13

Simon Magus

There was something unique buried deep inside Simon, and his father was the only person who knew the whole truth about him. Simon and David shared their deepest thoughts during times together on Shelter Island, a tradition that had begun when Simon was seven years old.

After both Sarah and Rose retired to their bedrooms for an evening of reading, Simon and David took a walk on the beach and then went into David’s study, his very private and favorite room off the back hall behind the kitchen. Before David had chosen it, it had been the summer cook’s suite. The cook’s suite may have seemed an odd choice for a study, but it had a large window with a view of the sea. David loved looking over the tall yellow grass and through the scraggly pines out to sea. Years ago Rose had lain out there on the sand in a faded denim dress with her rich brown hair blowing in the wind just like the young woman in the sand dunes by Andrew Wyeth. What could be better than a window where he could sit at his desk and gaze out to the sea, a lovely contrast to the intimate interior with its cozy fireplace.

They slipped into two dark green leather easy chairs arranged around a Sibley oak table subtly lit by a dogwood stained-glass Tiffany lamp bought by Simon’s grandfather in 1912—a family heirloom that would someday be Simon’s. David got up to get two crystal brandy snifters from the oak sideboard, a sign it was time to talk. He noted Simon’s brooding eyes while he fingered his glass, capturing the green glow of the Tiffany lamp in the facets. He wondered what was troubling Simon. Was it something to do with the disturbing subjects he’d been writing about? David respected Simon for going out on his own as a journalist and making it.

David was a third-generation businessman. The original Appel ancestors had come over from Flanders in the 1870s and become merchants in the booming American economy. As soon as they accumulated enough capital, they became manufacturers of various metal parts for the Gilded Age, such as household hardware, plumbing, and lighting parts. Back in those days they were clannish and discreet, since you had to be careful about being marked as a Jew. Thankfully this onerous discrimination was largely gone from the American scene by the time David came into the family business and eventually the family had become very respected. Now here is Simon with a lovely girl, one who may be the first non-Jewish bride in our family. It doesn’t matter to me because I like Sarah so much, but we’ve got to talk about it at least once.

He began, “Simon, Sarah is charming, and I think you’re quite taken with her. Tell me all about her family.”

“The relationship is not that serious yet,” Simon replied, hoping to avoid the discussion.

“Well, that may be the case right now,” David said in a crisp, persuasive voice. “But out with it! I can see how you feel about her. I think she has totally captivated your heart, mind, and soul, and we can see why. You’ve met her parents, so tell me about them.”

“Her mother, Mary, is pretty the way Sarah is but more domestic, a woman who loves family life. I don’t really know her very well yet, but I have gotten to know her father, William. I met him when he came to Rome a few months ago to visit the Vatican. Sarah was sure it would be a rough go because he’s not partial to Jews. Worse, he was really angry about my article on priestly sexual abuse in the Times. In fact he came to Rome to meet with Church dignitaries to discuss the crisis. You’ve always encouraged me to just go for it if I really want something, so I took them both out to dinner at Alfredo’s. It took him twenty minutes to figure out who I was, and then he almost turned into a steaming teakettle. But he is too well-mannered to gore his host, and we instantly liked each other! I’m still amazed that it was so easy. Last week her parents welcomed me to their home, which was diametrically opposed to how I was treated by the non-Jewish families of the girls I used to date. I think it’s because her father is a hard-working construction engineer, not an effete blueblood.”

David took all this in very thoughtfully. He was a little surprised Sarah’s family had been so friendly. This girl must be strong and managed to maneuver her father into a favorable mood. “Of course, it makes me happy to hear you are being respected. Do they know very much about your background? You’re the effete blueblood!”

Simon listened to the wind driving soft rain against the big window to the sea while pondering his situation. Funny how it is when you’re successful in your own right. To Sarah, being an Appel is merely a sidebar, and her parents probably have no idea how prominent my family is. They’d be the types just to think of my work and how it aligns with hers. Hell, Sarah probably hasn’t thought much about the importance of my family but she’s probably catching on now.

