Farewell from Paradise

by Saltzman, Brent

  “This’ll do.” He laid the baby on the cot. “I should probably come up with a name for you.” It grumbled and buried its face in the pillow. “I had a lizard named Nedry when I was in college. You like that name?” It rolled over, its back to him. “Well, tough. That’s what you’re getting unless you come up with something better.”

  There was a flash of lightning. He looked around the neglected space. “I wonder if anyone lives here.” The dinosaur on the cot started snoring. “They’re going to be in for quite the surprise when they get back…”

  He took a seat next to the bed and leaned his head back against the wall. He felt tired all of the sudden. His eyes started to close as he listened to the harmonious roars of thunder, the music of the tempest outside.

  He awoke when he felt Nedry crawling over his chest. The scared animal nuzzled his neck, shivering.

  “It’s okay, it’s just rain. Nothing to—” He let out a wide yawn. “Nothing to worry about…”

  Within seconds, the creature was snoring again. And within minutes, so was Sam.

  17

  The Epiphany

  “I can’t believe he’s still living in this dump.” Bev and Del pushed through the broken glass door to Sam’s apartment building. They moved up the grimy staircase. “Though I guess he never was too keen on fanciness.” She struggled with the key to his unit. The lock felt stuck. “When he was seven, he and Liz ran away from home and spent three days squatting in some old gas station before someone finally spotted them sneaking back into the house for food.”

  “Liz?” Delaney asked.

  The door popped open. “My first daughter.”

  She remembered. They walked into the studio. It was a mess.

  “Sam loved her to death,” Bev said. “It was rare to see them more than a few feet apart. When she passed, he never really got over it. He has a tendency to hold on to things he should probably learn to let go…” She sighed and nodded to the dozen or so fist-sized holes in the walls. “He gets angry. Don’t blame him much. Has every right to be. Always gets kicked when he’s down. Has to take it out on the nearest wall.”

  “We all have that sometimes.” Del moved over to the desk. There was a file folder stuffed with a stack rejection letters from publishers and literary agents. “Oh my…”

  Beverly didn’t look surprised. “People have been turning him away his whole life. Always said he’d call back every one who ever rejected him after he made something of himself and let them know.” She snickered and shook her head. “You know, for a while, I thought maybe he was different. Would go down a different path. Be successful. God knows he has the brains. But by the time he was twenty-five I realized that sometimes bad luck gets inherited. Sometimes you can’t fight fate, as my mom used to tell me.” She dug through a little trinket box. “I knew the second he told me he was in trouble with the IRS. Damn kid’s never even had a detention, never done drugs, never been in trouble. But according to our government, he’s just as big a criminal.”

  “IRS? What kind of trouble?”

  “It’s nothing, really. When Sam was young he made a choice between giving the government a few grand he owed in taxes or making sure his family had food to eat. Sacrificed his integrity to make sure his newborn nephew survived. He’s been paying the price for it ever since.”

  “I…I didn’t know. What kind of—”

  “Well, I’ll be damned…” She stood up with a ring box, opened it, and peeked inside. “Can’t believe he still has it.”

  “What is it?”

  Bev hesitated. Closed the box. Held back a laugh. She set it on the desk and lit up a cigarette. “You mind?”

  “No, it’s fine.”

  She leaned against the wall and talked into space. “Sam was always very…compassionate. No problem there, in and of itself. The problem is that he’s also a bleeping idiot.” She took a drag. Smiled. “Gets that from me.”

  Delaney touched the ring box. She wanted to look inside. But couldn’t.

  “He chased this girl around for a good twelve years. He was just so sure she was the one.” She blew out a stream of smoke. “Freaking moron.”

  “What happened?”

  “Got engaged.”

  “They did?”

  “Not they. She. To someone else.”

  “Oh…” She pushed the box away. Hid it under some papers. For some reason, she didn’t want to look at it. “I can’t imagine…”

  “I thought losing Liz was hard on him. This…this was different. This was worse. There’s a finality to death, you know? Always closure. But this, this lingered on. With death there’s nothing to hold on to. But with this, he felt that even if the chance was in bed with zero, it was still worth waiting for. So, he finally gave her an ultimatum. Few days before her wedding, he asked her if that’s what she really wanted to do.”

