by Linda Hawley
As I entered the long hall, John met me there, his hand outstretched. “Hi, Ann,” he swiftly greeted me. “From now on when you come to work, you can enter the viewing room through this door,” he said, gesturing to the door we walked through, which was marked E.
“How was it when you left here yesterday, thinking through everything you learned?”
“It was incredible. I feel honored to be here. What you said about the connection between dreams and remote viewing pretty much blew my mind.”
“Why is that?”
“Because dreams have been the nemesis of my life.”
“Isn’t it true that everything has its opposite, in order to balance life?” he asked me.
“I suppose so. I guess it could be that the opposite of nightmares is that I’ll be able to see things in other times and other locations. I suppose it’s the yin-yang balance my dad taught me about.”
“Exactly. Your dad seems like a smart man. Won’t it feel good to be able to take that nemesis and use it as a blessing for your country?” he passionately asked.
I paused thoughtfully. “Yeah, it will.”
“Are you ready to get started with your first lesson, then?” John asked with a smile.
“I am,” I replied.
“You saw one of the beginning lessons yesterday with Bob.”
“Yeah. Then Bob explained some basics to me in the observation room,” I clarified.
“What do you say we jump in and try it, instead of just talking?” he asked.
“That sounds perfect.”
Chapter 15
BELLINGHAM, WASHINGTON
The Year 2015
I was in my BYD, heading to the office the day after the Shanghai earthquake, driving with a half-conscious mind. Finally I pulled into an electric-only designated parking spot near the front door of AlterHydro. Lulu and I entered the 1910, making our way through the large vestibule where the office manager sat at the front desk, sulking into her keyboard.
“Good morning,” I smiled cheerfully.
“Morning,” she glumly responded, head down.
Maybe she’s depressed.
Passing her, I rounded the corner and approached the stairwell. Raymond Brown saw me first.
“Ann,” he called out.
I stopped. “Hey, Raymond. How are you? I haven’t seen you much lately.”
Raymond and I had been friends since his first week at AlterHydro. He was one of the most attractive black men I had ever known, both on the outside and the inside. Raymond had the most joyous smile I’d ever seen, was six feet tall, and had the body of a professional baseball player, but he actually loved basketball. He was one of the kindest people I knew.
He was the marketing director and perfect for the job because he really did love people. We often had overlapping projects. He could get along with anyone and do it with a smile. In many ways, I looked up to him and respected him.
He was devoted to his family, but his wife was a jealous beast. One summer, AlterHydro hosted a summer picnic for everyone and their families, and of course both Raymond and I were there. He brought his wife and children; it was the first time I had met them. Any time Raymond and I spoke to one another, his wife would pop up out of nowhere, grab Raymond’s arm, and hold tight, staking her claim. What was really irritating was that there was never an ounce of physical attraction between Raymond and me. I liked him as a person—and believed it was reciprocated—but there was never any reason for his wife to act as she did around me. She quite obviously felt threatened, and based on what Raymond told me, it wasn’t just with me. The woman had rage too near the surface, and I wondered if one day she’d pull a Bobbitt on him. I steered clear of her whenever I saw her.
“I was visiting my family in Arkansas. I brought the boys and my wife.”
“Oh, that’s nice. I bet you had a nice time. Did you fly or drive?”
“We flew. I know, I know—two boys under the age of four—but I didn’t have the vacation time to drive. My wife was so happy when we landed.”
“I bet. I’m sure it was good to see your mom after so long.”
“It was, it was. How’s Elinor?” he asked, smiling.
“As you know, she’s away, in her first year at the university. She’s barely called me. But I guess I should be grateful that she calls me at all—even though it’s only when she needs more money deposited into her account. Thank goodness she did one year of college through the Running Start program at high school. That saved a year of tuition.”
“I did Running Start, too, and was able to finish my associate degree before I started at Western,” Raymond said proudly.
“That’s wonderful. Isn’t it a great program?”
“It is that, it is that.”
Raymond had the funniest way of repeating things. It always made me smile.
“So tell me how your boys are. Did Shawn’s arm heal? Is he out of the cast?”
“Yes, thank you for asking. He’s all healed and tearing around the house like a madman again.”
“Oh, I’m so glad,” I said, smiling.
“I can see that Lulu is doing well,” he said, reaching down to pet her.
“She is. She’s still running alongside me on the treadmill,” I boasted.
“Lulu’s the only dog I ever knew who did that.”
“If I didn’t have her running with me, I think she’d be tearing up our headquarters.” I laughed.
“I could see that, I really could.”
“Well Raymond, duty calls me to the dungeon, so I’ve gotta run.”
“It was good to see you. Let’s catch up sooner rather than later, okay?” he asked.
“That sounds good—lunch,” I offered.
“Mexican,” he replied.
“Next week,” I clarified.
“Okay, done.” He smiled. “See you then. Good to see you.”
“Good to see you, too,” I said with a wave.
