Chapter 8
After multiple attempts to re-engage the device, they ascended the stairs. Jack sat down, and then laid back in the grass. Jon and Latisha looked at him.
“I don’t think we have time for star gazing,” Lakeisha said.
“I am thinking we have all the time in the world for star gazing,” Jack said.
“We need to do something,” Lakeisha said.
“I am thinking. That’s something. It just looks like nothing,” Jack said.
Lakeisha turned to Jon. “You got us into this. You think of something,” she snapped.
“Please, don’t yell at me,” Jon said.
“Don’t tell me what to do,” Lakeisha said. She shoved him. “This is your fault.” Jack was suddenly between them. “Hey, Lakeisha, hey, we’re going to be okay, but we got to keep our wits about us.”
“I have plenty of wit, thank you. I am just angry,” Lakeisha said. “I want to go home.” She observed Jon in a state; his focus was distant, his fists were closed. “What’s wrong with you?! Can’t take a woman yelling at you? It’s time for you to man up and take responsibility for your actions.”
“Lakeisha,” Jack said.
“Oh, don’t fall for those crocodile tears,” Lakeisha said. “He knew what he was doing when he brought us here.”
“Jon,” Jack said. “Breathe. Push through this.”
Jon’s focused narrowed, returning to the room to include Jack and Lakeisha in his field of vision. Still, it was as if he didn’t see them. His voice sounded empty when he spoke: “I thought this was the answer, that I would be better here. Wasn’t that the promise? A safe place. A place to heal. But, it’s just more of the same, isn’t it. There’s no end. There’s…”
Jon turned and proceeded straight towards the stairwell that led down to the hangar room. Jack and Lakeisha followed.
“Jon!” Jack said. He hurried and got between Jon and the airlock.
“You can’t stop me,” Jon said.
“Yes, I can,” Jack said.
“Stop him from what?” Lakeisha said.
“What, you’re going to tie me up?” Jon demanded.
“I might,” Jack said.
“With what rope?!” Jon said.
“What’s going on?” Lakeisha asked.
“I can be very clever when it comes to restraining folks,” Jack said.
“At best, you’re just delaying the inevitable,” Jon said.
“What inevitable?” Lakeisha said.
“Delaying is always better than rushing into it,” Jack said. “Some things take care of themselves.”
“I am going to do this,” Jon said.
“I will not let you kill yourself,” Jack said.
“What?!” Lakeisha said. “Oh! Space walk without a suit. Are you fucking insane?”
“You have said as much,” Jon said. “The whole school marches to that drum beat.” Lakeisha took position against the door with Jack. “I was being mean,” Lakeisha said. “I am sorry. Don’t do this.” “I am broken!” Jon said.
“Who the fuck isn’t?!” Jack said. “Being human isn’t for cowards. It’s the hardest game in town. And it doesn’t get better just because you’re older. Things still creep up on you and scare you and make you cry, not because you’re weak, but because you realize the ideal and that we fail. Every day we miss the mark, but we go to bed, we sleep it off, and we get up and try again. That’s what we do!”
“You don’t understand what I have been through. You don’t understand the things I have done to survive,” Jon said.
“You’re absolutely right. I don’t have a fucking clue. And I don’t need to know the fine details to understand. I can tell you things, Jon, horrible things from my own life, but I am not going to get into a pissing contest to see whose life was better or worse. You can’t do that. I mean, you can do that, but it’s not helpful. It just leads to more craziness, and rationalizations, and faulty thinking. Now, I want you to go to your room, lay down, and sleep this off.”
“What?” Jon and Lakeisha asked.
“It’s all I can think of at the moment,” Jack said. Lakeisha laughed. “You really are old, aren’t you?” “You doubted?” Jack asked.
“Well, I have said you remind me of my grandfather more than once,” Lakeisha said. “I am not that old,” Jack complained. He went to Jon, slow and present so there was no surprises, turned him around, and put arm over his shoulder. He encouraged him to walk up the stairs. “Come on.”
Lakeisha took Jon’s other arm, not as slow as Jack and it startled him, but he accepted and together she and Jack walked Jon to what they would call the North bedroom. Jack insisted Jon go lay down. Jon complied. Jack pushed one of the chairs over towards the stairwell. It didn’t quite block it, but he intended to sit watch. He helped Lakeisha bring the other chair over, and between the two of them, Jon was not likely to get past them.
