The Last Christmas On Earth

"Obviously there is no need for me to tell you that this meeting never existed," the President pointed out as they left the room.

"Just a rapid look," Helen said once they were there. "Just a look," agreed James, lifting the yellow tape to make way for her. They went into the confined area throwing glances here and there and orienting the torches randomly because they didn't even know what to look for. James decided to immediately retrieve the fishing rod and went to inspect the creek; he found it exactly where his son was used to place it and noticed that it gave off the usual bluish glow too. He put on his gloves, grabbed it carefully and was dismayed by the fishing line.

"Helen, come and see!" He called loudly after a few moments.

"Shhh! Do you want them to hear us up to Hancock?" She scolded him, reaching him. "Damn, what's that?" She then asked disgusted, pointing to the thing hanging at the end of the line.

"I have no idea," said James. "It would seem that something had taken the bait and that something bigger had tried to eat it. But it's impossible to understand what animals they are, they look like wood."

"They are mummified, just like ..." Helen started to say, but before he finished the sentence James covered her mouth with his hand and dragged her behind a bush, she stumbled into a root and fell, slamming her shoulder.

"Hey, what the hell are you doing?" She scolded, rubbing the painful part. "In the last half hour, it's the second time you try to kill me!" She protested.

"We're not alone," he whispered, keeping his hands on her shoulders to keep her from getting up.

"It's impossible," she replied.

"I tell you that there is someone around here, can't you hear this hiss?"

"No! I can't hear a damn thing," Helen said, freeing herself from his grip and getting up to check. "And furthermore I'm the Sheriff, I'm not the one who shouldn't be here," she said as she stepped out of the bush.

"Helen, please, get down," James urged her again, pulling her by her arm, but she got rid of him and stepped out. At the same time, James heard a buzzing sound coming from the bush that reminded him of the sound of a generator being activated.

Instinctively he threw away the fishing rod and threw himself once more time on Helen, overwhelming her and causing her a stifled groan.

"Now I have really had enough of you!" She exclaimed, and as she struggled to get rid of him, an intense storm of blinding lightning hit them, followed by deafening hisses that terrified them. As soon as they felt better, they heard someone was approaching, they were quickly rummaging, with the help of that powerful light.

"Stop right there, whoever you are. Stop or I shoot you!" Helen ordered with her arm outstretched, squinting in an attempt to focus on something or someone. In return they heard the buzzing of the generator one more time, James took Helen by force and pushed her into the creek, dived back and dragged her behind a spike of rock near the opposite bank of the stream. A new burst of lightning swept that corner of the forest, she tried to peep out from behind the rock to fire at least one shot, but James pulled her back for the umpteenth time.

"Damn! Do you want us to get killed?" He snarled at her furiously, she huffed angrily and put her Sig Sauer in the holster. The power light repeatedly caressed the stream surface looking for them and they remained motionless behind the rock, immersed in the icy water up to the neck and without breathing. After a long time, when they were about to give in to the cold and nervous stress, the light finally shifted in the direction of the stain and moved away until it died out in the dark. Helen couldn't stop shaking, moved to return to the shore, but James held her back.

"Are you all right?" He asked.

"I think I'm still in one piece," she stammered, still shocked. James hugged her to warm her, their eyes met and he wondered how those eyes could be so bright even in a bad night like that. Before he had time to notice, his mind raced to make a thousand comparisons between her and Eve, and discovered that what he had felt just a little while ago making love with his wife was nothing compared to what he was feeling simply by embracing Helen. He wonder what Eve must have done to him many years ago to bewitch him like that. He hugged Helen a little closer and caressed her.

"James ... please don't ..." she said trying to escape the embrace; the way he was looking at her made her uncomfortable. Suddenly James realized how beautiful Helen was, he told himself that he probably never realized it before only because they had grown up together, day after day, and he had always been in front of her. She again tried to get away from James and he loosened his grip, embarrassed. Helen relaxed, but a breath of light wind once again brought her scent to James, who, before that evening, believed he had forgotten it forever. It had nothing to do with that of Eve, a scent that had the power to erase the world. Without almost even realizing it he pulled her to him and kissed her. For a brief moment, Helen responded to that kiss, but immediately after she pushed him away with all her strength.

"What's wrong with you tonight, have you gone mad all together?" She shouted furiously as she drew back. That kiss made her nervous because she was unable to determine whether to feel happy or indignant; on the other hand, the only thing she was sure was that she felt guilty and ashamed, as a thief.

"If they had killed us a little while ago, I would have died without having done the only thing I think I really wanted for all my life," James justified himself, spreading his arms, she lowered her head without replying and began to cross the river to come back.

Luke Mac January was leisurely driving along the Seventy-three Road in the direction of Rockland and was more than perplexed, having spent the last year scouring the United States far and wide and doubting that he would find what he was looking for just in that lost place on the edge of northeastern America. In his opinion, a great mystery necessarily needed a great location, and it seemed to him that this place had nothing to do with it. The solution to that mystery he had been seeking for so long, we knew well that at that point, after yet another failure, his desire to give up would have increased even more forcefully than before. But he also knew well that he would never give up and then he would come to hate himself because of his curiosity and his damned sense of duty. An ordinary morning of about a year before, an elderly man, who looked very wealthy, appeared in his dilapidated private investigator's office to ask him to find his young wife who had disappeared many years before. At first, Luke had thought it was a joke and had been staring him uncertain for a few moments, but when he opened his mouth to answer he was interrupted.

