Public Domain Science Fiction Writer Wai Z contents

Samsarapho awakes

The waves rolled in inevitably. Does the sea change? In and out, in and out, up and over, up and over. Shhh….er….sh. Shh..i..sh. Shhhhhh …..errrr…umm…um. Each wave different as it rolls over, an apparent life of its own. Now look away, and there is the sea - it is just the sea.

This time Samphor emerged rolling in on the wave. She imagined it saying Samphor .…here ….Samphorrr, but who would hear? It mattered little for who could see, her body transparent against the water and her silver mane mingling unobtrusively with the moonlight spattering amongst the waves. It was her time to come and clean, she was cleaning the jenns. As the bipeds settled into their own cycle of recharging some part of the jenns would be released, and she came to measure them. They told her that's what she was supposed to do.

She once asked Femphi "Why do we do this?"

"It is our food," replied Femphi with the resigned impatience of the elder.

"I know it is our food," Samphor expelled exasperatingly "but it is strange that we eat these waste products of the bipeds. Do they know we do this?"

Femphi smiled. Samphor asked again to no avail as the smile remained constant. At another time she asked why they called it cleaning the jenns, and again Femphi smiled "It is what ….."

"…. we do" continued Samphor in her mind, but what if we didn't do it, if we didn't clean the jenns. It is cleaning being, this thought came with an impact that shattered Samphor and the waves rolled her into rocks. She gathered herself her mane having split off in several directions, and as she rolled back out to sea she thought about cleaning being, such a strange idea. She would tell Femphi and then she saw his infuriating smile so that plan was soon finished. But not the thought of measuring being, that stayed with her.

The wave echoed Samphor .…here ….Samphorrr, and brought her back. Gathering herself she floated to a rock where she might then have been described as seated. She watched her detached silver mane dancing on the moonlight as it was drawn towards the jenns. As the mane contacted the link she was drawn forward, a graceful magnetism attracted to the sleeping biped.

Hovering above she watched and sure enough the biped turned from side to side - her call to action. Her mane formed a chord and attached itself to the centre of the sphere of the biped, and then she found herself floating towards her host as the chord shortened like elastic returning to its original length. She hovered there briefly sensing the jenns of the biped, then she took her leave as the smile appeared on the lips of the erstwhile host. Her food ingested she felt satiated, and the jenns of her host seemed fine. She had once felt a prickliness as her mane had touched the heart of one biped, and she quickly withdrew to search further leaving a frown as it disappeared.

"Those jenns did not clean well, did they?" asked Femphi, and smiling he turned away dismissing Samphor's incessant questioning. Why does she ask about what others just do? But she appeared to perform her duties satisfactorily every time he checked.

-*-

Sam Aaron Phillips, Sarpo to his friends, and Sap to many who tried to take advantage staggered out of the bar to be blasted by the night air. He staggered forward, his 45 degree angle looking destined to collapse, and then a part took hold as he meandered to the taxi. He was known, they made their money and he was never trouble. Soon he found himself bundled in his chair and sleep took over. He awoke as he often did with this feeling of someone asking "Aren't you fed up of this yet?", but this disquiet soon got buried beneath the alcoholic stupor and the haze drifted into sleep again. Part of Sarpo's sanity lay in hitting bottom. This had been a common practice amongst those of an earlier generation but his own rarely escaped the straightjacket of their upbringing. For Sarpo he had been fortunate - as well as being unfortunate, the misfortune had been the fortune. Aaron Phillips senior was well-to-do, and expected Sam to follow in father's footsteps - not uncommon in their stratified society where it was necessary to protect your own. A certain form was required of Sam, a code of conduct, a way to behave, that was essential so that Aaron Phillips senior was not let down, and Sam dutifully complied with this as he grew up.

But at his final stage of education, the necessary freedom required to focus on that level of work also took Sarpo away from his rigid upbringing. After having travelled he spoke to his mother once "It is hard for our society to bring up children properly as there is no consistency of standards of behaviour. In other societies you can see the advantages of family duty and the importance placed on such duty, a pressure that would mean that the child would never go against their parents.

"But," Sam continued trying to be as polite as possible but recognising that he was deeply disturbing his mother "the standards in those societies are similar for all families. In our society our fierce egos have determined a right for all people to determine the standards that their children are raised by. There is no communal practice of upbringing, no expectation on others that they help with social behaviour. And usually this right is used in a negative sense, we have the right to bring children up how we feel but we have no social responsibility in that. Children run amok on our streets, not just poor children, whilst adults stand by and see these untrained minds causing violence and using drugs to escape the consequences of their upbringing. What can the adults do but stand by, if not the parents will attack the adults. "What are the police for?" they argue, but the police are for extreme cases and not each individual situation that the community should be looking after. No we've gone crazy.

