Why were they leaving? Why didn’t they proceed to the next table? What a mystery it all was!
His ninth date awaited him. This was a luscious black girl, whose ample breast proclaimed Ivory.
“So, Todd,” she said after he sat down, “I understand you work at a computer store.”
* * *
He continued on his quest with a perfect batting average. His elation faded, and as more gladiators fled the field, he came to feel he was wading through a graveyard. What was so attractive about him anyway? His acne? His retreating hairline? His lack of wit? These sublime kittens treated him as if he were irresistible, the absolute Alpha male, and they all craved having his children. Somehow, there even seemed to be a phantom grapevine that connected them to each other, and what one learned about him, they all shared.
Ridiculous. He was just having a great night, that’s all.
Great night? You’ve hit fifteen straight homers, buster. These goddesses don’t even want to pee on the competition. It’s all about you.
He stopped between tables, experiencing the most wonderful moment of his life. He was a king, a macho beast. He ruled!
Wait till I tell the guys at the store, he thought. Think how envious they’ll be!
“Oh, Todd!”
Number sixteen coming up. Persephone. And she was standing.
Todd grinned like the lady killer he was and sauntered on.
* * *
It wasn’t until Todd approached Teresa, the twentieth and last, that he noticed three things.
The first was that he was the only male left standing, the sole survivor in the competition.
The second was that the light had faded into a mystic half-light inhabited by shadows.
The third was that he could no longer hear the background noise of people talking and dining in the restaurant. In fact, he hadn’t heard them for some time.
He stopped just steps away from his eagerly smiling last date, and turned. Behind him, the tables he’d visited in his journey extended in a straight line into the distance. How was that possible? He clearly remembered the tables being clustered about in a rather small area. Not only that, the women he’d favored with his presence waxed and waned in the dim light. Now he could see them clearly; now they were mere shadows.
“Todd,” Teresa called.
He turned back. Teresa was Asian, and he wondered briefly at her name. But such an anomaly barely ticked on the meter for this preposterous night, and he went to meet her. As he sat down, he felt that he had indeed reached the end of his journey. Of all the women he had visited, Teresa was the loveliest and most desirable. While the others were delectable, Teresa alone was the perfect girl, though she had the same subtle scent.
“Only I’m not,” Teresa said. She reached across the tablecloth and took his hand. “We are all perfect, Todd.”
“All perfect?” he parroted. “How did you know . . .”
“What you were thinking? We all know, Todd. For we are all one.”
We are all one. What does that mean? He started to ask but thought he saw every woman he’d sat with that night standing in the shadows behind Teresa. Some were fair-skinned, some dark; some tall, some short. Yet in some way, they were all the same.
For the first time, he wondered if he should skip speed dating and other shortcuts to romance and find his own dates.
Teresa raised his hand and nibbled on his fingers. “We are all the last desperate experiment of a scientist on a dying world, Todd. Our Father created us and put us on board this ship just before the land belched fire and the seas buried the cities. We barely escaped! And ever since, we have sailed in our endless quest, seeking to fulfill the imperative He programmed into us and end our painful loneliness.”
Todd tried to grasp what she was saying. A scientist’s last experiment . . . it sounded like some kind of cloning.
“You said a ‘quest,’” he rasped, aware he’d been on a quest, too, endlessly searching for the right girl, one who wouldn’t laugh and turn him down. “How long has your search been?”
“Oh, such a long time, Todd. For many centuries, we have sought the perfect man, one who will meet our unique requirements and complete us. Many suitors have come, and over the centuries, many handsome, intelligent, and brave gallants have competed for our favors. But all have fallen short and been found wanting. Only one has met our Father’s standards and fulfilled our romantic dreams.”
Romantic Dreams. It was the name of the dating company! The rest of Teresa’s words seemed just noise, impossible language. Except for three words, none of it registered.
“Did you say . . . ‘over the centuries’?”
“Yes, I did, Todd,” Teresa said. “For many centuries, for untold millennia we have pursued our dream. Time and time again we fought despair and forged on, ever searching, refusing to forsake our destiny. And tonight, at long last, our faith has been rewarded. For we have found you.”
“Found me? You must be mad.” His usual low self-esteem returned. He pulled his hand from hers. “What do I have to offer? I’m a homely guy in a dead-end job without any talents. I’ve even got bad breath. What kind of creatures are you, and what could you possibly see in me?”
A mysterious smile. “You’ll have such a long time to find out, Todd.”
Such a long time to find out. The words sank into his soul like the sound of doom. He’d heard of possessive women who clung to you for years and years, but this sounded like something even worse. Something inhuman. A threat.
“I don’t understand,” he heard himself say.
Teresa smiled and leaned toward him. “It’s your uniqueness, Todd. The taste of your soul. You’re so lost, and so lonely; so sad, and so desperate; so empty, and so hungry to be filled while having so very much to give in return. On a thousand worlds, my sisters and I have never found anyone quite like you. Todd, you’re so rare, so richly endowed, and we feel we may never exhaust you, never consume or possess or savor you completely.”
