Cristal - Novella (9 page)

“Can you try to take a sip of water?” Dr.
Saeed asked softly in her ear.

She felt someone lift her upright. Her body
leaned back against someone as she took a deep breath.
Kerim?
His cologne enveloped her nostrils. She started
gasping and her eyelids snapped open.

“She’s awake!” Gabriel cried out.

She looked up and saw Kerim on his knees. He
was holding a small vial under her nose. The fumes overwhelmed her
senses.

She raised her arm and pushed it away from
her face.

“What is that?” she managed to say.

“Mr. Biker over here thought he could wake
you up with his emergency backup bottle of cologne,” Joanna
answered.

Gabriel knelt down beside Kerim. He looked
up towards Joanna who was standing behind them.

“It worked, didn’t it?” Gabriel said.

He turned to Cristal.

“Kerim said that back in Istanbul, they
always use cologne to revive people who faint.”

She took a deep breath. Her head was
becoming clear again. She struggled to sit up by herself. She
noticed that it was Harry whom she had been leaning against. He was
staring at her, and his gaze was filled with deep concern.

“Are you okay now?” he asked.

“I’m better,” she replied, “but the room is
still slightly spinning.”

She put her arm out and grabbed Kerim’s
shoulder to steady herself. He reached out and held her.

She stood up, feeling lightheaded. Then she
swooned, feeling her legs get weak. Harry, Kerim, and Gabriel
jumped up. Each one of them held onto her to keep her from falling
forward. Harry eased her back onto the couch.

“You need to rest,” Dr. Saeed said, as he
kneeled down in front of her.

He flashed a light into her eyes.

“Your eyes are dilated. You need to lie down
and put your feet up.”

He helped her lie down while Kerim put a
pillow under her feet.

“Everyone, give her some space. She needs
air,” Kerim said.

Her eyelids felt like weights were forcing
them shut.

“Come on, everyone. The meeting is over,” he
added.

She could hear people moving away.

“Dr. Saeed, I need to talk to her,” Harry
whispered, a few feet away from her.

“Kerim is right. She needs to rest. We can
talk to her when she is better,” Dr. Saeed replied.

“I’ll stay with her. When she’s stronger,
I’ll take her home,” Kerim said.

Was he beside her?

“I think I should stay with her and you
should go,” Harry responded.

She heard shuffling and more whispering.
Using what little energy she had left, she managed to speak.

“Kerim, don’t go.”

“She’s delusional,” she heard Harry say.

“You heard her,” Kerim said. “I’ll take her
home. No need for both of you to stay here.”

“Harry, why don’t we move the meeting to my
office? We can check on her in an hour or so,” Dr. Saeed said.

She heard more shuffling, and then there was
silence.

She was in a white room. Around her there were walls
made out of clouds. She noticed that in her hand was a paintbrush
covered in red paint. She turned around and one wall was covered in
red with streaks of white clouds in between each stroke. The clouds
started to move, bending the lines, and forming a picture. She put
the paintbrush down and moved towards it. Each step she took was as
if she were floating. Weightless. Free.

“
Cristal,”
a voice said.

Her eyes widened. The picture was coming to
life.

“
Don’t be afraid.”

It was changing shape and moving towards
her.

“Dad?”

CRISTAL EYES SNAPPED OPEN and darkness surrounded
her. The dream was still clear in her mind.
But was it a
dream?
She sat up, looked around, and saw that she was alone.
How long have I been sleeping? Where is everyone?

She stood up, adjusting her eyes to the
darkness and walked towards the doorway, bumping into a stool. She
picked up her backpack, which was still sitting on the table. She
walked out of the classroom into the dark hallway. She reasoned
that the building was running on power from the generator, due to
the earthquake. It was creepy being alone in the dark.

She could see light coming from Dr. Saeed’s
office across from the classroom. As she walked closer to the
doorway, there were voices involved in an intense conversation.
Slowly, she approached the door. Kerim was standing in front of
Harry and Dr. Saeed in front of a desk, and they were seated
at the meeting table. There was no one else in the room.

