“In a good way, I hope.”
“Oh, yes, in a very good way.” She kisses the tip of my nose. “My dad wanted me to tell you to bring a personal item from a family member to your session this week. He wants to work with you alone on some more in-depth stuff.”
“Just the two of us?” I can’t help that my voice comes out a bit froggy. I mean, Dr. Auberge is pretty cool and all that, but he’s still Renee’s dad and it’s not like we’re best buds or anything. Mostly I’ve been doing remote viewing with Renee and Stephen and sometimes Will, but Will hasn’t been all that committed to going.
“No, not just the two of you, I’m sure Stephen will be there too.” She shakes her head at me. “I think he’s been impressed by what you’ve done in the lab and wants to take it a step further.” She presses her palms against my chest and splays out her fingers, resting them at the base of my throat. I can feel my pulse beating against the tips of her fingers.
“What does that mean, ‘take it a step further?’” It has a slightly scary connotation to it. “He’s not going to hook me up to a machine or something, is he? And then measure my brain waves?” I bring my face down to kiss her just below her ear where her jawline meets her throat. “Because that doesn’t sound like fun to me.”
“Mmmmm,” she murmurs, leaning her head back. “Maybe some brain wave measuring, but it doesn’t hurt or anything like that.”
“Okay, then. I’ll do it.”
“I need to go in now.” She gives me one last kiss and then crawls back to the passenger seat and gets out of the car. I wait in the car until she gets the front door open. The porch light above her reflects off her hair, making it shine. She gives me a little wave before going inside.
14
“THE WINNING STREAK continues!” Will announces as he arrives at my locker during passing periods. We won again last night against Dublin Heights with Brett in the goal. “My mom just texted me that the state rankings came out, and we’re number one!” He holds up his hand to high five me.
“Awesome,” I say, smacking his hand. I’ll take that even with Brett playing.
“And,” he pauses for emphasis, “we’re nationally ranked—number twelve in the country.” Paul has just come up behind him to hear this piece of news.
“Only number twelve?!” he says in mock indignation. “We are totally number one!” He raises his hand to fist bump me, too.
“So the game on Saturday in Fort Benjamin is critical,” Will continues. “It’s our last game of the season before Sectionals. We could have an undefeated season—and they’re ranked number two in the state. It’ll almost be like a championship game.” He pokes his finger into my chest. “You’ll be starting, big guy, so you’ve got to be on your game.”
“Always,” I say curtly. I don’t think Will even notices. I’m trying to keep it light, but that really pisses me off. What happened to the old Will who always had my back? This new Will is into partying and hanging out with the ‘cool’ crowd who he never would have had time for before.
“Hey, man, Eric’s the beast,” Paul says. “Chill out.”
“Yeah,” Will says distractedly. He’s looking down the hall at a group of guys coming our way.
“Asplunth!” one of them calls out when they see him.
“Hey!” he calls back. Turning to Paul and me, he says, “I’ll catch up with you guys later.” Then he joins the group of guys who start pounding him on the back and saying ‘number one!’ Will is smiling and laughing. I turn back to my locker to get my books.
“What is with him?” asks Paul. “He’s all about the party crowd now. When did he start hanging out with them?”
I straighten up and shut my locker. “I don’t know. I guess that night at Allison Fisher’s party.”
“I thought you guys were best friends, and he could so totally get busted and kicked off the team. No more ‘Mr. Number One’ then.” He looks after Will, who’s almost at the end of the hallway, then at me and smacks me on the shoulder. “Don’t sweat Saturday, dude. You are going to rock that goal. Nothing’s gonna get past you.”
RENEE SAID I should bring a personal item from someone in my family to the session with Stephen and her Dad, so I decided to bring one of Drew’s stuffed animals. It’s a llama that he sleeps with every night. He named it Bacon when he was about three because he loved bacon so much. He still loves bacon and has been known to eat the entire pound of bacon my Dad makes sometimes on Saturday mornings, if the rest of us don’t get to it in time.
