Gino leaned back against the leafless, crimson tree, its
furry bark brushing his bare arms. The
texture was a comfort as the drug continued its euphoric assault, tickling his
innards as if the follicles of the tree stretched through his skin and wiggled
deep within him. “I’m still rollin’ D,”
he said, his voice hoarse. He rubbed
sweat off his bald scalp and wiped it on his grey slacks.
Damien waved him
off and continued to stare at the large metal ring. It stood high above him, curving around and
down into red sand. He ran his hand
carefully across its surface. It was layered
with evenly spaced, thin metal lamellas.
“It’s warm, like
an oven,” stated Damien. He removed his
sunglasses and wiped sweat from his brow.
“And it’s hot as balls out here,” he said as he fanned himself with his
black tee. He looked skyward. Two large moons blotched with brown and black
craters hung like massive marbles.
Mountainous patchworks zigzagged across the surface. An asteroid belt orbited the two
satellites. Damien squinted at the sun
that stood behind the moons. He looked
about the island. It was small, a bit
larger than his two-bedroom apartment.
Around it was an endless ocean, motionless and still.
“We ain’t on the
Jersey Shore no more G-man.”
Gino stood. “I’m still trippin’, must be dreamin’.” He removed his silk shirt from around his
waist and tied it like a do-rag on his head.
“I must have passed out. We in
Wildwood then yo?”
“You kidding me,”
mocked Damien. He attempted to run his
hand through his hair, but his fingers were stopped short by a cemented, spiked
black forest. “That thing got us here
you idiot. We aren’t near Jersey or
anywhere on Earth for that matter!”
“Don’t call me
stupid.” Gino patted his chest. His gold cross necklace glinted in the light
as it bounced. “I ain’t stupid, and stop
treatin’ me like a chump.” He walked
towards Damien, fists clenched.
“Dude, how did we
get here then?” Damien rushed his
sunglasses back over his eyes.
“I don’t
remember!”
“Yeah, you don’t
remember, because I had to carry you out of the club because you took three
pills of E and a bump of K.”
Gino halted and
dug his heels into the sand. He rubbed
his stomach, twisting the cotton tank top.
His body tensed, muscles rigid as he dry heaved. With each breath came the taste of some kind
of candy or bubble gum that lingered in the air and his musky, jasmine-orange
scented cologne. The two odors acted as
catalysts for olfactory discomfort, resulting in further nausea.
The ring began to
hum. The sound, like a million bees
singing a hymn, amplified. Its empty
center filled with yellow light, like the sun above. Damien fell back. Gino collapsed to his knees and crawled
backwards. A wooden cart carrying
grapefruits expelled from the ring’s center.
The cart hit the sand hard and toppled over, fruits scattered
about. The ring’s glow faded till the
center was once again empty.
Gino vomited. Green and yellow liquid beaded on the red sand. Damien was wiping sand off his torn jeans
when the smell reached him. It was last
night’s party mix; cheap vodka, dissolved drugs - their taste more like aspirin
- and meatballs, topped with sharp cheese.
“Shit, kick the
sand over it man!” Damien smothered his
mouth, nearly vomiting himself.
Gino did as he was
told and covered his internal sewage. He
removed his do-rag and wiped his mouth, then tossed the shirt aside. “Much better,” he said.
Damien turned,
hand still over his mouth and pointed to the ring. “Did you see that,” he mumbled.
“Yeah bro.” Gino smiled.
“It’s a fucking Stargate!”
“A Stargate?”
“Yeah, a Stargate,
like in the movie with Kurt Russell. And
that TV show too.”
Damien
sighed. He removed his sunglasses and
placed them in his coned follicles. He
spoke softly but loud enough for Gino to hear.
“You have got to
stop doing drugs bro, stop taking that shit.”
Gino shoved out
his arms with a flick of his fingers.
“Whatever yo. You took some pills
too, don’t be procrastining on me.”
“It’s
‘procrastinating’, and I only took one pill.”
“Don’t start
disrespecting me, don’t talk down to me.”
“Disrespect
you? You, you always…” Damien
huffed. “Forget it.” He turned and walked to the edge of the
water, unzipping his pants. He scanned
the view as he tried to relieve himself.
Across the ocean were dark grey and yellow tinted clouds. They moved from left to right. Occasional
lightning cracked the space between the sky and water. A warm breeze carried the nostalgic scent of
summer rain, but with the strange candy taste that marked this planet’s odor.
