The Oracle Trilogy Book One Ohm's Node

Advanced Horticulture

Ssshh, someone had come in and turned on the music. The facilitator man was walking towards her with Don or Bill or Jack off. What a fucking joke. With lightning speed, she effortlessly jumped the table, took his hands and spun him till the velocity propelled his body through the tangle of greenery, out through the plastic envelope and into the herb garden.

Dick stopped with the woman. 'Hi Jannie. Aren't you glad the suns out!'

She took the limp body and pushed it headfirst into the compost barrel as a warning to others not to fuck with her this morning.

'Are you finished with the soil?'

She took the ball cart and wheeled the barrel and his mangled body out to the back and dumped it with yesterday's garbage.

Sssshhhh!

He put out his hand, palm down. That she thought was brilliant. How did he know she wasn't a threat. She meant no harm. His smile caught her off guard, one hand uncurling from a fist, her other hand wiping the crusties from her eye sockets.

'I'm sorry', she said.

'For what, its okay, it'll work itself out like a nasty thorn. Two more days, tops. Is it over?'

She nodded.

'This is Aaliyah who has been an owner of a coffee plantation that we have worked with, that will now be overseeing this part of our project. She'll be in and out collecting tissue samples. I suspect most times you won't even know she's here since I know how focused you are on this important work', smiling.

'Hi Janie, what a privilege it is to meet our first propagator! This work we call the second leg of our restoration project. It's that important and I'll stop by on occasions to poke you for information about something, okay?'

The roller coaster ride between personalities came with intense migraines and usually a trip to someone. Holding the edge of the table she wobbled, taking deep breaths and focusing on the bright smudge of sun burning through the poly. It was the workouts and the special juice they said. It was getting easier. Day twenty. The bad Storm was quickly disappearing.

'Okay,' she said, still holding the edge of the table.

After whatever powered the fugue left, she would be left drained, hating herself. But only recently she'd left with fragments of a new vision of herself as high sorceress in an unknown story; it was if she was being given the lines and that if she didn't perform perfectly, another would be found to replace her. And she didn't want that! She also coveted this role allowing even that if she was going crazy, it was giving her a new power. Her new facilitator said it was just a side effect of the juice.

She considered Mary who sat by herself looking out the window and making weird sounds. Or Dalli who walked with a slump and cooed to people until they smiled. And Eric who looked like an overstuffed mushroom who said things that made the staff give him space only reserved for their own. And then there was Adam who now was weeding and giggling beneath the misting bench. All of them were part of the special trial. Were they going through changes?

'What you want Jannie? Want to play?"

'Play?"

'In the mud?"

She laughed. She was back with no headaches or vomiting, thinking clearly.

'You little gnome.'

He exaggerated the word, lingering on the vowel then surprised her by finishing off with a 'me'.

'Know me, is that what you're saying?"

'Yes', squealing as if being tickled in the funny bone.'

'How?'