In between

Chapter Five

'It's something, isn't it?' I say to Barry whilst idly rocking on my heels in the middle of his living room.

'Hm quiet so' I watch as he turns the knob of his magnifying machine at a higher capacity, peering down at the hollow of a tube that is attached like a human arm in its middle. He knits his thinning eyebrows together as he attempts to decipher any underlying indentations on the device which is the current subject of our scrutiny. It was placed directly beneath the machine's arm as we continuously
poked at it for an hour and a half at this point, trying to trigger the light that I had seen earlier; however to no avail, it refused to appear by command.

'Maybe someone out there has the capacity to enable it, or perhaps a sensory motion that has detected something peculiar amidst your home, otherwise it is an unknowable solid metal.' For good measure, he taps it twice with the tip of his index finger.

'How about the symbol?' I ask.

'Unfamiliar although based on its illustration, I am guessing it is some sort of recorder.'

'If it's a recorder, shouldn't it be an ear instead of an eye?' I retorted.

'Perhaps. All I am saying is it might be paying attention when you least aren't.' He shrugs.

'Is that all? Barry, can you please look at it more closely, I paid an unreasonable amount of pounds to go all the way out here and even smack my head hard on the roof of the coach in the process because you decided, for some reason, to live in the most unconventional place there is to date.' I plead unabashedly. Barry leans on his armchair and strokes his short beard, his vest shirt beginning to strain across his generous belly. The short silence made my attention fleet around his spacious living room, the mahogany wallpaper, the green draping curtains that frame floor to ceiling windows mirror his taste of class and simplicity. The man was a collector by heart and has a keen eye for the rarest gem but you would never find his rooms strewn with valuable junk like most men with his line of hobby.

'You always overestimate my abilities, Charlotte.' He says, humble as ever before revealing: 'I don't want to suggest it, knowing its unlikeness but I have indeed seen the symbol before.'

'What is it?' I ask, creeping on the edge of my seat.

'Come' he said then swiftly stood. He pocketed the device and led the way. I followed him, a pronounced eager upbeat on the heels of my feet. We walk through a series of corridors in his home, taking left and right turns that occasionally open up in wide furnished spaces.

'Are you familiar with the notion of "i katastrofí eínai to méllon"?' Barry asks me along the way.

'No, but I am fond of melons.'

He shot me an amused look.

"Emma got home yesterday from the fresh market and had an opportunity to haul a pretty hefty sack at a reasonably cheap price. Would you like some cut up on the road?'

'Oh, that would be delightful.' I smiled. Emma is Barry's elder sister who greeted me at the door when I first came. Her palms had developed thick skin due to household labor and despite being the wealthiest in their side of town, she refuses to hire any helper to ease the load of her daily chores.

We stopped in front of a door that has initials embossed on the wood, Barry's initials. Inside his study, he ushered me to sit on a couch in front of his desk before going straight to the bookcases lined up against the wall. He plucked out a worn out book among the bunch and flipped through pages.

'i katastrofí eínai to méllon means future holds nothing but utter disaster.' He continues from where he left off, sitting beside me carefully and showcasing me a page. The edges were already browning in age but the ink and drawings were decipherable. Urya the gatekeeper of all things great had divided the salvageable and the non salvageable, creating barriers after barriers of infinite dimensions to not poison the other with its blatant recklessness-

'What's this?' I turn to Barry whose eyes are also on the page.

'A myth.' He answers. 'The symbol on the device is quite identical to this.' He points at a drawing below the paragraphs, a circle with an eye staring right back at us. Founding its existence in a book triggers an eerie feeling. My mind plays back the strange memories that had happened for the past few weeks. The discovery of a vast random field previously beholding modern inhabitants, the resounding thud of a shoe in my bedroom floor, the odd tall man possessing an equally odd device. I tried to connect it all in my feeble brain but came up empty.

'Legend has it that someone, or something with greater capabilities created a division.' Barry explains 'the rest of the population, and the chosen ones.'

It coexists but awareness only applies for those who have seen the past, present, and the future. Understanding all the possible outcomes that could have averted every disaster and downfall that was predicted by Urya's closest ally, Hess. She gathered all power and created the circle of eye, the eye to the other dimension and through them the window of a possible conjoint must only exist-

'This is nonsense!' I exclaimed unconsciously. Barry shrugs nonchalantly besides me before taking the book from my hands.

'A good bedtime story for the young nevertheless.'

'I came here for facts, Barry.' I say, exasperated. 'I just want to know what that thing is.'

As if a reminder, he took out the device from his pocket and put it on the palm of my hand.

'Some questions are better left unanswered in order to retain wonder.' A good natured grin spreads across his face at my unimpressed frown. 'That's what our mum used to say.'

When I was finally leaving the Carreon's threshold during the late afternoon, a particular sentence from the book kept repeating within the confines of my mind.

awareness only applies for those who have seen the past, present, and the future.