There were problems with that, but I let them slide for now. Razon. Where would he go? I glanced at J.C., who shrugged.
“You look to him first?” Ivy said with a flat tone. “Really.”
I looked to her, and she blushed. “I . . . I actually don’t have anything either.”
J.C. chuckled at that.
Tobias stood up, slow and ponderous, like a distant cloud formation rising into the sky. “Jerusalem,” he said softly, resting his fingers on a book. “He’s gone to Jerusalem.”
We all looked at him. Well, those of us who could.
“Where else would a believer go, Stephen?” Tobias asked. “After years of arguments with his colleagues, years of being thought a fool for his faith? This was what it was about all along, this is why he developed the camera. He’s gone to answer a question. For us, for himself. A question that has been asked for two thousand years.
“He’s gone to take a picture of Jesus of Nazareth—dubbed Christ by his devout—following his resurrection.”
I required five first-class seats. This did not sit well with Monica’s superiors, many of whom did not approve of me. I met one of those at the airport, a Mr. Davenport. He smelled of pipe smoke, and Ivy critiqued his poor taste in shoes. I thought better of asking him if we could use the corporate jet.
We now sat in the first-class cabin of the plane. I flipped lazily through a thick book on my seat’s foldout tray. Behind me, J.C. bragged to Tobias about the weapons he’d managed to slip past security.
Ivy dozed by the window, with an empty seat next to her. Monica sat beside me, staring at that empty seat. “So Ivy is by the window?”
“Yes,” I said, flipping a page.
“Tobias and the marine are behind us.”
“J.C.’s a Navy SEAL. He’d shoot you for making that mistake.”
“And the other seat?” she asked.
“Empty,” I said, flipping a page.
She waited for an explanation. I didn’t give one.
“So what are you going to do with this camera?” I asked. “Assuming the thing is real, a fact of which I’m not yet convinced.”
“There are hundreds of applications,” Monica said. “Law enforcement . . . Espionage . . . Creating a true account of historical events . . . Watching the early formation of the planet for scientific research . . .”
“Destroying ancient religions . . .”
She raised an eyebrow at me. “Are you a religious man, then, Mister Leeds?”
“Part of me is.” That was the honest truth.
“Well,” she said. “Let us assume that Christianity is a sham. Or, perhaps, a movement started by well-meaning people but which has grown beyond proportion. Would it not serve the greater good to expose that?”
“That’s not really an argument I’m equipped to enter,” I said. “You’d need Tobias. He’s the philosopher. Of course, I think he’s dozing.”
“Actually, Stephen,” Tobias said, leaning between our two seats, “I’m quite curious about this conversation. Stan is watching our progress, by the way. He says there might be some bumpy weather up ahead.”
“You’re looking at something,” Monica said.
“I’m looking at Tobias,” I said. “He wants to continue the conversation.”
“Can I speak with him?”
“I suppose you can, through me. I’ll warn you, though. Ignore anything he says about Stan.”
“Who’s Stan?” Monica asked.
“An astronaut that Tobias hears, supposedly orbiting the world in a satellite.” I turned a page. “Stan is mostly harmless. He gives us weather forecasts, that sort of thing.”
“I . . . see,” she said. “Stan’s another one of your special friends?”
I chuckled. “No. Stan’s not real.”
“I thought you said none of them were.”
“Well, true. They’re my hallucinations. But Stan is something special. Only Tobias hears him. Tobias is a schizophrenic.”
She blinked in surprise. “Your hallucination . . .”
“Yes?”
“Your hallucination has hallucinations.”
“Yes.”
She settled back, looking disturbed.
“They all have their issues,” I said. “Ivy is a trypophobic, though she mostly has it under control. Just don’t come at her with a wasp’s nest. Armando is a megalomaniac. Adoline has OCD.”
“If you please, Stephen,” Tobias said. “Let her know that I find Razon to be a very brave man.”
I repeated the words.
“And why is that?” Monica asked.
“To be both a scientist and religious is to create an uneasy truce within a man,” Tobias said. “At the heart of science is accepting only that truth which can be proven. At the heart of faith is to define Truth, at its core, as being unprovable. Razon is a brave man because of what he is doing. Regardless of his discovery, one of two things he holds very dear will be upended.”
“He could be a zealot,” Monica replied. “Marching blindly forward, trying to find final validation that he has been right all along.”
“Perhaps,” Tobias said. “But the true zealot would not need validation. The Lord would provide validation. No, I see something else here. A man seeking to meld science and faith, the first person—perhaps in the history of mankind—to actually find a way to apply science to the ultimate truths of religion. I find that noble.”
Tobias settled back. I flipped the last few pages of the book as Monica sat in thought. Finished, I stuffed the book into the pocket of the seat in front of me.
