“I’m here!” He shouted as loud as he could.
An almost inaudible voice was heard again. Without thinking it twice, he ran to the light full of hope. The words were clearer every time. «It’s a woman.» He opened his ears again and on this occasion he heard the singsong clearly.
«When the owl goes out hunting the night will have fallen
on the sugar cane, it’ll hide
but don’t be afraid, my hand will protect you
and the small vulture will look after you.»
A sweet female voice was singing that song nonstop. Josef looked everywhere trying to find the singer of such melody.
“Who are you?” He asked.
A woman appeared on the road and approached to his spot. She was tall and slim. She had light and captivating eyes and her hair was brown and wavy. With a wide smile, she kept on walking and, at only ten meters from him, she stopped. Josef was petrified. A tear rolled down her cheek until it fell on the ground and was absorbed by the earth.
“Hello, Josef,” she said with tenderness. “Aren’t you going to hug your mother?”
As fast as his now tiny legs allowed him, he walked towards her and their bodies merged as one. It was the moment he had dreamt with all his life: meeting his mother again. No matter what that place was, it had allowed him to meet her and that made him extremely happy.
“I thought you wouldn’t recognize me,” she said caressing his chin. “You were so little when your father and I died. Do you remember the song?”
“Grandpa made sure I met you. Every day we looked at photos of you two. The song sound familiar to me, but I can’t remember where from.”
“It’s normal that you don’t remember it. I used to sing it to you every night to make you sleep when you were a baby.”
Mother and son started walking along the road hand in hand. «This is the best day of my life.» Josef could not take his eyes off her. He had so many questions on his mind that he did not know where to start from.
“Where’s dad?”
“Don’t worry. He’s all right.”
“But where is he?” He insisted. “I’d like to see him.”
“He’s in a beautiful place where we go to when we die. I guess he’s with grandpa and grandma right now.”
“Do you mean heaven?” He asked very surprised. “Can you take me with them?”
“I’m not sure if we live in heaven.”
“Where are we now?”
“In a place we call «the passage.» Only a few privileged ones can visit it. If you’re here is because Someone protects you and gives you the opportunity to go to the new world or to return to your body. You have to find out why Someone still needs you on the Earth.
“Who is Someone?” He asked surprised.
“In the new world, many refer to Someone as a mighty being capable to decide about life or death, to make easy what is difficult and even making mortal people immortal. No one has seen it, but if he considers you’re useful, he will protect you until you fulfill the task he has entrusted you. Your father and I… went directly to the new world,” she said with resignation.
“How are you so sure about that?” He asked holding his mother’s hand tighter. “Do you mean a mission?”
“In my world, a lot of people have been victims of its divinity. You have to listen to me! Find the task you were entrusted and carry it out.”
“Why would I want to be alive if I’m not with you?” He asked striking out. “In my world I’m completely alone.”
“That’s not true,” she reproached. “In the hospital room there are people waiting for you to wake up, so go with them,” she said pointing to the dark side of the way.
When Josef turned around searching his mother’s angelical look, she had disappeared.
Chapter 28
Everything was in silence in room 114 in Palomar Pomerado Health hospital. Margaret was lying on an uncomfortable bed next to Josef’s reading the Egyptology book her mother had given to her. From the moment he was hospitalized, she had stayed by his side. She had only been absent some days to have a shower at Steve’s house and to get out from that agonizing wait. Neither the best clock nor the best fortuneteller could set the exact hour of the outcome. «I’ll be here until he wakes up,» she once told her mother on the phone.
Steve was by her side, standing up, he was finishing dining a sandwich. Every evening, after working in the lab, he went to see him hoping that he woke up. Physically, Josef seemed to have recovered completely. He did not have the bandage on his head and the gauzes all over his body. He was not breathing with the help of the mask anymore and neither did he need the pleural catheter to drain the blood that flooded his lungs. Only his right leg was still in a cast. Apart from it, he seemed to have got over the serious injuries provoked by the accident.
As usual, Steve started to tickle Josef’s feet waiting for some response. «If there’s something he can’t stand, that is being tickled on his feet,» he told Margaret. Suddenly, the scientist let out a choked shout. The young Psychology student did not perceive it. Steve stepped back and stared at his brother’s body. «He’s not moving.» He went close to him again and touched his feet. This time the stimulus was bigger.
“Margaret,” he whispered.
She looked at him with her eyes slightly closed due to tiredness.
“What happens?” She asked yawning.
Steve pointed to his brother’s feet.
“He’s moving!” She shouted. As fast as she could, she got up from bed and ran outside the room.
Some minutes later, she came back along with several doctors. Josef’s eyes were half-opened and Steve, who was by his side, was crying with happiness.
“Come one, wake up, long sleeper,” Margaret said very happily. “You’re back here with us.”
Josef managed a faint smile.
“Welcome back, little brother,” Steve said taking his hand.
“Do you know who they are?” One of the doctors asked.
