Theophil

The common thread running through this book is the effect of the ephemeral being I call Theophil, known to humanity as Satan or Mephisto. Monotheistic religions as well as folklore see in him the epitome of evil or, in other words, regard him as wicked per se. My stories display Theophil in a very different light. Far from being treated either as ‘good’ or as ‘evil’, he is staged as an Adviser or Vizier, on whose advice the ‘Good Lord’ often relies (just as he did in the Book of Job). ...

Archimedes and the Mammoth Archimedes’ appointed hour arrived one bright morning in Syracuse (probably in 212 BCE). Our panel had to determine his destination. Real sinners – nasty fellows like Joseph Stalin – would, of course, be sentenced to a spell in inferno. When their mandatory term was completed, they would be allowed to enter purgatory. When all their sins were purged, they would be entitled to a place in paradise. ...

Susan A spacious room with an attached bathroom; the furniture, too, was up to standard. But the hospital bed, with the guards on both sides and the gadgets mounted on top, revealed that the room was not in an up-market hotel. It was a deluxe room in Ward xx of the National University of Singapore Hospital. I had been warded by Emergency. One of their doctors stitched the deep cuts on my brow and, to avoid further dehydration, put me on a drip. The physicians would take a few days to determine the cause of my fainting spell. The functioning of my heart, of the brain and of the vascular system required assessment. ...

Early Occupants About a year after my release from the hospital in Singapore, I decided to fly over to Britain. My objectives were to revisit the past and to crystallize my beliefs in the supernatural. Right after my arrival in London I proceeded to Oxford. Feeling exhausted, I sank into the comfortable armchair in the small house I had rented for three months. Its location – off Walton Street near the heart of Oxford – was excellent. A five minutes walk would take me to St. Giles Road and Carfax. The Bodleian library’s reading rooms, which I had come to revisit and use, were readily accessible from there. Yet another advantage was the reasonable rent. Although I had amassed wealth over the years, I had remained parsimonious. ...

The Komodo Dragons A few years after my return from leave in Oxford, Pat succumbed to a fatal disease. She was no longer able to manage the stairs in the Pandan Valley and our spacious flat became hard to manage. We had to move to a flat in the Mandarin Gardens Condominium, on Singapore’s East Coast. A few years after her demise, I decided – at the suggestion of a close friend – to embark on a cruise of the Indonesian Islands. By then I had come to accept my having been ostracized by my late wife’s siblings. I was living comfortably in Mandarin Gardens and kept renovating it to fit my taste. Good friends helped me to find my way back to equilibrium. When I decided to take the cruise, I invited my God Daughter, Sophie, to join us. ...