Aquari
Page 48
Chapter 10: Beataphoriah
When the next telegram from Aunt Jabeeb in Gulfang arrived for Ploabot to receive at his home, he then understood the routine, and just signed for the delivery. It had been another letter from Veldada. He immediately settled in his favorite chair with the opened letter to read it.
“It’s I Veldada as Jabeeb I send
this letter as someone else for pretend.
As a renegade I can just come out
to whisper the news I would rather shout.
I had told you Hanson did not survive.
Now I write to tell you he is alive.
A miracle or something yet to learn
made Hanson alive when he was to burn.
It was at the funeral when a light
came down from the sky on him in our sight.
Then he arose as if only asleep,
tearing cloth off himself on the wood heap.
Now Hanson is alive and he is healed
perfectly well his fate no longer sealed.
The light however, that brought him to life
animates him only as if alive.
The light is from the galaxy of stars
shining out there that are other than ours.
He’s back to life. I should not be sorry,
but he now speaks of another story.
He is still Hanson they’re in the same place.
I see the same lover and the same face.
He says he’s Aquari. I do not care.
He is my Hanson. I know he’s still there.
Hanson’s alive thanks to light that can fly.
He remembers everything and says ‘Hi’.
He died like I told you. I had not lied.
He knows a lot more from the other side.
There is something else about Hanson now.
His hair stands straight up, yet no one knows how.
His hair points upward, and it will not lean.
It’s the strangest thing that I’ve ever seen.
He is now back. He is still my Hanson.
We’re back working on maybe a man son.
Sorry for the letter I sent before.
He came back to life, and is dead no more.
That’s the reason for the letter you hold.
We felt that you, Ploabot, had to be told.
You can reach us with this letter returned
to the return address you should have learned.
I will write again soon. Now I must go.
Hanson’s alive! I wanted you to know.”
The letter had been stupendous news for Ploabot, which relieved him of a weight of sorrow now suddenly gone; dispelled by the magic of the letter. His friend was now not only alive, but back from the dead to become now more than just an ordinary Uranian. There were pictures with the letter. Some were of the funeral showing a kaleidoscopic circle of light descending on a funeral pyre that had Hanson’s dead body on it. Then he saw a picture showing Hanson and Veldada together, alive and well. Ploabot held the picture of Veldada with the resurrected Hanson, and felt astonished by his best friend’s new hairdo. It stood straight up just like Veldada said. It had been the strangest thing he’d ever seen when included with the fact that his best friend had been dead, and now is alive.