Make IT Real! by Sander R.B.E. Beals (good books to read for young adults TXT) 📕

As it is time for bed, Kayim and I say goodnight to the four ladies, and retire to our room. “Are you planning to stay here?”, my roommate asks. “Hadn't really thought of that yet”, I reply, “but I don't think the girls' mother would be very pleased with such a decision”. We discuss it, and I gather from his words that Valerie at least has her heart set on staying. I can see why, since she found two close friends here. At least that is how I see Kim and Kayim. But, no time to decide just yet. I will let these thoughts roam in my mind for a while, and then will decide what to do with them. After all, the vacation is far from over!

4444AD, Day 238, 008:44, Home

As I put the reading pad down, I say hi to Selina who just walked in wearing something comfortable. She makes herself some coffee, and offers me one too, as I tell her about the foul mood of my past self. “Can you tell me why he is in such a rut?”, my precious asks me. Without as much as a thought, I blurt it out: “I figured I'd lost you!”

“When was that?”, my lady asks me. We pinpoint the danger zone to be December 21st, 2009. “Let's give him a bit of a surprise”, Selina never ceases to amaze me: only two seconds flat, and she's already got a plan in place! She asks me to recall from memory what I did that day. I'm not sure of the details, but reckoning it was a Monday, I suppose I went to work like always, and returned home around five PM. “What did you normally do back then?” is the immediate question. “Normally, fire up the laptop to do the website, and attach my smart phone to it to recharge”, I reply. “Perfect!”, she smiles at me. “I can easily slip a secret message into his phone, but we need something to force him to inspect it thoroughly.”, she follows up. “Let me see if I can get his laptop to misbehave”, I add cheerfully. I access the information about the operating systems of that era, remembering that it was running Windows 7 at the time. Hmm, Media Player seems to have a rather obnoxious feature: it may accidentally decide to sync its entire library with whatever memory device you attach to the system. Seeing as how there is over forty gigs of MP3 files on that system, we could very unobtrusively cause a disc full condition on the smart phone! That would cause my past self to have to clean it out, and then he'd most likely bump into the unknown file.

We execute the plan in tandem: Selina writes and inserts the message, and meanwhile I trigger the media player to move the entire music library to the phone.

“And now we wait...” I smile at Selina. We have another coffee, and chitchat about a number of other things. By the time the coffee is gone, so is the uneasy feeling. I browse my memories, and recite to my love the very lovely message which I think she placed in the phone. A big hug is my immediate reward, for I read out verbatim what my lady had inserted just half an hour ago.

We go to the study, to have another look at the memory card from the past. She leans over my shoulder as I work the ancient computer, and browse through the files that are on there. Naturally, my lady is most interested in the folder bearing her name. It seems to hold six or seven folders, each named to designate the contents of them. Nothing peculiar about the file names, except that they are all numerical, and seem to signify dates with three digits added. I decide not to shock Selina, and choose an image from a folder named 'Perfection'. “Never thought I'd make such a pretty picture back then”, Selina says somewhat admiring. Actually she does recognize herself, because the ancient image on the laptop is a dead ringer for her new look, acquired just a while ago. We watch a few more, and somewhat amused she comments on the soft core material in some of the other folders. I figure it's OK, since the only person we see on those images is Selina's past self. But it is weird to now see the actual images that Selina's past self posed for.

After that, it's Selina's turn to hit the shower. With a promise of an exciting evening, she gets me to not follow her in there. Hey, with a promise like that, which guy can refuse? So I dive right back into my book......

'Dream or Reality?'

That night is unusual to say the least. Dreaming is something I'm sure I do, but normally up top I hardly ever remember my dreams. This time though, the memory of it is so vivid, that I wonder if I haven't been awake all night, and really experienced it:

I remembered having left my bed, while the others were fast asleep. I sneaked into the girls' room, to take the digital camera from Jane's night stand. She turned over as I picked it up, but didn't wake up. I carefully closed the door, and left the hotel, greeting the hostess as I passed her by. Not sure where I was going, or even sure why I bothered to pick up the camera, I walked towards the central tower. It was an uphill climb, but I could hardly call it tiresome. Because of the ever available Inner Sun, it was easy to shoot some pictures on the way there.