"But some families manage to pull through and the reason is love, a love that brings a family together, a love that is not concerned with money and position but respect and consideration for each other. This love and consideration is not pampering, this love is not showering the children with possessions so that the child then appears to be well looked after. This love is not showering the child with possessions so that the child can appear well-to-do in front of their friends. It is a timeless love that for generations has held families together and not allowed parenting to be confused by the issues of ego at the time."

Sam's mother smiled and offered the platitude that his father worked because he loved us both, but she had accepted a duty long ago, a mother's duty and a wife's duty, that was not open to argument. Such matters cannot be open to that level of scrutiny, it is what is done.

Anyway Sam had moved away from what was expected, hit bottom, and sadly come up with a path that allowed him to drink. This Path was based vaguely in Truth but lacked a consistency and discipline his fate might have liked him to strive for. In later years he assigned it to meditation being erratic, a sporadic religious experience combined with occasional creative highs rather than the steady progress daily nourishment can bring.

So he dabbled in the Path, he recognised the need to follow his True Path but the truth of it had been twisted a little to allow the intrusion of alcohol. Occasional dry periods led to insights but he accepted this partial approach as a sacrifice to his needs of daily life and the stress entailed. And throughout this, a voice in the middle of the night kept asking through the haze "Aren't you fed up of this yet?"

He had found a girl who could tolerate some of his excesses but sadly she bore the cross of wanting to save him and this formed the basis of their relationship. Sam and Alice took a holiday on an island. It was an island of great beauty, an island of dreams. The sun shone, the surf meandered in slowly of an evening. The sands on the beach were silken, not too hot, but gentle enough to glide over arm-in-arm, in between the wonderful food, a mood that only nature could create. Alice began to congratulate herself on a successful conversion whilst Sam sucked into the magic of nature.

But one evening the bubble burst as habit kicked in and Sarpo began to drink quite heavily. It snuck upon them as they had previously had the occasional drop but not enough to spoil the mood. It started innocuously.

From the terrace of the restaurant they sat there quietly staring at waves rolling in, occasionally disturbed by the warning buzz in the ear that the repellent was wearing off. Alice called over the waiter and asked for a coil to be brought, and "a beer and whiskey for me" piped in Sam.

"Are you sure?" she asked without thinking, she hated it when he had chasers. And then bit her lip, she knew the mood had changed. She kept quiet and tried to ride it out but she saw inside Sam the demon that her inadvertent comment had awoken.

Inside Sam the voices were working double time. She can't leave that dam temperance God at home. Here we are on an island paradise, everything is going well. The sea, the surf, a few quiet beers, and oh no - she has to call in the Salvation Army. Oh come on, Sam, let it ride. It was only one comment she made, and she's not pursuing it. Let it be. But sadly that comment got submerged by the next swallow, and then he pursued a tack the demon knew would cause a rift.

"Look at these girls, so pretty," his arm grandly sweeping an all-encompassing semi-circle. "Don't get me wrong, you're very attractive," he paused for effect and quickly took another drink "You are very attractive, you know," he smiled winningly, or so he thought.

In fact it did remind her of something, the first time they met. He had seen her across the bar and lurched; weaving he managed to reach her without knocking over drinks or disturbing anyone. She smiled and laughed when she thought he expected it. They exchanged numbers, she thought that was the easiest. Anyway he wouldn't remember, and if he did - maybe it was a once off.

An inauspicious start, she now wished she had given him the wrong number she had thought of doing. And now he was lauding the virtues of island girls - "they are so attentive they make you feel wanted," she overheard that rambling. Yeah, she thought, these men are the paycheque if this is not upfront prostitution then in the long term the price will be paid.

"And they make such good wives, it's their tradition, their culture," continued the tactful politician. "It is a shame that women in our society have forgotten how to keep the family unit together. It is no good …."

"Both men and women making the same demands in a relationship," she mimicked in her mind. Is it? Oh yes, it's the yin-yang. Masculine and feminine principles. Very sound, very rational, and definitely truth in it.

But not truth for her now, for this drunken slob is probably going to clamber all over her tonight. She drank a few more to combat the fumes that would descend on her, and from that moment she was waiting for the plane, the plane that would lead to a quiet separation.

