Falling in the Garden

Chapter Nine - Observance

Chapter Nine

Observance

By the first of August, I still had nothing to show for my research. Adding the names of Ashley’s grandparents only seemed to confuse things. There were many false leads. At least once a week, I thought I’d found some key connection, but it always fell apart.

I was sitting before my computer that morning when it occurred to me that I was searching for the wrong person. I would need to ask Ashley something, though, before I turned in this new direction. I knew I should have waited until dark, but I had to do something right then. I planned on going to The Meadow to listen quietly. If it sounded like Ashley was alone, I’d ask my question quickly and return. Grabbing my walkie-talkie, I sprinted out the door. With each breathless step I felt my heart race faster. This could be how I made the connection—perhaps the only way.

I heard the metronomic whir of helicopter rotors before I even reached the Kasner house, but the sound didn’t truly figure into my thoughts until I was headed away from the Seahorse Pool and down the hill. When I finally looked up, it was to see the disappearing stutter of blades pass the high canopy of green. My elation began to slip. Could someone have figured out what Ashley and I were doing? There were still secrets about her past I did not yet know. Had something from the past come forward to destroy our only way of communicating?

I think I smiled then, amused at how paranoid I had become. It was amazing how easy it was to embellish what was happening with Hollywood thriller cut-scenes.

Still, my less trusting side decided to move north instead of north-west and in five minutes I was stepping up onto a section of high ground which looked down onto the cliff area and the slightly yellow-green circle of The Meadow. My heart sank immediately. I squinted, trying to focus as my worst imaginings became real. Seething like a small colony of insects, people in what appeared to be yellow environmental suits moved below to some mysterious purpose. I reached for my backpack, intending to take the binoculars for a better view. I’m sure I cursed aloud when I realized I’d left all but my walkie-talkie behind.

Getting closer was out of the question. Still, part of me wanted to go down to The Meadow at once and confront these people. They obviously knew something—why would anyone show the slightest interest in such an incidental, remote location? These musings, however, occupied only a fractional part of my arguing mind that screamed: Run! Run home and get your binoculars! Find a camera! It’s your only chance to see what they’re doing without getting caught!

Just then, the faceless figures below converged at the center of The Meadow. A few of them held onto something as a team, orienting their bodies for some act. Then came the sound: spinning, grinding, drilling…

As quickly as I could manage, I pushed back through the foliage on a mad race home. It was then, as I emerged onto the bottom of the Kasner’s property, that the sound of the helicopter blades ceased. I could think of a few areas large enough for such a landing nearby and wondered if it had set down on any of these.

I turned back and ran to where I’d been, but it was already too late. The sound of the helicopter roared suddenly to life again and then quickly receded. When I reached my outlook on the rocky hill, the biohazard crew was gone. As tempted as I was to rush down and see if anything had changed, I forced myself to wait.

I tried not to think about the possibility that I would no longer be able to talk with Ashley. Sitting there on a rock jutting from the earth at a comfortable angle, I leaned back and tried to occupy my frantic mind. What happened was a wild idea to explain all of this, something Joe and I would have concocted. The tower. I imagined an immense, marble tower that reached over 1,000 feet above the forest. It did not yet exist in 1999, but was to be erected 200 years in the future. In this ghostly, ominous tower lived a biological computer who believed it was one of God’s angels. Attempting to aid God, the digital monstrosity created a family existing in its own memory banks. Experimenting on human interaction, the computer opened a channel into the past. An unwitting boy happened to pick up the signal and began a relationship with “Ashley”. He never once guessed that she was merely an Autonomous Intelligence subroutine from the year 2199.

I almost laughed into the sky. The morning breeze was beginning to warm. If only the reality of my situation was so exact and easily explained. Waiting longer would prove impossible. Impatiently, I dropped back onto the path.

What was I expecting? Again, strange scenarios raced through my mind. The strange visitors in the suits had, of course, come from the future to find me, the first human to interact with the super-computer’s creations.

What I found, instead, was at the same time simplistic, yet oddly compelling. When I entered The Meadow, everything was as it had been save for one small alteration. In the exact center of the mossy foundation was a large handle. This “handle” was composed of solid pipe, buried in the ground as an inverted U-shape. The top of it was so thick that I could wrap both my hands around it. I reasoned that the sounds I heard were from some sort of drill giving the pipe handle purchase.

Knowing it would accomplish nothing, I pulled futilely at the curve of the upper section of the bar and felt no give whatsoever. I stopped and listened.

Silence.

No drone of the helicopter. No massive drilling project.

“Bye Mom!” Ashley called out.

I spun around.

She should have been standing right there behind me, but there was only the empty meadow.

“Ashley?” I asked.

After a few seconds of indecision, her voice spoke clearly and with greater volume than ever before.

“Wow! Michael, where are you?”

“I’m standing where I usually stand. Here in The Meadow. Where are you?”

“I’m outside.”

With cold dread, I realized I’d forgotten the walkie-talkie back at the lookout.

“Ashley. I’m not using my walkie-talkie. You’re not by the radio. How can we be talking?” I felt as if there were someone out there watching me, nodding their head knowingly and jotting notes down at my reaction. As if all of this was simply an experiment.

“I don’t know, Michael. I guess we just don’t need them anymore.” A pause. “Michael, my Mom is sick. She just left to see one of the Army doctors.”

“What happened?”

“I don’t know. It’s strange. She’s been throwing up, but she doesn’t have a fever or anything like that.”

“I don’t know how this could have any connection with your mother, but we just had some visitors here a little while ago.”

“What are you talking about?”

I quickly explained what I saw and Ashley seemed to grow increasingly nervous.

“Does this mean something to you?” I asked.

“You said they drilled holes into the ground and put a handle in them?”

“Well… that’s what it looks like. I can’t think of any reason they would have done something so strange.”

“Someone’s coming!” she gasped.

“Ashley, before you go, what’s Sarah’s last name?”

“What?”

“If I can find her in my time, we might have a better chance of finding out about you.”

“Her last name is Kasner. I’ll talk to you tonight. Bye!”

“Bye,” I whispered in response.

Kasner? I couldn’t believe it. This small, yet important revelation made everything feel more real. No longer was our connection merely a town and a remnant foundation decades old. Now there was Sarah Kasner and a small mansion that had so prominently figured into my life before Joe left. Before I even met Ashley.

I turned and made my way home.

There was much to do before Ashley and I would speak again.