Paul Vargis
TyThe Sun Looks Down Upon Us
By Paul Vargis
Alexander tasted his lips, feeling the salt revive his aching body. Shaking his head, the motorcycle veered a bit, but he quickly regained control. The salt on his lips reminded him that he had nothing to drink or eat for days now. But he didn’t need it. He had his alcohol, and really didn’t mind going without food or water. He noticed his hunger, but no longer cared.
Looking over to his right shoulder, he watched the tide roll in as the moonlight shimmered off the ocean. The image mesmerized him for a second and the motorcycle that he had stolen veered into the oncoming lane. He didn’t panic. There was no traffic anyway.
The Government, as per his recommendation, had warned all travelers to stay indoors, for people to stay off their phones, televisions, and inter-net. For further information they should tune to their local radio station for the duration of the upcoming cosmic event. Like all good Americans, they had done so without asking why.
But Alexander knew why. Decades ago, he had drafted the policy for this very scenario. Of course, back then, nobody but a kook thought it was possible.
Alexander smiled as he remembered why they wanted people to stay indoors, hopefully with their family. It stemmed from the nostalgia of his boss, Ronald Reagan, who was President at the time. It was he who wanted people home with their families.
In awe of the man at that time, Alexander could only agree, and so the policy was formed to keep people at home, with their loved ones, so that their last and final moments could be spent with the ones they loved.
The motorcycle wobbled and Alexander snapped out of the past to wonder why. Looking back he could see Sheila sheepishly looking back at him, with a puppy dog look in her eye. It was her way of asking him for something.
His eyes glanced downward towards her legs, and could feel the blood pumping through those veins concealed beneath those beautiful purple sequined tights.This made Alexander hot and heavy and he realized he needed a break from driving. If for nothing else, so that he could copulate.
He pulled over by some rocks, close to the beach and laid out his blanket. He didn’t want her complaining about the sand. He could sense her moving about the rocks. She had defied him and gone to the bathroom.
Angry, he pondered what to do with her. He had never been with a woman like Sheila.
Certainly he had been with other women, that was expected, and his wife didn’t complain. But they were always with staff who wanted promotions, and would never risk offending him.
Undoubtedly, his wife wouldn’t have concerned herself. It came with the territory of being in the circle of power in Washington. He always wondered if one of these gold-diggers would ever approach her with the news of their affair. How she probably tell them where to go, and how to get there.
She knew women liked power, after all, so did she.
He had met his wife at Stanford University, where they had attended university together. When they had married, she knew that she would have to give up her career. And though at the time it was fashionable at the time for a woman to have an education, it was also considered best that one parent stay home with the children.
Though he had to prod her to do so, she, on her own, had decided to stay at home and tend to their three children as he worked to improve his position as a political advisor to six of the last eight presidents. He had tried to advise the other two, but they had an independent streak that had cost them their political careers.
Alexander knew that the public expected more from their leaders, and taking instruction from the history of the monarchy, he had devised political strategies in exactly the same way, and it worked. The masses always expected the same thing from their leaders, regardless of political stripe.
It was the pentagon that had been behind him all the way. And after the assassination of two of their presidents, they had embraced his ideas even more, and “suggested” that new presidents follow Alexander’s suggestions “to the letter”.
Back then, he had believed in his rhetoric for power, which later became the title of his book that every Political Science student eventually quoted while dispersing their own words of wisdom. The book had outsold every book from a political leader or their advisors. Students quoted him during debates, and Generals obeyed his every word. Yet, here he was, on the beach with a seductive whore who would not obey him.
Not sure what to do with her, he slowly turned toward her.
Sheila looked back. Sheila wasn’t her real name, it was the name he had given her.
Slowly she leaned over and whispered in an apologetic fashion,
“I really had to go”.
Alexander understood the human situation and so he nodded his approval.
She smiled and tried to pull up her pants. The tight material that her sequined pants were made of made it impossible for her to pull them up by herself.
