Science Fiction medium short story by Moon Metcalf

The Witness

Chapter 1: The Void

Salene awakens looking down on her body in the hospital room. She soon discovers that she is not really awake but rather is in an out of body experience. She feels for her body with her hands. Her skin feels like smooth silk sheets and there is this sensation it is not really there. She moves her hands through the air and there is more of this sensation, the silkiness spreading through space in lucid waves. She feels her consciousness around her and her mind is a part of her surroundings as is her body. They both stretch on into the ethos and quickly Salene has the notion to go discover this unchartered territory. She looks down now at her brother, Thomford, her husband, Dent, and her daughter Checlad, and all are distant in their worries. She sympathizes with their sad spirits, but she can see further and in a way she never has been capable of before now. She can see into each of them. She can read their thoughts and feel the pulse of their veins echoing around and through them as though it was all one breath. Soon she says to herself, I will come back to each of them, but for now I must learn of my new world.

If her world, planet Narene, were not so accustomed to the concept of enlightenment, other worlds within the self, and an ultimate time space continuum that outlasts and surpasses normal consciousness, Salene might not be as equipped to handle her coma and the passage into the Void where she now exists. She moves her hands in the air as if making a gentle breast stroke and closes her eyes. She imagines herself surrounded by green and breathing in the fresh oxygen from many lush plants. She opens her eyes and finds herself sitting on a rock at the water’s edge of a deep green blue pool of water. Behind her there is the soft gentle pulsing of a waterfall and she can feel the tender drops of mist against the back of her arms. She reaches down into the pool and moves her fingers through the water which is chill but feels soothing to the touch. She looks up and the light is dancing on the leaves of deciduous trees, decorated in vines blooming with white flowers. She can smell their fragrance from below and the whole world seems to glow with the subtle smell of jasmine. She is kissed by a breeze that sends some mist up onto her face and the trees above her sing a song with soothing lyrics that just sounds like a smooth humming with the rhythm of the waterfall behind her taking care of the base. 

Salene looks into the blueish pond at the reflection that rests in front of her, vibrating on the surface with a ribbed texture. But she can see her eyes and they speak of a longing that she could rarely put expression to in her waking life. Deep in her stomach and solar plexus, Selene is grateful for her visitation to this place. She is not afraid and as she sits by the water pondering her feelings, she becomes settled in the unknowing. Her home, back on Planet Narene, is full of memories and expectations. She can always escape to her serenity pod for a dose of the present, a clearing of the mind, but then she must exit the pod and return to her life, taking care of the ones around her that she loves. Taking a break in the pod is refreshing but it is not the same thing as exercising the muscles of one’s own mind. Salene takes a moment and breathes in the tranquility that is surrounding her in this hidden space in the Void where she now sits. All of a sudden she feels empowered because she knows somehow that she can travel anywhere and the possibilities are endless. She longs to return to her family and comfort them.

Inhaling, Salene takes a breath and closes her eyes. Her surreal body pushes through time and space and she imagines where she would like to be. For now she returns to the hospital room, and in an instant she is hovering above the light blue bed bathed in the green glow of the hospital. Below her she can see her husband sitting by her bed, gazing out the window at the Hubbabee trees that have grown strong and strait in the veranda. Her daughter sits in the corner reading a book about unicorns, a fantasy creature from the planet Earth that she is studying in her planetary cultures class. Salene moves through space and ends up in the lobby. She sees her brother hovering around some pretty young girls by the fish tank eating a bag of tangy crisps. Lightly, she kisses her brother on the forehead and returns to do the same on her daughter’s and husband’s faces.

Salene then feels this dark purple sensation in her abdomen, and she discovers that in this realm and altered reality, emotions emit as colors. Purple must resemble longing because she soon thinks of her mother and longs to be at her side. Salene also craves a tender talk with the older matriarch and knows that she can only visit her now in an observing stance. This transposes to her wondering if it would be possible to push through to the other side and actually communicate with her loved ones from this realm. Subversively, she hopes so. 

