The Story Begins (8 page)

“If this is earth, there are planets missing,” Lydia observed. “Where are Mercury, and Venus, and the others?”

“The earth, its creatures, and the universe you know are far different from that which you now see. Humanity is yet to be seeded upon this world. But when it is, the human form will change; however, not for the reason your elders believe and impart to succeeding generations. When humanity is seeded, they will bear the form of the two who now observe their creation; and though humanity will change in likeness as time progresses, they will again return to the form they will be given upon their creation. Liken that which you now see unto a house. When a house is laid upon its foundation, it may not necessarily remain the same always, even though its construct might have been predicated upon an idea believed final,” Shia explained.

Lydia wasn’t quite sure what “predicated” meant but did comprehend the overall message. “I guess you’re right,” she agreed.

“By the time the earth and universe you know come about, countless worlds would have come and gone; some destroyed never to be again while others recreated, or terra-formed, as humans might say, by races that will come to be, or terra-formed by their makers,” revealed Shia.

“Gods? How can that be? There is only one God,” declared Lydia.

“In essence, yes,” said Shia.

“What does that mean?” asked Lydia, starting to wonder if everything she’d ever been taught to believe about God were true. “Everybody knows that there’s only one God...I think… I mean, that’s what we are taught to believe.”

Shia turned to her, smiling. He understood why she thought as she did; it’s what she had been taught. He seemed hesitant; perhaps unsure as to whether he should say what he wanted to. Making up his mind, he then nonchalantly said, “The world may believe as it wills.” After pausing for a moment, he continued solemnly, “Yet in the freedom granted this incorrigible child, conflict has found a home.”

Lydia expressed her confusion sheepishly. “Shia, I know we kind of grew up together and I know you kind of, sort of, look almost human at times but you’re like a baby god who, though you don’t know everything, still knows a lot more than I do. I think that sometimes maybe you forget that I’m just a little human girl and don’t understand everything,” she complained.

Affectionately, he took her by the hand then said, “In time you will understand. You will understand everything.” Quite suddenly they vanished.

BACK
IN HER ROOM: “If that was the beginning, where would we be if we went further back?” asked a curious Lydia.

“We’d go back to where there’d only be darkness,” Shia answered.

“And what came before that?” asked an increasingly curious young girl.

“This universe wasn’t. Nor was the place that came to be home to the universes.”

“Can we go there?” she asked.

“That would be…” he thought for a moment, “oblivion is a close enough word. And you cannot exist in nonexistence.” He then answered the question before it came. “And there, the place from which it all started, the being and the place, which have simply always been, to that place we cannot go, at least not as we are. And even I do not have the power to take us to that realm.” There was a brief silence before Shia mused aloud, “I seem to know so much, yet I know so little.”

Lydia then thought of something. “Shia,” she said, obviously perplexed, “if our sun is the beginning, how can there be older suns in our universe?”

“Simple,” he said. “Mankind establishes beliefs based on different criteria of how it believes things work. And while assumptions can be a beginning to discovering truth, some of the ideas some of these beliefs are founded upon have no basis in reality, regardless of how much like truth they may look. Yet still, it is a way of learning. Not to speak of the countless races in the universe that have perfected their sciences to the extent of manipulating heavenly bodies and subjecting them to their own needs. Mankind may have been first but the freedom given him has been his downfall time and time again.”

Lydia, deciding that Shia was perhaps again forgetting that she was just a human child, and also remembering the awesome things she had seen, chose to simply enjoy it all rather than try to rationalize existence. “How beautiful it all was. Amazing beyond words!” she exclaimed. “The flowers, the animals, everything was so beautiful and it was amazing seeing them grow and start to exist right before our eyes. Are you going to tell me more about the people we saw someday soon?” she asked.

“You’ll know more about them in time. We both will,” he said.

She looked at him and thought how beautiful a being he was. How happy she was to be around him. From him she felt a love she hadn’t felt from anyone else, not even her parents, and she was sure it was not for lack of love from her parents; she understood that, in their humanity, they were truly limited beings.

“It’s late and you should be getting to bed,” advised Shia.

“I know but I just don’t want to let you go,” she pined.

