Rememberers

by C. Edward Baldwin

  Despite conventional scientific wisdom, there was such a thing as having too much knowledge. There was danger in it. That, too, was a truth. A truth the Creator recognized as soon as Eve and Adam partook of the forbidden fruit. At the dawn of existence, man hadn't been ready for absolute truth, and in many ways, despite the passage of thousands of years, little had changed. Man was still not quite ready. He was too prone to cockiness. Absolute truth was corrupting. It had corrupted Satan. It had led to the original Fall of Man. And man, drawn from dust and breathed into existence by the Creator, was still feeling the effects of the original corruption and was still prone to it. And Swag, being only a man, was just as prone. Even now, he exhibited signs of youthful ‘bigheadedness,' or what McCarthy called ‘the big-man-on-campus syndrome,’ where many young and gifted athletes, after having smoke blown up their butts by parents, coaches, teachers, peers, neighbors, fellow citizens, and in some cases, the national media, acted as if they were larger than life, behaving like the preschooler who believed that the world actually revolved around him. It was human nature, and it sometimes required the harshness of life, i.e. career-ending injury, financial ruin, drug dependency, etc., to intervene before it could be corrected. Though in rare cases, the harshness never fully surfaced in the offender's youth, which more often than not led to the creation of a bitter, delusional senior citizen, who believed the laws of aging and death didn't apply to him.

  Despite his misgivings about A.I.'s “smoke up the butt' attitude toward Swag, McCarthy understood the reason behind it. Within the organization, there was a considerable fascination with the Reverend Johnny Swag. Swag was both an Initiate and a Rememberer, only the second such combination in the organization's history. The first one, Herman Alexander, had been one of the founding fathers of the Alliance of Initiates. It had been Alexander's pitch perfect recollection of a previous life cycle that had motivated the formation of the original Initiates out of the body of the URO, as he'd been able to confirm what some of the Founding Fathers of URO had believed all along—that time, as well as life, was circular. Alexander's ability was viewed as a god-sent gift and it soon enabled Initiates to learn the truth about everything from the Creation, to Jesus, and to the End-Times. Although the degree of Swag's ability wasn't known, some in A.I. believed that the young protestant preacher was cosmically connected to Herman Alexander, which exuded hope within the organization that an even deeper knowledge of existence was well within its grasp.

  The Mustang gunned through a yellow traffic signal in order to keep up with the girl's Honda. McCarthy's rented Impala screeched to a stop as the light changed abruptly to red. But it was no matter; from the direction they were headed, McCarthy knew where they'd end up. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, waiting patiently for the light to change. If the girl was who Swag believed her to be, A.I. would want to gain custody of her immediately. By observing her the past few days, McCarthy had already done some of the ground work. She had no apparent ties to any terrorist organizations. And although she was only nineteen, a typical rebellious age, she appeared only to be a clean cut college student. He would have to further evaluate the house she'd visited in Maxton, but he anticipated no surprises if Kallie Hunt was indeed a Rememberer.

  When the light changed to green, McCarthy eased off the brake and stepped on the accelerator, robotically steering the Impala toward the Hunt girl's home. Swag had told him about the girl's vision on Friday at Piedmont Imaging. That seemed confirmation enough of her ability. But even if it wasn't, McCarthy still wanted to ensure that she'd become an asset for A.I. and no others. He could not take the chance on waiting. He would confront her tonight.

  * * *

  Bennett couldn't believe his eyes. There was Father Frank McCarthy parking a rented Chevrolet a few houses down from Kallie Hunt's house. A moment earlier, when the car had crept past him as he sat in his government-issued Ford sedan, Bennett had thought that his mind was playing tricks on him, offering a not so subtle suggestion that he'd been a fool to drive all the way from Charlotte to the house of a young girl that he didn't know to ask her about a vision she'd had. A vision that his niece theorized had not been a vision at all, only a weird dream. But as he looked through his binoculars at the anxious expression of McCarthy, his initial gut feeling was validated.

