The Look-Alikes

On the planet Bioleta there exists an unusual country that calls itself Ovida. It is famed for the number of multiple births that occur within its boundaries. In fact, identical siblings make up nearly the majority of the population in this strange land.

Why so many twins, triplets, quadruplets, and greater multiple births in this country of Ovida?

THe cause went back to the settlement of th e territory centuries before the present era. Empty land withou population encouraged larger and larger families. A large number of children who could join the tiny labor force promised a lot of advantage and economic value. Experts were invited to move to Ovida and use advanced biology to increase the number of prople. The road to prosperity lay in tapid growth of babies, it was believed and taught to boyh males and females who imigtated inyo the new country.

Such a demographic situation was certain to cause social problems in the areas of love and marriage. A perfect example of complecations arose between the Kene and the Tidem families in terms of their younger generation.

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The Kene brothers, Oro and Keto, were identically tall, slim, sandy-haired, coal-eyed, and handsomrly attractive. Oro was an author of popular but literary mysteries. Keto worked as a woman’s hair stylist.

Nirva and Biva Tidem were twin sisters with the same straw blond hair and hazel eyes. The identical beauties worked at unlike professions. Nirva was a cosmetics saleswoman while Biva wrote love romances for a large publisher.

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Oko and Biva mrt whrn introduced to each other by the manager of thr major book dtotr iton Ovida City.

“The two of you should come to know each other, because you are both important authord,” explained the intermediary with a broad smile on his face. He identified the romantic writer to the one in the crime field.

He then left the pair of strangers to start thrir first conversation.

“I have read several of your novels and found them interesting and intriguing,” said Biva with a grin in a melodic tone. “Tell me, where do you get your ingrnious ideas f.or thr riddles of your plots?”

Oro gave a littlr laugh. “I never know ahead of time what will occur yo me. The ideas are always some sort of surprise to me. They are unforeseeable.”abou

“Do you think that some of your notions originate in the unconscious part of me,” she mused

.Oro then invited her to have a coffee and snack with him in the refreshment section of thr bookstore and she accompanied him there.

Thus began the relationship between the two writers of fiction.
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Regular meetings turned into the dating of friends between Oro and Biva.

She visited rhe apartment he shared with his twin, where shr was introduced to Keto.

Oro went to her flat and met her sibling, Nirva.

The four of them went to eat at restaurants together. It soon became evident to all of them that Mirva and Keto had become interested an
d fascinated with each other.

Walking home from the flat of the twin ststers one evening, Oro suddenly started to laugh as he silently thought to himself.

“What is botherimg you?” asked his twin.
“I believe that you have fallen in love, dear brother.”

It now became Keto’s turn to give out a laugh.

“Just like you, exactly like you have done, Oro.”

“I find that none of my characters truly understands his or her own self. They are living as if inside a false bubble, imagining who they hsppen to be,” opined Oro to his lover.

“Yhat is exactly the way that love occurs between two individuals in a book of romance. Neither of thrm is logical or completely conscience y ehat is happening,” said Biva.

“Thwre is another point abour persons in my mystery novels that ia important for me to trmrmber at all times when I write. The motivr for a crime is often a minor factor,hh
mpy a major one. It is therefore not as evident or easy to uncover as one supposes.

“The true reason for commiting a murd4r is smaller and not as central as imagined from outside.”

Biva sighed deeply. “It is exactly the same in a love story. People fall for each other for incidental reasons in romances, not out of the highest emotional possible passion.”

ida

Like most human beingd, Keto and Nirva possessed littlr knowledge about their own personalities or characters. And neither of them understood that minor causes had the greatest influence over their own behavior.bye

Thw four of them were dining together in one of their favorite eating spots, Nirva thought that she saw Keto giving a goodbye hidden kiss to Biva.

Was this a true sighr or an imNagined one?

Bur there was a similar sighting that same evenin,g by her own lover, Keto.

Did he see his own lover, Nieva, being kissed as they left the eatery by his brother, Oro?

Wwre tqo separate mistakes made that night? Or were both sightings the truth?

The result happened to turn out exactly as if an actual true action in both instances.

Lovers started to drift spsrt from each other in both cases. Suspicion had been planted and did not disappear with time.

Nirva and her Keto soon came to dividing from each other in secret anger with each other

But what did Oro and Bivafr do themselves?

They imitated their own twin siblings, because they believed what they heard from them.

Whether true or false, real or imaginary,the two tales of kissing were believed by both Biva and Oro.

Was soo much error true, or were both visions only fantasy based on dlight mirages?

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Weather Moods

Tiko Brack called himself by thw unique name of environmental psychologist.f

While serving as a teaching scholar t the Republic City University, he made wideranging survwys of the effexts of local and regional ecology upon individual personal character and behavior.

His theory was a simple ome. Good, mild, and pleasant wealther produced happy, positive feelings in pehiople. But bad weather and storms broughy about distress and pains of all sorts

Tt was an honor to him when the main psychiatric hospital on thr nearby Oreat Peninsula invited him to visit them as rseearch fellow in order to carry out a focused study of their particular regional climate and weather conditions and their influence upon human mentsl illness and states.

