“Hello D-Rock,” Tia Dalma said to him as he approach the sinking deck where she stood with her alligator.
“Hello, Tia.”
After several hours of reacquainting time, Tia looked at Rock.
“I know you want something.”
“Yes, I brought a document for you to look at it to see if you could read it. He took the Tabular Rasa out of his travel sack and handed it to Tia.
She didn’t say anything.
“Can you read it?”
“Almost all of it. But I can’t tell you what it says.”
D-Rock chose his words carefully.
“What would it take—for you to tell me what it says?”
“It’s not like that D. I don’t have a choice. The document contains a message to the readers of the document with a warning that is quite clear. They will return and for those who do not heed the warning there will be total consequences.”
“I understand,” D-Rock said quietly as he began to walk away. He was almost to the bridge leading out of Pantano River when he heard her voice.
“D-Rock, wait.”
He turned around.
“I can’t tell you what the document said but I know what you want to learn and I can tell you what I knew before I read this document.”
D-Rock walked to Tia.
“You know how they say everything is made out of earth, air, fire and water? They are wrong. Everything is made out of fire. The smoke, the water, the alligators—all fire.”
“Wow, I could be believe that fire and air are made out of fire, but water?”
“Well, here’s the catch—it’s a metaphor,” she explained. “You know how on the continent they found bison and they called them buffalo? To say that everything is fire is to call a bison a buffalo. It’s fire because there is an action between things, and when something burns this action is happening. When something burns it doesn’t burn up becoming less or nothing, it becomes more. In France the chemist Lavoisier is chasing this demon, this fire. That which we breathe that keeps us alive is a part of this fire.”
“Tia thank you, I have a physicist who is a chemist.”
“Then I hope he likes ancient writings. I can’t tell you what is in the document but I can tell you, quietly between friends, that if you want what is on Tabular Rasa then you will want to read the Emerald Tablet. I don’t dare say anymore.”
The next voyage of D-Rock took him to the library in Alexandria, Egypt.
