The Viral Epiphany

by Richard McSheehy

  He stopped outside their bedroom door and looked down the long hallway and then back the way he came. He wanted to collect his thoughts a bit before he entered. He had to decide whether to tell Grace about the new information he had received only an hour ago.

  No, he finally said to himself, I can’t tell her. Not now anyway. That stuff they’re doing now in Labyrinth Two is incredible. Unbelievable, really. There we were cruising around in the Seawolf and these guys, deep underground in Alaska are making this breakthrough. It’s an amazing capability, just like the bomb was in its day I guess – but this, this is so much more; it’s just unbelievable.

  He allowed himself a slight smile. That chem/bio stuff they were doing in Labyrinth One would have become obsolete anyway with this new stuff coming along. Closing Lab One was absolutely the right decision. Hell, it was a no-brainer really. Why should we waste our time and resources on that?

  He took a deep breath. I guess, now that I have given the go-ahead with the Lab 2 tests, that I’ve already become sort of like Roosevelt, haven’t I? Maybe that’s my role. But the question really is: should I stay in office and maybe become the next Truman too?

  I wonder? he thought. He opened the door, walked into the bedroom, and smiled at Grace.

  Epilogue

  Sheila sat by a window in Dan’s apartment and slowly sipped a steaming cup of Barry’s Tea. Rain was falling, a soft mist really, into the dark swirling waters of the River Lee. A lone swan drifted slowly by with the flow of the water, while above, light gray clouds with darker gray centers drifted on unseen currents of air. It was past mid-December and she felt herself more and more preoccupied with the approach of the winter solstice. She would have to make a decision soon.

  There was a knock on the door and Dan went to answer it. A minute later he came back into the room carrying a small parcel.

  “What is it?” Sheila asked.

  Dan held up the FEDEX box so that she could see it. “I have no idea,” he said, but the return address says, The White House, let’s have a look.” He tore the zip strip and pulled out a purple velvet covered folder that had been covered in bubble wrap.

  He slowly took off the plastic wrapping and then opened the velvet folder. Inside was an invitation handwritten in elegant calligraphy, black ink on light beige parchment paper. Dan read the invitation but said nothing for several seconds.

  “Come on, Dan,” Sheila said. “What does it say?”

  Dan quietly handed the folder to Sheila and then said, “I don’t think we can do this, Sheila. Maybe Brendan, but not us.” She looked puzzled until she read it herself.

  The White House

  Washington, D.C.

  President and Mrs. Alan Cranston request the pleasure of your company at a private banquet and conferral of honors on December 21 of this year at The White House. The following people will be presented with the highest honor of the United States: The Order of the Eagle Award for their heroic efforts in the victorious battle against the scourge of Asian Fever,

  Dr. Daniel Quinn

  Dr. Sheila O’Neill

  Mr. Brendan MacDonnell

  RSVP Marilyn Swords

  Executive Secretary to the President

  “You’re absolutely right, Dan,” she said as she put the folder down on the table, “this is really Brendan’s honor not ours. He was the one who found the vaccine.”

  “Good. I’m glad we agree; I’d better get this over to Brendan right away. He only has a few more days left if he is going to fly over to Washington.” Dan said picked up the folder and put it in the FEDEX box.

  “Brendan, will be thrilled, I’m sure. It’s a great honor that he richly deserves – and I’m sure there will be more to come,” Sheila said and then she waited a few moments before she continued. “Dan, maybe this works out very well anyway. I’ve been thinking a lot about visiting a very special place very soon, actually just about that time. It’s a time of change, Dan. I can feel it. You should come with me. Our role in fighting Asian Fever is in the past now. However, I feel there is a lot more for us to do. Want to come along?”

  Dan grinned at her, “It sounds mysterious. Where are you thinking of going?”

  Sheila smiled back at him, “Ah now, the exact location is a secret. You can come along if you like, but you’ll only find out exactly where we’re going when you get there!”

