One day, after she came from work, Margaret was outside in the garden, watering the flowers and humming a song that she heard in her mind last weekend when they were out in the mountains, looking for that hidden cave.
“Maggie? Do you want to eat something?” Philip said, coming out of the house.
Margaret saw him but she continued to quietly water the flowers. Philip approached her slowly.
“Let's eat something. Don't you want Maggie? And then, let's have our chilled time out in the back garden. I have found this special red wine in the dispenser list, that I think you will enjoy very much,” he said with enthusiasm.
Margaret stopped watering her flowers and looked at him for a few moments.
“Philip, I’ve been thinking quite a lot the past days … ”
He gently took her hand and waited to see what she meant.
“Yes, you were thinking? I thought we didn't have much time for that here, anymore,” he said, with a serene face.
Margaret paused for a few moments and said with a quiet but serious tone, this time.
“Remember that philosophical discussion we had a few days ago, over that romantic dinner? Ever since I voiced my feelings then, I couldn’t help but have random occasional thoughts about it. And there’s this almost distant thought that I can barely hear in my mind, that doesn't give me peace of mind, ever since we were up in the mountains, last weekend. I've been thinking about it for a few days now ... it's a recurrent thought, that is almost heard in the back of my mind, but I don’t know what it means. Every time I hear it, my emotional state pushes me to think about our old life, about our mission, about everything we had, back when we were in the normal space.”
Philip looked suddenly at her with attention.
“Tell me about it, Maggie, you know you can tell me anything. Aren't you happy here? Don't you have enough peace of mind here, with me? What is this thought like?”
“Yes I am, and I have,” Maggie said and smiled briefly. “But, I was thinking a lot these days what it would be like to be as we are now, but to be able to ... you know, to go everywhere, everywhere that we wanted. Like before, when we had the freedom to roam the Universe long and wide. Remember that discussion that we had? About the utopia that the Elders are building here? I actually love so much this rather utopian place, but I also need my freedom, and I guess my mind is pushing me towards making a decision, because I seem to not find my peace of mind, lately...”
Philip straightened and scratched his head a little.
“Well, how ... what are you saying, do you want to leave here? Have you already made a decision?”
Margaret put the flower sprinkler down.
“I don't know what I want to do here, to be honest, Philip. I think I have reached a place where I have to decide on what I want, so I can have finally my peace of mind.”
Philip took her into his arms and hugged her.
“For you, Margaret, I’d do anything, you know that.” They hugged for a while as Philip stroked her soft, long, and dark hair. After a while he said.
“But what will Prival say if he hears that we want to leave, like that, all of a sudden. He knows we are happy here. What will the others say? And what will happen to us if we leave? Would that be possible, anyway?”
Margaret paused for a while, trying to come up with an answer.
“I know, Phil. But here, sometimes I feel like I’m not me, the real me. And I've been feeling this more and more often lately, maybe that’s why this thought is trying to pierce through, to get my attention. I feel that I am somehow suspended in time as if … as if I live somewhere in a city from a fantasy book, somewhere I don’t belong. What I am trying to say is that I don’t feel real here, Phil, whatever I would try doing. I don’t feel like myself. I miss the old me, the one with the courage to seize any project or any mission, and go in the wide-open space through the stars, wherever our ship would take us,” said Margaret, while holding Philip in her arms. After a while, she continued.
“I love everything around me, I love the people, I love the flowers, I love the trees, I certainly love you ... but I still feel that I am missing something. I'm not tired of the happiness that the City gives us, but my freedom, the freedom that I had before, to go wherever I want, to see thousands of things, to visit planets … that freedom is gone, Philip,” she said, with a quiet voice.
Philip gently stroked her dark hair. After a few long moments of silence, she continued.
“All I want to say is that I've really started to miss the life we had before. And that's been bothering me for about a week now,” she said and sighed.
Philip was still holding her in his arms. After a few long moments of silence, he said.
“But Maggie, the Elders gave us in exchange for the freedom to roam the Universe that we had before something else, something much more expensive, something we can't find anywhere in the Universe we came from. Something that is like gold, only much more expensive than that. An eternal life in which we can experience this pure and unconditional love, in the peace of this wonderful City, hidden in a massive forest, that is stretching far and wide, to give us a comforting shelter, somewhere on a beautiful planet, somewhere far far away, where we can have no worries, where no one will find us, and where the sunsets are so beautiful when I see them with you. You and me, we will never find such an opportunity if we go back.”
Margaret was silent. She was not saying anything and the silence between them became somewhat awkward. After a while she said.
“If I'm going back, will you come with me? Or will you stay here?”
Philip didn't know what to say. After a few moments of waiting, he managed to say.
“I’ll come with you, Margaret. I can't stay here without you, you know that.”
“You mean you love me that much?” Margaret said, and a tear of happiness began to slowly flow from her right eye, down her cheek. This recurrent thought she was having this past week had slowly influenced her emotional attitude, to the point where she couldn’t hold it inside anymore.