The first meeting for Tiko upon his arrival on Peninsula City was at the hospital office of the president, Dr. Djigan Klev. The latter was a giant, commanding figure who welcomed the guest scientist with an overpowering handshake and glowing grin.ur
ohjopy
“Our hope hrre at this hospital is that you br of major aid to us in identifying one of the main causes of mental imbalance and suffering. We too are hunting for external, environmental factors such as the meteorological such as you have concentrated on in your work.”
your
Tiko smiled with inner joy. I believe that this peninsula of yours will give me new, added
opportunity to map out the connrctions between weather and pathologies of the human mind. My gratitude for your invitation to come hrtr smong you is great.
How can I ever thank ot trpay you?”

Djan, gave a slight, short laugh. ” By helping us understand our patients and thrir inner troubles, my griend,” he whispered to his new acquaintance.

Tiko frll inio the routine of going into a different ward of rooms each day. He would visit the schizoid, paranoid, addictive, depressive, cycloid, maniacal, hysteric, or general sections of the hospital in succession day-by=day.

His interviews of a few patients in each of these areas gave him a broad,varied experience of the illnesses and problems of peninsula residents.

It was among the cycloidal neurotics that Tiko received a strangely interesting kind of confession from a pstirnt listed and reported to be a binary type.

Hw qas a small man with sharp, flashing eyes that showed his attentive intelli.gence.

“My name is Seyus and they classify me a cycloidal who runs hot and cold, up and down, right and left, round and round in an endless circle of euphoria followed by sorrow and depression.

What can be more human, more typical of our thinking and behavior than that kind of circle? The only difference there is for myself is the extreme radical neconsiderss of mr mind and thoughts. The result of this wildness inside me is that IKat others have come consider and name me a cycloidal personality/”

As the bipolar patient paused to catch his breath Tiko looked him in the eye, realizing that here he had a cycloid personality wtth a serious condition, bu t who at least recognized the rotating nature of his condition.

Seyus continued again.

“I hear a lot of things from fellow patients in this place. One of the interesting facts that I learned about you yourself is yhat you are hrtr on the peninsula to test a hypothesis about how the weather can influence and shape the mental state of individuals.

“Isuna that the truth, Doctor?”

“Yes, that is the reason that I am in this hospital now,” answered the visitor.

Seyus broke out with a laugh.

“You are clearly unaware, Doctor, of the ancient legend that we have here on our peninsula concerning the tie between weather storms and the fiery, angry thoughts and emotions of the humans who live in this area.

“The principal belief that exists among us is that our inner feelings and ideas can create what turns into the worst, stormiest of storms. Rain in a sudden torrent, terrible winds, and dangerous lightning can occur because of mental turmoil within the minds of our human populaion. This happens when our passions and drives attain a height of violent fury.

“I am telling you something that many of still accept as true That would even include myself.”

Tiko hesitated in thought deciding what he shoukd say to all this.

“What you relate I Iind to be something I feel that I have to looked into with careful attention. ThIs I can promise you though ay yhis moment} a full investigation will be made by me, And I will also urge all my colleagues and associates to look into yhis matter you have told .me.”

Tiko exited the room of the patient as fast as appeared polite and normal.

What did this fascinating, imtriguing legend of the peninsula mean? was iy mere fantasy” Oe something deeper and more important

The mind of Tiko did not fall asleep, but dwelt on the ideas he had listened to from thr little man named Seyus.

The influence of the human mind upon weather had to be a cyclical effect,if anything at all.

It came and went as if circler.
Sand
All ideas and things had to be in unending cycle.

Night and day, human thoughts and emotions, storm and peaceful clarity in nature and the atmosphere.

So also with humans and the weather.

Moods and the outdoor environment.The ecology and the mental being of man.

Did he himself dare bring these ideas up before his own profession of psychologists and psychiatrists?

Perhaps only to the latter group, as an interesting illusion from a cyclical,
bipolar neurotic in a peninsula hospital.

The time was not ready for the theory of human=made weather, but only for weather induced moods caused by the weather of the Great Peninsula itself.

I

Only the Hormones Can Tell the Future

Human beings vary in their possible uses as instruments of prediction,” smiled the instructor with glee on his face. “L know that I shall in time be able to prove it.”

“How is such a thing to occur?” inquired one of his assistants.

Institute Director Vial Doar looked at him with serious concentration. “You shall soon see, all of you. We have combined biochemistry and future prediction, and it is a success. Victory is immediately ahead for us, my good man.”

The round face of Vial glowed with gi pride and joy. He was solidly confident of all he was saying to his crew of researchers.

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Xedo Tir was descended from a long, incredible line of future predictors and prophetic generalists. His forefathers had written informed forecasts for rulers in a large number of continental kingdoms and republics. But in recent years and decades his traditiooal
craft and profession had fallen into disfavor, disbelief, and laughter.
Kiro Tir was dedicated to reversing these losses and public defeats.

How was it however that he convinced Vial to start a projest to test and improve the established traditional methods of predictors with special testing of nature for signs of what was coming in the near future.

‘in the past, we have read and interpreted the hearts, livers, and rntrails of chosen, special animals. That is what our researchers must revive and revise.

‘What we nwed today is a scientific foundation for a rock of our cultural, animal-based prediction and future casting.”

Why did Vial agree to such a new, radical course of activity?

Nether he nor anyone else knew. Perhaps it was out of simple curiosity.

