The Poison Pie Publishing House presents:

November 1, 2020
The chill of the night was upon them. Both men sensed that their retreat to the cabin was imminent. Cole postponed the moment, asking, "How did you get away?"

"Ain't no question about it," Gabe replied, "they let me go."

"Why? Now that you know their secrets." Cole wanted to understand the rationale, if the diluvian knights could see the future, for them to allow their plans to be thwarted. The hermit, in a rambling manner, had discovered this secret too, although perhaps Cole had already intuited it on his own. The unraveling of the future is a manifestation of spontaneity and unpredictability, which is essential to leading more than the life of an automaton, mindlessly following explicitly prescribed steps. Creatively allowing for the unexpected imbues our actions with the opportunity to respond in a meaningful way. It appeared that even the mighty diluvian knights were not immune to the lure of this conceit.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino - unreleased live recording, track 4 (April 22, 2006, Kulturbunker Mulheim, Cologne, Germany, digital files)

November 2, 2020
When Shaharazad lay beside Cole that night, he spoke to her thus, "My final task is to convince the inhabitants of the refuges to grant the diluvian knights access to their memories at their time of death." He did not pose it as a question. He remembered an early communication from Shaharazad when she had referred to thought as if it were sustenance, from which a being could derive nourishment, its body metabolizing ideas that allowed it to satisfy the ordinary needs of living. He also well understood that, had Shaharazad made this request herself, he would likely have found it abhorrent, as did Gabe. Perhaps, the old man had been permitted to escape precisely in order to plant this very seed. Doing so encouraged Cole to conceive of the idea as his own. He considered the preservation of human memories as a kind of anthropological endeavor, though he did not dismiss as insignificant the fraction of the population on the peninsulas who would regard the practice in the same predatory light as the hermit.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino - unreleased live recording, track 1 (April 8, 2006, Apia, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, digital file)

November 3, 2020
When Cole woke on the following morning, he discovered that his pack had been searched. He found nothing missing except his cell phone. Upon reflection, he was not sure that he hadn't left the phone in the cab of the pickup truck, knowing he would not be in range of a signal in this remote locale and desiring to rid himself of this second time keeper as he had done earlier with the insatiable watch. A brief foray outside revealed that Gabe and the airboat were gone. Of course, there was no note; writing utensils were not judged essential to the hermit's survival. Cole panicked briefly at the thought of being abandoned, irretrievably lost, at the border between the tree-covered swamp and the grassy marsh flats. Soon he calmed. He was not alone. Shaharazad and her kind were not far off. She would not allow him to come to harm until his labor for the knights was finished.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino - unreleased live recording, track 1 (February 26, 2006, 20000V, Koenji, Tokyo, Japan, digital file)

November 4, 2020
The roar of the airboat announced the hermit's return in the late afternoon. He offered no explanation for his absence nor did he make mention of rifling through Cole's pack. Instead, he started a fire to warm those portions of the pig that remained. In the absence of refrigeration, if they desired fresh game, they had to eat their fill, like animals, when it was plentiful. Gabe gave no second thought to the fact that the meat had been left out in the sun for more than half the day. When Cole pressed him to resume their search for the aliens, he shook his head. "Can't go out now. Storm's coming."

Cole persisted. Some unknown event had shortened the hermit's temper. In an abrupt show of exasperation, he threw the boar's haunch into the dirt and marched to the boat. Cole followed silently. When the hermit shouted at him to get his gun, Cole obediently retrieved it. Without speaking the two men wandered out into the marsh under skies harboring the signs of an impending storm that only the hermit could discern.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino - unreleased live recording, track 1 (January 29, 2006, UFO Club, Koenji, Tokyo, Japan, digital file)

November 5, 2020
It became clear to Cole that Gabe had always known the precise spot where he had encountered the aliens. On this afternoon, he followed no aimless path but navigated as directly as possible, given the constraints of the winding channels, toward a destination. A massive white oak, perched atop an anomalously high ridge, appeared amidst a horizon of cordgrass and steadily grew larger, a beacon drawing the hermit toward it. When the pair arrived at the tree, Cole discovered a patch of solid land in the shape of a squinting eye, with the tree set like a pupil filling the center. Gabe ran the boat up on the bank and ordered Cole out. Cole faced him uncertainly.

