[New Voices] Gaia
She was born when the Earth was new. And trained to her responsibilities to maintain balance. At all costs...
Short story fiction by S. H. Marpel
I
SOMETHING WAS SERIOUSLY wrong. Or she had slept too long. It didn't matter much. She was awake now.
The ground around her rumbled as she slipped off what served for her bed coverings. To you and I, it would seem like solid rock, but to Gaia, it was simply another space. Over there - her wardrobe. Over here - brush, comb, mirror. Hanging on her bedpost, her soft and comfortable robe to cover her bare limbs. Beneath her feet were a small rug and fluffy slippers to keep her feet warm as she crossed the cold marble to the fireplace.
At that side of the room, the eternal flames from the magma below warmed her as she stood in front of them. First her hands and front, then turning with her back to it.
A comfortable bedroom, filled with memories of her childhood and growing up.
Something had awakened her.
Just as her room appeared to us as solid crystal inside volcanic stone, time to her wasn't measured in years or centuries. It was more fluid. She had no days, no sunrise or sunset to mark its passage.
Gaia slept when all was right with the planet she called home. There was balance. And everything knew its place, its job, its duty - and filled these. With nothing to do, no one to give lessons to, no action necessary to take, she could sleep.
And when she woke, it was to restore balance.
Something was imbalanced in the world above, that needed her touch again after her long sleep.
She was born with this planet, or so they told her as a child. Her fretful tumblings in her cradle and her crying had raised mountains on its surface, had caused volcanoes to erupt. Large land masses had sunk beneath its seas, while ocean depths rose to the sun in turn - to dry and teem with the little organisms called life.
She slept when she had balance, woke when things were not.
And the creatures on the surface, in all their arrogant "wisdom", still could not measure in their own limited terms just when she had slept and when she woke and walked "their" surface.
More than once, she had decided to simply "start over" with a clean slate. To those small creatures, it must have seemed cataclysmic. To Gaia, it was nothing more than the wave of her hand.
Usually, it took about seven of her "days" to remake the world and restore balance. Regardless of the protests of the most sentient species.
Well, sorry. It must suck to be you.
What were they called? That last bunch? Oh – that's right: dinosaurs.
II
I WAS ENJOYING THE afternoon sun, sitting on a massive oak log in the shade of the undergrowth-trees and shrubs. Paw-paws, wild roses, and spice-bush. This great tree had lived for at least a couple of centuries, then took at least a decade in just dying and rotting enough that it could fall over.
I had been spending more time with the cows, the ones I was raising as my “day job.” Not because I had to, but because I felt I wanted to – to fill something missing in my life.
Sal and Jude hadn't visited me recently. But I also had no need to write these days. I had written what seemed like hundreds of stories for the Lazurai, of their history and adventures. Tales of the world they lived in, that alternate, parallel time-line. And more had been published there than in this one.
Those hundreds of stories seemed to be enough for now.
Because I was still tied up with their concepts that fit so well there, but not so much here. Not that they couldn't. And the stories they told me were too eerie, too applicable to our own time-line, to future events here that could too easily take place here and now.
But more, I stuck on the idea of elementals - beings who could assume the attributes of eternal elements. And they had shown up over and over through our written history and verbal traditions before that.
So powerful, they were sometimes worshiped as gods. And pitifully weak humans like Prometheus tried to "steal" their powers or create artifacts that emulated or channeled them. All for their own vain needs.
The Lazurai were our modern equivalent. The result of two different evil groups that were constantly at war, both misleading their followers to support them with finances: terrorists and government. What those two self-proclaimed enemies had created in these Lazurai, neither could stop or undo. And that only caused frustration to those affected individuals, none able to any longer live among humans without destroying them all. So the Lazurai had taken refuge in the elements themselves, submerging to sleep in the rock, water, air, or fire until humankind had evolved enough to tolerate or even survive their re-emergence.
In that alternate time-line, they had solved it themselves - by raising subsequent generations of adapted humans who learned to control their powers, their gifts.
To me, those stories didn't matter as more than fiction here.
But I had been there, done that, helped them solve – in my own small way – problems that would have torn their world apart. Like one torn paper becomes two, then four, then eight – the more you tear it, the more times it doubles. And soon no longer resembles the world you started with, other than as paper dust.
