Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 09:51:16 +0200 From: A.K. <andrej@andrejkoymasky.com> Subject: "The Free Commune of Silvana" 1/6 (Historical - fantasy) ---------------------------- THE FREE COMMUNE OF SILVANA by Andrej Koymasky (C) 2006 writen on March 7, 1995 translated by the Author English text kindly revised by Bill ----------------------------- USUAL DISCLAIMER "THE FREE COMMUNE OF SILVANA" is a gay story, with some parts containing graphic scenes of sex between males. So, if in your land, religion, family, opinion and so on this is not good for you, it will be better not to read this story. But if you really want, or because YOU don't care, or because you think you really want to read it, please be my welcomed guest. ----------------------------- CHAPTER 1 - Preface Few people know the splendid dead town of Silvana, with its castles, its sculptures, its untouched nature. The Government has preserved it as a unique, wide museum. Many theories followed one upon the other about the history of this strip of land that for one thousand and seven hundred years proudly preserved its independence. That is until, exactly one hundred and fifty years ago, all its inhabitants were deported making of it a desert place. Lately, newspapers reported the claims that the ex-citizens of Silvana, dispersed all over the nation, are submitting to the proceedings of the State Tribunal, in order to get the possibility to go back to their land and get back their ancient independence. It seems that the new Government is available to accept their requests. Few people know that three years ago, the scholar Berkov with his team, finally found the legendary archives of the town and that we can now know in detail the incredible and singular history of the "Very Right and Serene Commune of Silvana" - this was in fact its ancient, official denomination. Many parts of the legends about the Commune have been confirmed, specified and illustrated thanks to the study of this rich archive. Precious and rich documents were found, spanning time from some two hundred years ago to those of a hundred and fifty years ago. The past regime uselessly attempted to erase the history of this proud slip of land. Having had at my disposal the copies of all the microfilms of the archive, in these three years I completed an analysis of the material, in order to write out this first "Concise History of the Commune of Silvana" that I offer now to the readers. All the content of my Concise History, comes from the Chronicles, Documents, Ballads, Letters, Poems, Novels, Registers and Narrations contained in great quantity in the archive. The archive was hidden inside the Cliff behind the Founder's Monument, in seven windowless rooms, with the walls all covered by precious bas-reliefs. Altogether, the archive is formed by 352,758 documents, from single sheets to booklets of a few pages, to ponderous volumes - there is all the history of the one thousand seven hundred years of the Commune life. Also the dialogues are not my invention, but I recreated them from the documents. In some parts my Concise History will not describe some periods of the history, because I felt it suitable in this first work, to dwell only upon the most significant moments of the Commune history. For a more complete and deep history, you will have to wait for the work that Professor Berkov's team intends to publish - all the complete content of the archive, thoroughly annotated, an enterprise that will require still several years of work. Read this booklet only as an anticipation and illustration about how a handful of men created a community having a peculiar culture where order, respect, freedom, harmony and the pride of their independence ruled, and that only the army of a huge empire succeeded in dimming and, apparently in bending. N.B. All the dates are quoted with the dating double system, the one used by the Commune and the actual one in brackets. The Commune dating system was divided into twenty year cycles called "generations" and starts at the birth of its Founder. Each generation was divided into four cycles of five years each, called Seed, Leaf, Flower, Fruit. Therefore, for instance, a date written as Year 2 of the Fruit XII, abbreviated as 2 Fr XII, corresponds to the year 387 A.D. because it is calculated as: 150+(12-1)20+15+2. All the names have not been transliterated but translated, as they appear in all the documents clearly. When the meaning had become lost, their explanation then demonstrates how the Commune culture attached a great importance to the meanings of proper names. The symbol drawn on the cover of this book represents the "Freedom Sun" as it appeared on the oldest flag of the Commune. I thank here the Silvanite Just for the precious assistance work he did for me while I was writing this text, and to him I dedicate the following pages. Andrej Koymasky Of the National Archeological Academy ------------------------------------------------------------- Silvan and his first companions - Deer, Happy and Angler, Strong and Flower, on the Blazing Mount On the third day of the seventh month of the first year of the Seed of generation zero, 3/7/1 Se 0 (151 A.D.) in the town of Wedgeton was born a boy who had the name of Silvan (or Sylvan), the son of a stone-cutter named Skilful. Silvan grew up working with his father, but soon had a name as a sculptor - his works were so much appreciated that when only fourteen years old, he