“Marshall, shouldn’t we wait to see if he recovers? We don’t want to tip our hand related to the Time Flies, and bringing him here might be hard to explain. And also, your floating is very disconcerting.”
Marsh-dog floated down until his feet were touching the ground. “Sorry, du… Arnie. Look, we can’t wait too long. Suppose they get bold and try to make another attack. He’d be a sitting duck out there. He’s been out for what, half an hour by now? Every minute that goes by could mean that his brain is getting more and more damaged. I’m guessing that the only reason he’s not dead already is because of his uniqueness. Don’t you dare tell him I said that; it would upset the whole structure of our relationship. And speaking of that, this dude is my best friend! We’re in this together, all the way to the end, and we’re not at the end yet! Come on, man, you gotta bring him here; let me see if I can get him fixed before it’s too late. No hospital is going to be able to fix what he’s got, but the Time Flies could. Give me a chance to talk them into it. Come on, Arnie, I can’t lose my buddy.”
Then, totally out of character, Marsh-dog broke down. He covered his mouth with his hand and his face with his arm, trying to muffle his sobs. Also a bit out of character, at least as it relates to Marsh-dog, Arnie wrapped an arm around his shoulder and waited for him to get himself under control. “Ok, Marshall, we’ll give it a try. It’ll be hard to explain to the rest of the group, but I’ll come up with something. Give me a little time to make it happen. We must keep the rest of the group away from you, though. This floating and glowing will be hard to explain, and we can’t let anyone know about the Time Flies, at least for the time being.”
Marsh-dog, wiping his forearm across his face, replied, “Ok, thanks dude. I mean thanks Arnie. Get him here as soon as you can.”
Arnie quickly disappeared, reappearing in the little bedroom of the RV, where Aunt Martha and Denise were continuing to care for me. “Listen, everyone,” Arnie said, even as he was still materializing. “We need to discuss moving Ferdie. Marshall and I agree that moving him is the only way to really keep him safe. This next part is going to be hard to hear; even so, I think you will see the logic in it. We believe it remains likely that one of you, either wittingly or unwittingly, is being used by The Others for information.”
Immediately, a rabble went up from the group. “They couldn’t do that without us knowing, could they?” asked Denise.
“That is a bit insulting, you know,” Aunt Martha sniffed.
Rafael, in his deep, resonant voice, said, “My apologies, Mr. Arnie, but if that is true, how do we know it isn’t you?”
“Should we to try to figure out who is it first?” queried Ling.
“What if it’s all of us? Then what do we do?” Aunt Martha continued.
Arnie held his hands up in a placating manner. “I don’t know the answers to every question, but I can tell you two things without a doubt. It is not me, and he will be safer in there, at least short-term. There’s another reason to move him: we have seen that being in the in-between has revived those who have died, and we suspect that it may have a similar effect on someone in Ferdie’s state. At the very least, it is something to try.”
There was a moment of quiet as the group contemplated Arnie’s appeal. Denise broke the silence. “Arnie, I’d still like to know, could they use one of us without our knowing? I don’t think they could use one of us angels that way; only Ferdie has that ability, and even with him I don’t think he could do it without us being aware of it. So, if we believe they’re using one of us, then that only leaves two other possibilities. Either one of us is supplying information knowingly, or it has to be Pasquale or Martha.”
Aunt Martha’s brows pulled down angrily. “Now wait just a second, I would never…”
Denise held her hand up, stopping Aunt Martha. “Sorry, Martha, please don’t take offense. If they are using you without your knowledge it would not be your fault, and there is nothing you could do about it. I’m beginning to see Arnie’s point. The only way to be sure is to get Ferdie out of here and into the in-between. It will be easy to move him around in there if need be, but here he’s basically a sitting duck.”
Arnie half-smiled. “Marshall used those same words to describe the situation.”
“Well, he’s pretty smart,” Denise half-smiled in return.
