Part Twenty The Thinking Heart

PART TWENTY - Billy - Sparta - Coincidences - Hearts - Destiny - Yap In the end the truly magical path that Sparta and Billy had taken would lead to the two of them meeting so few times in a time period that spanned the first sixteen years from the day they first saw each other. You may wonder as to what is truly magical about this particular path? Well the truth is that from the moment their eyes first met across the ice in the Zetra Hall in Sarajevo as Torvill and Dean were creating their own piece of historical magic was the exact moment the most perfect love imaginable for them both was born. It would have taken a very hard heart to have wanted to get off this path. It was a love that when they were finally to come together at the start of the second millennia would see them never to be separated again. There’s was a love that would allow them to share the most perfect of times they could possibly imagine until Billy was to eventually die. Yet the death of Billy was to take another eight years to evolve. It would eventually come from the shard of bullet that remained within him when he was shot by the Serbs in Sarajevo in August 1992. It would be this piece of metal that would finally make its claim upon his heart. He would be forty six years old. It may be the case that there are those who will say that the knowledge of a slow inevitable death is far worse than a death that takes unexpectedly. Not Sparta though - as Billy’s health slowly started to deteriorate she rained her love down upon him. The fact is she wouldn’t have swapped a second of this time for anything else. This is because her love for Billy was unconditional. It is true the events that were required to bring them together were of great complexity, but there was nothing complex about the love that those two shared. Their love could only be described as simple and pure love. There was no deal and no conditions in the way they loved each other. It was agape love. It didn’t take long for the Star Corporation to become the mightiest and the cleanest corporate entity in the world. The way that it had acted so swiftly and without being driven by any profit motives when it had produced and freely

distributed the antidote to Strain 1305, during the TB pandemic, had made people accept something truly incredible. You see for the first time in history people saw that a corporate entity could have a heart. The Star Corporation had in fact established the measure of best practice which all companies around the world had no other choice but to follow. This was the main goal that Sparta had set out to achieve. In the end the Star Corporation didn’t need Sparta any longer as the leadership team was all in place so in January 2002 without any pomp and ceremony whatsoever she left. Billy, Sidi and Sparta then all moved to the tiny Micronesian island in the Pacific called Yap. There they lived in a simple cottage by the sea where the island reef had created a haven for the manta rays where this family swam with them every single day. In the modern world it seemed to be some kind of miracle that the world’s richest woman could disappear without a trace. The truth is that anything could happen in Yap. This was the place where the mystic leper woman Ruepong Gilgoofigir and an army of magic people were all to be found. Sparta and Billy were to spend the rest of their lives walking on the thousand year old paths turning over the old Rai stones and being immersed in a love for nature, for colour, for people and for each other. There was nothing complicated about Billy and Sparta’s lives. They loved every single moment being with each other - just walking, just hand holding, just talking and in fact just saying nothing. In this time Sparta’s camera caught image after image where there was nothing but love that shone from Billy to her and from her to Billy. There was so many times where Sparta just looked at him laughing and playing with the manta rays where she knew how right she was to have fallen for him across the ice in February 1984. You see she knew that the look they shared on that day was a look which they had shared every single day since they had been reunited. In the end she knew that Billy was the measure of all her dreams and she didn’t need to know about anything else.

The following years would see Billy and Sparta watch and guide Sidi as she would grow up surrounded by the unlimited adventures that she found everyday in everything she did and in every single place where she played. It was through watching Sidi grow up that they realized something precious. As simple as it seems they realized that actually we're only the ones we love. They both knew that a life where love was shown every single moment and where being loved was never doubted was a life that would lead to the greatest of hearts being created. These hearts are always intolerant to injustice and wrong doings. Billy and Sparta knew that it is these hearts that rejoice at becoming the protectors of all those needing protection. This was the profound and magical environment that was to become the realm of Sidi’s entire childhood. In October 2007, four months before Billy was to die, something completely unexpected happened. Mehmet came to Yap to see them both. In his voice he held great urgency. In his hands he held the smallest of hands imaginable. You see he was holding the hand of a newborn boy whose mother and father had both been killed in Palestine. This boy had been saved by the Israelis and the Americans and he had been brought to Mehmet by an Israeli Metsada agent who greeted him with a big smile and a shalom aleichem - may you be well. To the agent’s surprise he was greeted with the same big smile and after the baby had been handed over with the most perfect Yiddish shalom chaver – goodbye friend. Yes - it was the long arm of the dead Director Shabtai Shavit and now retired Director Hermann Muller which had reached out to protect this boy. In his sleep he didn’t know it yet, but this little boy was to be needed by so many. You see from the time that Mehmet himself had been saved by Ruepong Gilgoofigir he had always known the world would need a Messenger after him. She had opened a window to the future where he had seen that his own time on this earth was limited. He knew that there was still too much anger in the world and too much conflict between the different religions for his words to be accepted. Mehmet knew that the world would need someone to replace him and so him and