So she stood there, pouting in a naughty fashion, while she pulling up her pants tightly around her buttocks. All the while she looked him over carefully. Then she just changed her mind and started to run away.
“You must have sobered up”, Alexander muttered.
She heard him and stopped to eye him coolly. Then she came back and started to pack her things up.
Alexander realized that she probably didn’t remember even meeting him.
Alexander chuckled, and turned away so that he could watch the ocean.
Last night, upset at the news, he had gone to the first bar that he had come across. And later, upon being thrown out of that bar, he had grabbed a cab to the seediest strip bar that he knew of in Washington.
There he had found what he was looking for, and it was Sheila.
Sheila.
She had recognized him from the T.V., which had his face and his pre-recorded somber message on it asking Americans to please stay indoors, not to travel, or communicate in any way until the cosmic event was over. That their government was working on it and promised that a solution to the crisis would soon follow.
Pointing to a T.V. above the bar she asked,
“What are you doing here”?
Alexander was impressed. He had imagined that such people never paid attention to these things, much less were able to discern their message. He looked around the bar. It was filled with truckers, city workers, and the whole lot that normally paid little heed or attention to what was going on in the world.
But still, here they were, doing what they were told, and waiting out the crisis in their favourite bar. It was endearing for a patriot to watch.
Of course, they were drinking their faces off, falling down drunk, and only getting up to order more to drink. So, maybe subconsciously, they realized there was no tomorrow. So they were content to get drunk, and throw just throw up their hard earned money at the feet of strippers who were dancing onstage. These women, all the while, were looking down at their feet wondering if the money at their feet held any value at all.
And then here he was, the man of the hour, Alexander Worthington Frost, who could answer that very question. She looked to him for safety and he liked that.
They hit it off immediately.
Finally, in a effort to get her to go with him, Alexander had told her “the truth” which was that aliens were coming and they needed everybody to wait it out at home, “just in case”.
Like all good Americans who were raised on television, she had bought it. Now, here at the beach, Alexander realized that she must have been high on something that allowed her to be so gullible and drive off with him.
Alexander gave her his confident, knowing smile and said, “honey, I can get you anything that you need”, which was true. By reflex, he wiped the slobber and dirt off his face, and rationalized that he must be more intoxicated than he thought.
However Sheila, upon realizing just how drunk he still was, seemed to realize that she could run away. Turning back towards the rocks, she grabbed her purse off the ground and ran as fast as she could. But not as fast as the small boulder that Alexander threw at the back of her head.
She dropped to her knees, probably never realizing what hit her, and Alexander couldn’t help but smile as she desperately tried to get up.
Picking up the small boulder, he advanced towards her.
She turned on him, ready to fight, but Alexander knew what he wanted and knew how to get it.
Wrestling her to the ground, she turned towards the ground so that she could try to run like a dog and scamper away. But this was exactly what Alexander wanted as he didn’t want to damage her face.
He tried to make it quick, but she didn’t make it easy.
Finally, he was able to turn her around and he took her, all the while watching her beautiful face. His had a good grip on the back of her head, and with the rhythm of his hips, her beautiful face seemed to rocking back and forth almost in ecstasy.
When he finished, he rested by watching the surf. He was feeling more fatigued than usual, and then he realized why.
Startled, he looked to the sky. The stars were noticeably brighter, and he one of the few people in the world who knew why. His short fatigued breathes were also a sign of what was to come. The oxygen in the air was getting thinner.
Looking for distraction, he decided to give Sheila one more try. Thinking of this somehow gave him the energy and he started on her again only to find that her body was growing cold.
This saddened him. Looking around, he could see that he was truly alone. There was nobody here, and this certainly wasn’t the time to be alone. This was a time for family.
Wondering what to do with Sheila, he looked back and realized that the ocean would solve the problem for him. As he watched, the ocean tide took Sheila and the stolen motorcycle out to sea.
