Terry Neale - Jo-el

“Why!” she said, unsure.

“Why, now? Why did the people of Cirion decide to contact us, or me, now?”

“Does it matter?” she said and snuggled up close again. Now she was biting my ear.

“What?” I exclaimed, “don’t you care?”

“Not right now, Jo-el, no.”

“She wants you Joey, do you need it to be spelled out in giant letters? Right there, on the sofa, hope it holds up, don’t know how you’d explain that to Mrs. Greelitch.”

“Leave me alone, Sally.”

“I’m going to watch, see how good you are.”

“Jesus, Sally, give me a break, please?”

“Don’t take the Lords name in vain, Joey.”

I was suddenly distracted when I felt Pippa’s hand reach inside my pants, yowser! That had the desired effect. We wrestled each other’s clothes off. At first I worried that she’d see an old man, but that didn’t happen, thank God. I kept hoping she wouldn’t realize I wasn’t as young as I looked, but things went well. In fact, it was truly magic. Best sex I’d had for years. Sorry Mary, but I’m a truthful guy. And it lasted for quite a while, well by my previous standards, a long while. I felt like forty-something again. Must be those life pills, eat your heart out, Viagra.

We fell asleep on the sofa, eventually, our arms and legs intertwined like an octopus. When I woke, I worried about Pippa getting cold. It was late, eastern time, Pippa didn’t move, so I carried her carefully into the bedroom and made her comfortable. I returned to the living room and poured another Black Label. I burned with happiness, fighting the urge to check what was happening in the world. The warmth of the scotch added to my carefree mood. Sally played music for me, softly. Michael Bublé on Pandora. I sat like that for more than an hour soaking up the glow.

“You’re a stud, Joey!

Jesus, this wasn’t a discussion I relished.

“ Not now, Sally.”

I didn’t hear anything more from her. Perhaps she was jealous, nah!

Sunday morning brought a bitter wind off the ocean. Pippa made breakfast, Grapenuts and bananas for me, egg on toast for her and egg soldiers for Billy. We didn’t speak much and avoided the events of the previous night. Billy was sat in front of the TV watching cartoons, Pippa and I around the kitchen table drinking coffee.

“He’s a great kid. Keeps himself amused.”

“Yea, I worry though. Maybe he needs a sibling.”

“You want more?”

“Sure, why not, but I’d like the whole family thing, you know?”

I was about to mention Maggie and Sean, but decided against it. I felt her eyes on me, she was studying me for something.

“You can’t talk about it, can you?”

I looked at her and wondered about where this was going? Nowhere was my conclusion, how could it? Built on a house of cards. What would I be when this whole mess was public knowledge.

“No, I’d rather keep my previous life secret,” I replied.

“You have kids?”

I nodded.

“I’m sorry.” She stood up and began clearing away the breakfast things. “What are we going to do now?”

“Check on what’s happening and take it from there.”

“You were going to tell me why, last night, before we were distracted?” She ginned.

“Do you want to know?”

She stopped what she was doing. “When I lay in bed this morning I started thinking about all the crazy things you told me and showed me last night. It’s mind boggling. I always believed there was other life in the universe, it’s too vast to imagine we are it, so to speak. And why shouldn’t they be ahead of us? That’s just fate. But hundreds of millions of years, that’s amazing. I would have expected them to have contacted us already. But then again, the technology on earth has only taken off in the last one hundred years, a miniscule amount of time in their eyes. I think it’s frightening for me to comprehend the technology that you have access to, can you imagine someone from a hundred years ago? These people from Cirion, they’re so far away, I can see why we don’t figure in their plans. You told me they haven’t invented a means of travel faster than the speed of light? I think I read that Einstein said that was impossible anyway, maybe it is. So, we’ll never meet them, why should they bother with us? I would imagine that they are just getting around to contacting us because they think we are ready.”

She waited for me to reply.

“I think you should sit down before I tell you the reason.”

Pippa’s expression sullied, slowly she took her seat at the kitchen table. She sipped her coffee and was quiet.

“Before you blurb anything more to the brown bitch, I think you better hear something, Jo-el.”

I was shocked by Sally’s tone and rhetoric.

“Is something wrong, Jo-el?” asked Pippa, she read my face, she was scared.

“What is it, Sally?”

“I was running through Pippa’s movements on Wednesday and I lost her for nearly thirty minutes. Part of those minutes’ co-inside with the time Alberton was missing.”

“Are you saying she’s working with him and this whole arrest thing is a lie?”

“Could be.”

“Could be isn’t enough, Sally, I need to know, definitely.”

“Jo-el, are you okay?”

I glanced at Pippa, I was feeling distraught, I didn’t want to believe what Sally was saying. I had feelings for her, I thought she was on my side. My throat went dry. “Give me a minute, Pippa, something’s up. I need to check it out.” I stood up and went to the living room, Billy was watching TV, he looked up at me so I went out the front door, quickly adding a coat. The wind swirled around me, blowing my coat out, I pulled it toward me and buttoned it down. In the distance I saw white-horses on the ocean.

“How long do you need, Sally?”

“Hang-on, here’s what I’ve got. Alberton wrote something on a small piece of blue paper, like a tear-off strip from a note pad. This was before he saw Pippa. It said ‘Go to the basement in ten minutes.’”

“And she went?”

“Yes.”

“So, Pippa and Alberton met in the basement and we have no idea what they talked about and then she was told to go home? Shit! How could he know I’m blind underground?”

“It’s not brain surgery, Jo-el, maybe he figured it out or maybe he’s just testing a theory. He tells Pippa something significant in the basement and wants to see if you respond.”

“These guys aren’t stupid, that’s for sure. But if he’s so smart, why doesn’t he believe me? I’m trying to help. Why were you checking Pippa?”

Sally was quiet for a moment. “Because Alberton spent most of yesterday in the basement.”

“Shit! So, they have a way of keeping secrets from me?”

“That’s the crux of it.”

I paced around the side of the cottage, out of sight, trying to figure out what to do about Pippa. “Maybe we can play their game? I need a bug that I can place on her somehow.”

Sally was quiet for a moment, “ found one, shop store in Miami, nobody there right now.”

“Okay, bounce me there.”

I was suddenly blind, my eyes fought the darkness, slowly shelves came into focus. “ Third shelf down, just to your left.” I searched the shelf and found a round, plastic device in a plastic package. “ That’s it.” I put it in my pocket.

“Back to Rodanthe.”

I was back along the side of the cottage, I stepped to the front door and pushed it open, Billy was glued to the TV, Pippa was still sitting at the kitchen table, both hands around her coffee.