Eclipse  (e-mail at cp96au@badger.ac.brocku.ca)     

Fervent Juxtaposition - Part 1

     It's quite odd how a sunrise can never bore me.  After all these years I still stare at the brilliant oranges and pinks.  Sort of like the aura borealis in the way it hypnotizes with a simplicity that outshines any god the commonwealth can create for themselves.  I would like to become part of that illustriousness and shimmer for all eyes to see.  Yet not all eyes can see and that is a shame.  Perhaps the technology of this modern world will find a new medicine or an ingenious way to manipulate a laser  to return the eyesight of the poor souls who cannot look upon a sunrise.
     The orb or light climbing over the city of Tokyo is the same one all people see throughout the world.  It's amazing how much the global masses have in common yet they don't seem to realize it and spend their time squabbling like children.  Japan is one of the busiest places I've been on this great planet.  I don't usually spend my time in Asia for my red hair makes me stand out so.  These people are enthralled with my hair especially since their great adoration of Anne of Green Gables started earlier this century.  It is a little easier for me to blend in now that so many races live in Tokyo because it is a "hot spot" for technology and thus business.
     Tokyo also seems to be a magnet for Negaverse activity.  I thought at first it was because of the great populace that is squished into such a small area.  Then came the Sailor Scouts.  I think that at an unconscious level the queen of the Negaverse sensed that was where the Scouts resided.  Good attracts evil, and evil attracts good.  Mediocre cannot attract the mediocre for it is just stagnant.
     The threat of the Negaverse is ever so familiar to me, but I also feel that the Scouts are too.  They are named after the planets and take on the powers of the ancient deities were said to have.  It is all very pagan and very unlike most everything in this modern world.  I have to see them in action.  They're more than just ordinary humans.  Perhaps they are like me.
     I'll have to use my own instincts to locate them.  Sniff them out as a wolf smells its prey from within the forest.  I might have to wait until there is another crime that will draw them in.  There has been no Negaverse activity in the past few months.  I might luck out and come across such an encounter myself.  I was seemingly a just past childhood last time, but the years have made me a great warrior and I look forward for a chance to avenge the devastation the Negaverse caused.
     The city is beginning to wake.  They work even on Saturday here.  So different from Americans.  I plan to familiarize myself with the back streets and secret places of Tokyo.  Less people and less commercialism.  It's so much easier to travel that way than to use the main roads also.  More interesting too.  There's a lost mysticism found in dark places that people don't usually frequent.  There I should be able to find a kindred spirit who is willing to let me sleep for a few hours in their home, and in their embrace.

* * *

     I dream of disjointed things.  Not much makes sense to me.  I have sometimes come across an event in waking reality that I have dreamt about a while before.  I can't predict what will come true or not.  Perhaps it all comes true some where in the world and I'm not there to see it.  Or maybe my unconscious coincidentally creates pictures that resemble real life events.  Yet there are times when I jolt out of a dream with a feeling of such horror that I know the dream will come true.
     This I did today.  My lover was as startled as I and even more so when I made a quick exit thanking her for all her hospitality.  She called after me, but I was gone too quick for her sleepy body to react.  I did not know when what I dreamt about would come true.  Could be that day or the next year, but I was left with a the feeling that a danger was near.  Innocent lives are going to be threatened.  Innocents will die if no one is there to prevent it.  
     Yet where to start looking in this huge city?  The partial pictures in my dream indicate a busy place where many people are gathered.  I need to find the Scouts too.  Their help could make the difference.  So much to do, and even though I have all the time in the world, I do not have the time for searching.  
     I made my way down a long downtown strip.  There were so many people.  I wondered how a person with claustrophobia would survive living here.  I felt my stomach gurgle.  I hadn't eaten in two days and knew I should get some nutrience into my body soon.  Some place a little more out of the way though.  I can't eat in a bustling crowd.
     I don't carry much money on me.  I have much stored up in bank accounts around the world, saved for particular occasions.  I once gave a homeless mother and her three children ten thousand dollars.  She made me feel as though I were a goddess.  She and her children are doing well now.  One of the little girls has even went on to become a doctor helping sick orphans in developing countries.  That is my reward.  The money means nothing to me.  I detest the phrase "money makes the world go round" because I know how true it is becoming.  That will change though.  Hopefully sooner than later.
