They of the past

They of the past, former adherents who had left under a cloud and whose names were associated with treachery, cowardice and the like, would come into conversations now and then of seasoned members who had known them.  Their names were fixed in the mind of the new entrant.  But what they had done, what they looked like, where they were from, and where they had gone – in short, who they were –these things were unknown to the new entrant.

That should have acted as more than a wake-up call that one should stay on the right track, but as a warning to the new entrant not simply of what you might become, but of what you were already becoming.

Philippe Danjeman, Gordon Wast, Silvia Sunshone… who were they?  Did you really spell their names that way?  And the new entrant wondered what they looked like, whether he might meet one of them in the street one day.  How he should prepare for such a chance encounter.  Perhaps at a meeting…

But he would not, and his knowledge of their antics would never become substantial.  He would never know their stories.