ALARM CLOCK DAWN (An Original Novel - Episode 46)

In the last episode Johann and a team of five jumped forward in time fifty years to harvest technology from the future. To the surprise of the entire XenTek team they discovered the dire results of their greed and mismanagement of their environment.

The ever-increasing frequency and severity of storms warned had them for years their world wasn’t well but they had no idea that it would be incapable of supporting life in just a mere fifty years. Seeing the destruction of all his family had worked, schemed and connived for was too much for Johann’s psyche to process. For once in his life he was shown, in vivid color, that despite all of the money and power he had acquired in his lifetime he was only a mortal after all.

Welcome to today’s episode of Alarm Clock Dawn! I hope you enjoy it!

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Did you miss Episode 45 of Alarm Clock Dawn? If so click here to catch up.

Are you new to Alarm Clock Dawn? If so click here to start at the beginning.

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CHAPTER 15

Adam was immersed deeply in meditative bliss, enraptured in a vision of a flock of white doves floating gracefully against a background of blue in a beam of sparkling light.

He then felt a sharp pain as he noticed his legs beginning to cramp. He grimaced at the thought of coming back to the consciousness of the physical world and having to leave the perfection of the deepest, most fruitful meditation of his life. He slowly opened his eyes and glanced at his watch. To his amazement, almost ten hours had passed since he first closed his eyes. His mouth was dry as dust and the familiar candlelit room was perfectly quiet except for a faint crackling sound.

“M-my God.” Adam was so surprised at what he saw that he wasn’t even quite sure he said this aloud. Ikeda was on the far side of the cavern sitting with his eyes closed, cross-legged on the floor. He appeared to be concentrating intensely, almost as though he was watching a scene on his own private movie screen. Around his head fluttered several pieces of paper that were carefully folded to resemble a flock of tiny birds. They then landed on a wooden box before him and began to dance.

Adam got up from the floor and started inching towards what he was sure was an illusion. As Ikeda sensed Adam’s approach he, he opened his eyes, and the second he did so, the tiny flock of paper birds fell, lifeless to the ground.

Adam’s curiosity nudged him closer, still not fully believing what he was seeing.

“W-w-what are you—?” was all he could manage to say as he stared in awe.

“It’s okay. I was only passing the time until you were done,” Ikeda explained as he stood up and moved toward him. As he did so, Adam unwittingly took a few steps back. Ikeda seemed much more concerned with the fact that Adam was so upset than the realization that he was caught doing something that, to the unknowing eye, seemed more like sorcery than something that could be physically possible.

“Wait, son. Please don’t be frightened by things you don’t understand. Come over here and sit down.” Ikeda put a slightly trembling hand on Adam’s back. “What you saw me doing here isn’t magic. The impossible is possible if you only believe. This is one of many incredible gifts that lie dormant within every one of us that merely has to be reawakened.” This piqued Adam’s interest and, as always, Ikeda somehow put his mind a little more at ease.

“Here, let me demonstrate,” Ikeda offered as he sat back down on the floor.

Adam took a seat and stared in disbelief as Ikeda closed his eyes and the flock of paper birds began to come to life and take flight again. They circled Ikeda’s smiling face and then, with flapping wings, rapidly flew in perfect formation along the high concave ceiling of the cavern before fluttering toward Adam. The paper birds one by one landed on Adam’s shoulders and began to lightly peck at his cheek as Adam laughed. Ikeda opened his eyes and the birds fell to the ground as they were once again rendered lifeless.

“T-that w-was absolutely the m-most incredible thing that I’ve ever seen,” Adam said, his chest heaving. “Teach me. Please, show me h-how y-y-you did that.”

“In time, son. In time.” Ikeda got an ethereal look in his eyes and said nothing for what seemed like minutes. Adam began to grow uncomfortable in the long silence as Ikeda’s glare strangely seemed to penetrate down to the very core of his being.

“Move closer here beside me, son,” Ikeda said as he patted the rug on the floor next to him.

Adam cautiously scooted across the floor closer to him.

Ikeda began to speak in a soft, even tone. “Take a deep breath. Now close your eyes.” Adam quickly obeyed. Ikeda’s rough fingers were gently placed in the middle of his forehead. Time felt as though it stopped as warm waves of peace again rushed over him. Adam felt as though his body had become completely weightless.

When Adam opened his eyes just seconds later, he felt strangely energized but at the same time perfectly relaxed. Although it was very difficult to explain, something deep inside him felt as though it had been transformed.

“It's your goal to stay within this flow you feel now, to carry this peace that you've now tasted with you always. Now, repeat after me.” Ikeda said sternly. He looked into Adam’s blue eyes, slowly and rhythmically chanting an old familiar nursery rhyme;

“Shy Sly was so shy,
that he would close his eyes
whenever he saw a stranger.”

“No, I can’t, my stutter—” Adam trailed off as he looked down at the ground. This was the first poem Adam had ever attempted to read in front of his elementary school class all those years ago. To this day, his psyche still bore the scars of what happened on that day in Mrs. Bohl’s second grade class.

Over two decades later, he still cringed at the cruelness of being taunted and teased by the other children at school the day he stammered through those dreaded lines of that tongue twister. This was exact moment in time that life became extremely difficult and lonely for Adam, the day he became an outcast in the eyes of his classmates.

Ikeda wrinkled his tiny brow and brushed Adam’s blond hair away from his forehead. “Come on, son. You can do it. You must face this fear you hold, you must have faith in yourself. You have to believe with your whole being. You will be amazed at what you are capable of when your mind is free from doubt. Try again and repeat with me.”

In just a few seconds they both got in synch and began to recite the rhyme together in unison.

“Shy Sly was so shy,
that he would close his eyes
whenever he saw a stranger.”

Adam was amazed as he effortlessly finished the last line without even the slightest stumble.

“But shy Sly, the poor guy,
fell into a hole, why?
He never did see the danger.”

Adam squeezed his eyes closed, the familiar burning of shame purged through his tears of victory. He gently rocked back and forth, hoping the effects of whatever this was would last forever. He repeated those lines over and over, again and again. To his amazement he never stammered, not once.

“You’ve conquered the fear of it, and the stutter shall never again revisit you,” Ikeda said as he waved his hand.

“You’re amazing, Ikeda.”

Ikeda shook his head as he answered, “I’m just a wave in this vast ocean of life, Adam. I’m only a man.”

Adam was then startled by a loud knock on the door.

(All gifs sourced from Giphy.com)

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Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for new episodes of Alarm Clock Dawn! The final episode including a ENORMOUS plot twist will be read by yours truly live at the first annual SteemFest in Amsterdam on Saturday, November 12th.

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Alarm Clock Dawn is the first novel of a trilogy. The sequel entitled, Truth Is Stranger, will be published in the Spring of 2017.

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