Organizational Behaviour Leading Human Resources

How Research-Driven Marketing Generates Demand With Michele Linn

How Research-Driven Marketing Generates Demand With Michele Linn Can a well-researched piece of content from a single URL help bring in millions of views in just one year? The answer is, â€Å"Yes.† knows exactly how that feels. Researched content helps you drive 10X results that convert into profitable customer action. Today, we’re talking to Michele Linn, who knows everything about research-driven content marketing. She is the co-founder and chief strategy officer at Mantis Research. Michele has amazing advice to offer on how to succeed at content marketing. Research is crucial for content marketing; people want to find data that supports their thoughts and beliefs; become the authoritative source for some type of topic Examples of research include ’s State of Marketing Strategy Report, and research reports from Salesforce and Robert Half Find new ideas for your audience/niche by conducting a survey, or looking for a stat that people believe but is not backed up by data Audiences that care most about research-based content are those in a new industry to gain justification, and on social media that like to share stats Importance of research-driven content to prove or disprove something Targeting Topics: Is it something that’s interesting to your audience? Does it align with your brand’s story? Is there other research available on this topic? Research can be time consuming, about 4-6 months; but it is worth the effort Research can be a guiding force and the glue that holds your story and editorial strategy together Pitching researched content to justify time spent; what does client care about? Content to produce results; start out small, don’t do too much at once Tools and processes work well to gather research; try surveys and secondary research; determine sample size to be considered representative and valid Metrics to measure for success include media mentions, impressions of research, leads, downloads, email subscribers, and backlinks Research Process: 1) Strategy and planning, 2) Data science, 3) Compile data and turn into story, 4) Incorporate research into blogs, infographs, videos, etc. Links: Mantis Research Content Marketing Institute Ultimate Guide: How to Publish Survey-Based Research for Content Marketing State of Marketing Strategy Report Salesforce Robert Half Andy Crestodina DivvyHQ Andrea Fryrear SurveyGizmo Write and send a review to receive a care package If you liked today’s show, please subscribe on iTunes to The Actionable Content Marketing Podcast! The podcast is also available on SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Quotes by Michele Linn: â€Å"What we are trying to do with marketers is help them publish their own original research.† â€Å"Research is a real opportunity because you and your brand become the authoritative source for some type of topic.† â€Å"I think it can work for a lot of different industries, you just have to figure out what your audience truly cares about.† â€Å"When you have research, it really can be that guiding force and that glue that holds your whole story and your whole editorial strategy together.†

Animal Testing Essays (967 words) - Animal Welfare, Animal Testing

Animal Testing Essays (967 words) - Animal Welfare, Animal Testing Animal Testing Traditionally, animals have been used to ensure the safety of our consumer products and drugs. Yet around the world, scientists, regulators and animal protectionists work together to develop alternatives to their use. The use of animals in the life sciences dates back to ancient Greece and the earliest medical experiments. To learn about swallowing, physicians cut open into the throat of a living pig. To study the beating heart, they cut open into its chest. For centuries physicians and researchers used animals to enhance their knowledge about how the various organs and systems of the body functioned, as well as to hone their surgical skills. As long as animals have been used in experiments, people have expressed concerns about such research. Questions about the morality, necessity, and scientific validity of animal experiments have arisen since those ancient physicians first began to study bodily functions. Alternatives are methods, which refine existing tests by minimizing animal distress, reduce the number of animals necessary for an experiment or replace whole animal use with vitro or other tests. While vivisection has received more attention and funding, clinical and epidemiological (studying the natural course of disease within human population) studies have had a much more profound impact on human health. In fact, clinical and epidemiological evidence linking smoking to lung cancer was established long before warnings of the dangers of smoking were released to the general public. Because animal experimentation failed to each the same conclusion, warning labels on cigarettes were delayed for years! During this time hundreds of people died from lung cancer because the results of animal experimentation were considered more valid than studies of human patients. Animal based research is the science of the past. There are a number of alternatives available to modern researchers, which a re less expensive, more reliable, and ethically sound. They provide results rapidly, experimental parameters are easily controlled, and their focus on the cellular and molecular levels of the life process provides more useful information about chemicals and drugs. High Productive Volume Tests, test a minimal amount of a product on an abundant amount of animals. Two - hundred baby rats, just three weeks old are placed in wire - bottomed stainless - steel cages. Twice daily Monday thru Friday, laboratory workers pull the small mammals from their cages, force steel clamps into their mouths to hold their jaws apart and swab their teeth with an anti - cavity dental chemical. After three weeks, the workers kill the baby rats by cutting off their teeth. The procedures are called Biological Tests for Tests Flouride Dentifrices and :Determination of Animal Carries Reduction - puzzling terms to most of us. But the meaning is deadly to animals. The officials who order this test work for the U. S. government s FDA has made exceptions for manufacturers, including Toms of Maine, that wanted to market new toothpastes without any tests on animals. If some companies can manufacture safe, effective anti - cavity toothpastes without using any animals, why cant a ll dental product companies stop killing animals? Philosopher Jeremy Bentham sounded the rallying cry for animals everywhere: The question is not, can they reason, nor can they talk, but can they suffer? The Animal Welfare Act sets standards for the housing, handling, feeding, and transportation of experimental animals, but places no limitations whatsoever on the actual experimental conditions and procedures continue to challenge, whether human beings have the right to use animals for any purpose. The HPV Program sounds so important, right? Wrong! Because no resulting action will be taken against the chemicals involved in this program. Instead of protecting the public from hazardous chemicals, the EPA will inform us of how quickly mice and rabbits died when force - fed a chemical, or how many mouse pups were stillborn after their mother was force - fed massive quantities of already known toxic chemicals. Every medical advancement has not been a result of animal testing. Results derived from animal experiments have had a very minimal effect on the dramatic rise of life expectancy can be attributed mainly to changes in lifestyles, environmental factors, and improvements in sanitation. Many medical schools in the U. S. do not use animals in the training of medical students. They include:

How to Make Marbled and Scented Paper

How to Make Marbled and Scented Paper Its super-easy to make elegant marbled paper, which you can use for a variety of projects including gift wrap. What you may not know is you can scent your paper while you marble it. Paper Marbling Materials papershaving creamfood coloring or paintssilverwareshallow pan, large enough for your papersqueegee or paper towels You can use any paper for this project and will get slightly different effects depending on your selection. I used ordinary printer paper. You can use any shaving cream, too. I would probably aim for the least expensive brand you can find, but what I actually used was scented shaving gel. If you use peppermint-scented shaving cream then you can make paper that smells like candy canes. If you use floral scented shaving cream then your marbled paper will carry a subtle floral fragrance. The other material used in this project is pigment or ink. The blue/red/green box in the photo is wrapped with marbled paper colored using food coloring. The pink/orange/blue box is wrapped with marbled paper that was colored with tempera poster paints. You can use any pigment you like, so be creative! Make Marbled Paper Spread a thin layer of shaving cream in the bottom of the pan. I used a spoon, but you can use a knife or spatula or your fingers. All you need is a shallow coating.Dot the surface of the shaving cream with food coloring or paint or pigment or whatever colorant you are using.Use your imagination to pattern the colors. I simply ran the tines of a fork through the colors in a wavy fashion. Dont get too enthusiastic swirling your colors or else they will run together.Lay your paper on top of the colored layer in the pan. I smoothed the paper out over the shaving cream.Remove the paper and either squeegee off the shaving cream (wiping between passes) or wipe the shaving cream off with a dry paper towel. If you do this carefully, none of your colors will run or be distorted.Allow your paper to dry. If it curls, you can iron it flat using low heat. I didnt have any problem with printer paper distorting. The marbled paper will be smooth and slightly glossy. Neither the food colorings nor tempera paints transferred off of the paper once it was dry. Some people like to spray marbled paper with a fixative. I probably would not treat the paper if your goal is to make a scented and colored paper, since fixing the paper might mask the fragrance.

Memo and Flowchart Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Memo and Flowchart - Essay Example Mchane and Travaglione explain that good communication enure individual know what i expected of them and it galvanie coordination within the organiation. The root of a large number of organiational problem i poor communication. Thi eay will give an indication of what tyle of communication were involved in my previou line of employment with Woolworth Limited. How everyday communication uch a word, voice, tone, geture phyical action and the like took place with fellow employee baed on the model preented by Gamble and Gamble. To be a effective a I could, verbal communication wa one of, if not, the mot important apect when communicating with employee. A a manager it wa imperative to overcome communication barrier before approaching an employee. Thee barrier may have been diadvantage of verbally communicating, uch a noie, hearay, choice of word, aumption and tereotyping, which could all contribute to miundertanding. I felt it to be my duty to recognie any of thee barrier and enure that they were not included in the communication proce. For example, if it required me to talk to an employee about hi/her performance, it wa imperative that they had my 100% attention and the chance of ditraction wa zero. In an environment where there maybe five employee at one tore, it wa crucial to be aware of what wa aid about employee around other employee or co-worker, which could have had repercuion at later tage. I learnt from early on, an employee will not hear what you have to ay, poitive or contructive, if they have heard that you have been talking to other about them. They would have already began to get defenive and think of what they need to ay to get their point acro while I wa trying to make mine. Another apect of verbal communication i written tatement. In my workplace, thi included memorandum, bulletin, flyer, report, letter, faxe and e-mail. Mchane and Travaglione decribe written, verbal, or electronic method a, at time, imperonal, but fat and effective. Written communication i very often the mot uitable and clearet mean of communication. A a manager at BW, written communication may be the mot uitable when trying to communicate organiational goal, objective, target, value and o on. In an indutry where the encouragement of policie, procedure and practice are central to improvement, written communication i often the bet way to demontrate thi. That i not to ay interperonal connection within BW wa are non-exitent, becaue that i by no mean the cae. Developing a trut relationhip between manager and employee make it eaier to reach the goal of ucceful communication. Effective communication i built and utained on the trut between manager and employee. 'Doing what i right' and having employee follow thi principle alo require initiating and utaining mutually truting relationhip . Gamble define litening a a deliberate proce through which we eek to undertand and retain aural timuli. It depend on a complex et of kill

