Lurking on the Tightrope

Prologue

Prologue

While evil may not be created by apathy or indifference, it flourishes amidst those who perceive themselves as innocent. They do not self-identify as appeasers, deniers, or apologizers. However, this particular man who challenges himself to think big and to reflect as honestly as he can, wonders about how he has stopped, and sometimes failed to stop, the evil that has continually crashed into his quest. It lurks everywhere, even in the world’s most beautiful places, sometimes gushing as ferociously in bullying, lies, and gossip as when expressed in violence and hateful rage.

But now it is finally time to clear his mind. Nathan Patrick deserves some peace.

Confident all is set and secure, Nathan shuts down his computer, finishes his iced coffee, turns off the lights, and exits his office through the sliding glass door leading out to the park meadow.

The sky is patched with streaks of crimson and purple and the pre-dusk air feels particularly chilled and aqueous. He breathes coolly, enjoying only the sounds of birds, swaying leaves, and the mountain river stream. The historical Hawaiian park closed to visitors nearly an hour earlier, and it is back to its natural state, free of human interference.

Nathan is aware of how relieved he feels. How odd, he thinks, that there would be any peace when attacks are coming from all sides. When did he last feel like this? Years? He very often envisions himself in a sphere, fighting away threats all along the perimeters. He never gives up the battle to protect the center. The core. For what he believes in.

Tomorrow morning he is supposed to begin his annual boating trip around the Hawaiian Islands. This time it will be solo. He realizes he looks forward to the isolation. No TV, cell phones, or alarm clocks. Every day will just happen without a schedule and he will capture serenity in remarkable photographs of the ocean, coasts, and sunsets. Maybe he is destined to be a lone wolf, after all.

For the next two weeks, he won't necessarily have to be thinking about his divorce, his organization's personnel troubles, the likelihood that he is once again being stalked, or anything else unpleasant. Even more, he coaches himself, he must not obsess about something that has come back from his past, 20 years ago or so, to try to wreak havoc on his life and his mission.

Perhaps most importantly, earlier this month he discovered news that will transform everything. Eventually. News so phenomenally good that he can spend the trip thinking about dreams, not difficulties.

A man of routine, Nathan is strolling the entire park pathway, which is a companion to the river stream flowing down from the mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Before trips of any duration, this leisurely walk helps clear his thoughts and reminds him of what has been achieved, and what is still left to do.

Nathan stops at one of his favorite places in the park, the Wailele Bridge. The visitors and tourists during the day always huddle on the southern side, gazing at and photographing the waterfall. But he favors the northern view, where some of the thickest hulking trees in the ahupua’a line the river stream, enhancing the telescoping, tunnel-like visual effect, when following the currents down as far the eye can see. He has captured this on camera, with still photos and video, but only feels the full magic when physically on the bridge. And alone.

Nathan sits on the edge, dangling his legs over the side of the bridge’s wooden planks, and relaxes into a trance-like state as he recalls one of the quotes he favors pondering. C.S. Lewis said, "You do not have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body."

Time falls away, into the tide. He is partially asleep. Nathan envisions his soul standing in the stream, unmoved by the currents, looking up at him. It is in the shape of a body, but faceless and made of water.

He has complete peace...

Yet, something important to learn.

In a flash, he witnesses his figure savagely stabbed by numerous knives and daggers, simultaneously, from all sides. Nathan splashes apart into a million drops of water, falling back into the stream.

Vanished.