Time Flies

by Larry Buenafe

  He sighed again, and said, “As you say. This will also mean I will probably die with you, yes?”

  Oh, crap. What can I say to that? I spent a moment in thought, then said, “Yeah, probably so. We could check in the Book of Names if you want, just to be sure.”

  He laughed humorlessly. “No, thank you, I would rather not know. Better to let things happen as they will.”

  “Hey Pasquale, there’s a university in Bakersfield, you know. I work there. Maybe you could come and visit, sort of check things out,” Denise offered.

  This brought a mild grin. “Tell me, Ferdie, are all the American college girls as pretty as Denise? This, I would like.”

  “There are lots of pretty girls at the college, but Denise, well, she’s special, and not just because she’s an angel.”

  Pasquale smiled wider still. “Yes, very good, very good. Thank you my friends.”

  Something occurred to me, and it was so obvious I smacked myself in the head for not thinking of it: “Hey, we have to figure out who Old Leo’s angel is, if he still has one. Denise, do you think it’s possible that his angel was taken up by The Others?”

  “Well, I guess it could be, but I don’t have any special insider info on it.”

  “You know, he say many times that he feels someone watching him, but no one there. Is this his angel?”

  “Could be, but maybe he’s just paranoid,” Denise joked.

  “Hey, don’t you think his angel would have to be pretty old? I mean, he’s getting up there, you know.”

  “Well, not necessarily. Angels don’t have to age like humans. Some of us stay at a preferred adult age for quite a while, and when people start to notice, we just move on.”

  “Ok, but now we have a problem. If we go back without finding the angel and it has gone to the other side, it could lead The Others to us through its connection with Old Leo.”

  “Yeah, that’s true. That is a big problem. So what do we do now?”

  And then, right on cue, came a gentle rapping at the door.

  Chapter 13

  Pasquale opened the door, and there stood our guide to Old Leo’s street, the nice lady with the floral dress and kerchief over her hair. “Ciao, Anita,” Pasquale greeted her; obviously they were acquainted.

  “Oh, ciao, Pasquale. I hear you and your American friends are looking for me, yes?”

  “Hey, I thought you couldn’t speak English!” Denise interjected.

  “Why would you think that?”

  “You made me talk in Spanish when we met earlier!”

  “I did not make you; I thought that was what you spoke!”

  That brought a few giggles. It’s good that we had that moment of laughter, because immediately afterward, things went about as bad as they could possibly go.

  “So, you are Old Leo’s angel?” I asked.

  Her smile was suddenly replaced by a sneer. “Yes, I’ve been watching the old fool his whole life. Very boring, I must tell you. Sure, one of The Seven, blah blah, but second rate, I assure you. But finally, finally, I have my chance!”

  Oh, crap… she’s been turned! She’s here to try to kill me!

  Anita looked at the door, and it slammed shut; she waved her hand and Pasquale went flying across the room, crumpling in a heap in the kitchen; she screamed, “To kill the Great Ferdie, The One, the rarest of the rare, this will bring me great glory with my master!” and she lunged toward me; I didn’t know what to do to defend myself from an angel, as we had never really talked about it; I backed up to the wall, and turned to the side just in time to avoid her hand, which had solidified and looked like a skin-covered sword; it plunged into and through the wall, and as she yanked it out, she roared, swinging toward me; then, from the right, Denise came in like a bolt of lightning, knocking Anita onto her side; Denise bounced up, shouting, “You cannot have him!”; she started to glow, and looked white-hot; the windows blew outward from the air pressure in the room; I hustled over, grabbed Pasquale, and heaved him out one of the blown out windows; Denise and Anita were grappling, both glowing and throwing off lots of heat; I could feel my skin beginning to burn; both of Anita’s hands took on the shape of daggers and she was swinging them at Denise, doing her best to slice her to pieces; Denise blocked Anita’s lunge with her knee, and Anita swung her free hand, stabbing Denise in the calf; Denise screamed and glowed even brighter, threatening to incinerate everything in the room; at that moment, Old Leo came out of his room and shouted, “STOP!”, and in a rational part of my mind, I said, “Huh, he knows some English after all,”; I saw Anita freeze for just a moment, but that was all Denise needed; she put her arms on either side of Anita’s head, and slashed her hands together; Anita’s head popped off, and back in that rational part of my mind, I thought, “That looks just like when you snap the head off a doll,”; her body crumpled to the floor, still flaming hot, burning a body-shaped image in the carpet and charring the hardwood underneath.

