In the early morning, Irma awakened to the monitor sounds of the crying infant. She got up, yawned, and prepared to feed the baby and change her diaper. She remarked to Hale how amazing it was that the baby slept through the night already.
Chapter Ten
Three years later
“How’s my girl this morning?” Irma said, picking Corona up from her bed. Aunt Irma’s here to get you.”
“I’m fine,” Corona said sleepily.
“Time for breakfast,” Irma said. She walked the three-year-old down the stairs. “Are you hungry?”
“Yes. Are you?”
“Yep. Let’s have cereal. Ok?” Irma asked. She went to the pantry. “Let’s see what I’ve got here.”
Corona ate what Aunt Irma put in her bowl, all the while reading the cereal box, looking for information she could use later. She found some mistakes on it, but didn’t comment on them. She marveled such errors in weight and ingredient calculation could go unnoticed at the company’s factory. She chuckled at their attempt to hide the factory’s foreign location through its labeling gimmicks.
Corona’s normal physical growth and development belied her mental capabilities. By twelve months of age she displayed the vocabulary of a much older child. At eighteen-months-old, she could play some piano keys so Irma and Hale bought her a variety of musical instruments. Corona mastered as many of them as her little fingers would allow, including various horns and those with strings.
Irma and Hale provided their great-niece with opportunities for learning and experiences befitting her level.
Corona received her own computer and other electronic gadgets with which to play and help her learn. They made sure she continued to have playtime with children her own age.
As Corona further matured, she was sometimes frustrated with peers and sought out intelligent adults with whom she could discuss the classics and the latest scientific theories. She listened with interest as they spoke, accepting and discarding information depending on its accuracy as she understood it, being careful not to correct them too often.
In pre-school, some fellow students thought she was strange. Many of them shied away from this child who seemed to know everything.
Some of them didn’t understand why she was different, so they played with her just because she was a nice little girl. Most included her in their activities as long as it didn’t involve the use of intelligence.
Corona understood their discomfort and took care not to be overbearing. Her inner voice explained to Corona how to respond in such difficult times.
So in the morning at school, Corona got to participate in physical sports and games in which her skills were normal. For competitive tests that involved knowledge, she was denied her peers’ company. In the afternoon, tutors visited her home to challenge her learning capabilities.
The nighttime visitations continued for Corona as they had for her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother before her. She grew to enjoy the visits of Flora, Fancy and the various male beings. She was sometimes unable to read their minds but persisted and was often rewarded.
At five years of age, after a midnight visit, Corona became privy to further information they revealed to her about themselves and their world.
“You’ve weighed me, measured me, took samples of my blood and my hair and other things,” Corona said to Flora. “You’ve looked into my mouth many times and I still don’t know anything about you. Let me see what your mouth looks like.” She smiled her broadest for them.
Her quest for knowledge was insatiable, and she felt deprived, not knowing everything possible about her invasive visitors, beings to whom she referred as “my nighttime family.”
Flora looked at Fancy, snorted and shared a tiny smile. She leaned close to the little girl who was sweet and charming along with having an enviable knowledge base. She knew it’d do her no good to sign or signal a response because Corona understood everything they said and did. And, the baby had the upper hand with them because she pulled her mind veil down over her consciousness to shut them out.
Don’t use words to talk with us anymore, Corona, Flora communicated. Continue to use your thought track like we told you before. It’s quicker, and your daytime family won’t hear you.
Corona nodded and communicated, Okay.
Flora nudged Fancy to do what the child wanted.
Like an indulgent parent, Fancy bent toward the towheaded child and opened her mouth. The scent of decomposing lilies wafted out.
Corona looked first to see if there were any teeth. Where teeth were expected, rigid cartilaginous plates laid out in a U shape, much like a goat except, unlike goats, Fancy had no teeth at all. Instead, the firm tissue was on both the upper and lower parts of her jaw. Corona looked past the thin, almost non-existent lips to where her tongue would be. She was surprised to observe the floor of Flora’s mouth seemingly alive with scores of tiny threadlike extensions.
Flora explained they functioned to absorb nutrients, secrete digestive juices, and assist foods such as flowers to move toward the digestive tract. They also gave the beings’ speech a throaty resonance.
Fancy emitted a noise that sounded like a snort. She grinned at the look on Corona’s face and snorted again.
Corona laughed and clapped her hands together repeatedly. She tried to snort back which amused her visitors. I’ve never seen anything like that in anyone else but you, the little girl communicated. It’s interesting.
I’m glad you enjoy it and aren’t scared of us, Flora conveyed. Sometimes humans are frightened of us, and we’re not able to get close to them without interventions. Fancy, remember back in this world’s year of 1881, how we visited that little boy born in a region north of the Danube?
Fancy nodded that she remembered. He was one she would never forget.
