Recalling Destiny

by Michael Blinkhoff

  “Oh, Harry, no, no don’t tell me.”

  “I don’t even know if they’re dead Truck, I didn’t have time to check them before she grabbed me and pulled me out of the car.” He points in the direction of a lady who’s just got out of the driver’s side of the car, Truck eyes her suspiciously.

  “Who’s she?” he asks, looking the woman dead in the eyes.

  “She said her name is Lucinda,” Harrison soothes him. “She kind of helped me get away.”

  “Kind of?”

  “I mean did.” Harrison replies, his gaze now fixed on Smith.

  Truck inclines his head in the direction of the woman but doesn’t say anything to her, a long pause ensues. Truck senses strength in her and tries to stare her down, but she’s more than equal to him, his gaze is returned with equal force and stubbornness.

  “Smith, hey!” Harrison ambushes him, jumping up to give him a warm hug.

  “Harrison.” Smith says, embracing the oncoming Harrison and touching his hand to Harrison’s neck.

  “Smith, are you ok? I wondered about where you went and then the parcel ...”

  “Harrison.”

  “Huh?”

  “Name … it was, but now …”

  “Oh no, not this again!” Harrison jumps back, throwing his hands in the air.

  Smith’s head tilts forward, “See as seen,” he says, as if he just realises something for the first time.

  “Oh no!” Harrison slaps his head in frustration. He then digs into his pocket, retrieving the figurine he was given earlier. “Here, I think I should return this.”

  “Ok, man.” Smith takes back the Chewbacca figurine with a blank look on his face. Harrison helps him by tapping Smith’s pocket. “Keep it there for next time hey, never know when I might need him again.”

  “Different. Harrison different,” he looks more closely at Harrison.

  “Yeah? You think so?” His eyes roll, “I think you are the different one Smith, not me. Although I feel damn strange these days, not sure why.”

  Smith looks to his forearm, noticing the writing there, “Sousa is the key. Send the kid the device.”

  “It was you then?” Harrison asks, noticing the writing.

  “Don’t know.”

  “You know what Smith?” he says awkwardly, rubbing his head. “Ever since the day I woke up again, I feel kinda strange. There’s something wrong with me, something that I don’t even know how to explain.”

  “Smith help.” he nods in response. “But also … don’t know.”

  Harrison shuffles his feet a little. “Well, I think I know who might know something.” His head flicks over to that of Lucinda, who is still semi-locked with Truck in some egotistical eye battle.

  Smith looks over to the woman still standing by the car, she feels Smith’s gaze and breaks her death stare with Truck to look back at him. She doesn’t say anything, Smith though, senses recognition in her eyes.

  “You know, don’t you?” Harrison asks Smith.

  “Know what?” Smith replies, moving over to Harrison and taking a hold of both his hands.

  “You know something. There’s a completely different story to the one I thought was going on and somehow I know you have the answers, somewhere in that head of yours.”

  “Harrison sad.” Smith touches his hand to his head, patting him gently.

  “Yeah, I lost my friends, they were like my family you know.” Tears stream out from the corners of his eyes.

  Smith embraces him and they stand for a few minutes, holding hands and sharing a moment for Harrison’s fallen friends. The other two stand close by, shuffling in their boots and not deigning to look at each other anymore.

  “You know what happens next don’t you?” Harrison whispers in Smith’s ear.

  “Don’t know.”

  “I think you’re right you know, about me.”

  “Harrison different?” Smith asks.

  “Well yeah, I’ve felt different ever since meeting you, but I meant since I died. I feel like something changed in me since then. My mind is … a mess. I have these visions, images … swear I can see things before they happen, I just haven’t felt right.”

  “What right?”

  “Huh? You mean what do I think is right?”

  “Yes.”

  “I don’t know, normal I guess.”

  “Right, normal … all taught, all learn, all wrong.”

  “I know, I can feel it inside me now, whatever I’ve known and been taught was all founded on bullshit. But whatever new that’s going on inside me is freaking me out, I feel like I’ve lost control of my mind.”

  “Mind not real. Talk, discuss, learn … find way.”

  “The way?”

  “Together find way.” Smith touches his shoulder again.

  Harrison smiles a little, as if he is starting to finally understand Smith a little more. He breaks from their embrace and stands there admiring him. Smith doesn’t return the smile though, his eyes wander to the figure of the lady who’s still standing by the car.

  “Do your thing, my answers will come soon. Now, remember the hand?” He winks at Smith.

  Smith holds his hand out, in a greeting gesture, something Harrison has shown him before.

  “Good onya Smith,” he smiles and turns to Truck. “C’mon you big lug.” Harrison decides Smith needs alone time with the woman.

  “What, we’re going?” Truck asks. “Where?”

  Harrison heads off in the direction of the planes, Truck throws an inquisitive look at Smith, “Hey champ, you going to be ok with her?” he stands poised, looking at Lucinda.

  “Ok, champ.” Smith responds.

