The Peacock 532

 Sarah says, "We do have an interesting variety here of same sex relationships."

She appears to ignore the awkward silence that has just descended on us, and appears unfazed that she just might be about to make a complete ass of herself.

Sheila seems to be suppressing what I suspect to be a particularly wicked grin, then she says quietly, "Just ask my ex-son-in-law", and she is glancing towards Matthew.

"Yes", says Sarah, to Michael, "you two were an item for a few years, weren't you?"

"And what's it to you, sister?" says Michael with a smile that could be interpreted either as hostile or ironical.

"How did you guys meet",  asks Sarah, apparently determined to be bloody-minded.

"Michael seemed always to be finding excuses for visiting me in my little old antique shop, and the rest, as they say, is history."

"How long were you guys together?" she asks.

"Close to twenty years", says Michael.

"Did you ever get married?"

"We separated a few years before same sex marriage was enshrined in law in Canada",  he says.

"By that time you had found religion", says Michael to his ex.  "And you seemed determined to put your sinful past behind."

"Except for you", my dear Matthew, except for you..."

The Peacock 531

 "What  sorts of mistakes", says Carl.

"We get really codependent sometimes", says Lazarus.

"Oh, bullshit", says Adam, "We just like to be together."  He is laughing.

"All the time", says Lazarus, rolling his eyes.

"So whose fault is that?" says Adam, still laughing.

"We were doing some reading about identical twins", says Lazarus. "We are a lot like two identical twins, even though we're not related."

"That sounds very wonderful", says Carol.  "Are you both homosexual?"

"Which one of us is going to dignify that with a reply", says Adam to Lazarus.

"We're unlabelled", says Lazarus.

"You mean it's none of my business", says Carol, a bit testy, I think.

"No", says Adam, "We are simply unlabelled.  We don't fit in any category.  And you know something else, Carol.  Neither do you..."

"I daresay", she replies, as she picks up her plate and starts to finish off the remains of her apple pie and melted ice cream...

The Peacock 530

 "Are you two", says Carol to Adam and Lazarus,  "Married.  I mean, are you a couple."

"We don´t sleep together", says Lazarus.

"Well, sometimes we do", says Adam.

"Yeah, but not like that", Lazarus says giggling. "We're not a conjugal couple, but we are together."

"Very together", says Adam.

"We sometimes sit up to read together, usually in Adam's room, because there's more space.  And the bed is bigger.  We like to lean back together on the bed and read."

"And sometimes, we get super tired and fall asleep together."

"You guys are asexual", says Michael.

"Just another category", says Lazarus.  

"Unlabeled", says Glen.

"We used to be a couple", says Matthew, glancing at Michael.  "And we're still close."

"And we're still alive.  We no longer sleep together", Michael says.

"We don't need to anymore", says Matthew.  "Perhaps we never did."

"The upshot of it is", says Michael, "is that Adam and Lazarus managed to avoid making our mistakes in order to achieve the intimacy they both enjoy."

"Now we just get to make different mistakes", says Adam, laughing...

The Peacock 529

 "I suppose it could be called that", says Adam.  "We did speak briefly about the island, and the mansion, and the fountain.  Apparently, Stefan, or Peter, as we now know him, never drank from the fountain, and he alone seems to have a fully intact memory of the place."

"And he went to Paris, you say", says Carol.

"Those of us who have been to the Place of Refuge", says Adam, "We have each had a special call or vocation from birth.  It is as though we are a different category of humans, with a particular divine orientation."

"But what do you do, exactly?" says Carol.

"We minister through presence", says Adam.  "We have a particularly intimate sense of God's presence, and this empowers us to channel the presence and love divine in whichever places we are situated  And we also thus grow in wisdom."

"Are there others like you here", says Carol.

"I can name each one here", he says.  "Lazarus, who is my life companion,  Sheila.  Glen.  Aaron.  Jenn.  Jesús.  And you, what is your name again?" he says, turning to me.

"Christopher."

"Yes, Christ Bearer", Says Adam, "Especially you, Christopher..."

"

The Peacock 528

 "Whatever became of the eggs?" Carol asks.

"I have one and Matthew still has one."

"I found a buyer for the other four", Matthew says.  "Just two days later, this man came in to buy them.    He didn't say who he was, and the price seemed no object to him.  I cannot say what I got for them, but the next day, I was ready to retire.  Adam had already invited me to the community.  I met him and Chris at their hotel..."

