14

The next morning Marith was driving unimpeded between massive walls of fluorescent greenery over glistening asphalt, still wet by the almost unceasing rain. The view before her was perfectly symmetrical, an outstretched, black belt, straight ahead, with two bright yellow ribbons in the middle, rimmed by hemlocks, red cedars, maples and cottonwoods.

She was hyper with anticipation – as far as her personality allowed her to be hyper – and loopy from a night of shallow and mediocre sleep. The nerves flowed through her stomach and chest and went on to plague her arms and finally the hands that clamped the steering wheel in a very proper ten to twelve position.

She was unusually aware of her regular and languid heartbeat. It calmed her and eased her mind. Somehow it made her new life seem more real, like it couldn’t actually be taken away from her anymore at that point. It was confirmation that her existence had a foundation in this world, in this dimension.

Earlier that morning Marith had met Juliette in her studio above the Drunken Den, before she had to go to work in the shelter. Marith had never been into the local pub before. When she still visited her father during summertime she had been underage and now that she was a legal adult she wasn’t much of a drinker.

The insides were exactly what she had expected of a pub. Quite dark and murky, filled with shady figures and heavy, wooden furniture. Some old, hanging oil lamps, that now worked on electricity, dimly lit the mostly empty tables.

There had been more people than she would have guessed in the morning on a weekday and they were practically all seated at the bar. Maybe that’s why it was open all day every day. The Drunken Den always had customers.

From what she could make up the clientele was mostly male, trying to find relief of Sweet Lake’s dive trap in pints of foamy beer. Some stared at her transversely, most were indifferent. Apart from Juliette, and maybe occasionally Vanessa, they probably wouldn’t usually meet a woman inside.

She already knew she had to cross the establishment inside and go left before the restrooms to reach the stairs up for Juliette’s apartment, but she politely asked anyway. She didn’t want to stomp through the building without saying anything.

The bartender, who carried such authority that she figured he was the owner as well, seemed nice enough. He was a heavy set man, with a friendly round face, and a boisterous voice.

The upstairs basically looked the same as downstairs, except that it was made liveable by adding a modest kitchen and a tiny bathroom. Juliette gave her a proud miniature tour of the studio apartment. She had made it cozy by giving a female touch to the dark place. The white roller blinds with pink Flamingo’s and the massive Monstera deliciosa that took up an entire corner had definitely not been placed there by the Burgundian man Marith had met downstairs.

The previous day Marith’s clockwork had informed her about a commitment for the first time. It had been an exciting and fraught experience. The delicate machinery had rattled, vibrated and ticked until she had opened it, only so it could elicit the beautiful, restless clouds that looked like a swirling purple and blue galaxy. She had been occupied with writing out and deciphering the code the symbols on the trundles and wheels enlightened her about for the rest of the afternoon.

Now there she was, in Juliette’s place. After the necessary analytics she had figured out she needed to meet a Runner at 08:00 hours in the morning. She had known enough, even though she hadn’t cracked the entire code. Juliette was the only Runner in town after all and she knew where to find her.

It was basic math at that point. All the other triangles had already been formed. Marith and Jonathan were the last ones to receive a Rebirth and Nate had been a single Prophet for years. Juliette told her nothing Brad hadn’t already informed her about in the bookstore during their trip to the shore or what she learned in the car returning from that same trip.

“In the beginning we had to await what triangles would form, either based on attraction or guided by Oracle and Watchmaker, but now it is just a matter of who are yet to make a connection.”

“Why do I even need to connect with my Prophet if any Runner can run the necessary information?” Marith had asked out of curiosity.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to finally meet Nate for real. She was stoked and a wreck at the same time, but confusion about all the technicalities kept plaguing her.

“You need to at least meet your Prophet to secure the bond and truly protect the information that is carried, so it doesn’t float around freely in the Web. We also need to complete every triangle, before the Chain can ever be sealed. Right now you can only communicate through images. After connecting to Nate physically you can also convey scenario’s.”

Juliette went on to give her the information about the location of her Prophet and the easiest route to get there by car. Quite redundant she shared Nate’s features and the specifics of his vehicle as well. She did so by the secure connection only Pupils could make.

