Technical writing proposal on Senior Healthcare Facility Research Paper

Technical writing proposal on Senior Healthcare Facility - Research Paper Example l is to find ways on how to protect faces of the health workers and the effectiveness of the facial protective equipment and procedures for control that can be used. This will include reviewing of the literature of environmental, organizational, and individual factors that improves on the effectiveness of health workers. It will also include identification of the framework that will carry on the final research. The major goal of this proposal is to identify Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and nosocomial; infections of the respiratory tract in relation to the safety of workers and specific areas where further research should focus on. The target audience of this research proposal is the healthcare workers. The significance of this study is to make workers more effective at their workplaces if they are provided with facial preventive measures. The current events in relation to SARS in healthcare workers of Canada have attracted much attention on how to prevent this epidemic. Facial protection involved the use of a mask and protective eyewear. Following the outbreaks, there is need to ensure that the healthcare workers are protected to prevent future outbreaks and not only in severe acute respiratory syndrome but also other respiratory infections. Following these observations there is needed to carry out a review on facial protection that would deal with healthcare workers concerns. This influenced me to write a proposal on SARS. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome is a disease that is spread through respiratory droplets. According to research carried out, SARS is less contagious compared to other respiratory infections. It is important to note that persistent use of infection control measures reduces occurrence of such outbreaks in China, Vietnam, and Singapore. Much attention focused on why the implementation of appropriate precautions failed and the need to promote these precautions in future. It is also evident that sneezing and coughing do not generate highly

Migrants and Rights Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Migrants and Rights - Term Paper Example The Constitution of the United States gives the members of the U.S.A the right to acquire education and healthcare.The Immigration Reform and Control Act in the US was followed by the introduction of many anti-immigrant bills. These bills made it much more difficult for undocumented immigrants to acquire services. In California for instance, an extreme measure was taken to disqualify undocumented immigrants from acquiring healthcare and education. This measure led to other states taking up the similar measures. This measure was aimed at reducing the population of immigrants in the states as less people would be willing to move into regions where they cannot acquire critical services such as healthcare. Moreover, through attacking this vulnerable group of immigrants, the California state made the living conditions for immigrants in the region worse thus this may have led to some of the immigrants moving back into their state of origin. Employees have the right to form unions that would advocate for their interests for instance increase in salaries and better working conditions. Undocumented immigrants majorly acquire employment in labor intensive sectors. These include agriculture, food processing, garment production, transportation and domestic services. They tend to acquire less benefits and fewer rights. Immigrants find it difficult to fight for their rights through forming unions to strive for better pay because they may acquire sanctions from their employers which make it difficult to acquire future employment.

Beowulfs Pagan and Christian Elements

Beowulfs Pagan and Christian Elements The unknown poet of Beowulf wrote about the Geats and the Danes, Germanic tribes who lived in pre-Christian times on the continent.   The plot of the story, therefore, has many references to pagan beliefs and superstitious customs. On the other hand, a man who lived in Anglo-Saxon England composed the poem; therefore, there are examples in the poem of Judeo-Christian beliefs. The poem, therefore, speaks of both Wyrd and God of both the Germanic Fate that directs mens lives to inevitable destruction and the Christian God who cares for the lives of His children. The poem fused Christian and Pagan ideals to reflect on the time and place in which it was written. Brodeur, the author of an article states a period in which the virtues of the heathen Heroic Age were tempered by the gentleness of the new belief; an age warlike, yet Christian. As a good Christian, the poet found himself faced with the task of treating this originally pagan material in a manner acceptable to a Christian audience (183). Brodeur helps us understand the context of the poem and begins to help answer they question, why it was written like this and how this plot was formed. Another important statement in the article was when Brodeur says a Christian perception of the insane futility of the primitive Germanic thirst for vengeance; and the facts that Beowulfs chief adversaries are not men but monsters and that the king of the Geats did not seek wars with their neighboring tribes may reflect a Christian appreciation for peace among humans (22). It was also a period in which people such as Hrothgar and his Daneswere punished for their idolatry (207). Throughout this poem, we see the cross between striving for a Christian God and fighting for pagan vengeance. Christianity and Paganism combined together created a holy ground on which Beowulf was built. Paganism is a belief defined as a person holding religious beliefs other than those of monotheistic. Some basic customs go along with this belief. One is the custom of worshipping a profusion of Gods. More than ninety percent of the time, it was in the form of a sacrifice. Another custom believes in fate and that is it supposed to control your destiny or duties in life. This is known as Wyrd. Another custom is beliefs in imaginary things like dragons and magic. In addition, they lived in a desolate tone. They believed in earth-bound view on life. Paganism came to be compared by Christians with a feeling of indulgence, speaking to the individuals who are arousing, materialistic, liberal, unconcerned with the future, and uninterested in religions that are more standard. Pagans were set out with admirable sense, to enjoy earth or himself. Again, believing in fate, if they were going for the worst they would look at it without bitterness. Lastly, they believed that fame was the only way for one to reach immortality. As you can see, majority of these customs are a little far-fetched. Some of these irrational ideas explains a lot of part we see in Beowulf.   