Mystères Élémentaires

The Other ignored him, so he looked at it once then looked away too, tried not to appear as frightened as he felt.

Then he felt something like fingers inside his mind, trying to speak by forming images -- and he jumped up as new fears emerged. His village -- gone. And now his mother too. He could see it all so clearly. Certain knowledge, not a simple feeling. He turned around and around in panic, blind now as knowledge replaced feeling, then he was aware of the boy, standing by his side now. Like he was seeing the same knowledge, was sharing his feelings.

Then the boys arms were around his shoulders and he felt something like the feeling he had for his mother and father wrap itself around his being, and he felt at ease for the first time in days, since the big cat's first attack. He saw images of the boy's home, images of a place to go, a new home in his mind, and he turned, looked at the boy. The boy smiled and pointed to the woods.

He saw an image of his village in his mind.

"A-keelee-menjay," he said.

"Home," the white boy said.

An image of the boy in his home appeared in his mind. "Home," the boy said, pointing first at his own body, then at him.

"Home," Rehn said, the unfamiliar now utterly familiar.

The Other was gone now, but the boy stood and turned, began walking into the woods, and there was nothing else to do now, so he followed the boy.

IV

They walked from the craft, walked through a different kind of forest, came upon another cat. Smaller, a different color, but though it's face was ruined he could see it's teeth were as deadly. Then he heard a strange buzzing sound, saw two men on strange red beasts headed their way.

No legs...black round things. Not animals. Smell...bad, farting smoke like they were fed rotten bananas. Then the men stopped and got off their beasts. The older man was looking at him, then at the dead cat.

"I see you got him," the old man said.

"Barely. She almost got me."

"I shouldn't have sent you up here alone...kind of figured it'd be hanging around in these rocks."

And Rehn felt words as images in his mind now, like he could almost understand what was being said.

"She was in the rocks. She charged, and I got her when she was about ten feet out."

"Careless. Who's your friend?"

"Don't know his name yet..."

"Rehn," he said, not quite knowing why he said that.

"Rehn?" the boy asked, pointing at him.

He nodded his head. "Rehn."

"He don't exactly look like he's from around these parts, Rob."

"He's not, Dad."

"Our friends again?"

"Yessir."

"What does it look like we're doing around here? Running a home for wayward aliens?"

Then the other stepped from the forest, stepped into the clearing.

Hello, old friend.

"Well, speak of the devil...how's it hangin', Paco?"

Why do you still call me that?

"Sounds better than Shithead, don't you think?"

True.

"So, what have you brought us now?"

A boy, in trouble.

"No, Shithead, I ain't buyin' it."

And I am not selling.

"Sure you are. You're fucking with the timeline again."

No, we are not. This boy is in need. We thought you could help.

"Uh-huh, sure. Look, you leave him with us, he stays. Simple as that. Got it?"

That is all we wished.

"Okay. So, what do you want us to do with him?"

Raise him as your own.

"Uh, yeah. Right. You remember those things we have? Chromosomes and all that nonsense? You think that'll work?"

Tell them you found him on your property.

"Yeah...we do that and the Indian Affairs people will be on us like stink on shit."

We remember when you used to say 'white on rice.'

"Things change, Paco. Why do I feel like you're changing things again?"

We do not know.

"Where's he from?"

"Dad, I think El Salvador, like maybe sixteen hundred or so years ago."

"Oh, that's nice." The old man turned and looked at him, then turned to the Other again. "So, you're fucking with the timeline again, aren't you? Tell me the truth, or it's no deal."

No, an academic team found the boy. Looking at your distant ancestors.

"Sixteen hundred years ain't distant, Paco. What the fuck are you up to...?"

Nothing.

"You do know I don't trust you, I reckon?"

We know.

"Rob, take him on up to the house, but you better take him by the barn first, hose him down before you take him in to meet your mother. She'll throw a hissy-fit if he goes in there on her new carpet -- looking like something you just drug in from a dumpster."

"Yessir."

"Were you in their ship?"

"Yessir."

"Smells like a buncha cats had a pissin' party. You might rinse off yourself."

"Okay."

