Reflections

"We have to be sure that you are telling us the truth." He said. I stared at him, still in a rage, waiting to explode some more. His hand gesture told me that they were compromising. I calmed. "This is a very sensitive situation here Miss Lee. High-level international security. Please understand." I did understand. It was quite clear to me what they knew. These abductions were serious. Contact of the third kind was happening with another species from another world and the rest of our world was still unaware of it. They were guarding against worldwide panic of unmanageable proportions.

"You have been in their presence like many others." The younger man explained calmly. "We know the effects of post abductions clearly. It's up to you Miss Lee. You need to work with us on this."

"How? Tell me what you want me to do."

"First of all, we need you to understand what this means." The older one said, picking up the chair and setting it down beside me. I sat and listened. "Imagine the world finding out that we are in threat from aliens. And believe me, we are."

"Ok. So you people are trying to hide the fact? What does that have to do with me?" As if I didn't know.

"Yes." The younger one continued. "This has been going on now for three decades. Thankfully only a few of us know about it. The aliens are very discreet as much as we are. But one day, they are going to arrive in force. Then every human soul on this planet will find out. Independence Day for real. You catch what I'm saying Miss Lee?"

I understood. I was living every single moment in my own kind of way. "What about my leaps?" I asked. "The 'me' that I am right now could drift at anytime. What do I do about that? I could be at another part of one of my lives at anytime. I have no control."

"We know what is happening to you. We can't stop it. When you are released from here…"

"Yes?"

The older one opened a filing cabinet and took out a folder. He opened it and pulled out a document. He placed it on the steel table before me and handed me a pen. "Sign it Miss Lee. And understand that if you mention one word of everything that's happened to you and this delicate situation, we will end your life for good."

I hesitated. It sounded pathetic, considering I had more than one life. This was just one of many. I looked at them both and then I signed. I realised there was nothing I could do. I was trapped in this chaos and I needed to think about what the 'other' Pamela was trying to tell me. About going back to a life before this entire thing started happening. It was probably the only solution and she had the device that could make it possible. But the Pamela I just met hours before, during the rescue or escape or whatever it was supposed to be, was not the one.

"The other girl who was with me…"

"What about her?"

"She had a device with her. Do you people have it?" They looked at each other knowing what I was talking about. "I need it. It could help me."

"In what way?"

"Remember I told you about this girl I met on one of my time-lines?" They listened. "The device she used. It could help me. I could go back to another dimension and end it all. There might even be a dimension where the aliens themselves have never ventured here. I have to find it. That device will help me escape from all of this chaos."

"Our technicians have already dismantled it. What exactly does it do?"

I could not and did not wish to explain it. It did not matter anymore. Already they could have destroyed it. I kept silent about Pamela and refused to disclose any further information about it. "I've signed your document. Do you need to keep me any longer?"

They gave me clothes and offered me a lift to wherever I needed to go with the strict instructions that I was to be available whenever they needed me. I thought back to the time before my abduction and I assumed that my apartment would still be there.

*****

I knocked on Missus Donovan's door lightly, so as not to wake up the whole block so early in the morning. It took ages for her to answer and when she did she looked at me in shock to see me standing there.

"Oh my gawd! You owe me five months rent! Where have you been?" she asked. She was in her nightclothes and in her sixties. She was the same old Missus Donovan I knew before. "Why did you leave so suddenly? I hope you can pay the rent? I kept your apartment as you left it. The police told me that you might come back one day."

"I'm sorry. I can't explain right now. Do you have a spare key to my apartment…please?"

"Wait. You just can't come back out of the blue like this without telling me. Have you been abroad?"

"Yes, kind of. I will explain and pay you the back rent I owe later. Trust me. May I have the key? I need to rest right now. I've had a really bad day, travelling, and I'm very tired."

She went inside and closed the door. I waited. A minute later she re-appeared dangling the spare keys in front of me. I took them and thanked her, then headed to my apartment up three flights of stairs. There was an envelope pinned to my door and I removed it not knowing what it might be. I didn't care. I just wanted in and to see where my life had left off, last time I was there.

