Chapter 2.

The School of Fears

    When Alix woke up he found he was in a pile of dirt, cardboard and dust on an asphalt surface encircled by a high wire mesh fence. "Well," he thought, "they finally caught me and placed me in one of their Homeland 'Freedom' camps."

    As Alix was lying there a group of kids came near him and they didn't seem to notice him for he seemed to be invisible to all under this pile of debris.

    However, he heard all that was said. Their leader was a good looking boy a little taller and older than the rest; he had a short hair cut, good clothes and a sunny, affable disposition.   A younger boy, one of his minions it seemed, was reporting to him. The minion said, "Johnny boy, over there, hasn't paid his money yet.  What shall we do to him?"

    The leader responded, "When will some of the boys learn that we are just doing all this for their own good.  Boys, you know that we must pool our resources in order to protect ourselves from those bullies from down the block.  You know that this chain link fence and the barb wire is expensive and it is the only thing that will keep those bullies out. Why, if we have just one hole in the fence, then we are goners!  You all know the school does not have the money to fix it.  So, it is all up to us.  We will have a rally in ten minutes and there we will make some fine speeches and try to convince the holdouts of our fine plans."

    "And if that doesn't work?"

    "We will discuss that if the need arises.  Go now and spread the word."

    At that all the boys went in various directions.  After they all left, the leader took out a large set of wire cutters and cut a large hole in the fence and then reset it as if nothing was wrong.  A few moments later, three large looking teens came on the other side of the fence. One tested it out and all three thugs grinned.  

    Then the schoolyard leader spoke to these thugs,  "Remember, don't enter until the rally starts. And there we will convince many of the need of paying their fair share. Ha ha," and then all quickly left.

    "Well, "Alix thought, "That is just usual for school yard hi-jinx. What will happen next?"

    Well, to make as long story short, when all the kids were assembled for the rally many teen thugs entered the schoolyard through the hole and beat up many small kids. 

The schoolyard leader stayed back to organize a defense -- for naturally some must lead and some must fight -- and sent out many of his own 'soldiers' to defend the yard, but they too got clobbered.  I saw what seemed like the school principal looking on, but he did nothing.  When a police siren -- faked, it seemed -- wailed, the thugs quickly left; for they had achieved their purpose and all the holdouts now paid gladly to make sure the fence was kept fully maintained.

    Then the schoolyard King went up to little Johnny and some of his friends and said, "see, it is your fault that all of these kids are hurt. If you had paid your money we would have been able to fix the fence and prevent all this.  O, don't bother me now; go and play," and as the schoolyard king squeezed out a tear or two, he quietly walked away.

    And was this money really entirely for fence maintenance, thought Alix, for a little later Alix saw this same affable schoolyard king discreetly buy bags of certain substances that didn't seem very useful for fence repair.

    "O most pernicious schoolyard king," thought Alix, paraphrasing Shakespeare, "O villain, villain, damned villain!  Right it is that I cry to the whole world that one may smile, and smile, and be a villain. At least I am sure it may be so in D.C."

   Then a few of the kids started a game of tag, but they were soon stopped when the Principal came out to quickly stop it, saying, "We will have none of these violent games on my school lot. Who's the leader?" 

     "Little Johnny," yelled out many submissive little voices.

     "Well, it seems little Johnny deserves a little detention, don't you think kids."

     "Ya," they yelled. And the principal took little Johnny away who now had quite a fearful look on his face.

   "Oh, poor little Johnny." thought Alix.

    Then a harsh bell rung and many young children lined up in long sharp rows.

    Then the children were herded into a large ominous looking grey building, "by giant people I think" as Alix later said, "but I could hardly see well for a violent storm just started then." 

     It started to pour torrents of cold rain and Alix, looking for cover, followed closely behind and just made it inside before the large steel doors closed with an ominous clang.

    Inside, he looked down a long dark corridor, but saw nobody.  He tried to open doors along the way, but he was now too small to reach any of the door knobs.  Was this some Freedom Camp psychological trick to make you seem small and subservient?  He came to end of the corridor and saw a large window high above him.  Golden sunshine was streaming through the window and fell on his face.  He could see birds flying freely in the air and cloud formations formed there that reminded him of cheerful things like a house with a white picket fence filled with happy smiling children and a beautiful beaming wife.  He could also just see the top of a full green tree that reminded him of the Liberty Tree in the Smithsonian Museum.  "Oh, I wish I could be free again and out there in that wonderful sun filled garden, but I wonder how I can ever get there."  And Alix started to cry (inwardly for he was a man), thinking that he couldn't get to that sweet beautiful garden.

     Then Alix saw a bookshelf and on its bottom shelf was a large dusty book that had on its cover, "Read me."  So Alix opened the big tome, coughing as the dust spewed up into his mouth, and read an excerpt from the middle of it, and finding it very apt to his situation, started to read it as if calling on aid.   

