Chapter 7 – Gatherings
Residence in Grand Stone Ridge
Ray and Gracy arrived at a mansion in Grand Stone Ridge, located on a hill with a breathtaking view of the city below. Ray's childhood friend is hosting a party and has invited them over. George Walter and Ray Carter grew up together. George was fortunate to get a job as an intern with an influential senator early in his career. He quickly learned the trade and has become a successful lobbyist after the senator retired. Ray speaks highly of George, and Gracy can tell they have a pretty close relationship.
Dressed in glaring violet, Ray thinks Gracy look enchanting tonight, more so than ever. Her eyes have a certain glow. Gracy feels wonderful. She has not felt this in love before. They walk up the stairs and then into the house. George Walter immediately sees them and swiftly walks toward them. “Ray, my good old buddy.” They shake hands vigorously.
“I can see that business is still good.” Ray compliments his friend.
“Can't complain,” George replied. “Let me introduce you to some of my visitors.” George walks over to one of the guys standing close by. “This is Yvain Symeon, one of France's new millionaires. Yvain, this is my childhood friend Ray Carter.” Ray and Yvain shake hands.
A guy just walks in and everyone's heads turn. “Wow, the Secretary of Treasury is here. I invited him but did not expect him to actually show up. Excuse me for a moment.” George then walks toward the highest ranking government official to ever grace this residence.
“Mr. Secretary, what a great honour to have you here,” George greets the Secretary warmly.
“I know George is good at networking, but I did not know he had friends in high places,” Ray says playfully to Gracy. Gracy smiled.
“I need a break and you give me a good excuse to come out tonight,” Secretary Bernard Carlyle says.
Ray does not know anyone in the party except for George and the Secretary of the Treasury, who does not know him. So he introduces himself to other businessman and starts chatting. “Your friend George is a good man,” one businessman offered.
“I know” Ray says smiling.
“Indeed, a hard working man,” another guest interjects. “He does not have the ferocity or influence of Morris Stark but he gets things done. He would have made an excellent lawyer. You should see him at work. A very eloquent and wise man.”
Several drinks and hors d'oeuvres later, Ray runs into one of George's three sons. John, the eldest is all grown up now. “So how are the three brothers doing?” Ray asks.
“We are all doing good. Thanks.” John says.
“By the way, this is my girlfriend Gracy. This is John, George's eldest son.” Gracy and John shake hands.
“Well the two brothers are doing good. Cole is still the black sheep of the family,” a guy who looks like he came with John says.
“Cole the youngest?” Ray asks.
“Yeah, a troublemaker,” John's guest replies.
“Nah, he is just hyper,” John responds.
“And how is Martin?” Ray inquires.
“Travelling the world. He can't stay still in one place.”
Just as John says that, his father comes out and invites everyone for dinner. As dish after dish is served, Gracy observes, “Your friend George surely does not hold back. What a luscious and sumptuous dinner.”
Suddenly there is a noise outside. Sounds of a woman yelling can be heard inside. “What is going on?” Ray asks George.
“Just that crazy radical activist,” George replies.
“Idia Alea?” Gracy asks.
“Yes,” George replies.
“The activist who resorts to violence and twists the truth to suit her agenda,” Gracy adds.
"She is a violent extremist so full of hate. But she earned a lot of money from people just as crazy as her. She issued a death threat against people who eat meat. Idia has one thing in common with those executives who defraud and mislead investors out of millions of dollars or those corrupt politicians. All of them just care about themselves and would try to get what they want at all cost." One guest says.
“I think she is an opportunist. She owns huge shares on windmills but has been campaigning against solar and other energy sources,” Ray added.
A staff approaches George and tells him Idia has been arrested for trespassing.
The party continues. After socializing for half an hour, Ray and Gracy decide to head home. They bid farewell to George and his guests.
On the road
As Ray and Gracy's car drive them home, Ray is quiet, just looking out the window. After a while, Gracy interrupts Ray's thoughts to ask if he is okay. Ray nods but still looks worried. “Come on, you can tell me anything,” Gracy promised.
“I think now is as good as any for me to tell you a bit about myself that you might not know.”
This piques Gracy's interest, and she jokes, “Your deepest darkest secret?”
Ray nods with a serious face. And Gracy is worried although she cannot imagine anything bad coming out of Ray. She just does not sense that in him.
“George, Eldon and I all went to the same boarding school as kids. That's why we were close. But there is one other thing that has made us closer. We were all victims of child abuse in that boarding school.”
