Don't Call Me Kitten! (23 page)

Ang glanced at
her deluded passenger. She’d enjoyed Phoenix’s company on the way
in. She had a way of drawing information out of you without talking
overly much about herself. Pretty clever Ang thought. “Doc’s clinic
is just up ahead.”

“It’s alright
Ang, I don’t really think I need to see a doctor but I would like
to find out what is going on here. Where’s the Mayor live?”

“That would be
that large two storey Georgian mansion across from the park.”

“Let’s me off
there then.”

Ang wasn’t too
sure she shouldn’t keep a little more of an eye on her passenger to
make sure she was alright. She gave a cursory look at her watch.
She could afford a few minutes. “Come on then, I’ll introduce you.
I’ve got to warn you though, the guys are hot. Must be something in
the water around here. Everyone looks like gods.”

George was
already waiting for them at the door of the mansion. “The boss is
out the back, he’s waiting for you.”

“Ah there you
are.” Simon looked up from the herbs he was preparing for drying
and motioned them towards the kitchen table. He extended a hand to
each of them in turn. “Ang, Phoenix, won’t you please take a seat?
You have questions Phoenix.”

Of course he
knew their names. While Phoenix grilled Simon on the obvious
discrepancy at the roadblock Ang surveyed the room and couldn’t
help but notice the being sitting crosslegged on a raised cushioned
platform by the window. A fairy. She gave the beautiful radiant
being a nod in quiet respectful acknowledgement.

That there was
a fairy in Simon’s kitchen didn’t truly surprise her. She’d always
noticed the inhabitants of this house had unusually vibrant healthy
auras. Even their cat, which she spied sleeping in the sun out on
the adjacent verandah, was surrounded by a rainbow of light. Of
late the rest of the town’s other inhabitants had been getting
brighter too. On her last few fortnightly rubbish collections into
town she’d felt a shift, the whole town had a growing presence of
wholeness. Not that it hadn’t been a great backwater to start with.
The people had always been independent, minding their own business
yet at the same time community minded and helping each other
without much fuss when needs arose. But this was something more,
something she couldn’t put her finger on. Phoenix was right about
one thing, there was definitely something going on here.

Phoenix sat
back in her chair, digesting everything that Simon had just told
her. “So what you and the townsfolk did pulled the whole of the
vicinity into what you term the non-local and then you
rematerialised it into a parallel dimension, the realm of faery.
The so called fairies having given you permission to annex the town
onto their dimension. Look Simon do I look that gullible?”

Ang hmphed.
Phoenix turned to her, eyebrows raised. “What?”

“I know you
believe you saw a meteorite site and a roadblock but even you can’t
deny we’re now in the middle of the town that you said was
destroyed. And what about the fairy sitting over there?”

“What
fairy?”

Simon
chuckled. “Our skeptical friend here really has too closed a mind
to see such things Ang. We can change that though.” He proceed to
tell them about the retrovirus Jnarn had developed, the reason why
the town’s inhabitants were so healthy. “It’s also a protection
against Din influence. You two might consider taking it before you
leave town. The new inhaler administration of it is quick and
painless, at least for younger humans like yourselves.

Ang looked at
her watch again. “I’m not sure I’ll have time. I really need to get
back to finishing my shift.”

“What if I was
to tell you that I can deliver you back to the point in time where
you came through the portal?”

Ang relaxed.
“I’d say that was good enough for me. You’re on.”

Phoenix was
disturbed by her companion’s readiness to accept everything,
despite its implausibility. Yet she was curious. Maybe this
retrovirus could be the breaking story she was looking for.

Simon gave her
a stern look. “Actually we’d like to keep it quiet for now.”

“Bloody hell,
did you just read my mind?”

“I would have
thought that was obvious to someone of your quick intellect.” Simon
jibed. Her skepticism was beginning to wear on him. “Now if you
want a story how about this. Tyra’s going to the Council meeting
tonight, the one they’ve called to discuss her apparent demise and
replacement. We intend to turn up en masse. Do you think you could
get a camera crew there?”

