“I can’t pretend that I have even a small piece of the answer we need to figure out what’s going on,” Thomas continued, “but I know this much for sure: something out of this world is happening to Dillon. What it means and how it will all turn out, no one knows. In fact there is no shortage of doctors who would recommend a psych evaluation for all of us. What we know for sure is that Dillon is experiencing disturbing sleep patterns and physical manifestations of stress as a result. I believe we can figure this out. I guess the question is, do you?”
Dillon’s mom and dad looked at each other and then at Dillon. His mom spoke first.
“If we take him to the ER, I can tell you right now he’ll be placed in the psych ward as a schizophrenic. Seeing things? Hearing voices? They will do all they can to medicate it out of him and there are major side effects involved. Not to mention the fact that since Dillon is not schizophrenic, no medicine will put a stop to these experiences. The only other option I can see is a priest. If we do that, it will be years before they will believe us and then they’ll want to exorcise it out of him. Once again, not my first choice for my son.”
Ryan looked at the guitar in the corner. “Why don’t we just get rid of that thing? If it is haunted, or whatever, why not just get away from it?”
Before Dillon could object, Thomas answered. “As I understand it, these episodes are no longer tied to the guitar. Dillon can sense Danny at any time and in any place. Given that, I’m not convinced the guitar is the problem.”
Dillon’s father closed his eyes. “What do you propose?”
“I’m not sure yet but I know where to start,” Thomas said. “I’d like your permission to give Dillon a full workup in the lab: blood tests, a physical, and most importantly an MRI. I want to have baseline readings and confirmation that he is the healthy kid we all believe him to be. Then, I’d like to do a sleep study. It seems that most serious episodes happen when he is at rest, so I’d like to study that.”
“I don’t want my son turned into a lab rat. How will he benefit from all this study?” Ryan wanted to know.
“He will get two things,” Thomas replied. "Some kind of record of what is happening to him and answers he can understand. This experience may be the new normal for Dillon; he needs to know how to deal with it and he can’t do that until he knows what it means.”
The thought of this becoming the new normal was upsetting to everyone. Up until that moment, they thought they were looking for a cure. Thomas started up again.
“My new lab is not just the perfect place to figure this out; it is quite possibly the only place. I think what is going on with Dillon is that he is experiencing the anthropic principle of string theory.”
“I think the good doctor is a pretty smart cookie.” Danny’s voice startled Dillon right off the couch. Everyone stared at Dillon as he landed on the floor, and if they had any lingering doubt that Dillon needed some help, they abandoned it in that moment.
“He’s here, now, standing behind my mom,” Dillon explained. Everyone looked at Maggie but saw nothing behind her other than a plant. Thomas smiled.
“Okay then, ask him what he wants.”
Danny laughed. “If I knew what the heck was going on, I’d tell y’all, but I got nothing. Maybe this hotshot can help figure me out too.”
Dillon felt like he was at a surreal family reunion. It was a relief to finally talk about what was going on, and now he felt like maybe everything would be okay. He relayed Danny’s comments, and Thomas nodded. Danny took a seat on the ottoman near the window.
“Okay, let’s start with some really basic string theory,” Thomas began. Tom and Dillon shifted in their seats. “String theory is all about reconciling gravity with quantum physics.” Everyone in the room started to feel uncomfortable. Only Danny sat up and looked fascinated. “If we accept that everything in the universe is made up of vibrating filaments, or strings, and membranes of energy, or branes, then we are just beginning to understand the space-time continuum and the fact that several extra, usually unseen, dimensions to the universe must exist.”
Ryan, Tom, and Danny nodded. Dillon and his mom exchanged puzzled glances.