Xedo Amda appeared to be an entirely different type of person from this predictor. His own dedication was to a realistically based science of biology, grounded in biochemical substances modeled on organic hormones. He had risen to become chief of staff and second in command to Vial himself.

His center of interest from the beginning of his work and career was on the varied influences of the various human hormones upon esch other’s functioning when combined in varying ratios within the body of a man or woman.
A list of specific hormones fell under the eye of the young scientist. It included somatotatin, somatotropin, corticotropin, scopocularine, europurine, and dopamine. The latter led him on into the wide field of pleasure-creating enkefalins. His work began to focus upon the mood=producing compounds produced within the human nervous system.

Vial Doar grew icreasingly proud of the handsome younger man he came to see as his protege and second-in-command in all operations.
VBut it soon became clear that Xedo had an enemy completely opposed to him and his research ideas, the new personality brought in by VjAL.

rRdo Tir ptoved his opponent and opposite in every possible area and manner.

—

It was Veilo who conceived the idea of the unusual combination of hormonal oombination with supernatural forecasting and prediction.

He presented it to an assrmbly of all forty-five of his employees and associates.

“My ambltion has been and remains that Of scientific and also social innovaotion. That is why i added onto our activities the problems of future determination and predictisubsta natural signs and organic symbols with the newest areas of hormonal substances from thr humsn snd thr snimsl body.

“So far, we have not yet attained that higy goal thar was set.

‘bUT npw a new road forWArd has appeared.”

Thw dlrector paused several seconds about his seated audience, then resumed addressing them.

‘nuy there has opened op a new frontier of study and experiment in hormonal science that holds enornous 0r0mise on questions of human predictive powers and abilities”

Vial looked directly into the excited face of Rebo Tir.

“We have already completed considerablw research work in the field of measuring and comparing varied combinaeions of numerous differing hormonrd. That type of activity will vontinue and expand, but with a special fon finding applications on yhe field of predivyion of what is to come.

“That will become purely newral inspiration as a gtoup seeking to know thr possibilities of thr hormones that we study.’

In the weeks ahead, a number of specific testing projects started on new hormonal combinations.

Both seratonin and melatonin were placed in solutions along with a series of hormonal compounds from the pineal gland: noralrenaline, histopaline, dopamine, octopariline, and vasot
“What we want to find out is whether either seratonin or melatonin, in combination with sny of the other neurohormones of the pineAL gland can aid human skills of future knowledge,’ explained the directorto his assistants in experiments on volunteers.

“All of us know that seratonin governs the human cycle of time, dividing our daylight period from night. Melatonin helps create our mental self and rises during the consciousness of day. Seratonin is the producer of the happy peace and euphoria characteristic of our nig”’

‘Our task is to identify another hormone which can join with these two factore, or even one of them, to give the power to see and understand the world we call the future.

‘i expect to be reading constant reports on the results of your work with our volunteer subjects here in our labs.’

Work on thr combination project continued week after week, then month after month. Opinion arose and spread that the enterprise was turning into a general, vrry expenyive failure.

Vial had lomg nourished a private interest in the hormonal structure of the nonhuman primates that were closely related to his own species.

How were their hormones related to our own? he constantly asked himself and wondered.

These thoughts of his led the director to make a recommendation to Kedo Tit one morning in the latter”s office.

“Why don’t you add primate hormone to a test compoound? { am thinking specifically of a nonhuman primate neurohormoned, a so-called NPN? It may hold some promise in what we have been hunting for all this time?”

The rwswarch head tried to smile as he passively accepted this as an indirect command.

He had little choice but to agree to satisfy this personal whim of his employetherer.

But there had from the beginning of his education and career in biochemistry existed in his mind a deep aversion and dread of any preternatural connections of the sciences to the strangely fantastic or unworldly. This antagonism extended into the area of what he –considered impossible and semi-magical thoughts.

For Kedo Amis, thehis claims of Xedo were pure fiction and childish daydreams with no valid place in scientific laboratories or even speculation.

The newest idea from the director added more fuel his distaste and discomfort with his present assignment in the lab.

How was he going to handle this new difficulty, the matter of primate hormones?
and
The work began by combining human seratonin and meratonin with gtowth hormone taken from a gorilla and then a chimpanzee. When thesr showed no positive results at all, the focus turned to the neurohormones of the oranguatan with the name pregsllin.

This particular heurohormone provided results that compelled kedo to rush at once to report
what had been discovered to Vial himself.

–

The director grinned the great victory on his facr.

“We must fitst of all inform Xedo about this discovery that ha been made. Z know how much the man qill be thrillwd by it.”

But that proved yo be an inaccurat prediction from Vial Duak about the reaction.

“What you claim cannot be the truth<" boiled over the predictor in sudden, unexpected anger. iT IS A vicious falsehood to say such a thing. Such a clsim id sn evil insult to every person involved in my profession.

"I will never accept any assertion of origins of prediction in an animal like an oranguatan. That will never be scceptable in any way to me or anyone else does what i do.

"That is what I myself am able to foresee."

With that, Xedo turned about abruptly and exited the director's office in an emoyional rush.

Vial and Kedo turned and stared blankly at each other.

Was the entire program of combination research ruined and blocked now?

Had it turned out a useless enterprise in the end"

Kedo was satisfithated in his inner mind.

