The Pandora Effect

by Olivia Darnell

  Perry finished his examination of Billy Johnson and stood up, clearly angered with Sam’s behavior. “Julia Parks had stomach cancer. An insidious disease and quite fatal, I’m afraid.” He looked at Sam without sympathy.

  “So what are you saying?” Sam looked at Perry and then at Falco. “I have cancer now? Just like that?”

  “Just like that!” Falco snapped his fingers in the air and smiled at him. “You know what they say, Mr. Morris. Curiosity killed the cat and now the banker.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Sam said quietly and place one hand on his stomach.

  “Not feeling sick, are we?” Falco asked him sarcastically. “Maybe a bit queasy? Maybe a little bloated?” The Primus stepped forward with a wicked twinkle in his eyes. “And your friend here is dying, I believe? And you are standing there wondering if you are insane or if we are. Now run along like the good little mama’s boy that you are and get the box you bought today. It’s in your car. Go and get it and hurry back now.”

  Sam glanced at Billy and Perry shook his head. His anger had faded and he was not happy with the Primus at all. Billy let go a long breath and Perry turned to kneel by him again. He leaned forward and prepared to revive him.

  “Wait!” Falco told him. “There’s still some time. You can still teach your good friend, Mr. Morris, a valuable lesson in self-sacrifice. You can study the evolution of a spoiled brat.”

  Perry stood up, frowning at the man who leaned against the boat with his arms crossed.

  Sam returned with his Pandora Box clutched to his chest. He went to the bench and dumped out the scroll and little pencil. It was extremely difficult for him to pick up the tiny pencil in his shaking hand.

  “Wait, wait,” Falco warned as he put the pencil to the paper. “I will tell you what to write.”

  Sam looked at him bewildered.

  “Now write ‘go away mean old Mr. Heart Disease from my friend Billy Johnson.”

  Sam looked down at the paper and frowned.

  “But what about me?” He looked up.

  “What about you?” Falco looked at him quizzically. “You probably have another five or six weeks to live, but poor Billy... he’s almost gone.”

  “If this is some kind of... curse or black magic or something and I really have cancer...” Sam looked down at Billy. “I’m going to call 911. That’s what I’m going to do. The paramedics can take care of him.”

  “It will be too late,” Falco shook his head. “And... oh, your phone isn’t working.”

  “How do you know?” Sam looked around the garage.

  “I just know,” Falco smiled at him. “Now what are you going to do?”

  “All right,” Sam nodded. “If this is true, which I do not believe it is, then I should use this for myself. Billy took his chances and he’s not my friend. I hardly know him.”

  “But he brought the box to you, Mr. Morris,” Falco continued to smile patronizingly at the man. “He respected your opinion. He looked up to you. He may not be as refined as you, but he is one of your kind. His life is in your hands. Does he live or does he die. You alone decide.”

  Sam shook his head and then scribbled quickly on the paper.

  “There!” He looked at them both defiantly. “I wrote what you said, but it don’t mean a thing. This is a crock of shit.”

  “Now put the paper in the box and close the lid,” Falco told him and he complied.

  Falco looked at Perry. “Can he pick up the others?”

  Perry nodded.

  “Now pick up the two boxes you and Billy opened and put them back along with yours into the chest. “Go on now. You’re wasting time.”

  Sam picked up the two opened boxes, replaced the papers in them and snapped the lids before replacing all three boxes inside the chest and closing the lid. Billy groaned again and flailed weakly on the floor.

  “Give me a hand with him, Sam,” Perry told him and reached to pick up Billy under the arms. Sam grabbed the big man’s muddy shoes and helped Perry lug him into the house where they laid him out on the white leather sofa.

  Billy’s chest rose and fell with a regular rhythm and the color returned to his big pudgy face.

  “Let him sleep it off,” Perry told Sam. “He’ll be fine in the morning. Tell him that I control the boxes. That should keep him quiet.”

