It was obvious that she was used to being obeyed when she said, “No, you will not stand there. You will stand before me.”
“I don’t think so,” Joseph said.
“Then you will be driven out of the chosen area and made to live with the others. And I mean all of you colored people.”
CHAPTER FOUR
No one said anything for what seemed like at least five minutes. It seemed it was a stalemate. I wondered how laws were enforced on this planet, but it seemed that everyone obeyed Rodena without question.
We all turned and walked away and the whole time she was screaming for us to come back.
“I wonder what the hell we’re supposed to accomplish here,” Joe said as we walked toward the cave.
“I hope we find out soon,” Joseph said as he caught up with us. “Imagine me, a musician, carrying that bitch around in that piece of car. That woman gave me the creeps.”
A thought came into my mind and I couldn’t get rid of it, “Let’s go back down tomorrow and entertain them.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” Irene said. “But right now, let’s finish exploring some more.”
We walked around for over an hour before the landscape changed and when it did it was sudden. It was almost like someone had drawn a line and, as soon as we crossed it, everything changed.
It looked like there had been a major fire. Everything was black like charcoal. As we walked, our feet stirred up black dust and we all started coughing.
I thought I caught movement off to the right and I saw something dart behind a tree stump. “Wait,” I called and she peeked around the stump.
“You all stay here, I don’t want to frighten her,” I said as I walked toward her with my hands out in front of me.
“I won’t hurt you,” I said as I came toward her. “Do you know what I’m saying? Can you understand me?”
Her voice trembled when she answered, “Who are you people? Where did you come from?”
“We came from another time and place. May I come closer and talk to you?”
She nodded and when I got close, I thought she was an old woman. It was difficult to tell. She was completely black from the charcoal dust, even her hair.
“My name is Ashley, and this is my husband, Joe. Would like to come with us and see where we live?”
She seemed to shrink from me and said, “We’re not allowed to go into the chosen area.”
“How many of you are there?”
“There are only twenty three left. The others coughed to death.”
“If you will come with us, you all can be healed. We live in a wonderful city and many have been healed there.”
“Where is this city? Why have I not heard of it? Is it in the chosen area?”
“We brought the city with us. It’s inside a cave and many people live there. Many people from other planets have joined us.”
Just then a huge man came running out of the woods and the exercise made him start coughing. I felt Joe put a protective hand on my shoulder.
“I’ve been listening and I don’t believe a word I’m hearing,” The giant said and began to cough again. “We might not live in the chosen area and be one of the chose ones, but we’re not stupid.”
“I don’t believe you’re stupid, but why don’t you come with us and check it out yourself?”
He turned around and addressed the others. By now I had began to notice other people peeking out from behind tree stumps. They we hard to see, being all dark gray to black like their surroundings..
“Everyone else, stay here,” He said. Then he looked at me and actually winked, “Lead the way, beautiful.”
As we started up the hill, I explained to him, “We have a custom. When we get to the cave, we will all gather around in the entrance and you will tell your story. We will tell you our stories. The city inside the cave will decide if you are worthy of entering and being healed.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Most of the others had gone on ahead and some of the women had prepared a meal for us. I asked the giant, “What is your name?”
“I’m Abbott. My wife is Nime. She’s the one you were talking to.”
I made introductions all around and we settled on the spheres. At first Abbott refused to sit on one saying he was too heavy and might break it. After being assured he wasn’t too heavy he settled in with a loud sigh. Before we had a chance to serve the food, he was snoring loudly.
“Poor thing,” I said, “No telling what they have to sleep on. Let’s let him sleep awhile.”
After we ate most of the others went back to the city leaving Joe and me behind. We settled onto one of the spheres together with a glass of wine.
“You know, I missed these spheres while we were on earth,” Joe said.
“Me too,” I said,” remember the first time we shared one?”
He chuckled s he reached under my blouse and fondled my nipple, “I had never known sex could be so good. Too bad we have company right now. I want you so badly, I’m about to explode.”
Abbott suddenly sat up with a snort and Joe and I jumped. Joe moved his hand away. Then Abbott yawned without covering his mouth and I noticed his teeth and tongue were dark gray. I got up and brought him a plate of food and he ate like he was starved.
“Where did you get such food as this?” He asked. “I remember food like this when I was a little boy.”
I tried to picture him as a little boy and failed. He ate an enormous amount and let out a loud burp when he was done. He drained his wine glass and got a really goofy grin on his face.
Then he did something that shocked me. He grabbed his crotch and looked at me, “This drink makes me want it. Come here, Ashley.”
It made Joe so mad, He was ready to fight and Joe was always so gentle. I held Joe back, and started giggling and, when I did, Abbott seemed to take that as a sign that I wanted him too. Without warning he came over and picked me up.
It scared me so much I started hitting him in the face and neck until he suddenly stopped and said, “Oh, you don’t want to? Every woman wants Abbott.” He put me down with a puzzled look on his face.
