Free An Evening at Joe's by Dennis Berry Peter Wingfield F. Braun McAsh Valentine Pelka Ken Gord Stan Kirsch Don Anderson Roger Bellon Anthony De Longis Donna Lettow Peter Hudson Laura Brennan Jim Byrnes Bill Panzer Gillian Horvath, Darla Kershner Page B

that this woman had once encountered a man who she sensed before seeing him, whom she saw fall from a great height and have his head torn away from his body, an injury that he did not awaken from. She felt that she had absorbed something from him immediately after he died in this way, and seemed to understand many things about him and his life that had been unknown to her. She had stayed with his body, waiting for him to return to life again, but he did not.
    From this information, Menahem surmised that we had to protect our heads from such damage in order to survive, for it was the only example of an accident to one of us that had resulted in a permanent death. Elijah and I did not know what to make of this information, yet.
    V
     
     
    In order to avoid more displays of alarm from Mortals, I continued to wander from village to village, never putting down any roots. But at the same time I started to resent these Mortals for their fear. I wondered if they so fear those of us who cannot die because their entire existence is so wrapped up in preserving their own, brief lives. Not that Immortals are fearless, but we certainly don't share their immediate concerns. I found that I was feeling increasingly alienated, less and less as though we had anything more than our bodily form in common. Certainly I preferred the company of other Immortalsl to Mortals; at least I had figured out how to use my ability to recognise them, and that was slight comfort to me.
    Soon I had my first real battle with another Immortal. Everyone knew how to use a sword and I fortuitously recalled the thing that Menahem had spoken of while I was in combat with a particularly unlikeable Immortal named Joseph. During our confrontation, I recalled the way to stop him for good and decided to take advantage of his weakened condition in an entirely new manner.
    Often had my fights with another Immortal ended with their death, but I had always quit at that point, never engaging beyond it. The fact that I had proved able to defeat them had always been enough to discourage a future engagement with any given individual, for I had grown quite adept at these acts of aggression. This time however, hatred was boiling inside of me, so when he fell to his knees I tried this new idea: I swung my sword deliberately at his neck. His head came off of his body in a single clean sweep. As I stood over those two separate pieces of him, amazed by the simplicity of the deed, I felt a great trembling arrive from all around me. It was as though the earth beneath my feet was shaking and rolling. I was grabbed, as if by another being, and thrown to the ground where I was thrashed about as though by a great wind. I became like an empty vessel having something flow into me with tremendous ferocity. My thoughts were confused and my memories did not seem to be my own; there were conflicts, experiences, pain and doubts swirling through my being. Visions of places I had never attended and people I had never known came into my mind, along with some things that were known to me, but not in any perspective that seemed familiar. Then, as suddenly as it began, the tumult around me ceased and my mind was quiet again. I recognised my own thoughts and collected myself and my weapon, leaving that place as abruptly as I could.
    I went back to my home and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep from which I awoke feeling energised. Certain that I had been hexed by some type of magic or sorcery, I undertook to quit that place.
    As I traveled far away over those next few days, I considered the possible implications of that event. I felt as though I had incorporated Joseph into myself. This was rather disconcerting to say the least, for my dislike of him was intense.
    VI
     
     
    I wandered towards an inland sea that I had heard about from other travelers, where I sought solace from the thoughts that were swirling in my mind. I could not understand these thoughts of someone else's existence that felt like they