Bebe applauded. “I am so happy to be here. You are the most entertaining of companions.”
Alice looked at me in a very threatening manner. “Unless of course my pal James has been giving him instructions. How about it Mr. Cagney, is this your work?”
“I swear I had no involvement,” I said. “It’s a surprise to me and I’m thinking we should find out just what this guy is capable of.”
“That’s a good idea, James,” M1 said, “but you all should really look outside.”
We did and it was quite a sight. The blue tube was taking us through the equivalent of a shallow tropical reef, thick with coral and some sort of seaweed. The place was, as expected, teeming with a dazzling variety of fish and other strange creatures.
“Harry,” Alice called back, “have you put a dollar value on this vacation package yet?”
“So far,” he replied, “the meter reads about a billion per tourist.”
This part of the trip was smooth, quiet and picturesque. We began to relax and enjoy the ride, which continued on for about one mile before the reef ended and the blue tube began to descend into the gloomy depths. Soon the bottom dropped away and everything below us was solid black, but Blue and Jesus didn’t seem to mind. As we went deeper the light faded and soon our trolley turned on its floodlights. At first there wasn’t much to see. Small bits of debris and the occasional fish swam into view, but they took no notice of us and went on their way.
“We’re rather deep are we not?” Amy asked the crew.
“That we arrrrr lassie,” Harry replied.
“This sea didn’t appear on any of Fran’s maps,” Alice said.
“Perhaps,” Bob said, “because it is not here.”
“I just hope this five thousand-year-old trolley is still water tight,” Amy said.
Bebe turned to her. “This thing is five thousand years old?”
She nodded yes. “But the warranty is still good.”
Our trolley was still going along at a good clip and soon the ocean floor came into view. The blue tube wound its way through the ruins of an ancient, sunken city. Our lights penetrated down the streets and avenues of that forlorn, but beautiful place. We sat spellbound until we reached the city’s edge where the ocean floor began a steep ascent. We all felt a sense of relief when the floodlights turned off and the daylight above began to penetrate the gloom. We broke the surface and as soon as we cleared the sandy beach our speed resumed.
Shan, who was in the front seat, turned back to say something to Alice, but she looked past her and pointed to the rear. “Look back!” she said. “The ocean is no longer there. All I see is a small dip in the ground.”
She was right. Behind the trolley I saw that the blue tube had actually followed the land as it went down a short incline. It leveled for about two hundred yards then went back up. I asked Joe, out loud, if he had an explanation.
“Very strange.” he said. “We were only in that depression for about forty seconds and our speed was constant. Somehow the illusion also stretches our perception of time. I have no information on how that materialized, but I see no other explanation.”
“Joe,” Alice said, “please tell me what I see ahead is just another illusion.”
“Jesus says the waterfall is real,” Joe said matter-of-factly,” and the blue tube does indeed follow it over the edge.”
“Whoa,” Alice said, “you can read Jesus’s mind?”
“After much effort, I can now hear some of Jesus’s thoughts, but only when he permits it.”
“We’ll discuss it later,” M1 said. “Check your gear everyone. Hang on to something!”
Instantly Amy glued herself to him and Bebe did the same to me. The blue tube swung out and just above the rapidly moving water, but we couldn’t yet see over the edge. When we got there our trolley dipped over the rim and plunged downward. We all desperately clutched our seat rails except for Shan. She screeched in delight with her arms in the air and whooped like it was a roller coaster ride. M2 tried to remain stalwart, but he did look a bit pale. Great clouds of mist, kicked up by invisible boulders, obscured the bottom. Our craft accelerated along with the water and in a few breathless seconds we dove, full speed, into that dense cloud. Moments later we experienced g-forces as we pulled out of the dive and rocketed clear of the tumult. Our craft decelerated and soon we were back in our tourist mode, cruising away from the now calm river, but no one spoke for a while. I did hear some heavy breathing and some of it was mine.
