Fractals

by Larry Buenafe

  “Yeah. Thanks, Raffy. I’m glad you’re with us.”

  “And I am glad as well.”

  We walked back, chatting amiably, feeling ready to head out in the morning. I had one last task before sleep; I needed to talk to Pasquale and Aunt Martha. We returned, though, to find Pasquale already asleep, snoring softly in the pull-out section of the RV. Aunt Martha, on the other hand, was entertaining the rest of the group with one of the many tales of her youth. “So anyway, we pulled up to the house, and Billy threw the firecracker out the front window from the back seat, or I should say he tried to throw it out, because it bounced off the rim of the door and landed right next to my foot. Well, of course I panicked, and I tried to stomp it out, which obviously makes no sense, but like I said I panicked, and guess what happened? It blew a hole in my shoe and burned my little toe. Oh, hi, Ferdie, Stretch. Now, Ferdie, did you want to have a little chat?”

  Man, Aunt Martha, you’re awesome. Give her lemons and she doesn’t make lemonade, she makes lemon meringue pie… “Well, yeah, if you don’t mind. It shouldn’t take too long.”

  She slapped me on the back and said, “Come on, Ferdie, let’s go for a little stroll.”

  She bounded out of her chair, took hold of my arm, and we headed off in yet another direction. Soon we were out of sight and earshot of the rest of the group, and Aunt Martha whispered, “Well, how do you feel, Ferdie? Are you feeling confident? I’ve been thinking about your trips, and I have to say I am a bit concerned. Of course, I don’t have the, oh there’s that word again, supernatural abilities that the rest of you all have. Maybe if I did I wouldn’t feel so uneasy.”

  “Well, is there anything specific that you are concerned with? I mean, it’s true that the whole thing is risky, but everything is risky right now, and I think the riskiest thing of all is to do nothing.”

  “Oh, you’re right, it’s just that I can’t help but feel that, even though things are planned carefully, something is going to go wrong. It’s just a feeling, maybe it means nothing.”

  Now it was my turn to look up at the moon, now higher overhead and seeming smaller. Before I had a chance to say anything, Aunt Martha continued, “Aww, don’t worry about it Ferdie. Here, look at me.”

  I turned, and we were in full eye contact. “One of the best days of my life was the day you showed up at my door. Little did I know the whole new world, the whole new universe, that was about to be opened up to me. Up to that point I had been feeling pretty down. I was good at hiding it, but still… anyway, now I have a real purpose, something to work for. You gave that to me, Ferdie. I owe you one.” Then she went in for a hug and kiss on the cheek, and I didn’t even feel embarrassed. “Just promise me you’ll keep your eyes open, and back out if things seem dangerous. Promise me now, Ferdie. I can’t lose another one.”

  Once again, the floodgates opened and I was reduced to a crying and tapping mess. I’ve got to get this under control… Arnie is right; this could really cost us if I lose it at the wrong time… “Thanks Aunt Martha. I’ll be careful, I promise. You’re the best.”

  “Yeah, yeah, let’s head on back and get out of this dump, what do you say?”

  “I say ok.” We walked back to find the rest of the group already soundly asleep, and within moments we joined them. It was the last bit of rest we would have for quite some time.

  Chapter Five

  Day seven twenty six… Oh, crap, when is this going to stop? Not that dream again… It was the standard flying monster angels, swooping down and gathering up my friends and family as I ran, dodging their attacks and falling body parts, and there was the familiar cave, which by now I know I should avoid but I go speeding into anyway. I fumble in the darkness, and as always come face-to-face with the man with the head of a bull. He speaks with the voice of The Master, but this time, we have an actual conversation. “Well, well, Ferdie, I don’t know what you are planning, but I can tell something is afoot. You wouldn’t want to tell me, would you? It would save me a bit of hassle, if you don’t mind.”

  He doesn’t know… he couldn’t resist gloating if he did… “Instead, why don’t you tell me how you’re able to cause me to have this dream? That’s a pretty neat trick.”

  A smile broke out across the vague human face in the middle of the bull head. “Ferdie, you are a caution. Your endless supply of hutzpah is so refreshing, if painfully naïve. I’ll take that as a no to my request, and you can take this as a no to your request, so we remain even.”