was called to carve the statues of the famous temple of the "Awakened's Finger" that was in the town of Richton. The young Silvan grew in grace, fame and skill, so that, when he was eighteen years old, he was summoned by the noble Dalesman of Richton to carve the facade of their mansion. The Dalesman family had a fifteen-year-old slave, called Deer - he was a really handsome boy that the elder son of the Dalesmans, named Happy, a twenty-year-old young man, used as "bed-slave", as it was a custom in those times amongst the noble youths before their marriage. In other words, as the laws prohibited premarital sex between a boy and a girl, Happy used Deer to give vent to his sexual desires, while waiting to marry. Deer found grace in the eyes of Silvan, who fell in love with the boy. Also Deer, who in his free time greatly admired Silvan's work, felt gradually attracted to the beautiful young man who, wearing only a scanty loincloth, was carving the statues and the friezes decorating the facade of Dalesmans' mansion. Silvan, who had to carve the Awakened's effigy to place above the main gate of the mansion, decided to give him Deer's features - since legend told that the Awakened reached the awakement right when fifteen years old, that is at the start of the Fruit period of his life. When Deer recognized himself in the effigy of the Awakened, he asked Silvan why he represented him in the clothes of the Awakened Prince. Silvan answered him, "Because it is looking at you that I became awakened - I now know the sense of my life, the aim, the value. It is you, my sweet little Deer. I want to devote all my life to you and to your beauty." "But I'm nothing but a humble slave." The boy answered, disconcerted. "And I will make of you a free man if you want to rely upon my love." Silvan answered. The boy blushed, but said, "I cannot dispose of myself, but if I could, I would be only yours." One more year elapsed, during which Silvan completed his work. The two young men were feeling the sentiment that tied them together growing stronger and stronger, even though they had still not been able to give oneself to the other. Silvan, ended his work and received his pay, approached Deer and told him, "Little Deer, light of my eyes, I now have to leave. But I don't want to go away without you. Follow me. Let's go away together, so that we can at last give ourselves to each other with love, and finally be united." "They will look for me, they will punish me. But just to spend even only a few days with you, I will follow you. I don't care if, because of this, I will be killed. Having your love will give some sense to the little that I will be allowed to live." At evening, Little Deer fled from his master's house and with Silvan waiting for him, they went away. Silvan knew well a mountain standing at about twenty kilometers from Richton, as he often went there to get the beautiful stones he carved, so he took Deer there. Reaching the mount top (it is Blazing Mount, which stands 750 meters high on the plain surrounding it) he brought him to the great quarry, a cave from where in the past, he got the white stones he used for his most refined sculptures. Here he deposited the sack with his working tools, the sack with the food and the sack with his clothes. He prepared a pallet filling with leaves one of the sacks, put it in the depths of the cave (where still stands Silvan and Deer's statue) and took Deer on it. The boy gave himself to Silvan, filled with joy. The first light of dawn found them still united in a very sweet loving intercourse, in ecstasy. Then Silvan composed the: "Poem of Dawn" "The cave has two welcome guests languidly laying down two naked bodies caressed by the rosy light of dawn eyes filled of stars and of love, silently talking in the joy of the union, consummated, and yet still living in their trembling and happy hearts. The entrance cut in the cliff is by fragrant herbs ornated flowers bend to admire the two languorous bodies so united that so intimately knew each other in the just elapsed night united in a love, blazing more than the mount's height and their hearts are trembling and happy. Nothing can any more separate them, no man, no death, no gods Because they swore eternal and true love through their bods love born amongst stones, and amongst stones flowered and fruit bore inside trembling and happy hearts." The two loved each other passionately. Silvan taught Deer to carve and on the right side of the cave they started to excavate what would become their house. Fearing that the Dalesmans were searching for Deer, only Silvan went down to the spring to get the water, to pick up berries and roots while Deer, inside the cave, continued to excavate their house. Then, while Deer lit the fire and prepared their food, Silvan continued to pierce the hard rock. And in the evening, lying on their pallet of leaves, they loved each other with renewed passion. On 3/5/2 Se I (172) some stone-cutters went to cut stones, saw the two lovers and, although Silvan begged them to tell nobody where they were, they spread the news in Richton. Happy of the Dalesmans guessed that the boy about whom they were talking was Deer. Then he gathered some armed men and climbed the mountain to take back his slave. As he reached the entrance of the cave, Happy shouted, "Deer, I know you are there inside - come out, you belong to me. Come out and I will not harm you. But I swear on all the gods that I will kill the