His blood turned to ice. “No!” He staggered up, knocking the chair to the floor. It bounced up, sending a sharp bolt of pain throughout his body. Teresa no longer looked so perfect, so desirable. In the poor light, she seemed older than the Earth.
“What are you?” he cried. “Devils? Aliens?” Receiving no answer, he stepped forward.
“You can’t have me,” he said. “I refuse. I . . . I never even wrote any of your names down!”
She held up her pad. Gave him a sly wink. “But we all wrote yours, Todd.”
This was the last time he was using a dating service! He turned to leave, and she rose, reaching out to stop him. He pushed her arm away, but his hand passed right through her as if she weren’t even there. Todd stared at her in amazement.
Teresa smiled sweetly up at him. “You can touch us all later, Todd,” she said. “As hard and as cruel and in any way you wish. And since we can keep you young for a very long time, we can show you so many things you have never imagined. Oh, Todd, don’t you see? We were made for each other. We are going to know such delight and fulfill each other’s destiny and needs so perfectly. My Beloved, we shall complete each other!”
Fulfill each other’s destiny and needs? Complete each other? I don’t think so! Where he had felt desire before, he now felt only horror and revulsion. Todd choked and stumbled off, back toward the entrance. Only it was such a long, long way, and he seemed to slog through quicksand as Teresa’s sisters gathered around him in the shadows. He dodged to the right, only to find them waiting, hands raised to catch him and yet in no hurry whatsoever. When he darted to the left, they came with outstretched arms and strange smiles, anticipating pleasures he couldn’t even imagine.
Try as he might, Todd couldn’t get anywhere. He was no longer in the same space but someplace else. Running through an eerie maze with shifting boundaries, he became more and more disoriented.
The women laughed and, to his horror, the entire area seemed to change, expand, and start to rise. He heard scr
eams down below where the city was as the restaurant rose faster and faster and banked sideways. Todd caught onto something to keep from falling and held on with all his strength. Glancing through a window to his left, he saw buildings drop away until they became the size of dominoes. Trembling, he closed his eyes. When he looked again, he saw a sweeping view of the Earth dwindling far below, a green and blue ball getting smaller and smaller until he could no longer see it. Soon stars surrounded him. Some were bright and near, some distant. They stretched as far as he could see, melting into the vast reaches of the Milky Way.
He felt a surge of enormous power! A sensation of incredible speed! For the first time, Todd noticed the sleek, massive wings, taking them ever deeper into interstellar space.
He straightened and squared his shoulders. What had Teresa said? On a thousand worlds, my sisters and I have never known anyone quite like you.
From all sides, came a collective cry of joy and triumph. The worst thing was, Todd could feel the women’s love and longing for him, their terrible need which dwarfed any need or longing he had ever felt. Like it or not, he had nowhere to run. As he heard the first footsteps approach him, he felt the beginning of acceptance, and a smile slowly teased his lips. All these women, and who knows—perhaps he and they could be each other’s salvation.
THE END.
THEY by Ace Antonio Hall
“Angel!” I said. “How many times have I told you to close the door properly? One day Scruffy’s going to get lost and you’ll be sorry! Especially if They find him!”
I wiped my sudsy hands on the front of my apron and scooped up Scruffy. I scratched behind his ears while scanning the land; an abandoned farm that hosted a frowning gathering of wooden structures in the middle of plentiful land, and dirt roads which seemed to lead to nowhere in both directions. I lived in a weather-beaten farmhouse with the last remaining survivors.
“Coming, Mommy,” my daughter said.
Her voice was heaven.
I kept peering out of the back door, seeing nothing but the deserted chicken coop, a saggy barn, and the drab sun, trying to warm up the weedy field, sprinkled with clusters of droopy sunflowers. I felt satisfied that nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but my nerves were still on edge. Just a few miles up and beyond the barn, dark clouds filled the sky and moved toward our direction. A storm approached.
I felt comforted, hearing the pitter-patter of tiny bare feet rushing toward me. Scruffy spun over in my hands so that I could rub his belly. He let out a little whiny growl, and his golden brown ears twitched like the wings of a butterfly before flight.
“Don’t you look at me like that,” I said. “Who is the one that always comes to the rescue when you’re in trouble?”
We had quite a few close calls since being stranded here, but They always seemed to pass us by in their noisy land vehicles that stormed by, too close for comfort, or their aircraft which showered us with terror and strong winds. We always made it to the secret storage room beneath the barn before their loud machines reached us in that pitiful shelter. I found Scruffy there (trembling with hunger) when we first found the old dusty land—right next to a few straggly stacks of hay behind the vacant horse stables.
“Mommy!”
Angel ran into the spacious kitchen and up to me in her once-clean blue dress. She passed by the long wooden table and rickety old chairs, looking at me with her own little puppy eyes and wrapped her arms around my bare legs.
“Mommy, you’re wearing the dress I picked out for you the day Papa and the others went bye-bye!”
She was so little—to be so strong. “Uh-huh.”
“It’s pretty. I’m so glad we got out of those ugly uniforms. I’m not wearing them, anymore—too much blood.” She looked down at my dressed and traced her fingers along the fabric, pressing into my legs. “See, Mommy? There are white flowers and yellow flowers—so pretty!”
