Dreamstone

by Ben L. Hughes

  “Come on Matt, you know I don’t believe in aliens. I know you and Melissa think they exist, so of course you dream about them all the time,” Greg replied.

  “Yeah, but we had the exact same dream, what are the odds of that?” Matt remarked.

  “I never said I saw any aliens in my dream,” Melissa interjected diplomatically.

  “See Matt, you and Melissa didn’t have the exact same dreams,” Greg observed as he proceeded to stuff his things into his pack.

  “Fine, it must have been a coincidence that the dreams were similar,” Matt acknowledged. Then he gathered his stuff and took it out to the car.

  Melissa quietly packed up her things and then met Matt outside before Greg got there.

  “I am sorry, I didn’t mean to make it seem like we didn’t share the same dream. I just don’t remember see any aliens in mine,” Melissa said apologetically.

  “It’s cool, I just thought we had a connection in our dreams,” Matt alleged.

  “We have other connections,” Melissa said with a smile. Matt smiled back and then set her backpack in the car next to his. A moment later, Greg came lumbering over and tossed his pack in the back seat and then jumped into the car after it.

  “Is that everything?” Matt asked.

  “I think so,” Melissa replied confidently.

  “Good-bye Bakersfield, and the smell that goes with you,” Greg said jokingly as they headed out of the hotel parking lot. Matt and Melissa both laughed as they headed home.

  Chapter 4

  A glimpse of Mount Shasta in the distance lifted Matt’s spirit, signaling they were not far from home. As he stared at the towering white peak it dawned on him that he could not remember seeing his camera when he packed his things up in the hotel.

  “Hey Greg, can you see if my camera is in my backpack,” Matt asked politely.

  “Sure,” he replied. Then a moment later he looked up and shook his head confirming what Matt suspected.

  “Damn it! I think they took my camera,” Matt announced angrily.

  “Search mine too,” Melissa asked.

  “Um... there’s no way I’m digging around in your girlie stuff,” Greg replied as he handed Melissa her pack.

  “Dang it, mine’s gone too,” she said in a solemn voice. Then she remembered that she had swapped out the memory card towards the end of the second day and immediately reached into the back pocket of her shorts.

  “Ah-ha, we’re in luck!” she exclaimed happily, holding the memory card up like a prize.

  “Greg took so many pictures with my camera that I had to switch out the cards,” she said with a smile.

  “Hey, you told me take lots of pictures, so that’s what I did,” Greg exclaimed.

  “I know, and with any luck we still have what we need for our project,” Melissa replied as she put the memory card back into her pocket for safekeeping.

  “There’s our turn off,” Matt announced as they followed the ramp over to route 299.

  “Good, just a couple more hours and we’ll all be home,” Melissa remarked as she rolled down the window and peered out. “I love this part of the drive,” she added as the fresh air blew against her face.

  “Why this part?” Greg inquired.

  “Because the forest on this side of the coastal mountains is mostly fir and ponderosa, but once we cross over and head down towards the coast, it transitions into the towering redwoods that I love so much. This side is dryer and the air has the aroma of pine, while the costal side is lush and green, and you can smell the ocean.”

  “The ocean does smell,” Greg added sarcastically.

  “What’s your favorite part of the drive?” Melissa asked as she looked over a Matt.

  “I like the trees, but in the basin and range you can see geology in action. The arid climate means the rock formations are exposed. If you know what to look for you can see fault lines, contact zones, and every rock type imaginable. You can see how water and wind erode the various rock types, creating some of the most dramatic land forms on the planet. Think about Zion, the Grand Canyon, and Yosemite, they are all geological marvels.

  “Nerd alert!” Greg interrupted.

  Matt looked back and gave him a sour look and then proceeded to ignore him for the next hour. Meanwhile Melissa looked out at the trees and whistled to pass the time.

  “Hey, I see the ocean,” Melissa announced as they crested Berry Summit and started down towards the coast.

  Matt rolled down his window to make sure Greg could take in the ocean smell he was so fond of once they got closer to Arcata.

  “I can’t wait to get back to my dorm room,” Greg announced as they reached the outskirts of town. “I never thought I would miss it, but after this trip, it will seem like the Hilton.” Matt and Melissa laughed as they continued towards the campus.

  Once they arrived at HSU, Matt drove over to the Cypress parking lot and pulled into the first open spot that he could find.

  “It’s good to be back,” Melissa said as she grabbed her pack from the backseat of the car.

  “It sure is,” Matt added as he got out and stretched his legs.

  “I’ll see you both later,” Greg added as he headed off to his dorm.

  “I guess he has had enough of our company?” Melissa observed.

  “Yeah, he seemed different after the interrogations, I think it really shook him up,” Matt surmised.

  “He’ll get over it. His ego might be fragile, but there’s plenty of it to go around,” Melissa said with a devilish smile.

  “So what did you think of the trip overall?” Matt asked.

  “It was interesting… and memorable. If the memory card has our pictures on it, then overall, I think it will be a success. Either way, we did get to see some fantastic petroglyphs, and with the exception of the interrogations, I had a really good time with you,” she added.