Fiction to anyone else was my own means to make sense of our world, it's core principles, the systems at work, the balances inherent to it – that always brought it back when it tipped too far one way or the other.
Sitting here in the pastures, watching the cattle graze, managing their pastures and moving them regularly to new grass, this was my day job.
And also allowed me to reflect and find my inspiration.
Today, I didn't wonder where I'd lost it, only that right now, I didn't care if I did find it again. I wasn't at peace. But knew I needed to sort things out before I could put any words together into useful form again.
At that, the earth rumbled a bit.
Having lived in another alternate world-view, called L. A., I knew of these earthquakes and wasn't too alarmed. I was simply watching another dead tree standing nearby and seeing it wave in the vibrations. Too much, and it might head my way. Otherwise, the shaking was only bringing other dead branches down.
And some nuts and fruit were landing long before they were supposed to. Of these I was more concerned about paw-paws near me. These were fragrant and soft when ripe, but hard as a nut when green. At least none of these fruits, nuts, or their branches landed near me, as the falling of the massive oak I sat on had left quite an opening overhead.
The rumbling and shaking ceased after awhile.
And then I saw her.
III
OF COURSE, THERE ARE rules. There are laws. And powers like me that are living justice to enforce them. Not that they needed some arbitrary punishment. Just balance.
My first action was to find what the imbalance was. Sometimes it is minor. I remembered the last time I had to wake and rise to the surface. There was a local civilization who had somehow been influenced to think the gods were dead, and so were their rules and their traditions.
They thought that what they laughingly called "science" would predict and protect them from "natural calamities". They thought they could act with impunity. And inside their cities were the worst diseases, the worst imbalances anywhere on the planet.
They quit listening to the world as it was and thought they could make new worlds of their own, by their "superior" design.
I was upset about the changes I'd made in order to balance the world when dinosaurs ruled it. But I was only barely a teenager then. I had power, but not the wisdom to wield it with precision. So my mentors let me learn from my mistakes.
And my tears could not bring all those species back, nor their arts, their music, their love of their families.
My mentors let me rebuild. By selecting a new species to become the ruling sentience on this planet. This rock revolving around a sun that had its own thoughts and beliefs and arts - its own ethos, pathos, and logos. But my mentors monitored the suns and their galaxies. My training ground was this one planet. My mentors had mentors who dealt with universes. I didn't know them and they didn't know me. But word gets around...
My core challenge was to maintain balance on this tiny sphere. That was why I was here.
Bringing this new species to its peak ascendancy required time and patience, perseverance. That's how I learned.
And became more subtle. Not that I didn't have to be heavy-handed at times. A simple box with a plague in it was a gift to a girl and this wiped out a local area of those sentients. Eventually, it was repopulated by others.
There was a continent I had to submerge once. And a city where it was simpler to just let a local volcano erupt and cover it.
For the most part, they seemed to have things under control, so I slept again. As I had been up for quite a while without rest. And the balances were kept, even with their pitiful wars raging. Peace and prosperity balanced out in those areas where the war didn't rage.
Something had woken me up. But I had to investigate before I could render my decision - and my justice.
So I did what I had to do. I appeared in their form.
IV
"HELLO. CAN I HELP YOU?" I asked the young woman who was walking down the cow path in the pasture in front of me. She was dark-haired, with white highlights. Her eyes were clear and open, as if wondering about this beautiful world around her.
"I'm John. Can I ask you your name?"
I waited for a reply. Her lips were forming words, but seemed to have difficulty making them come out.
She frowned and stopped walking toward me, looking down to concentrate on just talking.
At last, she looked up. "I'm... called... Gaia."
I smiled to her. "Glad to meet you Gaia."
I rose from my log and walked toward her. "Is there anything I can help you with? I don't get many visitors out here in this pasture. If your car or truck isn't working, I could let you borrow my phone if you need it..."
She smiled in return. And the depth of Gaia's eyes told me at once of some other knowledge she had, beyond my little corner of these pastures and my writing cabin.
"And... I'm... glad to meet you..., John. No, I don't need any... particular help. But maybe you can help me find – answers."
"Well, I'll do what I can, but I'm more of a question guy, myself."
"That's pretty obvious, you're not balanced. So you seek that which you need."
