Children of the Source Read online

  “No magic.” I eyed Judith. “I’ll see what can be done. See you later, Mrs.”

  Roger Henderson had come to us ten years ago during the Third Fall Bartering Rendezvous at Clint’s Well. I’d stood talking with Grant by the goods we’d laid out to barter. Five other survival communities joined us: Heber, Dripping Springs, Sky Haven out of the Chiricahua Mountains, Thatcher-Safford, and Chino Valley. Colonel Steve Deckart provided security. The leaders of the Heber contingent walked up to us leading a crippled boy I judged to be around seven years old. His right side grew stunted and pretty much useless. He dragged the leg. The eyes looked out, not vacant, but listless. Drool dripped off his slack chin.

  The leader put out a hand, “Rib Wallace.” He gestured to the other two men, “Henry Michaels. Jake Attenbough.” I shook their hands and we introduced ourselves. Rib turned. “Roger,” he said gently, and led the boy forward. “This is Jamie and Grant.” The boy laughed awkwardly, eyes waiting for rejection, revulsion. He swallowed and looked down in relief when it didn’t come.

  Rib Wallace pulled me aside, and we walked amid tall ponderosa pine in the brisk Fall air and bright sunshine. “We have a problem. A sickness took Roger’s folks along with twelve others a couple of months ago. We used to be fifty-eight strong. Now we have barely enough people to keep things together. We haven’t got the people to spare to look after him. He takes near constant attention. To be blunt we were hoping you’d be able to take him.” He stopped and faced me. “We can’t give him what he needs anymore. If you can’t take him, we’ll be forced to turn him over to Deckart. He’ll ship him back East. You know Carson doesn’t have the facilities and manpower to help Roger. God, we don’t want that.” He shook a bowed head in painful frustration.

  “We’ll take Roger, and give it a go. I know you’ve got a struggle going on. Any way else we can help?” We gave Heber half our Barter that year, and later they helped us with information on putting something together at our place a couple of times. That’s the way things worked.

  As our party prepared to head back up Lake Mary Road and home, Deckart walked up to me. “You sure pull in the strays, don’t you?”

  “Yep, sure do, Steve.”

  “We could ship him back East. He’d get care there, Jamie.”

  “Things back East are chaotic too. He’d probably be warehoused in an orphanage. Best with us, Colonel. Thanks for the offer, but we’ll keep him.” I looked back toward the end of our five mule column where Roger sat on the end mule Wilbur. Grant stood at his side. Betty Oberman went from mule to mule, checking cinches and ropes.

  Roger wept as we made our way north, and the pain on Rib’s face as we left showed pretty plain, too. I thought on this as we ran to Evan’s house. We’d made some progress. He learned to speak better, and in a whispered voice could almost speak normally. A lot of love and attention helped, but the great frustration of living in a partially functioning body caused him enormous stress.

  I entered his bedroom and found him with his eyes closed. I could tell he was at his wits end, feeling he had no place to go. I knew the problem. Roger had fallen in love with pretty Krystal Clayton, but because of his physical body he felt the whole thing futile and less. He was growing into adulthood without manhood or personhood.

  Roger’s eyes blinked open. “Give me back my body, Jamie.”

  “Don’t know if I can, Rog.”

  “You haven’t tried. Look what you did for Marilyn and Victoria.”

  I nodded, feeling excited. “Roger, we’re going to tote you to the clinic and work on you. Evan, could you put him in the room next to Elaine? Ask Betty to get an energy circle ready. I have a couple of people I have to see to make things work.”

  Evan escorted me to the door. “You think you can do it? It’s not fair to get Roger’s hopes up falsely.”

  “There may be a way with the Sound Language I’ve just learned to use. I have to try. What if there was a way and I didn’t try? Where would Roger be then? Let’s see what happens.”

