Nonentity (22 page)

Manchester stepped toward the traveler. “Sebastian, I feel awful.”

“Say no more,” said the traveler, raising a hand. “You did not intend this.”

Mayor White Hair said, “She’ll be back.”

The traveler shook his head. “When?”

That question reverberated through the night, and several nights subsequent.

****

Ten days without Lorna passed. The traveler figured that searching for her would be unproductive. Nor did he care to find her against her will. Couldn’t he speed-travel to the moment of her homecoming? What if that moment never arrived?

Solace came from a reliable source: Cranston Gage.

“That was some scene at the party,” Cranston said. “It broke my heart. I had no idea you had signed on to the mission. I’m glad. In time, Lorna will be glad too.”

The traveler said, “Will she? I mean, I must be a total idiot.”

“You made a mistake. Remember the reservations I expressed about Manchester when we were still living? I was right. He’s a smart guy, the key to Project Unveiling Earth. Those qualities don’t necessarily translate to personal matters. You trusted the wrong person.”

“I can’t figure out why he didn’t want me to tell her.”

“It’s the sensitivity of this mission. Nobody has ever attempted something this ambitious. Manchester probably wanted to minimize inconveniences that distract from our ultimate goal. I can appreciate that, but he overcompensated.”

“What if Lorna never comes back?” asked the traveler. “How will that affect the mission?”

“Those questions aren’t worth pondering. She’ll be back.”

The traveler agreed. He had endured the nightmare of losing Lorna in human form. Yet, following her death on Earth, she had always been with him. She would not stay away.

She returned while he was asleep. Tugging his shoulder, she cast him out of his latest nightmare.

The first things the traveler saw upon waking were Lorna’s eyes. He shook off the remnants of slumber and said, “Thank you.”

“I should thank you,” she said with a kiss.

He sat up in bed. “Why?”

“You reconnected me to my humanity. In my disappointment, I became a real entity again. So did everyone else who witnessed it. There is no doubt our mission will succeed.”

“That’s wonderful.”

“Perhaps that’s why Gabe Manchester asked you to keep your secret. He foresaw that it would go awry and reorient us to the imperfection of our former world.”

The traveler laughed. “You’re giving him too much credit.”

“Ever the cynic, even in reconciliation. Let me think of the matter as I prefer. Both here and on Earth, things are as we perceive them. That’s the only reality one can know. This commonality between worlds further ensures our project.”

“Your optimism is infectious. While I do not completely understand our mission, I have faith in it. And I have never had stronger faith in you and me.”

“Prepare to sacrifice your faith in us.”

His smile departed. “What?”

“I’m sorry, Sebastian. I won’t sugarcoat this. What we have gained in this world will remain in this world. We have chosen and now unchosen this reality.”

“What did we gain in this world that we won’t have elsewhere?”

“Our marriage, for one. Whatever love we shared on Earth pales in comparison to our love at this moment beyond mere time.”

“What?” he said. “I will not stop loving you just because I’ve regained human form. That was my form when I started loving you.”

She placed a hand on his face. “But that must play only a secondary role at best in our next engagement with materiality. Our cause supersedes all else. Maybe when we die again, we can resume where we left off. I hope.”

“I’m confused. Are we unchoosing reality – or is Jack stealing it from us?”

“Jack? What? Oh, you mean that character my father created. Jack is fictional. We consciously decided to give up this reality to bring it to those who suffer a lack of it. Nobody is stealing anything.”

“I’ve seen too many things that muddle the distinctions between fact and fiction. I want to make the right choices. What if the right choices are not as clear as we presume?”

Moving a hand slowly down his neck and chest, she said, “Please don’t worry. Let’s not focus on the implications of our impending journey. I want to live right here, right now, in this bed, making love to you for as long as our perceptions will allow.”

Their subsequent intercourse was more passionate, exhilarating, and powerful than anything before. Their perceptions were nearly inexhaustible.

Following the epic lovemaking, the traveler said to his wife, “Where did you go?”

“Huh?”

“While you were gone. You know, after the party, after you left from me.”

Lorna smiled. “I went to the cabin in the hourglass. I led you to the green circle that opens up into the void.”

“You traveled back in time to before I had gotten here?”

“Time doesn’t exist. I visited another fragment of a single moment. I dropped in on other fragments as well, helping various folks along what I hope is a path of enlightenment. The sequence of events is an illusion.”