The librarian nodded.
“Can you tell us what it is the last thing you remember?” The same doctor asked.
“I remember I was sitting on the plane waiting for it to land. Suddenly, I heard a big explosion,” he answered. His voice was weak and hoarse.
Margaret gave him a glass of water and he sipped it.
“The plane crashed when it was landing and you were the only survivor. Now we are in PPH hospital of San Diego,” his friend said.
“I’m afraid I’ll have to ask everybody to leave the room,” another doctor said. “We have to carry on some tests to see if he had suffered brain damage. Later, an expert in the field will come to evaluate him. He has been a lot of time in bed, so he surely has lost an important part of his psychomotricity in the joints.”
“How long ago did I have the accident?” He asked with a thread of voice.
“Seventy-six days,” Steve answered. “Margaret, let’s go outside. The doctors have to work…”
As he ordered, both of them got out of the room. During the whole night the room was visited by a large number of doctors and nurses. In the middle of the morning, one of them approached to them smiling. «I’ve got good news.» The first tests had discarded brain damage. He also showed himself quite optimistic about the recovery of the mobility of the joints and about the fracture on his leg. He said it was absolutely sealed and that the cast would be removed that week. «With nowadays medicine, he’ll be completely recovered in a month.» After giving them the medical report, he let them in the room.
“Hello, little brother,” Steve said visible touched. “How do you feel?”
“Eager to live,” he answered still dysphonic.
“I’m so happy that you’ve recovered,” Margaret said kissing him on the forehead.
“This girl must love you a lot,” the nurse said. “She’s stayed here every single day you were hospitalized.”
The girl blushed.
“Have you been here the seventy-six days?
” He asked surprised.
“Yes. In part it was thanks to Steve.”
“Thank you… thanks to you two,” Josef said sobbing. “If I’m here it’s thanks to you two.”
“No, Josef,” Steve said shaking his head. “Your strength is what has made you come out of your coma.”
“You’re wrong. I was able to decide whether to come back or not.”
Josef started to tell them everything in detail. Finally, the doctor, who seemed to have contained himself during the whole account, decided to interrupt him.
“It has been a very long day,” he said with a severe tone. “Let’s let him sleep and rest. It’s possible that the medication has made him imagine things which didn’t happen.”
“They did happen!” Josef shouted angrily. “I remember every single detail about that place.”
“According to recent research, when human brain is in coma, it can generate images and situations which aren’t real. Surely, that’s what happened to you.” The doctor said.
“Margaret, you remember the accounts my grandfather documented in his book: those experiences that people who have been on the verge of death lived. I have the same experiences,” Josef, who seemed to be digressing, said.
“Well, Josef, now you have to rest,” Steve said.
“I’m not crazy!” He exclaimed punching the bed. “If you don’t want to believe me, don’t do it, but I know what I lived,” he concluded.
Chapter 29
Sitting in front of the monitors of the control room, Cabolun celebrated victoriously the deaths he had provoked. «Now you run? I won’t stop until I’ve killed all of you!» The rest of the midarians in charge of supervising the game looked with astonishment, despite being used to it, the hate shown by their leader.
Palac was walking along the corridor that led to the chamber and, coming from far away, he heard his father’s shouts terrified. «What would have happened?» In his one thousand and five hundred years of life, he had never seen such an aggressive behavior.
“What happens?” He asked as soon as he entered the room.
“Nothing,” his father answered. “Everything is all right.”
Cabolun got up and started to shout at the scientists who guarded the room.
“Get out of here, you useless!”
“As you say, sir,” one of them said.
All of them obeyed.
“I wanted to apologize for the incident of the other day. My father’s death was very hard for me and I can’t stand anyone to enter his tomb.”
«Liar!» Palac thought trying to contain his hate.
“I understand.”
“Why did you want to see me?”
“Do you think I can make as good warrior as you?”
Palac was uneasy. He constantly fastened the glove on his right hand and found it difficult to keep eye contact his father.
“Of course. Maybe one day you’re even stronger than me. Why do you ask?” He asked intrigued.
“I feel very week.”
“You have the blood of powerful warriors. That’s impossible. Why do you think like that?”
“The great majority of midarians my age have already developed his powers at their maximum. Some of them exhibit an extremely powerful ray. On the contrary, I still don’t know them.”
Cabolun changed his gesture. He did not like the turn the conversation was taking.
“You’re too young,” he said raising his voice a little. “The moment hasn’t come yet. Your mind power is very low and it’s unlikely that you create a decent ray.”
“I’d like to learn them right now,” he demanded. “Following the midarian tradition, as my father you’re the one to teach me.”
“No!” Cabolun shouted. “You have to be patient and wait.
“All right.”
In that precise moment, he would have liked to know how to create a ray and throw it against his father. He could not wait to start learning and, after his father’s refusal, he knew that the idea of avenging his grandfather had faded momentarily. He walked some steps and when he was about to leave the room, Cabolun gave him news that made him recover optimism.