Following an extended and at times testy discussion, the group finally agreed to let Arnie take me into the in-between. Denise argued vehemently that she should go with me, but in the end all agreed that the fewer of us who knew where I was, the less likely it would be that I would be found. It also took quite a while for Arnie to convince everyone that there was no chance that he was the one who was communicating with The Others, and in the end the thing that sealed it was Marsh-dog typing out the words “It’s not Arnie, he’s cool” on Aunt Martha’s laptop while everyone was gathered ‘round, watching the keys depress as if by magic.
Aunt Martha and Denise bundled me in a blanket, and Ling whispered in my ear, “Please, Ferdie, you will to return, and when you do, we will do the high-five. Please to return, Ferdie.” When I was ready, Arnie leaned over and picked me up as if I were a baby, stepped back from the bed, and said, “I know everyone is worried, and I am as well. This is my boy, and I will not let him go. Of that you can be sure.” Then, in a flash, we were in the in-between.
“Oh, man, oh man… it was one thing to see him a little out of focus, the way it looks when you look out of the in-between, but in person he looks bad. Oh, man,” Marsh-dog muttered.
Arnie grimaced. “How long do you think it might take to communicate with the Time Flies on his behalf?”
“Yeah, I’ve been working on that. They are going to take some more convincing. They don’t really think they should get too involved at this point. I think they are interested in seeing how things play out since the time line is totally screwed up. I just thought of something… these attacks by those Other dudes has to mean that they know the… what was that stupid magic book called… oh yeah, The Book of Names, pretty on the nose for a book full of names, anyway they must know that the time line of whatever it was predicting has blown up by now. That has to be why they are stepping up the attacks. Once Gabriella got killed, it was on ‘til the break of dawn, and I bet they keep coming ‘til either there’s no more of us or no more of them. I’m sure they don’t know about the Time Flies, so they still think all this crap is supernatural, which obviously is a point that works in our favor, since I’m pretty much in with the Time Flies and their technology. I don’t have any control over any of it, but I know them and I have their ear. I’ll need a while longer to convince them to fix ‘Nando, but I’ll get there.”
“I am sure glad we have you with us,” Arnie murmured as he gazed out at the Good Line. “It really is amazing, isn’t it? I was out there not long ago. It is very difficult to describe… I won’t even try. Just imagine the best, most euphoric feeling you have ever had, multiply that by infinity, and it would be close. Knowing that it was created by the Time Flies does not diminish the experience. Well, at any rate, I still had work to do, so here I am. Marshall?”
Arnie turned to find Marsh-dog in what appeared to be a trance, stock-still and floating with his eyes closed. His lips were moving, and under his eyelids, his eyes were flitting around like twin humming birds. As Arnie looked on, Marsh-dog appeared to glow brighter, and his hand reached up, patting himself on the top of his ‘fro.
“Marshall, are you…” Marsh-dog’s other hand shot out in a “stop” motion toward Arnie, so he stood by silently. Marsh-dog remained in that position for several hours. Eventually Arnie stood by me, checking my pulse repeatedly. He paced back and forth in front of Marsh-dog, and began worrying that something was badly amiss. By now I had been unconscious for about seven hours.
“This makes six head traumas, I believe,” Arnie murmured. “How many can he withstand before he’s permanently disabled? Come on, Marshall, we need help soon.”
Whi
le all this was happening in the in-between, the rest of the group was becoming restless, and Pasquale was becoming increasingly despondent. He and Denise were outside of the RV, speaking quietly. “Please, if it is me, this I could not stand. Let me go to recover the small car of Ling, and if there are no problems during my time away, then perhaps we will know it is me. If it is true, then I must go away and never to return. Please, Denise, bellisima, I must go.”
