Existence is Elsewhen

by John Gribbin

  Upon the blue canvas of the sky

  They flew.

  And the Sun shone

  all day long

  Upon the blue canvas of the sky through which

  the birds flew

  Did the birds fly at night too?

  Yes, so they did. They flew all along the black mantle that the Dark One

  had flung across the sky

  In darkness they flew…

  Even when the dark was complete, my kin

  When the sky was blacker than his dark eyes

  Blacker even than the starling’s wing…

  How? You are right to ask. How could these birds, relatives (distant) of a certain blue bird with uncertain eyesight, manage to fly through the night sky without encountering some serious mishap?

  They were aided by the Light Tree. Guided is a better word, perhaps. They were guided by the Light Tree, let us say. We saw how the light of a sparkling fish (inadvertently) guided the little blue bird to a new life in the forest, and then it was the bird who in turn helped guide the birth of the Light Tree, so the guidance appears to have come full circle as a steady diet of the berries of the Light Tree transformed those distant descendants of the original blue bird into something altogether different… I could tell you, but I would not do it justice. For the end of our story let’s listen to the Song of the Light Tree:

  Fly! Soar!

  In the So fly!

  swelling sky, fly Are lit like stars, Bird

  As high as you wish, Your wings, Bird

  Bird High!

  As long as you must, So you can fly!

  Bird, fly… Even in the night, Bird

  There is nothing to stop you There is light, Bird

  Nothing can stop you, Fly!

  Bird, fly! Higher, Bird

  High!

  This is the way of things. As it was then, so it is now…

  (From The Book of Shadow)

  Forbidden Fruit

  And so Eve tempts the devil

  by

  Tanya Reimer

  Born and raised in Saskatchewan, Tanya enjoys using the tranquil prairies as a setting to her not-so-peaceful speculative fiction. She is married with two children which means among her accomplishments are the necessary magical abilities to find a lost tooth in a park of sand and whisper away monsters from under the bed. As director of a non- profit Francophone community center, Tanya offers programming and services in French for all ages to ensure the lasting imprint and growth of the Francophone community in which she was raised. What she enjoys the most about her job is teaching social media safety for teens and offering one- on-one technology classes for seniors.

  Tanya was fifteen when she wrote her first column. She has a diploma in Journalism/Short Story Writing. Today, she actively submits to various newspapers, writes and publishes the local Francophone newsletter for her community, and maintains a blog at Life’s Like That. In 2014 her debut novel Ghosts on the Prairies, A Sacred Land Story for adults, was published by Elsewhen Press, followed by Petrified a young adult Whispering novel, from Sunbury Press. In 2016, Elsewhen Press published Can’t Dream Without You, a novel from the Dark Chronicles set in a post-apocalyptic Canadian landscape where Whisperers are trying to return to immortality.

  I

  I liked this town. I’d been here two days, but it was home. Not one rule was thrown at me, not one diabolic idea. I knew we should move on, but damn, it was hard. Maybe it was the wide-open spaces or the quiet streets. I always did like places where I could think.

  A satisfying crunch echoed in the car when Eve bit into her apple.

  Maybe it was her.

  I parked and glanced out the window of our clunker. Sally was picking apples off her trees along the side of the motel, in shorts that were too short for the weather. She waved, and Eve leaned against me to wave back.

  Sally ran the motel we were parked in front of. Eve took a shining to her, but then again, Eve loved everyone with a heavenly passion that amused me.

  Taking Eve in my arms, I said, “Something homey about a town where everyone waves to ya, don’t you think?” I was ready to bite into her apple with her, but a familiar zap sizzled in the backseat, grinding my nerves.

  Still, I didn’t miss a beat. Brushing the pendant around Eve’s neck, I tapped into the power of Hell. The shiny apple locket was the smallest link-up I’d made, yet it was the most powerful as it transported the desires of those touching it, interweaving magic and technology in a way only I understood.

