*  *  *  *

Shaka began chewing on a piece of dreamgum. Josephine shivered.

The gum left Shaka with a flat, empty feeling. As Shaw began to speak,
however, Shaka was amazed to discover that he was hearing all the
voices in Swahili, and could understand them all perfectly.

Shaw: "Not much to the south. A fairly friendly community. They share
       food and labor. But Temuchin's camp is becoming very active at
       the docks. Where did all the huts come from?"

The others explained that they'd spent the day building the small
huts. Benjamin seemed particularly excited by the work, and sketched
out plans for sewage systems and roads in the dirt by the fire.

Benjamin: "After all, we are small now, but so were Boston, and
	   Philadelphia, and Manhattan, and Charlestown.  The future
	   holds both more and less than we dream it may. I've learned
	   such amazing things in the last month."

His eye fell on Josephine, and he grinned, murmuring.

Benjamin: "Whose little girl are you?"

Josephine offered a slow smile as her gaze takes in Benjamin's form.
With the delicate arching of an eyebrow she spoke in a smooth,
well-modulated voice though her tone was a bit dry.

Josephine: "You assume I belong to someone other than myself?"

After a few moments of silence, he broke out into a hearty guffaw.

Benjamin: "But of course not, my dear, why would I think that?  You
	   are quite clearly all grown up! Enchante. Benjamin
	   Franklin."

He kissed her hand.

She half-smiled and took the time to thoroughly peruse the other
lazari. If her steady gaze elicited the shadow of a blush or squirm
from any of the men, they hid it well.

Benjamin looked amused. In response to her glance, he posed,
alternately putting one hand on his hip, then the other, upwards with
elbow bent.

Louis was speaking to himself, incredulously.

Louis: "A part of history...a part of history."

His eyes flitted about, leaping from one person to another, an intense
look of concentration on his face.

Louis: "What has happened to me?"

He addressed Jeanne in French.

Louis: "Mademoiselle.  Louis de Saint-Just, Decize, France.  I...I do
        not know how to ask you this, but, you are Jeanne d'Arc, burnt
        at the stake in 14...30 or so? ... my feeble mind cannot grasp
        what is happening -- happened -- to me."

Louis points to Mishima.

Louis: "The Japanese man says that I am a part of history, just as you
        are a part of history to me.  How can this be so?  I am
        dead--guillotined in Paris, 1794."

Before she could answer, he had turned to Benjamin.

Louis: "Monsieur...you died just a few years before I did.  1790, I
        believe.  How can you know this place?"

Benjamin replied with a bewildered look.

Benjamin: "Yes, Louis, I did die a few years before you, but we were
	   reborn at the same time here -- as is everyone here.  35
	   days ago, by my Reckoning.  Do you not remember the last
	   month?  You must have been reborn with us all, then died
	   again to be reborn again this day."

His eyes returned to linger on Josephine.

Charles took careful note of the conversation. How could Franklin
remember his past lives here on this River of purgatory. None of the
others in the group had indicated that they could remember anything
but their life on earth. What purpose might such memory serve in God's
plan?

Louis seemed not to hear and addressed them all again.

Louis: "Why are you making spears?  Are we not all dead?"

He grabbed his own arm, squoze firmly.

Louis: "This is not an ethereal body.  Some how I -- we -- have been
        reborn.  Who are we at conflict with?"

Benjamin: "You are an immortal Soul, but here in this Land of immortal
	   Souls, you have a Body.  In your past life, your Body had a
	   Soul, so why not in this life, your Soul a Body?"

Benjamin: "And must we always be in Conflict with someone, man?"

Louis: "Oh! But for the volume of questions I have!"

Jeanne: "Sir, there are many things here we do not understand. I beg
	 you to calm yourself, and place your trust in God, whose ways
	 are not our ways, and whose reasons are not our reasons. All
	 will be revealed, in time. For now, we must be as children,
	 accepting that which our Father gives us, and questioning it
	 not."

Mishima stood and slapped a hut with his hand, hard enough that a
bruise began to form almost immediately.

