***
Rhapsody inhaled deeply as they drove down the 167, happy to be back on the right side of the continent. Melody was pumping Capella for everything she knew about the Mountain Meadow Massacre. She was doing an essay on the incident in one of her online classes. It was difficult to get very much information out of Capella that was useful, since most of what she had to say about her former neighbors was increasingly creative slang. Melody seemed to enjoy the bigot-bashing as much as she enjoyed the few facts she managed to glean. She kept turning and mouthing “She’s so freaking awesome!” to Rhapsody as they drove.
“Do you live in the city?” Capella asked after ten minutes of driving.
“We’re about thirty miles south,” Melody replied as she passed yet another law-abiding citizen. “Near a town called South Hill.”
“There’s a cop up ahead,” Rhapsody informed Melody perfunctorily.
“It’s a good thing you’re back or I would have racked up a million tickets,” Melody said with a grin as she slowed down. “I don’t know what I’d do without my human radar detector.”
“Human radar detector?” Capella asked expectantly.
“She doesn’t know?” Melody asked in surprise.
“She drives the speed limit, she wouldn’t need to know,” Rhapsody said dryly.
“Rhapsody here is actually related to Megamind,” Melody told Capella conspiratorially. “Even though she doesn’t have the big head and blue skin, they’re still from the same sperm source.”
“Oh God, Melody!” Rhapsody gasped in disgust. “There goes my breakfast appetite!”
“Ha!” Melody crowed triumphantly. “That’s what you get for ditching me. Consider that just one of the many forms of payback yet to come.”
“Sooo…” Capella said dramatically. “Getting back to the human radar detector?”
“Oh yeah,” Melody giggled and then honked her horn as someone in a gangsta-mobile cut them off. “Leave the fast lane to taxpaying citizens, you bunch of illiterate thugs! And go find your mothers so they can teach you how to read the size labels on your freaking clothes, because the circus is NOT in town!”
“Angst, much?” Capella asked with a grin.
“Road rage already?” Rhapsody asked mildly.
“What?” Melody asked innocently.
“Aaaand…back to the human radar detector,” Capella said with a pointed stare.
“Oh yeah,” Melody nodded eagerly. “Rhapsody has this little alien in her head that rifles through petabytes of information every second and tells her where to spot anything out of the ordinary.”
“Perhaps you would care to explain it, Rhapsody?” Capella asked dryly.
“I thought she did just fine,” Rhapsody smirked.
“Don’t make me sick The Traitor on you,” Capella threatened ominously.
“Not scared,” Rhapsody replied, folding her arms calmly. “The Hand loves me.”
“Now you see why I call it The Traitor,” Capella growled. “All right, so you have an alien in your head telling you how to spot patterns?”
“Pretty much,” Rhapsody nodded. “When I look out that window, I don’t just see what my eyes are focusing on, I see everything. It’s just as clear in my mind regardless of if it comes from my peripheral vision or where I’m focusing. As soon as traffic patterns begin slowing down slightly, my pattern recognition kicks in and warns me that there is either a cop or an accident ahead. You could do it too, but I consume a lot more bandwidth than normal people so I can identify changes quicker.”
“Bandwidth?” Capella repeated. “What, are you a computer?”
“We’re all computers,” Rhapsody said with a grin. “Or computers are all people. Either way, we are very similar. There are a million ways to compare the ways humans and computers operate like each other.”
“Name one,” Capella said challengingly.
“Okay…” Rhapsody replied, taking a deep breath, “humans have a basic level of intelligence we call instinct as soon as we are born, which tells us how to survive long enough for consciousness to develop in our brain. A computer has a CMOS chip called the BIOS that ensures all of the hardware in the system communicates properly until the operating system can be loaded from the hard drive (sub-conscious) into the system memory (conscious mind).”
“So how would that analogy extend to what is happening with Aria?” Capella asked with a frown. “Where is her consciousness if it isn’t in her brain?”
“Just imagine everyone in the future uses cloud computing, rather than local hard drives,” Rhapsody explained. “Think of the brain as her processor. The processor just crunches numbers and tells the electrons where to flow, the same way the brain does. Just because her processor isn’t functioning, doesn’t mean the data that stores her personality is gone. Once her processor works properly, her consciousness will once again be able to flow through it normally.”
“How do we fix her processor?” Melody asked quietly.
“It takes a very specialized, noninvasive kind of surgery,” Rhapsody said with a grin. “That’s why Aria sent me to get Capella.”
“What?” Capella squawked in surprise. “There’s no way in hell I’m performing surgery on anyone!”
“Of course not, silly,” Rhapsody laughed.
