Irma pulled him close and they were still.
“You’ve been through a lot, Hale,” Irma said. “We both have. Thank God, we’ve managed to handle what we’ve been given.”
At the shed, Corona was peeking under the tarp covering the “Grace and Love” boat. She touched each letter of the name and tried to imagine the loving grandfather who painted the perfect, black words on the white background. Closing her eyes, pictures of a handsome couple, lounging on the sailboat on the river, came to her mind. She saw them stretched out on chairs, her grandmother in a black one-piece swimming suit, smiling over at her husband. Her mind’s eye saw them drinking iced tea and touching each other’s fingers from one chair to the other. Then, as in other times, the picture changed and became much like Grace had seen. Corona’s grandparents pointed to something in the air. Corona’s grandmother folded her arms across her chest and disappeared. Her husband John followed close behind. The next scene was the last Corona envisioned. Small, floating cages separately housed the grandparents. Each were looking out through a mesh covering their prison, trying to get a glimpse of the other. Shortly, the scene washed away as if rinsed clean by a cold rain shower.
Sometimes, Corona’s own birth became her focus. She could see images of Grace recovering in the hospital with her baby next to her. Grace was smiling weakly at a woman, handed her baby to her, then turned away into a fetal position. Corona felt the energy draining from her mother. The final scene was her mother’s viewpoint from above the room near the ceiling, where Grace was looking down on her own body.
Corona remembered looking up at her mother and watching her disappear through a luminous opening in the air. She also remembered seeing the lady go around the bed to look at Grace’s face. It all seemed familiar. Even though she was a newborn when it happened, Corona was recalling everything as one would remember events when mature.
Corona’s eyes opened and she pondered those visions. Her inner voice promised peace and comfort in what would come from her life’s events. She felt relaxed from the message.
Corona reminded herself to ask Flora if her grandparents’ boating accident was related to the nighttime visits. Absently, she folded her arms across her chest and thought about going to the other universes.
“Corona. What are you doing?” Irma asked. She wasn’t sure what she was seeing.
“Hi, Aunt Irma” Corona said, unfolding her arms. “I’m not doing anything. Just looking at the boat. I think about my grandparents sometimes and wonder what they were like. I was just trying to picture them sailing.” She folded her arms back across her chest in a more natural position.
“I remember them well, Corona,” Irma said. “Your gramma was a loving mother and sweet person. She was smart, too. Like you and Grace. And she sure could make a garden grow. Her husband, John, was a wonderful father and husband. He loved Linda a lot. Spoiled her every chance he got.”
Corona grinned.
“Your grampa was also an excellent gardener,” Irma said. “He cultivated many kinds of lilies. Just like your mother. I think your mother was even better at it than her parents had been. You’d have loved them, honey. Grampa John was a botanist. He taught at the university and was famous for his hybrid lilies. Some of his concoctions are still growing out there in the garden and our internet sales of them are huge.” She waved at the gardens of flowers she continued to work since Grace’s death.
Corona looked up at her Uncle Hale, whose eyes were misting. “Don’t cry Uncle Hale. Mother, Gramma and Grampa are still alive. Your mother, too.”
Taken back by Corona’s remarks, Hale asked, “What made you say that?”
“I don’t know. I think I mean they’re living in our hearts and minds. So much so, it seems as if they’re still with me. It’s something I think about sometimes to make me feel better. You seem sad when you talk about them, so I want you to think of them as living within us, too.”
She knew this wasn’t the time to tell them about her nighttime visits - of them teaching her theories of space, scale, the coveted ‘theory of everything,’ life, death, eternity and more. About real life lessons we refuse to embrace. About people of our world and other dimensions who are always at war and hating each other for something or the other, never really accepting the happiness right before them. How important it is to show your love to those who are dear to you. And how, tonight, she would be attempting for the first time, to cross over into the nighttime beings’ world.
“You’re right, honey,” Hale said. “We sometimes let the past rule us instead of just enjoying what’s already here.” A little child shall lead them…
“Uncle Hale, do you think we could get Grampa’s pictures developed? The ones in his camera in my closet? I’d like to have one of them framed and put on my bedroom wall.” And I could show them to the beings.
“That’s a wonderful idea, Corona,” Irma said. “I’d almost forgotten about those things.”
“I thought the police confiscated the film out of the camera,” Hale said to his wife. “As part of their investigation.”
“They were going to get it but never did,” Irma said.
“They’re up on the top shelf,” Corona said. “I thought maybe we could take them somewhere to have them developed. It’s exciting to think about the photos my grandparents left for us to see.”
“We’ll do that soon,” Hale said. “Before you go to sleep, I’ll take the film out and tomorrow we’ll take it somewhere to get it processed. I don’t know if it’ll be any good after all these years, but we can try.”
“Thank you,” Corona said. “And do you think sometime I could get a pet. Maybe a dog? I’d love to have a dog.”
Irma and Hale looked at each other.
“Corona, we’ve been through this before,” Hale said. “Now isn’t the time for you to have a pet. With your academic load, our working, and Grace’s Shed, there’s no time for a dog now. Maybe sometime in the future.”
