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The First Five Chapters:
In one millisecond, light travels
300 millimeters. Its falling distance is y=1/2 gt2 =5*10-12.
I realize that these little facts
probably don't impact your life very much. I've been able to recite these
things since I was about 3 years old. My first words weren’t “papa and mama”,
but “day and night”.
Einstein said that if man could
ever travel faster than the speed of light, then he would be able to travel
through time. I can see that funny looking old man, in his Mickey Mouse
t-shirt, sticking his tongue out. He then said that man would never be able to
travel faster than the speed of light, any questions?
The problem with traveling faster
than the speed of light is that the faster you travel the heavier you become.
The heavier you become, the harder it is to travel faster than the speed of
light because it expends more energy to carry more weight, otherwise, thank you
Einstein for E=mc2.
The longest daylight out of any
year is June 30th, with 15 hours and 1 minute being the norm in Colorado
What’s not normal is knowing these
facts and using them to inspire fear and courage in yourself. I look up to the
sky in terror each night as I watch the sun sink deeply in the West. I have
never truly seen the dark, because I leave my lights on all the time. I also
have a solar charged generator in my backyard. It will give my home five days
of lights if the power goes out, and this does not include the daylight
recharging.
My grandparents are from Serbia
My mother was a great beauty of the
day, the sun shone from within. She died giving birth to me. The last word she
ever said was: Dannoc. This became my name. In Serbia
My fear of the darkness restricts
me within a four mile radius of my home. It would take me 24 minutes to run
like a maniac and make it home before the sunset reached the horizon. And I
run, all the time, like a maniac. I run on the treadmill. I run up and down the
stairs of my home. I run to work and then back home. Isn’t running what people
do when they live in fear?
Then there is that day that one
must face their fears and stare them down. I’d been avoiding it all my life,
and so when it showed up, it hit me in the face with a vengeance…
Chapter
One
Complacency is surely the doom of
all life.
I told myself for years that I was
glad I had a steady job, which 7.9% of Coloradoans don’t have. My home, while
humble, had heat (and lights… I need to mention the lights). I lived three
doors down from my grandparents for their peace of mind, as much as mine.
So it was a bit of a brain rattler
to have my schedule disrupted simply by someone walking past my desk. I looked
up, paused out of nervousness, and then bent my head over my keyboard
studiously.
Everything was dark about the
woman. She had midnight, black hair, black eyes, a dark skin tone that bordered
on brown. She was wearing a black, tailored suit, a dark scarf woven through
her hair, and her nails were, of course, painted black.
Women like that make me nervous.
Okay, most men would say the exact
same thing, fears or no fears. That woman was a land-walking barracuda. She
walked with a fierce and aggressive stride. She focused on getting from point A
to point B. And the one person that stepped in front of her at the office
received a glare and went scampering quickly away.
In my peripheral vision, I saw her
walk into my boss’s office. I watched in horror when my boss pointed in my
direction, and thought that maniacal run home could start right away if I
figured out how to step outside the door.
“Dannoc Popovic?” I cringed at the
Serbian pronunciation of my name. Most people called me Danny and didn’t
realize that the “c” at the end of both my names was pronounced “ch”.
I blinked my eyes and looked over
the top rim of my glasses, “Uh… Danny, people call me Danny.”
She smiled a feral sort of a grin
without showing any teeth, “Ah, Americans and their little nicknames.” (Which
came out more like AAAH, Ahmereecahns and dher
leetle neecknameesssss.)
I swallowed hard and gave a brief
grin, reached up and pushed my glasses back up on my nose.
“Your boss, he tell me you have
meal break soon?”
I was shaking my head before she
finished her question, “Sorry, have too much work to do. I’m not taking a lunch
break today.” I also noticed that she avoided calling me by my neecknamesssss…
“Perhaps we do dinner tonight?”
I shook my head again, “I spend the
evenings with my elderly grandparents.” Which was a total lie and it looked
like she knew it.
She leaned down on my desk and
stared at me, “You need to eat sometime, yes?”
“I’m sorta careful about what I put
in my mouth. I call it selective dining.”
She gave a slight gasp of pure
offense, stood up straight, as if someone snapped her designer bra, and marched
out of the office.
I glared at two fellow co-workers,
who had followed the conversation and looked like they were going to ask some
questions. Instead, they rapidly looked down at their computer screens and the
incident was not mentioned for the rest of the day (to my face anyway…)
I got home with 15 minutes to
spare, as the sun began to set. I hated winters and the short days. My energy
drained from me like a bucket with holes in it. I leaned against the door with
my eyes closed in relief.
“You should not be so slow to get
home, Dannoc.”
I should have jumped a mile high,
but I was almost expecting her here. “My name is Danny, and you are
trespassing.”
I opened the front door: “OUT!”
She wagged her finger at me and
tsked… “You would put your own cousin out when it is so close to night fall?”