Phoenix’s mind
ran through various machinations and quickly decided it was going
to be the story of the year. It might even get international
coverage. “I can do that. So you’re not keeping yourselves
secret?”

“No need. The
Din can’t get in here or hurt the town now. It’s in a parallel
dimension they can’t reach, or even see.” He added meaningfully.
“Don’t worry, once you’ve had the retrovirus you should be able to
pass through the cloud portal into the town again anytime you want.
What has got me curious though is why Ang here is faery touched.
Helena Ivanova is the only other human I’ve come across with the
sight. Do you want to tell us you how you got it?”

Ang got a
sense that he already knew her strange tale but decided to tell it
anyway. “I guess I’ve always had it, at least as long as I
remember. My parents, well they’re not my real parents but they are
as far as I’m concerned, they found me. Mum’s Australian but Dad
was from Portugal. They’d gone on their honeymoon to his homeland
to see the village he grew up in but when they got there is was
deserted. It’s poverty stricken inhabitants had long since gone in
search of jobs in Lisbon. Anyway, when they were walking around the
ghost town they heard me crying and found me on the steps of the
disused church. I couldn’t have been more than a day or two old at
most. They searched for anyone who might have left me there but
couldn’t find a soul. My Dad knew that if they took me to the
authorities I’d only end up in some underfunded orphanage so they
made a monumental decision. They decided that while they were out
camping around the old village my Mum had given birth to me, being
further along with a pregnancy than she’d thought. At least that’s
what they told the embassy. It took quite a bit of convincing but
eventually the authorities agreed to issue a retrospective birth
certificate with the supposed date and time of birth. It’s not like
there was the technology around back then to check my parentage
anyway. With that all organised they managed to get the paperwork
to get me out of the country. And I will forever be in their debt.
Someone back there either didn’t want me or saw the tourists come
into the town and thought they could give me a better life than
anything they could ever give me. Either way I’ve been loved and
pampered beyond anything I imagine my alternate life might have
been. I was the only child my parents ever had. They didn’t know it
then but it turned up later that my Mum was infertile. She never
cared about that. They both loved me as their own. I’ve always seen
things I shouldn’t though. My parents taught me it was a precious
gift but one that I might be best to keep it from others.”

Phoenix
understood now. “So that’s why you could see the road to the town
and I couldn’t. Hmph, and you thought I was the one seeing things.”
The irony wasn’t lost on her.

“It all
depends on which reality you think has more credibility doesn’t it
Phoenix?” Simon asked pointedly. Then he turned away to muse a
moment, looking into the akashic for the answers he sought but
nothing obvious was surfacing. “The question still remains: why Ang
was gifted with the fairy sight?”

“She wasn’t.
Not specifically anyway” Eadaoin rose from where she was seated and
flexed her wings as if relieving an itch she couldn’t quite
scratch. “I believe you’ll find Ang inherited the sight from her
ancestors. The Tuatha de Danaan interbred with the survivors of
Atlantis who made it to the shores of Ireland, far western Europe
and the northern lands like Britain. The Irish in particular had
strong allies amongst the people from the coastline of Portugal and
North-West Spain as well as some of the Berber, Tuareg and other
tribes amongst the North Africans. I believe if your geneticists
were to study her you’d find a certain percentage of ‘undefined’
flows through her very veins? Even the skeptic carries the blood as
evidenced by her flame red hair, green eyes and pale skin. It is
only her learnt doubt that clouds her mind. She has only to awaken.
These two are the two you have been waiting for.”

The reality of
it amused Simon even though millennia had taught him to expect
people and things to turn up in the most unusual places. A garbage
truck driver and a skeptic, who’d have thought. Yet he felt the
truth of it. Threads of destiny wove before his eyes, creating what
he sought. “I believe you are right.”

Phoenix glared
at him. “Who the hell are you talking to and don’t tell me a
fairy?”

Simon gave
Eadaoin his best pleading look. She answered by nodding her assent
then walked over to Phoenix and touched her on the brow.