“…and that’s what you really think happened?
Time travel? C’mon Harry, I know there are strange things
happening, but that?”

Harry was smiling, and his hands were
animated as he spoke.

“Like I said earlier, it’s all in my
father’s notes. Dr. Saeed was helping my father prove their theory
that there are portals or black holes in locations around the
world. My dad worked with Dr. Saeed to gather data from
multiple sources that included satellite imagery, and a geographic
information system.”

He turned to Dr. Saeed.

“Tell him about the experiments with the
kids.”

Dr. Saeed crossed his arms.

“Aaron Doub theorized that gifted children’s
extra sensory skills could help connect or bridge the present to
the future.”

Harry’s grin grew wider, as he said, “Child
prodigies have natural abilities that are remarkable for children
their age. My father believed that the reason for this is because
their brains are able to process data and information like
computers. His tests proved that they use fifty times more brain
cells than average children or adults. They theorized that if we
placed a gifted person at a location where a black hole or portal
exists, it would be the key to unleash the energy to open up the
portals.”

The expression on Kerim’s face said loud and
clear that he wasn’t buying anything they were saying to him. He
sat down on the edge of the desk.

“So is that how the earthquakes happened?”
Kerim inquired. “Gabriel’s apartment is one of the locations of a
black hole?”

Kerim leaned towards Harry and pointed his
finger at him.

“That’s why you wanted Cristal to go there.
And you needed me to keep her safe. Is that it?” He paused. “When
the earthquake happened, I saw a white light coming out of
Cristal’s chest that shot up to the ceiling and it went right
through to the ground.”

Cristal’s heart started beating faster.
I can’t
believe Harry set me up
. She clenched her fists and felt her
face turn red. She stepped closer to the door but kept herself from
entering.

Kerim now had Harry and Dr. Saeed’s full
attention.

“What do you mean a white light?” Dr. Saeed
asked, crossing his arms and tilting his head.

“Can you describe what it looked like?”
Harry interrupted.

Kerim took a deep breath.

“The light came from the ceiling down into
her chest and then it went into the ground. I saw images above her
head like a movie playing on a screen.”

He paused, as if trying to recollect what he
had seen.

“Go on,” Harry said.

“Well, I saw you, Cristal, Dr. Saeed,
Gabriel, Rinaldo, and Adel. I was there, too. There was another
guy, dark-skinned, brown hair. I couldn’t see him very well.”

Dr. Saeed glanced at Harry and then looked
back at Kerim.

“Could be Sami?”

Kerim continued, “We were standing outside
somewhere, and it was hot. The sun was hitting the grey wall behind
us. Cristal moved to the center, and all of a sudden there was a
white light coming out from her chest. It was weird, because it
looked almost like a mirror of what was happening in front of
me.”

He sat back down on the edge of the desk and
fell silent.

“Don’t stop now,” Harry said.

Kerim looked at Harry. His eyes narrowed as
he spoke.

“Harry, it was all about you, all this time!
Right?”

Harry arched his eyebrow and stole a glance
at Dr. Saeed, who was intently listening to Kerim.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,”
Harry said.

Cristal heard the sincerity in his
voice.

“You and Dr. Saeed over here are in on this,
right?” Kerim demanded, pounding his fist onto the table.

Dr. Saeed showed no facial expressions, but
said, “Kerim, tell us what you saw,” he said calmly.

Kerim stood up and turned towards Harry, his
grey eyes piercing into his.

“You walked into the light,” he said in a
low voice.

Cristal had to step closer to hear him.

“Then the light disappeared.”

Harry’s eyebrows arched up.

“And that’s it?” he asked.

Kerim replied, “No, that isn’t it.”

Harry stood up, his gaze never leaving
Kerim’s.

“Okay, so tell us.”

“It wasn’t just the light that disappeared.
You
disappeared with it.”

Harry had a shocked look on his face, and
his eyebrows were arching even higher. Dr. Saeed’s eyes widened
slightly. He leaned over and whispered something into Harry’s ear.
Harry smirked in agreement.

