Chapter 2

 

The shrill noise of the ‘beeper’ broke Lamar’s concentration. “Damn,” he swore softly, touching his neck where the razor had nicked. He enjoyed shaving with the old fashioned straight razor, his only legacy from his renegade father. He picked up the machine and was slightly surprised at the telephone number on the small display. He recognized it immediately, ‘looks like another dry baptism’, he thought. He casually dressed and went down stairs and into the kitchen. His wife, Doreen was at the stove and the twins, now 4, were at the table arguing over which power ranger was tougher. ‘I wish she wouldn’t let them watch that show’ he thought, ‘It’s much too violent, even if they are “the good guys” .’ The baby was cheerfully beating on his highchair with a large wooden spoon.

He stood in the doorway savoring this domestic scene for a moment, then walked up behind his wife, gave her a hug and nuzzled her neck. “No time for breakfast this morning, Sweetie, I have to go to work after all.” Patting her behind, he teased, “You guys will have to have fun without me today.” Doreen turned to face him, “Again? Well, I guess that’s the hazards of owning your own business. Give me a big kiss first !”.

Lamar gave the little ones a pat on the head on his way out and thought what a lucky guy he was. He backed the Suburban down the driveway, drove to a phone booth two miles away and called the number. The voice on the other end stated, “Wendover, Silversmith, check in and we’ll be in touch.” As usual there was no time for a response. With a shrug of his shoulders, Lamar sauntered back to the Suburban, opened the back, and lifted the lid on the compartment he had added underneath the back seat. Methodically, he checked the contents of the large case inside. Everything looked fine, he was always prepared. ‘Lamar the boy scout’, he thought with a smile, as he locked it back up and drove west into the cold foggy morning. Doreen really didn’t mind Lamar’s haphazard work schedule. Although she sometimes wished he had a regular 8 to 5 job, like the other husbands in the neighborhood. Being his own boss was important to him, and he was a good provider, considerate, interested in the proper raising of their 3 children (soon to be 4 if her suspicions were correct), and active in the community. She was glad she had taken her family’s advice and waited for the right man, a man who had served as a missionary for the Church, a man with real family values. She loved Lamar and her children very much. She knew how lucky she was to have such a good marriage. Especially when it seemed as if all her friends were getting divorced.

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Don checked the gas gauge and was glad he never let it get below the halfway mark in the winter. Still, he would have to stop for gas around Tooele. As he headed onto the interchange he noticed the storm had let up a little and the snow was becoming slushy. Pictures of Gaf and Molly drifted in and out of his mind as he puzzled over what could have happened to Gaf. ‘How could he be missing? They always kept such close tabs on each other. ‘ He remembered teasing Gaf when he would talk to Molly over their amateur radios when she was only a few miles away grocery shopping or at the mall.

As he turned on I-80 west he flipped on the radio.

The sound of Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman” turned his thoughts to the girl he’d rescued this morning - Juniper. A spunky lady! Maybe it was time for him to accept a woman in his life again. ‘I’ll definitely get in touch with her when I get home’, he thought . He began to sing along with the music as he tapped his fingers on the steering wheel.

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The phone call to Don, seemed to relieve some of Molly’s feelings of desperation and isolation. She wasn’t sure what to do next. She had done everything she was able to do at this point. Hoping to find some clues about what happened to Gaf, she drove back to their last camp site. She knew it was pointless, but she had to do something. The events of the last four days played in her mind like an endless loop.

“Just calm down and start at the beginning, ma’am”, the sheriff had said to her the next day. So Molly began to tell her story, again…..

” There was a wide spot in the road in a beautiful forest of Joshua trees. We just had to stop for a while, it was so beautiful.

Where? Well, about 18 miles or so outside of Rachel. We had passed the “Black Mail Box” everyone talks about, but we were bored with UFO watching anyway and decided to just go home. Home? Arizona…Well, we don’t have a street address, we just live anywhere we decide to. We’re on the road full time. Anyhow, we stopped to enjoy the scenery and I went into the trailer to make coffee. Gaf decided to walk around a little….(G.A.F., Gaf) I watched him for a few minutes and he waved - this little cute wave thing that he does.

When I looked up again, he was gone.”

It was useless to argue with the Sheriff any longer. When Don arrived he would help her. ‘Sure, help me do what?’ she thought, ‘wander around in the desert some more?’ She couldn’t quite believe the events of the past week herself, how was she going to explain it to him?

