"Yeah," Ralph said. "Our TV went on the fritz once for two weeks and I didn't feel right until it was back."
"It makes a bigger hole in his life if he watched a lot of TV, a smaller hole if he only used it a little bit. But something is gone. Now take away all his books, all his friends, and his stereo. Also remove all sustenance except what he can glean along the way. It's an emptying-out process and also a diminishing of the ego. Your selves, gentlemen - they are turning into a window-glass. Or better yet, empty tumblers."
"But what's the point?" Ralph asked. "Why go through all the rigmarole?"
Glen said, "If you read your Bible, you'll see that it was pretty traditional for these prophets to go out into the wilderness from time to time - Old Testament Magical Mystery Tours. The timespan given for these jaunts was usually forty days and forty nights, a Hebraic idiom that really means 'no one knows exactly how long he was gone, but it was quite a while.' Does that remind you of anyone?"
"Sure. Mother," Ralph said.
"Now think of yourself as a battery. You really are, you know. Your brain runs on chemically converted electrical current. For that matter, your muscles run on tiny charges, too - a chemical called acetylcholine allows the charge to pass when you need to move, and when you want to stop, another chemical, cholinesterase, is manufactured. Cholinesterase destroys acetylcholine, so your nerves become poor conductors again. Good thing, too. Otherwise, once you started scratching your nose, you'd never be able to stop. Okay, the point is this: Everything you think, everything you do, it all has to run off the battery. Like the accessories in a car."
They were all listening closely.
"Watching TV, reading books, talking with friends, eating a big dinner... all of it runs off the battery. A normal life - at least in what used to be Western civilization - was like running a car with power windows, power brakes, power seats, all the goodies. But the more goodies you have, the less the battery can charge. True?"
"Yeah," Ralph said. "Even a big Delco won't ever overcharge when it's sitting in a Cadillac."
"Well, what we've done is to strip off the accessories. We're on charge."
Ralph said uneasily: "If you put a car battery on charge for too long, she'll explode."
"Yes," Glen agreed. "Same with people. The Bible tells us about Isaiah and Job and the others, but it doesn't say how many prophets came back from the wilderness with visions that had crisped their brains. I imagine there were some. But I have a healthy respect for human intelligence and the human psyche, in spite of an occasional throwback like East Texas here - "
"Off my case, baldy," Stu growled.
"Anyhow, the capacity of the human mind is a lot bigger than the biggest Delco battery. I think it can take a charge almost to infinity. In certain cases, perhaps beyond infinity."
They walked in silence for a while, thinking this over.
"Are we changing?" Stu asked quietly.
"Yes," Glen answered. "Yes, I think we are."
"We've dropped some weight," Ralph said. "I know that just looking at you guys. And me, I used to have a helluva beergut. Now I can look down and see my toes again. In fact, I can see just about my whole feet."
"It's a state of mind," Larry said suddenly. When they looked at him he seemed a trifle embarrassed but went on: "I've had this feeling for the last week or so, and I couldn't understand it. Maybe now I can. I've been feeling high. Like I'd done half a joint of really dy***ite grass or snorted just a touch of coke. But there's none of the disorienting feeling that goes with dope. You do some dope and you feel like normal thinking is lust a little bit out of your grasp. I feel like I'm thinking just fine, better than ever, in fact. But I still feel high." Larry laughed. "Maybe it's just hunger."
"Hunger's part of it," Glen agreed, "but not all of it."
"Me, I'm hungry all the time," Ralph said, "but it doesn't seem too important. I feel good."
"I do too," Stu said. "Physically, I haven't felt this good in years."
"When you empty out the vessel, you also empty out all the crap floating around in there," Glen said. "The additives. The impurities. Sure it feels good. It's a whole-body, whole-mind enema."
"You got such a fancy way of puttin things, baldy."
"It may be inelegant, but it's accurate."
Ralph asked, "Will it help us with him?"
"Well," Glen said, "that's what it's for. I don't have much doubt about that. But we'll just have to wait and see, won't we?"
They walked on. Kojak came out of the brush and walked with them for a while, his toenails clicking on the pavement of US 70. Larry reached down and ruffled his fur. "Ole Kojak," he said. "Did you know you were a battery? Just one great big old Delco battery with a lifetime guarantee?"