remember much of what my mother told me. She died when I was still small. My dad hired a nanny, but I did not give her time to say much. I did not give her much time for anything, if you know what I mean.”
“Oh yeah, I know exactly what you mean. It WAS you who put that For-Sale sign on Yersinia’s souped-up Toyota! I SAW you! But never mind, I won’t split on you. It was so funny - Wesley’s father phoning officially to buy the car for ten bucks [His father is a second-hand car salesman, with a (very) good eye for a bargain] and Yersinia exploding into snakes again. Did she really swop the car for air time in the end?”
“Yup,” says Jack. “ ‘ glad you enjoyed my little prank.”
His eyes suddenly light up. “That’s a good idea! If we can manage to get her angry more often,… don’t you see…. she’ll be bankrupt soon!”
“OK! He’s got a brain also, this Jack. But first tell me, what on earth is a water father?”
“I am not sure - I was given to him when I was small…with water…I want to get out of here, with maybe some other people,” he whispers. “Are you in?”
”And who might the ‘some other people’ be? Some of the female persuasion, I suppose.”
“Well, it is my secretive father’s wish that I should find my water father. You know how it is – probably an old man thing. And there is nothing wrong with helping other people. And it is unlawful to be sexist…”
“Oh yeah, I know.”
The GPS starts talking. Amoran is surprised. It is the first time that he experiences this gadget’s having a mind of its own.
“Press IE1 ! [Important Event 1] Come on! Press it!”
Jack stares at the GPS.
“You think I am only a silly little GPS. I am NOT. Press IE1! It’s a history clip.”
“Be quiet!” says Jack.
“Not until you do as I say! Press IE1!”
Jack hurriedly scrolls down some menu and presses on a certain point of the touch screen. Suddenly they are standing in an exquisite garden, but they cannot move around as they please. It is as if they are behind a glass pane. A man in a black tail coat, appears. His head looks like that of a spitting cobra.
Event 1
“It is the blood of slaves that I want,” the man hisses. “These naïve little inhabitants of the garden; they’re just what I need. I’m so glad I could entice them into gullible disobedience and rebellion against that Alien. Interesting, what a pleasant difference that slight deviation off north can make – for me, that is. His forked tongue plays within his seemingly toothless smile. – a smile that cleverly conceals its venomous fangs from any gullible spectator.
He then turns to two people from ancient times.
“So, I have you in my power now; two bright little Gullibles! How delightful; your sorry little descendants will also be part of the package.”
He laughs a deep, disdainful laugh, showing his forked tongue.
The two Gullibles start looking around in panic.
“Oh, you can relax! HE won’t be around anymore!” hisses the snake man. “Or did you think he would make an exception for you? Sssshhhame! Let me tell you how sadly you are changed now. He will not come to you while you are in this state – ever. And you cannot go to him, or change yourselves back to blameless again – ever!”
“You lied to me! And you are lying even more now! He will be back, you will see! Liar!” cries the woman.
The snake man continues his belligerent laughing.
“And suddenly she knows what a lie is. Formerly I had such trouble to let her have a grasp on the concept. Interesting.”
He casually spits out a few hair balls – the only remnants of some previous prey.
“I wouldn’t be so harsh in my judgment if I were you, woman. Let me point out another intriguing fact to you: you are now just like me! Call me a liar, and you call yourself exactly the same, my sweet. You are trapped in this infection, just like me! Only I have enough power to draw blood – yours. And HE does not associate with your blood type.”
He roars with laughter.
The two little Gullibles try to flee in dismay. They hide themselves behind the shrubs that now suddenly have become viciously thorny. The snake man follows them in glee.
Then they hear a voice calling; calling their names, as if from behind a waterfall.
“It’s Him!” cries the woman. “But I think we’d better hide deeper! He will know about our deceit if he sees us!”
“Hide if you must,” says the voice. “But I shall never stop calling after you. What have you done to yourselves?”
