Earlier Heaven

© 2008 Alexandra Jefferds

All rights reserved.

Chapter 36

At the end of that week, Jamie felt well enough to leave the house, and he took Dao around to see The Town.

“It’s a pretty boring town,” he said as they passed Jackie’s Burger Place, the only eatery in a twenty mile radius other than the Grace O’ Sundaes Ice Cream Parlor.

“Why are you still here?”

“Theresa takes care of me because I have trouble convincing people of who I am. My death certificate is still on file in the capital, and it’s been so long that it would be hard for me to just stroll up there and be like ‘hey, my death was recorded in error. I’ve really been alive all these years in South America.’”

“Oh, that makes sense. But haven’t there been a lot of people showing up over the years? Isn’t the government doing something about it?”

“They’re beginning to. The president of the U.S., Cassandra Floyd, is from this town. She knows about Hearth and therefore the government does too, high up there. It just hasn’t trickled down to the state level yet.”

“What am I going to do?” she asked.

“I don’t know. The government is really paranoid about illegal immigrants. I think it would be best if you stayed here and kept a low profile like me.”

“It’s a boring town,” Dao moaned.

“I know, sweetie. There’s an international Storm Point conference happening in Parktown, Texas at the beginning of August. We’re going down there to see what they’re planning to do about the citizenship issues. President Floyd is going to be there.”

“It sounds like a big deal.”

“I hope so. If you can stand The Town until then, maybe things will change for the better after that.”

“I’m going to have a baby soon.”

“I know, and we will definitely take care of you. This town can handle people from Hearth even if the rest of the world can’t.”

They stopped by the Quartz family boarding house and found Karlen in the garage, working on his car.

“Oh hey, Jamie.” Karlen scooted out from under the car. “How are you? I heard you were sick.”

“What else is new? No, I’m feeling better. Thanks. This is my daughter, Dao. She just got here from Hearth last week.”

“Welcome to The Town.”

Dao shook his hand even though it was greasy. Then Karlen got back onto his scooter board and rolled under the car again. Jamie sat down on a bench on the side of the garage and used his thumb to wipe the sweat off his drawn cheeks. Dao took a seat next to him after examining the car.

“Is that a gas car?” she asked.

“Maybe. It looks old enough. Karlen, what does this thing run on?”

“Give me a few more days here and it’ll take cow dung,” he called from underneath the chassis.

“Oh, wonderful. There’s plenty of that around.”

“I just got a new full-time boarder, so I was able to finally scrape together the cash for the conversion kit.”

“Really? Who’s boarding?”

“Woman by the name of Joanna Collins. She grew up around here, though I haven’t seen her in years. Have you?”

“Not until just recently. She’s Isaac’s daughter, you know.”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

Jamie drew designs in the garage dust with the end of his walking stick. At that moment, there was a horrible creaking noise and the jack under the car collapsed, dropping the car onto Karlen’s upper body. Dao looked as if she wanted to scream, but no sound came out of her mouth. Jamie dug around in his pocket.

“Shit, I think I left my phone at home. Go up into the house and call 911 from there.”

“What’s 911?”

“Emergency! Oh, I’ll do it. Find another jack around here if you can.”

Jamie slipped his left arm into the stiff leather strap at the top of his staff and pushed himself to his feet. He was out of breath by the time he had climbed the boarding house steps, but he quickly found a phone at the desk.

“I’m at the Quartz boarding house in The Town. My friend’s car just fell on him… Yes, it fell on him. The jack broke, or slipped, or something… I don’t know the address… Yes, The Town.”

Just then, Jamie saw Joanna emerge from one of the ground floor rooms. She wore a tweed dress suit that made her look like an old schoolmarm with her gray hair and narrow glasses.

“What’s going on?” she asked. “You look like shit.”

“Karlen’s car just fell on top of him. I called 911 but I don’t know when they’re going to get here.”

Joanna’s mouth dropped open. Finally, she said, “I can help with that if we can get the car off him.”

“How? If he’s alive at all, he needs serious medical help.”

“Just trust me.” Joanna darted out the door, down the front steps, and out to the garage. By the time Jamie got there, the women had found another jack and Joanna was busily turning the crank. Dao looked on in horror at the puddles of blood seeping from under the car.