After the Drunken Den Marith had to make another stop. Nate was staying on a camping about an hour and a half outside the tri-lake area. If she had to drive three hours that day she didn’t want to do so in an automatic car. That just wasn’t going to work out.

The only person she knew that owned a vehicle with a shifting gear was Gene. Luckily, she had come prepared and she didn’t have to hike back to the mansion for what she was about to do next. She had unhooked the keys to the garage door of her childhood home at the lake from the bundle that lingered around Nick’s office for viewings.

The lake was a gloomy, grey mass that reflected badly on the town. Marith ignored it. The water depressed her and pissed her off. Feelings that had been exacerbated by the previous weekend.

She found the house unrented and the car untouched, sitting amongst all sorts of crap from her childhood. In the back of the garage her father had organized all his tools on a pegboard above the damaged workbench. She unhooked some metal files, various sized plyers and wrenches and with a dangerous smile playing around her mouth she came across the car keys. Despite having issues with addiction and being mentally unstable her father was still predictable. He would always hide them like that, occasionally alternating the hook.

She felt like a criminal and an adult at the same time, entering the garage and taking the car without asking her Gene or Nick. Without further ado she yanked the black cover of the gleaming bolide and took place behind the wheel. The interior was more comfortable than it looked. She slid into the leather driver’s seat and stomped the shift pedal with her left foot. It just felt right.

She took a brief moment to appreciate the vintage dashboard that stared back at her, happily surprised by the unexpected occupant. For the first time in a long, long time the vehicle would be used again. Her eyes trailed the white stripes over the hood of the car. They ended fixating on that wretched lake again.

Eventually she tore her attention away and jammed the keys in the ignition. There were a few unquiet and uncertain moments while the old, bright red rally car coughed up motor oil and gasoline. After some appropriate begging, stomping, swearing and then begging again it finally made the warm, welcoming sounds of a working motor.

After that she had rolled smoothly out of Sweet Lake, listening to songs she was quite sure she had never heard, but also remembered hearing sometime somehow. The music came from the system her father had installed after purchasing the car when she was little. Entering the car felt like taking place inside a juke box. Now it sounded like one too. For nostalgic reasons she kept it on.

The roads were mostly empty and the forests seemed to stretch out into infinity. She had listened to some Dire Straits, some Genesis, even to some Creedence Clearwater Revival when finally Pink Floyd came along. Just when the music had taken her mind to a portal of another world, another era, another reality, she passed the entrance sign to the camping. She quickly turned the music off.

The camping was situated on lower terrains, which made the environment less cold and adorned with even thicker greenery. Even for Marith the violent presence of all that nature was a bit overdone. She had difficulty spotting any campers through the obnoxious foliage from the one way road that went round the campground.

Massive boulders with numbers glued on them marked the patches where tents, trailers and campers could be placed to spend the night. There weren’t many occupants and Nate seemed to have searched out the most hidden spot. Marith knew he was standing on number 16, which was the only reason she found him at all.

Seeing the glistening trailer made it official. She was going to meet and touch Nate. Now that the moment was there she did feel more anxious, while simultaneously calmer than anticipated, which was nice, as opposed to the usual heart palpitations, cold sweat and near-fainting when dealing with new men in her life.

As she shuffled through a blanket of pine apples and needles to the shiny house on wheels she descried how her old timid, pre-Rebirth self fought its way to the surface again. She was just taking some deep breaths, slowly continuing her way over the hollow sounding ground, very self-aware, like an idiot, when the door on the side flew open.

In a reflex she flashed a wide smile and almost yelled “Hi, I’m here!”, which was very unnecessary, since it was very clear to them both that she was indeed there.

She eyed him in awe. No, she ogled him. Looking deep into his perceiving, blue eyes Marith was struck by how keen he looked, after all that he must have been through. He had wild, but short little curls and two front teeth who were asserting their dominance over the other teeth. He was wearing an aubergine coloured knitted sweater with a turtle neck on dark blue jeans, with yellow stitching.

“Come in!” He invited her brightly, trying to hide his enthusiasm at least somewhat.

For a few awkward moments she stood on the doorstep of the Air Stream, while her host stood waiting for her at the counter of the kitchenette. It wasn’t as if she had never been in a camper before, but this was something else.

