Timeless gods the tenth.., p.6
Timeless Gods: The Tenth Jonathan Shade Novel, page 6
I caught the ball.
“Simple magic,” I said.
None of the players paid us any attention, and they hadn’t seen the ball fly.
“Bounce the ball,” Dr. Ancho said.
I bounced it, liking the high pitched noise it made when it struck the boards. I caught the ball again and started dribbling.
Dr. Ancho stepped onto the court and held up his hands to me.
I bounced the basketball to him. He caught it, dribbled for a moment and tossed it to Esther. The ball passed through her and hit the floor, bounced a few times then rolled against the wall.
“You were supposed to catch it,” he said.
Esther shrugged. “I’ve never touched a basketball.”
“First time for everything,” I said. I started to walk toward the ball.
“I’ve got it,” Esther said and popped over to it. She solidified, lifted the ball then popped back to the court. The ball dropped to the floor by the wall where she’d been. “Aw, horsefeathers,” she said and popped back to it. This time, she carried it back to the court.
“Keep practicing, Esther,” Dr. Ancho said. “To grab something physical and take it with you is possible, though difficult because it takes a great force of will. It’s easier if you have something of similar mass already in your hands when you go. Then you trade it for what you want to take with you.”
She shook her head and tossed the basketball to me. I dribbled a few times, ready to pass to Dr. Ancho, but he dug in his pocket and took out a handful of change. He motioned for Esther to go over to him.
“Take a quarter,” he said.
She picked a shiny quarter from his palm.
“Hold it tightly.” He walked ten feet away and placed a penny on the ground. “All right. Pop over here with the quarter, trade it for the penny and pop back to where you are now.”
“All right,” she said and popped over to the penny.
The quarter dropped to the floor where she’d been. She ignored it, lifted the penny and popped back, but the penny dropped to the ground by Dr. Ancho.
“Aw, applesauce,” Esther said.
“You have to really want to carry it with you and to take the other item back.”
“Shouldn’t she try to trade a penny for a penny?” I asked.
“The mass doesn’t have to be equal. It can be close and the universe will allow it.”
“I don’t think I can do that,” Esther said.
“You jumped over here and brought your clothing with you,” he said. “If you couldn’t make the jump with anything, you’d arrive naked.”
“The clothes are part of me. I’ve worn them forever.”
“They go because you see them going with you.”
“Stop beating your gums about me. Jonathan needs your help, not me.”
“You keep working, Esther,” Dr. Ancho said. He turned toward me. “I’m open.”
I passed him the ball. He caught it, turned and launched it toward the basket. The ball hit the rim and bounced off. I ran over and caught the ball, did a hook shot toward the basket. The ball hit the backboard and bounced away. I caught the ball and tried a layup. The ball rolled around the rim then fell the wrong way.
“You used magic to stop that from going in,” I said.
He grinned, feigning innocence and put a foot out to stop the ball from rolling past him. “Why would I do such a thing?” He lifted the ball and tossed it into the basket. He winked at me. “Someone has to score some points.”
I retrieved the ball. “Nice shot.”
“And no magic.”
“Magic retired.”
Dr. Ancho laughed, knowing exactly what I meant. “He came back for a season. Why do you think he did that?”
“He wanted to play.”
“You can retire, Jonathan.”
“And do what?”
“Anything you want.”
I dribbled the ball. “That’s not true.”
“Why? What do you want?”
I considered that for a moment. “I want to make things right,” I said, and passed him the ball.
“What makes you think things aren’t right?”
“No offense, Dr. Ancho, but I don’t buy into a grand plan for the universe designed by some imaginary friend for adults.”
He laughed. “That’s a good one. I’ll have to write that down.” He set the ball on the floor and dug a small memo pad out of his pocket. From another pocket, he produced a pen. As he wrote on the first page, he spoke the words aloud. “Imaginary friend for adults.” He put the pad and pen away. “I like that. It’s right up there with ‘invisible man in the sky.’”
“George Carlin,” I said.
He nodded. “All jokes aside, if you don’t buy into a grand plan for the universe, what do you have to make right?”
“Sorry?”
“It’s a simple question. If there’s no plan, there’s nothing to set right. It’s not like life is a game of basketball and we have to keep score on an intergalactic scoreboard.”
“The Men of Anubis have a plan.”
“Most of the people on this planet have a plan too. They plan to lose weight. They plan to write a book. They plan to ask that lovely young woman on a date. They plan to save some money. They plan to get a new job. They plan to watch their favorite TV show on Friday night.”
“The Men of Anubis have killed thousands of people. Maybe millions.”
“People die every single day, Jonathan. Some die from a heart attack. Some die from cancer. Some die in a robbery, a car accident, some in war, some in childbirth, some jump off a bridge, some are shot, stabbed, strangled, you name it. We’re right back to the fact that everybody dies.”
“I can’t do anything about them,” I said. “But maybe I can do something about the Men of Anubis.”
He nodded and tossed the basketball to me. “Take a shot,” he said.
I shook my head.
