Ferdie and The Seven: Book three: Fractals

by Larry Buenafe

  “Ok, give me a minute.” I walked down the familiar hall in my mind, found the door with Marsh-dog’s picture on it, and looked in. There, as if it was on a giant movie screen, was a brain. As I watched, it split in half, and right in between the two halves of the brain was a white, curved chunk of material, and it was clearly connecting the two sides. To make it obvious, Marsh-dog made it glow, as if lit from within. How does he do that? Of course, he could ask how do you go in my brain and see what I’m thinking, so I guess we’re even…

  I pulled out of Marsh-dog’s mind, and he said, “And that, “Nando, is the corpus callosum. I’m pretty sure if you look there in Aida’s brain you’ll see that it’s damaged. Then it’s up to you to do something about it, right? I think it’ll probably be like it was with Ling; when you get in there, you’ll just feel what to do to fix it. Hopefully, anyway. Ok, my work here is done. Send in the next Jedi, ready Yoda is.”

  “Ok, dude, settle down. I’ll see you later.”

  I faded back into the RV, and found that the rest of the group had exited and was standing around outside. I poked my head out the door, and said. “Can I join you?”

  Denise waved me out, and Aida said, “I don’t know what to think yet. It’sh weird, you sheem for real, and I’m having trouble accshepting that. But, I would like to be back to normal, and Denishe tellsh me you can do it. That’sh pretty amazhing, and I would probably be shtupid to pash up the chanshe. Give me shome evidenshe of the kindsh of thingsh you can do. That might help me undershtand and believe.”

  That brought a smile to my face. “You want a little display? How about this.” I went into the in-between and instantly popped out twenty feet away, and it was so fast that it would have been impossible to tell when I left the original spot and when I arrived at the new spot. “Hey, how did you do that? No one can go that fasht,” Aida squealed.

  The rest of the group laughed, and Ling said, “This is true. No one can go so fast, but Ferdie can. He has great abilities.”

  “That’sh a pretty good trick. Let’sh she what elshe you can do.”

  I’m pretty sure I’ve got her, but this should seal the deal… “Ok, but none of the rest of our group has seen this one either, so you’ll all get to see it for the first time right now. Sorry, guys, I was saving this… I didn’t want to tell you in case I wasn’t able to perfect it, but I’ve got it down now. Hang on a second.”

  I went into my mind, divided my attention, and projected out a bubble of energy, just as I had shown Marsh-dog. The visual result was a very slight shimmer or distortion, hardly noticeable. “Ok, Raffy, come at me. Let’s fight.”

  Rafael’s eyes got big, and he said, “Oh, no, Mr. Ferdie. I have no wish to fight with you. I could hurt you, and then where would we be?”

  I smiled wider still, and said, “Don’t worry, you can’t hurt me. Come on, come at me, big man.”

  Rafael peered at the rest of the group sheepishly, and they shrugged their shoulders as if to say, ‘I don’t know what he’s up to, but go ahead.’

  “Very well, Mr. Ferdie, I apologize in advance.” He stood up and ran at me as if to tackle me and… bounced off my force field, fell backwards, and landed right on his hind end. He hit it hard enough that I felt a bit of the impact, although it just moved me an inch or so.

  “I’m sorry, Raffy, I didn’t mean to embarrass you, I just wanted to give Aida a good look at some of the things I can do. And the rest of you too, I guess.”

  There were smiles and some embarrassed giggling throughout the group, and Rafael said, “Mr. Ferdie! Will your surprises never end? This… this shield you have created, this has never been done before! How did… Mr. Ferdie!”

  “The rest of you, try to get to me. Denise, try to punch me.”

  Denise stood, took a karate stance, and swung. The recoil also knocked her off her feet, and she ended up sitting on the ground next to Rafael.

  Arnie then spoke up: “This is quite a discovery. How strong is it?”

  “I’m not sure, but so far I’d say it’s strong enough to stop two angels. So, Aida, what do you think? Is that evidence enough for you?”

  Her uncontrolled hand waved about wildly. “Ok, ok. Let’sh try thish before I get cold feet.”