"They won't come if you ain't alone," the old man barked impatiently. The hermit shifted his gaze from the tree to the darkening sky. "I'll come back tomorrow and get you if you're still here."

Cole made to disembark but was insistently reminded to take the rifle with him. Standing on the high ground beside the enormous trunk, he noted that the sound of the fan gradually diminished well before the airboat disappeared from view.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino - unreleased live recording, track 1 (December 30, 2005, Showboat, Koenji, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

November 6, 2020
Anyone who had not lived through a childhood terrorized by nightly visitations of other-worldly squid might have found Cole's experience that night to be unbearable, for soon after the sun had set, the reflective eyes of alligators appeared along the water's edge. Cole supposed that it was for this reason that Gabe had demanded that he take the rifle. To be sure Cole had no intention of killing a diluvian knight.

There was something wrong with time again because the moon, waxing only two nights before, seemed to have skipped the full phase and to be on the wane. Cole's impulse was to discard the moon like his watch and phone but it remained stubbornly in the sky. There could be no explanation for this contradiction that did not point to a mental deficiency--a failing memory, recurring hallucinations or loss of reason. Trapped between the relentless glare above and the unblinking reptilian gaze of a dozen predators floating soundlessly in the surrounding water, Cole grew increasingly cold and uneasy.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino - unreleased live recording, track 2 (December 30, 2005, Showboat, Koenji, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

November 7, 2020
The temperature dropped and the stars disappeared entirely as a cold front moved in, pushing clouds across the sky. Half an hour before midnight, rain began to fall in fat, determined drops. Cole stood with his back to the trunk, taking what shelter he could from the branches and foliage above him. All who have attempted to avoid the rain beneath a tree know such protection is imperfect. Soon Cole was wet and shivering. He suspected that the alligators drew closer to his little island, though none had yet crawled up onto the bank. Again, he surveyed the wide trunk, seeking any handhold that might allow him to climb to safety. It would be tough going, made worse by the rain. Any man who had not conspired with an alien species to eliminate ninety-nine percent of the human race might have imagined that this miserable situation was undeserved. As for Cole, he saw it as just another test of his fidelity. This was nothing, he reminded himself. The worst was already behind him. He could not be asked to sacrifice his family twice.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino - unreleased live recording, track 3 (December 30, 2005, Showboat, Koenji, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

November 8, 2020
In the small hours of the night, the rain intensified. Cole did not sleep. Thus he witnessed the emergence of the diluvian knights from the waters of the marsh in the manner described by the hermit. They rose gradually, as if ascending stairs. The water fell from their bodies forming a liquid fabric that hung about them like a cloak. Pliable, the cloth shifted from side to side with each stride. They were yet distant; points of pale blue light, each veiled within a watery shroud. Individuals were arranged without clear pattern inside a great circle centered about Cole and the oak tree. Keeping his back to the trunk, he side-stepped in a complete revolution. Seemingly possessed of an attention to detail not previously known, Cole counted every light. There were precisely ten thousand gathered in the conclave. With an unsettling synchronization they slowly approached the island.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino - unreleased live recording, track 4 (December 30, 2005, Showboat, Koenji, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

November 9, 2020
Only one diluvian knight left the water and ascended the slope of the ridge to stand beneath the boughs of the white oak. Shaharazad was larger in life than she had appeared in her projection, reaching more than eight feet in height. She retained a bipedal form but its outline was blurred by her watery robes. The pale blue luminosity, which Cole had always supposed to have emerged from her head, seemed now to radiate from all space within her, the intensity peaking at the end of her limbs and at several circulating points within her translucent frame. Her neck remained a thick stalk that blossomed into an oblate ellipsoid, which lost none of its resemblance to an anemone when observed in person. She possessed no face but the myriad tentacles, none any longer than six inches, all undulating and pulsating with light. Although Cole had attended to her nightly, his breath was stolen by the magnificence of her physical presence. He thought to take a knee but Shaharazad, via the same telepathic channel that she had previously employed from a distance, gently admonished him to refrain from such theatrics.

written while listening to:  Fushitsusha - unreleased live recording, track 1 (October 17, 1987, Geion Gekijo, Nagoya, Japan, digital files)

November 10, 2020
The diluvian knights appeared before Cole now only because he stubbornly refused to complete his work for them until he had seen them first-hand and because the other heralds were dead. Having conceded to his demand, Shaharazad, speaking as always on behalf of the knights as a whole, urged Cole to devote his remaining energies to fulfilling their request. Soon, she promised, he would be taken to a refuge. There he must make the case for the aliens to collect and preserve the memories of the human inhabitants at the moment of their natural deaths.