  Truck nods his head, takes a final look at Lucinda and then decides he needs to follow Harrison. Quickly he retrieves some supplies from his vehicle and runs to catch up.

  “Best we leave those two alone, I think they have a lot to talk about.”

  “Why, who is she?” Truck asks.

  “She says she comes from Destiny.”

  “Destiny?”

  “Yeah, I know right.”

  “That’s what you’ve been searching for right?”

  “Yeah I guess so, but she says Destiny has fallen, that Destiny is no more.”

  “Huh. Gone?”

  “Yeah, she says it’s all over. But that this is just the beginning of the real story.”

  “Of what story?”

  “I don’t really know. To be honest, I’m so lost right now that I don’t even know who I am.”

  “It doesn’t matter to me little buddy, I’m here to look after you and that’s all that matters.” Truck smiles, resting his big hairy paw on Harrison’s shoulder.

  “I don’t even know what we do now.”

  “We stick to the plan Harry ... that’s what Suni would have wanted.” Truck says, with a sigh.

  “Yeah.” he replies, tears still in his eyes. “Yeah, she was ... she really believed in what she was doing. And you know, Truck, after spending time with that lady over there I’m coming to think that maybe everything is not what we think, that Suni kept the real truth from us.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “Suni never really told us anything, she kind of just dangled the carrot in front of us to keep us happy. I always thought I wanted to go after the truth and believed Destiny was the end game.”

  “That’s what you’ve been searching for right?”

  “Yeah, but that’s not the answer. That lady over there, she knows some serious stuff. She knows who Smith is for a start, she knows just about everything about him. She says she left Destiny because of him, to find him.”

  “So?”

  “Well if what she says is true, then ...”

  “What?”

  “You wanna know what she told me?”
/>
  “Probably not.”

  “Well, I’m going to tell you anyway,” Harrison ignores him. “She told me she used to run Destiny.”

  “Here we go.” Truck exhales deeply.

  “Truck?”

  “Yeah?”

  “She told me Destiny is a person now.”

  Truck sighs, rubbing a hand through his hair. “Really, you think?” he says, looking back at Smith.

  “Not him, someone else.”

  “Great, another odd bot.” Truck sighs.

  “Yeah.”

  “Well what do you think Destiny and Smith have to do with each other?”

  “Don’t know, but it sure sounds like an interesting story.” Harrison looks off into the distance.

  “Wanna hear an interesting story?” Truck replies as they walk off together, smiling to himself and rubbing his chest. “Harry, I think we both have something in common with him now, let me tell you what I’ve been up to since we last saw each other.”

  - -

  Smith

  “And so …?” Smith says aloud, watching Harrison and Truck walk off together.

  “You don’t need me …” she looks demure as she nods her head towards the figure of Harrison as he walks off. “You have him, I delivered him as promised.”

  “Promised?” Smith asks, confused.

  “Your friend, the pretty one with all the perfume. He said to deliver him here, well there he is.”

  The look on Smith’s face conveys dismay. “Don’t know.”

  “Been in an accident lately?” Lucinda asks him, “Any dangerous situations like shootings?”

  “Yes.”

  “And did that accident happen to result in your death?”

  “Truck see, yes …”

  “When you die, you lose your memory.”

  “What?”

  “I said that when you die you lose your memory.”

  Smith remains standing still. “Don’t know Smith.”

  “Honestly I’m really not sure who you are either, but we have met, we have shared some things together.”

  “Touch.” he held out his hand for her.

  “Your name is Smith, but someone gave you the name as you have none. You are a man of the earth. The man of this earth. You are its protector, its heart and soul. You may not harm and no harm shall come to you.” She came out from behind the car.

  “For a millennia you have been trying to rescue this earth, your earth, from something that has infected it ...” the woman begins rolling up her right sleeve as she speaks, “… recalling destiny.”

  “This planet is simple – it is all matter, broken down and remade slowly over time. Over and over again it changes until there is no more ways for it to change, only a way for it to stay the same. And that is how it shall come to be.”

  “Until one day something does change, changes the whole cycle so the matter does change. It shifts with the something new and deviates from the norm, never to be the same again. That change will cause the downfall of what was already.”

  “Who tell this?”

  “It was you who told me this, one night in a tent.”

  The woman walks toward Smith now, still speaking as she extends her hand for Smith to grab.

  “Take my hand, for in doing so you will remember. You will remember as I remember, from when this all went from bad to worse. Smith touch, Smith see, just as I have seen.”

  “You told me to stay strong, to endure. You told me you would come back, now I am here to meet you, a promised fulfilled.”

  Smith raises his arm up to meet her and the woman embraces his arm in her own with a strength that surprises him. The two arms lock together, in a monkey grip and immediately Smith’s body reacts by jerking backwards in a spasm, his head arching backwards.

  The woman rears backward fearfully, clearly not expecting such a response from the touch. But Smith holds her firmly in place until he gets what he needs from her. His grip slackens and the woman pulls away, Smith then falls to the ground on his knees in front of her.

