Jo-el

Chapter 10 FURTHER INSTRUCTION

I woke at ten on Friday, my head thumped. I could hear rain falling in the street outside and the sloshing of cars through the puddles. All I remembered about the ride home was the spinning of the train, like a corkscrew, every time I shut my eyes. I’d fought to keep them open. Coffee was a help and by the third cup I was feeling alive again. I hadn’t thought much about the events of the previous evening, but now they rushed by me. It was so quick and so easy. The sense of power was colossal and yet deep down so wrong. I called up Sally.

“Sally, what’s the news on Fuentes?”

My heads-up glowed in front of my eyes. The scene was an ambulance, outside the Union Hotel, just around the corner from where I’d enjoyed the pasta and merlot. A body, covered in a white sheet, was being loaded into the back of the ambulance. I young Hispanic girl was being escorted to a police car behind the ambulance.

“They’ll do an autopsy and say he died of a heart attack. His girlfriend is booked on a flight back to Chicago tomorrow. She doesn’t know much about Fuentes, not even where his mother lives. The trip to San Francisco was for her, thanks for some great sex, she’d only known him for a few weeks, so she’ll get over it. She didn’t stay with the body long, she looked bored and made some excuse that she felt ill. Can you believe, she went to a bar and ended up with some other guy. She was a prostitute for a while in Chicago, but now made money running crack cocaine for a bunch of local hooligans. I could give you more?

“Okay, enough.” Really, what did I expect. Then I realized I hadn’t believed that Fuentes was dead. He was, end of story.

The image disappeared, but Sally appeared on the screen, more demure than yesterday, a dark blue dress below the knee, no cleavage. Hair pinned back in a pony-tail, matronly. “You need more instruction.” She said it out loud. She wanted to be sure I understood it was important. I wondered if she’d been told by Ka-el, but I didn’t think they could have real time conversation, or send instructions that fast. It didn’t matter, I wasn’t in the mood. What more did they want to show me? I glanced at the container, still there on the carpet, in my family room. I need to hide that damn thing. The contents were still on the coffee table, un-opened packages, containing I don’t-know-what. I didn’t feel good about what had happened, yet I couldn’t muster any deep-down concern for Fuentes, either. He was a child killer, the worst of our society and his death probably meant someone else would live.

I didn’t respond to Sally. Instead I went upstairs and showered slowly and dressed even slower. She didn’t repeat the shower episode of yesterday, she had learned.

Downstairs again I fixed some cereals, cornflakes and blueberries, no sugar. More coffee. I checked my cellphone, still sitting on the kitchen counter-top, I hadn’t taken it into the City. Three messages, two from Maggie. I checked the voicemail. First one was a heads-up that Adam was sick and had cried off Saturday’s visit, but she was still coming. She didn’t want to catch whatever Adam had. The second one asked if we could go out to a restaurant on Saturday. I texted her back, said sorry about Adam and of course we could go out. Did she want me to book something? The third message was Jimmy. Was I going to church on Sunday? Church this week was the 3-Zero café in Half Moon Bay, adjacent to the airport, a great place for breakfast. I texted Jimmy that I planned to be there.

I’d avoided Sally and my further education, but I knew that it had been temporary. I fixed some more coffee and made myself comfortable in my usual spot on the sofa. But I wanted an answer before any more of this instruction stuff. I asked Sally to appear, full size. She wanted to speak, but I raised my hand. By the look on her face I think she knew what was coming.

“Why?” I said, emphatically. “I want to know why the people of Cirion have decided now, 2016, that Earth is in danger and you need me to do whatever it is you want me to do. And what the hell is it, why me, what do you want from me?” I’m sure she registered the forlorn look that overtook my appearance. I fell quiet, I watched this thing, this computer hologram of a beautiful woman. I had to remember that Sally was fake. I was still struggling with the concept.

“Dave,” just the tone of that one word told me she was going to sidestep the question. “You will be told, trust me.” Yea right! “Everything. But I can’t tell you just yet.” I was pissed, and I’m sure it showed. “After all of your instructions. That’s what Ka-el wants. You need to be aware of your position. You need to understand how protected you will be.” I thought of Fuentes and how easily Sally had taken him off the table. “I can tell you, the people of Cirion do not have any evil intentions toward the people of Earth. You are both the same race. You are both human, in form and beliefs. Of course there are differences, your differing environments ensured that you each developed to best conquer your worlds. There are other human civilizations, the Cirion people want to embrace the human form. There are dangers in the universe that your people have yet to discover. We want you to survive those dangers and become a part of human expansion throughout the universe.

“You will never meet the people of Cirion. Even with their advanced technology, they have not discovered a way to travel faster than the speed of light. Maybe one day in the future. They have reached out to many worlds, just as your astrobiologists are sending out probes to try and discover if there is intelligent life outside of your planet. It is just one of many projects they are conducting on Cirion.”

