The Bubble

I sat alone in the tavern. I was in the corner by the kitchen doors. A woman came from the front, she brought the winter chill in with her. She was beautiful and immediately one of the regulars, a guy they called crash, hit on her. She ignored him and kept on coming towards me. “Detective Stone?” She asked.

“Some have called me that,” I replied.

Without any more fuss or muss, she sat down and ordered a Tom Collins. Looking all around she said. “Let’s dance. Put something on slow.”

I stood up and walked over to the huge jukebox in the center of the room. I looked through quickly and picked Harry Chapin’s “Cat’s in The Cradle and then walked over and held out my hand to her.

She appeared to be looking at something, so I turned around to look.

“No, keep going," she hissed. “they’re watching.

“Who?”

“My family!”

“What?” I asked

“Sorrow’s eye steal me awhile from my own company.” I wasn’t too bright, but I knew she was talking to me in code. She was reciting lines from Shakespeare. “Though she be little, she is fierce! Goodbye my love parting is such sweet sorrow.” And then she went out the backdoors through the kitchen. She left me with only a brief parting glance.

I never stood still well so I followed her.

She stood just outside and pulled out a cigarette I lit it. “No, this is not the place to talk. Take my hand and walk with me,” she said.

As we crossed the street and entered the park, I suddenly knew what she meant. I felt like I was being watched too. Watched from the shadows under the trees while others watched from the rooftops moving at lightning speeds from one spot to another.

“Our fear must turn to purpose,” she whispered.

“I’ll turn to purpose,” I growled as my right hand rested on the butt of my Glock.

“Don’t even think it,” she warned, “you’d be dead before you could blink.”

A night owl screeched from the bell tower at the top of Saint Johns and as we walked a large dark shadow seemed to follow us. “My name is Ariel.”

“Okay lady, it’s your dime. What are you Russian?” Her accent gave her away.

“What?” She asked.

“I’m a nobody!” I shouted, raising my voice to be heard over the traffic.

She laughed. “Really?”

“China?” I ventured.

“Washington?” she said.

“CIA?” I asked.

Looking down at the ground she said. “I know a dirty little secret.” She stopped dead in her tracks and said, “kiss me.”

Which I did willingly she was absolutely the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.

“Can I trust you?” She whispered.

“Yes,” I replied

“You must not act surprised; your life depends on it.”

“There are aliens living among us your government calls them Goblins. It was the code name the Air Force gave them back in the forties.

“I don’t have time for this I have a wife and children go hang out with the rest of the far-right fanatics and leave me the fuck alone.” I told her as I pushed her away.

“No, you don’t that’s why I chose you. You lost your wife and son in a car accident two years ago and both your parents are deceased. You are an only child Nathan. In fact, Stone is not even your last name; it's Stoner. You dropped off the er in college.

“How the hell do you know that? Suddenly I was eight years old, and my mother was dragging me up and down Main Street to every bar in town looking for my father.

We entered a old block warehouse and there were people all over the place. From the moment we arrived the only way I could describe it was. What a piteous sea of humanity. Where did they all come from? Metal gates clanged as thunder in a bottle whizzed by pushing the wind in front of it. Zoom! Zoom! Zoom! Hurled through darkened spaces close enough to touch but far enough away to fear. The subway tunnels went right underneath us. “Who are these people?”

They had their camps sectioned off and their sleeping bags and all their belongings all around them in their space. “All goblins,” she replied.

We went down a steep set of metal stairs through sunless tunnels and what light did shine down on us came from lamps in the ceiling in transitory gleams. “Where are we going?” I asked.

“Away!” Was her reply. “The next station is ours. We get out there. It’s up the steps to freedom.”

It wasn’t stairs it was a metal ladder that I followed her up. To a blue room, literally a room painted blue. Not good paint, that cheap gaudy kind that they used to paint cars, and the fumes were awful.” The blue room this is where they kept us when your CIA found us hiding out in the tunnels

Right in front of me she ripped off her expensive dress and she had shorts and a T-shirt underneath. She pulled a wig off her head revealing short bleached blonde hair underneath. When she was done, she tossed a bag at me with jeans and a T-shirt inside. “What do you expect me to do with this?” I asked, holding the bag up.

“Come on Nathan we’re burning time, and I haven’t even got your wig on you yet.”

“I’m not wearing that thing,” I growled.

“If we want to get out of this city alive, we have to appear to be mole people. Their eyesight is excellent, it's like they were born with special night lenses. If they spot us, you’ll be dead in an instant and they’ll take me somewhere far away and lock me up. I will never see the light of day again.”

“Who?”

“That gets a little complicated, but I promise to explain it to you as soon as we get out of the city.”

“I think you might need help.” I told her.

“If you go a little further you will find a huge underground facility. It was built originally to house the Manhattan Project. After the war it lay empty until Roswell. They knew they couldn’t keep them in Area 52, so they brought them here. They’ve added on since using the excuse of building the tunnels up north to the Reservoirs, it’s all very hush, hush.”

“Who?” I yelled in frustration.

“My people, what you would call aliens.”

