Parallel Worlds: Nothing is as it seems
Amelia lay on her back watching clouds effortlessly shape-shifting as they drifted in the gentle breeze. The day moved along as any day would. The sun traced its customary path across the heavens, yet it never seemed to set. Sounds of nature surrounded her as the creek burbled and splashed in the hypnotic way that creeks do. Moments, hours or days could have gone by -- in timelessness it's impossible to tell.
But there is a moment everyone experiences in death. The moment when you finally realize... there is no death. There is only life. And then the grand irony collides with everything you once believed about being able to control your life: Life has a life of its own.
Amelia snapped her thoughts to attention, hoping she would somehow awaken herself from the hypnotic spell swirling through her mind. As she traced back to what must have been only the day before, her memory was perfectly clear -- yet from her current perspective everything seemed surreal and incomprehensible.
It started as a weekend camping trip to Canyonlands National Park with fifteen other high school seniors. They had left Friday at noon, and after three hours on paved roads and another bumpy hour down a dirt path, their old yellow school bus rumbled into their campsite spewing noxious black clouds of exhaust that quickly dissipated into the crystal clear evening sky of southern Utah.
The students and teachers scrambled to pitch their tents and start the campfire before dark. The moment the sun set, a chilling breeze caused the group to huddle by the fire in jackets, hats and gloves. Their dinner was comprised mainly of roasted hot dogs on sticks and gooeys' mores for dessert, but no one lingered for long. The wind picked up, driving everyone into their tents, and deep into the warmth of their sleeping bags.
A thin veil of frost covered the ground the next morning, but by mid-day it was seventy degrees. Amelia didn't know her hiking partner, but she'd noticed him at school on her first day. Matthew was tall and athletic with dark hair, ruddy cheeks and grayish-blue eyes. Despite his obvious popularity, he was a bit shy and unassuming as well -- Amelia thought that was the nicest thing about him. She could hardly believe her luck when he was randomly chosen to be her partner by their geology teacher.
Though it was still wintry and overcast just a few hours north, there was a comfortable warmth and delicate fragrance in the air, characteristic of springtime in the high desert, and the cacti were in full bloom amidst coarse grass, sage and prickly pear. Other than a hawk circling in the distance, the only creature they saw was the occasional lizard -- that is, until Amelia reached for a rock at the base of a juniper tree and baby rabbits burst from their nest, spreading out like cottontail buckshot.
The plan was for all the students to be back at camp by mid-afternoon. But in the middle of their hike Amelia and Matthew realized their cell phones didn't work, and neither of them had worn a watch, so they had no idea of the time.
The radiant sun, more golden as it flowed toward the horizon, merged with the boundless energy they felt, imparting a feeling of false confidence. They hiked along dry streambeds and scrambled over boulder fields in their gradual ascent to the top of a high mesa where red rock canyons rose majestically above the desert floor. The air was slightly cooler now, but didn't breathe what was to come. Matthew had hiked in this area before and suggested an alternate, shorter way back. As they descended into a deep canyon labyrinth, time seemed to stand still. Surrounded by earthen walls, Amelia could only see the vibrant indigo sky overhead with no indication of the sun's proximity to the horizon. Yet in her mind's eye, she kept seeing the sun setting more quickly than they imagined. Though she said nothing to Matthew, she kept hearing in her mind, Turn back... Turn back... Trust yourself &hellip; Soon they came upon a gradual incline of a narrow canyon wall that led to the top of a plateau. As they emerged from the enclosed space, a profound and hypnotic beauty appeared before them, the sun falling slowly toward the horizon, washing deep oranges and fiery reds over the land.
"It's much later than I thought," said Matthew, a hint of anxiety in his voice. "You've got a flashlight, right?"
Amelia's body jolted like a patient in a psychiatric ward being given an electroshock treatment. Her body lifted off the bed, but her wrists and ankles were manacled to the metal frame causing her to drop back into place. Her eyes flashed open. She was in a dimly lit hospital room. She had only been dreaming about her mother, she was living in a nightmare.
Amelia forced herself to focus, and suddenly recalled how she'd come to be in the hospital. As Phil had predicted her blue jumpsuit had been removed and she could once again feel her own feelings. Then she remembered Phil telling her to find the air ducts. She looked up at the ceiling and saw nothing; and though she couldn't see the floor from her position, in her mind's eye a metal grate materialized, and she found she could move through it, and down a shaft and into the main system. Had the drug Phil gave her made her super psychic, she wondered, or was she making it all up?
