The Rape of Angelina [Chapter 9 & 10: On Top of the Tor]

As I looked at the old man again, the breeze blowing my hat off somewhat, I caught it with my left hand though, I said in a confusing manner, "Is that the end?"

"Funny you say that," he commented.

"I guess I expected her to be caught, or tried by the village, you know, kind of a coming to justice thing. Even though the rape was wrong, wasn't, or didn't she go to extremes?"

"Well," said the old man looking at me, "I guess I could add an ending to it, but I think you were better off leaving it alone, because I think you will get more frustrated with the real ending, than the simply one you just got."

"Go for it sir," I said with curiosity.

"I guess for Angelina it was a nightmare to end all nightmares. Or so I figured it out after all these years. The three soldiers took her life from her. She had to put it back together. Now just how do you do something like that? She of course wrote it out in her diary, somewhat, if you read between the lines that is. But she hid it. When the town's folks questioned her, she really could not remember anything. She looked high and low for her diary. She wanted to show everyone she had nothing to do with it, or for that matter, to see what she might have wrote. But she hid the diary, as her subconscious wanted, so she could not find it; and for someone like me, 900-years later to find it. She wanted her life back. Call it deep post traumatic stress with no recoil, or what you want, she never did remember it. They questioned her several times, until her grandpa put a stop to it, saying the girl was too frail to have done any kind of murders.

You see, when she walked back to her grandfather's house she simply went to sleep like always; or simply like little soft angel she was. Throughout the years that followed people expected she had something to do with the disappearance of all three of the soldiers, just like they did from the beginning, but no one ever put two and two together.

About six months after that event"more or less"more evidence came up on what happened to the soldiers, they found the young man buried in the barn, I think the horses kicked up so much dirt his body started to show, and along with scavengers and so on,--you got other animals you know, like squirrels, dogs, cats and so on, but the monks found him anyway.

Let me add, one day the barn keeper seen his head sticking out, and that was cause for alarm also, so when you find something like that you look around a little more careful. But no, it wasn't here or there; everyone loved little Angelina, and left it alone. Even if she was guilty, the town's people didn't really want to know. It would force them to do something they really did not want to do.

And the tall man with his hands cut off was found sometime after that first discovery, down in some swamp area nearby. The many wells we have around here go into many areas, and there are connecting springs to them also. Plus it goes under the Tor I think and God knows where else, but he was found anyway a few miles from the Tor, and I do not want to describe him.

As for the huge soldier, the wolf did leave the bones to be found, and again the scavengers did their best to pick his bones clean.

That was what made Angelina a suspect at first. But no one really thought she could have devised such a plan, it was too ruthless; plus, no one could put it quite together, not like it was in the diary. Maybe if they had the diary at the time, it would have made more sense. But trying to put the pieces together was just too perplexed for everyone. She wasn't even 100-lbs of weight, and this man was 350 or more. It was hard to even question her I heard, but they had to; you know to make the records official. But even if they had given her a lie-detector test"and of course back then they didn't have such things"she would have passed it anyway, for she truly believed she was innocent.

Plus she proclaimed they gave her gifts, she was astonished of what had happened to them. That too was a little fishy thought the officials at first. But again, she could not remember anything past the hero complex she had. It was written in stone in her mind. They were heroes [or supposed to have been heroes] to her from the Crusades, and stopped by to pay respects to King Arthur, her most renowned hero. They found her, gave her silver every time she showed up, and wanted to retire in Glastonbury, and so they gave her the horses, saying they were reminders of the war. You know kind of giving away the post-traumatic stress everyone talks about after a war, nowadays. I hear about that medical term all the time know, in the old days it was simply bad memory.

No one could prove her otherwise. Plus she couldn't remember even if you would have tortured her to death, and I guess one day the priest kept her in the Abbey barn so she might remember, and she simply sat there and prayed that their souls would go to heaven. She was a Christian you know, and the priest said she prayed for hours on end for their souls. And she added prayers for the victories of King Richard, and for giving England King Arthur, her biggest hero.

