Centaurs (Parallel Worlds)

  Centaurs

  By Aaron Pery

  www.airper@aol.com

  Amazon ebook Edition

  All Rights Reserved

  Copyright 2010 by Aaron Pery

  ISBN: 978-1-4523-6084-3

  License Notes:

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or if it was not purchased for your use only, please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Also by the same writer:

  Centaurs

  Royals

  Patriots

  Second Putsch

  Playmoney

  Pogrom Progeny

  The Queen's Legacy

  Phoenix Bloodline

  Hermaphrodite Revenge

  Primeval Rebirth

  Centaurs

  Chapter 1

  The storm that struck Southern California from Point Dume to San Diego with great, unusual fury seldom seen in this area, continued raging non-stop for over a week by now. The meteorologists and record keepers were amazed by its strength and extent while the conservationist were thrilled as, to their minds, the massive storm was positive proof of their claims of the impending global warming—with much worse to come soon.

  Sitting in the living room of their suite on the top floor of a hotel in an expensive Century City in Los Angeles, Nicole and Martin Sherman kept watching the rain coming down in virtual sheets. Today was their fiftieth wedding anniversary, which they had planned to celebrate it in a fashionable restaurant in nearby Westwood once accepting the fact that they were stuck in Los Angeles.

  "I don’t think I want to go out in this weather." Nicole said while snuggling against her husband on the couch that faced the huge windows.

  "I got no problem with going out, you know, since it’s only water and all we’ll get is a bit wet when we go in and out of the restaurant."

  Nicole punched his shoulder affectionately. "Just water, you goddamn Marine? The rain’s been coming down in buckets for days, half of the city is paralyzed by floods and mud slides, and you claim that it’s just a bit of water? I wouldn’t be surprised if we got more big lightning and thunder before it starts hailing golf balls on us again."

  "Yes, and all it is to me is just water like I'd said. But I’m not surprised that you make a big deal about it seeing as how any bitty old storm had always scared you silly."

  "Fucking Gyrene with steel balls." Nicole said, grinning.

  "Okay, I’ll concede the storm is massive and maybe even a bit dangerous. So what should we do about celebrating our anniversary?"

  "I don’t really know. Got any ideas?"

  Martin considered it for a moment. "Yeah, I think so. How about it if I order a pizza from room service and we eat it by the fireplace while sipping the expensive French champagne that we'd brought with us?"

  "Strange fare, champagne and pizza for our fiftieth anniversary dinner. But what the heck, it kind of befits this occasion so you might as well call room service, then turn the fireplace on while I run to the bathroom."

  "Great." He dialed room service, smiling at her after putting the phone down. "They claimed it’ll be no more than twenty minutes since apparently they don’t have too many guests to take care of."

  "I’m not surprised."

  "Neither am I considering that all the flights in and out of LA in the past week had been cancelled. We were lucky to have arrived on practically the last flight in."

  "And got stuck here instead of reaching Hawaii. How can you call that being lucky?"

  "The weather reports claim that it’s even worse over there, you know."

  "We better eat while the pizza’s warm." Nicole said when she returned from the bathroom.

  "Yeah, and it does smell great." Martin answered, sitting on the floor across from the fireplace, where he had set up the couch cushions.

  "Looks like a comfortable arrangement so open the champagne while I set up the food plates and glasses on the coffee table next to us."

  "Yes, it’s really a perfect setup for our little celebration."

  "That was terrific." Nicole said after taking the final sip from her glass and stretching out, putting her head in Martin’s lap.

  "And delicious too, which I’d like us to do again for no reason—just because we like it."

  "Me, too." Nicole shuddered when Martin’s caressing hand moved from her face down, opened her robe and cupped her breasts one at a time. She giggled when he stroked each slowly for a while before tweaking her hardened nipples. "I don’t know about doing this kind of thing too often because of how tipsy I always get from drinking champagne."

  "You mean horney, don’t you?"

  "That’s for sure." Nicole’s giggles intensified when she felt his erection pressing against her.

  "I been set up to be seduced, haven’t I? The bubbly, the fireplace, and you must’ve taken your Viagra before we sat down. Am I right?"

  "Guilty as charged. Two, in fact."

  "Then we better not waste them." They were suddenly startled by an enormous bolt of lightning that lit up the entire living room, followed by the loudest thunder that either of them had ever heard. "That sounded terrible."

  "I don’t know about that, but I guess it does affect you strangely."

  "Thunder and lightning scare the shit out of me, as you well know."

  "Want to crawl into bed and have me hold you tightly while it goes on?"

  "Hell, no, not when I feel like I do right now. Of course I want to jump in bed with you, but to pacify the savage beast within me rather than placate a childish fear."

  "I’m all for killing the beast, so you better get undressed."