  Yes! Now I just have to do the hardest thing of all… the last time I tried this, with Ling, I felt like it almost killed me, and this is going to be tougher… of course, I’ve been improved by the Time Flies in the meantime, so maybe it won’t be so hard… yeah, right…

  “I’m glad you are willing to try. If things go right, you could be good as new in a little while. What we need to do first is get you part way into the in-between. About three-fourths of the way there seems about right. Then two of the angels will do their best to hold you steady at that point while I take a look to see what the problem is. At that point we’ll stop and talk about it, and if we’re ready we’ll proceed to trying to fix the problem. This won’t be easy for you, by the way. Can you even get to the in-between with the damage you have?”

  Aida looked a little embarrassed, and said, “I can, but only for a shecond. If I have to shtay part way there… I won’t be able to do that. Theshe angelsh will have to hold me there.”

  “Ok. I wonder… maybe it would be easier if all three of you held her in place. Let’s try it and see what happens, Arnie, Raffy, Denise. Ling, Pasquale, Aunt Martha, this might be really difficult for me, and there’s a possibility I might pass out, so if you would be ready to catch me if I fall that would be cool. Ok? Are we ready to give it a try?”

  Aida looked very nervous, but everyone else seemed on board. “Ferdie, before you start, shall we do the high-five?” asked Ling.

  “Yes, totally. Let’s all do the high-five.” We all smacked palms, and Aida looked on, puzzled.

  “You guysh are for real, aren’t you? Thish ish crazhy. Ok, let’sh get to it.”

  “Alright, so I’ll let you guys know when we’re at the right point on the way to the in-between, and you’ll have to hold there until I give you a signal. It won’t be easy to hold that position, but I’ll go as fast as I can.” The angels put their hands on Aida’s shoulders to guide her while I went down the old, darkened hall in my mind, found Aida’s door, and looked inside. “Start moving her to the in-between… that’s it.” Everything’s fuzzy… seems a little easier with three angels leading her, though… she’s not sweating and shaking as much as Ling was… ok, keep going… steady… uh-oh, starting to feel a little light-headed… ok, I’m starting to get a clearer picture… a little further… a little further…

  “Ok! Hold her right there, I’ll go as fast as I can.” Wow, super-clear in here… still confusing, though, just like with Ling… got to push in, right to the middle… keep going… wait, there, is that… it looks like… oh, yeah, there it is, the corpus callosum… the thing is ripped almost completely in half, right in the middle… should I just try to fix it? If I don’t do something quick, I’m gonna pass out… I told her I would stop, and if I don’t, that’s going to mess with any trust we’ve been able to build… better stop, before I drop…

  “That’s good, everyone, you can back out now.” Uh-oh, I better sit down quick… luckily one of the plastic folding chairs was right behind me, because if it hadn’t been, I would have just fallen down on the spot. As it was, I just kind of fell into the chair, and almost tipped it over onto the desert sand. Arnie, Rafael, Denise, and Aida all looked to be in a similar state, and they sat down quickly as well. “Oh, my head hurts… but guess what? I saw the problem. There’s a structure in your brain called the corpus callosum, it’s the main connection between the left and right hemispheres, and it’s ripped almost all the way through. That’s what is causing your symptoms. I think I can probably fix it, but obviously it will mean going in again, and it may take longer.”

  Aida’s eyes were rolling around and she seemed on the verge of passing out. “Anybody got any ashpirins or shomething? I feel like my head jusht got shplit open.”

&
nbsp; Aunt Martha jumped up, saying, “Hang on, honey, let me see what I have. How about the rest of you?”

  Everyone nodded affirmatively, and she hustled into the RV, returning quickly with a pill bottle and water. “Here, take three, two is for wimps.” Hey, that’s my saying… or maybe I heard her say it and just forgot where it came from…

  After downing the pills and taking a few deep breaths, I said, “So what do you think? I’m ready if you all are.”

  Aida looked at me intently, and her eyes narrowed. “I know I shaid thish a couple of timesh already, but you guysh really are for real, aren’t you? I mean, none of you sheem like monshtersh. It’sh meshing with my reality, if you know what I mean.”

  I couldn’t help chuckling a little at that. “You don’t really seem like a monster either, so I guess we were both wrong. If you’re willing, I’m ready to go in there and try to right the wrong I did to you.”

