THE

CLOUD WATCHER

                                                      

 

 

                                                                                   GORDON EGAN

 

 

 

 

 

  The smoke was like a fine mist which was clinging to the scorched black ground like a wet blanket. A young child came running out of the thin, cloudy mixture in an excited frenzy. For a brief moment, he stopped in the middle of the old, gravel road and scanned to his right. Here, the road's edge dipped into a gully which had been gouged out by ancient stormwaters. The other side of the drain, the rusted and burnt wire of what used to be a highly tensioned fence twisted its way over the carbon black ground. In places, knots of 2or 3 strands of it were suspended in the air. The kid's eyes latched onto something else. It was a small metal pole stuck into the ground and even though it was soot black, he knew what it was. It was a telephone cable marker. Despite that he was only pushing four, he lined its shape up with certain rocks along with a particular dip to the right in the ash soaked little track on the other side of the drain. Then he knew exactly where he was. His baby smooth face lit up like a lighthouse beacon because he knew that he'd walked past this spot numerous times. That had been before the big fire though. Back then there had been green leaves,  brown tree trunks, blue sky, black birds and greenish, red ones too. Other colours on other things as well, like the gooey bright oranges of the mosses that grew on the trees that had fallen down. Now though there was just this smoky, smouldering mess and no matter which way you looked you couldn't see any colour apart from grey or black. Well, truthfully, there were odd piles of white ash around as well. Up though where the sky was was grey and down where the dirty orange road used to be was all this black stuff that stuck to your shoes. Sometimes bits of it were hot too and this horrible smell came off from where they ate a bit of rubber.

  "It's here mum!," the child roared  at a group who were coming out of the misty smoke towards him. They were like shadows and it was obvious that they were struggling to keep up with the young turk.

  "This is it!"

  "Slow down Ben!," an elder child's voice called out to him.

The kid totally ignored the command. In a split second, he jumped to the other side of the ditch with a burning eagerness to run to the old house to see what was left of it. It was currently hidden some 100 metres away and was obstructed from view by a small forest of charred black tree trunks.

  "Wait Ben!," one of the other, taller figures emerging out the smoke called out to him.

  "Awww mum! I wanna go see the house."

  "Wait for us so we can go together. We don't know what's down there yet so we have to be careful."

Ben bounced around on the spot a bit and gritted his teeth. You could practically see the energy peeling off him in waves. They'd had to carry him every now and again, though each time he was put down again he moved like a rocket. He was like a hot oven with the door fresh open. So was his immediate environment.

  "I know what's down here mum!," he roared with a fiery, cheeky grin.

  "A bloody burnt house."

  "Ben! I've told you before to not talk like that."

  The kid stamped his left foot on the ground a couple of times in an attempt to do something with the impatience which was exploding out of him. He was in a Catch 22 situation. The  others were all girls. Two big ones and two inbetween ones. One of them was his mum, who was the law, more or less. He didn't want to go against her but a great big part of him was absolutely busting to just take off. They were so bloody slow and they were moving like it really was the end of everything, because that's as sure as hell what it looked like, to them anyway. Not to him. He didn't yet have the nounce to understand the perilous seriousness of their situation. Around them, there wasn't another type of life form anywhere that they could see. No cows on the black carpets that used to be deep green paddocks. No parrots hovering and squawking where the avocado orchards used to grow. No roos anywhere. No black cockatoos flying high above and sounding off in their idiosyncratic, high pitched way.

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing. Just piles of bones stripped clean of every bit of flesh in an absolute horror of a scorched black wasteland. Little Ben though had been watching the ground like an Indian scout. He knew that there was plenty of life about. In the last 6 kilometres he had seen more ants than he'd ever seen in his life. In a couple of places, not far from piles of animal bones, he'd squatted to investigate them. He had made several observations about the creatures. They were moving around in a network of cracks where the ground was relatively exposed and as was usually the case with them, their traffic was two way. One way they were empty and moving fast and the other they were slow and dragging bits of dirty, red stuff. Ben had tried but he'd not been able to make the connection to comprehend what it was that the ants were dragging around. He had tried too to quiz the others about it. They'd just grumpily told him to keep moving though. All of the way they'd been bunched up together talking real seriously to each other. They'd talked a lot about food which didn't interest him because he knew that they had some apples, biscuits and other stuff. Once or twice he'd even heard them cry. All of them too, not just his mum. When his mum had cried though he'd gone to her because he didn't like it when she cried and he'd wanted her to stop. It had been a calculated mistake on his part because she'd picked him up and slobbered affectionate kisses onto his face. He'd protested yet the energy she gave him was like mother's milk and in his little heart he knew that she was cool. In a way Ben was like a cat, fond of the cuddle yet madly in love with his own freedom to roam wild.

  "Come on!," he roared again at the party that was dragging itself up the old, convict built road.

  "Y' so slow. Snails go faster than yuse do."

  A 12 year old girl approached him from the road. She jumped the ditch to his side and with her right hand, rustled up Ben's shoulder length blonde hair.

  "Cut it out Yolanda!," he snapped at her. The kid had long ago figured this one out. She was bossier than his mum and squeezed twice as hard as her when it came to cuddle time. He moved away from her because it looked like she was going to try and pick him up. A metre away from the old wire fence, he gazed at the clump of burnt black tree trunks that were hiding the house from view.

  "Don't touch the wires Ben!," Yolanda said seriously to him.

  "They could be hot."

The lass then moved towards the fence and touched one of them gently. It was still very warm.

  "How is it?," her mum asked her from the road side of the ditch.

Yolanda replied that it would not be a problem. She turned and grabbed a bag that her mother passed across the drain to her. She put it on some ground where the ash was thinnest and turned back around and took another one. Ben meanwhile, took the oppurtunity to slip through the wires though he went no further. Eventually, the whole party ended up where he was. The two mothers who had been carrying their meagre though weighty possessions, stretched themselves before picking them all up again.

  "Not far to go now Peg," one of them commented to the other.

Carol, the other woman, the one who had spoken, lifted her eyes to the grey heavens. High above the smoky blanket there was an eye catching, crystal blue sky, not that she was conscious of that. The two women looked absolutely beat and were psychologically experiencing the inner emotional turmoil that is generated when you play out your last and only wild card. Besides that, they were sick to death of coughing and of having watery eyes. If Carol's ex husband had not done what he'd insinuated he'd done and stored the holiday house with catastrophe provisions, then they were stuffed. Most likely, they would all starve to death. It was this prospect above and over everything else which was giving both Carol and Peg considerably heavy heads. They were riddled with the emotional procrastinations of an impending doom. So was Yolanda.

  It was a miracle that they'd survived the fire anyway. If they'd not been in that cave when it happened then they would have perished along with everyone else. It was Ben who'd actually saved them because they couldn't get him to come out of it. He had gone deeper back into the cave when the rest of the tourist group were exiting it. He'd gone back to see the lights around the little underground pool again. They'd all followed him back in and had just caught up with the little devil when an almighty thunderous roar had exploded from outside the cave. A massive wave of heat and light had instantaneously burst in through the front entrance and bowled them all over. For 50 seconds that seemed more like an eternity to them, the ground had violently moved about. They were in fact, extraordinarily lucky that fallen rubble didn't block the way out or severely injure them. As it went, young Susie who was 8, had been hit on the back of the head by a small rock. She had an inch round wound right in the middle of her neck and had been meekly clinging to Peg ever since the catastrophe happened. She was terrified and was convinced that it was the end of the world.

  Her sister Yolanda and the two adult females were pretty well of the same belief though they were desperately trying not to show it. During the walk they had forced themselves to talk survival and formulate some sort of contingency plan should there be nothing stored in the house. Carol's ex had not actually said that he'd done what they were hoping like hell he'd done. He'd just hinted that he had in a letter which he'd written to her the previous year, before he died. He'd just written the one liner...it's all go for the Apocalypse down here mate.

So basically, they had talked about food, a most depressing topic in their current environment. Carol had suggested that they could try and get some marron, the local fresh water crayfish. The property had a dam on it which had always had marron in it. This fact was about their biggest plus and aided slightly in puncturing the over riding feeling that they were walkiing into oblivion. Could they get the damn things out of the water though, that was the question. Snails, if there were any still left alive, were also suggested. This had Yolanda turning her nose up into the air which resulted in a sharp comment back from her mother that she'd have to eat the horrible things if there was nothing else. Then Carol had started talking about the fat white grubs that lived in the wood and ground and Yolanda had just about thrown up.

  After they'd escaped the cave which had saved them, they'd had another stroke of fortuitous luck. They'd found a car in a brick garage that had miraculously survived whatever it was that had happened. Every other vehicle for miles around had been incinerated along with 99.9 percent of every building. The car they'd found had the keys in it and a half a tank of petrol and it was like a gift from the Goddess. For some time, as they'd driven south, they'd thought that someone had nuked the place because everything looked as though it had been vapourised. Carol and Peg had been half expecting that they would all soon be busting out in radiation sores. The skeletal remains outside the cave of their former, fellow tourists had also scared the shit out of them. Ben had gone right up to one of the skeletons and crouched down and mumbled something like...bloody hell...to himself. The carcass had been still smouldering and that had absolutely fascinated him. After they'd travelled 200 kilometres through nothing but a burnt black wasteland though, the girls had decided that their battlefield was a natural, not artificial one. They'd postulated correctly that one mother of a fire had, in less than an hour, destroyed their civilisation. There was nothing on the car radio and every town that they drove through was exactly the same, very black, very burnt and very dead. From the car, before it ran out of petrol, they'd seen not one living soul or thing. It was the most eerie drive that they had ever had or would ever have. They'd kept joking to themselves that the fire had been some sort of regionalised local freak out and that up the road they would find the border to the former environment again. Intuitively though, both mothers knew that the prophecy had come true and that the fire had most likely happened over the entire Earth. God knows, there had been enough warnings that a disaster of global proportions was going to happen. For over 2,000 years, there had been warnings. From where they'd been sitting, it sure looked like the real thing had finally happened. It looked like the planet had had its revenge. In one cruel hour too. Some how, deep in their guts and deep in their brains, they knew that this was the big one

It was after all, the year 2012. It was in fact, September the 25th of that year, late in the afternoon.

  "Come on slowpokes!," roared Ben again as he bounced around like a boxer.

Five minutes later they stood in front of what was left of the house. The walls, which used to be a dull orange and were made of compressed earth, were still standing. They were now however, a glazed black colour. The roof had collapsed inwards and the sight of that evoked a giant sigh from both Carol and Peg's dried lips. Obviously, they were going to have to dig their way in to ascertain if Carol's ex had indeed stored provisions under the floorboards. They had a quick look through a busted window and what they could see of the floor seemed to be intact. In a way though, considering what they'd seen, they were really amazed that there was anything of the place left at all. They had expected it to be flattened, like all of the others they'd seen.

  "It looks as though were going to have to clear our way to the manhole in the morning Peg," Carol said dryly.

  "Great!," Peg commented just as dryly straight back to her.

The two mothers looked at each other and shook their heads and laughed sarcastically. There didn't seem to be anything else to do with the irony of life that confronted them. It was too late in the day to start heavy duty labouring work so they turned their attentions to setting up camp on what was left of the verandah. It took them half an hour to clear it of rubble. From out of the destruction in other rooms of the house they dragged out 3 single mattresses which had somehow survived the blaze. They were in fact, once again, extremely lucky. The earth walls of the house had limited the interior damage. A couple of large steel rainwater tanks had softened the blow by diverting some of the fire into the air. The collapsed roof had only half burnt and had not set the floors alight. A good deal of the furniture was still there. They managed to get to a wardrobe in a back room and discovered with excited cries, sheets and blankets. Immediately that a bed was set up for her, little Susie collapsed into it and groaned herself into an immediate deep sleep.

  Ben found the tap on the rainwater tank and tried it successfully. He drank his fill of the warmish brew and then disappeared into the rubble in the main part of the house. He had seen something through a window from half way up a short ladder that was leaning against the tank. He was in there before Carol could stop him and the whole time that he was in there she was yelling at him to come out. She was very worried that he would get hurt because all of the roof had not caved in and what was still in position did not look stable. In a couple of places, loose beams were swinging in the air. Distraught and still yelling, she was about to go in herself when he emerged from underneath an angled pile of wood. He was dragging a small gas bottle with the burner still attached to it. Through each thumb he had threaded a plastic cup and his tiny pockets were stuffed with tea bags.

  Despite her delight in seeing what he'd recovered, his mother was still incensed that he'd gone where he'd gone. She promptly knelt to his level then grabbed his shoulders. She shook them as she yelled out her anger. Ben burst into boyhood tears. His bottom lip swelled up to twice its normal size and sank an inch down his face. He dropped everything and brought his knuckles up to his eyes and howled. In the end, feeling as guilty as all hell, Carol picked him up and consoled him with soft words and kisses. She told him exactly why she'd shaken him, explaining that the danger he'd put himself into was not worth the gift, even though the gift was fantastic.

In the end it was common knowledge that just as tears could sometimes get a grown woman off the hook, so too could they alleviate the angry vibes being directed towards a little boy. Thus it wasn't long before both Peg and Yolanda were cuddling the youngster too. They formed a four way ball and gave energy to each other and took energy from each other in a bonding session which instinctively they knew was preparation for the ordeal ahead. It was a touching though pathetic scene. The burnt death that completely surrounded them did not inspire optimistic visions of the future. In fact, they evoked the complete opposite.

  Ben however, was being guided by the spirit in the moment. He had no moral opinions of the black death that surrounded them. He knew intuitively that he preferred green life to the black death though he did not mind seeing the black death for the first and hopefully last time. Because it was so different, even if also scary. Besides, he knew the green life would be back. He'd seen what the rain did to the ground in these parts. His dad had told him how the water went down and swelled the root life below so that it exploded at the top, above the ground, as trees and plants. For a moment, Ben winced as he thought about his dad. He hadn't seen him in a long time. His mum and others had told him that he'd gone away, to work. Ben felt something inbetween their words though. It gave him little pangs and pulls in his stomach because he knew some how that he mightn't be seeing his dad again for a long, long time. That made him feel sad.

Not for long though. Four year olds don't dwell too long on one emotion. They don't have the memory banks yet to slog it out with their souls. They skip to the next experience and live life for the fun in the moment. And Ben knew that he was off the hook, which meant that his magical adventures could continue. That was all that mattered to him. That was all that fascinated him. The fact that, most likely the Mayan prophecy along with all of the others had come true, didn't interest him one little bit. To him the black death was no big deal. It offered him other stuff to explore and experience, albeit, if only for a temporary period.

  He wriggled his way out of the girl's love ball and dropped to the deck. Then he was off again. The lad raced back to the steel water tank with his blonde mop bouncing up and down in a light breeze. He returned moments later with an old, medium sized saucepan. It was aluminium but neither Peg nor Carol let that bother them. As far as they were concerned it was a gift from the gods and so was Ben.

5 minutes later they were sipping on the best cuppa that they reckoned they'd ever had. They had no milk and no sugar but the caffeine in the brew was that sort of shot to the system that only the Goddess Earth could deliver. It gave them the energy to get on with the rest of it. They bathed little Susie's sore as she slept and ate a couple of biscuits each and organised their beds. They put the mattresses side by side and had a flick wash by the tank. They squatted and peed in the black dust that used to be the earth. By the time they were in their beds, a full moon was just rising. It was a deep blood red and the pinkish way it lit up the monumental chaos that surrounded the wreck of a house, frankly, scared the absolute shit out of them. They felt like they were on Mars, not Earth. If it had not been for the upright burnt tree trunks and the ash everywhere, it would have been hard to tell the difference.

  In the middle of the night, it started to drizzle. Luckily, they'd set the beds up underneath what was left of the verandah roof. It had seemed the natural thing to do because the other side of the roof did not exist. So, apart from a minor adjustment where they rolled Ben and Susie on to the other side of the mattresses, so that they, the mothers, took the rain side, they were not that inconvenienced. Around three in the morning, sharing a fag and listening to the water drip off the remains of the roof, Carol and Peg had a twenty minute natter. They chatted about the morrow and made plans. They planned to clean the house out and fix it somehow so that they could all live in it.

They planned to scout for food and to check out the dam first thing to see if the holding net was still there. They tried to get their priorities in order. The marron were pretty high on their list and so was getting to the manhole to see if there was anything underneath the floor.

It was here that Carol remembered that there were two manholes in the main lounge and that they were at opposite ends of this 50 foot long room.

  "Shit!," she exclaimed just prior to passing the horrible stick back to Peg. Normally, she did not smoke. Peg listened intently as Carol explained about the latest problem, being mainly, which manhole to aim for.

  "Well where do you think Ted would have stashed anything if he did do what he talked about?," Peg asked as she stubbed the butt out on the wet floor near her mattress.

Carol thought about this as she gazed at the dead pinkness in the near distance.

  "Up by the stove, I reckon. That's where he always used to hide his pot anyway," she answered eventually.

They then made a joint decision to head for the manhole by the stove and gave each other a little comfort hug before retiring again. They actually managed a couple of hours of very deep sleep before a bouncing Ben woke them up. It was only five thirty when the live wire exploded from out of his bed and he was a force to be reckoned with. Yolanda volunteered to check out the dam with him and offered the mothers more sleep. In the end, Carol dragged herself away from a bed that she considered, given the circumstances, wasn't half bad. In fact, it was downright comfortable. Even if it was minus a pillow. Sleepily, she trudged off into the early light of the surrounding smoky hell mumbling loudly to Ben to slow down. Peg had wanted to come with her but Carol urged her to stay because little Susie was still asleep.

  Yolanda was hardly around the corner when she commented on the ground. Hours of fine drizzle had coverted the ash into a horrible grey slush. They literally had to wade their way through it. This delighted Ben and disgusted both Carol and Yolanda. All Carol could think about as she watched the soupy slop swirl around her feet was that Ben's shoes were not going to last long in this environment. She made a mental note to herself to keep a look out when they were house cleaning for shoes. Shoes that were going to fit any of them too.

About half way to the dam, they came across the gutted ruins of the granny flat, which had been more or less a small shed converted for the temporary housing of visiting humans. The dwelling had taken the full force of the oncoming fire and apart from the compressed earth walls, there was little left of it. The floor and roof timbers were ash and the corrugated iron sheeting which used to be the roof was black, brown, twisted and bent and mostly, on the ground. Ben had a quick look at it and then rejoined them on the ash sodden track. They plodded along for another 10 minutes until they reached the raised outer walls of the bulldozer dug, big hole. Ben tore up the embankment and started pointing and yelling loudly when he saw what he saw from the top of it. What he saw was the dominant colour in the district, black. The water in the dam, like everything else for hundreds of miles around, was covered with a crusty layer of a sooty ash.

Carol sighed when, panting from the steep climb, she viewed the mess. They scouted for some ten minutes looking for the float to the marron holding cage, eventually finding it on the far side of the dam. The buoy was painted red and it was Ben who spotted the tip of it sticking out of the muck. Unfortunately, in his zest to reach it, he moved too fast down the slope, slipped on the just buried clay near the edge of the water and tumbled in. Carol screamed because she was so far away. Yolanda, who was much closer, raced to the splashing youngster and dragged him out. She too slid a bit on the edge and when Carol reached them the rescuer was trying to extract her right foot from a six inch deep mudhole made from clay and ash.

  "Eyuk!," Yolanda moaned as Ben's mother extracted him from her vice like grip. He was absolutely soaked and from the noises he was making it was hard to tell if he was crying or laughing. Actually, it was a bit of both because although the water by the edge was shallow, the fall and the plunge had considerably frightened him. For a moment or two he had been airborne, which although exhilirating, was not something that he'd planned on.

  They de-carbonated him as best they could. The sodden ash was difficult if not impossible to get off. It was all through his hair and he had a coal miner's face. Ben refused to keep still and both Carol and Yolanda realised that they were losing the battle. It was obvious that he would need a wash back at the house. So they turned their attention to the holding pot and dragged it in. To their delight it was all in one piece. The rope seemed good. The problem would be bait. They left it on the edge near where Ben had fallen in. On the way back to the ruins of the house, the little bloke told them that he would find something to catch the marron with. Yolanda asked him what, Ben wouldn't say. He just told her that it was his secret. Which it was too.

 

                                                                    *

 

  Some 10 kilometres away from this group, in the opposite direction to that which they had taken to reach the gutted house, two men were standing by a motor vehicle. They were both in their late forties and were of medium height and build. They looked tired and had in fact been driving all night. Their car had run out of gas at the summit of a tremendously steep incline. From this spot they had a clear 360 degree view of the total devestation that surrounded them. Even though the sun was not yet quite up, the light was good and the smoke was slowing thinning. They could see a couple of kilometres down the hill. It wasn't much of a view though. It was basically the same smouldering stuff that they'd seen for the last 600 miles.

That is, burnt tree trunks, burnt ground and burnt everything else. In the valley however, around their hill, there was a cloudy carpet of low level smoke that seemed to stretch out into infinity.

In every direction too. It was an awesome sight.

Here and there in both the near and far distance, they could make out the blackened tips of branches poking out from the enveloping blanket of a cloud. In the pinkish light of the early dawn, that was an eerie picture. The tree peaks looked like dead fingers that had grabbed for heaven in the final moments. There was not the slightest ripple of a breeze and the whole scene looked like some mad painter's masterpiece. From where these boys were standing, the Earth was a total wipe out and they were, obviously, down on their luck.

   One of the men tipped his straw hat slightly upwards as he gazed at their ego deflating environment. He coughed a bit of smoke out of his lungs and cleared his throat.

  "Well Doc," he said dryly to his mate.

  "It looks like we're shit out out of it mate."

The other man laughed sarcastically in a kind of low drone.

  "Gave it out best shot though, didn't we Prof?," he stated.

  "We took the high road and the low road in a 600 mile semi circle to get away from the epi centre of the blast that we saw and what did we find Prof? We found more fucking epi centres, didn't we? And what does that tell us? It tells us that there was more than one blast, ay?"

  "Nothing on the radio Doc either. Nothing on AM, nothing on FM and nothing on short wave. What does that tell us Doc?"

