“Now you know what’s up in the Uwall bus. They’re usually the same faces.”
“Thanks!”
“You’re welcome.” David smiled at me and then turned to talk to Abby.
I was watching them for a few minutes. David really was a gentle guy. He finally got her to smile and shortly thereafter, both were sharing the headphones from his iPod.
I began to quietly observe the other passengers. Up front, the Oriental boys were talking in their own language. I couldn’t understand anything.
Following my gaze, Delilah whispered, “Those two are part of the Fraternity Emma-o, the Asian League of Observatory of Languages from foreign students. It’s also part of this league—the Nezha, Xiwangmu, and Ittan Momen fraternities. At first I thought it was strange that the Japanese and the Chinese had fraternities only for them, unlike other foreigners. So I decided to research about it.
Considering the global crisis, globalization, international relations market, and all that nonsense that we see on the economy’s news on a rainy night, when we have nothing else to do, even a visit to the toilet and…Oh, God! You’re chattering again!
Well, it was natural...perhaps even necessary, that a university adapt their structures, the economic fluctuations. After all, these produce effects on the labor market and therefore, in the education of individuals. And, on second thought...“Asian Tigers” account for, at present, a significant portion of the production of consumer goods on the planet.
“I think I understand why Asians have distinguished themselves on this campus,” I said.
“I have a theory about them too...,” She finally whispered to me.
Mmm... I’ll bet that it has nothing to do with my brilliant economic explanation.
“I think Emma-o is equivalent to the Yellow Mantles. I have watching them and doing some queries to the Internet... The four fraternities are somehow interconnected, like the tentacles of a much larger organization ...I mean, I think they act as instances from only one entity.
Is it a kind of Asian Mafia? I almost laughed. Almost!
“Don’t you dare laugh at me!” she made an angry face and looked around. “If there were vamp... I mean... if there were ‘non-humans’ here, we couldn’t talk about it. They listen to absolutely everything that humans say within a radius between two and five kilometers. I’m still not sure about that.”
What nonsense! Mmm... Would it be possible? Suddenly, I was worried. What Adrian and Stephen could have heard out of my distracted mouth? Damn!
“But there are only human people today... Even if some people are the trash of their species...” She launched a withering look at Violet’s back. “I think we can talk...”
“According to the articles I read about Chinese mythology… Well, the Nezhas are ‘in charge of conducting the spirits of criminals and rebels in the way of good’, preventing them from being tempted by demons. They are also responsible for periodic monitoring of their actions. I think they could be considered as parole agents of the ghosts, demons and vampires offenders. Unlike the damphir, they prioritize the rehabilitation of sinners.”
“Damphir?”
“The damphir are not interested in the redemption of evil beings. They will hunt and kill—especially the vampires. Because they are creatures who the damphir hate most in the entire world. Through its extra powers the damphir can easily find the vampires since they inherited their powers from vampires, so damphir descend from vampires, you know?”
“However, the mothers of damphir are not vampires. They are human and usually die during childbirth. I mean the ‘baby-monsters’ tear their bodies from the inside out.” She shook her head, “Whatever!”
Oh, I see, like the creatures from the Alien movies!
“Vampire fathers just want to have sex. Obviously, most children born to reckless acts should be left to their own devices. Anyway, the survivor damphir grow up with a deadly hatred of their fathers, so they dedicate themselves to hunting them. But not all children of vampires with human females develop powers. According to the Internet texts that I read, some damphir grow up living and dying like ordinary humans and they don’t even know of their origins.”
She paused to catch her breath, and then continued.
“Back to Nezhas... There is another explanation for this name. The Chinese mythology says Nezha was the son of a general, who was born of a prolonged, three-year pregnancy. That kid came into the world in the size of an older child, wearing armor and carrying his own weapons. The Nezha from this version was a temperamental little fellow, always putting parents into terrible trouble.”
“Two very different versions for the same name,” I said, skeptical. “From the information available, we cannot draw a definite conclusion about what it means to be a Nezha in Hadrian’s Wall.”
“I guess not...” Delilah said, discouraged. “About Xiwangmu, I discovered that it is the name of a goddess—the Queen Mother of the West, which holds the secret of eternal life. According to some articles on Chinese mythology, she lived in a jade palace. The illustrations of ancient frescoes available on the Internet represent her as a fierce creature, with features and fangs of a tiger. Well...it isn’t a panther, but...I think it’s like the same...both are cats.”
I had to take my hat off to her. She investigated the dark gods as much or more than I had.
“Don’t you think they are appropriate names?” She was saying something that I missed.
“Yes... uh ... Yes, they are appropriate names!” I replied. For God’s sake! Appropriate for what? I had no idea what she was getting with all that information.
“That’s what I thought,” she said, satisfied. “I just don’t understand how the vampires are subjected to such control by mere...human people. So if humans control anything here, it’s because they cut a deal. Humans cannot control immortals.”
Here she comes with her vampires, again!
