30.
   I gazed up at the canyon walls stretching into an infinite blue sky above us. My God, if I was dreaming, I hope I never forget this, and if I wasn’t, God help me. And yet now, right now, why worry about it? I had just lived through a sixty-foot monkey attack, a huge pile of stones that made Groucho Marx look handsome and a brandy and coke. It seemed like only moments before I had been crest fallen that some soul sucking mall had closed its doors in my face. So maybe my life is in danger in this bizarre hallucination. I could have been shot dead in the streets in the hallucination I just left. There was no frustration now, no impotence. I wasn’t cramming my head with rants and raves about how everything had gone to hell and there was nothing I could do about it. What kind of life is that? It’s a stunted life, a foul, ingrown life. Now I was slowly drifting down a bottomless lapis lazuli river. I should enjoy this moment of peace. I began to feel as though a great weight was peeling off me. Sheer cadmium yellow cliffs towered above me. The dogs lay peacefully by my side. I smiled.

   But the feeling of relief was short lived. The water was splashing all around me. Dozens of fish were hurling themselves into the air. The water began to churn. A dark shape slid beneath us. The school of fish leapt into the air in unison.  I followed the shadow in the water as it turned and came back toward us. 
   “What the hell was that?”, I whispered to the dogs in a panic.
    “Don’t move an inch.”, Nanette hissed. 

    The black form moved under us again. It was enormous. We held our breath.                                              

31.
    With a sudden surge, a huge crocodile, his back covered with dazzling green scales, his jaws spread wide exposing rows of teeth and a giant crimson tongue sprang like a leopard out of the water beneath us. We were jammed into the bottom of the basket then thrown out of it altogether as it flew into the air. I sailed past a thrashing tail. I saw myself spinning out of control, arms and legs akimbo and the dogs tumbling with me while dozens of fish flew around me like hail.

32.

   By some miracle we landed on the monster’s head. He floated quietly in the river as we clutched at his slippery scales and held on for dear life fearing the worst. His beachball sized eyes rolled back and looked at us. His terrible mouth seemed to work its way into a smile. He spoke. “I have been listening to you and I am pleased.”
   “That’s wonderful.”, I choked. “Just great.”
   “You have put one over on the Doctor, that rancid sack of shit.”, he hissed.
   “He broke its glasses!”, panted Nanette.
   “He called it a bore to its face!”, added Pat breathlessly.
   “Why are deadly evil men so often deadly boring?”, wondered the leviathan.
   “Because they are petty and small?”, I ventured.
   The beast surged forward. “What is your name?”, he demanded.
   “I am Oliver.”, I responded. “And these are my friends, Pat and Nanette.”
   “You’ll do.”, snapped the crocodile.
   We rode through the dancing waves too scared to think what might become of us. The canyon soon gave way to a rugged plain. The riverbanks were lined with ancient ruins. The behemoth’s tale propelled us toward the shore. When we were safe on land, we rolled off his back onto the sand. He reared up on his hind legs and introduced himself.

33.
    "I am Raymond and I am going to tell you about a camp, an American training camp that the Doctor has been very much involved with, a camp that has been turning out dictators, torturers and murderers for over sixty years. The Spanish American War introduced your country to Empire and you never looked back. In 1904, the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine warped a protective policy towards the nations of Latin America into one of domination. After the Nazis had impressed some powerful Latin Americans, the United States decided it needed more than proclamations to protect its ‘Back Yard’. The School of the Americas was established in the Panama Canal Zone in 1946. The sons of the Latin American Oligarchy were offered an education in an elite boarding school to introduce them to the American way, and I’m not talking about baseball. For decades, graduates replete with manuals on torture, assassination, blackmail and extortion have done their Alma Mater proud by keeping the rich powerful and America in control. In 2001 it was moved to Fort Benning and renamed The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. Cute, no?”

   The dogs seemed absolutely delighted by this saurian fabulist. They danced and pranced around his feet waving their arms. I thought it best to follow suit, so I twirled my arms above my head for as long as my dignity allowed. The crocodile grinned at my embarrassment.

