Giddeon (Silver Strand Series) (9 page)

Melody returned his call.
 
He was very polite and inquisitive.
 
She answered as many of his questions as she could without revealing any of the background information pertaining to our involvement in the discovery.
 
The conversation went on for the better part of a half hour, and at the end of it, we had airline tickets (on his private charter line) to his vacation home in the
Cayman Islands
.

He’s a smart guy, and I think he could sense that there was more that Melody wanted to tell him that couldn’t be discussed over the phone.

After my wife hung up, Giddy started pointing at the phone and came out with a new word.

“Fly!
 
Fly, fly,
fffllyyy
!”

I picked him up and Boris jumped on the couch beside us and started sniffing at
Giddy’s
hand.
 
It looked like I could see ribbons of gold oscillating between my son’s fingers and my cat’s nose.

“Rock, rock, rock!” exclaimed little Gid.

Boris meowed, as if he wanted to be part of the conversation, too.

*****

It didn’t take us long to pack.
 
We would only be gone three days.
 
Melody called Amanda and arranged for her to stay with the cats.
 
She said she would be glad to, and asked if Brooke could come with her.
 
Brooke was in town for a visit and our house on
Coronado
would be a nice little getaway compared to Amanda’s small mid-town apartment.
 
Of course, Melody said that would be fine.
 

The three of them were still the best of friends, which was nice, because after college so many people tend to just go their own separate ways.

*****

I’ve never flown 1st class before, and I have to admit, it was kind of nice.
 
Lots of room for Giddy to squirm and play.
 
He even took a bit of a nap with his head resting on a pillow over the arm rest between us.
 
His tarnished bronze curls spilled out across the white fabric, and he looked for all the world like a cherubim.
 
The flight attendants kept coming by and smiling and telling us how adorable he was… he has an effect on women, that’s for sure.

*****

We began our descent towards the
Caribbean
island.
 
Giddy woke up and Melody buckled his seat belt around him.

“Kick, kick, kick...”

My wife looked up with a bit of astonishment on her face, and then kissed him on top of the head.

“That’s right,” she said.
 
“That’s right.”

*****

Raymond Bradford picked us up from the airport, and gave us a ride in his Range Rover to his house… he was quite courteous, and even had a car-seat for Giddy in the back.
 
‘House’, is a bit of an understatement, by the way… even the word ‘mansion’ doesn’t really do it justice.

The island, while reminding me somewhat of
Hawaii
, was different.
 
I can’t quite explain it.
 
It just had a different ‘soul’, if you will.
 

Is that possible?
 
Can places have something like a soul?

Giddeon always said that even atoms are alive… that they make choices on a subatomic level… so I suppose a collection of them could have a spirit.
 
At any rate, I liked the spirit. It was crystalline in nature, and somehow aware of its own beauty.
 
The way the island was surrounded by the warm blue waters of the Gulf, and stood out so sharp and green in contrast, was almost like an announcement of justified pride:
 
‘
I’m a living postcard
…
don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.
 
It’s just one of those things that happened when the continents drifted apart.’

*****

The mansion was enormous.
 
It was spread out and took up quite a bit of real estate.
 
There were 3 swimming pools that I saw… perhaps there were more hidden somewhere on the estate.
 

A friendly lady from Mr. Bradford’s staff showed us to our room, which was complete with a small extra bed.
 
The little divan even had rails so Giddy wouldn’t roll out of it at night… not that he would.
 
He always slept like a stone.
 
The bathroom was huge.
 
Probably more square footage than my boat.
 
Melody took in her new surroundings, and while appreciative, I could tell it didn’t have much of an effect on her.
 
She doesn’t really care for material things.
 
I know we’re lucky enough to live on
Coronado
, but, I have the feeling she would be just as happy in a studio apartment in the middle of the desert.
 
As long as we were together and Giddy was safe.

And, that’s what she was here for.
 
To make sure Giddy was safe.
 
Giddy and all of the other little
Giddys
and
Giddettes
in the world.
 
20,000 square foot mansions wouldn’t really be worth anything if an enormous rock the size of FYI-616-B slammed somewhere nearby.
 
That was the identifier the asteroid had been assigned by NASA… to me, the prefix to the label sounded kind of strange, like some kind of message.
 
FYI …

For Your Information?

*****

I can’t count how many times I tried to tell you about Greg being in the hospital.
 
You don’t listen very well, by the way… I know it’s not your fault, but sometimes I felt like punching you.
 
Well, to be honest, I even tried that.
 
Not out of animosity… I just couldn’t think of anything else to do.
 

Of course, it didn’t work.

The one time I thought I might get through to you was when you went to the golf course and met Boris while you were taking pictures.
 
I got inside of the cat, and I think I even influenced him to paw the air where Greg was standing.
 
I was hoping perhaps you could see an outline of him like I did with Giddeon at
Seaport
Village
.

No such luck.

I begged you to follow Boris to his boat… it was only a little over a mile, away.
 
I thought that maybe then someone could have told you whose boat it was, and what had happened to the owner.

Obviously, that didn’t happen.

I swam with Greg back out to the Catalina in the bay, and climbed on board with him and Giddeon.
 
I had overheard
Giddeon’s
talk about future visitors being in our heads, and after my experience with the cat, I had to give the idea some credence.
 
