Episode II – Session I - Explanation
Episode II – Session I - Explanation
Guyzell raised an eyebrow quizzically and gave the unconscious man a once-over without approaching him. He was in decent health, probably not an athlete, but not suffering from any apparent illness. Probably in his late twenties or early thirties, Middle-Eastern descent, and dressed like a well-off college student with a hefty backpack. Something about him looked familiar, but Guyzell could not quite place it. He didn’t think he had met the gentleman before; because he was sure he would have remembered the man’s cologne, which even from almost ten feet away, Guyzell could smell alarmingly well.
Before Guyzell could get a closer look, Crystal snapped her fingers. Guyzell looked up as Crystal pointed to Joe, saying, “Hey, Joe, do you still have that photo of the Ward Society? You know, the Class of 1924?”
“Yeah…why?” Joe asked, already fishing into his backpack for the book.
“Let’s see it. I have a hunch,” she answered, as she moved to look at the book. Joe flipped open the book to the correct page and set it down on the table. They both looked at the picture, and both nodded at the same time. Guyzell walked over and looked at the photo himself while Crystal announced, “Well, out little unconscious friend is in the club.”
Guyzell looked at the photo where Crystal was pointing. Sure enough, next to the eerie antique photo of himself and Willie and the others, there was the middle-eastern man, dressed in the same period clothing and grinning foolishly. Guyzell scanned the photo again. There were a dozen people in the picture, counting Willie and the others. Adding in the middle eastern man on the floor, there were still six strangers in the photo. No, wait…five strangers. Guyzell pointed at one of the men in the back of the photo, “And so are you, sir.” He nodded to the new librarian standing there with the group.
The librarian answered in a Scottish deadpan, “Ma name’s Taylor. Taylor Dennesy. And I’m not a swinger, iffin’ that’s what you’ll be looking for.”
Crystal picked up the photo to get a closer look while Joe walked over to check out their unconscious new ally. Guyzell responded wearily, “It’s not that type of club, Mr. Dennesy, and…wait…you’re name’s Taylor too?”
Joe answered while squatting over the unconscious man, “Jeez, preacher, keep up. We’ve already been over that.” He pulled a pencil out of his pocket and poked the man in the ribs, asking him. “Hey, dude…wake up…I think someone is stealing your slushy…” Crystal sighed and walked over to check the poor man out for herself.
Guyzell rolled his eyes at Joe and turned back to Taylor, as Taylor asked, “I dinnae folla ya…what is this club you’re talking ‘bout?”
Guyzell shrugged, “Well, to be honest Mr. Dennesy, We’re not real sure ourselves.”
Joe piped in from behind Guyzell, ‘It’s not a club…I mean, yes, it is a club. And there’s a fifty dollar membership fee. I’m the treasurer.” Crystal popped him on the back of the head and squatted down to examine the man.
Willie interrupted him, asking Taylor, “Have you had any dreams lately? Like, really weird dreams?”
Taylor’s eyes tightened and he nodded, “And how would ya be knowin’ that?”
Willie shrugged and grinned, “I’m a black private eye. It’s my job to know.”
The sarcasm seemed lost on Taylor at the moment. “Well, aye, I have had such dreams lately. And all a ya have been in ‘em. Started, maybe, two months nigh.”
Willie nodded mournfully, “Well, as it happens. Our membership has just opened up.”
Joe turned back to Willie and the others, “Hey, can we maybe concentrate on the dead middle eastern guy here?”
Crystal snapped irritably, “He’s not dead. He’s just passed out. Here, help me get him up into a chair.”
Joe shook his head and backed away, raising his hands. “Nope, sorry…you don’t know…could be SARS.”
Guyzell shook his head, “Joseph…never mind. Here, Crystal, I’ll help. While we’re doing that, Mr. Dennesy, how about you tell us about your dream?”
Taylor glanced at Guyzell, then over at Willie then back again at Guyzell. Apparently he decided he didn’t need to feel foolish over sharing his dream with a group of strangers in such strange circumstances, because he launched into his story without further hesitation.
“I’ve been ‘aving these dreams nigh, for maybe two months. Different dreams each time, but always with you lot in them….Dreams of…violence…of gunfights and car chases and uh…monsters…and at one point, of an old man dressed like a cowboy…But always with you lot in the dreams…”
Crystal helped Guyzell heft the sleeping man into the chair. He seemed to be coming around. At the mention of the cowboy, she nodded, “Hal Runyon…that’s the cowboy.”
