by Mark Howard
"Of course," Terry said, taking her question seriously. "Some people exit best when sleeping, so it's whatever you need as a jump start. You can use the headphones if you want — generally we use them for a guided exit — but since you can already self-exit, I don't suppose you'll need my help. Oh, and there's a toggle switch above the bed, flip it when you are ready to go, and just let me know if you need anything else, OK?"
Without waiting for an answer, he slowly shut the door until the latch clicked, leaving Jess alone. She opened the dresser drawers, half expecting to see a Gideon Bible, but found only a few folded blankets. Lying down on the bed, she noticed a slight hissing in the headphones above her. Pulling them down off the peg, she donned them only to discover white noise, but with some sort of underlying tones wavering in stereo. Placing them back, she closed her eyes, relaxed, and reached up to flip the switch which was labeled Ready. After a moment, she heard a small chime, like a meditation bell, from outside.
Relaxing her body, she focused her consciousness and searched for the vibrating feeling in her gut. Finding it easily, she focused deeper until the rocking feeling took hold. On one end of a wide arc she effortlessly rolled out, and found herself looking sideways at the dresser, though it felt as though she were still looking up. Reorienting herself, she got her bearings, and slowly rose up through the ceiling into the open pink space above.
It seemed easier to rise in this space — she didn't know if it was due to the particular design of the structure, the geographical area itself, or some other nebulous trophic factor. Nearing the apex, she observed the tops of the little houses. Each had a different picture painted on top, faded through time: hers had a large yellow smiley face, the one next to it had a peace symbol, followed by an old Keep on Truckin' graphic, a Felix the Cat, a spiral galaxy, and the final one, Albert Einstein sticking out his tongue.
Amused, she rose even higher, into the substance of the roof, which felt gritty yet had a strong metallic taste. Especially thick, it slowed her progress considerably, compared to the thin walls and doors she had previously passed through with ease. Finally exiting up and out, into the pristine blue sky, she discerned a giant picture painted atop the dome — a bright orange sun emanating rays that followed the curve of the dome downwards, fading gently into the yellow paint. She wondered how many others had beheld this hidden gem.
As she hovered, the sunshine and warm breezes flowed through her, leaving an energizing quality in their wake. Turning to face the sun, she found she was able to view it without pain, even though it was impossibly bright. It contained a multitude of new colors — well beyond what could be seen with her physical eyes — and she felt she could gaze upon it forever.
Turning her attention back towards terra firma, she spied a shimmering silver weathervane perched on the crest of the main house's roof, which beckoned her closer. Consisting of a series of spiral rings encircling a figure rising within, she found her attention fully absorbed in the intricacy and detail of it, and the entire object appeared alive with movement. Reluctantly, she willed her focus away, only to find herself entranced once again, this time by a single green roof shingle. She marveled at the texture, focusing on each minute glass and asphalt particle, which sparkled as if they were also each unique, living entities.
A bothersome droning sound interrupted her shingle-gazing, and focusing her attention, she determined it was a voice, though she couldn't discern the words. Turning, she headed back towards the dome, and caught a glimpse of the red light above the outside door, which was now lit. Closing the distance, her speed increased as though being pulled, and the last thirty feet were a blur as she snapped back into place. A few moments later she heard the click of the speaker above her head.
"The excursion is now complete, please return and re-integrate," announced Terry softly.
Pulling herself up slowly, Jess felt more energized than drained. But before she could arise fully, Terry was already rapping at the door.
"Come on in," she said brightly.
"How did it go?" he asked, entering the small space and sitting cross-legged on the floor.
"Nice paintings! I like the Einstein one, I had that poster in my dorm room. A classic," she replied.
"You saw them! Wonderful, wonderful. So you went up. How many were you able to make out?"
"What do you mean? All six of them."
"All six! Well that's great, in fact that's pretty rare — people usually come back with one or two images at most. Fabulous!"
