Manifest Destiny: America from the Bottom Up - Travel Record, Sleeping Places (PDF's), Book Idea Updates and the Future

Travel Record and Sleeping Places

The following links might be interesting PDF's to peruse and download...

1. Travel Record - Revised and updated. For the current and revised Travel Record details including: each row has the day number of the journey, each associated week day name, calendar dates (with highlighted month changes), city and state where each day begins and where each day ends, method of transport (walk, car, train, bus), miles traveled that day, sleep conditions (outside, motel, house or in transit), length of time in each state, length of time in each region, specific outside locations, host name, or motel names of sleeping places, room numbers if known, and people met along the way; a summation of the number of walks, car rides, train and bus rides, with total miles for each of those activities, and summation of the number of sleeping places types. 

2. Images of Outside Sleeping Places - Thirty four sleeping places are detailed in 32 images from Google Satellite locations, and detail the exact spot where camping was done. The numbers of the days listed should exactly match the Travel Record. Both documents are meant to complement each other.   

The book will list all financial contributors, but will not associate them with the amounts they gave. A few souls will be recognized above and beyond other donors for some of the extremes they went to to help the effort succeed--without me having to die in the process.

Book Idea Updates

As most folks know the Kickstarter Campaign for book publication was not successfully funded. The effort was a long shot to begin with. I'd hoped that strangers, angel investors or other interested parties might discover the project and want to contribute to it. But only those who had already given so much during the crossing pledged. It was far from their responsibility to then fund the publication of the book. They already did more than enough. Some other way must now be found.

The Future

I'm not so deluded as to think all of this will remain relevant to you, or to the public, nor that it is important enough to the world to be so repletely published as I have described above. However, I have found it enormously satisfying and gratifying personally so far to gather as much as I can about what happened. Also I want to see it as a springboard for greater efforts to come.

There are many reasons why highly detailing this journey could be useful. I will likely do some kinds of similar projects in the future if I am able. Having a very complete data set would certainly be both wise for future preparation and an excellent way to propose new ideas to investors, outside of our little community. Currently about 1,000 people have remained interested and make up the core of said community. That is more than enough to seed a future viral growth.

I am not opposed to the idea of being sponsored by interested corporations in future endeavors. I'd hoped that might happen with this last journey, but it did not materialize. I thought that more media coverage might have come, but similarly it was not to be.

I am currently trying to build investment eggs for these future projects, here in California. I will be honest, and say that I have no desire at all to slip back into the societal "game." I will participate just as long as it serves to benefit these projects. But if I am not able to do them, I will convert the money saved into a self sustaining property, not unlike that described in my other blog (selfsustainingproperty.blogspot.com). I would be as happy to live simply, produce what I need from the sweat of my brow, around my own land, as I would be traveling the highways and byways of this planet. In fact it may end up allowing BOTH to happen.

Other Thoughts

I seem to have made a habit out flaying myself and opening up my private thoughts publicly. I've discussed many times why I do this potentially self destructive activity. I think I am providing a method by which my soul can migrate from the inside to the outside of my self. Being brutally honest about other people can be a terrible idea. But being that honest about one's self can be a way of keeping the ego in check, while giving other people a safe way to say to themselves, "Hey! I think that way too sometimes--but I would never tell everybody!" Ha!

I feel that as long as I have something to say to the world and the world wants to listen occasionally--even if it means me doing some embarrassing and stupid stuff to keep peoples' attentions, even calling it "entertainment," I am going to take advantage of that situation to work toward POSITIVE social and individually spiritual (non-religious, non-ideological) change. Evolution. Progress. Enlightenment. Edification...  

Many of you already know how strongly I feel about the impending nature of what some have called "The Shift" and I have called the "New Advent." I am both driven by my own fault-filled ambition, but also led by something much greater than myself - an inner entity that I have claimed we all possess; one I ended up naming the "Spark."

Unless I end up falling back into the pit I struggled with before I left Maine in October, and simply give up for lack of progress or self-defeatism, I will NEVER stop trying to do new things that will highlight the better future that is coming, the need for each of us to think for ourselves and the Power of togetherness to change individual lives and maybe even help transform the entire world.

I believe in the efficacy of dreaming, pushing, willing myself forward. I truly know that anyone can do it. If you are going to dream, there should be no other choice but to dream BIG. Dream for yourself. Dream for you family and friends. Dream for this tiny blue speck of a world spinning around a nondescript star, skirting the edges of the Milky Way Galaxy. Hell, even dream for the whole Universe. We are in desperate need of Big Dreams right here on earth.

I may not ever be recognized formally for anything. But that is okay, as long as I have helped one or two people use what I have done and said, to implement and enhance their own strategies for planetary improvement, I will be one happy roadside camper.

The coast to coast crossing is over, but the Real Journey has only begun. I will stay with you, if you stay with me.

Much Love to All!

Short Fiction: The Aeronaut Revelation - Parts 4 and 5 (Conclusion)

* * * 4 * * *

The sun poured in through the edges of the curtains and the road was busy outside. David awoke and sat up immediately. He'd slept the whole night at Roman's. He checked his watch. He still had time to make the meeting. Then it struck him: he didn't dream at all this last night. No flying. Very odd. 

The bathroom was fairly clean so he freshened up in there. Left over pizza from happy hour was in the kitchen fridge. He helped himself to a couple slices, and left a note before leaving...

Jill, 

Thanks for everything. I want to talk more! 

Dave

Then he left a $50 bill in her tip jar.

The bus was early and he felt good--really good. He was going to make it on time. He felt light and confident, giddy actually. His legs felt a bit sore but the braces were working perfectly. 

As he reached the laboratory stairwell he closed his eyes for luck and when he went to step up he felt his braces lock. His feet seemed to be slipping around as if he were standing on ice. He reached out for the railing but it was lower than he was used to and he lost his balance. If he was going to fall he'd rather fall away from the stairs. So he intentionally leaned back. He got that familiar feeling of having no control. Then his thoughts were adjusted... Just fly!

He commanded the aeronaut mind state from his dreams into action. This time it was easy. It felt like a cushion materialized under his back and he stopped in the air, mid-fall. He reached around behind him, and found nothing but air. Then his thoughts were adjusted again... Shoulders... Yes, make the shoulders light like foam rubber. He rose back into a standing position, but his braces still weren't working. Then he realized he was floating about a foot off the floor, and had been the whole time he'd been trying to go upstairs. The braces didn't work without weight on them. And the railing wasn't low, it was just literally below him.

He willed himself up the two flight of stairs to the office hallway. Then he willed himself back down to the floor where the braces clicked on. He was elated nearly beyond what he could handle. He'd broken the code, found the answer to the secret, made his dreams a reality!

He walked slowly down the hall to Room 606 where he'd planned to meet Andrew and the investors. He was pleasantly light on his feet. In fact, there WAS light on his feet. Stopping outside Room 600, he looked down at his shoes. Around the edges where the shoe met the sock, a golden light shone out. The walk six more doors down the hallway felt more like real walking; he was doing most of the work himself. The braces just seemed to be getting in the way at this point. But he left them on. He was determined to show Andrew and the others what else could be controlled using only the mind, as he boldly walked into the conference room. But, it was empty and the lights were off. "What thaaa..."