He was a funny little guy, Flora said. Even a little strange, but for some reason, he couldn’t get used to us. Whenever we went to his home, he resisted everything we did. The child didn’t speak until he was four or five years old, a direct result of our nightly visitations to him. That was very disappointing. Perhaps if he’d have been able to let us know we were being too rough with him and scaring him, we could’ve made more progress and alleviated his discomfort. By morning’s light, he never remembered anything we said or did with him which, with his fragile emotions, was a good thing. But then, even as intelligent as he was, he didn’t have the gifts you have. Despite his often-unkind behaviors to humans, he eventually turned out to be quite advanced and we revealed some of our secrets of the universe with him.
Your brain is different from his and from any of our other humans, Corona. That difference has contributed to your being able to tell us things. Like how we were too rough with you sometimes. We didn’t fully understand we were handling humans too harshly. So, we changed our approach. Your advanced brain has also aided your acceptance of us and gave you courage when we are here.
I’m not afraid, Corona said. I like your visits. I learn so much from you. But why does your breath always smell like some kind of old flowers? She screwed up her face.
Lilies are a treat to us, Fancy said. You eat cookies and other snacks. We love the taste of flowers, with lilies being our favorites. We’re unable to grow them where we live so, when we come to your world, we’re eager to enter your garden and pick off the flowers. Especially the spent ones which are decaying. They taste delicious. And they have nutrients we use in our bodies. You drink milk, eat meat and vegetables while, in our world, we eat other things.
When can I come to your world? Corona asked. You come here a lot, and I’ve never been invited to your house to play.
Corona. For you to independently pass from this dimension to ours, you must understand a lot more about what your people call atoms and quarks, baryons, quantum mechanics and gravity. I know you’ve been exposed already to String Theory and some theoretical and experimental physics, but if you’re willing to let us teach you what you need to know about how the universe is
ordered from one space to another, we’ll attempt to take you through the fold to where we live. Your mother Grace, like all the other Hybrids, was unable to pass over on her own. She didn’t have the capabilities nor sufficient electrical brain impulse development to transform her hybrid human body into the basic atomistic molecule frequency.
I’ll do it, Flora. When can we start?
Helper and Darker will begin the lessons with you tonight, Flora said, motioning to the smaller males at the foot of her bed.
They grinned at their little charge, who grinned back.
After we weigh and measure you tonight, Fancy and I’ll leave them here with you. They’re trustworthy and can teach you everything you need to know for you to cross over to where we live, Flora said. And remember to continue communicating with them through your mind. We’ve secured the house to make sure your parents don’t awaken to interrupt our work, but we don’t want to take any extra chances.
Thank you, Corona said. She looked sober for a moment and asked, What happened to my real mother? The day I was born, she left. What happened to her? I miss her. But I don’t feel as if she’s gone forever. She thought about telling them of the inner voice she sometimes hears which helps her. A voice that resembles her mother’s voice. Corona decided not to tell them.
Fancy gave Flora a strange look.
One thing at a time, Flora said. First, we help you understand something about the multiple universes and crossing over, and then we’ll explain life and death, as we know it.
Okay, Corona said. I’ll be patient.
Good, Flora said. For now, we have other humans we must visit. You are our main Hybrid, Corona, but we still have to attend to others.
What are they like? Corona asked. Are they just children or are there some grownups, too?
You’ll meet two of them when you attend college. It’ll be good for you to connect with humans with similar gifts such as yours. There are children and also some adults we’ve been working with. Sometimes, when a new Hybrid is born, one of the others, usually an adult, dies or passes over to our dimension. It provides us with more time for us to attend to the new one. It isn’t painful for them when we take them. They just go with the aid of a tool we use. She began to feel a little uncomfortable. Enough for now. We’ll discuss death and dying another time.
Flora glided to the corner of the room with Fancy close behind. Flora dropped her grin when Corona could no longer see her.
The two beings crossed their arms over their chests and were gone into a bright fold. A flow of energy swirled across the room and rolled over the little girl.
Corona squealed. The energy felt good when it passed through her.
She’s a valuable specimen, Flora said to Fancy when they entered In Situ. I don’t want to use the tool to bring her here. I’d rather wait until we see if she can cross over independently.
Helper and Darker communicated to Corona what was expected from her regarding the lessons they were starting. Darker’s red eyeband glowed brighter when the child perfected techniques she’d been taught. He felt personally responsible for her intellectual growth. They stressed the importance of her adherence to mental exercises throughout the day, consisting of consciously manipulating her corpus callosum into communicating from one side of the brain to the other at its highest possible speed. She was frequently reminded not to tell anyone about the nighttime visits nor reveal what they were teaching her.
Humans, with the exception of the Hybrids, generally don’t possess the necessary capabilities for understanding these complex mathematical equations, Helper explained to Corona. They seem to get so far and cannot make the leap or connection from what they possess to the next step. Or they just refuse to abandon old teachings and embrace new ones. Many of them still believe matter can’t occupy the same space and that t, x, y, z are the only dimensions of your space-time, not recognizing the true potential of compactification. The fault lies not entirely with the humans. Although they’re inferior to us, we’re still learning, too, so we don’t have explanations for everything. And humans have sociological problems and boundaries they concern themselves with. Some have ego issues and refuse to admit when they’re wrong. They perpetuate falsehoods. Others harbor intense fears of anything new. The real breakthroughs for knowledge in your world will continue to come through you Hybrids, but will take time. I’ll manage the material for you in understandable increments, using your world vocabulary for consistency.