“Wait, don’t go. A short while ago I’ve been told that the extraction group settled on planet Jiwap has been attacked.”
Jiwap is an inhabited planet near Mida. It is only twenty days away from it. Fifty per cent of the planet is formed by a long mountain range in whose interior there is a big quantity of metals. Since three thousand years ago, a team of two hundred miners is in charge of mining the gold from its entrails.
“Jiwap?” Palac asked. “Who was it?”
“A detachment of tisots,” he answered furiously. “I’ve talked with the leader of planet Tis and I’ve notified him about our visit. Historically, we haven’t had a good relationship with them. Unless we have a convincing answer, I’ll declare war to them.”
“Have there been any casualties?”
“I still don’t know it. I know some miners have been seriously injured. I’m leaving with Beiler and part of his army. We may stay away for a while. Keep me informed about any incidence.”
Chapter 30
Forty days after Josef had come out of coma, he was discharged. During that time he had to recover his normal sleep-wake cycles. Later, he had to dedicate four hours a day to recover his joints and his battered right leg’s mobility. Apart from visiting the hospital speech therapist for several hours to improve the vocalization of some words which, after the accident, he could not manage to articulate perfectly well.
«I’m better than ever!» He wrongly thought as he left the hospital with the help of two crutches. Although having left hospital walking by his own means, he still was not completely recovered. He had to continue rehabilitating his right leg at Albuquerque hospital. Before travelling back, Margaret and he decided to stay some days at Steve’s house. His brother’s wife was their guide and went with them to the most emblematic places in San Diego. They were places Josef had visited dozens of times, but in those days they looked different. «Now everything seems more beautiful to my eyes.» On their last day in the city, they agreed to get up early to go with Steve to the lab and so seeing in person the investigation work he and his team were carrying out.
The lab was a diaphanous and luminous space. A central double table had in its test tubes, instruments and microscopes, the hopes and illusions of twelve scientists who, as Steve, had decided to mortgage their lives to the search of the miraculous medicine. On the left, the sunlight entered without opposition through the glass walls that gave the place a warm and comforting light. On the right it was the resting area. Three sofas, a small bookcase, two fridges with food and a coffee maker were enough to allow disconnection for some minutes. Where the bookcase that contained the books finished, there were two doors. The first one led to a soundproofed room where the team kept the animals used in the experiments. Rodents, primates, birds and even cats and dogs, all of them innocents who fought for an impossible freedom. «An unnecessary cruelty,» reminded a sign inside the room. The second one was an armored door that could only be opened with the fingerprint of one of the members of the team. Inside that room, they kept carcinogenic cells, strong and devastating viruses, lethal poisons and all kinds of diseases and non-commercialized medicines. On the same wall, an endless shelf kept all the documents of the trials carried out for years. In the background of the lab, it was Steve’s work area: a table with four computers, a microscope and several electronic gadgets. On it, at about five meters from the floor, thirteen monitors that showed the images from the microscopes all the time hanged from the ceiling.
“I’ve spent most of my life in this place,” Steve said with proud. “Do you like it?” He smiled.
Josef stared hypnotized at the monitors.
“Number ten,” Steve said pointing to one of the screens, “shows the work John’s doing.”
The three of them walked to where the investigator was.
“How did the new drug res
pond?” Steve asked.
“Not very well,” John answered taciturn. “It has responded perfectly well in primates, but it hasn’t been able to stop the advance of mutated cancer in humans. I’d even dare to say that it has enhanced it.”
“No problem,” Steve said patting him on the back, “we have to keep on searching.” His face did not reflect the same optimism he wanted to transmit.
Steve greeted every single member of the team and then he led his guests to the area of relax. There they took out several coffees and cookies from the vending machines and then they sat down.
“As you can see, it’s very difficult to fight…” he made a brief pause “…this pandemic. If you allow me this particular definition, I use such terminology because, in my opinion, it acts as that.”
“Why is it so difficult to kill the affected cells?” Margaret asked holding the glass of coffee.
“Tumor cells are intelligent and always manage to escape our attacks. The problem is that the tests we carry out on animals give very positive results, but when applying them on humans, the results don’t follow the same patterns of…”
“Sorry to interrupt you,” Jose said dropping his crutches. “Do you try experimental drugs on people without knowing their consequences?”
Steve nodded ashamed. The question made him feel uncomfortable and he moved in the sofa.
“Experimental drugs have always been tested on volunteers. Maybe now, with the disease at its highest peak of mortality in in history, a higher number of volunteers will be needed. They are fully aware what they’re being exposed to and, in several cases, they give their bodies with the hope of helping others.”
“Isn’t it dangerous to experiment without knowing the side effects?” Josef asked bending his body forwards. “I’ve read that a drug modified the disease and originated the mutated cancer.”
Steve got up shaking his head. He walked some steps up to the machine and took out another coffee.
The World's Game Page 18