     I crisscrossed a few streets and found a small stand near a park.  I bought myself some rice and vegetables.  I could never bring myself to eat animal flesh especially with what they do to those tormented creatures nowadays.  I sat on a bench close to the entrance to the park eating slowly as I watched the people stroll by.  One of my favourite pastimes is to sit and watch people.  I have never seen two alike.  We are each unique if even in minute ways.  Conformity is for Fascists or despots which are inhuman themselves.
     My eye was caught by a young couple heading through the park towards me.  She was a perky blond who had latched herself onto her beau's arm.  Her blue eyes looked at him dreamily.  She wasn't even paying attention to where they were going.  The man was tall and wore a contented smile on his face.  He laughed at her incessant babbling just pleased to be listening to her chirping voice.  It is not often I see a couple so comfortable with each other and so obviously in love.  I commonly see this type of relationship between friends, but there are a lot of people who make a commitment without the essential base of friendship.  Lovers need to be friends to have a lasting relationship.  If humans were to examine their history, they would see this to be self-evident.
     As the couple drew nearer, I examined them more closely.  The young woman's eyes were very familiar to me.  The blue looked very much like my own.  That wasn't the clinching factor though.  It was the way her eyes sparkled.  There was a vibrant life behind them so rarely seen in this alienated society.  I switched my gaze to the man's finely chiseled face.  Here was something I recognized!  But how could I?  It could be that he was a distant ancestor of the boy I knew so many years ago.  What a coincidence that he would look so much like my childhood playmate.
     I keep from staring and I noticed he was staring back with that same puzzled look as I.  His girlfriend chattered on not realizing his attention was diverted.  They were not twenty feet away from me now.  His penetrating deep blue eyes.  His exquisitely shaped nose.  The thick messy dark locks falling around his face.  The way he held himself as he walked.  The way his body was proportioned.
     He was assessing me as well.  They were but five feet away.  We looked directly into one another's eyes.  Was it him?  Could it possibly be?  The blond had noticed our shared wonder and ceased her story to try to evaluate whether the gaze held any hidden meaning or not.  He had slowed his pace and now he was almost not moving at all.  They were right in front of me!  That smell!  It smelt so much like my childhood friend!
     He was about to say something.  His mouth opened just a little.  That is when his girlfriend yanked on his arm to draw him forward and away from me.
     "Come on, Darien.  We're already late for lunch as it is."
     Darien!  Oh, it was him!  Was he here on this planet all this time and I didn't know it?  Oh, joyous day!  Someone from my past.  Someone connected to me.  I am no longer alone.
     Yet did his girlfriend know?  I didn't want to say anything for fear that she hadn't a clue about him.  I stayed seated on the bench, and my eyes glowed as they walked away.  Darien looked back once, but didn't say a word himself.  I think perhaps he didn't know it was me yet.  I would approach him later.  I would follow Darien and find out where he lives.  When he's alone I will come to him.  He will be as happy as I am at this moment!
     The blond girl peered at me from over her shoulder.  She didn't look at me threateningly as many jealous, insecure girls would do.  She had a curious look in her eyes.  She had a simple, naive charm about her.  It's no wonder that Darien was with her.  As I recall, we had such similar tastes.
     They rounded a corner and were out of my sight.  I finished the rest of my food and went after them.  I had no fear that they would see me following them.  The streets were crowded and I was like a chameleon when it came to being inconspicuous.  I could blend in well and disappear in an instant if needed.

* * *

     The sun had now set into a luxuriously velvet night.  Tokyo was quite the city when the sun was not beating down upon it.  It was particularly lively for it was a Saturday night.  The night is my favourite time of the day.  I usually sleep during the day and prowl at night when the shadows come out to play.  I use to kid myself that I was a vampire.  I am certainly a creature of the night, but vampires have gotten such a bad name over the ages that the idea has become less attractive to me.  Drinking the blood of a living being has never been my thing either.
