The Intangibles Read online

  “Yet, please, tell me, who you are and how you managed to survive until today,” insisted Max.

  Osiris concentrated and, looking at Max and Athena, said, “I am the one who could have prevented that catastrophe… And now, I am under obligation to mankind.”

  CHAPTER 10

  The Drills

  The lab was a good place to talk. Athena and Max were heeding every word of their guest, who was emanating waves of inexplicable magnetism and wisdom.

  “Now, I have to understand how the Switch works,” said Osiris. “Give it to me.”

  Max took the bracelet off and offered it to him. “Touch screen, you have to touch it,” Max started to explain. “This is the timer, it sets the duration of intangibility. And this…”

  “I have it,” interjected Osiris and put the bracelet on.

  He did the manipulations with certainty.

  “Put on your glasses and watch me.”

  Max and Athena complied.

  Osiris took a few steps back and disappeared behind the wall. Max and Athena waited a bit and started to look around.

  Suddenly Athena had a feeling that someone was calling her. She felt uneasy and instinctively grabbed Max’s hand. Something forced her to look up. She saw Osiris floating there, upside down in the lotus position near the ceiling of the lab, watching them.

  Athena patted Max on his shoulder and motioned to him to look up. Max did and his jaw dropped.

  Osiris stood up. Now he was standing on the ceiling, upside down, with his head level with theirs. He slowly moved back toward the wall, stepped on it with one foot, then the other, then quickly walked down the wall and disappeared beneath the floor.

  Max took off his glasses. “I can’t believe it!”

  Athena also took off hers and walked to the spot where Osiris had just disappeared. She squatted and touched the floor. “Did you see that?”

  Max didn’t answer. He put the glasses back on and looked at the opposite wall. There, on the wall, sat Osiris in the lotus position, totally serene.

  “Athena, put on the glasses!”

  At this moment, Osiris stretched and lay on the wall, parallel to the ceiling and put his hands under his head.

  Athena stepped back. “I’ll be damned…” she whispered. “I want to do that too!”

  Osiris lay there a bit longer, then stood up and took a step along the wall, then another one… His legs seemed to stick to the surface, as he walked to the corner and stepped onto the other wall. Shortly after, he was running and jumping from one wall to the next.

  Max and Athena had to spin around in order to watch him. Osiris accelerated in his sprint, then suddenly moved onto the ceiling and started to jump. At some point he just stopped in midair and kept floating, head over heels.

  “Amazing!” shouted Athena.

  A moment later, Osiris made a somersault and landed on the floor, then kicked off the floor and soared into the ceiling and disappeared above it.

  “Yeah, now I believe him,” said Max.

  Athena nodded as she kept staring at the spot where Osiris had just been.

  In a second, his hand grew from the ceiling, fumbling, and then his face came out of it. The face seemed to have been carved on the ceiling like a bas-relief. Then another hand came out. He hung for a bit, holding onto the ceiling, and then landed on the floor.

  They froze in awe.

  The bluish silhouette turned into the tangible body of Osiris. Athena and Max took off their glasses.

  “How is that possible?” marveled Max.

  “Can you teach us?” asked Athena.

  “You know how to do this, sweetheart.”

  With a subtle smile he offered the bracelet to a baffled Max. “Fancy a try?”

  “I have tried, many times! I can’t do that!”

  Osiris reached for the glasses and Max gave them to him.

  “You want to say that you’re no good?” Osiris asked as he put the glasses on.

  Max didn’t answer. Instead, he attached the bracelet to his wrist and turned it on.

  Athena put on her glasses. Now she could see intangible Max, who jumped clumsily and landed on the floor. Then he jumped again, flapped his arms to jump higher, but still landed on the floor.

  Osiris suppressed a smile and Athena laughed.

  Max kept jumping and flapping his arms as if trying to fly, and each time he failed. After several attempts, he materialized in the middle of the room beside the table.

  “I’m glad I amused you,” he said desperately.