'You have hoped in the Lord for evermore.  For He shall bring them down that dwell on high, the high city he shall lay low. He shall bring it down even to the ground...The path of the just is right to walk in...let not the giants rise again: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them and hast destroyed all their memory...O ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is the dew of the light: and the land of the giants thou shalt pull down into ruin.' ¹

    As Alix read it either he grew or the structures about him shrank until he could see out the window and what a glorious sight it was and it reminded him of something he read once about a pastoral paradise--and among other things he saw, there was a poor family whose mother just gave birth and even though poor they still seemed happy-- and he knew that this land was where he belonged, where all belonged, and where we all belonged right now.

   However he was now too big to get through the window. So he wondered what he was to do now and so he took the dusty tome again which was now a small little booklet and opened it and read a bit here and a bit there and, surprisingly, always coming to the same message.

'I gave you milk to drink, not meat for you are not able as yet...who feedeth the flock and eatheth not the milk of the flock...for whereas for the time you ought to be masters, you need to be taught again what are the first elements of the words of God: and you are become as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For everyone that is a partaker of milk, is unskillful in the word of justice: for he is a little child.  But strong meat is for the perfect; for them who by custom have exercised to the discerning of good and evil.'  ²

   And Alix thought, "Am I a little child, unskillful in the word of justice. No, I have gone some distance in this area, although, like all, I can go further still. Perhaps these words are saying I must go back to the basics of Justice in order for me to recover my will to continue on the hard road of Truth. Yes, I must drink that milk again."

     Then Alix saw a tray holding a glass of green-colored milk and a plate of green-colored bran muffins--both mint-flavored as Alix soon found out--on a small table below him and he ate of it and he shrank until he was so small that he was smaller than the glass of milk and then he declared, "for I never was so small as this before, never! And I declare that it's too bad, that it is!"

    As he said these words his foot slipped, and in another moment, splash! he was up to his chin in salt water.  He soon made out that he was in the pool of tears which he had wept when he was very tall.  Just then he heard something splashing about in the pool a little way off, and he swam nearer to make out what it was and soon made out that it was only a mousey-looking, grey-haired man wearing spectacles that had slipped in like himself.  

   As Alix was still holding the tray of milk and bran, Alix blubbered. "Want some green milk and bran; Alix, the man, I am--although I seem to be more of a boy now-- and I guess I'm a new student here. Are you one of the school's teachers?"

      "Yes, I am Mr. Loremouse and I teach history."

     "Oh, history! I know a lot about history.  Do you know about the Freemasons who officially started up in the eighteenth century or the Illuminati who started up just before the French Revolution..."

      "Oh, don't talk about such groups here. Oh no, we mustn't," Mr. Loremouse said as he looked over his shoulders as he swam about, "but of course no such groups ever existed, or if they did they were only benevolent societies..."

    "Well if they don't exist, how could they be benevolent societies?"

     Giving me a scared mousey look he replied, "Well, I am not saying they exist or do not exist. I am just saying that if they existed then they would be benevolent."

     "Then why are you afraid of them, for either they don't exist and so they don't threaten, or they exist and are benevolent and again don't threaten."

    "Well, who is the teacher and who is the student. We must go beyond simplistic logic here and simple either/or categories.  Whether they exist or not is not the question, but whether we should be afraid of them and that is not in question."

    "Well, I think I will stick with my simplistic logic and simple either/or categories."

    "O you must not give them up; you must simply go beyond them."

    "Beyond them to where?"

    "I am not a logic teacher, only a history teacher. And I know that you can't simplify history by making everything into a conspiracy theory.   Some things just happen."

    "And some things are just made to happen, and I think that happens more than people happen to think."

    "Why should people think; it's up to us academics to think for them.  How could they even begin to understand the intricacies of history?"

     "Well, there are some intricacies, no doubt, but some things are very simple.  God wouldn't have made us with a need for Justice if he didn't give us a talent for discerning Justice."

     "There you go with your simplistic theories.  You must start at the beginning.  I will tell you about history and why I don't believe in conspiracy theories.  It's high time to go to class."

   And it was high time to go, for the pool was getting crowded with many children and another adult which Alix later found out was called Mr. Dodo and who was the School Principal.  Mr. Loremouse led the way and the whole party swam to the shore and then into a classroom or class area which itself was still filled with water: there seemed no end to it.

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Footnotes:

1. Isias 26:14-19,  The Douay-Rheims The Holy Bible, revised by Bishop Calloner (1749-1752)  Published by TAN BOOKS AND PUBLISHERS, INC, Rockford Illinois 61105, 1971, reprinted 1989, 2000. (All Bible references cited in 'Alix In One-World Land' are from this version.)

2. Ibid., I Cor 3:2, 9:7, Heb 5:12-14, I Pet 2:2