Cole nodded perfunctorily. "Yes, yes," he agreed. He cared not for the future when Shaharazad stood in his midst, but ten feet from him. He harbored in his heart the desire planted by the hermit to grab hold of her so as to learn all the secrets of the diluvian knights. Of course, this yearning was known to Shaharazad and broadly to the surrounding company. All perceived the outcome. Still, they permitted Cole's insistence that the mechanical actions be performed.

written while listening to:  Fushitsusha - unreleased live recording, track 2 (October 17, 1987, Geion Gekijo, Nagoya, Japan, digital files)

November 11, 2020
Cole leaned the rifle against the tree in a manner he imagined to be discreet. He then shuffled forward a few steps under the steady gaze of ten thousand diluvian knights. His muscles tensed and he sprang like a panther toward its prey. Shaharazad would not allow herself to suffer such an indignity. Cole moved not an inch until the alien released control of his muscles. He then struggled toward her with staggered strides. At arm's length he reached for her. Her response brought to mind a speck of dust on the surface of water, which invariably moves away from fingers that attempt to seize it, due not to some volition of its own but to the physical mechanisms of surface tension. Cole's very act of extending his arms toward her pushed her farther away, except that she did not move. The distortion of reality was that of a dream. Had Cole, instead, attempted to flee, he would have found himself frustratedly running in place. However, he did not abandon his efforts to embrace Shaharazad. The warped spectacle extended for an immeasurable time. Each feeble gesture on his part thwarted by an unyielding barrier, impossible to penetrate.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino - unreleased live recording, track 1 (September 30, 2005, Teatro Ariosto, Reggio Emilia, Italy, digital file)

November 12, 2020
As the sky brightened, the luminosity of Shaharazad diminished until she and her companions had vanished from sight. Cole seemed still to be caught in the motion of grasping, though now only at air. His trance was broken by the rough, rhythmic thundering of helicopter blades. He looked up in astonishment to find such a vehicle hovering several feet above the bank of the ridge. As he watched, two uniformed men in respirators jumped from the deck onto the island. Cole leapt back to retrieve the rifle. He could not read the expressions on the faces behind the glass of their masks, but the fluidity of the men's movements belied their training. They rushed him without fear. Wielding the rifle, he screamed at them to leave him alone. Now that he was so close to his goal, he could not leave the marsh. His declaration fell on deaf ears. When the two soldiers were nearly upon him, Cole fired the rifle in a last ditch warning. Despite his efforts, he was swiftly struck in the head by a blow that delivered him into a dreaded unconsciousness.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino - unreleased live recording, tracks 1-2 (September 29, 2005, The Beach, Torino, Italy, digital files)

November 13, 2020
Cole came briefly to consciousness. Unable to move his limbs, he discovered that he was strapped to a gurney. Without opening his eyes, he had the sensation of being in an aircraft but absent the characteristic chopping of a helicopter. In a panic he feared that he had already been transferred to a jet that was at this very moment whisking him away across an ocean. He began to struggle against the restraints. He opened his eyes and observed the blurred forms of men in masks rushing about beside him. They spoke in a foreign language that he did not comprehend. He shouted at them to let him go. "I must return to the marsh!" One of the men injected a sedative into the intravenous line connected to Cole's arm. Within moments their patient was quiet, exhibiting no outward sign of the internal maelstrom of despair, which buffeted him without reprieve.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino - unreleased live recording, track 1 (August 31, 2005, Club Liner, Koenji, Tokyo, Japan, digital file)

November 14, 2020
Cole regained consciousness still under restraint but now in a fixed location. A young, blonde woman in a woolen sweater and jeans sat in a chair in what appeared to be a small hospital room. Once she noticed him turn his head, she smiled. Still groggy, he tried to raise his arms, tugging at the straps. "Why am I strapped down?"

She shrugged easily. "You attempted to shoot the soldiers who rescued you." She spoke formal English with a soft, well-defined accent that was unfamiliar to Cole. If Cole was in a refuge, it was clearly not the one on the Korean peninsula.

"Where am I?"

"Mathopen near Bergen in Norway."

