“Damn it, Eve, I don’t even know what I’m supposed to be looking for anymore,” Brady said, pushing away his laptop and cracking open a beer.
They were gathered on the lower terrace around a splintering picnic bench.
Since construction on the fortress began, Donnie and Eve had been camping on air mattresses in one of the kids’ yurts, in between Brady’s van and the Johnsons’. Hannah and Lilah were set up in an outdoor cat enclosure, and Corona couldn’t get enough of the teens.
The weather had, so far, been nice, and Eve had to admit she was enjoying the outdoor life with Donnie. It reminded her of their Havasu days.
For months after they were released from jail, they lived down by the river in a tent gifted to them from some anonymous angel in the Salvation Army store. The stretch of desert dunes bordered the highway on one side and the muddy banks of the Colorado on the other. Locals called it “Body Beach,” and it was inhabited almost exclusively by the homeless.
Deep within the brush, Havasu’s unhoused built their own homes, pitched their tents, and lived their lives by their rules. One group had even set up a library, filled with whatever paperbacks they found or lifted.
Donnie carved out a hobbit’s space and tucked their tent into a well-hidden, well-protected little nook. They’d take whatever day work they could find, and soon, there was a little light-up Dollar General disco duck hanging above their sleeping bag and a freshly filled hummingbird feeder on an outside branch.
They were happy there.
They didn’t have electricity or running water, but they had a campfire, a cast iron pot, and a five gallon jug of Sparkletts they’d stolen from the backdoor of a dentist’s office. Donnie would make Eve coffee every morning, and, there, they found happiness.
She turned to Brady.
It had been a long day.
Eve had been staring at her own computer screen for hours.
The “Walking Sickness” that had overtaken much of Europe was making its first appearances in America, and Eve had been digging for every bit of sauce there was on it.
The official narrative was non-existent. The media was simply ignoring it.
But a few months after hospitals abroad began reporting an unusual spike in a newly-emerging prion disease, videos of dementia-driven city dwellers walking aimlessly down roads, through shopping centers, off bridges, and onto more than one subway track started going viral on the dark web.
And these weren’t senior citizens having senior moments.
They were young, healthy adults. They ranged in age, so far, from 28 to 67.
Last week, in the middle of a televised game, an MLB pitcher walked off the mound, into the dugout, out of the stadium, and was about to cross in front of a speeding Uber when the medics caught up to him. Even in his hospital room, he wouldn’t stop walking. A nurse uploaded a video of him striding across the room until he bumped his forehead on the wall, doing a military-style about-face, and starting back in the other direction.
What everyone knew and no one would say is that this had Warp Speed written all over it.
In some Kuru-meets-Lewy body dementia fog, otherwise healthy people were walking themselves to death.
To be honest, at this point, Eve didn’t know what Brady was supposed to be looking for, either.
Luckily, Donnie was back with a fully-loaded bong and Samantha, Jacob, and Corona were approaching with food.
Eve shrugged and took a deeply appreciated hit of pot.
“I have been dragging my eyes over every obscure grimoire I can think of, looking for some hidden fucking clue to how the Ghouls are pulling off the designated soul shit, and I got nuthin’,” Brady growled.
He shoved his laptop another inch closer to the edge.“Hell, some of this shit ain’t even in a real language!” he snapped.
Samantha reached over Brady’s shoulders with a platter of Patty’s guacamole and squinted at the computer screen.
“What is that?” she asked.
“Bullshit,” Brady said. “It’s a bullshit book, written in a bullshit language, with bullshit naked bitches swimming in nasty baths with each other.”
Eve laughed the smoke out of her nose.
“It’s called the Voynich Manuscript,” she told Sam. “Early 15th century codex. It’s like, 200 pages of that shit. Bathing beauties gone wild, plants that don’t really exist, bunches of—“
“Yeah,” Sam said, pulling the laptop to her. “But those aren’t bathing beauties,” she said pointing to the screen.
“What the fuck are they, then?” Brady asked. He was already a little tipsy and it was starting to show.
“Well, that’s Venus,” she said, pointing to the nude ladies. “Duh… alchemy much? That’s copper.”
“Samantha, scholars have been trying to decode that thing for centuries,” Eve told her. “No one, not even AI, can read that.”
“Read?” Samantha asked. “Who said anything about reading it? The writing is nonsense. Very pretty nonsense.”
Jacob elbowed his sister over and snagged the laptop.
He pointed to something on the screen and tipped his head to Sam.
“I know, right?” Sam replied.
“She’s totally right,” Jacob informed the group. He scrolled through more pages of the online PDF. “This is like a how-to guide for dummies.”
Brady grabbed the screen and went back to the naked ladies.
“You got that from this?” he asked. “A how-to guide for what, precisely?”
Jacob shrugged. “How the hell should I know. Build it and find out.”
