Journey to the World of Seven Kingdoms

The Strange Coordinates

I woke up at half past 4 to find my daughter Hannah in my room. She said something about a ghost in her room. I told her to go back to sleep. I find out that I can't go back to sleep so I get up and just stare out the window at the wheat fields. I reminisce on how I served this country during the war by flying planes.

Out of all the planes I flew during my service my favorite was the Stealth Fighter Jet. I remember how I broke the sound barrier flying that plane and in that moment I thought to myself "I am the thunder." I had called that plane the Stealth Eagle. I called it that because I'm an Eagle Scout which means I have reached the highest rank in Boy Scouts. I eventually had to return that plane to the government along with all the other military planes I flew.

I join my family for breakfast. My daughter has brought a little toy model of the Saturn V rocket to the breakfast table. I pick it up and notice it was damaged. I say to her; "You broke my rocket" in a soft voice. She said no but then my son Liam says it was her ghost. Liam is a few years older than Hannah. I shook my head and told her she should analyze her problem before she jumps to conclusions. Hopefully next year she'll do a science project and learn about the scientific method.

After we finish breakfast I take the kids to school. As we are getting into the cab of my Toyota Tundra, my father-in-law reminds me that it is parent teacher conference day. He also says something about Hannah's teacher who is young and female. I tell him to mind his own business and drive off.

When we get to school I get Hannah and Liam to their classes; then I attend the parent teacher conferences. Liam's teacher and I talk about colleges for him to attend. Hannah's teacher tells me that Hannah is a bright student but she is not socializing with her other classmates. I hesitated a bit but then I told them that her mother had recently died and she's probably sad about that. When I told them this I started to get emotional. Hannah's teacher apologized and I asked if were done; she said yes and so I left.

When I got home I saw that all of my green robotic harvesters had formed a half circle around our house. My father-in-law said it happened right before I got home. I asked him if there could be some kind of electro magnetic force interfering with the harvesters' navigation system but he said that if there was such a force then we would have noticed it we first moved here.

By the time we get the harvesters harvesting again it is time to pick up Hannah and Liam. So I drive to school to pick them up. When we get home I tell Hannah what her teacher told me about her. She shrugged at first but then I asked if she missed mom and she nodded. I then noticed tears in her eyes and so I hugged her.

Later that weekend we all go to a hockey game. It was good game and the home team won. When we get home it starts raining and these days rain has been somewhat acidic; mainly because all the pollution in the air and water nowadays. Environmental protection was cut to help pay for the war and even before the war, business environmental regulations were weakened as well.

We put on the coats that we wore to the game and ran inside. For some reason Hannah left her window open so I run into her room and to close it. Once I close the window I realize that the streaks of water were not all the same size. There were big lines and little ones all made by the rain. Hannah whom had been in the room with me said; "It's trying to communicate with us." I just stared at the window and studied the droplets of water. The droplets seemed to look the same but they fell in a way that made them form thicker and thinner line. I told Hannah that what ever it's manipulating gravity.

Then I realize what it is and I shout: "Eureka it's a message written in binary code!" I explain to Hannah that thick is 1 and thin is 0. Then I ask her to get the codes book from her bookshelf. She has a huge bookshelf in her room, it had belonged to my parents. While she was getting the book on codes I was writing down message.
The message said:...