He said, "Go! Everything we did was for nothing if you don’t go!"
Rising, she could barely see for the tears in her eyes, and clutching the keys and the knife, she stumbled toward the circle of light. Near the altar, she stumbled over the man’s outstretched arm and looking down, she saw him staring up with sightless eyes at the mist above. She glanced around as she reached the circle and saw that the mist was thinning. A beam of light pierced what remained of it and the light was the golden yellow of a normal sun. She turned to look back at Brian and saw that he had let his head drop to the stone and she wondered if he was dead already. Choking back tears, she spun and started a stumbling run through the circle. Once she was through, it began to close behind her as her feet found the tall grass of the pasture. She spun to look back and saw a black hole in the air closing to a pinpoint and then finally, there was nothing.
* * *
Two bearded men sat under an awning that was stretched in a grove of trees on a hill overlooking a wide, grassy plain. Behind them, a ring of standing stones cast their shadow across the top of the hill. They drank wine and watched thousands of people, owls and tiger-apes mingling on the plain below, their differences forgotten. So, too, were the differences between the two men forgotten as they laughed with each other.
He of the dark hair said, "Brother! I know you tired of the part you had to play but it was necessary!"
He of the dark blonde hair replied, "You didn’t have to have everybody hating you! Why was it necessary for so many to die at the last? Tell me again."
Sighing, the first said, "There had to be a blood sacrifice. The Precursor would have continued her journeys through the worlds and she was upsetting the plan. Her movements spurred her likenesses to likewise move through the worlds, creating anomalies at every turn! Her erstwhile paramour, coming to hate her for leaving him, also began traveling between worlds and his movements caused others of his kind to begin moving. The anomalies were beginning to pile up and I decided that it was best to trap one or more of them in this Timeless place to let the Precursor work out her psychic fears."
As a woman of the Bor-bon-meeg carried a tray containing another bottle of wine to place on the table between them, the light-haired one lifted an eyebrow at her. Extending a hand to place on her arm, he drew her to him, whispering into her ear. Giggling, she scurried away, her dark eyes casting back a promise for later.
He turned back to the dark one, asking, "Was it also necessary to let the incomparable Bon-tow-fut die?"
Turning to glance at the receding back of the nude woman, the dark man said, "She doesn’t seem to have suffered any ill effects because of it. I’m sure you will enjoy her as much now as you ever did. I know I will."
Suddenly frowning, the light one asked, "The man? Tell me of the man. He achieved a stature among the people to rival your own. Especially among the Bor-bon-meeg and the Uu-mor. Even the Soos-tow came to fear him; not because of his use of the Staff, but because of the way he would not be deterred from aiding the Precursor. His last act in life was to help her cross to his world."
Suddenly restive, the dark one shifted in his seat and frowned. After some time, he said, "The man had to die. There was no place for him here and he couldn’t return to his world. The Precursor of his kind was already there; as I foresaw. Having received the love of the first Precursor in full; he would not have been satisfied with anything less. He would not forget any of what happened here if he had returned to his world; the Universe would not have adjusted his psyche. That is why his body was laid in the crypt below the Circle, never to be raised. I could not allow him to live here. It would be too cruel to force him to live without her."
The other asked, "How then do you expect the Precursor to live without him? She remembers what has happened to her here. When I touched her mind, I saw that she bears strange forces within that will not let her forget."
Waving a hand, the dark one said, "That is artificial. She is not native to the world she traveled to and cannot travel to another; the Universe will adjust her in time. Just as it is adjusting the Precursor of his kind. She can’t get the ingredients for the potion she drank, and remember, Time moves in that world; she will metabolize the potion quickly and soon forget what she saw and did here. But her sojourn here has also made adjustments in her that the Universe cannot change."
Slightly disgruntled, the light one said, "Next time, you will be the evil brother."
Grinning, the dark one said, "It’s all in the perception, Brother."
* * *
Brian stopped on his way out the door. What was it he had been thinking? Something about Lisa. He wanted to hurt her? That couldn’t be possible. Lisa was dead, wasn’t she?