one who kidnapped you!" Silvan asked Deer, "Do you want to go back with Happy?" "No, I belong to you now. I would rather die here with you." Then Silvan went to the opening of the cave with Deer at his back, "Happy, go back your home. Deer is now a free man, and he will live and die here, with me!" "Then you will die together, my slave and you!" Happy angrily shouted and, raising his bow, was about to shoot an arrow into Silvan's chest. But the youth made a gesture with his hand, as to stop him, and Happy became still, as if paralyzed - only his eyes could move, and his mouth. "Haw did you that? Are you a wizard?" "Not I - it is the Awakened Prince, under whose protection I put myself and Deer, that prevented you from doing an ignoble deed." "Free me!" "Only when you will recognize Deer as the free man he is." "Never - he his my slave!" Happy yelled. But he fell on the ground. His frightened men raised him bodily and ran down to the valley, taking him back to Richton, to his house. There they told Happy's father all that happened. All the care of Happy was useless; all the wise men, doctors and priests could do nothing. Happy was paralyzed and they could not even pull out of his hands the stretched bow with the arrow. They had to feed and wash him as he could only talk and move his eyes. At the end, Happy's father with all his family, carrying the son on a litter, climbed the mountain up to the cave. Here they called Silvan, the father prostrated himself before him and beseeched, "Give me back my son, I beg you. He was strong, valiant, and now he is like a stone statue. Give him back to me, I entreat you!" "It only depends on him, not on me - I will pray the Awakened to take pity on him, but if he doesn't repent, my prayers would be totally useless." Silvan answered. Then Happy's relatives asked him to mend his ways and to free Deer. The young man answered, "Yes, I understood I was wrong to oppose to the love binding Silvan with Deer. I ask forgiveness and give back his freedom to Deer, and I swear that not only I would never again harm one of them, but I will shield them against any danger." Then Silvan had him brought in their house inside the cave, had him lie on their pallet and immersed himself in prayer. Then he stood up and said, "I have to dip his body in the hot spring then in the cold spring and he will be healed." "Where are these two springs? Tell us, I beg you." The father said. "They are here, in this cave. Give me the time to find them." Silvan answered. He had Happy brought with the pallet into the great cave, went back into the house and pointed to two places, "Here. We have to dig here and here and we will find the two springs that will heal your son. Leave him here with us; we will take care of him. I promise you that he will come back to you, strong and sound, in less than one month." Then Silvan and Deer started to work, excavating one on the right wall and the other on the left one. They made two small tunnels in the rock until they heard that behind the rock wall it resounded an empty space. Their work took them eighteen days, during which they took care of Happy, feeding, washing, nursing him until at last they found two small caves - in the one on the right surfaced a pool of steaming hot water, in the one on the left was falling from the ceiling pure and fresh water. They then took Happy, undressed him, bodily transported him into the cave with the hot water and dipped him in - his body loosened, lost his stiffness, but the youth had little strength. They transported him inside the other small cave, put him under the small pure and fresh water cascade and he recovered his strength and was again healthy and vigorous even more than before, so that he could go out of the small cave by himself. When Silvan and Deer came out, Happy prostrated himself on the ground in front of them and said to Silvan, "Here I am, naked like on the day I was born, because today I am born again thanks to your great goodheartedness. You are a powerful man - teach me what it means to love, accept me as your disciple. Allow me to live near you, Master Silvan." Silvan told him, "As you whish, Happy. Here you are welcome. Excavate your house near ours, if you like. But you cannot come and live in it until you find the companion destined to you. Therefore, each morning you will come here to work making your house, and on the evening you will go back to the house of your parents." "How can I find him?" Happy asked. "You will recognize him easily - he will be fishing, and when you ask him his name, he will answer you that his name is Angler. Then you can come here with him, and you two can live with us." Happy started to excavate his house on the left of that of Silvan and Deer, as the left is the side of less value, to express that he had no value. When at evening he went back home, his family threw a great party and his father, as a gratitude gesture, prepared a document by which he donated to Silvan all the mount and gave it to his son to give it to Silvan. Moreover, he had made a ring with the symbol of the sun, that could be worn only by men born free, to be given to Deer. Happy was going and coming from the mountain and each time he walked along the river that springs under the cliff and that flows towards Richton, carefully observing its banks hoping to see a fisherman. And fishermen were not few, but none of them was called Angler. Happy believed in Silvan's words and so continued, day