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VISÁKHÁ (WIFE TO MAHÁ) tells this story on the day of their second wedding anniversary. One year after the King gave Mahá the position in the King’s court as Ambassador of Gardens.
Startled for a moment as I slid my slender and short body into the Adirondack chair next to him. Oops, maybe not so slender as my wide hips and round butt bounce when I hit the seat of the chair. The near-perfect chair maneuver manages to distract Mahá from his favorite amusement of watching the valley below.
The front porch of our home is twenty meters away from a thousand meters high sheer cliff at the edge of the mountain top. My husband (Mahá) often loses hours a day sitting and watching the beauty of the hill shadows, and cloud shadows as they dance across the valley floor. He can see the orchards and the giant nut tree groves as the wind moves their heavy branches covered in dense leaves and abundant fruits.
"I see you're busy counting clouds and chasing shadows again." I tease him while I hand him a large glass of his favorite beverage.
He's careful not to show it, but I can tell he worries. There's so much on his plate with the meeting between him and the King and the appointment to the King's court. According to the Oracle, on our wedding day. Mahá will soon become King and I'll die before our children's seventh year. Preposterous, I say, but it still shakes me to my core. He also worries because we all know he is bound to accomplish the First Priority once he is King. He hasn't accepted himself to be the great being that he is.
Our ancestors foretold the next King, our generation, to be the King who fulfills the promise of Nirvaning. These sorts of proverbs never materialize in the way we expect. This proverb foretells when our grand experiment, or what we like to call ourselves—the community—discovers Nirvana. Mahá suspects the DNA-altering serum isn't the needed ingredient. "Being free of anger doesn't provide consciousness with the emptiness that is necessary for the first priority (being Nirvanad)," he reminds me of this every day.
Anyway, all that aside, today is our second anniversary. He shares a smile of appreciation and boin, accepting the glass from my hands. "I have been wanting to ask you a question all day," He says.
"Ask me." Before he could blink, I responded.
"It's an anniversary question." He sets his glass down on the porch next to his chair. He points a finger at me and then points the finger at himself in rapid repetition as he asks. "What is this thing we share? If you say it is love, you are wrong, and if you say it is anything else, you are wrong. What is this?" He settles back into his chair, waiting for my response.
Mahá knows the question is a novice Koan and simplistic for someone as advanced in mindfulness as I am. The more profound lesson of the Koan was learned long ago. But he's intrigued to watch how I'll respond to this romantic twist.
Out of the corner of his eye, he sees me put my glass down and stand up from my chair. With the humility of a sex slave, I drop my dark coffee-colored body onto my hands and knees. Slow and seductive, I crawl over to him and onto his lap. He takes me in his caramel-colored arms and I curl my legs and torso upon his upper body. Laying my head on his shoulder, I bury my face into his neck; kissing and nibbling at the flesh there.
"Yes. I agree." He says. "This is what it is." The glow of love on his face and the twinkle of desire in his eyes.
Vallena and Kelv are standing in the shadows, close enough to see Mahá and me and hear what we said. I know she's there. I've always been able to sense her presence. So we share a mysterious but unmistakable centimetric detection of one another's presence.
I can hear Vallena whispering to Kelv, not interrupting the moment. "Passionate love like theirs is like a rich, spicy broth. Assembled to extract flavor from an abundance of ingredients and blend them as the broth gets cooked down, add in more broth and cook it down, again and again, condensing into an experience of deep intensity. Each sip of the broth makes the lovers crave another sip, and then another and another until they become intoxicated and addicted. But take care, any small deviation, even the slightest ripple in the relationship, leads to intense personal suffering and will lead the couple down in a negative spiral."
Kelv and Vallena step out of the shadows and walk up the steps to join Mahá and me on the porch. "Look at this pair," Kelv says with his hands pressed together in front of him as he bows to us. "Two years of marriage and they're still in honeymoon mode."
Vallena quips, "I could drink them up like a cool glass of water on a hot day."