Sam had missed much of what went on that night, he remembered drinking too much but the evening seemed to go pleasantly. Once back in the bungalow he needed the toilet due to the booze - exotic food combination. This gave Alice a chance to feign sleep. When Sam finally reached the bed, he looked with resignation at his sleeping companion. "No island girl would desert her man like this," he muttered drunkenly to himself "she would know her duty". He lay down beside Alice thinking of this idyll as soon his demon took over and he lost consciousness.

In the middle of the night again he woke in a haze and the voice was saying "you know better and now you have dragged me into this, have you no shame?" The drink turned him over and sent him to sleep again.

Samphor breezed in on a wave. Although the night was cool she felt good. Her friends on the wind called to her and as she rolled in she felt the trees greet her. She lay on her rock and watched the waves trickle in with the moonlight occasionally triggering a show. It was a night the bipeds called atmospheric but in reality that meant her playmates were out. She watched the wind in the trees, the branches overhanging the surf as the moonlight paraded past. In the background geckoes greeted her, such noisy creatures for their size. The chirruping, she listened again, it's the cute things that rub their legs together to say hello! She whiled away her time turning from one to the other and smiling at each in turn. She liked to take the time for all, not all her kind were like that. Was it smiling? She allowed the use of the biped word, she felt the jenns when she had finished and a smile crossed their lips. Yes she was smiling.

Nature called and she must follow. She sent off part of her mane and it alighted on Sarpho. A crow crossed her path - an omen, when she finished here she would consider the omen. As she was drawn towards Sarpo she realised that the omen concerned him. She was pulled into the sad creature. His body was full of poison, his jenns were very strong but buried beneath the poison that pervaded his being.

But he was strong underneath all of that, could the jenns help him with his poison? Sadly no, these humans do themselves so much harm.

She lay there with him feeling his pain. There was that strength underneath, she felt that as the jenns - well they were strong. To her these jenns emanated from the heart cascaded outwards so she saw these bipeds more as spherical although the edge of the sphere was not always clear - it kind of dissipated. But it was never as simple as that with these bipeds for there were always blocks, obstructions, of one form or another. Apparently they were constricted into this shape, Femphi had called it bipedal.

It was explained in their Phorlore:-

Phors measure jenns. Out in the land of solids Phors search for jenns. When the brightness goes and the silver moon enters that above our home we float into the land and join with the jenns. Once the agitation of the jenns has melted away into our own personal Phorsphere, we return to our home where the agitation floats away back and forth along the rolling waves.

Femphi had explained some Phorlore to her. "Each time we measure the jenns, something stays inside our own sphere. As we get older that part in us gets stronger and it enabled me to feel creatures other than Phors in our home."

"Other than Phors!" she exclaimed excited at hearing this the first time.

"Yes these creatures are called Silfs and have been around far longer than Phors. It is these Silfs that have given us Phorlore," he continued.

"What do you mean "given"?" she asked.

"According to Phorlore there are many creatures other than Phors, some that live in our home." Femphi explained "and some that live outside our home. The ones that live outside our home call their home "land". On this land live many creatures as in our home but the most important of these creatures is the biped for the bipeds have the jenns.

"There are many Silfs, the one I linked with was called Anieta. She said that according to Silflore when she was older she would hopefully link with Alphs who she thought were very important. But none were as important as the bipeds, and Phors are the only ones in our home that can link with bipeds."

"What did you mean "given"?" asked Samphor.

"When I linked with Anieta, I knew the Phorlore," Femphi said, this time answering her. "In that link I also learnt that Anieta was one of many Silfs who floated round our home to link with Phors like me - Phors who were old enough, ready to link. Maybe you will be ready when you are older and meet your Silf. Maybe they will be able to answer all your questions!!"

"But," Femphi continued, smiling again "the bipeds are the most important as they have the jenns."

"Why do we call them "bipeds"?" asked Samphor, she was on a good day, Femphi had never answered so much. "Are they not these funny spheres?"

He answered her with this. "This is part of Silflore that I gained from my link with Anieta".

"Bipeds are the most important creatures for they have the jenns. They do not know they have the jenns and they do not know how important the jenns are to all creatures, both at home and on land. When you go on land it is still, it does not move back and forth. On this land there are things which have shape and the shape of the creatures with the jenns is bipedal."

"Femphi, I am sorry to keep asking," asked Samphor, Femphi smiled to cover his irritation, "but what is shape and what is bipedal?"

"Honestly, Samphor," replied Femphi apologetically "I don't know. For these are words of Silflore that I don't truly understand. You must wait until you meet your own Silf when you are ready."

