Jane’s consciousness was surrounded by darkness in every direction. Her mind was blind to everything but sensation. The fall seemed never ending. She wanted to reach out with her arms and legs to try and catch something, but she had no sense of them. Only her mind and heart existed in her awareness. She felt her mind become heavy and plunge into the abys. She could feel a flutter in her chest like a butterfly caught in the wind.

The fall continued until she was so far from her last moments awake that it became all she knew. It wasn’t until she had forgotten the outside world that the fall slowed and she came to rest.  Jane felt a subtle change in direction. She felt her chest being gently tugged at, wading through the current of a lazy river. Her mind cleared some, but her body was still in a detached paralysis. Her heart was drawn toward the direction of the flow, it seemed to have a force of its own and was pulling her faster than the current was pushing her.

Her river of Ether dissipated into a pool of darkness. In place of her body she felt a warm energy emanating from her chest and flowing out to where her arms and legs should be. She drifted atop a soft current in the pool until she felt the slow rise and drop of adolescent waves. As the waves matured, she felt them as the force pushing her across the surface. The motion soon took on a rhythm that couldn’t be ignored. She floated as the pattern of the waves slowly built up momentum and began to consume her. She took in every sensation as her body was flooded with it. She felt the energy flash through her in succession. She could feel her equilibrium give way. She was no longer floating or falling. She was pulsating. Instead of flashing over her it was flashing out of her. She felt her energy shooting out into the universe around her. Just as the pattern became so fast that she felt like she was going to explode, it ceased with a deafening silence. Her body was her own and dropped into a lifeless fall. She met the bottom and woke.

Jane opened her eyes to the gray light of morning. It was dull yet overwhelming after the darkness she just experienced. She looked at the bottle on the ledge; it stood, inanimate, and returned her cold stare with a reflection of the gray light from the window. She studied it as her dream faded away. Usually the memories of her dreams leave behind the feeling of love in their place, but this dream left only coldness. She could feel a void as it detached itself from her and drifted away from her consciousness.

Jane laid in the bed as she recovered her earthly senses one by one. Once she was whole again she began the mental struggle of filling the void with confidence. She couldn’t recall the dream, but she knew the impact. She knew that there was more to the pattern of the waves than just sitting on this island and waiting for a change. She knew the waves were speaking to her, and she knew she had to respond. She thought how there must be a way for her to interact with it. There must be a way to provoke it. Grounded in confidence and driven by a spiritual force from within, Jane rose and set out with a new sense of purpose.

* * * * *

Harold had no dream to reach for as he woke. He opened his eyes with the feeling that no time had passed at all. He felt a cold emptiness in his mind and soon felt it in his chest when he found that Jane was not there with him. The emptiness gave way to a flash of adrenaline when he registered the brightness in the room and imagined what time it must be. He had to collect Jane and get back to their side of the island. He took a moment to centered himself as his emotions drifted down and settled like the last few flakes of a snowstorm. He got up and went towards the noise that must have been Jane outside.

He opened the door to rainbow of glasses, jars, and buckets – all filled with varying amounts of sea water. It looked as though every type of vessel had been collected from the whole island and gathered here. He saw Jane swiftly moving among them and crouching down to peer inside each one at random. She looked disheveled and frantic.

“Jane, what is all this?”

“The signal”

“What of it? Jane, we were supposed to clear our minds of work. You’ve sunken even deeper into it. What are you doing?”

“It’s not just in the waves anymore. It’s… it’s jumped.”

Everything almost went white as Harold’s pupils dilated with the news. He leapt towards the nearest jar and peered into it. He saw nothing. His head and heart felt heavy as he thought of how he was going to deal with this. He looked over the buckets and the beach, at the waves that were still crashing in their pattern. He looked at a few more lifeless jars of water before speaking.

“It’s still. They are all still. There’s nothing here, Jane. What is this all about? Did you dream something?”

“It was no dream. I saw it. I saw it in the wine last night before you turned off the lights.”

“In the wine that you were drinking all night? You were fast asleep as soon as I hit the lights. You didn’t see any pattern in any wine. You had the wine moving about in your head. Probably too much.”

Jane stopped in her steps at the condescension and beamed a hateful look towards Harold. She knew what she had seen, and it would not be dismissed.

Her tone was flat and serious, “I saw it, Harold.”

He was not going to get her to come to her senses with any logic he knew of. He stood and looked at what must have been hundreds of containers and concluded she was surely in the midst of a mental break. He decided to proceed with caution but still venture down a logical course to bring her back.

“Okay…. You saw it. What exactly did you see? I need your help in understanding because I can’t quite wrap my mind around what you have going on here.”

“The wine. The level of the wine was moving. It started off slow and then took on the pattern of the waves. I know what I saw was real, but the pull of sleep was so strong I couldn’t fight it.  I felt like I was in a river. I watched the pattern as I drifted off – just before you hit the lights.”

