by T. Anderson
“Where are you? You’re going to have to turn around and come back. Things aren’t going to go as smoothly as we’d hoped.” A pause. “Yes.” Another pause. “I have her with me. It appears that she’s…not in regression…entirely. I’m taking her to the room. Meet us there. And hurry!” Thoughts, flashes, memory sensations were running through Stella’s head like lightening. She couldn’t keep up. This was too much. She couldn’t breathe and she wanted to puke. Stella sensed her body going down some stairs, although she was sure she wasn’t moving her own legs. She had no concept of time. Then she was lying down, bouncing in and out of reality. Just as she heard other voices in the room, everything went black.
***************
Rooting through one of her boxes and placing a few photo frames on her side of the room, Aron paused briefly to admire a picture of herself with Gram and her parents. The thought occurred to her that she hadn’t even checked out her roommate’s side of the room yet. She was suddenly curious. Glancing over to scan her roommate’s stuff, she first noted that the bed was cleared, but the desk and floor were stacked with boxes full of clothes, shoes and handbags, clearly in desperate need of organizing. One of the two entire bins of beauty supplies and appliances was open. Wow! Someone was armed with an arsenal of painkillers, bottles of all kinds—Tylenol, Excedrin, Advil, Aspirin plus some prescription bottles. Then she noticed a stack of books, an array of religious texts. An unframed photo was sticking out of one of them, like a bookmark. Aron didn’t want to invade her space, but the curiosity was killing her. She slowly approached it, looking toward the door. The last thing she wanted to do was be caught snooping and break her trust before they’d even met. Just one quick glimpse?
Aron opened the book and stuck her finger in to keep the place while she plucked out the photo. It was a Christmas portrait postcard and the caption read, “Holiday Greetings from the Steinars.” She scanned the faces. Wait! Something wasn’t right here. Was this her picture? “I don’t know any of these people. Why am I in a photo with people I don’t know? Where was this taken? When was this taken?” she asked herself. Her heart began to pound loud in her ears. Why did her roommate have a picture of her that she didn’t remember being taken? And why did she look so weird in it? Her hair was shorter and her outfit was…well…she was wearing a winter coat for God’s sake! And her name was not on the card. It said, “Best wishes from Erling, Petra & Stella.” What the hell was going on here? Before any other crazy questions popped into her head there was a sharp triple knock at the door. Nearly jumping out of her skin, Aron slammed the book down and tried to catch her breath. She felt like she was in some kind of nightmare, but managed to call out a shaky, “Yes?”
“Aron?” a man’s voice asked through the door. “Aron Erickson?” he asked again. She fumbled for words, stepping cautiously toward the voice.
“Yes,” she squeaked.
“It’s Doctor Hanson. Verner Hanson. Your parents asked me to come by to check on you. Are you all right?” he asked.
Aron hesitated and then opened the door just a crack. She stuttered, “H-hi. Uhh. I’m f-fine.”
“You don’t look fine, Aron. What happened?” he asked, concerned. “It’s all right. I have your dad on the phone right now.” He held up his cell phone. “They decided to pay me a visit before they went home, and they stopped at my office. They’re there right now. They caught me in my car, on my way for lunch and they asked me to pick you up. We can go to meet them together.” When she recoiled with distrust, he jumped in with, “Hold on, I know it sounds strange. Here—you can talk to your dad.” He handed her his phone.
Apprehensive and skeptical, she put the phone to her ear. “Air? It’s Dad! Hey, take a ride with Vern and we’ll all meet up for lunch, okay?” her father persuaded. The sound of his voice seemed to slow her racing heart. She felt some blood return to her face.
“Okay Dad. The craziest thing just happened. I need to talk to you guys… like right now.” She shoved the photo into her pocket. She was definitely bringing it with her.
