Giddeon (Silver Strand Series) (35 page)

I was with Giddeon on the asteroid when it was two days from Earth.
 
We were in a depression that was covered in shadows as the rotation of the rock began to fill the hollow with sunlight.
 
We held our breath, even though there was nothing to breathe, and waited for what was expected to occur… at least in 74% of our observed futures.
 
An enormous reservoir of gas, heated by the thermal energy of Sol should have erupted at exactly 10:37 A.M. Eastern Time.

We waited, expectantly, as nothing happened.

I could see the worry on my husband’s face as he checked and re-checked his calculations.
 
More seconds ticked by and the surface next to us appeared as solid as any of the surrounding rock off into its crenulated horizon.

“Come on!” I urged the reluctant geyser.

A few tendrils of steam drifted from the rock, but soon dissipated.

“Come on!
 
You can do it!!!” I called out to the inanimate minerals.
 
Of course, no sound escaped my lips, but Giddeon could hear me.
 
He continued to stare with growing alarm at the ground.

“Do it!!!!” I screamed.
 
I held my hands out and a fire erupted from them that would have most assuredly burned poor
Koba
to a crisp.
 
Nothing like that had ever come from my body.
 
Not even close.

Nothing happened after the onslaught.

Giddeon had been taken aback by the display, his blue eyes wide with surprise and fear.
 
The fear was that we had been wrong… that the asteroid was going to demolish the Earth.
 
You, Greg, Giddy, Ray, Jennifer, Samantha and Boris… along with billions of other souls.
 
I could see him thinking back and calculating the differences that any of the other missions might have made had we allowed them to be completed.

It broke my heart to see that look upon his face… the guilt that was covering his internal equations.

“Erupt!!!!!” I screamed as I converted into a human fireball.
 
The light was so intense that Giddeon shielded his eyes.
 
I began kicking at the ground beneath me, my magnetic soled shoes clanging soundlessly on the hard metals under my feet.
 

I gave one particularly fierce stomp to the rock and that’s when it happened…

*****

‘
Old Faithful
’ let loose.

I was blown away in a vicious vortex of steam and pressure, and sent spinning out at a tremendous rate of speed into the blackness of space.
 
I could have sworn that the twisting, writhing, escaping vapors that had propelled me outwards looked almost like monochromatic versions of the monsters from my closet… they folded and turned, and then their distorted faces came silently apart.
 
One by one, they trailed off into the darkness around me, and, finally, they disappeared into the void of nothingness.

*****

Giddeon caught up to me and we laughed and cried and held each other close as we teleported back to the rock.
 
I don’t know if my magic and footwork actually had any effect, but I like to think that my efforts dislodged just a bit of the surface of that asteroid.
 
A surface that contained such a tiny amount of matter… 52 decimal places to the right of one, if I remember correctly.

Maybe my little nudge did the trick : )

My sweetie made some measurements and we rushed our calculations back to you as soon as they were ready.
 
The little ion engine had some more work to do… hopefully it would be enough.

*****

The world of Man ground to a stop that day.
 
As far as could be told, there was not one international conflict the week before the appointed time.
 
Crime, other than petty thefts of food and supplies, fell to nearly zero.
 
Everyone looked skyward, even though one half of the globe would be unable to see anything.
 
On the other side of the planet, if the asteroid hit the Earth, any resulting earthquakes and volcanism might be felt, but, visually, only the darkening of the stars or the sun would be observable from such events.
 

Melody, Giddy and I held hands as we stood on our front lawn that evening staring into the heavens.
 
Our son was nearly five years old.
 
Growing to be so tall and golden, just like his mom.
 
In my wife’s left arm was our brand new baby… Mia.
 
She had dark curls and dark green eyes.
 
Even though I couldn’t see those eyes since the sun had set two hours before, I knew that long lashes surrounded her beautiful windows.
 
Starlight must have reflected off of those orbs and onto Melody’s neck and face, because our daughter seemed to be looking skyward, too.

*****

Suddenly, the night became day.
 

*****

From the Southeastern horizon a fireball lit up the sky and came roaring past.
 
It actually roared.
 
A tremendous sonic boom filled the air and the ground shook under our feet.
 
My son pointed and jumped up and down beside me, but I didn’t really hear his laughter because I was so focused on the deafening display.
 
The brilliant streak looked as if it was just a few feet above us… it seemed like I could have gone and gotten on the trampoline in our back yard and bounced right up through the sparkling trail.