“…but what is all this? What are you trying to prove? You look exhausted, how long have you been at this?”

“I’m trying to harness it, Harold. I’m trying to recreate an environment where the pattern will jump again. There must be something to it. Maybe it can appear somewhere other than the ocean under the right conditions.”

“Jane, you need rest. You must have filled hundreds of these things and I don’t see anything in any of them. Please, you’ve done enough here. Take a break. Filling a hundred more of these things won’t do anything but wear you out. If the message wants to be seen it will be seen. You know that. There’s no use in all of this.”

The words penetrated and made her feel heavy. The pattern was only seen when it wanted to be seen. She knew he was right. Experiments in the past proved to be useless in trying to recreate the signal in any way. There was no control over what was happening. Human interaction seemed to be pointless. She let out a sigh and put her arms around Harold.

“I know, I just…I saw it, Harold. It was something new. After all this time here, after so much of the same, it was something new.” She closed her eyes and felt the world spin around her with exhaustion.

“Don’t let it consume you.”

Jane’s mind cleared a little as Harold embraced her. He could feel what little energy she had leaving her body. As he held her he weighed his options. He stood looking at the containers as he thought about last night and how good they had both felt within moments of reaching this side of the island. Even through the jungle he had felt them getting lighter in body and spirit. On the bike he had felt so good that he thought about staying for more than just one night and now he knew for certain that they must. An extended stay on this side would let Jane play out what she had started here and after that they could take a little more time to accomplish what they had set out to do in the first place.

He stood back to free himself from her grip and put his hands on her shoulders, “Listen. Go inside and get some rest. You’re exhausted. Stay here and I’ll go back and get some equipment for analyzing the signal. We can stay here for a little while and set up shop. We’ll do our daily work and keep watch in case any of these containers show signs of movement.”

“Harold.” Jane let out a sigh and looked through his eyes to try and read his thoughts. “Are you sure you want to do that? You won’t get much work of your own done out here. I don’t want to take you away from it. I… I don’t want you to resent me.”

“No… No, Jane, I won’t. I want this.” He thought for a moment, “That’s why we’re here isn’t it? To get away from the routine that was wearing us down? It won’t be so bad. I’ll get a truck and come back with everything we need for research on this side of the island. There’s a half-working radio tower around here somewhere. I’ll get it up and running, that should be enough to keep me busy for a while. Once it’s working we can maintain contact with Bruce and the labs. After that we can decide how long we want to stay on this side. I won’t suffer at all in terms of routine, don’t worry.”

“Harold, this could be something new. Something different. I’m not crazy. I know what I saw.”

He wasn’t too fond of breaking away from his work, but at least he could feel like he was contributing and making progress if he had a working radio tower. He knew Jane was never going to leave if she thought the signal could be anywhere other than the ocean. She was going to stay right here until it happened again – weeks, months – as long as it took. He knew leaving everything behind and joining her was the only way he was going to be with her through all of this. This was his only option.

After another embrace, he pulled back and looked down at her. Small tears were brimming over the edge of her glistening eyes. Nothing had to be said. His head came down and they kissed. He opened his eyes and spoke with is cheek against hers.

“Okay. You’ve done enough here for now. Please get some rest. I won’t take long. Just please lie down for a while until I come back. There isn’t much more you can do until you have the proper equipment.”

Jane pulled her head back to make eye contact, “No.” She wiped away the tears before they had a chance to drop, “I want to come with you. I know what I need and where it all is. There’s no reason for you to go spending an entire day rummaging through old lab equipment. I can sleep in the truck on the way back.”

There was no bargaining with her at this point.

“Alright, but you ­are getting some rest at some point today; we can gather everything to set ourselves up, but no more work today. The work begins tomorrow.”

Jane wiped the last fragment of a tear from her now drying eyes and nodded.

“Where did you even find all of this?”

She looked around and shrugged at the question, “I don’t know – everywhere, anywhere. I was in a bit of a frenzy.”

Harold nodded, “Well, I don’t think you’re crazy. Let’s lock up and head out. We can be back here in a few hours.”

The two fell into a lighthearted conversation as they got ready for another trip on the motor bike. It was a force of habit when leaving this side of the island to put everything back in its place even though they expected to return shortly. Satisfied that their housekeeping was done they made sure the lights were off and the door was sealed. They both mounted the bike and with a kick Harold started the engine. The water-filled containers looked on as the initial white smoke from the exhaust swept over them. Harold and Jane rode up the path to the jungle. Just as they were about to be engulfed by the canopy, the water in all the containers simultaneously reached out towards them. Small waves splashed inside of the vessels then dropped back and went still once the two riders were out of sight.

Next installment: Rats