This choice: It's not really your affair anymore • Go Back...Chapter #50A Trip to the Moon by: Seuzz   You get your phone from your room and fiddle with it nervously in the office before deciding not to call. It's probably nothing--probably just Black and Patterson and them trying to scare you. The other you. But you can mention it to Kali and Miko when they get back. They can call Joe if they think it's important.
* * * * *
It's a little after six when they get back, looking tired but happy. You ask about their day, but they brush it off. "Did you try any of those games?" Kali asks. "I wish you would," she says when you say you haven't. "I will have no objection to your taking a break from your school studies to play them." You wonder if they really are "games" or will be part of your training.
"I got an email," you say, and Kali stops and turns around again at your words. "I checked my account. I mean, obviously it's intended for the fake me that I left at home." You tell them about it.
"Well, aren't you popular," Miko snorts. "I never got a death threat when I was in school."
"I can leave one on your pillow if you like," you blurt out before you can stop yourself. Instantly, you pale.
Kali bursts out laughing; Miko turns pink, and stalks away without replying. "I should go apologize," you moan, and cover your face with your hands.
"You'll do no such thing, child," Kali retorts. "You've just made a friend, and you won't want to queer it. Of course, whether you will enjoy her friendship is something to decide later." She merely gives you an archly amused look when you ask what she means. "As for your death threat, I'll consider the matter." And that's all that gets said.
* * * * *
For dinner she prepares a luxurious salad of fresh greens, fruit and seafood with a tart dressing. You're quite hungry--not having eaten since breakfast--and are a little disappointed that there isn't more of it. "I hope you've budgeted enough for food, Kali," Miko says waspishly.
"I've had Joe and Frank in my care," Kali replies. "Will has a modest appetite by comparison, and he cleans up after himself." She smiles at you.
You find yourself wishing they were here. "Have you heard anything about Frank," you ask.
"Yes," Kali says. "You've no worries there."
"If you want to send death threats to anyone, you little squirt, I can tell you exactly who to send them to," Miko says, and stabs at the last little bit of food on her plate.
You start to stammer a reply, but Kali catches your eye and gives a little shake of her head, so you're left clueless as to what Miko meant.
After they clean up the kitchen--with your help--they lead you back into the living room. Kali lightly straightens it up, though it hardly seems to need it, and then she asks you to sit on the floor. "We will start with something elemental," she says, and she and Miko join you on the hard-wood floor. "Cross your legs. Sit up straight. Close your eyes."
"Is this, like, meditation?" you ask.
"Yeah, since that's exactly what it is," Miko interjects. "You ever tried it? Good. Then we won't have any garbage to clean out of you first. Well, no more than necessary."
"Miko," Kali says, and for the first time you can hear a note of impatience in her voice. "Now, Will. Take a deep breath. Exhale slowly. Again. Relax. Let your mind wander." You hear a soft grunt, and have the vivid impression that Kali has just nudged Miko hard.
You do as she asks, and try not to stare at the phantom lights behind your eyelids. You breathe in and out, slowly and regularly. Your attention drifts. You start by avoiding the obvious thoughts that might distract you: what is going on in Saratoga Falls; what your future career will be like; girls. A numbness steals over you, and soon you feel like you don't even have to avoid any conscious thoughts. The few thoughts you have arrive like fuzzy and indistinct lumps that softly deflect you from themselves and into other thoughts, which in turn nudge you in other directions. It's like playing a gentle game of mental bumper cars. "Hmm?" you ask, for you've not caught what Kali said.
"Think of the sky," she repeats.
Your mental landscape turns blue, a brilliant and shimmering blue. "Mm? Oh, it's blue," you murmur after she asks you again what it looks like.
"Is it empty?"
"Yes. No." You're surprised. "There's the moon."
"What shape?"
"It's gibbous," you say, and feel a touch of pride in knowing the correct term.
"One side is rounder than the other. Which side?"
"The left side." Its apparition is very distinct; and if you were thinking clearly you'd wonder at being able to see it so clearly and in such detail for being only a mental image.
"Describe its surface."
