Pasargada

By R.B. Braxtor

Pasargada is a journey where four people find out answers to questions that we all have in mind but never had the opportunity to ask. What is self-help? What is the role of destiny in my life? Am I a pirate or a king? What happens to the ifs and shoulds in my life? Who is charge of that so-called life of mine?
Pirates, kings, revolutionaries, monarchy all mixed up in a story that thrills and takes your soul to the limits of your imagination and self-acquaintance.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Jan 25, 2012
• ISBN: 9781466907706

R.B. Braxtor

R. B. Braxtor is the author of The Challenge of the Stone Wall City, Dead People Won’t Survive, and Manhattan Gospel. He is also an English teacher and a motivational speaker. He is a Brazilian who currently lives in New York and always involved with human rights.

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PASÁRGADA

R.B.Braxtor

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© Copyright 2012 R.B.Braxtor.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

Printed in the United States of America.

ISBN: 978-1-4669-0771-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4669-0769-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4669-0770-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011962473

Trafford rev. 01/19/2012

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Contents

CHAPTER 1 PASÁRGADA AND THE REFERENCE

CHAPTER 2 THE CHILDHOOD

CHAPTER 3 THE YOUTH

CHAPTER 4 THE DECEIVER

CHAPTER 5 THE SEA AND THE KINGDOM

CHAPTER 6 DAMAGED LIVES

CHAPTER 7 FAR AWAY

CHAPTER 8 THE ISLAND AND THE REVOLUTION

CHAPTER 9 THE ENCOUNTER

CHAPTER 10 THE HANGING

CHAPTER 11 THE RESCUE

CHAPTER 12 THE EVER AFTER

CHAPTER 13 THE AUTHOR

To Agnes,

And My Friends,

Co-Pirates on this

Boat so called Life

Aknowlegdments

My gratitude would never be enough to thank my muse and friend Craigg Lucas, who showed me that the stars were closer than I thought.

Characters

There are three classes of people in the story:

The main characters

Prince Zandor

Princess Melanie

Huancayo (servant)

Tarin (orphan boy)

The secondary characters

Father Olavo

The Duque

The king’s advisor

The tertiary characters

The King

The Queen

The King’s personal servant, Humury

Prince Zandor. A free spirit, extremely naïve and raised with the wrong perspective of the world, thinking that everything is possible, that he can get whatever he wants to because he is the future king, and a believer in happy endings. Totally unaware that his world is collapsing, he changes drastically, becoming a strong and intrepid pirate. Life makes him a serious, even fearful man, bloody and distant from everybody, talking in a deep voice and always circumspect.

Princess Melanie. Gracious, funny, adventurous, looking at life as always a garden for new adventures, but always trusting and behind her brother, the prince. She also changes to a woman of battle, without ever losing her grace as a princess.

Huancayo, aka Hunk. A black boy, the oldest of the four main characters, faithful to the extreme, totally in love with Melanie, always aware of the dangers, and a step ahead of their problems. He becomes a political leader, full of wisdom and compassion.

Tarin, the orphan boy. Being exposed to terrible things (such as the death of his mother and father) at such a very young age made him a sad, quiet, and reluctant boy; nevertheless, he has a great soul, always wants to help, and is always eager to do more for others, going any distance to do so. He becomes an unstoppable leader of a counterrevolution against the Duque. The people of Pasárgada love him. He is extremely serious, never smiling.

Father Olavo. An obese, very sweet guy, who loves those children and is faithful to the church and to the kingdom. He believes that tradition, family, and religion go together. He has a great heart in a confused soul. He has lived in the abbey by himself for a long time, until the children arrive.

The Duque. The king’s advisor and also the adopted son of the former king. He is evil to the bone, eager to overthrow the king and make himself the king. He created the illusion that rebels were planning a coup, when in reality he is the one behind everything. He is a gay in hiding, married but having few secretsin the closet.

The King. His real name has been long forgotten, as the tradition in Pasárgada calls all its kings as just the King. Deceived by his adopted brother and advisor, the Duque, he placed his children in the care of the monks in the abbey.

