Children of the Program (8 page)

chapter 11

visions of the gray bird (than)

Just as the red bird visited, so did the gray.

              Elisa lay on her plush bed reading “The Illustrated Brief History of Time” by Stephen Hawking.  Though enamored by his genius on the complex subject matter, the detailed pages were slow turners and time burners.  Her eyes flickered with the incandescent lights overhead, as nearby thunderstorm rolled in and threatened her progress.  The bedroom fixtures cast towering shadows in her bedroom, like a Scooby Doo cartoon.  Hypnotized by the rhythm, she fell faster than the count between the lightning flashes and heaven's roar. 

              She lucidly awoke in a cold and sterile white room.  Checkered tile floors oozed an alternating red and pink pattern.  The surrounding walls were covered in the hieroglyphics of man's genetic coding.  Taking center stage, an old white bird cage rested atop a rickety oak nightstand.  She could see the room slowly turning in on itself.  Perching within the cage, a gleeful black raven, the bird of life, whistled Amazing Grace.  It remained tranquil, confident faith would deliver its savior.   As she ventured toward the calling cage, crimson quicksand corroded the porcelain floor and swallowed her longing footsteps.  Startled, a misfired synapse stole her attention and caused her rattling thigh bones to be consumed in a gooey menstrual muck.  The once peaceful raven panicked, realizing the limitations of hope. 

              Tiny feathers flew, while it cawed for release; her increasing heartbeat, the reaper.  It was then, the ominous gray bird, Than, glided into the shrinking room.  It pecked, squawked and flapped its enlarging wingspan upon the quaking cage doors, rattling them ajar.  The black bird shot from the mutating room like a hell-lit cannon.  Comfortably, the gray bird took its wanted position on the prison swing.

              The cage door dramatically fastened.  Than stared into Elisa's nervous eyes.

              “Two chosen souls cannot produce a Crystalline,” it warned.  “Creation demands ignorance.”

              Her voice, gone, on the wings of Isis.

              “Get out!”

              The gray bird burst into ashes.  Embers tickled the insides of her dream-stricken eyelids.  Trembling, she awoke with irritated eyes.  Her leg muscles throbbed; her cramps, acute.  Elisa wasn't the only lass visited by death's scorn. 

+++

Stumbling home, from a reckless night on the streets of Dublin, Zane sneaked through her rickety bedroom window and passed out on her welcoming twin bed.  Her forehead caught a rusty nail and profusely bled on her favorite He-Man comforter.  In fleeting coherence, she prayed her unpredictable father was riddled with a similar overindulgent fate, unaware of her clumsy entrance. 

              Vodka murdered her clarity.

              Without warning, Zane entered REM.  Her heavy body plummeted toward a deep and familiar cavern of fiery entities.  A brimstone shore offered a hell-side view of the beaten and damned.  Their mouths reached for a heavenly hook of solace.  They screamed for absolution, drifting in waves of eternal discontent.  Lucky souls would cease to rejuvenate and rise like phoenixes; their singed bodies morphing into gray birds.  Watching the fortunate elevate and reenter the physical world, her curious eyes followed a gray bird to its duty.  The presence of the bird was undetectable.  Humanity was too distracted by routine.  It perched on peoples' shoulders and sang the swan song of their earthly days, often falling on deaf ears.  After whistling seven sad goodbyes, it led Zane to an old pond where the brilliant sun cast its new day onto still waters.

              “Look into the pond and tell me what you see,” said the Gray Bird.

              Frightened, she saw no reflection. 

              “Your vibration can no longer produce the image of your soul,” it furthered.  Her eyes shuttered.  “You are dead, in both life and in death.  Open your timid eyes and tell me what your heart can see!”

              With hesitation, she faced the pond and watched a homeless English boy walking the streets of London.  Turning to reveal himself, the gray bird entered the vision and pecked his virgin skin off.  Like a zombie, his remaining flesh hung.  Tying the haunting image to an arrowhead, Than shot it into her conscious mind.

              Breathing deeply, she awoke and darted to her moonlit mirror.  Her forehead was covered in dry blood.  Zane fell to her knees and wept.

