by Micah Thomas
He glanced at the TV, and a woman in the newscaster seat with disheveled hair said, “The unlimited power source has failed, leaving millions without power this morning. Crews have been dispatched to restore power through traditional methods. This is a huge blow to the President’s initiative. Rumors swirl about Russian sabotage.”
Thelon overheard the calls going around the house as many left them open on speaker phone.
A woman in South Dakota left her husband because he cheated in another life.
A surgeon paused mid-operation, recalling that he was a serial killer in another life.
Addicts put down the pills and called in with the confidence of Heads of State sharing the secret of life.
Suicide hotlines scrolled at the bottom of the screen in the chevrons where once there were headlines.
Noise from a radio played where a guest scientist talked about the psychological phenomena but choked up with emotion as he remembered children he had never held.
Thelon couldn’t hold all this global stuff in his head. Annie was here somewhere. He went outside, back into the afternoon heat, and saw Henry playing with PD in the yard as Cassie lovingly watched from the porch, eyes moist with tears of joy. Next to her, Annie sat, a soft quilt on her lap and box of tissues in hand. Thelon took the seat beside her, making it three on the swing, and Henry came over to them and stood with PD at his heels.
“Annie,” Thelon said, hand on her knee. “Hi.”
She brought his hand to her lips and kissed and squeezed it in her strong fingers. “Love, where have you been?”
He kissed her cheeks and he kissed her lips. “Oh, baby, I’ve been lost, but I’m found.” He pulled back. “How did…why are you here?”
She gazed out, dreamily and a little sad, with the corners of her full lips downturned. “I got your Facebook message. You said you’d be at Black Star, so I came. They told me you were…that you were putting down a demon. That you had important work, but that you’d be right back, but there’s so much that doesn’t make sense right now.”
Thelon didn’t recall sending any such message and scratched his beard, which needed grooming.
Henry sat on the top step and pulled PD protectively in front of himself. “Yeah, I kinda forgot about that. That was me. Back in Boise, I guess I wasn’t sure of you yet, and um…I saw you left your login open on Facebook and your message to Annie and it was a piece of shit, so...”
Thelon’s eye went wide and he asked, “What did you do?”
“I, ugh…I replied, man. You left her with this crazy-ass message, and she was blowing up—rightly so. She was worried sick. You just disappeared and didn’t tell your folks or anyone, and you had a history of mental illness and I was in the middle of it, so I just told her where we were going. For all I knew, you were actually losing your shit out here and I was doing the right thing.”
Thelon tossed a used tissue ball at him. “Man, that’s fucked up.”
“You should be thanking him, T,” Annie said then corrected herself. “Thelon. Thelonious. I was in the car when it happened, driving here. I’d just crossed into Illinois from Indiana. In my mind, I saw us, the other version. I had to pull over, and lots of cars followed suit, like it was a storm but there was no rain. I remembered losing you so many times, but none of that really happened. Am I dreaming, love?”
“I’m sorry, Annie. All those memories…those are true. It’s no dream, but how we want to take them is up to us. Whatever happened in those other lives, for us, that’s not going to happen. Not in this life.”
She looked at her man, deep into his eyes. “Who was hurting you, baby? And why?”
“It’s a long story, and I’ll tell you someday, but it’s over. This,” Thelon gestured to the whole wide world, “is what he wanted. Everything merged like this. I don’t think he has any use for me now, and I certainly don’t have any use for him.”
Cassie said, “Amen,” and leaned into Annie, causing her to press against Thelon.
“So, we’re what, just gonna go home and get married like none of this happened?”
“Yeah, actually.” Thelon got down on one knee and took her hand. “Will you marry me, Anne Washington?”
Henry cheered. Cassie gasped.
Annie said, “I should say no after all you’ve put me through, but yes.”
