THE SLIDE: Part 3
Chapter 36: Three Vibrational Realms
Weaving Timelines
Recap
The two-twin boy-toddlers ran through the courtyard into the arms of their mother, the Queen.
In the wide clear river just outside the unassuming palace, a black creature with no eyes moved just below the surface. It had a bulbous head and tentacles. It jetted through the waters. In the distance was a large pyramid structure covered in alabaster, turquoise bands, gold at the apex, adorned the surface. And atop the structure was a crystalline light emitting eye.
Zed and The SS Meeting
R, D, A, Q, and U met with Zed stuffed into his secret, secret office. Zed was the tallest of the group — about 5 feet. They were all short and burly.
“Well?” Zed tapped his fingers impatiently on the desktop.
“Sir, we have failed you,” Q spoke hurriedly. “We have assassinated none of those on the list.”
Zed paused, his face fattening and turning red. He exploded into raucous laughter. “As I recall (haw-haw-haw) most that were on list died (haw-hah-haw) in this tragic disaster,” he managed to blurt out between laughing. Then, a pause, and more laughter.
The others joined him. And while they got carried away with laughing Zed stopped abruptly and waited to see who would follow his cue.
A halted his laugh and stared at Zed a moment before looking down. The others followed suit.
“I need you all to find out who was not killed and use plan M to make them disappear. In the meantime, I will be on a 72-hour vacation. A will be in command. Dismissed.”
They stood and filed out one-by-one from the cramped space. A stayed behind and conferred with Zed. Zed left and A sat at the Big Desk.
When he looked at the big fat procedural book, a scrap of paper caught his eye.
It was Zed’s scrawl. It read:
I grow oh so weary of this human thing, this role and I long for the open — it stopped.
Two Confer
“Where is Mustafah?” the older black woman shouted in a demanding tone.
“No need to shout, woman. I am here,” Mustafah said as he faded into view from inside the wide-beamed light fountain to outside at its border.
“Are they coming? Is it time?” the woman asked.
“Tisk, tisk, let go of this thing of time,” the wrinkled old man said. “I have read the sands, and I have seen they will arrive when they arrive.”
“Thank you, old friend. I was stuck back in that story. And Kuzma he comes too?”
“But of course. Please remember, only then will it be clear.”
Kuzma And Tem
The two strolled along the walkway by the river near the Queen and her Pharaoh’s home. They stopped as the walkway ascended above the gardens giving them full and close view of the Queen, her Pharaoh and the twin boys.
“What do you see?” Kuzma asked Tem.
“The Pharaoh and his Queen,” Tem said flatly.
“Anyone else?”
“No, but the Queen, I know her. I’ve seen her before. But I just can’t place the name or where I know her from. She has something to do with Francois, my brother.”
“Do you remember Ivanovich?” Kuzma wondered casually.
“Of the Slide? Yes. I do remember.” Tem was astounded.
“Then we go there.”
Kuzma stood, inviting Tem to stand.
Both of them stood near a Churn within the Slide. Tem had a thousand questions, but thought to suppress them. Kuzma stepped back and Tem followed. Ivanovich met them. He gestured for them to follow him and Louie. They transversed the slope downwards as the light faded. In the ravine’s depth, they reached a long tube about 9 feet high and twelve feet across. The four were ushered inside.
They passed from the outer chamber or foyer of the tube into a long tunnel with an opaque roof and walls. The place was lined with people. As Kuzma and Tem passed, the people fell into a hushed silence. About three hundred feet into the tube Ivanovich opened a second tube at a ninety-degree angle to the first and they descended sharply down some stairs. Tem sensed that they had passed underground. In seconds the tube leveled out. They stepped into a disc shaped room with several sarcophagi that could contain humans.
Kuzma and Ivanovich conferred. Ivanovich stepped forward followed by Kuzma, then Tem and Louie. Ivanovich removed a key from his belt and opened one of the sarcophagi. He gestured Tem to approach.
They all looked down into the open coffin. Tem was in shock.
Clearly Tem was looking at his self that had died at the hands of Farha.
“That is me.” The realization pervaded his being. He got it for a second, followed by a whirl of confused insanity. “Who does that make me?” he asked bereft with unfathomable sadness. “Who am I?”
Slightly faint, he leaned into the stout, Louie.
“I remember commanding Farha to kill me for raping her. But it wasn’t me that did that to her. It wasn’t me.”
He vanished.
Tem and Mustafah
He instantly reappeared faltered, righted himself, and beamed. Mustafah greeted him.
“Do you know where you are?” Mustafah asked.
“I am home. It is a relief to be here in Mecca.”
“I am glad you feel at home. Me thinks you are very attached to this identity of yours and that is right for the rest of the story to unfold,” Mustafah said.
“Are you the storyteller, Mustafah?” Tem asked.
Mustafah slapped his raised knee and shouted: “Yes, yes, my boy, I am he!”
“No need to shout,” a woman’s voice answered from nearby.
“Me thinks, someone wishes to see you,” Mustafah exclaimed. Tem somewhat heavier than the environs stepped forward. Mustafah led him forward out of the blur of the light fountain’s orbit…
Egypt
To the place that much later came to be known as Egypt, Egypt, Egypt… the phrase echoed in his head. Kuzma and Tem stood on the walkway beside the palace. Tem remembered his very real dream with Mustafah and… someone, but he could not remember her.
“And now, what do you see?” Kuzma asked Tem.
“Oh, my Spirits,” Tem said in wonder, “Those little boy twins. Oh my. One is François and the other is me. And while it’s true neither of them resembles either of us when we were of that age. From photographs…”
“Can we visit them?” Tem looked into Kuzma’s eyes.
“What do you think?”
“No,” Tem said.
“That’s right.” Tem looked down and asked: “Will you be taking me back?”
“It’s not up to me,” Kuzma said quietly.
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