Lulu and I started making our way down the stairwell. As the blast of cool, damp air came up my nostrils, I saw my co-workers already in.
“Hi, guys,” I greeted loudly with a wave.
“Hi, Ann,” they responded in unison and then looked at one another across the room.
I laughed.
“Edwin, what’s on the microwave menu today?” I stopped, bantering.
“I never know that until I get further into my day,” Edwin replied seriously.
Paul and I both laughed out loud.
As I moved to my desk, Paul left his computers and came over to me. I started unpacking my workbag as Lulu took her rightful place on her dog bed.
“Can you believe that earthquake?” he asked me.
“I can’t. It freaked me out,” I responded, meeting his eyes.
“Did you know someone there?”
“Well, not exactly,” I hesitantly responded.
There was silence between us, and he looked at me with questioning eyes.
“It looks like I should pull up a seat.”
“You know, can I take a rain check and maybe talk with you at lunchtime? Do you want to run outside today, with Lulu?”
“That sounds great, and it’s supposed to be a beautiful afternoon,” he said, obviously pleased with my invitation.
“How about we head out at twelve thirty?” I suggested.
“Okay. Twelve thirty it is. I’ll meet you just outside the foyer,” Paul agreed.
At twelve fifteen, Lulu and I went to the gym locker room to change.
“Lulu, it’s a special day. We’re running outside.”
Her bottom wagged. Does she know what I’m saying?
I took Lulu’s leash, and we headed toward the foyer, past the glum office manager. We met Paul outside as planned.
He ran on the street side; he had an old-fashioned sense of chivalry about him. I ran next to him with Lulu on my left. She did love to run. We had gone about two miles, chitchatting the whole time.
“So tell me what’s up,” he prodded.
He sure is direct, I thought, glancing his way. It unnerved me a bit, being this open with Paul. I had not confided in a man since Armond’s death.
“It was the strangest thing,” I started slowly in breathless jog-talk, and then I decided to dive right in. “This morning, I awoke from a vivid dream. I’d traveled to Shanghai. It was so real that I didn’t even realize it was a dream right away. I remember every part of it too—every taste, scent, feeling, and even the cultural significances. At the end of the dream, there was an earthquake in the hotel I was in. That’s when I woke up. It took me a few seconds to realize that I was home and not in Shanghai. Once I realized that, I knew something was really wrong. I asked my computer for the news, and as she began, I was horrified to learn of the earthquake there,” I said loudly, speaking above the sound of cars as we ran up to the entrance of Boulevard Park.
“It sounds like a coincidence.”
“I don’t think so—”
“Why?” he interrupted.
How much can I tell him? I wondered.
“There’s more, isn’t there?” he said, interrupting my thoughts and surprising me.
“You might find it a little crazy—”
“I like a little bit of crazy,” he reassured me, glancing my way with a smile.
“Okay, here goes nothing—”
He put his arm on mine to slowly stop our running. We both immediately touched our pace watches to hold the time.
“Ann, you can trust me,” he said ardently, looking straight into my eyes.
I tried to maintain eye contact, but there was such intensity in them that I had to look away. I looked out at the sailboats in the water instead.
He laughed.
I didn’t say anything.
“I know trust is hard for you,” he said. “I don’t know why, but I can see that it is. I want you to know that I know a thing or two about loyalty, and you have mine. You just don’t realize it yet.”
He stood closer, both of us still breathless from the jog.
“Tell me what it is about the dream that’s got you spooked.”
I started walking along the wooden boardwalk that followed the shore, and Paul followed along.
“In the dream, I found something,” I started.
“What?”
“A Herkimer diamond.”
“You mean a quartz crystal?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, you found a Herkimer crystal. Did it mean something to you?”
“Well…I found it in my bed with me when I woke up,” I said quietly.
“What?”
“In the dream, I found this Herkimer diamond that my father and I discovered when we were rock hounding in New York when I was a young girl. I lost it many years ago. I found the crystal in the dream, and when I woke up, it was right there,” I blurted out, looking over at him.
“So you found a crystal like the one from when you were a kid. Do you have other quartz around the house?” he asked, trying to explain it.
“The crystal in my dream was the very one I found with my dad. It’s extremely rare and identifiable. When I woke up, it was there…with me,” I repeated with exasperation.
I could see that he finally understood, because his eyebrows rose, his eyes got big, and he was silent as we walked along the path.
“That’s weird,” he exclaimed.
Now that I had his attention, I dove right in. “This particular crystal awakens a spiritual connection to God, so that the wearer can seek their higher purpose. It’s very special. My dad told me that it allows for energy to flow in both directions, because it’s double terminated.”
“I know a little bit about quartz. It consists of one part silicon dioxide and two parts oxygen. It’s the most abundant mineral found on the earth’s surface,” he said, slightly lecturing.
“Now how do you know that—right off the top of your head?”
Smiling, he replied, “Oh, I rock hounded too, when I was in college.”
“You’re just full of surprises.”
“I’ve been a geek for a long time.”
