1
Travis, Kennedy, and Lizzie thoughtfully mulled over their Gettysburg battlefield experiences, including the multiple outcomes for the Black and Kennedy soldier personalities.
This wasn’t the end of things, was it? they asked the Man With No Name.
No, he answered. It’s more of a beginning, a continuation.
Why was Black so angry at me? Kennedy asked, as they “returned” to the abandoned missile silo.
“Black was spun up,” the Man With No Name said, “by events of the world in which he was to become a part. The concepts of good and evil — while not inherent to Existence itself, with a capital ‘E’—became inherent to the Human condition, with a capital ‘H,’ and, therefore, Black’s makeup. Because of this belief, other indicators and events were also spawned. Black is not unique in this sense. There are many like him, many situations like his. He is but one version of many ‘Blacks’ and many realities, as you have also just experienced — and of which you are all similarly a part. Mass events take on lives of their own, attract similar events of their own.
“In simpler terms, ‘like attracts like.’”
“So… wereah like Black?” Kennedy asked.
“The mechanics of your existences are, but we each choose the lives we live, go where we need and want to go, for our own purposes. Black, unfortunately, the one we all know, here, is what I’d term an ‘Angry Soul.’
“All physical matter springs from nonphysical sources — frameworks — dreams,” the Man With No Name continued, “the Cosmic Grid you visited — and Black came to be because of specific en mass circumstances. Given his creation, he was also granted a desire to be — just like anything and anyone else. He hadn’t planned on becoming the individual you all know, but that doesn’t excuse him from who and what he is. He was actually spun off from another — someone else — and you, Travis,” the Man With No Name said, addressing Travis directly, “you and your world changed things as part of your business.”
“We did?”
No sooner had Travis spoken the words, when the answer formed in his mind.
“You were all given tasks,” the Man With No Name said, “tasks you thought were to remotely view intelligence data. Since you rarely got feedback or responses from your efforts, you never really knew exactly what you were doing, did you?”
Travis shook his head, his annoyance apparent. “No.”
“Though many of your efforts indeed involved intelligence reconnaissance, many also involved highly secret retaskings from Black himself, who’d gone — unknown to anyone but himself — into the vaults and safes and swapped out many of the tagged and sealed envelopes with his own taskings… retaskings that actually involved changing events in your physical framework. And he did this both physically and nonphysically. When you focus on something, you bring it into being… somewhere.”
Travis again shook his head. “Just goes to show you, you can never trust anything in covert ops.”
The Man With No Name nodded. “That is the very nature of the business. No one really knows who’s doing what to whom. Now… were we to follow the threads of Black’s anger and hatred… as you all did during that battle experience, but also at various times over Black’s life as you know it… you would have seen he cursed our president’s soul. Had we followed this further, as I did, we would have found that he’d vowed vengeance upon Mr. Kennedy and his entire family.”
“But why?” Kennedy asked, “just from that little fight in my study — oh, maybe the appointment interview when I, ah, changed…”
“It’s much more pervasive than that, Mr. President. Those were just symptoms of much deeper, underlying issues. Black had been harboring anger against you across lifetimes. Again, Gettysburg but one example.”
Kennedy nodded.
“You can choose to experience his other instances later, but to summarize, he’s angry that you never gave him the time of day.”
Kennedy looked to the Man With No Name, puzzled.
“Black’s anger is cumulative. He doesn’t consciously know why… but, unconsciously does. Earlier I mentioned he was spun off from another — that other, Mr. President, is you.”
“Me?”
“He is what we’ll call a ‘fragment.’ A fragment of your personality, one that was never given much attention, energy, nor notice… from you. He never quite gained the knowledge or acceptance of himself as his own unique personality, his own unique existence. Always felt inferior and in need of competing for your attention. At times, you, or portions of you, including your current incarnation, have felt the need to beat him back.”
Kennedy shrugged guiltily, grimacing.
