The world was making me sick and I mean that in the literal sense. I often felt nauseated and light headed; sometimes warmth would overcome my body to the point where I thought I was going to pass out, but I never did. This feeling though had been going on for awhile. I even saw my doctor for it at the start of the school year, but he didn’t find anything wrong.
I started to make the correlation to how I felt, to when I was watching the news on television or reading about it online - the world really was making me sick, and this nauseated feeling only escalated that evening at the airport when I was returning back to school in Southern California, after having spent Christmas break with my father, stepmother and younger half siblings at their apartment in DC’s Foggy Bottom.
I was going through airport security and doing what was standard procedure post 911. Putting my belongings in bins; my coat, purse, cell phone, the quart size plastic bag filled with liquids and gels not exceeding 3.4 ounces, and finally my winter ankle boots, but a security agent told me to place those behind the bins, which I did, then down the conveyer belt everything went. At the last minute before walking through the body scanner, I remembered the keychain I had purchased at one of the airport souvenir shops and placing it into one of my pants pockets, and I had many pockets as I was wearing cargo pants. I took the keychain out and placed it in a small bowl a TSA agent handed me, and then placed that onto the conveyer belt.
Then I waited my turn to walk through the body scanner. I placed my feet on the foot markers, and held my hands up above my head to where they were almost touching. As I came out I began walking towards where my belongings were, only to be stopped and told that I had to have my pants search and to stand aside. So this woman with rubber gloves starts feeling my pant legs and all my pockets. “Put your arms down,” said the lady. She had to repeat again because I didn’t seem to hear her the first time, as I was very conscious of feeling humiliated.
I guess she wanted my hands down as to not draw further attention to the situation. After she was done, I got my belongings and moved off to the side where a bunch of chairs where located.
It was about a minute and a half later when I realized I had forgotten my shoes, so I want back to security to get them. One of the security agents held them up and asked, “Are these yours?” I said, “Yes”, and walked towards him. The agent said, “I can’t give them to you just yet, I have to run a test on them.” So I watched as he swabbed my ankle boots with what looked like one of those cotton alcohol pads the doctor uses on your arm just before he gives you a shot. Then after he was done, he placed the pad under a machine for it to be analyzed. No bells or lights went off, so he then handed me my shoes and I went on my way. As I walked to my gate I remember thinking, where is the common sense here? They x-rayed my shoes, but because I had forgotten them, they had to swab them when I came back to get them? And what about the body scanner? Why did I have to have my pant legs felt over then? What was the point in having all this security equipment then if you’re still going to end up being searched and screened? Honestly I was pretty angry at what happened, but I knew better than displaying that anger at the airport. But as I continued walking along, I was very well aware of how I was feeling; warm and my stomach began to churn.
A couple days after being back at school, I read online about an incident that took place in a neighboring state. A young African American boy and his brother, twelve and ten, were entering into a convenience store to buy snacks, when the clerk behind the counter told them they needed an adult to enter into the store with them. The older boy pointed to their two white friends who had already entered into the store a couple minutes before them, who themselves were without adult supervision. The clerk then ordered the two African American boys out of the store. Somebody in the store had taped the incident and it was posted to the news clip.
The following week I was sitting in a terribly boring lecture in Sociology 5350, Critical Analysis of Popular Culture. Being as I was at the back of the room, I pulled my cell phone out and started browsing through it. In some state in Middle America, a couple’s dog had been placed under quarantine as it had bitten a maintenance worker who entered into their fenced front yard, instead of ringing the bell that the family had attached to the gate. There was even a sign that said, “Ring doorbell and wait for resident.” The story went on to say that the dog was current on its vaccinations but was still required by law to remain in quarantine for ten days at an Animal Shelter. Somewhere, somebody screwed up and the dog was euthanized, leaving the couple and their young children devastated. The story went on to say, the extra kick in the teeth to the family was that the dog had been euthanized by use of a heart stick. I didn’t know what that was, so I looked it up on my iphone.
As I sat there reading, I began to get that warm feeling that I get. My friend Jackson who was sitting next to me whispered, “what’s wrong, you’re turning green.” I showed him my iphone, he read what was on it, and though he didn’t look too happy himself at what he was reading, he was better composed than me. In a low tone he said, “yeah, some shelters do that. Why are you reading about that anyway?” No sooner the class was over. I put my phone away and said to him; “sometimes I read things I shouldn’t.” He was about to say something else, when a guy from a couple rows in front came walking back to talk to him. “Hey Jackson, I got an extra ticket to the hockey game Saturday night, wanna go?” I gave a slight wave to Jackson and proceeded to walk out of the room. Life had become a quagmire for me. What was I supposed to do, move into a cave and close myself off from the entire world?
That night as I was getting ready for bed, I walked over to my bedroom window to close the curtains and to my surprise, an owl flew by. I had never seen an owl in the neighborhood before, let alone even hearing one, but I was left in awe at the sight. As I lie in bed that night,
I remembered something I had heard somewhere a few years back. Seeing an owl had different meanings in Native American culture. Some Native Americans viewed the sighting as a good omen, while others as a bad one. Though I didn’t know if there was an actual meaning to it or not, I did manage to get a good look at it as my apartment building was well light at night and I was up on the second floor, and my bedroom window was rather large, so I was quite amazed to have witnessed its massive wingspan and its glide.
The following morning I awoke as usual to the sound of my alarm going off. As I turned it off, I could hear the sound of rain hitting against my windowpane. I got out of bed and looked out.
It was overcast with a light to medium rainfall. Yup, today I’d be wearing the yellow fisherman’s style raincoat my father and stepmother gave me for Christmas.
I was watching some national morning television show before heading out the door. There was a segment on a grandmother who had been arrested for having put coins in expired parking meters. Apparently this act was deemed illegal by her county, and since this was her second offence doing it, she was sentenced to a week in jail. They showed the judge sentencing her and the bailiff cuffing her and taking her away. Of all the problems we have going on in the world, now we’re making criminals of grandmothers who are simply trying to do a good deed. As I turned off the television I couldn’t help but think I was living in a bizarro world. Whispering to myself I said, “I want off this planet, “and rushed out the door.
My last class of the day ended at 2:50 PM. I passed a few friends in the halls, exchanging hellos with them. Eli lived in the apartment just under mine, but he still had one more class for the day. Lindsey and I had a couple classes together last semester, but didn’t have any this one. And then there was Emma who I let stay with me for a couple weeks the year before, after her kitchen caught fire due to an electrical short, and though I thought of her as a good friend, she was an extremely messy person, so I was really glad when she was able to move back into her own apartment.