  " It's telling us that nobody is out there Prof. It's telling us that there'll be no BBC, no news, no music, no sport, no political trash and no ads either. And thank God for the absence of the latter ones!"

The Prof laughed as he dragged a cassette radio from out of the ash splattered car. On the other side of the vehicle, the Doc was also busy dragging stuff from the machine's innards. Some of the stuff he was stuffing into a large knapsack and some of it he was rejecting to the back seat.

   "Political man ay Doc. Didn't he believe that power was embodied in the material, not spiritual sphere? By the looks of the burnt toast around us, he could have been right, you know?"

  "Can't agree with that Prof," said the Doc jovially as he took a slug from a plastic water bottle.

  "Political man was a hypocrite and dead wrong from the very start. Political man professed to believe that omnipotent power was spiritual but in practice they believed the opposite."

  "They lived it too Doc. They lived their hypocrisy right out until a day and a half ago and then the ground opened up here and there and spewed out some sort of gas which ignited and took them all out. That's what happened Doc, ay? And we saw it, and lived through it too."

  "We certainly saw it Prof. We saw it coming and we took flight with our fossils into that cave and we survived. By the width of one of the hairs on our balls mate, we survived. I'm buggered if I know why either, but we mucking did."

The Doc pulled his head from out of the car and gazed around the hill again.

  "But for how long Prof? That is the question. How long will we survive living, or rather dying, on burnt toast?," he asked his friend.

The Prof finished strapping his bag up and he too had another look around. He knew where he was because he'd lived in this area once as a youth. He'd worked on a farm picking kiwi fruit, avocados and in another place, grapes. He'd also spent many a vacation not far from where they presently were.

  "Water shouldn't be a problem," he snorted. the Doc's way.

  "Food....food, will be a big problem. It's going to be either what we can get out of the water, or what we can get out of the ground. Seeing as there's nothing left alive on top of the ground except us and seeing as we don't eat uranium, I reckon we're down to fish, marron, mussels, roots and grubs...or death."

  "What about a spud paddock Prof? If it was on a slope that didn't cop the full blast, there might be something left."

The Prof smiled. It was good to have a mate to die with, he felt. He hadn't considered spuds. It was a remote chance but he knew where there had been a crop or two. They were on hilly ground as well. There was a river near there too and most likely the route would include a few dams. Suddenly,  his face lit up a bit. He actually saw that they had a slight chance of surviving. The spot he was thinking of was about a day and a half away by foot and they had enough food for 3 days, maybe 4 if they stretched it.

  "Y're a smart fella Doc," said the Prof as he tapped his cranium with one of his fingers.

  "You've given me a cracker of an insight and now I've got a picture of our route firmly entrenched in the left side of me brain. It's a long shot but it's better than no shot at all. Might as well walk and die, ay?"

  "Yeah! Why not Prof? Bloody boredom would probably kill us before we starve anyway, if we sit still."

  "If we don't find some grub mate, there'll come a time when we'll be sitting still. Don't you worry about that."

The Doc laughed and his head rocked back a bit. He scanned the circular horizon again and a slight scowl came onto his face. He picked up his pack and strapped it onto his back, then he picked up a small suitcase with his left hand. The Prof came around to his side of the car. He was ready to rock and roll as well. The two men gazed at the long and winding and burnt road in front of them. It disappeared into the infinite cloud and in a way they considered that it was suicide to go down into it anyway. But they had no choice because humans must eat and most assuredly, there was no food on that hill. There was less smoke, but there was no food. The two men looked at each other for a moment. Their looks said...I'm glad you're here. Then they wheeled around and trudged off down the road. For a while they continued talking. They talked about their incredible luck with the roads. They had felt tremors when they were sheltering in the cave yet the quake damage they saw was minimal, mostly being confined to cracks that had opened up in ash covered paddocks. The roads, or the ones they'd taken had on the whole been very kind to them. They'd come across only one place where they'd had to drive around a crack and they'd done it easily because the surrounding area was flat and hard. It was almost as though they'd already had some luck, although only an angel watching them walk down that road would have thought that. The odds are high that the average human would have given them no chance of surviving. Not at a 100,000 to 1 anyway.

  After many hours, the road that the two men were on branched left. The Doc and the Prof took this left fork and then shortly after, at a four way intersection, they went left again. They were now on the same old gravel track that Carol and Peg and the kids had walked on the previous day. In the slop down around their feet though, they saw no sign of that. A couple of hours later, they had just passed the burnt telephone cable marker that Ben had spotted, when the lad spotted them. He had been exploring just inside the fence when he'd seen them from the middle of a patch of gutted tree trunks. Ben ran out to the marker, though by this time the swagmen were thirty metres further on. They had not seen him and when Ben cried out to them they dropped half of their gear and spun around as if someone had fired a gun. When they saw the kid there with his blonde mop going up and down as he waved to them, they at first thought that they were seeing things. When he ran right up to them though, they knew that they weren't. With the confidence of a seasoned diplomat, young Ben Hall introduced himself and then asked them their names. The swagmen made hefty eye contact with each other as giant smiles peeled off their very dirty faces. It was clear that the unexpected visitor was delighting them.

  "I'm Doc," said the Doc as he head nodded towards his travelling companion.

  "This is Prof."

The Prof, looking downwards at a 45 degree angle, nodded to the young blonde.

  "Where yuse going?," enquired a bubbly Ben.

  "Just taking a walk," drawled the Doc, ever so dryly. Beside him, his mate chuckled in a low tone at his comment.

  "Just stretching our legs young fella," he then informed the little Hall.

  "Want to come down to the house and have a cuppa with me mum?," Ben blurted out at them.

  "Aunt Peg will have one as well. Aunt Peg...she never says no to a bloody cuppa!"

  The two men were absolutely staggered by what the boy asked them, or rather, what he told them in the process of asking them. The knowledge that there were 3 more people alive in this hell hole was a powerful medicine for the isolation in their souls. They knew at least that they were not alone on planet Earth. It was then that they heard another cry from the blackened wilderness.

  "Ben! Ben!," the voice was calling out.

  "Where are you?"

It was Yolanda and when she came into vision the Doc and the Prof knew instantaneously that there were now 4 of Ben's mob. Plus themselves, made 6. Not the greatest of numbers but definitely better than zero and a considerable improvement on two.

  Upon seeing where Ben was and whom he was with, Yolanda froze. Her first instinct was to turn and run for her mum and Carol down at the house. They had been digging for hours to get at the manhole by the stove and they were still at it. What happened with Yolanda though was almost instinctual. She had over powering protective feelings for Ben that she could not stifle. The emerging woman that was inside of her suddenly went bang and without thinking about it, she knew what she had to do. She proceeded to the fence and within seconds was marching with a very stiff back and gritted teeth towards the group on the road. Her face wore a stern expression and her shoulder length red hair was sticking out like a lion's mane. She had one intention and one intention only. To get Ben away from them and if necessary, run like hell with him to the house. Yolanda was acting purely from her perceptual experience in the old world. In the world before the fire, you could not trust the stranger. For that matter, you could not trust the friend or the lover either. The stranger was dangerous though because their intentions were unknown. Until their intentions were known and they became a new friend, you had to tread very carefully with them. Because, they might be violent.

  Both of the swagmen were incredibly impressed with Yolanda's arrival. She looked absolutely stunning for a 12 year old and coming up the road towards them, they could read her agenda like an opened book. As she got closer to them, they saw that she was extraordinarily pretty.

  "Here's trouble!," quipped the Doc out of the side of his mouth.

  "What d'you want Yolanda?," said Ben all tough like as she rapidly approached him.

  "How come yuse is always followin' me around?"

  "Hello Yolanda!," said the Doc loudly as she put one hand firmly on each of Ben's shoulders.

  "Cut it out!," roared the kid as he wriggled out of her grip. Now that there were big men around the place, Ben was hell bent on maintaining his independence. When he wanted it, that is.

  "There's no problem Yolanda," the Doc followed up.

  "The Prof and I were just out taking a stroll on Satan's belly when Ben came out to have a word with us. We're making for some spud paddocks that used to be. They're up the road, we hope. Perhaps we ought have a word with your mum in case we do find anything. We could bring some back."

For the first time, Yolanda viewed them through the eyes of a new world child. She saw that they looked too old, too tired and too dirty to be up front violent. Indeed, the swagmen had just about had it and were swaying around on their feet. Once or twice, the Prof's eyes closed then opened again and the perceptive young female noticed this. She began to think new world thoughts and in the new world thinking, food, not money, was the key to any viable relationship. They had mentioned spuds and she knew how they were harvested. It was a possible food source that she realised her group had not yet considered. She started to smile and a thought ran through the back of her mind that a bag of hot chips would really hit the spot.

  "Er!," drawled the Prof as he came out of another almost asleep episode.

  "Ben mentioned something about a cuppa Yolanda. I'm fine but the Doc here could really use a little hit. Or, perhaps we could share a bag," he said as he winked in her direction.

The Prof had a cheeky sparkle emanating from his bloodshot eyes as he spoke and the 12 year old also noticed this.

  "Actually," interjected the Doc.

  "We've got 3 sachets of coffee left so we could even do a trade, if y'mum's interested."

  "Oh! My mum would be intersted in that. She hasn't had one since before the fire. She gets real cranky when she hasn't had any coffee. Same as if she can't have a fag," exploded

Yolanda, who had now warmed to the two gentlemen. She had lost her fear of the unknown and had made an instinctually intuitive decision to trust them as new friends found in the darkest hour that she'd ever known. She could detect no animosity coming from them and although she knew that appearances can be deceiving, she felt an enormous sympathy for their present plight. They looked dead beat and she felt at any moment that the Prof was going to curl up in the middle of the road and go to sleep.

  Down at the house, Carol and Peg had finally cleared a path to the manhole. They had had to move several large, half burnt beams to get there and were feeling quite stuffed themselves. They were filthy dirty and their faces looked like they'd had charcoal mud packs on them. The sweat was pouring off them and they were both as tense as steel. The big moment was upon them and they were almost peeing in an excited anticipation that there would be something under the floor that would prolong all of their lives. At the same time, they were frightened like all hell of there being nothing there apart from foul air, slaters and a gut wrenching, soul crunching disappointment. In order to balance these polarised feelings out, Carol paused before wrenching the manhole up. It was under a half built sink cupboard, jammed into a corner by the heavy metal stove.

The two girls sunk what was in their eyes into each other and internally, they kind of prayed. Peg handed Carol their one and only torch which had half dead batteries in it. Carol ripped the cover up, a 2 foot square made of floor boards. She peered downwards and screamed loudly.

  "There's something down here Peg!," she cried.

  "What?....What?," Peg screamed back at her.

  "Jars! .....Here!"

  Then she dropped something into Peg's waiting hands. It was a small coffee jar full of pot.

  "Oh fuck!," sighed Peg when she realised what it was.

  "At least we can die stoned," quipped Carol as her top half disappeared back underground. She was in a most awkward position. A second or two later, another, much larger jar landed in Peg's hands.

  "What is it?," Carol screamed back at her as she went back down again.

It took Peg a moment to sus it out. She had to hold the jar up to the light and at first she didn't have a clue. Then it struck her.

  "Lentils!," she roared back at Carol with incredible emotion.

  "Fucking lentils! It's a jar of  lentils Cas! We're saved!"

Her excitement brought Carol to the surface so violently that she whacked her head on the exposed steel sink above her. Feeling both the ecstacy and the pain of the moment, she threw another jar at her mate and madly patted the belting pain on top of her scone.

  "Rice!," roared Peg. "It's rice Cas!"

 In tears, the two women grabbed for each other. They hugged and Carol told Peg that in the dim light down there, she could see many jars. This set them both off howling for joy as the former tension in them took flight. They were carrying on like a couple of mad women when Yolanda came in. The Doc was behind her.

The two girls looked up and froze. Instantly they became dead quiet.

They couldn't take their eyes off the stranger. Faster than you can die in y'sleep, their brains switched from joy to red alert.

  So the two older girls went through the same identifying process with the Doc that Yolanda had done. Within five minutes they had him pegged as a relatively matured gent with a good sense of humour. Actually, the Doc was a pretty laid back character and even in the old world, he'd never fussed much. Doc saw life as a bit of a one night stand and he didn't see the need to headbash the door before death politely opened it. His aura then was that of an ally and not an enemy. Pretty soon, their conversation became bubbly as they chatted furiously about this and that.

  "The Prof and I.....," said the Doc, looking over his shoulder nonchalantly for that character.

At the same time as he was straining his eyes to locate the other swagman, Carol thought about Ben and asked Yolanda if she knew where he was. Yolanda had been absorbed in the adult's conversation and had momentarily forgotten about the youngster.

  "He was right behind us," she blurted out.

  "So was the Prof," remarked the Doc.

Together, like a family, the four of them went for the door. When they reached it, a quite amazing sight greeted them. On an old car seat on the verandah, was the Prof. He was fast asleep sitting up and snoring like a dormant volcano. Next to him, huddled in like a Koala bear, was Ben. He was also fast asleep, re charging his exhausted batteries. He had been on the go since early in the morning and was little boy snoring, although at a decibel level considerably lower than the Prof's. It was obvious that he was deep in there with the dream maker. And then there was this, full of confidence passenger curled up on the Prof's knees. It was sitting in a most comfortable position licking its paws. It was a beautiful looking grey cat. Puss had all this white splattered over his face and he really did look to be a fine mixture. He was, having not long dined, cleaning himself of the essence of the rabbit that he'd lunched on.

  "Rowrr!," he purred softly as he noticed the mob of astonished humans peering at him.

  "Marzipan!," exploded Carol.

  "Where on Earth did you come from?...."

  "A ha a ha a ha a ha!," erupted the Doc as the Prof's snoring droned on.

The others had to laugh because with the backdrop of the black death behind them, it was both a beautifully touching and excrutiatingly hilarious scene.

  "Rowrr!," went Marzipan again, sounding as though he'd just been to London to see the Queen.

This set the Doc off again and in the end he had to take flight out into the burnt yard. The others laughed some more too. They were laughing at the incredible scene and at the Doc who was doubled over out in the yard beating his hat against his knee. It may  not have appeared that funny to an innocent bystander. To the Doc though, knowing his old mate like he did, it was an absolute scream. He knew only to well that the Prof prided himself on being totally in control of every situation that he was in. He knew also that for the rest of their lives, every day, he was going to remind his friend that he could attract a pussy even when asleep on a dead planet. The others were also laughing heartily. They were aware that their mirth was momentarily curing them of their fear of the unknown. Then the Doc pointed back at his mate and called him...Dangerman.

It was a reference to the fact that Yolanda had initially thought that the Prof could be a heavy.

  Well, they let them sleep because no one had the heart to disturb the Prof and no one was insane enough to even think about deliberately waking Ben. So the others went back inside and had a cup of tea and shared stories. It seemed only natural, given that it was the end of the world, that they should join forces. Thus, in the days that followed, Doc and the Prof set up residence in the shed. They made repairs to both the shed and the house using whatever they could find. They managed to roof the lounge room again and also a back bedroom. It all looked a bit like the back streets of Bombay, though it was quite functional. They also cleaned the stove out and fiddled with the chimney and the water pipes. When finally they had hot water, they each had an absolutely fantastic bath in a bathroom which had not one square inch of roof on it.

Underneath the kitchen floor became a paradise to them. From there they extracted the most incredible array of neccessities. They had jars and jars of rice, lentils, other grains, crushed garlic, spices, herbs and God knows what else. They had tins of this and that. They had medicines, booze, coffee, tea, smokes, needles and thread and seeds. They found other stuff as well, although they treated the seeds like gold nuggets. The Doc and the Prof lost no time starting a garden off. They scraped the ground where Carol insisted that the chook pen used to be and used the result as fertilizer. To their noses it smelt like good shit and further on down the track their noses and Carol's memory were to be proven correct.

  By the fourth day of their combined adventure, the smoke was almost gone. The cloudy, blue sky that replaced it was like a shot in the arm to each and every one of them. They started to whistle and sing as they went about their work. Having sorted out what they had down below, the girls put most of it back and shut the manhole cover. A group decision was made that it would be best to keep the stuff hidden in case any very bad, very hungry people showed up. It was a possibility that they had to consider and consider it they did. The boys got the house's dunny going and that was another huge high because they were 21st century humans. It was essential that they have somewhere comfortable to shit. Even though the dunny didn't yet have a roof, it had an umbrella that leant against the dirt wall and a button to push. There were no complaints. Not even from Ben.

About their only downer was the sore on little Susie's neck. She also developed a bit of a fever. Seeing as it was quickly established that Doc and Prof were only nicknames that the boys had for each other, Susie's sore and condition became a communal affair. Stuck up the far end of the lounge room, at least during the day, little Susie received more attention than the Queen. Even Marzipan came in every now and again and purred his way around her mattress. Puss, was in fact, a big hit with everybody. He was the only other animal species in sight and he too got the royal treatment. His only rough customer was Ben, whom he soon avoided unless he was sitting half asleep with one of the others.

  On the fifth day, Doc, Prof and Ben managed to score 3 big marron from the holding net in the dam. They used a mixture of chookshit and boiled rice as bait, having made some bait bags up with pieces of an old stocking that Carol had found in the bedroom cupboard. The following day they set off at dawn and returned on dusk with heavy sacks strung over their backs. Although the sacks were only old pillow covers, they were stuffed full of small spuds. That night, as they pigged out on carbohydrates, they made another group decision. The next time, only one of the men would go. Nothing had happened this time though they couldn't shake the feeling that so far they had been incredibly lucky. Given human nature, they considered that somewhere up the track there had to be some trouble. Then they made another spontaneous decision to enjoy their good fortune while it lasted. When the kids were all asleep, Carol poured them a stiff whisky each and they toasted Ted's genius in stocking the house with catastrophe provisions. They toasted Marzipan, the kids,  life and the human spirit. Then they toasted each other because in roughly six days, they had created the perfect society. They had no leader and they had no weapons of war yet they had a heap of that fine and mighty element which bonds human to each other, on this side, and on the other. They had respect for each other's spirits in a dreadfully dark, though exhilirating hour.

 In a way, it was ironically unbelievable, considering that the end time phenomenon was upon them, that they should find themselves endowed with a renewed thirst for life. They were going to get through this shit they told each other and they were going to do something that had never been done on the planet before. They were going to make a heaven for themselves, the kids and for any other light hearted soul who came along and wanted to join them. They would not, they ruled, tolerate violence or greed. Work, play and love were all to be shared. The penalty for violence was to be complete ostracism, for ever too. One warning and then out, that was to be it. No mucking about, unless the circumstances were extraordinarily exceptional. In the dim candle light, sipping whisky, they made plans to develop a back door that they could withdraw to in the event of the coming of violent types. It would have to be not too close and not too far away and well camouflaged, Doc suggested. As well, they decided to develop alternative hiding places for their food.

   Of course, they also laughed merrily at the quite real prospect that they might be members of a very select few who had survived the fires. Possibly, they might never see any heavies or anyone else either. The next group to them might be hundreds of miles away and in a life and death struggle to find food. If lady luck had been unkind to them, they might even be dead already. The Prof had rigged up a radio transmitter in the lounge and every night he'd tried to raise something on it. All there ever was though was fizz and crackle. They took that as a sign that no other survivors had yet reached their level of technological sophistication.

The Doc put forward the opinion that the gas which had wiped out human civilisation was hydrogen. He told how he and the Prof had been in the hills above the city when a 50 foot wave of fire mysteriosly materialised and blew in off the coast like a stiff sea breeze. He described how they'd run like mad men in hell for a cave whilst the tidal wave had roared its way inland, towards them.

  "We were lucky girls! We were so...so lucky," he said with a shake of his head.

  "That fire took out a lot of evil but it also wasted a lot of good people," commented Peg as she dragged thoughtfully on her fag. She was only allowing herself 3 a day because of their rationing. When she said what she said it reminded the others of loved ones and friends that had perished in the inferno. There was a quiet period as they each thought of souls whom they were grieving for.

  "At least it would have been quick," mumbled the Doc eventually.

The Prof shook his head in agreement.

  "Fucking quick!," he added with a sarcastic grin.

There is a lot of anger associated with the death of loved ones and looking at the expression on the Prof's face opened them up to that. They bitched a bit about the unfairness and injustice of it all and told their stories of loss. They emotionally purged each other somewhat and then went to bed. Carol and Peg had a bit of a sniff as they went to sleep, so did the Doc. The Prof however twisted and turned as a whole lot of stuff that he'd been suppressing bubbled to the surface. Around 4 in the morning he threw in the towel and got up to have a cigarette. He was on 3 a day too, though he was desperate for something to cool his nerves. He was leaning against the foot wide compressed gravel window sill, staring with moist eyes through the windowless space, when something on the other side of the dam caught his eye. The Prof had been feeling all sad, lonely and blue about his deceased wife, remembering how comfortable it felt to rub his legs against hers in the wee, early hours of the morn. The flesh really is a killer when seen only from a one dimensional, emotional perspective. Sadness is akin to being like a rag doll that has had the shit blown out of it by life. Loss, or the sensation of it, is very third dimensional stuff. When Prof saw what he saw out in the paddock though, he instantly forgot the gut wrenching past and brought himself into the gut wrenching present. His sadness exploded in an instant because he was tremendously scared and absolutely fascinated at the same time.

  What he saw looked like a series of lights joined together. The lights were shaped like an egg on its side and the thing was moving about. He reckoned it to be about the size of a bus. It was hovering around and moving up and down like it was in some sort of computer game. The Prof was completely bemused. He strained his eyes as the weirdness descended and landed on one of the dam's walls. Then, as his heart pumped at a generator's pulse, he saw something either get out of or break off the egg shape. Whatever it was, it was also made of coloured lights and it moved like lightning down the dam wall and headed towards the house.

  "Doc!," screamed the Prof.

  "Doc!," he yelled again at the top of his lungs.