+++

              Icarus always fell the hardest.  Though his might was apparent in the Earthly realm, his physical strength couldn't protect him from wiles of his soul.  He hid behind an impenetrable curtain, largely consisting of flesh and muscle.  Lurking behind his coarse bravado was a fragile operator, always fearing his stirring mind.  After a crushing blow on the football field, one cold and icy Saturday afternoon, sending three young players to the hospital, Icarus was introduced to limitation.  He slipped into a brief but impressionable coma.

              Staring into utter blackness, he heard tiny voices but saw no one.  From the void, two blueish-purple eyes appeared.  They stared through his soul and lassoed his focus.  Gazing into their soft violet windows, a beautiful baby girl emerged, morphed into adulthood and back again.  She frolicked in a field outside of his fire-consumed home.  She giggled, while the gray bird danced in the inferno.  A black bird rested on her tiny shoulders, singing beautiful melodies; a white bird flew from her innocent mouth; the red bird dashed from cadence of her beating heart.  She controlled them like a kite and painted the universe with their subtle movements.  She was the animator of reality.

              He then saw a second set of harsh red eyes.  Staring into voiding pupils, he could see a rioting lynch mob wearing black and tan uniforms.  A gray bird led the charge, while a reddish flag violently waved.  A possessed crowd hurled obscene gestures toward an abandoned Irish cottage.  The door was trampled.  The clan picked up two wailing infant babies from a distant crib and carved the words “No Freedom” into their soft foreheads.  The children were presented to the motley crew and sacrificed in the name of purity, God and creed.

              The gray bird rested upon a distressed widow's shoulder and sang a sad song.

              Icarus's pulse briefly went still before he thunderously gasped and snapped to.

              He awoke in the hospital.

chapter 12

A sorrowful toast

“I love cold pizza,” said Ash!

              The group swarmed the honey of Elisa's poach.  They were enamored with gratitude and taken aback by the lush nourishment resting in their dehydrated hands.  Not a word was spoken, as they rapaciously consumed and calibrated their weakened bodies with their tired minds.  Their souls remained an overflowing silo.

              “Before we leave, I'd like to get everyone's contact information.  I will create a private website and message board for us to correspond.  We have to stay in touch and will need the support of one another,” offered Grayson.  “I want to believe this is going to be as smooth and simple as it seems, but I fear it will not be!  How can we can fall in love with someone, with the awareness of a motive?  It's a juxtaposition -- our first true obstacle.  This person we find will need to become greater than the mission.  I just don't know how that's going to be possible.”

              “I can collect the data in my journal.  Does anyone have a pen?” asked Rand.

              “Why, you do,” said Simon, magically pulling one from behind Rand's ear.

              “You never amaze me!” said Rand.

              “Do you mean, 'Never cease to amaze me?'” asked Juno.

              “No!  I meant what I said,” smirked Rand.

              “So, how about that party?  I'm sure there's got to be a liquor store, nearby,” bolstered Ash. 

              Though warm to her flamboyant offering, the fatigued gang knew it was time to part ways and return to the worlds from which they came.  One by one they lined up and provided Rand with their personal information, hugged and extended warm handshakes, with locked eyes.  Once compiled, the information was copied and given to Grayson. 

              “We've all come a very long way and had our unique struggles.  The dreams were rough, but we finally know why we're here and what we've been called to do!  I want to offer a toast,” said Zane.  Nervously adjusting a spiked bracelet on her tiny wrist and uncomfortably blowing a piece of purple hair from her worn face, exposing a lingering tear, she raised a perspiring bottle of Evian.  “You lunatics are like the family I never had.  I'm blessed to have met you!”

              Simon patted Rand on the back; Neco reached for Ash's hand; Magnus and Elisa kissed; Zane and Juno pretended to spar, before a long deep hug; Benjamin and Grayson shook hands; and Icarus gave Zane and Juno one last lift toward the blue sky! 

              Even the clouds appeared to smile back.

              “So, I guess that's it?” asked Neco.

              The group began the long walk back to their distant cars.

              “So, are you heading back to Baltimore?” asked Ash.

