...Pray thee welcome, good health and blessings...


Alexander Volenski

avolenski@lycos.com



Link Center

Journeys of the Mind: This is the 'home site of the novel', 12-chapters.
Geneva: Chapter 1...Harry and Stilly meet.
Genoa & Savona: Chapter 2
Volenski's page: This is a 'home site LINK' to the Cluster of pages.
Melody: Chapter 4 of 12......
The Meeting: Chapter 5
Ibiza: Chapter 6...a beautiful Spanish Isle.
Crystal Dreams: Chapter 7...the journey continues, summer nights.
The Child: Chapter 8 of 12
The Oasis: Chapter 9...the autumn desert/Egypt.
Dedicated Love: Chapter 10...and the journey of love continues.
The Winged Disc: Chapter 11 of 12
The Blue Sapphire: Chapter 12...but the journey will continue one way or another.
Journeys 2: Home site of the novella in 9-chapters.

Monte Carlo

Journeys of the Mind, (C)1994-2004 A. Alexander Volenski

Chapter 3, unedited excerpts
Location: Monte Carlo
Characters: Stilly & Harry (they're getting closer).
Time: Spring/Summer.

Monte Carlo

  Traveing within the spectrum arch of a rainbow, the language of the
past twirls as its sounding song pings along.  Stilly stood on the
terrace of the villa, engrossed in her memories, recalling when she
was a little girl watching just such a rainbow with her parents.
  As the rain fell in clouded sheets from the storm, it was illuminated
by the hue of the sun.  The summer cloudburst which traveled over
Monte Carlo, sent lightning across the sky, loud rumbling thunder
everywhere; the air was cool but soothing, and released a freshness to
be breathed in completely.
  Stilly was standing on the terrace deck high up overlooking Monte
Carlo, a city and harbor of The Principality of Monaco.  The villa 
where she stood was the one she had imagined with a staircase, and she
had leased it for the summer.  The sudden afternoon shower fell upon
her head, streamed down her shoulders and trickled through her blouse
onto her breasts and back as she gazed from the open deck and looked
toward the sea; riffled and dark were the waves.
  The rain with its storm cloud moved rapidly eastward along the coast.
It met the sky as it moved, expanding within a  silhouette of itself,
layer upon layer of cloud, rolling churning merging gaining momentum,
and projecting a powerful image of force.  Black foreboding clouds,
gray pale clouds, lighter higher white clouds, and they all seemed 
outlined here and there with pen or pencil.
  As Stilly watched, the sun peeked out and shone upon a high dark
marauding cloud as a deep rumbling sound of thunder pushed its way
across the sea and city below.  Like a giant sea-wave racing ashore,
the sound of thunder came reverberating with its sonic pulse as it 
sped to reach up and touch her.  The thundering jolt with its KA-THUD!
sent shivers through her body as it passed through, and she trembled,
and her heart seemed to flutter and vibrate, while her legs and thighs
tingled.  After the stormy detonation, everything below and surrounding
the villa, became very still, no breeze blew, all that was present
became quiet, silence everywhere.  And far out at sea, Stilly viewed
the turmoil and turbulence of the storm with its flash of lightening
striking and sizzling.
  ...Stilly was a woman of medium height with a good figure, her
features were pleasant and carried a sort of unspoken humility.  Her
face pretty, seemed to radiate a high degree of compassion; she was a
natural blond with very light brown eyes, hazel with specks of blue,
and her skin was as smooth as silk.  There was a seriousness to her
personality which simplified her expressions into a character both 
stern yet forgiving...
  ...Pouring a glass of champagne and looking at the rain splash
against the windows, she reflected how water from the sky was so clear
just as the air, yet how unclear yesterday and tomorrow could be with
its mixture of concealment...
  ...It is not easy to capture a man in dream, especially when he was a
man of time and free to move everywhere.  There were so many of them,
she thought, and still he, this special one, was different from the
others.  Many times a day her heart would flutter and skip as a
butterfly would fly by, and then suspend a little as it paused as
though to speak, and then it would fly on.  What did that mean, and
was it a manifestation from him to herself, or herself to herself, or
a combination of them both?  Or was it purely just the nature of things
alive in the flourishing summer.
  ..."Sing to my mind love," Stilly sang to herself, "sing to my mind
and look into the nude mirror of my body, and see all there is to see."
Touching her lips, her fingers flowed over their smoothness sending
thoughts of kissing and passion to her mind.  Love cannot survive
imprisoned, it will not allow itself to be confined, and will always
seek and find that which is of it, and then turn safely on.
  Passion, erotica, sensuous desire, all have many languages and
expressions, and can be experienced beyond the touch, with just as much
pleasure; many have been there.  One is often in love with a little
more than they are near, and in the turn of the day and light of the
moon only the crickets should sing that tune.  The kiss encloses a
spell of color, bridging the mind to another mind with enchantment and
unknowns.  A kiss, Stilly pondered sipping the champagne, is very like
a merging of sky and sea, both privately alive, both willing to share,