He checked his watch: 10:25 am. He turned on the lights and looked around; he was the early one this time. Several voices could faintly be heard outside the door and down the hall, getting closer. Here they come!

As they entered the room with their coffees in hand he greeted them while standing on the table. Tim, the team leader for the investors, actually jumped back, not expecting David to be climbing on the furniture. Carla covered her mouth and stood there. Andrew looked quite embarrassed, red even. But Ali was smiling and then he burst out laughing.

Filled with confidence, David said, "I am the first aeronaut! I found a way to conquer my disability... No! ALL disability!"

Andrew walked over in front of the table with his arms folded. David continued to stand there above everyone. "Dave, what in God's name are you doing up there?"

"Watch..." said David, mysteriously...

He unbuttoned and pulled down his pants with the braces humming and self adjusting there in front of them, while he adjusted his soccer ball printed boxers.

"Oh lord..." exclaimed Carla, covering her eyes. Ali tried to contain his laughter.

Tim tapped Andrew on the shoulder and with a straight face asked, "...strip show?"

David, smiling, raising his and lowering his eyebrows provocatively, stepped out of his shoes and then out of his pants. Kicking them aside, then he reached down to the big black hip-buttons on either side of him and slammed them with his palms.

Andrew ran forward, yelling "No!".

The brace locks on the fronts unclipped themselves down each leg, one at a time, virtually unzipping the units. Then down the sides, smaller locks popped open. "Good programming." David remarked. He looked wobbly, but balanced fairly well. Andrew pleaded, "Dave let me help you down, man! Are you drunk or something?"

The braces loosened and then teetered before crashing away down to the tabletop noisily.

"He's going to fall isn't he?" asked Carla.

"No!" David felt a tinge of uncertainty as he said the word. Where was that light from his feet!? His knees began to ache badly and buckle under him. "Okay...maybe...yes, on the falling thing..."

Leaning forward toward Andrew, David's thoughts were adjusted as in the stairway... FLY!!!

Instantly he bounded back to a standing position and then rose above the table, to hang there in the air floating above everyone. Andrew moved the other three back from the table, then turned to David, and just said, "My God."

Now feeling fully confident again, David slowly settled to the table and stood there strongly. "I found the way. Who needs braces, even the best ones like mine, if they can use there minds to walk again, even fly!?"

Tim crept up to the edge of the table, bending down to look at David's feet, and then he looked up at his face. "I'm astounded," was all he could manage to say.

David stepped off the table and floated to the floor. "It isn't that hard, Tim. I went through a couple weeks of 'training' - guess it was? - by using a certain mind state during my dreams, then I simply had to translate that sensation out in the real world."

"I've had flying dreams too!" said Ali. "Can you teach me how to do this?"

"Yes! I believe I can, Ali!"

"So, I'm at a loss here," said Andrew. "This leaves the very awkward issue of the investment amount..."

"Always back to business, huh Andy?..." said David.

"We'll give you the three hundred grand, Andrew." Tim interrupted.

"Yes we will!" chimed Carla. "Now what are you gonna do David?"

"I'm going to Disney World!" David cheered. Ali laughed. David placed his arms to his sides with the hands open, palms forward. "No, no... Now I'm going to go on our first advertising campaign." He rose into the air in front of them. "Carla, would you be so kind as to open the window?"

Carla looked to the others as if she heard someone else addressed... "Me?"

"Yes... please."

Andrew raised his hand. "Um... Dave..."

"Yes, Andy?"

"I think you're forgetting something?" He pointed down at David's pants and shoes on the table.

"Oh yeah!"

* * * 5 * * *

In the parking lot below a sanitation truck's hydraulic arms lifted one of the large dumpsters, tipping and slamming it against the back until all the contents had slid out. The driver watched in his rear view mirror while the dumpster tipped back out of the truck. As the mirror showed the sky emerge behind the lowering dumpster, the driver blinked his eyes a few times at what he saw. It was a man "standing" twenty feet off the ground in mid air. "Huh?" He put the truck in park and got out.

"Greetings." said David.

"Who are you?" replied the driver. "Are you Jesus?"

"Ha! Hardly!" David laughed. "My name is David." The driver walked up until he was directly below David. "What is your name?"

"I'm Arty!" said the driver.

The sun was high now and right behind David's head. "Arty, I am here to tell you that you can do what I'm doing. Anyone can! I have other people to see today. Just keep looking up for me though. I should be around more now. I will discuss all of this publicly soon."

"Yes, I will look up for you!" said Arty, excitedly.

David rose high above the parking lot, then turned and banked right, headed back toward his own neighborhood. He passed over the scrap yard and took a moment to fly low over Deering Oaks Park. People stopped walking in the park when they saw him. A young boy waved. David waved back and shouted "Hello!"

It wasn't long until he was passing over Roman's. And there was Jill wiping off an outdoor table. She had ear buds in and was singing to herself and dancing a bit. 

"Jill!" David was right above her now. She looked forward and then over each shoulder. "Jill! Up here!!"

Jill pulled the headphones from her ears and looked up. "Aaaa!" she screamed.

"Jill, it's just me, Dave."

"Dave? What the hell are are you doing up there?"

"I'm flying, like in my dreams." He lowered himself down to the street.

"Oh my God, Dave! How..."

"It's a matter of will, Jill. Hey, that rhymes... Ha, ha! I believe anyone can fly. I also can walk without my braces now too! See?" He walked around her. "Did you get my note?"

"Yes. And thanks for the fifty. You didn't have to do that!" She walked over and hugged him. He wasn't expecting that, but he was eager and reached out, holding her tightly. 

"I can teach your mom to do this," Dave said, gently holding her lovely face in his hands. "But I have more people to tell first. Time to alert the media..." He winked.

"At your house?!"

"Ha! Yes." 

She moved forward until her face was close to his. "Please come back and see me later." Then she kissed him on the lips and backed up near the doorway of the pub. "I'm gonna call Mom."

David smiled widely after the kiss and rose again into the air. "Off to spread the good news!" he said, as he moved up above the street. He flew over the library, turning heads, then the playground. The kids all stopped and looked up at him. They cheered and clapped. He yelled out "Hi guys!".

Cars pulled over to the side of the road as he swiftly moved down the block--about twenty feet off the ground. Ahead he saw his house. Joyce and Dawn were gathered with several other neighbors on David's front lawn. The WGME van was being packed up.

Dawn saw what she thought was a balloon approaching and then realized was a man, hanging in the air. "Joyce! Look! It's Jesus!"

As they watched David fly down to them, he asked "Why does everyone keep calling me Jesus?"

"David?" Joyce took his hand.

"Yes, Joyce?"

"Your flying!!"

"Yes, I know! Isn't it great?"

"But you're also standing here and I don't hear your braces?"

"I don't need them anymore, Joyce. I found a power that we all have. Everyone can do what I'm doing! It is a matter of will."

"What was the light above your house yesterday? It wasn't here today..." Joyce pointed to the van across the street, as the news team secured their satellite dish in its resting position. "See? They're leaving."

