Chapter 1
It was a beautiful spring day in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, as Jason and his two friends, Toby and Doug, stepped off the bus, nearby Charlotte Pike. The clear blue sky and the atmosphere of the downtown area made Jason feel lively and adventurous. Going downtown on the weekends was one of his favorite things to do, especially when he had money to spend, like he did today.
Jason's eyes were shielded by sunglasses and he wore a tank top, baggy jeans, and sneakers. Together with his unkempt light brown hair, the clothes gave him a motley appearance. His body was slender and girls often admired his soft and slightly effeminate facial features.
Toby and Doug were dressed similarly.
The three of them stood for a moment, near the bus stop, assessing the situation.
Toby looked around. “Maybe Utek is around today,” he surmised. Toby had dark brown hair, reaching down to his shoulders, dark brown eyes, and a scrawny frame. He had been obsessing about marijuana ever since his hippy parents had given him his first joint at age thirteen.
“Did you page him?” asked Doug. Doug had short light auburn hair, blue eyes, and an athletic physique. He exercised every day and played soccer in a select league.
Toby took out his cell phone and dialed Utek's number, while Doug and Jason continued looking around.
Jason hoped Utek was in the area. He had started using marijuana not long after Toby and he considered it to be a special treat. Usually he just settled for cigarettes.
Jason eyed a smoke shop and longed to be eighteen. “Let's go look in some of the shops,” he said.
Toby put his cell phone away. “I texted him. Maybe we'll see him while we're down here.”
The pleasing scent of tobacco filled the air, as the three boys walked into the smoke shop, knowing they might get thrown out again at any moment. This time there was an Indian woman, whom Jason hadn't seen before, behind the counter. She was busy with a line of three customers.
Jason walked toward the glass case, containing the bongs. A green double chamber plastic bong, for around twenty dollars, caught his eye. He was primarily interested in the plastic bongs. Glass bongs were an extravagance, which broke too easily. He wanted a cheaper plastic bong, when he turned eighteen and could live on his own. Smoking anything around his parent's house was dangerous. His parents didn't even know he smoked cigarettes. He knew they would forbid him from smoking anywhere, if they found out about it, and possibly even cut off his allowance.
“Hey, look at this,” called Toby, from the display case near the register.
Jason slightly resented Toby being so conspicuous, but he walked over to the display case, nonchalantly, and looked at the pipes.
Toby pointed to a glass water pipe, which was small enough to fit in his hand. “I'd love to have that bubbler. You don't even need a screen for one of those. Just clean it out, regularly. Someday I'm going to get one of those electric percolators.”
The Indian woman shot a startled look at the two boys. “Are you eighteen?”
Toby looked up and Jason followed him toward the door as Toby said, “Of course we are.”
“Can I see your IDs?”
“I'm not carrying mine right now.”
“Then you need to leave.” The woman looked at Doug, who was still appreciating a risque poster propped up against a table, near the back of the store. “Can I see your ID?”
Doug turned and followed the other two. “I forgot mine too.”
“Please leave.”
Back out on the street, Jason saw a new age bookstore, called The Magus, which he enjoyed visiting. “Let's go see what they have at the Magus,” suggested Jason.
“Sure,” replied Toby.
The smell of incense filled Jason's senses with a mixture of enticing aromas and everywhere he looked there was something to stimulate his imagination. A tree of life poster on the wall, opposite the front door, drew Jason's attention. He had read books about the tree of life and the Kabbalah. Unlike the Christianity of his parents, it didn't preach that a scientifically impossible miracle had occurred over two thousand years ago. Instead the Sephiroth and the paths connecting them, comprised a map of the universe, which fit perfectly with modern scientific thought. However, Jason believed there were things portrayed in the tree of life, which had yet to be explained by science. Astral in particular was beyond the scope of modern day science. He had had ideas about becoming a scientific researcher, in order to discover the physical roots of astral phenomena.
Despite the pleasant appearance and smell, there weren't many book shelves and the shelves were designed to display the books at an angle, showing the front cover, instead of the spine. In addition to this ostentatious form of display, there were large spaces between the books and they were all overpriced new editions.
Toby was looking in the glass case, near the register. “Tarot cards,” Toby observed. “You want to have your fortune told?”
Jason shook his head. “I might not like what they tell me and if I do, they'd probably be leading me on to keep me interested.”
Toby looked at Doug, who seemed eager to leave. “How about you?”