  “Wait a minute. Do you think there’sh any chanshe that, inshtead of fixshing me, you could make it worshe? I mean, I can she you have all theshe magical powersh, but you’re shtill jusht a kid, and you’re definitely not a shurgeon. How are you going to fixsh it?”

  “I guess I should have explained that before, shouldn’t I? The truth is I can’t really tell you how I am going to do it because I don’t know, and I won’t know until I start working on it. When I fixed Ling, I didn’t know how to do it either, but when I got in there, somehow it felt like the right thing to do was just injected into me. I don’t know how or why, but I feel sure that the same thing will happen when I start to work on you. Here is what I can promise you: if it seems like there is any chance I could make things worse, I’ll just stop and get out of there. Beyond that, you’ll just have to trust me.”

  Aida looked down thoughtfully. “Well, I thought you were jusht going to kill me, probably after torturing me, and if you were going to do that, thish would be the weirdesht way poshible to do it. It would almosht be funny, sho let’sh shee what kind of comedian you are. I’m ready to go.”

  “Ok, everyone, you heard her. Let’s take our positions.”

  Ling said, “Oh, Ferdie, first…”

  “Right, high-fives all around.”

  We slapped palms again, and this time Aida tried also, but her out of control hand would not cooperate. “Shtupid arm. Let’sh get thish thing fixshed, ok?”

  “Ok, here we go.” The angels laid their hands on Aida’s shoulders once again, and I found her door and looked in. Moving faster this time… they know where to stop… that makes things a little easier, because it’s hard to talk while this is happening… pretty clear now, time to push into the middle… a little further, and to the left… there it is! Ok, what do I do? Apply energy, not too much… careful…

  Just as before with Ling, I suddenly knew what to do, even though it was much more complicated. Knowing what to do doesn’t mean it’s easy… just let it flow, don’t worry about not being smart enough… that self-doubt almost stopped me last time… oh no, my head is really hurting… hold it together, Ferdie… a little energy right there… that’s it… now push this end together… careful, not too hard… in the middle, those two need to connect… oh, it’s too hard… no, stop that… ok, the other side needs patching… how is this happening? Almost there… hang on, Ferdie… wait, missed a bundle right there… subtle, just a slight bit of energy will do… is that it? Take a look all around, and inside too… Uh-oh…

  Chapter Ten

  I woke up on one of the little pull-out beds in the RV. Ling and Denise were busy trying to remove my shirt, and I looked down to see I had barfed all over myself again. I don’t see any blood, though, so that’s a plus… and as far as I can tell, I’m still alive… can I have some more of those Ibuprofen or whatever it was… wait, I probably have to say that out loud…

  Denise’s voice sounded like a jet engine in my ears: “Hey, look, he’s awake.”

  I turned to my right… No wonder, she’s right next to my head… “Hi, Denise. Can I have some more of those Ibuprofen or whatever it was?”

  “Ok, don’t move, I’ll get some.”

  “Sorry, I guess I made a mess. How is Aida?”

  “She has been asleep also, as long as you, Ferdie,” said Ling.

  “Is she… how is she?”

  “We do not know in this moment. When you completed your task, you fell, and she did so also. Maybe we can now wake her.”

  “How long have I been out?”

  “Oh, let me see… it has been one hour so far.”

  Denise returned with the pills, and said, “Do you think you can walk?”

  “I don’t know. Let’s see.” I scooted my legs onto the floor and they felt like anchors. “Man, I am out of it. I think I can walk a little bit, though.”

  “Do you want to go check on Aida? She’s at the other end of the RV, and she just woke up.”

  “Yeah, but I might need a little help.”

  Well, first thing’s first… let’s finish getting that pukey shirt off you and get you a different one.”

  “Oh, yeah, let’s do that first.”

  “You really are out of it, aren’t you?”

  “Yeah, that’s what I said.”

  “Ok, tough guy, raise your arms.”

  I did as Denise directed, and she snatched my shirt off of me. In almost the same motion, while my arms were still in the air, Ling pulled a different shirt over my head. “Dude, I feel like a baby or something.”

  “You kind of smell like one too. Just kidding. Let’s go see how things went.”

  We shuffled down to the other end of the RV, Denise supporting me. There, lying stock-still with her eyes open just a slit, was Aida. I sat on the edge of the bed, and with Denise, Ling, Arnie, and Rafael looking on, I asked, “So, how do you feel?”

