The Great Altruist (22 page)

       
    
He stumbled out of bed and went downstairs to make himself a cup of tea. As the tea kettle shrieked, there was a loud knock at the front door. James’s mother surely hadn't returned home to work things out with his father just yet, but that didn't stop James from hoping it was so.

           
On opening the door, however, James saw no one there.

       
    
"Hello?" James shouted over the thunder.

           
There was no answer. He closed the door and went back to preparing his tea. From the dining room came a crash. He went to inspect; it was one of his mother’s figurines. Then the lights went out.

           
“Great,” he muttered. He took a candle from the family’s hutch and lit it. A stiff breeze blew it out almost immediately. He looked at the window but it was sealed shut. Curiously, he checked to see if there were any doors or windows open but they were all closed. He tried to light another match but it wouldn’t light.

           
“Keep it dark, please,” he heard someone whisper. It was a woman’s voice. Instinctively, he thought it was his sister.

           
“Melissa?” he asked. “Is that you?”

           
“No,” the voice replied. “I’m not your sister.”

           
“Then who are you? How did you get in here?”

           
“My name is Genesis. And I’m here to help you.” The voice moved around the room as though its source was moving, but James couldn’t see anything. The room was pitch-black. Mysteriously, no light from outside was getting in, ambient or otherwise.

           
“Why can’t I see you?”

           
“No one can see me unless I choose to be seen. And I haven’t chosen you...yet.”

           
James strained to see through the blackness and find the source of the voice but it was useless - he couldn’t see anything. “Help me? What do you mean?”

           
“With Katherine. I’m going to help you win her back.”

           
“How do you know about her?” he demanded. “Did my sister put you up to this?”

           
“No, James,” she continued. “I’m going to help you find out what happened to her. And I know far more about you than you realize.”

           
“How will you help me?”

           
“That’s where things get interesting. You will have a hard time accepting what I am about to tell you, but I can travel through time. And that is how we are going to get Katherine back.”

           
“We?”

           
“Yes, I am going to help you.”

           
James reached for a chair at the dining table and sat down. “And you think I’m supposed to just believe all this?”

           
Out of the darkness, a soft, blue light shined. The dining room soon basked in the glow as James struggled to see the faint glimpse of something standing
behind
the light. Then the figure emerged, a shadowy silhouette of a small, naked woman. Before long, the light’s intensity became too much for James’s eyes to handle so he covered his face. The light subsided and when James removed his hands from his eyes, the electricity was restored, the room’s lamps aglow, bathing its new occupant in soft light. Standing on the table stood Genesis, still no bigger than a dandelion.

           
James said nothing at first. He blinked over and over to assure what he saw was real. The girl said nothing either, she only smiled and met his stare. He soon realized his mouth was agape and his heartbeat increased. He closed his mouth and took a deep breath.

           
“Sorry for all the theatrics,” she said as she walked across the table, her bare hips swaying. “I needed to prepare you for something you’d never seen before.”

           
“What is this?” he said as he started to panic, leaping from the chair and pushing his back against the wall. “Who are you?”

           
“I told you already. I’m Genesis. I’m here to help you.”

           
“No, this isn’t possible. You can’t be real.”

           
She hovered into the air to which James pushed back further against the wall. With nowhere to go, he reached for the doorway, but she floated in its direction, preventing his escape and forcing him to inch in the other direction. “I’m very real,” she said.”You can touch me if you want.” She extended a hand.

           
He reached out his forefinger tentatively until it just touched the tip of her hand. He recoiled when he felt her skin and inched away from her.

           
“Don’t be scared,” she said. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

           
James shook his head and backed along the wall until he reached the corner and caught his foot on a potted plant. He tumbled back and fell into the recliner, knocking the plant over. Genesis dove toward him but it was too late: his head smacked the ottoman and he fell to the ground unconscious.

           
“I’ve got to find a better way to reveal myself,” she said. Laughing, she carried him to his room.       
     

           
When James awoke, he wondered if he just came out of a dream. He appeared to be in his room; the pictures of Katherine covered the walls. His head ached as he sat up. When he felt the back of his head and the pronounced lump, he remembered where he got his headache: he hit his head on the floor downstairs.
But was it real? And the girl? Did she really exist?

           
Outside his bedroom window, the sun shined bright. The shades weren't drawn and his eyes took longer to adjust to the morning light than usual.

           
On the windowsill, James saw an image that laid all his doubts about the prior night's events to rest. Just inches away, the small woman slept. He climbed out of bed carefully so as not to disturb her, but it was too late. Her eyes opened slowly but wide and she looked up at James warmly, giving him an assuring smile that all was well.

           
"Good morning, James," she said as she sat up, stretched her back, and yawned.

           
"So I wasn't dreaming?"

           
"No you weren't," she said. "What made you think that?"

           
He chuckled to himself. "Oh, I don't know. I've never woke up to find a woman sleeping on my windowsill."

           
"Sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I should have known better," she said.

           
"No. You’re fine." He covered his mouth as he realized the Freudian slip. To James, she was beyond fine – she was one of the most beautiful creatures he had ever laid eyes upon. She may have stood no taller than a flower but her beauty suffered no diminishment. Her hair was a rich red and was just the way he pictured it on his dream girl – long, wavy, and flowing past the shoulders. Her eyes were a deep, haunting green and her skin was silky like porcelain.

           
“So are you ready to go?" she asked.

           
“Go? Go where?”

           
“You don’t remember anything, do you? Remember? I’m going to help you win Katherine back.”

           
“Right.” James, for the first time in three years, forgot all about Katherine as he studied Genesis’s perfect form.

           
“Don’t tell me you still don’t believe me,” she said.

           
He tried to remember the events of the previous night. "Did I black out last night?"

           
"Yes. When you hit your head, I decided to carry you to your room so your family wouldn't worry when they returned home."

           
“What happened last night? I saw a bright, blue light.”

           
“That was me,” she said. “When I use my powers, my body gives off this bright light. It has to do with the energy I manipulate.”

           
"So is that another one of your powers? Lifting heavy objects?"

           
"Yes it is, although you weren't
that
heavy. I've lifted way heavier things than people over the years."

           
"So you've done this sort of thing before, I take it," James asked as he sat on the foot of his bed and massaged the lump on his head.

           
"Yes, I have." She instantly thought of the young Polish girl who, she believed, died by her hands. Jadzia was only thirty years-old when Genesis carried her body from their shelter and into the clearing in the Canadian wilderness, a place Genesis never visited again.

           
"Oh," he said. His mind was still foggy from the lump on his head, but slowly more questions demanded answers. "Do you mind if I ask you something?"

           
"Go right ahead," she said as she jumped down to the pillow and folded her arms conspicuously beneath her breasts.

           
James took note of her stance and that she hadn't covered herself once since they met. He was curious as to why she was naked, but he thought she might be embarrassed if he asked her directly. "How do you know about me?”

           
“Ah,” she said as she sat beside him, “that’s not an easy question to answer. It has to do with the stream of time. Since I somehow have the ability to manipulate all forms of energy, I can interact with everything connected to time and space. This allows me to watch everything that goes on – without being seen.”

           
"How did you get your powers."

           
"You mean the time traveling and super-strength?"

           
He nodded. “Yeah, did you fall into toxic waste or get bit by a spider or something?”

           
She let out a deep belly laugh. “No, nothing like that,” she said. “I think you've read too many comic books. This is the real world!”

           
“That's actually why I'm asking. I can't say I've ever heard of anyone having the powers you say you do – other than in comic books.”

           
“Well, rest assured that you're not dreaming. And I'm not a fairy or superhero. As for how I got my powers, I really can't answer that.”