Some pagan elements we see in Beowulf are Hrothgars peoples actions and basic pagan beliefs along with cultural importance and old tales. Christianity is a religious belief defined as one who received Christian baptism or is a believer in Jesus Christ and his teachings. This belief like Paganism, come with some basic customs. First, they believe in one God. They believe that afterlife exists and it is like a utopia. They also believe in prayer as a way to give thanks to God for helping us avoid evil. Lastly, they have an optimistic outlook that is centered on a man who devoted himself to overpowering evil to create a better world for his followers. Again, these rules play a major role and effect the use of Christian elements in Beowulf. Some examples in this poem are the narration, Hrothgars speech, the Queens speech, and Beowulfs speech. Again, these points in the poem are very important to the plot and it is impacted by religious beliefs. Narration was impacted heavily by Christianity and is found throughout the text of the poem. An example straight from the poem is when the narrator said A comfort sent by God to that nation (13-17). Here the narrator is talking about Beo. He is the son of Shield Sheafsons. He is also Hrothgars great-great grandfather. Another example is when the narrator says, The clear song of a skilled poet tellingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦how the Almighty had made the earth (81-98). Here, the narrator is describing scenes at Herot and it refers to God as the Almighty. They believe that he created the earth and that is derived from the Bible. These few examples of narration help prove other documents statements thinking how this poem has Christian elements. In Christina and Pagan Elements Edward B. Iriving Jr. states There are references to Gods creation of the universe, the story of Cain, Noahs flood, devils and hell, and the Last Judgment (177) Here, Edward B. Irving Jr. is telling us that they made referen ces to monumental moments in the catholic churchs history. The one that sticks out the most is Noahs Flood. It is a part in the church bible that represents the freedom our religion has fought for and gained. In the same article, the author also said, The date of Beowulf is much controverted, but are no conclusive arguments against dating the poem to the age of Bede, a date which was favored by a majority of Beowulf scholars of the last generation (179). Again, the author is providing critical facts helping us date the time of Beowulf and comparing it to the timing of the peak of Christian practice. Therefore, this could help us differentiate the reasons for creating the poem. Personally, one like myself could think that is poem is more centered around the Christian faith because there are just more facts proving it. Going against that, I believe there are only a few theories that prove hints of pagan faith because again, there are fewer facts in Beowulf and the pagan faith was a sh aky practice during the time and there are some confined and complete documents of practice, but it was not as strong as the Christian faith. In 1960, Margaret E. Goldsmith published The Christian Theme of Beowulf and continued along the same lines in several articles culminating in her 1970 book, The Mode and Meaning of Beowulf. She finds teachings of Augustine and Gregory in Hrothgars sermon and views the poem as a kind of Christian historical novel.   Here is just another documented book providing correct and accurate information based on research within Beowulf and based on the portion written by Edward B. Irving Jr. On the other hand, there are some possible and documented facts that compare to the Pagan faith that need to be mentioned. The Christian Language and Theme of Beowulf provides a good amount of information on this. Thomas D, Hill mentions a crucial element when he says Pagan is a word used in at least three different senses in discussing this problem: the literal, the vestigial, and the ethical (199) The first sense is more realistic than the others and refers to documented practices of pre-Christian religion in which Germanic people participated. Beowulf contains documented pagan rituals and the ritual that stands out the most are three accounts of pagan funeral rites. The second pagan area involves how pagan rituals and practices are preserved through poetry. This section is not as clear as the previous area, but it still does bring a good point to the table. For example, the soldiers in Beowulf wore helmets with painted boars on them and the boar was a sacred animal that belong to the Germanic God Freyr. The third area revolves around the ethics and morality of this practice. Therefore, this is actually the real cause of most arguments involving Christian elements and Pagan elements in Beowulf. Thomas D. Hill gives us the background of it when he says The fundamental ethical code of the poem is unmistakably secular: it is the warrior code of the aristocracy, celebrating bravery, loyalty, and generosity with the hero finding his own immortality in the long-lasting fame of great exploits carried out in this world (180). The archetype of the code is not word for word, but similar to the code of Iliad which is part of the Pagan religion. As you can see, there are both Christian and Pagan elements being fused into this poem and they are clearly separated. However, both Christian and Pagan elements are being fused together to form some representation of both religions into one object, person, or place. First, Beowulf can be viewed in multiple ways. He can be viewed in both religions, but he comes together to for one. A Christian figure and a Germanic Warrior are two ways that Beowulf could be looked at in this poem. He can be viewed as a Germanic Warrior for his constant fights. He is having his big brawls with a big monster Grendel, Grendels troll mother, and a big fire-breathing dragon. It is somewhat strange that he is doing all of this fighting because he grew up as a very mature boy. He was known for having great kingly qualities. He develops into a wise and effective ruler as he ages. A great way to put it is he starts out as a heroic monster fighter and transitions to a dependable king. That looks and sounds li ke a very impressive accomplishment. Likewise, it can be looked at as a transition from a Germanic Warrior to a Christian figure. The poem states Beowulf was quickly brought to the chamber: the winner of fights, the arch warrior, cam first-looking in with his fellow troops to where the king in his wisdom waited, still wondering whether Almighty God would ever turn the tide of his misfortunes. This great quote is from lines 1310 to 1315.   