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- Story Listed as: Fiction For Adults
- Theme: Science Fiction
- Subject: Miracles / Wonders
- Published: 01/15/2021
Shift Happens.
Born 1951, M, from Wilmington NC, United States.jpeg)
I am nervous.
Of course I am. I mean, really, wouldn’t you be?
In my Journalistic Career, I have never turned down an assignment. I was there for the Fall of the Old United States…and barely escaped with my life. I was there when the Chinese came to pick up the pieces, and again…barely escaped with my life. I was there for the Third (and hopefully Final) World War. Started when China tried to take over Canada.
That was the last straw for the World. Now, well, what’s left of it, lives in peace. Partly because half the population is gone. Releasing biological agents at the end there, when you already know you lost, well, that decimated entire populations. And is why nobody speaks that language anymore. I was young then, filled with vim and vigor.
If that wasn’t enough troubles for one Reporter to cover, the Shift happened. Nobody knows why. Nobody knows how. What we do know is that the Magnetic Field around Earth changed positions over fifty times in less than an hour. At one time, it had contracted to only two points on the surface of the Earth. Burlington, Iowa (In the Old USA), and Truro in Southern England. Both have roughly twenty thousand people living in them. The Shift happened, and what happened to Burlington and Truro impacted Humans for ever.
Everyone knows that event, most of us remember it vividly. Most of us haven’t aged much in the Seventy odd years since the Shift happened. Children are still born - but rarely. They grow normally, like back in the days before the Shift happened. Shortly after puberty though, around age twenty two or so, you sort of freeze in whatever shape your body is in then. And you stay that way until you die. But nobody has died since Shift happened…so maybe …you don’t.
And the Perceptons come from only those two cities. One out of a hundred people from either of those cities is a Percepton. Perceptons have been guiding us and our Society ever since Shift Happened. They look like you and me…if you can focus on one long enough. Once you stare at them, they become easily identifiable. They look just like us, except they quiver in place.
As long as you look at one, they are solid objects, with a quiver. Like a tuning fork or something. Look away, or even glance to the side, and they are gone. Like a mirage, or ghost. You have to keep looking at them for them to stay in one place. If you can touch them, or shake their hands, you can anchor them to you. They don’t seem to mind, but break contact…and they are gone again.
It took three years after Shift Happened before we realized Perceptons were actually there. That they existed. Most of us would just see a blurry sort of Humanoid shape, that left a trail both behind it, and in front of it. Like looking at an infinite paper doll cutout stretching as far as you could see in any direction. It was eery, disorienting, and troubling. Which blended in perfectly with everything else going on since Shift Happened.
And now, I am going to meet with one of them. On purpose. Their purpose. They don’t often interact with us regular Humans. But when we focus in on them, they are there…and answer, guide, or suggest something we should do, make, or find. And they are always right. Always. Look away, and they are gone.
Not this time. This time, one of them has told all of us, that I would be the one they explained things to. How’s that for pressure? The whole world watching (or will be) and I have to interview a being that only stays in focus until you blink. I don’t even know if they are Human. Or what questions to ask them. I did post a request online soliciting questions to ask them. I got about seventy million comments.
Since Shift Happened, the Perceptons made a few changes that I should mention. There are no more “Trolls” on the Internet. Nor are there any more “secrets”, conspiracies, or gossip. I don’t know how the Perceptons did it. Nobody knows. They just stayed solid long enough after Shift Happened to implement a few Social and Legal Changes…World Wide.
For one thing, you only can have one Internet address and your name (with number) is your sole handle. No more: TerrytheTerrible, or Foolishperson.com. Nope, you are given a Birth Card, and it is unique, just like you. And anything you say or do online, comes from that one easily traceable address. You are responsible for anything you text, email, post, or say. That has stopped almost all of the bullying, hate, or bigotry that used to populate Social Media. We know who you are. We ALL know who you are.
No more passports, or borders. Your identity is on your birth card. It has your physical address and any online presence you have too. The Perceptons did that somehow. As they said: “Earth belongs to us all. All of it. You can go anywhere on it you want. No permission needed. You are an Earthling. You live on Earth. Permission to explore it is granted to all.“
That has changed travel. I always wanted to live in Italy. Now I do. My brother found a small place in Indonesia, and my High School Sweatheart….well, she grew up in the same small town I did. In Iowa. She is the reason I am meeting with a Percepton today. When Shift Happened…she disappeared. Gone. Poof. We were separated by the Fall of the United States, reunited briefly until the Chinese came over. Then we met up again in Canada. The world was just settling out from all the fall out (both literally and figuratively) when the Shift Happened. And I watched her quiver…then disappear. I still have nightmares about that wave she gave me before she went out of existence.
That was some seventy odd years ago. And now, well, she wants to meet with me. In Truro, England. Perceptons tend to gather in only Burlington, or Truro. As far as we can tell, they only come from those two places. But they show up all over Earth…for moments at a time. Look away, and they are gone.
I am here now.
I am nervous.
I looked…hard. She was there.
“Take my hand, David.”
I did.
That anchored her to my time and place. She looked like she did at nineteen. Except for her eyes. I loved her eyes when we were an item. I thought you could get lost in them. Now, I knew you could. They were deeper than Time. Than Space. Than History. It was like looking into knowledge of all that was, or will be.
I asked her a few questions when I held her hand. The most common ones from the millions of comments I got on my post.
“Are you Human?”
Laughter. God I missed her laugh. But this was a deeper, fuller, laugh, filled with love and a tinge of “You have no idea” in it.
“Yes. And no.”
“What?”
“David. All things are both particles and waves. All things. Including you. You just can’t perceive that. You don’t have the sensory apparatus to notice things at the Planck Lengths, or Times. We do. Hence your nickname for us: “Perceptons.”
“But in the past, we were close. You loved me. I loved you…what are you now.”
She smiled at me in a way that Angels must smile at God.
“David, there is only now. NOW is all there is. Love is eternal. So are you.”
“What?”
I must admit, for a Journalist, it wasn’t my finest hour…or Interview.
That laugh again. God I want to hear that more often. And I did.
“Hold both my hands David.”
I did.
Shift Happened.
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