(aka Bike) Part 892 by Angharad Copyright © 2010 Angharad
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I drove away from the University Of Sussex, my alma mater, with a mixture of anger, sadness and guilt. If I’d left after my talk–I’d have done so in triumph. How ephemeral are our feelings–in some ways our whole existences–are but a moment in the scheme of things. Except, I don’t believe in any scheme that can’t be explained by physics and chemistry.
I was still smarting after Dilly’s hurtful comments–then I recalled the comment, Esmond Herbert had said, about her not being able to have children either. It didn’t excuse her unwarranted attack upon me and criticism of my having too many foster children–but it gave me a little more insight.
Had they tried and failed to adopt or were they too proud to try? Abi had been embarrassed by her partner, so had Esmond–however, the way he dealt with it, seemed to me, to be a regular occurrence. So was she a childish, selfish, git? Or should that be childish, childless, selfish git? I smirked maliciously as I drove out on the ring road back to the A27.
I’d topped up the tank before I got to Lizzie’s, although the cost of fuel was no cheaper than in Portsmouth and at over a pound a litre, it felt like robbery, most of it done by the government in fuel duty.
My mind couldn’t steer itself away from Dilly’s attack and I had to pull over at one point and bawl my head off–why would she say such a mean spirited thing to me? The obvious answer–because she’s mean spirited, didn’t occur to me. I was so offended or hurt because, it seemed most of humanity accepted me as female–except her.
On a good day, the odds of one in three billion women being hostile would be seen as pretty good–well two if we count Janice Raymond, but even so, still pretty good, considering the lottery is one in fifteen million, I think I’m doing okay.
That cheered me up enough to wipe my eyes and continue my drive homewards. It was after I got on the M27 that things began to go wrong–with the car. It’s practically brand new only done a few thousand miles suddenly it started to judder as if there was no fuel getting through, then the engine started cutting out and it began to really worry me.
I managed to coax it to the services area and after calling the AA, went to get myself a cup of tea while I waited. I was sitting on my own minding my own business when a man came and sat opposite me.
“D’you mind if I sit here?” he asked.
I looked around the practically empty restaurant in astonishment.
“Can’t you find an empty table?” I asked sarcastically.
“Actually, I can see you’ve been crying and wondered if I could help?”
I suddenly realised my makeup was probably a total mess. I knew I should have gone to the toilets before I got a drink, but all that crying made me thirsty.
“I doubt it, but thanks for asking.”
“If you want to talk, I’m happy to listen.”
“I think I’m alright, thank you.”
“I’m a vicar, by the way.”
“I’m an agnostic, so you’re wasting your time.”
“I’m not here to convert you, merely to help if you’d like me to.”
“I thought we’d discussed that bit already.”
“Please don’t be so hostile–I’m on your side you know?”
“I didn’t realise there were sides.”
“I mean whatever made you upset.”
“You couldn’t possibly understand.”
“Try me?”
I sat looking at him–he was mid thirties at a guess, married from the ring on his finger, no dog collar, fairly good looking in a gentle sort of way.
“If someone told you, you were less a man than them–how would you feel?”
“I don’t know–I’d need to know more about the context, but probably hurt or angry. Did someone suggest you were less a woman than they were?”
I nodded.
“They must have been positively dripping with oestrogen then, because you certainly look all woman to me.”
“I can’t have children.”
“I’m sorry, but it happens–would fertility treatment help?”
“No, I’ve no womb to have them in.”
“Oh–might I ask why?”
I sat and stared at him wondering how long the AA would be, the call centre had suggested an hour to ninety minutes. I’d been here less than fifteen.
“I’m transsexual–or I should say, I was, my legal status is female now.”
“Ah–I’d never have guessed.” He paused then added, “I presume this woman who denounced you was a biological one?”
“Yes–but it seems she can’t have kids either.”
“There’s an irony there somewhere,” he said, “so she’s effectively the same as you?”
“I suppose so–but it hurt all the same.”
“I’m sure it did. Why did she say it?”
“I’d done a lecture to a group which went down rather well, she was jealous I think and bit tipsy.”
“In vino veritas?” he asked.
“Probably, she’s also gay and some have problems with us, although she’s the first I’ve actually met who was hostile.”
“People are individuals, don’t generalise too much. My first bishop was gay and got caught cottaging–you know in a public loo with another man. Got done for indecency–his wife and family were horrified and divorced him, he had to resign–last heard of working in a bookshop in Hay on Wye. Lovely man, we were all devastated and I’d have quite happily stayed working with him. Alas the scandal was too great and he was allowed to resign–priests and bishops must be above reproach you know?”