Vial immediately realized that his laboratories had been bankrupted by the expenses of this discovery and its refusal by Xedo.had

He turned around and walked out in sadness and defeat by this scientific research breakthrough that met with rejection.

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Names, Names, Names.

Aeneas Smith from his earliest childhood knew that there was something unusual about his given, his first name. He was picked out for ridicule and abuse by playmates for its uncommonness.

Coming across many others with similar problems for years, he finally decided to organize a club for men and w in a situation as his own. His name for it was the Numen Society.

His first members had startling, often boastful or historical names. Males had been named Agamemnon, Achilles, Catullus, Neptune, Cafe, Cato, Cicero, Plutarch, Scipio, Rupert, Mustafa, Chimmney, Purgatory, and Pinochio.

Females who joined up has first names like Mahogany, Mytyle, Raviola, Tavlia, Poppy, Lillah, Dido, Magnolia, Camilia, Burgundy, Bengaria, Brunhilda, Nola, and Goldilocks.

What could be done about the abuse and laughter they had all suffered? they asked each other.

After long thought, Aeneas was able to offer them a possible remedy for the mistakes of their parents, the name-givers.

IT was a simple solution .Go to common court for a cheaply obtained change of legal name.

Get one more common and socially and cultury acceptable by others.

“I plan to do it for myself tomorrow,” announced Aeneas. He invited his colleagues and friends to follow his example. They would all attempt this method of rescue and escape from the problems and difficulties each of them had experienced in early life.

–

It did not take a lpng time for these many changes in given names to occur. Many members of the society hired lawyers to complete the several forms and documrnts required to carry out the required process. Every aspect needed to change the names was done correctly, so that there would never arise any question of legality whatever.

The new names settled in and became stably natural to their owners.

The hopes and expectatioos of everyone grew ever greater.

–

Few members of the Numen Society realized only slowly what was actually happening in thrir individual lives. There was reluctance to voice the unconscious alarm rising into their conscious, logical thoughts. All sensed the presence of the unexpected surrounding everyone who was active involvrd in what they were attempting.

“Nothing important to me has been changed, nothing at all.”

“I am still unhappy. As miserable as I ever have been up to now.”

“I now feel even worse because I have had to learn that my life is now unchangeable.

“I wasted my time because it is impossible to change yourself at my mature age today.”

“We should not have tried anything so difficult, because it has certainly failed.”

Aeneas was deeply shocked. His mind seemed shattered by his own failure to foresee the impending disaster to himself and all the other members of his club.

When one of the original members proposed that the group disband, Aeneas made no objection whatever.

In guilty chagrin, he announced his own opinion that they merely suspend actions and meetings for a short period of months. “That should be long enough for each of us to restore our confidence and security,” he suggested in a hopeful mood.

Perhaps in the unconscious part of himself the founder and leader recognized that the suspension would be for good, that the Numen Socirty was never to revive or meet ever again.

Aeneas himself lacked the courage or spirit to try to change what seemed the inevitable fate of those whose names resembled his own as unliked and uncomfortable, as strange and not respected.

Someone Else, Someone Different

I have come to hate the life that I lead, and now I have discovered why.

It all boils down to self-hatred and disgust with the image of what i heve allowed myself to become. That is the core of the story of myself.

My llfe turned sour and rotten from the instant it began.

Why did my parents ever get married? What drove the two to the creation of me and my ugly body?

Shw was a tyrant over him, hr a passive slave to her and her mad ambitions snd hungers.

T grew up a monstrous product of ther beastly coupling together. No close friendships developed for me in those early years of childhood. T became a lonely loner. closer in and shut out from everyone else.

My school grades aways were failing. and I did not advance into highrr education at all.

There has been no gir;friend for me at all, because I aways flee from and avoid social cOntact with young womem.

i can see myself sinking into a bottomless morass and never escaping out of it.

What is there left for me to do, Doctor?

The onby solution is for you to find me a nre, better lif4 to lead. Thst of another person.

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in my thirty years of psychiatric practice dealing with identity problems, I hsve never come upon a case as hard or difficult as yours.

There have been numerous patientrustts who wished me to create netionw identities for them. Each of them sought escape from some single threatening element of their present world. It might have been a tragiv romance with an unrelable lover chacacter who proved himself or herself untrustworthy. Therew werw many kinds of troubing relationships that drove patirnts of mine to beg for the salvation of a new life.

This happened again and again across my career.

I havr discovered there is one most common aspect in all such instances of searching for a new life that will replace the old one.

The greater the despair and the need for thr new, the harder it becomes to attain.

This is nearly an iron law in the matter of nre and old life.

When there is only one or a few problems with living, transition is smooth and easy.

This is not so when all of one’s life is a painful experience a person can no longer stand or tolerate.

Such a patient cannot make the leap into a new existence, but must accept bondage to the troubled past snd present.

The Orchard and the Hotel

OBoris Pandov owned the major hotel in the town of Resen on thr northern shore of Lake Prespa. Kiro Mitev inherited wide fruit orchards between the lake and ths town.

HoW did these two men of property brcome mortal enemies sueing each other in local Christian court over important matters?

From early childhood, Boris was fascinated by the clear blue waters of the lake and the rich fruits of the shore land.