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“Build it?” Eve asked. She was the perfect color of stoned for this conversation. She squeezed in between Jacob and Sam on the bench.
“Yeah,” Sam said. “Look. There’s one Venus looking right. Then three facing the other way.”
“Maybe polarities in a battery?” she asked Jacob.
“Boom!” her brother shouted back.
Sam air-dropped a mic and continued.
“So, one positive, three negative joined together…” The teen noted Eve’s confusion and stopped. “They’re holding hands, see?”
Eve nodded, incredulously.
“So, one copper positive thingy, three negative, and… Jacob? What’s the copper thingy doing the reach-around?”
Jacob leaned in. “A transformer?”
The siblings bumped knuckles.
“And then the output increases, see?” Sam said, pointing to two naked doodles, both on their backs, one slightly smaller on top of the other, which, she noted, was wearing a crown. “Probably need to wrap some gold around the bottom copper thingy,” she said.
Jacob took over from there.
“Then you distill the mercury—“
“Mercury?” Brady asked.
“Yeah,” he grinned. “They aren’t taking bubble baths. Blue represents mercury in alchemy. They thought it was a bridge between life and death and heaven and earth. It also represents…”
“The soul,” Eve whispered.
Jacob nodded. “The life force, or, in some translations, the spirit of life, but yeah, basically.”
Brady began to chuckle. Then laugh. And it felt so damn good to laugh, he laughed some more.
“You kids just cracked the Voynich Manuscript,” he said, shaking his head. "That's..."
Laughter overtook him again.
“Aren’t you two clever!” exclaimed a cheerful, new voice.
Jacob dropped his spoonful of guacamole and stared at the man standing before him.
“Dude… where did you come from?”
Before Gabriel could answer, Donnie came charging out of the yurt, over the top of the picnic bench, and straight at the Elohim’s neck.
Gabriel caught Donnie’s lunging head gently between his hands and stopped his assailant in his tracks. His palms against Donnie’s temples, he looked deeply into the human’s wild eyes.
“Don’t, child,” he said softly. And Donnie stopped.
“You hold on,” Gabriel said, pulling Donnie into a bear hug. “You will see Paradise,” he whispered firmly into Donnie’s ear. “Do you hear me? This will end, and you will see Paradise. That is a promise from an angel of the Lord, so you hold on.”
He squeezed a stunned Donnie once more and handed him the bong from the table. The bowl was smoking when Donnie took it and sank onto the bench.
As he sat, Eve rose, a smile shining from her tired face.
She went to him, hands outstretched.
“Gabriel,” she said. She turned to everyone. “This is Gabriel.”
***
He looked different than she remembered, Eve thought as she watched Gabriel explaining something about a pine cone that must have been mind-bending to a mesmerized Trevor.
The whole family had gathered around, and a crackling fire had been lit. Patty, Luka, and Eve laid out a spread of fruits, vegetables, fresh apple pie, and Chet’s to-die-for enchiladas.
In the background, ‘70s tunes were playing from Steve’s iPhone, and Eve spotted Gabriel’s toes frequently tapping in time with the beat.
“Chet, that was magnificent!” Gabriel told him as he dragged his finger across the sauce on his plate and popped it into his mouth.
Chet blushed red. “I’m still kind of surprised you can eat it,” he admitted.
“Well,” Gabriel laughed, “it won’t nourish me the way it does you, but absolutely! Eat, drink…” He gestured to Donnie for the bong. “Smoke. Yes, we can do all those wonderful things.”
“You have to be kidding,” Luka said, louder than she meant to.
Again, Gabriel laughed. “Don’t be so shocked,” he said. “Did you know God created this plant to help you all talk to us?”
“Really?” Sam gasped.
Patty arched a Mom eyebrow her daughter’s way, and Sam giggled.
“Yes,” Gabriel replied. “Among other things. Just think of it! A plant that can be clothes, rope, or paper, and it lets you talk to angels. Truly a wondrous thing.”
Gabriel inhaled the sweet-smelling smoke and smiled. “You did well, Eve,” he said, exhaling as he passed the bong to her.
“Everything that God has provided is good when properly used,” Gabriel said. “In moderation,” he added, looking at Sam.
“You and your brother,” he said, nodding to Jacob, who was still huddled with Steve, Brady, and Chuck around the computer. “Very, very well done. There is a lot to be learned from that manuscript, for those with eyes to see it.”
Eve watched Gabriel rise from his cross-legged position on the grass to his full standing height with the grace of Baryshnikov. He was so relaxed, she thought, like he didn’t have a care in the world.
Even his clothes were relaxed. He’d ditched the pirate look for what appeared to be linen yoga pants and a loose-fitting shirt. Moccasins covered his bare feet.
“Better,” Eve told him with a nod of approval. He seemed to genuinely appreciate that she had noticed.
“Brady,” Gabriel called out, “may I show you something?”