His mother called, "Don’t forget you have that appointment about the house!"
Puzzled for a moment longer, he turned his eyes back toward the kitchen where his mother was finishing the breakfast dishes. Why hadn’t he killed her? His hand froze in the act of pulling the door shut behind him and he was shocked by what he had just thought. Why would he ever want to kill his mother?
Shaking his head, he called, "It’s this afternoon! I’ve got to go to work to pick up a file! I’ll be back before the appointment."
Closing the door, he walked slowly across the porch and stopped on the top step. Where was his car? Had he put it in the shop for some reason? His hand went into his pocket and came out with a set of keys. Oh, the pickup. He tripped on down the steps, whistling a tune and walked around to the side of the house to the pickup. Like his car, it was old, but fully restored and looking like new. Sliding into the driver’s seat, he started the engine and smiled to himself as he listened to the quiet burble of the exhaust. No matter how fancy the new cars got, there was just nothing quite like the sound of a well-cared for engine in an old one. They could keep their computer aided ignition, suspension and traction devices; give him an old car and he’d have it running and looking like new in no time.
He frowned as he thought of going into the office today; Crowley would want him to stay for this or that and he still had today off work because of Lisa’s death. He knew Crowley meant well, but running a department also meant keeping an eye on the bottom line and Brian was new enough to be an unknown quantity. The old man seemed to like him, but still had a tendency to hover over him as though he wasn’t confident that Brian could handle the accounts that fell within his scope of responsibilities. As Brian thought of it, he imagined himself wringing the old man’s neck and was shocked again that he could think of something like that. He shook his head, thinking that Lisa’s death must have affected him more than he thought. But, was she dead? He didn’t remember killing her.
He broke out into a cold sweat and pulled the pickup over to the curb while he had a bout of the shakes. Of course he didn’t kill Lisa! She had died as a result of a freak accident! Hand shaking, he opened the glove compartment of the pickup and removed a pack of cigarettes that had mysteriously appeared there yesterday. Lighting one up, he blew smoke out the window and bent his head to the steering wheel, bumping it twice, gently. What was wrong with him? Where were all these thoughts of killing people coming from?
By the time he had finished the cigarette, he felt better and continued on to the office, making a quick trip upstairs and returning to the pickup without running into Mr. Crowley. Once back in the pickup, he wiped the sweat from the back of his neck and forehead and wondered how much trouble it would be to put an after-market a/c unit in the pickup. He thought that he would drive out to the pasture he and Lisa had spent so much time in; it would be cooler out there with the shade and the breeze that was blowing up. Craning his neck, he looked up into the sky at the dark clouds that gathered in the northwest; looked like a storm brewing.
* * *
Once the pinpoint of darkness was gone, she sat down in the grass and drove the knife into the ground with a ferocity born of her frustration and grief. The sun was so warm on her skin after so much time in the mist and darkness of th
at place that she lay back on the grass and drowsed for a while. When she awoke, the grief of losing Brian was still with her and she bit her lip. Here she was in his world without the ability to cross to another and all she could do was wait till the version of Brian from her world arrived. Of course he would try to kill her; that seemed to be his sole reason for living now.
Her lips twisting into a savage smile, she rose from the ground, noting that she had turned a little pink in the sun and moved to the trees with Brian’s car parked under them. The keys jingled as she let the ring hang from one finger. The top was down and while a thin layer of dust lay over everything, it seemed much nicer than the version of it that Brian had owned in her world. She inserted the key into the lock on the trunk and opened it, finding and removing the gym bag with his clothes in it. Slipping quickly into the shorts, she knotted the waistband to make them fit and slid the t-shirt over her head. Tossing the bag back into the trunk, she dropped the keys into the pocket of the shorts and padded around to the other side. She walked to the stream, finding his suit jacket lying on the grass; a twig with a leaf still attached lay on it and she brushed it off, lifting the jacket to her face and inhaling deeply. There was a hint of cologne on the material and she realized that she had smelled this same cologne on him when he came into her shop that first day.
