“You clocked me in the face.”
Pebbles propped up on her elbows. “I did? Oh, geez, I’m sorry, A.C. It looks like it hurts.”
“It’s okay, just a little tender. How are you? How do you feel?”
She laid her head back on the floor. “A bit dizzy. And sore. Especially my hands and feet.”
“You were pounding them on the floor pretty hard,” Jennifer said.
“Was I?” Pebbles flexed her hands and then rubbed them together.
Jennifer nodded. “Yeah. It was hard to watch. Really wanted to wake you up, but Sanjay thought it was best to let the dream…the memory…go to the end.”
Pebbles looked at Sanjay. “Kinda wished you’d let them wake me. Didn’t enjoy getting strangled all over again.”
“I thought it would be more traumatic to interrupt the vision,” Sanjay said. “Do you feel like talking about it?”
“Are you effing kidding me? N. O. Hell, no.” Pebbles sat up. Her nose filled with the scent of the candle. She felt fingers stroking her breasts. Muran’s laughs cackled in her ears. She glared at Sanjay, her face flushed. “Talking about it will just piss me off. God! It makes me so fucking angry! What she did to me…the way she laughed at me.”
Tears welled in her eyes. Her voice quivered as she spoke to Anlon. “Give me that pillow. I need to punch something.”
Anlon handed her the pillow. She tossed it on the floor and knelt over it. With her eyes closed, she conjured the cloying sounds of Muran’s whispers. Her breathing quickened. She grit her teeth and began to cry.
“Let it out, Pebbles. We are here for you,” Sanjay said.
She shook her head from side to side. “It hurts. It hurts to think about. It makes me so fucking angry!”
Pebbles slammed both fists on the pillow. Over and over again, she punched as hard as she could. Panting heavily, she spat expletives in between sobs. As she rained down blows, she imagined straddling the naked Muran and pounding her face into a bloody pulp. “You go to sleep, you bitch!”
The smile wouldn’t leave Muran’s face no matter how many times Pebbles imagined smashing her in the mouth, nor would her laughing cease. “Stop it! Stop laughing!”
She stopped flailing and squeezed the pillow so hard her arms trembled. At the top of her lungs, she screamed, “Die you bitch! Die! Stop laughing! Leave me alone! Get out of my head!”
With wild eyes, Pebbles cast aside the pillow and cursed Muran once more. Rolling over onto the floor, she curled into a ball, closed her eyes and summoned a vision of the oasis. Muran’s cloying words and cackles began to fade from her mind. When they disappeared, she opened her eyes and peered up at Sanjay. “Happy now?”
“Are you?”
Rolling on her back, she spoke in between pants. “Getting there…a few thousand…more times…of doing that…would make me…feel much better.”
“We’ll get lots more pillows,” Anlon said.
Pebbles laughed. “Sounds like…a good investment.” She wiped tears from her cheeks. “It was so awful…she mocked me…she put her fingers inside me…licked me all over...talked to me…like I was her lover.”
Rage spiked again. Pebbles reached for the pillow and squeezed it with all her might. “And then…she choked me…I couldn’t see her…she put a mask over my face…but she was getting off on it…she was rubbing up against me…like she was having sex with me…moaning like she was turned on...whispering for me to go to sleep…I was pleading with her…please stop…fucking bitch!”
She winged the pillow across the room. “I’m so happy Mereau cut her in half…I only wish I’d been there to see it.”
As her breathing subsided, she rolled onto all fours. “What time is it?”
“A little after nine,” Jennifer said.
“Why is it so dark outside?”
“Storm coming,” said Anlon.
Pebbles stood up and started to walk toward the cabin door. Anlon called out to her. “Hey, where are you going?”
“I’m gonna take a shower. Need to wash the bitch’s ick off,” she said. “I’ll be back in, like, twenty minutes. Would you do me a favor?”
“Name it.”
“I’m starving all of a sudden. I need something to eat before we finish up talking about Citali.”
“Okay. I’ll get Cindy to whip something up. You sure you don’t want to take a break? Pick it up later today or put it off until tomorrow.”