Matter of fact, it was written down in some of the priest's logs, that she spoke very highly of the priests for trying to find the culprits who victimized the poor heroes of the crusades; for she was very thankful for the gifts they had given to her and her grandpa, especially the horses, and of course the silver was included."

"You're right sir, it is a little unnerving, I guess, -- I was thinking more on the lines she was burned to the stake."

"No stake my friend, just love came out of her mouth; matter of fact, she did get married. It was when she turned 15-years old that King Richard I came through the village to pay respects to King Arthur and one of his knights, he was known as the Green Knight, who was quite renowned for his gallantry and communication skills, was quite taken with Angelina.

The story goes he fell madly in love with her. He was a lot older than her by far, but none-the-less, a good looking knight I hear. Quite dashing they say. Matter of fact, King Richard blessed the marriage before he left for another conquest, leaving the knight to settle with his bride in Glastonbury. They say he was dressed in all green, as well as his horse being of that color also. He held no sword, nor carried one with him while being in Glastonbury, yet was quite feared by his comrades. They say he knew not only King Richard quite well, but Saladin the Arab leader quite well also.

He was tall and thin and from his neck to his loins he was square set, and quite muscular, long limbed, quite strong. His horse was crisped and gemmed with many knots. His eyes were like flashing lights and,--let me add again, he had no sword, shield or helmet.

But he did have an olive branch in his hands when he got off his horse and proposed to Angelina on the spot; just as she had prayed for, and was expecting. Unbelievable, as it may sound, it is the gospel truth. He dismounted with one hand, while the other held on to the olive branch, and said to Angelina, 'I give you this branch from the Holy Land, of where I got it and it is my token of love to you. If you would be kind enough to take it, I would be honored to have you as my wife.'

He told a number of people while campaigning with battles in the Holy Land he had a vision that he would find his bride to be in Glastonbury waiting for him after the war, should he bring a olive branch with him, and no armor or sword; for he must be a brave and yet peaceful knight for his bride; and so he was. I think all of the followers of King Richard were dumbfounded when they saw this, a little doubtful but none the less, when it happened, it was believable.

Well, although everyone around her was somewhat surprised, not because Angelina said 'Yes' to his offer, but that it actually happened that way. Matter of fact, she said, 'I've been waiting for you.'

Well, life is funny isn't it you start to think such happenings never occur, and there right in front of you it does. They say she never acted surprised or even doubted this would not happen. As she told others, she simply did not know the date, and whom it was going to be. I suppose in a like manner, the knight could say the same thing. But she knew the place, and that it would be of that nature.

And yes, here is where they lived, right in the heart of Glastonbury, opened up a shop and worked in the construction trade of building such things as Churches and Inns, as well as bridges and so on.

Being quite tall with his strong and good looks, one might say, he could have had his pick of the women of Glastonbury, but he was faithful to Angelina.

I never thought about it until this very minute, but here is where they would come on the weekends, and at times during the week and just lay in the grass with one another. They were more than friends, lovers and spouses; they were sidekicks one could say. They would find themselves sitting like you and I on this grass looking over the valley, and the hills around here. All of Avalon would fill their eyes like it does for us this very moment; I suppose like it did for King Arthur. And one could say they lived quite happy."

"How did she die, -- I mean, was it from natural causes?

"You're fishing my friend I think you want to find something bad about the ending. She didn't die quite that way, the way you expected her to die that is, but it was from bad natural causes one could say. She was giving birth to her 8th child, it was a boy, they had to cut her open to save the child, she was 35-years old; they could have let the child die and saved her they say, but she said no, she wanted to save the child, and demanded they call him Arthur, and so they did. Her husband never remarried, said he could never find a more sweet and loving wife than her. They lived in their grandfather's house, as I do today. It is where the diary was found, under the old boards of the basement, tightly put into a metal chest. It simply read, 'To whom it may concern.'"

Chapter Ten

The Analysis

"And what do you make of this entire story my young friend?"

