Mind to Mind: Ashton Ford, Psychic Detective (26 page)

"For heaven's sake, why?"

"They do tricks. I'd like to know how."

"What kind of tricks?"

"On and off, sparkling
fountains, like a fireworks display. The other night I thought I
saw burns on your body the same as Jane's—as May-un's."

"You did."

"What?"

"They're fading, but I came out of that with
marks."

"Bums?"

"Not exactly. Not painful,
anyway. But little red marks. Same pattern. Satanic symbols, I'd
say."

"Who put them there?"

"Gosh, I don't know,
Ashton. You said you saw them. When did you
first
see them?"

I said, "When you were
standing in the sparklers. Maybe they are not satanic symbols. I
mean, maybe the so-called satanists stole the idea. I get the
feeling all this stuff began before anyone ever heard of
Satan."

She said, "Yes, I think you're right. I
researched these designs a while back."

"And...?"

"And I think you're right."

God, she could be a pain in the ass!

I left her standing in the
grove and went forward to examine a torch. I even removed one from
its standard and smelled it, picked at the wrappings, denuded it.
The shaft was steel. Just a solid bar of steel, nothing more. I
replaced the shaft in the standard and returned to the grove. If
anyone on the mound had noticed my presence, they were ignoring it.
I reported to Alison, "Kerosene pack on steel. How the hell do they
get the effects?'

She did not reply to that, said instead,
"It's nearly midnight. Did you see Oom-ray-key-too?"

"All I saw was daisy chains."

"Let's go to the house. I don't believe she
attends these parties."

I said, "She sure as hell attended
ours."

"Only to start it, I think. She left before
we did. And we were among the first to leave. Ah-ree-pat-muh...
damn!"

"What?"

"You know...we were...first to leave."

"Bullshit! You said 'Ah-ree-pat-muh.' Who is
that?"

"Let's go to the house."

She was walking away from me. I grabbed her
hand and jerked her back. "God damn it, Alison, you owe me!"

"Earth mother," she gritted.

I said, "Oh, ho."

She said, "Can we go now?"

I told her, "Fuck it! You go to the house!
I'm going back to Malibu!"

She was furious. "Ashton, don't be a jerk!
This is no time for twenty questions! I'll tell you all about it
when the time is right!"

"No dice, kiddo. You tell me all about it
right here and now!"

God, how it hurt her to be straight.
"Ah-ree-pat-muh is the channel," she groaned between clenched
teeth.

"The channel for what?"

"From the other side."

"The other side of what?"

"Ashton..."

"Fuck it, Alison! Just fuck it!"

"She anchors them over here, damn you!"

"For what?"

"For their babies. Satisfied? For their
babies, damn you."

"They have to come here to get babies?"

"Oh, Ashton. Please..."

"Don't give me an Amazonian bullshit
legend!"

"It's not Amazonian. It's
So-hay-bi-hee-jee."

Yeah, sure. The soul-walkers, from
umpty-million B.C.

Well, I warned you a way back that we were
into the Kingdom of Nonsense. You don't have to believe any of
this, if you'd rather not. I'd rather not, myself, but I was stuck
with it. I'd traveled into the fucking satanic night with it. Now I
had to see it through, if only to rescue my sanity.

I patiently asked Alison, "Are you telling
me that Vicky and Manuel are soul-walkers?"

She replied, grim-lipped, "No."

"But their mothers are?"

She said, "Damn you, Ashton. You are really
compromising me, you know."

"So what's new?" I
growled. "You've been compromising me, all week—all the way into a
cell, at one point."

"I had nothing to do with
that!" she protested. "I got you
out,
dammit!"

"How'd you do that?"

"I called Frank and told
him to by God
get
you out."

"Oh, you called 'Frank,' eh?"

"Yes, I did. I don't know why now. But I
did."

"Were you worried about me?"

"Worried half to death," she admitted,
swaying toward me.

