Author: Noah Clinch

Narrator: Sallybeth

Intro music:   Finola Ó Siochru singing An Goirtín Eornan.

You are the dark blue butterfly, You are the green parrot with red eyes, You are the thundercloud, pregnant with lightning, You are the seasons, You are the seas, You are without beginning, present everywhere, You from whom all the worlds are born. [Chandogya Upanishad]

We’ve reached the end of this highly unusual story about the liberation of Pretty Raven, known as Maxine Yo, the best ward sister in Tunbridge Wells. Because of Maxine’s brave honesty and total devotion to the hot fire whom she calls Onion, she is finally getting free. It's been quite a journey, but looking back she can't find any deep regrets. Somehow it all seems to crystallise round that strange fragment of a poem of old Hafiz:

"..Forget the common reason, Hafiz,  for it always enslaves - there is something alert and active deep inside of you that wants to lie naked next to God."

That's what she and Onion have been exploring during the fifteen-odd years they've been together. Wait - it’s even longer in Onion’s case, if you count what she learned during her seduction by the eccentric Gilbert O’Connor when she was just a girl. And it’s not too much to say that everything changed for her after that extraordinary encounter with a man called Birdfeather. But I think you already know all about what happened to Onion in that cabin at Porcupine Lake!

Perhaps you’d be interested to know more about what happened between Onion and Gilbert during theit canoe trip in the Canadian wilderness? Or how it came about that Maxine is the Mistress of Quill Farm in Golden Green? Or what exactly happened to Onion during her second adventure in Manitoba? You'll find it all in the extra POSTS on this website (https://pretty-raven.com).

Or should we go on to look into what happened to Onion and Michael in Little Grand Rapids during the winter of 1990, and how things turned out for Maxine, left on her own back home at Quill Farm?

Why not take a few minutes to tell Sallybeth and me what you’ve liked and disliked about the Pretty-Raven podcast. That way you can change the future of the world, maybe.

Thanks for listening to our story!

Noah