STEALING ETERNITY
CHAPTER NINE
Saidi’s Part:
I’m learning I can’t get too attached to the idea. Here, things might appear enjoyable, and things might last forever, but if they don’t there’s no insecurity or stress about it. There’s no fear if something changes. Down there, you have to let go and just plain trust.
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So started the program, which Shenser developed and tested. Soon he gathered information to find his team of researchers to learn from Gage’s experience and innovations including improved states of consciousness. Gage decided to work at the palace on this temporary project. Silently, Saidi pulled everyone together by circumstances. Though Shenser certainly didn’t know that.
Shenser decided to search for a group of specialists. While hunting, Gage and Shenser setup areas of interest such as out-of-body travel. Gage sketched and illustrated items seen in other rooms. With that, he sat alone in a chair with wires from electrodes fastened to his head. He outlined the target sealed in an envelope. Shenser saw him perform this act many times.
Gage said, “I know you’re impressed with some of the things you’ve seen. But I want you to know that I can’t do this by myself. It’s too complex alone. If Saidi left this domain without dying, then she may at times not even have a body.”
He continued, “I think we need an efficient crew of people to find whatever realm she disappeared to or decipher what new appearance she has. Besides, I’m used to working with a team of people.”
Shenser shook his head in confusion, “I want people on our team like you, with your attitude, but how will I find this group?”
Gage said, “You’ll know when you cross paths. Usually, such things happen as a synchronicity. Random, but I’d not discount the strangest of encounters.”
Shenser asked him, “How will I know when we’ve had enough people on this team? Isn’t there something we can do in the meantime? I feel like she’s slipping away. And everywhere I look she’s not there, she’s disappearing from my memory. It isn’t easy to think of her existing anymore,” he said sadly.
He continued, “When you’re in love no single metaphor says it all,” Shenser said. “You’re driven, but that pain in your heart from love feels like a physical aching too. Circumstances make or break a relationship,” he stopped momentarily.
Then advanced down another trail. “Years ago, I had a love of my life that started in the second grade. My first love, but things tore us away from each other as well. Now I feel my first love memory more vivid than Saidi’s memory.”
Gage looked around the room awkwardly. “Most people have had a similar experience one time or another,” he said. Even I know what all those metaphors feel like. Life looks sweeter when you’re in love — even if you think that’s just a saying,” he laughed.
“You know what I mean?” Gage continued, “Maybe Saidi will find your first love to soften your heart and put you back in the life of the living. Maybe, just maybe you’ll bounce back, rebounding, smack dead on in the eyes of circumstantial pain.”
Shenser listened to his long renderings of love, feeling not as frustrated as earlier. So back to my question, how will I find this team and know when I’ve found them?”
Gage thought a moment longer, “Just look for other people that can work on this project. Circumstances will force everything to come together and work — even if it’s temporary or even if it continues for months or years. Yep, plenty of uses for such a team, even after we find Saidi. But back to circumstances, they can work for you even though they act, many times like they’re working against you.
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Can we change life, by stumbling across a pearl of great value? Can you polish that pearl and then throw it out to the vast ocean, never to find it again? Can someone cause that gem to shine in the darkness of the sea? Can that gem teach others in reverse to shine as well?
Not her thing, hunting for a new species or prizes, or making a goal of her life’s ambitions for the public eye, reflecting on her capacity. Not just in her region of knowledge, but to the realm of the unbelievable. Not to the dying of a species that she recently discovered but possibly saving others of his kind. Not just knowing how to save the others: but leaving an instructor behind, reluctantly that could lead the way to longevity.
Cat wanted Little Guy to survive and thrive out where he belonged — with his kind. He couldn’t stay with her any longer with others now privy of her “research.” Soon they would close in and take him from her, making him a scientific specimen.
She wanted Little Guy to hold his webbed hands high in victory and change the outcome of obscurity. She hoped for the unexpected and had bridged the gap between two species.
She taught him to fish, and what to eat and those on the food chain not to eat because of possible and probable pollutants, unless he’s in the depths too deep for poisons to reach. Then, and only there could he eat the larger tuna and sharks? He would have to, as instructed, tell his new family as well.
He had learned well from living in two worlds. He drew from his instincts, and that world of which he came — though much too young to remember the details of that world. And Cat could only guess at the particulars of that world curiously. Whoa, I so hope I’ve helped link one species to another— that’s the way life works.
And so they approached the meeting place. In the ocean where Cat and Little Guy had heard similar hums, in fact, hundreds of them sounding from a distance away.
Showing up at the same time as the previous day. They waited for the songs. Little Guy made his call. Cat played the recorded hums as well.
They stayed in motion going deeper, paying attention to see how the domestic would blend with the undiscovered. They would soon understand their world like a book that others would read the stories unimaginable. So this kind could continue into tomorrow and the next day and the next.
Cat had a sudden urge to stop and turn around with Little Guy. Not fear, but the pain of losing him. Then the reuniting scenario made her give up her agenda. Complete again, once they saw Little Guy, their missing link, their lost family, no more gaping hole of a lost child or grandchild, or brother.
As she watched him, she had a million questions that jetted up to the surface. She wanted to tell him again in her words of how much she loved him.
Did he ever think of escaping, like a prisoner? Shish, but I didn’t hold him captive. She would have to trust that she wouldn’t lie awake at night wondering about him. I’ve been nickknamed, alone girl. No, I’m confident in his instincts and I trust that approaching orchestra.
She lightened the squeeze on Little Guy’s hand. Dang, I want him to feel my acceptance for this. He softened his super tight grip as well. He started acting like a confident, smooth skinned college student, off to a strange campus for the first time.
Though they hadn’t released every digit, the gentle pressure proved comforting. His hands had developed small calluses from putting live, scaly fish in his mouth and touching the sharp edges of his teeth.
They swam together with faces side-by-side and as close as possible, moving through the current. She’d often ask him to hum a song to her. It relaxed her. He did that now, and she lost herself in his melody. Oh, I love that sound. Only now, she heard the same soothing purrs of many, many others, drawing closer. Little Guy, avert your eyes otherwise you’ll see me cry in my mask. A reuniting surround sound filled her with joy so great. Cat tried to hum as well as she often did with Little Guy, like pretending to play the trombone, a strange sound of long phrases of guttural hums.
Turning now to Little Guy. He gestured his approval and smiled joyfully. Though Cat felt a tremble shooting through his arms, from excitement. But the approaching of his brothers and sisters caused his pace to quicken. As he threw his body forward, his dorsal flattened like trees blowing in the wind. What a show-off!
They glided through the water, he practically pulled Cat along. Turning to her, he beamed. Ah that smile. Nothing bad could happen to you buddy.
In the future, she’d have to put her life back together without him — once more, alone. She had walked this walk before, swam this current.
He wouldn’t sit on her lap anymore. She couldn’t breath in his scent — that smell of the ocean. But that sweet scent would linger. She lost herself as the sound retreated. She watched her air gauge and made her slow return to the shore.
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Stealing Eternity is the (first draft of the) second book in the Infinite Series.
Eternal Infinite on Amazon
Written by Pam Kesterson