“Bad,” Shan said, but when we looked we saw it was Blue.
“Poor Blue,” Shan said. She took his head in her lap to comfort him. Never one to miss an opportunity to capitalize on sympathy, I heard him mutter, “Spam?”
“You must admit old Blue there is consistent,” Alice commented.
“That last ride was a doozie,” M2 said. “I hope it’s the most spectacular event.”
“Me too,” Alice said, reaching for her canteen. “I got quite a twinge in my tum tum.
“Ouch!” Harry exclaimed, “Jesus, the evil one, has many claws and here he is digging them into my lap. I wish I hadn’t sat next to you, James.”
He pried my cat from his lap and moved to hand him to me, but Jesus had other ideas. He scrambled out of Harry’s hands and landed securely on Alice’s lap.
It was my, until now, faithful cat. Apparently he abandoned me as we went over the falls and had her upper left leg in a tight embrace.
“Well, my dear,” I said, “Jesus just dumped his provider for you. I guess Joe was right. Cats know things beyond our ken.”
“I'm not sure that I want the responsibility,” she said.
“Animals don't lie,” Bebe said to Alice. “You should feel honored that he turned to you as his protector and James, if Jesus were a dog you should feel slighted, but a cat is very different. His emotions reside deep within. He is the true alien among us.”
“Good looking and smart too,” Harry muttered. “I think she just said something important.”
“Eyes front, kids,” M1 said. “Methinks we have arrived.”
Straight ahead was the end of the world.
CHAPTER 13
We were coming to the edge of the colossal crater. This was the end of the trolley line. The single round building stood near the rim and the blue tube looped around it. The structure was big and circular with no roof as such. The sidewalls rose straight for about twenty feet then sloped in and came to a point.
“Looks like a giant Viking helmet, “Amy said, “only without the horns. Also looks like more of that forever material—too bad it only comes in white.”
“No windows,” Alice said, “just the one door that I can see. You’d think they would have done a little more in the way of design and aesthetics for their amusement park, but we’ll discuss it later. Check your gear. Not a single flag or fairy princess in sight.”
Our vehicle swung around the back of the building and came to rest near the edge of the drop-off. The blue tube continued on and angled off in a slightly different direction. We got out and walked over to the edge. Fortunately, there was a substantial U-shaped railing to hang on to as mere inches in front of our feet was a vertical drop of perhaps a thousand feet. For a moment I felt dizzy. A strong updraft almost removed my hat, but the girls took theirs off to let the wind play with their hair. All around the perimeter a hundred or a thousand waterfalls spilled over the edge. The scale was so vast the distant falls seemed to drift down in slow motion.
We couldn’t see the base of the falls because of the clouds of mist that billowed up and out toward the mile-wide island in the center of the crystal lake. At the far end of the crater I saw the mouth of the tremendous cavern. Partially hidden by the mist, it must have been the width of a ten-lane highway. This indeed was where the water from the thousand waterfalls would exit the great pond.
What held my eye though was the island and the city of gold that had to be the ‘Area of Entertainment.’ It looked like no amusement park I ha
d ever seen. The island was basically a series of casual rings, capped with a small, tree covered, and circular plateau. Although not as rough and hilly, it did remind me of a Greek island I had visited in my youth, but with intense vegetation hiding all but some short steep-sided cliffs. Everywhere we saw burnished golden structures of a bewildering variety. Here and there a tree-lined trail wound up toward the park-like area at the top.
M1 put his arm around Amy. “Miss Bassett, you get the platinum medal for an appropriate name for a planet. This is indeed a phenomenal enigma. Congratulations.”
Amy smiled and leaned her head on his shoulder.
“Did you notice,” Bebe said, “in many places there is a small bit of land that sticks out from the island. On each one is some sort of golden structure.”
Harry pointed at one of the peninsula-like extensions. “That reminds me of pictures I’ve seen of what the Colossus of Rhodes looked like way back when. One thing I don’t see is a Nazi flag.”
