“We never had trouble like that when I was working at the manor house. Not many people had a telephone in them days.”
Aaron looked at her, giving her a wry smile, all the while thinking that she had been watching too much Downton Abbey on TV. He counted to ten silently and proceeded with the interview. He was about to call his third subject into the room when the landline telephone rang. This time he did his best to remain calm and removed the receiver from its cradle.
“Hello.”
“Hello. Is that Aaron? Aaron Hunt?”
“This is Doctor Aaron Hunt. Who’s calling please?”
Aaron was aware that he sounded more like a company receptionist than a research scientist but he was trying hard not to betray the excitement and anticipation that he was feeling that day.
“Try not to drop the phone Aaron. You know me as Jake Griffiths.”
Aaron nearly shouted out loud, then he bit his lip hard to stop that from actually happening. There was nobody else in the room but he felt embarrassed at the way he was reacting. It was like he had woken up just in time to see Santa Claus placing his presents at the foot of the Christmas tree. He was beside himself with excitement. Was this really happening? Was he about to be given proof that his life’s work wasn’t in vain? He didn’t even stop to consider that he had put so much effort into proving reincarnation, effort that had reaped no useful results and that he was going to have reincarnation proved by some other method, not his own hard work. If he had stopped to think about this he may have reflected upon how much time he had wasted chasing rainbows. But he was in too good a mood to think about such things. He was beaming, whilst still hoping that this wasn’t some elaborate prank.
“Aaron? Are you still there?”
The scientist gathered his thoughts.
“Yes. I’m still here. Sorry about that. I just couldn’t believe that you’d called.”
“Well, I have called Aaron. I want to you to meet me at the car park we visited in Maidenhead Thicket in two hours’ time. No balloon this time. And no blindfold necessary either.”
Aaron was starting to believe. He didn’t recognize the voice at all. But the voice obviously knew that he had been taken to the Maidenhead Thicket all those years ago – and especially that a blindfold had been involved somehow. Things were looking promising.
“Sure…I’ll be there.”
“OK. Two hours then. I assume I don’t need to tell you to come alone.”
“Of course. It goes without saying.”
“See you there then. Don’t be late.”
It was at times like this that Aaron was pleased that his mid-life crisis – as his wife, Susan, like to call it – had led him to buy himself a Yamaha 650cc Dragstar motorcycle. Aaron was sixty years old now, and liked the idea that sixty was considered the new forty nowadays. He certainly didn’t feel sixty years old. The Yamaha was a beautiful machine. Aaron kept it in pristine condition, paintwork polished and chrome shining, even though he often used it for his commute to work. He was glad that he’d decided to use it today; he’d been given a two hour deadline and he’d rather have been late for his own wedding than be late for this rendezvous. Today, traffic jams wouldn’t be a problem. He walked over to a tall cupboard and took out his silver full-face helmet and the deep brown leather jacket that he had bought at the Hard Rock Café in Rio de Janeiro several years earlier. He liked the weight of the jacket on his body – he felt like a real biker when he wore it. Once dressed for his journey he took a few deep breaths before heading to the lift for the seven floor trip to the garage where his trusty steed was waiting for him, but not before telling his assistant to cancel all other meetings and interviews for that day.
“Give them my profuse apologies and explain that I have urgent personal business to attend to, please. And reimburse the expenses of those that you can’t get in touch with, of course. If anyone arrives at the office, the least we can do is pay their transport costs before sending them back home.”
The ride to Maidenhead Thicket was pleasant enough. Aaron liked the sensation of the breeze against his body and the sense of freedom that riding a motorcycle gave him. The traffic was normal for the time of day and he actually arrived at his destination early. Too early in fact. But this didn’t worry him. He’d been waiting twenty-five years for this day to arrive and he’d rather be early than arrive late.
Several cars were parked in the gravel car park. Dad’s with children on an access day, young couples taking their dogs for a walk, elderly couples reminiscing. Aaron was admiring a particularly energetic German Shepherd dog chasing a Frisbee when he felt a tap on the shoulder. He turned round to see a well-dressed, bespectacled young black man in his early twenties.
“Hi Aaron. I’m Thomas McCall, but you can call me Tom.”
“And I know you because…?”
Aaron wasn’t going to play along straightaway, even though he thought this person was probably the person he was waiting for.
“You know me because we’ve met before. Except that you knew me as Jake Griffiths then. Twenty-five years ago.”
“OK Tom. So you wanted to meet up with me because….?”
“Because – as you know – I’m going to give you conclusive proof that when we die we are then reincarnated in a different body.”
“Well, if you don’t this may turn into one of the most time-consuming hoaxes in history.”
“It’s no hoax. You’ll like it, Aaron. I guarantee it. Are you ready?”
“Sure.”
“Let’s go then. I’ll lead the way.”
“You better had. I have no idea where the safe is. I want this to work.”
“It’s not a case of it working or not, Aaron. It’s a scientific fact. I am Jake reincarnated. I am Simon reincarnated. I am Ruth reincarnated. I am many, many others reincarnated. It’s just a question of you being convinced.”
“Hang on. Haven’t we forgotten something? What’s the code word?”