after day, to hope. Meanwhile Happy's house was almost completed. Silvan and Deer decided to excavate between the two small caves with the springs to make an alcove to sleep in. Meanwhile they enlarged and decorated the two caves of the hot and the cold waters, making two circular basins and decorating the walls with carvings narrating Happy's story. Then they decided to cover in bas-reliefs the alcove in the rear of their house, and the house walls as well. One morning while Happy was climbing up the Blazing Mount, he saw a seventeen-year-old youth who was fishing. He crossed the river on a ford and went near him and saw that the youth was really handsome. Moved, he asked, "Tell me boy, pray, what is your name?" "I'm called Angler, noble youth." "Be the gods praised! I was looking for you. Do you want to come with me and be my lover?" "One year ago I had a dream - a man called Happy would one day offer me his love and I would be happy with him - what is your name?" "My name is Happy." The youth answered filled with emotion. So Angler took his fishing tools, his basket full of fishes, and followed him. Silvan and Deer welcomed them with joy and Happy with Angler went to live near them. Meanwhile they continued to embellish their houses and to also carve the external facade towards the great cave, as well as build the seven stairs to the cave ground level. Angler continued to fish and Happy went to hunt, Deer gathered herbs and fruits in the woods and they shared their food and were happy. On 12/6/1 Le I (175), while they were eating, came a twenty-five-year-old slave called Strong, wounded and at the end of his strength. He fled from his town because his master had him tortured to punish him because he dared to ask the master's son, named Flower and sixteen years old, to make love. Strong asked them for protection and hospitality. They healed him until Strong was restored to health. Then Strong, as he was skilled in tilling, asked to be allowed to till the land for them. Silvan told him he could do it, but also that he had to excavate a house at the right of his own and told him, "When your house will be ready, the person who you love will come here to live in it with you." "Flower? You mean him? How can this be possible? He didn't accept making love with me, and he was the one who reported me to his father." "Don't doubt what I told you. Flower is these days pondering a lot over what happened to you because of him, and understands he had been foolish in refusing your love." "But I am only a slave." "On this mount there are no slaves and no masters - we all are free men." "I don't even have the ring with the sun." "We will make a standard with the sun, and it will be the symbol of our freedom." Silvan answered. In reality it is not known how that first flag was made, nor what colors it had. In fact the first flag we have documents about, was made several generations later, but nothing prevents us from believing that the most ancient flag we know was like the one made by Silvan. Strong started to work with a will to excavate his house and Silvan with Deer decided to carve its walls when Flower would arrive. Meanwhile they were carving the walls of Happy and Angler's house, with their story. When Strong finished excavating his house on the white rock, he went out to till a field - he often looked towards the valley, hoping to see Flower coming. At mid-afternoon of that day, he saw five people climbing up to where he worked. When the group was near enough, he recognized Flower amongst them. The boy, full of remorse towards Strong, felt love rising inside himself for the youth he had caused to be punished at their first encounter. Therefore he fled from his father's home with a servant, a slave and two of his friends who, having heard about Silvan, decided to unite with him, becoming his disciples. In fact none of them wanted to marry, as they'd known since they were very young boys that they loved men. Flower prostrated himself in front of Strong, asked him forgiveness and offered him his love. Strong made him stand up, then accompanied all of them in front of Silvan who welcomed them with joy. Then Happy said, "We are becoming a community, and you, Silvan, are our Master. We have a standard, we need to have also a name, a habit, a rule as every respectable community." -------------------------------- The "Commune of Blazing Mount" is born and Silvan, its First Master, dictated its Rule. Death of Silvan Silvan accepted. Thus, he decided that their community would be called "Commune", the habit would be a light blue tunic, and evening after evening discussed all the points with all of them, then he dictated the first Rule of the Common that Flower wrote down. We found the text of it: * "The Commune of the Blazing Mount is composed of free and equal men who call each other companion - none abuse the others under any pretext. * What unites us is love, not desire for glory or power - we will shield this love with all our means. * The Master will be everybody's counselor, but any decision has to be taken after freely discussing it, on a majority vote, and also the minority will freely and willingly submit to the decisions. * Each member will contribute to the Common life according his skills, ready to serve all the companions in all their needs. * Our only wealth is the work for the Commune, and is what, together with love, makes us free. * The Commune will shield all the companions and