Doc bounced out of his bed as though it was the start of World War 3. The Prof quickly told him what he'd seen. By this time however the egg shaped thing had vanished.Neither could they spot the runner from it. The Prof stuck to his story and insisted that they proceed immediately to the house to investigate. So they did. They found nothing and achieved nothing except to wake up Carol. She came out to see what was going on and the Prof blurted out his story about the egg shaped coloured lights that had landed on the dam wall. Well, it was dark and freezing and Carol didn't know what to make of it. She put it to the Doc who calmly told her that he hadn't seen a thing, though he didn't doubt the Prof's word. And he didn't either. Since the turn of the millenium, UFO sightings had increased a 100 fold as had the rumours that Earth governments had been dealing with alien cultures since way back in the 1950's. The Doc was very open minded and he felt safe with the reality that in an infinite universe, most likely there was an infinite variety of life. As soon as it was light, they checked the dam out. There was nothing however to suggest that ET had landed. Not a damn thing.

 

 

                                                                     *

 

 

  It was around dusk, the same day, when Ben was playing behind a mob of gutted trees. He was crouched down watching a fight between two monster bullants. Yolanda had checked on him, spotted what he was doing and returned to the house. She knew that he could sometimes squat for ages to watch ants and it was now her policy to give him the odd 5 minutes of complete freedom. This had been worked out with the others. It was drummed into Ben by everybody that he was never to go on the other side of the fence unless one of them was with him. Every night they'd hit him with this golden rule. The Doc had even warned him that if he ever did go on the other side of the fence, that he and the Prof would pull his pants down, turn him upside down and drop a bullant down his bumhole. The threat had set Peg off into a cackling, coughing fit. Little Susie, who was still bed ridden, had laughed as well. Her sore was taking an eternity to heal and she was still feeling poorly. Every group has to have at least one member who's sick. It looked like in this one that it was little Susie's turn to take on that role.

  Ben was watching a monumental battle of elaphantine sized jaws when he felt something strange, but very nice. It was literally in the air to his left, so to speak. It caused him to stand bolt upright. At the same time his bottom lip dropped in awe. A cheeky smile came across his face. In his vast unconscious universe, in that supernatural realm that is the common denominator for all of us and all of the others too, something clicked. He felt no fear. He was however, absolutely fascinated by the something that was in the air. What he was looking at was another series of coloured lights strung together. This time, the shape was that of a small, conventional flying saucer. It was hovering some 10 metres in the air above the gravel road, near the spot where Ben had first encountered Doc and the Prof.

  Young Ben Hall let out a delighted laugh and spread his arms out to make the T shape. He tipped ever so gently to his left hand side. He did this on a child's whim.

The saucer shaped oddity did exactly the same thing.

Ben squealed with joy and bent quickly back the other way.

The coloured craft followed him again.

The kid absolutely roared with laughter because he had the power, there was no doubt about that. So he got into a great game of follow the leader with the lit up disc in the sky. It was definitely not solid, though it was not a gas either. They even swapped roles. Sometimes it followed the lad's movements and sometimes it cued him to follow it.

  Thus Ben was sideways bent touching his left toes and the saucer was tipped on its side to the 90 degree vertical when Yolanda strode briskly around the corner and once again, froze. They had heard Ben's roars down at the house and she had been sent to investigate the origins of his hilarity. Her grasp of reality was so challenged by the strange lights in the sky that she had no idea what she should do. Later on though, she was to come to love the sight that was currently so confusing her. The brilliant lights were so seriously bright and real that they demanded respect. The saucer tipped towards her suddenly, imitating what a cowboy would do with their hat to say howdy.

  "It's saying hello to you Yolanda!," roared Ben.

  "Now you have to say hello back."

Yolanda bent her head and shoulders forward, like the Japanese do. Considering the situation that she was in and the fact that she didn't have a hat on, it was a natural response.

The saucer tipped again.

  "Ben," she said gingerly, keeping her eyes firmly locked on the thing.

  "Your mum wants you to come inside for dinner."

  "Awww! I wanna play some more with my friend."

  "You can play some more tomorrow."

The saucer then settled the issue by fading away. They returned to the house where an extremely excited Yolanda told Peg and Carol all about it. Carol raced outside and screamed out for the men. She kept one firm eye on the direction where the kids claimed they had seen the thing. Doc and the Prof came belting down the track thinking that there was some serious trouble going on. Instead, they found Carol pointing statue like in the other direction.

  "The lights!," she blurted at them as soon as they were in range.

  "Ben and Yolanda saw those lights that you saw Prof. They reckon that they were shaped like a flying saucer though, not an egg."

As though they were on some sort of mad fox hunt, the boys took off again in that direction which Carol was pointing. They again, found nothing. Upon returning to the house, they eagerly pumped the kids for every bit of strange information that they could get out of them. The lads asked everything apart from the name of the character or characters who were piloting the crazy apparition.

  That night, as the adults ate alone around their knee high, makeshift table, they discussed the trouble that was obviously upon them.

  "Well obviously some one or some thing is watching us," drawled the Doc as he munched on a lentil burger. What he was eating had no bun around it, though he still liked to call it a burger. He did this because it was the only way he could get it down without any sauce on it. It was not tasteless though. The girls were both vegetarians and they knew how to put flavour into their food. The Doc however, missed his meat like he missed his woman. Who got fried in the big one.

  "Could it be Big brother?," asked Peg sarcastically, in reference to the assertation that they were being watched.

  "I hope not!," barked Carol. "I think that we've had more than enough of that rubbish."

  "Whatever it is, it's not from our reality," said the Prof, sounding tremendously erudite.

The others looked at him as though he really was a professor. He sure looked like one, sometimes.

  "Well where do you think it's from Prof?," Peg asked with trepidation.

The Prof leant back and let out a big sigh. He fiddled with his fork which was more of a black colour than a silver one. The light from the candle on the table lit up the wrinkles in his face and brow. He certainly had the appearance of having been in a revolution or two.

  "I've no idea really Peg," he said eventually.

  "However, I think we are going to have to come to terms with the fact that some sort of alien culture is obviously observing us and that they may try and contact us. In fact, from what Yolanda and Ben said, they already have."

  "Aliens!," exploded Peg, hoarsely.

  "For fuck's sake...I thought that you were going to say it was irradescent swamp gas or a weather balloon or something! As if we haven't got enough on our plates. First of all this wretched planet blows up and now we've got electric aliens showing up at all times of the day and night!"

She let out a big exhale and reached for her third ciggy of the day. The hand that she used was shaking slightly.

  "Sometimes I wonder what we ever did fucking wrong, you know? Trouble's like a boomerang with us, isn't it? And everything was just going so smoothly, apart from Susie's sore and fever. We should have known," she stated with a hefty sigh and a stern shake of her head. "There's always shit up ahead. Shit behind and more of it ahead. That's life!"

The others looked at each other. They had to agree with her. It seemed that being human did involve having trouble follow you around like a bad smell. Trouble was like your bum. It was always there, right behind you and every now and again it demanded that you wipe it clean. What was even more ironic was that they had anticipated and indeed expected future problems to come from the ground level, not the sky one.

  "Look...," drawled the Doc as his mind delved deeper into the mechanics of their problem.

  "They could be friendly. We've got a 50 - 50 chance of that, you know? They obviously played some sort of game with Ben. Maybe that's all they want. Maybe they just want to play."

  "Yes Doc!," Carol roared.

  "But if we can't trust what's on the ground, how in hell are we going to trust something that comes out of the sky? Con artists are all the same, you know? They always butter you up first. Myself, I'd prefer that Ben played with the ants. I can see them and I can squash them, if I have to."

  "A good point Cas," remarked Peg as she nodded her head in agreement. She then looked out across the verandah at the wasteland outside. It was lit up by the moonlight and it was as eerie a sight that could possibly be. Ciggy smoke drifted out of her nostrils as her face screwed up with perplexion. You could have driven a motor car over her facial muscles.

  "What in God's name could an alien species possibly want with this hell hole?," she asked the others, and God.

  "They can come out of the non matter zone into this one in an instant and vice versa," mumbled the Prof. He clicked his fingers loudly.

  "Just like that!"

The Prof had been recently reflecting more on the alien's technology, than on anything else. He was not the first to do this. Neither was he the last to realise that this was not the proper focus to take.

  "We've only three choices, as I see it anyway," he told the group.

  "Either, they're explorers or they're conquerors, or they're both."

  "Oh Christ!," drawled Peg.

  "That's all we need! An alien Columbus with a whip."

  "It would be nice if they've come to pass on some of their knowledge to us," reflected Carol as she got up off her milk crate. She came back a moment later and plonked something on the table.

  "I'm going to have a joint!," she proclaimed boldly.

Peg squealed and laughed loudly.

  "You!," she roared.

  "You haven't had a joint in years. You know it spins you out."

  "Well you're all puffing away like dragons, so I thought I'd join you. Only, I'm not smoking nicotine, not any more. And considering the weirdo bloody hour that is upon us, I don't think a little spin out will do me any harm. Do you Peg?"

  "I never said it would Cas. I was just saying that you haven't had one for ages."

  "How long since you smoked pot, Doc?," the Prof asked with a funny eye on what Carol was dragging out of the small coffee jar.

Doc's eyes headed for the ceiling. You could see that he was counting the years in his head.

  "Must be near on 20 years Prof," he said when he had finished his computations.

  "Same here. Want to join me if I roll one up? I reckon Carol's got a point. It seems like the hour to get good and stoned and, we don't want to waste the whisky, do we?"

Doc's eyes headed for the ceiling again. Eventually, he shrugged his shoulders and agreed to a puff. It didn't really matter to him one way or the other, it was just that he didn't want to let his mate down. Peg felt the same way about Carol and she also said that she would indulge.

  When Carol tipped some of the pot out into the middle of the table, Peg leant forward and smelt it.

  "Smells like shit," she commented.

  "Looks like it too," said Doc.

With the papers that had been in the jar with the stuff, Peg rolled a little one of straight dope for Carol. The Prof rolled a big one which had nicotine in it as well. The big one was for the other three  to share, which they did. The effect was, not long after they'd finished, that none of them could move. They were shock frozen in space by the strength of it. The stuff was actually exceedingly potent and it had been brewing under the floor for over a year. So a bit with that extra boot.

  "Jesus Christ!," exclaimed the Prof.

  "What in the hell was that? I feel like the 5:15 just ran over me."

Carol had gone absolutely white, as though the blood had completely drained from her. Peg's throat felt like the roof of the Marble Bar pub. She was desperately trying to get up to get some water for herself and Carol. Noticing her trouble, the Doc fetched it. He was the least effected of the group. Mainly because each time the joint had been given to him, he'd had one quick puff and passed it on. The others however, had sucked on it. Especially the Prof.

  When you get good and stoned, you blow your reality base to bits. This can be either exciting or frightening as the altered ego tries to come to grips with the wider identity of multi dimensional, ethereal spirit. A quiet period thus descended on the group as they dealt with the illusion of being overly exposed to each other.

Then Peg screamed and pointed out into the yard.

  "Holy shit!," she cried out.

  "It's back."

The others either had to turn around or turn sideways to see what she was yelling about. They did this slowly, partly because they couldn't move any faster and partly because they didn't really want to look. Now, they all knew, was definitely not the time for trouble. They were just too stoned.

As soon as they were all focussed on it, it tipped once or twice towards them. They all remembered what Yolanda had said and bowed forward slightly. It tipped again. Then it completely flipped 360 degrees, twice. First forwards, then backwards. It rolled towards them flipping and came right up close to the big window that they were all gawking through. Then it retreated doing backwards flips.

  "What's it saying?," exclaimed Peg.

Carol couldn't take her eyes off it. She was absolutely mesmerised by the fiercely bright coloured lights that made up the saucer. So were Doc and the Prof.

  "It's telling us we've flipped out," Carol said dryly.

  "That'd be right," commented the Doc as the strangeness vanished again into the dark night.

  "I think it's going to be another 20 years before I have another one of them," the Prof confessed to him later, after they'd finally managed to drag themselves back to the Ritz, as they now called the shed. Once they'd reached their beds, they went to sleep quickly. Just like their civilisation had recently done. Just like light spirits do when they inhabit flesh bodies. They were far too stoned to worry about anything in either the matter or non matter worlds.

 

 

 

 

                                                                  *

 

 

 

 

  Early the next morning, around 3 am when the humans were all fast asleep, the saucer appeared again over the dam. It morphed into the egg shape which the Prof had seen and once again, something either split off it or came out of it. The shape, as it had done on the previous night with the Prof, moved quickly towards the house. It looked like fast moving streaks of light.

 When Ben walked out onto the verandah, just before 6, there was a being standing there. He was of medium height and build and he had very blonde hair. He was holding Marzipan in his arms and staring up at the sky. Ben came up behind him slowly with curiosity bubbling in his veins. The bloke was talking to the cat and watching the sky as though he was mesmerised by it. It was indeed a beautiful sunrise. The first rays of the dawn were just creeping over the land. The sky was full of clouds that looked like balls of red wool. They were floating lazily across the horizon as though they were monuments to the essence of time itself.

  "Hello Ben," the being said without turning around.

  "How do you know my name?," Ben asked him straight back.

  "The wind told me it."

  "The wind! That's silly."

  "No it isn't. The wind talks to me all the time. Doesn't it talk to you?"

The kid had to think about this a bit. As he did so he walked over and stood by the being's side.

  "It messes my hair up," he said after a while.

The new bloke laughed and in one swift motion he bent down and picked Ben up. The young fella was not frightened. On the contrary, he felt very much at peace with himself and with his new friend.

  "See that cloud up there?," the new friend asked him as he pointed it out.

  "Uh huh!," replied Ben.

  "Isn't it exquisitely beautiful?"

  "Uh huh!"

The being turned at last. He looked straight at the little guy.

  "You're exquisitely beautiful too, aren't you?"

  "Uh huh!"

  It was at this point that little Susie emerged from out of the back bedroom. She was rubbing her eyes and had intentions of having a wee before promptly returning to her bed. Bed was where Susie still spent most of her time. When she saw Ben and the stranger though, she was somehow mysteriously drawn to them. She walked over to where they were, observing that they were staring intensely at the clouds.

  "Wake up little Susie....wake up," the being sang as she drew nearer to them.

  "The old world didn't have much of a plot...but the new one...she's super hot."

  "Who are you?," Susie asked with an incredulous grin.

  "He's the Cloud Watcher!," roared Ben.

The being looked at Ben as an absolutely enormous smile burst upon his face.

  "Yes!," he said.

  "That's right. I'm the Cloud Watcher."

  "That's a funny name," said Susie.

  "How's your sore?," the Cloud Watcher asked her.

The lass's head dropped a bit.

  "It's a piss off," she mumbled to the floor.

  "Come," said the being, ever so gently.

  "Let me fix it for you. You know, I am spirit and so are you and as spirit we can heal anything."

A strange expression came onto Susie's face as the Cloud Watcher put Ben down. She really didn't know what to make of the new arrival. Marzipan meanwhile, had long ago decided that three was a crowd. Beside that, he'd smelt a rat. Like all cats, Marzipan lived exclusively for the hunt.

  The new bloke reached over and rubbed his right palm around in the air behind Susie's neck. Immediately, Susie felt all of her sickness go. It was as though every cell in her body had instantly been cleaned of poison. She felt a tremendous surge of raw energy go through her. She was once again as alive as an 8 year old should be. Pretty soon, after a wee, she and Ben were playing loudly out in the yard, throwing a dirty old tennis ball around. The Cloud Watcher was out there too, watching both his beloved clouds and the kids. Every now and again he caught the ball and threw it back to one of them. The ball also seemed to develop a strange habit of curving in the air and going straight to him when he wanted it. Even if it was headed for one of the kids, he would sometimes end up with it.

 The ash had now cleared considerably and here and there, green stuff was shooting up out of the ground. Recent drizzly rains had soaked the wind cleared ground just enough to initiate the rejuvenation process which would inevitably restore the Earth to its former glory. So the new world was definitely coming on as Peg opened the heavy bedroom door to investigate the squeals of laughter outside. A flick of her eyes as she'd woken up had told her that little Susie was not about. With a mother's concern plastered onto her face like stretch marks, she strode through the doorway into the early morning light and promptly let out a horrific scream. She spotted the unknown stranger immediately and noticed that he was extraordinarily close to her Susie and Carol's Ben. Alarm bells went off in her brain as warning pistons started belting against her inner ears. Her hair, which was already jutting out sideways from her head, appeared in places to stand up dead straight. Peg made one of those instinctually intuitive decisions that mothers are famous for. Like the foreman of a building sight who has spotted a slack labourer, she took off at full pace in the Cloud Watcher's direction.

  The scream woke Carol who appeared in the doorway just as Peg reached the latest arrival. At the same time, Doc and the Prof came belting down the track again. They had already been awake  chatting when Peg had sounded off. Like a couple of firemen, they had taken off immediately that they'd heard her cry out. Instinctually, like tribal people, they and Carol moved rapidly towards the trouble.

  "Who in the hell are you?," a stiff Peg demanded of the stranger as the others bunched up behind her.

  "He's the Cloud Watcher mum," Susie told her.

  "He fixed my sore too."

Peg investigated the child's neck and let out a little joyous cry. Carol and the men had a look as well. Yolanda appeared and peered at it too. They couldn't figure it out. Where yesterday Susie had had a hole with pus in it, this morning she had perfect skin.

It was unbelievable, uncanny, unheard of and unknown to them that such rapid healing could take place. It was absolutely fantastic. It was in fact, a small miracle. The tribe immediately warmed to the stranger who was smiling so benevolently and child like at them. They invited him inside as a fellow survivor who had obviously wandered in at dawn. He looked really clean too, which they took as an indication that he knew how to take care of himself. They threw caution out the window because it was that sort of time. Also, the being radiated this warmth that was impossible to resist. He appeared so simple and innocent.

  The adults still had their back of the mind doubts, of course. Having been brought up on the mythology that when the Devil or AntiChrist showed up again, he would be in sheep's clothing, it was hard for them to completely shake the negative. The Cloud Watcher also did stuff that did arouse their suspicions that something was definitely up. He was such a polite, loveable oddball though that they couldn't help liking him tremendously. So they accepted him as a fantastic asset to their growing group. He was obviously some sort of healer. In a way, he was the complete opposite of the violent type that they had expected to show up, sooner or later. He was also a hell of a labourer. He could do heavy stuff easily for hours, without sweating. One day, the Prof swore black and blue to Doc that he'd seen him near a large rock that was moving through the air. The Doc and Prof had then taken off for afternoon tea, using that as an excuse to discuss the Cloud Watcher's latest strangeness. When they'd returned, he'd finished the rock wall that they'd all been working on. Doc and the Prof had just looked at each other with strange expressions. They knew that the job should have taken the three of them a day and a half, at least.

He had a list of strange behaviours. They never saw him eat or drink. At meal times he would excuse himself and disappear. Doc followed him one evening. He returned to the tribe to inform them that the Healer was out the other side of the house doing that which he was prone to do at any time of the day or night. That is, he would suddenly stop whatever it was he was doing and stare up at the clouds. Then he would talk about them as though he knew each one personally. Holographic masterpieces, he would call them. It was like he just loved that stuff in the sky that others take for granted.

 Another one of his pecularities was that there was sometimes a time delay in some of his communications. Mostly, he spoke in one liners. Quite often, when he was saying something, he would verbalise a host of words until he found the one he liked the most. Then he would go back in conversation and say it all again with his favourite word included. Then he would laugh uproariously and proclaim loudly that he....loved the words on this plane. The rest of the tribe had no choice but to consider him, slightly eccentric. He just had such an unbelievable enthusiasm for every thing though that it kind of infected the others. They seemed to be laughing about stuff a lot more than they had been before his arrival on the scene.

  "I've never seen him shit!," commented the Prof at dinner on the fourth night of the Cloud Watcher's arrival.

  "You've never actually seen me shit either and you've known me for over 45 years!," the Doc roared back at him.

  "You know what I mean Doc. He doesn't use our boghole up there and he never uses the dunny down here. Have you ever seen him wander off like us and have a leak? I haven't."

  "Well maybe he's got his own boghole somewhere. Maybe he can hang on a lot longer than us to his shit and piss. I knew a guy in a wheelchair once who could hang on to a slash for near on two days."

  "Why in the hell would he want to hang on to it Doc?"

  "How in the hell would I know? Why don't you ask him? Maybe, considering he doesn't eat or drink, he doesn't have to go."

They all looked at each other across their Japanese level table. There was something that each one of them wanted to get out in the open. Eventually, Peg said it in her husky, hoarsey voice.

  "He's an alien, isn't he? He's got something to do with that saucer, hasn't he? We haven't seen it again since he showed up."

  "It's...quite possible," drawled the Doc.

There was a bit of a silence as they considered the truth that they'd been trying to politely ignore.

  "He doesn't mucking sleep either," the Prof said eventually.

  "He lays on his bunk all night with Marzipan on his belly and they rowrr-rowrr to each other all night long. I swear too that they're actually talking."

  "He's been doing stuff with the kids as well. Every time they come back from one of their walks with him they're just so...so..," said Peg.

  "Exuberantly alive," Carol cut in. "They're high!"

  "Exactly," laughed Peg with a nod of her head.

  At this point, the Cloud Watcher came back inside and sat at the table with them. Marzipan trotted in after him with his tail up in the air and a rowrr directed at all and sundry. Puss wandered around the table a bit, then got into a rowr-rowr session with the Cloud Watcher.

The Cloud Watcher turned to Carol and addressed her in his usual, serene tone.

  "Marzipan asks if we could lift the manhole cover up. He wants to eat and there is a rat or two down there, he says. He can't get at them because the hole that they get in there by is too small for him to fit through. Would that be okay Carol?"

As he spoke, Marzipan waited by the stove. He sat on his rear like he was on a throne then looked back at a smiling Carol as though he was the one doing the talking.

Before Carol could say anything, Peg strode to the corner by the stove and ripped the cover open.

  "They're all yours puss!," she roared.

Marzipan slipped down the hole. They heard bumps and fierce growls. A while later, he emerged with a huge rodent dangling from his jaws. Its incredibly thick tail was dragging on the floor and it was still twitching. The killer had blood all over his whiskers. The rat had blood matted into some of its fur. All in all, it was a pretty gruesome sight.