“Using string theory to analyze black hole thermodynamics confirms that parallel universes are not only possible,” Thomas continued, “but probable. Take ghosts for example. What if it was possible to fold over the space-time continuum?” Ryan blinked and swallowed hard. “Imagine that I had a timeline and I folded it over. Now, I would have the current date lined up with some date in the past. If you believe that each universe is composed of vibrating strings, then maybe when they line up, it’s possible to move from one vibration to the other. I think that’s what ghosts do.” Danny and Dillon looked at each other and smiled. Thomas went on. “I think when we die we leave this dimension and go to another. What if the continuum folds and the two dimensions line up? What if some people can adjust their vibrating strings long enough to move back and forth between the dimensions? What if that is what is happening to Dillon and to Danny too? That’s my theory, anyway, and with your permission, I’d like to try and prove it.”
Maggie rubbed her head. “Why? How? Why fold the timeline and how is it folded and why is he coming back hurt?”
Dillon looked at his mom. He knew that at the end of the day she didn’t care two hoots about string theory, ghosts, or thermodynamics. She just wanted him to be safe. If he could have figured out a normal way to do it, he would have gone over to her and given her a hug; but that would be weird, so he just sat there instead. Thomas talked on and on about how string theory explained all the craziness, even how travelling between dimensions was bound to mess up a person’s molecules and how blood could be displaced to outside the skin, at least theoretically, as a body readjusted from the vibrations of another dimension. It all sounded possible, but Dillon didn’t know what to believe. It sure did feel like he was in another dimension, whatever that was.
It was decided then and there that Dr. Thurgood would arrange for Dillon to undergo the basic diagnostics as soon as possible. Much of it could even be done at the new lab. Everyone looked relieved except Danny; he looked nervous. “I don’t think I like the idea of you being poked and prodded. This is happening to you, not because of you.” Dillon shrugged. As far as he was concerned, any plan was better than no plan, so he was willing to give it a shot.
October 8, 2011
Dr. Thurgood ordered the tests and soon Dillon’s diagnostics were almost complete. As everyone suspected, he was as normal as any teenager could be. Today was the MRI, and he would be glad to get it over with. He went down to his mom’s hospital and met Thomas and his dad. His mom arranged for her friends in the MRI suite to do the test after hours so Dillon didn’t have to wait around. He put on the hospital gown and sat there, embarrassed and cold.
“Good Lord! You look ridiculous!” Danny laughed. “Are you sure you have to wear that?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” Dillon mumbled. He wished more than anything that he had two hospital gowns. At least that way he could have used one as a robe. This business of holding the back closed was getting real old, real fast. Dillon watched his parents and Thomas talking. They were on the other side of the window in the MRI suite, trying to explain what they needed to the technician. Dillon tried to listen, but it was impossible to hear. He had a pounding headache and so he decided to just try to keep his gown closed and wait. Danny sat beside him, but no one else could tell. Dillon leaned back and rested his head against the tile wall.
Danny thought, Dillon looks terrible. But he figured Dillon was under a lot of stress since he was going through a lot more than the average fifteen year old and was doing it on precious little sleep. Things had been pretty quiet since Thomas got involved, so maybe this whole string theory thing might not be needed after all. Maybe Danny could just try to keep an eye on Dillon and see how long he could stick around.
Dillon sighed. He couldn’t remember the last time he felt so tired. He was completely shatte
red and couldn’t wait to go home and relax. Dillon wondered how long this test would be. At that moment Thomas and the tech came in and asked him to get on the table. Dillon nodded. “Oh, by the way, Danny’s here too,” he said. Thomas smiled.
“Hello, Danny,” said Thomas.
Dillon felt a little queasy as he stood, and he was glad to lie down. His mom put a thin blanket over him and told him to try and relax. No problem, he thought as he closed his eyes.
The banging and clanging inside the machine was epic. Dillon’s head was in a vise euphemistically called "the halo" and the machine was so narrow he felt like he was stuck in a coffin. Unable to move and finding it a little hard to breath, Dillon learned two things. First, he was a little claustrophobic, and second, there was no way to relax during an MRI. He closed his eyes and waited. The doctor told him this could take about a half an hour, and Dillon wasn’t really sure he could take it that long.