  “Ok, then how about this: where are you from? You have that weird accent; it’s not one I have heard before.”

  Now the bull head burst out in a hearty laugh. “Oh, I wish this chat could go on for hours. I am coming to understand you have a real flair for entertainment. It may not be intentional, but it is there nonetheless. Alas, like all good things, this must come to an end, so do be a good lad and hold still, eh?” He grabbed both of my arms with a vice-like grip, and I couldn’t move. He began swinging his head left to right, lowering his massive, razor sharp horns toward my face…

  I must have been shouting a little in my sleep, because the rest of the group was huddled around trying to wake me. “I’m ok, it was just a… a bad dream, that’s all.”

  Denise maneuvered her face into a position of eye contact. “That dream again?”

  “Yeah, it’s ok, I’m used to it. How’s everyone feeling? Ready to go on a quest?”

  They stood back and pointed to a small pile of bags packed for light travel with just the necessities, so that they could be abandoned if need be. Uh-oh, everyone’s ready but me… “Have you guys eaten? Questing’s no good on an empty stomach.”

  They pointed in the other direction to the little dinette in the RV, and I could see the remnants of breakfast. “Ok, I get the message. I’m up.”

  The rest of the morning was full of grim faces and there was not much in the way of discussion. Finally we were ready to go: the plan was for Denise and me to travel east in Ling’s little car, with Denise dropping me off in my old home town of Aurora, Colorado, and then traveling on to her home town of Artesia, New Mexico. The rest of the crew would be traveling west in Aunt Martha’s RV, first to Bakersfield, where Arnie would be dropped off, and then traveling on to Los Angeles, where Ling would take a flight to Hong Kong, Gabriella to Sweden, and Rafael to Jamaica. After dropping everyone off, Aunt Martha and Pasquale were to return to our spot in the Mojave Desert and wait for us to complete our mission. “Ok, everyone, let’s make sure our phones have the same time… oh, wait! We are going to be spread all over the world—if I give the signal at noon in Colorado, we need to figure out what time that is in all the other places. Marsh can do that off the top of his head, it’s one of his many skills. I need to talk to him before we leave anyway, so I’ll be right back.”

  I faded into the in-between and heard, from behind me: “Ok, listen close, Batman. Denise and you will be in the same time zone, so noon to you is noon to her. Arnie will be one time zone to the west, so noon to you will be eleven to him. Ling will be fifteen hours ahead, so noon to you will be three a.m. the next morning to her. For Gabriella, she’ll be eight hours ahead, so noon to you will be 8 p.m. that evening to her. Rafael will be two hours ahead, so noon to you will be two p.m. to him. How did I do?”

  I turned around to see him floating and glowing once again. “Dude, I’m not sure I’m ever going to get used to that. And as far as I know, you did fine. How’s it going otherwise?”

  Although he continued to glow, Marsh-dog slowly floated down until his feet were on the ground. “Man, working with Ol’ Flashy and his buddies has really opened my mind. I thought I knew a lot of stuff before, but I didn’t know anything… it’s basically like comparing a monkey to a human. Monkeys have some intelligence, but they can never understand the things humans can, and the distance between us and the Time Flies is even further than that. No matter how smart I am, without their intervention I would never be able to understand the things they do. They envision things i
n nine dimensions. Do you know how hard that is? No you don’t because you can’t do it, nobody can. There are people who get the concept, can even make representations of it, but to see it in the same way we see three dimensions, most of the time without even thinking about it? No one can do that, but they can, and I’m starting to see it too. It’s crazy, dude. And you know what else? I’m helping them understand how human emotions work. Even though they basically know everything, it’s difficult for them to get the concept. I’ll get them there, though, and I think that’ll work in our favor eventually. Now back to your original question: you don’t really need to know the time in all those places. Just have everyone set their phones so that they don’t change as they go through the different time zones.”

  I must have had a humorously baffled look on my face, because Marsh-dog went into a laughing fit. “Alright, alright, settle down Robin. I didn’t know you could do that.” Marsh-dog explained how to set up our phones, snickering the whole time.