Gracy is shocked and covers her mouth.
“I was too young to understand what is going on. But I know something is not right and I was afraid. It goes on for a while. We later learned that each of us were all victims. But at that time, I was very afraid and kept quiet. We've learned later that all of us were told that if we told anybody, we would be hunted down and our parts will be cutoff.”
“Oh Ray, that's terrible.” Gracy was shocked but lost for words.
“It got worse. The three of us were the quiet ones. Maybe that's why they picked us. So aside from being abused, we also constantly had to face bullying, sometimes physically. One of our greatest tormentor was Kayden. I think he had issues with his parents divorcing and he took it out on us. Then one day, George saw him with our abuser. He told me he saw them alone. Days later Kayden was found dead with his thing cut off. I blamed myself for the longest time. For not being brave enough to report on our abuser. All three of us took the witness stand during our abuser's trial and George was the main witness that put our abuser away for good. All three of us kept in touch after the incident and remain friends to this day.”
Gracy just stares in disbelief.
“I became a broken man. Suffering from attention deficit disorder and at some point depression. I became irritated for the longest time. I never quite figured out what was wrong with me. It was like learning to live again. Until I went to see a psychologist then things started to unravel. With physical abuses, you can see the bruises and treat them. For emotional trauma, treating the invisible wound is trickier. I have felt like I don't belong to this world. I felt like I am damaged goods, dirty, hopeless. I felt so ashamed of myself. All this feelings threatened to destroy me. Sexual arousal became an experience full of guilt and conflicted feelings. I became short tempered.”
Ray continues, still not looking at Gracy, “With the help of a psychologist, I was able to redirect my energy from anger to helping others. My experience has caused me to have very little patience for injustices. That's why I got involved in charitable organizations and other projects. Through my psychologist, I was able to identify that I have Post-traumatic Stress Syndrome or PTSD, which is also common among soldiers who have seen deaths in battlefield. Our brains and emotions are so fragile. If a devil wants to cause you to hate and compromise you for life, they just have to create condition that could cause you to suffer PTSD or emotional breakdown. And apparently the reason I feel like I am constantly trying to learn to live, with lingering feelings of being alienated and being an outcast, is that my growing years were so brutally altered. I was told it had affected my brain development. But I swear to always be kind, helpful and unselfish so that no matter what ang
er and frustration I feel, I will never fall down to the abyss of hate. Of course my experience has made me even more vulnerable to bullying. Since bullies sense fear and anxiety, I was also afraid that I could become like my abuser, which made me scared of being around children. I would later learn from my psychologist that false fear and guilt are quite a common occurrences among victims of abuse, I am not sure why I am telling you all this. But I felt we are getting serious and you deserve to know the real me.”
Gracy then looks at Ray and gently holds his chin, turning it toward her. “If you are afraid that I am going to leave you or look at you any less because of this you are wrong.” Ray looks at Gracy for the first time since he started relating his childhood story. “If anything, it has just increased my respect for you immensely. That having gone through all that abuse, you came out better than anyone I've ever met. Most people would have break and lost it already.”
“Yeah, I guess everyone has their own breaking point. Love is the most potent antidote to hate. Even at moment that feels like my darkest hour, I held on to my beliefs and to the feeling of love and compassion. As corny as that may sound. ”
“If I were you, I would have kicked the hell out of those bullies.”
“Yeah, I could have done a better job of standing up to them, but violence would just lead to endless cycle of acrimony and elevated levels of hate. From observing all the bullies, I can say they are usually people who are victims of hate themselves. In mild cases, they are just insecure and guilt filled quickly getting angry. In one of the areas I did volunteer work in. People called it 'the ghetto area.' One insecure guy looking cautiously at another. Second insecure and guilt filled guy angrily reply 'What are you looking at!?' The first guy humbly says sorry. And each one of them part ways. Now these two guys grew up in crime infested areas and their fight or flight reflex are a bit screwed. If the first guy would have reacted angrily also, it might end up with two of them killing each other.”
Gracy listens intently.
“This scene is figuratively repeated everywhere. Children of broken families, war veteran who are filled with guilt from the wide spread murders, child abuse or domestic violence victim, bullying victims, or being raised by a hateful bigoted parents are just some of the hate promoting acts and crimes. In mild cases, it can lead to tendency of being hateful, engaging in false gossip and falsely accusing someone to get back at the people they hate. At worst it will be an act of violence and death—either suicide, or murder and massacre. But working at the charities and helping people, I've learned no matter how bad a person seems, they can usually be rehabilitated and helped.”