yet still held to the identity of what they really were.  As the kiss
touched, it brought a merge like the sky and sea merge, or as the minds
of two do merge as upon the interval, the moment, an instant with a
vista both physical and natural.  A kiss becomes that marvel which
guides the minds of two into a realm of oneness.  Sweet glowing kiss
surges as natural beautiful passion links.  A kiss is never alone,
and will ever be there, just as heaven and sea, both separate, yet
ever touching and ever powerful, will always be there; a kiss 
communicates with our vastness and bridges to all that is hidden there.
The perpetual identity, so mysterious so open so unrecognized, and in
so many ways not really wanting to know what it is; the kiss knows
the identity, the kiss sees all, yet often remains silently just a kiss.
  ...Harry had slipped his way through the mazes of Monte Carlo quickly
and smartly to a broker's office that always could produce a place for
him to stay, a place somewhat removed from the busy turmoil of the city.
Isaac Newton (Harry's broker), found a fine villa for him high above
the city, a quite removed residence with all the needs, transportation,
and comforts which someone like Harry would find necessary during his
stay on the Riviera.
  Harry unpacked his luggage in the middle of the storm, was totally
soaked unloading the car, and settled in feeling comfortable and at
home; also very relaxed once he showered and put on dry clothes.  The
storm had passed and the evening eased into a quiet darkness and
drizzle.  Harry sat at a small green marble table which faced the
deck of the villa with a large walled window in between, between where
he sat and the outside terrace.  The city below could be seen clearly
shrouded in the fog and glow from the many night lights.  He was glad
to finally be there, and wondered to himself how his stay in Monte Carlo
would be.  He also wondered if he would ever see Melody again, 
considering the circumstances and events that their first meeting had
entailed at the Noble Bar in Savona.  And also, what of 'the Geneva
Lady,' the one who really had sparked it all, spurring him on this
journey which led him to the line of events of this time and place.
  ...Pouring another drink, Harry smiled and reflected that life in
many ways seemed like something from out of a book.  He pondered too,
of who might have outlined his, or had he written his own, and now 
merely lived it out, making changes as he went, revisions, adding and
reshaping, as fate placed the final period to it all.  Each major 
episode a chapter, each new development becoming many pages, all
paragraphed in sentences to the terms of the living.  The caring heart,
like a poetic journey, traced as it went (the mind imprints), within a
blend, and found itself often creating more than a rhythmic pulse;
a heart pulse made to dance in certain ways.  The dancer within the
heart moved to the melody it felt, not the melody it heard, for all is
in a spontaneous progression.  The ever-after always linked to the
ever-before, both forging for themselves a continuum of conveyance,
placing in motion the ever-present.  The present, uninterrupted and
continuous, running gradually from one unbroken succession to the next,
found in itself that which was always there, the caring heart.  The 
mind ever attempting to be free of false domination, discovered itself
governed by the will, and that will, extended always toward a resolve
which reasoned with the caring heart.  In this symmetrical complexity,
common ground was established for both wills, the will of the heart,
and mind, both to bind a simplicity, a fashioned design called 'love'.
  ...Harry walked out onto the terrace and looked down to the city
below, the fog was gone and glancing to his left toward the horizon,
a glimmer of light shown as dawn and a new day approached.  He didn't
feel tired nor restless in any way; the energy within him was
completely awake, true precise, a feeling he liked to have and always
be part of...for it evolved a kind of meditation...
  ...Stilly was in one of those day-dream states of mind which one
often found themselves in right after awaking.  The reflecting sparkle
of the crystals (in the large aquarium) mesmerized her as though the
crystals spoke, and suddenly her mind cleared sending a sudden
realization and awareness through her.  For as she concentrated upon a
person, place, or thing, all shown in well-defined pictured clearness
within her mind; an invisible power in crystal?
  There were a variety of crystals in all shapes and sizes in the
aquarium, carvings too, figures of fishes turtles sunken treasure
chests, ships, everything one would expect to find in the aquatic
world were displayed there all in crystal or precious stone material.
Jade, Lapis Lazuli, Quartz, Amber, Black Coral...Malachite, Serpentine,
Turquoise, synthetic gems...and it was one of these which sparkled with
sunlight that caught her eye; a faceted synthetic blue sapphire gem.
  This sapphire reflected a plush blue (deep), a rich glow, a kissing
kind of blend that seemed to speak through any imagined barrier.  It
was then that Stilly suddenly remember the white dog and the gem it
wore, from the dream at Clare's on spiraled staircase.  Reaching into
the aquarium she picked up the sapphire gem, and taking it out, held
it up to the sunlight.  The large faceted sapphire sparkled and twirled
