I didn’t want to believe his paranoia. “Let’s take a minute and say that the world is not going to end.”
He jumped up from his chair and went into the living room. He turned on the television and turned the volume up for me to hear.
“Fighting has now spread into twenty three countries. Africa is up in smoke as is the Middle East and Europe is next. For more on this escalating crisis we bring in our panel—”
Mr. Hankerson clicked the T.V. off. “Have you ever in your wildest dreams heard anything like that? They’re trying to stay calm but I’ll tell you this is madness. It is absolute anarchy of the mind and no one has a clue. That’s why they’re calling in my psychic pals, that’s why you’re having dreams, that’s why the thing last night is trying to contact you. If all those don’t add up to you saving the human race I don’t know what does.”
For just a moment, and only a moment, I seriously considered what he was trying to say. It sounded insane, but so did the news. The hardest part to comprehend was that I had this gift and no one else. Why should I see this tunnel and the cloud creature instead of someone better? It wasn’t fair. I never wanted to be special. And I mean in anything. In school I was perfectly happy with B’s and C’s so my teachers didn’t think me too smart, not that I would have complained if I had gotten a few more A’s. I led a fairly low key life. I never wanted fame or fortune or even recognition. The less people that knew about me the better. And now this. And now I’m the one with a crazy gift that this quasi-sane man thinks can end the conflict.
“I may remind you,” I said after thinking things over, “that there is no alien attacking us. Everything that’s gone on the last week or whenever is happening because people are attacking people.”
He looked at me gravely. “Remember what I said about the writers? It’s the same thing. Humans can be competitive and vengeful, but not all at once like this. Something is putting thoughts into the minds of these fighters. It’s the aliens. They’ve found the best way to kill humans, and it’s to put them against each other.”
His idea grabbed hold somewhere in my mind. For the second time while I was conscious the tunnel appeared before my eyes. It was just like the dream except clearer, much clearer. The walls of the tunnel were brown metal, or maybe something else but they gave the impression of metal. I slipped effortlessly through. The end was fast approaching. I might finally see what had been kept from my dreams.
A voice echoed through the tunnel and reverberated all around. It was a human voice, or at least I thought it was. It was hard to make sense of it, but after a while of it bouncing every which way it slowed and cleared.
“Quicker, it must be quicker. There isn’t much time. We need more. Take the rest.”
9
Mr. Hankerson was calling to me. His image appeared. His voice was muffled. It grew louder and woke me from my daydreaming.
“Agate, are you alright?”
“Sorry, what?”
“You started staring off into space, are you alright?”
I told him what I saw and what the voice said. He stood up from the table and paced the living room. Evidently he was more worried about the voice than I was.
“It was only a voice.” I said.
“No, no its not. It must have been from someone. Why would you hear it?” He started mumbling and I could no longer understand him.
The phone rang. We both jumped. He answered it.
“Hello—what? Oh, well yeah I suppose. Here let me put you on speaker.”
Valerie’s voice came through the phone. I could tell she was driving, I could hear road noise.
“Agate?” She sounded scared.
“Yes.” I said nervously, coming closer to the phone.
“I’m coming back out there. Mrs. Boove’s has closed. I don’t think you have to worry about going to work either, at least not for a while.”
“Why, what’s going on?” Mr. Hankerson asked, sitting over the phone as though it might get the information to him faster.
“People are going insane; shootings, bombs, suicides, all sorts of things going on. There’s news of bigger bombs on the way. I don’t know if it’s true, that’s just what the radio said. Whatever’s happening, it’s coming to a head very soon.”
“Alright, alright.” Mr. Hankerson said, trying to keep himself calm. “Get back here safely and we can hunker down until this all blows over or we’re all dead, whichever comes first.”
“That’s just what I was thinking.” Valerie said.
She hung up. Mr. Hankerson turned the television back on. A reporter was in New York City. Buildings were on fire and people were running around like crazy. They cut to a shot of some country, I wasn’t sure which one, and a huge bomb went off, tearing apart everything it touched.
