Halien, Part 4

Well, ok--but it's based on a woman I knew.


THE REST OF IT GOES HERE
“I enjoy walking, Haley,” I said, but it wasn’t long till my lungs labored in their heaving and I cursed the cigarette habit. We reached the foot of the hills.
“It’s at the top, Chuck. Feeling ok?”
I looked up at monstrous pines, thick, bunched and towering from the ground’s severe slant, brushing the dark blue zenith. “Sure,” I said. We ascended a steep, cobbled staircase which zigzagged around the trees. Up and up I trudged a few paces behind her, watching my steps on the uneven rocks. Halfway up I started to cramp, but Haley grabbed my arm and immediately zapped me with vigor. Henceforth I stepped true and easily with lucid-dream legs and my mind wondered if this was the power of love. A crow squawked before us and the air was getting cooler, the sky through the trees, darker. Dream-floating along I felt the hot surge of purpose through my circulatory system as she continued to lead up and around the wood-thick maze. A fleeting thought. Should’ve
brought crumbs like Hansel and Gretal.
At the end of the staircase was a clearing of lush grass, beyond which rose a mansion of exquisite marble, framed by two towering spruces, blue-needled and gnarled-barked like shadow-casting sentries. “You live here?” I said. We zipped along a pebbled path and stepped onto a four-columned gondola-porch.
“Is it too decadent?” she said, fumbling for a key.
“It’s unexpected.”
“Dad provides for us well.” The double-sized door was made of warm mahogany. When Haley opened it we were greeted by the smell of apples and cinnamon.
“Someone’s cooking something good,” I said, stepping into a foyer with hardwood floors and paneling that matched the door.
“Come, Chuck. You must be tired.” Haley led me down the hallway which opened into a small room, containing a blood-colored velvet love seat. “Relax,” she said. “I’ll get you a beer.” I melted into the seat and let my eyes wander. The walls and ceiling and floor were navy blue, unadorned and glowing softly from an unknown light source. I squirmed with discomfort at the severe minimalism. No hanging pictures. No television. Something gold in the far right corner caught my eye. I squinted. It was a doorknob. Footsteps pattered above me. I looked up at the ceiling and gasped. Stars now glittered in unfamiliar patterns, and it was darker, almost black. I took off my glasses and rubbed my face and forehead. Where are you, Haley? Behind me a door banged shut and I dropped my glasses. Reaching for them between my legs I glimpsed something fuzzy beneath the seat. I scooped it up. It was a book. With glasses back on I read the title.
Matrix 3: The Biochemical, Psychosocial, Electromagnetic Manipulation of Human Consciousness. Hard-bound and thick as a phone book I opened to the table of contents thinking, this is amazing.
“Put the book down, Chuck.”
My face was hot with shame as I shoved the book back under the love seat and faced Haley. In one hand she held a bulging draw-stringed laundry bag; in the other a can of Hamm’s. “Haley, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be silly, Chuck,” she said, handing me the beer and plopping the bag down. “I gathered everything we needed. Sorry it took a while.” She sat next to me. After a few sips my thoughts calmed then turned curious.
“Why did you tell me to put the book down?”
“You getting paranoid on me, Chuck?” The stars slithered across the black ceiling, forming new configurations and seemed to emit noise like hissing snakes.
“Oh no,” I said.
“Thank heavens,” she said, and smiled. “It’s just one of my brother’s dumb books. And full of errors.” She produced a flip-top ashtray from a pocket in her sweatshirt and set it on the floor. I lit up.
“You’ve read it?” I said.
“Of course. I read a lot, Chuck. I just didn’t want that dumb thing to take away from our time together, that’s all.”
Her eyes were glowing again, but I felt better. “What else have you read?”
“Odd stuff, Chuck.” She blew a smoke ring to the stars. “I could show you the
one book I’d take to the proverbial desert island, but you must promise to keep it a secret.”
I nodded, and Haley left the room again. Her footsteps squeaked on the unseen staircase above me. Wasting no time, I yanked the book into my lap and opened it randomly. Chapter 23: Dumbing Down the Indigenous Population--Fluoridating the Water Supply. I started reading. As thousands of blacklisted dentists know, Sodium Fluoride is a chemical used in rat poison, and unfit for human consumption. Hotly debated through the forties and fifties--
Squeak of a door opening. I slammed the book shut, preparing to gush apologies to Haley, but when I looked up it wasn’t Haley I saw. Standing before me was a little bald boy with an enlarged head. How did he--I heard no footsteps. Over his bony naked shoulder I saw the open door on the room’s far side. Even now in the cloistered solitude