The Story Begins Page 4

  “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.

  II

  3

 
; College

  FIRST SEMESTER JUNIOR YEAR: “What the F, man! This is ridiculous,” complained Jaden. “It could not have been a sane person that came up with this crap. Who the hell would want to be up at 4:30 in the morning to go workout?”

  “Don’t know, dude. It sucks but that’s the way it is!” whispered Marcus, leaning against the door frame, waiting for Jaden.

  “Yeah, yeah! It is what it is, I know.” Stretching, he continued. “You know, some mornings, like this one, it doesn’t seem to matter how early I get to bed, I wake up feeling as though I had never gone to sleep at all,” he grumbled. “Maybe I should go see a doctor about this. Or maybe not… I mean… it’s kind of weird. I feel like I haven’t slept a wink but at the same time I feel well rested. I don’t know, dude. It’s crazy but nothing new. I’ve felt this way off-and-on ever since I was about twelve years old. Man, this really sucks,” he muttered, looking over to his roommate, hating that Kevin was still fast asleep beneath warm covers while he had to step out into the cold and walk a half mile up Commonwealth Ave. to workout against his will.

  “The only thing I don’t like about being on the street this early is that we are always the only ones that walk that route to the old armory building. What if someone jumps us one of these days?” Marcus asked.

  “Then we’d be a couple of pretty pathetic wannabe soldiers if we couldn’t defend ourselves,” Jaden quipped.

  He made certain to bundle up in all his cold-weather wear then, placing an empty bottle of painkillers in his pocket, he left his room to embark upon the half mile hike to the old armory building on this very wintry Massachusetts morning. This is where they’d congregate with fellow cadets then partake in drills designed to enhance physical endurance. As Marcus entered the elevator, Jaden disposed of the empty bottle in the bin that stood beside the lift then followed Marcus in.

  “Why can’t it be like the good old days when all this physical conditioning stuff was more or less optional? It wasn’t really mandatory for people to keep fit back in the day – well, so I’ve heard. I can’t really say with certainty if it’s true or not. If true, though, I mean, we still kicked butt back then so I’m sure we can still kick ass now,” Jaden said as they exited the dormitory.

  “What you’re failing to take into consideration, Jaden, is the fact that other armies out there, i.e., the ones that belong to less friendly governments and could potentially pose an actual threat and prove to be formidable adversaries, workout every bit as hard as we do,” Marcus explained. “Who do you think would be the victor if we were face to face with the enemy and engaged in hand-to-hand combat because both sides ran out of ammunition and it came down to physical prowess?”

  Jaden looked at him in disbelief. “Dude, are you serious? Get off your military high horse, man, and talk like a normal person not like some uptight cadet with a hard-on for a beret. I just feel like bitching this morning, dude! I know all that crap. The workout I actually don’t mind; it’s the timing I hate. I just really feel like I didn’t get any sleep at all. Shhh,” he said, placing his index finger on his lips, “no need to remind me that I said that somehow I still do feel well rested. It’s complicated and I don’t get it… anyways, back to hand-to-hand combat. That’s an old notion. Not impossible in this day and age, just improbable. With all the weapons stockpiled in our arsenal and the high-tech shit at our disposal, all we need do is send missiles a–flying and simply secure the place after it’s been leveled.”

  “Nah, I don’t think so,” objected Marcus. “Those Hiroshima and Nagasaki days are over. You just can’t kill people indiscriminately,” he argued.

  “Ever heard of Sodom and Gomorrah?” Jaden asked. “That rain of hell was done by God himself.”

  “Yes, I have, and get your facts right. All the people, except Lot and his family, were depraved bastards who had it coming. So even that was not indiscriminate,” Marcus corrected him.

  “Again, something I already know but just thought I’d throw it out there for the hell of it. It’s not like I even believe in God, let alone accounts of fire and brimstone rained upon people, beings descending out of the heavens, the earth swallowing people, or a disobedient woman morphing into salt. Don’t get me wrong, as much as I go back and forth with my roommate about religion, I do actually respect what others believe in; I guess I’m just not one to believe some of the things others readily believe.” He yawned. “Seriously, though,” he continued, “I know we can’t blow people or shit up willy-nilly and I agree with that. And also,” he said in a tone as though to argue a point, “without turning this into a biblical discussion, because I have enough of those with my roommate, if you really believe that only Lot and his family were saved then the God you believe in must be seriously fucked up because you can’t tell me that after Lot left with his family, only depraved adults had remained. There had to have been children there. And I don’t recall Lot leaving with a whole bunch of kids in addition to his family. I say that just to state that the fruit, man, obviously did not fall far from the tree if God really did kill indiscriminately.”