Just in case, I decided to look more closely at the two Chinese boys. Even doubting that they were vampire hunters, there was something suspicious in the air. I felt that they were having a quiet and fascinating discussion, being discreet, because neither openly displayed any interest in anything happening around them. It was fascinating to me, because now it was fun to guess who was going to be the first to explode. Only their eloquent eyes were moving, evidencing the critical energy between them.
Suddenly one of them looked at me. The colleague also noticed and looked at me with hostility. I smiled, trying to appear sympathetic, but both reciprocated my gesture with such contempt that I averted my eyes to the landscape, wishing that the earth beneath the bus would open up and swallow me.
“You forgot Ittan Momen and Emma-o...” I said to Delilah just to distract myself.
“Ah, it is! The sites I consulted on the Internet say that Emma-o is the Japanese god of the underworld.” She wiggled her eyebrows up and down. “Suggestive, don’t you think?”
“Too much.” I said in a monotone.
She didn’t realize my irony and continued. “He lives in the yellow fountains...more than suggestive—’yellow mantles’ versus ‘yellow fountains.’ What do you think now?”
“Super.” I wished that she’d shut up.
“In mythology, it is Emma-o, the judge of the dead. He evaluates the past of those who are going into limbo. That is, he has a list of the sins of each one...and according to this list, he decides the severity of penalty that the deceased sinners will face.
“The Ittan Momen is not working in that story. You see?” She changed her position to look at me face to face. “All other mythological beings are involved with the supervision of the creatures that inhabit the depths of hell.” This has everything to do with the yellow mantles performing the same function. But the Ittan Momen... No way!” she grimaced. “By information that I grabbed on the Internet, they are merely pieces of tissue.”
“How?”
“White tissues tend to ‘fly’ around people. Legend has it that when they involve some
one’s head, they can crush their skull, smothering or strangling the person.
“Jeez! But you know what? On second thought, it has a connection,” I said. “All of them have this thing to watch and punish...”
Delilah thought about and nodded.
“I wonder what happens when the four fraternities meet? Or rather, what needs to happen to get all of them together? Delilah asked softly, as if talking to herself. So she stayed quietly focused in her own thoughts.
We remained silent for several minutes, enjoying the view. As the Uwall bus was moving forward, the houses and trees were becoming sparse. Small hills had taken their place, but not for long. The road once again found the jagged shadows of tall trees and disappeared from view.
In that stretch, the terrain became more rugged. The low hills gave way to the high hills, where the road boldly snaked... So the bus made the first big turn around the hill—to my surprise, the rest of the climb was pretty much straight.
Suddenly, came the first indication that we were on the university’s lands. The March was just a simple and discreet sign containing the institutional emblem. Hmm... After all of the extravagance that I have been witnessing in town, this simple sign seemed out of place against the grandeur of the region.
“Did you hear the latest news?” Delilah knew that I hadn’t, so amended her question. “I received a cell phone message earlier today. As soon as Verano left Skull Rock, he came face to face with a late model Hummer blocking the roadway. Two men in black got out. One of them escorted Joe to the Hummer and the other took the wheel of Joe’s car.”
My God! I even could imagine the scene...
“A person who witnessed the event said that Vincent Cahill was in the backseat of the Hummer. No one has seen Joe Verano anywhere since Sunday. His car was found in the parking lot of the university with the keys in the ignition. What do you think?”
I remembered my inconsequential telephone conversation with Adrian and I shivered! God forbid that he has done something to Joe Verano! I couldn’t bear it. Yes, he was a troublesome journalism student—annoying and also insensitive, but that didn’t justify retaliation...particularly if it came from powerful people that didn’t need to care about someone as insignificant as Joe Verano. The Cahills didn’t need to do this. But if they did...so this will tell me what kind of people they were—regardless of whether they belong to the human race or not.
“We have to find out what happened to him,” I whispered.
Delilah agreed with a solemn nod of her head. She wasn’t sure of my motives, but she understood the urgency in my voice.
The bus shifted gears with a bump, decreasing speed. I looked out and realized that we were reaching the archway of a gatehouse where a group of muscular security guards was watching the monitors visible through large windows that covered the entire university campus. They also controlled entry and exit of vehicles within the limits.
One of the guards left the group and approached the bus. He seemed to be the team leader because his uniform had something different from the others. He talked briefly with the driver. As if they were old acquaintances, the security man released the vehicle after checking the driver’s identification. Then, at last, he threw us a final, penetrating gaze. It was not a “professional look” but almost... I’d say it was a “trained eye” to detect potential hazards or potentially dangerous persons. He seemed startled when his gaze fell upon me. I had no time to see if seeing me was the cause of the man’s surprised look as the bus began moving again.
We pass through the raised seal and followed a fork of the road, where the road was divided into two opposite directions: Uphill and Downhill. It was possible see through the trees, some low buildings and squares, but when the bus turned to Uphill Street, other angles of those buildings became visible. Interested galleries connected by glass and steel - the buildings were forming an exotic collection of mazes.