After a lengthy pause, he said, “Thanks for bringing me here.”

“I had to secure my reality. In truth, you secured it for me.”

They held each other and kissed. A mutual awareness quietly settled over them: even in the absence of a clock, the dream would not last much longer.

****

With all participants wishing for favorable weather, the atmosphere for liftoff of Project Unveiling Earth was ideal. The sky was bright. There were no clouds.

Forty-two nonentities assembled outside the green bus at the base of the expansive canyon. They costumed in cellophane suits that they wore over regular clothing. Silver boots added flair.

To the crowd Gabriel Manchester said, “Your uniforms may strike you as something out of a hokey B-movie or sci-fi novel. Prudence was our lone concern; appearance did not factor into our calculations. The fabric of your outfits contains invisible chemical magnets that will attract and reconstruct the compounds of the human form. As fanciful as that sounds, it is imperative that every one of us believes that these suits will do the job they are designed to do. If anyone harbors doubt in that regard, or in regard to any other aspect of this mission, please speak now. We can ill afford a single doubter.” Manchester paused.

Standing in line with everyone else, lacing up his boots, the traveler probed his own mind for any lingering qualms about the operation. He was nervous. The project still struck him as fantastic, a long shot. Lorna’s involvement relieved his anxiety.

Manchester continued, “I am proud to have you as my fellow voyagers. Your courage and commitment are as essential to this mission as the science behind it. We will succeed. See you on board.” The Grand Premier candidate left the scene.

Lorna and the traveler were among the first seven or eight people on the bus. The two sat in a seat together near the back. Close to half the crew were still putting on their special uniforms outside. Neither husband nor wife spoke for a couple minutes.

Lorna’s face lit up. “Oh my,” she said. “This is … oh wow. Oh my.”

The traveler laughed. “What’s gotten into you? You seem giddy.”

“It’s not that. I mean, I’m not giddy. I’m, uh, overwhelmed. This is so strange.”

“It is quite strange, isn’t it?”

“That’s not even the appropriate word,” said she. “I’ve seen this all before. I’ve sat on this bus and looked out this window and watched these folks donning spacesuits.”

He laughed again. “No you haven’t. Well, I suppose in a way you have.”

“In what way?”

“You dreamt of this while we were alive on Earth. You told me about it as we were riding to go see your father. It was the first and only time I ever met him in my human life.”

“Are you sure? I don’t remember it.”

“It’s in the book I wrote. Actually I didn’t write it; I imagined it into existence. I’m not sure why I didn’t make the connection between this mission and that dream of yours, considering that the dream is in my book. I must have …”

He trailed off, distracted by his wife’s animation. Her expressions shifted erratically from extreme fear to wonder and then delight.

“Lorna! Are you okay? I’ve never seen you like this.”

It took her a moment to respond. “What? Huh?”

“You’re out of it. I’m starting to worry about you.”

“No cause for worry. I’m sorry. What were you saying?”

“Forget it. Are you sure you’re ready for this trip?”

She smiled. “I couldn’t be more ready. The vision I just had is … well, I can’t describe it. What we are about to do will shake the world. Shake the world.”

“That’s the object, right?”

“Of course. There’s something else.”

“What’s that?”

She caressed the side of the traveler’s face, staring him in the eye with unprecedented certitude. “You and I will never be apart. Our love will carry us forward forever and ever. It will be a beacon of light for a planet steeped in darkness.”

“Let’s not get too grandiose here. It’s reassuring to …”

Lorna’s father, Lambert Lukas, leapt behind the wheel of the bus and belted out an intrusive holler: “All aboard? Looks like it. Brace yourself, folks. I can be a rambunctious driver. This’ll be my most rambunctious drive yet!”

While engrossed in conversation, Lorna and the traveler had not noticed that the remaining passengers had loaded the vehicle. Seated directly in front of the couple were the traveler’s father and brother.

Engines roared. The bus blasted skyward. A harrowing turbulence rattled through each body on board. Gasps were audible.

The traveler’s father, Sebastian R. Flemming the Second, glanced back at his son and daughter-in-law with a peaceful expression, and said, “Maybe fate isn’t such an abstraction.”

An immense green circle formed in the sky. In a flash, the bus shattered through the circle, transforming fate into something more tangible.