by Dan Glover
She knew Lily was Nate's first love... the mother of his first child. If the two of them rekindled that old passion, Ginger reckoned Nate would leave both his wives and even his family here in Toulon to renew his marriage with Lily of the Lake.
She imagined them swimming together even now, in the way she had watched them do during past trips to Lake Baikal. It had always enthralled her to witness them deep beneath the surface twirling around each other. Now the thought made her want to vomit.
"We're going to lose him, aren't we, darling Ginger."
Amanda had always echoed her own feelings when it came to Nate so it didn’t surprise her when the girl approached her in the kitchen with a mournful tone echoing in her voice and a tear lingering upon her cheek.
"No, sweet Amanda... he loves us both far too much to break our hearts."
She could hear the uncomfortable fluttering in her own voice, however... the one that always arose when she tried to sugarcoat the truth. When she put a hand out to hold Amanda's, she saw the trembling in it and so she rested her elbow on the table to lessen the effect.
"I knew he was going to leave us the minute he decided to fly to old America. There was no real reason for him to go. Lady Lily has been off on her own for centuries now. She was in no real danger there. Nate just wanted to play the part of the knight in shining armor riding to the aid of a damsel in distress."
Ginger knew Amanda was right. She had tried to dissuade Nate from leaving Toulon Castle but he was adamant about going.
"If not for Lady Lily, none of us would be here, darling Ginger. She's in trouble now and she needs me. I'm not forsaking her. As soon as we're able to get the anti-gravity craft functioning properly, I have to go."
"I'm your wife and I need you too, my precious Nate. You going to old America will only serve to quicken your death. Lily has been on her own long enough that she knows how to take care of herself. Leave her to her own devices. Stay with us."
He had pulled away from her with a look in his eyes she had never seen before. She knew that there were problems with the flying machine he'd been working on with Pete and that unless they perfected it, a flight to old America in a plane would be out of the question. There would be no safe place to land a jet and no way to refuel it for the return trip.
A day later, Ena showed up unlooked for. Ginger assumed she had come to Toulon for the same purpose... to find a way to get to old America. She was not prepared to see Kāne again, however.
"What is he doing here?"
The man had the gall to enter the kitchen as if he belonged there. He sat down while Ena prepared food for him. As always, he ate with his fingers, greedily, as if famished. Rather than risking a confrontation, she waited until Ena had fed him at which point he got up without nary a thank you and walked back outside.
"He was hungry, darling Ginger. Did I do wrong by offering him something to eat?"
"Did he ask about his son?"
"I'm sorry, sweet Ginger, but no he did not. He is different than human males. He lives in the moment. Once it is passed, he does not recall anything of it."
"Are you saying he doesn’t even know he's a father, my precious Ena?"
"He reads my thoughts so he knows I am his daughter. Otherwise he wouldn’t even remember me."
Ginger thought it was a convenient ruse to do as he pleased. Anyone could claim amnesia, go off on their own, and start a new life. Still, Ena's explanation served to make clearer Kāne's dalliance with Mindy right under her nose as well as him taking up with Lily again.
If what Ena said was true, Kāne was doomed to wander the earth forever living in the moment, never creating any old friendships, never discovering what it meant to be in a relationship with a woman who loved him.
She remembered their time together as a great awakening. She had never been in love before. Men among the People were non-existent and women did nothing for her. Kāne had seemed a rock, solid and real. She had given herself to him unreservedly.
When she became pregnant, she heard the rumors. Everyone knew the People and those of the Lake could not produce offspring. She swore to everyone she talked to that she had been faithful to Kāne but all she received in return were snickers of disbelief.
When Joshua was born with traits of both species, she thought that would prove that she had been telling the truth. But Kāne left her anyway, and for her own mother. Now she felt as if she was losing Nate too.
"Damn all the Lake people."
"Did you say something, sweet Ginger?"
She hadn’t realized Ena was still in the kitchen pantry putting away food. Embarrassed at revealing feelings better left silent she wondered if a lie might suffice instead of the truth.
"I'm feeling frustrated with life, my precious Ena. It has nothing to do with you or your Father, however. I'm sorry if I seem out of sorts."
"I know it can be difficult at best being around a male of the Lake. The Ladies told me how unsettling it was for them too. The men of their species are nothing like human males or the hybrids. They are boisterous, obnoxious, and pretentious... and that is their finer qualities. They leave child rearing to the females as well as anything that has to do with housekeeping.
"My patience has been tried many times with the way Father conducts himself. When he left for old Africa he never said a word. He forgot about me the moment we parted. At first it bothered me but then I realized that is his nature. He cannot help how he is. In a sense he should be pitied rather than reviled."
Ena was gone now flying back to old America in search of her own husband and Kāne gone to wherever he had chosen to travel. Ginger thought how if he was still here at Toulon Castle she might go to give herself to him once again just to spite Nate.
