The Peacock 336

 "This could all be one big dream right now that we are both in", say I.

"Not going to argue."

"what are you doing right now?  I mean, where you live?

"Well, I am back at my laptop, writing us, and eating fresh strawberries."

"I love strawberries.  Especially with whipped cream."

"Not I", says Aaron.  The sugar in the whipped cream makes the berries taste sour.  I just like them on the hoof."

"How did you conceive the idea for this writing project?"

"It just came to me one night.  And I was wanting to write something new for my friend , Alonso.  He lives in Colombia and we do language exchange.   We read together my first novel which is all published on my blog, as part of his English practice, and he seemed to enjoy it so much that I thought I would try something new for both of us.  So, anyway, I had this sense of this humongous rambling mansion in the mountains by the Fraser Valley, and you had arrived there the night before on retreat, so the whole thing is written from your perspective, first person, so to speak."

"My perspective?  But how can you possibly get inside my head like that?"

"Well, first, let's test it out and see if I have been successful.  For example, on your first morning, before breakfast, you wandered out in the back by the southern magnolia tree, and there you saw a peacock perched on one of the branches."

"Go on."

"After you had that meltdown during dinner, Carl went to visit you in your room, where you told him about your many adventures with Father Griffin, for example, when you baited him into trying to buy your, er, services, as a way of blackmailing him, and how you returned home to your dad with the hundred bucks you scammed off him, I think you were seventeen, and how you gave your dad the money, then he phoned Father Griffin who, already busted, came by to retrieve his cash.  Then you were talking about your friend Kenney, who used to work as a transvestite hooker, and had also been studying environmental sciences in university..."