I was struck by her directness. "Unbalanced? How so?"
"You're not entirely of this world. Something in you is different. It won't balance in this world unless you learn to adjust it yourself."
She tilted her head to one side as she looked me over again.
"And until you do, you're as doomed as the rest of your species. Because you still think of yourself as human."
V
OF COURSE JOHN DIDN'T get it. He couldn't see it. Something had changed him, some force or power that wasn't part of his world. There was something familiar about him that I couldn't quite recall exactly. Like a distant relative or something.
John was frowning, puzzled. "Must have been the treatment. That's the only thing - unless it was that time I was out-of-body..." He was thinking. Isolating. Comparing.
But I didn't have all day for him to come up with it. Call it my youthful impatience. My mentors said I needed to work on that.
Meanwhile, I walked forward and put my hand on his chest, above his heart.
"Do you feel that, John?"
"Other than you're warmer than most women your age? No. Just my own heart beating."
"OK, but you aren't listening. Listen with your heart, not your ears. Close your eyes and concentrate."
John closed his eyes.
What I could feel was the earth, the wholeness of it, the systems at work, it's synchronicity. And he could, too – if he would just listen.
We stood there awhile. My hand on his chest, his eyes closed. And the natural world responded in kind. It resumed all the bird calls, the movements of squirrels and scuttling bugs, of cows nearby on pasture. The grasses and trees in their slow growth were singing their own songs, as the rocks sang their even slower ones. All was in chorus, in harmony.
Except this one man. The only one around for a wide distance. And certainly the only one who could possibly be this aware.
Because I felt something through my hand I hadn't felt in eons.
I felt another like myself.
VI
AS GAIA ASKED, I LISTENED. And felt the world through her touch. As if it was singing a song. If the idea weren't so fascinating, then I would have opened my eyes in surprise. But we writers are a different lot. We are almost gluttons for punishing our inspiration - just in order to bring out a new story to the world, or a new view of old stories.
Then I felt more than the world. I felt her. Her.
And the touch was familiar. Because the Lazurai's Rochelle and Hami had felt like this. An essence that filled my core - and took me into worlds beyond my understanding. Their worlds were single tunes, though. Gaia's was a complete symphony of complex chords and changing, syncopated tempo's. Nothing like I had heard in my ears through any human song or orchestra.
At last I did open my eyes. And placed my own hand on top of hers.
She was still looking deeply into mine. But now she was learning the simple tune that I was, the one that Rochelle and Hami had taught me.
"You are not of this world, or at least no longer of this world. It is no surprise that you are the first I would see." Gaia's eyes opened wider, surprised.
I could tell more from our touch than she was saying.
"But I'm still not the imbalance you are seeking."
She smiled at this. "Yet, you are the one who is supposed to lead me to it."
I had to smile in return. "I supposed you say that to all the guys you meet in pastures miles from town."
Her smile widened into a grin. "John, you are funny. I haven't been joked to in so long, that – well, it's been a very long time."
She put her other hand on top of mine, then enclosed mine in hers. Then she put them to her own chest. "Come with me – I need to show you something."
As if I had any choice in it. I hoped Sal and Jude didn't mind someone else teleporting me...
- - - -
WE SHIMMERED INTO A crystalline structure, more like a large cave somewhere. I could see the "walls" as a slightly different, more orangish color than the clearer yellow-white crystal interior. But solid crystal.
And I had no problem breathing. Except that I didn't need to breathe. This is what the elementals must have felt when they became earth itself.
At that thought, she released my hands. And showed me that it was my own power that was enabling me to live in solid rock.
She walked toward one of the walls of the cavern, as though the solid crystal didn't exist any more than air.
I followed and found it simple. I was, for the first time, living as an elemental. An amazing feeling.
Moving around was as simple as walking in air on the surface. While I could move my mouth to talk, I didn't know if our words were more telepathic than actual.
"I don't understand what you've done to bring me here." I frowned, trying to understand this new form, this different kind of life.
Gaia just smiled. "I only led you here. Your abilities to do this were always within you. Like me, you only need training. Until then, you'll remain unbalanced."
Then I started to find things falling together. "But you're of this time-line. And the treatments I had were from another..."
