Tree of Life Book III

Part III - Chapter 02

"Mother…!"

"And neither you nor her mother will be able to stop me."

"Mother!"

The Queen pivoted around to face the crack in the wall. "You too may come out now."

Nicole got up. She straightened out her cloak, brushing it off. Holding her head high, she slipped out from within her hiding place and inserted herself into the light, with steel in her eyes, strength in her jaw.

The Queen smiled at her appearance. "Ah, you have chosen to dress like us. How quaint."

Nicole untied the cloak from her shoulders. She let it slide to the floor. Then too her armour, first the torso and then the shoulder and arm parts. Piece by piece, one strap at a time, she unfastened them all with a vengeance. She whipped the pieces to the floor.

The Queen smirked. She crossed her arms over her chest.

Nicole took off.

"Dr. B!"

Nicole took off and Ella screamed against it. She jumped to stop her but she missed.

Nicole took off, past the ledge, over the lip and raced off for Julian, dashing over the fire like a horse out of the gates, like a gold medal Olympian, a cheetah.

The lava was a griddle beneath her feet. It spurted fire with her every footfall.

Her boots gave way. They burned off.

Her feet began braising, but it didn't stop her.

Her powers of healing were nothing like Julian's and her skin charred, turned black and peeled, but she kept her legs pumping and her feet speeding along and it wasn't nearly enough to stop her. It didn't even slow her down.

She made it to Julian. In the blink of an eye, she was on him, crashing her body into the side of his face. She crumpled up against his cheek and even that burned her but she didn't care. She didn't shy away. If anything, she pressed herself into him even more.

All over and everywhere, she burned in patches. Most of her clothes were gone. Her hair was singed, but what was left still waved about in the heat, a sheet of gold and on luminous fire itself.

She closed her eyes, scrunching them tight. Her voice was a whisper. "Julian, wake up…! Do you not know me? Do you not know who we are? Who you are? It's me. Nicole. I am here. Come back. Come back to me…"

Julian did not move.

It was like he heard nothing. From the beginning, from the time Nicole and Ella had sneaked into the room, he had heard nothing, none of it and he continued to point his face into the lava, like he was reading it and had to read it, keep reading it until the Earth itself passed on and still he would be reading it.

Nicole wept.

For the years apart, for the heartache that was all she had known this long, long time, for Wendy, for herself, for that sun-burned lad in middle school with the glasses, who was late getting anywhere because he limped and waddled and yet she loved him still. He was everything to her. He was all she knew.

And now they were together. At last.

Here. In this place.

Nicole wept and wept…

Over by the lip of the lava pit, the Queen smouldered, like there was smoke rising from her head, her shoulders, her back.

The Queen wandered over to the cape Nicole had shed earlier. She kicked it over. There was something on the floor. She bent to inspect it. She picked it up.

It was Nicole's phone.

The Queen smiled.

As intuitive as the technology was, the Queen touched the screen and it came to life. Though she has never used a cell phone before, she swiped it, unlocking it. Nicole's music playlist came on. That's where she had left it. The Queen pressed play.

Words rang out, filling the hall, a tiny voice but heard everywhere:

"…and whenever you're feeling blue or happy or whatever, you'll remember me singing our song because I'm…I'm going to sing it for you right now!

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine

You make me happy when skies are gray

You'll never know dear, how much I love you

Please don't take my sunshine away…"

The sound from the cell phone sang out. It echoed and bounced off the walls all around and was carried well into the distance beyond them, the hallway, the tunnels, and then the depths of the mountain below.

Ella peered over at it, mesmerized. She had heard it before, the melody, many times. Her eyes crept up to stare into her mother's face.

The Queen's eyes were on the phone.

And the two of them were not the only ones affected by it.

Julian, in the pit, lifted his face.

His enormous brows furrowed. He tilted his head to the side toward the Queen, but not at the Queen. It was the phone, the tiny source of music in the Queen's hand.

Nicole turned too. She stared out over toward the group.

She snapped her head back to face Julian. "Yes, Julian! That's it! Wake up!"

The Queen grinned. Pivoting around to face Julian fully, she held the phone aloft like a champion, hailing the masses from on high.

Ella edged over. "Mother, no…"

The Queen whipped it to the floor. She crushed it with her foot.

Ella launched herself over to it. She fell to her knees but the phone was already in pieces. She gazed upward from where she was. "Mother…" She shook her head.

The Queen laughed. She tossed her head back and let the mirth take her.

"Mother…this is not right. This is not you…"

The Queen stopped. She froze, mid-laugh.

Her eyes were on the exit.

Something had floated in over the threshold.

Ella jumped up. She spun around.

Facing the exit like her mother behind her, she focused on what had drifted in from the hall.

The Queen scowled. "You!"