"Who are you?"

"My name is Inger. I am here to help you adjust. After all that you have been through, there may be some difficulty. They told me your name is Gabe. It is a nickname for Gabriel, the angel from the Bible, yes?"

So it was that Cole pieced together the sequence of events that had led him here. Gabe must have stolen his cell phone. Retreating to some point with service, he had requested to be picked up and had provided the coordinates of the great oak in the marsh, before delivering Cole there. The hermit surely felt justified, for Cole had admitted his own betrayal earlier. Sunk in hopelessness, Cole felt no impulse to correct the woman's error in naming him. He tugged again at the restraints.

The woman expressed a kindness even as she remonstrated with him. "You should not have fired your rifle at those men. They meant you no harm. Fortunately for all you missed."

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino - unreleased live recording, track 1 (July 30, 2005, Reiko, Sendagaya, Tokyo, Japan, digital file)

November 15, 2020
Time continued to lurk about Cole. The hour in Mathopen was seven hours later than Louisiana. Given its northern latitude, the sun set a few minutes after four o'clock in the afternoon, the last rays streaming through a window that Cole could not access save to see the sky. Sleep eluded Cole. Later a young, blonde man entered the room, making the rounds of the night shift. Finding the patient awake, he greeted him, saying "Gabe, you have jet-lag." He spoke with precisely the same accent as the woman, Inger. He introduced himself as Arne. He seemed unreasonably cheerful for someone living through the first months of a global apocalypse, even if he dwelt in a sanctuary. Cole presumed (correctly it would turn out) that Arne was in love.

That night Cole explained to Arne that he had been contacted by aliens, intent on relocating to Earth. He had agreed to serve as a herald. He had claimed not only one of the ten thousand meteorites responsible for the deluge, but also one of the two containing the vaccine. His dose of the vaccine he had released in Daegu on August fifth, just three days before the deluge. As for the herald who had spared Scandinavia, it had been reported to him that she had killed herself due to overwhelming guilt.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino - unreleased live recording, track 1 (May 23, 2005, Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, Scotland, digital file)

November 16, 2020
Inger returned in the morning to discover Cole awake. She had a spring in her step. Cole found her face imbued with a charm that he attributed again to love. He invented in his mind a romance between Inger and Arne. The only impediment to their mutual joy was their conflicting schedules, she working the morning shift and he the night. Cole reassured himself that it was only a temporary setback. Such assignments were surely subject to rearrangement in a matter of months, if not sooner. The two paramours need only persevere. Cole asked her to remove his restraints, promising to behave.

"Why do you wish to return to Louisiana so?" she countered, as if her response depended upon his answer.

Cole divulged the secret that he had heretofore considered inviolate. "Shaharazad and diluvian knights are waiting for me. I desire to join their company. I have only this last task to perform before they admit me to their number." He attempted to reason with her. "You can trust me to remain here until I perform my service."

Inger listened carefully and dutifully reported Cole's words to her supervisor, as she had been instructed.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino - unreleased live recording, track 1 (May 20-21, 2005, The Sage Gateshead, England, digital files)

November 17, 2020
"I hear that you are on a mission, Gabe," Arne said cheerfully as he entered the room. To Cole's surprise, Arne proceeded to unfasten the straps that held Cole to the bed. "I'm giving you your freedom in exchange for the truth." He further promised to do away entirely with the restraints pending the outcome of this interview.

Cole explained that there were five steps in a planetary migration and only one left. To understand the process, he needed to enumerate all five. The first was observation from afar and the second selection of heralds. The third step was the preparation of the planetary destination, which Cole continued to refer to as the deluge. The fourth step was the physical arrival of the diluvian knights. "There is only one step left."

"And what is that?" Arne asked solicitously.

"The establishment of terms for mutual cohabitation between the newcomers and the natives."

"Is it to be a negotiation?" Arne asked. His question brought a wry smile to Cole's face.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino - unreleased live recording, track 2 (May 20-21, 2005, The Sage Gateshead, England, digital files)

November 18, 2020
Next, Cole was allowed to shower in the adjoining bathroom. He did not experience quite the same exhilaration at the amenities of civilization as he had at Manuela's sanctuary but it proved an undeniable delight to be clean, since he had not had a proper bathing since leaving Atlanta.