I left them and headed back to the city, calling over my shoulder, “Explain everything to him, Joe. I’m going to check on the kids and gather everyone else up so we can share stories.”
For some reason I had always been the first one to tell my story. Because we had been on earth without the cave for two years, I was suddenly nervous about talking.
Joe patted my thigh and I calmed down somewhat. I cleared my throat and began.
“I died in 1973 on planet earth and woke up in 3037 on planet Sunio two, Joe’s planet.”
“Wait a minute, wait a minute!” Abbott roared. “That doesn’t make any sense. First of all, this is the planet that everyone lives on. Usauris is the name of the planet.
“And what do you mean, you died in 1973. Why, that’s almost a thousand years from now.”
“What year is this?” Joe asked.
“The year is 1001,” He said as he puffed his chest out like he knew much more than we did.
He started coughing and had a hard time getting his breath. “Let’s take him to the city and tell the stories later,” Irene suggested. “I think once he sees, he will understand.”
We asked him to follow us and he walked through the dark passage like he was used to the dark. When we got to the city, His mouth fell open and he dropped to his knees.
“You are gods, and this must be heaven. The white people are not gods.”
Irene put her hand on his shoulder, “Get up, we don’t deserve to be bowed down to. We are not gods and neither are the white people.”
As soon as Abbott had dropped to his knees, I noticed the membrane that covers the mouth of the cave had dropped. He was ready. The cave would let him enter.
When he got on his feet I said, “Would you like to look around?”
He dropped his head and shyly nodded. “Come on,” I said taking his hand.
As soon as
we got into the city he fell on his knees and cried out in pain while grabbing his throat. Black foam started coming out of his mouth as his eyes went wild. I knew it was hard for him. He didn’t understand what was happening.
“Maybe we should have warned him,” I thought.
It was over in seconds and he stood up and looked at us with amazement, “What happened? I can breathe so deep. I haven’t been able to breathe like this in a very long time. I feel so good.”
It was always like this when the cave healed someone. We never got used to it and we gazed at him in wonder.
“Come on, buddy,” Joe said. Let’s get you cleaned up.”
Joe led him to one of the crystal clear lakes and he said, “Water to drink. So much clear water to drink.”
“This is not our drinking water, this is where you can get clean,” I said as I waded out a ways and then dove under. “Come on,” I yelled and Joe came out and joined me.
“No, it’s not right,” he said. “It’s wasteful. This is enough clean water to quench the thirst of all my people for several years.”
It took a lot of talking but we finally got him into the water. Irene pitched Joe a bar of soap Ulla, our soap maker had made.
Abbott watched as Joe took the soap and rubbed it between the palms of his hands and made lather. He rubbed it on his chest and passed it to Abbott.
Abbott laughed like a little boy as he soaped his whole body and watched the water around him turn gray. I was surprised when he washed and rinsed his hair. He had beautiful blond, almost white hair and his eyes were a light blue. He was a very handsome man, even more handsome than Joe.
He saw me staring at him and he said, “You want it Ashley?”
I ignored him and Joe looked like he was angrier than I had ever seen him, “What did I tell you, Abbott?”
“Oh, I forgot.”
“Yeah, right,” Joe said, shaking his head.
CHAPTER SIX
We had been playing in the water for over an hour and most of the children and some of the adults had joined us.
Irene came out of her house and called to us, “You should get Abbott back and let him talk to his people and see what they want to do. I hope they all join us, I can’t wait to hear their stories.”
He reluctantly left and we waved goodbye from the mouth of the cave. He was going to tell his people about his experiences here and get them to join us.
I put my arms around Joe, “You know you don’t have anything to worry about, Joe. I will always be true to you.”
“I know, Ashley. I trust you but I don’t trust Abbott.”
“I really think he will forget about me when his wife get cleaned up and healed.”
“When do you think they’ll come back?”
“I don’t know. Do you want to wait for them or what?”
He kissed my neck, “Or what.” He said and we headed for our cottage.
“I’m starving,” Joes said after we had made love on one of the spheres. “What are we having for supper?”
“Let’s see if anyone has prepared anything and put it out on the picnic table.”
Irene and several of the other ladies were putting an array of vegetables on the table and the children were playing chase around it.
As I looked around, I realized how happy I was.
The supper conversation was about the people on this new planet. It was still a mystery how Abbott and his people were living in the black area and obviously had bad lungs, while the white people lived in luxury.
We were just finishing up the dishes when we heard what sounded like an army of people coming toward the city.
It was Abbott and his people and Abbott had already begun to get grayish. The membrane wasn’t covering the entrance to the city and the cave allowed them in.
All of Abbott’s people, including the children, fell on their knees as soon as they were inside and the same foam that Abbott had had came out of their mouths. The older the person was the darker gray the foam was. I saw some babies with very light gray coming out of their mouths.
Ulla had run to her house when she saw them and collected as many bars of soap as she had and handed them out. I saw some of the children try to eat them and Abbott had to explain what to do with it.