  A half hour later I stood over Roger who lay on an examining table. Betty Oberman sat in the waiting room with five other people forming what we called an energy circle. To others it would be akin to a prayer or healing group. I studied Roger, and knew the problem lay in another life where the Entity had unresolved ideas that had been used to structure Roger’s current life. Roger had decided to reject these problems and go his own way, but he needed serious help. In deep states of hypnosis, normal waking consciousness can be bypassed, so contact with the Entity can be made. Also the ideas/events from other lives which impinge on this one can be examined and resolved in ways that can clear up physical and psychological problems in this present life.

  His physical problems were so serious, he would need restructuring using the Sound Language. But that meant operating in the past and present simultaneously. I looked at Evan, Laith, and Charles. “You will feel movements of energy physically. I have to contact Roger’s Entity or Greater Self. The problems his Entity intended to play out and resolve in Roger’s life will have to be shelved for another time.”

  Evan frowned. “But aren’t Roger and his Entity the same?”

  “Same energy, but Roger is like a subset of the Entity. He has complete freedom and self-determination from the Entity. This is a law of Creation. Rather like a parent with a child. Here goes.” I drew in a breath of energy.

  I found myself both within Roger’s damaged body and in a curious mental realm where I saw/ felt a life used to running roughshod over others for personal gain. The physical body was strong and unusually healthy, and the personality used it to control and abuse others. The Entity decided to create a body where that could not happen, and the new personality would be dependent on others for nearly everything. I realized both were different poses of the same thing.

  I touched the Entity explaining the new direction Roger intended to go. The Entity agreed, reluctant, but making no objections. Then I began the delicate changes needed in the personality and body to allow the energy to flow naturally using delicate tonal complexes. Slowly I cleaned the meridians, layers of scar tissue that had been set up to reinforce the problem. Bitter beliefs he was crippled for life, and the rage at this unfair fate. Beliefs are energy structures that provide the landscape for thoughts to grow for good or ill. That is what I had to clean by going back into his past and changing his ideas. Working with Roger’s Entity, we made the break between the past personality and Roger. This decrease of stress released the energy constricting his physical nerves. A part of me was monitoring Roger’s body, which began to relax with the nerve pathways restoring to normal. His meridians were now clear. Slow going reshaping the nerves and nerve pathways, strengthening various body parts, cleaning up the connections between the body systems and making them interact the way they should. Fifteen minutes later Laith, Charles, and Evan exchanged glances.

  An hour later I took a break, and ate a meal. I was using enormous amounts of energy, not all of it my own. Some from Betty’s energy circle, some from Roger’s Entity, and some from other energy sources. Roger lay asleep, actually out of his physical body, in the dream state where I could work with him and his ideas. Twenty minutes later I resumed the restoration. I took four more breaks before I completed the reconstruction. Finally, after four and a half hours I was done. Roger reentered his physical body. He would sleep a restorative sleep, gathering energy for his awakening.

  I sat back and viewed my handiwork, actually ours. The enterprise had required a number of Beings, not all in physical bodies. I simply acted as the focus and directed the handiwork. Roger looked like a normal person now. Body completely relaxed. I wondered what he would do with this new found life. A gentle personality, he had the heart of an artist.

  An exhausted group adjourned to the Dining Hall for some refreshment. Herb teas, cookies, goat cheese, slices of pie proved the perfect comfort food for blurred minds and drained bodies. I turned to Betty, “Ma’am, your group sure pulled through. Did you
feel any movement as I siphoned off the energy?”

  “A dip. A waver. A pulling.”

  “Interesting,” I said, taking another slice of apple pie.

  “You look almost fresh,” Jana observed.

  “Just excited,” I said. “We’ve done something I didn’t know could be done.”

  “Think it’ll work?” Dick Clayton asked. He and Krystal heard of the experiment and come to lend their energies.

  “I don’t know the extent of where it’ll go, but the ideas are changed, the meridians are clear, the nerve pathways are rebuilt and clean, and everything is hooked up. He’ll need people to help with muscle building, but there is nothing keeping him from functioning normally.”

  “I’ll help,” Krystal volunteered.

