The Chardon Chronicles: Season One -- The Harvest Festival (28 page)

He felt a gaze fall on him from above. He saw
a crow circling overhead. Then, a man appeared a few paces ahead of
him.

“Whoa!” Matt thought.

“Hallo.” the man hailed him and held out a
hand.

Matt felt a friendly presence, a jocularity.
Matt shook the hand. “I’m Matthew Wells.”

“You can call me Montigo--that’s what I’ve
been going by lately. You, sir are very interesting. I see a thing
glowing around you, like a cross, and a drunken feeling
pervades.”

“Aha. Very interesting.” Matt thought, “the
cross is actually a metallic reflector I am using to cross over,
and the drunken feeling is a drink I take to protect me.”

“I have
never
heard of this!” Matt
felt a sense of excitement flow from the man. “You sir are like me,
a man of natural philosophy. Such a rarity! It’s almost always men
of business, politics, and of course, religion. They are often the
worst.”

“How so?”

Matt sensed a feeling of questing curiosity.
“Well, I assume, like me you have been driven to see what is over
here by a thirst for understanding. A sip from Mimir’s well, you
know that story? Anyway, the men of religion come here and are
always,
‘Take me to see the heavenly father!’
and are so
disappointed. They are so easily duped, fall in with the worst of
the worst.”

Matt was excited, “I am very interested to
know of the others who cross over.”

Montigo held up his arms and gestured around.
“Crossings have been going on, well, for as long as it’s all been
here. Even before the first man, there was a correspondence between
this place and the Earth. Certain animals perceive this place as
you are doing now. You saw the crow?”

“Ohhhh, that was on my side. Fascinating.”
Matt thought.

“However, I suppose you are interested in
other men who cross over. Formerly, it was all types, farmers,
musicians, priests, men and women, children, slaves and kings. Now,
though it’s almost always men on
official
business, just the
cold business of empires and enterprise. Nobody with just love of
knowledge, nor poetry, nor
love
. Now it’s always just
business.”

“Business?”

“Yes, the nations and empires of earth have
their seats
here.
The horse trading deals that one might
make on Earth--you get what you want when I get what I want goes on
all the time.”

“Amazing. We’ve always suspected that.” Matt
thought. Matt felt his concentration start to ebb. “Montigo, I feel
pulled back to the other side. I hope we can talk again soon.”

“Matt, it’s been a true pleasure. Before you
go, might I ask a favor?”

“Uh sure.” Matt thought.

“When you open your eyes over there, I will
actually
see
the real world.”

“It’s a pretty disappointing view, I’m sorry
to say.” Matt thought.

“No matter! Maybe next time, do something
different. Do you have a cat? I would like to see a real cat.”
Montigo said.

“OK. I am going.” Matt opened his eyes. For a
moment he felt Montigo’s presence, then was back to himself.

“Hey! There he is.” Johnny said.

“Holy shit… Just holy shit. That was beyond
wild. This thing works.” Matt said.

“What was the number?”

Matt put a hand to his head and said, “I
think it was
525-637-5679.
Is that even close?”

Johnny let out a low whistle. “Weird… You got
the wrong number,
but
…”

“But what?”

“That’s the group of digits right next to
what I highlighted. I might have been looking at those.”

Matt climbed down the ladder, “I sort of saw
you… It’s a very weird experience. Let’s head back to the farm.
I’ll tell you all about it. I actually remember it much better this
time, but still, it is like a dream. The memory of it fades rather
quickly.”

Robbie and David got off Interstate 90 near
Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

“My back wants a bed. And a shower.” Robbie
said.

“What a baby! But yeah, a shower would be
welcome. Hey let’s look for some WiFi. I want to download Jacob’s
podcasts.” David said. He popped his laptop open and put it on the
dashboard. They’d been driving a 1997 Chevy Impala since
Tennessee.

Robbie started to follow the street toward
distant signs of civilization. He saw the glow of a truck stop in
the distance. They passed a long chain link fence that enclosed a
salvage yard.

“Oh man, pull over up here. I got a signal.”
David said.

Robbie pulled in a driveway next to the
salvage yard. “OK, Signal thief. Have at it. You know, in another
life, I would own a scrap yard.”

David clicked the mouse a few times and
downloaded a couple of weeks worth of podcasts to

his media player. It was an old brick-like
device from Korea with a bright screen and a few glowing navigation
buttons. “Alright… that’ll do it.”

They continued down the road and David
started playing the podcast.

Jacob did a weekly podcast. He started each
with a monologue, then had a guest or two. The monologue invariably
worked its way back to the main touch pieces of his view on the
global conspiracy--that earth was subject to extra-dimensional
shape shifters, and that they preyed on the weakest among us and
had a special taste for children. In between the segments Jacob
hawked products, fluoride filters for water purification, vitamin
supplements.

David started to skip past the commercial
breaks. “Man, the guy’s always selling something.”

Robbie nodded, “Well, I guess he’s gotta eat,
right?”

David shrugged, “I’m thinking eat, make a
boat payment, a car payment, possibly some rounds of golf...”

Robbie laughed. “Hey, did you ever see
They Live
?”

David furrowed his brow, “Is that the one
with Rowdy Roddy Piper?”

“Bingo.”

David sighed contentedly, “Yeah that’s a
great one.”

“The podcast reminds me of that movie, but
with no action. I mean, the movie’s probably a better vehicle for
this type of information, it’s a more compelling depiction.” Robbie
said.

“Oh wait, here we go…” David turned up the
volume then backed the podcast up.

Ladies and gentlemen, I received a
thumbdrive from an anonymous source that records the audio of an
encounter with these entities. I have absolutely no way of
verifying the authenticity of this information, but it is very
compelling stuff indeed.