Salene closes her eyes and soon she finds herself at her mother, Sancritia’s, house. Decorated almost exclusively in blues, which on Narene represent a heightened spiritual achievement, the house is lit dimly in the evening light. She finds her mother sitting in a chair on the deck overlooking the waves of the bay down below. She again longs for her mother and she floats to her side and reaches her arms out to caress her mother’s dress draping and folded all around her. She runs her fingers down the ethos of her sleeves, but she cannot penetrate her realm to fully feel the fabric of her mother’s dress. Soon, Salene gives in and turns to hover near the railing and look out at the view. Stars are beginning to show and the two moons are out in the evening sky, one on the horizon and one larger and higher in the sky. Both at about a half circle, they shimmer in a tangerine glow that stretches across the water and up to the shore of the beach that is below.

Salene feels small and withered in her spirit all of a sudden. She wishes she could touch her mother and speak with her, the wise woman that she is. She wonders why her mother is not in the hospital room with the others but secretly she knows. She is there in her mind; she is practicing serenity sitting on the porch in her long blue gown. Salene looks up to her mother’s face and sees the peace behind the lines that decorate her skin so delicately. She looks at her lids and can see her eyes moving behind them as if they are working hard at remaining still, but the emotion within is just too charged to allow rest at this point in time. In a way this comforts Salene because she knows that her mother is worried. She will be there tomorrow at her side and many days to follow. Salene can sense that she will be in this place she is calling the Void for some time. She then hopes all over again that she will learn how to resonate and communicate with her loved ones. Overwhelmed, she decides to exit the scene and find a place where she can rest her mind.

Salene closes her eyes and waits for an urge. She is called in a direction, and waits as the wind envelopes her translucent skin and it overtakes her. She journeys for several minutes through whirling light and endless space. When the movement stops, she waits for a moment before opening her eyes. First she feels the sensation of sand beneath her feet, and once she is grounded she decides to open her eyes and see where she is. As she does she is taken aback with the beauty of the landscape. Tall reddish rocky out-croppings dressed in lines and striations stand around her like giants that have witnessed millennia. Her bare feet rest in rocky sand and she looks down at her feet just to know she is really there. The sky is endless. As she peers out, she notices she is standing above a canyon dressed in the red rock lines of the outcroppings at her side, and heavenly subtle blues and purples. The canyon goes on forever as it cuts into the dry earth. It breathes peace in its magnitude and she is in deep awe of the site. She recognizes this place as a desert on the planet Earth, one of the planets that her people have found several galaxies away. The people there were just beginning space travel when the Narene discovered them, and the people of Earth were welcoming to Narene’s friendly offer to share their technologies.

Earth is filled with people that long for peace, some Narene say. They have the ancient wisdom of our people. Others say they are ignorant and war hungry. They say they oppress those who are poor and there is actually very little equality displayed on the planet. Salene was unsure what she thought of the people of Earth, all she cared to think about now was the landscape. There were no people here and she did not long to see any. She steps back and finds a perch on a rock and just sits and breathes in the dry desert air. She has found that she has more sensation in these realities to which she escapes than in the reality which she calls home. This draws her closer to her dream as it seems all the more real. She leans against the firm rock in comfort and falls asleep within minutes. 

Back in the hospital room, Dent awakens from his gander at the Hubbabee trees outside of the hospital window. He looks over at Salene, at peace on the hospital bed. The room has a fish tank and is decorated with glass sail boats on little shelves around the walls. The sail boats of Narene typically have the seven sails of the seven sister planets in their galaxy. Each boat has a mini crest in dark indigo blue, of the two moons of their home world overlapping. Dent walks up to Salene’s sleeping body and touches a curl of her long auburn hair. He longs to speak words to her that she would hear, and even though he knows that she is far away in another world, he whispers I love you and kisses her on her pale cheek. He then walks over to Checlad who is snoozing with her book hanging precariously from her fingers. Checlad is startled and as she awakens the book falls to the floor with a slapping thud. As she bends over to pick up the book, she stops and places a hand on the cool glass tile floor and allows the sensation to ground her in her waking moment.

