8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
1/32
In The Hour of The Egregoreby Devon Pitlor
I. In a borderless and hopelessly remote country
Like long glimmering tentacles issuing from an unseen body hub, strings of
slo!moving pilgrims, dressed as gaudy travelers, meandered one behind the
other into the "bandoned Land, admiring as they passed its no embellished
ruins and feeling the distant pulsations of civili#ations that had disappeared
long before theirs had sprung. Each filament of pilgrims branched off,
folloing a nominal leader, in different directions. In a time here hours anddays ere not counted like ours, these anderers ere performing a ritual that
came ith the thaing of the ice and the onset of spring.
They ere visiting the toering $onuments of %athan &ecker to sit at the feet
of a storyteller ho, ith the first glimmer of the %orth 'tar, ould position
himself under the gleaming metallic legs of &ecker(s statuary and begin a
series of ceremonial recitations of the Legend of Declan and )achel!!!#ealous
and fervent lovers from another era. The Legend in places as a romanticone, filled ith a sense of tragedy that that pilgrims needed to hear over and
over again to revitali#e their forces. "nd the story as not alays the same.
'ometimes Declan, the boy, as confused ith )achel, the girl. 'ometimes the
story, the fable, featured the more evil characters such as The Dentist and
another assassin called Tucker Plouffe. The Dentist as truly an assassin
according to some accounts. &ut no, that as, according to others, Plouffe. *et
in other accounts, the death of Declan and )achel, doomed lovers in all
versions, as caused by stranger forces. "nd often the details became
confused, herein The Dentist became Tucker Plouffe or the great munificence
of %athan &ecker, architect of massive statuary in the "bandoned Land, as
forgotten and he himself became an instrument of the most ab+ect evil.
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
2/32
"s it as a legend, each storyteller had a different version. Each had a
different theme to throttle. That as part of the spring ritual in this borderless
land going to hear a different depiction and personali#ed rendering of TheLegend.
-nder one of the huge and patently abstract leg supports of one of %athan
&ecker(s artistic creations, a huge band of pilgrims ere gathered as they did
each spring. or centuries they and their predecessors had heard the legend.
In vast blocs of time, hich e might call centuries, the legend usually focused
on %athan &ecker /hose name came to be pronounced in countlessly different
ays over the eons that had drained aay0. "nd in that far!aay 1century1
the teller sat on a small piece of industrial rubble that had not yet been clearedand began his tale ith
Once upon a time there was a great artist, a sculptor of renown...
&ut then as the passing nuggets of ine2orable time funneled into the future, a
succeeding narrator started ith
There was then an artist great, a man kind, a person powerful, who made the
famous animals them things above us now all towering...
"nd immeasurable recitations later, the storyteller opened his sacramental
service ith
Thenthere days blarst biggen artist in living to give came all from him to thems
loving he did throt dis art himself holding det darvel carber lite...
"nd finally, on this fine spring day, amidst the recked shells of a civili#ation
vanished, the current storyteller began
Holan! Apiscon very very nabez, saue in de stabtartoo grater, grater ali bana
ba!!
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
3/32
The infinite passage of moons through ever!changing skies and patchy stars in
constellations so much ad+usted by Time itself had led the many inhabitants of
the &orderless Land to speak a very different language than the 'tandard"merican English ith hich the core story that launched the legend began.
&ut that is normal for ords and phrases as they too pass through the curtains
and gateays of time. It as as normal as the contortion and confusion of the
key details.
&ut even no, the core story and its characters ere essentially the same, as
ere the lessons and thrills hich the story held for the pilgrims of springtime.
II. 'ome core versions
"s has been noted, the focal point of the legend varied ith the storyteller.
The tragic love and death of Declan and )achel as by far the most
e2hilarating, as tales of love never seem to fade in their grip on the human
consciousness. The core details ere these Declan &ecker as the much!loved
and dreamy son of the sculptor %athan &ecker. He lived alone ith his father
until the age of seventeen /for reasons alays unclear0 until his father became
both famous /for his huge, abstract statues hich began to adorn hundreds ofpublic places in the "bandoned Land0 and rich. Then %athan managed to get
remarried to a oman hose name as usually /but not alays0 rendered as
Theodora 3oulbourne, a oman ho brought a telve year old daughter, a
radiant girl named )achel, into the house. Declan and )achel, separated by
five years, became little by little enchanted ith one another!!!although in
some versions not unknon, either )achel or Declan hated one another and
had even tried to kill each other. &ut these versions usually came from the
tisted mouths of renegade storytellers and appealed only to the very fe. Thema+ority of yearly pilgrims anted Declan and )achel to be starstruck and fall
impossibly in love ith one another. They anted Declan to die at age tenty!
eight and )achel to follo him to the grave, in soul!searing de+ection, at
tenty!three a year later. They anted )achel to be unable to live in a orld
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
4/32
bereft of Declan, and they did not care /these more 4ui2otic and romantic
pilgrims0 ho she died. It as the romance of the saga hich elated them,
fulfilling thus a sense of deep passion hich as lacking in their lives.
&ut there ere also other adaptations 5ertain pilgrims trailed off in
undulating spirals hich led to different statues under hich other story tellers
emphasi#ed the evil of The Dentist and ere almost certain in their hinting that
The Dentist had killed either Declan &ecker or )achel 3oulbourne or both.