  "It’ll be my pleasure." Nicole grinned as she opened her robe and let it drop to the floor. "But first I need to go take a shower."

  Martin watched her rushing away with delight as he undressed as well. She was a tiny woman, barely five feet tall, which had made her seem much smaller next to his towering six-four and large frame. Her diminutive features were made even more pronounced because of her small limbs and breasts, yet she was unusually curvy for her size. God, he thought, she’s still just as sexy looking in her seventies as she was when I first saw her naked so many years ago. We’re both very lucky in that department despite having lost most of our musculature and skin tone in the past few years.

  He smiled at the thought of how much he still loved and lusted after his wife, which brought on the memories of their long life together.

  Martin’s early years were ordinary and uneventful as an only child of a loving middle-class family who grew up in Miami Beach could have been. His education had been usual for this environment as well, an Economics undergraduate degree at Miami University and then a Master’s in Business. He accepted a management entry position at the large bank owned by his future father-in-law and had been quite happy at age twenty-four as he was poised to live the kind of lifestyle as did most of his friends and family around him.

  Nicole Kalin came from similar background, yet despite her education and an advanced degree in history she did not plan on setting a career for herself. Her only wish was to marry Martin as soon as both graduated and then become a devoted wife and mother to their future children.

  Their expectations for a shared comfortable life were assured, and both of them felt fortunate on the day they were married. Martin was already working at the bank and was set to advance to a more responsible position within the bank’s management hierarchy. After receiving her advanced teaching certificate
, Nicole taught history at a nearby high school for the time being, until their first child came along.

  It was an ideal life to their minds as everything proceeded according to their plans, until North Korea invaded the South and Martin was called up by the Marine Corps reserves. When he had received his draft notification in 1944 during his Freshman year at college he had no difficulty receiving a deferment as a student. And then, after his parents’ finances had suffered a setback, he signed up for the Marine ROTC and was easily accepted. Both their parents were quite upset when they found out, but Nicole was proud of Martin and encouraged him to join since she knew how much he was looking forward to undergoing military training.

  He was pleased on his senior year when he made a second lieutenant. And just as he had told his family would happen at this point, the Marines, their ranks inflated after World War II and lacking in funds, did not insist that he fulfill his obligation. Everyone was happy when he was able to complete his education and forgot about his rank in the Marines, which he kept while serving in the reserves. To the families’ frustration but not to Nicole’s, Martin was called in on the first draft and was shipped to Korea as a platoon leader after he completed an infantry officer refresher course.

  Martin quickly discovered that he enjoyed soldiering in a manner that made banking seem utterly dull. He rapidly made a name for himself as a highly skilled natural fighter and leader whose subordinates were willing to follow him without question. At the war’s end, he was a brevetted colonel in command of a full battalion. He dreaded returning to civilian life to continue his previous career track at the bank, and when his commanding general suggested that he consider remaining in the service he wrote Nicole and asked for her advice. She sent him a cable the day she received it, telling him it was agreeable with her if that was what he wanted to do. He accepted the general’s offer even though he would be reduced back to captain, which was his permanent rank.

  Neither regretted Martin’s decision to become a professional soldier, nor did Nicole mind turning into what she jokingly called a camp follower, for life. Which was not the easiest way for a loving and devoted couple to live since it meant moving constantly, even an occasional long separation. Their only regret was that Nicole did not conceive despite seeking medical help several times.

  Martin was sent to Camp Lejuen, Louisiana, for further training as field grade officer, and he was disappointed that his first posting was to the CIA in Washington DC as a covert operations expert. He understood why it happened and accepted it graciously because of the special talents that he had exhibited in Korea. His assignment lasted for five years and earned him a promotion to major after two, which gave them the ability to stay together most of the time until Martin was transferred to Special Forces. From then on his career was spent only half in command of troops and the rest in planning and then executing various highly secret types of operations.

  At age forty-one, while he ran a series of native and Green Berets covert operations in Vietnam, Martin’s helicopter was shot down. He was the sole survivor and suffered severe head injuries that would have killed him had he not been evacuated just minutes later. The surgeon on the hospital ship did not dare operate because of the severity of his injuries, and quickly sent him to the naval hospital in San Diego.

  Martin was operated on by one of the country’s premier brain surgeons and underwent five complicated operations before regaining consciousness, and then three more afterwards. It took him a full year of recuperation before he was returned to active service and promoted to full colonel. Afterwards, to Nicole’s relief, he was mostly given command of increasingly larger units within the United States proper.

  Nicole spent the years earning many degrees in subjects that she had been highly interested in such as biology, chemistry, and history, which she taught in the various military post areas that Martin was assigned to. Both retired at the same time, planning to spend the rest of their life travelling to remote places and driving around the country at leisure to locations that they had always wished to visit. This was their first such trip, after which they planned on visiting Greece since Nicole had always wanted to see it, and particularly the historically rich island of Crete.