Checlad’s eighteenth birthday was a few days ago and she had spent the evening with her parents and her uncle before heading out to an all-ages show at a local club. Thomford had slipped her a copper flask as a present filled with local booze called Fire Flame, cinnamon liquor with a hint of a plant that resembles licorice. It was sweet and therefore intoxicating as the liquor was masked by sugar and spices in the brew. Salene and Dent had returned home after dinner and made love under the soft light of the crescent moons in the courtyard on a padded lawn chair. The moons were synchronized in their cycles for this month and this happened every 25 years or so. The mood was right and the two had bonded and loved each other passionately and softly.

In the morning everything was back to normal, Checlad with her studies and Dent off to work to try and sell yet another waterfront property. Salene had taken off to the gym and had spent much time in the pool practicing her swimming for her surfing date the next day. Leaving the gym, she walked down to the boardwalk to just sit and watch over the waves for a period of time. The salt filled her lungs and dressed her body from the mists that came off the bay. There was nothing that pleased Salene more than the ocean. She could spend hours just looking out across the waters at ships and birds. She felt a warm feeling always when she thought of her home. She never longed to go see another planet and she had never left the surface of her watery home planet.

Salene took off her shoes then and went for a walk in the sand. One foot placed in front of another, it was such a calming activity after her aggressive laps in the pool of the gym. The waves were large on the shore of the bay and so it was good to train in calmer waters to build the muscles necessary for battling the currents in the ocean. Time was well spent in the ocean as well, but there was something social and congenial about attending her gym. She often picked up a latte with her friend who also attended and sat on a park bench discussing their teenage daughters, their husbands and house and garden work. Salene was a freelance writer and sometimes had work and sometimes didn’t. Income was sporadic but with Dent’s real-estate job they were pretty well off and had no financial worries. So Salene could take off as much time as she wished to attend her spiritual study groups and for swimming and surfing which were her two passions outside of writing.  Salene mostly wrote poetry in her own time, and there was often time for her to indulge in that in her garden or at a local coffee shop.

As the sand pressed between her toes, she thought of her love making the evening before. The moons had shown with a tinge of blue and tangerine and had left them both with romantic and reminiscent feelings about the indulgent lives of their younger days. They both loved to camp in the wilderness and often ran away from their jobs and responsibilities to make love in the rivers or in a hammock hanging in the trees. They spent hours reading and talking, building fires and sculptures in the rocks and woods. Salene loved the water, so would spend as much time in the river as possible or at least with her feet dangling in as she wrote and read her favorite stories. Dent would do the cooking and they often left their camp to eat a meal in a local pub and listen to music and then return to their little camp in the wilderness.

The love was in the air that night and they both felt young and free to rip off their clothes under the moons that shown mildly and eerily in their crescent shape. It was a special time, and her mother would be attending many ceremonies with other elder citizens, meditating and chanting to the moons’ alignment. After the wine out at the restaurant for Checlad’s eighteenth celebration, Salene and Dent felt relaxed coming into their dark quiet home. They immediately slipped into the garden and started kissing and hugging and soon were in the passionate throngs of lovemaking. The night ended with soft cuddling in their cozy bed and both with the feeling of being in total and complete passionate as well as comfortable love. The moons’ light lingered for a few more hours and then they both were gone and dipped under the horizon to bedazzle another place on the planet.

………………

Salene awakens on her rock somewhere in the desert on planet Earth. She wonders why she is here. Is there a reason for her being called to this place? She must know. She stands and straightens and reaches her arms to the sky. The sun is rising on the horizon and she knows that in this hemisphere, morning has begun on this planet she has visited in some sort of dream. She no longer questions the truth and reality to her dream. She had witnessed her family and kissed them on their brows. She had visited her mother and seen her meditating on the passing of herself into this Void which she now feels confident that her mother has knowledge of, being so adroit in her spiritual explorations of the many planes of consciousness. Salene has faith that she may be able to connect with her mother if she has not already from this dream state she is calling the Void.

Salene takes a large inhale of the morning dewy desert air. She could fathom that this is one of the few moments that these cacti and small weeds of this environment receive moisture to feed them in their photosynthesis. Salene feels called to explore further. Having never traveled outside the atmosphere of Narene, she wonders now why she was never called to travel. Perhaps she needed this altered state and this magical way of communicating with the elements to really embrace the idea; funny how life works out.