I greet them without budging from my husband's embrace, "Hi my friends. Boin you're joining us on our anniversary day." Of all our closest friends, Mahá and I always felt it would be the four of us (Vallena, Kelv, Mahá, and me) who would change the course of our society. Everyone in the group is required, but the grist would depend on our strengths.
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Soon, we are joined by many friends, and the celebration begins with a feast. Midway through the meal of well-sauced and seasoned beans, legumes, and crisp vegetables, a popular band arrives to perform my favorite, tribal music, for the party. The guests are Airodia and his wife, Utotutua. Airodia is a leading physicist for the community and Utotutua is a medical doctor and recently certified as a surgeon. Merliana, a member of the King's court as Chief Royal Judge, also manages the Village City Council. Shavarah and Kyphi are also representatives of the King's court and manage the city council and commerce for the upper city. And then there's Drrea and Danip, who are both research scientists. Drrea is leading the manufacturing of fabrics and making clothing from cannabis plant fibers. Danip develops revolutionary methods for land management, which extract the most for plants while preserving the farm and orchard lands for the long term.
Upon entering our house from the large wrap-around porch you pass through the double doors and into an open-concept living room, dining, and kitchen. Our home is well-equipped with large rectangular pillows, drum pillows, and sitting pillows for meditation. There are a few lounge chairs, but Mahá and I prefer pillows. A long table runs along the kitchen island where the sharecroppers and house staff gather for daily meals. Otherwise, the floor is wide open to throw a pillow down and take a seat or lounge across a few pillows to relax.
The huge front-facing window is coated with a radiation-filtering glaze and allows the natural light to fill the house safely. In the distance, the view opens up to the ocean that covers most of our planet. The yellow sky and ever-changing pink and orange cloud formations captivate everyone's attention. Two violent storms roll in daily, covering the valley below us with clouds. The band will always set up here in front of the window during parties using the ever-changing sky as their backdrop.
Planet 444 is illuminated by a binary star system consisting of a neutron star and a white dwarf. The X-ray emission from the neutron star we call, Kelly, forces us to wear full-length protective robes for most of the day. When Kelly is twenty degrees above the horizon, we also need to wear hoods and eye protection. Most of us use this time of day for sleeping and otherwise stay indoors. It takes seven hours for Kelly to cycle above and below the danger zone. The dwarf star, we call Faust (for the famous alchemist Edward Kelly, who later made the legend of Faust House famous), seldom drifts below the horizon. Once every four years, there is a fourteen-day period when it slips out of sight.
"I've been curious about our ancestors," Airodia told the group as the band took a break, "I'm wondering why the Humanoids decided that the first twelve families are Royal while the remaining thirty-two families make up the common population. It is a caste society where Royal families marry other Royals, and common marry common families. Then, of course, Royals work for the King's court, and common families work the fields, orchards, and commerce."
Danip replies with a leading question, "Yes, a caste society, but also a monarchy. We've known one another since we were children, but I don't know your household numbers. How did the Humanoids decide which family was number one and so on down to the forty-fourth?"
Mahá was the first to answer, "My lineage is number two, we shall not destroy life here, is our banner. The intention for the clan numbers is to help us live by the laws Shakyamuni Buddha provides." He performs the Vitarka Mudra while continuing to speak.
"The laws for communal living written in the Vinaya are forty-four in number with the first twelve being more Monastic, and the remaining are more for laypeople. But aside from our knowledge of it, not one of our Royals lives up to the intention."
For people who are not free from anger, there would be at least one person showing outrage at the lack of leadership for enforcing the laws. Likewise, and by contrast, the community on Planet 444 is free from anger, and therefore they say and listen to everything with peaceful and accepting enthusiasm rather than anger.
Airodia spoke next as the group continued to go around the room in clockwise rotation, sharing family numbers and lineage oath, "My family is number seven; we abstain from false speech here."
