by Arwen Jayne
She’d come out here looking for that news break. The authorities were saying it was just a fluke event that an uncataloged meteorite had decided to plonk itself down on the town that should have been in front of her. But her gut was telling her something different. There had been something special about that new mayor and her controversial entourage of males. Tyra had been rattling cages and kicking dust which truth be known hadn’t ever been kicked before. No there was something here that wasn’t coincidence and she meant to get to the bottom of it. At the very least she needed to get past the road block some dick head had put up on the road to the town.
Ironically history had it that this area had been hit by another, smaller asteroid in the distant past. Somewhere in the bush had been the remains of that 100,000 year old crater. No one could tell her much about it. Until a couple of years back some old crackpot had owned the site and lived out there seeing off all comers. That was until he’d gotten carved up by some animal no one had ever been able to identify. More recently a private security agency had sprung up in the nearby town of Boswell and set up the old crater site as a survival training camp. Maybe they’d been hoping to broaden their revenue base. She couldn’t see much call for security out here accept for patrolling a few fishing shacks that got abandoned each winter.
Then there was the reputation the town had of being home to some long established house of ill repute. Her research had uncovered records of a business called ‘Left Hand Adventures’, whatever that was. It was rumoured that a chauffeur driven Bentley had delivered clients to its door until oddly about the time the security agency had started. A security agency that just happened to be named after the crackpot, Jack Goodwin, who’d died out at the crater.
Now all that and the fishing lake the tourists had come to was gone. Nothing but a dusty, rocky, very large hole in the ground.
Musing as she was she nearly didn’t hear the slow grind of the rubbish truck grinding along the road behind her. It was making no sign of slowing down. The damned thing was headed straight for the roadblock, her and her bike. Frantically she started waving to get its drivers attention.
Almost grudgingly the truck slowed to a stop and a not insubstantial woman with well muscled arms the sizes of small tree trunks dismounted to accost her. “Look lady this is a main road. Would you kindly get your bike and yourself off of it before you get run down? What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Taken aback Phoenix glared at the woman. “Only trying to save your neck. Can’t you see the damned road block?”
The woman looked around and then looked back at her. You got rocks in your head or something? There’s no roadblock there.”
Phoenix walked over to the roadblock and tapped the top of it meaningfully. “This.”
“And I’m telling you there’s nothing there. Why would there be a roadblock anyway? The bridge over the creek down or something?”
“No just a friggin meteorite that’s wiped out the whole town and surrounding area. Don’t you listen to the news?”
“No time for it. I’ve been up since four this morning doing these bins. And anyway if what you say is true wouldn’t there be like a hole or something?”
“Well duh, yeah. In front of you.” She pointed meaningfully at the drop off.
“There’s just a pleasant tree lined road in front of me and over the rise will be the lake. After that Boswell before the road heads back up into the highlands. I really think I should take you to Doc in Boswell. He can check out that head of yours.”
It was on the tip of Phoenix’s tongue to argue further but then she had another idea. “Okay you’re on. You give me a lift into Boswell to the Doc and then I’ll believe you.” There was no way she’d consider trying to nurse her beloved bike down that crater’s slope. She’d leave it hidden in the scrub and chain it to a tree.
The driver shook her head in amazement, hardly concealing that she thought Phoenix was quite mad. “Okay, hop on board.”
“Just give me a moment to get my bike off the road.”
“Yeah, damned good idea that. Wouldn’t want some half asleep truck driver ramming into it.”
Once on board, the driver started the truck back up. Phoenix braced for the drop off down into the crater, causing the driver no end of mirth. “What’s your name anyway?”
“Angela de Silva but you can call me Ang. You can stop panicking you know. This section of road’s relatively flat.”
“So you say. It’s not what I’m seeing.” It was even worse than that. As she looked out the passenger window now they appeared to be in midair but by no means falling. “Okay so this is a flying garbage truck?”
“So you’re a fan of the Red Dwarf TV series.”
“Not exactly.” They seemed to be driving ... um flying ... through clouds now. She was glad she’d inherited her journalist mother and photojournalist father’s nerve. She’d lost them a few years back when they’d been off covering some conflict in the Yemen while she was at university finishing her degree. They’d had guts. She needed some of that now. She wiped the sweat from her brow and forced herself to take a deep breath. Might be a good time to change the subject and distract her mind from the terrifying illusion out the window. “By the way, My name’s Phoenix, Phoenix O’Halloran. You been doing this rubbish run long.”
“A couple of years. I used to drive buses but the pay was crap, the clients variable and the schedules unrelenting. This job isn’t exactly glamorous but it pays more and is much more relaxed. I’ve never been happier. Out here I can think.”
“About what, what interests you?” Phoenix couldn’t resist going into interviewer mode, it was in her blood.
“Oh, just this and that. Why life in the cities has to be so cut throat and competitive. Why people can’t see the beauty in places like out here. Why they have to chase the dollar and status. They fritter their lives away chasing after goals. Don’t you think everything is so goal driven now? You can’t even have a job like this in the city now without having to deal with performance measures, bonuses and project plans. Then there’s all the rules and regs now. Licences, audits, legislation and insurances where there never were any before.”