  “Why do you think you can’t do it?” asked Osiris.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Why can I do it and you can’t?”

  “I said I don’t know!” Max was getting exasperated.

  Not a single muscle moved in Osiris’s face. “My friends, I must reveal a very important truism: without the body, your capabilities have no limit!”

  “But there is a body! It’s just intangible, invisible!” parried Max.

  Osiris walked up to him. “When you’re in the intangible state, your body exists only here.” He stabbed Max’s forehead with his finger. “It’s in your mind.”

  “But it contradicts natural laws, doesn’t it?” shouted Max.

  “Natural laws are like any other.” Osiris pointed his finger at Max’s head again. “You must learn to break them.”

  “But…”

  “My friend,” Osiris interjected, “the fact is, it is thought that controls natural laws! But you turned it around here! Your modern civilization has created a cult of things like bodies, money, food, sex… Yet you know nothing about the mind’s capabilities! By the way, why do you think Stinger and his peers want your Switch? Now? When the entire world worships these gods of money, power, and sex?”

  Max and Athena looked at Osiris silently, as they had no answers.

  CHAPTER 11

  Breaking the Natural Laws

  For half an hour, Athena had been ransacking the wardrobe, looking for some clothes for Osiris among Max’s things. With the difference in their builds and heights, it was not an easy task.

  “What about these?” She showed Max another pair of jeans.

  Max shrugged.

  “Maybe… they were always too big on me.”

  Athena took them and a few t-shirts that she had found earlier, and left the bedroom. She went upstairs, walked to the guest room, and knocked. It sounded oddly loud, and Athena quickly withdrew her hand. She heard footsteps and the door opened.

  “Come in,” Osiris said cordially.

  Athena felt uneasy at his overly frank manner. And this feeling grew when Osiris shut the door and approached her. Like a sunbeam, he emanated admiration, gratitude, and, she thought, something else.

  A light touch on her hand woke her from her reverie. She lost her breath and felt her cheeks flush. She tried to cope with her discomfort as she looked at Osiris, but suddenly got a light feeling of déjà-vu. Athena couldn’t explain what was happening to her, so she quickly put the clothes on the bed and walked to the door. There she turned around.

  “Thank you,” Osiris nodded with a friendly smile.

  She returned the nod and left in a hurry. In the hallway, she saw Max carrying an armful of things.

  “Here’s some more. Might fit, too,” he said.

  “Okay,” murmured Athena, throwing Max an absent look before rushing downstairs. “I’ll make tea, come down when you’re done!”

  In the kitchen, she grabbed a glass, poured water into it, and emptied it in one gulp. Then she stared out the window contemplatively.

  Both Osiris and Max took their time, while Osiris was getting dressed.

  The jeans appeared to be too short, but otherwise fit well. He put on one of the t-shirts, and though it fit fine, modern clothes looked a bit weird on him.

  “Max, have you ever been to Egypt?” asked Osiris.

  “Yes, why?”

  “We’ll have to be there today.”

  “Today? And how i
s that possible?” Max arched his brows. “We don’t have a private jet. And even if we did, Egypt is some six thousand miles away. Plus, why?”

  “If you want to live, we have to hurry. There’s poison in your body, and it must be neutralized.”

  “And what does Egypt have to do with this?”

  “Your salvation is there. And we urgently need to start the next stage of your training.”

  * * *

  The three of them stood on the skyscraper roof with bracelets on their wrists. The roof offered a gorgeous panorama of Lower Manhattan and more—a large part of the city was in full view. Down there, tiny colorful spots of cars moved about, punctuated by even smaller spots of people.

  Max tried his best to not look down; it was scary. Instead he looked at other rooftops, which resembled islands floating in midair.

  “So, my friends,” said Osiris. “Let’s start. Rule number one: your mind is the boss, and natural laws are subordinate to it.” With an enigmatic smile, he walked to the edge and looked down at the busy street. “The mind rules natural laws or breaks them.” With these words, he activated the Switch and vanished.

