Radiant

- 19 -


Translation


Friday finally came. Mary and Mom ate dinner with Ba before Mom went to work.

"I spoke with Mrs. Carmichael a little yesterday," Mom said as she poked at the last of her food. She had liked the leftovers from Spice more than she had admitted. Mary figured that out when Mom showed up that evening with containers of Indian food instead of the usual Vietnamese fare.

"Who?" Mary asked.

"Scotty's mother," Mom said. "You and Carter were in his room that night at the hospital."

"Oh," Mary said, poking at her own food. "How is he?"

"He went home," she answered.

Mary looked at her, surprised.

"That's wonderful!" Ba said. "It's always nice to hear when the little ones are well enough to go home."

"The doctors couldn't find anything wrong with him," Mom said. "Last week, he was dying. But yesterday when he left, he ate like a horse and laughed all the way out the door." She looked at Mary again. "Are you sure Carter didn't do anything to him?"

That was such a loaded question. Surely, Scotty would've told them everything. "Didn't you ask the boy?" Mary asked.

Mom nodded. "He said he didn't remember seeing either of you."

Mary barely breathed a sigh of relief. She could stick with the story that Carter gave that night. But how could Scotty not remember that?

Mary shrugged. "Like we said, he was asleep when we saw him."

Mom didn't look entirely convinced. But she didn't press the matter further.

After Mom left for the hospital, Mary stayed to play a round of gin with Ba, Julia, and Emma. Then, she went home.

At nine o'clock, the buzzer rang. Mary mowed down a neighbor to answer the front door.

"Good evening, Mary," Carter greeted politely.

He didn't look like James Bond tonight, but it didn't matter. She didn't realize until that moment that she had really missed seeing him. But she composed herself. "Hey. So, where did you want to talk?"

He looked around. "If we were at school, I'd say the Art room. Is there some place we can go where we won't be disturbed?"

Mary thought for a moment. "Let's go to the roof. That way, we won't break Mom's rule about the apartment."

"That's fine," he said. "But you will need a coat. And shoes with socks."

She looked at him curiously.

"You asked for the truth, did you not?" he said.

"All right," she said. While he waited in the hall, she switched out her flip-flops for her sneakers and grabbed her jacket from the closet. "How's this?" she asked when she returned to the hall.

"That should be fine," he said.

As usual, no one else was on the roof.

"All right. Now what?" she asked.

Carter moved towards her and wrapped his arms around her.

"Whoa, what are you doing?" she asked.

"My apologies," he said. "But I've not done this with another person before. You may want to put your hands on me, too. It will be easier the more we're touching."

She looked at him, seeing if he was trying to mess with her. He certainly seemed serious enough. Finally, she placed her arms around his shoulders.

"All right," he said. "Hold on."

Mary began to ask him to hold on for what. Then, her weight was gone. It was like when an elevator starts going down. But the feeling didn't go away, like gravity had been shut off. Mary also couldn't understand what she was seeing. There was the city, but it was far away, like looking at it from an airplane. There was also water, though she couldn't tell if it was from a lake or an ocean, or even if she was standing next to a sink and watching it drip each individual drop. There were faces, but no features. Not even skin color. And there were stars. Millions of them. More than Mary had ever seen in all her life. She couldn't tell how much time had gone by. Seconds? Minutes? Days? Weeks? Years? Lifetimes? It was like time was switched off along with gravity.

And just like that, everything felt normal again. Gravity, time, and the colors all returned to their proper places. Mary felt the ground beneath their feet and saw an open, dusky sky above.

Carter let her go and stepped back. The sandy, rocky ground grumbled beneath his feet. That was the only sound just then. No cars. No sirens. No video game explosions. Mary never knew that quiet could seem so loud before. The cold air nipped at her skin. Mary spotted some bristly bushes just behind Carter. There was also a giant rock. And not far away was a…cactus?

"Where are we?" she finally managed to say.

"Arizona," he said. "Watch your step. It's a long way down."

Mary stared at him. Then cautiously, she turned and gasped. Yawning before her was a massive chasm in the earth. At the bottom, she could faintly make out a thin line of water that was a river.

"Carter?" she asked. "What is that?"