     I had trailed Darien all through the day and evening.  He and his girlfriend, whose name I learnt was Serena - so familiar, but I have known so many Serenas - had lunch with a group of their friends.  An attractive lot they were.  A group of males and females all behaving as good friends.  I wish I could say they acted gender non-specific, but I have found that Tokyo is still a very traditional society.  Chivalry and romance bloom here while in modern Western societies it is merely a myth.  
     I didn't get near enough to listen in on everything they chatted about nor did I learn all their names.  There were five females including Serena and three males including Darien.  They also carried around two cats which I thought to be quite unusual.  Wouldn't the animals want to run off to explore new territory?  They were so well behaved I didn't think they were cats at all.  I remember times when cats were the pets, no not pets, members of the royal families.  These people were hardly royalty though.  Except Darien.
     The bunch had lunch and went to the mall in the afternoon.  I detest the mall.  Consumerism is the curse of this century.  Then they had dinner and saw a movie.  I watched each of them carefully.  The young women had such class about them.  A few times I wondered if Serena had any grace at all, but she was able to laugh any misfortune off.  Being able to laugh at one's own faults is admirable.
     There was a girl with short blue hair who was obviously the intellectual of the group.  She was more interested in the book stores and antique stores than any of the others.  I would think she would be a wonderful person to have a conversation with.  There was a tall girl with her lengthy brown hair in a ponytail.  She was quite amazonian much like myself.  I could just imagine the strength in those long legs of hers.  Along with Serena, there was another blond girl except she had all her hair down while Serena kept her in pigtails.  This girl was remarkably beautiful with such finely painted features as a china doll.  She gave off an aura of vulnerability, but I could see that there was an immense strength underneath that pretty facade.  Finally,  there was Raye.  I made a special effort to listen for her name.  She was not as exquisite as the blond girl, but she had a type of beauty that I have only seen among gypsy women.  There was mystery about her, and a sense of spiritualism that made her almost ethereal.  Her huge dark eyes were alert and just as penetrating as Darien's.  I thought a few times that Raye had sensed me watching, but since I did not make myself visible to her, she shook off the feeling.
     Other than Darien, I found the other males unamusing.  They were just common everyday people - a video game expert and a rock star, or as close to being a star as he was ever going to be.
     As the clock neared eleven at night, Serena had to rush off to be home in time for her curfew.  The others agreed it was time to head off to bed and get some sleep.  They seemed quite the angels in their good manners and respect for their elders.  I wonder what the world would be like if all teenagers were as well behaved as this group.  I think it would get sickeningly sweet after a while.  A little rule breaking and some risk taking is exciting for me.
     Darien hurried off with Serena to escort her home.  He was always so courteous.  I took off after them keeping to the dark corners.  Luckily when they reached her house, I was able to listen to their farewell for the night.
     "Damn this curfew!  I wish I could stay out the whole night with you."
     "Oh Serena, you know we're going to be together forever.  You have the rest of your life to spend with me.  And who knows, maybe that's a curse!"
     Serena stifled a giggle behind her hand.  "Darien!"
     The porch light flicked on and off.  A signal from someone inside the house for them to end their good-byes.  
      "You should get inside and into bed before your father comes out to watch us shake hands!"
     Serena giggled again, her voice floating lightly through the night.  "Alright Darien.  I'll call you tomorrow.  About noon, okay?"
     "Yeah, sure.  That's fine."  Darien gently lifted her head to kiss her on the lips.  This kiss seemed to last hours until the porch light flickered again.  "Get in there!  I'll talk to you tomorrow."
     "Good night, Darien."  Serena sighed as if she were still lost in that kiss.  She slipped inside the door as Darien waved walking off down the street.
     Ah, what they had between them!  They certainly were meant for each other.  Throughout that day, I had pondered the thought of Darien when he was Prince of Earth and he had a famous romance with the Moon Princess.  I had heard nothing equaled the love they felt for one another.  Did Darien think of his lost princess when he was with Serena?  Wait, if I do recall the Moon Princess was also named Serena.  How strange for Darien to seek out a woman who had the princess' name.  Perhaps he did miss her and was trying to recapture that love with this new girl.  Poor man.  He must realize that she will eventually die and he will be alone once more.