"And then you sold our townhouse without telling me anything, and when I got back from my trip, the locks had been changed and I had to go home to mother", says Michael.

"You turned out okay", says Matthew.

"And it also opened the way for me to come over with you and Glen", says Lazarus.  "And Sheila, as well."

"And now we are all together, " says Sheila, "Even now.  After twenty years."

"I should love to see those Faberge eggs", says Carol.

"We can bring them down for you today", says Adam.

"What became of Stefan", says Carl. 

"I really don't know", says Sheila.  "I think he was on his way to Paris, for some kind of spiritual espionage, or something."

"Spiritual espionage?" says Carol.  "Why, how very intriguing..."

The Peacock 527

 "Yes, the Faberge eggs", says Adam.  "I don't exactly remember receiving them from her.  In fact, when I woke on the beach in Saanich, I remembered nothing.  But there was a gold box next to me as I awoke in the sand.  It was ornately carved, not made of gold, but some tropical hardwood with gold paint.  But very beautiful, with carvings of symmetrical arabesques. And inside, in deep crimson velvet, were the six eggs.  I have never seen anything so beautiful before in my life.  That was when I met Chris, the leader of the community.  He asked me how I was, and if he could help me with anything.  I explained that I just woke here, and then he looked at me rather oddly, then smiled and said, yes, I had a dream last night about you.  You were sent.  Come with me, and you will have a place to stay.  I very innocently obeyed and followed him home to the community.

"Then came the dreams...of the mansion, the gargoyle fountain, the boy, whom I came to think of as an angel, and then, Mother.  Tall, very old, but strong and robust, dressed in a tweed suit like a country Englishwoman.  And the sense that she had given me those eggs.  Then, in another dream, I saw Matthew, who is sitting here with us, and I was told by the boy to go find him in Vancouver.  I was told to walk on Main Street, between Sixteenth and Thirty-Third, where I would find m in his store, and he would tell me what to do with the eggs.  Chris came with me, which was necessary, because I was so like an innocent child and I needed badly his protection and guardianship."

"And the rest, as they say", says Matthew, smiling, "is history..."

The Peacock 526

 "I was there", says Adam.  "I don't know how I got there, and I still recall nothing of what happened in my life before, nor even if I ever had a life.  I was there, in that big house, even bigger than this mansion, and even more magnificent, but I was there alone, except, from time to time, he would visit me."

"He?" asks Sheila.

"The boy you dreamed about.  I thought he was my brother."

"You do look alike", says Sheila.

"He would have breakfast with me.  Then we would clean up together, and suddenly he was gone.  He would reappear at the end of the day.  He would make dinner and we would dine together, then we would sit in the library where he would read to me, mostly children's stories."

"What did you guys talk about?" says Carl.

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"It didn't seem to occur to either of us that there was any need to talk.  But he was there with me.  I took great comfort in his presence.  And then Mother appeared."

"The tall old woman with the wild hair", says Sheila.

"Exactly", says Adam.  "She gave me the eggs."

"The Faberge eggs", says Matthew...

The Peacock 525

 "And then I saw her one more time.  in the common room, we were all seated together, then I dozed off and I seemed to be dreaming and there she was at the doorway and.."

Adam continues",... And she said,  “And so I am Mother.  To all of you here.  I come in peace and grace and full of good will.  The young man called Adam shall suffer nothing, for it is time that all be revealed.  To all of you here, you shall continue to be a refuge and a place of growth, shelter and healing.  We shall send to you our protegees, and they shall help strengthen and establish in you the presence divine that shall make of this place one of the places of refuge for when the catastrophe falls upon the earth.  I urge you all to continue on the path of enlightenment that is the way of unconditional love, and so shall the Christ Child be born anew in your hearts and in your lives and so you shall be made ever more conscious of the new way that opens among you.  I have spoken and I speak in the Name of the Great Shepherd who gives his life for his sheep, who hear his voice.”

