by John Panella
“Um, listen, I don’t know what to say, it had to be a dream, I don’t even recall most of the information, why would I have left out all of this information, when trying to explain it to others if I really knew about it?”
As I skimmed through notepad the agent handed me, rather quickly some memories were returning to me and I wanted to head back to the radio stations and renew my fervor and to say, I told you so.
“We understand that Mr. Trovel, we truly do, it is a conundrum. But after reading what we could decipher from this information we were told to investigate a possible National Security threat.”
“National what...? Listen, my wife was with me when this event supposedly occurred, and I was soundly in bed, it was a dream and she can vouch for it.”
“Very good, we would also like to speak to your wife. And we do realize for whatever reason that you do not recall all of these events. We want to know if you have a memory problem, and this is why you tend to write things down.”
“The truth is, I don’t carry a notepad anywhere. Never have, at least not in this life… (I snickered within myself wondering if this is what is wrong here. Was this a dream of a past life, but how?) I could believe if I had a notepad with me I would write things down to recall at a later date especially if it is a lot of detail like this apparently is, but it is not a common thing for me to do.”
“Mr. Trovel, you may not remember doing this, but you obviously did. You are holding the proof in your hands. What we don’t understand is where does the elderly man fit in with this notepad?”
“I don’t understand any of this… I simply do not know?”
“We were hoping to jog your memory a little, we brought a picture of the elderly man so you might be able to identify him. Because let’s be honest, he was near the place of the notepad that described your strange adventure. It looks as though you were scribbling notes to possibly write a science fiction book later on, or maybe it is something much more nefarious or even mundane, we just don’t know.
But there are some anomalies in this entire event and that is why we are here. There was no identification on this man, nothing to identify him. We are just now trying to find out who this man was, so far no luck.”
“Why not take finger prints?” I asked clumsily.
We are in the process of doing that now, but for some reason we can’t get a valid print. We have a specialist team checking into the DNA database and trying to match him with the DNA counterpart.
“DNA, there is a database with people’s DNA?”
“Oh yea we have all sorts of tricks to locate people, but that is not the point.”
As they thumbed through a metal briefcase agent Stram brought out the picture and set it on the coffee table between us. I glanced at it and then got closer and stood up swiftly, “Oh My God.” almost in a high pitch scream, “that’s the chief. It’s real, it was all real… it did happen to me, I knew it… I just knew it!”
I yelled back into the bed room calling for my wife who was still sleeping and asked her to come out immediately. As I stood there peering down over this picture, I began talking to myself, “I can’t believe this, it was all a dream wasn’t it?”
“Mr. Trovel, is it possible you were drugged by this man and he fed you a lot of cock and bull. And what you think was a dream was actually a live event?”
“Ah, I don’t know, I guess it is possible, I am holding a notepad with my handwriting in it, and I do remember this man as being the chief. But why is he dressed like this. He was in a full Indian outfit, but these are street clothes any old guy might wear, even me?”
“This is why we believe you were drugged. These kind of people can really put one over on you to create whatever racket it is that they might be trying to pull off.
Do you have money that they might know about? We checked your records and we do not see any lure toward you for financial gain, other than an insurance policy, and that we would like to speak to your wife about. So we are at a loss as to why they might be after you.”
“Excuse me, who are they?”
“Con artists Mr. Trovel, people who use a con to separate you from your hard earned money and/or valuable assets.”
“Who me? Like you said, I have nothing, as you look around you can plainly see we don’t live the life of luxury.”
“Yes.” Agent Thol replied, “We see that by the presence of your 1977 Buick in your driveway and the old houses dispersed down the block.”
Feeling a little insulted I just ignored her comment.
Stram continued… “Again, we understand, this is why we are trying to figure all of this out. However, we would truly like your help in doing so.”
At that moment my wife ran quickly into the living room and asked what is happening. I told her that my strange dream was no dream that it really happened, somehow, someway.
My wife reacted, “That is not possible, how could this have happened and I not know about it?”
“The female agent then began talking to my wife. “Mrs. Trovel, hello, I am agent Laura Thol, and this is my partner Maxwell Stram. May I ask you a couple of questions alone?”
My wife was very apprehensive, and then proceeded to do what I should have done. “May I see some credentials?”
Both agents quickly glanced at each other, and grimaced, and then proceeded to take out their F.B.I. credentials. It was obvious by their credentials they definitely were who they said they were. My wife then accepted to speak to them, she and Agent Thol went into the kitchen to talk.
My wife, as she walked out of the living room turned to Agent Thol and remarked as to why there was an expiration date on her badge. Agent Thol said, “What do you mean?”
