“What? You just gave it up?”
“I had to Truck, otherwise I wouldn’t be here today. My work has brought me in close proximity of them a few times and I’ve seen what they’ve done, who they’ve killed to get what they want. If I stayed, they surely would have killed me.”
“Damn.”
“Anyway, we hid for a while and waited for the dust to settle. Samuel and his team left the site and removed any trace of the excavation, almost as if nothing had happened. We waited, and waited and then eventually, we went back.”
“And this is how you found Yonas.”
“To cut a long story short yes, eventually. There was evidence they left behind and lots of it, enough to point me in the right direction.”
“So why wasn’t there a bunch of mass deaths when you brought him back?”
“Who Yonas?”
“Yeah … didn’t you say this Fahwad was restored and all those people died as a result?”
“Yeah but Yonas, his energy hadn’t spilt into the world for some reason. When I found him and revived him it was simple, no loss of life.”
“And that’s when you contacted Suni again.”
“It wasn’t my idea, it was Yonas’, or now that I think of it, Smith’s.”
“I’m sensing you didn’t like Suni?”
“Liking someone is irrelevant in life, as are pleasantries in my opinion. There was only one conclusion to the story for me and she didn’t agree with it, her lack of knowledge the cause. Seldom do people make informed decisions in life, they only act on what they think they know. If only she could’ve seen the truth, she would have understood and things may have been different for her.”
“Understood what?”
“That we’re all a part of this, thread. And the thread doesn’t even come from here, it came from the sky.”
“Suni was still a kind person, she loved and cared for us you know.”
“I know Truck,” she consoled him. “But what we’re dealing with here goes beyond that, it’s a story much simpler than we realise.”
“Smith,” Truck looked up towards the mountain. “He wants Harrison for something, doesn’t he?”
“What makes you think that?” she reeled at the directness of the question.
“Suni, Doc and Pigeon. He didn’t stop them from dying, but ...”
“No, but he did save you, didn’t he?”
“That’s true,” he recollected his time back with Smith. “But Harrison, he told me he died. He died and then came back, completely unharmed … I think it was Smith who did it.”
“Why?”
“Well he also did something to me, I was shot you see, twice. Smith touches my face and then, kapow, I’m back to normal, fully healed.”
“That part I don’t know. Truck, you can just ask him, he’s just a man.”
“He’s not just a man, he’s something much more … you know it’s weird. Since the day he healed me I can feel him, like he’s a part of me. But how is that possible right?”
“The one thing I know about Smith is that anything is possible.”
“Gee, it’s like he’s some god.”
“He wouldn’t tell it like that. He only sees himself as one who protects the Earth. He has no ego, he has no other motivations and if he does seem vague it is because he has trouble remembering his past.”
“Ego?”
“Yeah, you didn’t notice?”
“Notice how he’s a bloody robot when I talk to him.”
“Do you ever hear him say me, or I, or any pronouns like that … does he act in a selfish way, does he care about appearance, is he narcissistic … c’mon Truck, you’re smarter than that. Smith is what we should be.”
“Well I guess I didn’t think about it.”
“Doesn’t matter anyway.”
A silence fell over them for a moment, until more questions popped into Truck’s mind. “What happened when you guys met?”
“I just told you.”
“No, I meant when we first arrived, here on the island.”
“Oh, you talking about the handshake thing?”
“Yeah. And all the other weird stuff.”
“Like he cannot be harmed?”
“Now that I think of it yes, he can’t be harmed. I think I’ve witnessed that first hand.”
“When he took my hand for the first time, when you arrived here, he remembered everything that I remember, he remembers the story from when I dug him up … through my eyes anyway. I’m not sure how to explain it except to say, ‘see as seen’.”
“And?”
“And he knew enough to know he didn’t know enough, the story still had blanks.”
“Ah!” Truck exclaimed, “Now I get it.”
“Get what?”
“I get what he’s doing up there.”
“And what is that?”
“He’s meditating, he must be trying to remember.”
Alison leaned forward in her chair. “You know, I think you might be on to something there, he’s done it before.”
“Why else would he be up there right? He’s trying to remember what he’s supposed to do because he can’t learn everything from us, from touching as you say.”
“Nice,” Alison exclaimed. “Well done, you always were a smart one Truck.”
“But still …”
“What?”
“Harrison?”
“What about him?’
“Why’s he got Harrison up there with him?”
- -
Harrison
The mountaintop above the campsite was windy, far windier than any other place on the island and whilst it did give respite, it also annoyed. The cooling gust would bring with it dirt and debris, stinging the open eye.
“Smith?”
“Yes?”
“I think they’re probably starting to wonder what we are doing up here all the time.”
“Who?”
“Truck and Alison.”
