by Oliver EADE
Gary untied Beetie whilst Mike, using the whip as a rope, bound Blinker, who still screamed, until the boy was secured like a trussed animal. He got dragged backwards by the same heavy, now fully recovered and equally happy to take orders from Mike. Blinker’s weasel-faced accomplice was quickly dealt with.
Once freed, the girl bearing his child flung her arms around Gary then pressed her face against his chest and sobbed. He held her close, all the time stroking her hair, but said nothing. Mike misinterpreted his friend’s silence as the calm before the storm.
“I was wrong, Gary! The baby’s yours. Sorry, Beetie… only I didn’t know what was happening back then. Had no idea God was…” He checked himself.
“Ahem!” exclaimed Arthry, tugging at his shackled wrists. “Haven’t you lot forgotten something?”
“Sure… right! But I didn’t think you’d need my help with those damn great biceps of yours!” Mike chuckled before releasing Arthry. “Hope you’ve got a gym in this new planet place to work out in, mate.”
Arthry caught sight of Caitlin staring in wonder. The child walked towards him, tenderly cradling the Paradise Mouse in cupped hands. Arthry crouched down, his grin broadening.
“You’re Mr Art’hry, aren’t you? Say hello to my animal, please,” the child said, her wide eyes fixed on the man.
“Hello, animal!”
“Can you t’hink of a name for him, Mr Art’hry? He’s a Paradise Mouse.”
“Let’s call him ‘London’, little girl. So we can take London with us, ay?”
“Do you hear dat, London? You’re coming wid us in de space-ship! How long will it take to get to de other world, Mr Art’hry?”
Arthry glanced at the attaché case on the ground.
“Once upon a time there lived a very clever man called God,” he said, slowly and deliberately, “and because of God it’ll take no time at all for the Belindaron to get to the other world. We’ll be entering a whole new realm of physics.”
Molly crossed herself.
“What’s physics, Mr Art’hry?”
“Everything, little one.”
Another quick sign of the cross from Molly.
“Look, Mr Art’hry! There’s a real Angelina!” Caitlin exclaimed pointing to the tearful blond girl nestled in Gary’s arms. “She’s got yellow hair too! I t’hink she looks like an angel girl!”
Seamus nodded.
“To be sure, she can’t be de Holy Virgin now she’s carryin’ Gary’s child, but ‘Angel Girl’ suits her fine!”
“Would you and London like to press the button together?” Arthry asked Caitlin. “To get lift off? Take us to Planeta Paradisa?”
“Is de new world really a paradise? Like heaven?”
Molly crossed herself again.
“You can decide for yourself when we get there, little one.”
“Caitlin!” the child said. “My name’s Caitlin. Da says it’s spelt funny, but dat doesn’t matter because I can’t spell.”
“We’ll soon change that, Caitlin, but right now come with me.”
Arthry picked up the case, and, with Caitlin and London, went over to the control desk where Blinker had been only minutes earlier. Embedded in the desk was the Pentatron tablet. Carefully, Arthry opened the case and removed a five-sided silver lid, God’s activation panel, which fitted over the Pentatron Tablet with cut-diamond precision. Immediately, the whole control desk was illuminated by an intense glow erupting from the Pentatron Tablet. A low-pitched rumbling sound was audible.
“Everyone into their seats, please. And keep clear of the windows!” ordered Arthry. “Whilst the DEC absorbs and transforms enough dark energy from out there to exit our solar system, it’ll be like the first few milliseconds after the big bang in reverse. The intensity of light outside would wipe out your retinas! Okay, folks? Ready to roll!”
He turned to the young couple, seemingly oblivious to others in their continuing fond embrace.
“Ahem! Three more seats here. One for Caitlin and one for each of you two. We’ll see everyone else again when we get out of the solar system.”
Beetie helped Caitlin with her strap before securing herself.
“I t’hink you really are an angel,” the child said to the older girl.
“Oh dear! I’ll have to mind what I say in your presence, won’t I?”
Beetie winked at Gary.
“Doesn’t London get his own seat?” Caitlin asked.
“You’re his seat, my little sweetheart!” replied Beetie. “Please tell him not to be scared. He looks terrified.”
“Don’t be frightened, London!”
Caitlin sat and watched the Pentatron tablet as coloured lights played patterns on their faces.