The Peacock 524

 Apparently, the young man had tried to sleep with Stefan, but in the most innocent fashion, and that was when the boy appeared to Stefan and warned him to not let it happen again because it could be very obstructive to both their healing.  Anyway, the way he described him to me, I knew it could be no one else.  Later, in the large auditorium in the basement, there was a conference attended by luminaries from all over the world, including our own David Suzuki, Jane Goodall, the famous lady with he chimps, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.    This rather strange woman was the emcee.  She was very tall, and appeared to be very old, dressed in tweeds with very wild looking white hair.  Stephan said that she was the house mother, one of the Watchers, and very old, hundreds, perhaps thousands of years old.  I said I am not making any of this up.  And I know this woman myself, because I saw her.  I saw her the day of the fire.  When the flame seemed to be proceeding from the apple tree to engulf the house, I saw her standing there, in the midst of the tree, in the midst of the fire..."

The Peacock 523

 "It turns out he had been camping on the beach there with some friends, then that the trail mysteriously opened to him, and he climbed up to the top, where he came across the big mansion.  There was a fountain with a bat-like gargoyle sculpture from whose mouth flowed a spout of water.  He almost drank from the fountain, but then decided not to, then later was warned by one of the inhabitants that he would likely lose his memory from drinking the water, and he later learned that it was called the Fountain of Forgetfulness.  there were staying there a young man and a young woman, both of whom he had known and had trouble with in Vancouver.  The young man, it turned out, was a pedophile, and Stefan had caught him in the forest of Stanley park, in the act of molesting a child.  he says that he scared him off with rocks that he threw at him and the boy was quickly reunited with his mother, unharmed.  Later, he encountered the same man and extorted from him silence money, and then the man tried to run him over in his sports car.  I am not making any of this up, by the way.

"The young woman was an employee with social assistance who had apparently made Stefan's life particularly difficult for him.  He didn't seem to know how they had ended up there, in that mansion, but  apparently, had drunk from the Fountain of Forgetfulness, and there memory had been completely erased.

"Stephan took complete charge of their care and wellbeing.  They had been both reduced to such a pathetic innocent, childlike and dependent state that he could not help but forgive them both, so he took care of them, cooked their meals, read to then, and was their companion.

"That was when he encountered the boy from my dreams..."

The Peacock 522

 "Of course", says Sheila, "Things only became a little more interesting, when Peter appeared at the Place of the Transfiguration, just shortly after my arrival there.  He was only there overnight, but we talked.  I had already known him as Stefan.  he was a young street punk  who befriended me with his girlfriend when I still had the café.  Then he disappeared for several weeks, it turns out to a place that we knew as the Refuge.

"I have never been there myself.  It is on a small island not far from the Place of the Transfiguration, but the island appears to be unknown.  Chris, who was the de facto leader of our little community, alone, has actually been there, and all he would say about it was that it was in an enormous house, I would imagine to be rather similar to this one, with rather strange inhabitants.  Otherwise, he stayed resolutely tightlipped about it.  Stephan helped me fill in the blanks.  Shortly after his arrival, we had a chance to sit alone together for a chat in the common room.  I was not prepared for what I was about to hear..."

521

 "Simply, that boy appeared while I was sleeping on the couch, approached me and said,"You are going to give birth to a son. Three years later, while Michael and I were both having a nap, the boy approached me again and said, "You are going to have a son.  Two years later, there he was, standing by the bed, to announce that I would be giving birth to a daughter.  Then, I didn't see him for what seemed a very long time.  Then, in 1985, he came again and said, "Your husband is going to betray you.  And then we will be taking him from you.  That was the day before Frank announced to me that he had AIDS, then, when he got really ill three years later, that he had caught the virus from a male prostitute,  He died at home, Christmas Day.  

"Ten years later, Bill and I became engaged.  That night, in a dream, the boy appeared again, and simply stared at me with a very disapproving look on his face.  Then he said, "You are in danger."  "The marriage lasted only four months. Bill became severely mentally ill and tried to kill me with a butcher knife, then attempted suicide when he tried to gas himself to death in his car.  We divorced soon after.

"Then, the boy started appearing with greater frequency.  He began to warn me that I was in danger, that I had to leave this house and soon.  He did tell me, just after Bill had been committed to a mental hospital, that a new way was going to open up for me.  And then Michael and Glen began to visit the Place of the Transfiguration, then came the fire and the house was destroyed, so I came there as a refugee..."   

