He had referred to the gold standard of recording software. I had read about it a few years back, and had actually considered purchasing it to play with on my Apple laptop. The expensive price tag kept me from doing it… not a problem in Giddeon’s world.
“Cool.”
I sipped on my beer and looked around. I noticed the ratio of girls to guys was easily two to one… I had kind of grown accustomed to that in San Diego. I’m not sure why it’s that way. Maybe because it’s such a big military town and a lot of the guys are continually being deployed overseas. Or, it could be that women appreciate and are drawn to nice things, and, as cities go, this one pretty much qualifies as a nice thing. Anyway, as I was contemplating my theories, three more ladies were having their I.D.’s checked at the door. I glanced over and was very pleasantly surprised.
Melody, and her two friends.
They came in just as another song began to thump from the speakers. The trio of women went straight to the dance floor since none of them was carrying a purse. They instantly fell in step with the complicated dance, smiles on their fresh, young faces. Melody was in a form-fitting pair of faded Wrangler jeans, faux ostrich skin boots, a red blouse and a white cowboy hat. She looked magnificent. She also moved like a seasoned professional. I had suspected that she was a dancer from way back, and, boy, was I right. She could have shown the instructor a thing or two.
Gid and I jumped from our seats and he let me have the spot next to Melody. He took the row directly behind the girls, where I’m sure he enjoyed the view. We lost ourselves in the rhythm of the music for several dances and it was quite surreal… almost like I was on an actual date with the woman of my dreams.
We all moved as one organism. I only wished that I could have reached out and touched her and held her hand. It would have been so nice to have been able to talk to her between the songs.
We spent the next two and a half hours spinning, stepping and swaying under the lights and music.
__________
When we got back, Gid and I went straight for the guitars. I had never written a country song, before, but after paying close attention to the structure and story lines of the ones in the club, I felt inspired. E, A and D… three chords, only. This was the product of my first attempt:
I took my Golden Years, just a little bit early.
What good is all that gold if you’re too old? Now, surely
You can understand…
I’m a right here, right now, kind of man.
You never know when you’re gonna ride in that hearse…
Life’s short, eat your dessert first.
I don’t delay my gratification,
I think right now is always time for a vacation.
Can’t you understand…
I’m a right here, right now, kind of man?
I don’t worry none ‘bout no rainy day…
Even when it’s storming, I play… Let’s play.
(instrumental chorus)
Life is for living, don’t you die before you’re dead.
I think this town could use another coat of red.
Don’t you understand…
I’m a right here, right now kind of man?
Times are good… times they could get worse…
Life’s short, eat your dessert first.
Eat your dessert first!
(chorus)
And, girl you look like cherry pie to me.
I’m foot-loose, and, are you fancy free?
What you say we dance across the floor…
And, when we’re done, let’s dance a little more?
When we’re done, let’s dance a little more!
‘Cause, I’m a right here, right now, kind of man.
Surely girl, I think you understand.
When you’re feeling blessed,
thank goodness you ain’t cursed…
Life’s short, eat your dessert first.
Life’s short, eat your dessert first.
Life’s short… so very short.
Life’s short, eat your dessert first!
I thought it was a decent first attempt. Giddeon and Boris agreed. Then, they both left out into the Coronado evening, evidently not ready to call it a night. I fell asleep in my jeans and boots.
Chapter 48
I awoke in only my boxer shorts, but I don’t remember taking off my country paraphernalia. Looking around, I discovered that my pants, boots and shirt were nowhere to be found. Either Gid had taken care of it all, or I had somehow shipped them off to the ether in my sleep. Things like that were happening more and more then, although I didn’t seem to have much control over it. I sat down on the couch with my guitar and went back through my new song, finding I liked it as much or more than I did a few hours before. Boris and Giddeon had yet to make an appearance, so I took my time adjusting to the morning.
I drank some O.J. from the carton and munched on some Kashi Heart to Heart cereal, dry, from the box. Then, I sat back down with my guitar in my lap, still crunching on the nutritious oats. I smiled when I remembered how my brother Jeremy told me that Heart to Heart should be renamed Bowl to Bowl after I had raved about it enough that he went and bought some for himself. Apparently, it had too much fiber for his system and pretty much went straight from his cereal bowl to his toilet bowl : ) I was just thinking to myself how I missed being able to call him up on the phone and shoot the breeze, when I felt footsteps on my boat. There was a jiggling at the lock, and, after a few moments, in popped my brother.
I almost got up to shake his hand and hug him, but then realized it couldn’t be done. Even after all of that time it was easy to forget that I was in the quantum state of there, and yet, not there. Boris was right behind him. Jeremy deposited his bag by the door, went to the fridge, opened a can of wet food and plopped it onto a paper plate for our mutual welfare case.
Boris settled in on his haunches and proceeded to ravenously consume the offering. My brother watched the cat for a bit, and then looked around the boat; he took my guitar from where it was on its stand, in actuality, and sat down on the couch. I stood up to accommodate him… I still had the Ovation’s Doppelganger in my hands… a strap suddenly materialized around my neck and shoulder, suspending it in a comfortable position.