The Man With No Name nodded. “Black has been killed many times by versions of yourself, sir, and it is not so much the killing that bothers him, as the way in which Black perceives your careless nonchalance toward him. Deep down, you do understand your ties with him… but have never quite accepted it. It’s always bothered you… you’ve always felt him more of a nuisance than the part of you he is and has always striven to be — like the parents who never wanted to be parents, yet still had to feed hungry little mouths or change poopy little diapers when they could have been out on the town. Your personality has always had a rather monumental… sense of self, let’s just say. Self-importance would be another way of putting it. Sometimes your personality would let itself get in the way and other times not, but on the whole, averaged out across all your entity’s reincarnational personalities, you have taken a rather indignant offense to this little ‘poopy diaper’ of yours crying out for attention! Why should you have to change his diaper, feed his soul. ‘Get your own life!’ you’d cry, ‘change your own damn diaper, and quit trying to steal my thunder,’ you’d admonish. For that reason, Black’s anger has accumulated across lifetimes of denial and inattention — both from you and himself. It constantly fed and reinforced itself until it became as foul as it is. It’s that simple. You should have been as a parent and a sibling, and you were neither. You each knew and know of each other’s presence in each life you’ve lived, yet you both tended to continue literally beating each other to death, rather than take on the much more important and harder task of reconciliation.
“This needs to end.
“You and he both need to resolve your issues, once and for all — or this will continue. You need to better integrate yourselves. You can never advance until you get beyond this. In fact, you have some lives where you actually become brothers, and later, husband and wife—”
“Oh, Lahd,” Kennedy said, “that ought to be interesting…”
“It is!” the Man With No Name said. “Those lives will have an indescribably rich, incredibly tremendous impact upon your soul’s growth and will remedy your situations — if you properly handle and deal with each other.”
Kennedy momentarily re-experienced threads of Black’s anger and the constant re-ignition of his hatred toward him — as well as his own continued indifference and lack of concern. In any way Black could, Kennedy saw, he killed and killed and killed Kennedy’s various personalities, the soul that was John Fitzgerald Kennedy — and, Kennedy (in turn) returned the favor. It was a neverending vicious cycle.
“No wonder people do the evil they do,” Kennedy said. “How do we resolve this?”
“Tackle it head on — but gently. You need to take the lead and confront both of your selves — your own interior issues as well as those exteriorized in the form of Black and all his personalities — and to do so between lives as well as during them. Make amends… in any way possible. In fact, in your remaining lives — and I’m not telling you anything you haven’t already decided upon yourself and already put into action — you actually take the less-dominant roles, to allow him the upper hand. It helps tremendously.”
Kennedy nodded. “It can’t be rectified in this life?”
The Man With No Name shook his head. “Sadly, no, I’m afraid not—”
“Right, I see—”
“It’s actually more than that. As you can see, he’s absolutely seething… and each life, whatever its consequences, has to complete to its logical conclusion. Yes, he will continue to curse and rue your very existence and will continue to plot your deaths… but he will, eventually, lose that energy and hatred when you begin to remove your indifference and resentment toward him. In fact, sir, there is one very real reality where Black foisted his ills and issues upon you,” he said, gesturing to Kennedy, “even had you publicly assassinated. Lizzie picked up on it.”
Lizzie nodded.
“Wow,” Travis said, “it’s like the ultimate conspiracy.”
The Man With No Name nodded. “It is indeed.”
“So, which reality is the real, baseline reality?” Travis asked.
“There isn’t one. All realities are probable versions of each other. It’s just that when your point of focus is in any one of them, it seems like the one, true reality. I’m trying to show you otherwise. Think differently about any so-called ‘rock bed’ reality…
“But, back to our story. Once you, Mr. President, and Black begin to work together, he, as you presently know him, will begin to dissipate.”
“But all realities ahr given free reign,” Kennedy said.
“Yes, they are. But again, as you restructure your thoughts, your feelings toward him, these other realities, though they will always exist, will begin to lose their steam and dissipate from your focus. Remove your focus from those probabilities, and the one you do focus upon will become the reality that the both of you live within.”
2
“… now, actions and events,” the Man With No Name continued, “can either exist as physical or nonphysical expressions — but no matter the medium — either one can just as powerfully and easily affect both physical and nonphysical existences.”
As the Man With No Name continued to speak, accompanying images played out before each of the three.
