CHAPTER XLVIII: THE EMPRESS

   The light of that warm summer, dressed in spring, fulfilled well its duty to shine, but not that of giving heat. It is true that clarity lasted longer, but rays did not cover you and the nights were freezing. Through the windows of the river, reeds dripped garlands of summer breeze with prudery of true seasonal temperature. July was bearable and the stars were the scenes of a luminous curtain putting a ceiling of bright daisies where the Scorpion crouched again.

   The light in Paul’s eyes did shine. After several days of frequent visits to the hospital, he was diagnosed with amaurosis fugax. After much going back and forth to the Philip Rage, not only that year, it seems to be a problem of the carotid artery, and he has to suffer frequent reviews, but after these years I can tell you that it may not be serious if he does not fall in smoking addiction, diabetes or something similar. It could be a symptom of a stroke, but God forbid, today he has not had anything else.

   The first day she didn’t accompany us to the hospital because it happened when she was in the street, but Olivia came with us every day. Nigel would be the second half of July on holidays and meanwhile we went daily in the afternoon, using his two cars and either Luke or I driving the Chrysler. Lucy had told his uncle what had happened and Gerald doubted whether to go to the hospital or not for fear of meeting there his sister. But my wife had informed him and on July 11 we went to his house with Paul. From that day on I really liked Gerald Rivers. He hugged his nephew really moved and as if Paul knew, he also threw him kisses with his hand.

− "How he resembles you, Lucy. He has the unmistakable look of the Rivers, but fortunately, the serenity of the Prancitt is seen too. And when he loves someone, he loves him forever, as the Siddeley – he did not forget me-: an excellent combination."

   A few days earlier, on July 6, we had an unexpected festivity. We saw James Prancitt coming with an illuminated face and with great joy he met everyone and informed us:

− "Today I have known that I have passed the edapho - as he called it-. I can say finally that I finished University."

− "What are you going to do now?" - asked Luke.

− "This is a day to celebrate and I have still not thought about it. I suppose that I will do public examination and meanwhile I will continue to work in the carpenter’s shop."

    A day to celebrate. And he wanted to do it with us. Fortunately that July 6 had been good for us and he even dined with us, with Paul in his arms, while he told us stories about her college years and wanted to include Miguel in the conversation, even noting the tension between him and his brother.

   But I go back to Friday, July 11. That was also the day that I started working at the bar. Samuel was informed of what was happening to Paul, and Anne-Marie, Richard, and he came to see him almost every day. Luke’s behaviour had changed and it was a pleasure to work with him and notice his love. In his bewilderment of those days, he had decided to be tender with me and spill his tenderness while he could have me because it was for me an enigma, but obvious, he sensed that one day he was going to lose me, but before that day arrived, he filled me with beauty. We decided not to tempt fate and not call us at the bar "my love". We changed it for the always shocking "My Mate", which could shock no one. Richard had become my boss, but he smiled when I made my few mistakes and was forever a friend. Samuel came to the bar on day 11 to see how his new waiter served him. He seemed satisfied and bathed Luke and me, that day and always, with the warm water of his conversation. For other members of the Board of Directors it was more difficult to get used to innovations, but they shrugged their shoulders, asked and soon they consulted me the doubts they had, even Walter at the end, when finally he saw that I would be - he did not know yet about Anne-Marie – one less rival on his way to the Presidency.

  That Friday night we also had one of the frequent visits of Richard. He had Olivia on his side, and he looked at the sky, until he recognized his star and pointed to it.

− "There is Deneb."

− "Deneb?" - asked Olivia.

− "Deneb, of the Swan, in the summer triangle. I was lucky that one day Nike gave it to me."

− "Is there a constellation of the swan, Richard?" – She inquired.

− "Yes, there it is. Look, Olivia, it is that horizontal cross. It goes with wide-spread wings flying from north to south in the Milky Way. The head is Albireo. The constellation is also known as the Northern Cross."

   Olivia felt transported to the past, to the stained glass window of Hunter’s Arrows. Years later she could see a swan again in her new home, but this swan was not going to be shot by any hunter. It glided wild, probably as she had flown in her existence. Moved, she knew that life was flight, and she, from north to south, had also lived it with wide-spread wings. She felt that past and present were one and that one day, perhaps, she would be willing to make peace with her brother. But not yet. Meanwhile she saw that Cygnus as a different type of omen.

