The Link

by Richard Matheson

  Joseph takes him by the arm. “Come with me,” he says. He leads Robert up the hill to the temple ruins. There, they sit beside each other on a section of broken wall, looking down at the dig.

  “The mythology of my people says that our ancestors came to this continent from a land across the sea,” he says.

  “Where?” asks Robert.

  Joseph takes a worn map from his trouser pocket and unfolds it. It is a map of the Pacific Ocean and the western portion of the United States.

  He points at islands in the Pacific. Raratonga. Mangaia. Tonga-Tabu. The Gilbert and Marshal Group. The Caroline Group. Panape. Swallow. Kusai. Lele. The Kingsmills. The Navigators. The Mariana Group. The Marquesas. Easter Island. Hawaii.

  “On all of these,” he says, “are remains of a civilization. Great stone temples. Cyclopean walls. Stone-lined canals. Paved roads. Immense monoliths and statuary.”

  Removing a felt pen from his shirt pocket, he draws a line connecting all the islands.

  A continent is drawn. Joseph taps it with a finger.

  “The Motherland,” he says.

  Robert stares at the map.

  “Lemuria?” he says, incredulously.

  “It has been called that,” Joseph says.

  “Why do you call it the Motherland?” Robert asks him.

  “What does a mother do?” Joseph answers with another question.

  “Gives birth?” says Robert.

  “Exactly,” Joseph says. “Brings life into the world.” He folds the map and puts it away.

  “This is what we dig for,” he tells Robert. “To see this with our eyes.”

  The dig continues. It is getting hard now as the soil grows rockier. Norman gets a follow-up note from Amelia giving her flight number and time of arrival.

  The day arrives and an excited Norman leaves to pick her up. Robert asks him to try and reach Cathy by telephone while he is gone. He is beginning to fear that she has gone back to England without telling him.

  The afternoon of the same day, Joseph comes to the motor home while Robert is eating lunch and knocks on the door.

  Robert invites him in and brings him a cold drink. They sit together in the booth.

  And Joseph takes something from a burlap wrapping in his hands. It is a tablet they have just uncovered. He has cleaned it off.

  He shows it to Robert who is so stunned he cannot react at all.

  Inscribed on the tablet is the four-bladed scythe complete to the last detail.

  After recovering, Robert gets the ornament found at his father’s dig and shows it to Joseph. “I don’t know why I didn’t show you this before,” he says.

  Joseph strokes the ornament. A deep breath shudders in his chest.

  “This is a symbol of the Sacred Four,” he says.

  “What are they?” asks Robert.

  “The Creator’s commands that evolved law and order from chaos,” Joseph answers.

  He points at the symbol as he speaks.

  “The circle in the middle is the Creator,” he says. “The hieratic letter in the circle stands for the Creator’s powers.

  “The direction of these powers is from West to East and the arrow heads on each blade show that these powers are still active.

  “The steps inside the blades stand for the Four Great Primary Forces.

  “When the blades turn, they form a circle symbolizing the universe.

  “This figure is the key to the movements and workings of our universe.”

  Robert waits, then asks, “All these things happening to us—what do they mean when you add them together?”

  CLOSE ON his face as we hear the words which have begun each segment of our story. Joseph’s voice saying, “All these happenings—each one of them—are evidences of a greater truth. Traces of the ultimate reality.”

  “Which is—?” asks Robert.

  “The link,” says Joseph, “between Spirit and Matter. God and Man.”

  The silence is so heavy as they sit looking at each other that the honking of the horn as Norman returns makes both of them jump.

  Robert takes a deep breath to recover, then goes outside.

  To see, with astonished delight, that Cathy is in the jeep with Norman and Amelia.

  He sprints to her, embraces and kisses her hungrily, all cosmic matters wiped away by the joy of seeing her.

  She hugs him tightly. “Oh, I’ve missed you!” she tells him.

  Robert hugs Amelia then, tells her how happy he is that she’s come to Arizona to join them.

  Then, as Joseph comes out of the motor home, he introduces the women to him.

  Later. A chipper Norman is showing Amelia around the site area. “Think we have an item here?” Robert asks Cathy as they stroll together, arms around each other.

  “I wouldn’t be surprised,” Cathy says. She speaks of her conversation with Amelia on the plane. “She’s a lovely, bright woman,” Cathy says. “But terribly lonely. Meeting Norman has been very good for her.”

  “God knows it’s good for him,” he says. “He’s cheerier than I’ve seen him since we got here.”

  They sit together on a boulder, watching the sunset. Cathy leans against him, kisses his cheek. “You look so wonderful,” she says. “You’re so tan.”

  He kisses her and they talk about their relationship. As a matter of fact, she admits she was seriously considering going back to England. She actually had the telephone receiver in her hand to call the airline for a reservation when it hit her.

  Whatever their differences, she just can’t visualize a future without Robert.

  She sighs, pressed close to him. “I just hope we don’t argue all the time,” she says.

  He chuckles. “I can promise you we won’t,” he says. He murmurs in her ear, “And speaking of that, fortunately Norman and Amelia haven’t reached a point in their relationship where our taking the back bedroom of the motor home will inconvenience them.”