After all, I’m no stranger to such magic, because, I had seen quite a lot of the unexplained in my few short years.
 
Giddeon tends to think of magic as science, by the way.

*****

I guess I should back up and explain…

*****

So… you know how Giddeon spoke of monstrous things that frightened him when he was little?
 
How they had sharp teeth and claws and would try to get him, but they couldn’t, because their nails and fangs would just go right through him?

I don’t want to scare you, but I saw the same things.
 

I think a lot of kids can see them, at least when they’re young.
 
That’s why so many children are afraid of the dark.
 
I believe Giddy can see them, too, but… I don’t know… they don’t seem to bother him.
 
I think he thinks they’re funny.
 
Somehow he figured out early on that they can’t hurt him.
 
So, when you see him smiling and laughing at nothing in particular, I don’t think it’s always rainbows and unicorns… although I’m sure sometimes it is…
 
I believe, a lot of times, it’s the monsters.

Where do they come from?
 
I don’t have a good answer for that… but I can guess.
 
I think maybe they come from us.
 
From the darkness inside of people.
 
I know you always look on the bright side of things and try to see the good in everyone, but, I’m a little more cynical.
 
Actually, a lot more cynical.
 
Giddeon is quite a bit like you, also, you know?
 
He’s seen thousands of alternate realities, and believe me, a lot of them aren’t pretty, but, still, he doesn’t dwell on the awfulness.

 
He always says, ‘Got to take the good with the bad.’

‘Can’t have one without the other.’

Or something along those lines.
 

I try to tell him otherwise, but he just smiles and kisses me.
 
Of course, that makes me forget about the pain and suffering for a while, but… I keep coming back to it.
 
Like a dog returning to its vomit… sorry to be so crude.
 
But, if you’d seen what I’ve seen… I think you’d understand.

*****

I’ve seen fathers behead their daughters.
 
I’ve seen wives poison their husbands.
 
I’ve seen total strangers gouge each other’s eyes out, and an angry mob put a tire soaked in gasoline around a woman and a baby and light them on fire.

I can still hear their screams.

I’ve been to concentration camps that are like something out of the most hellish hell you can imagine.
 
And, I’m not talking about in some distant past… I didn’t learn how to time-travel until I followed Giddeon… I’m talking about going on right now.

Right here, right now.

In the good, old, best of times.

I think it’s always been this way… at least it has for a long, long stretch.
 
For so long that the
Eden
you have in your Bible is so distant that it’s just a nearly forgotten dream.

And, if you recall, the
Eden
of the future still hadn’t totally escaped Man’s nature.
 
Remember the visitors that tried to do a little house-cleaning/genocide?
 
I’ve seen it carried out all over this planet.
 
Especially after I learned to go back and forth from the future to the past.

I’ve seen kings and queens order legions of idealistic young men to their deaths on battlefields soaked in blood.
 
I’ve witnessed thunderous explosions ripping people, both civilians and soldiers, apart and into bits.
 
Carpet bombings.
 
Chemical warfare.
 
Napalm.
 
Smallpox carried on blankets to native populations.

You name it, and I’ve seen it.

Serial killers slashing their way across the country.
 
Tortures that you can’t even bear to watch.
 
Suffering on such a grand scale that it takes your breath away.
 
And, always, I ask myself ‘why’.
 
What drives us, as people, to do such things?
 
What could possibly rationalize the horror?

And, you know the scariest part?

They all pretty much think it has to be done.
 
That it’s justified, and there is no other way.
 
Except for the crazies… the ones that feel nothing and never will.
 
They just do it because they can. They’re far and few between, though.
 
Most of the atrocities I’ve witnessed are by ‘normal’ people in abnormal circumstances.
 

Maybe
Giddeon’s
right… you have to take the good with the bad.
 

It just seems like there’s so, so much bad.

*****

Anyway… I’m getting side-tracked.
 
Back to magic and monsters.
 
Giddeon uses quantum physics to explain the realities around him.
 
I was much younger when I came to be, so I didn’t know anything about math and physics.
 
To me, it was all magic.
 

Before there were the monsters, there were flights of fancy… rainbows and unicorns, if you will.
 
For the first few years, I think I was somehow shielded by the love of your parents from the nasty things.
 
The nasty things that would eventually break through into my world.

When your mom would read fairy tales to you, I would soak them up like a sponge.
 
Your Saturday morning cartoons were quite a treat, and I would dream of all of the mythical creatures and magical lands I saw.
 
Even the commercials.
 
The Lucky Charms Leprechaun was one of my favorites, and he kept me company on nights when I wasn’t tired.
 
Although I didn’t think the cereal itself was magically delicious, you sure did.
 
I’m surprised your enamel held up : )
 
The Leprechaun
 
would dance and sing for me, and even though I knew I was controlling him and it wasn’t real… it was still fun.
 

Like riding unicorns.
 
I did a lot of that.

And, taming dragons.
 

They fly, too, and the scales are warm beneath you because there’s fire down in their bellies.
 

I lived in an enchanted world, and I learned the ways of magic.
 
It’s a good thing, you see, because I needed all of my powers to stand up to the monsters when they came.
 
And, come, they did…

*****