Dark Day Dreams, page 3
Sarnathan was mildly disappointed the kid had gotten away. But there were always new, vulnerable mortals for him to prey on and a lot of rangers far less capable than the Midnight Kid protecting them.
A Holy Amputation
Benjamin stood out on his deck and looked up at the night sky. He lived far enough from Seattle that the light pollution lessened and he could often see the stars shining high above him, pinned to the night’s black velvet.
He wondered if God was up there, looking down and enjoying the antics of the human race.
His wife Marie had already gone to bed but he had wanted to sit by himself on this warm summer night and ponder things a bit. It was something he’d done since he was eight or nine years old. His mother had often called him her little ruminator. For a while he’d been confused, thinking the name had something to do with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
He was drinking his second bourbon on the rocks, feeling philosophical. Certain recent events had forced him (and a lot of other people) to stop and really think about what they believed.
He considered himself a tortured agnostic…he’d never felt any kind of supernatural presence in his life but also wondered how anybody could completely rule out the possibility it might exist somewhere in this vast universe. He was an American Jew, the product of liberal New York parents who felt more passion for social justice and Broadway shows than Moses and the Wailing Wall. They supported Israel up to a point but were also quick to condemn the settlers doing their best to encroach on Palestinian farm land.
They were both gone now. He missed them but also felt good about the fact they’d both lived long, interesting lives and neither had suffered (relatively speaking) too badly at the end. Marie’s mother had died from emphysema and he had considered that a true horror show, almost like watching someone drown on dry land.
He’d been drawn out to the Seattle area by a tech start-up. While he missed the Big Apple at times, for the most part he felt like it had been a good move. And the change had been good for Marie as well. She seemed so much more relaxed these days.
He envied her sometimes. Sure, she had her problems and stresses like anybody else but she was also so damn good at pulling down her mental shades ignoring the outside world when she deemed it necessary. She was an informed person and could give a reasonably nuanced answer if somebody asked her what was going on these days in the news. But whatever was happening never seemed to keep her from getting a decent night’s sleep.
He loved her so much. She was kind, smart, strong and very sexy.
He was having trouble sleeping these days. Like a lot of people, he couldn’t stop thinking about what was happening in the Middle East.
***********
Ferran finished his evening prayers, said goodbye to some of his fellow worshippers and left the mosque. It was a brutally warm night in Mecca and he wondered how people in this part of the world had ever survived without air conditioning. Then he laughed at himself, thinking about how soft he’d become in his middle age.
The mood at the mosque had been strange lately. It often felt like the worshippers were just going through the motions, talking to a deity they were no longer sure had any interest in what they had to say. The Imam’s tone seemed muted, far different than the way he sounded just a couple years ago when preaching about sin and righteousness.
Ferran himself had been feeling distracted during the services. For so many years, the mosque was one place where he could truly relax and let go of his cares and troubles…he could lay it all at the feet of Allah. But lately it seemed like if he didn’t force himself to focus, his mind would wander off and masochistically attach itself to the dark subject matter none of them could stop thinking about.
His wife and two teen-age daughters hadstopped going to the mosque. She and Ferran had fought about it at first but eventually he gave in and agreed these were unusual times and everybody was entitled to deal with matters of faith in their own way. It was ironic they lived in such a strongly patriarchal society but yet he felt like she won all their arguments.
He stopped at a sidewalk café, ordered a cup of espresso and waited for his friend Alim to arrive. They’d known each other since they were twelve and never seemed to run out of things to talk about.
When Alim finally showed, Ferran pointed a finger at him and said, “I really need to start telling you to show up a half hour before I do. Maybe then you’ll actually be on time for once…”
Alim waved him away and replied, “You can’t change me now, my brother. I will always be a free spirit who blows in when the feeling moves him.” They both laughed and took comfort in their longtime camaraderie.
Alim said, “Did you come here from evening prayers?”
“Yes. But I don’t know why I bother to keep going. Everything is so confusing right now…the thing that has always helped me stay calm is starting to feel like a bad joke.”
Alim put his finger up, indicating his friend should not say such things too loudly. “You still need to be careful about what you say in public, Ferran. The world may have gone crazy but for the time being the clergy still control things in this country. And there is still time left for them to make life miserable for anybody who gets out of line.”
“I know, I know. I’m just frustrated.”
He took a sip of his drink and then asked Alim if he had been making any money lately.
“Not bad. The orders at the factory are up.”
“Aren’t they preparing to move to Malaysia?”
Alim suddenly had an uncomfortable look on his face. He replied, “Yes, that’s all coming together.”
Ferran looked out at the street and felt stupid for asking about the factory. He had already known what the answer would be and now he felt horrible. It was the emotional equivalent of picking at a scab.