"The Grand Canyon," he said. "Or part of it."

Mary hardly blinked. Then, she laughed. "That's, like, thousands of miles away. This is some kind of a screen or something, right? It's just a projection on the floor." Though how he got it up onto the roof was beyond her. She walked forward and reached down to touch the screen.

"No wait!" Carter shouted.

Mary's fingers didn't meet a screen. They met nothing, and she lost her balance and fell.

"AAAAYYYYYEEEEE!" she screamed, hurling towards a ledge of sharp rocks below.

The weird elevator feeling and time stopping came back. The next thing she knew, Mary was in Carter's arms. They were sitting on the rocky ground back at the top.

She didn't stop screaming. "OMIGAWD! WHAT WAS THAT?"

"Mary," Carter tried.

"OMIGAWD! OMIGAWD! OMIGAWD!"

"Mary! Please!" Carter said. "You're not falling anymore. I've got you."

Mary stopped screaming, but only because she needed to breathe. She looked at Carter before jumping up and scrambled behind the large rock. She peered out at him suspiciously.

Carter remained where he was.

"W-w-where are we really?" she demanded, her voice trembling.

Carter folded his hands in front of him. "Arizona. This really is the Grand Canyon. The Northern Rim."

Mary glanced at the chasm before looking at him again. "How did we get here?"

"We translated," he said.

She wrinkled her brow.

"I mean, I translated," he said. "But I brought you with me."

Mary's brain was still trying to focus. "Like, you just beamed us over here or something?"

"Sort of," he said. "You remember in Physics class learning about space, time, and matter? And that matter is mass over energy?"

"Yeah," she said, though she only vaguely remembered that.

"Matter is energized mass moving through space and time," he explained. "So everything we call 'matter' is really just different frequencies of energy existing in space and time. Your body, the clothes you're wearing, the air you're breathing, the sound of my voice—it's all energy existing at different frequencies. Does that make sense?"

"I-I guess." Mary felt a bit like they were sitting in class now.

"Energy is all around you, even if you can't see, hear, or touch it," he continued. "Sometimes you see its manifestations. Other times, you don't. But it's always there. Energy animates your body. It's what makes you uniquely you. It's what separates you from an inanimate object. Translation is a 'shift' in the three dimensions. By translating, we move through space without time. We were on the roof, and now we're here. No passage of time. Make sense?"

"No," she said. "But that doesn't matter. How come you can do this?"

"What is matter again?" he asked.

"STOP IT WITH THE PHYSICS CRAP AND JUST ANSWER ME!" Mary cried.

"Sorry," he said. "Matter is mass over energy. Just like translation is without time, I was energy without mass. I…I don't normally have a physical body."

Mary didn't say anything for a moment. Then, in a low voice, she said, "You're not Carter. Are you?"

He shook his head.

"Who are you?" she asked. "What are you?"

"It's difficult for me to explain. I'm trying to find the correct words." He looked up as the stars began to appear in the sky. "I like to watch the Earth whenever I can. Whenever I don't have to do something else. I like watching humans the most. I watch what they did and how they did it. I watch how they laugh when they are happy or cry when they are sad. Nothing was the same. There are similar reactions, but from person to person, each joy, each sorrow, each pain, it's different with each one. People deal with their emotions in such different ways.

"I was always curious. Sometimes I would come down to the surface for a little while to be around humans. I was always invisible, of course. I could feel the energy of the emotions more intensely when I was closer. Still, though I saw the 'what' and the 'how' of their feelings and actions, I never understood the 'why.'

"Then, about seven Earth years ago, I was tracking pieces of a comet as they fell towards the planet. They were going to create a 'meteor shower,' as humans called them. I had noticed over the ages, people stopped looking at the sky as much. Still, a few came out to watch. I had to concentrate on my task, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to hazard a glance towards the Earth."

He took his eyes from the stars and fixed them on Mary. "That's when I saw her. A child with the most enchanting energy I had ever seen. She had a small telescope, and she stood on the roof of a building with her mother and grandmother. There was a look in her eyes. It was wonderful. Magical. Completely unavoidable. I knew she was watching the meteor shower. But I wanted to think that she was watching me."

