Quicker than a camera shutter closing, quicker than an eye blink, but still not so quickly it failed to register somewhere in Blair's brain, reality dissolved and reformed.

A stone floor still lay beneath his feet - and he was willing to bet he was standing on another representation of the Great Eye, probably even a twin to the 'protective circle' he'd sat in when he first arrived - but around him was a living room. The room had an air of abandonment - there were no pictures on the walls, no knicknacks or books on the shelves, the furniture shrouded in drop cloths.

He'd just begun to wonder what possible connection he could have to such a place, when two young women entered the room through a central archway. The two were obviously sisters, perhaps twins. Almost of a height, both were tall and slender with fine boned features and long, straight auburn hair. Both wore simple black dresses, gloves, and black 'pill box' hats with short black veils.  Arms around each other, the two walked across the floor and sat closely together on the couch, not bothering to remove the cover.

One of the women, he thought she might be the younger from her actions, turned into the other's embrace, rested her forehead on the other's shoulder,and gave into tears, quitting only after much hair-petting and reassurance. He wished he could hear what they were saying. He wished he knew who they were.

They both looked a bit like the earliest pictures he'd seen of...Naomi.

Quivering with excitement and anticipation, his body yearning to walk forward into the room but  held back by the suspician that should he do so, he would find himself lost and insubstantial, he nearly moaned aloud when the women, the furniture, the entire room dissolved. In the next instant his breath caught in his throat as the same two women appeared , this time standing on a sidewalk, not two feet away from him, in front of what he thought might be a school dormitory. Both women seemed somewhat forlorn and just a bit desperate as they hugged in obvious goodbye. The scene dissolved as the woman he thought of as the 'older sister' got into her car and drove away leaving her 'sister' behind, unwaving, unsmiling on the sidewalk, tears streaming down her face.

Heart a bit heavy in empathic response to the two scenes he had witnessed, Blair was almost unprepared as the next  'scene' unfolded around him.

By now he was certain that one of the two women was a young Naomi, and he was intrigued. His mother never spoke of her pregnancy, or of her life before the pregnancy. He knew absolutely nothing about either side of his family, or rather, his "blood" family.

He had dozens of 'courtesy' aunts, uncles, and cousins, some of whom still sent him messages through his mother. He had never, however, had a 'father' figure. He had never called *any* of Naomi's many boyfrends by anything other than their name.There might have been many men moving on the periphery of his life with his mother, but none of them had ever had a father's place in his life, not for a minute.

His family, his true family, had always consisted of only two people - his mother and himself.

Once he'd met Jim, his concept of family became a little skewed, a bit confused. He knew all of the sociological definitions of "family". His difficulty lay in applying them to his relationship with Jim, who was at one and the same time, more than, and less than, family.

He was fairly certain that as accepting as his mother now was of his friendship with Jim, she would not name Jim as "family". She could be surprising that way; as easy going as she was, as accepting and trusting as she seemed to be, there were very definate boundaries she did not allow anyone to cross. Some people saw this as fickleness, an unwillingness to commit. He wasn't sure what it was, but he knew the boundaries were there.

Blair found his attention caught by a new scene forming around him, so he wrenched his thoughts back into order. He had to stay sharp. This was a trial, one he had a good chance of losing if he didn't concentrate.

The woman...Naomi, he decided, he'd think of her as Naomi until he knew better, although, he conceded, as much as she *looked* like Naomi, she really couldn't be...wore a a long full skirt in a geometric pattern with a loose sleeveless top, no stockings and plain, flat leather sandals. She stood at the head of a large, open classroom full of small children, all but one of whom were seated at long low tables.

The sole exception stood with the young woman, "Naomi", at a black slate chalkboard at the front of the room writing sentences in...Spanish?

Something must have made a noise at the back of the classroom; Blair found himself turning around  with the children to look. A young man of medium height with a head full of  short, dark, unruly hair walked up the center aisle of the classroom, leading a little girl by the hand. He brought her to the front of the room and placed her hand, which he could now see sported a guaze bandage, in the teacher's hand.