Salene imagines herself in a strange city, far from her awareness of her own home. She imagines the photos she has seen of earth and asks herself deeply what she is curious about. She wants to know more about the people and their current consciousness. She begins to feel the air around her bend and become transparent. The hair on her skin and legs becomes erect and she feels her feet lift off of the sandy earth. Soon she is traveling through waves of light, and she meditates more on the city life she cannot yet quite imagine. 

She opens her eyes and finds herself atop a large shimmery building, what she understands to be a sky scraper. From there she looks out across a massive city. It is buzzing with electric cars and she can make out some busses and trains from these heights. She breathes in the air and it is about midday. Who knows how far she traveled across the planet. She smiles at herself for her ability to bend time and space and wonders at why she was given this amazing gift. She does not feel alone. In her reality she feels one with all that is. 

Ends are beginnings and beginnings are ends. Truth is everywhere and fear is nonexistent. All that is, is in her and around her at the same time. As she looks out at this monumental world she asks herself what the deepest longing of the planet’s consciousness is. She wishes to be a witness to its pain. She can feel it here in abundant waves. What a contrast to the beautiful landscape that she just exited. She takes in one final breath of the astonishing view from atop the massive building and closes her eyes once again. Slowly she breathes into the pain and asks the pain what it needs to express. Her hair follicles come alive and the waves of light enter into her pores and lift her into a cosmic consciousness.

Chapter 2: The Coma

Salene awakens to her music. The soft notes float in and out of her mind and she reaches over to her husband and gives him a rub on his back. She gets up and undresses and steps into the shower. The warm water washes over her body soothing her aching muscles from her workout the day before. As she steps out she has a sudden awareness that this will not be a normal day. She knows not how, but in this moment she feels urgency that something great is beckoning her, coupled with a tinge of fear that she cannot explain. Dent awakens and goes downstairs to brew the coffee in his pajamas. He has the day off and couples himself with his digital newspaper on his device that is front and center on the kitchen counter. It is mostly made of light in the air, projected by a small metal rectangle that is planted on the table.

Salene comes downstairs dressed and ready to eat. She pours some telsa berries over granola and reaches in the fridge for some milk. “Are you going to garden today, sweetie?” She reaches over to touch her husband on the shoulder. He caresses her hand on his shoulder barely looking up from his show that is vibrating through the air of their small kitchen. “Yes,” He does not tune in entirely to her and she sighs and goes to sit at the table with her bowl of granola.

She munches on her breakfast and wonders at her apparation that she had upstairs just moments ago. Her mother would describe it as a “motivation”, meaning something she should definitely take the time to meditate on before commencing to her day. She nudges the notion aside and begins planning her errands which are abundant. She sets down her granola and reaches for a pen and paper in order to map out her day.

The air is cool as she walks out of the house. She notices some tikti birds on the walkway and stops for a moment to observe their pecking in the dirt, one occasionally giving a flap and show of feathers in a dominating stance. The cool air blows through her hair and she suddenly is struck with another sensation. Soon her eyes blur and she sees waves of light emanating from her car. As she walks towards it, her feet feel as though they are being lifted from the walkway. She stops then and waits for the moment to pass. Now, she is thinking of her mother potently and shies away from the need to stop everything to examine these visions that she is having so apparently. But still, she gets into her car and sits down. For several moments she takes some breaths. This is not the proper place to gather herself in the eyes of the matriarchs, but it will have to do for now. She leans her seat back and gives into the sensations that are encompassing her body and her mind. She waits for the beat of her heart to calm down and closes her eyes. Once still, she moves into what the Narene call time evaluation and she is taken from her current reality for just a few minutes.

Salene sees a little girl on a bridge. She is climbing the railing and looking down into the waters that are rushing by below her. The wind is blowing her hair and she is wearing a bright orange dress, the color of refuge. The girl looks at her then and beckons her to come towards her. As she surrenders to this call, the girl jumps off of the bridge. Salene then rushes to the railing, looks down into the river, and the water becomes rainbows of light that are piercing to the eyes. She awakens then to find herself sitting in her car and a heavy feeling that in a way seems hopeful grips around her heart. What does it mean? She decides to push away the needy call to errands and to head strait to her mother’s house. As she starts the car, she begins to panic. She calls on the consciousness of her mother and her patron saint Linda, the water walker. Her mother will know what to do; her mother will know what to say. This calms Salene for the time being and she heads off into heavy traffic just outside the haven of their small cul-de-sac in the center of the city.

