· Anne’s note ·

I know it’s, maybe, complicated to write, but actually it was an impulse and… here we are!

Originally, two years ago, when I read this book for the first time I realized even though Henry’s darkness had disappeared mainly at the end of the story, I always fell he needed something else.

Well… here I’m… with my own version of the things. It’s a parallel universe, a “What’s if…?” where not just Owen and Henry were involved in the chase, but the two of them plus a new character. It is neither powerful nor the most intelligence. It just gives company. And all the things company involves.

I want to apologize about my English. I’m a Spanish speaker and I’m just learning English language. If you don’t understand me or if you think I’m committing a mistake… don’t doubt tell me about it.

The story begins when Henry is captured by the soldiers and he is in Gosselin waiting for Owen. To my mind, if someone had to appear… it was the right moment. You will say me if you agree with me.

Please, you give me reviews… they will help me to go on.

Thanks to all of you. Enjoy… )

( 1 )

Henry saw Owen leave quickly after hearing that surprising shot in Kurtz’s office. He believed just for a moment, he could have communicated him from another way but it flied off at a tangent again.

The goddam telepathy, he said sincerely. Anyway he was alone there, in that concentration camp. No-one could hear him. They didn’t from the normal way, for the present. After all, it can’t know the decisions of an insane.

Of course, if they could be named “decisions” in the strict way.

Henry raised his eyes (the ones with coke bottle glasses) and he saw the snow which failed abundantly. Seconds later, he had to take the down and clean his glasses with the parka. They were full of white and watery substances.

In the middle of nowhere, Henry Devlin (that who was expert in the Hemingway solution) reverted to be alone again. It was not enough with the dammit weather and the fucking camp where he was. He had lost two of his best friends too, he had broken his van, he had burned Hole in the Wall and probably he was about to get that fucking intergalactic infection. Besides having his other friend kidnapped by an ET… it didn’t lack to be said.

When he cleaned completely his glasses (complaining about the scratches the work had caused), he put them again and he saw everything clearer. For the meantime, as clear as his eyes could see, because his mind was a flood of thoughts, sorrows and complains which belonged to other people. All of them added to his, shown his suicidal ideas so much tempting.

Hello darkness, my old friend.

Suddenly, a voice (he was sure it was a voice, not a thought) filled him completely and got out the rubbish that overwhelm him. He looked around until he checked it was a woman. She was on the other side of the fence with two soldiers to her right, and two soldiers to her left. The more the advanced to the granary, the more she insulted them.

‘You… Bones… because it’s your name… isn’t it? Go to the fucking hell, son of a bitch!!’ she said to him while she took the man’s hand off her yellow parka. ‘I will infect you with the fucking Ripley unless you stop being too clever by half with me!’

The soldier laughed pushing her towards the quarantine perimeter which had been opened by the remaining ones.

‘It’s not my business you don’t want to be touched before the virus eats you’ he said to her keeping the mask he used.

She, with the railings closed, looked at him in a contempt way. Henry realized she looked him proudly too.

‘Don’t worry, silly bugger’ she answered with a grim smile on her face. ‘I’ll end living more than you and the right moment to be touched will come… when I like to… where I like to… how I like to… with whom I like to…’

Bones snorted with anger (Henry read his thoughts and he realized Bones would shoot her with his gun if it had been possible) and come back to his position, inside the transport van.

The woman stayed there, looking everything with parsimony. She had neither rucksack nor hunting equipment. She was not wrapped up. It looked like she’d gone out without any preparation. She was white complexion, blonde, enough tall and slim. She wore her hair tied with a buckle and she had gloves which covered her hands until the first phalanx.

She looked her left hand and made a disgusting face.

She carry little byrus in every fingernail, Henry thought looking at her with carefully attention. It’s a little but it’s still annoying, he declared to himself, looking to his leg’s injury. He didn’t want to check its state, though he didn’t know why. Either he was fed up with it or (even she was no looking at him) the woman presence inconvenienced him.

