“They told a guy I know that they want to repair the Wharf Café.”
He had packed up two bags of his mother’s clothing and some of her freshest groceries. It wasn’t much. Some produce and some milk. We locked up and since we were all going the same way, Doug grabbed one of the bags and we all took off together. Five people and a dog. Roops wasn’t the world’s fastest walker, so it took longer than usual. Big guy, you remember.
There was a tiny private shop in town. It sold a few things produced by locals. Some bakery stuff, herbal meds, homemade cheese and local eggs, stuff like that. They also carried goods liberated from abandoned buildings. That was still going on, ten years later. It was near the high school, used to be called Welches. Elvin wanted to see what they had, so we all went in and filled the place up. You had to pay them with old cash, or in kind, or barter. They barely hung on there.
A young girl was minding the counter. She took a good solid look at Doug and his NO patched backpack. She stood up suddenly and said “hey, are you Doug Simpson!?”
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He turned around to stare at her.
“Two weird guys have been asking all over town for you,” she said. “They kept talking about the configuration. They wore some kind of sprayed on black suits.”
“Oh yeah? We met some of those guys yesterday…” Doug said. “Why do they want me now? They could have talked to me yesterday.”
“They want to offer you something," they said. "They talk at the same time. So weird...” she said.
After Elvin had checked out the merch, and we had chatted for a while, we found out her name was Lily and her sister worked in the official grocery store on the highway. Denise, of course.
By then she knew we called them Thumbies, and she said they were parked down by the ruins of the Wharf Café, in the front lot and that we could probably find them there.
Out on the sidewalk we had a quick conference. Roops would go home to the radio station to be with his mom. Lou and Bubby decided to go with and keep Mrs. Steele and Rupert company…and not have to run all over town with the rest of us. Elvin wanted to go hang with Lou and Bubby, but his curiosity won out and he decided to walk with Doug and me.
Down in the parking lot of what had been the Wharf Café was a strange silver toned vehicle more like an Airstream RV than anything else. It was reassuringly bus like, but too big. It appeared to have a row of portholes all down the side. I could not see an engine compartment though. It glitched in and out of sight a little from time to time as we walked up on it.
I wondered in what sense it was actually present, or did it just appear to be present. There was a very good way to find out.
Since he didn’t see a door or entrance that was obvious Doug just beat on the side of this thing with the heel of his hand. We waited quietly. We stood in the mild sunshine of a late afternoon, facing this uncanny object. Just beyond it the destroyed café still lay in ruins, a testament to the power of a silent triangle flying craft armed with unknown weapons.
The end facing us slid open. A Thumbie stepped out. “Joyous Configuration!” he said, palms together, with a tiny bow. “Would you care to have a ride?”
Perhaps we were stupid, or maybe there was a sort of compulsion in action, but Doug said OK, and his brother and I went along with it. The word stupid, after all, is based on the word stupor.
“Welcome Doug Simpson, Jennifer Simpson, Elvin Simpson.!” I wondered what this creature thought he knew. I had not married this boy and I was not his sister either. I didn’t explore the subject with him though.
I still don’t know if Thumbies have personal names or not. This one ushered us into the end of this conveyance, to face two rows of seats full of characters looking just like himself. They appeared to have been sleeping with their chins down on their chests. They woke and all spoke together... “Joyous Configuration!” Those were a lot of tight black suits to face all at once. Our host found us a bench seat of sorts, though it was very fancy for a bus seat, with padding and controls of some variety, and he faced us.
“We are the hands of World Com. As you can see, we are not your enemy. We have been in your home and did you a benefit and no harm. Let us show you this world.”
I noticed that we were aloft. It had happened with no sense of motion. None of us had flown before. The landscape of our narrow lives flew by underneath the bus. I called it a bus in my thoughts. Milltown disappeared, we crossed the river, the houses we knew, the roads, the fields all flew by underneath. We were very far from the bay now. Mountains loomed. None of we three had ever been this far from Milltown. We had been like medieval peasants, living in one place our whole lives until this day.
A feeling like a stone settled in my stomach. It was fear. The boys didn’t look much better than I felt.
Night fell outside the ports. Our host Thumbie seemed to be humming or buzzing as he sat. They seemed biological, but I wasn’t sure. Maybe not entirely?
Finally, he said, “You can be master on this land Doug. You have the bloodline of command, though you don’t know it.
“World Com. will make the way smooth before you, if you will join us.”
All in unison they said, “for a joyous configuration!” Doug looked stricken. Elvin looked like he was counting something and didn’t like the sum he was getting. I was just full of that stone.
Doug said, “Who are World Com., anyhow, and why do they want me? I am just a kid from the edge of the continent.”
No. 1’s eyes glittered. He smiled. I had never seen a smile on a Thumbie before. It was not nice to see, it was sickening. Something not right flickered there.
“We all know about Novus Ordo. It is the seed of a great power. You want to lead your people. We want you to lead your people, but we want you to bow to the leadership at the Dome on the Rock. It is essential! You will never succeed without this infilling of power.”
Their chins went back down onto their chests, they buzzed insect-like, and we all flew away toward the east. It seemed to take only an hour or so.
I had seen photos of the Dome of course. I was not prepared to see it in person from our flying bus. The dome gleamed portentously in the sunlight. Ornate designs were painted all over the exterior of the huge building, built over a stolen location. It hunched arrogantly and malevolently there like a living entity.
We hovered over the courtyard.
Doug said “No.”
Elvin smiled.
The fear fled from me.
I felt a powerful jolt of joy. This!
“No, I will not bow here or anywhere else to whatever waits there in that old dome,” stated Doug.
“No. I don’t believe I have a special bloodline.
“No, you will not deceive me.
“I have seen some of the works of All Being. He is not in that dome.”
The Thumbies gnawed their fists in rage, a huge humming filled the bus as if it were full of insects. Their own blood ran down their chins. The bus pitched and yawed. We were thrown one direction and then the other.
Doug said “NO!”
A piercing shriek filled the air. The bus hit the ground of the courtyard like a sack of potatoes. It broke open and sort of collapsed into a kind of metallic garbage heap. Thumbies ran in all directions, bleeding and howling with failure.
A siren began its own howling, echoing across the courtyard. After some moments I saw soldiers come running toward where we stood unharmed after the crash. These were not the legitimate soldiers of The Land. They were the forces of World Com. in the dome.
We three stood alone in the center of it all, arms around each other, three kids from the upper left hand corner of what had been America.
Doug whispered “no,” and darkness settled over the courtyard. Soldiers still ran screaming towards us. I put my head onto Doug’s shoulder and shut my eyes for a moment. Elvin hung onto my arm.
Lights began to appear in the darkening Mediterranean sky. Lights in martial array. Many colors. Many sizes.
Lights as far as you could see in the unnatural darkness. So many, in fact, that the darkness fled away.
And they sang a great song of praise.
Maybe it sounded a bit like this, but deeper and many more voices?
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