The warm, calm of
the ecstasy pill began to wear off, and the truth of what happened started to
materialize: They were stranded on an alien island, magically teleported by
some kind of gate. Damien felt his
machismo squeak away, as anxiety blossomed above his groin. He shook his head and focused on relief but
there was a stare; that feel of a stranger’s gaze. He glanced over his shoulder, only to find
Gino eating a grapefruit by the tree. He
turned to face the horizon again but the mysterious voyeurism distracted
him. After a few calm breaths a yellow
arc flowed from his manhood. He looked
down to watch the stream. The urine
pooled on the surface of the sap-like water.
But beneath the sappy surface were eyes, hundreds of them, eyeballs all
connected to plantlike stems. Damien
yelled and fell back. He twisted and
landed face down into the sand.
Gino ran to his
side. “What the fuck happened?”
“The water, go
check the water,” replied Damien. He
brushed off his exposed region, the red sand decorating his privates like
Christmas ornaments.
Gino walked
towards the water. “Holy shit, there are
eyes in there.”
The eyes were of
different sizes, from golf to soft balls.
Iris color varied, some like Gino’s light green and some like Damien’s
dark brown. They had eyelids made of a
green membranous flap that curved around the eyeball, thinning down to a green
and dark blue stem. The stem disappeared
into the sand. Whether there was actual
water beneath the surface, the two could not tell. Gino and Damien walked around the edge of the
island.
“See that D? The eyes go where we go.”
“I want to go
home.” Damien’s heart raced, breath a
panicked pant. “I want to go home,” he
yelled at the metal ring.
The ring hummed to
life, as if awoken by Damien’s shout.
“Oh shit,” cried
Gino. He dove headfirst into the
sand. Damien was off to the side when a
river of water gushed from the ring like a punctured dam. Wood debris and other elements flowed out
before the glow twirled back to a close.
Pools of water built up in small pockets and collected towards the edge
of the alien sea.
Damien circled out
and away from the ring. His white Nikes
sunk in the wet sand with each step.
“I just got these
new kicks. Damn.” Damien tried to steady himself while he shook
sand off his sneaker. He lost balance
and fell forward but stopped himself in a lunge position. His body shook from the impact. Beneath his foot was a long cylindrical
object.
“What is it,” Gino
called out as he approached.
“I don’t
know.” Damien squatted in
observation. It was solid black, like
cast iron, hard and course to the touch.
“I think this is a
cannon.” Damien stood and tried shoving
it with his foot. “Like from a pirate ship or something.”
Gino walked
towards the ring. “D yo, this thing,
it’s got to be Japanese! That’s what it
is!”
“How stupid could
you be? This thing isn’t made anywhere
on earth! Fucking idiot.”
“I told you not to
call me stupid!” Gino tackled
Damien. The two tripped over the cannon
and landed in the wet sand. Damien
landed hard on his back. His sunglasses
flew off from the impact.
“I’m sick and
tired of you always treatin’ me like some idiot, talking shit about me and
making fun of me,” Gino said as he pressed his bulky forearm against Damien’s
face.
“Get the fuck off
of me,” demanded Damien. He tried to
struggle free but failed. Sand rubbed
hard against his cheek and hair tickled his nostrils.
The ring
activated. Damien and Gino were in the
ring’s line of fire. Aggression turned
to fear and their grapple became an embrace.
The ring belched,
then silenced.
Clenched eyes
twitched open and hugs unfolded. Gino
rose without helping Damien.
“What the
hell?” Between Gino and the ring at eye
level hovered a three dimensional wire frame box, its lines made of laser
light. The lines shimmered and curved
inward in a spiral. It twisted out into
the shape of a sphere.
Damien got up and spit out
sand. He watched the object from a distance. The lines would break apart, curl and form
other topological distortions.
“Don’t get too
close,” warned Damien.
Gino inched
closer. The object floated, unaffected
by gravity. It reformed into a flattened
rectangle and images flickered on it like a television screen.
“You seeing this
D?” The image moved like a clear black
and white film. The film showed Gino
getting his tattoo of a hybrid Italian/Albanian flag on his back. Like a channel changing, it switched to Gino
and his younger brother cleaning dishes in their house. Gino was twenty at the
time, and had hair. It puffed above his
forehead and coasted down to the base of his neck into a mullet. His brother was seven years old then, a
skinny boy with pale complexion and bad teeth.
“Little Nikki,”
chuckled Gino. The image switched to a
recent bald version of him dancing with a curvaceous woman. Her arms wrapped around his head. She nibbled on his earlobe and kissed him
with her thick lips. Gino had his hand
underneath her short skirt. It moved up
into the dark fold of fabric between her legs.
The two rocked silently as they groped each other. Behind them in a dark shade of grey stood
Damien.
“Yo Damien bro,
that’s us and Carmella at club Pacha! It
was just two months ago! This thing is
stealing my memories!”
Gino turned his
attention to Damien. “You got to get
close to this thing, it’s readin’ my mind perfectly!”
