The swearing ceased suddenly, and then a crashing sound as though someone fell down the stairs shattered the silence. The sound was of James’s father kicking the suitcases of luggage he had just thrown from the top level. James ran to the foot of the stairs, only to see cases of luggage falling to the ground.
"Here!" his father shouted. "Now get out of my house!"
James's mother stood up and threw her dirty tissue at the feet of her husband just as he ran down the stairs. "Fine!" she yelled as she snatched the luggage from in front of him and dragged it out the front door.
"Would someone please tell me what's going on?" James asked. His mother dragged the luggage down the front steps to the house and began to load the bags into the trunk of a car James had never seen before. A man got out of the car and helped her. A few seconds later, they both jumped in the car and sped away as if a crime had just been committed.
"This is all a joke, right?" he asked his father.
"No, it's not," his father said, "and she's gone for good!"
"But why?"
"It's not important anymore," said his father. "He can have her for all I care."
James stood motionless as his father strode past him and out the door. As if to make a statement of their estrangement to any onlookers in the neighborhood, James's father drove his car in the opposite direction than his mother.
I wonder if Melissa knew of this, he thought. It was common, after all, for his sister to know things about their parents that James was either too preoccupied or distracted to figure out on his own. He liked it that way, for it kept him clear of the arguing that filled the Grant home when everyone was at home. James had plenty of his own problems to deal with than be involved in such debates over who said what to whom.
The afternoon was late and the affairs of the day exhausting, so James gathered the groceries from the front porch and then went to his room to take another nap. He realized long before Katherine that sleep was a good remedy for his ills. Many times when his mind gave out, sleep calmed his racing thoughts. The one solace he found today was that for the first time in three years, his last thoughts before drifting to sleep were not of Katherine. Instead, fear of his family’s future dominated every corner of his mind.
Genesis never felt troubled at night again. Although she harnessed her power to warm her body against the elements, she eventually left her home tree and found warmer territories for shelter as winter arrived. Her ability to warm things used a lot of her energy and never lasted through the night.
No member of the animal kingdom threatened her again. After destroying the poor creature that attacked her, Genesis honed this new ability but made a solemn promise to herself never to use such a destructive power again – unless a life-or-death situation demanded its use.
As time went by, her incredible strength increased. She never wanted for food or shelter as her reputation spread quickly among the other creatures living nearby. They soon learned to make way for her when unfortunate members of their species made an aggressive stance. The young girl tolerated no more abuse, but vowed never to provoke any breathing thing. After all, she thought, it wouldn’t be a fair fight.
Less than a year after her arrival, Genesis was comfortable in a new tree. Soon, though, her insomnia returned. Something inside her ached. While her peaceful life brought joy, she still wanted to find people like her.
After scouring the planet several times and finding no one, she spent most of her time perfecting her unique abilities. She learned she was impervious to every sharp object; she could breathe underwater; fly as high as she wanted (although the freezing temperatures high in the upper atmosphere were uncomfortable); and could not be consumed by fire. This last power she discovered by accident. One night, a cold wind swept through her tree. Although too tired to fly to another tree, she instead took shelter upon a nearby mountain that was unusually warm. She soon discovered why when the volcano forced molten rock down its slope. Only a drop of lava caught her as she escaped, Genesis nonetheless was amazed that her skin remained unblemished. Can anything kill me? she wondered.
Months later, Genesis set out to determine the limits of her strength. She tried lifting heavy objects on occasion – wood, boulders, even animal – and never felt tired while doing so. She wondered if anything existed that she couldn't lift it. She soon learned there was, but not because it was too massive or dense. Rather, she found she didn't need to lift anything.
One morning, she awoke early to try a new experiment. She approached an ancient cliff with rocks so old they appeared unmovable. She stood at the base of it and applied pressure on one stone in particular. Only this time, the rock never budged: she did. The tiny girl fell upon the rocks below where the ancient rock stood. She tried repeatedly to lift the stone, each time trying to refrain from moving, when something extraordinary happened. The rock eventually did move, but not forward or even up. Instead, the boulder transported atop the cliff suddenly, leaving Genesis below it, confused. How did I do that? she thought.
She flew to the top of the cliff and tried again. Instead of moving the rock, she saw a crack in the stone that grew bigger each time she strained to lift it. Eventually, she realized that the rock had not torn in half, but rather the space between her and the rock. She tried again and saw a tremendous flash of azure light reflect off the rock in front of her. This time, the tear doubled in size and pulled the little girl inside; all the while she desperately tried to escape.
