The Last Story (11 page)

chanted the mantra. I felt it chanted itself. There was a nectar in the sound, I realized, an inexhaustible well to quench my thirst.

I felt a pang of regret when we stopped.

Only for a moment, however. Then I was just gone. I didn't fall asleep, yet the idea of Shari, of my individual personality, suddenly dropped off.

I'd experienced this as well, when I entered the light after death, a taste of the soul. It was nice to know I could contact it while still in my physical body. How long I stayed in that state, I have no idea. It could have been ten minutes or two hours.

The yogi's words seemed to come to me from a million light-years away. He was telling us to open our eyes slowly. Not to jump up from our seats.

Drawing a nourishing breath into my body, I opened my eyes and stared at the yogi. He seemed to glow. I thought, He must be magical. He was twirling his beads again, smiling. Peter tugged on my arm and I glanced over.

"Did you enjoy it?" he asked.

I patted his arm. "Very much. Thank you for bringing me here."

"Do you want to meet him?"

"Yes. If he will meet me."

"He stays afterward. Anyone who wants to speak to him can."

"You want to get in line immediately," Jimmy said softly. "Everyone wants to talk to him."

I smiled at my brother. "You look stoned."

Jimmy shook his head. "This guy is better than drugs or alcohol."

Jimmy was right. The moment the yogi ended the session, the line to see him formed quickly.

Fortunately, being near the front, I was able to get a good spot. I had to wait only five minutes before I was allowed to speak to him. The people behind waited at a respectful distance.

The audience was essentially private. I didn't know the proper protocol for meeting such a person. Folding my hands together, I bowed as the Japanese do, figuring Japan was in the same part of the world as India. The yogi chuckled, playing with a long-stemmed red rose.

"Ah," he said in his sweet voice. "The writer of scary stories. How are you?"

I smiled shyly. "Wonderful. I really enjoyed the chant. I want to thank you for teaching it to me."

"You're welcome. What is your name?"

"Shari Cooper. I mean, it's really Jean Rodrigues. Well, I go by Shari. That's the name I feel most comfortable with." I paused. "Do you understand?"

His eyes sparkled, and for a moment I believed he really did understand that I was a Wanderer.

That I had returned from the dead to write scary stories and help save the world. Yet my stories, I

now saw, were nothing compared to what this man had to offer people. For the first time I sensed what I had been looking for, the Rishi's divine love. The yogi's eyes seemed to shine as if they were windows into that pure consciousness he spoke of. He was not a man like other men.

Nothing in this world could shake him, I saw. And I wanted that peace for myself. Yet it frightened me that I might have to give up too much to get it. Briefly I wondered if Roger had left the church without me.

"I understand," he said softly. "Will we see you tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow? Oh, that's when you start your course. I don't know. I don't think so. I'm making a movie of one of my books, and I have to be on the set early. I know it's weird to shoot on Saturday, but that's movie biz." I paused to catch my breath. "I'd like to come tomorrow. I feel I need to meditate and do your kriya."

He frowned slightly and touched his head. "How is this?"

"How is what? My head? It's all right. I get headaches sometimes, but I suppose everyone does." I paused again, thinking that it was remarkable he should know my head often hurt. "Do you think it's all right?"

He studied me thoughtfully. Then he nodded to himself. "Kriya and meditation will help this problem. Check your schedule, see if you can come."

"I'll try." I paused, feeling silly about the ques tion I was about to put to him. "I know this is an odd thing to ask, but are there such things as chakra centers in the body? I mean, is chakra even a word?"

He nodded. "You experienced two of them when you sat in silence."

"In my forehead and heart?"

"Yes."

"Wow. I mean, that's interesting, that they're real." How did he know my experience so intimately?

He must be enlightened, I decided. I leaned closer, unsure what I wanted from him but knowing it was a lot. "I wanted to ask you something else. It's about myself. Who I am."

He waved away the question. "Who you are cannot be explained with words. It can only be experienced. You experienced that a few minutes ago, when you were sitting quietly."

"I understand. I've had the experience before.