I pointed to the open door again.
“You weren’t invited, and I don’t have any cousins.”
“My name is Rona Popovic. I am from
Serbia
She gracefully sat down, as if she
had been invited to tea, and looked at me expectantly.
I pulled my droid out of my pocket,
and tapped on the screen. My grandfather’s gruff voice answered. “Babu? There
is a woman in my home claiming to be my cousin.”
The phone went click at the other
end and in less than an instant both of my grandparents were standing at my
door.
“How…?”
“Rona! It is so good to finally see
you!” My grandmother slowly walked over to the sofa and sat down. She reached
over and took my new-found cousin’s hand.
My grandfather pushed me aside and
slowly closed the front door. “This is very bad timing for you, niece. You
couldn’t have come earlier in the daylight?”
She delivered her feral smile,
“Surely you are to blame the timing on my dearest cousin? He refused me a
luncheon appointment. And as a Mudraca, I
chose my own timing, yes?”
My grandmother patted her hand, “We
didn’t realize that you would come so soon. We were going to talk with him over
the weekend, and advise him that your presence would be expected.”
Rona shrugged an elitist shoulder
and leaned back, “And now we have whole night to talk, no?”
I glanced nervously at the open
curtains behind my grandmother. My new cousin stood with grace and walked over
to the window. The curtains twitched closed. My grandfather walked around the
room turning on all the lights.
My new, dearest cousin walked over
to me and began inspecting me like a microbe on a slide. “He is not a purebred,
not with those eyes.” She closed her eyes and her nose twitched. “He smells
very unique, not of us?”
She turned to my grandmother, “You
have called me so late in his life, not even knowing if he is even one of us?”
Baba lowered her eyes and mumbled.
“You are dealing with a superior!
Speak to me directly!”
My grandmother’s trembling hands
clasped together.
I shoved the snotty bitch from
behind, “You are in my home and will speak to my Baba with a polite tone!”
She whirled to face me, “You dare
touch your superior?’
“If you don’t like my attitude,
please feel free to leave,” and I pointed at the front door. "And I don't
have any superiors."
Her face blanched for a brief
moment, long enough for me to know that she was just as afraid of the dark as I
was. She lifted her head and glared at me, “I will offer only one apology to
your ‘baba’.”
She walked back over to my
grandmother and sat down beside her. “I err by sneering at your gracious hospitality.
Please accept this daylight servant’s apology.”
My grandmother nodded. “It is also
my apology that I need to offer for not teaching my grandson the old ways.”
It was at that moment that I began
to respect my cousin and think of her as Rona instead of “that new cousin”. Her
apology was not reluctant, nor filled with buts and excuses. I nodded at her
and walked over to sit across from her. “Old ways?”
My grandfather cleared his throat.
“We left Serbia
“The war between the Muslims and
the Christians?”
Rona shook her head, “Infidels! All
of them! That war they dealt upon themselves! It destroyed the great beauty of
our country and put it in a great shadow, but it was not that war that your
grandparents were escaping.”
She was silenced by my
grandfather’s look, “War is war. We wanted our child to thrive. And no, Danny,”
He walked over and sat beside me, “It was a war that had been going on for
thousands of years! A war that will never end…
“When your mother’s older brother
was killed, we wanted no more loss. We were granted permission to come to the
country for a safe delivery of our new baby, and then stayed without permission.”
Rona sniffed, “You were General
Andrijan Popovic! Your first obligation was to your troops!”
“He didn’t want to leave!” My
grandmother cried, “I begged him until he couldn’t say no! I wanted to protect
my unborn baby…”
Rona pulled my grandmother close and
held her while she cried. Her hand stroked Baba’s hair in soothing strokes. She
looked up at my grandfather, “You were a general, not a mudraca.”
Babu nodded. “I should never have
tried to show her the old ways. She learned too quickly and then became rebellious.
I should have sought the help of a wise one, a mudraca, but I was ashamed of my
desertion.”
“She was born to two very powerful
warriors, of course she learned too quickly. She should have been leashed
before she came of age. But you didn’t know how to leash her, did you?” Both of
the grandparents shook their heads, “And now you have a mongrel on your hands
that is afraid of his own shadow. You come to me to either train him, or break
him of his fears?”
“Mongrel?”
She looked at me and sneered, “There
is a scent about you that makes me ill. I haven’t decided whether it is your
weaknesses or your half-blood. Do you know who begat your birth with his seed
in your mother’s belly?”
I’d never asked. I’m not sure that
I ever wanted to know. And I wouldn’t respond to her taunt. I sat silently.
“No? Let us hope that his seed has
not diluted your blood too far away from the pure gold that runs through your
grandparents’ veins.”
I gritted my teeth. She wasn’t
going to incite me into action.
She smiled a vicious smile and
whispered: “My brother would rip my heart out and feed it to me if I said these
things to him. You are a sad little man.”