Kerim had turned around, seemingly oblivious
to what was around him. He ran his hands through his hair in
exasperation.

“And that’s when the earthquake stopped. The
light and the images vanished,” he said.

A smile crept onto Harry’s face.

“In your vision, I must have traveled into
the future!”

Cristal could feel her face burn red. She
could not contain her fury any longer. She marched into the room.
Everyone turned to look at her with stunned looks on their
faces.

“That explains a lot, Harry,” she said, her
voice shaking with anger.

Cristal looked straight into his eyes.

“But guess what? This prodigy wants nothing
to do with your time traveling theory.”

She whirled around, poking her finger onto
Kerim’s shoulder.

“And you,” she said, her voice rising
higher.

She looked at her hands briefly realizing
that they were beginning to shake.

“I was beginning to trust you. Now I know
better. I can’t believe you told them about the light.”

She turned around with full intentions of
running out the door, but she stopped. On the shelf, among stacks
of books was an 8x10 photo in a silver frame. In the photo, Dr.
Saeed was standing on the far right. She recognized the man in the
middle as Harry’s father. She had seen his YouTube videos on the
Truth Seekers’ discussion forums. But it wasn’t Aaron Doub that
caught her eye. It was the woman on the other side of him.

She stepped closer, wondering where she had
seen this person that appeared in the picture. Harry and Kerim
walked up and stood beside her.

“That’s her,” Cristal managed to say,
pointing to the picture.

“Who?” Kerim asked.

“After the earthquake, I looked up into the
sky and saw a face. It was her.”

She could feel her heart pounding harder and
faster.

“Are you sure?” Dr. Saeed asked.

“I’m positive,” she answered.

Her words seemed to stick in her throat like
chalk dust.

Harry grabbed her by the shoulders and
turned her towards him. His blue eyes were wide with
excitement.

“That’s Bina Schwartz. My mother.”

“Are you serious?” Kerim asked.

“Yes!” he said. “She went missing last
year.”

SHE COULDN’T STOP RUNNING
.
Minutes earlier, she had exited the Physics
building, stumbling down the stairs. She could hear Kerim and Harry
calling her name as she ran out into the street. The air was heavy
and humid and clung to her like a wet bathrobe. It was late in the
evening and the sky was an angry purple. The moon was low in the
sky, a crescent shape with a burnt orange color.

“Cristal, wait!” Kerim cried out, running
toward her.

Something in his voice made her stop and
turn to face him.

“Leave me alone.”

He stopped in front of her.

“We need to talk.”

She looked past him to see if Harry was
there. He wasn’t. She shifted her eyes back onto Kerim, crossing
her arms.

“Okay, explain to me how come when I’m near
you, I feel like you are inside my head. And it seems you know what
I’m feeling and thinking.”

He took a deep breath and then looked
away.

“So, are you going to tell me?”

She stepped closer to him.

“Or are you just going to stand there?”

“Okay, let’s sit,” he said, pointing to a
bench a few feet away.

His voice was distant yet soft. His tone
didn’t exude its usual confidence.

He walked over, sat down, and placed one arm
on the back of the bench. She followed him and sat on the far end
of the bench. Maybe he wouldn’t be able to read her mind if she
created a larger expanse of space between them. She raised her chin
slightly and focused her energy on watching his steel grey
eyes.

“So, go ahead.”

He began speaking, but his words were spoken
so softly that she couldn’t understand him. She inched closer and
closer, straining to hear him. She realized at that moment that if
she were to move any closer to him, she might end up in his
lap.

He gave her a wicked grin but then tried to
cover it up with his hand.

Oh, this guy is driving me nuts!

“Like I said before…I was in the Turkish
Army serving as underground intelligence. I was trained to do a lot
of things, one being, understanding and reading body language.”

She tried to focus on his words. “I can tell
when someone is lying or if they are nervous,” he continued. “I
needed this for gathering intelligence for my covert missions. But
when I left the Army, the skill was really useful with the ladies,
if you know what I mean.”