Demicore

Chapter 19

“Nanotechnology,” Sonya replied. “Erik and I took years perfecting the design. Between the two layers of fabric there is a web of wires. They are activated by the natural energies of your body – heart beating, blood pumping, lungs expanding and contracting – they take that energy and any other energies around you to match and maintain your body temperature. They work even in extreme heat and cold.”

Elizabeth stared at it for a minute. It was… flimsy. She wasn’t entirely sure she believed it could maintain body temperatures. On top of that, why satin?

“Hey, you guys didn’t do this one on your own! I was involved in it, too,” Katlin chastised Sonya just a little, but the sting was taken out of her words by the smile on her face.

“Uh-huh, you are the one who decided that it would work well in a sleeping bag and that this particular satin conducts the body heat efficiently while snagging less than silks.”

“That’s because I designed it for this purpose,” Katlin shot back mostly playfully, “you guys wanted to put it in wool suits!”

The three of them burst into laughter. “Putting it in wool, if it does what you say it does, would have meant you were always sweating!” Elizabeth smiled for the first time since they headed into the jungle. It was good to see the girls teasing and playing like that. It meant they still had some healthy competition going on, but it wasn’t so much that it got in the way of their friendship and that was very important to her.

“You should rest now,” Andy said quietly, “tomorrow may prove to be long. I will stand watch.”

“What about you?” Elizabeth asked her, “We don’t have an extra bag, but don’t you need some sort of rest?”

“I am here for a finite amount of time,” Andrea replied, “Whether I choose to watch the beauty of nature or lie down and pretend I am constrained to a human body again, when my time is up I have to go. I prefer to enjoy the miracles that are the world around us while I am here to do so up close.” Her voice, ethereal as it was, carried such raw emotion that it carried through and pulled the heartstrings of the women she was with. Her appreciation of the tiny details of the world around them spoke to each one and reminded them they had not been appreciative of the signs around them of God’s love and beauty.

For a few moments before they fell asleep for the night each of them paused to listen. They heard the frogs calling to each other, snakes and lizards slithering or crawling into their resting places, a gentle breeze stirring the leaves and flowers bringing them some of the sweetest fragrances they’d ever smelled. A peace fell around them.

Sleep, My Friends, with the peace of God your Almighty Father draped about you, protecting you. For tonight, your world is as it should be. Andrea gazed out from her empty sockets through her red silk scarf at people she had cared enough for when her spirit was in her earthly body to leave them when the time was right. They were her family. Thank you, Father, for allowing me to come back and be Your guiding hand in their time of need. Please help me to do right by both You and them. Then she returned to enjoying every tiny aspect of the life around them.

They woke at the crack of dawn to the sounds of the jungle coming back to life. It was a very different place in the morning than at night or even in the middle of the day. Katlin dug through the packs to find another ration to sustain them for the day. When they had cleared up their “fire”, they headed out.

For three days they followed that procedure. Barely speaking to each other, no matter how much they wanted to. Elizabeth asked about Andrea’s eyes, Andy smiled. “They were taken from me. Erik did everything he could… they were just not replaceable at the time… then I couldn’t have them replaced so I refused.”

“Why couldn’t you?” Elizabeth asked, very confused. The tones in Andy’s voice said that the technology was developed and she wouldn’t let him take care of it for her.

Andy stopped walking. She turned to look at Sonya and Katlin. “You deserve those answers. Please sit.” When they had all stopped moving and taken a seat, she began her explanation. “When finally Erik had the technology ready for my eyes, I had already been visited by an angel. They really are as beautiful as in the Bible. She told me I had a choice, but that Elizabeth would be returning to Erik’s life and I couldn’t be there when she got back,” Andrea gazed at Elizabeth, her predecessor and successor. “He lived for you. He studied for you. He raised his daughters thinking of you every moment of every day. His love for you is as undying as human love could ever hope to be. There is no way I could get in the way of that love. And so, my choice was to leave by allowing an injury in my eyes to become infected. No, before you ask, he did not know. I only told him on my deathbed that it was my choice to go this way.”

“He couldn’t have known,” Elizabeth said as a few tears escaped her eyes and ran down her cheeks, “because if he had, he would have found a way to stop it from happening.”

Just then they heard a rustling in the bush behind them. Sonya and Katlin stood in a fighting stance, ready for anything that might come at them. A small native emerged, clad in a loin cloth and carrying a spear. He started to speak to Elizabeth, but she couldn’t understand anything he said.

“We are here in peace,” Katlin replied in his native tongue, “searching for someone who is lost.”

“You seek the ghost man looking for the great cat,” the man stated, “you need to follow me and talk to the medicine man.”

Katlin told the others what the man had said and each came up with the same question: Ghost man? But the little man bade them follow him and he was quick through the jungle. They almost had to run to keep up. Through it all, Andy was silent, not wanting to risk people so close to nature being able to pick up on her presence even though they could not see or hear her.

The shaman knew. He could see and understand that she wasn’t entirely here, in this world. Again Katlin worked as a translator for the group.

“Many generations ago,” the shaman began the story, “the great cat came to my fathers. He offered us protection as long as we kept his presence a secret,” Katlin paraphrased. “He told us that one day the ghost man would come looking for him, then he had to be found.”

“Ask him why they call Erik the ghost man,” Elizabeth pressed, “maybe they are talking about someone other than Erik…”

“He is a ghost,” the shaman paused and looked directly at Andy, “because he is a shell of a person, seeking pieces of himself that are missing to gain a better understanding and move to the next place of being.”

Katlin looked up, “Could have been place, could have been state, I’m not sure. They sound a lot alike.” She stopped, wrinkled her nose and thought for a minute, “Now that I think about it, ghost isn’t quite right either, it’s just the closest thing to it… ghost, zombie, something like that.” She shrugged, indicating that was not important at the moment. After a few more words with the shaman, Katlin bowed, thanked them, and led the way out.

“So,” Sonya said to her sister when they were out of the shaman’s earshot, “Do we now have to do some weird rain dance and pay homage for the information and maybe be blessed with the location of this ghost-zombie that might be Erik?”

“The cat was last seen north west of the village by about a click if I understand correctly,” she replied flatly, as though stating a well known fact and completely ignoring her sister’s sarcasm. Elizabeth exchanged amused glances with Andrea.

Then it sank in that she hadn’t said Erik. “Um…” Elizabeth was concerned, “the cat was last seen? What about Erik?”