"I say it is quite mysterious, but the mind is a funny thing, like a black hole in the universe."

"A black hole, the mind, are you one of those psychologists, or do you know astronomy or something?"

"A counselor of sorts will do; Client Centered Therapist is what they call me, and so I do like to look at how the mind works I suppose. And I do like astronomy."

"No kidding, I often wondered what made her tick."

"It makes me think."

"Any ideas you want to share?"

"Maybe."

"Come on with it --say what's on your mind, the girl?"

"All right,--but you've got to realize---"

"I realize," the old man said. "Can't we stop talking, and you give me the mind thing?"

We sat back down on the grass, it was thick and bright green, the old man glanced toward the tower, and across the valley towards Chalice Hill.

"You got to realize sir," I said, "...my theory is just a guess, no one can prove anything in the mind, or for that matter the universe. They are both endless mysteries."

"Doesn't it mean anything to you to let another person know what you are thinking? We can get along even if we do not agree, and who knows, maybe I will."

"Of course we can. I don't want you to think such things. I ..."

"It's all right what you say, but do me a favor and stop beating around the bush... bush, bush bush ...................... !

"If something goes into the mind it fills up. But it must come out, and it usually does in moods, or put another way, behavior. Sometimes we can talk it out, if we direct it towards the person we are mad at. In this way the mind is re-nourished. And so the behavior came out for Angelina, possible as one might say, in displacing it for revenge. But in her case it goes deeper, and sideways. Let me explain, if I can.

And so we see her behavior coming out in killing the three soldiers; this way it was setting up a plan, the mind that is, the subconscious, the protector of the human being. It knew after the killings, it would have to deal with a new mass of information coming into the black hole, and it would collapse.

And so the rape was put into the corner of her mind, a mountain full of anger and resentment, her desires, wishes, dreams were falling all apart. In general, her life was ending, and so she cramped it into a nutshell after the rape. The only place in her mind left to put this crushed world of hers, and energy was to re-create herself and that involved the three murders, get rid of the future, or alter it. It was the only practical proposition her mind would accept.

She could not harness her instincts of murder, for the life they took away from her; all generated by the rape. We do not know the megawatts in a person's brain, but the explosions within her mind happened so quickly that there was no light left for reality. In a nutshell, it was the process of forgetting, so she could have the old future back. Does that make sense?"

The old man looked at me, "That black hole you're talking about, the mind, how does it get out of it, that information has to stay there until it deals with it someday, doesn't it?"

"Good question. I thought I answered it, but let me try again. If you put something into your mind, it fills up. If you take something out, it of course is less filled. And I think in this case, the rape went into her mind, the black hole as you said. And somehow it came out by a process of osmosis, or in the case of Black Holes, through its sides like emitting radiation. When it came out, at the same time the mind convinced her she had to kill the three people to restart her future again, but it was a little altered now, and so after the killing the mind would not take in the new information, or black hole would not take in new objects. And so in the case of a Black Hole, it will collapse, I think, not exist anymore.

In her mind it closed up before that information was taken in, and so all she remembered was the good part of the heroes coming back from war, and the new creation what her mind created for her. Now she can go on with her lost future, with only a few good alterations, which she needed anyway to fill in the gaps of lost time. She remembered meeting the soldiers, the money she took as a kindness of theirs, which fit into her plan of how she wanted her future to look, and the horses she gave to her grandpa were old war wounds of the soldiers, as she had thought it should have been. And matter of fact, told it to her grandpa anyway, and that is what she remembered of course, a gift from heroic soldiers; she even implied to the soldiers she was going to do this; and so the mind was working overtime. Often times we end up doing what the mind is thinking while we sleep; that is, we end up doing that the next day. And at the end of it all she married the man she wanted."

The old man looked at me. He did not say anything, but looked at the countryside as he shifted his head around to meet the Tower on the Tor in front of us.

"What time is your train coming in tomorrow?"

"I think 10:30 AM," I commented.

"I'd better take a walk to the Tower, over to the other side of it; she used to like that side."