How To Go Back in Time Book One: Chapter Fifteen

I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket and I woke up. It was the early morning and it was cold.
The sky was a soft blue. Tucked just behind a mountain and a forest of rock, was the pale yellow sun.
And as I stretched my arms, I answered the phone. “Hello?”
“Irwin! It’s your boss.”
I yawned. “Yeah, I know that.”
“I need you to do something for me today. Can you do that?”
“Sure, why not.” I grabbed my pen of paper and prepared to write.
“There’s a building downtown I want you to go to. 747 E Bluebird.”
“Alright, I can do that. But, why am I going there?”
“It’s a 90Z. The building has this insane red roof, you can’t miss it. It looks like Japanese
architecture.”
“90Z?” I had never heard that code in my life.
“Yeah. 90Z. So go on and check it out.”
She hung up and I sat back in my seat, staring out the window. A cold chill came through and I
got goosebumps. I didn’t know what I was going there for but I guess I had too.
To kill time I went by a cafe and ordered a coffee. I sat there and people-watched. I overheard
something about fishing and how a line got stuck in someone’s gut. I winced. Then there was a woman
staring at me with those twinkly eyes. I would’ve got her number had she not been with her boyfriend.
When the clock struck nine A.M. I headed on my way downtown. I passed the spot I slept in
and pulled onto a residential road. There it was. A glamorous red roof, styled in the form of Japan. A
garden outside. And a perfectly trimmed hedge running all the way through it.
And as I walked up to the door, I swear that I saw fog. Though it may have just been the wind. I
went around the side and came into the backyard. There was plants in red pots on a flagstone patio.
Whoever had built this, had some money.
Out past the fence, I could see the wilderness before me. And a highway road that ran through
the desert, and cut straight through two plateaus. “Hello?” A woman called out to me.
I turned and took the cigarette away from my mouth. Hid it behind my back. “Hi, my name’s
Irwin Sander. What’s this place about?”
“Oh, it’s a meditation center. Are you here for that?”
“I suppose so, yes. When does that start?”
She clasped her hands together and smiled. “It started fifteen minutes ago. Come inside, we’ll
teach you the basics.”
I walked through and took a seat on the bamboo chair. She grabbed a thin book from the shelf,
and sat down. “Do you know any of this? Or do you need to be taught?”
“I don’t.”
She began flipping pages. There were circular patterns of sprawling lines and psychedelic dots.
Underneath them were notes about breath, and the stance of the body. I even saw the outline of a soul.
“The way we meditate—as this book describes, is closing our eyes and following a five-sixeight breathing strategy. Where you breathe in for five, hold for six, and exhale for eight. Around
twelve minutes in, you’ll start seeing dots. It’ll be slight at first, like snowflakes—you know? At
eighteen, you’ll see the spirals. And then at thirty, you will see fractals. You’ll see all of the colors.
That’s how you know it’s working.”
“Fractals?”
“Yes. It’s a shape or a pattern that’s infinite. As in, it never ends. That’s what we believe God is.
Existence is a fractal and that fractal is God.”
“And what do you mean by existence?”
“Everything.”
“Then we’re god too—can I meditate here?”
A smile crossed her face. “You sure can.”
I stood up and waltzed inside to where you meditated. There were church pews lined up, and
little cushions in the back. In the front row, I saw a lady sitting there with gray hair. She turned and we
locked eyes. It was Gretchen. She went back to meditation.
The lights were turned off and I closed my eyes. A shroud covered my mind and I retreated into
the back of the void. I followed the breathing pattern and felt a deep calm overtake me. Sometimes I’d
have thoughts, and then I’d have to start over.
But on my fourth or fifth try, I managed to reach back into the void. It felt like the calmest
silence you’d ever know. Beautiful. Lucid. Uncompromising.
Inside the void, something shifted inside of me. Like a bent pipe suddenly switched back into
place. I could breathe clearer now. I started seeing the fractals and how they spun. Though, I couldn’t
tell if it was just my mind or if it was actually working.
I then felt the foot of someone by the side of me. I opened my eyes for a second and saw that it
was Gretchen. I stood up and grabbed her shoulder. “Gretchen!” I said. “You’re here?”
She nodded. “Where else would I be?”
“I didn’t know this place existed in Beldad.”
She paused for a moment and looked straight into my eye. “There’s something I have to tell
you.”
“What is it?”
“You’re in danger, Irwin. Something’s coming for you if you keep digging. My advice? Go back
to your Washington home town. Stay inside and watch the rain pour. Do anything else but investigate.”
I smirked. “I’m afraid I can’t do that. Why don’t you tell me who attacked you?”
“You don’t get it yet, do you?” She said.
“Get what?”
“I attacked myself. There are copies of people in town attacking people, usually themselves.”
I froze. I didn’t want it to be true. It shouldn’t have been. But after everything else that
happened? It was the truth and I knew it. And now there was only one thing left to do. The FBI couldn’t
help with this. James couldn’t help with this. It was up to me.
Gretchen walked away and I turned around with a sullen look on my face. It felt like there was a
gaping hole in my chest. And I looked up at the painting on the wall. It was a women with yellow eyes.