When the two youngsters were gone, Dan Jeffries turned to his oldest, Robert. "Better get this carcass out of here, somewhere Fish and Game won't get wind of it."

"Okay."

Dan turned to the Other once again. "Anything else I can do for you this morning?" he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

No. We will remain nearby, to complete the bridge for the you. Until he can communicate without us.

"How long will he be here with us?"

Two years, maybe three. Until he is sufficiently aware.

"And you're not taking him back?"

No.

Dan Jeffries shook his head, because he knew what that meant. He turned, could just see his boy and the strange new one walking across the pasture, and he didn't know whether to be afraid for him, or envious.

No, this new boy wouldn't be going home. Back to the where he came from.

This boy, like the others who'd come through before, was destined for the stars.

V

She felt Electra on her chest, sitting there contentedly, the motor in her neck whirring away gently. "Morning becomes you, my friend."

Then she remembered the dream.

Nazis? A young pianist? Bare trees and snow? And that fog! Everywhere!

She climbed out of bed and walked to the bathroom, turned on the shower and bathed the night away, wondering when the boy finally left. And when had she finally gone back to sleep? She dried off and pulled out her blow-dryer, ran a brush through her short, silver-gray hair for a few minutes, then she went to her little closet, half expecting to find those folksy, 1940s era fabrics she had seen during the night -- but no, everything was as it should be and she laughed at her fear, pulled out something casual for today's class. She set Electra in the window and walked down to the street.

The sky looked like a picture postcard...polarized blue and crystal clear, not a cloud to be seen, anywhere. She walked to the Anvers metro station and transferred at La Chapelle for Cluny, then walked to class, and still the sky seemed an almost surreal blue. Bluer than blue, really, it was an infinite blue she hadn't seen in years, a distant colour that seemed to reside in memory, and she walked to her classroom thinking of such things. Silly, faraway things, like riding a pony at her grandfather's farm when she was five years old, painting pictures in her grandmother's studio -- triggered by the sky...

The lecture hall was nearly half full, perhaps a hundred sleepy-eyed students were already seated, another fifty or so would drift in soon, yet most were watching her as she entered, and as she set her notes out on the lectern a girl approached.

"Professor Mannon?"

"Yes?"

"Will there be extra review sessions? For the ones you missed?"

"That I missed?" she said, puzzled.

"Yes. Friday's, and Monday's as well."

She pulled out her iPhone and looked at the date. "Wednesday?"

"Yes, Professor."

She thought quickly, tried to understand how five days had simply vanished, then she looked at the girl. "We'll talk about that before class ends."

"Are you feeling better?"

"Better? Yes, thank you for asking."

The girl smiled and took her seat while Christine Mannon wondered what had happened to her world; she in any event decided that no more alcohol -- and no more boys -- would be best -- at least for a few days.

VI

She dropped by Claire and Jean Paul's before going home, after making up two review sessions and promising to hold two more the next afternoon, and Claire seemed happy to see her. Upset, but happy nonetheless. And, of course, she wanted to go to the Sabot Rouge this very night!

They stepped off the Metro and walked by her apartment; she dropped off her notes and fed Electra, then walked back down to the street -- where she had left Claire and J-P -- yet when she stepped out the door she was embraced by an icy fog, so thick she literally could not see her hand in front of her face.

She shook her head, took a deep breath and willed the sight away -- yet when she opened her eyes again the cold air was still clamped tight around her -- and that same Gestapo officer was walking up to her.

"Ah, have you found your cat?" he asked.

"Your name is Werner, is it not?"

"Yes, my lady. And I missed yours last time."

"I am so sorry. Mannon. Christine Mannon."

"And you live here? In this building?"

"Yes, the top floor. Number 3."

"Why on earth are you stepping out now? Surely you haven't misplaced your cat again?"

"No, I was waiting for a friend, but I doubt she'll come, not in this fog."

"Have you had dinner?"

"No, not yet," she said, then she realized what she'd just done. "My friend and I were going to prepare something upstairs."

"Ah, a pity. Well, perhaps you will allow me to take you out -- some other night?"

"Yes, I'd like that."

He held her eyes in his for a long moment, nodded his head slowly. "Very well. Good night."