“Do you like it?” He asked, slightly uncomfortable at her elongated pause.

“This is just your family mansion slammed into a tiny house on wheels,” she shared her unfiltered thoughts.

He chuckled and poured them both a glass of water from a fancy looking bottle inside the fridge and slid onto a curved, leather couch, situated under a little window in the front end of the caravan. He gestured at a spot on the other end of the table and Marith followed him, still ill at ease.

It was true. The interior of the Air Stream was a summary of Nick’s study, back in the mansion. Dark brown leather couches, mahogany wooden cabinets, marble countertops, a parquetted floor and ceiling. It was basically like sitting in a furnished tree. The trailer even smelled like varnish, woody, sweet and flowery.

“My dream has always been to travel the nation in one of these,” Marith tried to break the ice, making conversation, while eyeing the fanciness around them some more. From this angle she could see a surprisingly big bed in a wooden casing on the other end of the trailer, through a half-open door.

“Really?” Nate, being used to the discomforts of living in a petite, moving house, was surprised.

“Ja, freedom over everything.” She nodded feverishly as she said it.

“I guess that’s a nice spin to give to it.”

“Do you spend a lot of your time in it?”

If Marith didn’t know any better she could have sworn that she heard him let out a slight sigh. Awkwardness swiftly washed over them. Not wanting to discuss how he had been on the run to avoid his brother and evade the influences of the Kid they both fell quiet.

“Well, if I can’t stay at my family’s house at the shore,” he began with a teasing undertone, “then my options are limited. This thing sure beats a motel.”

“What do you mean?” Marith inquired intrigued.

“Make an educated guess,” he goaded.

“Oh, no… You live there and we just squatted your house for a weekend.”

“Basically,” he smiled faintly, before taking a sip.

“I am so sorry.”

“No, don’t be. You couldn’t have known and neither could the others. I mean, they could have guessed it, but they didn’t officially know.”

“If you knew we were staying there then why did you come back that evening?” Marith had inadvertently come to the point, the heart of the situation, so to speak.

He fell silent for a moment and swallowed, while pretending something interesting was going on inside his glass of water, before explaining. “I had to see if you actually existed. I hadn’t been in touch with Juliette or any of the others for a while… I had nobody to confirm whether or not my visions were real.”

“Isn’t it Oracle’s job to confirm and communicate that back to you?”

“Not stuff like this,” he smiled faintly.

“Why didn’t you stay after you saw me?”

“You and Jonathan weren’t Rebirthed yet…”

“What is the real reason?” Marith prodded.

“Clever,” he nodded and continued, visibly pained. “I am not a locator. I wasn’t sure Nick joined you guys. If he would’ve been there… we haven’t seen each other in years.”

The entire weekend would have been overshadowed by family drama and when the time comes they don’t want to be reunited in public. It’s a private family affair.

“Why didn’t you call Vanessa or Juliette to consult on it?” She poked and prodded.

“If you were there, like my visions predicted, I didn’t want to spend our first moments together surrounded by other people. I wanted to meet you alone,” he hesitated, before continuing. “I hope that doesn’t sound too creepy.”

Marith chuckled. How could God’s gift to women ever be conceived as creepy? “No, it doesn’t, but if you wanted it to be this magical encounter then why didn’t you wait until now?”

“I had left the lodge earlier that same day, after ridding it off my personal belongings of course, and I stayed in the area… Marith, I have seen you in my dreams, in my visions. I wasn’t sure when they would Rebirth you and I couldn’t wait any longer. I had to know you were real, that the Web was telling me the truth. You must understand that I have been waiting for a Mage for years, but you weren’t supposed to be standing there, waiting for me. I had planned to park the truck somewhere and sneak up to the house and peek inside to confirm my senses and then leave again, but there you were… waiting for me on the side of the road.”

Marith could hear the loneliness seeping through his stuttering words. It must have been torture to spend all that time alone, waiting for a person that may or may not walk into his life.

“You had visions about me?” She asked superfluous, longing for confirmation.

He shook his head and frowned, unsure what to share. “I have seen you so often. I saw a young woman, playing the cello…” his voice trailed off.

A bloody angel mastering a divine instrument, he thought to himself, bitter about all the time he had been forced to spend waiting for her to come to him. It had driven him crazy at times.

