by Smith, T. L.
“Nooo…” She sighed, staring into Lutz’ eyes. “I’d never want that to happen to you. I love you too much to ask you to live… to exist, like that.” She reached out again to touch him, but remembered she couldn’t. “I don’t want to say goodbye yet.” Her voice cracked as tears fought to burst free. “I want to feel your arms around me. Just one more time.”
“The effects of the tea won’t last long.” I pushed out of the chair, nodding to them both as I shuffled towards the door. “You should spend it together.”
Outside the door my mother waited, holding the cup of tea I’d ignored. “You must rest too. Drink this and get a little sleep.
“I guess I can.” I took the cup and she unrolled her hand, my pain meds in her palm. “Sure. I need them.” I gulped them down and let her lead me to my bedroom. As nice as the resort suite had been, my own bed felt great. My mother helped me undress and then tucked me in, like I was a kid again. It felt great, especially as the pain meds kicked in.
When I finally drifted back to the surface, Casey sat up from the chair in the corner. “You feeling all right?”
“Yeah.” I took a deep breath. “I just needed a nap, I guess.”
“I wish we could put this off for another day.” He got up and turned the lights a bit brighter. “Laid out some clothes for you. Your mother will want you to eat something.”
“Sabrina?”
“Still asleep. No one’s had the heart to wake her up. We figured Lutz would let us know when she did.”
I looked from my clothes on the foot of the bed to the clock. “Maybe a few more minute. Help me?”
“For the rest of our lives.”
Between the two of us, I managed to get dressed. Casey was babying me as much as my family, even though he was still recovering too. I went along with it, knowing it was only a matter of time before I lost part of them forever… no, until my time came.
CHAPTER
39
I gave them an hour more, then slipped into the room, she was asleep. Lutz lay next to her, his arm draped over her. She slept with her hand clutching one of his t-shirts.
Lutz didn’t look at me. “She’s dreaming of…”
“You don’t have to share.” I whispered. “Hope she had some closure.”
“We both did, but it’s time for me to go.” He embraced her one more time, kissing her cheek, then slipped away. “I’ll join you later.” He disappeared, clearly not wanting to say the final words to her. Or hear them. Probably for the best.
I went to Sabina and watched her sleep for a few more minutes. When her eye movement changed, I put my hand on her shoulder. She murmured, then blinked. “He’s gone.”
“Yes, until the ceremony to release his Spirit. You don’t have to go if it’s too much.”
She sighed, pulling the t-shirt to her face. “I should, but I really don’t feel the need now. Can I go back to sleep?”
“Of course. Stay. Dream a little more.” I left her as she held Lutz’ t-shirt to her face. She was instantly back to her dreams.
In the living room everyone waited. Quietly. Next to the door were my parents’ suitcases. Joey had joined us. I went to the patio where he was talking on the phone. “Yeah, we’ll be there on time. Just have the clearances.” He hung up. “You should be with mom and dad.”
“And not get a few minutes with you?”
He tucked his phone into his pocket. “I never was good at saying goodbye. Ask my ex-girlfriends.” He tried to make it sound funny, but neither of us laughed. “Just finalizing the plan. Not an easy task in this day and age, making us all disappear.”
“Monumental, to say the least. Not at all thrilled that I have to be the one to do it.”
He leaned against the patio railing. “Most of the elderly are opting to pass with their current tribes. What happens on the Res…”
“Stays on the Res. Yeah, but a thousand or so people all dropping dead at the same time will be noticed.”
“It’s all in the staging.” He looked away when I winced. “A hundred years ago, no one would notice. But as things got so regulated, we knew we had to have a plan. The last fifty years we’ve been putting people in the right places. With your recovery and hearing taking this long, we had extra time to finalize the arrangements.”
“Glad my inconvenience worked out for you.”
Joey laughed. “You’re definitely healing, Sis. Chucky was afraid the Ci’in sucked all the spunk out of you.”
I shrugged. “Then he should have been at the hearing.”
“Yeah, heard you were tearing them up with the witty come-backs. Lutz said he never laughed harder.”
“Tell me about it.” I joined him against the railing, leaning on my good hip. My chest felt tight. “This is way harder than I thought it would be. I’m sure it’s hard for everyone else too.”
“It is, but deep down it’s what we all want. Even you.”
“Yeah, but doesn’t make tonight any easier.” I leaned my head onto his shoulder. “I’m going to miss you.”
Joey wrapped his arm around my shoulder. “Ditto, Sis.”
We stood outside for a little while, before Daniel opened the door. “It’s time.”