“Okay, that’s enough of that. Your game is over and don’t make me put you in a strait jacket.” I reached for my phone and her hand moved so fast I never saw it coming. She slapped my hand, and my phone went flying off into the darkness. Pretty impressive lady did you study perhaps judo?”

“We don’t have time for this,” she begged. “I would let you call your friends, but we would both be dead before they got here.”

“You got to admit you sound a little nuts,” I insisted.

Suddenly! “It’s too late,” she whispered, “they’re here.”

My jaw dropped as a man in a white lab-coat seemed to come through a hole that formed in mid-air. “My name is Steven he said with entirely too many teeth in his mouth. “I’m so sorry our Ariel got you involved in this. She is young, a mere child by our standards.”

“Stop it! You know I hate it when you imitate them.” She growled.

“Oh, I didn’t realize you weren’t a fan you play with enough of them.”

“Suddenly a female arrived through the hole. She had on entirely too much eye make-up and her hair was so long it swung between her legs when she moved. “Mother!” Ariel exclaimed. He’s just some guy I picked up in a bar.”

Just then two other guys the shape of linebackers entered through the hole “We got to shut that hole it’s letting in all kinds of vermin,” I said with a laugh.

“Take out Ariel’s pet and let him go. But first give him something to think about.” Then turning her attention back to Ariel, she said, “come now.”

Ariel gave me a parting glance that was just full of pain and misery but there was nothing I could do the linebackers had me locked up tight. The look made a chill go right down my spine. I wasn’t afraid of the two bozos but the look she had given me was terrifying.

They dragged me out of the blue room conventionally through a door that led out into a dirty old alley behind a Chinese restaurant called “Sings.” I knew the place. I had been there before back in my college days.

The one guy had me locked up in a full nelson and the other had my arm stretched straight out and locked at my elbow. I jerked it free from his grasp and elbowed the guy behind me right in the gut. There was no muscle tone at all, and it felt like hitting a feather pillow. I then kicked his partner in the inner aspect of his knee, and he went down like a bag of shit. Spinning around like a twirling dervish I grabbed two fistfuls of the first guy’s jelly-like belly and twisted it hard. He yelped! These guys were human enough. I thought probably CIA. I had taken judo as a kid because my mother had been afraid that being in Brooklyn and all I get beaten up and I remembered all of it. It was often part of my work out in the morning. The one I had kicked I must have broken his kneecap because he was down screaming in pain. So, I had to concentrate on the guy with the jelly belly. He was way bigger than me, but he was soft like a marshmallow. He swung but kept missing. Being raised in Brooklyn I knew how to street fight. I guess he was punch drunk because he came right at me face on. I hit him with so many rights he was begging for a left and then I gave it to him. It splattered his nose, and he wheeled backwards. I took that chance to escape back into the blue room slamming the door shut and locking the bolt in place. When I was done, I spun around but she was gone, and the room was empty. “Ariel!” I cried. Pissed off as hell I exited the room looking for my two playmates. I was determined to beat the truth out of them, but they were gone too without a trace.

Who the fuck was she and even worse what was she? What did she call herself? A goblin that was it. I knew there were ghouls. They liked to show up at particularly bloody accidents and collect body parts. My thesis in college had been all about street people and that got me in the Academy.

It had been a long day, and it might have been a trick. They could do some weird shit with green screens, and laser holograms, but what would be the point? Some sick joke? This wasn’t the first time I had lain in bed while my mind drifted to the dark side. New York had everything both good and bad and every known perversion was practiced in some dark corner of the city. Maybe I could track her down. Look at me the fucking stalker I thought. I was determined to go back and find that facility she had told me about if it even existed at all.

“It’s not a joke. She met me at Bobby Magee’s last night and I swear that’s what she told me.”

“Obviously she’s a mental patient.” Gordon, my best friend and partner scoffed as we drove into work. “You're not the first guy to pick up a crazy chic at some ladies night the city is chuck full of the bitches.”

“I told you what happen.”

“Easy someone drugged your pathetic ass, and her husband beat you up.”

“Still, I’d like to check it out,” I told him. “Do you want to go with me?”

He actually growled at me. “I can’t—my wife’s parents are in town for the week. Believe me I’d rather be with you chasing little green men, or in this case women.”

Turning to him I hissed. “You don’t tell anyone—I could lose my job.

“Yes sir,” he replied as he snapped a salute in my direction.

I circled around the old brick warehouse until I saw a sign that said, “OFFICES.” It really looked rundown. There were all kinds of broken windows. I parked on the street making sure to set my car alarm and went inside. It was medieval, dark and dank with thick cement blocks for walls. They stood silent witness to a passage of time that started long before I was born, and I was no spring chicken myself. I was closer to fifty than forty. The mold was so old it was growing its own mold. There was an emptiness there. A silence that was disturbing and made me wonder if this really had been the building I had come out of. I was turning to leave when a voice that seemed to come out of nowhere said. “May I help you?”

I looked up and high on the wall was a camera with a speaker built in. “Yes, I’m looking for... I stopped dead mid-sentence. What was I looking for? I didn’t know her last name.