David watched them for a moment. "I don't know what the light was, Joyce. But I think I have a better story for them." He walked across the lawn followed by the group of neighbors, and then across the street. 

Reporter, Lexie O'Connor was sitting on the back bumper of the van. She turned to see David standing next to her. "Can I help you sir?"

"No, but I can help you." He stood up straight, with his hands by his sides, palms turned outward. Lexie put her coffee on the pavement. David lifted himself about three feet in the air. Lexie stood up and away from him.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"I'm David Vogel."

"Sweet Jesus!" she said. 

David smiled and rolled his eyes. "Yeah I get that a lot." He went straight up about thirty feet, then tipped towards his yard flying to just above the widow's walk. He yelled down, "Lexie, you came to see a light above my house and now you can see ME above my house."

Lexie spun around and screamed, "Bill!! Get the friggin camera!"

David saw a man who had been coiling a cord on the other side of the van stop and look at Lexie, then up at him, and say "Holy shit!" He ran to the back door of the van and threw it open. He hauled out the camera, clanking it against the side as he slapped a battery pack in and held it up to his eye.

"Bill! Bill, come over here you'll get a better view."

"Okay, Lexie, just a second."

Lexie reached in the back and removed her wireless microphone from it's case, clipped the transmitter on her belt, turned it on and then ran up next to Bill, pulling him by the sleeve along with her over to the house. They stood by the old maple tree. 

"Do you have anything to ask me?" David smiled down from the sky.

Lexie pushed her hair behind her shoulders. "Yes. Mr. Vogel how are you able to be air borne?"

"It really isn't hard, Lexie. At night I dreamed about flying, being an aeronaut. I kept looking for a way to feel the same way in the real world. Today, I discovered it... and it works! O, and please call me David."

"Thank you David! I often cover weather phenomena, that's why they sent me here. The light that was up there yesterday? We never got to see it. I thought it might be ball lightening. Now I guess I should just ask you what it was."

"I don't know," David said honestly. "It has something to do with this flying thing, but I'm not sure what."

Dawn was listening with the other neighbors to this exchange and couldn't help herself... "It was a miracle--a sign form God! Look, he wasn't able to walk either, but the light healed his legs!"

"Listen..." said David, "It isn't a miracle, it is something natural. I did this for myself."

"With God's help." Blurted Dawn.

"Perhaps... But I'm here to tell you that anyone can do this." David was frustrated with Dawn's insistence on making this a big religious deal. "I'm an aeronaut. I am just a person who has learned how to use his mind to control what happens to his body."

James, Dawn's husband, stepped forward. "Well if you can teach this, you must be some kind of savior?"

"I'm my own savior, Jim. You can be your own savior too!"

A black VW Jetta pulled up and parked behind the news van. David watched the door open. It was Jill. She ran around to the passenger's side, opened that door and helped an older woman get out. Must be her mother, David thought to himself. The mother and daughter crossed the street and joined the growing crowd.

"Hi Jill!" David waved. "And this must be your mother, Mrs. Chien? Your daughter tells me that you are a fellow aeronaut?"

Mrs. Chien stood expressionless for an uncomfortably long time while the growing crowd turned its attention to her. But finally she answered "I fly in dreams..."

"That's great, Mrs. Chien! You know, I think I can show you how to fly in the real world. Do you have any mobility problems?"

Jill answered for her mother, "Hip and knee issues."

"If you can learn to do what I'm doing those problems will go away." 

"A healer!" shouted Dawn. 

"No, Dawn, no! I'm trying to say that people can heal themselves. I healed myself, others can do the same..." 

Lexie interrupted, "Mr. Vogel... I mean David, have you found the meaning of life?"

David floated there in the mid-day sun, hesitating to answer. "Yeah... Yes, I guess I found the meaning for my life."

"When will you teach us how to fly?" asked another neighbor.

"I don't know. I just discovered how to do it myself this morning. People who have dreams about flying are probably going to be able to do it first."

"It's a revelation!" Dawn exclaimed.

Lexie couldn't think of anymore questions and wanted to get the story out before other TV stations started to arrive. Bill, the camera man, ran back over to the van, unstrapped the satellite dish and screwed it on top of its stand. Then he raised it up and secured it to the roof of the vehicle. "We're live, Lexie!" yelled Bill. He loaded the footage they already had into the player and then grabbed the camera to join Lexie at a sunny spot back on the lawn...

As soon as Bill had the camera on her, Lexie began to speak. "We're back today in the Deering section of Portland, at the home of Mr. David Vogel. You may recall that we were here yesterday investigating reports of a celestial light at David's home. But, today the story has taken a strange turn. David Vogel has returned home and now apparently possesses the power to fly! In fact, even as we speak he is hovering above his house, speaking with neighbors and friends below."

Bill pointed the camera upwards and zoomed in on David, then down on the crowd below. He moved closer in toward the maple tree. 

"Hello again there!" David said down to Bill. "I've come here today with great news! There is an answer that can cure your disabilities. Everyone can join me in the air!"

Dawn ran up to Lexie. "It's because of Jesus! It is a revelation for us all." Lexie nodded patiently. "He's gathering believers in the sky!" Dawn continued going on like this until Joyce walked over and led her away.

By this time the city had ground to a halt. Thousands - a river of people - were walking toward the Deering area. David could see them approaching in the distance. Other news vans arrived. A helicopter flew over Back Cove and then to the scene at David's house.

The afternoon passed quickly and the sun neared the western horizon. David continued to answer questions from the crowd. Before long, many different people were yelling to him at once. The crowd jostled for a better view. David tipped forward so he could address them more directly. Over and over again, he was called a "god," a "prophet," a "revelator," a "savior" and even "Jesus" himself. He steadfastly denied all of it. But the people wouldn't listen.

Two Catholic nuns walked up to the front of the house. They knelt and prayed on the lawn. Dawn joined them as the token Pentecostal. Just then the police arrived along with a string of black SUV's--maybe the FBI?

"This is getting out of hand!" said Joyce, up to David. 

"I agree..." He yelled down. "I just wanted to show people that we can fly."

The police had blocked traffic on David's street, setting up detours around the neighborhood. Now they began to make their way through the crowd. David watched them. One of them had blond hair and blue eyes. Was that the guy from the dream? By the time the officer reached the front of the crowd, David knew it was him. But how could that be? That was in a dream. This is real life--right?

"Hello officer!" David yelled down to the policeman.

"You!" The officer said pointing at him. "Were you in Portland the other night?"

"Yes sir!"

"I thought I'd imagined you, Mr... Vogel is it?"

David floated out over the crowd, to gasps and cheers. "I guess I'm the guy, officer." The thought had crossed David's mind a few times to go down to the crowd and stand among them. It seemed the most polite thing to do. After all, this announcement wasn't meant to be a big ego trip. He looked out at the western horizon where the day was draining out of the sky. "I'm gonna come down now so we can all talk more comfortably." The crowd cheered again as he descended.

Jill brought her mother home and returned. Most of her time at that point was spent getting through the crowd and to the front yard. She ran up to David and hugged him.

