Now that the end was near some wanted to hear what he and the group had been trying to tell them for decades. The press was gathering just outside his door and in a few minutes he and the group would meet with them. But oh how he wished that they had listened when he first began sounding the alarm.
If only the government hadn't been so determined to keep the truth from the people. Then what was now taking place around the world could have all been avoided. All the pain and suffering that could have been avoided. . . all the lives that could have been saved!
Remembering back wasn't that easy now that he was close to a hundred, but in the dim recesses of his memory he remembered how it had all began. He had been promoted to Chief Intelligence Officer of the Air Force's most secret base, a desolate facility located in a small canyon in Arizona, and his assignment had been to keep the base and it's going's on a total military secret.
How clearly he remembered his first encounter, and the caregiver that they had with their dying patient. How foolish they had all been. Other than himself and the group members the mentally retarded caregiver was probably the only other person that had truly been given a glimpse of the future and the past.
He remembered how the caregiver had drawn the first pictures of the circles and other strange patterns. . . and how the drawings had drawn him into the whole thing. Somehow he had known that they were a message, but it would be decades before he would truly understand.
What ever had become of those journals, he wondered? They had been what had piqued his interest in the beginning. It was the pictures of the circles and patterns that he had at first wanted the caregiver to explain, but it was the notations and the sensations that would be the glue that would bond him to. . . the Alien.
The journal that the caregiver had kept was full of strange notations. . . things that everyone else choose to read as fantasy and mindless ramblings. They had likened them to Aesop fables and paid no attention to them. Little did they realize that in those journals were contained the secrets of their past and their future, not to mention the first attempts of an Alien at true friendship and sharing. For the caregiver had written and drawn about the things that the Alien had pictured for him.
He remembered the day that he decided to unravel the mystery and decided that he would attempt to talk to the caregiver. Doing so he became more and more confused.
Once out of the room the man started to recount the event. He told them he was just sitting there writing down his questions and trying to make sense of what the caregiver was saying when suddenly he became over whelmed with a sense of great anguish. He likened it to how one might feel if he returned home and found his wife had been raped, his children violated and his home burned to the ground. The observers listened dumbfounded.
"Why," they wanted to know would such a feeling come over a man from just looking at a picture?
"The man replied, "It wasn't the picture, it seemed more like, a mental image.
"What did he mean?" They probed. Why he didn't even have a wife or children so why would he sense such an overwhelming mental image.
"It wasn't me or anything to do with me," he explained.
"Well," they went on, "It surely can't be an image that the caregiver ever had. He would never have any of those things!"
"No," the man went on, "I had the strange feeling that it came from the Alien!"
"From the Alien? How can that be?" The group wanted to know.
"I don't know, but somehow I know that he wanted me to sense this great loss," the man replied.
"Are you telling us he talked to you?" Asked the group.
"Not exactly, but I'm sure that what I experienced was because of him. Right now all I want is to go back in that room and see what if anything else happens," was the man's curt reply.
The group remembered the fate of the others who had spent too much time with the Alien and had gone totally mad. They tried to persuade him to just let things alone. He assured them he was fine and needed to go back into the room and see what he could make of this.
Reentering the room he was again overwhelmed with great despair. But it was suddenly replaced with a warmth like that kind of warmth he used to get when his mother would give him a hug and tell him how proud of him she was. This time he knew in his heart that the sensation was coming from the Alien. For when he looked deep into the Aliens enormous, black watery eyes he could see the emotion deep within them. Then just as suddenly as the sensations had begun, they ceased. The Alien's eyes were now closed and the caregiver was standing next to him looking like the cat who swallowed the canary. He asked the caregiver, "Did you feel that?" The caregiver smiled.
Once outside the room, again the observers wanted to know what had he meant by his question to the caregiver?
His response was, "Oh nothing, I just felt a slight chill in the air."
"Oh," they responded. "Well, what happened? What did you find out?"
"Nothing, nothing at all. I don't know what came over me earlier. Maybe I'm just working to hard and need a rest." He said.
The others agreed with him that he was probably right and good rest was all that he needed. So they all left the area and left him to pack up and go to his quarters. But this is not what he had in mind.
Back in the Alien's quarters standing only a few feet away from him and again looking deep into the Alien's eyes the investigator began to feel another sensation. This one brought him to an eerie conclusion. It was, that he dare not divulge what was happening or what he thought was happening for he concluded he would surely face the same fate as the others who had gotten too close to the Alien. Remembering them and their early retirements and lables of being no longer mentally competent, brought the investigator to the realization of what he had to do now. Somehow he had to find his former superior officer and friend Joe Taylor who was one of the men who had been so dealt with and find out for himself if the man was indeed mad, or was there another explanation? His next move would have to be to get the files on Joe and the others and track them down.
At first, the record's clerk was hesitant about letting him look at the record's. However after he explained that he had been friends with Joe, one of the men retired from the project, and just wanted to look him up and see how he was doing, the clerk saw no problem and agreed to admit him to the eyes only section. Luck must have been on the investigator's side for the clerk was forced to leave him to go answer the phone, and during that short time he was able to photograph a portion of the file. Quickly putting the camera back in his pocket he took out a pen and piece of paper and scribbled the name of the Hospital where Joe had been sent. Showing the clerk the paper and thanking him he quickly left.
Returning to his quarters with the camera and film was no problem but now how would he get the film developed without arousing any curiosity? Then he remembered, he was due to do a lecture in a couple of days. He would drop off the film in town on his way to the lecture and pick it up on his way back. Meanwhile, he would avoid the Alien and any further open investigation of the entire matter. Not that he had any intent of stopping his investigation. He just felt that he could no longer do it out in the open. Somehow he just knew that it would be dangerous for him personally to continue down the path the others had gone down who were no longer at the facility. He didn't quite know how he knew this or why, but he knew it none the less.
The morning of the lecture he was anxious to get started, but he had to try and appear calm. He didn't want anyone to even begin to think there was anything strange or unusual about him or what he was doing. During the time between his last contact with the Alien and this morning, he had taken great pains to prove to anyone who might question him that everything was normal and that he had lost interest in any direct dealings with the Alien. Other than what was required by his job description, which of course would give him ample time to follow up his hunches.
It seemed as though the lecture and question and answer session would never end, but finally it was over and he returned to the base with the developed film in hand. What he found in the pictures was just as he had begun to suspect. Joe had been spending many hours each day with the Alien, after which he would talk of strange conversations or thoughts that had passed between him and the Alien. The longer he spent with the Alien the stranger the stories, until he was finally sent to the base doctor. When nothing had been found physically wrong with him, they set him up with a psychiatrist, who, after several sessions determined that Joe was a full blown Paranoid Schizophrenic. Upon this determination he was put into the hospital and put on Haldol. This was administered at the rate of 5mg three times a day. This was supposed to, according to the records, relax him and allow him to normally function in society again.
His behavior in the hospital did change, but not for the better, for according to the records he began to experience headaches, dizziness and confusion. Of course he was still making references to the Alien and of strange conversations with him. But now the stories began to take on a truly unbelievable sinister aspect. The bottom line of the report stated that he was no longer fit for active duty and should be discharged into a quiet setting. He was then relocated to a small community in the southwest on full disability with a Haldol prescription reading 5mg tid daily refills PRN.
Putting down the pictures he began writing down the name of the town and the last known address. He also wrote down Haldol PRN??? Check library . . .
Chapters 7-9 of "CIRCLE'S"
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