Global Warming Fun 5: It’s a Dry Heat

by Gary J. Davies

CHAPTER 17

  A NEW BEGINNING

  "Wake up, lazy bones," said a voice that sounded an awful lot like Mary's. "Get your lazy butt up and out of that tent!"

  After a fitful night of trying to sleep at last it was morning. When Ed woke the reality of Mary's death came crushing down on him yet again, but he was very confused to hear her voice. "WHO IS THIS?" he asked apprehensively, using his implant.

  "WHO WERE YOU EXPECTING?" replied the voice silently.

  Ed was already dressed and wearing his shoes, and he quickly got himself up and out of the tent. Before him glittering in the morning sun towered a sixty-foot tall Stone-Coat giant. "Mary?" he asked. "Is it really you?"

  "Sure seems like it," the giant responded. "You're certainly a lot smaller than I remember you, Ed. I would hug and kiss you, but that would of course be instantly fatal for you."

  "You're a lot bigger!" he muttered stupidly.

  "Yes, I did gain a few hundred tons since yesterday," Mary replied. "Maybe it was the high-carb diet. But I feel very healthy and new for the first time in years! What do you think of my diamonds?"

  "You're spectacularly beautiful Mary!" said Ed. Her entire body was encased in huge diamonds. Beneath those other giant gems of various types and colors could be barely discerned. As he watched, her entire body began to glow, in several different colors."

  "I tweaked my body design by adding glow lights," said Mary. "You know how I've always liked a little glitter, Ed. I wanted to highlight my inner gem-stones. I should be super-spectacular at night and under-water."

  "Wow! What a nifty idea!" He reached up his arms towards her and she reached down with a massive stone hand that he climbed into. Cradled in her hand she lifted him up to stand on her diamond-encased shoulder, where he could be close to one of her dark dinner-plate sized eyes. At night they would glow red, but in daylight they were totally black.

  "I'm fabulous Ed!" she said. "Except for one important thing. I'm going to miss you."

  "I'm so relieved that you're alright, Mary! I mean it obviously isn't you but it certainly is you! But I don't understand how that's possible. I'm no psychologist, but being changed from a human to a Stone-Coat has to be a huge shock psychologically, even if Stone-Coats took care of the physical aspects."

  "But I've been preparing for it for months," said Mary. "The Stone-Coats offered this fate to me months ago, when they realized that my health was deteriorating. It's an incredible honor to be the first human in the universe to become a Stone-Coat. I've worried greatly about you though, Ed. What do you think about it? And be honest!"

  "I'll let you know when I wake up from a crazy fantasy that I'm having," said Ed.

  "It's even crazier from my perspective, but truth and reality can be stranger than fiction, Ed."

  "Apparently so! Where did the other Stone-Coat giant go? You know, the big one that stood guard over you and powered the transference."

  "Pre-dawn we exchanged information for hours while my physical self matured. After he satisfied himself that the transference was totally successful he headed back to the Ocean via the Creek bed. I told him that you and I need to be alone. We have some things to work out."

  "That's a huge understatement," said Ed. "Things such as where does this leave us? You died but you're not really dead, but you aren't human anymore! Now what? What do we do?"

  "That's the tough part, Ed; much tougher than changing from human into a rock-creature. You still have your life to live as a human, and I have my new life to live as a Stone-Coat ocean conservationist. We'll need to live apart."

  "You're going to live in the Pacific Ocean?"

  "For the most part," said Mary. "I'll also do some forestry work now and again."

  "What about me and the kids? And the Tribe? We're your family!"

  "And you always will be, and I'll miss you all terribly, but I've already said my goodbyes to all the others."

  "You did? That's what that business was when the kids visited last time! And it was the reason for that whole big ruckus with the Tribe when we left for our vacation! You never intended to return home from this vacation, did you! It's all been a big conspiracy that kept me in the dark!"

  "You probably wouldn't have let this happen if you knew," said Mary. "A few in the Tribe knew, including John Running Bear, Talking Owl and of course Frank. Our trip is a tribal spirit quest for us, according to them. Especially for me."

  "And Ann?" asked Ed. "Did she know?"

  "Yes, that's why she came home early from the UN."

  "And they all kept it secret from me!" said Ed. "I'm supposed to be the wise all-knowing telepathic Chief!"

  "We did it that way because we all love you, Ed. Don't be angry with them; it was my plan, not theirs."

  "You could have told me!"

