Chapter 19

The next morning I was standing outside and it was foggy and cool when Lucy’s grandmother came up and handed me a cup of coffee. I smiled at her as it was a 100 ounce travel mug and thanked her softly as she smiled back. And when she asked where her granddaughter was, I said she was still sleeping.

We talked softly in the still morning, and she jumped when with a soft whirring noise the drone left the station and started a patrol. She looked at me and I softly explained what it was and that I was testing them while I was here.

“Ah, that good. Things like that are still a marvel to somebody like me.”

I looked at her and raised an eyebrow, and she smiled and nodded. “Remember, I was a girl when we fought in the war. Television was something talked about in magazines, nobody I knew had ever seen one. Jets were new, I saw one once during the war, a copy we had made of a German one. Then when I come here, all have cars and radios everywhere. By the time my second baby born, we have first TV. Black and white, the size of a washing machine with screen the size of a large piece of paper.”

I saw her looking into the fog, and realized she was actually looking back in time. “Then we get color TV, man goes to the moon, computers start to appear and before you know it they are everywhere. News broadcast in the day was a man like Cronkite talking about what is happening, now is showing us live as it happens with remote cameras. Things move so fast the last century. When I was a baby, you would take a boat and weeks to go from Japan to California. Then a week flying and landing at small islands to refuel on the way. Now, you get in a 747 and are there in a few hours. We have men living in space, once only a fantasy. In the same way you have machines that know when to crawl out of your trailer like insects and fly to look for trouble.”

She took another sip of coffee as I smiled at her description. “Yes, and you are like that in a way. Funny thing is, to me you are not a monster. In my culture we believe Kami live and sometimes walk the earth. Some in human form, some in natural form. If you appear when I was a little girl we would have marveled, and been afraid until you showed you were good and not bad. But we have legends of animals that walk and talk like people so would have accepted.”

As Sachiko was saying that Lucy came out and hugged her, then hugged me as well. “And we even have legends of Kami that fall in love with people, normally younger boys and girls. Some live amazing lives full of love and wonder, some are tragedies where none are happy at the end. But I grew up on such tales, and shared with my children, their children, and it continues. So you come along, and we see you as almost Kami from stories. And from what you do we know you are a good Kami. Oh, you not Kami I know, but that is how I see you. Sent to guard and protect, especially from the evil Kami. For not all are good, some are evil. Others are just pranksters. Kami that creep at night turning milk bad and making cows run away, not to be evil but as a joke on us. Then there are bad ones. They cause sickness and death, or cause flood weeks before harvest to kill crops so people starve. You are protector Kami, to save us from the bad ones.”

And in hearing that, I had a thought. I excused myself and went into the trailer and grabbed my phone. I returned and hit the memo app and started a narration. “Di, I was talking with Lucy’s grandmother and she told me something fascinating. Look into Japanese folktales, into Kami. Then look into other folktales in the past from other regions. Hypothesis, maybe this has happened before. To a more primitive culture with a lower population density, what would a Night of Madness be like? What she just told me of Kami could almost describe what happened to us that night.”

I clicked off the recorder and after pressing a few buttons saw confirmation it had been sent to Di. I saw both of the ladies looking at me, and I smiled. “Dianna is a friend and one of the staff at Control, part of her job is looking into us. What made us all so different, and why it happened. But what you just told me, it got me to thinking. We had always just assumed this was the first time this had ever happened before. But what if this was not the first time?”

I saw both of them smile, and Sachiko nodded. “I know that the oldest written language in your area of the world was China, about 3,000 years ago. Japan was shortly after that based on theirs. So just to pick a date, 4,000 years before there was something similar. A lot less people so a lot less who mutate, but there will still be thousands. How might that have been remembered? It already would have passed into legend and myth before it was written down, but what you just said sounds like what happened to us. I was good before, and am still good. Some were evil so remained evil. Some were just regular people, so are more like the tricksters you mentioned. They might have a power, and we know that some just use them sometimes for pulling pranks. But move the area covered by our event, over Asia that could cover Japan, Philippines, most of East Asia to the center of China more or less.”

Lucy hugged me tight, and said it would indeed cover a lot of the same stories. “Fire gods, animals who talk like men. Heck, turn your coat white and you would be seen as a Yeti.”