Molly stared at the hole in the ground remembering.

She had lost track of the people she had talked to and the number of times she had tried to explain in a calm and coherent manner the details of what happened that day. How she had left the trailer and began calling his name, walking around searching until she had come here and found his Shaman’s staff lying on the ground across this hole ‘He probably tried to hold on to it for a while’ , she guessed. Feeling the tears welling up in her eyes again, she leaned on the staff for a moment, then turned and walked briskly back to the truck.

Now, the authorities had some strange idea that she and Gaf had been arguing, the people in Rachel gave her odd looks when they thought she wasn’t looking. To top it all off, the U.S. Government was also becoming involved because someone was missing in ‘Area 51’. Molly was unaware of the eyes that watched her as she drove back to town to wait for her friend Don.

Totally exhausted, Molly arrived back at her trailer flopped onto the bed and quickly fell into a deep sleep. She began to dream of a dark room with an earthy odor, a cave maybe? As if in slow motion she floated down a tunnel and began to see images. Cobwebs floated around her like shredded gauze curtains blowing in a breeze. ‘Strange, for a cave’, she thought. She had no sense of her body and drifted with the cobwebs. A bright light appeared above her like a giant spotlight. She looked below and saw what at first seemed to be a child’s doll, disjointed on the cave floor. Gradually the floor rose up towards her. She could now see the face of an old bearded man. Startled, she awoke and began to sob, her body began to shake. She knew it was Gaf; dead and broken.

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‘What a piece of crap’ Don thought. ‘A tree in the desert. It doesn’t look like a tree to me.’ He was about 25 miles away from Wendover now and getting hungry. The large casings surrounding the base of the cement tree looked like nut shells, reminding him that he hadn’t eaten today.. He loved nuts, all kinds and reached into the glove box where he kept his stash of smokehouse almonds.

Passing the Bonneville Race Track he decided to stop at the Silversmith for the lunch buffet. The parking lot was quite empty, except for an old puke green Volkswagen bus with pink and orange daisies. “Shades of the 60’s”, he laughed aloud.

Don had been to Wendover many times. Not so much to gamble, but just to be among people. He made his way through the casino to the buffet. The winter season was tough on business in Wendover. The lackluster buffet seemed to reflect the mood of the almost empty casino. In the background, the live music from the stage seemed as depressing as the buffet. Abruptly he turned to leave and bumped into the two strangest men he had ever laid eyes on. They both wore blue hats, and some type of baggy desert coats. Both had hollow-eyed expressions on their faces, 5 O’clock shadows, and a bad case of body odor. At the same time, two men in dark blue suits approached from the side. ‘What the hell?’, he thought briefly, just before being strong-armed into a side elevator. He felt a sharp point in his side from one of the ‘suits’ as the other one wrenched his arm up behind his back. The stabbing pain from the torn muscles made his eyes water. As the doors opened, they ushered him to the right and into one of the hotel rooms. “What in the hell are you doing?” he shouted.

The larger of the two men grabbed hold of Don’s ponytail, yanked his head backward and said, “Shut up or I’ll break your arm off!”

Don’s head was reeling from the pain in his scalp and shoulder. Thinking he was going to be robbed, he said, “Look, if it’s my wallet you want, just take it and go.” Shoving him into a chair, they quickly bound and gagged him.

After what seemed like an hour, the telephone rang.

The smaller man answered, listened for a short time then replaced the receiver.

” Our orders are to bring him to the area alive. We’ll wait until the Salt Lake contact gets here and give him his instructions. He should be showing up any minute.”

As he spoke, there was a soft tap on the door. One of the men looked through the peephole and then opened the door. Lamar strode into the room, looked at Don tied in the chair, and said with a smile, “Is this the gentleman getting baptized today?”

” No”, the smaller man answered, “The orders are that we take him to the ‘site’, unharmed. You take his keys and follow us in his truck.” Then he handed Lamar a picture and said, “The old gal in Rachel is the one you’ll want to see.”

” Thank you gentleman, I’ll be on my way.”

Larmar left the room as abruptly as he had entered.

Both the agents disliked Lamar. They felt they did their jobs, as a soldier would, but they were convinced that Lamar enjoyed killing, often using torturous methods.

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Juniper’s mind began to go over the events of the past few hours in her usual methodical manner. This scene was totally unbelievable! She was unable to find a trace of anything like this happening in her entire life. Things never became misplaced, forgotten, lost or even stolen. Juniper instinctively new the rules of a successful life-how to set priorities in order to achieve the desired outcome.

