IMAGINATION'S PLACE
FICTION
UNDER THEIR FEET
By; Gerald A. Polley
The Ancient One and his companion made their way
to an east coast city. It was cold, yet as they approached
a street corner several young women were gathered there.
The Ancient One looked to his companion. "Lose the
armor," he snapped. "Civilian dress!"
In an instant his companion's armor disappeared and he was in
street clothes. The Ancient One walked up to the girls.
He pointed to one and motioned her over. "Where's
Dorothy?" he asked.
"Haven't got the foggiest idea!" the young woman
answered.
The Ancient One looked very cross. "Now, you wouldn't want
me to call some certain federal gentlemen, would you?" he
snapped. "They'd still like to have you testify about
your boyfriend. Let's not make this difficult!"
"Why can't you just let her be?" the girl pleaded.
"She wants to keep the kid. Why can't she?"
"Because she made a bargain!" The Ancient One answered.
"And anyway, the child can't live in our world. He has
to go back where he belongs, back with his own kind. Now
where is she?"
The girl looked hesitant. "He really can't?" she asked.
"I'm not being mean," The Ancient One answered.
"I'm speaking the truth. The child simply can't live
among us. As the immunity his mother temporarily gave him wears
off he'll get sicker and sicker."
The girl sighed. "She's at the shelter on 8th Street,"
she remarked. "She's using the name Wentworth, J. Wentworth."
The Ancient One looked to his companion. "Keep him
busy for an hour," he told the woman. "I'll make
it worth your while."
"He any good?" the woman asked.
"How in hell would I know?" The Ancient One answered.
The girl grinned and nodded to The Ancient One's companion.
"Can we?" he asked.
"Just don't get carried away!" The Ancient One warned.
"I'll be back in a while. You can't go where I'm going."
His companion nodded, and headed off with the young woman. The
Ancient One made his way to the shelter. It was no
difficulty for him to make the operators think he was a social
worker and gain unsupervised access. When he entered the
young woman's room she jumped up, grabbing the baby that was on
the bed and holding it to her.
"NO!" she cried. "I can't take him back
there! I can't think of him living like that! Let me
keep him. It'll be all right! No one needs to know.
They'll just think he's a baby with some peculiarities."
The Ancient One smiled. "I know it's hard," he
comforted, "but you were told from the beginning. You've
been paid very well. You have the money to go home, start a
new life. You're free of the drugs. There'll be a man
there who will remember how nice things used to be and forget
that you left for a time. Don't you want that?"
"Yes!" the woman answered. "But I want
him to have that too! I want him to have the sunshine and,
the light."
The Ancient One looked sad. "The sunshine and the
light will kill him!" he answered. "It will kill
him as surely as fire kills us. Now, come on! We have
to take him home. His father is waiting. He'll be well
loved. He'll be well cared for. They don't abuse
their children. You know there's no choice."
The woman stroked the child's face, and finally nodded.
They gathered up her things and left the shelter, quickly making
their way to a desolate alleyway. The Ancient One opened a
manhole cover, climbed down. The woman handed down the child then
followed. They went a way along the tunnel until The
Ancient One stopped and looked around. When he was sure
there was no human soul in the area besides the woman, he pushed
on a brick and a section of the wall silently swung out. He
quickly ushered the woman inside and shut the passage behind him.
They were in ancient caverns that had been here long before the
city above had been built. The walls glowed with a strange
iridescence. They made their way along quickly.
Suddenly two men appeared with menacing weapons but The Ancient
One rose his hand and spoke in a long-forgotten language.
The men put their weapons to their sides, put their hands
together in the symbol of prayer, and let him pass.
They entered a great chamber where dozens of men sat about eating
and drinking. When one saw The Ancient One with the woman he
jumped up joyously and ran over.
"My son!" he cried. "My son! You
bring back my son! Bless you, Light Bearer! Thank you, woman!
I know you love him too. But he must stay here. This
is where he belongs. But from time to time we will make our
way where you dwell and some evenings share human food with you,
if your man permits."
"Is that possible?" the woman asked.
"Their passages run round the world!" The Ancient One
answered. "They can pass underneath the sea from
nation to nation. They have lived among men for untold ages,
and only a very few know of their existence. They are
spoken of in many legends. I would not doubt that somewhere
near your home one of their passages comes to the surface!
Now, we really must go. Make your good-byes."
The woman kissed her child and gave him to his father, and her
and The Ancient One quickly exited the way they had come.
"Why?" the woman asked, as The Ancient One put the
manhole cover back and they were again in the air above.
"Why can't they have daughters, why only sons that must
dwell with them beneath the ground?"
"Evolution does strange things sometimes," The Ancient
One answered. "It made the trolls the way they
are, it made man the way he is. In Ancient Times they just
took women to fulfill their needs, but now they allow us to
arrange the mothers of their children. And, the mothers are
compensated very well for their labors. But the secret must
always be kept, it must always be a thing of legend. Man
can suspect what exists beneath his feet, but it can never, ever
absolutely be proven! We have killed to keep that from
happening. They must be allowed to live in peace."
The woman nodded They quickly made their way to a bus
station. She boarded one going west and The Ancient One
retrieved his companion at the corner where he'd left him.
"Well?" he asked the woman.
She just grinned and answered, "Drop by again sometime!"
The Ancient One smiled, nodded to his companion, and they headed
off.
"Better?" The Ancient One asked.
"Yeah!" his companion answered. "What
have you been up to?"
"Nothing much," The Ancient One explained. "Just
returning a couple of children where they had to be.
Nothing serious. Just every day stuff, but private."
His companion nodded. "Where to next?" he asked.
"I feel like some exercise!"
"I've got just the place!" The Ancient One remarked.
"Some gentlemen that like to acquire things that don't
belong to them. They need to be persuaded to give them back!"
"Oooh!" his companion muttered. "Let's go persuade
them!"
The Ancient One smiled, took on his true form, and soared skyward,
his companion quickly followed, but glanced back to the young
woman at the corner, a happy smile on his face.
"Come on!!" The Ancient One cried. His friend
swung his great ax and hurled it skyward.
The End