A Voice In The Night

by Brian Matthews

  “Come on. Let’s take a jeep ride. It’s warm enough now. Tomorrow I’ll set you up to work with someone who can free up your mental channels, clear out the static.” They climbed into her Jeep as she eyed the Healey parked alongside. “If you can go anywhere just by, like, wishing it, why the sports car ?” she wondered.

  “Because something told me to go back home the way we’d come, that’s all.”

  “That’s perfect. See, free your mind and go where it takes you.”

  Chapter 25

  The trip up into the hills was bone-jarring and beautiful. The Jeep took them up to overlooks that revealed the expanse of red sandstone cliffs around Sedona and reaching out for miles. “You see that valley out about five miles? That’s where the local native people believed that man first began on Earth. I guess they didn’t have the Bering land bridge in their oral history.” Luke took a few slide shots with his Nikon. It was really spectacular from their lookout. A couple of wrenching miles more took them to another site, the remains of a log cabin, only about four or five logs high. “This is where some men tried to start a cattle ranch back in the early 1900s but it didn’t work out because there isn’t any regular source of water up here, at least not enough for a herd of cows. They had to haul the water up by truck in 60 gallon drums. Luckily they didn’t get any appreciable snow in the winter to block the road. It gets up into the 60s during the day. The story is they just got tired of hauling water, and moved down closer to the river.

  “But there’s a lot more here. See how the ground inside the cabin is dished out? Archaeologists studied this site and dug down to really ancient tools and bones. They said native people lived right here about eight to ten thousand years ago. The diggers also found fossilized wood that suggested there was a pretty big structure here. You can see that the depression in the ground extends out far beyond the log cabin. Those cowboys had no idea. This just seemed like a good, hollowed out spot to build.”

  They walked a few yards back down toward the Jeep, and Marion stopped, kneeling down to show him a big limestone rock that had a noticeable circular depression in the top. “This is another big find they made here. The Indians lived on a hunting and corn-based diet and they used this like a mortar and pestle to grind the corn down. The problem is the limestone is soft so tiny fragments of it got into the corn meal and wore out the people’s teeth. The bones the diggers found showed that most died before the age of forty because their teeth were gone and they could no longer chew. So they died of slow starvation, plus disease. And they must never have made the connection with the limestone.” They continued on to a few more overlooks then she stopped at a viewpoint, got out and beckoned Luke to follow.

  “From here you can see where most of the vortexes are. I think that they really are holes or tunnels – pathways to other planes, dimensions, universes that we talked about. Tomorrow I’ll have you meet Mike Smolen. He knows the most about them and he can bring you out to one with a little teaching thrown in so you’ll get the most of it.”

  They arrived back at Marion’s shop. “What do I owe you for the tour,” Luke asked. “No charge. It’s out of season. Besides, I make a fortune on the tourists June through October. At $50 per-person with three or four on each trip, it adds up. I work seven days a week in those months and make much more than I ever did at the university. Plus I get to live here and have half the year off. But you can buy me dinner tonight if you like. Pick me at the shop?”

  “I’ll be there. 6:30?”

  “Seeya then.”

  Mike Smolen turns out to be unlike anything Luke had expected in a spirit guide and vortex expert. He was a big and hearty type whose handshake was like a death grip. “Hey, any friend of Marion’s – well, you know.

  “She filled me in on the phone last night – your whole story – and I think you’re in the right place with the right guy.

  “Different people experience the vortexes here very differently. Some people get nothing, others say it’s life changing, Personally, I think preparation and learning beforehand make all the difference so let me show you the main thing – Transcendental Meditation. I prefer to call it silencing the mind. It brings you inward beyond thought to the most silent and peaceful level of consciousness. To make a vortex work for you, silencing is the most important thing.”

  Mike then sat Luke in a simple chair, both feet on the ground, hands in this lap, eyes closed. Next he got him to relax all of his muscle, head to toe.