Friends and co-workers often sought her advice when their life became ‘out of whack’ .

Juniper would explain the importance of clear intentions and follow-through. She didn’t understand how people could let their emotions interfere with the logic of any given situation. Juniper was confident that she would follow this through, find her purse with the necessary codes, and life would return to normal. When she returned home, she would make arrangements for a rental car, call her boss and then, secure in the knowledge that all was in order she would fill her tub with herbal bath salts, put her Kenny G album on the stereo, and soak for an hour or so while sipping a glass of expensive red wine.

Sandy had been chattering about recording her songs at a studio in Orem recently. “It cost me some big bucks, but it’ll be worth every penny”, Sandy said. Juniper loved her friend and her zest for living life to the fullest, but Sandy was a prime example of how a persons emotions could interfere with practical solutions to life. Most people didn’t understand that they were the ones in charge of the sometimes vicious cycle of the emotional Action and Reaction syndrome. ‘Hank seems to be a good stabilizing influence’ , she thought.

The winter-grey mist acted like a narcotic on Juniper’s thinking. Sandy became strangely quiet as she too fell under the spell of the tires humming on the wet road. Hank, who had been occupied with the snow and traffic was also becoming a little drowsy from staring out at the fog. The headlights just seemed to intensify the glare, but without them he would be nearly blind. Seeing an extremely dense patch of fog just ahead, Hank tapped the brake in short repetitions.

“Jeez! I hate to drive in this shit”, he swore.

Out of the fog two men suddenly appeared in the headlights, frozen like startled deer. He immediately pulled over to the side of the road thinking they must be stranded and in need of help.

Surprised by Hank’s outburst, the women became instantly alert. “What happened?” they asked in unison.

Grabbing the flashlight from under the seat he turned to the women and said, “Stay put and I’ll go see if these guys need a hand.”

Turning to face her friend in the back seat Sandy said “What guys? Did you see anyone?”

Juniper looked around and said “No, I think I must have fallen asleep.”

Quietly Sandy said, “I thought I saw something, but maybe I was just day dreaming, or something…” her voice trailed off as she began to thoughtfully chew on her bottom lip.

Juniper was still trembling from the nightmare she had just experienced. With a perplexed look, she answered, “I didn’t see anything.”

Avoiding the questioning look in Sandy’s eyes, Juniper turned to watch the circle of light dancing around in the fog then rolled down her window and asked, “What are you looking for, Hank?”

Climbing back into the car he said, “I’m not sure, I could have sworn there were two guys standing by the side of the road, but there’s not a sign of them now, not even tracks in the snow.” Shaking his head in confusion, he headed down the road.

” Look the fog is gone now!” Sandy exclaimed. “Wendover is just ahead. Are you guys hungry? I’m starved! Let’s stop at the Stateline for some lunch, Hank just loves the buffet. Don’t you sweetie?” she said giving Hank a squeeze.

Their spirits began to lift as they pulled into the Stateline parking lot, got out of the car, stretched their legs, and entered the casino.

Walking past the gaming tables, Sandy remarked that it was a good crowd for this time of day, especially with the storm last night and the fog this morning. “You know sometimes they have to close this road because of weather conditions, fog, wind and stuff?” Sandy rambled.

As they approached the buffet a uniformed employee was changing the sign at the entrance listing the dinner menu and prices. “Are you still serving lunch?” Juniper asked the young man. “No, ma’am, we’ll start serving dinner at 5 O’clock, about 15 minutes from now” he said, looking at his watch. The three travelers looked blankly at him, then at each other.

” Five?” Juniper squeaked, “It can’t be 5 O’clock, we just left Salt Lake about 11 this morning. Even with the fog it doesn’t take six hours to get here! I’m guessing it can’t be any later than one - one thirty at the most.” Then in her most business-like voice said, “Where’s a clock? They never have any clocks around these places!”

Sandy agreed that it was very strange and asked Juniper what time she had?

“That’s another problem you can add to the list!” Juniper squealed, “My watch went dead shortly after we got into your car.”

” Enough of this clock business” Sandy said. “My stomach says its definitely time to eat, NOW”.

Hank wasn’t aware of their conversation, he was staring intently at two rumpled-looking men across the room, they were wearing identical clothing and blue hats. ‘That looks just like the two men I saw standing by the road.’ He thought. Instinctively, he felt drawn to them and started walking across the room.