              “Well, I promised myself I'd head west and slink around the gutters of Hollywood for a couple of months.  I may even chase my rock n' roll fantasy.  Sky's not even the limit, right?” joked Neco.  “My parents have already been alerted that my inner vagabond must roam.  Would you like to escort me,” he added, reaching for her relaxed hand.

              “I'd...,” said Ash

              “That is, if you haven't already booked your long flight back to Scotland,” Neco interrupted, fearing her hanging response.  “I should probably warn you, I do not have an actual place to stay and I'm broke!”

              “Who said I'm broke?” Ash asked, with a wink. 

              The howl of a used car lot sent echoes through the canyon.  Engines flared and hearts pumped; they each left their dusty signature in the Arizona sands.  Neco cleared off the dirty passenger side seat and opened his squeaky door.  Ash smoothly slunk into his modest red car.  The sun pulsated with energy and the road offered its blessing.  They set-off into the welcoming arms of the unknown!

              “Let's stop at this bar,” insisted Ash, after traveling a few miles.  They polished off a bucket of ponies, ate, decompressed and finally had a moment to size up the holiness of their revived Sunday.  “So, are we really tasked with finding true love?” she asked rhetorically, pretending to stab her heart with the restaurant butter knife.  “Who finds true love, like ever?  True love is this thing Walt Disney cooked up in the studio basement of Magic Kingdom.  He sold us all, to make billions.  Seriously, it's a farce.  I think people can fall, be or stay in love, but true love — that's cosmic.”

              “I don't think we're looking for true love, in the 'Epcot is the future of Mother Earth'-sense,” he said, quoting his words with lazy fingers.  “I think it's supposed to be the person who makes us want to live — that special someone who gives us hope or a reason.  It's the person we entrust our secrets with and can provide us with a foundation to build upon.  Then again, maybe it’s just someone we can't live without.  Regardless, I think the sentiment has to be shared.  I'm not saying it's
not
hard to find, I'm just saying, it may not be as mysterious as we think.  The truth is, no one is going to know, until their child is born.”

              “Oh, that would be awkward!” proclaimed Ash.  “I'm sorry, I have to go now, and you’re clearly not the one.  I have other fish to fry and babies to spawn,” she joked.  “It sounds trifling.  The Council is officially our pimp!”

              They both laughed, paid the tab and headed back onto the open road.  The setting sun distanced in the rear view and they reflected.

+++

              Zane's farewell toast was too sorrowful for Magnus to stomach.  The forgotten lachrymal glands in his hurt eyes gushed.  The thought of leaving his beautiful new friend, Elisa, overwhelmed him.  His heart and attitude would now be controlled by the longitude between them.  He'd never felt so connected, nor in love; everyone else in his life seemed like collateral damage.  She was smart, sassy and beautiful.  Her image gave him hope and a reason to believe there was still a chance he'd escape the downtrodden neighborhoods of Chicago.  He was willing to change his entire being for a moment of her attention.  The mission was suddenly the conductor of his limitations.  The fate of his connection to Elisa rested in Grayson's hands.

              “It was great to meet you!” Magnus said, playing it uncomfortably cool.

              “You too!  How else would we have fed our flock?” she smiled, offering a sympathy hug.

              A certain part in everyone was left aching.

              “The old saying, 'ignorance is bliss,' can take on a whole new meaning when you're faced with this kind of enlightenment.  What's left, after you're given a backstage pass to forever?” asked Simon.  “I'll probably never see any of you again,” dramatically pausing.  “For once, I wish I could actually make myself disappear!  Having this child won't bring any of you back, but it may reveal the secrets behind the magic that is life.  I'm not sure if we're doing the world any favors with this heavenly punishment.”

              “Take care old friend.  I hope to never see you again, too!” joked Rand.

              The rest of the flock separated.

              Rand returned to Germany; Simon to Israel; Juno to Rome; Icarus to Greece; Benjamin to London; Zane to Ireland; Grayson to New York; Elisa to California and Magnus to Illinois.

              Neco and Ash were nearing California and ready to dance like hypnotized chickens, to the indie sounds blooming on the Sunset Strip.  The layered Technicolor fantasy, blended together with their unforgettable masquerade in the desert made their surrealism peak.  They tap-danced across the Mojave Desert and entered Needles, swallowing the gorgeous taste of their new life on tap.