The 13th Disciple by Deepak Chopra

Author:Deepak Chopra
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2015-02-17T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

A week passed, and the next meeting was ready to start. Galen came in late. He looked more rumpled than usual, as if he’d slept in his clothes. Frank didn’t wait for him to find a seat.

“You got pretty bashed in last time,” he said. “Rough week?”

“Sort of,” Galen replied guardedly.

There was silent tension in the room. Why is it focused on me? he wondered. For the first time, everyone sat together. To Galen it looked like a jury watching him, the reluctant witness giving suspicious testimony. Meg sat back impartially, her hands folded in her lap. Only Mare seemed to look at him with sympathetic eyes, so he sat next to her, in case he needed an ally.

“What’s going on?” Galen asked. “I haven’t done anything to you people.”

“True, but something was done through you,” Meg said. She swept her hand over the group. “What you experienced when you touched the shrine spread to everyone.”

“Like a virus,” Frank added. “And you’re the carrier.”

This was totally unfair, but Galen felt a grim kind of satisfaction.

“What are you smiling at?” asked Frank sharply.

“Nothing.”

Lilith spoke up. “We can’t start until somebody explains things.”

When no one else volunteered Mare said, “I can only speak for myself. Right after the last meeting, I was on edge. It felt like I was in danger. When I got home, I kept checking to make sure my door was locked. The slightest sound made me jump, and then—” She was on the brink of revealing something, but couldn’t.

Jimmy looked the most agitated. “All week I wasn’t myself. I felt, like, empty. When I passed myself in the mirror, it was like looking at a zombie. I can’t believe you did this to us, man.”

Galen was taken aback. He had experienced the same emptiness, but he thought he was alone.

“You don’t have a clue what this is about, do you?” asked Frank with disgust. “He’s not going to cop to anything.”

Meg turned to Frank, and for such a gentle person, her tone was severe. “And what are you ready to cop to?”

Frank sat back in his chair. “I didn’t mean—” he stammered.

Frank was getting close to something important—Meg’s antennae were always out. Nothing slipped by her. He looked at Mare for support, but she felt helpless about her own situation.

Every night when she went to bed, Mare couldn’t close her eyes without feeling that she was suspended over a bottomless pit. Below her she saw only blackness. By Wednesday, she was so anxious and bleary-eyed that she called Frank. He came over. He sat up in bed holding her until she fell into a fitful sleep. He waited to kiss her cheek until she nodded off. It was the tenderest moment between them so far, but what if coming back this evening only made things worse for her?

After an uncomfortable moment Meg said, “Frank is as afraid to show weakness as Galen. But it’s not about who’s weak or strong. All of you have had a terrible week.

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