The Dentist as in most accounts a necromancer, a spiteful and malicious
con+urer ho poured molten gold into the mouths of huge and purely mythical
creatures that ere no long ago e2tinct. The Dentist had a magic tube ith a
blo dart inside filled ith a potion hich could induce these huge beasts tofall pleasantly asleep for the time needed to pour gold into their mouths. &ut
the dart and its tonic ere lethal to humans. The only solid detail that
remained over the years as that the animals, called elephants and eighing
over seven thousand kilograms, ere put asleep ith a most pleasant and
alluring nepenthe and that any human in+ected ith this concoction ould
pass from this life into the ne2t beset by very pleasing and agreeable
sensations. or some reason that part of the story stuck. "lso, it as usually
related that The Dentist, evil as he as, en+oyed a lifelong friendship ith%athan &ecker, promoted his colossal artorks, and had killed one or maybe
to of the reputed 1lovers1 on a re4uest from someone. &ut, in all, The
Dentist as evil. "nd in these recitations, he remained evil. It as never
e2plained e2actly hat an elephant /a ord hich became vastly altered like
all others0 as or hy it as necessary to decant precious gold into its mouth.
"nother edition of the story turned on the focal point of a man knon as
Tucker Plouffe. Tucker Plouffe as called in some accounts as The $echanic.
In others he as The "ssassin. In all, he as a paid killer. It as never certainho he became ac4uainted ith the little fused family of %athan &ecker and
Theodora 3oulbourne, but, despite his profession as a destroyer ho
slaughtered others for his daily crust, he often became luminous as a seeker of
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
5/32
truth, something that over the centuries became very esteemed and idoli#ed
among the populations ho traveled across the verdant landscapes of the
"bandoned Land to hear his part of the never ending story.
These ere the main strands of this eternal fable, an anecdote that took on a
life of its on as time rolled forard. " tale that created about itself a
collective group consciousness called an egregore, born of the synergy of mass
thoughtforms, and presenting itself to the collective mind as a kind of tulpa,an
autonomous psychic entity hich ove the very fibers of civili#ation in the
&orderless Land. It as, some said, an egregore that could become
treacherous if ignored!!!and thus the spring rituals. Hearing the tale at least
once each cycle as mandatory for human survival in this faraay andunfathomable place. 'o thus the pilgrimages of spring, the recitations, the
repeated interface ith the still!living ghosts of an unknon history.
III. The 1$echanic1
6n a blustery late 6ctober day in a great city laden ith all the steely re4uisite
elements of crime and corruption, an e2tremely attractive and physically fit
young oman named )achel 3oulbourne, slipped out of her dark blue police
uniform and into a tight camisole and skin!tight blue+eans. 'he left the middleof her shapely torso bare, e2posing a seductively outturned navel, and pulled
the ribbon aay from her floing mane to make the hair sing don her back
and oscillate in the ind. 'he stationed herself on a busy peripheral highay
under a sign that said 1Do not pick up hitchhikers.1 5ars sped past her, and
many drivers paused to scan the eye!catching girl. &ut none stopped. 'he as
obviously a hitchhiker and the sign, posted by the police, scared them off.
)achel had hoped for nothing better. 6ne year out of college and si2 monthsout of the city(s police academy, she as more than disgruntled at her
commanding officer(s assignment that she serve as a decoy prostitute. )achel
3oulbourne felt that ith her family background and education she deserved
better than to trap unsuspecting +ohns on a road that had alays been knon
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
6/32
as the 7hore Highay, but her captain felt differently, and )achel had not
been ith the force for long. Her aspirations of becoming some kind of famous
detective or renoned crime!buster had started to evaporate ith her assigneddecoy role. &ut out of duty she accepted it. In reality, she cared very little
about prostitution or its adherents. 'he as the stepdaughter of the no!
highly!trending sculptor %athan &ecker, hose colossal orks of rought iron
and copper ere no starting to appear in prominent places all over the city.
-nlike many stepdaughters, she loved her ne father and respected his sense
of otherness. 'ince her mother had brought her to live in %athan &ecker(s loft
orkshop at the age of telve, she had been content to obsess herself ith
something else. "nd it should be said right here in the story that the mainthing as her ne stepbrother Declan &ecker, son of the divorced %athan.
Declan as as some said 1beautiful1 and had the heat of eternal summer
sunshine glimmering through his deep!pool eyes. "t age telve, )achel had
fallen immediately into an irreversible #eal for her freshly con+oined
stepbrother. " passion hich Declan &ecker, her senior by five years, had
never returned. *et )achel(s ardor never ceased.
&ut today she as orking, and snagging +ohns as not her thing.6bediently, )achel moved under another cautionary sign that read 1Decoy
police on patrol.1 That as her. It as almost certain that she ould never be
propositioned under such signs.
&ut she as rong. 6r kind of.
"fter about fifteen minutes of posing under the sign, a man in a bright red
8aguar hove over and rolled don his indo and said 13et in.1
)achel did. Her recorder as turned on and she as about to make her first
bust as a decoy prostitute. The thought did not enthrall her. 'he at age
tenty!three as still thinking about Declan &ecker, ho as dead. 'uch as
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
7/32
her fi2ation, her sole mania. Her desire, born of close latitude for eleven years,
had never discontinued to smolder.
The man in the 8aguar introduced himself as Tucker Plouffe and as 4uick to
add that it as not totally his real name, although it as.
16f course not,1 said )achel, hoping to make a bust and get the hell out of this
detail.
16h, and you can turn off your radio,1 said Tucker in a bristly voice. 1I am
not going to ask you for se2. ar from it.1
1*ou knon I(m a cop then,1 said )achel biting her loer lip. 'he hadalready failed.
1*ou have cop ritten all over you. I picked you up for other reasons. Totally
legal reasons. &ut I don(t ant them recorded.1
)achel sitched off the remote that she had been outfitted ith, turned in her
seat toard the driver Tucker and said 17hat are e going to talk about91
1Declan &ecker,1 said the man.
1He(s dead.1
1*es, I kno. "nd do you kno something else9 I am hat they call a
1mechanic.1 That means a hit man. I as hired!!!and very recently!!!to kill
you, )achel 3oulbourne. "nd I do not kno hy. I have killed a lot of people,
but they ere mostly scum. I do not mind killing scum. &ut you are +ust a
young police officer. 5ut to the chase, I need to kno hy I as contracted to
aste you.1
1or busting +ohns91
1%ot e2actly,1 said Tucker, hose real name in fact as Tucker Plouffe. He
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
8/32
had by no spoken long enough to )achel to reveal his rather unctuous
Louisiana!5a+un accent.