“Wow!” Capella let out a loud breath. “You had me freaking out there for a second.”
“The Hand is going to do the surgery,” Rhapsody said calmly.
“Are you freaking crazy!?” Capella shouted incredulously. “This homicidal maniac will make mincemeat of Aria!”
“Nonsense,” Rhapsody said calmly. “You’re just saying that because it tries to do that to everyone else.”
“Uh…yeah!” Capella replied exasperatedly. “As a matter of fact, that is exactly why I am saying that.”
“Everyone else except…” Rhapsody left it hanging, giving Capella an expectant look.
“Just because it doesn’t maul you doesn’t mean it will be similarly accepting of Aria,” Capella declared firmly. “There’s no way I’m letting this monster anywhere near that girl!”
“We’ll see,” Rhapsody said with a mysterious smile.
“Don’t you dare smile at me like that, missy,” Capella growled threateningly. “Lefty might be a traitor, but righty still has enough intelligence to know who’s in charge.”
“Bitch fight!” Melody cried excitedly. “Let me pull over first so I can record it.”
“Do you know how sexy it is when you get all tough like that?” Rhapsody asked mischievously.
“I’m so going to beat you down when we get there,” Capella told Rhapsody grimly.
“Hurry up, Melody!” Rhapsody urged with a grin. “She keeps promising, but never delivering. Maybe I’ll finally get something this time.”
When they finally pulled up to the large house, Capella and Melody were having a belching competition. Capella could have taught Will Ferrell how to burp properly.
“Okay, swallow your tongues ladies,” Rhapsody said as she got out of the car. “I doubt we want Harmony’s first impression of you to be a clone of Melody.”
“Why not?” Melody asked in an injured tone. “What’s wrong with me?”
“What isn’t wrong with you?” Rhapsody asked dryly.
“This place is huge!” Capella said in awe as she got out of the car.
“We moved here a couple months after leaving the hospital so that we could keep a full time staff on hand,” Melody informed her. “We haven’t really needed anyone else for the last year though, so most of the other rooms are empty now.”
“When do I meet Harmony?” Capella asked curiously as they walked through the front room.
“She’ll be with Aria,” Melody replied. “We never leave her without someone in the room.”
As Rhapsody walked through the familiar halls until they came to Aria’s bedroom, she could hear Harmony humming a light tune. It was one of the many melodies Aria had introduced to the world. The first
thing her over-clocked mind noticed as they entered the room was the cardiograph speeding up. Harmony stopped humming and looked at Aria worriedly before she realized they had arrived.
“Look what I found when I took the garbage out,” Melody told Harmony impishly. “The garbage men left a few morsels behind.”
Capella was hesitantly stepping closer to the well-lit bed where Aria was lying, connected to several tubes and cables.
“She’s beautiful!” Capella whispered fervently, with tears running down her cheeks as she beheld the most revered person on earth.
“That she is,” Harmony said with a sad smile.
“This is Capella,” Rhapsody said with a proud smile. “She’s going to bring Aria back for us.”
“What?” Harmony asked in shock, her eyes suddenly filled with hope.
“I am not,” Capella denied resolutely. “I’m not letting The Traitor anywhere near her.”
“What traitor?” Harmony asked in alarm, protectively moving closer to Aria.
“That’s just what she calls her left hand,” Rhapsody said dryly. “It’s the key to unlocking Aria’s prison. I didn’t realize it until shortly after we left the zoo, when it pulled my seatbelt on. Back when we were on the couch in the dorm and you were asleep, your left hand began drawing patterns on my face. At first I just thought they were random doodles. After a few minutes, the patterns started triggering some of the memories of books I’ve read regarding chakras and energy lines that overlay the human body. It was drawing patterns over the exact areas that were depicted as lines of force in the books. According to the author of said book, when a person’s energy highways become twisted and snarled, it can cause physical ailments like anxiety, depression, pain, confusion, and even death. I believe the reason Aria is unable to fully reconnect with her body, is that her energy field is snarled and has to be repaired before her consciousness can fully return.”
“Don’t doctors know how to check for that stuff?” Melody asked doubtfully.
“Doctors don’t believe in anything that can’t be tested in a lab,” Rhapsody replied with a shake of her head. “Since they don’t have instruments capable of detecting this kind of energy yet, it doesn’t exist, as far as they are concerned.”
Rhapsody walked over and put her arms on Capella’s shoulders and rested her forehead against the smaller woman so they were looking into each other’s eyes. “I need you to trust me with this. Please.”
Capella stood staring at Aria fearfully, unable to make herself move closer. Rhapsody chewed her lower lip for a moment as she thought.