"But what …. why" stuttered Samphor more confused than before.

"Stop," Femphi imposed himself on Samphor "and listen very carefully to this. As elder I must explain some things to you, but the true way to learn is to feel, to understand of an instant, without thoughts and questions flashing across. Just instant understanding, a feeling that you know. Shape is this, bipeds are that. These are things you will know when you know them and not before. If I tell you things before you are ready you will not know them, they will be there inside you floating around. They will not be a part of you and that is not good for Phors."

"You are right, Femphi," agreed Samphor "I had this thought that measuring jenns was measuring being, and I don't know what it means. And it is there inside me and I don't know what to do with it."

"Yes so you can see why I say that you must be ready," replied Femphi pleased to have agreement from her. "And finally let me tell you something that happened to me on one of my last jenn searches. As I floated in to complete the link I felt very strongly that this biped had 4 streams of light pointing out from where we made the link, and that above the link there was another point that attracted my linkmaker. I leave that as a thought to float around inside." He left thinking this young one was special, so many questions ….. measuring being, what did it all mean for her? He worried about where her specialness would lead her, she was on a course he was afraid to follow.

Samphor felt her link with Sarpo, his jenns were so strong. Maybe if she worked with these jenns she would gain enough for herself that she would be able to link with Silfs sooner, or maybe even Alphs. She must work hard on Sarpo, she would only later know that she spent more time - too much time with him. She lay with him searching for his agitation, this biped had so much agitation. She tried to collect this agitation, it became harder and harder, but she determined to work at it as his jenns were so powerful.

A voice called in her head, it was Femphi from the past, "Phorlore warns us not to collect too much." She shrugged this off, that old Phor he would spoil anything, and she wanted these jenns. She kept the link going until she felt exhausted, she knew she would barely able to carry the agitation back home.

It was time to break the link so she withdrew her linkmaker, it would not move. She applied herself more and imagined she was floating back home. Slowly she began to float away from the biped but the link would not break, and gradually she got sucked back in. She tried several times more and each time she floated a short way but she got sucked back in. Finally she gave in and lay there, her linkmaker integrated into the biped.

Then she began to feel the agitation, she realised that she had not released it and she began to feel it grow more and more. Slowly it took her over and she just felt agitation, and then Sarpo woke up thinking "you know better and now you have dragged me into this, have you no shame?" As he turned over Samphor tried to detach herself from this agitation, and somehow by receding into her centre she was able to do so. She was a small little orb surrounded by agitation inside her own Phorsphere. Feeling helpless she cried - what did that mean? But it came to her again and she cried.

After crying she stayed still, then after a while she felt more active. She noticed that her own little orb was becoming enlivened from the agitation layer around it, she was feeding off the agitation. Becoming more enlivened she felt around her Phorsphere. She had previously noticed the small orb that she was now going to call Samphor, and then around that was the agitation some of which she could feed off. What about her linkmaker? She followed it, it was still linked with the biped. Maybe she could use that link? She held that thought for later.

Now Femphi had said she had an unusual questioning mind for a Phor, she must use it now but answer her own questions. What had happened? She had stayed too long in the link, she almost heard Femphi say "told you so". Well he was right but that didn't help her. How was she to break the link and get home?

She sensed movement, her hopes began to raise. She tried to sever the link but apart from feeling her sphere separate slightly from the biped there was no new freedom there. What could the movement be? It must be the biped. She had never felt bipeds move except for turning from side-to-side or smiling, they didn't move. She now felt a movement that was not floating. She gave into it, and began to feel this jerkiness as she was bounced from side to side. She withdrew into her orb and using her linkmaker she followed the link to the biped's jenns. That, of course, made sense now she thought of it, go to the source. Being with the jenns the jerkiness was greatly reduced, she wasn't floating nor was she being tossed side-to-side but she was moving steadily - not of her own volition. She understood, the biped was moving - she withdrew into her orb with sadness as she felt she was moving away from home.

Sam returned home with Alice, well he took her to her apartment and once her bags were inside she quietly asked him to leave, that she didn't want to be with him any more. He was tired, he'd had a long trip and to be honest compared to the island girls she didn't match up. He wanted a drink anyway, and left her there as he went to the bar with his bags. Several hours later he and his bags were dumped by the taxi at his flat and he went to sleep thinking he'd had a good holiday.

He still had some time left before he returned to work. Well today he would rest he was not feeling good after the session, and for the rest of the day he watched movies. The next day he awoke and began reading, he would get into this book and not let the booze get to him; he turned the phone off. By the end of the day he was tired and slept a good sleep - deep and not broken by alcohol dependence.

