Chapter 46: Pulling Threads Together
We had now reached Mid-Summer. Half a year had gone by The weather was pretty fine and sunny and not too hot. The second movie had been produced. There was an initial showing at the Bull again. Old Slippery had made another flamboyant appearance, lapping up again being the centre of attention. There was huge pressure on for there being a third movie. However, it was felt that two films/movies would suffice on the Old Highway Man and the Bull Public House. It was thought that the franchise could be watered down too much. Also, no end of copies, TV series, cartoons, and Anime spin-offs were being created. Some were good but they could never really capture the 'essence' of the story. Old Slippery was central to any movie. Without him, there would be a gaping big hole.
The profits from both movies had been enormous. Everybody was well pleased with what has happened.
The same sense of things coming to an end was also true of the Slippery Jake committee meetings.
These were now convened monthly and not weekly. An enormous amount had been achieved across the board. Many lines of new research had opened up. There was a real feeling that religious bodies were coming together more. Animosities had lessened quite considerably. They could all see now that religious groups were all different facets of a diamond. All holding part of moral and spiritual truth. By coming together more and understanding their differences in the meetings, helped them all to work towards encompassing the totality of everything.
The scientists had gained a lot from these meetings as well. The Supreme Entity, The Great Why, however, you wanted to picture God, had steered these discussions very skillfully via Old Slippery and the Detective Chief Inspector. No direct answers were ever given to some extremely complex scientific questions, but pointers for new research certainly had. The whole scientific community across the world was spurred on by this. Real progress was starting to be made in the fields of Science and Technology. As with Religions, cooperation was the keyword. The falling apart of International Groups that had started in recent years spurred on by certain politicians was thankfully reversed.
Excellent progress was starting in areas such as Fusion Power. There would be no 'magic bullet' though to reverse Global Warming. Politicians now started to take scientists seriously. In a funny way, the two movies helped with this. Plus meetings and discussions were featured in both movies. This helped to produce a 'groundswell' that was backed up by no end of TV documentaries, newspaper, and periodical articles plus a vast amount of interest across the web. The politicians in democracies took notice. Elsewhere too, scientific fact was coming to the foreground. The 'Climate Change Deniers' were in full retreat. Was this down to the Slippery Jake committee meetings? In part yes, they and the two movies had a part to play in all of this.
It looked a lot more likely that humanity would pass the test, would prosper, and truly be trustees of the Planet Earth, plus would eventually be reaching towards the stars.
Subjects like the 'afterlife' were also openly discussed. The way you lived your life really was important no matter how insignificant you might feel about yourself.
Old Slippery had achieved atonement. His base instincts were still very much there. Plus, there had been a lot of help from the Detective Chief Inspector and Sid the landlord in controlling him.
However, both in the way he was a critical part of the meetings and the key role he played in the movies, combined with his continued protection of the Bull, Old Slippery demonstrated his importance.
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Pamela Parsons could see that the meetings had served their purpose. She still called a meeting if she thought that it was necessary. These, however, were becoming less and less frequent. The participants were getting a little older. A number had moved onto more senior roles in their organizations. Finding time to attend was getting more and more difficult. They all tended to feel that most of what could be achieved now had been achieved. Yes, if they could, they would come along. They missed the openness of these events plus the excellent real ale and food. Not discounting the presence of Old Slippery of course.
Ah, but Major Humphrey and Major Percy were still regulars. They were the regulars. They were pretty much part of the Bull's fixtures in much the same way as Old Slippery's chair and the leather sofas. Sitting there wearing their blazers, and warm woolly jumpers.
I took retirement from teaching soon afterward and started writing this book.