Philip was silent, but he was still embracing her.
“Yes, Maggie. I love you that much.”
They remained in a tight embrace for a long time, and neither of them needed to think anymore of anything else. They both spent the rest of the night that was already starting, quietly being in the garden and chatting about million things, over a few glasses of red wine.
The next day, in the morning, an unexpected guest appeared just as the sun was beginning to set in. It was Prival. Entering the gate, he waved from a distance, with his serene and happy face.
“Do I bother you, my dears?”
“Hey! No, not at all. Come stay with us here for a while, Prival,” said Margaret, who had just come out to see the spectacle of the sun, that was about to begin.
He came closer and quietly sat on one of the two chairs that were in front of the house and turned his head toward Margaret.
“How are you, Margaret? You're happy together here, aren't you?” said Prival, in his usual warm, peaceful, and undisturbed voice.
Margaret looked at the blue sky.
“Yes. We love each other. Everything is fine here in the City.”
“I'm happy for you. We knew before bringing you here that you were made for each other. And I hope we didn't make a mistake in doing that ... ”
Margaret paused. She noticed a slight tone in Prival’s question. Could he have found out about her desire to leave? Would her silent and distant thought have come to Prival’s attention somehow? The amulet. She made sure she took it off when the thought intensified so much lately, but Prival was the head of the Elders, and he… She tried not to think anymore about this, at least not now, when Prival was here.
“No. Not at all,” Margaret answered shortly. “The past 3 months we have spent here have been a revelation for me. I didn't think I was able to feel so much happiness in my heart for anyone, or anything, until now. It is a sacred land here Prival and the City is v
ery special to me, to us … ” she said, with a soft voice.
Prival nodded and continued to stare at the blue sky.
“A quiet and beautiful morning, Margaret, don’t you believe?”
She nodded.
“It is. A beautiful day like all the others, in the City. A day full of white clouds.”
She paused and then she asked him something that she wanted to know ever since she got here.
“I still wonder how we can see these beautiful sunrises and the stars and moons at night, since we’re not anymore in our Universe, where everything is. Every day starts as usual with the sun, and at night I see the moons rising, as any regular day, but the time here passes 200 times slower than in the known Universe … “
Prival smiled.
“Ah, that. Well, as I told you in the first day we met, we’re shifted 0.0004 microns than the regular Universe. The Creators have found through experiments long time ago, that here, in this space-time matrix, there is another reality, another parallel dimension if you will, where there are also stars and planets, only that the laws of physics are different. That’s why we are protected with a special shield by the Machine, to keep our usual ways of being, but here, we witness a complete different Universe, where time passes slower, and where people can live much more than they do in the other Universe.”
Margaret nodded and continued to look towards the blue sky. After a while, silence settled in, between the two. They were contemplating the sky in silence because it was not only what was seen, but also what was felt in the City. Here you were a part of everything, and everything was so full of pure love that was channeled through their amulets, that one would not need to speak anymore, most of the time.
“Prival? Can I ask you something?” Margaret said after a long moment of silence.
Prival turned his head toward her, lying on the back seat.
“If there are still any unanswered questions, of course.”
“I know how we got here. I mean, I know that the Cube somehow brought us in and you said that this is the only way in which one can get here. But, how does one get out of here? I can't understand that part.”
Prival smiled and said.
“Well, almost, in the same way, my dear. Nothing and no one in the City goes over anyone else’s desire, and whatever your wish, it is being fulfilled here, I think you already know that. In the Machine Room, in the section where we control all the Cubes, there are 3 pads. If someone sits in one of them and wants to go back, the Machine checks that person's signature, and if it feels the strong and pure desire to leave, it uses one of the available Cubes to return the person exactly where he was, before coming here. Then, time will continue its course for that person, as usual, in the Universe that you know ... "
He stopped and looked closely at Margaret to see if she understood. She wasn’t looking at him, but she was listening closely. He turned his head back, looking at the sky again, and resumed the explanation.
“It is a very simple process, but to be honest we haven't used it in about 600 years now.” He stopped as if those were old memories, that he somehow forgot, during the course of time.
“The thing is Margaret, that there were some people in the beginning who simply did not adapt here. They could not be themselves in the silence of the City, and they could not live a life where you dedicate yourself to the contemplative side, where you dedicate your full resources to the community. And then, the City was not that big either. You see, Margaret, for many, spiritual life is not their supreme purpose. For me, for example, it is, as for most of the people in town. But for some people, although the variables indicate an extremely high percentage of compatibility, at some point there comes the strong urge to leave, especially for the young ones. I don't know why this happens, don't ask me, I would not leave this city in my whole life for anything else. There were only a few who decided to return. Only a few, and their wish was fulfilled.”
Margaret had listened to every word he said and tried not to think about anything. Not when Prival was here.
