House of the Ancestors

The door was of very solid construction but easily opened with the key. It led into a large area with much the same feeling as the floor above – old and empty but not ruined.

Then suddenly, as if he were a caretaker or butler, Lurch, the character in the TV series in which he plays Frankenstein's monster, stepped out from the shadows. I observed him without feeling any anxiety, and noticed he had a large kitchen knife in his belt. I asked him why he needed such a knife, thinking that perhaps he might threaten me with it. He said that there was a large puma that sometimes jumped out on you unexpectedly from the shadows, and you needed a knife to protect yourself. Having said that he handed me such a knife, knowing somehow that I had come to explore this house of my ancestors. The suggestion in handing me the knife was that I killed the puma if it leapt on me. Then he and I started to walk into the shadowy areas of the house to begin my search.

We had only gone about ten yards into the dim space stretching before us when a very large puma leapt on me. As I felt its impact on my chest I held it firmly in my arms and realised that I had no intention to kill or hurt it. Its head was close to my face, and with surprise and love I could see that, although it had the face of a big cat, it was the face of Dakota. The puma was, I saw, her beautiful and wild sexual love for me, and an embodiment of her spirit self ready to share the journey into the house of the ancestors. So I put Puma down, and Lurch, Puma and I walked together into the darkness.