Chapter 3

By the time of the event at Andy's four months later much had changed in Dr Raul Schneider's life, including the imminent divorce of his wife, the ever growing love for Sadey, moving to an apartment near his clinic, and Sadey with his children, discovering the bliss of being in love with one's lover, discovering the pleasure of having his children accept Sadey into their lives, her motherly aspect not so much displayed as her ability to be on the same level with them and at the same time gracing them with her unique wisdom, the process of bringing her into their lives, though postponed that first night by his son's concerns for his daughter's confusion at her birthday celebration, beginning days later, the decline in his need for schmoozing through Joseph bringing in the organizational brilliance of Sarah, the grant writing skills of Natty and the generosity of Andy, the joy when the schmoozing occurred of watching Sadey seduce the wallets out of the tightest pockets, her skill at adjusting character to put any man or woman at ease was remarkable, the data from several experiments with Joseph and others when fully examined promising remarkable, unquestionably controversial, possibly paradigm shifting results, which precariously hung between science and mysticism, bringing the scientifically observable to bear on the most unscientific of phenomena. It had been a whirlwind of events, not least of which was becoming initiated into the Order of the Love Monk and through his closeness with Joseph, despite the short time they had known each other, a significant member, highly ranked if Joseph approved of ranking in his Order which he didn't, but his significance was proved by the prominence given him at the gathering, he was to make a speech which at a typical convention would be considered the key note, but such ranking again was rejected and in fact was less important a way to view the speech. Wanting to expand the philosophical exploration beyond his own thinking, to encourage others to feed their thoughts into the Order, Joseph intended Raul's contribution to be a breakthrough event ending his role as the center point of creation from which the circle emanated and move the Order into a weaving of multiple circles, ever multiplying and ever expanding. At the gathering, sitting in the indoor garden area with Natty, SHE, and Tina, the pretty graduate student Sadey somehow knew Raul lusted after and who lusted after him before she even met her, whom he had the pleasure of fucking a couple times during orgies and a couple more times during work, and who was carefully monitoring the heartbeats, EEGs and breathing of the comatose Joseph, as well as Kevin, the electrical engineer genius continually finding ways to extend the ability of the recording machines and inventing new ones to capture new kinds of data along with finding ways to make everything portable and who was the ultimate nerd, a virgin prior to his first encounter with the orgy, relieved of his virginity by SHE's bandmate Mimi minutes before getting his mind blown by the orgy, who quickly found the perfect fit for her orifices, long, narrow and relentlessly hard and eager, Raul was nervous as hell, speechifying not being anywhere near his comfort zone, and with Joseph unavailable to help him calm himself, and having the fear as well that the unlikely event of Joseph not awakening furthering his nervousness, and not having the comfort of Sadey who was as nervous as him, which was why she kept away. Luckily SHE and Natty realized his stress level, not that it was difficult to realize, and whispered in a corner of the room, choosing which exercises would soothe him and bring him the most confidence. They decided to calm him with the easiest exercise, and once calmed, give him the most complicated exercise they knew to gather intellectual strength and became aware of the strength and gain confidence from it, and their own need for calm and confidence, SHE performing with her band after Natty's play was presented, starring Karen and being technically managed by Natty, would be enhanced as well. Not knowing the extent to which Joseph had taught Natty and SHE his exercises, Raul wondered why they insisted he sit cross legged on the floor until the instructions began.

Except for the Montreal contingent, at least the ones closest to Joseph, no one knew of the plan to bring Joseph to life in front of his Order. Of course SHE was the mastermind of the shocking and unsettling event, but when Joseph discussed with her Raul's desire to produce a coma and the coming out of it and didn't know how to make that happen, SHE knew what to do, and when she explained her idea, he knew it was perfect as well. Andy had begun planning the event on his own, bringing SHE into his thoughts soon after, and SHE directed him to her nemesis but the most capable organizer, Sarah and left it with them.

At the same time Andy's mansion was buzzing with preparations for the gathering, including the completion of Karen's masterwork, the huge amorphous bed as well as her rehearsal of Natty's performance piece with Natty and Jordan and some performers from Montreal, including the ever energetic Mimi who ended up participating in the orgies, the only other member of S.H.E. to do so, a Minneapolis contingent including the young Nina, thrilled to be in Jordan's presence again after he moved to San Francisco, and Jordan's San Francisco boyfriend, SHE and Joseph were plotting their scary, possibly evil plan, the only benefit in not having Natty, Devi and Karen around was being able to hash it out in their apartment without Natty's inevitable objections, though to SHE's chagrin, Natty was informed about it from the ever truthful Joseph but not until he was completely clear about the necessity of it, and through his certainty of purpose, Natty agreed to not let anyone else know except Karen. Raul was informed about the plan as was Sadey and Benjamin and Samantha, Raul's daughter, the kids were brought in because they had met Joseph a couple of times and were obviously fascinated by him and Raul didn't want them upset by what would seem to be his death or grave illness.

No one knew for certain whether they could induce his coma, but Raul was sure he could bring him out of it by electrical shock to his prefrontal cortex and if that didn't work, through loving touches and words. SHE wanted the reverse to happen, if she and Natty couldn't bring him out, then they'd try electricity, realizing the dramatic currency of it. Discussing the method of creating the spell, Joseph thought he should be unaware of the plan, like a scare relieving hiccups, but everyone realized he would know if not the specific actions at least the time it would happen, the night before the gathering when his body would be transported via the comfortable RV Karen and Natty would be driving up from Andy's and SHE would be driving back to her father's home. Deciding to create a new meditation exercise designed to have his mind as exclusively as possible be aware of only the present, he ended up letting the evil SHE and her less evil minions work it out on their own, and in fact when the present focusing exercise succeeded, Raul excitedly attached electrodes to his skull to record his EEGs.