From Another Place Ch. 06

The plane reached cruising altitude, and the engine noise reduced. Sally opened her eyes. "Thanks, Amy."

Tim looked across at us. "Maybe sometime you'll tell me what's going on."

A stewardess approached us. "Can I get you something to drink?"

"Just apple juice for me, please," requested Sally.

"I'd love a glass of red wine," I said.

Tim thought for a moment. "I'll have a coffee – I'll stop at one so I can get some sleep later, though."

The stewardess served our drinks. "There'll be a meal in about half an hour, then we'll dim the lights. Of course you can use the headphones and watch a film if you'd prefer."

She moved away to serve the other passengers, and we sipped our drinks.

Tim looked at the screen in front of him. "The entertainment system looks pretty sophisticated."

He touched a control, and Sally suppressed a squeak as the screen switched to a live camera view from the tail of the aircraft, the curve of the earth clearly visible, the blue of the atmosphere fading to black.

"Actually it's beautiful," she said.

I nodded. "It is."

I thought back to the day all this was made, and the arguments about our response. Destroy it? Enslave this new race, this disgusting mixture of matter and spirit? Deceive them and twist them away from whatever idealistic purpose they'd been made for? In the end the decision was made: enslave where we could, enjoy their pain and the suffering; tempt and harass those who wouldn't yield; do everything in our power to make this pretty blue bauble self-destruct.

And it had all been going so well. On a large scale, wars, atrocities, genocide. The so-satisfying greed, injustice, the divide between the haves and the have-nots. Then murder, abuse, violence, the constant pleasing background of resentment, hatred, lust.

But then everything changed. At first it was just rumours – another young woman pregnant in dubious circumstances. So what? That usually turned out well – shame, rejection, another child with a shadow over his life. Then more rumours – stars, kings, predictions of an early death that would tear his mother's heart. A pogrom, infanticide, flight to a foreign country.

"Amy?" I heard Sally's voice calling me back to the present. "Have you decided what you want to eat?"

I glanced quickly at the menu. "Lamb sounds fine. Thanks, Sally."

I flipped the table down in front of me, and Sally passed me a tray. The food was good, and I savoured the spicy tastes. Sally tentatively sampled her couscous, and nodded. "This is OK."

We finished eating, and the stewardess took our trays. "Think I will try and sleep," said Tim. As the lights dimmed, he tilted his seat back and pulled the thin blanket over him.

"How about you?" I asked Sally.

She shook her head. "I know we're on the run, sort of, but I'm too excited. Here, put the camera view on my screen and the map on yours, and we can pretend this is the bridge of a spaceship or something."

I couldn't help smiling at her imagination. I touched the controls, and Sally traced the path of the plane on the screen with her finger. "So many countries."

We watched the track of our journey creeping across the map, and Sally turned to me.

"Amy, tell me a little more about where we're going."

I grinned. "Well, it's further east – we'll get another flight in Dubai. It'll be warm in the day, about twenty degrees, but at night it drops below ten, that's why you'll need more layers when the sun goes down."

I paused. "The place I'm taking us is beautiful, but the people really don't have much, they're struggling to survive."

I thought for a moment. "We thought that would make them an easy target, but somehow it's gone the other way. We don't know much about what's going on in there – it's hard for us to operate there now – but it seemed the obvious place to take you and your father."

Sally nodded. "So how do you know so much about this place?"

I hesitated. "Sally, if I tell you this, you'll know what I'm really capable of. I don't want you to hate me."

She shook her head. "That's in the past. I know you're changing. Tell me?"

"There was a young woman," I said. "She was engaged – her marriage was arranged for her, that's the custom there, and at first she was happy with her fiancé. But she started to have second thoughts, and she told him she wanted to break off the engagement. My assignment was to cause as much trouble for her as I could, and I went to him, caught him at the lowest point emotionally, turned his disappointment in on himself."

I looked up at Sally to watch her reaction. "He killed himself – took poison."

She shuddered. "And the young woman?"

"She was devastated. And I made it worse. His family blamed her, demanded compensation from her family for his death. That's the wreckage I left."

Sally was silent for a while, and I felt the emotions running through her mind.

She looked across at me. "Amy, would you... Would you do that again?"

I felt again the nausea I'd first experienced that morning in the church, and my mind flickered back over everything that had happened since I returned. Tim's generosity, his respect for boundaries despite my efforts to tempt him, his instant action to protect me in the canyon. But most of all Sally. Accepting me, forgiving me, despite the bad influence I'd been at school. The fun we'd had together at the spa, her trust in me as we went out to the club. And finally, how easily she dismissed my part in getting her into a very ugly situation.

I took a deep breath. "Sally, I have changed. I don't know what it means, I didn't even know it was possible, but you're right."

She put her hand on mine. "Of course. I knew something was happening – I told you, it happened to me just the same."

I felt something break inside me, and suddenly I knew I was free. I looked across at Sally. "You'll have to teach me again what it is to be good."

She nodded. "Of course, darling."

She yawned. "Sorry, Amy. What time is it back home?"

I glanced at the screen. "About eleven."

"I think I will have to try and sleep for a while after all," she said.