James VI Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

James VI - Essay Example His father Henry Stewart but widely known as Lord Darnley. Darnley, he lost his life in a mysterious explosion at his residence. Just seven months after this Mary Queen of Scots was forced to surrender her throne as she was beaten by rebels. Mary went away and James was left alone. James was given the throne of Scotland at the age of fifteen months this is when he became King James VI of Scotland (Harris& McDonald 2006 ). Today, James I of England also known as James VI of Scotland has addressed to Parliament on the divine right of kings. This was very disappointing to Parliament after many conflicts between it and King James. King James made a horrible statement to all religious eyes that kings are a figure like God himself. "Kings are fairly known as Gods, for that they use a manner of likeness of divine power upon this planet." This surprised the listeners as he spoke regarding the similarity of kings and God. This sent awe throughout the square where the speech was made. Many have said that this will send the king straight to hell with no judgment what so ever. The king made some over the edge of the earth similarities between the power of God and the power of kings. This is an exert from his speech showing the similarities: "God has the power to create, or destroy, make, or unmake at his pleasure, to give life, or send death, to judge all, raise low things, and to make high things low at his pleasure, and to God are both soul and body due. And the like power have Kings; they make and unmake their subjects: they have the power of raising and casting down: of life, and of death: judges over all their subjects, and in all causes, and yet accountable to none but God only." (www.thedukeofyork.org/files/pdf/jamesi) This statement surprised a lot of church officials at the time and numerous protesters were there in opposition to the King. One protester held up a sign saying, "You are not God, he made the Bible." After the King saw this sign, he promised to translate the Bible to English. This is not certain to happen, as the King has a bad relationship with parliament. This might cause him to not have enough money to translate the Bible, but it will bring us to no conclusions. . As a result, James VI of Scotland was put on the English throne as James I. Like his predecessor, James was a passionate supporter of the Anglican Church. Because of this, he did not have much leniency for Puritan's demands for the improvement of the church. What little tolerance he had went to the agreement of a new translation of the Bible to English, called the King James Version or Authorized Version (www.biblelife.org/calvinism.htm ) (one of the most commonly used English translations today). Other than that, James disapproved of further modifications to church doctrines. Upset by the king's refusal, many Puritans left England to flee to Holland and later sail on the Mayflower, heading for a new life in the Americas. King James I, a shred Scotsman, was head of both the state and the church in England. He saw his subjects could defy him as their spiritual leader. He therefore threatened to harass the more bothersome Separatists out of the

Ray's Cleaning Services Paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Ray's Cleaning Services - Research Paper Example This is a major planning strategy that will ensure the company meets its objectives. In our efforts to ensure all the employees have the necessary academic qualifications and skills, Ray’s Cleaning Services will undertake personal profile, discussion with former employers and job observation as the major evaluation techniques. Another notable strategy that Ray’s Cleaning Services will emulate is financial planning. This will entail initiating a competitive payment plan that will improve the performance of our employees. In its recruitment program, Ray’s Cleaning Services will undertake internal as well as external hiring. Additionally, the business is considering cultural diversity of its workers as a way of enhancing positive relationship among the employees. An online account is another strategy that the company will employ to ensure constant communication with the applicants. Major employment documents that will be retained by the company include Form W-4, For m 1-9 and Specific employee’s records. To ensure that our business complies with government regulations, Ray’s Cleaning Services will emulate key laws that include business license, letter of registration, collective labor laws, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Environment rules and individual labor laws. It its efforts to improve the performance of workforce, Ray’s Cleaning Services will offer a number of benefits that includes annual training programs, life insurance cover, accidents cover, part-time courses in local universities, annual bonus, gifts and promotion among others. The challenges facing local and international companies has called for effective planning including hiring qualified and skilled manpower in order to ensure continuity in the production process. One of the major causes of increased rate of turnover is reduced level of motivation due to low salaries and lack of appropriate benefit plan. Additionally,

Exploring a qualitative research problem Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Exploring a qualitative research problem - Essay Example A quantitative research method would use cause and effect thinking or would employ reduction of specific variables, hypothesis and questions. This paper will analyze three journals that have been written to discuss the obesity case and will look at the author’s framework of the problem, their purpose of the study and their rationale towards selection of the qualitative method. Ferda from the economics department in the Yeditebe University executed a research on the issue of obesity in Finland (Ferda, 2013). The research was aimed at finding out the causes of obesity in Finland that had become a national concern since every for every five people in the country two people were obese. The purpose of the research was to study the dynamics of obesity in Finland and provide evidence on how temporal obesity relates with health expenditure of the country and of individual persons (Ferda, 2013). The research also examined how unemployment was related to obesity since most of the unemployed people in the country were obese. Ferda also wanted to find out if urbanization had an impact or the rising cases of obese people living in urban centre in Finland. The research also was aimed at investigating how alcohol consumption and intake of calories, that were popular practices in Finland, led to obesity (Ferda, 2013). The researcher selected the qualitative method since the causes of obesity lied within the people and the best source of information was from the people themselves through simple methods such as interviews. The research also used testing and augmented causality tests to provide information on the possible causes of obesity on randomly selected people. According to my opinion, cases of obesity do not occur naturally since they are caused by the behavior of the person in terms of their food and beverage consumption. The qualitative research approach that the user used by

Environmental Toxicology. Homework 6 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Environmental Toxicology. Homework 6 - Essay Example 36 Bioassessibility refers to the amount of a pollutant that can be dissolved by the digestive fluids. Lead enters the body through either ingestion or inhalation. As much as it can be eliminated, continuous exposure leads to accumulation as well as intoxication. Analysis of waste materials indicates that 40% of lead was present as cerrussite (Brack, 2011). Cerrussite is a highly bio accessible lead-carrying molecule. However, 65% of lead also exists in the waste in a bio accessible form (Brack, 2011). This shows that lead which does not exist as cerrussite is also high bio accessible. Lead bearing minerals such as sulfur and oxygen make it more bio accessible. Presence of these stable minerals is evident in the stomach and the intestinal phase. The higher the residence of the lead in the gut the higher the bio accessibility. 13. Briefly describe the chemical and biological processes by which mercury from a coal-fired power plant enters a lake and makes it way to humans through fish caught and consumed by a fisherman or fisherwoman. Coal fired power plants emit mercury, which accumulates as sediments. Sulfur reducing bacteria then converts the mercury into methyl mercury. The sediments are then passed into water bodies and into the systems of fishes. Mercury is bio accumulative and hence it is retained in the bodies of the fish. There is a high bio concentration of methyl mercury in these aquatic organisms (Brack, 2011). Fishermen catch the fish and as they consume them, methyl mercury is passed on to

