Sample from my novel Season of the Witch
Everybody studied her, and glanced around the hall at the others gathered there in bewilderment and curiosity.
– Have you ever asked yourself why they can rule us so easily, how they can manage us to the point that we seem to ourselves and others like hardly more than two-legged sheep?
Unrest grew. She sensed it, had no trouble sensing it.
– It’s because they have developed the old divide and conquer tactics to an uncanny degree, she shouted. – Together with distract and divert, with the stick and the carrot they’ve created a system where we’re all wearing chains without noticing. We’re divided and marginalized. We make it easy for them, unable as we are to speak up about unpopular subjects in public.
The sea of faces grew indistinguishable before her, as if there was one, giant face with eyes, nose and mouth and ears, turning distinct, appearing with clarity beyond reality.
– In case you didn’t notice: I’m not excluding myself from all this. I was, until recently only yet another mindless drone unaware of the deeper issues challenging current humanity. I was too proud, too busy, preoccupied with the distraction of modern existence, but No More.
She wondered whether or not she imagined a few of those standing closest to the stage voicing those two words with her.
– I’ve found a new, better path. It isn’t easy or in any way straightforward and brings with it its own set of problems. It’s a bigger picture, filled with intensity and passion and frail with previously unseen dangers.
She paused, hesitated, even though she imagined that her audience didn’t notice that.
– I will talk a bit about the path of a Witch.
And now she did pause, deliberately, looking at them with a steady stare. She couldn’t believe how steady it was. The occasional laughter and scorn didn’t find her wanting.
– There’s a long stretch of gray, a Long Walk, a winding road, where all witches, perhaps all that want to be human beings must walk, a never-ending path where boundless fire rises from the ground and burns the very air itself, where you can see the trees for the forest.
The faces shimmered before her in ever-shifting light and shadow.
– Big words, big mama, a black man said aloud.
– Not at all, she replied in an instant, – you ain’t heard nothing yet…
She raised her hand in a fist.
– Words are not unimportant, she stated, she cried with passion, – but they need to be backed up by action. This city, this world belongs to us, not the liars and pretenders. They can only rule as long as we allow it.
She… stirred them, she knew she did. It wasn’t wishful thinking.
– Homelessness in London has grown with more than hundred percent since Boris Johnson became major many years ago and is rising rapidly. Everything is going from bad to worse here, like in almost every single place or area on the planet. We allow yet another intolerable situation to continue. We have a habit of doing that. Our impasse and blatant cowardice must end.
Quite a few others held up their fist, mirroring hers. There was a humming in the hall, one easily noted. She felt the stirring within. It burned and boiled and hurt as it spread and multiplied.
She thought of Jenny again, but this time it strengthened her.
– We will UNITE, she shouted, – and vanquish our common enemy.
And the cry became a roar.
And the roar persisted as she walked among them later, as she mingled and burned in their company.
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