by Brandt Legg
Linh handed me a poem just before my departure.
TEARS ARE MADE OF WATER
Tears are made of water and salt,
crusty little cups of strength,
emotions of rain, signs of love,
wet warm, then cold and absent.
Empty they, dissolve, into silence
and melt icy words so often upon my lips.
I see light and shadow, impulse
punctuates indifference and I am left
with salt cracked in my hand,
it disintegrates impatiently.
I stumble through trees,
fists squeezing and releasing,
colors melt, and ache
I drop in easy pieces
crumpled, ashamed
surrounded by sky, the past creeps and burns.
Let ambiguity be planted
to grow into decisiveness.
Let me watch you, like a dove, whose forever
mission of peace can only be forgiven
and understood through flight itself.
I cannot uphold such honesty, calmly
without rival or equanimity.
And you, must know this, too.
Oh but why such uneven step
in this world, this passage?
Oh but why such reticence to be
in this moment. We are children
under no influence. It is this stance
I play, hard and long, and my eyes
steady, challenge, now.
Now! I say.
It is the fabric, the resistance I wish to step into –
all else pales and unravels like insecurity.
Drop too and grow into disclosure. Let tears
cleanse and nourish their sensitivity and waste
upon the ruins of our minds, this landscape,
beautiful and lonely:
dazzling and rich,
we thread its forest into purity.
Tears are made of water, dear friend,
they flow unwillingly down my arm,
into my hand, where dust and salt and
words resign.
I kneel, and touch the earth,
its cool damp – pain memory –
connects identity, and I am born.
Are you with me?
Her poetry had a way of touching me and triggering emotions as if she wrote with the power of her soul.
Spencer brought me back from the deep place Lihn’s words had taken me. “Nate, remember you’re more important than the Jadeo,” he said.
“That goes against the last thousand years of my soul’s existence.”
“That’s why I’m reminding you. The oath you made as one of the entrusted nine to protect the Jadeo across time was a human oath and you’ve honored it lifetime after lifetime. But being one of the seven comes straight from your soul and even more, it is a consensus of the collective consciousness. You are doing that for all of us.”
“I know.”
“No, Nate, I see in your eyes that you do not. If you must choose, then you sacrifice the Jadeo. Swear it to me.”
“I am not going to enter into another oath without fully understanding the consequences. You’ll just have to trust me. Trust my soul.”
He stared at me.
“If that moment of choosing comes I will let go and leave the decision to my soul.”
Spencer continued to stare long into my eyes. “I can ask no more,” he said silently.
“Be well, Spencer. I’ll see you soon.” I leaned down and kissed his warm forehead.
Linh walked me outside. “I may never see you again,” she said, as we stood under the porch light.
“Come on, you know by now that’s not possible.”
“You know what I mean. Outviews, other dimensions, different times, none of that counts. I want to be with you in our own screwed up world.”
“I know. Trust the universe.” We shared a whispering, lingering kiss.
I got in the car. “Please, Butterscotch, let’s go,” I said, quietly.
I couldn’t look back. She was right, we might not see each other again.
We drove though the darkness for a long time before reaching the entrance to the National Park. From there, I would have to Skyclimb, but I had a good sense of where to go, having studied maps of the area. It wasn’t clear where the meeting with Dunaway would take place, but it seemed a safe bet he would find me. The closer I got to the glowing lava flow, the stronger I felt the pull of the Jadeo. And just at the point where the heat was too great to continue, Dunaway was waiting.
“Good, I appreciate your being on time. This isn’t the most comfortable place to wait,” he said.
“You chose it, Dunaway.”
“I’m not surprised you came. I have not underestimated your naiveté. Are you prepared to make the trade?”
“I’d like to talk first.”
“Oh yes, sure. How rude of me. Small talk, yes. Did you enjoy your visit with your friends? How’s your dad? Can I get you some milk and cookies? We don’t have anything to talk about.”
“Why are you so angry?”
“Why aren’t you? Haven’t we played this game before? If the dimension we just left exists, then what is all the fuss about here? What are we doing this for? Have you ever asked yourself? Or does Spencer spoon-feed you all the answers?”
“We want the same thing, Dunaway. Together, you and I can destroy Omnia without violence. Can you imagine if the world could see what is possible?”
“It’s all an illusion, you fool, so the violence isn’t real either. It’s all about forcing the awakening. Aren’t you tired, Nate? Tired of waiting for everyone to wake up?”
“Don’t you agree that a soul is a peaceful impulse of love energy?”
“Yes,” he said.
“Then we cannot return to our souls through violence.”
“Yes, we can. We’re talking about the human world, not the spiritual one. We can do anything within this world in order to succeed. In fact, we must do anything. The ends do justify the means, Nate. If we get the world to enlightenment, then it doesn’t matter how we got there.”