“I’ve seen you return to Sweet Lake, meet my brother again, for the first time in years, reunite with your father… and most recently with your sister.”

Marith didn’t dare to ask what else he had seen. Had he been there when she cried herself to sleep? Had he seen her damaged skin as she took a shower? She didn’t want to know.

“I think I’ve seen you as well,” Marith shared hesitantly, unwilling to share that at least one of the dreams had been sex-related.

“Really?” Nate perked up, energized.

Marith nodded demure, her fingertips playing with the droplets rolling off the cool glass, on the tiny table in front of her.

“I just didn’t really see your face or… anything, but now that I’ve met you I know it was you.”

Nate seemed very content with that information and he didn’t hid that very well. Marith smirked internally and was grateful he didn’t ask further questions.

Talking to Nate felt warm and familiar, like talking to an old friend, if she’d had any. He seemed decent, smart and sensitive. Marith knew those were easy qualities to mock. She imagined him being bullied, or at least teased, in school, while Nick was being his cool, effortless self, just like her and Lieke.

“Shall we start?” Nate asked.

“Sure,” Marith replied, as if she knew what that would encompass.

It turned out that their instruments had to get reacquainted with each other as well. The clockworks had met before, when both still living in the velvet-lined drawer of Watchmaker.

They opened their instruments and put them next to each other on the foldable table. As their devices got to connect they stared awkwardly at the colours and the sounds that came from the union, so they wouldn’t have to look at each other. The arms of the swirling galaxies slowly formed one big, merry cloud, while the gears inside were clicking and rattling.

As if struck by lightning Marith thought of something interesting. “If you’ve seen me arrive in Sweet Lake, did you…?”

“Yes,” he nodded with big eyes. “I saw it happen. Most stressful moments of my live. Apart from…”

“Of course,” Marith jumped in.

“I just couldn’t predict it, nobody could…” he started apologetically.

“I know. The others explained. The actions of the Kid are uncertain and not decided until the very moment he makes his move.”

The clockworks continued to babble with each other. It seemed to be a happy reunion. In contrast to the instruments on the cool table Marith was quickly running out of things to say or ask that wouldn’t lead to a dead end. Then Nate decided to voluntarily share his story with her.

Marith had a theory about loneliness. If it festers long enough it either turns the recipient into a timid, maybe even bitter, socially awkward creature that would never be able to fully recover from the hermit lifestyle. Or - and this definitely applied to her current conversation partner - it would make the loner blossom into a warm, cheerful, trustworthy person that people longed to be around.

“I used to see things when I was little. I knew big things that were coming. Either big for humanity or big for me personally. If it was decided I could feel it.”

Marith woke up from her internal musings to listen. She could relate so far.

“Of course, in the beginning I didn’t know what it was. So, I assumed it came from a God… or the Universe. I just didn’t know. After I met dr. Sybling I became able to draw information directly from the Web. She taught me how to focus, so to speak. It was very random information at first. As I went on, the signals I was receiving weren’t as vague as they used to be. Sometimes they were clear as day. I can see and feel things coming months, weeks, days, hours and sometimes only seconds in advance.”

“Wow, really?” Marith didn’t really know what to say or what to think, other than that she felt a strong connection growing between her and the person telling her all this.

“Yes, sometimes I know months in advance what is going to happen, but I only realize seconds in advance when or where it is going to happen. I never know exactly how to handle those situations, how to respond when my visions become reality.” A wry smile appeared.

“When I was younger I thought I was going crazy and others thought so too. This isolated me, which made things worse and I was brought into the clinic often by my grandparents. That is how I met dr. Sybling. She made me realise that if I practised I could influence… navigate it better… Does it still make sense to you?”

“Of course,” Marith answered in a high pitched voice.

“Okay,” he continued. “I learned how to decide what information is important and what isn’t. Which is in turn important to prevent myself from going crazy, you know?”

Marith tried to smile encouragingly.

“I figured out the important visions have a different energy”.

“Different energy… how?”

“It feels like all the nerves in my body, especially the ones in my spine, are firing, but not in a usual way. You see, normally, when we feel pain or touch each other…” he stopped to stroke the back of Mariths hand gently, “we feel that, but when I have a meaningful vision all my nerves feel different. It’s pleasurable and painful at the same time. Unearthly.”