  “You can’t scare me with that mumbo-jumbo bullshit!” Sam’s face grew red with anger. He grabbed the phone from the coffee table and punched the buttons. The line was dead. He glared at Falco. “You can’t make me believe that you can grant wishes like some kind of genie. I have an MBA from Rice and a PhD from Yale. I don’t believe in fairies or ghosts or UFO’s. I’m not one of these country bumpkin rednecks who dip Skoal and guzzle MD 20/20. If he dies because you did something to my phone, you’ll be sorry.”

  “But, my oh my, how you do run on Cap’n Butler!” Falco put one hand on his forehead and fluttered his strangely colored eyes at him.

  “You can’t come into my home and try to scare me with your legends and weird shit,” Sam said and backed away from them. “I intend to file charges on both of you for trespassing and... and...”

  “What? What else?” Falco leaned toward him truly enjoying himself. He launched himself off the bar where he had been propped with a speed even Perry found hard to follow and took the banker by the collar to pull him up on tip-toes. “Listen to me, Mr. M.B.A.P.H.D.S.H.I.T.H.E.A.D., if you want to believe that my brother and I are space monkeys, it is nothing to me. If you do not cease with your empty threats, we will all three go down to the police station together, right now and you can explain why you and Mr. Johnson here are in possession of my brother’s property. I will tell them how I observed Mr. Johnson trespass on my brother’s property, burglarize his personal possessions, namely a certain antique chest, which is now in your garage. How you conspired with Mr. Johnson to relieve my brother of his property and how you then willfully destroyed said property with an axe. Is that what you would like to do? I could then tell them how your co-conspirator then suffered a complete physical breakdown upon being confronted by my brother in a peaceable attempt to recover said stolen property while you threatened the party of the first part with said same axe as the party of the second part lay gasping for breath on the floor of the party of the third part’s garage and how the party of the third part refused to allow the party of the first part to assist the party of the second part even though that party’s life was in danger. All the letters, parties, legal jargon and anagrams in the world could not save you from a very embarrassing situation.”

  Sam’s face was growing purple by the time Falco had finished his spiel. He let go of him and stepped back to allow him to catch his breath.

  “In light of your two recent attacks upon my brother in front of dozens of witnesses, I don’t think it will go well with you. You might even draw a full psychiatric evaluation from the judge and I hear those are quite... distasteful.”

  Sam blinked at him as he absorbed the full impact of what was happening and what could happen.

  “Feeling a bit woozy?” Falco smiled at him again. “What do you think, brother of mine? Your sweet insurance agent can marry him now and be a merry widow by December, then you can take her to Beijing none the worse for wear. He won’t be feeling up to much frolicking between now and then.”

  Sam tried to grab Falco, but the Primus shot out one foot and sent him sprawling across the coffee table. He rolled onto the carpet and sat up clutching both arms to his stomach.

  “A man in your condition must be careful,” Falco warned and shook his head.

  “You wouldn’t dare take her away!” Sam managed to say after a moment.

  “Is there anything he can do about it, Primus?” Falco asked Perry.

  “Perhaps he or his mother can persuade someone to put their Pandora Box to use for him,” Perry shrugged. “Mary McDaniels has an unused one.” Perry side-stepped Falco’s question which had been referring to Maureen and not Sam’s condition. He did
not enjoy tormenting people as his ‘brother’ apparently did.

  Sam held onto his stomach. It was truly hurting now, but there was no way for him to know if it was merely force of suggestion or something else, possibly something real.

  “We’re leaving now,” Falco told him. “Remember what we told you. And don’t call us, we’ll call you. You have a nice night now.”

  Falco turned on his heel and headed back to the garage. Perry hesitated, undecided whether to help Sam or leave him. His indecision gave Sam the opportunity to recover slightly whereupon Perry received a very colorful tongue lashing which helped him make up his mind. He turned regretfully and went to touch Billy lightly on the head. A spray of blue sparks erupted around the sleeping man’s face and then disappeared. Billy would remember nothing of the pain when he woke up.