others had been looking for that person from the time Ruepong had first opened that window for him. That person had now been found. Mehmet knew that it was this boy who was needed to carry on the work that he had started. You see this boy was the culmination of a set of events that had begun well over three thousand years ago. This boy carried great magic with him. In the future he would demonstrate this magic to the world with his actions which would be interpreted as miracles. He had been born into a world that so needed actual sight of miracles just as the 24th Messenger Isa or Jesus had delivered over two thousand years ago. This is because faith and belief for so many had been lost, confused and distorted by those in religious power. Those leaders had weaved a complicated hierarchical structure in which only the interpretation of a single higher authority would be tolerated - theirs. However, the time was running out for these theological intolerants as soon there would be no other set of religious beliefs that would be able to compete with the miracles that this boy would deliver. He would become a life giving spirit. In the end those religions would all fade and die like the Peruvian soccer team had done on the runway in Quito in 1999. The truth is that Mehmet had brought the boy to be adopted and now he was in the safest hands imaginable with Sparta, Billy, Sidi and the complete magic of Yap to protect him. He was called Adam. It seemed more than coincidence that this would be the name of the last. It seemed perfect that the mistakes made by the first Messenger in taking the forbidden fruit were to be exorcised by the last who would take nothing, but would give everything. It seemed so true that while the first man Adam had become the first living being that it was the last Adam who was to become the life giving spirit that this world needed so much. The fingertips of Billy, Sparta, Mehmet and Sidi’s all gently linked around the tiny hand of Adam as the night stars flickered their approval to confirm that the deal was done.

The night that Adam became part of their family made Sparta and Billy think back to the first day they had arrived on Yap in January 2002, which was over five years previous. This was the day where the most magical and biggest of all the Rai stones was turned over for them all to see. It was the first Rai stone that the Yapese explorer Anagumang had brought from the neighbouring island of Palau in the 6th century where the limestone for all the stones was quarried. Yet it was the history of this one particular stone which made it the most valuable and the most important stone of them all. It had been turned just twice in over a thousand years and this was the second time. Underneath the stone was the exact description of everything that had happened to bring Sparta and Billy together. At that time it seemed that the purpose of all the great events that had happened was the delivery of the 26th Messenger of God - Mehmet. It may have always seemed this way, but actually this was completely not the case. You see the day after Mehmet left Ruepong Gilgoofigir brought them back to the place where the giant Rai stone lived and told them both to sit down. The magical stone was lifted by many hands for the third time, but this time it was simply rolled away until it fell into the sea never to be seen again. It was Anagumang who was the one to give it that final push. How he laughed knowing that the greatest secret had been completely protected. In fact everyone from Yap was laughing away too as they all knew that Anagumang was pretty poor at keeping secrets. They all knew that the real purpose of his stone was not the story that was written on it, but rather the purpose of it was to hide the treasure which was buried underneath. This is because under the massive stone, just a few inches under the soil, there was a tiny stone which had been hidden inside an intricately carved wooden box that was bedecked with strange shapes and signs. The stone had never been seen before by the world - it was as small as a newborn’s hand. Yet on this stone were written many words that were all about the newly adopted infant Adam. They were great words written about a great person who would spiritually reunite a troubled world. There was no one gathered there who was

