'Full of secrets and
surprises,' he says.
'You'll just have to
wait.'
Jesus arrives carrying Tat
under one arm. He's life sized and beautifully sculptured in
bronze. Jesus stands him up on the lawn, looking out to sea,
poised, ready to defeat an unseen enemy. At his feet is
inscribed:
Tat Moh
The Father of Fung Fu
493 - 2020
He died saving Earth
'We need to find a place to put
him, where he'll be happy,' says Jesus.
'He'd make a good coat
hanger with his hands sticking out like that. I've got just the
place for him, inside my front door,' I say. 'Let's put him there
while we have an espresso.' I check the coast is clear and click my
fingers. By the time we've finished our coffees the kids have Tat
wearing a floral dress, straw hat and sunglasses. He does look
funny. It's tempting to put him on the top of the bluff or the
summit of Mt Ijju, but a statue really needs to be seen, so he ends
up parked in Kastela, sharing a square with a gurgling fountain and
a naked nymph. I'm sure they'll get along just fine. I'm going to
miss having him around. The slugs are on the lookout for a new kung
fu master but true ones are few and far between.
Zeus takes me on a tour.
First stop is Pallas. From afar
it looks a bit like Earth, with continents and oceans and swirling
weather formations.
'It looks like Earth.' I
say.
'It's the ark,' says Zeus.
'Camillo was my dummy run, this is the real thing.'
When we get closer, I can
see what he means, it's teaming with life, life from Earth. There's
rain forests and deserts, prairies and tundra, patchwork farmlands
and busy cities. We stop and have an espresso in a big city. It's
much like Earth, except that everything is electric, so no nasty
fumes from the buses. The Chinese waitress who brings our espressos
is ever so sweet and shy.
'How do you like it here?' asks
Zeus.
'Velly much,' she replies.
'Free hot choccy and donuts on Tuesday.'
I'm sure he
meant,
How's the
asteroid
but she seems happy
with her lot.
We take off again and fly
slowly along a wild surf beach, skimming just above the wave tops.
This asteroid is truly spectacular.
'All this while I thought you
were on Isora, high on ozone searching for the answer,' I say,
impressed with what he has achieved.
'I was,' says Zeus. 'But I
finally got up courage and called The Shrink.'
'Freud?'
'Yes Freud,' says Zeus. 'I
think I've been his biggest challenge, but look at me, I'm off
ozone and back to my former self.'
'What about Earth?' I ask as we
travel across the solar system to Zeus's asteroid, Isora.
'What about Earth.' says Zeus.
'It's probably the best thing that ever happened to it; a new
start, a new opportunity. Plant and animal life is
flourishing.'
'Should I be doing
anything?'
'No, just keep an eye on it.
Let the people make their own destiny.'
Suits me. I've got my hands
full on Camillo.
I don't recognise Isora at
first. Last time I visited, it was parched desert, with a few dead
trees and a toxic atmosphere. Now it's covered with tall grass,
waving in the breeze. We come down to land in front of a cottage
set in a small copse of trees, smoke is rising from the chimney and
a lady anode comes out to meet us. She gives Zeus a peck on the
cheek then turns to meet me.
'Emily,' says Zeus. 'This is my
wife, Hera.'
She looks me in the eye with
deep brown eyes, soft and motherly, yet sharp and alert at the same
time, and embraces me. I feel the warmth of her spirit pass through
my body. She's a true goddess.
'Delighted to meet you,' I
say.
'My pleasure,' she says. 'It's
wonderful to finally meet you. Zeus talks about you so often that I
get quite jealous.'
'I'm sure he has been
despairing of me,' I say, thinking of all the trouble I've
caused.
'Not at all,' says Hera. 'A cup
of sweet, milky tea and an Afghan, that's it, isn't it?'
'Perfect,' I say.
We sit in their garden and make
girls talk while Zeus tends to his roses. She's quite a girl, this
Hera. I invite her to come for a girls’ night out with Annie and
Janice. I can see us having a lot of fun together.
'I'd love too. Zeus keeps ever
so quiet about his asteroids. I've never heard mention of Zwingly
before!'
