An Unexpected Detour
Snowflakes swirled around the black pickup as it cut through the night. Behind the wheel, Bob Griffin concentrated on the road. In the passenger’s seat, Lisa Holmes continued to talk about their future. His Dodge Ram was heading South on PA.611. A near-record storm was finally winding down. It had been two days of ice, snow and below freezing temperatures in Eastern Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains. As they made their way back toward Philadelphia, the moon slid between wind driven clouds.
Bob glanced at Lisa; he had to smile. She was a rare find. Strong willed yet gentle, sensible but seldom righteous. Miracles sometimes happened, although not often to grease monkeys from Northeast Philly. Lisa stopped what she was saying and smiled back at Bob.
“What? What are you grinning at? I bet you haven’t heard a word I said.”
She shook her head knowing he had not. But she didn’t care. It was great being here with him so she gave his finely chiseled arm a squeeze to let him know how she felt. Bob returned the favor by massaging her denim-clad knee. He counted himself lucky. Why, just look at her. Bright blue eyes twinkling, above her mischievous smile. A pixie nose framed by long amber locks. Bob Griffin was content.
They were traveling home from a weekend at the Griffin family log cabin A ski expedition to Big Boulder provided hours of exercise and laughs. The slopes were perfect, offering a packed powder base and temperatures in the high twenties. A stiff wind out of the northwest whipped the light snow into a frenzy. Later the snow began in earnest. Rolling along, Bob thought about the fun they had before the storm hit.
Chris Santore and his girlfriend, Beverly, had once again proved their superior slalom skills. Chris often claimed he owed them to his Savior, Jesus Christ. Bob took these opportunities to joke, saying ‘I’m a believer’, in a lame Evangelist imitation. Bob’s best friend Kevin, with his latest conquest, Barbara something or other, concentrated on the tubing area. They bamboozled Scott and Meissen to tag along for kicks. Yet even those two ended up having a ball.
Scott repeatedly fell off the tube on his tenuous journey up the mountainside. He had to resort to crawling across the slick surface, then lunging at his escaping conveyance. Meissen, would be nodding off by the time he reached the top, due to his ingestion of Vicodin and Bombay Gin. Scott experimented with the opposite, injecting Methedrine directly into his bloodstream by the hour. Bob and Lisa hung around with a wide assortment of people. A good time was had by all.
Now, all that was the past and Bob was trying to find his way home, back to the real world. First thing tomorrow morning he’d have to slap an engine in a late model Buick. In ten miles they reached their turn-off.
This was a smaller road winding through Rydal, PA. An exclusive neighborhood featuring generous sized parcels, wrapped lovingly around humongous dwellings. State-owned land of lightly wooded hills and valleys garnish the township. Lisa’s father, Nick Holmes, owns a lucrative real estate company. His success mirrored by the size and splendor of his property; a rambling two-story mansion meticulously positioned on a ten-acre lot.
Zigzagging along this road , Molly, as Bob affectionately called his pickup, stuck out like a sprained toe. While negotiating a slippery curve, Bob lost control of his truck . He felt it was taken from him, as if the pickup moved by its own will. It made a hard right, careened off the paved surface, bounced into a meadow where it came to a stop. Before Bob and Lisa could react, a hum filled their ears and they lost consciousness. The tires sunk through the crust of snow.
Bob sensed a harsh brightness, an intense glare accompanied by a far-off buzzing. Maybe it’s only a spotlight and the humming; a power generator, he thought. So where am I? He turned from the glare and saw Lisa standing beside him. “Hey, Lis, you okay? Where are we?”
“How should I know? I’m scared. I can’t feel my body,” she complained. Bob searched their surroundings but failed to determine any sense of distance. The white glare dazzled his eyes. He couldn’t tell what they were standing on.
“Do Not Be Alarmed, Lisa, Robert.”
“What! Who’s that?” Bob asked in a shaky voice that didn’t sound like his own.
“I Am The Messenger,” a reply pressed in from all directions.
“Where are we?” Lisa stuttered.
“Are we dead?” Bob wondered aloud.
“No! You are in a realm I have created so that we could uh… get acquainted. Do not be afraid. I require your assistance. I will use the name Mathew Wells during my visit. Together we will enlighten the world! Robert Griffin, you will receive further instructions. For now, good night.”
Lisa’s head slid forward as if she had nodded off for a second and then jerked awake. She was in Bob’s truck in a snowy meadow. She turned her head. Bob was dozing beside her. She punched his shoulder none too gently. He awoke, dazed, and looked at Lisa.
“Wha… What is it?” he grunted at his bothersome lover.
“Oh, I don’t know… Bob. You were asleep behind the wheel. We’re not on the road and you’re asking me? Let’s ask Molly, maybe she has a clue!”
“Lis, the last thing I remember-came around a curve. I was straightening out when the wheel twisted to the right. A tremendous force of some kind, I don’t know… wait… someone asked me to help him. Damn, that’s strange. Lis…. Lisa what’s wrong? You’re shaking.” He put his arm around her shoulders for support. She pulled away.
“Stop! What did you just say about a man asking for help?”
“I remember a man’s voice. He said he was the Messenger. You were next to me but where the hell were we?” Bob asked, confused. “All I recall is coming around that bend and good ole Molly swerving to the right. Like I’m talking G forces here. We moved sideways, sort of. The truck skidded off the road into the snow. I thought it was a dream, a dream with incredible resonance, except for one visual, you. Standing right beside me. Next thing I know, you punched my arm,” he rubbed the spot absently, that brought me out of it. What just happened to us, Lis?” She moved on the seat to search his face. Gazing at it, a burst of recognition lit up her own.
“I remember now! There was this loud voice. Beneath the sound of the words, this humming… seemed to twang on every nerve-ending in my body. You could feel each word deep in your bones. Bob, I know you heard the same thing I did.”
“Hey, I’m not denying it. I’m at a loss right now.”
“Well, you’re supposed to have the answers, Griffin?” He grinned at the playful mink. Testing him. Even in the face of bizarre occurrences, she still kept the score. “So what’s going on?” Lisa asked. She looked calm but her pulse was racing.
“How could both of us have the same dream or hallucination?” Bob said. “Whatever really happened, I come away with the impression that we’re to help Mathew Wells accomplish a task… or a mission?” Through this exchange, Molly’s engine idled smooth, steady. Feeling more alert, Bob backed slowly out of the field. His large all-weather tires guaranteed success. Once the rubber hit the macadam, he gave it gas and they were on their way.
“What the hell? Where did all the gas go? I filled the guzzler on Saturday when I went to get beer. Now it’s half empty.” Since his dashboard clock refused to show time, he asked his copilot. She checked her cell and her watch.
“Twenty of eleven. Twenty of eleven? Can’t be,” Lisa objected. “We turned off of 611 just past ten.”
“This shit isn’t even funny,” he said. Hearing a click, Lisa flinched. The Pearl Jam disc Bob put on before turning off Route 611 had played through..
In under a hundred seconds they arrived at the front gate of the Holmes Estate. Once the iris identifier scanned Bob’s eyes and Lisa gave her four finger (I’m okay) signal to the guard, they continued in silence up the winding drive. Bob pulled up by a fountain near the main entrance. He took Lisa’s belongings from the truck, up the marble steps and through an oversized doorway into a vast entry hall. With no one in sight, he dropped her bag on the Italian tile, gave her a brief kiss, a fierce hug, and said he loved her. Lisa whispered
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