 

34.
   Then Raymond’s mood took a turn for the worse. He sat down and covered his eyes. Tears began to roll down his snout. He pulled a huge book out of nowhere and opened it. Its loose pages, each one inscribed with the name of a Latin American country fell from its binding and rained down on us. “There is hardly a country in Latin America that hasn’t had its government overthrown, its resources handed over to multinational corporations, its citizens abused. I’ve been hearing a lot lately about how some of you Americans are shocked, shocked that the CIA is torturing people. Well, guess what? You’ve been torturing people for some time now. Shall I tell you about the torture manual? The Kubark Manual first appeared in Vietnam in 1963. It was synthesized into the Human Resource Exploitation Manual in Central America in 1983. What diseased mind came up with that horrific little euphemism? Makes you want to puke. The CIA declassified part of it in 1997. In one part, it is carefully noted that approval from Headquarters is necessary when inflicting bodily harm with medical, chemical or electrical methods. Can you imagine what was not declassified? One thing the CIA learned in the twenty years between the first manual and its second edition is that psychological torture is more effective than physical torture and the threat of physical torture is the most effective of all. Toss a few severed body parts into the victim’s cell et voila! Your Congress reigned in the CIA in the 1990s but after 9/11, it became a free for all. When the curtain was pulled back and the world saw Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.”

35.
   In a rage, Raymond raised up on his haunches high above us. He stomped the ground and pounded it with his tail. We sat down before him in humbled awe. We were school children and our master was caught up in his lesson.

   “You must do something about this state sponsored terrorism!” He lowered his enormous snout down to our quivering little faces framed with strained smiles. “Is this the America you love and cherish?” He marched up and down before us on his hind legs, his front legs waving in the air, his tail thrashing. “What does this say about your country that its citizens are oblivious to this abomination? How can you lead the war against terror if you are terrorists yourselves? You run a school that teaches torture! You invade and conquer a country and torture its people in secret and not so secret prisons around the world! How can you let this rancid scar continue to stain the face of Liberty? You must not let this stand!”, he blasted as he pounded his hand with his fist. The ruined columns and crumbling palaces echoed with his outrage. The somber expression on the silent statues mirrored his condemnation. He turned his head to the sky and roared.

36.
   Then he burst out laughing at the very idea of anyone doing anything about it. “Hardly anyone in America even knows about The School of the Americas!”, he guffawed. “Have you ever even heard of it? We have created an American school of assassins that has been terrorizing South America for half a century! Have you ever even heard of it? A few grunts who carried out the torture at Abu Ghraib went to prison and their superiors who ordered it went free! People have been held and tortured for years without ever being charged with anything in Guantanamo and God knows where else! What is this, the second inquisition? And nobody puts a stop to it!”

   I was taken aback. I had been so swept up by this furious sermon that I was on the verge of tears. He howled with laughter. He threw himself to the ground and it shook under our feet.
   Pat flattened his ears and backed away “What’s with this goon?”
   Nanette’s tail was between her legs. “I don’t think he’s wrapped too tight.” 
   I picked them both up.

37.
   This little charade really irked me. All that huffing and puffing, all that strutting and snorting reminded me of the trio from my earlier nightmare. I’d been strung along and then laughed at. If ‘Oliver’ was going to enjoy this adventure, then ‘Oliver’ wasn’t going to put up with any crap. Screw this lizard, I thought as I headed for the ruins with Pat and Nanette in my arms.

   Raymond wasn’t too happy seeing ‘Oliver’ walk off in a snit. “I was serious, Oliver. I get angry at this horror, angry that you don't see it, angry that you won't when it's turned on you. Sometimes it’s better to release your frustrations through laughter. I wouldn’t get on your high horse if I were you. You are here to learn these things and it’s never going to be easy. You don’t know who you’re dealing with.”
   “I don’t think you know who you’re dealing with, loony tunes!”, barked Nanette over my shoulder.
   “Ever think of taking that show on the road?”, sneered Pat. “Try jumping up and down on one foot next time.”
   As I walked into the crumbling edifice I started to calm down. After all, that lizard could have eaten us back on the river. Maybe he’s just lonely. Maybe I was too hard on him.
   Pat and Nanette seemed to be of like mind. “I feel bad I said that to the big guy.”, admitted Nanette.
   Pat hung his head. “He might be a bit screwy but his heart is in the right place.”
   I stopped in my tracks. “I think we owe him an apology.”

