The Watchers

by Reakes, Wendy

  He put his feet on the floor and found his shoes, tied the laces, not too tight, and shuffled to the bathroom to swill his face. He remembered using the john last night and seeing Maggie’s artificial limb propped up in the corner. It was a strange looking contraption, covered in a skin-coloured footless stocking with her sandal -still in situ-covering the plastic foot. Now, as he used a towel to dry his hands he noticed Maggie’s leg had gone.

  He found her on the terrace outside. He could see she had a marvellous view of the Glastonbury Tor from her apartment. The Tor was eerie looking at that early hour, as the lower half of the hill was shrouded in a morning mist, while the top above the fog looked like the swell of a woman’s breast; the tower a nipple pointing up to the sky. He chuckled to himself as he ran his fingers through his unkempt hair. “You’re up, are you?” Maggie said.

  “Got anything for a headache?” She tossed him a small white bottle. It rattled when he caught it and he wondered if there would be enough inside to deal with that particular hangover. “Thanks.”

  “How’d you sleep?” She was sipping tea from a china cup and saucer.

  “Like a baby.”

  “Oh, yes, and how about that?” she guffawed, “You were crying like one last night.”

  “What? You’re crazy.” A mug of black coffee was waiting for him in front of the empty seat. He threw two pills into his mouth and chewed them before he swallowed. He washed them down with lukewarm coffee and grimaced as the taste rocked the inside of his mouth.

  “Crying like a baby you were. ‘Oh, Fran’,” she mimicked, “Where are you…I miss you, blah, blah, blah.”

  Jay shook his head in shame. Yes, he recollected something like that, but as long as he kept denying it, maybe she’d forget the whole thing. “You are crazy,” he repeated. He looked at the strange drawing on the whitewashed wall next to Maggie’s chair. It looked like a child’s drawing of a train with match-stick people standing on it. “What is that?”

  She looked affectionately at the image. “That’s the Hopi prophecy.” She looked in his eyes for a glimmer of recognition. “You have heard of the Hopi of Arizona? It’s your country isn’t it?”

  “Of cour..!”

  She closed her eyes and opened them again. "The Hopi live near Oraibi, Arizona. They are wonderful people. I've been there, you know! There is a rock that symbolises many Hopi prophecies, but this drawing is the most well-known." She threw him a patronising glance as she ran her finger along the line which appeared to be the undercarriage of the train. "That's the life path."

  She touched a figure on the left, of a stick man with a skull-shaped head. “He is called the Great Spirit, but my interpretation is that he represents the Watchers.” She smiled as she ran the tip of her finger over its head. “According to the Hopi, the bow in his left hand represents his instructions to lay down weapons.” She nodded and raised her brow in an all-knowing way. “The vertical line to the right of the Great Spirit is a time scale in thousands of years. And the point at which the Great Spirit touches the line is the time of his return.” The figure was touching the line halfway along.

  All of it meant nothing to Jay, but he was interested in her interpretation of the diagram, even though it looked like a baby could have drawn it. “Who are those little guys?” Three were standing above the train.

  “They represent past, present and future,” she said. “And the line they’re standing on is the path of technology.”

  She ran her finger over two circles. “These two circles are the first and second world wars and this…” she indicated the heavy vertical line. “This is decision time. And that’s now, basically!”

  “Here we go!” Jay chuckled. “You’re going to start laying ‘the-end-is-nigh-crap on me again. Right?”

  She ignored him. “The short line there…is the last chance for people to turn back to nature before the upper road disintegrates and dissipates.” Maggie smiled and winked. Jay wondered if she annoyed everyone she met, or if it was just him. “The small circle above the Path of Life, after the last chance, is the Great Purification, after which corn will grow in abundance again when the Great Spirit returns.” Maggie took a deep breath. “I believe that represents the end of our world as we know it…the Apocalypse.”