As I started to approach the student union, which is where I usually exit from on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I saw a crowd gathering in front of the large flat screen television that hung up on the wall in there. I could also see through the windows that the rain was really picking up now, and it was rather dark for being only 3:00 in the afternoon. I walked up to the crowd to see what they were watching. Protesters had taken to the streets in major cities to protest a new policy the President wanted to implement; he wanted impoverished children, ten years old and over, who received free school lunch, to work around their school for one hour every week in exchange for their lunch. He wanted them to learn, there is no such thing as a free lunch, and he thought it would also teach them a good work ethic. The President proposed that the hour could be divided over three days at twenty minutes. Suddenly, in a clip shown from Philadelphia, violence had broken out; people who were for the idea, were fighting people who were against it. The police resorted to using teargas. I had had enough of what I was watching. I put my backpack on and put my raincoat on over it so that it wouldn’t get wet. I wasn’t sure if that would work out, but it did as I was still able to button my jacket. I pulled the hoodie up over my head and made a mad dash out the door. To save time in getting to my apartment, I decided to cross through the grass, as my apartment wasn’t very far off campus. I was half way there when I heard a deafening clasp of thunder, and lightning striking right behind me that sent me flying forward.
I don’t know how long I was out, but when I woke, I found myself in a room unfamiliar to me. I was lying on a bed that seemed about the size of a twin mattress, but it was about five inches thick, and though there was no pillow, it was comfortable, the mattress contoured to my body. As I sat up and threw my legs over the side, the bed lowered to where my feet sat flat on the floor. Looking down I realized I wasn’t wearing my own shoes, what I had on were like a suede loafer/tennis shoe with a flap on the sides that obviously secured my feet in them. They were charcoal color. Then I realized I wasn’t even wearing my own clothes either. I was wearing tan pants and a long sleeve robin’s egg blue pullover shirt, with an elastic fit around the wrists like that on a sweat shirt, and the color on the wrists were the same color as the shoes. There was an insignia of sort on the right front forearm. I noticed just how soft the clothes were, they were very comfortable, and the shoes were a perfect fit as they hugged my feet with just enough room for me to wiggle my toes in. And I could feel a very light pulsation in them, but they felt great none-the-less. I looked around the room in the direction in which I was facing, I saw an opening to a room, so I got up and walked towards it, and as I approached, a light went on inside and I found an extremely modern looking bathroom, even futuristic I thought. Then I turned back around in the other direction of the room and saw its window, there were no curtains or blinds, it looked dark outside with bits of bright speckles. I walked over to take a look out and to my shock; I was zooming through the galaxy. I didn’t understand what I was seeing, was someone playing an elaborate hoax on me?
Then the room’s door slid open and I turned around and in walked a robotic woman. She was silver, except for her face, it looked human, and she had the most brilliant emerald green eyes,
In fact, I even found them calming. She was holding what looked like small headphones. Whatever she was saying to me I didn’t understand; as I had never heard that language before, so she put the headphone on herself to show me what she wanted me to do, then handed them to me, so I put them on. “Welcome Kerry Dallaway,” she said. “My name is Jovak, please come with me.” “Where am I?” I asked. “You’re aboard the Sanszom, an intergalactic fofleck.” “Fofleck?” I asked. “Yes, a floating cosmic community,” she answered. “Please come with me.” I willingly followed as I wasn’t afraid.
As we exited out the room, we entered into a very large circular floor, and I mean large, almost football field large, but not quite. There were doors nearly all around it; I guessed them to be other bedrooms like the one I had just left, and what I had just entered into though, was a large communal room of sorts. There were modern couches and modern reclining chairs in a clustered area, with a twenty foot waterfall with beautiful silver colored water that shimmered as it fell into a small pond. And there were some truly beautiful potted trees with leaves of gold and purple and red placed about, but the tree trunks looked smooth and black. There were many humans about, and half as many alien creatures, who looked like the aliens we see in the movies, short in stature, with large bald heads, only these weren’t exactly like those, these were bluish in color, and though their heads were larger, they weren’t as big as the movie aliens had, nor were their eyes as large either, yet they did have bigger eyes, but they weren’t solid black, they had eyeballs like humans, and their noses were small, as was their mouths. Some of the aliens were interacting with some of the humans. Also among them were some robots like Jovak. And all the humans wore a handful of different color shirts; some were wearing my color, the robin’s egg blue. Some wore maroon, there was also apricot and sea green, and all four colors were very vibrant. (I took a lot of art classes my first year of college, so I knew the color scheme quite well!) And just like I had on my forearm, they too all had the same insignia on their right forearm. The alien beings were all wearing light gray one piece jumpers, their insignias was a circular patch on the side of their shoulder with four squares inside it, each square, the same colors of the shirts the humans were wearing.
Situated in the center of this very large, almost football size floor, appeared to be a dining area. It was completely enclosed in a lightly tinted glass, except for its open entry. I could see it had both a counter area, and tables, but very futuristic looking. There were a few people and aliens inside eating.
I then noticed there was a floor above us. It was circular too; someone could easily look over the side and see the open floor plan that I was on beneath it.
Jovak lead me over to an elevator, and no sooner that the door closed, it opened up again.
I was now on that top floor that I was looking at from below. There were four stations that were 90* apart. There was a glass window at each station that was about twenty-five feet long by ten feet high. (A view of the cosmos from four different angles.) As we passed one of the stations I saw two humans sitting at a control panel with two bluish aliens. As we proceeded on we passed a few robotic people that were walking about the floor. Jovak took me to a door where we waited for a couple seconds before it opened. It looked dark inside, except for some dim light coming from the center of it. Jovak did not enter with me, I wanted her to and she seemed to sense that, “its okay Kerry, go in”, so I did, as I seemed to trust her. Immediately the door slid shut behind me and the room became better lit now, I could see three figures seated at a futuristic table in the center of the room. I immediately made the distinction of two humans, a man about forty, and a woman about fifty, and another bluish alien. The alien spoke first, “welcome Kerry Dallaway, we’re glad you are here with us, please come sit down.” I noticed the alien’s hands as they were placed on top of the table. It was like a humans, only it was missing the pinkie. Its fingers were a little longer than what would be normal for its size, then I noticed its large gray eyeballs. I moved my eyes from one of them to the next, and then sat down.
“My name is Kaylock”, said the alien, “he is Maxwell,” (who was wearing a robin’s egg blue shirt like me) “and she is Armandine,” (who was wearing maroon). “Hello”, they each said.
Maxwell then said, “Do you remember what happened to you before you came here?”
“You mean aboard this intergalactic fofleck?” I said casually.
“Good” said Armandine, “Then Jovak explained where you are. Are you scared”?
“I don’t know.” I answered.” I really didn’t. It was just this strange feeling I had, but it wasn’t really a fearful feeling, maybe it was more of a confused feeling than anything else.
“What’s the last thing you remember before waking up aboard the Sanszom?” Asked Armandine.
It got really strange now. It felt kind of like when you wake up after a dream, and for a minute you can remember a little bit of what you were dreaming about, and then the longer you’re awake, you completely forget the dream all together.
