The Last Christmas On Earth

EPISODE V-2

"According to the majority of experts - the newscaster was saying on television - this morning's earthquake was just another link in the new chain of catastrophes that began a few days ago in that geographical area and, unfortunately, they say it is certain that it will not be the last one. The first ones to light up had been the three volcanoes of the Aeolian Islands, immediately after it was the turn of the Etna, the highest active volcano in Europe, and finally the Vesuvius. But when Italian people had just started licking their wounds, thinking that the worst had already happened, the nasty surprise had come from the Mediterranean Sea. This time it was the Marsili, the immense submerged volcano positioned in front of the south-western Italian coast whose mouth is just three hundred meters under the surface. The eruption produced a Tsunami that hit a large portion of the coast producing very serious damage; moreover, it has originated a series of earthquakes among which, the most serious one is precisely the one we are now talking about, hit Rome at five and thirty-eight in the morning. From that precise moment the soil, instead of calming down to permit the classic seismic swarm, it continued to be animated by a slight but constant tremor. At first glance, the energy that produced the earthquake does not seem destined to be exhausted so soon, indeed, some scholars are convinced that this is growing rather than decreasing and that other shocks will soon occur again. But let's get back to the news: the magnitude 4.0 earthquake, despite having been of a medium-light intensity, damaged a thousand-year artistic heritage and unleashed a real wave of panic...

as well as claiming victims among which there are also famous names. At the moment we do not yet know, due to the obvious difficulties in establishing communications, whether the Pope managed to save himself or whether he remained buried under the rubble of Vatican City. Meanwhile, doomsayers are back sustaining that the End of the World is near. They refer to the prophecy of the monk Malachi, who in 1140 AD would have written: "When man will ascend to the moon great things will be about to mature on Earth, Rome will be abandoned as men leave an old crone, and the Colosseum will remain only a mountain of poisoned stones ..." Should we believe him? No one knows, in any case, we at Wawe Television will be here to update you live ..."

Andy pressed the shutdown button, let go of his arm and the remote control ended up on the ground, opening to free the batteries. He stared shocked at the now black screen for a moment, then threw himself back to look at the ceiling with confusion in his head and heart that he never thought he could never feel. First, he was grateful to the destiny that had taken him away from there just a few days before the disaster happened; immediately afterward his thoughts ran to all the people he had left there. The faces of friends and acquaintances passed before his eyes and he wondered if they had been saved, but he had no way of verifying it because the whole communication system was on tilt. The most he could do was, therefore, to wish each of them to have had a bit of good luck. Then he thought back to the images of the Colosseum that curled up on itself, like a house of cards, raising a great cloud of dust, and he remembered how just a handful of nights earlier he had admired it in all its splendor, imagining it as an invincible good giant that would remain forever in his place to watch over his people.

"Abel said the mercury spheres are the right ones, everything is proceeding as planned," said Adam Parker smugly, hanging up the phone.

"Well ... I'm happy because I've reached my limit, I can't perform the part of the perfect wife anymore," Eve said without a shred of enthusiasm.

"I told you a million times, you have to wait a little longer. It's all settled down to the last detail and ... hey, but what are you doing?" He said, annoyed, he hated her bad habit of always doing something else while he was talking to her about important things.

"What am I doing? Turning on the radio, that's what I'm doing! I do not understand how all those complaints can't bother you, is it really possible that you just can not find a way to make them stop?" She replied nervously raising the volume. He replied with a shrug to indicate that with all the things he had to deal with he didn't have time to think about them too. "As I was saying," he went on, ignoring her protests, "every piece of the mosaic is in its place. The mercury thrusters that operate the Vailixi have been secured and in a few days, we will also have the Key to the Heavenly Door.

Now Abel has to deal with the most important issue; as soon as he will obtain the information we need we will meet him."

"Are you sure? Is it really all right? "

"I'm very sure," he confirmed, looking at her with the same expression with which he looks at a jinx.

"And who tells you that the Men in Black won't reach us before we can do what we have planned so far? Besides, I knew that a few days ago in the village has come to a new meddler who is hunting me down commissioned by someone he doesn't even know, isn't that bothering you either?"

"If I tell you that everything is perfectly under control, you have to believe me, I've already thought about how to fix everything," Parker repeated.

"And when will you grant me the honor to explain to me what you intend to do?" Eve replied annoyed. She knew well that he wouldn't tell her what was on his mind even if she tortured him.

"Right now there is nothing you need to know, you just have to trust me and wait a little longer," he told her again for the umpteenth time, and she cursed his habit of letting her unaware and then pull the rabbit out from the cylinder when she least expected it.

"Why do you think I left them alive, those guys down there who give you so much trouble?"

"I have no desire to play at riddles at all," she replied, annoyed by his narcissistic attitude, then closed in silence and began to torment a lock of hair.

"What's up? What is upsetting to you?" Parker asked then, making himself accommodating, and she snorted.

"You always act like everything will be easy, while I continue to bask in uncertainty. To date, despite all your optimism, we do not know how the Heavenly Door will be activated or where our spaceship is placed. Have you ever thought that there is a possibility that Abel, as powerful as he may be, cannot get the information we need? Or could he just get them too late?"