  “OK,” Dan said with a laugh, “you’ve hooked me. When do we go?”

  Sheila looked out the window, hoping to see a sign that she had made the right decision. She watched the clouds drifting to the east but she recognized no sign. She turned back to him and taking a deep breath said, “We’ll leave in a few days, on the evening before Mean Geimrech, the winter solstice. It’s on December twentieth this year. It’s a place no one ever thinks of going anymore, high in the Slieve Mish Mountains of County Kerry. “You’d better be well prepared too,” she said as she smiled at him with a slightly seductive look, “we’ll be camping overnight!”

  They dropped Brendan off at Cork International Airport on the morning of the nineteenth of December, and then Dan and Sheila drove immediately to County Kerry, past the large towns of Killarney and Tralee until they finally came to a beautiful, sparsely populated, and remote part of the rural north coast of the Dingle Peninsula, called by the Irish, An Doire Mhór.

  “This is it,” Sheila said as they parked the car well off the roadside in a grove of ash trees. “From here we have to walk - up there,” she pointed to the right of the summit of Bautregaum Mountain. Over there, between Bautregaum and Caherconree. It’s on the east facing slopes of the Slieve Mish. It’s a little bit of a hike from here, up and over and down, but it’s the easiest way. We could never find it if we came up the other side from Aughils.”

  Dan looked upwards at the peak of Bautregaum. It looked like a steep climb and he was glad they were not planning to go to the summit. He picked up their backpacks and, putting his on, he handed Sheila hers. “OK, Sheila. You had better lead the way; it looks so overgrown with brush I can’t even see a trail. I would probably get lost within twenty minutes!”

  Sheila laughed, knowing he was probably right, and began walking straight towards Bautregaum for the first ten minutes until they came to the grass covered remains of an ancient ring fort. “There are seven of these,” she said as she looked up the mountain slope, “they’re thousands of years old and only a few of us know that they mark the way.”

  “What do mean, ‘mark the way’?” Dan asked, “Where are we going, anyway? And what is the significance of the seven ring forts? I thought that ring forts were just the ancient fortifications and dwelling places of the people who lived in Ireland thousands of years ago.”

  Sheila turned back and looked at him very seriously. “These ring forts are different from the others. They were a series of fortifications built to protect the access to a special place by people who lived here long before the Celts arrived.” She paused and looked at him, trying to see if he realized the importance of the place they were about to visit. “It’s a very sacred place that we’re going to, Dan. The knowledge of this place is handed down only by word of mouth, in the old Celtic tradition. The information is much too valuable to be put into writing.”

  “Because the wrong people might learn of the secret?”

  “Yes. If the knowledge is only spoken to the people we know and trust then our enemies can never learn our truths.”

  Dan stopped and looked at her, speechless for several seconds. Then he said, “There’s a lot more to you, Sheila, than I had imagined. First you take me on a mysterious camping trip and now you tell me you have secret information that has been handed down…how long?”

  Sheila smiled at him as she watched the expressions of bewilderment move across his face like clouds that race across the sky. A slight breeze suddenly ruffled his hair and revealed hidden reddish highlights in the bright sunlight. “The secrets are handed down only from mothers to daughters, Dan. There are only a few of the very old
families that carry this knowledge. It’s been like that for a very, very long time. Since long before the days of the Vikings and before Saint Patrick walked this land. I don’t know how long, really. Maybe three thousand years, maybe more. No one really knows anymore. You’ll be the first man to be told the secrets in a very long time. This year’s winter solstice will mark the beginning of a new age of the world.”

  Dan said nothing in reply as he looked at her with a new sense of who she was. “I see,” he said at last. He had no idea what to say until finally he simply said, “So where do we go now?”

  “Oh, that’s easy,” she said with a smile, “We just follow the ring forts up the hillside, way up there. But, our destination is older, much older, even than these forts. You’ll see,” she said and then she quickly turned and began walking uphill towards the next grass covered ring fort.