“Looks like George was able to weather the storm with no trace of behavioural problem also. What about Eldon?” Gracy observed.
“The three of us were lucky that we were all able to overcome our struggle. George handled it best. I admire his strength and how he was able to survive through this. Eldon had some behavioural problem at some point. He had abusive tendencies. He does not smile as if a smile would make him look weak. He was short tempered and easily irritated and blew people off for little things. But he came around and got a wake up call when his partner in the police, Devon, who was a bigoted Nazi sympathizer full of hate, went on to beat the shit out of a gay person that they had arrested. Eldon felt guilty later because he thinks he did not react right away to stop his partner. He fears that he might have secretly wanted the guy dead. But reviewing the video of the incident actually shows Eldon reacted immediately upon seeing what is going on no more than 3 seconds of pause after the initial shock. But still he blamed himself. He thought he is turning into Devon. Devon has a very macho, I guess you can say overly macho, demeanour. It later turned out that he is a pedophile. Eldon couldn’t believe his misfortune to encounter two pedophiles in his life. It seems like a poetic justice for him to arrest Devon and I think that helps him a bit to settle what has been bugging him. We later recalled similarities between Devon and our abuser. Both have overly compensated masculinity and were hateful. They have suppressed feelings with total lost of empathy. Eldon changed from that day on and his violent outbursts have never reared their ugly head again.”
“Interesting, never thought of macho type to be pedophiles.” Gracy observed.
“Not all, but a lot of them are. But according to my psychologist, some are pretty normal and are even good charitable citizens of the community. While some victims of abuse becomes aggressive to hide their insecurity. I guess there is no one template that you can use to identify a pedophile.”
“It is really unfathomable that someone could be so evil as to do this to innocent children.”
“Yeah. It is a sad reality. Now you know my deepest darkest secret,” Ray says.
“No, now I know you are a man of integrity able to stand any evilness thrown at you.” Gracy concluded.
Cedric's Homecoming
Cedric arrives back home in San Francisco. Ten of his friends come to see him, so they decide to go out and enjoy the night around the city. Cedric asks Bobby, “So how's Anna doing?” Bobby responds with shock on his face as he turned to look at Cedric. His mouth started twitching and eyes going left and right. Cedric is puzzled by his friend's contorted face and asks “What?” and realizes too late why. One of the lady friends, Christine, standing beside Bobby, puts her clenched fists to either side of her waist like a mother about to scold her child, and asks Bobby, “Who is Anna?”
“Oh, Anna is the cat I've asked him to look after,” Cedric quickly replies.
“Yeah. She is doing fine,” Bobby replies.
“You name your cat Anna? I never saw any cat in your place Bobby,” Christine inquires.
“It's at my parents place now,” Bobby replies, which seems to calm Christine down as she gets distracted by a display in a store window. Bobby then turns to Cedric giving him a scornful look. Cedric laughs silently, tightening his lips so as not to laugh out loud. Cedric quietly thinks to himself, “I guess Bobby and Anna are evidently no longer going out with each other.”
The group of friends then heads to a club. The music is blaring with the latest electronic dance beat. One of his friends, Jake, starts dancing awkwardly with his head stretching progressively forward like a giraffe then retracting. This gets some laughs from the lady across him who then approached him.
Blake, a skinny guy with eyeglasses screams over the loud music raising his two palm to the side gesturing to Cedric in disbelief. “Unbelievable, he can dance and act geekiest and still get all the girls.”
Cedric smiles at Blake and says “Why don't you try his move on that lady to your left?” Cedric had seen her looking at Blake earlier. “Approach her with Jake's move and you'll seal the deal.”
Blake thinks there is nothing to lose and goes toward the lady doing Jake's head movement. He dances with his hands crossing each other to the side and his shoulders swinging up and down like a seesaw.
“Is that the latest dance move?” she asks, laughing shyly.
“You are talking to me and not running away. That's a good sign.” Blake replies.
Cedric laughs and is glad to see Blake has connected with his admirer. He then leaves the two alone and goes to sit with Rose in a rounded couch in the corner. It is partially covered with glass panel, blocking some of the sound. They smile at each other. “So, what's new in Rose's world?” Cedric asks.