Chapter 75—Cows
There was a building sticking up out of a sand dune like a half-buried bone.
After walking for two days up one dune and down another they were ready to give up on ever finding anything of substance left in the world when they topped a rise and there it was.
The structure was bleached white in the midday sunshine and so bright that it hurt his eyes to look at it for too long. Behind it sat another building and then another. They had finally found old New York City, or at least that was his hope.
He knew from his reading that there were many cities on the eastern coast of old North America and for all he knew this could be a different one than what they'd been searching for.
"We might be able to find food and water inside, Alpin. Let's hurry if we can."
Alpin knew they could go without food for weeks but thirst had become a raging problem over the last twenty four hours. He was so weak though he doubted he could pick up his pace even if he wanted to.
"Remember that story you told me about the bull and his son standing on a hill looking down on a pasture full of cows, father?"
"Not right off hand, Alpin... why, what does that have to do with getting to that building as quickly as we can?"
"The son said to the father bull... look there, father... let's run down the hill and fuck us one of them cows."
"And the father said... let's walk down there, son, and fuck them all. I understand now, Alpin, and you're right. Let's take our time. If we exhaust our strength and discover there are no supplies in that building, we might not make it to the next one."
Traveling through the wasteland of sand and dust had robbed him of not only most of the moisture in his body but his musculature as well. He felt like a stick man, skinny and weak. His clothes hung off his frame as if he was a child wearing an adult shirt and pants.
Each step had become a struggle. Sometimes he sank up to his knees making it nearly impossible to go on yet just when he felt as if he had to give up they would come to a firmer patch where walking was easier.
He knew his father was struggling too but the man never once complained. They had taken many trips together, found themselves in some desperate situations, but this time it seemed as if they had gotten in a deeper hole t
han they could get out of. If that building didn’t contain something to drink, they would be in serious straits.
The joke suddenly seemed hysterical. Though he had heard it centuries ago, he hadn’t thought about it in ages. When his father had advised they hurry, the image of an old bull talking to his young son came flooding into his memory.
He hadn’t the strength to laugh out loud but the humorous vision in his mind served to give him the gumption to go on even when he felt like dropping down and going to sleep. Looking up, the white building seemed just as far away as it had an hour ago. They were making no headway at all.
"I have to rest a moment, Alpin. Go ahead without me."
The voice came over his shoulder. Looking behind him, he saw his father bent over with hands on knees breathing heavily. They'd come too far together to leave him behind now. With his last strength Alpin walked back to him.
"Come on, old man... we've got a ways to go before we can rest."
Taking his father by the arm to attempt to lead him on, the man suddenly collapsed into the sand. It was over. It appeared they were not going any farther today.
"What did the bull say to his son, father?"
"Let's walk down there and fuck them all."
"Well, come on, old man... get up off your ass and let's go."
Maon lay completely still scarcely seeming to breathe... finally he moved his shoulders, got to his knees, and then to his feet. He staggered one step, and then another. Each time Alpin thought he was ready to fall again, his father managed to get a foot out to keep upright.
As the daylight began to wane, the building suddenly leaped up out of the sand right in front of them as Alpin could see dunes drifting through looked to be broken windows and open doors on the lowest level but higher up the building seemed intact.
The building had a surreal tilt to it like an old tower in Italy he had once visited with his Grandfather Nate. Alpin thought how it might only take a high wind to topple the entire edifice onto its side.
"It was once called the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Alpin. When the tower was built, it stood straight, but over time the foundation on one side began giving way. I'm surprised the tower is still standing."
Where was Grandfather Nate now? Had he given up on ever finding them? Or had he met with trouble too? The man had always exuded such power that Alpin couldn’t imagine him succumbing to anything yet he knew Grandfather Nate had his weaknesses too, just like anyone.
As they had walked through the endless desert Alpin kept looking up at the sky scanning the horizon for a sign of movement but even the few clouds were still as stone and not a bird could be seen anywhere. Now that they were close to the white building he saw what looked to be crows perched upon the high ledge running around the summit.
The birds seemed happy to have found a solid spot upon which to rest too. He wondered how far they had flown to reach this isolated place... if they too had all but given up hope when they finally found a place to rest, their resources exhausted and only thirst driving them on.
Birds meant water.
Alpin couldn’t remember who told him that—perhaps it was Grandfather Nate on one of their many sea journeys together—but the thought gladdened his heart as it lent him the strength to help his father over the last hundred meters of the sickening sand.
His throat felt like sandpaper while his tongue had swollen so large it felt as if it was lolling out of his mouth. Alpin had been thirsty a time or two during his life but never like he was now... the feeling had gone past the desire for something to drink and morphed into a pain he could feel in each and every cell of his body as they cried out for water.
He understood viscerally that if they could find nothing to drink in the building ahead of them that they were done. Alpin was certain his father hadn’t the strength to go on and neither did he. Still, it seemed better to die inside a man-made structure than in the horrible wasteland of endless sand through which they had trudged for days.
Apparently the building was buried under a good deal of sand since there were no doors as he had thought... instead, the expansive windows were obviously made to look out over the surrounding landscape that once existed but was now deep underground like the old architectural ruins they had visited in old Italy and other places throughout old Europe. Stumbling through one of the broken open windows they scouted the rooms for something, anything to drink, but failed to find it.
"Let's go upstairs, Alpin. I read that lots of these old skyscrapers had water reservoirs on their rooftops."
Though there were signs pointing to the elevators, it was more than a stretch to expect them to work. Finally they found the stairwell. Making their way up the stairs, Alpin blinked his eyes in surprise. There was a body of a man lying on the second landing they came too, and what was more incredible, it was breathing.
Chapter 7 6—Choices
He couldn’t understand why the sea bitch recruited him to go along.
She didn’t give him a choice. When he tried to walk away from her, she took him by the collar, dragged him to the flying machine, and parked his ass in the passenger seat while she strapped him in.
"You're coming with me, Micah."
Up to that moment Micah had been enjoying the afternoon sun shining down on his nearly naked body. He'd always been shy at exposing himself but that no longer concerned him. His muscles had become firm and taut—his skin no longer sallow—and his body yearned to feel the breeze upon it.
"I don’t want to go. I don’t even know who you are."
He'd seen the girl around Toulon Castle but the man she accompanied most times frightened him. He looked feral and those black eyes—there were demons hiding there—when they settled upon him Micah felt petrified, as if his very thoughts were being pilfered from his mind.
"You know who I am. I'm Ena and I don’t care if you want to go or not. You're coming with me. I don’t know my way around old New York City and you do."
"We're going to old America?"
"Of course we are. Karen told me that you're a genius but I'm starting to doubt it. I'm looking for my husband. If you hadn’t snatched Lily away he never would have gone there looking for her. It's your fault. And you better hope we find him alive."
"Why don't you take that man along who you are with all the time? I can't help you."
"That man is my Father and he's still recovering from nearly being killed when that nest of yours exploded. He'd gladly go but he needs to heal first. You, on the other hand, are healthy and fit and you know the way."
"We'll die over there."
"Then we'll die."
She was insane, clinically insane. He was certain of it. Perhaps if he humored her she might take her eyes off him long enough that he could make an escape.
All of a sudden they were miles high yet he felt no motion, no force of gravity pressing him back in the seat. His intellect now piqued, he watched as Ena manipulated a globe that seemed to hover just above some sort of control panel. A simple touch to the globe sent the machine hurtling across the sky at what seemed an impossible speed.
The ocean below was just a blur. Having crossed the sea in the same type of craft before in just a few minutes, he had no time to become familiar with the machine's intricacies... plus he had been sequestered in a back seat that time. Now he had full view of the machinations taking place.
"Who built this machine?"
"Grandfather Nate put it together along with help from Pete. It took them two hundred years to come up with the design. I helped to put a few finishing touches on it."
"How does it work?"
"A warp bubble is created by energizing the four rotating pillars at a specific frequency. By using this device that looks like a globe the bubble is manipulated in the direction we wish to travel. We are pulled along rather than propelled.
"That isn’t quite right. When I saw the machine that Nate and Pete designed I realized even though it might well generate a warp field, without an alternate field ther
e would be no way to effect travel. So I added this second globe.
"We use it to create a wormhole between the larger field and this smaller one. By manipulating the strength of that entanglement we are able to take advantage of tiny ripples in the space-time continuum arising as a result of the wormhole."
"How fast does it go, Ena?"
"Speed has no meaning when we're within the warp bubble, darling Micah. There's no way of measuring it since we're effectively in an alternate universe."
"Can you use it to travel into outer space?"
"We haven’t tested that as yet, sweet Micah... but theoretically, yes. There is no reason why we couldn’t travel to other star systems with this machine."
"It will exceed the speed of light?"
"We don't know."
"According to the theory of relativity... oh, wait... since we're in an alternate universe the limitation imposed by relativity has no meaning. We'd need an entirely new set of equations to see what our limitations are, wouldn’t we, Ena."
"We're not sure any of our mathematical equations will work in the alternate universe, precious Micah. In a sense, space as we know it folds into itself enabling us to travel long distances in as short a way as possible. We are essentially standing still while space as we know it warps around us."
"That doesn’t seem possible, Ena. I see the world moving below us."
"Exactly... the world as we know it is moving. We are standing still."
Micah wasn’t used to talking to anyone who exceeded his own intelligence and it was clear he was in the presence of someone who did. Ena seemed like an ordinary girl though of course she was so attractive it made him want to stutter.
He sensed what she was telling him had been dumbed down by several degrees to make it more palatable to his mind, even though he and the old world had considered himself a genius. In the past, such ploys would have angered him but he realized Ena was doing her best in an inexplicable situation.