Wake-Up Call. Joaquin De Torres

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      My eyes and focus fell upon the second drawing immediately. I knew the disc well. It came straight out of my dream. But I had no clue about the forest scene.

      “How long have we been gone?” breathed Zelda.

      “About an hour and a half,” answered Ivana numbly.

      “I need another drink!” I heard myself say.

      “Who is this little man?” Ellen mused. “He’s amazing!” I couldn’t fault Ellen for her amusement. She thought it was awesomely wonderful; but to the rest of us, somehow we couldn’t help thinking that this all might be dangerous.

      “I’m going to leave you guys to analyze this now,” Ellen said. “I’ve got to take care of some patient appointments.” We thanked her and she left us.

      “Zelda, after lunch I want you to conduct the test on Doogie that we discussed,” said Ivana.

      “Test?” I asked.

      “Based on what you’ve told me about Doogie and how he performed in the park, plus what we’ve seen here, I want to see how connected our two patients are. Obviously, the disc seems to be a common denominator.” I nodded in agreement. “We already seem to know what Patricia has within herself; it’s time to find out what Doogie knows, besides his puzzle-solving and LEGO-building abilities.”

      “We also need to know if there are others,” Zelda added. This silenced both Ivana and myself. So engrossed with our patients, we neglected to ask ourselves if there could be a larger pattern. “Perhaps you should contact some of your colleagues to ask if their patients have had similar awakenings.” Ivana nodded her head.

      “I will, but before that I’d like to have a common frame of case reference. Test Doogie and then I’ll call them.”

      “What are you going to test him on?” I asked Zelda. She turned to me.

      “You said Doogie knows stars and planets? I worked at NASA for six years, upgrading the Hubble telescope. I was required to chart stars, pulsars and black holes, as well as monitor the Sun’s solar flare activity. We’ll see exactly what Doogie knows.”

      Chapter 8

      Rude Awakenings

      LeMarcus Henderson stood outside the perimeter fence of Pittsburg’s Mirant Power Plant with his new laptop. From Willow Pass Road, he surveyed the massive facility that sits on the southern shore of Suisan Bay. Some four miles east along the same shore of the San Joaquin River in Antioch, sits the Gateway Generating Station. The massive natural gas and electric plant would be the next place Henderson planned on visiting. The Mirant plant’s gigantic cooling towers, its farm of oil tanks and gigantic iron-scaffolding architecture of the main plant was Pittsburg’s most recognizable landmark. Seen by millions of commuters on Highway 4 each day and night, it stood tall and proud in the flat delta valley like a steam-vomiting castle fortress. Over 2,000 megawatts of power were pumping in that fortress, and Henderson had to find a way to get to them.

      He looked at the main entrance where employees drove into the site. It was about 100 yards from the main road. There was a gated guardhouse where guards checked IDs before raising the entrance gate. He turned away from the plant and walked on towards the town and in the direction of Antioch. He was in the right place; it was just a matter of time before he found a way in. He looked up into the sky and smiled. He had time.

      * * *

      It was a very quiet lunch. Doogie had lunch with other patients at the institution under the supervision of Ellen and the lunch attendants. I, Zelda and Ivana left the facility and went to a local Chinese restaurant. Yet, despite the delicious items we were eating, we barely spoke, each of us contemplating what we had witnessed hours earlier. For me, I was thinking of Doogie and how he would perform on Zelda’s upcoming test.

      “What if he fails your test?” I asked finally. Zelda shook her head dismissively.

      “It doesn’t matter. It just eliminates one possible, but highly improbable idea that I’ve considered.” She shrugged and pulled a large shrimp out of her chow fan with her chop sticks and slid it into her mouth.

      “What highly improbable idea?” asked Ivana.

      “That he’s been fed these facts from an exterior source.”

      “What exterior source?” I asked, but she shook her head again and waved it off.

      “Look, it doesn’t matter. Doogie is still an extraordinary subject of research for someone who is deeply mentally disabled. Plus, he’s still connected to Patricia because of three unexplained phenomena: the disc drawings, this “commander” guy, and your dreams. These three things tie all of you together. It’s still a breakthrough case study for Ivana’s aggregate intelligence and memory reflex theory.”

      “You’re forgetting a fourth connection,” reminded Ivana. “The story of the two Russian generals. The second general had drawn the disc perfectly as well.” Zelda nodded firmly in recognition as she picked through the sweet and sour pork. “And there could be more.”

      “Okay,” I held up my hand as if trying to place things in order mentally. “What if Doogie passes your test? What will that prove?” Zelda took in a breath and let it out slowly.

      “Then it means something has happened to these patients that cannot be explained rationally; and if it can, it will change the way we think about our lives on a global scale.”

      “Is this your highly improbable idea?” Ivana asked using her fingers as quotation marks. Zelda nodded again.

      “Yes, but I don’t want to discuss it until I’m done with the test.” Unable to contain my impatience, I turned squarely to Zelda.

      “You know, Zelda, when I stumbled on Doogie the first person I called was Ivana because she’s the only person I can trust in this world. She called you, that means she trusts you; and that means I have no choice but to trust you. We’re now a team and we’re at each other’s mercy no matter how unconventional or ridiculous our theories may be.” I suddenly felt embarrassed about this admonishment, but I couldn’t stop the words from leaving my mouth.

      “Now, I don’t care about Nobel Prizes, book deals or international recognition. If you’ve got a few of these lined up and this case is going to deliver them, I’m happy for you. But that’s not my concern right now. We’ve got two patients, maybe more, who are crying out for our help. I’m here to help them. Ivana’s here to help them. If you have any ideas on how we can do this, we need to know; which means, we need to know what you’re thinking despite how it might impact your personal agenda or your personal beliefs.” I stopped when Ivana’s hand softly clutched mine. It was her way of saying “Okay, you’ve made your point.” Zelda took her napkin and touched it on her lips.

      “Zelda, I’m sorry,” I began. “I have no business lecturing you.” She raised her palm, and rolled her large eyes up to me. I could see an inner struggle between what she wanted to say and what she shouldn’t.

      “No, you’re right. I’ve let a personal prejudice erect a wall around a certain idea that surfaced once СКАЧАТЬ