Dawn helped the two nuns up off the grass and led them over to where David landed; right next to the officer. Another officer ran over with a hand on his holstered gun. "Hold it!" he said to David. "Keep your hands where we can see them!" he barked again.

Ignoring the hothead officer, and addressing the calm officer--the one from the other night, David said "You know my name. What is yours?" 

"My name is Eric."

The hothead cop walked in front of David, pointed at Eric and said, "That is Officer Akzakov. I'm Officer Teufel. I'm afraid we have to ask you a few questions."

"Don't be afraid, Officer Teufel" David smiled, "I'm happy to answer anything you'd like."

"I think we need to go down town, Mr. Vogel..."

"Call me David."

Irritated at David's blithe responses, the casualness of his partner toward the "subject," and the people who were getting in closer than they should to listen, Teufel angrily said, "Mr. Vogel, I don't want to arrest you!"

Hearing this, the mood of the crowd turned darker, with occasional booing. Some guy shouted, "Try it asshole!" The crowd cheered the comment, and jeered the police. 

Teufel looked at his partner, Eric, who shook his head slowly. Teufel spoke quietly, "Eric we have to do our jobs."

Eric quickly answered. "This isn't our job."

Dawn, perhaps fantasizing that she might be written about someday for her heroism, rushed up between David and Teufel. "You'll have to shoot me first!" 

Joyce rolled her eyes. "Dawn, get back here!" The crowd whistled and cheered. 

Without any warning at Dawn pulled a small .038 handgun out of her jeans. Everyone gasped as other officers rushed into the crowd and up to the front yard scene. The crowd quieted down...

Teufel and Eric dropped to their knees and pulled out their guns. "Put the gun down NOW!!" Teufel said through clinched teeth. Dawn looked calmer than she'd been all day. She held the gun pointed down at her side. Her finger was on the trigger. 

David walked up to Dawn and reached his hand out. She turned and looked at him with dilated pupils. She peered down at her gun, then at Teufel's gun, then at David and his hand. They heard Jill call out "Be careful, Dave..."

"No!" Dawn half-whispered to Dave. Then her voice grew stronger. "You're a messenger from God. You are a bird... But YOU!" she looked quickly at Teufel with a stare that seemed to bore into him. "I know German, pal! You're the devil!"

David's voice grew urgent and deeper. "It isn't like that Dawn. This is just a human situation. Officer Teufel is just doing what he was trained to do. And, I am only doing what I want to do. We aren't pawns in some religious war..."

"You don't see it Dave, because you have an innocent soul. You suffered all your life with not being able to walk. I... I can see it in HIS eyes." She pointed at Teufel. "He doesn't have a soul! Someone needs to send him back to hell."

Joyce called out "Dawn, why are you doing this? This isn't you! Someone's really gonna get hurt. Give David the gun."

Dawn looked at Joyce. "You don't see it either."

"Drop the gun, Dawn," Eric said calmly, "or give it to David." Teufel looked at his partner but said nothing.

Eight other officers had formed a line between the drama in the front yard and the crowd of thousands still filling the streets. 

David rose about a foot off the ground and Dawn turned sharply to watch him. Teufel took this opportunity to bound forward at Dawn. David saw this and his thoughts were adjusted... Stop him! Almost simultaneously with this thought he found himself between Teufel and Dawn. She spun around just realizing that Teufel was charging her, and raised the gun. Teufel saw this threat and pulled his trigger. Both guns fired at the same time.

People in the crowd screamed and began to try running back, but the multitudes beyond were too dense. Panic swept through the milling mass. Eric had been accidentally shot in the leg by Dawn and his moaning filled the air for a short time. Several people in the crowd came over and attended to him.

At the center of it all stood Dawn and Teufel. Kneeling on the ground between them was David, back straight up, holding his stomach and staring straight forward at Teufel's legs. No one quite knew what to do for a moment. Then Teufel ran forward and disarmed Dawn, pushing her to the ground. A few people in the crowd saw this and there was a great and angry surge forward. 

Jill rushed up to David. "Dave! Oh Dave... Oh God, oh God." Dave continued to look forward, way off into the distance for a short time, and then turned his head very slowly and looked her straight in the eyes, but said nothing. "They called the rescue but it's having a hard time getting through the crowd. Do you hear it?" David nodded, though he heard nothing. Jill got down on her knees and held him. She sobbed and kissed him all over his face. "You can't die, Dave, You're an aeronaut." 

David smiled and then coughed. "I wish that were true, Jill." 

Dawn was still on the ground next to David. Her head was under Teufel's knee. David looked at her. She had tears in her eyes and mouthed something. Teufel pulled her arms behind her back and handcuffed her, then took his knee off her head. He sat down on the ground next to her as she lay on her stomach. Bending down to her ear he said, "Dawn. Darlin'... You were right." Dawn's eyes turned to his. "Baby... I AM the devil." He smiled and looked up at David who couldn't believe his ears. 

Just then a light appeared about fifty feet above the crowd and moved over toward where David was. It scintillated and spun, casting colors through the air like bits of crystal. It's center was golden like a morning sunrise. When it arrived above David, a being appeared on either side of it. They reached out at the same time and touched each other's fingertips. The light turned golden, with one violet ray tracing a circle around David and Jill. 

The crowd stood silently, watching and waiting. The beings slowly slipped down through the air toward the kneeling couple.

"Jill..." David spoke and coughed, "I have to go."

Jill looked up and then held him tighter. "Don't leave! Don't leave now. We're just getting started. Please!"

The beings gently touched down on either side of David and Jill. They were thin, tall. They looked female but their bodies were genderless. They had beautiful blue eyes. Their faces were like girls. One of them turned to Teufel. He laughed. "Not again!?" 

His smiled was short lived. With a great force he was jolted up about six feet off the ground. It was so fast that both his shoes and his gun fell to the ground. Suspended there, a lattice of green light began to form around him. "NO!!!" he screamed louder and deeper than any human. Soon the green sphere of interlocking light was complete. Inside it David, Jill and Dawn saw Teufel writhing and swearing.

Slowly emerging into view from around this prison sphere, five large beings held on to it tightly. They looked at the two smaller beings next to David and Jill, who nodded their heads and instantly the prison sphere, with its five celestial guards and one prisoner, vanished from sight.

Jill held David tightly again and buried her face in his neck. He said, "They are here to save me, Jill." Her warm tears ran down his shoulder. She felt him rise. She got to her feet and stepped back. His arms were out to his sides with his back arched, making him look like he was taking an upside down swan dive. He was unconscious but seemed to be talking to someone; his lips were moving. The beings joined hands around his waist. He began to glow slightly, like the beings themselves. The blood on his shirt faded away. Then he woke up and raised his head. 

In the crowd no one moved. They were captivated. He continued to rise in a cone of violet light and in the embrace of these two gentle beings. When he was about ten feet below the shining light, the beings released him and he floated there between them, facing the thousands below. And he began to speak...

