Dream Me(6)

“Your father had to take the truck to work, but he said you can use the bike in the garage if you want to explore. If you really want the truck, I suppose you could ride over to the club and pick it up.”

“How far away is the club?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I don’t think it’s too far. We can ask Billy if he’s still around.”

“I’ll go check. And Mom . . . I think I need to move into the other bedroom. Too close to yours, and those walls aren’t very soundproof.”

My mom turned beet red. “What do you mean? What exactly did you hear?”

“Eeew! I just heard you talking, but thanks for the gross image I’ll never get out of my mind. Can you help me move the bed later on?”

“Happy to oblige.” My mom smiled apologetically. “And Babe? Cable and Wi-Fi are working just fine. I don’t know what your father was talking about.”

“Oh great! Now if we only had cell phone reception.”

“That’s working just fine too. At least, mine is. Check yours.”

I flipped my phone open and saw about a hundred texts that had come in from Perry during the night.

What the . . .?

This day was looking better and better.

__________

Billy was just about ready to leave when I caught up with him to ask for directions to the club where Dad worked and where Mom and I would be working soon.

“It’s just down the road a bit. Go back out to the main road and turn right . . . when you see the Piggly Wiggly, make a left and keep going. Cain’t miss it.”

“Piggly wiggly?” Was this another strange creature like the fire ant, which in my imagination was a tiny fire-breathing dragon?

“That’s right. Make a left just before the Piggly Wiggly. Cain’t miss it.”

“Is it far?”

Billy considered this for a moment before answering. “No, it’s not too far. You have a nice day, you hear? I’ll be back next week.”

Next week? Did creatures multiply that quickly around here? It seemed to me he’d laid down enough poison to stifle a thousand generations of bugs.





Zat


The community center, just a larger version of every other structure, was sparsely filled. When Zat was young, the center drew crowds wanting to exchange ideas, to make matches, to talk about what their future might look like. That was before the first scouts left. In the intervening years, most had already abandoned the planet, some traveling only as far as the temporary, less desirable planets. Others forged ahead with the hope of discovering a new world. A new Earth, the way it once was.

The moment Zat walked in, he regretted his decision to go there. It was good to be around people his own age but he would always be the outsider. He was the one choosing the road less traveled, even though it would be months, possibly years, before his turn came up. Most of the new technology was directed toward space travel. Very little had been invested in time travel. Time travel was an older technology, all but abandoned. The equipment that still existed was outdated and only able to handle a few at a time. Anyone still interested in that option was forced to wait their turn based on age. Older pioneers first.

Since Pioneer One made the first journey back in time, few were interested in following. The government claimed he was able to send signals before going dark. But when no other signals were forthcoming, people lost hope and the government turned its resources back to space travel. Most thought Pioneer One was dead, but Zat didn’t. Zat and the other believers were convinced that Pioneer One was in the place by that wondrous body of water, inhabiting the mind of a brilliant scholar who’d left the world of academia to spend his older years playing games (another quirk of ancient humans) and pulling fish from the sea to be eaten and enjoyed for their nutrients and taste.

Yet knowing how way leads onto way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

Why didn’t people write poetry anymore? Another art lost to time. So much was lost and yet Zat was constantly being accused of romanticizing the past where humans fought against each other and passed microbes into each other’s bodies that sickened and even killed. Zat would give anything to swim in an ocean. Sit under the shade of a tree. A real tree. The petrified forest he once saw as a child was just a ghost of what had once blanketed the earth.

“Zat.”

Sahra surprised him from behind. He turned quickly to see her face, at once sad and beautiful. He was sorry for what he wished could have been but never was.

“Sahra. I thought I’d see you here.”

“How is your uncle?”

“Very well. He sleeps most of the time now. I thought I’d come see how everyone was doing.”

“You know we’re leaving soon.”

“I know. Uncle told me.”

“It’s not too late, Zat. To come with us. Father would arrange it.”

“And I appreciate it, Sahra, believe me I do. I’m not even worthy of your offer—”

“That’s silly, Zat. Of course you’re worthy.”

“—but you know I’ve made up my mind.”

Sahra looked down at the ground. She seemed to be a source of infinite sadness but Zat knew it really emanated from him. Life had never been easy and there was no reason why it should start now.

“You’re still going to that place? By the ocean?” Sahra’s eyes were black and unreadable.