  “Well, thanks again for coming along...” Matt replied, wanting to say more, but afraid to reveal the feelings that were more intimate, and personal.

  “I’ll see you later then,” Melissa said cheerfully. Then she gave him a hug before heading off. Matt paused for a moment as she walked away, then a sad lonely feeling welled up inside him as she disappeared from sight.

  When he returned to his dorm room, he turned on the television to drown out his feelings.

  Once he was sufficiently numbed by the glowing box, he turned off the TV and went over to his computer. Then he typed the words ‘dimensional shift’ into the search bar to see what would come up. He could not figure out why those words stuck out in his dream, but it seemed significant. As he scrolled down through the results, nothing caught his eye, so he tried the words ‘dimensional shift’ and ‘military secret’ together to see what would come up. A few pages down he noticed there was a reference to a military project called the ‘Philadelphia Experiment’, so he opened that web page and proceeded to read the description about it.

  In an effort to gain the upper hand during WWII, the United States Military conducted several secret radar invisibility tests by generating a powerful electromagnetic field around the U.S.S. Eldridge. The electromagnetic field was supposed to bend the enemy’s radar waves in such a way that the ship would be undetectable. However, eye witnesses of the event claimed that the U.S.S. Eldridge not only became radar invisible, but actually vanished from the Philadelphia naval shipyard for several minutes, before reappearing when the ship’s massive power generator overloaded and caught fire. The military claimed the fire was a result of faulting wiring and denied any report that the ship or its personnel were part of any stealth technology experiments. Experts that witnessed the event were quickly silenced, but several unnamed sources have come forward in recent years claiming that the U.S.S. Eldridge actually shifted into another dimension for few moments as a result of the experiment.

  Matt was shocked by the story. The dimensional shift that he and Melissa had both dreamed about was an actual real life event. Matt continued to search the internet
to find out more about the experiment, but most of what he read seemed to just repeat the original article.

  After a couple hours of searching to no avail, he finally turned off his computer and started getting ready for bed. As he reached for the light switch, his cell phone rang and he saw it was Melissa calling.

  “Hello?” he said in a friendly voice.

  “Hi Matt, I’m so sorry to call you so late, but I had that weird dream again and I don’t know what to make of it,” Melissa replied in an uncertain tone.

  “Okay, do you want to tell me what happened in the dream,” he asked.

  “Yeah, it was almost the same as before, except this time the stranger in the dream said the military was developing a potentially dangerous technology. Then he said you have to help stop it,” Melissa exclaimed in a jittery voice.

  “You’re kidding me!” Matt replied.

  “No I’m not... the stranger went on to say that humans had accidentally discovered a way to shift into another dimension and there were grave risks involved. Then the dream ended when I started getting freaked out by it.”

  “That’s incredible!” Matt stated in shock and disbelief. “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “I am, but what does it mean?” Melissa questioned.

  “Well, you’re not going to believe what I found on the internet, but there is a link between our dreams and a secret military project from 1943.

  “What connection?” Melissa asked.

  “It was an article I found on the net,” Matt replied.

  “Is it okay if I come over and then you can show me what you found?” she asked.

  “Of course,” Matt said in a welcoming tone.

  “Thanks, I’ll be right over,” Melissa replied.

  While Matt waited for her to arrive, he turned his computer back on and brought up the original article about the Philadelphia Experiment for her to read. A moment later he heard a soft knocking at the door and rushed over to open it.

  “Hi,” he said as Melissa peeked in.

  “I’m not intruding am I?” she asked.

  “No, not at all. I’m glad you came over,” he said with a smile. Then he showed her the article and waited for her response.

  “I don’t understand, this article seems to imply the military stumbled onto some kind of inter-dimensional technology, but that was over seventy years ago. How is this connected to our dreams?” she questioned.

  “I’m not sure, but it seems too similar to be just another coincidence. And as you pointed out, the military has had over seventy years to figure out the technology,” Matt suggested.

  “I don’t know... the article seems more like science fiction than reality,” Melissa replied.

  “I agree, but what often starts out as science fiction becomes possible as our technology advances. Lasers, space travel, and cloning are all examples of fiction turned reality,” Matt remarked.

  “You’re right, all of those things have gone from fiction to fact, but what you’re suggesting is the ability to travel into another dimension. That’s a huge leap forward,” Melissa contended.

  “I admit it sounds crazy, but I think our dreams and that event are somehow interconnected,” Matt replied.

  “I am not disagreeing with you, but I think we need to consider other possibilities, and not just assume the two are tied together,” Melissa suggested.

  Matt nodded in agreement, but he was reluctant to give up on the idea there could be some connection.

  “Oh by the way, I think one of your rock samples ended up in my backpack,” Melisa mentioned as an afterthought.

  “Is it a small round polished looking stone?” he asked with a puzzled look on his face.

  “Yeah, it must have gotten mixed in with my stuff back at the hotel. I’ll give it back to you tomorrow if that’s alright?” Melissa said as she yawned.

  “Sure,” Matt replied as he glanced down at his watch.

  “Well, I guess I should head back over to my place… I just hope I don’t have that strange dream again,” Melissa mentioned in a reluctant tone.

