The Hidden City Page 4

  “Here. This is your house, it is one of our free guesthouses. Make yourself comfortable, explore the house and don't worry about anything tonight,” he said, with a kind voice. “Ah, and one more thing: our doors are never locked, that's why we never have trouble losing our keys,” he said with a smile. “I understand that tomorrow Prival will pay you a visit. Until then, forget about all your worries and enjoy the coziness of our city,” he said politely.

  Talinn greeted them and slowly headed back on the narrow cobbled road they came. The night was young and sounds similar to the crickets were being heard. The area in which they were was quite peaceful, and one could see many lights inside of the houses that were in their neighborhood.

  Margaret and Philip were standing in front of the house’s garden, not knowing what to do. They opened the small gate and entered shyly the cobbled path that connected the main road to the house. Because it was night, the outside lights of the garden had already come on: they were spherical in form and placed on thin orange metal poles, and the fresh air, tall trees, and the multitude of flowers in the garden, gave them the feeling that this setting has been somehow waiting for them forever.

  Philip saw two chairs made of wood and something that was resembling wicker, on which a few thin cushions made of multicolored textiles were placed. It was clear that they were waiting for them.

  “Well, here we are, it seems,” he said, looking at Margaret.

  Margaret stood still, not knowing what to say, but he can see her face lit with a strange radiant look. She turned towards him.

  “I don’t know why, Phil, but I still cannot believe this whole story. I feel as if I’m trapped in a dream, probably abducted by that weird cubic probe, from which I expect to wake up every minute now.”

  Philip nodded.

  “I feel the same, Maggie. But these people are real, like you and me, we both seen them with our own eyes. I still can't imagine the fact that I'm somewhere out of time, but if they say so, it means it is so. We have to trust them like we do in all the strange encounters that we find in our field missions.” Philip turned his head, looked briefly at the house, and continued. “I learned to trust the reality around me, especially when my head makes me feel the opposite. I think sometimes that everything can actually be part of our destiny, and ever since we were teleported by that cubic ship or what it is, we haven't found any trace of hostility, which seems to confirm my theory. Have you noticed that?” said Philip, starting to inspect the exterior of the house. He turned and looked at Margaret straight into her eyes.

  “What I am trying to say, Maggie, is that I don't think we should worry about this anymore, at least not tonight. And as Prival said, this really looks like our little vacation, and to be honest, I needed one for such a long time.”

  Margaret sighed in relief. She realized that she has been tense for the past hour, and she didn’t want to project her worries back onto Philip, at least not now.

  “You’re probably right, Phil. A spiritual community, based on mutual help, probably somewhere on the edge of the Galaxy. That must be it. Would you have thought that something like this could exist at all? Or that we could end up in such a fantasy world, thinking back let say three hours ago?” she said calmly, looking up at the stars that started to be seen in the dark sky.

  Philip did not answer straight away. The garden was tranquil, and the eerie and magical silence made him feel strange too.

  “To be honest with you? No. But now, this is my immediate reality. The risk of asking way too many questions and staying awake all night, watching my mind jump from idea to idea, is too great. Now I just want to relax until tomorrow. What can happen, Maggie? We go, we see some of the City, and then we can leave whenever we want. And besides, look at this miracle garden around us. It evokes in me strange feelings I had when I was a kid, staying at my grandparents’ house … ”

  Margaret was still staring at the starry sky. After a few moments, she looked down from the stars and looked him in the eye.

  “And what if ... what if we choose to stay, Phil? Hypothetically speaking, of course,” she quickly added, and turned to a seriously cute face. She just remembered that it was because of her curiosity that they actually entered this adventure, and the fact that he dragged Philip inside of it, had now become her responsibility.

  Philip looked at her in bewilderment.

  “Do you think you really want that?” he said, a little surprised at the serenity with which she had said this. “I mean, isn’t it really too soon to decide, Maggie?”

  She sighed and sat down on one of the wicker chairs.

  “I do not know. But this dream that seems to never end, could last much longer than we might anticipate.” Margaret shook her head and put a hand on his. “But now, I think you are right: I say we do not think anything about all this, at least tonight. We're here, the night has just begun, and it feels so quiet and nice here. I feel I could watch the starry sky all night,” she said, with a voice that was trying to clear up all the conflicting emotions that were going on inside her.

  After a few moments, she looked at him, with a happy face all of a sudden, as if all her other questions had vanished completely.

  “We can even sleep in the garden if we want to! Dreaming, in a quiet night, in a vacation that was offered to us by a chance of one in a million, exactly like in the Galactic Lottery!” she said, chuckling.

  Philip was looking at her with a smile, glad that she could finally unwind from all the tension that they both felt in the past two hours.

  “But wouldn't it be wiser to go inside? We might catch a cold if we stay out. Let's see what it looks like, at least.”

  Margaret looked at him and lifted herself up from the soft wicker chair, setting the pillow aside. Philip reached the door and opened it slightly, so they can both look around. Inside, the orange lights were warming up the walls. It was a simple, rather regular big rectangular room, built out of stone on the exterior and wood on the interior, with two simple beds, a sofa, a table, and a very comfortable carpet that extended all throughout the house.

