The Cordovian Effect - Chpt 5

I spent the next two weeks in the guest house, trying desperately to shut out the world at large. I had no reason to enter the main house or even to go outside. After several days I tried my hand at the stone that called to me purely out of boredom.

Tentative at first, I created small chips, certain that I would ruin the piece with my clumsy efforts. Each new tap with the hammer brought new images that pushed me to make the next and the next, filling me with the confidence that I was on the right track. Everything about it filled me with a joy I could not describe. Every fiber of my body tingled with the desire to feel the weight of the hammer, hear the sound of the chisel as it moved over the surface, happy to have the chips strike me as the form hidden in the stone became more evident. Slowly it gave way to the picture in my head and it pleased me, the more I shaped the stone the happier it made me and I saw, heard or felt nothing else.

"It's beautiful," Rose said, startling me.

"I didn't hear you come in," I returned quickly, feeling a little embarrassed.

"I've been watching you, you do amazing work."

The opened door framed her perfectly as she leaned against the jamb, her thumbs stuffed through her belt loops.

I glanced at the piece and all it's flaws, all the places the chisel slipped, every mistake I made jumped out at me. Her words made me feel like she saw all the things wrong that I saw and was trying to be kind, deepening my embarrassment.

I set the tools aside, wiping my hands on my pants.

"Arlo will be very pleased."

"You think so?"

"Oh yes. He will have people lined up out the door just to see it. He will make sure of it I can promise you that."

"You like him don't you? I mean is he really your uncle?"

"Arlo? Not really but I love him, he's wonderful. There's just something about him... he can be so funny, so attentive and yes some times mysterious. I don't know how to explain it. The closes I can come is he has an old soul... like he's lived forever and this is where the universe wants him to be... you know what I mean"

"Sure... an old soul."

"You would think a man of his caliber, his intellect, his success could have any woman he wanted but he spends all his time with me and Corona. It's adorable really and he truly loves Corona and my mother."

"Your mother?"

"Well, maybe love was to strong a word where mother is concerned but he does care about her."

"I'm sure he does."

"Come on you have to give her a break. She's old world and believes in different things than you or me, you can't hold that against her. When she grew up she was still living on dirt floors with no windows and electricity was a mysterious and wondrous thing people talked about but no one had ever seen."

"I agree and I understand but that thing with the knife was just creepy."

"Just be glad she wasn't mad at you. Nobody wants that."

"Don't tell me any more, I don't want to know."

"Probably better all the way around. By the way, Arlo is going to re-open the gallery tomorrow. He asked if you would come... just for a little while. What would you like me to tell him?"

"I'll be there but lets try not to kill anyone this time."

"I'll mention it to him, but no promises," she teased, turning to leave.

As I watched her walk back to the house a movement caught my eye. Holding the drapes to one side, Xuxa was spying on us... more accurately... on me.

Her expression was hard, unforgiving, unemotional, her eyes piercing. If looks could kill then surely I would have been dead where I stood. I waved hello to her with a big smile. She in turn simply closed the curtain, disappearing from sight.

"Tough crowd," I said to Buster as if he understood me.

As far as dogs go Buster was one of the very good ones. He went where I went, always staying within arm's length. He slept on the floor at the foot of my bed. He seemed to be listening to what I had to say, turning his head right and left as I spoke, sneezing his displeasure to mirror my own.

To my surprise he would be in a sound sleep and then suddenly wake up, look around, huff a couple of times and then wonder off only to return a short time later with Corona in tow.

She was a curious child. She spoke endlessly to no one in particular as if she were utterly surrounded by adoring fans that hung on her every word. Buster did his part, following her everywhere paying close attention to her every move... especially if there were food involved.

The two of them frequently sat in the middle of the kitchen floor playing for hours dressing and undressing dolls or hide and seek in the cupboards as I worked. Sometimes Buster would lay down and she would use him for a pillow, reading to him. His endless patience was generally rewarded with peanut butter cookies or by the half of her lunch she dropped on the floor.

In many ways Buster reminded me a great deal of Tilley.

"Who's Tilley?" Corona suddenly asked.

"Pardon me?" I asked uncertain exactly what she said.

"You said Tilley... who is Tilley."

"Sweetheart, I didn't say anything at all," I stammered now confused... had I said something out loud and not realized it? How else would she know about Tilley?

"Yes you did... you just said it again... who is Tilley?" she asked standing, coming closer.

"A dog I once owned. I loved her very much," I confessed for lack of knowing what else to do.

She just stood there looking at me with those big innocent eyes, turning her head left and right as if she were listening to something I could not hear.

"Me too," she said with a shrug, returning to lay on the floor with Buster.

"Corona... did you hear everything I said or just Tilley?"

"I wasn't listening to you I was listening to Buster," she said leaning back to use him as a pillow again, crossing her legs, bouncing her foot playfully.