1'o you(re a hired assassin,1 said )achel unruffled. 1Do you like that kind of
ork91
Tucker Plouffe pulled his 8aguar off the main thoroughfare onto a small
parking lot in front of a rather seedy package store. He began to e2plain
something about his life that )achel did not appear to ant to hear.
1Did you kill Declan to years ago91 she asked casually.
1%o, but I kno ho did. I +ust don(t kno hy. I(m curious like that. I asasked through a trusted contact to e2ecute him. The money as there, but
unless someone is scum, unless e(ve got a mobster or a Puerto )ican last
name, I don(t do that kind of ork. I as even contracted to kill a baby once
and for more money than I ould be able to spend for the rest of my life. I
refused that too. I refused to kill a nice kid like Declan. He lived at home ith
his father and your mother. Don(t act shocked, I(ve done my research. Declan
seemed to be loved by everyone. " handsome, intelligent boy. "nd then
someone anted him dead. I alays ondered hy.1
)achel shifted in her seat, assuming a critical pose of boredom. Her body
language clearly said" don#t care. 17ell, to satisfy your hit!man curiosity,1
she began, 1he as killed by the elephant doctor, the guy ho tran4uili#ed the
big ones at the #oo in order to mount aluminum teeth in their +as to replace
the orn!out ones. If someone doesn(t do that, the elephant dies of starvation.
Did you kno that91
1%o,1 said Plouffe. 1There is a lot of stuff I don(t kno. 7hy did the elephantman kill him91
1%o idea,1 said )achel. 1"nd the cops don(t kno either. He as shot ith a
double dose of halothane pro+ected from a silent blo tube +ust like they do in
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
9/32
the #oo.1
Plouffe as becoming annoyed at the young girl(s seeming lack of interest inthe assassination of someone he kne through his research she had adored
above all things on Earth. His cunning sense of character +udgment told him
)achel as hiding something. &ut didn(t everyone9
"nd indeed she as.
1'omething tells me you kno all about elephant tranks,1 Plouffe said. 1&ut I
can see no that you are not going to tell me anything.1
1I told you about bull "frican elephants needing ne teeth.1
1*eah, big nes.1
1"nd the tran4uili#er, halothane. It is supposed to be very gentle and even
comforting. %o one needs a :;,
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
10/32
1"m I special to elephant dentists91 said )achel.
1%o idea. That guy, 8osh =olan, as friends ith Declan(s father. Did youkno that91
1*ep, I as a cop in training. I kne a fe things.1
1&ut not ho paid for Declan to be sent into the ne2t orld or ho is paying
for you to follo him.1
)achel grasped the door handle and got out of Plouffe(s car. 1%ope,1 she said
in parting. 1I have tried for over a year to forget Declan. I loved him. *ou, ofcourse, kne that. " year of trying to ash my brain free of him.1
1*ou(ve failed too,1 said Plouffe. 1*ou kno that, and I kno that.1
)achel alked sloly back to the main highay, saying nothing.
In truth, Tucker Plouffe of Lafourche Parish, Louisiana as motivated far
more by ra curiosity than by any sort of sudden translation to
humanitarianism. He had alays tried to understand people despite his
ac4uired profession. He had refused to kill Declan a year before, and no he
as re+ecting the hatchet +ob on )achel. He ondered +ust hy that, as a cop
and as one fraught ith an une2plained and undying passion for Declan
&ecker, she had failed to 4uestion him. $oreover, he marveled at hy a #oo
dentist and close friend of the famous sculptor %athan &ecker ould have
taken the +ob, hich he kne he had. It had all been too clean. 8osh =olan
had never been suspected, but Plouffe(s contacts said otherise, and )achel
3oulbourne had more than confirmed that. There is a hole underground
community of silent souls that kno the #oo dentist did it, he thought. )achelis part of that. 'o is her mother and stepfather. The story lurked like a
phosphorescent crafish under a tablet of $ississippi slate.
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
11/32
7ith a curiosity even more pi4ued than ever before, Plouffe drove off into the
evening mist. 6ctober as becoming %ovember, and %ovember promised to
be harsh. Life as harsh, thought Plouffe. Halothane isn(t.
&ut he as playing the detective anyay, and for hat reason9 His avocation,
murdering people, demanded a certain distance. Plouffe had lost his. He as
investigating something that he kne he did not need to scrutini#e. 'omeone
somehere is going to e2terminate that cop!girl soon, he kne. I +ust onder
hy. "nd hy above all other things doesn(t she care9
He decided to use his multiple associates and bracket together something about
the no!famous artist ho had lost a son, but ho nonetheless continued tograce the city and other locales ith huge elded statutes that essentially
meant nothing e2cept to baffled tourists ho looked up on them ith ae and
eventually felt compelled to praise them!!!even though not really anyone kne,
perhaps even the artist, hat they ere really about.
I>. The detective ork of a 1mechanic.1
In the days that ensued, Tucker Plouffe learned very little about %athan
&ecker. 7hat he did learn as that &ecker, no 4uite ell off, had illinglyac4uiesced to alloing his tenty!seven year old son to live in his sumptuous
loft and 1help1 ith his statuary. He also learned that Declan had been very
bad at it and ostensibly had no visible artistic talent. Declan(s stepmother,
Theordora, alays reclusive and utterly silent to a fault, had not been bothered
in the slightest that Declan, ho some said could have been a movie star if he
had orked at it, stayed mostly at home and hung about his father.
