This is my second book from 100 in 1. The goal was to attempt writing 100 stories in one year. While sitting in front of a glass of Merlot at the Mezzanine in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico I noticed a framed print of the Mona Lisa. It occurred to me that Mona Isla had one letter in a different place. Mona (Island) came from the Taino Amona meaning middle. It is also the name of a Cacique, which is the title of a Taino Chief. In Europe Mona is a given name and also the name of a Deity from Saxon mythology. I was aware the island was discovered the end of the fifteenth century, which was the same time Leonardo da Vinci lived and painted. The coincidence was too much for me to pass and my imagination stimulated. During the same period of noticing the Mona Lisa print I became aware of an African practice called Londola. The belief being the coffin of the murdered would fly to reveal the guilty. Naturally, this flight is assisted by men, and like a Ouija board can be manipulated. Things are never simple. Initially, the Spanish government charged the colonist with the responsibility to teach Taino Christian ways. The colonists used this power to make Taino slaves for personal profit. Within the following century the Taino, for all practical purposes, were wiped out. The Europeans brought diseases and horrific work conditions. The Taino were replaced mainly by slaves from Africa. The New World now consisted of a West Indies-Euro-African triangle. I wanted to tie all these thoughts together. I am not a historian, philosopher, physicist or scientist. However, all these disciplines interest me and I struggle to understand them on some level. My understanding may be shallow but it creates a gestalt for my thinking. An elementary field (Higgs Field) was a relatively new concept first suspected in the 1960s which the Boson-Higgs particle gave some credence to. Mass-less particles attain mass acquired from the energy in the Higgs Field. I wont attempt to explain what I don't understand and just say that within these theories are the concepts of symmetry and conservation. I believe it was the Hadron Collider which split a particle sending each half in opposite directions. At a fork each half seemed to pick a direction that sought wholeness again. No one knows what forces made the halves seek wholeness. Now, to complicate things further I started to think about determinism. This brings us to the seemingly unrelated two stories. For me they are the two halves. I perceive a loving couple as one. When that oneness is broken they are motivated to find oneness again. Slavery is what broke the symmetry for both stories and it seems wholeness is unsolvable. However, if you believe in reincarnation as mystical occurrence or believe in genetic memory, then the idea of losing symmetry doesn't exist. The puzzle is solvable over time. It takes five hundred years for Femi and Sani in the two stories to become whole again. They seem insignificant with all the other stories that surround them, yet perhaps their story is the most telling of all. Is it possible that the universe is subject to symmetry, even when an outside force seems to render something unsolvable? It may be that the outside forces which seems to break things apart is actually the mechanism by which things become whole again. It is a Buddhist idea that we seek oneness with the universe. And in both science and philosophy the idea of universal convergence is in the realm of possibility. Although the stories are fiction they are laced with historical facts. Stephen Martin Gang
About the Author: Stephen Martin Gang was born August 21, 1948. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and spent his high-school "Hippy" years hanging around Greenwich Village in the company of musicians, writers and artists. His dream was to become an artist and he studied art at Windham College in Putney, Vermont. He completed a master's degree at FAU in Boca Raton, Florida. The Graduate School in New York was attended for post graduate study in Clinical Psychology. The majority of his life he lived as a gallery owner, owning galleries in Vermont, Philadelphia, New York, and Budapest. He sailed, and part time taught sailing. Writing and painting never stopped throughout his life. He published articles on art, as well as, writing for his personal enjoyment. He also wrote a column for a small Philadelphia publication, and wrote for aNYthing magazine, which was a magazine that he created. Most all of his work has been lost. For a short time, after closing the New York gallery; he worked as a Charter Captain, Delivery Captain, and Sailing Instructor in the Virgin Islands. For the past several years he has been living in San Juan, Puerto Rico, writing, and reading at open readings, while also continuing to occasionally paint. He feels fortunate to have two wonderful children. His life revolves around love, creativity, and trying to understand being. He claims the most important thing in life is relationships: To love and be loved. This is his second book.