  "Maggie, honey. You're wasting your time on an old dog like me. I don't believe in all this stuff. How could this ancient civilisation know these things? It's just not plausible, you know? In my world, you're either alive or dead, with nothing in-between."

  “Why doesn’t that surprise me coming from you?” Maggie brushed her hands together to remove the dust from the wall. “You’ve got a lot to learn, American boy.” She stood up. “Right! What time do you want to get going?”

  Jay sipped his tepid black coffee from a chipped mug with ‘Greenpeace 79’ written on the side. “Get going? Where?”

  “Ha, you don’t remember do you?”

  “Indulge me.” Jay pulled his cell from his pocket. He turned it on. There were still no messages from the kid. Where the hell was he?

  “We’re going to search for the entrance to the otherworld.”

  Jay put the phone back into his pocket. “Sure we are.”

  “Now, you listen to me, American boy. I’m in no mood for your negativity this morning. It took me half of last night to convince you to do this. I’m not going to repeat myself all over again.”

  Jay vaguely recalled Maggie talking about the entrance to the otherworld and a place called Caer Sidi. Much to his amusement, she had delved into her crystal ball. He remembered laughing so much that she had hit him on the shoulder with her stick.

  He’d sobered up when she told him Fran had encountered something painful when she was there in Glastonbury. “She got attacked by someone she trusted and now she is in another place, licking her wounds.”

  “Maggie, I know you mean well,” Jay said now, as he placed his mug down upon the table, “But as I said before, I don’t believe…”

  "Well, you'd better start believing it, Mister American private investigator because tomorrow morning at 4.45am is the summer solstice and it's going to be the only opportunity you'll have to get into the otherworld. If we don't find a way in, that girl will be lost to you forever, do you hear me? Forever!"

  Jay figured he didn’t have much to lose by going along with Maggie’s crazy delving. If it kept her happy…However, he would continue texting Fran. “Okay, Maggie. Anything to keep the peace! So where do we start?”

  She turned her gaze towards the view of the Tor, and to the tower sitting above it. “You got a laptop?”

  “Of course.”

  “Right. I’ll come back to your hotel with you and I’ll show you where we need to begin.”

  “Sure. I mean, how could we unravel ancient mysteries without a laptop? What’re you gonna do, email a Hopi?”

  Maggie rose from her seat and picked up her empty cup. As she walked towards the entrance of her apartment she turned about. “They’re not on-line,” she said.

  Chapter 37

  Mia watched him click away on his camera like a rampant turkey. As far as she was concerned he was taking advantage of the Watcher’s hospitality, their trust in him and their sacred right to anonymity. She couldn’t understand Uriel allowing him to photograph their world. It shouldn’t be for the human race to see. She was worried about how the Watchers could be compromised if their world was made public.

  From the beach, they were all taken back to the room in the palace where the round table of life welcomed them. The leader, Varquis, was there, taking his place on the chair opposite the altar where the seven crystal skulls were displayed like prizes. “You are rested,” he said. We will begin.”

  Keri was sitting right next to Mia, so she reached out and squeezed her hand. Her skin felt clammy. Jesus was on her other side and then Tom, who had his camera thrown over his shoulder protected by his hand as if it was as precious as the prizes on the altar.

  “Keri Rains, we need your help.”


  Each of them turned to look at Keri. Her expression was blank as if she had prepared herself for the moment when their plans for her would be revealed.

  Mia remembered the words of Uriel the night she met the Watchers at Stonehenge. She’d said that she couldn’t imagine why they’d chosen her. ‘Not you’ he’d replied, ‘one other…a woman. She can help us.’

  “Early tomorrow morning, on the solstice, a new dawn will begin. In all its glory, the earth’s sun will appear through the structure of Stonehenge, as it has for many suns before. It will shine as a beacon of hope for your people and for us, the children of God. But unlike the suns before it, it will shine brighter and further than it ever has. It will cast its light upon many places, not just the stones your people worship each year with hope in their hearts. Tomorrow, the earth’s sun will be at one with our mother, as it was over one-hundred years ago in 1915.”

