You Can't Run from Karma

When opportunity knocks, you have to be ready to take advantage of that opportunity. That’s what Dad drilled into us, and in a small town, you grab any opportunity that comes your way with both hands.

Our family have been living out on the land for the last 3 generations. It’s tough. Drought, floods, bushfires, we see it all out here. It can be soul destroying, especially when a natural disaster comes along and wipes out everything you have worked for. It brings you to your knees let me tell you. I’ve seen my Dad, the toughest man in existence cry like a baby with the blows he has been dealt, just trying to survive in outback Queensland.

There is nothing flashy out in the bush and as kids you create your own fun. Entertainment is simple and cheap, generally involves a few beers and a camp out along the river. Being a young bloke, once the hard work is done, the local lads head off.  We pack our Utes with swags and beers and head out to the mulga scrub, flat plains and muddy river. We have been coming here since we were in school, it is deserted so get up to a lot of mischief, and generally just try to put the hard week behind us.

On this particular weekend I could only rustle up one friend who had nothing on and was keen to head out to the river, the others were busy with work around their farms. I pulled up just as the huge orange sun was starting its descent over the horizon, throwing an intense orange glow over the plains and surface of the muddy river. It will be cold tonight, not one cloud in the sky. As I was watching the sun descend, I could hear my mate Paul heading in my direction along the dirt road to the river. A great plume of dust flying along behind him, with country music blaring from the radio. The man could not be quiet if his life depended on it, I laughed to myself. Getting out of my ute I make my way around to start setting up camp. Paul pulls up in his usual spot alongside the river.

 “Hey, bloody ripper sunset – going to be a cold night” Paul yells to me over his radio.

“Yeah mate, it will be, better get a fire going” I reply over my shoulder.

We worked together as the sun went down, and the mist came up from the river, crawling up the riverbank blanketing it in a cold eerie fog. We are so well versed at creating our camp it was put together in half an hour, and the start of a fire was underway.

Putting the final touches on my swag, I hear the sweet noise of a beer can pull tab.

“Here you go mate, here’s to a few more of where these came from” I lean over to receive my first beer of the night.

“Thanks mate – get it into ya” I say and cheers Paul, we laugh settling in by the fire.

The noises of the Queensland bush at night, unsettles many, having grown up out here nothing bothers us. We are pretty seasoned land workers and have seen a lot of things in our young lives. The land can be deafening quiet, it can send you mad sometimes.

A few lazy hours had passed, and we were looking up at the stars. Being a few beers in we were pretty relaxed, when Paul says

“Do you see that? What is that”

I look up to the west where Paul is facing and see a green light dancing just above tree line on our side of the river.

“What is that?” I say sitting bolt upright.

Turning my body to face this light I could hear a whirring metallic noise. A noise that definitely did not belong to the vast array of bush noises I was accustomed too.

“Are we pissed? I whisper to Paul, trying to find an explanation in my addled brain.

The light then fell from the horizon, and the noise stopped. A huge flash followed, and the silence and darkness of the bush returned.

By this stage Paul and I were on our feet.

“Jesus Christ” Paul breathed to me

“What the hell was that?” I whispered

“Should we go and check it out? Can’t be a crop plane, it’s too late, and the engine noise was wrong” I reasoned.

We decided to walk over to where the light fell. Picking up our rifles and torches we headed off to see what we could find. Takes a lot to rattle us boys, but we were rattled.

Very carefully we walked through the mulga scrub, scanning with our torches to try and locate the fallen light. Torch light scanning in the silent pitch black of night, hearts thumping.

About 100 metres from camp Paul’s torch scans across a metallic looking orb, scans back, torch focussed on this strange metallic looking object wedged in the mulga on the red sandy dirt.

“What is it?” I say as silently as I could

“Don’t know, it’s not like anything I have seen before. Should I poke it with the butt of my rifle?” whispers Paul

“Yeah ok, but I’ll stand back over here and cover you” I say with false bravery holding up my rifle

Paul moves closer and nudges the orb with his rifle, the orb changes from a shiny water like metallic to a multi-faceted colour, moving and changing. In my mind I think, this looks like it is alive.

“Yes” the orb replies to my inner thoughts. “I am somewhat what you would call living”

Paul jumps backward and we drop our torches. Torch light refracting off the ground.

The orb continues to light up and change in unearthly multi-faceted colours

Paul and I look at each other, fear, shock, disbelieving, our thoughts running wild

“I just thought that” I whisper to Paul. “It answered me, what is it” I say without taking my eyes off it.

