Chapter
52 Earth II
Stories
shape the world. They exist independently of people, and in places quite devoid
of man, there may yet be mythologies. - Alan Moore
The person
I am now, compared with the person in the dream, has been baffled and defeated
and only supposes he enjoys a full life. In the dreams, I see what a full life
really consists of, and it is not what I really have. – Philip
K. Dick
Marie
felt a rush of air and the slam of her body onto grass, as if from a height of
several feet. The air was pushed from
her lungs abruptly. She felt the impact
with every muscle and bone, unable to catch herself to ease her fall with her
arms or legs, so sudden and unexpected it came upon her. Her head rang with dizziness and
confusion. She breathed deep and cool
mountain air rushed into her lungs. The
cleanest air she could ever remember breathing, was her first thought.
“Hello,
Marie” said a man’s voice just a few yards from behind her. “Welcome to Earth II.”
She
attempted to spin around from her sprawled position to look at the man, but her
dizziness made her fall again into the grass, this time face first.
“Yeah,
it takes a little getting used to, I’m afraid.”
She
took her time, slowly lifting her face and then her body off the grass into a
makeshift sitting position. Her eyes
were still blurry and visual images therefore indistinct. She could see the vague and shifting sillouette
of the man. She held her attention upon
him. He stood there patiently, not
moving.
“Give
yourself a moment, relax, this is probably one of the few places in the
Multiverse where you’re completely safe.”
She recognized his South Jersey accent, but not his voice.
“There
you go. Things should begin to compose
themselves for you, in just another few minutes. Best to just sit there and let your senses
come to you.”
She
attempted to address and question him, but only managed a few incoherent
mumbles instead.
“Yeah,
like I said, give yourself a little time.
Your sense of touch, smell and taste kick in first.”
And
as he said those words, she noticed the smell of pines and firs, of
chestnuts. In fact all the smells of
Labastide Esparbairenque, less those of diesel, and other manmade odors. Now she did catch a whiff of a wood fire
burning at some distance.
“And,
you’re obviously aware that sound comes in pretty quick, or you wouldn’t be
hearing me speak.”
In
addition to his voice, the sounds of a river running in a valley, of winds
through trees, of a few birds singing came into her consciousness.
“It’s
really just a matter of concentration.
The more you concentrate on your senses, the quicker they will come on
line.”
She
attempted to take his advice and set her mind on clearing away the blurriness
from her vision. Almost as she did so,
both the dizziness and blurriness gradually receded. Slowly, she could see that she sat in the
grass in a small clearing on a mountain overlook overlooking a small river
valley below. The sky was cloudless and
deep blue as she had never seen it.
“Amazing
how blue the sky gets without pollution, isn’t it?” said the man.
Now,
Marie turned her attention to him. He
was a tall thin man with long white hair and a bald spot on the top of his
head. He wore a white tee shirt, with a
flannel shirt open, a scarf and blue jeans.
His face was earnest and kind.
“Give
yourself another minute before you try and speak. Concentrate and your voice will come.”
She
again tried his advice and was forming the intention of being able to speak.
“Incidentally,
my name is A. J. Chandler. I’m a
colleague of Stan and Rian’s. It’s quite
an honor to meet you.”
“H-h-how
d-d-d-oo y-y-yo-u knnn-ow, m-mm-my n-n-name?”
“Oh,
that’s quite good! Everyone knows who
Marie Brabant is. You’re the most famous
person in the Multiverse, my dear.”
“H-how
are y-y-ou h-here?”
“Simple,
I got here before you started all this business of universe-hopping, and closed
the door for the rest of us.”
“W-what?”
“Back
in the eighties, a few of us from Princeton teamed up with this Sufi Ashram in
the Pine Barrens, and…”
“Ongs
Hat” Marie shouted clearly, surprising both herself and her interlocutor.
“Oh,
good, Stan’s told you about us then.”
“Well,
Barry did.”
“Ah,
how is Barry?”
“Fine,
I guess.”
“Stan
has a lot of faith in that young man.
See if you can get up, we’ll go to my camp, so you can warm up a bit by
the fire. It will be more comfortable
for us to chat.”
Marie
concentrating on making her muscles respond to her commands and before she knew
it she was climbing to her feet.
Chandler ran over to help her up.
“There you go, at a girl.”
“This
place seems very familiar to me,” Marie commented when she had gained her feet.
“It
should, this is what Labastide Esparbairenque would have looked like if man and
the Toxies had never existed in the world.
And, I can assure you it was no easy task to get here from New
Jersey. I don’t think I would like to do
it again. And now that you’re here, of
course, I won’t have to.”
He
took her hand, “Come, let’s get you warm and comfortable.”
copyright 2017 Diana Hignutt
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