"Well," she began, "Like I said, it tells us how to look at history, how to understand the last two thousand years for what they’ve been."

"Right," I said, "You said that two minutes ago."

"In the first thousand years, everything was total shit.  No one knew what the hell was going on.  But in the second millenium, this one, things changed.   For the first five hundred years, it was all about the church.  The church told people why they existed, what they ought to do with their lives, who they could sleep with, everything.  Then around 1500, people started getting sick of all that, so they had the Reformation.  And once they started questioning the church, it was easy to start questioning everything else.  And when you question everything, that’s science."

"What about people outside of Europe?"

"What about them?"

"I thought the Reformation was in Europe.   What about everyone else?"

Cathy rolled her eyes in exasperation.  "Everyone had the Reformation.   It was a really big deal, it was huuuuuuuuuge.  You’d have to be like a retard or something to miss it."

"I don’t know, Cath…."

"Anyway, who cares?  Everything important was in Europe."

"Does the manuscript actually say that?"

"I don’t know."

"I thought you read it."

"It wasn’t a very good copy.  It was written in crayon, and most of it was in Spanish."

"I thought it was in Pig-Latin."

"Well, sure, the original.  But the orginal manuscript is being protected by this secret brotherhood of monks in Ensenada called ‘Los Idiotos.’   The only thing most people have seen are these little handwritten copies that people are risking their lives to smuggle out of the country.  And most of those copies happen to be in Spanish."

"But you don’t speak Spanish, Cathy."

"I know the main words: cerveza, that’s beer. Adios, that’s goodbye.  Cucarachas is cockroach.  Now, God, will you stop?  If you’re gonna ask all these questions I can just go home.   I’m trying to help you by teaching you these things, but I can’t teach you if you keep disagreeing with everything."

"I’ll shut up," I said.

"Good.  Okay.  So now we’ve got science.  And science tells us lots of stuff that’s good to know, like how far it is to Mars, and how fast light travels, and how to get porn on the computer, but that’s not really enough, either.   So here we are and it's 1999 and we're all looking at each other like, 'what now?'   The manuscript says it's time for the next truth."

"Which is?"

"There is no truth."

This was exciting: I'd always suspected there was no real Truth.  On the other hand, I'd always suspected Laurie Gabriotti wanted me to kiss her, and when I finally did she kicked me.  So I decided to tread cautiously.  I decided to play Devil's Advocate.  "If there’s really no Truth," I said, "then it can’t be true that there’s no Truth. "

Cathy shook her head.  "Just because there’s no truth doesn’t mean nothing’s true. It just means, you know: nothing really matters."

I tried to connect the dots.  "So the Second Insight says that History has been this whole long search for Truth--that it started with Religion, then went to Science, and now we finally end up finding that there’s no such thing as Truth? That there’s no Meaning?"

"Right," Cathy said, "but you don’t have to keep capitalizing everything."

"And this is all in the Ensenada Manuscript?"

"Right. "

"We’re all idiots, and there’s no such thing as truth?"

"Right."

"But then… I mean… I mean, what’s the point? Why not just let everything go to hell and get drunk and have sex?"

"Exactly," she said, and she began to unbutton her blouse…

On the drive back to her place she mentioned that she’d heard a little about the Third Insight.  "It has to do with the universal energy," she explained, "energy that's available to all of us."

"Energy as in electricity, or energy as in, ‘Boy, I’m tired, I really need some energy?’"

"I don't know.  Universal energy.  Cosmic energy."

"Sounds like New Age crap."

"That's just because I don't understand it.  The guy who was explaining it to me was just starting to make sense when he was accidentally shot forty-seven times."

"Wow,"  I said.  "You're lucky they missed you!"

"Tell me about it.  If I hadn't pushed him in front me I'd have been a goner."  She sighed wearily.  "I want to go to Ensenada.  I want to find the rest of the Insights.  I want to meet the heroes of Los Idiotos.   But I've got so much laundry to do...  why don't you take my car and go to Ensenada?  Find out everything you can, and come back and tell me."

"That’s a hell of a drive," I said. "I don’t think I can even afford the gas."

"You won’t need money.  Harness the universal energy.  Look at everything that’s happened to you, and how quickly.  It can't just be coincidence.  Go with it."

Things had been happening quickly.  Was it possible there was some unseen hand driving my fate?  Had destiny chosen me as her instrument?  Or was I just another awkwardly sketched character being manipulated by some hack writer?  And did it even matter?

"All right,"  I said.  "That settles it.  I'm going to Ensenada."