Soulmates. A. J. Mitar

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СКАЧАТЬ tried to go out the other door, the one in front of Angelica, but it happened again: that invisible force didn’t allow me to go any further.

      This time, Angelica witnessed what was happening and panic set in her blue-greenish eyes. She went around the bed and tried to walk out of the same door, but had no issues doing so. She sighed in relief after being terrified at the idea of being stuck in that room with me forever. Then she tried to leave the bedroom through the door I had used, and this time she was the one affected by the repulsive force. Actually, it was as if someone had designed a confined area: I couldn’t go to Angelica’s side of the house and vice-versa. Still, I couldn’t understand the reason behind all that.

      “Why can’t I go out? I can’t see anything in front of me that wouldn’t let me out!” Angelica yelled in fear.

      I had a theory: it was some kind of force field, a technology we didn’t know about, one of those things we see in sci-fi movies. But, what is creating this force field? Is it magnetic force? No… We’re not made of ferromagnetic material, so it wouldn’t have any effect on us—I thought, trying to make the most of my knowledge in physics. I couldn’t come up with explanations as a theory physicist could, because I had only seen the basics in college. My intuition, combined with my wild imagination, was telling me that it could be a gravitational field. Who could have designed this technology, though? Could this be a top-secret military experiment? Or maybe a huge corporation is behind it… Then, again, it could be an alien nation! I was deeply immersed in my fantasies, trying to find an explanation, but it was only a theory so far.

      Angelica was a successful physician working in one of the most reputable hospitals in Florence. I usually enjoyed talking to her because she had incredible people skills. She was eloquent and knew how to carry on a conversation with a variety of arguments. She could improvise and portray herself as a politician, educator, business executive, or athlete, even though she was none of that. She followed her intuition but, at the same time, she was pragmatic. In sum: we agreed on many things because she would listen to me and, above all, I loved listening to her. We were great friends, even though now I was trying to imagine how our lives would have been in an alternate reality, as I let myself be carried by fantasies down a forbidden road.

      I stopped to reflect on that day. I was only kidding myself, thinking I was living a nightmare, or that it had all been my imagination: the UFO, those rays, that strange place… Angelica and I, together… All those hours I spent inspecting every inch of that mysterious environment. It had been a day full of doubts and unanswered questions. However, the night soon came and darkness enveloped me once again. I was suddenly in a state of deep sleep.

      The Second Day…

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      That feeling… Where am I? What am I doing? Is this a dream? My mind is empty, I can’t remember anything… Something hit meeeeeeee…

      I quickly opened my eyes. I was drenched in sweat, as if it had been a muggy summer night. Then I quickly realized I wasn’t in my homeland, Reggio Emilia. And all that sweat hadn’t been caused by the humidity in the valley. It was actually the panic brought about by recent memories rushing into my mind once again.

      That strange experience, when I was half asleep and half awake, was an kind of awareness I could not explain. It was as if my thoughts were out of focus and then started to take shape as my mind made great effort to constantly rearrange them, like the lens of an old analogic camera trying to focus on a moving object.

      My vision started going back to normal and I became aware of my surroundings. This time I felt a warm, fuzzy feeling, something smooth to the touch placed right in front of me. I was barely waking up when I realized that Angelica and I were in an intimate, intriguing embrace—which was completely unintended.

      Once again, I was the first one to wake up, and maybe I woke up more quickly due to my physical reaction to something I could not explain. I was hugging Angelica the same way my daughter hugs her Winnie the Pooh; the thing is that Angelica is no teddy bear, and teddy bears don’t have that disturbingly arousing feminine fragrance. As soon as I regained control of my muscles, my ethics forced me to break away from that pleasing contact and my sudden movements ended up waking her. Beautiful Angelica blushed when she realized what was going on.

      I couldn’t avoid any remarks she wished to make, so I tried to organize my thoughts and exorcise my fears.

      “This is the second time we fall asleep suddenly,” I started out the conversation. “I just can’t understand the purpose of it. I’m not trying to force a situation, and it’s too early to be sure, but those theories about aliens… Those abduction cases that are so talked about… Who put us in bed while we were both unconscious?”

      I felt a shiver going down my spine at the thought of someone making our bodies do something involuntarily at night.

      “You’re letting yourself be carried away by your imagination. It could have been a simple technology created by twenty-first century Homo sapiens. How about a colorless, odorless sleeping gas?”

      “The thing is that you didn’t witness your dematerialization with your own eyes. You evaporated a few feet away from me when you were struck by that ray. And what was that strange aircraft? And what is this place? Did you take a look at the lake outside?”

      “I did. So what?”

      “There are no villages along the lake… I’ve never seen a more beautiful place completely void of buildings and human life. Not a single sign of civilization.”

      Angelica didn’t want to admit it. Even though she was an open-minded woman, she refused to talk about aliens and abductions.

      “You’re scaring me now… Please, just let me be. I have to find something to wear, ‘cause I’m tired of walking around like this.”

      She went to her private area, the one only she had access to. I did exactly the same and went to my side of the house. I needed to find answers, and I needed to find them fast.

      “I’ll look over here,” I told Angelica. “I want to leave this house and find out where we are.”

      As I looked for something to wear, even though I had already searched the house the day before, I didn’t see anything else worth a second look besides those strange devices. I’ll worry about these gadgets later… I need to find higher ground to get a better view of this area, to try to understand where we are.

      Outside the house, it was about sixty-eight, seventy degrees. Judging by the position of the sun, it was a day in May or June, about eight in the morning. I couldn’t tell the exact time because I had lost my watch and my smartphone. A nice breeze was coming from the lake and it felt good on my skin, even the humidity in the air seemed ideal. I was surprised to find it all so comforting about that environment. The vegetation was certainly familiar. I recognized the trees and plants, even though I couldn’t name most of them.

      I tried to find out where the house was in relation to what I had already seen in that environment. I was standing next to a hill with the oak grove to one side, adjacent to the lake. I wonder what is on the other side of the house.

      I crossed the orchid garden arranged in small, colorful patterns, and went up a small hill after walking through a patch of grass. Less than a quarter mile away, I arrived at the top of the hill and could enjoy a panoramic view. On the other side of the hill, there was a large meadow, like that of the first hill, with a few trees here and there and sprinkled with small oak groves, like the one I had seen. I also identified some tamarack, chestnut trees, and other fruit trees.

      Despite the СКАЧАТЬ