 

38.
   Suddenly an ominous pounding rumbled in the distance. I held the dogs close, instinctively bracing for the worst. It was a rolling thunder that grew louder by the second. The sound exploded on us as I spun on my heels. A cloud of stinking dust blew in our faces.

   Two harpies swathed in blue linen with muskets waving over their heads charged toward us on nasty, red eyed camels. The camel’s heads flew at us, their mouths gaping and full of rotten teeth.         
   “Infidel!”, the hags screeched. “Heretic! Defiler of Moses! We have found you and you are undone!”   A miasma of self-righteousness choked us. The lunatic fire of fanaticism blinded us.
   “Holy shit!”, cried Pat. “What the hell is this?”
   “For God’s sake, Oliver, run!”, screamed Nanette.
    The dogs jumped from my arms. “Oh, Christ.”, I said as I looked up helplessly at my rushing, unstoppable fate.

39.
   We were swallowed by the dust. For an instant we stood frozen and blinded with fear. Then they reached down and grabbed all three of us. “We will take you to the Sultan for beheading!” Their eyes glowed red. Their stained teeth clamped tight on the camel’s reins. “Blasphemers must be burned alive!”

   One had me by the wrist and swung me around like a doll. “Heretics must be flayed alive! Those who would break the laws of God must be buried alive!”
   The other had both dogs by their tails. “Death by torture to all who do not bow down to the will of God! It is written!”
   “Let go of me, you assholes!”, I yelled. “I’ll have you stretched out in the sun to fry! I’ll have you hung by your heels over an ant’s nest!”
   The dogs snarled and clawed and bit but for all our bravado, we were as helpless as children.
   The goons jabbed the camels with the butts of their rifles. The camel’s heads swung wildly. They let loose an explosive, bellowing groan and we were off, speeding to some unspeakable end.

40.
   Suddenly Raymond appeared out of nowhere and dropped down from a ruined column. His tail wrapped around it holding him in midair above us  His green scales flashed in anger. The bilious sons of bitches rode straight on. Crazed smiles stretched across their faces. Their eyes were wide open with bloated pride. Their flinty hearts were hot with the anticipation of immanent bloodletting. They were good. They were strong. They were angry servants of an angry god.

   Raymond’s jaws snapped open and slammed shut. The sound of spurting blood and crunching bone filled our ears. The camels fell to the ground, righted themselves and bolted. The harpies gasped their last blood gurgling breath as Raymond’s teeth sliced them to ribbons, yet he had cut us loose with the dexterity of a surgeon. We fell to the ground with severed hands still clutching us.

41.
   Pat and Nanette got to their feet and stared at the hand gripping their tails. I pulled frantically at the hand frozen in a death grip around my wrist. Raymond sidled up to us and purred. “Please don’t bother to thank me. Your kidnappers tasted wonderful. Bigotry and intolerance are like salt and pepper on human flesh, mm, delicious. As I was trying to tell you before you walked off in a huff, the scum of the earth is looking for you. Searching for the truth can be dangerous. Finding it can be very dangerous. Telling others what you have found is usually fatal. The world is run by thugs. Thugs have turned the teachings of the prophets into religion to terrorize the world and the teachings of patriots into propaganda to control it. Thugs turn us on each other to detract us from their dirty business, a secret business of thievery, murder and rape. Most children are trained to think in a straight line, eyes straight aheadto to keep them in line the rest of their lives. ‘Glory to the fatherland. Glory to the motherland. Glory to the church. Glory to money.’ Thugs fear more than anything else an independent mind, a mind without blinders. You pissed off the Doctor. You’re dangerous. Oh, and please don’t throw those hands away. I'm having a dinner party tonight and they’ll make a delightful Amuse Bouche.”

  42.
    Then a surprised look crossed Raymond’s face. “Wait a minute! I know someone who has had personal experience with terrorism and its consequences. Let’s give her a call.” He stomped into the ruins leaving the dogs and me to scurry along behind. He led us past crumbling temples, shattered arenas, smashed fortifications to a giant pair of somber stone Pharaohs who seemed to have dozed off where they stood. Each held an arm high above its head to together support a great golden horn, its massive bell flared upward to the sky, its enormous tube coiled like the guts of God.

