The World's Game

by Jacobo Izquierdo

  What happens next is unexplainable. I’m out of my physical body. I see myself lying on the armchair and Tim pressing my glabella. I walk around the room as I watch my motionless physical body. I don’t understand what is going on. When the session finishes, Tim explains me that I have experimented an astral unfolding and that I have entered the fifth dimension, which is where spirits live. A voice coming from a wall alerts me. «Hello, my star.» I remain still when suddenly a shadow goes through the wall. It’s Mery. The medium has just introduced me in the astral plane and has conceded me one last date. I have to seize it. I try to touch her, but her body is a mixture of dust and smoke. It’s impossible to have physical contact with her. We talk for several minutes and she tells me to continue with my life and that one day we’ll see each other again in a wonderful place called 2958443183. I ask her where it is and why it is called like that, but she doesn’t know the answer. Tim’s voice starts asking me insistently to come back to my physical body and, in spite of myself, I say goodbye to my wife. I was the most amazing experience of my life. I feel perfectly well. This experience, along with several others, convinced me that I will soon be with her. The session finishes and Tim says goodbye to me. He says that his work is done. I may never see him again. It doesn’t matter, because he has given me the key I needed. I now only have to find the door to the underworld.

  Josef telephone started ringing putting an end to his reading.

  Chapter 39

  The image that appeared in front of Palac was daunting. Everything around him was on fire. Dozens of light sources, maybe hundreds. Clouds of smoke everywhere made that tenebrous scenery even blurrier, if that was possible. A voice could be heard behind him. His grandfather turned around. Plisalet was near him with the Cyclops by her side.

  “What’s happened?” Yewut asked.

  “I tried your abilities taking advantage of the visit,” Crizal answered. “To tell the truth, you have an impressive mental power.”

  “Were you able to throw rays with my body?”

  “Exactly. Very powerful rays!”

  “Is that true, Plisalet?”

  “Yes, sir. I witnessed it.”

  The curtain that allowed Palac to observe the scene closed again. Some seconds later, it opened, but for his grandfather’s frustration, nothing happened.

  “Don’t worry,” the Cyclops said. “Training and perseverance will fructify.”

  “How long were you in my body? I can’t remember anything.”

  “About two days,” Crizal answered laughing.

  “Really?” Yewut answered addressing to the female midarian.

  “Yes. After occupying your body, he walked away throwing rays, and now he has come back.”

  “Why have you done that?”

  “Because I wanted to know what walking felt like,” he answered saddened. “I had never experienced that.”

  “If that was the reason, I think it’s ok,” he said not fully convinced. “Why can’t I remember anything of what happened?”

  “When you occupy a body, you domain its thoughts and its whole being. Everything what has happened is stored in my memory. You can’t remember anything because your mind wasn’t conscious of what happened. Would you like to try this power?”

  “I fell a bit scared, but I’ll have to try it before I leave,” Yewut answered.

  “First of all, do you know your body so well as to visualize it perfectly well in your mind?”

  “I think I do,” he answered hesitantly. “Which body do you want me to occupy? Yours or hers?”

  “None of them,” Crizal answered.

  The two midarians exchanged looks. «Is there anybody else?»

  “If on this planet there are only the three of us, what other options are there?” Plisalet asked.

  “Who said that there are only the three of us? I’m the only rational inhabitant of Zelapon, but that doesn’t mean that I’m alone.”

  The Cyclops opened his giant mouth and started to emit a series of short and repetitive whistles. Immediately after, as if he had invoked the most lethal forces of nature, the ground started to shake. A huge cloud of dust appeared on the horizon as if it were an erupting volcano. The vibrating intensity was more powerful every time. Yewut and Plisalet leant on each other to avoid falling onto the floor. The eyes of the midarian leader saw in the distance something approaching them at top speed. He did not know what it was. To his surprise, that something was not alone: behind it, a herd of peers was following it. When they were only fifty meters from them, Crizal changed the whistle to a long and lasting one, and the herd stopped at once for the visitors’ relief.

  “They’re zibats.”

  The zibats were gigantic beings with an appearance similar to beavers’. As well as the latters, they were also blind. They weighed two thousand kilos and were five meters tall. Their heads were long and their mouths had dozens of teeth in charge of crushing and grinding the rocks and minerals and served them as food. Their four legs finish in sharp claws used for digging their dens, place where they lived and formed colonies up to one thousand meters deep. They have an extra sensitive sense of hearing that allows them to move at top speed.

  “Do you want me to occupy one of these beings?” Yewut asked with skepticism.

  “Of course I do. O do you happen to think you’re smarter than them?”

  “The question the Cyclops launched made the herd uneasy. Some of them huffed and puffed, while others moved excitedly. In one way or another, they seemed to understand him.”

  “You could’ve called them before!” Plisalet recriminated.

  “Stop it!” Crizal shouted. “Do as I say or go away,” he ordered.

  “Red?” The midarian leader asked.

  “That’s it,” Crizal answered. “Visualize your body in your mind and compress it until it’s a red light ball.”

