The Ice House

by Ray Ouellette

  “No idea,” said Scott. “But I appreciate being called a young anything at my age. But that's a good question. What old codger names are there? Just for conversation purposes you understand.”

  Frank bit on his lip, put on an act of being deep in thought, then shook his head slowly. He appeared about ready to give up when Lynn said, “Gabby?”

  Scott raised his eyebrows momentarily in protest. If you start calling me Gabby I'm not answering to it. Got it? Anyway you've never seen me with a shave and a coat and tie.” He seemed to be enjoying the company despite his Walden Pond tendencies. Frank asked about relieving himself and Scott said, “Just go a little way up one of the trails.”

  Frank excused himself, walked along the shore a bit and then by the moon light made his way up a trail that led up a different part of the ridge that surrounded the pond. He stopped about half way up to relieve himself, then continued further to see what he could make out in the darkness on the other side of the ridge. As he neared the top he noticed a purple glow softly spilling over the top of the ridge. He reached the top and walked down the other side. The glow resolved itself into two glows now, one to his right, one to his left. He hesitated, trying to make out what caused the glow before approaching any closer to it. He thought of going back and asking Scott about it but was afraid to move, to make any noise, afraid that whoever or whatever was responsible for the glows might not be friendly. He squinted and leaned a bit to the left to try to make out any features to one of the glowing areas, but had no success since trees blocked a direct view of whatever caused the glows. He glanced at the glow that was to his right to make sure it wasn't moving and then he squinted and he craned his neck to see if he could make out what was the source of that glow but it too was obscured by trees. If I had a flashlight, he thought, I could go through the bush to see what they are but what about snakes.

  He tried to remember if New York had rattlesnakes. He turned and made his way back to the top of the ridge. He'd go and ask Scott about it. At the top of the ridge he noticed a trail that he had overlooked before. It led along the ridge in both directions, probably circling the pond all the way around at ridge top level. Frank made his way along one branch of the ridge top trail toward one of the glows. As he approached it he could make out another separate purple glow farther along the backside of the ridge. He approached the first and could get a better look at it now as the trees thinned out a bit allowing a more direct view.

  A loud cracking sound and a pop made Frank jump and take a step backward. He took a deep breath and approached to where he could now make out the object clearly. Hanging low from a post was a large electronic bug killer. Frank was bewildered at first, figuring that it must be the edge of someone else's property. Now that he had approached closely to the first glow he could make out a third diffuse glow past the second one he had spotted earlier. This whole pond must be ringed with them, he thought. It's a ring of bug killers all around the pond. He laughed and said to himself. Scott, you old phony. Henry David Thoreau. Right! You want to play Robinson Crusoe out here but don't want to put up with bugs.”

  He walked back down and Lynn noticed the hint of a smile. “What?”

  “Nothing,” said Frank. “Just the beer.”

  “What are you going to do next,?” Scott said.”

  “What can I do? We know what's going on I think, but who's going to believe me? They're trying to steal my soul and put it into a frozen billionaire so he can live again. Yeah, right. I've got a real good chance of convincing anyone of that.” He sat down and opened another beer.

  “There's one way of getting into that facility,” said Scott. “Let your self go when you feel it happening again.”

  “I tried that once. Evidently the same soul can't be in two bodies at once. As I felt myself coming to, in Lawrence Lowell, my body appeared to be dying.”

  “Only other way is to go right up and introduce yourself,” encouraged Scott. “I'm sure they'd be interested in what you've told me. You'll get in. They're scientists.”

  Lynn got up, put her beer can on the ground and stomped it into a perfect circle. “How's that?”

  “A real pro,” joked Frank. “Had a lot of experience at it?”

  “Some.” She went back and sat on her rock. “Do you think they don't have any idea about the soul aspect of this? Maybe they're trying time after time and failing and that's why you have those dreams...those experiences, on a regular basis. They're trying to bring him back to life and can't because you're resisting. Maybe they have the way to reverse the cell damage and cure his disease but can't figure out why he isn't coming back to life.”