Drew was really excited to be included in my session with Dr. Auberge when I asked him if I could borrow Bacon. “What are you gonna do with him?” he asked.
“I’m not really sure. Maybe use it to see if I can spy on you from the lab.”
“Really? Cool! Do you want to take Round, too?” Round is a stuffed horse. We never could figure out why he named it Round.
“Nope, I think Bacon will do it. I’ll let you know how it goes in the morning.”
So now Stephen and I are sitting in the lab office waiting for Dr. Auberge with Bacon on the desk between us.
“We’ve never used a stuffed llama before for the remote viewing,” he says.
“I’m just keepin’ it fresh for you,” I reply. “It’s my younger brother’s, and he has a pretty strong connection to it. I thought that would help.”
“That’s great. Younger kids are really receptive to this stuff.”
The door opens and Dr. Auberge comes in. I’m still kind of freaked out by him, being that he’s Renee’s dad and a famous physicist. And he’s so intense. He takes the chair next to me in front of the desk and sets his briefcase on the floor. “Eric, tonight I’d like to stretch you a bit, if that’s okay with you.” He looks at me as if expecting me to answer, so I say, “Sure, that’s okay,” not really knowing what I’m agreeing to.
“You’re showing some good abilities in your remote sessions with Renee and in your experiences when playing soccer—sensing how the play will go before it happens.” He puts his hands on his knees and leans forward—fixing on me intently. “What I have in mind is really two-fold. Did you bring the personal item from a family member?” I nod and point to Bacon.
“This is my little brother’s.”
“Splendid. We’ll use it to facilitate the remote viewing. We’ve found that using personal items really helps in connecting to the other person; kind of like a bridge. First, we’ll do a more advanced type of remote viewing. Then I want to conduct some experiments with the Universal Energy Field.” He had picked up the stuffed animal and was holding it while he talked. Now he stands, puts Bacon back on the desk and begins pacing. I tilt my chair back and hold on to the edge of the desk for balance. “As you know, I’m researching The Field as part of my work here. I’m also doing these remote viewing sessions to study the Collective Consciousness. You could call it my side project. The idea of the Universal Energy Field, or Dark Energy, is becoming more widely accepted in scientific circles, but the concept of the collective consciousness, of one source for the combined thought energies of humankind, is more difficult to grasp, as you can imagine. Even though it’s been talked about by people like Freud and Carl Jung. My theory goes even further. I believe that these two fields are actually one field.” He stops pacing and looks down at me. Stephen is looking at him in rapt attention.
“Wow,” I say. Lame, but what do you say when someone lays an idea like that on you?
“My experiments with The Field involve using instruments to access the energy, and I’ve been having some success, but I believe that it’s possible to access both the information and the energy in The Field with our thoughts. I think you may have the ability to do that.”
“Me? How?” This is so unexpected that I lose my grip on the desk and almost tip over backwards before my chair comes crashing to the floor.
“We’ll talk more about that when we start the experiment. I think we’ve had enough talk and theory for now. Let’s get started with the remote viewin
g session.” He moves towards the door.
“Wait,” I say uncertainly. “I have no idea how any of this works or what I’m supposed to do. Maybe you’re wrong, and I can’t really do it.”
Dr. Auberge turns and sits back down in the chair beside me. “Eric, science is about exploring the unknown and experimenting with things until you make a discovery. The whole point is that we don’t know how any of it works. That’s what we’re trying to find out.” His dark eyes focus on me intently. “Whatever happens will be the right thing. Are you ready?”
I take a deep breath and nod. “Yes.” Even though I’m not feeling ready at all.
I follow Stephen and Dr. Auberge down the corridor to one of the rooms, but what I really want to do is run like hell away from here. I mean, the sessions I’ve been doing with Renee have been fun and pretty cool, but this idea of accessing the energy field with my thoughts is something else altogether. What does that mean anyway? What if I can’t do it?
What if I can?
They take me to one of the rooms I’ve been in before. This time, after I’m seated in the chair, Stephen affixes some electrodes to my scalp and flips on a microphone. I’ve got Bacon clutched on my lap.
