A few nights earlier Aulden had a dream about a group of protesters gathered outside of a business office. The dream seemed to fit the current journey, exploring an area of a city around an intersection. Aulden wanted to find the protesters he'd seen in the dream.

As they followed the light of Red's lamp, with Aulden carrying Sandra who played her flute, Aulden reviewed in conversation, "Red, you left the path - stopped lighting it - and became a snake because I stopped walking the path. Is that true?" Red simply shrugged in affirmation, and said, "I liked being a snake."

Aulden asked, "Why would you rather be a snake?"

Red's response was simple and certain, "I like being dangerous."

Aulden, with concern, noted, "You'll be dangerous now if you light the wrong way."

"I can't with her here," Red assured him, nodding to Sandra, the snake charmer, who continued playing her flute.

Aulden said to Sandra, "You keep his light true. I don't understand you two, I really don't. What do I need to know? What can you tell me, Sandra?"

Sandra explained, "He's my father. He's ancient and wise, and he's a trickster."

Aulden asked, "What would you add, Red?"

Red told him, "My daughter - I lead you for love of her."

As the group continued walking, they could see the protesters down the street. Aulden said, "Red, you are threatening because moving down a new path has lots of threatening elements."

Red responded, "See, I told you."

Aulden encouraged him, "Shine your light, Red, to go to the protesters now." They entered the crowd of protesters who held picket signs. The signs had pictures of a woman, nude from the waist up, and some had the word "washing" while other signs had the words "wash us now." The signs were as perplexing as anything Aulden had yet seen.

Aulden asked one of them, "Why are you protesting?"

She responded in an angry tone, "You know why!"

Aulden assured her, "No, I don't," and asked, "Is there a person in charge I can talk to?" The woman pointed to the building and said, "She's in there."

They entered the building and walked along a hallway. Music was playing. Aulden recognized it - an old Jefferson Airplane song, "Don't you want somebody to love? Don't you need somebody to love? Wouldn't you love somebody to love? You better find somebody to love." Aulden felt overcome by loneliness.

Aulden also felt something else very complex but distinct: a feminine, diffuse instinct for social consummation and connection, in conflict with another instinct which was a masculine, focused drive to procreate. These two instincts were fighting within him while his civilized ego resisted them both. Aulden said to his companions, "Let's see what we can learn in here."

They entered a meeting room. A woman with short black hair and a sweater with black and white horizontal stripes, was sitting at a table across from a man with a receding hairline and wearing a suit and tie and glasses. A large man sat between them.

Aulden asked, "Who represents the protesters outside?"

"I do," the woman answered.

"And who do you represent, sir?"

The balding man in the suit answered, "The people in the building."

Aulden asked, "What is this building?"

"The Savings and Loan," the man answered.

"What do you save?" Aulden asked.

"Loans," the man said, laughing.

Aulden felt completely in the dark, and asked, "What do people do here?"

The man said, "They come here to avoid people like her."

"What do you find disagreeable about her?" Aulden asked him.

"The smell of gambling," he answered.

Aulden turned to the woman, and asked, "What do you find objectionable about the people in this building?"

She answered simply, "Their cowardice."

Aulden responded, "That makes sense. What's your name?"

"Lead negotiator Hansel - protester."

"Is that a man's name?" Aulden asked her.

Hansel answered, "I'm a very masculine woman."

Aulden turned to the man and asked, "What's your name?"

He said, "Patton." Aulden responded, "No, really?" and the man insisted, "I said it was!"

Aulden then said to them, "Okay, let's put our demands on the table. Hansel, what do you want?"

Hansel answered, "Fidelity. Fidelity and stability, and I offer love and companionship."

Aulden observed, "What you offer might smell like a gamble, but what you want is… is that a gamble?" Then he turned to Patton and asked, "Patton, what do you want?"

Patton answered, "Sex. I haven't had much sex in thirty years. Sex, pure and simple." Patton spoke with a tone of uncertainty, as though there was something more or something else that he wanted.

Aulden replied, "Okay, and what do you offer in return?"

"This house," Patton answered.

Aulden asked, "The Savings and Loan?"

Patton clarified, "Fidelity and stability."

Aulden asked, "Hansel, why is there a nude woman on the picket signs?"

She replied, "To hold you to our breasts - companionship."

"And the word 'washing,' what's that on the sign for?"

Hansel said, "Look at what I want."

Aulden observed, with a question, "Stability and fidelity, and there needs to be some kind of cleansing?"

She nodded, "Uh huh."

Now Aulden focused on the big man sitting between Patton and Hansel. He asked the man, "What is your function in my life?" The man didn't respond. After a long wait for the man to answer, Aulden asked The Wind, "Wind, is he a demon?"