"nother thing Plouffe learned as that 8osh =olan, the #oo dentist, had
suffered a nervous breakdon and as no in a sanatorium not talking toanyone. The killing, hich as notorious in the demi!monde, had apparently
done him in. 6r at least that as the thought. $urdering the young man had
driven him over the proverbial edge.
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
12/32
"nd hat about Declan9
6ther than the salient fact that everyone in the city seemed to adore him andanted to share his bed, he harbored very little interest in his stepsister. It as
all one ay. 'he orshipped him, but it as not reciprocal. 6ther than that, it
as a dead end trail. "nother gloing crafish under a muddy rock.
"t age tenty!five, Declan, ho as promoted by everyone to be some kind of
Person of the *ear, simply receded and became a part of his father(s life. "nd
that asn(t much. It involved dissolving himself into a donton loft and
remaining mostly out of sight. %ot a normal modus for a young man of
Declan?s imputed charisma.
Tucker Plouffe as a mediocrity and he kne it. 7hat he didn(t kno as
e2actly hy in his murderous profile he as pursuing this line of in4uiry. 'elf!
e2amination had never been a viable part of his hit!man profile. It as
counterproductive, Tucker kne.
"nother thing that Tucker Plouffe discovered in his subterranean
investigations as that %athan &ecker had alays the intention of sending his
often reclusive and under!motivated son on a cruise. " cruise somehere. To
some e2otic island. To a seaside desert. To a seaside mountain. This as
something that %athan did not accomplish, of course. Declan died too soon.
&ut then Plouffe learned that the senior &ecker had himself taken several tours
out of state, tours hich ere not cruises, but visits to some anonymous entity
near 'cottsdale, "ri#ona. "nd the trace ended there. The crafish craled
even farther under its mossy stone.
There as something about a promise. The promise of a cruise. 'ome
confusing nonsense as hidden in that.
"nd Plouffe did not kno hat. That bothered him, yet he couldn(t say hy.
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
13/32
>. The life and death of Declan &ecker
Tucker Plouffe, still playing the detective rather than the 1mechanic1 of death,as able through a nespaper contact to procure several glossy shots of Declan
&ecker taken shortly before his death. He also came across, 4uite by accident,
Declan(s high school yearbook, here the young eighteen year old(s face
beamed out from a gallery of less than lustrous contenders for accountable and
remunerative adulthood. There as indeed something fresh and vital about
Declan. Handsome as a ord did not 4uite capture it. There as a sense of
both intense life and impending tragedy, something almost ineffable, a
look...perhaps an outard ga#e....that Plouffe had seen only precious fe timesbefore. The school boy...a senior...no ithin nine years of his pending demise
seemed to be full of a secret!!!a secret combining the disparate elements of
both boundless optimism and gloomy despair. *earbook photos, Plouffe kne,
could reveal such things and often did.
Plouffe continued to e2amine the other photographs, hich ranged from age
telve to his death +ust shy of his tenty!eighth birthday. There as a sense of
hidden energy that penetrated them...an egregore in the making perhaps,
although Plouffe ould himself die /and of old age0 ithout ever knoing hatan egregore as, but in his on thoughts he constructed its eerie meaning in
other, more familiar, terms.
"nd then there ere other matters. irst, hy had %athan &ecker and his
charming ife Theodora not engaged in some prolonged and public breast!
beating, some mournful sho of de+ection and bitter misery9 'econd, hy had
the city police dismissed the case after only a to!month investigation9 'o
many people seemed to kno that 8osh =olan, the dentist, had done it ith hisblogun and elephant tran4uili#er!!!this obviously to include )achel
3oulbourne. 7hy had the case been dropped so 4uickly9 7hy had the #oo
dentist never been charged and had been alloed to slip aay into near
oblivion in a state mental repository9 Third, hy as )achel so blas@ about
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
14/32
both Declan?s untimely death and the fact that someone had scheduled her for
something akin to the same fate9 )achel, no a bona fide police officer, might
have been conducting her on private and continuing investigation of the case,but Plouffe?s intuition!!!the si2th sense of a formal assassin!!!told him
otherise.
Then there as the 4uestion of %athan &ecker. &y the time of Declan?s death,
five nearby cities had commissioned him in one ay or another to erect his
atrocious statuary /so thought Plouffe0 in their public s4uares and in front of
civic architecture. &ecker as groing rich, no problem ith that. &ut hy
had he undertaken so many trips to a dusty little desert ton in "ri#ona!!!a
state hich ostensibly shoed no palpable interest in his odd erections andundecipherable creations. ucking art, thought Plouffe. %o one understands
it. They +ust follo a crod or some dimitted critic. &ut the "ri#ona trips
remained a piece of the unsolved mystery hich Tucker Plouffe had decided to
lay out like a flayed mackerel in front of himself to let it glisten in the
moonlight of doubt. 'elf!doubt above all.
"nd that as the final unknon that confronted the hit man. He did not kno
himself ell enough to anser it. The 4uestion as, of course, hy as he sointerested9 7as it to atone for his mode of living over the past decade9 6r
as there something else9 &ut stop, he told himself. 'elf!scrutiny as not his
style.
Plouffe?s investigation continued, therefore, ith a kind of vehemence, a fury
born of 3od!knos!hat, a vain fren#y that ould, totally unbeknonst to
him, gain him a place in the legend that someday in some place ould be told
and retold and form the moral foundation of a future civili#ation.
&ut retold only by certaingriots, those having a penchant for renegade and
mostly unauthori#ed versions of something that as very imperative to a
vaporous civili#ation that Plouffe ould never live long enough to kno.
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
15/32
In reality, )achel 3oulbourne as indeed ithholding something a family
secret, and rather commonplace one too!!!although it alloped her to the core
to think of it. It as a secret that she had both learned and sorn to silence atage fifteen hen it had finally been made knon to her.