Mary remembered that day. It was her tenth birthday, when Mom gave her the telescope. She had been so excited about it that she took it straight up to the roof to try it out. As a bonus, the meteor shower happened.

"I started visiting the surface more often," he said. "I stayed invisible and kept my distance, but I watched the child. I watched how her energy made her grow. I watched her live. I still had tasks, but whenever I could, I watched her. My favorite times were when she would come to the roof by herself. I wanted to think that she came up to visit me, like I came down to visit her." He paused. "I was watching her on the roof one evening. She fell asleep, like she did many times before. I normally stayed at a distance. But then the temperature dropped unexpectedly, and she started to shiver. I had never watched a human shiver before, so I moved closer to observe and she stopped shivering. It was my energy that had warmed her. So, I moved closer, until I was next to her for the first time. That was the closest I had ever let myself come. And as my energy warmed her, hers intoxicated me. I didn't want to leave. I wished the night would never end so that I could remain that close.

"But then the morning came. She had overslept and was late for school. I watched how she hurried and I followed her as she ran. When she came near the school, she wasn't paying attention. There was a bus. She ran in front of it."

Mary could hear the scream of the tires and the crash in her memory. Her side was completely healed, but she felt the bruises again.

"I didn't have human emotions before," he continued. "But if I had, the closest one I think I experienced was fear. I knew it would be too late. I was about to see that beautiful energy destroyed. But I couldn't just let that happen. Then I saw the red car. It had just enough mass to shield her, and it was simple for me to push it in the way of the bus. So I did."

The fiery red car flashed in Mary's mind. She also remembered Carter's body inside.

"I had been so preoccupied with one human's energy that I hadn't noticed the other one inside the red car," he said. "It was fading so quickly, like a flame at the end of a match. I had to do something. So I committed one of the highest violations of my kind. I entered his body uninvited. So, here I am. Keeping him alive as he recovers."

Mary said nothing. She couldn't believe it. He really was possessed. She had already kinda figured that, but it was completely different now that he was actually telling her.

Cautiously, she stepped out from behind the rock. Mary took a couple steps toward him and sat on her knees about two yards away from him. "Are you…you know…like what the boy at the hospital said? Are you an angel?"

"My kind has been called angels before," he said. "And demons. And vengeful spirits. And helpful spirits. And ghosts. And gods. It just depends on whom you're talking to. It also depends on which ones you're talking about."

"Your kind?" she asked. "There are more of you?"

"Yes."

"Where?"

"Everywhere. All the time. And invisible to humans. We don't have a human word for what we are. I guess the best way to explain us is that we're shepherds of the invisible energy behind many phenomena that humans experience."

For some reason, Mary thought back to the weird poster in Lakshana's waiting room. "Like radiants."

"What?" he asked.

"You're energy," she said. "Like radiant energy. You're a radiant."

"I've not heard of that before," he said. "But it makes sense."

"Are the others like you?" she asked.

"Some," he said. "But there are different ones. We have different tasks."

"Tasks?"

He nodded towards the sky. "There are objects always coming towards the Earth. Mostly pieces of rock, dust, and ice. The Earth has many 'shields' to keep it all from just smashing into it, like the gas giants, the asteroid belt, the moon. The greatest shield is the sun. But some still gets by. I'm responsible for those. If anything looks like it will endanger humans, then it's my task to burn it."

"Like a meteor?" she asked. "Falling through the atmosphere? That's you doing that?"

He nodded.

"Cool job," she said. "Is that why you're, you know, hot? Because you burn things?"

He nodded again. "I'm trying to control it. It's not a very easy thing to do."

Considering that he hadn't spontaneously combusted yet, he seemed to be doing it pretty well. "And the black clothes?"

He looked down at the black sweater he was wearing. "It helps absorb some of the heat."

"I see," she said. "So, if radiants are everywhere, like you say, does that mean you see absolutely everything?"

"Not absolutely," he said. "But a lot."

Creepy, Mary thought. "Do you have a name?"

"I have a…designation," he said. "But it's not pronounceable in human words."

"Not even something that sounds similar?"

"I'll answer to whatever you want to call me by."

