09 – Omnipresent

Billy just wants to push the doorbell of the house in Park Drive when Michael opens and he stands in front of them. He must have been watching out for them.

“Hello. The swami is meditating.”

Michael comes outside and shuts the door. “Just follow me in the meantime to my little place. I stay in a little wooden cabin in these people’s backyard.”

He walks to the side of the house and they follow him. They go in between a fence covered with creepers and the wall of the house to a backyard where a small cabin is situated next to a washing line.

They follow him into the cabin and he shows them two miniature wooden stools low down on the ground. They sit down on the stools and close to each other.

The place has only one room with a bed opposite them and a desk with a chair underneath. Michael pulls out the chair and sits down and smiles at them. He looks quite normal today.

“Welcome in my place; how are you today?”

Kadin smiles back: “It is a nice, cosy place.”

Michael shakes his bald head quickly: “I’m so lucky to have this place due to the goodness of the owners who are in the service of Krishna. Before this, I was a wanderer in this mad world where people ruin everything; including themselves.”

For Billy this sounds strange: “What do you mean, Michael?”

“Distorted values; everything is distorted. We are all marionettes and the masters play us with their invisible strings. They manipulate our knowledge and our faith and keep us blind. Those that rebel against it, become targets and are labeled and we are forced into boxes where we are classified and controlled. In the meantime, we think the world is okay and we go to work each morning and come from work late in the evening in the service of this distorted world with its skewed values. We think slavery is abandoned but we don’t know that we are slaves of the chosen ones.”

They look at Michael dumbfounded and wonder what on earth he is talking about. Something’s wrong with him, for sure. Kadin decides it is better not to ask further questions and to attend to the purpose of their visit.

“Could you decipher the script, Michael?”

Suddenly something clicks in his head and he answers: “Whe…re d..id you …you f…find…that boo..klet pre .. ci..sely? You …you a..re hi.. hiding some …thing.” His eyes flicker strangely and he shakes his head while he wrings his hands anxiously.

They look at each other and Kadin indicates with her head that he must tell Michael the whole story.

Michael smiles happily after Billy told him everything. He speaks normally: “I knew that you were hiding something. You say the girl yelled and this is very important for me to decipher the script easily. In which language did she scream? Could you hear it? I hope so; it is extremely important.”

He looks at Billy so intensely as if his life depends on the answer. Billy thinks for a moment and then answers convincingly: “Afrikaans ... I’m sure it was in Afrikaans ...”

“Yes. I’ve got it. I will decipher the script quite easily now, thank you. There’s only one problem!”

Billy asks inquisitively: “Is that undecipherable part in other words written in Afrikaans with Sanskrit symbols? If so, how are you going to unravel it?”

“Just leave it for me It’s quite easy, but there is a problem.”

Kadin is now curious: “What’s the problem?”

“The swami wants you to return the booklet immediately to the park where you found it. He wants me to forget about all this and continue with my service to Krishna. He firmly believes that this script is a curse on all of us and when the booklet is put where you found it, the curse will be lifted. I am not completely convinced. That’s why I waited for you to talk to you before you see the swami. What are we going to do? The swami took your script and doesn’t want me to see it.”

Kadin smiles mischievously and takes out her copy of the booklet and gives it to Michael.

“I thought about that and I brought a copy of the booklet; just in case. Promise me that you will look well after my clone copy. You can use it to decipher the code in secret without the swami knowing it.”

Michael looks pleasantly surprised and grabs the booklet greedily.

“Thank you. You are saving my life. The swami searched my place thoroughly and took all my scribbling away and I was so near. I suspected that the script was Afrikaans and only started to decipher the text with that in mind, when he confiscated everything. He burnt everything except your original booklet and he wants to give it to you directly to put it back where you found it. He will not know about this copy and I will hide it and decipher it as soon as I get the time between my many chores at ISKCON. We are quite busy right through the day.”

Billy can’t resist the temptation and speaks before he can stop himself: “But doesn’t that make you a slave of ISKCON?”

Michael looks surprised at Billy and puts his hand out to him. Billy takes his hand while Michael shakes it and praises Billy: “Very good, Billy, I like your way of thinking. I don’t think it is a coincidence that you two found the booklet. You are right, we are only marionettes in a greater game and we are all unknowingly part of this greater game.”

Billy wonders what he is talking about while he shakes his hand.

Michael stands up and keeps on talking while he lifts his mattress: “This time I’m ready for the swami.”

He pushes the booklet into a thin, secret slit beneath the material, replaces the mattress and tidies his bed. He turns towards them.

“Come, I will now take you to the swami so that he can give you the booklet to replace and he then gets peace of mind.”

