Section Nine

The Question of the Reality of Illusion

Entry #0066: Hanging Out with Jezz

It was around the second week of February now.  Around noon one day, I took one of my little jaunts to Jezz’s place in Apple Valley, and I always take Highway 18 and drive by Dead Man’s Point. Over two years prior to this time, that brutal sandstorm took place, and became a turning point for Mike Smith the secret agent and myself, but especially for those two dark agents who almost died. I still remember that insane incident vividly, where the four of us made a deal, a deal to fake our deaths, but that was an account I didn’t want to reminisce over again. So instead I recalled the good old days as a teenager when either my brother and I, or even Leo and I climbed around on those big old boulders or explored strange caves, or messed around in the little ghost town on the east face of Dead Man's Point. But it no longer existed. Sometime in the late 90s those old dilapidated buildings had been torn down. I recalled those days of the mock ghost town for tourists that now became a real ghost town, because of fewer and fewer visitors, then none at all, so it got torn down. Sad, but true. I had fuzzy memories of the little ghost town, but that’s all that remained. Anyway, I passed Dead Man’s Point, leaving the ghostly memories behind, and drove on to Jezz’s.

When I got there, we decided to get food at Del Taco, in her Ford Taurus for a change, then returned to her place and ate it while we talked about everything that had been happening so far.

I told her about the phone conversation I had with Garret, about his awkwardness, and the fact that he couldn't have gotten that Aleister Crowley book or any New Age book for that matter at Fanny's Thrift Shop. We discussed that somehow he had a connection not only with Fanny's place, as her dream purported, but Rook's Books. He was somehow involved with whatever was going on there, and Jezz said she had a sneaking feeling he had something to do with whatever or whoever was responsible for opening the dark rift.

She said perhaps Garret was part of some secret group or gathering that practiced black magic. Being a witch one time herself, she felt that was a possibility.

I brought up again that she and I should check it out someday, that we should pose as regular customers, and see if we could find anything suspicious there, or flat-out weird.

She liked the idea, and we agreed to visit Fanny's thrift shop in three days, and we would meet at the Kountry Kitchen at noontime. So we had a plan in motion.

Entry #0067: Missing Time

And yet another weird phenomenon happened after I left Jezz’s. I departed from her apartment around 4:00 pm, or so I thought, but as I drove home, I rounded the bend at Dead Man’s Point, all wrapped in thought about our previous discussion, I realized the sky was a lot darker than it should have been.  The sun was just below the horizon already. I glanced at the digital clock on my dash, and it read 6:07 pm! What the hell? Something wasn’t right! Was I so oblivious to time that I didn’t realize exactly how late it was? Or did something freaky occur? But I recall when leaving her apartment, her kitchen wall clock read a little after 4:00 pm. I was truly perplexed. This must be one of those freaky instances of missing time. But I thought that usually occurred when a person was abducted by aliens, then sent back down, or while you sat in your car with a UFO hovering overhead as it scanned you, or some such crap. Nothing like this happened – I don’t think, or recall – but then your memory is usually erased when aliens mess with you. All this was old X-Files type crap, so I didn’t want to let that confuse the issue.  But I don’t think that all missing time cases involved UFOs anyway. However, this was obviously a reality shift of some sort, of which missing time falls into this category. Was this some kind of glitch in the matrix, a blooper in reality, or unreality? Did I experience some kind of freaky illusion, or delusion for that matter?  But I also had no doubt this missing time/reality shift phenomenon was intrinsically a result of the rift. How could it not be?

 #0068: Checking Out Fanny’s Freaky Place

Jezz and I met again in three days at noontime. We decided to scope out Fanny's Thrift Shop. So we met at the Kountry Kitchen, I had a patty melt with fries, coffee of course, and she had a Reuben sandwich with a side of salad, and pink lemonade.

First I told her about the missing time phenomenon, and she didn’t know what to make of it.  I figured it was more evidence of a reality shifting universe that had no real substance, implying this existence was an illusion. She nodded, said she suspected as much herself. But also that the opening rift was tearing at the fabric of our known reality, or illusion, and if anything, making the illusion of it waver and shudder, to where it was losing cohesion. If that happened, she feared, the world we once knew would become unstable, would unravel like an old tattered blanket, then crumble and fall apart. That didn’t sound good.