  "Go Marzi!," screamed Peg as the successful hunter trotted towards the door.

Peg followed puss to the doorway.

  "Any time you want that old manhole up Marzi...you just come in and rowrr!...Old Peg, she'll heave it up for you," she hollered after him.

 

 

 

 

                                                                *

 

 

 

 

 

 

  The following day, late in the afternoon, the Cloud Watcher and the kids were taking one of their walks. The adults had decided not to confront the alien with the obvious fact that he was an alien. They didn't want to stir the pot. Besides that, he was their friend. They were almost convinced that he had to be some sort of angel. It figured. The beginning of the Bible was full of angels and so was the end. They were definitely in the last chapter of something. Having a being of the Cloud Watcher's power and persuasion hanging around doing good deeds was almost, too good to be true. They decided to let any confrontation over species origins ride and to keep a gentle eye on him. Especially when he was walking with the kids.

The two mothers were having an afternoon snooze. Doc and Prof had volunteered to shadow the walkers for them. The whole property was fairly flat anyway. It was so burnt that there were only a couple of places where the party went out of sight, and only for a couple of minutes or so. The boys were in their vegie garden mucking around. Every now and again they sighted the group then bent back down to attend to their growing business. Unknown to the adults though, the Cloud Watcher had been using the walks to talk to the kids about the spirit world. In fact, he had been doing a lot more than that. He had actually gone back in there a couple of times and he'd taken them with him. Yolanda had already had several astral experiences in her dreams, so she knew straight away what he was on about. She knew instinctively that he was a messenger from the floaty world that she liked so much.

  Susie and Ben too, understood his stuff, in their own respective ways. They too knew the floating body. Also, they'd had experiences in their lives when they'd seen other floating bodies. Susie had actually had a lovely spirit hanging around her when she was 4 to 5 years old. She'd called the visitor...Pella. The adults around her at the time had assumed that she'd created an imaginary friend. For a while they'd laughed at her. Later though, their faces had developed more serious expressions as they'd simultaneously instructed her to cut it out. Because, so they thought, you cannot live inside imagination. In itself, this is very contradictory thinking because the entire third dimensional, matter plane is the result of an unbelievable, giant, holographically projected imagination.

The Cloud Watcher also told the kids that the floating body and their attached spin off bodies, lasted forever, whereas the heavy ones that they were in now didn't. He preached to them that they were talking secret stuff too and that if they told their mums, the Doc and Prof about it, most likely, they'd all get into big trouble. He'd literally instructed them to keep their traps shut, knowing that sooner or later, one of them would have to let the cat out of the bag. Were he playing chess, it would have to be said that the Cloud Watcher was about a dozen moves ahead of anyone else.

  "You can't teach an old dog new tricks," he'd said to them.

  "All that you will do if you try is scare and confuse them. It's a waste of energy until they wake up to their own illusory nonsense. You are different though children, you know my world and you love it like I do. You know that it is our home world and you are not afraid of it. We will explore it together by ourselves. When the old matter dogs want to know the new spirit tricks, they will come and ask us about them. We'll tell them all about this stuff then,." he'd stated with a smiling face and a couple of jet fast winks.

The kids wanted to know though why the adults were afraid of the floating body world. He told them that they had been taught to fear it.

  "They had funny teachers..," he'd commented.

  "With strange, matter biased, matter orientated ways of thinking. A teacher on the outside is just a disguised, glorified student, kids....The teacher who lives on the inside however, is your spirit. Spirit is the one to trust and follow because only it will lead you home. Only it can blend the inner with the outer. The others can't because they don't really know anything about the spirit world. They just know about 3D survival and money. Or rather, they used to."

  When one considers the age of these three children here, it may seem that they were far too young to deal with the stuff that the Cloud Watcher was into sharing with them. Especially Ben and little Susie. However, if it is acknowledged that the spirit lives only to sing, to dance, to excel in the creative spheres, to float, to fly and above all else, to have fun....and more fun, it's not that difficult to comprehend why the young trio went for the astral stuff. Going back into the spirit world was indeed like going home for them. Every time that they went in there with the Cloud Watcher, they had an absolute ball. The new bloke showed them a host of tricks that their associated and affiliated floating bodies knew anyway. So it wasn't that they were learning new stuff, they were just remembering the old, old ways of the spirit. They soon grasped the 360 degree rotational vision that is associated with the astral worlds. They enjoyed immensely their telepathy as well as being able to morph their light forms. Being able to change shapes delighted their 4th dimensional and 5th dimensional senses. It was like they had been let loose in paradise.

  This particular day was no different. They always did their thing behind the cover of the far dam wall. Here they had nearly 3 minutes of Earth time and a heap of astral time to really muck around. They were playing with the saucer's astral representation when the Doc straightened his stiff back. He took his beat up old hat off his head and wiped the mild sweat off his brow with a rag. He looked down the length of the property, noticing that the walkers had gone out of sight. The Prof stood up next to him and repeated his recent behaviour. He too looked past the dam. He too was waiting for them to come back into view. Despite the love that they felt for the Cloud Watcher as a strange though mighty clever new brother, they always became nervous when he was totally out of sight with the kids. It was just a feeling that they had that something funny was going on behind that far wall.

  Smiles came across their faces as Ben eventually came into view. He was running and periodically jumping into the air. Little Susie followed shortly after. She was also running. Every now and again she did a set of very neat cartwheels.

  "God!," sighed the Doc.

  "What I've give for a drop or two of those kid's adrenalin Prof."

Prof grunted. His mind was on something else. A serious expression on his face let this be known. His nose was twitching. It looked like he was smelling the heavy, cool air.

  "There's some conflict coming laddie!," he drawled to the Doc, who went a bit stiff upon hearing such dark news.

The Prof tapped his nose.

  "Me old blower can smell it," he said confidently.

The Doc's eyes widened.

  "It's not going to have anything to do with us Doc. Not directly anyway."

Doc let go a sigh of relief. The prophet was pleasing him, for once. There was some good news in amongst the bad.

  "It's going to be between the new brother and the mother girls. That's...that's where the fireworks are going to be," stated the Prof in his usual erudite fashion.

The two of them looked to where the Cloud Watcher and Yolanda were strolling along at a leisurely pace. They were side by side and appeared to be in deep conversation. Yolanda was, naturally, very fond of the Cloud Watcher. They often held discussions together, particularly at dusk. They would watch clouds and chat whilst the other kids had their nightly wash.

  "I wonder what they talk about all the time?," the Prof asked his mate.

  "Ten to one Doc, whatever it is, it'll lead to the trouble," he added without giving the Doc a chance to answer. That was fine by Doc because he really didn't know what to say.

  The boys were about to get back down to business when loud screeching sounds shifted their entire focus upwards. The noises cut the still air like a dozen razors all slashing at once. They were being emitted from the throats of several black cockatoos. The large birds were about 30 feet above them. Doc and the Prof could clearly make out the deep reds of the underneath side of their tail feathers. Likewise, they could see the same bright colour on the tops of their heads. They were a spectacular, most welcome sight. They were the first bird life that they'd seen since the fire took everything out. They represented that sort of life that a human likes to have around.

The next thing that Doc and Prof knew, there was another screeching noise coming from out in the paddock. By this time, Carol and Peg were up and about as well. They were walking towards the garden and looking over to where the Cloud Watcher was calling out to the birds. He sounded exactly like them too. The birds started to circle where the new bloke and Yolanda were. Then, one by one, they floated down with wide open wings and landed near them. Down at the garden, they heard a lot more screeching.

  "He's doing his Dr Doolittle bit again with these birds," a smiling Prof told Peg and Carol as they approached.

The tribal elders then observed the birds take flight back into the air. They headed their way as did the Cloud Watcher and the kids. Eventually, the two groups of the tribe met at the garden. The cockatoos landed nearby.

  "Our friends are very hungry Carol," said the new bloke.

  "They have flown a long way looking for something to eat, without success. Could we possibly spare them some boiled rice?"

  "We'd have to take a group vote on that Cloud Watcher. You know how precious food is to us?," Carol answered him.

There was no great debate though. Everyone just nodded okay straight away so Carol and Peg headed promptly into the house to fetch some from their never idle, black pot. The birds ate their full then took to the sky again. They flew to the dam and drank heartily from it. The ash covered surface had now cleared in places to expose patches of lovely, light blue water. As the cockatoos drank from the dam's edge, Marzipan appeared on top of the far wall. He paced up and down a bit, let out a rowrr or two and then promptly disappeared again. The birds flocked into the air once more. They circled the humans on the ground emitting tremendously loud screeches.

  "They're saying thank you," said the Cloud Watcher.

Then he too let out a couple of noisy, high pitched screeches and Peg's ear drums did suffer. Because, she was closest to him. As the cockatoos flew off he turned to the tribe again.

  "Our friends will be back," he commented.

  "One fine day."

 

 

 

 

                                                                *

 

 

 

 

 

  That evening, Doc and the Prof were leaning on their foot wide window ledge enjoying their last smoke of the day. They were listening to pleasant sounds. Off in the distance, they could hear the odd frog croaking. It was by no means the fanfare that you would expect from swampy ground. It was however, along with the shoots coming up, evidence that the Earth was bouncing back from the destruction wrought by the massive fires. So was other stuff that they were starting to see again, like the miraculously spun spider's web outside their back door.

  "Jeez...I could use a rut!," said the Doc casually, out of the blue like.

  "I'm going to have to top the old fella sooner or later Prof, or I'll think he'll top himself."

  "Rut!," went the Cloud Watcher in the background.

  "Rut!"

The new bloke was sitting on his bunk with Marzipan on his lap. He was gently stoking the cat's neck and puss had his neck arched back and was really digging it. Every now and again he let out a contented, rolling purr.

  "Rut!," went the Cloud Watcher for the third time.

Doc and Prof turned around thinking that the new brother was making fun of them, or something.

  "Sex!," said the new brother as he started to vocalise words that he'd been running though his fertile mind.

  "Screw, copulate, fuck, fornicate, tumble, shag, lay, hump,...make love, quickie, have it off.....The insertion of an erect penis into a moist vagina. The reproductive act. A bonk. The..."

  "Yeah righto mate!," drawled the Doc dryly as the Prof grinned at him.

  "Rut's good enough cobber. If you keep going on the way you're going, I'm going to have to go and sit down on the other side of the dam wall for a while."

  "Ha! Ha! Ha!," exploded Prof.

  "Might have to join you Doc! We could have a duo," he roared.

  "Ha! Ha! Ha!," erupted Doc in response to that.

  "Why do you do that?," enquired the Cloud Watcher as he pointed at their cigarettes.

Doc and the Prof looked at the glowing red sticks that were positioned inbetween their fingers.

  "Because we're stupid bastards," the Doc said.

  "It'd be safer to put them in your other hole, you know?"

  "Yeah! We know mate! But it's about our last remaining bad habit. We wouldn't be human if we didn't have at least one bad habit, would we Doc?," said Prof.

  "Nahhhh! We wouldn't mate. We'd be squeaky cleans, wouldn't we? Which brings me to the point that we'd better ask the sheila with the golden fingers...how many are left."

The Prof's eyes widened as he fought for a moment with the chronic realsation that squeaky cleaness was definitely imminent. It was something that he'd been trying his hardest not to think about.

  "Might have to go Jehovah Doc...," he drawled eventually in an exceedingly dry, heavily sarcastic tone. "It sure looks like we made the 101,000 club anyway."

The Prof spoke perfect Australian.

  "Could be on the cards mate..," the Doc answered in a replica voice.

  Watching and listening to the two humans, the Cloud Watcher kept smiling. It was clear that the intensity of their contact absolutely delighted him. His face beamed as though it was slightly on fire. On the Doc's and Prof's side of things, they felt like they were sleeping with Jesus. Well, they were sleeping in the same shed as he was. Jesus, not that they knew him personally, was whom the Cloud Watcher reminded them of. He was just so serene and quietly spoken all the time. They'd been waiting patiently for him to get angry about something. So far though he hadn't. He also talked about some of the the craziest stuff. It had the Doc's and Prof's brains spinning in a circle sometimes.The three of them and Marzipan had become very close. They had talked about stuff that would be double Dutch to the average human.

  "Why don't you go down to the house and rut Carol and Peg?," the new bloke asked them suddenly.

  "Ha! Ha! Ha!," the Prof exploded.

  "Why don't you?," the Doc asked him.

  "It's not my thing," he answered solemly. "I'm not equipped for that sort of stuff. Not this trip anyway."

  "We don't want no trouble mate," said the Prof, wondering about what the Cloud Watcher had just said.

  "Those girls are like daughters to us. They saved our bacons. We owe them and we aim to look after them and the kids until hell freezes over. Don't we Prof?"

  "That's right Doc! That's dead right."

  The Doc was looking at the new bloke in a funny sort of way.

  Rowwrrrr.....said Puss as he trotted confidently out the door.

  "Rowrr..," the new bloke answered him.

The Doc was considering the taking of a punt. He no longer considered asking the Cloud Watcher about his origins to be dangerous. Like the Prof, he was dead keen to know about them.

  "Who are you mate?," he asked.

The Cloud Watcher smiled benevolently back.

  "I am a spirit of the Spirit," he said congenially. "Who are you?"

A tepid smile broadened on the Doc's face.

  "Well, my real name is Max," he stated eventually.

  "Mad Max!," quipped the Prof.

Doc looked at him and nodded the Prof's way.

  "He's Sam," he said.

  "Sarcastic Sam!," he added.

  "Mad Max...Sarcastic Sam...who are you really?," the Cloud Watcher asked again.

The Doc and Prof eyeballed each other. So many times in conversation with him they felt like they were playing chess and that he was delliberately holding back on the killer move in order to prolong the game. Other times, strangely enough, they felt like they were looking after him.

  "Aren't you spirits too?," the new bloke enquired.

  "Yeah!," drawled the Doc as he let out a little belly laugh.

  "I guess we are, ay Prof?"

The Prof had to agree. Despite the over powering fact that they were hopelessly lost in a mad matter world, he had to agree.

  "Spirits are multidimensional identities, aren't they?," the Cloud Watcher  reasoned.

  "We are quite capable of bouncing our soul's various parts around inbetween different realities. It's really quite alien for us to lock ourselves up on one reality level, no matter how exquisite the matter composition is there. Isn't it?"

The other guys nodded their heads in agreement. They weren't exactly sure what he was saying. They just knew that whatever it was, he was right. The Cloud Watcher was just that sort of type.

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                     *

 

 

 

 

 

 

    The next day dawned with a burning hot sun that was most unusual for so early in October. The Doc had one lazy left eye just open when Ben burst through the door. The kid was as alive as the sun and he was soon bouncing from bed to bed making a hell of a racket.

  "Get up, y'lazy buggers!," he roared as he sprung onto the Doc's bed.

Ben loved the men's shed because he could just about say and do what he liked there. The Doc though was quick off the mark. He grabbed the little punk's foot and dragged him up the bed. Then he attacked his guts with a heavy tickling motion. Ben squealed with laughter as Marzipan decided that it was time to quit the building. He jumped off the Cloud Watcher's stomach and took off out the door at a phenomenal pace. The Cloud Watcher sat up wearing an enormous smile. He grabbed one of the kid's feet and started to tickle it too. Ben just about left the planet as he writhed this way and that in an attempt to escape the divine madness.

  "Jesus!," moaned the Prof as his head emerged from underneath his bed coverings. Secretly though, he was delighted. There was something about having a 4 year old around to love that enormously pleased them all. The kid had such a diabolical gusto for life that they literally fed off him sometimes. Neither Doc nor Prof had a woman to hug anymore. They often hugged Ben in play though. His physical touch was ointment for their nerves and his mental frequency reinforced their reason for being. The Cloud Watcher too treated Ben as though he was vitally important to the future big picture. Doc and Prof however, still had no idea of the stake of his investment in the matter and non matter aspects of the situation. They had niggling suspicions but nothing concrete was yet open to them.

  The day proceeded smoothly. After a breakfast of canned peaches and rice cakes, the boys set about watering the garden and doing the other chores which were essential to their survival. They had to scrounge for wood, burning stuff whose surface was carbon black. Sometimes it was hard to tell if there was anything left to burn. Ben helped a bit, inbetween bouts of intense ant watching. By 10.30 though it was stinking hot. The lads had retreated to their shed to escape the blasting sun. The thing about being out in the open that had hit them so much was that there was absolutely no shade. Until the trees grew back, they were going to have to, when it got hot, retreat to their makeshift verandah. This consisted of 3 black poles supporting a lean to roof made of black sticks, chunks of old lino or carpet and charred black pieces of galvanized iron. It did the job though.

  Their seats were burnt 4 gallon drums. The Doc and Prof were sitting sipping on some water, enjoying their first fag of the day, when the Cloud Watcher started gazing down the track towards the house. His attention grabbed theirs, their heads swivelled right. Their fags just about popped out of their mouths when they saw what they saw. They couldn't believe their mortal eyes. Doc's bottom jaw looked like it was about to pull his pants up. Prof's looked like it was going to untie his shoelaces. The Cloud Watcher stood up with a look of animated intensity on his face. They had arranged the weather so and this is exactly what he had wanted. In fact, he had an agent because Yolanda had pushed for it to happen.

  She was side by side with Peg and Carol on a bare breasted walk to the dam. She wore her small, firm, round breasts proudly and she was smiling vividly up the track at them. They all still had their knickers on. Towels were draped over their arms. They looked slightly alien to the rest of their arrangements.

  "Holy shit!," mumbled Doc as his eyes feasted on the swinging boobs.

  "Down boy!," Prof grumbled to his groin.

They stood their gawking as the girls approached. The Cloud Watcher gawked with them. From the expression on his face, it was evident that he was making all sorts of computations, somewhere. As the wenches got closer, the view of the male trio seemed focused on their nipple areas.

  "Boys!," Peg roared in greeting at them from 5 metres away.

  "Girls!," the men nodded back.

The girls came within a couple of feet. Their soft, sensuously shaped flesh set the Doc's and Prof's hearts racing. The Cloud Watcher seemed bemused, which was extraordinarily unusual for him.

  "In the new world boys," Peg said to them,...."when women want to safely bare their breasts and go for a swim on a stinking hot day...then they do...bare their breasts."

Carol laughed as they continued walking. Yolanda did too. Ben took off from his seat, intent on being the first one to the dam. From the shade of the shed's foot wide window ledge, Marzipan watched the goings on with an intense interest. His stiff, white whiskers bent this way and that as he deliberated about following the walkers, to see what they were up to. Little Susie ran up from the house, yelling out like a mad woman for the others to wait up. She flew by the shed, bare chested and full of energy.

 Rowrr...the Marzipan went after deciding to stick with the shade.

 The men stood around talking about what they'd seen for a while and then the Cloud Watcher headed for the dam. He came over the western wall and confronted the girls in a most animated fashion. They were waist deep in the water cooling off as he pointed at them, or more specifically, pointed at their breasts. The girl's wide floppy hats dipped slightly as a gust of wind blew across the surface of the patchy blue water. Their undies were saturated and it was possible to just see the black matting of their pubic hairs. They looked like something out of an erotic movie. The water that they'd splashed on their chests dripped off their nipples slowly. Even Yolanda was a stunning sight. Her moist, shining body was angelic perfection.

  "Breasts!," roared the Cloud Watcher, still pointing.

  "Mammary glands! Boobs! Norkas! Cleavage.....tits!"

  "That's right!," roared Ben as he looked up from the pile of mud that he'd been building in the shallows.

  "Tits! Bloody beautiful tits!"

  "Ben!," Carol exploded at him.

  "Stop it!"

  "They fill with milk for child rearing, don't they?," the new bloke asked.

Peg and Carol looked at each other and their eyes went up to the stinking hot blue sky.

  "Could I possibly have a look up your vaginas sometime? I'm very interested in your reproductive design and..."

  "Look mate!," said Peg dryly as she cut him off.

  "If you want a bonk, just say so. Don't beat around the bush with this reproductive crap. I've heard some crazy come ons in my time, but that's ridiculous."

The Cloud Watcher seemed bemused, again. It was a ploy because he was really literally, light years ahead. On the ethereal levels anyway.

   "I don't want to bonk Peg," he said eventually.

  "I want only to...."

At this point, Doc and the Prof came striding over the western wall. They were stark naked and their cocks were swinging from side to side like pendulums.

  "Ha! Ha! Ha!," Peg roared. She obviously considered the sight of the floppy dicks to be entertainment plus. For some reason.

Ben looked up and saw that they were exactly the same as him, only bigger. He had no idea what the fuss was all about so he put his head back down to the job at hand. The boys entered the water splashing water everywhere, at everyone.

  "In the new world," roared Doc,..."when the boys want to skinny dip...."

  "They do!," said the Prof as the two of them submerged.

When they came back up and adjusted their eyes, they observed that the Cloud Watcher was stripping off. Then, both the boys and girls received a tremendous shock. They had guessed it anyway. The confirmation of their suspicions was still enormously frightening though.

  The new bloke had nothing to indicate what sex he was. There wasn't a pubic hair or an appendage anywhere. He wasn't a bloke after all. He wasn't anything. The tribe wasn't in danger, they were just confronted with something that was totally different. That was the way they had to see it. The Cloud Watcher came into the water splashing too. Soon, there was a hell of a water fight going on. An observer happening on the scene would not have guessed that there was an alien in the tribe. Pretty soon, as the game wore on, neither did its participants. It was an Aquarian festival where the love and joy in the air greatly over ruled anything else. The nakedness brought them all closer together in ways that lifetimes of dialogue could not have done. The fact of the reality that they were capable of having such fun in such a dark hour was a miracle. They celebrated the spirit of life and the Cloud Watcher kept smiling as though they'd all had a great victory over that pattern where trouble repeated itself, time after time.

  "No wonder it...I mean he, didn't want a bonk," Peg quipped to Carol later on as they were walking back to the house. Both of the big girls had expressions on their faces that suggested they had a happening embroglio on their hands.