"t to private clinics in ruthlessly confidential 'it#erland, it had been
confirmed by medical e2perts, ho actually kne ho to keep secrets, that the
incandescent and promising boy of her most profound dreams had a congenital
defect...an inoperable brain tumor in the parietal lobe of his cranium that as
one!hundred percent certain to cause him to die before reaching age thirty.
The confirmation of this abnormality as absolute, and there as no remedy.
%o treatment nor medication as possible, but the better nes as that Declanould not suffer much. He ould, said the esteemed doctors, simply fade little
by little from consciousness and die suddenly hen the groth selled to
bursting si#e and ruptured, spreading its lethal to2in throughout his brain.
Declan at age seventeen, in hale health, had, of course, been informed. 'ome of
the small and seemingly inconsistencies in his actions and thoughts ere
already reflecting the onset of hat as guaranteed to be his early death. "
slightly rong movement of the eyes. " sudden and ine2plicable stiffening ofthe +a. "n inappropriate but hardly noticeable tongue thrust.
Ho )achel took this nes as governed by the rules of the amily &ecker,
hich preached above all unyielding stoicism in the face of their son?s
undeniable destiny. Declan as going to die. That as all. He kne it. His
father and stepmother kne it. "nd no )achel kne it. It ould not be
posted to the orld. Through great and indescribable suffering, )achel
managed, as instructed, to maintain her calm, although during the interval
beteen her fifteenth and tenty!third year, hen the medical prophecybecame authentic, )achel refused to date boys of any age and composed, it is
said in the legend, over four thousand pages of lamentations, eulogies, and
soul!searching poetry to alleviate her undisplayed pain. These ritings,
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
16/32
cryptic and unreadable e2cept to a fe cloistered scholars of the distant future,
also became part of the legend and its resultant egregore. &ut these things
happened at time that could not even be fathomed at the instant of theirthrobbing composition. "nd )achel, trampled like a inter pansy in the
muddy sno, continued life, university studies and became, as e have seen, a
rather indifferent police officer for reasons that she could never clearly define
even in her long and renching ritten orations. 'he loved Declan, and self!
scrutiny as not her style either.
>I. The case of %athan &ecker
6ne of the non!family secrets that Plouffe accidentally discovered as that%athan &ecker, a no eminent sculptor, had been making plans for some years
to send his son on a cruise. It as never decided +ust to here this cruise
ould be, and this as made more difficult to determine by the fact that
Declan had evinced absolutely no interest in going anyhere on the planet.
Declan, too, had become stoic. His on fate ould remain his on. He ould
stay at home and live out hatever remained of his condemned life in the
company of his father, stepmother and stepsister!!!ho, it should be noted,
annoyed him until the very end. The tall tree of love had never spread its all!embracing boughs over Declan, and the knoledge of his on pending and
inescapable fate made affection ith any female a palpable absurdity. His
father had, hoever, in his inimitable otherness bought Declan the fre4uent
company of many pricey and lu2urious prostitutes in brothels inaccessible to
those not possessed of ade4uate funds or the kno!ho re4uired to find such
establishments. It as &ecker senior?s design that his handsome son should
not die ithout knoing the intimacy of a oman. 6r a cruise. &ut on the
latter account, Declan remained as ever disinterested. %o mention of tropic
harbors or undulating ships at sea ever roused him.
'till %athan talked endlessly of a cruise until one day he ceased this line of
reasoning and took a trip to a tiny, dustblon ton in southern "ri#ona. "nd
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
17/32
no one ever found out hy!!!at least not until time immeasurable had passed
and the same cryptic scholars ho had unraveled the doleful language of
)achel?s criducoeur homages dislodged the fact, and then the reason for this+ourney became a material and strangely practical part of the legend.
The ton as called "ndresville, and it as as obscure as its prosaic name. In
searching it out, Plouffe not only found that it as omitted on certain highay
maps but very difficult to find even hen the route as occasionally marked.
Totally out of place in his habitual business suit, Plouffe had kicked around the
gas stations and ramshackle convenience stores of "ndresville ith little
success, aroused the suspicious of the scant band of locals ho loitered on theless than thirty!yard long main street, and learned very little. %o one had any
notion of ho %athan &ecker as, hat he looked like, hat sort of artork he
did or hy he should be there. 6ne drunk in a lean!to saloon had even told
Plouffe after a fe gratis drinks that "ndresville as a ghost ton and had no
reason to be on a map or attract anyone for that matter. The ton, dusty and
dry, concealed nothing...or did it9
A*es,B said another hiskey!ravaged native on the day before Plouffe drove
aay forever. AThis ton could be the start of a cruise.B &efore Plouffe couldget any amplification of this enigmatic statement, the man plunged himself
deeper into the bottle he as consuming in gulps and vanished into the kind of
stoneall barricade of impenetrability that branded the stragglers ho
inhabited this dismal corner of sagebrush and cactus.
"nd so for at least one unnamed tenant of the asteland, there as in
"ndresville the promise of a cruise. "nd hat in the fuck did that mean9
thought Plouffe, as he drove aay. The crafish as still under its rock ledge.%o mysteries had been unraveled.
>II. The cruise
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
18/32
The legend so oft!repeated in the murky generations hich folloed never
mentioned the ord cruise, and the arcane ritings dealing ith the death of
both Declan &ecker and his ould!be devotee, )achel 3oulbourne, nevermentioned the ord either. Instead, the storytellers insisted that the no
erased and therefore non!e2istent ton of "ndresville as a dooray to
Aimmortality.B Immortality had alays become part of the oral legend. It
fueled the churning egregore hich arose from the tight compact of the many
listeners.
"nd others, not taken in by the necessity to hear a legend repeated each spring
under the rusting monuments of some artist ho had once lived in the
"bandoned Lands, found out over the course of many years hat as locatedin the no!mythical "ri#ona atering hole. 3eneration by generation they
began to act on it. It ould, in effect, become their contribution to the
egregore hich governed the hole of their sphere.
