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"Except love," she added. "You don't understand what love is. The professor is right; you came here because of love pains, but he couldn't answer you, because he doesn't know. So he told you all about the history of the world, at least what he knows about it. I overheard some of your conversation. I also think that what you talked about wasn't what you came to the pub for. I think that something went sour with your loving, or didn't go far enough, or has puzzled you. That's why you came to the pub, right? You came to figure things out. Unfortunately the professor couldn't help you. He couldn't, because he doesn't understand what love is. I know this, because I tried to teach him. Eventually, I realized that the subject is too difficult for him."
"You taught the professor?"
"Not really. I taught him history. I tried to teach him the real history of humanity. Love is intertwined with that. I felt he should know about that, if he wants to teach others. He understands some of it, but he doesn't understand what love is. In recent years I tried to get him to relive the discoveries of the great pioneers of humanity, especially in terms of the discovery of love, but that has become too much of a challenge."
"The discovery of love?" I repeated.
"We all need to replicate in our own mind the great discoveries that created our civilization," she said. "We need to get to the core of what the greatest pioneers of humanity have discovered, including the discovery of love."
"Love is as ancient as the hills, Helen," I reminded her.
"That it is, but it wasn't put onto the map, formally, until the early 1400s. Are you willing to learn? If so, I'll present to you a world that the professor never understood and probably never will."
Since her offer sounded intriguing, and she was already leading the way, I simply continued following her.
"Don't do that! Don't follow her! You are a married man," I heard a voice say within, urging me, but that voice was quickly suppressed as if its warning was not applicable this time. I realized that if that kind of warning had occurred earlier, I might not have allowed myself to meet Erica at all. What a tragic a loss that would have been in terms of the riches that we had shared? Nor had any harm been done by my being open and honest with Erica and myself. "So why should there be any danger now?" I replied and hushed the voice.
"Go with her and embrace the wisdom that she may share," I heard another voice within say, a quieter and gentler voice.
I told the woman named Helen that I felt deeply honored by her offer to help me. I loved the sound of her name. The name seemed related to hope. I hadn't actually accepted that the professor was totally right. Also she was correct about figuring me out. I had been struggling with love pains, trying to discover what had moved me so deeply. That exploration had been interrupted with politics, because the professor didn't know what else to say. She was right about that, too.
"Let me ask you one important question," Helen interrupted my pondering after a while of silence. "Why are you allowing me so freely to invite you? What would your wife say? I think you feel deep in your heart that you shouldn't be here with me. Am I correct? So, why are you?"
"I think I should ask you that question first," I replied. "You should tell me why you are inviting me. Obviously you are not a prostitute. You are far too beautiful for that, and too well dressed, and too kindly mannered. Prostitutes don't stay like that for long. You say you want to teach me what love is. You are inviting me into your home. If you want to talk about love, the pub would be fine. Of course you are right, that is what I came to the pub for. But why are you putting yourself at risk, inviting a strange man into your home in the middle of the night?"
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