Freedom: A Futuristic Fantasy

by Jim Proctor

  “As I said, you can put that knife away. You might not get another warning,” Angus said.

  Venandi got slowly to his feet, not wanting to make any sudden moves. Reluctantly, he slipped his dagger into its sheath.

  “Come inside. We’ll sit and talk a bit. Do you want a beer?” Angus asked.

  Without waiting for an answer, Angus turned and vanished into the gloom of the living room. Fluffy eyed Venandi for a moment, and then turned and followed Angus. Venandi cautiously stepped to the doorway and peered inside. The only light was the evening sun that filtered through the trees and trickled in through the westward-facing windows. He had come a long way through too many perils to back out now. He stepped inside.

  Angus emerged from a doorway at the back of the room carrying two bottles. The small man climbed into a chair by the fireplace. He motioned for Venandi to join him. The bounty hunter cautiously crossed the room, keeping a respectful distance from the cat, and sat in the adjacent chair. The wizard handed him a beer.

  “I assume the Black Witch is paying you well to find this thing you seek,” Angus said.

  Venandi shrugged. “It certainly seemed that way when I took the job all those months ago. Now, I doubt I’ll turn a profit. Profit or not, you don’t back out of a deal with the Black Witch.”

  “And if you don’t get the cumulus, what then?” Angus asked.

  “Then I am to take you to the witch,” Venandi said.

  Angus took a mouthful of beer and swallowed. He smiled. “Then I guess we’ll be on our way after we finish our beer.”

  Venandi reached for his dagger, but he stopped when he heard the hiss by his right elbow. Looking over, the black cat was standing next to his chair, chin resting on the armrest.

  Angus nodded. “I told you your dagger would not be necessary, and I advise you not to reach for it again if you’d like to finish your life with the same number of limbs you started it with.”

  The bounty hunter slowly moved his hand away from the dagger.

  “Venandi, I cannot give you the cumulus,” Angus said.

  His guest took a mouthful of beer and nodded. “Then I guess we’ll be on our way after we finish our beer. Where is your airship?”

  “In a hangar,” the wizard said.

  “There is no hangar on this island,” Venandi said.

  “That is true,” Angus said, relying on strict linguistic honesty—his hanger was in the island, not on it.

  “Then how did you get here?” Venandi asked.

  Angus smiled. “I flew here.” More strict linguistic honesty.

  “She said you were a wizard. I suppose this line of questioning will only lead me in circles,” Venandi said.

  Angus smiled and took a swig of beer. “What else did she say about me?”

  “She said you would not do anything to harm me,” Venandi said.

  “She was correct on both counts,” Angus replied.

  “So, if I try to force you to go to Terrania, you’re not going to turn me into a rock, or something?”

  Angus laughed. “No, I would not do such a thing. It goes against my training and all that I stand for. No, Venandi, you have nothing to fear from me.”

  “Then you’ll come willingly?”

  “Young man, I have been hiding, and sometimes running, from her hired hands for centuries. I have done so for her benefit more than for my own. Enough is enough. I have more to live for than running from people like you,” Angus said.

  “I assume that would include the woman who usually sits in this chair,” Venandi said.

  Angus turned quickly to face him. “What do you know of her?”

  “This chair smells faintly of perfume. I don’t think it’s your brand.”

  Angus smiled. “Well done. Your powers of deduction must make you a formidable hunter.”

  Venandi was sure this was meant as an insult. “I’m good enough to find you. If you’re not going to give me the cumulus, then I would suggest we drink a toast to a safe trip and be on our way.”

  Angus raised his bottle, and Venandi tapped his bottle against it. “To a safe journey.”

  They both drained their bottles.

  “Can you climb a rope?” Venandi asked.

  “If the need arises, yes.”

  “What about your animals? Can they take care of themselves?” Venandi asked.

  Angus put his hands to his mouth and spoke softly in a language Venandi did not recognize. A moment later, he held his hands out in front of him and opened them. A tiny point of light glowed in the air above them for a moment and then faded. Climbing out of his chair, he said, “If you’ll give me a few minutes, I’ll feed them. My friend will come and take care of them later.”