“Rembrandt.”
“OK. Just checking. Let’s carry on. I’m just ticking off the list of things that Jake told me to remember.”
The two of them walked through the undergrowth taking the same path that Jake had taken twenty-five years earlier, leading Aaron like a sniffer-dog might lead its handler. The difference on this day is that Aaron was free to see where he was going. It felt like a more direct route to him but that’s because it was. Previously Jake had led him in a zig-zag route, with a couple of U-turns put in for good measure, so that he couldn’t calculate directions and number of paces on their way to the site. This time there was no need for that.
After what seemed like an eternity of walking they took a sudden right turn to be faced with a wildly overgrown area of brush. Tom reached into his pocket and drew out a pair of secateurs. He looked at Aaron.
“Twenty-five years is a long time. I came prepared for twenty-five years extra growth.”
“Very sensible. I don’t know if I’d have thought of that.”
“I try to be meticulous.”
The secateurs proved their worth. The progress of the pair of modern day treasure hunters, decidedly not dressed for traipsing through this kind of habitat, was slow but they weren’t to be beaten. Finally, surrounded by a natural fortress of thorns and barbs, Tom stopped.
“We’ve arrived.”
Aaron tried to look for the door to the safe, but couldn’t see anything but a mass of hostile foliage.
“It’s under that tangle of surface roots.” Tom pointed at the ground right in front of them. Aaron still couldn’t see anything resembling an entrance door.
“Are you sure?”
“As sure as night follows day.”
Tom attacked the roots with the secateurs, but more carefully this time. Twenty-five years of rain, even though largely protected from the elements by Mother Nature herself, could have rendered the safe’s defences unstable. He hadn’t shared that possibility with Aaron; if Aaron was going to be blown up it was better that
he didn’t know beforehand.
At last, the area above the safe was cleared and Aaron found himself looking at something he hadn’t seen for twenty-five years. He was relieved that this wasn’t all a crazy dream. Tom rubbed his hands together and then cracked his knuckles.
“Are you ready?”
Aaron took a deep breath.
“As I’ll ever be.”
“Right, this is what is going to happen. I’m going to open the safe. Remember, there are forty-eight numbers on each dial to be selected, and they must be selected in the correct order.”
“I remember. But what if they get jammed? It’s been a long time.”
“Well, I’ve got some WD-40 that I’ll spray onto the combination dials first. Plus, to make sure that nothing goes wrong I’ll cross my fingers and hope.”
Aaron couldn’t understand how Tom could remain so calm when there was such an obvious element of mortal danger. He thanked his lucky stars that he’d written his will and all his affairs were in order. But there was no reason for Tom to be afraid. He had lived and died and lived again many times before. Death held no fear for him.
Tom started the task of unlocking the combination. He began by selecting the first number on the first dial. Then it was the turn of the fourth dial at the other end. Two numbers selected and they were still alive. Forty-six to go.
Next he turned the third dial six clicks to the right. The sound of the lock mechanism gradually unlocking seemed very loud against the blank silence that enveloped the area. The only other thing that Aaron could hear was his own breathing. No birds singing. No insects rustling around.
The tension was almost unbearable. Aaron felt a desire to talk to Tom, to feel that time hadn’t slowed down or even stopped, but the last thing he wanted to do was to distract him. There were plenty more numbers to be selected, and a certain order in which to select them, so he didn’t want to distract the man from his task. It really was a matter of life or death.
Time seemed to be passing at a snail’s pace. Each time a number was chosen and was safely turned into place Aaron gave an inaudible sigh of relief that he was still alive and not in hundreds of pieces adorning the surrounding plant life.
Finally there was only one number left to select. Tom looked at Aaron.
“Do you want to do it?”
Aaron shook his head and gestured that he was perfectly happy for Tom to continue.
“No thanks. You’ve done a good job so far. I don’t want to be the one who blows us up – you’ve earned it.”
Tom turned the third dial seven places to the left. The safe door flew open just as quickly as it had done twenty-five years earlier. Tom grinned at his accomplice.
“Stage one complete. No casualties. Okay. Now, I’m not going to touch anything from now on. That’s your job. That way nobody – that means you – can accuse me of any sleight of hand. This will only add to the integrity of the proof that you’ll see. Put your hand in and pull out what’s inside. There should be a plastic document wallet. Remember?”
Aaron pulled out the wallet that had been tossed into the safe in 1990.
“Open it. There should be a document verifying your signature, with the car registration number that you had at the time. Correct?”
“Correct.”
“Is there a photo inside the safe?”
“Yes. It’s an old Polaroid.”
“Yes Aaron. What they call now a ‘selfie’ of you and me. Well, you and Jake.”
“Yes it’s here.”
“Now, there’s another piece of paper in the document wallet. I want you to read it – not aloud – as I tell you what’s written on it.”
“Okay.”
“Make sure you read it carefully. There are punctuation marks and numbers inserted randomly to prevent coincidence.”
“Will do.”
