To Follow Along Like The Rest

To Follow Along Like The Rest: On Life’s Journey

John W. Gilmore

Everything was quiet...very quiet. That hardly ever happened around here. I pulled back the shade and peeked from behind the curtain. The street was empty. No one was there: no cars, no buses, no dogs, no children playing. I looked down at my watch. It was only six in the evening. In this city during rush hour, which seemed to last longer and longer, this main street should have been humming with people, buses, and cars. What had happened? I only hoped it had not happened again. Why were they doing this?

Why were they chasing me? What am I talking about? I don’t even know who they are, or what they are. I know that they have been making my life a nightmare. If you are intelligent you will not allow them to see you. You will not let them get a chance to know you. Keep your head down. Don’t make any noise. Follow along like the rest of the sheep. You will be safe. If you are exceptional in any way, they will grab you. They will take you. Your life will never be the same.

I knew that I was not on the same world I had been on just a few moments ago. I was somewhere else. My reality had shifted. With my perceptions the actual physical substance of the universe had changed, and here I was, in a parallel world again. I heard a knock on the door. I knew it had to be one of them. I wasn’t going to answer. The knock became more insistent.

“I know you’re in there,” a sweet voice said. I ignored it. She knocked harder. “I know you are in there. Come on! You do not want to see me get angry!” No. I didn’t. I walked over to the door and opened it. There she stood, a strange looking creature looking half human, half biotic, with her hand drawn back...caught in the middle of a knock. She lowered her fist.

“I actually do want to see you get angry,” I said, leaving the door open and walking back into the room. I went to the window and looked out. “If that’s how you act when you're not angry, I do want to see you angry,” I said over my shoulder. She came marching in. She was a tall, slender being with amber skin and large green eyes. Her hair was honey blond, straight, hanging down just below her shoulders. She wore a tight black leather suit from head to toe. She put her hands on her hips.

“Turn to face me, or do I have to send the others in?” She said very sternly. I reluctantly turned and looked at her. She was tall, almost 7 feet, a real giant, I had almost forgotten that. Her look frightened me for a second. She saw it in my eyes before I hid my fear and smiled a little. “So you are doing your naughty, little boy act again are you? Do you need me to take you over my knee...again?”

“I don’t remember any such thing and the way you dress, that would be my expectation.” She grinned.

“Ah, back to your surly self.” She plopped down onto the sofa. I was surprised it could hold her. The furniture had been created just to fit a person my size, a normal human being. But now most of us were gone. They had come and had taken over. They began by shipping out anyone they perceived of a possible threat in the future. It was an easy thing to do.

They came in beautiful spaceships...things no one had ever seen. These things were gigantic, as large as whole football stadiums. We thought they were the mother ships, but they weren’t. Some of the ships they had were so big they looked like a second moon when they were parked in orbit.

At first the government thought they had a chance to defend us against these creatures, but just seeing these ships light up the night sky showed us different. If that wasn’t enough, a blast from thousands of feet up with an EM pulse just wiped out most of our electric supply, computers, electronics, and weapons, and made most of the world helpless in a few seconds. We lost without firing a shot.

As usual, the one percent and the dominant race thought they could bargain with these Tyranians and maintain their power. They began to supply the names of social activists, journalists, religious leaders, anyone who might be a threat to the Tyranians in exchange for high positions of power.

The Tyranians began to send many of the people on that list off world to worlds of enslavement. It is very funny. The worlds of enslavement were just like having a minimum wage job in most major cities. There was no difference, except for the atmosphere on some of the other planets.

Once they cleaned out most of the activists, and journalists, they came to the religious leaders. How my name got on that list I had no idea. I taught meditation and was a health and wellness coach, not a religious leader. In fact I thought most of them were full of crap.

I guess that is how I got on the list. They began to call in the religious leaders one by one. The ones they didn’t like -- the fundamentalists, were sent off to the farms to do hard labor the rest of their lives.

The one percent and government who collaborated were sent off on the same ships as the activists because they were untrustworthy and perceived as a greater danger in the future then even the activists. The ones on the list that were thought to be redeemable...slaves on Terra, or underpaid workers, whatever you want to call them, is what I became. They called me a student who was being re-educated.

“Would you have something to drink, Grassila?” I asked standing in front of her.

“Not at this moment. I’ve come to see you. I wanted to warn you about the shift, but it seems I’m a bit too late. I can help you try to get control of yourself though. I am guessing that you are blaming your latent abilities on us. All we did was give you what you want.”

