by Francis CoCo
Chapter 12
A few weeks later we decided to go to the Mall of America in Minneapolis. It was an hour’s drive and we were going to the Sea Life Aquarium at the mall.
In the car, on the way there, we talked about Max’s dreams and all of the strange things that had happened since the Light. Mostly the things that happened happened to Max but certainly Angela and I had seen more than our fair share of unusual things since the encounter. Angela and I both had seen the dog and I knew Max was glad we had because, I think he was getting tired of having these things happen to him and no one else being a witness to them. But we had seen the dog and there was definitely something not right about that dog. There was also the chip found in Max’s hand. Angela and I had both seen that and held it but, inexplicably one morning, when Max went to get it, a few days later, from inside his china cabinet, where he’d placed it- in the candy dish- behind the glass, it was gone. He said he knew it would be. Somehow he knew that it would disappear, he hadn’t had any doubt that that would happen and it did. But we’d all seen it.
And then there were the dreams. I thought the dreams that Max was having were kind of neat, because, I knew they weren’t just dreams. They couldn’t be. Especially the dream talking about Beelzebub and Ekron. That was the craziest thing I’d ever heard. It was just insane to think that he’d been told of a place that none of us had ever even heard of and to find out that it was a real place and not only was it a real place but that it was, according to Wikepedia, where Beelzebub resided. That was insane. And the flat Earth- I still didn’t know whether or not that was true, but, if it were true it changed everything. If Max’s dream about flying over the Earth and hitting a wall of ice, was true and if the Earth really was flat, with a firmament over it, then, I really was living in a snow globe!
So on the drive to Minneapolis, I asked him if he’d had any other dreams. This time Angela was driving and Max was in the passenger seat. It was a beautiful day- cold, but the sun was out so bright and I was glad to be getting away from Fallcrest, if only for a few hours.
“I think I’ve told you guys about all of them – did I tell you about the canoe dream? I did, right?”
“No, what canoe dream?”
Max looked back, “No? I didn’t?”
“I don’t remember a canoe dream either,” said Angela, glancing over at Max.
Max took a sip of his coffee. We’d just stopped at Starbucks a few exits back.
“Well, so much has happened, I guess I forgot to tell you about it...that was a cool one,” he said, sort of smiling and staring at the road ahead, “I can’t believe I didn’t tell you guys...”
“Another one with the Light talking to you?” said Angela.
“Oh jeez,” Max said, running his hand through his hair, “I can’t believe I didn’t tell you guys this...”
“Tell us now,” I said. We were on the highway. Big eighteen wheelers were on either side of our car. I was on the verge of a panic attack- I always hated the big trucks. I needed something to get my mind off my fear of being squashed to death on the freeway.
“Okay, so… this one was really cool,” Max said, rolling up his window to light a fresh cigarette, “yeah, so, anyway… I was in this canoe with the Light… kind of hard to explain… but, I was on one end of the canoe, - I was sitting at one end and he was sitting at the other end. Actually, at first I just saw the Light at the other end of the canoe… I didn’t realize he was sitting until he stood up, later...”
“When did you dream this?” I said, interrupting.
“A few nights ago, I think it might have been Sunday night, no, that’s not right… Saturday night, I think...”
“Go on,” said Angela, anxious to hear the dream.
“Right. So, anyway, we were in this canoe and we were on this river and it was night time – just about to get dark- still kind of light out but getting dark- and the river was narrow and long and I remember there were mountains on either side… it was so quiet… the only sound was my paddle in the water- I was paddling, and he was talking to me again, telling me that I needed to reflect, telling me that reflection was so important, and then he started to tell me that I shouldn’t eat meat, he said chicken was okay but besides chicken and fish, that I shouldn’t eat meat – he was very adamant about that… and, we were going around this bend, and as we went around the bend, the river opened up and got wider… and there were these massive cliffs on either side of us and I saw that there were all these figures standing on the cliffs, a lot of figures; hundreds, maybe even thousands and they were holding these gold glowing balls of light- the balls of light looked like small fires- some were on the sides of the cliff and some were down below, on the rocks- they looked like little fires - and just then, the Light stood up and reached out his arm- well, the shape was that of an arm but, it was only light- and in his hand was this glowing ball, gold- the size of a baseball, I guess… but, when he put his hand out- all the balls that the figures were holding, came towards him, so fast- they just came zooming towards him, and...”
He stopped for a minute, searching for words.
“What happened?” Angela said, when he didn’t finish.
Max turned and looked at Angela and then back to me and then he said, “the gold balls came to him and just… went into him… they were absorbed into his body.”
“Shit,” Angela said.
“But, what are the balls? The balls of light? What were they?” I asked.
“That’s what we are,” Max said.
“We are balls of light?” I repeated.
“Yeah, we are just balls of energy that have formed into a physical body.”
“But, these figures holding the balls of light… what does that mean? What are they?”
“Well,” said Max, “we come from them.”
“From aliens?” said Angela.