“Hey Hon!” Sandy said, grabbing hold of his arm. “Where’re you going? It’s time to eat.”

After getting settled at a table with their dinner Juniper grabbed one of the waitresses and asked if she had the correct time. Shaking her head the woman pointed to her wrist, she had no watch. “Oh my God!” Juniper whined, “doesn’t anybody know what the hell time it is?”

” Jeez, Juniper, I never thought I’d hear you swear. You’re always so prim and proper, and now you’re yelling and swearing.”

” The hell with prim and proper”, she yelled, “My life is turning to shit and I don’t even know what time it is!”

Sandy placed a comforting hand on her arm.

“Hon, relax. You know everything will turn out just fine, you just gotta believe it.”

Hank looked at the two women and decided it was time to change the subject. “Did you see those two guys in the lobby? I’m sure they were the same ones I saw on the highway.”

“These guys, again. What guys are you talking about? Have you been into the ‘whacky tabacky’ again?” Sandy chided.

Not giving Hank a chance to answer she pointedly looked at Juniper and said, “Juniper, I don’t know anything about these two guys of Hank’s, but I do know that something happened to scare the shit out of you when we were stopped on the highway. Tell us what’s bothering you, I know it isn’t just the missing time.”

” I don’t know what either of you are talking about” she snapped. “I just need to find out what time it is, damn it!”

Hank looked at Juniper and realized she was coming unglued. With an unusual sense of insight, he said, “I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to get a little spooked. I think something really strange happened on that highway and if you’re not scared, maybe you ought to be.”

” Well, I guess I did have a very strange dream in the car”, she admitted.

Sandy looked at the two of them and whispered,” So did I.”

” Maybe we aught’a talk about it.” Hank suggested.

Sandy agreed with a sigh of relief and asked Hank to go first.

Hank then told them how he saw the two men on the highway and how they just disappeared when he got out of the car. He knew where they had been standing, but there were no footprints, and even though it was foggy, he would have noticed if there was another car on the road. Now these same two guys are hanging out in the lobby. Hank admitted he was spooked, because nobody passed him on the highway, making it impossible for them to arrive at the casino first. He knew there was something strange about the two, and admitted to being drawn to them for some reason. “It’s like I’m supposed to hear something from them and they’ve got this thing they want to tell me.”

He then nodded to Juniper. Juniper lowered her eyes and began to relate in a soft voice the bits and pieces of her dream.

” There was this cave or dungeon with old catacombs in the walls, like a scene from an Indiana Jones movie. Lots of bright lights shone from somewhere above, I was on a chrome table and these little buggy-eyed monsters were poking me with shiny sharp instruments. I couldn’t move and I was screaming. Then Hank stopped the car and I woke up. But, you know what really frightens me now? My stomach still hurts, like it did when I was on that table.”

Juniper looked up at Sandy and Hank. She was sure her friends would think she had really flipped out now.

” I had a dream too,” Sandy said. “In my dream I was in a huge underground cavern. Crystals of all colors and shapes were kind of glowing and pulsing in the walls, like living, breathing rocks. Angels smiled at me and one of them brushed the hair from my forehead like my grandmother used to do. They guided me toward a brightly lit tunnel that was also lined with crystals twinkling like stars.

There was a slight breeze blowing and it smelled wonderful, like the most beautiful flowers you could imagine. You can bet that I sure was disappointed to suddenly find myself in the car back in the middle of the cold-assed fog.”

The three friends looked at each other across their plates of barely touched food. No longer feeling hungry, they rose as one and walked outside into the dark, cold night.

Sandy suggested that she drive so Hank could rest awhile. Hank estimated, after looking at the map, that it was about 2 hours to Ely and they would need to drive another 2 hours to the turn off at Warm Springs. Rachel was about 55 miles out of Warm Springs. Sandy pulled in at a station to gas up. As she drove back onto the highway the panorama in the rear view mirror reflected the bright lights of Wendover and two figures standing right behind her car. Startled, she rubbed her eyes and looked in the mirror again, the figures were gone. Shrugging her shoulders and tossing her head she pushed on the gas pedal and headed south on Alt. 93.

Sandy saw a sign telling her that the town of McGill was just ahead. Hank had been resting with his head against the window and Juniper had been dozing off and on. Slowing down she pulled into an ancient gas station.