  Three hours later, as the winter sun was setting below the western ridgeline behind them she stopped and turned to Dan. “There it is,” she said, “Down there. It’s called the House of the Sun and the Moon. You’ll see why in a little while. Follow me.” She walked downward, stepping on rocks that almost looked as if they had been placed as stepping stones, until they found themselves in a small sunken clearing, nearly circular and covered with grass. It was perhaps not more than fifty yards across. A single, old and gnarled, Hawthorn tree grew almost exactly in the middle of the clearing.

  Dan turned and looked at Sheila skeptically. “You said that nobody knows about this place, Sheila? How can that be? I mean it’s pretty much right out in the open, isn’t it?”

  “Hmm? Oh, well, yes. I guess in that sense, you’re right. There are probably a lot of hikers who have come across it, but it’s the significance of the place that is secret. Here’s the first thing you need to understand about this place: everything you see, the depression, the raised ring around the outside, the stones on top of the ring, and everything else you’ll see, except for some obvious artwork, are completely natural. This place wasn’t built by men. It’s not like Newgrange or Stonehenge or any of the other famous Neolithic sites. This place was discovered just as it is, and that is why it is so sacred. Come here,” she said and began walking toward the side of the clearing that backed up to the mountainside. “Look,” she said pointing to a pile of rubble that looked like the remains of a small landslide, “we need to clear this away.” She began picking up the rocks and placing them about ten feet away. Dan joined her in her work and half an hour later they had moved the five foot high pile of rocks and revealed the opening to a cave that led into the side of Caherconree Mountain. “We’ll sleep here tonight,” Sheila said as Dan stared at the cave and the strange carvings that covered its inner walls.

  Five hours later, as the embers of their campfire dimmed to a reddish glow, and they finished the last of their simple meal, Dan turned to Sheila and said, “This is really amazing. All these carvings in the walls – now they’ve taken on the reddish glow of the coals, and they can be seen more clearly than ever. Do you know what they mean?”

  “Of course,” she said as she pulled the woolen blanket closer around both of them. “We, I mean some of the young girls, are taught these symbols beginning at an early age. Our mothers would take us to the beach on summer days and draw them in the sand.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes!” she said with a big smile, “Really!”

  “But, this is like some ancient language. Do any of the archeologists, the researchers at the universities and the museums, do they know about these?”

  Sheila laughed as if this were a wonderful joke. “Of course not, Dan. This is living knowledge. It’s not for everyone. It’s certainly not for academics who only wish to promote their own theories and discredit the ancient knowledge. No, you have to be selected before this is given to you.”

  “And I’m worthy?” he asked, not understanding why he should be chosen.

  “Dan, in a sense you were already chosen. You helped to save the world. I merely read the signs.” Dan looked at her but didn’t reply, not knowing how to reply. He turned away and continued to look at the symbols on the walls. Some seemed familiar, like the spirals that were linked together, and the series of carved out dots on the walls. But there were others, zigzag lines that underscored ripples, concentric circles with triangles in the center, and a series of vertical lines that started about three feet tall at the left and then diminished as they went to the right until they disappeared – or perhaps they began at the right and ended as three feet tall on the left. He didn’t know.

  “I don’t know what to say,” he finally replied.

  “Good. Then say nothing for now. I have much more to show you anyway,” Sheila said and, taking him by the hand she led him further back into the cave where the warm yellow and red glow of the dying fire bounced off the walls as if they were covered by thousands of tiny mirrors. “Lie down here,” she said as she covered a bed of straw with the blanket. Then without another word, she quickly loosened her clothes and let them drop to the floor. “There are some different secrets for you to learn now,” she said with a loving glow in her eyes, “I’m going to show you a secret you have never even imagined,” she said with a laugh as she reached over and began unbuttoning his shirt.