“Sleep that you may be well rested come daylight.”

Before she could register any further protests, she found herself being tucked in while he floated by the window. She was being lowered onto her bed while the covers were being pulled back, and just before touching the bed, her pillow was fluffed up and made soft, as was her nightly ritual. The covers were then rolled over her. Shia came closer; hovering horizontally over her, he kissed her on her forehead and then he was gone.

Even though she had gotten used to his sudden manifestation and vanishing acts, she couldn’t help but feel his departure even more this time. He was gone and there was no telling when next she’d see him. It could be a mere few seconds later or several years. She had no way of knowing. Her eye caught sight of the journal on her desk, the journal in which she recorded his visitations and had tried to discern a pattern but had long since given up for as hard as she had tried, he was simply too erratic to predict.

She fell asleep.

6

Melanie

Jaden was a
prankster; however, this time the not-very-well-thought-out prank had gone too far, which is why he found himself at 5:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning on his lonesome outside the George Sherman Union building, the sole coerced participant, he suspected, of a group of students who had volunteered for community service activities outside the city of Boston.

“Playing dead! What the hell possessed me to carry out such a stupid prank?” he asked himself as he wondered where everyone else was.

It wasn’t lost on him that he had gotten off lightly, a mere slap on the hand. And for that he was grateful. His punishment could certainly have been far worse. Now that all was done, his ill-conceived prank was not the brilliant idea he had initially thought it would be.

*

THE
PRANK: Though his home was only fifteen minutes away from school Jaden had opted to live on campus and although he visited home often, he always spent the weekends on campus. One particular weekend, however, he felt like staying home; and it was while there, and out of presumably infinite boredom, his most imbecilic idea was conceived. He had asked Cindy, a high school friend of his who also attended Boston University, to call one of his friends and convey that Jaden had gone into surgery and had passed during the procedure. By the time he had realized the depths of his foolishness, it was already far too late; word of his supposed demise had spread across campus very quickly, almost as though the whole student body had been assembled and the collective had been addressed at once. Mass that Sunday, which all his friends had attended, had been dedicated to him.

After finding out what Jaden had done, most of his friends, including Alex, who had felt most deceived above all others, decided to punish him by refusing to associate with him.

*

While
standing there contemplating his stupidity, he began to wonder more earnestly why no one else was there yet. Had he arrived a little too early? Then his thoughts again shifted over to his friends, ex-friends rather. Because he didn’t much care for people as it was, if his former friends hadn’t initially pursued his friendship, he would have been perfectly content to be friendless. As far as he was concerned, not having any friends didn’t deprive him of anything. Besides, he reasoned, if he had a need for friends, America had over three hundred million people from which he could choose, or replace individuals as friends at will; believing that society had become almost impossibly superficial, he couldn’t have been any more certain that such wouldn’t be problematic at all. And it was because of such a dismal attitude that he never felt contrite, or ever sincerely meant an apology–if he offered one at all–for anything hurtful he might have done.

True to form it was this same hapless attitude that he espoused when he saw a girl walking in his direction with a backpack slung across her back. She wasn’t staggering around drunk from some party so he surmised that she could only have been up at that ungodly hour for the same reason as he; albeit, he suspected, as a genuine volunteer.

She was casually dressed and sauntering along as though the world were a really wonderful place. Good heavens! It’s 5:11 in the morning. I hope you’re not one of those really happy-go-lucky people that don’t mind striking up conversations with strangers because I really am not in the mood to talk, he thought. Please, please, please! Let’s just exchange pleasantries and then pretend like neither one of us is here. But, as fate would have it, Melanie was a really sweet girl who actually didn’t mind striking up conversations with strangers.

“Hi,” she said then took a sip of her coffee.

Jaden wished he had something hot to sip on in the cold. “Hey!” he said, trying not to sound too terribly aloof.

“Are you here for the trip out to Ayer?” she asked, switching her coffee cup to her left hand.

“As a matter of fact, I am,” he replied, hoping that would be the end of their exchange.

“I’m Melanie,” she said, extending her hand to him.

Great! Just great! he thought. I just wanted to get out there, do whatever it is that needs doing and be done with this. I’m not here to make friends.