Samphor needed to watch how this new link worked, to understand the link might give her a way home. For a long time she had felt the biped moving, then a deep sadness suddenly cut short as he moved again and this time she found herself being bombarded by barbs. She found it necessary to retreat into her orb from these barbs as they formed a layer around the biped's jenns.

After a period where the biped did not move, she found that he moved slightly then there was another period of stillness as the barbs had mostly disappeared. But she felt better during this stillness. But there was a barbish haze present, if you like essence of barbs that remained as a layer round his jenns, and even using the link she could not remove it.

She thought back to the linkmaking. By removing the agitation she could produce a smile from the biped, perhaps she could learn to produce some other reactions in him. Maybe this would find her a way home - at the very least maybe she could stop the barbs.

Samphor and Sarpo had been together for several weeks but all Sam knew was that since his holiday his hangovers had been far worse. There had been several mornings he had sworn off the booze … but only until the evening. He had never questioned his drinking before, he held down his job and no-one depended on him so why didn't he drink? But his hangovers were affecting his work now - that was a bad sign.

For the time Samphor was connected to Sam, she had developed strange feelings and associated with these feelings new words entered her Phorsphere. Words like sadness, happiness, crying - these were words of the biped, but somehow through the link she was beginning to relate to these words. These were also associated with a vibration that she almost traced to the jenns - but not quite. The source of these feelings was not the jenns, she did not understand this as she saw the jenns as being the source of the biped - the centre of the biped's sphere, but around the jenns there was a layer she could not understand. This layer was always closest to the jenns, and now that she was so close to Sarpo she often found it a stumbling block to her linkmaker.

Sadness came to her as a quickening vibration but in the biped this vibration showed as a slump, they became a layer that blocked the jenns - but not initially. Then after several of these sadnesses, she noticed a change during their process. To begin with there was this quickening vibration, this was often caused by an interaction with something outside the biped's sphere. But then the biped seemed to hold onto the sadness, and it changed into a layer around the jenns and this other substance that she had called menns. Yes, the biped held onto the sadness and it became a layer.

But then she made an important discovery, she found that when the vibration changed it became agitation and she was able to remove this agitation for that was the food of Phors. So she now knew how to help this Phor, was it a way to help her get home?

She had not noticed it before when working with the bipeds but the agitation was not attached to the jenns but to this layer she called menns, and she realised that she had always fed from these outer layers. Then why was it called measuring jenns? The real problem was that this biped had so much agitation attached to his menns - and that was without this barbish haze. And she knew that she couldn't cope with all the agitation.

But something told her to apply herself to the barbish haze - that was the biggest issue; that was the way home? A strange thought or feeling. Well, the barbish haze was an after-effect from the barbs that came flying in at her and the jenns. She noticed that at certain times of the day the menns layer seemed to be calling for these barbs; it wanted them, it needed them. What was causing this?

But then she was stuck. The menns layer needed these barbs, and they then became this barbish haze. She was not going to experience those barbs again, immediately she felt one she had to hide inside her little orb. That pain. What was the biped doing bringing such pain inside it?

She had found that the best time to examine the barbish layer was when the biped was still, but that was usually after many of these barbs had come into the biped's sphere. She had watched and the jenns had pushed the menns towards the barbs, and this had somehow taken the sting out of the barbs leaving this remaining haze. And this haze was attached to that part of the menns layer that the jenns had pushed out. So she eventually realised that the attachment was only with part of the menns.

Using her linkmaker she tried to connect with this part of the menns, but it did not feel comfortable - it slowed her down. She began to look inside this menns and found hat there was a strong link between the menns and the barbish haze, at one area they were inseparable - the menns and the layer were the same substance. These barbs had eaten into the menns and taken it over. She touched that part of the menns, and it felt uncomfortable, worse it made her shudder. She touched it and recoiled, and as she did so she felt the biped jerk. Interesting, a direct connection to the biped. She tried again, and again the biped jerked. But this had been too much for Samphor and she had to withdraw into her little orb to recover. That morning Sarpo awoke with a terrific headache and was not able to go to work; the drink was getting to him, he thought.

To sort out the barbs she had to disconnect the menns from the barbish haze yet at the same time the jenns was connecting the menns to the barbish haze. This did not make sense to her for what the jenns did was right, but it made sense to her that the menns-haze connection be broken. Perhaps there was more to this, she must look into what happens when she tries to sever the connection to evaluate. Yet at the same time it hurt her to do this - hurt another biped word.