  “You mean they're just concentrating on the physical and scientific problems and haven't considered the non-physical?”

  “What good would it do,” said Scott. “They couldn't do anything about it so they're just ignoring that aspect and just hoping that reversing the cell damage and curing him will be enough.”

  “What if I just walk into the place and say 'I'm Frank Tilton. I know why you can't get Lawrence Lowell back to life.'

  Nobody said anything , probably picturing that possibility in their minds. “What?”said Frank. “You think I should actually do that?”

  Scott said, “It's hard to guess how they'd react. But I'm willing to bet that with a million dollars each at stake, they'd be interested in talking to you. I think you should.”

  Lynn said, “Are they dangerous?”

  “I don't know?” said Scott.”I've never heard of anything like that. But they've never had their project threatened in any way before. They've always just worked toward their goal with the confidence that someday they'd succeed. There's never before been a roadblock put in their way to stop them cold. A look of granite seriousness settled on Scott's face and then he added. “You might be that roadblock.”

  “They don't hurt you? Lynn said. Scott looked perplexed. “I mean the graffiti. They can't appreciate that do they?”

  “Oh that. Someone painted that on the bridge around forty years ago. I've been renewing it ever since. Whenever it needs it. A joke. I guess I just got used to seeing it there. So whenever it begins to fade I get out the old spray can.”

  Lynn turned to Frank. “Do you ever wonder why it's always during a dream?” Don't they ever do the experiments in the daytime?”

  Scott dropped his empty beer can at his feet, didn't bother to stand and just lifted his leg and brought his foot down on the can, hitting it so off-center that it shot out from under his foot but landed near the pile anyway.

  “Maybe when you're awake it has no effect. Maybe,” suggested Scott, “You're only affected at that time and when you're awake it has no effect and possibly there's a vicious circle there too. If their experiments were only showing results at night they'd only do them at night.”

  Frank raised his arms and waved them around in a spooky fashion and put on his best Boris Karloff voice, “And maybe they do it at night because they need all the town's electricity to revive the monster.” Frank and Lynn laughed but Scott looked a bit shocked. Frank and Lynn stopped laughing and then came Scott's delayed and seemingly forced laugh.

  Frank felt a bit awkward, trying to think of what he might have said wrong. Frank spoke, mostly to break the silence. “So what should I do now? Go to sleep?”

  “Maybe we could keep track of when they occur, what time of night,” suggested Lynn.”We could set an alarm clock and be awake at that time.”

  “That might work for a while but they'd keep trying and maybe eventually succeed and that would be it for my soul.” Frank gazed into the fire for a short while then said, “I've got to end this one way or another. I'm going there in the morning.”

  CHAPTER 14

  Frank knew he shouldn't have been driving after having some beers but he wanted to get out of Scott's compound after that awkward spell of silence after he had done his Boris Karloff imitation. There was something about Scott that made Frank uneasy. Something familiar about him but Frank could
n't place it. Scott seemed friendly enough but there was hint of something not right. Frank said, “What do you think it was like in the afterlife for Lowell? Do you think he fought against being reincarnated?”

  Lynn said, “I can imagine it, Lowell trying to pay off someone in the afterlife to avoid being reincarnated. Trying to avoid ending up with a crappy life instead of being brought back as the billionaire he was.” Then she added, “More than that he knew it would hurt his chances of ever being Lawrence Lowell again someday, if his spirit had already been reincarnated in someone else.”

  “I wonder if being rich gives you any influence in the afterlife,” Lynn said. “Didn't the Egyptians believe that a Pharaoh continued to be a Pharaoh in the afterlife and that he could keep his possessions and servants?”

  “Yeah,” said Frank, I've read that. But good luck with that. I believe in the saying 'You can't take it with you.”

  “Yeah,” Lynn added, but I think Lowell's attitude was, 'You may not be able to take it with you, but you can come back to it. Like some kind of cosmic vampire, sucking the spirit out of someone else.”

