The Magister (Earthkeep) (36 page)
Read The Magister (Earthkeep) Online
Authors: Sally Miller Gearhart
"What is the most important thing in the world?" she sang out.
The excited unison shouting was accompanied by many tiny waving hands:
"Nothing is more important than that I feel Good!"
"And how do you feel when you feel Good?"
A litany of answers from different students: "I feel whole!" "I feel glad!" "I feel love!" "I feel free!"
"And do you feel Good?"
"Yes!" Clapping and cheers.
"And what does it mean when you don't feel Good?"
"It means I'm not in vibration!" one child said.
"I'm not in synch!" said another.
"And how do you get back into vibration?"
"I imagine happy things!" came the chorus. "I imagine!" they shouted again.
"Let me see how you feel Good!" sang out the maestra, and sixteen pairs of eyes squinted in concentration.
Strong, bright striations of light sprang from the group and glistened in the air. The guests nodded awe and approval.
The maestra spoke again. "Now, this will be our goodbye exercise. We four bigs won't be going with you, so Sol Serrano will be your center." She pointed to an older boy.
There were shouts and whispers of goodbye to the teacher and the visitors as the little group drew eagerly together.
"All of you be sure you are touching Sol somewhere on his body, or touching someone who is touching him. And hold each other, touch as many other people as you can."
She drew back from the group, standing at its edge. In a chaos of grunts and squeals and giggles, the mass of children shifted and squeezed more tightly together.
"Sol, you are also nonce monitor, so you get to make the count when you arrive. You'll signal if anyone's missing, right?"
The boy nodded and scrunched into his classmates, eager and waiting.
Kathleen turned to Jez. "Doña Jezebel, would you do us the honor of articulating our shyflight incantation? I've been sending them off in a simple group transport, shy-and-reflesh."
"Delighted," said Jez. She hunkered down, close to the children and touching several of them. She raised her voice. "Can you all see the bicycles on the broad path by the lone rubber tree?" she asked, pointing about 80 meters beyond a nearby grassy knoll. The children shifted so everyone could clearly see the destination, and then all heads nodded in fervent affirmation.
"In front of the bicycles, that's where you want to be, where you'll reflesh. Look at the place, see yourselves there, in exactly your present position. All of you got it?" Again, excited endorsements. Jez's glance at Kathleen asked if the specified distance was an appropriate maneuver for her crew. Kathleen pointed upward with her thumb.
"Do you feel Good?" asked Jezebel.
It was a chorus: "Yes!" followed by individual assurances: "I feel wonderful!" "I'm flying already, maestra!" "I'm going, I'm going! Hold me down!" The vibrations rose, shimmering in the air, tugging at the group; everyone hugged harder in an intensifying anticipation, trying to stay grounded a few more moments.
Jez's voice took on a louder, firmer quality. "Good. Study your destination carefully and set the image of it in your mind. Now close your eyes! Hold that image steady." She paused. "Now raise those vibrations higher! Even higher!" Delight rode every face. The group was quivering. "Keep the image! Don't let it waver! You're about to go now! Up the vibes! Keep the image! Here is your incantation!" Then Jezebel Stronglaces sang, strong and clear:
"Sister-Brother, in an instant,
in the twinkling of an eye,
we shall course the Stream together,
for we are go-ing shy!
So touch my spirit lightly
and hold the image true.
(We'll put on immortality for just a moment, too!)
I love my separate body,
its sweet delights I know,
but I place it in your keeping now,
and off. . .with you. . . I go!"
The children were gone! Zude, Jez, Kathleen and Shaheed sat alone. In the next moment, the entire cluster of children reappeared down the path by the big rubber tree.
They cheered loudly as they got to their feet and waved. "We did it!" "Goodbye!" "Hasta luego, maestra!" Sol Serrano did a hasty count and sent Kathleen an okay sign. One of the older girls rose in an awkward but finally successful solo skyflight. Then all of them were off, several on bicycles, but most walking or skipping. Two older children carried a smaller child in hand-saddle.
"Wondrous!" Zude exclaimed.
"Well-done, Doña Jezebel!" exclaimed Kathleen.
"Well-done, maestra," Jez replied, "well-done!"
She turned to the tall young man. "Shaheed," she said. "How wonderful to see you. And as a teacher, too!"
He smiled. "My life changed after that day, Jezebel Stronglaces."