My grandmother looked up, “The war,
Danny, is a war between Day and Night: Dan i Noc. There is a constant battle in
the universe for light particles: The particles that give you and I strength.
But some find their strength in the absence of all light. They thrive in the
darkest of dank places.”
I nodded, “So you are talking about
werewolves and vampires, and people who like the moon, right?”
“No!” Rona corrected me, “Vampires
and werewolves are figments of imagination to scare little boys and girls. And
the moon is not true light, but just a reflection of the all powerful sun!
Unfortunately, the moon is not strong enough to give us all the light we need,
so we must use caution in the shadows created by the absence moon. There are
only a few day warriors powerful enough to pull energy from the moon.”
I slowly stood up and looked toward
the front door. All of my fears were based on incited illusions created by my
grandparents. I looked at my grandfather, the fearless general, and I walked
out the front door.
Chapter
2
Well, I didn’t die as anticipated…
So much for suicidal thoughts. In fact, after the first six hours, I even
gathered up the nerve to step off of my neighbor’s front porch, where I had
been hiding in plain sight.
My neighbor actually saw me, and
asked me to come in. I told him I was contemplating the meaning of life, and
this answer could only be found on their front step. He rapidly shut his door
after telling me good luck.
I sat down on his top step and
waited for the world, as I know it, to end. It didn’t end. In fact, I found it
fascinating. There were people walking their dogs, driving their cars, jogging,
just like in the daylight, except quieter.
If what ‘they’ said about familial
indoctrination and phobias was true, my immersion into the deep dark world of
the night was nothing special, just the same, old street with the lights turned
off.
Three hours after I walked out of
my home, it went silent. Lights went off inside the houses. People stopped
driving by and joggers stopped jogging. Then the nothingness set in.
I forgot my coat, damnit!
Forgetting that hypothermia might be a good way to die, I stood up and stomped
around long enough to realize that I was gonna be cold no matter what.
In all my sitting and stomping,
sitting and stomping, I must confess that I didn’t see one warrior that was
looking for a kill. I didn’t see any battles, or evil doers. I did see an
over-fed cat exploring my yard, which reminded me to sprinkle some cayenne
pepper on my snow when I got a chance. I almost yelled at him when he sprayed
my tree… Damn cat!
My grandparents were warriors! I
was the grandson of a general… Probably a general that could kick some serious
butt!
It was finally realizing there was
nothing moving out there, that got me off of my neighbor’s porch and walking
down the street.
I looked up at the moon as I walked
and saw nothing mystical or magical, just a moon reflecting light. My eyes had
adjusted to the dark and there really wasn’t a lot that I couldn’t see. I spent
thirty-seven years of sitting behind a door, quivering in fear, because someone
told me about a bogey man waiting in the dark.
They were delusional: My
grandparents, my cousin, and any other idiots that subscribed to the idea that
there was a battle between the dark and the light. The whole ambiguity of that
statement made me question a 1,000 year war. Any war that lasts over five
minutes is idiotic. One thousand years is a curse that needs to be avoided.
The shadows played upon me as I
walked down the residential street. At times, I thought I heard whispers. I
would rapidly turn to confront the sound, only to find the wind whistling through
the winter, barren trees. The soles of my shoes tapped against the scraped
sidewalks and shuffled across the black ice that crept in at random places.
For as long as I had feared the
dark, I seemed to find comfort in the shadows. When I heard a strange sound, I
stepped near a tree and let the darkness hide me. Pretty soon, I was moving
from tree to tree. The lighted spaces between the trees made me feel naked and
vulnerable. I wondered how a man could go from one extreme fear to another in a
matter of hours.
And then I laughed at myself, not
quite a sane laugh. My name was Day-Night, I should let both of them power me!
And with that, I began letting the light from the moon, and the darkness of the
shadows push me forward.
The four miles, that had been my limit
before, became part of my past. I stepped forward and moved faster and faster.
My advantage was that I had been running all my life, and yet I had never gone
anywhere.
As the sun began to rise, it found
me sitting on a hill high above Loveland
First of all, if there was a war
between night and day, how would they fight? The night warriors couldn’t fight
in the daylight. The day warriors couldn’t fight at night. And why would they
fight anyway? What would be the point? Were they fighting for the big wrestling
trophy to display for all to see?
Sounded like a bunch of Voodoo
Chicken Shit.
My big dilemma was: Do I commit my
grandparents to a home for the psychotically ill, or pander to them? How would
I deal with cousin Rona? Should I pat her on the back, tell her thanks anyway,
and then send her on her way?
Of course there was also the huge
problem of me sitting on a hilltop, above Loveland ,
Colorado
I took one more look at the kiss of
the sunrise, closed my eyes and thought of being safe and wanting to be there
again, and then I found myself standing on my neighbor’s doorstep…
Now when I said that I found myself
standing on my neighbor’s doorstep, I don’t mean that it was a short walk, or a
long walk. I mean that instantly, I found myself on my neighbor’s doorstep.