Pulling out his cell phone, he turned it on and called Military command. After giving them his password, they transferred him to Special Forces to whom he gave the order to have a helicopter pick up his wife and to bring her here. By turning on his cell phone, it activated its GPS so he knew they now had his location.
“Right away Sir”, came the response! They probably hoped he had a solution to the crisis.
Alexander hung up, and carefully dialed his own home number. It suddenly occurred to him that he had had the same number for over thirty-five years.
“Dad, are you okay”, was what answered him once he got thru.
“Son”, he said in his old booming, was-Santa-good- to- you voice. “I’ve been fine. What about you, and your mother”?
Ignoring his question, his son asked,
“They said that you had run off. Is that true”?
Alexander winced. It was an odd time for his staff to be truthful.
“Son, I have my special cell phone on me at all times, meaning that they can locate me anywhere in the world at a moments notice. They simply didn’t have the security clearance to know where I went. Haven’t you heard my radio messages”?
“ya”, his son said, “but…”
His son didn’t sound convinced.
“Could you put your mother on”, he quietly asked? He was in no mood to argue with his own son.
He could hear movement. Not wanting to argue, his son had gone to get his mother. A moment later, he could hear more shuffling as his wife got on the phone.
“Dear, are you alright”, his wife asked.
“Of course, I am. I just want you here. With me at my side”, he told her back.
He then carefully told her to expect a helicopter to land within minutes in front of their house, which would bring her here to this secret location.
“Wear something warm”, he added, but he could hear the helicopter on the other end of the line and knew she wouldn’t have time to get dressed.
He could hear the soldiers enter his house and loudly tell his wife to get into the helicopter. They had been told that this was a national emergency and so normal decorum for a diplomat’s wife was thrown out the window.
“It’s okay”, he said. But he knew she couldn’t hear him. They had taken her away.
Looking back to the sky, he wondered just how long it would take for her to get here. The stars were definitely getting brighter and that meant that the oxygen in the air was dissipating just as predicted.
They had gone too far. They knew this could happen, but never wanted to believe it could.
It had been predicted decades ago, but it was thought to be impossible. A simple mistake must have been made.
The effects of pollution were supposed to have a cumulative effect on the atmosphere. In other worlds, pollution would build up in the atmosphere causing a gradual increase in the world’s temperature.
However, some of the gases found in air pollution would react exponentially. Meaning that even a slight increase in air pollution would take the planet over the tipping point, which was happening right now.
Luckily, he was on the side of the earth facing away from the sun. In Australia, the chemical changes had already ravaged the countryside and people were finding it difficult to breathe. And soon they wouldn’t.
The wind speed would soon pick up. Not just here, but all over the world. And the gases that make up the earth’s atmosphere would re-combine into a new mixture where no life could live.
It was called the Mars effect. Generally not well known, or promoted, as it was based on pure speculation as to what had happened to Mar’s atmosphere hundreds of thousands of years ago.
Simply put, given the right conditions, an atmosphere that could sustain life could simply disintegrate. And this was happening now here on earth, but in a few days, not a few centuries as they had hoped.
Alexander looked up at the stars. He knew there was life on other planets, but the governments of the world refused to let the public know anything about that.
Would they learn from our mistakes, or had they already known, Alexander wondered?
The scientists at Langley were already preparing a documentary video meant for alien visitors as to what was happening to the earth right now. It described what the Earth was like before, what had happened in recent decades, and what was happening now. Sort of a warning so that this wouldn’t be repeated on other planets.
But everybody knew this was just busy work for the scientists to keep themselves occupied. After all, any alien species that came to earth would have already evolved to the point where they would have overcome their own self-destructive tendencies, and so this could never have happened on their own planet.
Alexander snorted, and looked to his feet. He had to remind himself that he was not a failure. That his life had not been in vain. That this was a failure of more than just one person. It took more than one person to make this all happen.
From the distance, Alexander could hear the helicopter coming. It was coming in very low.
When it landed, Alexander could see the pilots face was sweaty and he was as white as a sheet.