She tried not to let him know how that touch felt for her, but it knocked her breathless and her face started to glow.

“Anyway,” he cleared his throat. “Oracle makes the last cut. We sieve a pile of information coming from the Web. After that Oracle decides what information is important and relevant. She communicates that back to us.”

“Can you feel a difference between the information you receive from Oracle and the things you pick up from the Web on your own?”

“Absolutely. The nerve thing, what I just told you about, is when I pick up a new and unique vision, but when Oracle gives us information or directions she announces herself first. I can either see or sense that it is her.”

“How…” Marith really didn’t know how to ask the next question, if it made any sense at all. “How does she know what is relevant to pass on to you guys? She must get a load stimuli all the time.”

“I don’t know. I think she might be able to feel the strength or intensity of the important visions and prophecies, like the Prophets can, but better and stronger. Also, if she receives the same predictions over and over again that might be an indication the future is more likely to unfold that way.”

“How does that information end up in the Web?”

Nate chuckled. “Who knows?” It seemed like he was skipping something. Marith didn’t say anything for a while. Neither did Nate.

“Actually,” he replied eventually, “I gave that a lot of thought. I am still not sure, but I guess it wouldn’t be impossible for the information to come from other people, maybe even animals… We are all wired to the Web in some way after all. Maybe the Prophets pick up on the visions, hunches and feelings that other living creatures inadvertently put into the Web. A lot of people are a little psychic, you know, and most animals have infallible instincts.”

“But that would make it all connected, wouldn’t it?”

“Yes, that would mean it is a circle. Yes.”

Marith exhaled loudly and confused. Nate chuckled his deep, manly chuckle again.

“My mind has been blown to pieces more often than once since I returned to this continent.” She laughed nervously.

All of a sudden she felt alone and uncomfortable again. It wasn’t so much that her mind was blown, more so, she felt like every hunch she had ever had about the world and the Universe and how it all worked, was slowly proven to be true.

They were quiet again for a little, uncomfortable while and they both decided to empty their glasses in one last gulp.

“Do you want to…?” Nate’s voice died away. It was clearly an invitation.

“Hmmm?” Marith brought out, too tense to formulate an actual question. Then she saw the same look in his eyes she knew from the painting in the house, back in Sweet Lake.

“Oh, yes, I guess.” Marith quickly recovered, as she remembered the real reason she had driven all the way to meet Nate.

He had been aching to touch her. Marith was more hesitant, especially given her experiences with Pavan. Would it be the same? Would he be able to open her mind like a photo album as well? She preferred to keep some of her mystique. Nate invading her mind would wipe away her last shred of privacy.

The strange intensity between them made Marith nauseous and less alert to their surroundings. The mahogany around them turned into a reddish brown haze. She reluctantly placed her hands on the table and slightly bared her wrists. It wasn’t as if she had another option to make this work.

Nate didn’t seem to notice her repugnance. He looked quite rough, probably since he was more used to the outdoors, living on his own, having to chop his own wood regularly for warmth and doing God knows what else, but his hands were warmer and his touch was softer than she had expected.

He trailed his fingers along the soft tissue of her underarms, which gave her goose bump. She hoped he wouldn’t notice. When he found the right spots the connection was instant and electric. She experienced his energy like a flowing river, fluid and fluent. His fingertips were only made to pleasure her.

Soon she felt a tug around her diaphragm and the camper was spinning around them, faster and faster. The warm haze rotated into a cool tornado. Blue and green superseded the red and brown.

The world around them kept spinning and turning, until they found themselves surrounded by colourful roses, rhododendrons and hydrangeas. Nate let go of her wrists, so she could freely look around.

It was clearly late spring, early summer, where ever they were. The two Pupils were encircled by flower bushes and neatly trimmed hedges as far as the eye could see. The colours, smells and sounds were overwhelming. In the distance Marith could discern clattering water.

Where are we?

Do you like it?

It’s beautiful.

The eternal fog that had plagued her mind since she was a teenager cleared. She hadn’t realized how much she had missed and craved physical, human contact.

I made it, he shared proudly.

