by Inelia Benz
She tried the computers but they were all password protected.
“Hmmm,” she thought and typed ‘mage’ then ‘MAGE’, then ‘witch’, ‘WITCH’.
Try Jennifer, she thought, no way, that’s not it, she replied to herself.
After half an hour she switched off the computers and started on the books, the draws, the shelves, the top of the furniture, and everywhere else.
She’d left Heather’s carrycot on the desk and reached over to move it to the sofa when she noticed Heather was suckling on a small, black notebook.
“No, dirty,” Jennifer said taking the notebook off the baby’s hands and replacing it with a dummy, “play with that.”
The notebook was well worn. It was filled with strange characters and what appeared to be words made out of a mixture of hieroglyphics, numbers and letters.
“Coded,” she thought, and put it down beside her.
You can read it. She thought very loudly to herself, taking herself quite by surprise.
“Dear God, I am hearing voices now,” she said and picked up the notebook again. She opened it slowly, but the soup of characters looked the same as before. She stared very hard, word by word, slowly.
Staff must be in 4taf skffiwnd
She looked closer at the jumbled letters. They seemed to move. She flicked a few more pages.
Shawl, baby, rebirth?
She read through the night, occasionally having to stop to feed Heather or change her nappy. It was like a huge puzzle. They seemed to be notes about finding something called The Staff, about a pink shawl, about Spain. The last few pages contained her name, Heather’s and Sean’s followed by a few pages of abduction and hybrid data.
Aliens?
Jennifer put the notebook down smiling. Owen knew about Heather, he had written about her in his notebook.
Her heart sank, she was so silly, for hours now she had been reading the notebook like it was some sort of real life quest Owen was following, and now she realized it was no more than shorthand for a novel.
Aliens, hybrids, jumping dimensions, Owen was a writer after all, she decided. And he had planned putting her and Sean in his novel as well as their baby.
Sean abducted by aliens, what an imagination Owen had. He had obviously been reading too much of “Strange Happenings”.
She took the carrycot with baby and went to bed.
She slept through the next morning, Esther took care of the baby and changed their tickets for the weekend, her plan was that a few days in the house would make Jennifer see how well they could all live there together, a week away from the shop wouldn’t hurt, not at this time of year, besides the fact that the small pension Owen had left for Jennifer was more than the shop turned over in a month.
Jennifer wasn’t too pleased about the change of plans but could see her mother’s point of view, why live in a small townhouse struggling for every penny when they could live in a huge house in one of the most beautiful parts of London and be paid a regular income for the trouble?
She took Heather for her afternoon walk, there was a small square nearby where she used to go and sit whilst pregnant. She stopped in the kiosk for “Strange Happenings” first and was shocked by that week’s headline.
GIRL ABDUCTED BY ALIENS, “I was abducted by aliens,” declares Sinead, a twenty three year old from Skerries, Ireland.
“Sinead, my God.”
She had gone shopping with Sinead only a few days back.
She looked at the photograph on the newspaper cover. Sinead looked back at her scary eyed and serious.
“A relative of yours?” asked the kiosk attendant.
“Just a friend,” she replied absentmindedly.
She paid for the paper and went back home.
The article reported on the latest UFO hotspot, a small town north of Dublin, the reporter had traveled there every weekend for the past year to record sightings as well as witness reports.
“I was walking home from work, when I saw this light coming toward me from the sky. It was spherical with several smaller lights around it. Everything seemed to stop, people around me stopped in their tracks, even birds in the sky. The light stopped right in front of me and it sucked me in. The next thing I knew is I was back where I started, in the street, but my watch was off by five hours.”
The report went on to say medical tests had shown the girl to have an unusual amount of radioactive energy, not enough to be a danger, but slightly above the norm for the area she lived in.
Jennifer had grown up with the X-Files and knew of conspiracy theories as well as the reasons for abduction believed by thousands of people around the world. At any other time she would have read the story and gone to visit Sinead to ask her if it was all true, but after having read Owen’s notes, she wasn’t very sure what to think.
She had no idea there had been UFO sightings in Skerries, but there again she had been away for a very long time, and when she returned she had other things in mind. She wondered why the local media hadn’t reported it, why her friends, the ones that still talked to her, hadn’t told her about it. She went back to Owen’s notebook, this time with pen and paper and an open mind, at least as open as she could have it taking into account the subject matter.
A couple of hours later she had a pretty clear idea of what might have happened. Armed with her notes she went to find her mother.
Esther was pottering around the garden, it was large and mostly unattended, perfect for her, thought Jennifer, gardening was her mother’s favorite pastime.
“Sometimes the mind has a way of convincing itself of the most incredible things, if these mean that they make a wish come true. I don’t think there are any aliens my love. Sinead was always making things up. I don’t think Sean was taken by aliens, I think he moved on to greener pastures,” Esther said after listening to her daughter’s enthusiastic account of her new theory.