“Not much has changed. Glad to see you back here.”
“Yeah, good to be back. So are you coming with us for our planned road trip to Vancouver, Canada?”
“Yeah. I would love to.” Rose replied.
Seven of their friends soon join them with drinks for the group. One friend says, “Looks like Blake is doing a Jake tonight,” which got them laughing. Soon Jake and Blake join them with their new lady friend.
Then Jake offers a toast. “Here's a toast to the return of Cedric, Arowin or whatever you are called these days.”
“Cheers!” everyone responds with 13 glasses raised
to toast and cheer for Cedric's return.
Gathering at Chicago
The outdoor stadium is packed as Reverend David Patrick delivers a sermon and heals the sick. People are in a trance. “Hallelujah!” Rev. Patrick repeats, followed by a chorus from the crowd as they respond. “Good night and contribute to our charitable funds as you head out so that we can help more of our brothers and sisters.”
David is glad to be heading out. He hops into his luxurious bus with Oscar, his assistant, right beside him. Oscar has a towel dampened with alcohol ready for David. “I need to wash my hands off from all those filthy Christians hands,” David would usually say after such an event. While people practically worship the reverend, Oscar knows all of this is just an act. The Reverend does not even believe in God. But it is a good business and good for gaining influence to advance their political cause.
The reverend has a visitor tonight, and it looks like they have business to discuss. Oscar offers them coffee and alcoholic beverages, then leaves, shutting the glass division behind him. It is one of those secret meetings where only the reverend and his guest are invited.
Julius is an elderly man with white eyebrows and gray hair; he is one of Morris’s top confidantes. He is seated across David in the big comfortable couches inside the reverend's luxurious bus.
“The chief has seen the effectiveness of influencing people's opinion through religion. So he wants to ramp up our operation.” Julius wastes no time in getting the meeting started.
“I hope this means increased compensation. It is hard work dealing with these filthy people you know.” David says contemptibly.
“You'll get to keep most of it. Now, it is our task to design a religion that has more appeal worldwide. I have formulated some suggestions. We currently have an Asian branch based on Buddhism and Tai Chi. We also have invested a lot to have a clerical influence in the Middle East. Our plan is to create a worldwide religion. We can claim we are descendant of David, and therefore, rightful rulers of this world because we have someone who is a successor from the hereditary line of Jesus. Maybe we can get some monarch to play that role to make it more believable.”
David laughs. “You think people will buy that?”
“With our media empire, we can spread news about discoveries of artifacts. You'll be surprised at what people will believe in. But let's set aside that suggestion for a while. We can create a religion that is not a religion.”
David frowns. “Now you are confusing me.”
“We can claim we are above religion. We can call it Aeon, the New Era Spiritual Union. We can use scripture from each religion to claim it means that to be saved, they would have to be baptized with fire through our prophet or you. We can point to Buddhist and Islamic scripture, as well as the Christian or Jewish bible. I am sure there are phrases there that we can use and twist the context to make it appear as such.”
David is sceptical, but he remembers he felt the same way when they first introduced the concept of him being the reverend. Now look where he is now. People donating huge portions of their income for miracles that he performs. He started by using staged actors and later found he can actually make the sick feel like they have been cured, at least while they are on stage. David thinks to himself, “Human brains are an amazing thing when they are made to believe things.” He realized he is working for an organization with worldwide reach that has the resources to do what they set out to do.
“With the success of our current club based on your original scheme, who am I to question your idea?”
“Good.” Julius gets up to leave, then turns around and says. “Oh by the way, you have worked hard for us so I'll let you in on a big scheme that I heard about. Just don't tell anybody, not even your dogs and cats.”
“Promise.” David swears.
“You know Cardinal Kojo Thulani?”
“The black cardinal?”
“Yes. He is apparently being courted by Morris. An aide of Morris think he is being groomed as the next pope.”
“That's crazy. How are they going to do that? Control the minds of the cardinals who vote for the pope?”
“No need for that. We just have to raise the cardinal profile in the world. Our media can help in presenting him in a positive light. As his popularity grows among the Catholics, it would be crazy for the cardinals not to vote for him. With the current pope sick and not expected to live long, our opportunity might be opening soon. The cardinals are human, and declining numbers of Catholics in the world means they would like someone popular to help attract new followers. And Cardinal Kojo Thulani's charisma would be a good fit for that.”
“I would like to see them pull that off,” David says, followed by a cynical laugh.