The Queen mother. As the King, Queen became her name, more than a title. Suspicious of the Duque, she convinced the king to not tell the Duque where their children were.

The king’s servant (Humury): His participation is in the background. He represents everybody who doesn’t understand the situation but sees how wrong it is and can make a huge difference.

The Setting

Pasárgada. A kingdom where peace and harmony reign, somewhere in Europe, until bigotry and prejudice start. The Duque creates a hidden rebellion, but he says that the rebels are behind it. People in Pasárgada are at first unaware of the situation, but with time they come to realize that Pasárgada had its best times before all the prejudice. Pasárgada is a small country by the sea, just a village surrounding a castle. The abbey is a short distance from the village on the sea shore.

CHAPTER 1 PASÁRGADA AND THE REFERENCE

Let me go to Pasárgada

There I am a friend of the king

There I can have who I want

On the bed that I have chosen.

(Adapted from Pasárgada, the poem by Manuel Bandeira)

This is the story of Pasárgada (pronounced all a as in Arthur, stressing the second a) And this first chapter is not a prologue, a foreword, or a commentary; it is part of the story. Without this first chapter, the whole book is meaningless. If you are one of those people (like me) who skips the prologue and reads the first chapter, I caught you. This first chapter is going to guide you through new reading experience (telling you that gives me immense pleasure!). The reason for that is Pasárgada is also a manifesto to referentialism, a new movement, a new theory of how art should be presented: with a referential commentary. As a matter of fact, referentialism is pretty old, even Augustinian (no, I am not going into that, or pretending to define it; Google it, if you will). I am just using it as a new concept. You will see that even the literary structure of this book is kind of different; most of the dialogues have a short reference to what the character is saying or how he or she is saying it, before the character actually speaks. Sometimes, a parenthetical comment explains how the writer (me) or the character feels or thinks about the plot.

This way of experiencing art is not completely new; sometimes singers say something about the song they are about to sing, guiding listeners in their experience. Paintings are an even better example of referentialism. Have you ever seen a painting titled just Variations on Blue (or some other abstract name)? For me this form of art excludes the viewer from the experience of that art form. I understand that sometimes the artist wants viewers to explore the work of art for themselves, but other times it is clear that the artist didn’t have any point in showing his craft. Be sincere; (leave your intellectual pride aside; this is annoying. The title of a painting could start a dialogue between the artist and the viewer, who might or might not agree with the artist’s perspective, but it is a dialogue.

In Pasárgada, I make many references to theology, sex, freedom, and changing yourself. These are some of the most controversial themes in any dialogue, basically because we don’t understand of them. And it is even okay if you don’t want to read the parts about sex (although I really recommend it, as it is fun); the idea is to show that there is no contradiction in talking about all of them in the same book. People often burn books because they don’t understand them (although some books really should be burned, not because of their content but because they are badly written), and in most cases, the problem is the lack of referential commentary. The author fails to connect to the readers.

Pasárgada is also about (mainly the first idea) self-improvement and why it doesn’t work. I know, I know, you might be fainting right now. But most so called self-improvement books are empty wells. They present the idea that you can get better; although it is possible to help yourself in many ways, don’t fool yourself you won’t be able to improve in every aspect of your being. That’s why some diets don’t work, or people stop trying to get over drugs or alcohol. The fallacy is that some things might work, but not that one. And every single person on this planet is different; their struggles are different.What is totally easy for you might be too hard for another to overcome.

And yes, there will be a sequel to Pasárgada, not based on the sales (dreaming to reach the skies), but on the storyline. Most books have sequels because editors and writers are thinking about the market or envision the money that can be generated. But Pasárgada is different, and the reason I say that is to, again, show what referentialism is all about. It is about giving guide lines and perspective to reader’s references. Therefore, as you read this book, you have to think about what is coming next, how the story will expand in books to come. (Who killed the Royals?)

