by DC Alexander
He listened and moved with no questions, trying to see everything around us in the dim flickering light. We could see the lighter area ahead of the door where we came in. We hurried to it and went back up. It was still bright daylight, once we were outside I found some clear ground and sat down, reaching down into the sandy soil. “are there any of the blank spots close?” I tried to give an idea of what I considered close, within sight distance would be good.
“I sense no blank spots at this moment.”
I thought about it. Did these things only come out at night?
“I have never witnessed them during daylight.”
“What about the other ones, like the one during daylight? Are there any of those around? Near us, I mean, within the distance I can walk in short time? ”
“No.”
“Carl, we clear right now. They some of the things show up at night, but nothing right now. We need a light if we gone go in the tunnel though, that torch just sucks.”
“Alright, let’s get a light and come back, maybe tomorrow early.”
We made sure everything was put back like it was and went back to the house. Carl had his plans for the lawn, there was nothing special about it; he could send a crew out to handle the dirt work and the planting. He was going to suggest some fencing to prevent erosion temporarily while the new plantings took over, that was gravy. I could encourage the plantings to grow faster.
Carl brought up our need for a computer. I had never thought about it, he was telling me writing everything down was getting pretty hard, he was worried about losing notes, and needed to track customers and billing. I told him go for it, whatever we needed he should get it done, he dropped me off at the house and went shopping.
Earl was at the house when Carl dropped me off, sitting on the porch waiting for me. Carl looked at me to see if I wanted him to back me up, I waved him off, “See you later, I got this.” He didn’t even argue and I appreciated that.
Earl got up to wait for me, I walked up on the porch and said “Hey, aint seen you in a while, how you doin Earl?”
“I’m just really good, Miz Rosalee, the job workin out good. I just come by to say hey and bring you some money.”
“Earl, you don’t owe me no money, you take that and buy yourself something.” I unlocked the door and opened it up; I didn’t even hook up the fence charger anymore, and they had fixed the front door so it fit right and didn’t drag. Sometimes I missed the old days.
“Miz Rosalee, I aint got nobody else. You did me a good turn. What it really is, I need somebody to help me keep straight, I aint got no reason for nothin these days, I just work.”
I went on in “Come on in here Earl.” He walked in behind me, I flinched a little. Since when had I got so complacent? “You come by here and visit when you able, you welcome here long as you straight. You don’t need to bring no money for an excuse.” I went into the kitchen and started water in the coffee maker. “You want some coffee?”
“Yes’m, I would love a cup” he followed me in and drug out a chair.
“You want somethin to eat? Make yourself a sandwich, or if you want to wait I can warm some collard greens up. I aint had lunch, have you?”
“I didn’t come to eat your stuff up, but if you got plenty, I aint had no greens in a long time, that would be pretty nice.”
I set the pot out of the refrigerator on the stove to warm and started the water to heat for cornbread, damn, this was just homey. “I don’t eat meat much anymore; I got some bacon for the bread.”
“That’s fine. Anything you got will suit me, if you sure you don’t mind.”
I poured the boiling water into the cornmeal and mixed it good, chopping in a hunk of butter and some salt for flavor, dumped it in the frying pan on top of the bacon which had just started to sizzle. When it was ready to flip, Earl stepped up and looked at me, I nodded and he flipped it just right, proud he was able. That is something to be proud of. You toss the bread into the air from the heavy cast iron skillet and let it flip, then catch it in the pan so as to cook the other side. If you miss, you get bubbling hot steaming cornmeal and grease on your hands and probably on the top of one foot. I was proud of him too.
I sliced the cheese. The greens were hot, the bread finished. We sat there and ate in a companionable silence for a while. Earl had relaxed and made himself to home to the extent that he was actually enjoyable company. I looked over at him where he was still shoveling the greens in, that man could put it away. “You’re a lot better company when you aint a zombie, you know that? All that starin off in the distance was a little unsettling.” I got the ranch dressing out of the fridge. I had forgotten it, eating alone I’d have never thought of it. I sat it on the table after putting a generous dollop on my bread.
“I know, I used to hate that when somebody was doin it. It actually scared me, you know that?” Earl loaded up on the ranch and cheese, ignoring the greens for the bread, he had good taste.
“How did you get all that goin on, the bags and the magic and all? Is they somebody around here that do that?” I’d been wondering if somebody would step into the vacancy Earl left.
“No, I picked that up outside New Orleans. They was doin that with the girls downtown, I hung with them till I had an idea how it all worked, got enough money to get a start, and went lookin for me a territory. I come through here and it was wide open, I stepped in and you know the rest.”
“I keep runnin into things I never knew about. I lived my whole life here and never saw anything but people, now I’ve seen two different kinds of things that eat people.” I told him about the thing in the cellar and the other ones afterward. “It seems like I keep runnin into this shit. Is something changed so there are more of them, or did they come in here with you?”
“I imagine they been here the whole time. I seen things like that back in Louisiana but they aint common. Back there they were pretty civilized, they wore clothes and they could talk. They were careful not to do anything to attract attention, seems like. There was a top dog over them that made the rest behave, kept them under control so they didn’t get a lot of attention. Down here they seem to run wild.” He finished up, pushed back from the table and gave me his full attention.
