Gateways. Part 38

"I'm sorry. I'm not thinking straight."

Jack still couldn't believe it. "I killed a man and you're okay with that?"

"With killing that that man, yes, I'm okay. I'm more than okay, I'm-" He threw his arms around Jack. "I'm proud of you." man, yes, I'm okay. I'm more than okay, I'm-" He threw his arms around Jack. "I'm proud of you."

Whoa.

Jack wasn't into hugs, but he did manage to give his dad a squeeze, all the while thinking, Proud? Proud? Proud? Christ, how could I have read him so wrong? Christ, how could I have read him so wrong?

Once again Anya's words from that first day came back to him.

Trust me, kiddo, there's more to your father than you ever dreamed.

They broke the clinch and backed off a couple of feet.

Jack said, "If I'd have known you felt that way, I might have asked you for help. I could have used some. And you would have been doing doing something instead of waiting for the police to do it for you." something instead of waiting for the police to do it for you."

Dad looked offended. "How do you know I wasn't doing something? How do you know I didn't take a rifle and sit in the bushes, watching that overpa.s.s, waiting to see if someone would try again."

Jack managed to suppress a laugh but not a smile. "Dad, you don't own a rifle. Not even a pistol."

"Maybe not now, but I could have back then."

"Yeah, right."

They stood facing each other, his father staring at him as if seeing a new person. Finally he thrust out his hand. Jack shook it.

Dad looked around and said, "I don't know about you, but I'm starving. Let's get going on these omelets."

"You start the eggs," Jack said, "and I'll finish dicing the ham."

A good night. A surprising, shocking, revelatory night. Like nothing he could have antic.i.p.ated.

He might have enjoyed it even more if he'd managed to bring Carl home. He wondered how the poor guy was doing.

12.

Carl looked up at the starry sky, at the misshapen shadows of the surround in trees, at the water in the lagoon, anywhere but at the lights. Leastways he tried not to look. But as much as he wanted to stop it, his gaze kept driftin' back to the sinkhole...and the lights.

They'd set him here on the ground, his back against one of the Indian hut support posts. They'd been ready to tie his hands behind him when they remembered that he only had one, so they lashed him to the post with coils of thick rope around his arms and body.

He'd overheard Semelee mention that Jack had found her sh.e.l.l but how's it would have to wait till tomorrow. Tonight was too important.

The air was warm and wet and thick enough to choke a frog-maybe that was why they weren't peepin'. Even the crickets had shut up. The lagoon and its surroundins was quiet as a grave.

The lights had started flas.h.i.+n' a little after dark, strange colors and mixes of colors he never seen nowheres else. That was when it really got crowded around the hole. But there'd been lots goin' on before that. Luke and Corley and Udall and Erik had been settin' up some sort of steel tripod over the mouth. It had a pulley danglin' from the top center where the three legs came together. They threaded a good, long length of half-inch rope through it, then tied that to some sorta chair.

He kept telling himself, Naw, she ain't really gonna do that. She ain't that crazy.

But come full dark, when the crazy flas.h.i.+n' colors was lightin' up the trees and the water, sure enough, Semelee put herself into the chair. She was danglin' over the hole, with the lights reflectin' even stranger colors off that silver hair of hers, and then Luke and a couple other guys Carl couldn't recognize cause their pan-o-ramic backs was to him started lowerin' her down into the hole.

After she disappeared he could hear her voice echoin' up from below.

"What're you stoppin' for? Keep me goin'!"

Luke called out, "You're deeper'n you should be already. How much to go till you hit the water?"

"Can't see no water. Looks like it all dried up."

"Then where's the bottom?"

"Can't see no bottom, just the lights."

"That's it," Luke said. "I'm haulin' you up now."

"Luke, you do that and I ain't never gonna speak to you again! You hear that? Never! It's like nothin' I could ever dream down here. The lights...so bright...all around me...feels like they're goin' through through me. This is so cool. You keep on lettin' out that rope. I want to see where they come from." me. This is so cool. You keep on lettin' out that rope. I want to see where they come from."

Carl wasn't sure of a whole lotta things in life, but he was d.a.m.n sure that was a real bad idea. He was glad he was back here, away from the lights. He would've liked to be even farther, like in his trailer watchin' TV. He was missin' all his Friday night shows. But he couldn't worry about that now. He had to get outta here.

He'd been us in his hand, workin' at the knot behind his back, but this was one good knot. When you lived out here in the wilds, specially on the water, you learned how to tie a good knot. But that didn't keep him from tryin' to loosen it up.

"Keep a-goin'!" he heard Semelee call up from the hole, her voice faint and all echoey like.

Luke shouted, "We're almost outta rope!"

"Take me down to the end! As much as you got!"

Good, Carl thought. They's all concentrated on her.

If he could just get this knot loose, he could sneak down to the water and steal a canoe and slip away real quiet like. He could be long gone before anyone noticed. Then he'd- He jumped at the sound of a scream, a long tortured sound like someone havin' their skin tore off-not just a piece, but the whole thing.