Genesis saw a dizzying display of light inside the tear. Just as she started to orient herself, she saw another flash and closed her eyes. When she opened them, the sounds alone astounded her. But it is what she saw that made her weep for joy. Finally, after so much time, she found people like her. Only these people were far different: they were tall, dressed, and hustled beneath hundreds of large stone and metal towers. Thousands of men and women walked in every direction. Hundreds of metal beasts with wheels beneath, rolling along the smooth, rocky ground made ferocious noises as they sped along. Genesis stood mortified at her surroundings, when suddenly one of the beasts charged toward her, its wheel poised to crush her. She closed her eyes again, and after another flash of blue light, she was back atop the cliff – the stone standing before her, unchanged.
She fell back against the ground and stared up at the rock, wondering what just happened and if it was all real. Her hands glowed soft blue. I need to try that again!
James awoke a few hours later by a tremendous clap of thunder. He wasn’t sure if it was dusk or dawn. It was dark outside and the rain had not let up. There were no noises outside his room, which usually meant no one was home.
He stumbled out of bed and went downstairs to make himself a cup of tea. As the tea kettle shrieked, there was a loud knock at the front door. James’s mother surely hadn't returned home to work things out with his father just yet, but that didn't stop James from hoping it was so.
On opening the door, however, James saw no one there.
"Hello?" James shouted over the thunder.
There was no answer. He closed the door and went back to preparing his tea. From the dining room came a crash. He went to inspect; it was one of his mother’s figurines. Then the lights went out.
“Great,” he muttered. He took a candle from the family’s hutch and lit it. A stiff breeze blew it out almost immediately. He looked at the window but it was sealed shut. Curiously, he checked to see if there were any doors or windows open but they were all closed. He tried to light another match but it wouldn’t light.
“Keep it dark, please,” he heard someone whisper. It was a woman’s voice. Instinctively, he thought it was his sister.
“Melissa?” he asked. “Is that you?”
“No,” the voice replied. “I’m not your sister.”
“Then who are you? How did you get in here?”
“My name is Genesis. And I’m here to help you.” The voice moved around the room as though its source was moving, but James couldn’t see anything. The room
was pitch-black. Mysteriously, no light from outside was getting in, ambient or otherwise.
“Why can’t I see you?”
“No one can see me unless I choose to be seen. And I haven’t chosen you...yet.”
James strained to see through the blackness and find the source of the voice but it was useless - he couldn’t see anything. “Help me? What do you mean?”
“With Katherine. I’m going to help you win her back.”
“How do you know about her?” he demanded. “Did my sister put you up to this?”
“No, James,” she continued. “I’m going to help you find out what happened to her. And I know far more about you than you realize.”
“How will you help me?”
“That’s where things get interesting. You will have a hard time accepting what I am about to tell you, but I can travel through time. And that is how we are going to get Katherine back.”
“We?”
“Yes, I am going to help you.”
James reached for a chair at the dining table and sat down. “And you think I’m supposed to just believe all this?”
Out of the darkness, a soft, blue light shined. The dining room soon basked in the glow as James struggled to see the faint glimpse of something standing behind the light. Then the figure emerged, a shadowy silhouette of a small, naked woman. Before long, the light’s intensity became too much for James’s eyes to handle so he covered his face. The light subsided and when James removed his hands from his eyes, the electricity was restored, the room’s lamps aglow, bathing its new occupant in soft light. Standing on the table stood Genesis, still no bigger than a dandelion.
James said nothing at first. He blinked over and over to assure what he saw was real. The girl said nothing either, she only smiled and met his stare. He soon realized his mouth was agape and his heartbeat increased. He closed his mouth and took a deep breath.
“Sorry for all the theatrics,” she said as she walked across the table, her bare hips swaying. “I needed to prepare you for something you’d never seen before.”
“What is this?” he said as he started to panic, leaping from the chair and pushing his back against the wall. “Who are you?”
“I told you already. I’m Genesis. I’m here to help you.”
“No, this isn’t possible. You can’t be real.”
She hovered into the air to which James pushed back further against the wall. With nowhere to go, he reached for the doorway, but she floated in its direction, preventing his escape and forcing him to inch in the other direction. “I’m very real,” she said.”You can touch me if you want.” She extended a hand.
He reached out his forefinger tentatively until it just touched the tip of her hand. He recoiled when he felt her skin and inched away from her.
“Don’t be scared,” she said. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
James shook his head and backed along the wall until he reached the corner and caught his foot on a potted plant. He tumbled back and fell into the recliner, knocking the plant over. Genesis dove toward him but it was too late: his head smacked the ottoman and he fell to the ground unconscious.
“I’ve got to find a better way to reveal myself,” she said. Laughing, she carried him to his room.