“What about the radioactivity in Sinead’s body?”
“The Sellafield nuclear plant is only a stone throw away from Skerries across the Irish Sea. Maybe she took a dip in the sea on the wrong day. I bet if they were to test other people in Skerries they would find a lot of them a bit radioactive.”
“It’s too early to swim in the sea mom, too cold. Anyway, there are no reports of spills in Sellafield.”
“Like I said, the mind has great ways of convincing itself when it wants to believe.”
“My heart tells me I have to look into this mom. My heart tells me Sean is still alive, being held somewhere against his will, somewhere not of this earth. Here it says this UFO activity started around the time of Sean’s disappearance, it explains everything.”
“Please, Jennifer, listen to what you are saying. This is completely irrational my love, this doesn’t make any sense at all. You have a keen mind, you were the top of your class Jennifer, please listen to what you’re saying. Besides, I never heard of aliens paying the rent and taking luggage with them when they abduct people.”
“My heart tells me differently.”
“To hell with your heart girl! You have a baby to bring up now, you can’t be thinking with your heart anymore. Look at what it’s got you into so far, if you are not careful you’ll end up in an asylum, or worse, being brainwashed by all those loonies who write that sort of rubbish. It is time for you to grow up Jennifer and stop thinking fairytales will make everything right. He left because he doesn’t love you. He is gone and he is not coming back. There is nothing alien about that.”
Jennifer took her notes, Owen’s notebook and went to her room.
She was deeply hurt by her mother’s words, knew they made perfect sense, which made it all the more painful.
Her mother was right, but she couldn’t ignore this. Her mind kept telling her to follow her instincts. There was nothing to lose after all.
Esther sat against a tree and cleaned a tear that had escaped her eyes, if only she could have believed aliens had abducted her husband when he left, but there was nothing alien
about Mary Rye. She didn’t blame Mary now, not after finding out he had left her after five years for a younger woman. Poor Mary, she thought. Esther decided she would file for a divorce, it was legal now after all, and wondered why she hadn’t thought of it before.
Chapter 11
First she would visit the newspaper, and then she would go and see Sinead herself. This felt right, Jennifer thought, this was the right thing to do.
The newspaper was published from a refurbished Victorian house in East London. Jennifer had made an appointment to see the reporter in charge of the case, David Andrews.
“According to what you are telling me the time of disappearance would be about four weeks after the first sighting. Was he a local boy?”
“No, in fact I met him four weeks before he vanished. That would make the time of his arrival around the same time as the UFOs arrivals. Coincidence do you think?”
“Yes, probably. We have very few cases recorded where people have disappeared for more than a few days and have returned. What exactly makes you think this is a case of abduction and not simply of him moving away?”
Jennifer explained the strange dreams she had had and also the lack of records with regard Sean, she fell short of telling him of her daughter’s strange abilities and her own telepathy. She didn’t want anyone to know about those things, especially not a reporter.
“There seems to be a telepathic connection, sharing of dreams. Possibly lucid dreaming together. I don’t discount it, really, but we need more than that to be certain.”
She showed him the notes she had taken about abduction from Owen’s note book and explained who he was.
“This is good data, good theory too, a bit fantastic maybe. And he has vanished as well?”
“No, he left for Brazil.”
“I really don’t know how I can help you with regard the boy in Ireland. The local police won’t do anything if it wasn’t a local person to begin with. My reasoning is that he used a false name, a false identity, and that is why there are no records. As to his similarity to Owen, well, if you are absolutely sure they are not the same person then all I can say is that this is a case of coincidence.”
“But Sean told me he had a twin brother called Owen, who died when still a baby, then it turns out Owen exists and they are identical.”
“Maybe a cover up. Maybe they are the same person, he invented his Sean identity to travel around free of all responsibilities and mentions his true identity as a lost twin brother. Or it could be a case of multiple personalities.”
“No, they were different, when you looked closely. Owen looked older, also thinner, his hands were refined, like artists hands, Sean’s hands were muscular and strong, working hands. There were other things as well. The way they walked was different for example.”
“Well, I don’t really know what we can do about it, how we can trace him, how we could prove any of this.”
“Would it be possible to talk to people who were abducted and can remember what happened to them? Maybe they saw other people at the place they are taken, or they might give us an idea of how to contact these beings.”
The reporter searched in his computer for a while and printed out a list with several names.
“This is just a small sample, Ireland and Britain. The ones marked with green are the ones who have done regression therapy and can remember what happened. I’ll call them and see if we can visit them.”
The next day Jennifer traveled north with David Andrews to visit one of the abductees, she didn’t know what to expect. This was new to her and not something she was completely open to, but something inside her told her she was on the right track.
Katrina was in her late thirties. She greeted them warmly and let them into the back garden where she had cake and lemonade ready for them.
“Nothing like lemonade after a long trip in the sun,” she said.
Jennifer looked around the garden, it reminded her of a fairy tale. It was perfect.