She stopped there, I felt a little more comfort but couldn’t help wondering if she was telling the truth. If the Cirion people had evil intentions to the people of Earth would she tell me? Then again, what I’d seen of their technology would indicate to me they could wipe us out in a nanosecond. I guess I’d have to finish whatever instructions they still had and find out the answer to the sixty-four-million-dollar question after that. One thing did occur to me, I hadn’t caught the Cirions in a lie as yet.

Using thought I said. “Okay young lady what’s next then?” She’d changed her clothes again. Back to blue jeans with a black silky top. She looked good, but then, she always looked good.

She spoke out loud. “Open the large container.”

I did what she asked. Inside was a silver garment, very light, clingy, sort of mesh, in two pieces. I held them up to examine them more carefully. There were pants and a shirt with long sleeves and no collar. I glanced at Sally and my face said. ‘You really want me to put this on?’ It didn’t look, ME. Not anything I’d be seen dead in. She smiled. Oh crap! Maybe I could fight her on this. She smiled again. Damn.

“What is it?” I asked.

“A smart-suit.” She replied matter-of-factly, as if I should know. “You’ll like it.”

Dang, that’s what my mother would say when she’d just got back from the store with some hideous outfit she wanted me to wear. I was the kid who wore my clothes until they were thread-bear, hated new stuff, all stiff and starchy. I held up the outfit once more.

“How do you know it’ll fit?”

That bloody smile again. “Any size fits all.” Now she was holding back a laugh.

“Very funny.” I headed toward the door with the intention of retreating to my bedroom for the fitting.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“Upstairs.”

“Here’s good. I’ve seen you naked.” She was loving this.

“Once is enough.”

“Ahhh! Spoil sport.” She let out a shriek of laughter.

I left and went to my bedroom and laid the garment on the un-made bed. It was then that I noticed that there were no holes where my feet would go through. Oh-my-God, it’s like a pair of bloody tights. I’m going to look like a silver spider-man. I was on the edge of returning to the family room to protest, when Sally suddenly appeared at the opening to the bathroom. Crap! For a while I’d forgotten that this thing, that looked like the most beautiful women in the world, was a computer and basically was everywhere.

I laughed. I could see the funny side. “I guess I should have stayed downstairs.”

Sally didn’t answer. I undressed and re-dressed in the ‘smart-suit’, at first leaving my underwear on, but Sally shook her head on that. Surprisingly it felt very comfortable, as if I was wearing my oldest, most loved outfit, but I was scared what I must look like. I didn’t even want to look at my manly bulge. I stepped gingerly to the bathroom and the full-length mirror on the door of the walk-in closet. Oh God, I was right. I looked ridiculous. My aging body didn’t do silver Spider-man any favors. And the bulge, well I shouldn’t say, but it was there, but with limited mass. I turned around to protest to Sally. No-way was I going out anywhere in this thing.

She was grinning from ear to ear. “I’m sorry,” she said and calmed her glee as best she could. “I want you to use thought. Think ‘Clothes’. Then think of an outfit you like to wear, like the jeans and t-shirt you just removed.

I hesitated for a second, then did what she said. Immediately I could sense a change in my appearance, even though the feeling of comfort was unchanged. I turned and looked in the mirror and gasped. My silver suit was now my faded jeans and blue innocuous t-shirt. My mouth gaped open. I should have realized. These people weren’t earthly human; they were so far ahead of us we were like ants.

“Shoes.” Said Sally.

I looked down and saw my silver clad feet and thought of sneakers and watched as they magically appeared on my feet. I turned to Sally, “explain”.

“You can look however you wish. Any garment you chose will feel exactly the same as any other. The computer creates a mirage, like a hologram. The smart-suit will protect you from all elements. You will not feel cold or excessive heat. Your bare arms are covered by the suit, but it’s transparent. The raised cloth around your wrists can become gloves and the raised area around the neck can be a hood.”

“So I throw it in the wash with my other stuff, right?”

She laughed. “No, it’s self-cleaning.”

“You’re kidding?”

“Dirt is just atoms like everything else, the material recognizes foreign particles and expels them. Cool huh!”

Very cool, I thought, but she’d just destroyed the whole garment industry on earth. Might not go down well with Macys and JC Penny. Whirlpool and Maytag won’t be too happy either. Mrs. Wong at the drycleaners would be peeved.

I had some fun with different outfits, from motorcycle clothing to tuxedos, business suits of varying design and the clothes I was most comfortable wearing. It was truly astonishing. Maybe I could patent the smart-suit and start production.

“How does it work?” I asked.

“Huh!”

“The smart-suit?”

“The computer projects a micro-thin holographic layer on top of the suit. Basically, there is nothing there, it’s false, just like me. When you touch it, it feels just like the smart-suit whatever you’ve chosen to wear. Just a trick of the eye really.”

I patted my hand along the suit, weird, but it worked.

We were back in the family room. I was comfortable in my make-believe jeans and t-shirt, Sally matched me with her outfit. The rain had ceased and the sun was now coming through the windows in long lines, highlighting the dust that filled the air, my silver smart-suit adding to their numbers.

“Now something essential, to keep you alive.”

I was all ears.