Straightening, she slipped the jacket on, despite the fact that the sleeves hung past her fingertips and rolled them up before standing. She walked back to the car and slid into the driver’s seat, adjusting it to allow for her shorter stature. The key slipped into the ignition smoothly and with one twist, the big engine roared to life. Grabbing the shifter on the steering column, she moved it into gear and spun the wheel to turn the car toward the gate. The old car rolled smoothly over the beaten down, grass path that led to the gate and once there, she stopped, getting out to open the gate before pulling through. On the other side, she stopped again and went back to close it; there was no sense in calling attention to herself.
She turned out onto the road and began driving toward town. Where could she go? The shop. Of course. Why hadn’t she remembered it? She had clothes, money and a place to stay there. Her mind rebelled at glopping her face up with the heavy makeup she had used in her guise as a gypsy, but what else could she do? She would have to put a rinse on her hair to darken it again, too. Otherwise, people would recognize her as Lisa and there would be questions. And she couldn’t answer them; not and stay out of a mental ward, she couldn’t.
A pickup was approaching on the gravel road ahead of her and she instinctively moved over to the far right side of the road to make room for the other driver to pass. As it drew closer, she gazed idly at the other driver’s face and her heart began thumping in her chest as she recognized Brian. Not the Brian of this world, but the Brian of hers! She saw his mouth open behind the windshield as he also recognized her and thought she heard him shout something as they passed.
Pressing the accelerator to the floor, she was barely able to control the big car as the engine answered the demand made on it and leapt forward, throwing gravel to both sides as the tires dug in and spun in the loose rocks. In the rearview mirror, she saw Brian spin the pickup around, gravel flying in all directions as he hurried to catch her. Feeling real despair, she slowed just enough to fishtail around the next corner where the road met another section line and headed out toward the country instead of into town. Her hand sought the knife and she realized that she had left it sticking in the ground in the pasture. With her last defense gone, she tried to think of ways that she could protect herself against him. He was bigger and stronger than she, but he was probably half-mad with hate of her. Could she use that to her advantage? Maybe.
She remembered that there was a place where the road forked ahead just on the side of a hill and unless you went really slow, the slope and loose gravel would send you sliding over a short bluff. It wasn’t that big of a drop, but whatever you drove would be wrecked and if you were injured, you would spend hours or days at the bottom before anyone found you.
Reaching the hill, she looked in the mirror again and saw that Brian was perhaps a quarter of a mile behind her and gaining fast despite the big engine in the car. She didn’t know how big the engine was that he had in the pickup, but she knew that he was a better driver than she. The fork in the road came up too fast and she tried to steer through the curve but the slope caught her as the wheels began sliding through the gravel. There had never been a guardrail on the hill and she held her breath as the rear of the car slid around till she faced back the way she had come and the car went sailing off the side of the hill to drop fifteen feet to the ground below. In the bare few seconds the car was airborne, she hoped that it wouldn’t fall on its top and then the crashing sound of the undercarriage bottoming out on the ground seemed to deafen her. She felt her teeth slam together and with no seatbelt on, she was bounced up and out of the car, spinning crazily in the air to land several feet from the side of the car. The ground below the bluff sloped off at a steeper pitch and she felt herself rolling and sliding as she lost consciousness.
* * *
Brian tried to tell himself that he couldn’t have seen what he thought he had; but there was no denying facts! That was his car and that was Lisa driving it! How was that possible? Had the body he and her parents identified at the morgue been someone else? If it had been, where had Lisa been since then? This just didn’t make sense!
Though the pickup only had a six-cylinder engine, it was a big one and Lisa, though a good driver; was more accustomed to modern cars than she was to the relatively huge engine in his Olds. She drove a little sports car, but it didn’t have the raw power that the 425cid engine had. As he watched the big car fishtail on the gravel road, he became concerned for her safety; she was on the wrong road if she was going to drive that fast.