  “All right. Here’s the biggest thing. Slowly clear your mind by focusing on one sound. I like to use the sound of my own breathing. It’s very Buddhist. They call it ‘mindful breathing’ It’s a way to keep you right in the present moment, but it’s also perfect for silencing, because breathing is always available, right?

  “So I going out from some coffee and you do this until I get back. Be patient, though. It’s not something you can master in one attempt. But I think you’ll be pretty surprised.” At first, Luke couldn’t prevent single thoughts from seeping into his consciousness. But he stuck with it, locked in lightly to the sound of his breathing, shallow now and effortless. When a thought came slipping in, he let it melt into his breathing. He began to feel something entirely new. Peace. Calm.

  “Hey wake up.’ Luke startled as Mike came through the door. He’d actually dozed off. Now he felt wonderful, as if he’d had a great night’s sleep. “That’s a terrific start. Man you sure have a knack for this. Not many people Z-out the way you did. Cool. Here, now you really need this coffee.

  “Now do this a couple of more times today for maybe 20 minutes each. Tomorrow I’ll take you up to show you Cathedral Rock. I think it’s the best vortex around because it’s hard to get to, so most people don’t go there. Nice and quiet.” Luke couldn’t hold back. “Do you think I’ll be able to cross through to Eileen up there? Mike thought for a moment. “Sedona is known for these vortexes but they exist everywhere. Maybe you’ll connect here or somewhere else. I promise you, you’ll know how to spot them before you leave here. And because you’re on the second higher plane – so am I, by the way – you’ll have much more sensitivity to them.

  “Another thing I can tell you for sure is that I’ve been present when one of our spirit mediums had sessions for people to try and reach a loved one that had died. I gotta tell ya it was for real. These spirits – people – were really present. In one case we could actually see this woman’s husband who had passed a few months before. He looked a little blurry but the things he revealed and what he told his wife were legit. There’s no way the medium could have known any of this or used some kind of optical trickery. I know her pretty well and she’s the real deal.

  “So Eileen is here, or somewhere. I’m sure of it.

  “Another thing is it’s fine to meditate anywhere, even pulled over at the side of the road. You won’t get down as deep but you’ll be covering a lot of ground from what Marion told me and it’s all about space and time. Route 66 will give you plenty of both, so use your trip to seek her out anywhere you happen to be.”

  Chapter 26

  That evening, Luke tried a couple of more meditations and managed to get down deep enough to doze lightly for a moment before his own snoring awakened him abruptly. He was ready for Cathedral Rock tomorrow, at least he thought he was. When he arrived at Mike’s in the late morning. Smolen was heaving a sizeable backpack into the bed of his truck. “You can use my camping stuff while you’re up there. Got everything you need except food and we can get that at Mountain Sports. Everything comes in plastic bags and you just boil it. Stuff is actually pretty good.”

  “So I’m staying up there? I thought that today you were just going to show the way to it.”

  “Ah, why waste time? You can follow me in your car up to the parking lot, then you can bail out anytime if you decide to. But I’m betting you won’t.” They drove past town after picking up food, and a down coat for nighttime. It was an easy drive out to Cathedral rock, then the road turned to dirt and became sud
denly steep. They shot into the small parking lot and Mike and Luke got out for a look. Mike showed him the beginning of a faint trail and pointed the way.

  “I’ll walk up there with you. The best spot is right in the center of the cathedral, and there’s even a nice flat area to pitch a tent and a place to sit. When you need water, just come down here to the river. You don’t have to worry about the water. You can drink it without any worries.”

  As Mike talked, Luke glanced up at the red rock spires that really looked like a giant cathedral with towering slabs of the rock forming a semicircle. They put the top up on his car, locked it and started hiking up. It was tough going after a while, especially since Luke hadn’t had much exercise lately, much less hiking. The trail petered out to sandstone pebbles and rocks, along with thick patches of stunted pine brush. They took a couple of breaks, then Mike tossed the gear down. “Okay, this is it.”

  He set up the tent and tiny gas-burning hiking stove, air mattress, sleeping bag, water and a lantern. Luke just sat, recovering from the climb. Mike came over with the single burner stove and showed him how to prime and start it. “You’ve got enough fuel for three or four days and a couple of day’s water. Make sure you drink a lot because the air is so dry you’ll get dehydrated pretty fast.

