Children of the Source (8 page)

    We heard some excited voices at the Main Gate, and turning saw a tall white haired man with an ancient mule.
  Derek Lancaster, Mark and Susan’s fifteen year old son, came up.  “Jamie, Jamie.”

    “What’s up?”

     “Eli Benson.  He’s here.”

     “He’s got this real old mule.”
  He looked at Charles owlishly.  I exploded in laughter.

    Charles scowled and said, “This old mule’s gonna get cleaned up.
  I’ll leave you to Mr. Benson.”  He winked at Derek, and headed down North Roberta Drive, chuckling to himself.  He and Derek had developed a special affinity for each other over the several times Charles and Mary had visited. 

    Mike Roseman and his defense crew were preparing to sweep the fields and move operations to the outside perimeter.
  He and the others waved as they moved out.  We waved back.  Eli Benson stood, uncertain, holding the worn bridle of an ancient under fed mule.  He’d trimmed his hair and white beard close.  Far above us the spacecraft continued to circle lazily.  Eli followed them with his eyes.  “I didn’t think such things existed,” he said uneasily as I walked up with Judith.

    “They mean us no harm,” I replied.

    He took a deep breath and looked away.  “I...I didn’t know where to go.  We can’t survive out there alone.”  His voice grew defensive. “They were going to kill Baldy so I brought him and came here,”  he blurted.

     “You’re both welcome here.
  And no, we don’t kill old friends,” I said.  “Everyone has their own cycles and needs.  They are not sacrificed because of age and want.”  The symbolism hit me, and Eli spoke.

     “My doubts.
  I ... I couldn’t stay any longer.”

     “Your doubts are your best friends now.
  Let them roam.   Here, you’ll find ideas are entirely different than anything you’ve been used to.  When something offends you, it may be from what you’ve been taught or have accepted.  It may not be true.  When something isn’t right, you’ll know it - a gut knowing.”

     “No unemployment?”
  Benson had escaped from a food camp outside of Houston and made his way to Flagstaff after dreaming a Great Teacher would come from that area.  He, being a Christian, assumed it was the Second Coming.  “What am I supposed to do now?”

    Victoria walked up.
  “Grandpa Charles wants to see you, Dad.”

    “Victoria, will you show Eli around and get him settled?
  Derek will see to Baldy.”

    “But she is so young.”
  He swallowed and looked at Victoria.  “No offense meant,” he added quickly.

    “None taken.
  Victoria is on our Housing Council.  Trust her and me.”

    I started back to my house to speak with Charles.
  He was one of those people with a lively cast of mind that constantly thought outside of the box.  New ideas bubbled out.  I never knew what might come.   I liked the guy immensely, but always wanted that little distance.

     Later that morning I excused myself and walked down to Faculty Flats to say the words over Phyllis McDonald.
   We gently laid her in her burying hole wrapped in a torn white sheet.  Madge stood with us and somber Brad, her husband.  Others gathered around.  I could see Tom and Phyllis radiant beside the grave.  Whiskey sat wagging his tail at Phyllis’ feet.  “Phyllis,”  I said, “you are happily free of an old body.  Now you begin a new life.  Lots to do, but from time to time remember your old family here.  Come visit to comfort and make them aware of your presence for they have need of that.”  I nodded.  “You’ve done good, and should be pleased with this life.  Every life has its seasons, as does every family.  We move effortlessly through them with the benefit of time and circumstance.  We need to learn to be kind to ourselves and each other for our time here can be fleeting, and we don’t get a second chance.”  There were a few  words of hope and comfort spoken by others.   Then we saluted her with a drink and covered the grave.

    Entering the Main Gate of Cheshire I heard a strange sound, faint at first, beat the air.
  One I hadn’t heard for many years.  I looked toward town and saw an Army helicopter move gracefully over the pine trees and set down next to Mark’s airplane barn.  I walked back to the landing area to see General Carson, Derek Randolph, and another man step from the craft, blades whining to a halt.

    “General, welcome,”
  I said.  He nodded.  We shook hands.  “Derek, I see you finally made full colonel.  Congratulations.”  I turned to the man with the clerical collar and extended my right hand.

    “You’re a Jew.”
  His hands remained limp at his side.

    It
struck me instantly. Running images of a
auto de fe
.  Me chained with others to stakes.  The restless crowd waiting.  The terrifying knowledge of what was going to happen, helpless with limitless fear, rage, and grief.  All mixed in a jolting cry for help we knew would never come ...   The fire.  Licking flames ... 

    I made myself look at my silver ring with the star of David.
  “Will someone introduce me to Torquemada Junior?”   His lips curled, reminding me of a feral dog showing his fangs.

    Carson laughed and gestured to Derek who said,
  “John Hensley, Catholic priest, assistant to Brian Muldower, Advisor to the President on internal security matters.  Jamie’s grandfather was a Jew.”

    The young man’s face was red and belligerent.
  “I’ve heard about you.  Some sort of strange wizard.   You see the future.  Heal the sick.  Travel out of your body.  Control the weather.  Raise the dead.  Are you going out to convert the ignorant to your world view?”

    “Sorry to disappoint, but there is no Sunday School anthropomorphic God with a black book that keeps score.”

    “And you know this for sure.”

    “This offends you?”

    He pointed to the alien spacecraft.  “And you know these Beings.  Do you deny this?”

    Difficult creature. “I know them,” I said.

    “And these other things.”

    Idiot. “Not raising the dead.”

    “O’Banion.”

