“That sucks,” said Abel. He noticed that there was a tear rolling down Rimi’s cheek.
Suddenly, the tentacles that had been operating on Abel dispersed and disappeared into the sphere overhead.
“Ah, you are finished. I will get your clothes and help you put them on,” said Rimi. Abel sat up, looked at his naked body, and for the first time made the connection that he was lying naked in front of a complete stranger who was also a beautiful woman.
“Holy shit!” he yelled. “You’ve been staring at me naked this whole time.”
“Of course I have. Where else was I supposed to look? I wanted to make sure that everything had turned out all right, and you are also very pleasing to look upon,” she said matter-of-factly as she crossed the sphere to where he saw his things stacked.
Abel’s face cracked one of his crooked smiles. “You really think so, huh?”
“Of course,” said Rimi, “and what do you think of me?”
In one blinding movement, Rimi tore open a seam that stretched the entire length of her garment and let it fall to the floor. Abel gaped like some junior high kid staring at his first Playboy centerfold. He didn’t think he’d ever seen such an example of a perfect female body.
Rimi smiled at his expression, then redressed herself almost as fast as she’d undressed.
She smiled. “I’m glad you approve. Now let’s see if we can get your things back on you.”
***
About a half hour later, Abel was dressed once again. The process had been far more arduous than he could have imagined. Apparently, all three pumas had descended upon him at the instant his gun had gone off, and before Rimi could call them off, they had used their claws to rip long gashes all over his body. Fortunately, nothing was fatal, but several large arteries had been slashed, and were it not for Rimi’s ability to move from one place to another quickly, Abel could have bled to death. He had been given promptly to Bibi’s healing machine, and those major wounds had been repaired, but Abel had been so weak from blood loss that Bibi had caused him to sleep through the night before the more superficial repairs were made. The machine had fused the torn muscle tissues and skin tissues together, and each would eventually become just as good if not better than they had been originally, but at this early point, the grafts were fresh, delicate, and stiff, making it difficult for Abel to walk or move his arms.
Rimi had gently helped him with his clothes, although Abel was not always the most cooperative patient. He insisted on doing as much as he could himself, which was not much. Rimi simply sat while he struggled until he finally had to ask for help. She found his bravado both amusing and admirable. She thought it silly that a man should be so stubborn and refuse the aid of another when he obviously could not do something on his own, but she also understood that, though silly, this man’s refusal to allow others to help was something that made him stronger and more able to take care of himself. She also admired his ability to endure pain. Her life had been filled with pain, physical and otherwise, and she knew how much strength of mind and will it took to continue to push oneself forward in spite of it. This man, Abel, was certainly her equal when it came to that.
Once dressed, Rimi gave Abel a stick to lean on that she had used once for the same purpose, and then she showed him how to exit Bibi. There were several sections of the sphere wall that were not covered up by machines and gear, and all you had to do was think “open” when you approached the wall, and its atoms would rearrange to let you through. Abel, like most humans she’d met or seen on TV, did not seem able to understand this concept. They instead used premade openings called doors, which required a physical manipulation of a covering to enter or exit. Rimi demonstrated over and over how she simply passed through the wall, but Abel always just ran into it. He kept trying doggedly, but with no success. Rimi at one time asked Bibi if he was playing tricks on Abel, but he said no, that Abel’s brain waves were not yet recognized by the nanobots that held Bibi together, probably because they contained shades of doubt if Bibi’s atoms would actually move for him. Thus they remained in protection mode and would not open. Rimi finally asked Bibi to ask the wall to form a door, which it did, and Abel went through by physically opening it to the clearing. Rimi decided she’d continue to work with him until he could master this, sensing that he really wanted to and felt weak and embarrassed that he couldn’t accomplish “walking through walls,” as he put it, as she could.
They found one of the many downed logs near the clearing, and Rimi sat while she watched Abel struggle to walk toward her. It took him an agonizingly long time, but Rimi knew he would not want her help. She tried to encourage him and make a little joke, something that she sensed he might like from his earlier behavior.
“Do you know that there’s an animal on this island called a three-toed sloth?” she said.
“I’ve heard of them,” replied Abel.
“I think when we go back to Bibi, I’ll bring it here and you two can have a race to see who will get there first.”
Abel smirked. “Very funny.”
“Really? Do you think so?” she said happily. “I’ll give you a prize if you win.”
She wasn’t quite sure what this entailed, but it was something she’d heard often from Bibi about Earth humans, that they were very competitive, and winners of races or games would always get prizes.
Abel finally got to the log she was sitting on. It was high enough off the ground that he could sit comfortably on it without having to lower his rear very much. He was surprised at how tired he was from doing what seemed such little work. He’d only walked perhaps twenty feet. He felt as though he’d just run many times that far.
“I didn’t know walking from there to here could wipe me out so much,” he said as he caught his breath.