“Okay,” Corona said. “Maybe sometime later.” She brightened. “I’d like a little dog. Maybe a Pomeranian or a Yorkie. It could sleep in my room. I’d take good care of it.”
“Maybe in a few years,” Hale said.
The Penses were in agreement that a pet was not possible now. They didn’t permit Grace to have one either, for the same reasons, and felt they were solid ones.
“I think I’m going to go to my desk now and do some studying,” Corona said. “I’ve been learning about bosons and fermions and why some scientists think things can’t occupy the same space at the same time. I want to rework some of their equations. It’s very interesting.”
“You go on ahead, Corona, I want to talk with Hale first,” Irma said. She pulled her niece close for a hug.
“Okay, Aunt Irma,” Corona said. She walked the gravel pathway back to the house. I still have a few things to learn and understand before they come tonight. This is going to be so exciting. Enthusiasm spilling over, she ran the rest of the way to the porch steps.
“Hale, do you think Corona’s learning too much too soon? I’m worried she’s missing out on the typical teenager experiences. Look at her running to go study bosons and fermions. I don’t have a clue what they are. She could be out having fun, spending time with friends.”
“I don’t know what to think,” Hale answered. He watched Corona open the door and enter their home. “She seems to really enjoy her studies. She’s so advanced. Her tutor just told me he’s passing her on to another level next month. She possesses this unheard-of wealth of knowledge about math and physics and their inherent theories. She’s advanced in other subjects, too, but not as far as she is in physics. He predicts that, at the rate she’s soaking up knowledge, she’ll be bypassing four years of college. He shook his head back and forth. “I’m afraid not to let her continue learning so rapidly for fear she’ll become bored and frustrated. That’s what her tutors are telling me, too.”
“They’ve been hinting about our letting her board at their university next y
ear to help her get the focused one-on-one teaching experience they want to give her. They seem to think that exposing her to the work at their linear particle accelerator would be interesting for her,” Irma said. “What do you think of that? There are a lot of children who enter college at a much younger age than Corona is now. They seem to do okay. We’d have to take her out of her high school where she gets the college courses now.”
“I’m for it if they can provide peers at the school.” Hale said. “She still needs friends her own age.”
“I think so, too,” Irma said. “Her psychologist doesn’t think it’s a good idea for her to go to any school of higher learning if she doesn’t have students there whom she can relate to. Emotionally, while Corona understands so much, she still needs time to socialize with other teens. Her psychologist was glad she continues to be a happy, loving child, in spite of her mother’s death and her advanced intellect. He credits that to our family life. I don’t want to change that for her. She’s had enough losses in her life and she needs us to be her constant. The one thing she can always count on is us. We lost her mother at such an early age and I don’t want to chance the same thing with her.”
“Good. We’re in agreement. You know, I often regret pressuring Grace about Corona’s father. If I could take that back, I would. Now all we can do is try not to make mistakes with Grace’s daughter.”
“Our concern about who Corona’s father is seems so unimportant at this time,” Irma said. “Back then, we thought it meant something, but now, I don’t think so at all. Whoever he is, he’d be proud of her.”
“Now, now,” Hale said. “Enough talk about regrets. Let’s go inside and make sure Corona has what she needs. After that, I’ve got to get to work and do some contracts for the business. Don’t you have some gardening needing done?”
“You’re right. Grace would’ve had all of that finished by now. I’ve got to water and fertilize and open some boxes from the new shipments of pottery for Grace’s Shed.”
Hale kissed his wife on the forehead, loosed himself from her embrace, and went to the house.
Irma headed for her garden duties. The lilies have been beaten down a little lately and she wanted to try to prune the damaged stems. This seemed so much easier for Grace to do than me. She began rolling fenestrated hoses up and down the aisles of lily mounds, applying them so water could leak through at the base of the plants.
Irma continued her work, stopping now and then to inspect the garden for pests. She examined the undersides of some of the scapes, and turned over the leaves, searching for signs of viruses, aphids and other diseases. Up and down the rows she walked, a trapper’s basket on her back to catch any spent blooms needing deadheaded. This is so remarkable. So many blooms come and go but most of them are gone. She stood up straight and looked out over the waves of Candidum and the other fragrant, nodding flowers.
Waves of movement through the plants caught Irma’s attention. She strained to see if there was something there. She thought about walking through the fields to satisfy her curiosity but decided against it.
In his office, Hale pored over the pressing contracts he had to approve. He breathed a sigh of relief that his business was doing well. The extra money was necessary for Corona’s schooling. He opened more of the letters offering Corona grants and scholarships which were already filling a drawer in his desk. Through scholastic achievements, she was making a name for herself in educational halls across the country.
Upstairs at her desk, Corona was doing the most recent mental stretching exercises the beings had given her. It involved mental imagery coupled with mathematical equations, all of which changed the chemical and electrical impulses mediated in her brain by her hyper corpus callosum. She’d been doing them for a long time and their effect upon her intelligence capabilities was remarkable. She also came to enjoy the pleasant physical response she received from all the chemical activity. She was thankful for all Bob-Boy was doing to help her.
