NOTE: If you haven’t been following this from the beginning, and if you want to know the full sequence of events, start with the introduction. Click on Archives on the right.
“Ready for lunch Lou?”
Lou has finished sawing up an ironwood branch. The weight of wet snow, last month, had partially uprooted the tree and left the branch leaning against Diddlie’s carport, denting the side of the flat roof. The wood is now stacked by the driveway and the brush remains piled here and there where he trimmed it off.
“Suppose we get Woke and avoid beef?”
“That is asking a lot!”
“True! Have you read about the effect of cattle on the climate?”
“Sure, I forget about it at lunchtime.”
Lou picks up his saw and puts it in Diddlie’s carport. We look in on Mr. Liddle who has turned his back on all the noise outside and pushed a straw barrier up against the open end of his hutch.
“Is Diddlie home?”
“No, she told me she would be out most of the day.”
“Why don’t we follow Mr. Liddel’s example and have a salad for lunch. It is today’s special at the H Bar.”
I show him my phone app.
“How about those fake-meat burgers?”
“Yeah, I saw that. What do you think?”
“Better than rabbit food!”
“You try it.”
We walk down the hill towards the H Bar.
A silent blue Chevy Bolt slows down to our walking pace. The side window purrs down and there is Sophonisba’s round face.
“You want a ride, neighbor?”
“Is that thing running?”
“It’s electric, Lou.”
“A ghost, more like.”
“Hi, Sophie.”
We have stopped at the bottom of Oval Street.
“We are headed for lunch at the H Bar.”
“Oh, what an opportunity! May I join you?”
“Please do.”
Lou gets in the front next to Sophie and I ride in back. Sophie turns to me.
“Hi there Fred, I must educate you two, and lunch is a perfect setting.”
“What’s the topic?”
“A new phenomenon, thanks to my dear friend Cora, and I, Sofonisba Anguissola, will be happy to buy lunch in exchange for your ears!”
Lou turns to me.
“You up for that Fred?”
“My ears are not for sale, Sophie.”
“Oh Fred, how about a Shakespearian loan to a new friend?”
“I am listening.”
She parks in the blue ghost in the H Bar lot and Lou gallantly helps her out of the car.
“I am not getting any more agile!”
Sophie moves slowly. Turns in her seat and puts one foot on the ground outside and then the other and grabs the top of the door to pull herself up.
Lou holds the door for her.
“When did you pick up this car?”
“It isn’t mine. It is on loan for a while.”
We walk at Sophie’s slow pace to the entrance.
“I must take you back to the Late and Ptolemaic period, about three hundred BC.”
“That’s a long way from here Sophie!”
“It is Lou. We live in so many times at once. Time travel is one of my specialties.”
We stop among the few patrons in the bar, and Lou reads a menu newly chalked on a board outside the Quantum Lounge.
“Well, look at that! The salad special here today is called, ‘Quantum Entanglement’.”
“Is that where Sesame noodles entangle the salad veg?”
“Too haute cuisine for me, Fred.”
“But Lou, so appropriate to the occasion!”
“How’s that Sophie?”
She is looking at me.
“Yes, you know Einstein called entanglement, ‘Spooky action at a distance.”
“Are you talking about lunch or what, Sophie?”
“Lou, I am talking about, ‘Bast’ or ‘Bastet. The Egyptian goddess was worshiped as a lioness and later as a cat. Bastet was the daughter of Ra. She was Sekhmet’s sister and Ptah’s wife, also Mihos’s mother. Bastet was worshiped as a deity, mainly in Lower Egypt in the second dynasty.”
“Oh Ra, wasn’t that the sun god?”
“That is only part of it, Fred. Ra is the king of the deities and the father of all creation.”
“Sophie, all that genealogy is too much for me. I just told you all I know of Egyptian deities.”
“Okay Fred, doesn’t matter for our preposes now.”
Lou is scratching the back of his head as he leads the way to a booth in the Quantum Lounge.
“Oh, Lou! A table, please. I won’t be able to get out of one of those narrow stalls!”
“We call them booths, Sophie.”
He turns to an empty table.
“How about over here?”
We sit down at a table toward the back in the subdued light of the lounge where every other table is empty to keep customers well apart.
“Sophie, quantum entanglement is science, not religion!”
“You don’t think science is one of our modern religions?”
“No, I don’t. It is about data and fact, not faith and worship.”
“My friends, that is perfectly true but underneath all that, is faith and doubt.”
“What are you talking about, Sophie?”
“Haven’t you noticed how many people no longer believe what science reveals about the world?”
“Sure, that’s politics!”
“Don’t be so hasty Lou!”
“Well, okay what are you trying to tell us?”
“I want to draw your attention to the power of belief.”
“Okay, politics and entertainment have merged these days into storytelling.”
“Exactly, many people believe a story they want to believe rather than what new evidence might suggest.”
“Sure, that is how propaganda does its work.”
Sophie nods in agreement as Lou’s gentle tone is strained with frustration.
“We are talking about unexamined assumptions.”