This is great to prove the point that he is a Christian figure because he is asking for the forgiveness of God. He wants to be forgiven and know that all of his wrongdoings are forgiven. These wrongs were mostly of him fighting. This passage suggests that the culture of the Anglo-Saxons had a touch of both Christians and fierce warriors. Therefore, this fits in perfectly to that question of which one was he. Overall, Beowulf can be seen within this culture because it has so many direct connections with it. In The Christian Language and Theme of Beowulf Thomas D. Hill talks well about the combination of the religions when he says Many scholars, and perhaps most ordinary readers, have simply accepted this odd blend of pagan story and Christian teller as perhaps illogical and somewhat puzzling on purpose and implications, but nonetheless the way the poem is (200). Here the author of this portion of this research book is explaining how to combination of these two religions to form Beowulf is a way to cause problems for the reader. Scholars feel the author intentionally tried to confuse the reader so they can pick a side between Christian and Pagan meanwhile; the author could have tricked them and combined the two. That is why it is necessary to read in between the lines. In conclusion, Christian and Pagan elements play an immense role in Beowulf. This poem offers many options for the reader to choose. It allows them or gives them the power to create their own version of the poem. It gives clear hint and examples of both religions and that is what makes it difficult to separate or decide where this poem originates. Maybe that is something that we should not find out. The author could be trying to leave the readers a message based on these facts. These examples of religious practices could be the key to finding what we know beyond our history. It keeps your mind open and gives the reader the right away to let their mind race and think about the composition of Beowulf. It is obvious that the Christian, Pagan question is tightly connected and that it will most likely not be fully proven or solved any time soon. However, based on what scholars know, the best guess to this author would have to be a Christian poet with a Pagan past. The thing that would hel p the most would know the date. This would lead to almost every unsolved question about Beowulf. Scholars have favored in educationally guessing the time during the later period. This later period is around the late tenth century going into the early eleventh century. On these grounds alone, however, scholars can make no firm decision about the birth date of Beowulf. Work Cited: Bjork, Robert E., and John D. Niles. Christian and Pagan Elements. A Beowulf Handbook.  Lincoln: U of Nebraska, 1997. 176-92. Print. Donoghue, Daniel, and Seamus Heaney. The Christian Language and Theme of Beowulf. Beowulf: A Verse Translation: Authoritative Text, Contexts, Criticism. New York: Norton, 2002. 198-201. Print. Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur Vengeance the Pagan and Christian Inspiration. Christian and Pagan  Elements of Beowulf. Pace University, Web. 19 Jan. 2017.

Humans and Nature: Depletion of Natural Resources by Humans Essays

Humans and Nature: Depletion of Natural Resources by Humans Early in human history, people used energy for heating, lighting, and cooking. As humans began to farm larger areas of land, their energy demands changed. Domesticated animals were used for energy sources to pull plows. When the Industrial Revolution occurred, people's energy demands further changed to meet the needs of industry. Work that was done by people and animals were then transferred over to machines. These machines required more natural resources such as iron and coal to produce large amounts of steel for tractors, pipes, and other devices. As the population increased, the demand for more products, such as clothing, shoes, and household items required more energy to be produced. The increased use of machines eventually led to an increased need for power. The needed power could only come from natural resources. The abundance of natural resources used to be generally assumed, but in recent years, questions are beginning to be raised, including the availability of fuel and other minerals. Decreasing supplies of natural resources and increasing world population growth has added pressure to the world's search for energy. Humans have harmed nature by overusing, wasting, and abusing its supply of natural resources. Growth in human population and in material living standards leads to increased production. More production, given the technologies that are currently employed, result in a rapid depletion of many natural resources and to the production of numerous pollutants which are not only dangerous to the environment, but are also, employed on a scale which cannot be absorbed and diluted by the natural environment. Th... ...html (10 March 1999). 4. Bard, Fossil Fuels and Energy Conversion. 14. 5. Talbot, Jeffrey â€Å"The Value of Ecological Resources.† EPRI Journal, July 1998, 8-17. 6. Maret, Susan â€Å"Natural Resources.† Choice, October 1998, 294-295. Works Cited - Bard, Stephen, Fossil Fuels and Energy Conversion. New York: GEM, 1995. - Crites, James. "The War for America's Natural Resources." The American Political Science Review, December 1998, 947-948. - Maret, Susan â€Å"Natural Resources.† Choice, October 1998, 294-295. - Stockett, William R. "The Energy Story" http://www.energy.ca.gov/ education/story/story-html/chapter05.html (10 March 1999). - Talbot, Jeffrey â€Å"The Value of Ecological Resources.† EPRI Journal, July 1998, 8-17.