the least bit surprised that the oldest and supposedly most important stone of them all had been rolled away and unceremoniously dumped in the sea to reveal the secret stone. There was no one there who was surprised that the box covered in Egyptian hieroglyphics should have ended up being buried on Yap over three thousand years ago. There was no one there who was surprised that Mehmet knew all about this box, the stone inside it and all about Adam. You see everyone there had always known that the purpose of The Thinking Heart was not the delivery of Mehmet, but rather it was all about the delivery of Adam. Mehmet’s job was done now. He knew that his life would be taken in an act of violent religious intolerance in the future, but he also knew that he was only the caretaker of the position and that his death would not stop what had been started the day that Sparta had been wounded by the star. He was not in the least bit worried because he knew that his replacement had already been found. In many ways Mehmet was similar to the giant Rai stone which seemed to have one purpose, but actually it had another. In the end all that remained was for Adam to grow up in the realm of pure love where his and Sidi’s childhood would be surrounded by the magic of Sparta, Sidi, Yap and of the memories of Billy. The two of them would grow up together not just believing in heroes, but actually they grew up surrounded by an army of them. Adam’s time to be uncovered, like the stone under the stone, would come at exactly the right time when it was most needed. This would also be the exact time when Sidi would take the scarab amulet and place it around her brother’s neck. In doing this Sidi knew that Adam would be covered in a protective force which would enable him to become what destiny had planned for him. In fact there was simply nothing that would stop that now. In the last few months as Billy’s health got so bad Ruepong came to see them both and offered Billy the type of immortality that she herself and all the others on the island possessed. Billy and Sparta just looked at her and smiled. They then told her what she already knew. She laughed and laughed and Anagumang who was listening outside - well he laughed out aloud too. Ruepong had won the bet

because she knew that these two didn’t need the kind of immortality that had been offered. This was because they had their own. The last night of Billy’s life was spent with Sparta wrapped like a prince this time in the arms of his princess. In the morning the final few moments of Billy’s life was lived with his head on Sparta’s lap with her scent wrapped around him. Her fingertips were all over his back as she was finger writing stories of her love for him. They were magic, epic and profound stories. She was also reading the letter that she had carried with her all the time. It was the letter that Billy had written for her the day she was to leave for Egypt in August 1992. We know hope. We know that we came to each other with dreams piled upon our backs which were never seen before by the world - yet to each other they are obvious. I know I am your destiny and you are mine. If we fall then we will fall fast with the knowledge that we gave a damn and that we were brave enough to try to be heroes. I walk proud with you. I walk proud with the person who has made me realize that even colours have faces. You see everything. Take to your dreams tonight and with you all the time that you are away from me the thought that my belief in you and in us both being together knows no limits. As Sparta kissed Billy’s closing eyelids for the final time she whispered to him how right he was to have written such words. She told him how right they both were to have believed in each other. She told him how right they both were to have believed in hope. She told him how moved she always was by his compassion, love and understanding for all those who he came across. She told him that he always made her feel liked the most loved woman on this planet. She told him that he should never stop feeling the limitless and immense love she had for him. His daughter Sidi, who was a teenager now, was snuggled in his arms telling him stories of great magic where good always triumphed over evil. The scarab amulet around her neck, which had been given to her by Mehmet, shone as brightly as it had ever done. The five month old Adam was lost in sleep. They were a family together. Billy’s last smile was to Sparta. Then his eyes closed for the final time. It was the smile of a husband and a father who was full of pride for

the incredible love and pride that was within his family. It was also the smile of someone who had done his best to protect those needing protection. Then Billy’s heart beat its last beat. The fight was over. It was finished. He was gone. However, this is not quite the case. The fight was not over. It was not finished and he was not gone. You see the death of Billy was to be a day full of what seemed to be the most remarkable coincidences which would, in fact, show how he was everywhere. The first one of them was that he died on the 14th of February 2008, Valentine’s Day. This was exactly twenty four years to the day that Billy’s eyes first met Sparta’s across the ice rink in the Zetra Hall during the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. It also seemed to be a magical piece of coincidence that at the exact time of Billy’s death from someone’s radio somewhere that those musical birds of fortuity flapped their song waves into the room with the most truthful words of them all - I dreamed something when you fell for me. Yeah I dreamed something which soars above. For we're only the ones we love. There’s nothing exceptional about this happening other than the fact that it was a continuation of the song that Sparta had heard the moment she had first climbed into Mehmet’s taxi. This is the song that is first mentioned on Page 2 of this story. She had heard this song twice in her life once in Egypt in August 1992 and now for the second time in Yap in February 2008. It was a song that had waited sixteen years to deliver its final lines. Yet there were to be many many more coincidences that would follow these two, which would make Sparta see that her Billy had not gone, that the fight was not over and that in fact he was simply wrapped all around her. A few hours before Billy was to die in Sarajevo, some 11 000kms away, another great coincidence was just about to be delivered in the rebuilt Zetra Hall where Billy and Sparta had first met. The much heralded Champions on Ice festival was being held in the city. This was a special event to celebrate the 24th anniversary of the 14th Winter Olympic Games held in 1984. The festival had actually started on February the 7th, but today the 14th, Valentine’s Day, was the last performance. A stack of former Olympic skaters were there that included Plushenko, Bonaly,