  They kiss passionately. “I hope we don’t shake the thing over,” she says.

  She tells him then she’s heard from Carol. She’s re-married.

  “Already?” Robert says, surprised.

  “I’m glad she did,” Cathy says. “It’s a man she knew before she married Peter. He’s a widower with three young children. He always loved her. It’s heaven for her.”

  Robert smiles. “And I’ll bet she’s healthy as a horse,” he says.

  She laughs. “I’ll bet she is.”

  She looks around. “Well,” she says. He knows she’s been avoiding this question up ‘til now. “What’s going on here?”

  He smiles at her. “What can I tell you?” he says. He makes a sound of wry amusement. “What can I tell you?” he says, meaning what can he tell her that won’t send her screaming for the first flight East?

  “That bad, anh?” she says.

  “No.” He smiles. “In essence,” he continues, settling for a limited truth, “what we seem to be coming onto is increasing evidence that this area was a colony from some full-fledged civilization.”

  “Civilization?” she says, her tone of voice already indicating difficulty.

  “In the Pacific,” he tells her.

  She looks at him uneasily. “You don’t mean—?”

  “Think about it, sweetheart,” he breaks in. “Is it really so strange that a body of land might disappear beneath the sea and be virtually forgotten in twelve thousand years?”

  “Is that when it happened?” she says.

  “More or less,” he says. “Our present continents have undergone countless alterations. The shores of Norway, Sweden and Denmark have risen several hundred feet. Sicily was on the ocean floor, now it’s three thousand feet above sea level. An earthquake is Lisbon only two hundred years ago caused a marble quay to sink six hundred feet in a matter of minutes.”

  “All right, all right,” she says, holding up both hands in a surrendering gesture. “Kamerad.”

  He grins. “What’s more intriguing from your point of view
is what Joseph said about ESP,” he says. “He calls it the ‘Energy that knows’.”

  “That I like,” Cathy responds.

  “He also believes—” Robert draws in bracing breath. “—as I do,” he continues, “that ESP was universal in ancient times. That it was sustained by periodic use of what Adamenko called a matrix of cosmic energy. Accordingly, that ESP today is a half-forgotten ability in everyone which needs to be revitalized.”

  A moment. Cathy crosses her eyes. “Here we go again,” she says.

  The dig goes on, becoming more and more difficult. The bottom of the shaft, now forty-seven feet down, is virtually arctic; they have to dig with gloves on. Cathy immediately gets a cold. “Just call me Carol,” she says, blowing her nose.

  Amelia blooms in the desert heat and is unaffected by the chill of the shaft. Her relationship with Norman deepens and they are seen a good deal walking hand in hand.

  When he picked the women up from the airport, Norman got a letter from the post office for Robert. It was from Alan. Would he prepare some kind of final statement for the film? They’re going to be winding up production soon. Robert spends some time each day on that project.

  One evening, Robert and Cathy sit with Joseph (Norman and Amelia playing cards and giggling in the motor home) and Robert discovers, to his new surprise, that Joseph is a college graduate; he never mentioned it before.

  The Indian speaks of his philosophy with them, his views on mankind’s place in the pattern of life.

  “The creative force,” he says, “has, I believe, one inviolable law with regard to man and that is: man must sink or swim on his own. Help is available but must be sought after.

  “Under no circumstances will the creative force take sides, intervene or impose its will on man collectively or individually.”

  The firelight flickers on his imposing bronze features as he speaks. He might well be a priest from some ancient time; even the one in Robert’s dream.

  “The dreadful things we see on earth,” he says, “have been created not by God but by man himself. Man, however, can no longer retain his old habits. They were always destructive but the world was large and man’s capacity to injure it was limited.

  “This is no longer the case.

  “Man’s ability to destroy is now as vast as the earth itself. If he persists in the old ways, he will make the world unlivable.

  “The earth is not a machine. It is a living entity like ourselves. Our relationship with the world is intimate; we are just as responsible for its health as we are for our own.

  “Man’s pathway points toward a reunion with the creative force,” he says. “But if he does not soon become aware of what he is doing to the world, that reunion may take place in horror.”

  The end comes with shocking suddenness; a grim-faced Norman coming into the motor home to take Robert and Cathy from their afternoon rest.

  They follow him to the shaft to discover that it is blocked by an enormous boulder; there is no way to judge how enormous it is.

  The amount of blasting that would be required to estimate its size would obliterate the shaft.

  The dig is finished.

  At least for this year, Norman says. They could come back next year and start another shaft but that is up to Robert.

  Robert has been so positive that they were on the verge of finding an access to the Hopi tunnel system that the setback is staggering to him.

  Even Joseph seems confused. Like Robert, he has been convinced that success was imminent. He can only shake his head.

  “We did something wrong,” he says, his tone perplexed.

  The crew is paid off and leaves. Joseph returns to his hut. He will be here if Robert chooses to start again next year.

  Robert isn’t sure. For one thing, the dig has consumed most of his father’s legacy. There might not be enough to start from scratch again next year.