%athan &ecker, of course, kne hat it as centuries before. It as a bricked!
up 5old 7ar missile silo and fallout shelter hich generated its on poer
source and as called an AinstitutionB by some. Inconspicuous and virtually
unknon beneath the unforgiving sands of the "ri#ona desert, it as filledith huge 4uantities of li4uid nitrogen and insulated in such a ay as to
preserve this element ell under its boiling point of CC.:; degrees elvin.
3uessably, it housed a certain restricted 4uantity of dead human corpses and
as in fact one of a small number of cryonics institutes, obscured and
maintained by the most secretive of societies, organi#ations hich safeguarded
their covert stockpile of cadavers in the then!vain hope that by free#ing them,
they could and ould be resuscitated by the miraculously optimistic
technology of future generations able to cure the ailments hich had destroyed
these prominent souls and revive them from the dead into the faceless dan ofsome ne era of enlightenment in the anticipated cyclone of unrestrained
scientific progress.
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
19/32
The cryonics institute of "ndresville, having no particular public presence or
name, had never given much thought, hoever, to the utility of such revivals or
hether future eras ould have any need hatever to bring back relics fromages that they ere sure to deem as primitive and even prehistorically
barbaric.
"nd for most of the optimistically fro#en corpses, this as true. 3enerations
succeeded and the rocks and gravel of a derelict desert ould eradicate most
all traces of the subterranean institute, and very fe of the glacial dead ould
ever see either the benevolent hand of enhanced science nor the daylight of any
manifestation hatsoever of a future orld.
&ut because of )achel and her incessant riting and because of %athan and his
enigmatic statuary, a legend took form!!!a fairy story and its egregore, its
thoughtform, hich in time became the mainspring of a ne civili#ation, so
compelling and real as this autonomous psychic entity born of the synergy of
collective thought bedecked ith fervent evolutionary aspiration, as such has
alays been the ont of mankind.
"nd so, in his otherness, %athan &ecker became rather suddenly convinced in
the goals and ambitions of this nearly invisible and nameless cryonics society.
7ith the assent of his family, he arranged to have Declan?s body placed in an
everlasting vat of li4uid nitrogen in hopes of his revival in a more progressive
future time. This as no the promised cruise. " cruise only for the very
privileged into a da##ling and startlingly e2traordinary, if not overhelming,
future. It as an idea that only an artist of %athan?s odd bent ould consent
to, and Declan readily agreed ith his father that it might be an Aadventure,B
certainly something better than a +ourney by ship to some overheated tropicalatoll about hich he shared no interest.
&ut one problem posed itself. It as conveyed to both %athan and Declan by a
private courier from the last 'iss clinic Declan had visited. &y the time
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
20/32
Declan?s tumor ballooned to lethal si#e, it ould burst and thereby destroy
most of the soft tissue of his brain. He ould therefore be revived...if revival
ere indeed possible...as a lumpen vegetable, not orthy of a ne start.'omething had to be done before. "nd so it as.
>III. 8osh =olan, 1The Dentist1
'o great as the fresh and innocent optimism and immutable belief of the no!
mystical artist %athan &ecker, hose faith in the glimmering chimera of
cryonics had blossomed so idely that it perfumed and into2icated everyone
ho came in contact ith the sculptor ith the rich and indestructibly
aromatic scent of undying hope in a second chance at life in a better orldafter a brief but gratifying cruise through uncharted eons to come, that it fell
upon his childhood friend, a rather impressionable menagerie animal manager
named 8osh =olan, ho to some as knon as both a veterinarian and a
dentist!!!neither of hich totally suited his profession!!to merge into a seeming
risk!free and totally logical plan to use the same chemicals he employed to
anestheti#e elephants to 4uietly remove %athan(s forlorn son, Declan, from
this orld and start him on his voyage to the ne2t ithout much thought of
repercussion or conse4uence."nd so it as ith both )achel 3oulbourne and her ever!doting mother
Theodora, ho both fell under the spell of pledged immortality accorded to
Declan if his removal could be achieved and his body preserved before the
atrocious tumor had destroyed the symmetrical beauty and idely!admired
magnitude of his brain. 5ryonics became, thus, a palpable reality rather than
a vaporous speculation, and the veracity of the cruise in time took on the vivid
hue of absolute truth.
In short, plans ere laid and secrets ere kept. " circle, hich included not
only Declan, his father and the illing assassin =olan but also )achel and her
mother, as summarily closed. The matter as decided. 8osh =olan kne and
respected his role that of an agent of unconditional and un4uestionable
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
21/32
immortality. Declan(s immortality.
or years =olan in his role as 1dentist1 had crept into the 4uarters of #ooelephants ith his dart tube, put them into a painless sleep and filled their
aging mouths ith aluminum teeth to prolong their e2hibitory e2istence for an
adoring public in hatever city(s #oological gardens they inhabited!!!for
elephants, like legends and their resultant egregores, become the property of
an adoring public, and there as no calling nobler than giving these beasts a
chance of living a fe year longer instead of dying of harsh starvation from
orn aay teeth. The same nepenthe that soothed the suffering toothless
beasts into temporary slumber ould transport a dying boy into a ne life in a
orld that could only be envisaged in the most gloing of imagined mentalvignettes. =olan, inebriated by the contagious confidence of %athan &ecker,
fancied himself a hero!!!and this right up until the moment that he atched the
final light in Declan &ecker(s eyes flicker out like the e2tinguished flame of a
celebratory lantern at festival(s end.
"fter that point, sadly, the Dentist(s optimism ilted and finally ithered
altogether as he received nes of Declan(s remains being surreptitiously taken
to a place under the "ri#ona desert and congealed at temperaturesapproaching absolute #ero. 'uffering from the pangs of recrimination, %athan
&ecker(s accomplice in cruise!planning, plunged into a despair so deep in its
guilt!laden melancholy as to send the Dentist into an asylum for the rest of his
life, an asylum here he spent his remaining fe years staring hollo!eyed at
the vacant alls, the empty orbs of his demented eyes rolling about in a self!
inflicted madness from hich there as no escape.