Kazakova and Dmitrev. They were all there to take part in a two hour magical figure skating show that was simply called Love Story. For the final performance the Hall was as packed as it had ever been. It was almost as though the people knew that something special was going to happen. It is true that the crowd were all ready for a beautiful performance, but there was simply no one in that audience who was ready for what happened next. You see as all the performance skaters left the ice suddenly two new skaters magically appeared as if from nowhere. They seemed to skate for an eternity. It seemed their skates were cutting a story in the ice. They were. The people heard that story and slowly one by one the audience started to cry. It was the greatest love story that was being told. In the half light it was easy to imagine that they were two ghost skater representatives of the thousands of ghosts who, because of the war, had now claimed this city as their own. In the Zetra Hall not a breath could be heard and the crowd stood rock still immobilized by the knowledge that something truly magical was actually unfolding before their very eyes. It felt to everyone as though time had wound itself back to February 14th 1984. There was no one there whose heart did not almost miss a beat as the first strands of the musical score floated across the ice. You see the music brought back plenty of memories about the siege of the city and memories too of all those who had fallen while the city had not. In fact the tears fell as freely as the roses that were thrown down upon those two skaters as the music of the Bolero managed all the formal introductions that were ever to be needed. You see it was Torvill and Dean who had returned for their part in the Love Story. It is true that the two of them would never to return to the Zetra Hall again, but the magic of their two performances in 1984 and 2008 would never be forgotten. They would always be part of the Love Story of the city of Sarajevo and of course its parent Bosnia. This place would always love them both. This place would always applaud them with nine perfect sixes.

Upstairs in the Announcer’s Box the ghost of the old man who had defied the Serbs in 1994 and played the same music, before he was killed, smiled at the magical scene below. He knew that what had happened on the ice when he had first played the Bolero in 1984 for Torvill and Dean was the beginning of a great love story. He didn’t know that at this exact time Billy was dying, but somehow he felt that somewhere in someplace today that this was the final celebration of the most perfect love story of them all. It sure was. As the music played there were plenty of people in the crowd who thought about Billy because they knew it was him with the Sarajevo Tower Boys who had fought and beat the Serbs inside the Zetra Hall itself in 1994 long enough for Billy to get to the Announcer’s Box where he made sure that the Bolero was played over the radio and loud speakers to the entire city. These people all knew that the power of this one particular piece of music was far greater than the composer Ravel could ever have imagined. You see these people all knew that it was the playing of this music that had saved their city. Yes - there was no doubt that it was a truly magical night surrounded by masses of magical memories, haunting music, plenty of ghosts and the unlikeliest of heroes of them all - the two British skaters. It was a night that lived up to its name. You see - it was Valentine’s Day. It was a night full of the greatest romance imaginable. It was also coincidental that the day Billy died was the exact day where the perpetrator of the Markale Square atrocity in Sarajevo in August 1995, the bully boy Serbian General, Dragomir Milosevic, would finally front up and admit to his guilt to this war crime. A few months previous in December 2007, at the Court of International Justice in The Hague in Holland, he had already been sentenced to thirty three years in jail for crimes against humanity as well as for violating the customs of war. It would come as no surprise that the former paper tiger UN Resolutions of 770 and 771 were to have played a significant part in the guilty verdict. However, he had never accepted his guilt and an appeal against his sentence had already been filed. The morning of his admission the guards had found him in his cell, with a cut up face, gibbering like an idiot and talking about