Henry and Cassie left the lovers to their reunion, their hitching breath and tender forgiveness. Annie comforted in a quiet voice and drew out Thelon’s recount, pressing with a lawyer’s sense of missing detail but letting him come to her in his own way. The short term past gave way to bright-eyed recollections of happier times and the good to come.
While Black Star and Henry and Cassie dove into the work of parsing out evil in the world from mere psychic fallout of a broken and healing universe, Annie and Thelon returned her car to the airport and moved her bags to Thelon’s SUV. They were leaving tonight. A final road trip in the final days of summer, they might even begin to see some leaf changes across the southeast on their trek home.
A tender farewell was shared between the friends. Brief but solemn words were exchanged, and not a soul outside of their circle would ever know exactly what was said, just as few would ever know what part they played in shaping the world.
Thelon struggled with leaving them behind, but their path would take lives, and he wasn’t cut out for that. The death of the junkie and those screams would haunt him forever, and no law enforcement would assuage the guilt and memory of the fire. All he could do was tell Annie the parts he could tell now, unpack the rest in therapy, and pray that now he could be a husband. A loving, working man who let all the rest of the problems of the world figure themselves out.
CHAPTER TEN
LIFE WENT ON for Thelon. Annie was back and got him straightened. She moved in with him and took charge, and he let her. His apartment was now their apartment, and the photos and art on the walls reflected their life together. His memories of each one were real and solid, and they had that when the rest of the world struggled to make sense of what ghosts had come home to their minds. For Thelon and Annie, there was work, home, and the wedding to plan; their small circle was strong enough to push through anything. She got Thelon taking Xanax when he felt the old fears rise, and the bottles of wine were shipped to his parents’ house for them to enjoy as he refused to touch a drop again.
He had to let go of who he had been in that other life—the party kid looking for a good time, the soldier in an army of the mind, a co-destroyer of a planet, and a psychonaut into the unknown. He was going to be a husband and one day a father, so he had to man up—person up, really. Day to day was enough of a struggle without the stuff he tucked away as a strange, soured memory. Still, when Annie got him a legit cellphone that triggered no alien terror when it rang, the second call he made was to Black Star. They had become mobilized, radicalized, demon hunters with a government contract. He didn’t want a part in it, but he missed Henry and Cassie. They were still them, just a whole lot more.
When Annie went to work and Thelon sat in their apartment , alone in that space, the strange thoughts would come. What if this is just a dream? What if there is no Annie? What if I’ve broken into someone’s apartment and they’ll come with the police to get me any second?
Thelon popped a pill for that and grabbed his briefcase. It was time to go to work. Tomorrow was Saturday and they had the rehearsal dinner. Guests would be arriving tonight. He had family to call. People to orchestrate.
With the EP going bust, his big deal had fallen through. Thelon’s firm was still paid for their time spent on the project, but it was back to business development with new clients and opportunities for mergers and profit. The weather demanded a hat and scarf and Thelon had put on weight, so he walked to the office and took the stairs up to his floor.
Chad had been humbled as well and no longer sported the manbun. However, he kept the beard, as did all Millennial men of a certain affectation.
“Yo, we have an offsite lu
nch that’s going to run long, and there’s going to be drinks. You cool?”
Thelon nodded. Only his closest work friends knew he was on the wagon and he appreciated Chad’s candor. “Yeah. My trick is to have sparkling water with a lime wedge. That’s what Sinatra did.”
“Oh, cool. Okay. See you there,” Chad said and left Thelon to his office.
He sat at his desk and read emails while sipping coffee, which was good, but he couldn’t have more than one cup or else he’d get anxious and have racing thoughts. He had to be a calm in the storm. Working with Chad had changed since Chad now carried memories of other lives where he and Thelon had been super tight buddies and Thelon had saved his ass when he’d gotten hooked on pills. That hadn’t happened here, but everyone you met had a flotsam of alternate memories; insight into each other, a baggage of relationships and knowledge of betrayals or trust that had no root in reality. Yet, work and life moved on.