"I know what you are thinking, that I'm an old fool and that this is one of the usual boring rickety whims" he had anticipated by looking him straight in the eyes, and Mc January had tightened his lips tilting his head a little to one side.

"This woman left almost twenty years ago," the man continued, "and thanks to my powerful means, I searched for her throughout the continent for years without getting any results. She disappeared in a wink, without leaving the slightest trace and without stealing a single dollar. The only thing that took me away was a precious book from the Potala Palace in Lhasa, which as you know is a sacred city in Tibet."

"What was the book about, if I may ask?" Asked Mc January, slightly intrigued.

"No secret, for the little I know it was a collection of legends concerning some very ancient civilizations. It told about aircraft piloted with the sole force of thought, that flew through the skies and fought epic battles with some destructive weapons that even today we are not able to imagine ...

I have never managed to understand why she took it since it was written in an incomprehensible language. I suppose she only did it to spite me because she knew how I was fond of it ... anyway, speaking of her, after all this time she could be dead or hidden who knows in what remote corner of the world," he had said, and Luke had nodded and raised his eyebrows at up.

"And with all the money I have I could have as many women as I want, young, beautiful and very consenting," he added; at that point Luke had spread his arms, disheartened by his frankness.

"But then why are you here? Do you think that if I had the ability to perform such a miracle I would work in an office like this?"

"The office you have is not important, and I know everything I need about you."

"And that is?"

"For example, those licenses hanging behind you are ... let's say ... not really regular," he replied, and he stiffened in his chair. "Excuse me, but how can you know?" He wanted to ask him, but again the other hadn't even let him have time to start the sentence. "You have no fixed binding and therefore you can go around the world indefinitely and, as far as your professional successes are concerned, let's forget it, the most important aspect is certainly not that. I know you are skeptical, cynical, material and miscreant. And you are stubborn and resolute enough, the classic type capable of spending a whole life behind a case without yielding by an inch, the mastiff that when he sniffs a bone won't let it go even if that means to die."

That intrusion into his private life had irritated Luke, who had been investigated as an investigator does. Moreover, those personal judgments had bothered him deeply because they were extremely close to his person. At that point, he had decided to light a cigarette to conceal his bad mood and had offered one to his interlocutor, who had declined with a wave of his hand.

"What makes you think I will accept this job?" Luke had asked him after a while.

"A lot of reasons."

"For example?"

"For example, those," the old man replied, pointing to a pile of expired bills piled up under a paperweight, and Luke was hating that man because he was touching all his uncovered nerves one after the other.

"But above all these" the man had concluded, scattering under his nose a pile of papers and photographs concerning his wife that he had taken out of a briefcase: they depicted a tall and blond woman with a very particular appearance, in many situations and in so many different places. Luke had examined them for a long time, carefully, holding his breath in disbelief. Then he had shaken his head.

"It's a joke, isn't it?" He had said with a faint smile on his face. In response, the other had placed a Visa Platinum, a blank check and a business card with a highlighted phone number on the desk.

"You do not have a time limit and it will not be required to provide periodic reports, in fact, the less you will provide me, the better it will be because every time the phone rings I will delude myself that you have found her. This card is an unlimited fund to support your expenses and the check is your fee, you just have to write the amount."

"How much time do I have to think about it?" Luke had asked, and for the first time since entering his office, the man had abandoned his stern expression to give him a smile. Then he had taken a pen and a leaf from his desk to write his phone number.

"This is a confidential number for emergencies, in case you will need to tell me something and you can't find me at the other number."

"But why...?"

"That woman hides a secret that is too big" he had simply replied, standing up, then had left the studio discreetly as he had appeared, leaving his briefcase and everything else there. Luke kept nodding alone in front of the photographs for several minutes, scratching his head, then a little bell had rung in his head and reminded him that it was time to get ready for his "Mc January".

The alarm clock had rung several times and each time it had been a lost battle, but in the end, it had won the war and in spite of it James had to get up, still sleepy and cold because of that midnight bath. After a hot shower he went down to the kitchen and found the table set and breakfast ready, coffee was in the cups but there was anyone inside the room. He heard the voices of Eve and Harry and joined them in the living room, found them bent over the miniature that had been repaired and fitted perfectly. They were so focused that they hadn't noticed his presence, she showed the boy some things about the cards accompanying the miniature and whispered, Harry listened, nodded and answered.

"What kind of language you are using?" James asked them angrily after a couple of minutes because he had failed to grasp the meaning of a single word. Meanwhile, he kept wondering at what time they must have got up to be able to complete the miniature.

"Good morning, Dad, Mom is teaching me the ancient Egyptian," Harry explained enthusiastically.

"The ancient Egyptian?" Echoed James doubtfully, looking at Eve.

"Yes, but it was just a game," she said, smiling.

"But it wasn't a game! It also taught me to read hieroglyphics, it wasn't a game," Harry protested.