“Oh no, not aliens, I forgot to tell you that, the Light told me there were no aliens. There’s no such thing as aliens. Aliens do not exist.”
“I’m so confused,” said Angela, “what do you mean, we come from them?”
“I remember, in one dream, I was shown sperm- like, under a microscope, sperm cells, wiggling and zooming and swimming around, all over the place, until they found that right energy that they connected to- like a magnet- once it hooked up to the right energy, and became a person...”
Max smiled and said, “and, this was so awesome, the sperm cells were lit up, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen an electric eel under water, but, that’s what they do- they light up like that, they’re alive...”
“Oh my God,” I said, “that’s crazy.”
“But, you said we come from them,” said Angela, looking over at him like she was confused.
“Yes, we do, the sperm, that alive little sperm cell- that’s them- the sperm cell is what they are...”
“So, we are what they are?”
“Right.”
“What are they?”
“I’m not sure.”
“But we are the same thing they are?”
“Yes.”
“And you don’t know what they are?” she said again. This line of questioning was like Who’s on first.
“Listen,” said Max, “all I know is that the sperm cells, they come from the Cosmos, that spark- the spark of life, the sperm cell- comes from the Cosmos- so we are from the Cosmos, we are a part of the Cosmos, we began there and we go back there, once it’s all said and done.”
Angela glanced over at Max, then back at me in the back seat, a worried look on her face.
“So, what you’re saying is that, we connect to what we’re meant to connect to? To become who we are?” I said.
“From what I understand, yes. It’s energy matching. Sperm is from the Cosmos, it is alive inside us, but the sperm is sparked alive by the Galaxy and your life- your journey, is to teach you lessons, it’s all by design.”
“But why? What’s the point? If it’s all about supporting the Cosmos and we end u
p back there? Who cares about the lessons? What do the lessons even matter?”
Max rolled his window up, lit a cigarette and then, cracking his window, blew smoke out of the side of his mouth, “Not everyone does make it back to the Cosmos, some people, if they haven’t done the right thing, I guess you could say, really bad people- evil people- they don’t get to go to the Cosmos- they go to a dark place and stay there.”
“Hell?”
“No. I don’t think it’s hell. I was shown this place- a very dark, dark place. An absolute nothing place.”
“So, hold on,” I said, leaning forward in my seat, “hold on, I think I understand, maybe… So, what you’re saying is, that the lessons, you learn them in each life, like in hopes of getting it right in the next one, before your energy burns out completely...”
Max smiled, “Yeah, I think that’s what it is. You have the opportunity to learn and to grow and to do the right thing, but if you don’t, if you continue to come from that dark place, then...”
“then you end up in that dark place permanently,” I said.
“Goodness, this is almost more than I can take,” Angela said, getting over into the other lane and up onto the exit.
“What are you doing?” I said, wondering why we were getting off the highway.
“These trucks are scaring me, plus, I need a drink,” she said.
She pulled off the highway and into the parking lot of a small bar called, The Brew and Cue. There were only four cars in the parking lot. Angela turned the car off and turned to Max.
“What’s going on?” he said when she stared at him and said nothing.
“Aren’t you freaked out by all of this? I mean, isn’t this about to drive you crazy?” she said.
“What do you mean?” he said, “that dream was one of the good ones.”
“Yeah, but, the rest of this shit- doesn’t it make you wonder what the fuck is going on?”
“Sure, but… what can I do about it?”
She looked back at me, like she wanted me to say something. I didn’t know what to say. We hadn’t told her everything. We’d told her some of it but not all. She was more fragile than we were. Judging by her shaved head and horrifying tattoos. Plus, this was kind of cool. I didn’t know if it were true or not but, if it was, then, it kind of made sense. More sense than anything else I’d heard about why we were here or what happened when we died.
“Something is going on, I mean, there’s no denying that,” I said.
“I don’t think it’s bad,” said Max, “I mean, I don’t like that dog or those shadows but, I think the Light is something good.”
“Do you?” said Angela, “do you really? Have you ever considered that maybe you’re not supposed to know these things?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, maybe this is the forbidden fruit. Maybe this is the apple.”
“You mean like, Adam and Eve?”
Angela stared back at him and said nothing.
“Oh for fucks sake,” said Max, reaching over and opening his door to get out, “I don’t believe in all of that.”
_____
We had a nice day at the mall. We’d gone to the Aquarium, which was pretty cool and we had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. Angela and I had gone a little nuts shopping, which was fun. I just kept swiping my card and trying not to think about how big the bill was going to be when it came. I bought up a lot of incense at the hippie store and some books at Border’s. I picked up some peach tea at Teavana, which I looked forward to making that night when I got home. Angela’s hair was starting to grow back and she went in a SuperCuts and had them buzz it back down to nothing. We didn’t talk anymore about Max’s dreams or the Light or any of the bizarre things that had been happening lately, we just shopped and ate good food and had fun at the Aquarium.
We had had a great day and left as the mall was closing and then, as our luck seemed to go, Angela’s car broke down when we were about twenty miles outside of Fallcrest.