     Darien walked swiftly to his apartment.  It was a large complex and I did not know how I would discover which one he resided in.  Lady Luck is on my side tonight!  As I surveyed the building sitting beneath this grand oak tree, Darien reappeared on his balcony.  He leaned on the railing as he stared off into the night.  Was he thinking about Serena?  Was he wondering who was that red-head that was so familiar to him in the park?
     He lived on the twelfth floor.  I certainly couldn't announce myself over the intercom at the front door, and such a climb to the twelfth floor via the balconies is as hard as it looks.  His apartment was only three floors from the roof of the building.  I decided to go up the fire stairs and onto the roof then climb down to his balcony.  Dangerous as that sounds for most people, I know I am agile as a cat and such an act is second-hand to me.  Yes, that's the only way I could do it without being seen by anyone else.
     I slipped in through a door to the basement and made my ascent.  How would he react to me just popping in?  He should be ecstatic to see me, once he realizes it's me, that is.  What did he do all these years?  Oh, the stories I had to tell him.  He could help me with my search for the Scouts and to stopping the great danger I know is coming.  I have to suppress my own tremendous excitement.  I can't let him know right away how much his being alive means to me.
     I reached the roof and a refreshing gust of cool air rushes upon me as I open the door.  It is a wonderfully clear night.  The stars are glittering above and the lights of the city glitter below.  I don't want it to seem like I'm a Manichean, but it is almost like this night was meant to be.  I was due to meet up with Darien sooner or later.  Destiny is not a word I like to use for it negates free will.  And I know I'm as free as the rest of the beings in the universe.
     Carefully I edged myself over the side of the building.  Luck is on my side again.  It is an old building and the bricks have been eroded by the weather.  Sort of like scaling the side of a mountain.  I lowered myself as far as I could and let myself drop on the first balcony.  The apartment is dark and nothing stirs within.  I repeated the process and dropped down another level.  There is a cat in the window here.  A fluffy long haired one with many colours.  I startled it but didn't scare it.  The cat fixed its large yellow eyes on me awaiting my next move.  This animal is not like the ones I saw with Serena and her friends today.  Though domesticated, this cat was purely primal.  The other cats seemed almost civilized.  If it is possible a cat could be.
     One more jump down.  I peered over the edge to see if Darien was still outside.  He is not.  Good thing.  I'd hate to make my entrance by falling down upon him.  Quietly as I could, I eased myself over the balcony and dropped onto Darien's.  There were no lights on in his place, but he is awake.  I know he sees me.  The balcony door is open too.  Did he expect me?
     He is sitting in a chair facing the balcony as I walk forward into his apartment.  Darien doesn't appear frightened, not even startled.  He is confused though.  He knows that he recognizes me, but cannot remember from where.  I stop as I get inside the door and let him drink my features in.
     A minute or two passes by.  Darien leans forward and speaks softly.  "I know I should know you.  Yet your face is so far in the back of my mind that I can't place it."
     I smile and walk over to kneel down in front of him.  "Think back to when we were small children, Darien.  Our parents use to let us play all the time.  We were best friends."
     "Was this before my parents died?  Before I came to the orphanage?"
     "The orphanage?  What are you talking about?"  I became a little alarmed thinking perhaps I had been wrong and this wasn't the Darien that I knew.  Maybe I could urge him on in the right direction.  "You live in the palace with you mother after your father died.  That was the last we ever saw each other."
     Darien's eyes grew huge and his mouth fell agape.  "The... the palace?"
     I tilt my head to the side as I wonder.  "You remember the palace here on Earth..."
     "But... but how would you know such a thing?"  Darien looked seriously baffled for a second, and then as he took my face in his hands his face lit up.  "From so very long ago I remember a red-headed child with eyes like yours.  Her name was Haley."
     My excitement cannot be contained any longer.  I grasped his hands grinning broadly and I laugh a joyful laugh.  "It's me, Darien!  It's me!"
     Darien was shocked but pleasurably so.  "Oh my... how can this be?  This is fantastic!  Queen Serenity must have sent you forward in time too!"
     What?  Sent me forward in time?  What could he mean?  It is my turn to look puzzled.  "Darien, what do you mean?  I was never sent forward in time."
     He ignored my initial confusion and last remark.  He was over-joyed to see me and babbled on.  "You must not know the whole story.  This is great!  Serena will be so surprised!  Her mother used the last of her energy after the Negaverse attacked and sent us all forward in time so we would be safe and live happy lives.  Now we're all here.  And you've found us too!"