Then Kaylock said, “Here, let me help you to remember,” then he placed one finger on each side of my temples and rapidly I saw clips in my head, I saw the owl flying past my bedroom window, Then I saw me turning off my television saying, “I want off this planet.” Then I saw me running out of the Student Union, into the rain, cutting across the grass towards my apartment, hearing a loud clasp of thunder, and then lightning hitting the ground right behind me, and me flying forward.
Then Kaylock said, “You crossed through a portal that brought you onto the Sanszom.” I felt a sense of calm as I asked, “Then I’m supposed to be here?” “Yes,” said Kaylock. “The portal never opens up unless it’s supposed to do so. You have been putting out vibrations of distress into the atmosphere for some time now. The conditions that brought you here fell into patterns of absolutes, your highly emotional state, the barometric pressure, and the lightening strike at the precise moment, the portal opened.”
For just a moment I thought of my family, my father had three children with his wife, twin boys thirteen and a girl ten.
My mother also had three children with her husband, a girl twelve, a boy ten and a girl seven.
I got along okay with their spouses, and why wouldn’t I? I was just a visitor; I didn’t exactly spend a lot of time with either family.
And the dynamics I had within each family was exactly the same; I was a twenty-three years old grad student, much older than my half siblings, so I didn’t have a lot in common with them.
I spent Christmas with one family, then the following Christmas with the other.
During the summers, I spent four weeks with my father’s family, and four weeks with my mother’s, and somewhere in there I usually traveled with a group of friends for a couple weeks, and this arrangement had been just like this ever since I was sent off to boarding school in the ninth grade – with the exception of me traveling with friends for a couple weeks, that begin during my second year of college. My parents had never married as I was the product of a three year relationship they had. Though they both provided well towards my education, living and travel expenses, as they both had good careers and came from well to do families, but I always knew I was different from them. It was always about socioeconomic status with them, but I viewed the world differently, the world impacted me deeper than it did them – it made me sick.
Suddenly from behind me, the earphones were removed off my head. I turned and saw a robotic male behind me, but unlike Jovak, he didn’t have emerald green eyes, his were medium brown. Maxwell said, “turn around and stay still for just a moment,” Armadine said something too, only it was in French.
Then the robot placed another set of earphones over my ears and I felt a quick puncture deep into my ears cavum conchae. The robot then removed the ear phones and I said, “What was that about?” “Armadine said, “You will now understand us without the need of earphones.” “So you’re from France?” I said to Armadine. “I’m from Montreal,” she said. I asked Maxwell. “You were speaking English, where are you from?” “I’m from Golden, Colorado.” He answered. “Did you both get here through the portal too?” I asked?
“No,” said Maxwell, “most of us here on the Sanszom were working for scientific laboratories and were invited to come here.”
Kaylock said, “We first made contact with the earth after the detonation of the atomic bomb in the New Mexico desert in 1945. My people, The Olms, who live on Olmossis, the closest planet, in the closest galaxy beyond your Milky Way, have been watching the earth for thousands of years, but once we saw the earth had nuclear capability, we made contact with its leaders to warn them of the devastation the weapon would bring if used, as our own planet had itself suffered from such a cataclysmic event that took us 500 years to recover from.”
“I’m sorry, I said suddenly, but I don’t understand why I’m here. I’m not from a scientific background. I admit, I’ve always been fascinated by the cosmos, but just the same…”
Kaylock said, “when you were ten years old, you visited Meteor Crater in Arizona.”
“How do you know that?” I asked. “Because I was there, answered Kaylock. Oh, you couldn’t see me, I was not visible. But I stood next to you and I watched your reaction to the crater.
You thought to yourself, if only I could have been in a space ship and used a lazar to demolish the meteor.’ “But how do you know that? I never shared that thought with anyone before.”
“Because emotions are rippled. It’s the same as throwing a stone across the water and watching that stone skim across it.
“But I am sure I can’t possibly be the only child to have ever had that thought, and to be honest, I had just seen the original Star Wars a couple months before visiting there.” “You are correct, other children have thought that too while looking out at the crater, but there is something that makes you stand out ahead of them, and that is something that you share in adulthood with all the other humans that are aboard the Sanszom, you’re highly sensitive to stimuli. Just like The Olms. When you see unfairness and injustice, it physically affects you. So you and the others ignite a sort of emotional beacon somewhere in childhood that we see, and we wait and watch from afar. And if you never outgrow that sensitivity, in addition to other qualities, we will either invite you here, or the portal opens up to you. The portal actually only opens to those in their third decade, and approximately only 15% of those on the Sanszom have come that route.
“So the people who get invited then are out of their twenties? So why does the portal occasionally open to those in their twenties? Is there something specific about them to come here sooner?” I asked. “In essence, yes”, said Kaylock. “You are measured by a different standard. As you said, you are not scientific, but you are a visionary. The Scientifics have learned to better hone their ability to manage their physical self, younger, so that is why they get invited later. But when the portal opens, it is because you are in need of it to do so, so you come sooner. It is actually for your own good.”
I looked at Maxwell and Armadine and asked, “How did you get invited here?”
Armadine said, “We were interviewed in our dreams. Asked specific questions.
Then when it was time to come here, we all went somewhere in the night, like the ocean, a mountain top, the plains, and we were beamed aboard.” “But what about our families?” I asked.
“Like you, we are not married or have children, nor are we close to the families we’ve got,” said Maxwell.
“But what if I want to get married and have children one day?” I asked. “That can still happen,” said Kaylock. “That is when you would go live on Olmossis, the Sanszom is no place for children. Olmossis is populated by 30% humans. People live side by side with us, without the problems typically encountered on earth. We have empathy there, there is no poverty, no homelessness, violent crime is nonexistent. We want Humans who are out of place on earth to be at home on Olmossis.”
I looked to Maxwell and Armadine and asked, “Have you ever seen Olmossis?” They both said they had, and Maxwell added, “its 3/4 the size of the earth, and it’s very beautiful. It’s a futuristic Arizona with two suns and five moons. The shirts you’ve seen everyone wearing around here represent the main colors of the planet. The maroon and the apricot are for its landscape, the blue is for its sky, and the green is for its oceans.” He then indicated for me to look at the table and a three dimensional model of Olmossis appeared, looking just as he described. It had very tall buildings with subway trains that seemed to run by magnets as they appeared to hover off the ground as they took off. There were cars that also seemed to run the same way, by magnet, as they hovered off ground.
I looked up and asked, “what if I want to go back to earth one day?” “You can”, said Kaylock, “but your memory will be wiped clean - you will have no memory of your time on the Sanszom, or on Olmossis, but nobody has ever asked to go back.”
“There’s something missing though, isn’t there?” I asked. “That is very perceptive of you Kerry”, said Kaylock. “The Sanszom is a personal protective measure for the earth, by Olmossis.