Utotutua says, "My family is assigned number ten and our oath is, bless all beings to be free of suffering and the causes of suffering." Shavarah spoke next. "Mine is family three. We hold the responsibility for the oath; we abstain from taking what is not given here." Merliana says, "My heritage vowed to keep everyone working together and living together as a whole. The actual words from Shakyamuni are hard to grasp when you first hear them (Abstain from divisive speech.). But we want to use words that pull us together as one people united in our efforts. That's family number six," Merliana shrugs playfully and laughs.
Kyphi is next, and she says, "Mine is family eleven and we are responsible for the oath; we are of right view here."
Drrea, always demonstrative, leaps to his feet and stands tall, well, tall for him. He's just a few inches taller than I am. Pretentious, he bows before telling the group, "I come from family thirty-five, and we are the oath keepers of, we shall have good friends here." Danip pulls on Drrea's arm to get him to sit back down as he tells the group of friends, "My family is number nineteen, and our banner is, we shall be of right knowledge here."
Kelv looks at everybody around the room and says, "The oaths and banners are insignificant under this monarchy. Even our so-called family numbers are unimportant in our pathless community today. But to keep the party going, I'll play along. My family was the last chosen to be Royal. Whatever that is thought to mean. I'm from family number twelve, and our oath slash banner is, we shall be of right intention here."
Under normal circumstances, where people don't have anger removed from their DNA, Kelv's anti-government words could spark an angry confrontation among the group. Even his tone would be fiery and it would ignite confrontation. But, wholehearted, this community finds pleasure in everyone's words and ideas.
Vallena is still laughing as she blows a kiss across the room toward Kelv. "What would a party be like without a philosophical speech from our brother Kelv? He pretends to catch her blown kiss and then he stuffs it inside the gawu box of his necklace. “Chibusa!" She laughs and then says, "Mine is family number forty and we are the oath keepers for, we shall be of great learning here."
I waited until everyone else finished. Then, pressing the palms of my hands together held at the heart chakra with thumbs resting lightly against my sternum, I perform the Namaskara Mudra. "I come from family number one. My ancestral grandfather was a physics scientist specializing in developing a theory for electromagnetism's effect on the organic human mind. So the Humanoids chose him first for his achievements in science. Well, anyway, our lineage is responsible for the oath; we shall not inflict harm here."
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Airodia says, "Boin, everyone. So, now my curiosity is met with confusion. Let me try to explain. Well, let's see. Where to start? Okay, other than marriage and appointments to positions in the King's court, our population all live, work, shop, eat and play without segregation. We all share the same medical care, quality of homes, education, shopping, and common areas in our community. Nothing in society provides better living conditions for some and lesser for others. We are living in equanimity, united and happy."
"I disagree." The words are out of my mouth before I can stop myself. "Except that Royals do enjoy privileges. Royals are given access to comps and use it to gain access to restricted areas, and they use their family number to take more in commerce too."
Airodia is surprised and asks, "What do you mean that Royals take more?"
I turn to look at Drrea and ask him, "The new robes you're making with the UV and radiation protective fibers. How many robes did you take for yourself?"
Drrea answers, "I have three. But they protect from X-ray, not radiation."
"And you Vallena? You made it possible for all people to own these new fibers. How many robes do you have?"
Vallena was hesitant to respond, but the room stayed quiet, waiting for her to respond. At long last, she answers, "I took two."
Then I turn to face Shavarah, from a Royal family, asking her. "Your family number three, and yourself a member of the King's court, Shavarah. How many new robes did you take?" She responds, "I think it's fourteen. But there are so many new colors now. Before there was bone white and nothing else. I want to own two of each of the new colors. It's important in my Royal position to represent the new technology to the community. With these new robes, we can see each other. You know, the thick fabric of the old robes hid our features and protected us from the binary stars' radiation. They were total burkas, but the new fibers are near transparent. Some of them are very transparent."
Merliana was deep in thought and hardly noticed when Kyphi clipped one of the pillows out from under her. As the chief judge of the Royal Council, she hadn't realized the divisive nature of the King's Royal Privileges. The privilege of a few will not promote the First Priority. Her face showed confusion and concern following this conversation among her friends.