The Peacock 520

 "Adam", says Sheila, "I have sometimes wondered if you could be the same person as the boy I used to see.  A boy in dreams.   I suppose that I could elucidate here.  I first saw this person when I was still a child.  The house that I bought with Frank, where I lived for four decades and raised all my children", and she glances sharply at Michael, and adds, "Including you, my little son",  and Michael responds with an ironic chortle.  "while that house was being occupied by the Portuguese family, the de Souza's I first came upon him.  The old woman still living there alone, all dressed in black, was seated on the front porch, and there he was standing next to her  This would have been around 1950, or so, I would have been just approaching my twelfth birthday.  He was maybe around fourteen or fifteen, maybe sixteen, a bit tall, and beautiful, with dark golden hair and what appeared to be amber green eyes.  He had very clear, pale skin, almost like ivory, and was dressed in a way that seemed peculiar for the fifties, though now would seem quite normal and contemporary, in faded  blue jeans and a white collarless shirt.  They did not appear to be talking, nor even interacting with each other.  He appeared almost to be somehow guarding her, watching over or protecting her in some way.

"I never saw this boy again until more than ten years later, when I was a young bride and with my new husband purchasing that same house.  I think the first dream came just after we moved in, and just before I conceived and became pregnant with Michael..."

The Peacock 519

 "Do you think you should tell them?" Lazarus says to Adam.

"Can you?"  he says.  They are sitting very close, just an inch of space between them, but there is something about the silent intimacy they have that doesn't speak of lovers, nor of conjugal partners, but something...different?  Something other?  But it is clear that those two are very very close to each other, and likely have been for a very long time.

"Adam", says Lazarus, "Has rather an unusual mental health condition.  It is not an illness, there is nothing ill about him, but this is still a form of perception and memory that weighs on him rather heavily.  He does have a diagnosis.  The psychiatrists have declared that he has a very unique variant of schizotypal disorder.  He will go into a kind of trance or fugue state, and suddenly he will recall places, events and people he claims to have known or been involved in and which happened too far in the distant past to be possible."

Then Adam says, "I really can't remember anything past when I met Matthew with the Faberge eggs.  It somehow occurred to me that my mother entrusted them to me, that they had been in the family for a very long time, that her grandparents were Russian aristocracy, closely related to the Romanovs.  My mother, allegedly, was also a famous ballerina with the Kirov.  But I have no other record, or recall of any of this.  I do not know where she is, nor any other of my family.  I don't even know where I'm from."

"Unless", say I, "unless you really are that old, but how could that possibly be?" And it is clear to me that for someone who says he his forty-six, that Adam looks awfully young, scarcely more than twenty...

The Peacock 518

 All eyes are now focussed on Adam, who doesn't appear to be noticing the rest of us.  In fact, he isn't noticing anything, as he appears to be staring as though in a trance.

"Adam", says Lazarus softly to him.  "Adam."  he doesn't respond, then Adam's eyes close and his head bows forward.  Lazarus begins to gently massage his shoulder and back.  "Adam", he says, "We are here.  Adam, we are here.  Adam, we are here."  At first he doesn't appear to respond, but then his eys are open, and slowly he raises his head up.  He blinks several times, turns to his friend and says, "Hello."

"Hello", says Lazarus.

"We are here?" he mumbles, still groggy.

"We are here,  Adam,.  "We are seated together on the couch in the house of Carl and Melissa.  and we are surrounded by friends."

"Are we?" asks Adam

"Indeed you are", says Carl, with a very concerned smile on his face.  "You are surrounded by friends."

"Did it just happen again?" Adam says to Lazarus.

"It happened again", he says, sighing.  "But you pulled out of it unusually fast this time."

"Somebody please explain to us what is going on", says Carol, a little bit indignant...

The Peacock 517

 "Well", says Carol, "There is Fanny Mendelssohn.  She was the sister of Felix Mendelssohn."

"Older or younger?"says Carl.

"She was his older sister, by four years.  Again, arguably at least as brilliant as her wee little brother, but having the mixed fortune of being born female in Europe during the early nineteenth century, in a bourgeois household where appearances were of the utmost importance, so that Fanny was discouraged from playing or performing, since her father wanted her to settle down in a respectable marriage, and so a lot of her compositions were credited to her brother Felix."

"Didn't she die rather young?" asks Matthew.

"From a stroke", says Adam.  "She was just forty-two.

"She probably died from the stress of being female in the nineteenth century", says Sarah.