“Heck no. I don’t want to waste any time. We’ve got to find out what happened to them.”
“Excuse me? Them, who?”
“Not who. Them. The pieces she had in her bag. We need to find out what happened to them.”
As soon as Jennifer saw Pebbles disappear from view, she turned to Sanjay. “That was supremely disturbing. I don’t think I’ll be sleeping tonight.”
Sanjay reached down and picked up a pillow that had fallen from the couch while Anlon retrieved the one Pebbles had thrown across the room. “Watching someone relive a trauma is difficult.”
“I know just what you mean,” Jennifer said. “It’s like taking a statement from a crime victim or a witness. You feel their pain, you want so badly to make it go away for them.”
As Anlon crossed the room to join them, Sanjay said, “Yes, but it rarely goes away easily or quickly. And it will not for Pebbles. This was a beginning — a good beginning — but it is not the end.”
“Guess I’d better order some more pillows quickly, then,” Anlon said. He took the pillow from Sanjay and tossed both of them on the sofa. “In all seriousness, I’m relieved she finally opened up about that night…though I have to be honest with you, I’m really angry. If I had known all of that at Calakmul, Muran would never have made it four steps down the temple.”
“Amen to that,” Jennifer said. “I would have emptied my Glock on the bitch.”
“So, what do we do from here, Sanjay?” Anlon asked. “How do we help her?”
“Listen to her. Be with her. But let her take the lead. More of her anger, her frustration, her other feelings about it will come out, but we have to let them come out when she’s ready to talk about them. We cannot force it. And we must remember, the strangulation was not the only trauma she suffered. The next time she opens up, it may be about the shooting or something else.”
“What do you think will happen with the dreams?” Jennifer asked. “I mean, we’ve all felt they were building up to something. Is this what they were leading to? Pebbles meeting Citali? Confronting what happened with Muran?”
Sanjay sat down. “I do not know. They definitely seem intertwined. I could easily see the dreams tapering off now that she has opened up about Muran. But if they do not, we have a couple of assets to work with now to help Pebbles.”
“Citali,” said Jennifer.
“Yes, she could be very helpful. More important, though, is that we learned Pebbles was able, through the power of suggestion, to interrupt and change the desert dream. If we can work together to develop different ‘safe zones’ within each of the repeating dreams, she may be able to reduce the stress-inducing elements of the other dreams or, if we are lucky, stop them from happening.”
“What’s your view of Citali?” Anlon asked. “Do you think she’s real as Pebbles believes?”
“In all candor, Anlon, I do not know. If you had not introduced me to Malinyah, I would say Pebbles had created a personality to go with the woman in her dreams. Some of the contrasting imagery is so vivid, Citali strikes me as a cut-out, a proxy, for a part of Pebbles’ personality.”
“I thought the same as I listened to her talk about Citali and the oasis,” Anlon said. “But, on the other hand, she was adamant that Citali is real.”
“Except, from what Pebbles said, Citali didn’t seem to recognize her description of the Sinethal, which suggests Citali didn’t know anything about the Munuorian stones,” Jennifer noted.
“Yeah, that’s true,” said Anlon, “but if you think back to Calakmul, Pebbles didn’t know Muran
moved her mind into the Sinethal until after we rescued her. If Muran incapacitated Citali in a similar fashion before transferring her mind, Citali may have no idea her mind went onto the stone.”
“Good point,” Jennifer said.
“Yet, the Munuorian stones do not appear in any of Pebbles’ dreams,” Sanjay said. “Might they be the items in the bag that Citali is protecting? Possibly. You have made it clear that Pebbles did not want to have anything to do with the stones after her mind was back in her body. It would stand to reason that the items in the bag are proxies for the stones. She does not see them in her dreams because her subconscious knows she does not want to see them.”
“And there’s no evil bitch in any of Pebbles’ dreams,” added Jennifer. “When she’s being chased, she’s being chased by men.”
“Good point,” Anlon said.
“In any event, let us hope Citali is a figment of her imagination,” said Sanjay. “If not, we have a more substantial problem to deal with. If Citali’s memories and her consciousness are indeed inside Pebbles’ mind, how in heaven’s name do we extract them?”