  Denise tumbled to the ground next to Anita’s headless body, clutching her calf, panting mightily; she was cooling down, her glow reducing in intensity; I turned, surveying the damage, and… Old Leo had fallen, lying in his bedroom doorway. As I rushed over to check on him, I noticed that my skin was bright red and the hair was gone from my arms; I felt Leo’s chest, and then his neck, looking for a pulse, but found none; I felt sure that he had a heart attack as a result of his exertion in trying to control Anita. I started to panic; I was not thinking straight.

  “Denise!” I yelled, “You need to cool all the way down NOW! I need you to come over and get Leo most of the way to the in-between, I’m going to try to save him!”

  “I’m sorry, Ferdie, I need a second,” she gasped; her glow was almost gone, but her calf was gushing blood; I didn’t know if we were going to get to Leo in time, so I grabbed his hand and took him there myself; I immediately realized that I wasn’t going to be able to keep him in the right position and see into his body at the same time and I roared in frustration. I fell back out of my attempt to get to the in-between, carried him into his bedroom and laid him down on his bed where it was not as hot, and began administering old-school chest compressions, which I had learned to do as a part of “interning” with Arnie Hayward. Ok, Ferdie, two hands, just above the xiphoid process, arms straight, put your weight above him, just use your body weight, don’t push too hard… come on, Leo, don’t let it end this way… come on, we need you… the world needs you…

  I kept going for twenty minutes, but finally I just collapsed. No, no… he doesn’t deserve this… I looked down at my hands, and they were red and blistered; the heat from the battle between Denise and Anita had really done a number on me. I looked across the room, and most everything was burned. Denise opened the door, went out into the now pouring rain, found Pasquale unconscious below the kitchen window, brought him back in, and was tending to him while trying to keep pressure on her calf to stop the bleeding. I started crying like I always do and I quickly faded into the in-between, hoping to catch Old Leo before he was gone. He has to be on the Good Line side, right? Has to be…

  As I faded into the in-between, there was Old Leo, with his back to me; he was staring out at the unbelievable beauty of the Good Line universe, watching the blobs of variously colored light flying out to join the line, one after another. He turned and looked at me with the biggest smile on his face; he had tears coming down, and that made me cry even harder. He spoke, and though it was in his strange language, I somehow understood exactly what he was saying: “Ferdie, my friend, I have finally made it. Please, I know you are tempted, but you must not blame yourself. I would have gone with you, suffered any fate that awaited me. You must continue, Ferdie. Do not let this stop you. I know, in my heart, that you are the only chance. You must stop them, Ferdie, but you will have to find the solution in the power to create. Remember what it takes to create, Ferdie. Remember… Oh, and please, please, look after Pasquale. He will need your protection.

  Then he patted me on the shoulder, tu
rned, and was gone in less than an instant, streaking out, in a beautiful maroon color, to join the line and take his rightful place.

  Chapter 14

  I popped back out of the in-between, and knew that we would have to take action fast; the noise of the blown-out windows, coupled with the racket of the battle between Denise and Anita, and the subsequent burned-out interior of the living room, would soon bring neighbors and shortly after, the authorities. “Denise, we’ve got to get out of here now! We’ve got a fried, headless body and a dead local legend in here and we don’t have any good excuse as to why or how either of those could have happened, so if we want avoid arrest we need to move!”

  Denise was still tending to an unconscious Pasquale and her own wound, as she said, “Yeah, but what about him? Do we just force him to come with us?”

  “I don’t think we have much choice right now. If he decides he wants to come back we can bring him, but we’ve got to go!”

  “Ok, but I think I’m going to need your help, this fight took too much out of me.”