the light, its bluish hue was spectacular.
  Apocalyptic midnight-blue, no-green or violet, a blue from the center
of blue spectrum, with perhaps a filtered cobalt or gold tint.  Very
cool transparent pure-clear, Lapis Lazuli, was paled compared to the
gem she held.  She took the sapphire over to the bar and placed it in
a martini glass, then stood for awhile staring into it, trying to 
recall her dream of the white dog whose collar held just such a gem.  As
she looked into the sapphire, its color seemed to be hypnotic with a
pulling excitement, yet she realized that its beauty and color 
probably gave her that sensation.
  There were feelings of awake-sleep in the glow, like an Endymion
trance soothed by the sweetness of surrounding blue-bells, with a touch
from amorous Selene; Selene, sweet comely moon, kissing earthy handsome
Endymion.  A dazing reverie seemed to flutter within a glow of its own,
like the dear sweet moon that glows above, ever looking to dear Earth
with love.  The cascading refraction of blue sapphire hues seemed to
be sent to kiss all that one knew.  The sapphire was as a blue midnight
glow surrounded by a spray of dew, which glistened and sparkled like
stars above.  It felt as if Dawn and sweet Eos, both looked too, to
sapphire blue.  The glow of this gem was as though from an aery place
that reposed deep near blackness, perhaps only on the fringes of
darkness it stayed, never allowing one to enter that veiled unlit
shadowy realm of obscurity, ever pulling back to clearness of light.
A glow it radiated which seemed to marry-light to darkness, perhaps,
Hades himself would know the sweet lingering, blue sapphire blue holds.
Powerful, elusive, allusive, provocative, seductive, with sensual
passions, aura beauty sublime, sapphire blue cradled gently in crystal
martini glass, handsome too this gem, Stilly thought.  It was so 
attractive to her sight, her eyes seemed to be caressed, soothed,
enticed to enter and glide upon the velvet blue deep spell within;
all to be aroused with passions of the copious bountiful kind, profuse
with natural pleasure.  Her gentle potential and conceivable intellect,
wanted to go there, to swim and float upon this blue pillowed light
within, letting her spirit free to be kissed even fondled by the
tingling blue.  And it touched and encompassed all that she knew
with melodious elation and sensual even seductive harmonies; that
her elevated mind would be soothed with a spray of elegance and sweet
scented refinement.
  ...Reach a dream, and perhaps there in the possible poise, so lives
the beginning.  Oh collective consciousness, do you know what a woman
must think, must believe, and is she a being that holds more for that
which interprets it all.  A woman must know and must feel, she must go
and must find and touch that which is to be touched, though forgotten.
The world of dream emerges in a mist of only what it seems, and Stilly
knew in her silence it may solely be only what she deemed; and she
stood there on the open porch warmed by the now zenith-high sun.
  Time and place had lifted toward a splendid sway, free of turmoil,
as a woman in search of her love struggled to find her completeness.
Laying down, the couch of the deck became her couch of inspiration.
  Shifting herself and stretching, she could feel the heat from the
sun as she let her mind wander at will, letting it span to project 
freely, bringing with it pictured impressions and scroll-like expressions.
She wanted to know how she felt inside, within that hidden domain of
herself.  How she felt truly about herself and the way she would blend
with the hidden cryptical feeling that encompassed love itself.  There
were so many passions emotions sensations she felt, and lifting her
robe to an innocence, she threw it aside and lay completely nude,
listening only to her capacity.
  The dear sun can see me for what I am, she mused, for what woman
would turn the warm bliss of the sun away.  Let him smooth and touch
(the sun), let him come and be, let him do what must be done, and in
this spell let him sprinkle his splendor upon me, through me.  Let my
blood be afire, let passion natural and beautiful free to roam and touch 
me, let passion be as it must be, alive with all of that which is
pristine.  It is so good to do that which I feel she thought, no
unforgiving contemplations, no bewitching jesters, no commanding
opinions, no unpleasant differences, no censor with phoney authority.
  She could feel the hot touch of the sun upon her naked smooth skin,
it tingled and pulsed, radiated and induced like fingers would do moving
over her; letting her sensuality rise as though it were attempting to wrap
her entirely within its arms.  At last she mused, 'the sum of my nudity
(unrestrained) and only him, the sweet powers of forgiving sun.'
  As the sunlight pressed deeply over her entire body, her essence
began to glow and her skin tingled as her breasts sent deep signals to
that warm place between her legs, and she let herself go, opening,
letting passion free to be all the beauty it was given to be and she
sighed and giggled too.  'Have what you must, and be there as silence
covers all in this ever present early noon, and bring those naked
thoughts desires of woman to the forefront.'
  Then Stilly spoke to herself, "and if my man is there, make him a
man of the sapphire dream."  In her nakedness she moved and seemed to
