Here's the latest installment of my current dark scifi project. This is chapter 19. If you're just tuning in, consider starting with chapters 1 and 2. Be advised that this work considers difficult subjects, including suicide. If you're in crisis, please seek help. Help is available here.
The Theater of the Real
Laying in the middle of Anabelle's floor, looking up at a ceiling on which several of Peter's drawings had been taped, the three of them talked about everything and what it might mean.
"Tiku from the planet Tikatoo?" asked Ray when the subject came up.
"Is that any weirder than Cedar's talk about mushrooms guiding human evolution?" asked Anabelle.
"Greg says Tiku is just a permission slip," said Peter. "It gives him permission to tap into a certain frequency or channel in the field of consciousness."
"What does he say about what happens when we die?" asked Anabelle. "I was raised to believe that we pretty much all go to hell. Cedar talks about returning to Source, which makes a little more sense but also doesn't really seem to mean anything. What's your guy say?"
"A bunch of complicated stuff," said Peter. "Like how death is a transition from the energetic to the informational. How the universe is sentient, aware of itself, and our lives play a part in that. But he also talks about souls and how we're all souls working with each other to play out soul dramas in the theater of the real. And his idea of an afterlife is something he calls the infinite world."
"So it is like Cedar's returning to Source?" asked Anabelle. "My friend Bonnie talks about how she'll dissolve to rejoin nature when she goes. That she'll turn into trees and grass and stars and everything."
"Could be," said Peter. "But the infinite world is more like a place, made up of all of the most important things from finite worlds like ours. This is where souls in soul groups hang out when they're between lifetimes. Like a cosmic home and family that we all return to after doing our time here."
"I've thought about going to the ocean and swimming out and never coming back before," said Anabelle.
"You better not do that," said Ray.
"Just thinking, is all," said Anabelle. "Moving to this city felt like doing that, in a way. Like I was swimming into a deep ocean to get lost in it. But I didn't get lost. More like I keep finding things that seem to be waiting especially for me."
"You know what I've been thinking?" asked Ray.
"I'm getting an image of you changing a tire in a desert," said Peter.
"Not bad, psychic," said Ray. "I'm thinking of finally getting out of here. Traveling and seeing the country."
"Cool," said Anabelle. "Any particular reason, or just to do it?"
"I want to cover the protests, man," said Ray. "They're all over and the news barely talks about them. But I think something big is going on. I want to go out there and get into it, take pictures where I can. Try to make some kind of difference."
"So you're going to get a car?" asked Anabelle.
"Bought one yesterday from my cousin," said Ray. "You guys, I'm serious about this."
"Can we go for a ride?" asked Anabelle.
"Sure," said Ray. "Where you want to go?"
"Where I'm from, there's nowhere to go, so driving around is its own destination," said Anabelle.
"There's an art store across town that I want to go to," said Peter. "Just called The Art Store."
"Works for me," said Ray. "But we're getting food somewhere after."
Later, in The Art Store, a grumpy clerk followed them around, asking what they were looking for every thirty seconds. "Dude!" said Ray finally. "We're looking for art supplies, okay?"
Afterwards, finding a savory pie place nearby, the trio ordered food and sat down. "Where are you going first?" asked Anabelle.
"Atlanta," said Ray. "There's a nonviolent resistance training there, and I'm thinking that's where I need to start. I just feel like that's where I'm going to meet the right people for whatever I do next, you know?"
"You're quiet," said Anabelle to Peter. "Something up?"
"Sort of," said Peter. "Not really. It's just, I'm starting to feel like I'm the only one around without a clear purpose. Like the world is falling apart and what am I even doing?"
"Are you still clean?" asked Anabelle. "Because if you are, I'd say you're headed in the right direction."
"Maybe so," said Peter. "But I feel like I should be doing more and I have no idea what to do."
"Welcome to the club," said Ray. "The world's gotta change and we all know it, but what can any of us do about it? Maybe nothing. I don't care. I'm going to try to do something."
"There's just too many people," said Peter. "I mean, literally millions of people are against 321SIM. We all know the Syndrome is bullshit. But it's still happening and there's not anything we can do about it."
"Yeah, maybe," said Ray. "Still, we gotta fight it, don't we?"
"We could always fight it with the ballot box," said Anabelle.
They all burst into laughter, knowing full well how unsound that logic was.
"You know what I've been thinking about?" asked Peter. "I've been thinking about the idea of parallel realities. Like, what would it take to set up a new society right alongside the one we already live in? I'm talking housing, banking, food, medicine, new systems for all of it that we create and eventually immigrate to, leaving the old system to die the death it should have died a long time ago."
"You should talk to my boss Hoot," said Anabelle. "She's all about that kind of stuff. In fact, you should talk to her about putting your art up in the shop to start. She's been talking about wanting to do art for a while. I'll give you her number."
"Thanks, that'd be cool," said Peter.
"I'm totally going to miss you guys," said Ray.
(Feature image from Pixabay.)
Read my novels:
- Small Gods of Time Travel is available as a web book on IPFS.
- The Paradise Anomaly is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Psychic Avalanche is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- One Man Embassy is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Flying Saucer Shenanigans is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Rainbow Lullaby is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- The Ostermann Method is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Blue Dragon Mississippi is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
See my NFTs:
- Small Gods of Time Travel is a 41 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt that goes with my book by the same name.
- History and the Machine is a 20 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt based on my series of oil paintings of interesting people from history.
- Artifacts of Mind Control is a 15 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt based on declassified CIA documents from the MKULTRA program.