The podcast included some of their audio, but
Jacob edited it to fit his trans-dimensional lizard narrative.
Robbie groaned.

David shut the podcast off and tossed the
media player on the seat. “
C’est la vie
! Robbie, we made a
long trip for
that
.” he said.

“Look on the bright side. We don’t have to
listen any more of that stuff.” Robbie pulled into a motel.

David unloaded his bag from the trunk. “I
think we’re on the right track with this Internet thing. We really
need some more direct media outlets. But, we’ll need to cultivate
more decent, authentic people, not salesmen types.”

They checked into the room. The walls were
wood paneled from the slightly worn out green patterned carpet up
to a yellowed stucco ceiling. The window glass was starred and
pitted from years of exposure to the weather, and the window panes
were chalky gray pitted aluminum, but the beds were clean and there
were clean towels in the bathroom.

“Did you read the
Conan
books?” David
asked. He flopped onto his bed and contemplated the stucco ceiling.
There was a long crack from the middle of the room to one
corner.

“Yeah, read the comics, too, and saw the
movie:
The Riddle of Steel
.” Robbie intoned.

David pointed at him, “That’s the stuff,
right? I thought about the Riddle of Steel for years. It sticks
with you, sort of a guiding thought.”

Robbie thought for a minute as he unpacked a
few things from his duffel. He asked, “Out of the millions of
people who watched Conan, how many thought about that question once
they left the theater?”

“Probably a lot, well, maybe some. OK. Like
maybe five.” David sighed. He hopped out of the bed. “I think we
all might need to take a step back and refresh the Big Plan. But
right now, I’m going to take a shower and shave this stubble.
Starting to itch.”

“I think you’re right, maybe call home base
later?”

Dana, Johnny, Telia and Matt sat around the
dinner table at the farm house. A lamp with an iron framed shade
hung six feet above the worn wood surface and illuminated the table
with a soft glow and two candles cast a flickering light on the
walls. The rest of the room was dim. They were having wine and
cheese before their meal.

Matt bubbled over with enthusiasm. “It’s
incredible what Johnny put together. You sit in this chair that’s
suspended in the middle of a big ball of copper, and he rigged a
control system to point the thing in any direction.”

“Did it work?” Dana asked.

“Yeah…” Matt nodded. He paused, deep in
thought, trying to put the experience into words.

Johnny pointed at him, “We aimed it at the
Sun. I was pretty sure his head was going to explode.”

Telia furrowed her brow, “The Sun? Oh come
on…”

Johnny nodded, “And Matt saw me… He read some
digits of
π
I picked out of a book, well, saw the digits
that were next to the ones I picked.”

Matt continued, “It was like a fairly vivid
dream… Apparently the crows can actually see into that other
world.”

Dana was suspicious, “I still think it’s
dangerous. But I admit I am intrigued.”

Telia waved it off, “Oh please! You’ll have
to let someone else get into that chair. Shouldn’t it work for
everyone?”

Matt shrugged, “I think it should, but I
really don’t know. I was actually going to ask you, ask you all
actually.”

Telia held up her hand in protest, “No, no,
no. Not me.”

Dana asked her, “Why not? Aren’t you
curious?”

“I’m the only sane one in this family.
Someone should keep a foot in the real world.” She said, however,
her curiosity was piqued.

Dana rolled her eyes, “This ‘real world’ is
actually totally batshit crazy. Count me in. I’d like to try it
out.”

Johnny nodded, “Me too… maybe we should build
a few of these things… I think we can get some more data from the
prototype and make the next ones smaller.”

Matt said, “Alright, well why don’t we all go
down there together tomorrow and play around a little bit before we
make any major plans.”

Telia said, “Well, I’ll go. I want to see
this thing.”

Dana clinked glasses with her, “That’s the
spirit!”

Matt snapped his fingers, “And don’t let me
forget to bring a barn cat…”

The farmhouse was quiet and Matt was in his
office writing down his recollection of the day’s events. As
before, the experience was a bit faded like the memory of a dream,
but he recalled specifics quite clearly, like still frames
extracted from a movie.

The phone rang, Robbie’s number came up on
the caller ID.

“Hey, bro, how’d it work?” Robbie asked. Matt
could tell he was on the speakerphone.

“Hey guys. It actually completely worked. I
was
over there.
I was walking on a pebbled shoreline, then
up to a grassy field. It was dim, like dusk on a cloudy night. I
talked to one of them.”

“No shit?” Robbie asked breathlessly.

“Wow.” David said.

“He, his name was Montigo, said basically the
other world is exactly like this one. All the same bullshit,
politics, struggles for power, and the two worlds are linked
together. Oh, and mostly it’s businessmen and politicians that make
the connection, now. Just all business.”

“So, what did he look like? I mean, is it
like a ghost.”

“No, not exactly. I mean I
saw
him. He
was a balding middle aged man with a thin beard. But I also felt
him. His emotions. Really just like being inside a dream. A lucid
dream.”

David asked, “Did you try the numbers thing
with Johnny?”

“Yeah, that was a good test, by the way. I
didn’t get the right numbers, but I got the next group Johnny
looked at. Maybe he was looking at them at the time. I sort of saw
Johnny, but he was really indistinct.”

Robbie asked, “So what’s next?”

“Well…” Matt sighed, “We’re all going down
there tomorrow to try it out. I still don’t have a solid plan.”

Robbie grunted, “You think it’s safe?”

There was a long pause. Matt replied, “Yeah,
so far it’s been innocuous.” he remembered the instant where
Montigo looked through his eyes. “Well, I think the peyote does the
job anyway.”