“I have no lift”, he said.
“I know”, Alexander said, “The air is getting so thin, that you’ll have less lift than ever before. Just stay close to the ground and get back as quick as you can”, he said to the startled pilot.
The pilot blinked. It was obvious that he didn’t want to go anywhere. He started looking around, hoping to find shelter.
“There’s nothing”, Alexander said, “I just wanted to be here alone with my wife”.
The pilot indicated his computer with his finger and asked, “Have you seen what’s going on, you should…”
But Alexander waved him off. Tired, he didn’t have any time to explain. Picking up a survival kit from inside the helicopter, he gave his wife of thirty-five years a great big hug and waved the pilot off.
“I just had to near you”, he told his wife as the helicopter flew off. She had a tear in her eye.
“Me too”, she lovingly said, “I’ve was watching T.V. when the signal stopped, so I started listening to the radio. They have no idea what is happening.
Alexander held up his hand. He was about to give her the same storey that he had given the exotic dancer when he realized that this was his wife, the bearer of his children. She, before becoming his housewife had been a respected scientist in her own right. She would never believe anything he had to say.
In fact, it had been her who had spent days trying to explain to him just what “Mars Effect” was.
Alexander laughed. Though an intellect on scientific matters, she understood little about political or business matters.
Finally, not wanting to give her a chance to speak, he muttered.
“Right now, I just think it’s a good time for us to be together”, and hearing this she moved closer to him.
“You need a shower”, and touching the bristles on his face, “and a shave”, she joked.
Alexander knew not to get angry. She was right. He smelled of woman’s perfume, alcohol, and sweat from not having bathed in nearly two days. He couldn’t deny it.
“The stars are so beautiful”, he said, hoping to take her attention away from it.
“And warm”, his wife murmured in frightened tone. She was smart enough to know what was going on, but didn’t want to mention it. Right now, she was probably wondering why he had brought her here, and not some sort of shelter where they could be safe.
Alexander didn’t want to ask, “Did you leave your children just because you were afraid for your own skin”?
He wanted to ask that, but didn’t. He didn’t want to spoil the moment.
So they went for a walk along the ocean. Alexander took some time and cleaned himself off. Taking off his clothes, he discarded them prompting his wife to bust a gut laughing at the sight of his heavy-set flabby body frolicking in the sea.
Then she did the same, and Alexander romantically gave her a kiss and threw her clothes away. The surf was going out now, and Alexander looked around hoping not to see Sheila’s body floating around. They had come across the stolen motorcycle, but Alexander was able to explain that away.
“That’s how I got here”, he said.
“But you don’t know how to ride”, she said mystified.
That was true. Proud of himself, he laughed and said,
“I know. I had to learn”!
Then he embraced her and they continued their walk.
Alexander turned to her and said,
“There was no one else that I would want to be here with”, he said.
She appeared puzzled, but not wanting to break the mood, she snuggled up against him and suppressed a cry because he hated tears so much.
“Me neither”, she finally said and then just looked at the sand between her toes.
Alexander grabbed her around the waist and she squealed in delight at being picked up and twirled around by him.
Laughing, they fell to the ground, and embraced. Looking deep into one another’s eyes, she kissed him hoping to arouse him, but failed to do so. Finally, they gave up and watched the sun rise.
She understood what would happen after the sun rose and fearfully she grabbed his hand.
“We haven’t watched the sun rise together for oh, so long”, she remembered aloud.
“How true”, Alexander said knowing what was about to happen.
He bit his lip, and soon the winds started to pick up.
Gratefully, they didn’t have to long to wait. With the sun up, the sky remained clear, but the winds caused the ocean to churn back up the beach engulfing them and taking them out to sea. They waded around, but soon found themselves unable to return to shore. Soon, very soon, they both stopped trying and allowed themselves to fall beneath the waves to where it was quiet and peaceful.
Looking at each other eyes one last time, they embraced and shared their last breath together.
A Monk's Musings 