Oracles and Mystics...

"The Oracle" sits at his table, sipping his iced-tea. He's a scary dude. He intimidates with his biker build and his eye, which is pale blue and clouded over. Like the old man in Poe's "Tell Tale Heart", he has the vulture eye...all seeing.

He rides his Harley up into the patio area and sits with all the regulars. He makes a killer marinara sauce from scratch that takes days, he says. And he believes that the entire town is a portal to demon infestation.

He can tell you who is demon possessed and what particular demon is possessing them. He knows all the scumbags and tweakers and it is his mission, like a paladin, to cleanse the town of any evil that befalls the good and the pure of heart. He points them out to me, sometimes.

There's a scary old man who clings to the neighborhood runaways and street kids. "Beware", says the Oracle. Another young man dresses in a monk's robe and carries a dangling crucifix as he carts a ten foot cross up and down the street on roller skate wheels. "Do not be swayed by false prophets," says the Oracle. Sitting alongside this man, I see the dark underbelly of my city start to come alive. Sitting outside at the cafe on a workday, the sociopaths and the street criminals bask in the sunshine and go about their days and the Oracle keeps a close watch on everyone.

I know there is no demon portal, and just because someone is strange or psychologically maladjusted doesn't mean they're demon-possessed, but sitting with this man and listening to him speak gives me strange insights into some deviant souls. Also, I know the man is a complete loon...but he's an entertaining, insightful loon.

Not only is he well read on the Bible, he quotes apocalyptic scriptures as if the world were ending that very day. He quotes from ancient texts and mystics new and old. He reads Velikovsky and Carl Sagan and is convinced that he alone can interpret the day that the comet will strike the earth and end all of human existence. He's predicted the end of the world three times since I've known him.

Each time, he quietly announces that he will seek seclusion and disappears for weeks at a time. I tell him, "If we're both here in a month's time, then you owe me an iced-tea." He owes me three iced-teas. Usually, he says that the signs were convoluted...something was misread.

But he returns...riding his Harley, claiming his seat under the cool awning. People seek him out, ask his advice on things mundane and supernatural. I like to think that my town has a mystical paladin, a spiritual protector...he's our own Buffy without the cuteness and the sharpened stakes and the kick-ass jujitsu moves.

I like that he knows the harmful and the deceitful in this place. They might not all be the minions of demons, but he knows the bad from the good and he ruthlessly defends the rights of the good. I'll settle for that. I'll take my seat and chuckle quietly and cynically while waiting for my iced-teas and the end of the world that is heading our way in 2012. Or whenever the Oracle goes into hiding.