She just smiled at this. "Time is a human concept, like inventing a 'zero' so their math would work right. Both are just placeholders. Think of where your stories come from. You don't really know, do you?"
I shook my head no. "It's not that I don't know, but I have to trust that those stories come to me. It's like your symphony. Those voices are going all the time. All I have to do is quiet down and listen."
"Yet you consider still that they are not part of this 'space-time' continuum. And so you consider that you can either cross into theirs or they cross into yours. Neither is correct."
Now I was really confused.
She saw my frown. "Of course this doesn't make sense. You are missing your training. Didn't those who gave you your 'treatment' tell you about how to use your gift?"
"Only that I was welcome to come back and learn more about their lives and about the treatment."
Gaia nodded. "More like they just wanted to let you be human." She sighed at this. "It's a simpler explanation. Knowing that once you got curious, you'd be back."
"Wait, though. Going 'back' doesn't mean a space-time 'shift', then. What is it that we are doing, then? They have a 'Cagga - a very dystopian city - which isn't the same as our present day Chicago. So how does that work if time and space are just 'placeholders'?"
"Just like your 'zero' works. Faith."
"Or the idea that 'belief is the father to fact'."
"That's more like it. Once you get practiced at math with zero's, then it's much easier than not. You get mental habits for certain things appearing certain ways. And it's easier to call it a 'shift' when you want to use a different habit-set."
I wanted to sit down at this, but settled for leaning against the orange "walls" - that were only slightly more dense than the clearer crystal.
Gaia looked over my reaction with interest. "Don't you have mentors?"
"We do have a Library, where Ben is able to bring us books of data on various subjects. But the Lazurai material isn't very available there. I imagine that a cross-space-time continuum would be necessary to be able to collect the data we need."
"Or you simply get everybody together in one room to compare notes." Gaia smiled at this simplicity.
So did I.
"Where would we access your Library? Do you know its location?"
"Actually, no. I've never been doing the shifting. Sal or Jude would bring me there."
"And where would we meet one of these?"
"Back at my cabin - just over the hill from that pasture where you met me first."
"Well, that's not as direct, but pretty simple." Gaia smiled and came forward to take my hand again.
The crystal cave shimmered and disappeared...
VII
I GOT JOHN PRETTY CLOSE to his cabin from his description. We arrived outside it. And it was a neat little thing. Hardly big enough for even one person to live in. Brown metal siding, with a green metal roof. Almost disappeared with the woods behind it. I guess that was the idea...
About the time it took to get that thought out, two female human forms appeared, one to each side of him. One dressed in all black and having dark hair, the other dressed in off-white, with blond hair. Each had some sort of power-globe in their hand, sparkling and flashing with little lights.
I had to laugh at this. Just too cute.
"John? Who is your visitor?" Sal asked. She and Jude were staring at me with frowns, that only deepened when I laughed.
"Gaia, this is Jude on my right and Sal on my left. They can tell you more than I can, in order to answer your questions." John filled in quickly, trying to defuse the situation.
I was still smiling. "I didn't mean to offend. John and I have been away, having a little talk, and just returned."
"That would be when we were able to pick up his trace again." Jude looked at John's smiling face and back to mine. Then extinguished her ball of lightning. Sal followed suit.
"So you've been fine all this time?" Sal asked.
"Yes, sorry girls. You know I don't have a way to tell you when I get visitors whisking me away." John smiled and took one each of their nearby hands in each of his. I could see this soften their face lines. There was something between them. Love. That was always a fascinating subject to me. So very human.
"To be fair, John hasn't told me much about you two. I'm actually just here to find the imbalance - and right now it seems to be inside John."
Sal and Jude looked at him, wrinkled brows of concern on their faces.
"It seems I gained some extra abilities from the Lazurai treatments Rochelle and Hami gave me. Just a little extra - like being able to breathe inside a solid rock formation, as an elemental."
Jude's mouth dropped open, while Sal only raised an eyebrow.
John filled in, "It seems that they didn't tell us of any side-effects of that treatment. And I don't know why or what else I can now do."
"Well that would be cool to walk through walls on your own. We just phase through, and haven't tried to live inside the wall itself." Jude was thinking out loud to all of us.
