Chapter 5

  For Kelton, the light suddenly dimmed. He watched the team as they scattered around the box. The only illumination in the room seemed to emanate from Alex Beta and Chaz. Alex disconnected the hoses, and Beta disconnected the wires; Chaz fished the rat out of his pants and then disengaged the locks on the table’s casters.

  “The power has gone out! It didn't work!” shouted Kelton. “Call 911!”.

  The team ignored him and started pushing the table that Kelton was on toward the door. He rolled off the table, still clutching his neck. The team continued to push the table with the fully black Box towards the door. Kelton jumped out of the way. He yelled as the team pushed and pulled.

  “They can't hear you.”

  Colton's attention shifted in the direction the voice came from. A man in his 30s stood there surveying the wreckage of the lab. Books and broken glassware were strewn across the floor, wires and tubes hung from various devices. Air hissed from the liquid nitrogen tank, which hadn't been fully shut off. There was blood spatter everywhere. It looked like a war zone.

  “You've really made a mess of my lab!” chuckled the man. “Oh, and you can take your hand from your neck. You can't bleed anymore!”

  “Where did you come from?”

  “This is my lab. I'm Milton Cohen. I'm often here. I'm glad I didn't miss that experiment. It was right out of a Marx brothers’ movie! Except the blood, of course. That… that was a bit off-putting.”

  Kelton was still agitated and was having a hard time focusing, but this was catching his attention. “But you died 20 years ago. You are dead.”

  “I think I have evidence to the contrary,” smiled Cohen. “But of course, you were asking yourself, ‘Is this life after death? Is this the activity of an oxygen-deprived brain?”

  Kelton scoffed, “Life after death? I'm just hallucinating. I've passed out from loss of blood, and now I'm dreaming. Let's be real here.”

  “You're pretty rational for a hallucinating man.”

  A new voice came from another corner. “Who's this? Have we got a new arrival?” A slender man of about 30 walked up. He looked to Kelton like a gangster from an old movie, like Dan Duryea in a pinstriped suit and a fedora. He slouched against Kelton’s desk. A gray glow surrounded him, illuminating the area around the desk. Surveying the wreckage of the room, the tough guy said, “Looks like I missed out on all the fun. What's happened here?”

  In the time it took Cohen him to say, “This is what you missed,” the images of the events in the lab from the entire day flashed through Kelton's mind. The gangster saw it, too, and laughed uproariously.

  “A monkey, two rats, a chicken, and four idiots walk into a lab. Sounds like the start of a joke. It's got everything!” His laughter died down after a few seconds. He held out his hand to Kelton. “I'm Jacob. Like, anything you wanna know, I'm your guy.”

  Still dazed, Kelton reached out his hand. His hand passed right through Jacob's hand.

  “Psych!” Jacob shouted with glee. His eyes narrowed. He looked intently at Kelton and breathed out quietly. “Hey, what's this? You still got your silver thread! I haven’t seen one of those in years and years.”

  Kelton was still dazed. The reality shift had completely disoriented him. “Silver thread?”

  Cohen moved closer to him. “There's a silver thread from the crown of your head that is still connected to your body. I think that means you're not dead yet.”

  Kelton put all his attention on Cohen, trying to process the thought. “I'm not dead yet. I'm not dead yet. I’m not dead yet… So, what does that make you?”

  Cohen shrugged. “The question I want to answer is, what are you? Your body is in the box, and your consciousness is not. You’re both alive and dead. You are Schr?dinger’s cat! Well…I'm not dead… I've come to think of my condition as separated from my body.”

  Jacob smirked, “Speak for yourself.” He turned to Kelton. “There's all kinds here. Kinda surprised, aren't you? Maybe you’re just hallucinating? Your synapses are firing up a storm in that box, are they?”

  Kelton nodded. “Hallucination seems like a good explanation.”

  “Ha! That's classic! Not very original, but classic,” derided Jacob. “If only I had a finger -or even a toe for every time I've heard that in this building.” He went on in a mocking voice, “You are just a bit of underdone beef or an overcooked potato. There's more of gravy than grave about you!” As he spoke, his image morphed from that of a gangster to that of Alistair Simm, who played Ebenezer Scrooge.

  Cohen ignored Jacob. “Hallucination. That's what I told myself the first five or six years. Brain synapses firing as my brain died.” Kelton felt like he was being talked to like a 5-year-old. “For the last, what is it now, 36 years, I've been exploring the universe. Jacob's been an occasional guide of sorts. It's incredible what you can learn - and how fast you can learn - unhindered by distance or brain chemistry.”