− "This swan is telling me that Paul will recover. His amaurosis will be as fleeting as this swan’s flight."

   Hearing that all those who were with her broke into tears. And then we found Nigel. He came with Shirley.

   Nigel... Since the night of July 2, he had come to socialize a bit with us at the bonfire. He was a gentleman with the remote mind, but constant. He had been moved by the fact of us stealing his Ford and the same day we returned it, and he was with me, rather than a neighbour, a real friend. Since he met her in the hospital, he had liked Lucy and was worried about how she was living her second pregnancy. A great friend of Luke’s, he also appreciated him for his fertile imagination and his memory capacity, and when Lucy summed up to him how the idea of our three was conceived, he saw him gentlemanly and thought he was ready to sacrifice himself to reach a huge happiness that he knew how to share with those he loved. He noticed that something happened with Miguel and he always answered something like he trusted me, because Mistress Oakes said "Nike will know how to do him justice". He got along well from the first moment with John and they talked often of stellar issues or other mystery themes. He spoke moved with Bruce and assured him that, without knowing him, he had been shaken by his heart attack and was glad now of his recovery. With Mistress Oakes he chatted every day, hearing her happy when she talked about the motifs by Verôme or any other thing that she wanted to tell him. And he really liked Olivia, whom he knew of his daily visits to the hospital. And he liked her much more that night of July 11. He was coming when he saw her get moved by the Swan.

   Shirley Matts had an aura of candor not without an acute insight of things. Shirley and Nigel were a perfect combination of understanding and mutual fruitful love. She came with the dark hair and a red dress which harmonized well with her smile and her undetectable but incipient pregnancy.

   I knew that her husband had explained to her just enough of me, because she suddenly said:

− "I will not call you Nicholas. I know that you prefer to be called Nike. And so, look, my husband and you have almost the same name."

   They had just had dinner. Everybody had the same care with us. She came with Telemachus in her arms and we spent the evening talking about cats. When I asked her how they would call their child, she answered as we did: the girl or woman first.

− "If it is a girl we will call her Melissa, which means honey bee; if it is a boy, he will be Peter, the name coming from St Peter, rock. Natural names: or a mellifluous flying animal or a stone which will maintain us. I know that in a few days I will know Kirsten or Bruce. One day they could play together. But if they are stars, my husband has told me that if it is a girl, she will be called Elased. And if it is a boy?"

− "We thought that we would call him Ras Elased Australis, by the complete name." – said Luke


 

   Summer of the year 30. Evenings of bonfires and stellar light bulbs. Shirley came occasionally, once a month, or less, as her pregnancy progressed, but Nigel came every night a while after dinner. That was also the summer of chess, and Telemachus meowed especially if the White Queen was moved, jealous of her majestic movement around the board.


 

   The night of July 13 was not quite warm, but Nigel’s voice covered us with its symbolic heat. I was sitting next to him when he turned facing me and said:

− "I guess, Nike, you must have already seen something very simple: your tents are oriented according to the order of the sky."

− "No, I have not noticed anything, what do you mean?"

− "It is very clear; Nike, but I will explain it to you. Think you are in one of those nights in early spring when you can see them all. After dusk, you can see in the east Taurus barging in, and the tent, or the westernmost star of all your stars is Bruce-Aldebaran. You rose as a star while you were in his tent. Very close, the southernmost tent, Gemini on the shoulders of Orion the Hunter and Miguel-Castor and John-Pollux, together and bright. And although it is no longer used, there follows that which was your tent, imperceptible now, like Cancer, also your horoscope. And if we follow the order of the tents and the skies, then comes the abode of the lions, already all together, with Lucy-Algieba, Luke-Denebola and now also Nike-Zosma and of course Paul-Regulus and soon little Kirsten-Elased or Bruce-Ras Elased Australis, finally five. Close, of course, is their grandmother, and in her mansion Virgo illuminated by Olivia-Spica. A place where Libra should be, since all of you are balance and the last one rising those nights, she who is the first, Mistress Oakes-Antares, the Scorpion that we can now watch."