  Margaret went and sat down on the green couch, that felt like velvet.

  “This one is really comfortable. I don't think you're getting me out of here anytime soon,“ she said with a sleepy voice.

  “If you will stay there, I will lie in this bed, then. How do these lights go out? There must be a switch here somewhere...”

  Suddenly, the light dropped to an almost visible level.

  “How did it do that? I wanted a low light, and … ” muttered Philip in complete surprise.

  Margaret with her eyes closed, tried to answer, but her words came very slowly from her mouth.

  “I don't know, Phil. Maybe the lights can hear you in this magical city. I think I'm going to sleep now, it was really a full day for me, if you’d excuse me.“

  Philip nodded. He completely understood that Margaret was drained of her energy, after all that happened today. He sat on the bed and put his hands behind his head. He was staring at the ceiling lit by the little tiny dots of orange lights, that were now dimmed to the point where they shone with a slight light, accomodating the two for a quiet night. Philip started daydreaming about the new things, opportunities, and possibilities that they might run into, in this new world, which was actually offering them a chance of starting a new life, on a utopian planet, somewhere far away, at the edge of the Galaxy. He closed his eyes trying to unwind from all that stress and effort that he endured today, and he fell asleep, dressed just as he had been all day.

  Chapter 5 - The first day

  The next morning, Margaret woke up early. She had dreamed that she was in a magical world, where wild mushrooms with spots of all colors and sizes grew up everywhere, and where people no longer needed to talk, understanding each other solely by looking in each other’s eyes. Everybody was dressed in bright yellow and white clothes, and the sun never set on that world, embracing the planet all the time with its warm rays.

&nbs
p; She got up from the couch and it took her quite a few seconds to wake up from her vivid dream and figure out where she was. Philip was still asleep, lying in bed, showing a smile, with a patch of light on his face, coming from the window. The house was quite cool this morning, and everything had this eerie silence, where only distant noises could be heard through the windows. She got up and began to look around the room.

  “I really need to drink some water, I am really thirsty,” she thought to herself.

  The next second, in an open rectangular space, made of a material that was by no means wood, but of the same color, a transparent glass materialized from thin air. Margaret went closer, and to her surprise, it was spring water, very cold, and very pure, exactly what she had wished for. She drank it to the brim, put the glass on the kitchen table, and walked softly towards the front door, careful not to wake Philip up. Outside, the sun shining in all its glory. The coolness of the morning still surrounded the garden and a soft mist was present above the ground. She stretched out in the sun for a while and then sat on one of the wicker chairs. She could still not believe she was here, in this stone-made city, and it took her quite a while to get used to being in the garden. After a few minutes of silence, the door opened and Philip appeared in the doorway.

  “How did you wake up so early, Maggie?” he asked, showing a rather sleepy face.

  “Well, I couldn’t sleep anymore, Phil. I dreamed I was in a fairy-tale world and something just seemed to push me to wake up from my dream. And here I am, in another fairy-tale world, dressed with the clothes that I had on me yesterday, exactly how I’ve fallen asleep. At least you had time to take off your shoes,” she said, smiling.

  “Ah yes, the clothes,” he said, looking down at how he was dressed. “The thing is I would eat anything now, I'm as hungry as a bear. Do they have anything to eat in here? Maybe in the fridge?” Philip asked, trying to dodge the sun rays with his hand.

  “Go inside and you will be quite surprised. I believe you will find your breakfast to the left of your bed, in that wide space in the wall, near the couch, prepared exactly as you wish.”

  Philip looked at her curiously, all of a sudden.

  “Did you have the time to prepare anything? I didn’t smell anything when I woke up … ”

  “Go and see for yourself,” Margaret said and resumed studying the garden’s plants.

  Philip went back, and to his surprise, Margaret was absolutely right. Right in the wall, in the perfectly rectangular opening that he saw the other day, a plate full of the breakfast he actually wanted. And a glass of milk.

  He quickly went outside and almost shouted.

  “Margaret! How did you know? It’s exactly what I wanted!”

  She smiled and turned her head toward him.

  “I also wanted a glass of cold water in the morning, and in a split second, it just appeared there. Don’t ask me.” Philip scratched his head in astonishment. But he didn't have the time to think about that, as he was really hungry. He went inside, set his breakfast on the table, and began indulging in it.

  Outside, Margaret was contemplating their little temporary vacation spot. Until now, everything seemed to be just perfect: a few birds that had woken up in the morning were flying around, chirping, the fresh wind that probably came from the forest or from way up top in the mountains surrounding the city, was caressing her hair, and the bright and joyful sun drove away any trace of doubt that she might have had on her face, this morning: somehow, she had reached the place that she ever wanted. She didn't think that she’d ever wanted anything in particular more than what she had now. She had often thought that, upon retirement, she would end up with enough money to afford a vacation cabin in a place exactly like this. And now there she was. But the fact that she had arrived in such a place and realized her dream much sooner than she thought, through a chance that came suddenly in her life, made her still have many doubts about the things that will happen in her near future. She smiled at what she just thought: the "near future" she was thinking about practically no longer existed, because here, and now, they were in a place where time simply stood still, and the bare moment was all they had, where all their wishes were fulfilled. She suddenly felt as if she had finally found a distant dream, a dream that had come true, a dream that had the possibility of lasting as much as she wanted. She didn't know what was going to happen to her, or to Philip, or even to both of them, to their mission, to their life that had been until now, but somehow she trusted what was around her with all her heart.

