King Solomon's Journey (The Dominguez Adventures)

by Sammy Sutton

  A click on one sub file opened a Pandora's Box of journals, diaries, articles, form submissions and letters, all related to 'Effects of Atmospheric Changes on the Brain and Body of Children and Young Adults'. Reading through the letters, he saw that they were rejection letters from Medical Journals, Science Libraries and Research Institutes. Most of them carried the same theme; 'We are sorry, but at this time we cannot accept written articles or research from non-accredited sources.'

  "Non-accredited sources…?" He whispered to himself, just how accredited did a published author have to be? Looking further into her files he saw amazing research topics, covered in personal notes, and quite a few that held one-on-one interviews with the leading men and women in the fields of Dimensional Studies, Magnetic Force, Laplace Transform, Native American Indian Culture, Rosicrucianism, Quantum Physics, Fourier Analysis & Partial Differential Equations, Forensic Engineering, Geosciences, Topography and Ley-Lines, Alchemy, Theosophy, Herbalism, Bio-Chemistry, Western Esotericism, Power of Crystals in healing, and the files went on and on…

  He shook his head, closed down her computer and crawled back into bed beside her. The need to understand conquered his ability to sleep. Pulling her into his arms, he held her as he tried to make sense of it all.

  He closed his eyes and drifted to the place Amanda called, ‘The Twilight’, a place that exists between sleep and awake. It’s a place to organize everything thrown at you, and a chance to understand them. The twilight will keep them where you are welcome to return. Silent, invisible elders or angels help compile things to make sense.

  Amanda often referred to the twilight with Antonio. The scientist was amused, but not convinced. Today the man, maybe even the scientist, was no longer sure.

  A replay of her files ran through his head. The letters, papers, articles she had written were all mindboggling. Most of what he read intrigued him.

  From the highest science and mathematical theories to the simple growing and adhering to natural foods, Amanda had chased the whirlwind of knowledge. From the most difficult subjects on earth, she had garnered a sense of their functions; all connected together, and had tried to share that knowledge with the world.

  His lovely lady had taken on the world of degrees and come out the winner, by simply applying all she had learned to extend her life, until a cure she could live with, could be found. Lists with descriptions filled a file labeled: God’s perfection. Each entry discussed various healing perfections. The list was long, and among the many items, two stood out with frequency: grapes and olive oil.

  She had a particular fascination with the perfect uses of bamboo. Olive oil was also magical in her eyes. He found an article she’d written about the Ancients and olive oil.

  He was amused by the credit she gave to the prickly pear, she listed it as a miraculous fruit. Tomorrow, he’d take her to the back of the property, where she could harvest acres of prickly pears; he had once thought them beautiful, until they landed on his list of greatest pests. He cussed it every time the needles stuck him. To Amanda, they saved lives.

  If it were possible, he would hand his PhD to her right now, she deserved it much more than he did. She had done more for nothing, than he had in his whole career, and he had reaped huge rewards.

  Never accepting truth without verification, she found her own truth, and fought for the most complete truth possible.

  He heard Josh leave. Thank God, he didn’t want to face him right now, his short visit had triggered a tsunami. Amanda would call it divine intervention. Was it? He couldn’t say.

  Anyway, why in the hell was she sleeping this long? She never slept this long. Hell, she scarcely slept. Divine intervention, a part of his soul’s journey?

  He thought of his soul’s journey and how she told him the ability to accept King Solomon would come with him facing his own demons. He must go on his soul’s journey to understand. He would not love her completely...until he transmuted, or something similar, with her...or without his soul’s journey.

  Oh yeah, breathing opened the senses to feel and experience, with less thought. Pop, he had to love Pop for what he was, a father afraid to let go of his son. He squeezed his lids closed, to fight back the tears.

  All right, King Solomon, did you do all this? Yeah, it was serendipitous all right. It was all far beyond normal. He felt as if he had spent the night in a Charles Dickens novel, and he had a new respect for Ebenezer Scrooge.

  “Antonio, are you awake?”

  It's time to face more demons. “Yeah, I’m awake.”

  “Why?”

  “I had trouble sleeping.”

  “Is something wrong?”

  “No, I’m thinking.”

  “Thinking about what?”

  “Actually, you are on my mind.”

  “Antonio, you have more important things to think about. I’m right here.”

  “No. The one thing I do know is you are the most important.”

  She repositioned herself to see his face, and spoke with her loving tone.

  “You are a mess. Antonio, I am sorry I did not tell you about the tumor. I did not intend to violate your trust.”

  “Amanda, never - ever apologize about that again, please. Promise me.”

  “Why? What is up with you?”

  “I’m trying to figure that out myself.”

  She didn’t say anything in response, only stroked his face with her fingers. She buried her face into his neck and he felt her warm breath against his neck.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I got into your computer, last night while you were sleeping. I understand the health issue now.”

  “Why did you do it?”

  He thought. Why is she this damn calm?

  “I didn’t want to fight with you to get the surgery specs. It scared me. I wanted the information so my brother could help me find a surgeon.”

  “Why were you scared?”

  “Damn it! I don’t want to lose you.”

  “Did you find what you wanted?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay, you’ve confessed.”