     Serena knows about him?  Her mother was Queen Serenity?  That makes her the Princess!  No wonder she and Darien are connected so.  The famous romance has continued!  I'm perplexed about what this all means and why he is speaking about a "we." But he thinks I have been sent forward in time with them.  I have to tell him what really happened.
     "Darien.  Darien, calm down for a moment."  I urged him to sit down on the couch with me.  I need to make him understand.  "I need to explain something to you."
     "What's to explain?  I know how you got here.  Are you a Sailor Scout too?  You must be since Queen Serenity sent you forward with us."
     Am I a Sailor Scout?  What kind of question is that?  Does he know the Scouts?  
     "No, I'm not a Scout.  I wasn't sent forward in time."
     Darien cut me off.  Shadows were returning to his face.  "What do you mean?  How could you be here if you weren't?  And why would Serenity send you if you're not a Scout?"
     He is becoming suspicious and a tiny bit scared.  I don't want to freak him out.  My story is darker than his.  "I have been alive all these years.  I am immortal."
     His face paled.  He inched away from me.  "Immortal?  Like a vampire?"
     Old superstitions still have a hold on people in this world.  It could be amusing if this were a different situation.  "Nothing like that.  I eat and sleep like every normal human being.  I just don't grow old.  My mother cast a spell on me just before the Negaverse attacked so long ago.  I didn't even know exactly what she did until I realized that I wasn't aging as everyone else was.  I can die, but if I don't, I can live for an infinite number of years."
     "This is too strange.  You are the exact same Haley that I played with as a child. Same body.  Same soul."
     "You are Darien, the Prince of Earth.  The same soul I knew back in the Silver Millennium.  The body does not matter."
     "This... this is remarkable."  Darien sputtered out.  
     He is at a loss for words.  I can tell when his mouth just hangs open like that.  It is simply grand the little things that make a person an individual.  "It's even more remarkable that I have come across you in this huge world."
     Darien still clutched my hand.  Did he think I wasn't real?  "Your mother did this through magic?  She was a remarkable woman.  What happened to you two?  You just disappeared."
     "My mother was part of the Liberation riot in front of the palace on the Moon.  Your father was there too.  You must remember that is when he was killed by the guards.  The King of the Moon was also killed trying to calm the people.  That tragedy, the loss of two kings, brought some sense into many minds of the ruling class.  With Queen Serenity's help, the Liberation fighters finally won what they had so long fought for.  Bitter bourgeois who felt they had lost out through the negotiations, put a contract out on my mother and we had to disappear."
     "It's all so fuzzy, my childhood in the Silvermoon Millennium.  I tend to mix it up with my childhood here.  Your poor mother.  If I only knew."  Darien looked genuinely sad.  He was only a child as I was when that happened.  There was nothing he could have done.
"Did she cast a spell on herself too?  Does she live today, as you do?"
     Oh how I wish she did.  I wouldn't have been so lonely.  "No. I don't know if she even knew she succeeded in casting the spell.  She died valiantly fighting the Negaverse."
     "Oh."  Darien had no clue what to say.  He was like a son to my mother for his own mother had no time for him.  I suspect he had a nanny that cared for him after his father died.  
     I would try to console him.  "Don't worry.  We had a happy but simple life with a band of gypsies.  I wouldn't change those times for the world."
     There, a moment of silence.  Not an uncomfortable one, but one that allows people to reminisce about the past.  To think of happy times and loved ones.
     Darien squeezed my hand bringing us both back to reality.  "What did you do all these years, Haley?  Do you remember much of the Silvermoon Millennium and what it was like afterwards?"
     "I remember clear as day.  My memory astonishes me at times.  I rarely forget anything."  One would think my mind would overflow with the immense number of experiences I have had.  But one shouldn't underestimate the capacity of the human mind.  "To tell you the story would take eons."
     "We have all night."  Darien leaned back on the couch still holding my hand.  I was glad he didn't let go.  I think we both needed that connection to our past.
     "And once I'm done my story, you can tell me of your life and your princess.  And of the Sailor Scouts."

* * *