   We scaled a stone stairway to watch Raymond lumber up to the trumpet. He paused and turned to us. “Prepare yourself, children for the sound of ecstasy.” He put his lips to it and gave it a blast. The music of the spheres shook us to our bones. It was a gorgeous, haunting sound that filled us with the power and beauty of the universe. The sound frightened us. It inspired us. It dazed us. When Raymond stopped, it lingered for a while, caressing us for a moment more before trailing away.
   “Oh my God, I feel I’ve been made love to!”, I said reverently. “Play that thing again!”
   “Yes, play it again!”, cried the dogs. “Play it again!”

 

43.

   “She is my dear friend. I love her very much.”, whispered Raymond as he searched the sky. “In a balloon of banker skins, she sails the clouds.”
    “Banker skins?”, exclaimed Pat. “I like her already.”
    “I never thought of using the bodies.”, Nanette wondered in admiration. “Think of all the possibilities: coats, purses, hats.”
    “Shoes.”, Pat continued. “And belts.”
    “You’re wandering into dangerous territory.”, warned Raymond.
    “Human skins!”, reassured Nanette. “We’re talking about human skins.”
    “Human skins?”, I asked incredulously.
    “I’m sorry to have to tell you this, Oliver but bankers are human.”, sighed Pat, patting my arm.”
    “In that case, why not lamp shades?”, I suggested angrily.
    “Then again there could be an argument made that bankers aren’t human or not entirely so.”, Pat responded cautiously looking at me with ear and eyebrow raised.
    Nanette changed the subject. “So, you blow this big horn and she comes running?” 

    “If we’re lucky.” , answered Raymond. “We’ve been through a lot together. We’ve overthrown tyrants. We’ve consoled the dying and buried the dead. She’s one of us.”

  

  44.
   ‘Consoled the dying and buried the dead?’, I thought. Things were getting a bit heady. I bit my tongue. You can’t mock someone who could turn around and eat you alive. I hope she wasn’t some old hag or worse, another lizard.

   It wasn't long before an amazing apparition broke through the clouds, a great balloon of flayed skins stitched together. Smug, arrogant faces stretched across its surface. Their eyes were closed now, humbled by the eternity of their destiny. A dark figure leaned out of the basket and waived to us.
   Raymond continued. “She has seen too much tragedy but she was raised with an open mind and she knows that there is as much good in the world as there is bad.”
   “Oh great, a tragic optimist.”, muttered Pat.
   “If she can put a banker to good use, she’s more of a practical optimist.”, countered Nanette.
   “Do you think I should tell her about the accessories idea?”, queried Pat. “I know a guy who puts out some beautiful product. Maybe I could set her up with him.”
   “Maybe you could keep your mouth shut.”, frowned Nanette.

45.
   Raymond had climbed to the top of a ruined temple. His tail arched and his head lifted in salute as the basket of the balloon swung past him on its descent. “Hello, beautiful!“, he shouted.

   “Hello, dear heart!”, a voice returned.
   The dogs and I scaled a smaller ruin nearby. “Raymond thinks she is beautiful!”, Pat panted.
   “Raymond is a crocodile.”, Nanette deadpanned.
   We waved as the balloon slowly drifted by. Its ropes shimmered in the afternoon light. The silent, brooding bankers wore almost regal expressions. “We go back a long way. I have known her since she was a little girl.”, Raymond said wistfully. “Her name is Claudia, and she will show you the personal side of what I’ve been taking about, the part that hurts, the part that wounds, the part that kills.”
   The balloon floated past us and dropped into the ruins. The dogs and I rushed to the spot where the balloon had settled. We stood in front of it, our hearts pounding while we waited for her to make her appearance.

46.
   I was stunned when she stepped from the basket of the balloon in a red dress as skimpy as my red, baby blanket shorts. She was beautiful and definitely human. The canopy of the balloon gently swayed above her. Its ropes bobbed and wiggled. The bankers seemed to gaze down on us sadly as if dreaming of a life that could have been. She was dark, of mixed race with bottomless brown eyes and long, thick black hair. Her breasts gently lifted and sank as she breathed. She reached out and touched my shoulder as if making sure I was real. If this wasn't the first bite of the first peach of summer, I was dreaming. Nanette gazed up, entranced by this beautiful Amazon . Pat gazed up her dress.
   "Hello." , I stumbled.
   "Hello, handsome."
   That was it. I didn't care if I was dreaming, if I was hallucinating or this was actually real. Bingo!

