“Saturn! It’s taken Saturn!” My neighbor, Barney, was shouting like crazy from outside my window.
The clock read half-past one and I groaned. “Pipe down Barney! Give an old man a chance to get his slippers on!”
When I reached the inner courtyard I found Barney much calmer, relaxing on one of the many sublime benches lining the quiescent fountain surrounded by apple and pear saplings. “Barney. Tell me it ain’t so.”
“See for yourself Tom. It’s gone. Vamoose. The Annihilation’s going after the planets now. It’s only a matter of time before Earth!” Barney may have looked tired but the fire in his eyes told me this was no dream.
I glanced up, fearing what I knew must be true. I almost hoped it could’ve been an illusion, that my aided gaze might’ve seen that yellow orb winking at me with its rings. But no, Barney was right, the Annihilation was taking its first victims in nearly four years.
Only later did I find out the astronomers had been marking the planets off: Sedna, Pluto, Neptune and Uranus. Saturn was just the next in the chain of the Annihilation’s midnight snack.
“The Annihilation, it’s getting closer, Tom.” Barney was anxious.
“Let’s watch Jupiter, off there, along the Eastern horizon.” We both stood on benches to get a better view. Jupiter was still there, its red spot still no doubt making its rounds one last time before, inevitably, the Annihilation would infect its next body.
We waited silently for a quarter-hour as Jupiter slowly rose in the empty sky. As we waited, Martha came over from the women’s ward, a refracting telescope cradled in her arms.
“You boys watching Jupiter? Mind if I join?” Martha’s long, gray hair cascaded over her nightclothes.
“Oh, Marty, you’re a sight for sore eyes, my dear!” I smiled broadly as Barney waved, not taking his eyes off the planet.
“You know, Tom, I don’t know if you mean me or the telescope.”
I took the device from Martha and laid it on the nearest bench, then embraced my slender yet soft friend. “You know it’s you I’m always after Marty.”
Martha kissed my cheek then whispered in my ear, “This could be our last night together Tommy; what’s say you come by my place around three and we can make our last night on Earth one to remember?”
Martha pinched my butt then kissed my cheek again. We’d been intimate before, but this was the first time I’d seen Martha so, how can I say? Assertive. An Annihilation side effect no doubt.
“So what brings you out here Martha?” Barney’s eyes remained locked on Jupiter.
“Couldn’t sleep. So I picked up my phone and decided to check my Twitter feed. My stream was abuzz with all kinds of chatter about Saturn disappearing. I figured that meant you two’d be out here, straining your eyes. And since I wasn’t using it,” Martha nodded at the telescope.
Barney was still engrossed in his observations. “What’s that Martha? You here to keep us company?”
“No thanks, Barney. I can see you already have enough on your mind for me to butt in. You boys have your fun and enjoy the telescope; I’ve got a special late night date I need to freshen up for.” Martha winked at me then returned to the far side of the courtyard before disappearing indoors.
“Telescope, eh? That Martha’s worth a million, Tom.” Barney still remained motionless.
“You don’t know the half of it!”
The telescope was engraved with a message, For Grandma. This had been so generous of her. I unfolded the built-in tripod and set the scope to focus on Jupiter. After a few minutes of struggling, with no landmarks to guide me, I finally locked on to an image of the planet no bigger than my pinkie. The red spot was just a pinprick on its surface but that wasn’t the only blemish.
“Barney, I think it’s happening!”
His only reply was a faint snoring. Apparently Barney wasn’t as dedicated to the vigil as I thought.
At first it was just a black spot on the edge of the planetary orb. But then it grew. Not, though, like an eclipse, taking a bite out of the object. No, the black spot expanded like a weed, it’s tendrils caressing, slowly at first, branching and dividing until only wisps of the gas giant were left. And then, Annihilation. Empty sky.
I shivered. I let my face drift from the eyepiece and sat on the nearest bench. I turned to Barney. “Dude, wake up! It got Jupiter!”
Barney started when I shook his arm. “What’d I miss?” He rattled his head then darkened, his aspect grave. “Jupiter?”
“Yeah.”
“How’d it happen?”