From somewhere behind him he heard singing. Not exactly the voice of the angels, but not too bad either. It took him a minute or two before he realized the voice belonged to Danny. He hated to admit it, but listening to that guy butcher an old Tim McGraw song was a great distraction and helped Dillon to relax a little. If only he could get rid of his headache.
Dillon could hear the doctor and everything seemed fine. Thomas sounded pleased as well, and then he suddenly sounded surprised.
“What is that?” Thomas asked pointing to heightened blood flow around Dillon’s frontal lobe. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” The screen lit up as new areas of Dillon’s brain began to experience more and more activity.
“Dillon, how are you doing?” his mom called to him from inside the booth.
“Okay, I guess. Are we almost done?”
Those were the last words Dillon spoke that night. It wasn’t clear exactly what happened next, but it changed everything.
Danny was singing away when he noticed that something was very wrong. Dillon’s eyes were open wide and he had an expression of abject terror on his face. Dillon began to sweat and he clenched his fists.
“What is it, Dillon? Talk to me! What’s going on?” Danny said.
But Dillon couldn’t talk, he couldn’t move, and then he couldn’t breathe. Outside, everything looked okay. The doctor could see elevated respirations, but that wasn’t uncommon after twenty minutes in an MRI. They had spoken to Dillon just a moment ago and all his vitals had been steady. Danny was starting to panic. There was nothing normal about Dillon. Danny had to get help and he had to leave Dillon there alone in order to do it.
The lights in the room began to flash. Dillon’s mom worried that they would lose power before the MRI was complete. She hated the thought of having to come back again. Then the screen flickered.
“Come on,” said the MRI technician as he hit the side of his monitor. “I just need two more minutes.”
Danny was frantic. He tore into the technician’s suite like a cyclone. He yelled directly into their faces, but they heard nothing, saw no one, and had no clue that Dillon was in terrible danger. He flicked the lights, messed with the screen, but nothing. Then it occurred to him, Enough with the light show, time for battle stations. Danny banged every door he could find. He slammed cabinets and doors and even managed to throw some keys off a counter. For a moment they just looked startled, and then Thomas figured out what was happening. He didn’t know why, but he knew that Danny wanted their attention.
“Out! Get him the hell out of there!” Thomas yelled. “I think Danny is trying to tell us something.” The technician looked confused, but he did as he was told and stopped the test.
Danny raced back to Dillon’s side and found him struggling for breath. He put his hand on Dillon’s chest and his heart raced like it was trying to break free. How was it possible that the monitors didn’t see this? At first, Dillon looked scared and then he was eerily peaceful as they pulled him from the machine. His mother gasped when she saw him and grabbed his wrist partly to hold his hand and partly to take his pulse.
“Hey now, Cowboy, cut it out. You’re gonna be just fine here in a minute,” Danny rambled.
The doctor put an oxygen mask over Dillon’s nose and mouth and Dillon became very still. Just before he passed out, he saw his mother crying and his father holding her in his arms.
“I don’t understand it. He’s crashing.” The doctor grabbed the crash cart next to the wall and ripped open Dillon’s gown. A moment later Danny saw Dillon’s body jump and lurch as the machine unleashed hundreds of volts of electricity. Nothing. The doctor turned up the machine and tried again. Once again Dillon’s body bounced like a rag doll on the table, but this time they got a sinus rhythm. Before anyone really understood what was happening, Dillon was rushed out the door and into the ER. They made his parents sit in the waiting room, and Thomas never left their side. The only ones who could go near Dillon now were the doctors, nurses, and Danny.
Dillon was hooked up to all kinds of machines, and Danny stood watching over him. From what he could hear, they thought Dillon had had some kind of heart attack, but there didn’t seem to be any cardiac enzymes or heart muscle damage to confirm the infarction. Good news about the muscle, but a heart attack?
“Come on, Dillon. What gives?” Danny whispered.