We discussed the plan; we were going to enter the shop just like regular customers, maybe chitchat with Fanny, ask if she had something or other on hand, Jezz would ask for an evening gown, I would ask if there was a books section around, and just play it by ear from their. I suspected something paranormal was lurking in this place, namely due to the reality shift phenomenon, and Jezz trusted and believed me on that point. She became one good friend, that's for sure. Like the younger sister I never had, the kind that would go exploring with you and have crazy adventures.

I told her my little joke and the freak incident around it, that Fanny's Thrift Shop was actually Fanny’s Rift Shop. She laughed mildly, saying it was either a weird coincidence, or a strange kind of synchronicity trying to hint something to us, a rather blatant hint, as if this place was some kind of psychic nexus, which was something we both began suspecting anyway.

We finished up lunch, paid, and left. Fanny’s place was only a block down the street. So Jezz and I walked along the sidewalk, then turned down the little flagstone path to the little old shop. I noticed her old sign had not changed, still advertising that Fanny was in charge, not some mysterious guy named Rook. We entered the musty stale smelling place where racks of clothes hung, lamps, old turntables, old records, even cassette tapes and eight tracks, kitchenware items, and various other merchandise and appliances. It was like stepping into the past, probably the 60s.

Behind a counter at an old cash register smiled Fanny, wearing horn-rimmed glasses and her white hair was in a bun, and she wore a flowery patterned dress that probably dated back to the 40s, and she was sitting there knitting a sweater.

"Good day to you," she called.

I smiled and nodded, Jezz just said, "Hello."

We pretended to look around, sort through the trinkets and other old stuff. Then we slowly approached the counter, Jezz asked if they had any fancy evening gowns, preferably in maroon, so Fanny pointed down the main aisle and said go to the right at the antique kitchenware display. Then I asked if there was a section for books, and she explained that that was a little further down from the kitchenware section and then to the right. So Jezz pretended to scope out dresses and evening gowns, and I decided to scope out the books, mainly because Garret told me this is where he got his strange Aleister Crowley book. Last time I actually came here to buy something was a year and a half ago, and there were a lot of old classics and such here, but no New Age books.

When I came to the section, it was the same small bookshelf, maybe fifty books in it. Yeah, the same old classics and Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew and Reader’s Digest anthologies that I saw last time. No one had bought any of them, it seemed. They were dust-covered and musty.

So I doubted even more that Garret got that volume from here; Rook’s Book’s, yeah – but how did he access such a phantom place? I could casually ask Fanny how to get there, but I didn’t want to give away that I knew about it just yet. As kindly and nice as she seemed, I felt something else about her, something off – I wasn’t sure what exactly.

Then I noticed someone came in through a rear door, and climbed down some rickety stairs, perhaps the basement. I snuck back there, looked down a steep staircase where a dim light shone somewhere down there. I turned to the backdoor and opened it, which revealed the narrow back alley, and I also noticed a familiar motorcycle. It was Garret's. So! He was obviously more than just a visitor here finding strange New Age books. Perhaps he was a friend of Fanny's. What kind of friendship or association they had, I had no idea.

Next moment, something dark whooshed by me, I turned, seeing nothing there. A shadow person? This place was starting to creep me out. Time to leave.

I came up front to find Jezz. So we wouldn't seem too suspicious (you can’t just walk out and buy nothing), she bought a navy blue evening gown for three bucks. As we headed out the door, Jezz in front of me, I glanced back, and saw something hideous! Old Fanny suddenly looked very grotesque, like a wizened old long-nosed, long chinned old hag with unkempt grey hair, and her horridly wrinkled skin was pale white, and her eyes seemed to glow red. I looked away, but had to look back again, seeing that Fanny looked like the kindly old Fanny once again.

I grabbed Jezz’s arm, dragging her along down the sidewalk, blurting, "We gotta get outa here!"

#0069: The Witch Face

We got into her Ford Taurus in the Kountry Kitchen parking lot, next to my Blazer, and I was tense and freaking out as we sat there.

Jezz exclaimed, "What the hell is wrong with you!"

"You didn't see it?" I gasped.

"See what? I mean, it felt really weird in there, almost sinister, but that was it."

"As we left, I looked back and Fanny's face totally changed -- something hideous."

"Seriously?"

"She looked like some kind of horrible old hag or witch or something. But then it only lasted for a few seconds, because I looked back and she was the same old Fanny again."

"That's totally freaky, Starky!"

We remained silent for a while, then I said, "Not only that, someone came in the backdoor, Garret.

 So he and Fanny are somehow connected."

"You know what they say: the plot thickens."