"So did mine, Shaheed."
Jezebel held out her arms and Shaheed walked into them.
* * * * * * *
It was after midnight. Jez and Zude rested on a grassy promontory near Colón's cush-rocket terminal, watching the lights of the city. Jez leaned against a giant mahogany tree, Zude's head in her lap.
"It's been a magical day, Jezebel," Zude said, after long silence. "Actually," she added, "it's been a magical Journey."
"It's always a magical Journey," Jez agreed.
Into the silence Zude said lightly, "We don't have to go at dawn, you know. We could wait until noon and take a Belize rocket."
Jez looked at the dark face below her.
"And in the meantime," Zude continued, "we--"
Jez's voice covered hers.
"I know a hideaway in an old army town. Peace Point, just across the bay, there. Small rooms, bed-and-breakfast." She ran her fingers through Zude's thick hair. Her fingers touched the unicorn earring in Zude's left ear. Matter-of-factly, she pulled the hair away from Zude's right ear, took the matching unicorn from her own ear, and hung it on Zude's.
Zude lay motionless.
"So," said Jez, "the pair's no longer split." She smiled.
Zude searched Jez's face, then pressed Jez's hand to her lips.
It was moments later when Jez spoke again. "We could shyfly to Peace Point in an instant."
"Or we could spoon."
"Spoon! Zudie--"
"It's been a while, I know, but the stars are bright . . ."
She sat up and faced Jezebel.
Jez raised her hand to Zude's cheek. She laughed.
"You think we still could? Zudie, it's been . . . "
"We can do together whatever we both want to do together," Zude reminded her. "Come on." She rose quickly and pulled an unresisting Jezebel to her feet.
They swung their trip-packs into place and stood face to face. Jez leaned forward and kissed Zude, just long enough.
"My pleasure, Cadet Lieutenant Adverb. I'll navigate."
She turned and placed herself squarely in front of Zude, facing north.
Zude drew the long body tight against her own. Then both women bent their knees and closed their eyes, breathing themselves into intimate alignment.
"By all the dreams we've walked together," whispered Zude.
"By all the love with which we've filled the vessels of our lives," whispered Jezebel.
They intoned a harmony, tumbled inward, touched familiar reaches of a vista that opened to the stars. They lifted Earth-free feet and leapt above the twinkling lights of Colón to sail rejoicing toward the Caribbean, then west again to Peace Point.
EARTHKEEP
CHRONOLOGY
Common Era Date
2003 | World Health Organization announces that alternative and complementary health practices lend hope for long life to persons of HIV-positive status. Deaths from Virus I (HIV) balloon in Indonesia, Bengal Bay, and Hong Kong as a result of contaminated blood supplies from the 1990's. |
2004 | Pan-European medical establishment announces first truly effective vaccine (Vaccine I) against Virus I, to be available immediately. |
2005 | Flossie YotomaLutu |
2006 | Precipitous emergence of mutant virus (Virus II) from the Virus I vaccine. |
2007 | Beginning of decade of escalating natural cataclysms, such as spikes in global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, drought, famine, malaria, rivers poisoned by acid rain. China, India, and southeast Asia are especially stricken. |
2008 | Effective vaccine (Vaccine II) against Virus II is announced. |
2010 | Emergence from Vaccine II of a new strain of drug-resistant virus (Virus III). |
2012 | Vaccine III against Virus III is announced. |
2014 | Emergence of new viral mutation (Virus IV) from Vaccine III. |
2015 | Global riots against medical establishment take hundreds of lives. |
2018 | Global crusade to inoculate every citizen against Virus IV with Vaccine IV, the "vaccine to end all vaccines," which has been tested extensively on cloned animals. |
2019 | Widespread drought resulting from ecocide and global warming sends masses of starving people northward from Central and South America into southwestern United States. The defensive response of the U.S. military includes releasing upon the invading people swarms of Culex tarsalis mosquitoes carrying an influenza virus against which its own troops are inoculated. Tens of thousands die. |
2020 | The international outcry against the U.S.'s use of biological weaponry deals the deathblow to the global power of the United States as it had existed and assures the inclusion within North American borders of the newly formed Reclaimed Territory Of Aztlán, extending from Los Angeles to the Mississippi River. |
2021 | "Empty Monday," April 12, the day of the Animal Exodus from Little Blue. The death or disappearance of all multi-cellular animals except Homo sapiens. All subsequent attempts fail to clone stored animal DNA. |
