9 FRAGILE EGGSHELL MIND Father Vincent stared in shock at Two Ways, his fragile eggshell mind shattered by meeting his old enemy in what seemed absolutely concrete and real, like the delusions of a madman. Father Vincent thought, Why, I know this man; he's George Two Ways--one of the peyote advocates from my reservation. But--will he free me? And does he have the power to free me? Maybe we're all in this mess together.... Father Vincent said, "You say you got here by smoking a herb. Then there is a way out?" Yet still George said nothing. "George, tell them who I am! For Christ's sake...!" George said, "Why should I? You never did me any favors. And I don't believe in Christ; Mescalito is my god." He was still struggling with the Latin the priest was so fluent in; he paused a minute, finally said in English, "When I was apprentice to the medicine man you put out our fires, you smashed our peyote ceremonies..." The King came up to Two Ways, put his hand on his shoulder in a fatherly gesture; said in Incan: "You know this man?" Father Vincent looked bewildered. Even working on an Indian reservation, he'd never learned the native language, and this strange tongue from a brave New World was incompre- hensible even to someone who also knew Spanish, French, and German. Two Ways paused, trying to recall his Latin. The words were coming easier now. He said to King Hanco Capac, "The Queen looks quite a bit like our social worker, back home. Sophia Rosencruetz. My mentor, Jerome Four Feathers taught me that some people have doppelgangers in the other universes; but apparently I do not have a double in this world, or my ID would've been on your computers. Listen to what I am telling you now: This man is the priest from our Indian Reservation, and this other is Sophie Rosencruetz, or at least her double...unless Sophia herself smoked some of the magic herb--did you say her name is Dawn?" Six Serpent laughed, saying, "But she is more like the evening: a place of shadows and oncoming darkness. She's just poor White trash." Two ways listened with mixed emotions: though he thought he hated the White man, but here the roles of White and red had been swapped...he saw a Moorish soldier among the troops that were putting down the rebellion and realized that if not here, at least somewhere, there was a world where Black and White had been swapped--but what really scared him was the thought that somewhere in the infinite receding vastness of multiple universes there was a world where Black and Red had been swapped.... Meanwhile, Father Vincent listened with anticipation. He hung on every word, even if some of it was in a language totally unknown to him. But...if Two Ways could get him out of trouble...Oh Lord, he thought, hear my prayer. This Ind...George Two Ways, I love him with the love that is your love--you said if one smiteth thee on the cheek, turn the other cheek; as an enemy, a peyote advocate, I hate what he stands for, but I love the spirit within him that is your Spirit. Oh, Lord, please--forgive and free me-- "Release this man!" the King ordered the his guards. "The chances of two People who have no ID's meeting is small, and if these two know each other...this man's story was that he was from another Universe, wasn't it, Dawn?" Dawn nodded, yes. "Father Vincent," King Hanco Capac said, "You will be under guard of Six Serpent. That is all." Six Serpent smiled, not even knowing how much of a conquest it would be to seduce one sworn to chastity, then immediately repressed the thought as she realized how much she truly loved Two Ways--her first true love in an endless string of affairs and even prostitution-- King Hanco Capac clapped his hands; everyone scurried off to follow orders. "I will take you with me now," Six Serpent said, as she put her arm around him in a friendly fashion, though including Two Ways in her embrace--but she had her left arm around Father Vincent's shoulder; her right arm was on George Two Ways' ass. Father Vincent shoved her sensual embrace away. "Do not touch me that way. I am a priest." "Of what tribe?" Six Serpent asked. "I am a Christian; I..." "You mean a mushroom-head!" Six Serpent said. "I know all about that: the sacred mushroom and the cross; the strange alchemy that acid contains light--" "That is blasphemy!" Father Vincent said as Six Serpent led him and Two Ways away, Two Ways laughing inside. The priest certainly wasn't going to like what had become of his religion in this world--there were all manner of role-reversals in the infinite vastness of worlds you could reach through wormholes in space. "Then tell me about Christianity as you practice it in this other world of yours," Six Serpent said, enticingly, even as Two Ways realized that she would never quite give up the role of the tease and the flirt, no matter how insincere she may have been in her flirtation--he knew deep down inside that she loved him more than all the rest, and even as he thought this Six Serpent's magical-technological crystal pyramid showed an aura of blue love about the two of them. Father Vincent said in defense of his religion, long since declared a heresy on this world--though still practiced in sewers blasphemous to the idol Yog-Soggoth: "In my world there are seven Sacraments, and the chief among them are Baptism, Communion, and Confirmation: anointing with water, chrism, and the eating of the unleavened bread. There is water in fire; there is fire in a chrism: Thus we anoint with chrism, after we have first dipped what we dip in water, and our Communion is bread, not magic mushrooms, as you wrongly suppose; we..." "Do you have a wife?" Six Serpent asked. "Priests are not allowed to marry. The Holy Spirit is my wife and the Church is my life--" "Sounds dull," Six Serpent said. "But you are in a different world now, where there are different gods. You must deal with our gods on their own terms. I am called Six Serpent, and we worship the Feathered Serpent--do you have any Serpent gods in your own world?" And this time he did not push her away as she kissed him on the cheek: I want to; though I ought not to, he thought, while Two Ways smirked smugly to himself at how his private Sex Serpent was wreaking havoc with vows Two Ways had always found ridiculous; hell, he wouldn't even care if she did seduce him...it would be justice for what Father Vincent had done--Two Ways considered all priests to be either fairies or fags, and that is what he though of this priest: how jealous he would be if he would've known that Soph-kid had once had sex with him in the confessional, in the reconciliation room. "We have a legend of the Serpent," Father Vincent said. "He was the one who led Adam astray, in the garden of Eden." "Who's Adam?" Six Serpent asked curiously. "And what's Eden?" Father Vincent tried to explain, "Eden is Paradise, and Adam was the first man. The Serpent seduced Adam, who seduced Eve, and so sin entered the world." "That is not how our people tell it," she said. "Our people say that the Feathered Serpent brought Knowledge to our people. Quetzacoatl. The Ancient One from the Abyss which exists between worlds, who entered our world through a wormhole in space and would someday return..." "Then bring Knowledge to me--quickly!" Father Vincent ejaculated. The two were alone now, in one of the compartments of the flying shield as it lifted off; Six Serpent having allowed Two Ways to wander freely away as he was now out of house arrest--almost. The other guards would keep Two Ways from entering restricted areas. As Six Serpent finally, and indecisively, town between love and lust, tore away his clothes, Father Vincent thought, I can always go to confession when I'm back in the real world...and if I never get there, I can pray to God to forgive me, for I know not what I am doing--or do I? I never should've let the Rosencruetz girl give me a blow job-- Six Serpent asked, "Do you want to bugger me?" Father Vincent entered from the rear, then took the passive position, still frightened of the natural acts which he still thought of as sin. Six Serpent mounted him from above, used him for her pleasure. As soon as he came Father Vincent pushed the voluptuous guard away, sobbing, "Lord forgive me...!" "I want more," Six Serpent said in her most seductive tone. But this time Father Vincent was adamant. He never allowed her to touch him again--and she had to dream a different dream; dream Two Ways. #