“For this session, I want you to use your younger brother’s toy to help you travel to where he is. To actually see him and be present in the space with him. You’ll be using the energy from the toy to connect with him,” Dr. Auberge says.
“How do I do that, exactly?” It’s not like they’ve given me an instruction manual or anything.
“You can’t do it intellectually, you have to feel it. Just relax and think about your younger brother—what is his name?”
“Drew.”
“Reach out to Drew with your thoughts. Try to connect with him. Be focused, but not forced. Like when you’re in the goal and when you have been connecting in the sessions with Renee. Open, receptive, ready.”
Stephen says, “The electrodes will be recording your brain waves during the session, and we want you to describe what is happening out loud so the microphone can pick it up. The session will last up to one hour, depending on what’s happening, so get comfortable. Are you ready?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
They turn out the light as they leave, and I’m sitting in pitch blackness. Alright then, let’s get to it. I’m still not sure how exactly to go about this except for what worked with Renee. I try to get into the mind frame I use for games, centered and focused. I push my fingers into Bacon’s fur and think about Drew. My little buddy. Where are you? In your room? I imagine Drew’s room. His bookshelves full of fantasy books and his treasures—an alligator jaw, geodes, arrowheads—all neatly arranged. His bunk bed with the solar system comforter.
I feel like I’m looking down at the scene from somewhere up at the ceiling. The posters on the walls look so real, like I could reach out and touch them. I’m reaching out my hand when I hear Drew say, “Goodnight! You don’t have to tuck me in.” The door opens and Drew comes into the room. He’s in his Spiderman pajamas ready for bed. Ralph trails behind him. After Ralph takes a few steps into the room, he pricks up his ears and looks up—right at me. Then he lets out a little woof. Like a greeting! Can he see me? Does he know I’m here? Drew turns around and sees Ralph looking up at where I am. He kneels down and puts his arms around Ralph’s neck. “What is it? Do you see something? Eric said he was going to spy on me. Maybe he’s here.” He looks around the room. “Are you here Eric? I left you a message on my top bunk.” He gets up and moves towards the bed. Ralph jumps up and circles into a nest at the foot of the bed. I float across the room to the bunk bed. On the top bunk, there’s something white on the blue comforter. I move closer. It’s a piece of paper. On it is written, “Hi, Eric!” and a drawing of a space ship. Then the light goes off and I hear Drew say, “Goodnight, Eric.”
I feel Bacon’s fur beneath my fingers. I open my eyes and it’s pitch black, but I know I’m in the lab. “I’m back,” I say.
I sit in the dark, hearing Drew’s words echo in my head and seeing the note he left for me. Was it real? Did I somehow travel to Drew’s room? The thing is, I’m not really sure, but I think maybe I did. I mean, I heard Drew talking to me and it seemed like Ralph was aware of me. Is that even possible? Why am I even asking myself if it happened? I either imagined it or it was real.
The door opens and the light comes on, momentarily blinding me. Behind me, Dr. Auberge says, “Young man, it seems you have done an astral projection. How do you feel?” He puts his hand on my shoulder.
I think about that for a moment. “I feel okay. Pretty weirded out, I guess. And energized. Like adrenaline is zinging through my veins.” I twist around in my chair to look at him. “Did that really happen?” I ask, as if somehow he would know more than I could.
“There are many accounts of people being able to do exactly what you just did. People who’ve had near death experiences, psychics and spies doing remote viewing for governments, so yes, I do believe what you saw was real. You’ll be able to get confirmation when you talk to your brother.”
They give me a few minutes to take a break before we move on to the Universal Energy Field experiments. In the bathroom, I splash cold water on my face and look at myself in the mirror. It’s a strange feeling to have done something I never even knew was possible. And I have no idea how I did it, or what it even is. Astral projection? Dr. Auberge didn’t really give much of an explanation. It’s not the kind of stuff that happens in real life, to real people. Right?
