by John Nelson
“I welcome all of you to our healing ceremony tonight. Many of you are part of our ministry, but I see several new faces and assume that you’re curious tourists visiting our elevated city, or maybe the infirm from the surrounding region who have learned of Maria Fria’s healings. We ask the curious to be respectful of our service and to at least entertain the thought that they may have been drawn here by some higher aspect of themselves.
“Whether your ailment is physical or emotional, know that all disharmony begins from a misalignment with one’s totality and thus they are spiritual in nature. Maria will draw energy from the Godhead to your God-Self, which will direct that energy along the appropriate channels. Know that she can only provide the opening for healing and that you must be willing to rise above your belief system, psychological or mental framework, and surrender to your God-Self to effect a change.
“Also know that this charge of energy will affect neural processors and other kinds of modern ‘enhancement’ devices or tissues, but you should not be alarmed for we are all one in our totality, whatever our makeup. If your desire is to be healed, you must surrender and allow all parts of yourself, be they natural or enhanced, to be adjusted by the flow of this energy. If you come here to heal your cancer or heart disease, you must be willing to come away with your IQ lowered or raised, or your psychological adaptation altered, depending on what the God-Self so deems.
“Maria will prepare herself, and when she is ready to receive you, please stand up and form a line in the center aisle. If you’re unable to stand, allow your mate or surrogate to stand in place, and when they’re called, our ushers will assist you and bring you forward. Also know, that this charge of energy may temporarily render you unconscious, but again don’t be alarmed, for most this will be experienced as a brief bout of dizziness. But, know that if needed, we have a medical doctor present to assist you. But unlike most medical treatments by drugs or invasive surgery, this is the energy that animates every cell and organ and is the intelligence that directs the body and knows better than any doctor what is needed to affect your healing.
“Thank you and bless you and may you all be healed.”
As the woman stepped over to a waiting chair, sat down, closed her eyes and began to mediate, a hush descended on the chapel. I watched Maria Fria and noticed the glow of energy that seemed to surround her, and looked up to see if there were any lighting fixtures that would account for it, but saw none. I must say that the prologue and set up of this healing by the young preacher or facilitator were very effective. While we had planned for Brenda to step forward, I wondered, given this introduction and her previous trepidation, if she had changed her mind. I turned and she looked at me and shook her head. She wasn’t about to “surrender” to her God-Self. As the line formed, I hesitated and then started to stand up to take my place; Brenda, or was it Jean, grabbed my hand.
“It’s all right, Brenda,” I whispered to her. “I’m ready to accept my healing.”
“Well, I do hope it enhances your creativity and doesn’t destroy it,” she added with a wry smile.
I smiled at her and stood up, circled around the row of chairs and took my place in line. There were two fairly disabled attendees and stepping aside, I watched their healings and reactions and was fairly impressed that after their initial dizziness, they walked away and appeared to be much better off. Many fainted and slumped down in the “receiver’s” chair, that had been set up in front of Fria to facilitate the movement of her hands, acting like a funnel to channel the energy from above, down into the body of the receiver.
Then, it was my turn. I stepped up, bowed my head, and as I lifted my gaze, stared directly into Maria’s and was struck by the love emanating from those dark eyes, and as I sat down I was actually looking forward to this transmission. After several moments, I felt an intense warmth spread from the top of my head downward. It first stopped and seemed to collect around my neural processor for a moment, but without any disruption or enhancement, or so I felt at the moment, but it did seem to affect other areas of the brain before it moved throughout my body, jumping from what I assumed was one chakra center to the next. Again I could sense it stop and collect around organs or exterior parts that needed “alignment,” like my right wrist which had been broken as a child, and then move on. What seemed like an hour was only a minute or two before two hands grabbed my arms and lifted me from the chair. After a moment of disorientation, I was able to walk over and sit down in my second-row seat. I remained silent for at least five minutes as this peaceful feeling settled in.
Finally, a nervous voice said, “Please say something, Lewis. So I know you’re all right.”
I turned and stared at Brenda and the look on my face must have alarmed her. “I’m fine, Brenda. It was quite … exhilarating, really.”
We sat there for another half hour as some of her devotees also stepped forward, exchanged greetings, and sat down for their healings. And then, it was over. The facilitator had some closing words. Maria Fria stood up, smiled at the group, and slowly walked back to the side room from which she had entered earlier in the evening. In silence, everyone stood up and walked down the aisles and out. Unlike church services I had attended in the borny village that I and Emma had infiltrated, the “preacher” did not greet us as we walked out nor draw strangers into conversations or light interrogations.
We strolled off heading back toward the center of town. “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving,” Brenda said.
I was a little distracted and still not completely back in my body—as my research that day had informed me. “Yeah, I could eat something.”
“Are you sure, Lewis? You look and sound quite out of it. Maybe we should just go back to the hotel and let you rest for a while.”
“No, the noise and activity should help ‘bring me around.’”
“Well, I think we should go back to the same restaurant, and see if we’re ‘approached’ again.”
“Yes, that’s a good plan,” I added, half-heartedly. I wasn’t really focused on my government mission, but on this new sense of … integration, I guess you could call it, and what it portended for me and my assignment.
