The Arched World

by Davi Cao

  “Shouldn’t the officer over there help us? Maybe he knows something we don’t.”

  “Hey, sir, can you do something to help us? This lady here wants to take her to the hospital, but couldn’t you do it in your unit?”

  “Wait, I called an ambulance, I’ll wait with her here,” the cop said. “If she’s injured, we might make it worse by moving her around. Let’s wait for the paramedics, alright? You can go back to your houses now, please.”

  “She needs help now! Look, she’s twitching her leg, can someone please bring her at least some water?”

  “And shouldn’t we try to stop her bleeding?”

  “And what the hell are these bugs flying around her? And this mist? Was she a smoker?”

  “A heavy one, probably, or she’s got something burning inside of her, look at all this smoke.”

  “It doesn’t smell like anything I know,” the cop said, drawn into the mystery of that strange woman. “We found her walking naked up on the Wide Way, we had her at the station. She was going to spend the night there until we found someone who could help, but she got away.”

  “Where was she, in the reception?”

  “Nah, we had to lock her up. She didn’t stop walking, it was driving us nuts. She got away from a cell, drilling holes without making any noise. Weird stuff, I tell you.”

  “Gee...”

  “I got clean towels, I’ll staunch her head bleed, can someone help me?”

  Dalana, watching aWa struggle for life, held herself in front of the wounded woman, pressing her hands in front of her mouth, ready to blow a breath of life.

  “I can't heal her...” she whispered.

  “You shouldn't do it, not right now. Why not? Isn't she human?” Colin said, crossing his arms by her side.

  “Maybe she's got something different inside her. I can't risk it right now, or I might turn her into something else, and I don't want that. I want her the way it is, different, a new kind of human.”

  “If you imagine a healthy woman from Ai.iA's world, isn't that enough?”

  “It's too little information. My mind will fill the gaps with my own ideas. No, I'll let the ambulance take her. I hope they can fix her and keep her integrity.”

  Colin shut his mouth, tense with the fear of a human being’s death. He watched it, like a spirit, seeing the world around him become bigger than a mere creation, taking away from him the power of restoring the life of others. Terra’s humans had to heal aWa as much as they had hurt her.

  For aWa’s luck, she had an active ou.uo. The energy of her existence powered those little creatures, and watching her die put them in short-circuit. They aimed dust and all the honey they had available, all their effort, every spin in their orbits at stopping her decay, for if she died, they’d perish together.

  The feather ous swept the dust ring, forming a dense cloud which it used to coat aWa's skin. The other humans blocked her body, though, frustrating their attempt. People on the street squatted by aWa’s side to hold clean towels on her wounds, while others simply closed by to be sure that she still breathed. They worried too much about her to notice dust turning into blue liquid on their clothing, but they did see when blue mingled with the red on aWa’s torn body and looked around to find its source.

  “It’s the flat bugs, look, they’re sweeping the smoke.”

  “What’s it trying to do? Drown her? Hit them, get them out of here!”

  “Oh, gee, are they like flies waiting for her death? I’ve never seen anything like them, are they insects?”

  “Just get them out of here!”

  And as one man and a woman stood to push the ous away, intervening in their orbits and disturbing their dust production, the cop meditated. If the woman died, that would be one way of solving her mysterious appearance. A strange person, yes, with those flying things spinning over her and that dust disc, those were things out of their world. If people wanted to help her somehow, whatever. He’d just wait to have his job done.

  Dust didn’t get to aWa fast enough. The ou.uo, instead of insisting in mere dust making, took its chance, and used the little they had to make more honey. The handler ous sped up their crafting, allowing them all to have one good glimpse of their situation for future times.

  Those humans differed from aWa. They didn't hold the centralizing potential. Such a strong realization had instant impact on the pebbles, for they used knowledge as kinetic force and hit the people in their trajectories without trying to dodge.

  A pebble struck the man’s neck, sending him out of their circle, another pebble hit the woman’s cheek, scaring her, and making her trip. The couple holding the towels on aWa’s head looked up in fright, waiting for their turn. Easy targets, in the eye of the storm, they covered their heads with their arms.