Then I think about Drew, and I know I saw him and heard him. It was real. I grip the sides of the sink and stare at my face in the mirror. I still look like my normal self. And if I’m honest with myself, the astral projection, or whatever it was, felt perfectly normal, too. But what was it? I’m pretty sure my body didn’t leave the room, if I can be sure of anything, so did just my thoughts go to Drew’s room? Or my spirit or soul? It’s way too deep for me to figure out, so I decide not to try. I grab a paper towel from the dispenser, dry my face and hands and open the door to find out what the two mad scientists have in store for me next.
Back in the lab, I follow Stephen to a section of rooms I’ve never been to before. He takes me to a door with a sign that says AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED FOR ENTRY in large black letters. Pulling a key from his lab coat pocket, he unlocks the door and pushes it open. The first thing I notice when we enter the room, before Stephen switches on the light, are all the glowing dials on the equipment and computer monitors set up on tables lining the walls. Then I hear the hum of machinery and intermittent beeping noises.
“This is where we’re conducting experiments on measuring and harnessing the Universal Energy Field.” Stephen gestures to the machines, which I can now see are organized into more than a dozen different experiments with data rapidly displaying across the screens of the computer monitors. “We’re trying different methods for accessing the energy and have been able to power small machines for short periods of time. It’s not like we’re ready to light up New York City, but it will happen. The energy is there.”
Dr. Auberge comes into the room behind us. “What we’d like you to do, Eric, is try to tap into the energy field with your thoughts.” Oh, is that all? He leads me to one of the experiments. It has a black panel with a series of about 30 tiny light bulbs in a line from the top to the bottom next to some sort of meter. Stephen pulls over chairs for us to sit in. “Everything in the Universe is essentially made up of particles of energy, even our thoughts. There is growing evidence that we can affect the world around us with our thought energy. I believe we do it by connecting with The Field.”
“What do you mean ‘affect the world around us?’” I’m imagining superheroes exploding buildings with mind-power, but I don’t think that’s what he’s getting at. “I mean, I’d like to help, but I really don’t have any idea how to do this. I’ve had the occasional street light go off when I walk past, but it’s not like I’m doing it on purpose or anything.”
> “Many studies by highly respected researchers show that we can control our environment with our thoughts. They measured examples of prayer having a positive impact on health outcomes, athletes improving athletic performance, monks being able to walk across hot coals without being burned, and so on. Einstein even called it ‘spooky action at a distance.’ It’s not really new, we’ve just never connected it to The Field,” says Dr. Auberge. “Since you’re already showing some natural ability, perhaps you can learn how to consciously and intentionally tap into The Field with your thoughts. So tonight, I just want you to try and light up the light bulbs on this panel.” He positions the panel in front of me. “The meter alongside the bulbs will measure the intensity of the energy corresponding to the bulb you’ve illuminated.” This sounds simple enough, but I still don’t get it.
“What am I doing that gets the bulbs to light up?”
“That’s what we are here to determine. Basically, use your thoughts and imagination. Don’t touch the panel with your hands. Instead, think about the meter moving, about the energy flowing, about the bulb lighting up. When you’re doing it right, you’ll know because you’ll see the meter move and the bulb light up. Immediate feedback. You can start whenever you’re ready.”
This almost seems like a joke—think about lighting up the bulbs? Dr. Auberge and Stephen are taking it totally seriously, though, and I’m pretty sure that I did just travel to Drew’s bedroom remotely. As Drew himself says: “anything’s possible,” keeping in mind that he’s only eight, but why couldn’t something like this be possible? I think I finally get it, too. It’s like visualizing myself making saves in the goal.
Stephen and Dr. Auberge are sitting on either side of me waiting expectantly for me to start, which is making me really self-conscious. “I think maybe it would work better if I try this by myself for a while, if that’s okay.”
“Of course,” says Dr. Auberge. He stands and pushes back his chair. “Stephen and I will analyze the data from some of the other experiments at the workstation across the room. Let us know if anything happens.” It’s the first time that I’ve seen Dr. Auberge be anything except calm and professional. He seems almost excited.
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