Chapter Seven
They scouted around the outer perimeter of the ground floor of main building once more, but from the outside all the shades were drawn and the patio doors closed and locked. There was no way into any of the rooms, and no way even to see inside them. Gowdy was thinking about finding a rock and hurling it through the glass but was all of a sudden knocked off his feet and bumped his head against the window instead.
"Woah," Squee was shrieking, "did you see that?"
"I don't know," Soma chattered, "I don't know what I saw. Something flying all right, went right passed us. Wait, there they are," and she pointed up to the top of the building. Gowdy, rubbing his head, looked up and caught a glimpse of what had to be people, but couldn't be. They reminded him of the mer-people in their skinny blondness but the extra folds of skin they had appeared to be on their arms and shoulders, not on their chests. Six, no seven of them, but as he finished counting they all together leaped off the roof and cycling in the air, turned about and disappeared over the building.
"I want to go up there," Squee declared, heading for the stairwell. Soma followed before Gowdy could get a word in. He was too tired, and only wanted to get into one of those suites and lie down on what he knew had to be the most comfortable bed he would have slept on in ages. Sighing, he returned to the lobby and down the first hall they'd taken, planning on trying all the doors again, and maybe smashing one of the handles if he could. He'd barely reached the first room when a loud clicking noise reverberated all up and down the hall, and every single door swung open at the same instant. From each door, a single person emerged. There were both men and women, and like the creatures from the sea, they were all golden-skinned, blond and slender. They were all nude except for colorful boxer-type shorts, and proceeded to glide past him without a word as he stood back to let them pass.
He could distinguish the genders from the slight variations in shape, the females' hips and small breasts, the males' narrow waists and greater height. The men were all between six foot and six two or three. Gowdy was himself a bit over six feet but weighed at least fifty pounds more than these skeletal figures. They did sport different hair styles, practically their only distinguishing characteristic among them, for they all had the same shade of sky blue eyes, and appeared to be at least siblings, if not in fact actual clones of one another. None seemed to notice his existence, and after the last one - there had been at least twenty - had gone by him, he followed to see where they would go. He was not surprised when he saw them enter the patio dining area and seat themselves, four to a table, and sit quietly, glancing occasionally at one another, but not speaking until everyone had settled down.
That was when another figure entered the room from the opposite direction. This young man had curly and short auburn hair, his skin was more orange and his eyes somewhat brownish-green. He was wearing a light white suit and open-toed brown sandals. He stood in the center of the dining area and seemed to be counting the guests with his eyes. He was about to speak, but then he noticed Gowdy, standing at the edge of the patio, and raised his hand, motioning for Gowdy to enter and pointed at an empty table. Gowdy approached it, and at a further gesture, sat himself down. The man, who could either be host or servant, seemed satisfied and removed a small golden bell from his pants pocket. He gave it a little shake, at which a single pure high tone sounded, like a tuning fork. At that signal, the guests brought their right hands up and, using the middle finger, each tapped three times in rapid succession upon the table in front of them. Instantly, plates appeared, full of food, and utensils, napkins and liquid-filled glasses also popped out of nowhere, and everyone began to eat.
Gowdy's place alone remained foodless. The host - or servant - noticed this, and walked briskly over to him.
"You are not hungry, sir?" He asked politely.
"Oh, I'm hungry," Gowdy replied.
"Then tap," the man said. Gowdy hesitated and the man repeated his command.
"Tap," he encouraged. As Gowdy still did not move, the man leaned over and tapped on Gowdy's table for him. As with the others, food appeared.
"I did not know what you desired," the man apologized, "so I only ordered what I myself might like at this time." Gowdy blinked and stared at the meal, which consisted of grilled prawns and green beans, an avocado salad, fresh bread, and sparkling lemonade.
"It looks, it looks great," he sputtered, feeling a little embarrassed.