  When Angus and Venandi reached the rock jetty, they waited until the airship came around the island. The bounty hunter waved, and the ship descended until it was hovering just ten meters above them. Venandi grabbed the rope and held it out for Angus. “You first.”

  The wizard smiled and then began to rise through the air. Venandi watched as he floated up and onto the deck of the airship. A moment later, he leaned over the railing and called down, “Do you need any assistance?”

  Venandi began climbing.

  Chapter 23

  Jazeen made a mental list of things she needed as she walked from the mall to the grocery store. Her first six-pack of beer had lasted nearly two weeks, and she wasn’t in any hurry to buy another. If beer was an acquired taste, she wasn’t acquiring it. Why anyone enjoyed drinking something that tasted like burnt grain was beyond her.

  A passerby turned and stared at Jazeen when she gasped suddenly and stopped in her tracks. Angus’ voice filled her mind, and it wasn’t passing through her ears. He spoke softly in Latin, and she struggled with some of the words. She had studied Latin as a written language. Nobody alive… aside from Angus, she corrected herself… knew what Latin sounded like. Still, the meaning was clear enough—Fluffy and Occisor needed her. Angus must be in trouble. She broke into a run toward her hotel.

  Entering the lobby, she ran past the elevator and took the steps two at a time to the second floor. She fumbled with her key card for a moment, and finally got her door open. Quickly, she changed out of her work clothes and into jeans and a T-shirt. Grabbing her overnight bag, she stuffed it with clothes and a few other necessities before dashing out of the room.

  On her way to the stairs, she slowed. Angus hadn’t said so, but somehow, she knew he would not be waiting for her in the field. She would need to get to his island on her own. She remembered standing on the island’s eastern shore while Angus explained how she could land a boat there. At the time, she had filed it away as useless information, given the fact she didn’t own a boat. Had he known that this situation would arise?

  Down the steps she bounded, her mind racing. She needed transportation to the South Sea. That wasn’t a problem. There was a bus that made the trip daily. However, once there, she would need a boat. She had never driven a boat and realized this was not the time to learn. The waters of the South Sea could be rough at times. Threading a boat between the rocks would be risky even for an experienced boater. She couldn’t hire someone to take her to the island and expose Angus’ secrets. Besides, she would never convince someone to drive their boat through the very real-looking holographic rocks.

  She suddenly remembered Terrin telling her that his family had a boat. He had driven it on many occasions, he had said. His father even let him take it to the lake by himself a few times. She wasn’t sure if he would help, but he was all she had at the moment. Exiting the hotel, she set off for Terrin’s house.

  As she walked down his street, her heart sank. The family car was gone. She rushed to the door and knocked frantically. To her relief, Terrin opened the door.

  “Jaz… what are you doing here?” he asked.

  “I need your help! I think a friend of mine is in trouble, and I need to get to his house,” she said.

  “So, why are you here?” he said coldly
.

  “Terrin, please! I need to get to the South Sea coast, and I need a boat to reach his island.”

  “Are you serious? That’s hours away by car. It would be dark by the time we got there, and the South Sea is not a place to be boating in the dark,” he said.

  “Please, his life may be in danger. I have to get there, and I don’t know who else to turn to,” she pleaded.

  “Look, if your friend is in danger, call the police,” Terrin said as he began to close the door.

  “Terrin, please!” she yelled as she pushed the door back. “I need your help!”

  “Jaz… I can give you a ride to the bus depot or the train station. I’m sure you can hire someone with a boat to take you to this island,” he said.

  “I can’t do that. I can’t trust anyone else to go to his island,” she said. “I trust you, though.”

  He stared at her for a while. Finally, he said, “My parents are going to freak out when they get home and find me and the boat gone.”

  “You mean you’ll take me?” she asked.

  “Help me hitch the boat to my truck. My parents went out to dinner, and we need to be long gone before they get home,” he said.

