“Sorry. Have you had a conditional death?”
“No. I’m still cutting the elastics when I recognize the tug of a poor belief. You help me
with that more than you know.”
“Thanks,” I said missing the slight.
Swallowing hard, she said, “Well—what’s your decision?”
"What the hell, let's get on with it.”
"Done!” Bonnie said, so firmly that her ancient cat jumped up off her belly. Defensively
looking over her shoulder, Ginger trotted out of the room.
Had we been in Tripoli, I would have noticed the crowd thinning and headed for Jordan—
best salads in the world, in Amman. As it was, I chuckled over Bonnie’s imitation of me as she
went over to the fireplace mantel.
Picking up a paperback by Jane Roberts, she said, “This will help to clear up the first
hundred questions you'll have. And this,” she said picking up the bag with the belt inside, “will
keep you from having to hike up your pants. Your jogging is working well.”
“I thought it was for Karl,” I mumbled unappreciatively.
“We are not in a financial competition and the value of this gift does not constitute a
condition of reciprocity,” she said coolly.
Her eyes brightened. “If that’s too much to take for a lesson example, think of it as a
teaching aid. You can hitch your thumbs through the loops as a reminder to pay attention, like a
real student would, to every syllable of what I’m saying.” She cocked her head to one side.
“Come to think of it, I need the exercise. Do you want to run together; we can do lessons at the
same time?”
“Sure.”
“Your commitment is underwhelming.”
Chapter 28
Jogging together didn’t happen for many weeks which didn’t break my heart because I
enjoyed the solitary aspect of running and the freeness of a wandering mind. Bonnie was sure to
be slower, unable to do my distance, and would probably talk the whole bloody way. What
stopped us wasn’t a lack of resolve but a lack of time because, after my agreement to be taught,
she began channelling descriptively illusive entities virtually every moment we were together.
And when I went home at night, I read Jane Roberts’ Seth Material to better grasp what Bonnie
had told me during the day.
Typically, our days began around nine, always with the Kha-lib persona setting up
timeframes and cultural backgrounds for the physical lifetimes of other personas who would then
tell tales of personal growth that I could relate to the larger quest: I recognized that Bonnie was
acting out the prologue reminiscences in the first material she had allowed me to read.
As an example of this approach, Phillip told a story about sibling rivalry driving him to
accomplishments he might not otherwise have attempted, then Caroline spoke about a youthful
jealousy that drove her to become a prima donna. Kha-lib then explained that focus was the
difference between the two experiences: smouldering resentment had propelled Phillip to greater
achievements but his fuel had been acrimony, so the journey was without joy and the conquest
bittersweet when his sibling was happy for him. Examining the experience, Philip thereafter
pursued challenges for appropriate reasons.