Inger found Cole gazing out the window. The town was situated on the steep slope of a wooded hill leading down to the coast. From his vantage point, he saw beneath him a line of rustic houses along a winding street that zigzagged down the hillside, boats on the water, and in the far distance another land mass. She waited for him to take in the view before announcing, "We are on an inlet of the North Sea. You are lucky to be in Mathopen. It's a quiet place. Somehow the Koreans came up with a master list of the locations of survivors. They shared it with us and, together, we have been rescuing them. Survivors like you are being settled across both peninsulas." She repeated for emphasis, "You are lucky to be in Mathopen, Gabe."

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino - unreleased live recording, track 3 (May 20-21, 2005, The Sage Gateshead, England, digital files)

November 19, 2020
Late in the night, but before Shaharazad paid her visit to Cole, Arne returned. A trouble seemed to rest on Arne's brow. So sure was Cole of the origin of his visitor's worry, that he consoled him, saying, "Don't fret, Arne. I feel optimistic that soon you and Inger will be able to share the life that you both dream of."

The hospital attendant paused in place, taken aback by the unexpected words. He opted not to respond until he had privately discussed this matter with the nurse on the dayshift. Instead, he resumed his interrogation, the actual cause of his concern. "Gabe, the problem with your story is that you present no evidence of aliens. Only you claim to have seen them. Of the ten thousand people that you say interacted with the aliens, all are conveniently dead, except yourself. You must realize my skepticism is warranted."

Cole fixed Arne with an incredulous look. "Evidence?" he cried, "What more evidence do you need than the deluge? Ninety-nine percent of the world is gone!" Breathing excitedly he released another outburst. "Where do you think the master list of survivor coordinates came from? Ask the Koreans. They got it from a transvestite, named Manuela, who they picked up in Atlanta. I gave it to her after Shaharazad dictated the coordinates to me. Ask Manuela! She saw me write them down."

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino - unreleased live recording, track 4 (May 20-21, 2005, The Sage Gateshead, England, digital files)

November 20, 2020
Inger arrived in Cole's room shortly after the rising sun. Both bathed Cole in their respective light. He suddenly took notice of the contour of her jaw and the profile of her nose. Features, which had previously appeared ordinary, now seemed to possess an uncommon beauty. She could not help but perceive Cole's attention and shifted uncomfortably beneath his gaze. Embarrassed, Cole lowered his eyes to the floor. "No wonder Arne is head over heels for you," he said by way of explanation.

"Why do you say things like that?" she asked. "It is unkind to lie or to pit one against another, or to put your nose in other people's affairs. You will not fare well in Mathopen acting in such a way." Unable to determine if Cole's frown was intended to express penitence, Inger added, "Please don't speak of this again."

Thus chastened, Cole stared sullenly out the window.

"Who is Shaharazad?"

Cole took a deep breath. "She's like the Old Testament God, who bid Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, upon a mountain as a test of faith. Only Shaharazad is less merciful. She did not stay my hand as my wife and daughter sank beneath the waters of the deluge."

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino - unreleased live recording, tracks 1-4 (May 5, 2005, Golden Gai, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

November 21, 2020
When Arne appeared that night, he too seemed transformed. By the dim light of the bedside lamp, his eyes were a pellucid gray. His shoulders seemed broader than Cole remembered, a picture of youthful strength and vitality. Unlike Inger, he did not flinch under Cole's scrutiny. "We checked your story with the Koreans. They verified all of it but, curiously, they don't know you as Gabe." He waited for an explanation.

"I never said my name was Gabe," Cole replied. "You called me that and I did not correct your error."

"What other errors have I made, Cole?" Arne asked.

"I already told you. You have to take me to an old, dying man or woman. There I will summon the diluvian knights. They will come to preserve the memories before the tissue of the brain begins to rot. Gather as many witnesses as you are able, so all can see the truth of the new way to die." Cole paused before answering the original question. "Your error is in delaying this task."

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino - unreleased live recording, tracks 5-9 (May 5, 2005, Golden Gai, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

November 22, 2020
Like the clockwork from which Cole had attempted to free himself, Inger and Arne appeared as faithfully as the sun and the stars. Each day, the young woman became more radiant and each night the man more stellar. Cole accepted that this patently unreal transformation likely had the same origin as the trio of squids, who had similarly made a habit of visiting him in his bedroom. Was it possible that nothing had changed, despite the deluge?