While they stood there talking, Melanie seeming not to have taken note of Jaden’s reluctance, they were joined by others before their transportation showed up. Jaden climbed into the van first and made his way to the very back, hoping to kill two birds with one stone; not be bothered by anyone else and get a bit more sleep during the trip.

Melanie, however, had plans of her own. She hopped in after him, sat on the seat that immediately preceded his, turned sideways so that she may look at him and engaged him in conversation the entire trip.

Jaden wasn’t one to indulge anyone for any reason, especially if he didn’t know them, unless, of course, a purpose lay therein. As such, when he did notice his friendliness towards Melanie, he was quite surprised at himself. He actually found himself beginning to enjoy her company.

The van finally arrived at its destination and everyone dreaded getting out of the warmth the vehicle offered to venture out into the cold.

“GOOD
morning, everyone,” greeted the lady that came out to meet them. “I see that you all came prepared,” she said, referring to the layers of clothing they all had on. “Let’s get you inside for a cup of coffee, or perhaps some tea, before we get you out there.” They followed her into an old Victorian-styled house. “How is everyone feeling on this fine New England morning?”

“Cold!” was the collective response. Several of the students immediately made their way to the freshly brewed coffee.

“Well, there’s quite a bit to do. That, coupled with your warm clothing, will help keep your mind off the cold,” the lady said. “Actually, it really isn’t all that much but the grounds extend for several acres all around us so it’ll be more like quite a bit of walking. I’m sure strong, vigorous, young people such as the lot of you are up to the task.” She poured herself a cup of coffee before continuing. “First we’ll be raking and gathering the foliage, and then tend to the greenhouses, take a lunch break, clean the aquariums, and then, reserved for the guys, hew a few small trees. Does that sound like fun?”

Most were enthused by this, not so much Jaden, only because he felt forced as opposed to actually truly volunteering on his own.

The group of fifteen students was initially divided into two groups, with each group responsible for one half of the grounds; each group was then further divided into sub-groups, or teams of two, and one of three; Melanie and Jaden made up one. After each team was assigned areas of responsibility, they started out.

Whereas during breaks teammates switched out to get to know each other better, Jaden and Melanie spent the entire day doing things together until it came down to the last chore, that of felling trees.

As he hewed away with one of the other guys, he noticed that Melanie was looking at him very differently than she had in the morning. He had also observed earlier on in the day that as time had passed, Melanie had cast more and more furtive glances towards him. He, however, hadn’t thought anything of it. Not until presently.

She stood several feet away to the left of him but at an angle at which she didn’t seem to realize that he could see her. He believed that the tinted safety eyewear he had on was why she didn’t appear to realize that he could see her gazing upon him as though one smitten. He also thought that she probably expected him to actually be paying attention to the saw being used and not spying on her.

AT
THE END OF THE OUTING: Although Jaden hadn’t particularly been thrilled to have been there initially, as the day wore on, he grew to like what he was doing and the people with whom he was doing it with; though he did spend the entire day with Melanie, there were times when their team’s path would cross with that of another and they’d chat a while. And now, as the sun was setting, bringing the day to an end, he actually wished they could stay a while longer.

While awaiting the van, Melanie asked, “Did you have fun?”

“Yes, I did. More than I thought I would. Actually, I don’t know if you could tell but at the onset of the day I really didn’t think that I’d have any fun, let alone as much as I ended up having. Did you?”

“I had a wonderful time,” she said, smiling affectionately.

Was she flirting? He wasn’t sure. “I’m glad you did. Was this your first trip out here?” he asked.

“Out here, yes. But I do volunteer work whenever I can. I’m really happy that I had time to volunteer this time.”

Jaden suspected that she had said that because of him. “Sounds like you very much enjoy volunteer work,” he said as he looked around, wondering where the van was. Standing in one place, he was starting to feel the cold again.

“Yep, do it whenever I can.”

The van pulled up just in time; no longer actively engaged, they’d all begun to feel the cold. After an early start and a hard day’s work, within minutes into the trip back, they all dozed off except the poor driver and his front seat passenger. They were the only two designated drivers for the outing. At the end of an exhausting day, that was a task everyone else was glad they didn’t have.

