"Ma'am? Are you feeling well?"
"Humm…ahh…what?" Cryn lifted her surprisingly sore head up from the counter. She had no idea what just happened. There was, however, the strongest feeling of dejavu.
'It was them.' Her mind told her.
'What? Who is them?' She asked back in a curiously different mental voice.
"Finally coming around I see." A British accented voice broke her mental recovery.
'Oh, the tourist.' She blinked away her thoughts and came up with a quick excuse, "Yeah, I have, umm…narcolepsy. It hits in the most unwanted of times." She plastered on a perfected fake smile while straightening herself. She hoped it was convincing, but from the intensity of the man's gauging stare, she doubted it.
Then it hit her. There was something missing from the picture. Something important. She remembered the tourist in front of her, her book on her lap…but there was something else. 'I hate my mind.' Pushing the thought aside, she asked, "I'm terribly sorry, did you need me for some reason?"
The man gave a strange, humored expression, but answered, "Actually no, I observed you collapse on the counter and came to see if you needed any aid."
"Oh, well thank you, but I am fine, I just need to go take my medication." She tried to continue the lie, but almost half-heartedly. There was this nagging sense at the back of her head that seemed to point to the man as the cause of her…episode? And definitely the culprit who was putting her into, what was becoming, an uncomfortable situation.
"I see." Was all he had to say. But it was the way he said it.
'Is this person playing with me? Who does he think he is?' At this she changed gears and became defensive. "Thank you for your concern, if there isn't anything else…" Cryn was almost short with the man.
"No, and thank you My Dear." He gracefully smiled and left the gift shop with a slight breeze.
Cryn rolled her eyes at his use of "My Dear" and started to assess herself and her surroundings. Still, she couldn't help but replay the tourist incident in her mind. His exiting smile especially rubbed her wrong. In a strange way his smile had been an attractive one but the curves belied a predator and an intelligent one at that. And though the smile was not meant to be frightening, it was worse. It was mocking.
She never felt so good to have someone leave. 'Wow buddy, in an hour you managed to rank yourself up with my parents.' She glanced up at the clock.
Whoa. It was late afternoon! The sun would set in less than an hour. 'What happened? Do I have narcolepsy? She looked about the shop, but there was no one about. Hopefully Mrs. Flybird hadn't seen her. Not that she particularly cared about the job, but twelve00 bucks an hour to just sit around is not a opportunity one passes up while in school. Still, it should still be morning, noon at the latest. 'What happened?'
'Had he been there the whole time?' Cryn thought. 'I don't like it. Not at all.'
For the rest of her shift (which was only an hour) Cryn stocked shelves and busied herself with inventory. All the while trying to remember the missing hours in her day. To her, it seemed as if the day went from late morning to late afternoon in an instant. Something wasn't right. She contemplated seeing a psychiatrist, but decided against it since, he or she, would most likely prescribe a straight jacket. She smirked at the thought.
Finally, she closed the shop and headed home.
On her way out, Mrs. Flybird's grandson came running from down the street. She liked the boy, his name was John but to everyone that knew him his name was Little Cat. Perhaps it was because he was so nimble and always landed on his feet, but Cryn knew it was for his curiosity and demeanor. He was just like a cat, mystique and all.
"Cryn!" he called. He was only six, and was all tired out by the time he reached her. "There…was…a.... shaman in town. Did…you…see him?" he said between pants.
She had no trouble reading Cat's mind. "Yeah, I did."
"No one believes me. They say it's my imagination. They say I think too much about legends and the superstitions. But I know. I know 'cause I could sense him. Did you? Did you sense him?"
"What!" Cryn said urgently. An impulse from the depths of her sub-conscious.
"I could sense him, I knew he was here. All day. And then he was gone. Not like most people. But all at once."
The kid was excited and apprehensive at the same time. She surprisingly felt the same way. It disturbed her though, the way Cat brought such a reaction out with his questions. Not to mention the total lack of consciousness in her day and a suspicious encounter with a 'Shaman.' That feeling of dejavu just wouldn't die. She felt so tired all of a sudden.
