Girl, There’s A Better Life For Me And You
Mr Mortimer Harbinger
5th of November, 1975 — Lost Name
Grimnir and his companion strode over, half-finished pints in hand, and took seats next to them. Jo’s astonished face followed them as they passed her but they ignored her completely.
“I’m afraid you’re about to lose your name, Elizabeth Jennifer,” said the companion. Mr Harbinger studied this one who smelled of Old Spice. Unlike Grimnir, he was slight of build with longish dark blond hair held back from his face by two side braids—innocuous and handsome. He knew this one wouldn’t want of female companionship. He met Mr Harbinger’s eyes with a steady gaze.
Mr Harbinger felt Raven’s anger rise while she stared at Grimnir’s companion. He wondered if she had problems keeping her emotions to herself. They seemed to leak to other people when aroused.
“Are ye goin’ to steal it?” she threatened.
“No, not me. Not my style at all.”
He scanned the frozen ones and pointed one out. “See her? She’s called Susan Janet Ballion.” He pointed out another frozen customer. “And that one’s George Perez. He’s an American. Everyone here will dream about this but those two’s dreams will really affect them. They’ll both dream about you in particular. Susan’s sense of self will change and you’ll be responsible for that, but that’s nothing in the long run. George, however, his creation will steal your name.”
Raven didn’t respond. The companion continued. “He’ll dream about you and his dreams will be, well, steamy. He won’t be able to get them out of his system until he creates a character based on you and,” he smirked, “he’ll call her Raven for some reason. You can’t fight her, so you’ll lose your name. Just as well, Elizabeth Jennifer, Raven’s such a pretentious name anyway.”
Mr Harbinger felt Raven accept this story as truth. He didn’t understand that. She was powerful but she just accepted something like this? He realised he was missing something. Probably a lot of somethings.
Raven changed tacks. “Which one are you?” she asked of Grimnir. “Wodan or Odin?” Mr Harbinger looked directly into this one’s one eye and his eyes didn’t want to stay there. This one was powerful and dangerous. His eyes knew that instinctively but his brain took longer to catch up and, once it did, he went into panic all over again. This was impossible.
He half recovered during a lull in the conversation, so he asked a question. “Will these people be alright?”
Loki answered. “Oh yes. As soon as you leave, everything will revert to normal.”
“How can it? Raven here seems to understand but I don’t. At the very least there’ll be stories.”
“We control their minds now. Mrs Evens did that to them but we took over when Elizabeth Jennifer…”
“Raven.” The interruption was angrily automatic. She’d been through this before.
“… kicked their arses.”
“Why don’t you speak like gods?” Raven was now deep in thought although she did seem to be following. Mr Harbinger knew what it was like to be interrupted and was trying to give her the space she needed for whatever she was thinking about. She had his trust now. It was all he could think to do.
“How do gods speak?” Loki was amused.
“Impressively.”
“No. Some gods do that but not us. It’s embarrassing, don’t you think? Wandering around the landscape with penetrating, booming voices reverberating in people’s brains. Not our style.”
“Where do you come from?”
Odin interrupted. “Not relevant, Mr Harbinger.”
“What’ll happen to the Evens?”
“I don’t know. I assume their boss will punish them, but it’s actually his fault for not assessing the local conditions correctly in the first place but you know they’ll cover their arses and blame the staff. That type always do. The Evens were cheap labour and simply nowhere near good enough. They had a budget and the Evens were all they could afford, I suppose.”
“All right then, what happens now?”
“Ah, we just have one problem to solve before we can get back to normal.”
Mr Harbinger saw Raven nod. This was what was keeping them here. He was afraid but had to ask. “What problem?”
“It’s you, Mr Harbinger. You’re the problem?”
“Me? I won’t be a problem to anyone. Do you think I’ll try and tell this story?”
Raven cut in. “I’m sorry Mr Harbinger, but you are the story. I hate to say this, but you can’t leave here.”
Mr Harbinger was old and starting to become weak but he wasn’t ready to go just yet. ”I don’t think I can stop you, any of you, if you want to kill me, but I’ll fight anyway. I’ll fight to the last beat of my heart.”
The two gods left it up to Raven.
“You don’t understand Mr Harbinger. You’re already dead. The Evens enchanted you to continue functioning for their own reasons but I still don’t fully see why.”
Somehow he accepted that at face value. His mind overloaded again. He felt he recovered quickly. Odin was talking, something about an illusion? His illusion?
“My wife and life’s work are an illusion?”
“Gertie must have killed you all that time ago and they kept your body in stasis until now, so they could have some fun. They aged and revived you outside a betting shop and made you see what they wanted you to see and remember what they wanted you to remember. They planted the memories you have of your business and your wife since forty-seven.”
Tears formed when this information was absorbed. “What happened to Vivien?”
“We don’t know Mr Harbinger. You never returned to her in forty-seven. She had to absorb that and get on with her life.”
“But you’re gods, aren’t you? Why don’t you know?”
“Despite what you may have heard, we don’t know everything. But, I can find out for you. The question is, do you really want to know? It won’t change anything for your wife at all.”
Mr Harbinger thought for a while without bothering to wipe the tears from his face. “I’ve always thought it’s better to know than not. Living under an assumption you can verify is just stupid. I’ll help her any way I can if I can, but I can’t even try and help her if I don’t know her present circumstances.”
Odin nodded. “Have you considered the possibility she’ll never know you helped her if you actually manage that?”
“That doesn’t matter. I’ll still help her if I can. So, can you help me here?”
Odin nodded again. There was a loud cawing from outside. “Impressive, Mr Harbinger. That’s why they couldn’t convert you. I’ll try.”
Nothing else was said and Mr Harbinger’s mind retreated again. This time he knew he was talking and listening but it was all on automatic. He was taking nothing in. He came back when that cawing sounded again and Odin spoke.
“Mr Harbinger,” said Odin, “your wife was distraught when you failed to return in forty-seven. She fell apart. Eventually, in forty-nine, she pulled herself together and started going out again. She met a man and married him in nineteen fifty. They had a child soon after. The child was stillborn and your wife died during delivery. I’m sorry.”
Mr Harbinger sat stock still as he absorbed this news. Finally, using the back of his sleeve, he wiped his face.
“Where is she now?”
“I do not know, Mr Harbinger. All I can say is she’s not with us.”
“Can’t you even say which one she went to?” Mr Harbinger didn’t want to mention names.
“No, Mr Harbinger. I cannot.”
Mr Harbinger stared at the large muscular one-eyed man in the blue fedora before he stood and walked out of the building.