Waking Gods (Themis Files #2)(24)

—Themis can also do that.

—Well, maybe we can give them a hand and wipe out a few cities ourselves. What she can’t do is hurt these things if they don’t stand still. She hit that robot dead on with her weapon. Might as well have thrown insults at it.

—She did give him the finger.

—Too bad the helicopters were gone. That would have made a great picture.

—Or a statue.

—Ha! You made a joke! They could have used that for the memorial. Did you see the monument they made? The alien robot kneeling before Themis? Looks like she’s knighting him. Better than Hercules and Diomedes, I guess … Oh, you don’t know that one. Look it up.

—You have not answered my question.

—My point is this: There’s nothing we can do. Not with what we have. Our only hope, if they ever come back, is that my kids will have found something useful by then. I hate to say it, ’cause she’s completely crazy, but it’s all about Rose now.

—It is all about Rose, is it not?

—Yes. That’s why I said it.

—She fell on the hand when she was a child. She somehow ended up in charge of studying it. Now we are waiting for a war that we cannot win, and our best hope for survival lies with her.

—Like you said, you’re really good at stating the obvious, but is there a point to all this?

—Of course. Did you ever wonder why they chose to bring her back?





FILE NO. 1526

SESSION NOTES—PATIENT EVA REYES

Dr. Benicio Mu?oz Rivera, psychiatrist, San Juan, Puerto Rico —Tell me about the nightmares, Eva.

—I don’t wanna talk about that. You said we could play some games.

—We just did, Eva, and now we need to talk.

—Those weren’t fun. I wanna play real games.

—Your mother is worried about you, Eva.

—I’m fine! She doesn’t need to worry.

—Can you tell me what happened yesterday?

—Nothing happened. I was taking a bath!

—Your mother was very scared. Tell me what happened.

—I … I saw something. I wanted to know what it felt like … not being able to breathe. I didn’t know my mother was in the room. I was just curious. I wasn’t trying to— —She says you spend all your time alone, that you don’t talk to your friends anymore.

—I don’t have any friends. They think I’m crazy.

—No one thinks that, Eva.

—YES THEY DO!

—Eva—

—You don’t know what you’re talking about! I’m not imagining it, they say it all the time! They all think I’m crazy. My mother thinks that too. That’s why I’m here.

—It’s perfectly normal for a girl your age to have some bad thoughts, Eva. I don’t think they’re magically going to go away either. But there are tools you can use to take control of those thoughts. That’s why I’m here, to give you those tools. I want you to stop being afraid of what’s in your head.

—How could I not be afraid? I saw them die, all of them.

—Who died, Eva?

—Those people in London. I saw them dead.

—What did you see?

—They were all dead!

—I meant precisely. Can you describe the images?

—There were thousands of them, everywhere. They were just lying there, on the sidewalk, inside their cars.

—Like they fell asleep?

—All at the same time.

—You saw the bodies?

—Yes!

—But there weren’t any bodies in London after last year’s attack, Eva. You saw that! It was on television. There was nothing left.

—Yeah, but they’re dead, aren’t they?

—You just had a nightmare, about a bad thing that happened. It’s natural for you to put the two together, but you just said yourself, what you saw isn’t what happened.

—They’re not nightmares! I’m not … Whatever. I know you don’t believe me. Can I go now?

—Not yet.

—Then can we talk about something else?

—What else did you see?

—I don’t wanna do this anymore.

—Eva, tell me. What else did you see?

—I saw a metal … I saw a robot falling into the clouds.

—You mentioned that vision before. How can anything fall into the sky? Was it falling upwards? From an airplane?

—I don’t know. Not from a plane, no.

—Then from where, Eva?

—I don’t know! I’m just telling you what I saw. Can I go?

—That’s OK. I just want you to … consider the possibility that what you’re seeing isn’t real? Will you do that for me?

—Sure.

—You have a very vivid imagination, Eva, and that’s a good thing, a very good thing. You should find ways to take advantage of it. Do you like to draw?

—Yes.

—Maybe you can draw the things you see. Put them on your wall. I think it might help.

—Help with what?

—It might help you realize it’s all in your head, give you some control over your thoughts. Then you might not be so afraid of them anymore.

—I’m not always afraid of them.