Memory Island

Chapter 2

Don’t think too much. After all, there have always been wars and there always will, as well as all kind of clashes among people.

A part of him, however, was strongly opposing this deterministic vision of the world, and by doing so it was sending a vibration stemming from the base of his neck down to the bottom of his spine.

He felt that thought too simplistic. It was the consequence of his struggling to stop thinking. Aligning himself to the daily routine, repeating the same patterns over and over again; that, too, was a way to avoid looking at the screen.

If I don't see, I don't think.

Take everything else for granted. After all, ours is the time of Men believing to be God, isn’t it?

This last thought made David shiver. His eyes rose to embrace the stars, which were now dotting a pitch black sky.

What was that screen showing him, really? As far as his memories go, he knew he had been taught that Men have brought God down so close to them to humanize Him, when the opposite failed to happen. Today, there is no intention to reach out for the Source of all creations, the unfathomable Artificer of the Universe, wherever He might be; on the contrary, since God is not visible, the simplest way to have Him close, was to pull Him down at Man’s level. This action was caused by the idea that the Ego is the very image of God, and the ultimate truth of the world. More than that, since the Absolute Truth can’t be found, we have quit searching, in the illusion that what we possess – or can have – daily is enough; the practical consequence of such a conviction is nothing more than an endless clash of egos brought about to control reality and, therefore, to control God.

David couldn't recall where he had acquired such knowledge, but for some reason looking at that screen had triggered this awareness. He felt the full weight of that revelation pounding on his chest, crushing and smothering him. Was this the focal point of the misery he just saw? And what is this Ego which pretends to know, and becomes the truth of everything?

What was pretty clear to David, from the encounter with the stranger up to the vision in the ocean, was that the use of force and aggression showed the actual nature of men: creature seeking the others for the ultimate purpose of mutual annihilation, where the duality is marked as a difference. It is always the other who is “different".

The stranger had proved to David that if aggression aims at eliminating what is different, so that the only accepted point of view would be the one proposed by the assailant, the dialogue, on the other hand, would be the only viable solution to harmonize the conflict.

Maybe the dialogue was not strong enough in a world consumed by Egos.

David could no longer bear it. He had turned away from the ocean but his mind had not shut down. He felt like screaming his will to search for answers. There must have been others like him, who had been made aware of the mortal danger in which Man was burying himself. He was so sure, now, that what he had seen was happening right at this very moment, somewhere, and that he was bound to that agonizing world.

Now he had to find a way to know more about it. He needed to find the truth.

“Anything”, he said to himself, “I am prepared to give anything, even if that means to crush God himself.”

CHAPTER 3. THE ROUGH ASHLAR

Since he had been on the island, David was back to what he remembered he had always loved: nature and silence.

It seemed liked the island had all he needed: there was abundance of fruit to pick, and wild game to haunt; the water from the river was of the purest quality; his shelter, the one where he had awoken some time ago, was a solid wood-and-stone hut which stood solitary near the cliff, South of the massive mountain range which was the heart of the island. The first thing David had done after opening his eyes had been exploring the hut: he found tools and materials for all sorts of activities. He discovered documents telling the story of the island, but they were incomplete and scattered all over the place. By reading what he could find, David learned of the existence of micro communities dwelling in the North, on the other side of the mountains. A legend from those people spoke of the hut as being built in long-forgotten times by using the magnetic grid of that part of the Universe. Alchemical formulas had been employed to ensure its ever-lasting, perfect conditions, and its magical properties untouched. According to the papers, the hut was conceived as a dimensional Stargate through which one could travel from one zone to another in the Multiverse. About whom had built the hut, however, David couldn't find any information.

David was sitting at the oak table laid on one side of the large room, working on a big block of granite. Although completely ignorant about stone-hewing and sculpturing, David had made a good use of what the hut provided. There were tools suitable for stone carving and much more: brushes and canvas for painting, countless of blank sheets for writing, musical instruments for playing. There was also a seemingly unused oven for melting metals.

David had chosen the stone, maybe because it was the first object presented to its view upon coming back from dark to light, when he had opened his eyes: the object was a rough stone as taken from a quarry, gray in color, shapeless, resting solidly upon the thick wooden table. The cutting and hewing tools were neatly lined-up upon the working slab nearby: Chisels, spatulas, knives, wedges, files, and hammers.