“Caitlin… please stay with Mummy!”
Molly was standing with Seamus in the doorway, refusing to leave the control room without her daughter. Seamus tugged at Molly’s arm.
“She’ll be fine, my dearest! Come now! We must find seats for ourselves.”
“I’m not goin’. I’ve had enough! Caitlin’s all I have now. I can’t bear to…”
Quickly, Beetie unfastened her belt and left her seat.
“Sit here by your little girl,” she said. “I already know how precious she must be to you!”
“Do you feel any kicking yet?” Gary asked. “Our very own child!”
“It’s only two days old, Mr Scientist!” She laid an arm across Gary’s shoulders and kissed his forehead... and in her beautiful face the boy saw a kaleidoscope of happiness, relief, wonder, uncertainty, love and, above all else, pride; the pride of a mother-to-be. “We’ll have to wait nine months! God told me,” she added before kissing him on the lips and leaving to join the others.
“Don’t worry about the baby,” Arthry said, reading Gary’s mind. “What to do’s all in God’s manual. We’ve been training people in the Retreat for everything we’re gonna possibly need. Why did you think they were all so busy over their computer screens? She’ll have her… now, what did you call them in the past… her midwife?” A slowly-broadening grin relaxed the tension in Gary’s face. “She’ll be fine!” Arthry reassured him.
“I can help wid de borning of de baby too,” offered Caitlin. “My Angelina’s having babies all de time!”
Gary and Arthry burst into laughter and Molly crossed herself yet again.
“Are you ready, now?” the big man asked the little Irish child, jokingly imitating her accent.
“Yes, Mr Art’hry!”
“Dat blue button there. Beside de t’hing dat’s glowing. You can show us de power a little child has in her finger. Press it!”
A small hand reached forward, hesitant, and a beaming little face looked up at Arthry.
“Shall I? Now?”
“After ten,” the man said.
A childish finger hovered over the button.
“Ten… nine… eight… seven…”
The child giggled and Arthry winked at her.
“six… five… four…”
Another burst of giggles.
“t’hree… two… one… LIFT OFF!”
Her finger pressed the button. The low-pitched sound issuing from the Pentatron tablet increased in pitch and intensity to a roar; the whole desk exploded into light and the light flashed along a strip crossing the floor, connecting the desk to the huge central pillar to which Beetie and Arthry had been strapped. It travelled up the pillar then fanned out across the vast dome of the Belindaron, turning the control room into a giant light bulb.
And as the sound gets louder and the light brighter, Gary thinks about that schoolboy who’d come across a pair of specs in Regent’s Park just two days back… a boy from a different world. His fingers feel the controls on the frame of the time-specs and find one that will trap time forever in a new and wonderful present. Press that, and on removing the specs he’ll never again see his parents, London or Planet Earth; press it, and there’ll be no further need for time-travel. He thinks of Beetie, of their unborn child, o
f Mike and of his new friends, Seamus and Molly, and he looks at little Caitlin, and sees in her excitement, as she strokes and comforts the little creature she named ‘London’, all the hopes for Mankind of the future: a new Mankind… and a new world.
He presses the control and places the time-specs carefully on the desk before him.
“Gary, God’s made a special room for you. Called the library. Full of all his books, his calculations… everything he’s ever done and anything else we could possibly need. He thought, with your interest in science…”
“Sure! I’ll enjoy browsing through all his stuff. Quite a guy, God!”
Gary detects the hint of a smile hovering on Arthry’s lips.
“Yeah, quite a guy!”
The Belindaron shudders slightly before going still. The noise diminuendos to a gentle hum, the brightness reduced to normal.
“Out of the solar system already!” announces Arthry. “Say bye-bye to the sun, Caitlin!”
“Bye-bye, sun!”
An image appears on the screen in front of them… a moving picture of mountains, a fast-flowing river, sparkling blue, high waterfalls and lush trees festooned with colourful flowers and heavy with fruits.
“That’s where we’re heading for! Planeta Paradisa. Where God’s linked the Belindaron to. Where it’s gonna start all over again. Are you ready to be our very first child, Caitlin?”
Grinning, Caitlin raises her small hand and Arthry high-fives with the girl.