Abraham Lincoln’s Political and Moral Slavery Dilemma Essay

The sixteenth President of the United States of America, the Great Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln casts quite a historical shadow over any other competing figure. Lincoln was brought into the world on February 12th, 1809 to an incredibly modest upbringing in which he would mold himself into a successful lawyer and later a politician. Abraham received little formal education during his childhood, eventually acquainting himself with the law through the apprenticeship system. After rising through the Illinois legislature structure, Lincoln went on to serve in the House of Representatives on behalf of the state of Illinois before gaining widespread recognition from his debates with competing Senate candidate Stephen A. Douglas in 1858. The expansion of slavery into the United States new territories was the hotly contested issue of these debates, Lincoln’s stance would eventually propel him into the national spotlight and later the Presidency. See more: Homeless satire essay Abraham Lincoln’s views on slavery were split between his political obligations and his moral beliefs, his political actions were influenced by his desire to preserve the Union, and his moral stance on the issue largely stemmed from his deep-seeded belief in the power of the Constitution, not the political or social equality of another race. Abraham Lincoln’s view on slavery was segregated in itself, between how he perceived the issue on a political level and as a moral dilemma facing the United States. Without the understanding of Lincoln’s differentiated objections to the institution that created such a split in the American people, it is difficult to fully grasp how and why Lincoln acted as he did throughout his political career. Lincoln’s first documented objection to slavery began in the Illinois State Legislature, in which he and Dan Stone protested a piece of legislation that disapproved of abolitionism and affirmed that the Constitution made slavery â€Å"sacred to the slave-holding states. † The major objection to this resolution was that the spread of slavery was being advocated based upon the opinions of policy makers, nstead of constitutionally. Lincoln’s hard and fast belief in the power of the Constitution would be an overarching theme throughout his career. This protest of an exceedingly popular piece of legislation, recall that only Lincoln and Dan Stone objected in the Legislature, is a significant display of what kind of character Mr. Lincoln possessed. In the face of an overwhelming majority, with literally no opportunity of overturning the decision and risking unpopular opinions, Lincoln was unafraid to express his undying faith in the Constitution. This theme of continual commitment to the Constitution would go even further in 1854 when the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed. Through Lincoln’s eyes, this Act was a clear violation of the Missouri Compromise of 1830, which in effect prohibited the spread of slavery into any newly acquired American territories. Lincoln, at this time running for the Illinois House of Representatives, especially opposes the Kansas-Nebraska Act because of what it implies about the United States government. This Act allows popular sovereignty to decide the legality of slavery in Kansas, in theory the people of the new territory may decide for themselves on the issue. On principle, one must consider that Lincoln could have not been a larger promoter of the idea of popular sovereignty, due to his strong belief in constitutionality. However, issues arise when the Act that is passed is in clear violation of another. The practical repealing of the Missouri Compromise is a major sticking point in this case. Lincoln views this as the government of the United States essentially saying one thing, and then doing another. The so called indifference towards the spread of slavery is in fact a promotion of the institution. This Act simply promotes the profits of the slavery institution, an act of self-interest that deeply disturbs Lincoln. The slavery issue does impact him on a moral level, because of the injustice upon the individual, but this is not where his greatest objection lies. The tendency towards self-interested legislation instead of deriving power from the Constitution is the largest fear of Lincoln during this era. The entire institution of slavery has manifested this self-interest, Lincoln quarrels much more with the political element of this development rather than the moral. While campaigning for, and serving as the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln’s view on slavery depended on the most effective way to preserve the Union. When first entering his Presidency, Lincoln in fact did not want to interfere with the institution of slavery as it currently stood. As stated in his letter to George T. M. Davis prior to becoming President, â€Å"Of course the declaration that there is no intention to interfere with slaves or slavery, in the states, with all that is fairly implied in such declaration, is true. † Lincoln viewed himself as not only the leader of the United States, but also as the protector of the Constitution. Due to this view of himself, Lincoln was a promoter of gradual emancipation of slaves as a way to compromise the raging extremes of abolitionists and those of the promotion of slavery. However, the Southern states were not receptive of the notion of gradually allowing this institution to fall away. On September 22, 1862 Lincoln issued the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which claimed, â€Å"all persons held as slaves within any state, or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free. † The Proclamation declared that the states that were in fact rebelling against the Union, had one-hundred days to cooperate with the government. The Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in effect, was Lincoln’s final attempt to end the Civil War in a peaceful manner and preserve the Union. While being a proponent of the gradual emancipation resolution to the slavery issue, Lincoln’s moral stance on the institution largely stemmed from his belief in the power of the Constitution. Lincoln states his response to witnessing slavery in personal letters, â€Å"I confess I hate to see the poor creatures hunted down, and caught, and carried back to their stripes, and unrewarded toils; but I bite my lip and keep quiet. † As well as, â€Å"That sight was a continual torment to me. † Although personally saddened by the harsh realities of slavery, Lincoln’s moral stance was expressed through his plans for colonization of the slaves. The President’s proposal to a group of highly educated black men on August 14th, 1862 included a plan for a coal colony in Central America. Lincoln’s rationale for colonization as he expressed it to his audience that day, â€Å"But even when you cease to be slaves, you are yet far removed from being placed on equality with the white race. You are cut off from many of the advantages which the other race enjoy. The aspiration of men is to enjoy equality with the best when free, but on this broad continent, not a single man of your race is made the equal of a single man of ours. Although he did not explicitly explain to these gentlemen, Lincoln was justifying his plan of colonization through the Constitution. By stating that the black race would not enjoy the same advantageous of the other race, Lincoln is referencing the Bill of Rights and entitlement to the vote. Lincoln’s intentions seem to be well, he would like the slaves to be in a place where they are not persecuted, but his intentions stem from his deep conviction in the power of the Constitution. Abraham Lincoln’s view of slavery was differentiated between his political obligations and the moral element of the institution. While in his Presidency, his political actions were influenced by the desire to preserve the Union. Lincoln’s moral stance toward slavery was largely shaped by his fierce belief in the power and importance of the Constitution. The findings of the analysis seem to suggest that Abraham Lincoln may not be the â€Å"Great Emancipator† as many elementary history curriculums state. Also, that the primary motives behind the Emancipation Proclamation could have been to coerce the rebelling states into cooperating with the Union, instead of freeing those locked into the institution of slavery.