In the beginning, David had only tried the stone work for few minutes but now, after days of trials and practice, he was able to work for an hour straight to smoothen and rounding the corners, to hew, cut, brush, and carve. He liked to see the stone changing under his hands, even though he had no idea of what results would have come out of it.

He was striving, trying to square an angle, when he felt a strong presence: someone was watching him. The window facing the East hosted a strange shadow; a long, oval shape was observing the room from the outside.

David perceived it with the corner of the eye, and the intense and oppressing stare he felt made him shiver.

He immediately looked up toward the window, and the shadow swiftly backed up, disappearing. David thought he knew who it was: the stranger probably had come back and was watching him. He jumped off the seat and ran to the door. He swung it open, turned the corner of the hut and looked at the southern side: too late, there was nobody anymore. David ran back to the door and went past it, so to have the complete view of the plains stretching in front of him. It was at least four miles of open ground to its left, until the Western Mountains, and more than twenty toward the mountains. If anybody would have been near the hut and ran away, it couldn't have avoided to be spotted, whatever direction he would choose to go, except of course jumping off the cliff.

Was David really sure of what he had seen? Couldn’t have it been an optical illusion or a trick of the light, after having spent too much time working on the stone?

His mind simply refused to give any logical meaning to the impossible.

Confused, David turned slowly toward the door, went back into the room, and there he froze, shocked: someone was sitting at the table, working on the rough granite. His face was hidden in the shadows, his hands moving frantically grating, breaking, ripping the granite apart. David moved few steps forward in the attempt to see the intruder's face.

- Who are you? – His voice trembled.

The man in the shadows kept on working, then he spoke, with a hissing sound:

- You know well who I am. You didn’t do a good job with this Rough Ashlar. Sculpting is definitely not your forte. -

- I’m learning, I don’t have to show it to anyone – said David.

- You’re dead wrong – replied the other – you must always show to be the best, if you don’t want to be crushed by the others. -

- I prefer to watch who is better than me. You seem really good at it, – concluded David.

The sarcasm in his voice didn’t go unnoticed. The man stopped his work, dropped hammer and chisel on the table and slowly rose. His face was still hidden in the dark, and David felt a strong impulse to grab him, drag him out of that corner, and put him under full light.

- Your life is a continuous flow of miserable attempts to know and understand, but you don’t realize that, year after year, you miss the fundamental point: life is a competition of minds; life if physical struggle, dominion of vital space. If you don’t understand this, you will never know how to win – shouted the creature, coarsely.

David was hypnotized by the resolute and convincing tone of the other. He felt as if hit on his stomach at every word. Perhaps the intruder was right, David thought, but then he remembered the words of the old man he had met by the cliff:

“To have the courage to see where things go...There awaits the truth” he had said. Then, David’s reply came softly and fluidly out of his mouth:

- You are talking about a very materialistic level of life, but there are things that go beyond that, which are not limited by what we see. -

- Moron and ignorant! – Roared the other, in anger – You don’t deserve to exist, I would be free without you! -

David went on, with confidence:

- You exist so that I can go beyond the blind arrogance and the useless violence of the world. I see you now, I recognize you. -

- I see you and I deny you! – Retaliated the other, stepping out of the dark and running toward David. Instead of the expected impact, the intruder dashed through him as if it were an inconsistent being. Then, he vanished.

David didn’t need to turn to know that the door had never opened, and that nobody had ever come in or gone out beside himself. Still, he had to admit and accept to have had that confrontation with someone who had his own face.

To keep his mind from shattering, it was necessary for him to recognize and accept the irrational and the absurd, even before understanding it, because this is what the island was offering.

David was not sure to have fully grasped the meaning of that impossible encounter. What was clear, though, was that he had been able to identify the difference the moment he had accepted it.

That was the only way he had won the confrontation against other self.

CHAPTER 4. THE BEAST

The pathway was barely visible in the semi-darkness of the forest.

Skinny trees intertwined their long, angular branches up high like crippled fingers, forming a dense, ghastly dome. Clusters of purple thorns grew at the end of the branches, and David had to walk very carefully not to touch them. The wind was not helping either, for the trees swayed and twirled in a macabre and fluctuating dance before his tired eyes. The trees seemed indeed living creatures who stretched their claw-like twigs in the attempt to grab him.