“Yeah, sure. See you in a few,” Gunnar said right before hanging up. His voice cracked with an underlying hint of anxiety. She handed Professor Hanson his phone back, grabbed her keys and bag and followed him to his car. For some reason he seemed to be in a rush, squealing his tires as he backed out and took off. Aron was too distracted to care why. She was glad because she was in a hurry too. Neither of them spoke in the car. It took only a couple of minutes of quick twists and turns before they were in the rear of a building, sheltered by tall trees and bushes. Aron spotted her parents’ Subaru but she didn’t see an entrance into the building anywhere. Dr. Hanson led her around the far corner, further concealed by shrubbery and growth. He trotted down some old stone steps—some kind of basement entrance. As she followed him through the doorway, she wondered for one split second who would want their office to be here and then decided he must like his privacy. Whatever. She could relate. They hurried through some tight, narrow hallways with low ceilings. There were random, unmarked doors here and there. He stopped at one and inserted a key. He opened the door and waved her in, “After you, Aron.”
When she stepped inside the room, her mom and dad were standing a few feet in front of her, waiting for her to speak first. Aron’s unexpected anger took over. She pulled the photo from her pocket. Saying nothing, she stuck the photo out in front of her for them to see it. Not knowing what to say or what to ask, she was bewildered. Her mother didn’t look confused or anything! Instead, Cybele gently pulled the photo from her daughter’s fingers, inspecting it more closely. She examined it, biting her lip.
“Oh, Aron,” Cybele said. “We wanted this to happen differently. Things just got a little messed up. We didn’t know how else to tell you.”
“Tell me what?” Aron’s patience was running thin. She wanted to know just what the hell was going on.
Her parents looked dismally at each other and then Cybele nodded to Gunnar to let him do the telling. He pointed to the photo, “That is Stella. Your sister. Your twin sister. Our daughter.” They waited for her reaction. All of them were wide-eyed, including Dr. Hanson.
It’s funny…she should have been in total shock. She should have been bouncing off the walls. She should have broken down, sobbing or growling with rage. But she wasn’t. Suddenly it all made sense. Aron’s entire life was falling symmetrically into place. Of course she had questions like, “Why didn’t you tell me about her?” and “Where has she been this whole time?” and the very obvious “Why is she my roommate?” But besides these questions, Aron felt a settling inside of her. Like the part of her that she’d been searching for—the chasm she could never fill with anything or anyone else before—was sewing itself together and mending her broken heart. She felt joy.
“Where is she?” Aron asked. They moved to her sides, parting the human shield they’d formed together in front of her. She looked beyond them into the dimly lit room. An antique meeting table surrounded by six high-back dark, wooden chairs consumed the space. The walls were lined with overstuffed bookshelves, like an ornate library. An area extended into the back of the room, illuminated with old lamps. She needed to squint to make out the shape of the body lying on top of a large, wooden desk. A jacket was draped over her and she was facing the wall. Aron wondered why she was lying on a desk. “Is she okay?”
“We think so. She’s just sleeping right now. We know you have a lot of questions, and we want to answer all of them. There’s so much you need to know. Both of you need to know,” her father said. “We’ve hidden the truth far too long. We weren’t sure we’d ever need to tell you the whole story, but now we do.”
Aron was vaguely listening to him, but could not take her eyes off of her twin sister. Walking around the table and back toward her, Aron could hear Stella breathing. She could feel her breathing. It was like she was tuned into her at some kind of sub-human frequency. As she moved closer, a wall of elemental sensation hit Aron like a truck, like a vibration spitting forth Stell
a’s senses that only she could feel. They were like magnets being pulled together into a realm all their own. Aron stopped about two feet from Stella’s back.
Stella stirred and put her hand up to her head, shaking it a little, and then groaned as she struggled to turn over. While she strained to focus on Aron’s face, Aron felt three pairs of eyes gawking behind her, but she didn’t care. She was only thinking of Stella.
After clearing her throat, Stella said, “Wow. This is getting really good. I love California.”
“Hi. I’m Aron,” she whispered. They were connected now.
Stella put her hand out to Aron and said, “Come closer.”
Sandwiching Stella’s hand between both of hers, Aron asked, “Are you okay?”