“I wonder if something happened lately to make it all different.” I picked up the dishes and Earl got up to help “set back down, they aint room for both of us here.”
He handed me his plate “Let me give you my phone number, I got a cell phone, and I need your number.” He pulled his phone out of the little holster on his belt.
I got my purse out of the bedroom and dug in it for my phone and held it out “the number’s on here, but I don’t know how long it’s gone last. This is somebody else’s phone that I found.”
He took the phone “dang, that a nice phone. You need to get service on it, you can use it. You want me to do that for you?”
“Yeah, that would be sweet! Thank you! Maybe get a new number?”
He punched and slid his fingers around on the phone, checking out the screens and icons “Let me take the phone. I’ll fix it up and get it back to you, ok?”
“Sure, I aint got no need for it right now anyway.”
He put the phone in his pocket and stood up. “Miz Rosalee, I’m gone head on out. I’ll get your phone fixed and bring it by soon as I can. Thank you for the feed and for lettin me come in here.”
“You come back any time you want – well, in the daytime mostly, nights aint good. But you stay clean and you welcome here.” I was a little shocked, I actually meant it. I wouldn’t mind visiting with Earl at all. I never been much for company but I’d enjoyed the visit.
Earl left and the house went back to its normal quiet, peaceful existence, but it seemed a little empty, a little too quiet. I went out back and sat on the ground, I had a lot of catching up to do; I’d see what I could find while I had the chance.
I layered up the alter ego and it put out “questions”; the response came quickly “ask”.
; I had the alter ego inquire what Dirt was, how many it was, was it everywhere, how did it work?” I got a flood of information; elementals covered/were responsible for/were created by ecological systems/elements/living things of the earth and all the interactions between them. It had been there forever (Closed loop almost hung us up, it was aware when it was aware of its awareness) as far as it knew. It had/was/was owned by/ a territory/area/set of systems. There were others that existed in the same manner. Elementals were responsible for/attracted to/made of/created by individual elements. There were elementals of/for/created by fire and water and air and earth. Dirt was an earth elemental.
I projected gratitude for the help I had received and requested clarification on why, how, and the rules between us. I didn’t like surprises. Information flowed; power could be stolen/taken/received from/fed into elementals. An elemental could be trapped/drained/harnessed/fed with or without its consent. There was a hierarchy. Earth was composed of/created by/ all the areas/elementals/territories except water. Maybe water was its equal. Its territory was everything and all the interactions between them.
The concept of time hung out there, it had almost blew my mind once before, could we carefully touch on that?
Time does not exist. It is/was/will be imposed by attention/perception/experience. I experienced the information from several differing viewpoints that made me dizzy.
Dirt grabbed my perception and strange happened.
Simultaneously:
My heart compressed and pushed blood out of a closed chamber through a one way check valve under pressure with a ‘thump’.
Blood flowed through arteries which branched; blood moved in each branch at the same time
Smaller branches branched again by stages feeding down eventually to tiny capillaries which fed individual strands of muscle/tendons/skin which were composed of cells
Cells received quotas of nutrients and fuel and signaled completion and fulfillment (at the same time)
Signals were sent/received to/via/from the brain cells/nerve ends/cells
It all happened at a single point which was named ‘NOW’.
That point does not/will not/did not exist but it had been there forever and would always be there.
Rivers changed course and mountains eroded in that same instant.
Dirt fired synapses in my brain to input information. I perceived it as a very limited few firing followed by another few firing; my perception imposed order. That allowed the single point of my consciousness which was me perceive it as a linear process. Vast reaches opened up in my consciousness as I experienced the small lives around me in that pinpoint of NOW, the sunlight, the grass growing, grains of sand existed, wind moved, all of existence simply was now. Before and after were an artificial structure imposed to allow my consciousness to roam over details. That structure was necessary for consciousness and causality and imposed consciousness and causality upon a vast unstructured happening. Event ‘a’ had no relationship to event ‘b’ until and unless consciousness imposed that relationship. This allowed the existence of magic and gravity. It let water flow. It let air enter lungs and break down to feed cells via blood. It allowed water to flow.
For just an instant I understood without thinking and I existed in the now and all things were possible. Then I shrank back into one second after the next and took another breath. My brain was soggy and I was sleepy and refreshed and pushed that chunk of knowledge into storage. Life goes on.
It would be simple to defend myself by stopping something’s heart or making its arms and legs fall off. “NO.” I wasn’t allowed to do such things. It went way beyond not allowed though. Ending a life by making internal changes equaled non existence exactly. Things were entitled to experience, including myself. I didn’t understand completely but the best I could tell, I should have been trained and entered into a contract before I was introduced to Dirt at all.
I’d be interested in getting trained, some teaching, what else there is out there and what my job was supposed to be.
“Request initiated.”
I had a lot to deal with, information overload. I needed to digest it. I stood up; since the weight loss I could stand without using my hands, easy as could be, and I enjoyed it. A blinding light popped in front of me and I staggered, it was so bright I could feel it like a slap in the face.
