The Last Christmas On Earth

EPISODE VI-1

Episode VI

The Zen Garden

Margareth had been in Willy's company for only a couple of hours, but that morning had begun to seem the longest of her life. Despite the fact that he had remained impassive all the time, she had had several times the feeling that he was about to get impatient or, at least, that the discomfort had repeatedly turned out in his large and very deep black eyes. As a result, she had churned out a series of embarrassing smiles of circumstance without receiving a single one in response and finally wondered if by chance Willy wasn't even able to smile. Realizing that going on that road would have been perfectly useless, Margareth got up and then ventured a kind of awkward greeting, then started for the door, continuing to feel his disappointed gaze on her at every step.

"Don't blame yourself," Professor Hamilton encouraged her as he greeted her as she left the Studio. "We knew from the beginning that it would have been very difficult, if not impossible, to establish a communication code with Willy. We will have other opportunities to try it, we just need to think about it a bit longer."

Margareth nodded without finding the courage to look him in the eye; in the previous days she had spent all her energy to be able to gain the trust of the group and now she was ashamed of herself, she felt she had failed the most important task of her whole life.

"And what we have to think about?" She then replied frustrated as she took off her protective helmet and Dr. Abel Parker turned so the others couldn't see her smile.

"It's useless, I tried them all," the girl continued in her outburst, "he has no opposable thumb and so he can't grab a pen to write, he doesn't talk, the magnetic slates don't work with him because he demagnetize them ... he can't even do the most basic expressions of the face, the only thing that seems to know is to stare me in such a way that makes me feel even more i***t and guilty!"

"However the professor told you, it's not your fault. Simply, it was to be expected ... what can you do?" Abel tried to console her by letting her understand that even if she decided to withdraw, nobody would blame her. Margareth looked around and in the eyes of her colleagues she didn't read disapproval, but only sincere participation in her displeasure, because they knew well how much she wanted to do her part. Even Willy, who was watching them from behind the ten-centimeter thick crystal wall, now seemed distressed for her.

"I could try," Abel suggested, thinking that this was the right occasion, but no one answered her.

In all those days spent together, she had always remained on the sidelines showing off an attitude of fierce superiority, she hadn't taken care of showing herself once and now they were repaying her with her own coin.

"We all knew that the most difficult task would come to you, that it was almost a desperate attempt. And then what did you expect from him? Even though he resembles us in so many things he is not a human being. If you think it's made almost entirely of silicon like sand ..." Wayne was saying to Margareth, and she suddenly shook herself. "Sand, sand, sand," she repeated several times, scanning the rocky ceiling, "I found it!"

"Hey, what's the matter with you?" Asked Viewer curiously, he wasn't used to seeing her shake like that.

"I found a way to communicate with him, but you have to get me a Zen Garden!" Exclaimed Margareth.

"A Zen Garden?" Repeated Professor Hamilton, struck by the genius of Margaret's idea. "Why not, it might even work! Captain Wilson, did you hear her?" He turned to the Supervisory Officer assigned to them from the first day they set foot there inside. He had the task of supervising them and facilitating them in every way possible, in the performance of their duties and, if necessary, providing them with what they needed.

"I heard her perfectly, Sir, but did you by chance forget where are we? Where do I find a Zen Garden now?" He replied, bewildered.

"Isn't there a town around here? Isn't there an emporium along State Road 375?"

"We are in a remote place in the middle of the Nevada desert, which is a rocky desert for us. Here around there is just no sand, however, I can try to get her the Zen Garden for tomorrow morning."

"Well, by tomorrow morning it will be fine anyway," Hamilton replied. "So for today we have finished and perhaps it is better this way because we are beginning to be all a little tired, that includes Willy. Look how he has bent his shoulders forward, if he does not go to lie down immediately he will fall asleep on his feet" he concluded. Then he went to put some documents in order and Abel hurried to join him at the desk, she didn't intend to miss her chance.

"Professor Hamilton," she said, everyone turned to look at her in surprise because she had finally deigned to speak to someone.

"I am the only person in the group who has not yet come into contact with the Grey," she said, attracting the dirty looks of some members of the Team. By now everyone called Willy by name and although he was so different from them, they considered him an integral part of the Team and much more than they considered that rude and mysterious woman part of the group.

"I ... wanted to say with Willy," Abel corrected herself. "Even if the protocol does not foresee it, I would like to try it too, I have also studied ancient languages and I am sure I can succeed where Dr. Turner has failed."

Professor Hamilton seemed to think about it for a few moments as the scientists stared at him, shaking their heads, they couldn't believe he was really tempted to let her try.