  After a light lunch, the Prof and Doc rigged up coverings for some of their seed trays. They had a few beans and some corn popping up and were taking no chances. After that they sat on the house's verandah and chatted with the girls for a while. Doc played some cards with Susie and Ben and Marzipan sat on the wall with the Cloud Watcher. The Cloud Watcher was talking with Yolanda, who was also sitting on the wall. Every now and again the Prof shook his head as he heard the words...frequency rates. Carol and Peg sat down too. The heat put a stop to everything until an hour or so before dusk. Then Ben took off to go ant exploring and Peg and Carol went into the house to prepare tea. Ten minutes later, Doc and the Prof were moving off for their shed when Ben came flying back around the corner of the house.

  "Doc! Prof!," he roared as he pulled up in a fluster.

  "Bad men coming! Got gun! I saw them!," he roared, pointing towards the front gate.

For a second, the boys froze. The news stunned them. In the past week they had completely forgotten that in this world, you can't have one without the other. They had one angel with them, now it looked like fate was sending them some devils to balance things up.

  "How many Ben?," the Doc finally managed to ask as his body vibrated slightly.

Ben held up 3 fingers.

By this time the girls were on the verandah. Carol grabbed Ben. She screamed to Susie to come out of the house. They only had one plan and that was to get lost quickly. They were moving off when Peg exploded at Yolanda for her apparent nochalance. Yolanda though had spotted the astral form of the saucer moving to the road. She had seen the funny bright lights. She was not in the least bit worried. She told Peg not to fret because the Cloud Watcher would deal with it.

  "What!," Peg squawked at her.

  "You heard Ben young lady. They've got a gun! Now move!"

  When they looked around for the Cloud Watcher however, he was gone. He had strolled calmly off in the direction of the trouble as soon as Ben had announced it. The Doc and the Prof noticed with concern where the freak was headed. They called out to him that he was a bloody idiot and to come with them. He just kept walking though. The tribe had no choice but to fall back to the hide out without him. Doc eventually broke ranks though and ran at full pace to where the new bloke was now striding towards the 3 bad men. He pleaded with the Cloud Watcher to fall back with them until they could observe the nature and strength of the enemy. The alien told him that the enemy concept was pure, unadulterated illusion. He stated matter of factly that he would deal with the situation. The Doc babbled at him some more. He didn't know which way to go. Eventually, he played tag. He was 20 metres behind the new bloke when he caught his first sight of the three bad men.

  They were spread out across the gravel road about 50 metres down from the main gate to the property. The Doc saw that one of them had a sawn off shotgun and another a pistol stuck in his belt. The third had a short, thick black club that he was belting into the palm of his hand as they walked slowly along. They were filthy dirty and were scowling as though they were looking for a scapegoat at any cost. It was also obvious that they were exceptionally hungry. The Cloud Watcher ceased walking 30 metres or so down from the front gate. He stood smiling at them from the middle of the road. They came within 5 metres of him and stopped dead. The one with the shotgun levelled it so that it was pointing at the Cloud Watcher's belly. The one with the pistol rested his right hand on its handle. The third whacked his club menacingly into his other waiting hand. He spat a big wad of slag out. Like the others, he wore the face of hate and intense hunger.

  "Well! Well! Well!," drawled the one with the shotgun.

  "And what have we got here?"

The bad man eyed off the Cloud Watcher's peroxide blonde hair.

  "Looks like we gotta fuckin' faggot! Does that look like a faggot to you Bernie?," he asked the one who was playing with his pistol's handle.

  "Sure looks like a faggot to me Si...," the second bad man agreed.

  "I suppose that you were deep in a cave hiding your loot when it happened, were you lads?," the faggot asked them quietly.

The three bad men looked momentarily stunned. They made strange eye contact with each other.

  "How the fuck did you know that?," Shotgun asked him in a heavy tone.

  "An educated guess...," the blonde said with a little sigh.

  "Well, I'm sorry boys...but you're not supposed to be here. And please, this isn't personal. It's just...that you're not supposed to be here. The hologram has changed and you're out of fashion."

The blonde held his hands up as though he was about to start preaching. It was a sign.

  Yolanda saw it from deep in the burnt paddock. The girls had halted at the fence line as a very heated Prof had gone back to see what had happened to Doc and the new bloke. Yolanda saw the astral saucer dip sideways towards the ground. It was 30 metres above the action on the road which she could not see because of the distance and burnt vegetation. The 12 year old also saw the saucer fire something. They were like little pulses of green light. The others saw nothing, not even little Susie or Ben. Yolanda was the only one in their group who was currently capable of using her inner sight.

Down on the road, the two men with guns screamed. The one with the shotgun dropped it and the other wrenched his pistol out of his belt and threw it to the ground. The weapons were soon red hot. They glowed then melted into a pile of rusty red ash.

The three bad men looked at the piles with horror impregnated on their faces.

  "What the fuck!," they growled to each other.

  "Holy shit!," mumbled Doc as the Prof came up from behind and grabbed him roughly by his right arm.

  "What in the hell are you doing, y'maniac?," the Prof roared. "You know what the bloody plan was..."

  "He just melted their guns!," the Doc barked back at him as he pointed agitatedly at the action further up the road.

  "What?," squawked the Prof, who had not seen what had happened. He had been too interested in getting hold of his mate and giving him a shake.

  "He melted their mucking guns laddie!," roared Doc as he threw his hands into the air to clarify his point.

  "Poof!," he went. "All gone! No more.... bang bangs."

The next thing that happened was that the 3 bad men spontaneously combusted. Yolanda saw the saucer instantaneously suck 3 dull, dirty red cell, sack type things on board. They had moving lumps and bumps on them, as though there was something inside their constitutions that was struggling to get out. She smiled serenely, secure with the knowledge that it was all over. At least, she knew that on the ground, it was all over for three bad men.

  "What the?," exploded Prof as he both saw and heard the intense explosions of flames. He and the Doc watched the performance with astonishment literally etched into their rather, crease lined faces.

When it was all over, the three winners gathered around the ash which just about represented all that the 3 bad men had contributed materially and spiritually to the Earth.

  "Jesusssss!," drawled the Doc as he tried to come to grips with what he'd just seen. He booted at a bit of ash, as if to justify to himself that it was really there.

  "You've killed them mate," mumbled the Prof as he too stumbled with the shock of it.

  "Well and truly too. Forget the burial patrol Doc, no need to fetch the shovels."

  "Nahhhh!," drawled the Cloud Watcher as he sauntered off.

  "I didn't kill them. I'm no murderer. I just disincarnated them...that's all. They weren't supposed to be here and that's all there was to it....I told them so too. I told them that it wasn't personal."

Doc and Prof looked at each other and grinned like lucky monkeys. Acting on some sort of subconscious impulse, they took their battered hats off.

  "Remind me never to pick an argument with that bloke Doc...will ya?"

  "I will Prof....I will."

The Prof then turned his attention to the ground.

  "Boys!," he drawled as he held his hat in both hands at groin level. The Doc was doing the same.

  "Ashes to ashes and dust to dust and right now...that's you. Can't say as we ever met...and well, I'll have to admit lads to being kind off glad about that. Fact is though that the Doc and I know that there's good in every soul...somewhere...so, where ever you be boys, the best of luck to yuse."

Prof finished up with a bit of a nod to the ground, as if they'd really heard him.

  "Amen!," drawled the Doc sombrely in the background. "Catch yuse later....maybe."

The boys turned and walked back towards the gate as the rest of the tribe came out of there. Carol and Peg wore worried frowns as they rapidly approached the men. Peg was pointing back towards the house and gesticulating ferociously.

  "He said he disincarnated them, or something," she blurted at them. "What does he mean?"

  "Go and have a look for yerselves," drawled the Doc.

  "Their ash is up there. He cremated them, on the spot. I've never seen anything like it girls, neither has the Prof. He just took them out. I don't know how...but he fired them. Well and truly. Let it be said, the three bad men now no longer have material bodies to mess around in. They will never carry guns again. And God bless God, if he's around."

  "No need for prayers girls," commented the Prof dryly as he and Doc strolled off.

  "They've been said."

  Gingerly, the girls pushed on down the road, not really knowing what to expect  Ben and little Susie stayed with them. They ran ahead towards the ashes with their mothers calling out to them to wait up. Yolanda went the other way and ran ahead of Doc and the Prof to catch up with the Cloud Watcher. The two men watched her red hair bouncing up and down as she ran by. They smiled pleasantly, pleased by her pretty, youthful exuberance. It was good for them to have kids of all ages and sexes around. It warmed their aching, though still buoyant hearts.

  "Fuck a duck!," mumbled Ben as he crouched over the ash impression of Shotgun Si. It looked like he had gone down on his back and his arms had come out in a T as he'd hit the road. The other two, Pistol Bernie and Club unknown, looked much the same. That is, they had also made the T shape as they'd hit the ground.

  Peg and Carol couldn't believe their eyes. They kept looking back in the direction of the house wondering who the sexless, incredibly powerful humanoid was. In a way, they were scared shitless even though it was the three bad men who had gone down. It was like now that they knew the full extent of the visitor's power, they were 50 times as curious as to what it was he really wanted.

Because, they were human and they knew instinctually, implicitly and intuitively that everybody, even God, wants something. There were things happening in their minds leading them to the daunting suspicion that what the Cloud Watcher was really after had more to do with their kids than it did with them. They were mothers and despite that they liked, yay, even loved their new friend and brother...their hen instincts were starting to take over. Doc and Prof always kept them imformed of their shed discusssions with the new bloke. They knew that he was some sort of spirit from the other side. There was something funny going on that they just quite couldn't put their fingers on though. They trusted him 100 percent with their kids because he was who he was. They knew he was an angel or something. They knew that he'd never ever harm any one of their brood. But why, they kept asking themselves. If he's from that side, why is he spending so much time on this? His annihilation of the three bad men had saved their bacons. They told each other that he might have come for that purpose, to save their bacons. They knew though that there was more to it. They knew by the expressions in each other's eyes.

  Down past the house, Yolanda caught up with the Cloud Watcher. He was standing out in the yard staring at a particularly fluffy pack of white clouds that were edged by a polite, soft greyness. They were not rain threatening clouds. They were rather horizon hangers of the finest quality, seemingly painted there by some ethereal artist using the master magician's brush.

  "Extraordinary!," he commented as the lass approached.

  "Holographic perfections. Pure thought in one of its most alluring forms....genius of the highest, highest order," he stated emphatically.

Yolanda pulled up and stood beside him. She gazed at the wool packs in the sky and thought them wonderful too. For a moment or two, she expanded her consciousness and travelled in the spirit to where the clouds were. She felt their weightlessness and their total lack of fear. She rolled with them like a whale in the ocean, free as an atom in the sky. The Cloud Watcher went into the air with her and for a short while they positioned their expanded consciousnesses up and down, in and out, all over and around those clouds. When, with a slight thud, they came back into their bodies, the visitor smiled benevolently at the child. It was clear that he was delighted with the speed of Yolanda's development. He looked down her soul's path and saw great and mighty fantastic happenings. He knew that the day was coming when she would fully awaken to her multidimensional spirit self. Then, all of the real power in the universe would be right at the tips of her ethereal fingers. She would want for nothing after realising that she had always had everything unconsciously anyway. She would be a princess of her spirit tribe and if anyone ever cried for her matter form, it would be for the pure appreciative joy of the aesthetics of her constitution. She was destined to assist in altering that human pattern where things always went from better to worse and to create a new one. In this new pattern, stuff would just get better and better and better. Forever too. She would also never be alone because wherever she went, whole hosts of various spirit tribes would go with her. She would draw them into her constitution and they would draw her into theirs and together they would draw stuff in space that would blow the minds of even the highest, most advanced and most powerful ethereal entities. That was the future as the alien saw it.

  The Watcher communicated these things to Yolanda through the air. He never vocalised a word. She smiled back at him calmly as a gust of wind caught her hair and blew it gently around. She looked down towards the gate as her mother and the others came through it.

  "They think that you're some sort of miracle worker, you know?," she said softly to him.

A broad, satisfied smile unfolded on the visitor's face.

  "Let them think that for a while," he answered verbally.

  "It won't hurt them. I'll tell them what really happened....one day."

At this point, Ben and little Susie arrived yelling that they wanted to go for a walk around the dam. Peg and Carol however insisted that they come inside and bathe and have tea. The children protested furiously, especially Yolanda. They were digging their heels in and standing their ground when the Cloud Watcher walked off towards the shed.

  "Do what your mothers are asking you to do kids," he said as he breezed by them.

That was the end of it, sort of. Before he'd gone 10 paces, he virtually disappeared. It was like he sunk into the air. The kids laughed as they walked towards the house.

  "Show off!," Yolanda cried out with a giant smile.

Carol and Peg were left standing white faced, knowing full well that some sort of battle had well and truly begun. They didn't know exactly what it was about...but they knew it was on. Warrior expressions came onto their faces as their brow's tightened. They conversed a bit over the significance of the visitor's vanishing act. They tried to figure it all out. They tried to slot it in somewhere to comprehend this strange connection that the new bloke had with their offspring. That appeared difficult, even impossible. They just didn't have enough information to compensate for the feelings that they were getting. So it didn't take them too long to realise that they really only had one option.

They would have to ask him the 6 million dollar question, or questions.

Like, who are you really and what do you really want and what is this strange aura that our kids develop whenever they get around you?

They knew that he would answer that he was a spirit. The big girls however had intentions of pumping him until he revealed the deeper side of the mystery. They would not allow him to palm them off with his fancy philosophy. As far as they were concerned now, they were in some sort of war with an angel. They didn't like that. They didn't like it one bit. It appeared though that they had no choice in the matter. They were hoping like hell that it would be a short, quick war and that he would give them the information they wanted with the minimum of fuss.

  With all this in mind, they went inside to begin the nightly performance. Hours later, as was their custom, the Doc and Prof came down from the shed for the evening meal. They played with the fizz and crackle of the radio for a while. The boys had recently done another spud run and when a bowl of golden, crisp hot potato nuggets appeared on the table, their stomachs just about went mad. They turned the fizz and crackle off and were into the salt long before the radio had cooled down. They ate merrily, chatting amiably across the Japanese level table. Ben and Susie were now in bed. Yolanda, as befitted her position as the maturing teenager, was eating with the adults. The men noticed that the two mothers kept looking at the redhead with suspicious airs, as though she'd done something wrong, only they didn't know what it was. Doc and Prof raised their eyebrows to each other a couple of times. In the body language of the male, they communicated to each other that the trouble that Prof had psychically predicted, was about to start. They could tell because Peg and Carol were definitely not themselves. They were talking in short one liners and seemed preoccupied with something. Their tight looks told the boys that they wanted Yolanda out of the way first and then, no doubt, they were going to voice their worries.

  This is in fact, the way it happened, despite that the lads bounced out of the blocks to do the cleaning up in order to get out of the house quickly. Yolanda, whilst they were hard at it, said good night, pecked everyone on the cheek and split for her bed. Immediately, Peg and Carol cornered the boys at the kitchen sink. They initiated a conversation with them that centred around the elusiveness of what it was that the Cloud Watcher was doing with their kids. They discussed the powers that he or it had recently displayed. They pleaded with the Doc and Prof for any clues as regards what was going on that they might so far have not thought about. It was no go though. Despite that the obvious was staring the 4 of them in the face, they just couldn't figure it out. The reality that the children were sometimes sinking into the air with the Cloud Watcher was so horrific a possibility to them that it was totally alien to their considerable imaginations.

 The mothers took it for granted that, because he was their friend, or used to be, he would never take their kids into his world without their explicit permission. The boys also had never entertained this notion. They most certainly respected him and they assumed that he respected them. It was inconceivable now that they were good mates that he would violate their trust in any way. Besides, as any good third dimensional parent knows, journeying into the spirit world could be a kind of suicide for the too young. To give permission for siblings to do this would be just about impossible for anyone using only the normal, mundane senses. There would have to be extremely unusual circumstances for a mere mortal to approve such 3D perceived, radically inappropriate and terrifyingly dangerous behaviour. Humans do that sort of stuff when they're dead. They don't do it whilst they are alive, at least not whilst they're awake. That is basically, the law down here.

  Eventually, the one, lonely candle that they were using gave out. They decided to call it a night and head for the grace of their respective beds. The Cloud Watcher was on his bunk when Doc and  Prof returned to their shed. Marzipan was in his usual spot, curled up on the visitor's belly. The boys were uneasy now. The women were upset and they wanted to do something about that. The new bloke could help them out if he'd only open up with something firm about the matter. Something that they could understand. Eventually, the Doc asked the visitor outright if he was doing anything with the kids that he shouldn't be doing...with them.

  "No," the visitor replied in his usual calm, serene voice.

  "Are you sure?," asked Prof, pushing it.

  "Yes, I'm sure."

The boys nodded to each other. They could tell that he was telling the truth. They knew that it would be impossible for him to lie anyway. He was a good angel and good angels don't lie, they thought. They calmed down a bit as the memories of stuff that had happened during the eventful day ran through their minds.

  "Mate...," said Doc the Cloud Watcher's way.

  "Yes Max."

  "Thanks for taking care of the 3 bad men for us. You did us a big favour. What about doing us another one tomorrow? Have a chat with the girls, will you? They've got it in for you recently, for some reason. They think that you're fucking around with the kids somehow. Just lay it on them that it's cool, will ya? For Christ's sake."

  "Earth women like to be reassured about stuff every now and again," stated Prof from the prostrate comfort of his bunk.

  "They like to know that they're still attractive and loveable to you and they like to know that you're not messing with their kids. It's because the kids come back sky high from their walks with you that they've got their backs up. There's some other stuff too that's getting to them too.  And er...your vanishing act this afternoon mate. I think they'd prefer that you didn't do that in front of the youngin's."

  "Why not Sam?"

  "Well...er, it's just a bit too far out mate. It scares them."

  "It doesn't scare the kids though. They like it. I'm only going home, you know?"

  "We know mate!," roared the Doc as he palmed the air apologetically the Watcher's way.

  "This is Earth though, not...wherever it is that you call home."

  "On Earth," added the Prof in his dry, nasal twang.

  "The stuff that you do at home, you don't do out in the yard or in the street. Not unless you want to get arrested or shot at. Or...that's the way it used to be anyway."

  For an hour or so, the three brothers talked. There was a bright moon in the sky and the interior of the shed was bathed in patches of a silvery white light. Outside, the ghostly silhouettes of burnt black tree trunks still dominated the landscape. The Doc and Prof received a big surprise when the new bloke suddenly stood up and announced that he had to go for a while. He told them that he'd be back soon and exited the shed into the eerie sight outside. Marzipan immediately curled up on his vacated bunk and made himself extra comfortable. The boys got up and stood at their foot wide window ledge. They saw him walk towards the dam. They saw the egg thing manifest and then come down and bounce gently like a balloon on the western wall. They saw him alter into a form that looked like thousands of little lights strung together.

He went into the egg thing which then ascended slowly back into the moon lit atmosphere. The boys shook their heads and went back to bed. There was absolutely nothing else to do. They'd smoked their day's ration of fags and there wasn't anything to read, munch on, drink, watch or listen to. There was no one to rut either. About the only consolation they had was that they could still talk to each other and when they became sick of that, they could go to sleep and dream. Dreaming was about the only thing that hadn't changed in the horribly frightening transition from the old world to the new one. It was still the cheapest, safest and most readily available means to escape the stifling omniprescence of their solid matter, reality zone. It was almost, in a crazy sort of way, like going home. The boys loved to dream. There was an extra bonus too because it gave them something different to talk about. Doc and Prof loved to bounce their dreams off each other. It was a passion with them and it is with many others too.

  Around 10 o'clock the next evening, the visitor reappeared. He wandered back into the shed nonchantly and resumed his prostrate position on his bunk. Marzipan made room for him and then resumed his normal position on the his belly. They rowr-rowred at each other a bit.

  "Gidday mate," said the Doc amiably as a smiling Prof nodded a greeting the visitor's way.

  "Howdy," the Watcher answered them.

  "Everything ok at home?," asked a curious Mad Max.

  "Eeeyep!," drawled the new bloke back. He was becoming very good at imitating their accents and sayings. He was also smiling intensely. The Cloud watcher loved the language of the third dimension, even though he knew it to be totally inadequate for the purposes of full spirit communion. Some words absolutely tickled him pink though. Like mate and tits...and bum, gidday and rut. Fuck also intrigued him. There was this other one too that the Doc and Prof used sparingly, though most emphatically. It usually came out explosively when either they couldn't get something to work properly or they'd hurt themselves, somehow. The Watcher had first heard the Doc yell it out after he'd belted his thumb with a hammer that had had the rubber handle completely melted off it. He noticed though that they never said it around the girls. He'd picked up pretty quickly that the girls didn't really like it, for some reason.

  This highlights what was so peculiar about this relationship between the Blond and Doc and Prof human. Doc and the Prof saw him as being some sort of angel in physical form, where as he was really just another species of being. Humans have been perceiving the Blondes and others like this since antiquity. It's a perception of the same vintage as that of the kid who looks out a train window and thinks that the station is moving.

The blonde Cloud Watcher though, despite his sensational spirit powers, was sometimes almost child like when he was on the Earth plane. Sometimes, for the Doc and Prof, they knew that he was the King, so to speak. Then at other times, he was like a dumb bum. He couldn't make the most simple connections, particularly when it came to their language. For instance, he still had no idea that the c word that the boys sometimes used could also be applied to an anotomical part of Earth females. Namely, the vagina area. As well, when it came to the labouring duties, they always had to show him what to do. Even if he was digging a hole, they had to explain it to him as if he wasn't quite the full quid. Once he knew what he was doing though, he could do it 50 times faster than they could. If they weren't watching him that is. If they had their eyes on him, he went at their pace. All in all, it was a most peculiar affair. Sometimes, it was just about impossible to tell who was the angel and who were the humans, or who was really looking after who.

  They were brothers though. Their conversations had become as free flowing as a wild river. They could say anything to each other and they usually did. The three of them were actually revelling in their powerfully growing mateship.

  "Hey Cloudy!," said the Doc with a cheeky grin the Watcher's way.

  "How did Puss survive?"