“When our Black and Mr. President, here,” the Man With No Name said, directing a glance to Kennedy, “began their ‘lesson,’ I came into being. I’ll skip the specific mechanics involved and get right to the more salient. In your world, Black had the people under him performing their work, or ‘taskings,’ as they call it, in changing history — all without their conscious knowledge. As each remote viewer did so, each set up such a psychic storm within them that though they didn’t consciously know or understand what they were doing, they certainly knew and understood unconsciously. Each of them — you,” the Man With No Name said, looking to Travis, “took on your roles for your own purposes, but other portions of each of you were also involved in this setup to help Black… see the errors of his ways. Things were getting out of control. Incredible amounts of angst — translated: energy — were generated by these nefarious and oftentimes downright evil acts. Each became psychically and metaphysically frustrated, and it was near impossible to break through into your consciousnesses, because Black knew what was going on. He had planned for it and was actively blocking any attempts by you and your team to break free of the hold he held on you. Well, ‘blocking’ is a poor choice of words… let’s say, redirecting. He thought he was blocking your efforts, but what he was really doing was actually only choosing to focus in on the reality he wanted. It didn’t negate other realities, just blinded himself to them. Anyway, this, unknown to him, gave me all kinds of room to grow. He just didn’t know that no matter what you did, once you spun something up, it continued to create as long as there was some kind of energy directed toward it. As I said, no focus, no directed energy and intent, and an event will continue on only as long as that energy it does have is enough to sustain it. Nothing lasts forever in the same form in which it exists, and everything does, eventually, change. Where that energy goes is subject for other discussions.
“So, what does happen is that there are eventual ‘bleed throughs’ that occur from the nonphysical realms. In addition, Black couldn’t possibly plan for everything, as much as he thought he could. Efforts in the nonphysical realms routinely sneak through cracks in realities — which explains, Travis, your Buddy LaRouque in the restaurant, et cetera.”
“We were trying to get through to each other,” Travis said, mulling it over. “I mean… I kind of figured that was going on, but was so mired by current events I didn’t see the deeper meaning…”
“Quite all right. Buddy’s good with it. But it gets better. As I stated… I came into being. Not that it’s a real concern of this instant, but do you all realize — right this moment — that you’re not actually… physical? Each and every one of you… is dreaming.”
The Man With No Name smiled, looking to each person in turn.
“Realize… that right this moment… each of you are dreaming. In fact… some of you… are downright — in your terms — dead.”
“No way—” Travis said.
“Good Gawd,” Kennedy said.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” Lizzie said.
“The dream world is every bit as real as the awake one and in more ways than your race can begin to imagine — we’re just not used to being as conscious of it. There are events that we feel are real… but, in reality, have never occurred in a physical world, yet the physical world swears they did.
“It’s like I said… the dream framework is from where the physical world springs, so it’s not that far of a reach to understand that channels overlap — like analog TV or radio reception. Sometimes one channel will bleed over into another. Most might find that annoying or confusing, but I’m saying pay attention to those annoying or obtrusive thoughts… try to figure out what they are… where they’re coming from, and what they’re trying to say, crazed ax-murderer cravings notwithstanding, of course!”
“Okay, so, does that mean—” Lizzie began.
“My dear lady — all of you — I am nothing more… than a figment of your imagination.”
The Man With No Name disappeared.
Where are you? all three mentally asked.
I am not and am right here! the Man With No Name said, not yet materializing.
I am everywhere.
The Man With No Name rematerialized, standing behind them. “This is nothing each of you has not already done in your earlier field trip, as it were — it’s just that where you are, in one reality, I have never been, nor will ever be, physical — yet I am based upon the concept and even give it new meaning, new paradigms, with my existence.
“With all the psychic frustration building around the misguided circumstances our Mr. President and Victor Black created, the rest of you — including you, Lizzie — created a workaround to help correct things. That workaround was me. Each of you created me… in the dream world.”
“That’s why he could never find you!” Travis blurted. “Friggin sneaky!”
“But — you were so real,” Kennedy said.
“Oh, I am, Mr. President — just not in the sense you’re requiring of me. Events and individuals that exist in the human experience can either be physical or nonphysical. A human personality… or an earthquake. An earthquake is a symptom of underlying phenomenon. It can choose to take effect either as a psychic upheaval or a physical one — or both. It depends upon many factors. For me, it was unconsciously decided among Travis and the others that it would better serve events if I remained disembodied, and I must say I agreed wholeheartedly with the decision,” the Man With No Name said, smiling. “After all, to be physical, I would have to have been born into the world, and I much prefer the latitude I currently enjoy to that of being physically constrained!
“And, in order to pull this off, I had to be the most real dream image ever. So I popped in and out of all of your lives as I did and could to better facilitate things. Confuse things—”
“Well, you certainly did that,” Lizzie said.
