Читать книгу The Writer - Danilo Clementoni - Страница 10

At doctor Elisa Hunter’s base camp, after jumping out of the archaeologist’s arms, Lulù, the little kitten, had begun to prowl around nervously with her gaze fixed towards the sky. The sun was going down and a beautiful, almost full moon was already high on the horizon.

"Lulù, what’s the matter?" asked Elisa a little worried, looking at the restless kitten.

"She must be sad because she’s realised our friends have left," commented Jack laconically, trying to comfort her by stroking her gently under her chin.

The little cat initially seemed to relish the attention, purring and rubbing her nose against the Colonel’s big hand. All of a sudden however, she froze, made a strange sound and turned her eyes straight towards the earth’s pale satellite. Both of them, intrigued by that bizarre behaviour, instinctively, also turned in the same direction. What they saw after a few moments, left them both breathless. An abnormal glow seemed to wrap around the moon. A brilliant white light, that extended about ten times the diameter of the satellite, then formed a sort of crown around it. It only lasted a few seconds, but it was almost as if another sun had suddenly appeared in the sky at dusk, illuminating the whole area with a decidedly unnatural light.

"But what on earth ..." managed only to whisper the stunned Colonel.

Just as it had appeared, the abnormal light vanished, and everything seemed to return exactly as it was before. The moon was still there, and the sun lazily continued its descent behind the dunes silhouetted against the horizon.

"What was that?" asked Elisa in amazement.

"I haven’t the faintest idea."

"For a moment I feared the moon had exploded."

"It really was quite incredible" exclaimed the Colonel while, with his open hand resting above his eyebrows, he scanned the clear sky looking for clues.

"Azakis.... Petri..." said Elisa suddenly. "Something must have happened to them, I can feel it."

"Go on, give over. Perhaps it was just the effect of their ship’s engines starting."

"It’s not possible. That seemed like a real explosion. You should know more than me about these things, no?"

"Darling" the Colonel said patiently. "To see the effects of an explosion like that from all this distance, there would have to have been at least a hundred atomic bombs explode simultaneously on the moon or maybe even a thousand."

"So, what happened then?"

"We could try asking our military friends. After all I am still part of ELSAD. With all that equipment always pointing at the sky, an event of this kind will not have escaped them for sure.”

"Even Lulù noticed it."

"I think this kitten is much smarter than the two of us put together."

"Felines are a superior race," said Elisa as she picked the kitten up again. "Had you still not realised?"

"Yeah. I think the ancient Egyptians adored them too, almost like deities."

"Exactly, my love," said Elisa, happy that the discussion had moved into a field in which she was well versed. "Bastet, for example, was one of the most important and venerated deities of ancient Egyptian religion, depicted as or with the appearance of a woman with a cat’s head or directly as a cat. Originally Bastet was a deity of the solar cult, but with time she became more and more a goddess of the lunar cult. When Greek influence extended to Egyptian society, Bastet permanently became a lunar Goddess, as the Greeks identified her with Artemis, the personification of the ‘Rising Moon’."

“Okay, okay. Thank you for the lesson, eminent doctor" said Jack ironically, emphasizing the phrase with a slight bow. "But now let’s try and understand what the devil just happened up there. I’ll make a couple of phone calls."

"Any time darling, I’m always here for you," replied Elisa, gradually raising her voice as the Colonel walked away in the direction of the laboratory tent.

Lulù, calm once again, her eyes closed, was enjoying the petting her human friend was dispensing without parsimony.