He nodded. He thought he knew what was coming, but he felt the dread even when he said, "Kate I've never had a lot of time for prevarication, evasion, being vague. Give it to me straight please."
"Mike you know in yourself your life is coming to an end. I'm sensitive to everything and everyone around me. I can feel people's life force as clearly as a signpost." She shrugged. "I don't think it's a good thing most of the time, it's a burden," she said wistfully. "Anyway, by life force I mean more than just if you are awake or not, I mean the total you that makes you, you. I can sense your body clock, your emotions, your will to live."
She added, looking in his eyes, "When I touch you I can feel inside like looking into a puzzle seeing all the pieces and how they're put together. Tomorrow could be your last day, full stop, end. I doubt you will survive it, definitely not the coming week. The effort of packing up, the drive home, unpacking, all those stresses will add to your sadness and the deep sense of loss you've been feeling. It's plain to me. You've lost the will to live. Add the fact that you'll probably never be back here and how you feel about that, it will be time to pass for you. In your current state you'll embrace it as a peaceful end. Traumatic for a few moments then peace."
He stood there with his mouth open. "Dead?" he asked.
She nodded slowly looking into his eyes. There was no doubt in her and the problem was, he thought she was correct also.
"You can predict that?" but she shook her head.
"Sorry Mike, no, not a prediction, no," she said slowly, "an educated estimation based on observation and experience plus as you might have guessed, I am a little unique. I've seen it a hundred times. I can almost smell it and I'm seldom wrong by much. A day, maybe. A week? No, not by that much."
He had to sit in his chair. "Bastard!" he said with a slow smile, "all over! My last day." Then he thought of the up-side. "At least I didn't pay my utility bills before I left, I can make those pirates wait for their money."
Kate laughed spontaneously, the absurdity of that statement getting right at her funny bone which was not all that easy to get at. For her, life was a serious business. "That's why we like you Mike."
---oOo---
They sat for a short while together. He didn't speak, he couldn't. This was his last night. He felt the tightness in his chest, the slight constriction at his throat, the almost heady nervous tension. His last night.
Then, was that tightness in his chest a heart attack? Was that it? Was the slight heady feeling the fore runner to a stroke? A half dozen fears shot through him.
As he sat looking into the fire his emotions just swirled. He alternated from disbelief, through incredulity, into anger and then a deep depression all in the space of a few minutes. Then it all went round again.
His life! He thought about everything he had experienced that he could remember from junior school, his parents, his girlfriends, wife, children, jobs, people he’d known. All of his life sat with him as he thought about it all coming to an end.
Suddenly everything felt pointless, as if everything he’d done was going to be erased leaving nothing to mark his passing.
That was the saddest feeling.
---oOo---
"Mike, a guest shouldn't push but Resident and Companion would like to join us, would you mind?"
He nodded slowly, "Sure, I'll get dinner on," but he didn't feel much enthusiasm. All over!
He got out of his chair slowly, as that was all he could do on a good day now, then walked over to the camp table they'd setup.
Slowly he got the meal he’d reserved for the night from the camp fridge. He’d chosen a chicken stew done in a very light white wine sauce with carrot, beans and corn. He would cook some long grain rice to go with it plus a small square of Turkish bread toasted on the fire would complete the meal nicely. It was pretty much similar to most of his meals when he went camping. He chose it because it was very light which he guessed would suit Kate. She was as lean herself as anyone he had seen plus the meal she had consumed the last time she was here had been smaller than a child's portion he thought. She was not a big eater.
The best thing was that the meal was cold but already cooked one night the previous week. All it really needed was to be well reheated.
A silent half hour later everything was ready, the stew bubbling quietly. He went about the task almost like he was in a dream. Maybe this was the last meal he would cook? Then the thought; 'should I do the dishes? If I’m not going to be around much longer, what’s the point?'
Finally everything was ready. The rice soft and fluffy, the Turkish bread nicely toasted, the stew steaming.
"Kate do you think Resident would like some? It's a chicken stew in a very light white wine sauce with vegetables and rice." He’d never seen Resident eat, he had wondered about that, thinking it might be an intolerance thing.
Kate nodded, "Mike I think a very small portion like mine. I eat little, he is the same, probably more so."
He made up the three meals, his by far the largest but still a lot smaller than he normally consumed as his hunger was now gone. Kate and Residents meals probably added together to make up a single meal still smaller than his. "Perfect," said Kate then, "here they are."
He turned quickly, he hadn't heard or seen anything but there they were and he felt the tickle in his mind.
He smiled. He felt his own companionship with this man then he corrected himself. With this being. He had known him for quite a while now, so long that he thought of him as a human but he knew he was not. Same for Companion, he was just like a very good friend with an extra pair of legs. And shorter.
"Welcome friends!" he was smiling hugely now. The worry, or more precisely, the near terror of his final night having left him now that he was with these two again. All those years ago Resident had been correct, a wonderful friendship had sprung up, indeed.
"Mike," Resident said with a smile, "we meet again. Companion and I have been looking forward to this, an evening under the stars with friends. Thank you for sharing your end time with us."