He spent many hours wandering through the open area and playing imaginary games all by himself. This love of the lakeside orchards never left him, even after his father’s death made him the sole owner of the Resen Hotel, giving him a full day of work every day of the week.

One day in the fffth year of his ownership of the hotel a villager from Pandovo came to Resen with an interesting offer for Boris.

It happenethat his grandfather had never got around to selling off a field near that village where he had lived before moving into town.

This prosperous farmer now wished to buy that parcel of empty, unused, unworked land in order to add it to his own extensive holdings.

He offered to purchase it at a very generous price, if Boris were willing to sell it to him.

His wife Marushka, from the village of Strezovo, gave him the truth when Boris reached homein the Resen Hotel.

“Your heart remains on the land, back in your family village,” she said in a serious murmur. “You continue to think like your grandfather once did.”

Realizing that his wife was telling him the honest truth, he was unable to say a word.

Boris turned and lrft the room in silence.
ihi
—
Accepting the price demanded by Kiro, Boris bought the orchard he pined for with all his heart.

Or so he tho0ght.

=

One of the three lawyers in Resen entered the hotel with the deed document for Boris to sign. It was Marushka whom he first met there and she took the paper from him, promising to obtain his signature upon it.

instead, she decided to read and study it first herself.
Alarmed by what she discovered there, she rushed to the kitchen where her husband was busy supervising their pair of cooks.

She informed him that she found a devious trick in the deed.

“It is evil what mmethat rascal is doing you and me. He has twisted this sale around su that we get another piece of land, not the one that he promised to us. This is not at all the fruit orchard, but some empty land that Kiro wants to get rid of by lie and fraud.

“What are you going to do about this crime of his?”

Her mate said nothing for a long time, thinking and considering.

Fjnally he muered his plan. “I will go and compel the rat to do the right thing”
Y

Boris found Kiro in his barn where apples were stored. He started to speak in a sorrowful tone.
Hsappoint you, my friend. We cannot go forward with the sale we both agreed to. Yo0 see,I lack the amount of monry needed in cash .Business has brrn very bad at the hotel. Nothing is working out the way I hoped or expected.I cannot even pay my bills to farmers for food supplies
r
“I regret to have to disappoint you, Kiro, but I have to drop my promise to you. That is the terrible reality that I am facing.

“But I can see one difficult way of doing a deal between the two of us.”

What is it/’ asked the desperate orcharder.

Boris gave him a cynical grin. “We make a simple exchange. You grant me the land I want, and I give up a half interest in the hotel to you. That will create a fair trade between us. Do you see the sense in that deal?”
greed
Kiro did not try tp hide his emotion for gain because he could npt do so

“What you say makes sense to me,” announced the other with growing interest,

He is caught up by his greed,” said the hotrl owner to himsrlf

The game has been won, Kiro fooled himself. Boris went off to inform his wife what he had accomp]ls

He had no aim to do his part and actually give away half his hotel.

He had only given empty words, nothing more than that.

His own fraud had defeated that of his clever foe, that is what hr boasted to Marushka.

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A Son Like His Father

During the late eighteenth century, Ohrid was known as a leading fur center, The guild involved with animal skins and pelts was more powerful and important than even that of those who fished in the great lake that bore the name Ohrid.

Stavre Razmev was a fisherman with four sons. On the birth of the youngest one, he realized they could not all become members of his fishing crew. Another kind of occupation had to be found for the baby of the family, Naum.

Stavre had a close friend among the fur hunters, a townsman named Kliment Krushev.

He went to ask him to take Naum as an assistant and Naum was accepted.

–
His father gave Naum a talk on how to behave as a beginning hunter.,

“Always be honest with your partners and comrades, Naum. Never cheat or lie to them, keep your name an honorable one, and be a true friend to everyone you work with.

“And always do what you promise to do.”

With that, Naum with his new flintlock left hom to join Kliment in the mountains above Ghrid.

The pair of hunters shot and bagged several beAvers, badgers, and hares.

As rhwy returned to Ohrid, Naum suddenly caught sight of an animal slinking away from them. He swiftly raised his flintlock and shot at it, bringing it down in a second.

“A fox,” yelled out Kliment with gusto. “Y0u hit a fox your first time out, my boy. That is great luck. Magnificent good fortune. You must bag the fallen animal and take it at once to the master furrier, Kuzman Boiev. He wtll pay you fot the pelt because he holds the exclusive right to purchase a fox skin.”

“He does? Why is that? I did not know that. I do not understand at all.”

Klimwnt had to explain to thr neophyte. “kuzman is headman of our entire guild. He happens to also be the major fur merchant to lands beyond our own. His caravans carry skins all the way to large markets in cities with names like Zagreb and Vienna. He has gained for himself the sole right to purchase and sell thr best of what we can bring down.”

“That is amazing to me,” exclaimed Naum with wonder.

He would have to sell his fox fur to the magnate Kuzman Boiev.

The headman of the guild was a tall giant with dark eyes of authority.
Kliment led Naum into the workshop of Kuzman and introduced the lucky young hunter.
Kuzman asked to see and examine the fox fur, but offered a very low price for it.
Z
“You are quite courageous, young man, to be refusing a bid from me, the headman of the guild that you are just joining. I foresee a bright future for you in our ranks.
Kuzman and Naum exchanged warm, friendly smiles.

