“So we can go where we like? No more secret missions?”
“You can go where you like, dear boy. Honky-tonking with Doc Holliday, or, if you’re looking for adventure, you might rejoin the Dionysian heroes, who I understand are planning a fresh assault on the Apollonians. Or, if total depravity is your craving, you could head out to Hatheg-Kla and howl and dance with the Great Ones. The choice is yours, although I did understand that you and Semple had started something.”
Doc had a much more simple and direct question. “But how do we get out of here?”
God laughed. “Now, that is a piece of cake.”
With an extended index finger, he described a circle on the ground and then took three paces back as a portal, rather like a giant manhole, opened in the earth. “With enough power to take you anywhere of your choosing, anyplace you are able to imagine.”
And with that, God picked up his cat and rose vertically into the air. He went straight up for about twenty feet and then moved horizontally across the lake toward the screen and, by some process of complex morphing, was absorbed into it. As God entered the picture, Hypodermic offered him a cheroot and, when God gratefully accepted it, also lit it for him. “Hawking?”
God nodded. “Hawking. Even he can’t be kept waiting forever.”
When the four very different gods walked away into the final fade, the background was suddenly visible. They were walking away down a road constructed from yellow brick.
“Sometimes I think Hawking’s smarter than any of us.”
“But he’s human.”
“Weird, isn’t it?”
As they diminished in size and their voices faded, the big screen sank slowly and majestically into the lake. A nun looked nervously at Doc. “Was that really God?”
Doc burst into wheezing laughter. “Sure thing, Sister. That was God, all right. No impostor could put on an act like that. The suit? The cat? The accent? The whole bit? Oh yes, sweetheart, you have just met with the Almighty.”
***
Doc was already peering down into the portal, staring at the shimmer of rainbow colors that seemed to descend for infinity. He had assumed that Semple and Jim were right behind him and was surprised when he looked back to see them still some distance away, in what, from the tenseness of their body language, looked to be a confrontational discussion. Aimee stood a few paces off, staring at the two of them. Without hearing what was being said, Doc instantly grasped the dynamic of the situation. Semple was the object in a tug of war and obligation between Jim and her sister. Bearing in mind how the two sisters had once been one, Doc could see that the conflict was virtually inevitable. He was tempted to go and join them, but decided it was a less-than-wise move. He couldn’t recall ever being thanked for intervening in a domestic dispute. Doc was also aware, though, that time was pressing. Most of the nuns had already checked out, some so disconcerted by the way things had panned out that they’d ripped off their habits and were stepping off into the portal clad in nothing more than bras and panties, ensuring themselves a provocative entrance when they arrived at wherever they had selected to go.
Doc decided that all he could do was attempt from a distance to force a resolution to what looked uncomfortably like an emotional impasse. “Not wishing to interrupt you young people, but I think we ought to make up our minds where we’re going to go and go there. This thing isn’t going to stay open and energized forever.”
Jim turned in his direction and shouted, “Hold on there a minute, Doc.”
“We don’t have much more than a minute. We have to go while the portal’s still hot.”
Jim exchanged more words with Semple and then hurried to where Doc was standing. “There’s a problem.”
“Haven’t we had enough problems?”
“This one’s a little different. Semple wants to stay here.”
Although Doc had already guessed this was the situation, he still looked around at the ruins of Heaven in feigned mystification. “Why the fuck should anyone want to stay here? There isn’t even a bar.”
“While the shit was going down-before God showed up-her sister extracted a promise from her to stay and help her fix up the place.”
“That’s ridiculous. She can’t hold Semple to that. God already stabilized the basics, and Aimee knows she can’t rebuild her Heaven the way it was. God’s going to drop the wrath on her from a great height if she does.”
“Semple gave her word. She feels obligated to stick around until Aimee’s back on her feet.”
“Then you don’t have a problem, boy. You and I will head out to Hatheg-Kla, and she can join us when she’s discharged her supposed obligation.”
“I’m afraid it isn’t as easy as that.”
“The business of the two of them just being one?”
“How did you know?”
“It wasn’t hard to figure.”
“Semple says Aimee all but came unglued while she was away.”
“And she’s afraid to be ever separated again?”
“That’s about it.”
“So it’s more of a permanent arrangement than just helping her get back on her feet.”
Jim nodded unhappily. “That is how it looks. I want Semple, but no way can I stay in this place for the duration.”
“If you shack up with Semple, with her sister as a third wheel, I give the romance three weeks, tops.”
“Aren’t you always telling me time’s relative?”
“It isn’t relative where relatives are concerned.”
“So what the fuck do I do, Doc?”
Doc slowly sighed. “I never found there was any percentage in giving advice to the lovelorn, but you do at least know one of the possible futures for the two of you.”
“The old house in the swamp?”
“What else?”
“I should tell Semple about that. Maybe it would stop her from making me feel like a bastard for not wanting to stay.”
Doc gave him a warning look. “That kind of vision shouldn’t be talked about, sport. It tempts destiny too directly.”
Jim and Doc both looked in the direction of Semple and Aimee. They were now in close discussion; Semple’s shoulders sagged as though she were close to resignation or defeat. “I’m going to tell her about the old house.”
Doc put a firm hand on Jim’s arm. “I really wouldn’t do that, Jim. It could set up all manner of destructive resonances.”
Jim’s expression was one of disbelieving suspicion. “What are you saying? That it’s like telling your birthday wish?”
“No, but if it helps you understand the concept, you can think of it that way. Anyway, she seems to be coming to you.”
Semple was walking quickly away from Aimee to where Jim and Doc were waiting. As she came close, it was clear that she was close to tears. Aimee was following more slowly, some distance behind her sister. Doc moved quickly to head her off and give Jim and Semple some privacy.
Semple faced Jim with a look of total desolation. “I have to stay with her. She’s just had all the supports kicked out from under her. God was her whole life, don’t forget. She could fade away to nothing.”
Jim shook his head impatiently. “Can’t you see she’s conning you?”
“I know that, but I’m frightened. I . . . ”
“What?”
“This time, I could be the one who fades.”
“You won’t, believe me.”
Semple looked more conflicted than Jim had ever seen her. He gestured around at the wrecked environment. “You don’t belong in this fucked-up place. You should be in Hatheg-Kla, with me. And all the other wild places.”
“No, Jim, it’s you that belongs in Hatheg-Kla. I have to be with Aimee.”
“Are you saying you won’t even come and join me?”
Semple suddenly clung to Jim. She held him for a moment and then stepped back. “Just go, Jim. Go with Doc right now. It’s hopeless. I know you’d stay with me if I begged you, but in the long run you couldn’t hack it. Aimee would drive you crazy. You’d get to hate me.”
“For fuck’s sake, woman. Forget about Aimee and come with me.”