The Aspen Experiments

Chapter 8

Chapter 8 - Doubts

The next day I didn’t have time to talk to John. Despite visions of the past and possible conspiracies among the doctors, I had a lot of schoolwork.  We were nearing the end of a grading period which meant a busy week.  I had a geometry test to study for (perpendiculars and bisectors of triangles), an English paper to finish, a history poster on the French and Indian war, and a horrible physics test I could possibly flunk. I didn't even know what that was about.

So, I told myself not to be a drama queen and just get my work done. Rosemary Choate was a well-respected high school. It couldn't possibly be very dangerous. Unless I started failing my classes and lost my scholarship, of course.

My frightening experience in Dr. Shammas’ office was Monday morning, and I didn't talk to John until Thursday.  The late nights of schoolwork put a different spin on his explanations.  It was one thing to think about the metaphysical possibility of time travel hidden behind evergreens in the frosty moonlight. Those thoughts felt entirely different when I was trying to memorize formulas for my physics test, or pushing around gross cafeteria food. How much of my "vision" might have been due to a bad night's sleep and stress?

I knew I hadn’t imagined it all, but how bad had it been? I could hardly picture what I had seen anymore. Maybe Shammas and Ringer used hypnosis. Some sort of psychological research into responses to vague, unpleasant images. Sort of like a Rorschach test. Maybe Shammas flashed these weird images and did some kind of hypnosis to induce near paralysis, and then he studied results. He would write, for instance, "Subject flung herself out of chair but didn't experience complete disorientation.  Typical fear reaction in the amygdala." Or something like that.

I wasn't disregarding John's story. I can usually tell when people are lying to me. People get uneasy when they lie big. (I totally knew my Aunt June left her husband before anybody else.) If John was lying, it was big. 

But it was possible that he was wrong. Maybe he'd created his own scenario to explain whatever weirdness he'd seen. Of course, that would mean John was significantly off his nut. Which was really depressing.

Or else this explanation had been told him by someone else. That wasn't reassuring either. If John had seen these images, then someone (maybe that 'superior' he mentioned?) was lying to him about it, and he was involved in something frightening.

Great, I summed up, he's lying, he's nuts, or he's deceived. What fantastic options.

I decided to wait until after all my projects were due, and then corner John again. I would find out exactly where he was from and who had sent him here. Hopefully along the way I could rule out crazy and lying.

 He was right about no one would bothering me. I hadn't heard a word since Monday.  I hadn’t seen Dr. Shammas or Mr. Ringer since then, and no one had called my mom either.

Wednesday at lunch my friends were planning a camping trip. Jayden and Bart had coerced a teacher into sponsoring it. 

“Seriously? You want to freeze to death?” I asked.

“Poor Dara, you’re just not meant for the frozen north,” Jayden said. He hadn’t singled me out much since our date. I wasn’t entirely sure why, but I was glad. I could barely think of Jayden when John was in the room, or even when he wasn’t. I was relieved he was still comfortable with me, though. I wouldn’t want to bring awkwardness into Katie’s group.

“It’s not that bad,” Katie added, “if you have the right equipment. And there’s been enough rain this year that we can build a fire! I totally love outdoor fires, but they’ve been banned for like years because of the droughts. We went last fall, but it was so sticky humid and the bugs were awful!”