for a large boulder that stood proudly aloof from the cliff face as if refusing to give in to the might of the ocean and its waves. Coming what seemed perilously close to the rock, Pat turned and pointed to its summit where there seemed to be a seat hewn out of the stone.
'That's where she sits, the siren. Her name's Molly. If you see her that is the end - there is no escape. Many have been lost here, sucked into her den.' Pat waved with his hand towards a dark entrance of a cave. The swell of the sea rose and it almost covered the entrance. Then there was a slow long drawn out keening sound coming from the heart of the cave.
'That's her cry. She cries every day at high tide. She is crying for her lovers and for her lost child. It is a sad story - one probably best kept hidden within the island. I'll say no more.'
Once more the sea swell rose and the despairing wail seemed to seep out of the very rock. As the swell pushed inward a great wall of spray gushed forth and enveloped the large boulder. The mist broke up the soft evening light and a rainbow-like holographic shadow appeared over the rock. A shiver ran down my back and I felt the blood drain from my face. Deep down I understood what was happening but the myths and beliefs of thousands of years conditioned my bodily response. I almost froze on the spot in fear expecting to be drawn into the cave and to my peril. But Pat had already sensed the danger and had put the engine into reverse and just then a huge swell came in from the ocean, raising the boat high into the air almost level with the carved seat. My eyes were almost convinced that they saw a lady sitting there adorned in a multi-coloured dress. But as the mist cleared the seat was revealed - empty.
'Look out, there's another one coming!' roared Pat.
I clung onto the rail of the boat as we lunged down into the trough of the swell. The rock was now gone from view. Then slowly we were lifted aloft by the second swell. Time seemed to stand still as we slowly rose. My stomach muscles clinched in fear. I closed my eyes. The swell fell away and when I opened my eyes the sea was calm again. The sun was at the horizon and shone in brilliant golds and reds. The light clouds were tinged with deep purples and the sea reflected all in a picture that no artist could capture. I breathed a sigh of pure relief and joy. Pat was smiling in triumph as he steered the boat away. The stone was standing there solitary in the dying light. I wanted to wave farewell but my fingers were still gripping the rail tightly. I relaxed them and watched the blood flow back into them. I felt light headed and almost faint. I thought of Paudy and Matty and their lovely Molly.
It was almost dark by the time I had made my way back up to the camp. The ground had dried and there was no evidence of the deluge earlier that morning. I unzipped the flap and checked that all was okay. Snacking on bread, cheese and water, I sat cross-legged in the tent looking out at the darkening sky. My eyes grew heavy and I knew that I needed to sleep. I lay back and pulled a sleeping bag over my tired body and let my mind escape into a deep slumber.
Next morning after a cold invigorating swim I felt as relaxed as I'd ever felt for a long time. The early post-dawn air was still chilled but the sun had risen and the temperature was beginning to rise. I lay back, now fully clothed, in the heather bank near the deep sea pool where, a few minutes ago, the cold water had sliced through my skin. I still had the adrenaline rush and the raised heartbeat. My skin was still tingling as if it was pulled very taut against my skeleton. The sun's rays eased the sensation and normality returned. My heightened senses could still smell the iodine and salt on the air, sweetened by the honey of the heather and wild flowers. The scents were like rare perfumes lightly sprayed in the harem of a dozen maidens. They were sensuous and decadent in a natural way that removed any sense of guilt or indulgence. For long moments I let my mind meander amongst the bliss. For once the visual was swamped by the nasal. That, most-times secondary, sense was now dominant and deliciously so. A bee must feel like this as he immerses himself within the flower head, making love to the petals, muzzling the stamens, snorting the pollen, buzzing contentedly. I turned my head and let my nose touch the crimson and pink heather. I could smell the damp of yesterdays rain coming up from the soil - a musty sweet smell that lingered with the honeydew of the little heather blooms. I rubbed my nose against the stalks and their rough leaves and smelled the green of the chlorophyll and the salt of the sea. I wallowed in a world of scents that were acting like a drug to my senses. I felt elation, almost a sexual gratification, that I was in total communion on a very intimate level with the very earth and its vegetacious offspring. I was feeling the musk of nature's thighs bringing me back to primordial time when we lived closer to the soil. Even further back to when we were part of the soil, rooted to it, gaining our sustenance from it. Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return. These are not religious words but true words. My head in the heather, I was bridging the gap between birth and death.
