CANNOT BE SEEN

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Chapter 5

"With the truth, you need to get rid of it as soon as possible and pass it on to someone else. As with illness, this is the only way to be cured of it. The person who keeps truth in his hands has lost." Jean Baudrillard

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It was quite late in the morning when Lucius awoke. The sun had been up for hours and had warmed the very air that he breathed. It had spread to every corner of the village and lit up the entire world, it seemed. The air smelled of damp wood that was carried with the crisp smell of the fresh air. The sound of men working and children at play could be heard through the window and the curtains fluttered with the sweet-smelling breeze. The glory of it all seemed magnified a hundred fold to Lucius Hunt. His heart seemed full to bursting and it made it hard to breathe, in an amazing, in-love kind of way. He wasn't sure if it was his love for Ivy, how rested he felt right now, the beauty of the morning, or if it was all that and a dozen more little things. Or maybe…maybe, it was just his love for Ivy and it was that which made him feel so relaxed, and the world seem so beautiful, and made him grateful for all the little things. He was not certain, but he was sure that he had never felt this way before. And he never wanted to feel any different ever again.

The metal bird that he had seen just last night was pushed far into the back of his mind, and it slept there. Lucius did not know what that thing was or if it even happened, but he did not want it to trouble his thoughts anymore. It had already troubled his sleep enough. And now, he was going to get dressed and go to visit the Walkers', just like he promised Ivy he would.

XxX

"Mother," Lucius called into the kitchen as he stopped in front of the door. "I am going to the Walkers' now."

His mother came scurrying into the front room, wiping her hands on her apron. "Wait, Lucius, I wanted to talk to you."

He paused and watched her fidget, waiting for her to go on.

"Did you talk to Mr. Walker last night?" She asked finally, looking up to her son.

Lucius was slightly confused by the origin of the question but he nodded.

"All right," She sighed, "About what happened last night…"

He watched the way his mother exhibited symptoms of discomfort and took his hand from the door, his tone turning serious, "Is there something wrong?"

Alice shook her head and took a few steps closer to Lucius. "I just wanted to talk about, last night about what you-"

Just then there was a sharp knocking at the door and Lucius's eyes lingered on his mother before he turned and opened the front door. It was Edward Walker himself.

"Mr. Walker," Lucius opened the door wider to let him pass.

"Good Morning, Lucius," Edward smiled as he made his way into the house.

"And Mrs. Hunt." He nodded to Alice without looking at her.

"Good Morning, Edward." Lucius's mother spoke in her usual steady voice and Lucius noticed, knowingly, that her eyes avoided Mr. Walker as much as they could. He also noticed the large distance between them.

"I believe Ivy is waiting for you, Lucius." Mr. Walker smiled.

Lucius understood his polite subtlety and nodded before looking to his mother. "What you were saying before, that can wait?"

She nodded in reply and smiled tightly. "Go on."

"Good bye," He inclined his head and turned, walking out of the door, shutting it behind him and starting off towards the Walkers'.

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"Lucius," Ivy bounded down the steps in cheerful exuberance.

"Good Morning," She smiled at him and took hold of his arm. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine," He answered quietly.

"Let us go for a walk and we can talk."

And they did. They strolled around the grassy expanse of the village, talking. Well, really, Ivy was talking enthusiastically about many things, such as Kitty and how she was adjusting to married life and so on, and Lucius was merely listening.

"She asked me why we have not gotten married yet," Ivy started in amusement. "I told her that we had to wait until you were well enough to dance."

"I can dance," Lucius insisted.

"Well, I want to wait until you are fully recovered," Ivy replied with good-natured stubbornness.

He shook his head and sighed as a lull settled over them.

It was not long before Lucius broke the silence with something that had been on his mind all morning, although he tried to stop it.

"Ivy, from last night…do you remember anything…unusual?"

She looked slightly puzzled by the question but she answered anyway. "No…nothing unusual. Why? Did something happen?"

He paused, mulling it over. Did something happen? The night was now a blur in his mind. His dreams and the reality were impossible to distinguish from one another with any accuracy. He had been so sure, when it was happening, that it was real. He could remember the chill in the air and the way the whole world seemed to shiver, he remembered it all so vividly. But, it was not possible for it to be real. It could not have been…could it? If only he could experience it again. If only he could remember it more vividly.

"Lucius?" Ivy's voice broke through his reverie.

"I think I saw something…"

"What sort of something?" She asked quizzically.

"Last night, I could have sworn that I saw this…in the sky, after you had fallen asleep. It was like a metal bird…" Lucius felt silly just for speaking it aloud.

"A metal bird?" Ivy's puzzlement mounted with increasing intensity.

"A very large metal bird…it was so loud and so…big. It was flying overhead…I asked your father, but he said it must have been a dream." Lucius's rambling was close to being incoherent.

"Maybe it was a dream…do you think it was, really?" Ivy wasn't dismissing him like her father had done. She was taking it very seriously.