“I already know my fortune. I'm going to get a soccer scholarship to college and settle down with a beautiful wife and children.”
“Sounds good to me,” said Toby. He looked at Jason. “You ready to leave?”
“Sure.”
Next they stopped by Jason's favorite bookstore, down the street from The Magus. It was a large, unpretentious used book store, with a very wide selection, called Twice Told Tales. The book store had two floors, with many different sections, including a new age section, tucked away in a back corner of the second floor, far away from the popular fiction and Christianity literature on the first floor, which were both situated nearby the front door.
A musty smell drifted to Jason's nostrils as he entered the used book store and he was excited about what he might find this time. He began by looking through the science fiction and fantasy section. He preferred science fiction and fantasy to novels drawing from the real world in current or past time. Novels drawn from the real world tended to be far removed from the real world, anyways, and he resented how they romanticized trials and tribulations, which normally destroyed people's lives. If he was going to read romanticized accounts of ordeals, he preferred they made no pretense of happening in the real world, at any point in time.
Jason picked out a cheap paperback, which was the next book in a fantasy series he'd been reading.
Rather than reading romanticized portrayals of stories drawing from the real world, Jason preferred either fantasy and science fiction novels or nonfiction, especially historical nonfiction. World War Two was his favorite period in history. Ancient history tended to disturb him too much, with what it implied about the human condition. He recognized periods like the golden age of Rome as one gigantic holocaust. Wars like World War Two and the Civil War were so much more interesting, because they ended in redemption for the downtrodden. If he had been drafted by the Confederates during the time of the Civil War he would have fled to the north to fight for freedom.
Jason looked at the history section briefly, but none of the history books interested him this time, so he went upstairs to where most of the alternative literature was stored. On the second floor, the sections were smaller, with more variety between subjects. He always got an adventurous feeling about delving into the unknown, seeing so many different subjects, all in one place. He went straight toward the back corner of the book store, to look at the new age literature.
The new age literature section was one of the largest of the alternative literature sections and he regularly found obscure used books, which he'd never seen before, in this section. Jason looked at the spines of the books on Kabbalah and saw nothing of interest. None of the books on astral could teach him anything he didn't already know. He was still trying to achieve astral projection and the books could only teach him so much. However, when he looked at the books on En
ochian, he found a large hardcover book he'd never seen before, called, Everything There is to Know About Enochian. Judging from the size of the book, he assumed the title might be true.
On closer inspection, the binding looked and felt old, yet well kept. The lettering was a tinted light blue color, over a tainted white background, bordering on a yellowish gray. The fabric reminded him of some of the older astrology books he'd handled. The front cover was relatively plain, displaying the title of the book, framed in a square double border, containing the Enochian sigils.
Skimming through the table of contents he realized it was an Enochian encyclopedia from the 1930's. The price was etched in pencil, on the upper right corner of the front page, as with any common paperback. It was affordable. Jason marveled at his good luck, as he thumbed through the different sections, finding detailed accounts of John Dee's and Edward Kelley's experiments, instructions for skrying, analysis of the watch tower system and the Heptarchia, as well as an exhaustive English to Enochian Dictionary. He was elated as he carried the book downstairs to the front desk. Enochian had always seemed too exhaustive and convoluted to fully understand. The other books he'd read about Enochian only hinted at something larger, while remaining incomplete. This encyclopedia looked like it truly did have everything there was to know about the language of the angels.
He found Toby and Doug in the comic book section on the first floor. Toby asked, “Find what you're looking for?”
“Yes. Did you?”
“Not yet. We need to look for Utek. Maybe get a bite to eat.”
Jason looked at Doug, who was skimming through the pages of a super hero graphic novel. “Are you ready to go?”
“Sure.”
Toby noticed the large book on Enochian as they approached the register. “You're going to read that entire book?”
Jason shook his head. “I'll be using it as a reference. There's only certain sections worth reading entirely.”
Toby and Doug waited near the front door as Jason bought the fantasy novel and the Enochian encyclopedia.
The cashier was an uptight looking male with an imperious air about him. When Jason reached the register, the cashier's eyes scanned him with a judgmental look. The cashier eyed the Enochian encyclopedia with disapproval. Then he entered the amounts for the books, as he asked, “What do you want this book for?”
A twinge of irritation coursed through Jason and he replied, “Reading.”
The cashier frowned and then read aloud the purchase price.
Jason paid the purchase price, feeling a slight resentment for the cashier's self-righteous nosiness.