   It was a year ago that we were owners of stars, but with Nigel bonfires became symbolic and he placed us in our right place. Magic and celestial order for eight acolytes of the new priest.

   But he still had something to add two nights later, on day 15. I reminded him the conversation about the order of the skies in our tents and he said:

− "I've been thinking about something else. I guess that even if now you cannot see it, you can remember the shape of Leo – I confirmed it-. Well, first remember what Luke told you one day. Imagine its drawing without Zosma. It is indeed a number two inverted looking west. The constellation is meaningless without you. Look at it this way. So that Denebola and Algieba can meet, they must find Regulus, and so happened that Lucy and Luke have had Paul. And if you follow the lines, Zosma and Algieba flow into Elased: Lucy and you. But you can draw another line of three and actually Denebola, Zosma and Algieba, Luke, you and Lucy flow into Ras Elased Australis.

   My heart leapt at the thought that my life was written in the skies. At least for Nigel. I thanked him for his symbols from my depths.


 

   Summer heated by lights of symbols, rather than by embers, spells and bliss. Since then, Nigel was as constant in the bonfires as the previous piles of firewood. Year 30 of new basilisks ready to bite by the river. On day 27, Nike recalled the bite that had changed his life and it was that night when Nigel taught him to play chess, but his life did not depend on a checkmate. It took him six months to be able to defeat him. But not so Olivia, who had learned in her teens, and who was, so many years without that pleasure, a great player. On day 30 Nigel was with them celebrating the birthday of the three, and Nike learned, as another gift, the word almucantarate, and knew that it was the minor circles parallel to the horizon of the place. He remembered how a year ago he had been bitten again by love and surprise; everything had started when falling in love with Luke. He made love to him passionately, memorizing Nike’s body in case one day he lost him and the King Beggar noticed it and mistakenly thought that Luke could be afraid of the prophecy, and did not know that he was actually afraid that one day he could be reached by misunderstanding, when his love was sincere. On August 2 Lucy radiated in the bonfire more beautiful than ever, already close to a second birth, recalling that one year ago she had been reached by love again and since then she had bled of love for Nike.

   The mornings in the Thuban were a second learning with no fangs. Richard, Luke and Nike joked alone or with the other waiters Oliver and Regina. In early August, Walter Hope was on holidays and days began to be more bearable without him. Samuel spoke little, sometimes saying that Nike had changed his job, but not his place, but he within a month would no longer be there. She who would become the President came to the bar daily, and although it was difficult for her to joke with Luke, it is true that it was increasingly easier for her to get intimate with him.

   Nike mentally resolved that on October 4, when he had been one year in the street, it would be the limit for righting the wrong between Miguel and Luke. He could not suffer to see distant those who had liked each other so much and let alone to know that he had something to do in that separation. But he momentarily forgot it the night of August 3. It was a year ago that The Luminous Beggar had distributed the stars. That year the same night was also a night of gifts. Nigel was speaking with Mistress Oakes about the motifs by Verôme. And everybody joined them.


 

− I think that last night I went crazy - Nigel said to Mistress Oakes-. I still know very little of all this, but speaking with Shirley after dinner... well, I came to another interpretation of your motifs by Verôme. No wonder you tell me that many people have felt, say, invoked, to those words. I believe that they are the sephirot."

− "The sephirot? –She asked-. What are they?"

− "It is the plural of sephirah in the Kabbalah."

− "The Kabbalah? –I asked-. What are you talking about, Nigel?

− "The Kabbalah is a school of esoteric interpretation of the Jewish Torah. It seeks a hidden sense of the messages of the Bible."

− "My father spoke to me sometimes of the Kabbalah - said Luke-, but he had been a Catholic priest and did not believe it much."

− "He had not gone then from the macroposopos to the microposopos."

− “Nigel - laughed Lucy-, we are simple people. What do you think we can understand?"

− "Greater face and lower face respectively in Greek. Look, the macroposopos means what is potential, and the microposopos means what is present. You go from what may be to what now it really is. Between both is located Tehom, the abyss. But let's stop this. I wanted to tell you about the Sephirot and your motifs by Verôme. The Sephirot, the numbering, the ten emanations from God through which the world was created. "

− "Let's see." - said John, quite interested.

