Don't Call Me Kitten! (17 page)

“Okay.” Before
her eyes Simon shimmered and in his place solidified a younger
version of her father. It took everything in her not to react with
repulsion. Maybe if she addressed him by his name she could react
to him differently. “Ivan?”

Ivan’s eyes
locked on to hers. “Dimitri, It’s good to see you. Da’s home in one
of his moods. If I’d stayed I’d have got a thumping. Still might
when I get home but I thought I’d take the risk. The old bastard
might be asleep by the time I get home. Have a drink?”

“Don’t mind if
I do.” Helena poured the water from the bottle, wondering how this
was going to work but the man took a sip from his glass and seemed
to be satisfied.

Ivan almost
purred as the liquid slid down his throat. “Good drop. Hey have you
seen that girl down at number nine? Daughter of a botanist or
geneticist or something. Now she’s a sight for sore eyes isn’t
she?”

Helena
swallowed the saliva in her throat. He was talking about her
mother. “You like her do you?”

“Yeah. She’s a
beauty. Too good for me though. What’s some shrub like me ever
going to offer a girl like that.”

Helena knew
what he should have given her mother. “A loving home?”

“Yeah, I guess
we’d need a place of our own. Couldn’t subject her to my dad. I’ll
need to find a job. Anton reckons he could make a few
introductions, get me in at the factory.” Ivan shimmered and in his
place was an older version, in his twenties now. He looked up. “Oh,
Dimitri, how’s it going.”

“Good, how’s
life with you.”

Ivan shrugged.
“Oh not bad. The new wife is a honey. Alisa’s her name. You must
come over and meet her sometime. She adores me you know. Seems to
see something in me none of my family ever did. Don’t know what I’d
do without her.”

“Well that’s
good.”

“Yeah, but
we’ve got a kid on the way. Didn’t expect that so soon. I’m still
on the bottom rung at work. Don’t know how we’re going to afford a
little one. Alisa’s family doesn’t want anything to do with me.
They’ve as good as disowned her. Her mum, snooty bitch, wouldn’t
even come to the wedding. Her dad’s not so bad but that dragon of a
wife has him under her thumb. How the hell does he allow that? He’s
the man of the house. He should tell her how it is.” He shimmered
again, looking a little more ragged this time.

“What’s up
Ivan? You look stressed.”

Ivan peered
into his glass mournfully. “Every damn thing, that’s what’s wrong,
everything. Alisa hangs out with that mother of hers. They go
shopping together. Alisa’s always coming back with a new piece of
clothing or something for the kids. She just doesn’t seem to get
it. We can’t afford it. Alisa grew up with the best of everything.
She’s never changed her ways since we married. Doesn’t get there’s
only so much in my pay packet. I lost my temper the other day. I
only hit her lightly. I’m not the bastard my dad was. She should be
grateful. I was just trying to get through to her. But no, she goes
off crying. That older girl of mine, she just happened to see it.
Real beauty that one’s going to be but now she looks at me with
eyes full of hate. Chills me to the bone that look she gives me. At
least she keeps that other money sucking other brat out of my way.
Baby formula, jumpsuits...have you any ideas what that all costs? I
tell you Dimitri, I’m putting a knot in the damn thing. Anything
not to get us worse in debt. The Mafia are hovering around me like
flies, wanting me to do stuff for them. The boss wants me to join
the damn political party. I should. Its holding me back at work
that I haven’t joined but god Dimitri they’re a pack of bastards.
Wish I’d never stayed in Moscow. Hell I wish I’d never married.
Should have gone north to Novgorod. There were good jobs on the go
up there. With my brains I would have become a foreman or better.”
Ivan shimmered and Simon once more sat in the seat across from the
table.

“Ok I get it.
The beast was trying to make the best of life as he knew how. “ She
shook her head trying to give herself a moment to process all she’d
seen. “You know he was right about one thing, my grandma. Snooty
piece of works that one. I can imagine her tempting my mum to spend
more than they had. But I guess what you’d say is that similar
forces made her what she was too.”