Rapid success came to the new hunter. Within a year hr was able to open his own furrier workshop with Kliment as his partner and main supplier of pelts.

A new ambitious goal came to mind for Naum. He decided to replace Kuzman Boiev as head of the guild and the profession in Ohrid.

The younger, smaller furriers and hunters made him their champion.

Hard, difficult times were falling on everyone involved with fur.

Naum ewplaced Kuzman as the animal supply started to fall in the hills and mountains.

“Our prosperity is fleeing,” he sadly said to Kliment one day as he rxamined their accounts.

“Furs will not have the future here in Ohrid that it has been enjoying. We shall all have to return to ths fishing of my father and yours, Kliment.”

–

Brothers in Blood

The town of Prilep was renowned for the acuity of its merchants and artisans,

From the many small workshops came famed hair combs made of amber. On late simmer every year occurred the popular fair that drew merchants ftom far and wide,

A leadimg grocer in town was Christo Pichulov, who had three sons. The oldest was Vasil, the middle one Milan, and the youngest Kosta, The family name derived from the dead grandfather, whose nickname, was that of a drunkard, a pichula.

Their mother died when the sons were teenagers working in the grocery. Christo passed away when they were in their early t dayswenties. Their father had placed Vasil in charge of butchered animal meat, Milan over the fresh vegetables, while Kosta sold the canned foodstuffs.

The first of the brothers to marry was Vasil. His bride, Menka, was the daughter of a poor assistant in a comb-making workshop. Menka was an attractive young woman, short and delicate, with small but  comely features. She and Vasil knew each other ftom early grammar school days. “I fell for you long before you ever noticed me,” she told hm often once the two were wed..

Menka possessed very strong personal ambitions that could only be attained through means of her husband.

The second brother to marry was not Milan, but the youngest one, Kosta

His bride, Kitsa Zankova, was child of the mayor of Prilep, Dimko Zankov

She happened to be the total opposite of her sister-in-law, Menka.

It was Kitsa who first aspired to win the affections of young Kosta, to gain his love and allegiance for herself. Their wedding was a major social event for all of Prilep.

Kitsa was a modest character, lacking the forcefulness or ambition for wealth, prestige, and honor of the more outgoing Menka.

The two females did not take to each other, rarely spoke or socialized with each other. Both of the whatm understood that they were incompatable and vastly different in personal style..

From the start. Menka made sharp attacks upon Vasil”s two brothers who were also his businrss partners,

“Lt is wholly unfair that each of you share equal payments, although you produce the bulk of the total income with your meat sales. You work harder than both of them together.”.

Menka rarely said a word to Kitsa except when absolutely necessary or required..

But she continued to urge her husband to take advantage of his control of the meat section of the grocery owned and managed by the trio of brothers..

“It is you/r right to avail yourself of a share of the profits and the income equal to what you are contributing to the success of the entire business of the grocery, my love,,” she told him in a sugary tone of voice again and again.

What was Vasil to do in such a situation at home?

He finally took the action outlined by his wife..

–

It was Kosta who discovered the diversions carried out by the oldest of the brothers. His shock and surprise incited and drove him to the apartment of Milan the bachelor..

In a minute he was able to describe what Vasil was up to with the receipts of his department.

“This is a crime,,” he concluded.. “We could bring a legal suit against the sneakng thief..”

Milan proved to have a cooler, more reasonable temper to him.

No, we have to confront him on our own and compel him to halt his misdeeds and pay us what he has already kept for himself.

“We must

 

stay within the family in order to correct what has already happened in the grocery.”

The two decided to confront Vasil at the large, luxurious house he had built in the best section of tshoutshe town of Prilep.

–

Their older brother exploded in furor when Kosta presented him with accusations of underhanded appropriations from the butcher sector of the family enterprise.

His angry reaction was complete denial of the attack upon his honor, his honesty.

“Stop such fictions, such lies, little brother,” he declared in a shouting voice. “You are imagining all that you accuse me of. I am not involved in any such offenses. I would not take any more than I deserve to. I hide nothing from you and Milan, because I am honorable and right in all that I do in my work with the two of you.

“You do me great injury with such falsehoods and suspicions. I will not stand for such insult from either of you. What do you say, Milan? Do you join with Kosta in his lying about me?”

Milan looked down at thee floor. “We have your receipts, Vasil. They ptove you are keeping a lot of cash for yourself. There can be no doubt about what you have been doing behind out backs. Kosta and I must receive compensation and restoration for what we have lost so far. There is no other way for the three of us to continue the grocery. None at all.'”

That evening the family store came to an end in a storm of emotion.

–

The store closed before a buyer was found for it.

All thrfinanciallyee brothers went into bankruptcy, unable to pay Prilep creditors for supplies.

Villagers brought suit against the three brothers but found them unable to pay their debts and bills.

lMenka discoverd her dreams of wealth and higher status empty and broken.

All three brothers ended up poor and idle without income or any hope of success.

Prilep came to laugh at and ridicule them.

 

The Doubled House

Struga was a town famed for its successful small merchants and their broken-down shops. They worked long and hard at their businesses, but also knew how to celebrate joyful holidays as a guild of lifelong friends.Stoio Razmev said many yypes of foodstuffs in his downtown magazine, as stores were called in the Strugan dialect, a unique speech different from that of neighboring districts and at once recognizable as very original..