The woman on the speaker cleared her throat. “I’m sorry,” I said and as I turned to leave Jelly belly from the night before walked in the front door with a gun in his hand pointed directly at my face. He laughed, “we’re just security hired by the property owners. It isn’t going to matter in a week they’ll be tearing it all down. You know river front condos.” He grinned as he motioned me to step back. “Do you know how many people die in empty buildings in New York each year?”

“I don’t,” I replied.

“Me either,” he said but I imagine it's a lot. “You need to leave here Detective Stone and never come back. You will never see her again.”

As if on cue, two cops entered, put me in handcuffs and placed me under arrest. “For what?” I cried.

“B&E, breaking and entry,” they replied as they shoved me into the backseat of the their patrol car and took off.

Ignoring every question I asked, it seemed we drove around for a long time but when we crossed the George Washington Bridge, I got a little suspicious. “Where are we going? Your precinct isn’t in Jersey, is it? You know you cops can get in a lot of trouble taking me out of the city.”

“No, that’s the darndest thing about it. We’re not cops,” The one that looked like Will Smith on roids said.

“You’re FBI?” I guessed.

“Nope, try again,” he replied with a smile on his face.”

“I don’t know,” I said tossing my hands up in the air, “but please don’t kill me.”

“We’re friends of Ariel’s.” He said and then a car pulled in behind us and we turned down a dirt road. We stopped on the banks of the Hudson. “We’re here,” he said.

Ariel got out of the car and with her short blonde hair she looked like a teenager. Without another word the cops got back in their car and drove off

“Where are we?” I asked her.

“The dump in Newark,” she replied. Without warning she hugged and kissed me on the cheek.

“Hey,” I said. “I’m no child molester.”

“I’m older than I look,” she replied as the homeless gathered around us one by one they stepped out of the shadows. Some of them looked like they had just been dumpster diving while others tried to tell us their sob stories. Ariel listened to every one of them and they slowly drifted away. “All they want is an ear, my brother.”

“A what? What did you call me?”

“Brother, if that’s okay? You see your father was Frank Stoner and so was mine. He didn’t walk out on you, his work was classified and he was held prisoner just like us. He spoke of you often and I swore to him on his death bed that I would find you. You knew he was Air Force, Project Blue Book, right?”

“No, my mother never talked about him except to say he was missing in action.”

“You never asked her?”

“I couldn’t, she was always drunk or high. So, you’re really my half-sister?”

Smiling she replied. “I am what do you think? Pretty hot for a little sister?”

I felt my face get red. “You’re blushing I didn’t know men did that anymore.”

Suddenly one of the homeless men said. “We’re ready to go.”

She turned to me and asked. “Were going North through the tunnels to Canada do you want to come?”

I didn’t even think about it. “I do,” I replied. Over the next two months as we made our way North people helped us along the way. They even opened their homes to us and around the fireplace Ariel would tell her story time and time again.

In New York. Crazy people did crazy things, and nobody even tried to stop them. It would have been like trying to stop a roller coaster, the momentum would kill you, so you just stood back and let it be. Tongues tapped each other out so that in our mind it was just a low but constant hum. Yet up North the snow came upon us with little cat’s feet. It was easier to breathe up there and think.

“You know that my mother was the bitch in the blue room. She had our father consumed as a traitor.”

“Why do you refer to death as being consumed?” I asked.

“Because the fire beast consumes the flesh for food.”

“Fire is not a living creature.” I protested

“I beg to differ with you on our world it is alive. It feeds, breathes, and reproduces. It is a creature born of the earth and sky and its need to connect. Humans feel they control it; they do not. Every year it runs wild and feeds on whatever it wants. You look at them with the corner of your eye and listen with your heart and you can hear their cries.” It was obvious I had much to learn about my adopted culture.

“I’m not a goblin,” she said. “Or should I say I’m not all goblin and I have chosen to walk the earth as a human. We can never return home we have come through your radiation belt, and we are contaminated with the microbes of your world which could spread to other worlds. You must realize that the earth before the human infestation was pristine. Your world and every species were a failed experiment along with everything on it. Once we were caught in what your people call the Dyson Sphere that contains your whole solar system, there was no going home, we were infected by millions of alien microbes that are found no place else in the galaxy.”

“But we see the stars beyond our system.” I argued.

“All holograms on the walls of a giant sphere. It is the dirty little secret that we keep even from your government and heads of state. You will never be allowed to venture beyond. We study your kind and send it to the heart of the stars where countless civilizations can thrive because of your species' absence.”

I must have looked confused. The snow was coming down harder outside now as we sat there in the cabin. “The woman you met in the blue room my mother, her father, my grandfather was who they found at Roswell all those years ago and all the time they thought they were keeping us hostage while in reality it was your species that were being contained within the bubble.”

THE END

Bio:Timothy Wilkie is a local hero in the Hudson Valley. From his music to his art and storytelling. He's an old hippy and a storyteller in the truest sense of the word. He has two grown sons and loves to spend time with them. His writing credits include Aphelion, Horror-zine, Dark Dossier and many more...

E-mail: Timothy Wilkie

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