For some reason, the first thing that came to Mary's mind was "Pinocchio." That wouldn't do. "I want you to tell me what I can call you."

He thought for a moment. Then he said, "You can call me…Phos."

"Phos?" she asked. "Like 'photo'?"

He nodded.

"Phos," Mary repeated. "So, if you're in Carter's body, where is he?"

"He's here," he said. "Sorta."

"Sorta?"

"He's recovering," he explained. "He almost died in that crash, but he's doing better."

"Does that mean he knows everything that's been going on since?" she asked.

"Sorta." Phos grinned. "He doesn't necessarily approve of some of the things I've been doing. But it's for his good."

It was the first time Mary had seen him smile in days. It made her smile as well. "Sounds like you two are friends now."

"Hardly. He doesn't appreciate that I have to constantly raid his store of memories." He grimaced. "I can't say it's been pleasurable on my part either. It's like going through the closet of a really disgusting roommate."

Mary laughed.

Phos laughed as well. "Any more questions?"

Mary relaxed a bit and sat with her legs crossed. "How old are you?"

"I don't have an age," he said.

"Really?"

He nodded. "My existence isn't measured in years or seasons. Not like yours."

"What is it measured in?"

"It isn't measured in anything. I just am."

"I still don't understand," she said.

"It's all right," he said. "Humans aren't supposed to."

"But I want to."

"But you're not supposed to," he repeated. "You don't have the capacity for it."

She wrinkled her brow.

"Sorry, that came out wrong," he said. "What I mean is that you aren't even supposed to know we exist. Therefore, how can you completely understand something if you're not supposed to know it's there?"

She thought for a moment. "Okay. Can you at least explain this translation thing some more? Is it as fast as the speed of light?"

He chuckled. "Light, as you call it, is far too slow."

"Really?"

He nodded. "If I were that slow, I would never get anything done. Translation is instantaneous."

"Almost like being in more than one place at once?" she asked.

"Almost," he said. "But that's something completely different. I can't do that."

"It's still cool," she said. "Is that why you had some trouble walking after the accident? Because how we walk is slow?"

"That was part of it," he said. "But it was mostly because I never walked before. I've never had eyes or a mouth or hands. I could see and communicate before, but not like humans can."

"What's the difference?" she asked.

He thought for a moment. "There are certain parts of you that are limiting. Like your sight and your hearing."

"You forgot to say that we're also slow," Mary said.

"Yes," he said. "But it's good to slow down sometimes."

"But even with Carter's body, you can still do stuff," she said. "Like translate."

He nodded. "The energy of human emotions is very, very strong, so the body itself is not really hindering at all. I can still translate to the edge of the universe if I need to."

"Really?" she asked. "To the edge of the universe means through space?"

He nodded.

"Have you visited any aliens?"

"There aren't any to visit."

"Really?" she asked. "No E.T.? Jedi? Klingons?"

He chuckled. "I think what humans call 'aliens' are just sightings of my kind. There are some that are more mischievous than others. Some of my kind break the rules a lot. That's another thing humans are strong in. Imagination."

Drew at the university was going to be disappointed, Mary thought. Then again, maybe not.

"Huh, I really thought that there were these higher alien beings out there that seeded life on our planet," she said.

He laughed. "Nope. No aliens, higher or lower or in between. If there were other life forms out there, we would need several more universes for everything to work properly. That's why Earth is so interesting. It's where all the life is. There are others of my kind out in space, but that's because their jobs are out there. They rarely come here, and I rarely go out there."

"But you have left here before?" she asked.

He nodded. "But there are strict rules that we have to follow. We can't leave our duties untended."

"Are there a lot of these rules?"

"Yes."

"Have you broken many? Like, more than the one of throwing Carter Maxwell into the path of a bus?"

He thought for a moment before answering her. "These rules were made to protect humans. It's not the same as your laws, which can limit you. Take gravity, for example. If the Earth didn't have the kind that it has, then everyone and everything would be flung off to who knows where. Those are the kinds of rules I'm talking about. If I choose to not follow a rule, I forfeit the protection once afforded by that rule. And there are consequences to pay."

"Is being with me breaking one of them?" she asked.