He clicked off the T.V. again. “I think we should stay away from watching that.” He said.
“Everything’s happening so fast.” I said wearily.
“That’s how they get you, the aliens. They come upon you so fast you don’t have time to do a thing. They’re trying to end us before we can fight back. They must want the planet for something. It probably has the atmosphere they need.” He sat in a chair and rubbed his eyes. “I guess we wait it out and see what happens.”
For some reason I didn’t feel scared, alarmed, but not scared. It was all too fast to be frightening. If I was given a few minutes to really think everything over then I would probably be scared out of my mind, but thankfully I didn’t have the time. Seeing the tunnel while conscious took what little energy I had left. I was running on adrenaline.
Mr. Hankerson and I sat in the living room silently awaiting Valerie to show up. If she was right about the city being a mess then the roads were probably a mess as well. The waiting was agonizing.
Sometime around dark the door opened and we both jumped up. Valerie came in, threw her bag down, and fell into one of the chairs.
“It’s horrible everywhere. I was surprised to see so few people on the roads. I guess no one knows where to go.”
“I’m so glad you’re safe.” Mr. Hankerson said, what little relief he could muster broke through some of the worry.
We sat around quietly for much of the night. No one turned on the lights. They wouldn’t have helped. There was no getting rid of the fear and anxiety we all shared. Our ears picked up every little noise. Our minds tirelessly awaited a sudden bang or a soft far away boom that might signal the end of days. The stress got to me and I started to smile. I tried to keep it in but I accidentally let out a small laugh.
“What?” Valerie’s voice came through the darkness.
“I don’t know.” I said. “It’s just that this is all so tense. Do you really think this could be it?”
“Yes.” Mr. Hankerson said loudly.
“I’m not sure.” Valerie whispered. “If we could figure out this dream thing then we might see for sure. Why don’t you try to sleep and see if you can dream up anything again. You’re the only one who seems to be able to communicate with whatever it is.”
I agreed and went to lay down in Mr. Hankerson’s bed. I didn’t realize how tired I was until I laid down. Within minutes I was asleep.
I was back in the tunnel. It wasn’t as clear this time. I was so close to the end I could feel it. The darkness ahead still seemed never ending. Eventually it would have to lead to something different. And to my surprise it finally did. The darkness lessened and I finally saw the end. Before I could prepare myself for the impending change the tunnel ended and I floated out into the air. I looked to be in a huge building. I could see rounded walls and little holes everywhere that I took to be different tunnels. There were so many of them. Little lightning bugs glittered peacefully all around, only I saw that they were not bugs at all. Lightning bugs would have glowed for a second and then the light would have faded away. These things stayed lit. Hundreds of these li
ttle glittery dots floated all around with me. I wanted nothing more than to drift around forever with the little sparkles. The fear and dread that I felt in the tunnel was long gone. It all seemed unnecessary now.
The building began to shake violently. The little sparkles began to tremble slightly. The lights flickered all at once. I think they were communicating. I didn’t understand it. I wished that they could have been clearer like the shadow creature. The shaking grew more forceful until the large building looked ready to burst.
That’s when I woke up. It was morning. The sun’s rays calmed my mind and made the dream seem distant and unimportant.
I got up to find Mr. Hankerson sitting on the couch. He had the remote in his hand and was watching the television. It only showed static.
“The T.V. went out overnight. Now we don’t have any idea what’s going on.” He said sadly.
“Maybe that’s a good thing.”
“No.” Valerie stated from the dining room where she was eating breakfast. “It’s a very bad thing. The phones are dead and my car’s radio won’t pick up anything. We’ve lost all our connections to the outside world.”
“I’m with Agate.” Mr. Hankerson announced. He shut off the television and looked over at me. “So, did you dream?”
I went over and sat next to him and told about the dream and how the tunnel finally ended.
“Those sparkles.” He mused when I finished. “I wonder if they’re aliens as well. Maybe they’re