  They made it back to the highway and headed to the motel. Lynn said, “I've been thinking back to what I remember my mother said about my birth. She said I screamed louder than she had ever heard a baby scream before. She said it kind of disturbed her, like I wasn't at all pleased about being taken out of her.”

  “Or about being born?”

  Frank and Lynn stopped at a rest area that overlooked a valley that they could just make out in the moonlight. The valley was dominated by a large pond. It was late, or actually early, four or five A. M. The moon approached the horizon and was partially obscured by some trees, but they could perceive the outline of the pond by the stars reflected in it.

  They felt safe and secure now that they were outside of Southford and decided to remain a while. Frank took Lynn's hand and held it as they walked along beside a stone wall that defined the boundary of the rest area. They stopped to look out over the valley as their eyes became more night adapted. Frank turned to look at her as she continued to gaze out into the dark New York countryside. It was many minutes before she realized that he was looking at her and not the valley.

  She smiled, thinking back about their conversation about daydreaming. “You're staring,” she said.

  “Caught me again.” He took her gently in his arms, their bodies in complete contact, both seemingly trying to absorb each other and each perfectly willing to let it happen, to be a permanent part of each other. Their lips touched softly in counterpoint to the pressure of their bodies. He took her lower lip between his teeth and bit on it gently. She sighed. Her leg moved up along the inside of his leg and he felt that somehow the result would be more satisfying than when Allison did that. He felt that Lynn would hold nothing back emotionally, and he had the strange thought about what it would be like if the people at the Ice House did their experiment while he and Lynn made love. Would their spirits both be drawn out of their bodies together, tumbling intertwined into the beyond, where their essence and their consciousness would mix and become one, a billion particles of light swarming together. His imagination was drawn back to the present as he felt a rising feeling pressing against the inside of his jeans, expanding to firmness, inching its way along the fabric. He reached his arm up inside the back of Lynn's shirt, toward the clasp of her bra.

  “Is there a blanket in the car...or something?” Her eyes looked deeply into his.

  “I'll get it.” She sat down on the wall and Frank walked back to the car, got a blanket, left the car where it was, and walked back to Lynn. He figured that if the police showed up they'd stop by the car first, and Frank and Lynn would have warning. They climbed over the wall and went down the slope behind an area of trees and bushes to a grassy spot and spread out the blanket. They enjoyed the feel of their bodies together again. Lynn kissed Frank's neck and then gently bit his earlobe. He felt her breathing into his ear and it excited him more. The sound of something falling to the ground drew his attention and he saw her skirt lying at her feet like the skirting around the bottom of a Christmas tree. She unzipped Frank's pants and he stepped out of them. She was amused to see he had on no underwear and she smiled.

  “Never did wear them with jeans,” he explained.

  They sank to their knees and removed each other's shirts. Lynn's bra which had been unclasped by Frank fell to the ground to join the other clothing. They kneeled on the clothing which added to the soft effect of the grassy slope and the blanket. Their arms still around each other, they lay down side by side and felt the warmth of their bodies touching. The cooling evening air caressed their backs, accentuating the warmth they felt between them.

  She felt him entering her, but he hesitated, withdrew, and said, “I don't want to be insulting or...I don't know if it's appropriate, but...should I...I mean...”

  She understood. “It's safe.” she said without a noticeable hint of embarrassment. “I just finished...ah, you know. It's just about 100% safe.” Then with just a hint of detectable embarrassment,”I want to feel it happen inside of me.”

  Frank detected the slight change in the tone and reassured her with a kiss.

  She breathed heavily now but couldn't resist relating some of her reading on the paranormal, “I read somewhere that there's a theory that if a man does it outside, it weakens him but if he does it inside the woman he transfers strength to her. Then this energy provides a channel, opens a door to the tremendous amount of energy that can be drawn from the universe during orgasm. The woman transfers back an equal amount of energy to the man. Both end up stronger psychically.”

  Let's test that theory,” said Frank and entered within her.

  When he withdrew from her they lay side by side, her head on his arm and they watched the stars twinkle for them.