INSTANTLY!
This begged the question: Had I
fallen asleep on this nice, safe, comfy doorstep: Dreaming the whole night
away?
I was just standing on my
neighbor’s doorstep blinking.
I stepped off his porch and moved
to the end of his sidewalk. My foot hovered in the direction of my own home.
Instead, I turned toward the sun, as it escaped the bright colors of the
sunrise. I had never truly looked at her before today, just simply assuming
what she was. The light hit my face and I closed my eyes. I saw myself sitting
on the hill again, above the city.
When I opened my eyes again, I was
on the hill.
Remember that nice and easy
equation: E=mc2?
I slowly sank down and felt myself
losing focus. I felt like my mind went void and any energy had been completely
drained from me. I turned my face toward the sun, and felt some consciousness
coming back, but my limbs wouldn’t respond.
Otherwise, at 6’4” and 210 pounds,
more energy would need to be stored in order to fuel movement.
My eyes slowly drifted closed.
A tap on my shoulder made me blink
and then move. I looked up and found my new cousin standing over me. She
wrinkled her nose, “I think you need a bath.”
She was again wearing black, and
her nails were painted scarlet. “Do you always wear dark colors? Wouldn’t you
want to wear light colors because of your love of day?” I asked her.
She smiled, “Dark colors attract
light, and light colors reflect it.” She stretched her arms out in worship to
the sun. Any moment she would be singing ‘The Sound of Music’ and twirling
around.
She held out her hand, and I took
it. She had amazing strength and helped me stand without flinching at my weight.
I swayed back and forth, weakly. “I don’t think I can make it back to the
house.”
I started to reach into my pocket,
but her hand stayed me, “Your phone will no longer be operable. It was not
designed for our kind of travel.”
I pulled it out anyway, and found
the screen shattered in a million pieces. Note to self: Next time I want to get
to my neighbor’s doorstep, leave my cell phone at home. “Any other warnings I
need to consider?”
“Yes, you will learn them all as I
train you, but the most important one is to never travel alone until you know
your limits. You are a beginner, I would suggest extreme caution.” She wagged
her finger at me, “This crazy action of going outside at night was not good.
Our people stay in the light because we are the light.”
Something held me back from telling
her that the night really wasn’t that bad. I weakly smiled at her.
“Close your eyes, Danny.” (The
first time she had addressed me by my nickname) “Let the sun’s rays flow over
you and envelop you and take several deep breaths.”
It was like a prayer, or worship,
of something so pure. I felt the warming tingle in my fingers and toes, and
then the feeling spread to each part of my body.
“Do not move or think, until you
feel the warmth pumping through your heart and wrapping around your entire
being.”
I felt the palm of her hand cover
my chest where my heart beat. Then I could hear my heart beating, slowly but
with force.
“Now.”
It was just a whisper in the wind,
but I understood. I opened my eyes and watched as my body sped away, through
the trees, down the hill, through the streets and neighborhoods, finally to my
neighbor’s doorstep.
I looked over at my yard and found
my cousin standing on my step, tapping her foot impatiently. I sheepishly
stepped off my neighbor’s porch, making a mental note to send him a bottle of
wine or a nightlight, for invading his space.
I reached Rona and she rolled her
eyes at me, “Cousins…” she muttered.
Chapter
Three
“It was in ancient times that two
brothers were raised by their immortal parents. Both were loved dearly and they
were treated fairly. They flourished under their parents care. The brothers
were also devoted to each other.”
“Are you going to tell me that this
1,000 year war is a family feud?”
Rona frowned at me and continued
her story: “They were both given the powers over night and day and they
excelled at their gifts. Together they would surely rule the world. Appius and
Aulus had power even beyond that of their parents.
Because of their great power and
great bloodlines, both brothers were betrothed to women who would produce a
great bloodline of children to follow in their great footsteps. Both women were
great beauties with power and skills of their own. Tita and Tiberia were raised
as gentle women: Born to serve their husbands.
While Appius and Aulus loved each
other, Tita and Tiberia hated each other and often coveted what the other had.
Tita was betrothed to Appius and Tiberia to Aulus. But Tita thought that Appius
was the weaker brother and complained to any who would listen.
Tiberia was more subtle: She
conspired with several servants to make the arranged marriages collapse. She
whispered in ears and lied to visiting royalty and diplomats. But the ear that
listened the most was one belonging to Spurius: A distant cousin of Appius and
Aulus.
He hated the blessed brothers as
much as Tiberia hated her life and her own sister. While the brothers were both
blessed with the gift of night and day, his life was limited to the darkness.
The bright light of the sun blinded him and the night empowered him. He used
his dark powers to spy on all. He would fade behind walls and skulk in the
darkest of shadows. It was in one of these shadows that he first discovered the
brothers’ nemesis: Though both were strong together, separate they were at their
weakest.