He looked closely, Resident was not looking glum or sad or anything other than accepting of the moment. "You know?" he asked, wanting to know without asking the question too openly.
"Mike, yes I do. I can feel it in you and I can feel that Kate has told you. That is plain. My people know the time of passing as do most others. We hold a gathering to celebrate their life and to celebrate with them, to give thanks for them and remember being together. It is a celebration, a 'Passing Celebration' we call it."
Mike was struggling to come to terms with just how certain his death was to everyone. He was really finding it difficult to believe it. However 'the show must go on' he was thinking. He would deal with it when it happened, not as if he had much choice
---oOo---
They ate their dinner by the fire, an absolutely ideal place he thought. He always ate like this in the bush. He was quite hungry from his exertions of the day but he saw Kate and Resident ate their meals slowly, enjoying every bit of it.
"Mike," Resident said, "in my time here on your planet I have not had a meal with anyone. This is a first for me. I enjoyed it, it is different to what I am used to. Thank you."
Kate added, "Me too Mike. I like the combinations, the stew and rice done like that is a favorite."
He was happy. He had been a little concerned that his simple meal would not suit but it seemed it was at least adequate. He spent five minutes washing the dished in the tub, quickly drying them then he returned to the fire.
"Mike," Kate said, "let's talk. We've got a half hour till the others arrive, I think." He was suddenly feeling nervous about that, wondering what they would be like.
---oOo---
Memories Old and New
So began a time of nostalgia for him.
They talked about his life. His marriage, children, where he'd traveled and what he'd done with his life. He found it somewhat cathartic to talk like that, to let it all out to Kate and Resident. They were
happy contented listeners as the three of them sat in their chairs just looking into the fire feeling the flames on their faces.
He quite enjoyed that but he did have to ask, "Kate what about you? What do you hope to achieve in your life? You are still so young and from the little I know of you, you must have plans? Would you mind?"
Kate had a very gentle smile, as if she was mildly pleased with something. He wondered why and at what she was smiling. She seemed very definite though.
"Mike, I've already done a lot by many people's standards. I am a doctor now, a professor in some countries. I own a large successful business with an income in the billions and I hinted at that to you some time ago. I can lift the phone to call just about any head of state and they will take my call then take great care to heed my words. I've done that in the last eight years. I've got a lot of living left to do yet, a lot of things to do and achieve. I promise you that I've only just begun."
He heard what she said. It sounded boastful but she was not the type.
"Seriously Mike I have a long way to go. I have a residence in Riyadh and I'm building another in the Colombian jungle, called 'Jungle Deep' I would have liked to have shown you and I think you would like the people there very much. They're free spirits, living close to nature and making a go of it against the odds at times. The whole area is undergoing huge change. We're building a new kind of city integrating the deep jungle into the lifestyle of the people in a self sustainable manner. It's quite exciting."
He sat quietly. "What about you Resident, are you happy with the way Kate is progressing?" he just had to ask. Resident was a 'born listener' so getting anything out of him was a bonus. With Kate here be might lighten up?
Resident didn't look up from staring into the fire. "Mike I am neither happy nor sad though I experience this time as it passes with satisfaction more than happiness." He sat for a moment as he seemed to think more about the words. "I did not have the concept of satisfaction till I came to your planet but it is something I am finding to my liking."
Mike thought about that for a moment. What he said was probably more accurate, you couldn't be happy all the time but satisfied was a pretty good alternative and maybe deeper in some ways. He had that occasionally also.
"Mike," Kate said quietly, almost as if she didn't want to upset the moment, "feel like company?"
He looked up feeling lost and more than a little scared. "Now?" and Kate nodded, "quite a lot of them actually but they will take turns, you won't notice."
That sounded even more ominous but, well, he had agreed. "OK Kate, bring them on!"
---oOo---
Experience the Wild
Seemingly a second later the whole area was populated. Maybe fifty 'people' appeared out of thin air, just standing there, not moving, with their arms out from their bodies a few inches. It was suddenly the most 'spooky' moment of his life. Complete silence, maybe fifty people. As he looked he saw the differences slowly. They were not 'people' he suddenly thought, they seemed 'not quite right' for some reason. They held themselves differently giving off a feeling of difference in their minute body movements he now saw. They all seemed to be very similar in height, size, clothes and even their faces but they moved independently now, each one turning, twisting looking at everything in the area. Initially they had all been standing with their eyes closed, now they were wide open as they turned every which way looking.
He sat with his mouth open slightly, "Foolish of me to think I was all alone in the secluded mountain forests all these years. What was I thinking," he said under his breath. Then he added, "Should charge admission," as he started to chuckle slightly, his shoulders going up and down in the humor of the moment.
He watched them, it was absolutely fascinating. He fixed his vision on one then watched over a full minute as she, and he decided on a she because of the clothes and the general appearance, as she moved about the whole of the clearing. From the fire to his cooking area to the four wheel drive to the far side by the creek to his tent. She managed a drunkards walk going seemingly at random but also going everywhere.