&ut the legend never recorded this part.
In the legend, the Dentist became an emblem of true and lasting friendship, the
bringer of benevolent and holehearted kindness to a beleaguered family, a
deliverer endoed ith the boldness to act upon conviction!!!and thus a hero.
&ut some versions, as e have seen, also cast him as a villainous and malicious
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
22/32
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
23/32
much to her barely restrained glee, arranged for her interment alongside of
Declan in a vat of li4uid nitrogen, so great as his love for his son and his
abiding belief in the resuscitative poers of generations unborn.
He had, in effect, invested his last cent into this final venture, and suffering
no from a defective heart valve, ould soon +oin )achel(s mother in the
ground, hile )achel ould!!!he kne!!!reaaken and unite ith his beloved
son in an assured and un4uestioned future paradise. Like )omeo and 8uliet,
he reasoned, they ould die almost together at nearly the same age. "nd they
ould dell together at the end of their 1cruise1 for as long as a future society
could keep them animated.
He disclosed all this to an astonished )achel hile still in mourning for
Theodora, ho had only the promise of moldy soil in her unseen future. It as
in the once!happy family room of the house )achel had lived in since age
telve. )achel as in uniform and earing a police!issued pistol on her side
hen she learned the nes. 'uch as the un4ualified munificence and
undying conviction of the aging stepfather that )achel, biting suddenly her
bottom lip and feeling the sudden paro2ysm of compunction and shame, could
not bring herself to tell the old man the thing that he should have, could havenoticed during the eleven years of her residence in his family!!!the oft!hidden
fact that Declan &ecker had never shon the slightest interest or attraction to
his young and ardent stepsister.
%o, )achel could not tell him. It ould spoil the plan. 'he anted to die
anyay, and the future as, after all, assured ith cryonics. The only missing
element as the desired affection hich Declan had never evinced toard her.
This factor, hoever, as never spoken or preserved in the legend. )achelbecame over the ensuing eons e2actly hat %athan felt her to be the day he
informed her of his arrangements. The greatest love story in history as in its
nuclear form, and it could only gro vaster from there. "nd it did. To
proportions unfathomable.
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
24/32
The fire hich burned for centuries fueling the 3reat Legend as )achel. Her
consent to a painless death at age tenty!three so that she could +oin Declanho ould still be tenty!eight in an idyllic and miraculous orld, here the
e24uisite ould become the commonplace and the sublime a perennial floer
in the garden of life. %ot the $echanic, not the Dentist, not the 'culptor, not
the Prehistoric &easts but )achel as at the a2is of mankind(s most enduring
and nourishing fable!!!the ellspring of a civili#ation that could not be
imagined by any contemporary of either )achel or %athan. Her death as only
a foot!stone ashed over by the gentle aters of the brook of time hich she so
passionately needed to cross.
"nd so )achel kne. 'he kne that day hen 4uestioned by Plouffe that her
stepfather had arranged for her death!!!her straightforard and abrupt death.
&y the tran4uili#er halothane if possible. It grieved her that Tucker Plouffe
had not used his blo tube. It grieved her that after standing on the side of the
7hore Highay for over an hour another assassin had not come by. It
saddened her that she as still alive and not yet beneath the "ri#ona desert.
The Dentist as out of the picture no. "nd Plouffe had refused the +ob,
turning from hit!man to anna!be detective. 7ho ould do the +ob9 )achelvoed that the year ould not pass ith her still breathing. 'he ould do it
herself. The arrangements had been made. "ll that as needed as her
lifeless remains.
&ut as it turned out, it as Plouffe ho did it, or sort of. In a phone call,
)achel asked him to meet her ith the promise of telling him all the details he
anted. 1I(ll let you kno ho ants me dead and hy,1 she gasped over the
phone. Plouffe consented and picked her up in his 8aguar at a predeterminedlocation not far from here he had first met her. 'he as earing her police
uniform and badge. 'he as carrying her nine millimeter police!issued pistol.
1I(m not killing you,1 said Plouffe firmly.
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
25/32
1*es, you are,1 said )achel.
7ithout prologue, she dre her gun from its holster. Plouffe, ho had heardand disbelieved the story, noted that the gun as fresh, slick ith oil and
apparently unused. The holster, hoever, as tatty and orn. The livid and
bleeding soul has orn the body bare from the inside out, he thought,
fashioning a crude metaphor for the seemingly maniac police girl. &ut before
he could ruminate more poetic images, )achel pushed the barrel to his temple
and said something garbled to the effect that it as either him or her.
In self!preservation it became her. Plouffe still had =olan(s old loaded blo
tube under the car seat, a gift from the no!dead %athan &ecker. 6n )achel(s
unflinching command, he ithdre it and used it as instructed. His action, his
presence, his persona as unbelievable even to himself!!!and as such he passed
into the legend and became an evil force in the egregore that arose ith each
telling of the rich parable of hich he no became an element.
He dumped her body in a vacant lot right here she had charged him to. "
dead female cop, complete ith sidearm, uniform, badge and above!all ID tag.
Then he sped out of the state forever. $any years later under a ne identity in
a place here no one thought to look for him, he died!!!mostly of old age. His
last thoughts ere of )achel(s strange tale. 15ryonics,1 he murmured as he
passed from this orld into hatever follos.
. 5onclusion The "akening
The momentous hour of the egregore finally struck, and the apparition!!!the
tulpa!!!arose, great and horrible, benevolent, ise or violent as the occasion
demanded.
