37 Friends

The Little Red Haired Girl

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37 Friends

Brain was stuck. Not only in the Pumphouse but in its own thoughts. It didn’t matter how much it thought about the recent past and all the unfortunate mishaps, lack of knowledge, or financial arithmetic sums, it was getting to the point that snippet’s of past conversations with people, the advisory friend, the Portuguese builder, the lover, even the family were becoming alarmingly prevalent. Like a full sized painting that it could not see as a whole. It needed to stand back from the picture to see the whole of it. Something was awry but it failed to understand what exactly.

What had she meant when she said that? It remembered Body being surprised.
What had Noswad meant when he said that? and it made Body feel stressed and the hairs standing on the back of the arms and neck.
What was the Portuguese builder saying to his colleagues that made Body feel uneasy even unsafe at times? Even though it didn’t understand the language. When Body’s stomach churned and was queasy through fear. But why?

These acknowledgements of Body’s reactions within Brains memory were facts. Common Bodily responses to survival. They could not be denied now with the benefit of hindsight Brain concluded. Brain racked but was getting nowhere.

“Would you like some help?” called Spirit.
“If you must” Brain replied annoyed at the interruption of its thoughts.
“Are you going to listen to me?”
“Depends if you have anything of value to contribute?”
“You see, there you go again. Your disregard and disrespect towards my input is exactly what I mean.”
“Oh please, just get on with it.”

“If you had not ignored me maybe some of the recent past and all of its problems may have been avoided.”
“Such as?” Brain was bored with this train of thought.
“Intuition is part of my input for you, and it’s is a good example. Body knows when it walks into a room of Portuguese builders, irrespective of the language barrier, when someone has been talking bad about her, or disrespectfully, or having some sort of private joke. An astute body reacts to this. You acknowledge Body’s responses to it but ignore it.”
“Agreed” admitted Brain “I consider it oversensitive and unproven, and could be based on ill health. Existing but not based on fact in that particular situation.”
“Quite. And where does Body get its information from to react these ways? From me Spirit, my input from intuition” Spirit called.

“Where are we going with this? as I have an awful lot to think about.”
“You ignored my intuition even though Body did not.”
“And?”
“And? So when Noswad swore his ‘undying’ love and pictured their future together to Heart, Body reacted and got all.. all….”
“Slushy?” Brain suggested.
“Oh ok that will do I guess. Heart believed him and trusted him as she had been asked to do by him even though Body reacted somewhat confused. I gave you all the warnings, the Red Flags, the inevitable distrust signs.”
“Yes you did. But I relied mainly on past experience of the man and facts. Anyway, I cannot over ride Heart, But yes you were right about Noswad and I agree with you but from a different perspective.”
“And what did Heart do?”
“Ignored all my facts and your warning signs and Body’s confusion, and gave him yet another chance.”

“And when Friend came out with an unexpected response that surprised Body (and it showed on her face) What did you do?”
“I ignored it. People are different and entitled to their own opinion and knowledge base.”
“Even if I was screaming at you that if she can say bad words about others or do sneaky things to others she can also do it to us! She was not who you thought she was. She could not be trusted, she had an edge to her like a sword.”
“Oh come on now.”
“See you are doing it again. Had you listened to my calls maybe just maybe as a whole we could have avoided some of the problems I believe she deliberately caused.”

“Now look you cannot go accusing people without at least some proof” huffed Brain.
“True” called Spirit “but we can avoid them, depend on them less, have them less involved in out life, give them less information.” Spirit took a long breath. “In hindsight and if it were up to me I would have cut the woman off altogether far far sooner.” Spirit did not like calling this out this way.
“That’s not nice” whispered Heart.
“Nor is it totally correct” said Brain ” she did help us with things.”

“Ask yourself why? Go on, tell me why? Why would she surprise us all with so much help when normally she never bothered? In fact don’t bother, I shall answer. She helped us because she liked the control and power it gave her. She helped us to fail with a smile on her face out of sheer jealousy. She embezzled money out of us via the builder out of sheer greed and she stole Hearts lover out of sheer pride and lust.”
“Stop” cried Heart “I don’t want to believe any of that!”

“And there is the battle” called Spirit “I have no chance of getting either of you to understand or believe my gut instincts and intuition. It has crushed me and to be honest I for one will soon give up even trying. Not just with you two, but with people in general, and I will just fade away into numbness. I think the phrase is ‘hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way.’

“You stole my path” sighed Soul.
“No dummy, it’s Pink Floyd.”
“Whatever” whined Body “I need sleep.”

“How about ‘I have become comfortably numb’? sighed Soul “It’s more appropriate for you.”
“Don’t tell me what’s appropriate for me” called Spirit and suddenly they all laughed as they realised Spirit was sounding just like Brain when it got in a huff.

“Laughter is a good medicine” said Big voice.
“Do you have to be so right all of the time?” called Spirit.

“I give you choices. Up to you guys what you do with them. Right or wrong, good or bad, take your pick. But laughter is good, good medicine when shared amongst friends.”

“Is that what we are?” the Little Red Haired Girl asked.

“That’s what you need to be. Working together in the correct balance. In harmony and kindness with each part of you as well as to others.”
“At what cost?” asked Brain.
“That’s a decision you must make together.”

“That’s a cop out” Brain started to argue but it was too late. God was silent. God, The most high voice, The Divine, The Holy Spirit, the universe? the good side? was silent.