  Max and Athena put on their glasses.

  Their mentor, gleaming blue, stood on the very edge, facing them. Then his silhouette started leaning back and slowly hung above the abyss, with his feet still on the roof. He looked down over his shoulder.

  Athena halted and felt butterflies in her stomach. Instinctively, she reached forward.

  Intangible Osiris winked and, still standing on the edge, started to regain an upright position. But halfway through, he stepped back and floated above the gap.

  Heart aflutter, Max watched him. How many times had he imagined this? How many times had he tried, in the very beginning, to lift himself at least one inch above the ground? And here it was: another man levitating at a dizzying altitude.

  A few moments later, Osiris glided to the edge of the roof, stepped back onto it, and materialized.

  “Welcome to the Natural Laws Violators Clinic! Today’s lesson is about breaking the law of gravity.” He gestured for Max and Athena to move closer. “Look there.” He pointed down.

  Athena hesitantly walked to the edge, looked down, and quickly retreated. Max didn’t move an iota.

  “I told you, I ain’t no good with heights. I’d rather practice in the lab…” he mumbled.

  “Do it,” insisted Osiris.

  Coping with his fear, Max took a few steps toward the edge.

  Suddenly, the image of the girl falling from the skyscraper flashed in his head.

  Another step. His heart started to pound; the butterflies in his stomach prepared to dance. He halted and closed his eyes.

  “I won’t… I can’t train here,” he said, clenching his fists.

  “Look at me!” said Osiris, in a can’t-resist-me tone.

  Max opened his eyes but didn’t move. He looked at Osiris, still trying to avoid looking down.

  Osiris walked to the edge again, this time with his back to his apprentices. He was in the tangible state now, and when he walked another half-step, Athena’s heart skipped a beat. Osiris’s feet were half-way above the void. He balanced on his heels. Max turned around.

  “You must learn to bravely face your fear. Otherwise, you will not overcome the barriers that you put there yourselves. And your mind will remain in this prison,” he said calmly, as he carefully turned around.

  Now he balanced on his toes, with his heels in the air. Max was fighting his nausea and other unpleasant, growing sensations.

  “Face your fear, and it will lose its power,” Osiris went on. He turned 90 degrees and strolled along the roof edge. “He who walks forward wins, in spite of fears and doubts. And he who hesitates to face what scares or stops him…” Osiris halted for a second and pointed down and resumed, “…loses. He accepts it a priori.”

  He turned around again and started along the edge toward Max and Athena, who stood still.

  “Your only enemy is your own fear within. Remember that. It forces you to stop when you must move, or to fall when you must run, or to remain quiet when you must yell. It sets its own rules, it controls you… but! It all happens only if you accept its supremacy. When you first refused to face it, it grinned and turned you into a slave. You may continue to obey it…” At this instant, Osiris started to lose his equilibrium and flapped his arms, balancing on the edge. “You may hide and flinch, allow yourselves to be weak… to lose…” He swayed and fell over the edge.

  “Oh, my goodness, what is he doing?” Athena screamed, putting her hands to her face.

  She rushed toward the edge and watched as their mentor fell. It wasn’t a trick. Osiris’s tangible body approached the ground in full compliance with the law of gravity.

  Max got to Athena and forced himself to look down.

  “Push the button, come on! Push the button,” he chanted.

  Suddenly, they couldn’t see him. They looked down in total dismay.

  “But you can act alternatively,” Osiris’s voice came from behind.

  The couple turned around and froze—Osiris was there before them, intact.

  “Just tell your fear to go to hell! You can do it! And the first step is to face it.”

  Osiris flourished his arms as he spoke. He walked to Max and Athena and turned them by the shoulders, facing the gap.

  “You can! Now the question is: will you?”

  Athena felt her hands chill, but she walked to the edge and looked down.

