Liquid Stone

Liquid Stone - Preface & Introduction

PREFACE

Fact:  Thousands of artifacts from museums and archeological sites disappeared early in the upheaval of the U.S.-led Iraqi invasion of 2003.  World officials have only recovered a fraction to date.  Babylonian, Samarian, and Assyrian treasures are still missing.

Myth:  The ancient Mesopotamian epic story of Gilgamesh is known to be the oldest story on Earth.   Utnapishtim is an equivalent to our popular fable of Noah.  As reward for his loyalty to God, proven by building the ark, he was given the gift of immortality. Centuries later, a militant ancient Babylonian king, Gilgamesh, embarked on a long and perilous journey to find Utnapishtim. Fearing death, Gilgamesh insisted Utnapishtim share his gift of eternal life with him. Though Utnapishtim would not grant this, he did gift Gilgamesh with a healing plant for his troubles.  On the return trip to his kingdom, the plant was swiped from Gilgamesh's belt by a snake while crossing a river.  He was distraught until he entered the gates of his kingdom and realized, the many towering temples and  tributes to him was immortality enough for his now softened heart.  

Introduction

I guess I should've expected to be here one day.  Sweating and squirming and scared of being sent to traitor island.

I really didn't want to tell the story. I had a hard time even thinking about the past six crazy months let alone have to explain it to the brute detective glaring across the table at me. The whole time, I never looked back, never tried to look ahead, just lived in the moment to survive. Putting it all together and trying to explain it to someone else was going to be a real chore.  There's no way this guy is even going to believe me and he is not going to understand it is not my fault.

Just yesterday I had to explain the past ten years to my little brother, Jamie.  That was even easier than this was going to be.  Jamie had been in a coma for a decade until, well, until I touch him. I had to explain to him that since his accident, we had lost both our parents in a rebel fight, the United States was no longer the United States, and his big sis had acquired some kind of power that had just woke him from what doctors claimed to be irreversible brain damage.

No sooner did I finish my chronicle to a silent, wide-eyed, now young teenager when the guards burst into his hospital room to shuffle us away.  Poor Jamie was somewhere in the building probably stammering at useless questioning.  I am the only one that has their answers. They know this.  That won't stop them from badgering an innocent.  Somehow, anyone in the Guard cannot find satisfaction from their big fat paychecks or fancy garden homes.  They feed their egos in these interrogation rooms.  I could tell the broad, hairy, mountain-man-looking, creep across from me was no different. The guy was practically salivating waiting for me to talk.  Just above his panting nostrils, he squinted through his yellow contacts, which identified him as an Inquisitor, in hopes to intimidate me into spilling my guts. It was working. I was ready to spill.