he loved that dog.

Fill turned east towards the bridge and began walking in the hot sun. There was a brisk north wind but the sun felt good and be damned if he was going to give in and wear anything but his Greendale Neil Young T-shirt. Fill had given up explaining why he was a Neil Young fan - either you got it or you didn't - it was that simple.

Just before the bridge, Fill turned down an entrance to what was clearly a recently constructed area for parking, and beyond that, access to a public wharf. The library was located somewhere in this area; according to the slightly drunk and very friendly woman at the Olde Fish House Marina who had accosted Fill the evening before.

Fill walked in and headed towards the water and by golly she was right, it was just where she said it was. He walked right in and there she was, the slightly drunk and friendly woman - she works here!

After some small talk and awkward muffled laughter, Fill was directed to where the book was located. Phil eventually found it and not being in a hurry, sat down at a research station and started to browse through it.

It was obviously self published, pictures scanned and then printed onto pre-printed pages that already contained text. That said, it was very good. Fill was fascinated by the references to the Civil War and Matlacha's origins. Quoting from the book, 'Matlacha has not always been known as Matlacha. In the 1880s, a man named Harson was believed to have been among the first settlers of the island and was the unofficial postman. Because of this, Matlacha was first referred to as Harsonville'.

Unbeknownst to Fill, the man who once called himself Harson, Lou, was pouring lighter fluid into his hand and setting it on fire. Oh yes the heat - fire - it burns the skin - it burns deeply - it frees the soul -  and then Lou can really begin his work - yes - Lou shoves his hand into the face of a sleeping derelict - the screams pierce the night - oh a soul will be raked very soon....

Rake Over The Souls

HEAT

Matlacha

Chapter 1 - Part 2

It was warm for January - even the 23rd - the sun was intense - you could almost feel it burn the skin - and their was nothing that Lou Karres liked more than burning human skin - well maybe two more things - the delicious screams of those whose skin was being burned and then the 'raking' of their souls. Yes - soul raking dragged the agony out for millennia. Yes - if man thought his pain was over after his mere blip of an existent on earth he had a whole new pain coming - yes indeed.

It's impossible to ascribe human emotions to Lou - yes, we'll call him Lou from now on - but in the last 2 days he had experienced a mild equivalent of what humans would call pain - and now what humans would call bleeding. But having never experienced either before the reaction was one of puzzlement, because Lou couldn't die. It was just that after 13 billion years you'd think you'd have it all figured out - apparently not.

After 13 billion years, if something happens for the first time, there has to be a damn good reason and that was what Lou was working through. It might be time to harvest another human and rake the soul of the one he was inhabiting - it had lasted a 1000 years but maybe it was breaking down - but that would have to wait until he sorted all this out.

That said he did love the raking - oh the screams could melt granite - in other galaxies - and Lou loved pain - he couldn't feel any - but he loved it - it was his greatest gift.

He swabbed his bleeding nose, thinking through the last 1000 years of what could have caused this - who would have even the small amount of power to inflict this - it couldn't have been the Yangzhou massacre, because Lou had raked every soul - all 1 million; it wasn't Nanjing - Lou had raked all 200,000 (and how their souls still screamed - he could hardly wait to get back to torment them); it wasn't the Hamidian massacre - for all the same reasons; it wasn't Hitler, for the simple reason Lou was Hitler at that point - wtf was going on ....

Then of course - it came to him - there could be no other possibility - the soul that he absolutely needed to rake was on the offensive - somehow it figured out where Lou was and why Lou needed it. Shit. This was serious. For the first time in 13 billion years, Lou needed a drink - possibly a double. Lou now needed to probe everyone in Matlacha - and if necessary - rake every soul - yes - rake their souls - Lou sit upright and tilted his head  back - blood running from both nostrils - and laughed the laugh of 1000 hyenas - mothers held their children close - fathers thought of guns - Lou thought of endless pain and the screams - oh yes - the screams - this was going to be good - very, very good ....

Do You Know The Way To Matlacha

HEAT

Chapter 1 - Part 1

Matlacha

What brings 'Fill' to Matlacha - or more to the point possibly - why does Matlacha bring 'Fill'?

First of all the nickname 'Fill'. One would think that given his love of beer it would relate to drinking his 'fill'. Close. The nickname was given to him by his first real girlfriend. She would always encourage 'Fill' to 'fill me up' when passions were running high and the nickname stuck because his real name was Phil and his friends never knew that she really meant something else altogether. A little double entendre never hurt anybody.

Second - why Matlacha - well, very simple; he had discovered the place the year before while staying in Ft. Myers with friends and it was unique enough and blue collar enough to be of interest. You might even get a sense of what real Floridians do rather than what northerners do while vacationing there.

But if he was really being honest with himself, the place resonated with him somehow and he wasn't able to get it out of his mind. It was almost as if he was supposed to be here, as if he was needed here or Matlacha needed him here. Silly perhaps, but that is why he returned.

'Fill' was there to research and write a book on Floridian geology, paleontology and anthropology - in other words, a complete earths and peoples history of Florida, focusing on changes that had occurred and would occur due to 'global warming' - being a scientist it was something he was passionate about - the relation between the earth's natural cycle and man's contribution to that cycle..

Matlacha itself was a puzzle to 'Fill'- a matchstick of land sandwiched between the Florida mainland and Pine Island on the Gulf Coast just a hop, skip and a jump from Ft. Myers. It was had one main street whose function seemed to be to carry people through Matlacha either going to or coming from Pine Island and the mainland.

