“Yeah, but just remind them, I can only keep this going for about five minutes.”
“Ok, but you remember; five minutes is the same as all eternity to them, and also the same as no time at all. Stand here, I’ll get them going.”
Shortly, several hundred more of the Time Flies appeared and they surrounded me, forming a kind of shield. Somehow I could feel that there was energy flowing in a network between them, and that the space between them was filled up with the energy, effectively creating an impenetrable barrier. “Whoa, that’s cool!” Marsh-dog raved, “It’s like you’re the world’s biggest, and ugliest, diamond!”
“Ok, calm down Robin,” I said, but I was also excited by what I was experiencing. “What happens now?”
“How should I know? I’ve never done this before. Just hang on, go for a ride.”
In the very next instant, I knew I was outside of the time stream; I could feel it. At precisely the same time, I was standing in my old living room, in our rustic, two-story house in Aurora, Colorado. It was just as Marsh-dog had described it; I could see the moments lined up, tiny slices of time, or more accurately they appeared to be layered one in front of the other, and I was in one of the layers; I stood in a single moment of an infinite number of moments. There, right in front of me, were my mom, dad, Ariel, and me, frozen in time, all sitting casually on our old couch with the scroll-y wooden arms that my mom loved so much, playing a board game. We did that sometimes. Everything was there, exactly as I remembered it. Well, then I really broke down. It took me a while to get myself under control, and luckily Time Flies don’t really relate to feelings, or they would have thought I had gone off the deep end. I said, “Would it be ok for me to see a little time pass?” and the Time Flies seemed to understand me; immediately, it was like the projector started up, and we were in the time stream. While they were in my brain they must have put in the same connection that they did with Marsh-dog so that I could communicate with them too, and I don’t even know binary.
“No cheating, dad!” Ariel scolded, and snatched some play money out of his hand.
“Hey, I stole that fair and square!” he joked. Ariel got up and chased him around the living room, and mom and I chortled. I remember this… I remember it like it just happened… this hurts too much, please, please take me back… and in an instant, we were back in the in-between with Marsh-dog. Immediately, the Time Flies disassembled around me and disappeared. I just didn’t care anymore, I fell to the ground and cried, and Marsh-dog patted me on the back awkwardly. I know he felt terrible because he was crying a little bit too; he probably just didn’t know what else to do.
A gloomy silence settled over us. I broke it by saying, “I’m glad I did that, but I don’t ever want to do it again. The next time I get a dumb idea like that, you need to stop me, ok?”
“Sure, I’ll stop you with my ghost powers. Nah, I know what you mean, dude. I’m just glad I didn’t do the same thing; you know, go see my parents. I wouldn’t want all my ghost friends to see me lose it. I’m the only one who saw you, and that’s old hat to me, I’ve seen you break down lots of times. Don’t worry, I won’t rat you out.”
We shared a brief smile. “Hey, I’m thinking about going to see my Aunt Martha. I just feel like I need to see someone related to me, and time is gonna run out on us if I don’t do it soon.”
Marsh-dog’s eyebrows knitted together, and as he cast his eyes down, he said, “If you feel like you need to do that before it’s too late, you should do it. Basically we got two years left, and I have a feeling things are going to get busier pretty soon. You’ll have to be careful, though. They almost got her before, and you don’t want to take a chance on having them succeed.”
“Yeah, I know. I was thinking about… I don’t know, what if I tell her everything, and see if I can get her to come here? If I leave her out there, I can’t protect her, but if she’ll come with me, at least we’d have a better chance. What are your thoughts?”
“I don’t know, man, seems a little risky… on the other hand, everything’s risky now, right? But suppose you tell her everything, and then she decides not to come with us. Then she’d be out there, knowing everything, and she’d be a sitting duck for The Others. They’d have her, and they’d have all our info.”
I leaned back and scratched my head to avoid tapping again. “Yeah, it’s a problem either way. I guess I’ll have to just play it by ear, see how things go. How about this: I won’t tell her anything unless I get the sense that she would be agreeable.”