  Long after the last glimmer of sunlight had disappeared from the western sky a deep darkness covered the grassy clearing. The night sky was now starkly clear and cold in spite of the silent, iridescent shimmers of thousands of stars. Dan opened his eyes slowly and saw that the red embers from the fire had also faded into the blackness of the night, yet, after a minute or two he found he could see Sheila kneeling beside him in the white starlight. She kissed him lightly on the forehead.

  “Sheila!” he said and then he remembered. “Oh, my God, Sheila!”

  “Shhh!” she said, putting her finger to his lips. “This is your first secret. Don’t tell anyone.” Dan nodded but said nothing else. “Come and help me now,” she said, “I have something else I want to show you.” She took his hand and led him towards the front of the cave. “Over there,” she said pointing to one of the walls, “we need to move that large stone away from the wall. It should just slide outward.”

  They both grasped the stone by the edges and pulled it away from the wall. Immediately water began rushing into the cave from behind the stone.

  “What?” Dan said in surprise and alarm.

  “It’s OK. We’ll just let it flow until it fills that depression in the floor behind us.” Dan turned around and saw a shallow, bowl-shaped area of the floor that he hadn’t noticed before. It looked to be about six feet across. They watched as the clear water from the mountain stream rose and eventually filled the bowl and then they pushed the stone back against the wall. “Now we have to watch,” Sheila said, “Let’s grab a couple of blankets and get comfortable!”

  “What are we watching?” Dan asked as he sat beside her further inside the cave, about ten feet back from the now mirror-like bowl of water.

  “We’re waiting for the Moon,” she said, “It’ll rise behind that tall rock on the edge of the grass.”

  Dan peered into the night and he could see, in the bright starlight, the outline of a stone column about six feet high. “Is that a standing stone, like they have at Newgrange and other Neolithic sites?” he asked.

  “Sort of,” she said, “but remember, this column is a natural rock formation, no one put it here. All of the rocks you see here around the edge of the grass are natural outcroppings, although some look like they were placed there by men. I know that it is true because I didn’t believe it at first myself. I dug down deep underground and checked. They’re all completely attached to the underlying rock.”

  “Oh,” Dan said, “is that significant?”

  Sheila smiled. “Yes, Dan. It’s very significant. For one thing, this site is the model for all the other Neolithic sites. Those stone-age men recognized the significance of all this and tried to duplicate it in lots of other places. Wait! Look! See ar
ound the edges of the column? The moon is rising directly behind it. Now watch what happens when it gets to the top.” They sat very quietly and waited. The night was almost soundless with only the slightest of breezes. Dan could see the Hawthorn tree in the middle of the grass ring clearly now in the moonlight. He could even see the shadow of the tree on the grass as the moon climbed higher up the length of the rock column.

  A minute later the full moon rose over the rounded top of the stone column and its light poured directly into the cave, reflecting off the large pool of still water, and then bouncing upward to the ceiling where thousands of bright white lights now appeared to twinkle and shimmer as the light breeze lightly wafted across the surface of the reflecting pool.

  “It looks like the night sky, Sheila!” Dan said, completely entranced. “I wonder what is the ceiling made of,”

  “It’s natural Irish quartzite,” Sheila said, “the tiny bits of quartz that are embedded in the stone make it sparkle, but take a closer look, and see if you see anything else.”

  Dan walked back to the deeper recess of the cave and began to study the roof of the cave more carefully. Suddenly he shouted, “Sheila, I see swirls! It looks like swirling spirals of stars back here!”

  Sheila walked back and put her hand on his shoulder. “Run your fingers over the spirals, Dan.” He slowly rubbed the spirals with his fingertips and then turned back to her in amazement.

  “There are carved spirals in the roof, Sheila. Look at them. They’re everywhere. They’re like the ones at Newgrange, aren’t they?” Sheila looked at him and nodded, but didn’t answer. Then as the moon continued to rise, the angle of reflection from the pool changed and the ceiling “stars” dimmed and then they were gone. “Sheila, those people, the ones who carved these spirals. How long ago was that?”