Chapter 6

Why here to caverns, rocky hollows slinking,
Sit'st thou, as 'twere an owl a-blinking?
Why suck'st, from sodden moss and dripping stone,
Toad-like, thy nourishment alone?

Reprinted from 'Faust' Trans. Bayard Taylor. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1898.

Bo went back to the table and sat back down. He knew he should dismiss all of this as a tall tale, but the way Severus had proven he could read his thoughts combined with the overall impression that Bo had of the man convinced him his world view had just undergone a major shift. Every time a question managed to solidify in his mind, he felt lost just as he opened his mouth to speak so nothing came out. The impression anyone not capable of reading his thoughts would have had was of a man impersonating a fish out of water. Severus allowed him to mind warp for just a few more moments before he felt the time was right to continue.

"Slow down and calm your mind, else you are likely to pass out." Severus sat down the empty glass and leaned back in his chair just a small bit.

"Focus on a point in space about twenty-five feet or so in front of you. Now this can just be an imagined spot of dust or a spot on the wall because the point is to focus your mind there. I want you to concentrate on the spot. Very slowly bring all your conscious thoughts on the spot. Push everything else from your mind."

Bo felt compelled to trust him at this point because he knew he would melt down otherwise.

"There, yes now change your breathing too slowly, very slowly deepen you breaths and then slow down your breaths as you keep breathing deeply, very deeply."

Bo followed the suggestion, the panic ebbed away and calm replaced the panic as if the air surrounding him was getting cooler and cooler.

"Yes, I can feel your calm. Now close your eyes and bring your focus into your mind. Your focus should now be the very center of that calm place in your mind. Keep breathing slowly, very slowly but now slowly shallow your breathing back to normal."

Bo continued to obey and the calm washed over him with a shiver.

"Now you have found your center. Hold it in your mind. Study it so you can remember and recall it like a pleasant memory."

While Bo manipulated his center in his mind, Severus refilled his glass with water from the pitcher.

"You are doing very well. One last step but very important so go very easy. I want you to visualize that center expanding like dropping a pebble into a calm pool of water. Let the wave expand through your mind. Continue to expand until all the residual panic is pushed out and away.

"Good, yes very good. Now let the expanding wave pass out of your mind and continue around you. Feel the air around you, feel the warmth and the sunlight as it warms the surfaces of your skin facing the sun. Continue to expand the focus and encompass the house and the occupants."

Bo was now breathing very slowly and very shallow. His body was barely moving at all he was still as a statue. His entire being was tied into his focus. He thought he was imagining Betty Sue wiping the dust from a bottle she had gotten from the pantry. He swore he could feel Esmeralda lying beside Phil with her hand drawing lazy circles in his pubes trying to arouse him once more. He felt Phil slowly slipping back to sleep despite the woman's efforts. The more he concentrated the more he could feel. There was an ant mound by the front porch and a field mouse had made a home in the insulation of the garage wall. This had to be his imagination.

"You are not imagining it my young friend. Now I want you to hold what you have and slowly open your eyes."

He very slowly opened his eyes facing Severus, afraid this feeling would whisper away like a daydream but no, he could still feel them! He knew Betty Sue was just seconds away from stepping through the door to the patio. Without even looking towards the door, he knew he would hear it the second she opened it. She did, he did and he was as amazed as a young child was on Christmas morning.

"Welcome to a whole new world," Severus softly intoned as a wide tooth filled smile erupted across his face.

Bo returned the wide smile, "Is that all there is to it?"

The older man chuckled, "No, but that was all it took to restore your sanity, calm you down and give you just a small experience of what waits you."

"Shit! Sign me up then," Bo was excited. Much more excited than he had been in years.

Betty Sue walked up to the table just in time to hear his last comment. "Yer not going back into the corps are ya?" A small tear threatened to roll down her cheek. Bo grabbed her hand and spun her into his lap with one hand behind her head and another on her firm full butt cheek and he kissed her fervently. He left no question in her mind about how he felt about her.

"Darlin, dynamite couldn't get me away from ya."

"Honey, ya always say the sweetest things to cheer me up. Gimme more of that sugar." Once again, the couple sucked face energetically. Severus let loose with a hearty laugh as he observed the young couple very much in love.

"I have the feeling you two are going to love Ulmdeh. She and I act the same way even after all the years we have been together." Severus leaned back and for the first time since his arrival, his back touched the seat back as he relaxed.

Betty Sue came up for air and turned to her guest, "Is she your wife?"

"For all intents, yes, but we have never had any type of ceremony to designate us as such."

"Round these parts, we recognized common-law marriages if a couple have been livin together for a spell. How long have ya been livin together?"

"Five hundred and twenty six years this December."

Betty Sue's jaw dropped, "Say again?"

Bo saved the awkward situation, "Darlin, they have a hell of a story. I think ya may be the one that needs that Mezcal." Betty Sue looked back and forth between the two men as if they had just grown an extra penis in the middle of their foreheads. "Do I need to go to Ulmdeh or can she come here?"