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  So Stu she would approve of, Jonathan bet internally. And I, for the first time, am doing something important, so now I am part of the inner circle. Mrs. Ross watched his reactions closely.

  The group of three began to read the first entry shown. It was dated 1976, but the entry was halfway through the book. Jonathan thought, that would make mom twenty-one at the time of the entry but meant that she started traveling when she was a whole lot younger. There was no way to know what age the other two members might have been. Jonathan would have to read the book closely once Mira was back safe and sound, and the mystery of Brandon was solved. That reminded him—

  "Mom," he said, "before we read this, what about the other night? What was happening there? You were traveling?"

  "After." said Mrs. Ross. "After you read. Read!" The group turned back toward the book.

  The first entry on the page Mrs. Ross had left open was written in longhand:

  May 21, 1976

  We are now rethinking the scenery we set up in the astral. It stays because we want it to stay and provides a safe and comfortable zone for both our own travel and experiments, as well as any first time mistakes who end up in the other world. On the other hand, it encourages those who know nothing to travel, because they think the scene is the other world, when in fact it is just our creation. Should they wander outside of it, any first-timer would immediately be overcome by nightmares most likely, from their innate fear of the nothing they stepped into. We have not come to agreement about this yet, and all matters must be settled by a unanimous vote as previously defined in our charter.

  "Wow," said Stu. "They had a charter. This was a very serious group."

  "Well, we had rules," said Michael. "It's similar." They continued on to the next entry.

  May 28, 1976

  We have decided to strip the scenery after a debate in which each of us presented our views. We then put it to a vote. It took five hours to come to a unanimous decision. We are leaving the sky, but we are taking away all else.

  "Hmm," said Jonathan, "that's weird because when we first used to go, before we made our Emergency Meeting Place, sometimes there was sky, and sometimes there was a whole scene. It seemed to always vary back and forth and was never stable, which is why we learned and then finally made our own."

  "Keep reading," said Mrs. Ross.

  We have decided this mostly because of the little girl and little boy who come here often now. We thought they must be a mistake, they are so young, but they keep coming back. We watch what they do but don't really know what they are up to, except exploring perhaps. We feel they are too young to be here and hope that taking away the scenery will scare them enough to stay away. We will be feeling for them there to make sure they get away safely.

  Michael looked up quickly at his mother but remained silent.

  May 30, 1976

  The change of scene seemed to have worked on the little girl. It scared her into a dark forest her mind conjured up, and we posed as a shining light that guided her out and back to the real world. I don't think she will be back again soon.

  June 5, 1976

  Unfortunately, the change of scene seemed to have the opposite effect on the older boy. It seemed to spur him on to try to figure out the other world. We are thinking both these children may be prodigies, and we can probably expect the little girl back when she is older. After discussion, we decided to continue to keep the scenery down. We don't need it anyway, as we can create instantaneously know when we require it.

  "Man," said Stu. "It took me years to learn to create scenery at an instant."

  "Yeah, like you're so old at nineteen," said Jonathan.

  "Mira is waiting," said Michael and continued reading.

  June 6, 1976

  When we visited the other world last night, there was scenery there— not of our creation. We have decided unanimously that we have done our duty and, short of saving the little boy from danger, will not interfere, as it is obviously his will to learn and create here.

  Stu looked at Mrs. Ross, but her expression remained impassive. Part of the Watcher's Creed he bet.

  June 11, 1976

  We are about to do our most important experiment yet. We feel sure that the real world can be affected by the astral world but are aware of the danger inherent in this possibility. Two of us have learned to take our whole and complete real bodies into the astral. The third person will act as a control here, to report any changes quickly to us, to prevent problems, and also to track time in the real world so we don’t stay away too long. The longest we have stayed in the astral in real-world time has been five days. We are about to try seven, or perhaps as long as it takes, depending on how the two of us who can travel whole are feeling. We are trying to arrange trips so our families won't notice.

  *Note: During our recent travels, the little boy has been in the astral consistently. He is not leaving. We are observing him, but he seems okay. It makes us wonder how he is acting at home.

  June 13, 1976

  The seven-day experiment will begin next week.

  *Note: the little boy has taken his real body to the astral! We were highly surprised. He is a prodigy. He has taken his real body and is apparently staying. This means he is missing in real life, but we do not know where he is from or what family to look for in real life. We have not seen the little girl here again. We have seen the boy every time we go, and in the real world we have calculated that he has been gone at least six days. He appears to never leave.

  "Holy crap," said Jonathan. All three men were spellbound reading this information.

  "Can you imagine?" said Stu. "Getting to the point where your whole team is prepared to experiment to see if you can affect the real world?!"

  "I understand your impatience with us now, Stu," said Michael. "You're more suited for a team like we are reading about, not a frivolous adventure-seeking gang. If you were there back then when we were running around, you probably would have left the gang when we were young. As it is, we are lucky to have you along to help." Michael looked at Stu with genuine appreciation.

  "Aww," said Stu. They read on.

