Tales from the Island of Serendip 4 4

[Flex Mentallo]

The plane runs out of fuel and crashes high in the mountains, killing the pilot.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

They are rescued by a strange caravan led by an elderly Chinese man named Chang.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

After a long journey they eventually reach a small pass.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Beyond, they suddenly find themselves in a beautiful, warm, fertile land, called 'the Valley of the Blue Moon.'

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

The valley is populated by a peaceful community.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

According to Chang, the community was formed in 1713 by a Belgian priest named Father Perrault who stumbled into the valley half-frozen to death, and amputated his frost-bitten leg by himself when he found there were no doctors. Later, the natives told him that he could have saved his leg because there is no disease in the valley. Nor do people age as in the world outside. After building Shangri-La, he was 108 years old and still very active.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Conway sees a beautiful young woman bathing in a pool and wonders who she is.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

His brother meets and falls in love with Maria, a beautiful Russian woman who appears no more than 20 years of age, but who actually came to the valley in 1888. His brother is eager to return to civilization with Robert and wants to take Maria with them.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Robert is taken by Chang to meet the High Lama.

 

"Look at the world today. Is there anything more pitiful? What madness there is! What blindness! What unintelligent leadership! A scurrying mass of bewildered humanity crashing headlong against each other, compelled by an orgy of greed and brutality. The time must come, my friend, when this orgy will spend itself, when brutality and the lust for power must perish by its own sword. Against that time is why I avoided death and am here and why you were brought here. For when that day comes, the world must begin to look for a new life."

 

Conway belatedly notices a walking stick, and that the High Lama has only one leg. He is amazed to realize that the High Lama and Father Perrault are one and the same, now more than 200 years old.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Conway is told that he was actually selected and summoned not by Father Perrault but by Sondra because of his idealistic writings of a utopian society free from tension, poverty and strife.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Sondra:I saw a man whose life was empty...Oh I know, it was full of this and full of that. But you were accomplishing nothing. You were going nowhere, and you knew it. As a matter of fact, all I saw was a little boy whistling in the dark.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Conway: It's inconceivable.

Sondra: What?

Conway: All of it. Father Perrault and his magnificent history. This place hidden away from the rest of the world with its glorious concepts. And now you come along and confuse me entirely.

Sondra: Oh, I'm sorry. I thought I was to be the light. But why do I confuse you? Am I so strange?

Conway: Oh, on the contrary, you're not strange. And that, in itself, is confusing. I had the same idea about, about Shangri-La. A sense that I've been here before, that I belonged here.

Sondra: I'm so glad.

Conway: I can't quite explain it, but everything is somehow familiar. The very air I breathe, the Lamasery with its feet rooted in the good earth of this fertile valley while its head explores the eternal. All the beautiful things I see - these cherry blossoms, you. All are somehow familiar. I've been kidnapped and brought here against my will. A crime, a great crime, yet I accept it amiably, with the same warm amiability one tolerates only from a very dear and close friend. Why? Can you tell me why?

Sondra: Perhaps because you've always been a part of Shangri-La without knowing it.

Conway: I wonder.

Sondra: I'm sure of it, just as I'm sure there's a wish for Shangri-La in everyone's heart.

 

 

Edited July 19, 2014 by Flex Mentallo

[Flex Mentallo]

Father Perrault dies believing he has at last found a worthy successor. Conway explains to his brother that he has been chosen to replace him.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

George believes that Robert's story about the Lama is completely mad. He demands that they return to the outside world and take Maria with them. Robert warns his brother that if Maria leaves, she will age and perhaps die.

 

George: She's a fragile thing that can only live where fragile things are loved. Take her out of this valley and she'll fade away like an echo.

 

Maria: I'll die if I have to stay here another minute...Look at me, Mr. Conway, do I look like an old woman? Is this the skin of an old woman? Look into my eyes. Are these the eyes of an old woman?

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Half persuaded that he has been deceived, Robert reluctantly agrees to leave with them, but cannot bear to tell Sondra.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

At the gateway to the world, Robert looks back.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Sondra frantically races after him and calls out: "Bob!" but cannot reach him. She collapses at the cold entrance, the wind and snow into which Robert has disappeared raging beyond.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Out on the narrow ledge leading away from the valley, an avalanche buries the Tibetan porters, and only the three white travelers survive.

 

Maria dies an old wrinkled and withered woman, aging by half a century, the time she spent in the valley. George screams out: "Look at her face! Her face! Look at her face!" Mad with grief George commits suicide by throwing himself off a cliff ledge.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Realizing his terrible mistake, Robert frantically searches for a way to return through the snowy mountains to the hidden valley - a tiny, desperate figure against the immensity of the Himalayas. But he is lost.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Eventually he stumbles into a remote village, more dead than alive, and news of his survival reaches the outside world.

"During those last ten months, that man has done the most astounding things. Well, he learned how to fly, stole an Army plane and got caught, put into jail and escaped, all in an amazingly short space of time, but this is only the beginning of his adventure. He begged, cajoled, fought, always pushing forward to the Tibetan frontier. Everywhere I went, I heard the most amazing stories of the man's adventures. Positively astounding, till eventually, I trailed him to the most extreme outposts in Tibet. Of course, he had already gone, but his memory, oh, oh... His memory will live with those natives for the rest of their lives. 'The man who was not human,' they called him. They'll never forget the devil-eyed stranger who six times tried to go over a mountain pass that no other human being dared to travel, and six times was forced back by the severest storms. They'll never forget the madman who stole their food and clothing, who they locked up in their barracks but who fought six of their guards to escape. Why, their soldiers are still talking about their pursuit to overtake him and shuddering at the memory. He led them the wildest chase through their own country. And finally, he disappeared over that very mountain pass that they themselves dared not travel. And that, gentlemen, was the last that any known human being saw of Robert Conway."

Lord Gainsford

 

 

Edited July 19, 2014 by Flex Mentallo