Dillon stirred and opened his eyes. He heard Danny’s whisper and expected to see him, but he didn’t. Dillon was in a nice, warm bed, but he wasn’t at home or in the hospital. He was in his grandma’s old house in the Catskills. There was humming in the distance, and when Dillon realized who was humming, he jumped out of bed and headed downstairs. There she was, setting the table and telling Dillon to wash up. Dillon grinned from ear to ear. He was so happy to see his grandma and so happy that she was taking one of her awesome chicken potpies out of the oven. She didn’t even look surprised to see Dillon, but he was shocked to see her.
When they sat down, Grandma ruffled Dillon’s hair like she always did, and then Uncle Joe walked in. Uncle Joe smelled like smoke so Grandma made him shower before she would let him come anywhere near the table. Dillon thought he must have died and gone to heaven.
When Uncle Joe finally came down, they said grace and started eating. “Dillon, I want you to be sure and eat a good dinner. Have seconds or thirds if you like. I want to make sure you keep your strength up,” said Grandma. Dillon looked at her with surprise. It never occurred to him that he might be going back.
After dinner Uncle Joe got all serious. “Dillon, I need to talk to you. I’m worried about your mom. Tell her not to be so hard on herself, will ya?” Then Uncle Joe looked at Dillon’s palm. He traced the word Living and looked Dillon in the eye. “Don’t forget this.” Dillon nodded and then he noticed his guitar leaning against the wall. He was about to reach for it when Grandma said, “Okay boys, that’s enough. Dillon, it’s time you went to bed.” Grandma was right; suddenly Dillon was exhausted.
When they moved Dillon to the cardiac ICU, his parents, Danny, and Thomas all waited. Thomas was feverishly scribbling notes and trying to understand what had happened and how to make sure it never happened again.
“Okay, I think I’ve got something. Dillon hasn’t been sleeping well for some time now, right?” Dillon’s mom nodded. “Travel to another dimension or contact with visitors from another dimension, like Danny, requires a relaxed mind. That’s why it happens when he is either lost in his music or asleep. I haven’t had a chance to review this with you yet, but the results of the sleep study we did showed that Dillon has developed an inability to sustain REM sleep for more than a few minutes. His mind won’t let him fall into a deep sleep because he is afraid of what will happen and where he will end up. That’s why he doesn’t feel too relaxed, even when he does finally sleep. But what if there is something calling to him from the other dimension? What if the timeline wants him to go there, ready or not?”
“You mean that it’s trying to pull Dillon away?” Ryan asked.
“Exactly and it’s yanking him so hard that
it is scrambling the vibration of Dillon’s strings in this dimension, screwing with his electrical impulses, and messing with the rhythm of his heart. Once it lets him go, there is no damage because the pull from the other dimension has released him. That other dimension cannot have a sustainable effect here in our world.”
“How can we stop it? Lasting or not, he can’t keep experiencing this,” Ryan said.
Danny hadn’t left Dillon’s side. He wracked his brain to try to figure out if maybe he was the one doing this to Dillon. From time to time he looked in on his parents in Tennessee, but he never even seemed to be noticed, let alone cause heart attacks. Danny would never forgive himself if he did this to Dillon. He made up his mind to get Dillon out of this mess. He just didn’t know how.
Thomas went on. “I don’t think this is a random thing. I think Dillon was chosen for some reason. The other dimension needs him to know or do something and it will keep pulling him back until whatever that purpose is gets satisfied. I think we need to see what they are trying to show us and I think we better figure it out fast."
October 15, 2011
A week after his heart stopped, Dillon was back at home and feeling great. His mother watched him like a hawk and Danny did too. He was recovering well, and there had been no other episodes. No one wanted to rush Dillon, but everyone wanted to know what he remembered. They needed any clue they could get about what the message from the other dimension might be. Finally Danny spoke up because he was starting to think there might be a method to this particular brand of madness.
“Listen, kiddo,” Danny said as Dillon sat up in bed, strumming his guitar. “I need you to call Thomas. I think I may know why everything went crazy in the MRI.”
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