They stay for a long time talking to the swami while the three of them keep their secret. It is late in the afternoon when they depart and it is too near dusk to walk down and replace the booklet. They promise Vyasa they will definitively do it tomorrow directly after school.

Twilight creeps over the horizon and Kadin thinks about Rene and feels a little worried. Rene wants her to be at home before dark. She must be worried about her.

Kadin looks at Billy while they are walking down Bird Street: “I find these people’s philosophy very interesting and want to know more about it. I will make time and talk to my dad about these things. He studied these philosophies in his young days and I can learn much from him.”

They stop in front of the gate of her home when Billy remarks: “It is too complicated for me. I’ll rather focus on people I love.”

Kadin is surprised: “What do you mean? You are sounding like my dad again.”

Billy suddenly takes both her hands and pulls her towards him so that they look into each other’s eyes. He doesn’t say a word but focuses intently on her desirable lips. She follows his eyes and when he looks in her eyes again the world seems to vanish around them. They are looking at each other with bated passion and standing close to each other. Everything around them fades and she only sees the lust in his eyes and it makes her dizzy. A warmth well up in her from somewhere. It is an alien but glorious feeling that overwhelms her completely.

Billy pulls her suddenly against him and embraces her. She feels his warm body and in the embrace, their lips meet and then they melt into each other.

She becomes numb in his arms as they explore the warm, juicy inner of each other and she just want to embrace him when she realizes that they are on the street for all to see and she comes to her senses.

She pushes him away gently and breaks this intimate moment. He reacts immediately and stands back shocked and he looks embarrassed when he speaks.

“I’m so sorry, Kadin. I don’t know what came over me! I shouldn’t have. I slipped up badly …”

He looks quite relieved when Kadin smiles at him. She quickly opens the gate and runs up the path to the front door. Shocked she stops in her tracks when she sees her mother in the open front door. Has she been standing there and watching the whole episode? Kadin blushes blood red and feels exposed in front of Rene.

Rene is quite surprised: “Who is this boy, Kadin?”

Guiltily she looks at Rene’s feet like a naughty girl that has been caught stealing cookies: “Billy, Mother …”

Then she quickly sneaks past Rene and runs down the corridor and hides guiltily in her room.

That night Kadin rolls around in her bed. She simply can’t get that moment full of passion out of her mind. Later, before she puts out her lamp, she decides it is the right time. She simply has to ask Billy about Chantal. She takes her phone.

"Chantal your girl ...?"

The answer is immediate: “Are you mad … never …”

"She’s mad about you …"

"I’m only mad about you …"

Her heart jumps: “Same …"

"Be my real girlfriend, really, from now on, please!”

"Serious ...?"

"Like hell ..."

"YES!!!"

"YIPPEE!!!"

~*~*~

Earlier the same day Mohammed and Vipracitti are sitting on a bench in St George's Park and watches Aryan who approaches them with yet another street boy. They stop in front of the guru and Aryan smiles happily.

“Here is another boy who sees our runaway regularly, master, and he is also interested in the $100.”

Vipracitti beckons with his hand: “Come here, my boy.”

The little boy walks up to the strange man and eyes him in awe. Vipracitti bends forward and places his hands on the boy’s shoulders and looks into his eyes. The boy looks up and his eyes are caught by the magnetic look in the guru’s eyes. It changes into dark pools and everything around them vanishes as if into the air. The voice of the man sounds like thunder in a dark, deep cave.

“Where have you seen him before, my child?” The boy suddenly is in Western Street and he sees the boy on the sketch with the girl descending the bus right in front of his eyes. It is so clear and he even sees detail he hasn’t seen before. They walk together and chat in their school uniforms in Western Street towards the city centre.

He awakes suddenly from the trance and startled he looks at the guru that manipulated his thoughts so easily. Vipracitti smiles at him and puts a $100 note in his small hand. Astounded he looks down at it and then he turns around abruptly and runs away baffled and wildly from the terrifying man with the dangerous eyes.

Vipracitti smiles at Aryan. "Excellent work, Aryan, go and find the next pair of eyes and soon we will be omnipresent. As soon as one of them spots the boy, his thoughts will call me and we will follow the boy through his eyes.”

“We will drive around later on so that I can recognize the street where he and his girlfriend got off the bus still in their school clothes probably on their way from school to their homes. Furthermore, we are going to watch pupils that descend the bus at that stop, and if we don’t catch him there, I am going to show you the school blazer they wear. Then you must identify which school’s it is. We even may catch him at the school gate as learners leave after school.”

“It won’t take long now. This time he won’t dodge us again and you must prepare the warehouse for his undisturbed orientation if he doesn’t have the book on his body.”

Aryan smiles and looks at Mohammed: “My colleagues and I are truly looking forward to his orientation …”