Free White Apples by Jonathan Carroll

compelling look. It was the face of someone who had seen both great and terrible things and was carved by the hands of both.
    The two lovebirds got into the car. But then they just sat there for some unknown reason. Coco saw Ettrich hand Isabelle a small white package that turned out to be a sandwich. Which she pro•ceeded to eat—and eat and eat for minutes on end while he sat next to her doing nothing. They didn't even appear to talk much while she ate. This was Vincent's razzle-dazzle, soul-frazzling ro•mance? Lovers meet again after three gut-wrenching months apart. He's back from the dead, she's pregnant with his child, and the first thing he does is give her a sandwich ?
    Coco didn't begin to understand how any of this worked, but that wasn't the point. She wasn't there to study human behavior. She was there to protect Vincent Ettrich against all of the bad things that were likely to happen to him from this day on. That was what she had been sent to do. What she hadn't planned on was falling for the man, however long or short that fall was. Watching his car from her corner of the airport parking lot, Coco knew she had at least a big crush on Ettrich and that was bad news. Human emotion could cause problems. Frowning, she rolled her eyes in disgust at herself. In doing so, she looked up at one of the lights above the parking lot. What she saw there no mortal could have seen.
    The parking lot was shaped like a large square. There were streetlights at each of the four corners and three down the middle of the lot. Coco's eyes jumped back and forth between them. The same thing was happening to all seven—some of the light streaming from each was slowing and coalescing into different recognizable forms. But human beings would never have apprehended it because human perception was crude and simplistic. It was like bringing a dog to the opera: the animal might notice and even bark excitedly at the hubbub, but the Mozart would only have been noise to its ears.
    Although she was well aware of what this particular light show augured, it was impossible for Coco not to watch
    raptly because the scene was unquestionably beautiful. Light streamed down from the lamps. Slowing, some of it began to curve and drift, stop or break apart, at times floating back upward. Like hot lead or candle wax poured into water, the light froze or curled or spread, often joining with other threads to form indescribable, repeatedly lovely forms.
    If asked what was happening, Coco would have calmly said it's gaining consciousness. Emanating from the giant lamps as a solid, once out in the world parts of the light divided then met others and rejoined into different shapes, all of them alive. Coco could have named each of these living forms but there was no need. She had seen the process happen before and her reaction to it was the same—fascination and fear. Anyway there was nothing she could do about it but watch. These events were created by beings eons beyond her understanding and capabilities. She could only watch the occur•rences unfold and then, if necessary, act on them within the limits of her power.
    The light forms swirled lower. Touching ground, they began rolling like fog across the pavement. Some of them were searching and quickly found what they sought—Vincent Ettrich's car. Coco knew this would happen the moment she saw them forming in the air. She knew they were here to find Ettrich and his Isabelle.
    Oblivious to what was happening, the couple continued sitting in his car—Isabelle eating her sandwich, Vincent staring straight ahead with his hands on top of the steering wheel. Light slid up the door on the passenger's side. On reaching the window it split in two and moved in opposite directions. This learning light watched both passengers now. Languorously circling the car, it looked in from different angles and vantage points, learning about them. Things they didn't even know about themselves, things only the light could