by DC Alexander
/Proceed?/’
‘/With Caution, Yes/’.
Her heart accelerated, her circulation picked up. I followed what was happening inside her as an observer, Dirt provided a ringside seat. Her body ‘Noticed’ the coating and created pieces of material that attached to the coating, then shriveled and fell off taking pieces of it with them. The junctions were uncovered, leaving raw, sensitive areas as the trash was carried away.
After a few minutes she shivered, then jerked convulsively. Her eyes darted frantically under her eyelids and she changed expressions rapidly, her fingers clenched and straightened, she moaned.
The danger lay in the dead cells and the heat. She ran a fever.
I needed to stay involved, the remote intelligence meant no harm but it didn’t see things the same way I did, if something came up I should decide how to handle it.“How long is this going to take?” I felt like I was asking “Are we there yet?” I knew it could only go so fast, her body’s ability to remove the trash was limiting the speed of the process.
Dirt’s concept of time didn’t fit my mind. All things were now, Dirt existed now. It could easily see yesterday or three thousand years ago. In the same way I looked at a star, I could see millions of miles. The simple enormity of the alien way of thinking overflowed my mind. I experienced eons and seconds and days mixed together, some of them uneventful and unchanging, at the same time filled with movement and change. Existence was at a single point of ‘NOW’ which could not be expressed because it was already receding as it occurred. My mind refused to grasp it. .
‘Stop, I can’t do this!’ I tried to get the thought out of my head, left floating and disconnected, looking down on vast realms of information presented instantaneously, seeing the overall presentation at the same time I experienced each tiny pinpoint.
The flood ceased with a quizzical ‘What?’
I couldn’t respond. I was having trouble connecting thoughts. Random things went through my mind, I was simultaneously myself with all the things I had ever experienced, and I was mud washing into a stream, the stream, a rock lying in the sun, a set of keys lying in some leaves by a sidewalk, a hole in the ground pressing onto a mole as it pushed its way to the next earthworm and the earthworm unknowingly awaiting the mole.
My eyes were closed but I knew myself in the back yard next to Elizabeth. I was sprawled out on my back with my mouth open and my feet awkwardly folded under me. I had fallen backwards. I focused on me and zoomed in. I needed to be only at that one point that was me.
The discomfort of my knees was buried in a mass of information. I concentrated on it and discovered the grass against the backs of my arms. My feet were bent and miserable, my mouth was a little dry, I came in and landed in myself but I was still loose. I tried to ignore everything but the discomfort in my body. I awkwardly rolled to the side and opened my eyes.
That helped tremendously. The information coming in from my eyes damped down the mass clamoring for attention. As I moved I became more centered and stable, I sat up and braced myself with my hands ‘Jesus Christ! I think that almost killed me, please don’t ever overload me like that, I can’t handle it.’
‘Apology/consternation/curiosity/explanation?’ which meant ‘Huh?’
‘Too much too fast. I couldn’t handle it, information overload. ’
‘limit’ It was a trickle, but it was too loud, it hurt my mind. I examined the burst of information. It contained the concept of duplicating my mind internally, multitasking, creating ghosts or alter egos for different things. An alter ego would stand between me and the information flow and give me time to process. I suddenly recognized it, I did this already. Dirt was disappointed and becoming distant. I would be another dead end and become unpredictable.
I sent ‘this! Understanding’ and drew its attention to various scenes as I relived them while watching: I took the trash can out to the curb for Grammaw. Panic struck, and angry, mean Rosalee dealt with the situation while my base consciousness watched. Another flash: it was getting easier.
I stood at the mailbox putting the hammer down on Willie. One partition took action while the main part of my mind stood aloof and watched.
I saw me in the bathtub ruthlessly bending my fingers to keep myself focused, the same alter ego accomplishing a task.
I shot Earl. I kicked him down the stairs and tied him up and prepared to drive a screw into his head to kill him. This was a cold, calculating automaton who could do anything. I mentally wrung my hands in the background as I watched.