will also protect whoever comes here for protection, asking him only to accept this Rule. * Each new permanent member of the Commune has to build his own house, and all the others will help him according to their skills. * All the meals have to be eaten in common, so that we remain a real community. * Nobody will try to split a regularly constituted couple, that is a couple that united with a reciprocal consent in front of the Commune. To unite, the couple has to ask the Master to summon all the companions and, in his presence, they will declare their will to live together. * None of the companions will own anything personally, but everything will belong to everybody, and will be distributed according to the needs. * The fruit of work will also belong to everybody and nobody can ask for a bigger part than the others. * Whoever is ill, will be nursed and supported by the others until his complete healing. * Whoever doesn't respect this Rule, has to be rebuked by a companion. If he doesn't mend his ways, the case has to be reported to the Master, who will summon him and will try to make him understand his mistake. If he still doesn't mend his ways, he will be judged by the entire Commune and will suffer the consequences of his behavior." It is a really simple and primitive Rule, taking into account the problems of a small group. In the following generations it will see several additions and amendments, but this is clearly the core of which will later form the Statute that would give the Commune the title of "Very Right". The four companions who Flower took with him are Adroit, an eighteen-year-old slave; Moor, a nineteen-year old servant; Secure, an artisan twenty one years old; and Brimful, a noble youth seventeen years old. Their four houses (the denomination "cells" that is read on tourist guides is not correct, the companions called them "houses") are in front of the houses of the Founder and of his first companions, on the first floor. They are decorated with bas-reliefs called "the famous couples" that, differently from the bas-reliefs of the original nucleus and of the great statue on the central cave representing the Awakened Prince, are not the work of Silvan but of his pupils, as their style differences clearly shows. Only in later year were the other four rows of houses excavated above these primitives ones, in three groups on each side for a total of thirty-one houses, that gives a total primitive nucleus of sixty-two people. The facades of the houses, the external facade of the Cliff, the internal decorations of the great cave and the statues on the stalls are all later works dating from Silvano's times to about four hundred years after him (20 generations). It is not clear when the population of the Friends originated (that is of married men and women and their children), but it is likely that it began during Silvan's lifetime. In fact, in a document dated only five years after his death we can read a mention about the "Friends' families". There is a short novel, that can give a historical basis, explaining the origin of the Friends, and that I record here. ------------------------ THE BOILED SEEDS FLOWERING The Master (Silvan) was instructing the Companions when there came to the cave a young man. He had with him his spouse and an unweaned baby. This man's name was Sun, and his spouse was called Sweet. They were coming from the town of Cottageton. They said that they heard about the community and asked for shelter. In fact their families, being enemies for generations, opposed their union, notwithstanding they sired a son. They wanted to kill the child and then split the two young lovers. The Master told them, "This community is made of men only, we have no women nor children amongst us. How can you ask me to become part of the Companions?" At that, Sun deeply bowed and answered, "Master, it is said that here you give protection to any fugitive and persecuted and we are that - don't send us back to our town." The Master answered, "I'm not sending you back to your town - you can go elsewhere." Then Sun said, "Master, our child is a boy; accept and save at least him." "But he is still an unweaned baby." The Master objected. "Then allow us to remain here nearby until he can care for himself, in the name of the Awakened Prince that you honor," insisted the woman, tears in her eyes. The Master said, "If this is the will of the Awakened Prince, you will remain. Do you see that flat rock spur there on the south-east? If you are able to grow on it a lawn of flower using these seeds, you can build there your house." And he gave them a handful of boiled seeds that were ready for their meal. Sun and Sweet didn't hesitate, thanked Master and went on to the flat rock spur and laid on it all the boiled seeds in nice order. The disciples said to the Master, "Why did you ask them an impossible thing? Was it not easier to simply tell them no?" But the Master answered, "Didn't you see with how much faith they laid down all the seeds? Wait and you will see." The day after, at dawn, all the rock spur was covered with light blue flowers. The small family was still asleep, but the disciples saw it and went to call the Master. He said, "This is the fruit of their simple and clean faith. The light blue is our color; it is the answer to their desire for freedom and love. Wake them up and help them to build there their house, in the midst of the flowers." So the disciples did. They built a small house