− "Let’s see –Nigel went on saying. It was good to know that far from considering us illiterate, like so many others, he believed we were capable of understanding it-. The first sephirot is Keter, The Crown, the hidden intelligence, the light that gives the power of understanding of the first beginning, which has no start. For you there is no power of understanding without going through Shade, or the creative Liberty, which comes from all. And it is you, Mistress Oakes, the first emanation, after which the others arrived. The second is Chokhmah, wisdom. Oh, it seems that your third motif by Verôme comes earlier. It is enlightening intelligence. But would anything shine so much in learning as Horror? Even Hunger is a good teacher."

-"I.e. If I follow you correctly, my life changed when I met Olivia." -Mistress Oakes interrupted.

− "So it is – he smiled-. Thirdly comes Binah, understanding. Well, here comes at last your Wisdom. It creates faith, and perhaps it does not arrive without Cold. Among its titles, it is also known as Aima, bright fertile mother. And that's you, no doubt, Lucy. The fourth is Chesed, mercy. I would call it Dignity. But the best of you is that you have taught me the other side: worthy is he who is surrounded by Scarcity. From it emanate spiritual virtues. It is no wonder from it emerges the "rich beggar", Bruce – he looked at him smiling."

− "You make me feel important, Nigel. Now I have to learn the word Chesed. I am not worth much, but thank you."

− "The fifth one is Gevurah, courage. It already announces your motif by Verôme: Greatness, but you have found its opposite and there is no Greatness without Temptation. Do you agree, Miguel?"

− "Of course my path is made up of both and perhaps also of its double side – he added watching Luke-: Treason."

− "The sixth one is Tiferet, Beauty. You've always been right, Mistress Oakes at the thought that the sixth and the seventh sign are interchangeable, therefore now we go with Luke. It is mediating intelligence and it is a look at the harmony of things. It is also a sacrificed God. Harmony comes from mixing the beauty of God’s emanations, with the Dirt with which men stain it. But both are necessary."

− "Then comes Netzach, eternity, and look what they say of it: is the hidden intelligence because it is the splendor of intellectual virtues. It is clear, isn't it?: Clarity, which if it is hidden becomes Exclusion. These intellectual virtues are really present in you, John."

− "Thank you for this gift, Nigel. I would have to answer as Bruce did. You are generous: now I have to learn the word Netzach."

− "Your motifs by Verôme come to an end, but not the Sephirot. Then we will see what we can do. Finally we arrive at Nike: Hod, splendor. Is it not Commotion? But nothing indicates in the Sephirot that its opposite is Shame, because Nike has not known it. But your words reinterpret the world."

− "Behold your motifs by Verôme conclude. But the Sephirot are ten. Some start again with Daat, the eleventh, we could say. You have always believed, Mistress Oakes, the motifs by Verôme were eleven, but you have believed in more things. Since you knew him, you sensed that Nike is able to see what you can’t - I started. I had already told him my whole story until July 2, when I met him. He turned to me-: go back, Nike, to the morning of November 20. You had slept with your husband for the first time and were going to spend the first night of love with your wife that day and plant the seed for your second child; you headed for Norman Wrathfall’s funeral. The three of you spoke awhile and you left. And you told me with these words: "We talked about more things on that bright morning of love and creation. But in the midst of them death awaited us as grief.” Here, Mistress Oakes, in Nike’s words, you have your three missing motifs by Verôme: Love, Death and Creation. You have guessed there is a gift that is in all of them, in all of them is born and it may be the ninth sign: Recognition of Acceptance or Love. Let’s see it with the Sephirot. Ninth is Yesod, the Foundation. It is pure intelligence. It corrects the design of the representations of the emanations, is in all of them and as your universe also rectifies. Tenth is Malkuth, the Kingdom. Everything has been fulfilled, i.e. death. And finally it comes, for many, Daat, knowledge, because death is not the end of everything. Perhaps in the three signs missing you, it is possible to create. It is confidence in the future. It is no longer to recreate; you can create. Eleven at the end."