He began to play them off against
each other. He told Appius that Tita considered him the weaker brother and
Aulus that Tiberia found him dull and constantly complained that Appius was not
her betrothed.
The brothers tried to distance
themselves from the gossip and the petty innuendos, but by turning their backs
on the problem, they allowed the problem to grow until it could be contained no
more.
They agreed to fight hand to hand
against each other until one declared surrender, just to appease their
followers. They had fought together before, in play, and both were equally
matched in fist fighting. The night before the match, they argued about letting
each other win. Appius saying that Aulus was better spoken and people would
heed his leadership: Aulus saying that Appius was a wiser soul and could rule
in a more balanced way.”
My nose started itching and I
scratched it. Rona glared at me. “So why did they fight?”
Her eyes widened in indignation,
“Because they were royalty and it was expected of them.”
I shook my head, “I’m not buying
in, give me the real dirt.”
“They fought because it was the
right thing to do!”
“How was this ‘the right thing’ to
do? If they didn’t want to fight, they shouldn’t have to fight! If they didn’t
fight, then they would just look like really smart, nice guys. Now they look
like idiots who would jump off the cliff if that is what everybody expected
them to do!”
Rona stuck her chin up in the air,
“I am telling you a story of your heritage, cousin, I expect you to listen!”
I blinked innocently at her and
shrugged.
She cleared her throat, “Spurius
fumed, knowing that the fight would be a sham. He volunteered to be a second to
the duelers, and posted himself in Appius’ corner that next morning in a
darkened corner. When the brothers rested between the bouts, he watched as
Appius took a sip of poisoned water and smiled.
In the last bout of the match,
Appius began to waiver. He became dizzy and disoriented. Aulus paused, thinking
that Appius was pretending to allow him to win the bout. Then he watched in
horror as Appius fell to the ground in death. Aulus felt as if his heart had
been ripped out, sure that he had killed his own brother.
Aulus went into mourning for
months, not speaking to anyone. He hid in his room replaying the fight over and
over in his mind. He remembered Spurius standing by the water in Appius’
corner, and there was no doubt in his mind that Spurius was the one that killed
his brother… He just needed to prove it.
He went to his parents and begged
them for the power to see all movement, all things. They knew that he had been
weakened and needed to focus his power. As a gift, they gave him the strength
of the sun and moon. They gave him special vision to see people the way they
truly were in broad daylight.”
“But didn’t he already have this
power? Wasn’t he an immortal? If he thought he saw it, then why didn’t
he just ask Spurius? This is seriously coming off as a soap-opera! They’re a
bunch of whiners that should be put in separate corners…” I trailed off when I
saw the look on her face.
She glared at me for a full minute,
“It was with this strength that he went to Spurius. He saw the guilt of his
brother’s death written on Spurius’ face, and the confession came from Spurius
in his dying breath.
Tiberia was already heavy with
Spurius’ child, and Aulus banished both her and her sister Tita for their
betrayal. He wed a gentle woman, named Sarah, from a neighboring country.
Tiberia and Tita raised Spurius’
child and taught him to hate Aulus and the light with all their fury. They
never allowed him to see the light of day.
This fury has been passed down,
generation to generation. And this is what we fight, cousin.”
Not being raised around these myths
and legends, to be quite honest: The whole thing just seemed damned stupid.
“Okay, so if they thrive in darkness and we thrive in light, then where is the
battlefield? Why not just let them have the night? Doesn’t seem like such a big
deal to me.”
“We fight when they attack us, in
our beds and homes! We hunt them down in their lairs and kill them before they
can kill us!”
There was nothing to say to such a
blind, indoctrinated obsession. You can’t fix what has been bred into a person
for generations.
She must have seen the doubt in my
face, “Your own uncle was killed by these villains when he got caught in the
failing light! He was seven years old!”
She stood and prepared to leave
before the daylight ended. “I will be staying at your grandparents while I
train you.” She wagged her finger at me, “I have leashed you, so you will not
get into trouble when I am not around to protect you.”
“Leashed me?” I was indignant,
“When did this happen?”
“When I slowed the beating of your
heart this morning, I tied my mind to your new-found gifts. This is for your
own protection.”
I felt like a kid being told that
he can only drive his new sports car with his mom in the back seat.
She paused at the front door,
“Please do not go out at night anymore. I cannot protect you in the darkness,
and we do not know how far Spurius’ seed of hatred has spread.”
I watched her leave and then got up
and opened all the curtains in my house. Then I turned off all the lights.
Midnight found me sitting at my window, staring into the night.
The view was much better from my
living room, than from my neighbor’s front step. It was warmer as well.