“I am a scout put simply in terms you will understand” the orb responds.

Understanding the questions flying quick and fast in our minds the scout continues to answer

“The mother ship has come under stealth attack, the clone link I share has been cut. I am unable to return to the mother craft” it states matter of factly.

“I do not understand your emotions of fear of me hurting you, I will not hurt you unless directed. I am a scout drone, and act on direction of the mother ship. Now that has been link is disabled, I will obey commands given to me by the 2 humanoids that have found the scout orb” it says as it changes colour.

Gathering up all bravery Paul had, he approaches the scout-drone-orb and crouches down to it. It is about a 50cm ball sized ball, it looks heavy and solid, but the colours and the way it shifts gives the impression it is liquid.

“Are you saying you will obey our commands” Paul stutters to the orb.

“Yes” it replies

“What does that mean” he asks it

“Scout will obey and carry out orders obtained by the humans”

“Does that mean anything?” Paul says looking back at me incredulous.

“Yes anything, I understand your thoughts and motives, and yes I can create wealth, money as you call it”

“So, you belong to us now, is that right?” Paul looks back to the orb.

“Yes, essentially you are correct”

“And you won’t hurt us?” I splutter

“No human, as stated, I am under no instruction to do so”

Paul looks back up to me with the biggest smile on his face and his eyes dancing with pure elation. It is the look of a man who has just won lotto.

“We have hit the jackpot mate! We won’t ever be poor again, we have ourselves our very own genie in a bottle, we are bloody rich! He says fist pumping in the air.

While Paul was crouching talking to the orb, probing it for what it could do for him, my mind went racing. A single thought. At last, I will be rich, finally have the money that I have always dreamed of. I can be out of the desperation of farm life and finally have money to do what I want. To not be like my dad and Grand-Dad, broken by the land and dying well before my time. Jealousy took over, one of the seven evil sins. Jealousy overtaking any rational part of my mind. Standing in the dead of night, with my best mate, and an other-worldly orb that could change my life. I knew what I had to do.

I concentrated my thoughts over to the orb.

“Scout orb, remain silent, and hear my commands. As your link to the mothership has failed, I will take over the direction and commands from here on in. You will obey all direction given by me, David – human. Do you understand my command scout orb?” I direct to it.

“Yes David-Human I understand, standing by” it says.

Paul looks over to me, wondering what is going on, why the orb was talking. Ignoring him I continued to channel my thoughts to my newly acquired orb.

“Scout-orb, I command you remove any memory of you from Paul-humans mind. I command you to remove any memory of this night at the river at all from Paul-Humans mind. Can you do this”, I ask in my thoughts.

“Yes David-Human, stand-by” it says.

The orb’s colours start moving and swirling at a frantic rate, the whirring of the orb starts, and Paul jumps backwards falling on his back, unaware of what was happening. In a moment Paul was unconscious, lying on his back.

“Is he ok scout-orb” I ask

“Yes David-human, I have wiped his mind as requested” the orb fell silent, colours dimmed, waiting for its next command.

The next few hours were a blur. I packed up our camp, packing our individual vehicles ready to leave. Paul regained consciousness, but true to its word the orb had erased his mind. He was a shell of a person, no one home.

 Shit. This all happened so fast, but I can’t share this orb. It’s the opportunity that Dad drummed into me. Sadly, I had to make a hard call. Loading Paul into his car, I drove it to the beginning of the dirt road and put him the driver’s seat. Paul looked at me as I closed the driver’s side door with no understanding of who I was, or where he was. I ran back to camp.

Walking back through the scrub I located the orb, picked it up and put it in the car. Quietly I drove out, driving back past Paul, and turned for home with my newfound treasure. Treasure that is going to change my life.

***

Sitting on the balcony, with a fancy wine in hand, I scanned, admiring my rather large ranch style property. Dressed in expensive RM Williams attire at 38 years old, I had really made it. I own everything I can see and then some. My ranch is well known, no expense spared in the build, it has graced every posh magazine with its architectural build. The farm itself is renowned though the agricultural circles, it houses the very best stud cattle and horses in the country. It has come a long way from the run-down place of 18 years ago. It now sits like a diamond on the outskirts of town, growing in size with the buy-up of the bankrupt properties that I helped to send into receivership to further grow my own property.

