He thanked Doreen and left her company before she could get started talking. He returned to the warmth of the rental. With a final glance at the barn and house, he turned around and headed back down the drive to the lane.
Chapter 34
We have inherited the past; we can create the future.
- Source unknown
Austin and Kaiya walked along the path near the giraffe exhibit. The catcalls of the red apes they’d just left made Austin smile. He squeezed Kaiya’s hand and adjusted his shades.
“What? What are they saying?”
“Just be glad you aren’t in their cage.”
His meta skills were improving with the second stage of training. Kaiya’s training was underway, too, and Edward had ordered round the clock covering services from the dùnadh-enhanced bràthair for both of them. Her new body was a suicide recovery, though the wrist wounds had been repaired. It was as close to her old body as she could have asked.
He steered them towards the rear of the park. It was busy for a Wednesday in January, despite the blustery wind and chill in the air. The bombings terrorizing the nation had stopped and people were eager to take back the norm. Groups of school children swarmed the pathways and clung to the rails and fences of the exhibits. The previous night’s rains left the zoo’s shaded pathways damp and the smells fresh and poignant.
The animals all alerted to his presence and seemed to be following his progress in different ways. Some managed to extend their meta, some passively tracked his, keen on its difference from those in the crowd. A lion roared nearby. Austin felt its unhappy protest, part demand and part interest. Not all the animals resented their captivity but the lions certainly did.
She sipped her soda from a straw. “What do you want to do after this?”
“I’m open. What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinkin’ Long Beach.”
“La Palapa.” The restaurant they’d first met in.
“Of course.”
Kaiya’s biocat program had her looking very nearly her old self, something Edward didn’t want them to do. She shrugged it off, knowing they were protected. Their day in LA wasn’t exactly about recapturing the old days but it had some of that feel. Returning to their roots had an undeniable grounding effect.
They neared their destination and the crowd grew thick around the exhibit. Already he heard the vocalizing. Kids and chaperones created a sea of humanity with behavior not unlike the animals they’d come to see. They managed to squeeze in along the rail directly across from the rock house that staff had penned the chimpanzee’s “penthouse”. The males were in motion, apparently agitated for no reason.
He spotted a female atop the penthouse holding onto her young chimp. The little one was standing and uncharacteristically scanning the crowds.
“There, the little one on top.”
Kaiya smiled. “Aww. Is she looking for you?”
He did his own passive scan. Satisfied there was no threat, he extended across the distance to Darcy. She jumped up and down on contact and her mother kept hold of her to contain her. She looked directly at him, pointing and patting her shoulders, as excited as any kid. Their meta mixed and Darcy vocalized to emphasize the message that she had gotten better and that she had grown.
He resonated love back to her.
The little chimp danced and hollered and turned to hug her momma. The older chimp glanced over and emoted a deep maternal gratitude. The alpha male hollered and beat his chest. The other males joined to create a racket.
Being upstaged was never a pleasant experience for a male.
They took lunch at La Palapa and browsed the simple memories of their past, marveling at what had once passed as trials and tribulations. Cramming for finals, a missed job opportunity, a late rent payment... they sat silent for a while and let it sink in. The terrors and wonders of the last several months had carved new lines of appreciation for life and for the unknown.
A sympathy had also formed for the bulk of humanity that lived in the fish bowl, barely interested in what was beyond it. They agreed that in some ways ignorance was bliss but also knew a comparative analysis would easily favor meta-awareness. So much of mental illness was actually the result of unfiltered input causing neurotic reactions. The change had to continue. People had to make sense of their connectedness.
“That’s what it’s all about, really.” Austin stirred his tea. “Accessing the gestalt that’s been kept locked up. Taking it back and unifying around it.”
“Philanthropy shouldn’t be as treacherous as this.”
He managed a chuckle. “You aren’t kidding. Damned Robin Hoods, all of us.”
“What do you most want to do? What do you want to see change?” she asked.