− "You are extraordinary, Nigel. Yes, I believe that all my life I've been seeing, without knowing them, the first Sephirot. And I'm not going to die, thanks to you, without knowing the last three. I sensed when I met Nike, with him I would learn the name of the three I did not know. And I also like knowing that I'm not crazy: motifs by Verôme or Sephirot. Many people have felt them."


 

    It was a summer of bright mirrors, clear lights and ornamental rays, but trees were not magnifying glasses and the days passed without burning. Only there was a day of true summer those months. It was again on August 6. Luke and Nike had sensed that it would be again the same day and from many days ago they preferred to be hungry than to leave Lucy alone. This time James was there, for once he finished his studies, he wanted to come every day waiting for the second coming he did not want to miss. Nike recalled that he had been present at the first childbirth, knowing that it was really important for him, ignorant that he was watching his son come to life. Lucy wanted to also give birth in the street and, just in case, Nigel Matts, now on holidays, was also present with the promise to take Lucy to hospital if she really needed it. He was there and he saw the birth of the second son of his dear Three.

   At the same time as a year earlier, Lucy gave a cry and the tent was attended by her mother and Mistress Oakes and Luke and Nike came in too, while the others were nervous waiting outside. The two parents did not know what to do, but witnessed the second miracle. You could see the head now and without knowing they started to cry really moved. Knowing who the one who had arrived was, Nike came out and announced to everyone, as Luke had done a year ago:

− "It has been Kirsten."

   And Bruce, far from being sad because his copy had not arrived, embraced Nike intensely. The latter returned to the tent just to notice how Olivia was holding the empress actually bathed in tears. She met Kirsten again so many years later. But she did not forget Paul who was also in the tent, in Luke’s arms. And Olivia made him throw kisses to his sister.

− "Look at her, Paul; I know you are going to love each other a lot."

  He had never given such a strong kiss of love as the one Nike gave Luke at that moment.

− "Look at your daughter, my love. Your will has made that we are already five. And our empress has been born from your beauty."

   Lucy smiled happy seeing how the two men of her life loved each other. She knew that she had to go all the way with them.

   That day Luke and Miguel made a truce, and when he held Kirsten, the latter said:

− "Congratulations, Luke. May life fill you with happiness. You deserve it."

− "Thank you, Miguel. So it will be, thanks to the beauty that all our fellow mates offer us also."

   The next day they would be distant, but on August 6 there were no stray arrows and between the two fellow mates only flew some fireflies.


 

−Finally you can behold my whole family: Lucy, my wife; Luke, my husband; and my two children, Paul and Kirsten. Impossible to describe what words or tears dedicated Samuel, Anne-Marie and your cousin Rich, Protch, to the empress.

−The little king, the empress... you will be a grandfather even if you did not have any children – Protch told me-. How I would like to get to know them, give them hugs and kisses, love them, educate them, laugh or cry with them.

−To be two more grandparents and get to know your partners, Nike. We love you so much as if you were our own child. Let me cry - concluded Maudie.

−You will know them, I promise. Just as their uncle Gerald got to know them. On the very August 6, in tears and with joy, Olivia suddenly came to talk to me and told me that his brother had also cried for Kirsten and it was about time he could meet her again; she was happy that Lucy, Luke and I were in contact with him. And on August 7 he met her. It touched me his tearful glance and how he embraced her. "I can see you again, Kirsten, in a new shape. Always stumbling, life has finally been generous with me. I will help you to walk, you empress. Your uncle Gerald will respect you in any road you choose in life". So of course you can be their grandparents, dear Protch. Soon you will know them.


 

− 'Come, Nike. We have finally arrived - we had gone up to Knights Hill and there we were, Luke and I, close to that shocking elm-. Add your name."

   I painted my name on that heart which had formerly been read Lucy and Luke. At the bottom, I wrote a plain Nike, joined the three lines and drew another arrow: Kirsten Prancitt - Rivers. This time it was easier to register her with the surnames of her brother. But there on Knights Hill, you can see the five names and on hot days you will see on the hill glittering, regal ornaments, the rays of enamelled gold for an empress among the elms.