“I never wanted to really shift reality because I shifted my perceptions.”

“Oh yes you did. You told me that this world was created by perception. You showed me books and read all kinds of texts for me that reiterated that over and over. I told you you were correct and we could help you reach that place. What did you say?”

“Yeah, but…” I plopped down on the sofa beside her. “I thought it was all metaphorical.” She shook her head.

“You humans are so divided. Had we known how divided your minds were, we wouldn’t have helped.” She grabbed the pillow and hugged it to her chest. “Sometimes I wish we hadn’t come here.”

“Really?” I asked.

“Yes, really?”

“Looks like you are living it up to me. You have all the best food and land.”

“Yes. We do. Is anything wrong with that?” I thought for a few moments.

“Of course not. You are powerful, bright, more intelligent. It is only fair that you should have those things and serve as guardians to us more inferior beings. That is the way of nature.” She hit me in the face with the pillow.

“Next time you give me that shit you better be a little more convincing! I’ve come to talk to the real Jason, not the wind up one. If you trusted me you wouldn't be giving me your bullshit answers!” I thought for a moment.

“That is true,” I said very sincerely. “You have the right to parcel those things out to us because you are more evolved than us and…” She hit me with the pillow again. I stopped. She sat there glaring at me. “Would you like a cup of coffee?” I asked. She smiled.

“Of course I would, now,” she said. “And we are in complete agreement. We are superior and we deserve what we have. Out of the kindness of our hearts we will give it to the humans who are most deserving.” I walked over and prepared the coffee.

“You are on the right track, Jason. Soon we will teach you how to control your perceptions and their shifts. Then you will be one of us. You will see things differently then.”

“Sugar?” I asked.

“Always.” I put a few teaspoons in the bottom of the cup. I poured in the hot coffee.

“Cream too,” she said. She pushed herself into the back of the sofa. “This place is so comfortable. I could stay here forever. Might I stay over?” I looked at her. She had to be joking. What did she mean?”

“Maybe tomorrow,” she said. Tomorrow never came. Not the one she planned. I never saw Grassila alone again.

…

He stood in front of me with a vat of honey and a large brush. It was really large. In his hand it looked like a paint brush, but he was a giant. He was almost 7 feet tall so the brush that looked like a regular paint brush was almost 10 inches wide. He put down the vat of honey and loosened the top. He looked at me.

“Get undressed,” He said.

“And what do you have in mind?” I asked.

“You should be so lucky,” he said with a grin, “I’ve heard about your wisecracks and wise antics. I must admit it is a little refreshing. Anything is better than the other cowering, shivering human beings I have seen. We are trying to train you to be our peers, not our servants.” That was a surprise to me. “I am going to coat your whole body with honey,” he said. “You can do it yourself of course, because I’d rather not.”

“Hmm.”

“Hmm, nothing! Believe me, the last thing I want to see is a naked human and paint it, especially a naked human man. So I’ll leave this here. You get undressed and put honey wherever you can reach.”

“That’s really weird isn’t it?”

“Not for what we have planned. You want to be able to control your shifts and perception or not?”

“No need to get tight about it, Yes.”

“Yes, Kemp,” he said.

“Yes Kemp,” I repeated back.

“Good, Jason. I’ll be back in 10 minutes.” He exited the room. There I was alone in what looked almost like a prison cell, in front of a giant vat of honey. This was really stupid. At least there was a robe there. I got undressed and applied as much honey to myself as possible. I licked some off my hands, it was good. To my chagrin I found that it was impossible to put the robe on over the sticky honey. He came in carrying a big canister that looked like a milk vat.

He sat it down, walked over to the window at the rear of the room closed it tight and locked it. There was a small window at the front next to the door. He made sure it was closed and latched it. “Good luck,” he said. “I’ll let you out after 3 days and nights. You should be stable by then. If not, we’ll have to do it all again. We’ll slide your food in the slot in the door.

He removed the top of the vat, quickly walked out the door and locked it. Within seconds I could see hundreds of flies pouring out of the top of the thing, and ants and insects crawling out. I tried to find the top to put it back on, but he had taken it with him. The flies began to buzz around me like crazy and covered me completely eating and being stuck to the honey. The ants and bugs kept trying to get on me.

I kept trying to swat them. That didn’t work. I tried to tie the robe around my face and my ears and jump on the cot. I was going crazy. They were crawling all over me. I took a few breaths and shifted my perception. They were gone. I wasn’t experiencing it anymore, but after a few moments they were all over me again. I had to keep trying to shift my attention and hold it there. I could do it a little longer each time, but it would shift back by itself. It was torture, especially at night.