“All of it.” He half-grinned. “Really, that’s tough to answer. Part of me would say the medicines, free energy, cleaning the food supply. Control of those keep the structures of power in place. Clean up government. Economics could be reworked and quickly. The new tech would render so much suffering obsolete. Out with greed, in with our highest ideals. Another part of me says break down the barriers to meta awareness first. If people knew how connected we really are, we could face the challenges together. Leverage resources to improve all of humanity’s experience. It would change the world. I understand that might be a bit naïve, but it depends on how we do it.” He drank his tea and watched a waiter seat a couple at a nearby table. “I can’t help but think of all the people who worked against odds to make a difference. History’s filled with heroes who tried. They scratched at the surface without knowing how thick the truth was.”
“Or how serious the consequences would be for trying.”
“Exactly.”
He again thought of Yuni and his dad and Javier and all the people lost around the world. Guilt pinged his core with a familiar ring. They had not been able to visit her mother’s grave, though memories of her funeral had been provided. Word of his father had not yet surfaced though Johan would continue searching. His fate weighed most heavily but he suppressed it out of regard for Kaiya’s actual loss.
She wadded up the paper cover of her straw. “I’m just glad we have a better chance. Seems the idea of karmic balance really is a facet of nature and not only on the micro scale. It’s just taken a while to swing back this way.”
“Karma needs force to operate. The transfer of power.”
“You and Johan are part of that now.”
“We all need to be.” He sighed. He was failing at keeping his mood up. Instead of encouraging her, she was striving to prop him up in the moment.
Kaiya looked out the window at the beach. Down a ways, crowds gathered at a kite competition. The loops and dips and the effort by those on the ground revealed the sport that it was.
“Hey,” she said. “Let’s take a walk.”
They strolled the sand at surf’s edge and watched the kites ahead. The wind ran steady and brisk off the water and buffeted the nylon constructs. The flyers were talented, their acrobatics well-practiced.
A local radio station’s van was out with its mast up and their event canopy looked ready to tear away in the wind. The DJ acted as master of ceremonies for the competition. Kids on their father’s shoulders waved at the kites dancing in the sky.
“So answer me this,” Kaiya said, putting her arm through his. “Why didn’t you ever tell me about the wind and the out of body experiences?”
“Really? C’mon. What would you have thought?”
She considered it. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. I probably would have wondered about you. The UFO stuff was bad enough.”
“Which is exactly what I didn’t want. Hell, I didn’t want to wonder about myself.”
“Now look at you. Telekinetic talent. First contact. Someday you’ll be famous.”
“Don’t hold your breath. And first contact wasn’t me.”
“Don’t be so negative. You’re one of the first. It’s amazing.” They walked in silence for a bit before she asked, “Has anyon
e mentioned your mom?”
“My mom? What about her?”
“She reached out to you in the dream, didn’t she?”
“Maybe. It sure felt like it.”
“It was her, I’m sure of it.”
He slowed. “Why do you say that?”
She looked up at him. “I had a dream last night about Mac Payant. He said there was something that you needed to know.”
“What?”
“That the accident that killed her wasn’t an accident.”
“And my dad knew that?”
She nodded. “He had gotten mixed up with something that he wasn’t supposed to. Her death was their response. He knew you would have been next.”
“Fuck.” He stopped and stared out past the waves. “Fuck.” It explained all the shit he’d received from him over the years. He’d been trying to steer him clear of trouble, despite his affiliation. A new layer of guilt formed around the irony. On its heels came a more anger at the Comannda and the system it had created.
Kaiya faced him, hands on his stomach. “Wait. Don’t lose yourself in it. Please, listen. Your mom appeared in the dream, too. She thanked me and told me to tell you she loves you. She also said your dad isn’t dead.”
A mixed thrill shot through him, lifting his hopes. In the next instant he faltered, wondering if her dream had been another manipulation by the Korda to keep him positive. Kaiya followed his thoughts.
