Gravity Rises (S3)

LC: Part Six

After making up from their argument, Fidds' friendship with Lilith was almost back to normal. He had to get a summer job at an auto repair shop to pay for school, but he visited her shack whenever he could. They meditated together; she taught him more about the powers of the mind; he told her about the things he'd learned at college. Then it was over. The summer of 1969 seemed to go by in a flash, and suddenly Fidds was back at Backupsmore.

He learned more and more about engineering, and he also learned more about his mind. He worked ever more diligently on lucid dreaming, on using those dreams to manipulate reality. Months passed, then years. Job offers came up, but Fidds continually chose to go home for the summer, work at the auto shop, and visit Lilith.

As the years in college went by, Fidds stuck by Ford, doing projects with him and generally enjoying his company. Ford became increasingly interested in supernatural happenings, and devoted himself to searching out and analyzing claims of the paranormal. This interest aligned nicely with Fidds' knowledge of the ether, and he thought maybe he should tell Ford about the powers of the mind. But every time he thought about it, he felt so queasy he couldn't speak. When that happened, he figured it was the ether, signaling to him that it wasn't time yet. So he kept his peace.

Then suddenly it was spring of 1975, and Fidds was graduating college with a master's degree in mechanical engineering.

He wrote home, and his ma came to see him graduate. Ford came too, although he was going to attend college for another year before graduating with a Ph.D. Lilith didn't come. For one, she refused to use the mail service, so Fidds couldn't send her a letter; for two, he doubted she'd want to come somewhere so crowded.

After graduating, Fidds went home with his shiny college degree. . . and kept working at the auto shop. He tinkered with parts in his mom's garage in his spare time, though, having been infected with a new dream to make personal computers for people. In his correspondence to Ford, he constantly wrote about how great it would be, about how much these computers would help people. "Just think about it!" he wrote in the late fall. "People could keep all their records for taxes in one machine, or perform in a matter of minutes these complicated functions that would take hours by hand!"

Lilith didn't like the idea of computers, so Fidds quickly stopped talking to her about them. He'd still go visit her — as often as he could, often daily. Then, slowly, daily became every few days, then weekly. Between the auto shop and his personal computer projects, he had virtually no time for much else. It was all he could do to keep writing in his dream journal every day.

Spring of 1976 arrived, and with it, Ford's graduation. Fidds traveled back to his alma mater to support his friend. He even attended an after-party, which he rarely did. At the party, he met Ford's obnoxious twin brother, Stanley. He then did his best to avoid the man at every turn.

"Fiddleford," Ford called, just as Fidds was trying to sneak away from Stanley. "There you are! Come over here, I have to tell you about something!"

That night, Ford told Fidds about his new project. With his words tripping over themselves, he described his large award of grant money, and the small town in Oregon called Gravity Rises that had rumors of supernatural happenings. "We can go and study something no one has ever studied before!"

Fidds blinked. "We?"

Ford nodded, a huge grin on his face. "Yes. Do you want to join me? Do you want to be research partners?"

Fidds didn't know how to respond. "That — that sounds great!"

"So you'll come?"

He hesitated. "I-I'm not sure. I wanna, but. . ."