She turned and walked back to her apartment, looked around at the archaic belongings around the room, then she walked over to the windows and looked out into the gloom. As before she could just make out the limbs of bare trees, only now a light snow was falling -- again.

She turned, looked for her cat -- but now even she was gone, too.

'Why am I here,' she asked the room. 'If this is real, if I am awake -- who would do this to me?'

She turned back to the window, looked at the bare limbs swaying in the fog and the snow, and she listened to the wind.

She heard a gentle knock on the door, tried to ignore the chills running up her spine, then she quietly turned and slipped into her bedroom, closing the door behind as she went, disappearing into another fog.

VII

It was a world of firsts.

His first shower, first hot water -- and he found the experience terrifying. Soap was something else altogether when it got in his eyes.

Sitting at a table, trying to not pick up food and eat from his hand. Then there were forks and knives for one food, and another -- Rob called it pizza -- that was eaten from the hand -- yet Rob's mother ate her's with a knife and fork. Exasperating!

But most amazing of all, the next morning Rob and his father saddled up horses and they showed him how to get up on the beast's back, how to tell the horse to turn left or right, to speed up or slow down, then they went out for a long ride. Several days and nights long, with just Rob and his father. He learned how to build a fire their way, then he showed them how he did it, and they liked his way better.

They did not bring food so they hunted. The first day they killed small furry things with big, floppy ears; they used bows unlike any he'd seen before, and arrows that defied description. The second day they showed him how to use the bow, how to use the complicated sights, and when they came upon fresh scat they tracked a small group of hoofed animals. When they came upon them, Rob let him use his bow to make the kill.

They cleaned the animal, cut up useful hunks of meat and Rob's father packed them in a powder of some sort, and they had that for food now. They went higher into the mountains after that, higher and higher until the air became very cold, and he experienced another first.

Snow.

He walked in the stuff and it was as shocking as everything else about this new place.

And he could not understand why there was this thing in his head now. Something that explained things through pictures, but also through feelings. When Rob said 'rabbit' the day they hunted such things, he saw 'rabbits' in his mind. The next day it was 'deer,' two days later he learned what a puma was, then a bear -- a black bear. He saw things called coyotes, and small, angry snakes Rob called 'rattlers'-- and Rob's father played with these snakes. He let them strike out at his outstretched hand and he caught them behind the head, then put them down and let them do it again. When they found a big one, however, Rob's father avoided it, grew wary and kept far away as it watched them move along, and he could feel the older man's fear too. Not as his own, but as the other man experienced it.

And he knew this was happening because of the Other. Somehow the Other was in his mind now. Even as they went high up into the mountains. Into this thing called snow.

They kept on for another day, then they came to a house -- Rob called it a cabin -- and they unloaded the horses here. Rob showed him how to start a fire up here, because, he explained, there was less air, and that fires had trouble burning this high, especially in the winter when wood was often wet.

Then something even stranger happened.

He 'talked back' to Rob, using the same images and feelings, and suddenly he and Rob could communicate. Rob's father called it 'the link' -- and after the link was established Rehn began learning Rob's language at an incredible rate -- and now when he saw an image, and heard the corresponding word, almost automatically he spoke it. More troubling...he remembered these words and concepts without any real effort on his part.

And then the biggest change of all.

He had all his life 'thought' in the language of his parents, yet within a week up in the snow he began to think in this other language, and once that happened the transfer of information began in earnest.

When he thought: 'Why are we up here in the snow?' he would pick up an instantaneous insight, something like, 'Where you're going, you'll spend half the year living in these conditions.'

'Where I'm going?' he thought one night.

And then Rob's father was there too, listening and 'talking' to him. 'Come with me, outside.'

And when all three were outside under the dome of the night sky, Rob's father pointed at a group of stars in the sky. "That's Orion, right there," Rob's father said aloud, "and that's where you'll be going."

"Why?" Rehn asked, but now there was another voice with him, and he turned, saw the Other standing in the snow behind them.

Only the creature was dressed now. A suit of some sort, something to keep the Other warm, but the Other was staring at him now, waiting.

"Why must I go there?"