“Yeah, I think that’s the way to go. Don’t tell her unless you’re sure, though.”
“Alright, I better get back to the apartment; I’ve been gone for quite a while. Marsh… I’m sorry, dude. Sorry for, you know, all the blubbering and stuff. This whole thing… how is any of this possible?”
“Don’t worry about it, dude, when all this is over we’ll have a good laugh. And yeah, Ol’ Flashy and his friends, that’s the craziest thing ever. Go ahead, I’ll talk to you later. Oh, and before you go and visit Aunt Martha, come and check with me just to make sure the plan is solid. In the meantime, I’ll talk to the Time Flies, see if I can convince them to at least help us out a little. Ok, see you.” Man, I don’t know what I would do without Marsh-dog…
Chapter 19
As I faded into the apartment, everyone was gathered around the kitchen table, even Pasquale, and they were eating… Kentucky Fried Chicken, complete with the mashed potatoes and biscuits. “Ferdie, my friend, I have never had this, what is? KFC! Is delicious, is best thing I ever taste!” gushed Pasquale.
Dude, you need to get out more often… I had been gone for over an hour, and I knew I would need to make up a story, as we had decided not to tell the group about the Time Flies, at least not yet. My fib included a story about Marsh-dog and I having a big debate regarding our potential plans to divide and conquer, and they seemed to buy it. “Please, Mr. Ferdie, you must sit and eat with us. Having all of us dining together, on this fine American cuisine, is a much more pleasant experience!” added Rafael, in his low, booming voice. Luckily, we had exactly six chairs, so I crowded in, sat down, and munched on a drumstick.
“So Pasquale, you’re feeling better?”
“Oh, yes, much better! Still a little weak; I need some help to walk, but I will be ok. Denise, she help me to walk in here, help me walk around the apartment. Thank you Denise!”
Denise blushed noticeably. I think she kind of likes Pasquale, the lucky dog…
“Oh, you’ll be fine in no time. Hey, Ferdie, check out my leg, almost completely healed.”
“What? It’s only been two days.”
Gabriella leaned in, adding, “Yes, Ferdie, angels can heal very quickly. During your absence, we have spoken extensively about the plan to divide our forces, and we have some thoughts about where we might go. Our first urge, of course, was to return to our earthly homes; Ling to Hong Kong, Rafael to Jamaica, Denise to New Mexico, and I to Sweden, traveling incognito and in a terrestrial way, so as to avoid attracting attention until it is desired. Of course, we are concerned about bringing focus on our earthly families, aside from Rafael, who has no earthly family; my apologies, Rafael.”
“Oh, not at all, Ms. Gabriella, it is quite alright.” He stood and bowed in his usual, flamboyant display.
“At any rate, our thought was perhaps we could visit our earthly families first, and then get as far away from them as we can, while still staying in the general region. That way, we would be relatively evenly spread around the globe. While all this is occurring, Pasquale will remain here to manage our home base and perhaps provide some logistical support; those details remain to be decided. Upon a predetermined signal, we will make ourselves as evident as possible to other supernatural beings. At that point, we became a little stuck on the best course of action. Denise and Rafael favor each of us dealing individually with whatever challenge may come our way, but Ling and I favor this strategy: whoever first encounters The Others will send a
signal, and all of us will converge on that location to hopefully capture, and if not possible, otherwise eliminate the individual threat. We would very much like to hear your thoughts on these options.”
I felt an urge to tap my head, but stopped myself; I’m getting a little better at that, I think… I wish Marsh-dog was here… he’d have some thoughts about what to do… I cleared my throat, which was suddenly dry, and said, “well, I can definitely understand wanting to take them on head-first, one on one. I feel like that too. And, I have no doubt you guys could tear them apart. You should have seen Denise in action; that was a sight to behold. At the same time, just think of the kind of information we could get if we were able to capture one of them; that could turn everything around. Plus, if all of us are there, it would be much safer. Suppose one of us gets ambushed by several of them or something; we don’t want to take that chance. So, I think we have to go with Ling and Gabriella’s plan, sorry guys.”