  “One last thing. Don’t expect too much. You’re still learning. But you couldn’t be in a better spot.” Mike said his goodbyes and left Luke to the stillness of the place. Just a light breeze could be felt offset by the warming sun, so he sat on the small canvas camp chair and started to listen to his breathing. It immediately felt different, as though there was a low-level of vibration or magnetic energy funneling down all around him. It broke his stillness at first but soon he just accepted it, sort of listening to it instead of his breath. It was an entirely new feeling and he liked it. And as his silence deepened he had a sense of her, not a thought of her but a feeling like he had when he just knew she was in a part of the house he’d just entered. Then he dozed off and dreamt of her. When he awoke it was getting toward dusk. Time for dinner.

  Mike had been right. This stuff tasted pretty good. And as he sat eating, he flashed back to the dream he’d had. Was it a dream, or something more? Better not leap to any conclusions. Give it time, he thought. As the sun settled toward the horizon, Luke suddenly felt the accumulation of the day’s exertion. He thought to climb into the tent stretch out and grab a little rest. He was deeply asleep in a few minutes. He awoke as the sun illuminated the eastern side of the tent from above the Cathedral rocks. He sat bolt upright and checked his watch. It was 11 a.m. He’d been asleep for thirteen hours, and it took a while for him to come out of the fog of it. Only then did he trust himself to get up and walk around his tiny camp site. A sleepy misstep could send him sliding down the steep, sandy, rocky slope they had trudged up yesterday.

  Breakfast barged into his mind and he started the stove to boil up a bag of scrambled eggs and bacon. He even made coffee. Not too shabby, he thought. Despite the anxiety of the unknowns that lie ahead, a part of him was liking this trip as a release from the intensity of the life he had been living. After some housekeeping, the sun had warmed him enough, so he sank down onto his camp chair for a little silencing practice. As the minutes passed he noticed that the caffeine prevented him from dozing.

  Then, with his eyes still closed he saw her off in the distance. Her image shimmered like a mirage but there was no question. It was Eileen. He opened his eyes and she was still there. She was talking to him but he couldn’t hear the sound because she seemed to be a couple of miles away, suspended in the air. But he knew what she was saying – that she was looking for a passage to him, too. She remained for what seemed a long time, then started to fade away. But in the last moment she smiled her child smile and waved heartily to him, the way she used to from her parents’ front porch as he drove away from their earliest dates.

  The joy of seeing her, that she was out there somewhere searching for him too, overwhelmed him. He slid off the chair unto his knees, turning toward the very apex of the rock cathedral and silently prayed his thanks for a very long time. His next impulse was to break camp and go back to tell Marion and Mike the news. But it could wait another day. He wanted to connect with her again from this mysterious, special place.

  Luke busied himself by hiking down to the river to fill the water jugs. From there he took in the scenic view of the river with Cathedral Rock in the background and composed a few pictures for a photo album he would assemble someday. He checked the car, started it and let it run for a few minutes. Then the trek back up to his camp, now much harder with the heavy jugs of water. He promised himself he’d get into better shape, get back to exercising, quit smoking. But that could wait until his journey was over and his life recaptured.

  Next he pulled out his pad and pen to write the first of his phone-in radio features. It told about his quest, the beauty and special powers of Sedona, the people he’d met and hinted at the contact he’d made with Eileen. He decided to use the rest of the day to drive into town and call in his report to be taped and distributed by Jake, so down the hill he went again. Marion’s Jeep wasn’t in its usual parking spot and the shop was dark so he headed over to Mike’s.

  “I told you that was a hotspot! Geez, I’m so happy for you man.” They sat over coffee and talked a while. Luke began to see the special gift that Mike possessed. He focused totally on what Luke was saying, his eyes locked on Luke’s, listening to his every word and nuance. He found himself trusting Mike completely, telling his innermost thoughts, uncertainties and fears. Mike would just nod and say, “understand,” signaling Luke to go further. It was a relief to let it all hang out like this, somehow lifting the burden.