Finally, on the third night the bugs had disappeared. They had stayed away all night. The shift was semi permanent, lasting as long as I wanted. The door opened the next morning. Kemp came in.

“Looks like you’ve done it,” he said with a grin. “The honey should be dry enough. You can put the robe on and take a shower in the room down the hall. Stay there. Someone will meet you. You’ll find your clothes down there too.”

“Am I supposed to be grateful, Kemp?” For the first time he burst out laughing.

“Grateful. What the heck is grateful?” He laughed. “We don’t do grateful or care about it” Jabbing his thumb in the direction. “Down the hall.” He picked up the vat and walked out. I struggled to force the robe on and walked down the hall to a small shower room connected to a small, studio apartment. I had lived a nightmare for three days and nights and all he did was laugh.. These people were real assholes.

***

“How is he doing?” Grassila asked. Kemp grinned.

“Very well. He passed. I guess all of the meditation and spirituality he’s been doing all those years really prepped him for our methods. Very few make it, you know.”

“Yeah. I’m sorry he has to go. I kind of like him.”

“I know you do,” Kemp said. “I kind of thought you did when you asked me to take over for you. That’s OK though. You did the right thing.”

“Did I?”

“You know you did.” Kemp said. “I kind of like the guy myself. I could hang out with him. He has a great personality.”

“Yeah. That’s why we are going to send him to one of the worse shithole places in the Universe to try to awaken those people.”

“It’s too bad we have to send the best people to the worst places isn’t it?”

“Yes, but it isn’t about us, it’s about changing the vibration of the whole universe. If we can’t get those at the bottom to change, we will never grow into what we can be. We all have to move together and the Earth is holding us down. If we don’t take care of it…”

“I understand,” Kemp said. “Amazing that one little planet can hold back the growth of a whole universe. Truth is, once you even know it exists your karma is tied to all of the negativity there.”

“Well now that he’s one of us he can go and take care of it, right?”

“As long as he remembers, but they often forget and then living with morons make them forget even more.”

“Well I hope we’ve planted the truth in him deep enough for him to call on it from some very deep level once he gets on that horrible planet, they need it and he will need it.

***

Time had passed, Things were different. I found that I could actually use my mind to shift my perceptions. Instead of something just changing on the inside, the material world would dissolve and become what I wanted. It was miraculous. I had these god-like powers, but wasn’t a god. I thought of how tempting or violent a person having them on this planet could be.

I had a group of friends now, a small group of humans who had taken the courses and passed all the tests. We hung out together regularly. We were free to do what we liked. I even had Tyranian friends who I was close to. They weren’t exactly human. Some were very likeable, and enjoyable, even if their personalities were slightly different.

They never really seemed to laugh. It was as if they were always holding their minds and emotions in a tight grip. I could understand why. Had I been born with the power that I had now, I probably would be careful about letting my mind move and shift by itself. Since they were way ahead of us in their evolution there is no telling what they could do.

Even with our slight differences, we often met together to talk, play games, and extend our perceptions out into the universe. They said they had experienced the ultimate perception. We would only be offered that opportunity when we were mature enough, because we would not be able to shift back until we had fulfilled the task we were sent in for.

I saw plenty of people do it. It seemed like only seconds. They said it seemed like a lifetime full of adventure with all kinds of things happening. Some were affected greatly. I wanted to try it. Finally I had my chance. Grassila told me to relax and take a few breaths.

She described a place that was warm and had me imagine that I was floating in a warm fluid surrounding my body. She said I could hear the sound of a heartbeat, loud, but very gentle and comforting to my ears.

“Now you feel yourself expanding,” she said. “Cell by cell you are growing and expanding into a being, into another, very young human being. You feel aware, you feel complete, you can now perceive the world through the eyes of this being, this child.”

I blinked a few times. I was there. I was in a womb. I was an infant. I could feel the urge of my mother. I could feel the muscle pushing. I could feel myself being pushed out and being born. All around me stood people with masked faces. There were bright lights. Fear overwhelmed me and I was about to cry when they put me in the arms of a gigantic woman with very dark skin and chocolate, brown eyes.

She smiled pleasantly and looked at me. I felt love, but also fear. I had been born into another world totally helpless. I tried to withdraw and come back, but I couldn’t. I could feel myself slowly beginning to forget who I was, where I came from, or all that I could do. I didn’t know how long I would be trapped in this body, or if I could ever get out.

The End