Chapter Seven
19.
When I woke up the next morning, I was surprised that I didn’t remember having a dream. I figured that after the “healing,” and being in such close proximity to Fria, that I’d have another marathon dream-share with her, or if it were only my subconscious activity, it would be processing the interaction. Was I disappointed, I wondered? Before I could consider this feeling, I found Brenda packing overnight bags for us. I just stared at her.
She noticed that I had woken up and looked back at me. “Well, welcome back.” I nodded but didn’t answer, still pretty much in a fog.
“We’re going to Phoenix?” I asked.
She stopped packing her bag and stepped over to me, her face etched with concern. “Our orders are to bring you in after your first healing with Fria, for a checkup.”
I’m usually a little quicker in the morning; I wondered if this meant anything. “Yeah, but we just got here. I think we should hang around a little longer. We might spook them otherwise.”
Brenda shook her head and stared at me. “We’re definitely going. I called Musgrave and he agreed. Get up and get ready. Twenty minutes.”
I didn’t like being ordered around and especially when I felt so mellow, but I also didn’t want to fight with her. She had operational control for now, and I was after all just a soldier. “But, we’re leaving the rest of our stuff and coming back tomorrow?”
“I’ve rented the room for a month, but when or if we come back is up to Musgrave.”
I crawled out of bed and headed for the shower. Brenda watched me as I stripped down and opened the stall door. The hot water was soothing, it was slowly bringing me around. The door opened and a naked Brenda stepped inside.
“I’ve got a better way to wake you up.” It didn’t take long for my body to respond
to her touch, and while some part of me enjoyed the vigorous early-morning sex, as I always did, another aspect just watched. I had never experienced such a split perspective, watching myself perform or act from a distance. It definitely had something to do with this healing, or whatever you would call it, but did I really want to tell them?
Before we left the room, Brenda did one more circuit, to make sure nothing sensitive was left behind for prying eyes. In the lobby the desk clerk waved and told us to have a good trip. The car, which we hadn’t used in a couple days, had a light coating of sand, which we easily brushed off. I was actually hungry, but Brenda insisted that we wait until we reached Prescott, which was only thirty miles down the road, to eat breakfast.
As I drove down the hill and then onto the two-lane highway heading west, Brenda kept an eye on any cars pulling out and following us, or those ahead of us that were driving slower and could be waiting for us to catch up. I knew the protocol, but seemed less interested in maintaining “operational integrity.” I figured that Fria wouldn’t have anybody following us, when she could keep tabs in more subtle ways or so I assumed—if she were so inclined, which I doubted. Seemed like this “exchange” of energy gave me a window into her as well, and I now felt a lot more comfortable about the assignment and less fearful of her. Of course, Brenda and especially Musgrave might consider that attitude part of my brainwashing, but even in psychological warfare, a little transference was encouraged to “get to know the enemy.”
We ate at a diner in Prescott, which like many smaller towns had been shrunk down to its inner core, where sidewalks could be placed under environ screens to allow people to walk about and shop like they did in the pre-UV-collapse era, or at least in sunny areas like the Southwest. The diner was a chain, and the food was not nearly as authentic as our Mexican breakfast in Tucumcari, but the blandness seemed to suit Brenda just fine. I wasn’t in a very talkative mood and scanned the local newspaper while we ate.
“So, are you mad or something, Lewis?”
I glanced up from the newspaper. “No. Just feeling mellow and kind of quiet.”
“Well, you certainly don’t seem to be yourself this morning,” Brenda said.
I smiled. “And that’s a bad thing?” I joked.
“Yeah, I thought we were meshing well. That I was liking you the more I got to know you.”
“But, not now?”
“Well, maybe this is just another side of you I’ll need to explore.” She picked up a section of the newspaper and made a show of burying her head in it.
“Or, maybe we just need to learn other ways of communicating, dear.”
Brenda laughed with a huff. “No way I’m letting that witch ‘heal’ me; not after what I’m seeing.”
I put the newspaper down and looked at her fondly. “I did enjoy our shower this morning.”
This was more to her liking. “Good. We’ll put it on our wake-up routine.”
After breakfast we headed north, instead of south toward Phoenix, until we reached Interstate 40, west of Flagstaff. The protocol was for us to drive up to the Grand Canyon as a tourist trip, spend the night there, and then drive back through Flagstaff and down Interstate 17 to Phoenix. This would give us plenty of time to lose any tails, not that we had spotted any yet.
As we got closer, I’ll have to say I was fairly excited. I had never been out West, and needless to say had never seen the Grand Canyon except on vid clips. Brenda was again oblivious to the beautiful scenery and focused on her game cassette. As we drove up to the park entrance and paid, I pulled the car over to the Welcome Center.
“Why are you stopping here?” Brenda asked. “I thought we’d go straight to the hotel.”
“I want to pick up maps and talk to the rangers about where we can get the best views.”
“You aren’t actually thinking about touring the place?” Brenda said, having set down her portable after viewing the hotel’s website.
“Of course. I’ve always wanted to come here, see one of the natural wonders of the world.”