"When I got to the house though, it seemed like I was hyper-focusing on things, like kinda spaced-out. Everything seemed so...enchanting. It was strange — kinda like being high — but I was also there, fully, at the same time, if you know what I mean. I've never felt that way before."
"Hold on sweetheart, you exited the chamber? With full awareness?"
"Uh, yeah. It was sort of tough getting through it, but yeah. I made my way to the house and started getting distracted by things."
"Wow, that's phenomenal Jess. Super-rare. Oh, hey, did you notice the picture up top?"
"Yeah, it was a Sun."
Pausing to take this in, it was clear Terry was impressed.
"Amazing, Jess, really. For most people, it's like a dream state where you can sense certain things, but it's hard to have full awareness, or if you have full awareness, then you can't bring it all back when you return. Even then, they only bring back one or two pictures, never all five. And getting outside is a big effort too. So you started 'spacing out' near the house?"
"Yeah, it was like I was just amazed at every little detail of everything, like I could see each little molecule and they were all alive...it was pretty incredible, actually."
"See, that's more typical of a spiritual experience, which some people get right off the bat, but they never get any further than that. It sounds like you got the ego consciousness, with all the recall, until you get further away from your physical, then it starts to degrade. Let's do some distance work tomorrow, if you're up for it?"
"Sure, I feel great," she replied, but she felt more than great: her suspicions about this special ability of hers were confirmed, and she had a way forward now — a way to develop this into something. Having a calling, or purpose, energized her; this was why she knew she had to come here.
Terry lowered his voice. "In the meantime, you wanna help me finish dinner prep?"
Smiling, Jess nodded and followed him out. She was famished.
~ 18 ~
As they walked up the drive in the early evening light, Jess looked back several times to gaze at the setting sun, comparing it to what she saw earlier. Back in her body, it hurt to look at, as though the light rays were impacting her now instead of passing through. It also seemed more yellow — not as brilliant — and was missing the extra colors she discerned earlier. Terry noticed her furtive glances but didn't say anything.
Dinner was fully organic — vegan, in fact — and, to Jess' surprise, completely delicious. A few glasses of red wine didn't hurt her assessment either. During dinner, she gently declined their entreaties regarding her own afternoon experience; for one she didn't feel close enough to them to open up about it, and secondly it would probably cause a fuss that she just wasn't prepared for. She simply smiled politely, while the others shared their own experiences of nebulous dream states, or foggy visions of people and places far away.
After finishing her meal, Jess excused herself to return her plate to the kitchen, then escaped out the back door. Walking along the edge of a large herb garden just beyond the house, she saw someone — Julian she presumed — stacking wood in a fire pit. He appeared just a bit older than herself, with long blond hair cascading down the back of his blue and white Hawaiian shirt. She walked up behind him.
"Campfire later?" she inquired.
"Yup," he responded, slowly turning to her, "ever' night." Finishing the stack, he arose with a grunt, clapping his hands free of wood dust before offering her his hand.
"Julian
," he stated, squinting at her. "Don't recall meetin' you before."
"Jess," she replied. She didn't feel the need to explain her presence further, so she simply smiled as she released his hand.
"Beauty of a night," he continued, unfazed by her lack of disclosure, and took a seat on one of the logs surrounding the pit. "Picked a good time to drop by. Skeeters ain't out full force yet. Fire'll keep 'em at bay later though."
"So, Terry mentioned that you and Len take care of this place, huh?"
"Yup, this place keeps us busy well enough, being almost a half-century old and all, seems somethin's always goin' south on us, but we keep 'er spinnin' right along."
"Do you self-exit too?" What a strangely personal question that is, she immediately thought to herself. She felt a bit like a new member of a nudist colony, who was probing into the very thing that was supposed to be taken for granted. But hey, that is what they do here, right? she reasoned.
"Yup," he replied with a smile. "Seen a great many things. Some useful, some not. Don't let it take over your life though, bodies'r meant for full-time residency."