Alim could sense his friend’s sudden gloom. He said, “Let’s talk about something more pleasant. Seen any decent movies on the satellite channels lately?”
***********
Thousands of miles away, a middle-aged woman named Louise sat in her Tulsa office andturned on the television. She sighed and leaned back in the chair, feeling the weight of the world and her empty personal life pressing down on her. It was times like these she missed her ex-husband the most…she used to like it when they just sat and had long talks about whatever happened to be bothering them.
She worked in real estate and made a good income. Since her husband Bob ran off with his secretary, she spent a great deal of her free time at church. She attended services on both Sundays and Wednesdays and often travelled to religious conferences both in and out of state.
Today she was watching an interview with the Pope. He’d been asked about the current situation in the Middle East and what could be done about it. He said humanity should continue reaching out and keep looking for any kind of peaceful solution.
The pontiff’s words just irritated Louise. Despite what Jesus had advised, folks from Oklahoma weren’t all that comfortable with turning the other cheek. She thought peaceful solutions were all fine and good but there was also nothing wrong with pushing back against those who threaten or try to control us. Give those bastards some Old Testament pre-emptive eye for an eye treatment.
She bowed her head and said a prayer:
“Dear Lord, please help me understand why this is happening. I believe completely in your great and everlasting plan but I have to admit you’ve really lost me this time. Why are you allowing this to happen? Is this truly your doing or one of Satan’s unholy schemes?”
Louise picked up a tissue and wiped her eyes. She’d talked to Reverend Matthews a couple times about her depression but it didn’t seem like he really had answers either. She felt bad for him too…she was sure every pastor, priest, rabbi and Muslim holy man was scrambling to provide comfort to their confused and increasingly disillusioned flocks.
She’d been lonely ever since her husband had walked out on her. But these days the sense of loss and isolation seemed so much worse. This was pain on a cosmic scale, a sense almost epic disconnection unlike anything most of mankind had ever encountered before.
She was so frustrated and so tired. Over the past six months, it seemed like her dreams had turned darker and darker. She felt like she and the rest of humanity were being forced to walk into a dark tunnel filled with spiritual dangers and no matter how much she sought out the Lord, He didn’t answer back.
************
What dark shadow was hanging over the hearts of these people, you ask? Three years earlier, the U.S. government announced they’d made contact with an alien race that had recently begun exploring our galaxy. They referred to themselves as the Troon.
The visitors sent a message that showed what they looked like. Their bodies were similar to ours in terms of size but their skin was a shade of gold and they were completely hairless. They had two eyes and a mouth but no nose. There were both males and females on the ship (the second group wore blue amulets). The president reached out to the leaders of several other major countries in secret and then the news was finally delivered to all of humanity.
People’s reaction was about what you’d expect…a mixture of awe and instant, paranoid hostility. Military leaders from all over the world demanded that we destroy these alien visitors before they could take us out. The apocalypse hungry folks went on television and declared the Troon’s arrival was absolutely without a doubt a sign the End of Days had arrived (though they were never able to adequately explain how the arrival of these gold humanoids fit into their particular religion’s prophecies). New Agers put a positive spin on the situation and declared it was the beginning of grand new era of universal understanding and love.
Approximately one year later, the Troon landed in the U.S., Russia, China, France, India, Brazil, Zaire and Australia. Their landing crafts were roughly twice the size of our private jets and were communicating at all times with a much larger mother ship hovering high in the atmosphere. Ten beings exited from each ship that touched down on Earth.
The leaders of the different landing teams simultaneously raised their right arms and every human on the planet heard a gentle voice speaking in a language they easily understood. This was the message:
“Inhabitants of Earth, you have nothing to fear from us. We are merely explorers at this point in our evolution. Our only wish is to help you advance your own civilization so you can eventually join our group of allied worlds and gain a greater understanding of the wonders to be found in the known universe.”
And for the next three years, everything was great. The visitors gave humanity a cure for cancer, a technology that would decrease the carbon levels in the atmosphere to a safe level and a formula for turning hydrogen into a safe, infinite source of power.
All this good news gradually began to affect the way most humans viewed life. It felt like there was a really possibility the race would not only survive but prosper. Crime went down and people started caring less about what they could obtain and more about helping the less fortunate rise up out of their misery. There was less bad news on television and more experts talking about wonders we might all experience in the near future because of Troon technology.
Armed conflicts around the world even began to decrease. A cable news pundit said he wondered if some people were scared they might die and miss out on whatever the Troon planned on doing for humanity next.
The New York Times carried a photo of the visitors on the cover one day with the headline “Saviors From Space?”
One evening the president of the United States sat in the Oval Office having an end of the day cocktail with her Secretary of State. She told him, “I know all the things the Troon have provided are wonderful. But sometimes I wake up at 3am and get this awful feeling they’re eventually going to send us a bill or demand the proverbial pound of flesh. This all just feels way too easy.”