"It seemed so real. But, I cannot be certain."

"It does sound…unlikely, Lucius. Maybe you did dream it." Ivy suggested evenly.

He nodded with a sound of agreement. Little did he know that Ivy was not as certain as she sounded. After all the lies that had been told to them…who knows if her father would have lied to Lucius. Of course, to jump to that conclusion would be wrong too. Lucius did sound unsure and maybe he did dream it. Maybe they would never know. But a metal bird…it did not sound very probable to Ivy.

"Lucius, can we go back home? I am getting tired of walking." And she started back towards home, still holding Lucius arm tightly.

XxX

"There is an elder meeting tonight." Edward spoke after a long awkward moment.

"Why again? So soon?" Alice asked in earnest quizzicality.

"The plane." He lowered his voice as if someone might overhear him. "We have to discuss the possibility that it may happen again. We still do not know why it happened in the first place."

She nodded in agreement. "But Lucius said nothing to me about what he saw."

Edward sighed and turned to walk slowly around the room. "He does not know what he saw last night. He seemed so unsure…that I provoked the idea that he might have dreamed it."

"I nearly brought it up this morning." She admitted, glad that Edward had the right timing as to interrupt.

"Just keep in mind, then, that he does not know. If he asks you, though, I think it best to…pretend you do not know anything." He spoke with the calculation of a strategist.

She nodded in reluctant admission. "All right."

Edward sighed heavily once more. "I just hope this does not create anymore of a problem. It is getting harder and harder to hold together this village. It seems to me, as if it is collapsing from beneath our feet."

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"Shall we have a footrace?" Ivy suggested joyfully when they were nearer her house.

"I do not-" Lucius started, but she had already turned and started running.

Usually, Lucius would not have followed. But, today…just felt different. He felt truly happy. The happiness was so, that it was pressing on his heart and making it hard to breathe. So, today, feeling very unlike his normal self, he smiled slightly and took off after Ivy.

He caught up with her after a moment and they raced to the door of the Walker's house, stumbling up the steps together. Ivy was the first to make it across the porch and fall in through the door.

"I won!" She breathed out, letting her cane clatter to the wooden floor.

Lucius leaned on the door frame, breathing hard and ignoring the pin-prick of pain in his chest. The doctor had said some pain would be normal and not to worry, so he didn't. Instead, he watched Ivy's smiling, flushed face, feeling the bubble of joy inside his chest grow a little bigger and push away the pain. Yes, he was still recovering, but he could have won. And he let Ivy win, but he didn't mention that to her, of course.

He moved away from the door and shook his head as Ivy started to dance around the sitting room, twirling between the chairs and singing.

"Ivy, watch yourself-" before the words even left his mouth, her foot caught on the leg of a chair and she stumbled, nearly falling to the floor, but Lucius caught her, albeit a bit clumsily.

She starting laughing and righted herself, brushing off imaginary dust. "Not a word, Lucius Hunt" She cautioned, through her laughter, as she saw his color flicker with amusement.

He bit his lips together and took Ivy's elbow. "Perhaps you should sit down…and stop dancing." He suggested, guiding her to the wooden settee.

She sat down, her back straight with mock-haughtiness as she ignored the smile in Lucius's voice.

He sat down next to her, his eyes wandering to the open window, where he saw Mr. Walker through the window to his house. His gaze was torn away, however, by Ivy.

"Lucius, Will you read to me?" He turned to see her hand grazing the lines of books on the bookshelf near her.

"Read to you?"

"Yes. I like the sound of your voice." She insisted.

He let out a breath, searching her face. "What do you want me to read?" He asked, finally, pushing himself up and walking to the shelves of books.

"Anything." Ivy said idly, before amending her word. "Poetry."

Poetry. Lucius's eyes scanned the shelves. It stopped at a book entitled, "The Courtship of Miles Standish, and Other Poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow."

It was really quite thick compared to others, and covered in a dust jacket, looking very straight forward. Longfellow was one of the poets Lucius had actually heard of and he reached out and pulled it off the shelf. It was heavier than he imagined it would be and he nearly dropped it with the unsuspecting weight as his wrist buckled. He grabbed it with both hands to keep it from falling to the floor and then sat back down on the settee next to Ivy.

"What book is it?" She asked.

"It is a surprise." He replied back innocently.

Lucius fingered the unusually straight and thin edges of the pages before flipping it randomly open to somewhere near the back.

What was on the page was shocking.

It was like nothing he had ever seen before. The pages were shiny and so thin he felt they might tear in his gentle hold. The text was riddled with photographs…color, real-life photographs of things he had never seen before. Buildings that were so high he couldn't understand why they did not tumble over or simply collapse and he found himself staring at the picture as if it might come to life and do just that. He also saw pictures of people, looking so different from himself…yet somehow so similar. His shock was being held back by his ignorance. He knew nothing of any of these things…he had no idea of what they were…what they meant.