"Mike," Kate said as she too had been watching with a slight smile, "look very closely. You'll see them flicker."
He looked at the same one he had been watching and sure enough he saw it. It was almost impossible to see, happening in just a small fraction of a second. Seeming the one he was watching jumped at times, not quite smoothly. It was as if she was jerked by a string or had stepped on something that threw her off balance but only for an instant.
"Kate I do, what is it? Some kind of intolerance or an instability in the link from somewhere else to here?"
Kate nodded. "Mike each person you see is here only for a few seconds then another takes their place. In an hour tens or hundreds of thousands will have visited here, tasting and experiencing the area. They share their experiences at a fundamental almost shared consciousness level but it's still unique to actually be here to feel our air on their faces. The flicker is the not quite precise alignment as one takes the place of another.
She sat quietly, "Mike, when I concentrate I can just feel the undercurrent of pleasure spreading out from them."
He sat watching, letting the moment linger. It was surreal to think that they were here for seconds only then swapping out to allow someone else the experience. It sounded selfless to him and if what Kate said was true, which he did not doubt, this would be a highly prized experience.
He was wondering how long this would go on for when he saw Kate out of the corner of his eye reach for her musical instrument. He saw it was a strange thing, a bit like the love child between the coupling of a small auto harp, a guitar or mandolin and maybe a very small piano he was thinking. It seemed to have a lot of keys as well as strings partly hidden, partly exposed, but also more of them than it should.
As soon as Kate touched the instrument every movement stopped other than for every person in the clearing to focus on her with an intensity that was scary.
He nearly said something but decided against it but 'shit that's upset the troops' came to mind, even though they didn't look upset. More sort of fixated perhaps.
He too, turned to watch Kate then he realized what it was. She was hypnotic in her own way when she put her mind to it. Her movements were 'bird like', quick, direct, focused and intimately familiar as she stroked the instrument. As she stroked it, it gave off a deep sighing song that was then punctured by gentle almost imperceptible tinkling as her fingers moved over the various keys. The sound itself rose then fell in volume, twisting and turning, indistinct yet heard clearly. 'Ethereal' was the word coming into his mind.
As he listened he doubted that it would be heard more than a few away but then he realized that the sound was coming at him from all angles, from everywhere as if he were inside the instrument. He looked at Kate more closely, she had her eyes closed as her head was bowed in concentration.
The effect on everyone else in the clearing was profound however. When Kate had started, every other movement stopped. Now every being was starting to move, eyes closed, moving round and around as well as all over the area to the music. It looked to him like they were 'sent', on some kind of an almost seemingly drug induced high. Then into the music he heard Kate singing again very quietly, hardly able to be heard with just sounds intertwining among the music. He listened carefully then he too became almost mesmerized by the music. Kate managed to twinge his brain, pulling it with the music into thinking about his life. Maybe it was the promise of his imminent demise that was doing it? He suspected it but also the ethereal music with Kate's almost subliminal voice defeated him completely.
All this time the others were swirling silently around the fire, moving to the music as if it were pulling their strings and he could understand that. He felt it himself, the music working its way into him. It suddenly amused him to think that this was now looking a hell of a lot like a pagan ceremony. Dancing around the campfire at night.
Kate wound the piece down over a few sec
onds till silence ruled the night again. The others were, with the cessation of Kate's playing totally still and silent, their heads down almost on their chests with their eyes closed. He thought they were waiting.
"Mike, I'm sure you know that music touches the soul. For the next hour I'll try very hard to reach out to everyone here, you, my other friends, to join us all together. In return for your gift to them, our friends would like to give you one in return. If you are brave, stay seated, close your eyes and take the hand that is given to you. Hold it firmly but not tight. You'll receive a gift of immense value."
He looked across at Kate. She still had her eyes closed but she was playing the strange instrument very quietly still.
---oOo---
The night finished short of midnight but only just. It had been a huge night for him, he had seen things he thought would never be seen by him or anyone else for that matter. He had glimpsed the future, that was the only way he could think of it.
When Kate had left he felt immensely sad. He wondered if he would ever see her again? He hoped so.
He sat in his chair feeling exhausted but supremely relaxed and surprisingly happy. It had been a night he would never forget. Then he realized, he would only have a day or two to remember it. Staggering slightly, feeling shaky on his feet he made it to his tent then quietly just went to bed. Laying there, looking up at the stars he suddenly felt a kinship. 'I've been there' came to his mind. He smiled at the thought. Who could say that? Maybe Kate? He drifted off to sleep feeling happy.
---oOo---
A New Day, a Last Day?
The morning when it came, came far too quickly and far too quietly, so quietly that he missed it completely. He slept in! He hadn't done that in years when he went camping. Because missing the early morning was missing some of the best part of the day quite often. It was a time when the birds were waking and most active with their song, when the air was crisp and clean smelling, a time when he could walk about the camp with a cup of coffee just looking at the bush, listening to the stream, watching the smoke rise slowly from the camp fire.
The Camper: First Contact and the Planet Tamer (The Stellar Universe Book 0) Page 18