That said, Matlacha had taken advantage of this the same way the male cardinal did, it decked itself out in all it's finery hoping to attract attention, and indeed it did. The small buildings that line the main street of Matlacha have been painted all manner of vibrate and saturated colours - blues, greens, indigos, violets and the clapboard buildings themselves have been decorated with all sorts of psychedelic rendering of flora and fauna. It begs folks to stop, linger, take photographs and stroll aimlessly - and that's exactly what 'Fill' intended to do when he was not writing.

'Fill' had rented a small cottage right on the main street for 3 months and was looking forward to the stay and getting to know and really understand what made this little community tick.
"Fill' had spent some time searching the history of the little community and like any newbie, his head was filled with little facts (yes, he had his facts learned real good right now as Springsteen said) and anecdotes that seemed to define it:

a) the name 'matlacha'is a Caloosa language term meaning, 'water to the chin' - 'Fill' assumed this was due to the shallow channels between the mainland and Matlacha itself - one could wade them but in places the water could be up to your neck (chin),

b) it was originally home to fishing and squatter shacks until a bridge was built from the mainland in 1927 and then, as always, the money came,

c) the area around the Matlacha Bridge was made famous by Ft. Myers author, Richard Powell, in his book, 'Pioneer Go Home'. This book was made into an Elvis Presley movie called "Follow that Dream",

d) it is one of the few spots left in Florida where you can still get a glimpse of what it was like before box stores, Walmart, casinos and condos.

The businesses on Matlacha are either tourist related - various forms of art, food and drink related, marinas - or real estate. Anything else you either went to Pine Island or the main land.
Fishing was a huge recreational undertaking and there was a public wharf where folks young and old spend the day casting and retrieving among the pelicans.  'Fill' intended to finally learn the art of fishing and was hoping a local expert would take him under his wing.

Armed with all that info, 'Fill' checked into the Peach Palace (as his cottage was affectionately referred to by the locals because of it's peach colour) and after 2 hours of unpacking and organizing decided to take a stroll down the main drag to catch the sunset with his camera and  to see what the camera could see - as he always put it.

I can see for miles would be his answer - 'Fill' believed that there was no situation that could not be referenced and tagged to a song lyric - and he was born on the same day as Pete Townshend so that just sealed the deal right there.

He turned west towards the bridge and started walking, not even noticing Lou Karres across the street on a bench trying to staunch a terrific nose bleed and wondering what the hell was going on.

Hot Time

Prologue

Heat.

Homo Sapien was born into it on the African plain and when it had mastered the art of creating fire for heat on demand began to migrate North East and establish settlements in the fertile crescent.

We (and I will now use that terminology in reference to Homo Sapien) are uniquely designed for heat. When the temperature is just right, all is well; raise the temperature a bit and our bodies start perspiring to help cool us off. Drop the temperature though and goose-flesh (piloerection) kicks in, raising what little hair we have to protect us from the cold. 

Cold saps us of energy, reduces the capacity for creative thought, and like pain, consumes the mind with the need for heat.

We are also uniquely equipped for heat in the sense that it is easy to remove some clothing being worn to cool ourselves, not so easy to don what you don't have should the temperature drop.

It was heat that nurtured us and allowed us to develop language, create art in all it's forms, and evolve an ethos of origin and creation.

But heat now threatens us in the form of Global Warming as the natural recession of the glaciers from the last Ice Age is being accelerated by 'us' as we convert all the earth's hydrocarbons into CO2 and Methane.

On the surface all of this is just science - or that is what we have been lead to conclude.

But ... we were not the only new species spawned on the African Plains. There was indeed another - a twin, homo-sapien like, but whose origins date back to the dawn of time. It was sent here as an organism.

In fact time was created as a trap for this being - the universe we inhabit is the trap - that is indeed what it is - why it was created - but like all caged sentient beings, it longs for release - for freedom. 

To obtain that freedom, it needs a soul. Not just any soul, but one in particular. There is a catch - to get that soul, the earth's northern climes must be a lot warmer for the 'soul raker' can't tolerate low temperatures - and the soul cannot tolerate heat.

It was indeed most likely the genesis of 'us' but lacked something that was not encoded in the DNA - we had a soul, this twin did not. Not having a soul it could not pro-create, feel, create art - all it could do was emulate, copy, build and do what it did best, destroy.

The Enlightenment, Science, The Industrial Revolution, The Assembly Line, The Automobile, Electrification, Home Ownership and Consumerism were all created by the 'soul raker' to raise the earth's temperature to the point where it could retrieve this soul. 

The soul in question had been disembodied for eons - floating in the ether - but in May 1954, unbeknownst to the 'soul raker', the soul entered the body of a young 4 year-old boy who had just suffered a catastrophic fall to save it.

The 'soul raker' has lived in the area that is today called Florida for almost 50 centuries now.  The young boy, who is now 62, is about to visit Florida for the first time.

When an unstoppable force meets an immovable object, galaxies will melt and the souls of the dead will scream. 

With the fate of the universe unknowingly in his hands a 62 year old man enters the state of Florida driving south on Highway 95. In Matlacha, Lou Karres has a sudden and intense migraine - which is odd - because he is not human - nor does he ever feel pain - and he is as old as the universe ....