Apparently aware somehow that he was now the topic of discussion, Marzipan looked straight at Doc. His yellow eyes flashed as he emitted a slight rowrr.

  "Cave...," said the new bloke.

  "He's told me about it. He was after a rabbit. There were other animals in there who knew that something was about to happen too."

The new bloke looked at Puss affectionately and stroked the grey fur on his back.

  "Marzi was just lucky."

  "Other animals?," the Doc queried.

At this point, Marzipan rowrred a bit more.

  "3 foxes, 5 kookaburras, numerous lizards and snakes, frogs, 2 small kangaroos, 5 crows, several parrots and numerous others...were in there," said the Watcher.

Doc and Prof took this as bunk. They stretched their eyebrows upwards thinking that for sure, their mate was having them on.

  "How come they didn't eat each other?," asked Prof.

  "They called a truce because they knew that it was the judgement hour," he answered.

The Prof nodded. It seemed plausible that the animals, birds, reptiles and insects might do something like this. They might just follow without hesitation the nature currents in the air until the danger was over. Spiders do, so do frogs. They can read nature like an open book. Humans though are different. They are often at war with nature and each other.

  In the bathroom, down at the house, there was a shadow on the wall. It was Carol's. She had her right arm up in the air and was rapidly drying her armpit. Her breasts were wobbling from side to side like  musical accompliments as she did this. Her nipples were pointing at her shadow, most of the time. She was naked and despite that the bathroom now had a makeshift roof, there were open air gaps in other places. It was quite chilly and she was hurrying to get dressed. The candle was on the floor a couple of feet behind her. Her shadow appeared to be climbing the wall every time that she straightened up. Carol had a very nice white bottom that shook a bit as she bent a leg to put her undies on. She only had 3 pairs of knickers and these ones that she was currently using were just about shot. She turned to Peg who was furiously washing herself in about three inches of bath water. They were being careful because they were looking down the throat of summer and as soon as the house tank was dry, they would have to bucket from the dam.

  " What I'd give for seven inches of pleasure tonight Cas...," Peg said with a bit of a husky sigh. She had been washing her vagina area and it had stirred her sexual feelings up a bit. She stepped out of the bath and grabbed her towel. Carol was slipping her jumper on and smiling innocently back at her. She wore a saucy smirk.

  "Not much of a choice in this town," she mumbled back.

  "It's bloody freezing!," Peg groaned in dead set strine.

  "Fuck!"

  "Peg," said Carol questioningly.

  "Mmmm."

  "Ben said something really strange to me tonight."

  "Yeah," said Peg as she hurriedly put her knickers on.

  "What?'

  "He was talking about his dad. He's never done that before. He's never said anything before. I just assumed that he knew that Ted was dead and I've never been able to bring it up with him anyway. I've always thought that it would hurt him too much."

  "Do him good to cry and get it all out though Cas. He's just a little boy. He's not Attila the Hun."

  "It's what he said though Peg. And the way he said it. He said that his dad was really happy and his eyes were literally on fire when he said it. It was almost like he'd seen him recently. I mean he wasn't crying or upset, he was joyous."

  "A dream Cas?"

  "No. It was more than that. He had that glow around his head, like you know, they get after their walks with the alien."

Peg stiffened.

  "The mood I'm in, if that bugger had balls I'd go down there and sit on his face....Might even do it anyway just to see what it does," she asserted gruffily.

  "It's incredible Cas! We just about get blown off the face of the Earth and now we've got this dickless alien to play with. The boys think that it's some sort of angel, you know?"

  Carol laughed sort of as she passed from the bathroom through into the kitchen. Peg followed her out. They made their way to the far end of the lounge room where a small though powerful fire was blazing in an opened, pot belly stove. The girls warmed themselves in front of that element that can also destroy. As the fire's vibrations heated them, they dug deep within themselves for clues to the Cloud Watcher's mysterious influence on their children. It was really bugging them that they couldn't put their fingers on the glue like hold that he had over them. It was almost like if they were ill, he would be the one that they would go to and not them. This really riled them, deep down. They were in fact quite jealous of the blonde even though according to their brainwaves they were just being instinctively protective, like any mother hen would be.

  "Cas," said Peg slowly. She was about to light her third ciggy of the day. However, seemingly intoxicated by whatever it was that she was thinking, she put it back down.

  "The other day, when he sorted out those blokes, did you get a look at Yolanda's face? You know? When I bawled at her to get moving."

  "Yes Peg. I saw it."

  "The glow?"

  "Yeah."

  "I wonder what in the hell it is? I'm sure that Yolanda knew what was going to happen then. Which is strange because these days it's like she's only half here, most of the time."

 "Isn't that what teenagers are like though Peg?"

  "I don't know. I suppose so. She seems to have the dose pretty bad though. And she's always hanging around with that fucking alien staring at the bloody clouds. Christ! How's she's ever going to get a life doing that all day long?"

  "Ben and Susie have been strange too," said Carol as she sat down on an old drum.

  "It's like they're only half here as well....I just can't get over the glow on Ben's face when he was telling me about Ted. It was like he believed that he really had seen him. It was eerie, in a way. I felt also something like a palm brush against the back of my neck. I could've sworn that there was someone else in the room."

  "Him?," Peg asked loudly as she indicated with her head the direction of the shed.

  "No," Carol mused.

  "It wasn't him"

  "How do you know?"

  "I just know."

  "Uhuh. Was it Ted then?"

  "I think so Cas. The touch on the back of my neck was very affectionately delivered. It was electrically crisp too."

  Peg had also seated herself. Their heads dropped a bit as they stared intensely at the fire. Moments later, they had a massively startling, joint realisation about the matter at hand. They didn't even have to say anything either. They just looked at each other and they knew instantaneously by the flash in each other's eyes, the true nature of what had been really going on. It hit them like the Cannonball Express, as did the counter reaction that they must have been blind not to have seen it in the first place. Peg stood up like a Mountie on a mission. It looked like she was intent on getting an astral prisoner at any cost. She stormed out onto the verandah and turned quick right into the back bedroom where they were all still sleeping. Yolanda had not long gone to bed. Even though Peg had never woken a child on purpose in her entire life, she knelt by the 12 year old's mattress and began shaking her arm.

  "Yoll!," she yelled just loud enough not to disturb Ben and Susie.

  "Yoll!," she yelled again, just as Carol appeared close behind her.

Yolanda's eyes flickered open momentarily and then shut again. Peg yelled at her once more and shook her, quite violently too. Eventually the young redhead woke up. She sat up and rested her back onto the wall behind her. She rubbed her eyes and peered sleepily at Peg. Her mother was rather ashen faced and appeared to be trembling. She had a look of such sheer intensity on her face that the red headed kid guessed straight away what was up.

  "Has the Cloud Watcher been taking you into the spirit world Yolanda?," the stern faced, shaking Peg asked.

Yolanda stared back at her mother and for a moment she really didn't know what to say. Then she just told the truth. The Watcher had asked her to do this, should the exact situation that she was in ever arise. She felt it uncanny the way he knew the future.

  "We're only going home mum," she said innocently.

  Peg stood straight up and went as stiff as an ironing board. Her face turned almost crimson. It was obvious that she was extraordinarily angry with the truth.

  "I don't care if he doesn't have balls!," she growled as she went for the door.

  "He's mine!"

  Carol followed her out. She was equally infuriated.

  "Tell them the kitchen in one minute Peg!," she screamed at her friend as she disappeared down the track. The girls had seen the egg thing bouncing around the dam walls earliier on. They were assuming that the alien was back, which he was.

  He was in fact still in friendly conversation with Prof and the Doc when Peg's first calls became audible to them.

  "Alien! Alien! I want you!," they heard her cry out from some distance away.

  "Oh oh!," said Doc as he picked up on the mother's tone. His ears were on full prick.

  "Mate," Prof said to the Cloud Watcher.

  "Whatever it is that you've been doing with the kids, I think that you'd better tell us. Because it sounds like they've just figured it out. Er...we'd like to know what we're dealing with here cobber. The Doc and I aren't that fond of dangling aimlessly in the wind."

The Watcher calmly shrugged his shoulders as Marzipan, reading the signs, shot through. His tail was stiff and almost dead straight as he trotted into the dark, crisp night. Immediately, he looked around with his cat's eyes burning for the hunt. Rabbit was top of his menu these days. He had put a considerable dent in the local rat population. The cat knew though that the rats would be back. It never took them long to build up their numbers again. He moved off with his shoulders going up and down exactly like a Panther's does. His grey fur blended perfectly into the night and he was seeing what was in front of him in crystal clear, cat vision.

  "I've been going home with them," the Cloud Watcher told them. He said it in such a way that he could just have as easily been describing a trip to the corner shop with the kids.

  Absolutely blown out expressions appeared immediately on the Doc's and Prof's faces. They were staggered by the implications of what he'd just told him. They realised that Peg and Carol would be furious and to tell the truth, they were a bit that way themselves. They were looking at him as though he was the Devil's advocate when a storm faced Peg appeared in the doorway. She pointed straight away at the freak. Her face was still a crimson red colour and it was obvious that she was totally incensed.

  "You!," she roared at an absolutely incredible volume.

  "You...you...dickless astral bastard! Get y'fuckin' arse down to the kitchen! We're going to have this out. Doc! Prof! You too! One minute...the landlady said."

  "Riggghhhhhhtttt Peg!," strined Doc as he and the Prof bounced off their bunks.

  "We'll sort this shit out mate! Don't you worry about that."

Peg though had turned on her heels. The Prof just caught a glimpse of her as she sunk back into the dark night air.

  "Jesus mate!," he said to the new bloke as they strode through the door, almost together.

  "The kids are so young! What the fuckin' hell did you think that you were doing?"

  "They may be young on this side Sam, they're not on the other though," the freak answered in his normal, serene tone.

  "Is that your defence?," Doc asked as he brought up the rear. He was using a heavily sarcastic tone.

  "Because if it is, you'd better summon the egg for a getaway. You're dealing with Earth females here old son, not Venusians."

  "We didn't want any trouble mate. We're tired old soldiers of life," moaned Prof as they walked in a bunch towards the house. A hundred metres or so up, they could just make out the dull light of the candle in the lounge room window. There was a half moon out and a few spacey clouds were just drifting by it. The Cloud Watcher stopped to look at them.

  "Trouble never lasts forever," he said in his usual quiet, calm manner. He raised an arm and pointed out the puffs that were drifting by the moon.

  "Aren't they simply gorgeous," he commented.

  "Mate!," said Doc as he grabbed one of the new bloke's arms and dragged him off.

  "You haven't got time for this shit now. You're in trouble and so are we, by implication. But according to the Prof's prophecy, we're not supposed to be in trouble. So something's wrong here. The girls probably think that we're a gang or something. I don't have a good feeling about this Watcher, you know?"

  "Gotta give me 5 out of ten for getting the first part of it right though Doc," drawled Prof.

  "I'd like to give you a good kick up the arse for ever mentioning it!," the Doc roared back at him.

  "Look!," he said again to the new bloke as they cruised along.

  "You're dealing with Earth women here and they are, believe me, in a totally different category to your mob. With Earth women mate, the trouble can last forever. So, you must..."

  "What about the love that you have for them as sisters Max? Does that last forever too?," the Watcher asked the other guy, cutting him short.

The Doc was somewhat taken aback. He hadn't expected such a question and for a split second he had to ferret for his answer.

  "Of course mate," he eventually blurted out. "Of course we love forever."

  "Gems! The lot of 'em," strined Prof sarcastically from the Watcher's other side. "Absolute fucking gems!"

  "The thing is though cob, is that you're down here now mate. Down here, sometimes you get 99 percent love and 1 percent fight and trouble. And then, at other times, which can sometimes dominate the scene, you get 1 percent love and 99 percent fight and trouble," said Doc.

  "It's a fine line Cloudy," Prof added.

  "The trouble won't last for long," the Cloud Watcher told them.

  "Trust me. I'll have them eating out of the palm of my hand before too long, you'll see."

Doc and the Prof looked at each other from either side of the Watcher. Even in the dull light it was clear that they were not as confident about finding so quick a resolution to the trouble as the new bloke was. The nature of the conflict did not rest itself towards a fast fix, they thought. As they rounded the corner of the house and approached the verandah, their stomachs felt slightly sunk. Neither of them had really ever been that fascinated by trouble or the follow you around pattern that it is associated with. They detested friction and the last thing that they wanted on Earth was a ding dong with big girls that they weren't even sleeping with.

  The first thing that they saw as they came into the room was Peg furiously pacing around. She was madly puffing on a cigarette. Carol was down the other end of the room by the stove. She was eyeballing the Watcher off as though he was Godzilla, or one of his close relations. Peg marched straight up to him an waved her fag madly in his face. From slightly outside the bedroom door, Yolanda watched the proceedings with a mixture of amusement and trepidation etched into her face.

  "Have you been taking the kids into the spirit world with you?," Peg spat at him.

The Cloud Watcher stood firm and a slow smile dawned upon his face.

  "They're only going home," he said calmly.

  "There's no need to fear that Peg."

  "You bastard!," Peg roared back at him.

  "What you've done is tantamount to treason!"

  "We trusted you!," screamed Carol as she stepped forward from the shadows. She came up to where Peg was and thrust a penetrating look into the Watcher's steel calm eyes.

  "We took you in as a friend even though we knew that you were'nt one of us. And this...this is the way you repay us. You make us really happy to know you and then you fuck around with our kids behind our backs. You stick astral daggers into us."

  "Through the heart too," said Peg indignantly.

  "You...you fucking scumbag!"

  The Doc and Prof looked at each other and shook their heavy heads. Carol caught sight of their brotherly winks out of the corner of her eye.

  "Did you two know anything about this?," she demanded off them in a police woman's voice.

  "Carol, we knew nothing about it until a couple of minutes ago," the Doc asserted. His hands were in the air and he was kind of pleading their innocence in the matter.

  "Are you sure Doc?," Peg fired off.

  "How do we know that you two didn't come out of that flipping egg thing as well?"

  "Well if we did Peg, we came with a bit more equipment than he's got," said Prof dryly as he head nodded in the Watcher's direction.

  "Why don't you all sit down?," the new bloke asked suddenly.

  "Sit down and I'll tell you a little story. It'll help clear things up for you."

  "Stick your story up your bum!," Peg spat at him.

  "You leave our kids alone! We want them here with us. Not floating around with you in the bloody never never land."

  "The what Peg?"

  "You heard me. You alien shit!"

  "That's a very unusual description of home Peg. You could just as easily call it the forever, forever land, you know?"

  "Don't give me any of that philosophical crap, you mongrel. You leave our kids alone or so help me I'll get a knife and carve you out a bumhole. Free of charge."

Peg had apparently forgotten that the Watcher had the power to burn people up.

Doc and Prof hadn't though.

  "Look Peg," said Doc, cautiously.

  "Why don't we listen to the story. It might help to clear the air. It's a bit rank at the moment."

  "Yes! Do listen Peg. You too Carol," said the new bloke in a different kind of voice. He was using a far weightier tone in his vibratory frequency. It suddenly became exceedingly clear to the humans that he meant business. Simultaneously, they remembered the sort of powers that he had.

  "Sit down please," he said again.

They sat down.

  As cool as a cucumber, the blonde calmly joined his hands behind his humanoid back. He began to slowly pace the room. Every now and then he glanced out a window at the moonlit clouds.

  "Well!," said Peg huffily.

  "Are you going to get on with your story or are you going to spend the rest of the night peering out of the bloody windows?"

  "Yes Peg. I will begin."

  "Huhh! This betta be good, you rotten..."

  "Pehhhggg....," drawled Doc. "Take it easy."

Peg looked across the table through the flickering candle light.

  "You take it easy Doc! I'm still not convinced that you are who you say you are, anyway," she roared.

  "I've never been that much convinced of that either mate," commented the Prof dryly.

He nodded towards the Doc.

  "Certainly not in his case. I tell you, I've seen him act like a Martian often enough."

  "A long, long, long, long time ago, your time, a split second on the other side, one of our thought vehicles had a...sort of an accident here," said the Cloud Watcher quietly.

  "We were playing with time and exploring this holographic world, admiring its immense beauty when something unknown to us happened. It had never, ever happened before and I must state that we were totally unprepared for it."

  The beginning of the story immediately evoked a considerable interest in the humans as regards what the Watcher was saying. In a couple of sentences he had given them more knowledge about himself than he'd done in the previous two weeks. He had told them that he was not alone, that he was 1000's, perhaps millions of years older than them and that the egg and saucer were thought constructs. They had guessed at this anyway. It was obvious to them that they were not physical things. What had really grabbed them though was the word...accident. Suddenly, for all of them, even Peg, the storyteller became more human and less humanoid.

  "This planet has such an incredibly phenomenal pull...," he said as he continued to slowly pace around. "It's such an absolutely fantastic place." His eyes were burning brightly and they could literally feel the immense love that he had for the Earth. In a way, he was talking like a tourist who had gone somewhere completely different and fallen madly for it.

  "We'd visited thousands upon thousands of worlds but we'd never encountered the spiritual attractions that this place puts out. It absolutely...got us."

The humans looked at each other and for the first time in a long time, they actually smiled. This was quite ironic because in the last two sentences he hadn't told them anything that they couldn't already fathom.

  "We were silly buggers really," the Cloud Watcher continued.

  "We thought we'd play hotshots and so we brought our construction to ground. All that we wanted to do really was to form up for a little while and have a bit of a walk around. The place where we landed was a garden of Eden. Its lush greens and sparkling waterfalls bedazzled us. We forgot the time and stayed too long in our semi-solid forms. So...it, this planet, got us. It grounded our ship and we were stuck. Victims of our own love of physical beauty. It was frankly, an unbelievable situation that we found ourselves in."

  "Sounds like it mate!," grumbled Prof.

  "But I tell you what, it rings a bell in my brain. I feel like I've definitely heard something similar to that before."

  "Moi aussi!," commented Doc.

The Prof looked at him and scowled somewhat.

  "No French please mate. It's too exciting for that. Anglais only, if you please."

Doc smiled, irrepressibly so too. The Watcher did likewise as he continued to slowly patrol the room.

  "We were in a right old shit," he said with a bit of an oomph in his tone.

  "The planet had fucked us well and truly and we'd only just got here. We put our heads together. We had just enough juice left to modify our egg before it became too solid. We took the shape of the galaxy that we were in and used it as our base design. We were thinking that if the galactic forces were kind enough they might recognise us and draw us up again. Unfortunately though, we were too far gone. We had become almost as solid as you are now. Next thing we knew we were looking for fuel for our physical bodies and for our saucer. We were still thinking that if we could get far enough away from this world that we would revert back to our former thought plasma forms. This is, in fact, down the line, what happened."

  The humans were now gazing at the Cloud Watcher with intense interest plastered on their faces. Their curiosity levels were at maximum and somehow, someway, they figured correctly that they would soon be in the picture. At this point also, Yolanda came into the room. She stood by Peg who had considerably calmed down. This was the result of a number of factors. For a start, her children weren't dead to this world and she still had them with her. Also, the Watcher's story was absolutely fascinating her and he really was a very difficult guy to resist. It was almost impossible to stay angry with him for too long because he was so exceptionally nice, so extremely well mannered and so phenomenally powerful.

Peg grabbed Yolanda around her waist and gave her a bit of a hug. She reached up and brushed some red locks out of the kid's sleepy face. The mother's eyes were delicately moist. Doc and Prof were looking at both mothers and they were collectively thinking about what the Watcher had said to them earlier on. They were remembering that he'd said calmly and not at all boastfully, that he would have the girls eating out of the palm of his hand, before too long. The way things were going it looked as though he was about to perform another miracle right in front of their eyes. There was a sparkle in the women's pupils now that had definitely not been there prior to the story. There was a sparkle in Yolanda's eyes too. It matched the one that the Watcher was wearing. Whenever these two looked at each other, there seemed to be little psychic explosions going off in the air.

  "We soon realised that we weren't up to scratch when it came to physicality. We tired easily in the dense atmosphere. Collecting and growing our own fuel and extracting our saucer's from the ground, was literally killing us. We were aging rapidly and we soon realised that only a miracle would save us from sliding out of this matter-energy-space-time system altogether. Now, we didn't really want that at this stage because we were all quite fond of this universe. In that time, we desired no others. Especially, as it looked, if we were going to have to visit them blindfolded, with no prior introduction or induction, so to speak."

  The new bloke stared out the window again as the others mused over these things. The humans could sense that they were next up in the story. It was just a gut feeling that they all had about the way the yarn was going to pan out.

  " There were these slob, sloth like things wandering around the garden," continued the storyteller.

  "Here we go!," roared Doc.

  "That sounds like an apt description of our venerable ancestors."

Mild laughter filled the room. It came from the humans, even Yolanda. The Watcher just smiled.

  "They were a very rudimentary, arched humanoid form that had been brought here from far away by another species from even further away."

Doc's and Prof's ears went up to their extreme peaks. They hadn't expected to hear this.

  "The species that brought the slob here were genetic tinkerers and they were interested in creating a physical type that they could easily manipulate. They brought this basic humanoid form to two places. They deposited it in mid Africa and also what you now know as the Iran-Iraq region."

  "Mesopotamia...," mumbled Prof.

  "Yes Sam. That's right. That's where we were. That's where we had our first ever crash landing."

  "What did you call him?," asked Peg with an incredible expression on her face.

  "Sam!...Sam. Is that your real name Prof?"

Prof nodded in the affirmative and a Trojan like smile washed onto Peg's face.

  "Ha!," she roared.

  "We've been living with Uncle Sam and we never even knew it."

She turned to Doc.

  "And who are you then?," she enquired of him. "Gunga Din?"

  " Nahhh. I'm mad Max!," the Doc told her proudly. His face was beaming.

  "Yeah! That figures," Peg roared back as she flashed eyes at Carol, who was also smiling.

  " Actually, his whole name is sarcastic Sam," the Doc elaborated as he nodded towards his mate.

  "Ha!," exploded Peg again.

  "We thought long and hard about the implications of what we were thinking about then," explained the storyteller.