“Perfection is in the eye of the beholder,” the woman answered her thought.
“You can…”
“Only with their kind, your kind, it’s an honor to have you here with me.”
David looked at the two women, “have I missed something?” He asked.
“This girl, David, is one of them, or part at least. She is one of the Fairy Folk,”
“I beg your pardon?”
“They are not aliens Jennifer. They are Fairies, the Little People, Elves, Leprechauns, Willow-the-Wisps, and they have been with us for millennia.”
Yes, thought Jennifer, it made sense, she had only assumed they were aliens because of the vocabulary used, but fairies were always known to have abducted babies and people.
“At first I saw them as aliens, just as everyone else, but after doing the regression therapy I realized that it was all a matter of semantics, my brain was interpreting my experience by my upbringing, television, films, even by yourself David.”
“Yes, I’ve heard this before, but usually the other way round, that aliens were interpreted in the past as fairies and elves, for lack of knowledge about other planets and space travel. This doesn’t explain why you are calling Jennifer one of them.”
The older woman put on her sunglasses, “It’s lovely weather we are having, don’t you think?”
Jennifer looked at her cake and lemonade, something was nagging at her.
“Jennifer is part Fairy Folk, or an alien hybrid to use modern words.”
“Me?”
“Jennifer?”
“Yes, she is your best find so far David, with her you will be able to contact them. She has a direct line.”
The two stared at each other then back to Katrina, the woman was obviously losing her mind.
“Have you told him about your telepathic abilities Jennifer?”
“I really don’t know what you are talking about. I came here for some information, hoping you could tell me about the place they took you to, I wanted to ask you if you had seen other people there.”
“Telepathic abilities?”
“Yes, the place they take me to. I will tell you who they are. They came to earth because their world is barren. They were very much like us at the beginning, divided and greedy. They destroyed their world and most of their kind. They evolved as a race and became united, a collective, this is when they found our planet. At first they moved in, living in their crafts and special cities as they cannot survive long in the open air, they taught us their technology and their medicine, but living here was devastating to their culture. Many of them fell in love with the human race and our planet, they mixed with us, making a new race, people who were powerful and had access to enormous amounts of knowledge, they called themselves Mages. The effect on their own race was devastating, it divided them again, and they fought each other, losing strength and numbers. The ones that were left returned to their world but they left doors open between the two worlds. They still need our resources and us, our genetic material is precious to them, soon they will come back to save us from ourselves. If we humans destroy our planet we would destroy them as well, they will come back to bring peace and order to our world.”
Jennifer was silent, Owen had mentioned mages to her, said they were either witches or elders. If mages were part alien, or Fairy, then Owen and Sean were so also, and seeing as Katrina had mentioned Jennifer to be one too that explained why she had felt so attracted to Sean and why their baby had the powers she had.
She listen to David’s questions with regard the information Katrina had given them, he knew how to handle this type of thing, Jennifer thought. He didn’t discount anything the woman said, instead taking notes and digging deeper.
“Did you see other humans there?”
“Humans yes, other like myself, taken from here. I didn’t see any of our children. I didn’t see anyone like Jennifer.”
Tall, black curly hair, deep blue eyes, in his twenties, thought Jennifer projecting a mental image of Sean.
“No, I didn’t see anyone like that.”
“Like whom?” asked the reporter.
“Like me,” said Jennifer, “I think we have everything we need, let’s go,” she added getting up and thanking their host.
“What’s this about you being telepathic Jennifer,” asked David as they drove back to London.
“I have no idea, must be my Irish looks, Fairies and Elves, you know.”
“No, she wouldn’t make such an assumption, she’s an intelligent woman, and she was quite sure.”
“If I had a direct line to these beings I wouldn’t have come to you.”
“You have a point there my girl,” he said.
Jennifer didn’t know if he had believed her, but the last thing she wanted was an article on his paper headed “Telepathic Girl Speaks with Aliens” or the like.
“Good headline, catchy, I like it,” David said pulling off the motorway toward a service station.
“Pardon?”
“Your headline, Telepathic Girl Speaks with Aliens.”
“How did you…?”
He parked the car in front of the cafeteria, “let’s go in for a coffee, shall we? We need to have a little chat.”
Jennifer looked around, the place was packed, plenty of people, she was frightened, but she reckoned that everyone in the newspaper knew they were together, and her mother as well, he wouldn’t try anything in a public place.
“No, not in a public place, come on,” he said getting out of the car and leading the way to the cafeteria.
“Okay, tell me who you really are and who you are working for,” David said as they sat.
“Me?” she asked, “you know all about me, what about you? How come you can read people’s minds?”
“Well, it’s hereditary and it’s the reason why I got into this business. Does it run in your family?”
“Not really, well maybe, I don’t know, not so strong I guess.”
“What more can you do?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t tried anything else. You know you are not supposed to poke around people’s minds like that, it’s unethical.”