I nodded. “Of take me like I am now, and throw me in North America at that time and I am a Sasquatch. Holy hell, what if this is some kind of cosmic cycle? What if it happens over and over again, and we just never noticed it before?”

Sachiko smiled and shook her head. “Because so few change, Clint. Let’s say it happens every thousand years. And the last time, imagine it hit the middle of the Pacific Ocean. How many people would be there, maybe ten thousand at most? Twenty thousand? Who would notice? A couple only change, and they also pass into legend. Or it covers say north-central Siberia through the Arctic, once again how many change? Or South America two thousand years ago? An area that has legends of cats that walk like men.”

We continued talking in the morning, and I had a sense that something major had just happened. I sent off another memo to Di, adding these new things we had talked about and ten minutes later I got a call.

“Clint, tell me who all is there with you!” I told her it was me, Lucy and her grandmother and she sighed. “OK, let them know this is at the moment classified, they are to discuss it with nobody else.” I told her to hold on a moment and put on the speaker.

“OK, just so you know this is not a new idea, it has been kicking around on some of the conspiracy and crypto-zoology sites for years. But the way you three just stitched it together is actually in a way that makes sense. I am going to draft up a memo to start a think tank into looking into this, but I have to admit it makes a lot of sense. Mrs. Sachiko, especially with your idea that the area of coverage could limit the number based on where it was. That might actually be the missing clue we had all missed that caused us to dismiss it before.”

Now she sounded excited, and could barely keep her breath. “And yes, the Chinese have a great many similar stories. Like you said, four thousand years ago imagine this happened over our homelands. By the time this was written down hundreds or thousands of years later, how would we be remembered? As Kami! Spirits who take the form of men and do incredible things, some good and some bad. And it might explain other things.”

She went silent for a moment, then was gasped. “You know, of all the areas of the planet, Europe might be one of the lowest in these kinds of legends. You have some in Egypt that stretch back over 5,000 years. But almost none in Europe. Maybe they just never had such an event, so it did not fold itself into their legends as in other areas.”

“Or it had happened too early. Imagine it had happened, but say 10,000 years ago or earlier. Low population density, much of them living in what is now the North Sea. Or even earlier, at the bridge between Sapiens and Neanderthal. Did it affect them? Did it affect earlier species of hominids? We know that it only affects humans.” I squeezed Lucy’s hand when she said that, she was smart.

“Wrong, it affected at least one animal. But good catch, Lucy. Adding that to my notes. I wonder if that is a connection also. The only animal known to have mutated changed with a human, we already know that Dire Wolf and Fang had a symbiotic relationship before the event. I will ask the tank to look into human and animal pairings from myths, that also might have happened in the past.”

Lucy smiled, and gave me a wink. “Di, look at Odin. Odin One Eye was an old man, and was often accompanied by two ravens, two wolves, and a horse if I remember my Bullfinch’s correctly. The ravens and wolves were large, and brought him information. Now imagine a lone hermit in the far reaches of Northern Europe. Maybe an old veteran, he lives alone in the woods with his animals for company. Maybe two sheepdogs to help manage a small flock. Ravens for company and a cart horse. All live in a single room hut, living and sleeping together. Don’t look at me that way, Clint. In medieval times quite often animals were kept inside for protection from predators and for their natural heat. The dogs would be exceptionally smart, as are all herd dogs. An event happens, and all of them change. What survives in legend but Odin?”

“But what of the others? Thor, Loki, Freya, and the rest?” I asked.

“Simple, not actual family, but similar people that banded together. Hell, look at yourself. You, Dire Wolf and Fang, Bohica, and all the rest of your team. In a pre-literate culture how would you all have been remembered? Within a few centuries you would have gone from a team to a family. Especially as it might likely be that some might actually get married.”

Sachiko did not help when she gave a small giggle. “Yes, imagine this in another thousand years if all humanity went back to a stone age. You might get remembered as a giant human bear, Dire Wolf as your wife, and Fang as your son. Without writing, stories change over the centuries. Some of the gods remembered from prehistory might simply be groups of mutants as you that banded together.”