That's what I wanted to talk to you about. You see, I feel like I'm here on Earth for a purpose and I might be missing it. I want to do so many things, but I get so busy that I feel like I'm missing the boat, while trying so hard to catch it. Do you know what I mean?"

He nodded and tapped me lightly on the head with his rose. "You must get to know the captain better. The boat will wait for you." He glanced past me. "Where is the other?"

"Who? The guy who was sitting beside me?"

"Yes."

Ill

"He's waiting for me outside." The thought of Roger distracted me. He had left in a huff.

"I'd better go."

The yogi smiled and handed me the rose. "Listen to your heart, Shari. Not to the world.

The world is a place to visit, to enjoy. It is not your permanent residence. When you don't know what to do, you return to your true home."

His words touched me deeply; the way he said my name. With so much love. I felt tears well up in my eyes. "I know that. Thank you so much."

Peter and Jimmy wanted to speak to me as I returned to the pew, but I was too overwhelmed.

Collecting my purse, I kissed Peter quickly on the head and said I would be home soon, I just had to drop Roger off. Outside, I found Roger sitting on a bench and smoking a cigarette.

His mood was upbeat—he said he hadn't minded the wait at all.

On the drive back to Henry's, where Roger had left his car, we listened to the radio and chatted about the scene we were shooting the next day. The yogi didn't come up.

Roger gave me a kiss just before he climbed out of my car. A brief kiss, it was true, but a hungry one. Enough to stimulate my appetite. Had I not still been floating in the grace of the yogi, I might have fallen right then. But that is the thing about temptation. It will always be there tomorrow, always waiting. Temptation is like the waves of the ocean gently but persistently wearing away the shoreline. Like temptation, it knows the day will eventually come when everything softens, then crumbles.

Roger laughed softly as he stepped toward his black Corvette.

He had me and he knew it.

I would not be taking the yogi's course tomorrow and I knew it.

CHAPTER

X

VL/^NCE MORE, in the middle of the night, after waking from a strange dream, I went to sit at my computer. Off to my right, in the bedroom, Peter slept peacefully. Thirty feet to my left, in the living room, Peter's blind baseball prodigy, Jacob, slept on the sofa. Not only was Jacob missing his eyes his real eyes, he had glass ones—he had no home now either. Peter said he would only be staying with us for a few days; I didn't mind. He had been at the apartment when I returned from dropping Roger off. A tall, gangly, black seventeen-year-old, Jacob had struck me as a polite young man. But, boy, could he eat. Before going to bed he had cleaned out the leftover turkey in our icebox and a large bag of potato chips, plus three cans of Coke.

Not to mention the chocolate cake he'd eaten.

Tomorrow I planned to send him to the supermarket with Peter and a hundred dollar bill to let him buy what he wanted.

I couldn't sleep because I felt compelled to write.

I didn't know what I'd say. Only that it would come.

THE STARLIGHT CRYSTAL

Sarteen sat in her quarters and stared at the column of jewels she had built to represent the twelve chakras that each human being supposedly possessed. The precious stones glowed, shedding a soft pastel luster across the dim room. It was as if each stone resonated with a portion of her inner being. Even in her desperate situation, she felt unexpected peace as she sat with the golden rod and knew with a certainty that transcended logic that the Elders had not lied to them.

That they had come to humanity in love and light, and that this invasion had been unforeseen.

Something thrust upon humanity from a place so alien, so hideous, that it didn't belong in the same dimension. Many insights intuitively came to Sarteen in that moment. The beings that commanded the ship that chased them were evil. They wanted to dominate humanity for perverse reasons. The Elders, and the column of jewels, emanated love. Love was what gave all beneficent creatures sustenance. The beings who pursued their vessel came in hate. They wanted to create a hate-filled planet, from which they would drink like psychic vampires. They would not destroy the Earth; not right away, at least. Not until there was nothing left to suck from it They had to be stopped.

Yet they would not be stopped. Sarteen understood that with heartrending certainty as she meditated on

the column. She must have grasped it the instant Pareen told her of the attack. It was why she had ordered her ship away from Earth. The enemy was too powerful.