There was a long pause while Simon tried to figure out how to probe his father on some issues that he knew would take him by surprise. Oh well, the only thing to do is just do it. “Dad, do you remember when I was a kid and you talked about Isaac Luria, everybody’s Ashkenazi mystic?”

“Isaac Luria? What in hell does that have to do with romance?” What on earth is he after? “Is Sarah into the Kabbalah, like Madonna?”

Simon smiled. “Nah, I’m the one who is into the Kabbalah, and you started it. Do you remember telling me stories here in this room about Luria exploring many dimensions? You said his unusual ability to see things on so many levels started a whole new mystical phase of Judaism?” Simon wondered if his father had any idea how much that conversation had influenced him. Maybe not, since he hadn’t said much about it after he grew up. Maybe in his father’s day, these were good ideas for living day-to-day life and doing business, however, Simon had been using the knowledge to navigate reality. Simon saw himself as more of an adventurer than his father, but despite their differences, he knew his father was the only one he could talk to right now.

David looked puzzled. “Well, sure, but so what? I’m genuinely perplexed by what Isaac Luria might have to do with getting the girl you want! Please elaborate.”

“Okay, I will try. I think I’m having some experiences that only you can relate to. When you told stories about Luria and explained his Kabbalah model—the Tree of Life and many dimensions—I thought it was how reality actually functions. Maybe you were teaching me these ideas because Luria is our famous ancestor? Whatever the reason, I’ve found practical applications for these ideas in my life. I’ve put them to use, they work, and maybe that is why I’ve gone so far and fast as a journalist?”

David was shocked. He remembered how serious Simon had been when he shared the esoteric models with him. David had talked about it for hours because Simon had seemed so fascinated, but Simon had never said a word about it since. “What are you doing, Simon? Are you having séances with Sarah?”

At this point Simon felt like laughing and blowing it off. But he had to find a way to frame a question that would get him an answer. His father had influenced him in two main ways—mystical sharing and firm moral values, the reason why it was not difficult for him to respect Sarah’s sexual boundaries. He’d been taught morality came out of respect for another person’s needs and rights, an approach that was second nature to him. As a result Simon had earned the deep respect of his friends and colleagues, even Sarah’s father. My father taught me respecting others is what causes them to respect me. Then does he really think it’s okay for me to use mystical methods to get what I want? “Dad, have you ever used manifestation techniques, like visual skills, to successfully conclude a business deal for the most favorable outcome? Do you do that when you think it would be a good outcome for all involved?”

David put his brandy glass down on the table so abruptly that it made a high-pitched ping. Is he nuts? Does he think the way to get this girl is to use the Kabbalah? Who in hell ever did that? . . . Come to think of it, probably a lot of guys! David was quivering because something was calling him to full alert, so he just let some words flow out. “Well, we don’t talk about these things in business, but I’ve heard that some successful men use rituals, even sexual rituals, to influence people’s minds. Stanley Kubrick explored this in Eyes Wide Shut, a great film showing how the elite use sex rituals to control the world. Regardless of what other men were doing, I have noticed that when I want something to happen in business, if I believe in it strongly enough it tends to happen. This is especially true when I visualize a desired outcome. People often said I get the things I want by my will, but I think it is because I see things before they happen. I’ve never, however, related my success to Isaac Luria!”

“Well, why not, Dad? Why were you so successful when other guys were not? Hell, you don’t even work that hard. When you taught me how to manipulate reality, I took you seriously because I thought you used visualization to get what you wanted. You are ethical, so you would never do it without believing others would also benefit. Amazing! Maybe this Luria lineage is ingrained in our blood as an unconscious force in our family, especially in the men.

“Simon, I learned the business from your grandfather, and I did okay. Visualizing positive outcomes seemed to be second nature, and we always made plenty of money. But what in hell does this have to do with Sarah?” David responded, feeling confounded.

Simon took a deep breath. Oh man, here we go! “Okay, Dad. Do you remember when we used to talk about the Fallen Angels, angels coming down to Earth and taking women? I was fascinated and concluded a bunch of extraterrestrials were hanging around here thousands of years ago. Now this issue has come back for me. Look, unfortunately I’m not the only guy who’s after Sarah. An Italian aristocrat from Tuscany is also seeing her, and I’ve been having dreams about the guy as a Fallen Angel who has come to take her. I dream of him with wings! I brought her out here to meet the two of you because my dreams are so alarming. I’ve been using some of our mystical techniques to bring her closer to me. I’ll do anything because I care about her so much. I love Sarah! But is this right; is it moral? The facts are, these things work, which sometimes gives me the creeps.”