He turned the page. More pictures, more perfectly spaced words. He started to flip with more force, still minding the pages. He stopped flipping when something beautifully extraordinary caught his eye.

It was the metal flying bird. He struggled to take it in. His thoughts were wild in his head, moving so fast he could not process one before another took its place.

"Lucius, what is wrong? ...your breathing has changed." Ivy sounded concerned to his ears.

"I…do not know." He whispered and his eyes started to search the text for an answer. He was almost expecting the words to be in different languages…to be as foreign as the pictures were to him. But they were in English. His eye jumped from word to word so fast, so eager to absorb what was being said, that he could not gather anything his eyes fell upon. He forced himself to slow half-way down the page, and then certain sentences and phrases started to jump out at him.

The airplane industry began as a mail carrying service…

it's first flight in 1918 was a disaster…

Founded in 1927…. the first transatlantic passenger flights…

of the late 1920's…

early 20th century, brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright…

experimented with new engines powerful enough to keep 'heavier-than-air' craft aloft…

On December 17, 1903…

Was this some kind of Jest?

Lucius could not even imagine what he was seeing. It was incredible. Between the texts were amazing pictures…unfathomable. One was of the metal bird as he had seen it last night, below it was written, "Modern Airplane of the 21st century." Then there was a picture above it, a picture of a primitive, wooden framed version of the bird, and then next to that…an even more primitive sketch of the same bird…or 'airplane', whatever it was.

"Lucius, what is it? Please."

"It is…this book," was all he voiced before he held his place in the book and turned it over. He carefully lifted the jacket away from the cover of the book and pulled it off completely.

The title was not anything like the dust-jacket suggested. It was called "American History, Reconstruction to the 21st century." And the whole of it was glossy and startlingly colored.

"What about the book?" Ivy asked, starting to get impatient with Lucius's weightless answers.

"It is not a book of poetry…" He trailed off, turning the book back to look at the page with the metal birds.

"What is it a book of then?"

"History" he answered doubtfully, flipping back to the cover.

"Oh. Well it must be one of my father's…simply pick another one…"

She didn't understand.

"No, Ivy, this book…there is a picture of the big metal birds in it."

"…The ones from your dream?" She asked after a slight hesitation.

"It was not a dream, Ivy, I know, now. It was not a dream." He whispered quietly, the state of awareness washing over him.

"What does it say about the…birds?" She asked him curiously, scooting closer to Lucius.

"It says that they were invented in the early 1900's," He said this in such hushed tones that it might have been hard to hear.

"…and that they fly through the air….and carry passengers. And the one that looks most like the one in which I saw…was used in the 21st century."

There was a heavy pause. "They are called 'airplanes" He said finally, looking up into Ivy's confused face.

"This must be some kind of…farce. Someone must be jesting us." She said unevenly after a moment and Lucius started to flip further through the book. He saw titles like "1920's" "Stock market crash" "Great Depression" "1930's" "World War II" More pictures of…airplanes, diving through the air. It did not look like a joke to him.

"They speak of the 1900's as if they have already happened." He whispered, running his fingers gently over the written words.

"It must be a fiction, Lucius. That is all…" Her voice held emotion, but he could not discern whether it was fear, or pure dismission.

Her fingers felt the smoothness of the pages and Lucius set the book on her lap for further examination as he stood up and returned to the shelves of books. He quickly pulled another off the shelf and pulled off the dust jacket. It read: "Modern European Literature: a Collection." The jacket guised it as "English Synonyms classified and explained."

"All of these books are disguised."

He shook his head in wonder and wrapped the jacket back around the book, shoved it back where he found it and pulled another off the shelf. This one claimed to be "Frankenstein" but, it was really a book called "The Grapes of Wrath." He opened the first page and read "Copyright 1939."

"Ivy, this is-"

"Lucius, My father is coming!" Ivy said suddenly, cutting him off. He whipped his head around quickly and looked out the window. Mr. Walker was moving quickly towards the house.

A pang of panic struck at his heart and he wrapped the cover back around the book, pushing it back into its place.

Ivy handed him the book she held and Lucius put it away with haste.

"Lucius, do not tell him what we've found. We must keep it a secret." She pleaded, standing up and grabbing his arm.

"All right, quickly, let us go outside." He whispered and grabbed her cane as they made it to the door in time to open it and come face to face with Edward Walker.

"Hello." He greeted them jovially, "Where are you off to, then?" his eyes following them as they brushed past him.

"Just for a walk, Father." Ivy forced a smile.

"Do not be late for dinner." Mr. Walker called after them.

Ivy turned and watched as her father closed the door. He was a keeper of such secrets. She felt some kind of emptiness as if she did not know him near as well as she had thought before. Her father was keeping things from everyone. Things, she thought, which were now fighting, violently, to be released.

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TBC

Until next time...