  Jazeen threw her arms around him. “Thank you! Thank you!”

  Terrin backed his truck into the driveway while Jazeen guided him. She threw her overnight bag into the cab while Terrin hitched the trailer to his truck. Moments later, they pulled out of the driveway.

  “Thank you, Terrin. I don’t know what I would have done if you had refused to help,” she said.

  “My parents are going to kill me, and that’s assuming I bring the boat back undamaged. If I so much as scratch my dad’s boat, they’ll do worse than kill me.”

  “We’ll be careful,” she said.

  “Hey, do you have money for gas? I’ve only got a quarter tank, and we have a long drive ahead of us.”

  “I’ll buy you as much gas as you need,” she said dismissively.

  “Good,” he said, “because we’ll need to put gas in the boat, too. Where, exactly, are we going?”

  “I told you, we’re going to the South Sea,” she said.

  Terrin shook his head. “What town are we going to? We’ll need to find a marina to use their boat ramp.”

  Jazeen pulled out her phone and opened the map. After a while, she said, “There’s a marina in Haversham that we can probably use.”

  “Okay. You give me directions as we go, and let’s hope they’re still open when we get there,” Terrin said. “We’ll get on the freeway and stop in Cloverly for gas. I don’t want to risk my parents seeing us at a gas station here in town.”

  The pair drove on in silence for some time. Reaching the freeway, Terrin headed south.

  “How’s Serna?” Jazeen asked.

  “I haven’t spoken to Serna since that day we found you on my platform,” he said.

  “Oh. So, you two aren’t dating?” she asked.

  “That was our first and last date,” he said.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to come between you two. I only went up to the platform to get back my letter.”

  “What did it say?” he asked.

  “My letter? Oh… it’s a long story,” she said.

  “We have hours of driving ahead of us,” he said.

  “On my last day at school, I sent you that email about meeting a new friend. Well, Mr. Green caught me typing, and I couldn’t finish telling you about him. In my letter, I explained how he was just a friend,” she said.

  When she didn’t go on, he asked, “That’s it? That’s your long story?”

  “There was more. I said… never mind. It wasn’t anything important.”

  “So you climbed up to my platform to retrieve it because it wasn’t anything important?” he said.

  “I said that I loved you, and you were the only one for me,” she said softly. “Then, when I found out that you and Serna… anyway, I went back, hoping you hadn’t found it.”

  “Because you didn’t mean what you wrote,” he said.

  “Because I knew you were with Serna, and I didn’t want to screw that up for you,” she said.

  “I wasn’t with Serna,” he protested.

  “Oh, please. Gailen told me how Serna was practically climbing all over you in the lunchroom, and you were kissing her,” Jazeen said. “What would you have done that night if I hadn’t been on your platform when you two climbed up?”

  “We were going to watch the stars,” Terrin said.

  Jazeen chuckled. “With Serna? She was all over you in the crowded lunchroom. She didn’t climb up to your platform to watch the stars, you idiot.”

  “Really? You think she was going to… with me?” he asked.

  “Are you kidding? Serna? She was one of my best friends. She told me about everything and everyone she did. Maybe you were hoping to get to first base with her that night, but trust me, if I hadn’t been there, she would have let you run all the bases and slide into home plate,” Jazeen said.

  Terrin stared ahead, an expression of wonder on his face. Jazeen knew he was replaying that night in his mind, imagining what might have happened if she hadn’t been there.

  His imagination ran its course, and he said, “Thanks a bunch for screwing that up!”

  Jazeen punched him on the shoulder. “You are such a jerk!”

  They rode on in silence until they reached the exit for Cloverly about thirty minutes later. Terrin pulled into a gas station and climbed out. Jazeen got out. She swiped her payment card through the pump, waiting as Terrin first filled his truck and then filled the boat’s two tanks. Wordlessly, they climbed into the truck and got back onto the freeway.