Bob-Boy had explained to Corona the importance of following orders. That when they reentered In Situ, they could bring along with them, new, possibly untreatable diseases to their population. That was the In Situ concern, he’d said. The All determined what was best for them and In Situs followed their edicts for their collective good.
Fancy had shown Corona her skin disease as an example of what can happen when passing over is not followed according to the rules. She explained that in the early years of their visiting humans, they would return to their homes with interesting plant species. For awhile, they enjoyed the delicate, tasty flower treats, even growing them for their consumption. Unfortunately, they had to discontinue the lily gardens because a skin disease infected some of the susceptible beings. Fancy showed Corona the bumps on her body that were a wormy fungal invasion which had somehow attached to some of the plants they took with them from here. Fancy had told her, Our treatment methods didn’t work on all the diseases from this world. So, now, while the infection didn’t kill us, it was uncomfortable as it invaded our cells. I hate it.
Still seated at her desk, Corona wondered where she fit into the two dimensions she knew, hers and In Situ. She also wondered what was beyond In Situ. She was excited for tonight would be the first time Flora and Fancy would assist her, if all went well, to pass over with them. She had no fear of discomfort from the exercise because the beings said it was painless. Despite her advanced capabilities, she wondered about the effect it may have on her birth world. She had so many questions in need of answers, all waiting in her brain. As they were answered, she’d file many of them away in her non-local memory, stored in the matrix for access later. New questions would take their place.
Chapter Twelve
The day waning, Irma and Hale were getting ready to sleep. They kissed Corona good night and tucked her in the same bed her mother had occupied at the same age.
“Sleep well, honey,” Hale said. He kissed Corona on the forehead and hugged her.
“You, too,” Corona replied. Her eyelids were lowering fast.
“Try to get some rest,” Irma said. “I know you sometimes read until late in the evening and we worry you aren’t getting enough sleep. Try to get your rest tonight, okay?” She pushed the bedclothes around her and looked to see what books she would be reading. Irma smiled when some popular teens’ books rested on the bed.
“Oh, yeah,” Hale said. “I’ll get your grandfather’s camera down from the closet now so we can get it developed tomorrow. It’ll be interesting to see what photos were taken. There may even be some from their last day.”
“Thanks, Uncle Hale,” Corona said. “Good night.” She pulled a book close to her and opened it to the first page.
After her parents closed the door behind them, Corona placed the teen book of mystical stories under her bed. While she loved that particular series, tonight she felt it necessary to read material of greater depth. She glanced at some book-marked pages in a textbook and did her brain exercises. Later, she turned off the light, thinking and revisiting what she’d read.
The beings had always encouraged her to get some sleep before their arrival even though they had methods of providing her body with the needed rest if they took up too much of her sleep-time.
Flora, Fancy, Bob-Boy and Helper crept low through the alluring flower patches outside Corona’s home. This evening, they were in the Madonna Lilies, grazing amongst the buds, flowers and spent blooms. A wave of vegetation undulated from their moving amongst the plants. As always, they preferred the yellow-tinged white blossoms that had opened and wilted, leaving a waxy, moist carcass. When those were eaten, they chose ones that were fresher, popping them into their mouths and relishing the taste. Their active tongue papillae pulled nutrients from the blossoms and nudged the pulp to the back of the throat for swallowing. Although the beings were shorter than the mature plants, they crouched down even lower so as not to be seen.
Hysteria and first-person accounts of their visits upset everyone and brought scores of un
welcome alien hunters to their Hybrid’s towns. Then, predictably, there’d be at least two sides of the issue, sometimes more, arguing for and against the existence of extraterrestrials. Movies and television shows would be made. Their sighting would end up on the news and websites and on it would go.
In the past, when they’d used flying transport devices to get around in this dimension, it brought about the erroneous theory of outer space aliens visiting from another planet. That explanation suited the creatures because it kept the humans off the track of their true origin. They even enjoyed a snorting laugh or two from the pictures the eyewitnesses had drawn of them. Those false experiences contributed to fear and suspicion of otherworldly beings.
So, to avoid more drama and work for them, the In Situs crouched their bodies down and remained observant. They would eat their fill and go back to their own dimension before returning to see Corona.
One by one, the females and male beings had left, then passed back to the human’s world. In the darkness, they browsed a bit more amongst the lilies for their treats They were ready now to see if their Hybrid female could demonstrate the abilities of which they thought her to be capable.
A sweet floral scent drifted around Corona’s room in the early hours. It lingered over the young woman’s bed.
Flora and Fancy glided to where Corona lay sleeping and directed their Hybrid to awaken.
Corona rubbed her eyes and smiled at her visitors.
They attempted a smile in return.
Fancy pulled the covers down to the foot of the bed, folding them back. Flora gently helped Corona sit up and dangle her legs over the side. While it didn’t suit her personality to practice a more tender approach, it did help their relationship with the Hybrids and assisted her in getting what she wanted from them.
Are you well? Flora asked. She was proud of herself for utilizing more of the human’s communication techniques since meeting Corona. So much had been learned about their culture and comfort needs from this one who had the ability to express herself to them.
WATCHING CORONA: From Our Dimension to Yours Page 7