"You took the words right out of my mouth -- except I always use more adjectives."

Then Jezz said, "I've got an idea. We should go back someday and check it out late at night, see if we find anything even stranger when it's not in the middle of the day."

"That’s a good idea. But right now I just want to get the hell out of here."

In our separate vehicles we headed back to her place in Apple Valley.

Entry #0070: Discussing the Ongoing Weird Phenomena

We sat at the Jack in the Box in her town, I had coffee and she had a Coke, and talked more. I told her about what I suspected was a shadow person back at Fanny’s. Jezz told me she felt the place was creepy and actually felt the presence of entities around her. I most likely saw one of them. Whatever was going on revolved around the opening rift, and something about Fanny's Thrift Shop had something to do with it, I felt. Which meant that any time it could switch over to being Rook’s Books. This suggested the possibility of parallel universes, where one business existed in ours, and the other in another one. Whether one business shifted into our universe, or I was the one shifting from one to the other, I wasn’t sure. It seemed very confusing.

Considering an earlier discussion Jezz and I had about the idea that this illusionary world of a false reality was losing its cohesion, essentially due to the rift, and beginning to prove itself as the illusion it really was, according to certain Eastern traditions, this meant our immediate reality was being disrupted and altered, more and more. The problem was that this physical world was all too real to most people, but if everyone began noticing and realizing reality shifts going on in their lives, they would begin to question this world around them -- which is exactly what I had been doing lately.

Jezz then suggested that if the little shop we had visited strangely existed as two different businesses at the same location or building, but in two different dimensional planes, then most likely this meant this particular spot might be some kind of supernatural focal point. She said this meant that if there was any kind of activity going on there, say by a gathering of people, then it would definitely be at nighttime. I said we had no idea when such an activity would take place. Jezz said we would just have to take our chances and pick a night, then check it out.

Soon my cell phone rang, and I answered it. It was Leo! Informing me that he was driving through Yucca Valley at this point and would be at my doorstep in an hour or so! Jezz said she had to go home anyway, so she took off in her Ford Taurus, and I hopped into my Blazer and headed east back to Mulvern. I was excited to see my old friend once again! Leo was a practical-minded fellow. So pondering on how he would react to the weird news of all this insane paranormal phenomena made me cringe.

Entry #0071: The Arrival of Leo Stroud

I didn't even have time to clean up the place properly. Good old Leo wouldn't care. But at least I had purchased a twelve-pack of Bud Light Wheat Beer the day before, keeping it cool in the fridge. I was sitting on my porch waiting, probably longer than I expected. The sun was starting to go down when he finally arrived in his dark blue ’95 Range Rover. He parked behind my Blazer in the carport, and getting out of his vehicle, he looked haggard and tired. He still looked like a big burly football player, with a scraggly tawny beard, but his round-rimmed glasses always gave him a professorly look.

He approached the porch and said, "Hey, old buddy! Got beer?"

"Nah. We gotta drive all the way to Victorville to get some."

"No more driving for me."

We embraced with a big old bear hug, I sat down, then he sat in the chair next to me on the porch.

"Just kidding." I pulled an old blanket off of the twelve-pack between the two chairs.

"Ah! You're a saint!"

"And yet a sinner too."

I ripped open the box, we each grabbed a bottle, flipped the caps, and drank beer while watching the sun go down of this late February evening. The air was brisk, but the sky azure blue and growing darker, especially to the east.

After several years it was good to see Leo again.

Entry #0072: Shared Delusions or Confused Realities

As the red sun sank down into the golden sky to the west, finally disappearing into the silhouetted down-sloping horizon, I told Leo everything that happened in the last several months – essentially the highlights of the strange occurrences that took place in this account, such as the weird reality shifts, shadow people, disappearing and reappearing things, the strange man named Garrett, the place called Rook's Books that didn't exist, the paranormal events of the Mojave Desert Paranormal Society, especially the one at the West Coast Merchandise Outlet, and my cool friend Jezz, and many other things. At various points he voiced his comments, mostly surprise and disbelief. He was a practical guy, not prone to simply believe anything people told him. He had to see it or experience it first hand. I hoped this would happen, to prove what I had explained to him.

After a swig of beer, Leo cleared his throat and said, "So in other words, you've been busy."

I replied, "Something like that."

"If you were telling me this was just a new story you were writing, I would have no problem with it. But a lot of what you’re telling me is hard to swallow."

"Would I lie to you like that?"