Mishima: "This, Louis! This is how we know we are real.  We can
	  work, we can change our world, we can feel pain.  How, I
	  don't know.  You were guillotined nearly 200 years ago, for
	  doing what you believed right for your people.  The last I
	  knew, I died, killed myself, in the name and cause of Japan
	  and the emperor.  I remember the pain, the blood, that
	  clumsy fool Morita unable to do his simple part, it was real
	  -- but here we are.  I know I died, but I cannot believe
	  that this is an afterlife.  I cannot have died a warrior and
	  be doomed to an eternity in this body -- that would be too
	  cruel a jest.  And here, we see Benjamin Franklin, who says
	  he's died again.  What does that mean?  Can we not die?  Do
	  we exist forever here?  I woke up with you, but I know what
	  this grail on my arm is."

Mishima pointed to Freud.

Mishima: "Him!  He died when I was a child, and remembers you."

His arm moved to Jeanne, and he paused, then cries.

Mishima: "Her!  You know she lived and died before you!  Yet we are
	  here and young."

Mishima turned to Benjamin, and grew suddenly calm.

Mishima: "You.  You ask about conflict.  Didn't you learn that in your
	  lifetime?  Yes, we are in conflict with someone.  Louis
	  knows that.  We just don't know with whom."

Indicating Shaka, Mishima added quietly:

Mishima: "He might know.  I'm not sure anyone else is trying to find
	  out."

He sank back down to the ground, spent.

Louis looked at Freud.

Louis: "You speak as if you know me, with contempt carried clearly in
        your voice.  Speak of what grave actions I have done -- I wish
        to have this argument settled."

Louis: "Who else wishes to judge me?"

Charles stood and addressed Benjamin, Mishima, and Louis.

Charles: "You are welcome here in our group.  We ask that you share in
	  common duties of guarding, building and group defense if
	  necessary.  If this is not acceptable, you are free to leave
	  and seek your fortune elsewhere."

Charles: "I accepted the position of temporary leader by a vote.  The
	  vote was not my idea. I will work for the benefit of all."

Charles: "For now, before nightfall, we should complete the work on
	  the huts. It would be best for each to have their own place,
	  or place for couples to have privacy. But let us build one
	  common hut as well. For security and defense."

He spoke to Shaka in Bantu.

Charles: "Shaka, 1 central hut - Defense. Other huts - Private. New
	  people help if stay. Else they leave and go away."

T.R. shook his head vigorously while Charles spoke. He started to
blurt something out, but then caught himself himself and waited his
turn.

T.R.: "And how would such a hut be defended? I respectfully suggest
       such a hut would be a potential prison and grave, rather than a
       benefit.  Far better to build a bully wall!"

Charles: "That might come next."

Charles turned his attention back to the group.

Charles: "We have lost two friends this day past, but have gained
	  three new ones.  We must continue to look for Glenn and
	  Cleopatra, but after this much time, I fear that they will
	  not be among us.  Cleopatra seems to have left on her own,
	  since her steps do not indicate that she was dragged or
	  forced, nor accompanied by other steps of men.  Glenn has
	  lost his grail, his link to food, and may perish in its
	  absence."

Charles sipped the cold rice wine from his grail.

Charles: "We should construct the common hut, then spend time tomorrow
	  searching more of this area around us. We must learn more of
	  the land we are building homes in."

Shaw nodded. He had finished his mean and was concentrating on
crafting bamboo hooks and attaching them to a thread from his towel.

Shaw: "I'm prepared to sail upRiver tonight, and to return by
       breakfast. My hut can wait until tomorrow."

Freud: "If it's to be a common hut, we should build it in common."

Charles nodded.

Charles: "Better to scout in the daylight."

Together, the lazari soon erected a larger communal hut, sufficient for
perhaps 20 people to meet in conference. Shaw and Benjamin each proved
to be fertile sources of architectural suggestions to strengthen the
structure.

When the hut was complete, Shaw built himself a lean-to near the
others' huts. Only Josephine was without a hut. Florence offered to
share hers for the night.

As the moon rose, Charles knelt to pray, and Shaw tried his hand at
fishing by the Riverbank without success.  Jeanne had collected some
bamboo pieces and lashed two larger pieces together at right angles
with woven grass. Charing another piece in the first, she began to
draw upon one of the other bamboo pieces. After a few moments, she
retired to her hut, frustrated.

			    *  *  *  *