  June 14, 1976

  We are still prepping for the experiment in both worlds.

  *Note: the little boy is still in the astral. He has been there by our count, for over seven days straight real-world time! In his real body! But when we saw him today, he did not look exactly the same. Some of the light seemed to be darker in him/around him. This has us worried. We have taken a vote and tomorrow one of us will approach the boy and tell him we think he needs to return home, for a least a while. No one knows the consequences of having your real body in the astral, away from the real world for long periods of time. Though we have spent up to five real-world days with no ill effects we cannot be sure there are none. The boy is up to seven. It seems risky as that leaves no source of real energy to draw from. This has made us rethink the timeline portion of our experiment.

  June 15, 1976

  I went to try to find the boy tonight. He was there in the middle of his scenery, but something was wrong with him. I tried to help him. I came to him as a younger version of myself so as not to scare him. His scenery was strong, but he was missing his feet. I found him looking down at his legs, I guess wondering where his feet were. Try as he might he could not make them appear.

  He was ready to go back now, but told me, almost in tears that he had tried and couldn't. I grew very concerned. I took hold of his arm and tried to bring him back to the real world, assuming we would go back to his home, but we went nowhere. When I tried that and it didn't work, he started crying for real.

  I told him I would be back and left to get my group as fast as I could. By the time we came back, which was only about a half hour in the real world, his hands were missing, and he was still crying.

  All of us tried everything we knew. We even came back in our real bodies and tried to bring him out that way, but it didn't work. We came out, but he didn't. When we went back to the ot
her world, he was in the same place, hadn't moved, but more of him was disappearing.

  We are the only ones that work here, as far as we know. There is no one to go to for information or a cure. We keep trying to come up with ideas, but time is not on our side.

  June 16, 1976

  We are staying with Paul, which is the boy's name. His sister is Mira. He told me where they live and after some discreet checking, we found, as we thought, that he is missing. We are at a loss as to how to help him. He is disintegrating before our eyes. He seems resigned to his fate, but this is horrifying. We have no idea what will happen to him when he disappears completely. We are all staying with him around the clock, but taking turns, since we now know there is danger in staying too long in your real body. Being there in person seems to comfort him.

  We don't know what to do. I try to be strong for him; we have philosophical talks about life and death, but we all cry when we are not with him. We have researched as well, when we are not on watch with him, but none of this is mentioned anywhere we could find.

  June 17, 1976

  It will not be long. We are all here. Parts of Paul stopped disappearing about six hours ago, and instead he appears whole again but ghostly. He seems to be disappearing as a whole. He does not talk much anymore except to ask us to watch out for his sister and to make sure this does not happen to her. He had not known his sister was traveling. Apparently, they are both prodigies and were doing it independently of one another. His sister is four years younger he says. Paul is eight.

  June 18, 1976

  Paul was eight when he died, disappearing for good. There was nothing any of us could do to stop it. For all our knowledge and experiments, we could not stop the death of an innocent little boy. I wish we had tried to intervene earlier. We just did not know. That is no consolation.

  June 20, 1976

  We have decided non-unanimously to discontinue the group and the experiments. Two of us want to disband. One of us wants to continue on to discover signs or triggers to prevent such a horrific fate from happening again, and an antidote if possible. We wish our third member luck. The others of us have no heart for this anymore.

  The entries abruptly ended there. Michael flipped through the book. The rest of the pages were blank. He sat still in the chair for a minute.

  Stu and Jonathan stood frozen in place.

  "Mira has been in the other world in her real body already for three days!" Michael finally cried out, shaken.

  "Yes," said Mrs. Ross, finally letting her worry show on her face.

  "So we have less than four real-world days to make sure she is out," said Jonathan.

  "Yes," said Mrs. Ross again. "The effects, once they start, are irreversible, so they cannot even be allowed to begin. The person must be back in body in the real world before then. And you must realize, seven is the absolute limit. For some people, it is less."

  "Oh my God," said Stu. "I'm trying to draw on my experience and knowledge for this, but I'm blank. I didn't know!"

  "None of us knew," said Jonathan.

  "But Paul was found in the pond," said Michael. "Everyone said he drowned."

  "Yes," said Mrs. Ross. "That is where his real-world body reappeared when he was completely gone."

  Michael was putting things together about his mother, Mira, and himself, but he didn't have time to go into it . Later, he thought. Another thought struck him. "You would have all been dead if that hadn't happened." he said, disturbed that either way, someone died. "You would have done your experiment and lost your bodies for good."

  "Yes," said Mrs. Ross. "We three have all had to make peace with that knowledge over the last thirty years. I have one more thing to tell you."

  The men went back and sat down at attention.

  "This information is oral," she said. "It is not in the book, and it is not in there for a reason.

  "Our friend, Hawk, is the one who continued on," said Mrs. Ross. "He put himself in great personal danger to do the experiments, but he found someone else younger, I don't know the name, who he acted as sort of a mentor to, who acted as the control. He let us know the results and the important knowledge he found, on the condition that we did not write it down to ever be found, and imparted it orally only if we deemed it the right time and place to the right people.