“2014 that is a long term expiration.”
Agent Thol had no idea what she was talking about and simply said that is the issue date. My wife not understanding what she meant, decided not to pursue it.
“Mrs. Trovel, do you and your husband get along?”
“Yes of course.”
“There are no marital problems that you might want to discuss?”
“No, beyond the normal little arguments we have at times, we get along fine, we have been married for many years. I have nothing to complain about, I am very content and happy.”
“Have you taken a large insurance policy out on your husband within the last 30 years?”
She hesitated for a few seconds and then replied, “No I haven’t, but we discussed it together. Timmy doesn’t want me to be stuck if something would happen to him, but we have not followed through on it yet. And why would I take out an insurance policy on my husband in the last 30 years when we were not even married that long?”
Agent Thol somewhat confused said, “You haven’t been, then why was there a million dollar insurance policy that was taken out on your husband? It doesn’t matter, it appears you did not keep up on the payments so the policy is dead anyway.”
“I have no clue what you are talking about, I never took out any policy on my Timmy.”
“(Hmmm) are you aware of or do you know if you or your husband has any enemies, or could someone close to you have taken out this policy using your names and you not know about it?”
“No, no one?”
“So Mrs. Trovel there is no reason why you might want your husband to either go missing or be deemed mentally unfit?”
“NO. I resent you saying that. I don’t like you even inferring this about me, I love my Timmy. No amount of money in the world would supply me with his loss if God forbid that happened.”
Agent Thol scribbled a few things in her pad and said, “Ok, Mrs. Trovel, please understand, we have to ask all of these questions. In truth, I believe you, there is something strange about what is going on here, and it is more than money.”
Both agents came together in the living room and both looked at me and said, “Listen, Mr. Trovel, we want to take you out to where we found the body. Do you think you are up for hike of this magnitude?”
“U
m I am not sure if that is a good idea.”
“Is there any reason you would like to tell us why you would defer on this request? You see Mr. Trovel, if you were kidnapped and or drugged, being out there at the scene of when all of this may have taken place, might indeed joggle your memory and it might be a help to solve this paradox.”
“I would certainly like to get to the bottom of this, because I truly believe it was all a dream. But if I was drugged I would like to know how and why. So I guess I would be willing to go out there if it can help.”
“Great, we have some gear in the car, if you can get yourself ready, we can take off within a few minutes; if that is alright with you? Also let me hold on to the notepad until we get out there.”
“Begrudgingly I handed back the pad of paper and said, “Not a problem, let me get some older clothes on and some extra water, and I will meet you outside.”
Agent Thol then spoke, “We are not going to lie to you, this case may be more serious than meets the eye, but we both feel you and your wife are the victims here…”
Agent Stram continues where Thol left off. “Before we leave we want to state a potential problem. You see if such a doorway exists it could threaten national security. The N.S.A. asked us to check into this, they are sure there is nothing to it, but they asked us to investigate anyway. However when we were out there we found no signs of any said door.”
I was somewhat startled when Agent Stram told me this. I then had to ask the million dollar question. “You do not really believe doorways to the past exist do you?”
“Ah, that is out of our jurisdiction that would fall under N.S.A., we are simply investigators of potential crimes on our soil. Anything beyond that would have to be turned over to another department and agency.”
Strangely enough their answer left me with more questions than I had prior. But I decided to take this hike and see if there is anything to any of this. The problem with following them there, what if my memory is jogged, what if everything comes back to me and I find I was violated in a horrible way?
I couldn’t help but wonder what may come of this when we get out there. It is obvious they do not believe the story in the notepad, and are here only as an investigative team to find evidence of a possible crime or some odd National Security threat.
But what about that notepad, if there is no crime I would love to continue to read what I supposedly wrote. I was very hesitant about this journey. I decided whatever we discovered I would remain strong.
The Agents then headed for the door and Thol stated, “That’s great, we were hoping that you would come with us out there. It might solve this entire case tonight and we can all go home and get some rest.”
As I went back to the bedroom, my wife was still a little apprehensive by this ordeal. She said, “Hon, how is it possible that any of this is valid. It was a dream, wasn’t it?”
“I know Annie, I understand. I am troubled also. It is quite bizarre. But honey, I think this really was a dream, yet I also think it’s possible that it may have really transpired, I just don’t understand why the chief would potentially surrender his life over this. I really want to go to the hospital to talk to him.”
“Do you think you really walked between worlds? I am not sure it is a good idea that you speak to this man, he may be a dangerous criminal.”