“But we can’t get there your way. All violence does is keep us chained to our personalities and that’s what Omnia wants. If we act and express ourselves from our souls instead, they cannot win.”
“Wrong again.”
“You know what seems wrong to me, Dunaway? If you’re going to kill me, then why are you trying so hard to convince me you’re right?”
“Nate, I don’t give a damn what you believe. And I’m not going to kill you.”
“You said you’d trade the Jadeo for my life.”
“Yes, but you’re going to kill yourself.”
I knew from Spencer that there was a portal-of-no-return at Kilauea. He’d explained that if someone entered the portal they would never be able to return to this dimension. We assumed that’s why Dunaway chose this spot. And I assumed that’s what he meant when he said I was going to kill myself.
“You’re going to give me the Jadeo and then expect me to go through the portal?”
“Oh, the Jadeo, pretty name for a pretty box. And you know about the portal? Of course you do. Excellent. Well, yes, that is one option. But I rather like the other choice where you leap into the volcano and kill yourself.”
Then it dawned on me. “Because you can’t kill me yourself.”
“Ah ha! You clever boy. Yes, yes it’s true. So help me out, will you?”
“But you’ve killed me in other lives.” We both moved back from the heat.
“Look, Nate, one of the seven cannot kill another one of the seven or they revert to being a ‘normal’ person. I have no intention of doing that. I’ve tried to go through Outviews to see if killing you in other lifetimes would change things, but as you see, here we still are. So if you’d be so kind to do it for me, I’ll give you this precious gold box you seem so concerned with.”
A chorus of whispers from ancient
guides rattled inside my head. “And if one of us is threatened, the other must save him, unless the threat is from ourselves,” I said, repeating the words I could decipher.
“Oh well, damn . . . good, now you’re finally up to speed.”
The inner voices were now shouting in whisper, “Ask him, ask him, ask about the seven.”
“No, I’m not,” I said. “Why don’t you tell me what else you know about being one of the seven?”
Dunaway gave me a frustrated look.
I smiled because he had to answer. It seemed one of the seven had to help another one of the seven understand.
“The seven of each generation who are born with an open channel to the universe are connected to one another as are the seven chakras, the seven directions. We each correspond to a chakra, to a direction.”
“Which are you?” I asked.
“I am the root chakra, you are the crown – opposite ends of the spectrum, you and I.”
“Yet neither could exist without the other.”
“But we are the only surviving of the seven.” His face was red and tight.
“Maybe, but they all lived within this time, this dimension. Our lives were intertwined and we each played a part.”
“Yes, but only one of us is required to create great change.”
“That doesn’t mean two of us can’t do it. Imagine the power if two of us tried . . . together.”
“Enough of this, Nate. Do you choose the portal-of-no-return or death by lava?”
“Both are appealing choices but what you haven’t told me, which of the directions we are.”
“Can’t you figure that out by yourself?”
“Let’s see, you are not likely north, east, south or west, too ordinary for you. I’m certain you are not within, or even above . . . Are you below?”
“Of course I am, you –”
The ground below opened as a lava tube collapsed and I plunged into a narrow, steamy shaft. Searing, blinding agony overtook me even before my foot hit the lava beneath.
18
In my next moment of consciousness, I found myself partially submerged in a clear pool surrounded by thick ferns. Dunaway was pouring cool water over me.
“Where are we?”
“In the rainforest, not far from Kilauea.”
“You saved me?”
“Afraid I had to.”
“Then it’s true, the seven must help each other.”
“Don’t think anything’s changed. As soon as I get you healed, you’re still going to kill yourself. There’s nothing to stop me from tossing your gold box into the volcano.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Fine then. You go on living and screwing things up for me. I’ll hang onto your box.”
“Why are you so against working together?”
“Because without force there can be no victory against Omnia.”
“How do you know? And even if you’re right, you must know that a victory that comes from violence will never be lasting.”
“Can you stand yet? Because if you’re healed, I’d like to get back to Prague. I’m tired of your pacifistic talk. The Movement is no closer to defeating Omnia than it was the day you were born.”
“Go whenever you want. But I need your help with one last thing.”
“What?” Dunaway asked.
“I need the gold box.”
“You can’t trick me like that.” He laughed. “You’re pathetic. And sooner or later I’ll find a way to –”
My heat warning rose in my body. I looked at Dunaway. He was already searching the trees. He looked back at me. We both Skyclimbed. It wasn’t easy, my feet and legs still ached from the burns, and the vegetation was so dense, there was hardly room between the branches and leaves. Once we were on top, the pool was no longer visible through the foliage. Then Dunaway, who apparently had the power to see through “solid” objects, told me there were several dozen soldiers on the ground where we’d just been. Two helicopters hovered nearby. We were concealed from their view and I was looking for an escape when both choppers crashed into the nearby lava fields and exploded.
“What did you do?” I yelled at Dunaway.