“It . . . ” I was at a loss for words. “ . . . it was like an infection. Like the Annihilation took hold of the solar system’s largest planet and just devoured it by a million, tiny filaments.” I swallowed hard.
“Creepy, mate.”
“You don’t know the half of it! I hope I never have to see that again.” It wasn’t per se all that scary but I think we were both in shock that today was the day. I don’t know how we remained so calm; I guess even then the danger still seemed abstract, five hundred million miles away.
“Tom, what do you think it’s gonna be like when it gets to us?”
“I don’t know.” I didn’t want to tell Barney what I really thought. The very idea of being ripped apart from the inside was too much for even me to contemplate. Whatever the Annihilation was, it seemed an unstoppable, ever-growing toxin on the face of the Universe.
“You think we’ll see Mars?” Fear danced in Barney’s eyes.
“Not tonight,” I reassured him. “And Venus and Mercury only appear near sunrise and sunset. There’s nothing left to see, unless you want to look for Ceres or another of the asteroids.” The black sky was oppressive. I only hoped the Moon would rise soon. Just something, anything would be better than the Annihilation plastered across the entire sky.
“Nah. I’m gonna try and get some sleep.” Barney carefully rose from his bench then he, like Martha, headed inside.
I decided to stay out a bit longer; I guess I’m just a masochist at heart. I took out my iPod and scrolled to Abbey Road. If this was to be the last album I’d ever hear, I figured it may as well be the last album the Beatles ever recorded.
As Paul McCartney intoned what he would do to the Queen of England had he the chance, I rose from my seat, packed up the telescope and headed for the woman’s ward to see Martha. When I hit stop on my iPod, I noticed the time was already seventeen past three.
The Moon should’ve risen by eight past; time was running out.
I made it to Martha’s room by half-past and gingerly tapped the door so as not to wake her neighbors. No reply. “Martha?” I whispered, hoping she could hear.
I checked the door and found it unlocked. Clearly Martha was playing coy with me, so I slunk into the room and laid the telescope quietly on her dresser. Closing the door, it became pitchblack so I struggled to disrobe and get in bed with her.
I entered on the left, but there was no Martha. I then moved to the right side of the bed but that too was empty.
I reached for the lantern and switched on the light. Martha was nowhere to be seen. Her room was pristine, apart from where I’d rumpled her bed covers, and Martha was gone.
Apparently, I’d kept her waiting too long and she’d found comfort in someone else. Disheartened, I gathered my clothes and crept back to my room, too ashamed to even dress properly. When I got to my bed, I fell into the covers and somehow slept despite a growing concern I may never awaken.
My eyes opened to a darkened room. The clock read eleven but outside it was still pitch black. First the Moon, now the Sun, our days were numbered. Without the warmth of the Sun, the Earth’s oceans and atmosphere would freeze and deposit a layer of ice on the surface so cold the Annihilation’s embrace might have been preferable. It would take a week for the heat of the planet to dissipate to a mere zero Fahrenheit though at this rate I feared the Earth might not even last hours.
I dressed and went to bang on Barney’s door.
&nbs
p; “Hold on, mate! What time is it?” I could hear Barney dressing beyond the threshold. “Eleven? Cripes!” He thrust the door opened; he looked exhausted.
“You don’t look so good Barney.”
“I don’t feel so good.” There was a speck of dirt on Barney’s shirt he tried to brush off. As he did so, the tips of his fingers seemed to disappear.
“Holy!”
Barney screamed. It was the most blood-curdling scream I’d ever heard in even the most gruesome of horror films. And yet, no one came. The home was deathly quiet, save for our commotion.
The strands of Annihilation weaved their way around Barney’s fingers, like capillaries expanding from arteries and veins. Barney started to fall backwards and throwing caution to the wind I tried to catch him, comfort him. I knew the Annihilation had him and hell be damned if it would take me too! I couldn’t let my friend suffer alone. I gently lowered him to the ground.