They could not be beaten back by physical means. Help would have to come from outside.

"Or inside," Sarteen whispered to herself. Perhaps, in the eternal scheme of things, there was a reason the enemy should come at this crucial time, when all of humanity was supposed to turn to the light. Perhaps their eyes were still drowsy with sleep, and they weren't quite ready for the transition to a higher state of consciousness.

Perhaps it was not destined that they should all see the dawn. But one thing was sure—she thought the enemy would erect a quarantine around Earth. No cosmic rays would reach the planet for the foreseeable future, not unless the Elders managed to break the blockade.

Yet Sarteen knew that was not their rots. Humanity had to be saved by humanity. She had to gst her ship out of the solar system, to safety, so that in enother time, from another world, the descendants of titoss on board could return to Earth and guide it back horns to the Elders.

Eons in the future. When the enemy least expected them.

Today, however, she had an unexpected surprise for the enemy. Pareen had located a gaseous cloud that hung between two icy comet relics like snowflakes sprayed against a black canvas. As soon as they rcschsd the cloud, the alien ship would almost reach ttism. Sarteen had ordered Pareen to adjust their speed so that these two events coincided. Once inside the cloud, they would release a thousand nanoeggs, those

tiny containers of condensed antimatter that could create such a tremendous explosion when they collided with ordinary matter. The eggs would rake the alien vessel. It should explode and leave the Crystal free to escape into hyperspace. The other alien ships would not be able to chase them. No instrument, no matter how elaborate, could track another vessel through hyperspace.

The communicator of Sarteen's desk beeped.

"Yes?" she said.

"It's almost time," Pareen said.

Sarteen stood. "I'm on my way."

On the viewing screen on the bridge, the images were divided. One showed the two giant balls of ice that lay before them, the elongated gas that floated between the dead comets. This far out from the sun, there was scarcely any light. The cold rocks were black as coal, the gas colorless as frosty breath in an underground cave.

The other side of the screen showed the alien vessel, long and sleek, with aerodynamic fins shaped like purple talons. The ship, though clearly spaceworthy, was also built to enter the atmosphere of worlds. Sarteen wondered if dozens of them had already dropped into the skies of Earth. The last word they had heard from their fleet was that they were surrendering. Since then there had been only eerie silence. The ruins of Malanak tumbled around the sun like a belt of meteors. Sarteen took her command seat on the bridge.

"How long till we enter the cloud?" she asked.

"Two minutes, ten seconds," Pareen said.

"Is the alien vessel precisely behind us?"

"Yes. And closing quickly." He paused. "They are within disrupter range."

"If we fire, they will just raise their shields. Then our nanoeggs will be ineffective."

Pareen began to protest, but Sarteen cut him off. "We know from the experience of our battered fleet that our disrupters have little effect when their shields are up."

"They could fire on us any second," Pareen warned.

"Raise our own shields." Sarteen was thoughtful.

"Hail them."

"It won't help the situation."

"I'll be the judge of that. Do as I say."

Pareen opened communications with the alien vessel.

Sarteen assumed they could translate Earth language.

They must have been observing the Earth a long time before launching such an extensive attack. It was her intention to stall for time, nothing more.

"This is Captain Sarteen of the Earth vessel Crystal,"

she said. "We have noted your pursuit and are curious as to the nature of your mission.

Please respond."

A minute passed in silence. Then there came a voice, heavy and deep, obviously straining with inhuman vocal cords to mimic Earth language. There was much hissing in the words, labored breathing. The creature who spoke sounded large and far from civil. They received only audio, no video.

"This is Captain Eworl of the Orion vessel Adharma.

Surrender immediately and prepare for boarding, or be destroyed."

"Why do you attack us?" Sarteen asked.

"They are charging their energy beams," Pareen shouted, bent over his instruments.

"You are now subjects of the Orion Empire," Eworl responded. "We will brook no form of disobedience, no arguments. Surrender now or die."

"What are the terms of surrender?" Sarteen asked.

"Surrender must be immediate and unconditional,"