Denise looked out at the moon, just rising over the horizon. “I’m sorry, Pasquale. I wish I didn’t agree, but I do. We need to figure out how to get you over to Artesia, my hometown in New Mexico. We’ll have to make sure to take the south route, though, so you can avoid Roswell. I heard it’s gotten even worse. On the radio they said there are a quarter of a million people there, camping out and trashing the place. They think all the things that are happening mean that the aliens are here. Crazy, right? You don’t want to get caught up in that. Come on, let’s go talk to the rest of the group and we’ll figure out how to make it happen. But Pasquale, you have to give yourself a break. If they are using you, it’s not your fault. You didn’t do anything wrong or do anything to cause it; they just saw you as the easiest way to get to us. They probably would have used Martha but you were here first, so they used you.”
“Yes, thank you Denise. I know you try to make me feel better, I appreciate. This does not change things, though I wish… well, you are right. We tell the others, yes?”
Denise smiled, patting Pasquale on the shoulder. “Yes. Let’s go.”
Chapter Thirteen
Marsh-dog finally came out of his trance after eleven hours of floating and patting himself on the ‘fro. Arnie, his back turned to Marsh-dog, heard him groaning and rushed over to ease him to the ground. Through gritted teeth, Marsh-dog said, “Man, that was hard. It’s a good thing these dudes enhanced me, because I don’t think I could have talked them into it otherwise. It’s weird, talking to them. It’s like doing twenty Rubik’s Cubes at the same time while playing chess with a grand master. The only thing I have on them is they still can’t get the illogical way humans think, and I was able to use that to break through.”
Arnie, cradling the now prone Marsh-dog’s head in his arms, asked, “What did you do?”
“Ok, this is going to sound funny. It sounds funny to me, and I’m the one who did it. You have to swear you won’t tell ‘Nando, though. Swear.”
“Yes, yes, of course. Now what happened?”
“I cried. I totally lost it and they panicked, they didn’t know what to do because it was so far out of their experience, so they agreed to give fixing ‘Nando a try.”
A sly smile split Arnie’s face. “Were you actually crying?”
This brought a snicker from Marsh-dog. I’ll never tell. I will tell you this, though—I’m a good actor.”
“Are you telling me you fooled the most advanced beings in the universe with a ploy that most parents would see through immediately?”
“Only someone capable of thinking illogically would understand illogical behavior. And no, I’m not telling you anything of the sort. Come on, dude, don’t blow my cover.”
“Marshall…”
“I know, don’t call you dude. Sorry, Arnie. Even the smartest person in the world has habits that are hard to break.”
“I was wondering something during the hours you were in communication with the Time Flies. Why did it take so long? Due to their ability to manipulate the time line, it seems that the whole thing could have been done instantaneously.”
“Yeah, but like I said, they’re baffled by how things are changing, and they want to see how it plays out in real time, so they’re not doing a lot of time line manipulation right now. Anyway, in the end they agreed to work on ‘Nando, and they should start pretty soon. How’s he doing?”
“He does not look good. As the time was passing, I began to think that I might have to take him out of the in-between and to a hospital after all, and just take our chances. His heart rate and temperature have been fluctuating, and twice he convulsed. I am very worried that we are losing him.”
Arnie coughed and cleared his throat, covering his momentary flood of emotion. Marsh-dog looked over to see me lying still, drool running out of my mouth and my skin so pale it was nearly see-through. “Oh, crap, crap. He looks like he’s dead. He’s not dead, is he?”
“No, but his heart rate is very low at the moment. We really must see if there is any way to encourage the Time Flies to move now.”
“Hey, I just thought of something. Let’s for a minute assume that those Other dudes think that ‘Nando is dead. As far as they know, he is. Do you think that they would then try to come after the rest of us hard to try to wipe us out, or do you think they would be more likely to ignore us, and think of the rest of us as no threat to their plans? And if that’s the case, if they think ‘Nando is dead, don’t you think they would step up their attempts to kill everyone? With him out of the way, there’d be no reason not to go as fast as they can, right?”
Just at that moment, before Arnie had a chance to respond, Time Flies began appearing. “Yes! Ol’ Flashy!” cried Marsh-dog, as more popped into view. Eventually ten Time Flies were visible, all hovering around my head.