Blair smiled as the woman hugged the little girl - that was *so* characteristic of his mom - but in the next instant his face froze.

The young woman, whom he now realized *could not* be Naomi, leaned back from the crouching hug, still holding the child, and looked up into the face of the young man. Glowing and loving and full of trust - he had *never* seen that look on his mother's face, not even when she was looking at him.  This woman had...invested...herself in another person, and allowed another person to do the same in her...

Blair's heart spasmed. What he wouldn't give to have had that for his mother...and for himself.

He wasn't sure if the scene shifted, or if the unshed tears blurred his vision, but when he was able to see again, he stood in a small office witnessing a civil marriage ceremony between the couple he'd last seen in the school room. Again he experienced an ache in the region of his heart as he observed the tender touches and glances between the two as  they repeated vows he could not hear. So intently did he watch, he almost missed noticing the "sister" from the earlier 'scenes'. This time she looked..bitter, almost betrayed?...as she watched the ceremony.

Surely this wasn't Naomi? Yes, she resembled his mother, both women did, but...she *couldn't* be Naomi. For one thing, his mother had never displayed a bitter attitude, and for another...she had no sister.

From there the scenes shifted rapidly. A celebration of the wedding in a village plaza, a moonlit walk, an intimate dinner, a joyous announcement of what could only be "I'm pregnant!", a series of tender  moments and humorous mishaps as the pregnancy progressed until, finally, he watched as the new mother, watched over by an obviously doting father, held her child for the first time...and he mourned for what could have been.

He was startled when he heard the young mother cry out as she looked up from the cradle in which her baby slept, until he realized another person had entered the room from behind him. The 'younger sister', obviously in the last stages of pregnancy, had entered so quietly the young mother had not heard her. The two looked at each other and the bitterness he had seen marring the the younger woman's face melted away at the look of love directed at her from the older. Arms came up and the two were clasped in each other's arms in much the same way he had first seen them. They broke apart and the younger held out a gift - a bright handwoven blanket. The young mother immediately opened it out and laid it over her sleeping child.

Before Blair could have more than a fleeting thought - that blanket looks familiar - the scene dissolved into another rapid series of images: another baby born, preparations for a trip, a farewell party, and then...

A dusty road, a sharp corner, a jeep, a man, two women, two babies...

A rapidly traveling bus, rounding the corner on the wrong side of the road, directly in the path of the jeep...

The jeep heading to the side of the road, the dirt edge crumbling from beneath the wheels, crashing through brush, tumbling to the bottom of a steep ravine...

An explosion and flames...

The bus stopping, the driver and passengers pouring out to stand dismayed and horrified at the top of the steep descent...

A battered pickup truck pulling up from the other direction, a dark haired man getting out, surveying the scene angryly, flinging himself back into his truck and leaving, dirt and dust flung up by the speed of his departure...

A cry from the busdriver before he plunges down the slope toward two bodies, separated by only a few feet, halfway down the side of the ravine...

Blair, tears streaming down his face, thought his heart would break.

A shift in scene to a small white washed room. A gaunt-faced woman with auburn hair sitting on an old rocker, holding a curly headed baby.

Short, straight auburn hair. Big, big eyes, high cheek bones. A lost look, a detached air about her, even as she holds the baby.

She holds the baby as if it were a doll...one she wishes to keep safe, one she cares about, but without tenderness or gentleness, without involvement...nothing of herself given, if indeed there is anything of herself to give...

...and suddenly he knew...

This *was* Naomi, and the baby...

...the baby had to be *him*.

But which woman was she...and which baby was *he*?

The scene dissolved, melting away as if it were mist, revealing a set of heavy stone doors, identical in every way to those through which he had originally entered. Putting his hands one on each half of the engraved Eye and lightly pushing, he entered into the second part of his journey.

Shaman...know thyself.