It was a lovers' quarrel,
yeah. But a bit more important than that too. We both, you know,
were committed to the night. And scared to death we would not see
the dawn.

Chapter Thirty-Seven:
Crossover

Oom was in the garden room. We'd let
ourselves in, using the back door. She looked up as we entered,
smiled uncertainly at Alison, said to me, "Did you destroy
Gordon?"

I replied, "No. He'll probably wake up with
a headache, though. How did you know?"

"I saw. Gordon is not evil. Please do not
blame him. I sent him to May-un-chee-tee. Gordon does my
bidding."

I told her, "Maybe so, but the shotgun does
his bidding. I could take no chances with that. Thank you for
seeing us. We really must put this problem to rest."

She said, "Yes. I understand. Earth Mother
understands." She looked again at Alison, said to her, "Are you the
one?"

Alison sighed, replied, "Yes."

"Does he understand?"

Another sigh. "Not really."

I gave them both a dirty
look and said, "I'm still here, you know. Please speak to me, not
about me."

Oom told me, "Earth Mother would give you
understanding. But you must be pure."

"I can't guarantee that," I replied. "For
what it might be worth, though, I'd like to help."

"You must be pure or you will not
survive."

"What do you mean by pure?"

"If there is evil in your heart, it shall
burst."

I asked Alison, "Exactly what are we talking
about here?"

"Don't do it," Alison replied, hardly
breathing.

"Don't do what?"

"Whatever she wants you to do. Don't do
it."

Oom said, "Earth Mother would give you
understanding.

I looked from one to the other, said to Oom,
"How will she do that?"

"She will take you." 'Take me where?" 'To
our land." "Where is that?"

Oom made a delicate little gesture with both
hands. "It is here. But across." "Across what?" "Ashton, don't go."
"Think I'm not pure enough?"

"Please. Don't do it. I
don't know what she's talking about, but...well, I
know
what she's talking
about, but I'm not sure it's possible. For us, I mean."

"What is she talking about?"

"Another place, another time."

"Come on now!"

"No, honestly. The
So-hay-bi-hee-jee are a very ancient people. And they're
niched."

"They're what?"

"They are in a cosmic niche, a
mini-dimension." "A what?"

"You just can't go there, dammit!"

I looked at Oom. She was regarding me with a
very sober, reflective frown. I asked her, "How do we get
there?"

She replied, "Earth Mother will guide
you."

“
How long will it
take?”

She showed me a puzzled smile. "But it is
here." She did another of those delicate gestures. "It is now."

“
Here and now?”

"Yes."

I snapped my fingers, asked, "Like
that?"

She smiled. "Yes."

I looked at Alison. "Convince me," I
pleaded.

"Ashton, they are isolated in time and
space. Their time does not move. Their space does not evolve. There
is no change. Think of a snapshot. A still picture. Forever held in
place. We believe that is what they have, what they are."

“
We
believe?”

"You know who I mean,
dammit! Our group has been in touch with the So-hays since early in
this century. They are a marvelously gifted people, and they have
much to share with us. But they cannot function in our dimension
without creating havoc. You've been exposed to some of the myths
and legends, I'm sure—the wizardry and witchcraft, demonology, all
that—much of it is based on contact with these people. They
cannot
remain
in
our dimension except for brief visits, and those visits create
havoc."

I was thinking of my own experiences of the
past few days when I said, "Amen to that."

"Earth Mother will take you now," Oom said
softly. "Please remove all clothing."

Alison cried, "No, Ashton, please! Don't
risk it! This is not necessary!"

I was coming out of my
jacket, removing the shoulder holster. I said to Alison, "If they
can cross, why can't I cross?"

She slumped into a chair with an exasperated
grunt, scratched at her face, blew out her breath, said, "Okay. Go
be the big hero. I don't give a damn, Ashton. Go get yourself
stuck in an ancient snapshot."