“Take a shot,” he said again, raising his voice slightly.
“Fine,” I said and turned to throw the ball toward the basket.
“Not from there,” he said. “Move to the free throw line.”
I walked over and put my foot behind the line.
“Esther, stand along the key.”
“The key?” she asked.
“The line right there,” he said, pointing.
She stood where he said. He moved to the opposite key as though he and Esther were going to rebound my free throws should I miss.
“The game is on the line,” Dr. Ancho said. “Tie score. We’re down to the final seconds. A basket will win the game. You were fouled and you have two free throws. Make one and you win the game.”
I took my shot.
Dr. Ancho motioned with one finger and the ball bounced off the rim and came back at me. I caught it, bounced it a few times as I repositioned myself at the line.
“Last chance. A basket wins the game.”
“No magic,” I said.
“I won’t need magic,” he said. “You won’t make the shot.”
I sent the ball up in a lazy arc. It hit the backboard, bounced on the rim and deflected off to the side.
“Did my imaginary friend make you miss?” Dr. Ancho asked.
“You put doubt into my head saying I wouldn’t make the shot.”
“I can’t work direct magic against you, Jonathan. The doubt was already there. You worry that you’re not good enough. That somehow what the Men of Anubis do has some reflection on you.”
“Thousands of people died because of me,” I said.
“Did you kill them?”
“I couldn’t save them.”
“Welcome to the real world when sometimes bad things happen and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
“They have to be stopped.”
“And you think you can stop them?”
“I have to try.”
“Why? Because they killed thousands of people?”
“Those people would not have died if not for me.”
He sighed and made a motion with one hand to send the basketball back to the other side of the court where it belonged. Then he walked past me and said, “You’re not fighting for thousands of people.”
“What do you mean?”
“You tell me,” he said and kept walking. “But I have to get to class now.”
I raced to catch up to him. “You think you know me?”
He grinned. “I know I do.”
“Well, evidently, I don’t know myself. Care to throw some light on the subject?”
“Oh, now you want a spotlight?”
He moved to open the door, but I blocked his path. Esther kept her distance.
“No,” I said. “I want to make amends.”
“For?”
“The people who’ve died because of me.”
“All those thousands of people in New York back in 1927? You didn’t know them, and you’re not the one who killed them. They’ve been gone for almost ninety years.”
“For Henry Winslow,” I said. “I failed him. For Brenda Slaughter, who would still be alive if not for my actions. For Naomi Miller. For Brand Easton. For Esther, who wouldn’t have killed herself and come back as a ghost.”
“That was a different you,” Esther said. I hadn’t realized she’d come over to us. “And that was my choice.”
“And for Kelly. My Kelly.”
I still had dreams of watching her get cut apart by cleavers. Her memory haunted me, and I’d been pushing it away so hard there were nights I couldn’t sleep at all.
“So you want revenge.”
“No,” I said. “I want to do something right for a change.”
“The Men of Anubis can kill you with a touch.”
“I’m not afraid to die.”
“But you can’t bring any of those people back.”
“Some of us aren’t even gone,” Esther said. “I’ve been carrying a torch for you for as long as I’ve known you. I can be physical now, and you don’t even seem to notice the bank is open.”
“I’ve noticed,” I said. “I just feel we have to deal with the problem at hand first.” I knew it was a lame comment, and Esther shook her head then stared at the ceiling.
“It’s not your problem,” Dr. Ancho said.
“The Men of Anubis are looking for me.”
“But they can’t find you. Let them look.”
“They need to be dispatched,” I said. “It’s not right for them to go backward and forward in time killing people, changing things. And they will find me.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Because good things always die and the bad things always flourish. I can make a difference, or at least die trying.”
“And take how many more with you?”
I gave a light humorless laugh. “You don’t get it, Dr. Ancho,” I said. “Everyone I’ve ever truly loved is already dead. The least I can do is try to fight the things that killed them. You know that old military sentiment of ‘All gave some, and some gave all?’”
Dr. Ancho nodded.
“My friends gave all. Esther here gave all. Even Brand, who in his own misguided way was probably trying to do the right thing, gave all. And Kelly.”
And that was the crux of the issue right there, though I didn’t say it. Dr. Ancho knew. I could see it in his eyes. Somehow, he was able to read me and know just what was in my heart. Things I didn’t want to say to anyone. Like the fact that every time I saw Kelly, I longed for a way to trade her for the Kelly I’d lost. The Kelly I loved, and who loved me back.
“That doesn’t mean you have to give all,” Dr. Ancho said.
“I don’t care if I live or die,” I said. “I just want to take the Men of Anubis with me if I go. And quite frankly, hiding from the sons of bitches doesn’t appeal to me at all. That means they win. That means Kelly died for nothing.”
“Kelly died facing Henry Winslow,” Esther said.
“And if not for the Men of Anubis and their actions, we never would have been tossed back in time.”
“But Sharon and Chronos sent us back.”