"I'm sorry, Dr. Parker, but even if the President himself put you in the Team, you're here as a simple observer. If we really needed you ..."

"If you remember the President himself, referring to me, used the term "carte blanche"," she interrupted him without showing the slightest regard. "And anyway spare me the rigamarole, I asked you a simple question and I would like you to answer me simply "yes" or "no"," she pointed out.

The professor felt offended by her disrespectful attitude and looked her straight in the eye to warn her. But he immediately felt something like tingling in his head, a strange sensation that forced him to look away.

"Remember that the President told you I have carte blanche," said Abel.

"So what?"

"These beings are extremely intelligent, but I think Dr. Turner hasn't used the right communication channel," she explained, as Margareth looked at her as she would look at Judas. "I am convinced that I can communicate with him," she said, showing herself too confident. The professor took a few more moments to decide, he was tempted to let her try so that everyone could watch her failure so that after having made a hole in the water she might have decided to be a little more humble. It didn't cost anything to make an attempt, but on the other hand, he didn't want to hurt Margareth because until then she had shown great attachment and dedication to her task. Hamilton looked really puzzled at Margareth, almost as if asking for her permission, and she nodded with a small nervous movement of her head.

Back home, James inserted a soft music CD into the car radio in order to relax his mind. He closed the windows and set the air conditioning to the maximum. Enclosed in that reassuring fresh cocoon, observing how on the screen of a cinema the shreds of life that were consumed beyond the windshield on that first afternoon of December, concentrated until it gathered as if in prayer. All the way he continued to look inside for something that told him that all was not lost. He was looking for a feeling or a movement of the heart that could take over his rationality, something that would help him bring back the real James. The optimistic James, the one who believes that love with a capital "L" can do anything. He was looking for something that would convince him that all the unexplained facts of those days, sooner or later, an explanation would have found it, something that reassured him by telling him that soon everything would be solved in a soap bubble so that he could finally return to believe in it in which he had always believed, in the affection of his son and his wife. Turning to enter the driveway that led to the house, he promised himself that from that very moment on he would try to make sure that day would come soon.

He took the car to the back and stopped under the canopy of braided reeds and palm leaves, turned off the engine and despite all his good intentions at the end of the music he felt himself falling back into an abyss. He was assailed by despair because he feared that he would have to attend that evening to some unknown and absurd strangeness of Harry, or that he would have to engage the umpteenth argument with Eve because of some kind of futile reason. For a moment he was even tempted to restart the engine and leave, to return home only late at night when everyone is already asleep. But just for a moment. Immediately afterward he forced himself to take on his responsibilities and got out of the car, and the cool breeze that carried the song of the chaffinches generously soothed his sense of suffocating heat. Turning around the house James saw Eve sitting on the rocking chair, her eyes closed and she was letting herself be soothed gently. An infernal din in the tool shed informed him that Harry was instead busy around some kind of invention. James found himself smiling, that was exactly the situation he would like to find every night when he returned home after a hard day's work. Eve had dozed off with a magazine in her lap and he decided not to disturb her, so he went straight to the house to take a shower.

Dr. Abel Parker had worn the gray suit and the brainwave protective helmet with a consuming slowness. When she was ready, she exchanged a nod with Captain Wilson and slipped into the Studio. The captain had got her signal and quickly activated a device that he kept hidden in his pocket, then he returned to his occupations. Although they began to feel tired, the scientists sat down again at their seats to watch from monitors at the meeting between Willy and Abel. The latter did not appeal to any of them and they were all convinced that Professor Hamilton's idea of letting her enter the Studio was bad. Willy was sitting with his arms folded and his head bowed, so deeply absorbed in his reflections that he didn't notice her arrival. She took her seat in front of his chair and posed in a patient pose, with her elbows propped up on the table and her chin resting on her clasped hands, and when he finally raised his head and found her in front of him, the scientists realized for the first time how expressive his face could be. As soon as he saw her, he narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth, pulling his head back slightly, as if he weren't entirely convinced of what he was seeing. Abel noticed his perplexity and nodded to confirm that it was really her, then Willy's eyes widened and he began to push back the chair to be able to pull his legs out from under the table, determined to slip away with the cautious slowness of whom wants to escape the reach of a cobra ready to shoot.

"Her ugliness scared him!" Joked Evan Carbel arousing a general laugh, but immediately after the hilarity changed into restlessness. Willy was backing toward the far corner of the room without taking his eyes off her.

Abel showed him her very white and regular teeth in a cold smile and invited him with a wave of her hand to return to the table, but he denied, shaking his head. The scientists had a distinct feeling that no matter how impossible it could be, those two already knew each other and above all, they clearly perceived how much he feared her.