When Joanna dragged Karlen out from under the car, Jamie thought there was no way he would survive. His face was so covered in blood that it was difficult to see the damage, but Jamie doubted he could see normal features. Karlen’s chest was crushed and the shape of several ribs was visible through the blood-soaked shirt.

“He’s still got the spark in him,” said Joanna, and she waved her hand across his face. The blood disappeared as though she had pulled an invisible curtain to reveal a healthy head beneath. She made a motion like the kneading of dough above Karlen’s chest, and the broken ribs reconstructed themselves. The fabric of his shirt disintegrated and Jamie saw skin quickly stretch and heal across what had been open wounds. Joanna traced an intricate design across Karlen’s chest with her finger, and bruises faded. Karlen screamed and opened his eyes as Joanna ran her hands down his arms, repairing fractures there.

“He needs blood,” Joanna said. She stood up and looked down at Karlen helplessly. “I can’t create blood.”

“Why not?” Jamie demanded. It seemed like a sensible question given what he had just witnessed.

“That’s Pilar’s power, but she’s in South America.”

Jamie’s ears felt as though they would burst at the sound of Karlen screaming. Karlen’s skin had a blue tinge to it. Jamie dropped to the floor, disconnected the oxygen hose from his throat catheter, and pulled it out from under his shirt. Dao held Karlen down so that Jamie could put the oxygen in his mouth.

“I have to get Tengfei. Keep him here. Make sure they give him blood,” ordered Joanna before disappearing into thin air. Jamie knelt there for what felt like an eternity, sweat dripping down his temples, lightheaded, his own lips and fingers turning blue. He pulled the oxygen tube out of Karlen’s mouth and held it in his own for several seconds to keep himself from losing consciousness. He felt guilty stealing the oxygen that was usually all his, but he had long ago lost the lung capacity to sustain himself with breathing alone. As quickly as he dared, he returned the tube to Karlen, who had since passed out from pain.

***

Karlen, the last of the eight Quartz children, died two hours later in Roundup Memorial Hospital. Unlike his brothers and sisters, he would never see Hearth. His condition had perplexed the doctors. Even after they had given him blood and painkillers, he had screamed as though in agony. Finally, they had sedated him and watched his life signs fade.

“I don’t understand what happened,” said Jamie to Dao as they sat on a bench outside the ICU.

“He would have died anyway,” answered Dao.

“Maybe if the hospital weren’t so far away…” Jamie’s voice caught in his throat. “I hate Montana.”

“Even if they had the best hospital right in The Town, they wouldn’t have been able to fix him the normal way. His body was really damaged.”

“If the devil exists, Joanna’s working for him.”

“I don’t know. I think she tried her best.” Dao leaned back against the wall. With one hand, she rubbed her belly and felt her baby kick. With the other, she fingered Jamie’s ponytail. “Are you all right?”

“I will be.”

“Good.”

Jamie was remembering what it felt like to have his body crushed by heavy machinery. He also wondered what business he had living in the middle of nowhere, and whether the Earth air had made him complacent about his health. In Hearth, it had been a daily struggle to breathe. The slightest respiratory insult had had the potential to put him over the edge into an asthma attack. His asthma, though still more severe than it had been during his teenage years, had stabilized the instant he began breathing Earth air again. However, he had enjoyed much better healthcare in Hearth; in Montana, he saw his respiratory therapist and endocrinologist too rarely, and he could not remember the last time he had been to a physical or occupational therapist. His prosthetic arm was a very old design, but it was all he could afford as someone living mostly outside the American system. Part of him wanted to believe that he didn’t need as much medical attention now, but another part nagged him and told him that his negligence would be his undoing. He knew he was not as well as he had been upon arriving on Earth, but it was difficult to tell whether some aspect of his health was becoming worse or whether he was just aging. Perhaps there was no difference.

“I think I need to eat something.”

“Where should we go?”

“Let’s just go home. There’s not much more we can do here.”

They took a taxi back to The Town and found Joanna pacing in Theresa’s front yard.

“You wandered off!” she snapped.

“We went in the ambulance with Karlen. Hey, would you mind not smoking here?”

Joanna tossed her cigarette on the ground and stepped on it with a delicate motion of her pointed shoe. “Is he still alive? Where is he?”

“He died.”

“I went all the way to China to get Tengfei, and you were gone when I got back. I can only travel fast between Storm Points, you know. If you go wandering off…”

“Give me a break,” said Jamie. He unlocked the door and stalked into the kitchen. Joanna followed him.

