c. 2024 Rod Ice
All rights reserved
(11-24)
Judson Baines had been in a coma for nine days after crashing his Digger shuttle on the Morningstar III flight deck. Floating in a netherworld of non-existence. That was his new reality. During this time, he drifted through visions that were confused and uncontrollable. Doting on images from his childhood, and the innocent period when he first enrolled at the university on Mars. These visual echoes came in waves of sensory perception. He was reliving his mortal journey like someone reviewing a motion picture, in fast-forward mode. This restless period allowed him to heal, after the chaotic, cranial impact of his return to the mothership.
Then, his unconscious void was pierced by an unfamiliar figure.
“Y’ALL LOOK A LOT LIKE YER GREAT-GRANDPA, BOY! I MISS THOSE DAYS WHEN HE WAS RIGHT ACROSS THE SIDE YARD. WE MADE SOME GOOD MEMORIES! HOT DAMN! THAT FELLER HAD SOME STRANGE IDEAS, BUT I LIKED HIS STYLE. HE COULD DRINK WHISKEY LIKE IT WAS WATER! BUT NOW, I’M DOWN IN THE DEPTHS WITH THAT STINKY OL’ DEMON WHO RULES IN HELL! HE’S BORING AS FUCK! YA GET MY VIBE? ALL WE DO IS SIT THERE AT HIS LAKE OF FIRE AND WATCH THE SINNERS DROWN! IT’S THE SAME SHIT, EVERY DAY!”
Baines squinted to see through the ectoplasmic fog. The mystic visitor glowed in pale shades of gray and white, while hovering over his sick bed.
“Do I know you?”
The fierce, female apparition began to cackle.
“OF COURSE NOT, DUMBASS! BUT Y’ALL MIGHT SAY THAT I KNOW YER BLOODLINE. A HUNDRED YEARS AGO, I WAS A DAMN QUEEN IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD! EVERY RED-BLOODED MAN BENT HIS KNEE WHEN I CALLED THE SHOTS!”
The professional scholar struggled to grasp what he was witnessing.
“Neighborhood? You mean, that trailer park by Lake Erie?”
The seething spirit folded her arms defensively, and nodded.
“Y’all have been reading his diaries. Ain’t there anything in those pages about Ezzie Jonovic? I figured he’d have plenty ta say about my shapely ass!”
He had to pause while sorting through recollections from the archaeological dig at Evergreen Estates.
“Esmeralda? Umm... the militia leader who ended up eating shrapnel from a hand grenade?”
The dead militant blazed with an intense flash of irritation. Her flowing gown oozed streaks of red and black, in the pattern of a Confederate banner.
“SHOW SOME RESPECT, DICKHEAD! YER GREAT-GRANDPA HAD SOME STONES! WE DIDN’T SEE EYE-TO-EYE ON THINGS, BUT I LIKED HIS COURAGE. HE WAS A STRAIGHT-UP DUDE! I ALWAYS WANTED HIM TO JOIN THE MAGA DEFENSE! HE WOULD’VE BEEN ONE HELL OF A PATRIOT SOLDIER!”
Baines felt groggy. It was difficult to concentrate while teetering on the brink of oblivion.
“From my research, I’d say he was drunk most of the time. So, it’s hard to think that he would’ve helped your cause. He seemed to have few friends in that community...”
Ms. Jonovic kicked up her bootheels. Her fingertips shot sparks that sizzled and smoked.
“HOO BOY! OUR SOLDIERS KEPT THINGS GOING, EVEN AFTER I TOOK MY HELLRIDE! BUT IT ALL CAME APART WHEN PEOPLE STARTED BUGGING OUT FOR OTHER PLANETS. THAT’S A FREAKING STRANGE IDEA, WHO DOES THAT SHIT? THERE WAS A WAR GOING ON, WE NEEDED COMBAT TROOPS! NOT COWARDS HOPPING ON SPACESHIPS!”
The university nerd could feel her voice resonating inside of his skull. The hard tone of her voice gave him a headache.
“Were there any heroes in those days? I don’t think so, from what I’ve been reading. They ruined the homeworld. Though there was plenty of guilt to go around...”
The spooky she crept closer until her hot breath burned his skin.
“GUILT? Y’ALL WANT TO TALK ABOUT GUILT? WHAT ABOUT ALL THE GAWDAMM POLITICAL CORRECTNESS, AND GOVERNMENT LOCKDOWNS, AND CENSORSHIP, AND MANDATES? THAT SHIT MATTERED, BRUH! THEY WIPED THEIR ASSES WITH THE FLAG! BUT NOT MY FLAG, IT SAID ‘DON’T TREAD ON ME!’ THAT’S WHAT GOT THOSE WASHINGTON FUCKS ALL RILED UP IN THE FIRST PLACE! THE SOUND OF GOD’S ZEALOTS MARCHING INTO BATTLE!”
Baines would have rolled his eyes reactively, but he remained lost in a realm of slumber.
“That’s the angle I got from T.C. Lincoln’s notebooks. A culture clash between distant intellectuals, and the blue-collar residents of his mobile-home oasis. Once I get back to the Mars colonies, I can have a deeper dive into what he wrote. It must’ve been chaotic, especially with neighbors and friends leaving Planet Earth so abruptly...”
Jonovic hissed and spit white-hot bursts of fire.
“Y’ALL CAN’T IMAGINE, TRUST ME, BOY! THE FOLKS WHO HUNG AROUND WERE OLD AND CRAZY, OR THICK-SKINNED AND TOUGH! EVENTUALLY, THERE WASN’T A FUCK-OF-A-LOT LEFT. NOBODY EVEN COLLECTED LOT RENT ANYMORE. OR MOWED THE FIELDS. THE STRAGGLERS STAYED BECAUSE THERE WAS NOWHERE ELSE TA GO! THE WHOLE DAMN CONTINENT TOOK A SHIT! MAYBE IF I’D STILL BEEN IN CHARGE, THINGS COULD’VE BEEN DIFFERENT!”
He was puzzled by her emotions. She still had the passion of someone who was awake and alive, in every sense. A real-time witness to the damnation wrought by human error. Yet she had surrendered her mortality, a century before.
“I’ve got nothing to offer, Esmeralda. We’re on opposite sides of the veil, now. Go home to your demons. Let me go back to mine...”
The wailing eidolon hovered in a phantasmic mist. Her gaudy glow seemed to dim while reflecting on the futility of having escaped Hades, only to return in defeat.
She whispered through taut lips, with a breath of surrender.
“I never wanted to sit by the side of Satan, y’all get me? He’s a stale, old bastard. No fun at all. He don’t live up ta the hype! A damn boring fuck, that’s the truth. Be well, man. Keep reading those scribblings. Yer great-grandpa was a cool dude. I miss him. I miss the touch of a warm, male hand caressing my face...”
There was another flash of wild illumination. Then the medical ward, and his unconscious mind, went dark.
Kelly Strafe, still dressed in patient garb and looking pale from her own health crisis, was at his bedside. He opened both eyes reluctantly, with the artificial light stinging his optic nerves. The glare of equipment screens, and repetitious din of alarms sounding, made him blink out of reflex. When he tried to speak, his throat was dry.
“How long? How long did it take to pry me out of that wreck?”
His erstwhile companion flipped her long ponytail with surprise.
“JUDDY! MY GOODNESS, YOU’VE BEEN OUT FOR OVER A WEEK!”
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