"I see dark places. The seas and craters. They're bunched up in the--" You give a soft gasp. "It's a face. The Man in the Moon?" You've never seen it, and aren't sure if this is it. "A face," you repeat, though they've said nothing. "Like an old man. Very old. Covered in frost. He has a beard. He's smiling."
"Is it Santa Claus?" That's Miko, sounding sarcastic.
"No," you mildly reply. "He seems thin. It's a thin beard. Like ... Chinese? Long and thin whiskers. They hang down." Your voice trickles out in a whisper.
He mesmerizes you, and you hear yourself whispering again, but you can't catch your own words. Vaguely, you wonder if the apparition of the moon is speaking, and speaking through you. The sky behind the moon turns dark, fading to purple and then to inky blackness. The moon blazes brighter. Then it turns grey and fades out. A silver mist pervades your brain.
"Are you back with us, Will? Will?" Kali's voice sounds very close, and you open your eyes. It's dark, and you feel very relaxed.
"Hi," you say cheerfully and calmly. Your body is so still that you fancy you can feel individual air molecules bumping against you. You take a deep breath, and it's like a quick, bracing fire shooting through your veins.
Kali is peering into your face with a smile. "Would you like something to drink? Cola? Orange juice?"
"Sure." You are very calm, but a tremble passes through you, and you reach out to grasp the kitchen table to keep from falling out of the chair.
Kali turns and opens the refrigerator. You smile as she takes out a pitcher of OJ and pours a glass. Your hand shakes a little as you take it from her, and gulp it down noisily. You set it on the table and smile again at her. It's fun smiling.
Only then do you look around and-- "How the hell did I get in here?" You were in the living room.
"You drifted," Miko says, and drops down into the chair on the opposite side of the table. "Bumped into the ceiling as you went."
"What?" You look down. You're still cross-legged, and your knees groan and pop as you undo your legs. "Seriously, how did I--"
"That will be quite enough for tonight," Kali says crisply. "That was several days work in the space of only an hour. We will do it again tomorrow night, and the night after. At that point, I think we'll be able to leave you on your own."
"To do what?"
"To meditate. After you have attained basic competency, you will do it three times a day, morning, afternoon and evening. But, as I say, let us be sure you have the basic competencies down."
"And for heaven's sake, don't do it in a room with an open window," Miko says. "We're seventeen floors up, and if you go out one while--" She takes a deep breath. "This is L.A., and UFOs are one thing. But flying sorcerers are another."
They don't say any more about it, and you can't tell if Miko is being sarcastic or what. As she had promised, Kali gives you a notebook--an expensive-looking thing, with a leather cover embossed with a stylized sun and star--and a silver fountain pen. You retire early, for that meditation trick hasn't left you feeling recharged. On the contrary, you begin to feel quite ill, as though you've just been through a very intense workout that has drained all the sugar from your blood. You curl up with your face in the pillow. The last thing you feel, before you feel nothing more, is the dissolving of the walls, leaving the darkness outside to mix with the darkness inside the bedroom.
* * * * *
You wake and blink heavily and smack your mouth, which is very dry. You throw your hand out at the end table by the bed and clutch the notebook and pen. You open to the first page, press the pen against it, and write. Your eyes shut as you do so, and your mouth falls open. Numbly, you feel the pen moving even as you start snoring again.
* * * * *
You take a deep breath and turn over. Something jabs you in the stomach. Grunting, you fish around in the sheets and pull out something small and hard, and send it clattering across the floor. You press your face against the pillow and breathe deeply for a very long time before you feel strong enough to turn over and face the day.
After showering--before eating--you return to the bedroom to dress, and find the fountain pen on the floor. You set it back on the end table. The notebook is there, open to the first page.
You recoil. It is covered by an elaborate and highly detailed sigil. You only have to blink once, and you can take in its meaning.
You break out into a cold sweat. It's one thing to have written down a dream. It's another to have written it out this way.
If you want, you can copy it out again on a new page, in English, and show that to Kali. If you show her this sigil, you wonder if she'll get Miko's sword and use it on you herself.   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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