Damien
retreated. “Fuck no. Stay away from it, you might get cancer or
something G.”
The footage
flickered.
“D, these ain’t my
memories.”
The box showed the
naked rear of a man thrusting back and forth.
A bare leg with a stiletto heel still on the foot was up over the man’s
shoulder.
Damien’s blood
went cold. He watched himself fondle the
woman’s breasts and stick his finger in her mouth.
Gino studied the
familiar face of the woman. Her blonde
hair was a light gray in the image, and her red lips a darker shade of gray.
The sweat on the
two bodies had the highest contrast, resembling twinkles of light scattered about
them. It beaded on bare skin and dripped
with each thrust.
Gino
grimaced. “Carmella?”
A second female
joined. Her features were darker in the
film, hair black. The new naked form had
a more athletic build. She hopped on the
bed and sat over Carmella’s face, positioning herself towards Damien. Carmella’s face was now gone, her motions
expressed through the muscle spasms of the woman above her. Bits of Carmella’s chin revealed itself under
the dark crest of the other female.
Damien grabbed the back of the woman’s head and pulled her close. They kissed, tongues intertwined like mating
slugs.
“Holy Shit,”
Damien whispered. He raised his arms in
surrender.
“What the fuck is
this,” Gino said, pointing at the orgy.
The bodies continued to undulate rapidly.
“It was a while
ago, it, it,” stuttered Damien. “Bullshit! I bought her those shoes three days ago.
Three fucking days ago! And you been
fuckin’ her behind my back?” The veins
in Gino’s forehead bulged into a Y shape, his face red like the sand.
“I… Listen… It
was…”
“You know what,
forget it. I’m done with you. No more fighting for you when we are out at
the bars and someone talks shit to you.
No more fixing your car or anything else broken in that apartment your
daddy pays for.” He scowled. “No more nothin’. Carmella, she was my girl. You were my best friend. When we go back home, we are done.”
Beside Gino, the
ring hummed.
“Gino, step away
from it, please, I’m sorry.”
From the ring
emerged a cloud of bats, screeching like alarm clocks. They flew around an unflinching Gino, his
stare locked on Damien. The bats flew
past Damien and out into the horizon until they disappeared in the distance.
The memory thief contorted into a sphere again and shot back into the ring’s
vortex before it fell still.
“Gino, you okay?”
No response.
“Gino, I’m sorry
bro.”
Gino turned and
walked to the other side of the island.
He sat on the sand and faced the horizon.
Damien frowned and
looked around aimlessly. He turned to
where the bats flew. The sun was
setting, its light pinched between the two moons. Shadows stretched long like tar trails on the
sand. Damien looked above and across the
darkening part of the sky. Stars ran
across in unfamiliar patterns. There was
no Big or Little Dipper that he recognized.
The last time he had looked at the nightly heavens for longer than a
minute was over a decade ago. He and his
father ate ice cream on a blanket in the yard.
Dad would tell me that the stars
were God’s fireflies. His vision
blurred and the sky smeared with streaks of light. He wiped his eyes and looked over to Gino who
sat with his back to him. Damien picked
up a grapefruit, walked over and placed it at his side.
Gino ran sand
through his fingers, ignoring Damien.
The tiny grains fell through like sand in an hourglass.
“Hey Gino,” Damien
said, his voice low as if not to disturb the ring. “Do you think this is a sprocket? It’s got the shape of it right? It’s round, and has ridges. It looks like it might fit into
something. You know everything about
cars and bikes. So I figured you’d know
what it was. Maybe you’re right, maybe
it is Japanese.”
No response.
“G man, come on,
please bro, I’m sorry. It happened, I
don’t know how, it just did.”
Gino took the
fruit and tossed it out into the viscous ocean.
Damien began to
speak but said nothing. He kicked sand
like a defeated child and walked towards to the water. His sunglasses floated beneath the surface. Eyes cluttered and shoved each other for
ownership of the protective eyewear.
“Cruel joke,”
snorted Damien.
“Fuck you!” Gino shot up off the sand. “I loved her!
This ain’t no joke!”
“I was talking to
the eyes!”
Gino squeezed his
fists. He spluttered incoherently then
sat back down.
“She came on to me
G. We were drunk and high, we-,” Damien
was interrupted by the sound of screeching.
The black swarm of bats circled and flew through the ring twice before
they settled on the tree. He cocked his
head, remembering the bats emergence earlier and the box that vanished through
the ring.
“I think I know
how to possibly get off this island Gino.”
Gino flashed him
his third finger.
“G man, I’m sorry,
please, I really am. I’ll make it up to
you, I promise. But I really think I
know how we might get off this island.”