"I have been told that I am not going to die." The crowd cheered. "But I can not live here anymore. Apparently I was born able to develop this skill--everyone is. But I feel the need to actually show you, so that you might know for sure that it is possible. We have reached a new level of evolutionary human development; one that allows the mind greater control over matter, when the mind is focused, and the intentions are pure." He saw Eric get up far below him, apparently healed now, and walk over to Dawn. He took the handcuffs off her wrists and helped her to her feet. Joyce walked over to Dawn and took her other hand. They were both crying. Jill also made her way to them and the three joined hands.

David continued... "All I wanted was to show you what you could do if you truly knew it was possible. Many of you automatically tried to turn it, first, into a new religion, and then into a spectacle. It's not your fault. we were trained to behave in this way. I think we have a long way to go yet before the sky will be filled with aeronauts. But you will see more like me. Anything positive is possible now in this regard. But those who desire this power in order to take advantage of other people will be frustrated, because it can only be achieved by a person who is motivated by helping others.

"I dreamed it. So do many of you when you find yourselves flying, by will alone, in your dreams. I think that if you take the uncomfortable - but rational - step forward, by choosing to do what is right--by your own belief system, you are uncovering the tools that will eventually liberate you. The confines of our dreams and wishes can be dismantled, and our imagination can be loosed upon the world. I am proof of that, right before your eyes.

"If seeing is believing, surely you will foster the belief in what you've seen on this very night, and try to achieve the same thing. You CAN do it. You can! I'm no better than you in any sense, and am probably a little worse than most. But even I could do this when I discovered the two tools: a genuine belief that I could do it and that I really desired to teach others how to do it." The crowd clapped respectfully. "I will see you all again soon enough. Take care of each other. Jill, I love you." 

With that, the two beings joined him again. They all rose together under the sparkling orb until they were high enough to be seen from all over the city, and situated directly above Back Cove. Nearly every resident of Portland was on their roofs, packing the streets, gathered together around the cove on Baxter Boulevard, on the bridges, and even in the harbor boats were honking their horns.

The light turned intensely pink, then blue. It illuminated all below it like a small but powerful sun. It jumped up another hundred feet and stopped. The beings beside David moved outward from him dragging what seemed to be a translucent, expanding cylinder of some kind.

David waited there, not knowing what was going to happen. He knew he was going to another level, one that would not allow a material body, but that he would not lose consciousness.

The light then turned blindingly golden-white. It was so bright that the sky above Portland turned daylight blue and the stars disappeared behind that sky. The brilliant light began to drop slowly toward David. With a tremendous splash of light it touched him and the burst of energy released by that touch blasted against the shields of the beings who held it in place. Even then, a doughnut shaped cloud of light and smoke rippled out, passing through the shields, onward and outward across the mountains in the west, up the coast to the north, over the Atlantic in the east, and into New Hampshire to the south. He was gone. The matter of his body had transformed entirely into energy.

The two beings faded from view as the blue sky quickly transitioned to orange, then deep red, purple and finally... the world below was washed over again by the dark curtain of night. And, the stars shone brightly. History had been made.

The first aeronaut had been born, lived....... but never had to die.

____________________________________

NOTE: There is an alternate end to this story.

Short Fiction: The Aeronaut Revelation - Parts 1, 2 and 3

* * * 1 * * *

He stood on the edge of the roof at City Hall. There was a wide marble railway at about waist high that, when climbed up upon, made a nice runway for aeronauts.

Late night traffic was light. A police car very slowly drove north toward his location. Obviously the officer was not looking up. What a nice surprise this will be... he said to himself.

Then he began the mind state. He had to concentrate intensively upon his feet and shoulders. They should float like foam rubber in an vast ocean. He began to rise...

It was a matter of will. He had a strong ability to focus his will upon certain tasks. This wasn't his first time out of the nest. He knew this feeling - this mind state - as well as he knew the feeling of walking or speaking. The black and white police car stopped just below him. He willed down and over, and immediately he was able to swiftly move himself down toward the street. The officer turned on his blue lights and cracked the door of his car, never looking away from the strange sight coming down at him.

Before reaching the car, the aeronaut swooped up at a hard arch and floated in front of the officer, who stepped out of the car and stood up. He had blond hair and blue eyes and was apparently speechless. The officer had not reached for his gun nor made any demands. He just stood there like Nordic, blue-shirted statue.

The aeronaut waved to the officer. "I'll see you again soon, sir." The officer cocked his head slightly, then looked over each shoulder and reached in the car to turn off the blues. The aeronaut used this opportunity to depart.

Home, he thought. And he rose up through the air in a standing position. The clouds were low and thick. He avoided them by flying nearer the ground, down, over the grass of the Eastern Promanade, then skimming just barely over the low tide waters and mud flats of Casco Bay. He looked down through the shallow water of the nearly drained channel leading into Yarmouth's Royal River and saw a light under the waves seemingly following him. Adjusting his flight path, he was able to bank to his port side and flash past the "red nun" and "green can" channel markers, which bobbed behind him in his air wake.

The right side of his face seemed to have something on it. Trying to wipe it off didn't work. Then as he thought about his face, the whole right side of his body became heavy. His flight slowed as he pondered the sensations. Floating there in the air, about midway up the river but not yet far enough around the bend to see the boats moored in Yarmouth Harbor, he felt his powers of flight draining out of him. It was a cool summer night. The starry sky now poked through the clearing clouds. He stared hard at outer space and when he looked back down towards the earth, the horizon - once in the distance - was now gone and below him only a brown churning void could be seen.

Thinking carefully about the situation, he discovered that he must have been dreaming. It seemed the rest of his body was in bed, apparently lying on the right side. He concentrated and felt the pillow against his cheek. Yes, he was still in the dream! This unbelievable thought caused the stars above to fade, with calm darkness closing in around him. He closed his eyes in the dream.

When David opened them again everything was bright. The familiar bedroom seemed unreal now somehow. Obviously he'd been dreaming again. Same theme as the last two weeks worth of nights--every night. He felt so comfortable lying there, with this natural narcotic buzz massaging the muscles of his body. As with all the other mornings, he felt the strong desire to use the power he found in what he called "the aeronaut dreams" to raise himself out of the covers and off the bed in the real world. He tried, but no luck. He had to laugh to himself out loud, "...things just don't work the same way here."

Outside the window he heard a couple of women laughing and shouting things at each other. He reached down and pulled each of his legs out from under the covers. He grabbed his leg braces and quickly snapped them on and heard them operating normally. He had worked for a long time on perfecting these braces. Pressing two large black buttons with his palms--one on each hip, the braces smoothly straightened his legs, raising him to a standing position. By simply leaning slowly in any particular direction the microprocessors in the braces would completely take over; each brace communicating with the other wirelessly to coordinate their robotic efforts. In this way he was able to walk around the house; even take the bus and walk around down town. The braces very good at their job. He looked almost "normal" out in public. Only the sound of the machinery could be heard beneath his pant legs. He walked over to the window. Three neighbor women were on his front lawn below pointing at the widow's walk above him. "Do you see that, Dave?" one of them asked him from below.

"What?" he asked back as he raised the screen and bent outside to look up.

"There's a light or something shining above the roof! We thought it was a fire, but......"