"No, but you would probably pull my leg and stretch it out pretty far."

I took a swig of beer and said, "I might. But, if you hang with me long enough, I'm hoping something weird will happen that’ll convince you otherwise."

"Oh, like getting caught up in your freaky delusion?"

"That's a possibility," I chuckled. "Many times I wondered if I was losing my mind."

"I think you did that years ago," Leo snickered.

"Then this is the continuing saga of a truly lost mind."

"I believe it."

"But something definitely weird’s happening here in the Valley."

"I'll have to see it to believe it."

I nodded, "I wouldn't have it any other way. I have no right to brainwash you into my delusion anyway. You’ll believe what you want to."

"But if it's any consolation, I at least believed that you totally believe all this."

"Whether it’s a crazy delusion or not, I have witnesses. Several other people share it as well, especially the members of the paranormal crew I’m a part of now."

"A shared mass-delusion. Pretty elaborate."

"Whatever."

Leo swigged his beer and then shook his head, "Actually, I thought I was going to shock and appall you with my own weird events on my way back to the high desert. However, you beat me to it."

"Really?"

"Yes. Two days ago I was driving through Utah at night. I swear I hit something in the road, a possum or something. I even saw something laying there in the road behind me when I stopped and looked. But when I stopped, grabbed my flashlight, and got out of the car to go back and see what it was, there was nothing there. Not even blood stains on the pavement – just nothing."

"Maybe you just stunned the possum, then it ran off."

"That occurred to me, so I dismissed it.  Except I was pretty sure I had killed it. Apparently not.

 I’m not sure what happened now."

"Hmmm. A zombie possum."

 "Yeah, right. Then another freaky thing happened. That morning, at this one little pit stop, I filled up my gas tank, and the gauge definitely read full, but an hour later when I looked, it registered nearly empty. I had to get more gas at the next stop. Weird!"

"Maybe you have a leak in your gas tank."

"I had that checked at the next gas station. It’s tight as a drum."

"Yikes! I’d say you had a couple of reality shift of the weird kind."

"Considering everything you’ve told me, that does seem to explain what happened to me. But I keep struggling for a more reasonable explanation – in vain so far. And to top it off, just this morning while I was driving through Yucca Valley, I picked up an old grizzled hitchhiker, and he spoke very little, but he rode with me about an hour, when something strange happened."

"He turned into a smelly rotting zombie?"

"No. At one point I looked in the rearview mirror and I didn’t see him, but I thought he was just lying down. I glanced into the backseat, and no one was there. He was just flat-out gone! Like he'd never been there!"

I laughed, "Yikes! A couple years ago I wouldn't have believed you. Considering my own circumstances lately, I believe you."

Leo sighed, "But it's weird, like the closer I got toward the old Valley, things were getting weirder and weirder."

"Welcome to my delusion!"

Entry #0073: Discussing Delusions and Illusions

The sky grew dark and the stars came out, and out here in the high desert the night sky was so thick with stars, it felt like you could reach up and touch them. The long milky band of glittering stars that stretched across the sky is the namesake of the Milky Way Galaxy we inhabit. I'm sure that all the science-fiction writers that looked up at this majestic array were deeply inspired to write their wild space adventures. I know I was. Novels like my latest e-book of The Corsairs of Orion, and so forth.

As Leo and I sat there on the porch drinking beer, I asked him, "I don’t get it. The last few days you had your own weird experiences. How come you doubt what I've been telling you?"

Leo shrugged. "I think it's mainly because I don't believe my own experiences. I figure I was imagining things, or I was hallucinating from road hypnosis or something."

"Always gotta explain it away, doncha?"

"I'm a pretty practical guy, you know me. Everything has to be logical. Computers and advancing technology are my life, you know that."

"It's just your job, Leo. Your actual life should be something more than that."

"Like getting caught up in some weird delusion -- probably yours?" He chuckled.

"Actually, it's the grander delusion of this world, a world of illusion."

"Oh no, not that crazy spiel again."

"Everything that’s been happening lately is convincing me more and more that that's the case."

"Perhaps it’s better that you keep your delusions, and I'll keep mine."

"Unless they mysteriously begin to merge, which I think they have already -- now that you're here."

"Which I was afraid of."

"I'll have to invite you to one of our paranormal outings. Then you’ll really be hornswoggled into my delusion!" I chuckled.

"Hey, did you get any Cheetos?" That was Leo's favorite snack food.