Looking around, the apartment was just as I had left it. There was nothing out of place. Some of the copied photographs I had taken for Steve were scattered on the coffee table. The air was musty, and the place had certainly not been cleaned since the day I walked out. I was home again, in a life that I knew as my own. Or atleast that was what I thought.

I slept for hours until lunchtime. I had no job to go to. How could I after being away for months? I showered and then called Steve at his office number, remembering the circumstances of our last meeting. Someone answered. I asked for him and they told me that he was no longer there. Then they told me what I feared the most…

"Mister Jacobsen was found murdered about six months ago. This office is now in new ownership. If we can help you with any further enquiries, please don't hesitate to contact us." The helpful lady told me.

I replaced the handset. The threats he told me about were real. Whoever they were had carried out their deed and it was clear to me now that I was also in danger. I opened the envelope that I found pinned to my door and read the note inside. It was from a police inspector, dated five months ago, trying desperately to contact me. They must have found a link between Steve and me. I had to think.

I noticed a white card on the floor behind my door that I had overlooked. I picked it up. On it was the address of a pawnbroker shop and the number twenty-four. It was signed, Steve J. I quickly dressed and decided to pay a visit to the address on the card and at the same time try to pick up the back rent I owed Missus Donovan.

I opened the door to my apartment and there stood waiting was the young interrogator. "Going somewhere Miss Lee?" he asked with that gentle smile which was now more of an evil grin. He gently pushed me back inside and closed the door. "I need to ask a few questions. Something came up after we released you last night and you might be able to help us." He reached into his jacket pocket and held up the alien time device in his hands. "I think you asked for this." I looked at it and then at him. "Please co-operate Miss Lee, and it's all yours."

"I'll try my best."

"Good. You knew Steve Jacobsen I trust?"

"I did. Yes."

"No need to visit the pawnbroker shop. We picked up his manuscript months ago. Thanks to your landlady, Missus Donovan, contacting us we were able to match a few things together. We were surprised to find that you were involved with Jacobsen. He was a very very silly man."

"In what way?"

"You mean he never told you? How convenient. You two meeting like you did. He was abducted last year and hours after you met, you also go missing? Come on Miss Lee, you are not telling us everything you know."

"I don't know what you are talking about."

He looked at the device and then at me. "It's yours, if you tell me everything. You are working with the aliens aren't you? You both were. We know. So, as soon as you tell me everything. You can have this so-called device."

"No, you're wrong. I don't know anything." No sooner had I said those words, I felt dizzy and everything around me started to go blurred. I felt as if I was drowning. I could feel my arms fighting against water and…

I gasped and surfaced. I could see Stephanie ahead of me in the water fighting to stay afloat. Then she went silent and her body began to sink. I took a deep breath and dived, watching her limp body going deeper and deeper into the lake. I swam towards her and took her into my arms. I pulled her as I swam to the surface and held her head up. There were hands reaching out for us from the rowboat and they hauled her limp body onboard. I climbed out of the water into the boat as quickly as I could. She was still alive and I began to resuscitate her, breathing every breath I had into her until eventually she started to cough and breathe again.

I stood back and looked at Dave and April. They were just as they were then, on that fated camping trip. Only this time it wasn't the three of us looking at the place in the lake where Stephanie had gone down. This time she was with us. She was alive.

*****

Chapter Fifteen

----------------------

The four of us returned to shore. Dave dragged the rowboat out of the water onto the pebbled beach and there was silence between us. Stephanie was dazed by her ordeal and recovering, still coughing up water. The right thing to do was get her checked out by a doctor, but I had to remember that early teenagers don't think of those things and besides, if our parents knew where we were, we would be in serious trouble, grounded for weeks.

Adams Lake was a beautiful place, but notorious for its perilous depth. The fisherman used it during the summer and there were warning posts all around asking people not to swim in it, due to eddy currents building up and sucking them down. I suppose rowing out to the centre was a dare and you got to see more of the beautiful pine forest that surrounded the lake.