We had been riding along, laughing and talking and listening to old 80’s tunes on the radio, everything had been great and then, suddenly, the car began to overheat. White smoke and steam were coming from the hood. Max pulled over to the side and turned the car off and when he’d opened the hood and got back into the driver’s side and tried to start it back up, it wouldn’t crank. Luckily, there was a Shell station not far from where we’d pulled over- within walking distance, and we’d walked to it and called triple A. We had to sit at the Shell station for almost an hour before they’d finally shown up. They towed the car and Max called Morlen, the crazy cook from Stitches to come pick us up. Morlen might have been crazy, but he came immediately, thank God, and drove us back to Max’s house and dropped us off.
It turned out that Angela’s car had blown a head gasket and was done for. The next day she sold it for scrap to a scrap metal company. The red Ford Contour that we’d been in when we had seen the Light was now gone. It was only a car but, I felt a little sad to think of it being now nothing more than scrap. Especially when it had been witness to such a marvelous event.
Chapter 13
“Has Max told you about the dreams?”
“Of course, we’ve talked about them.”
“No, I don’t mean those dreams. I mean the new ones.”
Angela and I were in my car, on our way to lunch. It was a workday, a Tuesday. We were on our way to the downtown diner to meet up with a few of the other girls from work.
“No,” I said, “what new ones?”
I was driving and I turned and looked at her. We were stopped at a red light.
“Well, that voice, whatever that is, the voice wants him to go somewhere.”
“What do you mean, go somewhere?”
“A few nights ago, Max woke up and started telling me that he was supposed to go to Hualapai Mountain.”
“Where is that?”
“We didn’t know. We had to look it up. In fact, when he woke up, he said to me, get a pen and write this down and so I did, Max had never even heard of the place.”
“Well, where is it? This mountain?”
“It’s in Kingman, Arizona.”
“Arizona!?”
“And you know he has a horrible fear of flying...some uncle of his went down in a plane once when Max was a boy, it really traumatized him, he absolutely will not fly...”
“Why would he have to go somewhere?”
“He’s supposed to meet the Light. In the dream, the voice told him, what day, what time, and what to do when he got there.”
“What?”
“I know. It’s crazy. I wrote it all down. I’ll show you. He’s supposed to get on this hiking trail- he was told exactly where to go- to take so many steps, he’s not supposed to bring a cell phone or anything. He’s supposed to come alone. It said, In eighty seven days, meet me at Hualapai Mountain.”
“What day is that?”
“July 23rd.”
I had just pulled up in front of the diner. Tracy and Cindy, girls from our office, stood out front, waiting on us. I smiled and waved at them. I wished I could stay in the car and talk to Angela. If I’d known about this, I wouldn’t have made plans to meet anyone for lunch. I would have gone alone with Angela to talk about this. Why hadn’t she told me earlier in the day? I wondered.
“Crap,” I said, “you’ll have to tell me later.”
I turned the car off. Before we got out I said, “Is he going to go?”
“He’s not sure. Do you think he should?”
“I don’t know,” I said, “I would be scared.”
“That’s what I told him.”
“What does Max say?”
“I think he wants to go. I think he’s actually considering it.”
_____
“I swear to fucking God, as if things couldn’t get any worse...,” Angela said, pushing her way into my apartment.
“What are you talking about?” I said, shutting the door and turning to face her.
“Max’s mother was killed last night.”
“Oh my God- what?”
“I know. I can’t believe it.”
“Oh no - What happened?”
Angela dropped her purse onto the floor and sat down in the chair by the window.
“I can’t believe this has happened,” she said, “I’ve known Mary my whole life, she’s such a nice woman… Max is devastated and I can’t believe with all we’ve got going on and that he has going on, that he now has to deal with something like this. This is so awful...”
I sat down on the edge of the couch leaned forward.
“Where is he?” I said.
“They’re all at Chip’s house, Max’s brother...”
I’d never heard of Chip. I hadn’t even known Max had a brother.
“I’m so sorry,” I said, “tell me what happened.”
“Mind if I smoke in here?” Angela said, reaching into her purse and lighting a cigarette before I’d answered.
“Sure, do you want a Coke?”
She shook her head and took a drag on her cigarette.
“This is so fucked up,” she said, staring at the wall, “God damn it.”
She didn’t say anything for a few minutes- just sat smoking her cigarette and staring at the wall and then she said, “She was hit by a drunk driver, last night on County road Y. The car hit her so hard that she hit a tree and her car burst in flames...”
I gasped, “She burned to death?”
“I know. It’s awful. Absolutely, awful.”
“I didn’t know Max had a brother,” I said, “does he have sisters?”
“No. Just the brothers- Chip and David.”
She stood up and went to the window and looked out.
“David is at Seminary. He’s going to be a priest, can you believe that? And yet, Max doesn’t even believe in God.”
“He says he doesn’t,” I said, pulling my duster around me, “but he talks about a Creator, he seems to believe in a Creator, and that’s God.”