  When Nicole returned, Martin could barely contain his impatience for her to join him in bed. "Gosh, Nikki, I think you’re the sexiest woman alive."

  "Thank you, my love, but I wish I were a bit firmer in the chest and butt. I hate the way they’ve become so droopy, especially my little titties, which look kind of weird with their nipples pointing downwards despite their small size."

  "They look perfect—tangerine sized with huge areolas and nipples almost the size of your pinkie when they get excited. And your butt looks just as sexy nowadays as it did when I saw it that night in your parents’ house after you let me undress you completely for the first time. Hell, we were just kids then—you were fourteen and I was sixteen."

  Nicole giggled at the memory. "When you deflowered poor little old me, you big bastard. Anyway, I don’t see it that way but I’ll accept the compliment." She looked down at him and grinned. "Never mind that right now because I see my devoted Marine standing at full attention in readiness to do his duty, so let’s not waste any more time talking."

  "I’d like that very much, Nikki."

  They sighed with the pleasure of their bodies’ joining, after which they began to make love with very slow, deliberate motions. Then, just as they climaxed, they were startled by a thunderous reverberation that shook the room so violently that Nicole screamed with fear. Martin was startled as well when he felt as though he were hit by something—a tingling surge that flowed throughout his entire body which felt as though he had just touched an exposed electrical wire. This very strange notion was quickly forgotten as he lost all other awareness in the ecstasy of their great shared pleasure.

  Chapter 2

  Martin became concerned when he noticed after regaining his normal senses that their room was filled with a pungent smell as though something had recently burned in it. And though he could not see any smoke, he became concerned about their safety when he suddenly realized the reason for the strange smell. He tried to look at Nicole to verify that she had not been hurt by the blast of lightening that had struck the room. He became alarmed when he turned to look for her and all he could see was a blank wall rather than her face on the pillow next to his own.

  His line of vision, he discovered, seemed very peculiar since he realized that he could see all around him as though he possessed a three-hundred and sixty degree sight without turning. And the angle was odd as well as it was centered on the middle of the room from a height that he guessed was near the ceiling. Then, without even consciously doing so, he looked down at the bed and saw two immobile figures lying in it holding each other as if in a final embrace—himself and Nicole. He had seen many dead people in his long violent military career to be certain that both were definitely lifeless.

  He began to shake and shudder internally once the realization of what he was seeing penetrated his mind, and all his senses seemed to suddenly shut down. Then, with utter shock, he recognized another fact that was just as bizarre as seeing himself and Nicole dead.

  "How is it possible that I can see, hear, and smell everything around me when I'm supposed to be dead?" He cried out aloud.

  "Because maybe what we had always believed was utter nonsense about life after death was wrong, because it looks to me like we were both hit by a lightening strike and are physically dead. So, my darling, what we must've become is a pair of souls floating above their dead bodies and awaiting the judgment of where we go next—up or down."

  "That’s bulshit and you know it." Martin burst out and stopped when he realized that he had just responded to Nicole’s statement in the normal banter style that they had developed throughout their long life together. "Oh shit, Nikki, it’s feels like you and I are still alive despite what our bodies look like. I think. Can you see me?"

  Nicole did not answ
er immediately. "Yes, Marty, I think I do. It’s kind of eerie but what I can see of you is a pulsating globe-like object floating in mid-air. Which I’d say is about the size of a basketball."

  "Where?"

  "Somewhere between the windows and above the bed."

  "That’s where I’m positioned. And I can see a similar globe which must be you, by the door. Wait, don’t move because I want to see if it’s possible for me to reach you."

  "Sure. That’s where I am, and I’ll stay here. And I can clearly see you floating in my direction. How are you doing it?"

  "I don’t know, but it seems like we can move around by wishing it to happen. And for your information, I just passed by the big mirror and it did not show any reflection."

  "Probably because the room is somewhat dark."

  "But I can see you as clearly as though the light was on."

  "Yes, that’s true because I can see you as well." A moment later, when Martin reached Nicole, she was startled when he extended an insubstantial appendage that looked like an arm with a hand at its end, and touched her. "I can actually feel it, Marty. How did you do that?"

  "The same as moving—I wished to touch you and I did."

  Nicole responded by doing the same, after which they held hands silently for a while before she finally spoke. "Unbelievable. We know that we are both dead, and yet we act as if we’re alive—speaking and touching each other. How can any of it be possible?"

  "I have no idea. Maybe you, being the scientist in the family, can figure it out."

  "It’s entirely possible, you know, that we’re undergoing a shared delirium caused by a pair of old and sickly people who’ve been wishing for a while now to be rid of their infirmities."