“Let’s get out and get some coffee, Guys!” Hank filled the gas tank as Juniper and Sandy headed for the ‘ladies room’. Inside while they were getting coffee and ‘road food’, Juniper poked Sandy in the ribs and gestured toward a sign on the wall, ‘THANK YOU FOR HOLDING YOUR BREATH WHILE I SMOKE’, it warned. “Cute sign,” Sandy said to the clerk. “Where can I get one of those?” The middle aged clerk began to speak, a cigarette dangling from his lips precariously, “me and ‘The Wife’ noticed it hanging on the wall in a small cafe over in Rachel called the ‘Lil Ale Inn’. People go there to look for space ships, you might have seen it on TV? Well, they took it off the wall and made us a copy. Where’re you folks headed?”

Juniper’s face turned a little pale. Sandy paid the man and said as they walked out the door, “Why we’re going to Rachel, of course!”

The travelers felt revived after the brief break.

Sandy was almost afraid to look in the rear view mirror as they got on the road again, she let out her breath as everything looked OK. After a few miles she began to sing one of the songs she had written recently.

“You know,” Juniper interrupted, munching on the last of the Twix Bar she and Sandy had shared, “The candy bar was great, but the missing time is making me nuts!”

Sandy smiled, “You must be feeling better.

Wasn’t that a funny coincidence the guy back there mentioning Rachel? I can’t wait to tell my dad about that sign.”

” Not to change the subject, but,” Juniper interjected, “I still don’t know what time it is.”

Sandy flipped on the radio and said, “Lets see if we can get the official time of day.” Two men were discussing the First Lady on a talk show. “Jeez! I can’t believe it! It’s that chubby little rushing wind machine.

I’d rather listen to bugs fart!” she said, quickly turning the dial.

” Oh yes, that’s much better!” Juniper said, “Music to rope goats by!”

In a more serious tone of voice, Juniper asked” What do you really think happened to us out on the salt flats? Do you think there’s a carbon monoxide leak in this old car and we all got gassed?”

” If there was an exhaust leak, wouldn’t we be asleep now?” Sandy replied. “I do have a guess, but you won’t like it.” She paused, “I think we were snatched by aliens.”

” Oh get serious!” Juniper retorted,” You can’t possibly believe that!”

Hank didn’t contribute to their conversation. He knew what was real and what wasn’t. The facts were that they had lost approximately 4 hours and he had seen two men by the side of the road and again at the Stateline.

What he wanted to know was what they were trying to tell him. He thought they had spoken to him when he had dozed off earlier. A few times he had seen them out the window, but when he would turn to look they would disappear. Listening to their conversation Hank said, “I don’t know if they’re aliens, but I just saw those two guys again standing by the sign to Warm Springs. It’s about 5 miles ahead.”

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Lamar gathered the necessary items from the back of the Suburban and got in Don’s truck. He saw a the purse lying on the floor. ‘Don has a girlfriend’, he thought as he efficiently checked the contents. Pulling out the Utah Drivers License, he made a phone call to SSQ headquarters on his cellular phone and was on his way. As he pulled on to highway 93 he passed a slow moving puke green Volkswagen van. “Shades of the sixties”, he laughed.

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Captain Gordon replaced the telephone receiver. He had entered the information into the SSQ computer while he was speaking to Lamar. Now he watched as the information he had entered produced a dossier, complete with photographs. “Nice looking broad”, he said, looking at the picture of Juniper. He thought all the female targets should be ugly, this one was not only pretty, but built like a long legged race horse. Whistling he swaggered over to the fax machine and sent the facts to Utah. Gordon was quite confident that the Utah agents would have her located in no time at all. Juniper Xantopolis was a dead woman, what a waste, he thought. The Captain was not surprised to receive a report within two hours of sending the fax to Utah. The SSQ agents informed him that Juniper and two of her friends, Henry Owens and Sandra Day, were conveniently on their way to area 51. This information was provided courtesy of The Frozen Dog Saloon, whose owner, Chuck, was now in the freezer. The Security Service for the office of Quantum Investigation had maintained detailed accounts of extra terrestrial encounters since the Roswell incident. Under the misguided assumption that alien technology would literally tumble the world economy, the SSQ had actively liquidated any persons they believed to be socially credible witnesses to UFO activity. They had spent years developing phony evidence of extra terrestrial encounters. They would distribute this information to the fanatical fringe and then send investigators to debunk the information. It was relatively easy at that point to have it exposed as a hoax in local newspapers. They had done this enough times that much of the population of the United States were skeptical of all UFO stories.

End Chapter 2