He raised pleading eyes to his father. “I need you to know about my struggle. I need your help. I want her and I need her. I am on the verge of a really nasty battle with the Leviathan, a modern-day dragon, when I get back to Rome. This is a battle that I intend to win. I just know that this other guy is a real threat to her. The skin on the back of my neck bristled when she told me his name—Armando Pierleoni.”

David got up slowly and went over to his desk to pick up a strange black object. He came back to his chair and sat down, holding the object in his left hand where it filled his palm. His fingers closed over it. “I don’t know if you remember me showing you this when you were little. It is a petrified whale’s ear that is millions of years old, and it has always been in the family. Probably it comes down from Isaac Luria, and someday it will be yours. My father gave me Levi as my middle name to honor our magus lineage from Luria, just as I gave you Isaac as your middle name. My father did battle with the Leviathan in business after WWII, so I am sensitive to what you are facing,” He sighed. “There is so much evil in the world. When I hold the whale’s ear, it gives me answers for how to deal with these potent forces. Maybe it works because I’m sensitive to the sea—maybe there is information in the waves? So let’s see what the whale’s ear has to say.”

Simon watched his father close his eyes while holding the whale’s ear. I always wondered what he was doing in this room alone for many hours.

Like film stills moving on fast forward, a blur of images poured into David’s inner eye. He struggled to pick out forms, faces, and landscapes, trying to slow them down enough to see them. Unlike when he tuned in to the whale by himself, he had to describe what he saw, but the images were coming so fast that they passed before he could describe them. Keeping his eyes tightly closed, David said in a thick and slow voice, “Ask me a question about what you want to know.”

Simon stared at his father’s slightly frozen face, his eyelids quivering as if in REM mode. Pulsating blue light flashed in the whale’s ear. Where is my father right now? He spoke the first thought that came into his mind. “Is Armando Pierleoni a threat to Sarah?”

The question went right into the deepest part of David’s forebrain where an answer was already ringing. A high-pitched disembodied voice came out of him, seeming to originate from the center of his skull. “Sarah is a rare daughter of the divine feminine, a woman with a great heart, a very advanced soul. Her pure frequency has drawn a very dark being to her; instinctually he wants her because he senses she could save him from doom. He easily gets any woman he wants; he has never been denied, and boredom is his worst enemy. He does not feel what he does to others, the pain he inflicts on them, because he is a sociopath. You’d better be careful because he will get violent if he’s thwarted. He is a threat to Sarah, not you.”

David was breathing deeply and regularly, as if he was almost sleep.

Simon remembered from childhood that he could only ask three questions, so he said in commanding voice, “Should I protect her?”

“You can only protect her by winning her over,” David said very softly. “And you have to win her over before he does, which you already know. The time in the States before you go back to Rome is critical. Sarah must be your main goal now. What happens between the two of you during this time could save her.”

Simon had already figured that out, but the answer afforded him the chance to ask the last question, the one that would matter. Clenching his fists as he looked at the whale’s ear in his father’s hand, he said, “She is a virgin and very naive. Should I seduce her right away to protect her from him?”

David felt a sharp electromagnetic disturbance in his brain, almost like a minor ischemic stroke. As he breathed even more deeply and continued to finger the whale’s ear, his brain electrified, generating palpable magnetic fields in the room. His voice now became deeper and more distant. “She is an ancient sacred virgin like the Vestal Virgins of Rome or the temple priestesses of ancient Judah. The Vestals were used to keep evil away. She has no idea why she is so watchful and virginal, why she feels she would be breaking a vow if she has sex. Her father wants her to be a virgin until marriage, so he put a lock on her. As for Sarah herself, she is very lusty, very ready for sex. This man is dangerous because he is so experienced, and she is very passionate. She is so confused by her ancient vow that you cannot seduce her or propose to her until she’s ready to renounce virginity. She wants to go beyond the vow of chastity her father imposed because it locked her into the old, the past. She needs to break through to sexual love without all these rules, especially religious ones, or she will never be free. If the man in Rome plays it right, he could easily convince her that he is the one who can liberate her.” Then his voice trailed off as if he had fallen asleep.