The waiter is ready to take orders. No one gets the ‘Entangled Salad’ with sesame noodles. Lou chooses a Rueben sandwich. I get the chicken rollup and Sophie has Gumbo. Neither Lou nor I know what language Sophie speaks to the waiter, but they seem to exchange friendly banter in the midst of our choices.
“To be sure, many of us do not reflect but tend to react instead of reflecting.”
“Political ‘Reactionaries’ you mean.”
“Fred, I mean those of us who reject science, in favor of other beliefs.”
Lou puts down his glass after a swig of water.
“As far as I can see, those folks are lost! Lost in all the crime shows, game shows, and so-called “reality” entertainments on TV!”
“We enjoy countless distractions.”
“Cats are among them! They perform on YouTube, cats are advertised for sale, and stray cats run in the allies, but you know, pets are not gods.”
“We love our pet cats. Just think of all the ways cats are used in advertisements.”
“Cuteness sells a lot of products.”
“Okay, so I hope you two have looked at OAnon.”
Lou’s eyebrows meet above his gold-rimmed glasses.
“Lou, haven’t you opened that email from Diddlie yet?”
“I have Sophie and I saw the picture of an orange cat and deleted it.”
“Another cute cat, Lou! And you, Fred, may I ask if you have looked at the content?”
“Sure, seemed like this cat called Oliver is posing as some kind of oracle.”
“Yes, this ‘pose’ as you call it, is a reincarnation of the god Bast, in our time.”
“Oh! Ah, Sophie, how can you tell?”
“The cat’s spirit in human life is well preserved in the Egyptian desert.”
“Sounds like spooky action to me!”
“We have more in common with the ancients than you might think.”
“Okay, so why did I get this news from Diddlie?”
“I asked her to send it to her friends, you see, knowing that you two would get it.”
Lou’s frown is more pronounced.
“Why not send it yourself?”
“I don’t have a computer or anything to send it with.”
“Sophie, you need to get with the twenty-first century!”
“I am with this century, Fred, and many others.”
“Yeah, but I mean the cyber thing.”
“That is just another medium for the spirit I know so well from my palm reading.”
“It is electronic, not spiritual.”
“Of course, Fred, I mean the electromagnetic medium. It carries all over the world like a nervous system. Ask yourself, what is the love of cats?”
“Well, I would say it is a sentimental thing.”
“Okay, our pets are our love objects.”
The waiter brings our meals during a pause, ‘love objects’ bring to the conversation.
“So, what is the point of this OAnon thing?”
Sophie holds her soup spoon up in two fingers.
“Influence, my friend. Influence through association and humor.”
Lou chews his Rueben sandwich looking down at the table in front of him. He swallows and wipes his mouth before speaking.
“What kind of influence?”
Sophie turns her spoon in her fingers. The back and then the bowl face me in succession as if she is using it as an antenna.
“Broadening influence! This is the beginning, only the start. People see this comical orange cat on their screens and those who like that kind of thing will be charmed and amused by his remarks.”
“Broadening what?”
“For one thing, OAnon demonstrates that love of cats isn’t divided by politics.”
Lou looks up.
“We will get there!”
“We are entangled in Bast!”
Sophie stops turning her spoon. Keeps it still as an exclamation mark.
“Our modern cat worship is awakening her ancient spirit in us!”
“No, Sophie. We don’t worship cats. They are not part of a church. They are part of a market.”
“Oh! market high priests have enormous influence, I know, but events often go against their predictions.”
“You mean economists!”
“Fred, I see their statistical incantations as mystical speculations. Sometimes the spirit moves here and sometimes there.”
“It isn’t called the ‘Dismal Science’ for nothing!”
Lou picks up the second half of his sandwich and takes a bite and puts it down. The fingers of his left-hand drum silently on the table. Sophie has yet to put her spoon into her soup. She holds it up and continues turning it in her fingers.
“We have our modern pet cemeteries. The Egyptians had large cat cemeteries too, mummified cats, and thousands of bronze statuettes of the goddess were deposited as votive offerings.”
“What’s that got to do with us?”
“The priests were at the center of the ancient economy, giving people a reason to work and justification for their place in life.”
“Sophie, the more you explain, the less I understand.”
Sophie looks down at the table. She starts on her gumbo. We sit silently chewing our lunches.
“I am sorry. I am not a good explainer!”
Lou takes off his glasses and cleans them on his napkin.
“Perhaps I can see what I hear better with clean glasses!”
Sophie grins at him.
“Lou, think of this: today, Bast has no need of a church! Your cat only needs your open heart!”
Lou’s eyebrows are restless again. His voice remains silent.
“The fact is Sophie, a rich minority control most of the money.”
“Has it ever been much different, Fred?”
“Well, the economy is certainly unpredictable, but it is mercenary rather than spiritual.”
“Oh, Fred! The spirit is the movement, not the money.”
No one speaks much further. The waiter comes by to pick up our dishes and Sophie enjoys further exchanges in their shared language.
“This has been such a pleasure. I have settled the bill and must get over to The Cremona Building. My customer is due at two-thirty.”
Lou helps her up from her chair.