Salene moves through traffic as if in flight. Soon she arrives at her mother’s apartment as she finds some parking on the street. As she locks the car, she begins to feel nervousness impale her abdomen and she holds onto the car waiting for this to pass. She then enters the apartment building and waits for the elevating tram that will take her to the fourth floor. When it arrives, there is a gentle ding and her abdomen relaxes and she enters the car. The music in the tram feels abrasive rather than soothing and she realizes she has entered a very sensitive state. When she arrives at the door to her mother’s apartment she is relieved and grateful that she soon will be entering what her mother keeps as a sanctuary. Her mother blesses the energy all around, relieving the tension in the air of her home constantly with cleansing ceremonies.

These ceremonies are common on her planet. The people of Narene have become versed in melding with the wisdom of their ancient people as well as embracing modern technologies. No longer do the people of Narene strive for upward or forward movement. Most realize that enlightenment and progress come from a more organic inward and outward spiral of energies. Striving is not valued but rather quietude and soul searching. To have these qualities one must realize that forward movement is within us always, it just needs to be recovered and nurtured. Because of this Narene has experienced many discoveries that have helped their people live in peace with each other and their environment. The Planet may not have achieved total peace among its citizens, but it is a leader among planets as a model of how to live in harmony.

Sancritia answers the door and welcomes her inside. She immediately embraces her mother and tears begin to well in her eyes. “I am not sure, I am not sure…” she squeezes out between sobs, “Everything has been so wonderful lately, and I don’t know where this is coming from.”

“We never really know,” her mother says, caressing her daughter and beckoning her to sit on the floor with some pillows of many different shapes that are loosely laid on the ground. Salene sits, knowing a bit of what is to come, and crawls into a meditative position. Her mother puts on some water and begins fumbling with jars of herbs in her kitchen cabinet. Her mother will be brewing some tea for her that will help her to relax and allow the visions to come. She hopes that they will come softly and expresses this to her mother. She has avoided communing with her mother in this way for many years, but later learned that her ways were of the ancients and began to trust that only good could come from surrendering to her mother’s revelries.

Sancritia brings over the tea and encourages Salene to quiet her mind. She takes the cup and sips at it. She had already calmed down considerably upon entering her mother’s house. Her mother took great pains to make her home a sanctuary and many friends of hers came to her for these guided meditations. Salene’s mother begins speaking in an ancient tongue as she closes her eyes and allows the energy to flow around her. She asks the cosmos to deliver her the message it is obviously seeking to pour onto her in her waking life. As she sits there, the tea begins its potent work and she enters a lucid dream, awake and present on her mom’s pillows in the living room. The tea makes her toes tingle, and she adjusts to take off her shoes. Her mother delicately starts massaging her scalp and she completely surrenders to the tea, her mother, and the touch.

Salene enters a deep meditative consciousness. As she swirls through levels of reality aided by the concoction that her mother brewed for her, she opens her eyes to find herself in another place. She is sitting around a fire with many elders that are dressed in the traditional dress of the ancients of her home planet. She gathers her senses and begins to feel sensation in her body and comes into full awareness in her dream as if she is in waking life. The people around the fire seem comfortable with her being seated among them. The sounds of the crackling of the fire and the humming coming from the elders are sharp to her senses and she feels vibrant sensation around her. The elders begin a chant and the energy begins to have a vibration. All are looking into the fire but are also looking deep into Salene. She can feel their presence inside of her skin and she begins to meld consciousness with the elders. Soon the light from the fire becomes ablaze and swirls around the people and herself sitting around the fire. The chanting becomes louder and the eyes of the elders become intensely lit with the orange glow of the flames. Conscious of herself in this dream, she asks in her mind the meaning of the vision, but though she is connected to the elders, they are not speaking her language. Slowly the swirling light picks up momentum and overtakes the scene. She is then lifted from this place in the swirls of light and suddenly the vision is over. 