He held out his hand for the laptop.
Brady scooped it up and passed it to Gabriel like he was making an offering to an ancient Titan.
“You know how to use that?” Jacob asked, fascinated.
“I’m confident I can figure it out,” he smiled, quickly scrolling through the Voynich pages and stopping on a circular drawing that spread across the fold of the notorious codex.
He handed the computer back to Brady.
“I just want to leave you with that image,” Gabriel said. “Just let it float around in that beautiful brain of yours. It may, at some point, provide another dot or two for you to connect."
Brady scanned the image intently. Concentric circles with two fish in the center. Naked women, holding wands with stars at the end of them, stood beside what appeared to be green tubes of some sort in the inner circle. In the outer circle, the gals were sat in various decorated barrels. Notes in the fanciful script filled the spaces above and between them.
“Don’t hurt yourself, now,” Gabriel laughed, leaning close to him. “Just tuck it away for now.”
“And be kind to yourself, Brady, okay?” Gabriel added quietly. “You really are so appreciated by all of them. They don’t need you to be more or do more. They just need you.”
From the iPad, John Denver began his acoustic affirmation of love to a girl called “Annie,” and Gabriel began to softly sway, as though every note soared through him.
“Sublime,” Gabriel sighed, allowing Denver’s “sleepy blue ocean” to wash over him.
When the final notes danced into the night air, Gabriel said his goodbyes.
He gazed at each of them, frail little things capable of unimaginable strength and kindness and creativity.
“Remember this night,” he told them. “Look around. Under the stars, in the middle of chaos, we found music and laughter. We broke bread and learned new things and we created together the one and only thing that God allows all His creations to create from nothing; Love. There is love in this circle, and I’m so very proud of you all.”
“Remember this moment," he urged them, "because at any time you need it, no matter where you are, you can create this feeling that you have right now. What we have shared tonight is what matters most. This is what you are put on this planet to do. And no matter what happens, no matter what comes your way, you can manifest this, God’s most powerful force, whenever you wish.
“Always remember that.”
“Will you come back?” Luka didn’t know why, but she needed to know Gabriel would be coming back.
Gabriel took Luka’s hands and squeezed them gently.
“I’m a Watcher, dear girl. I’m never really gone.”
He released one of Luka’s hands and took one of Chet’s.
“I wouldn’t miss the birth of your beautiful baby for anything,” he told them softly. “You two will be spectacular parents to this child. Don’t doubt it for a moment. And your son’s soul is brave and wise and funny!"
“And it is strong,” he added, before turning to Trevor. “It is a strong and gentle soul.”
“Keep making music, young man,” he told the teen.
Trevor, never one comfortable with attention, was flustered.
“Oh yes, I know you play late at night, when no one is ‘watching,’” Gabriel said, drawing quotes in the air. “You’re quite good on that guitar, you know. Share your music. It should be shared.”
He embraced Patty and Chuck. “Your children are extraordinary,” he said. “As are their parents.”
“Steve,” Gabriel said, clasping his hand, “you are like a beacon to the people you meet. You know that, right? The light that shines from you is a lifeline to so many. You, sir, are a very good man, and that is a beautiful thing to see.”
“And you two,” Gabriel said, whipping around to face Sam and Jacob. “What can I say?” He high-fived them both and, over their shoulder, gave Brady another encouraging nod. Brady nodded back, mouthing the words, “Thank you.”
He bent to scratch Corona's ears, and, at the enclosure, Hannah and Lilah rubbed against his fingers.
And then Gabriel turned to Donnie, meeting his eyes with equal parts love and admiration.
“Donald,” he said, taking his hand, “they simply can’t know what you experience, but I can. You are doing an impressive job, son. I am very, very proud of you.”
Donnie had only heard those words directed his way a handful of times in his entire life, and this was the first time he had ever believed someone meant them. He had no words, so he pressed his lips against Gabriel's hand.
It was a gesture that touched Gabriel to his core. He squeezed Donnie’s hand once more and turned to Eve with a warm embrace.
“Don’t get me all sappy,” Eve warned him.
He pulled her in for a hug.
“Call on these emotions, Eve,” he told her. “When humanity’s pain and grief and anger and fear assault you, these emotions are your shield. These are the ones that won’t only ground you, they will lift you. And no one, no one can take them from you.”
Eve sniffed and nodded. Damn it, she really didn’t want to start sniveling.
From nowhere, Gabriel produced a rose, its just-unfurling petals a sumptuous shade of red, and placed it in Eve's hand.
He turned once more to the group.
“I love you all,” he told them. “The blessings of God are with you, always.”
And, like a breath of smoke, the Elohim became a shadow that reached for the sky before fading among the stars.
On the iPhone, Whitney Houston’s crystalline voice cut through the group’s reflective silence.
I believe the children are our future; Teach them well and let them lead the way…