Sal also started to see the possibilities. "This does change things. And we also don't know what the warnings are. We should really have a visit to them again. Like right now." To me, she asked, "Gaia, would you like us to show you the way?"
I walked forward and took Sal's other hand. "This should be fine."
Sal just smiled at me. And we phased out from in front of John's cabin...
VIII
JOHN'S "GIRLS" SHIMMERED us in just outside the front of Hami's old saloon building.
We all dropped hands as John went up the few steps onto the porch, then knocked on the screen door before opening it. "Hami? Rochelle? Anyone home?" Then we followed him inside.
Bentwood "caboose" chairs were loosely arranged near several round four-legged tables in the long space, an old, polished wood bar running almost the length of the room, with mirrors and small shelves behind.
A young, dark-haired woman came out from a back room, wiping her hands on her flour-dusted apron. "John? Sal, Jude! Great to see you all again." Then, to me, "I'm Hami, glad to meet you, too."
"They call me Gaia. And I'm glad to be here. John says you helped him with some treatments."
"Yes, John got sick and we helped him heal his body. Me and Rochelle. She's not here right now, some project came up - and that's what she does best."
"John seems to have some abilities of what he calls 'elementals' - and didn't know it."
Hami looked calm at this. "Yes, we don't generally unload the side 'benefits' of the treatment on adults. The children raised with it start exhibiting it when they are younger, and we tell them bedtime stories of characters with those abilities so that they are familiar to them by the time they start manifesting. Adults are a different matter, since the different abilities often won't manifest at all."
I looked at John. "More of those mental habits."
"What Gaia and I have been talking about was that the time-lines that seem to separate our worlds are just some form of mental short-hand that allows us to keep our particular worlds and their histories separate. She does suggest that moving between these world-views is not that hard."
Sal and Jude both nodded at this.
Hami only smiled. "That's a bit above my pay grade, personally. I simply haven't had a reason to explore any but my own. Running this place seems to keep me busy enough. Between cooking and healing visitors." She looked at John and nodded.
"The problem this presents is the imbalance. John has a very active imagination. And he's a writer. So his stories go out into his world and influence others. The only saving grace is that they are written as fiction - so no one has to take it seriously." I glanced at John, with a wry grin on my face. Human activities haven't changed much in the last few thousand years. "This is what I've gleaned from talks with John and what I can glean from his consciousness. Does this seem to add up to the rest of you?"
All three of the young women nodded.
Sal was the first to speak. "That's the reason we recruited him. His imagination enables him to see solutions the rest of us miss."
Jude chimed in. "Of course his cuteness is just an added bonus. His writing also helps, since his curiosity for the story and wanting to solve mysteries is the core of what we do."
This got me curious. "So you work to solve people's mysteries? Like balancing their worlds?"
"Ghosts, mostly." John spoke up, seeming relieved to move to a subject not so personal. "They get stuck in their incomplete actions and needs. All we do is to help them answer their questions and un-stick from that situation of their untimely death."
Hami spoke up. "And when the Ghost Hunters came over to us, to help us solve a local mystery, that's when John got sick and we were there to do our treatment of him. And where we got a first-hand example of the Lazurai elementals." Hami heard a quiet "ding" in the kitchen. "Oh, that's my cookies. Please, everyone, why don't you sit down and I'll get them out here with some lemonade. John tells this story much better than I." She turned and hustled into her back-room kitchen to get them out of the oven.
John gestured me toward one of the nearby tables with four chairs. We all sat comfortably, and John told us the entertaining story of how they had found an elemental who called herself "Betty" and helped her learn her own abilities after decades of seclusion inside a canyon wall.
Towards the end of it, Hami brought out a huge plate of hot toll-house cookies, only to leave and then return with platter containing a tall pitcher of iced lemonade and tall glass tumblers for everyone. Pulling up a chair, she joined our munching and sipping as John kept us all riveted wondering how things would turn out – although we already knew it was going to be a happy ending.
Just as he finished, and we all had a laugh at the surprise ending, there was another knock at the screen door. It opened with a gray-haired gentleman entering, dressed in blue jeans and Western-cut chambray shirt. His plain boots clumped against the tongue-and-groove floor boards.
"Jean! Your timing is perfect, as usual." Hami was beaming to see him.
John started to get up, but Jean gestured to him to remain as he started to pull another chair over to our table.
