The Story Begins (4 page)

“I’m sorry… Daddy tells me I should be careful not to hurt your eyes.”

Jaden looked about him, wondering just where her father was and if the invisibility of the mysterious figure would ever come to an end. Not seeing anyone he brushed the mystery aside and then asked, “Where did you go this morning?”

“Home,” she answered casually.

“How do you appear and disappear like magic?”

“Do you know how you breathe?” she asked.

“I don’t know. It just happens. I guess God made me that way,” he explained.

“Me, too,” she said nonchalantly, a wide smile resting upon her face.

“What’s your name?”

“Rya.”

“Rya. That’s a pretty name.”

“Is it really?” she asked bashfully.

“Okay, honey, lunch is ready!” his mother called out.

“Coming, Mommy!” he shouted. “Come, let’s go eat. I think my mom made spaghetti,” he said as he walked towards the door. Then he remembered her knack for simply vanishing without warning. “You’re not going to disappear are you?” he asked.

She chuckled. “Maybe.”

Not liking his chances, he decided that he’d stay with her and not head downstairs just yet. He didn’t want to risk being half way down the stairs only to discover that she was gone again.

“Where do you go to school?” he asked, resigned to follow her wherever that might be.

“I’m still a little girl, I’m not old enough for school yet,” she explained.

“Where do you live?”

“Where Daddy lives,” was the vague answer.

Jaden was thinking of something and, knowing what it was, she said, “Do not worry about not seeing or finding me. I’ll come to you. You won’t have to look for me.”

He thought about asking how she knew what he was thinking but decided against it when it dawned on him that the things that were happening of late were occurrences one sees only on television. If this was happening in real life, then anything was possible, including mind reading, he decided.

“Sweetie, your food is getting cold,” his mother called out from the foot of the stairs.

In a hurry to get downstairs and hopefully avert trouble, he took Rya by the hand, opened the door then bolted. The instant he opened the door he realized that something was different; however, because of his momentum, it took him a few steps before he could come to a halt. He was definitely out of the bathroom but not where he was expecting to be. He looked around. He was no longer in his house, or anywhere in his neighborhood for that matter.

Looking around him he saw mountains, hills, valleys, lush green fields, flowers, trees, a sun, two moons, and behemoth creatures, some of which looked familiar only because they bore semblance to creatures he’d seen in books about dinosaurs; the majority, however, bore no affinity whatsoever to anything that he’d ever seen or could have imagined. Before them, not too far in the distance, was a pond of sorts. He and Rya walked over to it. Though water-like by touch, liquefied silver might have been a more apt description. A creature was jumping in and out of it and playing very curiously.

It looked like it might have been a dilophosaurus, he thought, thinking of dinosaur pictures he had seen in some of his books; only this creature had two heads, neither of which had a crest. Two heads struck Jaden as odd until he realized what the animal was doing, which was even more unusual but it at least explained the phenomenon that he was witnessing. Jaden had come upon it at the beginning of a rather bizarre play idea, though it certainly did awe the child. It would split into two distinct creatures, chase itself around, splashing in and out of that which appeared to be a body of liquid of sorts and then, when it would catch up with itself, it became a whole again but with a single head.

Jaden stood awestruck and bewildered by all that he beheld around him. Then he remembered Rya. Where was she? Looking around he saw that she was off playing with what looked very much like a polar bear except it was much larger. His senses couldn’t quite discern its color as it wasn’t any color that he had ever seen. Rya seemed to be very much at home and carried on as though this was quite normal.

“Where are we, Rya?” the bewildered child asked.

“Daddy says this is where we always come to play,” she explained.

“But I’ve never been here before.”

“Of course you have. Daddy says it’s our favorite place in the sky.”

“In the sky!” he repeated after her. “We’re not in the sky.”

“Of course we are.” She pointed to the stars up in the heavens. “See all those stars up there?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Your home is somewhere up there.”

“Did we fly through space?” he asked, incredulous over what had to be impossible.

“No. Flying would take forever and ever to come this far,” she said.

Then it occurred to him that he was seeing stars and two moons in the heavens even though it was daylight. “Rya, why can I see the stars when it isn’t dark yet?”

“You’re special,” was the simple answer.

Though utterly amazed he decided that this was not the time for curiosity but rather to simply have fun. He felt apprehensive about joining Rya in playing with any of the creatures here but his desire to have fun was indeed overwhelming. They look friendly enough, he thought. Besides, what kind of a boy is afraid of that which a little girl isn’t? So he decided to join her.

THEY
ran around playing with the creatures and riding those that were small enough to climb and strong enough to support their weight. They splashed about in the water-like substance; and as much as they splashed about, they never got wet. They dipped themselves in it time and again yet came out as dry as before. Jaden found it quite mind-boggling to be able to run across it and, unless he thought to do so, never break the surface regardless of how far out he skipped. The fish swimming just under the surface looked fairly normal though a lot shinier than the fish he was used to.