“Aria, I’m going to need a little help here,” Rhapsody told the slumbering girl. “She’s kind of stubborn, so you will need to really motivate her.”
Aria immediately began singing. It wasn’t in a foreign language this time.
Round and Round
I love every flower, every bird, every bee
and everything surrounding you and me
Be the night around me when the stars fall down
we'll watch as the heavens turn round and round
Watch as they turn around
Round, round, and round
Watch as they turn around
I love every bower, every leaf, every tree
and everything surrounding you and me
Be the world around me when the leaves fall down
we'll watch as the seasons turn round and round
Watch as they turn around
Round round and round
Watch as they turn around
Be the star encircling
All my joy on painted wings
Sail horizon bound with me
Let our love forever be
Let it all go round and round
I love every hour, every star, every sea
and everything surrounding you and me
Be the wind around me when the rain falls down
we'll watch as the storm turns round and round
Watch as they turn around
“She wants to come home,” Rhapsody whispered to Capella through her tears. “Please. Help her.”
Capella nodded as she wiped tears from her cheeks. “It was even more beautiful than I imagined.”
“Mom, turn off the mp3 uploader first,” Melody said quickly. “If she does wake up, we probably don’t want everyone in the world knowing about it right away.”
“Mp3 uploader?” Capella asked with a frown.
“There’s a sensor near Aria’s mouth that starts recording any new songs she sings and uploads them to YouTube immediately,” Rhapsody explained.
“The world is about to get a surprise from that last one then,” Capella said with a deep breath. “They’ve never heard her sing in English before.”
“Yes, I imagine that will cause a bit of a sensation,” Harmony admitted with a sigh.
After disconnecting the mp3 uploader, Capella tentatively walked closer to Aria’s slumbering form. She grew more tense as her left hand began rising toward Aria’s face, but she didn’t stop.
“You’re going to suffocate if you don’t breathe, Capella,” Rhapsody warned her, rubbing her shoulder comfortingly. “Just relax and let it work.”
Capella finally took a breath, though she still looked ready to leap back at the slightest hint of aggressiveness.
The Traitor began tracing lines on Aria’s face slowly, almost sensuously. Rhapsody could see from her memory where the lines should be on Aria’s face as The Hand traced them perfectly. It was exerting varying degrees of pressure as it slowly moved along the contours caressingly. After a few minutes, the cardiograph started speeding up. Just the small increase in speed was enough to make Harmony’s eyes fill with tears as she stood on the other side of the bed holding onto Aria’s hand.
Aria’s breathing grew steadily stronger as Capella’s left hand continued following the invisible lines of force that only it could detect. Aria’s toes began twitching after a few minutes. Harmony let out an excited gasp as Aria’s hand suddenly tightened on hers. The lights on the ceiling began flickering, and the machines connected to Aria went quiet as the power suddenly shut off, leaving the room almost dark in the overcast morning.
“Mom?” a voice everyone in the world was familiar with asked hesitantly.
“Aria?” Harmony whispered hopefully.
“Mom, what is all this crap stuck to my face?” Aria asked tentatively.
“Oh my baby!” Harmony cried out in relief, pulling Aria in to a warm embrace. “Oh Aria, I knew you would come back!”
“What’s wrong, mom?” Aria asked worriedly. “Why are you crying?”
Before she could answer, Melody was joining the hug with tears streaming down her cheeks. “Oh Aria, I’m so sorry for how I treated you! Please forgive me!”
“Melody?” Aria’s voice sounded scared. “What’s going on? Where are we?”
“It’s okay,” Melody told her through her tears. “Everything’s okay, now that you are back.”
“Back from where?” Aria asked in confusion. “Can someone turn the lights on please?”
“We would, but the power went out when you woke up,” Melody told her with a tremulous smile. “I’ll go get some candles.”
“Can you help me get this crap off of my face?” Aria asked Harmony as she began pulling at electrodes and cords. “Why is there a needle in my arm?”
“It’s an IV,” Harmony told her gently. “It’s been feeding you nutrients while you’ve been asleep.”
“Didn’t I get enough at dinner last night?” Aria asked dryly.
“What’s the last thing you remember, honey?” Harmony asked softly.
“Going to sleep after we read The Chosen,” Aria replied promptly. “Which is by far the coolest book I’ve ever read in my life. I had the strangest dreams last night as a result and not a single nightmare.”
“What kind of dreams?” Harmony asked gently.
“It’s all fading now,” Aria frowned. “There seemed to be a ton of
singing in it though. You would have really liked it.”
“I know I would have,” Harmony agreed as another wave of tears began falling.