  "That said, I want each of your words that you will not repeat what I am about to say to anyone except amongst yourselves. This includes the rest of your friends. They have been helping, and I am sure will continue to, but the information is not for them. When this is over, they will go back to their ordinary lives and won't travel anymore. They do not need to know this."

  Each man solemnly gave his word.

  "What about the danger though?" asked Michael

  "We put part of ourselves, us three, in one of the stars in the sky scenery we left. We know any time someone takes a real body there. We did this to prevent further tragedies. When Mira first left, I thought you boys would have her back quickly. But now that she's lost…" she stopped.

  Then she added, "The High Five Gang sometimes saw sky and sometimes other scenery because Paul's landscape still flickers on and off at times. Or it did twenty years ago. I'm not sure about it since then."

  "So you knew when Brandon went to the astral with his whole self!" said Michael, putting together the pieces of the puzzle. "That's why you were with him when we saw him at the McArthur house."

  "You follow him to make sure he comes back," finished Stu.

  "That's right," said Mrs. Ross. Then to Michael, she said, "Michael, you might as well know this after all — no force or other person took Brandon from here to the other world that day."

  "Really?" said, Michael, unsure whether to feel relief or worry.

  "Yes," said Mrs. Ross. "In the tradition of his mother, he is a prodigy, but one younger than I have ever seen. He dragged his full body there first thing. So after that I started following him everywhere and I never let him out of my sight."

  "What would we do without you, Mother?" gasped Michael in appreciation.

  "You just concentrate on Mira," said Mrs. Ross with a pat on her son's shoulder. "I have the Brandon situation under control."

  "So Hawk is a 'he'," said Stu.

  "That hardly matters, does it?" said Mrs. Ross.

  "I was born in '77." Michael turned and looked at his mother. "You stopped everything and started your family," he said. He looked away, still thinking about Paul. But he had to ask. He swiveled around to face his mom. "Mom, was Dad one of the members of your group?"

  Mrs. Ross hesitated for a second then said finally, "I don't guess it will do any harm to tell you this. No, your father was not a member of the group."

  Michael's head jerked back. That was a surprise. Then again, when Michael thought about his deceased father, he remembered how grounded and calm he always was. He did seem to be more of 'stay in the real world' type person. His father had been very concerned with providing for his family. Much like Michael was. Well, what do you know, he thought. I'm a lot like Dad.

  "This is what you need to know," continued Mrs. Ross. "If you are in the other world and in real body, the signs that you need to get out ASAP are: tingling hands or feet; extraordinary thirst or dry mouth, and feeling dizzy or nauseated. These are the warning signs from your real body that it is close to breaking down.

  "As it is, there is an antidote, but it only works under specific conditions, one of which is that you must take it before you go into the astral with your real body. And I am only giving the antidote information to Michael," said Mrs. Ross.

  "Not me?" said Stu, disappointed.

  Michael and Jonathan turned toward Stu and looked at him strangely. Why would he think Mrs. Ross would tell him above her own sons?

  Mrs. Ross pulled Michael into the hallway and closed the door, leaving Stu and Jonathan in the study.

  "Well that sucks," said Jonathan. "But I can see why."

  "Why?" said Stu. "I don't get all the secrecy."


  "This from the guy who keeps all his activities and experiments secret? Anyway, I believe she doesn't want to encourage people to travel or especially to take their real bodies there. Imagine what she went through watching poor Paul die. If people had the antidote, they would think they were invincible."

  "Yeah, I guess so," Stu agreed before adding, "Yeah, I would push the experimenting if it were me. As it is, Michael is only interested in getting Mira back, so if Mrs. Ross is giving him the antidote, I doubt he'll ever go back unless he has to."

  Mrs. Ross and Michael opened the door soon enough to hear the last sentence. "Very astute, Stu," said Michael.

  "Yes, and that is why, besides asking for your word I am giving one more instruction that you must follow," said Mrs. Ross. "First, I want all decisions to be unanimous between you three in this endeavor. This is one of the rules by which I was able to impart this knowledge. Second, Michael, it is my will that one day, when the time is right, it will not be you who has the third vote, but someone else who I will name later. Until then, it is you three. Lastly, Jonathan, I name you the scribe to this new group.

  "Michael I know you keep the notes from the High Five Gang, but I want you all to start a new book, starting now, because a new endeavor has begun. This is serious work. With the book I am giving you, later you will be at a whole new level of understanding. You can add members as you will, but they must be full-time workers in this area. Is that all understood? Mira can make her own decision when she's back."

  "Understood," said Michael, who planned on cutting out as soon as Mira was safe, which he was sure his mother knew. He expected Mira would do the same.

  "Now the plan," said Stu, "because we need one. We have less than four days for Mira. She hasn't had any antidote."

  They had not forgotten Mira was waiting for them to rescue her, unbeknownst to her, and they had no idea that Trina was also there, desperately waiting for a rendezvous.