  The midarian’s eyes closed. Minutes later, they opened again, but the perspective shown was still from the same place. «He’s still in his body,» Palac thought. He repeated the same procedure five times, but the result was always the same.

  “I may not know my body as well as I thought I did,” he thought with resignation.

  “Are you surprised?” The Cyclops asked. “Only very few beings know even the slightest detail of themselves. This ability is relatively easy to carry out, but it requires a complete study of the organism. And with this power I terminate the teaching.”

  A new whistle made the animals move again. This time the rhythm was slower and quieter. Suddenly, one of them started to dig the ground forming a hole very quickly and it got into it. One by one, they got into it until they have disappeared from the surface of the planet.

  “Thank you for sharing your wisdom, master,” Yewut said.

  “Thank you for bringing her,” Crizal said. “Next time we see each other, we won’t be alone. Our match will create a new race formed by two of the best planets of the galaxy.”

  “Her fertility allowed us to raise ourselves when we had lost everything. Without her, we probably wouldn’t be here now. Plisalet, our match has come to an end. Our people’s safety and continuity prevails over any feeling. One day, when our offspring start to learn these powers, they’ll remember their learning was possible thanks to you. Our planet will always be grateful to you.”

  “Your words honor me,” Plisalet said. “As the last female midarian, I have to obey Mida’s demands and interests. My only request is that you take care of Beiler as you do it with your son and that some day you come back here to visit us.”

  “I will.”

  Chapter 40

  “Hello, Josef”, Henry said very happily after opening the door. “It’s nice to see you again!”

  “Hello,” Josef said forcing a smile. “I can see you’ve listened to me,” he said pointing to the hearing aid.

  “Yes, you were right. If one day somebody breaks into the house, they’ll have taken everything by when I finally realize,” he kidded.

  “W
hat’s that so important thing you want to tell me?” The youth asked hardening his gesture. He had a hunch that something was not going well.

  “Come with me,” the old man said pulling his arm.

  Both walked towards the living room and they sat down. Henry looked nervous. «I have to talk with you. It’s important,» he had told him on the phone only half an hour ago.

  “What’s the matter?” Josef asked.

  “I’m dying,” he answered with wet eyes. Two words that no one would ever want to hear, even much less to pronounce. “I went to the doctor a month ago because I had been having headaches for a while. I thought it was a kind of migraine, but apparently it wasn’t like that. This morning I received a call from one of the doctors that are treating me and he had informed me that I have an incurable head tumor.”

  Josef tried not to collapse. Before a situation like that, he knew that showing weakness or compassion could make things worse.

  “Are you sure it’s incurable?” He said pulling himself together. “If you want, I can talk with…”

  “The size of the tumor is irreducible,” he said interrupting him. “I may have only a few weeks… and I wanted to see you. When your grandfather died, I may not have risen to the occasion. I would’ve liked to get to know you more… time is running out and I…” The old man broke.

  “I’m sure you did all what you could for me. It’s no time for lamenting. Now you have to think about yourself.”

  Henry pointed to the table in front of them. There was a tray plenty of chocolate cookies with two cups of coffee on it. Josef picked one and started to eat it.

  “Let’s talk about you, which is what I’ve called you to,” he said wiping his tears off.

  “What do you want to know?” He asked as he picked a second cookie.

  “Everything! The other day you told me until the moment you started university. What’s happened since that moment?”

  Josef blushed. His wild student life was not precisely something he liked boasting about, but the situation demanded it.

  “When I left the reception center my hormones were the same as a rodeo bull’s. Totally out of control!” He exclaimed opening his eyes wide and raising his tone of voice. “I was confused. I didn’t know what career to choose, so after thinking it over I chose journalism.”

  “Journalism?” He asked astonished. “What made you choose such determination? Carrying out a coherent an uncensored journalism? Being the first one in informing the world?”

  Josef shrugged.

  “Come on, tell it to me.”

  “The girls.”

  The old man adjusted his hearing aid.

  “What have you said?”

  “The girls,” he repeated. “I decided to study journalism because it was the career with the most amount of women enrolled.”

  Henry started laughing. He could not stop. Josef’s answer had astonished him completely. This time, tears rolled down his cheeks due to laugher.

  “It’s been ages since I last laughed so much! So you’re a journalist?”

  The youth shook his head no.

  “The truth is that despite having been coursing the career for so many years, I wasn’t able to pass the third course.” A new cookie started to disintegrate under his teeth. “I used to spend more time organizing parties and trying to be popular than studying. Finally, I got sick and I withdrew the career to enroll in medicine,” he said smiling nervously. He did not want to elaborate on his explanations very much since his laziness made him feel embarrassed.

  “Medicine?” He asked surprised. “But if you got dizzy at the sight of blood when you were little.”

  “And as an adult as well,” he answered quickly. “My brother, Steve, advised me to study medicine so that I could help him with his investigation. His words motivated me to the point that I even thought I would be able to achieve it.”