I do not know how long I had lain like that but the shadow cast by the figure before me was cast by a sun not at the horizon. The cooling effect of the shadow on my exposed skin had been enough to awaken me from my sensuous sleep. I blinked at the upper half of a female figure that I recognised. Slowly, as if on purpose, the figure turned and walked away into the glare of the early morning sun. I wanted to call after her but something told me I mustn't. There will be a right time, I felt. As the figure disappeared into the fresh morning air, I relaxed and let my eyes close again to wallow in my secret world of scent.
My mind felt very alert. It was fresh and ready to dive back into the chaos of knowledge and its constraints. I found myself pondering on what were the really great outstanding questions of life, of existence. Were they based on science, metaphysics or philosophy? I imagined setting up a school of eschatology here on the island to address the theological views on the final end of man and the world. Is there progress? I know that time is asymmetrical and only proceeds into the future. In science there is the famous second law of thermodynamics that tells us the entropy or complexity of the universe increases with time. This is evidenced by the increasing expansion of the universe rather like a gas that initially starts off in a confined state in a container but once released the volume occupied by the gas increases forever. But is the universe going to increase forever? That certainly is one of the major questions facing science today. Einstein was very perturbed when he worked his field equations for cosmological evolution and found that the universe was not static. He introduced his famous cosmological constant to bring the world back to a standstill. This constant was incredibly small - ten to the power of minus one hundred and twenty. As it was related to size, it only became significant at incredibly large distances or so the theory goes. Even today the jury is still out on whether the universe is expanding forever or eventually contracting. But does it matter to us, a living organism that evolved some four to five billion years ago on an earth that formed around a mid-size star in a spiral galaxy in a not peculiar pocket of the universe. The timescales and distances are so great that they cannot impact on us in the here and now. Our fate as a species may be well decided by such local events as atmospheric response to global warming, a chance hit by a piece of space debris, nuclear war annihilation, the unavoidable evolution of our sun into a red giant that wipes out all life in the solar system or perhaps some other as yet unknown galactic catastrophe.
What this means is that we humans are bound to our little parish in terms of time and distance. Our causal horizon is very local as we currently see it. But could our assumptions be all wrong. We are bounded by the limitation of the speed of light. Because nothing can go faster than three hundred kilometres per second, the vast distances of the cosmos are forever out of our reach. But could Einstein have got it wrong? Maybe at a deeper level not yet revealed to us, instantaneous travel is possible. Glimpses of this are already apparent in quantum entanglement where two entangled particles appear to be able to have instantaneous causal contact over large distances. Is there a window in Einstein's wall of light?
There should be a science of earth. Too often we focus on the
cosmos yet at the same time knowing that its outer reaches are denied to us. We can and should have a great knowledge of our own planet. This is becoming increasingly popular now that global warming is an issue having real impact on our daily life. A lot of humankind's abuse of the planet stems from an ignorance of what the planet is and what sustains it. It is incredible to feel that our lives depend on that thin sliver of biosphere that surrounds this ball of rock. We are lucky that the biosphere stays put at all let alone sustain the abundant life that we enjoy on earth. It is the force of gravity that prevents it leaking off into cold space. We are very fortunate that the earth had the particular gravity pull that was able to hold onto our atmosphere otherwise our planet could have been a lifeless ball like Mars which did not have adequate gravity to hold onto its atmosphere.
Lucky as we are to have a life sustaining biosphere, we treat it with contempt and assume that it is impregnable to our assaults. Yet the biosphere is a very sensitive and finely balanced system. A little adjustment here and we have a