be in that of another world, a world she knew and lived to desire, a
world of concurrent passionate sublimity.  'Come and be with me, come
and touch the folds--that bind, come and give that which you are and
let me become an ever living entity again, free of the chain and 
shackle of this world; let me live as I was meant to live!'
  What would you say to a man you were yet to understand, how would
you think, who would you be in the moments that came.  What would be
your feelings toward a man yet to be, and the living nakedness of
herself as if in spoken thought, embraced her will, forcing her to
turn over.  Stilly knew that in all of the mystery there were the
desires, desires she felt and wished for, and those desires were also
attached to a beginning; one that she would learn how to find and
recognize, because that beginning, was contained within both his and 
her lives.
  She recognized past episodes in her dreams, and those episodes were
like a recurring playback which she found to be mixed with events 
which seemed to come from somewhere else, perhaps the future even; it
was then she realized how much more valuable dreams of the future were,
than those of the past.  The past seemed like the roots of a large
tree, the future everything surrounding the tree.
  Rising in her nakedness, she walked into the living room and stood
next to the aquarium, feeling in that moment a calm come over her.  A
calm which was accompanied with understanding, for she comprehended 
that all that there was of her, was truly a part of an undivided total.
  ...Stilly took a quick shower and put on something casual, then she
went into the bedroom and laid down.  She wanted to recall the white
dog or at least see what its focus may bring.
  "Rippling waves I see upon the sea," she whispered, "sparkling
flowers of light I see bouncing upon the waters, sky above so blue sand
of the shore so white, soft and pleasant greens growing gathering
themselves for spring."
  "The sea, the light, the shore so white, the green, the spring of
flight, please bring on my sight."  She continued whispering, "the
mind, the will, no thought of thrill, see within to another sight, and
fly upon the moment, and just live."  Speaking to herself in this way,
Stilly could relax and move in thought, and was able to step into a
dream.  A dream world always different, because the poetic's of her
words she spoke differently with each new moment.
  Standing on the step (imaginary step), she closed her eyes and jumped,
and as she landed upon the bottom step, she slowly opened her eyes, 
watching, observing, feeling and knowing.  That is how she sometimes
stepped into her dreams, sort of how it could be, as one steps from 
here into there, the land of dream.  Laying relaxed she would close
her eyes and picture herself standing upon an imaginary stair, and
then she would imagine jumping, when she landed she usually was there
in the land linked to the mind.
  Now looking to her left, Stilly saw the white dog walking alone upon
a dirt path, coming toward her, she was standing off the path next to
some bushes.  There was a meadow and sea far in the distance that she
could see as she stood near the path which was in front of her.
  As the white dog approached, he looked at her, but did not stop, he
only passed, and then disappeared along the path on her right.  Where
she was standing, it seemed higher than the surroundings, and looking
to her left again and along the path, Stilly saw someone coming, it
was a lady who wore a dark blue gown over a short white silk dress;
she had long blond hair.
  After awhile the lady came up to her and stopped.  They both stood
gazing at each other, yet neither spoke, both looked into the other's
eyes.  There seemed to be spoken thoughts, hidden thoughts, thoughts
which Stilly knew went deep; thoughts that knew the message of truth.
  Then the lady spoke in a clear voice, a soothing melodious tone,
smooth and precise; she greeted Stilly with a simple, "it is nice to
meet you here on this way of truth...hello."  Stilly responded,
"greetings to you," and the lady smiled back.  Then Stilly asked, "who
are you?"  "I'm someone who looks for you," the lady answered.
Stepping closer, the lady in blue and white, held out her hand and 
opened it, Stilly saw a blue sapphire gem laying there, and attached
to it a very long gold chain.  Stilly said, "I have a gem like that,"
and the lady smiled saying, "I know," then Stilly asked, "what is it
all about?"  The lady stepped closer, had very calm eyes, and answered,
"we will meet many times, he is very near now."  "Who is very near,"
Stilly asked, and the lady answered, "the man you seek, for he seek's
you."  Then the path and surroundings faded away, and Stilly opened
her eyes to the afternoon, but lay very still not moving, as she 
recalled the event; 'and to know and understand.'
  A small tear streamed down along the corner of her eye and landed
upon the pillow.  For the passion of this event with all its truth
and beauty, its giving, its freedom, had touched her heart, opening
a way toward her hidden self.  Stilly smiled and thought to herself,
'how sweet life and dreaming can be, and how much there is to live for,
if one only looked deeply into themselves.'
~
next...chapter 4, Melody...[note, this text is yet to be proof read].

                                          This page created April 98
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