East Asian Civilizations Essay Example for Free

East Asian Civilizations Essay The East Asian countries are Taiwan, North and South Korea, Macau, Japan, and China. These countries experience peace and prosper economically throughout the civilization of Eastern Asia. Taiwan is an island off the southeast coast of China and the seat of the Chinese Nationalist government. It has rugged ranges of the Chungyang Mountains blanket the eastern two-thirds of the island. On the other hand, Korea is a divided country of eastern Asia. It occupies a peninsula, about 450 miles in length and between the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea. Since 1945 Korea has been divided into two political units—the Democratic people’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (South Korea). They are separated in by a demilitarized zone, about 2 ? miles in width, along the armistice line established in 1953 at the close of the Korean War while Macau was a Portuguese overseas territory on the south of China coast. It lies in the estuary of the Pearl River south of Canton (Guangzhou), China, and across the estuary from Hon Kong. Moreover, Japan is consists of for large islands—Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku—and more than 3, 300 smaller ones, including the Ryukyu chain. Japan is bounded the north by the Sea of Okhotsk; on the east and south by the Pacific Ocean; on the southwest by the East China Sea; and on the west by the Sea of Japan while the People’s Republic of China situated on the offshore island of Taiwan. It is the third largest nation in the world and it is less than half the size of the Soviet Union, somewhat smaller than Canada, and slightly larger than the United States. For thousands of years they called their country Chung Kuo, which means middle Kingdom, or domain. The name reflects the traditional Chinese belief that China is the geographic and cultural center of the world, with all other nations on the periphery. Thesis Statement: This paper scrutinizes and establishes detailed information about the East Asian Civilizations in particular the countries under it. II. Discussion The improvement and development of East Asia will not be possible without the significant countries within this periphery. †¢ Taiwan Japan began Taiwan’s industrial development after gaining the island in the Sino-Japanese War, 1894-95. Since the early 1950’s, under Chinese Nationalist control, Taiwan has developed a strong, diversified economy, based mainly on manufacturing. Taiwan is one of the leading exporters of manufactured products in Asia. United States aid, large-scale foreign investment, and an abundant, well-educated labor force have played major roles in the island’s rapid industrialization (Kuo, 2003). Leading industries produce chemical and petroleum products, metal goods, machinery, electrical and electronic equipment, textiles, clothing, and processed foods. Despite a decline in relative value, agriculture remains a vital sector of the economy. Farming is limited mainly to the western lowlands, where virtually all available land is devoted to crops. Most farms are small, averaging about thee acres each, and are family owned (Gold, 2006). The mild climate and extensive use of irrigation permit the growing of two or three crops a year. Rice, sugarcane, sweet potatoes, cassava, citrus fruit, bananas, and pineapples are among the main crops. The railway and highway systems, begun by the Japanese in the decades before World War II, are among the best in Asia. The chief seaports are Kaohsiung and Chilung. There are international airports near Taipei and Kaohsiung (Kuo, 2003). Foreign trade has grown enormously since the 1950’s. Among the main exports are clothing and textiles, television sets and other electronic consumer products, footwear, plywood, plastic items, and processed foods. Most of the trade is with the United States and Japan. In addition, the great majority of the Taiwanese are descendants of 18th- and 19th-century immigrants from adjacent mainland provinces of southern China, particularly Fukien (Fujian). More recent arrivals—those who fled mainland China in 1949 and their descendants—form the most influential group on the island (Gold, 2006). Mandarin Chinese is the official language, but southern Chinese dialects are commonly used by most of the people. Education is free and compulsory for children aged 1 to 15. More than 96 percent of school-age children attend schools. †¢ Korea South. South Korea’s economy was largely agricultural at the time of the Korean War (1950-53), when much damage was inflicted on the nation. Reconstruction and recovery were rapid after the war, in part because of large amounts of economic aid from the United States and other nations. In the early 1960’s industry began to grow rapidly (Choi, 2003); by the mid-1980’s South Korea had become one of the world’s chief exporters of manufactured goods. The South Korean government played a major role in directing and developing the economy, particularly through central planning and direct and indirect control of many manufacturing industries and banking. Rapid industrial development was also aided by large investments of capital and technology from the United States and Japan and by an abundance of skilled, cheap labor (Lee, 2004). Although few in number, corporate conglomerates, called chaebols, produce most of the nation’s goods and services. Light manufacturing industries requiring much labor were the first to be developed, mainly during the 1960’s. Textiles, clothing, shoes, and similar consumer items were among the main goods produced (Lee, 2004). Priority shifted during the 1970’s to the development of heavier and more technically advanced industries. Since the early 1980’s increasing emphasis has been placed on developing high-technology industries, centering mainly on data-processing equipment, especially computers. Much military equipment is also produced. Seoul, Pusan, and Inchon are among the chief manufacturing centers. Only about 20 percent of South Korea is suitable for farming, and roughly one-fourth of the people are dependent on agriculture for their living. Farms average about 2 ? acres and are privately owned (Choi, 2003). Some farming is done by communes and cooperatives. Moreover, it has greatly expanded and improved its transportation facilities since the early 1960’s. Highways have replaced railways as the chief means of intercity transport. The railways are owned and operated by the government; many are electrified. Education is free and compulsory through six years of primary school, which beings at age six. It is followed by three years of middle school and then three years of high school (Lee, 2004). North. With the division of Korea after World War II North Korea acquired most of the mineral resources, hydroelectric dams, manufacturing plants, and industrial facilities developed during the Japanese occupation, 1910-45. Much damage was done during the Korean War, but it was quickly repaired with aid from the Soviet Union and other Communist nations (Choi, 2003). Under the North Korean Communists, all industry was nationalized, agriculture was collectivized, and the entire economy was rigidly planned. Growth was rapid during the early years, but slowed in the 1970’s. In the mid-1980’s North Korea’s total output of goods and services was roughly one-third to one-fourth that of South Korea’s. Soviet technical and financial aid has played a major role in the development of North Korea’s economy. About 20 percent of North Korea’s land is used for farming, and 40 percent of the people make their living in agriculture. All farming is done on collectives and state farms; private farming ended in the late 1950’s (Choi, 2003). Rice is the nation’s staple food and the most widely grown crop. Other crops include corn, wheat, barley, millet, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and soybeans. Much progress has been made in increasing mechanization, in expanding the irrigated area, and in land reclamation, especially in coastal areas. Commercial fishing is a major activity, particularly along the east coast and in the Sea of Japan. Wonsan and Sinpo, on the east coast, are the chief fishing ports. Part of the catch is exported (Lee, 2004). Unlike South Korea, North Korea is relatively well endowed with minerals. Among the numerous minerals produced in substantial amounts are coal, mostly anthracite; iron and etc. Railways handle most of the intercity passenger, and freight traffic and are North Korea’s principal means of transport. Most of the railways are relatively new and are electrified (Choi, 2003). Pyongyang is served by a subway. Furthermore, education is free and compulsory through five years of primary school (which begins at age six), four years in of middle school, and two years of high school. †¢ Macau Macao (Macau) consists of the mainland city of Macao and two islands—Taipa and Coloane. Together they have an area about 6 square miles. Macao’s economy is based on light manufacturing. Most of Macao’s food and all of its fresh water are imported, primarily from China. About 99 percent of the people are Chinese; the rest are Portuguese or persons of Portuegese-Chinese descent (see â€Å"History of Macau†). Portuguese is the official language; the Cantonese dialect of Chinese is the prevailing tongue. Macao is the oldest European settlement on the Far East. It was established by Portuguese traders with China’s permission in 1557. Trade flourished, and until the early 1840’s Macao and Canton were the only Chinese ports open to European trade. The development of Hong Kong and other rival ports, beginning in the 1840’s, greatly reduced Macao’s importance. In 1887 China formally recognized Portugal’s sovereignty over the settlement (see â€Å"History of Macau†). Since the Communists gained control of China in 1949, the official position of the Chinese government has been that Macao is a Chinese territory under Portuguese administration. In 1976 Portugal granted Macao internal self-government. In 1987 Portugal agreed to transfer the administration of Macao to China in 1999(see â€Å"History of Macau†). At present, Macao is one of the finest places to visit with its flourishing economy. †¢ Japan Japan is one of the world’s leading industrial nations, ranking behind only the United States and Soviet Union. During the 1960’s and the earl 1970’s, Japan gross national product (GNP) grew at the phenomenal average rate of about 11 percent a year—more than twice that of the United States. The worst postwar slump came in the mid-1970’s (Hane, 2001), when worldwide recession brought high levels of unemployment and inflation and a sharp decline in economic growth. Most of Japan’s postwar economic growth has been due to keen corporate management, a well-educated, industrious labor force, high levels of savings and investment, intensive promotion of industrial development, and vigorous foreign trade. Government has also been a decisive factor. Its influence is powerful and widespread, though exercised mainly through informal, cooperative arrangements with business (Hall, 2004). Giant conglomerates, many of which are interlocked in manufacturing, finance, and trade, are of prime importance in the economy. Coexisting with them are many small and medium-sized firms. Government ownership of industry and business is negligible, limited mainly to transportation and communication services (Hall, 2004). There has been little foreign investment in Japan because of numerous governmental restrictions. Of increasing concern to the Japanese are the environmental and social consequences of the nation’s industrial expansion. In some areas, water and air pollution is severe and increasing rapidly. Japanese culture is partly of Chinese origin and partly indigenous, for the Japanese adapted and did not merely imitate the culture of the mainland. Since the middle of the 19th century, Japan has been influenced more by the culture of Western countries than by that of its neighbors (Hane, 2001). Adoption of many Western ways produced sharp contrasts between the new and the old. Buildings and clothing, for example, are now seen in both traditional and Western styles. In addition, in Japan the family is a traditional and strong institution. It has a formal structure with authority vested in the male head of the family. The wife is expected to be subservient. Children learn discipline and their respective roles in the family at an early age. Japanese homes are noted for their simplicity. Nearly all are built of wood. In many hones, paper-covered wooden frames, called shoji, are used for windows and doors (Hane, 2001). Being light and easily moved, they allow much of the house to be opened to the landscaped gardens. Additionally, six years of elementary education and three of lower secondary schools are free and compulsory for children 6 to 15 years of age. At the three-year upper secondary schools, tuition is charged. Education in Japan is highly competitive, and admission to upper secondary school and to college is determined by rigorous entrance examinations. As a result, many Japanese children spend their after-school hours attending jukas, â€Å"cram† schools that specialize in preparing students for entrance examinations and other school tests (Hall, 2004). †¢ China When the Communists came to power in 1949, China’s economy was backward and suffering from nay years of war and civil strife. Agriculture was disrupted and producing at a low level. Modern factories, then located in only few places, lay idle or in ruins. Since the Communist take-over, agriculture has been reorganized and production increased, and modern industry has been greatly expanded. New mineral resources have been discovered, production of electric power increased, and transportation improved. In general, China’s development has been guided by five-year plans, patterned originally after those used in the Soviet Union (Gernet, 2002). Since the 1970’s, however, the centralization of economic decision-making has lessened and greater use has been made of profit incentives and private enterprise to stimulate production. Although accomplishments have been considerable, development has not been continuous. Many setbacks have occurred and much remains to be done in order to raise the relatively low standard of living. Political conflicts among China’s leaders have caused some of the worst setbacks (Barnett, 2006). On the other hand, a modern transportation system is one of the goals of China, and much has been done to build new facilities and modernize old ones. Though greatly improved, transportation is still poorly developed in all but a few areas. Railways are the chief means of long-distance transportation. Trackage is concentrated primarily in Manchuria and on the North China Plain, the two most economically advanced parts of the country. Moreover, elementary education, depending on the program being pursued, lasts five or six years. Lower secondary lasts three years (Gernet, 2002); thus, upper secondary education, depending upon the school, two or three years. China has an extensive adult-learning program, particularly to teach literacy. IV. Conclusion In conclusion, these countries comprise the East Asian civilizations contributed much to the entire world. Although each county faced a lot of turmoil and crises due to invasion of other nations yet these countries made its way to surmount every trial and had survived to its crises. In addition, the civilizations of these nations proved that East Asian countries can make it to the top as they strive hard for the betterment of their economy and for the benefits of its own people.