“Spend time thinking of people … not what thinking of Harrison.”
“Oh yes Obi Wan,” Harrison replies sarcastically. “But Smith, to be honest, I don’t even know what we’re doing up here myself.”
“Once see, will know. Stop mind … stop thought, only betray.”
“Right, got it,” his eyes go wide. “Shut down the mind, experience the different plain.”
Harrison and Smith sit atop the mountain, high above the area that has been sanctioned for their dig, the dig Alison started months ago in search of another thread.
During the day the two of them helped Alison, Truck and the team with the excavations, working tirelessly. By night though, the two of them retreated to the mountain top, where they would spend the night together.
Often the night would be spent in silence, but sometimes a conversation would start that would last for hours. Harrison had many questions about himself since being revived, but the one man who could help him had lost his memory.
“Smith?”
“Yes?”
“You know there’s something different about me.”
“Yes.”
“I’m kinda weird, ever since ...” he sighs. “You know what happened right? You have the answers, right?”
“Don’t know.”
“Doesn’t that worry you, the vulnerability of not knowing? You always seem so calm about everything.”
“Answers inside ... must see as seen ... instinct ... answer come.”
“What do your instincts say?”
“Instinct say, memory lost ... What instinct tell?” He indicates for Harrison to answer the same question.
“Me?” he asks. “I’m not sure man. They tell me to trust you, but I don’t know why.”
“Lady, Ma’am ...”
“Yeah, you were only with her for a few minutes, what about her?”
“Say many thing about Smith.”
“Ok”
“Say cannot die, do … lose memory.”
“Okay.”
“But touch … see as seen.”
“Do you mean you can read people’s minds by touching them?”
“See as seen.”
“See as seen, you mean you see everything they’ve seen?”
“Yes.”
“Man,” he sits amazed, thinking of the possibilities it presents. He starts to back track, on exactly what’s taken place since he first met his strange friend.
Harrison had, of course, a lot of suspicions about some of the events surrounding Smith since the two of them had first come across each other’s paths. When they first met, he thought Smith knew exactly what he was doing, he seemed planned and well thought out.
Then something happened in the tunnels and he got weird after Harrison revived him. Then they were in the car incident with the fake police officer, Truck thought Smith had died but turned out he hadn’t, Smith was weird after that too.
Then Smith disappeared the night the team went out in search of the device, the magical piece of equipment that Suni had sent them after. They were attacked, Pigeon losing his life and Truck and Harrison almost losing theirs, Smith nowhere to be seen.
Soon thereafter miracles happened, Harrison survived being shot and the device arrived on their doorstep.
Then they’d all met back up at Avalon, Smith did his handshake thing again.
“I’d ask you a whole bunch of questions Smith, but I’m not even sure if you know the answers to them?”
“Try ... try.”
“How many times have you died since we first met?”
“See as seen.”
“Ok, in the tunnels?”
“Harrison think yes.”
“After that cop car chase?”
“Truck think yes, dead.”
“Wow, that’s kind of cool you know.”
“How cool?”
“I mean like, that you’re some kind of superhuman or something, that’s cool.”
“No understand.”
“You’re freaking immortal man, you cannot die!” Harrison spells it out for him. “You’re like a god Smith.”
“When rise again … must touch … learn … instinct.”
“Yep, you’re a weird one.” Harrison recalls the many times he’s witnessed Smith trying to touch someone, he remembers teaching him how to shake hands properly.
This plunged the pair back into silence and once more the time passed as they both sat atop the mountain, sitting in the breeze under the stars.
“Hey, did you send me the device?” Harrison suddenly asks.
“Don’t know. But know take from Sousa.”
“Who is Sousa?”
“Viper … attack … Melbourne … take device from ...”
“How did you know you took it from him?”
“Sousa ... see as seen?”
“I knew it was you, the Chewbacca thing!” he marvels. “Damn Smith.”
“Damn yes.”
“Well what about me?”
“Don’t know.”
“Did you revive me? You know I died, like, for real and then something completely brought me back from the dead.”
“Harrison dead.”
“Was it you?”
“Don’t know.”
“Well who else would have done it though, right? You had the device … surely?”
Another silence ensues as both contemplate the fact neither of them knew the answer, though both suspect it was Smith who had revived him.
“Well what about Suni?”
“Don’t know ... touch yes.”
“Because you know that I have seen you shake her hand.”
“Truck also see shake hand, but don’t remember.”
“What about Alison?”
“Dug from earth.”
“And?”
“See as Alison see.”
“Of course, I know that you drongo!” he punches him lightly. “I mean what did you learn from her when you shook her hand?”
“Learn past … many thing … thirty year ago meet Alison.”
“Did you learn anything new from her?”
“Learn meditate.”