That night we sat around a campfire. Dave, being the only lad would try to tell us scary ghost stories, which after a while became boring and silly. We didn't care about hiding our naked bodies. Afterall, we were still kids and puberty was something that we all shared one way or another. It was a borderline period in our lives I suppose. Starting your periods made you more aware as I was, and even more so being an adult mind, as I certainly was on this occasion.

I wondered when the next drift would happen and where to next. The longest stay was when I had Tanya and I started to think about her again. She was my child. I gave birth to her and although she was supposed to be alien too, she looked so humanly perfect.

"Why are you crying Karen? Are you homesick or something?" Stephanie asked. The three of us shared a tent together. Dave had his own. I took a deep breath and sighed, wiping away my tears.

"I guess so."

"You're a wus. But a great wus. Thankyou for saving me this afternoon." Stephanie began, "I'm so glad you came with us afterall and I really do appreciate what you did." I never thought I'd hear Stephanie thank anyone. It was so nice. Would that now make me her bestest of friends? Would she stop bullying me now?

I couldn't sleep, although I was tired. There were thoughts running through my head and anticipation of where I might be next. So I took a walk in the dark. I looked up at the blazing night sky with it's thousands of twinkling lights and for the first time in my life found it fascinating, knowing that there was life out there too. They were here already. But, what were their intentions for us here on earth?

I had a secret to keep in all of this. It was them that made this leaping happen. But, did it have a purpose? I couldn't answer those questions. Atleast not yet.

Seven weeks went by in this time-line. Stephanie had improved her attitude a little, not only to me, but others too. Saving her life was a good thing afterall. And, things were becoming weird in the rest of the world too.

"They say they have evidence that we have been visited on more than one occasion." Dad was reading the Sunday papers at breakfast. My two brothers were deeply fascinated. "There is a conspiracy to hide it all from the public…" I listened too as he continued reading the article. "It says here they could be helping us develop our technology as well as experimenting on people that they abduct."

"Oh wow! Imagine being taken by aliens?" Danny cried out. I looked at him, knowing what I knew, but hid behind an innocent smile. "I bet they'd throw you back Karen. You're not what they'd be looking for." I laughed along with them. If only they knew.

The end of summer was approaching fast. The summer vacations had come and gone and I was turning this new young me into someone very conscious about adult sex. I felt mature and realised I had a young persons body all over again to experiment with. I would look at men and dream about making love with them if only they noticed me more. I had to be careful not to flirt with them and fall into some crazy relationship that the young 'me' could never handle once I left. I was changing a life. One of my lives. I was making more opportunities for its future, not knowing how it may turn out.

It was getting dark and I sat on the garden swing. Danny called me in to join in with a game and as I stood I felt that dizziness again. I gasped. It was happening. I was going to drift once more…

"Missus Jacobsen? A note for you…" I looked around at the waiter handing me a folded piece of paper on his tray. "From the gentleman over in the corner." He pointed as I took it. And the gentleman nodded at me politely. I noticed how devastatingly gorgeous he was and I felt flattered by his appealing glances. I opened the note and read," Join me. Please."

I was alone in the restaurant, wearing very expensive business clothes. A tight green knee length skirt with a split down the front with a matching jacket and a white blouse. My hair was tied back neatly and held in place with a black silk ribbon. I nodded to the gentleman and grabbed my purse to join him. He stood up and pulled out a chair for me. I sat and he greeted me.

"I'm so glad you could join me. You looked very lonely all by yourself. I'm Ken Vernon." We shuck hands gently and he sat. "I'm on business here in the city and I was looking for some company. I hope you don't mind."

"Not at all. I'm…Karen Jacobsen by the way." I replied with a smile, after hesitating to think about who and where I was. I noticed the gold band on my finger, which told me that I was married. Steve was my husband in this leap. But, where was he? What was I doing in this restaurant alone?