“I was just trying to help!”

“You should have let him die if you couldn’t save him.”

“If you’d kept him where he was, Tengfei could have taken away his pain.”

Jamie pulled a pickle jar from the fridge. “What?”

“I don’t have all the power! I can only heal the physical wounds. Tengfei heals the pain.”

“Does everyone in your network do things like that?”

“Transubstantiation of liquids, suspending time, talking to animals, mental healing…nothing without the others to back you up.”

“God, you guys have a real three-ring circus going there.” Jamie chomped on his pickle.

“Yeah, but what good is it if I can’t save a man’s life?”

Jamie noticed Dao staring at him from the kitchen doorway. “I think you tried,” he said.

“Fuck.”

“It’s all right. He would have died anyway,” said Dao gently.

“My power’s just garbage.”

“It’s not garbage,” said Jamie. “Next time, just bring your Chinese friend along and you’ll make a great pair.”

“He’s not my friend. Don’t call him my friend.”

“Oh, sorry.”

“I would never see him again if I could help it. I just have to, because there are only eleven people like us, and they’re all like ‘nyeh, we have to stick together because we’re special and blah.’” Joanna stamped her foot. “Fuck, I just want to be normal and go home and find someone I can love!”

Jamie put his arm around Joanna’s shoulders. “Hey, hey, it’s all right. What do you mean ‘someone you can love’?”

Joanna clenched the back of a chair.

“I’m not allowed to love anyone.”

“You’ve never been in love?”

“Of course I have! I just couldn’t do anything about it. I can get as kinky as I please with strangers, but if I do anything resembling intimacy with someone I have real feelings for, I’ll lose my power to them.”

“Oh, god, that’s terrible. Who says?”

“Lady Death.”

“But she hardly has business telling people they can’t love…”

Joanna shook with frustration. “I’m not a free person like you. I’m bound to serve the Storm Child until she becomes the messiah.”

“What exactly do you mean by ‘messiah’?”

“I don’t know,” she said abruptly. “Link and Death have so much shame about their failure last time that they’ve hardly told us anything. All I know is that we were taken to Hearth when we were eight years old and told ‘don’t love, don’t live within society. Serve the Storm Child and build the sphere for her.’ After that, we just jumped between the worlds for years, never really living on either planet. I survived by popping into supermarkets at night and stealing food. I still do that sometimes.”

“That must have been lonely.” Jamie had been meaning to ask her if she would carry a message to Nikola, but now he didn’t have the heart to make such a request of a woman who had never known companionship in her life.

“I used to entertain myself by pretending that I was the messiah, but really we just have these stupid powers and pieces of a sphere inside us. Don’t ask me what the sphere does, but it’s for the Storm Child and we have to build it. When we join hands, the parts fuse. But we’re missing a twelfth of it. We’re short a person. That’s why I was sent here. We thought you had the last sphere segment.”

“Me? Are you sure?”

“Not at all.”

***

That evening, Joanna was sitting quietly in her room when she heard a knock on the door. She answered it to find her boss standing there. He was a tall man with aged but youthful, slightly exotic features, and he wore a shabby blazer over a t-shirt and jeans. His brown hair was streaked with gray, and he peered at Joanna through round, silver-frame glasses. He had the air of a professor handing back an exam to a student who had failed.

“I wish you hadn’t done that,” he said, stepping into Joanna’s room without being invited.

“Done what?”

“Revealed your powers.”

“Mr. Quartz would have died.”

“He did die, and you should have let it happen naturally. Got a Coke?”

Joanna opened a small refrigerator and handed him a can.

“Sorry,” she said.

The man sat down on Joanna’s bed and looked out the window as he sipped his beverage.

“They won’t tell anyone,” Joanna continued. “They’re from Hearth. They can’t draw attention to themselves.”

“You sure drew attention to yourself! I told you to be quiet about finding the last man. I didn’t say, ‘go reveal your powers to the world.’”

“I’m sorry. He was suffering. I had to help.”

“Lots of people suffer. I have bigger concerns.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“Of course I am. I’m the hub.”

“‘Of course I am. I’m the hub,’” Joanna mouthed behind his back. “Mark, why don’t you just get a life already?”

“Once we complete the sphere, I promise you I will. Until then, you need to keep a tighter grip on yourself.”

“Yeah, I’ll just go shove a big stick up my ass. That’ll make me see things your way.”

“Oh, speaking of which, I’m convening the Eleven tomorrow night.”

“Speaking of which?”

“Does eight o’clock here sound good?” If Mark had had a tail, he would have wagged it.

“Why not your place?”

“I want James to come. I still have this hunch he’s the one.”

“I don’t think so,” Joanna groaned. “He’s just a creepy old man, and his life history doesn’t fit the pattern at all. He’s four years older than all of us, and he says he can’t world-jump.”

“Have you tested him to see if he has a 1/12 sphere in him?”

“No, he only has one hand.”

“Why don’t you heal him, then?”

Joanna huffed. “Now you want me to use my powers?”

“Yes.”

***

The next day, Dao helped Jamie catch up on the re-shelving of books that had been returned to the library in the week that he had been sick.

“Kenneth still hasn’t returned The Care and Keeping of Caterpillars,” Jamie observed as he scrolled through a list of overdue books. He said mildly, “I’m going to have to fine him again.”

“Does anyone else check out that book?”

“Not really.”

“Maybe you should just let him have that one.”

“I would, but the library raises its funds through fines.”

Dao pushed the cart down a back aisle and called, “Don’t you find this boring?”

“What?”

“Librarian work.”

“It’s just a few hours a week when there are books that need to be shelved. People check them out on their own, so I don’t have to be here much. It’s not a big deal.”

“But you’re a linguist. You have a degree.”

“Not here.”

“It doesn’t transfer?”

“Why would it? Metropolitan University of New Jerusalem—what’s that?”

“But you still have the training. Don’t you miss the museum?”

“Oh, yeah. But I haven’t been able to find anything to replace it. And, to be honest, I don’t have a lot of energy anymore… though I did write a paper for the Storm Point conference about the prospects of introducing Khaich to Earth as a lingua franca.”

“Did it get accepted?”

“I haven’t heard back from them yet.”

“Do you think Earth would take up Khaich?”

“They’ll fight it tooth and nail. Aw, shit!”

“What?”

“Paper cut.”

Joanna came by a while later and invited Jamie and Dao to her place that evening. After the previous day’s events, Jamie was too intrigued by Joanna to refuse. After dinner, he and Dao approached the Quartz house where eight children had lived and died over the course of fifty years. Nick Carson, the bookkeeper for the boarding house, was holding down the fort while Karlen’s estate got sorted out.

Joanna welcomed father and daughter into a roomful of 63-year-olds from all over the world. A few sat on Joanna’s bed, others hung around her refrigerator drinking pop and beer, and one browsed her small collection of books. Two were huddled together on the floor in a corner. One was engrossed in her computer, and another stood by the closet with his arms crossed, staring into space.

The room had once been Veah Quartz’s, and Jamie recalled the day she had pierced his ears with a sewing needle in there. The holes had gotten infected despite the fact that the needle was supposed to have been sterilized. While dabbing Jamie’s ears with alcohol, his father had scolded him for looking like a pirate and letting an unqualified person alter his body.

“Well, hello,” said a man who sat cross-legged at the foot of Joanna’s bed, resting his elbows on the ornate brass footboard. He spoke in Khaich. “We can get started now.” He removed his glasses momentarily to rub his eyes and then slid off the bed. “As you can see, we have everyone here tonight—nearly two people from every inhabited continent. We’ll introduce ourselves momentarily.” He stood up and clapped. “Ok, folks, let’s do it.”

The world-jumpers nodded. Dao climbed onto the foot of the bed and Jamie pulled up a chair next to her.

“Is there something you need me for?” Jamie asked.

“No,” the man answered. “Just observe. Joanna, let’s go already.”

“Yes, sir.”

Joanna kicked off her high heels and walked to the far edge of the room by the bookshelf. She lifted her hands above her head, palms facing forward, fingers spread. She looked as though she were playing the part of a tree in a nature dance.

“North America. Female. The power to physically heal,” she said.

Another woman came to face Joanna and assumed the same posture. Their fingers just touched.

“Asia. Female. The power to talk to animals.” As she said this, identical objects slid into existence above her and Joanna’s heads. The objects looked almost like orange slices that had been cut in half along the short axis, except that they were an off-white color and seemed to be composed of smaller and smaller replicas of the overall shape.