Soon Barney’s arms where just faint threads of white and then his chest grew holes. When the holes reached his lungs, Barney could yell no longer. He was quiet but far from at peace. I held him as best I could, what remained of him, but soon saw my hands through what was once his flesh and shredded clothing. I cradled his head in my hand as a white, spinal column was all that connected his remaining form to his still solid feet. In a last gasp of resistance, he began thrashing his legs only to see the tendrils snake their way into his extremities.
Soon, there was more Annihilation than Barney. And then there were just his eyes, and then . . . Barney was gone. But I remained. My mind reeled. How could I still be alive? How could the Annihilation have spared me?
I looked around the empty hallway, pristine as if nothing had happened, as if the Annihilation hadn’t. But It hadn’t spread. It wasn’t contagious. I didn’t know how the stars, planets and people contracted It but at least it wasn’t by touch.
I had to get out. I rushed to the entrance only to find it completely unmanned. Clearly Barney wasn’t the only one missing, but I wondered if they were dispatched by the Annihilation or were just hunkering down with family, as I should be. As I jogged down the street, there were no cars on the road. The whole town, at least on the exterior, seemed deserted. I made my way to Shauna’s house on foot and with little to impede me, I made good time.
As I ran, my mind wandered. Did Martha really leave me hanging? There’s no way she’d have threw me aside intentionally. The Annihilation was no more just a menace to my planet, it was getting personal and I knew there was a score to settle, if only I could settle it.
I looked up. The street lights were still illuminated and the black Annihilation still prevailed across the sky. But then I saw it, where the Sun should be. No brighter than the brightest star, still churning and generating light and heat! If it took minutes for Jupiter, I guess the Sun being many times bigger still had some fight to show the Annihilation! Never more had I felt so proud of our life giving orb.
Alas, though, even the Sun’s gains were fleeting and I knew it too would succumb if nothing else could be done.
I reached the house and knocked on the door. There was no answer so I knocked louder. “Shauna! It’s your dad! Come and answer the door; let me know you’re safe!”
“Grandpa?” A teary voice came from behind the door.
“Lothar, where’s your mommy?”
“Gone Grandpa . . . ” I could hear Lothar sobbing in the entryway. After a couple of minutes, Lothar quieted enough to unlock the door and let me in.
I hugged my grandson in the tightest embrace I could, to show him I wasn’t going anywhere if I could help it. I then led him to the couch were we could sit and talk.
“Mommy . . . The black monster ate her. I saw it! The Black dripped all over mommy’s body. Mommy was erased . . . ” Lothar broke down again and I let him cry into my shirt for a good, long while.
“Lothar, my boy. There’s nothing you could’ve done. I lost my daughter today, and you your mother but we’re still here, together and we remember!” I rocked my grandson in my arms over and over, singing to try and calm him. I knew what I saw and how horrifying it was to me; for Lothar to see it happen to his mother was doubtlessly traumatizing.
After a while, Lothar was calm enough to lift his head from my shirt. “It tried to get me, Grandpa.”
“To get you?”
“The Annihilation, it was on my hand, but then it came off.”
“Came off? How?”
Lothar got up and lead me upstairs to his room where a partially dissolved glass was sitting on his nightstand. “See the glass? I stopped it.”
I couldn’t believe it! It was as if the Annihilation had been stopped in mid meal. Wisps of the glass were missing but as a whole the thing was still there. I touched it and pricked myself on the sharp, spindly edge.
“I couldn’t save Mommy. Mommy wouldn’t let me hug her.”
I went over and hugged Lothar again as tightly as I could. “Lothar, honey, it’s not your fault! It’s not your fault! The Annihilation’s what took your mother and the Annihilation is what you and I are going to stop!”
“But how, Grandpa?” Lothar had the biggest eyes when he looked up at me.
“Lothar, I believe you’re a Annihilation antigen. A body that recognizes the Annihilation for what it is, a malevolent invader, and neutralizes it. There were theories but until we came into contact with the Annihilation we could never be sure. But I think, Lothar, you’re the answer!”
I picked Lothar up in my arms and carried him down the stairs.
I thought I felt Alex brush up against my leg, but when I went down to look, much of his tail had already been consumed by the Annihilation. The cat looked terrified, but the deterioration seemed to have stopped, mid-infection . . . Just like the glass. I put Lothar down to look at the cat.