47.

   Raymond hovered above us with a grin on his face. “Claudia, I would like to introduce you to Oliver and his fellow travelers, Pat and Nanette. I’ve been giving them an introductory course on terrorism and I think it’s time for some advanced studies.”
   “It would be my pleasure.”, Claudia announced regally.
    Nannette smiled. “I’m most impressed with your balloon.”
    Claudia seemed flattered. “How about a ride?”
    “We’d be delighted.”, leered Pat. Then, with a calculated grin on his face, “I hope you don’t mind me asking, but how did you get into the banker skin business?”
    “Don’t pay any attention to him.”, interrupted Nanette with a strained laugh.
    “Oh, I don’t mind at all.”, smiled Claudia. “It’s not a business, really. Some bankers ruined my country and impoverished my people. When they laughed at our despair from the heights of their grand mansions, we killed them. Simple as that. Now they no longer bleed the world dry. Now they contribute to it.”
   “They certainly do.”, said Pat with admiration. “The leather looks so soft and supple. Do you have more?”
   “That’s enough!”, commanded Nanette.
    “Well then,”, laughed Claudia. “Come fly with me!”
    The dogs sailed into the basket. As I struggled to pull myself up, I felt Claudia’s hands on my butt giving me shove and a squeeze. 

   "We're off in a magic balloon!, exclaimed Nanette.

   "A magic balloon of silky leather!", grinned Pat.

   "Be careful, children.", frowned Raymond. "The four of you make a big target".

  

48.

   As we lifted into the sky, Raymond looked at us longingly. “Godspeed.”, he sighed.
   Godspeed, indeed, I thought, waving good-bye. How do you introduce yourself to a goddess without putting your foot in your mouth?
   “How did you meet Raymond?”, asked Claudia.
    “He introduced himself in the middle of a river.”
    “He found you when you were lost.”, she said with conviction. 

    "He saved our lives." I answered somewhat guiltily.

    "He has saved my live more than once.", smiled Claudia.

    It was late in the day as we drifted over the clouds. “This is a bit awkward,”, I stammered, “but I don’t even know if you are real or not. This world I’ve found myself in is unlike anything in my world.”
   “And you have a problem with that?” 
   “Sometimes I do but not at the moment.”
   “Well, that’s a relief!”, laughed Claudia. “Let’s relax and watch the sunset. There’s plenty of time to get to know each other. Perhaps you will join me for dinner. Are you hungry?”
   “Very much. I haven’t eaten anything since...”. I paused to think. “I haven’t eaten anything in your world.”
   She lifted a blanket to expose a brazier. It was almost magic to watch her saute a pan of shellfish as the sun began to set. And it was a wonderful sunset. I was awed at the explosion of color and form. We ate in reverent silence as the sun slowly extinguished itself in glorious abandon while a full moon rose to replace it.

49.

   Pat and Nanette were as impressed with Claudia’s feast as I was. For the first time on this roller coaster I was completely relaxed. I picked up a steamed clam and studied it. The stratified shell reminded me of tree rings. The envelopes and leaves of meat beckoned me. They were firm yet inviting. A small puff of steam escaped their folds. Life doesn’t get any better than eating great food, I thought. Food is a refuge, whether it be great or mediocre or even paltry. It connects us. It grounds us. It is us. Why do we consider what we would choose for our last meal? Why was there a last supper in the Bible? Why are cooking for a lover and making love so similar in so many ways? Life is a tempest. Food is shelter.
   Claudia gently prodded me out of my reverie. “Is the full moon real enough for you?”, she murmured as she draped an arm over my shoulder.
   I put down my plate and stared into her dark, liquid eyes. A breath of wind lifted her hair. The moonlight shivered over the features of her face. “More real than any moon I’ve ever seen. It seems alive.” What could I say to this beautiful creature, I thought as foolish words bounced around in my head.
   “What does the full moon inspire in your world?”, breathed Claudia. 
   “Romance?”, I blundered like an idiot.
   “Well then, what are you waiting for?”
    Timing is everything as they say.