  “Aren’t you a doctor either?”

  “I wasn’t able to pass the second course. My phobia of blood accompanied me all the time. During the first month, I fainted four times. Despite of that, I spent almost five years coursing the career.”

  “Five years,” the old man repeated. “Why didn’t you leave it before?”

  “Because for the first time since my grandpa died, I felt happy. Although I hated the career of medicine, it allowed me to share rooms with three classmates. They cared about me, they looked after me, and above all, they made me feel loved.”

  “I understand you perfectly,” Henry said. “When did you decide to finally leave university?”

  A small drone barged in the room and left a receptacle on the table. Inside it, there were four pills. Immediately after this, it soared in the air again and started to its control point.

  “When my roommates finished the career,” he said taciturn, “it was senseless to continue there without them.”

  “So what do you do for a living?”

  “I’m a librarian.”

  “Librarian? I thought that trade had become extinct.” The old man took the four pills and put them into his mouth. He then took the cup of coffee and sipped it. “Do you still keep your grandfather’s house?”

  “No. I haven’t been there since he died. When I left my studies to start working, I started to rent. One day I received the call of a man who said he was interested in buying the house. At the beginning, I completely refused. His interest grew and I stood firm so as I could obtain the highest benefit possible.”

  “You must’ve got a good share for it. It was huge.”

  “Twenty million dollars,” he answered smiling. “I spent a tenth of that sum on my new house, a car and some treats. I remember now that I’ve always had a question spinning on my mind.”

  “What is it about?”

  Josef heard the bell. He left the small craft he had in his hands and ran to open the door. Behind it, a fat man with a white beard and wearing a red suit was waiting for him.

  “Hello, boy. Have you been a good boy this year?”

  The little boy started to step back speechless. He did not know what to say nor did he know what to do. Finally, his body bumped against his grandfather’s, who was behind him enjoying that magical moment.

  “What is it about?” He asked again.

  “Was it you my Santa Clause? My grandpa always denied it, but you look so alike…”

  “Yes, it was I. Every Christmas Mike asked me to dress myself up and take you the presents. Your illusion face was priceless. The first years, you used to remain petrified without pronouncing a word.”

  “My grandpa always told me that it was the real Santa. He always wanted the best for me,” he said visibly touched.

  “I remember when we used to go for a walk in the park and you said you were tired and couldn’t walk anymore. Your grandfather picked a candy and lifted some meters and you ran after it to take it. Aren’t you tired anymore? You smiled and kept on walking. I see that you still have the scar,” he said pointing to Josef’s face. “Do you remember how you scar it?”

  The youth looked at him tenderly.

  “It was the day on which Mike removed the training wheels from your bike. You had ridden perfectly well the whole afternoon. Only a meter before arriving home, you fell off and you had the bad luck of hurting your eyebrow with a stone. You started bleeding uncontrollably and you fainted. Two stitches sealed the wound, but your grandpa’s fright was tremendous.”

  “What I liked the most was when we used to visit the NASA premises. I loved getting into the craft simulators.”

  “What a bunch of memories!” He exclaimed. “Getting back to what we were talking about, may I go to visit you to the library one of these days? I haven’t been in one for so long!”

  “To tell the truth, I don’t work there anymore. I decided to quit some days ago…”

  The old man stared at him. He could read in Josef’s eyes that he was about to confess something important to him.

  “Did my grandpa ever tell you about the investigati
on he was carrying out?”

  “I knew he was writing a book, but he never showed it to me.”

  “Did he tell you about a numeration?”

  Chapter 41

  For a while, the novice spent some time training in the north of Mida. He was trying to master some of the skills he had seen in his grandfather’s niolar, but he had not been able to control any of them. From time to time, he went back to the Golden Pyramid to see the trainings and so that be able to learn them. No matter how many times he came back there, he still didn’t manage to achieve his aim. «You’re still too young,» he thought remembering his father’s words. That may be one of the reasons, but to be honest, lack of concentration was the main one.

  The craft piloted by Beiler barged in the midarian sky making loud roar. «They’re here.» Palac thought aware of the fact that his time had run out.

  “Those big-headed will have what they deserve,” Cabolun said threatening.

  The captain said nothing. He reduced the speed in order to be able to control that titanic craft and started to descend. Just before penetrating the air space over Nalactia, he pressed one of the hundreds of buttons of the control panel and the protection dome situated over the city disappeared. A moment after going through the last centimeter of the craft, it automatically closed again.

  Cabolun was terribly angry. «They made a fool of me.» The meeting with the leader of planet Tis has not been satisfactory. Twelve miners had died due after having been attacked by some tisots and their leader showed no sign of regret at all. «You’ve already mined too much gold. Now it’s our turn to take advantage of the metals of Jiwap,» he had told him in a mocking tone of voice. «I won’t stand for this.» Declaring war meant breaking the reigning peace and tranquility and that was something he had to think over. Despite mastering all the abilities, his warriors were not as powerful as their enemies. However, not declaring war meant to surrender to them.