My brother is pretty good on the guitar, himself. After tuning the instrument, he started in on a familiar tune… easily one of the best songs ever written. I filled in with the lead, amazed at how proficient I had grown under Giddeon’s tutelage.
The lyrics to that particular song were always haunting, and under the circumstances, were even more so.
After the introduction, Jeremy’s soft, on key voice filled the interior of my boat… Pink Floyd’s ‘Wish You Were Here’.
Jeremy finished up the vocals after a couple of minutes, and we played out the instrumental part until the end. It was one of the best renditions of the song I had ever heard… I wished to myself that I had it on tape. I left the boat wearing shorts, tennis shoes and a tee shirt.
The Coronado morning was blurred by the wetness in my eyes.
__________
Jeremy stayed for a week. One of the doctors wanted to discuss options such as removing my feeding tube as it was becoming evident that my condition was not improving. Although he remained polite, I could tell my brother was enraged at even the suggestion. He would have no part of it, and insisted that I would come out of the coma… it would only take time.
Father McCreely was still a weekly visitor. He always sat for an hour, and then went down to the politically correct, non-denominational sanctuary/meditation room to pray. Once, he stayed there in one position for so long that I was concerned he would induce deep vein thrombosis. I heard through the Giddeon grapevine that the priest hadn’t played golf since the day when he hit me in the head… I found it ironic that his misguided shot had helped sculpt me into a no-handicapper, at least in my alternate realities.
I rarely had visitors. It occurred to me that other than my blo
od relative, my sister-in-law, and the man partly responsible for my condition, no one really noticed that I was out of action. I had no real friends… only co-workers and sometime golf partners. If success in life is measured by the number of people that care about you, I had come up extraordinarily lacking. I really had no one to blame but myself… I had always been introverted, and, while I didn’t dislike people, I certainly wasn’t drawn to them.
I had always lived in my own limited mind… sort of like Giddeon… except, his mind wasn’t so limited, and, he had no other options.
__________
In light of the way I had conducted my prior existence, I considered my affinity for cats. They were independent and pure in their own selfish way. They could take you or leave you; unfortunately, kind of the way I had always been with people.
I have found that felines will most certainly take you if food and scratching are involved. They’re basically the consummate users of the animal kingdom. Except for Boris. He stuck with me knowing that food, drink and real rubdowns could only be provided by others in the marina or at the restaurant. Yet, for some reason, he preferred my company to all of the other real people at his disposal… he even preferred me to Giddeon.
Other than my family and Melody, I suppose Boris was the only other creature I had ever loved. I tried not to think about that too much because it made me sad.
Chapter 49
More and more time passed. Days and nights alternated in a kind of bizarre cycle of mundane magic and everyday ‘life’, and I began to accept the extraordinary without much surprise. Often, I sampled some of the potential times… both in the future and in the immediate past… with my enthusiastic tour guide, and I was always amazed at the number of directions that humanity came and went. Sometimes, though, for weeks, I would live a pretty ‘normal’ existence; playing golf, eating at restaurants and checking out the beach with Gid. I also read a lot of paperback novels with Boris.
I think I was drawn to normalcy because it helped me feel connected to the other world… the world where Melody lived. Giddeon didn’t push much for fantastic voyages or alternate probability entertainment. I think he was content to explore on his own.
Sometimes, I would go an entire day or more without him stopping by.
He seemed to know when I needed my space.
God only knows where he was during those times, and, what he was doing. I think the extra ‘horsepower’ he derived from my presence kept his curiosity turbocharged, so he was getting as much out of it as he could. I often used to wonder if I ever made it back if he would still have the same abilities without me around… or, would the firewall come back into place and bring him down to Earth, literally?
I could always tell when Giddeon had been off on an adventure and was just dying to show me something new. Usually, I just ignored it. Periodically, however, I would give in and inquire.
__________
I was sitting on my couch, watching television and having some quality time with Boris. I hadn’t seen Giddeon for the better part of two days when he suddenly appeared. I turned the volume down on the small plasma screen with the remote, although I’m sure the batteries in it had been dead for six months.
“Where’ve you been?” I questioned.
“You really want to know?”
“Sure, why not?”
“Just checking… you seem to have been in a bit of a funk, lately.”
“No… I’m okay. Just tired.”
“Humph…” he grunted. “Maybe you’re not getting enough vitamin D.”
“We play golf all the time. Isn’t that the sunshine vitamin?”
“Yep… but, apparently the sun isn’t providing enough. I may have found just the thing for you, yesterday.”
“Cod liver oil?”
“That’s good, too… but, this is better. Way better. A binary star system!”
“Two suns?”
“Double your pleasure, double your sun.”
I think I remembered an old chewing gum commercial for Double-Mint that he had attempted to parody.
“Where is it?”
“Not just where, but when! It’s past the Pleiades, and it’s several thousand years in the future. And, guess what?”
“What?”
