When Dr. Cousins walks into Eakran’s office and sits in front of Maria, he glances at her face as he flips through notes in a file. She is beautiful, he thinks, but no amount of beauty was worth compromising government secrets and he thinks about the careless security guard that had lost his job in DC. Cousins introduces himself and Maria smiles.
“You guys are all business down here.”
“Yea, I guess so,” Cousins says. “It’s highly irregular for us to bring a civilian to a place like this. Honestly, I’m sort of regretting it. But not only are you wanted for questioning, your name has come up with two separate patients being treated here.”
“I don’t know anyone here.”
“Well, maybe there’s another Maria out there, but you came to us, remember? That’s a hell of a coincidence.”
“Who are these people? What did they have to say about me?”
Cousins looks Maria in the eyes for the first time. He is not sure if the woman is trustworthy, if he is opening himself up to some sort of infiltration from a spy who would jeopardize his ability to continue his life’s work. But those apprehensions fall away as he stares into Maria’s dark brown eyes that seem to smile at him. And he finds himself talking more freely than before.
“Nebuchad seems to be suffering from a type of dementia we can’t explain. He spends most of his time catatonic, almost like a grazing bull, but every now and then, he gets riled up about alien invasions. And you. He likes to think that you can save us from it.”
“That’s interesting,” Maria says inching closer to him. “How am I supposed to help? Does he say”
“If he does, I haven’t heard it. Only that you will save us all.” Cousins is not blinking, he is focused on Maria. “And apparently Alia, Eakran’s most special patient, claimed that she had a vision of Maria, of you, as a young girl being abducted and returned to earth by aliens. Alia was diagnosed as schizophrenic, but research by myself and my partner has challenged that. Alia seems to be a bona fide mind reader, though she makes other claims that are impossible to substantiate through scientific testing. She and the other Aliarum patients make very grand claims.”
Maria’s curiosity is piqued. “Like what doctor?”
“Oh, she claims that the sun gives her glimpses of the future. They say when they hold hands they share energy that enhances this ability. But Alia admits that what she sees are only possible futures so the visions won’t necessarily come to pass.”
“Interesting. Can I meet her?” Maria is practically on the edge of her seat.
“Of course, anything you want.” As Cousins speaks, Moss enters the room.
“Who is this?” She asks, seemingly irritated.
It breaks Cousins focus and he regains control of himself. He shakes his head as though clearing his brain of a fog and he looks confused. “What?” He asks, face screwed in confusion.
“Is this a new patient?” Moss does not address Maria who sits watching their interaction unfold.
“She’s … she’s here for something.”
“I’m a new patient.” Maria says. “I’m part of the aliarum thing.” She stares at Cousins, hoping to make eye contact again, and when she does, Cousins is entranced.
“Yes, another interesting case. I’m doing a prelim interview before we admit.”
Moss is clearly irritated now and she yanks Cousins out of the room into the hallway. “When did we get another patient? Is Eakran replacing Alia? Did you hear about the transfer? Rick, what’s wrong, look at me.” Cousins is obviously not himself and he is struggle to shake what appears to be disorientation.
“I don’t know what came over me.” He looks through the doorway into Eakran’s office at Maria. “She’s Maria, I think. The one Nebuchad keeps going on about.”
“She’s an Aliarum too? How did we find her.”
“We didn’t. I don’t know what she is. But she’s not here for that, she’s here because security was alerted after she accessed top secret files to track down Eakran. I don’t know who she is, but she’s messing with my head.” Cousins leads Moss to the office he uses in the basement and he calls Giovanni to watch Maria. He closes the door and sits. Moss looks at him concerned as he speaks. “What are we doing here Donna? The past couple years have been one inexplicable thing after another. First, you confirm mind readers, then we have the patient who’s afflicted by some alien drug, and now this woman shows up here at a top secret facility that no one can access. She put those words in my mouth Donna. That wasn’t me talking before. Maybe she is Aliarum, some new manifestation we haven’t seen before. I don’t know what she wants or her connection to the others, but she wants to be here. What the hell are we mixed up in?”
Moss can see that Cousins is rattled and it’s true that their time at the IBF has been strange. Moss chalked it up to cutting edge brain research. “We’re on the precipice Rick. We’re doing work that other doctors watch in sci fi movies, that’s what Eakran promised us. That’s why we’re here. Things are strange but we can handle it. I’m gonna track down Eakran and we’re gonna find out more about this Maria character. Just sit tight, get yourself together.”
Moss leaves Cousins and finds Maria with Giovanni sitting quietly in Eakran’s office. “You’re going to be here for a while.” Moss says. “Giovanni, show her to a room and get her whatever she needs. I’m gonna see if I can get in touch with the doctor.”
Maria smiles at Giovanni, “This one I like,” she says. “I hope I get a nice room.”
“You’re essentially being detained Ms. Moreno,” Giovanni says. “You don’t have a problem with that?”
“Not at all, not if Eakran’s on the way. Just keep the torture to a minimum.”
“I don’t know why you would joke about that. But there’s not going to be any torture ma’am. Follow me.”
As Giovanni leads Maria out of the office, Moss avoids eye contact with the woman fearing any unexplained powers of manipulation she might have.
The mind can be a terrible space to inhabit. It houses all of our hopes and fears and mashes them up into nightmares during times of emotional turmoil. Who better than ourselves to torture us with our greatest fears? When we close our eyes for sleep, we recess into the noncorporeal, we lose tangible attachment to reality and our consciousness spins out into the space that our mind creates, a space rife with demons we have formed and dragged along with us over the years of our lives, demons we can never exorcize. But I am harping on the times of distress for dramatic effect, the mind is like nature, equal parts light and dark, and if it can be a scary place, it is not so exclusively. There are dreams that are sweeter than reality, dreams we beg to never wake from in that nebulous space our mind creates.
But that begs a question, is that space that we inhabit in dreams a creation of our own design, or are we merely occupying a realm that our consciousness can traverse when it is not tethered to the physical body? If that is the case, then who, or what, designed it? Was it the same creator of the physical world? And how would that truth alter our understanding of the relation between that dream realm and our physical one?
So many questions and never enough answers.
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