  “Ok, dude, you need to be very careful on this trip. Don’t mess around and get yourself killed. If you do, I’ll have no one to make fun of, and I don’t want to live without that.”

  “Well, you’re kind of a ghost, so you’re not really living anyway, right?”

  “Oh, very funny. Don’t forget, I can still haunt you. On second thought, your face is scarier than anything I could dream up, so I probably won’t. Keep your head down, dude, and get out as soon as you get done.”

  “You got it, Mr. Glowy.”

  “I’m not glowing, I’m shimmering. There’s a difference, dude.”

  Well, Mr. Shimmering-y is a lot more awkward to say, so I’m going to call you Mr. Glowy.”

  “Ok then, get ready for some revenge haunting, and you know that’s the worst kind.”

  “Alright, settle down. I’ll be careful. You keep an eye on Pasquale and Aunt Martha, and I’ll see you in a couple of days.”

  I faded out of the in-between, showed everyone how to set their phones as Marsh-dog had told me, and just like that we were in the vehicles, bouncing the five miles through the desert to the road leading south to the AstroBurger. At that point we parted ways, Denise and I heading east and the rest of the crew heading west. Dude, this just got real… I sure hope this isn’t a huge mistake…

  Chapter Six

  The plan, which had been revised dozens of times, was for everyone to be ready at noon in three days’ time, which would make it day seven twenty three. At that time, or shortly after, there would be a signal from me, and then we were to make ourselves as supernaturally noticeable as possible, but the synchronization was very important, so that we attract The Others to all different points simultaneously. We were all then to converge on the one who gave the first signal of contact, to hopefully capture whoever the others have sent to that spot. We were confident that they didn’t know of our plan, and wouldn’t be able to react fast enough to stop us from completing the capture and then heading back to the desert through the in-between.

  We had worked hard at getting our connections to one another to be instantaneous. Just to make sure things worked properly in the moment, we decided for the signals to all be sent to me, and then I would “rebroadcast” them out to the rest of the group. It was much easier for me to send the signals out to multiple recipients, so we decided this two-step method would work best. Unless I get knocked out or something… then we’re screwed for sure… ok, relax, Ferdie, things are going to work… I sure hope they work…

  Denise and I trundled along toward Las Vegas, at which point we would head north into Colorado. “Hey, Denise, you ever been to Las Vegas before?”

  “Oh, yeah, a couple of times. Why do you ask?”

  “I’ve driven through there before, but never stopped, so I only know it from pictures and TV. What’s it really like?”

  Denise paused thoughtfully. “It’s hot. Really hot. Like living on the sun. There are parts of it that are pretty cool, but… it’s like being in a nice restaurant kitchen… seems all clean and organized, but don’t look down, because the floor is covered in cock roaches.”

  “That doesn’t sound that good.”

  “No, I guess not. Look, it’s just a place designed to convince you to give them all your money in exchange for flashing lights. It works on the primitive parts of our brains.”

  “Huh. When we get to Las Vegas, let’s just keep driving, what do you say?”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  We drove along a while longer in silence.

  “I wonder how the rest of the group is doing. They’ve probably dropped Arnie off by now, and are headed toward L.A. I sure hope this all works. I’m starting to get a little paranoid.”

  Denise grinned briefly. “If you weren’t paranoid, I would be worried. It would sure be nice if we could check in on them, though, wouldn’t it? But we just have to stay the course. No contact until the right moment.”

  “Yeah, I know. I knew this part would be hard. I just hope the next couple of days go by really fast.”

  “Hey, you feel like driving? We need to stop up here for some gas, and I could use a little rest.”

  “Heck yes! But what is the speed limit again? I have it in my head that it’s ninety five. That’s right, isn’t it?”

  We spent the next ten minutes joking back and forth, and finally pulled into a gas station at one of the many roadside casinos lining the freeway into Las Vegas. I hopped out and started pumping the gas, and Denise walked into the store to get some drinks and snacks. Five minutes later she came out, followed by two rather large and seemingly drunk men. Although they were too far away to hear, it was obvious that they were saying things to Denise, and she was not amused. I heard them saying, “Come on, baby, let’s just party a little bit. Look, I got lots of money, we’ll have a good time.” Then one of them grabbed her by the arm, and she shook him off quickly.