“Killed them before they killed us. You’re welcome!”
Military jets appeared and sent missiles into the forest. Everything erupted in flames. We sprinted across the treetops just ahead of the spreading inferno. The soldiers who’d been pursuing us were certainly burned alive. Another wave of missiles narrowed our escape route and I have to admit that I was relieved when Dunaway brought the planes down. We got to a road and hijacked a bus full of tourists. Dunaway drove and after listening to their screams, I put them all to sleep.
“Where are we going?” I shouted.
“Off this island.”
“They must be tracking you.”
“No, I use the same techniques you do.”
“Maybe they figured them out.” I was standing in the aisle doing my best to hang on.
“They’re using time travel, Outviews and dimensional crossings to locate us. We’re running out of time, Nate. We must unite the Movement to destroy Omnia before it’s too late.”
“We need to pick up Spencer and Linh.”
“Jump off anywhere, I’m heading to the airport,” Dunaway yelled.
“Spencer will know what to do about the Movement.”
“I know what to do about the Movement. I don’t need Spencer to tell me. And neither do you.”
“Damn it, Dunaway. There is a way we can work together. I know that’s how it’s meant to be. And maybe you’re right, I’m too stupid to figure it out. At least I’m mature enough to admit that. You’re like a playground bully.” He took a curve too fast and knocked me off my feet. “Jesus, did you do that on purpose?”
He was laughing. “No, but I wish I had.”
I got into the seat across the aisle and tried unsuccessfully to reach Spencer and Linh.
“We’re going to be less than three miles from where they’re staying soon.”
“Fine, you got it. If we’re alive when we get close, we’ll go get your girlfriend and the puppet master.”
I looked back and saw that many of the passengers had been thrown into the aisle. It took several minutes using Gogen to get them all securely back into seats. A few had minor injuries so I did some healing.
“How did you see through the trees?” I asked.
“Screw you. I’m not one your mystics.”
Two black SUVs came up fast. Remarkably, Dunaway continued to drive the narrow winding road doing a steady ninety miles per hour, and, at the same time, used the rearview mirror to make one of the chase vehicles crash. I almost cheered before I caught myself and decided to come up with a nonviolent way to help. Before I could, the remaining SUV smashed into the side of the bus as we were rounding a curve. Our bus left the road and soared through the air until the wheels tangled in treetops. The bus dropped through the branches, hit another ravine and became a rolling ball of mangled metal. Six of seven rotations later we were three hundred feet down when the bus slammed to a stop. I released the passengers from sleep and Gogen and forced the roof off so they could escape, but most were dead. Dunaway and I crawled out and were already in the steep forest when the terrifying sound of a helicopter filled the air. It was an Apache; fast, agile and lethal. Missiles blew chunks out of the landscape as a constant wall of machine gun fire cut closer. I grabbed Dunaway into a Timefold. We watched as everything around us was destroyed.
“Amazing. Are we suspended in time?” Dunaway asked.
“Yes.”
“Can you show me?”
“I need to concentrate or I’ll lose it.”
Once the area was reduced to blackened burning trees and scorched earth, we left the Timefold and moved toward Butterscotch’s cottage. It took an hour to reach it.
The place was deserted. I read the walls and found that Spencer and Linh had just managed to get away but Butterscotch was in custody. Wh
ere would they go? They’d been unreachable on the astral.
We saw Butterscotch’s station wagon.
“I’m going to the airport,” Dunaway said. “Are you coming?”
“This time I’m driving.”
19
“I’ll teach you how to do a Timefold if you teach me how to see through things,” I said.
“Hey, Nate, we’re not a couple of college buddies, okay?”
“Then what are you still doing with me?”
“I could ask you the same thing.”
“Because, Dunaway, you know that the two of us, working together, have the best chance.”
“You’re delusional. Do me a favor; stop attempting to convert me. I’m trying to concentrate. One of us needs to come up with a way off this island. And I doubt you’ll be any use.”
We didn’t talk again until we arrived at Kona International Airport forty minutes later. There were soldiers everywhere but we slipped through as I followed Dunaway to a corporate jet.
“Can you fly that thing?” I asked.
He shot me an insulted look. “Do you know how powerful the soul is? How did you get this job?”
Without authorization from the tower, we taxied to the runway.
“Hey, watch out!” I yelled. Dunaway used some trick to avoid a landing commuter plane. Two airport security trucks raced toward us but we were airborne before they could do anything.
“Nice to be off that damn island,” Dunaway said.
“There’s no way this thing has the range to make it to the mainland,” I said.
“Oh no, I didn’t think of that. Now what will we do?” he whimpered, sarcastically. “Worry not, little one, we’re less than two hundred miles from a gorgeous portal.”
“Then where?”
“Damn it.”
Two fighter jets flew by so close that our plane rattled.
“They’re looping back around,” I said.