I was removing my shoes. I requested, "Give
me all you've got, please. I'd like to go smart, not dumb."

Oom said, "You must hurry."

Alison said, "I don't know
much more than I've already told you. They can materialize here
only very briefly. Their women, though, can hang on if they
conceive from one of our men—or so it seems. Once they've given
birth, they lose that hold, but the child cannot return with them.
My group has been encouraging this interbreeding
process."

I had a quick vision of Vicky and Manuel.
"And you take responsibility for the foundlings."

"Yes."

"Are they always damaged like that?"

"Not all. We've been working on the problem.
Even with the birth defects, though, they are truly superior
children."

I said, "Yeah," and took off my pants. I
glanced at Oom, asked Alison, "Is she pregnant?"

"I don't know. Ashton, must you really do
this?"

I said, "Yes, Alison, I really must do
this."

I was already "seeing" the
Earth Mother. She stood at the wall, smiling at me. May-un-chee-tee
stood beside her. Both were naked. But they had very little
substance. I asked Alison, "Can you see them?"

She glanced all around, replied, "No,
I..."

It happened, then, even as
Alison was speaking. Like at the grove that night. I saw myself
walking toward the misty women, and I guess maybe I was a bit misty
myself, but it was me, viewed from the rear, walking away from
myself. Both women held out their arms in welcome, embraced me, and
instantly my viewpoint shifted, I was looking back at myself, at
the front of myself as that self stood gawking at me; there was a
split of some kind, a partitioning; I don't know how to describe
it, but I could see Alison and Oom, both of whom were staring at my
other self, but all three figures were frozen like, as Alison had
said earlier, a snapshot, a still.

I had no sensation of
moving, not from the new point of view, but the frozen scene was
receding, blipping out, and suddenly I was in what I can only
describe as Paradise.

The colors were absolutely
magnificent. I had never seen a sky so clear and star-spangled, a
valley so beautifully glistening in the moonlight. The air was
sweetly scented, and the grass beneath my bare feet was soft and
moist and cool. We were walking, yet it was a floating sensation,
as though my body were just barely heavier than the air itself; I
knew that if I were to crouch and spring upward, I would just float
away and soar through the air like a bird. May-un had me by one
arm, Ah-ree by the other, and they were clinging tightly to me.
There was no conversation—nothing spoken, anyway—but they were
telling me things, pointing out things, and suddenly I realized
where I was.
I was still in the Ojai
Valley,
but it was a somewhat different
Ojai, primal, pristine. The trees were much larger and the distant
mountains a bit foreboding—alive, somehow; active. Now and then I
got a whiff of sulfur in the air. I saw large herds of some kind of
animals, but they seemed to be sort of static, no movement within
the herds. Now and then I saw people—but again, static, just
there
, not really doing
anything. I asked Ah-ree why everyone was just standing around, and
she replied that it only appeared so.

I couldn't accept that
answer, pressed her for a better explanation. She said something to
the effect that we moved only between them, not with them, and I
knew it was the only answer I would get.

You can call this experience whatever you'd
like. I do not know what to call it myself. But I came away from
the So-hays with a greatly uplifted spirit and a totally different
sensing of the self. I can do no better with this than to quote
again St. Paul from II Corinthians 12:3-4:

"... and I know that this man, was caught up
into Paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know,
God knows—and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may
not utter."

I could now sympathize with Paul. Some
experiences are simply beyond the reach of mere words. But I knew
one thing for sure: The Twelve, or whoever, were right. An
"interbreeding process" with these people had to be the greatest
idea since sex.

But I also "knew" that it was an idea whose
time had come and gone. There would be no more Vicky Victorias or
Manuel-Manuels, no more "Jane Does" or parties in the sacred
grove.

Somewhere a door had closed, a "niche"
sealed over and consigned to its proper place in space-time gone
by.

This was the "understanding" that
Ah-ree-pat-muh wished to convey.