  Jazeen stared through the passenger’s side window, unwilling to look at Terrin. He stared straight ahead, wordlessly watching as the kilometers ticked by. The sun sank behind the trees, and Terrin turned on the truck’s lights as they rode on in anger-fueled silence.

  Three hours later, they stopped at a burger joint and grabbed dinner to eat in the truck while they continued their trip.

  It was well past nine o’clock when they reached the marina in Haversham. The office was dark, and a chain hung across the boat ramp. Terrin parked his truck and shut off the engine. Reclining his seat, he closed his eyes.

  “What are you doing?” Jazeen asked.

  Without opening his eyes, he said, “I’m going to sleep. The marina is closed. We can’t put the boat into the water until morning.”

  “We can go around the chain, can’t we?” she asked angrily.

  “Yes, we could if we wanted to get arrested for trespassing.”

  “The place is deserted. Who will know?” she asked.

  Terrin sighed. “Listen, even if I put the boat into the water, we couldn’t go looking for your friend’s island until morning. Taking a six-meter long skiff out into the South Sea is risky enough in broad daylight. I’m not doing it in the dark.”

  “But my friend—” she began.

  “We can’t save your friend if we drown. Get some sleep. We’ll go to his island in the morning. And now, if you’ll be quiet and let me sleep, I plan to dream about sliding into home plate.”

  “You are such a jerk,” she said again as she reclined her seat and closed her eyes.

  “I’m a jerk? Really? My parents got home from dinner hours ago to find me and their boat missing. They probably drove up to the lake to look for my truck. Maybe they’ve even called the police by now. They’re probably worried sick. And when they wake up in the morning, assuming they sleep at all, I still won’t be there. In fact, by the time I drop you on your friend’s island, come back here and load the boat onto the trailer, and drive home, it’ll probably be the day after tomorrow. My parents are going to ground me for the rest of the school year, and they’ll take my truck keys, too. I didn’t have to do this, you ungrateful… never mind. Just go to sleep!”

  Jazeen was quiet for a while. Finally, she asked, “Why did you do it?”

>   “Go to sleep,” he said softly.

  “Why did you do this for me, Terrin?”

  “Because I used to love you,” he said.

  * * * *

  Jazeen was awakened by the sound of a car door closing. Orange light tinted the sky. Rubbing her eyes and stifling a yawn, she sat up and looked around. A car was parked next to the marina office, and a man was fiddling with his keys at the office door. She shook Terrin gently.

  “Wake up. The marina is open,” she said.

  Terrin sat up and raised his seatback.

  “Let’s go pay the ramp fee and get the boat into the water, then,” he said.

  The pair walked into the marina office. The man was sitting behind a desk, flipping through a ledger.

  “We don’t open until eight,” the man said.

  “I’m sorry. I just want to put my boat into the water. Can I use the ramp?” Terrin asked.

  The man looked at the clock. “Sure, why not. It’s twenty bucks, cash.”

  Jazeen took out her wallet and handed the man a twenty. He folded it and slipped it into his pocket as he stood and walked to the door.

  “Go get your boat. I’ll unchain the ramp,” the man said.

  Terrin ran to his truck. A moment later, he was backing it down the ramp. Stopping before the boat reached the water, he got out and began undoing the straps that held the boat to the trailer. Then, to Jazeen’s surprise, he climbed into the boat.

  “Get in my truck,” he said to her. “Back down slowly until I tell you to stop. Once I get the boat away from the trailer, pull it back up and park it where we were earlier.”

  “I’ve never driven before, Terrin,” she said.

  Terrin looked to the marina operator. He shrugged and climbed into the truck. Jazeen ran to the passenger’s door. She grabbed her overnight bag and threw it into the boat. The marina man backed the truck down the ramp, and as the trailer entered the water, the boat floated free. Terrin started the engine and backed away. The man drove the truck to the lot and parked it. When he returned, he tossed the keys to Jazeen.

  “It’s all locked up. Enjoy your trip,” he said.

  “Thank you,” she said as the man went back into the office and closed the door.