Though we cannot interfere with the possibility of a nuclear war breaking out, we do protect the earth though from asteroids and the Miskovan Slors.” Before I could even ask what that was? Kaylock said, “They are similar to us, but you would say they look Reptilian, but their intentions are not good. They sometimes try to enter into the earth’s atmosphere, but we intercept them and they usually do not want confrontation because we’re stronger and more powerful, but sometimes they will still fire upon us, and that can cause serious consequences should we be hit.” “So we could die?” “Yes, but we do have many particle layers of Graphene and Inconel in the imperceptible protective sphere that surrounds the Sanszom, so penetrating it would be very hard, but not impossible.”
“So what does everyone do here? What would I do?” I asked. “The Scientifics study the cosmos,” said Kaylock, “they do experiment and tests, and together with my people, they helped build the sphere in the late 1950’s. We always had one, but they just helped reinforce our reinforcements. Then we have the Visionaries, such as you, who help on our command posts. They copilot and fire lasers at asteroids heading towards the earth, along with responding to possible attacks by the Slors.”
“Oh, sounds great! Sign me up!” I said sarcastically. Maxwell asked, “Is there a problem?” “Yes! Many!” I said. “What is worrying you?” asked Armadine. “What isn’t?” I answered. “This isn’t making any sense,” I replied “I can’t even board an airplane without having extra security measures done, but you want me to copilot the Sansom and fire lasers at asteroids and these Slor beings? What makes me qualified to do that? Do you know the requirements the United States Army places on its Pilots? I have a friend named Eli who’s older brother is a Pilot for the Army, and Eli filled me in on that. But you’re willing to trust me, just because I passed through a portal? ” “Precisely”, said Armadine. “Think of the Portal as your requirement to being here. Now, are you ready to fulfill your destiny?”
Maxwell added, “The earth will always pigeonholed you Kerry, and even if you manage to climb up the ladder, you’ll still be pigeonholed. When I went to work at the Laboratory, I was required to sign confidentiality contracts and agree to severe penalties should I even accidently mention something that was secret. Here, and on Olmossis, we have no secrets, everybody is privy to the same information. Do you realize that on earth, government officials know extraterrestrials exist, but will they tell that to everyday people? Of course not. The earth is divided into three categories, the elitists; they run the show there. Then you have the everyday Joe. He only gets so far in life, but the carrot always dangles in front of him to give the illusion that anything’s attainable so long as he believes that. And then you have the unaccomplished, and a good portion of those people will be scapegoated, and you know that’s the truth. This is why I know you are going to accept your role here on the Sanszom without further doubt, you don’t belong on the earth anymore than I do, or Armandine, or any other human here.”
Just then I felt the vibration in my shoes ramp up a notch, and it was calming me, so I asked,
“What’s with the vibration in these shoes?” And Maxwell said, “Pretty neat, aren’t they?” “It is, but what’s it about?” Kaylock answered, “It’s a calming effect. Everybody feels some level of stress, so when someone starts to get anxious, it helps calm them.” With a slight laugh I said, “These should be sold on earth.” Armandine said, “They’re so comfortable, some of us even sleep with them on.”
Kaylock said, “Are you ready to join us Kerry?” I looked at each of them and I could see they truly believed in me. Try getting that out of TSA I thought. So with all that in mind I said with conviction, “I am”.
“Welcome aboard,” said Maxwell, extending his hand out to shake mine. “We are glad you are here said, Kaylock, lightly touching my shoulder with one of his hands. “This will be beyond your wildest dreams,” said Armandine, extending her hand out.
“Come with me, said Maxwell. “Let me show you around.”
I said goodbye to Armandine and Kaylock and with that, exited out of the room with Maxwell.
Maxwell lead me towards what he said was the main control center of the four command posts. “How can you tell it’s the main control center if the craft is circular?” I asked.
“Because it’s the only post that has a top deck over the control center.” And he was right, there was. “Hey everyone”, said Maxwell as we walk in, “this is Kerry Dallaway, our newest member of the Sanszom. Kerry, this is, Jeremy, Lewis, Crantmott and Belator.” Jeremy and Lewis were both probably in their late 20’ies, maybe early 30’ies, and Crantmott was a female Olms as I could tell by her facial features and her voice. They were all very nice and welcoming. Suddenly from the top deck called out a voice that was really happy and upbeat, “Hey, Maxwell, how ya doing!?” I looked up and I saw a male Olm. “Hi Charlie!” said Maxwell, I’m good, thanks. This is Kerry Dallaway our new Sanszom member, I’m showing her around.” “Hey Kerry! Why don’t you and Maxwell join me up here for a sec.” I turned to Maxwell and said, “Charlie?” “You’re gonna love him, he’s a character, he thinks he’s a human.” So Maxwell and I walked onto a platform that lifted us up to the upper deck.
Immediately I noticed Charlie was wearing a Massachusetts Institute of Technology baseball hat, with the ‘MIT’ looking like a math equation, and since his head was on the large side, the hat obviously had been altered to fit his head.
“Hi Kerry!” said Charlie, extending a fist out to me. He wanted me to fist bump it; I thought that was awesome, so I did. “I like your hat”. He said, “One of the Scientifics, Jim J. gave it to me. He was wearing it when he was beamed aboard. I told him I liked it, so he wanted me to have it. I had to have it expanded a few inches, but I really do like it a lot.”
“He’s been wearing it continuously for about three years now,” said Maxwell. I turned to Maxwell and asked, “What happened to the clothes I was wearing, and my backpack when I came through the portal? I woke up wearing this.” “It’s in your closet”. “Oh, I have a closet? I didn’t see it,” I said. “Sure you have a closet,” said Maxwell. There are other shirts and slacks in there as well, and if you’d like, you can still wear what you were wearing when you arrived. This isn’t mandatory attire, but most of us like to wear it because it’s comfortable. You just don’t find fabric like this on earth.”
“Can I get you two a fleg?” said Charlie. Maxwell looked at me and said, “A soda.” “Actually, I am kind of thirsty,” I said. “Maxwell, can I get you one?” “Sure, why not,” he answered. So Charlie pushed a couple buttons and three drinks came through a shoot, like that at a bank. The drinks were similar to caned sodas, only in clear containers, with a spout that went up. As I drank whatever it was, it tasted sort of like whipped cream and grape soda, and it was really good!
“I just know you’re going to enjoy being here Kerry, but everybody likes being here anyway.”
“What will be my shift?” I asked. “In an earthly time frame, you’ll work two five hour shifts, weekly,” said Charlie. I looked at both Charlie and Maxwell in disbelief, “I don’t understand?”I said. “Yes, hard to comprehend when on earth they’ll work you for all they can,” said Maxwell.
“You humans keep saying that,” said Charlie. “That’s such a shame that you don’t get to experience relaxation. Well Kerry, here you will enjoy flying through the cosmos, and learning to find joy in life’s pleasures. Welcome to your new home.” And gave me a funny little alien smile. Maxwell and I stayed there for another five minutes talking to Charlie, but my mind kind of went blank after what he said to me.