  Varquis’ voice charged around the room. His bellow moved the hairs on the back of Mia’s neck with the drone of his words, as surely as it must have affected the others in the same way. “The alignment of the sun with the mother will once again be a time for unity. It is the new dawn of peace and prosperity. It is the calming of the seas and the wind and our mother will once again breathe new life upon us. The fish in the sea will be plentiful. The harvest in the fields and the fruits on the trees will be abundant, and the cattle, which sustain you, will be free of disease. The icecaps will cease to thaw and the forests will grow. But most importantly, the ground beneath your feet will begin to repair. The waters will flow freely and the soil will prosper…As long as man stops raping the land, allowing it once more to shift and settle so that it may regenerate its strength and power.”

  "You were warned in the year of 1915. You were told by the mother to connect with the dawn, feed on its offer of life, and prosper with sincerity in your hearts and minds. But you did not. Instead, you once again plagued God with war and famine. Disease had once more cast its fingers over the land and the air. Wealth was your motivation and as you surely fought in two great wars and more battles of destruction, you killed and spread your hatred around the globe so that darkness fell once more. This is your last chance, but even now it could be too late. We are giving you this final message as an offering of peace. We are giving unto you and you must listen."

  “Wait.” Keri rose to her feet. “Why are you telling us this? We can’t do anything. We are ordinary people. We have no power over the decisions of our…” She was speaking for all of them, but mostly, she was referring to herself.

  Varquis silenced her with the strength of his message. “You have the confidence of your Prime Minister, Keri Rains.”

  Keri looked as if her spine had all but given way. She sat down. “But, you can’t honestly expect me to stop what is happening to the planet…”

  “It will take just an ordinary man. Just as ordinary men have gone before you.”

  “Me!” She placed the flat of her palm on her chest. “Me? Saving the world.” She was becoming shrill as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

  Mia placed her hand on Keri’s shoulder. Her body was trembling. “May I speak on her behalf?” Mia said gently.

  “You may.”

  “Even I am having difficulty believing this woman could save our planet from total destruction…”

  “No offence,” Tom quipped.

  Then Jesus rose to his feet. “No!” All heads turned towards him. “She can do it. Varquis is saying that no one ‘important’ needs to do this. This is not a task that needs title or power, this is not something for our leaders to deal with. They are too corrupt and they have no goodness in their hearts. They aren’t Kudos.”

  "Neither am I," Keri shouted. It was as if she'd found a lifeline, a way out of the challenge they were setting her.

  Varquis’s voice was serene now. “You are Kudos. You connected with us once at the stones. You touched an Angel. It was I.”

  Mia turned to look at Keri’s face. “What does he mean?”

  Keri was staring at her hand resting on the table. “Last year, when I came to Stonehenge, I thought I saw…it was the stone…for a moment I thought I saw it move.” She looked at Varquis with disbelief in her eyes. “That was you?”

  “Yes. We came for you then, but you were not ready.”

  Jesus spoke. “Don’t you see? He is speaking of ordinary men before us…” His voiced trailed away as he turned his gaze from Keri to the leader, Varquis. “Am I right?” He was urging Varquis to read his mind.

  “You are. Your namesake walked upon this earth to deliver the message, but he was destroyed. He was a man of great wisdom, and he was pure of heart. He was Kudos.”

  Tom was shaking his head. “You mean the man himself…JC?”

  "There were others after him; men of peace; the man Gandhi, Mother Teresa and many others with less celebrity. They have all walked the earth wanting change, wanting food for all men, health and harmony. If they failed, it was because they were prevented by the people whom they tried to help, as Jesus was prevented and destroyed."

  “Hey, Keri,” Tom said. “You’re in good company.”

  “No, this woman is not like them.” Varquis said. “We would simply ask her to deliver a message to her leader. She has the advantage of her trust. The message is of great importance. It must be delivered before our earth is threatened once more by man and his greed.”