some old blackened toothed woman who was in his cell all night and where she had promised to haunt him for the rest of his life if he did not admit to what he had done. He said that she had given him a good beating around the face with a necklace made from teeth of some sort. Yes - General Dragomir Milosevic whimpered and begged the prosecutors for him to be able to make a statement describing the mortar shelling which he had ordered. He told them he wanted to withdraw his appeal against the sentence he had been given. The International Court Prosecutors could barely write the details of the admission down fast enough. It seemed perfect that it was a laughing Ruepong Gilgoofigir who was to tell Billy the news of Dragomir’s admission of guilt just a few hours before he died - after all she was the first one to hear his admission. This is because she was there in the cell giving him a good beating with her manta ray barbed necklace. This was the same one that was used to carry out the tracheotomy on Mehmet. There would be many who would link the death of Billy and the General’s admission together. The truth is that we will never know whether they were linked or not, but there is no doubt that Billy felt at peace over this fabulous news. On the island of Yap funerals are really big events - after all many centuries pass by unnoticed before anyone ever dies there. In fact there was no one who could recall the name of the last person who had died on the island and when that was. There was no doubt that the funeral of Billy was the second biggest event that had ever happened on Yap. It was only surpassed in importance by the delivery of the first magical Rai stone by Anagumang in the 6th Century whose purpose was to hide the tiny stone beneath. These were the stones upon which the whole story had been inscribed in two parts. As the final funeral preparations were being made the inner and outer islanders, which make up Yap, were all lined up opposite to each other in the blue and red colours that had always separated them until something completely unexpected happened. The individual colours broke rank and started to mingle and talk with each other. There was no one who

could ever quite recall who started it, but whoever it was didn’t matter at all. You see it was in this mingling moment these people realized that all the magic in the world they possessed had somehow kept them apart. It seemed more than a coincidence that it was the death of Billy that was to reunite the two colours as one. In the end Billy’s tired muscular body was placed on a bamboo and palm tree raft that was bedecked with a rainbow of colours, food and wood where it was soon to be set alight and pushed into the ocean. However, in the final moment before the funeral pyre was lit Sparta ran to Billy and whispered in his ear the last words that she had wanted to say. She reminded him that he was her hero and that her heart had and would always belong to him. Then the sea took him. He was the responsibility of the giant manta rays and from now on they would look after him. It’s fair to say the day Billy left that he was covered in more than a thousand kisses and the gentlest of touches as well as a sea of tears. He was also covered in the blue, yellow and white colours of a bullet ridden Bosnia and Herzegovina flag which had been brought over by Billy’s best friend Horst. This was the old “war’ flag which was used from February 1992 to February 1998 that had the shield shape upon it which had the fleur-de-lis in the centre. This flag had been replaced with a neutral new one that was imposed upon the country in 1998 by the International High representative as the Croats and Serbians in peacetime were reminded by the old “war” flag that in fact the Bosnians had beaten them in that war by just not giving in. Horst had come for the funeral with Alija Izetbegovic and his daughter Mishka. This flag was a gift from all the Sarajevo Tower Boys whose love and respect for Billy was simply eternal. It was without any doubt their most important possession. It was this flag that was never lowered from the highest apartment block in Sarajevo where the fighters were based. It was the same flag that they had never surrendered despite the overwhelming barbaric Serbian forces that