Practical Demonkeeping Chapter 12-13

12 JENNIFER When Jennifer arrived home from work, the phone was ringing. She ran to the phone, then stopped with her hand on the receiver, checked her watch, and decided to let the answering machine get it. It was too early to be Travis. The machine clicked and began its message, Jennifer cringed as she heard Robert's voice on the answer tape. â€Å"You've reached the studios of Photography in the Pines. Please leave your name and number at the tone.† The machine beeped and Robert's voice continued, â€Å"Honey, pick up if you're there. I'm so sorry. I need to come home. I don't have any clean underwear. Are you there? Pick up, Jenny. I'm so lonely. Call me, okay? I'm still at The Breeze's. When you get in-â€Å" The machine cut him off. Jennifer ran the tape back and listened to the other messages. There were nine others, all from Robert. All whining, drunken, pleading for forgiveness, promising changes that would never happen. Jenny reset the machine. On the message pad next to the phone she wrote, â€Å"Change message on machine.† There was a list of notes to herself: clean beer out of refrigerator; pack up darkroom; separate records, tapes, books. All were designed to wash reminders of Robert out of her life. Right now, though, she needed to wash the residue of eight hours of restaurant work off her body. Robert used to grab her and kiss her as she came in the door. â€Å"The smell of grease drives me mad,† he'd say. Jenny went to the bathroom to run her bath. She opened various bottles and poured them into the water: Essential Algae, revitalizes the skin, all natural. â€Å"It's from France,† the clerk had said with import, as if the French had mastered the secret of bathwater along with the elements of rudeness; a dash of Amino Extract, all vegetable protein in an absorbable form. â€Å"Makes stretch marks as smooth as if you'd spackled them,† the clerk had said. He'd been a drywall man moonlighting at the cosmetic counter and was not yet versed in the nomenclature of beauty. Two capfuls of Herbal Honesty, a fragrant mix of organically grown herbs harvested by the loving hands of spiritually enlightened descendants of the Mayans. And last, a squeeze of Female E, vitamin E oil and dong quai root extract, to bring out the Goddess in every woman. Rachel had given her the Female E at the last meeting of the Pagan Vegetarians for Peace when Jenny had consulted the group about divorcing Robert. â€Å"You're just a little yanged out,† Rachel had said. â€Å"Try some of this.† When Jenny finished adding all the ingredients, the water was the soft, translucent green of cheese mold. It would have come as a great surprise to Jennifer that two hundred miles north, in the laboratories of the Stanford Primordial Slime Research Building, some graduate students were combining the very same ingredients (albeit under scientific names) in a climate-controlled vat, in an attempt to replicate the original conditions in which life had first evolved on Earth. It would have further surprised her that if she had turned on a sunlamp in the bathroom (the last element needed), her bath water would have stood up and said â€Å"Howdy,† immediately qualifying her for the Nobel prize and millions in grant money. While Jennifer's chance at scientific immortality bubbled away in the tub, she counted her tips, forty-seven dollars and thirty-two cents' worth of change and dollar bills, into a gallon jar, then marked the total into a logbook on her dresser. It wasn't much, but it was enough. Her tips and wages provided enough to make the house payment, pay utilities, buy food, and keep her Toyota and Robert's truck in marginal running order. She made enough to keep alive Robert's illusion that he was making it as a professional photographer. What little he made on the occasional wedding or senior portrait went into film and equipment, or, for the most part, wine. Robert seemed to think that the key to his creativity was a corkscrew. Keeping Robert's photography business buoyant was Jennifer's rationalization for putting her own life on hold and wasting her time working as a waitress. It seemed that she had always been on hold, waiting for her life to start. In school they told her if she worked hard and got good grades, she would get into a good college. Hold, please. Then there had been Robert. Work hard, be patient, the photography will take off, and we'll have a life. She'd hitched herself to that dream and put her life on hold once again. And she had kept pumping energy into the dream long after it had died in Robert. It happened one morning after Robert had been up drinking all night. She had found him in front of the television with empty wine bottles lined up in front of him like tombstones. â€Å"Don't you have a wedding to shoot today?† â€Å"I'm not going to do it. I don't feel up to it.† She had gone over the edge, screaming at him, kicking wine bottles around the room, and finally, storming out. Right then she resolved to start her life. She was almost thirty and she'd be damned if she'd spend the rest of her life as the grieving widow of someone else's dream. She asked him to leave that afternoon, then called a lawyer. Now that her life had finally started, she had no idea what she was going to do. Slipping into the tub, she realized she was, in fact, nothing more than a waitress and a wife. Once again she fought the urge to call Robert and ask him to come home. Not because she loved him – the love had worn so thin it was hard to perceive – but because he was her purpose, her direction, and most important, her excuse for being mediocre. Sitting in the safety of her bathroom, she found she was afraid. This morning, Pine Cove had seemed like a sweatbox, closing in on her and cutting off her breath. Now Pine Cove and the world seemed a very large and hostile place. It would be easy to slip under the warm water and never come up, escape. It wasn't a serious consideration, just a momentary fantasy. She was stronger than that. Things weren't hopeless, just difficult. Concentrate on the positive, she told herself. There was this guy Travis. He seemed nice. He was very good-looking, too. Everything is fine. This is not an end, it's a beginning. Her paltry attempt at positive thinking suddenly dissolved into a whole agenda of first-date fears, which somehow seemed more comfortable than the limitless possibilities of positive thinking because she had been through them before. She took a bar of deodorant soap from the soap dish, lost her grip, and dropped it into the water. The splash covered the faint death gasp the water let out as the soap's toxic chemicals hit it. PART THREE SUNDAY NIGHT Millions of spiritual creatures walk the Earth. Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep. – John Milton 13 NIGHTFALL Overall, the village of Pine Cove was in a cranky mood. No one had slept well Saturday night. Through most of Sunday the weekend tourists were finding ugly chips in Pine Cove's veneer of small-town charm. Shopkeepers had been abrupt and sarcastic when asked the usual inane questions about whales and sea otters. Waiters and waitresses lost their tolerance for complaints about the unpalatable English food they served and either snapped at their customers outright, or intentionally gave them bad service. Motel desk clerks indulged themselves by arbitrarily changing check-out times, refusing reservations, and turning on the NO VACANCY signs every time someone pulled up to the office, proclaiming that they had just filled their last room. Rosa Cruz, who was a chambermaid at the Rooms-R-Us Motel, slipped â€Å"sanitized for your protection† bands across all the toilets without even lifting the lids. That afternoon, when a guest protested and she was called on the carpet by the manager, who stood over the toilet in room 103, pointing to a floating turd as if it were a smoking murder weapon, Rosa said, â€Å"Well, I sanitized that, too.† It might have been declared Tourist Abuse Day in Pine Cove for all the injustices that were inflicted on unsuspecting travelers. As far as the locals were concerned, the world would be a better place if every tourist decided to hang bug-eyed and blue-tongued by his camera strap from a motel shower rod. As the day wore into evening and the tourists vacated the streets, the residents of Pine Cove turned to each other to vent their irritability. At the Slug, Mavis Sand, who was stocking her bar for the evening, and who was a keen observer of social behavior, had watched the tension grow in her customers and herself all afternoon. She must have told the story of Slick McCall's eight-ball match with the dark stranger thirty times. Mavis usually enjoyed the telling and retelling of the events that occurred in The Head of the Slug (even to the point of keeping a microcassette recorder under the bar to save some of her better versions). She allowed the tales to grow into myths and legends as she replaced truths forgotten with details fabricated. Often a tale that started out as a one-beer anecdote would become, in the retelling, a three-beer epic (for Mavis let no glass go dry when she was telling a story). Storytelling, for Mavis, was just good business. But today people had been impatient. They wanted Mavis to draw a beer and get to the point. They questioned her credibility, denied the facts, and all but called her a liar. The story was too fantastic to be taken at face value. Mavis lost her patience with those who asked about the incident, and they did ask. News travels fast in a small town. â€Å"If you don't want to know what happened, don't ask,† Mavis snapped. What did they expect? Slick McCall was an institution, a hero, in his own greasy way. The story of his defeat should be an epic, not an obituary. Even that good-looking fellow who owned the general store had rushed her through the story. What was his name, Asbestos Wine? No, Augustus Brine. That was it. Now, there was a man she could spend some time under. But he, too, had been impatient, and had rushed out of the bar without even buying a drink. It had pissed her off. Mavis watched her own mood changes like the needle on a barometer. Given her current crankiness, the social climate in the Slug tonight would be stormy; she predicted fights. The liquor she stocked into the well that evening was diluted to half strength with distilled water. If people were going to get drunk and break up her place, it was going to cost them. In her heart of hearts, she hoped she would get an opportunity to whack someone with her baseball bat. AUGUSTUS As darkness fell on Pine Cove that evening, Augustus Brine was filled with an uncharacteristic feeling of dread. In the past he had always seen sunset as a promise, a beginning. As a young man sunset had been a call to romance and excitement, more recently it signaled a time of rest and contemplation. Tonight it was not sunset, the promise, but sundown, the threat. With nightfall the full weight of his responsibility fell across his back like a leaden yoke, and try as he might, Brine could not shrug it off. Gian Hen Gian had convinced him that he must find the one that commanded the demon. Brine had driven to the Head of the Slug, and after enduring a barrage of lewd advances from Mavis Sand, he was able to pry out of her the direction the dark stranger had gone when he left the bar. Virgil Long, the mechanic, gave him a description of the car and tried to convince him that his truck needed a tune-up. Brine had then returned home to discuss a course of action with the king of the Djinn, who was engrossed in his fourth Marx Brothers movie. â€Å"But how did you know he was coming here?† Brine asked. â€Å"It was a feeling.† â€Å"Then why can't you get a feeling of where he is now?† â€Å"You must find him, Augustus Brine.† â€Å"And do what?† â€Å"Get the Seal of Solomon and send Catch back to hell.† â€Å"Or get eaten.† â€Å"Yes, there is that possibility.† â€Å"Why don't you do it? He can't hurt you.† â€Å"If the dark one has the Seal of Solomon, then I too could become his slave. This would not be good. You must do it.† The biggest problem for Brine was that Pine Cove was small enough that he could actually search the entire town. In Los Angles or San Francisco he might have been able to give up before starting, open a bottle of wine, and let the mass of humanity bear the responsibility while he sank into a peaceful fog of nonaction. Brine had come to Pine Cove to avoid conflict, to pursue a life of simple pleasures, to meditate and find peace and oneness with all things. Now, forced to act, he realized how deluded he had become. Life was action, and there was no peace this side of the grave. He had read about the kendo swordsman, who affected the Zen of controlled spontaneity, never anticipating a move so that he might never have to correct his strategy to an unanticipated attack, but always ready to act. Brine had removed himself from the flow of action, built his life into a fortress of comfort and safety without realizing that his fortress was also a prison. â€Å"Think long and hard on your fate, Augustus Brine,† the Djinn said around a mouthful of potato chips. â€Å"Your neighbors pay for this time with their lives.† Brine pushed himself out of the chair and stormed into his study. He riffled through the drawers of the desk until he found a street map of Pine Cove. He spread the map out on the desk and began to divide the village into blocks with a red marker. Gian Hen Gian came into the study while he worked. â€Å"What will you do?