  Perry was certainly glad in one way that Falco Atrox had brought him here, but he was not sure that he cared for his methods of ‘straightening out the mess’. He had no idea what he would have done, but he doubted it would have ended any better. Things could have been much worse. He left Sam on the floor and followed after Falco.

  Chapter Twenty-Six:.

  Louis Parks opened his eyes to see the bland white ceiling and darkened florescent light fixture above his head in the hospital’s cardiac care unit. He was semi-reclining and he could hear the soft hiss of the air conditioner along with the clattering, chirping and beeping of numerous medical devices. He turned his head slightly to see the source of the noise and realized that he was hooked up by various attachments to several strange-looking machines. He swallowed hard and was thankful to find nothing was crammed down his throat like he had seen on the TV shows and movies. Only a small tube carrying oxygen enriched air to his nose restricted his head movement. He raised his head slightly and wondered why there was no pain. Surely there would be pain associated with the aftermath of a heart attack. The only other thing he felt was the slow throb of the IV tube in his left wrist.

  Julia sat in a chair next to the bed with her head laid on her open Bible. She had apparently fallen asleep there.

  “Julia?” He tried to speak but only a raspy whisper emanated from his dry lips and throat.

  It was sufficient to wake her. She raised her head to look at him and then got up to lean over him, stroking his hair and crying.

  “Louis!” She said over and over. “I thought you had left me.”

  “Water,” was all he could manage to say.

  She immediately brought a small cup of shaved ice and spooned some into his mouth. It tasted wonderful.

  “You should be home,” he said when he could speak more clearly.

  “I have been home,” she told him. “You’ve been sleeping.”

  “Julia?” He said her name again. How could she have done something like Perry Aliger had told him? He couldn’t believe it. She was so beautiful. So... innocent. So... religious! What had he done to cause her to stray from him? But he didn’t really need to ask. He had not been the model of the faithful husband himself. He was a rat and Julia was perfect. She always had been. But Perry Aliger was perfect too, wasn’t he? The monitor squeaked and then settled down as his heart lurched.

  “Be still, Sweetheart,” Julia chastised him and looked at him adoringly. “The doctors say you will be fine. There is no major damage and you can make a full recovery with a proper diet and exercise. I’ve told you and told you about all those Twinkies. And beer!”

  He raised one hand weakly to protest her lecture and she relented immediately.

  “I’m sorry, but you scared me so bad!” She told him and smothered his forehead and cheeks with kisses.

  “I’m sorry, Julia,” he said. “I’m sorry for everything. I’m going to be different. You’ll see. You won’t have to...”

  “Shhh!” She hushed him as the monitors beeped erratically. “I want to tell you all about what the doctors said.”

  Julia launched into a detailed monolog, repeating everything that the doctors and paramedics had said, telling him all about how Perry Aliger had assisted them with him at the dance and how Perry Aliger had driven her to the hospital and how Perry Aliger had stayed with her until she had been able to calm herself and how Perry Aliger had told her that everything would be all right and how Perry Aliger... the alarm on the monitor went off and two nurses rushed in to administer some sort of medicine into the IV tubing. Julia was beside herself as the nurses bustled about the room making adjustments and taking readings until the monitors returned to normal. Louis felt himself drifting off into the comfortable darkness of peaceful oblivion without Perry Aliger!

  Sand! Someone had poured sand in his eyes! But no, there was no sand in his eyes. It had been a dream. His eyes were tired and scratchy. Perry sat up and rubbed his eyes, opening and closing them tightly several times before slowly focusing on his surroundings. Angelica had warned him about the need for the proper amount of sleep, but he had not heeded her warning nor needed it. He knew all about tired eyes and tired bodies. It was one of the major drawbacks of the human form. This need to waste so many hours resting was most irritating. Something would have to be done about that eventually if they were to settle on the form indefinitely. He raised his hand to rub the back of his neck and then stretched. Sleeping in the chair by the window was even worse than sleeping in the Mercedes. Falco had taken the sofa just as Maureen had surmised and he had been left to fend for himself. He thought ruefully that he should have gone to Maureen’s house to sleep on her sofa, but knew that would not have been a very good move. He had been afraid to risk sleeping in the car again. No telling what would have happened this time.