For a time, we simply stood there at the edge of wonderland and tried to absorb the beauty. A while later I heard the soft clicks of M2’s camera. And that brought us all back to reality. I asked Joe if what we were looking at was an illusion. He replied that Jesus still thinks it’s real.
“How can we get there?” Shan asked.
“Look here,” Alice said, “there’s a small plaque with a single white circle here on the railing. It has some wavy line writing. Shan, can you read this?”
Shan joined Alice and leaned over to read what was there. “It translates into alternate entry or without direction. That is the best I can do.”
“There are times,” Alice said, “when we proceed willy-nilly, but I don’t know about this.”
“There are no steps,” M1 said, “and I see no elevator. I think maybe we should take a temporary pass on this and investigate the building behind us. Maybe it’s a tourist center.”
With that, the Band trouped around to the front of the Viking helmet. There was no lock. The door had a simple handle and when depressed, swung inward on silent hinges. After blocking the door open the boys went through to look for booby traps. A minute later they called us in.
“Ah-haa,” Alice said, “Enigma has a beauty parlor, I think.”
I couldn’t imagine a closer parallel. There were pedestals going all around the inside of the outer wall. We later counted thirty units. On each pedestal was a chair facing inward that would look at home in any beauty shop. No strange instruments were dangling overhead nor were there any tables or cabinets.
“They’re probably rental stalls,” Alice said. “I assume one has to bring one’s own equipment.”
About ten feet in front of each was a flat panel that extended to the roof. Each chair had its own panel butted up against its neighbor, forming a solid circular wall around the entire center. Each panel featured a sliding metal door with a single button on the side.
“Looks like elevator doors,” Harry said, “but I see no call buttons.”
“Could this be an entrance to the Golden City?” Bob asked.
The only signage anywhere was a plaque fixed to the right arm of each chair. We walked around a bit. M2 took a few pictures while Shan and Bob read the wavy lines. After some discussion between the two Primes, they decided Shan was the better translator.
“This is weird,” she said. “I think the guy who made these word holders expected me to already know stuff, but I will give it a whirl. First I will read it straight and then we can talk it over.” Her audience gathered around as she ran her fingers over the wavy lines. “This chair will bring you to the place of wonders. This is my guess. It doesn’t actually say Golden City and I think maybe the elevator will take me there. It also says only one at a time. I hope some of the other chairs allow us to go together. This chair will give me my Best Personal Journey. It gives two time spaces—one for the sample in this chair and the other if I go to the elevator. The weirder thing is there are two time spaces for each duration. I think I say that proper. One is—objective and short, is that sounding right?” We nodded. “The other is subjective,” she looked and we nodded again, “and a lot longer.”
“Time manipulation,” Alice said, “like our deep sea adventure.”
“That would explain it,” Amy said.
“What are the times involved in the chair?” M1 asked her.
Shan thought for a moment and then said, “Objective is maybe five minutes. Subjective is—wow, from one season to another.”
“Wow is right,” Alice said.” Could be most of a year. How about the times involved if we took the elevator?”
Shan looked hard at her watch. “Objective—three or four hours and more than eighty years subjective. Did I say that right? Does that mean what I think it means?”
Alice came to her rescue. “I think so. Our experience will feel like it lasts eighty years, but in reality it will only take three or four hours.”
“That’s one long a trip,” Harry said. “I’d have to think about it.”
“Good grief!” Amy exclaimed. “That’s a whole lifetime. I don’t know if I’m ready for that. Maybe I would if my current existence was boring, but that is not the case. I couldn’t leave you guys for that long, even subjectively.”
“Amy says what we all feel,” Bebe said quietly. “I have known most of you for a very short time, but I would refuse to leave for any time at all.”
“All right then,” Alice said. “Before this reaches the group hug stage, how about we have Shan read the plaques on the rest to the chairs? We need more information before we can decide.”