He strained to sit up on the edge of the window sill, but still could not see anything. "Just a minute. I'll be down."

He had sensation in his legs so he really could feel his own legs moving inside the braces, but his naked legs were not able to hold him up without the braces. In his mind the braces nearly completed the illusion of having healthy muscles. They were just a bit noisy. In the same way he willed himself to fly in the dream he only needed to provide a small measure of direction to the braces and they did the work of moving him where he wanted to go, through super-accurate sensors that red what his legs were trying to do. His braces had "learned" about him and adapted over the last year to anticipate his actions. He trained them to recognize the way he moved and, in a sense, even the way he thought.

He got to the open door of his bedroom and stepped out into the hall. Moving as quickly as he could down the stairs, he opened the front door and walked out on to the lawn, joining the three women by the old maple tree.

"Right there!" Dawn - the oldest of the three - pointed. The rising sun was behind them as the looked up.

He saw what they saw. "What.......the..." It shown with a flickering of scattered colors--as if a rainbow were passing back and forth in front of a small sunlit window. Just above the widow's walk, it rotated slowly in the air. The four of them watched it, looking at each other occasionally, dumbfounded. At times the orb seemed to be like a mirror reflecting the eastern sun and at other times scintillated with richly colored rays.

Joyce, the youngest of the three women, spoke up first. "It seems to be pulsing..." The light's rays alternated between shimmering sets of the bright colors and golden blasts of what had appeared to be similar to sunlight.

Brighter and brighter, the flashes became, and closer together with each pulse. Eventually the golden light was all that shone and it illuminated the driveway, trees, fence and several nearby houses, more brightly than the sun. It was a permeating glow, filling every nook and crevice. The brilliance appeared to emanate from all directions at once, not just from the light, but from the very air itself. The four observers could still see the source of all this wonder - the orb itself - with no trouble.

The third woman, Melinda, gasped and pointed. "LOOK! ...on either side..." The outline of two androgynous bodies - one on the left of the light and the other on the right - appeared, and they each faced the other with the light in between them. Only the fronts of these beings could be seen. Where the light shone on them they were visible. But in what could be called the shadow of their backs, only the blue sky could be discerned behind them. They could only be seen when near the light.

The two beings slowly looked down at the small party of observers, who moved back slightly out of shear instinct. The light pulsed deeply, nearly disappearing and then inflating to twice the size it was before. There was a tremendous thud, as a compression wave moved down through the house and into the ground. A surge of intense violet light blasted out of the orb sweeping over and through David. Then, instantly, the light was gone.

David nearly fell over. Joyce stepped over to steady him, "Oh my...are you OK?"

The small neighborhood seemed none the wiser. No one else had come over to David's yard. No cars had driven by. No preschool kids had come out into the street. Only David, Dawn, Joyce and Melinda had witnessed this amazing scene.

Joyce began to cry, quivering and shaking, and went to each of her neighbors, hugging them emotionally, repeatedly choking out, "It's a message from beyond...A message from beyond..."

Dawn looked down at Joyce and said, "Yes, it's the Second Coming!"

Joyce turned quickly back to Dawn and said, "No! That's not what I mean."

Melinda interrupted, "Maybe it was some kind of mass hallucination..."

"Didn't you see it yourself, Melinda?" David asked impatiently.

"Yes. Of course. But things like this happen. I read about them all the time."

Dawn stepped in front of Melinda with a smile on her face. "Melinda, you can't even acknowledge a miracle when you see one?"

"Wait a second..." said David, "I'm not sure I would go that far, Dawn..."

"It IS!" she protested happily, looking to Joyce for support.

Joyce wiped her eyes, seeing the potential to calm things down, and looked at each of her neighbors saying, "It was definitely something real. I don't believe we imagined it." David nodded his head. Melinda turned and rolled her eyes. Dawn looked up at the morning sky, clasped her hands together and said "Thank you, Jesus!"

David checked his watch. The hydraulic systems and electrical servos of his braces clicked and buzzed, as he walked back to the front door. Come over tonight ladies if you'd like and we can discuss this. I have an important meeting to get to.

* * * 2 * * *

When the bus pulled into the laboratory parking lot, David took a deep breath and stood up, holding the handrail above the seats. The high pitch of the bus brakes filled the air with their characteristic piccolo song, slowing the bus to a stop. The doors opened and he carefully stepped out onto the sidewalk.

Hearing the doors close behind him as the bus pulled away, he could think of nothing but the front yard event only a couple hours earlier. But he had to pull his shit together if he was going to interest investors in his engineering projects. The braces specifically were something he was very proud to have developed. They were certainly useful to him. Now he had to share their utility with other people who were bound to wheelchairs or otherwise disabled.

It was a beautiful day. The sky was filled with puffy white clouds and the air was dry--with no trace of humidity. "If I could fly up to you," he told the sky above him, "I would spend the whole day there." For the hell of it, he closed his eyes and tried to get into to the aeronaut dream mind set. He lifted his shoulders and imagined his feet lifting off the pavement. Nothing happened, except that he felt a strange confidence come over him.

He checked his watch again and realized he was over forty five minutes late. It was the worst possible day to be late. But he had just had the most incredible experience. Surely these guys would understand?

When he entered the board room upstairs from his lab, his boss Andrew - the Facility Director - was in mid-stride, pacing around the large table at which two men and one woman sat as patiently as they could, fidgeting with their laptops and mumbling to each other. Andrew turned when David walked in. "Dave!"

"I am SO sorry! An amazing thing occurred this morning! I can tell you about it later."

"Dave..." Andrew smiled but did not look happy, "...what 'we' really want to see is the CAD animation and specs on the braces. Oh, and by the way, these folks are, from left to right: Tim, Carla and Ali, from United Medical Associates." The three looked up at David; only Ali smiled.

"Yeah...yes I have memory sticks for each of you." David smiled, reached into his blazer pocket, swaying from side to side, while the faint sounds of his braces clicking and humming filtered out from inside his pant legs.

With his hand in his pocket, he cautiously peered up at Andrew who had been looking relieved until seeing David's face. "No..." said Andrew, pulling up a chair and sitting down.

"I know where they are..." David saw everyone's attention turn to him. Then he observed the three visitors passing around a condemning glance.

"You HAVE to be joking, Dave." Andrew looked down at the floor as if his next reaction might be scripted there.

David smiled widely. "But I know where they are."

"You know where? That's fantastic, Dave!" Andrew sharply sniped. The smile was falling off of his face. 

"Yeah," said David, raising and lowering his eyebrows, "they're in my other pocket." He winked at Andrew and reached into his other pocket, pulling out five small black thumb drives. 

Andrew audibly exhaled. "Dave, you know I love ya' bro, but you do realize I have a weak heart?" 

David tossed the drives on to the table. Each of the three investors grabbed one. They immediately plugged them into their laptops and began look at the files. A grin appeared on Ali's face as his eyes darted back and forth. "It's all here," he said.

Carla looked over at Ali's screen and then back at her own and she smiled too. Tim got up and walked behind both of his colleagues, carefully viewing each of their screens. "Great stuff... great stuff... I think we have what we need here."