  Jaden hadn’t noticed that after his assertion that people should not be killed indiscriminately, a fleeting expression of evil had flashed across his face: a wicked smirk, a narrowing and squinting of the eyes. It had not gone unnoticed by his fellow cadet. “You’re one to definitely keep an eye on,” Marcus observed rather emphatically.

  Jaden smiled. “Jekyll and Hyde, kiddo. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”

  As they trekked along, not a soul was to be seen, not even fellow cadets. Observing the desolate streets and thinking just how early it was, Jaden wondered aloud, “Why am I doing this?” He then paused in his thoughts before going on. “It’s not like I need the money. I’m already on an academic scholarship. So why the hell am I doing this?”

  It seemed like this particular morning Jaden was in a worse mood than other times he had to be up so early. Both Marcus and Jaden were used to each other complaining each morning they had to get up early to go workout. One could have even asserted that a schedule was maintained by the twain as they always seemed to alternate; Jaden, however, was griping a little more than usual this morning.

  “Are you all right?” Marcus asked.

  “Sorry, dude. I’ll quit my bitching. I’m just really cranky this morning, don’t know why.” He lied, he did know why. His attempt had been unsuccessful again.

  “As far as why both you and I are doing this, well… we both know the answer to that one,” Marcus said.

  “Oh yeah! And what might that be?” Jaden asked, smiling as he was already aware of the forthcoming answer.

  “Why suffer undue stress when it is so not necessary? I mean, why look for a job, facing fierce competition in the civilian sector, when all we need do is graduate college and get commissioned as officers in the army. Too easy, isn’t it? And having to put up with waking up early three days out of the week now, and then five days when we do get in the army, I’d say that’s a minor inconvenience for not having to compete with a thousand other graduates for the same job.”

  “Dude, don’t you feel unpatriotic when you say that?” Jaden inquired.

  “Dude, please! Let’s get real! Most, if not all, of the other cadets are doing this for the scholarship money, not because they feel any more loyalty to the country or its ideals than does the average person. Besides, haven’t you heard of that asshole senator that’s been in the news lately? The son of a bitch is a multi-millionaire yet he’s doing all that he can to reduce the benefits of service members, notably trying to cut retirement pay to 40 percent once soldiers hit twenty years of active service and can retire. Of course he works tirelessly to give himself huge pay raises, and probably has it set up in a way that he gets a crazy raise more often than is fair – as rich as the fuck is, I can’t believe that he can shamelessly take money from the American people.

  “I can’t believe that any of these rich politician fucks can shamelessly take money away from the American people. If the
y are rich already and sincerely believe in what they are doing then they should be in office for free. Obviously greed is far more important to them. But back to that asshole! What really gets me about the whole thing is the sack of shit has never served a single day in the Armed Forces – not even in the Reserves; his kids go to top-notch private schools and drive around in expensive cars, and he is trying to rob from those who don’t have much to begin with. So yeah! You’re fucking right I have no qualms about milking the government for all that I can get out of it. Sickening greed and selfishness is the American way, right!” Marcus’ tone had turned angry by the end of his tirade.

  “Marcus, are you okay? I obviously hit a nerve.”

  He laughed. “I’m good, sonny. But yeah, that was a sore spot,” he said as they entered the armory.

  Once inside, Jaden looked forward to that morning’s routine mainly because there wasn’t any regimented or scripted exercises scheduled. It was Sports’ Friday. They’d all be breaking up into teams and would play whatever sport the majority agreed on, and at the end of the hour they would be dismissed to ready themselves for their respective classes.

  The cadets always looked forward to this day as it broke the monotonous routine of push-ups, sit-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, running and then more of the same for an hour on Mondays and Wednesdays.

  *

  MEANWHILE while Jaden had slept fitfully, across the globe in Mannheim, Germany, a sweet, twelve-year-old girl, going on thirteen, was busy at play with her not-so-imaginary friend, making the most of her day off from school, which hadn’t opened because of the heavy snowfall overnight.

  *

  Jaden was not the only one with an otherworldly friend in his life. Lydia was five years old when Shia, manifesting as an amorphous glowing grayish and silvery entity, first appeared in her room quite suddenly out of nowhere. While she was busy at play, he had simply emerged out of empty space. The grayish silvery mist, seemingly carried on random eddies of air, had hovered formlessly and seemed to be studying her being. It had then begun to assume a semblance similar to that of Lydia’s, initiating the transfiguration by forming piercing turquoise-colored eyes. The rest of him simply materialized slowly until his form was complete. However, though humanoid in appearance, his being was diaphanous and fluid, and also glittered as though he was created of perhaps trillions of tiny diamonds. He had then noticed her dark hair and, deciding he liked it, strands of ebony black hair grew from his head and flowed down to his shoulders. After he had taken on a form to his liking, he had stood slightly taller than she.