"She actually died from a broken heart", says Adam.

"And you know this...how? says Lazarus to his friend.

"I knew the family", Adam says.

"In the nineteenth century", says Lazarus, with a less than patient grin on his face.  "You knew a family back in the nineteenth century.  Uh-huh.  Yes, Adam  And I collaborated with William Shakespeare for the writing of Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear.  Also A Midsummer night's Dream."

"I was friends with her son, Sebastian.  He would have been just seventeen.  Fanny and I were also close.  She took me into her confidence..."

The Peacock 516

 "Carol", says Sarah, "who was that composer whose work you were interpreting today?  It sounds like a woman composer."

"Why, darling, because Clara Shuman, is a female composer.  She was of the Romantic era, mid nineteenth century.  She was the wife of Robert Schumann, who, being a man, basically eclipsed his wife with his shadow, though the superiority of his wife's compositions could be very safely argued.  And she was indeed an accomplished woman.  Taking care of her husband, who was mentally ill and later confined to an asylum, as well as raising her eight children, while playing concerts, composing, teaching..."

"Wasn't she also lovers with Johannes Brahms?" asks George.

"Pure hogwash.  Oh, it is undeniable that Brahms had feelings for Clara, and it is possible that those feelings were not entirely unrequited, but Mrs. Schumann was definitely a woman of her era, a respectable bourgeois who wasn't about to sully her family's reputation, nor wound her husband nor completely jeopardize her own social position and standing by slipping between the sheets, not with Herr Brahms, nor with any other man to whom she was not lawfully wedded.  An incredibly brilliant composer.  In many ways a woman ahead of her time.  But purely and essentially and in all that really mattered to her, Clara Schumann still remained very much a woman of her time.

I ask "Are there other woman composers that you like?"

The Peacock 515

 "The Azores?" says Carol.  "Why, how very interesting."

"What do you know about the Atlantis connection", says Sarah."

"About as much as you do", says Sheila.  "To this day, I'm still not sure what to believe.  It seems like a lot of metaphysical bunkum, but also, a lot of strange things were happening."

"You did mention your painting of the high priest and priestess and the psychic who identified them", says Carl.

"There were other things", says Sheila.  "There was that apple tree."

"That tree was weird", says Michael.  "Every summer, it produced golden apples.  Not yellow, but gold, shining gold, like they had been dipped in it."

"Very tasty apples", says Sheila.   "I had a number of botanists and horticulturists take a look at it, and even genetic testing, and everyone was equally baffled.  They had never encountered the like.  There were even scholarly articles written about the thing.  And every year the yield was abundant."

"And it came from the Azores, you say", says Carol.  "How very intriguing."

"The Hesperides", says Michael.  "That's why the tree creeped me out so much.  They were the original apples, the mythic apples, the garden of Eden apples and the apples of Greek myth and legend."

"And they made the most wonderful cobbler", says Sheila...

The Peacock 514

 "Oh yes, that house", says Sheila.  "Frank and I bought it, very cheap actually, from the city, since around that time they had appropriated a number of delinquent properties.  It was an old house, built near the turn of the century, and big. Eight bedrooms, and situated on a triple lot, so there was lots of space for the garden.  It had rather a square, boxy shape, with a dormer window on each side of the roof, so there were four bedrooms in the attic.  I had actually always lived in that neighbourhood, having grown up in another house almost across the street.  The house originally belonged to a Portuguese family that had immigrated here in the 1890's.  They were actually from the Azores, that cluster of islands in the mid Atlantic.  The house was once part of a much larger property, which they farmed and had a marvellous apple orchard.  And after they subdivided it all into smaller lots and built houses on them, that was the one surviving tree."

The Peacock 513

 "Fighting words!" says George, laughing.

"I would imagine", says Francois, "That this might not be the first time those two have had this conversation."

"And it ain´t gonna be the last", says Michael.

"So, Carol", says Sheila, "That would have been you playing the piano here this morning."

"I confess", she says, with a slight smile.

"What was that piece you were playing",  says Sheila, "Was it an original composition?"

"It started out as the piano part of Clara Schumann's piano concerto in A minor (a dead white female composer), and then, it just kind of, I don't know, but it slipped beyond my control.  I don't know how else to describe what happened, but it was as though something gained possession of me and began to play through me, but something different, very different, and so hauntingly beautiful, that I couldn't stop, and then, oh, all this emotion started welling up, and then..." she stops here and folding her hands together tries really hard to gain composure... "I'm, sorry", she says, wiping a tear from her eye.  "That has never happened to me before."