Good reviews are important to a novel’s success. If you enjoyed this book, please be kind and leave a review wherever it was purchased.
Sincerely, Oliver Eade
The Author
Oliver Eade, born a Londoner and now an adopted Scot, retired from a career in hospital medicine thinking ‘feet up and watch the telly’, but this wasn’t to be. After waking up one night with a ghost story in his head, he took to writing adult short stories. Over forty have been published, several winning prizes. His first children’s book, Moon Rabbit, a magical journey to Mythological China (Oliver’s wife is Chinese), was published in 2009 (Delancey Press). It was a winner of the Writers’ and Artists’ 2007 New Novel Competition and long-listed for the Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize, 2008. The sequel, Monkey King’s Revenge, came out in 2011 and was a children’s genre finalist for the 2012 People’s Book Prize. Northwards, a young readers’ dark fantasy based in Texas was published in 2010 (Austin & Macauley). The Rainbow Animal is also set in North America where Oliver’s two eldest granddaughters live (Mauve Square 2012). His debut adult novel, A Single Petal, which won the Local Legend 2012 Spiritual Writing Competition, is set in Tang Dynasty China (Local Legend Press).
A member of the Society Of Authors, the Borders Writers Forum and the Society Of Medical Writers he was winner of the annual Wilfred Hopkins Prize for Creative Writing from 2007 to 2012; he was also the Society of Civil and Public Service Writers ‘Writer of the Year’ in 2010, and judge of children’s book reviews for the Heart of Hawick 2011 Children’s Book Award.
Although not confined to any particular genre, Oliver feels most comfortable in that magical space between reality and fantasy; the space into and out of which children slip so easily in their play; the place of dreams and myths and legends and deeply ingrained in many cultures across the globe.
In The Terminus Oliver returns to the city in which he was brought up; a city now changed beyond recognition from the drab post Word War II era and which in a post-apocalyptic time gives Mankind a second chance.
Website:
www.olivereade.co.uk
Blogs:
http://olivereade.blogspot.co.uk/,
http://runawaywheeliebin.blogspot.co.uk/
http://childrenaswriters.blogspot.co.uk/
I’d love to hear from you!
Contact: [email protected]
Novels by Oliver Eade also as e-books:
For young readers
Moon Rabbit: Stevie Scott from Peebles, Scotland befriends Maisie Wu, a new girl from China, when she when she gets teased. Early one morning he takes her tpo the river to see the ducklings, she falls, can’t swim andf he dives in to rescue her. They emerge in mythological China, but have to undertake a perilous mission before they can get back Pebles. A fun introduction to mythical Chinese beasts and legends.
Monkey King’s Revenge: Sequel to Moon Rabbit (available as print book only).
Northwards: Strong-minded Texan schoolgirl, Jenny Macnamara, is sent by Earth Mother on a journey to the high Arctic to save the world from a terrifying evil force.
The Rainbow Animal: Rachel takes her pet hamster on a birthday ride on strange-looking animal on a local mall carousel only to end up embroiled in a paint war between the colorwallies and dullabillies.
For adults
A Single Petal: A widowed village teacher in Tang Dynasty China links the death of his merchant friend with the disappearance of local Miao girls, endangering himself and his daughter as he digs more deeply into the mystery.
Plays:
The Gap: Staged in Scotland 2012, a one act surreal comedy about a dysfunctional Peacehaven family split apart when the earth divides into two along the Greenwich Meridian.
Sodden Flodden: Short one act play as part of a performance around the five hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Flodden, 2013.
Visit http://www.mauvesquare.com/ to view other books for adults, young adults and children now available from
Mauve Square publishing.
Table of Contents
Copyright
Chapter 1: Real Virtuality
Chapter 2: Beetie
Chapter 3: Teeth
Chapter 4: The Hatcheries
Chapter 5: Naked in Swiss Cottage
Chapter 6: A Boy from the Past
Chapter 7: Treachery
Chapter 8: To Believe or Not to Believe
Chapter 9: Stanmore Scientific Laboratories
Chapter 10: On the Run
Chapter 11: God
Chapter 12: God’s Plan…
Chapter 13: And God’s Baby
Chapter 14: An Old Score Settled
Chapter 15: Love Redeemed
Chapter 16: The Power of a Child
The Author
Novels by Oliver Eade also as e-books: