We left the top of the hill and went back the way we came until veering southeast with Tsaeb in the lead. Creation had changed and not only its landscapes, but its people too. Before we met up with Sophia and Diana, we ran into a pair of travelers. The man and woman were cheery and kind, even offering us food and shelter.
There was no time for eating or resting or anything else at all.
Would what I had done go down in history books or be talked about by people for generations to come? Would it make me famous, loved by women and envied by men? Of course not. My luck now was as unlucky as it was before any of this started. If I did succeed and reverse the first sin ever committed, the world on the Outside would no longer exist. Everything I knew and loved and hated would vanish. There would be no history books or magazines to include my ‘great deed’. And if I failed, I would become what everyone else in Creation had become. Not only would no one else know me, but I would not know myself. I would forget everything and be no one. And eventually I would die here too and either be sent to Heaven, or more likely, Hell. And my body and soul and spirit would be ripped apart, salvaged and used to create another unfortunate human being.
Already I pitied the one who got stuck with my masturbating right hand, or my unfortunate gas problem. But that right hand I was rather fond of, and even if I had a serious case of Irritable Bowel Syndrome I didn’t want to give that up to anyone, either. I wanted to live. I wanted to wake up sitting on the park bench and reality and time be altered just enough so that I could keep my unburned flesh and pathetic excuse for a life.
We traveled farther southeast through what was left of the forest and far past the newly created river until we made it to a village smaller than Fiedel City. We did not stop in the village, though its inhabitants, kind as they were, tried their best to make us stay. More people offered us food and drink. Some offered me their daughters.
In a sad sort of way, I did get what I wanted when it came to women. And when a small group of women from the village tried to follow even after I had refused them, I was forced to lay down the law and say things I would never say to my mother. They still followed, until me and my companions made a run for it and lost them.
I needed a woman to finish my task, but something told me that mindless nymphomaniacs were not right for the job.
In only a day’s time, we made it to the Field of Yesterday.
“What now?” said Sophia.
She was sitting on the ground with her legs crossed Indian-style. The tension between her and the woman, Diana, was obvious. At Sophia’s first chance, she was going to gut Diana for sure. Diana, calm as ever, was clearly not concerned about the imp and her impending murderous rampage. Taurus and Tsaeb gazed out at the field. Both with wonder. Both with worry.
I felt we had come to a brick wall.
“I don’t know,” I finally answered Sophia so low it was almost a whisper, “but it’s almost dark. We have no idea which way to go, or how long it will take to get there. But worst of all, I can’t cross it. Even if I had a map, the field will kill me.”
I sat down to join Sophia. “I don’t know what to do....”
We made a campfire and decided to stay there for the night. To find the Center of Eden in broad daylight was already impossible, we all agreed that to go any further in the darkness was a bad idea.
Sophia fell asleep curled up in Taurus’ lap, which seemed to envelop her tiny frame. Taurus clung to the imp as if she were his own child.
Diana was the quiet one of our group, but she was pleasant and the only one among us that I found I could relate to at all. She was human. She had worked as a silk maker for years in Fiedel City before leaving to escape the filth and bloodshed the city had always bred. Diana sat next to me during the night, listening to me tell her stories of my own. I could have talked to her forever. She made me feel like I was back on the Outside, even if only for a little while.
Tsaeb said few words all night. He was back to sitting on the ground with his golden jacks and colored ball, bouncing it eerily in the same spot every time.
When Taurus and Diana engaged in conversation, I had room to wonder about these events. It seemed like I had the woman I would need in the end, after all. I found her even though I wasn’t looking. I laughed aloud when I thought of my best friend, Danny, and something he said to me one time:
‘A funny fucking thing is that when you’re looking for pussy you can bet you’ll be jerking off later, but when you’ve just rolled out of bed, your breath smells like ass and you have to run to the gas station for a pack of smokes, pussy will be standing there waiting on you when you do.'
I just shook my head when Taurus and Diana looked over at me, wondering what was so funny.
Danny was a genius, even if he slept with my ex-wife. The way I saw it, Danny only did me a favor.
But Diana was not going to meet Danny’s definition of a woman. For all I knew, she didn’t plan to go with us through the field at all. Even if she did, I couldn’t be so sure she would help me do what I needed to do, whatever that would turn out to be.
I talked to Diana for the rest of the night, until we fell asleep next to each other; me with the kind of thoughts that usually made my right hand so infamous.
“
He and Time have been competing since the Beginning.”
--
I WOKE EARLY THE next morning with a start.
“Holy shit!” I shouted. “Wake up, everybody!” I ran over to Tsaeb and shook him alive. “Get up, Tsaeb!”
“What the hell?” Tsaeb jerked awake, sitting upright.
“The jacks. The ball,” I said. “Why do you do that with the ball and the jacks?”
“What?” The question was quick and blunt. “What the hell are you talking about?”
Taurus and Sophia stirred awake and Diana followed. All of them wondering what all of the racket was about. Sophia looked up once and then tried to go curl back up in Taurus’ lap, but he shifted positions and unknowingly made it difficult for her.
“What is it, Norman?” said Diana.
Right now, Tsaeb was all that I could focus on. I got down on my knees and grabbed Tsaeb by the shoulders. “That thing you do with the jacks and the ball; why do you do it? Where are they?”
Tsaeb pushed my hands off him. “Will you get a
grip
?” he said, straightening his crumpled shirt. “I have them right here in my pocket. And I don’t know why I do it. Been doing it for so long I got used to it. Half the time I don’t even
know
I’m doing it, I kind of go into a daze.”
I was ecstatic. I stood again so quickly that I almost twisted my ankle.
“Do it again,” I said, eager and hopeful.
As Tsaeb reached into his pocket to retrieve the items, I said, “Remember back at the hospital, the girl at the table was stacking the black and red checkers obsessively. Don’t you remember?” I was starting to shout.
“Yeah, yeah,” said Tsaeb, “I remember. What about it?”
I began to pace.
“Outside,” I went on, “in the courtyard, Paschar was sitting underneath what looked like it used to be an arch of some kind. The two pillars on either side of her were red and black, just like the checkers on the table!”
“
So
....” It was clear that Tsaeb thought I was losing my mind.
“Ugh!” I raised my hands into the air. “Don’t you get it! The girl was a key! She knew where the Angel was, but she couldn’t tell me. The checker towers were like a map, a landmark!”
When Tsaeb still showed no signs of understanding what I thought couldn’t be any more obvious, I punched the air with aggravation.
“You’re a key, Tsaeb,” I said, “you’re the Present key and in the words of the Tree of Life, you offer many different opportunities.” I stopped pacing and looked down at Tsaeb. “Please just hurry.”
“Alright,” Tsaeb agreed and finally placed the colored ball and golden jacks on the ground in front of him. After the first bounce, he let the ball jump back into his hand and then he did it again, and again.
“You’re the key,” I said again, “and
that’s
the map.”
“Wow,” said Taurus, standing. “I bet you’re right.” His body cast a shadow over Tsaeb and me.
Diana watched curiously.
I knelt to examine the jacks more closely. There were six of them. Two were right next to each other, touching. Another was a few inches to the left and then the last three were laid out on a triangle beneath the others. I held up both hands in front of me and positioned six of my fingers to mimic the placement of the jacks. Then I concentrated on where the ball landed. Like clockwork, the ball hit the area by the lone jack to the left of the two touching.
“There,” I said, pointing, “That’s the Center of Eden!”
Sophia came up to stand next to me so that she could see. “I think he’s onto something.”
“I do too,” Taurus agreed.
Tsaeb was actually smiling and while looking up at me he kept bouncing the ball, but never missed a beat.
“I can’t believe it,” said Tsaeb, “You might actually pull this off.”
Diana was the only pessimist.
“But that still doesn’t tell you how to get there,” she said. “I mean, I hate to be a downer, but that only solves one problem.”
“I have an idea,” I said. I looked up at Taurus hovering over me like a fortress. “I can’t walk through the field, but I think I can make it if you carried me.”
Taurus put his massive hand to his chin. “Hmmm,” he said, “I think I can manage that.”
“And the rest of you can walk...uh, if you don’t mind.” I turned to face Diana now. “Though I don’t know if you can go through the field since you’re human. That’s the only thing I haven’t quite worked out.” I was worried about saying that aloud. I didn’t want to risk her willing to stay behind. I needed her. And still I had not figured out yet exactly how I was going to ask her to help, either.
“I think I can go through it,” Diana said, surprising me yet again. “I’ve never actually tried, but I’m also apparently already dead. From what you told me last night about the Outside, I doubt the field will affect me much.”
Relief washed over me.
“Then it’s settled,” I said, turning to them all, “Are you ready?”
“Ready as ever,” said Taurus.
Taurus picked me up and placed me on one shoulder. Instinctively, I grabbed a hold of Taurus’ great curved horn to keep from falling.
“Don’t worry, little one,” Taurus said to Sophia, “when you want on just give the word and I’ll put you on the other side.”
Sophia smiled so sweetly that I actually thought of her as a real little girl for a moment.
And then the most brilliant idea came to mind.
“If Taurus is willing,” I said, “I will pass over my ownership of you to him, if that will make you happy.”
Tsaeb’s mouth fell open.
Sophia looked completely stunned and then she went wild with sweetness. She smiled up at Taurus so brightly that it melted him and then she latched onto his tree-trunk leg. In a second, Taurus already had Sophia sitting on the other shoulder.
Tsaeb just shook his head and kept his comments to himself.
“So,” said Diana as we set out into the Field of Yesterday, “did you have a dream, or some kind of vision?”
“Oh,” I said looking down at her from Taurus’ shoulder, “no, I just woke up and it came to me.”
~~~
The power of the field was more evident than the first time I had to go through it, but I fought it. I was more expectant than before. I was more prepared.
We walked a full day without incident. Other than a lot of moaning and groaning about being hungry and thirsty, and Diana needing to stop and rest, the field tolerated us. Taurus provided enough shade for two at a time when someone did get too warm and needed rest beneath him. He proved to be of many uses. Not only was he my makeshift wagon and shade for the overheated, but he could see further distances, detecting possible landmarks and even danger before it reached us. But the most anyone saw were a few carcasses, including one of a horse and even one of a human. By the next morning, which followed a night of un-replenished rest in the middle of nowhere and without a fire for fear of attracting dangerous company, we came across another carriage wreckage.
Tsaeb, of course rummaged through it, but was not so lucky this time around. There were no jewels or gold and if there ever were, the carriage had long since been picked clean.
On day 3, Diana’s pessimism had spread to the rest of the party. Even the gentle giant was growing weary with exhaustion and concern. The field was too immense. The landmarks we were searching for could be anywhere for many miles and in any direction.
But I had more pressing matters to worry about.
The field was beginning to win its battle with me and my mortal death was creeping up more with every mile we walked. I knew I couldn’t keep both at bay for much longer. Everything was working against me. It didn’t matter that the weather was nice, or that I had a map and helpful company. The field’s curse and my death on the Outside were two powers that by themselves were forces to be reckoned with. But together, I was doomed.
When the voices of the anomalies came, I could hardly stand it, but eventually they faded, or gave up and left me alone until they would try again like a haunting in my mind that only I could hear.
Every now and then, when death was winning on the Outside, Taurus would again prove his usefulness by talking to me and shaking me to pull me back to Creation and my memories of it.
Day 5 was the day we all probably knew was inevitable.
I knew it. The rest of them had to be thinking all along that something bad was bound to happen.
“What is that?” said Diana.
Focused on a moving black dot far behind us, we froze worried in the wide open. It was coming up fast.
“I’m not sure,” said Taurus, “but looks like it’s headed our way.”
My insides began to tighten with dread.
“I hope it’s not Field Bandits,” said Tsaeb. “But then again, maybe they can help us out. You know, I’ve never seen them, just heard stories
—
maybe they aren’t all that bad.”
“Something tells me we won’t be that lucky,” I said.
“Looks like a carriage to me,” shouted Sophia from Taurus’ shoulder. “Yep, I’m sure that’s what it is! The carriage drivers know this field inside and out. Surely they can tell us where to find the landmarks!”
“She’s right,” said Taurus. “I think it’s a carriage, too!”
This could be either bad or good. I doubted it would be anything in-between. I knew the prices the carriage drivers charged.
The black dot moved closer. Two horses pulled an old carriage driven by a skeleton wearing a yellow robe. The horses halted just feet from us and I saw they were as dead as the driver. Flesh and hair still covered their bones, but not completely. The nice air suddenly turned sour with the stench of rotting carcass. Flies buzzed around the carriage like a black cloud and something moved inside that I could not see and really did not want to.
“What’s this entourage?” said the driver, his skeletal jaw rattling in his head. Rotting flesh covered some of his bones as if something had been eating his skin bit by bit over time. “A little lost aren’t we?”
“Actually, yes we are,” I said. “Maybe you can help us?”
The rotting skin on the corpse’s left cheek rose near his eye socket, suggesting a grin. He suppressed a laugh, but let it show in his posture. “Sure,” he answered, “but I’m not cheap.” He began to inspect my company and his eyeless face fell last on Diana. “I’ll take that one there. No negotiations. Her, or nothing.”
“Now wait a minute,” I said as Taurus stepped in front of Diana, “what do you mean no negotiations? You haven’t even heard what I need, or my offer.”
“You need a ride,” said the driver. “What else could you possibly need all the way out here? And I take it you’re the only human here, otherwise you’d be walking and that pretty girl would be up on that giant’s shoulder. The field will take you soon enough, you know, and that giant can’t run nearly as fast as my horses.”
“No, as a matter of fact I don’t need a ride. I just need directions. How much do you charge for directions?”
“
Directions
?” The driver seemed stumped. “I’ve never been asked that before. Where would you be needing directions to? Do you have any idea where you’re at?”
“I’ll tell you where only after we agree on a price.”
“I already told you my pri
—
” The driver’s jaw loosened and hung off a bit. He brought up his bony hand and re-positioned it. “My price is the girl.”
“Be ready to pound him when I give the word,” I whispered in Taurus’ ear.
I pretended to think about the driver’s offer. “Ok, fine. It’s a deal.”
“What?” Diana shouted. “Oh no, you’re not doing this to me again!”
I glared at her covertly with a ‘trust-me’ look and she backed down. I turned to the driver again. “But you have to tell me which way to go, first.”
The driver nodded once in agreement.
I held up my hands and positioned six of my fingers to make a visible map for the driver to see.
“Where are these landmarks located in this field?”
“And don’t lie, either,” said Tsaeb, holding up his finger and pointing.
The driver cocked his head sideways looking at Tsaeb. He was silent and practically motionless for longer than I thought he should be. And I couldn’t tell exactly what he was looking at.
“That’s my ring,” the driver finally spoke, “you’re the one that stole it. I remember now. I remember your voice. Yesss, it was you. I was newly dead, but I could hear you rummaging through my things and shouting.”
The horses began to whinny and snort.
Good or bad and nothing in-between. It was definitely going to be bad.
Tsaeb backed away. “Uhhh, no, you’ve got me mixed up with some other thief. I-I didn’t steal your stuff. I swear it.”
“You lying little
pissant
!”
Tsaeb ran behind Taurus.
“I guess now would be good,” I said.
Taurus went for the driver, spooking the horses and they reared up on their hind legs.
“Get the giant!” shouted the driver.
The carriage door swung open and a cluster of little flying creatures darted out. I almost fell from Taurus’ shoulder as the creatures swarmed around our heads. The creatures giggled and screamed, their screams so shrill it felt like my head was splitting in half. I cried out, gripping my ears, but trying to hold onto the horn at the same time.
“Leave him alone!” screamed Sophia.
She was on the other side, swatting at the winged creatures that were just slightly smaller than the size of her head. There had to be dozens of them and even a giant like Taurus couldn’t protect himself well enough from their razor-sharp claws and teeth. He pulled them from his face and head and squashed a few with his massive iron grip, but there were too many.
“Run!” I screamed.
Taurus went for it, running with long lumbering legs. The ground shook and rumbled beneath him. In the midst of the bedlam, I heard Taurus roar with pain and scream out something about his eye. There was a lot of blood and I saw one of the creatures buzz past with Taurus’ eye latched in its claws.
Sophia had changed forms and stood between Taurus’ horns as a hideous, hairy monster with gangly teeth and razor-sharp claws of her own. She swiped at the creatures as they swarmed him, cutting many of them down.
“I want my ring back!”
The voice was behind us, mixed with fast and heavy hooves. Davis, the carriage driver was right on our heels.
“Hurry!” shouted another voice. “Get on!”
That voice was familiar. I could not see much.
“I’s knew it was you, Norman!” said the voice. “Field Bandits are a’ comin’! Hurr’yup!”
“Gorg!” I yelled.
I could see Gorg’s carriage out ahead. Tsaeb and Diana were already on it, waving at us from the open door.
“It’s Gorg!” I shouted again, exultant in the middle of all the frantic screams.
We made it to Gorg’s carriage. Taurus was bloody, but to one as big as him, they were just flesh wounds.
I was smiling until I saw Gorg close up.
He was dead, too. As dead as Davis and so were his dirty white horses. The stench was the same. The cloud of flies was as bad. But Gorg was still a welcome sight nonetheless.
“They got you too?” I said.
“Yep,” he answered with that familiar rattling sound in his jaw. “But you’s betta hurry and get on. Them snakes are right on yer tail!”
Davis made it just as Sophia and I were getting on the carriage, me on the front with Gorg.
“Ain’t got no time fer this,” Gorg said to Davis. “They’s comin’ from that way.”
Davis kept looking back. It was apparent he was nervous and even what was left of the flying creatures retreated back into his carriage. One bit Taurus’ ear lobe and giggled before flying off. Taurus swatted at it like a fly.
“I want my ring!”
I pushed my head through the window behind me. “Give him the ring, Tsaeb!
Now
!”
Tsaeb opened the carriage door, took off the ring and tossed it at him. Davis caught it in mid-air and slid it down over his long, bony finger.
“Better get moving, then,” Davis said to Gorg.
He snapped the reins and left quickly.
“It’s good to see you, Gorg,” I said, “and I’m sorry that we have to skip the catching up, but I need you to take us here.”
I held my fingers up again.
“Do you know where these landmarks are?”
“O’course I know where that is.” Gorg reached out his skeletal index finger and pointed at my hands. “Them’s all big rocks, ‘cept that one there.” He touched my solitary finger, the Center of Eden. “Not far from them rocks is that one there. It’s a old tree stump. Bigger ‘round than yer giant friend there, I bet.”
My giant friend. I couldn’t leave Taurus alone in the Field of Yesterday. Like Diana’s boat, there was no way he was getting on Gorg’s carriage. I was miserable suddenly. I looked up at Taurus and felt even worse. His face and neck were bloody, skin was missing and shredded around his ears and throat, and he was missing an eye. Worst of all, Field Bandits were on their way.
“It’s alright, Norman,” said Taurus, “I can handle myself. Maybe I can hold them off, slow them down to give you more time. I’ll find my way afterward.”
Sophia jumped out of the carriage. She was in the form of a little girl again, now wearing the torn curtain Gorg had draped over his box window, as a dress. “I’m staying with you,” she said.