He raised his eyes and he noticed without any logical reason he looked at her again. She was still watching her hands (It’s logical, she can’t believe what is going on) gasping all the time.

Suddenly Henry had the urge to explore her thoughts and after a fight with himself (Hey, Henry, it is wrong you check the unknown minds… look what you’ve done with Barry…) he did it. Allowing himself to be swept he realized the same with her natural voice had happened: when he was centered in her the other ones didn’t exist. He looked childhood memories (in Ireland or some of the north Europe countries), troubles with someone called George (husband? boyfriend? father? father-in-law? brother? Henry didn’t know it), several insults to the situation she was living… it was typical of anyone.

He was about to stop paying attention to her when he noticed something inspired him to go on. A distant resound… a familiar name that took up he thoughts. Someone called Henry Davlen? Divlin? Henry Devlin? Was it his name? What did he do inside her head if he didn’t know her? He would remember he if he’d met her… bless my soul! Such a beauty woman couldn’t be forgotten easily. Not even he… who saw more attractive a shotgun than a female.

Abruptly the woman turned around her head as if she knew Henry was thinking about her (God! It could be!). They both eyes met for the first time. Hers were brown, his were blue (it was discovered when you took his glasses off).

Henry surprised in a pleasant way when he noticed she looked at him completely interested, without any blink. He was not able to determinate the time, but he answered the same way. Just he observed her… he wasn’t trying to wheedle her memories… even knowing she knew his name.

At a given moment the woman smiled nervously. She smiled at him and she went nearer to him. It didn’t spend her a long time… After all, they weren’t too much separate.

‘Henry…?’ she doubted, looking for something inside her mind. ‘Henry Devlin?’ she completed when she stood by his side. ‘You’re Henry Devlin… aren’t you?’

Henry nodded.

‘Motherfucker!’ she answered him back. ‘I can’t believe it… your name was in my mind since I got out that fucking “infected-catcher” van…’

‘I’m not the first person you read, am I?’ Henry asked.

‘No!’ she said. ‘You’re the twentieth one, more or less. I’ve foretold my prison pals’ names… the soldier’s names…’ she stopped. ‘That’s a shit… I don’t like it’ she finished.

There was a silent moment which was interrupted by her voice.

‘I guess I’m going crazy’ she said. She was nervous; Henry could notice it straight away. ‘While I was in the van, I heard “Sympathy for the devil” very clearly… An ET cried… a helicopter shot… and the music sounded. It looked like a war… with background music… I hate this song but I couldn’t stop singing it!’

BINGO! We are two!, Henry thought.

‘Really? Don’t you like it?’ she asked very interested. Immediately she realized what she’d done and screamed. ‘Shit! I did it again!’

Henry noticed two things: she was very frightened and she was an expert insult-machine. A woman version of the Beav. It made him smile.

‘For the first time I thought it was something related with the fucking deja-vú the people love… but it’s so much heavy and complicated’ she continued. ‘I’ve read several minds in the journey… and I’ve read yours too while I saw you… I realized the man next to me in the van had two sisters and he was widower. The one who was in front of me was married and he had left her in their cottage… what a poor man!’ she sighed. ‘And you… I realized you’re divorced, you’re a psychiatrist… and a theoretical suicidal. You didn’t try it… you just thought about it’.

Henry looked at her carefully. She’d guessed correctly.

‘And I’ve gone beyond in your case’ she said. ‘I know two friends of you have died because of this shit… your other friends is…’ she doubted ‘possessed?’ she confirmed, ‘and you want to go out of here because you have a key or something to save the world… basically’ she sighted again. She was terrible tired.

Henry smiled, she’d said “save the world” as easy as you say “Can I go to the bathroom?”

‘It’s a shit, it’s a shit…’ she repeated. ‘It’s disgusting, exhausting and it’s scares me a lot’.

‘I’m really flattered, because I’m the person who your mind has described most’ Henry told her trying to say something lighter.