“No, you can’t
make this up to me. We’re through.” Gino flung sand at him.
Damien blocked his
eyes. “All right then, I understand.”
“Good.”
“So you want to
hear how we get out of here?”
Gino stood up and
brushed off his rear. “Yeah, I want to
get away from you.”
“Fine. That thing that showed us our,” Damien
sighed, “our memories went back into the ring, right after the bats came out.”
“Yeah. So?”
“So, we go through
it too.”
Gino narrowed his
eyes. “Nah man, that’s dumb. We’ll get minced up.”
“And we won’t die
here? No chopper or boat are gonna pick
us up bro. We didn’t die getting here,
so we might have a chance if we go through that thing.”
“Don’t call me bro
anymore.”
“Okay, but we got
to try it. Or we’ll die here slowly,
with each other.”
The sun’s final
light ran across them, now beneath the moons.
Orange light dissolved into saturated reds, rich purples, and crisp,
dark blues before meeting with the speckled black of space. Both Damien and Gino watched in awe.
Gino broke out of
the trance. He nodded to the ring. “It’s not a sprocket or gear. It’s a bubble wand, or some shit like that.”
“What?”
“Look at it
again.”
Damien recognized
the similar patterns as a bubble wand, with the perfectly spaced horizontal
ridges and thick ring.
“Look down there
too,” continued Gino, “where the curves go under the sand. Some water washed away the bottom.”
A black vertical
bar met the curved metal, closing the circle.
It disappeared into the sand.
“Holy shit, it’s a
toy,” Damien commented.
“Yeah, looks like
it.”
“So our lives are
bubbles or something?”
Gino shrugged.
Damien rubbed his
chin. “G, I don’t remember going through
something like this before we ended up here.”
“I don’ remember
anything, yo.”
“I do remember we
were down the back alley behind club Oceania.
I remember helping you walk, and we both walked by some garbage cans and
above was just the buildings, but it was dark.
And then came a white light.
“White light? I thought I was passin’ out.”
“No man, it was
white all over, like even in my ears and eyes it felt, like the light had
weight.”
Gino mimicked
Damien, rubbing his chin. “You think God
did this?”
“I can’t think of
that shit right now. Let’s get ready
though, in case the thing starts up again.
Gonna be dark soon.”
The two positioned
themselves opposite each other on either side of the ring.
“Back up a few
inches G, in case something flies out again.”
Gino pushed a few inches back, when
suddenly the ring hummed. The metal
vibrated like a rounded tuning fork. Through the noise and light Gino shouted to
Damien. “Yo
D!”
“What!”
“Even if we make
it through, I still hate you!”
“Jump now,” howled
Damien.
They both jumped
into the ring’s center, through a brilliant yellow and white. Damien hit the sand hard. He moved his arms into a push-up position and
lifted himself up. He wobbled like a
drunk until his vision restored.
“My head.” Gino coughed the words and rubbed his
sinuses.
“Oh my god. Can you see yet?”
“Almost. Just help me up.”
“Cause we’re still
here.”
Gino’s sight
cleared in time to see the final light of the sun pull away. Behind him stood the ring, and to the side a
tree covered with bats.
“Fuck,” shouted
Gino.
Damien dry heaved
a few times. A nervous tickle spread
from his stomach and into his tightened chest.
“It didn’t work, oh my god, it didn’t work.”
“So I’m stuck here
with your backstabbin’ ass?” The words
were Gino’s, but like a ventriloquist throwing his voice, came from else
were. Damien and Gino looked at each
other and slowly circled around the ring.
Panic: it was the
sub-zero kind, when the sphincter tightens and the innards rise in
freefall. What they saw in the near dark
was themselves, perfect copies like living shadows, in exactly the same
clothes. All four stared at each other
in disbelief. Gino faced his clone. Damien stretched out his hand to touch his
double, but pulled it back.
Gino’s clone
looked at Damien’s clone, then to the original Damien. Through gritted teeth he said, “There are two
of you now? I’m stuck with two cheatin’
motherfuckers?”
Damien’s clone
turned to Gino’s clone. “Now wait up yo,
she was a slut. I did you a favor and
you know it. Who knows who else she was
banging!”
Original Gino
jumped in front of Damien’s clone. I
loved her you dick!”
Original Damien
stepped in front of original Gino.
“Don’t get hot at me… him… at us!
I said I was sorry already!”
The four continued
to argue as the sun disappeared beneath the curtain of nightfall. Black bats shimmered like loose roof shingles
in the wind. Ocean eyes radiated a soft
white light, the sea itself illuminating like a glowing blanket. The familiar bee’s hum returned. The ring’s white glow engulfed the four
quarreling figures, swallowing them out of the darkness.