When James awoke, he wondered if he just came out of a dream. He appeared to be in his room; the pictures of Katherine covered the walls. His head ached as he sat up. When he felt the back of his head and the pronounced lump, he remembered where he got his headache: he hit his head on the floor downstairs. But was it real? And the girl? Did she really exist?
Outside his bedroom window, the sun shined bright. The shades weren't drawn and his eyes took longer to adjust to the morning light than usual.
On the windowsill, James saw an image that laid all his doubts about the prior night's events to rest. Just inches away, the small woman slept. He climbed out of bed carefully so as not to disturb her, but it was too late. Her eyes opened slowly but wide and she looked up at James warmly, giving him an assuring smile that all was well.
"Good morning, James," she said as she sat up, stretched her back, and yawned.
"So I wasn't dreaming?"
"No you weren't," she said. "What made you think that?"
He chuckled to himself. "Oh, I don't know. I've never woke up to find a woman sleeping on my windowsill."
"Sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I should have known better," she said.
"No. You’re fine." He covered his mouth as he realized the Freudian slip. To James, she was beyond fine – she was one of the most beautiful creatures he had ever laid eyes upon. She may have stood no taller than a flower but her beauty suffered no diminishment. Her hair was a rich red and was just the way he pictured it on his dream girl – long, wavy, and flowing past the shoulders. Her eyes were a deep, haunting green and her skin was silky like porcelain.
“So are you ready to go?" she asked.
“Go? Go where?”
“You don’t remember anything, do you? Remember? I’m going to help you win Katherine back.”
“Right.” James, for the first time in three years, forgot all about Katherine as he studied Genesis’s perfect form.
“Don’t tell me you still don’t believe me,” she said.
He tried to remember the events of the previous night. "Did I black out last night?"
"Yes. When you hit your head, I decided to carry you to your room so your family wouldn't worry when they returned home."
“What happened last night? I saw a bright, blue light.”
“That was me,” she said. “When I use my powers, my body gives off this bright light. It has to do with the energy I manipulate.”
"So is that another one of your powers? Lifting heavy objects?"
"Yes it is, although you weren't that heavy. I've lifted way heavier things than people over the years."
"So you've done this sort of thing before, I take it," James asked as he sat on the foot of his bed and massaged the lump on his head.
"Yes, I have." She instantly thought of the young Polish girl who, she believed, died by her hands. Jadzia was only thirty years-old when Genesis carried her body from their shelter and into the clearing in the Canadian wilderness, a place Genesis never visited again.
"Oh," he said. His mind was still foggy from the lump on his head, but slowly more questions demanded answers. "Do you mind if I ask you something?"
"Go right ahead," she said as she jumped down to the pillow and folded her arms conspicuously beneath her breasts.
James took note of her stance and that she hadn't covered herself once since they met. He was curious as to why she was naked, but he thought she might be embarrassed if he asked her directly. "How do you know about me?”
“Ah,” she said as she sat beside him, “that’s not an easy question to answer. It has to do with the stream of time. Since I somehow have the ability to manipulate all forms of energy, I can interact with everything connected to time and space. This allows me to watch everything that goes on – without being seen.”
"How did you get your powers."
"You mean the time traveling and super-strength?"
He nodded. “Yeah, did you fall into toxic waste or get bit by a spider or something?”
She let out a deep belly laugh. “No, nothing like that,” she said. “I think you've read too many comic books. This is the real world!”
“That's actually why I'm asking. I can't say I've ever heard of anyone having the powers you say you do – other than in comic books.”
“Well, rest assured that you're not dreaming. And I'm not a fairy or superhero. As for how I got my powers, I really can't answer that.”
"You mean you don't know, or can't tell me?" he wondered aloud.
She looked back at James and smirked. "I don't know." She flew to the nightstand and sat down, dangling her legs from the edge. "I just know that I can do what I do. I've tried to remember where I came from but it's hard to know what memories are real a
nd what is just wishful thinking."
"What do you remember?"
"I awoke in a massive tree with no knowledge of anything other than my name, like it was imprinted in my mind. Everything I can do I learned the hard way."
"So you don't remember anything else?"
She shook her head. “To be frank, I'm not sure I want to. Maybe it's just a good thing that I'm here and that I can help people. Don't get me wrong. I wish I was tall like everyone else, and I wish I could wear clothing like everyone else..."
"Why can't you?" he interrupted.
She wasn't foolish enough to believe he hadn't been waiting for the right moment to ask her why she was naked. "Whenever I go through time, I always come out the way you see me now. In fact, nothing non-living can travel with me. Besides, I just got used to it and quit worrying. You are one of only two people who have ever seen me anyway."
The Great Altruist Page 13