Images of something called a colony flooded his mind. Hundreds of men and women who looked like him, and he could tell there had been a rebellion of some sort. War had broken out among two groups of colonists, then had spread to all the groups on the planet. Instead of progressing, the colony was failing. Hundreds had been killed so far, and the war was spreading.

"Why?"

We did not provide these colonists with the tools to understand their new world. They were taken from their homes and almost in an instant arrived at this new place, so all of their beliefs went with them. All their understanding of one world came in contact with a new reality. They were ill-prepared, and the fault is ours. We are preparing another attempt. You will lead this second group.

"Another group?"

Yes. The first will arrive soon. You will be their leader.

"Why here? Why in the snow? Is the new place like this?"

Yes, for part of the year. And that has caused many problems.

"Why not find someplace like my village. Someplace with no snow?"

That was not possible. Your new world is like what you knew in many ways, and most of the time it is very warm, but it also grows very cold and dark, for a long time, too. You will learn to survive in the snow now, then Rob has more things to teach you. I -- am leaving you now. The link will be broken, you will no longer see words in your head. When I return, the link will return. Do you understand?

"Yes."

And with that the Other disappeared.

VIII

They spent several days walking the mountains near timberline, and they spent time tracking small animals, setting snares. They built a cave in the snow one night, and he learned how to build a small fire to warm the cave without melting the ceiling, and the next morning he learned how to navigate, how to take 'sight bearings' with the sun and how to find places that might otherwise be lost, and then they returned to the trees, worked their way down the mountain towards the ranch -- but they stopped again and made camp in the forest.

"Are you hungry?" Rob's father asked.

"Yes. Very."

"Good. So go find something to eat," the old man said, handing over his bow and one arrow.

Rehn looked at the old man, then at Rob. "Are you coming with me?" he asked.

And they turned away.

'So, it is to be a test,' he thought. He took the bow and arrow and set off up the hill, and when he was far enough away he felt the breeze on his face, then looked at the sun. 'I must use the wind and the sun to my advantage,' he told himself, and he worked his way towards a rocky outcropping. He remembered something Rob had said and looked for signs a cat might be in the area, then he set up above a stream and waited for a while.

Nothing. He found a taller, more sheltering group of rocks and hid himself better...

Then he heard something behind, on the rocks up above. Something large. He could hear an animal sniffing the air, approaching carefully, and as he pushed himself deeper into the rocks he realized that something else was using the wind and the sun to it's own advantage. He saw a shadow next, low and moving quietly.

Another cat!

He slipped the arrow onto the bow and as the cat jumped down into view he let it go.

The cat fell where it landed, dead, and he went to the animal. pulled the arrow free, then ran quietly into the trees. Breathing hard, he made his way to the stream and walked along the water's edge until he saw tall grass near another group of large, house-sized boulders. He hid again, more mindful of what might be behind him, and not long after a small deer came to the stream and he killed it, then he put it over his shoulders and slipped through the forest to the campsite.

He was surprised to see the cat there, laid out on the ground, the old man skinning it, Rob building a fire. They watched him clean the deer and let him cook parts of it, and the old man carefully rolled up the cat's skin and gave it to him.

"You can make clothing out of this," he said. "Never waste anything out here."

"What of the meat? Can you eat a cat like this?"

"Yes. It's actually not as bad as you think, but there are more parasites in them so it has to be cooked very well."

"Did you follow me?"

"Rob did. As soon as you took off for the rocks."

"That was a mistake?"

"More dangerous. And deer understand that, too. They keep away from large rocks unless they are in a large group and need to hide."

"So, I made a mistake."

"Yes. But you lived this time."

"And next time?"

"There shouldn't be a 'next time,' Rehn. You learn from your mistakes, and you remember those lessons. If you forget, you die."

"Would you have let me die today?"

"That is why I am here. To teach you the hard lessons. When you get to Rigel you will not have a teacher. You will be the teacher."

"You did not answer my question."

"No, I did not."

"I understand."

"Next time I won't. Do you understand that, as well?"

"Yes."

IX

They walked down the next morning, but they saw the shimmering veil long before they got back to the house. Rob felt the usual mix of joy and dread when the link returned, but Rehn seemed more reluctant to embrace the giving.