  “Damn it, get mad at me.”

  “You loved me enough to do it.”

  “Okay, how about this? I found more than I was looking for.”

  “I’m sure you did.”

  “I hate myself right now, Amanda.”

  “I forgive you, you have to forgive yourself.”

  "I thought you were exciting, eccentric, loving, and smart, but not this… It’s way beyond intellectual.”

  “Suddenly I am not exciting, eccentric, or loving anymore? Am I none of the things you fell for?”

  “Yes you are, but you are so much more that I can barely comprehend it. I don’t even understand the real value of a damn grape anymore.”

  She laughed, “That’s one of my favorites, and I guess you figured that out.”

  “Don’t laugh. How many studies have you done that would qualify as opinion, or as a dissertation?”

  “I don’t know. It has never been about letters for me. Antonio, I told you that.”

  “Hell yes, but I’ve never imagined it to this degree. I actually accused you of being selfish.”

  “That is not important. You’re man enough to admit when you’re wrong, and truly care. You are man enough to seek the truth.”

  “Amanda, it is complicated and it’s making my brain hurt.”

  “I’ve been there, I understand. I really do.”

  “Damn it, I don’t know.”

  “Sheba made Solomon, the wisest man in the world, better. She was different, but she was equal.”

  Damn, she had did it again, made sense with a few words, removed his guilt, and managed to show how together, they could work anything out.

  "Well Sheba, since you're awake, how about a swim in the pool of inequity?"

  Amanda laughed and jumped out of bed. "Antonio, that was just wrong on so many levels, funny but wrong." She ran out the door laughing, with Antonio close on her heels.
Shared laughter does much to cure even the most awkward moments.

  Chapter 33

  "I pretty much try to stay in a constant state of confusion just because of the expression it leaves on my face."

  Johnny Depp

  “I have to buy a dress - the most important dress I have ever had to buy.”

  “Really, it's that important, huh? I’ll play along. Why is it the most important dress ever?”

  “Several reasons, thanks for asking.” He grinned at her drama. “Your niece’s fiesta de quince, now I haven’t been to one, but I have heard, and I checked it out too, everyone wears really elegant dresses.

  I will also be meeting this huge Dominguez Family Clan of yours. The dress must also show-off the Cognac Diamond you gave me. The most daunting task is for this dress to make me look like a suitable companion for you. You look younger and sexier than I. You see, Antonio, I need the miracle dress.”

  Her humbleness awed him. She had no clue how beautiful she was and this amazed him. “Amanda, you think a dress will do all of that?”

  “It has to, Antonio.”

  “I think the hard part is going to be finding a dress worthy of touching your naked body.”

  “Antonio, you are cute.”

  “I’m serious.”

  “Can we go to Albuquerque?”

  “Sure, and since we'll be there anyway, today would be a good time to show you where I work and introduce you around. Ah, I see…you fear that Santa Fe may not have your miracle dress, and that such an extraordinary dress may require a larger city to fill the bill.”

  “You are quick.”

  “I’ve got a great teacher.”

  “I need a shop for an overhaul, too.”

  “You haven’t a car to overhaul.”

  “I mean a salon, for me.”

  He laughed, she was so dramatic.

  “I’m guessing that you don’t have the skinny on that info, do you, Antonio?”

  “You’re guessing is pretty damn good. I haven’t been to the salon for my overhaul in a while.”

  “You’re making fun of me.”

  “No, I’m having a blast with you.”

  “Well then, I have to find a woman to ask, one that would know.”

  “We have the yellow pages here.”

  “Antonio, this is important. I won’t risk it, sometimes the yellow pages lie; we leave in a few days. I could end up with pink hair or something, using the yellow pages.”

  “That would be quite the spectacle, I’m thinking. If you would consider having the pink hair, the extravaganza could be just exciting enough to ease the whole situation between Pop and I.” He started laughing uncontrollably.

  “Antonio, you are evil. That is horrible.”

  He was still cracking up, “If you could take it all the way to fuchsia, I’m sure I would slide right through all of the shit with Pop.”

  “Antonio, if I wasn’t afraid of hurting you, I would throw you in the pool right now.”

  “Like your big enough.”

  Without words, she stood, grabbed his wrist, and then kicked him with the inside of her foot behind the knees. The technique flipped him into a somersault and landed him in the pool. It happened so fast he didn’t know what happened. He tried to yell at her as the water escaped his lungs.

  “Amanda, what the hell was that?”

  “Are you okay, Antonio?”

  “My glasses, I’m looking for my glasses.”

  “They’re floating behind you.”

  He grabbed them and climbed out of the pool naked. She threw him another towel.

  “Amanda, you just threw me in the pool!” He was astonished. She was so tiny, and he was no little guy.

  “I am alone a lot, sometimes I travel alone. I have learned to defend myself.”

  “There are depths to you I would love to fathom!”

  “The fuchsia thing did not go over very well.” She smiled.

  “You’ve learned to compensate, I can’t argue with that. What else don’t I know about you?”

  “I cannot think of anything, at the moment.”

  “Well, at least, if things don’t go well with my family, I know you’ll steal their hearts in a beautiful miracle dress, and then kick butt if I need defending, huh?”

