Pyramid of the White Cloud

* * *

Senior. Seniorita.

* * *

Dai Goro Bogdu was hovering over the white pyramid which was Kailash. "Ah, you return!" he laughed. "Now I shall finish with you and become the master of time!"
Color
"I doubt it," I said, without approaching him. "We have not made enough exchanges." "That does not matter!" he snarled, hurling a bolt of fire at me. He was startled to see that it splattered and ran off me as water would off a water fowl. "I have learned some tricks myself," I laughed. "Like a duck, so to speak!"

"Impossible!" he sneered. "Unless. Unless? Where have you been all this time?" I told him, "I have been sharing the body of the Gyalwa Rinpoche." "Aroo!" he said, in genuine surprise. "All sorts of tantric juices have saturated you!" "Possibly," I murmured. "Now what is it that you wish to say?" "Ah," he smiled, white lips tightly drawn, red encircled blue eyes glaring at me. "Shall we be partners again?" he asked. "What do you have to offer me?" I asked quietly. "Escape to your own world!" he laughed. "Godhood! Immortality!" "The ability to perform miracles?" I asked, genuinely interested in that power. "Yes, yes!" he laughed at my interest in his proposal. "All of that!"

"But," I said unsmilingly, "there is a catch?" "Price, you mean?" he said, putting a soft expression upon his features. "Of course. our fates are entwined. Your world will be my world." I hesitated, thinking.

* * *

Drip. Drip. Drip. The I.V. dripped. The nurse suddenly said to the doctor, "Doctor! there is no pulse!"

* * *

"Stab the right man!" whispered the prisoner to the prisoner. "Yes. Yeah. Sure." the other answered. The switchblade knife went "click!"

* * *

"I'll be able to perform miracles?" I asked excitedly. "Yes, yes," said the blue man, trying to remain calm. "Well, okay then, it's a deal!" I said. Remember saying that? Remember putting out your hand to shake that of the other? "But," you said, "I have to go first. I've got some business there. Then, then, afterwards you can follow."

"Of course!" laughed the blue man, now not trying to hide his joy in the arrangement.

* * *

Ayesha! Please listen! You've got to be there! Listen! What luck! You're cleaning out your mother's house? The only thing left is the Egyptian coffin with my body in it? Well, forget it. Yes. Leave it there. Yes. Leave it! Good. I'm glad. Yes.

* * *

I dove down to Mt. Kailash. I flew around it, miles around, in tighter and tighter circles. After three and one half times, I flew up into the dark Nd-Drwa where Dai Goro Bogdu was waiting. "I'm about to go," I said. "Will I have any difficulty?" "No," he smiled. "None at all." I did not know if I believed him. "None that a new god does not have," he concluded.

Just then, Thubten Sengey appeared. "What is this? A betrayal?" he shouted. "I am your partner, not he!" Dai Goro Bogdu threw a ball of orange flame at the Tibetan. it missed, allowing the other to return the attack. I was amazed at how well the dodged each other's fire. But soon this changed. More missles were thrown from both sides. Balls of immense fire were exploding and obscuring the images of the two combatants. I took this occasion to depart.

* * *

The wind blew the dust, faster and faster. But slowly the metal wheel, the eight-spoked gear, appeared out of the soil. Soon it was completely revealed. Sand blasted it, and soon it was shining, as if new, in the sunshine, fully exposed for all to see.

* * *

In the prison yard, the prisoners were moving in an exercise circle. some were muttering to each other. I moved fast. I dropped the switchblade knife on the hard ground where a guard could hear and see it. "Damn!" he exclaimed, and gave a signal to the other officers. The prisoners were returned to their cells and searched. Three more weapons were found. No one was stabbed that day. "Just as well," said one to another. "You were heading for the wrong guy. You were going to stab the wrong man. What's the point of that? What a waste of time that would have been!"

* * *

I was in Ayesha's mother's empty attic. That is, it was empty except for my body. Reentering it was strange, it felt wrong. And it wasn't just because of the fake mummy wrappings. I did not think about it too much, for I was nervous, not sure about the correctness of what I was doing. Part of me shouted "No! No! Don't do it!" while another part whispered, "But you'll never escape this way!" Unwrapping myself, I used focused flames to break a hole in the chimney which faced the inside of the attic. I dropped generous balls of fire down that chimney into the cellar. "It'll have a slow start," I thought. "Just as well, I don't wish to see it." I settled back into the coffin and easily left my body. I did not look at it, but immediately left through the roof. As I thought, there still was not sign of the fire. I flew off, trying to send a thought to Ayesha.

"Ayesha! Listen! This is the last message. Maybe you'll get it, maybe not. Goodbye. I cannot explain. But I wanted to say goodbye. You'll hear no more from me!"

You'll hear no more from me!

You understand?

* * *

Flying westward, I sang one of Je Bo's songs. "Every night I spend with a woman, but not a drop of semen do I spend."

* * *

Senior. Seniorita. I was at the nursing home in the coal mine region, with their eternal underground fires. It was long before the operation. It was early in the paralysis. "I must escape," he was saying to himself, without seeing my invisible presence. "Let it be performed," I said, and he sat up in bed suddenly, swinging his feet over the side. Before a nurse could stop him he was standing and walking. "I don't believe it!" she said. "Believe it!" he laughed. "I told you, I told you!"