From our dimension, when we pass information to our Hybrids here, we use particular phrasing, symbols and signs that keep the conversational confusion to a minimum. Even now, when we visit you, we communicate for your comfort. The way we say it to you isn’t necessarily the words we’d use when we’re at In Situ.
Corona showed she understood. I do the same thing with adults here so I don’t appear to know so much more than they know. They get nervous about that. And some of them get unhappy, too. Others are pleased about my abilities and do what they can to help me.
You, Corona, will lead the new Hybrids. We’ll help you choose when and where to show the way. For now, I want you to focus on this equation and we’ll discuss its application to universes and membranes. But remember - there’s a trite but true saying in your world. “Things are not always what they seem.” No matter where you are, Corona. Remember that.
Darker was excited about Corona’s gifts. She seemed already to understand that he and his kind occupy the same space as humans, but in another dimension. Something that goes against everything most people in her world accept. He was eager to teach her about the known dimensions and their counterparts, the other parallel dimensions and the theory of the multiverse. Darker was quick to remind her that they would pass on to her what they’ve learned, but there is much more to gain from beings elsewhere.
Darker’s teachings were appreciated by their young student. Corona’s intuition and perception of her world’s response to her intellectual capabilities gave rise to another form of self-protection, that of the shielding of the totality of her inherent brilliance from humans. She understood the effect it had on others, so she never totally displayed to anyone, the immeasurable depth of knowledge she possessed.
Corona learned from trial and error how much she should disclose to others and under what circumstances. Humans had no idea that most of the time she could, when she wanted to do so, read their thoughts as she did those of her nighttime family. She chose not to read human minds most of the time because it influenced how she felt about them. She was wise enough to recognize when she knew what people were really thinking, it usually made her unhappy.
Chapter Eleven
“Hale, do you know where Corona is? I haven’t seen her since she returned from her tutoring at school,” Irma said.
“She was outside, looking around at the garden,” Hale said. “We talked awhile. She was asking about her grandmother, Linda. How Linda and John passed away in the boating accident. I know Corona’s only fifteen-years-old, but she understands concepts with greater clarity than mature adults. Sometimes, I get the feeling she’s holding back. That she knows even more than we think. Not letting us see exactly how smart she really is.”
“I feel that way, too,” Irma said. She hugged her husband then pulled away and asked, “Where do you think she gets her intellect from? Grace was intelligent, but not like Corona. Your mother and father were highly educated and smart, but not like Grace. What were your grandparents like? Did they have high IQ’s, too?”
“According to my mother, her mother Martha was an intellectual. She was a brilliant pianist and became a schoolteacher for a while, before she died.” He paused and thought for a moment. “You know, there’s something my grandmother, my mother, my sister Linda, Grace, and Corona all have in common.”
“What is it?” Irma asked.
“All of them were good musicians. Played more than one instrument,” Hale said. “One of Corona’s school tutors told me there’s a parallel between tension and vibratio
n of the strings in String Theory and that of stringed musical instruments. Maybe Corona’s understanding of both is enhanced by some of their basic similarities.” He started to laugh. “I’ve no clue what I’m talking about.”
“Me either.” Irma laughed at her own admission.
“One thing I do know something about is they all had difficulty sleeping. Remember how Grace use to be restless and talk in her sleep when she napped in the daytime? Her mother was the same way. I remember seeing Linda sleeping in the afternoon when she was tired. I would hear her jabbering away, moving around and looking anxious. When I’d ask her about it after she awoke, she’d say she couldn’t recall a thing about it. If you remember, Grace would do the same thing. I know Corona was restless during daytime naps, but she doesn’t nap anymore during the daytime. Do you hear anything from her at night? I don’t.”
“No. I don’t hear anything at all from her in the night. From the time my head hits the pillow, I fall asleep and don’t awaken until the alarm goes off.
“Must be genetic,” Hale said. He pondered the similarities of the women in his family.
“I think I’ll go outside and look for her. Make sure she’s okay.” Irma hovered in the doorway of their farmhouse. She looked over her shoulder and asked her husband, “Do you want to go along with me? It’s good for you to talk with her, too.”
“Sure.” Hale reached for a jacket.
“By the way,” Irma said. “What did you tell Corona about her grandparents?”
“The truth. They had a boating accident and their bodies were never found. I told her that’s how we came to raise her mother, Grace. That we loved all of them very much. She seemed to accept it. I’m glad she didn’t ask more questions. It’s hard for me to discuss that day. I still miss Linda and John. My sister was a wonderful person, and her husband was a great guy. And, I know we haven’t talked about it for a while, but I still miss Grace a lot. She was a sweet girl and I love her.” His voice cracked, he turned his head and wiped his eyes.
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