were lined up against them where Billy had chosen to fight with the beleaguered Bosnians. It was this flag that the people of Sarajevo looked up each day to see as it was their daily reminder that they had not and would never give in to the type of brutality being thrown at them. It was this particular flag that was to become their absolute symbol of hope and defiance. This flag gave them all heart. This is exactly what Billy had given to all those who fought with him. He was simply unbeatable. As this story now comes to an end I can tell you that Billy was known by all those who fought with him as The Fighting Heart. It may seem coincidental, but as Horst gave the flag to Sparta he spoke a few words to all those there about the heart. He told everyone the story of how Bosnia was always known to the rest of the world as the ‘heart shaped nation’. He said that people used to think this was because of the shape of the country, but after the siege of Sarajevo everyone knew that it was because of the attitude that the people had shown throughout the siege. There can be no doubt that Bosnia was a nation shaped by heart. It may feel in this epic tale that the power of the heart seems to be everywhere - that’s because it really is. In what seemed to be a great piece of geographical coincidence it is worth noting that this incredible flag did not come from Bosnia, but rather it had been brought by the first Mujahideen soldiers who came from Egypt. These were the same fighters who had fought with Billy in Sarajevo for the Bosnians. The flag was made from the most beautiful and finest Egyptian Damask. This was the same type of material that Sparta had been wrapped in when she was taken to the hospital in August 1992 after being wounded by the star. It just seemed that the magical pull of Egypt that had made all of this possible was perhaps making its last call. It may have seemed this way, but this was not the case. You see for Sparta the call and reminders from Egypt would come time and time again. A few days after Billy’s funeral Sparta would be drawn to the photo she had taken of the old man slow hand clapping in Bucharest, Romania. Billy and Sparta had

often spoken about this demonstration as they were both there at the time just a hundred metres apart, but they did not see each other. There was something that had always made Sparta think of the courage of this person to have started clapping and the hope that he had in his heart how others would join in with him. Yet there was always something she could not quite understand about her attraction to this image. In the end she realized she would not have been able to find what she did had Billy been alive. So what did she find when she blew the size of the image up? In what seemed to be an amazing coincidence in the background of this photo she found Billy with his hands joining in the clap – you see he was the second hand clapper. The old man was so right to have believed in hope and that someone would join him. This accidental reminder of Billy would happen many more times in the future where it seemed that he was often stretching out to Sparta. He was. A short time after Billy had died Sparta thought more and more of the Egyptian story that she had first come across which Mehmet had told her about in the taxi when they had first met. This is of course the story of The Thinking Heart where in Egyptian mythology it was believed that the entry into the afterlife was determined by the weight of the heart itself. In this story the dead person was judged by the weight of his or her heart in a balance against the Feather of Truth by the Goddess Maat. Sparta knew that it was the principle of Maat which held Egyptian society together. You see the word Maat itself meant truth, order, justice, balance or harmony and while it reflected abstract concepts it was also accepted by all as a formula for living life. It was an incredibly forgiving concept that allowed a person who may have done some wrong to have their wrong deeds cancelled by changing their ways. There is no doubt that Sparta loved the way the simple imagery in the story created a picture of good over evil being measured by a weighty heart. It was this story that made her realize that no matter how much she missed him that her Billy would be fine wherever he was. I mean she knew Billy had a heavy heart and that he would be judged in a great way for the way that he had fought for

others. It is true that at the gates of the afterlife when Billy’s heart was being weighed against the Feather of Truth that his heart was seen as heavy and therefore his entry into the afterlife was guaranteed. The Goddess pronounced to Billy - You have spoken Maat. You have accomplished Maat. However, there is a final part to The Thinking Heart where the possibility of entering the afterlife is also determined. It is a part of the story that has not been mentioned at any time before. It involves the final question the Goddess asks the moment before the heart is weighed. It is the one question that has a huge influence on the outcome. The person is asked the simple question - well what have you found? There can be many answers to this question, but there is only one answer that carries any weight. Billy answered the question with the exact five words that were needed when he said - I have found my love. They were the exact words that Sparta had whispered to Billy when he had been taken on the plane from Sarajevo to London by Alija Izetbegovic. It might seem coincidental that Sparta would say the same words to the Goddess when her time was to come. You may believe there is nothing but great coincidence that runs through The Thinking Heart, but if you were to believe this way then you would be completely wrong. You see there is absolutely no coincidence at all in The Thinking Heart. There is only destiny. In the afterlife, where Billy had now been guaranteed a passage, the first person he was to meet would be the 12th century Japanese warrior Minamoto no Yoritomo who as you know had established the supremacy of the Samurai warrior movement over the Japanese aristocracy. Minamoto would be waiting on bended knee with his head bent low where he would offer Billy the greatest gift imaginable from a Samurai warrior - his sword. This was his recognition that there was a mighty warrior in his presence. Minamoto had also been working on another gift since January 1994 and that was a beautiful round table. This would take him many, many more years to complete. This would be a gift for Sparta when it was her time to arrive. You see it was already written on the Rai stone in

