Jo-el

Chapter 19 WINGS

I showered and made coffee with the French Press Maggie had given to me last Christmas. Today it was Kenyan, dark roast. The fragrant aroma was delightful. I relished the first cup. I sat down in my usual seat at the end of the sofa and let the day swim by slowly in my head. I was beginning to accept the technology I’d been given but I wasn’t satisfied with the results. They were a speck of ash in a volcano of evil. There was no link between my actions and the goal that Ka-el and the people of Cirion sought. I needed to figure out the direction they envisioned would work. Yet I felt that Sally was encouraging me to fight crime. As if I was some sort of Superhero. But I wasn’t fighting some super-criminal like Lex Luther or the Penguin. The dent I could achieve doing what I’d done today was quite simply a waste of time. I was sure there were millions of women raped every day, stopping one at a time was simply not the solution. Sally had said it was just a step, so that I understood the technology and practiced using it. That made perfect sense. I was already feeling more confident. The events in Cork were similar to Alice Springs and I didn’t flinch. I needed to take a different tack and as that notion blossomed in my mind an idea surfaced and I smiled to myself.

“Sally, I need you?” I said out loud. She appeared against the wall as usual. “Sit down, over there in the armchair where I can see you.” Her expression asked why, but she did what I asked. Don’t you love that in a woman?

“I want to rescue someone,” I said, “preferably a child.”

“Okay.” She replied, with what appeared to be understanding in her eyes. “Anywhere in particular?”

“America.”

“I’ll see what’s happening.”

“Before you do that I want to make a change.” Sally watched me as I stood up and changed my clothes to the basic smart-suit outfit. The silver mesh suit that covered my whole body and feet. My face became Jo-el, that cross between George Clooney and Daniel Craig. My hair a light brown with silver streaks, very neat but longer than I had seen on either of those gentlemen. I puffed out my body muscles somewhat. “Now I want something else.” Sally looked puzzled.

“Yes,” she asked.

“Wings!” I kept a straight face.

“Wings?” she said, her eyebrows raising.

“Yes, wings. Can you give me wings?”

“Sure I can, but they won’t work,” she said.

“I need you make them look like they work.”

“What sort of wings?”

“Giant, like a superhero, but they need to look like they would lift a man into the air.” I was smiling now.

“You want to be a Superhero?”

“For the moment, yes.”

“Why?”

“Because I can fly and I want to ease into the public eye. I don’t want to be seen flying like Superman, it’s too farfetched, for now anyway. Can you do it?”

She looked at me strangely. I didn’t think for one moment that this was the direction Ka-el’s model had envisaged.

“I can project a holographic image of wings on your back, sure. But if someone touched them their hand would simply pass right through, just like touching me.”

“That’s okay, can’t have everything. Can you make them move, you know, flap up and down as if that was how I am able to fly? They would have to match my movements.”

“Sure, why not?”

“Cool, let’s try, match the color to my hair,” I said.

In seconds a pair of wings adorned my back. I could see the tops projecting above my head. I needed to see what I looked like in a mirror. Sally was ahead of me, a full-length mirror appeared across the room, where she would normally stand. The wings flowed a little as if they were alive. It was surreal, I stared at them for a while before I said anything.

“Well?” she said.

“Do you think they’re too big?” I asked.

“No, I proportioned them to an eagle but eliminated the individual tail feathers, might be a temptation as a souvenir.”

“Smart lady,” I said. I tried to flap them using my mind, but nothing happened.

“I can’t move them!” I exclaimed.

“I thought you wanted me to move them based on your flight.”

“I do, but on the ground it would be nice to have some control.”

“Okay.”

I tried again and the wings flapped gently just by my imagining what they should do.

“What about air?”

“Sorry?” she looked puzzled again.

“When I take off will they produce a current of air behind me?”

“You want everything.” I grinned at her. “That’s possible.”

“You know something, Sally, you’re truly magic.” I was beaming from ear to ear. She began laughing.

“I hope you know what you’re doing?”

“Not a bloody clue,” I replied.

I examined myself in the mirror for a while then said to Sally. “I want to test them out. Can you record me during flight so I can review it later?”

“Sure.”

“Good, now I need somewhere out of view.”

“How about northern Canada?”

“Fine with me,” I smiled.

“Ready?”

“When you are, beautiful.”

I bounced to a snowfield on the edge of a canyon. The scenery was stark but stunning. My face felt the bitter cold but my body was warm, wrapped in the mesh smart-suit. In the distance, maybe twenty miles, were mountains covered in snow. A stream was running below where I was standing, surrounded by thick ice. I flapped the wings and lifted into the air, I couldn’t feel the wings behind me but I could see their tips by my side moving gently in unison. I flew down to the stream then up hard away from the ground. As best I could I watched the wings respond to the upward motion, they seemed to be realistic. I headed toward the mountains, a bear looked up at me and sought safety in the bush, I wonder what he thought of this new creature in the sky? It was a wonderful feeling, the freedom of flight, the sunlight low in the sky creating that wonderful contrasts of dark and light. I flew for a good half hour, simply enjoying myself, marveling at the technology that allowed me to fly, yet sad that this stunning landscape would one day disappear. I hoped and prayed that the Cirion projection of our doom was wrong.

The sun was low and darkness in this northern clime was fast approaching so I bounced back to my family-room and asked Sally to show me the video of my flight. It was as realistic as I could imagine. I think the Hollywood special effects people would have been proud, I was content.