ELEVEN - the Pawn

Simon had hand delivered the VIH-dot. It was the only way Lady Grey could be sure to get the dot to us without it being intercepted by Ricci.

“And . . .” I said aloud though neither the Diofe nor Edlawit had returned. My only company the past hours had been the nods of the other inhabitants of the infinite house as they came and went.

“Nothing with Arous’ mom could be that simple. She was much sharper than that. She’s using him as a pawn. She knows Arous is coming. She knows Simon will be my key to watching her.”

I focused on Simon, the pawn.



It was morning and Simon stood in the doorway of Arous apartment.



“This,” I said to myself. “This is before the water event. This is only a few weeks from now!”

I refocused on Simon. He’d delivered the dot and hadn’t enough awareness to block me. I could watch Arous through him.



“I thought we’d take a picnic lunch,” he said and held up a bag. “I made sandwiches.”

Arous smiled. A large tabby, about the size of a young lion, peered around her legs. In his teeth he held the stuffed animal version of Arcadia, Arous’ horse. He looked right to Simon and through him as if he was looking right at me, as if he knew I was spying on them from the near past. Something about that seemed familiar.





I blinked and they were in stables on a park, very near the river. It’s always funny seeing into a future possibility. You often just know things without having to even see them.

Jude walked out of a stall.

“Good morning princess.”

Simon led two horses from the yard. They walked behind him with heads lowered but the bay jerked his head up and whinnied to Arous.

“Ah,” said Jude, “it seems the bay has chosen you.”

“He’s a runner-” said Simon.

“I can handle it,” said Arous.



Arous stopped under an oak tree and scaled it. A large oak comprised a small grove of about eight trees. Once Simon stopped under the tree Arous yelled down to him.

“This tree is not real,” she said.

“What do you mean?”

“It’s not a real tree. It looks real, smells real feels like a real oak but it’s fake. The whole grove is fake.”

“Of course it is, darling; you’re in the middle of the most hopeless dessert in the world. Even the full requirements of water, couldn’t make a grove of oaks grow in this god-forsaken sand.”

“So you believe in God then?”

He smiled up at her.

I could read his mind. It was dark. It was swirling with questions. Those questions weren’t his they were someone else’s and he was determined to get them. He was there because Ricci had him there. He wasn’t a pawn of Arous’s mom, Lady Grey, he was a pawn of Ricci.

Arous jumped and landed on the bay without a sound. Her thoughts about Arcadia were so strong I could almost hear her. She wished she could ride Arcadia but Edlawit had trapped Arcadia in her own body.



“Edlawit,” I said without even realizing it. I looked up and she stood right in front of me.

Edlawit was all aglow. Her earth toned skin radiated reds and oranges. The Diofe beamed from behind her in his most magnificent form, the form Edlawit could now experience him in, like I did. His skin was the color of molten bronze, dancing like fire. His hair was white and wild and his eyes were lightening. His hands and feet were flames of fire. When he spoke his tongue flashed as a sword forged in the inferno. The electric blue halo of lightening surrounded him and made my knees buckle and my face hit the ground.

“Let me show you, Miguel,” said Edlawit took my hand causing a pulse to shoot through me bringing the little hairs on my arms to attention. I sat up. “I’ll show you how she left.”

TEN - The Very Last Lunese

I stood on the porch holding the dot, eyes closed, while watching the woman huddled in the glass cage miles and miles away. It was odd. I couldn’t quite get a handle on how far in time it was from me. It was less than a month, but in which direction?

A menacing mist swirled inside the glass box. Like the Mist here only darker – dead. Arou’s mom sat on her haunches, her arms wrapped around her knees. Her violet eyes flashed with an air of hauteur. On either side of the box were large, eight-foot tall, misty-looking cocoons not visible to most people: Miasmen. I could see them because I held the VIH-dot. She thought I’d know what to do. She was wrong.

“Ricci!” I whispered as he walked into the room with a young cadet who didn't look a day over twelve but was probably sixteen.

Ricci was an Ephor now and looked very much still like himself cockier. The woman stood up. She glared at the man.

He looked at her and smiled: the way the Cheshire cat smiled at Alice when he discovered she couldn’t make her own body parts disappear on command. The Cadet was wide-eyed and chapfallen.

“It’s the First Lady. I thought she was dead,” said the cadet.

“No. But she is the last of the Lunese,” the Ephor answered.

“The slave race from the moon?” asked the cadet.

“I was never anybody’s slave,” she said.

The Cadet glanced sideways at the Ephor.

“You only did everything that I ever asked,” the Ephor said. He turned to the Cadet and began speaking to him. “Either way, she’s the last.”

The Lady responded, “You wish I was the only one left.”

“Yes, well there’s that. But she’s not full Lunese now is she?” the Ephor countered.

“She’s coming,” the Lady said to the Ephor. “Arous is coming.”

“You think she’ll come for you? You abandoned her.” The Ephor and First Lady Gray were nose-to-nose with only the glass separating them.

The woman was silent.

“She’s beautiful. The most beautiful creature,” said the cadet staring into the glass cage.

“Catch your drool, Cadet,” he said. “Oh, introductions. Where are my manners? Lady Gray, Cadet Hodge-Baire, etcetera, etcetera. Keep a close eye on her and don’t do anything stupid.”