Out from under the blanket I pulled out a big bag of Cheetos. "I thought you'd never ask."

Entry #0074: A Hangover Morning on the Desert

We stayed out at least two o'clock in the morning that night, babbling further nonsensical spiel. I tried to explain to Leo how my new friend Jezz and I discussed the theory that the opening dark rift was revealing more and more the actual world of illusion around us, that the reality we knew was not real any longer, and that the whole fabric of this false reality would unravel eventually as the rift opened further. Leo said it sounded like a great idea for a science fiction story, but he couldn't take such an insane notion literally.

Then we decided to turn in. I let Leo sleep in one of the bunk beds down in the bunker, and I went to my bedroom in the cabin. We slept till noon.

Groggy and hung-over, we haphazardly managed to rustle up some breakfast. I made coffee on the potbelly stove and next to it made pancakes in the big cast iron skillet. Leo slathered plenty of butter and maple syrup on his tall stack; mine was less liberal. So we gobbled down our delicious pancakes and sipped coffee at the little table next to the stove.

Soon I got a call from Chad, reporting that there would be a new event soon, March 4^th on Friday at 9:00 pm. Someone here in the Valley south of Mulvern claimed their house was haunted. He said they had a lot of mirrors, so it would be very interesting. He gave me the address and I wrote it down.

I asked him if two friends could come along as witnesses. He said that would be fine, as long as one of them was not Garret. I told him I was keeping my distance from that strange character. I hung up and came over to Leo in the living room, where he was getting his laptop out of his duffel bag as he said, "There are a few clients I still have to work with; the usual computer problems and website designing. So you can go to your freak-fest event while I keep busy."

I huffed, "You're supposed to be on vacation."

He chuckled, "It's a working vacation."

"Hey, you’re here so we can hang out together."

"Trying the old guilt ploy, eh?"

"Of course. But I really want you to participate in the next paranormal event; it's for your own good."

"Okay, getting caught up in your strange shared mass-delusion here in the Valley should be fascinating. I'll just be an innocent bystander."

"Fortunately or not, my friend Jezz believes me. I'm sure she'll want to participate."

The more the merrier.”

“A genuine die-hard skeptic conveniently avoids weird phenomenon he’d rather not believe in. Don’t become one of those. You gotta have healthy open-mindedness sometimes.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll go.”

Leo messed around on his laptop, which he had set on the coffee table while he sipped from his mug of coffee. "Before we do anything fun, weird, or insanely exciting, I should get some work out of the way first."

I sighed, "You should just grow a pair and tell your clients you’ve gone fishing for a month. Or just leave your answering machine on and collect their sniveling messages. Then don't answer them for a couple weeks -- or just delete the hell out of them."

"Ah. A great way to lose customers."

"You're a hopeless workaholic. I'll set up a friendly intervention for you -- which will be me smashing your laptop to pieces with a hammer."

"What are friends for anyway?"

Shortly, I called Jezz and invited her to the coming paranormal event. She said she'd be glad to go.

Entry #0075: Leo and I out on a Drive

The next day Leo and I decided to drive around, see the sights. I suggested we eat at the good old Kountry Kitchen. He said he never cared for that greasy spoon joint when he lived here. He suggested some restaurant in Apple Valley, maybe even Del Taco. We decided to head that a way and pick a restaurant when we got there. We took my Chevy Blazer, filled it with gas at the Rocket Station, and took off down Highway 18. He kept commenting how long it had been since he'd been here last and how dry and dead it looked. I told him he lived in the city too long, breathing in dirty smog that poisoned his brain. While we drove, we talked.

Leo asked, "What was this you were telling me about a place called Duke’s Books?"

I replied, "Rook’s Books. It doesn't exist -- at least not in this reality. Here, it's Fanny's Thrift Shop, or Rift Shop, I like to call it."

"That's right, you said there is some kind of strange rift going on here, which explained all the weird phenomena. Considering the freaky things that happened to me on the way here, it makes sense -- despite my anally-retentive logical mind that wants to deny it."

"Deny it all you want, it's coming up and biting us on the asses."

"I hope not."

"There's something about Fanny’s place. I suspect it’s some kind of nexus. Jezz feels this place might have some connection to the opening rift, if not the cause of it. How, I don’t know. But when Jezz and I visited the joint, as we left, I glanced at her and she had this weird witch face, just for a split second."

"I think you were just imagining things -- either that or going mad."

"It just occurred to me, if I can get Chad and the crew in there, I wonder what we would find, especially using their paranormal equipment."