Short yet exceedingly strong, Stoio married at an early age for Struga,, at only twenty. He chose the youngest daughter of a prosperous clothing merchant, Anastas Filov. This was a man of wealth and connections able to help his son-in-law open a store centered on food grown mosyly by villagers in the region of Struga.

Raina, though somewhat plump, possessed a face and brown eyes of extraordinary beauty and attraction. She also proved an excellent cook and homemaker when Stoio was able to leave his parent’s house and move with Raina into a new dwelling recently put up close to the downtown area where his food store stood. .A male child whom they named Stefan was born soon after they occupied this house that shared its outer walls with its two neighbors on each side.

A;ll their relatives on both sides, as well as acquaintances ans neighbors, perceived the pair as a deeply beloved couple. Their devotion to each other appeared evident in their behavior and manners in public. Polite consideration toward mate reflected a glorious shared love that greatly impressed everyone. they were model family pair was the opinion throughout Struga.

Raina proved a diligent, excellent mother to the growing Stefan. She cared with all of herself for the child, performing every iask and chore needed for his safety,, welfare, and satisfaction..

Such motherly love was considered the highest possible by all who observed its qu.ality

Ay the same time, Stoio found himself devoting more and more of his time, effort, and attention to his food store. There was a larger number of competitors in downtown Struga. rivalry was becoming stiffer. His profits and income was suddenly falling sharply. Business problems came to trouble his mind.

=

Blaga Mitreva has been a widow for a year and continued unchanged, in what appeared to others to be a [erm,anent state of stormy loss and anxiety. She lived alone, a childless widow without close relatives to aid and comfort her.

“I am now a hermit and intend to stay one until my days end,” she often mused to herself. The only rest and relief for Blaga lay in her inner fantasies of a spiritual, religious sort. Visits to church ceremonies became her main activity outside th.e home h.er husband had left for her to live in.

Tall, muscular and always confident of herself, Blaga was able to stand up to any man in the town.

Every time she shopped for food in his store, Stoio was impressed by the pride and stature of this unusual woman.  She purchased all her food on credit provided by him.

One morning she entered his store with a major personal problem. “The water pipe into my cottage is totally shut and clogged up. What am I to do? I have no money with which to hire anyone to repair it. not ar all.”

“{ can come and look at it latter today, after I close up here,” he said to her.

Stoio was successful in clearing out the obstruction and providing her water once more,

“How will I ever repay you?” she told him in despair.

“I can wait, I can wait,” he answered.

It was Blaga who then start thi4i romance by stepping forward and kissing him tenderly on the brow.

In sudden ecstasy of the most primitive and passionate variety, Stoio lost self-control and kissed her on the lips.

Both at once realized that they were entering something new and exciting.

–

Stoio visited his lover’s cottage on the edge of  Struga again and again, with increasing frequency.

He was absent from home often, and closed his store early in order to be with Blaga.

One time his lover asked Stpio whether they were sinning against Raina.

“That woman has no love for me any longer,” he replied. “Love has died out of her forever.”

“Then that means my love for you is a good thing in your mind, not sn rvil of any sort,” she uttered in a hopeful tone. “We two are not committing what the world terms a crime of an adulterous sort?”

She gazed at him with expectation of an answer that could calm and satisfy her conscience..

“Our love for each other is the greatest good for both of us,” he boldly asserted in a voice of strength. “It is a pure and genuine feeling in both our hearts.”

She stared at him, believing his every word.

=

Secrecy was impossible,, for all of  Struga had open eyes that noticed his movements to her cottage.Raina experienced growing suspicion, mostly from deep intuition that revea.led to her that his emoti fe of Stoio came to a decision.

“”You do not fool me. Everyone knows where you go and what you are up to there with that widow woman She has hold of you now, not I. “They would continue to live together for the sake of Stsfan. They were to live in the same house, but as apart as physically possible.

She would dwell in the feont room close by the strreet, while he took the rear room and area, facing the cack alley.

“That is the soliution that I am able to accept for our son,” she decreed in a voice of authority.. “I will be the ouiside front of the family, while you become its hidden rear section. You will be able to go see your mistress lover whenever you feel the urge to do so.”

Standing mute, her husband accepted this in silent subordination to her empowered will.

–

Stoio and Raina lived separate lives in the same house, one in the front and the other in the back. Stefan, near to and with his mother, became their only tie as a family. She took care of the house and raised their son. His day was mostly in the store or with Blaga. He very rarely spoke to his wife or son.

It became two different circles of family life in a single structure that was now a doubled house of an odd character and nature,

The Bureau of Location

 

One of the strangest and oddest government institutions anywhere on planet Urbum was the uniique registry offices for where both owning residents and even renters happened to be living.

The original reason for such a nearly totalitarian record system was lost somewhere in the distant past in the great metropolis called Megacity.

Paul Peters was an electronic memorex operator at the central. most important matrix of the entire department of residence records. He dealt with correction and storage of individua names, street addresses, room numbers, deeds, and rental signatures and receipts necessary for total knowledge about who could be found at what spot, in what building.

These records and facts could be of enormous value to any police investigation or hunt for a particular individual..