###
Meanwhile, in the RV, Denise was laying out the plan for the rest of the group. “Listen, Ling, Martha, Rafael, we’ve come to a decision. Pasquale is going to go and pick up Ling’s car in New Mexico, and we’ll use that time while he’s gone to see if we can determine if The Others have been using him as a way of spying on us. We need the car anyway, so it makes sense to send him.”
Rafael stood and paced back and forth, which for him was only two strides in the little bedroom they continued to occupy. “Pardon me, Ms. Denise, Ms. Ling, but are we really concerned about the car at this point? With things breaking down in the world as they are, I don’t think that the trip is worth the small financial investment that the car represents. In other words, my friends, wouldn’t it make more sense to simply abandon the car in New Mexico, and just get another car more locally?”
Aunt Martha interjected, “I understand that we need to get to the bottom of this situation, but we haven’t heard from Arnie in, what has it been… twelve hours. Isn’t that a little more important at this point? Shouldn’t someone, maybe one of you angelic people, go find out what is going on?”
Denise wore a pained expression as she said, “You’re right, but the problem is we don’t know where they are in the in-between, and there’s no way they would have stayed put. They could be anywhere, we’d never find them if they didn’t want us to, and Arnie was pretty explicit about not wanting us to go there in case we were compromised in some way. I want to go there badly, and I would have by now if I didn’t think it might make things worse. We just have to wait and trust that Arnie and Marsh-dog will find a way to make things work.”
Clearly frustrated and upset, Aunt Martha said, “I should never have let you “supernaturals” talk me into taking him into your magic castle called the in-between. By the way, don’t you think you could come up with a more evocative name than the in-between? That’s something a kid in junior high could come up with. Ok, Stretch, Ling, Denise, you have to promise me, one of you will go looking for them if we don’t hear from them very soon.”
Rafael, Ling, and Denise shared a glance, and Rafael, his voice deep and quiet, replied, “Ms. Martha, please, we understand and share your concern. I promise you, if we do not hear from our friends soon, I will personally go on a search for them, and I will not rest until they are found.”
Denise, shaking her head, said, “Wait a minute, if anyone is going looking for him it should be me. I’m connected to him; I’d be more likely to be able to track him down.”
Ling, on the verge of anger, declared, “Oh, no. I have known Ferdie longer than any of you. If anyone should be to look for him, it is me.”
Aunt Martha chuckled. “Hell, you can all go looking for him for all I care. We just ne
ed to find him before I strangle somebody.”
This brought sheepish grins to their faces. “Our apologies, Ms. Martha. It seems I am apologizing frequently these days, but these are trying times, and our emotions are on edge. We will work out a way to manage it among us. Now we must turn to the question of the car, and whether or not it is logical or practical to send Pasquale to fetch it.”
###
Arnie backed away cautiously, as he had never seen the Time Flies before. “Are those them?” he hissed.
“Well, yeah, who did you think it was, the pizza delivery guy or something? Don’t worry, they have no interest in hurting anyone. You’re cool. Let me talk to them again for a minute.”
Marsh-dog closed his eyes, and in a moment said, “Ok, they’re ready to give it a try. Let’s watch what happens.”
The Time Flies swirled around my head, organizing themselves until finally they were spread out evenly. One of them then floated forward, right in front of my forehead, but stopped suddenly just as it made contact with my skin. They all immediately backed away, and made a small bundle near Marsh-dog. He listened intently for a moment, then said, “Oh, crap, this just keeps getting deeper and deeper. They say that our buddy over there has projected a barrier around himself that is stronger and stranger than the last time they tried to get in his head. It seems like he instinctively did it to protect himself, and now he’s not conscious to remove it. In fact, they think that may be part of his problem. The energy it takes to project a field like that is depleting him, so basically he’s at least partly killing himself. The last time this happened, they had to go backwards and forwards a million years on the time line until they found the right combination to get through, but this time… I don’t know, it could take longer, or they might not be able to do it at all. Holy crap.”
Ferdie and The Seven: Book three: Fractals Page 10