“It isn’t necessary for you to babysit,” Jon said.
“Sorry,” Jack said. “Between the grenade incident and this lemming cliff-march thing, you’ve earned yourself a 24 hour line of sight episode.”
Jon crossed his arms and stared at the ceiling. Jack sat down and Lakeisha took the other chair. It wasn’t long before there was evidence Jon was out. He snored. He rolled over onto his side where he became quiet.
“He is right, Jack,” Lakeisha said. “If he’s determined, we’re not going to stop him.”
“I know,” Jack said.
They were silent. As they sat there, they realized there was a scattering of stars outside the window, somehow dissociated from the galaxy at large. It was hard to say if they were ejected due to galaxies colliding, or perhaps they were tossed out by the black hole at the center of the galaxy. Jack knew them both as possibilities. Lakeisha kicked off her shoes and drew her legs up into the chair, then removed her socks.
“You asked me once why I was living with my grandparents,” Lakeisha said. “My parents were users, and distributors. My father was killed by a rival distributor, and after that mom’s addiction got worse. CPS gave my grandparents custody. Shortly after, my mother overdosed. No one is sure if it was accidental or intentional, but given the amount she had reportedly taken, it probably wasn’t an accident.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Jack said. “I’m sorry.”
“There’s nothing to say,” Lakeisha said. “I was happy to go stay with my grandparents. It was more stable. With my parents, it was feast or famine. There were days we were homeless, and days my father was buying cars for everyone in the family. When we had a home, there were always strangers in my parents’ house. They’d come, get their fix, and sleep it off. Sometimes they didn’t sleep. I was molested more than once. My parents weren’t taking care of me. I was angry about that for a long time. I mean, seriously angry. I would break things. And they would buy me more things to placate me. I use to cut myself. If it weren’t for my grandfather, I don’t think I would be here.”
“Your grandfather is a survivor. Not everyone can figure out how to come back from what he experienced,” Jack said.
“No, Jack. He did something more than just learned to survive. He has done something even I haven’t figured out how to do, yet,” Lakeisha said.
“What’s that?” Jack asked.
“Love,” Lakeisha said.
“Love?” Jack asked.
“Huge love. Like unconditional love,” Lakeisha said. “He may seem like this bear of a man, but that’s just the test. You don’t get to really know him till you pass the test, but once you’re in, you realize his depth is unmeasurable. He draws deep water. He was in an all black platoon in Vietnam. There was this general who hated blacks. He would give them no win scenarios, like, go take this hill, which wasn’t even supposed to be possible but it was ordered as a diversionary tactic. They took the hill. Against all odds, they accomplished every mission given to them. Six impossible missions in a row. Each time they accomplished their goal, the general would get mad and send them into a worse situations. Pointless missions. On the last mission, they were instructed to take out an airbase. They took the base, Jack. They had the highest casualty rate out of any unit in Nam, were frequently short people, and still they took it. No one expected that base to fall. It wasn’t even supposed to happen. It wasn’t a diversionary tactic. It wasn’t strategic. Some asshole general who wanted to see black men die gave them orders just because he could. It was only after that base fell that people in the higher command started asking questions. The general was retired. What was left of the platoon was reassigned.
That’s not a story you hear about. That’s the movie that will never get told, and I dare say, that is a much better movie than say, Saving Private Ryan. My grandfather has every reason to hate America, to hate white people, to hate Vietnamese people, but he consistently goes out into the community, speaking at churches and schools, and he preaches love and nonviolence. I can only hope to one day be as good person as he is.”
Jack was truly at a loss of words. She leaned over and patted his hand.
“I am going to go pee, again,” she said, getting up.
Jack stood to go with.
“Stay here. Line of sight, remember,” Lakeisha said.
“You sure?” Jack asked.
“I am sure. Not confident, but I am sure,” Lakeisha said. Jack seemed confused.
“We can wake him and all go together,” Jack said.