“A squat grey building of only thirty-four storeys – full stop – Mister one – comma – two – ninety-five - Foster – open parenthesis that’s – decimal point - abbreviated to Mr. – close parenthesis – was left in the Decanting – dollar sign - Room – full stop – Outside – comma – in the – asterisk – question mark - garden – comma – it was playtime – full stop - the lift was crowded with men from the Alpha Changing Rooms – comma – and Lenina’s entry was greeted – per cent sign - by many friendly nods and smiles – full stop – by eight o’clock the – ampersand - light was failing – full stop”
Aaron was having trouble following. If it had been a straight piece of text it would have been alright but Tom was also reciting punctuation – punctuation that had no right to be there.
“Can you repeat that please? I got a little lost. I recognise it as being from Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World but you put in some strange punctuation”
Tom repeated what he had just said. Unbelievably it was exactly what was on the piece of paper that Aaron was holding in his hand.
“So…. Do you believe me?”
“I’m getting there. I’ll acknowledge that I have no other explanation for what’s happening. If it’s a trick it’s a bloody good one. I think even Penn and Teller would have difficulty in debunking what I’ve just witnessed. First, you knew where the safe was. Second, you knew the very intricate combination to the safe – including what order to select the numbers, and third you knew what was in the safe and what was written on the papers that were inside…including the misplaced punctuation. I have to admit, short of experiencing reincarnation myself, it’s very convincing.”
“Well, you have experienced reincarnation Aaron, we all do. It’s just that you’re not one of us. You’re not a Recarn. You don’t remember your past lives.”
“I wish I did.”
“A mixed blessing, Aaron. A mixed blessing. Come on. Let’s get out of here. I’ll just deactivate the Semtex first – don’t want it to blow up and spoil things do we?”
Tom disabled the bomb and put the explosives into a holdall that he had brought with him, specifically for that purpose. Aaron suddenly remembered the dice.
“Tom. What about the dice?”
“What dice?”
“The dice that you – if you really are Jake reincarnated – tossed into the safe.”
“Oh…THOSE dice. I’m just messing with you Aaron. I hadn’t forgotten. Do you remember the colour and number combinations?”
“Yes.”
Tom took a blank piece of paper and a ball point pen from his pocket.
“I’m going to write down the numbers and colours of the dice. Then I’ll fold the paper so that you can’t see what I’ve written and I’ll also give you the pen. Assuming that you remember the colour of each dice, the numbers that were thrown, and the order that they were thrown in 1990, we’ll be good to go.”
Once Tom had written down the details, folded the paper, and handed Aaron the pen, Aaron recited how the dice had fallen twenty-five years earlier.
“Red, five. Blue, three. Yellow, six. Green, five. Black, one. White, four.”
“Good memory my man. Open the paper, Aaron. Does that agree with what I wrote down just now?”
Aaron read what Tom had written. Everything was correct.
“Right then, Aaron. Time to go. There are more surprises in store… but not today.”
Back at the car park, the two men shook hands.
“I’ll be in touch very soon, Aaron. Very soon. This is only the beginning.”
With that, they went their separate ways.
Chapter 4
8 a.m. Thursday, 21st May, 2015
Aaron’s phone rang.
“Aaron speaking.”
“Aaron, its Tom. Tom McCall. Have you been thinking about what happened at our recent rendezvous?”
“To be honest, I’ve thought of little else. It’s not every day that someone comes back from the dead, as it were.”
“Not ‘come back from the dead’, Aaron. ‘Is reborn into another body’ is more accurate. Plus… it is every day that that happens. You’ve alrea
dy lived many previous lives. You just don’t remember them.”
“Why can’t I remember them? Why do you get to remember yours?”
“I honestly don’t know, mate. Nobody does. And when you do remember it’s not plain sailing anyway. Remember, I told you I went off the rails for a while. It can freak you out.”
“So what happens now?”
“Well, to be completely honest with you, you weren’t the only person we showed the truth. It was important for us to come out, if I may use that expression, to science but we needed to go a bit further than that. We needed to involve the media.”
“The media?”
“Yes, the media. If we’re going to let the world in on our little secret, we need the media to help us do so.”
“Isn’t that dangerous? It could cause panic.”
“I doubt it, Aaron. And – if you’d been able to prove reincarnation as a fact using your methodology – would you have kept it to yourself?”
“Probably not.”
“We needed scientific confidence to convince the world, and the media is our conduit. Don’t worry, we’ll give you the credit.”
“I’m not worried about that, Tom. I’m just worried about the reaction.”
“Surely it’ll be a relief to many people. Instead of wondering what happens when we die, instead of fearing death, people can enjoy their lives, safe in the knowledge that they’ll be reborn - only this time they won’t have ancient books telling then they’ll go to a special place. They’ll have modern day proof.”
“I don’t know. It’ll change so much. It’ll change the way that people think. You tell people that Heaven doesn’t exist and you could have a riot on your hands.”
“But isn’t that the role of a scientist, Aaron? To change the way people think? Imagine if people still believed the world was flat or that the sun revolved around the earth. Imagine if people still thought that illness and disease were caused by an imbalance of the humours? Imagine if your approach to proving reincarnation had been successful. Would you have kept it to yourself? The world has a right to know, Aaron.”
REVELATION: Book One of THE RECARN CHRONICLES Page 4