“I think I read about that, very sad.”
“Indeed–in the end the church was the loser–he was brilliant at his job, his successor is okay, but nowhere near as good. People do strange things on the spur of the moment–and sometimes live to regret them.”
“I wonder if that will be the case with the woman who insulted me?”
“Well you know what they say, God moves in mysterious ways.”
“Only until science explains it,” I smiled back at him.
“You were lecturing–where–university?”
“Yes, although it wasn’t to undergrads–but I do that too–as a day job.”
“Not only beautiful but clever with it?”
“Oh yeah, too clever at times.”
“I think we are guilty of the sin of pride at times.”
“Sorry, don’t do sins–Darwin didn’t include them in his theories.”
“That’s okay, however, I do accept evolution as a likely way of human and other species development. God uses natural processes, you know?”
“If you say so–although I can find more evidence for evolution than I can for God.”
“It’s there if you look.”
“I must have missed it.”
“Have you never been in awe of the beauty of nature, a starry sky or a rainbow–the beauty of a landscape or a sunset–the way that animals have evolved from amoebae to elephants–doesn’t it fill you with a reverence or a wonder?”
“Yes, but...”something was happening. “When did you hurt your back?” I asked him.
“Oh that? Years ago–they tried a laminectomy–it didn’t work–goodness, my back feels as if it’s on fire.”
“It isn’t–but it will feel better.”
“How do you know?”
“Trust me I’m an angel,” I winked at him.
“Good Lord, I think you might be.”
“Close your eyes and imagine a blue light working on your lumbar 4-5 joint?”
“The one they operated on.”
“Give it five minutes of blue light, then try standing up. Do nothing but visualise the blue light or it won’t work. Oh and tell no one of this meeting.”
“Okay,” he said his eyes tightly closed.
I slipped away as he sat there–this bloody healing business is going to get me into serious bother one of these days.
After a quick wee, I got back to the car–he was still sitting at the table. My car started first time and after I rang the AA to say it was going again, I drove straight home without any let or hindrance whatsoever. Hmmm?
Comments
Sneaking out after telling
Sneaking out after telling the person to close their eyes.
This could be funny. Depends on if the guy heard her walking away, or if he thinks she vanished afterwards.
"Transsexual angel heals Vicar in layby!"
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
I'd love to see that headline
But the vicar would just think that the angel was testing him. Did he truely believe and act on what he preached? He showed his true colors and she healed him.
Wonder what his sermon this Sunday will be about?
On the other hand, perhaps better than...
"Transsexual angel lays Vicar in Heald Green!"
The tabloids are so easily confused, so I fully expect it will appear in the Sun with "recreated" four-colour process photos.
Cheers,
Puddin'
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Impossible !
Anyone who knows anything about angels should realise that! Angels have no sex. They are neither male nor female, having neither a penis nor a vagina. Or so the ancient documents tell us, and if people are prepared to believe these sources about anything, then why not about this point too.
Of course, they can't reproduce either, that is why they are immortal.
Briar
Briar
Impossible ??
I question your fact finding for you stmt. to best of my knowledge. no angel has been substancially documented since B4 Jesus's time and even those encounters, we have to use 'faith' the documentator was giving us facts VS truths he/she percieved to be factual.
Interesting....
Coincidences do happen. We have a two that have needs - that end up helping each other out.
Thanks for providing someone for Cathy to talk through what happened to her. It generally helps. Driving in her condition was a good way to have an accident. I hope she cleaned her face, while she was dealing with other issues.
Thanks,
Annette
Or...
Agnostic Biologist Finds God.
I think he almost had her with the sunset gambit. :)
- - - - -
Bear
Bear
Poltergeists
So, now the car is getting into the act? It forced Cathy to stop at the rest area (lay by) so she could heal the vicar? And, once done, it carried her away again?
scientific explanations
Of course there is a scientific explanation for the car problems... ;->
M
Martina
There Is A Definite Power At Work
It would seem that after a while, Cathy would finally admit (at least to herself)that there is something bigger at work here. A brand new car has engine problems and just happens to stop in a specific place for Cathy to receive wise counsel from a Vicar who can see her belief in Darwinism as having a part in God's plan. It seems like God wanted Cathy to hear that. She uses her blue light to heal him and then the car mysteriously starts as if nothing happened. It sounds like someone is trying to tell her something!
[Deity of Choice] Moves in Mysterious Ways!
