Venus Has No Moon - Deus Ex Machina

Deus Ex Machina in fiction, is when some act of God, some random element that is not under the control of any character, comes along and saves the day. It is usually a very aggravating element to see in fiction. In this case, my use of the Deus Ex Mac

 

Deus Ex Machina

 

                Diane tried very hard to ignore Aunt Rose. It wasn’t that she was annoying. She wasn’t. Diane liked Rose. Rose always tried to learn and understand things that her nieces and nephews were involved in. She knew a little bit about astronomy, enough to keep Diane from getting board at family gatherings.

                “You don’t need to be here,” Rose said.

                It was that Rose was saying things that Diane didn’t really want to listen to. If she was stubborn enough, maybe she would think she was crazy enough as well.

                “I’m not leaving,” Diane said. “That’s the end of it.”

                Rose sat back and put her two index fingers together under her chin. Diane wondered what she was thinking. Was she trying to organize some convincing argument? What strategy did she have waiting in the wings?

                “Why are you so insistent? Your doctor says you’re doing great now. Your medication has you stable. You haven’t had any fits, any relapses.”

                “Because I’m in here,” Diane brought her hand down on the arm of her chair to emphasize her point.

                Rose leaned forward.

                “I thought that Professor Eshel would be able to reach you, convince you to come back out. You have classes to teach. You have work to do.”

                Diane nodded.

                “There are other grad students dying to teach. And as for my studies, amazingly any changes that happen in the nearest star won’t be seen here for thousands of years. I think that my studies will wait a little longer.”

                “This is Egypt, right? Something happened there you haven’t told us. You’ve been distant ever since you got back.”

                Diane shook her head.

                “Egypt was weird, yes. And I can’t talk about what we did there, not yet anyway. But that’s not it. I mean, it’s part of the eternal weirdness that the world is trying really hard to become, but Egypt is all the way, well, in Egypt. If I need to, I can just remind myself that it’s across an ocean.”

                “Then what is it damn it?”

                Diane blinked. Rose didn’t curse often.

                “The weirdness didn’t just stay in Egypt. It isn’t just there. It’s everywhere, all over the place. It’s hidden and no one can see it, not until it is too late.”

                “Too late for what?”

                “I don’t know.”

                Diane relaxed her arms. She had begun gripping the chair.

                “I don’t know. And I should know. I can feel it. Like taking a test that you know the answers to, but you’ve been up too late studying and all the answers are muddled in your head. It’s there. Everything behind the weirdness ever since-”

                “Egypt?”

                “Venus.”

                Rose blinked her eyes and shook her head.

                “I don’t follow.”

                “It all started with Venus, with the moon that appeared. And the riots after. The world’s been a little strange and unreal since then. No, not unreal. Too real. Like a secret has been told that wasn’t supposed to be told. Now the world has to deal with that fact, and I don’t think that it’s dealing with its secret getting spilled too well.”

                Rose nodded now.

                “I guess things did get a little weird around then. But I don’t think hiding here is going to do much for you. It’s still the same world, you just have sterile white walls to keep it at bay for a little while. But the world catches up to you, you know.”

                “Did you know that there is a cult surrounding Venus’ moon now? They’re talking about how Venus is really Eden and that the moon appearing is a sign that the flaming sword is no longer guarding the gate. They’re talking about taking people there. To Venus! Do you know what Venus is like?”

                “I hear it’s a dry heat.”

                “Ha ha.”

                “That’s the Reverend Billy Watson’s movement, right? It’s been getting a lot of press, but what are they really going to do? You don’t just build a space ship and go up. There are licenses, procedures.”

                “They could drink poison. I hear that’s a cult favorite.”

                Rose sighed.

                “I don’t think you have to worry about Reverend Watson’s preaching.”

                “It’s a symptom.”

                “And where do people go to treat symptoms?”

                Diane knew where this was going.

                “Hospitals,” Rose said. “Which is why you should leave here. You’re not escaping anything. You’re just locking yourself in with the kooky.”

                “It isn’t like I don’t belong.”

                “You don’t! You’re medicated. You stay on your medication and it works. Generally. And you haven’t really given me a good reason why you should stay here. So unless you want me to have the orderlies put you over their shoulders and carry you out, you’d better come up with something and fast.”

                “You know forcing a crazy person out into the world only adds to their psychosis.”

                “What happened to you?!” Rose screamed. The few cognizant turned to look at the two of them. After a moment, they returned to their activities. The nurses were not so quick to turn away, but Diane waved them on.

                “I don’t know,” Diane said. “I mean, I don’t know if it was real. I don’t even know how to describe it or where to begin.”

                Rose sat back again and gestured “go on” with one hand.

                “Do you remember the Talking Rock I told you about? The one no one can ever find?”

                She nodded.

                “Do you know that we still only live about five miles from it? We moved, but we live five miles away from a landmark that no one ever seems to be able to find. They can tell you how to get to it, but I think I’m the only person who’s ever gone there.”

                Rose wasn’t following again. Diane could tell.

                “I’ve gone there every night since I was a child. No one else ever goes. No one goes to make out. No one goes to explore it. I hear people in the distance sometimes, out in the woods. But no one ever comes there. Do you know why?”

                “No,” Rose said. “Do you?”

                Diane’s head felt suddenly cold, and the sensation drove down through her shoulders, arms, chest and back.

                “Yes, I do.”

                She saw in her mind a bag of bones, barely held together by something that might have been flesh, once upon a time.

                Diane was brought back to the moment not by Rose, but by the feeling like the world had just been rended. She closed her eyes and fought the urge to puke. It felt like the world was moving up and down on constant ocean waves.

                “Are you okay?” Rose sounded far away.

                “Does the world feel like it’s splitting in half to you?”

                “No.”

                Diane opened her eyes and looked around. She didn’t want to, but she really felt that it was important.

                She watched a procession of short stubbly creatures that looked like their skin had been turned inside out and their bones broken and reset several times. They had a number of unnatural joints with which they moved. They didn’t seem to note her more than anyone else in the room. They lined up along the wall of the door they entered like guard.

                Then he entered the room. Diane recognized him immediately. Reverend Billy Watson. Just what he was doing here, she wasn’t sure. It wasn’t typical for the doctors to allow outside religious influence. The hospital had its own chaplin to see to anyones spiritual needs. She liked even less what she saw around him. A darkness, a darkness that had eyes.

                They seemed familiar, like something from her childhood. Diane felt she didn’t want them to see her. Especially not her.

                “I think I’m ready to leave now,” she looked at Rose and stood. “Right now.”

                Rose looked back at the Reverend who had just entered. He seemed happy and a few of the patients were already responding to his presence. She turned and followed Diane, who was already walking through an opposite door.

                If it took an act of God, or some facsimilie thereof, to get Diane to leave here, then so be it.