Age of Men Read online

for these two precious gifts. Alicia was a few years younger than Jack and was a stay-at-home mom, but also wrote a weekly column for the local newspaper that required her to go into the office at least twice a week.

  “Where have you been?” Alicia asked with a soft smile.

  Jack walked over and kissed Alicia on the cheek; he could see that she was worried to death. She always worried about him, not that she didn’t trust him, but because she knew first hand that the world was a vicious place. Her first husband was the victim of a vicious crime while working late, so she always got worried when Jack didn’t get home on time.

  “I’m sorry I’m late.” Jack apologized, “I got caught up in something.”

  “The busy life of a university professor.” Alicia teased.

  Jack put Jimmy down who tripled around them like a mosquito.

  “Daddy!” Timmy said urgently, “Remember we’re going to the park tomorrow!”

  “How can I forget when you keep on reminding me?” Jack laughed.

  “You’re old. I need to remind you!”

  “I’m old?” Jack asked astonished.

  Timmy tried to hide his smile and fidgeted with his hands behind his back when Jack pretended to jump at Timmy and he ran out of the room laughing all the way. Jack turned to Alicia who still had that warm and loving smile on her face.

  “I bet you are starving.” Alicia said, “I made your favorite.”

  “Red Velvet cake?”

  “Meat loaf.”

  “The singer?” Jack teased.

  Alicia smiled at him and playfully slapped him on the upper arm.

  “Sounds great.” Jack said.

  Jack followed her through to the kitchen where the aroma of her homemade delights tucked at his senses. She dished them each a plate of food as Jack sat down on one of the barstools at the counter. One of her many talents was cooking – she could make a dry piece of bread taste like a sponge cake and could put any five star restaurant chef to shame.

  Sarah was never much one for cooking and so they used to eat out a lot – which contributed to his chubby body. After they divorced he tried to get back a slimmer physique, but that was easier said than done – not that Alicia ever minded his body. She always said that he was her teddy bear and that it made him perfect for cuddling.

  “So how was your day?” Jack asked.

  He desperately wanted to tell her about what happened, but he signed a non-disclosure agreement – not that it mattered since most of the world knew what happened. He did, however, find it peculiar that she didn’t mention seeing it on the news. Perhaps she didn’t want to talk about it, but this made him worried as she might be bottling up her fears and concerns about what happened.

  “It was quite busy.” Alicia said.

  She placed the plates of food on the kitchen table and they sat down.

  “It was one of those days.” Alicia said, “I barely had a chance to go to the bathroom. How was your day sweetheart?”

  “It was… interesting to say the least.” Jack said heavily and she knew something was up.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Jack battled with his conscious about the clause he signed, but then he noticed that she seemed too oblivious – could it be that his wife was the only person in the world that didn’t know about the main news story of the century?

  “You don’t know?”

  Alicia looked at him with a vacant look on her face. What was he on about?

  “Know what?” Alicia asked.

  Was she playing? It wasn’t possible that she didn’t know what had happened. In this modern day of technology there were a hundred different ways of getting the news. News of the disappearance spread like wildfire and it was impossible that someone didn’t know about what happened.

  “You’re probably the only person in the world that doesn’t know.” Jack said astonished.

  “Know what?”

  “You’re telling me that you have not switched on the TV at least once today?”

  “No. Jack, what are you talking about? You’re scaring me.”

  Jack left his plate of food, stood up and took her by the hand.

  “Come on.” Jack insisted.

  “Jack, the food’s getting cold.”

  “We can reheat it.”

  They entered the living room and Jack switched on the TV; flipping through the channels hoping to find a news bulletin.

  “There has to be a news bulletin somewhere.” Jack said in thought.

  Alicia simply stood there and watched as Jack was seemingly going out of his mind. She didn’t know what to make of the urgency; she had never seen Jack this way.

  There was a news report on channel 2. Jack turned up the volume and stepped back a few feet.

  “Here we go.”