  Rings and pebbles came for them, throwing their energy at the human’s flesh in a quick succession of bangs, coins falling in a row from the twentieth floor. The strategy worked, people abandoned aWa’s body, surprised at the little things’ violence.

  “Stand back, all of you, it’s not safe to stay here. I knew there was something creepy about this woman, she’s capable of more than we think,” the cop said, hovering a hand over the grip of his gun.

  “What’s it got to do with her? It’s the bugs!”

  “Oh, no, these bugs are her, I’m sure of it. She got away clean from a cell, that’s not a plain human’s doing. She’s got machines to help her, look there, she’s using them to keep us back.”

  The ou.uo created dust and spilled their healing fluids on aWa, covering her in blue, a color that penetrated her every orifice and crept into her body. She healed, little by little, with the help of her ecosystem.

  Her leg stopped twitching, now that her brain regained awareness of her condition, knowing that it had to wait a bit longer until she could walk again. Just a bit longer, not much, until she tried another time.

  “Do you think she’s ... I dunno, a creature of some sort? Like a vampire?” a woman said.

  “Can’t tell, never seen one before to judge.” The people kept their distance from aWa. “I’m starting to believe that she wasn’t lost, though. I reckon she might be looking for action, that’s what.”

  “Yeah, if she’s not like us, who knows what’s up in her head.”

  “Shut up, you two! That woman is hurt, she’s dying. She’s probably a crazy one, running away from home, you know that,” a man said.

  “Oh, I don’t know, something fishy is going on,” the cop said. “Like I said, crazy people don’t go around breaking cell walls and hitting people with flying stones. She’s got—”

  AWa got up, covered in blue. Her legs sustained her with difficulty, making her limp. She tripped and stood again, maintaining a clumsy walk with great effort. She went in the cop’s direction, swaying out of balance, her open wounds half closed, her blood splattered on the asphalt and under every step. The horizon had no end, like her goal in that world, so she walked on her quest.

  The skinny police officer, however, took hold of his gun and pointed it at her. His heart froze at her rise, watching a zombie emerge from the tomb. Those around him, the people who tried to care for aWa, ran away in terror, trying to keep a safe distance. He considered running, joining the others, letting the zombie wander the city alone until back-up arrived. If he did that, he'd be finished professionally, though. Thus, he stayed.

  “Freeze! I said freeze! Don’t move, stop right there, that’s an order!” he yelled.

  AWa did the only thing she wanted to do. She walked.

  “I’m warning you, don’t come any closer!” the officer said, a drop of sweat running down his forehead, the darkness of the night striking his brain, his loneliness putting pressure on the trigger.

  AWa got closer, forcing him to take a stand, blocking her way. Her ou.uo, now aware of how to deal with those humans, spun in fixed orbits, waiting their turn to hit the man ahead of them. One after another, the ous struck at his skin, one hitting his cap and dropping
it to the ground, one hitting his cheek, one his arm, one his belly, another one hitting the hands that held the gun. Scared, acting out of instinct and provoked, the cop pulled the trigger and shot at aWa’s chest.

  She fell again, a fountain of blood oozing from her pierced rib cage, her heart destroyed by a bullet. The ou.uo followed her fall, feeling the weight of sleep take over their energy. If they had more honey, if only they had more... They would... They could... No, they could no longer. They fell by aWa’s side, praising her beauty one last time before beginning a new period of terrible slumber in the land where humans had no energy to sustain their own ecosystems.

  Dalana's moistness disappeared from her skin, matted blackness taking her over. To cry, she closed her eyes, and under the faint reflection of the upper col.loc at night, she faded into the asphalt with her coal-dark color. Her yellow dress framed a ghost, a shadow, it kept her in the world of humans, a Creator among dwarfs, emanating a joyous color on a place of death.

  In shock, Dalana faced not aWa’s body made inert by a bullet, but the emptiness of her eye lids, where she saw the scene repeatedly with her photographic memory. Blood spurting out of her chest, the scared cop regretting his impulse, people on the streets horrified by the gratuitous violence. Nobody showed pride at that, and yet, it had happened, a beautiful creation had ceased to exist because the rules of that world allowed it to happen.