I nodded. "We still have about five hours."

We reclined our seats, and I helped Sally arrange the blanket over her. "Sleep tight," I said.

I turned my attention back to the map, watching the distance between us and our final destination decreasing. What would we find there? Would Tim and Sally really be safe? My thoughts occupied me as the plane flew on into the night.

***

The cabin lights brightened gradually, and I heard Tim stirring next to me. "Did you sleep OK?" I asked as he sat up, rubbing his eyes.

"Sure," he said. "Is there much longer to go?"

"About an hour," I said. "They'll bring us another meal."

I saw the stewardess approaching, and touched Sally lightly on the shoulder. "Wha..." she managed. "Breakfast," I smiled.

She sat up, rubbing her eyes. "Strange dreams," she said indistinctly.

I helped her put her seat upright, and took trays from the stewardess, setting Sally's down for her.

Sally grinned, her face still sleepy. "My favourite cereal."

She poured milk, then listened to the crackling before starting to eat. The stewardess returned with coffee, and Sally drank gratefully. "I need something to wake me up."

We'd just finished our second cup of coffee when there was a soft chime, and the note of the engines changes. I looked across at Sally's face, her expression just a little anxious.

"It's OK," I said. "We're starting to descend."

Once more I reached out gently to soothe her mind, and her face relaxed. She glanced out of the window, and said, "Gosh, there's a lot of sand."

I nodded. "Keep watching, and you'll see some of the buildings – look, there's the Burj."

The plane touched down smoothly, coming to a halt at one of the gates. Tim glanced at me. "OK, over to you again, Amy."

We left the plane, and Sally's eyes widened as we reached the airport concourse. She took in the vaulted glass ceiling, the wide areas of polished stone flooring, the glittering shops. "Wow."

I looked around, spotting the airline booking desk off to one side. "You two find somewhere to sit – this won't take long." I returned to them after a few minutes. "All sorted. Our connecting flight is in about an hour, our luggage is ticketed on through."

Sally looked at Tim. "Dad, can Amy and I look at the shops?"

"Sure. Just keep an eye on the time."

Sally linked her arm through mine as we strolled round the shops, looking at the expensive items on offer.

"You said the people where we're going are poor," she said.

I nodded. "Most of them would never even have a chance to leave their village."

"Let's just get a coffee and sit," she said thoughtfully.

We found a coffee shop and Sally bought us drinks, then we sat down at a table overlooking the concourse.

Sally shook her head. "I still can hardly believe everything that's happened – not when I see all these people going about their ordinary lives, most of them with no idea of the sort of things you've shown me, Amy."

I nodded. "But there are plenty of prompts for them to look beyond."

We sat in silence for a while, sipping our coffee. Sally glanced at her watch, and said reluctantly, "We'd better find Dad. We'll be needing to board soon."

We walked back towards the gates, finding Tim reading a newspaper. He looked up as we approached. "Time to go?"

I nodded. We walked toward the gate, and again I presented our boarding cards. This time the plane was smaller, and I'd chosen first class for the extra legroom. As we found our seats, Sally grinned. "I could get used to travelling like this."

Tim glanced at her. "Depending what happens when we reach our destination, this might be our last flight for a long time."

She nodded, her face serious.

We were soon in the air, and again I brought up the map on the screen. I pointed to a relatively flat area between tall mountains and a river delta. "That's where we're heading."

"I love mountains," said Sally. "Will we see them?"

"On a clear day," I replied, "and it's not a long journey to the foothills."

Again the stewardess brought drinks and a meal, and Sally looked thoughtful. "I suppose this is lunch," she said, "though I've lost all sense of what time it really is."

"Try and get some more sleep," I said. "We have quite a distance to travel by road when we arrive."

She followed my advice, and again she and Tim slept while I watched the map screen. I looked out of the window, and felt something I thought I'd lost forever – a thrill at the beauty of the sunrise ahead of us, the light sparkling on the snow-capped tops of the mountains in the distance.

As we neared our destination, the plane started to descend, and Sally stirred. "Mm," she said, "I feel better for that. Is Dad still sleeping?"

I glanced at Tim. "Think so. Seems a shame to wake him up."

I touched Tim's shoulder, and he sat up. "Nearly there?"

I nodded. "Then I have to arrange our travel the rest of the way."

We watched the dusty green and brown landscape below us approaching, till finally the plane crossed the airport boundary and touched down. This time we disembarked directly onto the tarmac, walking down covered stairs. As Sally stepped onto the ground, she shaded her eyes with her hand. "Gosh, it's bright."

We followed the rest of the passengers over to the terminal building and waited at the carousel for our cases. Tim pulled them off the belt and onto the trolley he'd found.

"Right," he said, "which way?"

We walked towards the row of immigration desks, and I left the officer we passed with a vivid impression that all our papers were in order, visas checked and correctly stamped.

I spotted a foreign exchange desk, and glanced at Tim. "We need some local currency – just a few pounds' worth."

He reached into his pocket. "This is everything I've got."

I changed the money, and returned to him with a thick wad of local notes. "Trust me, this will go a long way."