  CHAPTER 15

  Frank was restless and didn't sleep much when they got back that morning. The quantity of the sleep he lost was made up for by not having one of the dreams. He got up and drove toward the Ice House, leaving Lynn sleeping. The thermometer just outside the driver's window indicated a warm day but the brilliant sunshine did nothing to dispel the cold feeling of apprehension. He wondered what this day held for him and what the people he was about to introduce himself to were like. He felt his hands tensing around the steering wheel and made an effort to relax. A few minutes later he realized that his jaw hurt from clenching his teeth. He had an empty feeling in his stomach but not from hunger. Like a schoolboy on his way down the corridor to the principal's office, knowing he has to take himself there or face even worse consequences, Frank wanted to turn around but knew he had to go to the Ice House.

  He came to the drive that he had been directed to by Scott. After a few hundred yards he came to a stop sign and a chain link fence with a gate. Off to the side of the gate was a surveillance camera on a high post. A rectangular device sat on a lower post just at the edge of the road on the driver's side. It reminded Frank of the speakers they used to have at drive-ins, the few that were left anywhere. He wondered if he was supposed to do something or just wait. A spider sat on its web across the front of the device. The shadow from a large cumulus cloud moved across the sun engulfing Frank, like a feeling of despair blotting out a good mood. Frank shivered from the sudden decrease of light and the slight but noticeable drop in temperature. It reminded him of late summer in New England, the shortening days and the accompanying dread that he remembered from when he was young and summer vacation was coming to an end, a feeling of anxiety over the uncertainty of a new teacher, new classes, new schoolmates. It was a feeling that never left as he grew older, that Frank still experienced every Fall, even long after graduation, a conditioned reflex that he imagined he'd experience for the rest of his life. On a marginally warm day like this when a cloud blocked the sun, there was a little taste of Fall and accompanying feeling of dread. This time the feeling did not pass as the sun came back out again.

  Frank stared at the speak
er. A metallic voice sad, “Yes?” the spider stiffened then scurried behind the post.

  “I've got some information,” said Frank, “about why you're having trouble with your experiment.” After a brief silence he added, “You are, aren't you?”

  “What?...Who are you?” the voice said and without waiting for an answer added, “Wait a minute.”

  After a short wait he had the impression that there was another set of eyes staring at him from behind the camera. “What do you want?” the new voice said. The voice seemed vaguely familiar to Frank and he figured this must be one of the men that he had heard during one of the dream experiences.

  “You're having trouble, I believe, with an experiment, a project.” managed Frank nervously. He glanced around, and wondered if there might be a weapon pointing at him ready to go off if he said the wrong thing. “I have information about the possible cause of your problems.” Feeling that he didn't sound too convincing or impressive...or even sane, and wondering if he might be considered just one of the pests and curiosity seekers Scott had described from the early years of the project, Frank added, “I really do. I've been having problems too.” Frank knew right away that he hadn't improved his image with the voices by mentioning problems. “Look,' he said. “Can we talk? Even if it's way out here? I think we might be able to help each other. Can one of you that knows what I'm talking about come out here?”

  Another period of silence followed. Then the first voice said. “Drive to the next gate. Stop there, then you'll be allowed in.”

  The slightly over pronounced words, the clipped, matter-of-fact speech were becoming increasingly familiar to Frank and he was sure this was one of the scientists, if that's what they were, of his dreams. The gate slid open. Frank glanced at the speaker. The spider was back on its web and it didn't seem to be too uneasy about the voice now. Frank drove up the road. There was a guard station and gate that was located in a gap in a huge sixty-foot-high grassy embankment that looked as far as Frank could see like it surrounded the whole facility. The embankment reminded Frank of the Delaware Water Gap that he had seen once from an airplane. A long mountain ridge that was broken by one gap that a river, roads and a railroad passed through. It also reminded him of ridges of earth that were plowed up around hangers he had seen at an air show at an Air Force base. He had assumed they were for blast protection for the fighter planes that were in the hangers but he couldn't imagine what this huge one around the Ice House was for. The guard waved, did something inside the guard house and the gate slowly opened.