  He looked back across the street at the house where moments earlier he'd seen a young woman and man enter after having parked their cars—her Honda Civic in the driveway of the house and his Ford Mustang at the curb in front of it. Bennett had pulled Kallie's address from the ICE database, which had listings for every registered college student in America, but her entry hadn't included her picture, so he had no idea what she looked like. He'd been about to exit his car to go up to the house to ask the young couple if they knew Kallie when McCarthy had driven by. Now, he decided to wait to see what McCarthy planned to do. He looked at his dash clock. It was seven-thirty. He reclined his seat, settling himself in. He had a sinking feeling that it was going to be a long night.

  * * *

  “So what's up with this Josh character?” Seth asked as soon as Kallie returned to the living room after having gone upstairs to change clothes. He was sitting on the loveseat in the living room.

  Kallie sat down beside him. “Why? Are you jealous?”

  “I don't think I have a right to be jealous. But I'd like to know.”

  “I don't think having a right is a requirement of being jealous. I think it occurs naturally. You're either naturally jealous of someone or you're not.”

  “Okay, I'm jealous,” Seth said. “Does he mean anything to you?”

  “Of course he means something to me. He's human, isn't he?”

  “You know what I mean. Were you two on a date?”

  She looked at him crossly. “I had a date with you. What kind of girl do you take me for?”

  “Well, he was sitting at your table. And it looked like you were enjoying a meal together. In a lot of cultures, a shared meal has some overtones.”

  “Is that right? Care to enlighten me on these other cultures?”

  Seth forced a smiled. “Okay, you got me. I don't know anything about other cultures. Is he interested in you? Or you in him?”

  “Oh, choosing the direct question approach now!”

  “It's usually the only way to get direct answers.” He tilted his head toward her. “That is, unless of course, people elect to elude and evade.”

  She touched his knee lightly. “Listen, I've only known Josh a little longer than I've known you. He's really sweet and I consider him a friend. And he's in charge of the psychology project I told you about.”

  Seth smiled awkwardly. “Oh, okay.” He paused. “Wait a sec, is that a friend before lovers type of thing?”

  She giggled. “Wouldn't you like to know?”

  He laughed. “I sure would.”

  She playfully flicked his hair away from his face. “I'm thinking about setting him up with Maggie.”

  “Your housemate?”

  “Yeah, don't you think they'll make a cute couple?”

  “Probably, but I think we'd make a better one.”

  “You and Josh?” she teased, “I hadn't considered that.”

  “Very funny,” he said. “I'm talking about you and me.”

  She smiled again. “Slow it down, lover boy.”

  He looked into her eyes. “I will if you'll slow it down with me.” This time he wasn't laughing.

  For the next two hours or so, they talked, laughed, and simply enjoyed each other's company. She found out that his favorite fruit was an apple and that his favorite color was light blue. She told him that she always cried when watching the Wizard of Oz. The idea of a girl being lost and separated from her family, even cinematically, was frightening to her. While they talked, two of her housemates with visitors of their own had entered and left the house twice without either Kallie or Seth noticing or caring. They were lost in each other. It was Maggie who was finally able to break through th
eir shared trance when she stood in the doorway of the living room, announcing that Kallie had another visitor.

  The man was a priest as indicated by his clerical collar. Kallie glanced at her wristwatch. It was 10:05 p.m. She looked back at the priest and determined that she'd never seen him before, nor had she any earthly idea why'd he come to see her, particularly at this hour. Swag's image floated briefly in her head, making her wonder why she suddenly seemed to be attracting clergymen.

  He clutched the handle of a briefcase with both hands, looking anxious. “Kallie Hunt?”

  “Yes, I'm Kallie.”

  “Hello Kallie, My name's Father Frank McCarthy. I'm very sorry to call upon you at this hour.” His gaze shifted from her over to Seth, who suddenly walked up, planting himself behind her. McCarthy looked back at Kallie. “Is there somewhere we could talk, alone?”

  “Kallie, do you know him?” Seth asked.

  “No, I don't,” she said.

  “Mister, what is this about?” Seth asked.