"I understand", says Carl.  "It wasn't just beautiful.  It was unbearably beautiful.  Terrifyingly beautiful."

"Sheila, says Carol.  "You must tell us more about your house.  You said something about it being haunted.  By spirits of Atlantis..."

The Peacock 512

 "You mean to say", sputters Carol, "That you people here intend to take us all as your personal hostages because of this bloody virus!"

"You are free to leave anytime you like.  I was only thinking that staying here might be safer, and a bit easier, considering everything that is happening in the world right now."

Carol distracts herself spooning melted ice cream into her mouth.  "This is delicious", she mutters, "This is just delicious."

"I think I would say", say I, "Voluntary hostages?  But, I think you're right, Carl.  This could be safer.  And better."

"You do have here a lovely baby grand", Carol says.

"And, Carol", Sarah rhapsodizes, "We are so honoured to hear you play on it."

Sheila says suddenly, "What, you play the piano."

"Sheila", says Carl, beaming, "Here we have in our midst one of the world's preeminent concert pianists.  This is the legendary Carol Barlow-Mead.

"Oh", Sheila says dryly", I used to hear you on the CBC."

"Before those idiots eviscerated most of the classical music programming", grumbles Matthew.

"Oh that was pure politically correct fascism", says Michael.  "They didn't want to shill for dead white male composers.

"You wanna settle this outside?" says Sarah, grinning...

The Peacock 511

 "I remember that house very well", says Glen.  "You and Sheila were both very kind to let me stay with you for a couple of months."

"And then we all ended up together at the Place of the Transfiguration", says Michael.  "And now, here we are.  One big happy..."

"This is going to be interesting", says Carol.  "Especially because, I as a guest, really don't know where I fit in here ."  She lets her fork rest on her half eaten pie while the ice-cream creates the rivulets of a glacier melting because of global warming. "What I mean to say is that I, and I don't think,  Christopher or Jesús, came here expecting any of this.  And now suddenly we are all part of your drama.  I don't know what to think about all this."

"Welcome home", says Melissa tersely.

"You don't mean to say..."

"Carol", says Jeffrey.  "You don't have to say anything.  "Welcome home."

"But it still is rather early, don't you think, to jump to conclusions?"  Here Carol takes a long slow sip of her coffee, before digging back into her pie and ice cream.

"If nothing else", says Carl, "How would each of you, the guests, feel about weathering out this pandemic here with us for however long it lasts?"

"That could be at least a couple of years", say I.

"My point, exactly..."

510 The Peacock

 "So, this particularly handsome, muscular constable was the one who got me undressed, without another cop present, which was against the rules, and when I said something he simply barked that they were short staffed and he didn't want to have to leave any bruises on me.  Well, let's just say, that he liked what he saw, and promised that all charges against me would be dropped if I promised to be his personal blow boy.  I trust that I won't have to explain that to anyone here.  So, once a week, at night, each time at a different location, he would pick me up in a car, blindfold me and order me to lie low in the back seat.  Then we would go to his apartment where he could do whatever he wanted to do with me.  Then he would drive me back to a different location, where he would drop me off.  But even at the beginning, I began to memorize his license plate, and after the third try, I entered it into the system and came up with his name, Michael Crawley, and the exact address of his Metrotown apartment in Burnaby.  Within twenty-four hours he got a phone call from my editor.  He never bothered me again.

"But, as luck would have it, a couple of years later, my darling mother called the cops on me..."

"Come on, Michael", she says, "I came home to find the front door open, and you had forgotten to close it for some reason, what else was I supposed to do."

"No worries, Mommy dearest, all is forgiven,  So, one of the four cops who came in to fetch me from the bedroom on the third floor, where I was taking a nap, was none other than Officer Crawley.  Of course I said hi to him!"

Michael, digs his fork into his slice of pie with ice cream, and while holding it suspended in front of his mouth, says, "Any questions...?" 

The Peacock 509

 "Is there a story there?" says Carl.

"Words spoken by a true journalist", says Aaron.

"What?" says Michael.  "You're a journalist?"

