The Night Is Here

Falling

“It was a summer night. A very hot summer night right in the middle of June. The type where you crave every possible form of coldness around you. When just a cold breeze of air is of no help but a tease. We all hate such nights isn’t it? But I hate them a little more. Because they remind of my great loss.” I told the lady doctor seriously looking at me from behind her big framed glasses.

It has been 40 years to that night but my memory is still as fresh as if it was just yesterday. You don’t forget such memories so easily. They live on till your last breaths like vivid dreams. They eat on your existence. They keep you wide awake on several nights. They look like a movie playing in HD inside your head but not a movie you would like to see more than once. You try the best to escape these memories. You try to layer your memories. Pushing that particular one you distaste at the back of your mind. You try stupid methods like hypnotism, psyche and sleep. Nothing helps because they are stronger than your entire being. Stronger than any man out there on the streets saying they can save you. They can pull you out of your misery. But ah! Even you know in your head that nothing, nobody can help. Because like I said, some memories don’t fade out with time, they live on.

“Tell me about it Mr. Nebroski. I’m listening.” She urged me to continue in her same serious tone. I thought she was really bad at emotions for a psychiatrist.

“Clara and I had been married for just a year back then. We knew each other since college. She was in the lab classes with me. We were at the ripe age of 19, stealing glances from behind the racks of test tubes and chemicals and machines. We were nerds so we never run short of topics to converse. And by the time of graduation we were madly in love. We decided to marry right after graduation. It was the spring of 1952 in New York. The church was decorated in purple orchids, just as she liked. It was the most beautiful day of my life. She looked like a dream in the white gown. But our happiness was short lived. We didn’t have a chance to go on a vacation after our marriage as we found ourselves recruited for a highly secretive research for the US government. We were not allowed to take a break. But we managed to convince the scientists we were assisting for a week’s trip to Alaska for chasing the Northern Lights as it would also be really helpful for the research. This happened after one long year of waiting. We were thrilled.” I take a pause to drink some water and noticed that the doctor was listening to me with all her patience hardly blinking.

“Clara considered it more of a delayed honeymoon than a work trip. She packed her best clothes and said she would leave her glasses back home. I told her it’s a bad idea because we won’t just be vacationing. We had some serious business to take care of. But she was so excited her face was glowing like the sun. I was afraid of such alluring happiness. I have always believed since childhood that too much happiness leads to too much sadness. I wonder was it me who somehow forced this belief to come true or it was fate? Or was it someone’s conspiracy to deliver our little bubble of joy into the hands of something so so evil that it still sends chills down my spine as much as it kills me each day in the memory of my late wife. The woman that meant the world to me but was just a bait to someone else.” I could feel warm drops of water running down my face when I stopped to look at the lady. She seemed to be confused.

“Go on sir. Don’t worry. We are strict about patient confidentiality.” She said reading my expression.

“Alaska was beautiful. Covered in a white blanket of snow peeked little black heads of the mountains. It was like a young girl dressed in white facing the other side while her long black hair run down her back. We were delighted at the beautiful scenery. For the first three days we did every touristy stuff that was possible before we headed for the hike on the fourth day of our trip. The first night we waited to witness the Aurora activity first before we went ahead with our research. I must tell you that if had I been some other person I would remember it as one of the beautiful sights in my entire life. It was like angels playing with Disney magic wands casting spells on the night sky. If only that would have been a fairy tale. But we were just like any other couple that night. Clara said she was capturing this moment in her memory. She was beyond fascinated. I remember looking at her face under the northern lights. She looked out of the world. She belonged somewhere else. And in the next moment I was afraid. Scared of something unknown. I didn’t know what but something strange. The fear of losing her overwhelmed me. I hugged her tight. She thought that was romantic but I knew it was something else.”

“Could you feel that something wrong was going to happen to your wife?” The lady’s question brought me back to present.

“Wrong. It’s not what I call it. Evil is the right world. But I am not sure because I don’t know. I call it evil because it took her away from me and the world declared her dead. But I know she’s alive. She is just around us. But in a different dimension. She was teleported there so that the scientists could locate the doorway to that world. And what do we know about the other world? Is it a good place? Or is it a dark dark deadly place? With rotten bodies and demons? How can I be sure that she is living between butterflies and flowers when there’s a fifty percent chance that she might be living between monsters? Or she is already dead there?”

“A different dimension? You mean a parallel universe Mr. Nebroski?” She asked me one eyebrow up and noted down something in her notepad.

“Yes.” I told her sternly.

“Can you explain what exactly happened to your wife and how?” She was suspicious and she was making no effort to hide it.

“The next day we were trekking up a forest to reach a meadow that has been known to have the highest aurora activity sightings and also had the highest frequency of electrically charged practicals that made us believe it could be the door between two dimensions. We waited there for one whole day and night. Nothing happened. Another day passed. Still nothing. We were coiled up in our tents at around 3 in the morning when we felt a strong light on our eyes. We quickly came out of the tent. And what we saw took our breaths away. There in the middle of the meadow was a prism like yellowish green light reaching up to the sky. It looked infinite. We stood there dumbfounded before it. My wife came out of that frenzy and told me we have to get it recorded somehow. But no technical device was working around us. Not even the compass. We were scared that if we didn’t do anything the light will vanish soon. Then suddenly my wife said she’ll step into the place where the light fell and tell me how she felt and if she saw anything I’ll note it down. I was reluctant about it at first but she was already running towards it before I could do anything. I stood there watching her, I couldn’t move a feet. I saw her stepping into the light and as soon as she did the light closed in upwards and vanished within fraction of seconds. And my wife? It took her along with it. I couldn’t find a trace of her except the diary she was carrying with herself lying on the ground.” I spoke between short breaths.

“What did you do about it then?”

“I searched everywhere possible for days and then I went to New York to speak to the scientists. And the moment I told them about what has happened I was held captive and they injected something into me. The next thing I remember was waking up in this bed.”

“Okay Mr. Nebroski that was it for today. We’ll see each other again next week. But now it’s time to sleep.” The lady said as she pressed a bell on her table and two muscular boys dressed in green uniforms arrived to get hold of me.

“You don’t believe me right? You are never going to believe me isn’t it?” I cried to the lady as she injected me with the same drug my body was accustomed to now.

She was deaf to pleas and cries as I kept calling out to her before sleep took over me. The last thing I remember before closing my eyes was the batch she was wearing. It said “Clara Davidson. Senior psychologist for special cases. St. Peter’s Hospital. Government of US.”