The cashier returned the difference and with a hint of petulance in his voice, he added, “Have fun reading.” Then he put the two books in a black plastic bag and gave Jason a wry smile, as he handed him the bag.
“Thanks.”
The cashier greeted the next customer and Jason was glad to be done with the transaction. He hoped that cashier would be gone, by the time he returned to Twice Told Tales. He had always resented the kind of people, who enjoyed pretending they were on some higher moral ground, from which to judge the harmless actions of others. He couldn't understand why they enjoyed behaving like that.
Once the three boys were back outside, Toby pointed across the street, to their left, and said, “There's Utek. Let's see if he has any.”
Utek was a medium sized African American male in his mid-teens with short curly hair and a slight build. He was wearing a blue and white flannel jacket, baggy jeans, and a Smokies team baseball cap. At the moment, he was talking to another small group of people on the other side of the street.
Toby hollered his name and Utek turned and looked in their direction. Then Utek waved them over.
The three boys looked in both directions to see that there were no cars and then they j-walked across the street to join Utek. “What's up?” asked Utek.
Toby put his hand near his pocket and said, “I was wondering what time it is.”
“Yeah, I saw you texted me. You wanna go to that alley over there and talk for a bit?”
“Sounds good to me.”
Utek wiped the sweat from his forehead. “All this sun is wearing me out.” He and the three boys left the group, still standing there on the sidewalk, and the four of them headed to a nearby alleyway. Doug stopped, as the other three entered the alleyway, and he waited on the sidewalk, just next to the corner.
“Nice hat,” remarked Toby.
“Thanks. They're doing really well this season. I'm going to a game later this week.”
“That's a sports team?”
Utek chuckled. They were in the alleyway now and Utek led them to a cove, which was less visible from the street. “What you want, man?”
“An eighth.” Toby withdrew two twenty dollar bills from his wallet.
Utek pulled out a rolled up plastic bag, lined with marijuana, and he said, “Got this here if you're interested.”
Toby took the bag and eyed it, gently pressing one of the buds. Then he unraveled the bag and opened it.
The bag released a pleasing scent, which was so much sweeter than tobacco. Jason loved the smell and taste of marijuana, but he refused to obsess about it, the way that Toby did. He was usually content just to smoke cigarettes.
Toby smiled. “Looks good. I'll take it.” He handed the forty dollars to Utek.
“You know where to find me.” Utek headed back out of the alleyway to rejoin the group on the sidewalk.
Jason and Toby rejoined Doug at the corner of the alleyway. Toby looked at the other two boys and asked, “You two wanna get something to eat?”
“Sure,” said Jason. The sun was wearing down his constitution by now and he felt the need to re-energize with food and quench his thirst.
Doug said, “I was about to ask the same question.”
The three boys went to a fast food restaurant and ate junk food. By the time the meal was over, Jason felt revitalized and ready for the bus ride home.
Nearby the bus stop, where they were waiting, Jason saw an African American man, carrying a sign, which warned of the Illuminati. This crazy man was walking back and forth on the sidewalk, saying, “Slavery didn't end with the Civil War! The Illuminati has slaves underground!”
A young Caucasian male, who was standing next to the bus stop, engaged in a mock cough and blurted, “Crazy person!”
The young Caucasian male's friend added, “Too much sci-fi television.”
Soon a police car approached and parked along the sidewalk, in the vicinity of the crazy man, and two police officers exited the car. They both walked up to him. One of the police officers said, “Drop the sign and turn around with your hands above your head.”
“Why don't you go into the underground and arrest the Illuminati?”
“You do as I tell you right now!”
“Are they above the law?”
The police officers manhandled the crazy man, causing the sign to drop to the ground. The crazy man didn't put up a fight, but the police forced him to the ground, on his stomach, before they handcuffed him. One of the police officers picked up the sign and they escorted him to the police car. The crazy man shouted, “Stop the Illuminati before they take us all under mind control! The underground must be invaded!” They put him in the back of the police car with his sign and drove away.
Jason had always felt sorry for mentally ill people. He assumed it was probably something more than just the alternative media, which caused the man to behave that way. He was probably hearing voices and suffering paranoia. Having read a text book on abnormal psychology, Jason knew these people generally suffered intense mental anguish, which drove them into such actions. He dreaded the idea of becoming trapped with something like paranoid schizophrenia, leading him further and further down the path of delusion, until he lost control over himself, like that crazy man had.