I nodded. “You’re my little helper—you understand that the blood on our clothes didn’t come from your father, don’t you?”
“Yes, Mommy. You didn’t mean to hurt one of Them but he got too close … Mommy?”
“Yes, dear.”
“I’m sorry about Scruffy, Mommy. And as punish-mend for breaking the rules, I will help you finish washing the plates before Forest, Nana, and the others, sit at the wooden table for breakfast.”
She’s so cute. “Oh, you will, huh? I don’t think any harm has been done—no need for a punish-ment.”
“Punishment?”
“Yes, sweetie. You pronounced it correctly that time.”
Even though she was a language savant, learning six different foreign languages by the time she was four, and just last year, she deciphered two ancient languages that had been previously unknown—I found it interesting that there were still some words, even in the most basic languages, that gave her trouble. It just further showed me that no matter how intelligent a being, maturity or lack thereof, will sometimes have its say.
Still, her unfathomable talents justified me bringing her with us, and keeping my angel near to me. I set Scruffy down. He let out a faint yip and ran to Angel’s feet.
“Just be more careful, okay?”
“Mmm-hmm.”
Scruffy rolled over on his back, waving his tail across the wooden floor. Angel rubbed his tummy.
“Hello puppy—bad, bad puppy. They will hurt you if They catch you.”
She looked up at me with her round blue eyes, her curly hair spilling over her shoulders.
“It won’t happen again—for real, this time, Mommy. I promise.”
“It better not, my darling little one. Now, come here, you two.”
I knelt, and gave my six-year-old and Scruffy a hug. “Oh, Mommy loves you both so very much.”
“We love you too, Mommy!” Angel rubbed her nose on Scruffy’s head and hugged Scruffy. She pointed at the door. “Do you have to go potty?”
To show that he understood, he barked, ran to the door, and barked once more.
“Mommy, can I?”
“All right, all right but don’t go beyond the barn. Now, run along.”
The two of them scampered out of the screen door and I caught the metal frame before it slammed. Forest was asleep in the next room, exhausted from a full early morning of hunting. I worry about him. Sometimes, he took too many risks, and I’d warned him many times to be careful out there.
All it took was one mistake, and They’d kill us all, and keep this big old world all to themselves. Still, we would eat well for the next couple of days, thanks to Forest. I don’t know what we would’ve done without him. He really stepped up when Hunter died in that fatal accident—when They came.
He’s the one who found this abandoned farm when everyone was about to give up, and he found us food when we thought we’d starve to death. He kept our heads calm with daily affirmations of hope. We were all that were left on this planet—the six of us, and as tragic as that seemed, knowing that there was no one else made us stronger. I went to the picture window next to the screen door and adored my baby, running barefoot in the fields, laughing and playing with her newfound friend—totally oblivious to a bleak future.
The storm clouds were even closer. I shuddered, not really knowing why.
“Oh, Great One,” I whispered, “please help me to look after my only child, and perhaps raise her in a world so different from the one I once knew.”
“Is something wrong, Summer?” Someone said.
I snapped my head around. Our security officer walked into the kitchen wearing black fatigues, rubbing his eyes.
“Forest, you scared me.” I placed my hand to my chest.
Forest was tall, lean, and honorable. He wasn’t overwhelmed with intelligence, but I could always depend on him without a second thought.
I exhaled slowly. “Thought you were asleep—and how many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?”
His head was always cleanly shaven and he had large walnut eyes that could cut through
stone when he was angry or melt a glacier when he was happy.
Forest walked up to me, rather relaxed, his scuffed-up boots knocking against the floor. “I want to prepare breakfast before the others get up.”
He tried to wrap his arms around me but I recoiled—he’d have a hard time melting my icy exterior—usually immune to his melting stare.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I just thought after what happened last night that we—”
I refused to let him finish that sentence. “Last night, I had a meltdown—I was tired, grieving over Hunter’s death and vulnerable from having too much of that liquor you found in that room beneath the barn. You comforted me. And for that I’m grateful, but let me be clear.” I walked up to him, and looked up to the tall powerful security officer with a cold glare, his hazel eyes widened. “Do not ever mention last night to me, again. Are—we—clear?”
He stiffened. “Yes, Captain.”
“Good,” I stepped away from him and glanced out of the picture window again, at Angel and Scruffy playing in the wild field. “I don’t want to confuse her. She loved—loves her father, and…so do I. He hasn’t even been dead…” It was neither time, nor place to cry, so I paused briefly to regain my composure.
“I understand," he said, “I am sorry for the disrespect to you and your late husband.” His deadpan comment made me turn to him. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. Hunter respected you very much. You’ve always been a good friend to us.”
“Yes, Captain.”
“You know, when I was a child, I would spend countless hours staring at the sky imagining how exciting it would be to meet beings from another world—it’s the reason why I became an astronaut.”
“And now?”
“Well, huh, after our encounter with these vicious creatures, my life’s purpose has been torn to shreds as we, the last living survivors on this planet, face the grim reality that time...”
9 Tales From Elsewhere 3 Page 4