She waited for the next period of stillness, and she felt happier this time there had been no increase in the number of barbs. As she felt the menns-haze link she could feel tat it was not as strong. She applied herself through the linkmaker, and she found that she was able to weaken the menns-haze link but it weakened her greatly and she withdrew into her orb.

After resting she persevered and found that the link had been weakened and the barbish-haze was thinner, clearer. Seeing inside the biped's link she could see that although the menns and haze were inextricably linked it was directional - pushing outwards. The jenns was forcing this menns to push the barbish haze away yet also that part of the menns needed the link for its existence. As she saw the link clearing, she also saw that part of the menns was moving away with the haze that was separated, it was losing its existence. The biped did not need this part of the menns layer but whilst the barbish haze continued then this part of the menns must exist. But neither were part of the jenns. These bipeds were complicated or at least they made things complicated. Still she had managed to get rid of part of the menns-haze link and separated away the barbish haze that had just seemed to float away. She was exhausted and withdrew into her orb, and the next day Sarpo awoke feeling more refreshed than he had been in a long time; perhaps since he had started drinking, part of him thought.

Disaster. The barbs came again just before the stillness, many of them and they reformed the menns-haze link even stronger than it had been before the work she had done the last stillness. She cried, how was she going to get home making one step forward and two steps back? She summoned all her anger and directed it at the biped.

Sarpo had awoken feeling good but he'd had an awful day at work. They were beginning to notice that his work was deteriorating. They knew he drank, as many of them did, but it had never previously affected his work. Now they were worried, and he had been dressed down by his line manager. This had happened just before he left work, and he decided to have a quick drink to think about it, he met an old friend and the last he remembered was being bundled into a taxi.

That was until he awoke with a start. He had had the most appalling nightmare. He was alone on an island, and had fallen asleep. From the interior a wild animal had come to him. It was not a known animal, or not that he knew. Now that he thought about it, he couldn't picture it except that at the point of waking up this huge mouth with narrow fangs was about to swallow his head.

He thought over the nightmare as is often a good thing to do to learn, and he remembered that the creature couldn't find him. He had initially been frightened when he saw the beast, its fangs had gotten closer and closer. Frightened he waited with bated breath, and the creature came closer and closer. He didn't move and his mouth was closed trying not to breathe, not to make a sound. As it came up to him it halted, its mouth moving in one direction then another, its nostrils flaring. He noticed it couldn't see, it had no eyes. He smiled inwardly and waited for the creature to pass as it duly did. It moved on and silently he breathed out. And the mouth turned about to devour him as it had smelt the alcohol on his breath …..

It was then he woke up, another alcohol issue, he thought. This is crazy. All his adult life he had been drinking, and now daily he was getting pointers not to drink. And this nightmare had frightened him so much he couldn't sleep, and this time he did not head for the bottle.

Samphor stirs Sarpo

When Samphor had blasted her anger at Sarpo, the jenns had glowed - she had done something right. This was contact of a sort, and she must use it - to get home. That last part added as an afterthought, how strange?

But how? As she didn't really know what she was doing she stuck with what had worked before. She had managed to partially break the menns-haze link, however the biped had taken in more barbs. But when she had blasted the biped the jenns had glowed. I must repeat that again during the stillness, she thought.

Sarpo was now more and more concerned about the alcohol issue. After his nightmare he left it alone the following night leaving the phone off the hook just in case. That next night he slept soundly and felt refreshed the next morning. And he had a good day at the office, finding himself turning down a drink after work. He stayed at home watching movies and generally resting. Previously at such times he would have felt restless, kidding himself that he had too much energy to stay in. But in reality that restlessness was the mind and body making excuses to get him to partake. As he went to sleep he smiled to himself he could not remember the last time there had been two consecutive nights without drinking - yes he could, when he had been hit by a car after drinking. He had had to spend one night with a multi-coloured face in hospital checking for concussion, and then a week in bed recovering. He had laughed at himself, the reason they were concerned about concussion was that he had been so lively the night he was brought in - because of the alcohol. And the next day he was sober with a hangover and not so lively - and they thought he might have concussion.

That night Samphor found it so much easier to work on the link and she just prayed that the barbs would not come before the next stillness. Sadly that was not the case, and she blasted the biped even stronger than before. Yet again Sarpo had to take a day off with a major headache, only this time he resolved to seek medical advice.

