THE SLIDE
Chapter 22: Most of It
Part 2 — Fantasy, Mystery/Thriller, Drama
Ra Bi-Locates
Ra’s head brightened into the Sun. He looked down over his rail thin body at his navel where a gush of water flowed. It was a dam somewhere up river that gave way and let a tidal wave of Farha’s sorrow, loss, grief and confusion flow down river with ferocious rage.
I will take my leave of you. I know you need not be reminded of the obvious, however, don’t hold back. As the memories flow through you, honesty is best. I hope to return soon. If not soon, then the timing is tuned to the star we call the sun and it will be right. His thoughts and images of the flood swept her away.
He faded from view. The small sun remained where his head had been.
Slide Chaos
“There were the four of us,” Farha began in the windowless tan room where she had been first questioned by the Magistrate. “We didn’t know that we had entered the Slide for the first 8 hours. It seemed like the road into the desert lengthened. There was no blur, no electric-static crackle, no lightning, no disruption at all looking east, I mean west. Around sunset of the first day, the horizon blurred the orange — sand colored light cast a blur on us. Behind us to the west was an ever-growing hum of the edge of the Slide,” Farha paused for a drink of water.
“Before you continue, Ms. Izem, could you please name the other three people with you? For the court record,” the Magistrate requested.
“Myself, Uncle Tem, Pierre Tueterria, and Tee Lactea,” a single tear slowly wove its way down Farha’s cheek, occasionally picking up the lights from the ceiling and refracting into various places in the room.
Her sadness and grief for losing the others infected the room with an overwhelming heaviness. There were no more words, and her memories were blocked by silent grief. Even the Magistrate’s gentle push was not effective. Defense counsel stepped in and called for a day’s recess. And to everyone’s surprise, Judge Truffaut granted it.
Destinations
Someone is watching me, Ra thought as he warmed stones in the bottom of the wood stove across dimensions. No answer.
Your presence is strong, Ra floated the thought near to her or him. He could feel the hesitancy from this human being.
Do your work, the thought came from Orca. Ra nodded internally in the affirmative. In compressed time, the six-hour stone warming was compressed into 90 seconds. Ra slowly left the dreamtime space and entered the cabin. It had been the cabin where Sophia, Tee, and Farha had stayed for one night.
The space had smatterings of lavender light. He knew it came from Orca via an intermediary of some sort. But he felt it was not the being who was watching him.
The Next Day in Court
“I noticed that the lay of the land was exactly duplicated outside the Slide — one of the former villages that had been destroyed by the Slide slipping into our desert. Destroyed huts, metal shards, and bits were everywhere. Stinking dead corpses appeared and disappeared quickly, like a magician was pulling strings. Ghosts arose from the corpses and became as real as you or me. They attacked each other, killing each other, and then they were gone as if they never existed.
“Uncle Tem was constantly adjusting the force field around us. When he first turned it on, we felt safe for a short time, some minutes, and then the field itself became like a magnet and started pulling the weird corpses and people attacking each other towards us. Uncle made more adjustments in the field, including turning it off for a time. After what seemed like hours in the night without stars, he rigged the field in such a way to make us feel safe.
“Tem chewed on Bru Root to stay awake. Once the field seemed to keep the outside weird stuff away, I started using the instruments to see if we could find the stable place we had found in our most recent satellite scans.
“There was a groove in a low-lying gully as if it had been carved out by hand, to the northwest of our position, about a mile to six miles away. It was hard to tell. The instruments couldn’t sift through the interference. This was one place where we had picked up heat signatures from humans in a concentrated space.
“When the light came, and the sun rose, the force-field shorted out. Moments after that happened — when we were gathering our gear, Tee collapsed. It was awful. It seemed like something possessed him on the inside. His eyes darted back and forth. He hit himself with his fists.
“And… And…” she stopped. Her eyes glazed over. Farha was in Paris with Sophie.
The judge called a recess until afternoon.
The Mountain Top Observation Post
Ra awoke with a start. He felt the presence of the shielded observer. She was angry with him,
Why have you left The Anointed One so exposed? Exposed to the dangers of the psychic? The thought invaded his consciousness.
What are you not communicating about this? Ra thought with firm affront.
I see you are aware of the psychic. Are you aware that he is the front man for the Dark One?
I know you know who I am. Who are you? Stop shielding yourself from me, Ra pushed the thought to the forefront of her mind.
Children, stop your bickering. You need one another. Each of you has blind spots, Orca brought both of them into the lavender space.
Ra laughed heartily and proclaimed, “You are Sophia Papadopoulos, daughter of Nikos.”
“And you are a fool,” Sophia said.
STOP it was Orca thought to both of them. The Orca only to Sophia, sent thoughts: Tell him of the block that was put on him so he does not see the Dark One. Make it so that he can covertly see this Dark One.
Orca has instructed me to show you what she has commanded me to do, Sophia thought, and she instructed Ra on her way of seeing covertly.
Ra absorbed and incorporated her teaching, to which Ra showed Sophia the end game plan.
“Yes,” Ra said, “I need you.” She nodded in reciprocal agreement and Ra received her thought: Likewise.
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