As Maxwell and I made our way out of the Control Center, he said, “I know what you’re thinking, and feeling for that matter, we all went through it when we first arrived here.”
“But if people work so seldom, how do things get done?” I asked. “Because there’s enough people here to make it work accordingly. It’s like a well oiled machine Kerry, everybody systematically does their part, it just works. Honestly, the Olms have done us a huge favor. Living on earth was a constant worry… about everything.” He stopped and asked me if I were done with my drink? I was. So he showed me we were standing in front of two 1’X1’ doors in the wall, one read, Utensils, and below it, the other read, Disposables. We both put our containers in the Utensils chute. Then we continued walking on. “On earth, we worry all the time,” continued Maxwell. “We worry about getting into a good college, paying our bills on time, could we lose our jobs? What if I’m out of work for an extended period of time, it just goes on and on. Here we don’t have those worries anymore. Come on, I’ve got a lot more to show you, then we’ll get some food at the commissary.”
We were now back on the main level that I originally come up from. Maxwell led me to my room again. He showed me where on the right side of the door, there was a thumb scanner, which is how I would get into my room. Above that was my name and where I was from; Kerry D. “California.” Below, next to the thumb scanner was a buzzer, the same as a doorbell. Maxwell had me put my thumb on the scanner, and the door slid open. It gave us ten seconds before it closed. He and I went into my room. He showed me where the closet was, and there I found the clothes I was wearing when I got pulled into the portal. My backpack was there as well, and some additional Sanszom clothing, even slippers and pajamas.
Then there was a desk and small office area that expanded out from the wall when you pushed a button. It had a screen, about 3’ from top to bottom, and 4’ from side to side. And all you had to do was say what you wanted. Maxwell gave me an example, “Isaac, give me the latest news from Earth, Los Angeles, California.” The news came on. Then He said, “Isaac, give me the latest news from Earth, New York City.” I was getting news from New York City. Then Maxwell said, “Isaac, please show me on a map of the cosmos, where Olmossis is located.” And there came a map with Olmossis being zeroed in on. Then Maxwell said, “Let’s go, there’s much more to see.”
He took me to the level beneath the communal floor; in the center of it was an arboretum garden under a glass dome. Completely around it was what appeared to be a running track, as there were about ten humans in athletic wear running on it that passed us and waved or nodded as at us. But closest to the wall was a walking path, it was separated from the running track by a white line. Maxwell and I got on the walking path and he said as we began walking to the right, “Let’s start this way and go around.” We walked about twenty-five feet until we came to wide door. Above it read, Theatre. There was a large red push button to the side of the door that Maxwell pushed, and it slid open. Inside was a large auditorium. It had a stage and a large screen behind it, and beautiful seats facing towards the stage. There were about fifty Olms and humans inside. An Olms being was giving a lecture about, the Circumstellar habitable zone.
The next room down was the Recreation Room. It had about thirty saunas that sat two. Maxwell said, “these are for everyone’s use of’course, but the Olms love these most, as Olmossis is a desert planet, they relish warmth.” Also inside the Recreational Room were a half dozen golf simulators, four batting cages, four ping pong tables and a basketball court.
The Next room over from the Recreational Room was, The Laboratory. We were in there the least amount of time. Maxwell said that I was always welcome to assist with experiments, if I wanted to. But it was pretty busy in there, probably thirty humans and a dozen Olms were working.
Then the next room was the Library, we were the only ones in there. It wasn’t very large, but it was very cozy and intimate. There was an imitation fireplace that was burning that gave off warmth. There were four bookshelves that were placed one in front of the other. The shelves were about eight feet long by six feet high. There were three tables that sat six, and there was a telescope near the window, I went over to take a look through it and saw Saturn. “Oh my gosh!” I exclaimed. I looked up at Maxwell and said, “It’s Saturn! It’s so huge! I mean, it’s gigantic huge!” Maxwell said, “You could get approximately 530 earths to fit inside it.” My mouth fell open. I closed it and looked back through the telescope again. This time to take a better look at its rings. “What is that inside the rings?” I asked. “Icy and rocky remnants from comets, asteroids and moons.” And from what I was seeing, it looked like the size of the particles ranged from a pea to the size of a bus. “Wow!” I said.
The last and final room was the Virtual Reality Room. It had about a twenty individual stalls. You could choose from a forty-five minutes session, or an hour. Go skiing in Switzerland, skydiving in Dubai. Hang gliding in Rio de Janeiro, visit Olmossis, visit the moon. The list went on…
Maxwell and I then made our way to the commissary, that’s when I notice a sort of mini store next to it, only there wasn’t a clerk running it. Maxwell said, it’s a lot like a convenience store, just go in there and take what you want, or need. Chocolate donuts, chips, toothpaste, even athletic gear, and it’s always open, just like everything else here.
Suddenly to my surprise, out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw a cat run by. “Did I just see a cat go by over there?” pointing to the side of the store. “Yes, you did. That’s Tobias. He came through the portal with Nigel a couple years ago. Nigel was one of those you saw on the running track, he comes from Yorkshire, England, and the cat wasn’t even his, it just happened to be in the immediate vicinity of the portal when Nigel came through. But everybody loves Tobias, and Tobias loves being here. A lot of the time he’ll go sit up with Charlie and watch the cosmos, some say they communicate with him. I haven’t been able to myself, but some swear by it.”
When Maxwell and I finally sat down to dinner in the commissary, he informed me that the Sanszom and Olmossis were vegetarian. The Olms don’t eat anything that was alive, he explained. “The food must be pretty bland”, I said. Maxwell said, “Actually, no. In fact, you won’t even notice anything different. You can still have hamburgers and steak, and they’ll taste just like the real thing.” “Interesting,” I said. “But what about Tobias? That’s not good for a cat to be a vegetarian.” “They supplement his diet, he’s doing well.”
Well, Maxwell was right. The burger I ordered tasted just like a real hamburger. I was glad to know that I wasn’t going to starve in space!
Ordering was totally easy too, all we did was push a button at our table, say what we wanted, and within a couple of minutes, the order came down onto the table on a tray, that rode across tracks from above, until it reached the table you were seated at, then the tray was gently lowered by a two metal arms on each side of it. Then once the tray touched the table, the arms retracted back up. When we were done eating, Maxwell and I said good-bye and parted ways. I decided to swing back to my bedroom.
As I stood outside my door, I noticed my neighbors name to the right of me, Polongo. “Olmossis.” And my neighbor to the left, Marius H. “Norway.” I was just getting ready to put my thumb on my room scanner when Polongo came out of her quarters, “Oh, hello! I am Polongo.” “Hello Polonsa, I’m Kerry.” Then Polongo said, “Have you met Marius yet?” “Um, no, I haven’t.” Then Polongo called out to a guy who was seated at one of the communal couches talking to two other people who were seated with him, “Marius, come meet Kerry!” Two guys and a lady all got up from the couch and walked over to me. One man was a tall, with blonde hair, and about fifty. The other man was medium height, about forty, and looked as if he were of Indian descent. The Lady was of African descent, very pretty, and probably in her late thirties.