Simon sat back in the green glow of the Tiffany shade, pondering what his father had said and scribbling detailed notes on a pad on the table. Glancing up at his father, whose eyes were closed and body slack as if he were napping, Simon noticed the whale’s ear was about to fall on the floor and he reached carefully for it. The touch of his hand caused David’s eyes to fly open. David blinked, clearly disoriented, so Simon asked, “Do you remember what you said?”

“It’s very strange. I honestly don’t,” murmured David. “I feel like I enjoyed a nice nap. I can remember something from when we first started, some comment about Sarah being a very spiritual person, but that’s it. I know one thing: this is yours.” He reached for the whale’s ear on the table and handed it to Simon. “My time with it is complete. Now it’s your turn. It will help you focus and figure things out, as it always did for me. Maybe it did belong to Isaac Luria?”

Later Simon lay on the top of his blanket while the evening was still warm. He put his fingers on the back of his skull, pressing the place where his skull connected to his neck while he visualized the inner structure of the house, the halls and rooms and the things within them. Once he had a total scan, his light body rose slightly above his body, and he floated down the hallway into Sarah’s room where she was sleeping deeply in the moonlight. He hovered over her body, sending waves of light into it.

Meanwhile, Sarah dreamed of walking on the beach wearing a sheer white gossamer tunic. Feeling drawn to a shadowy figure in the distance, she felt like flying to it but wasn’t sure what it was. A white egg of vibrating light enveloped her body, reducing her to a tiny nucleus in the egg.

Simon floated back down the hall, into his room, and back into his body to sleep.

Simon and Sarah had to go back to the city in the morning. He had an appointment, and she had to catch the train to Boston. After saying goodbye to David and Rose at the ferry dock, they were on their way. Sarah thought Simon was strangely quiet. Finally when they were on the road again, she said, “I had such a lovely time. I’m so impressed by your parents; they’re so warm and welcoming. Thank you for bringing me out to meet them.”

Clenching the steering wheel while trying to figure out what to say, what to do, he just said the first thing that came into his mind. “Sarah, they can see that you aren’t just a friend, that you mean more to me than that. This is serious business, and we may not have all that much time or opportunity to have what I think we both want. It was not an accident we met by the House of Cumae in Rome. Certainly my parents won’t oppose us getting closer. Help me. How do you feel about me?”

“Whew!” Sarah exhaled as she sat back rigidly in the passenger seat, a million thoughts cascading through her mind. How lucky am I? Simon means a great deal to me, but something is holding me back. Is it Armando? Am I more sexually attracted to him than to Simon? As that thought came into her mind, she felt heat between her legs and nausea in the pit of her stomach that made her dizzy. She had to say something, so she said, “It’s the classic line—I need more time. We have been apart for a month, and we didn’t spend that much time together in Rome before that. I have very strong feelings for you and I adore your parents, but I need more time. Luckily we will have it in Rome, time just to get to know each other better.”

The traffic was building, and he cursed himself for bringing it up in the car while driving. But it was his last chance before racing to a difficult editorial meeting, so he tried one more thing. “Will you consider staying an extra day in New York to have dinner with me at home again in Brooklyn Heights?” He watched her out of the corner of his eye as she pushed back in her seat and crossed her legs in lotus position, leaving her sandals on the floor.

Looking straight ahead into the weaving traffic, she said, “I have to be the sensible one: I can’t be alone with you again in your house because I’m afraid I would break our agreement. It isn’t time yet. I don’t know why, but both of us need more time. If we are meant to be together, you will not lose me. If our relationship is meant to go deeper, it will happen. We have to trust; we can’t hurry it. I have very strong feelings for you, Simon, but I have to leave it at that for now.”

“All right,” he replied. “I think we should see each other again in Boston before we both go back to Rome, if you agree.” She did.