Then he saw me and stopped, the smile leaving his face.
IX
"JEAN, THIS IS...." Hami started.
"Hello Gaia." Jean was keeping his voice and face neutral. "To what do we owe this honor?"
"Hi Jean. Just balancing things, as usual. Right now, I'm just collecting data."
At that Jean slid into his chair near her. "Anything we can help you with?"
I replied, "John has just finished telling us about a local elemental that you and they helped rejoin the living. Of course, this is right down your alley, as the phrase goes..."
"He must have been telling you about Betty. She is an earth elemental. Right now, she and Rochelle are off on a project helping someone. Betty seems to be a quick learner, and Rochelle is undoubtedly helping her learn the ins and outs of healing, whoever it is that needs their help." Jean was sitting a bit stiff, not really at ease in this situation.
Hami found that odd, as Jean seemed to be reacting to me differently. Of course, his reaction made sense to me.
"What's up Jean? Something happened out there?"
Jean looked at her. "She hasn't told you, has she?"
"Told us what?"
"Gaia is more than just an elemental. For most of our history, she has been worshiped as a goddess. What we Lazurai can do as elementals is like a single leaf falling off a tree limb compared to her powers."
I took this all in with an even attitude. Just sitting and listening.
"Most of the cataclysms in our histories, and legends, and even before that – were all her work in 'balancing' this planet."
- - - -
I LOOKED AROUND THE faces at that table. Shock, disbelief. No fear, though. And that was their strong suit. John had shown me that when we had first met. An honest interest in me and wanting to help me open-handedly.
Their saving grace.
"It's too true what Jean has said. While I'm called 'Gaia' by most, they are usually those who are appreciative of my milder nature. The after-effect of the balancing. Because the ones who are out of balance usually aren't around to tell their side of the story.
"And much of my work along this line has been unfortunate. With the eons of existence I've also borne the scars of my uneven actions. For that, believe it or not, I am truly sorry."
I looked down and felt a tear fell from my eye at this. John reached over and put his hand on mine. One of my same hands that had extinguished the dinosaurs, covered cities with ash and lava, sank entire civilizations to the ocean depths. All in the name of "balance."
I then looked up at John through my misty eyes, wondering how he could try to be reassuring to a goddess who could bring complete destruction to this world.
"Gaia, it's OK. We may not understand all of what you've had to do, but I think I speak for all of us here – how can we help?"
X
GAIA'S MOUTH DROPPED open at this. Me, a human who didn't even know my new-found abilities, trying to comfort a being who could destroy and rebuild this world if she wanted.
But that was my job right now. And if the world ended in the next few seconds – well, it's been a nice run.
She looked into my eyes and saw this truth for itself. Then looked around the room into everyone else's. Even Jean was at ease with me being here, nodding at what I had just said. Complete agreement.
She was in the company of people who were fine living in their own skins, who had each already faced and seen complete destruction.
This made her relax with a sigh.
And a slight smile crossed her face, despite her reddened and teary eyes.
"Please tell us what help you need and whatever it is, you know you can count on our support." I spoke softly, my hand still on hers.
"It's just that I've seldom been welcome after people find that out. So my homework is usually quiet, anonymous. And I've grown more cautious to sort things out, to measure and weigh the evidence before I act these days."
I just nodded, and waited.
"Thanks for all your conversation. And especially for Hami's delicious cookies. Those are probably the best cooking I've enjoyed in all the times I've taken human form.
"John is just a tip of a large iceberg. But Hami, Jean, I see now what you've been doing to help sort this scene out.
"Humanity has long been known for its arrogance. At the same time, it's been known for openhanded giving and unconditional love. Also, their ability to learn from their mistakes and being responsible for the effects they created.
"There is a crux point on this planet right now. In Jean's and Hami's time-line, they are the ones who have taken the disastrous problem of widespread plague and destruction personified and focused on a handful of human children – just babies, actually – who somehow overcame that tragedy and the very human fear surrounding them and turned it into the capacity for bringing health and longevity to everyone they meet.
"You, John, are the first to bring it into your timeline. And that is where my investigation started. You are surrounded by people who honestly care for you and willing to help you learn to master your new abilities.
