Mongo-Zulu
(One of the One Thousand, One Hundred and Eleven)He had been a university lecturer for a period of three decades. He was in his eighties now, still fit and active, and writing his extensive memoirs in our university town. For the old man and the much younger George Barnard to meet up seemed a bit of a coincidence, but the Spirit Guardians’ rookie student no longer believed in coincidences.
Things were simply meant to be. The universe was a highly organized venture, belonging to all the infinite numbers of Creature/Organizers who dwelt within its confines. There was always something new to be experienced for even the lowest of creatures — evolutionary humans.
The learned old man directed his visitor to his minuscule office. He did not want anyone else to overhear his story. There was disbelief all around him, he said. There was a total lack of understanding of the Spirit World. Irreverence! And, sometimes, even verbal abuse was directed at the scholar. Then he openly questioned why he should actually confide in George. But of his own accord, he decided he must tell his story.
The rookie sensed it. Here was something worth knowing — something “meant to be”. The clever old guy shuffled his big stack of papers about. He finally retrieved a few pages from the stack, but placed them to one side. It seemed he only wanted to prove to George Mathieu that he had actually documented something. He did not want the younger man to read it.
“I was only a child at the time, George,” he said, “very ill, and paralyzed because of the disease I had contracted. I was bedridden for almost two long years. Helpless. And one day, when I was at home alone, a fire started in the electrical wiring of my home, near the heater. The room filled with smoke, but I couldn’t get out of the place. I couldn’t move! I would have choked, or I would have burnt to death. Someone came in and rescued me. He calmly picked me up, carried me through the hall and the smoke, and placed me on the lawn, a safe distance from the burning house. But he was not a man. He was a Spirit! And then, he left. He disappeared into thin air.”
Barnard smiled. “I know a whole bunch of them,” he admitted.
“Don’t you laugh!” the professor shouted at him in anger.
“I’m not laughing. My face is always like this. And I do know a whole bunch of them,” Barnard insisted. “Honest. I’m not fooling. What was his name, or number?”
The professor sized up the rookie, cautiously, still in two minds about going on with his story. “What was his number, you say?” he asked.
“Yeah. If he was a Spirit Guardian, he either had a name, or a number, but probably both. It helps speed up communication in their realm. Their language is almost pure math from what I have gathered.”
“He didn’t have a number, George.”
“Well, did he say his jolly name,” Barnard asked, still amused.
“Oh, yes! I inquired about his name, of course I did. That is, after I thanked him for saving my life. He said his name was Mongo-Zulu. He did in fact look like he was both, yellow and black. A mixture of the two races.”
“I don’t know him,” Barnard admitted. “I know some of his brothers, or cousins, and only one of his sisters, or nieces. I don’t know precisely… second cousins… whatever. They belong to a Celestial Army. They are called the Eleven-Eleven, les Mille-Cent-et-Onze. I call them all Spirit Guardians. They don’t mind. What was he wearing?”
“He was nearly naked, he was. And in the middle of winter, too!”
Barnard nodded. “I know one who goes around just like him. Tell me, did he have a kind of short, gray hide tied around his waist? Was he going around in his bare feet?”
The professor’s face clearly indicated Barnard had guessed right.
“You do know them,” he said. He was only talking to himself — absentmindedly.
“I know one called Doctor Mendoza. He is dressed like a real gentleman, that one. He’s rather a slim Fellow. But Ahbécétutu, Bzutu, or ABC-22 goes around in a skimpy hide, just like your Mongo-Zulu Friend. Bzutu is a fierce Warrior, of powerful build, and he is also my immediate Superior.”
“They are subservient to us!” the professor disagreed.
“Hah! Subservient to their Seraphic Superiors,” Barnard told him. “We are right down the bottom of the pile, man. The lowest intelligent life-form of any permanent consequence on any inhabited world in any universe.” He laughed. “We are the saddest mistake in all creation. That’s why we need them to look after us.”
It seemed an argument was brewing right there. The professor had been teaching for so many years, he had forgotten how to listen to, or learn from, a mere therapist. He seemed to also have been less than greedy, or badly short-changed, when the humor basket was passed around.
“We are the only inhabited world in the universe,” the professor stated angrily.
The rookie would not argue, but gave it one more try. “Give me a piece of paper,” he suggested. “Thank you. Here goes. Mendoza, first of all. Strike out every second letter, and you are left with MNO. MNO-8 actually, it’s not MNO-A. Dreyfus, one I only know about. I never saw him, or her. Probably involved with good old Nostradamus. I asked, but I never got a clear answer to that. Strike out every second letter, and you are left with DEF. Possibly DEF-5. Simone, MNO-6, I would say, but pronounce that in French. My Boss — permanently on sentinel duty — is Ahbécétutu, Bzutu, or ABC-22.
Just look at it. You’ve got ABC, DEF, and if you carry on with that, you get GHI, JKL, and next up come the MNOs. There’s your Mongo-Zulu — MNO-Whatever, and here are some of my best Friends… Mendoza, and Simone.” He smiled at the professor. “Problem solved, you know one of the Eleven-Elevens, you lucky man.”
But the professor would have none of it. “They are ancient! They predate all forms of written language!” he snapped.
“They were a bunch of troublemakers who reorganized themselves,” Barnard told him. “Well, some of them were up to no good. I asked about their moral values, and Bzutu told me without a moment’s hesitation. I believe some of them were even entering our time slot, and taking drugs. Khat! But most of them sorted themselves out. These Guys are as honest as the day is long, truly. Their alphabetical/numerical codes are only recent.” They are les Mille-Cent-et-Onze — no more of them, no less of them.”
“I think you had better leave!” the professor told him bluntly.
“Okay. I’m gone. Have it your way.”
In the weeks that followed, and on two more occasions, Barnard tried to get in touch with him, but the professor did not want to talk to him again. He knew it all. Sadly, he had reached a stage in life when he believed he knew everything there was to know.
“That stubborn old guy frustrated the daylights out of me,” Barnard grunted at the Spirit Guardians. “He doesn’t want to know you Guys now. A closed shop mind, he’s got. Still, at his ripe old age, it couldn’t be long before he does find out, could it now?”
The poor old man would learn no more on his experiential trip on this rock in space. Barnard felt like a frustrated messenger for the 1,111.
“Do something about your popularity,” he advised the Eleven-Eleven. “Cause nobody here don’t love you no more.”
*
Taken from the writing: “The Anatomy of the Half-way Realm”.
Copyright © George Mathieu Barnard, 2000 — The 11.11 Spirit Guardian Documents.
Notes: As a child, the Professor lived in Great Britain. The Midwayer who saved his life actually deposited the boy in the front yard of the home, on top of the snow.
For years, I wondered why the Midwayer saved this fellow, out of the countless numbers that are left to die in fires. This man grew up to become a lecturer in — of all things — Astrology. But then, so many people who study Astrology become very spiritual. It must have been for the positive impact he would have on many others in later years.
The meeting described dates back to approximately 1991 or 1992.
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