The blond man spoke first, “Kerry Dalloway, we’ve all heard so much about you. I’m your neighbor,” pointing to his name, Marius H. “Norway”. Then he introduced the woman, “this is Lesedi, she’s from Cape Town, South Africa. And this is Aarav, he’s from Surat, India.”
“Where in California did you come from?” Asked Lesedi “Malibu”, I answered. Then I asked, “Are you all Scientifics?” “We are,” and, “yes” was said by all three.
The next hour was spent with Polongo, Marius, Lesedi and Aarav introducing me to as many people and Olms as they could find available on the communal floor.
The next day I decided to get started on learning my new job on the Sanszom. Charlie decided to start me in the Control Center with him. Fortunately it wasn’t a very complicated procedure. He showed me the difference between a dangerous asteroid, one that could have serious consequences should it enter into earth’s atmosphere, and the ones that served no threat at all. The ones that got near earth’s atmosphere that didn’t decrease in size were the ones that needed to be extinguished by laser. But before firing, we needed to open up a portion of the sphere that surrounded the Sanszom, so that the laser didn’t ricochet back. I asked what would happen if it did? And Charlie said, “It just doesn’t happen as there are three others sitting next you to make sure there are no mistakes.”
I also learned how to read the radar of any approaching Slors. Apparently there was something in their starships metallic structure that made it appear green and yellow on the radar.
I also learned that the Sanszom could run by program, or be piloted. But it usually ran by program 90% of the time. The other 10% was just to keep in practice of manual flight.
As the weeks went by, the novelty of my job wore off and I found myself spending most of my free time in the library; usually there was nobody in there with me. There had been times when I was either going in, and someone was coming out, or I was coming out and someone was going in. But generally I was alone in there.
The books on the shelves were fascinating. All of earth’s great philosophers were there, as well as earths great physicists and mathematicians, and its history. But there were also books from Olmossis on those same subjects as well. But Olmossis books were interactive, and they were also written in what I perceived to be hieroglyphics, and since I could not read hieroglyphics, I had to ask the books to translate for me. One of the interesting ways that some of Olmossis books worked was that you’d asked it a question, and it went right to the page that had the answer. Then you’d be asked if you wanted to watch a short clip? If you said yes, the pages turned to the very last page that was empty, but turned into a sort of television screen, though it was loose, just like a page. Watching the Olmossis explanation of the big bang theory was very similar to earths. So there was an obvious consensus there.
But then I asked a question that I thought was the question of all questions, “explain religion on Olmossis?” Coming from behind one of the shelves, I heard a voice, “you won’t find anything on that subject in an Olmossis book.” I said, “I didn’t know someone was in here,” and I got up to go see who had spoke. To my shock, it was the cat! It now looked like an animated cat, and it was sitting upright with its back against the last shelf behind it, and it was reading a book.
“Oh my gosh!! You can speak!” “Of course I can speak.” said the tuxedo cartoon like cat, closing its book. “Sit down, let’s have a chat”, it said. So I positioned myself, cross-legged, directly across from him. “How can you talk, you’re a cat. And why do you look different?”
“Cats have always been smart and wise; just look the relationship we had with the ancient Egyptians. But as time passed and we lost our standing, and we also lost our abilities, one of which was to be able to communicate with humans. But then when I accidently got caught up in Nigel’s portal, suddenly the abilities that had been dormant for centuries were awoken here on the Sanszom. At first Kaylock wanted to return me back to Surry, but I had a discussion with him and told him I wanted to stay, as I thoroughly enjoy having scintillating conversations with intellectuals, and I so love flying through the cosmos.” “Maxwell said some people can speak to you, and others can’t, why is that?” “This is only a problem with the humans. All the Olms speak to me, but with modern day humans it’s different. Some of them just don’t like cats that much, so it is those who don’t communicate with me. When I first spoke to you, and you spoke back, it is because you have a strong liking to cats in general, so you heard me. Once you hear me and respond back, you will always see me as you do now.”
Tobias then reached into a furry pocket and pulled out a paw full of what I perceived to be catnip, and said, “excuse me while I have my medicine”, and he eat it. “What’s your medical condition?” I asked. “I have arthritis, I’m not as young as I look, I’m nine.” I snickered, which I didn’t mean to, but sitting in a space craft, sailing through the cosmos, talking to animated cat, just seemed super funny at the time. “Something funny about my arthritis?” he asked. Being very serious now, I said, “No, I’m sorry, forgive me. Does the medication help?” “It does. This is also why I like to come in here. I like the warmth from the fireplace,” he said.
“Let’s get back to your question”, said Tobias, “religion on Olmossis, was it? Well it doesn’t exist.” “So does that mean there is no God?” I asked. “Well not exactly. At least not in the same sense as he exists on earth. Olms are spiritual, some more than others, but their belief is in a higher consciousness and they don’t worship in temples. “What about the humans that live on Olmossis,” I asked, “knowing how some devout Christians are, seems they’d try to convert the Olms to Christianity.” “The thing about that, Kerry?” I nodded my head. “The thing is that the majority of the humans that come here to the Sanszom, or go to Olmossis, are agnostic. The few that are religious, well, they come to that same higher consciousness that the Olms embrace, because they have left the earth behind. Olms don’t lie, cheat or steal.”
“So they are perfect?”I asked. “No, that’s not it. They are simply evolved.” He paused for a moment than asked, “are you religious Kerry?” “I’m more spiritual than religious.” Then Tobias asked, “Is there something bothering you?” “I’ve been thinking about earth.” “Are you missing it?” asked Tobias. “I’m not sure? Being there was always one complication after another, I felt nauseated most of the time when I was there. I still watch the news occasionally back on earth, and it’s always the same thing going on, so how can I miss that?” “Do you like being here?” “Sure, it’s great! It’s an unbelievable opportunity being here. It’s like winning the lottery.” I said. Then Tobias said, “but you do miss the earth, don’t you?” “I don’t think I do. I just told you, I always felt nauseated there. I remember that very well.” Then Tobias said, “It’s like chocolate with some people.” “What?” “Some people eat chocolate till they’re sick to their stomach. But they still love chocolate. And those same people complain how much it makes them sick, but they still keep eating it.” Then he said, “Hey, let me do something… have you ever had your fortune read?” “Now you’re a medium?” I asked with a chuckle. “Just humor me. He then pulled out a small pen and notebook from a pocket and asked, “What day and month were you born?” “August 31st.” “What part of the United States were you born? You know, west? Southwest? Midwest?” “West” I answered. “Who’s your favorite historical US President?” Without having to think about it, I said, “Abraham Lincoln.” “What’s your favorite quote?“ That one I had to think about for a moment, and then I said, “It’s by Gandhi, and it’s kind of a long one, “Your beliefs become your thoughts, Your thoughts become your words, Your words become your actions, Your actions become your habits, Your habits become your values, Your values become your destiny.” Let me do a little research and studying, and let’s say we meet back here at this same time next week.” “Okay? But I’m still getting use to Sanszom time, so would you send me a reminder of when that is just in case I get confused?” “Sure, I’ll leave a note at your door the day before.” And with that I left Tobias to his book.