  “And what was her answer?”

  Another pause. She played with her lighter. Flicking the flame on and off. “She didn’t have one. But I really wish she did. He gave her a note and bought her a ring. Said to meet him at the spot where they met. Said he’d wait every day for three years. Which he did. Sun, rain, or snow.”

  Thunder popped outside. Wind howled through the streets. Rain beat the window panes.

  “And she ain’t never showed up, did she?” Delaney said.

  Bev inhaled smoke. Relaxed. “I told you. Sam’s book smart, but sometimes his common sense couldn’t cut melted butter. I was so glad when he moved to New York to start over. And even more so when he told me about you. The waitress he was too afraid to talk to. At least he had his eyes open for the first time in years.”

  Del smirked. Flattered.

  “I’m not looking for someone to save my boy. But the fact that you’re here, even though you barely know him, that tells me something. It tells me you may be looking for someone to save you.”

  Delaney thought. Tried to hold back a smile.

  “Fate can be cruel. Painful, even.” Bev flattened the cigarette on a nearby plate. “But it always has a plan. And sometimes the key isn’t fighting against fate, but fighting for it.”

  A crystalline metropolis wedged at the tip of a golden triangle, the steel city of Pittsburgh twinkled in the cold night. Nestled between two rivers that flowed into one, the fantastic cityscape featured a myriad of skyscrapers of all shapes and sizes, from the glassy black castle of PPG Place to the monolithic US Steel Tower looming over the land. The baseball stadium glowed at the lip of the confluence, the faint roar of a crowd drifting over the water as a homerun ball made its way into the stands.

  “It’s a beautiful place,” said a soft voice.

  Delaney and Sam stood alone at the edge of a balcony overlooking the city. The penthouse was situated on the side of Mount Washington. A party raged behind them. Muffled music made its way through the sliding glass doors.

  “It is,” Sam replied as he sipped a glass of champagne then tossed the rest. “I always dreamed of living here. Big city. Surrounded by country. Clean. Best of every world.”

  “And why didn’t you?” Del’s silvery dress glimmered in the moonlight.

  “Don’t know. Life got in the way, I guess.”

  Snow started falling. Light white flakes that fluttered in the breeze. Sam wiped some off his black suit and loosened his tie.

  “You’ve seemed frustrated,” Delaney said.

  “I am,” Sam sighed. “Everything’s just…falling out of place.”

  “So fix it. One step at a time.”

  “I know, it’s just…”

  “Just what, Sam?” She put a hand on his shoulder as he leaned over the railing.

  “Sometimes I think…why?”

  She suddenly looked concerned. “Why what?”

  “Why keep trying to fix what keeps breaking? What’s the point? Why explore the world when there’s obviously no place for me in it?”

  “Sam…don’t be talkin’ like that…”

  “I know, I’m sorry. It’s just…
I don’t know…”

  “There’s always somethin’ to live for, Sam. It just takes a little longer to find for some people.” She touched his arm and their eyes met. Something to live for. The words burned into the back of his mind. They leaned in close.

  Then, the ground started to shake. The glorious towers that comprised Pittsburgh’s majestic skyline collapsed into plumes of dust.

  “Keep fighting, Sam…” she said.

  He felt her hands turn to ash, and with a final exasperated gasp, she disintegrated into a ghostly cloud of vapor that was sucked into the heavens.

  Then, once again, he woke up.

  Drip. Drip. Drip. A bead of water smacked his forehead as he opened his eyes. Nedry was snoring and drooling. The rain continued outside. The roof was leaking. It trickled from Sam’s hair.

  “You and Liz used to imagine you had one, didn’t you?” The Mysterious Figure sat at the edge of the cot, petting a sleeping Nedry. He was wearing a fedora and ragged gray suit. “You always loved having something to take care of.”