  “Father McCarthy,” McCarthy said sternly.

  Seth cast a quick cautious eye at the briefcase in McCarthy's clutches. “Well Father, I'm sorry. But she doesn't know you. It's kinda late, don't you think?”

  “Yes son, it is kind of late. And this is important.” He faced Kallie again. “Can we talk alone?”

  “I'm sorry, Father. But I'd feel much safer with Seth with me. Could you just state your business?”

  Father McCarthy looked at Seth again and then back at Kallie. After a few seconds, the realization apparently hit that this was as good as it was going to get. “Okay,” he said finally. “It's about the visions, Kallie. I'm here about the visions you've been having.”

  * * *

  It had been just past midnight when McCarthy had finally exited Kallie Hunt's residence, capping almost five and half hours spent at the girl's house. For some reason, the priest had waited nearly two and a half hours outside the house before he'd approached it. During his two hours inside the house, Bennett had run the tags on both the Honda Civic and the Ford Mustang. The Honda was registered to Kallie Leigh Hunt. The Ford was in the name of Seth Winters. Bennett wasn't certain if the young man he'd seen entering the house with the woman was Seth Winters, but he felt certain that the young woman was indeed Kallie Hunt. The young man had left the house a full hour before McCarthy had. He'd slammed the door to the Mustang before gunning its engine to life and roaring off down the street, causing a few heads to look out the windows of some of the other houses.

  After McCarthy left the house, Bennett followed him to Charlotte where the priest had checked into the Royal Inn & Suites near Douglas International Airport. Bennett spent the rest of the night inside his car, watching the priest's door. It hadn't opened again until four in the morning when the priest checked out. Bennett then followed him to the airport where he watched McCarthy return the rental vehicle and then catch a 5 a.m. US Airways flight back to Philadelphia. During the night, Bennett had half a mind to bust into McCarthy's room, yank him to his feet, and recite to him all the ways in which the Father's actions since yesterday had invited suspicion. He wanted to remind the good father about his business card with its cryptic message scrawled in blood being found on the body of a dead terrorist. Bennett wanted to see the expression on McCarthy's face when he told him that he knew about the terrorist vision the Hunt girl had on Friday. Bennett wanted to tell McCarthy how he didn't believe in coincidences. And even if he didn't entirely understand what was going on, he knew that the priest was somehow involved. But ultimately Bennett's wiser, logical head had prevailed; busting in the priest's door for an impromptu interrogation wouldn't have been the most prudent way for Bennett to find out what was going on. Such action on his part could later be deemed harassment, or worse, as felonious assault on an elder. He remembered his previous visit with McCarthy. The priest was obviously well versed in the art of admitting nothing and denying everything.

  Besides, the truth was, suspicious or not, ultimately the priest's actions thus far had only constituted a big fat so what. Officially, he wasn't even a person of interest in the murder of Beamer, and as for Kallie Hunt, Bennett himself wasn't exactly sure what she'd envisioned and even if he was, he still wouldn't be able to stage a case around it. Even Bennett's niece's current stance was that Kallie Hunt had most likely fallen asleep inside the MRI scanner and had only been dreaming. But using his own common sense, Bennett knew that McCarthy wouldn't have suddenly flown to North Carolina because of a teenaged girl's dream. There was a reason the priest had deemed the girl important enough to warrant his presence. Bennett wondered if that reason had anything to do with the briefcase he'd seen McCarthy take into the girl's house. Slowly, he eased the Ford away from the airport, merging in with the outflowing traffic. He would go back to his sister's house for a shower and a quick change of clothes before heading back to Bengate where he would attempt to find out the reason behind McCarthy's sudden interest in the state of North Carolina.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Just as she'd expected to find him, Josh was in front of a computer monitor in the psychology lab. Another virtual reality simulation was on the screen. This one was modeled after a mall setting. After Kallie walked over to him, he removed the goggles and placed them down delicately on the table beside the keyboard. He looked up at her. “You don't look so good,” he said.