“Is that all? I thought she’d been around from the start, that by touching her you would understand who and what you are, what you’re meant to do?”
“No … learn much … but still piece missing.”
“Well I don’t get it then, you can’t die, there are these thread things and you can’t remember any of it.”
“Write, remember.”
“Huh?”
Smith turns his arm, lifting it and showing Harrison a few words written there.
“Why do you have that written on your arm?”
“Don’t know.”
“It must be important though right, if you wrote it?”
“Hmmm.” Smith exhales, the first sign of any frustration Harrison’s ever seen.
“Who are you Smith?”
“Don’t know ... find together.”
“Why we? I’m just some punk kid. Clearly you’re someone important, but I’m a nobody.”
“Harrison not kid … anymore.”
“What?”
“Harrison dead, not part thread, not kid.”
“Say what now?”
“All touch … all thread. Alison, Truck, Lucinda, Sousa … all thread … Harrison dead, not thread.”
“Ok,” Harrison muses. “And just what the hell is a thread?”
“Harrison different.”
He doesn’t quite know what Smith is talking about but he does know Smith’s trying to tell him that he’s different, a fact he already knew himself. If Smith could touch him and ‘… see as seen …’ surely he must know something about the change that’d occurred in him. The change that came after he was revived.
“Smith … what’s going on … inside my head?”
“Don’t know.”
“I feel like … insane man!” He instinctively runs his hands through his hair. “Before I met you I was under control and then you come along and all I can remember is this overwhelming sense of calm. I mean you actually managed to quiet my mind. Don’t ask me how it happened but every time I was around you, my mind went still and if you weren’t there my thoughts started back up again.”
“Yes.”
“But now, ever since getting shot I’ve changed again … somethings not right. You know, I can see things in my mind, before they happen, like premonitions.”
“Harrison remember see … line of holes, car windscreen … before Smith crash car.”
“Yeah, you drove the car right into me.” He recollects the encounter where they first met.
“Why … put two path together … make one.”
“Huh,” he was right, Harrison thought. “I did think it was a bit odd, but so many other things did at the time as well. But maybe before you lost your memory you set our paths together.”
“You know when this all began, I thought it was me who’d picked you, that I needed you. I was trying to do this and that, lost in my own thoughts and used you to help me. But here … now, I can see that it was you who picked me. You wanted to catch me that day of the bank robbery. Why Smith? Why me?”
“Don’t know ... but Alison … see as seen.”
“What did she tell you?”
Harrison’s about to ask another question, when Smith softly quiets him. Harrison looks over in surprise and sees Smith has raised a finger to his lips. Harrison calms himself and does as Smith indicates, looking forward at the horizon, into the night
sky.
It doesn’t take long for Harrison’s mind to wander as they sit in silence. He begins to fidget where he sits, cross legged, shifting his legs every couple of minutes. Uncomfortable, he uncrosses his legs and moves from a forward position to a backward position. But after a few moments his backside starts to feel sore, so he rolls onto his side and leans on his arms for support.
He steals more than a few looks over at Smith, who remains placid and calm. His eyes are shut and he’s adopted a seated, upright pose. After another few minutes Harrison gets restless again and is about to stand when Smith quiets him with a touch to his arm.
“Quiet Harrison, listen.” he says softly. “Quiet mind … still.”
“I can’t hear anything though, only my silly little thoughts.”
“Not listen ear or mind,” Smith replies. “Underneath thought … hidden being … thought betray being … liberate being. Be still and feel …”
“Huh?”
But Smith doesn’t answer, only breathes in deeply and seems to go into a trance like state. Harrison tries to follow suit but his mind keeps wandering off. And not just regular thinking, but hyper thinking, almost as if what plagued him before has been heightened to the point where he’d developed an annoying itch.
“I feel like I’m going crazy man ... too much is going on inside my head … I actually think that it’s doing some sort of damage ...”
Smith grabs his hand suddenly and says. “Be here … now … moment … no thought.”
Harrison still doesn’t understand what Smith’s trying to tell him. “What? Smith, I don’t understand what you want me to do.”
Smith grips Harrison’s hand more firmly this time, “Ok … show way ...”
Harrison closes himself this time, closes his mind as Smith instructs and absorbs the silence, focusing on the nothing. It takes him a little while to grasp what he should do, but once he thinks he has the right idea he blanks out his mind. He ignores everything around him, the sounds, the distractions.
He ignores the pain in his body, ignores the rhythms of motion, ignores the wind cascading through his hair.
He stops thought itself. Still.
He doesn’t know how long he stays like that, but he does feel at one point as if a sudden wave of knowledge floods inside him. Almost as if he has opened some metaphorical gate in his mind.
It shakes him instantly back to consciousness.
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