  “How’d you find me?” Sam asked groggily.

  “Oh, I’m always with you to a degree. Sometimes I get drowned out by blind love or alcohol, but I’m always there. Tucked away to keep you sane.”

  “You’re kind of a weirdo, you know that?” He sat up and set Nedry to the side. The little animal’s legs kicked like a dreaming puppy.

  “I’m a weirdo? Says the man squatting in a deserted gas station with a baby dinosaur…”

  Sam didn’t answer. He brushed the rainwater out of his hair and peeked out the window. The storm was pounding the desert.

  “Sam,” the Figure stood, “I think it’s time you accept the truth.”

  “I can’t accept what I don’t know.”

  “I didn’t misspeak, Samuel Pierce. Take my hand.” He extended a wrinkly palm.

  Sam hesitated.

  “I said take it.”

  Finally, he did. There was a moment of blackness, then he found himself confined to a dark, cavernous space. In the middle, under a spotlight, was a hospital bed with an unconscious patient hooked up to an assortment of random machinery.

  “Who is that?” he asked.

  “That,” the Mysterious Figure cleared his throat, “is you.”

  “Me? What?”

  They approached. He couldn’t take his eyes off his twin.

  “You remember the accident, don’t you?”

  Sam felt rain. He saw a text from Delaney asking him where he was. There was the blinding glare of car headlights.

  “You think you just walked away from that?”

  A pain in his side. His ribs poking his lungs and heart. The faces of paramedics as they lifted him into the back of an ambulance.

  He paused. Looked around. “So, is this an out of body experience?”

  “No, no,” the Figure laughed. “Don’t be silly. That’s all hogwash.”

  “Then how is this happening?” He spoke vacantly. A shade.

  “The human brain is quite the creative engine.” The Figure put his hands in his pockets. “You know you were hit by a car, and you know you went to the hospital. So, your mind created this visual representation in your head.” He touched his temple. “Same thing happens to patients undergoing surgery. They know what an operating table looks like. They know what their doctors look like. So they visualize it when they’re under anesthesia and then convince themselves they had a ‘supernatural’ experience.” He shook his head. “It’s all just hokum. But you know this already. Since you manifested me, I can’t know anything you don’t.”

  “So…we’re in my mind right now?”

  “Oh, not just right now.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Sam,” he sighed and put a hand on his shoulder. “You just escaped from a futuristic city run by robots, the girl of your dreams was carried off by a dragon and you’re currently hiding out in an abandoned convenience store with a baby dinosaur.”

  He paused. It still didn’t sound clear. It was all just garbled.

  “Right now, your brain is trying to convince you that everything’s real, and you’re going along with it, just like in a dream. But don’t get lost, Sam.”

  “How do I get back?”

  “You mean how do you wake up?”

  He took a deep breath. “Yeah…”

  “Just keep heading down the road. If you want to get back bad enough, then you’ll get there. If not…then you won’t. It’s as simple as that.”

  “There has to be more to it than that!” He angrily balled his fists. “How the hell do I get back to—”

  There was a flash and he found himself back at the gas station. The Mysterious Figure was gone. The storm had vanished. Sunlight streamed in through the filthy windows.

  A snorting drew his attention and he turned to see Nedry pulling a bag of green apples out from underneath the cot. The creature licked its lips as it dug into the bag, then noticed Sam and brought him one in its jaws.

  “Thanks…” He wiped the dribble off the apple and bit into it as the reptile nuzzled his legs.

  A few minutes later, he filled the infinite backpack with apples and took off down the derelict highway with his newfound friend.

  And his newfound goal.

  “Why didn’t you answer your phone?!” Lauren hollered as Bev and Del approached the hospital room. The doctor was inside talking with a nurse.

  Bev checked her cell. “I had it on silent.”

  “Well, Sam’s in trouble!”

  Delaney’s heart dropped into the pit of her stomach. Logan sat in a seat with his knees pushed up under his chin, staring helplessly at a wall.