Inside everyone was waiting for us. I turned to look up at the evening sky. It was clear of clouds. The stars would be bright tonight. “Okay. Let’s go.”
Chucky carried me down the stairs and into the truck, sitting me in the back between my parents. Casey drove and Joey was in the passenger seat. Daniel, Frankie and Chucky followed as we drove across the city to the Yuma airport.
“Everything is ready?”
Casey rolled his window down, showing an ID and getting waved through. Joey gave the guard a nod before we drove on. “It’s all arranged. We’ve got people all over the Nation in place to process us through the airports.”
Casey turned to drive between two large hangers.
“We’ve arranged a flight to take us to a Pow-Wow outside of Miami, a leased Boeing Super 7. Unbounds have been converging at collection points for the last two weeks.”
“A Super 7?” We emerged from between the buildings and I saw the massive airplane ahead of us. “That’s huge. What’s the capacity, 5-600?”
“Big enough to resolve at least half our problem of disappearing.” Joey’s face tightened up as we followed the guide lane onto the tarmac.
It took a moment, then my stomach took a turn. “You’re going to crash it with everyone aboard? You can’t do that. You can’t kill yourselves. The pilots. The crew.”
“Hush, Din’ah!” My mother took my hand, squeezing it hard. “You know that’s not how it works.” Using my real name made me focus on who we were under the flesh.
“A Super 7 holds 800 at max capacity. We’re about half-full now. Then we head to Chicago, then down to Ft. Lauderdale. That’s the flight plan.” Joey turned around. “I’ll text you when we’re over open water.”
“The pilots and crew?”
“Unbound Ci’inkwia. Legitimate Boeing flight crew.” My father answered. “Every generation prepared for this, we just never shared it with everyone. Need to know.”
“And it will be painless.” A comforting pat of my mother’s hand accompanied her reassurance.
“Remote autopilot will carry the plane past Florida, down into the Puerto Rico Trench.”
“The military will scramble jets as soon as the plane goes off course and gets no response from the pilots.” I knew how that worked. Everyone did. The war on terrorism was unending.
“They’ll see it’s heading away from populated areas and will fly in for a visual. If they get one they’ll see the pilots are down and assume something went wrong with pressurization, and everyone suffocated. At that point they’ll have to decide whether to follow it until it runs out of fuel and crashes, or take it down themselves. Public safety and all.”
“Sounds like everything is covered.” I stared at the jet as Casey swung the truck around to a group of people standing at the bot
tom of the stairs. Waiting for us. I didn’t rush to get out of the truck. Every second seemed to escalate my mortal emotion, despite knowing this had to be done. Tonight.
My parents were helping Joey with their bags, following him as they headed for the team of TSA agents. They tagged and scanned the suitcases, following all the federal protocol for any outsiders who happened to be watching.
Casey stood at the door. “I know this is hard on you, but you need to get out and say goodbye to them.”
“I know.” I reached for him as I slipped out of the backseat, clinging to him a moment. “Hang onto me.”
He did, guiding me to the six women and two men standing by the stairs up into the Super 7. They all wore the charter’s uniform of tan slacks and white shirts, with ties or scarves with the company logo, appropriately a Thunderbird. The women’s dark hair was pulled back at the base of their necks.
I recognized their Spirits, as they did mine. They stared back at me as I finally pushed myself towards them. I had to be Din’ah. Not Beth.
“Sister.” The oldest of them, maybe in her forties, stepped forward, holding her hands out to me. “Thank you for joining us tonight.”
“It feels necessary, though in the old days it wouldn’t be so complicated.”
“No, but we had no idea it would take so long.” The woman looked to the airport further down the tarmac. “Who would have seen this civilization finally grow so quickly? They staggered about for so long.”
“And they have a long way to go yet.” I looked to the other crew. “You will take our People home?”
“We will, though you will be the one to release our Spirits.” The older woman smiled and gestured to the plane. “I should finish pre-flights.”
“Certainly, Captain.” I released her hand as my parents came up behind me. She headed for the stairs, followed by one of the men and half the crew.
“It’s time.” My mother embraced me, hugging me tight, kissing me. She gave Casey the same hard embrace. “You take care of her, son.”
“I will. I swear.” Casey wrapped his arm around my shoulders.
“I’m sure you will.” My father extended his hand to Casey. “You are both on the same path now. It is a journey that should be taken slowly, so you remember each joyful step.”
Casey nodded at the advice. “Definitely a journey I have been waiting for.”
My father gave me a hug just as suffocating as my mother’s, then let me go. He took my mother’s arm and led her up the steps.