“However, in creating me,” the Man With No Name continued, “you also spun up parental images — not a huge leap, given your physical existence and concepts — which also played along in further spoofing our Mr. Black. It added yet another level of confusion to Black and our operations.”
“But the killing of that family,” Lizzie said.
“Yes. Unfortunately, however, they did exist in your physical terms and were murdered. I did my best to interrupt things, but Black kept an extremely close guard on that scenario. He was extremely proud of that operation. They originally began in the nonphysical realms, but accepted the ‘expansion’ of their roles into physical existence for their own reasons, and the rest, as they say, is history. Again, it further complicated issues for our Mr. Black. However — since all time is now, and there are a myriad of probabilities, the family does currently exist elsewhere — in other probabilities they were not murdered.”
“What about Joe?” Lizzie asked.
“As I’m sure you will now experience, Joe was a part of this operation. Like the family about which I just spoke, he also willingly accepted his role.”
Lizzie searched out the construction-accident thread.
“What the—”
“It’s true,” Joe said, standing beside her.
Lizzie threw her arms around him.
“It was all for you,” he said, smiling. “It was needed on many levels, and I thought, ‘what the hell’ exactly. There’ll be other lives…”
“Damn you!”
Joe smirked guiltily.
“What about Mel?” Travis asked.
“Yeah, what about him? How is he? And who is he?” Lizzie asked.
“Mel… was a multilayered, nonphysical plant of mine — of me. Mel was my attempt, through my own direct creation, to additionally throw Black off the trail. As I came into being, I threw out different versions of me, so that at least one of us could take root and grow, if others were discovered and ‘neutralized,’ to borrow the industry-standard term. One who was to become who I was supposed to be, were I outed. Mel was a partially materialized me, purposely incomplete and confused to further perpetuate the scenario and obfuscate Black should he — Mel — be found, which he was. In one very probable reality, ‘Mel’ was found and hired by The Center — Black — as part of the remote viewer team… part of another covert project known as ‘Delphi,’ but all in a different probable dream world that Black never suspected. That version of me was later hunted down and ‘neutralized,’ as it were. There are and were others like him elsewhere. Black, like everyone else, also has his nonphysical versions, and it was one of those who ‘killed’ Mel. This younger version of Mel, however, in being tortured and killed like he was, gave further credence to everything else we’d put into place, including Black’s murder of that family a generation earlier. Incidentally, Lizzie, it was through Mel’s eye’s you were looking when you initially had the dream about that family’s murder, and Black ‘shot’ you in the face. It was through that dream that keyed Black into your and Mel’s existences. How you became ‘important’ to him.”
“Huh,” she said, still looking to Joe.
“Good Gawd, this is all so damned complicated,” Kennedy said.
“Perhaps, but it’s not quite finished. As I said, Black still has to live out the rest of his life, his energy — which, it turns out, won’t be all that long, by your standards. As he correctly surmised, he did piss of the intel community, and the community does hunt him down. We all die as we live.
“And, there is one… more… thing.”
“Yes?” Lizzie said, smiling as she remained within her husband’s embrace. She and the others heard a suddenly childish chorus of playful laughter.
“My children!” Lizzie exclaimed.
“You may not realize this,” the Man With No Name continued, “but in your physical reality, you all died when that Learjet crashed. All of you, that is… except one. But since you have all learned from your experiences, you can now focus on other realities. Things have, indeed, changed from all this… new realities have been created. New worlds. It’s time, whenever you’re ready, for you to continue on with what each of you has started — to see it to the fruition you all deserve after your last escapade.
“Are we ready?”
Kennedy, Travis, Lizzie, and Joe looked to each other.
“And you’ll all be much closer to each other in all of your existences than you could ever have imagined — because of this.”
“What about you?” Travis asked the Man With No Name.
Thanks for asking, but I’ll continue to exist like everything else — as long as there is enough sustainable energy — a need — for me to exist, I will. Believe me, I have plenty I want and need to do! There’s so much out there, and I’m looking forward to experiencing as much of it as possible — along with whatever happens when I choose… to alter my state. All time is now, remember that; remember what you’ve all just experienced. In a very real sense I’ll always exist — just as each of you will!”
But what about the—
(children?) Lizzie mentally finished.
Bless the children, the Man With No Name psychically whispered…
And they all disappeared.
3
Ring around the rosie,
A pocketful of posies,
Ashes! Ashes!
We all…
Grow up.