  Ok, I don’t know if I can do this… never tried to take two people to the in-between before… ahh, that’s it! Now I know… when I was working on Ling’s eye, I got the feeling that there were other things I could do… use the energy to protect instead of destroy… plus, since Old Leo’s dead, The Seven energy, or whatever you call it, is divided among the remaining members, at least until a new member of The Seven becomes mature… that means I have some of Old Leo’s strength… I know there’s a way I can use my excess energy to protect Pasquale… at least short-term, so we can get out of here clean… man, my face and arms hurt bad… I’m going to need some help when we get out of here, see a doctor or something… ok, what do I do? How about if I go into his mind, spread some energy there, create a sort of barrier… I feel sure that will work…

  I hurriedly went into Pasquale’s mind, which was harder to do than normal due to his being unconscious. Let’s see… if I was doing battle with one of The Others, I would be sending bolts of energy their way… I just need to back off a little, and sent it out in all directions at once, like a radio signal… that would kind of prop him up, protect his mind enough to at least survive… then I’ll need to do my divided attention trick so that I can get all three of us out of here…

  I did my best guess as to how much energy would be enough to spread through Pasquale’s mind, and sent out a constant amount, which was difficult. His body jumped and then vibrated mildly; I took his hand, then took Denise’s hand, and…

  Oh, dude, this is not easy… I think it would be easier if he was awake… almost there… wow, haven’t felt the fishhooks like that in quite a while… ok, we’re there…

  I glanced back at the room from the in-between, and saw neighbors entering, screaming, and running around. Whoa, that was close… I wonder if I should take the chance to project us all the way back to Bakersfield… we can’t stay here… we’ll just have to chance it…

  Having to divide my attention, keep a constant stream of energy going in Pasquale’s mind, and transport all three of us through the in-between was difficult, and took much longer than it normally would to go alone, which would have been more or less instantaneous. Still, about ten seconds later, we faded into the apartment kitchen. My legs felt weak and I stumbled upon arrival, and sat down quickly. Denise and Pasquale were both on the floor; she was cradling his head in her lap and clutching her calf.

  “Ferdie,” she gasped, “is he still alive? How did you get him here without killing him?”

  Oh, man, I didn’t tell Denise what I was going to try, I just did it…

  “Sorry, Denise, I didn’t have time to explain. I know a few tricks that let me do stuff like that.” What I didn’t tell her was that I had never tried it before, even though I had thought of it when working on Ling. Still, I was fairly certain that it would work.

  “Well, whatever you did, we made it. Let’s put him on the bed, see if we can get him conscious.”

  “Ok, but you stay put. Your leg doesn’t look too good.” There was still quite a bit of blood leaking out of her wound despite the constant pressure she had been applying. I tried to stand but I was still shaky, so I returned to my seat. I was within reach of a cabinet that had some medical supplies, so I opened it, rummaged around, and eventually found some gauze for Denise; I tossed it to her and she wrapped it tightly around her calf, stopping most of the blood flow.

  Through a slight smile, she said, “Well, there goes my career as a leg model.”

  “Ah, you’re too buff for that anyway. By the way, how did you do that stuff back there? The glowing, the heat, all that? I’ve never seen an angel in action like that before.”

  “Well, that’s what we do, Ferdie. Not all the time, of course, but when it’s needed… we have some tricks up our sleeves, just like you. Well, not just like you, I never could have gotten all of us back here from Sardinia, especially not without killing Pasquale in the process. I’m pretty sure that trick is unique to you.”

  Hmm… it’s like what Old Leo told me just before flying off to the Good Line… find the solution in creating… remember what it takes to create… what did he mean? I’m going to have to think on that one… it’s funny, I was really sad at first about Old Leo, but now I only feel bad for Pasquale… Leo’s where he belongs…

  “Yeah, maybe so. You know what, though? I froze up when Anita came at me. My mind went blank. I could have gone to the in-between, I could have done lots of things, but I couldn’t think. I can’t afford to do that again; I need you to train me.”

  Denise smiled broadly, and said, “Sure, I’ll train you, but you’ll have to show me a few tricks in exchange. What do you say?”

  “I say I don’t think there’s much I can teach you, but I’ll do my best. Let’s shake on it.”