  "Originally, we only intended to seed two of the slob like creatures with a makeshift intelligence. We were after a couple of labourers to do the heavy duty work for us. Not because we were lazy, but because we hadn't yet developed the thought constructions to move freely about here, like we can now."

  "You took Neanderthal man and bumped him up with with some of your own DNA, didn't yuse? You took a pea brained, grub eating nincumpoop and morphed it into an upright, Cro-Magnon, brain loaded, intelligent creature. Didn't yuse?," enquired the Prof excitedly.

The Watcher nodded his head.

  "Yes. We did Sam. And, right from the start of the excercise, things went very strangely. We'd accidentally created a beautiful form with a massive brain. That really wasn't our intention. We didn't want to be bound to any planet, by karma or anything else. We were really after a short term variable that would revert back to its slob like form without too much fuss. We wanted our freedom to roam back. We didn't want to have to look after anything or anybody. The next thing we knew though, we had more spirit souls hanging around us than you can possibly imagine. They came from all over the universe and they were soon buzzing around our labourers in an intoxicated frenzy. They were like fireflies and they were completely bedazzled by the beauty of this new form. That was understandable considering they'd never seen it before. Well, they just kept at us and at us and at us to let them play with our creations. We didn't want to, but they were incredibly persistent. They just wouldn't let up and we couldn't get a damn thing done with them buzzing around all of the time. In the end, we consented to them doing short term walk ins in the new forms. We explained that we just wanted a couple of labourers, they agreed. Once they'd walked in though, this planet's immense spirit grabbed them by their astral belly buttons and they couldn't get out again. We couldn't get them out either. They were embodied like you all are. And then..."

  "And then?," echoed Doc. The expression on his face told another story. He was absolutely enthralled and fascinated by what the Cloud Watcher was saying. It was like he wanted to write a book about it. That's what the mask that he had on was saying.

  "And then, before we could stop them, two of them wandered off into the garden somewhere and had a bonk. And that was it. We explicitly told the buggers not to do it too!," asserted the new bloke. "Their species of ethereal embodiment became even more heavily entrapped than ours. They gained the ability to physically procreate the new form and this planet's hologram immediately altered itself to accomodate billions of souls in that very shape which we had created purely for some short term help. It was a disaster of galactic proportions and to this day we are still sorting it out I swear to Christ, we just wanted a couple of fucking labourers, that was all!"

Doc and Prof were beaming at each other.

  "So!," roared Doc.

  "Our venerable ancestors hid from you in the garden and had a rut, did they? Prof, that's gotta be about the most believable explanation for our existences that I've ever heard. We're the accidental offspring of a naughty between two converted, DNA shot up slobs. Did y'hear that mate?"

  "Eeeyep!," drawled the Prof.

  "I reckon that's what I would have done too. I would have said stick y'labouring up y'grounded rings and wandered off post-haste to have a long, rewarding rut with the other slob. So long as it had tits, I woulda been it. Probably quite a few times too. What do you reckon Peg? What should have come first? Tending the vegies and the mine or slinking off to have an absolutely fabulous rut? Maybe a bit of a dip afterwards in some crystal clear, waterfall's pool. Ay? Then whack a few bananas down the old throat. Then back into the garden to have another scintillating rut. Sounds like a good afternoon's fun, doesn't it? No wonder we upset the Watchers."

Peg grinned, divinely.

  "You really are sarcastic Sam, aren't you?," she said across the table to him. Next to her, Yolanda wore a broad grin. A grin that suggested that she agreed with Sam even though she didn't yet know sex.

  "Eeeyep!," the Prof drawled back.

  "That's me. In the old or the new world...I'm still sarcastic Sam."

  "That's for sure," quipped Doc.

  "What does all of this have to do with what you've been doing with the kids?," Carol suddenly asked the Cloud Watcher. She was still, rather stern faced.

  "Well, to begin with, we instantly became bound to work with you until all of your genetic coding unlocks. If we'd given you access to all of it then it would have blown your circuits to kingdom come. We would have had no one to help us and the other spirits wouldn't have had even a meatball to play with."

The Watcher tapped the side of his head with a finger.

  "You've got some incredibly advanced gear tucked away in your constructions, you know? You never, ever want to forget that. Other species have also bumped you up with some of their stuff, so basically, you're the most advanced hybrid creation in the known universe. There's a whole host of space tribes around this planet at the moment and all of them are absolutely dying to see what you will be like when all of your coding unlocks. Mind you, there are also others who are trying to prevent you from taking your rightful place in the ethereal worlds. They want you to remain wild beasts. They are loonies though and from the looks of the vortexian currents that we have charted, they won't last long.They will play out their parts as the bad guys and then blam!, as usual, the light will overwhelm them in one mighty stroke. Another holographic victory to the One who made the hologram, and so the universe unfolds perfectly. As usual."

  "Vortexian currents?," queried the Prof.

The Watcher grinned.

  "You know how a spider spins such masterful geometrical designs in its webs? It just follows a vortexian current," he stated. "An electro-magnetic flow that exists in space/time/dimension that is potently positively charged. These currents cross time too. At their junctions they annihilate it all together. In places though they are very readable on the psychic levels. The ones that are passing through this plane at the moment are all extremely healthy. We have looked carefully at them through the one mind's eye and they are pointing to a magnificent future for the beings on, in and around this planet. If you want to get a good feeling of a vortexian current Sam, think of a hurricane whose energies you have fingertip control over. Click to the left and that's the way the hurricane goes. Click the other way and it slides towards there. Draw a circle and it will reveal in spirit where it was originally headed. Then you can barter with it if you don't want it to go there. Or else, if that is not important to you, you can just study its design and plot its assumed course."

  Prof leant back on his milk crate and nodded.

  "Did y'get all that Doc?," he asked his mate sarcastically.

Doc grunted and indicated with his eyes that he got most of it, sort of.

  "I still don't understand why you took our kids into the spirit world though," said Carol again.

  "Why did you do that? You knew it was against our rules."

  Heavy rain began to fall as the Cloud Watcher continued his slow stroll around the room. For a moment it was difficult to hear anything as big droplets of water smashed into their makeshift tin roof. Doc's and Prof's eyes headed upwards. They were looking for leaks. The rain slackened off quickly though, so the Watcher started to talk again.

  "When all of your coding unlocks Carol, your kids will be in and out of the fourth dimension all day long," he said.

  "Why?," Carol immediately asked. "What's the point of that?"

  "Because it's more fun than being just a third dimensional and because the time phase is rapidly  approaching when it will be absolutely necessary for every human to have perfected this skill. Who are you Carol?"

Carol looked back at the new bloke and strained her eyes. It was evident that she really didn't know exactly what it was that he was asking her.

  "Tell him you're a spirit mate, that's what he wants to know. For God's sake, don't say that you're just a personality or ego. Remember, according to him he's God. He's recently been promoted from angel status. Give him what he wants. Tell him what he wants to know and then maybe we'll all get some peace, finally," the Prof advised.

  "Amen," said Doc in the background.

Carol looked a little bemused, though she was smiling.

  "Ok," she said finally. "I'm a spirit."

  "Ok. Are you also a multidimensional identity?," the Watcher asked her.

  "Pardon."

  "When you dream Carol, you are not in a physical body. And when you wake up you just love to tell your friends about the weirdness of what happened to you when you were asleep. But you never, ever say to anyone, I spent last night drifting in and out of the fourth dimension. Do you? You tell them about your dream instead. You tell them about your adventures in the land of make believe and believe that you are living reality whilst you are awake. Like many things though, you have it the reverse way around. Because, believe me or don't. I don't care. But I'm telling you outright. What you are living is not really real. It is a land of make believe resulting from the holographic projections of extraordinarily powerful spirit entities. Your spirits participate in the illusion by allowing your brains to sense energy as matter."

He waved his hand around in the air to stress his next point. He was indicating the layout inside and outside of the house.

  "We can't do this sort of stuff for too long. The denseness of the matrix here crushes us. We don't have the emotional range to cope with the atomic spin here like you do. You guys have got the genius in you for these sort of holograms and some of your hybrid powers are staggering to us. Why do you think I keep looking at the clouds? I'm telling you. They weren't here the last time I set foot on this planet and we definitely didn't make them. Neither did any of the other space races. We know that because none of them have the ability. They were made by interaction between yourselves and this planet's spirit. It asked you in spirit, what do you want to look at in the sky? You guys said, in spirit, where you exist as one energy entity of light, clouds. Then, with your one mind's eye you drew them for her. Ever since then, she's been rolling them across your holographic skies."

  " Some interesting stuff there Cloudy," commented Doc. "That's not normal human talk, that's for sure."

  "So Carol. Are you also a multidimensional identity?," the Watcher asked again. "Are you capable of existing in two dimensions at once?"

  "Well...I guess I am. Seeing as you put it like that."

  "Well good. Because so am I and so is everyone else here. Especially the kids. They haven't had the 30 to 40 years of third dimensional conditioning that you've had."

  "Lucky buggers!," quipped Prof.

  "But you didn't ask," said Carol. "You should have asked us first!"

  "And what would you have said?"

  "No! Of Course."

  "Well, now you know why I didn't ask," said the Watcher.

  At this stage of the discussion, Yolanda returned to her bed. It rained briefly again. Prof got up to make a pot of tea. Carol went out to the bedroom to check on the kids. She came back into the house with a cigarette for each of the smokers. Peg took hers and lit it straight away. She puffed on it madly as she stared intensely at the new bloke, who was once again, gazing out a window. The moon was still out in the centre of the sky and the dark masses of cloud drifting along the horizon seemed momentarily to capture his entire attention. Then he turned inward to face the humans again.

  "What do you think of the accuracy of your prophets so far? You know, like Nostradamus and Edgar Cayce."

  "The Bible too," said Peg.

  "Yes. That told of future events too, didn't it? Were they accurate?"

  "They were indeed," commented Doc. "They were spot on."

  "Are you aware of Nostradamus's prediction regarding the end of this matter-energy-space-time continuum?"

The humans weren't. The Watcher paced around a bit more. He joined his hands behind his back again.

  "According to the Nostradamus prophecy, the Earth will cease to exist in what you would call, the 34th century," he said.

  "As I mentioned before, we have charted the vortexian currents that are moving through here. The charts for the future show that indeed, in the 34th century, this hologram will completely involute. What that means is the absolute collapse of the matter and so forth continuum that you are all currently part of. There will be a slide of this 3rd dimension into another higher more rarified one. Now, when this time comes as it will come, any humans who cannot trip to 4 and then 5 will be severely disadvantaged. They will be left behind in a void of nothingness whilst others of your species rides the 4th and 5th currents out of here. Away from the danger of soul entombment and into a more elastic set up...they will literally, fly."

  The humans gazed at each other with foreboding looks. Doc scratched underneath his nose. The Prof eased himself forward. Peg tapped her fingers a couple ot times on the lowly constructed table.

  "What about the ones who get stuck?," Carol asked.

  "Will they ever get out?"

The Watcher shrugged his shoulders.

  "Maybe, maybe not," he mused.

  "The charts don't specify. They just show that all of the matter in this galaxy and that in several other galaxies nearby will mass and be drawn into a black hole. This hole will become potently known to humans in the year 3258 AD. They will then have approximately 100 years to fine tune and perfect their spiritual powers for the next stage of their collective, supernatural journey."

  "And this is why you've been messing with the kids? Because in 32 whatever, all of this is supposed to happen," said Peg, caustically.

  "Yes Peg. This is the reason and make no mistake, it will happen."

Carol stood up. She looked a bit storm faced again.

  "It sounds like bull to me!," she roared. She then went to move off. Obviously, the Watcher's story hadn't lived up to her expectations.

  "Sit down Carol!," ordered the new bloke. "I haven't finished. In fact, I haven't really started."

He was using the same unusual tone that he'd used when he'd originally asked them to seat themselves. Inwardly, they knew again that he meant business. Peg grabbed Carol by one of her wrists and looked at her with flares in her eyes.

  "Let's hear him out Cas," she practically whispered to her.

  "So you're God on a pay back mission, are you Cloudy?," asked Doc. He didn't wait for an answer as he continued with his verbatim.

  "You had a little crash landing and accidentally created us. Now, like concerned parents, you don't want us to get left behind and squashed when the universe fires its retro rockets. Is that correct?"

  "That is correct Max."

  "So, for something that is going to happen 13 to 1400 years into our future, you, without their mother's consent, have been taking a 4 year old, an 8 year old and a 12 year old into the astral with you....You're a bastard mate, d'you know that?"

  "I know Max, but consider this. I didn't know what a bastard was until I came to this planet. That paticular slant just seems to be part and parcel of being here whether you're angelic or physical. That's because, in this set up, you can't have one without the other. As well, consider this also. If what I've been telling you about happened in the next 60 seconds, the kids would get out. You might not and if you did, it would just be a fluke. It would be akin to you finding a needle in a hatstack."

The Watcher zeroed in on the big girls.

  "Where would you be then, if you didn't get out?," he kind of asked them.

  "Where would you be then in relation to these fine souls who are your children here and whom you have been affiliated with ever since the human form first attracted you to this place? You would be precisely, nowhere. Whereas, they would be somewhere else. Somewhere, where you could not communicate with them."

Human eyes flashed about the room. The story suddenly took on a different meaning for them. Peg and Carol especially, seemed transfixed by the Watcher's last statement.

  "So," said the new bloke with the peroxide blonde hair.

  "The sooner you come to grips with your multidimensional selves and the sooner you develop your spirit's navigational skills in the other dimensions, the better. I cannot stress this enough. 1300 odd years may be a wad of time to you. On the etheric levels though, it's just a split second. Believe me, for you guys now, time is of the essence. I will be leaving soon. However, the best thing that you could do would be to go astral with the kids and get them to show you what they already know. They remembered quickly. My guess is though that you adults will not. You will need many sessions just to restore your 360 degree inner sight. You will need even more to get yourselves to that point where you will be able to go flip flop, 3-4 or 4-3 at will."

  "Bloody hell Cloudy!," roared Prof in his driest tone.

  "We'll be lucky to make it back to the fucking shed after all of this! I feel like we only just got here and you're telling us that we have to pull our fingers out so we can hurry up and...well, what's the word. Piss off, I guess."

  "That's right Sam. Up until now you have based your entire reality construct around physical survival. Now you must...and I repeat must do away with this outdated stuff and alter your views on what really is real completely. You must, and I repeat must formulate a new multidimensional view of what constitutes reality. One that is based on etheric survival and ethereal evolution. Which brings me to another matter which I, and my kind, wish to raise with you."

  At this point, the egg shaped construction materialised just off from the verandah. Doc and Prof spun around. For the second time, the humans saw it close up. It was hovering a couple of metres off the ground and it was a mesmerising vehicle. The coloured lights were intoxicating to their senses. They seemed to be pulsating in rythym with their heartbeats. All in all, their drawing power was very Pied Piperish. At the same time, the ground dwellers were quite frightened because the whole scenario had an acid after taste of madness attached to it. The egg vehicle challenged their sense of reality so much that it was difficult for them to not believe that they were all having some sort of  weird and whacky dream. Then they saw two, very tall Blonds emerge from the construction. Immediately, their dream like focus altered.

The beings were dressed in some sort of uniform. Their top halves were red and their skin tight trousers were deep purple. They were roughly 8 feet tall. Their very blonde hair was cropped short and they appeared to have slight beards.

  " Space Vikings!," Prof mumbled to Doc as the Cloud Watcher excused himself and went outside.

There followed a short parlez between the three Blonds. One of the talls handed something to the new bloke who came back inside with one clenched fist. The talls and the egg vanished as he began to once again, slowly pace the room. For a while he did not speak. The humans were very keen to hear what he had to say, this time. They were absolutely dying to know what he had in his clenched hand.

  "Peg...Carol," said the new bloke. "I have something in my hand here that could change the course of human history. However, what I am holding here is worthless unless you are willing to participate in a little project."

The Doc's and Prof's eyebrows were going up and down like exchange rates. They just couldn't believe what they were witnessing. They knew that he could burn up bad guys with a little look towards the heavens. The fact that he had the gaul to take Earth women on though absolutely astounded them. They kept asking themselves a recurring question. It went along the lines that if he didn't want to have sex with the girls, then what did he want? They remembered again that he had said that he would have them eating out of his hand. From this, they deduced that he was holding onto some sort of food. Probably, by the size of his clenched fist, a sweet.

  The girls meanwhile had absolutely no idea what he was on about. They were perplexed because they knew he didn't want, or couldn't have sexual relations. Up until this point they had reasoned that what he wanted had more to do with the kids than them. Yet, in his prior statement he had linked them with a possible surge ahead for humankind. Their curiosities were idelibly aroused whereas in the same instance they developed a dead cautious attitude. Their latter emotional stance was the result of their realisations that the bastard was calling for volunteers. They could tell by his tone that he was pitching at them. Besides that, Doc and Prof had sneaky looks on their faces. Looks that suggested what they had thought all along. That is, that there were three bastards in the room, not just one.

Then the Watcher brought his hand out and opened it.

Two multi coloured, glowing things floated off his palm. They rose into the air like fireflies then settled just above the table. They were about the size of large pills and they appeared to be made of the same sort of light stuff that the egg was. They were pleasing to the eye and internally every human labelled them as gems.

The blonde pointed at them.

  "In these constructions are magic secrets," he said. "In these cosmic pills are the code breakers which will unlock all of the supressed multidimensional genes in the next generation....from you."

  "Now wait a minute!," roared Peg as she rose bolt upright into the air. A couple of feet from her face, the strange pills glowed intoxicatingly.

  "If you think for one minute that we're going to get pregnant for some cockamaney ballyhoo about future fuck ups, you'd better think again."

  "Ha! Ha! Ha!," exploded both Doc and the Prof, thinking it all a great joke and that he had absolutely no chance of gaining their cooperation. The boys never considered for one moment that the girls would take such an explosively laden risk. No matter what he said.

  "What do you two know about this?," Peg demanded of them in an exceedingly aggressive tone.

The lads were a bit taken aback. They hadn't considered that she was going to declare war on them as well. Carol meanwhile was too stupified to say anything at all. Her face was primrose pink and she was looking at the Cloud Watcher like he really was from outer space.

  "Hang on a minute Peg," protested Prof as he palmed the air horizontally with a flat angled hand.

  "We didn't know anything about it."

He pointed accusingly at the Watcher.

  "This is all God's business. It's not ours."

  "Hear me out," interjected the new bloke, in that tone again. It wasn't the voice of authority that he was using. It was more the voice of experience coupled and intertwined with immaculate wisdoms.

The humans, once again, decided to shut up and listen. It was a wise decision. Both Peg and Carol however were still wearing looks of caustic infuriation. And Doc and the Prof were still grinning. They hadn't had so much fun in years. It was like they were sitting in on a hypothetical where there was absolutely no danger of them winding up with fat bellies.

  "These constructions don't just have the stuff of my race in them," the Cloud watcher said as he pointed at the floating pills.

  "All of the races who have ever contributed to your genetics have added their bit. This is a joint, inter galactic effort to sort this bloody Earth shit out. There are code breakers in these things that go back literally millions of years. As I said before, you guys are the most sophisticated and evolved hybrid creation in the known universe. Do you know what that means?"

  "Let me guess," the Prof answered him.

He pointed the Watcher's way.

  "You don't know what we so called humans are going to be like when all of our genes unlock, do you? What's more, it's possible that we could end up more powerful than the lot of you put together, isn't it? After all, we're the hybrid, aren't we? So you say. We've got bits of everybody in us, ay?"

This time it was the Watcher's turn to grin.

  "You're very perceptive Prof," he almost drawled, casually.

Prof leant back as a big ego smirk rolled across his sand blasted visage. He was potently pleased with the inside compliment.

  "Cloudy...," he drawled back.

  "I may look like I was born spiritually yesterday and I may feel like that today too. But mate, deep inside I know that I've been going at least as long as the wind and the sand. So have all humans. You attract infinitely old spirits to a converted slob like form and then you bump them up periodically with genes from all around the universe.....Quite a project mate. It's no wonder you've been keeping an eye from the sky on us."

  "Amen," said Doc stiffly in the background.

  "Wouldn't be life without an egg around somewhere," he quipped. "Could've been a radioactive death for half the universe if the slobs and the talking monkeys were allowed to proceed any further with their nuclear madness too. That fire did a big favour really."

  "Ha! Ha!," went Prof.

  "You guys have got abilities that we don't possess," asserted the Watcher suddenly. It was evident from his voice tone that he was back on track. It was clear that he hadn't come down to the ground to fool around or indulge in idle chit chat. It was very apparent that he had a specific agenda which he was adhering to with an almost enforcer like mentality. Obviously, very obviously, he wanted to get something across to the humans who were sitting around the low level table. The girls hadn't yet inculcated anything into their perceptual sets apart from the fact that the bastard wanted them to get pregnant. Doc and Prof were still grinning at him as though either he, or they, were two parts insane. It could even have been both parties in that broth. Some ET's though will do just about anything to encourage humans to get their souls out of neutral. Some of them will even reincarnate and play out the mortal thing.

  "I've already told you about the clouds," he said,

  "You seem to have this fantastic way of being able to create with your thoughts. It's got something to do with the phenomenal emotional range that the mix of the genes has given you. Going as far as you do, you can actually slow down the atomic spin of matter to depths that are riduculous to us. Yet, it is obvious to us that you are now, the superior vehicle. You're just asleep to who you all really are at the moment. When the rest of your genes come alive, we predict that you will be doing stuff that makes us look like the slobs. We predict that your immediate combined aim as a spiritual force will be to cut a path out of this involuting matter/energy/space/time continuum for yourselves, and for the rest of the space races too."

The humans were stunned. Doc and Prof stopped grinning. Carol and Peg stretched their neat eyebrows upwards. Here was a flip in the story that they most definitely had not expected.

  "I am talking about the sleeping giant of angelic genius in the child. You know that don't you?," he said directly to the girls. The glowing pills were still spinning not far from their faces as they nodded their heads ever so slightly forward.

  "These pills can save you 300 years of evolution," asserted the new bloke.