  The anchorman was talking about news that Jack felt was completely irrelevant given what was going on. Who cared about a forest fire in California destroying the houses of celebrities when an entire continent disappeared? Get on with it! Get to the top story of the day… of the decade… of the century… no – of human history.

  “Returning to our top story of the day,” The anchorman said, “World leaders and top scientists are baffled at the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Australia. That is right; the entire continent of Australia has vanished without a trace.”

  Jack glanced over at Alicia; she stood frozen in front of the TV unwilling believe her eyes and ears. He turned down the volume, took her by arm and they sat down on the couch. She was clearly upset.

  “I’m not sure I understood what I just heard.” Alicia said, “How can an entire continent vanish? Is that even possible?”

  “We don’t know.”

  “We?”

  “Some government agent came to me during one of my lectures today. They need theories as to what might have happened and whether it may happen to our country… apparently I’m the best in my field and probably the only person who might be able to figure out what the hell happened.”

  Alicia tried to stay calm. The first thing that came to her mind was terrorism; after 9/11 one can’t be too careful. Anything was possible, and with technology becoming more sophisticated each day, there was a world of possibilities and a wide variety of new weapons of mass destruction just waiting to be discovered and used.

  “Who would do such a thing?” Alicia asked.

  “We don’t know yet. We basically don’t know anything yet. It might’ve been an isolated incident… it might be the beginning of something bigger.”

  “Do you think it’s the rapture?” Alicia asked with a stutter.

  It was the second time that day that someone used the word rapture and it struck fear into his heart. Partially because he wasn’t too sure that his soul was ready and pure enough for the rapture, but also because if it was the rapture there wasn’t a damned thing anyone could do about it.

  Surely the rapture was only a religious myth?

  “No.” He assured her, “I highly doubt this is the second coming of Christ. I’m just worried that I won’t be able to figure out.”

  “If anyone can figure it, it’s you.”

  “What if I’m already too late?” Jack said with fear in his voice, “What if it happens again?”

   

  8

  The people of Jentu only knew the quiet life; their village consisted of only about a few hundred people and was situated along the west coast of Kyushu, Japan. The little village was surrounded by one of the largest forests in the region and was home to mostly lumberjacks and their families and was virtually untouched by the modern technology of the world beyond the region.

  A little Japanese girl stood against a tree with her eyes closed as she counted down from ten for a game of “hide and seek”. She and her younger sister played it all the time after their chores and homework was done – when you stay in such a small town, there’s little else to keep children occupied. Their mother was not very fond of them playing in the forest, so she insisted they
always play near the edge of the forest where she can keep an eye on them as she was always afraid that they might be crushed by a falling tree cut down by a lumberjack.

  When the little girl reached one, she opened her eyes and started looking for her sister whom hid somewhere amongst the trees and bushes. At first it seemed as if her sister outwitted her in finding a cunning hiding spot, but she soon found footprints in dirt and immediately knew the tracks belonged to her sister. She smiled with glee at the thought winning the game and merrily followed the tracks, but it wasn’t long before she realized that the tracks were leading deeper into the forest. She halted and pondered for a moment – her mother would punish them for going so deep into the forest. She wanted to turn around and go home, but she couldn’t simply leave her younger sister out there in the forest. What if she fell and got injured? She knew she had to find her sister first, so she followed the trail of footsteps against her better judgment.

  The tracks led her to a disconsolate water-mass amongst the trees that stretched for about a mile in every direction. She looked at the unfamiliar lake and the layer of grey fog that drifted a few inches above its surface; she had been into the forest before and couldn’t remember a lagoon of this size – come to think of it, she couldn’t remember anyone ever mentioning a lagoon in the forest.

  She stood on her toes as she tried to see what was on the other side of the lake; whether her sister was on the other side, but she couldn’t see the other side of the lagoon, even though she knew that the forest stretched out for miles ahead… it was as if the rest of the forest had disappeared.

  She glanced down at her feet; her sister’s tracks