"It's breaking a ton of them," he said. Then he smiled. "But I'm willing to face certain consequences."

She smiled as well.

"You're smiling," he said. "Does this mean that, after I've told you what I am, you're not afraid of me?"

She looked at him. "Well, I don't understand you. Not very well, at least. But no, I'm not afraid. Not anymore. Sorry for freaking out."

"It's all right," he said.

Mary tapped her fingers on her knee. "So, I guess you need to translate us if we're to get back home?"

He nodded. "If that is what you would like." He stood and dusted off his jeans.

Mary got to her feet, too. "But…we don't have to go home right away, do we? You can get around the world instantly, right?"

"Yes," he said. "Why?"

"Can we visit, like, Paris?" she asked. "Just for a bit?"

He wrinkled his brow. "I just told you that I'm occupying a human body without permission, and you want to travel?"

She shrugged. "I don't get out much."

He smiled. "Paris in France or in Texas?

"France, of course." She walked over to him and put her hands on his shoulders.

"Anywhere in particular?" he asked.

"How about the Eiffel Tower?" she said. "I hear it's a pretty big deal."

He wrapped his arms around her waist. The elevator feeling came back, and an instant later, they were standing at the base of the massive tower. But it was hard to see it in the dark.

"What do you think?" Phos asked.

"It's dark," she said. "I thought it lights up at night. At least that's what it does in the movies."

"It does until about one in the morning," he said. "It's almost four now."

"Hm," Mary said. "That's disappointing."

"Maybe it's better if you saw it from the top?" he asked.

"Okay," she said.

Back into the elevator.

"WHOA!" Mary screamed when they translated. She clung to Phos and squeezed her eyes shut.

"What is it?" he asked. One of his arms held her while the other clutched a steel beam.

"You didn't say we were going to the very top!" she cried. A cold blast of wind threatened to tear her away.

"What did you think I meant when I said 'top'?" he asked.

"Like the normal 'top,'" she said. "Where normal people go when they normally mean the 'top'!"

He spoke calmly. "I won't let you fall. Even if you did, I'd catch you and translate like I did at the Grand Canyon. Please open your eyes. You're missing a wonderful view."

She kept her eyes shut.

"Mary?" he said, rubbing her back comfortingly.

"Keep your hands still!" she snapped.

"Sorry," he said.

Mary took a deep breath. Then keeping her arms firmly around his neck, she opened her eyes.

He was right. The City of Lights was truly magnificent from this height. The different avenues looked like a web of electricity.

"See?" Phos said.

Mary sighed. "Fine. It's amazing."

He chuckled. "Would you like to see something else? Or would you rather stay up here?"

"Something else," she said quickly.

They translated to the top of something that Mary could handle a little better: L'Arc de Triomphe. They watched funny little cars, which were out even at this late hour, circle the monument for a moment before Phos took her to see Notre Dame Cathedral. It was much grander than that little church where Mary bought the holy water.

Soon, the sun began to rise on Paris. It colored the sky with amazing shades of blues and purples, followed by splashes of orange and vibrant pink.

"Ready to go?" Phos asked. "It's past midnight back at home."

"No," Mary said. "This is my first time here. I'm a quarter French, you know."

He chuckled. "We can come back. And we can visit other places, too."

Mary thought for a moment, then nodded and put her arms around him again. She hadn't finished blinking before they were on her roof again.

"We're here," Phos said.

But neither of them let go of each other right away. They stood like that for a while.

Mary finally had to pull away. "Thank you. For telling me the truth."

"Thank you for listening," Phos said. He looked skyward.

Mary followed his gaze. "Meteoroids?"

"Just some small ones," he said. "You won't be able to see them from here."

"Can I see you work?" she asked. "Up close?"

"It's dangerous," he said. "Your body isn't made for the temperatures at that altitude."

"But you take Carter's body up there," she said.

"That's because my energy is constantly regenerating it," he said.

Mary crossed her arms. "That's not fair."

"The next time you dream, we'll talk about 'fair' again," he chuckled. "I have to go. Good night, Mary."

"Good night, Phos."

And he was gone.

Mary sighed. She stretched out on the plastic lounge chair and stared at the sky until she fell asleep.

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