† â€Å"Find the demon,† Brine said through gritted teeth. â€Å"And when you find him?† â€Å"I don't know.† â€Å"You are a good man, Augustus Brine.† â€Å"You are a pain in the ass, Gian Hen Gian.† Brine gathered up the map and headed out of the room. â€Å"If it be so, then so be it,† the Djinn shouted after him. â€Å"But I am a grand pain in the ass.† Augustus Brine did not answer. He was already making his way to his truck. He drove off feeling quite alone and afraid. ROBERT Augustus Brine was not alone in his feeling of dread at the onset of evening. Robert returned at sunset to The Breeze's trailer to find three threatening messages on the answering machine: two from the landlord, and one ominous threat from the drug dealer in the BMW. Robert played the tape back three times in hope of finding a message from Jennifer, but it was not there. He had failed miserably in his attempt to crash and burn at the Slug, running out of money long before passing out. The job offer from Rachel wasn't enough either. Thinking it over, nothing would really be enough. He was a loser, plain and simple. No one was going to rescue him this time, and he wasn't up to pulling himself up by his own bootstraps. He had to see Jenny. She would understand. But he couldn't go looking like this, a three-day growth of beard, clothes he had slept in, reeking of sweat and beer. He stripped off his clothes and walked into the bathroom. He took some shaving cream and a razor from the medicine cabinet and stepped into the shower. Maybe if he showed up looking like he had some self-respect, she would take him back. She had to be missing him, right? And he wasn't sure he could spend another night alone, thinking about it, going though the nightmare. He turned on the shower and the breath jumped from his body. The water was ice cold. The Breeze hadn't paid the gas bill. Robert steeled himself to endure the cold shower. He had to look good if he was going to rebuild his life. Then the lights went out. RIVERA Rivera was sitting in a coffee shop near the police station sipping from a cup of decaf, smoking a cigarette, waiting. In his fifteen years on the force he estimated that ten of them had been spent in waiting. For once, though, he had the warrants, the budget, the manpower, and probable cause, but he had no suspect. It had to go down tomorrow, one way or another. If The Breeze showed up, then Rivera was in line for a promotion. If, however, he had gotten wind of the sting, then Rivera would take down the drunk in the trailer and hope that he knew something. It was a dismal prospect. Rivera envisioned his task force swooping in with sirens blaring, lights flashing, only to chalk up a bust for unsafe vehicle, perhaps unlawful copying of a videotape, or tearing the tag off a mattress. Rivera shivered at the thought and ground out his cigarette in the ashtray. He wondered if they would let him smoke when he was working behind the counter at Seven-Eleven. THE BREEZE When the jaws of the demon had clamped down on him, The Breeze felt a moment of pain, then a light-headedness and a floating feeling he had come to associate with certain kinds of hallucinogenic mushrooms. Then he looked down to see the monster stuffing his body into its gaping mouth. It looked funny, and the ethereal Breeze giggled to himself. No, this was more like the feeling of nitrous oxide than mushrooms, he thought. He watched the monster shrink and disappear, then the door to the old Chevy opened and closed. The car sped off and The Breeze felt himself bouncing on the air currents in its wake. Death was fine with The Breeze. Sort of the ultimate acid trip, only cheaper and with no side effects. Suddenly he found himself in a long tunnel. At the end he saw a bright light. He had seen a movie about this once; you were supposed to go toward the light. Time had lost meaning for The Breeze. He floated down the tunnel, for a whole day, but to him it seemed only minutes. He was just riding the buzz. Everything was copacetic. As he approached the light, he could make out the figures of people waiting for him. That's right: your family and friends welcome you to the next life. The Breeze prepared himself for a truly bitchin' party on the astral plane. Coming out of the tunnel, The Breeze was enveloped by an intense white light. It was warm and comforting. The people's faces came into view and as The Breeze floated up to them, he realized that he owed every one of them money. PREDATORS While night fell on some like a curtain of foreboding, others were meeting the advent of darkness with excited anticipation. Creatures of the night were rising from their resting places and venturing forth to feed on their unsuspecting victims. They were feeding machines, armed with tooth and claw, instinctively driven to seek out their prey, gifted with stealth and night vision, perfectly adapted to the hunt. When they stalked the streets of Pine Cove, no one's garbage cans were safe. When they awakened that evening, they found a curious machine in their den. The supernatural sentience they had experienced the night before had passed, and they retained no memory of having stolen the tape player. They might have been frightened by the noise, but the battery had long since run down. They would push the machine out of the den when they returned, but now there was a scent on the wind that drove them to the hunt with urgent hunger. Two blocks away, Mrs. Eddleman had discarded a particularly gamey tuna-fish salad, and their acute olfactory systems had picked up the scent even while they slept. The raccoons bounded into the night like wolves on the fold. JENNIFER For Jenny, evening came as a mix of blessing and curses. The call from Travis had come at five, as promised, and she found herself elated at being wanted but also thrown into a quandary about what to wear, how to behave, and where to go. Travis had left it up to her. She was a local and knew the best places to go, he had said, and he was right. He had even asked her to drive. As soon as she had hung up, she ran to the garage for the shop vac to clean out her car. While she cleaned, she ran possibilities through her mind. Should she pick the most expensive restaurant? No, that might scare him away. There was a romantic Italian place south of town, but what if he got the wrong idea? Pizza was too informal for a dinner date. Burgers were out of the question. She was a vegetarian. English food? No – why punish the guy? She found herself resenting Travis for making her decide. Finally she opted for the Italian