For a long time he had been considering acupuncture. As part of his touching on the Path he had become aware of things Eastern, recognising that his own tradition was far too dominated by profit to be trustworthy. He began weekly treatments for the headaches but by the end of the week he was back where he started. He was told that he was wasting his money if he didn't give up the drink. Again the alcohol issue was haunting him.

He slept on the problem, and as usual Samphor was working on the link - she knew she was making progress. But that night she felt the jenns were stronger pushing through the menns and the barbish haze. She reached out to it and she felt a huge charge of light as she made first real contact with the jenns since leaving home. She felt so elated that she didn't withdraw into her orb, and the next day Sarpo decided he would try to give up the drink.

It was not easy although he was helped by acupuncture treatment he was given to compensate for the withdrawal symptoms. And it was particularly difficult on Fridays at the end of the working week, but over a period of time drink became an issue of the past.

Samphor touches Sarpo's Awareness

And as it did Samphor gained in assurance. She had realised early on that the biggest issue was the barbish haze. But once the barbish haze had been cleared she found that the biped had other hazes attached to the menns and other even darker patches. She was driven to try to deal with these.

"How?" she asked herself. Somehow she had known to try and deal with the barbish haze, and now she had to look at the other hazes and patches. It struck her that the jenns wanted her to do this, and she felt a glow at that thought. Funnily enough she had not thought of home.

Now that the drink was not an issue, Sarpo had hoped the headaches would disappear. Far from it they seemed to increase in number but lacking in the intensity associated with the drink. He had always known that he held onto issues. Rather than dismiss a boss's snide remark, he would hold onto it, analyse it and try to ensure that there was no need for the remark again. It would bounce back and forth in his mind gaining in momentum as he tried to work it out. But the momentum was with the thought itself and not the solution, he would think about the boss saying it, why to Sarpo, what was he going to do? Sometimes he would not even sleep.

But all of this was created in his own mind, for the boss had only made the comment as part of a strategy; a course in motivation had suggested a snide remark to the workers would pep them up. Of course that was supposed to alternate with positive comments, but he kept forgetting what he had said to whom. It didn't really matter.

But apart from work issues other issues arose. He began to think of Alice, he had not treated her well. They had had a nice holiday and he had then got plastered so she had walked out on him. He found that he truly liked her. Should he ring her? No, time had moved on. He suddenly felt a strong longing for her and he went with it, but soon that dissipated - a kind of release.

He began to think of other partners, and he found a similar pattern. Somehow the drink had managed to end each relationship although he had always rationalised it as something else. For each partner he dwelt on their relationship, what it had meant, and then gradually released any hurt and pain associated with it. As he did this he felt lighter and breezier, and much happier of a morning. Who needs the drink?

But the headaches remained, and he sought deeper inside himself for the solution. He traced his own timeline back, and found that he was unable to search into his childhood. They say that your early years have the greatest impact on your life, but his mind would not let him near those. Someone told him you should know why you have the parents that you do, and he tried to think of this. But he got tied up, he couldn't go back and look because the emotions were so strong. He kept thinking that it was still going on, his mother and father were still alive, and he couldn't dissociate from that. He would touch on the internal anger and frustration but would be unable to deal with it.

Once the barbish haze had disappeared Samphor had found her work easier. Each night she would map out the biped. Some parts of the menns would be attached to new hazes and multi-faceted patches, and she would plan to work on one each stillness. However gradually she discovered that these plans were wasted because at the next stillness the haze or patch would have been released. Slowly but surely this biped was beginning to express his jenns without restriction. The menns layer was becoming more transparent, and there were fewer and fewer of these disfigurements.

However within each stillness she saw there was one patch that was deep and impenetrable, and she feared it so avoided it; it was so enmeshed with the menns in some ways much worse than the barbish haze. It was so deep it almost penetrated to the jenns. Previously she had been unable to see it through the different hazes, but now it was clear. She saw the jenns trying to express themselves and mostly without restriction but those jenns nearest this particular patch were being worn away and sucked in.

She started to link with this and jumped back. There was so much pain, it seemed to go back forever. Again she tried to link but it was too much for her and again she jumped back. This time Sarpo woke up and he felt a strangeness inside, a strangeness that was suffering pain - his pain.

His jenns pushed him forward to try to deal with his past, and he pushed inside and felt both his pain and the strangeness. He felt the strangeness was helping him, an unusual thought. He moved his mind back in time and tried to penetrate his childhood blocks. At the same time Samphor now found it easier to melt away and release these blocks. Slowly but surely this deep impenetrable patch was loosening, one moment she would be working on it and then jump back to find that the jenns were pushing the biped to work on it.