‘It’s complicated’ she said, ‘because something tells me I know you somewhere else but it’s not the truth. I repeat… I’m going crazy and I can’t understand how I’ve been about to arrive that way’.

‘The ETs’ Henry said curtly. ‘They are the reason you, and all of they ‘he pointed out the granary’ are that way.

‘And you?’

‘My ability grew up because of this’ Henry answered. ‘But, in fact, I have it long since’.

Henry commented it as if he was talking with Jonesy, Pete or Beaver.

‘I see…’ she exclaimed. ‘Actually I’ve noticed something when I read your mind… but I couldn’t understand it at all’ she admitted ashamed.

Henry smiled her like an answer. It was understandable. For a second he thought he would be delighted explaining everything she needed to know but he stopped thinking about it. First of all, because it was not the right moment to these kinds of things and also he didn’t want she perceived it.

Silence was there again… just for a moment. Her musical voice interrupted it again.

‘Well, Henry… really… Pleased to meet you. In this fucking place meeting a good person who gets on well is nearly a miracle’.

‘I say the same’ Henry exclaimed. What a truly thing it was! He held out his hand to her. That way he could finish the introduction between them.

She answered him the same way, after she tied her hair back. The wind was terrible in that fucking place. Henry felt grateful… as grateful as he could fell in such an apocalyptical situation they were living, of course. He thought if it meant finding a company… he was satisfied.

Then there was a complete silence in the ambient. They didn’t worry about taking information in the mental way, neither between them nor the other people (just for fun, how the people is used to saying). It was enough with the infuriated wind, the snow falling wildly and the two of them. The other ones… they could be struck by lighting. Henry didn’t fell that way since long time ago and he couldn’t believe these kinds of feelings could appear in such a bad moment. The darkness, his old friend was moving away.

‘Are you waiting for the soldier who is inside the cottage?’ she asked breaking the silence for the third time and sitting down on two wood boxes which were on the floor.

Henry looked at her in a surprising way and he assented.

The woman made a pause and then she asked again: ‘Do you think we’re going to die?’

‘I don’t know… but it’s very probable’ Henry said.

‘Shit… Perfect’ she complained, snorting with rage. ‘And do you believe that guy can help you?’ She made Henry a gesture inviting him to shit down on her side.

‘I guess’ he answered while he was sitting down on the place his pal have said him.

‘To my mind, that’s better’ she told him turning her face towards Henry. ‘We would have a new ally… well… if you allow me involve in your business, of course’.

‘If you like it…’ Henry said her. He was both sad and cheerful (His suppositions were right. He has now a new company. See you later darkness, my old friend).

She thanked him. ‘If I’m going to die… I will do it in a useful way’.

She smiled in grief and turned her eyes until the cottage. Now she was waiting for Owen Underhill too.

Henry didn’t think about this (firstly she could know it… and secondly it was not the fucking moment) but he surprised himself finding her so beauty. Since his conflictive divorce he hadn’t seen a woman in that way. His work… his worries… his depression… his suicidal ideas didn’t help him catching a girl… not even the easiest ones. What a fucking luck he had have!

‘I’m bored, and I don’t want to think about my death’ she said. ‘So… you can predict’.

Henry curved one of these eyebrows. What the hell was she talking about?

‘Predict about me... In the same way I predict about you before’ she resolved.

He found a place for seeing her face to face. It was not necessary but Henry realized he wanted to see her while he was guessing.

It was not difficult to him. She was called Susan Smith, she was two years younger than Henry, and she was living in USA since 1999. Henry could discover she had a grandmother and a brother who were waiting for her in Ireland, she was working at a pharmacy in Boston centre, and she was living there with her boyfriend, or whatever he was, since Henry perceived she hadn’t good memories about him.

He revised everything he could obtain and he felt, what an incredible thing, in that fucking place, very pleased. He thought he knew her since the year dot. And it made him fell better… al least a little.