    I pointed.
  “He’s buried over there.”   This wasn’t going anywhere good.  Have you ever met someone for the first time you have an instant dislike for and want to strangle?  John Hensley, narrow-minded bigot.  Part of me wanted to bait the guy, another part of me sent out alarm bells.  This wasn’t just me, but a hundred good people depended on what I said and did here.  “We have people of many religions here; Catholics, Protestants, Jews.  We have our own little Pale at the end of North Roberta where two Jewish families live.  Not by choice, but coincidence.  We have a couple of Muslims too.”

    “Wicca?”

    “Another religion.  The old Earth religions where everything was considered part of a larger whole, and was respected, cared for, and considered sacred.”

    “Without a God?”
  Hensley eyes challenged.

    “Their idea is the larger whole with everything in it is God or Source.
  Since everything is a part of God, or the larger whole, everything has a sacred nature and needs to be honored as such,” I said.

    “Where does Evil and the Devil come into this?”
  Hensley eyes squinted, lips tight.  “There is Evil.”

    “Many of this belief system believe ‘evil’ is simply ignorance, and the ‘Devil’ a mental personification of this ignorance,” I said.

    “But you, with all your powers, say you know these Beings.”  He turned to stare at the circling spacecraft.  “You say you know them as intimately as your own people.”  He dropped the words like deadly venom.  “How can they be defeated?” 

    “They have not come in violence or for conquest.
  You assume that superior technology means the need and want to dominate and control.  No machine of war can defeat them, but no machine of war is needed.  They have come for a different purpose.”

    He looked at me blankly.
  “You’re not making sense.  Surely they have come to control us.  Why else would they come?”

    “Mr.
Hensley, it doesn’t necessarily follow that superior technology has an end in violence.  This is not Hollywood.  They have come to assist us in creating a better world,” I said.   An idea he’d never accept.

    “Who are they really, Jamie?
  Everyone calls you Jamie.  The Wizard.  Do you even have a last name?”  Hensley’s lips curled.  “Who are they really?   Are you their agent?”

    The truth would be beyond him.
  A modified version might work.  “Mr. Hensley, I’m not sure how to put this.  There was a time before recorded history when people from other star systems came to Earth.  Distorted legends of Super Beings as Gods have come down in various cultures about these people.  Some of these Beings left Earth, and now have returned.  Those that stayed warred and reduced the Earth to a wasteland.”

   
Hensley smiled and then shook his head. “You’re crazy.  That’s impossible.”

    I shrugged.
  “Suit yourself, Mr. Hensley.”   I turned to General Carson.  “General, to what do we owe all this?”  I waved to the helicopter.

    “Mr.
Hensley wanted to come to exercise his prejudices.  Colonel Randolph could use the visit, and I got a tanker car full of fuel for our chopper.”   The General was very pleased.

    “Three
down.”  I chuckled.  Hensley went red.  “You got the best of the best with Derek.  Glad to see he is finally being placed where he can reach his full potential.”  I surveyed my friend of so many years.  “Damn good to finally have you back.  May you stay a while.”  We hugged, pounding each other on the back.  Mike Roseman came up from securing the larger daytime perimeter.  “I need to borrow the General for a few minutes.  Mike can show you around our wee community, Derek.   Mr. Hensley, you might want to go with them.  General?“

   
Hensley took a deep breath.  I could see the conflict within him.  “What would you do, Jamie, if you could live any way you wanted?”

    I smiled.
  “I’d live in a lighthouse overlooking the sea surrounded by pine trees with a library filled with books to be left alone to learn.  But I’d live close to a college town for the bookstores and cultural activities, and maybe take a course or two as the moment fancied me.”

   
Hensley shook his head in disgust.  “You’re a Freak of Nature, Jamie.  With your abilities you could do so much to bring people to Christ.”

  
 I shrugged. “He may or may not have existed.  I don’t know.  In my travels to the other side, I’ve never seen or heard of him.  I think he did exist, but I suspect he was far different than you or any of us imagine.  Heck, you might even want to poke him with a pitchfork.”

   
Hensley bristled, mouth crumpled with rage.  He left with Mike and Derek.

    Carson shook his head, lips curved in a smile, and walked with me back toward the houses.
  “You needed to ‘borrow’ me, Jamie?”

    “Yep, very active morning here.”
  We walked back toward my house.

    Benson came out of the Dining Hall with Victoria.
  Carson pointed. “He quit cold after O’Banion died, determined to leave.  We sold him an old mule we were going to have to put down.  His nasty sidekick Nick Ryan took over.  Not controllable like Eli.  Eli has manners.  Had Nick taken aside and told to stop his preaching or I’d run his young ass out of the fort on the first train back east.”  He paused.  “You know what you’re getting into with Benson?”

    “No, sure don’t.”
  I laughed.  “Good symbolism.  An old broken-down mule and an old broken-down man.  We’ll rebuild both.”

    Carson grimaced.
  “Remember we’re all about the same age here.  There can’t be more than a couple of years difference between the three of us.”

    “True,” I said. “But he thinks of himself as old.
  So he looks and acts old.” 

    “The mule’s worthless.
  He’ll only eat you out of house and home,”  Carson said. “If Benson causes a lot problems, we can send him back east, too.”

    “Thank you.
  Hope it won’t be necessary.”

    “Dumb to antagonize
Hensley.  I don’t know how much power and influence he has.”

    “You’re right.
  I’ll make amends.  The man is a jerk,”  I said.  “One day you will hang him, Will.”

 
  Carson stopped and faced me.  “I’ve never known you to predict the future, Jamie.”

    I shook my head.
  “Just came to me, Will.  As sure as morning will come.  Don’t know why.”

    He studied to me for a long moment.
  “Until then a man we have to work with.  Where are we headed?”

    “I’ll show you.”
  We walked into my house.  Charles and Mary Bareton sat at the dining table freshly showered with clean clothes enjoying hot tea.  Mary jerked, jumping to her feet, face white.  Charles placed a huge hand on her arm.