Denise seemed a little disappointed, but Rafael took it in his usual good spirits: “As always, Mr. Ferdie, you have found the path to the best course of action. Do we all agree, then?”
Everyone did, and we put our hands up in a group high-five at Ling’s request. “Oh, Ferdie, this will be another great adventure,” said Ling, her eyes a little moist; she seemed to be thinking about the possibility of returning home, even for a short while.
“You know, Ling, I kind of wish I could go with you; meet your family and stuff. You were the first, and, I don’t know, it just feels kind of special, you know? Ah, but there’s no way I could. It would be too risky, and besides, I have some people of my own I need to see, so I’ll have to say let’s do it another time. ”
“Ferdie, it would be the most wonderful if you could, but we all must do our own quest. Is this how you see it?”
I smiled, and said, “I couldn’t have said it better. A quest, that’s what we’re on.”
We spent the rest of the evening chatting amiably, and eventually, unusually tired from the day’s trying activities, I went in the little bedroom and… remembered that Pasquale was with us now. The only polite thing to do was to give him the bed, especially since he was still recovering. I took the floor, which, strangely enough, was comfortable. Despite all the stressors, all the danger and trouble we had in front of us, I fell asleep almost immediately…
I bolted upright, and it took me a moment to realize where I was. I turned to look at the clock: three sixteen a.m.? Oh crap, not that dream again… I’m beginning to think that this is not just a dream, that someone is putting it in my head to torment me… it was the same as usual, except this time Denise was not among the flying angels who were biting and tearing apart various people and flinging body parts at me as I scrambled to escape. Instead, Ariel was beside me and we ran for all we were worth, finally darting into the familiar cave. We followed it down until, as usual, the human with the head of a bull appeared directly in front of us. “Go! Run!” I shouted at Ariel; as she sped away, the bull person spoke for the first time. It was not the voice of The Coward, which is what I would have expected. This voice was low and rasping, intensely loud, even though he seemed to be whispering, and with a slight accent that I couldn’t quite place...
“Ferdie, Ferdie, Ferdie. You are always trying to protect people, but you always fail. Such a good boy, Ferdie. So tender, so… weak. You will never succeed because of your weakness. What a pleasure it will be to do this to you when at last we meet in person…” And he began swaying his head like an oscillating fan on high, razor sharp horns digging into my flesh…
Man, I’ve got to get out of here… go walk around, clear my head… as quietly as I could, I slipped on my pants and shoes, tiptoed to the door, and walked out into the night. I was down the stairs and into the neighborhood next to the apartment, walking quickly although I had no destination, when I heard from behind me: “Hey, mind a little company?”
I turned, and there was Denise, jogging to catch up. “Hi, Denise. Sorry, I had… I had trouble sleeping, so I thought I’d take a little walk. Sure, come on along.”
Denise caught up with me, put her toned and muscular arm over my shoulder, and we walked at a slower pace. “Ferdie, I know you have the weight of the world on your shoulders. The funny thing is, that’s usually just a saying to express an emotional state, but in this case it is literal. Well, I guess that’s not really that funny, but you know what I mean. What I’m trying to say is, you should know, you need to know, for your own sanity, it’s not all on you. We’re all in this together: you, me, Ling, Gabriella, Rafael, even Pasquale, and especially Marshall. I have a feeling that there’ll be others with us too as we go forward. As for me personally, I’m here to protect you and that’s it. For anyone to get to you, they will have to kill me first, and this may sound like bragging, but killing me won’t be easy. Why do you think I went with you to Sardinia? I would not have let any of the rest of our group go with you, because… because I’m your protector.” Denise didn’t say anything else for a while; she seemed a little choked up, and so was I. At the same time, I thought: I wonder how Gabriella feels about all this… Denise is kind of trying to take her place, although I don’t think Gabriella has ever seen herself as my physical protector… she sees her position as protecting me emotionally and intellectually…
Finally, she managed, “The point is, you need to let us share this burden. You can’t take it all on yourself; you won’t survive. That sounds a little dramatic, but it’s true.”