The band was back from their break, bringing with them the distinct smells of fresh ganja smoke. As they begin to play, Mahá stands and performs the Vitarka Mudra and says, "Wait! Before we get running full speed down this rabbit hole of diverse privilege, I want to say two things. First, I want to ask Vallena to share some of her new ganja weed. She tells me it delivers a magical quality fit for our creative needs."
Before he finished the sentence, Vallena had already pulled her fogger from her backpack and passed it around. Mahá continues, "Second, Visákhá made her point that the Royal families are becoming greedy.
"However, I want to point out this is an example of how words carry power. So, let me say because all of us have forgotten these forty-four laws were established to guide us. Our civilization neglects the intention of the forty-four declarations. The Buddha's forty-four laws guide humankind to accomplish The First Priority. Following the law provides great wealth and opportunity for the individual and society. Therefore, pointing blame and shining a light on misguided leadership should instead be for us, and I mean those of us in this room, for all of us, my friends, an opportunity to remind the community of our First Priority."
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With that said, I say, "Drrea and Vallena, are you ready to heat this party up, ladies?" The three of us jump to our feet and gather together in front of the band. We are standing side by side, facing our friends. We take off our robes and toss them aside. Beneath them, we are wearing outfits similar to 23rd century Earth, belly dancing made from the new fabric. The garments are sensual, silky, and see-through, depending on the visual angle and light.
Drrea is a beautiful man with a short, muscular, stocky body and an absolute knockout punch beautiful man-package. The skin tone of his scrotum and shaft is like buttercream frosting, and while he isn't hung like a Hollywood porn star, he's perfect. Even straight men can't ignore the beauty of his junk. His face is gorgeous though if you look close, his left eye is larger than the right, and his nose is bent to the left. His inviting thick lips beg attention and I have taken up kissing him when we greet and again when we say goodbye because those lips are delicious—so kissable.
Vallena was born with a skin pigmentation condition (vitiligo), and at first glance, you would think she is a burn victim. Her tom-boy personality fits her very tall and very boyish body. She has no hips, no butt, and her breasts are small, with the nipples and areolas are too large. Her hair is shiny and as black as space. Her voice is bold and smooth and she speaks so slow; at times, it almost hurts to listen to her. Her hazel-brown eyes can hypnotize, and a soft, long face with a shallow chin and high cheeks.
As for me, well, I already said I'm short and slender with wide hips and a mighty round ass. My hair is super short, black with tight curls, and my breasts aren't huge but not small. There's for sure more than a handful. I remember Drrea and Vallena agreed, several days ago when we were rehearsing our dance, that my titties are very pinchable. My eyes are dark and slanted upward a bit on the corners. The bridge of my nose is too wide, and the end is too round. It's my worst feature. My lips are full but not puffy, and my chin rounds out my face. I don't go anywhere without my round, gawu box, necklace.
We perform a well-rehearsed ritual dance. The band cranks up the sound as our dance starts with several hoots and whistles from the party. Before we ditched our robes, Kelv slips out of the house unnoticed by everyone except, myself and of course, Vallena. She knew that he wouldn't be able to watch her and the three of us perform the seductive dances. Kelv is our new spiritual leader. I'm convinced he will be critical to The First Priority.
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Everyone continues to smoke the ganja, and soon they are dancing and grinding to the beat. I managed to snap Merliana out of her funk and she dances with me and Airodia. There's something about dancing and letting loose to music that moves without words that can heal your heart. It's time spent where the mind and the body are in sync, where the only objective is to be.
Finally, after several hours of performing, the band announces they are finishing up after one more song. As soon as they call the last song, Vallena makes her way over to where Mahá is sitting. He's taking a break from the dance and sitting on the floor on top of a barrel pillow with his back against the wall.
I watch as she seats her very tall, leggy, and boyish-shaped body in a lotus position on the floor straight across, less than ten centimeters between their knees, in front of him. Her naked and very female body was exposed through transparent garments. High on the ganja and unashamed, she asks him, "Can you come with me tomorrow? I want to show you something that is growing in my garden. Kelv said he will cover your class tomorrow at the monastery. I've got something that you can use to blow the King's mind. So please, please, please, will you come down the mountain with me?"