2022 | Beginning of a decade of upward spiralling global unrest, exhibited in street wars, food riots, homeless rebellions, increased martial law, worldwide disruptions of power, communication, and transportation services. |
2023 | International Disarmament Accords end the possibility of biological, chemical, or nuclear war worldwide. |
2024 | Announcement that Vaccine IV has irrevocably suppressed the Y chromosome in men and reduced fertility in women by 80%. Estimates concur that by mid-century, global population will be just over one billion and that the ratio of women to men will be 12-to-1. |
2026 | Lin-ci Win |
2027 | Worldwide secession from their parent nations of religious fundamentalist sects whose precepts include enslavement of women and individualized strains of racist theology. Their staunch defense of their sovereign communities initiates the bloodiest decade of Little Blue's 21 Formation of Intenational Congress, representing nearly 75% of the nations of the world. |
2029 | Founding of the Amahrery's Kanshou Academy in Hong Kong, ushering in the era of women's peacekeeping principles and practices. |
2033 | Founding of the Femmedarmery's Kanshou Academy in Tripoli. |
2034 | Founding of the Vigilancia's Kanshou Academy in Los Angeles. |
2035 | Worldwide legal reforms begin the conversion of prison facilities into containment areas called "bailiwicks," whose inmates become "habitantes." Local police forces formally adopt Kanshou peacekeeping principles, practices, and ranks. |
2036 | Inchoate governance model based on values and practices familiar to women begins to emerge for Middle East geo-political territory, spearheaded by |
2038 | Transmogrifier technology is tentatively approved for worldwide distribution by International Congress. The profusion of world credit systems is standardized to accommodate the rapidly changing economy. (See |
2039 | Beginning of worldwide efforts to integrate and codify among nations economic and governmental relationships based upon values and practices familiar to women. Hearings, forums, and convocations in every major city explore the requirements of world government, delineating legislative, judicial, and implemental functions. |
2041 | Jezebel Stronglaces |
2042 | Zella Terremoto Adverb |
2043 | The Kitchen Table, international judicial body is formed, initially with five sitting Sifters. Half-trap, quarter-trap, and demesne tribunals are established upon the Kitchen Table Model. (See GLOBAL GOVERNANCE.) |
2044 | "Earthclasp," April 12, the day that citizens all over the world celebrate Earthkeep priorities. (See |
2046 | Centralizing of global peacekeeping policy by the formal merging of Amahrery, Femmedarmery, and Vigilancia into the Kanshoubu. First convening of the Heart Of All Kanshou, composed of Amahs, Femmedarmes, Vigilantes of all ranks and charged with the determining of the policies of the Kanshoubu. (See GLOBAL PEACEKEEPING.) |
2049 | Central Web, with 15 sitting Websters, is officially established to replace International Congress as world legislative body. Half-trap, quarter-trap, and demesne webs begin forming on the Central Web model. (See GLOBAL GOVERNANCE.) |
2050 | International census for the first time categorizes "satrapies" and "tri-satrapies" as geo-political entities. The global population is reported to be 1,242,000,000, of which female citizens are 92.3%, male citizens 7.7%. "Little Blue" is officially acknowledged as the most common popular reference to the planet Earth. |
2053 | The Year-Long Plenum in Tokyo formulates precepts of new global governance. The Plenary Constitution, a planet-wide governing document, takes shape. "Global" begins to replace "international" in the daily parlance of citizens. Newly formed bureaus and boards take up the regulation of economic affairs and the implementation of legislative decisions. |
2057 | Nueva Tierra Norte Satrapy, after long negotiation with its southeastern precincts, finally confirms both the spirit and letter of the Plenary Constitution, thus completing the ratification of that global document. |
2062 | Amah High Captain Lin-ci Win |
2066 | Flossie Yotoma Lutu |
2067 | Zella Terremoto Adverb (Zude) |
2078 | Lin-ci Win |
2080 | Zella Terremoto Adverb (Zude) |
2084 | Jezebel Stronglaces |
2085 | Zella Terremoto Adverb (Zude) |
2086 | Global Consorority Of Neurosurgeons reveals proposal to use bailiwick habitantes in "the search for a physiological violence center in the brain" (Habitante Testing) and the possible institution of Anti-Violence Protocols, surgeries to eliminate any such physiological center. |