Swedenborg 15

15

 Staples gingerly sat in the easy chair. He had managed to make it back to his rented house, driving slowly, wincing when he had to move too fast.

He’d known cancer was a painful way to die, but he hadn’t realized that the pain would be in so many parts of his body.

He picked up the pain medication from the table next to the chair. The lid was already off; he’d long ago learned that he had a difficult time opening safety caps.

 He took one pill, thought of a taking second, but instead put the cap back on the bottle.

He just needed to take the edge off the pain, but he needed his mind clear.

He wondered when the university officials would realize how sick he really was. The year or two he thought he’d have might only be months.

Good thing a student had found him in the classroom, and not a fellow faculty member.

He recalled the name: McMann.

He wondered if that was ironic. Or if he was just searching for irony.

Then he thought of Liza.

Wicca.

Wiccanism was a new name for an old belief. A new age twist to make it seem to have some legitimacy.

Playing at the fringes of what was very ancient.

Seeing only the fruit, and not the source of the voice tempting one to taste.

He’d met Liza at a faculty party before the summer term began.

It was all chit chat, and drinking, like so many faculty events.

Henry Burns, a very junior member of the History Department, was talking to her, obviously trying to charm her.

“Oh, yes,” he intoned, “the Church father were afraid of women.”

Staples caught that snippet as he was on his way to the bar.

“Ah,” Burn blurted, spotting Staples, “Professor Staples is an expert in the field.”

Staples politely stopped.

“Jack,” Burns said, trying to sound intimate, “Ms. Lotechewski, a member of English department. Liza, Jack Staples …”

“I know who Professor Staples is,” Liza said with a trace of a smile. “His reputation precedes him.”

“I hope that you will not hold that against me,” Staples said.

“I was just telling Liza that you were an expert on witchcraft,” Burns said.

“I have an historian’s knowledge,” Staples said modestly.

“Historian’s? Best selling theologian’s,” Burns stated.

“I am no theologian,” Staples began, “But …”

“Modesty. Modesty. An underrated virtue,” Burns said.

That you lack, Staples thought.

“The modern word is wiccanism,” Liza said.

“There is wiccanism, and there is witchcraft,” Staples said.

“Wiccanism is a form of witchcraft,” Liza said.

He recalled the look in her eyes. Anger, mixed with amusement. She wanted to debate for the pleasure of arguing, but she also wanted to prove something. Perhaps to herself.

“A topic worth discussing,” Staples said, “when there is more time than a faculty gathering can afford.”

“Any time,” Liza said. He’d sensed disappointment in her voice.

With a hint of a challenge.

Pax et bonum