Vallena and I can sense each other's presence, but I also know her well enough; she knows what she's doing. Teasing the men and getting a rise out of them make her feel attractive and powerful. But I told her time and time again her teasing will result in a bad consequence sooner or later.
Mahá is also well-baked and tries not to be distracted by Vallena's stark naked and pigment-deformed, odd-looking skin. He half chokes as he replies, "Yes." Then he clears his throat and tries to maintain eye to eye with her. He says, "Yes. Of course. I, I—well, I look forward to seeing everything you have. I mean, to see what you're going to show me." He stumbles to his feet, embarrassed at his words and not knowing how to recover with any grace. He tells her as he walks out the door to join Kelv on the porch. "I'll pick you up in my cart after I finish at the palace tomorrow.”
The band finished playing soon after that, and everyone went home. Mahá, Kelv, and Drrea stayed out on the porch talking while Vallena and I went off to bed.
"There's only another hour and a half before Kelly hits the danger zone," Kelv says as the two men join him on the wrap-around deck outside. "The band better hustle if they are going to get their equipment packed and get home on time."
"There's something on my mind that I want to share with you guys, "Mahá says. I can hear the three of them talking as I lay in bed trying to relax enough to fall asleep. Mahá says, "Something must have been pretty horrible for Mara to jump into a black hole to kill herself. There must be unimaginable grief to get to a point in your life where killing yourself is easier than fighting on. This makes me wonder then as all of us on this planet fight onward for the First Priority (liberation) are we liberating our True-Self, or are we liberating Mara's True-Self? I'm sensing that these are the same thing. Nirvanaing is an all-encompassing transcendence."
Super amazing awareness Mahá" says Drrea. "There are so many gaps in the teaching on everything from the Buddha and the Arhats. All of the content we learn from and study is based on Earthlings, and living on Earth. Most of the metaphors and similes don't make any sense for people living on other planets. Which I think is why we run into these sorts of mental traps."
"You're onto something with this thought, Drrea," Mahá says. "Earth religions are not universal? This may be true in many ways, besides the information having been written by people on Earth. Perhaps every civilized planet will evolve, invent and discover its gods. Perhaps the difficulty isn't that we can't transcend, it's that we can't succeed following Earth's gods and philosophies on Planet Four Four Four."
"We need to go now or we will spend the sleep hours here," says Kelv.
"What are your thoughts on this, Kelv?" asks Drrea.
"I'm certain there is something easier than what we strain our brains to comprehend," Kelv explains. " In this purgatory, as Mahá bracketed our universe, we are trying to transcend through intellect instead of through—isness. Look at Kelly out there in the universe. It doesn't know it's a neutron star. It doesn't know it emits X-rays with every quake. It just is. It neither tries nor contemplates itself. It just is.
"There is a proverb from the Dao that says, one should aim to be useless. The example explains a forest on the edge of a large community of people. All of the useful trees have been cut down and used to make planks for people's homes. The only trees left to thrive and live in peace are the useless trees. The crooked, bent, and odd-shaped trees don't know they are useless. They just live."
Drrea says, "Chibusa. That is my new favorite lesson and it also is an example of what I said. What is a forest? And all of the trees here are fruit and nut trees and none of them are straight. What is a plank and how do you make one from a tree?"
Then, before Kelly was near the danger apex, the men went off to sleep. Kelv went home to the monastery, Drrea went home to Danip, and Mahá came to bed—wondering what tomorrow's visit to Vallena's gardens would bring.
Mahá laid back in bed and thought, "Why would she invite me? Why not ask Kelv to come to see her secret?"
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Mahá and Vallena start down the steep, hairpin curves and tight switchbacks on the Main Road. He's never been to the bottom before, and he's nervous. Vallena says, "I like to buckle up on the way down. Once we get to Orchards Road, I love to retract my seat and stand. Even if it rains a little, there's nothing like the feel of the air at the bottom."
She looks over at Mahá and can see he is nervous. She takes his hand in hers, "Your first time to the bottom, Mahá?"
