Sleeper Seven (7 page)

After she had finished unpacking her things into the large wooden dresser, she headed downstairs to join the group for tea. She had little to contribute to the conversation, she felt, but that didn't seem to be a problem as Melody and Nancy kept it going all by themselves; apparently they had a "session" at the dome today, and were rehashing their progress.

There was talk of L2's, L3's and various states of consciousness, and the effects of these on their "spiritual progress". They both seemed totally self-absorbed, frequently talking over each other instead of having any meaningful conversation, and Jess tuned them out after a few minutes. As Jan didn't seem like much of a talker either, she finished her tea, grabbed a blueberry scone, and headed back into the kitchen.

~ 16 ~

T
erry wasn't there, but he soon appeared from out back carrying a wicker basket full of freshly picked herbs and vegetables.

"Hey there, you! All settled in?"

"Yeah, all good. You prepping for dinner already?"

Terry set down the bushel and heaved a sigh. "I'm a little slow, so yes. Julian usually does the cooking and other kitchen stuff, but he went to town, so this is all they get. Why don't you help me chop some of this lettuce?" he said, offering her a large knife. As she held the scone in her mouth and settled into chopping, he suddenly caught her off guard.

"What can we do for you here, Jess?"

"Oh, yeah, that," she mumbled, removing the scone from her mouth. "Uh, well, I guess I've recently discovered I have this ability...that relates to what goes on here, so..."

"You leave your body," he offered, more a statement than a question.

"Yeah."

"Well then, you're at the right place. Can you verify?"

"Um, I don't know what you mean?" she asked, puzzled.

"Can you produce third-party testimony, conscious or un-?"

Jess raised her eyebrows and shook her head slowly back and forth in confusion. He stopped and turned to face her.

"Can other people see you."

"Oh, yes! Sorry, yes, my friend saw me while he was awake, he said I looked like smoke. And a doctor I had — I mean, who treated me — I'm pretty sure he saw me."

"Well good, that tells me something. Can you go full body if you wanted to?"

"Again, with the..." she said, raising her eyebrows once more.

"Full body is when you can manifest as a whole body, either solid or semi-transparent. Smoke is more of an unconscious manifestation, so if you were conscious, this tells me you haven't learned to fully control your energy yet. When did you say was the first time you left your body?"

"About six weeks ago, I think?"

"Six weeks, huh?" He paused, went back to his chopping, then paused again.

"Are you sure? Never had a high fever as a kid, and found yourself floating above your bed? No dreams of exiting your body? Nothing like that?"

"No, nothing like that."

"And you can do controlled exits at will? Or it just happens randomly."

"Well it started by accident, but I can make it happen now when I want to."

"Wonderful! Wonderful. Mind my asking what happened?"

"Ummm, huh?"

Terry stopped again to look at her.

"Ever try to pull two magnets apart? It's like they're of a piece, until you force them to separate. Well the subtle body is like that too, so unless you've had a lot of practice, it doesn't come out so easy. So something must have pushed it out, right?"

"Well, I died, so..."

"Yup, that'll do it. Probably just a scare though. Did you hear a loud pop?"

"Yeah, well, no: a bunch of little pops, like a ripping sound."

"That's the bodies separating. Means you didn't die," he explained. "When you die it slides up the ladder and goes out the crown into the cord, no popping." Taking the long knife in his hand, he tapped the top of his head with it, then flung it upwards. Smiling at Jess' obvious look of incredulity, he leaned in close again as if to share another secret. "Ask enough doctors over a drink or two," he whispered, "and you'll get one of 'em to admit that every once in awhile they've caught a glimpse of a tiny swirl of smoke rising from the head of one of their patients at the moment of death."

"But I did die, I saw my body, the police said I was dead."

"Nope. Uh-uh. Death is when the cord is severed; fact of your talking to me right now means your cord's just fine."

"OK, full stop. Define cord please?"

"
Astral
cord. Ties you to source. Comes down and condenses into the ladder."

Jess spun her hand as if reeling in a fish, but thought maybe she was the one being reeled in. "Okay...and ladder now?"