That evening I sat in my room watching national news from earth. The President was once again on his monthly, three day golf weekends, in his home state of, Scottsdale, Arizona.
A television news reporter was shown asking the president how he could justify his monthly outings, costing the American tax payer 3.6 million dollars each time, while wanting to cut federal funding for early childhood educational programs for children from economically disadvantaged households. The President responded with, “People need to start taking responsibility for their children’s educational needs, instead of expecting the government to do it.” The reporter was then shown saying, “You haven’t answered my question Mr. President!”
The President and his guards continued past him, without giving another response.
I felt my blood boil watching that, so I immediately said, “television off!” And it went off.
As I lie in my bed that night, I felt a bit stressed from watching earth’s news, I needed to relax. One of my favorite things I loved about my room was what the ceiling did. All I had to do was give out a command, “Isaac, place the ceiling with a scene of shooting stars, and music to sleep by. “ Not all nights were the same, but that was my favorite ceiling scene. Oh, I forgot to mention, I came to find out that Isaac stood for, Sir Isaac Newton.
Over the next three days, I had my most enjoyable time aboard the Sanszom.
On the first day I went to the Virtual Reality room and had my first VR session. Forty-five minutes of skiing in Vail. Then I went to the Recreation Room and played three games of table tennis with Charlie, and he beat me all three times. I then went to the auditorium and sat through a two hour presentation by Marisu, on, Project Mercury. The first human spaceflight program of the United States that ran from, 1958 to 1963.
On the second day, I went back to the auditorium for another two hour presentation, this time on Galileo Galilei. Afterwords, I visited the arboretum garden with Polongo. Then I accompanied her to the saunas. But on our way there, I saw the cat off in the distance. We looked right at each other, so I waved, but he immediately looked away. I told Polongo that Tobias seemed to have purposely looked away from me. All she said was, “I understand cats can be aloof sometimes.” So I didn’t dwell on it after she said that.
The third day I was invited to the Recreational Room to join in a basketball game, the Olms vs. the humans. I was an okay basketball player, but I wasn’t a true lover of the game, but I was very interested to see how the Olms, who stood 4’, give or take a couple of inches, were going play against humans, so I accepted the invitation. I sat on the bench for the first half of the game. But I was in absolute amazement to watch the Olms, as they had the ability to stretch their torsos two feet. The humans were trailing the Olms by twelve points. Just before I was called out onto the floor, I saw Tobias up in the bleachers. We had about sixty spectators watching the game, a mix of both Olms and humans. But Tobias was sitting in a top seat and seemed to be busy looking at something in his hands, I guessed it to be a book.
Though I only made two baskets, I was much better at passing the ball on to stronger players, who were making the baskets. I found the game to be a lot more fun than I had ever had playing basket ball before. In the end, the humans lost by seventeen points.
When I looked up into the bleachers, Tobias was nowhere to be found.
After the game, a group of about thirty of us went to the commissary for dinner. We all had a great time dining together, I felt as if I were starting to bond with everyone.
The following morning I awoke to Jovak in my room. “Good morning Kerry, I am sorry to wake you so early, but Kaylock would like you to meet with him as soon as you can, it’s important.”
Half asleep I said, “Okay, tell him I need about twenty minutes though, all right?” “Yes, that’ll be fine,” said Jovak. “But please don’t fall back asleep.” “No, I won’t, I’ll get up.” Jovak turned and exited out of the room. I laid there in my bed for a minute staring up at my ceiling, then I said, “scenery stop.” This time I had going, a view from a hot air balloon going over the Rocky Mountains.
As I exited out of my room, I saw I was being watched by those who were out in the communal room. People and Olms alike nodded to me, some said hello as I made my way to Kaylock’s office. I did find everyone a bit suspicious, but I didn’t overly think about it. Jovak stood waiting outside Kaylock’s office, as I approached, she let me in. Upon entering, I saw seated at the same table from the last time I was there, Kaylock, Tobias, Armandine, and Marius.
“Kerry, please sit down,” said Kaylock. As I sat down I realized everybody had an odd look on their face. Tobias spoke first, “Kerry, as you know, I’ve been working on a reading on you. Well something has come to light about that, and we need you to listen closely to what Kaylock is about to tell you.” I turned to face Kaylock now and was very curious as to what he was going to say to me. “Kerry, Tobias reading found you are destined for greatness, should you return back to earth. After he told me what he found in your reading, I went into a prescience trance and saw your future for myself, but deeper in depth from what Tobias put together.”
“So what did you see?” “I saw you starting out in the National Guard after graduating from University. You will then leave after your service is complete, and go on to teach school children in Africa for two years. Then you will go back to the United States and work in state government for a few years. Then you will win a seat in congress, serve two terms, and then next, you will become President of the United States.” I started laughing, “Is this a joke?” I said.
“Kerry, this is no joke”, said Kaylock. “If we had known when you first arrived here, what your future held in store for you back on earth, we would have immediately sent you back,” said Kaylock. “But you said the portal only opens up to those who are supposed to be here,” I reminded him. “And that is true, that is why the reading Tobias picked up on was brought to my attention. That is why I had to put myself into a trance. This situation is highly unusual.”
Digging in my heels, I said, “This doesn’t even make any sense, I’m not political. And everything makes me nauseated on earth. And you tell me, me? That I am distained to be President?” “What kind of President would I make?”I said sarcastically. “You’re going to make a lot of changes, for the better, you will make that difference,” said Armandine. Kaylock added, “You will cross party lines, you will change the government as it currently is, you will make it more inclusive. But it is the help of the everyday people that you will be most remembered for.” “Most remembered for?!” My mind started racing, most remembered for? Something about that phrase rang in my ears.
Then Kaylock, Armandine, Marius and Tobias sat quietly looking at each other. “What?” I asked. Still they said nothing. “What?” I asked again. Then Kaylock said, “As you know, earth is far from a perfect planet.” “Okay, but?” I said. “In the middle of your second term, you will be assonated.” “What?!” I said leaping out of my seat. “So much for doing my job.” I was actually shaking now. My shoes started to vibrate and out of disgust, I took them off and threw them across the room. “I don’t want any influence in my thought process right now!”Kaylock said, “Kerry, please, sit down.” Sarcastically again I said, “Of course, it’s not as if can go very far, is it?” So I sat back down, took a deep breath and said, “So how does it happen?” Kaylock said, “you’ll be giving a press conference in the rose garden when it happens. Kerry, in earth’s history, people who make the most difference pay the ultimate price. Look at Abraham Lincoln, look at Mahatma Gandhi, and those are people you admire.” “You know”, I said, “I also admire people who weren’t assonated. Look, what if I don’t want to go back? Are you going to force me?”