The radiant meteor made its way Northwest, towards the Aleutian Islands and the tip of
Russia
.
 
It was over them in a matter of seconds.
 
The asteroid had skipped off of our stratosphere and carried on into space.
 
Melody began to cry, and kissed Mimi on her cheek.
 
Then, she turned and did the same to me.
 
I grabbed Giddy from under his arms and lifted him high over my head as he screamed with delight.
 

The moon fashioned a halo around his curls, and I thought of the painting that Melody had made… the painting of that picture I had taken when Raymond Bradford held him up into the night sky.
 

Back, then, when he was a just a baby.

*****

The End

Raymond and Jennifer stood on his lawn that night, on
Grand Cayman
, holding hands, too.
 
They could just make out the display to the West as the horizon glowed with the passage of the asteroid.
 
The two stood there in the darkness for several minutes waiting to make sure that it was over… to make sure that they were actually going to be able to carry on with life, and that no calamity had befallen.

From down in the bay fireworks were lit, and skyrockets shot into the air.
 
The pyrotechnics then blossomed into multicolored starbursts that elegantly turned into glowing jellyfish as the embers fell back towards the water.
 
Joyful cries and laughter and music filled the night in the distance, and Raymond picked Jennifer up from under her arms almost as easily as Greg had picked up Giddy.
 
The big man gave her a tender kiss on the lips as she hung there, and they both laughed and smiled.
 
Jennifer’s little belly, taut with new life, brushed against him as he lowered her to the ground.

I’m so happy that she’s pregnant.
 
Looks like Ray is going to be a daddy, after all… even though the child won’t be his biological child.
 
As you know, he paid for all of the expenses to have Jennifer’s in vitro procedure done using her husband’s frozen sperm.
 
Her first husband, that is.
 

Ray will soon be her second husband.
 
He wished for her hand upon that shooting star.

She said, ‘Yes.’.
 

*****

I was a busy Inter-Dimensional Tourist that evening.
 
I split my time between you and your family, Jennifer and Ray, and my crazy husband.
 
Once he figured out that he had the angle of the asteroid at just the right attitude, he decided that he couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

He had to surf the rock through the atmosphere.

I tried to talk him out of it… I thought we should be on the ground with you guys, but, he was so sure of his calculations and so full of enthusiasm that I gave up trying to convince him.

You should have seen him up there.

He had his fists in the air as the rock began to glow.
 
Soon, the whole asteroid was engulfed in a brilliance that was astonishing up close.
 
And, there he stood, braced against the wind, his hair pushed back from his face with fire all around him.
 
I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.
 
The rock and he became one universal glow, and the memory of it is seared into my mind.
 
Giddeon told me later that he had time to recite all of Jack London’s poem as he flew through the air:

‘I would rather be ashes than dust!

I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze

Than it should be stifled by dry-rot.

I would rather be a superb meteor,

Every atom of me in magnificent glow,

Than a sleepy and permanent planet.
 

The function of man is to live, not to exist.

I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.

I shall use my time.
’

*****

And, we have been using our time.
 
We’ve finally gotten to where we are both solid to one another… did I tell you that?
 
I can hold his hand and scratch his back and it’s just like it should be… solid and real.
 

I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to finally be like this.
 
We spend a lot of time kissing.
 
A lot of time in each other’s arms.
 
I suppose you know what that’s like, though, don’t you?

I sit beside him and watch him tinker with his projects… he’s still working with the centrifuge.
 
Now, he’s altering the bursts of light that he pumps into the machine from both directions, trying to find if there’s a resonance to time, itself.
 
A vibration that will amplify any effect or force.
 
I just let him play.
 
We still go on fantastic adventures and flights of fancy.
 
Lately, we’ve been going to
Eden
quite a bit so I can have some of that chocolate mousse.

I just can’t get enough of it.
 
Sort of a craving that I have.

You, know… now that I think of it, I’ve been craving pickles and ice cream, too.

What do you suppose that means?

*****

Are you real?

And, do you feel,

Everything I think you do?

Do you dream about me, too?

Are you there?

I can almost see you, when I stare,

Off into the night.

Everything will be alright.

Everything will be… alright.

It’s okay.

Don’t you worry ‘bout me, none.

I know you’ve found the one.

Each and every day,

We have our parts to play.

It’s just the way it’s done.

Silver strands…

Silver strings.

Holding us together,

Or, so it seems.

Silver strands,

Golden dreams,

Always and forever,

Silver strings.

Silver strands…

Holding hands.

Silver Strands.

*****