  The doctor came out. He looked uneasy. “Mrs. Pierce—”

  “What’s wrong with my boy?”

  He hesitated. “We’ve discovered an infection. Probably as a result of how long he was in the road after the crash with open wounds.”

  “How bad is it?”

  “We’re administering antibiotics as we speak.” He nodded toward the nurse pumping fluid into Sam’s veins. “We may have to delay the surgery a day or two. Regardless, we’re doing everything we can. The rest isn’t up to us.”

  18

  The Desert of the Subconscious

  Heat radiated off the fractured asphalt. The sun hadn’t budged an inch for hours. Nedry hopped along like a little kangaroo at first, occasionally going off the road to grab a bug. But like a weary child he was starting to show signs of passive aggressive boredom. Exaggerated yawns, fake snoring, even humming through his crocodilian teeth. Sam could almost hear the incessant cries of Are we there yet?

  “Alright, I get it. I’ve got no way to entertain you. Just try to calm—”

  Nedry froze. A butterfly flapped by. The dinosaur zeroed in…

  “No…don’t do it…”

  It lowered its body. Prepared to pounce.

  “I’m warning you…”

  Too late. The creature scampered toward the escaping insect, its teeth bared.

  “Great!” Sam gave chase, tripping as he climbed up a dune. He found Nedry at the summit, chewing on the unlucky morsel’s wings. “I told you not to—”

  He was interrupted by a deafening hoot like the song of a nearby whale.

  Across the infinite plains of rippling sand, a group of colossal animals grazed nearby. The creatures’ elephant-like bodies were eighty feet long apiece, standing fifty feet off the desert floor on six powerful legs each bent at a single joint. Flexible, leathery trunks hung from the front of their bodies, burrowing for food. There were no eyes, no ears and no mouths. They probably didn’t need them.

  “What in the world are those things…? Sand whales?”

  The monolithic beasts’ tails playfully whipped around in the hot wind. They paid their observers no mind, lazily thundering about the landscape. They used their trunks like trumpets, singing to each other, letting out honks of different lengths and pitches. Communication. The alien sight was strangely beautiful. T
he sheer immensity of the creatures made Sam feel utterly insignificant. It wouldn’t have taken much to become a grease stain on the bottom of one of the animals’ gigantic paws or a tiny snack that wouldn’t have even registered as an appetizer.

  Nedry growled and squinted with determination.

  Sam smirked. “Like you’re actually going to do something.”

  The lizard gave him a Watch me look and gently started tiptoeing down the hill with predatory hunger in his eyes…right as the earth started shaking and he leapt like a trembling coward into Sam’s arms.

  “This has been happening a lot lately…”

  Nedry buried his head in his jacket. The sand whales started panicking. Their hollers became more violent and anxious. There was pandemonium as they spread out as fast as their slow legs could carry them.

  The vibration moved past the hill and onto the plain. It seemed to chase one of the younger members of the herd, which walked with a limp. In one great burst, the ground exploded beneath the titan’s body as it let out a powerful cry for help and was instantly engulfed by a swell of powder and dirt. When the smoke cleared, all that remained was a bottomless crater the size of a parking lot.

  There was a silence. The herd of whales continued its escape, vanishing over the distant vista. Nedry was tense. He poked his head out to get a look…

  A booming belch echoed from the void in the earth. Something was thrown from the hole and soared overhead. Sam and Nedry ducked as the bus-sized projectile landed with a crackling thud in the road. It was white with dark splotches, covered in pinkish slime and glazed over with saliva.

  A bone. With ragged bits of fresh meat still hanging off in slimy strands, threads of mucus flapping in the breeze.

  “Well…that’s interesting.”

  The landscape buckled. The whales started fleeing again. They were being chased by something enormous tunneling its way through the desert, which kicked up immense trails of sand as it moved.

  “Let’s, uh, let’s get going…” He carried Nedry back down to the highway. In the distance he could hear another wail of pain, then another burp, and finally had to dive out of the way as another moist leg bone fell from the sky, juices splashing onto his clothes.