place. When the car was clean, she returned to the house to pick out what she would wear. She dressed and undressed seven times in the next half hour and finally decided on a sleeveless black dress and heels. She posed before the full-length mirror. The black dress definitely was the best. And if she splashed marinara sauce on it, the stain wouldn't show. She looked good. The heels showed off her calves nicely, but you could also see the light-red hair on her legs. She hadn't thought about it until now. She rummaged through her drawers, found some black panty hose and slipped them on. That problem taken care of, she resumed her posing, affecting the bored, pouty look she had seen on fashion models in magazines. She was thin and fairly tall, and her legs were tight and muscular from waiting tables. Pretty nice for a thirty-year-old broad, she thought. Then she raised her arms and stretched languidly. Two curly tufts of armpit hair stared at her from the mirror. It was natural, unpretentious, she thought. She had stopped shaving about the same time she had stopped eating meat. It was all part of getting in touch with herself, of getting connected to the Earth. It was a way to show that she did not conform to the female ideal created by Hollywood and Madison Avenue, that she was a natural woman. Did the Goddess shave her armpits? She did not. But the Goddess was not going out on her first date in over ten years. Jenny suddenly realized how unaware she had become of her appearance in the last few years. Not that she had let herself go, but the changes she had made away from makeup and complicated hairstyles had been so slow she had hardly noticed. And Robert hadn't seemed to notice, or at least he had not objected. But that was the past. Robert was in the past, or he would be soon. She went to the bathroom in search of a razor. BILLY WINSTON Billy Winston had no such dilemma about shaving. He did his legs and underarms as a matter of course every time he showered. The idea of conforming to a diet soft-drink ideal of the perfect woman didn't bother him in the least. On the contrary, Billy felt compromised by the fact that he had to maintain his appearance as a six-foot-three-inch tall man with a protruding Adam's apple in order to keep his job as night auditor at the Rooms-R-Us Motel. In his heart, Billy was a buxom blond vixen named Roxanne. But Roxanne had to stay in the closet until Billy finished doing the motel's books, until midnight, when the rest of the staff left the motel and Billy was alone on the desk. Only then could Roxanne dance through the night on her silicon chip slippers, stroking the libidos of lonely men and breaking hearts. When the iron tongue of midnight told twelve, the sex fairy would find her on-line lovers. Until then, she was Billy Winston, and Billy Winston was getting ready to go to work. He slipped the red silk panties and garter belt over his long, thin legs, then slowly worked the black, seamed stockings up, teasing himself in the full-length mirror at the end of the bed. He smiled coyly at himself as he clipped the garters into place. Then he put on his jeans and flannel shirt and laced up his tennis shoes. Over his shirt pocket he pinned his name badge: Billy Winston, Night Auditor. It was a sad irony, Billy thought, that the thing he loved most, being Roxanne, depended on the thing he liked least, his job. Each evening he awoke feeling a mix of excitement and dread. Oh, well, a joint would get him through the first three hours of his shift, and Roxanne would get him through the last five. He dreamed of the day when he could afford his own computer and become Roxanne anytime he wanted. He would quit his job and make his living like The Breeze: fast and loose. Just a few more months behind the desk and he would have the money he needed. CATCH Catch was a demon of the twenty-seventh order. In the hierarchy of hell this put him far below the archdemons like Mammon, master of avarice, but far above the blue-collar demons like Arrrgg, who was responsible for leeching the styrofoam taste into take-out coffee. Catch had been created as a servant and a destroyer and endowed with a simplemindedness that suited those roles. His distinction in hell was that he had spent more time on Earth than any other demon, where, in the company of men, he had learned to be devious and ambitious. His ambition took the form of looking for a master who would allow him to indulge himself in destruction and terror. Of all the masters that Catch had served since Solomon, Travis had been the worst. Travis had an irritating streak of righteousness that grated on Catch's nerves. In the past, Catch had been called up by devious men who limited the demon's destruction only to keep his presence secret from other men. Most of the time this was accomplished by the death of all witnesses. Catch always made sure that there were witnesses. With Travis, Catch's need for destruction was controlled and allowed to build inside him until Travis was forced to unleash him. Always it was someone Travis had chosen. Always it was in private. And it was never enough for Catch's appetite. Serving under Travis, his mind always seemed foggy and the fire inside him confined to a smolder. Only when Travis directed him toward a victim did he feel crispness in his thoughts and a blazing in his nature. The times were too few. The demon longed again for a master with enemies, but his thoughts were never clear enough to devise a plan to find one. Travis's will was overpowering. But today the demon had felt a release. It had started when Travis met the woman in the cafe. When they went to the old man's house, he felt a power surge through him unlike anything he had felt in years. Again, when Travis called the girl, the power had increased. He began to remember what he was: a creature who had brought kings and popes to power and in turn had usurped others. Satan himself, sitting on his throne in the great city of Pandemonium, had spoken to a multitude of hellish hosts, â€Å"In our exile, we must be beholden unto Jehovah for two things: one, that we exist, and two, that Catch has no ambition.† The fallen angels laughed with Catch at the joke, for that was a time before Catch had walked among men. Men had been a bad influence on Catch. He would have a new master; one who could be corrupted by his power. He had seen her that afternoon in the saloon and sensed her hunger for control over others. Together they would rule the world. The key was near; he felt it. If Travis found it, Catch would be sent back to hell. He had to find it first and get it into the hands of the witch. After all, it was better to rule on Earth than to serve in hell.