Someone rustled the curtains, entering from economy class and coming into the first-class cabin. “Hello!” a friendly feminine voice said, walking up the aisle. “I could not help seeing that you had an extra seat up here, and I thought to myself, perhaps they would let me sit in it.”
The newcomer was a round-faced, pleasant young woman in her late twenties. She had tan Indian skin and a deep red dot on her forehead. She wore clothing of intricate make, red and gold, with an Indian shawl-thingy over one shoulder and wrapping around her. I don’t know what they’re called.
“What’s this?” J.C. said. “Hey, Achmed. You’re not going to blow the plane up, are you?”
“My name is Kalyani,” she said. “And I am most certainly not going to blow anything up.”
“Huh,” J.C. said. “That’s disappointing.” He settled back and closed his eyes—or pretended to. He kept one eye cracked toward Kalyani.
“Why do we keep him around?” Ivy asked, stretching, coming out of her nap.
“Your head keeps going back and forth,” Monica said. “I feel like I’m missing entire conversations.”
“You are,” I said. “Monica, meet Kalyani. A new aspect, and the reason we needed that empty seat.”
Kalyani perkily held out her hand toward Monica, a big grin on her face.
“She can’t see you, Kalyani,” I said.
“Oh, right!” Kalyani raised both hands to her face. “I’m so sorry, Mister Steve. I am very new to this.”
“It’s okay. Monica, Kalyani will be our interpreter in Israel.”
“I am a linguist,” Kalyani said, bowing.
“Interpreter . . .” Monica said, glancing at the book I’d tucked away. A book of Hebrew syntax, grammar, and vocabulary. “You just learned Hebrew.”
“No,” I said. “I glanced through the pages enough to summon an aspect who speaks it. I’m useless with languages.” I yawned, wondering if there was time left in the flight to pick up Arabic for Kalyani as well.
“Prove it,” Monica said.
I raised an eyebrow toward her.
“I need to see,” Monica said. “Please.”
With a sigh, I turned to Kalyani. “How do you say: ‘I would like to practice speaking Hebrew. Would you speak to me in your language?’”
“Hm . . . ‘I would like to practice speaking Hebrew’ is somewhat awkward in the language. Perhaps, ‘I would like to improve my Hebrew’?”
“Sure.”
“Ani rotzeh leshapher et ha’ivrit sheli,” Kalyani said.
“Damn,” I said. “That’s a mouthful.”
“Language!” Ivy called.
“It is not so hard, Mister Steve. Here, try it. Ani rotzeh leshapher et ha’ivrit sheli.”
“Any rote zeele shaper hap . . . er hav . . .” I said.
“Oh my,” Kalyani said. “Tat is . . . that is very dreadful. Perhaps I will give you one word at a time.”
“Sounds good,” I said, waving over one of the flight attendants, the one who had spoken Hebrew to give the safety information at the start of our flight.
She smiled at us. “Yes?”
“Uh . . .” I said.
“Ani,” Kalyani said patiently.
“Ani,” I repeated.
“Rotzeh.”
“Rotzeh . . .”
It took a little getting used to, but I made myself known. The stewardess even congratulated me. Fortunately, translating her words into English was much easier—Kalyani gave me a running translation.
“Oh, your accent is horrible, Mister Steve,” Kalyani said as the stewardess moved on. “I’m so embarrassed.”
“We’ll work on it,” I said. “Thanks.”
Kalyani smiled at me and gave me a hug, then tried to give one to Monica, who didn’t notice. Finally, the Indian woman took a seat next to Ivy, and the two began chatting amicably, which was a relief. It always makes my life easier when my hallucinations get along.
“You already spoke Hebrew,” Monica accused. “You knew it before we started flying, and you spent the last few hours refreshing yourself.”
“Believe that if you want.”
“But it’s not possible,” she continued. “A man can’t learn an entirely new language in a matter of hours.”
I didn’t bother to correct her and say I hadn’t learned it. If I had, my accent wouldn’t have been so horrible, and Kalyani wouldn’t have needed to guide me word by word.
“We’re on a plane hunting a camera that can take pictures of the past,” I said. “How is it harder to believe that I just learned Hebrew?”
“Okay, fine. We’ll pretend you did that. But if you’re capable of learning that quickly, why don’t you know every language—every subject, everything—by now?”
“There aren’t enough rooms in my house for that,” I said. “The truth is, Monica, I don’t want any of this. I’d gladly be free of it, so that I could live a more simple life. I sometimes think the lot of them will drive me insane.”
“You . . . aren’t insane, then?”
“Heavens no,” I said. I eyed her. “You don’t accept that.”
“You see people who aren’t there, Mister Leeds. It’s a difficult fact to get around.”