Andrew seemed elated. "Wonderful!" 

"Better copy the files by midnight," David offered, "or they will self-delete."

"Already done!" said Ali.

Tim walked over to David and shook his hand. "We brought a little advance for your lab." He turned and picked up a sealed envelope by his laptop, handing it to David, who in turn handed it to Andrew. Tim continued, "This should take care of your initial investment and give you some extra resources to build a self-programmable consumer version."

"Thank you, guys!" Dave could tell Andrew was tickled pink. The three visitors closed up their laptops, fit them into their briefcases, and filed by David then Andrew shaking each of the men's hands before walking out. When they had departed Andrew tore open the envelope. David drew up close and looked over Andrew's shoulder...

"Thirty thousand...?" Andrew looked surprised.

"That's good right?" asked David "It is a partial payment...right?"

Andrew sat down with the check in his hands, staring at it and then reading the lab invoice. "No David."

"Whaaa... why?"

"It was supposed to have another zero at the end."

David sat down beside his boss. "So it's just an accounting error right?"

"Um..." Andrew had a faraway look in his eyes. "Not necessarily."

"What do you mean?"

Andrew held up the invoice. "It... ah... looks like I gave them the wrong amount."

David grabbed the invoice out of his hands. There it was in black and white: "Full Balance for Development $30,000.0"

"Andy...?" 

"Yes, Dave?"

"I think I'm going to kill you."

Andrew suddenly laughed. "This can be just a partial payment, like you said." He fished out his iPhone tapped the face and held it to his ear. "Tim! Good, good... You made it out of the city before rush hour? Great! Hey... ahhh... Listen man... I think there's been a mistake... Well, no... I know the check is cash-able... The problem is, Tim, it is ten times less than what we'd discussed. OK................... You're right, we never discussed it in person......... only.... right... only by email..."

David watched Andrew's facial expression change from one of dread, to a smile... then back to dread again.

"OK, we'll wait to see you tomorrow morning same time - 10:30 - and we can take care of this then. No, no...don't worry we won't deposit it until we speak to you tomorrow. OK. Um... OK... Bye..."

"What did he say?"

Andrew tapped the phone again and looked at it for a moment. "Tim said, they had been discussing the twenty thousand dollar range yesterday and thought they were giving us a bonus at thirty..."

"Oh shit..." David said resignedly. "We can't let this info go for less than what we need."

"I know." Andrew fiddled with a pencil on the table. "So, ah, what happened to you this morning? Why were you so late?"

"It's hard to explain."

Andrew looked up at David. "Try."

"I know you are probably going to laugh..."

Andrew looked very serious. "Try..."

David sat down across from Andrew. "I saw a vision...a light...this morning." 

"Are you serious? A 'light'?"

"It wasn't just me. A few of my neighbors saw it too. It was right over the house... and... " David's words trailed off as he thought about how to describe the orb.

Andrew looked annoyed. "You've came to work all last week talking about these flying dreams--which are obviously based around your subconscious desire to move around without your braces... and now..."

"Wait a second. They're more than that... What are you my psychoanalyst now?"

"Dave, I have to leave." 

"It was something paranormal, Andy; the light"

"Dave." Andrew looked intently at David. "We've been friends since college right?" David nodded. "You've talked about your crazy dreams for years. They mean something to you, but they just bore me. Sorry bud."

"It's Okay. But I'm not crazy. And, the light wasn't a dream."

"No, no, I said your dreams are crazy, not you..." He looked around the room.

"Andy, you're my friend, not just my boss. I tell you stuff, because I have no one else to confide in."

"I appreciate that, Dave... I just feel like we could have handled this situation better if you and been here right before they arrived. You would have caught my error. Besides, I'm not good at small talk, damn it. You know that..."

David pulled up a pant leg and adjusted one of the straps. "We each have our own talents, Andy. I'm a developer...an engineer. You are an administrator..." He reached down and pulled the pencil out of Andrew's hand; "a pencil-pusher." Andrew shot him a wounded glance. "But we are team, Andy. We need each other." Andrew shook his head smiling.

"Yes, right..." he said.

David smiled, "You a magician with business affairs. That is why you're the boss and I'm the lackey. Oh, except for those pesky decimal points." They both laughed.

"We'll get it all worked out," Andrew stated confidently. He looked down at his phone. "Damn! I'm outta here, bro. I'm about to be late myself."

* * * 3 * * *

A bus pulled into the lab parking lot every fifteen minutes, picking up shift workers and dropping off others. David climbed up the stairs of the 4:30 pm bus after it had emptied out. He slid his card over the swiper and walked to an empty seat.

The braces were irritating him. They were so hard, tight and uncomfortable by the end of each day. He couldn't wait to get them off and just rest on the couch. The bus dropped him at a stop by the end of his street. He always walked the quarter mile or so down his block. Upon his approach he was startled to see a group in front of his house. His neighbor Joyce was talking to a reporter from WGME. When her interview was over, Joyce thanked the reporter and camera man, and then walked over to David.

He hugged her. "So, Joyce, what's all of this about?"

Joyce looked a bit sheepish. "Well, after you left this morning that light returned. Dawn called me from her car as she was passing by your house and I went right over to your yard. In fact, I guess I've been here ever since--all day, actually."

"What happened to the light?"

"It shone for a while this time--a couple hours. Judy - you know with the two kids down the street? - saw it and came over with the kids for a while. We watched it. She brought over lawn chairs and Josh, her eight year old, climbed up the maple tree to get a better look. At about that time WGME showed up and the light disappeared while they parked. It lasted a while. No 'angels' this time--as Dawn calls those people in the light."

The two spoke in front of Joyce's house. David had no intention of getting near his own house, nor talking to the press, who had parked their minivan on the other side of the street, apparently to camp out there for the night.

"I can't go home," David said. He looked at his watch. It was almost 5:30 pm. "I'm gonna go have a beer." He was quite frustrated now. It had been a long day of ups and downs. His legs were hurting but he couldn't even relax now with the local news watching out for him.

He slowly made his way back down the street past the playground and the library to Roman's Half Full Pub. He entered and sat down in a booth. The place was empty. The server who was stacking glasses beside the table greeted him. "Hi Dave! Want a beer?"

"Hi Jill, yeah, please. Just a PBR draft. Thanks."

She smiled. "No problem!" On her way across the room she asked, "Did that earthquake wake you up this morning?"

"Earthquake? Nope, I don't think so." It took a moment for David to recognize that Jill might be referring to the thud that the light had made when it pulsed.

"Wow!" she exclaimed from behind the bar. "It was loud, early this morning; sounded like an explosion right in our neighborhood, but it made the ground shake."

"Did anyone report damage?"

Jill returned with a frosty glass of beer and a coaster. "No, but the gas company sent a truck around and the fire department examined a bunch of places.... So... start a tab?"

"Oh, no thanks, Jill. I'm gonna head home soon, just need to relax for a few minutes."

"If you want, Dave, you can take your... ah... things off..."

"My braces?"

"Yeah... I'm closing up early tonight. And, you can just hang out here if you want?"

