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by any means couldn’t have been easy so it left a question mark. Had I not have liked the sound of whoever he was on the phone, I would probably have told him the group was defunct. During the next meeting, it was my turn to get up and speak regarding a book review. As I spoke and addressed the audience of about 20, I noticed a face in the crowd that struck me as familiar. A fellow in his early sixties sat on the end of the second row from the back nearest to the radiator whom I seemed to know from somewhere. While you’re speaking, it’s best not to try to recollect someone in the crowd as it immediately distracts, but this curiosity screamed at me. I carried on my talk, focusing my eyes on nothing but what I was doing. The talk would not be a long one and I would soon be able to go over and meet this person. Wendy had taken over and presented a slide show, which unfortunately meant the lights were to be dimmed and prevented me from properly seeing this man. I managed to glance over and see as much as | needed to. He was smartly dressed and not unlike anyone else of his age group with grey wispy hair brushed back from a receding line and an interesting moon-shaped face. If he had known me the way I suspected I knew him, he didn’t seem to show it as he just sat happily watching what was being presented. Perhaps the strangest thing was this gut feeling I had that he was the man on the phone. As soon as the presentation ended I went over to introduce myself and, lo and behold, he was the mysterious enquirer calling himself “Gideon.” After the formalities, I asked about his name, inquiring whether he was Jewish. He claimed he wasn’t but came from a religious family with a tradition of Biblical names. Given the knowledge I now have of this man’s covert involvement with my life, I doubt that Gideon was his real name at all. It rang no bells whatsoever as he gave it over the phone apart from my awareness of the Gideon’s Bible. It does strike me as interesting however that this name features in the Bible as someone who received a message from a Heavenly angel carrying a fire-emitting staff similar to a magic wand that performed awesome feats. Considering my own obsession with wand- waving magicians and extraterrestrials who do similar things, he seemed to have chosen a catchy name, one which I would investigate years later. As we spoke more about ourselves, it turned out that he had a lifelong interest in the occult and was obviously well read on the subject. I found it strange how blasé he was about these things, as though they were common facts of life. Thad to ask him if I knew him from somewhere and the response was negative. Again there was this impartial brushing aside as though it either 57