"I am deeply sorry that your wife and daughter perished," said the lovely Inger one morning with a show of compassion unimaginable from a cephalopod. "But you must accept that Gabe is a fiction, just like Shaharazad is a fiction, just like the romance between Arne and I is an invention of your mind."

"Are you sure?" Cole replied. "I don't understand why you pretend that you feel nothing for Arne. He is a handsome man and so intelligent. If I were you, I would snatch him up in a heartbeat."

Presumably because of this breach of decorum, Inger did not return to see him for the rest of her shift.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino - unreleased live recording, track 1 (May 3, 2005, Showboat, Koenji, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

November 23, 2020
Arne grew frustrated when Cole insisted that the alien, Shaharazad, had been the source of the survivors' coordinates. "No one believes you, Cole," he said, repeating himself for emphasis. He then shared the two most popular hypotheses, both of which presumed that Cole had been a member of an organization responsible for the deluge and, based on that role, was privy to information not widely available. The first theory involved the accidental release of a biochemical toxin developed in the laboratory of a classified governmental agency, while the second assumed Cole had been part of a sophisticated doomsday cult, there being an explicitly religious element in Cole's comparison of Shaharazad to the Old Testament God. "In either case, the authorities do not seem inclined to embrace your so-called 'new way of dying'," said Arne.

"Oh!" Cole exclaimed. "Wait until you see it for yourself. I suspect that you grossly underestimate the extent to which the public reaction will be one of revulsion." Quietly, Cole was heartened by the news that Arne had transmitted his message to civic leaders, as it was a necessary sign of progress.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino - unreleased live recording, track 2 (May 3, 2005, Showboat, Koenji, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

November 24, 2020
Much to Cole's surprise, on the following morning Inger invited him to take a walk outside the facility. While he was limited to the premises surrounding the rather industrial-looking building, it was refreshing to stand in a light drizzle in the mid-forties wearing a warm coat that Inger had secured for him. The sun had risen at nine o'clock and soon the green of the pine and spruce were vividly illuminated, despite the mostly overcast sky. Disrupting Cole's reverie, Inger asked, "What does Shaharazad look like?"

Cole pointed to the conifers. "She makes the light come alive, like those trees do, but her radiance originates within her." He also attempted to convey her ambiguous relationship to time by gesturing at the sky. "She can have dawn rise on one side of her body while dusk falls on the other." He considered it unconscionable to omit mention of her hypnotic tentacles. "Both the palpable and the intangible register equally upon her sensory apparatuses, which number beyond count and which shift to a rhythm not of this world."

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino - unreleased live recording, tracks 3-4 (May 3, 2005, Showboat, Koenji, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

November 25, 2020
Cole lamented that he could not better accommodate Arne's request for evidence. He was such an earnest, young man and Cole wished for him nothing but happiness. However, he steadfastly refused to recant his testimony of an alien invasion. "If you want evidence," Cole pleaded, "just take me to someone who is dying. I will not touch them, but I will call the diluvian knights." Cole added as an afterthought, "It would be best if you televised it so that the procedure can be viewed by as many people as possible."

Arne put his hands on his hips. "Cole, that is never going to happen."

Cole wondered if Shaharazad's ability to know the future was rubbing off on him because, despite Arne's words, he felt the inevitability of the act, as if it had already been accomplished and they were merely waiting to read about it in the newspaper several days after the fact.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino - unreleased live recording, track 1 (April 7, 2005, Super Deluxe, Roppongi, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

November 26, 2020
Inger took Cole to walk along the waterfront. They passed other human beings, including a young child accompanied by her mother, also without express purpose. From a distance, Inger pointed out the naval base, a central feature of Mathopen. She then recalled to Cole a film she had once seen in which a mad priest of the occult sought to open a portal through which he would invite inhuman cosmic entities into the world. The priest knew that the other-worldly beings had no regard for human life. Their god-like presence would destroy the Earth and its inhabitants, yet he remained resolute in his determination to usher in this new age. "He thought that he would be spared but, of course, he was the first to be consumed when a tentacle stretched out from the portal and ensnared him." Hoping to encourage Cole to see himself as others did, Inger pointedly added, "Did you know that there are those who view you as a mad priest?"

Although the comparison hurt Cole, he perversely embraced it and emphatically agreed, "Yes, yes, it is just as you say. I am the herald of the diluvian knights. I invite them to your dinner table to perform their death rituals. This is my gospel!"