The snake man seems startled and somewhat surprised. He stops to listen.
“From now on,” says the voice, “you and this serpent will hate each other. You, serpent, will crawl on your belly and eat dust. Even though you will bite their promised Descendant in years to come, it will be of less consequence, for He will crush your skull.”
“Remember the prophesy; remember!” whispers the GPS, and then all is over, and Jack and Amoran are back in their depressing dorm.
“What does it mean?” asks Amoran, but Jack is clueless.
Jack works on it
Little Goody-two-shoes has got out of bed hours before dawn for his kitchen duties. Yersinia has changed her mind and decided her eggs must be well done. Doubt and Fear have shown, by means of snapping their jaws, that the two dozen eggs that used to be the measure for their omelettes are to be increased to three dozen each. He agreed in a hurry when they started smiling at him.
So once little Goody-two-shoes has left to make all his deliveries, Jack and Amoran move into the kitchen. There is enough privacy for them to work on the secrets of the GPS.
Svetacip – the word that has appeared on the screen of the GPS.
“It looks like some Swedish word. Is there anybody here who is Swedish?” Jack is talking more to himself than to Amoran.
“Not yet, but you can be sure Yersinia is working on getting hold of a Swede as well.”
They are looking at a word on the screen of the GPS. It seems Apatheto tried to protect Jack from people like Yersinia, who insists on evil plans, by creating all these passwords.
“Just like a girl,” complains Amoran. “Now that she must talk, she refuses to say a word.”
“It’s only a machine, Amoran. But sometimes it does pick up some verbal clues. Maybe it’s more like a robot.”
“Svetacip,…svetacip,” whispers Amoran.
But not a sound comes from the GPS.
“Try making up other words from the letters,” offers Jack,” like a conundrum.”
“OK, that’s easy, like tap, cat, vest, tip…..tips…..cap…”
“Yeah sure, Amoran, how about cap tips….You must use all the letters every time……”
Lefty, who has just entered the kitchen, looks over Jack’s shoulder at the screen.
“What does this gadget want with captives? Can it see what we are?” he asks.
“Lefty! You’re a genius!”
“Thanks, I know. Most dyslexics are.” He takes a bite from a pizza that he has just heated in the microwave and that was scrounged out of Molluscum, who sometimes smuggles things from Spare.
Jack is not paying any attention to him any longer. He is busy typing in the password: captives.
Suddenly the voice of the GPS rings out, while the words start appearing on the screen:
But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children. [A prophecy, written down about 2600 years ago]
“This sounds vaguely familiar ,” muses Jack. “It must be some secret promise. Where have I heard this before?”
“You have not heard it, you goof! You have seen it! Look!” Amoran pulls his mother’s notebook from his pocket. They look at the words in utter astonishment.
But thus saith the Lord,
even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.
“WE are the children, aren’t we?”
But the GPS refuses to stop, to give them time to work through this mysterious discovery.
Another voice starts speaking, but this time it seems to fill the room; the calm, confident voice of a man. It sounds more like water, rushing downstream:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. [Spoken about 2000 years ago, by the Word of the Star Breather. Jack is hearing a history clip, but doesn’t realise it.]
The two boys look around the kitchen, and then at one another, because there is no one to be seen.
“Did you hear that?” asks Jack.
But Amoran looks unsure.
“Maybe we should just switch it off and put it away, Jack. I do not think we should meddle with this. It’s none of our business.”
“What do you mean? Of course it is! Don’t you see? WE are the captives! This GPS will show us how to escape!”
Amoran looks at his friend incredulously.
“You are not really going to try to escape, are you? I ..I…was only joking the other day. Don’t you know about the Wood of Words? It strangles you, all those branches, if you ever enter it. And there is that fence.”
“Come on, Amoran. You’re listening to too many old wives tales. What about Molluscum Contagiosum? He goes to Pop stores regularly enough – right through
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