“I don’t think it was Edward’s doing, I really don’t. I can’t say why, it’s just there, in my gut. I think it was your mom, Austin. I felt her love for your dad and I felt her longing for him.”
“Does she know he worked for them? Did she know?”
Kaiya’s face showed her sadness. “I wish I knew, babe, I really do. Either way, it’s important to know he chose you over them. Every time. That helps, right?”
“There’s no guarantee he still will, is there? Or that he’s who I think he is.” He realized his tone had been biting. “I’m sorry.”
“No, there isn’t a guarantee and not knowing makes it hard, but at least he’s not passed on. He still has a chance. There is still hope and you’d better not lose it.”
He walked on, not wanting to draw attention. The wind tossed their hair and made the kites dance overhead. It seemed secrets would always haunt him, that truths would never be fully exposed. His dad was a mystery and it hurt knowing what he did. Hope was hard to feel.
She patted his stomach. “You wanna be cruel?”
“What?”
She looked up. “The wind, silly.”
“Ah. Too risky.” It wasn’t exactly true but it was an effective deflection. The day’s semblance of a normal life felt so good that exercising his telekinetics felt freakish.
“C’mon, I don’t mean bending, I mean reach out to the wind. Do it like you did when you were a kid. Try for me, I’m curious. You need to shake this funk.”
He hesitated, not ready to give up the emotions swirling about.
“You said it seemed intelligent somehow. Who knows what that really means? And when was the last time you tried?”
He looked down, then away to the ocean’s horizon. The ancient trackways Cathbad spoke of seemed to run through everything, throughout time. He had to get better at spotting them. This felt like one. When he looked back at her, it was with a mix of gratitude and respect for her and for the universe at once.
“Years, actually.”
“It can’t hurt, I don’t think.”
They retreated to a spot some distance from the competition where she sat and he laid down, ankles crossed.
“Post-lunch sleepies. I might fall asleep.”
She nudged his ribs with her knee. “I’ll keep you awake.”
He closed his eyes and for a jarring moment was thirteen again, on the roof with the same wind and the same need to calm it down. He cleared his mental deck and settled, centering on the present. After a bit he formed the earth and the Schoolhouse Rock winds. The imagery returned, as familiar as the first time.
“Alright, here comes.”
The calm feeling arrived, though whether from memory or not he couldn’t tell. He formed the gloved hand and focused on the billowing winds. Slowly he lowered it. The cartoon winds compressed, leaving room for only a little to pass. The calm feeling pervaded then, not memory at all, and nothing of his doing. He felt it echo from Kaiya in a saturating vibe. Validation tingled like tiny bells in his soul.
The wind gradually fell, bubbling up but then falling softer until the groan of the crowd was heard. He bottomed out in the peaceful shallows and stayed there. What it meant, how it could be, and why him were currents only, questions he had no answers for and knew he wasn’t meant to, yet. Without effort, without touching the quantum foam, he joined with the wind in the agreement of stillness and peace. It did suggest some kind of intelligence, some level of awareness from whatever force governed the wind’s flow. Two, then three minutes passed. After five, the DJ on the PA announced a break.
More time passed with barely a hint of a breeze. The sun warmed his face. He opened his eyes and with an effort pulled himself to a sitting position. His muscles felt like they had been marinated in the calm. He took a deep breath. And another. He wiggled his feet to get his heart rate back up.
She smiled at him.
“Alrighty then.” He thought of his mother and father and all the things they had done for him. He owed it to them to keep trying, to keep learning.
“Nice job, babe,” Kaiya said. She watched his face and waited for it. Over the next minute, the winds gradually returned until pendants on a nearby pole flapped again. Her eyes glistened.
A small cheer went up as the first kite leapt back into the sky.
He smiled at her. “How about that.”
About the Author
Michael J. Parks was born and raised in California’s Sacramento Valley. His interests include technology, the occult (defined: “knowledge of the hidden”), nature, art, music, and writing.
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[M1]Beginnings of Comannda
System Seven Page 55