Taylor set his books down on the table and stared at Crystal. “What…you lot have dreamt all that too? You’re saying I was in your dreams?”
Joe nodded solemnly, “Yeah, except you were a little Chinese girl.”
Willie nodded and put on a friendly grin, while bending down to peer at the unconscious Middle Eastern man. “Ignore him, bro. Let’s make a long story short. Magic is real. Tied to medallions. Lots of bad people in the world. We’re the good guys.”
Joe countered, “Don’t listen to him, Taylor,” while nodding and using his finger to trace a circle around his temple knowingly.
Crystal brushed her hands off after positioning the unconscious man as best she could in the chair. “It’s sometimes best to ignore both of them, Taylor. Willie here has a gift for understatement, and Joe is…well, Joe is an idiot.”
Taylor made no attempt to hide the confusion on his face at the moment, but Guyzell could see that at the same time, he looked relieved somehow. It took a second for Guyzell to place it, then he nodded to himself. Taylor was displaying the increasingly familiar so-at-least-I’m-not-crazy face, which it seemed was almost a trademark with this group. “Welcome aboard, Mr. Dennesy.”
Taylor shook his head to clear it, then finally focused his attention on the unconscious man in the chair. “I dinnae recall dreaming of this fella. Do you lot know him?”
Willie leaned in and studied the man’s sleeping face for a moment. “No, and I think I would have remembered that cologne.”
Joe finally leaned in again and began rapping on the poor man’s head with his pencil, “Hey, dude…wake up wake up wake up!”
The man started to come around. He winced from the blows from Joe’s pencil and snapped his eyes open, yelping, “Please to quit hitting me please!!”
Joe kept tapping on the man’s forehead until Guyzell snatched the pencil out of his hand. He spoke soothingly to the man in the chair, “Now calm down, friend---”
The man yelped again as he looked back at Guyzell, “YOU! You were in my dreams!” Then he turned to Joe, “And you too! You are here and you are alive!”
Guyzell nodded to the man. It amazed him how much craziness he had come to accept when he was with this group. “And so are you, friend. We’re all here and we’re all alive. Everyone’s fine.”
The man continued, still clearly bewildered, eyes as large as saucers as he looked at Willie, “And you Mr. Black Man!” Then turning to Crystal, “And you…hello! You are a very attractive woman!”
Crystal took a step back and raised a hand, “Keep away from me.”
Guyzell interceded, “Alright now, let’s everyone calm down.”
Joe jumped in, “She’s mine, dude, back off.”
Guyzell wondered if it were possible to strain yourself, seeing how hard Crystal rolled her eyes. He sighed and waved his hand in front of the Middle Eastern man’s face to get his attention again. “Alright, friend, how about we start with introductions, and you tell us about these dreams you’ve been having, huh? Nice and slow.”
The man nodded and swallowed. He took a deep breath and stood up shakily beside the chair before launching into his story. “My name is Kumars Ghandahari. I…I had many dreams about this place…and you were all here, and I could not stand it any longer and I had to come see for myself and you are here!” He stammered, and scanned the room again as though making sure it was all real. He started lightly hopping from one foot to the other as he continued. “But…it was a dream and it was so real! So I had to come here to see! And you are all here!”
Guyzell nodded. He realized idly that somewhere out there, if the photo was correct, there must be five other people that he might one day have a similar conversation with; who were all having similar dreams. He wondered for a moment after that if he would even live to meet them all. He focused back on the present. “So, Mr.…Kumars…first off, you can calm down. We believe you. Now, how long have you been having these dreams?”
Kumars stopped hopping for a moment, perhaps surprised by the question. He looked off for a moment, counting in his head. Then he resumed his hopping. “I am thinking eight weeks I have been having these dreams.”
Guyzell nodded at the confirmation, “I think I’m noticing a pattern here.” He looked over Kumars again for a moment, who continued to hop from one foot to the other. “Um…the bathrooms are right back th--”
“THANK YOU VERY MUCH SIR!” Kumars barked, before dashing of to the bathroom.
Guyzell sighed wearily, and turned back to Taylor, who continued to look bewildered, but who was clearly handling it better than Kumars. Guyzell turned a chair around and sat down at the table. He motioned to Taylor to join him, “Sit down, Mr. Dennesy. When he gets back, we all need to talk. We have a few things you might want to hear…”
