Strangers and Shadows (14 page)

“I’ve had new linens put on the bed and there are fresh towels and clothes for you in the dresser if you’d like.  If you need anything, please let me know.”  

With that, the mime left.  Jack wondered exactly how he was supposed to let him know if he needed anything. 
No doubt he can read my mind, too.

The room wasn’t too shabby.  In fact, it was downright decadent, resembling the presidential suite at a four-star hotel that Jack had once stayed in.  There was a kitchen, a dining room, a living room, a spacious bathroom, and a bedroom that had one of the largest beds he’d ever seen.

Jack walked around the apartment, checking for exit points, an old habit that had saved his ass more than once.  There were only two.  One was the front door, and the other was the door to the balcony attached to the living room.  The balcony door was open, and Jack stepped out into the cool Cairo night.  

Taken with the spectrum of the vast, beautifully constructed city, Jack watched the hovers speed by.  He was hundreds of feet from the street below.  As he reviewed his last twenty four hours, Jack could hardly keep his eyes open.  He barely managed to make it into the bedroom and climb underneath the covers.  Sleep was instantaneous.

The dream was strange.  

Strange, but a keeper.  

There was a noise in the apartment, a chime. 
It must be the door
, Jack thought.  

Rising from the comfort of his bed, Jack went to the door and opened it.  Before him stood a gorgeous young woman with dark brown hair and blue eyes.  She was dressed in an overcoat and a pair of red high heels.

“Hi.”  The woman smiled, meeting Jack’s eyes with a gaze that a man could drown in if he wasn’t careful.

“Uh…  Hello,” Jack replied, trying to keep his eyes from wandering.

She said nothing else, but entered the apartment.  Jack had to move aside to avoid colliding in the doorway.  She walked in like she had been expected, went to the entrance of the bedroom and turned around.  

Jack was speechless.  Try as he might, he couldn’t think of anything to say.

The woman smiled at him while biting her lower lip.  It came across as shy but adorable.  

And then she took off her coat.

Jack’s jaw hung loose on his face.  She was completely naked save for her shoes.  

Please don’t wake up,
he thought.

And then they were on the bed, making love in all the ways that two strangers do.  One moment they were on the bed, the next they were across the room, now on the balcony, flowing from place to place, moment to moment.  The scent of her filled the room.  The blankets and sheets were a tangled mess on the bed, no, now on the floor leading to the living room.  His heart beat faster and faster, seeking out the woman’s own heartbeat, until they merged into single drum pounding into the night.

Jack woke as sunlight poured in through the window of the bedroom.  He smiled, his better half still standing at attention from the night’s dream-play.  It had been a while since he’d had one of
those dreams. 
He rolled over and started to sit up when he saw the person lying next to him on the bed, still sleeping.  

It was the woman from the dream.

Startled, Jack jumped, picking up the covers and finding that he was indeed, unclothed.  The woman next to him stirred, her eyes opening to see Jack’s look of chagrin and confusion.  

She smiled, sunlight sparkling in her eyes.

Without a word, she rose from the bed, gathering the sheet about her to cover her naked skin.  Such beautiful skin, Jack remembered.  She picked up her shoes and grabbed her overcoat off the floor, somehow transferring her body into it from the sheet without giving so much as a peek at what lay beneath either.  She began to leave the room, then turned back to where Jack sat on the bed and gave him a peck on the cheek.  She then walked out of the room and out of the apartment
without a word
, leaving Jack wondering.  

What the fuck just happened?

Still in a daze, not quite sure what was going on, Jack managed to stumble into the bathroom and turn on the shower.  It was a sonic shower, using sound instead of water to clean the body.  Jack had grown up using one, but since his temporal displacement, he had grown accustomed to the old water system.  

Showered and relieved, Jack was nearly dressed when he heard the door chime. 
If this is another one of those weird dreams...
  Jack answered the door. 

“Good morning, hope you slept well.”  Desmond was grinning like he knew something he wasn’t saying.  “Much to do today.  Are you ready to begin, or shall I come back in a few minutes?”

“No, I’m good.  Let me just finish getting dressed, and I’ll be good to go.”  Jack returned to the bedroom and completed his outfit, picking from among the clothes left for him in the dresser.  They were remarkably suited to his tastes, half non-descript military uniform, half casual everyday clothing.  Sturdy cargo pants, with a long-sleeved shirt and a jacket matching the pants.  He finished lacing up his boots and went to meet Desmond out in the living room.

“Where to, Boss?” Jack asked, wondering just what lay in store for him.

“First breakfast, and then we’ll see about teaching you to control that mind of yours a little bit.”  Desmond opened the door and waved Jack through.  “Shall we?”

They had breakfast at a quaint little sidewalk cafe.  It reminded Jack of a similar one that he had eaten at once when he was on assignment in Paris.

“
Celia
, there you are.
”  Desmond greeted the woman who had walked up.
 
“
I was wondering if you were going to join us or not.
 
Jack, this is my daughter, Celia.  Celia, this is Jack Spade.”  Desmond introduced the two, and Jack and Celia shook hands with a nervous laugh.

“You two have already met, then?”  Desmond chuckled.  Seeing the look on Jack’s face, he added, “Don’t worry, Jack, my daughter is perfectly capable of making her own decisions.  She is, after all, almost twice your age.”

“
Excuse me
?” Jack coughed, nearly spitting out his food in the process.