  "It would have changed you, Ed, changed the Ed that I wanted to spend my last days with as a human. You still might have gone along with it as a consequence of love and logic, but you would have been terribly upset about it. I wanted our last human days together to be happy ones. And they were, weren't they?"

  "Of course they were, Mary! All my days with you have been wonderful, but mostly because you have been part of them! What am I going to do without you?"

  "You're going to go on living, Ed. You're going to continue being the wonderful man that I fell in love with and enjoyed my life with all these years. I'm joining the ranks of the Stone-Coats Ed, and you need to go on with your life without me, just as you would have had I merely died in the conventional sense. You might even want to remarry and have more kids."

  "Now that's a crazy thought!" said Ed.

  "Not so crazy at all," countered Mary. "Legally our marriage ended when I died yesterday."

  "You don't seem to be particularly dead," said Ed.

  "Please keep an open mind about remarrying, Ed. I can't imagine you getting along alone, and I want you to be happy."

  "Maybe I should move to Brooklyn with the kids. I'm a grandfather, you know!"

  "You should visit them and love them but not become too tied in with their lives," said Mary. "You have your own life to continue to live as a Chief of the Tribe and an expert on Stone-Coats and jants. You can't give that up! This world needs people like you more than ever!"

  "So then, I'm cursed to never retire?" Ed asked. "Buggers! I'll get by OK though, Mary. But what about you? You're going to miss people, I know you are! You're a real people-person Mary, much more so than I ever was!"

  "We'll see," said Mary. "My perspective has changed a bit, maybe because of my merging with Wheels."

  "What ever happened to Wheels?" Ed asked.

  "My personality sort of over-wrote his, but some of his remained. I retain all of his memories and computing abilities. I suspect that the merging of our personalities greatly helped me adjust to becoming a Stone-Coat."

  "But Wheels as a separate entity is gone?" said Ed.

  "To the degree he is gone he always expected to be," said Mary. "I have his memories and know now that his mission was always to become me through transference. To a significant degree he lives on as me. A lot of Wheels carried over into the new me that I have become. Ed, I understand math and science now for example, better than Frank ever will! And I'm really anxious to get to work on better understanding Ocean physics and biology! I think I can really make a difference in this world!"

  "Are your new Stone-Coat sea-going friends waiting for you?"

  Mary nodded her SUV-sized head. "Yes Ed. It's time for us to say goodbye. I'm really excited about going into the Ocean, meeting my new friends, and getting to work!"

  "Carry me as far as the shore then, Mary," said Ed. "I can at least go with you that far."

  "Yes," agreed Mary. "Besides, we could use some privacy. Right now I suspect that we are in world-wide news broadcasts." She pointed to the nearby redwood log. There were several people sitting atop it quietly, all of them watching them and many of them pointing cameras and parabolic microphones.

  "Good grief!" E
d sputtered. "Those sneaky news bastards!"

  Mary began walking through the great forest towards the ocean, dodging the great trees, with Ed riding atop her shoulder. "I'll head west straight for the shore instead of going the long way north along the Creek bed," she said.

  She tried to step lightly and avoid forest damage, but there was no doubt that she was leaving giant footprints as she crushed ferns, bushes, and some smaller trees.

  "You aren't going to get lost, are you?" he asked her. The big trees towered hundreds of feet above them, making every direction look much the same.

  "Unlikely. I seem to have magnetic compass sensing abilities. Accounting for local magnetic deviation, we travel west."

  Ed found a soaring hawk and they used its birds-eye view to map a reasonable path west towards the sea, mostly along stream-beds. Sharp hawk eyes also noticed several drones circling them high overhead.

  "I detect video signals from those drones, Ed," said Mary. "We may still be in the news."

  "Swell," said Ed. "I'll make sure that our hawk friend avoids them."

  "Withdraw from the hawk and let me try," said Mary.

  Ed apprehensively withdrew but to his utter astonishment his birds-eye view continued! "How is this happening?" he exclaimed.

  "Through your implant the Stone-Coats determined the human brain features needed for telepathy," Mary exclaimed. "They added that little twist to my design. I'm the first telepathic Stone-Coat Ed! This will revolutionize Stone-Coat design, and allow direct mind-to-mind telepathic interaction between Stone-Coats and many interesting biologics such as whales!"

  "That's wonderful Mary! As always, you're full of surprises!"