Effectiveness Of Sex Offender Treatment

Effectiveness Of Sex Offender Treatment In previous years, the fear of sex offenders has led the public to believe a fallacy regarding sex offender treatments. The public often start to view anyone who commits a sexual offence to be a high risk sex offender. Society need to understand that some sex offenders are low risk offenders who are very unlikely to re-offend again. The public believe sex offenders should be sent to prison indefinitely, however this is an inefficient way in helping offenders from re-offending. One of the most controversial debate and problem around the world is crime. Crime is a massive issue around the world and it brings up more questions than it answers. This essay will discuss the myth that sex offenders are untreatable by providing various successful programmes used for treatment and to reduce crime rates. Initially, this paper will briefly define what a sex offender is, what drives people to become one and how the government has tried to prevent sex delinquents from re-offending. A sex offender is a person who has committed a sexual crime, an act which is prohibited by the jurisdiction. What constitutes a sex offence or normal and abnormal sexual behaviour varies over time and place (Pakes Winestone, 2007). Every country has different laws and perspectives on sex offences where age of consent to sexual acts vary from 9-21. Sexual offending mainly relates to adult rape or child molestation (Pakes Winestone, 2007), but there are many other types of sex crimes such as internet grooming, sexual harassment and incest. It is very different to distinguish between sex offenders with non offenders. It is presumed that many sex offenders have various sexual abnormal fantasies or an unusual high sex drive (Elsevier, 2007). People tend to believe most sexual offences are committed by strangers but the truth is most victims know their attacker and also are not very different to normal people (CSOM). Many theories try to explain why people commit sexual offences. Since sexual deviance takes several forms, no single theory maybe adequate to account for all aspects (Blackburn, 1993). Ellis (1989) identifies two major theories which can explain as to why a person may want to become a sex offender. The first being the social learning theory that suggests people commit sexual deviant acts because they learn and get exposed to certain things, which the person starts to assume is the right way to live life. An example could be childhood experiences, getting victimised or being exposed to pornography at a young age. The second theory, Ellis supports is the Evolutionary theory which connects with genetics and male aggression. Getting victimised by a sex offender can be traumatising and psychologically damaging. Sex offenders have been increasingly a focus of attention by the criminal justice system over the past decade (Thomas, 2000). In recent years, many countries have started to change their laws regarding sex offenders. The Criminal Justice System is strengthening the legislation and revising punishments for the publics safety and to lower recidivism rates. Before the Criminal Justice Act 1991, the laws on sex offences were very old; coming back from the Sexual Offences Act 1956 (Pakes Winestone, 2007). The Sex Offenders Act 1997 was later introduced. This Act made it easier to manage and identify the offenders on community release. Sex offenders had to register their names and addresses with the police which helped manage and protect the public. In 1998 the Crime and Disorder Act (Section 58), paid attention to extending the post release supervision of sex offenders to a maximum of 10 years for a prison sentence of any length (REF) and Section 2 introduced the Sex offender Order. This order places a number of prohibitions against the offender by magistrates of the court. This can be used to prevent certain sex offenders from going to specific locations (Legislation.co.uk). Furthermore, the laws in 2003 changed which introduced longer sentences and also life sentences were put into effect (Pakes Winestone, 2007). In 2003, the Sexual C riminal Act redefined the meaning of rape and internet grooming was also added into this Act as illegal. What happens to those that are convicted? Nearly two-thirds of sex offenders immediately go to prison (Homeoffice, 2003c), the rest are taken care by probation or supervision orders, fines and some are totally discharged. Those who are convicted or charged are often required to record their names in the sex offender registry. These names databases are classified into levels and are open to the public. A serious high risk offender must register for the rest of their lives whereas a low risk sex offender has to for a certain period of time. There are many advantages and disadvantages of the Sex offender Registry. Some of the advantages are that the public can easily access information about sex offenders on the internet and citizens have the right to know if there is a sex offender in their area. The disadvantages include records being inaccurate or not updated; this practice makes it hard for the offender to readjust back into the community (accommodation and employment). This could a lso lead to networking within sexual offenders (FIND). According to the Review of Sex Offender Treatment Programmes (1998) the highest risk sex offenders appear to be characterised by the following factors: criminal history, antisocial lifestyle, emotional loneliness, denial, psychopathic personality, low victim empathy and problem solving abilities. To manage these sex offenders the aim of each programme is to challenge offenders distorted thoughts and reasoning in relation to their victims and to help manage their impulses by providing alternative courses of action which they view as being more rewarding (Worrall Hoy, 2005). Many of the treatment programmes are taken place within a group format unless it is a high risk sex offender where its on a one on one basis. Sex offender treatment programmes require at least 80 hours of treatment (Evenden, 2008). The British Prison Service introduced the Core Sex Offender Treatment Programme (SOTP) to reduce the crime rates, which is now the largest of its kind in the world (Thornton Hogue, 199 3). SOTP have made a criterion for all of the sex offenders in prison or attending programmes in the community. This criterion has ten characteristics which a SOTP should have to be successful and effective (Journal Site). 1) Explaining how the programme will bring a change 2) Including whom the programme is intended for and why 3) Underline the risk factors 4) Treatment methods 5) Teaching different types of skills to avoid re-offending 6) Inform them that there are links between the management and the programme 7) Enforce engagement of participants 8) Explaining the sequence and duration 9) Monitor if the programme is being delivered properly 10) Evaluate the efficiency of the programme The main goal of the sex offender treatment programmes are that the person avoids committing another offence in the future. The offender must admit they are guilty for them to take part in the programme, not agreeing may lead the criminal to go back into prison. The programme expects the perpetrator to talk about his unacceptable behaviour, express their feelings, remorse for them and agree to apologize to the victim. To reduce reconviction rates it is suggested to also decrease the sexual arousal. Sexual arousal is one of the key factors which can lead to sex offending. Psychiatrists also contribute to the treatment of offenders along with probation and prison officers. The medication prescribed by psychiatrists is shown to reduce crime (Grublin, 2007). Most sex offenders are let off and released within the community under supervision before their sentence is completed. Due to this, there is a great need of effective SOTPs which can help lower crime rates. One common therapeutic app roach most countries use to treat sex offenders is the cognitive behavioural (Perkins, 1998). These treatment programmes involve individual and group therapy; victim understanding, future planning, identify emotions, solving problems, anger management if needed, social and interpersonal skills development and changing sexual arousal patterns (Centre of Sex Offender Management, 2000). Recent studies have shown specific areas of SOTPs that need more attention such as attachment issues, low self esteem, confidence and loneliness. Other types of approaches many SOTPs provide are psychotherapy, skills therapy, the psycho-educational and the pharmacological approach (FIND). These approaches focus on increasing victim empathy, uses of medication, getting out secrets, and also learning about the law. Therapists and probation officers have daily routines to inspect offenders during treatment hours and visiting them at home, this also includes drug/alcohol use checkups. UK prisons, have group s sessions with about eight offenders and two tutors. Therapy in prison started in 1991 and these sessions also consist of cognitive behavioural approaches but there are many other people involved than just psychologists, such as police officers, teachers and also chaplains (Psychology Textbook pg.435). Some of the techniques the prison SOTP uses are brainstorming, role playing and thinking strategies (Textbook). Many other types of SOTPs have been designed within America, Canada and the UK such as Community Sex Offender Group work Programme (C-SOGP) which pays attention to male offenders who have victimised children and Internet Sex Offender Treatment Programme (I-SOTP) is for offenders who have been convicted with internet only sex offences such as viewing indecent images of children (I-SOTP Site). The most effective way to manage and supervise potentially dangerous offenders in the community is for the relevant agencies to work together (leicsprobation.co.uk). This work is managed and directed by the Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA). MAPPA was developed nationally on 1st April 2001 and works with many different types of agencies like Youth Offending Teams, Children Services, Adult Social Services, Health Trusts, local housing authorities, Job Plus and electronic monitoring providers (MAPPA book). MAPPA uses these agencies to get police surveillance, specialised accommodation, drug/alcohol rehabilitation and ongoing management by other services. Who are the MAPPA offenders? There are three categories of MAPPA offenders. Category one consists of sexual offenders who are required to register their names and address to the police. Category two includes violent offenders who have been sentenced to imprisonment for 12months or more. The last category is for danger ous offenders who are a risk to society but do not fit under the categories above (MAPPA BOOK). In 2009, MAPPA collaborated with Circles of Support and Accountability (COSA) to encourage and develop this programme. COSA was first introduced in Canada about 15 years ago. The purpose of this programme is to support and reintegrate sex offenders who are about to be put back into the community. This idea was introduced to the UK by the Quakers. Sex offenders are lonely people who feel isolated once released into the community. These are the key reasons as to why an offender might want to re-offend. COSA take place weekly which pay attention to employment, financial difficulties, isolation and loneliness (Print out). There have been many debates about the rehabilitation process and success rates. SOTPs not only have a significant impact on medium risk offenders but also are very successful in reducing crime with low risk sex offenders (Homeoffice, 2003). Treating high risk offenders is much more difficult as they have the most dropout rates and have no intention of recovering but it has been proven that many highly deviant offenders had a effective and successful treatment by joining long term therapy (160 hours) compared to short term (80 hours) (Homeoffice, no79). Sex offenders who attend and complete SOTPs overall have lower reconviction rates than those who dont receive treatment at all. This advice and support can change and save a persons life. Cognitive behavioural treatment and pharmacological treatment together have meant to be the most effective approaches to reducing crime and psychotherapy has been the most inefficient amongst sex offenders. A study was conducted for 2 years to see th e reconviction rates, 133 offenders who had taken treatment had lower sexual crime rates compared to 191 offenders who had not received treatment at all (12). Also, a sample of 264 people who had been convicted of internet sexual offences were examined after treatment given by I-SOTP and the results proved that sex offenders were positively changing their attitudes (15). There have been many pros and cons regarding the use of Sex Offender Register. The main arguments for why the Registry is not effective is because the criminals who committed sexual offences before 1997 were not added into the registry, criminals who were an acute risk to the public were excluded from the registry and there is no national sex offender registry (Pakes Winestone, 2007). MAPPA and COSA on the other hand give positive responses of effectiveness. Both programmes have been researched regarding their impact on crime rates. Offenders successfully completing these programmes are 3 times less likely to be re -convicted than offenders who have not completed this programme (NOTA). COSA has reduced re-offending by 70% and out of 35 offenders researched upon, only 3 criminals have been found to re-offend (paper). Receiving effective treatment is a very important. However, two major downfalls with SOTPs is that research has shown that there is a high percentage of drop outs. Another problem which arises is that probation officers have admitted to not being able to communicate properly with sex offenders and have said they need more skills and training to be able to protect the public (FIND). As new information comes available, the programmes are constantly being developed. Most sex offenders do get released into the community without having received any treatment in prison and reducing the risk of it happening outside within the community is a vital process. In order to asses and treat a sexual offender effectively, therefore, one needs to obtain a realistic account of his psychosexuality, something that is notoriously difficult to do (Elsevier, 2007). Till today, we cannot predict as to why people commit these harsh crimes to innocent people. It has become a hot topic within the public and the government have changed and revised many laws to ensure they are doing the best they can for the publics safety. Everybody wants to see positive future outcomes of SOTPs. Society hope to see an increase in public safety, tracking and monitoring of offenders, awareness of sex offender laws, changing of the offenders view on SOTPs and lastly to decrease the sexual offence crime rate s. The Cognitive behavioural approach is being used worldwide and has been proved most effective. Overall, there is evidence for a positive effect of sexual offender treatment. Categorising sex offenders and identifying the essential skills they need can help to what works and for whom under which circumstances. Thus, what needs to be said about SOTPs, is that they must continue to have a strong presence in the criminal justice system, so that we reduce victimisation and make communities safer.

air pollution :: essays research papers

Air Pollution   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The moment you step out of the house and are on the road you can actually see the air getting polluted. A cloud of exhaust from a truck, smoke filling the sky above a factory chimney, fly ash generated by thermal power plants, and even a cloud of dust behind a speeding car can pollute the air. Air pollution is aggravated because of four developments: increasing traffic, growing cities, rapid economic development, and industrialization. Natural phenomenon such as an erupting volcano or even someone smoking a cigarette can also cause air pollution. The major air pollutants are acid rain, smog, fly ash, and indoor air pollutants. Acid rain is caused by when exhaust from burning fossil fuels combine with water vapor in the atmosphere and falls as rain or snow. Acid rain causes extensive damage to water, forest, soil, resources, and even human health. Many lakes and streams have been contaminated by acid rain and this had lead to a diminished population of fish. Acid rain has lead to the international limitations of sulphur and nitrogen oxide. Smog is a combination of various gases (a large part of this gas is produced when fuels are burnt) with water vapor and dust. Smog forms when heat and sunlight react with these gases and fine particles in the air. Its occurrence is often liked to heavy traffic, high temperatures, and calm winds. Smog is seen as a yellowish fog over cities. Severe smog has been covering the city of Los Angeles California since the 1940’s.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Fly ash is produced at thermal power plants. Fly ash consists of silica, alumina, oxides of iron, calcium, and magnesium and toxic heavy metals like lead, arsenic, cobalt, and copper. Disposal of fly ash is very hazardous to the land, creates health hazards, and creates environmental danger. When fly ash gets out into the natural draining system it results in siltation and clogs the system; it reduces the ph balance and portability of water. It also interferes with the process of photosynthesis in plants and thus disturbs the food chain. Today fly ash can be made into bricks and used as building material and was used in the construction of The American Embassy in India. Indoor air pollutants include tobacco smoke, hair sprays, perfume, glues, pesticides, parasites, fungi, formaldehyde, asbestos, and radon. All of these can be found in homes whether it’s under the sink or in the air.

