We are pleased to bring you another exclusive excerpt from the Heretics in Occupied Eden series, this one from Book One: The Floating Boy. In this piece, title character Cloud Morgan discovers the concept of metaphysics and begins to connect it to his own practice of floating outside his body.
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Cloud discovered his favorite word in the fourth grade. He was browsing through the card catalog in the school library, looking for anything that might strike his fancy and found a Dewey Decimal System tab labeled Metaphysics. The library had no books in this section, and this absence intrigued him. If the school library did not have anything on a certain subject, he reasoned, that meant they wanted to keep kids away from it, which of course made it even more interesting.
Metaphysics. He spoke the word in his mind and then whispered it to himself. He liked the look and sound of the word. An aura of mystery seemed to surround its letters. Something about it beckoned his imagination, although he did not know its meaning.
The librarian walked by and noticed Cloud’s finger marking a spot in the card catalog. “Are you looking for something, Cloud?” she asked. “May I help you find it?”
Startled by the teacher’s presence, his first thought was to decline help. But he could not resist asking. “I saw this tab for metaphysics, and I don’t know what that is.”
“A fourth grader wouldn’t have encountered that word,” she explained. “It’s the philosophy of the universe. Not science, but ideas about the nature of existence.”
“You mean like why are we here?” Cloud asked. “I mean, not here in the library but why is there an earth and why do humans exist?”
“Yes,” she said, surprised that he had been thinking such thoughts. “Metaphysics includes psychic and mysterious occurrences too. Do you know what psychic means?”
“Mental,” he answered. “Things that a mind knows or can make happen that can’t be explained by science.” Cloud blushed at these words, recognizing himself in them and strongly desiring to protect this inner identity from exposure. “I’d like to learn about metaphysics, but there aren’t any metaphysics books listed in here,” Cloud added.
“No, not in an elementary school, but I’ll tell you where you can find plenty of them,” she said conspiratorially. “Do you know where the Phoenix Public Library is?”
“Oh sure. Central and McDowell,” he said. “I’ve been there many times. I’ll look up metaphysics next time I go. Thanks.”
“You’re most welcome,” she said, producing a wide smile. Though she would never tell him, Cloud had made her very happy to be a grade school librarian.
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