  I was a little bit scared, especially knowing that we couldn’t use any supernatural abilities to extract ourselves from this situation, but I hustled over to where they were, and got in front of the grabber. I mustered up all the courage I could, and said, “Hey, dude, she obviously is not interested, so just leave her alone.”

  The guy looked at me strangely, and slurred, “Hey, why are you doing that? Are you autistic or something?”

  Of course I had been tapping my head the whole time. Thinking as quickly as I could, I growled, “No, dummy, I’m distracting you.” At precisely that moment, Denise’s fist went flying into the guy’s left cheek, knocking him clean off his feet. He went down like a sack of potatoes, and I spun around before the second drunk could do anything and placed the luckiest kick of all time squarely into his private parts, and he also crumpled to the ground.

  Denise and I looked at each other in shock, and before the two jerks had a chance to recover, we bolted for the car and sped out of the gas station, careening down the frontage road and onto the freeway. We spent the next half-hour screaming and laughing until the adrenaline finally drained away, leaving us both feeling exhausted. “I guess we know if we have to we can handle ourselves, right? I mean, like, in a conventional way, not using supernatural abilities.”

  “Well, don’t get to feeling too confident. That was a couple of drunken buffoons. Still, it was pretty fun, wasn’t it?” Then we started laughing all over again.

  We drove on through the day and into the evening, and finally arrived in Aurora, Colorado late on day seven twenty five. “Hey, Denise, before you drop me off, do you mind driving by my old house? I just want to see if it looks the same.”

  I had to turn away, because a couple of tears started leaking out, and Denise said, “Sure. Then I have to get going, though… I want to do a little reminiscing of my own before this whole thing goes down.”

  I directed her to our old neighborhood, and eventually to our old street, and there it was. It’s been painted, but otherwise looks the same… still for sale, they won’t ever sell it as long as there are people around who remember
what happened… come on, Ferdie, no crying, and stop that tapping… “Ok, thanks Denise, I’ve seen enough. Let’s go, you can drop me off and get down the road to Artesia.”

  We got to my motel, and Denise got out and gave me a big hug, squeezing so tight it kind of hurt my ribs. “Don’t worry, Ferdie. In a couple of days this whole thing will be over and we’ll laugh about how we were all stressed out over nothing.”

  I looked down and said, “You don’t really think that, do you?”

  Denise smiled, but it looked like she was on the verge of crying. “I don’t like the thought of leaving you here. I’m supposed to protect you, and it’s going to be hard to do if I’m not here. I know you can protect yourself, but it still stresses me out. Let’s just have these next two days go by as fast as possible, ok?” Then she went in for another bear hug, hopped in the little car, and sped off.

  I turned around, trudging toward the motel, suddenly feeling unbearably fatigued. Dude, in two days it’s on… then if things go right, we’ll see what we’re really up against… if things don’t go right, though… no, don’t think about that, it won’t help right now…

  When I got to my room, I fell down on the bed. Despite my anxiety, I fell asleep almost immediately and didn’t wake up until noon the following day. Whoa, no bad dreams, and twenty-four hours to go… wonder how everyone else is doing… they should be in place by now, even Ling in Hong Kong and Gabriella in Sweden… I hope Ling gets to look in on her family and Gabriella on her daughters… After my brief revelry, I decided to take a walk around town to kill some time. I trudged down the street toward the center of town, wondering if anyone would recognize me. I better lay low… if anyone does recognize me, they may know I’m a runaway, and then things could get messy… that could blow the whole mission…

  I pulled my hood up over my head, mostly obscuring my face. As I walked, getting closer to the downtown area, it became obvious that the panic affecting the rest of the world had also reached Aurora. On a street corner I saw a group of Elephant Man Cult people gathered, all painted gray and walking in circles, honking and asking for donations. Man, people really make some weird conclusions about how they should react to things they don’t understand… if they knew the truth, I don’t think they would be doing this… it would be kind of funny if it wasn’t so pitiful…