"All this is irrelevant because we have just signed our life insurance policy, don't forget that if things will go wrong, we always have Harry," Parker replied sufficiently, but she still looked at him doubtfully.

"And you really believe that he would be able to do what we need? Deciphering hieroglyphics and piloting a Vailixi would not be easy for us, much less for him."

"I've told you a million times that Harry is just our" Plan B ", but I am convinced that if it becomes necessary he will be perfectly capable of doing all this and many more things. His powers are growing faster, when will you decide to realize it? Even if something should go wrong, thanks to him we will still have the opportunity to close the circle."

"And what about Cain? What would happen if she couldn't get the Key in time?"

"I have no doubt about Cain's abilities," Parker pointed out, scrutinizing her seriously. He was tired of listening to her paranoia and hoped with all his heart that she would stop raising questions.

"And what if no one arrives once the Heavenly Door is open? What would be of our world if all collapse and the doors get closed before our companions' arrival?" Eve insisted instead, and for a moment that last question managed to break Adam's certainties. Despite his efforts, he had not yet managed to re-establish any contact and the fear that anyone would show up at the appointment had been touching him more than once.

"We can't predict everything, we'll find out a solution," he said shortly, now he didn't really want to listen to all those negative hypotheses.

"You always make everything sound too easy ..." Eve scolded him again.

As soon as he woke up, Willy had gone to study the clothes hanging on the coat rack, apparently undecided about which one to wear, but in the end, he had opted to stay naked that morning and slipped into the bathroom as mother nature had created him. After fulfilling his needs he dragged himself to the table. An instant after sitting down the door in the wall opened showing him some food, that had materialized as if by magic. He had put the plate in front of him and had started eating eagerly.

"What kind of stuff is that much?" Evan Carbel asked curiously to Hugh Graham, who was in charge of taking care of their host's menu.

"Judging by how he is eating it, he likes it a lot," said Wayne.

"I'll never tell you what I cooked for him, I'm too jealous of my recipes," Graham joked.

"Looking at it that slop really sucks, but I think that if I were to sleep for seventy years on waking I would also eat stones!" Summerfield said.

"You're probably right, but in any case, Dr. Graham cooked really good because Willy's predecessors had shown that they didn't really like our cuisine," Hamilton said. "What I want to understand is how did you know what he would like to eat," he added, turning to Graham.

"Nothing could be simpler, I went to read the autopsies of his traveling companions and I prepared for Willy the closest thing I could, based on what the doctors found in their stomachs."

"And what would it be, if I'm not too indiscreet?" What do these beings eat?" Eagle urged him in fascination, unable to take his eyes from Willy.

"Mostly humus."

"Are you kidding? Do you mean that what Willy is eating with such obvious satisfaction is a concoction based on soil and rotten leaves?" Summerfield exclaimed in surprise.

"I can't believe it, that individual is devouring the stuff we use to plant geraniums..." Lia Robson commented.

"That's right! It is the richest food of minerals and metals that his organism needs, silicon in the first place."

"Unbelievable ..."

"But apparently he does not disdain grass and chicken meat either."

"Chicken? You mean the aliens raise chickens as we do?"

"I don't know, but his companions had something very similar to chicken meat in their stomachs. And if it was terrestrial or extraterrestrial chicken, I can't really say that."

After breakfast, Willy wiped his satisfied mouth, then stretched and got up yawning, inserted a CD of classical music into the player, lastly went to throw himself in an armchair.

There were only a handful of days left before Christmas, but due to what had happened and all the heat that had continued to torture him, James was not breathing a party atmosphere at all. In spite of the fact, he did not feel like doing it, on the way home he had asked himself whether or not it was the right time to decorate the tree. If he hah had the certainty that organizing a big party would have helped him to find a bit of serenity and a little sense of family unity, then he would have run to look for the most impressive fir tree that he had ever seen in Rockland and its surroundings. But instead, he feared that he would find himself having to recite reluctantly the part of the happy family man and it did not attract him at all. When he got home, he parked the car under the roof and walked towards the door, shuffling his feet; to travel those twenty meters it took a lot of time and he realized once more how much he missed Toby's joyful welcome. He grabbed the handle with automatic gestures, but a couple of minutes later, as emerging from a dream, he realized he was still standing outside the door with his hand resting on the doorknob. He had just eavesdropped and he felt ashamed for doing that, it was really absurd that he didn't have the courage to enter his very house. Looking inward, he found he had no desire to cross that threshold, if it hadn't been for Harry he would probably have gone back into the car and gone to spend the night in a motel. Or worse, or maybe better, he would go and ask Helen for asylum. As he had explained to her earlier in the office, despite Eve's efforts, he had begun to feel practically like a stranger, like an object out of place or something similar. He also constantly lived with the fear of having to face another of those incomprehensible crises that had begun to hit his son, but, as Helen had reminded him, Harry was his world with capital "W", the only thing that really mattered. He proposed once again to face every situation for him and vigorously turned the knob to enter the house. The first thing he noticed was the absolute absence of food odor, yet it was dinner time. He poked his head in the kitchen and saw the dirty dishes piled up in the sink, then checked the clock thinking he was late.