I smiled and nodded. “Yes, and some just for self-protection from the others. Other groups for conquest. It makes a strange kind of sense. But would this not possibly be seen as some as an attack on their culture?”

Sachiko actually shook her head. “No, because most of those beliefs are long dead. Nobody really believes in Odin, or Isis, or that the Jaguar God needs human sacrifices. I will still accept there are Kami, as my faith accepts that humans can become Kami after they pass. The idea of Kami likely existed long before a change, but those that changed were absorbed into the beliefs and expanded them. Maybe even that is where the concept of humans becoming Kami once they die originated.”

“Clint, that actually makes sense. And as Lucy said, is lacking in European lore. Humans do not become elves, or dwarves, or gnomes, or any others in folklore. The legends of mutants survived, but their connection to humanity was lost. In Asia it was more recent, so it survives. Now I wonder if we can use that to track prior events. Find when the first beliefs in Odin, Isis, Kami, Mayan, and other gods originated. And that might give us a timeline for how often this happens! We are simply the first that have experienced it in a literate society with a population density high enough for it to be obvious.”

She then gave the expected reading of the secrecy of this information, and what could happened if it was revealed to others. And after Lucy and Sachiko both admitted they understood the consequences, she sighed. “Now you can discuss this with Clint freely, or each other. But nobody outside of Control. This is because it is the first real solid concept we have had that ties this all together, and shows it might indeed have not only happened before, but might happen again in the future. I can’t believe that this has been staring us in the face but never so clearly.”

Lucy squeezed my hand and laughed. “Oh, the simple things often do, Di. The Earth is round, the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun, that the Milky Way is not the entirety of the Universe. Things that should be obvious, but some were not accepted until less than a hundred years ago. Plus I have read some of those sites you talked about, they are full of nutcases that also believe in vapor trails, lizards from Tau Ceti II control the government, and that we are not real but really just characters in a kind of Sims like computer program. Easily dismissed because they believe in crazy things and believe in a conspiracy more than the reality of explaining why things happen.”

After Di hung up we talked for a bit longer, then with a hug to both of us Sachiko headed back home and we went back inside. Lucy gave me a long kiss, then had me sit as she reheated the sausage in the microwave and cooked the eggs. And we discussed that and more as we ate, and amazed at how much sense it made.

“The real reason for the secrecy I bet is that DI is going to have the think tank try to figure out a timeline. If this actually works out, that may be the most important thing to come of this. If this happened before, how often? Can a rough estimate be made for when it happens, or is it still random? And it actually makes sense, as say if this happens every thousand years or so. Like your grandmother said, each time over a different area. We know it was roughly over an area the size of North America, and the connection with puberty. We are going to see more popping up for at least a decade. That could also explain some as adults and others as their children. Not their children, but still children when they developed the mutation a decade or more later.”

I decided to send that off also, and Lucy looked at me when I finished. “Why not just send her a text?”

I laughed and showed her the phone in my hand. “Even with this oversized phone, I can’t really text anything. Either voice to text, or just a voice mail. Di is used to that with me, and I could tell by how excited she was she will want any more thoughts we have as soon as possible. Plus if you did not catch that, it was Dire talking to us, not Di.”

“What would be the difference?”

“Oh, other than she as Dianne could not see there is largely none. But that meant she was in her office and likely highlighting what we were saying as it was run through voice to text for her notes. I bet she is already talking with her boss to start the think tank, this really is big news.”

We spent most of the day between making love, and a long walk in the woods in the early evening. The rain had stopped, and we spent some time looking for the missing drone before heading back to the main house for dinner. Her parents and grandmother wished me a safe trip and told me I was welcome back any time as we headed back to my trailer.

And before the sun even broke the horizon the next morning I was hooking up the trailer to my trike. And with a long kiss I pulled out onto the road and headed to the freeway. And as I had ordered, I watched the last drone dock itself and lower into the trailer when I stopped at the onramp to the freeway. And with a smile I turned right and headed home.

Thankfully, by the time I was headed north the rain was behind me. And after a long stop at a diner for dinner and a lot of coffee I just decided to keep driving. Pulling into home in the middle of the night. I did not even unhook the trailer, I just went inside and crawled into bed.