Features of Al-Masjid-Al-Nabawi Mosque :: essays research papers

Religious Studies coursework 'Name the features of a specific mosque' A mosque is a place of worship for followers of the Islamic faith. Its primary purpose is to serve as a place of worship for practising Muslims where they can pray together. Al-Masjid-Al-Nabawi, also known as the prophet's mosque, is the second holiest mosque in the world and is the final resting place of the prophet Muhammad. The original mosque was built by the prophet himself. The mosque also served as a community centre, a court and a religious centre. The main religious texts provide no rules to what the mosque should look like. Al-Masjid-Al-Nabawi has gone under some major transformations form 629-1921, rulers expanding he mosque, creating new wings and trying to put their mark on it. Mandatory elements for a mosque include that it should point the direction to Mecca. This is called the Quibla. The direction was once towards Jerusalem however it then changed to the Kaaba in Mecca when Muhammad received a revelation from Allah during the noon prayer whilst in Mecca. Allah instructed the prophet to take the Kaaba as the Quibla. Muhammad then immediately turned to face the Kaaba and those praying behind him also did so. Most mosques contain a Niche in the wall to indicate the direction. This is called Mihrab. The Mihrab gives the impression of a door to Mecca. They are usually ornately decorated. Mihrabs can be wood , but is normally made out of masonry, and adorned with pillars. The call to prayer is traditionally given from the top of the minaret(the Muezzin calls out the Adhan). Although in the most modern mosque is the Adhan is called the Musallah(prayer hall)via a microphone and speaker system. Minarets usually consist of three primary parts of the base, the shaft and the gallery. Features of Al-Masjid-Al-Nabawi Mosque :: essays research papers Religious Studies coursework 'Name the features of a specific mosque' A mosque is a place of worship for followers of the Islamic faith. Its primary purpose is to serve as a place of worship for practising Muslims where they can pray together. Al-Masjid-Al-Nabawi, also known as the prophet's mosque, is the second holiest mosque in the world and is the final resting place of the prophet Muhammad. The original mosque was built by the prophet himself. The mosque also served as a community centre, a court and a religious centre. The main religious texts provide no rules to what the mosque should look like. Al-Masjid-Al-Nabawi has gone under some major transformations form 629-1921, rulers expanding he mosque, creating new wings and trying to put their mark on it. Mandatory elements for a mosque include that it should point the direction to Mecca. This is called the Quibla. The direction was once towards Jerusalem however it then changed to the Kaaba in Mecca when Muhammad received a revelation from Allah during the noon prayer whilst in Mecca. Allah instructed the prophet to take the Kaaba as the Quibla. Muhammad then immediately turned to face the Kaaba and those praying behind him also did so. Most mosques contain a Niche in the wall to indicate the direction. This is called Mihrab. The Mihrab gives the impression of a door to Mecca. They are usually ornately decorated. Mihrabs can be wood , but is normally made out of masonry, and adorned with pillars. The call to prayer is traditionally given from the top of the minaret(the Muezzin calls out the Adhan). Although in the most modern mosque is the Adhan is called the Musallah(prayer hall)via a microphone and speaker system. Minarets usually consist of three primary parts of the base, the shaft and the gallery.

Who is responsible for Willy s demise

He cannot accept the fact that he is no longer a successful salesman, that his sons are not successful as Charley son (Bernard), also that he has been unfaithful to the only person who ever loved him no matter what, his wife Linda. His reason to committee suicide may have been influence by the factors in his life that I just mentioned. Wily is the only one who takes actions of desperation and hopeless. It is his hubris, his inflated pride and ambition o consummate the American dream that leads him to his destructive action, his inability to remember the value of his own life.He thinks that he can't longer maintain his families future, and that he is worth more dead than alive. Pressure society also can be blamed for Wily Loan's demise, claiming to be the best of all in the salesman or business world and earning great amounts of money†¦ Wily Leman was just another man stuck with this dream but in some way the salesman or business world took a big part of his life from him. When h e became a salesman at an age around eighteen or nineteen and he dated in this business up to the point of his death, which is the same day he was finally fired by Howard from the company where he was working as a salesman.When he was fired he was at the age of sixty-three this unfortunately happened. This means that he put a greater amount of his life into the salesman world, in the pursuit for richness and respect. Approximately 45 years of his life were spent on pursuit of these things, but unfortunately his pursuit of richness and respect, never have been effective, he wasn't successful at all. Do you think that this is tragic? Of course yes!. But he needed to face the truth of his peripatetic. Perhaps these things are which led him to try committing suicide numerous times in the car by trying to crash and hoping that he dies.Wily was a very unsatisfied and mainly unhappy man, who had lost most part of his hope. How ever Biff is notice to embody everything that Wily admires: he has great personal charisma, is very popular with other boys, is a leader, demonstrates physical strength but not just as a sportsman also in his body image and demonstrates confidence. The allegations between father and son is loving, warm and full of mutual admiration. He'd invested a lot of this hope into his son Biff too, who unfortunately let him down as well.Wily had such high hopes for Biff becoming the success he himself could never achieve, however Wily failed to take into account what his son desired, which was the outdoor American dream. Another reason why Will kills himself is because would be that Biff discovered his affair with the woman, disinterment which ruined Biffs future this made Wily feel in some way painful and miserable because he made Biff to going back to summer school to graduate, also because he was unfair with the only person that actually loves him and care for him, her wife Linda.Wily Leman was a never success The American Dream guaranteed things to Wi ly that he would never have had before. However to achieve to have these things he had to spent his whole life work hard to afford them and not being rewarded for that hard work, it was a factor that led to his end. So who really is to blame for Will's hamster, and can the fault be relied on Charley, Biff, Linda and Howard the nest that through society carried the job to tear apart Will's dream, hopes and his character or personality and eventually his life.As we know that Wily makes his son embody all his negative values that here passed on by Ben to Wily, his sons will also be a failure as Wily. Not so much in the case of Biff but more in the case of Happy. This is because we can notice how Willis temperament and characteristics resembles on to Happy. Happy has the same younger example of what Wily was as when he was growing up. Maybe the reason why Wily treated Happy as he treated him was because his way was the way that Will's father treated him and paid more attention to his el der brother Ben.