With my mind, he cleared up after he saw her face.

Nate started walking. He lead the way, while Marith indulged in the sunlight and the twittering birds. They came by roses the size of fists, that smelled like places she wanted to travel to. The foxgloves were brighter than any colour she had ever seen, eliciting a humming sound, caused by countless bees, hurrying from plant to plant to pollinate.

He lead her past gazebo’s, fountains and bronze statues on pedestals, until they reached a large body of water. It looked like a pond, although it had natural borders. The neatly trimmed, bright green grass was filled with ducks, geese, swans and their young.

They sat on a white, marble bench. Their thighs slightly brushing past each other.

I cannot believe you made all this.

I had a lot of time.

I know, but still. Marith quietly glared over the gleaming mirror. It reflected the blue skies, but she could also see the bright pink and purple hues. This water truly glistened.

After I left Sweet Lake I went far, to disappear. I ended up in Vancouver and visited the public gardens. I found out that I could lose myself there. There was… lightness. Some of the burden faded somewhat.

I can see how you’ve been influenced by those parks. Marith nodded.

I learned as much as I could about landscaping and botany, but I had to stay on the move. To always carry those places with me I made this world.

How?

I can honestly not really explain it to you with words. It’s like weaving a piece of fabric, I guess. It is all in the imagination and then repeating it over and over again, until it is set in stone, so to speak.

Can all Pupils do this?

I am not sure. I don’t think so.

Do the others know about this place?

No, just me… and now I am sharing it with you.

Will you teach me how to do this?

Absolutely.

Nate had risen again and Marith followed him. They didn’t held hands, although they both wanted to. It would have been too soon.

They strolled towards a rustic, wooden bridge that curved over a more narrow section of the pond. On it Marith halted, hoping Nate would do the same.

She wanted to share something about herself as well. She picked an incident she hoped he would find interesting. This time she had to touch him to initiate the contact. He eagerly bared his wrists. As soon as Marith had control over their mental escapades they both closed their eyes to focus.

She brought Nate to the nightly forest where she and Vanessa had been attacked by the Birdman. She showed him how Vanessa and Brad had saved her in the darkness of the woods.

Nate laughed at Brad’s antique gun, but he was appropriately impressed by its effect on the monster. His internal laugh enveloped her. It hopped through her like frolicking lambs in a meadow.

On a more serious note she told him about the visions and the nightmares she’d had as a child. He had shared his story to some extent. Now it was her turn. Marith held Nate’s wrists, while they lingered on the bridge, various birds peddling underneath, accompanied by big, colourful fish.

For some reason Nate didn’t have to hold her wrists anymore. Maybe because they were in his world now and he was still holding hers in the real world.

I’ve had nightmares about the Birdman when I arrived back in Sweet Lake. I thought they were just that, nightmares, fiction, fake and self-inflicted fears, but then that thing was real.

Nate explained to her that she had wrongly assumed her nightmares were never a part of her visions and that they may have been just as real as the other images she had to endure when she was younger.

They may have been things simultaneously happening in other parts of the world. Our blue ball of chaos can be a dark place sometimes. You have probably developed a defence mechanism as a child by blocking it all and assuming the nightmares and the visions were separate occurrences. They never were.

Yes, I thought I had banned it all. The good and the bad.

I think you never learned how to filter. I was eventually taught how to work with it and I became a Prophet. You really weren’t meant to be a Prophet. Besides, I am happy you’re a Mage.

Your Mage, Marith finished.

They acknowledged that the Kid was awake. He knew. She knew. She knew that he knew about what had happened to Lieke. He knew that she knew about the horrifying traffic accident that left him and his brother orphans. They didn’t go there. They let it rest. Traumatic family histories were off limits during this magical walk. These dramas were too complex to simply bring up without consequences.

She had let go of his wrists and they proceeded down a path that meandered through the shade underneath a high canopy. It was cooler there, even though they could still feel the warmth of the sun high in the sky.

How do we return? Marith asked.

How did you travel to and from the Clock in the Sky?

Marith thought about his wording for a few moments, before her muscles became rigid with horror.

Oh, God… no!

The Mage had halted again. Nate turned around to find her frozen in the middle of the path with big eyes.

Why?!