  She smiled.

  “Amanda, I promise that we will find your miracle dress, and a great salon. Don't kick my ass again, it’s embarrassing.”

  “No one is here.”

  “I’m here. So is my pride.”

  “See, I do not want you to worry about me.”

  “Come here, please, don’t hurt me, okay?” He smiled at her. “You flipped me, 6 foot 2 inches, almost 200 pounds, and right into the pool with a towel flying off of my naked ass. That leaves a guy feeling pretty vulnerable.”

  “You weren’t ready.”

  “I want to know all of it, Amanda.”

  “What?”

  “You, I want to know everything about you. I don’t understand and I want to understand.”

  “There is no secret, Antonio.”

  “How much have you really studied King Solomon?”

  “Quite a bit.”

  “Amanda.”

  “Okay, a lot.”

  “You were not all that surprised by King Solomon’s leaving the Scrolls for a future people. I noticed that in the beginning. You’ve studied Solomon enough that you know him. You knew I could not understand him without facing my demons. I had to take my soul’s journey, you knew as a result of your own.”

  “Yes. I am not successful, however. I am failing to complete my journey.”

  Her words stunned him. “Amanda, why are you failing?”

  “I swear that I don’t know. I am stuck in the middle. I have hit a stalemate that has kept me in limbo. Despite this, I am trying and unable to get beyond the hump.”

  Antonio found her admission to his astonishment. He tried to come up with a response, but everything was lame.

  “Amanda, maybe no one gets over the hump alone. Perhaps, it’s part of the mystery in your yin-yang theory, and together we may discover the answer.”

  “I hope so, Antonio.”

  He thought they should move beyond this issue, for the time being.

  “King Solomon isn’t what he seems, right?”

  “He is, and was, what he seems. Only, he is much more and never tried to hide it.”

  “We misunderstood, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “The implications are huge, aren’t they, Amanda? Besides the obvious, whose toes are we stepping on?”

  Chapter 34

  “It is the difference between men and women, not the sameness that creates the tension and the delight.”

  Edward Abbey

  “Don’t you dare, just bring lots of yogurt. Hell, we’ll even stop and buy more yogurts; maybe we should buy a yogurt store. I can see it now, Organic yogurt, Bulgarian yogurt, Greek yogurt, and even drinkable yogurt. We’ll have the best good-bacteria in the whole damn country.”

  She walked over with her hands full of yogurt.

  “Antonio, that’s a fabulous idea. I love it.”

  “Get in the car. No, yogurt store, I’m not operating a store for good-bacteria.”

  “It was a good idea.”

  “Amanda, here, let me open the door. The world isn’t going to run out of yogurt.”

  He threw her purse in the car and put her sunglasses on her, then drove off towards Santa Fe, they were going to meet with John Bear before continuing their trip to Albuquerque, and so far the morning had been one delay after another. What with Amanda searching for the right undergarments to try on a dress with, the right shoes to judge the length, and a quick look at a color chart of some kind to favor the occasion…hell, maybe the chart was to buy a dress based on the longitude of Miami!

  Antonio had not lived with a woman since he had reached adulthood, and he was beginning to think he needed some sort of guidebook on cohabiting.

  “Antonio, you
would feel much better if you increased your yogurt intake.”

  Groaning inwardly, he gave a smile, and a wink, he was not going to argue with her, but he was damned if he was going to live on yogurt all the time! Maybe he could sneak off for a gyro when she was in the dress shop later?

  Pulling Raven into a spot near John’s corner shop, he opened the car door for Amanda. Just a few paces from the shop door he instructed her, “Stay here for a minute, Amanda.”

  “I have not been so bad that I should have to stay outside.” She marched forward and waited for him to open the door.

  He opened the door to find John. He wasn’t busy; in fact it was as if he was waiting for him.

  “Antonio, how are you?”

  “Fine, John, I wanted to make sure you weren’t busy.”

  Amanda walked in as Antonio stepped aside. “Amanda, you are here.”

  “John, it is an honor to meet you.”

  “We’ve been waiting Amanda, what took you so long?”

  “Just time, John, it is a time thing.”

  “Our boy, he took a while.”

  “Yes, he did.”

  “John, the Cognac Diamond is perfect. You are a masterful craftsman.”

  “It was its time.”

  Antonio thought, what in the hell are they talking about? He was clueless.

  “Antonio, let me show you your niece’s gift.”

  “Great, John.”

  “I’ll be back.” John walked into the backroom.

  “Amanda, when did you meet John?”

  “I didn’t until now,” she told him.

  “Antonio, here it is.” John returned.

  “Wow, John it’s amazing.” He was stunned, “it’s exactly what we wanted.”

  “I’m glad you both are happy with it.”

  “John this is perfect for Rosie. I’ll get a picture for you.”

  “Do please, Antonio.”

  “You did a fabulous job.”

  “You okay, Antonio?”

  “I’m great John. Look at her I’m the luckiest man ever.”

  “You are lucky.”

  “We were waiting for her to come to you.”

  “I still don’t get that, John.”

  “You will. She’s here you will get it.”