She wondered if it was bad form to discuss it, since he didn't go into any further detail, but she barreled ahead anyway: she was here to learn, after all.
"How far can you go?"
"Oh, most anywhere I put my mind to. Can't bring it all back sometimes, but I get verifies, so I know I made it there at least."
The slamming of the back door interrupted them as an animated conversation filled the still evening air, signalling the arrival of the others. Lighting a match, Julian leaned forward and threw it onto the kindling in the pit.
"Can you stoke this up for me?" he asked, handing her a stick. "I just need to grab a few things, I'll be back in a minute." He stood and headed back towards the kitchen. As she worked the fire, the others began to congregate around her, laughing and talking. A few minutes later, Julian returned as promised with Terry in tow, both of them saddled with various types of African drums.
Of course, a drum circle. I could've predicted that, Jess said to herself, smiling. In the end, she picked a tall Senegalese one, and as the concussive beats rose and danced in the air along with the swirling, crackling sparks from the fire, she was pleasantly surprised to find she was enjoying herself immensely. The s'mores that Julian cooked up later were the topper, and she went to bed thoroughly tired, but happy.
~ 19 ~
Jess was awakened before daybreak by a light rapping at her door. In her clouded hypno-pompic state, she guessed it was the maid service, and rolling over, ignored it. The knocks returned, though, more insistent this time, and finally remembering where she was, she determined it was most likely not a maid. Rising from the bed, she threw on a sweatshirt and jeans, and opened the door in her bare feet. It was Terry, dressed in khakis and a button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Though also slightly disheveled, unlike her, he was very much awake.
"Come with me. Hurry."
No 'Good Morning' or anything, she thought with annoyance, as she trudged over to the bed and put on her shoes. Are we going hunting for breakfast? A sunrise meditation perhaps? she thought, but held her tongue. Whatever it was, why the hurry, and why hadn't they told her about this?
"What's up?" she asked groggily, pulling on her sneakers. Terry simply smiled, and motioning for her to follow him, quietly led her downstairs, through the kitchen, and out the back door. He was sporting a brown backpack and a small blue walkie-talkie that bounced on his hip as he led her down the drive toward the dome. She wondered why they would be doing Sec-U work this early, when at the last minute he cut left and followed a well-worn path snaking into the woods.
As they entered into the dark canopy of the trees, the walkie squawked loudly, startling her. "...Spielberg, I think..." whispered the voice, as Terry fumbled to lower the volume.
"Northwest; from the southeast," came a slow, measured reply.
They continued deeper into the woods, where despite the imminent sunrise, it remained dark as night. They had been walking for several minutes when a new voice came on the walkie, this one loud and brash.
"Hey, Hey, Hey! Got 'em glassed ah? One more hour and the case is yours," it taunted.
"Damn it JoJo!" Terry exclaimed hoarsely, scrambling to lower the volume even further.
Jess was wide awake now, and after a few more minutes winding through the forest they came upon a clearing, just as the sun began to filter through the treetops overhead. Instead of entering the clearing, however, they skirted around it until they encountered a small rise. Lying down behind it, Terry slowly crawled forward on all fours until he reached the top. Producing a pair of binoculars from his knapsack, he held them up and looked over the ridge, then motioned for her to join him.
She crawled forward, staying low, and poked her head over the rise to see what he was looking at. At first she couldn't see anything; it was just a clearing with some tall grasses waving in the light morning breeze. Then she noticed a man standing stock-still near the tree line to the left of them, staring at something in the clearing. She followed his gaze, but saw nothing except a tall burnt-out tree stump in the middle of the field.
"What are we looking at?" she inquired.
"There," Terry replied, pointing to the stump. "See it?"
"Yeah, a stump. And...?"
Terry handed her the binoculars. Looking through them, she panned across the clearing until she found it. A breeze came up, causing a fine black moss to lift from the stump and flutter in the wind. With a start, she realized she was seeing hair.
