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Chapter 71
AFRICAN ONES! Indian ones! Calves! Mothers! Herd upon herd of elephants. There were hundreds, maybe thousands. Definitely thousands.
I thought I was going to need a defibrillator when I saw what was rolling in the mud to my immediate left.
Trunk, check.
Ginormous ears, check.
Woolly brown fur? Check!
Twenty feet away I had spotted a family of cute, short-trunked creatures.
They were mastodons! Had to be.
They were supposed to be extinct, but I guess that was just on Earth.
I stood there feeling electroshocked as a female approached. She was twice as big as the largest elephant I’d ever seen on Earth. Forty, maybe fifty thousand pounds.
Her head came above the ten-foot-high viewing platform. Her trunk was as thick as a telephone pole.
Then-she extended her trunk to me.
How do you do? she said in my mind. My name is Chordata.
For a second, I was unable to think straight, or breathe, actually.
I’d never communicated telepathically with an elephant before. I finally recovered a little and shook her trunk.
My name is… I started to say.
Daniel. Yes, I remember you from when you were a baby. You used to come here every day with your mother. We would communicate like this.
You’re the only two-leg I ever met who was able to. An elephant never forgets, you know. And never ever forgets a friend. I was very sad when you left. But happy now that you have come back. How are you doing, Daniel?
I’m pretty much blown away right this second, Chordata, I thought, smiling as I stared into her beautiful violet eyes. So this was why I loved elephants so much?
I see you’ve met those two little monkeys Bem and Kulay. Cute, aren’t they?
I nodded, then lost my breath as Chordata’s massive knee bowed-and she offered us her back.
Please, come with me and meet the others. You can trust me, Daniel. An elephant never betrays a friend.
Bem, Kulay, and I were all able to ride on her rolling ship of a back, with room to spare.
From all over the grassland, elephants started moving toward us. One of the mastodons trumpeted, and then from everywhere the others started joining in, a happy symphony of welcome.
Soon we were in a crush of them, shaking and high-fiving offered trunks. Feelings of euphoria almost knocked me into the tall blond grass as their life-affirming, warm presence soaked right through me.
“Wow! I never did this before!” Kulay shrieked ecstatically. She was vibrating up and down like a gum machine bouncy ball. “I’m the luckiest kid in the world! I’m the luckiest kid in the world!”
I ruffled her hair as more and more elephants paraded over, their trunks buzzing out note after brilliant note.
“No,” I said. “You’re the luckiest kid in two worlds. Here, and a place called Earth.”
Chapter 72
I CAN DIE NOW, I thought, as we headed back into Undertown three hours later. The afternoon I’d just spent was worth getting gut-shot, I decided. Worth getting duped by Seth.
Not only was hanging with Chordata and the other elephants the coolest thing I’d ever done, it was pretty much the coolest thing anybody has ever done.
I would have gladly lived there like a wild elephant boy if Chordata hadn’t politely said it was time for the younger elephants to nap, and told me to come back tomorrow.
I was brought out of my reverie as an elderly woman standing on the porch of the shanty we were walking by suddenly leaned out and clutched my arm.
“You’re not from around here!” she said. “Who are you? Where do you hail from, boy?”
When I turned around, Bem and Kulay were ru
“There was a rumor that an alien person escaped from Ergent Seth’s starship,” she said. “He sent you, didn’t he? Now he’s sending spies, is that it?”
“I’m not a spy,” I said.
“Like you wouldn’t lie to me if you were.”
I yanked back my arm, trying to break her steely grip. Suddenly she slapped me across the face.
Which was crazy, because the hand that she wasn’t clutching me with never moved from the porch railing.
The old lady had smacked me with her mind, I realized.
“Where do you think you’re going?” she demanded.
Her head jerked as I mentally slapped her back. I felt a little bad, but I had to. I needed to get out of there in a hurry.
I was half a dozen steps down the alley where Bem and Kulay had run when I found myself stuck in place.
I couldn’t move.
Chapter 73
THE OLD LADY came hobbling quickly down off the porch and caught up with me. I could feel energy crackling off her, holding me still. A terrible light filled her ancient blue eyes.
Great, out of all the beaten-down citizenry, I had to tick off the one that had powers.
“Bem and Kulay-front and center,” the old woman called out.
The two kids came out from behind a stack of pipes and approached the woman meekly.
“Yes, Doctor,” they said in unison.
“Who is this odd, renegade person?” she said. “Where did you meet him?”
“Deep in the northern tu
I unfroze suddenly as the dreadful light faded from the old woman’s eyes.
I did a double take as she burst into the most incredible girlish laughter. It was quite charming, actually, as if she were both eighty-four and fifteen at the same time.
“Bem and Kulay, you may go,” the old doctor woman said, suddenly friendly. “My, my, my. Daniel, is it? You’re a real curiosity, aren’t you? I was begi
Graff! I thought. You have got to be kidding me! That six degrees of separation thing even worked in space! Graff had been my father’s name!
“Graff? You knew a boy called Graff?” I blurted. “That was my father’s name, and he was from your world.”
Could it be the same person? I thought. No. No way. But the old woman seemed to read my mind. Her wrinkled face appeared to instantly lose twenty years, and she broke into the loveliest smile.
“I knew I sensed something curious and good about you, son of Graff,” she said, putting a warm, soft palm on my forehead. “Thank you. You’ve helped me remember… the way it used to be.”
Chapter 74
SO MANY EMOTIONS and questions rose in me at once. Finally I had a real co
To who I was.
To what I was put in the universe to do.
And then the most excruciating pain exploded in my stomach! And with it came a fresh flow of blood. I collapsed, bleeding like a stuck pig.
“What happened to you?” she said. “Your stomach? Tell me, before you pass out.”
“I was shot,” I said between clenched teeth.
“With what? Be precise.”
“A 24/24 Opus Magnum.”
She pulled up my shirt for a peek. I couldn’t stop her if I tried.
“Must have used a delayed frag round,” she said, frowning at the blood and my wound. “Tiny charge inside the bullet. Can be activated at a later date. Even by remote control.
“The bad news is that basically you have a bomb inside your stomach. If we don’t get it out of you before the charge goes off, it will send shrapnel through all your vital organs, including your heart.”
“Beautiful,” I groaned. “Okay, you got my attention. What’s the good news?”