"It is," he says as he accepts her steady hand. Much to his surprise, they are off the mountain in a few short minutes.
Vallena unbuckles, presses the button on the cart console to retract her seat, and stands up. Mahá follows her example, and they stand as the cart continues driving onto Orchards Road. The air smells salty from the nearby sea, and Mahá can also smell the fruit trees that line either side of the road. The sounds of leaves rustling in the wind and branches creek as they bend and twist in the giant nut trees. When they round the next corner, he sees the farmers' town.
"It looks so different," he says. "I've seen the town from twenty-five kilometers away and a kilometer above. From here, it is huge by comparison."
Vallena laughs out of respect and says, "We call it the village."
"Okay. The village is what I will call it too."
"There's something I've been wanting to tell you for a long time now, Mahá." Vallena's voice is stern, and Mahá gives her his full attention. "I told Visákhá when we were getting ready for your wedding two years ago, but I want to tell you too. In case she's forgotten. Anyway, when you two are ready to make a baby, you must promise me that you will talk with me first. I mean, that is. . ." (she doesn't want this to sound weird and pauses to allow her mind to find the right words).
"My clan and coven are experienced in channeling the deities for over eight thousand years. So, when it is time for you and Visákhá to make a baby, I can help you produce an auspicious child. A child from the gods. And, I conjured an oil that will ensure her pregnancy. So anyway, make sure that you contact me first. Okay? Promise me. Please?"
Mahá is looking at her and unpacking the words before he responds. "So, let me say, wow! First, you channel the deities. Second, you conjured a pregnancy-inducing oil. And then you also said, your actions will get our child an auspices life, from the gods? Did I get all of that right?"
Vallena twirls her hair as she considers his question. "Yip," she answers.
"Well, the oil doesn't make a woman pregnant." First," she gets back to basics as her tone returns to her normal bold and slow pace. Then, she explains in more detail.
"It's your sperm that makes your woman pregnant. If you ejaculate inside her vagina, that is. Of course, right?" she laughs.
"So the oil from my mushrooms and verbal bindings ensure that your sperm works no matter where you ejaculate. No, wait, that doesn't make sense. Let me start over."
Mahá agrees, "Okay. Take your time. I want to understand what you're saying."
"Okay. Once the woman puts the oil on her skin, Anywhere on her skin. I mean, she doesn't put it inside her vagina or even on her pussy. She can put the oil anywhere on her body." Vallena's hazel-brown eyes meet his, and she can feel herself getting nervous; her face feels hot. She takes a moment to check her feelings, and she notices it's not apprehensive alone she is feeling, but she is also starting to experience arousal. She looks into Mahá's golden-brown eyes again, and she feels a surge of sexual pheromones stream through her body.
With her inner voice, she tells herself—fucking stop it! These are all fuck words, nothing more. Then she continues describing the oil's effect.
"After the oil is applied, and for the next full damn day, she will become pregnant if she comes into contact with sperm. Any sperm. It won't matter if you cum in her mouth or cum all over her face. If you ejaculate over her breasts and nipples or shoot onto her stomach, her back, onto her ass, or for that matter, inside her ass. Even if you cum on her toes and feet. Like, wherever you get her with your sperm, she'll get pregnant."
Vallena can feel her heart racing, and her body temperature is still rising. While she's explaining and over-explaining with exaggerated detail, her words evoke her organic brain to produce intoxicating serotonin and pheromones. Her whole body now craves sexual interaction.
After glancing once more into his eyes she fights the urge to throw herself into his arms. Then forces herself to turn away from him and to look out of the side of the cart. Now she takes a deep breath, trying to regain her composure, and says, "The oil causes the woman's body to absorb the sperm and draws it into her veins. The blood carries the sperm direct to the fallopian tube, where her mind will cause the ovary to drop an egg and move it into position. Then the blood nourishes the sperm into a super penetrating organism."