David thought for a moment. "Okay, that sounds like a good idea. How nice of you!" He stood up and pulled down his pants. Jill giggled and turned her head, with her hand shielding her eyes, but peeking between her fingers.

"It's OK, Jill, I'm not shy."

"Well, maybe I am!" she joked, "...sometimes..."

David pushed the big black buttons on either side of him, a series of clicks unlocked the straps of the braces and then the unit unlocked and powered down. "They're really supposed to be worn on the outside of my pants. But people stare."

"It's really amazing what you've done, Dave! Did you get money to produce them yet?"

He carefully lowered himself back down to the seat, standing the braces up beside him in the booth. Then he sighed heavily and looked up at her. "Almost, Jill...almost." He raised his beer like a toast and took a big guzzle.

"Looks like your only 'Half Full' Dave, Roman would never approve."

"Ha! You're right. Let's start a tab after all."

Jill laughed and took off her waist apron, tossing it onto the bar. She pulled two glasses out of the freezer and filled them both with Pabst, then turned off the neon "OPEN" sign, drew the shades and locked the front door. She came back to David's table, sliding him one of the beers and then sitting opposite him with her own frosty draft.

She looked very pretty tonight. He remembered she had once said she was Taiwanese. Her black hair was falling out of its barrette in back. He watched her slender fingers adjusting the coaster, then scratching Chinese characters in the frost around the outside of the glass. He glanced at her almond shaped eyes. They were light brown, with specks of green--stunning. He'd wondered why he'd never really noticed her beauty before. She looked up from her glass and caught his stare. They smiled at each other. He guessed she was about ten years younger than him. There were worse things he could be doing on a Monday night than hanging out with a beautiful young woman like Jill, in his underwear!, drinking beer.

"Jill, you don't have to hang with me."

"Oh, I don't mind! We never get a chance to just talk." She reached out and held his hand. "I don't know much about you."

"You're very sweet, Jill. There's not much to know. I'm a robotics engineer with legs that don't work... and I have... crazy dreams." He drew her hand up and kissed it on the middle knuckle, then laid it back on the table releasing it.

"You're more than what you do, Dave. We all are. For example, I'm just a scared little girl outside of this place. I work because I feel comfortable here, not because I'm a waitress." She took another swig of beer. "Tell me about these crazy dreams."

David looked back down at her hands while he thought for a moment. "I fly in them."

"You mean like superman?"

"Well...kind of..."

"My mother used to have many flying dreams. In her dreams she would always be near her childhood home in Zhouzhuang. She said she would fly around the canals and then return to her bed. Even after we moved off the mainland to Taipei she said she would go back when she dreamed and visit her home--fly around there. I think she still does it every now and then."

"Really? Wow. Mine often happen where I grew up too! I've had these aeronaut dreams before in my life, but now they're coming every night... They seem so real. Well... I should say 'every morning,' just before I wake up. This morning I dreamed I was in Portland and flew back towards my own childhood house in Yarmouth..."

"Did your house look the same as you remembered it?"

"I never made it actually... I woke up." David took a drink. After swallowing he said "...and then something strange happened this morning... You know that earthquake you asked about?" Jill nodded. "Well, I think I might have witness the thing that caused it."

"Really? What was it?"

"There was a light - a light above my house - a few neighbors saw it too--Dawn Bowman, Joyce Case and Melinda Bradley... I think that's her name? Before it disappeared something came out of it, a colored ray, that was after it pulsed. That's why the ground shook; the pulse."

"A UFO!"

"No...I don't think so. It was pretty small. The three women with me each had a different interpretation. Of course Dawn thought it was a miracle from Jesus..."

"Ha! Of course... What did you think it was?"

David sighed. "I had no idea. But when I got home from work WGME was interviewing Joyce in front of my house. Apparently the light had returned, appearing in the same place again during the afternoon. In fact, come to think of it, at 10:00 pm there will probably be something on Channel 13 about it. Their van is still parked across the street from my house when I got back there."

"Is that why you're here?" Jill pointed down.

"Ha, ha! Yes, you got it. I guess now I have to sneak back to my house."

"You don't have to. Come home with me. You can sleep on the couch tonight if you want?" She raised her eyebrows innocently. "It's just me and my mother."

As appealing as that sounded at first. He thought it might be awkward to be at Jill's with her mother around. He did like the idea of being with Jill for as long as possible, but he just couldn't accept the offer. "That's very generous, Jill. But I just can't impose on you. And, I have another meeting in the morning."

"I understand. Suit yourself." She smiled and then tossed back the rest of her beer.

Believing he may have missed the opportunity of a lifetime, David hasted to add... "I would very much like to meet your mother sometime though and ask her about her dreams."

Jill perked up a bit. "She would love that! She likes to talk about her time growing up in China too." Then she suddenly jumped up and ran over to the bar clock. "Speaking of my mother... She wanted a ride to the pharmacy tonight. I'm sorry, Dave! I have to leave. Roman is out of town until tomorrow night. You are welcome to stay as long as you want. Beer's on the house! Just lock up when you leave. Oh...and remember to put your pants back on!"

"Thanks, Jill. I won't be here too much longer." David watched her grab her coat and keys. She had a kind of grace that he wanted to see more of; something he made a mental note to do. "Oh... Jill?"

"Yeah?"

"Ask your mom if she ever became aware that she was dreaming when she flew."

"Um... Okay. I think she said she always knew it was a dream, but I'll ask her." She unlocked and opened the door, locked it again from the inside and stepped out into the night, clicking it shut behind her.

David ran his hands over his legs. They felt cold. He reached over and grabbed one of the braces. He held it on his lap. It was quite an amazing little gadget. Still, even now he wished he didn't need it. That old childhood feeling of "being different" reared up inside him. His frustration with the universe for doing this to him had never really faded. He had to admit to himself that things had gotten better. He was no longer confined to a wheelchair. He had a good job and his invention was set to help millions of people. He simply wished he wasn't alone all the time. Being with Jill reminded him of that. He had 'desires' just like any other man. Maybe he was too old to attract a woman like Jill? But he thought that there just had to be someone out there for him. Or, maybe it didn't matter either way?

He checked his watch: 10:06. The News! Scooting to the edge of the seat, he clicked on each of the braces, which clamped around his legs. They raised him up to a standing position. He walked over and behind the bar picking up the remote and turning on the TV along the way. He entered "1-3" into the remote and heard the reporter's voice...

"...That was the scene here earlier today outside and above a Mr. David L. Vogel's house. Vogel has not been home since going to work early this morning. We hope to get a comment from him later tonight or tomorrow. Again, a strange light was seen in Portland today for two hours over a house near Deering. I'm Lexie O'Connor reporting for WGME Channel 13 News. Back to you Kim." He poured himself another beer behind the bar then went back to the booth and sat down. The rest of the news was typical and local, so he turned off the TV.

He felt sleepy but didn't want to go home. A short nap might be good. He turned the lights off, went over to the couch by the window, removed his braces and laid down. He put his beer on the floor by the foot of the couch and rested his head on the low arm. 

[Please continue on for the conclusion in Parts 4 and 5.]