He would tire or get frightened at what he was unleashing, and she would then come in and remove his agitation. At the same time she would work on the patch herself until she had to jump back because of the pain. Gradually one then the other cleared the way, and the childhood pain was released leaving his menns free of pain and free of barbs, hazes and patches. For once he could see clearly and to reward him his jenns surged a bright light inside his head. He felt elated as did she. What did he mean? So did she?

Samphor also experienced this bright light. How could she? That was for the biped. What do you mean biped, the thought came to her. She began to answer but answer who?

How could she feel elated? She - elated? It does not make sense to think of she?

I can feel elated, thought Samphor.

I am elated, thought Sarpo.

These are two thoughts, that is not unusual, but these two thoughts refer to two Is. Now I don't know what I means ….

I don't know what I means either ….

How can he have a dialogue in his head? Was he crazy? Was she crazy?

Slowly Samphor calmed and allowed the link to function. The linkmaker was now tight with the jenns, and she began to feel their power. You must make yourself known to him, came the thought.

And summoning all her strength she felt I am Samphor, I am here with you biped.

And Sarpo wept as all the emotions, drink and everything else that had been worked finally poured out of him, and as it poured his mind cleared and he began to see inside a bright yellow orb and from this orb radiated goodness. And this orb was linked ot his heart. Yes that is me, I who am Samphor, and together they rested.

Sarpo and Samphor Truly Converse

Now that they had connected in this way, Samphor understood what it was to be a human being simply because she felt what was in his mind (menns). But for humans the concept of Phors was totally alien, and as such he could not comprehend. To understand Phors you had to feel what they felt, and Sarpo had only just reached the stage of clearing his baggage - a very big stage for humans. He wondered how he had been so fortunate that this Phor had come to help him, and something told him that together they were special.

But he needed the insight to understand her. She had explained what she did but it was all words, and these words were not her words but human words that she used to try and approximate to what was going on. But how can they explain when the words were not created for the experience of being a Phor. He had to try to feel the experience.

Normally she linked with humans at stillness, night, when he was asleep. He had to try and understand what was going on when he was awake, perhaps the words would mean something then. He lay down on the bed, and the nearest waking state that he thought he could achieve that was comparable was that of relaxation. He had at one stage attended yoga classes, and there had been a relaxation method he'd been taught. Starting with his feet he began to relax them, on the in breath relax the feet and on the out breath completely let go. He did this moving up the whole body until finally he finished by the out breath that was supposed to relax the whole body. But he knew he wasn't properly relaxed because he was so tensed up about the impending link with Samphor.

It was surprising how effective for Samphor the relaxation technique was. Once he had finished she was able to make the link easily. And Sarpo began to understand what she was talking about. The link centred him. These jenns she was talking about - it was his heart? They were his heart's expression? His being. Yes she was cleaning his being. His mind was continually confused in life jumping here there and everywhere. It would latch onto this and that, and would then restrict his being. She was able to help remove all these latchings as agitation.

He was now able to use his mind to understand what Samphor was. And it came to him, you should be doing this yourself. He smiled, of course he should. He had a mind, didn't he? He was the one that was latching onto all of this, it was his arm that held the beer, his mind that clung to the pain of memory of this relationship or that. He now understood Samphor for what she was, one of Nature's catalysts, and deep down he thanked Her for this, for he had allowed himself to sink so deep with the alcohol.

Once the linking had finished Sarpo was clear what to do, and he bought the tickets for the island. They returned there and guided by Samphor, they returned to the sea where she had first emerged. Before he slept he thanked her for her goodwill and invaluable service, my heart would never have opened without you. Samphor didn't think so, it was only a matter of time …. but how long?

As the tide rolled in she took leave of Sarpo. She removed the linkmaker, and feeling the movement of the waves she luxuriated again in the freedom that was the floating. She pulled the link into her mane and floated out to sea.

Later she touched on Femphi, and he smiled it had been a time. He felt a comfort, an ease with her that he had never felt before and from that moment on she never questioned and just went about her business making links and cleaning jenns.

-*-

"I have gone but I remain," she told Sarpo "you need me for more. I don't understand because I detached myself from the link as normal and floated off to sea. But then part of me stayed here with you and watched as the Phor left for home. Femphi always said that I was unusual - perhaps not so now."

Sarpo smiled to himself, this Phor gave him an edge, an additional sense of feeling; he enjoyed having her with him.

Sarpo steps forth with Samphor.