I have a young family, 4 kids ranging in age from 16 to 8, all attending the best boarding schools, they have the very best of everything. 2 kids are into horses and equestrian events; no expense spared on sourcing the best horses, and the others 2 boys are into dirt bikes. We are the envy of the region with our stable of KTM bikes.

In life, I have excelled. Everything I touched has turned into literal gold. Shares, property, business, I am mega wealthy, and a very powerful man. I employ thousands in my many businesses, and I rank pretty highly in Australia’s richest people. Not bad for a 38-year-old man I say to myself sipping my fancy wine.

Back all those years ago, stealing the orb was the best thing I ever did. The orb has continued to obey my commands and my wealth has grown from strength to strength, and no one - not even my wife has any idea of its existence. I keep it very concealed in my safe in the basement room, purposely built to ensure its secrecy.

I am new money, and I sit and smile to myself pretty content, and I am untouchable.

The kids all arrive home later tonight for school holidays, and we have plenty of horse and bike activities scheduled. It will be great to have them home for a few weeks. My wife comes out from the kitchen with her fancy wine in hand, I can see in her face she is pretty excited to have her kids home, and we sit on our beautiful balcony and chat about the weeks ahead.

The following morning with kids in tow we head over to the barn for to ready the horses and bikes. There is a big flurry of activity as we get horses tacked and bikes primed for the day’s events. Helping the boy’s push their bikes out of the stables, I see a car driving down our long winding driveway. I am not expecting anyone today I think to myself. I don’t think my wife is either; she hasn’t mentioned anything. I go up to the house and yell out to my wife on the way through to meet the car.

“You got someone coming over today, one of the kids’ friends” I yell into the kitchen on my way through?

“No, no one that I know of” she yells back.

Making my way to the front of the house I wait for the car to pull up. My wife joins me just as the car stops.

The driver’s side door opens and out gets a man, about my age I think from what I can see. He looks over to us, shuts the door and makes his way over to us. As he gets closer, I feel like I know him, there is a familiarity there.

“Hello, can I help you?” I ask

“Yes Dave, you can” says the stranger

“Do I know you? The words were out when recognition hit. All colour draining from my face.

“Yes Dave, yes you do. I think its time we all went inside for a chat don’t you,”

“Hello, I’m Michelle and you are?” my wife asked, putting out her hand to shake the hand of this stranger.

“Hello, my name is Paul”

“Oh, come in Paul” my wife says, escorting him inside. I can’t move. It can’t be.

“You might want to come inside for this David”, Paul says.

The kids all come running up into the house to meet the stranger, I am in damage control in my mind. Standing in the lounge room not knowing what to do next.

Paul is talking, he is telling my family of a story of a long time ago, where a so-called friend stole a very precious item for himself to create wealth, and how it wiped his mind and he had been institutionalised for 17 years. My wife is becoming very uncomfortable.

“You know, the person that did this was your husband Michelle, and he did this to me. I have been in an institution for 17 bloody years! Paul states.

“Ok, I’m calling the Police, that’s enough you wack-job” I say sternly, internally I am trying to work out what to do. If I call on the orb, everyone will see it. The secret is out.

“You know, I got my memory back.  I remember everything that happened Dave, the power of hypnosis, it’s a great thing you know. I remembered all events of that night 18 bloody years ago! You stole my life from me, so you could what, keep the orb for yourself and get rich? He yells.

“Mate, I’m going to call the Police, you are crazy. I don’t know what you are talking about” I say trying to buy time.

My family are visibly scared and shaken. What to do, what to do. As I am trying to work out my next move. Paul makes his.

“Scout-drone-orb, it is Paul-human, make yourself known to me, I am rescinding any further commands made by David-human or any other human in existence. All commands will be made by me, and me only for ever more. This command overrides any direction in place for all time and place” He yells.

I hear the whirring, the familiar orb metallic whirring noise, and the orb then appears hovering in front of my family, manifested from my secret hiding place in the basement.

“Yes Paul-human I understand, standing by” it says.

My wife faints. My kids screaming in fear and horror

“I am taking the orb Dave and leaving you with this mess to clean up. You can explain to your family what you did to me, your big bloody secret, and if you don’t – I will intervene and crush you, you bloody scum. Say good-bye to your fancy life, I am taking that from you also. Karma is here!” taking the orb, Paul leaves.

I watch him drive away, the orb gone, my secret out, my empire about to fall, all because of my selfishness.

It’s coming, I await Paul and the scout’s next move.