The Wind answered, "He's an obstacle."

Poseidon agreed, "Oh yes, an obstacle."

Aulden demanded, "Tell me your name, obstacle."

The obstacle opened his mouth and croaked like a frog.

Aulden returned his attention to Hansel, asking, "Hansel, tell me about the washing. What needs to be washed?"

Hansel responded by lifting her blouse just enough to show Aulden a scar on her belly.

Aulden didn't understand, and asked, "But what needs to be washed?"

She answered, "I'm trying to tell you: all the sore spots."

"Cleansed?" Aulden asked.

"Uh huh," she replied.

Aulden asked them about the obstacle, "What about him?"

Hansel answered, "He's a demon."

"What do I do about him?" Aulden asked the group.

Reviewing what Hansel and Patton have said: Hansel wants stability and fidelity. Patton needs cleansing for not providing stability and fidelity. Patton says he wants sex, but maybe his real need is the love and companionship that she offers. However, it would seem that Hansel needs cleansing for not providing love and companionship.

The problem between Patton and Hansel of not providing what is needed in a relationship made Aulden look at his ex-wife and compare Hansel to her. He had to remind himself that these were internal figures, and they were aspects of him and not his ex-wife or any other woman in his life. Both of these figures were internal and neither of them represented any external person.

The Wind and Aulden pushed the obstacle, still sitting in his chair, across the room. The floor opened and they pushed him into this crevice in the floor. He fell deep into a pit and the floor closed over him. The Wind said to Aulden, "He'll be back, but it'll be a while."

Aulden returned to Patton and Hansel, asking, "Patton, what is your function?"

Patton answered, "To provide stability."

Hansel interjected, "But he didn't do his function for a long time and he needs to ask forgiveness."

Aulden asked, "Hansel, what is your function?"

She answered, "To provide companionship."

Patton responded, "She didn't do that, either."

"So that's what needs to be washed," Aulden noted. "How do I do that?"

"With a washcloth and bucket," Hansel answered.

With only a glance around the room Aulden was able to locate a washcloth and a bucket. He announced as he held them, "I want to tell you all something. I've been feeling very lonely lately, and I've decided that you are very dear to me. My dear friends, I want you to know I feel very much like in response to my loneliness I want to grow closer to all of you. Now, I have a bucket of soapy water and a washcloth. Patton, let's start with you. Take off your coat, shirt and tie."

Aulden said as he washed Patton, "Patton, I cleans you of your lack of providing stability. Do you ask forgiveness of not providing stability?"

Patton said, "I do. Forgive me for not providing stability." He undressed completely and Aulden washed all of him.

Aulden then turned to Hansel who removed all of her clothing. He washed her with the cloth, and asked, "Do you Hansel ask forgiveness for not providing companionship?"

She answered, "I do ask forgiveness for not providing companionship."

Aulden said, "Companionship and stability. You are married now to each other. How does a person become a companion to himself?" He answered his own question, saying, "Diffuse awareness and focused awareness."

The washing was still a mystery to Aulden. He wondered whether it would help him to be a better companion to himself. He wondered whether he would have a sense of companionship - the kind that keeps him from putting his neediness on others.

Aulden asked, "How do you provide stability, Patton? How do you 'do' stability? I know how I destroyed it. How do you bring it in?"

Patton answered, "Stability and fidelity mean be true to yourself. Need I say more?"

Aulden responded, "Please do!"

Patton added, "Doing nothing is doing what is true to you."

Aulden needed to understanding about how to handle the sex drive, and he knew that he was talking with the man who had the answer. Aulden asked, "What about when primal instincts are truly me, but I know it would cause problems?"

Patton responded, "Stop, watch, listen, wait."

This was a concrete answer and Aulden was satisfied with it. He then turned to Hansel and asked, "Hansel, how do you do companionship with me?"

She answered, "I don't. I do companionship with Patton."

"How?" Aulden asked her, "Describe it!"

She spoke in Jungian terms, using the language of the books Aulden had been reading, as she said, "You need to do this in a differentiated way - with a differentiated function - in honesty and truth. Not in a reactive…" She paused, and Aulden encouraged her to continue, simply saying, "Yes?"

She said, "Not haphazard."

Aulden said to her, "To be present."

She nodded in agreement, "To be present, to be met."

Aulden asked, "But what if I'm alone and lonely? The companionship you offer - can it help me when I'm lonely?"

Hansel answered, "Yes it can. Find your center. Be there."

Aulden liked this answer. It made sense to him, and he added, "For me it helps when I'm writing."

Hanself added, "From the center."

Aulden whispered, "I see."