"Well, he's gone now. We will just keep this to ourselves, ok? Some people just won't understand." She lightly swatted at his ebony hair, barely missing with his reflexes.
The little boy straightened and nodded solemnly. Then added "He didn't hurt you. Did he?"
Cryn was taken aback by the question. But as she thought about it, he hadn't hurt her, she didn't think. But that didn't mean anything. He was too unreadable. "No. He was in the store. But I…I don't really remember this afternoon."
Cat thought about this and then asked, "Do you want me to guard you tonight?"
Cryn chuckled. "No, I'll be fine. But you need to get home for dinner before you're late."
He hesitated but nodded again. "I don't think it is him that is most threatening anyway. It is something else, there was something else when he was here."
Cryn tried to accept her friend's analysis, but she had never really been into fantasy. She liked explanations for things and events. That was why she once loved science fiction so much. It was fantastical but with an explanation in terms of the sciences. It wasn't just because.
This…situation, however, was becoming more and more impossible. Impossible and without even a notion of an explanation. The control freak in her did not like the predicament at all.
'This still could be just one big coincidence.' She frowned as her mind rejected this rationalization.
"Well we can't do anything else tonight, Cat. As long as nothing else strange happens, I think we'll be in the clear. At least for tonight."
"Yeah, ok. I'll see you later… tomorrow. Bye." Cat launched off again in the direction he came from.
Cryn just looked up at the sky and sighed. The clear sky was awash in silver lights with a backdrop of blue/black illumination. 'The desert is so beautiful.' The moon was full, perfect and bright as day. She could see the Copernicus crater and all of its sisters.
'If only I could be there.' She sighed once more.
The reservation behind the town stretched all the way back and along the Grand Canyon to the north. 'The Canyon would be gorgeous right now.' She toyed with the idea for a night ride for a minute but decided against it for the more pressing calling of sleep. She hoped her mind would actually reward her body with some rest.
In her apartment, which was more appropriately a room on the backside of
the general store, she grabbed a quick microwave dinner and then headed
for bed. As she lay down and relinquished control of her weight, her eyes
fluttered only once. It was almost as if she were enchanted.
************************************************************************
She was floating. Or at least it felt like floating. It was more of a strange buzz, resonating where she normally felt her body. Wisps of silent breeze caressed her features and prompted her eyes to focus. It was strange but she somehow knew where she was. There was no sound. Only her thoughts and a blazing display of color. She was floating in a sea of stars. Their cool, flickering light washed over her and illuminated all that was around her.
There were enormous clouds of colored gasses, mixing and expanding, following invisible lines of gravity, that seemed so close and yet, so far away. A comet caught her attention and rushed silently past her, beyond her view. It was smaller than the very tip of her pinky finger. I must be the size of a planet, no... bigger. Her thoughts rang through the silence. As she turned to follow the comet's path she saw a star. But not just any star, a middle class sun. Though only the size of a giant beach ball, it was clearly defined in a fury of fiery activity. The comet looked as though it would directly hit, but narrowly swung around and was soon lost to the outer cosmos. The time…how off it is.
The star silently let out a large loop of fire, which is drew back almost as voraciously as it had spawned it. She continued to gaze around her and a whole solar system reveled itself. But it was not just any solar system. It was hers. The neighborhood of Earth. As she concentrated on any object or planet, it became clear and close. She would move at her minds control. Not even the Sun affected her position. As she focused on Earth, she caressed it with a transparent hand. A wave of loss came over her. I am alone.
You are?
If she had been holding the planet, it would have been relocated to Alpha Centuri.
What!?
You believe you are alone?
Well, obviously not anymore!
Can you feel it?
I am too overwhelmed.
Space disappeared. It was now only herself that she could tell was floating in the darkness.
Concentrate.
I can't explain what I feel.
Try
It is so…natural but indescribable.
Then let yourself sense.
I sense only darkness now.
You are trying to use only your eyes.
Who are you?
What you sense.
I sense a great power.
Power?
Yes, a great strength of will.
What else?
Nothing, I don't understand.
Can you feel it?
There is no magic here.
Magic is relative.
I don't understand.
Do you want to?
Yes.
Then try to accept.
I will try.