"
Jacobs
Ladder. Spinal cord. Your crown chakra — your
brain,
" he said with mild disgust, "is simply an exit point for your cord, it actually goes all the way up into the ether. Honey you got a lot to learn!" he remarked with a hearty laugh, and went back to his chopping, stranding her.

Overwhelmed, Jess silently returned to her work as well. When they were both done, Terry once again broke the silence.

"Let's take a walk down to the chamber."

~ 17 ~

A
s the gravel crunched beneath their feet, Jess asked him about the man on the porch.

"Helen. Sure. He's our handyman, been with us going on twenty years now."

"
Helen?
"

"Well, Len for short. If you feel the need to satisfy your gender circuit, that is," he said curtly.

"Whatever. But he is a little odd, though. He mentioned not to be afraid of the screaming 'squatches' at night?"

"Now, durnit," Terry said, becoming visibly angry. "I've told him about that stuff before." Then, softening his tone: "He shouldn't have said that to you, I'm sorry about that."

In addition to the amusement at having this Zen hippie get his mellow harshed, Jess was intrigued as well — why would he be so apologetic about a weird joke? Not really wanting to know, she forged ahead anyway.

"So,
is
there screaming at night I should be concerned about? And if so, then...
what the hell?
"

A sheepish look crept over Terry's face. "Well they hardly ever wake anyone up, and we usually just say it's bobcats if they do."

"So...then...what are they now?"

"Well it's the squatches, like he said. But we try not to talk about it to the guests, takes away from the focus on their experience here, we've discovered."

"I'm going out on a limb here and assuming you mean Sasquatches, like Bigfoot?"

"Ayup."

"You've got to be kidding me," she muttered, mostly to herself. She had tried to convince herself to keep an open mind through all of this, but now with
Bigfoot
on the table, her faith in this place — and her entire journey — was shaken again. By now they were getting closer to the dome, so she didn't push it, and he didn't continue, which was just as well to her.

"Now this is the Chamber, where the fun happens," Terry presented, with an immaculate Price-is-Right-model hand gesture.

In front of the large yellow dome looming above them stood a boxcar-sized addition constructed of grey cinderblock, with no windows and only a single door. A red lightbulb, currently unlit, hung upside-down in the doorway.

"Why yellow?" Jess asked, referring to the dome.

"Ha! Well, it was pretty funky a ways back, all covered with rainbows and galaxies and some such, we repainted it yellow in the late 80's when the original paint started to peel. Simpler, but still something positive and uplifting. Allow me," he said, holding the door for her.

The addition was a small but long room, and a desk with several small Sony monitors and a large microphone took up most of one side, giving it the appearance of a T.V. studio. Terry led her through a second inner door, which let out a
whoosh
upon opening.

Inside, the enormous main chamber was bathed in a bright, sourceless, pink-hued glow. Arrayed in a semicircle were six tiny wooden houses the size of backyard tool sheds. Bundles of wires emanated from each one and snaked their way around the perimeter, leading back towards the control room. The small houses seemed quaint in this featureless expanse; they reminded her of outdoor saunas.

"These are our Sec-U's — Seclusion Units. Each one is wired up to the hub so we can pipe in white noise — or chants, or music, or whatever is preferred — to provide an assist. We can also hear what is going on inside, in case an excursion has any issues which need intervention."

Jess was curious to know what kind of "issues" they ran into.

"Wanna give it a spin?"

Jess was taken aback. She had been at this place for less than two hours, and now she was going in a "Sec-U".

"Sure, I guess...I mean, it's safe?"

"Well, is sleeping safe? And like I said, I'll be listening in, so..."

He walked towards the closest unit and pushed the door open for her. Entering, she found a single cot, covered with a patterned quilt, taking up the bulk of the small space. A pair of large black headphones hung from a peg above it, and to the side stood an antique dresser. Along the wall were hooks with hangars, presumably for clothing, while a camera was mounted in the corner of the ceiling, pointed at the bed.

"Uh, I can keep my clothes on, right?" Jess asked with a nervous laugh.

"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."