  Mary trudged on, dodging through gigantic redwoods. It all seemed eerily familiar to Ed. "Recently I've had dreams much like this," he mentioned finally.

  "Yes, those were given to you by Wheels via your implant," said Mary. "That was part of your conditioning to accept this new reality of mine. I received similar conditioning."

  "I still don't want to lose you, Mary," said Ed.

  "You won't," said Mary, "not totally. We'll even send occasional messages to each other, sort of like post cards. We have to part but we'll never fully lose each other, I promise. That's not possible because we'll always love each other, Ed. It's really as simple as that. You aren't going to totally lose me simply because I've died."

  The redwoods thinned-out into furs, spruces and other trees, then into bush-covered hills. Climbing hills used a lot of energy, and their progress slowed greatly. "Fortunately there are 38 known radioactive elements, and I'm using several of them as my primary power source for steam driven hydraulic locomotion," explained Mary, as she paused along the stream they followed to take on more water. "I'm also solar-powered, of course."

  "Of course," said Ed. "This is after all California. Say, maybe I could live on the beach near you. I have always thought that sand is yucky but I think I could get used to it. I'm already pretty used to living in a tent. I could get one of those metal detectors designed to find old coins that finds rusty nails instead. I'll use it to make the beaches safer for bare-foot beach-goers like me. I could collect sea-shells and sell them to grateful tourists and learn how to surf and skin-dive."

  "No way," said Mary. "You have your life at Giant's Rest. Those people need you. The Pacific Ocean needs me."

  "But I love you more than anything and I need you! For one thing you've always done the bills and taxes. And who's going to get me up in the morning? You've spoiled me into helplessness, Mary!"

  Giant Mary made an odd coughing sound that for many years Ed suspected to be Stone-Coat giant laughter. "My tax days are over Ed, but you'll get by fine. Get a new wife if you have to be babied or you feel alone, one that even knows how to do your taxes. Seriously Ed, as much as I love you I'm a Stone-Coat and you're a human. Do the math! Hey, we're approaching Route 101 south of Orick but north of Truman. I'll try not to step on anyone, but a crowd seems to be quickly gathering. Those people with the cameras were definitely news people."

  The CHiPs had already stopped traffic in both north and south directions and hundreds of cars were lined up in each direction. Several hundred locals and people from the cars stood to each side of a CHiP maintained fifty-foot stretch of empty roadway where Mary and Ed were evidently expected to cross the highway. A herd of elk grazing close by also watched the event as they contentedly grazed on grass.

  "That looks like Mara's limo parked nearby!" exclaimed Ed. "I wonder how she's going to spin this!"

  Mary could see much better using her dinner-plate sized eyes. "And that other thing parked nearby must be a flying limo," she said. "I see Mara standing with the Governor next to it! But I've given up on human politics, Ed. They better not be expecting a speech from either of us! There's Clancy and young Sam too!"

  They walked slowly and cautiously past the spectators without stopping, but they both waved as the excited crowd cheered and shouted. Ed spotted Clancy and Sam in the crowd and gave them a wave and a thumbs-up. "We'll pick you up on the beach," Ed heard Clancy shout in his deep loud voice.

  More astonishing still, Ed saw that near Clancy, Ann Richards and Mark Dawn Owl stood together watching as the new Mary strode past them. Mark was smiling, while Ann looked shocked and worried. For a moment her eyes met his but then strangely she looked away. Ed remembered that Mary spoke of Ann being troubled, and he wondered if it had to do with that, whatever that was.

  "WE CAME TO TAKE YOU BACK TO THE RESERVATION, CHIEF ED," said Mark telepathically. "WHEN YOU ARE READY, OF COURSE; I WOULDN'T MIND SEEING A LITTLE MORE OF CALIFORNIA FIRST."

  Mary meanwhile said only "oops; sorry," when her diamond claws and great weight left a nine-foot long footprint/pothole deep in the asphalt of Route 101.

  In response the crowd began to chant: "Ma-ry, Ma-ry, Ma-ry!"

  As she escaped the crowd, Mary carrying Ed moved on using rapid Earth-shaking twenty-foot strides. Soon the fleeing pair was out of the sight of the crowd and comfortably walking over bush and grass covered hills.

  "You'll have to convey my best wishes to our new California friends," said Mary, "especially Doll and Snake."

  "They were badly hurt but should pull through," said Ed.

  "I know," said Mary. "I intercepted much such information sent between humans after I regained consciousness. I doubt that you'll much miss Scar or that nasty woman-friend of his. Too bad about Clinton and Ken though."