  “Exploring the universe?” The question popped out of Kelton. “What are you doing here? There's a lot more to be learned out there than in here, isn't there?”

  Cohen nodded. “I'm back here from time to time. Being an unfettered mind has some advantages, but the body was handy when it came time to set up experiments. Here in the lab, occasionally, I'm able to exert some influence, make some suggestions, and see where it takes us. It's hit and miss whether the lab teams will accept the suggestions… Truth be told it's more miss than hit. But on occasion, I've been able to influence the odd line of inquiry.”

  “Yak, yak, yak,” Jacob interjected. He put his hand on (in?) Kelton’s shoulder. “Boring. I'm more interested in that silver thread of yours. Where do you think it goes?” he said with a sly grin.

  Kelton had the visual sensation of walking through a sheet of falling water. His perception sizzled. He found himself (floating?) in the back of a speeding pickup truck. It was as dark as midnight. The only light he saw came from the pedestrians on the sidewalks and from inside the cars they passed, and a faint glow from the rocks, trees, and other greenery. Some lights were bright, and some were dim. He saw that Chaz was driving, and Alex and Beta were sitting next to Chaz. They had loaded the box into the back of the pickup truck. The truck was speeding and weaving through the traffic, narrowly missing a Prius in the turn lane and finally fishtailing into the emergency room entrance of the university hospital parking lot.

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  “Pull in right under the canopy,” said Beta.

  “That's some wild driving!” shouted Jacob from behind Kelton. “He's gonna get us all killed!” Jacob shrieked with laughter as though he’d just said something hysterically funny.

  Chaz pulled the pickup truck under the canopy to the emergency room entrance. He pulled in too fast, and the tire struck the curb. The team in the cab all lurched forward as the truck came to an abrupt stop. Kelton didn't feel a thing.

  Chaz threw open the door of the truck and jumped out. “How long have until the field dissipates?” he asked urgently.

  “About 6 minutes,” Beta said.

  Alex ran inside the building, shouldering the sliding glass door that didn't open fast enough. I need some help here!” They heard him yell.

  “Such drama,” noted Jacob. “Look around. There's likely some things here you will not have seen before.”

  Kelton looked around. The only sources of light were the people inside and outside the building. Looking more closely, Kelton determined that there was a phosphorescent light coming from everything in his field of view. The living things, he observed, had a brighter glow than the buildings and other inanimates.

  “Look! There's a newbie over there,” Jacob pointed in the direction of the gurneys being wheeled into the emergency room. “Watch this, we’ll have some fun!”

  The faded image of the woman on the gurney walked alongside the gurneys. She shouted instructions to the EMTs, but the medics were oblivious to her. Jacob was suddenly at her side.

  “Whoa, that’s some serious head trauma you got there. I don’t think you’re gonna make it. I hope you’ve got your affairs in order,” he said. The faded woman looked terrified.

  “What should I do?” she implored.

  “Get back in your body! You gotta get up on that gurney!” encouraged Jacob sarcastically.

  The woman jumped on the gurney and scrambled frantically to get back into the body. Jacob laughed hysterically.

  “Look at that!” Jacob was back by Kelton's side. ”Yesterday, you never thought you’d see somebody sitting on their own head!” He called to the woman, “Jump harder! Keep trying!”

  It made Kelton mad. “I don’t think that was funny,” he said

  “Lighten up, Doc, she’s nothing. Look at that idiot. What a riot! You gotta take your fun where you can get it.”

  Three medics rushed out the emergency room door, pushing a Gurney. Alex pointed, “That's my truck. He's in the back.”

  The medics pushed the Gurney up to the tailgate and looked around, confused. “Where's your guy?”

  “He's in the box!” Alex said. Alex tried to explain about Kelton, the box, and the bleeding, but even Kelton was having a hard time following Alex's explanation.

  Trying to make sense of the situation, the tallest medic demanded that they open the box and get the patient out.

  Beta looked at their watch. “The box will open in 4 minutes.”

  Chaz explained to the medics, “When the box opens, we'll be able to pull Doctor Kelton out. His neck has been slashed by some exploding glassware. We think he’s stable while he's in the box. If we're right, there's going to be spurting blood when the box opens. You've got to get him inside and ready for what's going to happen. He's already lost a lot of blood.’

  The tall medic shook his head in disbelief. The shortest medic took a deep breath. “This sounds crazy. But I'm taking this seriously because of the amount of blood spray on you guys. Let's get this box into trauma room 3.”