Mahá also realizes changes inside his mind and body as she's talking. A man's organic brain responds to sexual words and produces intoxicating levels of sexual hunger, and soon he's burning with passion. He begins to watch her mouth as she speaks, and he notices how soft and delicious her lips are. Her eyes, too, share an appeal that he hadn't recognized before. Her skin's pigmentation wasn't so odd, he thought, as it had always seemed. His lust-filled thoughts continue and reveal to him how her skin is smooth with a lustrous feminine glow, and she is suddenly beautiful.
As she turns away from him, his eyes look her over from head to foot. Her body is slender and compact, and his whole body aches to explore a variety of erotic sex acts with her.
His left-hand reaches forward and takes her left shoulder. While at the same time, his right-hand moves onto her lower right hip. He pulls her backward and into his waiting body while his hand moves off the shoulder and down onto her breast. The other hand continues around her hip and cups her crotch.
Vallena succumbs to his touch. Her arms limp at her sides, and her head falls back onto his shoulder. She thought, "At last, I will have him!"
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Mahá thinks, stop! Breathe! Something in his mind triggers him to recall his breath chant. Just breathe. This is my inward breath. This is my out-breath. He finds himself back in control with nothing more than a moment of this present-moment breathing exercise. His hands release her, and he steps back and away from her.
"I'm sorry, Vallena." He pleads. "I am so very sorry, Vallena. I don't know what came over me."
Mahá drops onto one knee, his head in his hands as he pleads once more. "I am sorry beyond words."
She felt his hands release her and his body pull away. Vallena was still under her spell of desire and passion. It took a few seconds before his apologetic words resonate in her mind. Then, finally, she thinks, "What the fuck? He is more in control of his mind than Buddha himself! I'm going to need a stronger spell." She takes a few seconds to gather self-control before turning around to look at him.
When she sees Mahá on one knee, with his head in his hands, she clears her throat, performs the yoga mudra, and says to him. "Don't be fucking ridiculous, Mahá get up and be cool. It's boin. Look, we both know it was our fucked-up organic brains, triggered by the topic of sex and hearing mischievous words. And well, you know these brains produce potent intoxicants and we fall under the spell of words. So we are simple damn suffering organic matter. Nothing we can do about that. Besides, well shit, you know it was more my fault than yours. So, chibusa?"
Mahá stands and takes her hand into his. "You are an amazing woman, Vallena. And you just might be a witch. I love you like, well I don't know what. But I do love you like something."
Vallena can still feel the lustful craving between her legs, begging to feel him deep within her. But as the moments pass, she gains control. "I am a witch. Our people call us Yogini, but it's pretty much the same as Wicca," she says with pride as she steps forward, leaning into his body.
Then, looking into his eyes, she says, "You love me like your second wife, Mahá. I've known it for over a year, and I'm glad you realize it too. So kiss me. We're almost at the gardens."
He pulls her tight into his arms and gives her a quick peck on the lips. Then, as he sets her back on her own ground, she says in disappointment, "That's the best you can do? So your second wife gets a lousy little peck on the lips?"
As the cart rolls to a stop, Mahá pulls her tight to his body once more, and they share a long, deep, explosive passionate kiss.
Vallena does a one-hand vault off the side of the cart, and without missing a step, she's skipping down the path. She is ten or fifteen meters into the garden before Mahá opens the door and steps out of the cart. He's taking his time, allowing his senses to capture the beauty of this valley and the village. The smell of the sea spellbinds him, the sound of leaves crunching under his feet, and how green everything is. The smell of the orchards is strong with an aroma so thick he can taste the sweet fruits.
"Come on, poky. Come and see these flowers." She calls after him. He rounds the front of the cart and starts down the path toward her. Plants on either side of the path where she stands are taller than her shoulders. But what startles him more than their height is their flicker. He cannot believe his eyes. "Are those plants flashing like a light, or am I just buzzing from that kiss?
She waves him over to come closer. When he gets a meter away from the first plant, he stops and looks across the expanse of Vallena's garden. "What did you build here? Four or five hectares of flowers?" he asks.
"I don't know," she replies. "I think it's four. But what do you think of the flowers?" A hint of excitement in her voice.