"Really? What did Buster have to say?"

"He said he was hungry and I said me too."

"He's always hungry... what else did he say?"

Her expression suddenly soured. She looked at me as if I were making fun of her. She didn't answer me.

"Corona, what else did Buster say?" I asked squatting to be closer to her.

"Nothing," she returned.

"Are you sure?"

She twisted the arms and legs of her doll in her hands nervously but said nothing.

"Corona?"

"Grandma is coming," she whispered.

I turned to look toward the house but saw nothing... then the faintest of sounds... the door in the main house had just opened.

Immediately, almost simultaneously, Corona and Buster got to their feet and made for the house.

"Tilley loved you too," She said stopping in the doorway, turning to me and then waved goodbye.

I didn't know what to think.

Xuxa stood midway between the buildings holding her hand out to the child, giving me the evil eye, daring to come no closer.

I was beginning to take it personally.

I spent the rest of the day as well as that night working... chipping away madly at the stone.

I tried not to think about Corona or what had happened this afternoon. It took me a while but I convinced myself I had spoken out loud with out realizing it... It had to be... I couldn't wrap my head around the alternative.

The following day Rose and I drove to Arlo's.

"Rose, let me ask you a little something," I began.

"Sure. What would you like to know?"

"Corona," I returned, unclear where to go from there.

"What about her" She asked slowing the car a little.

"Nothing really. Has she ever shown any unusual traits?"

"What is that suppose to mean?" She asked harshly and the car began to pick up speed again.

"Nothing, I swear. It's just she caught me off guard yesterday."

"And that makes you think something is wrong with her?"

"I didn't say there was anything wrong with her... I just asked if she knew things she shouldn't."

I was greeted with silence and the car began to go faster. I had struck a nerve.

"Oh that," she said after a few minutes.

"Oh that? I ask if she reads minds or sees the future or God only knows what and you say... Oh That. Really?"

Her hands twisted on the wheel, her mouth followed suit as if she were chewing a tough, sour, piece of meat.

"What did she do?" She asked at last, still twisting on the wheel.

"Nothing. I was thinking how much Buster reminded me of a dog I once owned... Tilley. She knew about the dog... knew her name without my saying so."

Again silence.

"You must have told her. Perhaps you..."

"You know I didn't."

We drove along in silence for the next ten minutes. I was stuck... I had no idea how to proceed from here but the car was going faster still.

"We in a hurry?" I asked at last, certain if I hadn't we would sprout wings and fly the remainder of the way.

"It started about eight months ago, a little before she turned seven. It doesn't happen all the time just every once in a while.. if your lost in thought or..."

"Or?"

"Sometimes when I'm very upset she knows things... things I've never shared with her or my mother. I don't know how, she just does."

I didn't know what to say.

"You have to promise not to tell anyone," She pleaded wiping the tears from her face repeatedly, refusing to look at me.

"I promise."

We rode in silence for the remainder of the trip, the car glided along as if by remote control always a moment away from becoming airborne, stopping at last in front of Arlo's.

"Ahh, all in one piece," I breathed happily after getting out of the car, patting myself down.

"Please," Rose snapped slamming the door close.

"What? You didn't feel like you just survived a life threatening event?"

"I wasn't driving that fast," she countered.

"No, but you were flying that low," I teased.

Rose shot me a dirty look and made for the door.

Once inside she simply waved hello to Arlo and went on about her business.

I had to chuckle a little to myself. If she only knew what I knew about Arlo.

Looking about I was a little disappointed this time a round. There were only about a dozen people inside and none of them seemed to have any interest in me.

"Jon," Arlo called coming in my direction with a woman in tow.

My head instantly exploded with a single tone the likes of which I had never experienced.

"Jon, I want you to meet Keri," he said reaching for her hand, kissing it.

The tone in my head was rampant, filling every fiber of me. My heart beat wildly as my brain ran at an incredible speed, flashing images over and over that made no sense to me at all. None were familiar nor could I tie them to any life experience, either in my former life or this one.

"Hi... I'm Jon Ironwood," I began, offering my hand.

She took it, moving closer, stopping the tone in my head at last... only her pleasant face filled my consciousness.

She stood no more than one or two inches shorter than myself and was thin, athletic with a beautiful shape that pulled at my desire. Her caramel skin seemed to glow, appearing smooth beyond imagining. Her long black hair hung to the middle of her back. At her temples the strands were pulled tightly only to be held together by a small, deep blue, butterfly clip at the back of her head, giving the appearance she wore a crown. She seemed to match my age and ethnicity to a tee.

"Hi," she returned with a large smile. "Keri... Keri Rhodes and I know exactly who you are."

"Really? And who am I?"

"I've known you forever. I've shown you my heart a dozen times and each time you've turned me away."