She awakens in the apartment with her mother, and her eyes open. She has a fuzzy feeling from the tea in her body and her mind feels supple and relaxed. She leans back on the pillows and stretches her legs out before her. She takes a moment to take in the vision that her meditation brought her but can find no greater meaning to what she has seen. Her mother asks her to hold the vision inside her. She tells her it may not make sense but it will continue to do its work as the day moves forward. She encourages her to take it easy and take a walk in nature by herself. She tells her to not try and explain the vision to anybody as that will take away the potency of the effect of it on her. Salene takes a deep breath and sighs to herself. Somewhere inside she is taken aback and deeply affected, but on the surface it is hard not to giggle at her mother. “Do you think I will be okay?” she asks her mom. Sancritia nods and says, “You should be now.” Salene gets up and they embrace. She grabs her bag and her keys. As she passes through the threshold of her mother’s house she feels a chill pass through her bones and she can see the eyes of the elders staring back at her. She has this feeling that she is carrying them now inside of her. Feeling relaxed she heads down to her car. What now? She asks herself.

Salene walks down to the street. She decides to take an aimless walk through her mother’s neighborhood. Her mother lives on the ocean and the beach stretches out before her in endless possibility. She is lured into a peaceful place in her mind by the sounds, the crashing of the waves and the hissing of the water on the sand. Everything before her seems to be lit in hue and the light shines upon the world just a bit brighter. She longs for this place of inner security to stay with her just a few more minutes. She decides to abandon her list of errands and continues down the boardwalk in the moment and in a very peaceful and tranquil state.

……………………

The next day she wakes up ambient in a very still world. She kisses Dent on the brow and walks down the stairs to brew her coffee. As she is reaching for the milk in the fridge her vision of the little girl in the orange dress comes to her in a vivid mental hallucination. She stands there for a moment and can feel the pain in the little girl’s mind and body. She longs once again to save her. She wonders if the girl is somehow real or if there is a way that she can reach out to her. Was this a premonition? Was this a total act of a vivid and active imagination on her part? Did this girl live somewhere on her planet or the next? She closes the door to the fridge and turns around to find her daughter pouring a cup of coffee into a clear blue glass mug. The mug was one of Salene’s favorites. She used to have three yet two had been broken or cracked in the last few years. She kisses her daughter on the cheek, but Checlad shies away. Checlad, the sensitive being she is, was still wary of her parents at her age. She longed for independence but was plagued with the reality of needing to support herself. She was off to one of her jobs cleaning houses and then to evening classes at the university, so would be gone most of the day and the evening to follow. Salene engaged her daughter in a short and futile conversation that lasted only a minute, and then Checlad was off with her books and her bags to get in her mini-ped car to head off to her job.

Salene sighs to herself as she sits down to her cup of coffee. She marvels at the mind of her eighteen year old and tries to remember herself at that age. Complicated emotions come flooding back and she resolves to thinking about her daughter with loving compassion as she endures the trials of identity and hormones, of the world being before you and the not knowing who you are; the need for sex and affection and the complications and immaturity of boys. Checlad had mostly been a happy teenager and Salene feels that if she gives her space, she will soon come to realize that life can be a slow and steady process of finding oneself that goes on and on forever until death.

She then goes upstairs to grab the proper clothes for her morning run and puts on her running shoes. As she walks through the threshold of her house once again she sees the eyes of the elders, only this time they are glowing in a radiant icy blue. She ponders at the meaning of this as she plods down the road at a steady pace. The eyes penetrate her further with every step she makes. Then she rounds a bend and suddenly they are gone. 

Sancritia decides she is called to a meditation and begins to brew a tea made of salka flowers and a new herb imported from Earth called marijuana. The marijuana had proven to take on a very relaxing and aware effect, though at times clouded her vision. She was playing around with different strains as there seemed to be an endless supply of options and variations of the plant. As the waters boils, she walks over to the kettle and pours the hot water over the herbs. She is typically against smoking any herb though she resolves to try smoking the marijuana at some point, which was the traditional method of consumption on Earth. For now she adjusts to her old and secure ways and brews the tea at medium strength.