I guess I could have been angry at
the lies. Never being told the truth about where my family came from. I could
have been angry because I was never told about my gifts and given a chance to
cultivate them. Then there was this fear that had been cultivated and nurtured
to make me afraid of my own shadow. Any normal person should have been in the
throws of fury over that one.
But sitting at the window, staring
into the darkness, I remembered all the things I never did. I never went to
parties or participated in sporting events. I never hung out with my buddies at
a bar and picked up loose women with fake IDs. I was deprived of my youth
because of a stupid family feud.
I could see why my mother had
rebelled. I felt her fire burning inside me.
The life that I had been living had
been crammed into daylight hours: It was a life half lived.
I made a vow to myself: For the
time being, I would pander to Rona. I would allow her the control she wanted
and learn from her like a good little grasshopper. And then the teacher and the
novice would part ways and I would not get involved in the family’s feud.
Chapter
Four
We were sitting in the middle of a
playground near Lake
Loveland
“Find the movement in your core,”
she said in a hypnotic voice. “Your soul is vibrating, seeking the fire of the
light for energy. Let the light soak into your skin, into your veins, pump
through your heart.”
Again she placed her hand on my
chest. The cold faded away. I forgot about my soaked jeans. A hum began inside
me. It got louder and louder and then turned into a roar.
“Open your eyes, Dannoc.”
We were standing in white light and
nothing else. My feet felt firmly on the ground, but there was nothing below
them.
“Where are we?” I whispered,
because anything louder would have been sacrilegious.
“We are nowhere, cousin,” she
whispered back, “and yet we are everywhere.”
She placed her hand on my chest
again, “Close your eyes and feel the energy.”
When I opened my eyes again, we
were back at the playground. My jeans were no longer soaked. In fact a ring
bald of snow encircled us.
I wanted to stand, but felt as weak
as a kitten. A hand was held in front of my face and I used it to stand up.
“What was that place?”
She smiled her mysterious smile and
shrugged. “It has never revealed its location to us, only its beauty. Some
things just cannot be found on a map!”
“So how do I get there again?”
“Why do you need to return? It will
never be as beautiful as the first time you saw it. To go back would be to
question its existence.” She started walking in the direction of home, and then
disappeared.
I watched as light streaked through
the trees. If any other person had been watching, they would have seen the
light from the sun, flickering through the trees. I had learned to look for
more than the flicker and my eyes were becoming accustomed to tracking her
speedy movements.
I turned toward the sun and closed
my eyes, breathing deeply. Her leash would only allow me to go in the direction
that she went. If I tried to go in an alternate direction, I would be yanked
back on my ass. I opened my eyes and felt the power surge through me.
“You are learning fast, cousin.”
I felt a surge of pride at the
reluctant praise from her, “Thanks, Rona. Does this mean that you will unleash
me soon?”
She shook her head, “You must prove
yourself in battle against the dark, before you can be unleashed.”
“Battle
“When we go back home.”
“Battle
“Our gifts were designed to fight
against the evil of night. We will all return to Serbia
I snorted, “I’m not fighting
anyone. I don’t have any grudges and I really don’t want to get involved in a
1,000 year war.”
Rona looked like she had been
slapped, “Our people are getting killed by these evil people who walk with the
night. Your family have been and are getting killed by these—“ She
waived her hand in the air for lack of words. “And you will refuse to fight
with us?”
“I think it's ridiculous to expect
me to get involved with a war that started centuries before I was born!”
She started muttering in Serbian
and walked away shaking her head.
I stood staring after her in
concern. I wondered why it was considered a gift if it was taking away someone
else’s gift of life.
Then there was the issue of “back
home”. To Rona, “back home” was Serbia ,
to me, it was Loveland , Colorado Loveland , Colorado
I will confess: I was excited about
my ability to travel at rapid speeds with light energy, but what would I use it
for, other than a quick trip to Vegas or Disneyland .
And if I had to go by myself, what would be the point?
I had been working at home for the
last few weeks, and I sat down and powered up my PC. My fingers hovered over
the keyboard while I waited for the monitor to show me the light. My best
option would be to send Rona home. Her training was not going to get her what
she wanted, and it wasn’t going to do anything for me.
Unbeknownst to her or my
grandparents, while Rona had been training me during the day, I had been
training myself at night. I sat by my window every night and watched the sun
collapse into a Kaleidoscope of colors and then fade into darkness. I was no
longer afraid of the dark. The most evil thing I had seen at night was that damned
cat brushing away my cayenne pepper and peeing on my tree anyway. He and I were
gonna have words some day!
My screen blinked on, and I began
to type away on the Access spreadsheet I was designing for a new business. The
formulas wrote themselves and my fingers went into automatic. At work, it would
have taken me 3 days to finish. At home, I was done in two hours.
My gaze wandered over to the window
and I slowly stood up and moved closer. My hand reached up and touched the pane
of glass. My breath fogged the window. I saw my reflections smiling, and I knew
what I was going to do.
