Written by Veluan,Sat Aug 29 13:05:08 US/Pacific 1998
Part 12
1.16
Mack woke up and started to recall what hapened that night, was it a dream? If it only was a dream Mack would like to wake up right now. He clothed himself and went downstairs. He had some breakfast and looked for Firebrow, he didn't find him, but there was a letter on the table. Mack read it, shook his shoulders. He walked outside and looked at the trees.
"Goodmorning!" said one of the trees.
"Morning Firebrow." Mack said.
"Come join me in this tree!" He decided not to argue and approached the tree, he climbed up using the branches. In the top sat Firebrow, Mack climbed next to him.
"Why?" he asked.
Firebrow didn't look at him, but looked at the sky trough the leaves.
"It's time that you're told. But first this." Firebrow looked at Mack who sat beside him and looked. Firebrow pushed him and he fell. Firebrow instantly grabbed him. Mack was too surprised to make a sound and grabbed a branch in a reflex. Firebrow's hand pulled him up so he could climb up again. He looked down at the ground which was a couple of metres too far down. Mack looked pale and sat a bit from Firebrow, who was looking at the sky again. Mack was out of reach and asked again "WHY?" "What did you do when you fell?" Firebrow asked. Mack thought about it
"I grabbed a branch."
"Yes, but why."
"So that I didn't fall."
"Did you think about what you were going to do?"
"No, I just did it."
"Right, how do you feel."
"Well, attentive."
"Right!" Firebrow tried to push Mack from the branch again, but he ducked and swung to another branch below.
"Cut that out!"
"Excellent, you didn't fall, because you were attentive. You were attentive, because you were frightened, because of fear!"
Mack looked at the old man from a lower branch.
"Fear is thought of as a negative feeling, people don't like being scared. But it gives adrenaline. Fear takes your body to another level. If you can't control the fear it will take your body down, you will panic and loose control, if you use it, it will take you up, you will think faster, react faster. You respond good to fear, you must use fear as a tool!"
Mack thought the last sentence trough. "You can't control an emotion."
"That's where you're wrong. You can control it, it's only not very easy. This will come trough experience." Firebrow climbed out of the tree and Mack slowly followed him.
"And the people in my bedroom, who are they?"
"Yes," Firebrow said when he jumped on solid ground. "when you use fear as a tool, you will notice stuff that other people just don't see. You see the true things, the things that are responsible for the fear and evil." They walked into the cottage.
"But you said that they were the good guys."
"These are, they support you in your battles. But there others who support the ones who you must battle."
"Like my neighbour?" Firebrow nodded slowly. They sat down in the livingroom.
"Do you think that I should go to that looneybin Dutton talked about?"
"What do you think?" was the reply. Firebrow searched a drawer and gave a map to him.
"Okay, I'll go."
"I've marked some important sites and I'll be here when you need me."
"So I'm on my own now?"
"No not really, well a bit maybe. Now go and use the day."
Firebrow closed his eyes after Mack left, I don't want to he thought not yet.
in front of asylum The Helping Hand
Mack looked at the map and then at the building in front of him. No doubt about it, this was the bin. The black, boxlike building was impressive and depressive. It sucked all your strenght out of your body. The building had this effect on people, it made them want to leave. He put the map away and looked for a bell. He found one and pressed it. A buzzing noise was heard. Footsteps and then a small opening in the door appeared and two eyes looked trough it.
"Yes?" said an unfriendly voice.
Mack thought about the lesson Firebrow gave about using fear as u tool. He inhaled some air and said,
"I'm Mack Johnson and I would like to visit..." Mack realised he didn't knew the name of the guy Dutton referred to. Maybe Dutton didn't know him either, maybe he was just the local woodwonderer.
"...someone." he completed the sentence.
If you have any comments, you can email Veluan at gjvdmeer@tref.nl.
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