  “Why... Why let it go this way... Is it more interesting because of murder? Is it really more interesting?” she said, keeping her eyes closed.

  “I didn’t make the rules, this is just how Terra was, it’s not my fault.” Colin twitched his lips with the sadness of the scene.

  “Don’t run from it, I won’t let you run away from it. This is a piece of your world, it exists only because you want it to, and you want it this way. People killing the different ones, instead of learning with them. Are you proud?” Dalana squatted at aWa’s side, caressing the smoothness of her brown skin ruined by the marks of her accident.

  “No, I’m not a killer, I’m not proud. I wanted her to live, but she should’ve been sent somewhere else. She was too vulnerable in here.”

  “You can change it, Colin. You have the power to do so, how many times do I have to tell you that? If you want a place where death is impossible, make it happen!”

  “I... I don’t want it, sorry. I know it’s terrible, I know it’s sad. It’s a part of life, though, we can deal with it. I’m doing this to call Mae’s attention, and she must know that there’s someone out there doing everything he can to have another version of Terra just the way it used to be. Then she’ll ask why, and we’ll meet.”

  “Would you put your Angeline in this place?”

  “She... well... why, I don’t know.”

  “Would you? Or will I have to do it myself?” Dalana stood to face Colin.

  “Why you? It’s none of your business.”

  “If it’s such a wonderful place, then create her, make her go through this madness, make her risk death. I want to see it, if it’s so nice and perfect.”

  “Dalana, you need to calm down. They’re taking the woman to the hospital, see, maybe they can still save her.”

  An ambulance stopped by the road. Two paramedics raced toward aWa to take her body in the vehicle. The cop stopped them short of lifting her up.

  “I called at the station to warn them of this here. They'll be here in a minute, just to clear my role in this mess, ok?”

  The paramedics checked on aWa’s vital signs, finding a strange pulse on her legs.

  “No, we have to take her, sorry, we can't let her die here,” the woman medic replied, frowning through her thick brows.

  “Hey, no, it'll be quick, they'll be here in a minute, just you—” the cop pleaded, an innocent worry invading his mind.

  “I don’t want to see more of it,” Dalana said. “Go on, go with them and make sure that she’s dead for real. When you get back, look for me in this area. I will be around.”

  “I will get back to you, I will. Please don’t disappear,” Colin said, entering the ambulance with his worried gaze turned on the dead body over the gurney.

  Dalana waited for the vehicle’s departure. The whites in her eyes broke the complete darkness of her silhouette, the reflected light from the col.loc in the sky cast a faint glow at the tip of her flat nose.

  She looked up and saw beauty. Ai.iA’s world reigned majestic everywhere, and she walked upon Colin’s creation. Where was the place for her Utopias? In an area so needy of perfection, who gained anything with the lack of a bright horizon?

  At the neighborhood’s edge, a small park stretched itself for two blocks. Shadowed by tall trees, it had two paths crossing its gardens and woods, a charming place, not very spacious, not very diverse, or interesting, only a place to find peace in. Dalana wandered alone, walking for the sake of walking, circling the park, to pay homage to the dead aWa.

  A poor woman slept on a bench, covering herself with a dirty sheet, hugging a bag the size of her belly. Dalana knelt in front of her, seeing aWa in those closed eyes, in that dark skin, seeing aWa in everything. Still not dead, the woman on the bench waited for her dissolution, sleeping under the upper col.loc's dim glow, unprotected, scared.

  If Colin stayed unchallenged, how would he learn more? Ever since they met at the World Voice’s realm, she’d seen him open up to her, becoming her friend and sharing existence with her. And yet, he persisted with his suffering, for not accepting the fact that dead worlds are gone, and a new one is always possible, a better one, even if coming from the ashes of the old one.

  A better Terra, a Utopian Terra, a Terra where people didn’t starve or make war, where nobody ever died and everything came for free, like the heaven of their many hopes, why not? To make up for aWa’s death, to put his memories in a good place. She had to show him.