  “Maybe that's how it is supposed to be,” she thought to herself, surrendering for a brief moment in her mind, to her immediate reality. “Maybe that's how it should be and we've finally gotten to the place that we deserve. Maybe this is our destiny that’s unfolding right now, telling us that the Universe just wants us to be happy for the rest of our lives.” She somehow knew intuitively that everything was given to them wholeheartedly, and that they had nothing to fear. But what scared Margaret the most was the fact that she had never received anything for free in her whole life, not to mention everything they had now. She always had to work hard for everything she’s got, and this present situation was turning upside down every theory about life that she knew. All the plans that she had made for her life, the years and years of forethought, had been completely spoiled in a manner of speaking by this one-time event.

  Philip appeared in the door’s frame, with a big smile on his face.

  “That was one of the most delicious breakfasts I had in a long time, Maggie. If I want another one, will I receive it?” he said chuckling.

  Margaret turned and looked at him rather amused.

  “I think so. But you have to really, really want another one, not just … want it.”

  “I think I've eaten enough, for now, it's not necessary. I was just kidding around,” Philip said. “How is the outdoors treating you today?”

  “I don’t know. I was just thinking … about us ... about what is happening ..."

  “And? Did you reach a favorable conclusion?” Philip said, with a playful tone.

  Margaret stopped for a moment, and looked into Philip’s eyes.

  “Well, I feel I’m in a safe haven here, Philip. My heart feels this and so does my body, through every pore. But my mind believes that everything is still surreal and that everything is happening way too fast. I feel this reality is really far-fetched from what I was accustomed to. And I don't know whether to listen to my heart or to pay attention to what my mind is telling me. My heart has always wanted a place like this, but now that I've found it, I feel like I'm kind of backing down. And I don’t know why.”

  Philip sat down beside her and put his hand on her shoulders.

  “Margaret, I feel the same way, because thoughts like these pass through my mind as well. When things happen too fast, everything may seem like a dream, like a fantasy. It is in a way similar to when you fall in love. Although if you ask me, everything is as hard and as real as the stones that probably make all the houses of the City. The secret to all this, I presume, is to try not to think that much about it, and just experience it. If you ask me personally, I never imagined it would be possible to get to a place like this, and especially to be here with you, although in my daydreaming, or in my fantasies sometimes I always wished for something like this ... “

  “Phil … be serious ... ” said Margaret with a provoked face.

  Philip chuckled and took her hand in his hand.

  “But look at it this way, Maggie,” he continued with the same happy tone, “here, whatever you desire seems to turn into reality. Those eggs and sausages I had for breakfast were really delicious: an English breakfast exactly like I wanted. Everything seems to flow in the right direction. Nobody can make me want to leave this place now, and only one day has passed since we’ve arrived here, that is if I might say that time works in any way in this place. We’re somewhere suspended in time, in a fascinating world and we haven’t even seen much of it, Maggie. Let’s admit it,
this is the quest of our lives!”

  Suddenly, a soft squeak at the gate at the entrance to the garden drew their attention. A tall man, dressed in a long white robe just entered, closing the gate behind him. It was Prival.

  “Good morning, my beloved!” he saluted them, raising his cane, in the purest British English. “Look who woke up so early, this morning. Am I sure glad to see you two!”

  Margaret waved at him from the soft wicker chair.

  “Good morning, Prival! Maybe it is because the nature that is all around us has suddenly changed our usual office and shuttlecraft travel routine?" she asked him, smiling.

  “It is certainly possible, Margaret,” Prival said, walking towards them. “How are you two, today? Did you eat well this morning?”

  Margaret looked at Philip.

  “Yes, we did. Actually, Philip did. I only drank a big glass of water, the freshest one I can remember lately,” she said, looking with a bright face at Prival.

  “I hope the breakfast was to your taste, Philip.”

  “It was more than I could have wished for. I would have eaten another one, but Margaret wouldn’t let me,” he said, chuckling.

  “So, I assume you slept quite well last night, Margaret?”

  Margaret looked up at him and said.

  “Yes, we did, Prival. And I even dreamed of an almost surreal world, something that … something that somehow resembles this one,” she added, softly.

  Prival smiled and sat down next to them, on a wooden log. His face was telling that he had something important to say. He paused for a few moments to gather his words and looked at them both.

  “I came to ask you if it's not too early for you two if you've considered what I told you last night.”

  Margaret looked at Philip and then back at Prival.

  “That’s what we were actually talking about. About the fact that ... “

  Prival looked at her, trying to see what she was saying.

  “Go ahead, Margaret. Don't be shy.”