Yap that Sparta would one day fall into Billy’s arms in this afterlife and that they would eventually meet all those involved in this story. At this time Sparta thought a great deal about good and evil, right and wrong, truth and lies, but most of all she thought about her love for Billy and how this incredible, beautiful and simple love had been born. She knew that it was the significance of sharing that one look over the ice in February 1984 where everything in her life seemed to have flown from that moment. She realized in the look they had shared that Billy had made the slow hand clap across to her heart with his eyes at the exact time that she had made the slow hand clap to his heart. It was this completely unexpected hand clap shared between the two of them that changed both of their worlds. She realized that the two of them were the luckiest people in the world because they had shared such happiness even though it took so long for them to be together. This made her think of the letter which she had written to Billy after she had touched the plaque in Sarajevo upon which was written - Billy Blood May 13th 1962 to August 28th 1995. The people of Sarajevo give you nine perfect sixes. This was the message that she knew had been written for her. She carried this letter for four years until she was able to read it to Billy after he had been brought from Sarajevo to her by Alija Izetbegovic. She used to read this letter many, many times to Billy. He used to get the most complete happiness from those words. He used to say that the first sentence of this letter made him feel like a superhero. Sparta always used to laugh and tell him that this was exactly what he was to her and to so many others. These times we live apart are as hard as they are beautiful. There are days when I awake and the longing is so great for you that I wonder how the next minute will start and how I will see that minute to its finish. There are days where I know wherever you are you will open your eyes to a world that is so familiar yet so foreign because you are not with me. These are the days where the pieces of our lives don't quite fit together anymore because we are apart. It is a fact that

our lives and future are filled with certainty, knowledge and understanding delivered through the bank of endless hope that we possess where the feeling of intense love lives and where we share the belief that things will work out for us just perfectly. I know there are days when the hurdles that we face to be reunited seem so enormous. It is these days that make me understand that there is nothing that will stop us being together. It is these days when everything we have known, have learnt and have experienced come into play. I promise you one thing that no matter where you are I will find you. I will find my love. It would take a long time before Sparta would be able to read this letter again. This is because it was a letter that was only meant to be read to one other - her Billy. Yet the day would come where she would pick it up and she would see that she had written a prophecy. Yes - the times they would live apart would be as hard as they were beautiful. Yes - she would find her love as she had so promised. Yet there was one thing that she knew was wrong in what she had written and as time moved on it would become more and more wrong. You see Sparta had written - These are the days where the pieces of our lives don't quite fit together anymore because we are apart. The thing is that after Billy had died Sparta realized that it wasn’t the completion of the pieces of the puzzle of their lives that was really important. You see Sparta knew that what was really important was having all the pieces of the puzzle. She knew that once the pieces were there that the puzzle could be completed at any time. It was from this day onwards that Sparta started to live in a slightly different way. She knew that she held all the pieces to Billy as he held all the pieces to her. It is true that the time wasn’t perfect right now, but she had no doubt that the perfect time for those pieces to be completed would come one day. It would take a lifetime lived to the full before Sparta would eventually join Billy where everything would then fit together perfectly. It would be a lifetime where she would watch Sidi and Adam grow into the finest of souls where their hearts would become mighty and heavy. She would eventually see Adam take the place of Mehmet where many miracles would flow from him to those in need

and where to the whole world there would be no doubt that he would be the last of all the Messengers. Yet it would also be a lifetime where each night she would look up to the sparkling stars and think of her Billy and the complete magic that they had shared. It would be a life where she knew she had found her own sparkle maker. You see as simple and as innocent as it all may seem all that Sparta wanted was to find the man who made her sparkle. It would also be a life where Sparta knew without any doubt that her life was measured by what she had done with and for her Billy. It is true that when Billy died Sparta would miss him every single day, but in her heart lived the irrefutable knowledge, which had been carved in 3000 year old stone that they would be reunited again. This is the nature of the pure and unconditional love that Billy and Sparta shared. This knowledge would be enough to ensure that her life would be complete. It would be much more than complete. In fact it would be what she always thought it would be from the very day her eyes had first met Billy. It would be perfect.