“Thank you for telling me all this, Prival,” she said in a soft and distant voice. “This thought has crossed my mind many times lately and I somehow wanted to ask you,” she added.
“No problem, Margaret, I understand completely. So, what is Philip doing?”
“He is in the house. Since you came, he's still there, I don't know what he's doing, probably eating his breakfast, but I don’t think he knows you’re here,” Margaret said, with a soft smile.
“I am going to greet him. It's already late for our Council morning meeting and I want to leave you two alone. No moment in the city is more precious than the morning when the sun comes and all the nature wakes up,” he said and he smiled.
“All right, Prival,” Margaret said, watching the sunrise, as if she was trying to decipher the secrets buried deep within the clouds.
Prival entered the house and greeted Philip, talked to him for a while, and then came back outside.
“I will leave you two, now. Have a nice day, Margaret. I’m glad I saw you two today,” he said with a kind tone and started walking slowly towards the garden’s gate, with his long wooden cane.
Margaret stared at the man with the long white beard until he disappeared into the cobbled street that bordered the homes in the western part of the city. Her determination and will to finally act was strong now, and not Philip, or not even an Elder could stop her now.
“A beautiful day at the horizon, indeed. And it might even be the last beautiful day here,” Margaret added, with a strange tone in her voice, surprised at her own courage to say that.
Chapter 18 - Runaway
The next morning Margaret woke up at 6:40 am. She washed her face lightly, combed her long dark hair in a rush, and went to wake up Philip. He opened his eyes and smiled at her with a kid’s face.
“Philip, we're leaving. Get ready!”
“We’re … we’re leaving? Where are we going, Maggie?” he asked with a sleepy voice.
“We're going home!” she said enthusiastically.
Philip paused for a moment, trying to wake up. He sat up, still lying in bed.
“But how, Maggie? Do you know how? I don't think personal teleporters work here.”
“I asked Prival yesterday and he told me! I don't think he knows that we want to leave, and I definitely couldn’t tell him anything. Put on your clothes first, and put your robe over them, we don’t want to attract any attention on us. And don’t forget to take your amulet, too! I will wait outside. But hurry!" Maggie told him, looking at him and kissing him lightly on the forehead.
In five minutes, Philip managed to get dressed. As he went outside, Margaret took his hand and pulled him after her, leaving the garden’s gate half-open. The walk to the big square of the Council Building was about 15 minutes, but it took them less than 10 minutes this time. No one was in the market at this hour and they rushed to get faster to the main entrance of the Council’s Building.
“It is the only door that is not always open in the whole city, Miriam told me. There is a short gap in the morning between 6 am and 7 am when the door is open, because the Elders come here, and gather to meditate in the morning, in the round room of the Initiation. Then, they close it again. I hope I'm right this time,” Margaret said.
She pushed hard the massive door, which opened quite easily, inside. She looked down the front, right, and left corridor, but nobody was there. She grasped Philip's hand and started walking fast down the hallway to the left, which was lit by a long line of blue dotted lights. They continued walking fast until the end of the corridor and then turned right again. She stopped at the second door on their left, which was made out of a dark gray metallic alloy. Margaret pointed at the big orange sign, that was imprinted on the door.
“This is the door of the Machine Room, Phil! Prival told me about it, two weeks ago, when he took me here, at the Council Building. Otherwise, I wouldn't have known all these things and I wouldn't have had the cour
age to come here.”
Margaret took out her amulet and touched the door’s symbol with her green stone. Nothing. She tried again, to no success.
“It’s locked!” she said, with a quite frightened tone.
“But how? Do you open it with your amulet?”
“Yes, Prival showed me! But when he tried, it worked,” she said, not knowing what to do.
Philip weighed the possibilities for a while, and then he said.
“Maybe you are worried or confused. Try to concentrate a bit, maybe the door can sense through the amulet the emotions of the person.”
Margaret looked at him and nodded.
“Maybe you’re right! I am a bit frightened. I have to concentrate and hold the right intention in my heart.”
She approached the door, quieted her senses, and tried to hold the purest intention of love and sincerity in her heart. Then she touched the sign again, with her amulet. After a few moments, the door opened, sliding quietly inside the right wall.
They entered quickly. Once inside, Margaret had a strange deja-vu sensation: all the lighted devices and sound bleeps had reminded her for a split second of the Universe she really wanted to return to. It was the Universe that made her feel free. It was the place where she desperately wanted to return, that she missed for the past weeks so much. But what will happen if she would lose her ability to love and feel as she does now? She started to strongly experience the feeling that she was somehow torn between two worlds, not knowing which one to choose, but she knew that she had to make the right move and fast. The pads! She shook her head and tried to concentrate. She looked for anything that might resemble the pads that Prival had shown her. If they were to be here much longer, someone might find them. After a few seconds, she found them. There were three quite spacious places, one next to the other, where one person could enter with ease.
The Hidden City Page 20