It as the collective ill of a civili#ation enraptured ith its unknon and
shadoy origins, a civili#ation that pri#ed the intense value of human emotion
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
26/32
above all other values and had come to raise the core reason for its very
e2istence on a story that had developed into an immense e2pression of hat it
meant to be human and at the ape2 of social maturity in an era that had metand solved most of the other pressing problems of survival. Its technology,
shrouded as the property of only a fe, had elevated the species to a giddy
summit here strapping happiness reigned alongside of mandatory mystery.
The apparition made itself mostly unseen, but had it been visible, it ould have
presented itself as inchoate and formless as the numberless thoughtforms
hich had given it birth in the collective recollection of something momentous
from a past that no one person could ever conceive individually. It embodied
the entire spirit of mankind from the earliest combinations of one celledcreatures through centuries of strife, error and slo progress. Thus it as
good. Thus it as holy. Thus it was mankind!!!everyman in his purest form.
It hovered no above the pri#e of its being the restored and repaired corpus of
hat as no considered the essential keystone of its e2cellence. "nd this as
Declan &ecker...revitali#ed...re!invigorated ith the vril!!!the life force!!!!itself.
The orld of mankind, represented in a single fluid and formlessly nebulous
mass sirled over the place here Declan as no stored, guarding, as it ere,
its trophy to share ith all sentient creatures of its on making.
It as the dan of the ne2t transformation. The acme of evolution. The much
anticipated end point of a biological +ourney that had been launched so many
epochs ago in a past that Declan and the other lofty figures of his legend
embodied.
"nd all as good. The egregore as happy.
Declan &ecker, for his part, came into full consciousness feeling fresh!skinnedand filled ith some primal but ineffable force. He kne not to e2pect
e2planations from an evolution that he could not fathom. His father and the
anonymous cryonics society had prepared him ell. 1&e ready for anything,1
they said. Declan as.
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
27/32
&ut his lips ere dry, and he became gradually aare that he had been
speaking for a long time. "s his eyes gre sharper, he sa that he had beenreading from something that looked like a commonplace book hovering over
here he lay. 7ords continued to issue from his lips long after his mind as
sept clear of any ha#e that still clouded it. He heard his on ords
"t was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was
the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it
was the season of $ight, it was the season of %arkness, it was the spring of hope,
it was the winter of despair.
It as the first line of a book he had 1recently1 forced himself to read because
someone told him it as important. Then he remembered hat it as.
5harles Dickens, " Tale of To 5ities, ritten in :F;G. The dryness of his
mouth told him he had been reading aloud for some time. He did not kno
hy.
Then the idea burst into his mind. His hosts needed to hear his English. He
did not kno ho he kne this, but it as further revealed to him!!!
telepathically no doubt!!!that although those ho had retrieved him from thevale of death had en+oyed ample opportunities to read the language of his
times, they did not kno ho to pronounce it. "nd he had been reading for a
long time. They had learned.
'uddenly, Declan became aare that the information as not reaching him
telepathically /as he ould have liked to have thought0 but rather orally. 'ome
eddy of sirling mass located above him as speaking. He remained silent and
listened for its ords
1Long ago e found all the ritten records of your era and learned to read
them. &ut e did not kno the sounds behind the symbols. *ou have helped us
ith that. 7e no can speak to you in "merican.1
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
28/32
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
29/32
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
30/32
as surprised at her on tone and cynicism. 'he had suddenly turned mean
inside. It as as if she had salloed the hard pit of a once!seet fruit.
1$y father as a drinker9 'hut your lying mouth. I don(t kno about that.
He as a great artist. His orks ere everyhere in the city.1
1*eah, as long as he remained sober enough to forge them together. &ut that
as pretty much of a rarity, eh Dec91
1'top it,1 said Declan. 1He sent us both here!!!herever this is!!!to be
together, and you kno hat9 I have no idea hat year this is or ho is
president...1
1Last I remember it as that black guy hose name I forget,1 snapped
)achel. 1I never really cared. Did you91
1%o,1 said Declan, eyeing his stepsister ith the same disdain he alays had.
1Do you91
1%ot really,1 replied )achel. 16ne president resembles another in my vie.
7ho cares91
1%ot me.1
17e never did much care about anything,1 continued )achel. 1"nd no all of
a sudden, I seem to care less. *ou(re pretty, but your eyes are like old fisted
snoballs!!!cold.1
1"nd you are pretty too, but you kno damn ell that I never cared for you. I
as never going to fuck a telve!year old. That is hat you anted then.1
1'o you fucked my mother.1
16ut of necessity.1
1" lot of bullshit. I never kne. *ou and your artsy!fartsy father...1
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
31/32
1Leave my father out of this. 7ho in the shit knos here e are9 There are
big blobs here ho like to hear us read Dostoevsky or hatever.11The future,1 said )achel. 1I don(t like it. "nd all at once, I don(t like you.1
)achel as certain that she as feeling the ords she said. In her head they
echoed true like the crisp voices of spirit sentries in the canyons they guarded.
1The feeling has alays been mutual. *ou are no goddess.1
1%ever intended to be. I loved you. &ut I can see that it as mislaid. *ou
seem no, hatever this no is, to be a real prick.1
1"nd you seem like a teenage slut. The one you used to or anted to be.1
7ithout arning, the churning apparition of the future(s collective egregore,
the tulpa, reappeared.
1There is vast and ine2pressible trouble,1 it said. 17e must terminate
something. 'riots, storytellers. are under every arch. They cannot be denied.
This has to end.1
"nd so it did.
Declan and )achel ere comfortably put back into inanimation. They never
finished their argument or arrived at any conclusions. They never ould.
7here and ho they ould ake up as only a con+ecture in a society that
had vainly depended on them. "nd far too much.
Live as long as e may, but e ill never live long enough to become the gods
e think e should be.JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ
Devon Pitlor 8anuary,
8/13/2019 In The Hour of The Egregore
32/32
MNMNMNMN