That’s how it works.

But we only travelled mentally, right? Not physically…

Still, we have to be reunited with our bodies. A free fall is the most effective way.

Who came up with that?

I did not came up with the laws of interdimensional travel.

Who did then? I would like to have a word.

Nate chuckled again and Marith almost melted into an agreeable puddle.

Come on. You won’t have to do it alone this time.

They continued their ways, between giant Sequoias. Their surroundings were becoming less botanical garden and more National Park.

I feel like you’re dragging me from Stanley Park to Yosemite.

She was met with a smirk that made him more handsome and obnoxious at the same time.

Just come with me. You’ll like it.

All Marith needed to follow him like a clueless duckling was a little nod of the head.

On the other side of the forest they had entered, when they had left the bridge behind, the atmosphere smelled different, muskier. The sky was darker and the air a lot cooler. It seemed to be a late afternoon.

They left the trees behind and stepped onto a granite rock plateau. It was a cliff, just like in Sweet Lake, except for the fact that this one spread as far and wide as the eye could see. Behind the plateau a valley, filled with mountains, rivers and greenery, unfolded. This view was a whole different kind of stunning.

Marith stared hypnotized at a river of lava, flowing past them. The stream seemed to originate somewhere in the forest and resulted in a modest waterfall, cascading off the cliff.

It is late winter here, Nate explained. I recreated the Horsetail Fall… somewhat. This one’s always on fire, because of the eternal sunset.

Have you been there too, with your Air Stream?

Of course.

There was a strange, mesmerizing beauty to a river on fire. It could have been the juxtaposition of fire and water, two opposing elements, merging, forming a veil and plummeting into infinity.

It’s as cool as any stream of water originating from a glacier.

She was too curious to not try it now. Nate watched her walking over to the river and putting her hands in them, letting the cool, orange liquid cleanse them. He had done it many times before, himself, so he passed and watched Marith experience it.

When she got up she turned around, shook the wetness off her hands and smiled at him. A little breeze played with her loose hair as she joined him again. He wanted to touch her face and pull her close to him, but he didn’t. He simply let her gorgeous smile play with his heart.

Take my hand. He stretched his right one out.

She put hers in his, which was invitingly warm. The chilly atmosphere on this side of the forest made her shiver.

They had a brief and silly run-up. Nate’s legs were discernibly taller than hers and she had to put some effort in to keep up and not stay behind. If they were going to jump they might as well do it together.

Don’t stop running, he told her.

Nate clearly being the expert in this situation, she gladly followed that advice. They ran over the rim into open air. Open air! Before she knew it there was no solid ground underneath them anymore whatsoever.

Marith clenched her hand in his. Her legs were still making running movements and her free arm was living its own life, waving like a lunatic.

Her insides were tossed and hustled like ingredients in a salad. She may have screamed, going down, but it wasn’t in agony this time. Now that she knew what would happen she tried to enjoy it somewhat or at least refrain from defecating herself.

The plane of existence they had been on seemed to angle and shift, like it was throwing them out, even though they had chosen to leave. Similar to her Rebirth she was yanked in a direction, chosen by a force bigger than her.

They entered a strange, colourful tunnel again. Luckily, traveling back to their dimension of origin took a shorter time span than ascending to the Clock in the Sky, as Nate had astutely called it.

There is elegance in simplicity, Nate explained, as if he had created their road home by himself.

Marith blinked forcefully to get reacquainted with their physical world again. Nate sat motionless across from her, still holding the pressure points in her wrists. He wasn’t entirely into focus yet, but she knew he was there.

“There are more pressure points,” Nate informed cheeky, “but maybe we should keep it at these for now,” he added when he saw Marith’s face.

She nodded drowsily. “That was quite the trip.”

“How do you feel?”

“Dazed and amazed.” She smiled faintly, trying to hide how far gone she had been. It was like waking up from a ten hour narcosis.

He let go of her arms, poured her another glass of water and joined her on the soft, leather bench again. They sat closer together now. He watched her cautiously as she stared foggy at the table, while sipping her drink.

“You can take a nap if you want,” Nate attempted to be helpful. Marith could discern a worried undertone. “Maybe you can sleep it off a little, before you take place behind the wheel again.”