  Responding to my need to protect her from the Hell I tried to escape, she fell asleep in my arms. I rested her gently against the seat before facing the devil in the backseat who had dropped in on our lovely moment.

  He looked confused, but his memory gun was pointed at me so I couldn’t use his sudden displacement within the worlds to my advantage.

  “Xaphan, you’re a hard devil to find,” he said.

  “Means I don’t want to be found.” I was activating the link-up kit hidden in my pocket as I spoke. “You going to take me back?” If these devils were finding me, it meant my brother had chosen sides. His betrayal wasn’t a reality I was ready to face.

  “You coming peacefully?”

  “Depends.”

  He had his name embroidered in gold on his uniform, ranking him as Adam’s soldier. Adam was the oldest devil in Hell. He ran Hell with more rules than I could break, but I was trying.

  Rule number one was no apples, ever. I used it to my advantage, by connecting the link-up to the apple I took from Eve, then I tempted my guest with it. He grabbed it, curious.

  “What is it you desire?” I asked.

  Our eyes met as my disposable kit sizzled, vanishing him with it, leaving behind a fine grey powder as his desires dropped him in a new reality, apple and all.

  Reaching around Eve, I opened the glovebox for a new disposable link-up kit. In my phone case, embedded in the plastic were two disks. I needed to make more tonight. I inserted one in the link-up. It was ready to transport, so I hid it in my pocket.

  I was far from relaxed when I bit into another apple and returned it to Eve’s hand. Then I brought Eve back with a passionate kiss I teased on her lips.

  II

  She smiled as I pulled away. Eve had a smile so powerful it could blow out my worst fears. My eyes lingered much too long on her lips, then they journeyed to the pendant snuggled against her bosom. I let the moment consume me, the taste of apples on my lips.

  “The necklace is sexy on you, Eve.” I touched it playfully. We were parked, but neither of us was eager to get out.

  The locket warmed under my fingers, promising me all the powers of Hell to play with. Running my fingertip over it, I couldn’t even feel the seam concealing the disk. Really, I was brilliant. More gifted now than I’d ever been. The rush tormented me, then my fingers slipped off and sneaked under the warmth of her red top. I was dizzy, suffering the fiendish power she held over me. I returned my fingers to the pendant so that I was in control again. The difference between power and loss of power was that easy with her under my fingertips.

  She didn’t need to know how hard it was for me to balance the two. Her ignorance kept us safe. Yet I wanted to let her in on my secret. I suppose this was my weakness. I always craved this connection to others.

  “I love it, Xaphan, almost as much as I love you.” Her long lashes moved slowly as she passed me her apple.

  Love. I was beginning to understand. Her eyes devoured me while I broke rule number one with her, losing myself to the moment, enjoying the apple, one forbidden bite at a time.

  Gosh. She was heavenly. No wonder I didn’t want to return to Hell. “You like this town? We could buy a house here. You could make friends. We could have children and our own apple trees…”

  “In no man’s land?” she cut off my dreaming, but her voice held a bit of energy to it, so I didn’t lose hope.

  “I thought we were searching for your brother.” She studied the crummy motel in front
of us. “What would we do here?” She rubbed her thumb and finger lightly, a trait that promised rule-breaking fun.

  Eyes closed, I let out a content groan. “I can’t wait to find out.”

  “Isn’t it important to find your brother? I thought we had to save him?”

  Thing was, we weren’t looking for my brother, we were moving around so he couldn’t track us. I was cursed with the ability to create things, like the link-ups allowing inter-world travel, but he was gifted with the power to undo everything I did. It’s how things balanced in the universe.

  Still, thinking about my brother was hard. “He’d like apples.” I glanced out the window, a deep regret drowning me. I fought back tears, missing him. When he showed, would I be able to send him off as easily as I had the other soldiers? I had my doubts. He would see my weakness, even if I didn’t know it yet.

  Eve took the apple from me. Her lips puckered so she could suck the juices from the core. I followed each swallow until she licked her lips, done. Turning to me, she said, “They don’t have a dance club and I’d like to dance tonight.”