The Ephor turned to walk out of the room. He stood by the door and looked back at her. She was staring at him. The Miasmen on either side of the glass cage shivered. The Cadet noticed them for the first time.

“Miasmen!”

“Calm down - for crying out loud! You act like you’ve never seen one before.” The Ephor laughed.

He continued, “Of course you haven’t. You’re not important enough. Only VDP’s see them – Very Dead People. Well, they see them right before they die, well, now that the Miasmen are mine. ”

“You are still so full of yourself,” she said, laughing she sat back down.

“You followed me every step of the way. Abandoned your daughter to chase me all the way out here. Don’t forget that.”

The Lady had turned cold. “Don’t you forget: our daughter.”

The Ephor turned to the cadet. “Cadet, she’s yours. If you handle her well, you’ll have a front row seat to the beginning – or ending, not sure how that’s going to work out yet – to the very last Lunese - Half-Lunese.”

He reached for the door and turned back to the cadet again.

“And if you think she’s fetching, wait until you see our daughter.”



I opened my eyes and looked from the porch and down the oak-lined drive. As I was opening them, I saw flashes of events from that moment in the past as it sped into time: the Lady handing a VIH-dot to the cadet, the cadet riding a black horse through the desert, Edlawit finding her lamb and receiving the hand delivered VIH-dot, Arous driving like a mad-woman across the desert, Arous sitting in the café with the cadet seated near her, watching her. It’s been weeks since she ran away. It’s been even longer since her birth father came to see her.

Soon, she’ll be close enough to him that he can watch her in the flesh. Until then, he has his spies. One of which, must have been the cadet in the room, the boy who delivered the dot. “Simon Hodges-Baire.” I said. “Soon to be Captain Hodges-Baire. Wonder what he has to do to get Ricci to hand that title over.”

NINE - Water

“What’s happening to me?” Edlawit panicked as water poured off of her.

“The vision is too strong for her, Miguel,” said the Diofe with a look of concern.  He was sitting beside her on the porch, both of their legs were dangling over the side as he held back her hair.  Water began to pour out of her mouth.

“Help me,” was all she could manage.

I grabbed her hand and saw a flash of moving pictures.

“Dizzy,” said Edlawit when the water ceased to pour from her mouth.

“I’ll bet,” I said.

I grab Edlawit’s hand.  Images flash. No sound other than that of a broken and humming speaker.

Arous’ hoveh.Top down. Driving fast. A girl. Standing. Arms wide open.

“Siobhan,” said Edlawit.

A boy. Driving. Laughing. Glancing back at Arous and . . .

“Simon,” said Edlawit.

And another boy. Sitting by Arous. Looking down at her. Smiling.

“Jude.”

“And the water?” I asked.

“It’s coming again,” said Edlawit and water gushed from her pores.

A flash. People, people. People on stilts. Amalgamese, mostly. Costumed. Happy drugged. Imagination drugged. Compassion drugged. Nephilim in cages. Their hulking masses bulging against the glass bars. Slumped over. People pointing, laughing. Milling. People taunting. Sasquatch in cages, raging. Beating the glass walls. People ignoring. Eating. Music. Outdoors. A hillside. Hot, hot.

Concert. Arous and Siobhan up front. Large black speakers hovering. Music starts. The crowd surges. Crushing Arous.

“Run!” screams Edlawit.

Gray guards with poker faces. Arous goes down. Siobhan reaches. Screams, silent to me.

“Run!”  Edlawit screams again.

Everything moves in a frenzy.

“Water,” says Edlawit.

I see Arous being dowsed by a dense ribbon of water.

She had made it, somehow dragged, up the hill where she crumpled to the ground as if in repentant prayer. Warmish, cool water began to rush all over her slumping body. Relief.

“Good.”

From under her dark hair and through her heated stupor, Arous could make out the legs of a woman and a trail of a water hose.  Feeling the cold-water rushed relief to her overheated body and brought her back to her senses.  The analogous smells from the water, iron, and plastic, brought a flood of memories to the forefront of her mind.  She began to remember the summer and learning how to swim and watermelon.  She began to raise her body to an upright position.

“Source. Diofe,” Arous said.

“What honey?” the water woman asked. “Heatsroke. Do you feel better?” She handed Arous a bottle of water.  She drank.

The hand, that was attached to the arm that had pulled her along, was stroking her hair. She looked up and fingers parted the mass of hair from her eyes.  It was Jude.

“Hey,” Jude said. “Having fun yet?”

He grabbed her hand, lifting her up and walked her to where a blanket was spread out under a tree. He leaned into her ear.

“I won’t tell anyone you got sick on our first picnic.” He was smiling.

Edlawit collapsed, almost falling off the porch. The Diofe scooped her up in his arms.

“It was too much for her, Miguel,” he said. “It’s time I made her stronger.” He kissed her gently on her forehead whispering, “Edlawit, the brave. Edlawit, the loyal. Edlawit, the strong.”

She lifted her head slightly and opened her eyes to look at me.

“I have kept something from you, Miguel,” she said holding out her hand. In it was a red dot. “This is for you. I’m sorry. Please forgive me.”

“Of course,” I said. I took the VIH-dot from her and she snuggled back into the arms of the Diofe.

He walked off with her through the meadow in the direction of the pond.

I stood there and hoped that the hologram on the VIH-dot would, I don’t know, save the world.