This is a very interesting episode. The car trouble could be a coincidence, it could be a "higher power" directing things, or whatever process is behind the healing has got very sneaky.
Note there was no mention of Cathy holding the vicar's hands - which indicates that this was a non-contact healing...
I don't think we've had any non-contact healings since the children's ward at the hospital over a year ago and the failed attempt at healing over the phone at about the same time.
Anyway, as I said last night, I hope Cathy, Ali and the Prof remain in touch, despite Dilly's negative feelings. If only the blue light could cure misogyny...
--Ben
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
This is exactly what I meant ...
... on the tropes thread. People confusing fantasy with reality and using it to verify other things. This is a great story - full stop (or 'period' in $) ;)
Robi
As if
The blue light wasn't enough?
Looks like the car is getting in on the act
Back in the dim, dark days when I could drive, I was near Portsmouth one night when my car cut out and coasted to a stop. I called the emergency number and sat down to wait. Eventually I got bored, turned the key and the car started immediately. I then drove home. Wierd or what?
Surely a car is merely a vehicle used to get you from one place to another - isn't it?
Looks like Cathy's car is engineering meetings with random clergy now. Spooky - or someone is making sure that she is at the right place and time to heal. Even more spooky.
Susie
>>> Surely a car is merely a
>>> Surely a car is merely a vehicle used to get you from one place to another - isn't it?
What! You mean to say they aren't the chariots of the Gods?
Blasphemy! Heresy! Madness!
And speaking of Chariots, the song "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" was written by Wallis Willis, a Black Red Indian, one of the Choctaw freedmen, African-American slaves foisted off as freedmen on the Chocktaw Nation as a punishment for siding with the Confederacy during the US Civil War.
The mere description, "Black Red Indian" is a miracle. Just think of the astonishing sequence of unrelated and improbable events necessary to lead up to there being "Black Red Indians" in the world. The mind boggles, and it makes Cathy's adventure in the layby commonplace through comparison, even discounting the fact that Black Red Indians are germane to the story in a stunning display of Jungian Synchronicity!
Electrical faults are a dime a dozen, where scarab beetles flying half-way around the world to make a rhetorical point are profoundly out of the ordinary.
Cheers,
Puddin'
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
If it was cold and damp ...
... the carburettor could quite easily have frozen up. Used to happen to our old Peugeot 104 after all the ducting that was designed to keep things warm had fallen apart and allowed the carburettor to get cold.
There are loads of simple reasons for an engine to stop and then run again. No supernatural forces are needed.
btw cars are primarily designed to get bicycles from boring bits of country to the interesting bits and should be sold in cycle accessory shops :)
Robi
Blue lights.
This is wierd.
The only blue light I ever see usually comes with a two tone bloody siren especially on motorways.
I go with Cathy.
It's all down to science. Or is it?
Beverly.
Beverly Taff.
This is wierd. I haven't changed my password but the site wont dispayl all my thingies at the side like 'Submit Story'!
Bike pt 892.
Looks as if Bonzi wantto have fun with Cathy tonight.
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
The healings seem to be coming closer and closer together
It seems, and I hope, that Cathy will, see the light and her own beliefs may change.
Certainly seeing that not only she has been able to heal, but that Trish can too, and now this, being able to not only heal the vicar, but diagnose his problem without touching him should indicate to her that there are things that Science cannot measure, that she needs to open her mind a bit more.
She is being as closed minded as the people who could not/cannot accept Darwin.
Holly
It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.
Holly
Well they do say
that God moves in mysterious ways....And so it seems does Cathy...Remote healing!!...Whatever next?
You would have to say that based on what has happened in this and other chapters, That there does seem to be an higher force of some kind watching over Cathy, Not only watching over her, But also it seems guiding her to where she is needed most, Okay, Maybe the vicars need was not as desperate as some Cathy has encountered, But he did try to help her, So really all she was doing was returning the favour.
Kirri
Being rational
There is something going on in Cathy's life that can not be measured, therefore it must be God? Sounds like faulty logic. Cathy knows better than to accept such arguments. There have been a lot of things that could not be measured or explained by science that can now be measured and explained. Sometimes it takes time to reach the correct answer.
KJT
"Being a girl is wonderful and to torture someone into that would be like the exact opposite of what it's like. I don’t know how anyone could act that way." College Girl - poetheather
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Karen has it, there is a logical falacy here to be ware of
Event *A* occurs followed by event *B*.