"I don't know that I haven't made things worse by testing what you could do. By bringing you into that crystal cave, it should have killed you. That would have balanced that error. And with you being able to quickly embrace and adapt to your new abilities, that made me pause and question what you'd become.
"Of course, that led us here. And most of my questions are now answered. Jean's appearance has filled in most of what I needed to know."
Jean filled us in with his side: "When I last met Gaia, it was deep inside the earth. She has very nice living arrangements there. I was appreciating her garden - not like we know, but growing crystals in beautiful formations in marvelous colors. Did you know that crystals sing? And I would come to visit this garden just to experience the peace it brought.
"At that time, I was very confused. I met Gaia one day as she was tending to her garden and complimented her on how beautiful it was. That led us to conversations about our experiences. I told her all about how I had become an elemental, while she told me about her own existence, first becoming aware as a being deep inside the crust of this planet, and being raised by 'mentors' - higher, more powerful beings. All so she could grow to become a 'balancer' for this planet, one who could bring harmony back when things had gone too extreme.
"While some of her stories saddened me, it also helped me learn and understand the forces that had resulted in my own condition. I tried to keep in touch with her whenever she awakened. While I didn't agree with everything she did, I learned from all of it. Then Rochelle came by one day and helped me learn to emerge on my own, to re-assume human form and help others as a prime purpose. That was something I had been missing. And it helped me to achieve balance in my own existence, with all I'd been through."
Gaia chimed in here. "I was able to watch how Rochelle helped Jean to balance his personal world, and learned from this myself. She showed me that the lighter touch is often most effective."
I had to ask at this point. "Not to seem self-centered in all this, but you mentioned that I am somehow key to this current imbalance..."
Gaia looked over at me, and turned her hand up to intertwine her fingers with mine. "I think you are already well on your way to understanding what you need to know. You have many choices ahead of you. But I have faith that you will work out the best, most balanced answer as you decide."
With that, she rose, but kept her grip on my hand. I rose, too. As did everyone at that table.
Gaia smiled at everyone else, nodded, and led me out the front door.
XI
THE SUN WAS LOW ON the horizon, with clouds obscuring the usual glare across the desert. We stood on the front porch and looked south across the empty, mostly flat horizon.
She then took my hand and pulled my arm across her shoulder while hers went around my waist.
As I hugged her close to me, she laid her head on my shoulder.
"I can see how everyone in there loves you in their own way. You have a rare talent, and it's not just in your writing."
She then turned toward me, and raised her other arm to pull my face down to hers. The kiss was long, and satisfied us both.
As she looked into my eyes, she again became misty in her own.
"Know this, John. You have brought more balance to my own existence, and that is not something I say lightly. I will be watching over you. If you need anything, you only have to ask."
Quietly, I responded, holding her in both arms, "Gaia, I have so many questions now. And I don't know really what I did to help you."
She just smiled up at me. "You'll figure all of this out. I know you will. I've seen your type before. The difference between you and other humans of your world is that now you can be around for a very long time if you want. You can also come visit me and I can show you wonders beyond what you've ever experienced. All in the interest of maintaining balance, of course."
With that, she gave me another short kiss, and disengaged our arms.
Walking down the few short steps, she moved out away from the building, then turned around to face me again. Now she was lit from the side with the sunset's orange glow, against a Maxfield Parrish ultramarine blue desert sky. The highlights in her dark hair turning gold like a crown. Set off by the wide smile on her face.
With a final, light wave to me, she vanished into the earth again.
A tear came down my cheek, for some reason.
One of happiness.
And love fulfilled.
NOTES: Now we meet Gaia. Yes, that Earth goddess. John’s “imbalance” was in getting infected with the Lazurai virus. (See the subtle reference from the last episode, “The Lazurai Emergence”. His side of the story is in “The Spirit Mountain Mystery”.) That reference to ‘Cagga/Chicago is from “For the Love of Cagga”. And I hope you caught the satiric reference to terrorists and government - a punch line that runs through the Tales of the Lazurai. You know Sal, Jude, Jean, Hami, and Rochelle by now. And also Betty. (If not, just backtrack through the Ghost Hunters stories in the archives - or buy the book below. That’s the point of building this “Ghost Hunters Primer.”
You probably also see now why I call these parables.
Next week, new story…