************
It turned out the visitors did have a leader. He was known as Narath Mee and roughly three years after the arrival, he decided to do a press conference in London. A human advisor had told him she felt her own race would be more comfortable receiving a message this way than having it suddenly jammed into their minds.
He began speaking. “I want to thank you all for attending today. I have an important announcement to make. We began studying your civilization ten Earth years before we made contact. I don’t want to sound condescending but we have found you to be a fine, resourceful race and with our help it’s very possible you will someday be able to spread out into space and fulfill your cosmic destiny.”
Many of the reporters smiled. They felt like little kids again, watching the first Star Wars movie or Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
“I have to say we have enjoyed helping humanity and we appreciate how generous you’ve been about sharing your cultures with us. I for one am especially fond of Homer Simpson and this thing you call spaghetti.”
The crowd laughed.
“However, there is an issue that needs to be dealt with if your race is to keep moving forward. Our research has found one geographical area that is so filled with hatred, intolerance and lust for revenge there is no doubt it will eventually serve as ground zero for a nuclear conflagration that will erase all but a few of you. And the ones who survive will only be around for a few brutal years.”
“We have decided that in one Earth year, we will dispose of the following countries: Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. We will use technology that extinguishes all life within the borders of those countries and will also destroy any human being who tries to enter those areas from that time on.”
The room erupted with reporters yelling out questions. Narath Mee held up his hand and said, “You have a year to vacate those countries. My people will be leaving the planet as of today and will not be returning until the operation has been completed.” The he turned and walked out of the room, followed by three other Troon.
During the days that followed, the news was filled with voices of anger, sadness and panic. Senior officials from the U.N. and all the targeted countries desperately tried to contact the Troon mother ship but it was no use.
The visitors had no interest in making deals or negotiating…they believed their data was absolutely correct. As far as they were concerned, there was no possible scenario where those countries continued to exist and the rest of humanity survived.
And humanity really had no leverage. The aliens were all off planet at this point and there was no doubt they could easily fend off any kind of attack initiated by the people of Earth. The president held a press conference and firmly said she had no intention of sending any Americans up on a suicide mission.
Religious scholars of all persuasions issued statements, some attempting to keep people calm and others shaking an angry rhetorical fist at the giant ship hovering far out in space. One despondent Israeli rabbi went on television and wept openly, saying he felt like the people of the region had brought this upon themselves. “We’ve had thousands of years to figure out how to live together and we’ve utterly failed. God has run out of patience.”
A famous American televangelist (and long-time critic of the president) claimed the Troon had been sent by Satan and we needed to do everything in our power to fight them. “This is it, the battle we’ve all been waiting for. Our military leaders need to take matters into their own hands and destroy these vile creatures. God will surely be on our side.”
The relative calm that the Middle East had enjoyed prior to the announcement seemed to evaporate. The different Sunni and Shia factions began battling more ferociously for territory than ever. The various jihadist groups grew more brutal, looking for new and crueler ways to torment and kill anybody they considered a heretic.
A CNN commentator called the renewed fighting in that part of the world a special kind of madness…men killing each other so they could be the last ones to control territory that for all practical purposes would soon no longer exist.
************
Nine months before the deadline, Benjamin pulled some family strings and was able to book seats for himself and his wife on a flight into Tel Aviv.
It was so strange… he’d never had an overwhelming desire to visit Israel in the past. But since the visitors had made their announcement, it was all he could think about. It was that same desperate feeling people have when they’re trying to make it home in time to say goodbye to a dying parent.
At the same time, an exodus of historic proportions was occurring all over the region. Immigration rules were loosened up worldwide and most of the citizens of the targeted countries (who weren’t busy killing each other) found themselves driving, flying, sailing and walking to new homes located all over the rest of the globe.
In addition, priceless ancient relics were also being crated up and moved outside the danger zone.
Benjamin and Marie hired a guide with a car to drive them all over the small country. Ironically, the man said he would be heading to America soon to live with relatives and start a new life in Los Angeles. He was sad to be leaving his homeland but also excited about trying something new. Benjamin smiled, thinking about what a strange new reason this was for someone to be pulling up roots and moving somewhere else.
As they toured the various historical locations, Benjamin told his wife he felt like there was a voice calling out to him…telling him about lives lived, lives lost and the sweep of history. This place was so old and so much had happened.
Marie felt bad for him. Her ancestors had lived in France and she knew it would bother her a lot if Paris and all the rest of that country disappeared. She could tell her husband was regretting the fact he just now had made it here, so close to the time when it would be shut off from everyone. They stayed a week and then flew back to the United States. Both of them were glad they had made the journey but also felt relief when they walked into their house outside of Seattle. The trip had been well worth taking but also profoundly sad.