They played hide and seek among gigantic plants that reminded him of when Alice shrank after eating a piece of mushroom. Rya wanted to pick flowers but the smallest she saw had a stem wide enough for her to have fit in very comfortably had it been hollowed out. The pretty flowers reminded Jaden of his mother’s garden. His mommy! He remembered. Lunch! Goodness! Was he in trouble? Yet, though his mind insisted that he was in quite a bit of trouble and sure to be grounded for disappearing, which, though beyond his control, was literally what had happened, somehow he felt that everything was actually just fine, and that he needn’t be worried. Choosing what he felt above what he thought, he decided to go with his heart and not to listen to his head.

After playing and running about for what seemed like hours, he began to feel tired and hungry and longed for his mother. Then it occurred to him that he had no idea where exactly in the heavens he was and how his mother was ever going to get to him, or how he’d get home. He still hadn’t quite gotten accustomed to the idea that everything was simply magical.

Rya noticed that his expression had changed and asked, “What’s wrong, Jaden?”

“I miss my mommy!” he sighed.

“Okay, we can go,” she said, wishing that they could have stayed longer. “Daddy says you’re tired and it’s time to go home. He said we’ll play again and that I should not be sad.”

Again Jaden looked around, wondering just where this mysterious father was. She spoke of him as though he were always right there with them yet Jaden never saw him. “Where is your daddy?” he asked. “I don’t see him. It’s only us.” But before another word could be said he was back in the bathroom, as energetic as ever. It was as though he hadn’t been anywhere. Rya wasn’t with him. That was okay, though. He was beginning to catch on.

“Sweetie,
are you on your way?” he heard his mom ask from downstairs. Looking up at the mirror one last time, he saw Rya blowing kisses and waving spiritedly from where they had just been playing. Beside her was someone, a being that looked like… Jaden wasn’t sure what the being looked like. The being was bright and kind of like a… as hard as he tried to think of something, he really had no guess for what the being might be. The radiance was too bright and seemed to mask all of its features; if it had any, that is. Because he had a hard time keeping his eyes on the being beside Rya, his eyes momentarily flashed a luminous turquoise light. His eyes had been made to adapt. His sense of cognition, however, couldn’t quite seem to understand what his eyes were seeing. Whatever it was it was very, very bright; far more radiant than when first he had looked upon Rya. That must be her dad, he thought. He wondered how they communicated and why he wasn’t physically there during the time that he had played with her. He then wondered why Rya never mentioned her mommy. Those were questions for another day, he decided. He did not want to keep his mother waiting any longer. After waving and blowing back kisses, he raced through the doorway then dashed down the stairs.

While Jaden was dashing down the stairs, the being of light the child had looked upon remained visible in the mirror. It was looking upon the elderly Jaden and Lydia who, unbeknownst to the child-Jaden, had been present with the little boy as he parted company with Rya.

Jaden and Lydia neared the mirror then lowered their heads in reverence. Lydia knew the little girl Rya to be her. With her head still hung low, she spoke to the being in the mirror. “I am the child that now prepares to leave your side even as I speak,” she said as the child beside the being of light slowly became an intensely bright light before simply vanishing. “When I was yet unborn, Father, I called you; yet now I know not who you are.”

“Raise thy head and avert not thy sight, beloved. Look upon me,” the being said to her. “In your likeness as a child I am Father to you always.”

Jaden looked upon the being. “When I was but a child, the same that just ran down to his mother, the universe was as my playground. When I grew older and learned responsibility, time itself was but a plaything that did my bidding. I have sought to save the world from itself; my children are nearly as powerful and god-like as I and my most cherished are,” he said, referring to his beloved Lydia, “and alongside angels I have fought. But thou, thou art greater. Until now, I had believed that I had met the most powerful of beings, God himself. I had believed the one of whom I speak to be the god of all being for he is one whose might is such that even if the strength of the greatest of angels were crafted as one, such glory would still be as nothing before him,” Jaden said, not realizing that his English had become archaic. “But thou, thou truly art greater,” he repeated. “Thou art far greater. Are you the God of existence?” he asked, not knowing what answer to anticipate.

“Nothing preceded me nor am I one among equals. And though thy beginning I am, I am neither the be-all nor the end-all of all else that is.”

Jaden read in between the lines but that could not be true of him, he thought. “What your words say of me cannot be, for see how I have aged. Death beckons me,” voiced Jaden.

“Your garment serves but to clothe thee,” said the being, referring to Jaden’s corporeal form. “It speaks not of who, or what, thou art.” He then turned his attention to Lydia. “You have tempered a rebellious soul well, dear child. If such had not been as it is, I am in accord with thee that if thy beloved were to meet the Maker spoken of in some of humanity’s ancient scrolls, verily would his fate have been one most unpleasant.”

2

Fun, Fun, and More Fun

It didn’t take
very much longer for the child to get accustomed to this new magical life. Rya’s appearances, without any indication that she was coming, were always welcome. Whenever Rya was with him, Jaden’s abilities were near limitless and his playground spanned the universe.