“Listen, I remember a few more things now, the chief taking the notepad away from me, he told me these words... “You will forget what happened, so I need to keep the notepad with me so that I can plant the seed.”
“This is going to sound strange Annie-May, but I think I was really there and that somehow this dream or maybe even other dreams are really happening. They are not some quirk of the mind, but maybe they are real events, and yet ironically could still be a dream.”
Continuing on I brainstormed this next idea. “Annie, what if this was not a dream but a real past life memory?”
Annie-May reveled in shock, “Whoa, is that possible could there be memory of a past life this detailed?”
“Well not really a past life in the sense we may think of it. But what if I am reliving this life over again, and it is triggering things that happened to me in that life during this life, with maybe a few quirks and changes?”
“That is a tad too out there to even envision, could it be?”
“You tell me Annie, think about what was happening to me, going into the past, time traveling, getting information that I never knew existed, time-loops, and repeating lives? You tell me!”
As I finally got prepared and took a couple of canteens making sure we all have enough water, cause this may be a grueling hike over difficult terrain and I am not really in that great of shape.
As I got back into the living room I could hear some laughing occurring outside, it was obvious that the two agents were not believers of the doorway; commenting between each other, “…Doors to other worlds, what a laugh…” They were obviously just doing their job no matter how corny it may be at times.
As I left the house, we got into the government vehicle and drove to the entrance of the trail just West of Town. There was limited parking near the trail, but with their credentials we were able to park right in the front on the rocks.
As we began to hike, I kept wondering what if all of this really did happen? What if there is a doorway entrance? However wouldn’t these guys have already found it, they had to be scouring this area for a while before they ever even came to me? All of it was so very outlandish.
As I tried to be very calm on this journey, the fact that I was hiking didn’t even seem to affect me. My mind was troubled in deep thought as we continued on the trail. I wanted to know myself if what I saw was true or was I dreaming this whole thing up, was I drugged or maybe it was even a time-loop event memory recovery?
I had never been out here before, so it was all new to me, at least new to me in this life, I guess. Yet it all seemed vaguely familiar.
It has now been about an hour on our hike, the two agents seem to be in much better shape than I am at least endurance wise, it is quite humid, much warmer than I would have hoped for, but the cloud covering is making it manageable.
We finally came to the area where they located the old man. They then said, “Take a few minutes to rest and then get your bearings and let us know if anything rings a bell.”
At this point, Agent Stram brought out a tape recorder and said these words, “We are at the grounds of the location of the discovery of the elderly male, along with Mr. Tim Trovel. It is 10:35 Friday morning.”
They were both more than happy to sit down for a while. Neither one of them seemed to have an air of thought that anything was going to come of this, they appeared very nonchalant about the entire experience.
After I sat there for a few minutes and drank some water, I then looked out toward the northeast and I saw something that was familiar, but I didn’t let on. I told them I wanted to check something out, and I will be right back. I left them both sitting on a log as I went to discover a familiar turf.
I walked off the trail for about ten minutes through some brush and tree, and stopped and looked over and saw this red rock mesa that instantly unlocked an old recollection.
I had a bad angle so I needed to go around this large boulder opposite of the mesa where in front was somewhat a steep drop-off that appeared to be about 20 feet down, patterned with soft dirt and very loose gravel. I thought someone could fall here and really hurt themselves.
I needed to be very careful. As I maneuvered around the boulder, things were extremely familiar to me, but danger of harming myself was also a possibility. And as I was about to step on the small lose rocks, before I had time to think about what the next words would be coming out of my mouth, I said extremely loud, “Oh shit!”
And nearly simultaneously I heard this voice over my shoulder saying, “What’s wrong?”
The agents were right behind me, I guess they were not going to leave anything to chance. Not really knowing what t
o say, I just blurted it out, “It’s gone.”
“What’s gone?” Replied Agent Thol. “The doorway, the doorway to the cave, it’s gone, but the mesa, the mesa is there it is really there.”
Agent Stram addressed the other agent spurting out this devious laughter, “Hey Laura, the doorway is gone; can you believe that?”
They both had a good laugh on that one, but I was not amused. It was obvious that I was the brunt of this joke, and they never expected to find anything of any real importance anyway. It was a day for them to hike outdoors and just enjoy some things for a while, yet never believing they would find anything.
They both looked at me as if I was some unbalanced bozo with a few marbles missing, and with grins on their faces, voiced their thoughts, “Ok, it is not here, why would you expect it to be here, are you remembering anything, and could you show us exactly where the door would have been?”