“Exactly. It’s
also what frustrates the hell out of humans, particularly when it
comes to the ones they love. Deep down they know that person they
care about is something vastly more than what they seem to be
trapped into being. Trapped by their karma, genetics, life and
choices. They love what they know them to truly be but judge and
react to what they portray even though part of them knows that
portrayal is a lie.”

“So there’s a
truer version of us. A product version without all the defects in
it?”

“Of course.
Would you let me show you your real father?”

Helena wasn’t
sure she would ever be ready for that but if she was anything she
wasn’t a coward. “Okay.”

Simon
shimmered and then resolidified into a man who hardly bore any
resemblance to her father at all. He looked healthier, stronger,
self-assured. A sparkle lit his eyes. “Hello Helena.”

Helena reeled.
“I thought you weren’t meant to recognize me.”

“Those were
memories Simon showed you from my past but this is me. I’m truly
sorry for all we’ve gone through. All of us. You, me, your mum,
little Anya, my ancestors. It was never meant to be that way you
know. We said we’d remember.”

“Remember what
dad?”

“Who we were
when we first came into this dimension. We forgot we were
expressions of the all-spirit. We took on unique identities and
believed in them. So much so we began to even doubt we had ever
been anything else. That was the great experiment you see. To see
if we could remember on our own. To see if through free will we
could find our way back. We said we could. We were sure of it. Some
of us might have even made it, a few did. Then the Din came along
and messed with us. We sank further into delusion. We believed
theirs, that life was about acquiring as much material possession,
status, fame and achievement as you could in a short life. To be
remembered and to have descendents. That became our only
immortality, our only legacy. We failed in the great quest to birth
love and compassion into this dimension. To bring about a paradise
in the material world. That had been the plan. We couldn’t do it
though, not as single individuals. Even now humans are drowning in
a sense of helplessness, knowing that individually they have no
power to remedy the mess. Only by getting back with the original
game plan can we succeed. The all-spirit needs you Helena. You are
of the blue ray of light. You can not only work out the mysteries
of DNA with your mind but you can heal it with your heart. The
retrovirus you helped Jnarn create is but the tip of the iceberg.
The task is too much for one individual mind, even yours but if you
connect with your heart, connect with your mate and connect with
the blue ray that has always existed within you can transform our
situation on a scale that will touch not only this planet but the
whole of this universe.” Ivan reached out and offered his hand.
Helena looked in wonder and accepted it. “I’m proud of you girl. I
know you can do this.” And then he vanished. Simon once again in
his place.

Helena
extracted her hand from Simon’s, tears she never thought to shed
trickling quietly down her face. “Oh my...”

“Let me teach
you Helena.”

Helena nodded,
she’d choke if she tried to speak right away. Then she took a deep
breath. “Okay. What do you want me to do?”

“We leave at
first light. I need to visit the Shang and check on one of ours.
I’ll leave you with Silwa while I’m there. His kind are masters of
vibration and its uses. If you’re ready to let go of the rut you
identify with he can deconstruct your identifications better than
anyone I know. Then he’ll teach you the basics of what you need to
know about healing DNA using sound.”

“One morning.
Won’t it take more than that to undo years of accumulated
habits?”

“For most it
would but I believe you are capable of going through the
transformation. They have a way. It’s painful if you resist but if
you go into it willingly its not too bad. Just highly
disconcerting. I’ll be there for you when they’ve finished. I
suggest in the meantime you go and see our cop. He can show you our
means of transport. You’ll need to know how for tomorrow’s trip.
Not everyone appreciates my ways of teaching non-local travel.
Michael on the other hand is a natural. He’s taught many of the
townsfolk.”

She couldn’t
envisage what non-local travel might be but if it involved anything
with a bit of speed it could be fun.“I could do with a buzz.”

“You might be
in luck then. It could very well be the only form of transport that
Michael wouldn’t give you a speeding ticket for. See you later at
the pub then?”

“Yeah, why
not. But by the sounds of it I better get an early night.”

A lone condor
soared over The Yungus. The jungle seemed tranquil but it was
anything but. The jungle had a large weeping sore, the silver mine
that had operated there since the 1600s. The miners, as ever, were
sweating beneath the late afternoon sun. Men, old and young, swung
pick axes, breaking new ground. Most of the silver was long gone.
The mine’s main income now was from the tin. Even that was running
out. The search was now on for other precious minerals in the
leftover tailings; indium and gallium.