Abbott led them to the lake and they were soon slashing and laughing and having a high ole time. Once they were clean, it was apparent that they were all blond haired and blue eyed. After they got out, we got the food back out and fed them. As they ate, they began to talk.
They talked about their life and how difficult it had been to live in the black area.
“Have you folks always lived in the black area?” I asked.
“No, just since the white people came,” Nime, Abbott’s wife said. Once she was clean and healed, she turned out to be very pretty with her blond hair and blue eyes. She was much shorter than Abbott. They had a little girl, Cabrina, Josie’s age, 11, and a 14 year old son, Sul. They had taken off with the rest of the kids and teenagers toward the hills.
“How did they get you to live in that horrible area?” Joe asked. “There were no weapons on them that I could see and the men I saw looked like they were weak as babies. So what did they use to make you leave?”
Abbott thought for a moment and then replied, “According to our belief, a band of gods are supposed to come and rule over us for ten years. If we obey them we will go to Halla.”
“So, you felt you had to do anything they said?” Irene asked.
“Yes, and we only had a year and a half left, then we would all go to Halla,” Nime said. “But it looks like we found Halla before the ten years were up. I didn’t know the Halla gods would be so friendly.”
“Wait a minute, Abbott. You think we’re the Halla gods?”
“How else do we explain all this?” he waved his hands around indicating everything around him.
“We can explain it,” I said, “But you have to listen with an open mind.”
They all leaned forward and didn’t interrupt, not once, while I told my whole story:
I died in 1973, on Earth, and woke up on Sunio two, Joe’s planet, in 3037. There were very few people left on Joe’s planet and technology, uh, machines…never mind. Things were implanted into their brain so they could communicate without talking. They were no longer able to have any children and they were dying. The government had lied to them and promised that the last implants would make them fertile again, but it was what was killing them.
They kept their heads shaved so they could put all these things inside their brains, so when I came into that world, they knew right away that I wasn’t one of them.
The people who had come to their world like I did or the ones who had refused to have the implants were put into museums, uh, places where people could go and look at these misfits.
Joe used to hike out in the woods and hills around where he lived and he had met Irene who lived in a cave. So, when he met me he took me to see Irene thinking she may be able to help me.
We didn’t understand at the time what had happened to me and why I had ended up almost three thousand years later than when I had died on earth.
We didn’t know anything about the cave at that time. We just thought it was a cave. Nor did we know that the interesting houses where Joe and his people lived were part of the cave. The cave had grown them and let Joe’s people live in them.
Actually, Joe’s people didn’t know at the time either. It wasn’t until his government tried to stop us by destroying Joe’s house that we began to see that the cave was a living thing. We were able to rescue many of Joe’s people who were healed by the city before the cave lifted off into space and became transparent, uh, you could see through it.
As it lifted off, we saw that the dwellings where Joe’s people had lived were at the end of the tendons of the thing we were in. Uh, tendons…uh, kind of like your arms.
We floated in space for two years and finally landed on Korona, in the year 2637. Some of you look confused.
What we have been able to learn is that time is not linear, uh, not in a straight line. Time doesn’t start at one and the go to two and then three etc. It sort of wraps around itself, so that you can, if you know how, go both forward and backwards.
Now, after we all have something to drink, I’m going to let Marion take up the story from when we landed on Korona.
CHAPTER SEVEN
We had all had something to drink and we had played with our children for awhile and Marion was ready to take over the story. This is what she said:
I lived on Korona all my life. Before a group, who called themselves The Mansonites, came in a spaceship, there were two classes. Some of us were very rich and some were very poor. It had always been like that and I didn’t think anything about it.
My class was the rich ones and we lived in huge luxurious houses. The lower class lived in tents and worked for us. Looking back now, after living as an equal with my former maid, Edna, who has become my best friend, it seems so stupid. But it was the only thing we knew.
And then Ted and the Mansonites landed in a spaceship. They called us pigs and started killing us. They got our servants to follow them and we didn’t have anyone to do for us. Edna was the only servant we had left.
We were terrified of being killed. They called themselves the Mansonites because they were followers of Charles Manson. Ashley, do you want to tell them about Charles Manson, since he lived in the time of your first life?
I looked at Charles Manson who looked horrified and I went over and hugged him. “I’m so glad you were able to take a different path,” I said.
“Thanks to you and Joe,” he said. “Go ahead and tell the story. I’ll be all right.”
I settled myself back onto the sphere I had been sharing with Joe and began:
When we first landed on Korona, we met a man named Ted. He was the great, great, great, I don’t know how many greats, grandson of Charles Manson. A book that had been written during my first life, entitled, The Manson Family, was their bible.
The Manson family wasn’t really a family but was made up of Charles Manson and his followers. Charles Manson was a very confused young man who thought that a popular singing group of the time was speaking to him in code and that he was supposed to start a war between the white and black people. He called it Helter Skelter.
TIME AND TIME AGAIN The sequel to 3037 Page 2