  "Children born from them will be telepathic, psychic and multidimensional. They will be clairvoyant, clairaudent healers. They will have the visionary sight and will be free interpreters and dispensers of the collective insight. They will be indispensable to the efforts of your race to physically avert the drawing power of the projected black hole."

 Doc stretched his legs.

  "So this has happened before, has it mate? Black holes have sucked species in...ay?," he asked.

  "For sure Doc," the Watcher told him. "The black hole giveth and believe me, sometimes the black hole can taketh too. We don't know what happens to those who have been consumed either. We assume that they still exist, but how and where, we have no idea. Perhaps they are living in either bliss or hell in a white hole, who knows? The way we've always played the game though is to jump from one holographic continuum to another. We've always managed to be able to perfect our propulsion mechanisms to get out before any of the black holes could swallow us. This time though, we are adamant that we are going to need your genetic help. We are going to need you guys performing at your perfected DNA peaks because the hole that we are encountering here is a massive one. We have never known anything like it. It is absolutely awesome and there is now a massive joint effort underway to find the genetic way out through your species. Carol, Peg. We would really...really appreciate your assistance in this. Please....let me show you a little something from the future. That is, the future if you go ahead with our proposal."

  The Watcher raised his hand and immediately a holograpic impression appeared over the table. The jaws of the humans dropped several inches. The hologram was exceedingly life like, even though it was scaled down considerably. They saw a much bigger and older Ben running full bore towards the house. His blonde mop was still bouncing up and down furiously. Carol sighed and it was evident that there was love pouring forth from her. Ben, in the hologram, was calling out to her. He was yelling out mum repetitively and he was obviously excited about something or another.

Then he slipped.

His right leg seemed to just give way and he slid sideways across a very hard, compacted gravel surface. The area where he was had been used as the mixing pad when the house's walls had originally been built. The wheels of the bobcat machine that had tossed the gravel and cement mix had created a rock hard surface.

  Ben was screaming with pain. A large, thick chunk of flesh had been ripped off his right knee. Blood was gushing from the wound. He clutched at his knee and then started to howl his head off. Carol, Peg, Yolanda and Susie came bolting from the house. A couple of blonde haired tiny tots waddled after them. Doc and the Prof appeared as well as some other people. This intrigued the humans who were watching the picture show, although their eyes soon returned to focus on the tiny tots. These young ones quickly made their way through everyone's legs. They knelt over the screaming youngster. The adults stood back as though awaiting professional advice.

  "Ben hurt!," said one of the infants.

  "We fix!," said the other.

The little ones then began to rub around in a circle just above Ben's profusely bleeding knee. Miraculously, some sort of coloured glow emanated from their palms. The wound began to mend as though they were super speeding up the healing process. Eventually, there was nothing left of it apart from some dried blood on the put back together skin.

  "Thanks runts," said Ben as he stopped sobbing and sighed with intense relief.

The hologram then dissipated and the little gems returned to their former positions. Then the Cloud Watcher changed his mind.

  "One more," he said with a finger up in the air.

The gems moved up and away again.

  What appeared next was a picture of an ethereal goddess of great power. She was in her 5th dimensional form and the colours emanating from her aura were so magnificently beautiful and lucidly bright that the humans were completely bedazzled. They were looking at a serene beauty whose delicate etheric construction post dated their active, extraordinary imaginations. Then Peg leant forward suddenly. She thought that she had recognised something in the surreal manifestation's appearance.

  "Yolanda?," she kind of whispered to the mob.

The Watcher smiled benevolently. He nodded his head affirmatively.

  "Jesussss," sighed Doc and Prof. They were awestruck by the kid's spiritual beauty.

  "No," said the new bloke straight back at them.

  "This is Yolanda. An extraordinarily powerful spirit. One of an elite of rapid developers whose job it will be to insight others to wake up to the truth of their own multidimensional powers. She must be given the room to develop and quickly too."

The blonde Blond cupped his hand and held it up and out for all to see.

  "We must seize the moment," he whispered to them.

  "We must pool all of our rescources and work diligently together to mastermind a slide out of this continuum. If we don't, you can bet Uranus that we are all going to find out what's on the other side of a black hole."

The image of Yolanda's spirit then dissipated and once again, the gems hovered back to their former positions. A period of intense quiet then descended upon the room. The Cloud Watcher let it ride until Marzipan appeared.

Rowrrr...he went as he trotted slowly into the room.

  Well, the end of all of this was that Carol and Peg followed their spirits without hesitating any longer. They swallowed the light pills and job over, they promptly decided to sleep on them. The boys and the alien got lost and returned to their shed. As they entered it, Doc made the comment that it had been a hard day's night.

  "Not only that," quipped Prof.

  "Now we've got two virgin Marys living next door to us mate. We're surrounded by immaculate conceptions!"

  "Away in the manger....," Doc started to slowly sing. Then he had some sort of realisation about the future. He pictured his own hologram in his head and he saw himself and Prof. They were the other side of the dam's western wall and they were slogging it out with buckets, water and what looked like, shitty nappies. They weren't white but he knew their shape and he could practically smell the rankness emanating from them.

  "Oh shit!," he spat in the Cloud Watcher's direction.

  "You bastard! You sneaky....sneaky bastard. You've dropped us in it, y'space prick."

Prof looked up from adjusting his pillow. He realised immediately what was going on because he had also seen internally what Doc had seen.

  "Traitor!," he mumbled into his growing beard.

The new bloke however, just smiled innocently back at them. When it came to the don't blame me expression, he was a specialist. Besides that, he was acutely aware that the boys were only kidding and that in reality, they were willing, first class shit cleaners. They also knew those areas where action spoke a lot louder than words. After all, it was now common knowledge that the future of the universe depended on their combined efforts. There would be no room for shirkers in the new world. Day by day, that was becoming more and more evident. There was, very simply, too much work to do and not enough time to do it in. Considering that time and space are internal perceptions within a hologram and not real, external to the body conditions, that's one very interesting statement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                       *

 

 

 

 

 

  He stayed another 3 days with them and then literally floated up to the hovering egg and along with it, vanished. He told them though that they would be back for visits periodically and that anytime that they wanted to visit him in the 4th dimension, they were welcome. This amused the humans because on the day before he'd left, he'd taken the lot of them into the spirit world. Well, the adults hadn't known where they were. Their etheric navigational skills were so rudimentary that they were like fish out of water. Whereas, for the kids, it was the other away around. The younguns had laughed hysterically as the big girls and boys staggered around in the astral. The adults felt like they'd been on a LSD trip after it. They practically had to sit down and shake some physical sense back into their heads for the rest of the day.

  It made them think about things though. It made them think that their universe did consist of worlds within worlds and that death was really just a metaphor for passing from one to another. It made them realise that they would need to know considerably more about the next other for them before they arrived permanently in it. Their attitudes towards the lives that they were currently experiencing and the ones to come changed considerably. They recognised the links in that fabric that they knew as time. They became aware that on the etheric levels, lives do not necessarily follow one upon the other. They can just as easily happen simultaneously and in many cases, they do.

  The night that the Cloud Watcher left, Prof and Doc were fiddling with the radio. The girls were feeding the kids. It was just on dark and there was a most happy atmosphere in the room. Whereas humans in the old world had lived a limitation system's psychology where they believed that everything had a lid on it, these ones were beginning a different experiment. They now knew that nothing was limited and that their individual and collective potential was absolutely staggering. This was not the beginning of another belief system either. They didn't have to believe it because they were now openly living in 2 dimensions at once. They had faced up to the truth of existing within multi-faceted realities which was translating bodily into a shuffle around in their genetic cells. Nothing was being annihilated, however, certain strains were being considerably downloaded whilst others were being rapidly bolstered. In essence, because they now no longer had the same survival, reality base to load them up with fear emotions, their psychic facilities were beginning to broadside in their spirit's directions. Finally, after all of their solid years upon the planet Earth, they knew where the power to do their picture and every soul's picture was really coming from. It was coming from spirit, not from any specifics inherent in the apparent matter itself.

  There was the usual fizz and crackle coming out of the radio set as the kids mowed into a big bowl of hot chips. Both fires at either end of the room were aglow and pumping out their usual, unreal heat. The girls were chatting away amiably by the slow combustion cooker when Doc smelt then spied the recently arrived table chips. He was half way over to them when something came out of the radio and stopped him dead. It was a voice. A clear, coherent voice. He immediately picked its origins. It was American.

  "This is Appalachian Al!," it said at a volume that he used to find, too loud. Now though, it sounded just right.

  "Put the peddle to the meddle if y'can hear me and rubber duckey me that y're out thar.

 Ahhmm the poor, lost boy on the hill and the whole goddamn tribe is surrounded by water. Y'all hear me out thar? We's in God's bath and we ain't got no rubber duckey."

Prof reacted quickly, if somewhat nervously. His fingers were shaking with raw excitement as he flicked a switch and slightly adjusted a dial. Doc, the girls and the kids bunched up nervously behind him. They were all shaking too. The knowledge that there was another human out there somehere had stirred up the marrow in their bones. They knew that he was speaking to them from uptown Earth and that tickled them all pink.

  "This is the sow west Ossie!," said Prof into his funny looking, home made mike.

  "I rubber duckey you Al. And never did I and my 6 companions, 7 plus the cat, ever think that we would be so glad to hear an American accent. You're not an angel are you Al? Over.!"

Explosions of laughter came out of the set. It was soon obvious to the humans bunched up behind the Prof that Appalachian Al was not alone either. There were voices galore coming out of the artificial machinery that they were playing with. A tear rolled out of the Doc's left eye and slowly travelled across his cheek. He clenched one of his fists lightly into a ball. Inside, he kind of said a thank you prayer. He was just so emotionally moved that they had confirmation that there were others of their kind around the joint. Obviously, the playground had not been completely emptied. The race lived on. That which was beautiful with human life persisted even though its shadow, the horror of it all, had been evaporated.

Doc never thought he'd be so happy to hear about that, but he was. Even though he knew that it would never end in the spirit worlds, he was cut up to the soul that the physical was still on going. When he looked around, it was obvious that the others felt the same way. They were all cuddled in a hemispherical ball behind Prof and they were one touching mass. It was obvious to them that the old pattern where trouble followed improvement was dead. Knowing what they knew now, they had a clear cut path to the avenue where better followed better, indefinitely. The psychological exhiliration in that was raw power at its finest. A slight shift in the mind but a powerful step forward. They were fine, magic spirits and together, they would do the right thing by the spirit of the universe. They would avoid the collapsing black hole and mobilise as one unit to explore other continuums. That was their purpose.

The Prof had a discussion with Appalachian Al and its contents stunned them. The American told them that his tribe numbered 144 beings and they were on a small island in the middle of a gigantic lake. Which was still, in many parts, covered in black ash. They talked about the power sources for their radios and then Al dropped a bombshell. He told them about a space visitor who had stayed with them. He related that the visitor had arrived in a luminescent egg shaped thing and although she looked female, she had neither breasts nor the other stuff. When he'd finished with the statement that many of their women folk were now carrying, the Prof told his tribe's story. Well, it was radio mania. There was no doubt about that.

  Ben looked so lit up and eager that Prof eventually vacated his chair for him. On the other end, Appalachian Al handed over his piece over to one of his tribe's kids. One who was slightly older than Ben. There followed a discussion about ants.

  "Got tiny little black ones over here," said Ben.

  "Got small black ones and middle sized ones too. Got dirty great big bullants with mega jaws as well. Mum lets me cut up the big stingers on the verandah, cos one bit her once. When I cut them up, the small black ones came and got the pieces. It was neat! There are these other ones that are sort of black and sort of red. They live in wood like the white ones but they don't eat the white ones like the small black ones do. The small black ones love the little white ones....."

And so it went.

That is, before everything went completely white. Well, almost white. There were also thin black lines which squared up the very large room that they were standing in. They were all gawking at each other with amazement etched into their faces. They had obviously, by the smiles that beamed forth from them, had an incredible time. They had had real fun in the most fantastic playground that they'd ever been in.

  "That was absolutely great!," roared the Prof as a door into the room slid open, real fast like.

A being walked into the room. He was smiling amiably. It was the Cloud Watcher.

  "Well, what did you think of that?," he asked them. "Not a bad programme, ay? Next time you'll have to try the lost on Venus one. That's a good one as well."

The group blurted out all at once that they had had the time of their lives.

  "It's so real Mr Caesar! My God, it was unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable. I really felt like I was lost in there living that reality," said Peg in a bubbly, excited voice.

  "Please," the being answered her.

  "Call me Frank."

  "Best entertainment I've ever experienced Frank," commented Doc.

  "You're to be congratulated and you can be rest assured that we'll be back to do the Venus one real soon."

 

 

 

 

 

 

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  CAESAR'S HOLOGRAPHIC PALACE...is what the big, flashing neon sign on top of the building said. The building was two storeys high, made of red brick and shaped like a large warehouse. It was positioned in one of the back streets of Fremantle, the West Australian port which once hosted the America's cup. The business had only been open a week or so but it was already doing a phenomenal trade. Frank Caesar's holographic theatres had created an enormous interest amongst the general public. From politicians to priests to bikies to housewives, everyone wanted to have a go in one of them. From the very first group who'd tried them out, the word of mouth advertising about them had spread like wildfire. Newspaper journalists were already starting to write that they would destroy the trade of the ordinary picture theatres. Who will want to sit and watch 2D when you can actively participate in a 3D holographic picture, they were asking.

 The 21st century was just beginning and the demand for new and more exciting technologies was an insatiable one. Frank Caesar had messed with computers and holographics all through his childhood. Now, he had developed holographic technology that was years ahead of anyone else and he was poised to become a very rich man. What pleased him more than the money though was that his entertainment had delighted everybody who had so far used it. He made a point of greeting every group after every session to ferret for feedback. He knew that his customers were coming out of the theatres with a fascination for holographics almost equal to his own. The only plans he had regarding the money that he was making related to the opening of a third palace. He already had a second one under construction in the northern suburbs.

  As they walked through the briefing room that was attached to the theatre that they'd been in, one of the Palace's instructors was preparing the next group for their session.

  "In every group, there has to be one who's sick, just for a while," he was saying.

  "Why?," a rather large, obese chap asked.

  "That's just the way this programme is designed sir."

  "Oh! I see. Well, ok, I'll be crook. I don't mind."

  Frank Caesar and the group passed through another quick sliding door into a large foyer jam packed with patrons who were waiting to have their shot in one of the booked out theatres. Kids were everywhere playing with the video games that were about the place. The racket was incredible. Sitting in comfortable sofas partially hidden by indoor potted palms were many adults. Some of them were sipping on cups of coffee and eating stuff that they'd bought from the Palace's shop.

  "Exterminate! Exterminate!," roared a Darleck as they walked past a large, Dr Who pinball machine.

Caesar signalled to one of his employees who came over to him. He asked him to turn the volume on the Dr Who machine down and then turned to the group and said goodbye to them. He'd hardly gone five paces when his number one plonked a hand phone into his right palm.

  "It's Barry. He's on site," she said extra loudly in an effort to reach over the din.

  "There's trouble with the union again."

  "Oh shit!," he roared.

  "I thought we'd sorted this out yesterday. What do they want now? Crayfish for fuckin' lunch or some'in."

His petite assistant raised her eyebrows for a second. She made beautiful eye contact with Caesar and the way their glances met in space told that they were not just employee and employer. They were lovers too. He leaned across and said something into her right ear and then raised the phone to mouth level.

  "Yes Barry?," he snorted into it as she walked off with a giant smile.

  "Ok. Five minutes," she said over her shoulder to him.

  "You're on."

He beamed back at her as she walked off into the crowd and Barry's voice barked at him from the phone. Watching her go he felt his soul move with her. As he had used himself in the Cloud Watcher programme, he had used her for his model in one of his other holographic games. In this one she was a Venusian with multidimensional powers.

  "Tell 'em to get stuffed!," he roared into the little voice machine. There followed a short, sharp conversation before a rather angry chap accosted him. The fellow blurted at him that he and his family had been waiting some hours to be in the show and now they'd just been told that the next session was to be the last. Caesar finished the call and turned his full attention and charm towards the irate customer. He was rapidly learning the diplomatic art of pacifying those who were pissed off with the slowness of his business. He explained to the gent that each of the 8 theatres was run by 30 linked computers which every six days required 10 hours of maintenace, checking and sometimes extra programming. In a quiet voice he explained that the technicians were due in two hours and that they would be working all night. He adjusted the time on the man's ticket so that when he returned he would not have to wait long. He also offered him a considerable discount on one of the other games. The guy calmed down. Caesar left him and headed for his upstairs office. When he arrived there, she was waiting for him. She had her shoes off and was sitting seductively on the sofa sipping from a freshly made cocktail.

  "Scotch?," she said to him, pointing to a glass that had two rocks floating in its contents.

  "Cheers," he answered as he grabbed it then collapsed next to her. They had a long, sloppy, affectionately firm kiss and then he took a large mouthful of his drink.

  "Did you get it sorted out with Barry?," she asked him as he put his glass back down. He nodded yes and then grabbed her. She twisted around and lay across his legs. They had another long passionate kiss as he undid the buttons on her blouse. He opened it and flicked the gizmo on her bra undone. She leant forward slightly so that he could drag her bra out of the way. When he'd done so he began to gently lick and kiss her stiff nipples. She was starting to really enjoy that when her hand radio barked at her.

  "Jenny! Are you there? I know what you said...but..," it said to her.

  "We've got a little problem down here and we really need you. Sorry Boss."

Much to their joint dismay, she dressed and left with a promise to return as soon as possible. Caesar got up and strode to his desk. He opened a draw, grabbed a cigar and wandered outside onto a small balcony where a deck chair awaited him. For a while he leant on the railing as the last rays of a dying sun bathed the street below. He watched the people scurrying around for a moment and then eased himself into the chair. With a sigh of delight he lit his cigar and puffed contentedly on it. He blew a cloud of smoke out which drifted silently up into the early, still night air.

  Down at the Palace's car park, Ben was the first of the group to reach his mum's car. He still had more energy than the rest of them put together and Yolanda was still at him to slow down. Carol arrived and unlocked the doors and Ben clambered into his rear seat position. Little Susie hopped into hers beside him as the adults said their goodbyes.

  "Thanks Max, thanks Sam. That was great," Carol said to the boys. She pecked them on their cheeks one after the other as Ben hollered for her to hurry up. Peg also thanked them for the shout as she slid into the front passenger side of the vehicle. Yolanda too gave them a little kiss each and then climbed into the car and sat beside Ben. The blonde poked his tongue at her as she did so.

  "Now you behave yourself monster," said Doc as he reached into the car and squeezed the kid's cheek.

  "Tell that brother of ours not to be late on Friday, will you Carol?," Prof asked as the car's engine burst into life. "Remind him that the game starts at half six and that we want to see the start of it and not the end of the first quarter, will you?"

Carol laughed because she knew that her father was always late.

  "I have to call into see mum on the way home, so I'll get her to work on him for you," she told him.

  "Good! Good!," snorted Prof.

  "Bye sqirt!," said Doc to little Susie as the car started to pull off and head for the exit gate. There were loud final goodbyes and hand waves out the window as it did so. The two brothers then turned and headed deeper into the car park towards their own vehicle. The twilight had descended fully now and just about everything on the streets that was powered by electricity had been turned on. It was a balmy summer's evening and the whole scenario was very holographically tinted. In the near distance they could hear the squawking of gulls as those creatures raced around scavenging bits of thrown away human food.

  "Well that was worth every penny ol' son," commented Max as they walked along.

  "I wonder what the Venus one is like. That bloke's got one hell of an imagination, ay?"

The Prof screwed up his face.

  "I'm not sure that it was all imagination," he said.

  "Some of it was just a bit too realistic to be coincidence."

  "Oh come on!," Sam snapped back at him.

  "It's just a game, that's all. Black holes and other dimensions, huh! It's science fiction backed by new technology, that's all. Look around. What do you see? Concrete and bitumen and electric lights. That's our world mate, not the one that Frank Caesar has invented. That's just game stuff, that's all."

  "Yeah!," drawled the Prof as he reached his motor and beeped it's doors open. "I suppose that y'right."

They got into the car and lit a fag each.

  "I know where I'd rather be if I had the choice though," commented Sam as he turned the ignition key. "I'd take the hologram any day."

Doc laughed all the way to the exit gate. He thought it all a great joke and he knew that his brother could now and again be a bit of a dreamer himself. In effect, that was why he liked him so much. He provided him with an avenue for his own philosophy.

  "If these fuckers make it through the next 20 years, I'll smoke goat shit," he said dryly as they pulled out into the busy street.

  "The day I see an angel hanging around this fucking dump will be the day I die," he added somewhat caustically.

Prof sniggered as the automatic picked up a gear. He knew that his brother could now and again be a hard hearted, deadset cynic. In effect, that was why he liked him so much. The car pulled up at a stop sign and seeing as there was a slight break in the traffic,  Sam gunned it and roared out into the middle lane of the highway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Rowrr....went the cat as it jumped from out of nowhere onto the balcony where Frank Caesar was sitting.

  "Marzi!," exploded the Palace's owner as he noticed the welcome intruder. The cat came up to him and brushed affectionately against the bottom of his trousers. Caesar brought him up to his lap and started to scratch his neck and brush his back. Marzipan purred with the sheer delight of it all.

  "How y'been cobber, ay? Had a good day? I have. Well, I've made lots of money and I've entertained the people. That's what it's all about, so they tell me."

Rowrr...went puss in response to that. Then his head jerked up as he peered back into the office. He had heard someone come into the room and so had Caesar. The cigar was firmly entrenched in his right hand as he swivelled around to see if it was she.

It was.

  "Ahh!," he sighed.

  "It's you darling. Good."

She picked up her drink as she scooted out onto the balcony.

Rowrr....Marzipan said to her as she came through the French doors and smiled vividly at the friendly scene.

Out on the ocean's horizon, the very last of a very red sun was just disappearing. The clouds that were also hanging there were a magnificent orange and red colour. As the two humans kissed again, out of the sides of their eyes, they couldn't help but notice them.

Rowrr....went Marzipan as he tried to sus out what they were looking at.

Rowrrrrrr.

 

 

 

 

 

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