"What makes them flicker like that?" He asks. The sudden sound of thunder in the distance reminds them of the early-day rainstorms building out at sea.
"I inject nanobots into the roots and modify the Nanos serum to enhance the flowering phase of the plant's growth pattern. I call it a twinkle. But, you see, it's not a flicker. Some plants phase and others cycle. Let's face it, babe." She says with a seductive deep voice, "These plants will bring the King to his knees." She turns and takes several more steps into the garden before turning back to Mahá. "Come on. Come walk with me." She holds an open hand out to him.
At the exact moment when his steps bring him alongside the first tall twinkle plant, all of the nearby plants change. His hands caress the thick smooth leaves then he looks at Vallena, and she, too, is stunned.
"I take it with your expression and body language you've never seen this before," he says while standing stiff as a statue.
"No. This is a new activity." Vallena replies. "Come closer." She says.
The plants all stand straight up and down. Every leaf turns forward to face Mahá. Every flower is facing him too. They are all twinkling in time together. As Mahá takes a few steps forward, more plants perform the same way. Then, as Mahá goes deeper into the garden, all of the plants change to this alternate state.
"It's as if the plants can sense my presence," Mahá says, almost questioning.
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"Wha Hoooo, Chibusa! I somehow knew it. I just knew it to my core!" Vallena shouts as she dances and swings her arms through the plants.
Mahá continues walking the dirt path further into the garden, and soon the entire garden springs to attention. All of the plants twinkle in time together. The scent of soft sweet deep woody accents becomes evident. Vallena bows down on her knees and then places her face on the ground with her arms outstretched toward Mahá. She performs the five postures showing reverence to the sacred.
"Why are you blessing me like that, Vallena?" he asks. He bends and takes her long slender arm to help her to her feet.
"You are Maitreya. The living Buddha incarnate. The flowers are aware of the blessed one in their presence. Take a look at them," she says as she points to the entire garden.
In the Buddhist tradition, the future Buddha, presently a bodhisattva residing in the Tushita heaven, will descend to earth to preach anew the dharma ("law") when the teachings of Gautama Buddha completely decayed.
The flowers were now twinkling in patterns. Performing waves, cycles, and pulsing, and after several minutes they all stop showing any sort of glow at all. In the space of maybe ten seconds, they all illuminate with steady golden rays shooting skyward.
"Well, well well," he says, trying to downplay the extraordinary event. "I think you are correct that these plants will make the King's palace and chambers into more than he could ever expect." Thunder rumbles again but much closer this time as storm clouds gather nearby. It's almost time for the first daily rain.
Vallena looks at him with unshaken admiration. She is convinced he is Maitreya. In her mind, she can expect nothing less from him.
"I'll take two hundred and fifty stems of each strain every day." He tells Vallena. "Can you have the carts arrive at the Palace by the start of the day?"
She performs the Namaskara Mudra as she replies. "Yes, my lord, holiest of all the living buddhas. I will see to it."
Immediately after telling her how many of each strain he wants, the plants trimmed the required amount of flowering stems themselves. As the stems fell to the ground, the stem leaves, moving like legs, carried the flowers to the nearest baskets and made themselves ready to load into the carts.
Mahá laughs and shakes his head in amazement. "Please, Vallena, can't you treat me as you always do? I'm not ready to be a divine living Buddha right now. Okay?"
Vallena thought about his words for a moment and then said, "Chibusa. How about you come over to my little house for a strong cup of my special tea before you head home? My house is over there at the back of the gardens. Very private, and I think it is cozy."
The rains begin, and the large drops hit the plants and the ground sounds like applause from a hundred people. As they sprint towards her house, Mahá recalls his wife's words to him earlier, right after they woke, and before he left the house. Visákhá told him, "Keep your wits about you today and remember, no matter what happens, when she invites you to her home—don't hesitate to go. Drink the tea."
He says to Vallena, "I would 'Groundhog Day' this all over again for the chance at going home with you . . . For the rest of my life. Chibusa!"
