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 ....