1960

"Where do you think you're  going, Carl?" say I as I see him getting up to follow Tron. He pauses theatrically, then says, "Funny, I thought I just heard my sister."  He slinks back into his chair, then gets up again, goes to the desk and pulls open the bottom drawer.  "I knew they'd be in here."  There is an unopened club pack of President's Choice semi sweet chocolate chips in his hand. With his free left hand he pulls open an upper drawer from which he extracts a large pair of utility scissors with bright orange handles.  After cutting the bag open, he pours himself a handful of chocolate chips, then hands me the bag.  "It wouldn't be the same without the sacrament", he muses grinning. "My phone is vibrating", say I. "Turn it off." "It's Francois.  Probably important.  Hi." "are you guys alright?" "So far.  We are back in the upper room, Carl, Kenny , Erik and I, and Carl has just found us some more chocolate chips." "You can stop worrying about the house in New West.  We have already taken occupancy."  And now I have  put him on speaker phone for all to hear. "You mean to say?" "Christopher", he says tactfully, "I know about as much as the rest of you.  When we arrived at your place I got an anonymous text telling me the house is all ready.  And you should see the place now. The furniture is exquisite.  We were expecting basic Ikea, but now the place looks like a palace. and feels like a home." "What exactly happened?" "Apparently we took care of everything last week." "Last week?" exclaims Carl.  "Someone somewhere has some explainin' to do."  And now Tron, as Ethan, is entering the room...

1959

Then what happened to him?" say I. "They gave him refuge, for a long period of time.  He recomitted to the Catholic faith of his childhood and eventually took vows as a monk, but abandoned the place shortly after his novitiate was completed.  Then he found refuge with the Stolo nation where he became involved with Naomi's aunt.  He maintained a connection with the monastery and became great friends with the abbot, and then he apprenticed and trained as a shoe repairman.  He also was in contact with your father, Carl, and kept trying to persuade him to do something about the bodies entombed underneath the house, and Jan steadfastly refused.  In the meantime, I and other guardians are caring for this place.  Some of you have met some of us. "At the southern magnolia when we saw the peacock.  And one of you was communicating with Francois." "I was present.  And now I must leave you for now." "Has Melissa shown you your room?" But Tron does not reply, as he gets up and like a large beautiful cat, slips out through the door.

1958

What became of the others?" asks Kenny.  "The two women, Lydia and Rhona, were the first to leave.  Lydia was finished with Cosme, and returned immediately to Montreal.  Rhona had issues pending with the immigration authorities, and went back to Seattle.  That left Cosme and I.  He was distraught, confused, and totally lost, so he was basically under my care as I took on the task of closing down the house.  Then, in his car, we drove to the Benedictine monastery where I left him on their doorstep.  Over the years I have taken care to track him....

1956

"What really happened?", say I to Tron, for now, clearly he is no longer Ethan, random bike dude.  His glory keeps seeping out like the sun's corona from behind the shadow of the moon during a solar eclipse. "Cosme, Lydia and Rhona were using a lot of LSD.  I alone abstained, and none of them was able to distinguish between the visible real, the hallucinatory and the spiritual reality.  It all became blended together, plus not one of them was able to process the horror that had spread itself before their very eyes.." "What he wrote in his journal was all hallucinatory", says Carl. "Not entirely.  They were all wearing white robes", (And here I am imagining Douglas draped in a bedsheet toga when the police were taking him away from here in their car.  I wonder where he is or if they have found him?)..."And they were carrying torches and marching in a spiral formation.  But they did not disappear into the ground.  And they were also all high on acid.   It was Phillip, who alone was in his right mind, since he did not use drugs himself, but expertly employed them in order to manipulate and control his followers.  They had formed their spiral around him  as their centre or as their trans dimensional vortex as he prefered to be called.  We all marched back to the house.  There is a door leading to the basement, long overgrown by bushes now.  He ordered Cosme and I to stand as eternal stewards at their portal of transition into the other dimension.  They filed in one by one.  Then Phillip gave each one killer doses of sleeping pills, and then he swallowed some himself.  They all lay down on the floor in spiral formation.  Just before he lost consciousness he ordered us to close and seal the door...." "That makes you accessories", says Carl, clearly perturbed.  How interesting that now we have no club pack of chocolate chips to share among us.  This is one serious meeting. "It makes Cosme an accessory." "But you are also culpable." "I was simply under obedience.  As I have always been, as I now am." "But doesn't that also oblige you to confess?" "I cannot confess to whom can neither see or hear me." "Which means..." "All of you here can see me because you knew me in the refuge.  I cannot be made manifest to those who cannot see." I am half expecting to see Ethan transform again into the incandescent glory that is Tron, but see only Ethan, random bike dude, seated in our midst. "Cosme will also be acquitted for lack of evidence, plus inability to remember anything clearly.  But he does know where the bodies are buried...."

The Peacock 1955

Erik says, "You can't be older than me, in fact, you look even younger.  If you are that old then you must be at least eighty." "I am older than that."  And Tron, now not Ethan, looks at us all solemnly and authoritatively.  "My name then was Theo." "You were mentioned in Cosme's diary", say I. "I was appointed to oversee the end of this cult, before any more lives were destroyed.  I could only persuade Cosme and both women, Lydia and Rhona to leave.  All the others..." "How did they die?" says Carl. "They all had a stockpile of sleeping medication.  They all filed, one by one, into a room in the basement of this house.  On the orders of the leader, Phillip, Cosme and I shut and sealed the door behind them.  They were all dead within minutes....

1954

We have found refuge in the meeting room up in the garrett. Tron, still in his guise of handsome random bike dude, is in the chair near a window, and Kenny and I are flanking him, I am on his left, and Erik, and Carl has just come in with a stuffed black travelbag. "Sorry I'm late, you guys.  There were some more things I wanted to take back with me, clothes and a few books." "Are there really human remains here?" asks Erik. "They're about as human as they come, Erik", says Tron with baritone authority. "A couple of weeks ago, with help from a couple of Spanish speakers who unfortunately are not available", says Carl, "We were able to learn of this particularly bizarre cult that used to occupy this place during the sixties." "Cosme is not to be trusted", says Tron.  Many of those pages were written under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs, such as were very freely available here during that time." "You know that because...", say I. "I know that because I was here.  Living among them..."

1953

"Wait a minute", say I, "Kenny, you're staying with me, so what are we going to do?" "Plus", snorts Sheila, "You´ve forgotten Glen." "Wait a minute", says Carl. "Text from Maureen. She can take three. Glen, Mel, how about Maureen's for the time being?" "That works", says Melissa. "Glen?" "No problem." "So then", says Melissa, picking up Tron's plate and balancing two mugs on her fingers, "Let's get this show on the road..."