Leo laughed, "I doubt if they'd even let you in to do your mumbo-jumbo routine."

I frowned, "That's the only drawback. But Jezz and I thought of sneaking around there and checking it out some night."

"Hmmm. Paranormal cloak-and-dagger. Sounds like fun. I might join you, that is, if I don't have a bunch of clients pestering me."

"Put a damn ‘gone fishing’ sign on your website -- and your answering machine."

"I think you mean change my announcements so it says I've gone fishing."

"Exactly what I meant."

Entry #0076: The Ghost Town at Dead Man’s Point

We drove past the Moskovi Dry Lakes, then as we approached Dead Man's Point, I noticed something strange. As I had mentioned much earlier, the old ghost town had been torn down many years ago. But today we saw it their blatantly, the little old Western style buildings all in a row. I turned off the highway and put on the brakes.

I explained, "What the hell?"

Leo rubbed his beard and remarked, "I haven't been here in years, so what's the deal, old chum?"

"Didn’t you know? Sometime in the late 90s they tore down the old ghost town. And now suddenly it's sitting there in broad daylight, as if nothing had ever happened!"

"Maybe they rebuilt it."

"No way. I drove by here about a week ago; there was no construction crew or anything."

"Hmm. I say we investigate."

"My thoughts exactly."

I turned off the engine and we got out. We walked along the dusty road along the structures that bore no fresh paint at all, in fact the paint was badly chipping and peeling, and nothing but bear wood showed through in many places. This was truly a ghost town, especially since it wasn’t here a week ago.

I had to say, "For newly rebuilt structures, they did a damn good job of faking old peeling paint."

"If that's the effect they wanted."

"Please! You’ve gotta admit this is definitely weird!"

"Okay, it is."

"It's the same kind of reality shift that took place at Fanny's, the day it became Rook’s Books."

Leo shook his head and sighed, "I don't know, but this kind of thing just sounds impossible."

"And yet, here we are, walking through a ghost town that should not exist. And yet here it is before our very eyes."

Rubbing his beard, Leo commented "There’s got to be a logical explanation."

"Like what?"

Leo shrugged, "I've got nothing."

"I say this ghost town exist in a different parallel universe, and we just stepped into it. That’s the freaky nature of these reality shifts lately."

"There’s got to be a more practical explanation that that, old buddy."

I came up to one of the doors of the structure that was labeled Sheriff’s Office, grabbed the knob, turned it, and opened the door, but it suddenly fell toward us, falling off the hinges as we jumped back.

"Holy shit!" I yelped.

"Damn!" Leo gasped.

We entered the dim, musty room where meager light shone through the dusty windows. The dust lay everywhere and spider webs were strewn all around. We decided not to enter in any further, but stood at the threshold and looked around, seeing a big old wooden desk with a chair behind it, and various other forms of furniture, and the line of long bars from floor to ceiling for two jail cells. Apparently no one had been in here for many years. Old dusty spider-webbing crisscrossed every inch of those bars.

I sniffed, "Yeah, a great job of faking a really old abandoned ghost town."

Leo sighed, "I'm truly perplexed."

"You’ve gotta accept the fact something freaky is happening here."

"As long as you're sure they tore it down."

I snapped, "Yes! I'm absolutely positively sure! Ask anybody back in Mulvern!"

"Okay, okay. I'm sure they'll agree with you."

"Besides, I work for the Mulvern Daily Press, and often I review old articles when searching for historical data in order to write current articles, and I’ve read a few pertaining to the tearing down of this ghost town."

"Okay, I believe you. This is truly weird, I admit."

Suddenly I saw a shadowy figure dart across the Sheriff's Office, straight across my line of vision, and disappear right through the back wall!

"What the hell!?" I shot. "Did you see that?"

"What?"

"Never mind. Let’s get the hell outa here."

We left the open doorway and stepped off the rickety boardwalk, down three steps and walked across the dirt road, and back toward the Blazer. We climbed inside and closed the doors as I started the engine. I peeled out and pulled back onto the highway beside Dead Man’s Point.

But then I looked through my side window and gasped, "What the hell!?"

Leo looked too, and he was just speechless.

The ghost town had completely disappeared!

