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all here - everything I could remember. You don't actually have to read it right
now," he added, somewhat self-consciously. "You can have your breakfast first."
Adam took the notebook and hefted it in his hand, smiling.
"I think I'll do both at once," he said lightly. "I've found that such material makes
far more interesting breakfast reading than the newspaper. In the meantime, by
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all means have something to eat& ."
Peregrine went through the motions of taking toast and tea while Adam read and
then re-read the closely penned lines. The account ran to several pages. When at
last he raised his eyes from the notebook, Peregrine abruptly pushed aside his
plate, all further appetite at least temporarily fled.
"Well?" he said, a little apprehensively. "What do you make of it?"
"The textbook response from me," said Adam, "is, what do you make of it
yourself?"
Peregrine grimaced. "I was afraid you'd say that." After a moment's thought, he
said with some hesitation, "Based on what you said yesterday in your lecture, I
suppose it's all about history - history, and the resonance that history generates.
What I don't understand is, why the self-portrait gallery?"
He glanced obliquely at Adam as though inviting an explanation. Adam gave him
a penetrating look from under his eyebrows and carefully set the notebook on the
table between them.
"I don't think you really need my help in extracting meaning from this
experience. Do you?"
Peregrine bit his lip, clearly groping for words. "No. No, I suppose I don't. But - "
He shook his head impatiently, then said in a rush, "Adam, I was brought up to
be a good Presbyterian. It isn't easy for me to reconcile notions of reincarnation
with Christianity."
"And yet, Christianity itself embraces a multitude of different interpretations of
the same basic story," Adam responded. "Otherwise, we shouldn't have all the
different denominations of Christians, who all think their way of approaching
God is best."
"Then, you think the two are compatible?" Peregrine asked doubtfully.
Adam shrugged. "That's a matter of conscience, for you to decide. My own feeling
- and I say this as a committed Christian, and having dined with my bishop only
last week - is that Christianity quite possibly embraces far greater and more
universal truths than are generally accepted and taught in its various churches."
This rather pointed observation reduced Peregrine to wide-eyed silence. After a
long moment, he said slowly, "This is crazy. You're a psychiatrist, yet you're
telling me that you believe my delusion is no delusion at all, but the truth."
"I didn't say that," Adam replied. "But if it makes you any more comfortable,
accept that the illusion of past resonances - past lives, if you will - is a useful
metaphor for utilizing some seventh sense for which we have no adequate
explanation at present. In a word, if it works, use it."
Goggle-eyed, Peregrine simply stared at him for a moment, taking it all in. Then
he nodded slowly.
"I think I understand what you're saying," he murmured. "Somehow, it even
makes sense - of a sort."
"Intuitive sense?" Adam asked, smiling.
"Maybe. But you're right about one thing: whether it's real real or only seems
real, it's better than anything I've been able to come up with to explain what's
happening to me." He fingered the notebook on the table between them, then
looked up again.
"So let's assume that I have had several other lives before this one, just for the
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sake of argument. If the same is true of you," he continued in the same reflective
tone, "then what I was seeing the other night, when I tried to draw you, was -
resonances of your past?" He looked to Adam for confirmation.
"Somewhat over-simplified," Adam agreed, with a wry half-smile, "but essentially
correct, as far as it goes."
Peregrine assimilated this. After a pause he asked, "Do you ever find yourself
seeing shadows of my past lives?" "Not spontaneously, if that's what you mean."
"Why not?"
"For one thing," Adam said, "I suspect that it's because I've developed the ability
to limit my temporal perspective as well as expand it. For another, that isn't
where my major talents lie."
Before Peregrine could demand a fuller explanation, Adam squared his shoulders
briskly and set his cup and saucer aside.
"Are you a horseman, by any chance?" The sudden shift of subject took Peregrine
totally by surprise.
"I beg your pardon?" "Do you ride?"
Blinking, Peregrine said, "I used to be quite keen when I was at school. Why?"
"As I think I may have mentioned," Adam said, "I've had a crew doing some badly
needed clearance work up at Templemor Tower, during the past week. There's a
chap coming by this afternoon - an archaeologist from Ancient Monuments.
Before I give him the go-ahead to carry out a survey of the ruins, I'd like to take a
good look at what's been done so far. I was planning to trek out there on
horseback later this morning, and it occurred to me that you might like to come
along, do some sketching. I think we can kit you out in some of my nephew's
breeches and boots - he's about your size - if you think you'd be interested."
Peregrine was studying Adam with amazement tinged with suspicion. "Is this
going to be another experiment?" he asked. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] - zanotowane.pl
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