She sips at her tea from her seated position in her living room. The sun is pouring in delicately from the curtains that are open halfway and gently and buoyantly dancing in the breeze off of the ocean. She sets down her tea half consumed and proceeds to her breathing techniques coupled with some chanting she had practiced for decades now. She closes her eyes and enters a trance.

Suddenly her body becomes stiff. In her trance she sees her daughter out on the run. Sancritia is floating above her now without a body, and the image is a little hazy. There is nothing she can do for her daughter when the car pulls around the corner and Salene seems to not be aware of it. She witnesses her daughter step out onto the street and Sancritia lets out a scream when she sees her daughter’s body struck by a moving vehicle and then flying through the air limp and unconscious. There is nothing she can do.

She immediately awakens and calls Dent at the office. She tells him there is no explaining how she knows but he must run down to Havanda Street because Salene had just been struck by a vehicle, she was sure of it. Dent and Sancritia both stop what they are doing and get into their cars and rush to the scene. They arrive to find Salene’s body limp and lifeless. Both unable to hold back their tears they climb into the ambulance that arrived there just moments before. Salene’s body, strapped into the gurney, now was only that, her body. Salene had left at the moment of impact and had found herself in an alternate plane that she had yet to get used to or understand.

Chapter 3: The Fall

Salene comes to consciousness in the Void in front of a small house on a suburban street on planet Earth. She immediately notices subtle differences. She sees a small box on a post on the street that must be for some sort of drop off/ pick up routine. She notices the shape of the roof acting in a series of angles that she would not see on her home planet. She notices the vehicles parked on the street, resembling something that you might have seen over a hundred years ago on Narene. She notices the dress of the Earth hominoids; the colors and ways the clothes are fitted to their bodies, the shoes, the bags and purses that they carry. Everything is fascinating and similar, but so very different from what she is used to. She marvels at how the planet, many years behind her home planet of Narene, follows so many similar actions and activities. How is it that things can be so similar many galaxies away? Basically the humans have almost all of the same physical features though there are differences, just as there are differences among humans and Narenanites within their own species. She sits back and absorbs all of the subtle nuances that she can take in in one sitting. 

Soon she becomes accustomed to this place on Earth where she has come to consciousness and resumes her mission of following the sensation that brought her here. She looks up at the house and notices some play equipment in the yard. She watches as some children come out to play in the yard. A woman that must be a mother or older sister comes out and hooks up a device to a long tube and goes back to the side of the house for a moment. All of a sudden the device starts spraying water onto the lawn and the children are enraptured and run in and out of the water stream, screaming and shouting to each other in glee and joy. She has an improved feeling of the people and does not feel the pain she thought was so abundant, but rather joy and peace exuded from these young people. She hears music coming down the street and a small vehicle pulls up and all of the children stop what they are doing and run up to the truck. The adult lady then walks up to the truck and hands some money to the driver. All of the children are handed frozen treats on sticks and return to the yard with sticky smiles. All seems well here and Salene grins to herself.

Satisfied for the moment, Salene decides to return home to check on her family. She closes her eyes and imagines her husband and daughter, the ocean, the boardwalk, the ships and the sun and moons of home. Soon she is transported back to her home. She finds herself near a park bench on which her daughter is sitting talking with her brother. Checlad is crying and Thomford is comforting her with his arm draped over her shoulder. He is speaking soft words and Checlad nods in acceptance of his reassurances. Salene smiles then and yearns to comfort her daughter herself. She had not been specifically close to her daughter as of late, but all that drops away now and she sees the inner spirit of her daughter which has never changed. In all of the time that Salene had come to know her precious daughter, Checlad had been intelligent and sensitive. She longs to tell her daughter that she loves her so very deeply.

Salene walks up to the two of them on the park bench and she moves to stand behind her daughter to focus all of her love and affection through the dimensions onto her daughter. Checlad leans back and seems to notice this interaction. She tells Thomford, her uncle, to stop talking for a moment. “I can feel her… wait, stop talking.” Checlad says. Thomford leans back with a gentle smirk on his face and she closes her eyes. Salene witnesses her daughter do this and begins to speak words that she hopes will penetrate this Void that she is in. Her mom had taught them both over the years how to meditate, and Checlad had just recently taken up an increased interest in her grandmother’s ways. Checlad listens and Salene’s words penetrate the stillness and soak into the tendrils of her young and sensitive mind.