with stones and wood and after that the rock was called the rock of Sunsweet. --------------------- In reality this novel possibly explains two things - the coming of the first Friends and the name of one of the later castles, the Sunsweet Castle that in fact stands on the south-east of the Cliff, but that was built several generations later. In the foundations of this ancient castle is included a small chamber of a very old style of building, that could really have been the house of that first couple. About the coming of the first Friends there is another thing to note. Their acceptance was not immediate, it would take a real "miracle" in order for them to gain that acceptance. And soon arose the problem of how to bring them into the growing community. Would they be required to follow the Commune Rules or not? But let's go back to Silvan, Deer and the others. Another interesting document was found. It is a letter of the Great Priest of Richton to a member of the Commune, coming from the Temple of the Prince's Dormancy. In his letter he asks him how he could have become a disciple of "... the would-be Master Silvan, who is well known to be just a sculptor of images. What wisdom can you find in a man that knows the Scriptures just because he heard them when he attended the Temple? What guidance can you find in a man who is able to handle only a chisel and not a pen? What teachings can you hear from a man who dares to assert that all the men are equals? Aristocrats, priests, merchants, artisans, tillers, servants and slaves; how can they all be equals? Don't you know that they were created different by the gods? ..." and so forth. This shows in what consideration Silvan was held outside his community and how from the start the Official Religion looked at him with suspicion and a despising eye. On 3/7/1/ Le III (216 A.D) Silvan dies. We have the narration of his death, possibly written by Flower. "On the morning of the third day of the seventh month, after singing with his companions the praise of the Awakened, the Master asked them to follow him. He went down the crag on the west of the Cave to a small field gently sloping down and covered with white flowers. He asked Deer to sit on the ground, then he laid down with his head resting on his companion's lap and said, "So, companions, I've reached the great passage. I leave you, but will always be with you. I give you a word - be free in love. Farewell my dear ones." Deer asked him, "Why are you saying such words, my beloved? You are strong, you are only sixty-five years old, I need you, we all need you. You cannot yet leave us." All the companions repeated his words, "We still need you. You cannot yet leave us." But the Master made a sign for them to be silent, smiled and said, "I have to go. Don't complain for this. Be merry, because the Awakened is waiting for me. Here, in this exact point, you will let my remains rest forever. Now, I pray, sing with me the Praise for the Dormancy of the Awakened, and let me go in peace." All the companions, deeply moved, sang together, and when they were singing the words "... and smiling his eyes he closed..." the Master's voice ceased. Then Deer caressed his face and, cradling him, together with the others he ended the singing of all the hymn. Then asked the companions to prepare the coffin and bring the tools to dig. Deer remained there, waiting, the Master's head on his lap. When the Friends heard about the Master's departure, all left their houses, men, women and children and went to the flowered field to honor the Master. The companions brought the coffin and placed in it the body, while the Friends covered it with flowers. Then, where Deer had been seated, they dug, then let down the coffin. They strewed this also with flowers and covered it with the earth. Then Deer carved the stones with which the spot where Silvan was buried was covered, and the Friends planted young trees all around, one for each family. Then Deer started to carve the great effigy of the Founder, portraying himself smaller and sitting on the palm of the hand of his companion. This statue was put in front of the great statue of the Awakened, in the Great Cave of the Cliff. Then he composed the "Praise to the Master" that is sung to our days." In the place called Flowerfield, the Commune cemetery, can still be seen the Master's grave. The sculptures covering it are without any doubt very ancient and are clearly carved by the same hand that carved the Founder's statue. The grave is surrounded by ten majestic trees in a circle, at the same distance from each other, and this can only mean that at the Master's death there were already ten Friends' families. The companions, at the Master's death, must have been between sixty and seventy. In all, therefore, the Commune ought to have had a little more than a hundred members. We don't exactly know their number, as in those first times they were not yet keeping lists of names as they started to do later, nor were they yet taking recurring census. They didn't feel the need for them as, being the community was still small, and they all knew each other personally by name. ----------------------------- CONTINUES IN CHAPTER 2 ----------------------------- In my home page I've put some of my stories. If someone wants to read them, the URL is http://www.geocities.com/~andrejkoymasky/ If you want to send me feed-back, please e-mail at andrejkoymasky@geocities.com ---------------------------