“Yeah it’s a bit of a bureaucratic mess isn’t it. That’s why I rather liked the way the new Mayor who lived out here was taking it on. Although it seems to be a worldwide problem. It’s like we’re being throttled to get the very last drop of blood out of us.”
“Still with the past tense I see. Mayor Goodwin’s very much alive I assure you. Can you really not see the trees out the window that I’m seeing?”
“Actually...” Fuck! Oops she almost apologised to herself for her mental swearing. There was no getting over the fact though. They were out of the clouds and seemingly back on a road. She pinched herself. Yep I’m really awake.
As condor and eagle Zex and Helena flew over where the town should have been but there was nothing. It’s gone Zex. What the hell could have happened? Helena mentally broadcast her panic to Zex.
Zex took a moment to read the akashic record. The record seemed to bifurcate into two totally disparate scenarios. Well that was unheard of. I’m not sure Lena. I’m getting mixed information. It seems a well aimed meteorite wiped out the town but I’m seeing an alternate scenario as well. One where nothing happened. No wait, there was a sudden vibrational upshift right at the start of the second scenario. What’s your fairy vision telling you?”
Trying to calm herself and her worry for her sister she used the relaxation techniques the Feya had taught her. The same vision that had shut down with her panic, when they’d first seen the scene of desolation on the horizon, now reactivated. A sudden surge of hope had her picking up speed in her flight. There seems to be a blanket of cloud I wasn’t seeing before. Let’s go and investigate.
They sought out a downdraft and began the spiral downwards. Helena held a tenuous grasp on her hope as they descended through the clouds. Suddenly they were through and a welcoming panorama opened up befo
re here. A lake, a forest and a town, very much in tact. Nothing seemed to have changed from since she left except now it seemed...something...perhaps brighter was the word. I’m not sure Zex but if I had to guess the whole town is now at the same vibrational frequency as the faeries. Everything I’m seeing is saturated with color and life. It’s utterly, breathtakingly fabulous. She let tears of relief fall from her eagle eyes.
Morphing as they landed amongst a copse of trees they realised they were rather a bit too naked to go waltzing into the middle of the town. Even if Helena had seen some rather strange sights in the town since she’d come to know it and it’s people she still didn’t want to turn up au naturelle. Zex read her discomfort “How about we teleport to Simon’s place? He’s pretty broad minded and he might have some clothes we can borrow.”
Ang glanced at her deluded passenger. She’d enjoyed Phoenix’s company on the way in. She had a way of drawing information out of you without talking overly much about herself. Pretty clever Ang thought. “Doc’s clinic is just up ahead.”
“It’s alright Ang, I don’t really think I need to see a doctor but I would like to find out what is going on here. Where’s the Mayor live?”
“That would be that large two storey Georgian mansion across from the park.”
“Let’s me off there then.”
Ang wasn’t too sure she shouldn’t keep a little more of an eye on her passenger to make sure she was alright. She gave a cursory look at her watch. She could afford a few minutes. “Come on then, I’ll introduce you. I’ve got to warn you though, the guys are hot. Must be something in the water around here. Everyone looks like gods.”
George was already waiting for them at the door of the mansion. “The boss is out the back, he’s waiting for you.”
“Ah there you are.” Simon looked up from the herbs he was preparing for drying and motioned them towards the kitchen table. He extended a hand to each of them in turn. “Ang, Phoenix, won’t you please take a seat? You have questions Phoenix.”
Of course he knew their names. While Phoenix grilled Simon on the obvious discrepancy at the roadblock Ang surveyed the room and couldn’t help but notice the being sitting crosslegged on a raised cushioned platform by the window. A fairy. She gave the beautiful radiant being a nod in quiet respectful acknowledgement.
That there was a fairy in Simon’s kitchen didn’t truly surprise her. She’d always noticed the inhabitants of this house had unusually vibrant healthy auras. Even their cat, which she spied sleeping in the sun out on the adjacent verandah, was surrounded by a rainbow of light. Of late the rest of the town’s other inhabitants had been getting brighter too. On her last few fortnightly rubbish collections into town she’d felt a shift, the whole town had a growing presence of wholeness. Not that it hadn’t been a great backwater to start with. The people had always been independent, minding their own business yet at the same time community minded and helping each other without much fuss when needs arose. But this was something more, something she couldn’t put her finger on. Phoenix was right about one thing, there was definitely something going on here.
Phoenix sat back in her chair, digesting everything that Simon had just told her. “So what you and the townsfolk did pulled the whole of the vicinity into what you term the non-local and then you rematerialised it into a parallel dimension, the realm of faery. The so called fairies having given you permission to annex the town onto their dimension. Look Simon do I look that gullible?”
Ang hmphed. Phoenix turned to her, eyebrows raised. “What?”
“I know you believe you saw a meteorite site and a roadblock but even you can’t deny we’re now in the middle of the town that you said was destroyed. And what about the fairy sitting over there?”
“What fairy?”