  “You can stay here if you like,” Matt suggested. Melissa looked a little surprised by his offer, and then smiled.

  “Are you sure? I was kind of hoping you would ask me since I wasn’t sleeping very well at my place,” Melissa confessed.

  “Absolutely, I can sleep on the couch and you can have my bed,” Matt said as he reached for a clean set of sheets out of the closet. Then as he started making the bed for her, she started to laugh.

  “What’s so funny?” Matt asked.

  “Your horse print sheets look like they belong in some teenage girl’s room, not a young man’s dorm,” Melissa joked.

  “What can I say... I like horses,” Matt replied with an embarrassed smile.

  “That’s okay, I won’t tell anyone. It’ll be our little secret,” Melissa laughed. She liked the fact that he had a softer side and thought it was cute how he still liked horses. She had not forgotten how they used to sneak over and feed the horses next to his house when they were kids.

  Once Matt finished with the bed, he went over to the couch and started arranging it to make it more comfortable, but then he noticed that Melissa was already in bed, and was looking over in his direction.

  “Matt,” she said in an innocent voice. “I was hoping you would want to sleep next to me... it was so comforting to have you by my side when we shared the bed back at the hotel.” Matt felt his face blush and he swallowed what felt like a golf ball sized lump in his throat.

  “Are you sure... I don’t want things to get awkward?”

  “Come on, get into bed…we’ll still be friends in the morning... I promise.”

  Matt turned off the lights, and then crawled under the covers next to her. Melissa immediately snuggled up against him, and then closed her eyes. As she drifted off to sleep, Matt kept thinking about how much he loved her and how lucky he was to have her in his life.

  The next morning, Melissa woke up and looked over at Matt while he was still sleeping. As she gazed at his innocent face, she felt protective of him, but there was something more, something new welling up inside her. As she reflected upon her feelings, she realized that her admiration had evolved into love, and she knew that he loved her too. Despite his best efforts to hide it, she could read his body language and decipher his convoluted emotions with ease. His subtle glances, the little things he did to show he cared, nothing went unnoticed, and she appreciated his friendship above all else. While he slept, she gently kissed his cheek, and then pulled the covers up over him, and closed her eyes.

  When the alarm buzzed later that morning, Matt reached over and shut it off. Then he turned to see if Melissa was awake and was met with her warm smile and deep blue eyes.

  “How did you sleep?” he asked.

  “Wonderfully, no crazy dreams, just peaceful sleep,” she replied.

  “Me too, that was the best I’ve slept in days. Thanks for spending the night,” he said with an appreciative smile.

  “Thank you for letting me...” she wanted to say more, but she didn’t want to overwhelm him.

  While Melissa got dressed, Matt made breakfast. Then they sat quietly at the table savoring the food and the peaceful morning.

  “That was good, thanks for making me breakfast,” Melissa said as she reluctantly prepared to leave.

  “Melissa, I would like to spend more time with you, but I’m a terrible judge of what others are feeling. So here’s a key to my dorm, feel free to come over anytime you want,” Matt said as he nervously handed her the shiny metal key.

  “Thank you, that’s so sweet. I think you’re wrong about judging people’s feelings though. In fact, I think you see right through people and that scares you,” she replied. Then she gave him a kiss on the cheek before heading out.

  “I’ll see you at Anthropology class,” Matt said when he saw her turn and look back at him. She smiled and waved, before continuing on her way.

  Matt felt as if his ch
est was going to burst from all the emotions welling up inside him. Melissa meant more to him than anything else, but something seemed different about her. He sensed an affection that she had never displayed towards him before, but he wanted her to determine the progression of their relationship. Matt took a few deep breaths to calm down, and then grabbed his Anthropology books before heading off to class. As he walked along, he kept smiling each time he thought about Melissa.

  When he arrived at class, he saw Greg sitting in the front row and he headed over to join him.

  “Hey buddy,” Matt said in a cheery tone. Greg looked up and gave him a courtesy nod. The kind guys give each other when words are not required.

  “Thanks for saving me a seat in front,” Matt added after he settled in. Greg looked up and gave him another nod.

  After a few minutes Melissa walked in and sat down next to Matt just as the class was about to begin. Then she placed her hand on his knee and gave him a warm smile. Matt caught a whiff of jasmine and wondered if she wore that scent on purpose since she knew he liked it. As the teacher started explaining the immense value of ethnographic studies, Matt started daydreaming about the row of jasmine bushes that grew along Melissa’s driveway and how they use to chase each other around them more times than he could count. Even back then she was faster than him, but he was more agile, and if he cut the corners of the hedge just right, he could catch her.

  Matt looked on as Mr. Wilson continued with the lecture, but his thoughts kept drifting back to Melissa, and how much he cared for her.

  Once the class was over, Melissa stopped at the door and waited for Matt and Greg to pass by.

  “What’s up?” Greg asked.

  “I dropped the memory card off on my way over here, so we should have the pictures back this afternoon with any luck. When you guys are done for the day, why don’t you come by my place and we can look them over together,” she suggested.

  “I can’t wait to see how they turned out,” Matt replied with a tone of excitement and anticipation.

  “I have to get to going,” Greg remarked as he looked away.