CHAPTER 10: A BAG OF SURPRISES
Aboard Sol Seaker
Kona Kai Marina, San Diego, California
September 19
With Sanjay’s comment hanging in the air, Anlon left the living room to find Cindy, partly to talk to her about preparing a more expansive breakfast and partly to talk to her about her sudden departure in the middle of serving coffee. On the way to the galley, he spied Griffin out the window. Bundled in a jacket, he was coming aboard with Happy walking alongside on a leash. Anlon stepped outside and said, “There you are. I wondered why you hadn’t joined us.”
Griffin told him Jennifer had urged him to go back to sleep when Pebbles came banging on their stateroom door. “I tried, but I couldn’t get back to sleep. I got up, got dressed and was on my way to find you guys when I heard old Happy here whimpering. So, I figured, what the heck, I’ll take him for a walk. Everything okay now?”
“Yeah, I guess. For the most part. Why don’t you head up now? They’re in the living room. Pebbles had a breakthrough. She’s going to tell us more about it over breakfast.”
Happy began to bark. Anlon laughed. “I guess you do know all our words for meals. Don’t worry, buddy. I’ll make sure they bring food for you too.”
After Griffin and Happy departed, Anlon continued on to the galley where he found Cindy busy preparing the normal breakfast buffet served aboard each morning. When she saw him enter the room, her face turned red and she stopped her preparations. Without Anlon even uttering a word, Cindy said, “I am very sorry, Dr. Cully. It was very unprofessional of me. It won’t happen again. I promise.”
“Yeah, I don’t want to make a mountain out of it, Cindy, but it was kind of out of character for you. But I get it. If I had been in your shoes, I probably would have had a similar reaction. Just do me a favor, would you? Let’s not go there again.”
“Yes, sir. I understand. Like I said, it won’t happen again.”
“Good. Look, I know Pebbles’ nightmares have made your job more difficult. I’m sure the same is true for the rest of the crew. But you guys have pitched in and been a big help so far. I just need everybody to hang in there a little while longer. We’re doing our best to help Pebbles sort things out and get things back to normal. It’ll be easier to do if we can continue to count on everybody to be allies.”
“You can count on me. You can count on all of us.”
“Great. Enough said. I’m going up to talk with Captain Hansen about the storm. Do me one more favor?”
“Yes, Dr. Cully?”
“Can you add some of the breakfast burritos that Pebbles likes to the buffet, and maybe a few more for Happy? He looked pretty hungry when I saw him in the hallway.”
After conferring with the captain, Anlon returned to the living room to discover Pebbles devouring a burrito with Happy at her feet doing the same. Jennifer was snacking on a protein bar while Griffin and Sanjay were dining on bowls of cut up fruit.
As he approached the diners, he heard Pebbles say, “She basically had one job. To protect what was in the bag.”
“The three objects you sketched earlier,” Jennifer said.
“Yeah. Only my sketches suck. What Citali showed me didn’t look anything like what I drew.” Pebbles noticed Anlon and smiled. He kissed her on the cheek as he sat down next to her.
“Feeling better?” he asked.
“Much. Want some of my burrito?”
“No thanks. I’m not all that hungry.”
“’K. Suit yourself.” Pebbles leaned over and said to Happy, “You hear that? More for us.”
Happy barked and licked Pebbles’ foot. She turned to Sanjay. “Breakfast burritos are okay for him, right?”
“They are not his usual fare, but when in Rome…”
Pebbles laughed and returned to her conversation with Jennifer. “Where were we?”
“Talking about the objects in Citali’s bag.”
“Oh, right. They looked like unfinished clay sculptures. I mean, they had basic shapes to them, but not a lot of detail. Maybe I’ll be able to draw them better in one of my trances.”
“Did she say why she was protecting them?” Griffin asked.
Pebbles nodded while she took another bite of her burrito. After a few chews, she held her hand over her mouth while she said, “She said a rival tribe invaded the place where she lived. They came to take the pieces…and Citali.”