Stella smiled and winked at her with a gleam in her eye, “I am now.”
3
MONAD
After Aron helped Stella to stand on her own, they made their way to the big table and sat next to each other in two of the old, wooden chairs. Professor Hanson began to tell the story.
“In 1985, a group of six college students met in this secret location on the University of California, Berkeley campus. They’d discovered their common interests through various interactions in—and out—of the classroom. They were an interesting mix of science, philosophy, and psychology majors, highly intelligent, three men, three women. They had developed a theory that went beyond what any one school of thought could support and they were ready to take their theory seriously. But they knew the rest of the world was not. They called their group MONAD—Molecular Organization, Neutralization, and Displacement. With all kinds of clubs and organizations operating on the campus at the time, their group didn’t attract attention or raise any eyebrows. MONAD sounded somewhat scientific in nature. But it was most definitely not limited to science. It was spiritual as well. The six members had a mutual curiosity of the relationship between science and metaphysics. They believed there was an important connection that others were missing. So they used their combined skills, knowledge, and forward-thinking abilities to propel their theory. They had funding from wealthy family sources, enough to later set up a small laboratory off-campus. It was there that the Aeon Project began.
“The two founding members of MONAD were Erling Steinar—Stella, you know him—and Gunnar Erickson,” he said, nodding in Gunnar’s direction. “They’d been friends long before college. They grew up in the same small town in northern Minnesota. Right, Gunnar?”
“That’s right.”
“Although their personalities were complete polar opposites, they held the same goal: to scientifically prove the theory of reincarnation. It was a radical idea, but they believed it could be done. They knew that the final culmination of their research was to test on a live subject. But, you see, this was the roadblock that the group ultimately faced. They struggled for months trying to come to a unanimous decision they could all morally agree upon. None of them had thought that far ahead when they began their quest. None would realize the anguish involved in making that decision until it had to be made. Their differences in opinion would eventually tear them apart.”
Aron interrupted Dr. Hanson, “Wait a minute. Who were the six members? I’m assuming that Mom and Dad were two of them. And Stella’s adoptive parents. What are their names again? Erling and Petra Steinar?” She trailed off, waiting for a reply.
“Yes, Aron, your guess is correct,” said Dr. Hanson. “I was the fifth member. We met at an astronomy lecture, of all places. Initially I signed on to the project as their assistant. They were looking for someone to do some extra research.”
“Oh, of course,” Aron and Stella looked to each other, nodding with understanding. It was the twin factor. They were beginning to think on the same wavelength and were aligning their thought patterns with each passing second. Vern didn’t notice them. He was reliving the memory of that meeting.
“It was about Tycho Brahe…the lecture…I remember every detail of that day like it was yesterday. It’s where I met my wife. They were there together…but I only noticed her. We all met there that day, all six of us.” His thoughts were fragmented in nostalgic reflection.
Stella finally spoke up, “And who was the sixth?” She had a feeling this was the piece of the puzzle that was missing and anticipated the feeling of understanding the entire concept.
Professor Hanson looked Stella firmly in the eyes. Pausing, he sighed pitifully, then pursed his lips. His eyes glazed over and then welled up with tears. Stella was fully locked on his face, unsure why she was drawn to him in such a way. It was a primal attraction. “Vern?” she whispered with sympathy and concern. Already comfortable enough to call him Vern, even she noticed the oddness of this.
“The sixth member was my wife. She was also Petra’s sister. Her name was…Stella. She and Petra were….twins.” Silence blanketed the room. Stella blinked once, but couldn’t break the connection with the professor’s gaze as a tear slid down his cheek.
“And I was named after her,” she said. Stella was torn between comforting Vern’s sadness and wanting the rest of the story. Different voices inside of her demanded her attention.
Sensing Stella’s frustration, Aron took her hand and looked at their mother. “And she was the live test subject? Mom, what’s going on here? There’s more to this, isn’t there?”