  Alex turned to Beta. “Has anyone called Gillian?” Kelton’s thoughts turned to his wife.

  SIZZLE

  He washed through the water wall again, and he was in his living room with Gillian. Once again, Gillian was sitting on the floor in tears. Her Dad, in mental turmoil, wrung his hands behind her.

  “… please believe me! I am sorry! I’m sorry,” her father pleaded with her, his face contorted, and he wrung his hands in anguish, “I didn’t want to hurt you. I just wanted the pain to stop. I never thought that I would transfer that pain to you….” With each declaration, Gillian cried even harder. It almost seemed to Kelton that Gillian could hear her father. Deke moved closer.

  Looking up, Gillian’s dad was startled to see Deke standing there. “Did you have an accident? Did you die? What are you doing here?”

  “Dev, I was just going to ask you the same thing,” said Deke. “I did have an accident, but I think I’m ok.”

  “Not if you are here like this- You are not ok.”

  “I still have the silver thread,” pointed out Deke, distracted for an instant. “That’s not important right now. What are you doing to my Rani?”

  “I need her to forgive me. I keep coming back to her, trying to give some comfort,” Dev’s voice still had the Punjabi accent. “I try to make her understand. But she is always crying,” he gnashed his teeth in turmoil. “I tell her I miss her, she cries. I tell her I love her, she cries. I tell her I am here with her, she cries. I want her to know that I am sorry! I want her to stop being sad for me. This is so terrible. I thought the loss of my business was bad. This is a million times worse.”

  Gillian's sobs got louder.

  “I need some time with her,” Deke said. “Alone.”

  Dev nodded, and his light faded from behind Gillian.

  Deke did his best to put his arms around Gillian. Her sobs diminished. “I wish Deke were here right now. she sighed.

  Her phone rang. She cleared her throat, sniffed, and answered the call. “Hello?....Oh, Hi Beta!”

  Kelton could not hear the other end of the conversation.

  The call continued, “…No! …Is he OK? …. Where is he? ….What do the Doctors say?... They what? … I’ll be there in 10 minutes!”

  Gillian jumped up, passing through Deke’s arms like fog.

  “I’ll be OK, Rani,” he tried to reassure her.

  She was already out the door. Deke wondered what she would find at the hospital.

  SIZZLE

  Once again, Deke passed through the wall of water and found himself in the trauma room. Chaz, a doctor and a nurse, stood around the box. They donned surgical gowns and gloves.

  “Nurse Schmedlap, have you ordered the plasma?“

  “Yes, Doctor,” the nurse responded with a smile.

  For a moment, Kelton was distracted by the nurse, who had the broadest, toothiest smile he had ever seen. Her white teeth were a sharp contrast to her coffee-colored skin, and she had such a memorable name. Her smile disappeared as she fixed her surgical mask in place. A tray of surgical instruments sat nearby.

  “How much longer till the box opens?” the doctor asked.

  “I think the field will dissipate in less than a minute,” Chaz said.

  “Mmm hmmm.” the doctor breathed out. “You are just here for support with your technology. You need to leave through that door as soon as the box opens.” The doctor pointed. “ I've got to tell you I don't hold out a lot of hope here. Your description sounds like both the carotid and the juggler were cut. He would have bled out in seconds. I am just afraid we are going to have a lot of blood and a dead guy spill out.”

  “Well, I'm not ready for another death,” said the nurse. “I just spent the last 45 minutes with the Dawkins family. Mr. Dawkins passed on this morning.”

  “At least his family was there with him. That doesn't happen often here in the emergency room.”

  The nurse smirked under her surgical mask, “There were a few family members there that I couldn't see. He was talking to his mother and grandfather. He had lost it there at the end.”

  The doctor nodded. “When they are hallucinating family members, they usually don’t last much longer.”

  “They are pretty interesting, though; I like to hear the one-sided conversations. It’s kind of comforting.”

  Deke felt a strange surge of anger, but the anger lacked a dimension. It wasn’t something he could put his finger on. He opened his mouth to set the doctor and nurse straight.

  SNAP

  Deke's point of view abruptly shifted. He was looking up at the assembled team from a supine position on the table. Blood spurted from between his fingers. “I need help. I'm bleeding...” he gasped to the astonished doctor and nurse. The Box’s framework clattered to the floor as the trauma team pushed it away and swarmed around Kelton. Chaz protested as the team rushed him from the room. The room spun as a warm darkness enveloped Kelton.