Ghost Town as it used to look near Dead Man’s Point

Entry #0077: Questioning and Doubting Reality As We Know It

The Blazer tore down Highway 18 and into the west, getting the hell out of there. I knew some kind of paranormal energy flux was taking place at Dead Man's Point, and although this would be a great investigative opportunity for the paranormal crew, at that moment I wanted to get as far away from there is possible. I didn't want us to get sucked into some parallel universe if we stayed any longer.

I spoke first, "Do you believe me now?"

Leo shook his head and replied, "I don't know what to believe anymore."

I chuckled, "That's the first step toward my new philosophy, anti-dogmatarianism."

"What?"

"When dogma get’s you down and you can’t stand it anymore, you start questioning all the crap they taught you that isn’t as true as you once thought."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Never mind. It’s in my Outer Edge blog. But I'll explain someday. Anyway, that's what's been going on lately, things appearing and then disappearing. Sometimes it's small objects, sometimes pretty big ones."

"No shit, Sherlock!"

"My theory is that sometimes we shift back and forth between parallel universes unknowingly. Normally we remain in our own universe, and occasionally we shift into the other, and then shortly we shift back. Hence, reality is shifting about for no apparent reason – except now I suspect the reason is the opening rift. The other theory is that this world is basically unstable and unreal, because it's essentially the substance of illusion."

"Now, like I said before, if we were discussing a new sci-fi story to write, I'd have no problem with ideas like that."

"Sorry to burst your bubble, old pal. But not all insanely freaky things exist in science fiction stories. As trite as it sounds, sometimes reality can be stranger than fiction."

"Reality shifts and parallel universes and such things I've read in sci-fi books, you know. We could spend hours discussing it all -- but saying this stuff is real? I don't know."

"That's right, you’re the practical guy with the logical mind. I'd like to know how you explain it all."

"I'll have to get back to you on that."

We drove down the old highway, away from yet another truly freaky incident.

Entry #0078: The Eat-Out at the Ponderosa

As we entered Apple Valley, we discussed restaurants. Jezz had told me the Ponderosa was a good steakhouse. So we went to the one on Kiowa Rd.

It was a nice place with the typical western feel and country western music emanating from the ceiling speakers.  I ordered a ribeye steak with baked potato and a side salad with ranch dressing. Leo ordered a T-bone steak with mashed potatoes, and also a side salad, with blue cheese dressing. We both ordered the house coffee for our drinks. While waiting for our food to arrive, we talked.  I tried asking about his computer business, but he didn't want to talk about work. I didn't blame him. We talked about a lot of other things, particularly the crazy paranormal shenanigans going on here in the Mojave Desert.

Leo sipped his coffee, then asked, "So what's the deal with this rift you've been talking about?"

I replied, "You understood physics, maybe you can tell me."

He chuckled, "Or metaphysics rather. We're talking about pseudoscience that usually revolves around typical science fiction stories."

"Not from my standpoint. It's more on the lines of paranormal activity. We’re talking about an interdimensional portal that opens between two or more universes, or levels of existence, or dimensional planes, or whatever you want to call them." I took a sip of coffee. "In fact, the rift is most likely opening up to what some call the Dark Side."

"Sounds like you might know more about it than I do."

I shrugged, "Well I've had some experience in these strange things lately, unintentionally, of course."

"Didn’t you tell me once that you’re heavily into that TV show, Paranormal State? Oh, and you used to be a big X-Files fan."

"Yeah, but that's beside the point."

"Plus, you listen to that late night radio show, Coast-to-Coast, which I call tabloid radio."

I snarled, "That’s your skeptical opinion. Yeah, some things they say are questionable, but I think a lot of it is genuine."

"I think you’re just gullible and believe any old crap you hear," Leo chuckled.

"Or see with my own eyes."

"I just wonder if you're being influenced by these kinds of shows."

"Oh, you're saying they’re feeding my delusion?"

"Possibly."

"Look, Leo. We both saw the ghost town that shouldn't be there, then it disappeared."

"Which means my theory on shared delusions is true . . .  or something else is going on."

"Yeah, like you can't logically explain it away when the thing that happened is what really happened right in front of your freaking face. Plain and simple."

"Ah, Occam’s Razor. That would explain it."

"Yeah, quite simply we saw exactly what we saw. I accept it, why can't you?"

"Actually, I'm beginning to. You’re more used to these crazy phenomena than I am. You've been exposed to it longer."

"That's true. Plus, the paranormal has always been a fascination of mine, which includes alien life, apparitions, shadow people, parallel universes, reality shifts, so on and so forth."

