Giddeon (Silver Strand Series) (7 page)

Are dreams just fragments of the worlds around us?
 
Bits and pieces of realities that can be sensed as they tumble by on their way to wherever it is they’re going?
 
Giddeon once said to me ‘
Maybe everything’s a dream.
’, and it’s easy to believe that perhaps he’s right.

But, why dream at all?
 
What purpose does it serve?
 
And why are dreams rooted in the material world that is so familiar to us?
 

In my dreams, there are bicycles and cars and computers and golf clubs… restaurants and people and trees and animals.
 
Things I have seen and interacted with all of my life… sometimes in strange circumstances and configurations, but, familiar things, nonetheless.

Why don’t I dream of exotic creatures that have never before existed?
 
Of plasma energies that have souls?
 
Of sounds that have never vibrated in the atmosphere around me?
 
I don’t really have an answer to that.

Maybe I do, and I just don’t remember them.

Well, I do remember some of them.
 
The strangest dreams I have ever had, that I do recall, were the ones that didn’t seem to be dreams at all.
 
The ones that Giddeon showed to me.
 
The worlds we visited
were
exotic and never before experienced.
 
The life forms we encountered sometimes had
never
before been seen.
 
The sounds I heard
were
novel and unexpected.
 

Did that golf ball slamming into my temple open a gateway into realities that are more than just dreams… or, more than just dreams of dreams?
 
Did it allow me to see what was actually behind the familiar curtain in front of our collective eyes?
 
A curtain that’s emblazoned with common images of all that we’ve been taught to recognize and acknowledge.
 
Was there a man behind the curtain… a kindly wizard?
 
Was there a tin-man, a scarecrow, and a cowardly lion… all with a girl and a dog nearby?

Was the Good Witch of the North looking over me?

There’s no place like home… but, is there really such a place?
 

Or, are all places just the same place?
 

For that matter, are all people just the same person?
 
Are all dreams the same dream?
 
Is there really nothing new in Heaven or on Earth?

Sometimes, I feel like the universe is going to an awful lot of trouble to convince me that it exists.
 
All of the pain, the pleasure, the boredom and confusion.
 
All of the events and places and interactions.
 
Is it really that important for me to believe?
 
To believe that it all exists, and that it isn’t just a dream?

When I look into the night sky and see the splendor and vastness, it often seems almost like a cry for help.
 
As if all of the stars and worlds and quasars are begging for my attention, because if I close my eyes, they’ll simply disappear.
 
Am I that powerful?
 
Can I destroy it all by turning my back on it?
 
Will the dreams all dissolve?
 
If I go away, do they follow suit?
 

I prefer to think that they don’t.

I prefer to think that there is such a thing as reality, and that people, places and things are different.

Especially her.

When I look over at her and see her on the couch or in the yard, I know that
there
is the most exotic creature of them all.
 
The sounds I hear in my heart
are
new and have never been heard before.
 
The energy I feel
does
have a soul that burns like plasma.
 
She is the most unbelievable manifestation of the universe, and I know that if I close my eyes she is still there.

She loves me.

And, that is the most extraordinary thing of all.
 
It cannot be destroyed.
 
It is the universal truth upon which my cosmos exists.
 
The linchpin of reality.
 
She loves me, now, and that will always be.
 
It’s too late for destruction.
 
All of the multi-verse can fold and shatter, and then be swept away to never return, but that fact will remain.
 
A bedrock of truth… during these particular days in this never ending timeline of reality, she loves me.
 
She loves me…

Yeah, yeah, yeah!

*****

I remember the Beatles, on my transistor radio…

And, every now and then the Rolling Stones,

And, in the summertime we’d all go,

Just down to
Florida
, kids on the beach…

Playing in the sand, shovel in my hands,

Everything was in my reach, everything was in my reach.

And, the home team, was number one…

We had the communists on the run…

And, the teenagers all having fun, fun, fun…

If nobody took ‘
em
away... If nobody took ‘
em
away.

And, President Kennedy said,

We’d put a man on the moon, but they shot him dead…

I hope he’s there when we get to the moon,

‘Cause the Hammer and the Sickle ran away with the Spoon.

And, now there’s trouble ‘
tween
the Blacks and Whites…

Something they call Civil Rights.

I don’t really know much about that,

But, the Lone Ranger got himself a big white hat,

And, a black mask…

And, they all ask…

Who was that man?

They don’t understand.

And, Gilligan’s Island was in my back yard…

I dreamed of Jeannie, and I dreamed real hard.