  I looked at her and she blushed. I smiled. “He’s in love with you, Krystal. That’s part of what prompted this operation.”

  “I’ve seen him watching me,” she said seriously. “We’ve known each other before. I feel at ease around him, but I didn’t know how to handle his disability so I never went close.”

  “You two lived a happy life as husband and wife during a peaceful period as Minoans on the island of Crete. A successful relationship. You were the male. He the female.”

  “And now?”

  “That’s for the both of you to decide. You are new personalities from the same Entities. You have the essence memories from that time. That is why you feel drawn to each other. Take things slowly. You will know if it is right to be together this time.”

  I walked over to the clinic with Judith and Krystal. Judith had participated as part of Betty’s energy group. We went inside and said hello to Elaine and the baby. The wee beastie nursed hungrily on full breasts. Ren wasn’t around. I checked with my mind, and found him with an alert Mike Rosen and two of his security people. Ren was beating one of them at chess. They were keeping him occupied.

  We excused ourselves and went into Roger’s room. The sleeping face no longer held the slack mouth or stress from his former physical problems. Krystal traced his profile delicately with a forefinger, eyes absorbed with the new man lying before her. “How old is he, Jamie?”

  “Seventeen. Your age.”

  Judith and I left them there, and Evan saw us to the clinic door, promising to check on Roger as the night progressed. Judith took my hand and we headed home. The lights from the circling spacecraft shown bright. Meg O’Banion met us in front of the Arms Shack. She rubbed her eyes.

  “I’ve been looking for you. I dreamed of my Mommy and Daddy. They looked so happy.” Her voice held a yearning. She burst into tears and ran into Judith’s arms.

  I changed my focus. Chuck and Ruth O’Banion stood close by, looking worried. Their intent was obvious, but the results had been completely unexpected. I reassured them mentally.

  I knelt to Meg. “What did they say to you?”

  “They love me and will watch over me always.”

  “They will.” I picked her up. “You know how we had you talk to your Mom and Dad? When you go back to sleep tonight, you can visit with them again.”

  We took Meg home, had a snack together, and then went to bed. In the days since coming to Cheshire, Meg O’Banion had found herself loved, wanted, and accepted. A slow adjustment showed itself in her behavior. A visible relaxed posture took hold, and she sought children her own age like Marilyn and Victoria. They played around, sometimes in the duck pond, and whenever possible conned someone into going to the reservoirs. She still kept a certain distance, but in times of stress allowed us to comfort her. The night passed uneventfully.

  After breakfast, while I was doing dishes at the Dining Hall, Meg came up to me. “Greetings, Ma’am. Good to see you.” I bent and gave her a hug which she accepted easily enough.

  “Mommy and Daddy spoke to me again like you said they would.”

  “Ah.”

  “Yeah. They said you and Judith are my physical Mommy and Daddy now. They’ll be my Mommy and Daddy over there.”

  “How do you feel about that?”

  “Okay.” Then her face grew uncertain. “Will you be my Daddy here?”

  I smiled. “I’d be honored.” She hugged and kissed me quickly, and then spun away excited, getting ready to run.

  “Where are you headed?”

  “To see if Judith will be my Mommy here.”

  “Good. Now remember what I taught you ... ”, but she was racing out the door, dark hair flying, thin body a blur.

  After my turn at dishes, I went to the clinic to see Roger and Elaine. She and the baby were asleep. I found Roger sitting in a chair moving his weak leg on his own. Krystal sat by, and I caught a brief snatch of conversation about the Minoans.

  Roger stood. “Thank you, friend Jamie.” His voice sounded normal with none of the garbled sound of before. “Look, I can move my right side. Everything.” He showed us. “God, you gave me back my life. A real life. And possibilities.” He looked at Krystal who smiled back.

  “You’re welcome. It was a community effort as Krystal and Evan can tell you. I think you’ll find yourself completely functional. Take things slowly. You have muscle to rebuild.”

  “I will.” We moved outside, while Roger kept stretching his thin leg.

  Mark Lancaster saw us and walked over. “How does it feel, Roger?”