Black House Chapter Fourteen

14 AT THE TOP of the steep hill between Norway Valley and Arden, the zigzag, hairpin turns of Highway 93, now narrowed to two lanes, straighten out for the long, ski-slope descent into the town, and on the eastern side of the highway, the hilltop widens into a grassy plateau. Two weatherbeaten red picnic tables wait for those who choose to stop for a few minutes and appreciate the spectacular view. A patchwork of quilted farms stretches out over fifteen miles of gentle landscape, not quite flat, threaded with streams and country roads. A solid row of bumpy, blue-green hills form the horizon. In the immense sky, sun-washed white clouds hang like fresh laundry. Fred Marshall steers his Ford Explorer onto the gravel shoulder, comes to a halt, and says, â€Å"Let me show you something.† When he climbed into the Explorer at his farmhouse, Jack was carrying a slightly worn black leather briefcase, and the case is now lying flat across his knees. Jack's father's initials, P.S.S., for Philip Stevenson Sawyer, are stamped in gold beside the handle at the top of the case. Fred has glanced curiously at the briefcase a couple of times, but has not asked about it, and Jack has volunteered nothing. There will be time for show-and-tell, Jack thinks, after he talks to Judy Marshall. Fred gets out of the car, and Jack slides his father's old briefcase behind his legs and props it against the seat before he follows the other man across the pliant grass. When they reach the first of the picnic tables, Fred gestures toward the landscape. â€Å"We don't have a lot of what you could call tourist attractions around here, but this is pretty good, isn't it?† â€Å"It's very beautiful,† Jack says. â€Å"But I think everything here is beautiful.† â€Å"Judy really likes this view. Whenever we go over to Arden on a decent day, she has to stop here and get out of the car, relax and look around for a while. You know, sort of store up on the important things before getting back into the grind. Me, sometimes I get impatient and think, Come on, you've seen that view a thousand times, I have to get back to work, but I'm a guy, right? So every time we turn in here and sit down for a few minutes, I realize my wife knows more than I do and I should just listen to what she says.† Jack smiles and sits down at the bench, waiting for the rest of it. Since picking him up, Fred Marshall has spoken only two or three sentences of gratitude, but it is clear that he has chosen this place to get something off his chest. â€Å"I went over to the hospital this morning, and she well, she's different. To look at her, to talk to her, you'd have to say she's in much better shape than yesterday. Even though she's still worried sick about Tyler, it's different. Do you think that could be due to the medication? I don't even know what they're giving her.† â€Å"Can you have a normal conversation with her?† â€Å"From time to time, yeah. For instance, this morning she was telling me about a story in yesterday's paper on a little girl from La Riviere who nearly took third place in the statewide spelling bee, except she couldn't spell this crazy word nobody ever heard of. Popoplax, or something like that.† â€Å"Opopanax,† Jack says. He sounds like he has a fishbone caught in his throat. â€Å"You saw that story, too? That's interesting, you both picking up on that word. Kind of gave her a kick. She asked the nurses to find out what it meant, and one of them looked it up in a couple of dictionaries. Couldn't find it.† Jack had found the word in his Concise Oxford Dictionary; its literal meaning was unimportant. â€Å"That's probably the definition of opopanax,† Jack says. † ‘1. A word not to be found in the dictionary. 2. A fearful mystery.' â€Å" â€Å"Hah!† Fred Marshall has been moving nervously around the lookout area, and now he stations himself beside Jack, whose upward glance finds the other man surveying the long panorama. â€Å"Maybe that is what it means.† Fred's eyes remain fixed on the landscape. He is still not quite ready, but he is making progress. â€Å"It was great to see her interested in something like that, a tiny little item in the Herald . . .† He wipes tears from his eyes and takes a step toward the horizon. When he turns around, he looks directly at Jack. â€Å"Uh, before you meet Judy, I want to tell you a few things about her. Trouble is, I don't know how this is going to sound to you. Even to me, it sounds . . . I don't know.† â€Å"Give it a try,† Jack says. Fred says, â€Å"Okay,† knits his fingers together, and bows his head. Then he looks up again, and his eyes are as vulnerable as a baby's. â€Å"Ahhh . . . I don't know how to put this. Okay, I'll just say it. With part of my brain, I think Judy knows something. Anyhow, I want to think that. On the other hand, I don't want to fool myself into believing that just because she seems to be better, she can't be crazy anymore. But I do want to believe that. Boy oh boy, do I ever.† â€Å"Believe that she knows something.† The eerie feeling aroused by opopanax diminishes before this validation of his theory. â€Å"Something that isn't even real clear to her,† Fred says. â€Å"But do you remember? She knew Ty was gone even before I told her.† He gives Jack an anguished look and steps away. He knocks his fists together and stares at the ground. Another internal barrier topples before his need to explain his dilemma. â€Å"Okay, look. This is what you have to understand about Judy. She's a special person. All right, a lot of guys would say their wives are special, but Judy's special in a special way. First of all, she's sort of amazingly beautiful, but that's not even what I'm talking about. And she's tremendously brave, but that's not it, either. It's like she's connected to something the rest of us can't even begin to understand. But can that be real? How crazy is that? Maybe when you're going crazy, at first you put up a big fight and get hysterical, and then you're too crazy to fight anymore and you get all calm and accepting. I have to talk to her doctor, because this is tearing me apart.† â€Å"What kinds of things does she say? Does she explain why she's so much calmer?† Fred Marshall's eyes burn into Jack's. â€Å"Well, for one thing, Judy seems to think that Ty is still alive, and that you're the only person who can find him.† â€Å"All right,† Jack says, unwilling to say more until after he can speak to Judy. â€Å"Tell me, does Judy ever mention someone she used to know or a cousin of hers, or an old boyfriend she thinks might have taken him?† His theory seems less convincing than it had in Henry Leyden's ultrarational, thoroughly bizarre kitchen; Fred Marshall's response weakens it further. â€Å"Not unless he's named the Crimson King, or Gorg, or Abbalah. All I can tell you is, Judy thinks she sees something, and even though it makes no sense, I sure as hell hope it's there.† A sudden vision of the world where he found a boy's Brewers cap pierces Jack Sawyer like a steel-tipped lance. â€Å"And that's where Tyler is.† â€Å"If part of me didn't think that might just possibly be true, I'd go out of my mind right here and now,† Fred says. â€Å"Unless I'm already out of my gourd.† â€Å"Let's go talk to your wife,† Jack says. From the outside, French County Lutheran Hospital resembles a nineteenth-century madhouse in the north of England: dirty red-brick walls with blackened buttresses and lancet arches, a peaked roof with finial-capped pinnacles, swollen turrets, miserly windows, and all of the long facade stippled black with ancient filth. Set within a walled parkland dense with oaks on Arden's western boundary, the enormous building, Gothic without the grandeur, looks punitive, devoid of mercy. Jack half-expects to hear the shrieking organ music from a Vincent Price movie. They pass through a narrow, peaked wooden door and enter a reassuringly familiar lobby. A bored, uniformed man at a central desk directs visitors to the elevators; stuffed animals and sprays of flowers fill the gift shop's window; bathrobed patients tethered to I.V. poles occupy randomly placed tables with their families, and other patients perch on the chairs lined against the side walls; two white-coated doctors confer in a corner. Far overhead, two dusty, ornate chandeliers distribute a soft ocher light that momentarily seems to gild the luxurious heads of the lilies arrayed in tall vases beside the entrance of the gift shop. â€Å"Wow, it sure looks better on the inside,† Jack says. â€Å"Most of it does,† Fred says. They approach the man behind the desk, and Fred says, â€Å"Ward D.† With a mild flicker of interest, the man gives them two rectangular cards stamped VISITOR and waves them through. The elevator clanks down and admits them to a wood-paneled enclosure the size of a broom closet. Fred Marshall pushes the button marked 5, and the elevator shudders upward. The same soft, golden light pervades the comically tiny interior. Ten years ago, an elevator remarkably similar to this, though situated in a grand Paris hotel, had held Jack and a UCLA art-history graduate student named Iliana Tedesco captive for two and a half hours, in the course of which Ms. Tedesco announced that their relationship had reached its final destination, thank you, despite her gratitude for what had been at least until that moment a rewarding journey together. After thinking it over, Jack decides not to trouble Fred Marshall with this information. Better behaved than its French cousin, the elevator trembles to a stop and with only a slight display of resistance slides open its door and releases Jack Sawyer and Fred Marshall to the fifth floor, where the beautiful light seems a touch darker than in both the elevator and the lobby. â€Å"Unfortunately, it's way over on the other side,† Fred tells Jack. An apparently endless corridor yawns like an exercise in perspective off to their left, and Fred points the way with his finger. They go through two big sets of double doors, past the corridor to Ward B, past two vast rooms lined with curtained cubicles, turn left again at the closed entrance to Gerontology, down a long, long hallway lined with bulletin boards, past the opening to Ward C, then take an abrupt right at the men's and women's bathrooms, pass Ambulatory Ophthalmology and Records Annex, and at last come to a corridor marked WARD D. As they proceed, the light seems progressively to darken, the walls to contract, the windows to shrink. Shadows lurk in the corridor to Ward D, and a small pool of water glimmers on the floor. â€Å"We're in the oldest part of the building now,† Fred says. â€Å"You must want to get Judy out of here as soon as possible.† â€Å"Well, sure, soon as Pat Skarda thinks she's ready. But you'll be surprised; Judy kind of likes it in here. I think it's helping. What she told me was, she feels completely safe, and the ones that can talk, some of them are extremely interesting. It's like being on a cruise, she says.† Jack laughs in surprise and disbelief, and Fred Marshall touches his shoulder and says, â€Å"Does that mean she's a lot better or a lot worse?† At the end of the corridor, they emerge directly into a good-sized room that seems to have been preserved unaltered for a hundred years. Dark brown wainscoting rises four feet from the dark brown wooden floor. Far up in the gray wall to their right, two tall, narrow windows framed like paintings admit filtered gray light. A man seated behind a polished wooden counter pushes a button that unlocks a double-sized metal door with a WARD D sign and a small window of reinforced glass. â€Å"You can go in, Mr. Marshall, but who is he?† â€Å"His name is Jack Sawyer. He's here with me.† â€Å"Is he either a relative or a medical professional?† â€Å"No, but my wife wants to see him.† â€Å"Wait here a moment.† The attendant disappears through the metal door and locks it behind him with a prisonlike clang. A minute later, the attendant reappears with a nurse whose heavy, lined face, big arms and hands, and thick legs make her look like a man in drag. She introduces herself as Jane Bond, the head nurse of Ward D, a combination of words and circumstances that irresistibly suggest at least a couple of nicknames. The nurse subjects Fred and Jack, then only Jack, to a barrage of questions before she vanishes back behind the great door. â€Å"Ward Bond,† Jack says, unable not to. â€Å"We call her Warden Bond,† says the attendant. â€Å"She's tough, but on the other hand, she's unfair.† He coughs and stares up at the high windows. â€Å"We got this orderly, calls her Double-oh Zero.† A few minutes later, Head Nurse Warden Bond, Agent OO Zero, swings open the metal door and says, â€Å"You may enter now, but pay attention to what I say.† At first, the ward resembles a huge airport hangar divided into a section with a row of padded benches, a section with round tables and plastic chairs, and a third section where two long tables are stacked with drawing paper, boxes of crayons, and watercolor sets. In the vast space, these furnishings look like dollhouse furniture. Here and there on the cement floor, painted a smooth, anonymous shade of gray, lie padded rectangular mats; twenty feet above the floor, small, barred windows punctuate the far wall, of red brick long ago given a couple of coats of white paint. In a glass enclosure to the left of the door, a nurse behind a desk looks up from a book. Far down to the right, well past the tables with art supplies, three locked metal doors open into worlds of their own. The sense of being in a hangar gradually yields to a sense of a benign but inflexible imprisonment. A low hum of voices comes from the twenty to thirty men and women scattered throughout the enormous room. Only a very few of these men and women are talking to visible companions. They pace in circles, stand frozen in place, lie curled like infants on the mats; they count on their fingers and scribble in notebooks; they twitch, yawn, weep, stare into space and into themselves. Some of them wear green hospital robes, others civilian clothes of all kinds: T-shirts and shorts, sweat suits, running outfits, ordinary shirts and slacks, jerseys and pants. No one wears a belt, and none of the shoes have laces. Two muscular men with close-cropped hair and in brilliant white T-shirts sit at one of the round tables with the air of patient watchdogs. Jack tries to locate Judy Marshall, but he cannot pick her out. â€Å"I asked for your attention, Mr. Sawyer.