‘Yes. filter’ I had to work on developing multiple personalities. Just another day; strange was my new normal.
I sat up and looked at Elizabeth, she was still laid out. I didn’t know how much time had passed but I damn sure wasn’t going to ask. I was curious how it was going. She was lying still with just an occasional twitch. I scanned her. She was almost done. I’d have to bring Delicious and Jennifer over here and do the same thing with them. We should be able to do both of them at the same time.
I was curious. I prepared an alter ego and stepped back a little.
“I saw lost items, people doing things, can you find lost things? You are aware of remote activities? You know things about people and where they’ve been and what they’ve done?”
“Awareness.” I think the answer was yes, anyplace there wasn’t a barrier of some sort.
“Would you mind sharing information about such things with me, so I can make a living with it?”
A jumble of questions, an attempt to understand, I explained but it didn’t go across well.
It didn’t matter. Basically, Dirt didn’t mind sharing information. I could be in business, if people knew I could help them.
Chapter Seven
T hanks to Carl we got more business than I could stand. We scheduled appointments. I never had any idea there was that much stuff lost.
Carl and I got together every morning and wrote up a schedule for the day. He’d quit doing odd jobs, it was a full time job here at the house. We didn’t get rich but we got enough that it made it worthwhile. With lost things, most of the time I could focus on it and I would know where it was; sometimes I had to go with them see the place before I knew.
Elizabeth came over every day to clean and cook. She’d moved in with Wanda. She couldn’t get a job because she was too young and had no papers, no birth certificate or anything. She couldn’t remember anything about where she came from or her last name, or that’s what she said. I didn’t let on she was lying. She and Wanda hit it off great. When she got ready I’d help her get home.
I didn’t eat much but I needed to eat something and Carl was eating at the house a lot. I didn’t eat meat anymore, or meat products, it stank and the texture was sickening and it just didn’t work for me. Elizabeth stayed busy and seemed to be getting better. She could talk but sometimes she would get parked and stand there till somebody told her to move. She’d lost memories, I didn’t know how much was done when we fixed her and how much was blocked by her, it didn’t really matter.
Wanda found where the other two were from. She got in touch with their people and sent them home. They were in about the same shape as Elizabeth, maybe more alert. They hadn’t been under as long.
I talked to people every day. We slowly got into the herb business, making poultices and healing droughts and teas. I had an encyclopedia in my head that dumped information out when I needed it. Strangely, I remembered things I never known or learned. I could see into people, where they were weak, or had some part of the body sick or failing or not getting enough blood; I’d remember herbs and mixtures that would counteract the illness. What I didn’t know was how to get them. Occasionally I had to tell somebody there wasn’t anything I could do. That was a hard thing. Most of the health problems were caused by people eating too much of the wrong things and not working it off though, and the solution there was to purge them, keep them from eating till the stomach shrunk, and work them hard. That was fun.
I ke
pt my money in the house and I knew there would be people trying to steal it. I made arrangements for anyone trying to rob me. Earl showed me how to make a trap circle like he had on his porch that caught me. I took some paint and laid one out on the sidewalk outside the house and one in the door and one in the kitchen. I tested one, put some blood on it and it worked like Earl said it would.
The law come by and stopped on the street and watched ever now and then. They had to see something was going on here, all those people coming up to the house.
Carl called me to the front of the house one day, “Rosalee, the cops is here wanting to talk with you.” I was in the kitchen; Michelle Baker was telling me about somebody with a drug addiction. She was married to a local preacher.
Everybody thought I’d cured the girls of heroin addiction and she wanted me to do it for somebody else. She was in the middle of explaining. I told her “Hang on a second. I got to deal with this. I’ll be right back.” She followed me to the front porch. She considered me a pagan and wanted me to go to church, but if I could reverse heroin addiction she’d take it.
I’d never dealt with the law. Consensus said they were useless. Most people avoided them, once they noticed a person they tended to keep watching them. I figured some of them were good and some of them were bad. The good ones worked somewhere else and protected and served. The bad ones came around here and wanted their cut of the action.