Leo remarked, "Most people say the paranormal is just a catchall phrase that refers to anything that’s out on the fringe, most of which is not acceptable by science, or educational institutions in general."

"People need to be re-educated, because the so-called experts constrict science too much. People are not allowed to think outside the box. But essentially anything considered to be paranormal is phenomena that are unexplainable, usually outside the normal realm of science or normal education."

"Which pertains to all the stuff you write in your Zones Unknown column, right?"

"Basically, but I do cover other subjects too. But we're getting off track. You asked me about the dark rift."

"Right. So you actually think there is some kind of interdimensional rift here in the high desert?"

"Definitely. And we're still trying to figure out what the cause is, or who might be behind it."

"So you actually think somebody opened this interdimensional gateway?"

"We suspect this."

"Okay, who are we exactly?"

"Jezz for one, and the other members of our paranormal crew."

"Oh yeah, the High Desert Paranormal Society. I hate to say this, but I did a Google search on them, under ‘debunking paranormal groups,’ and found out that not only this particular group but many others like it are frauds."

I laughed. "That was your first mistake, trying to debunk them. Of course anybody not believing in these groups is going to try to debunk them. The funny thing is, Chad and his group first try to debunk whatever the paranormal anomaly is, and if we can't, we suspect that something truly paranormal is occurring, then we investigate further. I've been on many investigations with them, and I know this particular group is genuine."

"Well, since you invited me to tag along at your next paranormal shindig, I'll have to see for myself."

"Prepare for anything to happen then."

"What do you mean?"

"You might be sadly disappointed if it turns out that nothing happens, or you might be totally astounded if something crazy happens. We'll just have to see."

Our steaming plates arrived, and our mouths watered. So we ate our delicious steaks, enjoying our food, and discussed idle chitchat.

Entry #0079: The Kiowa Road Mix Up

Afterwards, we paid and left. We drove off down the road.

Then Leo exclaimed, “What the hell?” as he pointed at something.

"What?" I shot.

"We're supposed to be on Kiowa Rd, but that street sign said Navajo Rd."

"You're kidding." I hadn’t paid attention to the sign as we passed it, unfortunately.

"How'd we get mixed up?"

"I don't know. Navajo Rd should be about eight blocks to the east from here. They’re parallel to each other. We should still be on Kiowa."

"I know, I saw the street sign as we drove to get to the restaurant. This can’t be Navajo Rd. This is freaky."

I smirked, suspecting exactly what was occurring, but I decided not to offer one of my radical explanations, not yet.

As we drove through the next intersection, I saw the street sign this time, which said Navajo Rd, and if we traveled northbound up it several blocks, we would find the old Apple Valley High School we both attended in our teen years.

"I don’t know, Leo, this is confusing." I frowned outwardly, but I still smiled on the inside.

"I don’t get it. I used to drive all over Apple Valley when I had a pizza delivery job as a teenager. I should know these streets like the back of my hand."

 Then I said, "So what’s your logically explanation for this?"

Leo shook his head, then shrugged and said, "I don't know -- I think we got mixed up somehow."

"It's a freaking reality shift -- and we just drove through it!" I chuckled.

"Yeah, right."

"This is just another example of our dreamlike world of illusion that can't seem to remain stable, so things shift around unexplainably."

Ignoring my crazy explanation, Leo suggested "I say we turn around and try to find Kiowa Rd, and then look for the Ponderosa there," Leo decided.

"Good idea."

We drove around Apple Valley and ended up getting totally lost. It took us about forty-five minutes for us to actually find Kiowa Rd, and then we finally returned to the Ponderosa restaurant right where we originally found it. This time as we drove off down the street, we paid close attention to all the street signs along the way, and they all indicated Kiowa Rd.

"Strange," I remarked. "It’s weird how we started out on Kiowa and ended up on Navajo.  Bu things seem to be back to normal now."

"So I suppose we're back in our own universe now?" Leo mused with a crooked smirk.

"Something like that."

"I think we were just not paying attention and got mixed up somehow."

I shook my head and said, "You've got a thick skull."

Soon we drove onto Bear Valley Road and left Apple Valley, eventually past Dead  Man's Point again, both looking to see that there was no ghost town there, as usual, and drove on toward Mulvern. The rest of the ride was uneventful.

However, I couldn't help but reflect that these unfolding series of insane events continued to prove that this earthly plane was just a physical illusion, which was becoming more and more incohesive because of the opening rift, and if we failed to do anything about it, our whole world would eventually unravel into oblivion.

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