Some of the
men, in their forties yet old me before their time, coughed and
hacked as they fought to work with their failing lungs. Silicosis
scarred their lungs and left them with little air to breathe. Old
women, some looking in their eighties but probably much younger,
worked at breaking the ore into smaller chunks. Grandchildren
snoozed on their backs, supported in specially made carry
backpacks. Slightly older children dodged the rocks and machinery
to make their play. The oldest of the children, looking up with
doleful wide eyes that would make the most calloused soul weep,
worked beside their mothers. Only the lucky ones would ever see the
insides of a school, for a year or two at most.

A Silver Rolls
Royce pulled up but the workers didn’t look up as the immaculately
dressed passengers in their suits and ties dismounted and walked up
to the site office. The employees of the mine knew well the price
for any slacking would be having their pay docked. The owners
barely ever acknowledged their existence, unless they slacked.
Since the mine owned their homes and the land they lived on, the
land of their ancestors that was rented back to them, they had
barely enough to pay for the barest in food and clothing. Even that
had to be bought from shops owned by the elite. The acid chloride
leaching processes left little growing in the stream or the bare
mountain side. There were few fish or animals to supplement their
meagre diet. If the workers fell into debt the elite were more than
happy to indenture their future generations.

Deeper in the
Yungus, in the shade of the cave overhang that was his home, a
young shaman called to the condor. It spiraled down from overhead
to land at his feet. For the first time, in all the traditions of
his tribe, the condor morphed into the shape of a man and the man
greeted him. “Hello Yaguar. Be ready. My mate is coming to set me
free. She is the eagle spirit who will unite her intelligence with
my intuition. She comes to heal our collective DNA. Be ready.”

Yaguar bowed
his head to the ground. The great spirit had spoken. He would tell
his people.

Zex was having
none of the man’s grovelling in the dust. He raised him up. “I’m
just a man Yaguar. From another dimension it is true but I am no
more or less than you. Do not honor me so. My name is Zex if you
would call me such.”

Yaguar
straightened himself. “Tell me what you need from me Zex. You say
your mate will free you.”

“The stone,
deep in the cave you guard. That is me. I am the spirit of the
stone. The enemy caught me long ago. Until now I’ve only ever
appeared to you and your ancestors in the spirit shape of a condor.
It was time to show myself. The time is nearly at hand when we can
look to free your people from their enslavement. Strangers will
come to the jungle tomorrow. My mate will be among them. I’m not
able to help them. Watch over them for me and show them where to
find me.”

Yaguar
struggled against his natural instinct to bow again but he didn’t
want to offend the great spirit. He simply nodded his assent
instead. That a being, something more than even a condor, lived in
the stone at the heart of the mountain did not entirely surprise
him. His tribe had always known intuitively that something of great
import resided there. Something that whispered in their dreams and
visions that one day, in better times to come, a new world would
take form. It was because of those very visions that they had never
lost hope. “I am honored that you ask. It will be done.”

The aromas
wafting out of the pub’s new pizza oven were to die for. As fast as
Rachel got them on the tables more were being ordered.

George sniffed
his with some hesitancy but was pleasantly surprised. “Looks like
pizza, smells like pizza.” He took a mouthful and savoured it.
“Tastes like pizza. So how did you do it Simon?”

“Just a simple
gluten-free pizza base, a layer of spinach and mizuna with a
selection of toppings people can choose from including bell
peppers, fresh pineapple, asparagus, freshly steamed artichoke
hearts and vietnamese mint for a bit of fire. The cheese-less
topping is the tricky bit. Basically a cashew and basil pesto puree
with a bit of asafoetida to give it the garlicky smell. For those
that don’t like nuts amaranth flour can be substituted for the
cashews. It’s a bit stickier but then that’s what cheese is like
isn’t it? I’m thinking nasturtium flowers would give a flavor
similar to capers but I’ve yet to test it out. Jeff seems happy
with this basic recipe for now.”