This is a continuation of a story begun in the post “Chapter 1. Part 1.” If you enjoy it, please like and share it with others!
CHAPTER 4: DR. CORNELIUS SPENCER LEE
“So,” I said, “where is this Brew woman that we are supposed to meet?”
“Oh, about that, you really shouldn’t refer to Umbili as ‘men’ or ‘women.’ We’re not human, and some of us are a bit touchy when a human puts us on their level. I don’t really mind, but I know Brew will take offense. She’s been kind of emotional lately, and she’s been having mood swings like you wouldn’t believe.”
“Ok. What should I call you?”
“In place of the word ‘human’ say ‘Umbili’. It’s both formal and informal, and both singular and plural. And in place of ‘man’, or ‘woman’, say ‘dude’ for males and ‘dade’ for females.”
“What about he and she or him and her?” I asked.
“Those are still acceptable, because there are still male and female Umbili, just not men and women. Humans are distinct creatures from Umbili, the Higher-ups designed you in those two categories, man and woman, for special things.”
At this point in my life I didn’t know that I would be bringing the word “dude” back to earth in the 1880’s and popularizing it, but it just goes to show you that you can never be too careful with your language.
“What about ‘people’ and ‘person’?” I asked, hedging my bets.
“Personhood isn’t a distinctly human quality. Even the Higher-ups are personal beings, but they sure aren’t humans. A lot of Umbili don’t understand that though, so it’s probably best to leave those alone,” said Chak.
“Fine. Where is this Brew dade that we are supposed to meet?”
“She lives on The Walk of Life.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s a street name. It’s about a quarter of a mile away. I think we can walk there. It will be good practice for the journey ahead; plus, you’ve had too many surprises today to deal with the excitement of a car. It’s probably not safe anyway considering Mendrax built them all.”
“Was I supposed to understand that?” I asked.
“No. Don’t worry about it.”
We walked out from between the two buildings that marked the entrance to Chak’s home and took an immediate left. We walked through the empty streets, but Chak appeared to be weaving through an invisible crowd. I found it odd, since there was no one else around, but then I remembered what Chak had said about humans not being able to see Umbili without concentrating on where they were, and never being able to see them clearly until they chose to let you do so. I asked him if there were other Umbili around, and he shouted back over his shoulder, as if trying to overcome a large crowd with his voice, “Yes they’re all over this place. Excuse me dude. Look hard directly in front of you. Try to feel them pushing past you.”
The moment he said this, I felt a large shoulder collide against mine.
“You didn’t mention that I couldn’t touch them before being aware of them.”
“Oh. I didn’t?” he shouted back. “Then I guess it’s a good thing you’re figuring that out now.”
Another shoulder bumped up against mine, and something hard banged into my knee.
“On second thought, I’m going to try not to see them right now. We’ll try the whole ‘seeing the Umbili thing’ once we get to Brew’s,” I shouted back, feeling rather silly since it was dead silent on the street from my point of view.
“Okay!” Chak yelled.
“So, can these people, I mean Umbili, sorry, see me even though I can’t see them?”
“Sort of. They see you transparently, and the more you see them, the more opaque you become. You’re basically a ghost to them, but a ghost that they’re not afraid of because they know you’re a human,” he yelled.
Strangely enough, now that I had begun to notice the Umbili, it was harder for me not to notice them. It’s interesting how many things work that way. You do fine without knowing, but once you get a glimpse of it, you can’t go back to the way you were. I did alright at ignoring them, but I still felt a bump or a jostle every once in a while and a few knocks to the head, which I could have sworn were intentional blows.
Eventually we took a turn off of the busy main street and went about thirty feet down the new road only to find a huge watery canal interrupting it. A beautiful boat with red siding bobbed up and down in the water. It had an ornate carving of something winged attached to the bow, and a long wooden rod descended into the water fastened to the boat by a ring.
“Wow,” I said. “That is gorgeous.”
“You really think so? Eh, public transportation.”
“Are you kidding?” I said as he climbed into the boat. “I can’t believe how intricate this design is.”
I approached the edge of the water and ran my fingers along the hand carved vines that twisted and twirled up and down the edge of the boat.
“Are you coming?” Chak asked impatiently.
“What? I thought we were walking to Brew’s.”
“We were,” he said, “but I got tired of you grunting every time someone hit you on the head, plus there was a major accident at the intersection of Ben and Jerry that I didn’t want to have to deal with. Blame it on Teleon I guess!” He laughed. “We’ve been having a lot more car accidents since Mendrax left. It’s causing a bit of civil unrest. We’ll take the canals to Brew’s back door.”
“Ok.” I said, not entirely sure exactly what Chak had just told me, but climbed into the boat anyway. As soon as I sat down on the middle bench, Chak pushed off from the dock using the long stick.
“You know, boats are sort of a hobby of mine,” I said.
“Really? Is that why you stared so longingly at this one?”