“Why are you crying again, mom?” Aria asked worriedly. “Is something wrong?”
“These are tears of purest joy, my angel,” Harmony told her with a beatific smile. “You’ll understand why later, but for now let’s just take it slowly. A great deal has happened that will seem very strange to you, and I don’t want you to be scared.”
“I’ve got some candles,” Melody called as she came down the hall with a nimbus of candlelight preceding her.
“Wow tall!” Aria exclaimed as Melody entered the room. “You grew like four inches overnight!”
When Capella giggled, Aria finally realized they were standing on the other side of her bed. She immediately clammed up shyly.
“Aria, this is Capella and Rhapsody,” Harmony told her fondly. “Rhapsody has been with us for quite a while now. Capella is the reason that you are now awake.”
“Did I have a head injury or something?” Aria asked in confusion.
“There was an incident,” Harmony told her after taking a calming breath. “You’ve been in a coma ever since.”
“How long?” Aria whispered in a frightened voice.
“Just over three years,” Harmony replied, pulling her into another tender embrace.
“But I was just with you last night!” Aria objected in bewilderment. “How could three years have gone by? Wouldn’t time have passed even a little for me?”
“You’ve only just regained consciousness,” Rhapsody told her comfortingly. “The longer you are awake, the more memories may leak into your waking mind of what happened while you were in the coma.”
“What if nothing happened?” Aria asked anxiously. “What if I was just turned off like a computer?”
“We know that you were still partially aware,” Melody assured her warmly. “You were singing while you were asleep. We were able to communicate with you, to some extent, by singing back to you.”
“I was singing in a coma?” Aria asked in amazement.
“You weren’t just singing,” Rhapsody told her softly. “You brought so much love, hope and peace to this world that not a single person on earth doesn’t know your name.”
“I did?” Aria asked doubtfully.
“Yes, you did,” Harmony kissed her forehead. “You saved more people’s lives than any person in history. Because of you, there is no more disease, illness or sickness of any kind on this world. The songs you sang held the cure for every kind of sickness known to humans.”
“I…I…remember singing….something” Aria said slowly. “I was in this beautiful light, except that it wasn’t light. It was more than light. It was like my life before was a shard and I was suddenly reunited with the rest of the glass. I knew so much…and now it’s just…like Will o’ the Wisps.”
“Will o’ the Wisps?” Harmony repeated questioningly.
“The song, you know?” Aria replied.
“Should I know it?” Harmony asked uncertainly. “How does it go?”
Aria smiled. “It’s really pretty. I’ll sing it to you.”
Will o’ the Wisps
Like fire, you know, you know, even the stars you'd inspire
Like flame, I know, I know, that loving you will bring me pain
I know I've taken all leave of my senses, I want to be
closer to you. Nearing your light I become the nothingness...
....lose myself in your light
How can I make you take me away to the land that you
call your own? Give your love to me. Make me so happy,
I won't ever want to go home
Will o' the wisp, I can't turn away or resist
White fire deep in the blue. Hopelessly drawn into you
Like truth, you know, you know, everybody loves you, adores you
Like air, I know, I know, that I'm invisible, I'm not there
Can't be too quick to deny my heart, it's beating so
fast in the dark. I'm like a planet revolving around you,
why then can't you want me too?
Drawing me closer, leading my heart away
It's getting darker, longing for you this way
You're like a beacon, leading me through the night
Do I deserve you? Do I deserve your light?
Will o' the wisp, I can't turn away or resist
White fire deep in the blue, hopelessly drawn into you
Everyone stood staring at Aria in awe when she finished. If anything, her voice was even more beautiful than it had been when she was asleep.
“I’ve heard that song before, but not in English,” Rhapsody said with a sparkle in her eyes. “You just provided the first true translation of a language from the other side.”
“Huh?” Aria asked, nonplussed.
“You were singing all of your songs in a language nobody understood while you were asleep,” Capella explained patiently. “It bore no resemblance to any of the current languages on Earth, so linguists were unable to decode it without a translation key.”
“I was singing that song in another language when I was asleep?” Aria asked in amazement.
“We’ve got recordings of every single one of them,” Melody told her with a grin. “My sister, the linguist.”
“How old are we?” Aria suddenly asked Melody curiously.
“We turned seventeen four months ago,” Melody replied with a wide grin. “And guess who can drive!”
“No way!” Aria gasped, her eyes going wide.
As the candlelight flickered off Aria’s eyes, a collective gasp went around the room.
“What?” Aria asked nervously. “It was just an expression.”
“Hold still sweetie, I need to see your eyes,” Harmony whispered as she brought the candle closer to Aria.