At the start of the journey back, Jim, the driver, had offered to drop everyone off at their respective dorms rather than the central location from which they had all been picked up that morning. As they came into the campus grounds, Melanie’s was the first stop. Approaching her drop off, Jim called out to her. Sitting right behind Jim, asleep on Jaden’s shoulder, Melanie awoke.

“We’re almost there, Melanie,” Jim said.

Melanie was temporarily staying at the Howard Johnson’s Hotel on campus, commonly referred to as Hojo’s. It was where students for whom dormitory rooms weren’t yet available were accommodated.

As the van neared Hojo’s, Melanie asked Jaden, who had also awakened, “So, do you have a girlfriend?”

That caught him utterly off guard, especially seeing as how they had just both woken up and that was the first thing that she said and definitely the last thing on his mind, if anywhere there at all. He suspected that he knew where this was heading and preferred that it not happen. She was a wonderful, genuine, caring and sweet girl, and he’d rather she remained that way. He couldn’t have been any more certain that his conflicted soul – the unfortunate product of a once–turbulent household and his extreme sensitivity to a troubled world – would object to any attempt at anything meaningful with regards to a relationship that transcended the boundaries of friendship. He did not want the scars of his discontented heart to become her burden.

Strangely enough, however, though earnestly he tried to craft an evasive response that would have given her the impression that he did, without him lying outright by saying yes, his wits failed him and he simply blurted out, “No!”

Jaden had never cared to pursue a relationship but was aware that Boston University abounded with more than its fair share of vanity-stricken girls who, it wouldn’t have surprised him, probably believed that even God was not a good enough match for them; any such character he wouldn’t have had any qualms being candid with, even being rude or obnoxious towards. Melanie, though, as pretty as she was, was very, very sweet and down to earth. He tried hard to devise a means by which he could end this without hurting her.

“Why do you ask?” he inquired, wondering why he could not bring the line of conversation to an end. He wished some of the other students would wake up and start a conversation that would detract from this one.

“Well, I’m not doing anything once I get back, other than get cleaned up of course, and thought, if you don’t have any plans, we could hang out,” she explained.

Desperately he wanted to say no. That which came out instead was, “Yeah, sure we can!”

“Great!” she said. If she was trying, she wasn’t doing a good job of hiding her excitement. She was all smiles and quite giddy.

“Not quite sure I make the girlfriend connection, though,” Jaden said, still bewildered as to why he couldn’t simply say no to what was happening.

“Oh it’s just that some girls are a tad bit jealous and wouldn’t want their guy hanging out with another girl,” she said.

He hoped that perhaps he had misread her, as a lot of guys often do with girls. As sweet and soft-spoken as she was, he couldn’t imagine that she’d be so straightforward about such a thing if she wanted anything more than friendship from him. Still, he wasn’t quite sure; it was just as feasible that under this guise she was gathering intelligence from him in an effort to discern his status, his military mind was thinking. If his own manner of thought was also that of hers then she was playing her cards well, he thought.

Jim was pulling off of Commonwealth Ave into the hotel driveway.

“Well, this is my stop,” Melanie said, grabbing her backpack. “So what time are you coming over?”

“I’d say about a couple of hours from now.”

“Okay. I’ll see you then.”

“Okay. Oh… what’s your room number?”

“Room 103 on the third floor,” she said as she hopped out. “Call when you’re on your way, the number’s 2248.”

“Okay. And you do mean 301, not 103? Unless you meant to say that you’re on the first floor.”

“Oops! Yes, 301. Sorry!”

He understood. “It’s been a long day. See you in a bit.”

“Okay… see you, guys,” she said waving to the lot of them though most were still asleep.

Jaden watched her as she walked towards the revolving doors and thought her a very sweet girl. But there seemed to be more to her. He tried to speculate as to what exactly it was about her that he was drawn to; though attractive, it wasn’t physical. There was certainly something about her that he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

Just as she was about to step through the revolving doors, she turned back, smiled, waved again then stepped through.

“Sounds like you’ve got yourself a date,” Jim said as he pulled off.

“Nah, just hanging out, dude. Beats watching mindless garbage on TV. She’s a really nice girl,” Jaden observed.