  "Say, what about our secret message for Jerry?" asked Ed. "I suppose the Stone-Coats know about it now, right?"

  "The existence of a secret human-only part of the space project wasn't news to them at all, Ed," said Mary. "They fully expect humans to try to have their secret little projects, just as the jants do."

  "It doesn't bother them so much then?"

  "Not in the least, Ed. The Stone-Coats have their secret little projects too."

  "They do? I don't suppose you'd care to tell me about them, would you?" Ed had to ask.

  "No, probably not even if I knew what they all were," said Mary. "They did however recently influence the jants in your favor."

  "They did?"

  "Significantly. They have considerable influence with the jants. Added to your own arguments, the jants backed off from their attacks; at least this time they did. The West-Coast jants may have pushed things a bit too aggressively, many jant colonies world-wide feel."

  "That's all very interesting," said Ed, "but I still wonder what else Stone-Coats and jants are up to."

  "Don't worry too much about Stone-Coats; they generally like humans," said Mary, "or at least they find humans to be interesting and therefore of value to them intellectually and developmentally. We Stone-Coats generally like humans, I should say, since I've become one of them."

  "I've noticed," said Ed. "We're coming to the beach already."

  They crunched their way through a stand of shorter trees and brush to stand for a moment atop a sand dune that oversaw a broad beach. A hun
dred yards away along the beach in either direction there were small crowds of attentive people, held back by squads of CHiPs.

  Beyond the sandy beach a half a dozen great Stone-Coat giants stood waist-deep in the Ocean, waiting for Mary. Around them dozens of dolphins and gray whales spouted and splashed. Beyond them the Pacific Ocean stretched forever.

  "I brought the whales and dolphins here," said Mary, as she strode to the water's edge. The waves seemed moderately huge to Ed, though to the Stone-Coats that stood in the water watching Mary approach they were mere ripples. "Everyone is excited to meet me. Once I pass on design details to the other Stone-Coats they'll soon also be able to converse directly with the whales and other organics. It will be wonderful!"

  "It's really time to say goodbye now, isn't it!" said Ed.

  "Yes, my love." She lifted a giant clawed hand to her shoulder and he climbed into it to be lowered gently to the sand. "Though only for now," she added, as she looked down at him with dinner-plate sized black eyes. "You are invited to become one of us also Ed, when the time comes. At the rate you're not aging that could be centuries from now. Then if you still want to, we will be able to be together again. That's what I want, Ed. We'll be together again, I'm sure! Not forever but for a long, long time, even by geological standards."

  "But not yet," said Ed "Not now."

  "Not now. My new friends say you are currently of greater value as a human."

  "Swell, but your value as a Stone-Coat will be tremendous, Mary. I'm so proud of you! You're going to humanize them like crazy. Go get-um!"

  "I LOVE YOU ED, ALWAYS," she said through sound and thought, then turned and walked ponderously into the sea.

  Ed opened his mouth to say everything he felt, but couldn't speak with his voice or otherwise. Head spinning, he felt weak and hollow as he sank to his knees, and his throat was so dry it ached, though he was only a few feet from the largest body of water on Earth.

  Tears clouded Ed's own vision but he finally composed himself enough to find a soaring sea bird that he used to watch Mary clearly as with confident strides she reached water deep enough for the whales and dolphins to nose-against her like kittens, with apparent affection. Other whales joyously breached and splashed with their flukes and pectorals. Ed heard Mary's Stone-Coat laughter one more time before she and the other Stone-Coats turned as one west towards greater Ocean depths, and their glittering diamond encased stone heads at last sank beneath the waves.

  Ed persuaded his bird companion to circle above where they had disappeared for several long minutes but not even the sharp eyed bird could spot Mary again. The marine mammals occasionally surfaced for air, but gradually dispersed until only waves remained. Again and again he tried to reach Mary telepathically but she was gone.

  Ed finally released the bird. The bird had its own life to live, as did Mary the Stone-Coat. His love, the woman Mary, was gone forever. And as with most truly important things in life, there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it. It took all his strength to stand up wearily and turn away from the beckoning sea, east towards distant Giants' Rest Mountain.

  A flying car landed on the beach nearby, and a small crowd of people that were his good friends climbed out of it and walked towards him with open arms and hearts.

  And Ed's human life continued.

  ****

  The End (For Now)