“I am with you, Checlad, I am here watching you. Everything is okay, and I will be home soon. I love you.”

“She just said she loved me, Thomford, she is here, I can feel her!” Thomford, unable to doubt the women in his life though he usually just uses Sancritia’s tea for a mild buzz, rarely getting into the art form of transmutation, agrees in a comforting smile to his niece. “Awesoooome…” he spurts out in surfer lingo. He doesn’t doubt that Salene truly spoke to her daughter, and he is happy for Checlad.

Salene feels satisfied. She had hoped that she would be able to communicate with her family. She decides to find her mother who would know how to speak to her in this place naturally, most likely as if they had done it a thousand times. She imagines herself with her mother and is transported to the hospital room where her body lay unconscious. Salene looks down at her own body, still battered from the accident. She cannot feel the pain of the wounds and does not wish to. She is thankful for the absence of pain but knows that her goal should be to return to her body and her home.

Her mother had brought some pillows into the hospital room and a small carpet on which she was sitting this very moment. Salene locates herself near the pillows and assumes the same position that her mother taught her, even though the experience that she is having in her elusive body is so different from the plane of reality which she has left. She closes her eyes and attempts to communicate with her mother.

Salene then awakens around the fire with the elders whose eyes are glowing in a translucent orange. Her mother had been sitting in this place waiting for Salene to return. Now they sit across from each other and their eyes embrace and though their bodies do not touch, they are there together. Salene immediately tells her mother that she loves her and tears begin to well up in her eyes. She can feel the water, and her body feels real and clear like the day she first visited this place. “It is time to come home now, daughter.” Her mother says. This is so comforting to Salene that the tears begin to increase their flow and a sense of relief comes all about her. Salene poses a question in her mind to the elders. She asks if she had accomplished all that she was set on this journey to partake in and they nod in agreement. “Yes you have seen all that you are meant to and you can come home, but first you must save the girl.”

Yes, the girl, Salene thinks to herself. I must find the girl. Sancritia nods to her daughter and says “Then, come home, dear. We are missing you.” “Okay, Mother.” Salene immediately closes her eyes and light enters her body. She is lifted away from the vision, away from the hospital room and is transported through time and space once again. She feels the light swirling in her and through her like blue icy flames and she surrenders to the light.

She awakens on the bridge. She sees the girl, in her orange dress and once again the young girl is beckoning her. Salene, with a sense of urgency and love for the little girl immediately flies to her and this time catches her as she glides off if the bridge. All of a sudden, she herself is falling.  Into the rainbow light, her body is dressed in the same color of orange, the color of refuge of the little girl. She immediately understands that she must save herself and that the little girl is her. She knows that this is her passage back to the reality of the living, the road to return to her family on her home planet. She embraces the rainbows, and with all of her effort stops herself from falling. Soon she is rising and her momentum picks up and she is placed back on the bridge. Then, the little girl is standing next to her. The girl smiles and waves and then transcends upward into the light and she is gone.

The next thing she knows, her body is filled with pain. There is beeping and lime green light shining through her eyelids. She opens them and she is back in the hospital room. She is back in her body. She is awake. She looks up and her mother is looking down at her. “You made it,” Sancritia says in an all knowing way. Salene smiles and takes her mother’s hand. “Yes, I am here. My body hurts so much. It was beautiful and scary.” “I know,” Sancritia responds. “Close your eyes and rest, but do not leave us again. I love you, dear.”

Salene closes her eyes and rests. She has returned home. She had seen so much and her heart feels full and she feels beautiful. I can’t wait to see them, and to write, to write what I have seen.

An hour later her family comes in and she greets them all with hugs and kisses. Sancritia then returns with a present. “You earned this, with love from all of us.” Salene takes the package and opens it slowly. Rummaging through the tissue she pulls out a garment. It is an ancient garment and it is orange. Salene feels a chill run down her spine. “I have much to see yet, mother.” She thanks her family and tells them she is happy. Peace rests in her heart and she begins the road to healing, having returned to the waking life.