  After their talk, Luke used the phone to call Jake and tape his brief report. “So it sounds like things are starting to happen as I’m reading between the lines here.”

  “Yes. She’s out there on some other plane and we just have to find a way through to each other.”

  “Well, I’ve been working on this book and interviewing a lot of people including your pal Bishop Noonan. One thing he said was that the higher planes thing can’t entirely break all the laws of physics, that the planes and many world, many universes ideas are all part of one thing.

  “Who knows? I just want my wife back so I’ll keep rollin’ down the highway and see what happens. Call you in a week. Best to Sandy.”

  He was glad that Jake was working on the book, doing the homework. “Mike, thanks for everything. I’m going back up to the cathedral camp, maybe for another night, and then I’ll probably continue driving on Eastward.”

  As he slept that night, a startlingly clear reality entered his sleep, something he had never experienced in a dream. Every detail was coherent, unlike the jumbled fragments that his dreams were usually made of. He was back at school, after Eileen had entered his life, and every nuance of those moments unfolded just as before, her quirky way of talking, the torn out notebook page with her phone number, everything just as it had been. Luke sat up startled, back to real wakefulness, sitting for minutes to gather himself, trying to understand the sadness and joy he felt, simultaneously. After a few minutes he stopped this trying and dropped into a state of silencing himself to receive whatever this real dream was meant to reveal. Soon it became clear. He began to break camp.

  Chapter 27

  Luke said his goodbyes to Marion and Mike, then drove to Flagstaff to arrange with a moving company to trailer the Healey back to San Diego. Next was the airport to arrange the trip to Connecticut. It would take several connections to reach Tweed New Haven Airport, the closest he could get to Bridgeport. He would be moving back to the beginning, hopefully traveling in time and space. . . . He hoped in the deepest part of his being that she was there and that somehow he would be able to reach through to another plane and time to be with her.

  The next morning he boarded for the first leg of his trip. Luke had never flown and he was excited and a little scared. It was an arduous
journey, through stretches of bad weather, especially crossing the Allegheny Mountains, full of updrafts and downdrafts. In Philadelphia, after sleeping for 12 hours he hurried back to the airport for the final leg to New Haven. There on the runway sat his plane. He was shocked. A deHavilland Twin Otter was his ride, the scariest looking aircraft he’d ever seen. It looked like a big kite with a body and odd looking landing gear. Luke went to the reservations counter hoping to find another flight. No luck. The deHavilland was the only plane they flew into New Haven. But the clerk had him wait a minute. The pilot came out from the briefing room to talk to him. “It’s actually the safest plane you can fly. Even if both engines quit we could glide all the way to New Haven. Don’t worry. It’s a noisy, bouncy ride but you’re safe.”

  He was right. The landing in New Haven was especially nerve-wracking because the airport was right near the harbor, so winds tended to swirl around from all directions. But the pilot brought them in, although with a considerable amount of rock and roll.

  Luke drove to his parents’house with a rental car. He wasn’t looking forward to how they would react to his quest to find Eileen. As he expected, they tried to seem interested, but he could read them and they clearly thought it was wishful thinking. “All of this higher planes and parallel worlds and time-shifting we hear about seem really out there,” his mother said. “Just don’t get your hopes up. She was a wonderful girl and we loved her too – but I just don’t know.”

  Eileen’s parents were even less encouraging, in fact, they seemed annoyed at him for bringing it up. “She’s gone, and that’s that. We’ll never get over it. And YOU should be with your children instead of on this wild goose chase,” her father said. Luke made an early escape after a very silent dinner, then drove down to Seaside Park, sitting in the car, wishing for another sign. When none came he found a motel room, wrote and phoned in his radio show, and watched a little TV. As he drifted off to sleep the doubts he had heard from his and Eileen’s parents crept into the edges of his consciousness. Was it all a way to avoid accepting the reality of what had happened? It was not a peaceful night.