‘Then what makes you think you have any sort of a future with her? What you’re saying makes no sense. You’re crazy!’
‘There are no guarantees in life, but my heart is telling me this is the right thing to do. Besides, there’s no way she won’t be glad to see me.’
‘And why is that?’
Emmy held up the flash drive.
‘I’ve got a present for her. Her father has leukaemia. I’m going to cure him.’
Emmy left right after breakfast. She agreed to drive Toni back to the city. They were parting on amicable terms and there was no way that her ex was going to stick around Jackson’s Hill on her own – she could not stand the place.
Not long after the women had gone, a police car pulled up outside of the observatory.
Lucas had waited a full minute after trying the bell and received no response. He took a walk around the back and concluded that nobody was home. His friend’s car was gone so he reasoned she may have cut her visit short. She was coming back to the town less frequently these days and when she did, her visits were always fleeting.
As he was making his way back to his car he heard a voice call out to him.
‘I didn’t think you were home,’ Lucas replied, turning back to greet the woman now standing in the observatory doorway.
‘I overslept,’ she told him. ‘Why don’t you come in. I’ll put a brew on.’
The policeman followed her inside and after making one cup of tea (she declined to have one herself), she joined him at the kitchen table.
‘So what can I do for you, Lucas?’ she asked.
Lucas glanced downward, avoiding her gaze. It was the look he always pulled when he was skirting the edges of an issue – reluctant to reach his point.
‘You may think this is a crazy,’ he began, ‘but I was wondering if you knew anything about hypnosis.’
She laughed.
‘Are you planning a change of career?’
‘No, it’s for a case I’m working on.’
‘Victim regression – isn’t that a little heavy for a small town cop?’
This time Lucas was the one who laughed.
‘Not quite. Did I ever tell you about the Johnson kid – young Jimmy? Well, he’s started sleepwalking. Been walking into people’s houses in the middle of the night. Scared poor Sally Richie so much she almost jumped right out of her body. I’m quite keen to nip the whole thing in the bud as soon as possible.’
The scientist stood.
‘Come with me, I may have just the thing for you.’
She led him to the one room in the complex that he had never been to; Jackson Fox’s study. The place had been left untouched since the great man’s death more than twenty years earlier. It was like a shrine. Framed academic honours still covered the walls and athletics trophies filled shelves on the spaces in between. There was also an imposing bookcase stacked from floor to ceiling with intellectually heavy tomes. The young scientist scanned one of the rows with her finger.
‘Here you go,’ she said. ‘You should find this one useful.’
As she pulled out the book, another, thinner manuscript fell out onto the floor. Lucas picked it up and flipped through the first few pages.
‘I think this is your grandfather’s journal,’ he said. ‘Looks like he was working on some pretty serious stuff. Is astral projection really science?’
Emmy took the papers from him.
‘I wouldn’t worry about that,’ she told him. ‘That’s not related to his day job. Mom said he was working on a science fiction novel in his spare time. I don’t think there was anything he didn’t turn his hand too.’
‘Maybe you should find a publisher. With Jackson Fox’s reputation there’s sure to be demand for anything he’d written.’
She shook her head.
‘I don’t think so. Some things are best kept in the family.’
He took the hypnosis book and she walked him back to his car.
‘Where’s Toni?’ he asked, climbing into the driver’s seat.
‘She’s gone home. You know how she is. She’s never liked this town.’
Lucas nodded. He was certainly aware of the girl’s opinion of Jackson’s Hill, but he struggled to understand it. He loved the town. There was nothing that could tear him away from looking after its citizens, day in and day out. To him, it was the best job in the world.
‘How about you?’ he asked. ‘Will you be around for much longer?’
She swayed her head in a non committal way.
‘Who knows,’ she told him. ‘I’m currently weighing up all of my options.’
Once the policeman had left, she went back to the professor’s study and picked up the journal. Sitting down at Jackson Fox’s desk, she started to read through it. She mostly skimmed past the astral projection stuff. That was yesterday’s news. The chapter that followed it was much more interesting.
Jackson Fox had been researching the principles of time travel. His work showed promise too. If her summation was correct, he had not been far from a working prototype. This was just what she had been looking for.
She decided that she would stick around the observatory after all. Like its creator, the tulpa had now found a place in this new reality.
THE END
About the Author
David Clarkson grew up in the North East of England, where he studied English Literature at the University of Sunderland. One day, following a drunken challenge from a friend, he bought a one-way ticket to Australia and spent the following three years travelling the world. Upon his return, he struggled to adapt to a normal life and sought solace in his own overactive imagination, where he remains to this day.
To learn more about David’s writing and what inspires him, you can follow his blog at
www.davidclarksonwriter.com
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Diamond Sky Trilogy Box Set: Books 1-3 Page 92