"Senior, Seniorita" reached my ears. I turned to see what else I could do before I had to face Dai Goro Bogdu. But before I could do anything, I heard something, as if from far away. "Carmella! The Fire! Carmella! The children!" I flew out, quickly in the direction of the cries. I was puzzled, for it was in the direction exactly opposite the one from which I had come! Faster and faster!

* * *

Circles and wheels. Karma-la! The fire!

* * *

Where I found myself shocked me. No wonder the neighborhood of Ayesha's mother's house looked familiar! I had not paid attention! Damn! In the street, in the crowd, stood Susan with people around Carmella shouting. The house was in flames. "The children!" cried someone. Others were restraining the parents. "It is impossible!" someone else said. "And they just moved in today," a voice said. The constellation of Orion was overhead, as I was.

* * *

AH! Ahrrgh!

* * *

I flew into the flaming attic and reentered my body. It was stiff, but I managed to make it move, cursing the smoke and stumbling down the stairs towards the cries I heard immediately below me. Dammit! i did it! I set the fire!

I could see enough to find two little girls, six and nine. Without ceremony, with one under each arm, I stumbled about trying to find my way out of the house. My vision was obscured and the smoke was getting hotter. Before I knew it, I was outside and the parents were pulling the girls from me. I was choking form the smoke when I heard the smallest girl cry, "Suzy! She is still in there! In the crib!"

There was some kind of shouting after me, as I ran back into the burning house. But I did not understand a single word. In the impossible darkness, I found my way. The last part was done crawling low to avoid the hot smoke. The room with the crib was relatively untouched so I was able to stand, above to reach forward. I stopped in shock. In the crib was a kupie doll, popping its eyes and pursing its lips at me, with an embroidered bib on it which said, "Suzy."

"I don't believe it," I laughed, and then the flaming roof collapsed upon me, killing me.

* * *

AUM MANI PADME HUM.. The jewel is in the lotus.

* * *

Far ahead were thunderclouds on the horizon. They were only visible when the running lines of yellow lightning flashed. One set after another struck the distant water with unheard bolts. It was as if the edge of the world was protecting itself. Above that, most amazingly, was the rising full moon, encircled in a midnight rainbow of unknown origins.

This was enough to startle, to use up one's amazement, until the moon moved, and then, beneath it, coming form nowhere, sent by nothing, were the curtains of the Aurora Borealis. It couldn't be believed.

"I don't believe it," I said, the words being blown away by the icy wind. I struggled towards the raging surf, resisting the wind, which resisted me. The constellation of Orion hung above everything. "I don't believe it," I grinned, gritting my clenched teeth into a grimacing smile, knowing all along that it was true, and that any other vocalization was impossible or untrue.

* * *

Words of Milarepa's song rang out in the Nd-Drwa. "Accustomed as I am to dwelling in the wordless..." But they were interrupted by Dai Goro Bogdu. "Where have you been?" he asked. "Practicing being a god?"

I laughed weakly and shook my head. "To the contrary, I have no such wish. But where is Thubten Sengey?" I asked, for he was nowhere in sight. The blue man sneered. "he is gone. I have destroyed him, poor mortal! But what is this? Where are you going? And what is that? he gasped, pointing at the long thread trailing behind me. "It is broken!" he screamed, as I dove down into the light realm above Kailash. "that will mean that you cannot except back to your time!" he wailed. I laughed. "And that you cannot follow me!" He roared as I approached the great vertical crack of the mountain. Great forces swirled around us.

"You broke your promise! When I gave you powers!" he screamed in the increasing winds around the white mountain. I sneered, "Your god's pride has prevented your intellect from working! I got no power from you!"

"Why have you not been sucked into the dark cosmos?" he puzzled, looking at my remnant thread. "You have been disconnected form your body!" I pointed to the half-visible thread, completely invisible to others, wrapped around the mountain three and one half times. "Remember?" I asked. "I joined the mountain! I received my powers from her! My life is there! I am connected to her!"

"Your fate is tied to me! You cannot return to your time!" he fumed. And I laughed. "No. You are tied to me! I will remain at this mountain, and as a consequence, you will be trapped in yours!" Never to wander from it!"

"No! Impossible!" the blue man's eyes opened wide, but what I had said was true. I waved my hands at him. He staggered backwards, astounded at his weakness. "Impossible!" he cried, as the entire force from Mt. Kailash came through me, propelling him backwards. "It is Mt. Rirab, the center of the universe!" I laughed. "What do you expect? Go back to your mountain and be that mountain! That is all, that is all!" Dai Goro Bogdu vanished, but not before crying "EREN-NOON-SHIM-TAL." But it was so weak that the wind blew it away.

* * *

Gone. Gone. Completely gone. Completely gone beyond enlightenment. Exhalation. I laughed, "Ha!"

* * *

I threw myself towards the great lightning crack on the face of the mountain. The swirling forces of the wind, and of my own mind made this necessary. In that wordless imprint I would remain, with the source of all potential. God and godlessness, is not. Human and non-human, is not. The song was to be believed, "the written word can be washed away by drops of water, but..." You know, you remember. I have entered the mountain! AH! Hands and feet shake and quiver! There is moonlight, but from its white ring it is clear that snow is coming. I will now speak no more. I am silence.