“Bibi says that is because of how much blood you lost,” Rimi informed him. “He says that it will take your body several days to build up its normal supply again. I offered to give you some of mine, but Bibi said that it wouldn’t be necessary, and besides, my blood might not be the right type for your body.”
“Smart guy,” replied Abel. Besides being exhausted, Abel’s mind was swimming. It seemed like every time this woman opened her mouth, there was some new question he wanted to ask her. How did the stuff with walking through walls actually work? Why couldn’t he walk through it like she did even though he focused all his thoughts on it? How did a door magically appear for him to go through? Was she really going to get a three-toed sloth for him to race? If so, where would she get one? How would she know where to look? Why on earth would she volunteer to give her blood to him? Where did she come from? How was it that a spherical space capsule could talk and repair human bodies? It all exhausted him even more.
He finally settled on asking one question, which he hoped was a simple one.
“So where are you going to get a three-toed sloth for me to race?” he asked.
“I’ll call him, listen for his answer, then use the wires to get to him and back. Or I could just jump to him and jump back with him, but it’s a little hard because you don’t know if there’s going to be a good place to land or not.”
Seeing the confused look on Abel’s face, she stopped.
You’re talking too much again, she chastised herself. These Earth people don’t even believe that alien humans exist. How would he be able to understand my capabilities?
She had done the same years before, and she’d frightened the woman whom she’d spoken to. The next day, men had come back with guns like Abel; only when they’d pointed them at her, they’d shot projectiles. She’d tried to dodge them, but one had actually struck her, and she’d had to be repaired by Bibi’s healing machine.
“What’s the wires?” Abel asked. It didn’t look like any conversation with Rimi would be a simple one for a while, but if he could keep things narrowed down to one thing, maybe he could enjoy a little time with her b
efore he got fatigued. He found learning about her fascinating, which made her even more attractive to him than she already was, but he’d have to go slow while his body healed, he could tell. It was something he detested but would have to gut out regardless.
“Oh, let me show you!” said Rimi, immensely relieved he still seemed to be interested. Perhaps this man would actually give her a chance to be his friend, but she still felt an intense need to be careful and not show or tell him too much too soon.
Rimi pulled out a couple of gloves and slipped them on her long, thin hands. Abel noticed that something in them glinted in the sunlight, but otherwise they appeared to just be made of some kind of sturdy material, perhaps the hide of something.
“These are my special gloves,” she said. “Bibi made them for me. He made the wires, too.” She gave a little leap and alighted perfectly on the log he still sat on. Abel was stunned by her graceful yet powerful agility. “Okay, here I go!” she cried, and leaped off the log high into the canopy above and then seemed to hover in the air.
“What the hell?” exclaimed Abel. “What are you hanging on to?”
“The wires.” Rimi laughed. “You said you wanted to know what they were. I’ve strung them all around the island high in the trees. I can go almost anywhere I want on them. Watch!”
Rimi grabbed the invisible wire with both hands, swung back and forth parallel to it, then suddenly, on a forward swing, dropped one hand off the wire, and her body launched itself, with her other hand acting like a very well-greased hook sliding with the same zing sound Abel had heard before. Suddenly, she was hanging from the wire in another tree that must have been over a hundred feet away. She got there so fast it was almost as if she’d disappeared and reappeared just a second later in the farther tree.
“Holy shit!” admired Abel.
Just as quickly, Rimi was back above him, and a second later, she was standing, perfectly balanced, on the log where she’d been sitting not more than a minute before. One more second and she was sitting beside him, removing her gloves.
“Let me see those,” Abel said, fascinated. Definitely some kind of hide, but what’s the shiny stuff woven into it? “What are they made of?”
“Bibi made them from some pieces of him that fell off when we landed on this island. Then he combined it with the hide of a dead crocodile. The wires he made from the branches of those trees we knocked down when we landed.” She pointed to the vast field of logs Abel had traversed when he’d first discovered what she called Bibi.
“What?” asked Abel incredulously.
“The trees contain carbon,” said Rimi. “Bibi changed it from its wood form into the wires.”
Abel looked at her like she’d just spoken to him in an animal language.
“I don’t know how he does it,” said Rimi, “but Bibi can turn just about anything into just about anything.”
Abel gave her another of his crooked smiles, though this time, while his face drooped from weariness, his eyes danced with excitement.
“I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation for all this, and everything else you can do, but how about you head out and bring that sloth back here so we can have our little race. I probably need to get back inside and lie down for a while.”
“I’ll be back in a minute,” said Rimi. She once again leaped into the trees and disappeared in another direction.
“I’m sure you will.” Abel chuckled to himself.