To change ourselves, we need to do more than just concentrate minds, or achieve that nirvana to change ourselves. We need something else. What? Well, you have to read the rest of the story to find that out.

Pasárgada may be quite disturbing to some, and to others, it will be very easy to understand. Is Pasárgada real? Difficult to say. Is Pasárgada a place? Hard to locate. Is Pasárgada here? Closer than you can see. There it was, a kingdom where human beings could finally live in peace. A country years before any country had appeared.

It had been this amazing place for many years; time seemed endless. But there was an end, or was it the beginning? No, don’t get confused, you will see. It’s very easy to understand, if you want to.

In the 1500s, many countries were still called kingdoms. This perverse idea of boundaries and frontiers was not fully developed. And evil, as always, disguised itself in the beautiful clothes of religion.

Being a place of harmony, religion and spirituality were the center of its life. It couldn’t be different. Once you find God, you have eternal peace. The problem has always been for us, as humans, to focus on God. We look for him in things, instead of a being; as wealth; or even worse, in other human beings. That was the trap Pasárgada fell into.

The King (nobody ever knew his name, because for them he was just the king) thought that he had found God in a man, who he promptly called the Duque.

The Duque was a very unique person; his accent made it difficult to determine if he really talked that way or if he created it himself. One could say that he was handsome, or at least an intriguing figure. Nobody could take their eyes off him. Whenever the Duque showed himself at an event, he would immediately become the event. His voice, his eyes, his posture, nothing in him was ordinary. People would follow him like magnets. But to say that he was charming would be an understatement and a lie. He was more fearful than charming. People believed him, especially the king. Everybody believed and respected him, except the Queen.

The Queen (whose name was also never mentioned; like her husband, she was just the Queen) never knew why she did not believe him, but she didn’t. She also found him attractive and handsome; she wanted to like him in the beginning, but she just couldn’t. She always thought there was something strange about the fact that the revolution began after he was first named the Duque, but she couldn’t plainly pinpoint the moment. She also didn’t agree with his so called reforms of the country’s legislation. Although it seemed the best for families and society, somehow it sounded fishy. Was he really thinking about the families or himself? She kept a close eye on him at every event, every public speech, even taking notes, but she couldn’t find a specific problem with what he was saying. She wondered, How can you reform something that is already perfect?

The Duque’s speech on freedom and family traditions sounded controversial, and his idea that God needed to justif his acts sounded absurd. She even told the King, God doesn’t need lawyers; he needs witnesses.

What do you mean? the king asked in private.

You don’t need to go around forcing people to be like this or that, or how we think they should be. This is God’s role, not ours. We just need to live our lives as a testimony of our faith.

The King disregarded her words as just a strange form of jealousy; he didn’t pay attention to her warnings. The Duque finally grew too big for the Queen to face him publicly, so she kept sharing her thoughts with the King and some close servants, one in particular: Humury, the King’s servant. A faithful man, very quiet, without many words, but faithful as a spear.

Am I wrong? the Queen would ask Humury.

The servant never dared to answer the Queen, but his silence signified that he agreed with her ideas.

This man is saying that the only way to stop the revolution is to be tougher. But how can we be tough on something we don’t know? We don’t even know where these revolutionaries are, or what they want.

The ‘rebels’ were a group of dissidents inside the court, but nobody knew exactly who they were. The Duque was always alerting the people to the dangers of the rebels, how bad they were, how they wanted to destroy Pasárgada, how they wanted to destroy their families, their children, and society. Afraid of the unknown, Pasargadians responded to the Duque as a messiah who could save them.

The situation grew worse. Anybody could be called a rebel and sent to prison. No one was safe. The smallest disturbance could become a big strife. Accusations started popping from all over. The rebels seemed to be winning this invisible fight.

We have to unite ourselves against the rebels, the Duque proclaimed, and fight against anything thatgives power to them.

Therefore, books, educators, and anybody with a different idea would be banned from the kingdom; there was not even any communication with other kingdoms. And to preserve their freedom from the enemy,