As the minutes ticked by, he gained on her bit by bit and saw her try to take the fork in the road at Compass Hill. He screamed something unintelligible as he watched her slide off the bluff and in his hurry to get to her, nearly slid off the road himself. When the pickup came to a sliding stop, he sat for several seconds, trying to catch his breath before he got out to go to her. As he passed the front of the pickup, he saw that one front wheel was on the very lip of the slope and he shuddered to think what would have happened if he hadn’t been able to stop. The pickup would have pancaked on top of the car and if she was still inside; she would have been crushed.
He slid down the weedy slope, grabbing small saplings that grew among the other brush, crushed and bent from the passage of the car. As he drew closer to the car, he saw that she wasn’t in it and wondered what had happened to her. Casting around in the weeds and brush, he spied a bare foot peeking out from under a bush and rushed to her.
Trickles of blood ran from her mouth and nose and he worried about internal injuries as he knelt beside her, feeling for a pulse. He finally found it; quick and thready and fumbled for his cell phone. Dialing 911, he waited an impossibly long time before someone answered and he gasped out details of what had happened to the dispatcher. He gave the location and assured the woman that Lisa had a pulse, but needed an ambulance as soon as they could get one there.
As she began asking questions he’d rather not answer, he hung up on her and rocked back onto his buttocks in the grass and weeds and simply sat staring at Lisa. There were so many questions he wanted to ask her but was unable to. He noted that she wore one of his suit jackets with his t-shirt and gym shorts under it and it seemed that she had nothing else on. He remembered her skin as being lightly tanned, but she seemed to be sunburned on the front of her body and palest white on the back, and that puzzled him, too. He couldn’t move her to examine her more closely but was sure that it was the case.
She seemed dirty besides that, with grime and blood that had dried and caked here and there and seemed ingrained into the skin; and her hair was dirtier than he had ever seen it. The top of her head was a mass of dirty, blonde braids while the bot
tom seemed to have been braided at one time but fallen out, matting here and there. Her feet were dirty enough to lead him to believe that she had been barefoot for a very long time, but when he carefully examined the bottom of one of them without moving her, he saw that there were no calluses at all. While he sat watching her, trying to resist moving her, the storm that had threatened for hours, finally broke. The gust front blew leaves and dust ahead of the rain and in seconds, he was cold and soaking wet. Removing his shirt, he draped it over the bush that stood above her to keep the rain off her. Nevertheless, she got wet and she shivered, aimlessly moving her hands in an attempt to cross her arms over her body. She muttered, "Damned mist."
After what seemed like hours, an ambulance drew up at the top of the bluff just behind his pickup, followed by a sheriff’s deputy’s car and four men made their way down to them in the rain with a stretcher. Brian was pushed aside as two of the men began doing EMT things to her and the deputy started to ask him questions. He answered them as best he could, but left out her identity; everyone in town knew about her accidental death. No good could come of people thinking that she had faked her death. Those questions and answers could come later; after she was awake to talk to them.
Once the ambulance was on its way back to town, followed by the deputy, Brian called Lisa’s parents and told them to meet him at the hospital without giving any particulars. The drive back to town in the storm was a long one and the unanswered questions that kept going through his head just made it seem that much longer.
* * *
Lisa awoke with a headache and pains all over. Her eyes didn’t want to focus in the dimly lit room for a few seconds and as she raised a hand to wipe her eyes, she saw that someone had stuck an IV into her arm. A machine connected to the IV buzzed and she saw that a device with a plunger-button on it was clipped to the sheet of her bed. Realizing that it was a ‘pain-pump’, she grasped it gratefully and pressed the button with her thumb. It was then that she saw Brian sitting by the wall a short distance from the bed and recognized the worry in his eyes. She began to say something and her words came out slurred. Of course, the pain medication. She dreamily pursed her lips at him in a mock kiss and felt something inside her try to scream at her to run. Knitting her brows, she closed her eyes and felt and knew nothing else for a very long time.
It Happens Every Day Page 20