We walked on quietly, her arm around my shoulder. Eventually I said, “That’s exactly what Marsh would say. I mean the part about sounding a little dramatic. He would also make some kind of crack about me getting hit by the ugly stick or something, but the sentiment is the same.”
We chuckled and continued to walk up and down the streets of the neighborhoods surrounding our little apartment, with the university on the bluffs in the distance, until the sun came up.
Chapter 20
When we finally returned to the apartment we were quite sleepy, so while everyone else was rising, Denise and I were in crash mode. I eventually awoke at about eleven a.m., Day 751 and counting. Man, feeling really hungry… but no KFC this time… got to have something more nutritious… So I got up and ate a bowl of Captain Crunch cereal instead. While I was munching, the rest of the group were gabbing about our upcoming Divide and Conquer campaign. “Ah, think of it, my friends. Doing battle as never before, the world in the balance; these are the most exciting times in all of history!” Rafael declared.
Hmm… I wonder what the Time Flies would say about that…
Gabriella chimed in: “Just remember our strategy: when the call goes out, we will all converge, regardless of our circumstances at that moment.”
“Yes, yes, of course Ms. Gabriella. It will be glorious, don’t you agree everyone?”
They continued conversing in the same vein for a few more minutes, and finally I cut in. “Before anyone goes anywhere, I have one more stop to make. It’ll probably take a few days, maybe a week, but this is something I just have to do. I’ve got to go see my Aunt Martha, and I’m going to do my best to convince her to come out here where we can protect her. I’ve lost enough of my family; I don’t want to lose any more.” Then, totally predictably, I started tapping my head, momentarily overcome with emotion.
Also unsurprisingly, Denise offered, “You can’t go by yourself, it’s not safe. If it’s ok with everyone, I’ll go with you.” This triggered an avalanche of protests and discussion; at one point, it sounded like the whole group was going to try to come with me.
“Ok, guys, here’s the deal: I think it would be best if I traveled as light as possible, and a big group would not work for that. I’ll need to go over the roads, not through the in-between, and not on a plane; it’s too risky. So, I think that probably means either taking Ling’s car, or taking a bus. I think it would be best to take the car, if that’s ok. It’s a lot more flexible in case I, we, get into a jam. And yes, I agree
with Denise. I think she should come with me, and the rest of you get prepared for your trips to the four corners of the globe. She doesn’t have as far to go when she gets back; only out to New Mexico. I talked it over with Marsh-dog and he thinks this is the best plan, and I usually listen to him, although I won’t tell him that.”
I hadn’t actually talked to Marsh-dog about taking Denise with me, but I thought it would get all of them to back off, which it did. I’ll talk to him before I leave… it’s not exactly lying, the timing’s just off… oh, who am I kidding, lying is lying… I’ll pay for it in some way… “Ling, would it work for us to take your car? I don’t want to leave you all stranded, but I think that’s the best way to go.”
“Oh yes, I agree, Ferdie. Do not worry, we have lots of food, and if we have need to travel, we will Uber or Lyft or take city bus. You must take the car.” Ling is awesome… I need to make sure to tell her that one of these days…
We spent the rest of the afternoon packing, gassing up the car, and generally piddling around. As we were eating dinner, this time the fine cuisine of the Mexican people, otherwise known as Taco Bell, I said, “We won’t be able to contact you during our trip. We can’t use the in-between or cell phones. Somehow the last time I called and talked to Ariel The Others detected it and almost killed Aunt Martha, and caused Ariel to go missing. I don’t know how they did that, but we can’t take a chance on having it repeated. Our trip has to be a total surprise.”
“Well Mr. Ferdie, we will need a complete map of your travels then, so we will know approximately where you will be in case you are in need of assistance. And a list of hotels where you will be staying, of course,” said Rafael.
Denise and I made eye contact, and I could tell she was thinking the same thing I was. “I don’t mind giving a map of our route, but I don’t think we should plan to stay anywhere in particular. Maybe we’ll just drive straight through; that would probably be the safest.”
Ferdie and the Seven: book two: Time Flies Page 13