“I need to do this alone,” Lakeisha said. “Look, every horror movie I ever saw, the person who goes off to be alone dies. That first person is usually a woman. If not a woman, he’s black. I am a woman, and black, I’ll probably be the first of us to be eaten by aliens. I am not going to live my life afraid, especially of a perceived threat, because that’s not real. Give me something real, then I will back off.”
Jack appreciated her position, but loved the movie metaphor humor. “Well, there is always the hope that the aliens will prefer white meat,” Jack said.
She smiled and departed up the stairs, barefoot. She discovered the grass felt great against her feet. She felt more relaxed, imagining this was a place she could get to like. She paused under the sky and the immensity of it frightened her. The sky never looked this way on Earth. When you think of it in that terms, the sky is just another ceiling, another box that you live under. Jack had explained light pollution made it difficult to see. Her ancestors had more familiarity with the stars than she did. They were intimate with the stars and found their way home because of stars.
“God,” Lakeisha said. “This is nice. Thank you for the grass, the trees, and the stars. We need help. We need strength. We need love. I am afraid. I want to go home. But your will, not mine.”
With that, she took a deep breath, waited a moment, as if God might actually respond here, and the let it out. She proceeded to the toilet on her own.
Jack timed her. He anticipated how long it would take to cross over, do business, and come back. When it seemed to be taking longer than he thought, he allowed for adjustments in his accounting, thinking perhaps she needed to do more than just urinate, or perhaps she went down the wrong stairwell. He got up and climbed the stairs and met her returning with an orange.
“Shall we try it?” Lakeisha asked.
“This could be a real threat,” Jack said.
“We have to eat,” Lakeisha said.
Jack peeled the fruit to find the inside looked as it was expected. He divided it into two. It sprayed. It smelled like an orange. It felt like an orange. It looked like an orange. He went to taste it, but Lakeisha took hold of his wrist.
“There’s a bible story here, you know?” Lakeisha said.
“I thought it was an apple,” Jack said.
“People get that wrong,” Lakeisha said.
“It was an orange?” Jack asked.
“No one really knows,” Lakeisha said. “Maybe it was an alien fruit.” “Maybe this is the other tree,” Jack said.
“The tree of life?” Lakeisha asked. She touched her orange to his. “L'Chaim.”
He tasted it. It tasted familiar, but better than expected. Better than he had hoped, and he was genuinely surprised.
“You want to wait and see if I die?” Jack said.
“Nope,” Lakeisha said. She partook. “That’s sweet!” “Yeah it is,” Jack said.
They descended the stairs and found Jon wasn’t on the bed. Lakeisha was concerned, but Jack went straight way to the far side of the bed and found Jon on the floor, between the wall and the bed. Jack returned and asked if she would be okay if he took a turn to go relieve himself.
“Sure,” Lakeisha said. “I guess I will go sit by the wall.” “Wall?” Jack asked.
“Line of sight is line of sight, right?” Lakeisha asked. Jack nodded. He loved how fast she caught on.
निनमित
Lakeisha wandered over to the wall so she could see Jon, and sat in the window. Jon sat up suddenly, as if coming from a nightmare. He had retreated to the corner before he had orientated.
Lakeisha knelt down in front of him. “Shh, it’s okay,” she said. “No one’s hurting you.
You’re safe.”
Jon focused on Lakeisha, nodded. “We’re still here.”
“We’re still here,” Lakeisha said. “Do you want to talk about it?” “About still being here?” Jon asked.
“About the nightmare, silly,” Lakeisha said.
“No,” Jon said. He stood up. Lakeisha stood up, too, and he was confounded by what to do. He wanted to exit the corner, but he didn’t want to get closer to her, and he didn’t want to climb over the bed. “Could you back off, please?”
“Why?”
“So I can leave,” Jon said.
“No,” Lakeisha said.
“I need to urinate,” Jon said.
“Oh,” Lakeisha said. “Okay.”
Lakeisha headed towards the stairs and he followed. At the top of the stairs they were met by Jack.
“Where ya’ll going?” Jack asked.
“He wants to pee,” Lakeisha said.
“Oh, okay,” Jack said. He and Lakeisha accompanied Jon to the toilet.
“I am fine now. I can do this without supervision,” Jon said.
“I think you’ll have to earn that,” Jack said.