  Keri brushed away her tears. “What sort of message?”

  “We want to meet with them.”

  “Meet?”

  “It is time. We want to meet with the Prime Minister on the morning of the solstice and you must make her agree.”

  “But that’s tomorrow. There’s not enough time. Besides, she would never listen to me…not in that respect. She is…she’s not the woman I thought she was.”

  “You will persuade her. We will show you how.”

  “I don’t see…”

  Varquis stood and the others followed without being instructed. "Uriel will show you to the other side now. We will meet again later before you leave."

  “But…I have more questions. There is so much more I want to know.” Mia felt panic rise up from her stomach. She couldn’t leave now. Not now!

  “All your questions will be answered, Lakey.”

  “When?”

  “Soon.”

  Chapter 38

  Jay stepped out of the shower and wrapped a warm white towel around his hips. He had returned to his hotel room to freshen up while Maggie delved into his laptop in the lobby downstairs. She said she wanted to be able to print out stuff, so no doubt she was bugging the front desk at that very moment. The whole thing was crazy. Maggie was crazy, and he was crazy for allowing her to talk him into the whole crazy scheme.

  He dressed in jeans and a white cotton shirt, which he left hanging out. He was tempted to tuck it in, but Fran always called him a nerd when he did that. He sat down next to the table where a cup of black coffee was going cold. He sipped it as he glanced at an article in a magazine, left over from the now discarded Sunday newspapers.

  Afghanistan and gemstones have been synonymous since the Neolithic Period, 6,500 years ago. Though millennia have come and gone, not much has changed. Afghanistan is still rich in precious and semi-precious gemstones, and mining is still an industry steeped in risks.

  Afghanistan is in desperate need of legitimate, lucrative industries to bolster its dire and turbulent economy.

  What we are finding is that Afghanistan is a country rich in gemstones, but they are at the bottom of the chain.

  They are not capitalising on their valuable natural resources. Increased security, recent changes to the legal framework for mining and the Afghan government’s strategy for legitimising the mining sector will improve the prospects for investment and the consequent increase in yields.

  Jay threw the magazine on the bed and checked his watch. Time to go, he thought, as he wondered what the hell that crazy broad, Maggie, was
going to get him into now. He stuffed his wallet into his back pocket and picked up his key card. Then checking his cell one more time for any messages from Fran, or the kid, he kept it in his hand and pulled the door closed behind him.

  Chapter 39

  After walking along the path from the spiral palace, Mia, Tom, Keri and Jesus arrived at the bottom as Uriel led the way with his six Angel brothers.

  When Mia glanced at the other Angels mulling about, she pondered how serene they looked, how very…together they were. She admired them in so many ways. Some of them were working on crafts on a wall made of blue stones and some were fishing, hovering above the water with their wings extended. She could see them laughing as they caught a fish intent on escape. They were pulling up oyster shells and on the beach some sat and prised them open, taking the pearls from inside and placing them in a basket. Over the water, they teased each other with crayfish as the black shelled creatures snapped their pincers at them.

  In the distance she could see some working the land, carrying nets laden with fruit taken from the vines. And far away some stood amid the yellow corn fields picking the golden crops as if they were choosing each one. Mia looked up at the ledge where she and the others had emerged the day before. Seven Angels were exiting the cave, soaring from its landing with their wings outstretched, gliding through the air until they landed on the beach. As a group they walked across the sand towards the castle of Caer Sidi, perhaps to report to their leader, news from the human’s world.

  Uriel told her the Angels each had markings on the palm of their hands, all of them diverse and special. Their legend spoke of each mark being duplicated by mother earth somewhere on the planet; anything from the outline of a mountain peak to the shape of a pebble on a beach; some had been replicated in crop circles, fashioned on the land for everyone to see. The marking on Varquis' hand was two circles intertwined. It was the ultimate symbol of life, where they lived, somewhere between the living and the dying. He'd been made leader since the sacred mark was the highest accolade from his maker.