Joanna and the Asian woman separated their fingers to form a circle with another woman, who said, “Africa. Female. The power to suspend time.” Another slice slid into existence. Now there were three people standing finger-to-finger with spherical segments above their heads. One by one, the others joined them, enlarging the circle gradually until it filled the center of Joanna’s room.

“Europe. Female. The ability to project invisibility.”

“South America. Female. The ability to transubstantiate liquids.”

“Oceania. Female. The ability to shape shift.”

“Oceania. Male. The ability to efficiently allocate resources.” As the first man stepped into the circle, his slice appeared as a vertically-mirrored compliment of the segment borne by his continent’s female representative.

“South America. Male. The ability to calm anger.”

“Africa. Male. The ability to mentally heal.”

“Asia. Male. The ability to relieve pain.”

“North America. Male. I am the hub that binds it all together.” As the man who had greeted them stepped into the circle, the white slices flew together to form a glowing white sphere—a sphere that had a notch in it where one segment was missing. “You see our problem?” he asked. “We’re missing Mr. Europe.”

Jamie nodded.

“Would you care to join us?”

Jamie fingered his hook, wondering how he would join a circle that linked its members through the hands. “I’m not European. I’m not entirely a man, either. I’m… I’m sorry.”

“You’re in my network like everyone else here is. Joanna could heal your arm.”

Jamie clutched his elbow defensively and retorted, “My arm is just fine, especially after what happened yesterday.”

“We’ll talk about this later. Break!”

The world-jumpers dropped their hands, and the sphere vanished. Everyone sat down on the floor, still in the circle. Dao and Jamie watched them discuss possible leads on “Mr. Europe.”

“Where have I seen this guy before? He looks familiar,” Jamie whispered to Dao.

“Who?”

“The guy who said he’s the hub.”

“You think so?”

“Does he look like Nikola, maybe?”

Dao frowned. “I think he looks more like Dad.”

“Nah, he’s much too tall and skinny for that.”

“Maybe he’s what would happen if you and Dad had a biological kid together.”

“You have a sick, sick mind, you know that?”

“Sorry.”

“No, you’re not.”

Dao glanced at her father and noticed he was wearing a touch of blue eye shadow. Good. Jamie might have given up the museum, but he had not given in entirely to small-town Montana. His will was too strong for that.

“I think we just need to start searching systematically,” said Mr. Africa. “I mean, I realize our talents don’t exactly line up with Biblical texts, but maybe we can figure out Mr. Europe’s power based on accounts of Jesus.”

“Walking on water?” Joanna asked.

“It doesn’t feel right,” said Ms. Europe. “I think that’s a metaphor for world-jumping, not an actual power.”

“God, what’s missing?”

“Ask Him, why don’t you?”

“Very funny.”

Joanna pulled the tie out of her bun. Loose, her long hair looked very much like Jamie’s. “Has anyone talked to Link about this? He got us into this mess.”

“I tried. Link doesn’t even talk to the Storm office people anymore.”

Ms. Asia sighed and said, “I guess we’re back to the Bible idea.”

“Ok, what did Jesus do?” the hub asked.

“No, Mark,” said Joanna in a condescending tone, “what would Jesus do?”

“Hey,” said Dao, “what’s your last name?”

“Who?”

She pointed at Mark. “You.”

“Ranvier. Why?”

“Never mind. I thought you looked familiar.”

Several minutes later, Jamie whispered to Dao again, “I’m going to go home. I don’t have anything to contribute here. You can stay if you want.”

“No, I’ll come with you.” Dao slid off the bed, looking heavy in her pregnancy. She said to the group, “We’re gonna get going. Nice meeting you all.”

“That was quite a show they put on there,” Jamie said, wheezing slightly as they walked through the dusk toward Theresa’s house. Dao kept her ears open for any sign that Jamie’s breathing was worsening, but he didn’t seem to be in distress. Perhaps there was something to be said for Earth air, despite the fact that Hearth air was cleaner.

“I wonder what’ll happen when they complete the sphere,” Dao said.

“Anything, given that Link’s behind it.”

“I guess we need to stick close to Mark. Wow.”

“I wonder if he knows what he’s doing.”

“Yeah, I wonder. But in any case, I’m kind of curious to find out more about him.”

“You are, now? Why?”

“You don’t recognize him?”

“Should I?”

“Ranvier! As in Lina Ranvier.”

“Oh, my god. That was her last name, wasn’t it?”

Dao whacked Jamie on the shoulder. “Dork. I told you he looked like Dad.”