In that moment a short, Hispanic man with a shaved head and intense dark eyes, dressed as a nurse, walked in with a needle and syringe in his hand. Amelia's body tensed as she prepared for him to give her a shot, but instead he looked over his shoulder, drew the bed curtains around Amelia's bed, capped the needle with a plastic lid, and slid it into his pocket as he pulled out a key from his other pocket.
He unlocked her manacles and handed Amelia a note:
"Don't talk. Phil sent me. None of us can escape from here. Everyone is either wearing a suit that can't be removed or has an implant. But we knowingly chose this life; not like you &hellip; and I know it will ease some part of my conscience for the horrors that have taken place here if I am able to help you escape. Phil thinks you can make it. I believe in you, too &hellip; There's a grid in the floor that leads to the air ducts. There's enough light to see and no cameras. But once they know you're gone they'll send psychics into the tunnels to find you.
I've blocked the camera in this room, but you'll only have a few minutes. I removed the screws already and I'll watch out while you climb in there. Your clothes and shoes are under the bed.
Run as far and as fast as you can. The minute they know you've escaped from here, they'll be looking for you. No one has ever escaped. Just go in the direction the air is coming from. If there's more than one choice, go where the air smells fresher. I'm not sure what's there, but it's where our air comes from, and no military personnel are allowed in there, not even the out-of-body psychics. So if you make it, they can't follow you.
If you somehow get back to the surface &hellip; will you mail a letter for me? Angel
P.S. I had to guess your size, and sorry I couldn't get you any underwear at the commissary without being noticed. In the pockets there's a penlight, a screwdriver and a bunch of different heads, a Swiss army knife, and protein bars."
After reading the note Amelia looked up at Angel and nodded that she understood, as she held out her hand, palm up. Angel handed her an envelope with an address and took the note back from her, stuffing it in his pocket. He then stepped outside of the curtain to give her some privacy.
Shakily she got out of bed in her hospital gown and kneeled on the floor. She had a fever and wanted to just lie on the cool tile, but she forced herself to keep going. She had already seen the clothes in her mind's eye, hanging from the metal springs. Without even looking, she reached down to the exact spot and pulled on the clothing with a brisk jerk. Army fatigues and a pair of regulation boots landed on the floor with a slight thud.
Asha nodded.
"Well that's just the craziest thing!" he said, feeling a bit stupid for even mentioning such a ridiculous idea.
"You'd only say that if none of the boats were meant for you."
"So what if I grab a boat anyhow, just to prove that you're wrong?" he said tickling Asha as she squealed in delight.
"Well, as my Mama says, 'would you rather be right or happy?'" said Asha smiling broadly.
The boats had all bobbed past them in a merry procession and were now quite a bit further downstream, but there was one little boat that was tagging along at a slower pace and now it was stuck on rock with the current going past it. Dylan could see it wouldn't come loose by itself and he felt sad to think that there might be a damsel somewhere waiting for her beloved and wondering why he never came. So he waded out into the river and picked up the little boat with the idea of sending it on its way. But the minute he held it in his hands he felt a charge of warm energy flow up his arms and into his heart. The warmth was so powerful he felt it flooding through his entire body, even causing his cheeks to flush.
Dylan decided right then and there that he didn't care whether she was attracted to him or if he was attracted to her, he simply had to meet the woman who made the boat. Just holding it made him feel like he was madly in love, and though he didn't know how it was happening he'd have sworn he saw her face, heart-shaped, rosy cheeks, and bright green eyes, smiling lovingly at him saying, "Come to me, come to me &hellip; "
It was crazy, he knew, but it was a far superior 'crazy' to the life he'd been leading until now. So with boat in hand and the apple that came with it in his pocket, he held the candle in one hand and Asha's hand in the other, and they walked back up the path to her home.
That night everyone slept outdoors. The air was cool and fragrant with night blooming jasmine, and the scent of gardenias drifted by tantalizingly when the breeze shifted slightly and came a bit more from the east. He was given the softest bedding and he laid it in the grass a good distance from the rest of the family, just in case he snored. Asha brought him a fluffy pillow and sat down next to him as he stretched out on his back with his head on the pillow and turned to smile at her.
As if she was telling him a bedtime story Asha said quietly, "The stars and the planets and the moon are all reflecting the love we feel here on Earth back to us. So we sleep outside every night that we can see the stars and moon, and send love back to them." With that she gave him a goodnight kiss on his cheek and walked over to her parents where she burrowed under the covers between them.
The man looked up at the twinkling night sky, and indeed he felt the love the little girl had predicted. As he lay there, eyes open, gazing into the sky, he heard, or rather felt, the heavens singing.