Marith slightly shook her head. “Thanks, but no thanks. I have places to be, unfortunately.”

“Returning will get easier with practice and repetition,” Nate promised.

After learning the time of day Marith forced herself to wrap things up and leave for Sweet Lake. She soon found herself outside standing amidst different, giant trees and oversized ferns, lightheaded and fairly unstable, vaguely aware of the singing birds. She managed to find her way back to the car, in a trancelike state, focusing all her energy on trying not to welter.

She saw Nate in the rear-view mirror standing in the little open space of his camping space, looking worried. She sighed deeply to shake the dizziness off. As she started the car and pulled up he waved her goodbye. She waved back, weakly, before finishing the one way road around the campground.

When the entrance signs came into view she jerked the steering wheel to the left, instead of to the right, where the public road was patiently awaiting the return of the red racing monster. The electricity in the air beckoned her to enter the loop again as if she was connected to Nate by invisible rubber bands.

A crazy impulse to drive back and touch him again took the best of her. She hit the gas pedal and raced through the woods. The campground was mostly empty, so she recklessly ignored the speed limit with no consequences. The haste made the walls of greenery seem even thicker and more threatening.

When number 16 came into view she stopped the car, pulling the handbrake, and ran with great leaps to the silvery fragments she could discern through the foliage, over the hollow sounding forest floor.

He must have seen or felt her coming back and just as his truck and trailer came fully into vision the door swung open and Nate sped out.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

Marith instantly sought eye-contact with him, not sure how to otherwise initiate this. She must have looked certifiable jogging through the wilderness, hair flopping around her wild face, green eyes bulging. As soon as she halted he reached for her shoulders and looked into her eyes.

Luckily, he got the hint, the gesture, her angle, rather soon. She liked that, a man that didn’t need instructions every step of the way.

His hands wandered to her hips and he tugged her closer, slowly, meanwhile making her feel his strength. They didn’t lose eye-contact until their lips touched. Brushing softly at first, their movements becoming more urgent and pressing as they went on.

It was Marith who parted her lips first, sucking his upper lip, making him dizzy. Not knowing how to respond Nate decided to insert his tongue into the situation. It turned out that was very much appreciated by the other party.

This went on, until it couldn’t reasonably, decently go on any longer without talking about it.

“I am so sorry. I had been wondering all afternoon what it would be like to kiss you.” She had so much catching up on life to do this couldn’t possibly have waited until a next encounter.

“And?”

“I might be having a cardiac arrest,” she panted, almost breathless.

He gently put his hand on her chest, in a comforting, non-sexual way. “I think you’ll live.” He chuckled.

Marith stroked his neck, felt his short curls, and pulled his face closer again. He briefly smiled a sweet, warm smile at her, before their lips met again.

Nate had found the woman that wanted to find him without either of them being aware of it. What they did know was that they had to continue meeting.

After some skittish giggling and touching and exchanging wide smiles, blissfully high on hormones and hopes, it really was time to go.

“Can’t you stay? Just a little longer?” He let his fingers trail from her neck to her shoulders down her arms and to her hands, fondling briefly, before intertwining with hers. It gave her shivers and goose bumps, but she was comfortable enough to not hide that.

“I’m afraid not. We’ve got a Rebirth to do.” That took a lot of will-power from her.

“William?”

“No,” Marith frowned, “Jonathan.”

“Of course!” He hastily shook his head. “As I said, I haven’t exactly been in contact with the Chain on the regular.”

They exchanged a brief kiss goodbye. Their lips couldn’t afford to linger. Marith kicked herself into her car again. Nate waved until the vehicle was out of sight, which was soon in the primeval forest. He returned to his little house, genuinely happy, maybe the future wasn’t so lonely after all.

The one thing that absolutely terrified Marith about falling in love again was that it could all fall apart without her having any control over it. This hurt her before she started falling for real.

On the open road Marith clenched the steering wheel like she had clenched Nate’s hand before and inadvertently stomped on the gas pedal. The engine roared exuberant. It was a banal attempt towards carelessness. She was trying to suppress all the negative scenario’s that fought their way into her consciousness really hard, attempting to live in the moment. She deserved some happiness. She wanted to believe that happiness was out there for her too.