“Oh yes, much more.” Cybele took it from there, explaining how Vern’s wife had been through cancer treatments when she was younger. She was in remission for a few years during college. By the time the disease came back to destroy her life, the group had split.
“Well, Erl wasn’t ready to give up on the Aeon Project. He wanted to finish the work, but he had no more money. His wealthy parents had grown tired of funding his “little hobby,” as they called it. He did have some connections, however, and started leaking information here and there to attract attention. Soon he was approached by the government. They offered him the opportunity to continue the work if he would sign over the rights to the project. Greed, coupled with his need for power, were controlling him. The problem was, in the wrong hands, the Aeon Project could be highly destructive. We all knew this, but at that point, the only person aware of Erl’s plan was Petra. Confused and looking for help, she confided in her sister that Erl was threatening to go public with their research.
“But Stella and Vern had become engrossed in fighting the cancer. They didn’t have the time or the strength for anything else. Between treatments and check-ups, Stella didn’t have energy left to even think about Aeon. The only thing she could do was pass the information onto the rest of the group.”
Cybele continued, “When they finally contacted Gunnar and me, we told them that I was pregnant. I was only in the second month, so we hadn’t told anyone else yet. Vern and Stella were thrilled for us. It was such uplifting news, considering all of the negativity that’d been following them around for so long. Gunnar and I understood the importance of protecting Aeon, but we, too, were at a point in our lives where we just wanted to move on. So the four of us decided to wait and see what Erl would do before we reacted. We had faith that he would do the right thing.
“Less than two weeks later, Stella received some devastating lab results. The cancer was killing her. There were no more treatments available. They were being forced to accept her fate. Vern had a complete breakdown. He was like a madman possessed with finding some kind of loophole. I mean, how could this be happening to them? It just wasn’t fair. They were two innocent, happy newlyweds beginning their life together. For days he struggled, while at the same time trying to be strong for Stella. He refused to let her go. He became obsessed with the possibility of keeping any part of her with him that he could. In a weak moment, he blurted out his idea. It was so obvious! It was right in front of him and he was sure it was a sign. He thought Aeon was the perfect answer. He didn’t have to lose her. He would give Stella up, but only temporarily. She would find life again…in my unborn baby.” Cybele tried very hard to keep it togethe
r, recalling the harsh memories of that time. It was difficult to discuss, even all these years later.
Gunnar took over for Cybele with the story. “The window to execute the procedure was slim and closing within days. Vern scrambled to orchestrate the event. It would take some convincing, but with the right tools, he could be very persuasive. Stella was dead-set against the idea. She wasn’t worried about herself. Not in the least. She was worried about Vern and his emotional state of mind. He was clearly losing his sense of reality. And not to mention the risk involved for Cybele and her baby. Stella would never have put them in danger. It was against everything in her nature.”
Professor Hanson hung his head into his hands at the table in the dim secret room. He was ashamed to hear the story being told. It was long ago and he was a changed man. Cybele gave him a sympathetic look, but continued the story.
“Vern wouldn’t take no for an answer,” she said. “He was a desperate man in a desperate situation. He contacted Gunnar to ask how things were going with the baby. We had news for him. He was shocked to hear that I was expecting twins. Well, what a stroke of good luck!” she said with a sarcastic, bitter shake of her head. “We all knew the odds for a successful displacement were even greater with the support from the second fetus. Vern was beyond the edge of reason and was unable to see the babies as anything but a vessel to save his wife. He completely took advantage of the trust he had with us. To avoid suspicion, he decided to withhold the status of Stella’s mortality. Although we knew she was sick, we were completely unaware of how close she was to death. If we had known, maybe we would have suspected…” her voice faded, with regret.
Gunnar took over the story again, reaching for his wife’s hand, “Vern partnered with Erl, who obviously jumped at the chance to perform Aeon. Together they came up with the plan. They would trick the women into meeting them at the lab and immediately greet them with a surprise injection, a potent serum that would help convince them to go along with the procedure. From previous research, we all believed it was imperative the two individuals gave consent before the displacement could begin.