  Denise squinted and said, “You don’t look too good, Ferdie. You’re pretty burned up. You have blisters on your arms and cheeks.”

  “Yeah, I know. You’re really hot stuff.”

  We sat there for a while longer, trying to recover. “Ok, I think I can actually get up now. Let’s get Pasquale in the other room. We’ve got to protect him, Denise. It’s the least we can do.”

  “Yeah, I know. I feel the same way. The thing is, we have to let him choose, you know? He might not want to stay with us, and I don’t think it would be right to force him, but if he doesn’t want to stay, we’ll need to work out some way to provide him protection, because I think The Others are likely to take their loss in this battle personally. They didn’t get you, they lost an angel, and they didn’t get to Old Leo, he just died of old age, basically. I bet they’re feeling pretty frustrated, so they might look at Pasquale as a consolation prize. Speaking of frustration, I can’t really help too much right now with my leg all messed up. Do you think you can carry him?”

  Normally I probably could, but I’m still feeling feeble… I can’t even stand up very well… “I don’t think I can do it right now. He’s ok where he is for the moment. I’ll get him in the other room after I recover.”

  We sat in aching silence for half an hour. I felt well enough that I helped Denise to her feet and together we half dragged and half carried Pasquale into the bedroom. “Denise, we’ve got to do something do wake him… Hey, what is it they get fighters to smell… ammonia, right? Maybe Ling has some, I’ll check under the sink.”

  Luckily, she had a container of ammonia, and I held a capful under Pasquale’s nose. After a few seconds, he coughed and sputtered; opening his eyes, he shouted, “Leo! Where is…oh, no…” Then he let out a stream of words in Italian that I didn’t understand, but I definitely got the sentiment. He cried and wailed, and finally, his eyes bulging out, he barfed all over the place.

  “Don’t worry, Pasquale, that’s just what happens when you go through the in-between. That’s how we got you here, all the way to Bakersfield. We had to get out of Carloforte, things got pretty heavy over there. Don’t worry; we’ll explain it all to you. Fo
r a while, you’ll probably feel like you can’t control your body, but it’ll pass. That happened to me the first time I went there too.” We cleaned him up, and then Denise and I described what happened after Anita sent him flying into the wall of their little home. Pasquale listened intently, asked a few questions, and had a tear leak out now and then.

  When we were done, we sat quietly, too exhausted and beat up to do much else. Finally, Pasquale spoke in a quiet, melancholy tone: “Ferdie, Denise, my friends, you save my life. I don’t know how you did this; I say before, I don’t believe in magic, but this is magic, no? How else could this happen? Ah, Old Leo, my grandfather, what will I do without him? He protect me, all my life. I never knew he was using magic to do it. Is amazing, unbelievable. When I was young, I would read the comic books, Spiderman was my most favorite. I didn’t know the superheroes were real. You are real, yes?”

  Denise and I shared a smile. “You know, I used to wonder if it was real too. I had a lot of bad stuff happen to me when I was younger, a lot like what has happened to you, and it made me a little... well, a lot messed up. When these powers started appearing, I thought maybe it was all in my head, like I was really losing it. As more things happened and more people got involved, I came to understand that it was real, but I totally get your trouble believing.”

  Then it was Denise’s turn: “I’ve known about this kind of stuff all my life; angels are born with an adult intellect, but we still usually have to grow up like normal humans. I know, it all seems strange and, I don’t know, maybe otherworldly is the word; I guess in a way it is. But someone, somewhere, knows the physical explanation for how all this happens. That person, I want to meet someday. Maybe it’s not a person at all, but you get what I mean. So, Pasquale, what we need to know now is, what do you want to do? If you prefer, Ferdie can return you to Carloforte, and we’ll leave you alone, never bother you again. Couldn’t really blame you if you felt that way. Or, if you want, you can stay with us, but you would have to know what you are getting into. I know we talked about this before, but the situation has changed, and not having Old Leo around might make you think differently. So, we’re giving you this opportunity to do that. We’d really like for you to stay with us and help, but we definitely can’t guarantee that you’ll get out of it alive.”