I stepped out on the porch, “Yall need to talk with me?” There were a couple cars parked out front with people waiting their turn to see me. I wondered if they would leave because of the cops.
Two cops stood out in the front, their car was pulled over to the side of the street. One stayed back and kept an eye out while his partner talked to me. The one talking wore a nametag that said ‘David Davids’. He said “Good morning, is this your house?” Friendly and polite, but I wasn’t fooled.
“Yes, it is, what can I do for you?” Just as friendly and polite.
“What is your name, if you don’t mind?” I noticed he didn’t answer me. He bent his knee and put his foot up on the porch and put his hands on his knee, all sociable, making himself at home. He had to look up at me with me standing on the porch.
“I don’t much mind telling you my name. I’m Rosalee Piers. What do you need?”
“Rosalee, why don’t you come down here off that porch and let’s talk.” He stood up as he spoke and stepped back, his hand accidentally brushed the butt of his holstered gun. He was big and didn’t like looking up at me.
I’d had just about enough of this. “I just fine right where I am. If you got something you want to talk about you need to go ahead and trot it on out. I want to know why you come here asking me questions, am I supposed to be done something wrong?”
The cop standing back come alert and looked to see who might be watching, he was serious all of a sudden. He was black but it didn’t seem to make any difference between them. The white cop, David, took a step back so he didn’t have to look up at me quite so much and said “We can do this nice and polite or we can go downtown, it’s up to you. You coming down off that porch or do I need to come up there and get you, girl?” I guessed we were done with the “Ma’am”.
I didn’t have any choice, and stepping on the ground might come in handy. I kicked off my flip flops, walked down the steps and stopped when I stepped on the grass. “I’m down here now, you gone tell me what you want?”
He suddenly developed a severe drawl. “I be wantin’ to talk wid you bout all these peoples hangin’ out at dis house all day and night, what they doin’? Dis a crack house?” He smiled kinda nasty and moved closer so he looked down at me, his chest was close enough I could smell him, fried food, grease, cigarette smoke and sweat. I had to tilt my head way back to look up at him and I didn’t like the way it exposed my throat and made me feel vulnerable.
“No sir, this aint no crack house, this lady waitin for me is a minister’s wife and we been talking. If you got a warrant you come in and look. This aint that kinda place though, this is a family neighborhood.”
“Warrant? I don’t need no stinkin’ warrant” in a fake Hispanic accent. His partner chuckled, he liked that. He’d relaxed, leaned over on the car.
David caught me by the arm, “I think we’ll just go down to the station and talk. You won’t be such a smartass when we get finished.” He pulled me toward the car. I didn’t want to go. I shouted to Dirt ‘hold me here?’ and felt the answering surge. I reached down into the ground and anchored myself. I didn’t budge. I was a statue, a part of the earth. I didn’t have to brace myself.
It threw him off balance, his hand slipped off my arm. He kept going a step and he scratched my arm when his hand slipped off, his fingernails left two furrows, they were going to bleed a little.
“Ouch, hey, why you claw my arm like that? That’s police brutality, yall witnessed that, right? I held up my arm, Miz Baker, you see where he just reached over and clawed me?”
He got mad, putting his hand on his gun as he turned back to face me. “You really want to do it this way, we can do it. You’re resistin’ arrest.” It was getting ugly. I had to do something to stop it before it got out of control. I certainly didn’t want to get in a car with them.
I requested the ground under him to let him sink. I pictured him with both legs in the ground up to his crotch, he dropped down and his body hit the ground hard. He was at arms distance from me, and his head came up to my belly. I hadn’t planned on his crotch hitting the ground like that but it was a nice side benefit. He grabbed at himself with one hand and used the other for support, flopping forward and groaning “Uuuuhhh”, the supporting hand almost hit me. I stepped to the side and I let it sink till his face hit the ground. He struggled to get his hand from under him and out of his crotch, when he got it out he felt around cursing and unfastened his gun. His partner came running over to us with his hand on his gun and hollered “Duck!” which I thought was odd.