† â€Å"Sorry,† Jack says. â€Å"I wasn't expecting it to be so big.† â€Å"We'd better be big, Mr. Sawyer. We serve an expanding population.† She waits for an acknowledgment of her significance, and Jack nods. â€Å"Very well. I'm going to give you some basic ground rules. If you listen to what I say, your visit here will be as pleasant as possible for all of us. Don't stare at the patients, and don't be alarmed by what they say. Don't act as though you find anything they do or say unusual or distressing. Just be polite, and eventually they will leave you alone. If they ask you for things, do as you choose, within reason. But please refrain from giving them money, any sharp objects, or edibles not previously cleared by one of the physicians some medications interact adversely with certain kinds of food. At some point, an elderly woman named Es-telle Packard will probably come up to you and ask if you are her father. Answer however you like, but if you say no, she will go away disappointed, and if you say yes, you'll make her day. Do you have any questions, Mr. Sawyer?† â€Å"Where is Judy Marshall?† â€Å"She's on this side, with her back to us on the farthest bench. Can you see her, Mr. Marshall?† â€Å"I saw her right away,† Fred says. â€Å"Have there been any changes since this morning?† â€Å"Not as far as I know. Her admitting physician, Dr. Spiegleman, will be here in about half an hour, and he might have more information for you. Would you like me to take you and Mr. Sawyer to your wife, or would you prefer going by yourself ?† â€Å"We'll be fine,† Fred Marshall says. â€Å"How long can we stay?† â€Å"I'm giving you fifteen minutes, twenty max. Judy is still in the eval stage, and I want to keep her stress level at a minimum. She looks pretty peaceful now, but she's also deeply disconnected and, quite frankly, delusional. I wouldn't be surprised by another hysterical episode, and we don't want to prolong her evaluation period by introducing new medication at this point, do we? So please, Mr. Marshall, keep the conversation stress-free, light, and positive.† â€Å"You think she's delusional?† Nurse Bond smiles pityingly. â€Å"In all likelihood, Mr. Marshall, your wife has been delusional for years. Oh, she's managed to keep it hidden, but ideations like hers don't spring up overnight, no no. These things take years to construct, and all the time the person can appear to be a normally functioning human being. Then something triggers the psychosis into full-blown expression. In this case, of course, it was your son's disappearance. By the way, I want to extend my sympathies to you at this time. What a terrible thing to have happened.† â€Å"Yes, it was,† says Fred Marshall. â€Å"But Judy started acting strange even before . . .† â€Å"Same thing, I'm afraid. She needed to be comforted, and her delusions her delusional world came into plain view, because that world provided exactly the comfort she needed. You must have heard some of it this morning, Mr. Marshall. Did your wife mention anything about going to other worlds?† â€Å"Going to other worlds?† Jack asks, startled. â€Å"A fairly typical schizophrenic ideation,† Nurse Bond says. â€Å"More than half the people on this ward have similar fantasies.† â€Å"You think my wife is schizophrenic?† Nurse Bond looks past Fred to take a comprehensive inventory of the patients in her domain. â€Å"I'm not a psychiatrist, Mr. Marshall, but I have had twenty long years of experience in dealing with the mentally ill. On the basis of that experience, I have to tell you, in my opinion your wife manifests the classic symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia. I wish I had better news for you.† She glances back at Fred Marshall. â€Å"Of course, Dr. Spiegleman will make the final diagnosis, and he will be able to answer all your questions, explain your treatment options, and so forth.† The smile she gives Jack seems to congeal the moment it appears. â€Å"I always tell my new visitors it's tougher on the family than it is on the patient. Some of these people, they don't have a care in the world. Really, you almost have to envy them.† â€Å"Sure,† Jack says. â€Å"Who wouldn't?† â€Å"Go on, then,† she says, with a trace of peevishness. â€Å"Enjoy your visit.† A number of heads turn as they walk slowly across the dusty wooden floor to the nearest row of benches; many pairs of eyes track their progress. Curiosity, indifference, confusion, suspicion, pleasure, and an impersonal anger show in the pallid faces. To Jack, it seems as though every patient on the ward is inching toward them. A flabby middle-aged man in a bathrobe has begun to cut through the tables, looking as though he fears missing his bus to work. At the end of the nearest bench, a thin old woman with streaming white hair stands up and beseeches Jack with her eyes. Her clasped, upraised hands tremble violently. Jack forces himself not to meet her eyes. When he passes her, she half-croons, half-whispers, â€Å"My ducky-wucky was behind the door, but I didn't know it, and there he was, in all that water.† â€Å"Um,† Fred says. â€Å"Judy told me her baby son drowned in the bath.† Through the side of his eye, Jack has been watching the fuzzy-haired man in the bathrobe rush toward them, openmouthed. When he and Fred reach the back of Judy Marshall's bench, the man raises one finger, as if signaling the bus to wait for him, and trots forward. Jack watches him approach; nuts to Warden Bond's advice. He's not going to let this lunatic climb all over him, no way. The upraised finger comes to within a foot of Jack's nose, and the man's murky eyes search his face. The eyes retreat; the mouth snaps shut. Instantly, the man whirls around and darts off, his robe flying, his finger still searching out its target. What was that, Jack wonders. Wrong bus? Judy Marshall has not moved. She must have heard the man rushing past her, his rapid breath when he stopped, then his flapping departure, but her back is still straight in the loose green robe, her head still faces forward at the same upright angle. She seems detached from everything around her. If her hair were washed, brushed, and combed, if she were conventionally dressed and had a suitcase beside her, she would look exactly like a woman on a bench at the train station, waiting for the hour of departure. So even before Jack sees Judy Marshall's face, before she speaks a single word, there is about her this sense of leave-taking, of journeys begun and begun again this suggestion of travel, this hint of a possible elsewhere. â€Å"I'll tell her we're here,† Fred whispers, and ducks around the end of the bench to kneel in front of his wife. The back of her head tilts forward over the erect spine as if to answer the tangled combination of heartbreak, love, and anxiety burning in her husband's handsome face. Dark blond hair mingled with gold lies flat against the girlish curve of Judy Marshall's skull. Behind her ear, dozens of varicolored strands clump together in a cobwebby knot. â€Å"How you feeling, sweetie?† Fred softly asks his wife. â€Å"I'm managing to enjoy myself,† she says. â€Å"You know, honey, I should stay here for at least a little while. The head nurse is positive I'm absolutely crazy. Isn't that convenient?† â€Å"Jack Sawyer's here. Would you like to see him?† Judy reaches out and pats his upraised knee. â€Å"Tell Mr. Sawyer to come around in front, and you sit right here beside me, Fred.† Jack is already coming forward, his eyes on Judy Marshall's once again upright head, which does not turn. Kneeling, Fred has taken her extended hand in both of his, as if he intends to kiss it. He looks like a lovelorn knight before a queen. When he presses her hand to his cheek, Jack sees the white gauze wrapped around the tips of her fingers. Judy's cheekbone comes into view, then the side of her gravely unsmiling mouth; then her entire profile is visible, as sharp as the crack of ice on the first day of spring. It is the regal, idealized profile on a cameo, or on a coin: the slight upward curve of the lips, the crisp, chiseled downstroke of the nose, the sweep of the jawline, every angle in perfect, tender, oddly familiar alignment with the whole. It staggers him, this unexpected beauty; for a fraction of a second it slows him with the deep, grainy nostalgia of its fragmentary, not-quite evocation of another's face. Grace Kelly? Catherine Deneuve? No, neither of these; it comes to him that Judy's profile reminds him of someone he has still to meet. Then the odd second passes: Fred Marshall gets to his feet, Judy's face in three-quarter profile loses its regal quality as she watches her husband sit beside her on the bench, and Jack rejects what has just occurred to him as an absurdity. She does not raise her eyes until he stands before her. Her hair is dull and messy; beneath the hospital gown she is wearing an old blue lace-trimmed nightdress that looked dowdy when it was new. Despite these disadvantages, Judy Marshall claims him for her own at the moment her eyes meet his. An electrical current beginning at his optic nerves seems to pulse downward through his body, and he helplessly concludes that she has to be the most stunningly beautiful woman he has ever seen. He fears that the force of his reaction to her will knock him off his feet, then even worse! that she will see what is going on and think him a fool. He desperately does not want to come off as a fool in her eyes. Brooke Greer, Claire Evinrude, Iliana Tedesco, gorgeous as each of them was in her own way, look like little girls in Halloween costumes next to her. Judy Marshall puts his former beloveds on the shelf; she exposes them as whims and fancies, riddled with false ego and a hundred crippling insecurities. Judy's beauty is not put on in front of a mirror but grows, with breathtaking simplicity, straight from her innermost being: what you see is only the small, visible portion of a far greater, more comprehensive, radiant, and formal quality within. Jack can scarcely believe that agreeable, good-hearted Fred Marshall actually had the fantastic luck to marry this woman. Does he know how great, how literally marvelous, she is? Jack would marry her in an instant, if she were single. It seems to him that he fell in love with her as soon as he saw the back of her head. But he cannot be in love with her. She is Fred Marshall's wife and the mother of their son, and he will simply have to live without her. She utters a short sentence that passes through him in a vibrating wave of sound. Jack bends forward muttering an apology, and Judy smilingly offers him a sweep of her hand that invites him to sit before her. He folds to the floor and crosses his ankles in front of him, still reverberating from the shock of having first seen her. Her face fills beautifully with feeling. She has seen exactly what just happened to him, and it is all right. She does not think less of him for it. Jack opens his mouth to ask a question. Although he does not know what the question is to be, he must ask it. The nature of the question is unimportant. The most idiotic query will serve; he cannot sit here staring at that wondrous face. Before he speaks, one version of reality snaps soundlessly into another, and without transition Judy Marshall becomes a tired-looking woman in her mid-thirties with tangled hair and smudges under her eyes who regards him steadily from a bench in a locked mental ward. It should seem like a restoration of his sanity, but it feels instead like a kind of trick, as though Judy Marshall has done this herself, to make their encounter easier on him. The words that escape him are as banal as he feared they might be. Jack listens to himself say that it is nice to meet her. â€Å"It's nice to meet you, too, Mr. Sawyer. I've heard so many wonderful things about you.† He looks for a sign that she acknowledges the enormity of the moment that has just passed, but he sees only her smiling warmth. Under the circumstances, that seems like acknowledgment enough. â€Å"How are you getting on in here?† he asks, and the balance shifts even more in his direction. â€Å"The company takes some getting used to, but the people here got lost and couldn't find their way back, that's all. Some of them are very intelligent. I've had conversations in here that were a lot more interesting than the ones in my church group or the PTA. Maybe I should have come to Ward D sooner! Being here has helped me learn some things.† â€Å"Like what?† â€Å"Like there are many different ways to get lost, for one, and getting lost is easier to do than anyone ever admits. The people in here can't hide how they feel, and most of them never found out how to deal with their fear.† â€Å"How are you supposed to deal with that?† â€Å"Why, you deal with it by taking it on, that's how! You don't just say, I'm lost and I don't know how to get back you keep on going in the same direction. You put one foot in front of the other until you get more lost. Everybody should know that. Especially you, Jack Sawyer.† â€Å"Especial † Before he can finish the question, an elderly woman with a lined, sweet face appears beside him and touches his shoulder. â€Å"Excuse me.† She tucks her chin toward her throat with the shyness of a child. â€Å"I want to ask you a question. Are you my father?† Jack smiles at her. â€Å"Let me ask you a question first. Is your name Estelle Packard?† Eyes shining, the old woman nods. â€Å"Then yes, I am your father.