Nothing else happened, I didn’t smell smoke or hear anything, I lowered my hands from my face cautiously to see what had happened.
“Proper form would be for you to get on your knees, or maybe your face, when you enter my presence.” This was some white chick dressed in leather, looked like a biker, with long blonde hair, stared down at me like I was a bug.
“I aint entered no presence, I was already here. What you doin in my back yard, what you want? They aint none a you in my house is they? Hang on a second” Dirt talked ‘trainer/certifier/contract maker’ and some additional information, she was big mojo.
“Oh, ok, hey, Dirt said you gone train me or give me some certification or some such. Pleased to meet you, I’m Rosalee. How are you doin today?” I was willing to overlook that kneeling stuff. I could use some training and somebody to talk with who knew what was going on.
She frowned and stared at me. If somebody from the hood looked like that I’d get ready to bust a cap in their ass. I needed to be nice. Something was eating on her pretty badly, though.
“I appreciate you coming out here to help me. I’ll do what I can to make it right with you. I been havin things happen and I run up on some things I had to kill, I need to know about them; and Dirt wants me to fix some woods and stuff, I think, I could use some help on that. Oh, and I turned loose some girls from a hoodoo man and healed them and shut him down, and I got a place I gotta check, it’s got some bad things there, I gotta go find them and maybe put them down. And I don’t know what they are. Oh, and I tracked down that child that had been stole by that thing and killed it.” I ran out of breath, damn, I don’t know what had me running on like that. I think I covered it all; I was shocked looking at it all at once like that; I hadn’t realized how much my life had changed.
She unbent a little and looked around. I figured she wanted to sit down. I didn’t have any chairs out there; just the new patch of grass where the old shed used to be was smooth and nice. She strode over to it, ‘walked’ wasn’t the word, and she looked like she was demonstrating proper stepping technique for a model. Who had a sword, damn, I didn’t even notice that, she had a sword on her back in a leather case, the handle stuck up over her head. And a quiver full of arrows hung off her hip, and she had a bow over her shoulder. She wouldn’t attract no attention with them legs and all that hardware, I guessed.
She flowed down into a sitting position on the grassy spot, I started over there, and Carl cleared his throat from behind me to get my attention. “Carl, you bout made me jump. Hey, could you fix us a pot of coffee? I got company, would you mind?”
He said “Sure, I’ll get right on it.” and boogied. He didn’t want to interfere, but he wanted to look. When that woman sat down she was giving a show up her legs, the way they were bent and splayed out.
I went over to her and squatted down, “Can I get you anything? “
She was running her hand through the grass “Who did this?”
“You mean the grass and the levelin and all? It had an old shed here and Dirt didn’t like it. I cleaned the oil and stuff out of the ground. It got healthy and started growin. Dirt’s been tellin me its part of my job to clean stuff up, it seemed to make it happy.”
“You cleansed this?”
“Yeah, that’s what I just said.” She talked real formal and proper. Maybe she didn’t understand me. I’d have to turn on proper speech for her I guess.
“Who is this ‘dirt’ you refer to?”
“That’s the best name I’ve been able to come up with. I call it an elemental. I get a voice in my head. It’s helped me a lot.”
“The name would be hard for you to compr
ehend. You have been communicating with an elemental and it responded to you.” It felt like I was on trial.
“Yes, that is correct. I asked it to do some things. It told me about a contract when I did some healing, said I could have trouble if I messed up. I asked it to get somebody to help me with learning and the contract and all, and it said you were the answer to its request.”
“I am the answer to a prayer. I am Artemis.”
“Pleased to meet you.” She had a hell of a lot of something going on that wasn’t humility. I like for people to let someone else beat their drum for them. She wasn’t waiting on any of that though. “You are mighty pretty, and I already gave you my name. Do you think you can help me with this contract and maybe teach me some of the things I need to know?”
“I can help if I choose to do so. You might have better summoned Scathach for your needs. Why should I not slay you? You are impertinent; I see little about you that impresses me. You were not properly chosen or trained, why should I trouble myself with you? And yet…you healed this area; you hunted the hunters of children and freed the child; and you slay the minions of night. You came to this unschooled and the elemental found you worthy. Your life hangs in the balance; what say ye?”
“First off, I got that ‘little’ comment. Second, if you want to slay my ass, we gone tussle. I didn’t ask for you to come here, Dirt asked it, but I would be happy if you can help me out. I don’t know about no Scathach, but if you can’t do the job, maybe I need to get in contact with him. I aint impertinent, I am perfectly pertinent when I got need to be. So we down to this: you can act like somebody and climb down off that high horse and I treat you like somebody, or you can go yo ass on down the road. What you gone do?” Damn a bunch of proper speech, this bitch was about to get under my skin, I felt the bad mood coming on.
She sat there and looked at me blank faced for a minute. I got Dirt ready to sink her ass if she made a move, Dirt was willing but I got the impression it might be a bad move.
She smiled, and it lit her right up, it was a really good smile, she was totally happy. “I will do this for you. I think you do not know me, you are not aware of who I am or what I do, but I admire your nerve. Did you offer me hospitality?”
