Post 14

“I haven’t had a whole lot of experience with whatever this is, you know. There was the time at the airport which was almost traumatic for me, and there was this one which felt...” Peter looked for words to describe. “It was warm, almost liquid, the way it absorbed into my hand. Did you see anything?”

Laura shook her head slowly with her eyes wide open. Peter was convinced that she couldn’t see anything, and thought that maybe she didn’t believe him because of that. “Well,” continued Peter, “I don’t think I’m crazy, so that’s at least one of us.” He smiled at her.

“I don’t think you’re crazy, Peter, but I have to be honest. I have no idea what might be happening. I don’t remember ever hearing anything like this.”

“Me either.” Just then, Peter’s vision got suddenly blurry. “Oh, no, not again you don’t.”

“What is it, Pete?”

“It’s that blurry vision thing again. I want to see if I can keep it from doing something weird.” Peter’s right hand was gripping the door handle and his left was holding the corner of his seat. The muscles in his arms were tensed up. He started to regulate his breathing. In through his nose, out through his mouth. His eyes were closed. He continued this for several moments before opening his eyes experimentally. He looked around, watching cars go by on the nearby off ramp.

“Well?” asked Laura.

“It feels different than it did in the hospital room. It’s not so... insistent. Either that or I am able to suppress it better.”

“What happened last time when it took over?”

“I was trying to envision me on a ball field, and the vision turned against me and showed me blowing some guy’s head off in the desert.”

“Yeah, you told me that part, but how did it feel then?”

“It felt...uncontrolled, it felt like it was going to show me what it was going to show me and there was nothing I could do about it. This time it feels like the same wanting to show me something thing, but it’s not as forceful.”

“Maybe that’s a sign of something, Pete. Maybe the first time it was just trying to tell you something and now it doesn’t have to make the same point again. It’s almost like you have a message to pick up, and whatever this thing is knows that you’ll pick it up when you’re ready or something.”

“That’s a really weird way of looking at it, Laura. You may be right, but it’s still weird.”

“So how do you want to do this?”

“I certainly don’t want to get all tranced out on you right next to a bunch of cops who are looking for some guy that paints the walls with blood. Let’s find a quieter place.”

The sun was down behind the mountains, but the sky was still blue, and the clouds in the west were a radiant pink. The mountains still had snow on them, and overall it was a beautiful backdrop for their discussion. Laura looked towards the mountains and said, “We could drive out to Golden and just hang out at one of the parks.”

“We could do that. We could even make it a picnic. I told my mom we’d figure out something for dinner tonight.”

“You turned down your mom’s cooking? Are you sure you aren’t sick?”

“Pretty sure.”

Laura started driving again, first through the drive-through where they got a couple burgers, fries and sodas, then the rest of the way down Sixth Avenue all the way to Golden. In total it was only a twenty minute drive to the park that Laura wanted to go to. She parked the car and they got out, taking their food along with them. They sat at a picnic table where they ate and strategized over what they would do.

“With the last vision I had back at the hospital, I didn’t know what I was physically doing. I was watching things play out in my mind, but my body was playing along, too, and I didn’t know it. So before I do this, we need to make sure nobody else is around first,” said Peter.

They looked around and though there was another car in the parking lot, they didn’t see anyone at the park. With the hiking trails around, that wasn’t unusual. It was also starting to grow darker, so the chance that someone would come hang out at the park now was pretty low. They thought they were pretty safe.

“The other thing to consider is that if things get weird, you have to have some way to protect yourself from me.”

“I could always jump in the car and lock the door, right?” asked Laura.

“Yeah, you could, but you need to make sure you have a head start. I probably run faster than you do.”

“You probably do. Why don’t you take your shoes off? That might give me an edge if I need it.”

Peter thought it over and agreed. “It is starting to get a little colder, though, so this better not take long or you might have to take me back to the hospital for frostbite.”

“It’s not that cold out, Pete. Hey, I have an idea. I have a blanket in my trunk. How about you wrap it around your legs? That way if you start trying to run after me, you’ll either trip all over yourself or spend some extra time unwrapping yourself. You’ll be a Peter Burrito.”

“I hope I didn’t just get a new nickname,” said Peter. They both laughed.

“You might have,” said Laura.

“It sounds like a plan. Let’s do it.”

They both got up and took their fast food bags to the trash can, and then Laura went to the car to retrieve her blanket while Peter took his shoes and socks off. He rolled up each sock and put one inside each shoe. Laura watched him on the second one and said, “I guess I should’ve expected that.”

“What?”

“That thing you did with your socks.”

“I’ve been doing that since I was a kid.”

“I don’t doubt it! Here’s the blanket.”

Laura handed Peter a small, pastel pink blanket with a pink satin edge. He took it and looked at it with disdain. “What?” asked Laura. “It’s not like anyone’s going to see you. In fact, that’s kindof the point of being here, right?”

“I guess,” answered Peter. “That doesn’t mean I have to like being the Pink Peter Burrito.”

“Oh, your nickname just got better!” They laughed again.

They went to a grassy area between the picnic table and the nearby playground and sat down on the grass. Peter left his shoes at the picnic table, just in case. They sat down on the grass and Peter wrapped the pastel pink blanket around his feet in such a way that he wouldn’t easily be able to get up and start running. Laura took up her position between Peter and the car, and kept her keys in her hand, just in case. It had gotten much darker since they left the parking lot. The sun was down and the radiance of the clouds had diminished completely. They could hear traffic on the nearby roads, but nobody was near them.

“Are you ready for this?” asked Peter.

“Are you? We don’t know what you’re going to see, if anything.”

“I’m ready,” said Peter. He was sitting with his legs crossed Indian-style, and he let his arms fall to his sides. His back was straight. His head was looking up slightly. His eyes were closed. He took a deep breath, held it for a moment, then let it out. He opened his left eye and looked at Laura.

“No peeking,” said Laura. “Concentrate.”

“I am. I was just checking to see if my vision was still clear. It is. Oh, wait a minute...” Peter’s vision didn’t so much blur like before as it did occlude. He could see street lights and car headlights near him, but it was like looking through a white shower curtain.

When Laura spoke, he noticed that his hearing worked the same way – it was dampened. He barely heard her when she said, “Peter, your eyes. They’re white!” Her voice saying the word “white” echoed in his ears, playing over itself and confusing his hearing. The lights near him faded, and other lights rose to take their place, just as other sounds rose to take the place of Laura’s voice. The scene resolved. He found himself back at Denver International Airport. He was staring at the baggage carousel as it spun around. A duffel bag was approaching from his left. He reached down to take it from the carousel and sat it down on the floor at his feet. After rearranging it slightly, he picked it up, spun himself around and put the duffel on his back. In the middle of this action, he ran into...himself. In the vision, he was Aura Man, and he had just run into himself at the airport. This confused Peter greatly, so much so that he snapped out of the trance he was in.

He opened his eyes, and adjusted to the low light quickly. Laura was right where she was when he closed his eyes, and as far as he could tell, he hadn’t moved.

“Didn’t I say no peeking?” asked Laura.

“How long was I out?”

“Your eyes were only closed for about five seconds. Did you see something?”

Peter described to Laura what he had seen.

“So you were seeing things from Aura Man’s perspective rather than your own. What do you suppose that means?