I played it a little bit smarter
and put a coat on this time. Sans the suicide idea, I stepped out into the
dark.
My family didn’t know what they
were missing. The sun hid its secrets in the extreme brightness, like a fake
smile or a kidnapper with a piece of candy. The moon was this huge globe of
shadows and light, beauty and darkness. What you saw was what you got.
I walked for several minutes before
I got the idea that maybe the sun wasn’t the only one that could give energy.
Instead of closing my eyes, I stared straight into the moon’s face, begging her
for her secrets. I let the heat build in my body until I felt the rush of
energy. In sheer worship, I let myself go.
It was five times faster than I had
ever traveled before: Rona’s leash was non-existent. With daylight, I was the
one being controlled. With moonlight, the power was all in the palm of my
hands.
When I released the energy and
stopped, I realized that I hadn’t just passed through the streets of town, I
had passed through walls, fences, and buildings. I was standing in a barren
cornfield on the outskirts, and nothing had blocked my way. Then there was the realization that I wasn’t
feeling drained, I felt like I could do this another 500 times and not even get
winded!
I stood in awe of the moon and
offered her generous praise of her bountifulness. I concentrated again, like I
had before, and in the blink of an eye I was home. I blinked, and I was
standing in my living room.
“Dan i Noc,” I whispered.
Even inside my living room, I felt
the moon beams throbbing through my veins. It coursed through my very fiber and
finally settled in my brain. I could have solved the equation Pi at that
moment. I would learn to live again, in the day and in the night. I would no
longer be afraid of my own shadow, but embrace it because it was part of me.
I took off my coat and paced my living
room, turning off all the lights. My hand trembled as it hit the last switch,
not from fear, but from excitement. I knew it was going to be another night of
sitting by my window and staring out into the dark night…
Chapter
Five
Rona released my arm reluctantly.
It was probably a good thing, because her tight grip was cutting off my
circulation, and I was sure it was about to fall off. “You are in the second
level of learning. I do not understand why your body can’t understand what my
hand is telling it.”
She looked down at her hand like it
was malfunctioning. She stepped back from me. “I will have to explain this
without physical guide. You only want to move your arm quickly, nothing else.”
She looked at me and waited. I
stared back. She grumbled something about my lack of father and stepped up
close to me. “I want to move my whole arm very fast but I want my body to stay
in one place. It is like a slight of hand, no?”
I concentrated on my arm and
nothing happened.
“You must let your entire body take
in the power, and then send it to your arm!”
I turned my face to the sun and
closed my eyes. I let my body soak in the energy and then took control and sent
it to my arm. I opened my eyes and then watched as my arm and hand disappeared.
I watch the light flicker back and forth as I waived my hand in front of my
face. “What do I use this for? Magic tricks?”
She shook her hand in exasperation,
“No, you use it when you are fighting. If your opponent doesn’t see your hand
coming, he cannot dodge it.”
“I don’t fight.” She glared at me.
“I don’t like to fight. I don’t even like to watch fighting. I think it’s
stupid.”
“You would let your people continue
to die?” She whispered.
“It’s not a matter of me letting
anyone die so much as me not wanting to kill anyone.”
I saw her body start to glow,
“Would you fight me, cousin?”
Then my body exploded with pain and
I went sailing through the air. I lay in the snow, gasping for breath.
“Would you fight for you life,
cousin?”
I didn’t have enough energy to
brace myself for the next several kicks and hits. My body slammed against the
fence of the park and then slid down to the ground.
“Do you want to live, cousin?”
I curled up in a ball and waited
for her attack, but it never came. Instead I heard her laughter trying to catch
up with her as she sped away.
It took me several minutes to even
sit up. Finally I crawled away from the fence and reached a park bench. It took
everything I had to pull myself up on the bench. I sat there panting. I ran my
fingers across my ribs and jolted at the agony I inflicted on myself.
I felt a tingling sensation and looked
up. A man stood across the street from the park. He had dark sunglasses on and
was wearing a hoodie, but there was no doubt in my mind that he was staring at
me.
A month ago, I would have ducked my
head and shuffled away rapidly. I was no longer a fearful man: I stared back.
Whether it was a minute or an hour, I refused to blink or look away. I saw the
corner of his mouth twitch, as if he was holding back a smile. He slowly turned
and walked away.
I felt squashed: First by Rona’s
gentle touch, and then the stranger standing across the street. Of the two, the
assault from Rona seemed like the easiest to deal with.
I faced the sun, but left my eyes
open, focusing somewhere to the left of the sun. My body started tingling and
my aches began to fade to weak throbs. The surge of energy I felt from the sun
seemed more powerful with my eyes open. My body absorbed the light. I sent the
power to my arm and then fisted my fingers. I tossed my fist forward and
twisted, Just like Bruce Lee in Fists of Fury.