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino - unreleased live recording, track 2 (April 7, 2005, Super Deluxe, Roppongi, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

November 27, 2020
Arne arrived as usual once the night shift was underway but to Cole's great dismay, the luster that made him appear as a paragon of health and virtue and the vibrancy that animated him were gone. "Are you okay?" Cole asked.

The man replied almost mechanically, "Yes, of course." He seemed unaware of any change but Cole knew better when he found the door to his room unlocked upon Arne's departure. This could only be the work of the diluvian knights. Despite their celestial longevity, they grew impatient with Cole's lack of progress. It had always fallen within their power to exert direct control over individual Homo sapiens, just as they had with Cole. Clearly, they preferred not to do so. Cole supposed that it was as Gabe had said; no one wanted to entirely dictate the script, which described the narrative of their life. To follow an immutable routine could hold little appeal. So ruminated Cole as he peered first to the right and then to the left down the long hall of the medical facility, wondering behind which of the adjacent doors he would find an old man waiting to die.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino - unreleased live recording, tracks 1-3 (January 8, 2005, Showboat, Koenji, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

November 28, 2020
On Friday, Inger offered to take Cole on a tour of Bergen, the second largest city by population in Norway, after the capital. "You've seen enough of Mathopen." Although it was cold and cloudy, there was no rain, as he sat beside her on the bus while it traveled a winding way along Route 555.

"I'm not the mad priest," Cole said to Inger in a whisper, trying not to be overhead by the other passengers. He wanted her to think well of him.

After a ride of no more than twenty minutes, they departed in the dense city center, filled with connected buildings. The pointed roofs formed a zigzag pattern along the streets. Together the pair passed a pleasant day, as if they did not dwell in a post-apocalyptic refuge. There was excitement in the air. Cole could not understand the native Norwegian but he stopped in front of a vendor selling the newspaper, Bergens Tidende. After more than three months beneath the sea, a United States military submarine had surfaced just off the coast of Norway. Although all other attempts at barricading had failed to protect humans from the deluge, extracting oxygen from the surrounding seawater had preserved the sailors. The first outside air they breathed was that cleansed by the vaccine. Not just the city but the whole remaining world celebrated the unexpected finding of over one hundred and twenty men. When Cole discovered that the submarine had docked at the naval yard in Mathopen, he looked at Inger accusingly. She shrugged, "You are not supposed to know."

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino - unreleased live recording, tracks 4-8 (January 8, 2005, Showboat, Koenji, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

November 29, 2020
Cole spoke to Shaharazad through Arne. "You can let him go," he said. "I am ready to do that which you ask of me."

Arne fixed a befuddled expression upon Cole. "With whom are you speaking?"

Cole approached the night attendant, still standing beside the door, and embraced him with a hug. In truth he meant to offer comfort, though he thought of Judas Iscariot embracing the Christ in the garden of Gethsemane before betraying him to the Sanhedrin. In his arms, he felt the young man's body momentarily stiffen as Shaharazad released him.

"What are you doing, Cole?"

In answer, Cole took Arne by the wrist, leading him into the hallway, then stopping before a door but two rooms down. With a finger, he gestured at the door. "Inside there is a man who will die tonight, yet his memories will not fade with the decomposition of his physical body. Although you have not asked and you likely will come to regret it, Arne, you are to serve as my witness to this deed."

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino - unreleased live recording, tracks 9-13 (January 8, 2005, Showboat, Koenji, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

November 30, 2020
A dim light mounted on the wall illuminated the old man's face. Oxygen tubes led into each nostril. As the door closed behind them, Arne held Cole back, until Cole reassured him, saying, "We need go no further." Examining the shadowed face of the sleeping man from a distance of a dozen feet, Cole asked, "How much longer is he expected to live?"

"Yesterday, the doctor said that it was a matter of days," Arne replied in a quiet voice.

"What is his name?"

Arne glanced at the clipboard hanging on the wall beside the door. "Stig Jensen, age eighty-three."

"Let Stig Jensen be the first," said Cole to Shaharazad, who was always with him, though neither he nor Arne could yet see her in the room. "I am your herald and beside me your witness; I deliver to you this man's memories."

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino - unreleased live recording, tracks 1-3 (December 2, 2004, Penguin House, Koenji, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)