“No,” said Kaylock, the decision must be made by you alone. “But by you not going back, it’ll take 100 years before those changes finally take place. And by you going back, your brother, the younger of the twins, will go on to keep your legacy alive, as he will follow in your footsteps and also go on to become President. I believe his name is Caden? He is the closest to you of all your siblings.” “Trying not to show I was impressed that he knew Caden’s name and that he was the younger twin, I said, “I’m a lot older than all my siblings,” I said, “so I wouldn’t exactly say I am very close to any of them.” “When Caden enters into his last year of high school, it is then that he will begin to get close to you. He will follow in your footsteps.” For literally one minute, nobody said anything, we just sat there staring at each other. “Will I suffer?” I asked. “No,” said Kaylock, “It will be fast.”
“How long do I have to decide?” “You have two hours earth time”, said Kaylock. “Otherwise we won’t be able to get you back within the necessary time frame. Kerry, go to your room, or to the library. Go somewhere where you will not have any distractions and can quietly think this over. If you agree to go back, change back into your earthly clothing and come back up here no later than an hour and fifty minutes from right now. If you decide not to go back, we will not hold it against you, we are not that way. And we will not speak of what could have been, okay?” “Yeah, fine.” I got up, collected my shoes from the other end of the room, and walked out carry a shoe in each hand.
As I got out of the elevator and walked back to my room, all eyes were upon me. So everybody knew I had a decision to make. As I got within ten feet of my room, Lesedi approached me.
“Kerry, don’t be afraid of whatever decision you come to. But keep in mind, if you go back, you’ll have no memory of having been here, nor will you know what will happen in the future, it’ll be just as before.” “That doesn’t make my decision any easier Lesedi. What if I want to remember being here, even just a little bit? What is so wrong with that?” We said nothing more, but she looked as if she empathized with me. I appreciated that much from her.
Inside my room, I stood looking out my window, it was beautiful! How could I leave this behind I wondered? Time was ticking and I couldn’t decide what it was I should do? I was now pacing back and forth, and stopping to catch glimpses out the window. Finally I decided, I was not leaving without some sort of souvenir. I put two Sanszom shirts on; I placed my Sanszom shoes in my backpack. I put my yellow fisherman’s raincoat on, buttoning it from top to bottom.
I quickly started writing something down on a piece of paper and then stashed it into one of my coat pocket. Then I exited out my bedroom with everything I arrived with, and a little more.
Everybody was waiting out in the communal room, and the minute they saw me, they began clapping. I caught some of the shout outs, “Kerry, it is your destiny, don’t be afraid!” “You’re making the right choice!” “Good for you!” Polongo, Lesedi and Aarav came up to me and gave me hugs. “I only wish I could remember all of you.” Polongo stretched up to my same height to look me in the eyes and said, “Sometimes when you look up into the sky at night, you’ll know you have friends out there.” “I hope so Polongo, I hope so.”
I waved at everyone, said I’d miss them all, and then I quickly ran to get in the elevator.
The next thing I knew, I was being helped up off the ground, in the pouring rain, by two University campus police officers. “I think we should call an ambulance”, said one of them to the other. “No, I’m okay”, I said staggering to my feet. “Are you sure? You’re so lucky! We saw the lightening strike just behind you, you could have been electrocuted.” “ Don’t you think maybe you should be looked over?” said the other officer. “No, really, I’m okay, I just want to get to my apartment.” “Where do you live?” asked the first officer. “Just over there,” I said pointing to my apartment complex. “Okay, get in the cart and we’ll take you there,” he added. They were driving an enclosed Campus Police Cart.
The first thing I did when I got in my apartment was get into a hot bath. Afterwards, now dressed in sweat pants and a University tee-shirt, I went through my belongings. I threw my wet pants that were lying on my bedroom floor, into the hamper in the bathroom, but first I went through my pockets. Ever since the airport incident with the keychain, I always go through my pockets. Then I saw a robin’s egg blue shirt lying on top of my bedspread. I did not recognize the shirt and upon closer inspection; I saw there was an identical one under it, only that one was apricot. When I took it off, I guess I wasn’t paying any attention that I was wearing two of them, as I just wanted to get into a warm bath. But I didn’t know these shirts. There was an interesting insignia on the right front forearm of both. It was the size of a quarter and it looked like a planet, with two small suns over the top of it. I looked inside the neck for a tag, neither shirt had one, so I looked inside of them on the sides for a tag there, still nothing. I then took the two shirts and hung them on hangers in my closet, and noticing just how soft they were. Going through my backpack, I found some shoes in there that baffled me just as much as the shirts did. The shoes looked my size, I even tried them on, they were a perfectly fit, but I couldn’t remember owning a pair like that. Then I went over to my raincoat that I had placed over the back of my desk chair, still quite wet. I checked the pockets and found a piece of paper in my own hand writing that said, (you have been aboard the Sanszom, an Interglatic foflek, a floating cosmic community. Olms, short blue aliens, from the planet Olmossis, the first planet just outside our galaxy, together with earthly humans that have been called aboard to assist them, guard our galaxy. The two shirts and shoes that you don’t recognize, come from the Sanszom. Don’t talk about this to anyone as you’ll be labeled crazy. And be sure to give one of the shirts later on to Cayden, tell him you are the only two who have these special shirts.)
I felt very confused, but yet there was something telling me this was all true, I could feel it in my soul. I tossed the paper deep into the back of my top desk drawer. I placed the jacket back over the back of the chair, I then took both pairs of shoes, the ones I was wearing when the campus police found me, and the pair that was in my backpack, and placed them on the floor of my closet. The rest of the evening was spent sitting in front of the television not paying much attention to anything that was on. I felt a bit numb, thinking it must have been on account of the lightning strike and what I had written on the piece of paper. It was now 9:00 PM and I felt more tired than usual for that time. I decided to call it an early night. I went to my bedroom and walked over to the window to close the curtains. Suddenly I caught a glimpse of something; it was me looking out a window at the cosmos zooming by me. The feeling was too strong to be my imagination. And then I saw something else, something amazing! I saw a blue looking alien, about four feet tall, saying to me while I stood inside a circular tube that was about to be sealed. “You will remember tiny bits and pieces throughout your life, but you will never have the complete picture, and after you remember this memory, it’ll fade. But you will always know something more exists beyond your galaxy, and whenever you stare up into the night’s sky, you will always feel a sense of tranquility”. And then that quickly, the memory was gone. I closed the curtain, turned the light dim, got into bed, and went to sleep.
The End
Title: Kerry D. California
By: Debra Yates
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