I smiled at my invisible hand
racing to some unknown villain in a movie. Except the villain was invisible,
and I wasn’t hurting anyone. Much easier to battle the imaginary demons than to
hurt someone and live with the consequences of my actions.
I carefully stood from the park
bench and slowly walked in the direction of the sun. I was angry at Rona for
the attack and for her expectations of me. I was furious at this leash that
gave her all the power over me.
I gritted my teeth and shivered
with fury.
And then I was almost to I-25
before I could blink.
There was no leash.
I sat on a hill above the highway
and watched as the cars zoomed past. I turned and then I was home. I saw Rona
standing outside my grandparent’s home with a confused look on her face. She
looked somewhat relieved when she saw me.
She hurried inside the
grandparents’ home and closed the door.
Maybe I should have been concerned
about all the power I was discovering within myself. I must confess that I was
more than just a little punch drunk discovering that I was able to do things
that other people couldn’t: Like Spiderman figuring out that maybe that little
spider did him a favor in biting him. I was no longer the quivering noctiphobia.
I had faced the night and discovered all of her secrets.
I finished my work late that night,
and then moved a chair over to the living room window. I pressed my face close
to the glass and stared at the moon in deep concentration. I felt my aches and
pains fade in the healing light.
I thought, at first, that I was staring
at my own reflection, and then jumped back when I realized that a face was
staring into mine. My chair tipped over and I slowly backed away from the
figure that walked through my wall and stood over me.
A fist swung at me and hit my jaw.
“It was a mistake to turn off all your lights, day warrior!” A muffled voice
told me.
And with that reminder, I took the
force of the moonlight that my body had soaked in and jumped to my feet. Before
the person could turn around, I was behind them and holding their wrists
together.
I paused and figured out that the
person was actually two feet shorter than me. “Not just a day warrior,” I
whispered. Then I released his wrists.
He stood with his head bowed and I
moved quickly to stand in front of him. I heard a sniff and then the boy lifted
his head. “Please don’t kill me!”
“Okay.”
“I promise I won’t do it again! I’m
so sorry that I invaded your house!”
“Apology accepted.”
He sniffed again, “My parents don’t
know I am here! They will be frantic if I disappear!”
“I can imagine so,” I said and
walked over to my chair and righted it. “Do you want a soda? I think I have a
couple of root beers in the fridge.”
He looked up at me, “Are you going
to poison me?”
“Only if you are diabetic and can’t
do sugar.” I walked into the kitchen and brought two cans out.
He cautiously reached for one and
then changed his mind and reached for the other.
I turned my back on him and heard
the pop tab fizz. I moved over and sat on the sofa. I gestured to the chair and
he moved over and sat down on the edge, ready to jump up at any moment. “What’s
your name, Night Warrior?”
He gulped, “Krim.”
“Mine’s Danny, nice to meet you!” I
held out my hand across the coffee table. He backed up a few inches and then
moved forward. His hand reached out and briefly touched mine. My hand reached
up and massaged my jaw, “Geez! I think you broke a tooth! You have a hell of a
right cross there, mister!”
He sat up straight and tried to
look serious. “My mother does not approve of fighting.”
“Neither do I.”
“You don’t fight?”
I shook my head, “Never, although I
have been beat up twice today: Once by my cousin, and then you.”
“My father saw you training in the
park today. I heard him tell my mother and she started crying.”
“So you came to avenge your
mother’s tears. That’s very honorable of you.”
“Why do you train to fight if you
don’t want to fight?”
It’s a question that I had been
asking myself for weeks, “I don’t know. I guess to understand myself and know
what I can do.” I smiled, “Have you ever seen a Bruce Lee movie?”
He shook his head.
“He was a master of all sorts of
martial arts, but he only fought when he had to.”
“I don’t want to move again. We
always move when my father finds people like you. He doesn’t want to because it
makes my mother sad.”
“Your family is from Serbia
He looked surprised, “No, my father
is from the Ukraine
“There’s fighting between day and
night warriors in the Ukraine
“Only in the Ukraine
I leaned back on the sofa, “My
cousin is from Serbia
“In Serbia
I nodded.
“I don’t want to go there!” He
exclaimed.
“You and me both, pal!” He smiled
at the word pal, “People just take things way too personally now-a-days.”
“If you did fight, would you fight
as a day warrior or a night warrior?”
I shrugged, “I feel stronger at
night, when the moon hits my face it heals me.”
“Me too.”
My hallway clock began to chime
three times and Krim jumped up. I didn’t want him to go. “Do you have to be
home before it gets light?”
He nodded and then looked at me
hopefully, “I can come back?”
I laughed, “Sure, just leave your
right-cross at home, okay?”
And then he was gone.
To say that my living room seemed
empty after he left would be an understatement.
I smiled, “Krim the mountain.”
I climbed the stairs and prepared
for bed. I knew I would need the rest to deal with Rona in the morning.
