"How about your romance novels, Liv? Are you giving up on making bread and bodice money?" Duke laughed. "I want you to read this," Olivia declared, taking a work about Dali by Robert Descharnes from a jam-packed bookshelf located in the crowded, cluttered study. "Read this, right here...because I have a confession to make..." Duke eyed his wife suspiciously. "A confession? What, are you Salvador Dali's love-child?" he guffawed while reaching for the heavy tome....until he saw the glint of tears in his true love's eyes. "Holy Bat Cave," he whispered to Locky and began to read aloud, almost reverently, the following commentary on Dali's famous painting, Leda Atomica: He paints the appearance of the swan Zeus to the naked Gala, as an annunciation scene, the winged carrier of the women's destiny whispers her future in her ear, a memory perhaps of the legend that the conception of Jesus in the Virgin Mary was achieved by the introduction to her ear of the breath of the Holy Ghost. "Okay," Olivia interrupted, "stop there. Remember the bust of Venus that Dali created with the ear where a nose should be and the mention of the Cathars I showed you a while back? I have a weird story to tell you, at the risk of sounding crazy but I must get this off my chest..." Duke and Locky both eyed Lucky the Cat suspiciously as the feline appeared out of nowhere and made her way to Olivia's side. "...ever since I was a kid, I never fit in. I never have. So, what does this have to do with Dali? A lot I think, and might explain why I truly love my parents but spiritually, I never felt that connection - right down to Daddy denying the Cathars' historical importance, in a fit of rage, and Posh hating Dali as an artist, but hanging a copy of his basket of bread painting in every single dining room we ever occupied since I am able to recall...don't even get me going on the fact that the man wrote his only novel, Hidden Faces in 1944 at the estate of the Marquis de Cuevas in New Hampshire, not far from our own house, Peyton Place." "Very interesting, but you've lost me." "This is so hard to say, because you're going to think I'm loco, I know it. But why else did the Dali Tarot cards you gave me levitate not once but twice the first time we removed them from their case? And I see so many things in them! Did Dali foresee the future - did he plan me?" "Uhmm, I can't say. I doubt it. This is all coincidence..." "I don't believe in coincidence, I don't!" Olivia retorted hotly. "No way. My parents are white bread on toast - explain away my fascination from childhood with songs from Catalonia, the land of Dali's birth, with Flamenco, with the great classical guitarist Andre Segovia. Last night I read that Dali and Segovia were working together with the Russians to effect a cultural exchange - which leads me to this point: as a child, I played Segovia over and over - I know all of his work absolutely by heart. I taught myself fragments of classical guitar using his recordings...the ear again...there is no reason for any of this...what the Hades?" "Would you like a drink? Because I think I need a stiff Scotch right about now, honey." "Dali passed away in 1989 and that is when my life turned to the study of the esoteric - absolutely right at that date. Is he guiding me?" "Liv, my darling, I love you...but...c'mon, don't be silly. This is crazy talk." "Really? No Duke, I can't stand it anymore, I have to know! I have to understand - don't you see? Can't you hear?" "Is there anything else I should know about?" "Look at this...if you need more proof, I'm going to show you something else in that book I just gave you...see anything familiar in this painting?" "Corpus Hypercubus..." "Yes. Now look at Vermeer's painting Allegory of Faith - get a good look at the background and at the floor," Olivia retrieved another heavy volume from the wall and shoved it beneath Duke's nose. "Compare the black and white esoteric tiles and the tapestry in this Old Master to the 1954 Corpus Hybercubus...the ultimate tribute...there are so many, trust me. That is one of the best, though...." "That's wild...has any art critic noticed this particular relationship before?" "Every Dali expert knows that he loved Vermeer and Velasquez and Meissonier and Gustave Moreau, but I haven't seen them link the two works I just showed you, no. That's what I mean when I say I see thing in the cards, in the Dali Tarot...he knew, Gala knew and they told the world the story of the Grail...and I plan to figure it out. I have to. I just must."    Original Episode Text Copyright © 1999 - ad infinitum author Olivia Peyton All Rights Reserved