“It’s got a planet that’s inhabited… by humans! The gravity and everything else is almost the same… even the plants. I think they brought a lot of ‘em along with them.”
“Humph.”
He could hardly contain himself. “Wanna go?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “This won’t take long, will it? ‘Glee’ comes on tonight, and it’s an episode I haven’t seen. I hate to admit it, but I actually kind of like that show.”
Giddeon rolled his eyes. “Glee’ can wait. You have Tivo, you know?”
“No, I don’t.”
A box appeared, mounted next to my T.V.
“You do, now.”
I sighed and stood up. I was beginning to understand how Major Nelson felt when Jeannie did her thing. “You know, all of the futures you’ve been sampling, lately, are only possibilities. If you looked long enough, you would find a planet that had only Swedish Bikini Team members on it.”
“I think even Captain Kirk would bend the Prime Directive for that one!” Gid exclaimed.
“He always was a ladies man.”
“To go where no man has gone, before!” He imitated the narration of his favorite show.
“I thought you said people were there.”
“To go where no man from our time has gone, before!” he said, using the same intonation as earlier.
“Okay, okay. What should I wear? Is there a dress code?”
“Clothing is optional.”
“Come on…?”
“Well, it is at the beaches, anyway.”
“So we’re going to Europe?
“Funny… you ever considered stand up?”
“I don’t think you could get that many cats to sit through a show. They’re the only ones that could see me, you know.”
“Don’t forget dolphins.”
“Do they have a sense of humor?”
“Flipper laughed all of the time.”
“Then, Sea World, it is. Book me.”
“When we get back… let’s go!”
The tunnel of light flashed all around us; it seemed to stay in place for a long, long, time.
Chapter 50
Green. All around us was green. Vegetation was everywhere. Even the sky was slightly tinted a pale shade of green. The clouds, from the four I could see, were pink, and the ‘sun’ had an oblong appearance to it… the ends of that egg-like shape, as best I could tell, had somewhat different emanations of gold coming from it. It was too intense to look at, but I assumed I was seeing two stars, one partially superimposed over the other.
On closer inspection of the landscape, I could make out dome shaped dwellings and meandering walkways. The buildings and paths seemed to be alive… or, at the very least covered in some type of fine, plantlike material. Spread out before us was a village, so interconnected with the planet that it was almost indistinguishable from it.
“Welcome to Eden,” said Giddeon. “That’s what they’ve named this world, from what I can ascertain.”
I saw a man and a woman emerge from a ‘house’ and step out onto a path, holding hands. They were quite beautiful. Their skin was slightly olive, and both were wearing loose, white cotton jumpsuits and soft-looking shoes. Her hair was a brilliant blonde, and his was dark and wavy. Both appeared to be in their mid-twenties and were tall; maybe six-five, or more. I don’t know if their height was due to decreased gravity… I did feel just a bit lighter, there… or improved nutrition. I say improved nutrition because gardens were ubiquitous. Vines with fruits and vegetables, some recognizable, some not, were scattered pretty much everywhere. They were next to the houses and along the small thoroughfares… they were even on some of the rooftops.
The temperature was nice, maybe 75 or so, bu
t it was a bit bright. Sunglasses appeared over our eyes. Giddeon began walking in the same direction as the couple, so I followed. On our way, we saw others… all tall, and all of approximately the same age as the first pair. One lady had a Golden Retriever on a leash at her side. I noticed there were no children to be seen.
“Reproduction is tightly controlled,” said Giddeon. “The life expectancy is exceptionally long, here… they’re almost immortal except for accidents and the very rare, occasional suicide. Apparently, scientists discovered how to manipulate the genetic code long ago. Telomeres stay the same length, and the proofreading ability of DNA polymerase has been enhanced.”
“Telomeres?”
“The little ends on your chromosomes. We lose a bit with each cell division and finally the loss starts affecting the genetic material, itself, when they divide.”
“Oh, yeah… I think I saw that on a National Geographic special, once, about stress. What about disease?” I asked.
“Not much to speak of. When the body is in such a fine state, the immune system functions quite well. Plus, Mankind has made big strides in the field of health… they’re able to zap microbes and cancers with resonant frequencies that only destroy the problems, not host tissues.”
More people stepped from their houses. We all seemed to be heading in the same general direction.
“Do they have golf?”
“Believe it or not, they do,” said Gid. “I found a course near a major city. Still 18 holes… 10,000 plus yards. Most just use virtual reality, though.”
I whistled. “Wow, 10,000 yards… I hope the gravity is less, here.”
“Not that much less. People are just stronger.”
We continued on, and even more people joined us on the walkway.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“To eat,” said Giddeon. “It’s time for the ‘noon’ meal. This planet has a rotational cycle of 35 hours, so it gets a little complicated… Breakfast, Lunch, Supper and Twilight. That’s how it goes… so technically, this is meal number two.”
“They must not eat much… everyone’s thin,” I observed.
“Mostly fruits, vegetables and some cultured meat. They grow it in sheets in the agricultural sections.”
“Meat sheets?”