The tower was a hexagonal structure, quite wide at the base, and tapering off towards the top. Each of the six sides had a door in it, and the first one I tried had stairs leading up. Now I'd already heard about life on top from Kayim and the girls, so I decided to try the next door. “And, what's behind door number two?” I asked myself out loud as I opened it. Hey, stairs leading down! That felt more like it! I closed the door behind me, and was immediately grateful that I had taken the Maglite that the guide at the pyramids had handed to us. At least I wouldn't have to find my way in total darkness. I had no idea where I was, except somewhere below the city. Descending the stairway, I figured I would be coming closer and closer to the familiar outer surface. Would this be the passageway that Taquatl had talked about?

I continued downwards until the stone stairway ended in a ridge surrounding a hole in the ground. Attached to poles mounted in the wall of the circular tower, I saw a rope going down into the pit. Fully realizing the reversal of gravity that we had experienced on the way down, I grabbed on to the rope, after sticking the Maglite in my belt. I'd already stashed the camera in my back pocket, having recorded my progress so far. It was easy to descend the rope, not having to battle full gravity. With large 'strides' of my arms I went down into the pit, feeling myself become ever lighter. By the time I drifted upwards, no longer hanging from the rope, I reversed my grip on the rope, and started climbing 'up' again, really up this time. I was just about tired of climbing using my arms only, when I reached the end of the rope, anchored to the walls in much the same way as the other end.

I did wonder however, whether it all was real. Surely the shell between the Inner and the Outer Earth was many miles thick, and I could not possibly have traversed this distance on hand in such a short span of time. But hey, no worries! I was here, so what was next? Up the stairs, double-time. In contrast to the well-kept stairs at the other end, these were far more worn down. It even seemed to become worse, as I ascended. I had to really watch my step as I traversed the final few steps, only to land in a small stone chamber, with a single opening to the south. I stepped outside, and couldn't believe my eyes: Jungle, as far as the eye could reach. I was on top of the structure known as the palace of Palenque, topped by the small building. I wondered, if I'd brought my cell phone, would I have been able to phone home? Probably not, since cell phone towers are hard to come by in the middle of the South-American jungle.

It was good to see the stars again. Especially here, where there was very little man-made light around. I could easily identify some of the more well known constellations, like Cassiopeia and Orion. But wait, there was something strange about Cassy: the W-shaped figure showed me not five, but six stars. There was an extra one, halfway down the first leg. It shone brightly, but not with the normal, near-white light of other stars. This one seemed to switch colors, twinkling as if to attract extra attention to itself. Just as I turned my head to take another look at it, it was gone. “Must have been a flying saucer”, I thought, and shrugged it off.

I wouldn't have to bother telling Valerie, she'd never believe me anyway, not without solid proof. Having thought that, it suddenly occurred to me that the lighting level out here in the jungle had significantly increased. Looking around to spot the source of the light, I discovered a circular, well-lit shape hovering over the Temple of Inscriptions. “Well, there's your evidence!”, I said to myself. Fortunately the disc stayed put as I took out the camera, and committed the images to memory. As if they had been waiting for me to complete my work, the disc then zoomed off into the distance, converging to that same position on Cassiopeia's leg. No doubt, that was where they came from in the first place!

I spent some time going over the ruins of the palace, but found no other remarkable events or items. What was remarkable though, was the fact that these buildings were still here. But hey, back to reality: traveling the same way I came in, I again descended into the pit only to ascend at the other end. Walked back to the hotel, dropped the camera on Jane's night stand, and got back into bed, to finish my dream. There was still time, it was only five o'clock.

Monday, March 23rd, 2010, 18:22

Today, I suddenly decided to switch to a fruit and yoghurt diet for a while, brought on by the first rays of sunlight after this long, white winter. But was it me, or did this decision originate somewhere else? The one thing I do know, is that it was I who made the final decision, although my hints for doing so may have come from anywhere. I mean it just feels right, so what is there to worry about?

And I don't. Today started off on what some people would consider “the wrong foot”, with my phone failing to wake me, and my backup alarm not having been set by me. Ninety minutes delay in getting to work, and at first glance taking half a day off seemed impossible. That meant working late, but let's not worry and just get on with it. By lunchtime I'd finished my immediate work, and asked my boss for that half day off anyway. Home by two thirty, a day to die for....

Replied to Kibo's mail, stating that as I feel it, freedom is not something to be fought for, but something to be decided: If I decide I am free, then no illusion can really capture me, even though I seem to be