Inter-View

By Neil A. Hogan

According to my doctor, I’ve got Charles Bonnet Syndrome.

Initially, I didn’t believe him, of course. I’m a bit wary of these made-up titles for conditions I’ve never heard of. After all, Asperger’s was created to categorize people who had no social skills, ADHD for children hyped up on sugar, swine flu for just another of the millions of flu viruses that appear every year…

Yes, I’m up on the latest conspiracy theories. It’ll all end in tears, you mark my words, young man. That reminds me of the time…

Oh, back to the story?

Oh, alright.

Well, then the doctor’s pet monkey. Yes, I know, I thought there might be a hygiene problem there, initially. But then, well, then his pet monkey handed me a prescription which wasn’t there, and I began to think the doctor might be on to something.

Doctor John Smith his name was. Nice chap. I think there were twins though. One was listening to my breathing while another was checking my glaucoma.

Oh, didn’t I tell you? Eyesight failing. Happens to all of us eventually, I gather. And I was almost 86 at the time. Good innings and all that. I wear sunglasses now.

So, he said that it was something to do with macular degeneration, and my brain was trying to fill in the gaps of what I could and couldn’t see. But, I explained to him that everything was so clear and in a massive amount of detail. A lot more than I have ever noticed watching HoloTV.

And some images were of things I’ve never seen before in my life.

He said that I’ll need to just ignore these hallucinations. Maybe take notes about them to make me feel better, if I wished.

You know. Don’t go crazy.

So, I left his room and, on the way back, a cow standing on two legs opened the door for me, nodding and winking one big eye-lashed eye, her udder wobbling excitedly.

I had to wonder, had she been one I’d impregnated when I was on the farm?

What are you thinking? Artificial insemination! That’s how you get milk. I had my hand up the backsides of cows for years. You young people don’t know anything.

So, down the path, with little people running about playing on flutes, around the corner and down a dirt track that shifted to cobblestones, then asphalt, then some kind of metallic moving material that seemed to glide me along, before becoming the dirt track again.

I took it in my stride, of course. I’ve dealt with drought, war, torture, death and more. These weird hallucinations weren’t going to drive me crazy.

Oh, no.

But then the spaceship arrived.

Yes, so, okay. Insanity time, right? No such thing as aliens, right? Yeah, you need to read some more, I reckon. There’ll be disclosure one day.

Alright, alright. I’ll continue. Well, it was a huge thing. Probably a mile across. No lights, it was daytime, and it just hovered above me, about 100 feet up.

I looked about and tried to get the attention of the people around me. A weird bunch of people in all sorts of manner of clothing. Top hats, baseball caps, some strange cabling system with a rectangle in front of their eyes. None of them could see me, though. And they certainly weren’t looking up.

The disc came lower, and I thought it would crash against some of the buildings around me, but then the buildings simply vanished, and I was standing on a field. No one about, and the ship floating there, waiting.

Well, I wasn’t going to just stand there if we have visitors. That’s the trouble with you young people today. No manners.

I pulled my hat off and waved it up to the ship. “Hellooo!” I said. “Anything I can do to help?”

A long door suddenly appeared, and extended towards the ground, but I could see that it didn’t quite touch. I’ve done electrical engineering, and could see lots of sparks flying around the thing, so I guessed they didn’t want to earth it. I quickly hopped up onto the bottom rung, and the ramp cushioned me and pulled me up.

There were three of those aliens. You know the ones, everywhere in social media these days. I’d always thought they were real aliens. Turns out they’re deformed humans from an alternate Earth! Well, we had a bit of a chat, and they offered me a job!

Apparently, I was a rare human, capable of seeing alternate realities. I was evolving, moving away from the need for eyesight to be able to see reality in another way. There aren’t that many of us, and the aliens need people like me to guide them between parallel realities.

So, anytime a ship gets stuck in Earth’s EM field, and their AI can’t find a way back, they call on me, or another person nearby that can help. They’re always needing people like me.

I bet you’re starting to realize where your grandparents kept disappearing to, huh, kid. Still listening? Good. You’re wondering why I’m telling you this.

Well, things are a changing on this Earth, and people are evolving earlier. Younger and younger ones able to see the alternate realities around them.

And you’re one of them.

The alternate humans usually wait until we’ve grown up a bit. They reckon we’re still kids until we reach 100, so they got me a bit early. But, now even baby fifty-year-olds are waking up these days. They’re starting to see the separations in reality. See the different frequencies between the parallel Earths.

And that’s why I’m here. You’re the youngest so far. 45 years old. Barely out of the womb.

You’re losing your sight, and a doctor is going to tell you that you’ve got Charles Bonnet Syndrome, and that you’re hallucinating. That you’re not really seeing what you can see. That you’re not seeing your great granddad sitting next to you telling you a story.

I’m here to tell you it’s all true.

You’re seeing me in an alternate chair in an alternate room, right now. Seeing across the parallel realities.

But, I’m 110 now and don’t have much longer. You can take over from me. Easy job, really. I think you’d be perfect.

No, wait. You’ll love it. Travel multiple realities. See all possible past and futures. You’ll have a ball.

No, don’t turn away. I’m real. You’ve got to believe me.

No, don’t take the tablets. There’s nothing wrong with you!

Oh, now you’re fading away again.

Fine.

Yes, Doctor, I know. There’s no one there. I’ll come quietly.