  “It’s the disappointment though,” he says to them as they sit having breakfast in the motor home. “I thought we were right on the verge of something big.”

  Norman chuckles. “Don’t look to me for sympathy, my boy,” he says. “We’ve discovered things here no one ever dreamed existed. I could spend two lifetimes more considering the ramifications of what we’ve already found.”

  He squeezes Amelia’s hand. “Not to mention my personal discovery of something far more valuable,” he says.

  She smiles back at him and Robert is pleased for them.

  For their sake and for Cathy’s, he forces himself to cheer up. He can’t really complain, he says. The dig may have ended inconclusively but he’s found many other things in his life to be grateful for.

  His turn to squeeze Cathy’s hand. “Not to mention my personal discovery from overseas,” he says.

  They kiss. Then he sighs. “Well, onward and upward,” he says with a smile. “Pass the coffee.”

  Only Cathy notices the faint strain in his smile and voice as the meal continues. He’s disappointed.

  Very disappointed.

  Norman and Amelia fly back East. Although marriage has not been mentioned, it is clear that the chemistry between them is good.

  Cathy will spend a few more days with Robert before returning to New York. Her impromptu vacation from ESPA has to end; her work is piling up.

  Robert will close down the dig and follow her shortly afterward.

  Before driving back to the site, Robert telephones his brother.

  John sounds reasonably well although his presence at home so early in the day indicates his inability to work full-time now.

  At first, he is angry with Robert for leaving the dig unfinished but when Robert explains the circumstances, he understands.

  “You’ll go back next year then,” John tells him.

  “Right,” says Robert, probably lying for his brother’s sake.

  “Okay,” says John. He laughs. “Hey, guess who just called me half an hour ago.”

  “Who?”

  “The Reverend Ruth Eleanor Allmighty,” John says with mocking pretentiousness.

  “Well, that was nice of her,” Robert tries to give her her due.

  “I suppose,” grumbles John. “She’s such a bore though. Never lets go.” He pauses. “Bobby?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You believe any of the crap she’s selling?” John asks. “The crap Mom believed in?”

  “I don’t know, John,” Robert answers. “At one time I was sure it was crap. Now I just don’t know.”

  “You mean you think we really might survive?” asks John, the reason for his question apparent.

  “Well, let’s just say I think that you and I will not be saying permanent farewells when the time comes,” Robert answers.

  John makes an estimating sound. Then he says, “If it really does happen, can we hide from Ruth?”

  They laugh, then Robert feels impelled to defend her again. “She has a good heart, John,” he says.

  “I know,” responds John. His sigh is weary. “It’s just that she won’t listen.”

  Robert and Cathy drive back to the site and Robert tells her what he plans to do.

  Return to psi investigation.

  Cathy is delighted. “Let me warn you though,” he breaks in quickly. “I plan to examine it on a much broader basis than you do.”

  She laughs. “Well,” she says, “we won’t run short of argument material anyway.”

  “No,” he says, laughing with her. “That we won’t.”

  They reach the site and go into the motor home to be truly alone together for the first time in months.

  Later that afternoon, he asks her if she wants to hear his narration for Alan; his “summing up” of Psi.

  “You’re sure you want me to?” she asks.

  He grins at her. “You may as well get the full picture before you have me committed,” he tells her.

  Cathy walks into the desert with him and sits on a boulder.

  “I’m calling it The Twelve Steps of Psi,” he begins.
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  “Catchy,” she says.

  He throws sand on her sneakers. “You better be serious now,” he threatens with mock disapproval.

  “All right, all right.” She “wipes” away her smile, puts on a “serious” face. “Ready,” she says.

  It does not take long for her expression to become genuinely attentive.

  Robert has something to say.

  “Up until now,” he reads from his notes, “parapsychology has been a gathering place for anomalies. For studying variations; deviations from the norm. It was not a positive field like Physics. It was negative; residual. Para means ‘beyond the norm’.

  “We now see that psi is not beyond the norm at all. It is the norm. The way things are. The essence of reality.

  “A reality with a Twelve-Step basis from which all its future statements must be made.

  “One: Everything in the universe is a form of energy.

  “Two: The human system consists of several intermingling fields of energy.

  “Three: The physical body is in the lowest range of these fields.

  “Four: Every aspect of man’s nature involves a different level of these fields.

  “Five: All aspects of the physical body are the result of the operation of the next higher level of energy.

  “Six: Thought is a form of energy.

  “Seven: Fields of thought can intermingle and interact, traverse space and penetrate matter with no weakening effect.

  “Eight: Thought fields can be permanently recorded in the energy fields of physical matter.

  “Nine: Since thought fields seem to be eternal, it is conceivable that thoughts from the past, present and future are permanently recorded in some kind of universal energy field.

  “Ten: Beyond our immediate energy level, serial time is non-existent.

  “Eleven: In reality, mankind may be a form of universal energy in existence for eons in the past and eons into the future.

  “Twelve: The existence of a universal Spirit Energy may one day be discovered, its purpose the development of mankind.”

  He finishes and looks at Cathy in silence.

  She looks at him in silence.

  Then she rises, walks to him and puts her arms around him, hugs him in silence.