Rhapsody let out a breath as she saw the same dark purple irises with lavender vines wrapping around them as she had seen in her dream so many years ago. They were crisp and alive, with the lavender tendrils moving around like the spiral arms of the galaxy.
“Wow…” Melody breathed in awe. “Is that what it looked like in your dream, Rhapsody?”
“Yep,” Rhapsody nodded, unable to look away from Aria’s mesmerizing eyes.
“May I ask what you are all looking at?” Aria asked lightly.
“Let me get a mirror,” Melody told her quickly.
“Just take a picture with your phone,” Aria suggested.
“All of our phones got fried when the power went out earlier,” Rhapsody replied with a small laugh. “You made quite the entrance on your return to this world.”
“I can’t believe I’ve been gone for three years,” Aria said, shaking her head disbelievingly. “This is going to take some serious reorganizing upstairs.”
“Here, take a look,” Melody said as she returned with a small mirror.
Aria gasped as she looked at her reflection. “Is that me? What happened to my face? My hair? Oh my God, I look like some fake ’n bake white girl!”
“You do not!” Melody giggled. “You look beautiful! And just be glad you didn’t turn completely white, like Capella and Rhapsody. No amount of tanning could make a white girl look as good as you.”
“Did I just change when I woke up?” Aria asked doubtfully.
“Just your eyes,” Harmony told her soothingly. “The rest of you was a lot more gradual.”
“But why?” Aria asked in frustration. “Do other coma patients change colors while they’re sleeping?”
“You were a special case,” Harmony replied awkwardly. “The circumstances of your injury resulted in the pigment and hair changes.”
“Why, what happened?” Aria asked curiously.
“I…I can’t talk about this,” Harmony finally whispered as a tear fell down her cheek. “Can we save that for a later time?”
“Okay mom,” Aria replied, gently brushing the tear from her mother
’s cheek. “Whenever you’re ready.”
Epilogue
Aria stood in the dining room looking out the window at the drizzling rain as she watched the power slowly return to the rest of the street. Apparently, her return to the physical realm had triggered a power outage that had knocked out the entire northwest corner of the country.
Dr. Cole had arrived shortly afterward, worried that the lack of power would be affecting the medical equipment. She had nearly had a heart attack when Melody brought her face to face with a standing and talking Aria. Dr. Cole had spent almost five minutes staring hypnotically into Aria’s lavender irises before Rhapsody finally pulled her away.
Dr. Cole had the only working phone, since all of the phones near Aria had been completely destroyed by the electromagnetic pulse that heralded her return from the other side. Rhapsody had briefly skimmed the internet to determine the magnitude of the power outage, as well as note that a growing number of Aria fans were convinced she was about to awaken after hearing her latest song.
“What do you want for your first breakfast in three years?” Capella asked with a mischievous twinkle in her blue eyes.
“I…I don’t think I can eat,” Aria replied hesitantly. The thought of eating anything felt so alien to her that she felt small shivers of nausea quiver through her stomach just talking about it.
“We’ll start you on a liquid diet until your body adjusts,” Dr. Cole told her reassuringly. “It can take some time to readjust to a solid diet.”
“I don’t think I can drink anything either,” Aria admitted softly. “I…think this body is going to reject anything foreign.”
“What do you mean?” Dr. Cole asked curiously. “When you say ‘this body’, are you thinking of yourself in the third person?”
“Sort of,” Aria replied slowly. “This isn’t really my body. It’s kind of hard to explain, but it’s more of a loan. I’m not sure how I know that, but that sounds right. I’m starting to get little flickers of memory from when I was asleep and one thing I remember clearly is that I was only allowed to come back under very strict conditions.”
“What were the conditions?” Rhapsody asked intently. She was leaning on the kitchen counter with one arm wrapped casually around Capella’s waist.
“The most important condition was that I wouldn’t defile this body with anything from the physical realm,” Aria said with a small frown. “I’m not sure what that means in its entirety, but when I think about eating or drinking it feels very wrong, like I would be putting impure substances in this body.”
“A body has to have nourishment, Aria,” Dr. Cole said firmly.
“It will receive nourishment,” Aria assured her with a smile. “Just not from the same thing mortal bodies receive nourishment from.”
“Then what?” Dr. Cole asked doubtfully.
“Light,” Aria said simply. She raised her hand into the air and pulled on the invisible tether she could feel connecting her to something greater. A shaft of light shot down harmlessly through the ceiling and landed into her hand.
“That was cool,” Melody noted with an awed smile. “What other tricks did you learn on the other side?”
“I guess we’ll have to find out as we go along, won’t we?” Aria answered with a matching smile.
Still Alive Page 21