  Dalana walked to the center of the park, where its paths met. She removed the bust of a famous entrepreneur, she replaced the bricks with gravel. A large empty area opened in front of her, ready for a monument. Dalana put her hands in her front pocket and created dust, dust which she grabbed and threw on the ground. With the power of her mind, she created a fountain the size of a small lake.

  A fountain with low borders, water leaking to the soil, a tall mast in its side, decorated by delicate flowery shapes that dominated its every pore, from where the liquid sprouted from countless tiny holes. A fountain unlike any other ever created by humans, familiar in design, alien in effect.

  When Dalana entered it, a wave of bliss penetrated her mystical body, the bliss of creation. On her first step inside, the place grew. With every advance in its pool's shallow waters, the space ahead of her expanded double the distance she walked, escaping her reach the more she looked for the fountain’s mast. She smiled at that, letting go of death’s weight, offering humanity a gift to help them deal with pain. Space spread to infinity in that small fountain, so she walked and walked, to lose herself, to reach Utopia.

  The fountain emanated music. So alien in origin, speaking from the depths of Dalana’s own original culture, she who came from a world shattered by time, where people were born old and died in their youth or vice-versa or not, the music spoke the voice of angels, or the noise of unidentified intention. Did it have a rhythm, a melody? Harmony, sometimes, yes, in others, mere noise, and yet it had a purpose, a calling of its own.

  From the fountain’s depths, Dalana wondered at the outside world, a margin of trees at the near horizon, where something moved. A person, a woman, a limping old lady, black, a scarred face, a rotten smell, her right foot swollen and hurt. Dalana had seen her sleeping on the park's bench, she had lulled her while walking on the paths, the final trigger to her creation.

  The poor woman heard the fountain’s music, attracted to it from her troubled sleep. Dalana walked toward her, watching the fountain’s border come closer at double the speed of her strides. She smiled at the promise of company, glad that the first one to join her in t
he Utopian oasis came to her in need, precisely the one she wanted the most.

  The limping old lady heard the music banging in her head, and it sang loudly because of her many needs, not because of her proximity to its origin. The greater the need, the louder the song. Morning still needed a couple of more hours to greet the sun, leaving her in the dark under a lamppost, looking at the fountain with a troubled face.

  Her belly roared from hunger, her drowsy eyes begged her to get back to the bench and try to rest some more, her swollen foot cried from pain. The fountain called her, and something inside, something dark, moved with freedom, enjoying the water, dancing at the strange music.

  That place in front of her could offer a nice bath, a nice pool where to rest a tired body. The old lady, thus, entered the water, leaving her bag outside, keeping it dry. She took a hard step, struggling to regain her balance due to her rotten foot.

  Dalana came to her with extended hands, offering her help to walk, someone to greet her besides the warm water. For the old lady, the shadow coming toward her, those black pupils, that coal skin, that yellow dress, she mirrored herself, also a black woman, also at the fountain. The shadow showed friendly teeth, to which the woman replied in kind, accepting the pair of hands held up to her, using them as canes to enter a new dimension.

  The old lady laughed at how funny her heart felt. It pumped blood that tasted sweet, filling her body with the bliss of an immense pleasure. Her scarred skin breathed in relief, tired of serving as the wall to a hostile world, welcoming with a tingling the gentle fountain's waters.

  She found Dalana’s eyes, she released her hands from her hold and dove to bathe herself in full. Like a child, she spun around, she made splashes with her arms, she laid back and tried to float. Her joints stopped complaining, her sore muscles decided to massage her forever, her empty stomach reverted its agony and gifted her with plenty, satisfying her in full.

  Dalana touched the lady’s former swollen foot and showed her the change, her muscles firm and painless, her skin back at its normal size, no signs of its former swelling. By stepping in the water, the old woman had found her cure. Looking at the miracle of her restoration, she cried, laughing at her fortune. Tears rolled down to join the blessed lake and become one with the healing waters. Without words, she thanked heaven for saving her. She hugged Dalana.