Phoenix reeled
back, absolutely stunned. She shook herself then stared again. “Oh
that fairy.”

Simon rolled
his eyes. It really did take a sledgehammer approach with skeptics
sometimes. “Yes that fairy. Or more precisely Eadoin. Now we’d best
get you both to Jnarn and then get you back to where you came
from.”

Simon’s cat on
the verandah shook itself awake and padded in to accompany the
pair.

Simon nodded
to the cat. “Follow Meta, he’ll look after you.”

Phoenix glared
at the cat as if she was having the mickey taken out of her.
“Really!”

“Still the
sceptic I see Phoenix.” He wondered what the expression on her face
would be when the cat morphed into a man and then teleported them
and Ang’s truck back to the roadblock. But he had other things to
prepare for, not the least of which was finishing his batch of
herbs for drying.

The convoy
that hit the road just out of Boswell made an impressive sight.
Holden ute’s, old Ford Fairlanes, F100s, a couple of Bentleys, a
Mercede’s 6x6, Daniel’s big rig, two police cars, a white unplated
government car and a bright orange 80’s Laverda motorcycle that
took the front because its engine would give grief it had to go too
slow. By the time they hit the outskirts of Valeton word had got
out. Phoenix had made sure of it. People watched from the street
waving and yahooing. Camera crews from all the major media outlets
were there. Live coverage was breaking into international news
broadcasts around the world. The people presumed dead from a fluke
meteorite strike had come on mass to show they were still alive and
well.

As they pulled
up outside the Council Chambers Mayor Goodwin got out from the
driver’s side of her Bentley, opened the door and was immediately
swamped by reporters. Phoenix was at the head of the pack.

“Mayor
Goodwin. You and all the people with you were presumed dead. The
Council meeting called here tonight was to decide an acting
replacement for you. Would you care to make a statement?”

Tyra smiled at
Phoenix and straightened herself. “I certainly would. As you can
see word of our demise has been greatly exaggerated. Fortunately we
had forewarning and we had the means to save our town. The full
truth about where that meteorite came from, out of the blue, may
never be completely understood but I can assure you it was no
accident. I have this to say to those who sent it. We have taken
Boswell out of your reach. We will come and go from it as we
please. We’ll even let visitors in if we like them. But know this,
we will use the same means to save other parts of the planet you
threaten. Desist from your global interference with the lives of
humans and the environment they live in or we will take the planet
from your reach one piece at a time. Now if you’ll excuse me there
are council matters to attend to.”

“Thank you
Mayor Goodwin. You don’t want to say anything more about who you
are accusing?”

“No I have
nothing more to say at this time. They know who they are. They have
enough power to discredit any claims we make so we just won’t make
any. There’s enough conspiracy myths out there already.” Tyra
turned and walked into the Council Chambers followed by her men and
the townsfolk who had come to make a stand. The cameras followed
them in.

Phoenix
flicked her finger at the cameraman to get his attention and then
started her piece to camera. “And so mystery adds to mystery. There
is no doubt that a large meteorite hit the coordinates where
Boswell is or was located. Federal Aviation has confirmed that a
large object appeared on their screens just before it hit the site.
Yet here the people of the town are making a statement to the world
that they are still here. Is the whole town suffering post shock
paranoia or did someone really try to wipe them from the map? The
fact remains there’s an enormous crater out there, covering the
area that was once a large lake, eucalypt forest and town. Yet a
strange mist now permanently hovers over the whole area so there is
no way of proving or disproving the townsfolks’ claim that they
still live there. This is Phoenix O’Halloran for the One Network’s
breaking news coverage of this amazing and bizarre event.

Smith knocked
on the Generals’ door, in some vague hope the man might be able to
save him. He dithered at the door.

“Enter.”

Smith
tentatively opened the door and entered. Standing to attention.
“Sir, the news.”

Polemarch used
the remote on his desk to switch off the flat screen TV on the
wall. “Yes I’ve just seen it.” If he had an opinion on it it didn’t
show.