Moo, moo, mooooo.
There's a lot of mooing going
on.
'Zeus,' I say. 'Your cow, does
it need milking or something?'
'She wants to see you.'
'Me?'
'Yes, you!'
Picking a large bunch of grass
and clover as I go, I follow the mooing to its source. It's Daisy!
She's happy to see me. I feed her grass and give her a brisk
massage, digging my fingers in until she wriggles in ecstasy.
Her asteroid, Panacea, got
completely built up until there was no grass left, so she's moved
here to be Zeus's house cow.
'What about the Titans?' I ask
Zeus as we head back to Camillo.
'They've had their fingers
burnt,' says Zeus. 'They shouldn't be giving us any trouble for a
while.'
'I hope not,' I say.
40
Castor calls me up to his
moon.
On his screen he shows Zula
kissing Ijju and his kids goodbye and mounting his camel ready to
head out into the desert.
'It's a special caravan to
reopen trade routes,' says Castor. 'They don't know what they are
letting themselves in for. The desert is full of warlords with
pickups and warplanes. There's no place for the Tuareg camel trains
anymore. They'll all be killed.
My heart twinges as we watch
the camel train leave the heavily fortified compound and strike out
into the desert.
Jesus and Azziz arrive along
the beach kicking a football.
'We're just back from
Mula,' says Jesus. 'We dropped Angelo back down and got side
tracked.'
'Side tracked?' I
ask.
'There was a lot of tidying up
to do and they were all a bit shaken by what happened. They didn't
really want to live there anymore.'
'I'm not surprised,' I say. 'It
was the most horrible thing I've ever seen.'
'That Angelo is a lucky man,'
says Azziz, changing the subject. 'Petra is delicious!'
'Don't even think about it
Azziz,' I chastise, 'You have all these lovely babies running
around here and you are eyeing up someone else's girl!'
'I was just appreciating her,'
says Azziz.
'Will
you
ever grow up?'
'Probably not,' he
answers.
At least he's honest about
it.
'I'd love to spend some time
with Petra,' I say. 'I'll go and visit her sometime. It must be so
lonely for her down there.'
'We could visit her now,' says
Jesus.
'Now?'
'Why not?'
'The kids, I don't want to
leave them.'
'Bring them,' says Jesus,
pulling the creepers off my sailing dinghy, flipping it over and
pulling it down the beach.
We rig up
Olive
and push off from the
beach, with Lilly and River coming along as crew. It's wonderful to
have the sails up and get her skipping along through the waves
again. I can't remember the last time I went sailing. I was
probably before I had kids.
Jesus won't tell me where we're
off to. We sail around the headland towards Kastela and stop at the
little island with the lighthouse.
'Mula,' says
Jesus, as we pull
Olive
up on the
beach.
'Don't you mean Mulo,' I say,
correcting him.
'No Mulo is on Earth, this
one's Mula,' he says.
A small boy comes running out
through an open gun port followed by a girl with wild red hair.
Petra!
41
I can't sleep. I'm worried
about Zula. He's been gone for a week now; I hope he's all right.
I've been up all night, sitting out on the sofa, watching the stars
and the sea. Every time a shooting star streaks across the sky, I
make a wish. Always the same wish. Dawn arrives and the sun rises
out of the sea, painting my asteroid red and orange with its fiery
brush. The dull ache in my heart that has dogged me for years has
grown stronger and is burning, egging me on.
I click my fingers and the worm
appears on the front lawn. I close my eyes and find myself hovering
above the caravan, looking down with eagle eyes. The sun has just
risen, giving the camels long black shadows that follow them across
the orange dunes like giant spiders.
Zula is at the back. He
carries his father's rifle but it's not going to help him much in
the ambush that lies ahead, just over the ridge. He’s going to
die.
He looks up to the heavens as
if he senses me watching.
I want him up here, with
me.
Now!
It's about time the kids had a
dad.
Just one little click of my
fingers and he'll be here.
Click!
The End
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Also published by Vi Grim
Emily Taylor Book 1- Abducted
Emily Taylor Book 2- The Slave Girl
Emily Taylor
Book 3 – The Apprentice