isolated I would become, because her procedures dismantled the common
assumptions I held with the rest of the world about "the way things are."
In retrospect, it was probably as an unconscious defence from her
observations that I played with Bonnie by sometimes saying, "Sure."
However, my concession to her practices of clarity was that my
impudence was shorthand: "Sure," meant that I didn‘t understand the full
point she was making—no caveats—thereby making the word a definitive
statement between us. Clever me.
Reciprocally, Bonnie enjoyed uttering the occasional "Okay," which
categorically meant that I should know better…
After this review, at the cash register an hour later Bonnie formally
said, "We are going to begin constructing a Stalker‘s assumption in the
same way we did the first one—not head on, because you wouldn‘t have
believed the principles, nor accepted that they applied to you, until you
experienced them. Do you agree?"
"I can see that," I said, handing the waitress a twenty-dollar bill.
"I will list its elements through two cognitions, as best I can," Bonnie
said enigmatically. "These are the reasoning…"
"As best you can?"
"Some elements don‘t translate, while others may only appear to have
a relevant conversion. As I was saying, the two cognitions are the
reasoning of the average person, and the logic of a Stalker. Don‘t be
concerned about memorizing the elements of either."
"Things will fall into place?" I interjected.
"Things are already in place, just not here. They‘re over there," she
said, pointing imprecisely toward the city. "You have to cross the bridge
of reason to see it."
"Uh huh," I said as the server handed me a fiver, three one dollar
coins, two quarters, and a nickel. I put a dollar in the tip jar. "So what‘s
the assumption specifically about this time?"
"That‘s for you to discover," she said, suddenly taking two quick
steps to hold the door open for me.
"It would be," I said, passing by her to the outside. "Where we going
now?"
"We go big road to many square huts," she deadpanned.
"Sorry, where are we going now?"
Coming along side me, she said, "A walk along the Denman street
shops, then to the park should work for us today. We‘ll see." Bonnie
looped her arm through mine, and looking up at the ragged edge of solid
clouds creeping over the western horizon of Vancouver Island said, "Are
you ready?"