His phone rang and it was no big deal to take it out of his pocket and answer. Annie.
“Hey, babe, just checking in. All good?”
“Yup. Got some meetings. I know where I’m going. I know where I’m coming from. I know where I am.” This was Thelon’s mantra now, code to Annie that he was fine.
“All right. I got a text from my mom. She’s headed to the airport. It’s gonna get busy. Are you ready?”
“Oh, shit. Yeah. Hey, you still cool with, um…Henry and Cassie coming? I mean, you said you were cool, but are you really cool?”
“Thelon, T, love of my life, they are your friends in a way I can’t ever understand, and so long as they know the rules—no funny business—I want them there at our table. I’m serious.”
“Thank you, love. I haven’t heard back from either of them, but they RSVP’d, and I guess everything will be as it should be.”
“Gotta go. Stay chill, lover. See you at home.”
“Bye,” Thelon said and hung up the phone. Things were good. This would be good. The wedding would be throwing universes together. A small, 200-person affair costed him a fortune, but it was all good. In a way, bringing together the families and his friends was like a tiny mirror of what had happened at Black Star, at Cahokia.
It’d been months since, and though few in the entire world knew his part in collapsing multiple timelines into one super fucking weird singular universe, he did. Thelon couldn’t make himself feel guilty because in some ways, shit was better now. People were nicer to each other. Politics were like, out in the open. No secret sins anymore. Sure, the President had been impeached and most of Congress and a couple Supreme Court justices resigned in shame, but life went on. New assholes went into office, equally as full of shit, but someone had to do the job.
Thelon called an Uber to take him to the offsite at a fancy restaurant uptown. The driver was a young woman and he perceived her energy was off right away. In the rearview mirror, her eyes were feverish, overly bright.
“You okay?” Thelon asked, and almost decided to get right back out of the car.
“Yeah, you know how it is,” she said in a shaky voice.
Thelon had seen lots of this since the integration. Still, her too quick movements as she got them moving into traffic jolted him and he bit his bottom lip as he clicked the seatbelt. Thelon didn’t like doing it, but he He half closed his eyes and shifted his awareness down and to the left, letting his gaze unfocus and his second sight dominate his field of vision. He saw, not with his eyes now, but perceived the latitudinal lines of force flowing through the world. He saw the jumpy, sparking energy of his driver. Ever so gently, he extended his hook, his other appendage, from his core. Tap, tap, tap. Three times he touched that woman’s form and imparted comfort and stability.
Thelon resumed normal time and perception, mouth dry and body itching. The driver calmed and seamlessly merged lanes. The jerkiness in her control over the steering wheel became smooth and calculated.
“Mind if we play some Christmas music?” she asked. “Some people don’t like it because it’s not even Thanksgiving yet.” Her voice was significantly steadier.
“Please. That would be nice.”
She put on a 24-hour Christmas station and it was nice. He’d be giving her a full star rating and she’d never know that he was the cause of her anxiety as well as her relief that day.
He could do this for people—he even should do this for more people, but he was selective. It was a superpower, a relic from his strange experience, but damn if it didn’t take something out of him. He’d be all fucked up for the meeting now, his body having been reminded that it was more than flesh. That wasn’t the worst part. When he did these things, jolted into that network of otherness, a signal went out into the waters and the mother fucking demons would be drawn to his light. So, there was that to keep worry alive.
No power without a claw back clause. Do a good thing and shit follows? Annie didn’t know about his power or the consequences. He’d tell her one day. No secrets except for this one outstanding thing. Maybe nothing would happen. It had been a while, and he could fend for himself. Not like Henry and Cassie, but he could.