Traded my lunch for a
Dizzie
Dean card…

‘Cause they can’t take that away…

And, hurry up boys, you’re gonna be late for school,

Gotta learn the new math, learn the new golden rule…

Whatever you do, well, you
gotta
stay cool…

‘Cause, they can’t take that away…

They can’t take that away… oh, no!

And, President Kennedy said,

We’d put a man on the moon, but they shot him dead…

I hope he’s there when we get to the moon,

‘Cause the Hammer and the Sickle ran away with the Spoon.

And, now there’s trouble ‘
tween
the Blacks and Whites…

Something they call Civil Rights.

I don’t really know much about that,

But, the Lone Ranger got himself a big white hat,

And, a black mask…

And, the home team, was number one…

We had the communists on the run…

And, the teenagers all having fun, fun, fun…

If nobody took ‘
em
away... If nobody took ‘
em
away.

If nobody took ‘
em
away…

And, I remember the Beatles.

*****

Giddeon and I played this song that night we had our ‘concert’ at The Greek Amphitheatre.
 
He and I had written it while we were on our Beatles kick, and I thought it was a bit odd at the time.
 

It was from another era… the time was before our time… although we had been to so many times and places it was hard to say exactly what our ‘time’ was, sometimes.
 
I didn’t think much of it… it was a cool song… but, I could tell Giddeon was fascinated by it.
 
We played it over and over just after we had completed it, until, frankly, I grew a bit tired of the tune.
 

Not Giddeon.

Sometimes I would catch him humming it to himself, or absently playing the lead when he was messing around on his Martin.

He watched dozens of reruns of
Gilligan’s Island
and
I Dream of Jeannie
.
 
My subconscious always had a bit of a puzzled expression on his face when he did, as if he was looking for something… like there was some secret or clue buried in the slapstick comedy.
 
I didn’t pay much attention to him, however, and would
wile
away the hours playing with Boris or reading paperback novels.

I really liked
Life of Pi
… have you read that one?
 
It was a little disturbing, however, on some level to me.

But, then, again, anything can be disturbing if you let it.

I suppose an asteroid headed your way falls into that category.

*****

There was nothing in the papers about the space-borne danger the next week.
 
Another week went by, and Melody began to get anxious.
 
Was the information being hushed up?
 
Had something happened to Dr. Ho?
 
She knew every day was another day that was bringing the behemoth closer and closer.

Finally, there was a brief mention of a discovery on the evening news.
 
A new asteroid had been identified.
 
It was believed that it didn’t pose a danger to the Earth, even though it would make a close pass in 3 and a half years.
 
Giddy went uncharacteristically still and silent as the anchorman spoke.
 
Oddly, even the cats came and parked themselves in front of the television... as if they were paying attention, also.

Melody and I looked at each other, and then had a discussion about what the possibilities were.

Was Giddeon wrong?
 
Had he miscalculated?
 
Or, was the government keeping the information out of the public’s view in order to not create a panic?
 
Were preparations being made, even as we spoke, to do something about the situation?
 
My wife doesn’t take easily to inaction in the face of a problem, so a decision was made.
 
She went to our room and retrieved the cell phone I had purchased in
L.A.
 
There was one number in its memory bank, and she punched it in.

*****

“Dr. Ho?
 
This is Melody…

*****

The conversation lasted about fifteen minutes.
 
Apparently, there was quite a bit of disagreement in the astronomical community.
 
I had done some research, earlier, and found that there are estimated to be approximately 1000 objects over 250 feet in diameter that cross Earth’s orbit in their journey around our sun.
 
Only three quarters of them have been identified.
 
The possibility of one of them slamming into us is pretty miniscule, but it does happen every so often.
 
Just ask the
Gulf of Mexico
… it was partially formed by such an impact, according to some theories.

Melody was obviously agitated by the situation after talking with Kevin.
 
He had expected the discord in his community, because science is as full of opinions as it is of measurements.
 
The astronomer said that as more data was collected they would be able to make more accurate forecasts, and then he would be able to convince his colleagues of the danger.
 
He hoped it wouldn’t take too long.

I don’t like seeing my wife unhappy.
 
Not even a little bit.
 
Usually we are able to rectify whatever the problem is fairly quickly… a broken water pipe to the hot water heater… spam in our inbox… a bad satellite signal for our television just before one of our favorite programs…
 
this, however was a little different.

Okay, a lot different.

I didn’t have a clue about how to help fix this one.
 
It was a little out of my comfort zone.
 
Melody curled up on the couch next to me and put her head in my lap.
 
I could almost feel the neurons firing in her brain as she laid there, a furrow in her pretty brow.

Is it wrong to be distracted by how cute your wife is while an asteroid is headed your way?
 

Oh well…

*****