"Fiss" Parts 1 Through 8

"Fiss" Part 3

"Yes, Mary, a few times; I have had conversation with a few over the many centuries.
Some have tried as you did.
Most all say they feel tingling, that is all.
One bad one, old lady died after she did that.
She was very old, and her essence left her.
For a long time, Jeb chose not to talk to people.
What happened to the old lady was bad.
Jeb was very sorry for what Jeb did.
I not talk to people for long time.
Mary, not talk to people four hundred of your years.
All time, Jeb, be very alone."

As we sat there talking, I had the impression that Jeb decided to talk to me out of pure loneliness.
Along with the fact that even though I ran away the first time I encountered him, I returned out of curiosity.
Had I not returned, he might have gone away, never to return.

"Jeb, I have a question for you.
Do you think you would like to meet my family?
If there was a way for them to see you the way I see you and not be filled with fear, would you do it?"

"Mary I think that is not a good thought.
Too many times Jeb has tried to talk to others, others have fear of Jeb.
Then I can not watch as I need to do.
No, Mary, that is not good thought."

"Jeb, you told me before that you spent your time here watching people.
That you watch and wait for them to grow.
Why is this?
What will happen when people grow?"       

"Mary, many things can happen.
We wait for them to grow wise.
If they grow wise and learn good things, we begin to teach them more things.
There are many worlds that have grown.
Some we have helped to grow more after Fiss thinks them ready for bigger truths.
Some we ask to help us teach other people on other worlds to grow."

"Jeb, what kind of bigger truths do you teach?
Do you think that this world is ready to grow?
I have grown since we met, don't you think?"

"Mary, you are very young, and your view of this world is very small.
This is not Mary's fault, Mary lives in world that thinks small.
Your world and people need spend much time just trying to survive, very little time to grow beyond the needs of the day.
Mary is special, Mary has special mind, very open to new ideas, new thinking."

"Jeb, will you let me merge with you again?
I think there is a reason we are here together, and just maybe I will be able to keep from passing out like I did before, now that I know what to expect."

"Mary, Jeb not think that a good idea, you scare Jeb before.
Jeb not want to hurt Mary or lose new friend."

"Jeb, I'm willing to take the risk."
With that, I moved forward and stepped into the mist that was Jeb.
In that moment I began to feel dizzy, my mind began to reel as the world around me began to fade out, only to be replaced by a flood of images that at first made no sense.
I saw only stars swirling all around me as I floated through a vast emptiness.
As the speeding images began to slow down, I found myself looking at a world filled with buildings higher than the mountains east of our town, made of glass rising into the sky.
Looking around, I saw trees, yet these trees were unlike anything I could have ever believed possible.
It was if the trees were made of icicles, shimmering in the sunlight.
As the sun shone through them, a rainbow of colors was spreading outward from the leaves, only to shed their glow upon the ground around them.

In an instant, I found myself being yanked away from this place to a world that was filled with fire, all that one could see was a world where nothing could be alive.
When my eyes and mind began to look around, I became aware that there was indeed something alive here.   
The only comparison I could make was that of caterpillars made of molten rock moving around.
From somewhere in the back of my mind, I could hear Jeb talking to me.

"Mary, this world and life in it is just beginning to become self aware.
If lucky, in a few hundred million years they may be ready for the Fiss to talk to them."