"That I am", says Carl, with a very satisfied smile.

"So am I "says Michael.  "I used to write for the Glob and Mail, back in the day."

"Why haven't I known that about you", says Carl.  "You've only been living here for the last ten years."

"How many actual conversations have you and I had in ten years?" says Michael.

"Less than ten", says Carl.

"But what about that policeman you were just mentioning.  There must be a story here."

Sheila turns to her son and growls , "You really don't have to, you know."

"Oh, what the hell," says Michael, "In the interests of Christian community and transparency, I think I am going to spit it out.  After all those years of living under that cloud of shame named Douglas, it should  be for all of us something cathartic and helpful."

"Michael, are you sure"" she says.

Ignoring his mother, Michael says, "Back in late ninety-seven, I was covering one of the protests against APEC.  I was one of several rounded up and detained by police, after being pepper-sprayed.  Remember the then-prime minister's comment (I refuse to dignify that bastard by naming him), that pepper is something he puts on his plate?  Well, you get the idea.  So we were held in police custody.  And we were strip-searched..."

The Peacock 508

 "And you, Glen, are the other protagonist in my first novel.  In fact, the working title, Thirteen Crucifixions comes from your thirteen huge paintings of the crucifixion of Jesús, only one of which survived the fire that burned down the warehouse in Toronto where you had your studio.  You were twenty-one then.  Oh, by the way, the Jesus in those paintings was completely naked, nothing to the imagination."

"You're pretty good, you know", says Michael.  "What else can you tell us, Aaron?"

"Officer Crawly and his eleventh floor apartment in Metrotown.

Michael, who appears to be not easily embarrassed, is suddenly quiet and rather red in the face.

"And kudos for the way you finally stopped him", adds Aaron.

"Mom, you remember Officer Crawly"; Michael says to Sheila.

"You were eating chili at the kitchen table when you told me."

"When you extorted the information from me..."

The Peacock 507

 "Aaron", says Sheila rather sharply, "Could you please explain to us what you are about?"

"With pleasure, Sheila.  I have been writing all of you, in two novels.  You were the protagonist in my first effort, called Thirteen Crucifixions.  Shall I begin by telling us all about your two husbands?

"Pray tell", she says drily.

"Your first husband was Frank Watson.  You were high school sweethearts, and in 1960 he married you in order to hide his homosexuality.  You purchased a big house together, on Napier Street in East Vancouver, near Victoria Drive.  you had three children together, Michael here being the first, born in 1962, born in April.  Ares.  you had two more kids, Jason and Suzanne.  Your husband was a sales rep for an international chemical company and was often on long business trips, really dirty holidays, so you basically raised your kids without much assistance.  You went to university, got a degree in social work, and with your childhood friend, Madge, opened a drop in centre for people with social and mental health issues.  You also took in refugees from Chile and other Latin American countries.  During the late eighties, Frank died from AIDS caught from a rent boy, and he died at home in your presence on Christmas Day.  Bill was your second husband.  You ran a coffee shop diner together.  He was a lot younger than you, and had severe mental health problems, tried to kill you, and you divorced.  He also enjoyed a rapid recovery and a lot of his illness appeared to be involved with your house, which was very strangely haunted by spirits of old Atlantis, of which the tree bearing golden apples in your garden was a remnant.

"Would you like me to tell you more?"

"In other words, Aaron", says Glen.  "We are your invention."

"No  I'm just a fly on the wall.  And really, you, Glen, of all people, should know this, because we were actually friends when we were both young men living in Toronto."

"Glen stares at Aaron rather stupidly.  Then he says, "And when you lived in that basement apartment on East Fourteenth in the eighties.  and then in 2000 you lived in that room with all the windows and you were painting those beautiful birds..."

The Peacock 506

 "So, where were we this morning, Jesús?"

"We were drinking coffee in your apartment."

"Do you live nearby?" Sheila asks.

"I live right here", Aaron says.

"You have your apartment here in this house", Michael says.

"In a manner of speaking" Aaron says.  "Actually I am there right now."

"This very minute", says Sheila.

"This very minute.  Right here in front of my laptop."

"So where is your laptop?" Sheila says.

"Right here, on my desk, where I am seated this very moment.

"You are seated here in this living room in this mansion", Sheila says.

"Yep.  There too.  and I am drinking hot chocolate that I made this afternoon."