Wide doors led out of the airport concourse into what seemed like total chaos, and Tim stopped. "How are we ever going to get through this?"

I grinned. "Don't worry." I opened my mind to the impressions around me, and soon caught a picture of a dusty four-by-four, large enough to carry the three of us and our luggage.

I reached into my memory, and approached the taxi driver, addressing him fluently in his own language. He looked up, surprised, and replied.

"This is perfect," I explained to Tim and Sally. "He can take us the whole way, and he knows the area where we're going."

The driver slipped through the crowd, and a few moments later reappeared behind the wheel of his vehicle. He quickly loaded our cases into the boot, and Sally and I got into the back, leaving Tim to take the passenger seat.

We set off, and I could tell Sally was trying not to be overwhelmed by the flood of impressions – the heat, the roads, the people and animals everywhere.

I took her hand. "Don't worry – we're leaving most of the chaos behind, it's much quieter where we're going."

"I'm OK," she said. "It's absolutely amazing."

We left the city behind, the potholed road passing between rows of makeshift shops, then out into the countryside, areas of forest alternating with carefully-irrigated fields.

"It's like this for several hours," I said. "I've asked our driver to stop in a couple of hours so we can get some water and something to eat, then when we get nearer, to take us somewhere we can get accommodation for the night."

The two hours seemed to fly by, and we pulled up at the side of a road overlooking a forested valley, with hills in the distance. A small wooden building stood off to one side, and I handed the driver some notes. He returned with bottles of water, packets of crisps, and a plate of freshly-sliced pineapple. I checked that the water was still sealed, then handed a bottle each to Tim and Sally. "Drink plenty."

We sat at a low wooden table in the shade of a parasol, and Sally drank, then took a slice of the fruit. "This is fantastic."

When we'd finished refreshing ourselves, we got back in the car and carried on. The sun was starting to set, and I checked with the driver that we could still reach our destination.

"He says it's no problem," I explained to Tim and Sally. "There's a jungle lodge close to where we're going – all the Western facilities we'll need."

Sally grinned. "I'm starting to feel as though I could use a hot shower."

"It has been a long journey," I agreed.

After another hour, the driver turned off the road, and we saw lights ahead shining through the dusk. He pulled up outside the lodge, and I paid him, adding what for him would be a generous tip.

We walked to the reception desk, and the manager looked up. "Can I help you?" he said.

"I'm hoping you have a room for us for tonight," I said.

"Suite, AC?" he asked.

I glanced at the tariff guide displayed on the board. "Sure."

He barked a command at the porters, and they took our luggage and vanished. Tim looked concerned, and I flashed him a reassuring smile. "Suite number two, overlooking the courtyard, at the top of the stairs," said the manager, handing me a key.

We followed his directions, finding the door already open and our luggage inside. I tipped the waiting porters, and they made the characteristic gesture of respect and left, smiling broadly.

Sally went in through the door, and we heard her exclamation of surprise. We followed her in, and I looked round the suite. The room was large, with two double beds, and a ceiling fan turned lazily. At the far end another door led to a private balcony, and to the left through an arch I saw a shower room.

Tim flicked the switch on the wall that activated the air conditioning, and I felt the cool air on my face. I sat on the nearer bed, testing the springs. "This'll do for Sally and me."

Tim lay down on the other bed, his hands behind his head. "You two can have first go at the shower."

Sally glanced at me. "Come with me, Amy? There could be spiders, or... or worse."

She opened her case, taking out her wash bag and the t-shirt she usually wore to bed, and I followed her into the shower room. We looked carefully around, but there was no sign of any creepy-crawlies.

Sally undressed, and turned on the water. She stepped under the shower, and began to wash. "Gosh, that feels better."

She rinsed shampoo out of her hair, and turned off the water. I handed her a large towel, and she wrapped it round herself. "Your turn."

I glanced across at her, and made the mental gesture that vanished my clothes.

She gasped. "I've never seen you do that before."

I shrugged. "Doesn't seem any point in pretending any more."

Sally looked thoughtful. "Might be better if you kept up appearances with Dad – I don't think he's quite ready for everything you can do."

I turned on the shower. "I think you have a point."

I washed quickly, getting the dust out of my hair, then Sally handed me a towel.

I dried, then raised my eyebrows at Sally. Suddenly I was wearing a long cotton nightshirt.

"Cooler in this climate," I said. She nodded, unwrapping her towel and pulling on her own t-shirt.

We walked back into the bedroom, and Tim glanced up. "Everything OK?"

Sally nodded. "Amy and I are ready for bed."

Tim stood up. "OK – I'll have a shower myself. I take it there weren't any spiders?"

"No – or any snakes," smiled Sally.

She turned back the bed and slid under the thin sheet. "Come on, Amy."

I slipped in beside her, and she wrapped her arms around me. "It feels really strange to be so far away from home." She paused. "Amy, do you... do you have a home?"

I didn't answer, and she tightened her arms. "I'm sorry."

I shook my head. "Everything has changed so much, I don't even know where I belong any more."

She turned so that she was looking directly into my eyes. "I do. With us."

I sighed. "Let's get through this first, then maybe things will be clearer."