  My grin broadened like the devil I was. “We don’t need a club when we can dance under the stars.” I liked dancing with her. We didn’t dance in Hell. Nope. We slaved. Endless work to keep us busy, because eternity was too long for a lonely starving devil. We worked our tails off day and night in hopes that we’d save the universe from collapsing on itself. Stupid, since I’d never seen evidence that the universe needed us to do this eternal labour. In fact, many worlds, like the one we enjoyed now, thought we were an evil myth. Appreciation like that made it even less worthwhile.

  She rubbed my leg, waiting for me to open the door for her like the gentleman I pretended to be. I enjoyed the lingering smell of apples before I pulled the key from the ignition, a little amazed I could handle such a simple task when she had her hand on me like this.

  “The city life has you spoiled,” I teased. “This country life will do us good.”

  I was home.

  Not even Paradise was this awesome, and I stayed there for twelve glorious years. A slave entranced by the beauty of those forbidden angels. Gosh. That was a good time. But nothing compared to this balancing game of power I enjoyed with Eve. Here, I was somewhat in control, yet always on the brink of losing it to her. It was a maddening rush of addictive pleasure.

  Her thick brown curls were a wild, angelic mess. I studied her eyelashes. My favourite part of her. They were so long, that often, when she kissed me, they brushed against my skin, whisking away any form of control I thought I had.

  I closed my eyes as her hand wandered to places females of Hell weren’t allowed to explore without a permit.

  Even if she left me tonight, I’d enjoyed every indulgence we’d shared.

  We sat in the quiet car, in the motel parking lot, me a victim to her touch without another car in sight. Not a soul to save me. Not a bird to hear me hum peacefully inside. Nothing but us. Free and wild. Saintly and hellish.

  I glanced over as she leaned forward. The pendant dangled toward freedom, stirring something in me that wanted to feel this way forever. “I’m tired of rules. When I’m with you, I feel unlonely.” It wasn’t the word I wanted. What was this feeling? How could I describe the warm happiness inside me? “I don’t want to go back to that emptiness I was forced to endure. My brother figures rules are for our safety, but I’ve never felt as safe as I do right now. I’ll carry this warmth you give me for eternity. Rules rob us of this freedom to make mistakes, to question everything.” Again, freedom wasn’t the right word. “There’s just a certain magic in me that wants to create things when you’re around me.” I was getting closer.

  Regardless, it was a good feeling, but I was a greedy devil and the more it warmed me, the more I sought to deepen it, to share it. I had no idea what more involved, yet I felt my creativity ignite when I whispered, “I hunger for more.”

  She pulled out another apple as if that might satisfy this craving. “I am not good for you.” She didn’t give me the apple. “You’re easily entranced by my touch.”

  This was true, but I desired it anyway. “I can handle it,” I promised her, like an out of control maniac. “You are my only good memory, and I want more.”

  “Surely you have one childhood memory that pleased you?”

  Not of Hell.

  “The best memory I have was when I discovered my talent. The joy I felt was replaced by longing when I was forced to move into a lab away from my brother to work under constant supervision and endless rules.” I sat back with a heavy sigh.

  Her hand settled on my thigh and shivers shot through me when she brought the apple between us.

  I opened the door and leapt out before she got me to confess everything.

  III

  The motel had a musty smell. Eve bumped into me as I stopped in the doorway. Something was wrong. With a last breath of freedom, I flicked the light.

  A somber glow enveloped the room.

  My brother lounged on the bed with a link-up kit open on his lap. I missed him so much I forgot how damned I suddenly was.

  “Eve, could you wait in the car? Seems my brother found me and he looks in trouble.”

  “Just a minute.” Vassago dropped the link-up kit that had brought him to me, discarding it on the bed. He came to us with three even strides. His movements were so smooth, they reminded me of dancing.