  Max’s head felt like it was going to explode. He vividly imagined Athena falling. The sensation of her imminent demise was paralyzing. He made one step hesitantly, totally freaked out. He stepped to the edge and immediately backed off. “No, I can’t. I can’t…”

  “Give me your hand,” said Osiris. “We’ll try it differently.”

  He took Max’s hand and guided him to the edge. Max didn’t resist. Now they both stood a mere inch from the air.

  “We’re short on time, so we’d better speed up,” said Osiris.

  He quickly grabbed Max’s wrist and pushed him forward. Max lost his balance and slipped down from the edge, but Osiris stepped back and knelt, still holding him as he hung helplessly over the void.

  “No! Please! Don’t!” pleaded Athena.

  Shaking his legs, Max tried to get hold of something with his free hand, but it was all in vain. The frantic movements quickly drained his strength.

  “Just face whatever you’re trying to avoid. Be stronger than your fear!” the mentor insisted.

  “Look, I don’t want that! Get me back! What the hell do you think you’re doing!”

  “You’re wasting time,” Osiris said calmly. “Actually, I didn’t plan to throw you off the roof today. But since you’re so stubborn…” He slightly released his grip.

  Athena screamed and froze.

  “Enough!” yelled Max.

  “You have your bracelet on now. Even if I let you go, just activate it and become intangible. You won’t crash to your death!”

  “It’s impossible!”

  “You walk through walls! How do you do that? Why don’t you do the same thing now?”

  “The floor is solid! I can stand on it! The ground is also solid!” yelled Max.

  “Please stop!” interjected Athena, but Osiris paid no attention to her.

  “What’s the difference between a wall and a floor? In the intangible state, you can pass through anything! Even through the planet’s core! There is no body, you understand? None!”

  Osiris seemed to be deriding Max. “Now, decide who is stronger! Who?”

  “I am…” he forced himself to say.

  “Prove it!” Osiris insisted.

  Max looked down. The street, the tiny spots of cars and people, everything was all blurry.

  “Just keep looking!”

  “I am looking!” yelled Max.

  Down there he saw the city. From this height it looked like a huge toy. And yet it was the same city, with skys
crapers, cars, streets, traffic lights… He looked down at all these and felt that something had changed. As if his head had been under a press and had been suddenly released.

  Osiris pulled Max up.

  With a tottering pace, Max took a couple steps away from the edge and sat down. His head and hands dropped in exhaustion.

  “You’re crazy!” Athena yelled, hugging Max.

  “I didn’t say it would be easy. I said it’s feasible,” Osiris said with a smile. “I’m glad you made it. So, let’s continue.”

  Max was feeling nauseous. He wanted only one thing, to get to bed and fall asleep.

  “Okay,” he said, suddenly looking up. “But this time I’ll do it myself.”

  “Awesome! I’m impressed with your courage, my friend!” Osiris offered his hand to help Max stand up.

  Athena cast a fearful glance at Max, who was still panting.

  They walked back to the edge of the roof. Max walked with a noticeable limp. That’s due to the poison, Athena thought with pain.

  “Remember! When you’re intangible, natural laws have no power over you…” Osiris told them.

  He seemed about to add something but Max suddenly wobbled, his right leg bent, and he tipped over the edge.

  It happened so quickly that Osiris and Athena could only watch him fall. His scream faded into the gaping abyss.

  It took less than a second. Athena caught Max’s petrified gaze, and then he was gone in the patchy chaos of streets.

  She yelled and rushed forward. Osiris grabbed her by the shoulders and yanked her back.

  “Shh… shh… Easy, easy…”

  But she didn’t hear him. “It’s you! You did it!” She punched him in the chest and pushed him away.

  “He’s got the bracelet, remember.”

  “To hell with the bracelet! He crashed!” She broke into tears.

  Wind swept the roofs, growing and fading in force. Sometimes it filled the duct shafts and produced a humming sound. Nothing else broke the silence.

  Suddenly a cell phone buzz came from Athena’s jacket. She paid no attention to it.