Pandora's Noah's Ark Box
Strange... Love

Now. Now... Well, see, one big problem with that kind of phone call -, is that Jay is possibly one of the key people of all those across the whole world who certainly in the past anyway - or, at least those behind him when he was a young man - were most responsible for the funding of ISIS or Daesh in Lebanon and parts of Syria. And how should I really know such kinds of people? I mean, seeing as how I am just some ordinary ’nuther guy in the near-city suburbs who just shops and drinks beer and stuff.

Another interesting thing I knew was that the person Amad ‘Jay’ Malkoun was sending to me was of Slovenian ethnicity, and that their surname was not really ‘Gordon’ originally, but Gevorshner or Gorshin or something like that. One of their relatives was this agent and promoter a long time ago, of the amazing American singer and one of the acknowledged founders of Rock and Roll - Johnnie Ray.

...But maybe what I could do was even appeal to them that their Motherland was really calling on them now to do something for her. That might work too, you never knew. Apart from, yeah, that I could maybe impart a few bizniz tips or arrange some European contracts, on account that ‘Jay said.’

With Jay even thinking, so that if anyone grabbed him off the street and put hot lights on him, that it was all his idea to call me in the first place.

*

People often look at me as if I am completely making things up when I tell them that I was at a private function once on the closed off top floors of the Macquarie Hotel when some tall Hollywood actresses were paraded down a red carpet wearing thousands of dollars of Daphne Guinness and Karl Lagerfeld thin chrome chains and nothing else – a year or so before the final cut of Eyes Wide Shut, as they practised in RL for the filming of that movie.

But what none of these wags know is that one of the partners of this kid who I was about to meet – well, their relative was a business partner, along with another friend and partner Benn F. Reyes, with Kubrick’s Polaris Pictures, who made Lolita, and Dr Strangelove, and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

So, yeah. What people think they know, right...

Totally naked. Trust me. Very beautiful too, very very tall, especially so in those impossibly high heels.

The young man’s name was ‘Alon.’ He wasn’t very Jewish-looking at all, had light sandy-coloured hair, symmetrical modern face, typical Australian surfer male.

But serious. He also had a serious look about him. As if he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders but then regarded it, too, as important enough to carry carefully and responsibly.

I led with some nonsense about the Zohar.

“The sacred light, Alon, it comes down from the shamayim. And it is appointed to those to receive it who carry out the tasks as set out in the Zohar. You read the Zohar, Alon?”

“What, you mean like that thing Madonna is into?”

“Yes, like that thing.”

“Nah... They wear this red string thing around their wrists, right?”

“That’s in honour of the goddess Zarah.”

“I never heard that.”

“It’s part of the Kabbalah -, which means ‘reception.’ When you receive the gods into the Earthly plane. Or -,

“when you are still in touch with the Motherland, Alon; too. It can also mean that. You understand the meaning here – Motherland, Alon? Your Russian roots. The Motherland is asking you to do something for her, and, in exchange, she will send you some of her daughters to play with. Along with some on-top-of-the-table business too. Which is what you want, correct? But first, we need your boat, that big boat that you have down there, because we want to have a private party for some embassy people which will be a safe space for them to let their hair down. Can you make this happen?”

“You want the boat?”

“Well we don’t want the boat. We just want to have a party on it, on a particular specific day, very soon.”

“And Jay knows about this?”

“Sure. Sure he knows about it. He arranged it all, as you know. He said you wanted some legit business for yourself that can make you some money. These embassy people will make that happen for you.”

“I just want to preserve the capital I have – it’s been a slow leak here for some time. I want to arrest that, which I could do, but then I don’t want to be involved in anything illegal though.”

“Of course, of course. I understand that. And that is what we will arrange. But first, you must appreciate, the Russians and the big guys from America, they want to get comfortable with you too. And this will be your chance to meet them privately, where they can sound you out. And you can see who they are and what they are all about. Embassy-level people. I understand you went to Hale College here. Top rate, eh. Plenty of business people’s kids go there. So why aren’t you in with them?”

There was a few moments of silence. “Like I said, a long slow leak. Those guys are plenty good at sucking at the air from that little tiny hole. They are professionals at it.”

“Mmn.”

“But sure the boat, sure, no problem. When do you want it?”

“See, what I need, Alon, is that you insert a few particular boat staff who I will recommend to you, in there, before all the arrangements, and especially that there is a pilot either right next to the skipper, or that we have our own embassy skipper brought in. Security requirement, you understand.”