Everbody around the hole started shoutin' and callin' and movin' this way and that. Four-five guys was haulin' on that rope as fast as they could. Finally they got to the end. Carl caught a peek between the shufflin' bodies and saw Semelee still in the chair. But she was all slumped over like a piece of fish bait and not movin' a muscle.

She looked dead.

Sat.u.r.day

1.

Semelee heard herself scream and woke up all sweaty and thras.h.i.+n'.

Where am I?

"Semelee! Semelee, are you okay?"

Luke's voice...and then his face appeared, hovering over her.

She sat up, recognized her corner of the Bull-s.h.i.+p Bull-s.h.i.+p, then flopped back.

"Here," Luke told her. "Drink this."

He tipped a bottle over her mouth and she gulped. Water. Lord, that tasted good.

She looked around again. "How'd I get here? I don't remember going to bed. I-"

"You was down in the lights," he said.

The lights! Of course.

She remembered now. She'd been down in the hole, baskin' in them strange weird lights like a sun wors.h.i.+pper. But she hadn't felt strange. She'd felt welcome, more welcome than she'd ever felt in her own home. She remembered wantin' to tear off her clothes so the rays could go straight to her skin. But she didn't get the chance...

Because that was when the voices began.

Whispers at first, so soft she could barely make them out. Not sounds, really. More like voices in her head, like she was a mental case or somethin'. She wasn't even sure they was talkin' to her. Maybe they was jawin' at each other and their words was pa.s.sin' through her head, but she had a feelin' they was talkin' to her. She wanted wanted them to be talkin' to her. them to be talkin' to her.

"What happened to you down there?" Luke said. "You screamed like I ain't never heard n.o.body scream, and when we pulled you up you was out cold. I thought you was a goner."

Out cold...she jammed her hands against her temples. d.a.m.n, she wished she could remember what had happened, and remember more of what them voices had said. She did know she kept hearin' about 'the One.' All sorts of yammerin' about the One, repeatin' it over and over again. The One what?

Suddenly she realized they was talkin' about a person. The One was preparing the way, everything depended on the One because the One was special.

Wait, she thought, stiffening as a thrill ran through her. I'm I'm special. I got a power like no one else. And then there's my name... special. I got a power like no one else. And then there's my name...

She levered up to a sittin' position and crossed her legs, Indian style. "Yes!"

"What is it?"

"Luke, do you know what my name means?"

"Y'mean Semelee? It means...it means 'Semelee.' Just like Luke means 'Luke.'"

"All names mean somethin'. I ain't got no idea what Luke means, but my momma told me that Semelee means 'one and only.' She said she named me that because I was her first and I was a real hard birth, and she wasn't goin' through that again. She said I was her first and last kid, her one and only."

Luke frowned. "Okay. So?"

"I heard voices down in that hole and they was talkin' about 'the One.' That has to be me. They was talking about me me." She closed her eyes. Excitement flashed like lectric shocks through her body. "And they kept on sayin' somethin' else too."

What was it? It was right there, just out of reach...started with an R R...but what was the rest?

And then she had it! The name popped into her head like she'd known it all along.

A strange name. She'd never heard nothin' like it before. But then she'd never heard nothin' like those voices before neither. Was that strange word their name for her, their name for the One? Had to be.

But who were the voices and what did they mean about "preparing the way"? What was the "everything" that depended on her, the One?

She had to find out. Maybe she'd learn tonight. But she had to do a couple of things before then. One of them was gettin' her other eye-sh.e.l.l back. But first...

"I'm changin' my name, Luke."

He laughed. "That's crazy! You can't just change your name anytime you feel like it."

"No. I got to. That's why I was called back here. I thought the lagoon was talking to me when it said it wanted sacrifices, but it wasn't. It was the lights-or at least the things that live in the lights."

"Lay back down, Semelee. You're talkin' outta your head."

"No." She pushed him away. "Don't you see? It was all to bring me here, to this place, at this time-to teach me my True Name. And now that I know it, I'm gonna use it." She rose to her feet and looked out at the lights still flickering up from the hole into the early morning darkness. "Big changes comin', Luke, and I'm gonna be part of them, I'm gonna be right at their heart. And if you and the rest of the clan stick by me, we'll have our day. Oh, yes, Luke, we'll have our day."

"Semelee-"

"Told you: I ain't Semelee no more. From this moment on you call me-"

The name died on her lips. She realized that she mustn't tell no one her True Name. It was only for her and those closest to her. Luke was close, but not close enough. The man called Jack, the special one...she could tell him maybe, but not right away. He'd have to prove himself worthy first.

"Call you what?" Luke said.

"Semelee."

Luke stared at her. "Wasn't you just tellin' me-?"

"Changed my mind. I'm goin' to change my name inside, but outside you can keep callin' me Semelee." She rubbed her stomach. "We got anything to eat round here?"

Luke straightened. "I'll go check by the fire."

As soon as he was gone, Semelee stepped out onto the deck and looked up at the stars wheelin' above her.

"Rasalom," she whispered, lovin' the way it rolled off her tongue. That was her new name. "Rasalom."