"This afternoon?" says Michael, wanting to have his mother's back.  "What time zone are you in?"

Carl says, still smiling,"Aaron lives simultaneously in two dimensions.   He is, we could say, our author."

"Our author?" says Matthew.  "You mean to say you are writing us?"...

The Peacock 505

 Melissa says. "We are all going to have to stay here in quarantine for two weeks following getting vaccination tomorrow.  We have to have that window of time for our immunity to kick in."

"So", says Carl to his sister, "What are we going to do about mother?"

"That was a line from Katherine Hepburn", Aaron says.

"Oh, that's right", says Carol brightly.  "The Lion in Winter.  Oh, she was brilliant!"

"It was when Peter O'Toole had a knife to her throat and was going to drag her off to prison, and that was her comment to their three sons. What are we going to do about Mother!"

"So what are we going to do about mother", says Melissa.  "I don't think either of us knew she will have to quarantine for two weeks upon arrival."

"We can make a special arrangement for her to quarantine here, with the rest of us.  Has she been vaccinated?"

"Two weeks ago."

"She'll be okay then."

Carol says, smiling, "We can all tell each other stories.  This is just like Boccaccio's Decameron."

"We can start today", says Sarah.  "I mean, we seem to have already covered the business end of the meeting.  Let's make it enjoyable.  But first, Aaron, could you tell us where you and Jesús got to this morning."

"And that will be our first story during quarantine", says Aaron, grinning...

The Peacock 504

 Carl says, "Some of us here are overdue for vaccinations.  I have explained our rather unique arrangements to the public health nurse, so tomorrow, someone is going to come here to give everyone the jab."

"Whether they want it or not?" says Glen.

"Melissa and I have both agreed, with back up and advice from Astrid, our mother, that that is going to be mandatory here, and conditional upon continuing to live in this house."

"Count me in", Glen concurs, without enthusiasm.

"So, let's have a show of hands", Carl says.  "Who here has been vaccinated so far?"

Only Aaron raises his hand.

"Second question", Carl says, "is there anyone present here who is opposed to getting vaccinated against covid?"

Nobody stirs.

"Okay, then it's passed", he says.  "We will all be present here tomorrow morning at ten and the public health nurse will be present to give us the vaccine.

"Finally some common sense gets to see the light of day around here", says Sheila.

"Douglas forbade the vaccine", Sarah says.

"Oh", groans Aaron, "Why am I not surprised to hear that!"

"No one here", says Matthew, "Should be surprised.  No one at all."

The Peacock 503

 "I don't know", says Sarah, "I do feel kind of nervous about him, being suddenly on his own and everything."

"Well, you do have a soft spot for him", Jennifer says, ruffling her friend's  hair, "And so do I.  Nothing wrong with that.  And yes we are going to worry about him" ,  

"Help yourselves", says Francois, not looking their way.

"I know it's not easy for you, Francois", says Sarah.  "And you have my full support."

"And mine, too", sys Maureen."

"And mine", says Jennifer.

"At least we have three Christians among us", says Francois, grinning.

"Francois", says Carl, with a great glowing smile, "you can count on all of us here for support.  And friendship."

"So", says Melissa, "With all that is said and done, shall we move on to our next item of business.  We need to talk about the pandemic  I have been to the pharmacy in Mission for a supply of medical masks and hand sanitizer, also gloves for those who want them.  We shouldn't have to worry about taking a lot of precautions here, but should we have a visitor, we might want to arm ourselves as needed..."

The Peacock 502

"What are we going to do about Tristan?" Sarah asks.

"Do we have champagne in the wine cellar?" says François, grinning malevolently. 

"We haven't got a wine cellar", Carl says.  "And no champagne."

"Aw, no champagne", says Michael.

"No champagne", says Carl, shaking his head theatrically.

"No champagne", says George, turning to Edward.  "Isn't that a pain?"

"No champagne is a real pain", says Michael.

"And you are being a real pain", grumbles Sheila to her son.

"Better a champagne than a real pain", says Jennifer.

"Oh, you guys are so very funny", mutters Sarah.  "So, what are we going to do about Tristan?"

"You don't imagine that we should send out a missing person report", says Maureen, who seems genuinely anxious about him.

"He's an adult", says Matthew, "And he knows his way around.  He'll live..."