Shan moved to the next chair and her audience tagged along behind. She didn’t give us a running commentary except for a few of the adventure titles such as Considerable Danger. The times involved varied quite a bit, but all were lengthy. The title translations were rather awkward, but it seems in some journeys one could live another’s life, become an animal or even a type of tree. That last one was over a thousand subjective years. At the halfway point the chairs had an added rail along each side and the number of people that could partake began to increase. By the time we had completed the circle, the count was up to twenty persons per trip.
“Meeting time,” M1 announced. “What should we do?”
“Could Blue and Jesus go with us?” Shan asked. “They weren’t affected by the other illusions.”
“I wonder if it’s like a computer game.” Amy speculated. “Maybe we would become avatars; I mean real avatars or something like that.”
“Man O Man,” Harry exclaimed. “I feel like a cave man stumbling upon a new Cadillac. It sure is pretty, but being a cave man, I’m kinda scared of it.”
“I’m with Harry on that,” M2 said, “and can one quit in the middle of an eighty year romp or is one required to complete the adventure? It would be real nice if we could find a rule book.”
Alice added, “I imagine in the old days, when the Primes used this place, there would be staff here to explain things. Maybe we should just put this on our ‘to do’ list for now. We can always return. James, what does that gut of yours tell you, and come to think of it, why don’t we ask Joe?”
“Right now,” I replied, “my gut is only reminding me it will soon be lunchtime. Okay, Joe, it’s your turn.”
“My job is to add my two cents when I have two cents to add, but I have nothing to put in at this point. Your approach to the dilemma is logical and I recommend you continue the process.”
“Any input from Jesus?” I asked.
“As usual,” Joe replied, “I get a sense of boredom of one degree or another, along with the desire to have Alice scratch him behind his ears. Most of the time his wants are simple.”
“Okay then,” Alice said, “can you tell him I’ll scratch him if he tells us if we can exit these things when we want to?”
“Yes I can try,” Joe said.
As soon as Joe spoke, Jesus slid down Alice’s back and ran out of the door.
Alice looked from the c
at to the computer around my neck and back again. “What just happened?”
“He won’t go far,” Joe said. “He is angry and sulking. His understanding is that it is a privilege for humans to pet him.”
“And,” M2 said, “he also seems to have no concept of bargaining. He could earn many sardines just by telling us things.”
“Like I’ve said before,” Harry added. “Me, I don’t trust cats. They always look like they’re calculating something or other.”
We tossed the problem around for a while. It began to look as though we would be leaving the Golden City for a later date. It came as a surprise when Bob, who had been silent and watchful, suddenly spoke up. “I would like to volunteer to sit in the first chair. The plaque speaks of a best personal journey and that seems to be my specialty. I am sincerely reluctant to leave you all for any length of time, but I am best suited to travel alone and the reality is it will take mere minutes. I wish to do this because you have allowed me to be a part of this grand adventure. Perhaps the chair will somehow take me to the Golden City. We must explore this possibility. I feel this will be the first time I will make a significant contribution. I too am thinking of Nora.”
Alice grabbed him in a great bear hug and said, “Dammit, Bob, the only problem I have with you guys is every now and then you make me want to cry.”
“He is a sweetheart, isn’t he?” Amy added.
For the first time we saw a blush added to the wistful smile of the man from Sequoia Provence. We were universally reluctant to accept his offer, but he was persistent and rational and finally got us to agree.
“Think he should take that blasted cat?” Harry asked.
That was a definite no. There were just too many unknowns and we didn’t want to volunteer Jesus. It simply didn’t seem right.
“So, it’s a go for Bob,” M1 said. “I see no controls on the chair. I guess all you have to do is to take a seat. I also recommend, Bob, that you try to exit the experience before the end. This chair looks best because it has the shortest time.”
LOST AND FORGOTTEN: BOOK THREE - ENIGMA Page 10