Psychopomp

A twitter novel: 140 characters or less per chapter

Chapter One
Mountain trail. Sheer drop right. Cliff face left. Wind blasts, shrieking energy threatening
footing. Nothing personal. But real.

Chapter Two
Around hairpin. Out of wind. Safety. What!? Piercing luminous eyes matching his. No advance.
No retreat. Heart thumping fear rage. Impasse.

Chapter Three
Nietzsche laughed. Ironic bitter joy. Was this his doppelganger, his death twin? His doom and
salvation in one package. He moved in.

Chapter Four
Japan opens doors. Tesshu leaps through. “Zen warrior relentless openness seeks Prussian
intellectual fire.” Fair trade.

Chapter Five
2 yamabushi clash. Mountain warriors. Highest peaks of awareness. Alpine thought sword, Fuji
no-thought sword. Stand-off. Zanshin.

Chapter Six
Thinking! rails Nietzsche. Not-thinking! thunders Tesshu. Swords locked they stand. 1 and 0 in
eternal combat.

Chapter Seven
USA. Two bulls. Dakota field. Horns locked, eyes bulging, foreheads bleeding, snot and drool,
shit running down back legs. Relentless.

Chapter Eight
No backing up. Sheer cliff face. No backing down. Sheer abyss drop. The two masters see no
opening. No way to close.

Chapter Nine
Alpine clash. An eagle flies down, rests on their immovable X-crossed blades. Without-thinking,
it sighs. Flies away.
Chapter Ten
"Without-thinking!" the two cogno-warriors simul-shouted, tossing philosoph-swords into
abyss. Laughing and pounding each other’s back.

The Beginning