More often than not, her presence meant adventures elsewhere, often to places she always said were somewhere in the heavens; at times, though, some of their ventures were somewhere on earth. There were times when their adventures were through time; and there were times when she, obliging him, agreed that they’d stay in his room and play with whatever new toys he had to assert his dominion over before the next thing on television caught his eye. His toys, however, were playthings Rya never really showed much, if any, interest in. Poor Jaden! It never occurred to the child that perhaps she may not have been keen on any of his toys because not only were they toys for boys but the entire universe was theirs to go about as they pleased. When they did stay home, though, Rya loved to be in the garden and watch his mom tend to it; the latter being wholly oblivious to the guest that she entertained, believing her son was hard at play with an imaginary friend.

Jaden wanted to tell his mother of Rya but found that he never seemed to be able to speak of her, not just to his mother but to anyone else. After he had spoken of her to his parents subsequent to the first visit, which his mother had believed a dream, he found all further attempts futile. He also learned not to concern himself with worry regarding his parents not knowing where he was, as it mattered not how long he’d be gone, upon his return he found both his parents doing exactly that which had preoccupied them prior to him having left.

Their adventures were always marvelous and wonderfully delightful. And though a very curious lad, he eventually learned not to ask certain questions as the answers to questions such as, “How’s this possible?” “Who, exactly, is your dad?” or, “Where’s your mommy?” were always answered with a cryptic response, or simply a loving smile.

One of the things Jaden loved doing on earth when Rya visited was to visit the least likely places one would expect to find children, such as the top of Mount Everest, or scuttling across the water, spooking fishermen out at sea. He so enjoyed the expressions of complete shock, disbelief, and sometimes utter horror, of the people fortunate, or unfortunate, enough to see what their eyes could not possibly be seeing; the impossible sight of a glowing little boy and girl on mountain tops, out in the middle of the ocean, or wherever else they were at play. Jaden had been told many a tale by his parents to know that the world abounded with myth, legend and mystery, and knew that his sense of adventure, or perhaps misadventure, would simply be told as another addition to the plethora of unexplained phenomena in the world.

Rya never quite understood where the fun was in these kinds of thrills but as long as they were together, she was happy. Jaden’s sense of adventure often scared people and Rya often had to remind him that no one else was capable of doing that which they could, and for this reason he needed to learn to be discrete and mindful of that which he did without regard for if anyone might be around. Rya’s father often let Jaden get away with most but not everything that he wanted or tried to do. She shared with him that her father had said that Jaden had always been a bit of an adventurous child whose sense of fun, though not necessarily harmful, wasn’t necessarily always fun for others involved; that is, the unsuspecting participants who just happened to be present during one of Jaden’s capers.

Jaden was sweet, gentle and kind but no stranger to play that Rya’s father, on occasion, had to step in and put a halt to, for the little boy could not even begin to imagine the catastrophic implications some of his play ideas would have had. Unwittingly, he often tried to disrupt evolution by leaping through time and space over and over again with the intent of relocating primeval or alien creatures to places they did not belong. He also tried, rather earnestly, to introduce creatures from worlds yet to be created to both the present and the past. On such occasions Rya simply played with all the splendid creatures she loved so much while she waited for him to tire of going back and forth through time and space, give up and puzzle over why his attempts never worked.

RYA’S
visits gradually lessened over time. The lessening visits were made to coincide with Jaden’s chores around the house increasing as well as an increase in home assignments for school; the intent behind the design being that less playtime would facilitate taking his mind off noticing that Rya’s presence was becoming sporadic. Weaning him off her quickly would have worked to his detriment.

And so it was. As time passed and his chores and homework increased, he saw less and less of Rya. The design worked as intended for it never dawned on the child that the visits had been lessening all the while.

*

ONE
night, after a long and tiring day of school, helping his mother around the house, a bath, dinner, and a story read by Dad, he was tucked in and kissed goodnight. No sooner had his parents walked out the door than Rya appeared.

“Heeeeeeellooooooo!” he said.

“Heeeeeeellooooooo!” she answered.

“Where are we going tonight?” he asked, anticipating an adventure somewhere across the heavens.

“I’ll show you,” she replied and without another word she took him by the hand. The next thing he knew, he was hovering above a somewhat large, brownish tower with a park in the background. A water fountain was spouting high into the air. He looked about him. They were in a city. This surely was no fun, he thought. There were lots of people, cars and buildings but no wildlife or any other thing particularly striking about the place. Behind the tower in the park, there were people sitting, children running; he also noticed a couple of guys sitting on a bench talking to a couple of girls; nothing particularly remarkable at all. He returned his focus back to the tower, wondering if something was about to take place but nothing transpired, nothing obvious anyway. Just as he was about to ask where they were and why, he found himself back in bed; Rya hadn’t come back with him. He thought nothing of it. She always left as she came, without notice. Then he fell asleep.