  He stepped too close to Eve. I shoved him back. There was no way I’d let anyone from Hell near her. Not even my brother.

  “She has a disk on her.” He snatched her purse and the bag of apples Sally had given us earlier.

  Eve reached for them. “Hey!”

  I guided her hand down. “I’ll come get you in a minute. Okay?” She smelt like sweet apples and it was hard to pull away. “I’ll get it back,” I promised her. “Don’t worry. I know how to handle my brother.” I had no idea how this would play out, but her safety was my first concern. A woman like Eve would never survive Adam’s rules. She belonged here, with me. I nudged her out the door before Vassago grabbed her necklace, too.

  Vassago already had the purse unzipped and had dumped the contents of the bags on the bed. I watched him work, curious to learn what he sensed in her purse. Until I created more, there were only a few disks left. I controlled them and would never put one in her purse.

  Proving me wrong, he pulled out a tiny disk from Eve’s face powder kit.

  I kept a straight face, but my insides freaked out. What was Eve hiding?

  “I’m finally able to live the way I want,” I assured him.

  “You think this is living? Breaking rules and mutilating your body?” He pointed to the serpent tattoo on my arm. “Eating the forbidden fruit.” He picked up an apple. The shine to it entranced him for a moment. He licked his lips and forced down a swallow.

  “Hauling me in will do nothing for you, but if you bite that apple, you will feel the rush of breaking your first rule.” My promise came with a wicked smile.

  He set the apple on the bed, tragically. “I am here to save you. I can’t help this sense of duty I have. It’s my gift, my curse.”

  “Noble, but believe me, brother, I don’t need saving. I can’t suffer a life of eternal loneliness and neither should you. We deserve better. We’ll live here. Free and wild. Sally said she was looking for a devil to warm her bed. She has three apple trees. Three. Eve could introduce you. We could dance…”

  He took a deep breath. “We belong in Hell with the rest of the devils. We have everything we need there.”

  “We’re missing a few delicious things.” I pointed to the mess of apples on the bed.

  Still, he persisted, “I trust that Adam’s rules keep us safe.”

  “From what? Happiness?”

  He shrugged. “It’s not my duty to understand his rules.”

  I leaned closer to him. “I make my own rules. I decide what’s safe for me.”

  “Xaphan.” He sighed. “Link-up travel is not for
you to enjoy. None of this was created for you.”

  “Why not? It’s my power to craft these things, yet you imply they should hold no worth to me? What type of impossible rule is that? Why can’t I take pride in things I slaved for? Why can’t I experience the pleasures of other worlds? Why can’t I come here and teach what I know?”

  “It’s another devil’s destiny to use these link-ups. One who can handle the pressures of these worlds. Look at you.” His scowl deepened. “I’m worried about you. Besides, you create these things so I can contain them. As higher life-forms, it’s our duty to stay ahead of those less gifted. You create problems, I solve them. Someone else shares this knowledge with the other worlds, adapting it to their technology and magic.”

  Higher life-forms? We were at the bottom of the naughty list. I rolled my eyes as Eve had taught me to do, then I picked up her things, returning them to her purse.

  He snapped a picture of Eve and me from my hands before I could toss it in her purse. It was a silly black and white photobooth picture with four candid shots.

  “What are you doing in this image?” he asked, eyeing it, reminding me of how he’d studied the formula to the Measles Virus I’d made in Medicine Studies. He’d made short work of that virus. Annoying, yet impressive.

  “It’s called laughing. You’re almost a thousand years old, don’t you think it’s time you experience profound joy? I can’t go back. My happy is with Eve.”

  “I don’t trust her.” He studied the picture from different angles, trying to find fault in it. Or maybe he was wondering how many more rules I’d broken.

  “We were raised to fear females, but those teachings were wrong, Vassago. These gals have much to offer us: companionship, fun...” I didn’t know how to describe the feeling bursting in me. “It motivates me to be so powerful, I foolishly let her have it.”

  His intense stare of the pictures deepened. “You met her here?”