The one on the ground was sick inside and didn’t exercise, his heart beat accelerated but was still barely able to push the thick, heavy blood through his system, his arteries were bulging and clogged. I could easily cause a clot, skip a beat. I could knock him out or worse.
‘Not allowed.’ Oh. It didn’t care if I killed, death was a normal part of life; but it wouldn’t let me harm the man using my abilities. The gun was in a leather holster. I could feel the fibers in the holster and the steel of the automatic, the leather mingled with the steel and they bonded together. For all intents and purposes the holster and the gun became a single item, it was about half out of the holster and it stayed there with him tugging on it.
He gave up on the gun and put his other hand on the ground to push his self up. I let that hand sink too. I couldn’t make his skin stick to anything, I’d have to change it to do that and it would be against the rules. His clothes stuck and held him fine. His chest and face hit the ground and he made an “oomph” noise.
The other cop was there, he reached for his gun and I tied it the same way and sank his feet into the ground. He was moving when he sank and it made his knees try to bend the wrong way, he caught himself with his hands so I sunk them up too. He went in to his elbows and I stuck his sleeves to the ground so they wouldn’t come out.
Another police car pulled up to the curb and two more cops piled out. They pulled guns and held them down by their sides and walked fast over to us. They spread apart from each other and watched everything around them.
As they come up one of them said “Everybody just hold on here, nobody do anything, let’s not make this any worse.” The other was talking into his radio, calling in “Officer down”, with his hand up on his neck and his head bent over to talk on his radio handset, “that is two officers down, no shots fired, hold one” He surveyed the area, “is anybody hurt?”
I said “No, aint nobody hurt, ‘cept I got these scratches, these here gentlemen come up here and we was talking, that one fell down and scratched my arm and then
the other one come over and fell down. They might be somethin wrong wid them, but I aint saying nothin bad about no officer of the law.” Maybe throw a little doubt into the situation. “He scratched me here” and held out my arm. They ignored it.
One of the new cops, his name tag read Henry something, went over to the black one and asked him in a loud pissed off whisper “What the hell are yall doin, Otis?” without looking down at him.
Otis said “I aint got no damn idea, I fell in a hole I reckon. My legs are stuck and I can’t get my arms out neither.”
I said “What yall mean to do with all this? Yall can’t stay here, it don’t look right having men in my yard, what will the neighbors think?” If I could keep from laughing this was going to be ok.
Henry said “Duck! What the fuck are you doin man, get up, people are watchin you, you look like an idiot!” Duck was obviously the white cop who got stuck first, David was his name. Duck was saying something and pulling at his gun but I couldn’t tell what it was because his mouth was in the dirt. He turned his head back and forth trying to get his face up where he could talk. He had grass and dirt on his face and his ears looked like they were painted, they were glowing.
I felt the pistols Henry and his partner had, they were automatics, there wasn’t a shell chambered in either one so I locked the slides on them both. Nobody would get shot at least.
The two cops in the ground were well and truly stuck. I squatted down to look at where they went in the ground; it looked like they had grown there.
I didn’t want them mad and wanting to come back and burn me out or accidentally shooting the windows, I had to resolve this.
“You know, they been several peoples what got stuck in that dirt like that in the yard, that’s why I didn’t want to come down off the porch. Yall think we can get the city to come fix it? It just aint right for people to get stuck in the ground, that could be dangerous. Yall think it might be a sinkhole? It make me feel all inhospitable and anybody tell you I aint that way, I glad to see yall coming round here protectin me.” I didn’t laugh. I examined my arm so I didn’t have to look at them. Carl came out on the porch, he was worried about all the guns but he was grinning, he set down in my rocker to show he wasn’t dangerous. The two cars had people in them, they were talking, at least one of them was laughing, I heard “Oh lawd, you see that mothafucka go down, I wisht I had a camera, that bout busted his nuts!” It was catching; I heard snickers and chuckles from the other car.