  “No longer blinded by my beauty, huh?” Kallie said.

  “It's not that. You look as if you didn't sleep a wink last night.”

  “That's because I didn't.”

  “What, you got into an argument with what's his face?”

  “I did,” Kallie said, glancing around the room nervously. There were three other students in the lab. “But that's not why I couldn't sleep. Can we go somewhere and talk?”

  Josh looked at his watch, causing Kallie to reflexively look at hers. It was 5:30 p.m. “Sure,” he said. “The session doesn't start for another hour.”

  He took her to an empty lecture hall on the same floor. Rows of seats cascaded toward a blackboard backed lectern which itself stood front and center of a minutely heightened stage. They sat in two adjacent seats at the back of the hall. It took her several moments to collect her thoughts. Finally, after taking a deep breath, she said, “I was visited by a Catholic priest last night.” She paused to let that tidbit sink in. But if Josh thought there was anything strange about a Catholic priest's evening visit to the home of a sometimes Baptist girl, he didn't let on. Instead, he sat expressionless, waiting for her to continue. She rested against the back of the seat, closing her eyes for a moment. When she reopened them, she looked straight ahead at nothing in particular. “He told me that my déjà vu sensations didn't have anything to do with epilepsy. And that the vision that I had in the MRI scanner was prophetic. There would be a terrorist attack somewhere in America in the near future.” She paused again, and then turned her head toward Josh, this time looking him directly in the eyes. “He said I was remembering something that was going to happen and that it's all related to eternal return.”

  Josh's eyes widened slightly. “You look as if you believe him.”

  “Ordinarily, I probably wouldn't have. But he was the second person in three days to talk to me about 'remembering' and ‘eternal return.'” She told him about the weekend visit to Madame Isabel's and also about how she herself hadn't believed the epilepsy/seizure diagnosis in the first place. After she finished, Josh settled back into his seat. “Madame Isabel sounds like an interesting character.”

  “Yeah, she is,” Kallie said. “And she seemed to know a lot about me. She said my mother brought me to her shortly after I was born. Apparently I'm special, but she wouldn't elaborate. She also said that she remembered my visit from the last life cycle.”

  “She's a Rememberer, too?”

  “According to her, although she said she's a lower degree. She believes there're only about four or five fully capable Rememberers in the world, with maybe only one or two of th
ose having ninth-degree ability, which she said is the highest level.”

  “Fully capable?”

  “She said everyone has some remembering capabilities and that most déjà vu sensations are related to the ability. But only a small number of people ever develop it fully. She believes I'm going to be fully capable soon, eventually developing ninth-degree ability.”

  “Going to be?”

  “She said that the remembering ability is like a muscle that has to be developed. She said that once my ability is fully developed, I'll accomplish great things.”

  “Like what?”

  “She didn't say. Apparently my consciousness isn't ready to handle it all yet. She likened it to a baby being weaned off the breast. Only with me, it's the opposite. I have to be weaned onto the knowledge of what I'm to become.”

  “Interesting,” Josh said. “So that's why you were asking about eternal return the other day.”

  “Yeah, Madame Isabel sounded convincing, but I'd never heard about eternal return. When I got back home, I researched the topic on the internet. And while at Quiggy's, I remembered that you were a religion major. I thought you might know something about it as well. After Father McCarthy's visit, I went through the Bible to see if there were any references to eternal return similar to the one from Revelations that you'd pointed out.”

  “I'm doubtful you'll discern much from the Bible,” Josh said.

  “Why?”

  “Remember what I said yesterday about knowledgeable men maybe manipulating or even misinterpreting the Bible?”

  “Yes.”

  “So, searching the Bible for evidence of eternal return could be like searching for a needle in a haystack. Even if you were able to find something that may allude to it, you might not be able to get the full correct meaning of it. It's likely that you won't even know what it is you're looking at, or even understand or notice the available clues anyway. It takes years of reading and studying the Bible to fully get it. Some religious people believe even then you have to be in the spirit to really grasp the fullness of the Bible. What did your internet search turn up?”