† Estelle Packard clasps her hands in front of her mouth, dips her head in a bow, and shuffles backward, glowing with pleasure. When she is nine or ten feet away, she gives Jack a little bye-bye wave of one hand and twirls away. When Jack looks again at Judy Marshall, it is as if she has parted her veil of ordinariness just wide enough to reveal a small portion of her enormous soul. â€Å"You're a very nice man, aren't you, Jack Sawyer? I wouldn't have known that right away. You're a good man, too. Of course, you're also charming, but charm and decency don't always go together. Should I tell you a few other things about yourself ?† Jack looks up at Fred, who is holding his wife's hand and beaming. â€Å"I want you to say whatever you feel like saying.† â€Å"There are things I can't say, no matter how I feel, but you might hear them anyhow. I can say this, however: your good looks haven't made you vain. You're not shallow, and that might have something to do with it. Mainly, though, you had the gift of a good upbringing. I'd say you had a wonderful mother. I'm right, aren't I?† Jack laughs, touched by this unexpected insight. â€Å"I didn't know it showed.† â€Å"You know one way it shows? In the way you treat other people. I'm pretty sure you come from a background people around here only know from the movies, but it hasn't gone to your head. You see us as people, not hicks, and that's why I know I can trust you. It's obvious that your mother did a great job. I was a good mother, too, or at least I tried to be, and I know what I'm talking about. I can see.† â€Å"You say you were a good mother? Why use â€Å" â€Å"The past tense? Because I was talking about before.† Fred's smile fades into an expression of ill-concealed concern. â€Å"What do you mean, ‘before'?† â€Å"Mr. Sawyer might know,† she says, giving Jack what he thinks is a look of encouragement. â€Å"Sorry, I don't think I do,† he says. â€Å"I mean, before I wound up here and finally started to think a little bit. Before the things that were happening to me stopped scaring me out of my mind before I realized I could look inside myself and examine these feelings I've had over and over all my life. Before I had time to travel. I think I'm still a good mother, but I'm not exactly the same mother.† â€Å"Honey, please,† says Fred. â€Å"You are the same, you just had a kind of breakdown. We ought to talk about Tyler.† â€Å"We are talking about Tyler. Mr. Sawyer, do you know that lookout point on Highway 93, right where it reaches the top of the big hill about a mile south of Arden?† â€Å"I saw it today,† Jack says. â€Å"Fred showed it to me.† â€Å"You saw all those farms that keep going and going? And the hills off in the distance?† â€Å"Yes. Fred told me you loved the view from up there.† â€Å"I always want to stop and get out of the car. I love everything about that view. You can see for miles and miles, and then whoops! it stops, and you can't see any farther. But the sky keeps going, doesn't it? The sky proves that there's a world on the other side of those hills. If you travel, you can get there.† â€Å"Yes, you can.† Suddenly, there are goose bumps on Jack's forearms, and the back of his neck is tingling. â€Å"Me? I can only travel in my mind, Mr. Sawyer, and I only remembered how to do that because I landed in the loony bin. But it came to me that you can get there to the other side of the hills.† His mouth is dry. He registers Fred Marshall's growing distress without being able to reduce it. Wanting to ask her a thousand questions, he begins with the simplest one: â€Å"How did it come to you? What do you mean by that?† Judy Marshall takes her hand from her husband and holds it out to Jack, and he holds it in both of his. If she ever looked like an ordinary woman, now is not the time. She is blazing away like a lighthouse, like a bonfire on a distant cliff. â€Å"Let's say . . . late at night, or if I was alone for a long time, someone used to whisper to me. It wasn't that concrete, but let's say it was as if a person were whispering on the other side of a thick wall. A girl like me, a girl my age. And if I fell asleep then, I would almost always dream about the place where that girl lived. I called it Faraway, and it was like this world, the Coulee Country, only brighter and cleaner and more magical. In Faraway, people rode in carriages and lived in great white tents. In Faraway, there were men who could fly.† â€Å"You're right,† he says. Fred looks from his wife to Jack in painful uncertainty, and Jack says, â€Å"It sounds crazy, but she's right.† â€Å"By the time these bad things started to happen in French Landing, I had pretty much forgotten about Faraway. I hadn't thought about it since I was about twelve or thirteen. But the closer the bad things came, to Fred and Ty and me, I mean, the worse my dreams got, and the less and less real my life seemed to be. I wrote words without knowing I was doing it, I said crazy things, I was falling apart. I didn't understand that Faraway was trying to tell me something. The girl was whispering to me from the other side of the wall again, only now she was grown up and scared half to death.† â€Å"What made you think I could help?† â€Å"It was just a feeling I had, back when you arrested that Kinderling man and your picture was in the paper. The first thing I thought when I looked at your picture was, He knows about Faraway. I didn't wonder how, or how I could tell from looking at a picture; I simply understood that you knew. And then, when Ty disappeared and I lost my mind and woke up in this place, I thought if you could see into some of these people's heads, Ward D wouldn't be all that different from Faraway, and I remembered seeing your picture. And that's when I started to understand about traveling. All this morning, I have been walking through Faraway in my head. Seeing it, touching it. Smelling that unbelievable air. Did you know, Mr. Sawyer, that over there they have jackrabbits the size of kangaroos? It makes you laugh just to look at them.† Jack breaks into a wide grin, and he bends to kiss her hand, in a gesture much like her husband's. Gently, she takes her hand from his grasp. â€Å"When Fred told me he had met you, and that you were helping the police, I knew that you were here for a reason.† What this woman has done astonishes Jack. At the worst moment of her life, with her son lost and her sanity crumbling, she used a monumental feat of memory to summon all of her strength and, in effect, accomplish a miracle. She found within herself the capacity to travel. From a locked ward, she moved halfway out of this world and into another known only from childhood dreams. Nothing but the immense courage her husband had described could have enabled her to have taken this mysterious step. â€Å"You did something once, didn't you?† Judy asks him. â€Å"You were there, in Faraway, and you did something something tremendous. You don't have to say yes, because I can see it in you; it's as plain as day. But you have to say yes, so I can hear it, so say it, say yes.† â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"Did what?† Fred asks. â€Å"In this dream country? How can you say yes?† â€Å"Wait,† Jack tells him, â€Å"I have something to show you later,† and returns to the extraordinary woman seated before him. Judy Marshall is aflame with insight, courage, and faith and, although she is forbidden to him, now seems to be the only woman in this world or any other whom he could love for the rest of his life. â€Å"You were like me,† she says. â€Å"You forgot all about that world. And you went out and became a policeman, a detective. In fact, you became one of the best detectives that ever lived. Do you know why you did that?† â€Å"I guess the work appealed to me.† â€Å"What about it appealed to you in particular?† â€Å"Helping the community. Protecting innocent people. Putting away the bad guys. It was interesting work.† â€Å"And you thought it would never stop being interesting. Because there would always be a new problem to solve, a new question in need of an answer.† She has struck a bull's-eye that, until this moment, he did not know existed. â€Å"That's right.† â€Å"You were a great detective because, even though you didn't know it, there was something something vital you needed to detect.† I am a coppiceman, Jack remembers. His own little voice in the night, speaking to him from the other side of a thick, thick wall. â€Å"Something you had to find, for the sake of your own soul.† â€Å"Yes,† Jack says. Her words have penetrated straight into the center of his being, and tears spring to his eyes. â€Å"I always wanted to find what was missing. My whole life was about the search for a secret explanation.† In memory as vivid as a strip of film, he sees a great tented pavilion, a white room where a beautiful and wasted queen lay dying, and a little girl two or three years younger than his twelve-year-old self amid her attendants. â€Å"Did you call it Faraway?† Judy asks. â€Å"I called it the Territories.† Speaking the words aloud feels like the opening of a chest filled with a treasure he can share at last. â€Å"That's a good name. Fred won't understand this, but when I was on my long walk this morning, I felt that my son was somewhere in Faraway in your Territories. Somewhere out of sight, and hidden away. In grave danger, but still alive and unharmed. In a cell. Sleeping on the floor. But alive. Unharmed. Do you think that could be true, Mr. Sawyer?† â€Å"Wait a second,† Fred says. â€Å"I know you feel that way, and I want to believe it, too, but this is the real world we're talking about here.† â€Å"I think there are lots of real worlds,† Jack says. â€Å"And yes, I believe Tyler is somewhere in Faraway.† â€Å"Can you rescue him, Mr. Sawyer? Can you bring him back?† â€Å"It's like you said before, Mrs. Marshall,† Jack says. â€Å"I must be here for a reason.† â€Å"Sawyer, I hope whatever you're going to show me makes more sense than the two of you do,† says Fred. â€Å"We're through for now, anyhow. Here comes the warden.† Driving out of the hospital parking lot, Fred Marshall glances at the briefcase lying flat on Jack's lap but says nothing. He holds his silence until he turns back onto 93, when he says, â€Å"I'm glad you came with me.† â€Å"Thank you,† Jack says. â€Å"I am, too.† â€Å"I feel sort of out of my depth here, you know, but I'd like to get your impressions of what went on in there. Do you think it went pretty well?† â€Å"I think it went better than that. Your wife is . . . I hardly know how to describe her. I don't have the vocabulary to tell you how great I think she is.† Fred nods and sneaks a glance at Jack. â€Å"So you don't think she's out of her head, I guess.† â€Å"If that's crazy, I'd like to be crazy right along with her.† The two-lane blacktop highway that stretches before them lifts up along the steep angle of the hillside and, at its top, seems to extend into the dimensionless blue of the enormous sky. Another wary glance from Fred. â€Å"And you say you've seen this, this place she calls Faraway.† â€Å"I have, yes. As hard as that is to believe.† â€Å"No crap. No b.s. On your mother's grave.† â€Å"On my mother's grave.† â€Å"You've been there. And not just in a dream, really been there.† â€Å"The summer I was twelve.† â€Å"Could I go there, too?† â€Å"Probably not,† Jack says. This is not the truth, since Fred could go to the Territories if Jack took him there, but Jack wants to shut this door as firmly as possible. He can imagine bringing Judy Marshall into that other world; Fred is another matter. Judy has more than earned a journey into the Territories, while Fred is still incapable of believing in its existence. Judy would feel at home over there, but her husband would be like an anchor Jack had to drag along with him, like Richard Sloat. â€Å"I didn't think so,† says Fred. â€Å"If you don't mind, I'd like to pull over again when we get to the top.† â€Å"I'd like that,† Jack says. Fred drives to the crest of the hill and crosses the narrow highway to park in the gravel turnout. Instead of getting out of the car, he points at the briefcase lying flat on Jack's knees. â€Å"Is what you're going to show me in there?† â€Å"Yes,† Jack says. â€Å"I was going to show it to you earlier, but after we stopped here the first time, I wanted to wait until I heard what Judy had to say. And I'm glad I did. It might make more sense to you, now that you've heard at least part of the explanation of how I found it.† Jack snaps open the briefcase, raises the top, and from its pale, leather-lined interior removes the Brewers cap he had found that morning. â€Å"Take a look,† he says, and hands over the cap. â€Å"Ohmygod,† Fred Marshall says in a startled rush of words. â€Å"Is this . . . is it . . . ?† He looks inside the cap and exhales hugely at the sight of his son's name. His eyes leap to Jack's. â€Å"It's Tyler's. Good Lord, it's Tyler's. Oh, Lordy.† He crushes the cap to his chest and takes two deep breaths, still holding Jack's gaze. â€Å"Where did you find this? How long ago was it?† â€Å"I found it on the road this morning,† Jack says. â€Å"In the place your wife calls Faraway.† With a long moan, Fred Marshall opens his door and jumps out of the car. By the time Jack catches up with him, he is at the far edge of the lookout, holding the cap to his chest and staring at the blue-green hills beyond the long quilt of farmland. He whirls to stare at Jack. â€Å"Do you think he's still alive?† â€Å"I think he's alive,† Jack says. â€Å"In that world.† Fred points to the hills. Tears leap from his eyes, and his mouth softens. â€Å"The world that's over there somewhere, Judy says.† â€Å"In that world.† â€Å"Then you go there and find him!† Fred shouts. His face shining with tears, he gestures wildly toward the horizon with the baseball cap. â€Å"Go there and bring him back, damn you! I can't do it, so you have to.† He steps forward as if to throw a punch, then wraps his arms around Jack Sawyer and sobs. When Fred's shoulders stop trembling and his breath comes in gasps, Jack says, â€Å"I'll do everything I can.† â€Å"I know you will.† He steps away and wipes his face. â€Å"I'm sorry I yelled at you like that. I know you're going to help us.† The two men turn around to walk back to the car. Far off to the west, a loose, woolly smudge of pale gray blankets the land beside the river. â€Å"What's that?† Jack asks. â€Å"Rain?† â€Å"No, fog,† Fred says. â€Å"Coming in off the Mississippi.†