Anlon noticed Sanjay raise his hand to ask a question, only to be met by a raised hand back from Pebbles. “Let me finish eating.” She popped the last of the burrito and quickly consumed it. “Okay, fire away.”
“It is interesting what you say about the invaders wanting Citali in addition to the objects in the bag. Did she say why?”
“She said she’s the only one who knows how to use them.”
Pebbles’ recitation of Citali’s words echoed in Anlon’s mind. She’s the only one who knows how to use them. If the contents of the bag were Munuorian stones as Anlon suspected, Citali’s comment made sense. He thought back to comments Pebbles had relayed from one of her early visitations with Malinyah. She had said the Munuorians avoided using their stones in the presence of foreigners, fearing the more primitive cultures would be disturbed by the display of their powers.
Had Citali been indiscreet in using the stones? Had the rival tribe seen what they could do? If so, Anlon could understand why they would view Citali’s tribe as a threat…and why they would want to possess them. It also explained why they needed Citali. The stones were of no use without knowing how to wield them.
When Anlon finished expressing these thoughts to the others, Jennifer said, “I was thinking along a similar track, but from a different angle.”
“How so?” Anlon asked.
“Well, in order for what you said to be true, someone had to have given the stones to Citali and then showed her how to use them. She’s not Munuorian, right? I mean, she sure doesn’t look like one of them. And Pebbles, you haven’t said anything about her being one of them.”
Anlon glanced over at Pebbles, who confirmed Jennifer’s supposition with a nod of her head. Jennifer continued to describe her theory. “So, I’m wondering if Citali was one of the great flood survivors, or a descendent of one. We know the Munuorians dispersed after the flood to help foreigners start over. And, by then, they were very open in sharing their stones and their knowledge.”
Sanjay interrupted. “Excuse me. You have lost me. Great flood?”
Jennifer provided Sanjay with a quick Munuorian history lesson. Ten thousand years ago, she told him, there had been a large asteroid that passed by Earth. Its magnetic pull on the planet was so intense it flipped Earth upside down, or nearly so. The sudden reorientation caused a massive tidal wave that circled the Earth multiple times before the wave’s kinetic energy was spent. The asteroid’s tug on Earth also ripped apart the land masses across the globe. New l
ands thrust up from the depths of the oceans while some lands collapsed under the sea.
The combined upheavals devastated the planet’s plant and animal populations, including humans. Those humans that survived did so by sheer luck. Scattered in small bands, with little shelter and less food, the human race teetered on the brink of extinction.
The Munuorians, Jennifer told Sanjay, had known the asteroid was coming and had a sense of what it might unleash on the Earth. So, they prepared their own population and lands for the potential catastrophe but did nothing to warn or prepare foreigners with whom they had friendly relations.
Jennifer finished the history lesson by saying, “The effects of the asteroid went far beyond anything the Munuorians expected, devastating their lands and population too. And when it was all over and the dust settled, the Munuorians had two choices. They could either choose to rebuild their own culture and say screw it to everyone else left alive on Earth. Or they could take to the seas and help the foreigners they had turned their backs on before the asteroid.”
Anlon supplemented Jennifer’s description by telling Sanjay that many cultures around the globe had the great flood myths that described “fish-men” who came by sea bearing strange objects. With these objects, the fish-men helped the cultures learn how to build, farm and protect themselves.
“The mythical fish-men were the Munuorians. They spread out around the globe and assimilated into the survivor groups they encountered. For a time, they were treated as gods, but eventually the people they saved began to covet the stones. And as one might expect, that led to conflicts to possess them. The Munuorians, by and large, lost those conflicts and, as a result, their stones.”
“Right,” Jennifer said. “So, you see, if the objects in Citali’s bag are Munuorian stones, she must have belonged to one of the cultures that revolted against the Munuorians and took their stones. And then found herself defending the stones later on. Does that fit to you, Pebbles?”
When Pebbles did not blurt out a definitive yes or no, Anlon studied her face for clues to what her answer might be. Her expression was thoughtful, as if she was trying to reconcile Jennifer’s theory with her dreams and interaction with Citali. Yet, there was a hint of skepticism communicated by her furrowed forehead and a twitch of her lips.
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