  With his head bowed he breathes in heavily, pauses and then exhales slowly before speaking softly, “Lucinda Caradoc.”

  “And …?”

  “Sousa is the key … he’s a part of me ...” Smith looks to his arm, noticing the writing there.

  “Say what?”

  “Say … tent …”

  “I know,” she looks at him strangely. “It was one of the last things you said to me before …”

  “Don’t know. Don’t understand.”

  “So what? Nothing?” she stammers, unsure of herself. “I thought this is what I was supposed to do, it didn’t work?”

  “Work ... see as seen.”

  “Then what?”

  “Something missing.”

  “What?”

  “Don’t know.”

  “You can make others see as well you know, you made me see that night.”

  “What?”

  “You can make others do the ‘see as seen’ thing.”

  “Ok. See as seen.”

  “Is that why you wanted the kid?”

  “Don’t know.”

  “Of course,” she rolls her eyes.

  “Lucinda dig light from ground,” Smith recalls, his memory of past events returned.

  “Yeah, that was thirty years ago. I sure didn’t think I would have to wait this long to see you again.”

  “Lucinda join? Come with?”

  “I knew you’d come back one day, you told me you would, but I’ve done this part, now I need to finish something else.”

  “Go back?”

  “Destiny has fallen, which means that he has returned.”

  “Fahwad Achmenabad.” Smith recalls the name, but doesn’t fully comprehend the implications of it.

  “Yes. The thread at Destiny has been rejuvenated and now he is back. He split from Samuel and walks as if a man.”

  “Danger ... Fahwad bad man.”

  “Yes, he is the real danger.”

  “Second thread, Destiny?”

  “Well, he doesn’t know it’s there yet. I will go back to make sure it’s safe. The device is still there, I will bring her back.”

  “Back?”

  “Yes. Recalling Destiny remember.”

  “Don’t know.”

  “Yeah, you do that sometimes.” She looked away from him, back from where she came from.

  “Why come?” he asked.

  “Well, you needed to remember what happened, I needed to be here to give you back some of your memory, so you could continue your quest ... that’s why I came.”

  “See as seen.” He pauses, looking her deeply in the eyes. “See as seen.”

  All manner of memory has passed between the two, seemingly making the need for communication pointless. Lucinda realises he knows everything she knows, now she wants to move onwards.

  “You told me to endure, well I have bloody well endured,” she spat forcefully. “I’ve done some crazy things … I never actually thought I’d see you again, but now you’re back we can finish what we started thirty years ago.”

  “Smith and Lucinda?” He holds out his hand for her.

  “I was always with you Smith, you were just taken from me,” she looks to the ground. “And maybe I got a little lost on the way.”

  “Tent. Daughter.”

  Lucinda nods her head and a tear breaks from her eye, her chin starts to twitch but she quickly stifles it. “Yes. I will go there now, I go to get her back.”

  “Go ... say goodbye.”

  “Goodbye Smith.”

  The two shake hands once more, then Lucinda returns to her Prius and drives away. Smith turns around, facing the horizon looking out off the coastline. His eyes squint against the s
un as he stares off into the distance, the blue of the ocean sparkling off his eyes.

  He’s mesmerized momentarily by the beauty of the scene, of when the land and ocean come together at the perfect time of day. Smith breathes in the beauty of the moment gleefully.

  And then he moves, as Truck and Harrison have already, down towards where a plane is being readied by his two companions.

  A plane ready to take him to Greece, to a little island called Santorini.

  - -

  part 2

  The Stranger

  {… a long time ago.}

  The wind churns the dust, restructuring the landscape whichever way it pleases. It swirls in many shapes and forms, at times in small pockets that create mini tornadoes the size of your hand. Other times it comes in great gusts that swirl over anything it touches, layering it in dirt and rock.

  In the small town of Idanya, dust storms are routine, they’re commonplace in this part of the world.

  This is the drylands, the desert between two worlds.

  If you head west from the town you would eventually reach a capital, a renowned city called Atlantis. Famed for its architectural and technological grandeur, the place has become, in less than a hundred years, the centre of the world. The ruler in these parts uses Atlantis as his seat of power.

  If you head south you will reach another place, Phoenicia, a place of worship, of study and very much different to Atlantis, they are two world’s separated by a desert.

  But here in Idanya you will find no great temples, no gold covered pyramids and no deities claiming to be the one true god. It is an insignificant place on the map, its doors bear no sigil, no great gate or towering structure pays tribute to a great god. Here is a road, a road between two places.

  A man has come here, wandering up over many years from the deepest part of the southern lands, lands that extend further than even Phoenicia. As he approaches Idanya the wind builds and gets stronger. In the distance a large dust cloud can be seen bearing down upon the village, its dark orange colour mirroring its menacing appearance.

  As the man reaches the town a concerned villager and his family notice the stranger and quickly offer him shelter from the oncoming storm, to which he replies with a smile beneath his headdress. Quickly they bring him inside their small mud abode and proceed with offers of food and water, which the stranger respectfully declines.