Jon proceeded to do his business. He finished, emerged from the stall, and headed for the stairs. Lakeisha coughed to get attention.
“What?” Jon asked.
“Wash your hands,” Lakeisha said.
“Why?” Jon said.
“It’s what we do,” Lakeisha said.
Jack shrugged, indifferent. Jon washed his hands. They returned to the topside and Jon proceeded to the tree and took an orange.
“You’re not going to stop me?” Jon asked. “Nope, might have another one myself,” Jack said, pulling one free from the tree. He tossed that one to Lakeisha, and then took another.
Jon sat down on the tree. There was a rush of sound and the world turned and he jumped up, dropping the orange.
“Did you hear that?” he asked.
“Hear what?” Jack asked.
Jon sat back down on the tree, and again there was a rush of sound and a sense of vertigo. He forced himself to sit with it. It was like being in a crowded auditorium, a thousand conversations all going at once. He closed his eyes, the veil was lifted, and he was in a space of quiet, a clearing in a forest, in the shade of one tree. A female was present. An alien female. Her skin was green, a rich, Persian green, while her hair was more a Paris green, almost neon. Her eyes were like emeralds, not luminescent but they had that sheen that made you wonder. Her eyelids were the sparkly blue green one might associate with butterfly wings, with golden speckles. Her lips were a blend of reds and orange, with golden speckles, just as the eyelids. Though the gold speckles seemed concentrated on her lips and eyelids, there was evidence of glitter like sparkles everywhere on her skin, like freckles that one only saw when she moved and the light hit them by happenstance and perspective. She wasn’t naked, but he could see all of her. Her dress was sleeveless, a light sea green that was translucent so that light could pass, and the only thing that seemed to hold the dress up was a gold collar, mandarin in style. There was a gold sash that accentuated her hips and flared out the dress. She bowed, hands coming together in ‘Namaste,’ and then she rushed him, hugged him, and then kissed him.
“I am so happy to see you with such clarity,” she said. “I am sorry I could not be there when you arrived, but I had to be elsewhere to facilitate the transfer.”
“Who are you?” Jon asked.
“You don’t remember?” she asked. She took a moment to collect an answer from the
wind. “I am told you will remember. You are still not yourself.” “I don’t understand what that means,” Jon said.
“I will arrive shortly, and I will remain with you for as long as it takes to heal from this injury,” she said. “My name is Alish. We are lovers.”
“We are?” Jon asked.
“If you need anything before I arrive, just asked Isis,” Alish said.
“Isis?” Jon asked.
“Stand up,” Alish said. There was an echo that sounded like Jack and Lakeisha were both instructing him to stand up.
Jon stood up and nearly collapsed. He might have fell to his knees except Lakeisha and Jack caught his arms.
“Are you okay?” Jack asked.
“You got to try that,” Jon said.
“Try what?” Lakeisha asked.
“It’s a communication device,” Jon said.
“The tree is a radio?” Jack asked.
“Sit, try it,” Jon said.
“No,” Jack said.
“I don’t want you to take my word on it. I want you to experience it,” Jon said.
“Okay,” Lakeisha said.
“No!” Jack said. “That telepathy stuff has a way of getting into your head and messing with you and you distinctly said Isis, and if it’s related to the Egyptian gods I know from having worked at Stargate, you don’t want those guys in your head.” “She said ask Isis,” Jon said.
“Who said ask Isis,” Jack asked. “Alish,” Jon said.
“Who’s Alish?” Lakeisha asked.
“A plant girl who says I am her lover,” Jon said. Jon frowned at the look they were giving him. “I am not crazy. She’s the one sending me messages. Its why am I here.”
“We have to rescue her?” Jack asked.
“She didn’t say that,” Jon said. “Why?”
“Just making sure you’re not channeling Star Wars,” Jack said.
“I am not crazy,” Jon insisted.
“No one’s calling you crazy,” Jack said.
Lakeisha bit her lip. “I am reserving my opinion on that,” she said.
“Okay, if you won’t sit and try it, then, maybe I should just take her advice and ask Isis,” Jon said.
“Not a good idea,” Jack said.
“Do you have a better idea?” Jon asked.
Jack sighed. “Fine. Do your thing,” Jack said.