But nothing happened. Thelon went to the lunch, presented his PowerPoint pitch, and closed the deal with slightly buzzed businesspeople who already liked him though they couldn’t say why. As the staff wrapped up leftovers from the catered affair, Thelon directed them to donate it all to the nearest homeless shelter. It was getting cold out there and with every young man and woman he saw living on the street, he saw Henry and remembered his story. He wasn’t lazy. He wasn’t crazy. He’d just been dealt a bad deck of cards and he’s not alone in that.
On his way back out into the blustery cold, he remembered to switch his phone from silent and there were messages waiting. His folks had checked in to the hotel, for which he’d prepaid an enormous room block. They wanted him to come over but understood if he wanted to spend time with his friends, who had also arrived at the same time, and Cassie was delightful. Oh, shit. It’s happened. Worlds are colliding.
Thelon had wanted to be the one to make introductions, as he was utterly unsure of what shit might come out of Henry’s mouth. He was less worried for Cassie. But I hadn’t left them on great terms exactly…
They were more than they had been, and it was weird. Perhaps in the intervening months, they’d found some way to reconcile the voices inside them, those strong personalities of each other—not to mention the alien things that dwelt within.
It’s gonna be fine. It’s gonna be a shit show. Thelon had once read that the mark of genius was holding two competing and opposite ideas in your head at the same time. He wasn’t so sure. He knew he wasn’t a genius, but this shit happened all the time. If he was a genius, he’d have written his vows already and despite needing to meet up with family and his strange, estranged friends, he’d need to make time to find the words to give back to Annie all the saving grace she’d heaped upon him. I’ll do it tonight.
The quietest voice in the very back of his mind decided to fuck him up with a single word: Nestor. Nestor is still out there. The loose string Thelon had decided not to pursue despite Cassie—not his Cassie, but Cassie Prime—pushing hard to go on the hunt for that fish. To make him pay. To exact judgement for breaking the world. Thelon had demurred, instead choosing life—his own life—to put it all down, but somewhere out there Nestor lurked and would one day would be heard.
~
SATURDAY NIGHT WAS the rehearsal dinner, with the real deal the following Sunday. Saturday morning, Thelon picked up Henry to do men’s things and chill with his best man. They started with a trip to the barber shop for a straight razor shave and massage. Thelon almost didn’t recognize him. He was fuller. Had a tan. Wearing jeans and a jacket which looked new. He looked good.
“You kept the car?” Henry asked, incredulous as he hopped into what was once a rental SUV.
“Yeah. I liked it—still like it, though I only drive on the weekends and parking costs a fortune in my building.”
“Oh, boo hoo, rich man.” Henry laughed and buckled up.
“Where’s Cassie?”
“She’ll be here. She said she had some shopping to do since we never get to do normal tourist things. She’s coming back to Black Star with me after the wedding. We’re busy. Running holiday discounts.”
“Cool.”
“You sure you don’t want to be a part of it? We’re cleaning up the garbage of the world and you kinda started it.”
“No. I’m out.”
“Are you still mad about what went down? The kid?”
“No. Well, yeah. I don’t know. I didn’t realize how fucked up things would be. I pictured something more magical and sparkly, not, you know, murdering the fuck out of people.”
“Yeah. That got ugly. You’re right, though. Shit is confusing. I’ve got a whole other person in my head now. All the time. She’s talking and thinking at me right now. She thinks you are too soft and need to grow up, but she likes you and appreciates what you’ve done for us. Totally off topic: you wanna know something weird? Sex is kinda like, well…it’s kinda like fucking yourself. There’s a part of me inside her.”
Now Thelon laughed as he pulled into the narrow parking lot for the barber. “Isn’t that the way it’s done?”
“Ha ha. No. Like, the other me is in there. Like, I’m also fucking myself, if that makes sense.”
“Gross. You ready to be pampered? Can your proletariat self handle salon treatment without fucking it up?”
“Dude, let’s get on that shit.”
They checked into the salon/barber shop and were whisked to a private room where there were chrome seats, velvet cushions, and two professional barbers.
“How much are we taking off, boss?” one asked the bearded Thelon.