“Lothar, did you touch Alex just now?” I asked as I picked up the now docile feline. Barney’s eyes haunted my thoughts.
“No, Grandpa. Grandpa, I think you’re an auntie Gene now.”
I chuckled. “Antigen, Lothar.” Could it be true? Could I have caught Lothar’s cure? Was the cure contagious? I allowed hope to erase all doubt and ran into the street, where I called out. “We can stop the Annihilation! We can stop the Annihilation.”
Lothar followed me out and we walked toward the center of town, hoping to find anyone left, anyone to listen. As we wandered the empty streets, Lothar looked toward the heavens.
“Grandpa, is that a star?” In the pitch black of night, Lothar had found the Sun, now just a point no more luminous than any other stellar source, were any remaining. Was it my imagination, or was the Sun looking a little brighter.
“Yes and no, Lothar. That’s our Sun. But our Sun’s a star, just much, much closer. And once it was just as big as many of the other stars, but now I expect it’s much smaller than even the Earth. Perhaps no more than a few city blocks if its temperature miraculously remained constant.” I didn’t understand how the Sun could continue to produce light at the same rate it always had, having become so tiny, but I wasn’t going to argue with the nature of the Annihilation when we had the cure at hand. At least in the nine or so hours, at most, that it could have been shrinking, the Earth couldn’t have deviated more than a about fifteen hundred miles from its natural orbit.
Lothar stopped us walking and turned to face me. “Grandpa, I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. I’ll remember this day, when the Sun was just a dot. I’ll never forget mommy, and I’ll remember the stars.”
I KNOW THIS WORLD
John Palisano
"I Know This World" appeared in a special edition of Michael Louis Calvillo's I Will Rise, and is my interpretation of what happened right after that story, and addresses the Cancer of unknown origin that took my friend at such an early age. I've lost so many: my Godmother Christine Mouio several years back, and recently another young writer friend, Stephen Wilson. Cancer touches everybody. My wish is we stop spending billions on destroying one another, and instead ap
ply it toward eradication. Come hang with me at: www.johnpalisano.us
MAGIC
Lights blind me as I fall into endless abyss. The Gods work their magic on me. Chugga chugga chugga chugga: the sound of someone playing damped chords on a wicked distorted guitar surrounds me. This fourth dimension caresses my skin, bathes me and moves me down toward some bright and liquid place. I can’t imagine what’s next.
There’s no pain anymore. All the discomfort and all the humiliations near the end of my life have vanished, the memories little drops of fluid archived inside my brain. You can’t remember pain. You know that, right? Once it’s gone, you can’t really close your eyes and experience it again. Uh-uh. You’ll be free and high and mighty and brand new. That’s where I’m going: to be remade.
I hear echoes from my recent past hitting me like falling rain.
Do the right thing. Come on. Get off those things—those pills. They’ll kill you. You’ve got God now and that’s all you’re going to need.
God? Is that what this is?
Big hands caressed my head and held me up. At first I shut my eyes so I could look inside. A fever stormed through and formed several painful pockets of hot fluid spread throughout my body. I felt the furthest from sexy. All systems, “no.” The dark cloud caught me and shook me like a cat that snared a big rat. My bones snapped and my veins stretched and cracked. It took its time with me, eating at me slowly until I was borderline insane. Borderline? Well: probably way over the line if it were anyone but me judging.
SPECIAL SAUCE
I taste the chemicals they pumped inside me, a lot like those blue popsicles I used to eat as a kid, but as if they were infused with liquid metal, too. Nothing can get rid of it. The one-of-a-kind medicine supposedly can get in there and crush the cells that aren’t cooperating. But I feel like a piece of paper someone just dropped in the ocean. Only a matter of time until I’m totally saturated with salt water . . . my form will last for a little while once that happens . . . I’ll be recognizable and someone could read what’s written on me, but only until a wave comes . . . a wave big enough to overtake me and push me under, my delicate form turning to pieces, turning to strands, turning to fibers, turning to nothingness, assimilating and dissolving into the ocean.
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