That Elusive Cure 5

I followed Janie’s car, one of those odd looking little Fiat 500’s in lilac, through the countryside and into Birkenhead. She’d said where we were going, and I knew the place. I’d passed by the church on many occasions. I’d even day dreamed about buying it and setting it up as a flat for my daughter, keeping part of the space for me and creating a studio. That was me letting my bohemian side through. The place she lived in was grotty, but she refused to move back home, and my dream was to buy her a decent place to live. She had this boyfriend who seemed to be quite handy. I’d let them live there for free in exchange for his manual labour.

We pulled up and into the tiny car park. I still had the key in my possession, and I thumbed it nervously as Janie got out of her car and walked up to the door. We were in the town centre, a stones throw from the council parking lot I used almost every week. To think this mystery machine had been there the entire time, almost made me feel taunted by it. Or this woman could be setting me up for an elaborate joke. I searched briefly for hidden cameras, my eyes settling on Janie as she stood on the stone steps by the sad looking church, patiently waited for me.

“You ready for this?” She took the key from me and inserted it into the lock. “You need to give it a little jiggle or the mechanism won’t turn.” She yanked on the key her fingers white for a second as she struggled. Then the key turned. I glanced up at the windows. They were so dirty I couldn’t tell if they were stained glass or not. A wire mesh covered each and added to the camouflage. The stone walls might once have been a warm grey, but now traffic dirt covered every surface until the building looked like it was covered in soot.

My nerves were getting the best of me now, like a ball of static had got inside of me and needed me to jump around to get it out. I stamped my feet and tried to regain control.

“Go on.” She indicated that I should turn the handle.

“Okay…” We swapped positions and I pushed the door open. It was one of these heavy oak affairs, although the wood was so dirty I couldn’t actually tell what kind of wood it was. My belly ached, the tumours making themselves known, and I stepped over the threshold.

Inside was dark, the dirty windows shedding little in the way of light, Besides, the old church was crowded by taller buildings on three sides, and to make matters worse it was overcast. We entered the nave, my footfalls loud on the stone floor. Someone had pushed all the pews up against the main walls, piled like firewood and abandoned. The reason why was in the middle of the space. A pod-like machine rested on the floor, a metallic hull that looked like buffed silver, and in the background a large cross still hung behind the alter.

“This is it.” Janie knelt beside the machine and put her hand on the surface, almost like a lover’s touch. “This is what cured me.”

Curiosity got the better of me. I could see now why she’d said maybe it came from the future, the machine looked like a prop from the new Star Trek movies. Her fingers danced over an almost hidden control panel. The seal broke and the pod opened.

“This is what you do.” She climbed inside and lay down. A type of foam lined the pod, it expanded around her as she got comfortable, cradling her body. “I took three sessions to be fully cured. It’s very easy to use and the machine tells you exactly what to do.”

“So it speaks English at you?”

“Yes, that’s another reason why I don’t think aliens left it. I hardly think they would programme this thing with English. It’s homegrown.” She pointed to a label above her head. “Besides it says MicroHealth here. I guess they were the manufacturers.”

I walked slowly around the pod. The machine was a thing of beauty, the metal flawless, the seams - if there were any – invisible. “How is it powered, it’s not exactly plugged in to a socket.”

Janie climbed out. “Who knows. Who cares.” She shrugged. “Give it a go. I won’t close the lid. Settle yourself in the pod and get a feel for it.”

I circled it once more, fear growing in my belly. I decided the machine was definitely manmade, I just wasn’t sure of when. And if the machine wasn’t from now, how on earth did it get here? Its very presence made my mind spin with the possibilities. Would it cure me? A small part of me was beginning to think maybe the answer to that was a yes.