“There’s something graceful about the way boats glide on the top of a still water. There was a small lake near my home in Athens where I would go with some of my friends. We would just sit on the shore and watch the boats. It was peaceful. Some of the best memories I have are on that shore. That’s where I met,” I hesitated.
“That’s where you met…?”
“Never mind,” I said quickly. I didn’t want to mention Pathena. He probably knew about her already, but if he didn’t I wanted to keep it that way. I changed the subject quickly. “Can you read my thoughts?”
“No. What made you think that I could?”
“Well, when you showed up in that cloud in Troy you knew quite a bit about me.” The boat suddenly rocked back and forth as Chak shifted his weight, plunging the stick onto the other side.
“It’s called research Nicholas. The Higher-ups told me most of what I needed to know about you. Nicholas Alexander. Olive orchard. Soldier. Single. No children. Parents dead. Average. I can’t read your mind. The Higher-ups can in certain situations. They are strange folk.”
“Can Mendrax hear my thoughts?”
“Oh, hearing! That reminds me. Put these in your ears. They’ll translate everything you hear into Greek for you so I can stop speaking it. You’ve got a really confusing language,” said Chak, handing me what looked like two flesh-colored pebbles. I quickly figured out how to put them in my ear and repeated my question.
“Okay. I got it. So, can Mendrax hear my thoughts?”
“Can you hear me okay?” he asked. I nodded. “Good. Well, I honestly don’t know if he can hear your thoughts. I guess we’ll find out when we get there. I wouldn’t be surprised if he could. I bet he’s got a ton of powers that no one is aware of, and he’s just biding his time waiting for the right moment to use them.”
“Why do you think he did this whole thing? I mean, if it’s going to destroy the world, why did he do it? Won’t he get destroyed with it?”
“I don’t think he realized it would eventually destroy the world,” Chak said, “and when he did finally realize it, he was too insane with power to comprehend that ending the world would be a bad thing. He just worships chaos and himself now. He is completely crazy, though he doesn’t seem so. If you were to talk to him, he would seem completely normal.”
A long pause followed this and I lost myself in thought through the rhythm of the boat’s rocks. After a few moments Chak broke the silence. “We’re almost there. Do you see that dock up ahead? The one attached to the bright green dome?”
I looked in the direction of Chak’s pointing finger. There was a series of tall buildings and interrupting their flow was a single stand-alone dome about thirty feet high.
“That’s Brew’s place. She’s expecting us. When we get there, you tie up the boat, and I’ll go greet her and get the formalities out of the way. Just come in the blue door when you’re done.”
“Okay,” I said.
Wood struck wood as we docked the boat. Chak immediately jumped out and walked briskly up to the blue door and entered. The door closed just as I was clambering out of the boat onto dry land, and a curious thought came over me. I was unsupervised in another world.
I wondered what else was special about the Syllogy of the Universe that Chak wasn’t telling me. I looked around trying hard to see if there were any Umbili around. I figured that I would at least catch a glimpse of something odd if there were, so I concluded that I was alone. I picked up a rock and tossed it into the canal. A plop followed by a splash met my ears, but nothing else happened. I waited in anticipation of something odd occurring. I glanced around for another rock to throw and spotted a small bug on the ground. It looked like a common beetle. I picked it up and held it in the palm of my hand, studying it. Everything about the beetle appeared normal. I held it right in front of my face and peered into its jet black eyes, hoping to read its mind.
“You’re not strange at all, are you?” I asked it. “You’re just a stupid little beetle, not a care in the world.”
“And might I inquire as to whom it is you are calling unintelligent?”
I whirled around looking for the source of this voice. It had a warm quality to it that invited you to listen closely, but a hard quality that made you scared of what might be said. There was no one around me. I looked back at the beetle.
“Did you hear something? Is there a dude somewhere here that I can’t see?” I asked the beetle in the closest thing to a baby voice that I have ever come to imitating.
“No I am afraid that there are no Umbili present in the immediate area. You were merely startled by the fact that I am speaking to you.”
I looked up from the beetle thinking that someone must be standing in front of me. With my other hand I reached out and waved it around, expecting to make contact with some invisible mass.
“What are you doing? You look rather maladroit at the moment.” The voice seemed to be coming from the beetle. I peered into its beady little eyes.
“Are you talking?” I whispered to it in amazement.
“Oh so it does have deductive reasoning powers. I was beginning to worry. Indeed I am conversing with you homo-sapien. What might be your appellation?”
I stared at the beetle’s tiny mouth, unable to speak and unsure of what it was asking for.
“Your name good sir, what is your name?”
“Uhhhhh, Nicholas.”
“A pleasure to make your acquaintance Uh Nicholas. My name is Doctor Cornelius Spencer Lee.”
“Doctor?”
“It’s an honorary title,” said the beetle.
Want to keep reading? Go to the next section! >>> “Chapter 4. Part 2.”