Does than prove A caused B? No. all that proves is one occurred before the other. Without more evidence that is all that we truly know. Think of this example, I eat two fried eggs for breakfast most days and everything goes as normal. This happens for many months. For variety I have Foot Loops cereal one day and we get robbed at work. Did my eating Foot Loops cause the robbery?
Cathy clearly appears to have the ability to heal people but is that proof of God or something else. It has happened too often and the blue light has been seen by people without prompting them so though it is not a double-blind test, at least some of the evidence is better than a case study. Placebo may have some impact here but that both she and one of her foster kids appear to heal others is at least curious.
Supernatural intervention, tapping into *the life force*, God, whatever the mechanism of these probable healings, Cathy leads an interesting life. Without being able to have others reproduce what she did under controlled conditions we may never know other than imperfectly by meticulous observation, but proof of God, by faith perhaps yes, by rigorous logic, not so far.
Charming and thought provoking, Ang. Bonzi, I would sent you catnip but my cats might object.
John in Wauwatosa
John in Wauwatosa
Actually....
There have been some very good double blind studies done with proper methodology on healing and the proof is unmistakable.
There definitely is something going on, and it isn't psychosomatic, unless you choose to believe that bacteria have beliefs.
This says to me only that healing exists and is real, doesn't mean squat about divine beings or any of the rest. I'm right there with Cathy, really. A healer who is 2 or 3 steps beyond agnostic.
Just thought I'd throw that in there.
Thanks for more of my favorite soap Angharad!
(Seriously, I mean my favorite soap. I'm more hooked on Bike than on Desperate Housewives!)
So now Cathy can effectively
So now Cathy can effectively heal someone from not even touching them, but just have them think about and look for the blue light? Her power is becoming more pronounced. I also found it very interesting that her car died on her at that particular rest area, where she would have interaction from the Vicar. As he said, She is most definitely a woman and should not worry too much about what others say or think. It is your life, live it as well as you can. Jan
Didn't that happen before with a kid in the hospital?
Cathy saw and worked on him remotely. Did the same thing with Puddin.
Dilly "screwed" herself
If the reason she can't have children is medical, she pissed off the person who could have helped. Of course we know that Cathy will help almost anyone. They don't have to be good people and they don't have to be nice ot her.
of course there is a higher being at work
and the name is "The Great Angh"
Sexy Angels
"B'nai Elohim" = "Sons of God"
The exact meaning of this phrase in context is somewhat vague. The fact, however, that they're referred as the sons particularly of God, whilst the daughters were of men, and that titans (or giants) resulted from their unions would seem to argue that they were anciently believed to something other than mere men, perhaps even angels. One can dress this up in any way one chooses, but the Hebrew doesn't support many of the most fanciful versions.
In particular "s'tn," the word often translated as "Satan," as if there were a specific entity with that name, doesn't start to be used in that sense until after Jewish contact with those who became the Zoroastrians, who developed the idea of war between good and evil (light and dark,) and indeed the idea makes no sense except in the sense that Zarathrustra understood it, when he was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, and later went on to perform miracles and heal people and raise the dead, about 600 BCE or so, although some think he lived considerably before then.
The word "s'tn" means simply an enemy, or one who opposes another, and is often used to describe unequivocal angels, as the Philistines saw David, whom they describe as a potential "satan." Likewise, when an angel of the Lord arrives to kill Balaam (the one with the stubborn ass), the angel announces himself as a "satan," an enemy sent to kill him, which shows refreshing honesty, at very least.
Bereshit (Genesis) 6:4
The titans were on the earth in those days and also later. The sons of God had come to the daughters of man and had fathered them. [The titans] were the mightiest ones who ever existed, men of renown.
Hanefilim hayu va'arets bayamim hahem vegam acharey-chen asher yavo'u beney ha'Elohim el-benot ha'adam veyaledu lahem hemah hagiborim asher me'olam anshey hashem.
Cheers,
Puddin'
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Um, raises hand slowly
No doubt slightly dumb question from the audience but just what is meant by 'cottaging'? I can probably sort of guess the inference but I've never heard the term before.
Kristina
Cottaging
The "cottage" in question is sometimes known as a "tea room," or "beat." Most persons unfamiliar with the habits of the population described might refer to them as public facilities.
Here's a public lavatory in Pond Square in London.
Cheers,
Puddin'
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Wikipedia Is Your Friend
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottaging
I need a devout Agnostic to hold my hands.
Our God works his wonders in many ways, with many instruments, not always expected ones.
And so ends our scripture lesson for today.
It seems Cathy can cure the devout without physical contact.
Angharad, are you a closet believer ? This is the Big Closet after all.
Cefin