  His watch said five forty-five. The first rays of dawn were tingeing the sky outside the window a deep pinkish purple. Another day had come to Magnolia Springs. What would be the outcome of the activities of the night before? He sat forward in the chair leaning his elbows on his knees. A new emotion flooded over him. What was this one called? It fit the clinical definition of : Anxiety. There seemed to be an overabundance of disturbing emotions when compared with the relatively few pleasant ones. He looked out the window at the one remaining star in the eastern sky. It was not a star, but actually the planet Mercury. Everything changed. Everything remained the same. In every beginning, an ending. In every ending, a beginning. It was no great comfort to him to know that the universe would continue on with or without him and that his subsequent successes or failures would make very little impact in the overall scheme of things. Perhaps Falco was right. Perhaps he should just give it up and return to the Collective Body. It was a wonder he had lasted as long as he had in this fragile form. Of course he had never really put it to the test.

  He had lived in relative seclusion in Beijing with millions of people all around him and not one ever knowing him. He had been the strange western philosopher who lived in a small house with a small garden and an old gardener to take care of it. Only a few shopkeepers and restaurant owners had been known to converse with him. He had been studying the Chinese civilization and all it’s intricacies. Of all the civilizations that had arisen on this world, the Chinese had to have been the most fascinating as well as the longest extant civilization in the planet’s history. Their culture had been in existence for much longer than any other and had withstood more abuse and had rebounded from more disasters than all the rest put together, but the recent developments had left him saddened and depressed. He had witnessed the burning of Rome, debated with Aristotle, feasted with Pharaohs, jousted with Celtic Kings, but the Chinese truly had his heart. He longed to go home to his garden in Beijing. Nowhere at any time had he ever traveled within the emotional recesses of the mind. He had always preferred to be the observer in such sad affairs. And now, he had become entangled in the emotional lives of several non-entities as well as the relatively benign emotional processes governing two of his own kind through no choice of his own. Why had the Optimus called on him in the first place? He resented the intrusion. It was costing him dearly.

 
Didn’t these people realize that life is just a transient state of energy? Couldn’t they grasp the idea that none of this was truly important and that no matter what they did, the universal element would continue in some form or another? The flow only moves from one form to another. Simple. Yet, Angelica continued her search for answers that did not exist. Life itself has no meaning. It just simply exists. Just as the universe exists, so does life. The purpose of life! Now there was a different story altogether. The purpose of life is to search for the meaning of life! Perry laughed aloud and Falco stirred on the couch. The only catch was how to separate the good from the evil and to choose to be one or the other and face the consequences of the choice. Choice was the key. Falco did not want to have a choice. Falco wanted to be governed by the rules of others and the wishes of others and the laws of others.

  The Primus was afraid.

  Angelica suddenly touched him on the shoulder and he looked up at her. He stared into her dark eyes and wondered if spiral galaxies were winding or unwinding. He wondered if they were traveling toward the center of the universe or toward the edge and he wondered what was beyond the edge of the universe. And, if they were traveling toward the edge, what would they find at the edge? Another edge? Or would they find another center? Or if they were traveling toward the center, what would be there? A shortcut to the edge? What did the bear see when he went over the mountain? What did the fish see above the surface of the sea? What came first, the chicken or the egg? He allowed Angelica to read his thoughts. She smiled and handed him the jewel-encrusted kaleidoscope. He frowned at it in confusion. She put one finger to his lips and then pulled him up from the chair. He followed her across the carpet quietly and down the hall. When they reached the bedroom, she closed the door and turned the lock.

  “I have done some more research,” she told him simply and turned off the light.