Simon chuckled. “Our skeptical friend here really has too closed a mind to see such things Ang. We can change that though.” He proceed to tell them about the retrovirus Jnarn had developed, the reason why the town’s inhabitants were so healthy. “It’s also a protection against Din influence. You two might consider taking it before you leave town. The new inhaler administration of it is quick and painless, at least for younger humans like yourselves.
Ang looked at her watch again. “I’m not sure I’ll have time. I really need to get back to finishing my shift.”
“What if I was to tell you that I can deliver you back to the point in time where you came through the portal?”
Ang relaxed. “I’d say that was good enough for me. You’re on.”
Phoenix was disturbed by her companion’s readiness to accept everything, despite its implausibility. Yet she was curious. Maybe this retrovirus could be the breaking story she was looking for.
Simon gave her a stern look. “Actually we’d like to keep it quiet for now.”
“Bloody hell, did you just read my mind?”
“I would have thought that was obvious to someone of your quick intellect.” Simon jibed. Her skepticism was beginning to wear on him. “Now if you want a story how about this. Tyra’s going to the Council meeting tonight, the one they’ve called to discuss her apparent demise and replacement. We intend to turn up en masse. Do you think you could get a camera crew there?”
Phoenix’s mind ran through various machinations and quickly decided it was going to be the story of the year. It might even get international coverage. “I can do that. So you’re not keeping yourselves secret?”
“No need. The Din can’t get in here or hurt the town now. It’s in a parallel dimension they can’t reach, or even see.” He added meaningfully. “Don’t worry, once you’ve had the retrovirus you should be able to pass through the cloud portal into the town again anytime you want. What has got me curious though is why Ang here is faery touched. Helena Ivanova is the only other human I’ve come across with the sight. Do you want to tell us you how you got it?”
Ang got a sense that he already knew her strange tale but decided to tell it anyway. “I guess I’ve always had it, at least as long as I remember. My parents, well they’re not my real parents but they are as far as I’m concerned, they found me. Mum’s Australian but Dad was from Portugal. They’d gone on their honeymoon to his homeland to see the village he grew up in but when they got there is was deserted. It’s poverty stricken inhabitants had long since gone in search of jobs in Lisbon. Anyway, when they were walking around the ghost town they heard me crying and found me on the steps of the disused church. I couldn’t have been more than a day or two old at most. They searched for anyone who might have left me there but couldn’t find a soul. My Dad knew that if they took me to the authorities I’d only end up in some underfunded orphanage so they made a monumental decision. They decided that while they were out camping around the old village my Mum had given birth to me, being further along with a pregnancy than she’d thought. At least that’s what they told the embassy. It took quite a bit of convincing but eventually the authorities agreed to issue a retrospective birth certificate with the supposed date and time of birth. It’s not like there was the technology around back then to check my parentage anyway. With that all organised they managed to get the paperwork to get me out of the country. And I will forever be in their debt. Someone back there either didn’t want me or saw the tourists come into the town and thought they could give me a better life than anything they could ever give me. Either way I’ve been loved and pampered beyond anything I imagine my alternate life might have been. I was the only child my parents ever had. They didn’t know it then but it turned up later that my Mum was infertile. She never cared about that. They both loved me as their own. I’ve always seen things I shouldn’t though. My parents taught me it was a precious gift but one that I might be best to keep it from others.”
Phoenix understood now. “So that’s why you could see the road to the town and I couldn’t. Hmph, and you thought I was the one seeing things.” The irony wasn’t lost on her.
“It all depends on which reality you think has more credibility doesn’t
it Phoenix?” Simon asked pointedly. Then he turned away to muse a moment, looking into the akashic for the answers he sought but nothing obvious was surfacing. “The question still remains: why Ang was gifted with the fairy sight?”
“She wasn’t. Not specifically anyway” Eadaoin rose from where she was seated and flexed her wings as if relieving an itch she couldn’t quite scratch. “I believe you’ll find Ang inherited the sight from her ancestors. The Tuatha de Danaan interbred with the survivors of Atlantis who made it to the shores of Ireland, far western Europe and the northern lands like Britain. The Irish in particular had strong allies amongst the people from the coastline of Portugal and North-West Spain as well as some of the Berber, Tuareg and other tribes amongst the North Africans. I believe if your geneticists were to study her you’d find a certain percentage of ‘undefined’ flows through her very veins? Even the skeptic carries the blood as evidenced by her flame red hair, green eyes and pale skin. It is only her learnt doubt that clouds her mind. She has only to awaken. These two are the two you have been waiting for.”
The reality of it amused Simon even though millennia had taught him to expect people and things to turn up in the most unusual places. A garbage truck driver and a skeptic, who’d have thought. Yet he felt the truth of it. Threads of destiny wove before his eyes, creating what he sought. “I believe you are right.”
Phoenix glared at him. “Who the hell are you talking to and don’t tell me a fairy?”
Simon gave Eadaoin his best pleading look. She answered by nodding her assent then walked over to Phoenix and touched her on the brow.
Phoenix reeled back, absolutely stunned. She shook herself then stared again. “Oh that fairy.”
Simon rolled his eyes. It really did take a sledgehammer approach with skeptics sometimes. “Yes that fairy. Or more precisely Eadoin. Now we’d best get you both to Jnarn and then get you back to where you came from.”