  “Like a new leg. Like it finally woke up and works.” He looked at us all, pleased and worried at the same time. “Kind of like I’ve had half of my body asleep all my life. Now it’s awakened. Quite a feeling.”

  We watched in silence as Roger exercised carefully. He stopped and said, “I’m just worried all this will go away and I’ll be back where I was before. Like this is a dream in a larger nightmare.”

  “Nope,” I said. “Your Entity agreed to the change, and even helped make certain changes in your system.”

  Roger shook his head in angry disbelief. “How could an Entity do this to a personality they create? It is unnatural.”

  “Not from their point of view,” I said. “Their values and intents are entirely different from our own. You have to keep an eye on them.”

  Mark said, “Jamie, Rosie Bateman found this strange metal box in the garden by the Dining Hall.” He showed me the dimensions by hand. “Guess about eight inches thick. Fifteen inches wide, and eighteen inches long. It’s smooth grey green metal with no openings. Has a burnished look to it with incredible swirling patterns.”

  “Any ideas?” Krystal said.

  “No. Someone jokingly said it came from the aliens. The box is beautifully crafted. Sides slope down gracefully to a flat base. Certainly not like anything I’ve ever seen.”

  “Where is it?” I asked.

  “At the Community Center. Lots of people speculating on it. Think I’ll take a look at it again.” He admonished Roger to keep up the good work.

  Charles Bareton stopped by. He looked at Roger and then me. “Beautiful work.” He chatted with Roger and Krystal for a couple of minutes. Then he excused himself, asking if I’d walk with him to see the box.

  As we walked to the Community Center, he said, “What’s missing?”

  “Missing?”

  “You said something is missing last night in a dream.”

  I laughed. “Oh, I didn’t think you’d get that. It was an afterthought. My identity. Seems I’m all bits and pieces right now.”

  “Look at the box and let your mind roam. What’s in the box will trigger what you need. You led them from the war world, as Earth was known then, to the new planets. They did not lose their technology nor the path you set them on. You are the reality. What I did became a horrific legend.”

  We went into the community center, and in the main room sat the box on a table. “How heavy is the box?” Jana Clayton asked.

  “Pound. Pound and a half.” Mike Roseman hefted the box and turned it over.

  “No openings?”

  Mike turned it over again and shrugged. “None that I can see.” Twenty-five to thirty people t
hronged the room, so we stood on the outer edges.

  “Does it rattle?”

  He shook it. “No.”

  “No buttons, lights, indentations?”

  Five year old Ernie Harris scowled. “Boring.” He scampered off with two other boys. Everyone laughed. Most of the day, people examined, poked and prodded the box.

  A sliver of a waxing moon stood in the newly darkened sky before I had time to be alone with the box. The council had given their approval, and I had excused myself from my family not long after dinner. I sat in a small room at the community center. The box rested on the table before me. I sat there not touching the box, just letting my mind roam.

  Then a dream Laith had had came back to me. It was years ago, shortly after the convict army had left. Things had settled down pretty good with them on the way. We foraged and managed to make it into Spring. One night I got up to put a log in the wood stove when Laith came in.

  “Dad?” He still wasn’t comfortable with the word, but chose to use it.

  “Laith.” I opened the wood stove and the strange pale red of the coals cast a soft light on our features.

  “I dreamed of you just now. Real vivid. You were some type of scientist-priest in this advanced world. The powers available to you were quite unbelievable. I mean the things you could do. Change things, how they looked, with your mind. You were married to Mom, sort of. An unlawful relationship. Then your people left that world because it was dying from what had been done to it. That’s where the dream ended. You shoulda seen the buildings. All types. Built into the earth and such. Fantastic landscaping.”

  “What’ d you make of it?”

  “Seems like a whole-nother life. I know it was you and Mom.”

  “What type of person was I then?”

  “Pretty much as you are now. But more daring, that’s for sure. You had power, but if you were caught with Mom you’d have been put to death. She was a queen or something.”