“That’s the laboratories complex. Next to it is the morgue for the anatomy classes. People call ‘the Minotaur Labyrinth’ because it’s very common for freshmen to get lost here. Once, a small group of nursing students disappeared overnight from Friday after classes. All were rescued on Saturday morning because they managed to find the correct number phone of campus security and call them for help. They were freaking out! They told the chief of security that they’d heard sounds coming from the hallways and the forest...
“You’re making this up.”
“No, I am not!” She shook her head solemnly. Her sly look denounced her fun.
“I think the anatomy studies are offered as optional discipline to other courses, beside medical studies...that included arts. I know because I checked the curriculum of your course.”
“Oh! You’ve so been checking up on me?” I asked, pretending some indignation.
“Sure, I’ve got your back! Wherever you go, Stephen will be around you.”
“So...” I snorted.
She didn’t allow me to interrupt her. “In the checklists of compulsory and optional credits, I found the same subject... Then I wondered if you intend to venture through the sinister maze, only to follow in the footsteps of Da Vinci and Michelangelo?
I was amazed at the question and took a few seconds to think of an answer.
“Well, it’s true that both studied many corpses to reach the perfection of their work, with regard to the anatomy of the human figures. But I have no pretensions of becoming a famous artist, much less a genius of the art...I think I’ll skip that part. I prefer to ask someone alive to pose naked for me.”
Abby and David, who had turned off the iPod minutes ago, listen to my last comment.
“Mmm...” The three exchanged a joker’s glances.
“Come on! Tell us... Who will be your model?—Delilah asked, maliciously.
My cheeks warmed. It was not hard to figure out about what...or rather who she was talking about. I tried to curb Adrian’s images, his naked body in front of me. I put my forehead on the window and looked out. I heard the sound of their laughter.
27
ALPHABET OF TREES
Now we were passing some buildings, interspersed with parking lots, plazas, and parks. I did not realize that the university would be so big. I believe that it was bigger than Dailey’s Crossing and Groveton combined. Hmmm...maybe I should add Berlin to the equation.
I gazed absentmindedly at the people outside of the bus—the obviously human people, the “suspected human” people with their odd behavior, or those I categorized as “pale faces,” some of whom wore the bracelet with the symbol, though some did not.
Suddenly, I was startled by the appearance of Asia Chadwick exiting a magnificent magenta sports car convertible. While I was gazing at her, Vincent Cahill—the “angel face”—exited the driver’s door.
Despite my annoyance, I have to admit that they are a beautiful couple, that Asia really is quite beautiful. She was wearing a skirt that showed her perfect legs; her smooth, shiny hair that reaches her waist; and the sexy, low-cut blouse that emphasized her bust and waist. How depressing! I could never hope to compete with a creature as beautiful as she. To make matters worse, my sense of aesthetics signaled that she really was the perfect match for Adrian. They are a perfect combination—beautiful, rich, sophisticated, non-humans...My heart sank.
Asia smiled at Vincent, and then she tucked a book under one arm. All of a sudden, they stopped. Their posture was rigid, like two mannequins in a store window. They began to sniff the air...slowly turning their heads toward the bus. Their movements seemed robotic, but synchronized...like The Terminator!
I had the uncomfortable feeling that the gaze emanating from the two pairs of eagle eyes behind the sunglasses could pierce through me. Lucky for me their sunglasses had mirrored lenses, so I couldn’t see their eyes changing color. But it was Vincent’s total immobility that bothered me more than seeing Asia. He’s one of the Adrian’s brothers that I hadn’t met yet, although I was sure he wasn’t interested in meeting me.
Vincent stood there, impassive, his hand resting on the hood of the elegant car. Suddenly, he turned to Asia and motioned nodded almost imperceptibly. She reluctantly walked around the car and offered him her free hand. Vincent turned his head toward me one last time before stepping onto the stone path leading to the covered portion of the parking lot.
UWall’s main building was stark white and gleamed in the sun. Its weird, jagged glass domes were partially hidden from prying eyes, thanks to the intelligent landscape of trees and exotic plants. The scene seemed straight out of the pages of Flash Gordon or Barbarella. Luxury cars were entering and leaving the parking lot.
“The Cahills’ domain,” Delilah whispered.
An absolute fact...
When the UWall bus stopped I noticed all the “lab coats” waiting at the bus stop, but before the bus came back around, I had an opportunity to analyze the Vincent Cahill’s stylish appearance. He was wearing low-waisted plaid pants with an orange and black pattern, a dark navy blue jacket, and casual shoes that were a lighter shade than the jacket. His hair looked wet, as if he’d just showered or applied hair gel. Some curls had escaped from his dark blue wool cap. He most definitely looked like a mixture of playboy and hip-hop star.
Hmm... It was obvious that Vincent Cahill was proud of his good looks. I realized that he’s the male version of his fashionable cousin, Charity. Sure, why didn’t I think of that before?
Up ahead was the medical center, with all of its related clinics and administrative departments: Nursing, Clerkships, Public Health, and so forth.
Hadrian's Wall Page 51