I laughed. He was a funny guy.
“What do you know about quartz crystals?” I asked.
“They vibrate when they’re exposed to electricity—they actually expand and contract, creating the vibration.”
“Just like a living thing,” I commented, as we neared the end of the boardwalk.
“Interesting, huh? Quartz can actually generate an electrical field.”
I nodded.
“It’s called piezoelectricity. When a quartz crystal is cut into a specific shape, and then voltage is applied to an electrode near the crystal, electricity is generated. When the voltage is removed, the crystal creates an electric field during its return to its previous shape. So a crystal can actually work like a circuit does. Oh, I gotta tell you about something when I was nine years old and a Boy Scout—”
“No way—a Boy Scout?” I interrupted, my mouth hanging open.
“It’s true. I got this diagram of how to make my own crystal radio from my dad’s Popular Mechanics magazine.” He seemed to transform into his boy-self. “I took a quartz crystal, attached it to a brass cup, and then touched a wire to various points on the crystal, finding the signal. The radio was fully powered by the crystal, through piezoelectricity. This was the first true wireless technology, but without batteries,” he stated, proud to relay the story.
“I had no idea,” I said, amused by him.
“Quartz crystals are used to make electronic sensors, although those crystals are now made in laboratories. Billions of crystals are manufactured in labs every year, to be used in computers, cell phones, and other stuff. You probably already know from history that they’ve been used in wristwatches and in radios since the 1920s. So the question of the day is, why would a crystal power generator morph from your dream into your reality?”
“I have no idea. Our Herkimers were phantoms.”
“Wow, really? Those are very rare. I wonder if that increases their piezoelectricity.”
“I don’t know.”
Paul nodded, obviously contemplating the possibilities. As we reached the end of the park and turned onto a street, leading us up into Fairhaven, I debated whether to explain the spiritual elements. He was a scientific guy, after all.
“You know, Ann,” Paul said, “I can always tell when you have something you’re holding back.”
“Huh?”
“Like right now…you were gonna say something else, but then you stopped yourself, didn’t you?”
“For a geek, you’re pretty observant about people.”
“Well, not all people. Just you,” he flirted.
Okay, what the heck, I thought. “You’re right. I was going to say something else. But first tell me, do you know anything about the chakras of the body?”
“You will be surprised to know that I do yoga at home every morning.”
“I simply don’t believe you,” I teased.
“I do. I know that there are seven chakras of the body and that they are energy centers. I also know that they each represent a different color. I have read that blockages can make you sick—or even twisted,” he joked.
“You’re proving to be the antithesis of every thought I had about geeks.”
He laughed, as I hoped he would.
“So tell me about what crystals have to do with the chakras of the body.”
“Okay. My dad said these double-terminated Herkimer diamonds would open the crown chakra, which he called ‘The key to the soul.’”
“Wow, that’s deep.”
“Very funny. He said that our Herkimers could clear energy blockages of the chakras, and that you could know your higher purpose. So these Herkimers have spiritual significance.”
“Ooh, it’s starting to sound a little New Age,” he mocked.
I slapped him playfully on the arm but then moved my hand quickly, startled by the energy between us.
“My dad was a
pretty spiritual guy.”
“Was?”
“He died.”
“I’m sorry, Ann.”
“Well, thanks. It was five years ago. He dropped dead in his favorite plant nursery.”
“You’re kidding,” he said astonished.
“Nope, right there in front of my mother.”
“Oh man…”
“I think of it like this: he died in a place he loved, his favorite garden shop. He would have been happy to go that way.”
“But in front of your mother?”
“Well, he probably would have said that it served her right. They had a volatile and complicated relationship.”
“That’s messed up.”
“Yep, you’re right about that. I sometimes wonder how I found true happiness in marriage, being raised in my dysfunctional family,” I added with my guard down.
“Wait a minute—I thought you were divorced.”
“Widowed, actually,” I softly corrected him. “And that’s something I’d rather not talk about.”
“Fair enough. Tell me some more about your dream.”
I told Paul the details of the dream. But I did not tell him about Armond’s words to me as he died; that was just too intimate to reveal.
As we walked back toward AlterHydro, Paul stopped me again, touching my arm, and then turned to me.
“Ann…go out with me,” he appealed.
“Okay,” I replied without hesitation, excited by the chemistry between us.
“Wow, you’re a difficult woman to convince,” he responded sarcastically, clearly pleased.
“Do ya want me to take it back?”
“No. It’s just—I’ve wanted to ask you for a very long time,” he sincerely explained.
“Well, I’m not going to tell you the twenty reasons why I should say no. But I will be testing the loyalty you told me about. No one at AlterHydro can know.”
“Fair enough. Test away. My loyalty is one of my biggest assets.”
“Your biggest?” I joked irreverently.
He laughed.
“But you’re gonna have to wait until I get back from Washington, D.C. Bennett has me speaking at a conference there.”
“I’ll wait,” he said with a wink.
“Okay then,” I smiled.