"Earlier, I couldn't help noticing your friend." He began. "She was very charming too." I kept quiet taking onboard as much lead information as I could. "Yes, we both chatted outside the washrooms a moment ago and she told me to…"

"What?"

"Ask you to join me. I'm very pleased you did. Were you both here on business?"

"Er…yes, you could say that." I was confused as usual and a little embarrassed this time. Who was my charming friend that left me here?

"You look very charming yourself. And a little confused. Are you ok?" He asked. I thought very hard about my reply. And then he placed four hundred dollar bills on the table. "This should cover things for starters. It will pay for the wine and food atleast, don't you think?" He said with a very confident smile. I looked at the money and then at him. Things were getting even more confusing. "Later we might have some fun…yes?"

I was totally lost. There was certainly something going on here and all I could do was play along with it until I knew more. "I'm married." I replied. He shrugged his shoulders and the grin got bigger. "Does that matter?" I asked.

"Not at all. I believe from what your friend told me that you were not happily married?"

"Ah! I see. Well, I'm not so sure."

During the meal, Ken told me more about himself. He was somekind of banker from Europe and was here for a few days. He was himself married with two children and he openly told me how he liked to play the field while he was abroad. And, I was becoming very aware of the situation I had landed into.

"I have friends here who can help you Karen. They can help you get away from your husband. Start a new life. Perhaps help you find some happiness again. Would you like that?" he asked. I just listened and wondered what kind of life I really did have. Steve was a nice guy, but certainly not someone I would marry and live with. And why did I get married to him anyway? This is now the third life I have found myself in such circumstances.

After dinner we talked more about his job and the places he had visited. I was getting curious about this charming friend who had introduced us and I had to ask eventually…

"Did my friend tell you her name by the way?"

"Yes. A beautiful name. Pamela." He replied. I dropped my wineglass, half full onto the table, spilling its contents towards me. Ken rushed to help me wipe it up, calling the waiter for assistance. Pamela was making this happen. But why?

*****

Suddenly it became clear to me that the last few leaps had a purpose. These drifts were being set up by Pamela and that device she had. She was manipulating. She was playing with my lives for a reason.

Ken asked if I would join him at his hotel to finish off the evening and get my skirt dry-cleaned. I agreed, hoping somewhere along the way that Pamela and I would meet up again, and hopefully that very night. But that was not going happen. Instead I found myself in his hotel room drinking more wine and being charmed by him even more. Slowly, I was becoming drawn to him and my feelings of desperation were weakening my resistance. My thoughts went wild. I knew where I was and what I had to do to keep track of things. I could handle myself now, but not against temptation. And Ken was certainly tempting.

He asked me to sit between his legs as he sat in the chair. I was in my underwear, still waiting for the return of my dry cleaned clothes. I trusted him. The whole setting was romantic and he was atleast treating me with respect up to that point. All evening he had not made any advances, and then I let my guard drop completely.

I leaned my head back against him and looked up at him. He looked back and smiled. His hand drifted to my covered breast and his strokes were gentle and teasing. "You are what I would call my ideal woman Karen. Young, beautiful and so charming. I am lucky to have found you tonight." He said. I listened to him, feeling his tender touches and smiled back. "I would love very much to show you how good I can be, if I may?"

Like a kitten in its owner's arms I began to yield to him. He eased my breasts from the half-cup bra and before I realised he was sending me wild with his affectionate touching. Squeezing and pulling at my nipples. I turned and knelt on his lap so he could use his tongue and lips to please me more. He was so gorgeous and so irresistible I could not stop him. I wanted him. I needed him. I was very desperate and I was taking the opportunity before me.

His cock was so amazing. It was just the right length and girth to satisfy, and he knew how to use it. He took me to my very limits and allowed me to ride my orgasms, one after another before he came himself deep inside of me. I didn't care about protection. All I wanted was to feel him explode in me and ride it with him.

It did not end at that. His oral affections were certainly something. He lapped, kissed and sucked my clitoris beyond anything I had felt before. Not even Dalkis or any other man I had experienced could ever have matched this guy. He knew how to please and please he did.