"What is that? A dead bear?" Jess asked aloud, still clutching the binoculars to her eyes. Terry shushed her but said nothing. Zooming in and panning up, she spied two large brown eyes fixed in a stare towards the man at the tree line.
"Oh my god," she hissed, dropping the binoculars in the grass as she turned to Terry.
"What...the...hell...Terry! What is that?" Her stomach dropped, and a feeling of dread overtook her. Whatever was happening here was not okay with her.
Terry retrieved the binoculars and raised them to his eyes, transfixed. "When they're seen by humans out in the open, they freeze. They can stay like that for hours. It's fucking amazing."
This was the first time she had heard Terry swear. She could only manage a quiet "Oh no." She felt sick, but Terry continued on, oblivious.
"It's like a staring contest. As soon as Julian breaks his gaze, he'll drop into the grass and stay there. See, us humans have an extremely limited attention span, and they use this to their advantage. To a fella in Julian's place, it'll seem like the big guy just disappeared, and he'll question his own sanity for a minute, but then he'll get back to the more important matters of the day, and just move on and forget about the whole thing. Which is their goal, see. Meanwhile, the big guy's just lying there, biding time until he can move along on his own way, unobserved. Incredible."
Jess wanted to run back to the house; this was too much. Falling back, she crawled back down the rise and sat holding her knees to her chest. After a few minutes, she couldn't take it anymore.
"Can we go now?" she squeaked.
Finally grasping her discomfort with this whole affair, Terry dropped the binoculars and made his way back to her.
"It's a shock, sure, I know — but they're harmless. Don't know any case where they ever harmed anybody, except for their scaring the bejesus out of 'em, and maybe reorienting their whole world view. Come on now, only twenty minutes or so left on the clock."
"Twenty minutes? What happens then?"
"Well, then Julian wins us a case of Old Style from the boys two peaks over. And it'll be mighty sweet to get those boys this time, for once."
"Terry, please," Jess pleaded, scared and frustrated. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"Oh, sorry, keep forgetting. There's a research camp about a mile and a half that way," he explained, pointing a thumb behind them, "and we got a friendly little competition with them when one of their big fellas wan
ders round here. Squatch stare-down. Record's almost two hours, and Julian's gettin' pretty close now."
The radio squawked once again, almost on cue. "Can't do it guys, I got to head out soon, but mostly I gotta pee."
Terry grabbed the handset. "C'mon buddy," he replied in a loud whisper, "I got Jess here, let's give her a show!"
JoJo broke in again, this time with a heavy Russian accent. "Ah, ah, ah. Dah. No drink for you, hombres pequeños."
"Nope, nope, nope," Julian conceded, "guys I gotta go. Sorry. I'll give it ten for y'all."
Terry motioned quickly for Jess to come back up to the ridge, and held out the binoculars to her. Reluctantly she joined him, still feeling a bit sick.
"Keep your eyes on the big fella, don't look at Julian, he's gonna break in a few seconds."
Jess focused again on the dark thing in the clearing. As the sky had lightened, she could now see it wasn't completely black, but more of an auburn color. It was keeping it's head down, with it's chin buried into it's chest. The wide mouth and thin lips were framed by a greyish-silver mustache and beard, but there was no hair around the nose and eyes, exposing tanned, leathery skin. The forehead seemed more caveman than ape, accentuated by a prominent brow ridge that rose into the conical skull. The back of the head was draped in long flowing reddish hair, reminding her of an Irish setter as it shone in the sunlight.
Just as she was panning down to focus on the torso, the thing seemed to disappear on her. She could tell it had dropped, as the high grass in the area was now leaning outward as though something were pressing on it, but it was so quick, like a magic trick, that she could understand how ordinary people would think it had just disappeared into thin air.
"OK, shows over," Terry announced, breaking the silence as he rose from the ground. "Let's head on back and get some grub. So, whaddya think about all that, huh?"
The sick feeling in her stomach wasn't gone, but had subsided a bit. "So what happens now," she asked, standing to face the clearing. "Do you go out and get them?"