  Aida took a couple of deep breaths, opened her eyes wider, and said, “Well, my head hurts, but otherwise…” Her eyes went very wide, and she raised her hand to her mouth. A tear ran down her cheek, and she said, “Did that sound normal? It sounded normal to me… I haven’t heard that in a long time.”

  Of course, I then got choked up and started tapping my head like crazy. While I was trying to get control of myself, Aida turned to Denise and held out her hand. Denise took it, sitting next to me on the little bed. “Oh, Denise, I’m so sorry… I don’t know how they tricked me, brainwashed me, controlled me. I have missed you so much and I didn’t even know…” then she burst out in a full sob, pulling Denise in and hugging her as hard as she could. Suddenly everyone was teary-eyed, and it was like a family reunion. Everyone was patting one another on the back, high-fiving, and chatting amiably.

  “Sorry to bring it back to earth, but we need to see what you can tell us about The Master and The Others. We’ve been trying to find out what we’re up against, what the numbers are like, but it’s been difficult. We’ve seen five demons, all of which ended up dead, The Master, and the one I call The Coward. We don’t know how many others there are, but I figure it’s likely that we are way outnumbered. Can you tell us anything about their makeup?”

  Aida was smiling broadly and wiping away tears at the same time. It sure seems like she has changed completely… I should probably go in her mind and check, just to make sure… not now, though… “I don’t know for sure, Ferdie. I know of the two you mentioned, their two angels, and I have seen about fifteen demons, although I think there are probably quite a few more. The Master is probably more or less what you think he is; he’s intensely powerful and he won’t stop for anything. I don’t know how he controlled me, but he’s good at controlling people. He can do lots of them at the same time.”

  Oh crap, that’s what I was afraid of… “How about The Coward? What’s his story?”

  “First of all, he actually has a name: Masoud Madani, although for some reason The Master calls him Lucky. He’s Persian, tall and thin, but also quite powerful. Here’s something you probably didn’t know: the last time he and you tangled, you hit him so hard tha
t he ended up losing his left arm. As you can imagine, he would like to get revenge on you, but of course he’s afraid that the next time you will kill him.”

  Ha! Lucky… now that’s funny… I’m going to give him some grief over that if I ever run into him again… I always knew he was scared of me… he’s a good bluffer, though, probably is a good poker player… I knew I blasted him good that last time, but I didn’t know it was that good… or that bad… “What about The Master, what’s his name?”

  Aida shook her head as if trying to remove bad memories. “I don’t know his name, everyone just called him Master.”

  “Ok, but do you know where they are? Like, where their… I don’t know, headquarters or clubhouse or whatever is?”

  “They don’t really have a specific place like that. They are constantly moving, although they do spend a lot of time in Canada, and Iceland, of all places. They have no fear at all of humans, but they are afraid that you will find them, so they don’t stay anywhere very long.”

  They’re afraid of me? Dude, they got this whole thing backwards… or maybe that’s just The Master’s way of keeping his group motivated… and Iceland… I bet that’s where his weird accent comes from… “How do they know about our plans? They always seem to know what we’re going to do before we do it. Like with you… they, or he, knew that we were trying to draw them out and they set a trap that ended up killing… Gabriella, she was my angel.” Ok, you did pretty well there, you got through it without breaking down…stop tapping your head, though…

  “Oh no, I’m so sorry Ferdie, I didn’t know about Gabriella. All I know is I was transported to where… I’m sorry, I don’t remember your name…”

  “My name is Rafael, at your service, Ms. Aida. I am the one who wanted to kill you, but I have recovered now.”

  Rafael was obviously trying to lighten the atmosphere, and it worked. There were smiles and chuckles all around. “Well, I’m glad you don’t want to kill me anymore, that’s for sure. Anyway, one of the demons transported me to where Rafael was and then left immediately. I didn’t know he was going to leave, and then I was a sitting duck. I’m quite sure you are right, though; I was meant as a sacrifice in this whole scheme. Although I’m one of The Seven, in the state I was in I could only look in the minds of humans and maybe control one for a very short time, that’s it, so I would have been no threat to Rafael at all. I wasn’t told where I was going or why I was going there, and I didn’t question it. You don’t question The Master if you know what’s good for you.”