Joey took their place. “Okay, dude. Dito what they said, because if she doesn’t kick your ass, they will.” He jerked his thumb at my other brothers. Casey laughed. “Sis, you were always my favorite sister.”
I punched his shoulder. “I’m your only sister.”
“Yeah, but I meant ever. Out of all the sisters I’ve had in all my lives.”
The ‘awww’ moment made my eyes tear up, which earned me a hug. “I’ll miss you.”
“Take it easy on Francis.” Joey whispered in my ear. “You were always his favorite too, now and before. He took the obligation of taking care of you so serious because of a prior life mistake. Way back, which is why he’s been so crazy since you went Marines. Now you can just be his little sister again.”
“Really?” I gave Frankie a glance where he stood next to Chucky, not looking at me. “I don’t remember…”
“Like you’ve had the time to measure each life.” Joey rolled his eyes at me. “All debts are paid now.”
“Well, thanks. I’ll try to be nice to him.” I gave Joey another hug. “Still miss you most.”
“Time to go.” Daniel broke us up. “Flight’s on a schedule.”
“Okay.” Joey let go and ran up the stairs. “I’ll text you.”
I waved back, unable to say anything. The rest of the crew boarded and brought the door in. Casey pulled me away from the stairs as a guy jumped into the control seat to disengage the stairs and pull it away from the plane. The TSA agents headed for their vehicle to clear the runway.
As the engines were revved up to taxi the plane away from us, Daniel herded us back to the trucks. Ground crew waved the plane out onto the tarmac, waving them into the lineup for take-off. Slow, but too fast. My heart ached, pounding painfully faster with their acceleration. I thought it would explode as the wheels left the ground.
Only Casey kept me from running after them in an insane display of grief. He urged me into the backseat, Daniel taking over the driving. He waited until I couldn’t see the plane anymore. “We have another task to prepare for.” He didn’t expect me to answer, driving off the tarmac.
No one spoke as we headed back to the resort, back to our penthouse suite. A real cup of special tea had me out in minutes, in Casey’s arm. Not enough time to mourn. When I woke it was dark, way past sunset.
Stephanie and Olivia arrived to help me dress. Since I was already the Ci’in, I didn’t need to be purified with a bath, but they still sent the smoke of ‘herbs’ wafting through the room to soothe our Spirits. Probably for the best or I’d start crying.
Dressing in the silky buckskin and my blood-feather belt, they delivered me to Casey. He took me down to the river, to the private section where I’d meditated. On that pristine beach were Bound Ci’inkwia and our mates, sitting in a semi-circle. I sat facing them.
The strongest of the other Ci’in formed a crescent around me, completing the circle. In the center of the circle were empty blankets, one for each of the fallen, woven with patterns to represent the tribe that had been their Earth home. One was a Cocopah blanket.
Our dead had been buried at the same time as Lutz, but their Spirits were here, waiting. I could feel them. Facing the east, I could see a lightening of the sky. Morning was breaking over the distant mountains, revealing stormy clouds. It was time.
We sang to our Spirits. We sang for all the fallen and one by one they appeared in their places before me. When I called upon Lutz, he popped in and dropped down on the Cocopah tribal blanket. I half-expected a quip, but he remained quiet as we sang for those who were Unbound or chose to leave now.
It was a song carried across the nation, simultaneously. Carried by phones left open to the many tribes. My phone was before me, open to Joey. They were over the ocean now, so everyone aboard heard the song.
The Ci’in with me glowed with the light of a full moon, giving me their strength as I sang louder. I sang alone, even as lightening crackled in the distance. Thunder fittingly rolled like drums behind my voice. Before me the Spirits also started to glow, turning translucent. Turning into pure light.
I sang louder and stronger, my full Ci’in opening the path home for them. They burned with the full energy of their true beings, then spiraled up and away. I sang the last words as Lutz leaned his head back and shifted into his own energy.
He swirled towards me, brushing against me in a final touch. A final message that almost made me start crying. The phone in front of me went dead. The storm clouds opened up as he flew away. He was gone.
They were all gone.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
T.L. Smith was born in Louisiana, but calls Phoenix, Arizona home, between bouts of wanderlust. Even a stint in the U.S. Air Force, as a radar specialist training pilots in enemy detection, brought her back to the desert.
Her time in the service taught her to appreciate the military culture and ever-changing technologies. Experience gives life to the Science Fictions she loves so much and helps her write about the strong women, holding their own as humanity reaches out into the universe.
Check out her current releases and where you can meet her at:
www.tlsmithbooks.com
or at her blog:
http://tlsmith-sfauthor.blogspot.com
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