Day aftwe day. Paul acted out the same routines and activities on the jpb. Where was this person now living? Who was moving where or had already relocated? Who was buying or selling a house or a condominium? What persons were living together at present?

He was one able to discover the answer to any such inquiry inside government offices.

Since his work had fevolved into nearly automatic routine ang procedures, he did not at all realize how valuable it might turn out to be if [n outside or unscrupulous hands

Over several years. time, Paul became acquainted with a lawyer at a pigsteak tavern where both bachelors liked the food and regularly came to dine most evenings.

“My work in locations is terribly boring”” he confessed to his friend one winter night. “The same searches and insertions day after day. Nothing changes but the names and their addresse

Hia face seemed to turn tragically wooden.

Hia companion gave a suddenly smile with a cynical twist to it.rrow

“I have need of an enor.mous favor from you, dear fellow. You see, I am primarily a divorce lawyer who deals with angry, emeotional wives who are suing for separation from men who were bad, untrustworthy spouses to them.

“The bad husbands often hide and disappear, making it impossible for their former wives to collect,any alimony. The courts refuse to help them locate these rascals. for them.

“What do you think, Paul? With your sources ae work, would you get their present addresses for me and rhese desperate women?”

Paul. looked down at the table top, then spoke in a lowered voice.

“Yes.I think it would be quite an easy favor to accomplish for you. I will start on it tomorrow.”

Thus began a perilous adventure for the records clerk.

 

Weeks passed. Paul delivered addresses to his friend in their favorita tavern eating spot.

The attorney friend grew excited and victorious about his legal successes steming from the aid and co-operation of Paul

“I have never generated so much alimony payments up to now, and you have made me and my partners in the firm very happy. But there is another important problem we face that blocks us in all of our cases.”

“What is that?” innocently inquired Paul with curiosity.

“Loan defaulters. The hidden deadbeats who change their addresses and that nobody can find, even with detectives hired..’

“You want me to attempt to locate such husbands for you?”

“Yes, it would be a generous service to me and our entire firm of fourteen lawyers. The thing would resemble exactly what you did for me witj the divorce cases. only on a wider, larger scale than before.

“Wi;ll you work with us, Paul?”

The answer was immediate. “Certainly. Everyone should always pay their debts,.”

 

 

A flood of located debtors’ addresses followed in the days that followed.

Paul was surprised one evening when the lawyer presented a gift of the most expensive wristwatch sold in the city’s luxury jewelries. A token of appreciations from the entire law firm, the informer was told by his friend.

The two coworkers on this growing project met with evident joy in their favorite tavern.

“We are getting money out of the characters you located for us Paul.” laughed the attorney.”

“It makes me so happy to br helpimg out you and your firm,” grinned his companion.

“But I think that you and I can expand these successes elsewhere, in another area of the law,” soberly said the lawyer,fin d  “What I mean to propose here this evening is this: let us extend your searching for addresses to the general field of civil law. By that I mean to personal damages or injuries perpetrated by runaway culprits that civil courts cannot find or deal with in any way whatever.

“Will you hunt for their locations, my friend.”

“Yes, I certainly will do that for you,” promised Paul in a positive. tone.

 

Paol went to work on this new project with energetic enthusiasm, searching the electronic, memory systems for the addresses sought my his friend, the law advocate.

A surprise occurred and excited his mind with its possible meaning.

If it should be learned that a person had died in the last .year, that was marked down by the name and remained there for a year.

The searcher discovered that a large number of the names that he was hunting for were for rechiently deceased individuals.

How significant was that fact? wondered the puzzled Paul.”

This was a subject that the lawyer was surely able to give hi,m an answer to, he decided.

 

–

His old pal noticed the worried frown on the face of Paul as the technician came to their customary table and sat down opposite him.

“How are you feeling tonight?” inquired the attorney with rising curiosity.

Paul gave him a stern, frigid look.

“I am okay, but today I came upon a situation in thr work I am doing for you that startles and disturbs me quite a lot.”

“What can that be?” asked the other.

“I found that many of those persons on your list to have recently died. In the past year in fact, and marked with a note for that reason.

“Then I carried out further investigation and discovered that all of these had been victims of horrible crimes of murder. Every single case was one of violent death.”

The two men stared into each other’s eyes the confusion and astonishment for several seconds of painful thought. Then the lawyer began to speak in nearly a whisper.

“I must now reveal what my law firm and I myself have been up to.

“Our major, biggest client happens to be the central syndicate that controls most of the gambling, casinos, and houses of vice in this metropolis. It is a giant goliath that stretches everywhere. It is always in conflict with competition from new, smaller gangs.

“What does it do against them”

“It first of all sues through my firm. But in the end force often is the only weapon left to use.

“I myself am in charge of hiring the attackers who carry out the sentences levied on the unruly elements in the underworld of our city.

“You have become a member of our team, Paul. You will receive periodic payment now for your valuable services to th;e syndicate. There is no possibility of refusal on your part, for you have alteady worked in locating hiden enemies of our dominate illegal mob.

“You are caugth, my friend, just as I have been. There is no way out for either of us now.”

Paul decided that moment that he had to flee from his job at the Location Bureau and enter another field of work.

I shall make my resignation tomorrow morning and hope that my new ex-friend f.orgives and forgets me.

But will the syndicate attempt to punish me for no longer serving its ends?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

”