"Please, enjoy," said the man, who turned and walked away, leaving the room towards what Gowdy presumed must be the kitchen. Everyone else was eating, each with a different customized meal it seemed, and he was truly hungry, so he began to eat. The food was astonishingly delicious. It made him forget all about Squee and Soma and everything he'd been intending to do. He felt strangely light-headed as well, almost giddy. He ate slowly, determined to finish off every last crumb, and didn't notice how the others were rushing through their dinner, and had all departed soundlessly. When he finally did look up from his plate, he saw that all the tables were cleared and once again spotless and neat. Gowdy stood up, but almost immediately toppled to the floor as if his feet refused to hold him up. He tried to get up, but found he lacked the strength, and only managed to crawl a few feet before giving up and lying down on the stone floor, exhausted. He lay there for some time, panting and feeling feverish. He imagined he had fallen asleep and was dreaming that someone was shaking him, and it took him a few minutes to realize that someone really was.
It was one of the blond men, a youth with impossibly tangled curls and very large teeth, or so it seemed to Gowdy. The teeth made quite an impression on him.
"Yo, dude," the man was saying, "you all right, man? You don't look so hot right now."
"What?" Gowdy was certain he was either dreaming of hallucinating. The kid spoke just like one of Gowdy's sons had so very long ago.
"Must have been the lemonade," the guy was saying, "Hector likes that stuff but no one else can really handle it. He sure did you one. Yeah, he sure did."
"Lemonade?" Gowdy murmured, while the man bent down and pulled Gowdy up to a sitting position, before sitting down beside him.
"You're like new here, right?" he said, "I can always tell when there's a new guy. Not like there ever is a new guy, but if there ever was, I'd be pretty sure that I could tell. For one thing, you're like really old. Or maybe it's just the lemonade gave you all those gray hairs? Could be, man, I wouldn't put it past it. That stuff's like literally retarded."
"No," Gowdy nearly growled, coming slowly back to his senses. "It wasn't the lemonade. Yes, I am, like you say, really old. And I do mean really, really old."
"I believe you, man," the young man laughed, "like, wow, like, I don't know. Like, woah." And he sat back, at a complete loss of words.
"Where are we?" Gowdy asked.
"Nomador," the young man replied at once, with a tone of surprise that anyone would even ask such a question.
"What country?" Gowdy asked, and before the man could answer, he added, "also what year is it?"
"Country? Year?" The young man shrugged as if those terms were utterly foreign to him.
"What's your name, then?" Gowdy asked, determined to learn at least something.
"Oh, you can call me Kai," the man said. "Everybody calls me Kai."
"All right," Gowdy said, and struggled to his feet. He stood a bit wobbly, but stood nevertheless. Kai also got up and held out his hand in an offer to help steady the old man, but Gowdy waved him off.
"What can you tell me about this place?" Gowdy asked. "We've come a long way and we don't know where we are."
Kai looked around to see if anyone else was there.
"We?" he asked.
"My friends," Gowdy said, "they went upstairs. To see about those, the flying people."
"Flying people?" Kai seemed confused.
"Yes," Gowdy said, "we saw, or we thought we saw, some people up there, it looked like they were flying."
"On the roof?" Kai said. "How
can you fly on a roof? You'd have to fly in the, oh," he interrupted himself, "you mean the flock."
"The flock?"
"Yeah, yeah, the flock. Sometimes they perch up there on the ledge for a minute. But they don't fly on the roof, man, they fly in the air."
"Right," Gowdy shook his head. "What else do they do?"
"The flock? They don't 'do' anything. They just flock around." Kai giggled at his joke and Gowdy waited patiently.
"What else can you tell me?"
"I don't know," said Kai. "Where did you come from? You said you came a long way. Where from?"
"We came up the beach," he started to explain, but Kai interrupted and said,
"Well, duh. You couldn't have come from anywhere else."
"What about inland?" Gowdy asked.
"What's that?"
"Behind the beach, towards the mountains."
"Mountains?"
"Yes, look, I'll show you," Gowdy said, and started walking away, intending to show Kai the view from in front of the lobby. He'd only gone a few steps when he turned back and to his utter surprise, saw that Kai was gone, without a trace. Gowdy could not be sure if he'd simply imagined the entire episode and was still standing there, puzzled, when Soma appeared by his side and said,
"We found a way into a room, but Squee won't go in. He wants to sleep on the roof. Says he's happier up and out in the open."
"I'm sure he is," Gowdy nodded, as he followed Soma towards the stairs.