I closed my eyes and thought about it. These were the same Men of Anubis I’d met in ancient Egypt. They got the Emerald Tablets of Thoth when Henry disappeared and shot forward in time. But Henry would not have been anywhere near Tutankhamun’s funeral if not for me.
“I need to sit down,” I said. I leaned against the wall and slid to a seated position.
The Men of Anubis had killed untold numbers of people. They had altered time in ways I couldn’t imagine. The ramifications of their actions changed history, and they couldn’t have done any of it if not for me. So all those deaths were on my hands.
Kelly’s blood was on my hands.
“All of it is my fault,” I said. “If I’d killed Winslow when I first met him, the world would be a much different place.”
“You don’t know that from nothing,” Esther said. “Maybe you’re just the fall guy here.”
“I don’t look anything like Lee Majors,” I said, trying to lighten the mood. It didn’t work.
“You know what I mean. I wasn’t with you in Egypt, but I think you’ve been framed. You were on the up and up in San Francisco. You’ve saved lives the whole time I’ve known you.”
“And I’m the reason you killed yourself.”
“Different you, but the you that you became is so much better than the one I knew. That rhymes.” Esther tried to cheer me up by dancing and going into a little sing-song. “The you I knew, you knew him too, and you know it’s true, you’re better than you know who.”
“To keep the rhyme going,” Dr. Ancho said, “it’s time for you to buy a clue.”
“Stop,” I said.
“I’ll spell it out for you. The Men of Anubis couldn’t send you back to create them. They’re a byproduct of something else.”
“They’re one hell of a byproduct.”
“When time is altered, there are always problems. I’m going to be late for my class, but the students won’t mind. What are you hoping to accomplish?”
“I want to put an end to the Men of Anubis. They’re my fault, so they’re my responsibility.”
“And if you die facing them?”
“At least I will have tried to make things right.”
“Will you stick around in spirit to keep fighting?”
“I sure hope not.” I looked at Esther. “No offense, Esther, but I can’t imagine what you’ve been dealing with for all these years.”
“You don’t want to,” she said.
“That’s not true,” I said.
“Yes it is. To you I’m just a dead girl. I get it. To me, you’re my chance at life. And I don’t think it’s ever going to happen. Not ever.”
“Can we deal with this later, Esther?”
“Always later,” she said and turned away.
“You were saying, Dr. Ancho?”
He hesitated, and for a moment I thought he’d judged me and found me wanting, but he soldiered on and looked up at me. “If you’re simply severely injured, will you try to find a way to reset time?” Dr. Ancho asked.
“How would I do that?”
“If you don’t know, I’m certainly not going to tell you.”
“By taking the watch from Chronos?”
“Trust me. You don’t want that job.”
“Truth be told, I’ve had more than enough time travel nonsense. It’s one of those things that sounds like fun, but turns into a total nightmare.”
“No one ever stops to consider the ramifications. Just keep your eyes open for the real villain of the piece.”
“I will,” I said, thinking I knew what he meant. “Will you help us?”
He took a deep breath and considered it. “That depends on what you expect me to do. I won’t fight with you or for you or even against you.”
“I need to know what I’m up against, and I need some help getting my recruits together. I also need to find a good place to face the Men of Anubis. I promised Chronos not to face them in Denver, but I have to go there to get a few helpers.”
He stared at me for a moment and I saw disappointment in his eyes. “I can open a doorway to Denver for you, but I won’t be able to keep it open, so you’ll need to find your own way back.”
He gave me a nod then reached up and pulled down the air, opening a rift. A gust of cool wind rippled through my shirt.
“Go. I have a class to teach.”
“Thank you,” I said.
He gave me a strange look. “Not sure you should be thanking me, but it’s your life. Now go. I’m late.”
Esther and I ducked through the rift and stepped from the floor of the Maybee Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma to an alley off East Colfax in Denver, Colorado.
CHAPTER NINE
The temperature hovered in the high forties, but the wind made it feel colder. Esther couldn’t feel the difference, but I found myself wishing I had a jacket.
“Dr. Ancho is good,” I said as we exited the alley to the sidewalk on East Colfax. We’d stepped through right around the corner from a small parking lot with a strip mall of shops, one of which had a door that read, Colfax Self Defense. Someone had stuck a piece of white tape on the door between the Self and Defense to act as an impromptu hyphen, but that wasn’t clear until we got closer.
I hadn’t seen that door in a lifetime, and I’d never seen the grammar Nazi correction before. My last memory of this place was from when a sorcerer named Blake Ravenwood blasted the entire city block out of existence, leaving a smoking hole in the wake of whatever magic he’d used. I got even with the son of a bitch and left him in the Underworld after kicking his ass. Naomi Miller, whose body he’d been using at the time, died to get him there, and I’ve never really forgiven myself for her death.
Life has a way of tormenting me because I’d seen her die twice. As I reached for the door to the dojo, I thought about Kelly. I’d seen her die twice, too.
“What are you waiting for?” Esther asked.
“This Kelly won’t know you.”
“I’ll stay invisible until you introduce me, and I won’t beat my gums.”
“That’ll be a first,” I said.
