Time For Lessons

Clinton: I waited over an hour in the smoky Katerinaburg in Davenport. The "Cat" as the regulars call it, sits on the southeast corner of Second Street and Western Avenue virtually unchanged since it was built in 1876. It's crammed with Russian emigres puffing on black cigarettes and draining Volgas of vodka. Yuri is the balding, mustached owner who runs the place. He has a pot belly, arms as thick as phone poles, no neck, and penchant for bursting into blaring baritone rendition of "God Save the Tsar" whenever the place is quiet. That usually gets him into a fight with some rummy. They go out in the alley and Yuri shows off his old Black Beret commando moves.

     Yuri saves me a table when I'm in town. It's a dark, private corner under an old staircase. That was where I was waiting for my rendezvous with someone who had information on the Stone. They called me in the dead of night and used a voice scrambler. Told me they knew where the strange and ancient Stone of K'dhor was if I could pay. I doubted them, but agreed to meet at The Cat and haggle the price.

     I was in mid-study of the sultry brunette singing on the piano, when a black gloved hand tapped lightly on the old wooden table. I looked up.

     "Your friend met with a terrible boating accident, my dear Professor," said the man as he slid into the chair opposite me. His voice was oily, his face as pale as chalk and his frame fragile---though well I knew what might that scrawny body held.

     "Mr. Hinge. I was just leaving," I said trying to rise from the table. He snatched my hand and squeezed hard. Very, very hard.

     "You must stay, dear Professor. You know too much of something very old and forbidden."

     "Let go," I begged as I sunk obediently into my chair.

     "Not just yet," he smiled. "My Master wants you to learn something else, my dear Professor. Pain is a good instructor, is it not? So effective. The basic instincts all race together to alleviate pain. The whole consciousness swings into sharp focus. The mind suddenly becomes more receptive to een the most ludicris ideas inorder to end pain."

     He squeezed with his thumb, snapping the base of my left little finger. I gulped and squirmed, but could not escape.

     "This is the moment for learning, my dear Professor. Your pulse is rapid, your breathing efficiency doubled, your blood vessels and pupils are dilated. Your muscles are taut and you sweat more anticipating some heat-producing, albeit feeble, action on your part. Your digestion and urine production have virtually stopped. Adrenals and analgesics are flooding into to your blood stream. Your brain is marvelously alert, frantic for a way out." He squeezed again, breaking my third finger. "Fascinating, isn't it, my dear Professor?"

     I grit my teeth, "What is this lesson from your Master?"

     "He wishes you to learn what happens to those who resist him. But you already know more than anyone should in a certain sensitive matter. The inverted bowl in the Well of K'dhor you left alone; you showed excellent intuition there. None would have found your mummified remains for centuries. And of course your recent dreams. Compelling, aren't they? That figure beckoning you in such, shall I say, an erotic way? That is the first sending. There are others far more...interesting. Resist them.! My Master wishes you to serve him in exchange for your life."

     I stuttered nervously. Not missing a beat, he squeezed and broke my middle finger.

     "There is but one answer my Master will accept, my dear professor. Otherwise, you may never again play the violin."

     "I know a good therapist," I spat back.

     At that instant, Hinge yelped horribly. There in the middle of his hand a six inch stiletto was being driven through into the table.

     "Oh, I'm so sorry. Was that your hand? It looked like a beetle," Yuri smiled. He pushed the knife deeper clear through the soft pine tabletop for emphasis. Hinge hissed with pain through clenched teeth. I snatched my sore hand back from Hinge and clutched it, gingerly.

     "Govno," Hinge suddenly laughed at Yuri. The bar quieted as customers murmured and watched. Hinge lightly tugged at his skewered hand. It came free with a squishy slurp out of the black leather glove that remained pinned to the table. He held it up for Yuri and I to see. There was no mark on that chalk white hand at all, nothing save a little trickle of brown goo that looked like chocolate syrup from a tiny nick on the back of his hand. He flicked his fingers and even that vanished.

     "My Master will be displeased with your answer, my dear professor. Beware, then. Our next meeting will be far more...instructive." Hinge said as he turned to go. Then he turned abruptly, shed the other glove, and tossed it to Yuri, saying, "I have no need of this. Now."

     When he left, Yuri pulled knife from the table, picked up the skewered glove and shook it out. Stuff like dried leaves fluttered out on to the table. Somebody dropped a glass. Somebody else started praying.

     I got back from the hospital to my hotel room around 3 am, with my hand in a cast. The pain killers they had given me weren't doing the job, and it was like I was carrying a large throbbing ball of hamburger at the end of my arm. I picked up the copper cylinder I had brought back from the Well of K'dhor and lay down on my bed studying it for a while. Suddenly the room filled with rushing wind and I was blinded by a dazzling white light coming from a large whirling sphere at the other end of the room. I watched intently, as it gradually coalesced into a human shape. And there it stood, neither male or female with little more of a face than a brow and a nose, glowing with white hot energy. It spoke to my mind a single word: "Heal".

     I held forth my battered hand. It took it into its two finger-less hands. The cast dissolved and an instant later, my hand was healed and new again. Again it spoke to my mind, "I am to teach you to become K'dhor. Only then will you find the Stone and utter the ancient summons to bring the New Ones forth."

     I got no sleep the rest of the night.

     For what I learned may bring about the End of the World.