***
While he waited for Rimi to return, Abel, for the first time, took a moment to look around the clearing where he was resting. It was a gorgeous setting: the giant shiny ball that was Bibi in the midst of a clearing in the rainforest, with the giant canopy of trees and the smaller ones of the understory framing the whole picture with their magnificence. Within all this, everything seemed to brim with life. Birds of endless exotic colors and varieties flew back and forth. Parrots, parakeets, and toucans thrived with more common birds like hummingbirds and robins. Beautiful, delicate butterflies also fluttered about and filled the air with even more color. For the first time, Abel noticed how abundant smaller forest creatures like red-eyed tree frogs were. They hopped around on tree limbs, and even on the log he sat on. Looking up, he saw dozens of monkeys dancing through the understory as well as a couple of big cats, probably jaguars, lurking on the sturdier limbs. Abel was stunned by all he saw and wondered why he’d never seen such beauty before. This was the fifth day he’d been on the island, yet he’d never seen anything like this. Abel guessed that, until that moment, he hadn’t taken the time to notice.
Rimi came back with a big bundle of fur draped around her like a living mink stole. As she plopped back down next to Abel, she peeled the creature off her and set it down on the log. The furry animal’s arms and legs seemed much longer than its body, and each of them ended in three long, curved claws.
“Don’t worry,” Rimi said as Abel backed slightly away. “His claws are only for hanging in trees. All he eats are leaves.” Rimi cooed gently to the sloth, then set it on the ground. It immediately began its slow crawl toward Bibi.
“I guess I’d better get moving,” said Abel slyly. “Wouldn’t want to miss out on my prize.” He stood and, with the help of his walking stick, began his slow, painful walk back to the shiny space pod. Much to his chagrin, he was gaining on the creature, but not very fast. The head start he’d given it could make a pretty tight race. Abel pushed himself a bit more, feeling pain zap through his legs and arms, but he was determined. Finally, with about five feet to go, he passed the sloth and touched Bibi’s odd, shiny surface with his hand then raised his arms in victory, but quickly pulled them down because of a new zap of pain zinging through his arms.
Damn, he thought. I can barely do anything without hurting.
At the same time, a wave of sleepiness swept over him, almost like he could lie down right there on the ground and fall asleep instantly. He couldn’t remember ever being so exhausted, even when he’d had both his knee and elbow replaced. He felt himself falling. He leaned on the walking stick, but it didn’t stop him.
Rimi, in the midst of cheering for Abel, saw what was happening and was by his side instantly. She let him collapse into her arms, then carried him over her shoulder to a hammock strung between a protrusion from Bibi’s side and the sturdy limb of a tall understory tree. She carefully laid him on the hammock, then disappeared through Bibi’s wall and reappeared with a pillow and a blanket that she placed over him. She did this with ease and skill, the weight of the nearly two-hundred-pound man not causing her to either fall or struggle.
When she had finished, she looked down upon his face. It appeared calm and at peace, with just a hint of the crooked smile that she liked so well cutting across it. It was hard for her at that moment not to break down into desperate sobbing, so fearful was she that, as soon as he was able, he would leave the island and never come back, and once again she would be utterly alone in this world, with only her animals and the woman from the shore to keep her company. And these days, she could not even go see that person more than once or twice every few months because of how dangerous it was.
Her thoughts raced back through the last few days, how he’d come to her shore alone and unafraid, with no gun drawn or rifle ready to shoot. She remembered how he’d hacked a trail for himself through the meadow grass, and when he’d first seen La Catedral Verde, he had been awed just like she had been so many years ago. When he’d first seen her bodyguards, he had not panicked and run nor pulled out a gun to shoot. He had bravely ascended the volcano mountain, and when met by her sentries, he’d not shot at them either. He’d explored the caves where the evil people had been allowed to die and had not flinched nor desecrated their remains. She’d laughed when her monkey friends had toyed with his rope for crossing her river, and how he’d restrained himself from shooting them, then admired his toughness and tenacity as he’d climbed log over log and finally c
ome to her clearing where he’d once again shown great respect. She’d been enraged the next day when he’d come with a long rifle, ascended the volcano again, and begun shooting, but was surprised and impressed when he’d deliberately avoided hurting any animals. If there was ever someone more suited to living life with her on her island, she had not seen them—not in over a hundred years—and who knew if she’d even be alive for another hundred years, or even a hundred days to find another.
Rimi took some deep breaths, closed her eyes, and calmed her mind, as the woman on shore had once told her to do when she was afraid. She was a strong and resourceful woman, she told herself, and she could survive anything. She could never convince anyone to stay on her island and be her companion by desperately clinging to them and begging them not to go. A person must be free and allowed to make their own choices. She was not of this world, and anyone who would be her companion would have to be able to deal with many things that no one else had to deal with. It must be that person’s decision to stay. It must be because they wanted to, not because they felt sorry for her in her loneliness.
She stood a little taller and smiled down at the sleeping man next to her.
“I shall win you to me, Abel,” she whispered out loud. “I shall gently guide you in understanding me, and I shall listen carefully to understand you and how to help you. If you will have me, and if I decide you’re worthy, I’ll give you my love, and will never leave you for as long as I live, in this world or in mine. This I promise you with all my heart and mind.” And then she kissed him softly on his lips. “How’s that for a prize?”
***
The Green Cathedral Page 16