THE SLIDE, Part 2
Chapter 14 | Secrets and Love, the past (continued)
Fantasy | The Love Affair Continues
Night of Visions
Farha kissed Sofie in the foray of the Main House. They spent moments of eternity in a passionate embrace. Farha had reassured her that there would be no traffic at that late hour.
“Of course, I believe you. And I am worried about my job,” Sofie had said previously. Passion had consumed them both. It was a sweetness that Farha had never experienced before. It felt like love, but she dared not say it aloud.
Farha slept soundly until 3 am when a stain-glassed window broke in front of her. The shattered pieces reminded her of sunlight through the spray of a wave crashing on a rock at a great opening to an enormous body of water. Though it was nothing she had ever seen before, it seemed familiar. She remembered standing on a “beach” with a man — her husband and her child. It felt right and good. A wide, glorious smile formed on her face, lips, and mouth as the salty water spray caressed her face.
A great longing seized her heart as his hand found her hand and the small child that was cradled in the crook of his right arm waved at her and called out,
“Mama, Mama, waves. Waves big and strong waves big and strong,” the girl child laughed. Such happiness, bliss, and joy-filled her body. She couldn’t remember when she was happier.
Glass from the shattered stained glass, in an inward moving explosive blast, wiped the beach, her family clean with a flash of a distant light. A great cloud jetted up from the ground and consumed the sky like a button on a mushroom. Tinier bits of glass flew by so closely and so… slowly… The wave of fire vanished in an effervescence dust cloud and was gone. The plain ahead was clear and devoid of life, cleansed to the bone.
Time sped up from its slow-motion crawl. Places in the flat desert dropped and filled with waters and she exhaled, feeling the distant coolness of… the fluid. Plant species were born, grew, and died back in the desert. A landmass above the plain, once green with life, vented steam and the ground split open, forcing the material to the surface, forming a volcano.
A light exploded over her head in the far eastern sky behind her. She turned to look. As it descended into an array of multicolored purples, oranges, reds and greens, it arched across the clear sky, turning tonight. It passed directly overhead and spanned passed the volcano over the small sea. Her consciousness rode the stellar object as it flew over a dark continent to the west and plunged into a blackened watered sea with an explosive force throwing sea and earth into the sky and onto the land. A wave formed and swept over the coast to the east.
As she returned to her body, time sped up again, day into night, into day into night, faster and faster until it came to a stop. She wondered when last she slept, last she ate. The volcano and the small sea to the west were gone, and a blurred substance filled the air. Where were her child and her husband? What were their names? Who were they? Who was she?
She did not remember lying down in the bed in the province of France in the West Euro-Asia Confederacy or that the year was 2029 After Apocalypse Era.
An hour before dawn, she was calm enough to fall asleep. A horse between her thighs.
Breathing heavily.
Thundering on a hard-packed road faster.
Sweating profusely.
Blur of encampments/observation bivouacs passed.
Horse halts, I go over. Ringing — ears.
Lightning. In the air, from the ground — up.
Pain.
Blackness.
Void.
Surprise Visits
Bisset in her official capacity as Commandant drove her personal E-Car to the Izem estate. According to the instrumentation in her vehicle, nearly the entire perimeter of the estate had an electronic boundary. All the entrances and exits by road were guarded and tightly controlled.
She waited impatiently at the main gate guard station.
“You aren’t expected,” the guard said, looking at his list. She offered a retinal scan and bio-metric hand/finger imprints, both of which the guard performed. This confirmed her identity.
She became increasingly irritated and impatient with the delay.
“You do know, Sargent that as Administrative Head of the Memory Group stationed here, I can have you permanently transferred to any one of the remote Beldovia Outposts?”
As Farha and Sophie slipped through the electronic boundary seemingly undetected and ran along the fire trail towards the nearest town. They felt free.
At the outskirts of the town, they smiled as they heard the train whistle. Rounding a corner, they collided with Tem. Waiting, twenty feet behind him, were three guards.
“Where do you think you are going?”
“We’re eloping. No-no-no. That’s not quite the word,” Farha laughed with glee.
“We escaping. Going to Lourdes,” Sophie said.
“To the three Mother Saints healing hot steam pools,” Farha added.
“Not without notifying us. Do you realize how much trouble you may have put me and your aunt in, Farha? Not to mention the two of you?”
Commandant Bisset entered the meeting room of the Memory Wing of the Izem Estate and was met by the leader of the memory team, the woman she had hand-picked for the assignment: Captain Moreau. Marie expected the same oft-putting brusqueness from her captain as had been the manner of the guard. But she was unexpectedly surprised.
“I am so relieved you are here, Commandant. There have been changes. I would have informed you, but there is a gag-order in place.”
“If you return with me without a fuss, the guards will not be needed,” Tem said.
Sophie and Farha were deflated, but they agreed to return.
Once in Aunt Mila’s E-Car Farha asked:
“How did you know where to find us?” Farha asked.
“I do not know, but there is an electronic boundary around the estate. And I presume they may have guessed the rest,” Tem said.
The Slide: Parts One & Two Index:
The Slide: Parts Three & Four Index:
Thank you for reading and for your support. Comments and questions are welcome.
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