"That doesn't sound possible. I would have remembered having met you before now."

"I'm not so sure. Do you know who I was in my first life? Can you tell who I was before this?" She asked running her hands down the side of her body.

"No, I can't. You're one of us... one of the Dikika. I could feel it immediately. I could feel it like no other I've met. I would remember how that felt, how you looked. I would remember the sound of your voice, the color of your eyes, the warmth of your touch. It doesn't matter any more who you were... it only matters who you are now."

She moved away, turning her back to me.

"Are you certain? Who we were is the core of who we are now. What if you discover..."

I pulled her to me, turning her to face me and then for the life of me I have no idea why... I kissed her and to my surprise there was a snap of electricity between us.

"I wondered about it... heard about it many times... much nicer than I imagined," She said kissing me again and again a spark jumped between us.

I tried to sort it out... to make it fit in my head. My first fear was that my affliction had returned, that I was now carrying the malady that had haunted me everyday of my first life.

"Sorry," I mouthed weakly.

I was devastated. I didn't want to spend the next several hundred years trying to hide this again.

"Don't be," She said turning my face to kiss me once more, throwing her arms around my neck.

Longer, deeper, sweeter this time it felt as if there were an energy... an electricity in the floor and it now pulsed up my body, filling me, satisfying me to the fullest. I had never experienced anything like it, I felt energized, excited beyond expectation.

"Oh good, so you kids are going to hit it off after all," Arlo said wiping his hands together in the air, breaking the trance that held me.

"I think so," Keri said, running a light finger over her lips to hide her smile.

"Seconded," I added refusing to let go of her free hand.

"Good, good. I can hardly wait to see the collaboration," Arlo said tilting and jostling his shoulders in a humorous way.

"And what collaboration would that be?" I asked trying to divide my attention between them.

"Oh, you don't know. Well, them let me be the first. Come let me introduce you to the genius of Keri Rhodes," Arlo boasted, marching off to the far end of the gallery.

"Arlo, please you'll embarrass me," she said earnestly.

"Ahh, now I'm intrigued, lead on," I teased.

Still holding her hand we followed Arlo to a wall filled with black and white photos. Some were of children setting outside what I could only assume to be a rough and crudely built hut of sticks. Some were of old women with life's hardships written in the deep wrinkles that covered their faces. Some were of mud huts clearly in the middle of some God forgotten piece of the desert. Horses, chickens, broken down cars, water buckets with holes, worn out boots, broken down wooden porches... life on the razor's edge of existence.

They were stark, powerful, filled with the hopelessness that existed there.

"My God," I breathed overwhelmed by it all. "They're stunning."

"Oh yes, and sell like hot cakes," Arlo said rubbing his hands together. "If you like these wait until you see the next set."

We moved down the wall of photos to another set all in color. Ducks drifting lightly on water, children with balloons, bridge and architectural shapes filled with the nests of small birds, the up close, colorful, details of a race engine... all manner of microscopic, meticulous, uniform, unrecognizable machine like, forms that truly made this art unlike any I had seen.

"I saw these, all of them, plus some that are not here a moment before you touched me."

"Good, then its working," Arlo said, half to himself, half out loud.

"What's working?" Keri and I said at the same time.

He hesitated, straightening a little.

"Why, my introduction of course," he exclaimed, slapping us both firmly on the back.

"Arlo," I began.

"No time, no time. You kids run along and talk among yourselves. I'll catch up with you in a while. Go on, run along," he said and with that he wondered off to a small group of people admiring one of the paintings.

"Have you known Arlo long?" I asked only moderately interested in the answer, his curious comment stuck with me, prodding at me.

"We've been friends for a little over nine years," she answered turning to me. "Why?"

"Then you know who he was before? What he did?"

"Yes," she answered dully. "I know."

"Nine years is a long time. I guess it means he knows who you were as well."

"I thought you said it didn't matter who we were in our first life."

"You're right, I did. I apologize... it shouldn't matter but I was suddenly having conspiracy flash backs."

"About me?" she asked incredulously.

"No, not you. It was the way he said 'it's working.' It made me feel a little funny that's all, like he had something he was hiding."

"He has always been a little... different."

"So you worked with him?" I asked, looking for an insight of some kind.

"In a matter of speaking... I didn't work in the lab if that's what you're asking," she returned. Her voice now held a level of huff that was absent before now.

"Sorry, forget I asked," I said quickly in hopes of quelling any bad feelings I may have stirred up.

"Just ask me... stop trying to get me to tell you and just ask," she said firmly stepping closer, pushing lightly at the center of my chest to intimidate me.

I was taken aback by her actions, it stunned me. Something about it was familiar but it was clear, she held no fear of me or of any man for that matter.

"Well? I'm waiting... just ask."

"When I'm ready," I said stubbornly and walked away, pushing my way pass her.