21 Jan Chapter Eight: Photos

Tim, Ted, Joe and Mary are still having a conversation at the abandoned house. The light from the sun piercing through the few windows illuminates the room in a magnificently bleak way.

Tim says, “Now, now, settle down everyone. I’m not here to cause a disturbance. I’d just like to speak with you all…”

Mary replies, “Tim. There is nothing more to talk about, other than that you need to leave Jay alone and allow him to continue on his path…”

Tim takes a seat on the ground next to them and says, “Why should I do that? Why do you all insist on protecting him?”

Joe calmly, but with a stern tone of voice replies, “And why are you so pressed on destroying him?”

Ted adds, “We’ve had this conversation a painstaking amount of times, Tim. He’s not here to cause any sort of harm, if anything, he’s helping people.”

Tim takes a second to contemplate before responding and then says, “Look. It’s not just me okay, I’m getting a lot of pressure from other people and –“

Before Tim can finish his sentence, Five soldiers enter the house, the same ones that took the photos at Jane’s house; armbands with the Seahorse logo, blank faces and militant uniforms. They are holding the photos they took and walk over to Tim, one of them says, “I think you need to see these Tim.”

Tim takes the photos and looks through them; he appears to be dumbfounded and puzzled. He shows them to Ted, Joe and Mary, and then says, “Have you all ever seen this before?”

They look through them and appear to be equally puzzled. Mary responds, “No, I have not. What are these?”

Tim responds with a sense of annoyance, “They took these photos at Jane’s house… where Jay has been staying…”

Mary flips through the photos some more then says, “How come some of the photos show the door, the elevator, the stairs and some of them don’t?” She then closes her eyes.

The soldier shrugs his shoulders and says, “I don’t know. We took all the photos at the same time…”

Ted stands up and paces around the room, “I’ve never seen that before, it appears he’s unlocked a –“

Tim abruptly stands up angrily, turns to the soldiers and yells, “Bring me the girl with the light bulb tattoo!”

—

Meanwhile; back at Jane’s house…

Jay is lying down on the couch with his eyes closed, thinking about everything that had just happened and carefully meditating about how he should proceed forward.

With his eyes closed he hears a soft sound and then his view turns into a text-like projection.

Jay sees the following:

Mary: Jay, are you able to see this?

Jay concentrates further and realizes he is able to respond.

Jay: Yes, what is this Mary?

Mary: Wow. You really are stronger than I thought. I don’t have much time to speak, but I saw the photos; it’s a tempo… and you need –“

Before Jay can respond he hears Jane’s voice yelling, “Jay – now is not the time to be sleeping!” and he opens his eyes. Jay appears to be a little annoyed, but says to Jane, “I’m just going to pick one and see what happens.”

Jane replies, “See what happens? Jay… soldiers, with no faces, just barged into our house… that isn’t strange to you?”

Isabella adds, “Yeah Jay… that’s insane… why are you so calm?”

Jay gets up from the couch, looks at Jane and Isabella then says, “Stop.” And he walks over to the engraved door. He reaches for the doorknob, but it turns into a triple beam scale and the following words appear on the door: Balance is the key.

Jay tries to push down on the scale, but it doesn’t budge. He then picks up the medallion from off of the floor and puts it on the scale; it still doesn’t move.

Jay immediately walks outside of the house, to be alone and seriously ponders about the newly faced conundrum. Jay decides he wants to clear his mind and get some writing done so he takes a seat at the patio table located outside. As he opens his notepad, one of the pages is taken by the wind and falls into a pile of leaves. Jay makes a subtle observation: All of the leaves are different shapes, sizes and color hues, yet they have all fallen from the same tree.

Jay closes his notepad, picks up his piece of paper from the leaves and walks back inside Jane’s house. He walks over to the engraved door and places that piece of paper on the scale. The scale moves a little bit.

Jay turns around and says to Jane, “Can you get all of my notebooks and writings that I have here?”

Jane appears slightly confused, but agrees to the request and says, “Let me see if I can find them… Jay, I’ve told you many times to keep all of your writings in one, organized place….”

Isabella opens up her purse, takes out a few pieces of paper and says, “Jay, I have some of your writings too – here.” And she hands them to Jay.

Jane gives a subtle eye roll to both Jay and Isabella then walks out of the room to look for Jay’s writings.

Jay looks at Isabella and says, “You keep some of my writings in your purse?”

Isabella smiles, “Yes. I keep everything you write to me, always with me.”

Jane returns to the living room holding several of Jay’s notebooks, hands them to him and says, “This is all I could find right now… why do you need them anyway?”

Jay thanks Jane, takes the notebooks and places them on the scale. Again, the scale doesn’t move. Jay appears to be perplexed and a bit frustrated, so he walks back to the couch, takes a seat and closes his eyes. The word ‘tempo’ keeps entering his consciousness.

After a few minutes, with his eyes still closed, Jay speaks, “Hey, Isabella, if I asked you to pick a number between one and ten, what is the first number that pops in your head?”

Jane is not amused and says, “Why didn’t you ask me?”

Jay sighs, “Jane, please, not right now…it’s for a reason.”

Isabella promptly responds, “Seven. That’s my lucky number. Why do you ask?”

Jay immediately stands up, walks to the kitchen, opens a drawer and takes out a brand new composition book. He takes a seat at the kitchen table and begins to write:

1. In order to understand balance, one must have been pushed down many times, but each time, never gave up, got up and became stronger, wiser and most importantly, more sincere.
2. Pain is too simple of an emotion to cope with because it is never temporary.
3. When people are given the choice to do good or to do evil, most will select either-or options, equally. The reason for this, I am not sure.
4.  People typically make promises that they know will be difficult to keep. It’s almost a clever way of setting challenging goals for one’s self.
5. People become impatient when they know there could possibly be an easier, less frictional route. With integrity, this can start the process of innovation.
6. Those who are easily frustrated have allowed their own self-awareness and self-worth to slip away from them.
7. People who feel like they know everything have absolutely no knowledge; for they are incapable of understanding and admitting faults. There is a difference between knowledge and intelligence.

Jay takes the piece of paper out of the notepad, confidently walks over to the scale and places the paper upon it. The door opens.

—

Back at the abandoned house the soldiers re-enter the room pushing Littea into the house and sit her down on the floor. Tim walks over to Littea with the photos, holds the out to her and asks, “Where have you seen this before?”

Littea responds, “I have never seen that before… why would I? And why am I here? You can’t just barge into my house and force me -”

Tim interrupts her and firmly says, “I think you’re lying to me Littea…Now where have you seen this before? Think.”

Littea responds with a scared emotion, “I swear…”

Before Tim has a chance to respond, they watch as the photo changes into moving, chronological slides, depicting Jay opening the door and walking through it.

—

To Be Continued In Chapter Nine.