Brenda added, “Oh, Lewis. You can be so … antiquated at times. The hotel has a viewing theater, with live camera feeds of every nook and cranny of the big hole, without exposure to the elements.”
“Well, you stay in the car, and I’ll get the maps and drop you off at the hotel afterward.”
“Well, dear, as much as I would love to let you go traipsing off on your own, until you’ve been checked out and cleared, you’re stuck with me.”
Brenda followed me into the center and took a bathroom break while I viewed the wall pictures and collected maps of the area. I was disappointed that they had long ago discontinued the mule runs from the rim down to the floor of the canyon, due to UV exposure, which was hard to shield against in confined open spaces like ledge trails. But there were a series of safe viewing shelters along the rim, and you could drive from one to the other. Since it was mid-afternoon, I decided to take the tour before heading over to the hotel. Brenda sat in the car but did call up descriptions and histories from the Internet at each stop, to fill me in while we drove around. This was so typical of us moderns: most preferring a mental experience over tactical contact, even if it was one stage removed, in the viewing shelters, from an actual experience of the natural world.
At one point I got frustrated with the remote access and walked over to the railing and gazed out over the wide expanse of red buttes with their serrated edges and deep canyons in shadow. I then found an old mule path with its clear cliff drop and hiked down a hundred yards. After a while I could sense Brenda’s panic, so I soon scampered back up to the rim.
She had gotten out of the car and gone into the shelter and now stepped outside. “Lewis, wasn’t that dangerous? I mean, there aren’t any handrails and the wind can be treacherous.”
I stared at her for a moment before I realized that her concern wasn’t personal but operational. She had been told to keep me in view at all times until I was cleared. As we walked back to the car, I had to shake my head. This Fria woman really spooked them.
20.
We drove to the Maswik Lodge on the south rim of the Canyon. The rustic cabins hadn’t changed much since the nineteenth century, but a massive opaque UV dome now covered the entire area, with a tinted green hue from years of UV bombardment. This seemed appropriate, since the whole natural world was now seen from behind tinted glasses or shields of one sort or another. At some point it dawned on me that our roundabout route to the Grand Canyon was as much to check the effects of the natural world on me and my “sensitivities” as it was to shake any surveillance. Maybe there was a correlation here.
We checked in, swept the cabin for listening devices or bugs, but didn’t find any. At dinner we kept an eye on any possible intruders, but nobody caught our attention. They were just a typical group of tourists, mostly elderly, who seem to yearn for this natural world contact more than the younger moderns with their hi-tech absorption in artificial worlds.
The restaurant and its fare were fairly typical, but the huge overhead screen with its live picture of the night sky was truly spectacular. I had picked a seat with the best angle, and Brenda one with her back to it. Since there was no need for pretense or to make an impression, we could settle back into our own selves, but we discovered there wasn’t much to talk about, or any great correlation between us outside of the mission.
“Getting tired of me already, Alan?” she asked. This was a question that Sherry had also posed not long ago.
“No, dear. It’s just that I’m more affected by the natural world; feel kind of expanded for a moment, and not as concerned with the minutiae.”
“Which you feel I’m only concerned with?” she asked.
I looked down from the screen to my consort of sorts, I guess you could say. Staring at her, I could see just how emotionally fragile she was and in need of reinforcement. I liked her and certainly enjoyed our sexual dynamic, but we didn’t have much in common otherwise. I glanced around the room and noted
the always ubiquitous surveillance cameras. “Seems like a conversation for the road.”
She glanced up to the ceiling and then back down at me and smiled. “That’s what I like about you, dear … your cognizance.”
“Well, let’s pay the bill and let me cognize you back in the room.”
“Oooh, that sounds delicious.”
Back in our cabin, with a fire going, we made love on the rug in front of the fireplace, me using the brickwork at its base for leverage, with my response more vigorous than expected. Afterward Brenda fell asleep in my arms lying there and seemed content for the moment. As had been the case, the sexual contact between us seemed to form a barrier to Fria’s outreach to me in my dreams, or again was it just my libido getting its fill. The contact made during my healing session seemed to reveal someone without the kind of guile our side had assumed. Was it just my subconscious working out its issues? But Brenda was right; I was acting a little off, and wondered myself whether I had been overly affected by this “healing.”
The next morning we drove back through Flagstaff, taking Interstate 17 all the way to Phoenix. The previous night’s question was left hanging in the air as neither of us felt inclined to explore it. The Metrocenter Mall bordered the Interstate and we pulled off the highway and into the parking garage. Like many shopping malls, this center had been greatly expanded after the environmental deterioration into a small city in itself, with apartment complexes, grocery stores, health clubs, etc. under one domed environ roof. It even had a monorail to take you from one sector to the next.
I accompanied Brenda as we shopped, or she shopped for more Southwest clothes for us. At one point we moseyed over to an electronics shop, with all the modern devices for home protection and surveillance, besides all manner of other electronic gadgets. Since one of their top sellers was a device to knock out electronic probing and video surveillance, we called ahead and all surveillance of the store was temporarily blocked as we strolled inside. After the manager showed us several items at the back of the store, the curtain parted and we slipped into the back room, walked down a hallway, and took a private elevator to the basement.