Celia had a good laugh.  “
We met earlier, dad. 
Relax, Jack, it was just a bit of fun.  You don’t have to buy me flowers, or call me tomorrow, or anything like that.”  She had a wicked grin on her face.

“Please, stay out of my head,” Jack said, a little more forcefully than he had intended.

“My apologies, Jack.  It is rather hard, however, ignoring thoughts that are shouted at you.”  Turning to her father she said, “You didn’t teach him how to shield his mind?”

“
Getting to it…
I haven’t had time yet.  I thought it more important to get our guest acclimated to his surroundings first.”

The trio finished breakfast and set out on a tour of the city.  Jack was expecting some grand vehicle that would swoop out of the sky and whisk them away on a magical journey through the great city.  Instead, they walked.

Desmond led them down the busy street, hovers flying in and out, and up and down, making deliveries, and unloading passengers to shop, or eat, or carry out some other business.

“So, how much of that building is yours?” Jack asked.  He had been wondering since last night.  

“Just the top twenty floors or so.  I’ve had it designed to resemble a more traditional house on the inside, with a few apartments, like the one you’re staying in, added on for guests and family members.  Do you like it?”

“I was very impressed,” Jack said.

“Oh, Dad’s house is nothing, you should see the family estate in Montana. 
That’s impressive.
”  Celia sidled up to Jack and slipped her arm through his.

Jack was more than a little uncomfortable, trapped between father and daughter.  It wasn’t that he disliked Celia; in fact, he thought she might be the most perfect woman he’d ever met, but they always seemed like that at first.  Especially when they were naked.  And the way Desmond was so nonchalant about everything was really odd.  Jack kept waiting for the over-protective father speech.

He must have been thinking too loudly again. 

“Relax, Jack.  As I said before, Celia is more than capable of choosing how to live her life, and besides, I know what kind of man you are.”  Desmond tapped his temple with his index finger.

“Right, I keep forgetting that you people can read minds and shit,” Jack said.

Celia laughed.  “You’ll get the hang of it,” Celia said.  “I have
complete
faith in you.”

“Glad someone does.”

Desmond led them several blocks further, strolling leisurely.  He stopped at a large building with a nicely landscaped courtyard leading to the front doors.  The wall above the front doors read
Cairo University.

“This is where all of our children go to school.”

“All of them?” Jack asked.  “In a city this size there’s no way they could all go here.”

“We do things a little differently than most verses, as you might expect.  Most of our telepathic abilities aren’t usable until the age of twelve or so, around puberty.  Once the abilities manifest themselves, children are sent here, where they live for a full year.  At the end of that, they know everything they need to enter society and be a productive member.”

“
Just one year of schooling?
”  Jack was dumbfounded.

“After university, the children can then learn whatever they wish to know. Whatever interests them,” Desmond said.  “Some go on to study business, some ecology, some astronomy, whatever they’d like.”

“But how do you keep society functioning if everyone just does what they want to?  What about the jobs that nobody wants?”

“We have the mimes for that sort of thing,” Celia explained.

“What about trash, or sewage?  What do you do with those?”

“We have systems that recycle almost everything that our society disposes of.  I could go into much more detail, but at this point, all that’s important for you to know is that it works, and it’s a much better way of doing things than the rest of the MultiVerse does them.”

Jack let it go for the moment, but he was still trying to comprehend this completely alien idea of planet management.

“Shall we go inside?” Desmond asked, already walking towards the door.

Jack and Celia followed him up the steps and into the lobby of the university.  An older woman was seated behind a desk, and Desmond greeted her pleasantly.

“How are things today, Mrs. Hillsworth?”

“Oh my, if it isn’t young Master Desmond,” she said.

Desmond laughed.  “Not so young anymore.”  He turned and introduced Jack.  “Mrs. Hillsworth, this is my guest, Jack Spade.  He’s not from around here.”

“You don’t say.  I heard him coming from two blocks away.”  

“That’s actually part of why we’re here.  And of course, you remember my daughter, Celia.”

“How could I forget the lovely Celia?”  Mrs. Hillsworth gave her a friendly smile.  “We haven’t had a child cause us so much grief in the hundred years or so since you left.”  

Celia laughed proudly.

“A hundred years?” Jack asked.  “How old are you?”

Celia let out a wicked giggle.  “
I’ll never tell!
”

“Is it alright if we show young Jack around?” Desmond asked.

“Yes, I believe Professor Williams is almost done with his morning sessions,” Mrs. Hillsworth said.  “I assume you’re here to see him?”

“We are indeed.”  Desmond thanked Mrs. Hillsworth for her time.

They walked down halls and past classrooms as Desmond told Jack about the different kinds of courses the children took, and Celia reminisced on her own time spent there.

The foreignness of the school reminded Jack of how different his own upbringing had been.

Each classroom they passed was filled with around thirty to forty children, all young teenagers.  Desmond told him how some classes were held entirely in the mind, and some were speaking only, the use of telepathy forbidden.  It was important to exercise both, Desmond explained.

They walked past a large classroom without any desks in it at all.  Jack stopped and stared in amazement at what was going on inside the room.  There were objects floating all around inside—apples, oranges, staplers, books, rocks, and other objects that Jack had never seen before.

Some students were just lifting the objects up and setting them down in a different place.  Some were throwing the objects back and forth, one student catching the item and stopping its momentum before throwing it back.  All the while, the students’ hands and arms remained down at their sides.  It was an eerie sight to see.

“Come, Jack, we’re almost there,” Desmond said, realizing Jack had fallen behind.